Singapore-based DBS was established in 1968. DBS wants to help its customers to ‘Live More, Bank Less’. DBS believes that banking should be simple and effortless so that customers can spend more time with the people and things that they care about. DBS aims to be ‘a different kind of bank for a different kind of world’. Since its inception, DBS has undertaken multiple initiatives to realize the bank’s ambitions.

Between 1980–2000, DBS diversifed its geographical and product portfolio. The bank launched autosave in Singapore, opened a branch in Taiwan, established a representative offce in Jakarta (Indonesia), formed a formal bank branch in India, took lead of a consortium of local banks to exploit Singtel IP, acquired POSB (another Singapore bank) and launched internet banking. Between 2002 and 2010, DBS further strengthened their position in Asia.

DBS acquired a 100 per cent interest in Dao Heng Bank, launched CaptaMall Trust, incorporated a fully owned local subsidiary in China, launched an industry-frst banking package for social enterprises in Singapore, celebrated their 40th anniversary with a project to help the children in Asia, launched a ‘money safe’ guarantee for customers worried about transacting over the internet and showed their continued support for social entrepreneurship by launching their fagship community programme, ‘DBS Social Enterprise Experience’.

More recently, DBS expressed an ambition to become the world’s best bank. In support of this aspiration, DBS launched a new foundation to cement their commitment to social enterprises; implemented a digital transformation agenda to become the best digital bank;

launched a full-service digital exchange to support fundraising; launched Digibank India, providing the frst mobile-only, paperless, signatureless and branchless bank; and co-launched the Climate Impact X (CIX) initiative—an API-platform for developing solutions that will bring more convenience and value to customers and the planet. In other words, to deliver on their promise, DBS reimagined banking, refusing to be bounded by conventional notions of what a bank should be. DBS is guided by a responsibility towards society and the planet.

Enacting this responsibility, among other initiatives, DBS forged multiple alliances in 2022. DBS has inked a partnership with Sandbox to extend its banking experience into 122 Alliance evaluation the metaverse. The metaverse experience will be an additional engagement platform for customers visiting the Sandbox. The project consists of a virtual world that is being named DBS BetterWorld, which will be freely available to all members of the public, even to non-customers. In the words, of Sandbox co-founder Sebastien Borget:

We welcome DBS to The Sandbox as the frst bank in Singapore to step into the open metaverse and join our efforts to create the SingaporeVerse, a neighbourhood on our virtual map that will bring the culture of Singapore to life in the metaverse in a very engaging, equitable, inclusive way that is open to all.

Questions 1 Considering the DBS strategy, what would be appropriate indicators to measure the performance of all alliance arrangements?
2 Considering the four alliance arrangements separately, what would be appropriate indicators to measure alliance performance?
3 Based on the selected indicators, what would an alliance performance dashboard look like, and what interventions could be considered to improve alliance success?