Strategic management of credit card fraud: stakeholder mapping of a card issuer

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to set a framework for strategic management of credit card fraud, by mapping its stakeholders within a card issuer and outlining its ideal strategies. Design/methodology/approach - The objectives are attained via case study. Primary data was collected by interviewing two fraud risk managers at the card issuer, while secondary data was collected by gathering all investor reports released from 2015 to 2019 by the financial institution. All data were submitted to content analysis and further analyzed using Mendelow’s power/interest matrix. Findings - Seven groups of stakeholders were identified, the expectations of each group uncovered and KPIs proposed to measure how well the financial institution meets those expectations. Strategies to deal with and prioritize groups were outlined, while highlighting the need for repositioning stakeholders identified as potential blockers or facilitators of strategic initiatives and pressure factors in times of low performance. Practical implications - Strategic management of stakeholders is essential for fraud risk managers and researchers to understand what is relevant and what is not. This paper creates a framework for addressing managerial and academic efforts based on stakeholders mapping. Further initiatives in research and practice should consider the following question: “Which stakeholder expectation will be better satisfied?” In case the answer is “none”, it is advised that the initiative be reconsidered. Originality/value - Previous literature focusses mostly on the technical challenges, leaving a gap in both literature and practice for using Strategic Management. For the first time in literature, this research combines theories and terminologies from fraud risk management and strategic management.