A sustainability analysis of Turkish banks using the analytic hierarchy process

Abstract

Sustainability is a concept that aims to improve the reliability, continuity and robustness of organizations. Tn this study, we aim to generate a sustainability index by analyzing the sustainability reports and performances ofthc four biggest privately owned Turkish banks during the periods of2013, 2014 and 2015. The sustainability performances of the four selected banks of Turkey, which constitute 40% of the overall financial sector, gives us an idea about the overall sustainability performance of financial institutions in Turkey. In order to compare the performances of these four banks within the study period, we analyzed a total number of 19 indicators according to three criteria: economic (9), social (6) and environmental (4). After collecting the social, economic and environmental indicators data from the banks, we designed a survey to take the opinions and preferences of the sustainability experts from academia and the financial sector for detennining the weights of each sustainability criteria. The specific indicators (sub-criteria) of economic, social and environmental performances were weighed using expert judgements in the survey. Thus, we aimed to determine the relative importance of each indicator and subindicator. In order to rank the sustainability performances of the banks, we used one ofthe most commonly used multi-criteria decision making models: the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The ultimate objective is to sort the banks from the most to the least in sustainability.