Sustainable Digital Banking in Turkey: Analysis of Mobile Banking Applications Using Customer-Generated Content

Yavuz Selim Balcioglu () and Furkan Evranos ()
Additional contact information
Yavuz Selim Balcioglu: Management Information System, Doğuş University, Dudullu Osb Mah, Dudullu OSB, Nato Yolu Cd No:265 D:1, 34775 Ümraniye, İstanbul, Turkey
Furkan Evranos: Business Administration, Doğuş University, Dudullu Osb Mah, Dudullu OSB, Nato Yolu Cd No:265 D:1, 34775 Ümraniye, İstanbul, Turkey

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 15, 1-57

Abstract: This study addresses a critical gap in understanding how mobile banking applications contribute to sustainable development by introducing a novel text mining framework to analyze sustainability dimensions through user-generated content. We analyzed 120,000 reviews from six major Turkish mobile banking applications using an ownership-sensitive analytical approach that integrates structural topic modeling with four sustainability dimensions (environmental, social, governance, and economic). Our analysis reveals significant institutional differences in sustainability approaches: government-owned banks demonstrate substantially stronger overall sustainability orientation (23.43% vs. 11.83% coverage) with pronounced emphasis on social sustainability (+181.7% growth) and economic development (+104.2% growth), while private banks prioritize innovation-focused sustainability. The temporal analysis (2022–2025) shows accelerating sustainability emphasis across all institutions, with distinct evolution patterns by ownership type. Institution-specific sustainability profiles emerge clearly, with each government bank demonstrating distinctive focus areas aligned with historical missions: cultural heritage preservation, agricultural sector support, and small business development. Mapping to Sustainable Development Goals reveals that government banks prioritize development-focused goals (SDGs 1, 8, and 10), while private banks emphasize innovation-focused goals (SDGs 9 and 17). This research makes three key contributions: demonstrating user-generated content as an effective lens for authentic sustainability assessment, establishing ownership-sensitive evaluation frameworks for digital banking sustainability, and providing empirical evidence for contextualized rather than universal sustainability strategies. The findings offer strategic implications for financial institutions, policymakers, and app developers seeking to enhance sustainable digital banking transformation.

Keywords: digital banking transformation; sustainability dimensions; text mining; user-generated content; institutional ownership (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/15/6676/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/15/6676/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:15:p:6676-:d:1707309

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().