Measuring efficiency, productivity and sustainability performance for ıslamic banks: a fuzzy expert-based multi-criteria decision support model using spherical fuzzy information

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a novel hybrid multi-criteria group decision-making framework based on spherical fuzzy numbers to analyze the key drivers of multidimensional performance of Islamic banks. Design/methodology/approach This paper extends three traditional MCDM procedures – namely, Symmetry Point of Criterion (SPC), Stepwise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis (SWARA) and alternative ranking order method accounting for two-step normalization (AROMAN) – to a spherical fuzzy (SF) domain to gauge efficiency, productivity and sustainability performance in banking industry. Findings The combined weighting results based on SPC and SWARA demonstrate that community spending, board independence and board gender diversity are the three most influential criteria that influence the multidimensional performance of Islamic banks. Additionally, when compared with other participation banks, it is concluded that Kuvveyt Türk is the most successful Islamic bank in terms of multidimensional performance. Finally, the stability and dependability of the initial solution produced by the suggested methodology is confirmed by the outcomes of sensitivity and comparative analyses. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the criteria set and the fuzzy hybrid decision-making framework suggested in this research to measure the multidimensional performance of Islamic banks have not been used in the existing literature. The hybrid methodology developed in the present work is able to efficiently solve multidimensional performance measurement problems based on qualitative evaluation criteria in an uncertain group decision-making environment. It can also be adopted to handle other decision-making problems in the banking industry, such as personnel selection, branch ranking and benchmarking of competitive policies.