Digitalization – CSR integration in transitional banking: Evidence from Ukraine and Kazakhstan

Type of the article: Research ArticleAbstractTransitional banking systems increasingly rely on both digitalization and corporate social responsibility (CSR) to sustain resilience and public trust. This study evaluates whether the integration of digital capabilities and CSR relates to bank-level trust and reputation in Ukraine and Kazakhstan. The study assembled 2019–2023 indicators for four banks – PrivatBank, Monobank (Ukraine), Kaspi.kz, and Halyk Bank (Kazakhstan) – based on publicly available information. All measures were standardized, and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to construct a Digital-CSR Index (DCSI). The first principal component (PC1), which jointly loads on digital innovation, CSR, and sustainability variables, explains 54.5% of total variance and serves as the composite index; document coding achieved Krippendorff’s α = 0.82. Results show a clear rank order: Kaspi.kz = 4.48, PrivatBank = 0.88, Monobank = −0.27, and Halyk Bank = −4.07. Higher DCSI values are associated with stronger outcomes in customer trust and reputation across cases (e.g., trust levels up to 8.5/10), and descriptive fits suggest that the integrated index captures more cross-sectional variation in these outcomes than single-domain proxies. Robustness checks excluding one indicator at a time and restricting Ukrainian observations to the post-2022 period preserve the loading structure and rank order. The study concludes that integration, rather than parallel pursuit, of digitalization and CSR is associated with superior legitimacy outcomes in transitional contexts. Country conditions shape this relationship: Ukraine’s crisis-driven digital expansion is tempered by disclosure volatility, whereas Kazakhstan’s steadier assurance environment favors platformized integration. The DCSI provides a transparent, replicable benchmark to guide managerial strategy and regulatory design in comparable financial systems.