Assessing Corporate Sustainability in Turkish Banks: WASPAS and ARAS Approaches in the Covid-19 and the Post-Covid-19 Era

As sustainability becomes an ever-larger structural imperative, particularly in emerging markets, banking's contribution to sustainable development is becoming more important. Sustainability performance of banks during the COVID-19 pandemic year (2020) and recovery period (2022) is analyzed by an innovative approach based on seven large-sized Turkish banks. Data based on 75 criteria and 7 dimensions consistent with international standards (GRI, UNGC, UNEP FI) were collected from banks' sustainability reports through content analysis. The data are analyzed by applying three goal-programming objective methods (MEREC, CILOS, CCSD) and two CRM (Compromise Ranking Methods) methods (WASPAS and ARAS). The outcome shows that commercial banks perform better than state-owned banks. The primary explanations for this are commercial banks' effective governance frameworks, improved transparency, and investor pressures. Banks gave priority to measures such as SME support and employee health for resilience in the pandemic period, and to measures such as green finance, transformation, and innovation for the recovery period. The poor performance of state-owned banks during these periods indicates that policy-specific interventions are urgently needed. This article fills an important gap in sustainability literature for emerging markets and offers a handy benchmark for policymakers, investors, and banking institutions regarding systemic distortions and long-term strategic overhaul.