A Decision Support Methodology for Locating Bank Branches: A Case Study in Turkey

Abstract

This paper presents an integrated decision support methodology for locating bank branches. The methodology is composed of two stages: problem structuring, and modeling. In the first stage, initially, a number of criteria are selected with the help of a detailed literature review and expert opinions. Subsequently, importance weights of these criteria for different types of bank branches are identified based on judgments of experts for pairwise comparison questions. At the modeling stage, considering the characteristics and importance of the criteria, a novel multi-objective mathematical programming model is proposed to find specific locations of bank branches. The proposed methodology is applied in locating branches of a Turkish bank. In order to test the validity of the results and robustness, a sensitivity analysis is conducted and the solutions are found to be robust.