A decision support model for location selection: Bank branch case

Branch location selection is one of the most important and strategic decision making processes requiring to asses carefully several criteria based on the mission and strategy. The study aims to provide a decision support model in order to help bank managers evaluate and select the most appropriate location for a bank branch on the basis of a case study in a banking institution in Turkey. The objective of the bank is to select the most appropriate city for opening a branch among the six alternatives in the Eastern part of Turkey. Because of the multi-criteria nature of the problem and the fuzziness in the comparisons of the criteria and the alternatives, Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process was used to address the problem of location selection in the study. The model was consisted of five main criteria -"demographic", "socio-economic", "banking indicators", " sectoral distribution of employment", and "regional trade potential"- and seventeen sub-criteria representing utmost attention of management based on the bank's vision, mission, and strategy.