Bank Business Model Similarities Based on Financial Ratio Networks: Evidence from Deposit Banks in Türkiye
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Bank business models are commonly classified into fixed groups, although banks may simultaneously resemble multiple peers and these relationships may change over time. This study examines the evolution of ratio-based business model similarity among 25 deposit banks in Türkiye from 2014 to 2024. Forty-three financial ratios were standardized within a year and used to construct weighted cosine-similarity networks; complementary analyses separated strong- and weak-profile links, tested constrained null models, controlled for bank scale and balance-sheet structure, and assessed threshold, outlier, and equal-dimension sensitivity. Under the baseline 0.40 threshold, network density was lowest in 2022 and 2023, with greater component fragmentation in 2022; winsorized specifications instead identified 2023 as the lowest-similarity year, showing that the exact extreme-year ranking is outlier-sensitive. Weak-profile links exceeded strong-profile links in every year and clustered beyond the baseline constrained-null expectation (p < 0.001). State-owned banks showed higher weighted strength after observable scale controls were applied, whereas evidence of degree centrality was weaker. Profitability and liquidity remained the densest ratio-family networks, while asset quality was the most consistently differentiating under equal-dimension comparisons. This framework provides a reproducible screening approach for identifying changing bank-business-model proximity and shared relative weaknesses, without measuring causal risk transmission, absolute financial strength, or performance superiority.
DOI: 10.3390/jrfm19080642
Author: Ayşegül Ciğer
Institution: Akdeniz University
Language: English
Subfield: Finance
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $1,689
OpenAlex ID: W7203894430