Sustainable Development of the Banking Industry through the Utilization of social media with an emphasis on Customer Participation

Sustainable development in the banking industry can be defined as the comprehensive development of banking strategies that lead to sustainable economic development. Thereby, banking strategies include a set of operations and strategies that make the bank economically, environmentally and socially viable. Accordingly in early stages, banks focus on transforming internal banking operations, including the use of renewable energies, automation and other measures in order to minimize carbon emission through banking activities. Subsequently, they adopt environmentally friendly financing methods and assess the environmental risks of their projects before making financial decisions. Such application of green strategies in the banking sector is not only environmentally beneficial, but further brings many benefits such as reducing credit risk, reducing costs and increasing the reputation of the bank as an organization that supports environmental causes. Furthermore, through the utilization of social media, banks can aid in designing more efficient means to attract customers. By monitoring the data generated through social media, banks can analyze customer reactions to products offered by competitors and adopt appropriate strategies to increase customer satisfaction and attract new customers. On the other hand, it could lead to the improvement of performance and the reducing banking risks. Therefore, the purpose of this research is "sustainable development of the banking industry through the utilization of social media with an emphasis on customer participation". The research methodology of this paper combines qualitative and quantitative methods, and the data for this study was collected through conducting interviews and questionnaires. The findings of the research show that the categories to be presented in the visual model can be placed under five categories: causal conditions (4 sub0categories), background or context (2 subcategories), intervening conditions (3 subcategories), strategies (3 subcategories), consequences (3 subcategories). Finally, the results show the significance of the relations and components of the presented model. Hence, the results show that social media can play a role in the development of the banking industry by enabling the participation of customers in banking activities.