Development and Validation of a Scale to Measure Blockchain Awareness and Financial Confidence in the Turkish Financial Sector

Öz

This paper seeks to develop an empirically tested theoretical model that measures the block chain related awareness, confidence, and perceived relevance regarding finances among employees in the Turkish financial services sector. From the existing literature on blockchain adoption, the acceptance of fintech, and trust-based investment behavior, the authors developed an initial item pool consisting of 14 items. Content validation was done through experts followed by a pilot. Primary data was collected from 450 finance professionals working in the banking, treasury, risk, and accounting departments of different companies within Istanbul. The questionnaire was filled out by the respondents during the period March to April 2025 and was distributed online. Internal consistency was calculated using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, while the structure of the underlying scale was investigated by Principal component analysis with oblique rotation. This analysis was complemented with item analysis through corrected item-total correlations and calculation of communalities. The data quality for conducting factor analysis were validated by KMO and Bartlett’s test of sphericity. From the results of the two-factor solution, the total variance explained was 85.83%. The first factor covered perceptions pertaining to blockchain awareness and informational engagement while the second predominately covered confidence in blockchains financial functionality and trustworthiness. The final structure is comprised of 14 items that have high loadings and little redundancy. The results indicate that the scale is not only clear-cut conceptually and statistically, but also provides a consistent measure for further studies regarding the perception and acceptance of technology in the finance domain.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• blockchain perception
• financial confidence
• scale development
• factor analysis
• financial professionals
• technology adoption
• Turkey
• Likert scale
• internal consistency
• trust in digital finance

Blockchain Farkındalığı ve Finansal Güven Ölçeği Geliştirilmesi: Türkiye Finans Sektöründe Bir Uygulama

Öz

Bu çalışma, Türkiye’de finansal hizmetler sektöründe çalışanlar arasında blok zinciriyle ilgili farkındalık, güven ve finansal bağlamdaki algılanan önem düzeylerini ölçmeyi amaçlayan, ampirik olarak test edilmiş teorik bir modelin geliştirilmesini hedeflemektedir. Blok zinciri benimsemesi, finansal teknolojilerin kabulü ve güven temelli yatırım davranışına ilişkin mevcut literatür temel alınarak, 14 maddeden oluşan başlangıç madde havuzu oluşturulmuştur. İçerik geçerliği, alan uzmanlarının görüşleri aracılığıyla sağlanmış ve ardından pilot bir uygulama gerçekleştirilmiştir. Birincil veriler, İstanbul’da çeşitli kurumların bankacılık, hazine, risk yönetimi ve muhasebe birimlerinde görev yapan 450 finans profesyonelinden çevrim içi anket yoluyla, Mart–Nisan 2025 döneminde toplanmıştır. Ölçeğin iç tutarlılığı, Cronbach alfa katsayısı kullanılarak hesaplanmıştır. Ölçeğin yapı geçerliği, eğik döndürme yöntemi ile yürütülen Temel Bileşenler Analizi (Principal Component Analysis) ile incelenmiştir. Bu analiz, düzeltilmiş madde-toplam korelasyonları ve maddeye ait ortak varyans değerlerinin hesaplandığı madde analizi ile desteklenmiştir. Faktör analizine uygunluk, Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) testi ve Bartlett küresellik testi ile doğrulanmıştır. İki faktörlü çözümlemeden elde edilen sonuçlara göre toplam açıklanan varyans %85,83 olarak hesaplanmıştır. Birinci faktör, blok zinciri farkındalığı ve bilgiye yönelik katılım algılarını kapsarken; ikinci faktör, blok zincirinin finansal işlevselliğine ve güvenilirliğine dair güven düzeyini kapsamaktadır. Nihai yapı, yüksek faktör yüklerine ve düşük madde fazlalığına sahip 14 maddeden oluşmaktadır. Elde edilen sonuçlar, ölçeğin hem kavramsal hem de istatistiksel olarak açık, tutarlı ve teknoloji algısı ile kabulü üzerine yapılacak ileri çalışmalarda geçerli bir ölçüm aracı niteliği taşıdığını göstermektedir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• blockchain algısı
• finansal güven
• ölçek geliştirme
• faktör analizi
• finans profesyonelleri
• teknoloji benimseme
• Türkiye
• Likert ölçeği
• iç tutarlılık
• dijital finans güveni

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