Development of a consumer financial goals ontology for use with FinTech applications for improving financial capability

Abstract

In this research, we communicate the design and evaluation of a consumer financial goals ontology to be utilized as a knowledgebase within recommender systems applications designed to provide decision support in the domain of financial planning. The goal of this research is to provide a domain conceptualization and knowledge classification of a comprehensive set of financial capability enhancing objectives contextually appropriate for a wide range of socio-economically situated consumers. Currently, to the best of our knowledge, within the domain of consumer financial planning no formal conceptual model or knowledge classification of financial goals exists which might be utilized as a knowledgebase for applications such as a FinTech recommender system. Achieving financial goals is a key behavior associated with consumer financial capability, a topic of national economic importance. A holistic representation of domain concepts is critical for advancement of solutions to problems pertinent to a domain. One primary reason for the dearth of applications designed to assist consumers with financial goal setting is the absence of a common domain ontology of financial goals. This study addresses a gap in the literature by contributing to the research knowledgebase an ontology for a domain of consumer financial goals. In doing so, it advances scholarly research through novel domain knowledge classification while providing researchers and practitioners with an ontological knowledgebase for indexing and retrieval within applications designed to improve consumer financial capability through identification and recommendation of specific, context-aware financial goals. The ontology could be used, for example, as a knowledgebase for a Personal Financial Recommender System (PFRS), or other financial technology (FinTech) application, designed to assist users with identification, setting, and tracking of financial goals.