Assessing scorecard performance: A literature review and classification

• This study provides a systematic overview of the assessment-related decisions of reviewed studies.
• Assessment criteria are introduced and used to discuss decisions.
• Researchers often choose performance indicators that fail to fit the application context.
• Research studies often provide non-transparent assessment documentation.
• Researchers often fail to implement a straightforward assessment procedure.

The assessment of scorecard performance in the field of credit scoring is of major relevance to firms. This study presents the first systematic academic literature review of how empirical benchmark studies assess scorecard performance in the field of credit scoring. By analysing 62 comparative studies, this study provides two main contributions. First, this study provides a systematic overview of the assessment-related decisions of all the reviewed studies based on a classification framework. Second, the assessment criteria of consistency, application fit, and transparency are introduced and used to discuss the observed assessment-related decisions. As the findings show, researchers often pay insufficient attention to ensuring the consistent assessment of scorecard performance. Moreover, the majority of the reviewed studies choose performance indicators that failed to fit the application context and provided non-transparent assessment documentation. In conclusion, these researchers pay a great deal of attention to the development of scorecards, but they often fail to implement a straightforward assessment procedure.