Merve Kılıç

The impact of ownership and board structure on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting in the Turkish banking industry

Purpose – The aim of this study is twofold. The first is to analyze the nature, extent and trend of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting in the Turkish banking industry under five sub-themes, namely, environment, energy, human resources, products and customers and community involvement. The second is to investigate the impact of ownership and board structure on CSR reporting by the banks. Design/methodology/approach – The annual reports of the banks were examined for the period between 2008 and 2012 to analyze the CSR reporting of the banks, using content analysis and panel data analysis. Findings – The results show that CSR reporting of the banks improved during that period of time. The findings of the study also revealed that there is a significant positive effect of size, ownership diffusion, board composition and board diversity on the CSR disclosure of the banks. Originality/value – This study contributes significantly to the existing literature because the banking industry is generally ex...

The effect of board gender diversity on firm performance: evidence from Turkey

Purpose This study aims to include two primary goals. First to determine the board characteristics of listed companies in Turkey and second to investigate the effect of board gender diversity on the performance of these companies. Design/methodology/approach This study uses an instrumental variables regression analysis to investigate the relationship between board gender diversity and firm performance using the data from 2008-2012 of the entities listed on the Borsa Istanbul. Findings The results indicate that the boards of these companies in Turkey are male-dominated. Moreover, this study shows that the inclusion of female directors is positively related to the financial performance of firms, as measured by the return on assets, the return on equity and the return on sales. Originality/value Limited empirical studies have been conducted on the relationship between board gender diversity and firm performance in emerging economies. Therefore, there is still no consensus regarding the link between board gender diversity and firm financial performance based upon the mixed and sometimes contradictory results in prior research. Therefore, this study extends the current literature in the context of Turkey, showing that a female member on the board can enhance the financial performance of a company.

Online corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure in the banking industry

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, this study analyzes the extent to which banks report online their corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices; second, it determines the impact of size, ownership structure, multiple exchange listing, and the internationalization of banks on the level of their online CSR reporting. Design/methodology/approach – This study examines the Turkish banking industry’s online CSR communications by performing a content analysis of banks’ online reporting of their CSR practices in four sub-dimensions, namely, environment and energy, human resources, products and customers, and community involvement. A sample of 25 banks in Turkey was grouped according to the criteria of size, ownership structure (listed or unlisted on stock exchanges), multiple exchange listing (listing on home and foreign exchanges), and internationality (local or foreign). This study employs a nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis test to determine the significance of the differences among these g...

Preparedness of the entities for the IFRS for SMEs: an emerging country case

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine the preparedness of the small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) for the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) for SMEs in Turkey; and to analyze the effect of several firm characteristics on such preparedness. Design/methodology/approach – The preparedness of the SMEs was determined via a questionnaire survey. The effect of several characteristics of the SMEs (i.e. size, age, independent auditing, internationality, and the existence of an accounting department) on their preparedness was examined by employing non-parametric tests and logistic regression. Findings – This study found that the preparedness of the SMEs for IFRS for SMEs is low in Turkey. Several firm characteristics including, size, independent auditing, and internationality have a significant impact on the preparedness of the SMEs. Research limitations/implications – This study has some implications for several parties, including national and international standard setting aut...

The Impact of Corporate Characteristics on Social Responsibility and Environmental Disclosures in Turkish Listed Companies

Corporate social reporting proposes several advantages to corporate entities of our time, for instance; it enhances an entity’s image and position, and it strengthens community relations, and legitimizes the entities of activities. This study seeks to explore the nature and extent of the corporate social and environmental reporting (CSER) practices of manufacturing companies listed on the Istanbul Stock Exchange. The study also examines the impact of the corporate characteristics on the CSER disclosures of these listed companies. The sample of the study consists of manufacturing companies listed on the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) in 2010. The related data was collected by adopting content analysis of annual reports of the constituent companies. The relationship between the CSER disclosures with corporate characteristics was investigated with multiple regression analysis. The model includes a dependent variable (i.e. corporate social and environmental reporting index) and eight independent variables (i.e. firm size, profitability, leverage, auditor size, ownership structure, proportion of independent directors on board, listing age, and industry). The contribution of this paper to the literature is of great importance, because there is no prior study in Turkey that has dealt with the relationship between the firm characteristics and corporate social responsibility and environmental reporting disclosure level to this extent.

Determinants of forward-looking disclosures in integrated reporting

Purpose - This paper aims to examine the nature and extent of forward-looking disclosures in early examples of integrated reporting and to investigate the determinants of those disclosures. Design/methodology/approach - The sample for research involved 55 non-financial companies whose reports are available in the Integrated Reporting Examples Database for the year 2014. The authors used content analysis to investigate the quantitative and qualitative forward-looking disclosures among early adopters of integrated reporting. The forward-looking disclosure index (FLDI) was categorized into two main groups, quantitative and qualitative, including 30 items in total. Multivariate ordinary least squares regression was used to investigate the associations proposed in the research hypotheses. Findings - The authors determined that the majority of the entities tended to provide qualitative forward-looking disclosures rather than quantitative. Further, the findings showed that gender diversity and firm size are positively related to forward-looking disclosures, whereas leverage is negatively related to forward-looking disclosures. Contrary to expectations, the authors did not find a significant impact created by board size, board composition, profitability or industry on forward-looking disclosures. Originality/value - The research contributes to the current integrated reporting and forward-looking disclosure literature. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is no prior study that has investigated forward-looking disclosures in integrated reports. This study contributes to the current literature by examining the determinants of forward-looking disclosures by categorizing them as quantitative and qualitative. Further, this research adds empirical findings to the literature on the association found between female directors and forward-looking disclosures.

The effect of corporate governance on carbon emission disclosures: Evidence from Turkey

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate whether corporate governance characteristics impact the voluntary disclosure of carbon emissions. Design/methodology/approach This empirical research was carried out in two stages. Initially, the carbon disclosures data were sourced from the annual and stand-alone sustainability reports of Turkish non-financial companies listed on Borsa Istanbul during 2011-2015. Later, the corporate governance characteristics that influence carbon disclosures were examined using panel data regression models. Findings The empirical findings of this study suggested that entities with a higher number of independent directors on their boards were more likely to respond to the Carbon Disclosure Project. In addition, board nationality diversity and the existence of a sustainability committee had a significant positive impact on the propensity to disclose carbon emissions and the extent of those disclosures. Originality/value This research provides empirical evidence of the determinants of carbon emission disclosures, which could be useful for organizations and regulatory bodies. Such an understanding is crucial to specify necessary policies that will provide emission reduction practices and policies for entities. This paper fills some of the gap in the literature by concentrating on the association between corporate governance characteristics and disclosures of a more specific environmental issue, being carbon emissions.

Compliance with IAS/IFRS and firm characteristics: evidence from the emerging capital market of Turkey

Abstract The purpose of this study is to investigate the compliance level of Turkish firms with international accounting standards (IAS) and international financial reporting standards (IFRS), and to examine the factors that impact adoption level of firms to IAS/IFRS. This study is based on a comprehensive questionnaire survey about IAS/IFRS implementation of largest Turkish industrial firms, namely ICI 500. The findings and implications are important as these companies are expected to be the leading adopters of IAS/IFRS. Firstly, we determined that firms do not implement all IAS/IFRS (international accounting standards/international financial reporting standards) equally; some are used more, some less. As a second stage in the study, we tried to determine what firm characteristics impact compliance with IAS/IFRS. We found that listing status, training staff, foreign ownership, and firm size are significant determinants of IAS/IFRS compliance, whereas leverage and profitability are not.