Determinants of sustainability reporting and its impact on firm value: Evidence from the emerging market of Turkey

The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that impact (1) Global Reporting Initiative-based sustainability reporting, (2) the adoption of assurance statements in sustainability reports, and (3) the application levels of sustainability reports. Moreover, (4) the paper examines whether sustainability reporting is value relevant or not based upon the sample provided by 297 Turkish publicly traded companies at the Borsa Istanbul. The findings revealed a growing awareness of Global Reporting Initiative-based sustainability reporting among the investigated corporations, and an improving trend in report quality; however, having sustainability reports assured by an independent verifier is not widespread among them. Using the basis of ten formulated hypotheses, the empirical evidence yielded significant results, which explain the driving factors behind sustainability reporting. Moreover, the results confirmed that sustainability reporting is value relevant. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.