IMPACT OF FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE ON THE SUSTAINABILITY REPORT: A REVIEW ON BIST 100 COMPANIES

Sustainability reporting (SR) is a commitment to measuring corporate performance for sustainable development objectives. The sustainability report is a report providing economic, environmental, social and managerial information on company performance. Sustainability reports, which are seen as a means of accountability and communication, provide stakeholders with an assessment of the company's strategy, management approach and objectives. One of the main characteristics of sustainability reports is the link between financial and non-financial data of companies. Today, investors expect companies not only to have good financial performances but also to undertake corporate social responsibility with participation in sustainability activities. Recent studies indicate that investors are driven by companies actively involved in sustainability activities. This has increased the importance of researching the relationship between sustainability reports and firm performance. With this study, the relationship between sustainability reporting and financial performance is investigated and the effect of financial performance on sustainability reporting is put forward. In order to test our hypothesis that financial performance increases the likelihood of companies reporting sustainability, a regression model was created based on the companies included in the BIST 100 index. On the basis of the studies on the factors affecting sustainability studies, the firm size variable was also included between the independent variables. Companies have been divided into two groups as companies that do and do not report sustainability. While Return on Assets (ROA) and Return on Equity (ROE) values are taken as financial performance indicators and constitute independent variables of the model, SR application is included in the model as a dependent variable. Significant differences were obtained between the two groups after the regression analysis