Corporate sustainability and access to finance: An application in BIST

Öz

This paper investigates the effect of corporate sustainability on firms' access to finance. The sample consists of 43 firms and 232 firm-year observations between 2008 and 2020. Corporate sustainability is proxied by environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) activities and access to finance is proxied by Kaplan and Zingales and Whited and Wu indexes. Driscoll-Kraay robust standard errors panel data method, which allows obtaining robust standard errors in the presence of problems such as autocorrelation, heteroscedasticity, and cross-sectional dependence is used. Findings show that as the corporate sustainability level increases, firms' access to finance increases. In addition, the ESG only component that has a significant effect on the level of access to finance is the environmental factor. This finding implies that firms' access to finance increases as they carry out activities that are more sensitive to their environment. As a result, the financial constraints of the firms that invest more in sustainability activities, especially in the environment, will decrease, and thus, the firms will be able to find resources more easily for strategic investments that are important for their future operations.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Sustainability
• Corporate sustainability
• Access to finance
• Environmental, social, and corporate governance

Kurumsal Sürdürülebilirlik ve Finansmana Erişim: BİST’de Bir Uygulama

Öz

Bu makalede, kurumsal sürdürülebilirliğin işletmelerin finansmana erişim düzeylerini nasıl etkilediğinin incelenmesi amaçlanmıştır. Çalışma örneklemi 2008-2021 yılları arasında toplam 68 firma ve 332 firma-yılı gözleminden oluşmaktadır. Kurumsal sürdürülebilirlik, çevresel, sosyal ve kurumsal yönetim faaliyetleri, finansmana erişim ise Kaplan ve Zingales ve Whited ve Wu endeksleri ile ölçülmüştür. Otokorelasyon, değişen varyans ve yatay kesitsel bağımlılık gibi problemlerin varlığı durumunda dirençli standart hatalar elde edilmesine olanak tanıyan Driscoll-Kraay dirençli standart hatalar panel veri yöntemine göre, firmaların kurumsal sürdürülebilirlik düzeyleri arttıkça finansmana erişim kabiliyetleri artmaktadır. Ayrıca sürdürülebilirlik bileşenleri bazında yürütülen analiz bulgularında da bileşenlerin farklı finansmana erişim düzeyi göstergeleri üzerinde anlamlı etkiye sahip oldukları görülmüştür. Sonuç olarak sürdürülebilirlik faaliyetlerine daha fazla yatırım yapan işletmelerin finansal kısıtlılık düzeyleri azalabilecek ve böylelikle işletmeler, gelecek faaliyetleri için öneme sahip olan stratejik yatırımlara daha kolay kaynak bulabileceklerdir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Sürdürülebilirlik
• Kurumsal sürdürülebilirlik
• Finansmana erişim
• Çevresel, sosyal ve kurumsal yönetim

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