The relationship between the distribution of sustainable added value and sustainable growth rate according to GRI 201 and an application on enterprises included in the sustainability index

Gül Arslan Kurnaz, The Relationship Between the Distribution of Sustainable Added Value and Sustainable Growth Rate According to GRI 201 and an Application on Enterprises Included in the Sustainability Index, Başkent University, Institute of Social Sciences, Accounting and Finance PHD Program, 2025. The sustainability has become increasingly important nowadays in order to hand in a livable world to future generations. Sustainability means that enterprises stop being solely profit-oriented but also they must undertake the consequences of their activities. Sustainability means that enterprises stop being just solely profit-oriented, but also the necessity of facing the consequences of their activities. Sustainability is addressed in three dimensions. Sustainability is addressed in three dimensions and includes environmental, social and economic issues. While businesses increase their productivity and growth, they are expected not to harm the environment as a result of their activities or to minimize the damage they cause. Socially, issues such as protecting the rights of employees, reducing human rights violations, protecting the rights of natives and residents in the region where it operates, protecting the rights of minority peoples, ensuring gender equality, not discriminating, etc. can be listed. The economic dimension includes the management of processes such as managing the economic value generated as a result of activities, compliance with tax policies, combating corruption, and avoiding unfair competition. Stakeholder participation and obtaining their approval are important for businesses to be sustainable. Stakeholders of businesses are divided two as internal and external stakeholders. While employees, partners, shareholders, key managers are internal stakeholders, the state, banks, investors, creditors, residents, natives, unions, etc. constitute external stakeholders. It is essential for businesses to announce the results of their activities to stakeholders in an accurate and transparent manner and to communicate correctly/effectively in order to ensure and increase stakeholder participation. Businesses also produce economic value while continuing their activities. The distribution of the economic value to stakeholders should also be transparent, balanced and fair. Human capital is one of the most important elements of businesses. Paying employees very low wages while getting high profit shares by business owners may endanger the sustainability of the enterprises. Conversely, paying employees higher wages than they deserve may also endanger the sustainable growth of businesses. For sustainable growth, economic distribution balances should be achieved and maintained. We will categorize the economic added value as distributed and remaining in the business, while evaluating economic performance. The value found by adding depreciation and fair value differences to the net profit of the business for the period will represent the economic value left in the business. The value found by adding depreciation and fair value differences to the net profit of the business for the period will represent the economic value left in the business. For this study, 25 companies from Turkey whose shares are traded in the sustainability index and 25 companies whose shares are traded in the World FTSE4Good index were selected and analyzed to see whether the added value distributed and the added value left in the enterprise differed proportionally in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024. Then, sustainable growth rates of the enterprises in question were calculated based on Higgins and Du-pond analysis. The reason for taking sustainable growth rates as a basis is if the profits obtained by the enterprises are completely distributed, their sustainability will be jeopardized. Similarly, if enterprises use the economic added value left in the business idle and inefficiently and direct it to wrong investments, there will be a problem in terms of sustainability. Therefore, the effect of the differentiation between the economic added value remaining in the enterprise and the distributed economic added value on the sustainable growth rate was analyzed. Since the economic added value remaining in the enterprise, the distributed economic added value and the sustainable growth rate are related information, showing this connection and its impact in sustainability reports will be positive in terms of stakeholder participation and support