Investigation of the relationship between corporate govermance practices and independent auditor choice: A research on Borsa Istanbul

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between companies' corporate governance practices and the selection of independent auditors in the sample of Turkey. For this purpose, between 2018 and 2020, 475 firm-year data of companies traded in the Borsa Istanbul manufacturing sector were analyzed via the logistic regression model. In the study, whether the audit firm is Big Four (Big4) or not is used as a proxy for independent auditor choice. In addition, the relationship between the corporate governance practices of the companies and the selection of independent auditors were also examined in terms of the number of audit services provided by the audit firm to public interest organizations and the income obtained from independent audit services. The findings of the study indicate that there is a statistically significant relationship between the independent audit firm being Big Four and the variables of foreign investors and the number of board members. It has also been determined that there is a statistically significant relationship between the number of audit services provided by the audit firm to the institutions that concern the public interest and the variables of corporate investor, foreign investor and female member rate on the board of directors. Finally; the findings indicate that there is a statistically significant relationship between the income from independent audit services and the variables of foreign investors, the number of members of the board of directors and the female member rate on the board of directors. Keywords: Corporate Governance, Auditor, Auditor Selection