The effect of corporate governance practices on financial decisions and company performance: Comparison of BIST 100 and BIST Corporate Governance Index

Today, corporate governance practices have become extremely important for various interest groups. Information pollution resulting from the increasing phenomenon of globalization, difficulties in obtaining reliable information about companies, and parallel company scandals that have occurred one after another have increased the interest in the concept of corporate governance. In this direction, the effect of corporate governance practices on financial decisions and firm performance has been investigated in this thesis study. For this purpose, two samples were created using the data obtained by using the annual balance sheet and income statement data of the companies operating in the BIST Corporate Governance Index and the BIST 100 Index for the years 2010-2018. The first sample consists of companies included in both BIST 100 and BIST Corporate Governance Index. The second sample consists of only companies included in the BIST 100 Index. In the study, panel data regression analysis was performed by using the data obtained from the balance sheet, income statement and activity reports of the relevant companies. Although there are similarities and differences in both samples in the results obtained as a result of the analysis, it has been determined that corporate governance practices have an effect on financing decisions and firm performance in both samples.