Examining the Relationship between the Environmental and Social Investments of Companies and Their Ownership Structures, Board Diversity and Financial Indicators

The objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between environmental and social investment expenditures, which play a significant role in the field of sustainability studies and corporate activities, and their ownership structures, board diversity and selected financial indicators. In this context, panel regression analyses were conducted on the annual data of 17 companies listed on Borsa Istanbul (BIST) between 2018 and 2022. The study's findings indicate that block ownership, family ownership, institutional ownership, female directors, foreign directors, sales and leverage variables have a significant impact on environmental investments. On the other hand, sales size variable has a substantial effect on social investments. It is evident that companies listed on BIST, as with all other institutions and organisations, will be required to augment the magnitude and frequency of their environmental and social investments in forthcoming years, in the face of the influences, preferences and pressures exerted by regulatory authorities, investors and non-governmental organisations. In this context, the findings of this study and the comments and recommendations based on these findings will provide guidance to these companies and all interest groups, regulatory boards and other academic research to be conducted in Turkey in terms of increasing these investments.