Determinants of Sustainability Reporting and Independent Assurance Decisions br

This study aims to investigate the factors affecting firms' decision to release sustainability reports and to have external assurance for these reports. The sample of the study consists of firms operating the BIST ALL Index and the investigation period of the study covers the years 2010-2020. Difference tests and logistic regression methods are utilized in the study. The findings reveal that firm size, leverage, profitability, board size, board gender diversity, and sustainability performance significantly increase the probability of releasing a sustainability report. As for external assurance, it is observed that firm size, leverage, board gender diversity and sustainability performance positively affect the probability of having external assurance for the sustainability reports of the firms.