Evaluation of Corporate Sustainability Reports: Sustainability Research in the Turkish Banking Sector

Abstract

The aim of this thesis study is to ensure the sustainability of the Turkish banking sector by considering the environmental, economic and social effects of different practices still existing in human rights, working conditions, management structure, health, safety, education, governance, energy consumption and financial functions of banks operating in Turkey. For this purpose, the corporate sustainability performance of the banks operating in Turkey and included in the BIST sustainability index, published between 2017-2019, is measured in comparison with the multidimensional corporate sustainability approach and evaluated according to the measurement results. Thus, it will be possible to determine how much the banks that have adopted the corporate sustainability approach have developed their corporate sustainability understanding and the level they have reached. It is very important to reveal the economic, environmental and social effects of banks operating in Turkey, which voluntarily accept to be included in the BIST sustainability index, due to the ability of banks to influence and even direct all sectors. In addition, data that are not included in the reviewed sustainability reports but are expected to be disclosed will also be specified. The corporate sustainability performance of the banks, which are the subject of the review, was evaluated using the TOPSIS method, which is one of the multi-criteria decision-making methods.