IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i11p4971-d1666766.html

Strategic Management of Environmental, Social, and Governance Scores and Corporate Governance Index: A Panel Data Analysis of Firm Value on the Istanbul Stock Exchange

Author

Listed:
  • Mustafa Yucel

    (Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Kastamonu University, Kastamonu 37150, Türkiye)

  • Guler Yanik

    (Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Recep Tayyip Erdogan University, Rize 53100, Türkiye)

  • Faruk Dayi

    (Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Kastamonu University, Kastamonu 37150, Türkiye)

  • Ayhan Benek

    (Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Kastamonu University, Kastamonu 37150, Türkiye)

Abstract

This study investigates how Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) scores and the Corporate Governance Index (CGI) jointly influence firm value in Türkiye. To address the contextual limitations of global ESG metrics, this study incorporates the CGI, a country-specific governance measure developed by Capital Markets Board of Türkiye, as a complementary indicator. Using panel data from 44 non-financial firms listed on the Istanbul Stock Exchange between 2019 and 2023, the study applies a random effects regression model with robust standard errors. The findings indicate that both ESG and CGI scores are positively and significantly associated with firm value, along with profitability (ROA), while financial leverage and liquidity (CR) show negative effects. The results underscore the strategic value of aligning sustainability performance with governance quality, particularly in emerging market contexts. This study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence for an integrated ESG–CGI framework and offers practical insights for corporate managers, investors, and policymakers.

Suggested Citation

  • Mustafa Yucel & Guler Yanik & Faruk Dayi & Ayhan Benek, 2025. "Strategic Management of Environmental, Social, and Governance Scores and Corporate Governance Index: A Panel Data Analysis of Firm Value on the Istanbul Stock Exchange," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(11), pages 1-24, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:11:p:4971-:d:1666766
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/11/4971/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/11/4971/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Assem Orazayeva & Muhammad Arslan, 2025. "Effect of Financial Indicators on Corporate Social Responsibility: Evidence from Emerging Economies," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 18(3), pages 1-20, February.
    2. Wong Wai-Khuen & Teh Boon-Heng & Tan Siow-Hooi, 2023. "The Influence of External Stakeholders on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Reporting: Toward a Conceptual Framework for ESG Disclosure," Foresight and STI Governance, National Research University Higher School of Economics, vol. 17(2), pages 9-20.
    3. Wu, Zihao & Lin, Siliang & Chen, Tianhao & Luo, Chunyang & Xu, Hui, 2023. "Does effective corporate governance mitigate the negative effect of ESG controversies on firm value?," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 1772-1793.
    4. Wolfgang Drobetz & Andreas Schillhofer & Heinz Zimmermann, 2004. "Corporate Governance and Expected Stock Returns: Evidence from Germany," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 10(2), pages 267-293, June.
    5. Ferah Yildiz & Faruk Dayi & Mustafa Yucel & Ali Cilesiz, 2024. "The Impact of ESG Criteria on Firm Value: A Strategic Analysis of the Airline Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-23, September.
    6. Feldstein, Martin, 1985. "Debt and taxes in the theory of public finance," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 233-245, November.
    7. Oren Mooneeapen & Subhash Abhayawansa & Naushad Mamode Khan, 2022. "The influence of the country governance environment on corporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance," Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 13(4), pages 953-985, May.
    8. Oluwatosin Mary Esan & Obiamaka Nwobu & Ibukunoluwa T Adeyanju & Jesutofunmi O Adeyemi, 2022. "Firm Value Response to Internal and External Corporate Governance in the Nigerian Stock Market," Asian Economic and Financial Review, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 12(4), pages 227-243.
    9. D. J. Johnstone, 2003. "Replacement Cost Asset Valuation and Regulation of Energy Infrastructure Tariffs," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 39(1), pages 1-41, February.
    10. Cemal Zehir & Mustafa Özyeşil & Alex Borodin & Esin Benhür Aktürk & Sara Faedfar & Mustafa Çikrikçi, 2023. "Corporate Governance’s Impact on Sustainable Finance: An Analysis of Borsa Istanbul Energy Sector Companies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-12, July.
    11. Oren Mooneeapen & Subhash Abhayawansa & Naushad Mamode Khan, 2022. "The influence of the country governance environment on corporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance," Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 13(4), pages 953-985, May.
    12. Khan, Muhammad Arif, 2022. "ESG disclosure and Firm performance: A bibliometric and meta analysis," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    13. Carolina Almeida Cruz & Florinda Matos, 2023. "ESG Maturity: A Software Framework for the Challenges of ESG Data in Investment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-18, February.
    14. Ghouma, Hatem & Ben-Nasr, Hamdi & Yan, Ruiqian, 2018. "Corporate governance and cost of debt financing: Empirical evidence from Canada," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 138-148.
    15. Alexandre Clément & Élisabeth Robinot & Léo Trespeuch, 2022. "Improving ESG Scores with Sustainability Concepts," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-15, October.
    16. Mohamad Iruwan Ghuslan & Romlah Jaffar & Norman Mohd Saleh & Mohd Hasimi Yaacob, 2021. "Corporate Governance and Corporate Reputation: The Role of Environmental and Social Reporting Quality," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-24, September.
    17. Bissoondoyal-Bheenick, Emawtee & Brooks, Robert & Do, Hung Xuan, 2023. "ESG and firm performance: The role of size and media channels," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    18. Xiaolu Feng & Norman Mohd Saleh & Kamarul Baraini Keliwon & Aziatul Waznah Ghazali, 2025. "Can Multiple Large Shareholders Mitigate Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Controversies?," World, MDPI, vol. 6(1), pages 1-24, February.
    19. Jill Atkins & Federica Doni & Andrea Gasperini & Sonia Artuso & Ilaria Torre & Lorena Sorrentino, 2023. "Exploring the Effectiveness of Sustainability Measurement: Which ESG Metrics Will Survive COVID-19?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 185(3), pages 629-646, July.
    20. Mustafa Yucel & Sevgi Yucel, 2024. "Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Dynamics in the Energy Sector: Strategic Approaches for Sustainable Development," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(24), pages 1-19, December.
    21. Lee, Michael T. & Raschke, Robyn L., 2023. "Stakeholder legitimacy in firm greening and financial performance: What about greenwashing temptations?☆," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 155(PB).
    22. Kose,Ayhan & Ohnsorge,Franziska Lieselotte & Sugawara,Naotaka, 2020. "Benefits and Costs of Debt : The Dose Makes the Poison," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9166, The World Bank.
    23. Sirimon Treepongkaruna & Khine Kyaw & Pornsit Jiraporn, 2024. "ESG controversies and corporate governance: Evidence from board size," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(5), pages 4218-4232, July.
    24. Yakov Amihud & Haim Mendelson, 2012. "Liquidity, the Value of the Firm, and Corporate Finance," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 24(1), pages 17-32, March.
    25. Iñaki Heras‐Saizarbitoria & Olivier Boiral & Alberto Díaz de Junguitu, 2020. "Environmental management certification and environmental performance: Greening or greenwashing?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(6), pages 2829-2841, September.
    26. Marco Benvenuto & Roxana Loredana Avram & Alexandru Avram & Carmine Viola, 2021. "Assessing the Impact of Corporate Governance Index on Financial Performance in the Romanian and Italian Banking Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-16, May.
    27. Wenhao Qi & Zhixiong Huang & Hasan Dinçer & Renata Korsakienė & Serhat Yüksel, 2020. "Corporate Governance-Based Strategic Approach to Sustainability in Energy Industry of Emerging Economies with a Novel Interval-Valued Intuitionistic Fuzzy Hybrid Decision Making Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-19, April.
    28. Ayşe İrem Keskin & Banu Dincer & Caner Dincer, 2020. "Exploring the Impact of Sustainability on Corporate Financial Performance Using Discriminant Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-14, March.
    29. Guler Aras & Evrim Hacioglu Kazak, 2022. "Enhancing Firm Value through the Lens of ESG Materiality: Evidence from the Banking Sector in OECD Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-29, November.
    30. Art Durnev & E. Han Kim, 2005. "To Steal or Not to Steal: Firm Attributes, Legal Environment, and Valuation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(3), pages 1461-1493, June.
    31. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, December.
    32. Sayantan Khanra & Puneet Kaur & Rojers P Joseph & Ashish Malik & Amandeep Dhir, 2022. "A resource‐based view of green innovation as a strategic firm resource: Present status and future directions," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 1395-1413, May.
    33. Jangho Gil & Heeju Hwang, 2024. "Substitutive effects of accounting transparency and corporate governance on firm value," International Journal of Management and Sustainability, Conscientia Beam, vol. 13(3), pages 732-742.
    34. Ararat, Melsa & Black, Bernard S. & Yurtoglu, B. Burcin, 2017. "The effect of corporate governance on firm value and profitability: Time-series evidence from Turkey," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 113-132.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Maria Roszkowska‐Menkes, 2025. "ESG pay and corporate social irresponsibility: Does culture matter?," Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(4), pages 1860-1885, October.
    2. Mohapatra, Swati & Kumar, Ashish & Mohapatra, Malaya Ranjan & Srivastava, Vikas, 2025. "Does CEO duality moderate environmental, social, and governance performance-earnings management relationship? Evidence from emerging markets," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    3. Ayadi, Imen & Abderrahman, Jahmane, 2025. "The impact of economic policy uncertainty and digital integration on ESG practices in European companies," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    4. Wang, Luyang & Tang, Ruoyu & Zhou, Xiang, 2025. "Financial crime risks in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment: Perspectives on greenwashing and false disclosure," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 85(PA).
    5. Malik Abu Afifa & Nha Minh Nguyen & Dao Truc Thi Vo & Duong Van Bui & Hien Vo Van, 2025. "Environmental, social and governance practices: A new perspective from Asian developing countries," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(1), pages 1079-1095, January.
    6. Li, Ruiqian & Wu, Haiyun & Zhong, Ma & Lan, Hao, 2024. "Strategic tone management in ESG reports and ESG risk," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 96(PA).
    7. Ararat, Melsa & Yurtoglu, B. Burcin, 2021. "Female directors, board committees, and firm performance: Time-series evidence from Turkey," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    8. Roy Kouwenberg & Roelof Salomons & Pipat Thontirawong, 2014. "Corporate governance and stock returns in Asia," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(6), pages 965-976, June.
    9. Galletta, Simona & Goodell, John W. & Mazzù, Sebastiano & Paltrinieri, Andrea, 2025. "The impact of environmental disclosure and controversies on bank value," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 134.
    10. Jinyu Chen & Yan Yang & Qian Ding & Julan Xie, 2025. "Top Management Team Connectedness and Greenwashing," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(4), pages 3725-3743, October.
    11. Bagh, Tanveer & Hunjra, Ahmed Imran & Corbet, Shaen, 2025. "The impact of corporate governance on firm value: Understanding the role of strategic change," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    12. Ararat, Melsa & Claessens, Stijn & Yurtoglu, B. Burcin, 2021. "Corporate governance in emerging markets: A selective review and an agenda for future research," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    13. Liu, Yang & Dong, Kangyin & Nepal, Rabindra & Afi, Hatem, 2025. "How do climate risks affect corporate ESG performance? Micro evidence from China," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    14. Li, Houjian & Cheng, Quanfeixue & Su, Mengying & Zhang, Kuan, 2025. "Empowering ESG: The pivotal influence of directors' and officers' liability insurance on corporate sustainability," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    15. Changlin Ji & Yuwei Feng, 2025. "RETRACTED ARTICLE: Evaluating the Innovation-Boosting Potential of Low-Carbon Pilot Policies: A Multi-Subject Co-Governance Perspective," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 16(2), pages 6033-6072, June.
    16. Jian Yin & Jian Xu, 2025. "Exploring the Impact of Board Size on ESG Controversies: New Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(11), pages 1-22, May.
    17. Xiaosan Zhang & Qingquan Jiang & Javier Cifuentes‐Faura & Xiaojie Hu & Yuyan Li, 2025. "Do tax incentives matter in promoting corporate ESG performance toward sustainable development?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(1), pages 57-69, January.
    18. de Carvalho, Antonio Gledson & Dal'Bó, Filipe & Sampaio, Joelson, 2021. "Determinants of corporate governance practices in Brazil," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    19. Esparcia, Carlos & Gubareva, Mariya & Sokolova, Tatiana & Jareño, Francisco, 2025. "Cross-border ESG rating dynamics: An in-depth connectedness analysis of portfolio returns and volatilities in the USA and Canada," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(PA).
    20. Shi, Dinghao & Tan, Haoyu & Ling, Yixin & Liu, Yunuo & Liu, Bo & Tu, Yongqian, 2025. "Impact of environmental information uncertainty and market competition on corporate ESG performance," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:11:p:4971-:d:1666766. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask MDPI Indexing Manager to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.