Conference Paper

Material Topics in Corporate Sustainability Reporting: Building Türkiye’s First Structured Dataset

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No.

ERF32AC_61

Publisher

ERF

Date

May, 2026

Topic

G. Financial Economics

Abstract
Author(s)

This paper offers the first systematic analysis of materiality disclosures in Türkiye by developing three novel data components: a Sustainability Report Database covering 705 BIST-listed firms (2016–2024), a Materiality Dictionary of 3,607 unique topics grouped into 39 sub-topic and 10 thematic ESG clusters, and an integrated panel combining firm-level disclosures with detailed firm-level financial indicators. Using a combined human–machine text-classification approach, the study documents substantial heterogeneity in firms’ materiality practices, alongside increasing convergence around themes such as climate risk, energy, business ethics, employee-related issues, and supply chain sustainability. Econometric analyses show that firm size, profitability, liquidity constraints, and market risk significantly predict both reporting likelihood and choice of reporting framework (GRI, Integrated, SPK, ESRS), while the inclusion of a materiality analysis itself is largely unrelated to financial characteristics. The findings provide a scalable empirical foundation for emerging-market sustainability research and inform regional efforts to harmonize ESG disclosure standards.