Investigation of corporate governance in business group affiliated and independent firms

Abstract

This paper investigates whether there is a difference between business group affiliated and independent firms in terms of complying with the corporate governance principles. Based on data drawn from the corporate governance principles compliance reports of Borsa Istanbul (BIST) companies, the results of the study show that group affiliated firms have higher compliance with the corporate governance than the independent ones in general. The difference of the mean scores in compliance with the corporate governance, stakeholders, board of directors principles between group affiliated companies and independent ones is significant. However, the mean values in shareholders and public disclosure and transparency principles do not differ between these groups of firms. This study aims to advance the research on corporate governance and business groups by considering the corporate governance differences between business group companies and unaffiliated ones in an emerging economy.