Business and Economics Research Journal

661-672

Authors: Mehmet Mert, Abdullah Emre Caglar

Carbon emissions have contiunued to increase globally, in despite of joint efforts to implement international agreements such as Kyoto protocol since 1997. The main subject of the current study is to investigate significant or insignificant structural breaks on carbon emission series of the Kyoto countries. The data periyod of the study is between 1960 and 2013 for 26 Kyoto countries. First of all, the first generation panel unit root tests have been performed and carbon emissions have been found as nonstationary. Then, cross-sectional dependency have been tested and Kyoto panel has been stated as cross-sectional dependent. So, panel unit root tests with structural breaks under cross-sectional dependency has been performed. Unlike the results of the first generation panel unit root tests, stationary process has been revealed. Beside this, in 19 of 26 Kyoto countries, the structural breaks between 1997-2005 have been observed as Kyoto protocol affects. As a result of the study, significant structural breaks in Kyoto panel have been stated and the impact of the Kyoto protocol on carbon emission series for the Kyoto countries is significant.

689-698

Authors: Ozcan Isik

The purpose of this study is to examine empirically the influence of firm-specific factors on the profitability for 153 listed real sector firms in Turkey for a period of eight years from 2005 to 2012. In our study, it is also analyzed if there are differences in firm profitability according to firm size and firm age. Estimation results obtained from the panel data models seem to imply that, on the whole, profitability measured by return on assets (ROA) of publicly traded real sector firms in Borsa Istanbul Stock Exchange is mostly driven by firm size, liquidity level, asset tangibility, debt structure measured by the ratio of total liabilities to total assets, stock return volatility, firm age, and financial crisis. On the other hand, the results of the conducted panel analysis reveal that growth opportunities measured by the ratio of capital expenditure to sales have no statistically significant impact on the profitability of real sector firms.

715-726

Authors: Muhammet Burak Kilic, Ismail Celik, Murat Kaya

The accuracy of estimate in the investment risk is important for the potential investors as well as the expected return from the investment characteristics. One of the most fundamental issues on risk and return is to have the heavy tailed behavior of the residuals that makes it difficult to obtain an appropriate risk prediction model for index returns in financial studies. In this study, Istanbul stock exchange (ISE-100) daily index data between February 2007 and February 2017 is analyzed with the classic and Bayesian GARCH (1,1) models and it is aimed to compare the effects of them on return volatility with Student-t residuals. As a result of this study, no significant differences are found between the classical and Bayesian GARCH (1,1)-Student-t models both effects of shock on volatility and volatility persistence for stock return. This can be interpreted as both models not well differentiated from each other. In conclusion, classical and Bayesian GARCH (1,1)-Student-t estimation methods provide reliable results both in modeling volatility of returns and in estimating investment risk for investors and market regulators.

749-758

Authors: Nuran Bayram, Mine Aydemir, Zuhal Yildirim, Reyhan Leba Tansoker

The share of small and medium-sized enterprises in the economy has increased in recent times. Nevertheless, it is seen among the most risky groups when evaluated in terms of tax compliance. The aim of the present study is to investigate the reliability and structural validity. Because of this aim we used the Turkish version of the tax compliance intention, general fairness, procedural fairness and social norms scale. The study group consists of 320 participants. We used AMOS program for the data analysis. As a result, the best fit indices are obtained. All factor loadings were found statistically significant after confirmatory factor analysis. Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient is calculated to determine the reliability of the scale in this study. Cronbach’s alpha values of the all dimensions were found within the range between 0.73 and 0.90. The Turkish form of tax compliance intention, general fairness, procedural fairness and social norms scale was found to be adequate and reliable. These instruments can be used by the researchers in research in Turkey.

773-784

Authors: Esra Aydin, H. Nejat Basim

In this study, it is aimed at examining the effect of work-family/ family-work conflict on organizational commitment and the mediator effect of perceived supervisor support on this relationship. The data were collected with a survey from 342 participants working in public institutions and the data were analyzed via statistical programs. As a result of the structural equation modeling, the relationship between work-family conflict and organizational commitment was found to be statistically insignificant. On the other hand, family-work conflict was found to predict organizational commitment. In this context, it was found that there was a negative and significant relationship between family-work conflict and organizational commitment. Furthermore, the findings showed that perceived supervisor support had no role in the relationship between work-family conflict and organizational commitment. On the other hand, perceived supervisor support had partial mediation role in this relationship. Consequently, results indicated that work-family conflict decreased organizational commitment and by decreasing work-family conflict, perceived supervisor support increased organizational commitment with an indirect effect. In the study, results of the findings were discussed theoretically and various implications were presented for future studies.

797-813

Authors: Meral Kizrak, Papatya S. Bicakci, H. Nejat Basim

This study aims to explore the psychological capital factors which may affect self-leadership skills. To this aim, the effects of four sub-constructs of psychological capital (hope, optimism, resilience, self-efficacy) on eight sub-constructs of self-leadership (self-goal setting & visualizing successful performance, focusing thoughts on natural rewards, self-observation, self-reward, self-punishment, self-cuing, self-talk, evaluating beliefs and assumptions) have been investigated. The research data were obtained from 227 state officials in Ankara through questionnaires and convenience sampling. For the data analysis and model test, the structural equation modeling was utilized. The research findings indicate that different self-leadership behaviors are affected by different psychological factors, particularly hope and optimism. On the other hand, the findings reveal that self-cueing is influenced by each psychological factor except for hope. The results also show that none of the psychological sub-constructs has an effect on self-reward or self-punishment. Within this context, employees’ psychological capital has been found to have a partial impact on their self-leadership skills.

835-847

Authors: Iva Slivar, Ramazan Ufuk Bayer

When mentioning online referrals in tourism, the first associations for most are online reviews of guests, usually those on the most popular social media website in tourism – TripAdvisor. In fact, online referrals1 are a much broader concept which is presented through their categorization according to their affiliation to e-marketing domains. The goal of this paper is to research the use of online referrals in hospitality according to the suggested classification. A research featuring a selection of European branded hotel chains, ranging from luxury to budget, and their use of online referrals is presented. The results revealed that most hotels have an average performance in online referrals marketing as a whole, while hotels classified in the budget segment show the worst performance.

859-871

Authors: Vedat EKERGİL, Merve ÖZGÜR GÖDE

Recent years, it seems that businesses have shared the knowledge that businesses fulfill their economic, social and environmental responsibilities, and that some countries are legally obliged to present these reports. Businesses may prefer to prepare and share sustainability reports to monitor the sustainability levels of their economic, social and environmental performance. Compared to other service businesses, the environmental and social responsibilities of hotel business are more prevalent in their commercial activities. Since hotels are intimately involved in both the physical and social environment, it is important to present sustainability reports to information users. It is important for those who examine the sustainability reports to find out whether they have received sufficient information about sustainability and whether the sustainability reports published by the site contain the necessary elements. The main reason of sharing those reports for the enterprises which prepare sustainability report is based on the basic assumptions of accounting such as the continuity, social responsibility, materiality and so on. The aim of the study is to examine the sustainability reports prepared by the hotels in Turkey according to the global sustainability report standards and to reveal similar and different aspects between these standards and reports. For this purpose, it is also examined which elements are necessary for the sustainability reporting which is becoming increasingly important internationally for the Turkish hotels. In the study, data are collected through a document review based on the qualitative research approach and the content analysis is used in the analysis of it. As a result, it has been determined that the Turkish hotels do not prepare their sustainability reports according to international standards.

379-394

Authors: Oguz Tumturk

The main purpose of the study is to investigate the predictability of exchange rates by using the long horizon regression approach (or the Error Correction Model) derived from the Vector Error Correction Model for Turkey. The data cover the period over the period of 2001:Q1-2016:Q2 as Turkey has adopted floating exchange rate regime since 2001 crisis. The predictive ability of the long horizon regression was evaluated according to in-sample fit and out-of sample analyses. The in-sample fit results indicate that the fundamentals are useful to explain the long horizon changes in exchange rates under the assumption of country specific money demand elasticities. On the other hand, the out-of sample analysis results present evidence that the Error Correction Model outperforms the Random Walk Model during the forecast period, 2008:Q1-2013:Q2; however, the Random Walk beats the Error Correction Model around 2008 recession period owing to elevated information uncertainty and short termism.

413-432

Authors: Cengiz Toraman, Merve Tuncay

Recent political events and the subsequent movements in financial markets both in the developing and the developed countries raise the instincts regarding the interaction of political risks and financial markets and increase the importance of understanding the behavior of financial markets against political risks. Therefore the purpose of this study is to explain the impact of political risks on the returns of securities traded on capital markets in Turkey in the framework of Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). The relation between the monthly returns of 47 companies’ assets being traded on Borsa Istanbul and the political risks in Turkey between the years of 1997 and 2013 is examined in the study. Results of the analysis held by two-step regression method represent that there exists a positive and linear relation between beta and expected return. On the other hand, it is found that 4 out of 12 political risk factors, in other words internal conflict, external conflict, government stability and military in politics have a significant impact on expected return. Contrary to the other three risk factors, only the risk of government stability is found to be positively affecting asset returns.

453-471

Authors: Ali Ihsan Akgun, Famil Samiloglu

There are numerous studies analyzing the relationship between global financial crisis and financial performance of business. Although, recent surveys reflect the upper hand to a generally negative relationship, this question still gives rise to debate. To approach the issue from different perspective the question that whether accounting based on financial performance and value based on Economic Value-Added (EVA) play a role during periods of uncertainty? In this study, it is purposed to test this hypothesis of financial performance acting as an sample of BİST 100 listed companies, over pre and post crisis reference periods around the current financial crisis. Furthermore, this study examines the impact of cash ratio, liqudity ratio and cash conversion cycle of the recent 2008 global financial crisis on the relation between a firm’s performance and Economic Value-Added (EVA) using a sample of BİST 100 firms covering the period from 2003 to 2012. According to research findings that explanatory power of independent variables to explain dependent variables is higher in the post-financial crisis period. Moreover, EVA, which is known as a measure of modern performance in the post-crisis period, has higher explanatory power for these variables.

487-500

Authors: Rabia Yetgin, İbrahim Halil Eksi

The purpose of this study is to reveal the factors affecting the loans the banks use by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). To this end, bank and market-specific variables, which are considered to affect the lending attitudes of depositors and participation banks to SMEs, were analyzed using regression analysis. As a result of the analysis, bank size and deposit interest rate variables were found to have a significant effect on SME loans. On the other hand, the result is that the profitability of the asset does not have a meaningful effect on the loans.

519-532

Authors: Mustafa Fedai Cavus, Nazmiye Ulku Pekkan

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between university students’ social support levels and social entrepreneurship characteristics. In this context, the research was carried out on 302 university students studying in different departments and classes of Mersin Toros University. It has been identified that the level of social support perceived by students influences their social entrepreneurship positively. Also it has been determined that the support of the a special person (0.398) and family (0.351) are the most important factors on their perception of social entrepreneurship. And also, it has been determined that according to gender variant, perceived social support was defined significantly differentiating but social entrepreneurship perception was not differentiating.

555-573

Authors: Murat Aktan

Smoking negatively affects individuals’ health, and health problems caused by tobacco products are an important burden on the economy. Thus, struggle against cigarette is a topic of interest for governments. Turkish Health Ministry has mandated to place 14 different textual and pictorial health warnings (graphic warning label – GWL) on cigarette packs since 2010. However, the extent of GWLs effectiveness is not fully known. Therefore, this research aims to investigate 14 GWLs in terms of their effectiveness. During research, participators were asked to evaluate each GWL which they considered effective; the most effective 3 GWLs were determined by frequency analysis. Besides, the relations between the most effective 3 GWLs, gender, age and smoking levels were tested. Results revealed that the fact that GWLs were considered effective is not independent of gender and smoking levels. In this respect, the amount of female participants who considered GWLs as effective was proportionately higher than male respondents. In a similar vein, along with the decrease in smoking frequency, more respondents indicated that GWLs are effective. However, findings illustrated that there was no relation between age and the fact that whether GWLs are perceived as effective.

591-610

Authors: Elif Bulut, Evrim Erdogan, Melek Sardag Karabulut

Establishing relationship with customers and creating value for customers are the roles of social media which have been recognized by all businesses recently. Nowadays social media has been seen as an opportunity for SME’s which can’t develop because of the lack of capital, human resources, marketing knowledge and technology etc. This study explores SMEs’ perspective on social media promotion effect with using correspondence analysis. The survey was carried out on 400 SMEs which operate in Sinop. The findings showed that SMEs have not fully utilized the importance of the social media as a marketing tool yet. Also, according to their descriptive characteristics, they have different perspectives on social media promotion effect.

627-646

Authors: Deger Alper, Canan Basdar

One of the most important factors in national economic development is the vigorous operation of financial markets. The vigorous function of financial markets depends on the operations of financial institutions such as stock exchange, banks, leasing and factoring companies in these markets. In recent years, the status and significance of factoring companies as non-bank financial institutions have been increased, especially in providing financing for the SMEs. In the present study, the financial performance of factoring companies in Istanbul Stock Exchange was assessed and multi-criteria decision making techniques ELECTRE and TOPSIS, were implemented. More objective and accurate assessments could be achieved with multi-criteria decision making techniques, ELECTRE and TOPSIS, which are used when multiple evaluation factors are present. For this purpose, six factoring companies were selected and the financial statement ratios for each company were used as evaluation criteria. The calculated financial ratios and financial ratio weights were included in analyses conducted with both methods and Yapı Kredi Factoring was determined as the factoring company with the best performance as a result of conducted ELECTRE and TOPSIS analyses.

183-202

Authors: Umut Akdugan

In this study, the determinants of Turkey’s external debt stock were tried to be explained by taking into consideration the factors affecting the original sin. By using the annual time series data for the period 1970-2015, long term relationships were determined via the cointegration approach and short term dynamics were examined using ECM. According to the ARDL bounds test result, cointegration relations were found between the variables. In this context, the long-term ARDL estimation results can be stated as follows: i) The effect of inflation rate, exchange rate regime and money supply on external debt stock are statistically significant and negative. ii) The effect of GDP per capita, debt service, budget balance, domestic credits and trade openness variables on external debt stock are statistically significant and positive.iii) Among these variables, per capita GDP and exchange rate regime effects were found to be more influential on external debt than other variables. On the other hand, the estimation results of the ECM reveal that the short-term imbalances can be removed in the long-term and that variables can converge to their eigenvalues.

217-230

Authors: Murat Ocak, Evrim Altuk Ozden

This study aims to determine the factors affecting the number of board meetings using 931 firm-year observations over the periods 2005 to 2013. Manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, hotels and restaurants, and technology sectors were analyzed by negative binomial regression. For all observations, it was found that proportions of independent members and women on board are positively related to number of meetings. Board size was negatively related to number of meetings. In manufacturing and technology sectors, proportion of independent members is positively associated with number of board meetings, whereas board size is negatively associated with number of board meetings. In wholesale and retail trade, hotels and restaurants sector, women on board is positively associated with number of meetings.

247-258

Authors: Tuncay Turan Turaboglu, Asli Yikilmaz Erkol, Emre Esat Topaloglu

This study aims to reveal the relationship between capital structure decisions and financial distress of the firms. In the study, the financial distressed are represented by the variables, Altman Z-Score and Springate S-Score while the capital structure decisions are represented by maturity structure of external debt and the equity capital ratio. The variables, namely firm size and the ratio of fixed assets are incorporated as control variables in the analysis. The results indicate a negative and significant relationship between financial distress and debt and equity ratios, namely total debt, short-term debt and equity ratios. The negative relationship between the external equity ratio (new equity issuance) and the financial failure score supports the Myers (1984) Pecking Order Theory. Moreover, a positive and statistically significant relationship is found between the control variables and financial success scores. The results of the study are consistent with the evidence of other studies and trade off theory that shows the debt ratio increases the probability of financial distress of the firms.

275-291

Authors: Abubakar Lujja, F. Zeynep Ozata

Consumer Engagement is increasingly becoming one of the important issues in the competitive business environment and with its unique features and structure, Social Networking Sites offer an upper advantage to build consumer brand relationships and instant consumer engagement. This study set out to determine the consequences of consumer engagement in social networking sites. Consumer engagement was viewed as a multi-dimensional concept comprising behavioral, cognitive and emotional dimensions and as such the hypotheses were aimed at determining how each of the three dimensions of consumer engagement affect the individual consequences of consumer engagement such as brand loyalty, satisfaction, commitment and trust. The study used a quantitative research design. It used a questionnaire survey to collect data from university students. Facebook is chosen as a case for this study. 400 questionnaires were collected and the analyses were conducted with the 387 valid questionnaire. The results suggest that emotional and behavioral engagement dimensions were significant predictors for brand loyalty; emotional engagement for satisfaction, cognitive and behavioral engagement for commitment, while behavioral and emotional engagement dimensions were found to be significant predictors for trust.

305-324

Authors: Yasemin Kaya, Sevda Gursakal

Green economy has become a central concept with the advent of the arguments contending green investments should take precedence in order to both prevent crisis and revitalize economies especially after the 2008 economic crisis. Green economy is regarded as an approach that presents significant opportunities in rendering the growth more inclusive and sustainable as well as invigorating the economy via investment in new green sectors, increasing productivity of resources and enabling the decarbonation of existing sectors. However green economy requires fundemental changes and a different perception in various venues such as international relations, private and public sector policies, personal behaviors and attitudes. In this study, transition to the green economy has been evaluated from the perspective of private sector since private organisations are viewed as the ones that should play a role. The study intends to inquire whether the private sector institutions are willing to carry out the expected transition or posses a voluntary attitude towards it. A survey form has been prepared to measure it and implemented to 134 firms of various scales and sectors in 8 orginized industrial zones in Bursa. First a coneceptual framework has been laid out for the green economy and then survey results has been analyzed.

349-361

Authors: Umit Gucenme Gencoglu, Alp Aytac

According to the independent auditing standards, the auditor has to carry out the auditing of the annual report from 2014 and in this regards the financial adequacy of the enterprises, determination of the debt payment power and the operating risks are determined. This process has a positive effect on the financial sustainability of the public sector, which is subject to independent examination since 2005 as it is subject to the Capital Market Law. Since independent auditing process is new for companies outside the capital market, it is possible that adequate measures have not been taken to protect financial continuity in these enterprises. Based on this assumption, in this study, in order to compare financial sustainability of publicly traded and non-publicly traded companies which operate in Bursa and subjected to independent audit has been selected. After this selection, these companies’ average ratios of 2014-2015 period was entered to the SPSS 24 statistical program. The evaluation has been made based on Mann Whitney U test which is a non-parametric statistical method. As a result of the analysis, it was determined that there is a significant difference between only the turnover ratios, the turnover rate of return on equity and the return on equity ratio among publicly traded and non-publicly traded companies in Bursa.

19-33

Authors: Ugur Korkut Pata, Harun Terzi

Electricity consumption is regarded as an indicator of welfare in both developing and developed countries. In this study, the causality link between net electricity consumption and economic growth in the Turkish economy is investigated by the 55 annual observations covering the period from 1960 to 2014. According to the results of UVAR and ARDL analysis resolved with both AIC and SIC information criteria, there is a positive unidirectional and statistically significant causality moving from net electricity consumption to economic growth in the short/long run. The empirical results indicate that the energy led-growth hypothesis is valid for Turkey, that is growing net electricity consumption positively stimulates the economic growth in the short/long run.

49-62

Authors: Huseyin Fidan

Information Technologies that provide many advantages bring some problems depending on the usage differences. Differences that occur between those who can use information technology and who can’t has led to inequalities. The issue that has been referred as digital gap or digital divide has deepened and determining the level of inequality caused gain importance by developments in technology. In determining the level of the digital divide computer and internet are often used as indicators, analysis are conducted with statistical methods based on demographic variables. Gini method which is one of the standard tools for the measurement of inequality, is rarely used in digital divide studies. In Turkey, there are no studies to determine the level of digital divide using the Gini coefficients. In this study, the differences between the computer and internet usage levels of people living in Turkey are defined by the Gini approach. The data to determine of these differences were obtained from computer and internet usage research of Level1 Regions in TUIK Household Survey on Information Technology Usage. In this research, it has been determined the digital divide between regions in computer and internet usage is low relatively. Gini coefficients have been calculated among gender for each region and it has been determined that TR9 has the highest and TR11 has the lowest level of the digital divide.