HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS, sa.10, ss.1-13, 2023 (AHCI)
This research aims to discover trends regarding stakeholders in sustainability reports. It
questions the patterns or trends in addressing stakeholders, based on the assumption that
the more a stakeholder is mentioned, the more importance is attached to it. Quantitative
content analysis was conducted on a dataset of 179 sustainability reports published between
2004 and 2019 by 26 companies traded in Borsa Istanbul. All stakeholders disclosed in the
sustainability reports were coded to create lists and groups, and the changes in stakeholder
lists over time were presented. The research identified 102 stakeholders classified into 16
groups. The categorization is a crucial step in the stakeholder identification process as it
reveals the hierarchy between stakeholders. By applying a time-series analysis, it was found
that companies increasingly valued their employees, making occupational health and safety,
diversity and equal opportunity, and talent management as top strategic issues in the Turkish
context. This study makes a unique contribution to both the existing stakeholder literature
and sustainability reporting within the Turkish context. It offers a pioneering longitudinal
analysis of long-term stakeholder representation for listed companies in Turkey, breaking
new ground in this area of research.