The purpose of this study is to examine empirically the influence of firm

<p>We investigate the impact of board size and board composition on performance for a sample of 30 commercial banks from 2008 to 2012 in Turkey. We measure bank performance by two alternative measures widely used in the banking literature, i.e. operating return on assets (OROA) and return on assets (ROA). Controlling for bank size, credit risk, liquidity risk, net interest margin and non-interest income, the results of panel fixed effects regression suggest that board size has a significantly positive effect on bank’s financial performance. This means that Turkish commercial banks may improve their financial performance by increasing their board size. Our findings, however, show clearly that there is no significant relationship between board composition (ratio of outside directors on the board) and banks’ financial performance.</p>

Purpose -This study investigates whether size of 112 publicly listed firms in manufacturing sector affects their profitability in Turkey during the period 2005-2013. Methodology -Dynamic panel data approach (i.e. two-step system GMM estimator) taking into account potential endogeneity of firm-level variables is employed to estimate the effect of alternative firm size indicators on firm profitability. Findings-Estimation results suggest that after controlling for financial risk, liquidity level, growth opportunities, unsystematic risk, firm age, and the other factors, the indicators of firm size measured by firm's assets, sales and number of employees tend to have a positive influence on the profitability of firm measured by operating return on assets. Conclusion-There is enough statistical evidence to support a linear relation between firm size measures and profitability of firms in the period analyzed. However, our empirical results do not support the quadratic or cubic association between size measures and profitability.

This study empirically analyzes the factors that determine the non-performing loans (so-called bad loans) of 20 deposit banks in Turkey for 2006-2012 period using panel data analysis method. The analysis results reveal that solvency, profitability, credit quality, diversification, economic growth and the recent financial crisis are essential indicators of non-performing loans rate in Turkish banking sector. More specifically, greater profitability and revenue diversification significantly lowers non-performing loans rate, whereas greater capital and loan loss provisions significantly increase non-performing loans rate. In terms of macroeconomic variables, only economic growth has a negative effect on the non-performing loans (NPLs) ratio. Moreover, our results also uncover that deposit banks' NPLs ratio increases during the latest global financial turmoil period.

Our paper empirically analyses the factors that determine the profitability of 120 manufacturing firms listed in Borsa Istanbul Stock Exchange during the period 2005-2012. Estimation results from dynamic panel data model taking into account the endogeneity of variables indicate that lagged profitability, firm size, financial risk, R&D costs, net working capital, and economic growth are the most important variables affecting firm profitability. More specifically, profitability is positively and significantly affected by past profitability, firm size in terms of total sales, net working capital, and economic growth. On the other hand, R&D costs and financial risk have a dampening effect on the profitability.