Analysis of Sustainability Performance in Borsa Istanbul 100 Companies in Turkey: An Evaluation of Environmental, Social and Governance Scores and Financial Outcomes

This study examines how environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance is coordinated with financial performance in Borsa Istanbul (BIST) 100 companies and whether this coordination informs subsequent profitability. Using 422 ESG‐rated firm‐year observations for 2010–2024, a coupling coordination model with entropy weighting is estimated at the aggregate and pillar levels. Coordination improved steadily, and the improvement holds within firms. Coordination gaps are concentrated in the environmental pillar in energy, construction and metals and in the governance pillar in the financial sector. Expanding‐window machine learning models show that ESG information does not improve next‐year return on assets forecasts beyond financial fundamentals. Fixed‐effects estimates and SHAP explanations indicate, however, that the coordination degree is positively associated with next‐year profitability, whereas social investments, particularly in product responsibility, carry short‐term costs. The financial relevance of ESG in emerging markets therefore lies in the alignment of sustainability with financial capacity rather than in score levels.