Determinants of Capital Structure: A Research on Sectors That Contribute to Exports in Turkey

This study aimed to determine the factors that affect the capital structure of companies in automotive, food drink and textile leather industries, whose shares were traded at the Borsa Istanbul (BIST) covering the period of 2006 and 2014, and at identifying the industry-specific differences with respect to their capital structures. In an attempt to achieve this goal, the data obtained from the financial statements of the related companies were subjected to panel data analysis. At the end of the study, we concluded that while, on one hand, the financial hierarchy theory was valid for the automotive industry for the studied period, on the other hand, both the financial hierarchy and trade-off theories were valid for food drink and textile leather industries. Another specific finding of the study was that the factors affecting the capital structure decisions were different across the industries.