Abstract
Capital structure decisions are vital concept in terms of if there is an effect oncost of capital and firm value by changing the capital components. If the effect exists, howto find the capital structure which will minimise the cost of capital and maximise the firmvalue is one of the most important decisions. In this study, the theorical aproaches aboutcapital structure decisions of the firms have been composed, how firms determine capitalstructure decisions are analyzed, and the firm attitute in real world is evaluated. This studyis based on survey results from the firms in the manufacturing industry, located in Mersinand Adana. According to the survey, the followings are found; firms do not have a targetedspesific debt ratio, financial resources are chosen by firm shareholders, internal funds arethe first choice by the shareholders. External funds are used only when internal funds areinsufficent and securing financial flexibilitiy has importance on corporate debt decisions.The debt levels of firms are not the same with their industry avarage debt level, the firmsdo not have a policy of maintaining spare debt capacity and do not borrow more at he sameinterest rate. For the results which derived from this work, in general, firm attitudes are fitwith pecking order theory. Trade off theory does not provide any supportive results otherthan that financial distress and bancruptcy risk are important factors.Keywords: Optimal capital structure, pecking order theory, trade off theory,agency theory, target debt ratio, financial distress and bancruptcy cost, asimetricinformation, survey, Mersin, Adana.
