The relationship between board structure, corporate social responsibility and corporate reputation in businesses

The study aims to reveal whether the corporate reputation of enterprises is better explained by their structures or behaviors. The main hypothesis of this study is that corporate social responsibility, representing behavioral elements on corporate reputation, is more effective than the board structure, representing the structural elements. The study was conducted with 90 enterprises traded in BIST Turkey Corporate Governance Index. For corporate reputation, Turkey Reputation Research conducted by Turkey Corporate Reputation Workshop in 2016 was used. Corporate social responsibility and the board structure (CEO duality, board size, independent board member ratio, executive board member ratio, and the rate of female members on the board) data were obtained from annual activity reports of the enterprises. Hierarchical regression analysis was performed to confirm the hypothesis and it was found that corporate social responsibility was a partial mediator and regulatory between corporate reputation and CEO duality and independent board member ratio, and that it was fully mediator between corporate reputation and board size, and that behavioral elements were more effective on corporate reputation. Keywords: Corporate Reputation, Board Structure, Corporate Social Responsibility, BIST Corporate Governance Index