Corporate reputation of urban planning authorities in Turkey

Planning is, by definition, a prudential tool compromising of processes in which goals are set and relevant policies to attain these goals are elaborated. With economic, social, cultural, environmental, technological dimensions, urban development plans should redress the balance between opposing interests and basically protect the public benefit. Due to its very wide range of influence area, urban planning processes need wide participation. As in many countries, in Turkey the planning authorization is distributed among many authorities from different levels of government, in order to secure an effective planning system with high participation level. This study aims to measure the corporate reputation of planning authorities in Turkey regarding the urban development plans they have already elaborated. In today's globalizing world, all enterprises or institutions, no matter in private or public sector, consider the corporate reputation as an important asset that they have to maintain. From this point of view, in this study, it is assumed that the corporate reputation of planning authorities in the eyes of different interest groups will be an important indicator for the effectiveness and performance of the urban plans they make. Urban development plans pose an extraordinary variety of interest groups. While evaluating the reputation of planning authorities, this study will target representatives from private or public sector bodies that are most affected by the planning process. This study hopes to contribute to the existing literature in both corporate reputation and urban planning, as well as becoming a guiding light for urban planning authorities and policy-makers to improve the urban planning system.