Assessing the effect of the board directors' structure on wite collar crimes: A case study

This study emphasizes the importance of the company's board of directors in terms of white collar crimes and corporate governance, and evaluates the effect of the board of directors' structure on deterring white collar crimes. Company board structures are explained with various factors such as the committees of the board of directors which is the main focus of this study and thus examined in details within the framework of the study. The relationship between the white collar crime and the company's board of directors is examined among the companies listed at BIST between 2006 and 2017. Accordingly, companies, that have committed and not committed white collar crimes during the aforementioned time period, are determined and their board structures are compared. By doing that, this study aims to find out whether the board structure has any effect on white collar crimes. In order to achieve this aim, companies are compared according to the number of company board members, gender of members, change of board of directors, number of non-executive board members, number of independent members, independence of the board of directors, CEO duality, CEO's presence in the board and the number of members in each committees within the board. Logistic regression analysis is carried out for this study, and results are discussed to find out wheter the board structures of the companies listed at BIST have any effects on the white collar crime behavior of these companies. Findings of the study states whereas some variables of the board structure such as gender of members have an effect on white collar crime behavior, some variables such as CEO duality have no effect on determining white collar crime behavior.