The board of directors and corporate reputation: an empirical analysis

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to test the association between board of director characteristics and corporate reputation. Design/methodology/approach Logistic and multivariate regressions are performed to analyse whether the board of director characteristics are associated with the level of corporate reputation. The sample is composed of listed companies in the Madrid Stock Exchange (Índice General de la Bolsa de Madrid) at least once during the period 2004-2010. Corporate governance data were manually extracted from governance reports released by Spanish companies. The data for the design of a corporate reputation measure were obtained from the Monitor Español de Reputación Corporativa (MERCO) institute web site. Findings Results from the empirical analysis show that Spanish companies that appear high up in terms of ranking in the reputation index provided by MERCO tend to have a higher percentage of independent directors as well as more female directors on their board. Firm size and the image of the president of a firm are also linked to corporate reputation. Originality/value The results have direct implications for the management of corporate governance mechanisms by shareholders who should take into account their role in the creation and maintenance of corporate reputation.