SUSTAINABLE CORPORATE BRAND CONCEPT AND A RESEARCH ON SUSTAINABLE CORPORATE BRAND APPLICATIONS OF COMPANIES IN THE BİST SUSTAINABILITY INDEX ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to reveal the extent to which the concept of sustainable corporate brand, which is formed by corporate sustainability and corporate brand integration, is applied based on the statements in the sustainability reports of companies subject to BIST Sustainability Index. Within the scope of the study, the status of 11 companies selected from the BIST Sustainability Index in the sustainable corporate brand implementation process was revealed within the framework of vision, culture and image. For this, first of all, the sustainability reports of 11 companies were coded according to 126 sub-elements, 72 within the scope of corporate brand and 54 within the scope of sustainability, through the NVivo 11 program, and then thematic content analysis was performed, and then Semantic Network Analysis was carried out in the "R" program. According to the findings, it has been determined that companies use sustainability reports as a marketing material, they benefit from various image elements in order to legitimize their stakeholders in these reports, and these image elements differ according to companies operating in B2B and B2C. In addition, it has been determined that companies should pay special attention to the participation of employees in the processes while integrating sustainability into the corporate branding process. In this study, only sustainability reports are focused on as a large sample and data source, in order to provide a basis for the concept of sustainable corporate branding and to provide a basis for the concept of sustainable corporate branding. In these reports, statements of companies about their activities related to sustainability, does not show that they are exactly that way. This can be stated as the limitation of the research.