Sample Firms and Response Rate

There are 165 responses for the survey. 109 of them are partial and 56 of them are full responses. The responses are collected from the companies with different annual revenues and sizes. There are 25 responses from the companies, which have more than 5000 employees, 14 is from between 1000 and 5000

42 employees, 9 is from between 100 and 500 employees, 16 is from between 150 and 500 employees, 4 is from between 50 and 150 employees and 8 is from the companies which have lower than 50 employees. In terms of the revenue, 41 responses are collected from the companies which have revenue of more than 50 million Euros, 16 is from lower than 50 million Euros and 14 is from lower than 10 million Euros. As it is seen, the company sample in this survey contains Turkish SMEs along with big size firms. Of course the contacts that the survey was sent to was more than these numbers. As it is mentioned before the survey was both sent out by email and was passed from hand-to-hand by first hand contacts. Hand-to-hand spread can’t be tracked down.

The potential respondents are targeted with the methodology that is mentioned earlier. Each potential respondent are employees of related companies for the research. The survey has an anonymous feature so that the responses can’t be identified, along with the company name in order to keep the respondent anonymous. The company names are shared in this paper in order to understand what types of companies are involving in this research. However with the anonymity feature it’s not possible to identify all the companies that are involved in the research. The only companies that can be identified are the ones that the respondent shared his/her email addresses, which the domain of the email address has the company identity. In the following section the information of the companies that can be identified is given. In addition to those companies, some other companies that the survey was sent to is given in order to understand the types of companies that are targeted to be in included in this research better.

Şişecam (Türkiye Şişe ve Cam Fabrikaları A.Ş) is a glassware producer. It was found in 1935 with the purpose of providing the glass need of Turkey. At its first years, the manufacture was focused on basic glass products. Over the years the complexity of the products has evolved and today it is one of the most powerful industries in the country. Besides the success of the firm in local market, it is a strong global player with its export to 150 countries and operations in 13 countries. Şişecam also operates in other industries. The first years of its

43 foundation, in Turkey there was a lack of supplier for the glass business. Therefore Şişecam built its own other firms in order to supply for their manufacture. As in glass business, the other firms have evolved over the years. These firms operate in the industries of packaging and chemicals. In all industries they operate, the company has 43 production facilities, 16 local and 27 abroad, with 22.000 employees in total. (Şişecam Group, 2019)

Tekfen Holding A.Ş is a conglomerate based in Istanbul. The company was found in 1956 and main the focused sector of its, is construction business. Their activities cover heavy civil works, refineries, petrochemical plants, satellite towns, industrial processing plants, pipelines, marine structures, power plants, and electrical and communication works. Their success isn’t limited in Turkey but oversees. The company operates in Middle East, North Africa, Caucasia & Central Asia, East & Central Europe, including 18 countries. The company also owns foreign companies such as Hallesche Mitteldeutsche Bau AG. By the end of 2018 the company had 19.180 employees with the revenue of 12.147 million Turkish liras. (Tekfen Holding, 2019)

Anadolu Group is a conglomerate that was found in 1950. It operates in the industries beer, soft drink, retail, agriculture, automotive, stationery, quick service restaurant, real estate and energy. The company operates in 19 countries, with 66 production facilities and 80.000 employees. The most famous brand of the group is Anadolu Efes in beer sector. Along with its own brands the group has many well-known international partners such as Coca-Cola, AB InBev, McDonald’s, Faber-Castell, Migros Isuzu, Kia, Lombardini, Honda, Landini and Cutrale. (Anadolu Group, 2019)

Kale Group was found in 1957 with their Canakkale Ceramic Factories Corporation. In the ceramic industry it was one of the industry leader in Turkey.

Today in ceramic industry, it is Europe’s 3^rd and world’s 12^th biggest ceramic manufacturer. Over the years the company’s investments shifted in other industries such as machinery and equipment manufacturing, defense, chemical,

44 electrical appliances, energy, IT, transportation, tourism and food industries. In construction chemical sector, it is ranked first in Turkey and the region and 5th in Europe in terms of production and sales volume. The subsidiaries of the group are Kaleseramik in ceramic, Kalekim in construction chemicals, Kale Havacılık in aerospace, Kale Kalıp and Kale Frit in industrial and lastly Kale Nakliyat in logistics. (Kale Group, 2019)

Turkcell is a telecommunication and technology services provider. It serves its customers with voice, data, TV and value-added consumer and enterprise services on mobile and fixed networks. Mobile communication in Turkey began when Turkcell commenced operations in February 1994. The company has 34.4 million subscribers as of September 30, 2011. In 2015, the company's number of subscribers climbed to 68.9 million, in nine countries. Largest shareholder is Telia Finland Oyj with 51% ownership. It is one of the worlds biggest companies list published by Fortune. (Turkcell, 2019)

Garanti BBVA is a financial services company based in Turkey. The Spanish bank BBVA owns 49.85% of Garanti’s stakes. The bank is the part of the Turkish conglomerate Doğuş Group. Garanti BBVA reaches 12 million customers through 936 domestic branches, 6 foreign branches in Cyprus, one in Luxembourg and one in Malta. (Garanti BBVA, 2019)

Arçelik is today has, worldwide, 30,000 employees. The company has 18 manufacturing facilities in 7 countries, including Turkey, Romania, Russia, China, South Africa, Thailand and Pakistan. With 33 sales and marketing offices and 11 brands (Arcelik, Beko, Grundig, Blomberg, Elektrabregenz Arctic, Leisure, Flavel, Defy, Altus and Dawlance) the company operates in 31 countries. Arçelik offers products and services in more than 130 countries. The company is part of the Turkish conglomerate Koç Group. (Arçelik A.Ş., 2019)

Pladis Global is one of the fastest growing snacking companies in the world with annual revenues in 2017 of 3.5 billion pounds. The company was formed in

45 2016, as a result of the acquisition of United Biscuits by the Turkish conglomerate Yildiz Holding. The company has 34 factories in 13 countries and it reaches approximately 4 billion people worldwide in 120 countries across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, North and South America. (Pladis Global, 2019)

Abdi Ibrahim is one of the oldest pharmaceutical companies in Turkey. The company today has more than 2.000 employees and continues its activities in Turkey as well as in oversees. It has partnerships in foreign markets such as Abdi Ibrahim Otsuka in Japan, Abdi Ibrahim Global Pharm in Kazakhstan and Abdi Ibrahim Remede Pharma in Algeria. These joint ventures are active in several markets such as Abdi Ibrahim Otsuka has been acitve in the markets Tunisia, Turkey and Algeria. (Abdi İbrahim, 2019)

ABC Detergents is one of the firms of ABC Holding. Today ABC Detergents is one of the well-known hygiene companies in the world. In fact the market share of the firm in some of the foreign markets is higher than its market share in Turkey.

The firm is specialized in the manufacture of powder detergent, chemical semi-finished goods, liquid products, cosmetics and bottle. (ABC Detergents, 2019)