Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
INTERNATIONAL ISTANBUL ECONOMIC RESEARCH CONFERENCE (IIERC), İstanbul, Türkiye, 24 - 26 Kasım 2022, ss.21, (Özet Bildiri)
Small and medium-sized enterprises are of great importance for the Turkish economy, both in
absolute numbers and due to their share in the main macroeconomic aggregates. According to
2020 data, 99.9% of the 3.3 million enterprises operating in Turkey are small and medium-sized
enterprises with less than 250 employees. Even more strikingly, 94.2% of these enterprises have
less than 10 employees; more precisely, it belongs to the micro-enterprise group. SMEs accounted
for 56.2% of total production, 73.9% of employment and 58.4% of exports for the same year. This
study aims to reveal the contribution of small and medium-sized enterprises to the environment
and sustainability in Turkey, in comparison with some selected countries, within the framework of
some indicators determined by the European Commission. According to these indicators, Turkey is
in line with or ahead of the European Union average in terms of the proportion of SMEs that have
taken resource-efficiency measures and also benefited from public support measures for resourceefficiency actions, while it is far behind the EU average in the proportion of small and mediumsized enterprises offering green products or services. On the other hand, Turkey both surpasses
the European Union average and ranks first among selected countries in terms of the percentage
of SMEs whose turnover share is more than 50% originating from green products/services.
Germany and the Netherlands are the best performing countries within the European Union on
the “environment” principle. These are the first two countries in the EU with the highest proportion
of SMEs taking resource-efficiency measures. They also perform well above the European Union
average in terms of the percentage of small and medium-sized businesses selling green products
and services. The first part of the study compares small and medium-sized enterprises in Turkey
with selected countries in terms of some indicators that explain the EU’s “environment” principle.
In the second part, environmental policies towards SMEs in successful countries and Turkey are
analyzed.