The relationship between financial literacy and firm performance of small and medium-sized enterprises: A field study on Bursa

The concept of literacy has developed and diversified in line with the conditions and needs of the society in which it is in the historical process. The 2008 global crisis has revealed the concept of financial literacy, one of the new literacy concepts, and the importance and deficiency of this concept. Especially after the crisis, businesses do not make financial plans, cannot pay their debts, go to the dismissal of workers, decrease in production, decrease in income, etc. the reasons led to questioning their knowledge in financial terms and the interest in the concept of financial literacy in enterprises started to increase. Due to today's conditions, reasons such as widespread use of technology with globalization, easier access to information, diversification and complexity of products and services in financial markets cause difficulties for SMEs to compete. The difficulties of SMEs not only affect the business success, but also cause problems in terms of their contribution to the growth of the country's economies. It is important for SMEs to be financial literate in order to be partners in competition and to make their contribution to business success and national economies sustainable. Financial literacy enables SMEs to use information effectively and effectively, to create a properly prepared business plan and financial plan, to make conscious decisions that facilitate debt management, and to perform budgetvii management effectively. SMEs with these characteristics will be successful against their competitors in the field where they operate as a partner in competition, and will provide advantage in matters such as the success of the enterprise in the long term, profit, and more rational use of financial resources. As a result, it is a necessity for SME owners / managers to be financial literate in today's conditions in order to achieve a successful financial management in businesses. In this sense, financial literacy should be encouraged and supported on an individual and corporate basis. The main purpose of the research is to determine whether there is a relationship between financial literacy and firm performance variables. The subobjectives of the research are to determine whether the variables of financial literacy and financial knowledge differ according to gender, age groups, educational status, sector groups, company types, operating time, turnover levels, firm general performance groups and firm performance measurement groups. For this purpose, data were collected from 120 SMEs reached by convenience sampling method. The obtained survey data were analyzed with the SPSS program. Descriptive analyzes show that SME owners/managers in the Bursa sample have a high level of financial literacy and a basic level of financial knowledge. As a result of the correlation analysis made for the main purpose of the research, there is a positive and weak relationship between financial behavior and firm performance in the Bursa sample. There is a positive and weak relationship between financial knowledge levels and firm performance. No relationship was found between financial literacy levels and financial attitude variables and firm performance.