Corporate governance awareness in the small and medium-sized businesses: An application in Elazig

Today, the SMEs have to change and find new things to achieve their goals in an effective and productive way and to survive under the changing conditions and increasing competition environment. It is clear that the concept of corporate governance will light the way for the SMEs to survive successfully and be effective with its benefits like destroying the uncertainties about the future and giving competitive advantage. In recent years, the concept of corporate governance appears to be one of the concepts to be applied all over the World and discussed on. Corporate governance is an application that requires the companies to restructure around the principles of transparency, accountability, equality and responsibility and looks after the benefits of its members. In the last decade, the concept of corporate governance has become an important phenomenon for the increase of competitive capacity. The opinion that one of the most important factors underlying the international economic crises and company scandals is the inadequacy of the public and private sector's corporate governance policies has increased the importance of this concept. In this study, the corporate governance awareness of 23 small and medium-sized businesses operating in Elazığ is examined. The results show that primarily the new generations embrace institutionalization and most of them believe in corporate structure. Meanwhile, the results indicate that the traditional structure still goes on in the businesses and they need time to change this structure. In this regard, it is possible for the SMEs to continue their existence in the long term in the globalizing World and increasing competition environment with an institutional understanding. It is thought that the data achieved with this study will have important contributions to the businesses about how to be permanent in the market and continue their continuation. The data of the study is obtained with person to person survey method. Keyswords: Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, Corporate Governance