Export problems of small and medium sized enterprises: An application in Mersi̇n

Issues such as economic growth, ensuring international competition, increasing the welfare level and reducing unemployment are among the most important priorities of the countries. Considering today's economic and competitive conditions, achieving these goals cannot be achieved only with an economic model oriented to the national market. It is very important for the economies of the country that SMEs (Small and Medium Sized Enterprises), which have an important place in economic and social life, reach the level that they can export. For this reason, SMEs must export and show up in the foreign market in order for countries to compete in the foreign market, increase their export figures and achieve a sustainable economic growth. For this reason, it is important to identify and resolve the problems that SMEs encounter in the export process. The purpose of this study is to reveal whether the perception of export problems of SMEs differs according to the characteristics of SMEs and factors affecting exports. The sample of the research consists of SMEs exporting from Mersin province. The data in the study were collected using the questionnaire method. An e-mail questionnaire was sent to the companies exporting from Mersin province and 155 SMEs answered the questionnaire. In the analysis part of the research, factor analysis was performed and then Kruskal Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests were applied. It was concluded that the problems experienced by the enterprises differ on the basis of factors according to the independent variables included in the study. It has been determined that enterprises differ in perception level of general export problems and product adaptation sub-dimension in the variable of the time they export, product adaptation dimension in the variable of benefiting from KOSGEB supports, market knowledge and skilled labor sub-dimensions in the variable of the number of countries exported.