International commercial intelligence activities of Turkish companies: An application on exporter companies of construction materials

The purpose of this study is to examine commercial intelligence activities of the companies which are active in international markets and the methods they use within their commercial intelligence activities. Within the scope of this studay, there is a research conducted on companies registered in Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which includes determining whether commercial intelligence activities affect the export performance of companies operating in international markets in a positive way. The sample of the research consists of 98 units of construction materials exporter companies registered in Turkey and 1 unit of construction materials exporter company registered in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. A survey form was used for data collection within the research and the data obtained from the surveys were analyzed with the SPSS program. "Export Performance Scale" was determined as a scale in the research. Factor analysis and correlation analysis were applied to the obtained data. As a result of the correlation analyses, a significant and positive relationship was found in the hypotheses "There is a relationship between utilizing commercial intelligence activities for rival companies operating in the same target markets and export performance", "There is a relationship between benefiting from commercial intelligence activities and export performance at the stage of diversifying the international markets in which they operate" and "There is a relationship between utilizing commercial intelligence activities and export performance during the determination of international markets as the target market and the creation of marketing strategies for these markets". Based on these results, it is understood that the commercial intelligence activities carried out by the companies contribute positively to the exports of the companies.