Grant in aid for design activities in Turkey and the effect of companies' information level on their state of utilization

Countries have searched different policies to increase their international competitiveness in the environment of increasingucompetition with.the globalization of markets. One of the political methods used in this context is grant in aid. Sustainable growth is aimed with these grants. In time, innovation oriented policies were developed and policies that encouraged the design process were started to implement. Gain growth of design in the developed countries in R&D ecosystem can be possible with these regulations. Day by day the importance of producing new, innovative and original product (design) is increasing for companies' rising in the international competition and sustainable economic growth. In this research, by investigating grant in aid to design activities in Turkey, the effect of companies information levels about these supports to the level of their utilization was aimed to analyse. In this research, quantitative research method and surveys were used for data collection. Research area was limited with the companies which have design related activities or include design unit in Marmara Region. Online surveys were carried out. Theudata obtainedufrom 103 authorized executives who answered the survey questions were analysed. It was found that, the companies, which have fewer information about grant in aid, benefited from these supports less. In order to increase the common effect of design policies which are the current issue since 2000s, increasing the promotional activities is recommended. In this wayuit is thought that more companies can-be at the forefront in competition with the help of grant in aid. v It is thougt that to maximize the companies' utilization from these grants, they should employ more staff about grant in aid in order to follow the developments about their sectors and supports closely or work with the consultans who are the experts of grants.