Climate awareness and the effects on the organizational behavior of SMEs: The case of Gebze

Although there have been many studies in the climate change literature on large firms, there is a lack of information on SMEs, particularly on the level of personal knowledge and awareness of owner-managers. Despite a large footprint in Turkey's economy, both world as well, the environmental impact of SMEs is often neglected. However, recent studies on SMEs have shown that although they do not create a meaningful element of environmental coercion individually, they have great environmental impacts in the regional and global context. In this sense, in order to contribute to the literature, the aim of this study is to find out the level of knowledge of the company owners about climate change, their attitudes and behaviours towards the environment and how they affect the "environmental/ climate organizational behaviour in the company. Climate sensitivity of owner-managers supposed to have an impact on the knowledge level, attitude and behaviour of owner-managers. The study was conducted on SMEs benefiting from support under the Clean Production Financial Support Program of East Marmara Development Agency in Gebze sub-region. The reason why these companies are selected among these companies, who are aware of the clean production mechanism and have the capability and the infrastructure to carry out projects on this issue, are assumed to have higher environmental/climate-proactive behaviour than the average. In the light of the questionnaires and semi-structured interviews conducted on firms, it was determined that the participants had a high level of knowledge on climate change. It was determined that the level of knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of owners-managers who show pro-environmental behaviours, especially about electricity and water use, do not have a significant effect on the company's environmental/pro-climate activities. It was determined that, like every commercial enterprise that prioritized the profit goal, the participants acted primarily with profit maximization and survival motives on environmental and climate change issues.