Corporate governance practices in SMES: An application in Duzce

As in all enterprises, corporate governance provides the opportunity to eliminate the management approach based on a single leader in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs), to gain power and to sustain sustainability of competitiveness in the markets in which they exist. At this point, it will be extremely important and effective for SMEs to implement or implement corporate governance. The aim of this research is to reveal the level of corporate governance in their own structure and the perspectives of corporate SMEs in Düzce. Quantitative research method was used in the research and the data were collected through the questionnaire. The universe of the study consists of 15,100 SMEs operating in Düzce. Due to the size of the universe, a total of 383 SMEs were surveyed using the sampling method. The data were analyzed in SPSS 22.00 package program. Factor analysis, correlation analysis, one-way ANOVA, independent sample t-test and frequency analysis were used in statistical analysis. As a result of the research, Corporation governance was evaluated in four stages (recognition, adoption, reputation and application) and it was determined that SMEs in Düzce were aware of corporate governance. It has been determined that SMEs sometimes apply and sometimes do not implement the practices related to corporate governance. Therefore, this situation shows that SMEs in Düzce have not yet adopted corporate governance practices. However, by following the corporate governance agenda of SMEs and the activities of the related institutions from time to time, they showed that they have been informed about the corporate governance in their current practices, they have knowledge about corporate governance and they are willing to do so. In addition, there are positive differences between the perspectives of SME officials regarding the applicability of corporate governance according to some demographic characteristics; According to the legal structures, activity periods, sectors and number of employees of SMEs, there were significant and positive differences between the levels of corporate governance. These differences have shown that the characteristics of both SME owners or managers and enterprises have an impact on the applicability of corporate governance. Key Words: Corporate Governance, SME, Duzce.