The effect of social capital and entrepreneurship tendency of Syrian immigrant entrepreneurs on their innovative behavior and firm performance: A research in the TRC1 region

The Syrian crisis, which has entered its twelfth year and is still continuing, is described as the worst humanitarian tragedy after the Second World War. Turkey is one of the countries that was affected the most by the Syrian crisis. Some Syrians who immigrated to Turkey tended to establish their own businesses in order to continue their daily lives, and the number of companies established by Syrian immigrants in Turkey has increased rapidly day by day. In the literature, it is stated that the social capital, entrepreneurship tendency, innovative behaviors and good performance of the entrepreneurs are extremely important factors in the success and survival of immigrant entrepreneurs. Therefore, this dissertation research aimed to investigate the effect of social capital and entrepreneurship tendency of Syrian immigrant entrepreneurs on their innovative behavior and firm performance, in addition to the effect of their social capital levels on entrepreneurship tendencies and innovative behaviors on firm performance. Within the scope of this research, data were collected from 462 Syrian entrepreneurs operating in the TRC1 region and registered with the Gaziantep Chamber of Commerce, Nizip Chamber of Commerce, Kilis Chamber of Commerce and Industry or Adıyaman Chamber of Commerce and Industry via an online questionnaire form consisted of Safran's (2020) Social Capital Scale, İşcan and Kaygın's (2011) Entrepreneurship Tendency Scale, Scott and Bruce's (1994) Innovative Behavior Scale, Wang and Wang's (2012) Operational Performance Scale, Wang, Wang and Liang's (2014) Financial Performance Scale and questions about the personal characteristics of both the entrepreneurs and their firms. In evaluating the data obtained from the questionnaire, factor analysis, descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analyses were performed using the SPSS 26 program. As a result of the research, it has been concluded that Syrian entrepreneurs' social capital and entrepreneurship tendencies had a positive and significant effect on their innovative behavior and their social capital had a positive and significant effect on their firm performance. While it has been determined that the entrepreneurship tendencies of Syrian entrepreneurs do not have a significant effect on their firm performance. In addition, as a result of the research, it has been also concluded that the social capital of Syrian entrepreneurs had a positive and significant effect on their entrepreneurship tendencies and their innovative behavior had a positive and significant effect on their firm performance.