The impact of technology development zones on firm performance: The case of Türkiye

This study aims to evaluate the impact of Technology Development Zones, also known as technoparks, on entrepreneurs in Turkey. The number of these structures has increased rapidly in recent years, and they are among the policy tools that support the entrepreneurial ecosystem. For this reason, they are supported by various mechanisms by governments. However, the role and effectiveness of technoparks in increasing and sustaining the economic and innovation performance of the firms they host are still controversial in the literature. Within the scope of the study, firms located in technoparks were compared with similar enterprises operating outside of technoparks, and the contribution of technoparks to the economic performance of their enterprises, such as domestic and international sales, number of employees, as well as innovation performance in terms of R&D expenditures and patents was objectively analyzed. In this evaluation process, to reduce selection bias, firms were matched using a crude exact matching method, taking into account sector, size, and the natural logarithm of net sales. Subsequently, a difference-in-differences analysis was applied to reliably measure the policy effect. Our findings reveal that companies within technology parks in Turkey demonstrate higher performance than companies outside technology parks in terms of domestic net sales, number of employees, and R&D expenditure; however, there is no significant difference in terms of patent applications and foreign sales. These findings suggest that technoparks not only provide a physical space but also yield stronger performance outcomes for entrepreneurs across various indicators. Firms within the park are particularly advantaged in terms of growth performance compared to firms outside the park. The study offers policy recommendations for relevant stakeholders regarding the capacity of technopark policies to support entrepreneurship.