PROGRAMA ONTOLÓGICO: EMPIRISMO TRANSCENDENTAL O

Prior to the conduction of the survey that leads to results that can be generalised for all SMEs, a sample size and its breakdown need to be justified. The factors affecting the decision on the sample size are data type, confidence level and the margin error, where the factors affecting the decision on its breakdown are employee size, industry type and location. But before going there, it will be helpful to define the data entropy of SMEs, where -in Turkey- it is framed by government bodies, as well as commercial databases.

4.2.1 SMEs in Turkey

It is possible to determine how to perceive SMEs‘ motivations as customers by looking

at how they perceive different product groups. To generalise SMEs, the top three sectors – general trade, manufacturing and construction – are used, as justified by the figures

below.

According to DIE (Statistics Institute of Turkey, 2002):

 General trade, manufacturing and construction sectors dominate in terms of number of employees, as they employ 71% of the workforce.

 Excluding agriculture, there are 2 million companies in Turkey: 46% are noted as general trade, 14% manufacturing/production, and 8% construction (more than 50% are real estate).

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 80% of companies are sole proprietorships; only about 15% are limited firms (such a low number of employees – even in limited companies – introduces difficulties with respect to following unrecorded activities).

 The average number of employees for each is: 3.4 for the total, 2.4 in general trade, 7.9 in manufacturing/production, and 4 in construction, where the average in these leading sectors is almost equal to general trade.

 Excluding agriculture, 94% belong to the 0-9 employee bracket; this is similar in all sectors except energy/petrol/telecoms/metallurgy.

According to KOSGEB (Online database, 2009):

 Over 23,000 SMEs have been profiled in terms of phone, telephone, category and email address.

 In terms of number of employees, general trade, manufacturing/production and construction/real estate dominates with 80%, which is aligned to the figures of DIE (2002).

 The employee breakdown is as follows: 80% employ <50, and 90% employ <100 employees. Again, this is largely aligned with DIE, but has more quality in terms of entries.

 The three sectors in question, which fall into the <50 employee bracket, are not only dominant in terms of the general figures, with a ratio of between 50%-80% in terms of recruitment, number of companies and business volume, but also have the closest averages compared to general trade, so can be used as sample.

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4.2.2 Sample size

Sample size varies according to many factors. Usually, the type of data is positioned as the starting point (Barlett et al., 2004). However, one group of researchers suggests that Likert-based research should be treated as continuous data (Jamieson, 2004); while another says that it falls into categorical data (Lubke and Menthuen, 2004). Coshran‘s sample size formula cites 83 and 264, respectively, for continuous and categorical data types, where the confidence level is 90% (alpha as 10%) and the margin of error is 3% and 5% consecutively (Barlett et al., 2004) (Table 4.1).

According to these formulas a population size which exceeds 10,000 is not a significant factor in terms of sample size determination. The number of SME companies has been covered in previous sections; there are millions in total, and 10,000s in any sub-segment. Therefore, the total sample size of 270 looks safe in terms of generalization (Table 4.2), even in terms of categorical data selection, with a 90% confidence level and a 5% margin of error. The group of participants which is highlighted (Table 4.2) in the circle, 30 participants, was used in the pilot.

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Table 4.1 Determining minimum returned sample size for a given population size (Barlett et al., 2004)

Table 4.2 Distribution of the sample

SME Sampling (w/# of companies)

Sector

Manufacturing Construction General Trade #

employees

>10 30 30 30

10-49 30 30 30

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As a general rule of thumb, if an 80% confidence (alpha) level is enough to reject or accept a hypothesis, as Keuhl (2000) says, 10% margin of error can be estimated for each box (Table 4.1).

4.2.3 Data collection

The pre-pilot did not consist of field data, but only literature review.

A pilot was conducted with manufacturing SMEs employing 10-49 people (shown in red in Table 4.2). For the main study, <10 and 50-249 employee brackets were included, as were those in general trade and construction.

The data distribution will have an important bearing on the findings. because in terms of economical size weight, according to catalogues, 'General trade' and 'Manufacturing' has similar size, 3/7 and 3/7 respectively. But, 'Construction' has 1/7, therefore the effect of these answers would be limited comparing to others.

Surveymonkey.com was selected as the programme with which to conduct the survey. This application has significant features, such as allowing real-time monitoring and control of the input, that are useful in designing an online survey. An agency conducted the field survey and used their own database. Due to an unreliable posting system, low return rates by nature and cultural effects, posting was eliminated as an option, and the surveys were therefore completed via telephone.

The return rate in the pilot study was 100%, and therefore return rate contingency was not considered for further phases.

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Due to the budget issues, it was not possible to run the field survey in Istanbul. Therefore, the majority of companies surveyed are headquartered in Eskisehir. This can be seen as a limitation, however, according to a report by The Institute of Governmental Planning‘s (DPT, 2003), Eskisehir, which is very close to the capital city, Ankara, has a

development index of 7, and an education index of 3, which can be considered an opportunity rather than a limitation in terms of generalization of SMEs in Turkey. A brief demographic comparison between Eskisehir and Istanbul is shown in Table 4.3.

Table 4.3 Comparison between the sample cities, Eskisehir and Istanbul