The social embeddedness of export promotion organization in the Turkish clothing industry

Between 1979 and 1999, total Turkish exports rose from US{dollar}757 million to {dollar}US35 billion (Foreign Trade Statistics 1996). This “export boom” (Barlow and Senses 1995) has been recognized as an economic “success story” (Pomfret 1990). The Turkish clothing industry played a key role in the country's export success. Three export-promotion organizations (EPOs)—one public, another private, and a third semi-private—have provided information, education, and other services to encourage the development of exports from the Turkish clothing industry.; The majority of EPO research consists of quantitative studies designed specifically to measure the impact of EPO service use on firm-level export sales. Little is known about how and why EPOs are formed, how they change through time, or how and why EPOs coexist and compete. The EPOs operating in the Turkish clothing industry provide a prime laboratory for the study of these research questions. In this dissertation, open-systems theories concerning organizational emergence, development, and coexistence are employed to generate research themes that explain the EPO landscape in the Turkish clothing industry. These themes are explored through a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods, including (1) 250 face-to-face surveys of Turkish clothing exporters; (2) in-depth interviews with over 30 EPO and government officials, foreign diplomats, and academic experts; (3) a focus group of industry leaders and EPO founders; (4) a content analysis of over 50 newspaper articles from the Turkish press; and (5) an analysis of secondary industrial and foreign-trade statistics. The findings of this study suggest that EPO emergence; structure, access, and use are embedded in Turkey's social fabric. Social context variables—including the social roles and expectations of the government, private sector, and elites; social stratification among social classes; and the intensity and parameters of social capital within society and among subgroups—affect EPO emergence and development. These issues also shape exporters' (1) awareness of EPO services, (2) perceptions regarding the degree of access they would have to EPO services, and (3) EPO service use.