Firm and Industry Level Factors Affecting the Growth of SMEs: An Emerging Market Evidence

Even though the measures taken to support SME growth are crucial to the whole economy, the relevant literature has started to focus on the subject from late 1980s but still much remains to be done. The aim of this study is to investigate the firm and industry level factors that affect the growth of SMEs and provide an empirical evidence using the data from Turkey as an emerging market. In the study, firms are grouped as high-growth and low-growth ones based on their sales data and this classification is made for both nominal and industry adjusted sales growth rates. The hypotheses in this study have been tested on a wide sample covering the period between 2004 and 2007. The results of this study shall shed valuable insight into the studies of scholars, professionals and policy makers.