Job system in Turkey depends on the state
Prof. Şükrü Özen, Lecturer at Department of Business Administration, has been the last guest of the “Online Seminar Series” organized by the Graduate School as part of the Campus Izmir Talks of Izmir University of Economics. Prof. Özen, who delivered the “Job System in Turkey” titled seminar, stated that said that when viewed from the National Business System, Turkey has the state-dependent business system properties. “State in Turkey can be directly involved in economic activities. We see that the state is a central actor even in the liberal system implemented since the 1980s. As a legislator, regulator, supplier, partner, competitor and customer, we can feel the presence of the state in the market,” Prof. Özen.
Prof. Özen pointed that state in Turkey, in this sense, was a central actor both supporting and restricting as well as providing certainty and creating uncertainty.
Dominant economic actor family holdings
Stating that by utilizing the opportunities created by the state, horizontally diversified and vertically integrated family holdings are the dominant economic actors in Turkey, Prof. Özen indicated that these holdings were managed by the family members who control the majority shares, with the help of reliable professional managers. Prof. Özen said that this widespread organization and ownership style has continued in parallel with the stability in the basic institutions of the business system.
Common entrepreneur type
Prof. Özen stated that entrepreneurs growing with international competitive advantage based on product or technology innovation were not common in Turkey. Prof. Özen said, “instead, we see that there are entrepreneurs who have the ability to gather the resources necessary to establish a company by capturing the opportunities. When we look at the first-generation entrepreneur who founded Turkey's largest holdings, we see urbanites, educated, traders and civil servants origin people. We can say that such a social origin includes the necessary social capital to know where to invest in line with the state's possibilities and how to access the necessary resources.”
Stating that the entrepreneurial typology based on social capital has changed shape and continues to the present day, Prof. Özen said that during the Covid-19 epidemic period, there were signs of economic withdrawal and the state-dependent character of the business system would intensify further.
