Organized Industrial Zones and their Effects on Regional Development

Abstract

It has been observed that in the industrial sector parallel to the development of the flexible production process, the tendency of firm aggregation increases, especially in countries where the traditional modes of production are valid as it is in Turkey. Organized industrial zone (OIZ) enables firms to select appropriate locations for establishment, discover new opportunities and obtain competitive capacity, leading many researchers to investigate the enterprises functioning in those areas, of their nature. In this frame, the scope of this study is to analyse the relations between social network approach, entrepreneurs and network activities, social capital components and firm novelty, and social capital. Within the scope of the research, a questionnaire was carried out by face-to-face interviews with 121 OIZ firms while the number of interviews with firms from a similar factor, which are not active in OIZ, is 116. The results of the research support the fact that the social capital components are effective in the innovation of the firms. It was found that the social capital indicators are highly important for OIZ firms and that there are important differences between firms inside and outside of OIZ, in terms of innovation.