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In this paper we will focus on the perceptions of the relations between civil society and the armed forces in Turkey. This is a bundle of complex relationships and it has many direct and indirect effects on the development of civil society in Turkey. The Constitution of 1961 that followed the 1960 military intervention brought a very suitable political environment for the development of organisational life in Turkey. Particularly unions, as semi-public organisations, developed and became the pioneers of civil society. However, this period was characterised by ideological polarisation that divided these so-called ‘democratic mass organisations’ into opposite political camps. The 1980 military coup stopped this process, constrained the rights of organisations and closed many democratic mass organisations. Due to the strict controlling mechanisms of the post-coup period, democratic mass organisations, mainly unions and chambers, such as the Turkish Union of Chambers of Engineers & Architects and Confederation of Revolutionary Labour Unions, lost their power. The labour union was closed and many of its leaders were imprisoned after the coup. On the other hand, during the post-1980 era, the central cleavage of left-right politics and ideologies was transformed into more diffused and fragmented cleavages.

In the hyper-dynamic business world of today, innovation has become the lifeblood of organizations. Knowledge management (KM) is widely considered an essential antecedent of innovation. However, very little empirical research has specifically addressed how KM is nurtured as support for innovation from a behavioral point of view. This paper aims to operationalize the characteristics of a fitting context – in terms of top management support, organizational rewards and mutual trust – and to clarify the role of organizational context on knowledge management strategies (KMS) and ultimately on firm innovativeness.

By studying 98 surveys from 23 companies from Technology Fast 50 list, based on using the partial least squares method, the authors find that this organizational context has a significant impact on the formulation and implementation of KMS.

Organizational/behavioral context has significant effects on the formulation and implementation of KMS as well as firm innovativeness. The results also demonstrate that the tacit KMS has a crucial impact on firm innovativeness.

From a behavioral perspective, this study empirically examines the role of organizational context (top management support, organizational rewards and mutual trust), KMS and firm innovativeness in a holistic manner in Turkey, a developing country. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no researcher has undergone those relationships in literature.

In this study, the authors aim to test the reflections of two so-called universal leadership styles -paternalistic leadership (PL) and transformational leadership (TL)- on entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and ultimately on firm performance (FP) within the context of SMEs of a developing country, Turkey. Moreover, examining the contingency of uncertainty avoidance (UA) on the relationship between EO and firm performance is another aim of the study.

In this explanatory cross-sectional study, by studying a dataset of 345 small and medium-sized (SME) Techno-park companies in Turkey based on using the Partial Least Squares (PLS) method, the authors try to examine the antecedent role of PL and TL on EO and ultimately on FP. Moreover, we followed a mediation procedure to reveal the mediator role of EO on the relationship between leadership style and firm performance. Finally, the authors also conducted a moderation analysis through SmartPLS 3.0 to explore the contingency of UA on the relationship between EO and firm performance.

Study results indicate that TL is a significant antecedent of EO that results in higher firm performance. However, while PL has a negative impact on entrepreneurial orientation, the results provide no statistical evidence in support of a significant relationship between PL and firm performance. Moreover, the findings indicate that the higher UA, the weaker the relationship between EO and firm performance.

Managers, following a TL approach, can successfully encourage their subordinates to be innovative and creative. Transformational leaders are conducive to both entrepreneurship and firm performance within the context of technology-based startups. Besides, avoiding the risks and uncertainties naturally weakens the consequences of EO. Hence, EO, as an essential intangible resource, requires a proper cultural context to result in a competitive advantage.

This research provides a comprehensive understanding regarding the interrelationships amongst transformational and paternalist leadership styles, EO and firm performance within an UA context in Small Business and Technology Development Centers (SBTDCs) and Techno-parks. To the best of the authors' knowledge, no other researcher has studied those links in a holistic manner in general, particularly on the SMEs of Techno-park firms of a developing Eastern country. The findings significantly enrich the literature on paternalist leadership and entrepreneurship orientation in a cultural context.

This chapter explores various aspects of mergers and acquisitions in the banking industry within a simple model that allows explicit comparison of sector performance before and after the mergers and acquisitions. The industry structure we look at involves a few dominant banks and a competitive fringe, which we take as the structure most likely to resemble the Turkish banking industry in the aftermath of the ongoing restructuring process. Using a reasonable set of parameters to simulate the model, we perform comparative statics exercises regarding the impact of mergers among domestic as well as with foreign banks on equilibrium outcomes.