SIZE MOBILITY AND DETERMINANTS OF SURVIVAL:
AN ANALYSIS OF THE MAJOR 250 INDUSTRIALIST ENTERPRISES OF TURKEY, 1993-98.

Yılmaz Kılıçaslan

This paper aims to examine the mobility, or turnover, among the 250 major industrialist enterprises of Turkey and its determinants between the periods of 1993 to 1998. This study suggests that being one of the largest 250 firms of Turkey can be attributed to both firm-specific and macroeconomic factors. In order to be able to explain these effects exclusively a series of probit type models were estimated. First of all, it is found, in this analysis, that the mobility ratio of the largest industrialist enterprises of Turkey has come about to be low and stabile, about %14, between 1993 and 1998. Secondly, when the two subgroups, the largest 250 and 500 firms, are compared, it was found that the mobility among the largest 250 firms is higher than that of the largest 500 firms. Thirdly, it is found that the firm-specific factors; sales, exports, size, and ownership, have significant effects on the determination of the probability of firm survival in the largest 250 firm list. Private firms, including foreign owned firms, are more likely to be in the list of the 250 largest industrialist enterprises of Turkey as compared to state-owned firms.