Internet Adoption by SMEs

Introduction

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are very important for economies. They have a large potential source for jobs and economic growth. SMEs account for 99 percent of all enterprises and they have less than 250 employees. Although the number of scale-classes changes according to the activity under consideration, the main classes are defined according to number of employees. With these definitions; micro enterprises are defined as having less than 10 employees, small enterprises are defined as having 10-49 persons employed, medium-sized enterprises are defined as having 50-249 employees. Therefore, SMEs are defined as having 1-249 persons employed. Finally, large enterprises are defined as having 250 or more persons employed.

According to an official Turkish newspaper number 28457 “Definition of Small and Medium Sized About Qualifications and Classification Regulation Amending the Regulation” dated Nov. 4, 2012 “Definition of SMEs, Implementing and Amending the Regulation on Qualifications and Classification” SMEs are defined as enterprises that employ less than 250 people annually and whose annual net sales revenue or financial balance does not exceed 40 million TL (KSEP, 2015-2018, p.26). The definition of national SMEs is given in Table 1.