Recovery from Crisis for Turkish Firms: Synergistic Action between Foreign Policy and Marketing Process

Global economic crises and recession periods radically change the nature of markets due to the shifts in the behaviors of individuals and firms. Market players engaged in international trade have been affected unfavorably from the contraction in the volume of global trade. The purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of foreign policy of the State on firms’ market performance in global or international marketplaces, considering three fully linked key constructs; awareness towards active foreign policy, awareness towards country/political image, and awareness towards new market/country opportunities. Thus this study examines the role of foreign policy in minimizing the negative effects of contraction in international trade for the country's firms. Specifically, a regression model was developed for hypothesized relations between the constructs of the study. An empirical research was conducted by using data from 374 Turkish SMEs engaged in international trade to test our conceptual model. The data were analyzed through t-test and regression analyzes. The study shows that active foreign policy of Turkey has a significant impact on market performances of Turkish firms in neighboring and peripheral countries. The findings of this study suggest that proactive and positive foreign policy towards other countries can be employed as an instrument to support market activities of the country's firms in international area. This is a signal for the possibility of synergy between foreign policy and international or global marketing performance.