INTERNAL CONTROL ACTIVITIES IN SMALL TURKISH COMPANIES

The purpose of this paper is to present major outcomes from an empirical study concerning internal control activities in small Turkish companies, as to propose the improvement guidelines. Methods of analysis and synthesis, descriptive statistics, and statistical comparison were used. The collected data was processed with the help of the SPSS software. Тhe study is limited to organizations based in the European part of Turkey. Most of them operate in areas around large cities, such as Istanbul, Edirne, Kırklareli, and Tekirdağ. They employ on average 19-20 people and have a turnover of about TRY 3 million (≈€715,000, https://sdw.ecb.europa.eu) on average. The survey concentrates mainly on small family businesses, which have been present on the market for more than ten years, with managers of good education and other characteristics that presuppose availability of internal control systems. The research results were used to compile main points of a SWOT analysis, as a part of the broader effort to help modernizing the internal control system in Turkish small businesses.