The knowledge transfer activities in Turkish Textile and Apparel Industries have been
explored in this study. The knowledge transfer is undisputedly important subjects as
knowledge provides competitive advantage to firms. Only few percentages of the
Turkish textile and apparel industries are engaged in knowledge transfer activity
although it is recorded as the largest industry in Turkish economy. Turkish textile and
apparel industries are mostly run by family and most of them are either unaware or
reluctant to involve in the knowledge transfer activities. This study examines the
knowledge transfer activities in Turkish SMEs through qualitative research and
quantitative analysis by undertaking extensive li terature reviews and present situationin
Turkey and proposes hypotheses to test the knowledge transfer activities in Turkish
SMEs.T he proposed hypotheses consider various related factors (determinants) such as
knowledge sharing, organisational culture, communication channel, knowledge
acquisition and IT resource to analyse the overall scenario of knowledge transfer
behaviour in Turkish textile and apparel industries. The analysis results indicate that in
case of Turkish textile and apparel industries, the pattern of knowledge transfer
activities are different from the available literature and mostly affected by local
environments. This report points out severalt hought provoking findings and concludes
with recommendation for researchers and practitioners.
The work presented in this thesis suggests a novel way forward in the development of
knowledge transfer activities in Turkish textile and apparel industries and, therefore it is
considered that the work constitutes a valuable contribution to knowledge in this area of
study. Also, there are a number of ways in which the work presented in this thesis can
be extended to many other challenging domains