M.A. Theses
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Item Integrating Turkey’s renewable energy with global carbon market(Thesis (M.A.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2010., 2010.) Göncü, Hasan Ali.; Günay, Emine Nur.Climate change is recognized as one of the major problems of the globe and unless appropriate measures are taken it is likely to result in irreparable damages on the planet in the near future. Electricity energy is at the heart of this problem and so must be an important player in the solution. Turkey’s electricity energy market has recently entered into transition period and if properly managed, Turkey’s highly problematic electricity energy market may prosper. Turkey’s electricity energy sector is currently characterized by low supply security, high carbon intensivity and high costs. After examining global and Turkey’s electricity energy outlook in details, this sudy offers a solution to transform Turkey’s electricity energy sector into a low-cost, environment-friendly and reliable structure. Wind power is a candidate to play the key role when Turkey’s immense untapped wind power potential is considered. Increasing global concern for climate change and the EU regulations are expected to force Turkey to recognize the importance of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in investment decisions in the near future. With extensive analysis on the regulated carbon markets and voluntary carbon markets, this study may serve as a roadmap for Turkey to take the right action in the global climate change negotiations. In addition, this study may serve as a guideline for wind power project developers in exploring the opportunities in the global carbon market.Item The impact of travel 2.0 technologies on international tourist arrivals(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2022., 2022.) Aydın, Alper.; Tektaş, Arzu.The aim of the study is to measure the impact of Travel 2.0 technologies on international tourist arrivals. Specifically, there hardly exists comprehensive work in this research area. To address this gap, this study develops a conceptual model and conducts a multiple regression analysis. The international tourist arrivals by country of destination is the dependent variable; whereas, the average monthly visit to DMO’s website, the number of reviews and opinions on tripadvisor.com, the number of listed properties on booking.com, and the number of listed tours on viator.com are the independent variables. Results show that Travel 2.0 technologies that are mostly used are reviews and opinions, bookings systems, and the touristic activity listing with a 56.5 percent impact on international tourist arrivals. Additionally, results indicate that there is a positive influence of the number of listed properties on booking.com on the international tourist arrivals by country of destination. This depicts that rich accommodation opportunities can create a direct touristic interest and bookings for the destination. Results also emphasize that tourists give priority respectively to the accommodation facilities and reliable information based on experiences of other travelers rather than websites belonging to the destination or the country's officials, activities and things to do. This research attempts to create a conceptual model linking Travel 2.0 technologies and the international tourist arrivals by country of destination and aims to shed light on future studies in this area.Item The competitive identity of Istanbul: a city brand management model(Thesis (M.A.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2010., 2010.) Levent, Doğan.; Alakavuk, Elif Deniz.Cities have an important place in today's world economy. Due to globalization, many options exist for selecting a city to invest in or visit. As a result, cities continuously compete with each other to be able to increase their gains. The literature indicates that the image is very influential in the process of destination selection. Therefore, the image management is a very crucial task for Istanbul, which is trying to achieve a long term advantageous competitive position among major cities of the world. The main objective of this study is suggesting a brand management model for Istanbul based on evaluation of attributes stressed in the formal communication of Istanbul in the light of the views of visitors. For this purpose, a content analysis was done on the communication materials used in European countries and a survey was conducted with 274 Europeans, who have been to Istanbul. For the statistical analysis of data, frequency, t-test, one-way ANOVA and the factor analyses were employed. Attitude-Toward-Object Model of Fishbein (1967) was used for overall attitude evaluation and the Competitive Identity Model of Anholt (2007) provided the basis for strategy formulation. The findings reveal that Istanbul‟s image among European visitors is generally positive and the communication of Istanbul for European countries highlights proper attributes. However, it is detected that some areas necessitate progress. In the light of the findings, some ideas were developed and a management structure was proposed for maintaining the positive image of Istanbul among visitors and carrying it to the upper league in the competition of cities.Item Luxury fashion consumption after pandemic :|the case of Turkey(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2022., 2022.) Güzey, Melissa Elif.; Işık, Mehtap.Luxury Fashion Consumption after Pandemic: The Case of Turkey While it is still too early to quantify the overall financial damage from COVID-19 on the industry, the pandemic has certainly shaken some fundamental aspects of the luxury industry. Most probably, some of these changes are permanent. The claim extends to brands that have not yet fully transitioned to a vertically integrated distribution model. Moreover, start-ups that need wholesale channels to reach new customers and finance the development of their full collections are in the range. In the face of new challenges, they are likely to adopt aggressive trade and discount policies, which can at least in the medium term undermine the luxury positioning of brands without a concession model. Also, startling and innovative marketing strategies are in the focus of brands. Many luxury fashion brands promoted their new collections by organizing online fashion shows on their websites and social media platforms. As the customer behavior has changed in the course of the pandemic, customer relationship management increased its value in brand management. Sales of luxury fashion products also decreased due to the closure policies and the travel restrictions during the pandemic period. However, studies show that a new customer group, a more conscious and selective customer base with more special tastes, entered the market. In this thesis, we aim to explore the effects of Covid-19 on the luxury consumption using the case of Turkey. A questionnaire was designed to analyze the determinants of luxury consumption during the course of pandemic. The findings reveal that economic conditions are highly effective in consumption behavior in luxury fashion market.Item Antecedents of export performance in the second largest 500 firms of Turkey(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2022., 2022.) Saral, Ümitcan.; Selekler Gökşen, Nisan.Exporting emerges as the primary mode of foreign market entry for emerging economy firms. Despite the large number of studies on determinants of export performance, a consensus could not be reached on the issue. This study aims to investigate the impact of a firm’s international experience, export marketing strategy, internal organization and utilization of governmental support on export performance. In analysis of export marketing strategy, the extent to which a firm adapts its products, prices and promotion strategies, its use of international trade fairs as a promotional tool and distribution channels are taken into consideration. As far as, internal organization is concerned, specifically, the size of firm’s export department and its reliance on regular training are considered. Finally, for governmental support, state’s and its export credit agency’s support is taken into account. The sample is drawn from the exporting firms in the Second Largest 500 Firms of Turkey List published by Istanbul Chamber of Industry. Among the 278 firms in the sample, 42 filled the survey, the main tool of data collection, leading to a response rate of 15 percent. Due to the small size of the sample, mainly non-parametric analyses have been used. There are two main findings of the study. First of all, as expected, firms with more international experience have better export performances. Second, and contrary to what was proposed in the study, direct exporters have better performances than companies that use intermediaries or that establish their own marketing and sales subsidiaries in foreign markets.Item Identification of the factors affecting consumer behavior in the selection of sustainable packaging(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2022., 2022.) Haddadian, Sanam.; Akay, H. Gökhan.Packaging features of the products are crucial elements in consumer purchasing decisions. The need for sustainable packaging and the awareness of the consumers are growing each day. However, consumers' environmental attitudes and behavior may occasionally be disturbed by various factors. The aim of this study is to "Identify the Factors Affecting Consumer Behavior in the Selection of Sustainable Packaging." Since the factors influencing consumer behavior in choosing sustainable packaging must first be revealed in order to finally design a model for it, a mixed research approach must be used. For this purpose, the exploratory method of mixed research method has been used. In this research, first, the qualitative method is used to identify the main components, and then the quantitative method is applied in order to test the final model or answer the research questions. In the qualitative section, library or documentary methods were used to collect information. In the quantitative part, a survey method and a questionnaire were used to collect information. The questionnaire was designed based on the identified open codes. In this study, we propose a comprehensive model for consumer behavior in choosing sustainable packaging and review the validity of the proposed model using a qualitative model.Item Antecedents of impulsive online shopping behavior during the Covid-19 pandemic in Turkey(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2021., 2021.) Özışıklıoğlu, Asya.; Selekler Gökşen, Nisan.Technological improvements lead the world towards digitalization, shaping new marketplaces and changing consumer buying behaviors. When these rapid changes meet a global pandemic, an atmosphere that further speeds up change emerges. Theories of consumer behavior in traditional marketing have also been affected by this significant global situation and therefore have had to evolve. The purpose of this study is to understand the antecedents of a well-known consumer behavior, impulsive buying in online platforms during the Covid-19 Pandemic. The impact of two psychographic variables (i.e. fear of missing out and fear of pandemic), three demographic variables (gender, age and income) and two motives (hedonic and utilitarian) are studied as potential antecedents of impulsive online shopping behavior. The study contributes to the literature by taking into account the impact of Covid-19 Pandemic and by investigating the impact of a scarcely studied issue, fear of missing out, on impulsive online shopping. Data have been collected by the use of a questionnaire developed on the basis of an extensive literature review and hypotheses have been tested on a sample of 150 consumers with different demographic and socio-economic backgrounds. Findings of the study point out to fear of missing out and hedonic shopping value as two significant determinants of impulsive online shopping behavior. Income, as expected but contrary to the mainstream literature, does not have an impact on online impulse buying. Although impacts of fear of pandemic and demographic variables of gender and age are in the expected direction, they are not statistically significant.Item Digitalization and its impact on the economy in wake of blockchain technology(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2022., 2022.) Mutlu, Ali.; Işık, Mehtap.As being one of the most recent digital technologies, the Blockchain (BC) technology has a profoundly transformative and empowering role in economic activities in terms of production and consumption choices and marketing activities. However, the consumers familiarity and perception of BC technologies is not a well studied issue in the literature. In this thesis, research is conducted to determine the usability and familiarity of the BC technologies by the consumers. Reviewing the related literature, a model is designed to analyze the effects of BC technologies in consumer behavior. The probable effects are identified in four dimensions in the model; dimension of uncertainty removal, dimension of being a solution tool and reliability, dimension of mediation, creativity and innovation and dimension of data management, ecology and digital economy dimension. A questionnaire is formed to test the effects of BC technologies on consumers in these dimensions. Findings of the study shows that in terms of gender, age, education and seniority of the participants; there is no significant differentiation in practicing BC-based technologies in any dimension. However, the results justify the literature that the job positions of the participants and their knowledge on BC technologies are significant on their use of BC technologies. The companies and the public authorities should design technology policies taking the technology diffusion of the society into consideration. As the society’s technology-friendliness increase, the use of BC technologies will be more effectively used especially in certain sectors. In this regard, the thesis supports the use of BC technologies in economic activities.Item Foreign direct investment and entry modes from Turkey to Africa :|the investment, climate, determinants, opportunities, challenges(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2021., 2021.) Uslu, Muhammed Enes.; Ünal, Gözde Erhan.Firms must choose one of the different entry strategies, such as exporting, foreign direct investment, joint venture while entering a foreign market. Various factors can affect entry mode decision. This study aims to determine which internal and external factors are influencing the foreign entry mode decision of Turkish companies entering the Kenyan market. Economic and political stability, economic growth rates, intensity of competition, company size and country experience among many other internal and external factors have been tested with the cases based on real business experiences of five Turkish companies operating in Kenya. For this purpose, experiences have been collected from 5 companies via online-administered questionnaires and interviews. Country managers who are responsible for Kenya of these five companies were chosen as participants according to their direct role or knowledge about the entry mode decision-making process taken within the company. According to the findings, economic and political stability as well as high growth rates in GDP more likely lead the Turkish companies to make direct investment in Kenya instead of choosing an export entry mode. Although there is one exception among the firms, firm size is also a highly influential factor in choosing an entry mode that requires high resource commitment. Level of competition and previous experience in the target market were not observed as highly influential factors for all firms, as hypothesized in the study. This work presents the outcome of research in Turkish companies’ entry mode decision to the Kenyan market and factors that affect their choices.Item Antecedents of internationalization in family firms(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2021., 2021.) Bayık, Ali Mert.; Ökten, Özlem Yıldırım.The current research analyzed the antecedents of internationalization in family firms. The following research aims to analyze how different firm-level antecedents associates with the internationalization of family firms in Turkey. The survey was sent to 312 firms and 145 responses have been collected. Out of the received responses, 43 were eliminated since the respondents' credentials were not meeting the inclusion criteria. Hence, 102 responses were selected. However, five responses with outlier values have been eliminated and 97 responses were analyzed via statistical means using SPSS 27. The survey was developed by analyzing the previous work of scholars critically in order to gain relevant results. Independent variables used in this study were the firm’s age, firm size, family share ownership, R&D intensity, and international experience. The association of these independent variables with the internationalization of family firms was analyzed. The research was quantitative, and an online survey method was used for data collection. The research findings showed that firm size has a significant positive association with the internationalization of family firms. In contrast firm age, family ownership, R&D intensity, international experience have no significant association with the internationalization of family firms in Turkey.Item Varieties of democracy and economic growth :|a panel data analysis(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2020., 2020.) Akekmekçi, Özlem.; Işık, Mehtap.This thesis addresses the question how different democracy varieties affect the economic growth. For the varieties of democracy, the indices of V-Dem Institute are used and the democracies has categorized into five different groups as following: electoral, liberal, participatory, deliberative and egalitarian. With the fixed effect estimation of the regression with Driscoll-Kraay standard errors, panel data for 86 countries over the period from 1960 to 2016 is used. The findings imply that, economic growth have positive correlation with all democracy indices and strongest correlation is with egalitarian democracy. Since electoral democracy index act as basic essential of other democracy indices; add to regressions performed with these indices, the correlations of components without the partial score of electoral democracy index is also analyzed separately. Findings show that participatory, deliberative and egalitarian democracy components are not significant without the essential characteristics of any democracies. As control variables, geopolitical region, trade openness, life expectation and primary schooling are estimated as significant for all democracy variations. However, only for egalitarian democracy, ethnic fractionalization is insignificant in some circumstances. Also, the coefficient of ethnic fractionalization is lowest for the egalitarian democracy. This finding is supportive to following arguments in the literature, democratic regimes tend to manage ethnic fractionalization better and equal distribution has highly important role in this. In consideration of the literature and the findings, it may be said that equal distribution of power and resources likely to reduce the unfavorable effects of ethnic fractionalization on economic growth.Item The relationship between official development assistance and human development :|an empirical study on Sub-Saharan Africa(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2021., 2021.) Dede, Mustafa Yunus.; Işık, Mehtap.Every year, billions of dollars are being spent in the form of the official development assistance by donor countries and multilateral institutions, to underpin the development process of the Sub-Saharan Africa region. Although these significant amounts of aid flows, current level of human development in the region is not exhibiting a bright picture. Sub-Saharan Africa still stands out as one of the geographies on which the people are suffering from extreme poverty, drought, and hunger the most. This thesis aims to gauge the impact of foreign aids on human development levels of Sub-Saharan African countries and to measure the effectiveness of aid in this way. To this end, panel data of 35 Sub-Saharan African countries spanning 2000-2017 period have been analyzed. Three different models have been established, and estimated utilizing general feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) technique. Across all model specifications, aid was found to have a negative impact on the human development level of the region. The potential reasons behind the negative impact were questioned through the control variables, and the developmental impacts of the initial level of human development, initial level of income, urbanization, investments, existing technological infrastructure, access to drinking water, access to sanitation services, the level of democratization and institutional quality were found out to be positive. Whereas industrialization and malaria prevalence had negative impacts on human development.Item Effect of silk road railway on international trade :|an analysis of the Turkish case(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2021., 2021.) Karazi, Ghina.; Ata, Ülfet Zeynep.For long centuries, Silk Roads were always a point of interest for kings and states. Even for modern government, Silk Roads are always seen as trade boosters. In the past few years, Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) Silk Road has been a hot topic for its partner countries. Huge budgets were planned for investment with the aim of expanding the international trade drastically. As several stages of BTK Silk Road have been accomplished, big planned projects are still going on or yet to be launched. With the continuous spending along with big promises a need for progress check arises. In this study, trade indices for Turkey have been collected for the past 19 years. The indices included international imports, exports, total trade, trade of specific product categories, and trade with the specific BTK partners: Georgia, Azerbaijan, and China. The data was analyzed using regression test on SPSS and MS Excel. The regression was generally between the Turkish railway capacity (ton-km) and trade volume (1000$). Most of the hypothesis were found to be statistically significant and showed that railway capacity had positive effect on the trade volume. Moreover, some of the accepted hypothesis could potentially explain certain observations in the Turkish trade. The study had several limitations such as working with limited data points, testing the effect of BTK that has recently started operating, and as trade volume was measured in US dollars, the inflation in exchange rate was not put into consideration.Item Anti-dumping activities in international trade :|a case from the Turkish textile industry(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2020., 2021.) Yalçın, Melike.; Işık, Mehtap.A common import protection instrument, anti-dumping duty has been quite controversial despite being already used by many developed and developing countries. Turkey is one of the developing countries that has increased its usage of anti-dumping measures a great deal in the recent years. The impact of these measures on Turkey’s import volumes, however, has not been studied well. Turkey is world’s sixth largest supplier in textile sector and the country GDP highly depends on its profits. Expectedly, this sector is the most protected through anti-dumping duties. Therefore, in this thesis, import data of semi-finished synthetic yarn from 12 countries is analyzed as an illustrative case to observe anti-dumping duties effect on trade volumes in 5 years entailing the preinvestigation, investigation, provisional duties and final duties period. The 6 countries that are subjected to anti-dumping countries are labeled as the named countries, while the 6 countries that were not subjected to these duties are labeled as non-named countries. The results indicate that there were no significant changes on import volumes from named countries of this particular product relative to anti-dumping duty rates. However, implementing anti-dumping duties on named countries ensued the import volumes from non-named countries to increase. Even though it has been suggested otherwise by similar studies in other countries, the import volumes are increased from named countries in the investigation period.Item Economy-wide energy efficiency assesment: a cross-Country Comparison Study in Europe(Thesis (M.A.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2010., 2010.) Ceylan, Duygu.; Günay, Emine Nur.Energy efficiency has become one of the “twin pillars” of sustainable energy policy along with renewable energy. Improvements in energy efficiency can reduce the need for investment in energy infrastructure, cut fuel costs, increase competitiveness, increase energy security by decreasing the reliance on imported fossil fuels while at the same time help to save the environment by reducing greenhouse gases emissions and local air pollution. Being an energy deficient developing country whose import reliability reached almost 75% in 2008 and whose current account deficit is based primarily on energy imports, Turkey is in great need of an accurate energy efficiency strategy. This study analyzes economy wide energy efficiency performance of Turkey by means of cross-country comparison, benchmarking with European countries for the period of 1995-2007. The nonparametric linear model used in the study considers capital, labor and total R&D expenditure as non-energy inputs, oil, gas, solid fuels, nuclear energy and renewable energy consumption as energy inputs, and considers GDP as the desirable output and greenhouse gases emissions as the undesirable output. The study also aims to trace energy efficiency changes over time by evaluating the contributing factors such as activity mix of the economy, sources of primary energy-use, share of renewables and changes in energy prices. The results indicate an improvement in energy efficiency over time but the efficiency scores and their improvement pace is considerably lower when environmental factors are taken into account. The findings also reveal that Turkey emerges as one of the energy efficient countries among 32 European countries. The empirical evidence also supports that energy mix, the activity mix of the economy and energy prices have significant effects on energy efficiency.Item A multi-criteria market entry model for logistics service providers :|a study in numerous industries(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2020., 2020.) Şen, Çağatay Turhan.; Ata, Ülfet Zeynep.Logistics service providers have always been part of a company in terms of distribution, warehousing, and inventory management. In today’s world, logistics service providers (LSPs) have become more than that. Increasing competition and importance of cost reduction in supply chain and logistics activities increase the prominence of LSPs, thus LSPs have become major elements instead of backup elements. From organizations’ point of view, speed, cost, and flexibility became more substantial since the second half of the 20th century. So, for the purpose of better excellence against competitors, using external resources has become increasingly critical. For this reason, LSP selection is one of the most important processes of companies in the light of increase in outsourcing. In cooperation with LSPs, firms can have important opportunities to reduce their costs and focus on their core businesses. These opportunities lead companies to use LSPs extensively, and different models exist for the LSP selection process based on expectations from LSPs. In literature, LSP selection issue is investigated as a multi-criteria decision-making consideration and many researchers have done studies on this area. The purpose of this study is creating an upgradeable model that contains criteria used by companies while selecting LSPs in order to provide knowledge about all global industries for LSPs managers. Findings gathered from literature review are supported with client contracts information from a LSP company and experiences of logistics service providers’ managers.Item The impact of economic performance on voting behavior in Turkey(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2019., 2019.) Benli, Kınay Barkın.; Kıratlı, Osman Sabri.Dynamics of voting behavior and political party preferences have long been an issue of debate. Throughout time, different views and theories about the voting behavior have been analyzed in various research. Today, voters increasingly become aware of their economic and political environment. Thus, factors that affecting the voting behavior has become an important factor for the both political parties and voters. With this background, this study examines economic performance and non-economic performance of incumbent parties and their relationship with the voters’ voting behavior in Turkey. The sample includes 659 participants who are active voters in Istanbul, Turkey. Data were gathered from face to face surveys. The impact of control variables such as age, gender, household income, education level and the independent variables such as current economic perception of voters, future economic expectations under the incumbent party rule, non-economic performance the incumbent party and voting factors have been examined in the context of responsibility theory of voting behavior. Findings of the study proves that, in Turkey, voters consider economic factors such as current economic perception and future expectations on their political party preferences and reward or punish the incumbent according to their economic performance.Item The access to finance by SMEs in Turkey and the EU :|a comparative study(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2019., 2019.) Kahraman, Muhammed.; Tektaş, Arzu.; Çoşkun, Ali.Access to finance is one of the major factors in the growth of Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs); which comprise 99% of companies in Turkey and the EU and have a large impact on GDP and unemployment. Therefore, this study aims to compare status and changes in the access to finance of SMEs in Turkey and the EU. Additionally, their access to finance is also evaluated according to their associate status, location, business area, exports, liquid assets, and establishment time. In developing the questionnaire used in this survey, some of the questions from the Survey on the Access to Finance of Enterprises (SAFE 2017) conducted in October 2017 on the EU SMEs, were modified. The questionnaire was sent to SMEs in Turkey through KOSGEB (Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Development and Support Agency (Küçük ve Orta Ölçekli İşletmeleri Geliştirme ve Destekleme İdaresi Başkanlığı)) via e-mail. The responses obtained were compared with the responses from SAFE 2017 using analyses such as chi-square and regression (SPSS). Some key findings are: the second biggest issue for SMEs in Turkey is the access to finance, while this issue is the least important for SMEs in the EU; the increase in availability of financial sources for SMEs in the EU is much larger and they use them mostly for new investments, while SMEs in Turkey use them mostly for inventories; expenses for SMEs in Turkey such as labor and raw material cost increased more, which probably led to a decrease in profit and an increase in debts.Item Global marine insurance premiums and the maritime industry(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2020., 2020.) Oğuz, Hatice Selin.; Ata, Ülfet Zeynep.Maritime transportation and insurance have always been very important two industries for the developments in trade. Many studies have been conducted to analyze the relationship between these industries and global economic indicators. Results obtained from these researches supported the strong connection between the global economic indicators and these two industries. Both maritime and insurance industries are found to follow a cyclical pattern with recurrent upward and downward movements. Many different hypotheses exist about the reason for these cycles. With this background, this thesis aims to reveal cyclical movements in global marine insurance premiums and maritime freight markets, then analyze the relationship between them. With this purpose, three hypotheses, which suggest that maritime freight markets follow a cyclical pattern, marine insurance premiums follow a cyclical pattern and these cycles are positively synchronized, are structured. To test these hypotheses, global marine hull insurance premiums, Baltic Dry Index values, and world merchant fleet volume data for 23 years between 1996 and 2018 is employed. The findings of the study support the cyclical movements in both industries. Cycles in marine insurance and maritime freight markets are found to be in a positive relationship. Unit hull insurance premium cycles have matched BDI cycles with a lag of years. Both hull insurance premiums and BDI showed a common cycle length of 16 years.Item Creating competitive advantage in shrinking markets :|the case of the Turkish cement industry(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2020., 2020.) Arslan, Rüveyda Nur.; Işık, Mehtap.Creating competitive advantage became increasingly important in the Turkish cement industry due to market shrinkage caused by economic downturn in the third quarter of 2018. Product differentiation, pricing, promotion and placing opportunities are generally very limited in the cement industry. As a result, customer experience with cement brands is a key differentiator that generates competitive advantage. The main objective of this study is to analyse and understand customer behaviour in the cement market by using Net Promoter Score (NPS) methodology. The empirical information for this study was collected from case company surveys, which were compiled in 2015, 2016 and 2019 with 441 participants in total. Empirical evidence was used to gain insights into the way companies differentiate themselves at the market level on the basis of customer behaviour in order to gain competitive advantage. The findings of this study revealed that there was no statistically significant relationship between NPS and company revenues. Additionally, no statistically significant difference was found in the purchasing behaviours of promoters, passives and detractors. However, a positive correlation was observed between NPS and the number of active customers. Furthermore, product and marketing were found to be the main drivers causing customers to recommend the case company.