The Effects of Information Pollution on Poultry Companies: The Case of Turkey

Abstract

The poultry sector provides people and countries with many benefits in the social, economic and health domains. However, the poultry sector faces a number of important problems. One of these problems is information pollution. The rapid advances in information and communication technologies, in particular, made information pollution one of the most important problems of our contemporary age. Information pollution can have significant negative effects on companies and sectors, as well as threaten the reputation of the brand, the products and services offered by the businesses. The poultry industry is among the most affected by information pollution and Turkey represents an ideal case for studying the effects of information pollution on the poultry industry. The poultry sector has achieved significant growth in Turkey in recent years, but the problem of information pollution is an important factor that limits this growth. There are ongoing efforts by various organizations and agencies in Turkey to solve the problem. This study aims to examine the effects of information pollution on poultry producing companies in Turkey and identify the activities undertaken by producers to fight information pollution. Data were collected from companies that are members of BESD-BİR (Turkish Poultry Meat Producers and Breeders Association), which brings together the largest chicken producing companies in Turkey and account for 91% of all poultry production in Turkey. Basic statistical techniques and procedures such as frequency distributions, percentages, and arithmetic means were used to conduct descriptive statistical analysis. Likert-type questions were also included in the study for various purposes. Descriptive analysis method was used to analyze the suggestions made by the poultry producers to reduce information pollution in the sector. The results show that information pollution problem is an important problem for poultry producing companies in Turkey. Since a significant part of the companies are affected by the problem of information pollution, they have various activities aimed at solving this problem and informing consumers. The problem has slight to moderate effects on the sales, production decisions, marketing decisions, and investment decisions. It has been found that sales and production decisions are affected to a slightly larger extent compared to marketing and investment decisions. Poultry producing companies consider it important to carry out successful information campaigns and increase cooperation in the sector in order to solve information pollution problems.