Evaluating the dynamics of innovation in Turkey: the impact of innovation on business performance

Abstract

This study examines the dynamics of the innovation construct in Turkey, through exploring the characteristics of organizations in terms of their openness to innovations (product innovativeness, process innovativeness, market innovativeness, behavioral innovativeness, and strategic innovativeness), relating this innovative culture both to the systems organizations utilize to enhance innovations and to the actual innovations implemented. The role of market orientation, learning orientation, and entrepreneurial orientation in determining an innovative culture and the role of actual innovations on perceived business performance of the organization are explored as well. The model is tested using data from 122 firms in Turkey from a wide variety of sectors. The results show that innovation leads to better business performance. An organization’s market orientation, learning orientation, and entrepreneuiral orientation lead to more openness to innovations. The analyses did not support the proposed relationship between the existence of orderly systems and innovative culture. In their relationship with innovations, innovative culture is a more dominant factor than innovation system.