Factors Affecting Innovation Performance in SMEs in Turkey #KHAStaResearch
The research project titled “Factors Affecting Innovation Performance in SMEs in Turkey: Empowering Leadership Behaviors and Human Resources Management Practices to Increase Innovation” will fill an important gap in the literature.
SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises), which make up 99 percent of all businesses in Turkey and provide one-third of total employment, have a very important role in the national economy. So, considering the contribution of SMEs to the economy, is it possible to talk about specific leadership behaviors that increase the innovation performance of these businesses? How do SMEs utilize their existing human resources and do they benefit from different human resources practices to improve their innovation performance?
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Working on the factors that may affect individual innovation and organizational innovation performance in SMEs, Associate Professor Ceyda Maden Eyiusta from Kadir Has University, Department of Business Administration, says that the impact of certain leadership behaviors and different human resources practices in this field has been examined at a very limited level. In order to fill this gap in the literature and highlight the possible effects of empowering leadership behaviors and human resources practices that can play a role in increasing innovation, Assoc. Prof. Eyiusta developed a comprehensive research model with her research team and applied for a project to TÜBİTAK within the framework of this model.
The project titled “Factors Affecting Innovation Performance in SMEs in Turkey: Empowering Leadership Behaviors and Human Resources Management Practices to Increase Innovation” was awarded funding by TÜBİTAK within the scope of TÜBİTAK 1001 – Scientific and Technological Research Projects Support Program. The project, which received 260,620 TL support, started its work on August 1, 2019 and will continue until January 1, 2022.
The project team led by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ceyda Maden Eyiusta includes Dr. Ayla Esen from Bahçeşehir University and Ahmet Tuncay Nergis, Ph. Prof. Dr. Ayla Esen from Bahçeşehir University and Ahmet Tuncay Nergis, PhD scholar at KHAS Department of Business Administration. The data collection process of the research also involves the services of a research company. Within the scope of the project, this company is responsible for collecting data through surveys from 700 employees and business owners of 140 different SMEs in 9 provinces (Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Bursa, Adana, Antalya, Konya, Mersin, Kocaeli) where SMEs are concentrated in Turkey.
So, what kind of working method is followed in the project? The “Factors Affecting the Innovation Performance of SMEs in Turkey” project consists of 5 separate work packages. In the broadest sense, these work packages include a pilot study, data collection from the actual sample, data analysis and hypothesis testing, and the creation of a “business innovation self-assessment tool” for SME owners/managers. Currently, the first phase of data collection has been completed and the project team has started data analysis.
The primary objective of this project is to examine how empowering leadership behaviors and innovation-enhancing HRM practices affect individual innovation and organizational innovation performance in SMEs in Turkey by shaping employees’ psychological attitudes and organizational climate. The sub-objectives determined for this purpose are listed as follows:
Through the survey data set applied to 700 employees and business owners in 140 SMEs operating in 9 provinces, which account for 61 percent of the total number of SME employees in Turkey,
- Whether there is a significant relationship between individual innovativeness and organizational innovation performance in SMEs,
- Whether there is a significant relationship between empowering leadership behaviors and individual innovativeness; if there is a significant relationship, how these behaviors shape individual innovativeness in SMEs,
- To investigate whether there is a significant relationship between HRM practices aimed at increasing innovation (prioritizing innovation in recruitment; using innovation as a criterion in competency development, performance evaluation and rewarding) and individual innovativeness, and if there is a significant relationship, how these behaviors shape individual innovativeness in SMEs.