Innovation models and implementations at firm level in manufacturing industry

Innovation is broadly seen as the starting point of a competitive economy in recent decade since added value of existing product and services of companies are diminished by quickly changing technologies and harsh global competition. Therefore, innovativeness becomes an important contributor to competitive success. Hence, competitiveness is firmly dependent upon an organization₂s management of the innovation process. Particularly in the last two decades, this subject has become the focal point of many academic and industrial researches in order to overcome problems encountered by the companies while struggling for achieving sustainable competitive advantage in the global competition. The main objective of this thesis is to develop methods and strategies for modelling and analysis of innovation at the firm level, including its effect to the competition power and firm performance, based on an empirical study covering 169 manufacturing firms. Also, it is aimed to suggest an integrated model of innovativeness at the firm level and to analyse the effects of innovations determinants which have significant role on innovation development success. In this thesis, innovation -one of the important component of today's business life which shapes the current and future economic structure - will be discussed; and the analyses about how innovativeness competency of firms influences their competitiveness and performance will be presented.