Innovation and Knowledge Management Practice in Turkish SMEs

Innovation management has recently received much attention from research, industry and state support. However, much of the research has focused on large enterprises with much available financial wealth and required planning infrastructure, in order to be effective at managing innovation. This paper aims to understand the factors that affect the innovation management process within Turkish SMEs. A number of interviews are conducted with 25 SMEs using three different innovation auditing models to capture and validate best practice techniques. The goals of the analysis are (a) to understand the Turkish SMEs current capabilities and innovation management practices in each organization and (b) to identify a set of recommendations that may facilitate and enhance innovation management in all participated SMEs. Results showed that the majority of the SMEs have apparent lacking of innovation strategic plan, culture, formal process and assessment approach to measure impact of innovation project. These factors impact to the overall success of the organization.