Comparison of European Union and Turkey's innovation performance by using multi criteria decision making methods

In the globalizing world; the activites of countries, companies or all other organizations need to be adoptable to innovation in order to sustainable and to remain strong. Innovation is a indespensable source for achieving sustainable economic developments, increasing the welfare of societies and development competitive dynamics for enterprises. When innovation is used correctly, systematically and effectively, the development of society, country or business is inevitable. In this study, 10 basic indicators which is based on European Innovation Index has been used. 24 member countries of the European Union, 6 neighbour countries and 4 of the candidate countries' including Turkey innovation indicators and their sub-criterias performance is calculated and ranked by using multi-criteria decision-making methods. The performance scores of the indicators obtained from the 2018 European Innovation Index. The countries' innovation performances were ranked by using datas which is obtained from TOPSIS, VIKOR and MOORA multi-criteria decision making methods. Although the results of the methods were close to each other, it was determined that some countries differ in the rankings. When the results are examined, Turkey is seen in 31th place according to results of TOPSIS and VIKOR. Also, seen in 33th place according to MOORA Method. According to TOPSIS and VIKOR method, the first three countries are Switzerland, Sweden and Denmark. Ukraine, Romania and Macedonia are last three places. According to MOORA method, Sweden, Switzerland and Denmark are the top three, while, Romania, Ukraine and Poland are the last three. According to TOPSIS, VIKOR and MOORA methods, the first and second countries are displaced among themselves. For similar studies, it is suggested that researches should evaulate and apply the most appropriate multi-criteria decision making method considering the characteristics such as calculation time, simplicity, mathematical caluculation, reliability and data structure. Keyword: Innovation, innovation indicators, multi criteria decision making, TOPSIS, VIKOR, MOORA methods, european union