The impact of innovation on company performance: A study on automotive industry in Bursa

Today, most companies have difficulties in following and meeting customer expectations. In a fast-changing business environment, companies can achieve a sustainable competitive advantage only by increasing their performance. The importance given to innovation and the success of the implementation of innovation management can provide the companies means to improve their performance. The main purpose of this study is to determine whether innovation has any impact on company performance. The Innovation Scale developed by Gunday and his colleagues (2011) and the Company Performance Scale developed by Karabag (2008) are brought together to create a new scale to investigate the relationship between effectiveness of innovation and company performance. As a data collection tool, the researcher used the survey method. The target group decided by convenience is formed by the white-collar employees of companies operating in the automotive industry in the city of Bursa, Turkey. The sample consists of 160 employees from 59 different companies. As a result of the study, for the accessed sample, two important conclusions were obtained which showed the impact of innovation on company performance: (1) Marketing innovation has a statically positive impact on company performance; and (2) Process innovation has a statically positive impact on company performance. With this study, it is envisaged to reveal the impact of innovation on company performance and by bringing the existing research a step further, to contribute to future academic research.