The effects of interorganizational networks on degree of innovation: A study in OSTİM and Ankara organizational districts

Innovations are the source of economic growth as they are way of creating value. As a major component of entrepreneurship, innovations are regarded as the most important way of establishing sustainable competitive advantage for an organization. On the other hand, the view of ?ideas and innovations can be developed as a result of organization?s sole research and development activities? has been losing its validity. Studies show that an organization?s embeddedness in social networks affects the organizational behavior and outcomes. Knowledge is the most important factor for innovation, and networks provide opportunity to reach new knowledge, competence and areas of expertise, even if they are not established for innovation purposes. This situation attracted many scholars to study the relation between interorganizational relations and innovations. In literature, although there are some researches conducted in this context, the main focus of these researches is adaptation and diffusion of innovations. Some other studies are benefited from network structures in product innovation process, however in these studies there is no distinction taken into account related to degree of innovation. Therefore, it is possible to say that there are not sufficient studies in literature which are aiming to find relation between the degree of innovation and networks. In order to make a contribution in this subject matter, this study aims at determining the effects of network structures on the degree of innovation by considering organization?s position, type of relations and structure of relations in the networks. The results of this research which is conducted among 150 firms having production facilities in Ostim and Ankara (Sincan) Organizational Districts show that absorptive capacity and bridging structural holes have effects on the degree of innovation. On the contrary, the organization?s degree of centrality, the number of indirect ties, customer and supplier relations have no effect on innovation degree.