Application of two-factor dynamic learning curve model to the manufacturing and service sectors of the Turkish economy

Learning by "researching" is the experience process gained as a result of a business creating new products that create high added value with the new knowledge and skills it has achieved through the network system it has established with information sources such as its own R&D unit, companies and universities. Undoubtedly, the most important factor contributing to learning by "researching" is the R&D investments made in the sectors. Studies in the literature have observed that the cost-reducing effect of R&D expenditures can only be applied in the linear learning curve model. Therefore, a single exploratory learning rate was obtained, which only represents the average of the time period studied. In studies using the dynamic learning curve model, no study was found that included R&D expenditures as an independent variable. In this study, a two-factor dynamic learning curve model was used to measure the cost-reducing effect of R&D expenditures. Thus, the time course of learning by "doing" rates as well as learning by "researching" rates for the manufacturing industry and service sub-sectors was obtained. According to the findings of the study, in the two-factor dynamic learning curves graph in the majority of manufacturing and service sub-sectors, it was observed that the curves moved in opposite directions, symmetrically reducing each other's effects. As a result, the view that learning by "doing" rates in the one-factor dynamic model are deviant, which is common in the literature, was supported, and it was determined that learning by "researching" increased its effect in the period when learning by "doing" lost its effect in the two-factor dynamic learning model.