The effect of openness on the innovation performance of regions: Level 3 and the example of the firm

Societies for development will be enlarged both qualitatively and quantitatively. As societies prepare economically, the future is also planned for improvement. In today's world, factors such as having the ability to create innovation for development, producing value-added products, and the existence of high-tech industries have begun to gain importance. Therefore, it can be stated that one of the most important factors that enable countries to compete in a global competitive environment is innovation. Universities, R&D departments, technoparks etc. Structures such as these are important dynamics that create innovation . However, all these require a strong capital and a good infrastructure. In developing countries like Turkey, where capital accumulation is limited, it is important that innovation creation and knowledge production can be achieved at a lower cost. Considering these less costly ways, it is discussed in the literature that exports and foreign investments can be important tools in this regard. So much so that the relationship between export and learning has been conceptualized as learning by exporting. Based on the above, one of the dynamics that creates innovation is openness. In this context, the aim of this research is to understand the relationship between openness and innovation . In addition, whether the level of technology is effective on innovation is another issue to be investigated within the scope of this study. Therefore, Turkey's regional openness as well as the relationship between technology level and innovation will be revealed statistically. In order to achieve the aim of the study, patent data was used as the dependent variable. As it is known, patent data is one of the important indicators of innovation . Two of the three independent variables used in the study consist of data on exports and foreign direct investment, which measure openness. The third variable is the technology level. In this framework, an openness index was created based on both export and FDI data. Another indicator used as data in the study is the technology level of the regions in production. In this framework , export data were taken on a sectoral basis, and the said data were classified in terms of technology level according to the NACE (4) codes published by the OECD, and these variables were also subjected to regression analysis. The findings of the study show that export-based openness predicts Innovation positively and significantly. At the technology level, low, medium low, high technology level did not predict Innovation, while medium high technology level appeared as a variable that predicted Innovation. The study gives clues that knowledge transfer can be ensured and can pave the way for innovation through openness .