The attitudes of small and medium enterprises towards innovation: A research in Elaziğ province

Innovation is the process of converting new ideas of a service or product into a commercial benefit. In brief, it is the combination of commercial ingenuity with changes and newness of products or services with mastery. Especially in recent years, with advances in technology and IT, competition among businesses has increased significantly and constant race to do better have started. Due to globalization, it has now become a necessity for SMEs to implement innovations in their businesses. Because the demands and needs of the customers are endless and constantly increasing. Thus, requests made by customers must be responded to as quickly as possible. The fact that SMEs as compared to large businesses have flexible structures, are able to communicate more effectively with their customers in terms of relationship and the capacity to adapt to innovation more quickly serve as an advantage to SMEs. This thesis consists of five parts and the first part contains the definition, characteristics, importance, advantages and disadvantages of SMEs. The second part deals with the definition, similar concepts in history, characteristics, types and importance of the innovation concept. It is also stated that the concept of innovation and enhancement are different. The third section describes the attitudes of SMEs towards innovation. In the fourth part, the findings of a research to determine the attitudes of SMEs towards innovation in Elazığ province were explained. The fifth part contains results and recommendations concerning the research. Innovation has become an important concept in today's market conditions, hence the aim of this research is to measure the perspectives and attitudes of SMEs towards innovation in Elazığ. Staffs were evaluated to see whether or not they have sufficient knowledge in innovation. Additionally, it is aimed that the successes and failures of SMEs in developing new products is combined together with a general literature review and made available for use. Result at the end of the research have shown that the approach and attitudes of SMEs towards innovation is positive.