Effect of innovation on export performance in furniture sector: an empirical study on İzmir province

In today's world, there is a constant change and transformation. Moreover with these changes and transformations, competition has increased in the world and businesses have started to need change and innovation in order to protect their assets and to differentiate. This situation increases the importance of innovation which is a common element of science and technology. Innovation is the key stone that enables the future to be planned. The development of countries and societies and the increase in welfare levels are possible by being open to innovation. Today, as in science and technology, a new transformation process has begun in production instead of traditional logic. Therefore this study focuses on the effect of innovation on export performance in the furniture sector. Especially, because of focusing on furniture industry, this sector has a key position in production, and constitutes an important part of the industry. The study was applied to the exporting companies in furniture sector in İzmir. The aim of the study is to explore the effects of innovation capabilities on export performances.This study was applied to 80 people who gave healthy answers to the 120 questionnaires. These people who participate in the survey work in exporting companies in the furniture sector in İzmir. As a result of the questionnaire, it was examined whether the data suitable for factor analysis and then analysis of variance and correlation analysis were conducted. On the result of explanatory factor analysis, process innovation capabilities, product innovation capabilities, behavioral innovation capabilities, strategic innovation capabilities and export performance factors were obtained. Product innovation capabilities and process innovation capabilities have found to have an effect on increase the export performance of companies in furniture sector.