The effect of social capital on growth and innovation performance: The case of technopark businesses

This thesis is aimed at analyzing the sources and benefits of social capital for businesses located in science and technology parks. Since one of the primary purposes of enterprises in technoparks is to carry out R&D and innovation activities, the concept of social capital, including elements such as networks, trust, common language and vision, is important in activities such as accessing information, sharing information and generating new information. Social capital helps a company to achieve its purpose better than what individuals can achieve with their individual efforts. Global technological developments, increasing knowledge and changing environmental conditions have led to the emergence of a new management approach and investment in intangible areas such as social capital gains importance as well as other concrete issues in the management and success of this change. In this study, the relationship between growth performance and innovation was examined by using the Structural Equation Modeling method by considering networks, trust, information sharing, shared language and vision as dimensions of social capital. Notably, the findings revealed a negative relationship between relational social capital and innovation, differing from the previous research literature on social capital. However, a statistically significant and positive relationship was found between cognitive social capital and innovation.