Enhancing innovation capability through human resource practices: an empirical study in Turkish SMEs
Enhancing innovation capability through human resource practices: an empirical study in Turkish SMEs

Summary/Abstract: The research study on which this article is based was undertaken to bridge the gap between culture, management style and innovativeness, and to analyse how innovation capability is developed by specific cultural dimensions and management styles in Turkish manufacturing SMEs. To examine the roles of organisational culture and participative management in enhancing innovation capability, participative management is considered both as an antecedent of innovation capability and as a consequence of organisational culture. The study contributes to the literature in three respects. First, unlike most prior research which examines innovation capability as an independent or moderating variable (Danneels and Kleinschmidt, 2001), it specifies this concept as a dependent variable. Such an approach elevates current work since it responds to the need of research examining factors that influence innovation capability (Sethi et al, 2001). Secondly, instead of separately investigating the effects of organisational culture and management style on innovation capability, our study focuses on a rather neglected aspect of innovation capability by examining their combined effects. Finally, it focuses on Turkish manufacturing SMEs. Despite the widely-acknowledged importance of product innovation in SMEs, prior attempts have not generated sufficient understanding. To our knowledge, there is no research which deeply explores the cultural and managerial determinants of organisational innovativeness in SMEs.

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