The Social and Economic Dimension of Innovation

Innovation is defined as creating or adopting new ideas, products, services, programs, technology, policy, structure, or new administrative systems.

Innovation is a concept that starts with curiosity, intuition and turns into products, services, and social benefits.

No. Innovation is a process that consists of introducing something new and spreading it among users. From this perspective, even if a product, service, or process not adopted by users is original and unique, it will not have an innovative value.

Competition is known to be parallel with productivity, that is, the higher the productivity in a country, the higher the competitiveness, and the essential tool for productivity is innovation.

The innovation economy is altering the focus of societies around the world. Instead of economies that focus on developing and distributing valuable goods from scarce resources, society’s new goal is to improve the quality of life for all and expand wealth by developing new business models, products, services, and production modes.

Businesses open to change and innovation grow faster than other companies and become leaders in the industry in which they operate.

• Excessive perceived risks,
• High costs,
• Insufficient capital within the enterprise,
• Insufficient external capital in the business.

An education system that supports innovation and encourages individuals’ innovative efforts enables human resources training under companies, meets new entrepreneurs’ needs, and develops individuals’ entrepreneurial skills based on innovation.

It consists of specific sub-units and subsystems,

It consists of sections with certain relationships between them, and

The whole has a relationship between parts and the environment.

In a narrow sense, the innovation system reflects the innovation model that combines R&D facilities of universities, public, and private sector institutions and organizations, and is defined as a triple helix approach.

In our country’s national innovation system, among the institutions directly related to innovation, there are different types of institutions from the public and private sector organizations. The Science, Technology, and Innovation Policies Council under the Presidency of Strategy and Budget under the Presidency of Turkey, Ministry of Treasury and Finance, Ministry of National Education, Ministry of Trade, the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK), Small and Medium Enterprises Development Organization of Turkey (KOSGEB), Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (Türkpatent), Council of Higher Education (YÖK), Universities and Technology Development Zones are examples of these institutions.

A learning economy is an economy where the ability to learn is crucial for the economic success of individuals, firms, regions, and national economies.

Know-how represents an understanding of the generative process that constitutes phenomena. Know-why represents an understanding of the principles underlying phenomena. Know-what expresses an appreciation of the kinds of phenomena worth pursuing.

The government can influence how society perceives discoveries and adopts new technologies through education, dissemination, governance, social activities, and strategic interventions for cohesion and development in society.

Improving product quality, Opening up to new markets, Decreasing unit worker wages, Expanding the product range, Finding new markets in foreign countries, Complying with standards and regulations, Increasing production flexibility, Reducing energy consumption, developing environmentally friendly products, reducing material consumption, Gradually creating new products as a result.

Since the starting point of cooperation is to produce the necessary knowledge for R&D and innovation, universities are the main driving force in Public-University-Industry Cooperation. Therefore, the primary task of the university in this cooperation is to create knowledge. The second task is to transfer the generated knowledge to application. This transfer can be done by a wide variety of methods (workshops, seminars, conferences, publications, consultancy services, temporary work of students and academics in industry, etc.). Besides, universities can solve the problems in the research scope with the existing human resources and technical infrastructure by focusing on industrialists or the sector’s issues.

The first comprehensive study of innovation policy was carried out in the early 1980s in Turkey.

The Supreme Council for Science and Technology (SCST) was the highest-ranking STI policy-making body in Turkey that was established on October 4, 1983, according to statutory decree 77.

The central theme of the project was determined to be the creation of an “affluent society” which, is competent in science and technology; uses technology consciously and is capable of developing new technologies; possesses the skill of converting technological developments into social and economic benefits.

The Turkish Research Area (TARAL) is an initiative launched in 2004. It is a platform for public, private, and Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) stakeholders to coordinate future R&D priorities and collaboration.