Abstract:

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are the heart of the world economic system, are of great importance in the globalizing and increasing competition environment. Manufacturing industry enterprises employing 1-50 workers are defined as ‘small-scale’, manufacturing industry enterprises employing 51-150 workers are defined as ‘medium-sized’ and enterprises employing more than 150 workers are defined as ‘large-scale’ enterprises, according to the Small and Medium Enterprises Development and Support Administration (KOSGEB) establishment law numbered 3624, which entered into force in 1990. Particularly, the innovation activities of SMEs contribute positively to the economy, development of the country and competitive advantage of the enterprises. Therefore, innovation activities have an important share in all enterprises. The concept of innovation refers to ‘renewal’ and represents the innovative activities of enterprises in many areas. Unlike large enterprises, SMEs have become more successful in innovation with their flexibility, customer relations and ability to respond to their needs in a shorter time.  In this study, first of all, SMEs have been evaluated in a general framework and the concept of innovation has been explained. The data obtained in 2016 within the scope of the doctoral program were tested in the SPSS package program. This study, which was carried out with the questionnaire data collection technique, was applied on 112 people. As a result of the analysis, it has been tried to determine the perspectives of the automotive companies operating in Konya, Turkey, in terms of innovation approaches and the types of innovations carried out. In addition, a statistically significant relationship has been found between the number of employees of automotive enterprises and their innovation activities, and between the share of raw materials and material purchases in imports and the innovation activities of the enterprises.

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