THE INNOVATIVE CAPACITY AND LEARNING CAPABILITY OF TURKISH REGIONS:
IMPLİCATİONS OF A STATİSTİCAL ANALYSİS İN A DEVELOPİNG COUNTRY

Güldem SARAL (Middle East Technical University)
Deniz ÇELEBİ (Middle East Technical University)

Since the late 1960s, radical changes have been taking place in the economic, political and social structures of the entire world. There has been a transition to knowledge based economy. Many of the researchers are like-minded that having competitive power in the long run is not only possible by relative cost advantages, but competitiveness can be achieved by place specific and generally non-economic factors such as continuous innovation and learning. Furthermore, the definition of regions has changed in parallel with this transition. Physical and natural boundaries that formed the regions are replaced with innovation capacity and learning capability of regions. In turn regions have become the focal points of learning, innovation and knowledge production in the global world.

The aim of this study is to shed light upon the innovation capacities and learning capabilities of regions in Turkey. Within the theoretical framework related with innovation and learning, indicators of innovation capacity and learning capability are discussed. Following these discussions, suitable variables are formulated for 81 districts of Turkey. The application of a statistical analysis is the next step of this study. The outcome of this analysis is the spatial distribution of factors representing innovation and learning capacities of Turkish districts. The examination of these results enables us to observe the position of Turkish districts in terms of their innovation capacities and learning capabilities. The concluding chapter discusses the implications of the resultant map and underlies some questions to be answered, especially for the disadvantaged regions.