Competition in the markets force companies to respond the changing demands of customers for customized and high quality products as quick as possible, and cope with the pressures of their competitors and this aim could only be achieved by the capability of firms to be innovative. Innovativeness means adopting product innovations, process innovations, or both of them as quick as possible and it depends on their management practices, in other words human resources. The purpose of this study is to empirically test the relationships among human resources of a company, competition in the market, and innovativeness in Turkish manufacturing companies. Data used in the study were gathered from Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey conducted by World Bank. The research model was tested by using descriptive statistics and regression analysis. Human resources part of the model is measured by managerial experience, percentage of skilled and trained production workers, and workforce with university degree. According to the results, percentage of trained production workers and workforce with university degree have a direct, positive, and significant impact on the innovativeness of firms. As regards to competition, the pressures of foreign and domestic competitors and customers to innovate and cost reductions are analyzed. The results illustrate that the pressure of foreign competitors to innovate is the only factor that has a direct, positive, and significant impact on innovativeness. Then, both significant measures of human resources and competition are included in the analysis. The results of the analysis reveal that the percentage of trained production workers, and workforce with university degree, and the pressure of foreign competitors to innovate have a significant impact on innovativeness.
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