Managerial support for innovation as the source of corporate sustainability and innovative performance: Empirical evidence from Turkey

• Published date: 01 May 2022
• Author: Asghar Afshar Jahanshahi,Zafer Adiguzel,Fatma Sonmez Cakir
• Date: 01 May 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2428

ACADEMIC PAPER

Managerial support for innovation as the source of corporate

sustainability and innovative performance: Empirical evidence

from Turkey

Asghar Afshar Jahanshahi

1

| Zafer Adiguzel

2

| Fatma Sonmez Cakir

3

1

CENTRUM Católica Graduate Business

School (CCGBS), Pontificia Universidad

Católica Del Peru (PUCP), Lima, Peru

2

Medipol Business School, Istanbul Medipol

University, Istanbul, Turkey

3

Faculty of Economics and Administrative

Sciences, Bartin University, Bartin, Turkey

Correspondence

Zafer Adiguzel, Medipol Business School,

Istanbul Medipol University, Istanbul, Turkey.

Email: zadiguzel@medipol.edu.tr

Managerial support for innovation plays an important role in improving the competi-

tive positions of public and private companies. To determine the outcomes of mana-

gerial support for innovation, we conducted a survey among 333 senior staff working

in 20 logistics companies in Turkey. The findings of the study show that managerial

support for innovation and financial innovation improve the corporate sustainability

and innovation performance of companies in the logistics sector.

1|INTRODUCTION

The concept of innovation, which provides a competitive advantage in

meeting the needs and expectations of an endless number of people,

has emerged as an increasingly important subject since the 1950s

(Afshar Jahanshahi, Al-Gamrh, & Gharleghi, 2019). The fact that inno-

vation has become an integral factor in expanding global competition

may have caused managers to assign greater importance to the inno-

vative characteristics of individuals in the hiring process (Jahanshahi &

Bhattacharjee, 2020). The concept of innovation has come to occupy

an important place in both the literature and the business world

(Hashemzadeh, Khaksar, Nawaser, & Jahanshahi, 2011; Panda &

Sharma, 2019). Today, modern innovation models have emerged as a

means of facilitating a management process that envisages effective

communication between many more complex and varying activities.

Such models stand in contrast to previous innovation models charac-

terized by closed and unilateral communication.

At the center of the innovation management process is the orga-

nization, which is based on knowledge and an organizational structure

founded upon values, beliefs, and habits extending from the past to

the present. For this reason, businesses that are established on solid

foundations should also be consistent in their sustainability measures

and assign greater importance to innovation activities (Maltz, Bi, &

Bateman, 2018). Innovation activities also come to the forefront in

their use of managerial support for innovation and financial opportu-

nities. It can be easily argued that those companies adopting an effec-

tive management style, especially those with financial opportunities

and innovation activities, will have an advantageous position against

competitors.Indeed, companies that manage and succeedin their inno-

vation activities have been found to increase their customer potential

and income (Zhu, Zhao,& Abbas, 2020). For innovation management,it

is necessary toboth activate and accelerate thelearning process. How-

ever, with the sharing of experiences in businesses, there isa need for

success and failure to be discussed and evaluated within the business

structure. Because the methods, models, and techniques developed to

achieve successin innovation management are learned and adopted by

the enterprise,the development of the different approaches in innova-

tion management, the regular monitoring and evaluation of innovation

management performance, and the necessary arrangements are made

according to the data obtained in line with the evaluation results

(Elci, 2007). These steps are the key reasons that sustainability can be

achieved (Hall, 2018). The concept of sustainability is at the heart of

the environment, energy, and economy triangle (Jones, Comfort, &

Hillier, 2018). In the present study,the relationship between managerial

supports for innovation, financial innovation (FI), with sustainability,

and innovationperformance (IP) is examined.

2|LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 |Managerial support for innovation

Managerial support for innovation or innovation management refers

to a business or organization managing business processes,

Received: 18 May 2020 Revised: 21 July 2020 Accepted: 11 August 2020

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2428

J Public Affairs. 2022;22:e2428. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 1of10

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2428