Ankara Technology Development Zones Within the Context of Innovation Strategies in Turkey

Abstract

Contemporary discussions on new economy have displayed that competitiveness of regions greatly depend on innovation regarded as a complex process involving many different functions, actors, and relationships. To improve the innovative performances of agents of production in the system and to promote interactions between them, national and regional innovation systems are developed. As a part of regional innovation systems, technology development zones (TDZs) appear as an environment that transforms innovative ideas to marketable products by utilizing collective learning processes among universities, innovative firms, and innovation support institutions. The aim of this study is to discuss the innovative strategies, thus the various instruments and institutional arrangements to encourage technology development in Turkey, and the efforts of building innovation capacity through the initiatives of TDZs in Ankara. Within this context, first of all, the innovation capability of Turkey in terms of R\&D activities, policies, actors, and spatial repercussions under the name of TDZs are discussed. Second, the three TDZs in Ankara are analyzed in details. At the end, with the comparison of the three TDZs, the innovative capacity of TDZs and the effects of government support in this process are evaluated briefly.