PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating role of innovation on the relationship between organizational culture and firm performance.Design/methodology/approachData for the study were collected through a survey from 154 branches of ten prominent banks in Turkey and responses were analyzed to assess the relationships between organizational culture, firm performance and organizational innovation.FindingsThe findings reveal that in the banking sector, although organizational culture and innovation have a direct and positive effect on the firm performance dimensions, organizational culture was found to have an insignificant regression coefficient on the dimensions of firm performance in the presence of organizational innovations.Practical implicationsThese findings provide useful insights for organizations, particularly in the banking industry, seeking to be competitive and responsive to environmental changes by successfully introducing innovations. Conclusions emphasize that mechanisms to encourage and foster an innovative culture in the organization are likely to facilitate the introduction, adoption and diffusion of innovations which, in turn, is likely to result in achievement of superior firm performance.Originality/valueOrganizational culture has been studied in the literature as one of the characteristics impacting the firm's performance. But there is a paucity of research which models and empirically studies the relationship between organizational culture and the firm performance. In addition, several researchers have studied organizational innovation as a driver of firm performance but fewer researchers have studied organizational innovations as being impacted by organizational culture. In this study, the paper examines the relationship between organizational culture and firm performance and the role of organizational innovation in this relationship. This research makes an important contribution to the existing literature by empirically examining the relationship between organizational culture, innovations and firm performance.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of factors of environmental uncertainty on the innovativeness of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Innovativeness is widely accepted as an important characteristic for firm competitiveness and it has been studied by both researchers as well as business managers. Environmental uncertainty is a measure of the complexity of changing external forces faced by an organisation and it crucially impacts the responses of organisations in order to stay competitive. Based on approaches in existing literature, this study conceptualises environmental uncertainty comprised three separate dimensions — competitive intensity, market/demand turbulence, technological turbulence. Data for the study were collected from 156 SMEs in Turkey. SMEs are regarded as an important ingredient in the economic growth of nations and especially so in developing nations such as Turkey. The findings of the study reveal that market/demand turbulence and technological turbulence have a positive effect on the innovativeness of SMEs. Interestingly and contrary to popular belief, competitive intensity was not found to have significant effect on an SME's innovativeness. The implication of the results from this research is that the degree of organisational innovativeness for SMEs tends to increase and therefore should be supported in environments with greater technological and market/demand turbulence. This research makes an important contribution to the developing body of innovation literature and provides directions for managers and researchers in influencing innovativeness of firms.

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In recent years, environmental uncertainty and market orientation have been considered key elements of superior firm performance. Although environmental uncertainty and market orientation may affect firm performance, innovation also mediates these effects. In this study, a conceptual model was developed to test the mediating effect of innovation on the relationships between these constructs. Data for the study were collected from Turkey’s Top 500 Companies. Hierarchical regression and multiple regression analyses were employed to test the research hypotheses. The findings of the study revealed that the direct effects of environmental uncertainty and innovation on firm performance were statistically significant, although the effect of market orientation was not. The results obtained from the present study seem to indicate a possible “dual effect” of market orientation on firm performance. The results also indicated that innovation, especially product innovation, mediates the relationship between environmental uncertainty and firm performance. The findings indicate that innovation, especially product innovation, is critical for firm performance.

Nowadays, the increase of competition has made it difficult for small-scale producers and farmers to carry on their activities in the face of big business. These challenges have started to bring significance to fair trade, which aims to bring more equal footing to trade. This study investigates the impacts of fair trade knowledge on fair trade adhesion and on willingness to pay its premium cost, and the effect of a sense of trust in fair trade on these impacts. The study' s first model examines the relationships among fair trade knowledge, fair trade adhesion, and sense of trust in fair trade; the second model examines the relationships among fair trade knowledge, willingness to pay its premium, and sense of trust in fair trade. The results obtained in the study revealed that fair trade knowledge has an impact on fair trade adhesion, and that fair trade trust has a partial mediating effect on this relationship. Additionally, the study' s results show that fair trade knowledge affects willingness to pay its premium through fair trade trust. In other words, fair trade trust has a full mediating effect on the relationship between fair trade knowledge and willingness to pay its premium.