ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to map the relationship between twelve renewable energy firms as well as their relations with other institutions within the framework of Turkish–German innovation networks (TGIN), of the European integration project. Since the world is assumed to be running out of its non-renewable energy resources in the near future, the importance of utilizing renewable energy resources is approved by all the nations in the world. Therefore, renewable energy usage is supported and subsidized by governments. In order to attract investors to this sector, countries develop alternative incentives and laws. Turkey has enacted Law No. 5346 for the regulation of energy matters. Both domestic and foreign investments in the renewable energy sector have been increasing in Turkey in the last decades. Being the first to install wind power plants, according to the 2015 report of the European Wind Energy Association, Germany is also the country that heavily invested in Turkey in the last decade. Kuştepeli et al. (2013b) demonstrate that Germany’s FDI inflow to Turkey followed a continuous increase from 2005 to 2008 and from 2009 to 2011 despite the crisis effect. Also, the share of Germany in total FDI increased from 2006 to 2010 continuously. The number of German firms established in Turkey stands clearly in the first rank with respect to all other countries from the period 1954 to 2012, with a total of 4885 firms. Besides the fact that Turkey has close social relations with Germany, the authors analyse the innovation networks in the wind energy sector, as Germany also has close investment ties with Turkey in this sector. This investigation tries to elucidate Germany’s innovation networks with Turkish firms using social network analysis (SNA).
