Purpose – This paper aims to shed light on the relationship between partnerships and innovation efforts of the firms. The goal is to understand whether Turkish firms collaborate for innovation or not and, if they do, what is the impact of partnerships on the innovation performance of firms? Design/methodology/approach – In this research, a survey methodology is employed. The questionnaire is implemented through structured interviews conducted with 135 Turkish companies from the textile, chemical, food and machinery industries. Findings – The findings show that Turkish firms have high-collaboration ties with other companies in particular but the existing partnerships have a weak impact on innovation performance. Research limitations/implications – As only one country is studied and data come from one year, the findings of this study are limited in terms of generalizing the results for a wide variety of developing countries. Practical implications – Non-materialized performance is to a degree due to low quality of relationships, but more importantly Turkish firms need to find ways to improve their partnerships and in-house capabilities, particularly their absorptive capacities, if they want to improve their innovativeness through partnerships. Originality/value – This paper is one of the early examples empirically investigating the relationship between technology collaborations and innovation performance of firms in a developing country context.