JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY
Year:2008 | Volume:1 | Issue:2|Papers Count:8

Software is a key element in current societies for increasing the usage of information communication and technology. It is environmentally friendly, high-growth global industry, and the most critical element of the government and business systems that every nation must build for itself. Therefore, software development and usage is so critical. Developing nations see their software industries' growth as an opportunity to catch up to advanced nations and as a possible cure for uneven development. They struggle to make successful software industries. In Iran, also, there is a willing to use the software capacity for development of nation. But software capacity of a nation is limited and should be used strategically. Therefore, there is a need for policy-making and identifying the priorities. To help with this, software success factors models such as the Heeks model, the Oval model, and the Dayasindhu framework proposed. But there is a need for a comprehensive model that express the success factors and priorities with less abstraction, that make attention to domestic market as well as export, that show the success criteria as well as success factors, and that accept the role of influencing, but uncontrollable factors on the success of software industry. This research, at first, aimed at literature review including the software industry's effects on society, success models and success factors of leading software industries of developing countries. Then, based on this literature review and in response of "what is the proper success (priorities) model for Iranian software industry?" a model consist of 6 perspectives (government, customer, internal structure and process, human capital, infrastructure, and environmental factors) offered. After that, the model presented to experts in 3 ways: electronic questionnaire (online and offline) and paper-based questionnaire. At last, after analyzing the data and using the orange garden as a metaphor, the final model of priorities (success factors) resulted which is called, The Orange Garden Model of Software Industry.

Benchmarking is a tool for monitoring of performance and search for the best practice through learning from others. This paper introduces a new model, namely Virtual Benchmarking Model (VBM), for benchmarking the R&D projects. This model uses the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique and identifies output's indicators based on R&D steps and addresses the problem of outputs inhomogeneous.The proposed model was examined empirically with input-output indicators captured from 30 electronics R&D projects of IROST. Results indicate that for identifying the best practices, efficiency and effectiveness criteria should be used jointly. Based on the VBM model, 17 % of R&D projects were distinguished as benchmark for other projects. The main characteristics of these projects were: 1) effective human resources planning and; 2) marketing for result of R&D projects. The use of virtual benchmarking process can lead to enhance the performance of R&D projects.

Nanotechnology is one of the modern technologies in the world and determining the priorities of the nanotechnology applications is very important for Iran (as a developing country). Research and executive projects’ cost in high technologies is considerable. Also, there are many applications of nanotechnology in all of industries. Upstream oil industries are very strategic in Iran and determining the priorities of nanotechnology in these industries is very important for Iran government to fund and utilize on nanotechnology. In this paper, the literature about prioritizing methods was reviewed and AHP was selected for recognizing the priorities of applications. Also, priority criteria were taken from similar case studies in Iran and other countries. Iranian experts of upstream oil industries evaluated these criteria and modified them by considering the Iran’s conditions. Then criteria and applications were weighed by experts. Finally the priorities of nanotechnology in upstream oil industries were found by using ‘Expert Choice’ software.

Global huge changing in the structures especially the emergent “information and communication technology” and “knowledge economy” have increased the importance of the quality debate in the Scientific System . While there is not established any comprehensive system for evaluation of the quality of “knowledge production system” in Iran .This is required the consensus of scholars and policy makers ,and should be based on the international scientific and academic principles and norms, and relevant with the  national context. Anderson, Billing, Busters, Maassen, Tomusk, Vander Wende, Kouwenaar, Vlasceanu , Bazargan and many other researchers in the national and international level  have studied on the components of Scientific System and Higher Education Evaluation. This article by a historical , comparative and qualitative research method , has developed a desired perspective of higher education accreditation system (including internal and external evaluation)based on a nonagon model . The historical study shows that quality in Iran’s higher education has always been faced with certain structural and ideo-political obstacles in the forms of a huge governmental bureaucracy, petro-political economy and irrational institutions, so that the rational and emancipation actions were often feeble and vulnerable, usually encountering difficult structural challenges as unfinished projects. The article by a problem/solution model of categorizing  the main challenges of Scientific System  Evaluation in Iran, proposes the nine essential steps for encountering with the mentioned challenges and the establishing a comprehensive system for the  evaluation of the quality in higher education; that includes four levels of 1.information system in the university,2.evaluation system in the university,3.external evaluation and accreditation, and 4. monitoring of the national scientific system .The desired perspective of the evaluation and improvement of the quality will be only obtained  through a supportive and facilitative role of the government in developing required infrastructures for national monitoring of the scientific system;emphasizing internal initiations of  the universities and the scientific institutions in a competitive sphere of both national and international level.

This paper reviews the factors affecting universities approaching to academic entrepreneurship and search to clarify the concept of entrepreneurial university.The paper is based on a case study done on academic entrepreneurship and research commercialization in the seven major Iranian universities.The study investigated the current situation of four important activities: protection of university IPs, licensing  and transferring of university IPRs, establishment of university Spin-off Companies, contract research with industry and other organizations, with respect to : the acting organization, the personnel engaged, the work process and performance of these activities in 2006 with in the surveyed universities.The mentioned four selected activities within the framework of this study are consistence to academic entrepreneurship and research commercialization literature.The paper concludes that the process of IPs protection in the universities is recently being established. Contract research with industry is maintained but other activities like licensing and creation of Spin-off Companies has yet to be materialized.

This paper as a field study pursues factors and motivations of knowledge production and productivity among scientific elites who had the highest rates of paper publications according to ISI figures. Other objective of the paper is understanding and analysis of challenges of knowledge production in Iran regarding to interactional and communicational, and normative and ethical spaces. Research data is gathered with application of validated questioner and have been analyzed by descriptive and inferential Statistics with using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). According to main findings of the study, individual and cooperative patterns of knowledge production are fragmented from each others. Knowledge production is accompanied with challenges of the lake of sustainable scientific communities and simultaneously there are not significant statistical correlations between the rate of scholars’ knowledge production and their individual and organizational normativeness.

This paper attempts to determine the reasons and consequences of the 2008 Financial Crisis in the light of Schumpeter-Freeman-Perez Theory. It posits that this crisis is a sign of the resurfacing of the symptoms of the recession occurred in the aftermath of the so- called Dot Com bubble burst, which was postponed by liberalized credit policies. Considering the damage it has already done to the confidence in the economic rationale of incumbent policies, the paper argues that it is a strong sign for a stylized transition from the installation period to the diffusion period in long wave of the technological revolution of information and communication and the consequent shift in the techno-economic paradigm. The paper finally focuses on the technological evolutions in the developing counties and concludes that the wrong policies to deal with economic crisis in the center and appropriate measures and policies undertaken by some of late comer countries in the periphery could prolong abnormally the windows of opportunities to catch up with the industrial world. This analysis shows that how the theory of technological successive revolutions and techno-economic theoretical framework could help the technological policy making.