Ranking of Nanotechnologies Based on Effective Factors in Decision Making– Macro Level Policy Making in Iran

Abstract

According to The Iranian Nanotechnology Development Plan, Iran should be in the 15th place in terms of knowledge production, technology and market over a period of ten years by the early 2014.  The 4th rank of Iran in the knowledge production in 2013 shows the remarkable success of the plan in terms of this indicator.  Despite all efforts, Iran has not a desirable international rank in the other two indicators. The failure to achieve technological and market objectives or the low innovation rate despite the high rate of knowledge production is a complex and dynamic problem requiring the use of a systematic analysis. Since these networks are studied by Complex Adaptive Networks, so using Social Networks Analysis for identifying their structure is taken into consideration. The present paper examines the structure of Iran nanotechnology innovation network-health sector- by social network analysis. The results showed that the structure of the innovation network is of scale-free type.  Since the power is concentrated in this type of networks, the network performance is not desirable and the innovation rate is very low. So along with different policies which have been made on development of Iran Nanotechnology, there is a need for purposeful policy making for collaboration, to change the structure network and enhance its efficiency and speed of innovation

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