فصلنامه رشد فناوری
پیاپی 8 (پاییز 1385)

Incubators have gained wide reputation in most countries as efficient institutions contributing to regional development and economic growth. They assist their clients through their value-adding services and a wide range of support services and facilities that cannot be easily procured from other sources. The content of these services and the way they are supplied will have important effects on the success of the incubators, and thereby, on the incubators’ performance. Introducing improved incubation models, informing incubators of their distance from acceptable performance norms and models, and disseminating incubators’ success stories among those involved in the industry will be tools that are expected to assist incubator managers to make more informed and enlightened decisions. The use of composite indicators is a simple method of comparing a wide variety of systems under evaluation such as countries and organizations dealing with a multitude of complicated and wide issues including environmental, economic, social, and technological. Normally, the main objective in defining composite indicators is to compare the performance of a group of subjects evaluated along a given dimension. These indicators can also function as useful tools in analyzing policies and in communication of information to the public. In this paper, first, a state-of-the-art account of constructing composite indicators will be presented and then a number of tentative composite indicators will be introduced. Special emphasis will be laid on key performance indicators used in ranking technology incubators with due regard to the Iranian business incubation environment. This study is the first of its kind and is expected to open new avenues to taking effective measures in improving business and technology incubation programs.

One of the most important and essential actions in establishment and institutionalization of knowledge-based economy is the development of intelligent infrastructures which will make the establishment possible. In this era, Support of Small and Medium Enterprises in Entrepreneurship centers, Technology Incubators and Science and Technology Parks are vital. In Commercialization of Research and Development results, Knowledge-based companies’ role is very important and critical. Unfortunately, these firms experience very serious problems especially in marketing. In this paper, some important points about Technology Marketing will be addressed and the most important requirements of this issue will be presented.

In this paper the challenges of managing several key constituencies are described. Examples of existing parks are used to illustrate the challenge and to show the problems that were faced and the approaches that were taken to overcome them. Foresight, or similar longer term visioning tools are proposed as a strategy to develop the shared vision necessary to sustain efforts over the medium to longer time period. The final section reviews key challenges facing parks with particular emphasis on: the advantages and disadvantages of fiscal incentives the role of regional hubs the widening range of tools that are needed alongside the S&T park to foster knowledge based businesses the role and contributions that have been made by universities and how can these be expanded in future.

Today, we are experiencing rapid changes in the information technologies and these new technologies have caused dramatic changes in the economic structure. Most of the businesses are attached to no territory and they can fly and move from one place to another almost without any constraints. Those huge bricks and mortar organizations are gradually replacing by clicks and mortar organizations which can fit their main assets in a small briefcase containing a laptop computer and a cell phone. In this paper, we have investigated the influences of these new technologies on the Iranian parks and explained the strengths, weaknesses opportunities and threats they are facing with in the new economy.

The most important incubators mission is to provide proper basis for establishment, growth and development of new technological private enterprises and to give financial and moral supports to make them successful. Since initial structure of these new enterprises is shaped inside the incubator, financial and moral structure of them is affected with incubator. Verifying this subject with interest to relations between incubator and determinate new units; requirement of incubator to have independence financial resources and to create basis for its own growth and development and experience of successful-abroad-incubators, shows that employment of private management in state incubators is a favorite strategy to solve a lot of problems; an available and good pattern for determinate units and an optimal structure for incubators management.

This article elaborates earlier arguments about the practical and intellectual value of soft technology by showing how the enlightened application of that concept in the field of technology foresight (or technological forecasting) would improve the effectiveness of the field. It also shows how the evolution of technology foresight as a profession and academic field has, in its own way, facilitated the development of soft technology. It also argues that technology foresight techniques are themselves an example of soft technology.