فصلنامه سیاست علم و فناوری
سال سوم شماره 1 (پیاپی 9، پاییز 1389)

Different models have been proposed by scholars and practitioners for the formulation (or formation) of a technology strategy at the level of firm. But, companies may find it difficult to select and exploit the appropriate one which fits their context (internal and external) contexts. This paper reviews the most familiar models and frameworks for a technology strategy elaboratied by Porter, McKinsey, Little, Ford and Saren, Chiesa, Burgelman et al. and Hax and Majluf; their characteristics, limits and applicability are discussed in order to facilitate this choice. These models are evaluated using a process-based approach and according to De Wit and Meyer’s point of view, on the basis of the process of strategy formulation or formation they propose and their expected outputs. Finally, a taxonomy of reviewed models is presented according to the school of thought they follow (positioning vs. resource-based and rational vs. incremental) as well as their understanding of the technology strategy concept.

The role of entrepreneurial universities is not only knowledge production, but also to make an essential contribution to economic and social development. So, nowadays, universities should focus on commercialization and play a more active role in transferring new technologies to industry, so that they can create more value for the society. During the last decade, there has been a significant expectation on universities to provide the infrastructures needed by university spin-offs. One of the most important of these infrastructures is venture capital. Since financial problems are one of the biggest obstacles faced by spin-offs, venture capital is an important tool for help them overcome this problem. This tool provides managerial advice in addition to financial support. Universities establishing their own venture capital funds can bridge the spin-offs financial gap. The main question of this research is “What factors, precautions and concerns should be considered by the University of Science and Technology of Iran, using venture capital as a tool for supporting spin-offs This question can have several answers, which can be viewed as different scenarios or solutions. In this research morphological analysis is used to provid these solutions to be presented to decision makers. As the first step in morphological analysis, the main question ought to be broken down into different dimensions and components, which is done on the basis of step-by-step decision making model, and sub-questions have extracted from the model; each sub-question is then answered though face-to-face interviews and studying related rules and regulations. Possible choices have provided for each sub-question. There are as many possible scenarios as there are many combinations of choices, however not all of these combinations provide desirable and possible scenarios. So, using the field anomaly relaxation method, inconsistent choices are recognized and configurations involving these inconsistencies are rejected. The remaining configurations provide five scenarios as the result of this research.

As a response to the intensity of change in the current era, a new manufacturing paradigm known as the Agility paradigm has been created. Some studies have defined the factors affecting the agility, of which technology is one of those factors. Since all the attributes of technology have not been considered in one single research study, and so this paper intends to do that. Three aspects of technology-namely, production technology, product technology and information technology- are proposed and the effect of their attributes on agility is investigated. Moreover, the ranking of items is based on two factors, their importance and their gap with the ideal situation, has been done. “Advanced Manufacturing Technology “is at the top of the list and so deserves the most attention.

The biosafety law of Iran was passed by Parliament on May 2009 after nearly 8 years of disputes and disagreements between the ministries and other organizations involved. Biosafety is related to regulating biotechnology and its possible risks. However, the evidence suggests that this law might not be a helpful basis for resolving controversies, but it might also raise the profile of the issue further. This paper seeks to analyze the widespread controversies over the Biosafety Law of Iran. Analyzing controversies has been an interesting topic for scholars of science and technology policy, especially when the regulation of technology hinges on risk and science. This paper argues that the persistence of some contradictory framing assumptions engender the current controversies and have hindered the shaping of a convergence within the system over the Biosafety Law. The paper will develop a framework suitable for the situation of Iran that could identify those framing assumptions. This understanding suggests that controversies will persist as long as those framing assumptions remained unchanged. Therefore, rather than discussing the operational mechanisms of biosafety, it is pivotal to turn to the discussion over the framing assumptions that could pave the way for reaching an agreement over the biosafety law.

The more that organizations have knowledge-intensive business processes, the more they need structured and realistic programs for acquiring and managing their knowledge as a strategic resource for future continuous improvements. In this paper, our aim is to clarify the role of knowledge measurement and management and to explain a maturity-based model with which knowledge can be leveraged strategically for continuous improvements. For this purpose, a brief review of the relevant literature has been provided and greater attention has been paid to organizational knowledge based performance. Hence, a knowledge management maturity model has been proposed in order to evaluate the current status of organizational knowledge management and to identify the knowledge management weaknesses. In this way, a group of experts have been requested to verify a list of comprehensive knowledge measurement measures used for evaluating the knowledge management maturity. As a next step, and for each approved measure, a maturity level has been assigned by the experts. As a final stage and for validating the model, one of the most knowledge- intensive organizations (a solution provider) has been evaluated by the final model. Findings show that the model is an appropriate representation of the current knowledge management maturity status and a fairly comprehensive criterion for selecting the next set of measures so as to improve the quality of knowledge management.

The law of duties and organization of Ministry of Science, Research and Technology is seen as one of the important changes made in the structure and management of the science, research and technology area in Iran. In other words, it is policy change in this area and the purpose of this paper is to make clear how to change policy. There are various research methods to explain an event or phenomenon. One of these methods is to explain phenomena by applying theories. This paper tries to explain how the Law of Duties and Organization of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology has been changed, by the multiple streams framework. On this basis, this research describes how the problems stream, policy stream and politics stream have been coupled together to form this policy change; What is the role of policy participants in such a coupling? How did they use this opportunity to approve their propositions? How is a policy window opened and policy changed? Finally, the research claims that this theory, in spite of some deficiencies, has clear applications for analyzing and explaining the process of changing the Law of Duties and Organization of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology. The Methodology used in this research is qualitative research based on a case study. Also, the authors have used qualitative methods (interview and documentation survey) to gather and analyze data.

In developing countries, using technomart as a mechanism for the development and management of technology has been taken into consideration for about three decades and pursued by the relevant organizations. But the problem is that, in some countries (such as the author's country Iran) this structure has not been very useful or successful up until now regarding to its primary goals. In other words, technomart functions were limited to information dissemination and have not been converted from a push system to a pull one. Some of these effective factors are known, but others still remain unknown. In this article, we have aimed to evaluate the barriers of implementation and development of technomart regarding to its primary and functional goals as a pool system. This has been done through scrutinizing the current model and previous studies, especially with a focus on the current barriers to the creation of a technology market such as cultural, economic and political barriers. This will be done through studying and renewing the current technomart models with the emphasis on developing countries. In this research we also identify barriers better and then demomstrate the importance and impact of each one in order to increase the accuracy and reliability of future planning. In the first stage, consideration is given to identifying strengths and weaknesses of technomarts and similar structures which are active in the field of technology management. The results of the first stage and also expert comments show us that developing technomarts from a push system to a pull one has two kinds of barriers, categorized in to seven constructs. Internal barriers are related to strategies and promoting activity constructs, while external barriers consist of the network, economy, national innovation system, technology- related services and legal infrastructure constructs. After identifying the constructs as obstacles, using stepwise regression and Pearson correlation analysis methods, the importance of each factor and priority of each construct is determined. Also technomart success factors are shown as a separate construct.