Assessment of Business Environment in East Azerbaijan Province and Promotion Strategies

The purpose of the present research is to use a combination of Fuzzy AHP and BSC approaches in order to evaluate the business environment in East Azerbaijan Province. First, the business environment in East Azerbaijan Province was surveyed, and then the results of the studies of the Economic Studies Institute based on Balanced Score Card in four categories-financial , customer , internal processes , and learning and growth-were analyzed.The parameters extracted from the analysis of the business environment and the challenges facing the sector were weighted through the use of fuzzy analysis hierarchy process.Accordingly , the financial area , with a priority weight of 0.126 , was identified as the most important ; the second most important area was learning and growth with a priority weight of 0.068; customer preference, with the weight of 0.057 was ranked third; and the fourth priority was assigned to internal processes , with the weight of o.o47.According to the above priorities , by taking advice from designing experts, 36 strategies were identified to promote the business environment and after further consultation, 14 major strategies were selected, for which guidelines have been presented.