Identification of Components and Sub-Components Of Development Driver Patterns at Knowledge-Based Companies: The Case of Knowledge-Based Companies in The Southeast of Iran

The organizational theory has changed through a transmission from prior economies to knowledge-based economies which are currently considered as the most sustainable economies. Due to the basic role these companies in technological development and economic growth, it has become vitally important to maintain and develop them. The objective of the present study was therefore to scrutinize the components of development drivers at knowledge-based companies in the southeast of Iran using a phenomenological approach. Semi-structured and in-depth interviews were employed to collect the research data which were analyzed via Colaizzi's Phenomenological Method. The research population consisted of experts at universities and science parks, executive elites, and bureaucrats of the Iranian administrative system involved in policy-making from whom a purposive sample of 13 was selected and interviewed. The initial model of the development drivers of knowledge-based companies was thus extracted in two levels. Further, 41 subcomponents of the model were identified under 11 components. Then, the questionnaires were distributed among 107 managers of knowledge-based companies in southeast Iran during the quantitative phase of the research. The results of the confirmative factor analysis indicated that all components and subcomponents were verified