Analizing Innovation Network of Iran's Economy Sectors

This study is a quantitative study of the Iranian national innovation system of at the disaggregated industry level. The approach of this study is based on the premise that the innovation outputs of investment on research and development (R&D) are ultimately used through inter-industry transactions creating beneficial technological spillovers. We used input-output modeling and network analysis to acquire a better understanding of the Iranian innovation network. We learned that the Iranian innovation network is rather hierarchic. We identified chemicals and chemical products, basic metals, and non-metallic mineral products as those sectors with the three highest outward innovation connections with other sectors; as such, these sectors are the core industries in terms of the diffusion of innovation.We found that all but chemicals and chemical products, non-metallic minerals, and basic metal products sectors of the Iranian innovation system are dependent on the technologies of the other sectors. Additionally, chemicals, non-metallic minerals, and basic metals receive or no innovations from the other industries. On the other hand, the four sectors with the highest dependence on innovation of the other sectors are appliances, electrical machinery, medical and optical equipment, and other transport sectors. We classify the Iranian innovation system as a dispersed technological system. To make the results of our study more meaningful, we compared the innovation systems of Iran, China, and Taiwan. We note that the three innovation systems have more or less the same degree of innovation outreach. In terms of receiving innovation benefits from other sectors Iranian and Chinese innovation systems are the most similar. The number of Iranian and Chinese sectors that receive innovations is substantially smaller than that of Taiwanese industries. Based on this, we conclude that both Iranian and Chinese innovation diffusion is more hierarchic than that of Taiwan. We identified five clusters in the Iranian innovation system. We discovered that a large number of sectors in the Iranian innovation network do not use or receive innovation from the other sectors of the economy, and so present potential opportunities for widespread diffusion of innovations.