Performance Evaluation of Iranian Science Parks Based on Presence of the Science Park in the Region

Science parks (SPs) are organizations bringing research and industry. Their aim is to promote culture of innovation of their associated businesses and knowledge-based institution. Given the increasing number of SPs that are being set out both in highly industrialized as well as developing countries, the problem of measuring the performance of science parks is becoming paramount both in practiontoners and academicians agenda. The present work is aimed at evaluating Iranian SPs that are members of IASP based on criteria the repercussion of the science park in the territory. Performance criteria that used are networking, convention and collaboration stipulated between science park lab’s and local firms, new products and processes adopted by local firms and developed by the collaboration with the science park, number of firms born by the collaboration with the science park within re-industrializations programmes of abandoned industrial areas, number of workers employed in firms originated from the collaboration with science park and number of environmental improvement carried out in collaboration with science park’s lab. In This study these criteria are localized based on Iranian SPs circumstances. FAHP is applied to determine the relative weights of the evaluation criteria and FTOPSIS is applied to rank the alternatives. Science parks’ rank order of performance in these criteria is as follows: Isfahan STP> Fars STP> Khorasan STP> University of Tehran STP> Arac STP> Persian Gulf STP> Pardis STP> East Azarbaijan STP> Yazd STP> Guilan STP> Kerman STP> Hamedan STP> Kermanshah STP.