Review of Knowledge-based Firms Definition Consistent with the Economic Conditions of Iran

Nowadays, small knowledge-based firms (KBF) play essential role in the application of knowledge, economic growth and creating jobs in the world. Developing these companies is one of the main progress factors of any country. Recently in our country, there is also a special attention in the governments to the growth of these companies, but the important point in this field is the lack of proper characters and a true definition of KBF based on our country’s conditions. Unfortunately, most of the definitions in the internal research are based on the scientific literature on the advanced countries. This research qualitatively based on a hybrid model, during a scientific process in three stages tried to achieve an appropriate definition of the KBF. In fact, KBF’s defined in this study have functions that exactly match the economic conditions of Iran for sustainable development.