Challenges of Establishing Agricultural Knowledge-based Companies by Applying SWOT Analysis: The Case of Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology

The purpose of this study was to analyze the challenges of establishing agricultural knowledge-based companies (AKBCs) in order to provide appropriate strategies, which was done using an applied research design, an exploratory data collection and analysis method, and a field survey at Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology (IROST). The statistical population consisted of all IROST faculty members, 23 of whom were purposefully selected as the sample. The results of the SWOT analysis showed that the most important strengths to launch of AKBCs in the internal environment were "efficient use of experts and innovators" and "having the facilities and infrastructure to rent to AKBCs" and the main weaknesses were "lack or failure to define the intellectual property rights practices and policies of AKBCs" and "emphasis of promotion regulations on faculty members' articles and research projects". In the external environment, "supporting innovative knowledge-based projects in the country", "agricultural industry needing research and development units to produce innovative and technological products" and "making money from AKBCs" were extracted as the most important opportunities. In addition, "low transparency and unstructured economy of the country in the use of knowledge-based products" was identified as the major threat. The analysis of total environment showed that external environment dominates the internal. Furthermore, the positive and auxiliary environment dominates the risky environment. The result of the strategic environment analysis demonstrated that aggressive (growth and development) strategies should be used to establish AKBCs.