Identifying and Ranking the Effective Factors on National Branding in the Field of Elites and Top Talents: a Mixed Method

This descriptive-exploratory research is intended to identify the factors affecting national branding in the field of elites and top talents and their ranking through a developmental-applied approach. The statistical population comprise the elites and directors of the National Elite Foundation and related professors in the field of national branding. The statistical sample was selected by a purposeful judgment of 15 people. The data were collected through library and field methods by semi-structured interviews with experts and expert-based questionnaire. Data analysis included thematic analysis method in the qualitative stage, and the gray-number theory method in the quantitative stage. In the end, the results of the thematic analysis led to the identification of factors affecting national branding in the field of elites and top talents consisting of six main criteria and 13 sub-criteria. Furthermore, the results of the quantitative section showed that the priorities of the factors affecting national branding in the field of elites included stakeholder participation and cooperation (0.186), depoliticizing the branding process (0.179), stakeholder commitment (0.170), culture building (0.167), governmental support (0.155), and changing the structure of government and institutions (0.140) respectively.