The Efficiency of the National Innovation System of Iran and Selected Countries

Today, paying attention to innovation in achieving economic growth and development of countries both as key topic of economic research and important management issue for policymakers is of great importance. Due to such importance, this study investigates the efficiency of the national innovation system of Iran in comparison with countries subject to the 2046 Vision, and China and South Korea (as two successful countries in technology matching policies) using a two-stage Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) over the period 2011-2016. Moreover, a Tobit model is employed to study the impact of environmental factors on the efficiency of the national innovation system. Findings indicate that Iranchr('39')s national innovation system is inefficient. Although the efficiency trend in the stage of creating inventions and originalities shows a positive slope, when it enters the commercialization stage, the system operates very slowly. To increase the efficiency of the national innovation system, improving the governance indicators, and strengthening university-industry collaboration are among the most effective policies proposed in this research.