Developing a model for the growth stages of knowledge-based companies

Nowadays, various knowledge-based companies (KBCs) have been formed in science and technology incubators to commercialize ideas in Iran. If these companies fail to achieve the desired growth, their losses for incubators and the country will be doubled. The purpose of the study was to develop a model for the growth of KBCs to determine the indicators of entry into incubators, growth stages of under studied KBCs and also to determine the features of each growth stage. The incubators of IROST and the Science and Technology Park (STP) of Guilan Province were selected as the case of study and a mixed research method was adopted. Data were collected through two instruments including interview and questionnaire. In the qualitative phase, 43 interviews and in the quantitative phase, 75 questionnaires were applied. Data analysis in qualitative and quantitative phases was performed using MAXQDA10 and SPSS25 software, respectively. The results showed that the indicators of entry into incubators were divided into three levels: individual, company and Incubator, so that the indicators of company level and incubator were the most and the least important, respectively. Based on the findings of the growth stages of KBCs, there are 4 stages including "center of prosperity and creativity", "pre-growth or initial growth or research core or technology core", "medium growth or growth or technology unit" and "post-growth or high growth or tenant unit" were identified. The findings of this study can help managers in making their policy in supporting KBCs at different stages of their growth