Conceptualization of Helical Sectoral Innovation Policymaking Model, Case Study: Oil & Gas Drilling Industry in Iran

One of the main challenges of innovation and technology development for decision makers is how policies should be provided for a complex sector under environmental instabilities (e.g. economic, political, social transitions). In this regard, in current study through inspiring by Hegel’s dialectic approach, the variety and contradictions of Iranian oil and gas drilling industry experts’ viewpoints toward innovation and technology development policymaking under economic transition conditions have been identified. Considering the consistency between Qmethodology and Hegelian dialectic approach, we utilize Q-method to conduct the case study, and to extract the variety of standpoints. The output of Q-method indicates that there are a high diversity (10 different viewpoints) and conflicts among the viewpoints in the concourse of petroleum drilling industry. To scrutinize the conflicts, which are according to dialectic method the origin of dynamism in systems, we categorized the viewpoints by applying hierarchical clustering method. The resulted clusters show that each group of key players has similar and common cluster, therefore we can argue that the conflicts are among the group of players not the individuals. These conflicts are necessary for developing dynamic policies to enhance the system. Thus, the extracted advised policies based on this method are not the optimum balance of the viewpoints or they are not the consensus of the standpoints, rather they are the new viewpoints created from synthesizing the conflicted viewpoints. Accordingly, the helical innovation policymaking model for the large technical systems (sectors) have been conceptualized and proposed.