Investigating R & D Human Resources Development Behaviour in Knowledge-Based Companies in Response to Fiscal and Tax Policies: A Case Study of Iran

Small and medium-sized technology firms are often considered as an important source of technology-based job opportunities and are therefore supported by governments. Investigating the behavioral response of sponsored firms is an important tool for policy learning. This article compares and analyzes the changes in the R & D manpower of knowledge-based firms  before and after receiving various combinations of tax exemption policy tools, technology development facilities  and commercialization facilities in two groups of small-sized knowledge-based  firms (with fewer than 50 employees) and large-sized companies (with 50 and more). The results show that small knowledge-based firms that have received one or both technology and commercialization facilities have been able to increase their R&D manpower, while in large knowledge-based firms none of the supportive tools have had a meaningful impact on the increase in R&D manpower. In the field of evaluating firm-level performance indicators, this article is the first study in Iran that has used the 2k Factorial Design approach to evaluate the impact of policies and the interaction of tools on manpower and R&D. The most important advantage of this approach is that it clarifies the effects of the parameters along with their relative importance and how they interact with each other.