mohamadsharif sharifzade

The purpose of this applied research was to formulate and apply a framework for assessing the ecosystem of ICT startup businesses in Ilam province using an exploratory mixed methodology. In the first phase, based on the formulations of the focus group and with the participation of 14 ICT key informants, a framework for three levels of ecosystem components, dimensions and indicators, and seven components (policy, finance, culture, support, human capital, market and Environmental attractiveness) was identified. In the second phase, using the AHP method, the importance degree of each dual criterion of the importance and accessibility amount was calculated and then by using the weights obtained, the identified indicators in the first phase, ranked by the using TOPSIS model. Respondents at this phase were also former participants in focus group who were selected among the ICT startup ecosystem stakeholders in Ilam province through purposeful sampling. The research instrument was a researcher-made questionnaire based on the findings of the first phase. Assessing the status of the ICT- based startups ecosystem showed that there is the highest gap in dimensions of the government, insurance and tax, financial capital, cultural role models, support services and startup network

This two-phase research was done to identify and prioritize mechanisms of academic entrepreneurship in agricultural higher education. According to the research purpose, criteria to select key expert participants were identified as: actual experience in academic entrepreneurship, managerial experience in policy making and institutional supporting for academic entrepreneurship, and professional experience as lecturer or researcher in academic entrepreneurship. A total of 24 experts participated in this Delphi technique. By a three-round Delphi study, the first phase was conducted in order to identify alternative mechanisms and criteria of academic entrepreneurship in higher agricultural education. As findings of the first phase, 5 alternatives and 7 criterion were extracted. Using Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP), extracted alternative mechanisms and criteria of academic entrepreneurship were prioritized in the second phase. Required data was collected through pair-wise comparison and Expert Choice software used to analysis data. Finally, five methods of academic entrepreneurship ranked based on the seven criterion as: set up spin-off and start-up firms by agricultural faculty members for commercialization of research and supplying scientific services has the highest rank (relative weight of 0.242). Then set up a university academic cooperative, with relative weight of 0.242, licensing or selling patents, with relative weight of 0.213, contract research, with relative weight 0.182 and providing education and consulting services out of university, with relative weight of 0.099 got the next rank. Each mechanism of academic entrepreneurship has a different impact and specific implication.