Innovation Survey on Yazd Textile Industrial Cluster

In the last decade the policy of development of industrial cluster as a relatively new approach in Iranian local and national economic development has been considered by policy makers and researchers. Development of industrial cluster can be evaluated from different aspects including: knowledge and technology, financial and investment, innovation and entrepreneurship. In this study, different kinds of innovations and existent conditions, targets and limitations are identified through studying the formation of innovation in production sector of Yazd textile industrial cluster. The nature of this study is descriptive – analytical, which has been implemented as a field investigation method. In order to evaluate the innovation indicators, the OECD approach has been used. The population of study consisted of Yazd textile manufacturing firms each having at least 10 employees as workforce. The data in research is gathered through field study and from 51 production companies in Yazd textile industry from 2009 to 2011. The outcome shows that the general states of innovation activities and cooperation is not desirable while “market conditions and not request for innovation and lack of collaboration culture” can be introduced as the main reason of this undesirability. In other words, innovation is not a clear indicator of the development and competitiveness of the textile enterprises in Yazd. By contrast, expenditure and revenue factors have been the main objective of innovation creation.