Explanation of the Factors Affecting the Establishment of a Knowledge-based City in Less Developed Areas (Case Study: Zahedan City)

The purpose of this research is to explain the factors affecting the establishment of a knowledge-based city in less developed areas (case study: Zahedan city). The mixed research method (qualitative-quantitative) is exploratory. In the qualitative part, the method is Grounded Theory and in the quantitative part, it is descriptive-survey. In the qualitative section, the community consists of academic experts in the field of management, managers of knowledge-based companies, managers of the Sistan and Baluchistan Governorate and Zahedan Municipality, and in the quantitative section, it is the employees of the Sistan and Baluchistan Governorate and Zahedan City Municipality. The sample size in the qualitative section was based on the principles of theoretical saturation of 17 people using the snowball method and in the quantitative section according to Morgan's table, 248 people were selected using the stratified sampling method. In order to collect data, a semi-structured interview method was used in the qualitative part, and a researcher-made questionnaire was used in the quantitative part. The content analysis of the interviews was done using the coding method (open, central and selective coding) and structural equations. The results of the research showed that the factors affecting the establishment of knowledge-based cities in less developed areas were identified with 6 main factors, 15 components and 69 indicators. Finally, the factors affecting the establishment of knowledge-based cities in less developed areas were designed and validated with a questionnaire. Also, the effective factors were evaluated with structural equations, which finally showed that the relationship between the variable causal factors and the main phenomenon with a factor loading of 0.806 was considered the most important factors.