The role and position of universities in the provincial ecosystem of knowledge-based development: Theoretical framework and its application for West Azarbaijan province

National development is the result of local and provincial development. In today's era, which is known as the age of knowledge, local and provincial development takes place only within the framework of the provincial ecosystem of knowledge-based development. In many developed countries, universities are the most important actors and beneficiaries of this ecosystem. But the role and position of Iranian universities in this type of ecosystem is not very clear and it seems that they do not have a favorable role and position. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to verify this hypothesis. For this purpose, the technique of "stakeholder interaction analysis" and the study data of West Azarbaijan province have been used. The findings of the research show that the universities of West Azarbaijan province do not have a proper role and position in the knowledge-based development ecosystem of this province. In fact, such an ecosystem is very poorly formed in this province.