فصلنامه سیاست علم و فناوری
سال دوازدهم شماره 4 (پیاپی 44، زمستان 1398)

In recent decades, distrust of science and technology has increased due to the application of policies that conflict with the interests of citizens. Democratizing of Science and Technology Policy-Making has always been a solution in these years. Yet, it is plausible to ask whether it is necessary to incorporate democratic values and ideals into the process of scientific activity. And how should scientific institutions and procedures be organized to protect the interests of citizens in a democratic society? Philip Kitcher, a contemporary British philosopher of science, believes that scientific activity in a democratic society must be open to the inclusion of democratic values. He claims that he has been able to put forward a mechanism- with a philosophical basis- for satisfying the aforementioned norms by designing a well-ordered science program, so making a compromise between scientific activity elitist values -Objectivity and Scientific goal- and democratic values –freedom and equality. This paper aims to explain and examine well-ordered science as a program for democratizing science and technology policy-making. In this regard, components such as the relation of value and science and scientific Significance, as the most important philosophical foundations, and Kitcher’s understanding of democracy as a key element of his program have been thoroughly explained. And in two parts, ideal of well-ordered science and kitcher's understanding of democracy, a relatively comprehensive assessment of the arguments put forward for this project has been offered. Finally, it is argued that Kitcher's argument for defending the program of well-ordered science, on the one hand, is theoretically unjustifiable and on the other hand, by the introduction of some kind of elitism, is practically unsuccessful.</strong>

Absorptive capacity refers to "the ability of placement of novel ideas and merging them into integral processes," and such ability has been extensively considered as one of the main factors of organizations’ performance. Maximizing from the benefits from the external technological opportunities which can be realized through the form of "absorptive capacity" is among the most important topics that are being pointed out as competitive advantages. In order to address the threats and rapid changes of the business environment, we need various capabilities, for which generally internal capacities are not adequate and therefore, the open innovation approach must be placed on the agenda. As such and based on the duties assigned to the defense industries, they should have various capabilities beyond their internal capacities to cope with different threats. For this reason, they have put the open innovation approach on the agenda against their traditional behavior. The question of the present paper is investigating the place of the open innovation approach in enhancing the knowledge and technology absorptive capacity in the defense industries of I.R. Iran? This research is a practical study based on its goal and is a qualitative study based on its implementation and data collection method. The statistical population is comprised of researchers, experts and managers who individually have about a decade of direct experience in the area of space researches. The required information is gathered through literature review, in-depth interviews and thematic analysis. The data obtained from interviews are analyzed by using content analysis, historical analysis, interview and expert panel methods and they are also used to develop the proposed model. The validity and reliability of the investigated effect are discussed in the results section. Finally, this research revealed that the open innovation approach has a direct effect on the enhancement of the absorptive capacity of Iranian defense industries, and analyzed how the approach affects these industries.

"Research" at the university is one of the key pillars of community development and development, and is crucial to maintaining a competitive position at national and international levels.This study aimed to identify the most important factors affecting the future of research at seven comprehensive universities in the country: Tehran University, Tarbiat Modares University, Shahid Beheshti University, Tabriz University, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Isfahan University, and Shiraz University.The research was conducted with a futures research approach.To identify the primary influencing factors, environmental scanning method and interviews with experts in the three-month interval (April 15 to July 15, 2019) were used. In the first stage, 33 effective factors were identified. According to the experts' opinion, the 24 factors in the cross-Impact matrix were again sent back to the experts for weighting the factors. The results of MicMac analysis indicate the instability of the research system.Because most factors are scattered around the diameter of the plate. Of the five types of factors identifiable on the influence-dependence plate, only two types of bi-directional and independent factors have been identified.Three cases(incompatibility of upstream documents with university research capability, government funding constraint and research unnecessarity) were among the independent factors and 21 factors (interdisciplinary Sciences, international cooperation, university and industry cooperation, governments approach to Research, Knowledge Management Status, Belief in Research Benefits in solving Challenges, Research Infrastructures, Managers Attitudes, Culture-Building, Economic Prosperity, Non-Governmental Organizations Approaches, Research Network Status, Technologies Role, Industry Research Needs to Universities, By-Laws for Promotion and employing Faculty Members, Upstream Document Actions, Worldwide Research Image, Industry Mental Image of University efficacy, the impact of the international research status, the university mentality of industry acceptance, university research laws) are among the two factors.

Based on different characteristics and abilities, entrepreneurs have different motivations in the process of new venture creation. This study aimed to recognize the motivational factors that science-based entrepreneurs agree on their importance and follow in new venture creation. Also, different motivational patterns of these entrepreneurs were identified. In this way, this paper applied Q-method and the results of analyzing the Q-sorts of 30 participants, lead to 5 different motivational patterns, including Altruisms, controllers, ambitious, profiteers, and followers. Despite the identified motivational patterns, entrepreneurs were unanimous in the importance of some of the motivational factors. The important factors that participants agreed on them include having an effective communication network with other entrepreneurs, inventors, academician, producers and investors, as well as applying scientific research and commercializing ideas and inventions. On the other hand, insignificant incentives for all participants include having friendly relationships and being disappointed in previous job. By focusing on common motivational factors and tailored for different mental patterns of individuals, science and technology policymakers can make appropriate policies for achieving science-based economy and consider measures to increase the rate of establishment of such firms and their chances of success.

Using public procurement policy to stimulate innovation is considered an important tool especially in the context of demand-side innovation policies. Public sector can overcome system failures using it’s purchasing power to enlarge market size for certain goods and services. There are just a few cases of using this approach in Iran and no certain policy measures have been designed and implemented. The research objective is to identify the effective factors of designing public procurement of innovation (PPI) policy in Iran.
Based on the literature review, 6 dimensions and 23 factors of policy design were identified as the preliminary theoretical pattern. Also four sectors (Oil, Power, Health and Roads) were investigated in the research base on theoretical pattern. In order to increase research validity by triangulation approach, for investigating each case studies, the documents, the believes of interviewers and questionnaires analysis by statistical methods were used by researchers. The Within-case analysis and Cross-case analysis were done in selected cases and the differentiations and common points were analyzed by real and theoretical repetition. The 18 factors of theoretical pattern have real repetitive for analytical extension. Finally based on the presented analysis, several policy recommendations are offered for both policy makers and researchers.

New financial technologies (Fintech) are evolving in the Iranian financial sector. Identifying the pattern of this transformation in the social-technical systems would be the policy-making tool to accelerate the desirable situation. This study attempts to identify the pattern of financial transformation and mechanisms that are facilitating or blocking change by studying the Banking, Insurance and Stock Exchange industry as a result of Fintech's emergence. The results of this study show that despite the transformational capacity of new technologies in the field of finance and appropriate technical access to modern day knowledge, the technological evolution of the financial sector in Iran is highly dependent on factors such as regulatory adaptability, accessibility of data, digital maturity and The financial status of the traditional sector, as well as the readiness of the traditional financial sector to network with Fintech startups. Therefore, the transition of the financial industry will not be niche based and therefore policy-making to accelerate such a change will not go the way of simply supporting the innovator startups in the field, but rather focusing on regulatory structural reform of the industry.