نشریه سیاست نامه علم و فناوری
سال دوازدهم شماره 3 (پیاپی 40، پاییز 1401)

Due to the importance of financing the issue of technological and innovative activities in moving towards a technology-based economy, different countries have used different institutional arrangements to solve the problem of financing technology-based firms. The limited efficiency of conventional methods such as government direct financing and venture capital has led to the focus of credit guarantee instruments in recent decades. Accordingly, in Iran, despite the prevalence of the use of credit guarantees, the full capacity of this tool is still not used. Therefore, in the present study, first, the macro patterns of the credit guarantee system based on the study of documents and structured interviews with the representatives of the funds have been identified. Then, the root causes of the identified patterns are extracted based on open interviews with experts. Based on the findings, the most important macro models of credit guarantee system of technology-based firms were identified as follows: 1) non-use of various capacities of the executive framework in the credit guarantee system, 2) non-use of various models of the ownership structure of credit guarantee service providers, 3) focus of existing institutions on contract guarantee, 4) Lack of specialized financial institution providing guarantee service in the private sector, 5) Limited selection of technology-based firms to receive guarantee service, 6) Simultaneous use of two facilities to facilitate initial capital financing and risk coverage for most government funds, 7) non-use of risk-sharing instruments for private funds, 8) non-use of other facilitators by the government, 9) lack of macro-law for financial oversight of the activities of credit guarantee institutions, and 10) existence of several responsible institutions in credit guarantee system.

Co-citation analysis as a powerful tool is used in order to find the evolution of conceptual linkages between two important streams of the literature: Innovation Systems (IS) and Global Value Chains (GVC) since 1990s. Their initial connection was the importance of industrial clusters both in improving innovation and in their role in the GVC. The literature evolved to consider the role of tacit knowledge as well as global factors in enhancing the performance of industrial clusters. While the first points to the importance of geographical agglomeration, the second emphasizes the benefits from becoming global. The emergence of Technological Innovation Systems (TIS) paved the way for new conceptual linkages by considering sustainable development as a main target as well as the importance of space in technological development and the role of technology in geographical diversification. Recent trends are rooted in new insights from evolutionary economics as well as catching-up that calls for more structured interactions in the future.

This study is carried out to identify, evaluate and rank the causes and factors of capital flight in Iran, derived from ideas of a group of experts in the capital and investment field, including managers, scholars, and other elites. The present research is applied in terms of purpose and duration of data collection, considered a descriptive-survey. After reviewing the literature, a set of ten economic causes for the capital flight were identified. After the collected data's fuzzy expression, its de-fuzzy numbers are considered the DEMATEL matrix's direct effect. Using this technique, the indirect effects matrix and total effects were calculated. To evaluate each factor's position, based on Interpretation Structural Modeling (ISM), the MICMAC chart was derived, and the results indicated that none of the elements were recognized as dependent variables. Among these, "problems of transferring funds and opening an account in the international framework" and "the dual exchange rate system in the country" are independent variables with low dependence but high penetration. Two autonomous elements and the six linkages are also identified. Finally, through Analytical Network Process (ANP) method, all economic causes of the country's capital flight were ranked. The results show that the highest priority of capital flight in Iran is "low investment return in Iran, and on the contrary, high-profit incentives for investment," "high financial and economic risks, inappropriate risk hedging," "Fundraising obstacles (including fixed interest rates, quotations, failure to provide allocated financial credits)," "problems to establish ideas and business plans, and complex processes of setting up a business" and "low degree of economic openness and problems to export and import" respectively. Finally, strategies to address the capital flight were addressed, including creating a secure and stable economic space and adopting valid macroeconomic policies with appropriate interest rates.

The difficulty of scattered studies, facilities and specializations at the level of universities and industrial centers to meet serious needs or to overcome great challenges has been the beginning of the emergence of the national laboratories. Although national laboratories have been established around the world, especially in developed countries, the United States of America has established 17 national laboratories throughout the country for about 75 years, which have played an important role in the scientific and technological developments of that country. The purpose of this article is to review the role of 17 US National Laboratories in the development of science and technology, their missions and their important achievements. The US Seventeen National Laboratories is home to leading scientists, elite engineers, skilled technical staff, and the location of advanced and expensive equipment and facilities that are beyond the capacity of American universities. Scientists at the American National Laboratories have not only been honored to receive more than 80 Nobel Prizes, but in some cases their achievements have changed the fate of some wars and brought a new way of life and interaction to human society. In addition to addressing important missions in science and technology, US National Laboratories support academic and industrial projects, train the next generation of leading scientists and engineers, and assist the government and various agencies in emergencies, assist in the transfer of technology to industrial sectors and active markets, commit to the advancement of basic science and its integration with the fields of technology, and provide strategic resources and solutions to meet national and international challenges. However, the point that should not be overlooked is that the creation and operation of such a large infrastructure requires the overcoming of major obstacles, challenges and constraints.

Changes in the social and managerial system in recent decades have been accompanied by an explosion of knowledge, softening of the economy and changes in values, based on which we need to redefine the concept of technology. Among the new approaches that have been proposed in the field of solving public problems is the concept of "soft technology", which requires a fundamental understanding of this field and knowledge of related research dimensions. The concept of governance and policy-making in different areas, under the influence of this kind of soft view, needs to be reviewed and changed, and in this regard, using these concepts, a new approach to solving social problems and governance can be presented. The purpose of this study is " Meta-synthesis of studies in order to identify theoretical and practical implications in the field of soft technology."In this regard, the method of documentary studies and Meta-synthesis was used and studies related to the field of "soft technology" were reviewed. Finally, in the summary section, theoretical implications in the epistemological, social and institutional axes and practical implications in the axes of soft social, political, economic, technological, fundamental and managerial components have been classified.

New theories of economic growth that are policy-relevant and connect with the histories of success and failure in economic development are urgently needed. This article compares the neoclassical (or market efficiency) school of thought with the production-capability school of thought which included Alexander Hamilton, Friedrich List, and Joseph Schumpeter. Many affirmative, industrial policy steps by governments to promote economic development have been historically recorded—including in the UK and the United States. Meanwhile the neoclassical school has ignored the role of government in helping to create competitive advantage. It has also chosen to ignore how firms are formed, how technologies are acquired, and how industries emerge. The dynamic capability theory of economic growth developed here assigns the central role in economic growth to firms but also an important role to governments. The rate at which a country’s economy grows depends critically on whether its firms can build the capabilities to generate and take advantage of “windows of opportunity” that exist for innovation and new markets, and whether over time they are able to enhance their capabilities to move into higher value-added activities.

One of the important issues raised in the field of blockchain networks and decentralized systems is the subject of legislation of these systems. Generally, governments can take action for legislation of these systems through five methods including “establishing rules for participants”, “establishing rules for intermediates”, “establishing rules for developers”, “establishing rules for blockchain-based markets”, and “establishing rules through social norms”. However, it should be noted that all these approaches for legislation are imperfect strategies and the governments would not be able to completely stop all the illegal activities on blockchain network and the mentioned strategies would help in reducing the related crimes and hazards.