Abstract

Knowledge-based economy is a new economy in which the production, distribution, and use of knowledge is the main source of growth and wealth creation, which the knowledge-based economy companies are the engine of this system. These companies are usually private organization or cooperative companies, which their synergy is science and wealth, knowledge-based economic development, scientific and economic goals, and commercialization of research results. This study was conducted to investigate factors affecting these companies’ development. To this end, the target groups, including corporate executives and experts from the Ministry of Health was surveyed. Also, the fuzzy AHP technique is used to rate the judgments. For this purpose, eight factors, including technological factors, social and market conditions, political, administrative, economic, legal, and environmental factors are investigated. Finally, the views of these two groups have been compared and the differences in both approaches are discussed regarding the development of knowledge-based companies. © 2018, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.