On Location Determinants of R&D; What Impacts Iran’s Perceived Attractiveness as a Location for Foreign R&D?

Since the 1990s key driving forces for the globalization of R&D include the increasing demand for skilled scientists, rising R&D costs, the globalization of business, the internationalization of manufacturing capacity, and the growth of new markets. The development of powerful ICTs has facilitated Globalization. The benefits of R&D on an economy can be appropriated in some new ways which involve international knowledge transfer and collaborations. All of these factors create opportunities and implications for R&D management in developing economies and countries in transition. So what in practice influences R&D investment decisions? This is an interesting and important question which is currently being addressed in developing as well as advanced economies as a result of the impact of globalization on R&D concentration and knowledge-intensification. The problems of increasing dependency of advanced economies on knowledge-based industries is exacerbated by the fast rise of India and China (and soon other countries) participation in R&D and design activities. R&D globalization is not just about the offshoring of manufacturing but has profound implications for the international diffusion of R&D capability. This creates new kinds of opportunities even for developed economies to collaborate with other countries to solve social and economic problems and to benefit from the positive spillover effects. Countries such as Iran are well placed to act as knowledge and innovation intermediaries in these networking activities.Since the 1990s key driving forces for the globalization of R&D include the increasing demand for skilled scientists, rising R&D costs, the globalization of business, the internationalization of manufacturing capacity, and the growth of new markets. The development of powerful ICTs has facilitated Globalization. The benefits of R&D on an economy can be appropriated in some new ways which involve international knowledge transfer and collaborations. All of these factors create opportunities and implications for R&D management in developing economies and countries in transition. So what in practice influences R&D investment decisions? This is an interesting and important question which is currently being addressed in developing as well as advanced economies as a result of the impact of globalization on R&D concentration and knowledge-intensification. The problems of increasing dependency of advanced economies on knowledge-based industries is exacerbated by the fast rise of India and China (and soon other countries) participation in R&D and design activities. R&D globalization is not just about the offshoring of manufacturing but has profound implications for the international diffusion of R&D capability. This creates new kinds of opportunities even for developed economies to collaborate with other countries to solve social and economic problems and to benefit from the positive spillover effects. Countries such as Iran are well placed to act as knowledge and innovation intermediaries in these networking activities.Since the 1990s key driving forces for the globalization of R&D include the increasing demand for skilled scientists, rising R&D costs, the globalization of business, the internationalization of manufacturing capacity, and the growth of new markets. The development of powerful ICTs has facilitated Globalization. The benefits of R&D on an economy can be appropriated in some new ways which involve international knowledge transfer and collaborations. All of these factors create opportunities and implications for R&D management in developing economies and countries in transition. So what in practice influences R&D investment decisions? This is an interesting and important question which is currently being addressed in developing as well as advanced economies as a result of the impact of globalization on R&D concentration and knowledge-intensification. The problems of increasing dependency of advanced economies on knowledge-based industries is exacerbated by the fast rise of India and China (and soon other countries) participation in R&D and design activities. R&D globalization is not just about the offshoring of manufacturing but has profound implications for the international diffusion of R&D capability. This creates new kinds of opportunities even for developed economies to collaborate with other countries to solve social and economic problems and to benefit from the positive spillover effects. Countries such as Iran are well placed to act as knowledge and innovation intermediaries in these networking activities. Since the 1990s key driving forces for the globalization of R&D include the increasing demand for skilled scientists, rising R&D costs, the globalization of business, the internationalization of manufacturing capacity, and the growth of new markets. The development of powerful ICTs has facilitated Globalization. The benefits of R&D on an economy can be appropriated in some new ways which involve international knowledge transfer and collaborations. All of these factors create opportunities and implications for R&D management in developing economies and countries in transition. So what in practice influences R&D investment decisions? This is an interesting and important question which is currently being addressed in developing as well as advanced economies as a result of the impact of globalization on R&D concentration and knowledge-intensification. The problems of increasing dependency of advanced economies on knowledge-based industries is exacerbated by the fast rise of India and China (and soon other countries) participation in R&D and design activities. R&D globalization is not just about the offshoring of manufacturing but has profound implications for the international diffusion of R&D capability. This creates new kinds of opportunities even for developed economies to collaborate with other countries to solve social and economic problems and to benefit from the positive spillover effects. Countries such as Iran are well placed to act as knowledge and innovation intermediaries in these networking activities. symposium on R&D Globalization in Iran in April 2008. It is intended to specify the determinant factors of inbound R&D related foreign direct investment (FDI) in Iran along with their relative importance by means of in depth discussions and applying analytic hierarchy process (AHP) technique. Symposium participants included an R&D expert from UK, R&D managers from prominent Iranian corporations, university professors involved in R&D and R&D management, the board of directors of the R&D Society of Iranian Industries and Mines and some experts from the Ministry of Industries and Mines. The determining factors were divides into six categories namely, political, business, legal, science & technology, infrastructure, and economic factors including 16 sub-factors. Afterwards the relative importance and criticality of the mentioned factors was calculated by means of applying group AHP. The results suggested that political factors are of the highest importance right after which came the business and economic factors respectively. The legal issues ranked fourth and the infrastructural factors along with science and technology related determinants were proven to have the least importance respectively compared to other determining factors.

Location Determinants, R& , AHP, Iran