Identifying and Prioritizing Policy Tools to Support New Technology-Based Firms' Cooperation With Public Industries in Iran, a Futures Studies Approach.

This paper tries to investigate the policy tools supporting New Technology-Based Firms (NTBFs). Given this aim, after reviewing background research regarding policy tools in Iran and other countries, the policy tools applied in other countries are compared with those applied in Iran and the gap between probable and preferred future situations was investigated in the framework of financial, administrative, information and regulatory policy tools by using paired T-Test and descriptive survey. The components of preferred policy tools are ranked by Freedman test. Research findings indicate that the widest and the narrowest gaps are in financial and information policy tools. The most preferred policy tools include joint ventures, joint R&D, issuing or buying stocks, companies' guarantees to receive aids, networking, grants, loans, incubators' development, creating a proper legal environment, training (managerial/technical) for companies, HR development, awards and bonuses, tax incentives, tax exemptions and consultancy service provision for the companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]