Title: An integrated fuzzy analytical network process for prioritisation of new technology-based firms in Iran

Authors: Maysam Khodayari; Jafar Razmi; Reza Babazadeh

Addresses: School of Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran ' School of Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran ' Faculty of Engineering, Urmia University, Urmia, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran

Abstract: The performance evaluation and prioritisation of knowledge-based firms which are working in science and technology parks enable the decision makers (DMs) to specify the benchmarks (the best firms) and grant them or help other firms to improve their performance. In this paper, the performance of new technology-based firms (NTBFs) in Iran is evaluated through a multi-criteria decision-making method. To do so, at the first the most important criteria to assess the performance of the NTBFs are proposed according to the literature and experts' opinions. Then, due to complex relationship and correlation among these criteria, an integrated fuzzy analytic network process (ANP) is proposed to evaluate NTBFs under uncertainty of evaluation parameters. The results show that the applied approach is a suitable tool for prioritisation of NTBFs.

Keywords: new technology-based firms; science and technology parks; analytic network process; ANP; fuzzy set theory; performance evaluation and prioritisation; Iran.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISE.2019.101331

International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering, 2019 Vol.32 No.4, pp.424 - 442

Received: 27 Oct 2016
Accepted: 29 Oct 2017

Published online: 02 Aug 2019 *

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