Having recognized the importance of designing Science, Technology and Innovation policies (STIP), many Less Developed Countries (LDCs) such as Iran have nowadays attempt to reshape their STI policies. The policy makers of LDCs like Iran can adopt and design suitable strategies learning from the successful experiences of prosperous nations. This paper performs a comparative analysis of STI policies of some successful countries in managing their technological change. This is mostly due to the fact that the other LDCs can draw valuable lessons from these success stories which in turn can also contribute to success in their own short and long term development. Firstly, the empirical experiences of some successful nations namely (Brazil, India, China, South Africa and South Korea) will be studied. The empirical experience in STI policymaking will be surveyed. The most critical success factors contributed mostly to their management of STI policies will also be compared. Finally, a general framework of STI policymaking drawing from the experiences of these countries will be proposed for other LDCs like Iran.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effect of government intervention on a firm's innovation activities. Design/methodology/approach On the basis of previous literature, this paper proposes a framework to explain behavioral changes in the firm resulting from government interventions. Using propensity score matching technique, this research tries to estimate the effect of R&D subsidies on Iranian firms (small and medium-sized enterprises and large-sized firms). Findings This paper identified that R&D subsidies have a significant effect on the innovation process. Furthermore, investigations indicate that behavioral variables (innovation capabilities, collaboration agreements and risk-taking) have been partly changed in both SMEs and large firms after subsidizing. The analysis of innovation outputs showed that although R&D subsidies significantly increase the number of new products/services or patents (especially for SMEs), it could not increase the total sale of the firms. These results show that the effect of R&D subsidies has not interestingly covered all variables influencing innovation activities. Research limitations/implications The work used dynamic capability theory, transaction cost theory and behavioral theory of the firm to explain behavioral changes in the firm resulting from government interventions. Practical implications This paper proposes several policy concerns which can help the policymakers to stimulate the innovation support procedures in Iran. Social implications This paper provides insights for improved policymaking which in turn can aid boosting social welfare. Originality/value This paper re-conceptualized behavioral additionality based on firms’ behavioral theories and evaluated the effects of Iranian R&D subsidies on their measures.

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In recent years, with increasing demand for fossil fuels, greenhouse gas emissions, acid rains, and air pollution have increased. These issues have encouraged industries to replace the existing fossil fuel system by the hydrogen energy system which is a clean energy carrier. Replacing hydrogen in the future energy systems needs a dynamic and flexible strategic tool for planning and management. Roadmapping tool is a strategic choice for supporting technology management in long-term planning and under the fast-changing environment in manufacturing technologies. This study tackles a novel methodology that considers the uncertainties and linguistic assessments for developing a green-based hydrogen production technology roadmap considering concurrent multi-layered aspects. The aim of this paper is to develop a dynamic and flexible technology roadmap using a combination of the classical roadmapping method with a novel fuzzy multi-aspect multi-criteria decision-making approach (F-MaMcDm). This study represents a quantitative paradigm to roadmapping instead of conventional descriptive “when and how” paradigm. The F-MaMcDm classifies sustainable green-based hydrogen production technologies considering four comprehensive aspects (technical, socio-political, environmental and economic) and criteria relevant to the aspects. The results show that biomass gasification is the first technology to be prioritized followed by other green-based hydrogen production technologies in a long time.