Conceptualizing, Designing, and Developing Visibility Rankings for Iranian Science and Technology Parks

Objective: The role of science and technology parks in the national innovation system has been significantly established, making these parks a key component of this system. They contribute to the transfer and dissemination of technology, the commercialization of research findings, and the establishment of connections between higher education institutions, industry, and society. Additionally, science and technology parks serve as foundational elements of the "knowledge-based economy," providing a space for collaboration among higher education institutions, governments, and private companies. Therefore, these entities need to be more in the spotlight of their customers and stakeholders. One way to enhance the visibility of science and technology parks is to create a mechanism that allows them to compete in terms of visibility. Evaluation, comparison, and ranking can guide parks toward implementing tools and strategies for greater visibility. The aim of this research is to identify the indicators and metrics for measuring visibility within a comprehensive framework and to construct a ranking system in this area.

Methodology: Following a systematic review of the literature on visibility, two brainstorming sessions were held with key stakeholders to identify the dimensions and metrics of the visibility measurement framework. In this study, 1665 relevant works on the visibility of science and technology parks were retrieved from global databases. After importing these records into EndNote and removing duplicates based on titles, 1612 works were selected for further analysis. Based on the research question, 156 records were chosen after reviewing the titles. These records were prepared for abstract study, and ultimately, 82 works were selected for full-text analysis. The identified metrics were organized into a comprehensive framework and weighted by 17 professionals, policymakers, and experts. The weighting of visibility dimensions was conducted using the AHP method, while the metrics were weighted using a simple weighting method.

Findings: After the systematic review, 23 key metrics for evaluating the visibility of science and technology parks in Iran were identified. To validate these findings, brainstorming sessions were conducted, resulting in a new framework comprising 36 metrics, which were grouped into four main categories. The results indicate that the "output" dimension holds the highest importance with a weight of nearly 40%. Following this, the "networking" dimension ranks second with 28%, the "digital identity" dimension comes third with 20%, and the "web presence" dimension ranks fourth with 12%. Digital identity refers to the online information and activities of parks, including metrics such as the number of followers on various platforms. Web presence pertains to the availability of information about parks on their websites, including metrics like the number of supported languages and the global ranking of the website. Networking refers to the extent of collaborative networks around the parks, including metrics such as the number of joint projects and memoranda of understanding. Finally, the output dimension addresses the quantity and quality of the parks' achievements, including metrics such as the number of publications and annual revenue.

Conclusion: Today, institutions worldwide are seeking to improve efficiency and increase their impact in the fields of science, industry, and society due to various pressures, and science and technology parks are no exception. Undoubtedly, visibility as a fundamental concept and action can help these parks strengthen their impact in society. Visibility and its evaluation metrics are relatively new topics in the literature and scientific writings, and a comprehensive framework for measuring them has not yet been proposed. This research represents the first effort in this area, focusing on constructing such a framework to enhance the visibility of science and technology parks in Iran. Although measuring visibility is a challenging and complex process, the proposed framework in this study opens a window to this intricate concept. The results of the evaluation of the parks are available in the V.Rank system (https://vrank.irandoc.ac.ir/Home/Visibility).