Identifying Factors of Growth and Development of Industrial Clusters in Improving Competitiveness Using Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) Case study: Tehran Metropolitan Region (TMR)
Atefeh Kamali
1
(
Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.
)
Mohsen Esmaeili
2
(
School of Urban Planning, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
)
Mehrdad Rahmani
3
(
School of Urban Planning, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
)
Keywords: Industrial Clusters, Competitiveness, network analysis process, interpretive structural modeling, Tehran Metropolitan Region (TMR),
Abstract :
Today, the lack of innovation, the inconsistency between industries with planning and management of infrastructure and services in urban regions, is known as one of the obstacles to economic development in developing countries. To deal with these challenges, industrial clusters have been recommended as an effective approach. Industrial clusters refer to the concentration of related businesses and institutions in a specific territory. In this article, the factors that cause the development of industrial clusters in Tehran metropolitan Region (TMR), has been defined as the main question. In this regard, the research aims to discover and identify the development factors of industrial clusters in TMR and to explain the importance and relationship between these factors. This research is applied in terms of purpose and quantitative (descriptive survey) in terms of method. In order to determine the level and prioritize the identified factors, the opinions of 18 experts in the field of industrial clusters have been used. In this research, the Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) method was first used, and after determining the importance and priority class of each series of factors, the network analysis process (ANP) was used to obtain the weights of factors in the classes. The findings show that there are five levels of influence in the investigation of factors affecting the development of industrial clusters in TMR. The first level includes: transportation cost, ease of access to raw materials; The second level includes: building trust and identifying common interests, proper use of the environment; The third level includes: the ease of establishing social relations and government support; The fourth level includes: cooperation between the government and the private sector in providing credit for development programs; And the fifth level includes access to advanced information systems, access to skilled and specialized workforce. Also, the results of the network analysis show that the strengthening of small companies in the first step, the existence of competitive markets in the second step and the increase of competition between companies in the field of innovation quality in the third step are the most important priorities for the development of industrial clusters in TMR.