Analyzing the impact of university on regional development in Iran

The purpose of this paper was to analyze the impact of the university on regional development in Iran in the theoretical framework of the knowledge-based development ecosystem. This research was conducted with a descriptive approach, which is a practical and quantitative method. For the empirical analysis of ecosystem of the knowledge-based development and university assistance for regional development, the panel data of Iran’s  provinces for three years, Structural Equations Modeling technique and PLS software was used. The results of the research showed that the knowledge-based development ecosystem in the Iranian provinces has not been formed. As a result, provincial universities in Iran do not have a significant impact on regional development. Because universities are unable to connect the basic processes and capabilities of the provinces to innovation, entrepreneurship and knowledge-based businesses. On the other hand, there is no ecosystem that increase regions’ capacity of attracting and connects university activities to economic, social and cultural systems. Therefore, the only way to improve the assistance of universities to regional development is to form “University-based Developmental Ecosystems”, which calls for the efforts of the government, universities, and other well-established institutions.