Analyzing ‍ the Challenges of Commercialization of Agricultural Research as Perceived by Faculty Members of Iranian Agricultural Colleges

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Faculty Member of The Research Institue for Technological Development Studies, Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology, Iran

2 Faculty Member of Agriculture Research Center, Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology, Iran

Abstract

The objective of this descriptive- survey research was to analysis challenges of commercialization of agricultural research in Iranian agricultural colleges. The statistical population of the study consisted of faculty members of Iranian agricultural colleges (N= 1837) out of which 150 faculty members determined as sample using Cochran Formula and multi steps sampling technique. This study was conducted with a quantitative approach and the data were collected by a questionnaire developed for the study and were analyzed by SPSS software. The validity of the questionnaire was approved by a panel of experts. In order to measure the reliability of the questionnaire, Cronbach Alpha coefficients were calculated (0.83 to 0.92). The result indicated that in relation to prioritizing challenges of commercialization as perceived by faculty members, educational and infrastructural- supportive were in the highest ranks. Also, the result of exploratory factor analysis showed that challenges of commercialization of research in agricultural colleges were to be formed in seven distinctive factors including: infrastructural- supportive, educational, communicational, technical, organizational, financial and policy factors that these factors determined about 57.40 percent of variance.

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