The Ranking and Comparison of Mazandaran Province Universities in the Field of Academic Entrepreneurship

Abstract

Introduction: Academic entrepreneurship and its development within medical universities are now one of the prerequisites for dynamic economic development in developed countries. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to rank and compare the universities of Mazandaran Province in the field of academic entrepreneurship. Methods: This descriptive applied research was conducted in 2015. The statistical population was comprised of the university faculty members and experts in incubation centers of the universities of Mazandaran Province. Samples were selected by purposive sampling method. Data were collected through questionnaire and interview and analyzed in the MATLAB software using the TOPSIS and simple additive weighting (SAW) techniques. Results: Babol University of Technology (W=0.1443; 0.1812) had the highest score in the field of academic entrepreneurship. Sari University of Medical Sciences (W=0.1366; 0.1643), and Babol University of Medical Sciences (W=0.1277; 0.1990) ranked second and third respectively. Conclusion: Considering the rather appropriate rank of medical universities among the universities of Mazandaran Province, it is essential that the medical universities increase their capacity and ability to provide new functions by developing the necessary infrastructures for development of entrepreneur university.

Keywords

• academic entrepreneurship
• medical universities
• health and hygiene
• multi-criteria decision making (mcdm) approaches