A Comparative Analysis of Research and Development in Iran and Four Leading Countries

Research and Development (R & D) are indicative of countries' advancement and investment in R & D units is considered as a competitive advantage. Nowadays, only countries which attempt to pave the way for rapid scientific advance and economic success through pursuing new technological advances and bridging their knowledge and technology gaps can take part in global competition. The present paper aims at contributing to the extant literature and investigates various R & D success factors and their status in Iran and developed countries including Japan, the U. S., China, and Germany. Then, a contrastive analysis of the countries follows, and ultimately, some suggestions are postulated to develop research status in Iran. In the light of the results, industrial countries in comparison with Iran view investment in R & D as an indispensible principle of economy and have increasingly developed the requisite infrastructures for its growth as well as full bloom of science and technology