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Barriers to Entrepreneurship Development in Iran’s Higher Education: A Qualitative Case Study

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Abstract

The present qualitative research study was designed to identify barriers to entrepreneurship development in Iran’s higher education system. The present study is applied and developmental in terms of its objective and it is descriptive case study in terms of its nature and data collection. The study population includes 45 elites, scholars, policy-makers, planners, managers, specialists, and experts endowed with expertise and experience in the subject matter of this study in Yazd province, Iran, who are selected through purposive sampling method. To collect the required data, in-depth and semi-structured interviews are performed that are continued until the achievement of theoretical saturation. Following the implementation of open and refined coding processes, findings are illustrated in a four-dimensional model. The research model is represents the upcoming context of entrepreneurship development in Iran’s higher education system. Finally, causal conditions leading to such impacts, consequences, and action strategies are proposed to reduce and alleviate the given impacts.

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Acknowledgements

The authors hereby express their special gratitude to all the respondents, who presented the needed data with great patience, as well as the surveyors and interviewers, who did their best for data collection.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Institute for New Technology Development Studies (RINTDS), Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology (IROST), Tehran, 3353136846, Iran

    Negin Fallah Haghighi

  2. Seed and Plant Improvement Institute, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Karaj, Iran

    Maryam Mahmoudi

  3. Department of Agricultural Extension and Education, College of Agriculture, Tarbiat Modares University (TMU), Tehran, 1497713111, Iran

    Masoud Bijani

Authors
  1. Negin Fallah Haghighi
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  2. Maryam Mahmoudi
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  3. Masoud Bijani
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Correspondence to Negin Fallah Haghighi.

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Fallah Haghighi, N., Mahmoudi, M. & Bijani, M. Barriers to Entrepreneurship Development in Iran’s Higher Education: A Qualitative Case Study. Interchange 49, 353–375 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10780-018-9330-9

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