Developing a fuzzy group AHP model for prioritizing the factors affecting success of High-Tech SME's in Iran: A case study

Small and medium enterprises (SME's) play a vital role in economic development of countries. It has been estimated that about 80 percent of world economic growth is created by SME's. This research aims to develop a model to evaluate factors affecting Iranian high-tech SME's success. For this purpose a hierarchal model with 10 main factor and 47 sub factors has been suggested. Since the evaluating factors were qualitative, a fuzzy modification of the group Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method was applied and Chang's extended analysis has been applied to analyze the fuzzy data. Finally, considering the relative importance of criteria, Critical Success Factors (CSF's) of high-Tech SME's were identified. These CSF's were employed in a fuzzy TOPSIS model in order to performance evaluation and rank the 17 high-tech firms located in Bio-Technology Incubator of Karaj. Results show that entrepreneur related factors, market characteristics and Product features are the most important success factors of Iranian high-tech SME's respectively. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer review tinder responsibility of Prof. Dr. Huseyin Arasli