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Knowledge intensive services include a wide range of services such as legal services, marketing, consulting, engineering, technical, information and communications, electronics, biotechnology, nanotechnology, optics and photonics, chemical products, electronics, information and communications and computer technologies, medical and pharmaceutical engineering, aerospace, energy and other innovative services (Mas-Verdu' et al., 2011; CECKCI, 2016).
From the 1960s onwards, the advent of the information revolution was accompanied by the formation of Post-fordist economy. The economy is known as informational or knowledge economy, which has even made the cities that are not founded based on capitalism encounter with structural changes (Rocco, 2006; Sarrafi, 2001). In addition, economic globalization has led to the development and concentration of advanced and knowledge intensive services in cities (Lim, 2003), including metropolises in advanced and growing economies. Tehran, as the largest center of production and consumption in Iran (Madanipour, 1998, & 1999) is also influenced by the economic globalization and has been faced with drastic functional-structural changes over the years 2000 to 2010 (Mohammadi, Sarrafi, & Tavakolinia, 2012).
Tehran, with the transition from an industrial to a service-based economy era, in addition to the concentration of financial resources and knowledge (Madanipour, 1999), has quickly entered advanced services economy and informational economy. So that in 2010 the service sector formed 78% of its economy (Tehran Municipality, 2014). As a result, between 2000 and 2012, the Advanced Producer Services was formed in Tehran and developed (Mohammadi et al., 2012). Since 2010, with the approval of and support for knowledge intensive firms (KIFs) by the Islamic Consultative Assembly of Iran, a new wave of knowledge intensive firms has started to work in Tehran during 2011-2016. So that until the first half of 2016, about 1, 000 of the total 1, 500 knowledge intensive companies founded in Iran had been established in Tehran metropolis (CECKCI, 2016).
However, the problem is that the companies have often begun to select a location without any programs in advance and out of spatial planning principles. It is estimated that by 2025, more than 20 new companies will be established in cities of Iran (CECKCI, 2016). This issue and the lifting of international sanctions have increased the tendency to establish knowledge intensive firms in Tehran metropolis. Before the imposition of international sanctions against Iran, foreign firms were not in Tehran metropolitan geography and local companies often worked at home (Mohammadi, 2012). Since the beginning of 2016 the sanctions have been moderated and it seems that due to the increase of political and economic international relations, foreign firms will be stimulated to work in Tehran. Therefore, appropriate location of new companies will be necessary.
Thus, the main purpose of this study is to identify and introduce appropriate regions and areas for the location of knowledge intensive firms in Tehran. In this study, we seek to answer the key question that which regions of Tehran have the highest potential and suitability for the location of KIFs? The answer to this question requires the use of proper Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) techniques in Geographic Information Systems (GIS).