Determining the Dimensions and Components of Elites Empowerment in Interaction with the Business Environment Based on Knowledge Economy and Technology

Background: The main objective of this paper was to determine the dimensions and components of elites empowerment in interaction with the business environment based on knowledge economy and technology. Methods: This was an applied developmental study in view of objective and descriptive/observational and survey type with respect to the manner of sampling and data collection. Purposive sampling method was used to choose the participants. The statistical population of the study consisted of 3,000 managers of knowledge-based enterprises throughout Iran, 572 of whom were enrolled in the study. Overall, 362 of the participants responded to the self-made questionnaire, which included 80 items rated using a 5-point Likert scale, and 350 questionnaires were fully completed by the samples and were used for data analysis. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by 10 professors of Islamic Azad University. In order to determine its construct validity, the exploratory factor analysis was used, utilizing principal component analysis and varimax rotation. The reliability coefficient of the questionnaire was 0.87. For data analysis, exploratory factor analysis and analytical hierarch process were implemented using SPSS and LISREL tools. Results: The results showed that the pattern of elites empowerment in interaction with the business environment based on knowledge economy and technology included the individual (0.260), intra-organizational (0.463), and extra-organizational (0.276) aspects. Conclusions: Among these aspects, the intra-organizational factor had the greatest impact on the empowerment of elites. Therefore, for the empowerment of elites, executive mechanisms should be prepared in the frame of formulated components.