
The concept of national innovation system (NIS) and innovation systems
drew a great deal of attention after its introduction in 1987 and many have worked on developing its theoretical concepts and tools since then. The concept is one of the new approaches for scientific policy making and determining technological and innovative priorities, which mirrors a wide range of debates and analyses. Moreover, the new concept determines a wide range of dynamism, innovative works, and the new aspects of innovation features formulations. The framework of NIS defines national borders as the borders of innovation system. National culture, language, and states play a key role in innovation within different technologies and sectors. However, the framework of regional innovation system (RIS) encompasses a specific region and seeks to influence a non-commercial productive culture, inter-business network, and innovative institutes of the regions or industrial cluster in the district. Taking into consideration that aggregation of economic activities in a region creates the best environment for development of an innovation-based economy in modern economy system; the concept of RIS is intensively related to the concept of industrial cluster. An industrial cluster is at the same time a common labor market, a common market for the supplier of raw materials and transfer of technology and information among the businesses. To meet this function, it is essential to take into account the industrial cluster within the framework of an RIS and recognize the institutional factors of the system of the industrial clusters. The idea of RIS has been recently introduced in Iran and finding its relationship with industrial clusters may result in a wider horizon ahead of the clusters and demonstrate how the RIS must be implemented.