How to develop saffron business clusters in Iran

The aim of the current research was to create a framework for the development of saffron commercial clusters in South Khorasan province. This research is quantitative and a questionnaire was used to conduct it. 987 managers, assistants and marketers of saffron processing workshops and saffron sales centers of saffron commercial clusters in South Khorasan constitute the statistical population of the research. 278 people were used as a sample population in the table of Karjesi and Morgan in 1970, and a questionnaire was used to collect the necessary data. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical indices, structural equation analysis and SPSS and SEM-PLS software packages. The inferential findings of the research showed complete agreement between the theoretical and experimental constructs and the measured factors with the accepted theoretical models. The results of data analysis indicate that economic and social factors had a positive effect on the level of development at the 95% confidence level. On the other hand, in the economic variable, the item "commercialization of saffron product" is the first priority and the item "transportation, packaging, marketing costs of saffron product" is the last priority, and also in the variable of social factors, the item "innovation motivation for saffron product producers" "in the first priority and the item "riskiness of investment for saffron product" is in the last priority. In addition, the variables of the research model account for about 68% of the changes in the level of development of commercial clusters in South Khorasan.