Abbas Noorizadeh - University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Jahangir Tavakkoli - University,Toronto, Canada
Henry Nafariy - Boston Scientific Corp., USA

Developing and commercializing new products has always been a complex task for research and development practitioners, business people and investors. There are often general challenges such as market forces, being new, lack of trust, high cost of R&D and resistance from previous products that prohibit success of new products commercialization. However, when dealing with new high-tech. products such as biotechnology products the case is often different. Employing a framework of Political, Economic, Social, Technology and Legal (PESTL), the article investigates to find out the specific challenges Iranian elites and exerts abroad face when trying to transfer their knowledge, expertise and technology back home for business purposes.

commercialization, biotechnology products, experts living abroad, business environment