How Creative is Tehran? An International and National Benchmarking Analysis

In today's creative economy, ideas and intellectual capital have replaced natural resources, and human creativity is the ultimate source of economic growth. Creative Capital selects specific cities and regions for work and living, known as creative cities; Cities that have the greatest capacity to attract, retain and nurture creative capital. This research aims to assess where Teheran stands both internationally and nationally among the most creative cities, known for their capacity to attract, retain and nurture creative economy, ideas and intellectual capital. First, a creative city framework is developed based on a review of 11 existing creative city indices. Second, based on their frequency of use, relevance and data availability 40 indicators were identified and computed. Using the VIKOR Method, an effective multi-criteria decision-making approach for diverging indicators, a national and international benchmarking analysis is performed on Teheran and selected cities. Results from the national benchmarking suggest that Teheran generally outperform the other Iran metropolis in 16 indicators. However, results from the international benchmarking show mix findings, where Teheran is well ranked in the human capital factor, and needs improvement in other factors including territorial assets, tolerance and resilience, and R&D and technology. Policy implications are discussed in the conclusion.