Differences between policy assessment & policy evaluation; a case study on supportive policies for knowledge-based firms

In the management literature, the terminologies of assessment and evaluation in some cases are treated synonymously and are used interchangeably. However, these terms have different meanings and pursue different goals. In the area of ​​public policies, the two approaches to assessment and evaluation have yet to be separated. The article employs discourse analysis to examine the meanings, nature, purposes, methods, and other characteristics of assessment and evaluation in the lexical literature of the educational management (as reference literature) as well as technology management (literature close to the target literature). Accordingly, we have attempted to suggest new definitions, which differentiate between assessment and evaluation approaches in the field of public policy using the results of previous analyzes and metaphorical correspondences, and then define the boundaries of the uses of these tasks in the policy cycle. As a case study, the supportive policies of the Iranian government in supporting knowledge-based companies and institutions have been discussed, and some of the many possible investigations of the functions, outcomes, and practices of these policies listed based on assessment and evaluation. Some examples of challenges due to the inaccuracy in distinguishing between these two tasks and thus performing them incompletely are investigated in this case study and, as a result, deficiencies in the policy cycle and failure of policies to achieve their desired goals have been shown. Finally, the implications of management and policy on how can policymakers act on the paper's ideas as well as the necessity to use them are discussed.