Investigating the Drivers of Knowledge-Based Growth Management Using Fuzzy MICMAC: A Case Study in Iran
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Abstract - add into abstract:
· main aim,
· methods,
· conclusions
Remember the abstract length.
Methodology – Improve this part. In its current form, it only contains a detailed description of the methods with their advantages and limits, as well as the characteristics of the selected area - the city. However, what is important to add is the main goal of the work, the formulation of hypotheses, the identification and justification of variables, the characteristics of the data and other details that will complete the idea of the further direction of the work.
Table 1 – add the note. It is very important to identify Var1 etc. near this table.
Discussion -
This is very important part, that lacked in your paper.
Authors should discuss the results and how they can be interpreted from the perspective of previous studies and of the working hypotheses. The findings and their implications should be discussed in the broadest context possible.
Results - it is necessary to add other areas of interest, as well as possible directions of similar research in the future.
References
Improved references according to acquirements of the journal.
Overall, this paper should be rearranged a lot.
Author Response
Answers has been included in the attached file
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Countering urban sprawl has become a major issue across the globe.
Urban growth management has long since emerged as a tool to check and assess how to deal with increasing needs of a growing population often compelled to illegal and marginal settlements.
In Tabriz city, despite the possibility of development within the urban growth boundary, most of activities have taken place outside.
Several corrective elements towards a healthy city for living, working and having leisure time are identified in knowledge-based growth management scenarios. Key aspects are pinpointed by university's reputation, government effectiveness, urban competitiveness, city branding, quality of life, and strategic planning.
The literature review is sound enough, drawing upon an array of urban growth management approaches. The same as for the applied methodology, Fuzzy Linguistic MICMAC, that has been modelled to better detect cross influences among different drivers.
When it comes to results, some major amendments are required.
3.2. Study area. Tabriz is a city of ancient manufacturing tradition (World's carpet Capital), of attraction for tourism.
This paragraph is too short, omitting an insight over administrative tradition, urban setting, demography, trends, roots in history, current perspectives, and governance schemes.
Paragraph 4. It seems (but it is not clear at all) that experts participating in this research-action have been tested through fuzzy set theory to fill in the tables of mutual influences from qualitative values to quantitative numerical values. I infer it represents a concrete case deriving from the theoretical model in Fig. 4.
As such, further clarification about empirical results collected in Table 2 would be much appreciated. By the way, who are the experts? Could you better explain this section of the work?
Author Response
Answers has been included in the attached file
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
This research analyzes the drivers of knowledge-based growth management (KBGM) in Tabriz city, Iran. The results of the applied methods are relatively consistent in this context that the city of Tabriz has had scattered, isolated, rapid, and unplanned growth. The study reveals the university's reputation, government effectiveness, urban competitiveness, city branding, quality of life, and strategic planning will impact the knowledge-based development process in Tabriz. The work is exciting. However, the contribution on sustainability is unclear. In addition, can the driver of knowledge-based development process in Tabriz be applied in other cities such as London, Tokyo, and Singapore?
Author Response
Answers has been included in the attached file
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Without other comments.
Author Response
Thank you for appreciating our work
Reviewer 2 Report
Overall the proposal has much improved.
Several critical points still remain, some indicated in the manuscript with my annotations.
I continue to feel the lack of a qualitative overview of the city of Tabriz and its main features, in relation to the strategic use of Knowledge-Based Growth Management.
How many inhabitants does Tabriz have? What economy does the city live on today? Why and how does the university represent an excellence or a strength?
I am not suggesting to go deep into details but I think that a sort of short 'city profile' could benefit session 3 (one more page max). Otherwise, the main assumptions of the work "Based on this, the university's reputation, government effectiveness, urban competitiveness, city branding, quality of life, and strategic planning will impact the knowledge-based development process in Tabriz" appear without foundations
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Thank you for your suggestions. More description about Tabriz has been added in the study area section. English has been improved, and several sentences have been rephrased
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
The revised version meets my revision demand overall. However, there are syntax errors:
The line number is missing.
(1) Page 12, the “finally” should be “Finally”.
(2) Figure 6 and7 should be Figure 6(a) and 6(b) in page 14.
(3) The supporting fundings should be given in final part of the study.
Author Response
Thank you for your suggestions. English has been improved, and several sentences have been rephrased. All suggested revisions have been addressed.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
