Today, innovation is not a decorative activity, but an unavoidable necessity in the arena of industries, especially mining and mineral industries. Various aspects of innovation and its wide scope of effect can influence businesses at different functional levels. Innovative approaches in the design of core and support processes, marketing and sales, supply of parts and equipment, human capital management, etc., have been able to create value, enhance productivity, and increase competitiveness in businesses.

Certainly, the larger companies are in terms of turnover, production volume, number of personnel, etc., the more difficulties creating an innovation flow and implementing innovative plans will face. In the country’s large mining companies, high inertia alongside inefficient and unproductive structures and processes are serious obstacles against the implementation of innovative approaches. Today, the growing trend of large international companies’ inclination towards the field of innovation and the significant investment of these companies in creating and developing infrastructure for the production and proliferation of innovative activities promises a hopeful future in this area. Therefore, if the high financial capability of large companies in the country is coupled with the will and knowledge of senior managers to create innovation, it can create sustainable innovation flows in the country.

The active and effective presence of large companies in the arena of innovation can not only accelerate the flow of technology development but also enable these companies to manage changes in the business environment. Studying the technology trend in recent years shows that significant changes have occurred in the needs of modern humans, and businesses must be prepared to respond to and meet these needs. It is obvious that businesses which are inattentive to these developments will have no fate but failure and destruction in the arena of the market’s fierce competition. It goes without saying that companies which adopt development-oriented strategies are more successful in predicting changes and even managing transformations, and can, relying on innovative flows, recognize future needs and play a role in shaping them beyond mere prediction. The confrontation of conventional products with untimely phenomena and developments, the need for quality beyond the existing desirable state, the scarcity of renewable water and energy resources, the dizzying speed of change in customers’ needs, tastes, and interests have caused the knowledge of futures studies to become a key and vital tool for businesses to survive. To survive in the future competitive space, businesses must design and execute their processes with innovation-oriented approaches. In these businesses, structures are adapted for nurturing and growing creativity and benefiting from innovation (whether it is the product of in-house development activities or the result of open innovation).

Global evidence shows that startup businesses are mainly formed in the form of small companies with a limited number of personnel and centered around an innovative axis. However, it should be noted that the existence of a suitable platform and a favorable business environment is considered a prerequisite for realizing the innovation flow. Creating an appropriate ground for the emergence of creativity and providing the necessary conditions for transforming it into innovation and developing it into a usable form on an industrial scale and elevating it to the status of technology requires hardware, software, and orgware that can be provided by large companies. Small companies cannot provide much of the necessary groundwork for transforming innovation into products usable in businesses. On the other hand, knowledge of real business conditions and the components governing the market, which is a condition for the success of the innovative flow on its development path, can be articulated and injected into startup businesses by large companies.

According to what has been stated, large companies are considered an undeniable pillar in the innovation ecosystem. The special position of these companies in the form of resource suppliers, especially financial resources, is of particular importance. On the other hand, creating a flow to stabilize innovation concepts in the general economic atmosphere is one of the results of the innovative performance of large companies. Furthermore, the correct transfer of the real economy sector’s needs to the innovation sector and the formulation of problem statements for innovators who can apply their specialized capabilities and innovation capacities to meet those needs and solve key problems in the production and services sector will cause a shift in approach from supply-orientation to demand-orientation. This issue causes the path of knowledge creation and its transformation into technology to pass through the route of applied research, and efforts in the innovation ecosystem become focused on solving real problems.

Therefore, the corporate innovation ecosystem, which is a collection of individuals, organizations, technologies, resources, and various factors that together facilitate and strengthen the innovation process within the company, helps the company innovate faster, more creatively, and more efficiently, reduce innovation risks, and gain a stronger competitive advantage.

Utilizing the capacity of new technologies at Sangan Steel Mining Industries Company (SSMIC) is an institutionalized belief. Sangan Steel Mining Industries Company (SSMIC) at the TANA Event in 1401 (2022/2023) at the Khorasan Science and Technology Park signed a memorandum of understanding for the establishment of a technology campus and on Aban 28, 1402 (November 19, 2023) received its establishment license from the Expansion Council of the Ministry of Science as the country’s first specialized mining industries campus with private sector ownership. In the performance of this campus in 1402 (2023/2024), mention can be made of over 70 billion Tomans in contracts for manufacturing technological equipment with knowledge-based companies, and approximately 300 billion Tomans in 1403 (2024/2025). All these contracts are in the areas of energy consumption optimization, improving the quality of manufactured products, and optimizing processes and production lines. Currently, 17 grown companies in the field of mining and mineral industries are based at the Sangan Steel Mining Industries Company (SSMIC) Technology Campus. Also, in 1403 (2024/2025), Sangan Steel Mining Industries Company (SSMIC), in collaboration with the University of Tehran, established the Martyr Ali Mohammadi Research Center in the field of social and applied research in mining and mineral industries in the Sangan region. This center, in addition to scientifically examining the effectiveness of Sangan Steel Mining Industries Company (SSMIC)’s social actions in the Khaf region, which is one of the requirements of regional sustainable development, intends to hold MBA and DBA courses in the field of empowering and enhancing the knowledge and skill level of personnel.

The research and technology actions of Sangan Steel Mining Industries Company (SSMIC) with universities and science and technology parks are clear evidence of the company’s managers’ belief in the development of the corporate innovation ecosystem, and these very actions have transformed it into a pioneering, reputable, and influential company at the national level.