The main purpose of this research is to identify and analyze the effective factors of establishing a knowledge-based city in less developed areas. The research method is mixed (qualitative-quantitative). To carry out this research, in addition to studying documents, the ground theory method with MAXQDA12 software was used to identify the effective factors. The statistical population in this research was all experts in the field of public management, urban management, economics, managers of knowledge-based companies, and managers of Sistan and Baluchestan governorate and Zahedan municipality, which was conducted after conducting 17 theoretical saturation interviews. Finally, open, central, and selective codes were extracted and in the quantitative part, Dematal technique was used to determine the effectiveness of the effective dimensions on the establishment of a knowledge-based city. According to the semi-structured interviews, 6 dimensions (cause, main phenomenon, contextual, interveners, strategies, consequences) and 15 components (core codes), and 69 indicators (open code) were extracted for the establishment of the knowledge-based city. The Finding showed that dimensions of development, skill and expertise, education and technology, infrastructure, internationalization, institutional factor, urban knowledge development, knowledge management, foreign policies, laws and regulations, cultural-native, knowledge-based city development, policies, domestic, cultural conflict, and urban geography, in order from high impact to low impact, as well as dimensions of urban geography, cultural conflict, internal policies, knowledge-based city development, cultural-native, laws and regulations, foreign policies, knowledge management, knowledge development urban, institutional factor, internationalization, infrastructural, education and technology, skill and expertise and development are respectively from high effectiveness to low effectiveness.
