In recent years, one of the goals of any company is to increase overall production and process reliability. Hereupon supply chain reliability has been gaining growing attention and provides a technical framework for quantifying supply chain risks and uncertainties. In this paper, supply chain reliability was investigated in a two-stage stochastic programming model to design reliable closed-loop green four-echelon forward/backward supply chain networks. The purpose of this model was to maximize the total reliability of the supply chain based on the structural reliability theory. Our proposed model also minimized the cost of the supply chain by definition of recycling centres and the cost of penalizing unauthorized carbon emission and damages. The model optimized the locations of factories, warehouses, and recycling centres considering stochastic modes for demands and carbon price, as well as the flow between different sectors and the optimal orders. As the proposed model was a mixed-integer nonlinear problem, both e-constraint method and the metaheuristic algorithm (NSGA-II) were used in different scales and the sensitivity analysis was performed for critical parameters.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which the Intelligent Enterprise Resource Planning (I-ERP) System can be used in company operations. Machine learning is embedded in a decision tree algorithm to demonstrate the viability of intelligent technology in an ERP system and to enhance the quality of operations through an I-ERP system. The study consists of two steps. In the first step, the algorithm uses the decision tree algorithm to demonstrate the application of intelligent technology in an ERP system. In the second step, the proposed model analyzes four quality criteria related to company operations through I-ERP system in order to determine whether or not I-ERP has significant improvement on managers’ decisions. As a result, the use of I-EPR may improve the quality of operations, agile respond to market demand, increase the efficiency and the competitiveness in organizations. An illustration example is provided to demonstrate the application of I-ERP.

Recently, there has been tremendous interest worldwide in the possibility of using chaos in communication systems. Many different chaos-based secure communication schemes have been proposed up until now. However, systems with strong chaoticity are more suitable for chaos-based secure communication. From the viewpoint of Lyapunov exponents, a chaotic system with a larger positive Lyapunov exponent is said to be more complex. This paper constructing a multistable chaotic system that can produce coexisting attractors is an attractive field of research due to its theoretical and practical usefulness. An innovative 3D dynamical system is presented in this research. It can display various coexisting attractors for the same values of parameters. The new system is more suitable for chaos-based applications than recently reported systems since it exhibits strong multistable chaotic behavior, as proved by its large positive Lyapunov exponent. Furthermore, the accuracy of the numerical calculation and the system's physical implementations are confirmed by analog circuit simulation. Finally, implementing the proposed voice encryption is done using a four-wing chaotic system based on the PRNG.

Hosting Olympic Games is a significant opportunity for every country and her metropolitan cities. Olympics offer several benefits to the Host countries and cities such as introducing cultural assets of the country to the world and increasing economic value of the country and city Olympics held. Countries and cities wishing to host Olympic Games have to prove that they have the qualifications to be host of these games. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has identified 5 main criteria and 22 sub-criteria to determine the objectivity measure of this adequacy. These criteria are in conflict with each other so multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) methods can be useful to determine the best host country and its city for Olympic Games. In this study, an integrated MCDM model is proposed to determine the best metropolitan city in Turkey for hosting of the Olympic Games. The contribution of this study is that there are very few studies related to the selection of hosting places for Olympic Games using MCDM methods. The results of the integrated model show that Antalya is the best metropolitan host for Olympic Games.

Both organizational agility and learning capability are prerequisites for organizational survival and success. This study explores the contribution of agility practices to organizational learning capabilities at the commercial banks in Jordan. To examine the proposed model, a sample of 158 employees within top and middle managements was used. Structural Equation Modeling was conducted for assessing validity and reliability of measurement instrument, evaluating model fit, and testing hypotheses. This study recognizes agility as a key element of learning facilitators. Findings affirm the strategic value of agility and conclude that administrators working within ag-ile organizations would be able to acquire conditions that foster learning.

Six Sigma is a statistics-based approach focusing on minimizing defects and variations in prod-ucts and processes. Although it is used generally in production-based businesses, Six Sigma has been used in service sector businesses in the recent years as well. The aim of this study is to de-termine healthcare and banking sector managers’ perceptions related to Six Sigma, and compare healthcare managers and banking managers in terms of their opinions about six sigma. The study was done between February 2016 and October 2016 in private healthcare organizations and pri-vate banks operating in Turkey. The intended population of the study involves the managers working in these organizations. To compare perceptions of healthcare sector managers and bank-ing sector managers, Mann Whitney-U test was used. According to the statistical tests per-formed, there is not any statistically significant difference between healthcare sector managers and banking sector managers in terms of their view about Six Sigma. However, managers from the both sectors noted that Six Sigma could provide important advantages to their organizations. This result was considered as important because it indicates that Six Sigma can offer benefits for different and distinct parts of service sector, such as banking and healthcare.

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has played overwhelming roles in the economic and social development of nations and continents in the last two decades. This study aims to explore the impact of mobile telephone and broadband use on economic growth in G7 countries using annual data covering the period of 2000-2017. We performed Pedroni cointegration, Kao cointegration, fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS), dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS), and panel Granger causality tests to investigate the causal and long-run effects. The empirical findings reveal that (i) mobile telephone and broadband use contribute to economic growth in the long-run; (ii) changes in mobile telephone and broadband use significantly lead to a change in economic growth.

The lack of a proper communication link between supply chain operations and financial performance seems to be due to the difficulty of using the operational metrics of supply chain measurement to reach the financial goals. This study is an attempt to find the effect of supply chain management (SCM) implementation on the financial success of the firms. The study considers the effects of Revenue, Prime Cost, Cash-to-cash cycle period and Return on working capital on the financial performance of the selected firms listed in Istanbul stock exchange from 2012 to 2017. The study divides the sample size based on their financial growth into two groups and using some statistical test measures the difference between two groups, statistically. The results show that there was a significant difference between the mean of high-growth and low-growth companies in terms of SCM implementation. However, the effects of cost, cash cycle and working capital on financial performance were not confirmed.

The revolutionary alterations and conversions occurring in information and communication technologies, have triggered an increase in the electronic commerce applications. Airline tickets are one of the most popular items purchased on the internet. The airline websites have become a big distribution channel for the companies to sustain their competitiveness. At this moment, the competition is increasing as airlines try to acquire and retain customers in the airline industry. To acquire and retain customers in such a highly competitive market, it is important for airlines to understand their relative levels of quality in terms of critical elements affecting their competitive advantages. In this study, an integrated two-stage multi-criteria decision-making techniques were used for the measurement of the performance of the airline websites using the Entropy Weight Method and the Grey Relational Analysis approach. The performance of 11 airline companies’ websites operating in Turkey was evaluated in terms of seven criteria. The data of quality website from airlines websites were taken more than 30 trails on various occasions on different periods of times. The data has been taken from 1 December 2016 to 31 December 2016. The weights of the attributes were calculated by Entropy Weight Method, the evaluation of the alternatives using the Grey Relational Analysis method were given ranking of websites.

In a competitive environment many companies usually outsource their logistics functions to the Third Party Logistics (TPL) providers to focus on their core businesses. However, the selection of proper TPL provider is not an easy task because of conflicting quantitative and qualitative criteria. This study presents an integrated model based on three well-known methods Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL), Analytical Network Process (ANP) and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) for the evaluation and selection of TPL providers. DEMATEL computes the effects between selection criteria while ANP derives the weights of each criterion related with TPL providers’ selection problem. Finally DEA presents a mathematical model for ranking TPL providers alternatives with respect to various criteria. The application of integrated model is demonstrated with a case study. The novelty of this study comes from the fact that there is no research in the literature integrating DEMATEL, ANP and DEA for the TPL selection problems.