Banking industry, which is closely associated with the invention and spread of the money, influences on economic growth and development. The main role of the banking system is to create a saving of deposits and using it in beneficial investments or lending it to different people with various investment purposes. Accordingly, banks play essential role as financial intermediaries and provide necessary funds from investors to borrowers and users. In this regard, appropriate management of cash flows is essential for banks. Cash management is a trade-off between risk and return like what happens in other kinds of managements meaning that improving cash management increases the cash considering the limited amount of resources and eventually increases the share of the financial institution. In this paper, the impact of cash management in Iranian banks on their value of stock in 2011 was examined based on the econometrics model and least-square technique. The results indicate a significant and positive impact of the increase in the cash management index on the banks’ stock value, meaning that a one percent increase in this index will increase 1.1 percent of the banks’ stock value.

Measuring the relative efficiency of financial units plays essential role for making strategic decisions such as business development, downsizing, etc. This paper presents an empirical investigation to rank different branches of a credit institution named Samen in city of Semnan, Iran. The proposed study uses data envelopment analysis (DEA) for measuring the relative efficiency of 17 units. The results indicate that five units were efficient and using Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), the efficient units are ranked based on some inputs/outputs. The results of this study indicate that most branches of this financial unit performed poorly and a restructure in their businesses is necessary. In addition, the study has provided some evidences that considering employee wage, bank deposit and administration expenses as inputs for DEA implementation seems to provide better results than using total assets and equities.

This paper investigates the use of Online Shopping as one of electronic marketing techniques as well as the effect of applying this shopping method and marketing on customer loyalty in Iran. The variables are extracted according to the review of literature and studies conducted in the field of shopping through cyberspace. A questionnaire is designed by applying these variables and distributed among a sample of service providers and users after testing its reliability and validity. Performing the statistical tests on the results of investigation led to the identification of effective factors. In addition, another questionnaire is distributed according to the obtained components in order to achieve a structural model for the impact of components on the customer loyalty. The structural equation modeling (SEM) is designed to learn the impact of obtained components on customer loyalty as a basis influencing on the survival of business space using SEM method. The study identified different components affected by utilization of online shopping websites including comprehensive information system, system development, choice power, viability and system optimization.

During the past few decades, there has been growing interest in water resources management. Presently, there are many areas in middle east facing with shortage of water for agricultural activities. Therefore, there is a growing concern to have efficient usage of water through optimization techniques. This paper presents a study to maximize famers’ revenue by developing a mathematical model subject to some land and water constraints. The proposed study has been applied for a case study of agricultural program in city of Abhar, Iran and the preliminary results indicate that it could increase the efficiency of agricultural program, significantly. In our survey, the optimal cultivation yields for four five-year programs have increased the income by 20.81, 44.698, 87.18 and 250.34 percent, respectively. In addition, 7.27% development land is added to agricultural lands, there is a 17% increase in water utilization and the productivity is increased from 50% to well above 77% after four 5-year programs have been implemented.

This paper presents an empirical investigation to determine the efficient locations of bank branch as well as automated banking machine. The study develops a mathematical model to minimize the cost of facility establishment subject to some constraints, which are associated with the population, accessibility of facilities, etc. All input parameters are considered in terms of triangular fuzzy numbers and using some methods, they numbers are converted into crisp values. The method has been applied for four cities in province of Seman, Iran and using WinQSB, the efficient locations of the facilities for a private bank named Samen have been determined.

This paper investigates different components on intellectual capital including human capital, structural capital and customer capital in banking industry in city of Salmas, Iran. The study uses the questionnaire developed by Bontis (1998) [Bontis, N. (1998). Intellectual capital: an exploratory study that develops measures and models. Management Decision, 36(2), 63-76.] to measure the effects of human capital. The questionnaire consists of 42 questions and all of them are designed in Likert scale. Cronbach alphas for human capital, structural capital and relationship capital were calculated as 0.79, 0.76 and 0.72, respectively. The implementation of Kolmogorov-Smirnov test has indicated that the data were normally distributed. Using t-student test, the study determined that while management team did not pay enough attention on human capital, there were some statistically significant evidence that social and relationship capitals gained good attention.

This paper presents an empirical investigation on the effects of occupational stress, psychological stress as well as job burnout on women’s employee performance in city of Karaj, Iran. The proposed study designs a questionnaire in Likert scale and distributes it among all female employees who worked for Bank Maskan in this city. In our survey, employee performance consists of three parts of interpersonal performance, job performance as well as organizational performance. Cronbach alpha has been used to verify the overall questionnaire, all components were within acceptable levels, and the implementation of Kolmogorov-Smirnov test has indicated that the data were not normally distributed. Using Spearman correlation ratio as well as regression techniques, the study has determined that while psychological stress influenced significantly on all three components of employee performance including interpersonal performance, job performance as well as organizational performance, the effect on job performance was greater than the other components. In addition, occupational stress only influences on organizational as well as interpersonal performance. Finally, employee burnout has no impact on any components of employee performance.

In the recent years, retail industry in Iran has faced an increasing competition and this has encouraged the managers of chain stores to find ways to differentiate their own companies. One of the influential factors in this field is brand equity. Concerning this issue, the aim of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of sale promotions on the brand equity of ETKA chain stores. Therefore, a sample of 500 people among the customers of these stores in Tehran was examined. The achieved information obtained from the questionnaire was analyzed through structural equation modeling. The results showed that monetary and non-monetary promotions could influence on brand association, brand awareness and the perceived quality. On the other hand, it came out that brand association and the perceived quality are influential on brand loyalty. At last, a few suggestions were presented based on the results of this research.

This paper presents an empirical investigation to study the relationship between social capital components, social trust, social cohesion, social participation and social security, and sustainable development in city of Salmas, Iran. The study designs a questionnaire in Likert scale, distributes it among 384 randomly selected people who live in this city. Cronbach alpha has been calculated as 0.92, which is well above the minimum acceptable level. Using regression technique, the study has determined a positive and meaningful relationship between three components of social capital and sustainable development including social cohesion, social participation and social security. However, the study does not confirm the relationship between social trust and sustainable development.