Measuring the relative efficiency in insurance industry plays essential role for productivity improvement in insurance industry. In this paper, we present an empirical investigation to measure the relative efficiency of some insurance firms listed on Tehran Stock Exchange using data envelopment analysis (DEA) over the period 2011-2013. The proposed study of this paper uses four inputs namely; total assets, price to earnings ratio, beta and sigma and four outputs namely; net earnings, one-year, two-year and three-year returns. The study uses two methods of input and output oriented DEA to measures the relative efficiencies of 9 banks and the results indicate that most insurance firms perform well in terms of efficiency.

The aim of the present research is to study the relationship between intellect capital components and performance evaluation indicators. For measuring intellectual capital, the study uses Pulic’s method [Pulic, A. (2000). VAIC™–an accounting tool for IC management. International Journal of Technology Management, 20(5-8), 702-714.], which consists of three components of physical capital efficiency, human capital efficiency and structural capital efficiency. In the present study first, the value of the intellectual capital of the companies listed on Tehran Stock Exchange over the period 2006-2012 is calculated. Next, the relationship between the components of intellectual capital and financial return of the companies are evaluated. For calculating the financial performance 8 performance indicators in 5 groups presenting market value, profitability, activity, capital return, orientation on value creation are used. In the present research the statistical method used for data analysis is multiple regression and correlation coefficients. The selected sample of research includes 73 companies in continuous way for a time period of 7 years and the size of the company has been considered as a control variable. The findings indicate a positive and significant relationship between intellectual capital and financial performance of companies and a positive effect of the size of company on availability rate of intellectual capital and financial performance of a company.

Split delivery vehicle routing problem is one of the traditional types of routing problems in which the demand of different points can be divided among vehicles and the objective is to minimize the path length, which vehicles travel. In this paper, fuel cost of vehicles which is assumed to be dependent on their traveled path and load is considered as the objective functions. Namely, the cost of the consumed fuel is proportionate to the unit of load carried per unit of distance. In order to solve the proposed model a new memetic algorithm is developed which has two rows. The performance of the proposed algorithm for 21 standard problems is compared with the optimum solutions obtained from mathematical programming standard solver and the solutions of the same algorithm with single row solution representation. The results express the efficiency of developed algorithm.

This paper presents a study on the effects of professional ethics and commitments on audit quality. The population of this survey includes all audit managers who were active in auditing official statements of different firms listed in Tehran Stock Exchange in 2014. The study designs a questionnaire in Likert scale and distributes it among 152 randomly selected managers. In our survey, professional ethics consists of four items including confidentiality and impartiality, professional competence, accountability and individual values while organizational commitment consists of three items including emotional commitment, continues commitment and fundamental commitment. Using Pearson correlation as well as regression models, the study has determined a positive and meaningful relationship between professional ethics as well as commitment and audit quality.

Customer’s trust is the most important and one of the key factors of success in e-commerce. However, trust is the essential aspects of e-banking adoption and the main element for building long-term relationships with the bank & apos; s customers. So the purpose of this research is to investigate the factors influencing on customer?s trust in e-banking services and prioritize them. Therefore, designed questionnaire was distributed among 177 electronic service customers in number of banks in the city of Karaj, Iran. Likert quintuplet scales were used to measure the variables. After collecting the questionnaires, the data were analyzed by structural equation modeling (by using LISREL 8.5). The results revealed that quality of electronic services such as ease of use, privacy and security, individual characteristics of customers such as disposition to trust and features of bank such as reputation, size and dependence on government, have had the greatest effect on customer?s trust in e-banking services.

Green environmental issues have been of topical interest to both researchers and industrialists for some time now. Research on green brands is relatively limited, especially in developing countries, such as Ghana. This study is therefore designed to determine the relationship between customer awareness of green brand issues and their everyday purchase intentions. Using quantitative techniques, the study interviewed 316 people, conveniently selected from various shopping points in Accra. The study found that, the overwhelming majority of respondents though familiar with green issues did not concern themselves with green issues in their everyday purchase decisions. Again, majority of respondents (54%) familiar with environmental issues confirmed they would not switch from their preferred brands to less fancied brands even if the less fancied brands were more environmentally friendly. It was also confirmed in the study that price, brand name and convenience, performed better than customer concerns for green issues, in influencing respondents’ purchase decisions. It would therefore be strategically significance if advocates, policy makers and business leaders reduce the cost of green products to the final consumer, intensive public education campaigns, coupled with strategic brand building efforts to enhance the level of green brand consumption.

In the present scenario of high unemployment; Multilevel Marketing (MLM) generates employment for people who have no permanent source of earning. MLM system has emerged as one of the prime alternatives in the current marketing system. India has become a very popular destination of doing MLM business with high potential of growth. MLM system provides lucrative compensation that works as motivation for people to join this business. Motivation for executives of any firm plays a major role in its success. It also leads commitment of employees towards work and responsibilities. An attempt has been made to identify the motivational variables that have the highest level of contribution for joining the MLM system. Most of the MLMcompanies focus on compensation plan or reward system but apart from that a number of variables have been found which motivate the distributors to engage in MLM business. Further, the distributors play a vital role in the growth of the business. In this study, we also propose a motivational model to help MLM companies formulate better strategies in making a large network of people for growth of business.

This study intends to evaluate the impacts of implementing online marketing strategies on Iranian ecotourism industry. The study had eight hypotheses which were designed based on economic, sociological, and cultural aspects of Iranian ecotourism industry. The results indicate that the expansion of online marketing increased the number of foreign tourists who visited Iran’s natural tourist attractions, while it had no significant impact on the number of domestic tourists who visited these tourist attractions. The results also indicated that online marketing did not increase the amount of investment in Iranian ecotourism industry. Additionally, online ecotourism marketing did not have a significant influence on the total number of travels to Iran’s historical tourist attractions. Respondents believe implementing online marketing strategies in Iranian ecotourism industry helps Iran expand its cultural tourism in rural areas and it expands its hospitality industry; they also believe that online marketing helps to create more jobs in Iranian ecotourism industry and to improve working conditions in this industry.

This paper presents an empirical investigation to determine important factors influencing on customer satisfaction in after-sales service network of automotive industry. The study designs two questionnaires, one for measuring the quality of after-sales services and the other for measuring customers’ satisfaction. The study selects a sample of 265 randomly selected customers out of 850 people who received the services from an automotive firm in Iran. Cronbach alpha has calculated as 0.82, which is well above the minimum desirable level. Using Spearman correlation the study has detected a positive and meaningful relationship between services and customer satisfaction (r=0.48, Sig. =0.01), a positive relationship between being responsiveness and customer satisfaction (r=0.51, Sig. =0.01) and finally a positive relationship between speed of operation customer satisfaction (r=0.45, Sig. = 0.01). Moreover, there was a positive and meaningful relationship between cost of services and customer satisfaction (r=0.68, Sig. = 0.01) and a positive relationship between quality of services of after-sales services and customer satisfaction (r = 0.61, Sig. =0.01).

The purpose of this study is to provide criteria for selecting operations managers at the ‘service encounter’ for mobile telecommunication companies, and develop a system for this multi-criteria decision-making scheme based on the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). There are three main criteria for evaluating the capability of service-encounter operation managers: (1) the ability to design service process; (2) the ability to operate service process; (3) the ability to conduct improvement. The AHP operation manager selection tool was developed based on the complex problems at the service encounter. It was created as a decision support system which was used to recruit and evaluate operations managers’ capability for the purpose of career advancement.