During the past few years, information and communication technology (ICT) has revolutionized banking industry in the world. People are now able to do their business banking activities such as bill payments, transfer funds, etc. through the art of ICT features such as automatic teller machines, internet or telephone banking services. This paper performs an empirical investigation to find important factors influencing ICT implementation in Iranian banking industry. The survey uses factor analysis to find important factors using a questionnaire consist of 26 variables. Cronbach alpha is calculated as 0.901, which validates the questionnaire. The survey detects six factors influencing ICT including efficiency approach, new advanced technological achievements, human resource management, service strategy, growth strategy and supporting systems.

Use of Automated guided vehicles (AGVs) is highly significant in Flexible Manufacturing Sys-tem (FMS) in which material handling in form of jobs is performed from one work center to an-other work center. A multifold increase in through put of FMS can be observed by application of multi load AGVs. In this paper, Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) integrated with Memetic Algorithm (MA) named as Modified Memetic Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm (MMP-SO) is applied to yield initial feasible solutions for scheduling of multi load AGVs for minimum travel and waiting time in the FMS. The proposed MMPSO algorithm exhibits balanced explora-tion and exploitation for global search method of standard Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm and local search method of Memetic Algorithm (MA) which further results into yield of efficient and effective initial feasible solutions for the multi load AGVs scheduling problem.

Most recent studies are based on benchmarking analysis allowing the measure of company efficiency relatively to a reference performance. Benchmarking is a helpful tool to analyze and promote efficiency in insurance companies. The fast development of X-efficiency notion makes traditional performance measures (ROA, ROE, etc.) obsolete. Indeed, various methods have been used, various input-output measures have been proposed and various research fields have been explored in insurance company investigation. So, after reviewing most known efficiency concepts and their definitions, this section explores the literature review of two principal points of discussion: the first point is focused on the different used techniques to measure efficiency, including the developed approaches to define inputs, outputs and their prices. The second point represents an overview of efficiency investigations in insurance industry.

Consumer credit risk assessment involves the implementation of risk assessment techniques to manage a borrower’s account from the event of pre-screening a potential application through to the management of the account during its life-cycle and possible write-off. This paper presents an empirical investigation to study the relationship between 13 different factors such as credit history, applications’ educational and management skills, etc. and credit risk. The study selects the profiles of 380 applicants who received loans from one of Iranian banks named Bank Mellat in city of Tehran, Iran over the period 2010-2011. Using Pearson correlation, the study has determined a meaningful relationship between applicants’ profiles including credit history, business characteristics, personal characteristics, etc. and credit risk.

Cutouts are commonly used as access port for mechanical and electrical structures. Most of the structures generally work under severe dynamic loading and different constrained conditions during their service life. This may lead to vibration of the structure. Therefore, it is necessary to predict the vibration responses of laminated composite plates with cutouts precisely with less computational cost and good accuracy of these complex structures. A suitable finite element model is proposed and developed based on first order shear deformation theory using ANSYS parametric design language (APDL) code. The model has been discretized using an appropriate eight nodded element (SHELL 281) from the ANSYS element library. The free vibrations are computed using Block-Lanczos algorithm. The convergence study has been done of the developed model and compared with those available published literature. Effects of different geometric parameters (aspect ratio, thickness ratio, boundary conditions, number of layers, angle of lamina geometry of cutout, cutout side to plate side ratio and distance between cutouts) and material properties on the free vibration responses are discussed in detail. The frequency increases with increase in the number of layers, modulus ratio of plate and angle of lamina. The frequency decreases with increase in aspect ratio, thickness ratio, size of cutout and distance between cutouts. The boundary conditions of the plate play an important role in the free vibrations of the plate with cutouts. The Non-dimensional frequencies are higher for fully clamped boundary condition in comparison to other boundary conditions.

Customer relationship management (CRM) systems track and measure marketing campaigns over different networks. There are literally many studies associated with the implementation of CRM in different industries. This paper presents an empirical investigation to determine effective factors influencing on the success of CRM implementation. The study designs a questionnaire in Likert scale on measuring various factors and distributes it among selected employees who work for the biggest software maker firm in city of Tehran, Iran. Using principal component analysis, the study has detected five factors influencing on the succes of CRM including customer relationship technologies, customer oriented, enterprise development strategies, customer services and business plan.

A mild and efficient procedure has been proposed for oxidation of benzylic alcohols to the corresponding carbonyl compounds using polymer-supported dichloroiodate (PSDI). The oxidations were carried out in acetonitrile solution, affording the corresponding aldehydes or ketones in high substrate conversion and short reaction time under mild aprotic conditions. Excellent selectivity was observed between primary benzyl alcohols and secondary ones as well as non-benzylic alcohols in the oxidation reactions. The catalyst can be easily prepared and regenerated.

During the past two decades, there have been some concerns on application of multiple criteria decision making on prioritizing production planning. In this paper, we present an empirical investigation to use Technique of ranking by similarity by positive ideal solution (TOPSIS) for ranking various alternatives productions in an Iranian firm in Faucet industry named Irandoosh. The proposed study uses fuzzy numbers to handle uncertainty and using five criteria of profitability, life cycle, quality, social issues and production capacity, analytical hierarchy process is employed to rank various alternatives and then rank different products based on TOPSIS technique.

Distribution is an indispensable component of logistics and supply chain management. Location-Routing Problem (LRP) is an NP-hard problem that simultaneously takes into consideration location, allocation, and vehicle routing decisions to design an optimal distribution network. Multi-layer and multi-product LRP is even more complex as it deals with the decisions at multiple layers of a distribution network where multiple products are transported within and between layers of the network. This paper focuses on modeling a complicated four-layer and multi-product LRP which has not been tackled yet. The distribution network consists of plants, central depots, regional depots, and customers. In this study, the structure, assumptions, and limitations of the distribution network are defined and the mathematical optimization programming model that can be used to obtain the optimal solution is developed. Presented by a mixed-integer programming model, the LRP considers the location problem at two layers, the allocation problem at three layers, the vehicle routing problem at three layers, and a transshipment problem. The mathematical model locates central and regional depots, allocates customers to plants, central depots, and regional depots, constructs tours from each plant or open depot to customers, and constructs transshipment paths from plants to depots and from depots to other depots. Considering realistic assumptions and limitations such as producing multiple products, limited production capacity, limited depot and vehicle capacity, and limited traveling distances enables the user to capture the real world situations.

Capital structure is a controversial issue in the field of corporate finance. There are several studies to find a way to determine the optimal capital structure to minimize the cost of capital and maximize the corporate value. In fact, capital structure is a combination of firms’ liabilities and capital to meet long term assets. This paper investigates the role of the hierarchical theory in explaining the capital structure of the firms based on enterprise life cycle model on selected firms listed on Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) using three methods of net equities, net liabilities and retained earnings. The study uses Park and Chen’s (2006) method [Park, Y., & Chen, K. H. (2006). The effect of accounting conservatism and life-cycle stages on firm valuation. Journal of Applied Business Research (JABR), 22(3), 75-92.] to categorize the life cycle of 81 randomly selected firms from TSE over the period 2007-2012. The results indicate that the hierarchical theory represents the growing firms better than the matured firms do. The results also show that firms were more willing to reduce their dividend per share for financing their projects.