In an environment, which is highly competitive and everything changes rapidly, managers of organizations face with problems such as how to identify important factors preventing organizations from optimum use of available resources and capacities and invest more on key factors. To achieve this goal, we need to develop an effective strategy map for organizations. The strategy map is a constructional and expanding procedure to identify relationships among all the organization & apos; s strategic goals, which play a key role in achieving competitive advantage. Undoubtedly, representing a model to identify and to evaluate the important items for each of available goals in strategy map of each organization is a significant help for management to access higher competition benefits. In this paper, strategic objectives in the strategy map of one of the best producer of electric auto part makers in Iran called Electric Vehicle Co. East are evaluated based on balanced score card perspective and to assign appropriate values to available factors we use a hybrid method consist of AHP technique with Fuzzy logic.

Consulting helps managers or other people find appropriate solutions for challenges they face in their businesses. Most of the losses incurred by the people and the society could be prevented using appropriate consultation. Consultation, also, refers to people & apos; s participation in decision making. Despite dramatic development in management consulting industry in the world during the last three decades, consulting industry in Iran has faced numerous challenges. This study aims to examine the factors affecting the efficiency of management consulting services in small and medium-sized businesses and it focuses on food industries in Tehran as a real-world case study. The necessary suggestions regarding the hiring of a consultant and increasing the efficiency of management consulting services in business have been offered in this study. Some recommendations deal with the way that management consultants should respond to the managers & apos; needs, act as a reliable and efficient adviser in public or private businesses and find their position in the Iranian market. The conceptual model of this study shows the influence of key factors affecting the purpose of consulting on the efficiency of management consulting services. To do the research, 90 people are selected as the sample size in a descriptive study with random sampling of the managers of aforementioned companies using a questionnaire. Cronbach’s alpha method was used to assess the reliability of the questionnaire. For assessing the validity of the questionnaire, we use standard questionnaire, which has already been used.

Over the past two decades, two-way communication via web-based exchanges has been a popular method for different activities such as electronic transaction, publication, broadcasting, and other service applications. However, it is always necessary to measure the performance quality of web services using different technique such as e-SERVQUAL model. The proposed study of this paper uses this technique for measuring the quality of Iranian university e-services. The proposed study distributes a standard questionnaire among students who use this service through internet. The results indicate that only efficiency and online service quality in the e-service system are desirable. Managerial implications are represented

Globally, factors influencing the residential real estate market are of great importance. This study examines the influence of theory of planned behavior constructs as well as introduces uninterrupted electricity supply as electricity availability construct in place of the locational attributes on intention to invest in residential real estate. In addition to the mediation effects of attitude and perceived behavioral control on the relationships between electricity availability and intention to invest in real estate property. The data for this study were obtained from the residents of government-reserved areas in Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria. Based on random sampling techniques, a total of 132 questionnaires were useful for this study. The results established the indirect-only mediation and the no-effect non-mediation for both paths via attitude and perceived behavioral control respectively. Among other results, the study concluded that attitude is a reliable antecedent of behavioral intention in making a decision to invest in residential real estate in the study area.

This study explores the role of organizational culture (OC) in the relationship between entrepre-neurial orientation (EO) and Bangladeshi small and medium enterprises (SMEs) performance. Their relationship obtains a substantial scholarly attention, however very few empirical studies have been conducted among Bangladeshi SMEs. Generally, SMEs contribute to the economy through employment generation, poverty reduction, innovation, social cohesion, and so on, which in turn contribute to the growth domestic product (GDP) of Bangladesh. Hence, SMEs are considered as a key reactor of economic growth in Bangladesh. Grounded on the literature and theoretical fact, a model was developed and intended to examine this relationship. A quantitative survey technique was exercised and the data were collected from the randomly selected 384 owners of SMEs in Dhaka–Bangladesh. The data were analyzed by using SEM-AMOS. Based on the statistical results, EO and OC were significantly related to SME performance and OC was found to mediate the relationship between EO and SME performance. This study will help entrepreneurs as well as policy makers make better decisions for maximizing SME performance through improving OC in the competitive global economy.

Project selection is considered as the first essential part of project portfolio management. Project selection is also considered as a process to evaluate each project idea and chooses the one with the biggest priority. Project selection plays an essential role in the entire life cycle of different projects. This paper presents a survey for project selection using multiple criteria decision mak-ing techniques. The study considers 60 papers from over the period 1980-2017. The results of the survey have indicated that integration of Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) and analytical hierarchy process/analytical network process was the most popular techniques for project selection followed by VIKOR method.

This study interrogates the meaning and conceptual nuances of human capital accounting and additionally highlights its empirical dimensions. A critical aspect of the concerns of the study borders on the validity of an interdisciplinary interpretation of the trajectories of human capital accounting. The methodology of the study is purposively the literature review. The study has attempted to underscore the essential aspects of the critical developments in the subject matter of human capital accounting. It has also tried to draw attention to the shortcomings of earlier studies, while showing the strengths of the influential types of such previous researches. Finally, the interdisciplinary thesis of the problem of the study was upheld, as having a large measure of validity. The empirical import of the concept of human capital accounting however, remains contentions. Consequently, continuous interdisciplinary research-engagement is recommended as an outcome of the study.

The present study deals with optimization of hydraulic efficiency and shaft fatigue life of a micro cross-flow hydraulic turbine. A micro cross-flow turbine (KTP-B60) with shaft fatigue failure was considered as a case study. Numerical flow simulations were performed using a 3D- two phase flow solver, and the results have shown a good agreement with experimental data. Using an analytical method, the shaft fatigue factor of safety (FOS) was extracted from numerical simulation. CFD results were utilized in the optimization process in order to improve hydraulic efficiency and shaft fatigue life simultaneously using a meta- model (Artificial Neural Network) and genetic algorithm (GA). The priority of hydraulic efficiency and shaft fatigue life was altered by defining different objective functions in the optimization process. In one of the cases comparison of initial and optimal turbine showed a hydraulic efficiency improvement of 10.14 % and relative shaft FOS improvement of 4.86 %. The proposed optimization method could be exploited as an efficient and low cost procedure for energy generation improvement in micro hydro turbines.

Supply chain is a complicated networking of suppliers, manufacturers, warehouses, distributors and end customers. Through this network, we can easily see the flow of raw materials, information and money. In the modern global manufacturing environment, change has become a constant phenomenon. Change occurs due to fluctuation in technology, environmental requirements, regulatory policies, societal needs and the last but economy is the most important thing. Uncertainties in supply and demand, globalization of the market, shorter product life cycle, the increasing use of manufacturing product, fast development of information technology, diversified demand of customer for products distribution and logistics partners are responsible for making more complex supply chain network. Because of all these phenomena emergence of Next–Generation of supply chain management is inevitable. Therefore, in this article we try to incorporate several issues and concerns regarding future supply chain such as natural disasters, problems in outsourcing and import-export issues associated with goods, raw material and several related issues such as taxation, cultural aspects, risk, reliability and last but not the most important one is associated with environmental issues. During the next-generation of supply chain management, the mode of production as well as management is changing from product oriented towards customer’s demand or service oriented. Another salient feature of this paper is to demonstrate how to do the planning and management of the next-generation supply chain so that it would maximize profit in the chain rather than maximizing profit of an organization in isolation.

This paper presents an analytical technique to determine the optimum number of cards to control material release in a CONWIP system. The work focuses on the card setting problem for a flow-shop system characterised by the presence of a batch processing machine (e.g. a kiln for long heat treatment). To control production, two different static approaches are developed: the first one is used when the bottleneck coincides with the batch processing machine and the second one is proposed when the bottleneck is another machine of the flow shop. In both contexts, by means of the appropriate model, one can optimize the performance of the flow-shop by maximizing the throughput and keeping the work in process at a minimum level. Numerical examples are also included in the paper to confirm the validity of the models and to demonstrate their practical utility.