This paper presents an empirical investigation to study the effects of firm and management team’s characteristics to develop food industry. The proposed study considers four factors associated with firms and 9 factors, which are related to management team’s characteristics. There were 50 firms in food industry in province of Tehran, Iran and the study has been accomplished among all 50 existing firms. For each firm, between 2-3 questionnaires were distributed among experts in each firm. Cronbach alpha has been calculated as 0.879, which is well above the minimum acceptable level. The results indicate that management knowledge about export market was number one important factor followed by the level of technology used, competitive advantage, believe in being profitable.

This paper presents a social work study on relationship between various family characteristics and street children in rural area as well as city of Esfahan, Iran. The proposed study selects a sample of 150 street children, 75 from city and 75 from rural area, and using some statistical tests verifies the effects of three factors including family income, place of residency and family size on street children. The results indicate that the city residence had more street children than rural residence did. In addition, there was a meaningful difference between the number of street children in low-income families and high-income families. Finally, the survey results indicate that big size families more likely suffered from street children than low size families did.

One of the primary issues in handling demands for auto parts in the world is to build a mutual trust between consumers and vendors. When people trust a brand, they purchase more easily and it is possible to develop market. In Iran, there is a growing interest in demand for auto parts and each year, tens of millions of auto parts are getting sold. This paper presents an empirical investigation to detect the effects of brand image on demand for auto parts. Using a sample of 202 randomly selected people who buy/sell auto parts in city of Tehran, Iran, the study determines three variables including brand strength, brand attributes and consumer trust through the implementation of structural equation modeling.

At the beginning of third millennium, the world of sport has been experiencing new marketing techniques to introduce products and services. The purpose of this study was to compare advertising and sales promotion strategies, the effects of different strategies in sport production companies to retain or to gain market share among selected firms, which were active in Iran. The method of survey was descriptive – analytical and some questionnaires were used for collecting data in Likert scale. The validity of the questionnaire were estimated by interview with professors and exports in marketing and sport marketing and the reliability was assessed by using Cronbach & apos; s alpha (?= 0.89). Statistical population of the study includes Sport Goods-Producing companies in Iran (N= 180) and 122 firms formed the study sample. For testing the hypothesis, we have used Paired Samples T-Test. The analysis of findings showed that there was a meaningful difference between using advertising and sales promotion strategies. In general, we can say, there are some limited applications of using techniques and methods of sales promotion strategies in Iranian sport industry and methods of advertising. Consequently, regarding the intense competition among companies as well as fast growth of markets and fast changes in consumer’s behavior, identifying the best methods for corresponding relationship to customer would be required.

This paper presents a social work study on relationship between different family characteristics and child abuse in city of Jarghooye located in province of Esfahan, Iran. The proposed study selects a sample of 50 people and using some statistical tests verifies the effects of three factors including family income, family educational background and family size on child abuse. The results indicate that while there were some meaningful relationships between family income and family educational background, there was not any statistical evidence to believe on such relationship between family size and child abuse.

During the past few years, there have been tremendous changes on customer preferences on the architectures and design perspectives. There are many cases where there are big differences between what originally a plan is designed for and what it comes in final stage. Obviously, this may create significant amount of rework, waste and it can increase the cost of building a house, significantly. This paper presents an empirical investigation on factors influencing change in architecture of buildings. The proposed study designs a questionnaire in Likert scale and distributes it among some experts at difference universities in Iran. The study categorizes different factors in terms of “factors reducing change in clients’ request”, “methods on predicting clients’ request”, “methods on presenting plans for clients”, “Effective parameters on change in plan” and finally “Important actions on change prevention”. Using experts’ insight, the study ranks various factors in each category.

The aim of this study is to identify important factors influencing organizational readiness to deal with the crisis in business organizations. The study designs a questionnaire in Likert scale and distributes it among some experts who work for Mapna company in Iran. The study uses the method developed by Mitroff (2005) [Mitroff, I. I. (2005). Why some companies emerge stronger and better from a crisis: 7 essential lessons for surviving disaster. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn.], which investigates the effects of four factors including job satisfaction, increase in income, cost reduction and change in strategies on crisis management. Using Pearson correlation ratio, the study has confirmed a positive and meaningful relationship between crisis management and three factors including increase in income, cost reduction and change in strategies. However, the study did not find any evidence to support the relationship between job satisfaction and crisis management.

This paper presents an empirical investigation to study the relationship between employees’ psychological empowerment and organizational commitment in revenue agency of city of Semnan, Iran. The study uses two questionnaires, one for measuring the effects of psychological empowerment developed by Mishra and Spreitzer (1998) [Mishra, A. K., & Spreitzer, G. M. (1998). Explaining how survivors respond to downsizing: The roles of trust, empowerment, justice, and work redesign. Academy of management Review, 23(3), 567-588.] and the other for measuring organizational commitment developed by Meyer and Allen (1991) [Meyer, J. P., & Allen, N. J. (1991). A three-component conceptualization of organizational commitment. Human resource management review, 1(1), 61-89.]. Cronbach alphas for psychological empowerment and organizational commitment are calculated as 0.81 and 0.92, respectively, which are well above the minimum acceptable levels. The results of our survey have indicated that there were positive and meaningful relationships between psychological empowerment and organizational commitment components including Sense of efficacy (r = 0.414, Sig. =0.000), meaningful (r = 0.481, Sig. =0.000), having a choice (r = 0.341, Sig. = 0.000) and trust (r = 0.736, Sig. =0.000). However, the survey does not support any relationship between Competency and organizational commitment.

Social shopping behavior of fashion embraces various activities, direct/indirect complex and dynamic interpersonal happening during the process of buying fashion and causes customers’ pleasure and satisfaction from purchasing intention, which in long-term helps sales improvement. This study has taken place in city of Tehran, Iran in order to assess the social purchase behavior of consumers and drivers in the field of fashion garments. Data analysis was performed using partial least squares. Research findings indicate a significant positive relationship between obsessed with fashion garments and the five dimensions of social shopping behavior. On the other hand, there is a positive and meaningful relationship between materialism and the need for uniqueness by consumers’ involvement toward fashion apparel.

This paper investigates the relationship between psychological well-being and empathy quotient among 200 married students, 100 female and 100 make, in city of Najafabad, Iran. The study uses a questionnaire with 84 questions for measuring psychological well-being, which consists of six parts including Autonomy, Environmental mastery, Personal growth, Positive relation with others, Purpose in life and Self-acceptance, each with 14 questions. Cronbach alphas for these six items were calculated as 0.83, 0.86, 0.85, 0.88, 0.88 and 0.91, respectively. In order to measure empathy quotient (EQ), the study uses EQ-short form, which consists of 22 questions. Cronbach alpha has been calculated as 0.93, which is well above the minimum acceptable level of 0.70. Using stepwise regression technique, the study determines a positive and meaningful relationship between EQ and psychological well-being.