Qom is one of the most important religious centers in the Shiite world and it is the second largest pilgrimage center in Iran with tourism capabilities. Tourists and visitors of the city can contribute for the development of city and it can help city & apos; s economy and create new job opportunities. However, achieving these benefits and suitability becomes possible as long as necessary civil and social infrastructures are provided. The purpose of this study is to provide strategic assessment and optimization strategies for development of tourism industry to reach sustainable tourism development in city of Qom metropolis. The study uses three techniques namely; Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix (QSPM), integrated environmental assessment (IEA) and strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) to determine necessary guidelines for development of tourism in city of Qom, Iran. The study first uses SWOT to categorize different factors, IEA is applied to determine internal as well as external factors and finally QSPM is applied to prioritize various factors. The results indicate that the city has faced stronger weakness than strengths for development of tourism industry. However, in terms of external opportunities, there are several choices for city development.

This paper presents an empirical investigation to study the role of entry into regional markets in fulfilling brand promise. The study designs two questionnaires, one for measuring brand promise and the other for measuring export capabilities, in Likert scale and distributes it among 250 randomly selected producers who were involved in production and development of various products in city of Esfahan, Iran. Cronbach alphas were calculated for brand promise and export capabilities as 0.856 and 0.812, respectively. Using structural equation modeling, the study has detected seven factors including product development, public advocacy, strategic orientation, customer satisfaction, competitive pressures, organizational capabilities and distribution strategies.

Network coding is introduced as a technique to improve performance in communication networks. In network coding, intermediate nodes mix packets to enhance network performance. To increase throughput, several approaches have been proposed based on network coding. Many approaches use delay in sending packets to increase throughput. These approaches are not suitable for delay sensitive applications. To solve this problem, some methods make a tradeoff between delay and throughput. In this paper, unlike other approaches, network coding is used to reduce end-to-end delay in wireless networks. In our proposed approach, packets do not receive more delay and the priority of the selected packets for coding is based on their end-to-end delay. The packet that tolerates more delay has higher priority for coding with forwarding packet. Simulation results illustrate that using network coding compared with other approaches can reduce end-to-end delay.

This paper studies the effects of different factors on empowering employees in one of Iranian food makers named Razavi Foods Products Co. The study designs a questionnaire in Likert scale and distributes it among 83 out of 105 employees who work for this food producer. Cronbach alpha is equal to 0.91, which is well above the minimum acceptance level. In addition, Kolmogorov–Smirnov test has indicated that all data were normally distributed. The results of Pearson correlation test has indicated that work place was the most influential factor affecting positively on empowering employees followed by having crystal clear objectives on responsibilities and employees’ authorities. In addition, the implementation of stepwise regression technique has indicated that work process was the most important factor followed by process optimization and having clear objectives.

This investigation tries to examine correlation between clandestine advertisement and organizational strategy in brand management via available sources and by using a field study. In fact, it intends to raise the question “Are clandestine advertisement and organizational strategy effective in management of products brands?” This is an applied and descriptive-approaching study. The study chooses a sample of 171 regular customers who do their day-to-day banking business activities through an Iranian bank named Sepah bank in city of Tehran, Iran. Using structural equation modeling, the study confirms a positive and meaningful relationship between clandestine advertisement and organizational strategy in brand management.

This paper presents an empirical investigation to study the effects of electronic banking devices such as automated telling machines (ATM), Point of sales (POS) and Pin Pad on profitability and market share in Iranian banking industry. The population of this study considers the information of 16 banks, five governmental and eleven private, over the period 2007-2012. Using two regression techniques, the study has detected that while Pin Pad may influence on return of assets positively, ATM and POS may not have any meaningful impact on profitability. Moreover, in our survey, none of technological facilities had a meaningful impact on market share but there was a positive and meaningful relationship between bank size and market share.

Nowadays, it is important to achieve and to sustain an organization’s competitive advantage in complex environments. This paper evaluates different concepts that have led to such benefits. The study sheds light on resource based view (RBV) and its role to reach sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) within banking industry of Iran. A valid research instrument was utilized to conduct a survey of 150 top- and middle-level managers from Mellat bank of Iran. With a response rate of 81.3 percent, 122 questionnaires were returned while a number of valid and usable questionnaires were 101. In order to determine validity of questionnaire, the content validity and Cronbach & apos; s alpha were used to determine the reliability of the questionnaire (RBV questionnaire 0.934, SCA questionnaire 0.843). The study utilized structural equation modelling, and a series of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and they tested the integrated model of MKM and SCA. Statistical support was found for the hypothesized relationships. Moreover it has been shown that RBV had the greatest effect on the market centered SCA, while it had the least influence on the financial centered. Structural equation modeling has been implemented and the study also used freedman test to rank the factors and the results show that tangible assets was the most important factor (0.71), followed by intangible assets (0.70), human resource capability (0.69), executive capability (0.64) and management capability (0.62) was the last important factor.

The aim of this investigation is to establish an applicable model for knowledge management implementation that works suitably in organizations involved in projects defined for a historic building such as restoration. Based on a peer review on general approaches in literature, some main improvement potentials are recognized to enable the model to meet with the especial objectives, which shall be considered in such projects. Content analysis was applied to ascertain the new presented model capabilities and improvement in each of three main core components of knowledge management implementation model including peoples, processes, and technologies. We came up with a new conceptual model named as Finger Frame Model with four individual tiers connected with an intelligent communication medium.
It is concluded that three main components of KM block diagrams consist of knowledge identification, acquisition, and prevention are appropriately covered in basic tier. The other three components of inner cycle of KM basic diagram consist of using, development, and distribution are also covered in an interface between operators and basic tiers, which together with make lower frame of new presented model. The model is in a continuous improving stage considering self-monitoring processes in an individual tier with the same name, which is located in the upper frame. An upper layer named as goal tier is also located in top frame in which, the main quantitative goals of KM implementation in the project organization are considered. The conceptual diagrams as well as internal processes of each main tier are also presented and discussed. Based on the overall explanations, some main benefits and risks are highlighted for new presented model and outlooks are debated. The model is applied in a real case study and the results are compared with the previous knowledge management implementation model. The results show that the model works efficiently in projects organization related to the historic building restoration.

Based on the Law and Finance theory, and the regulatory capture theory, external governance environment and industrial regulations can exert a certain influence on corporate over-investment. On the basis of qualitative analysis of the relationship between external governance environment and corporate over-investment under different industrial regulation conditions, this paper, using data of non-financial companies listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges in the period 2001-2010, describes the regional distribution characteristics of over-investment of Chinese listed companies, and establishes an OLS regression model of the relationship between external governance environment and over-investment. The study respectively groups data from regulated and non-regulated industries as a sample and empirically tests the OLS regression model. Results show that: from the perspective of economic geography, there exists a local spatial cluster phenomenon in the distribution of over-investment of listed companies in regulated industries, while non-regulated industries conform to no regularity. In regulated industries, external governance environment factors (level of government intervention, rule of law and financial development) may exert a significant negative influence on the degree of over-investment of listed companies, but on non-regulated industries, their effect is reversed. Also, government intervention, legal enforcement and financial development are positively correlated to over-investment. Further research indicates that, compared with government intervention and financial development, legal enforcement influences over-investment the most.

There are some issues in marketing, supply and after-sales services for customers in global markets for production of rose water and essences extracts. Despite the fact that the products are genuine, there is a downward trend for the production of rose water and essences extracts in recent years. The present study aims to evaluate the identified structural barriers affecting exports of rose water and essences of Kashan to United Arabic Emirates. The population consisted of 77 managers of exporter companies in Kashan. Self-made questionnaire approved by supervisor to be valid and reliable, were distributed. The study tried to deliver a model for barriers to e-commerce in the context of Iran & apos; s rose water and essences extracts Export by examining different models of and studied in the field of electronic commerce and the application and advantages of systems based on it. The study also tried to identify current obstacles in the way of electronic commerce in export of rose water and essences extracts by using the questionnaire as an indicator in five-point Likert scale. There were three factors associated with the proposed model. Barriers to electronic commerce in export of rose water and essences extracts were determined in the order of priority as follows:
1) Problems and obstacles related to information infrastructure, 2) problems related to legislative, legal and secure infrastructure, 3) problems and obstacles to human, educational, cultural and behavioral infrastructure, 4) problems related to infrastructure of customs, trade and taxation, 5) internet problem, 6) Problems related to technical and hardware infrastructure, 7) Problems related to financial and software infrastructure.