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System dynamics of manpower planning strategies under various demand scenarios
, Pages 2689–2698 Michael Mutingi, ![]() |
Abstract: The development of human resources recruitment and training strategies in a dynamic environment poses a challenge to many policy makers in various organisations. The goal of every human resource manager is to recruit, train and deploy the right personnel at the right place and at the right time in order to meet organizational requirements. We develop a system dynamics simulation model that captures the dynamic behaviour of a typical corporate manpower system. Three major strategies are indentified and simulated under different manpower demand scenarios. Based on a set of performance indices, the impact of the strategies is simulated under assumed demand scenarios including steady increasing, fluctuating, and s-shaped demand. Useful managerial insights are derived from the study. The model is a decision support tool for developing reliable dynamic manpower policies in terms of recruitment, training capacity, available skills, and attrition. This approach can assist organizations to design effective manpower strategies. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.09.027 Keywords: System dynamics, Strategy evaluation simulation, Manpower system, Human resource |
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Improving efficiencies in logistics operations by converging tangible & intangible aspects
, Pages 2699–2710 Sanjay Sharma, Gurkirat Singh and Pankaj Maan ![]() |
Abstract: The principal objective of this paper is to conceptualize the scope of improving the responsiveness of logistics by eradicating the restrictions posed by unnecessary delays and human factors, in conjunction with underscoring the positive externalities that will emerge as societal benefits. Various attributes like ‘idle time’, ‘geographical & regional aspects’, ‘truckers limitations’, and ‘uncertainties’ have been taken into consideration to expand the outlook of logistics operations. This paper assembles knowledge to propose an approach to establish the convergence of various relevant aspects of the operational dimension of trade & transport facilitation. Furthermore, these are the aspects which although studied disjointedly were hitherto ignored as interrelated while planning logistics operations. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.10.009 Keywords: Efficiencies, Logistics operations, Tangible aspects, Intangible aspects, Proposed convergence |
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A study on effects of knowledge management on organizational entrepreneurship: A case study of educational system
, Pages 2711–2716 Naser Azad and Esmaeil Mehrabi Majolan ![]() |
Abstract: Knowledge management plays an important role in business development specially in educational system. The proposed study designs and distributes a questionnaire among experts who are involved in education systems in province of Tehran, Iran. The population of this survey includes 1680 people who are enrolled in administration levels of this province and using a simple sapling technique is calculated as 313. The questionnaire consists of 30 questions in Likert scale and there are six categories for the proposed study of this paper including the concept of knowledge, management, knowledge tools, knowledge measurement, change management, knowledge content. We have used LISREL software package to find the relationship between entrepreneurship and knowledge management components. Based on the results of this survey, knowledge content is number one priority followed by knowledge tools and concept of knowledge. The other factors including management, knowledge measurement and change management are in lower levels of importance. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.10.020 Keywords: Structural equation modeling, Knowledge management, Change management |
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Investigating knowledge management critical success factors in carpet industry
, Pages 2717–2722 Naser Azad, Seyed Mohsen Seyed Aliakbar and Mehdi Ansari ![]() |
Abstract: This paper presents an empirical study to learn more about challenges in carpet industry using factor analysis. The proposed study of this paper designs a questionnaire consists of 51 questions in Likert scale and distribute it among experts in Carpet industry. We have analyzed the data using factor analysis and deleted 10 most redundant questions. Cronbach alpha was calculated as 0.88 for the remaining questions, which is well above the minimum desirable limit. We have also managed to remove six more questions using principal axis factoring leaving 8 basic components including 35 different questions. The proposed study of this paper has categorized eight factors including specialized relationships, knowledge coordinator, knowledge tool, knowledge organization, knowledge processes, knowledge chain, knowledge hardware and Knowledge feasibility study. Investigating details of the results of each eight items could help us build better strategies to help this industry grow faster and more reliable in today's business world. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.10.019 Keywords: Factor analysis, Carpet industry, Knowledge management |
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Investigating internal and external factors influencing profitability of banking industry
, Pages 2723–2730 Hadi Noori and Mehdi Taghavi ![]() |
Abstract: This paper presents an empirical investigation to learn the impact of some internal and external factors on profitability in banking system. The proposed model of this paper introduces three econometrics methods to study the behavior of internal, external and a combination of both factors on return on assets. The proposed study of this paper uses Vector Auto- Regressive (VAR) and Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) to provide estimation of the proposed model and we use historical data over the period of 1989-2010. The results of the first model for internal factors, we consider some independent variables including ratio of total revenue on total assets (TR) and ratio of total equities on total assets (TE). The second model considers the effects of external variables on ROA such as growth domestic product (GDP) and market share (MS) and the last model includes a combination of both internal and external factors. The results indicates that there is a positive and meaningful relationship between logarithm of growth domestic product and return on equities, which means as we expect one unit increase in LGDP, there is an increase of 0.012 on ROA. In addition, when the market share increase by one percent, there will be an increase 0.025% increase on ROA and an increase of one percent in the ratio of TR will yield to an increase of one percent in ROA. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.10.018 Keywords: Return on assets, Banking profitability, Time series analysis |
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A survey on the impacts of brand extension strategy on consumers’ attitude for new products development
, Pages 2731–2738 Mir Ahmad Amirshahi, Jamshid Salehi Sadaghiani, Mahbobeh Rabiee, Samaneh Parsa and Pantea Salehi Sadaghiani ![]() |
Abstract: Marketing planning has been one of the most important components of production planning. A good marketing strategy can increase sales of products, which leads to higher profitability. The proposed study of this paper investigates how consumer's mental capability reacts when a new product is introduced along with a well known brand. The proposed study of this paper selects 196 people who choose 12 various products. Dependent variable is consumer perception towards new product development. Independent variables include customers consider newly offered product as replacement or supplement one. They surveyed people are also asked whether they think the new technological characteristics can incorporate older ones' or not. Finally, participants are asked about their perception on product. Correlation ratio between technology transfer capabilities and perception towards the new product is calculated as 0.454, which is much more than other variables and P-value is significant when the level of significance is one percent. The other observation is that there is a positive and meaningful relationship between potential for product substitution and perception towards the new product, which has been calculated as 0.227. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.10.017 Keywords: Brand extension, Consumers’ attitude, Brand associations, Perceived quality, Fitness |
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Knowledge management capacity and innovation performance
, Pages 2739–2746 Niloufar Asgarian ![]() |
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to study relationship between knowledge management capacity and innovation performance. Knowledge management capacity includes knowledge sharing, knowledge application, and knowledge acquisition. For innovation performance, author considers the most important indicators including administrative innovation, product innovation, and process innovation. According to research model, 9 hypotheses are developed and the results show that there is not any positive relationship between knowledge acquisition and administrative innovation. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.10.015 Keywords: Knowledge management capacity, Knowledge sharing, Innovation performance |
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An empirical investigation on the relationship between parenting styles and employees' career adaptability
, Pages 2747–2752 Sedigheh Shirvani, Fatemeh Rezaei and Najmeh Sedrpoushan ![]() |
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between parenting styles and employees' career adaptability. The statistical population includes all employees in Polyacrid's Factory of Isfahan in 2012. The proposed study selects a sample of 321 employees using cluster sampling. The study has used a based on Baumrind's theorem, which maintains three groups of permissive, authoritarian and authoritative in Likert scale. The results of our study have indicated that there is definitely a difference in parenting style among various members in terms of career concern, career curiosity and career confidence but such relationship does not exists in terms of career control. In addition, the study explains that people with permissive parenting style have less career concern, career curiosity and career confidence than those with permissive parenting style do. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.10.014 Keywords: Authoritative parenting style, Career concern, Career confidence, Career curiosity, Career control |
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A social work study to measure the effect of unemployment
, Pages 2753–2756 Faezeh Taghipour, Gholamreza Tajbakhsh, Allahyar Arabmomeni and Mohammad Reza Iravani ![]() |
Abstract: Unemployment is believed as one of most important issues in today's economy around the world. The recent economic turmoil in European countries, for instance, has created some troubles such as increase in rate of depression, divorce, etc. In this paper, we present a social study work in one of regions of Iran. The proposed study of this paper designs and distributes a questionnaire among 80 experts who live in the region and tries to understand whether there is a correlation between unemployment and rubbery, immigration, drug addiction and non-value jobs. The survey uses Pearson correlation to test four hypotheses and the results indicate that although there is no strong correlation between unemployment and rubbery and immigration but there is a strong evidence to believe that unemployment can increase drug addiction and non-value added jobs. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.10.013 Keywords: Unemployment, Drug addiction, Rubbery |
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A hybrid of Borda and DEMTEL for productivity improvement
, Pages 2757–2764 Naser Hamidi, ParisaYousefi, Afsaneh Rahimi and Fehimeh Jabari ![]() |
Abstract: Human resources are believed the primary sources of building advanced technological enterprises in today's world. Improving productivity in human resources plays essential role on empowering employees. The proposed model of this paper uses a hybrid of Burda and DEMATEL to find important factors for improving manpower productivity. The proposed model of this paper uses DEMATEL technique to find cause and effect factors and propose a linear programming technique to find important factors influencing productivity improvement. The results of our survey indicate that job enrichment, service training and job enlargement and quality of work life and training embedded are among the most important factors improving manpower productivity promotion. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.10.012 Keywords: DEMATEL, Productivity, Burda |
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A study on the relationship between intellectual capital, earning per share and income growth: A case study of Tehran Stock Exchange
, Pages 2765-2776 Ali Akbar Farzinfar ![]() |
Abstract: The primary aim of this survey is to study the relationship between intellectual capital, earning per share and income growth for a case study of Tehran Stock Exchange in Iran. There are 120 companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange and, using a simple sampling technique, we choose 50 firms, randomly. The results of this survey indicate that the components of intellectual capital including human capital, customer capital, and structural capital have significantly positive relationship with the earning per share of the companies over the period of 2005- 2010. The results also indicate that the components of intellectual capital including human capital, customer capital, and structural capital are positively associated with the income growth of the companies for the period from 2005 to 2010. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.10.011 Keywords: Intellectual capital, Tehran Stock Exchange, Earning per share, |
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A study on the relationship between organizational structure and organizational agility: A case study of insurance firm
, Pages 2777-2788 Seyed Ali Akbar Ahmadi, Alireza Fathizadeh, Javad Sadeghi, Mohsen daryabeigi and Leili Taherkhani ![]() |
Abstract: The primary aim of this survey is to study the relationship between organizational structure and organizational agility in an insurance company in Iran. The statistical population includes 300 employees and managers of the proposed insurance company across in Tehran province, Iran and a sample of 73 people are selected, randomly for the survey. Questionnaire is used as a major tool of data collection. Validity of the questionnaire is confirmed through content validity by professors and experts. Reliability of the questionnaire was calculated using Cronbach alpha. SPSS software is used for data analysis. Research findings illustrate there is a significant relationship between organizational agility and two dimensions of organizational structure, i.e. formalization and centralization. No significant relationship was observed between complexity and organizational agility. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.10.010 Keywords: Organizational agility, Organizational structure, Complexity, Formalization, Centralization |
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The impact of packaging on product competition
, Pages 2789-2794 Naser Azad and Maryam Masoumi ![]() |
Abstract: The primary objective of this paper is to detect important factors, which are influencing competitive advantage. The proposed model of this paper uses sampling technique to measure characteristics of society. There are eight independent variables for the proposed study of this paper including packaging endurance, easy distribution, customer promotion through packaging, packaging structure, packaging as silent advertiser, diversity of packaging, clean and healthy packaging and innovation in packaging. The proposed study uses structural equation modeling to either accept or reject all hypotheses associated with the proposed study of this paper. The population of this study includes all managers and experts who are involved in packaging products. We used simple sampling technique and chooses 300 from a population of 450 people who are considered as the population of this survey. Cronbach alpha was determined as 0.732, which is above the minimum acceptable level. The results confirm that all mentioned factors influence competitiveness, effectively. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.10.008 Keywords: Marketing, Packaging, Competition |
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An investigate on relationship between moral hazard and corporate governance with earning forecast quality in the Tehran Stock Exchange
, Pages 2795-2802 Fatemeh Rouhi and Seyed ahmad Khalifehsultani ![]() |
Abstract: Moral hazard and corporate governance are important factors in determining market transparency. The proposed study of this paper investigates the effects of these two factors on earning quality as well as forecasted earning in Tehran Stock Exchange. We have selected some stocks based on some predefined circumstances and extracted some necessary information over the period of 2005-2010. Based on these criteria, the information of 132 firms are qualified for the proposed study of this paper using 792 years/firm from 23 industries. There are two hypotheses associated with this study. According to the first hypothesis, we investigate whether there is a relationship between board of director independency and quality of forecasted earning. In the second hypothesis, we look to find out whether there is a relationship between the size of board of directors and quality of forecasted earning. We have used three models and using ordinary regression analysis tried to test the models. Based on the results of the survey, we have concluded that moral hazard does not influence forecasted earning, significantly. However, the results of this survey concluded that there is a meaningful relationship between forecasted earning and quality of earning. In terms of members of editorial board, quality of earning has a reverse relationship with absolute deviation of forecasted earning. In other words, as the number of editorial board increases, we may expect a more precise earning estimation. The other observation is that non-board member's duties have better motivation to contribute to firms and could make some changes. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.10.007 Keywords: Moral hazard, Corporate governance, Tehran Stock Exchange, Quality of earning |
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A social work study for comparison of thought action–fusion and anxiety sensitivity among normal student versus obsessive compulsive symptom in high school Esfahan city
, Pages 2803-2808 Reyhaneh Shojaei Jeshvaghani Farzaneh Niknejadi and Yousef Gorji ![]() |
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to compare thought – action fusion and anxiety sensitivity among girls and boys adolescents having obsessive–compulsive symptoms in clinical and nonclinical extent. The survey selects 384 high school students in city of Esfahan, Iran and distributes a questionnaire among them. All questions are designed in Likert scale and participants are divided into two groups of with and without OCD. The results show that there is a significant and positive difference in thought – action fusion and anxiety sensitivity among girls and boys adolescents having or symptoms in clinical and nonclinical l extent (P<0.01). DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.10.006 Keywords: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Thought – action fusion, OCD, TAF |
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A fuzzy decision making method for outsourcing activities
, Pages 2809-2818 Zahra Afrandkhalilabad and Emad Roghanian ![]() |
Abstract: Optimization of outsourcing operations plays an important role on development and progress for modern organizations. One important question in optimization process is to find a tradeoff between advantage and disadvantage of outsourcing and make appropriate decision whenever outsourcing action is necessary. In fact, there are several cases where outsourcing is not implemented properly and organizations suffer from the consequences. The primary purpose of this paper is to investigate various aspects of outsourcing to facilitate decision-making process in fuzzy environments. The preliminary results detect some of the necessary actions for decision making operations. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.10.005 Keywords: Outsourcing, Fuzzy, Hierarchy analysis process, Decision making |
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An investigation on role of customer relationship management (CRM) in increasing organizational effectiveness
, Pages 2819-2826 Mohammad Hakkak, Mahmoud Reza Esmaeili and Moslem Mirzaei ![]() |
Abstract: The present study studies the role of customer relationship management (CRM) in improving organizational effectiveness. The proposed model of this paper is implemented on customers of one of Iranian bank called Agricultural. The proposed model designs a questionnaire and selects a sample of 150 customers, randomly. The results of the survey has been validated using Cronbach alpha, which was .926. Research hypotheses are analyzed using Pearson's correlation test and all hypotheses are confirmed when the level of significance is five percent. The results of our survey have disclosed that all these mentioned factors could impact customer satisfaction, positively. In addition, we have also considered used Freedman test to rank the relative importance of these factors and customer-centered was number one priority followed by recognizing customers' need, Mutual understanding and Loyalty. Customer complaints are also the last priority in our ranking. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.10.004 Keywords: Effectiveness, Models of organizational effectiveness, Customer relationship management, Customer relationship management dimensions |
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A study to determine important barriers in using managerial accounting
, Pages 2827-2832 Rahmatollah Mohammadipour, Sohaila Mahdavi, Mohammad Hossein Bakhshandeh and Farshad Sabzalipour ![]() |
Abstract: Managerial accounting plays an important role for making prompt and efficient decisions to reduce troubles in the market. However, there are many circumstances where management team cannot make appropriate, fast and reliable managerial decisions. In this paper, we present a survey in cement industry and look to find out important factors as major barriers of managerial accounting implementation. The proposed model of this paper designs and distributes questionnaire among management teams who work for cement industry in Iran. The results of the survey indicate that lack of familiarity of managers with managerial accounting techniques, existence of unprofessional people in financial and accounting affairs and lack of having globally acceptable standards are major barriers in this industry for implementation of managerial accounting skills. However, our survey does not find any relationship between market turbulence and efficiency and implementation of managerial accounting skills. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.10.003 Keywords: Cement industry, Managerial accounting, Efficiency, Profitability |
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An empirical study to measure the impact of financial and macro economical figures on capital adequacy
, Pages 2833-2838 Mohammad Khodaei Valahzaghard and Mohsen Babaei dazghei ![]() |
Abstract: Capital adequacy plays an important role for reducing different risk components in banking industry. In this paper, we present an empirical study to measure the impact of financial and macro economical factors on capital adequacy. We gather the necessary information from financial statements and balance sheets of nine Iranian private banks over the period of 2005-2011. The results of analyzing the data based on the implementation of linear regression technique reveal that there are some meaningful relationship between financial figures, including bank size and profitability, and capital adequacy. However, the survey does not show any relationship between macro economical factors, including growth domestic product and inflations, and capital adequacy. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.10.002 Keywords: Capital adequacy, Macro economical factors, Financial rates, Profitability |
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Pathology of productivity in medical and health care centers
, Pages 2839-2844 Kazem Jafari, Abdolnezam Jafari, Mohammadreza Tavakoli, Fatemeh Alinia, Alireza Afsharnejad and Naiere Karimian ![]() |
Abstract: Productivity is one of the most important factors influencing revenue management. Increasing productivity will consequently increase profitability and it is important to find major barriers for reducing productivity. In this paper, we present an empirical study to analyze productivity in a hospital called Labbafinejad in Iran. The present study is a descriptive cross-sectional study carried out in 2010. The population of this study was 110 people of Labbafinejad Hospital’s staff and the proposed study chose a sample including 64 nurses, service and administrative staff, randomly. The proposed study of this paper designs and distributes a questionnaire among the selected sample size in an attempt to find the relationship between productivity and three main indices of management method, performance evaluation, and technological improvement. The results of the survey have been analyzed using Spearman correlation ratio as well as regression analysis. The results show a meaningful relationship between three main indices as independent variable and productivity. The highest correlation is between management method and productivity (0.915) and the lowest correlation is associated with performance evaluation and productivity (0.735). DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.10.001 Keywords: Pathology, Productivity, Performance evaluation technology, Management method, Labbafinejad Hospital |
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A hybrid TOPSIS-BSC method for strategic planning
, Pages 2845-2850 Mohammad Reza Shojaee, Mehdi Fallah and Mohsen Fallah ![]() |
Abstract: For years, tangible assets used to be the most important precious wealth of organizations. However, the recent advances in technology has changed this concept and today, intangible assets such as human resources, customers, processes are playing essential roles on making strategies. In this paper, we present a study to setup appropriate strategies using the implementation of balanced score card in four perspectives of customers, processes, learning and financial. The proposed study of this paper gathers important factors through three different brainstorming sessions and prioritize them using TOPSIS method. Based on the results of MCDM technique, selecting appropriate target market for penetration is the number one priority followed by having good accounting system and preparing for more diversified production. These are the most important items influencing strategic planning. Therefore, the study uses BSC for the first two important strategies and discusses possible actions for productivity improvement. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.09.029 Keywords: BSC, TOPSIS, Strategic planning, TOPSIS-BSC |
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An investigation on relationship between residual income and internal and external performance measures
, Pages 2851-2856 Hesam Daryani and Seyed Yousef Ahadi Serkani ![]() |
Abstract: During the past few years, there have been growing interest in learning the relationship between residual income and other financial figures such as dividend per share, market value and operating cash flow. The proposed study of this paper gathers the financial information of all listed firms traded in Tehran Stock Exchange over the period of 2007-2011. We only concentrate on listed companies whose fiscal years started from March to May of each year. The other criterion associated with the proposed study of this paper is that shares of the selected firms must have been active during period of study and there must be no change in their fiscal calendar. The study does not include the shares of holdings, banks, insurance firms. Finally, the information of the firms must be available for course of study. The study uses two regressions analysis and examines five hypotheses including the relationship between residual income and other factors including dividend per share, value added operating cash flow, value added cash flow, market cap and market value added. Using two regression models, all these hypotheses are investigated and the results of the survey confirm a meaningful relationship between residual income and dividend per share, value added operating cash flow, value added cash flow. However, the results of the second model do not confirm the last two hypotheses. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.09.028 Keywords: Residual income, Operating cash flow, Tehran stock exchange |
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A social work study on investigating organizational relationship: A case study of sport organization
, Pages 2857-2862 Khodayar Momeni, Allahyar Arabmomeni, Mohammad Reza Iravani and Gholamreza Tajbakhsh ![]() |
Abstract: Organizational relationship plays an important role in developing more cooperation among members of employees. Today, there is no doubt that people are mostly considered as the primary source of creating value added activities. Therefore, it is important to learn more about organizational relationship in different organizations and detect possible barriers on developing such relationships. In this paper, we present an empirical study to detect the status of organizational relationship in Sport organization of province of Esfahan, Iran. The proposed study designs a questionnaire consists of five parts including informative, freedom, one-side relationship, formality and openness. All questions were designed in Likert scale from one to five and Cronbach alpha was calculated as 0.94. The results of the study shows organizational relationship is in good position in average and all different cities of Iran. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.09.026 Keywords: Sport, Organizational relationships, cooperation |
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An empirical study on market timing theory: A case study of Tehran Stock Exchange
, Pages 2863-2868 Hadi Nasiri and Seyed Yousef Ahadi Serkani ![]() |
Abstract: One of the most important issues in financing corporate is to find appropriate method to make a wise selection between getting loans and increasing the number of shares. There are different theories for making appropriate financing methods. The primary purpose of this paper is to investigate this issue based on market timing theory. The proposed model of this paper chooses selective companies from Tehran Stock Exchange. The proposed model of this paper uses regression analysis on two different models. The primary purpose of the first model given in this paper is to study the effect of market timing theory. In this part of survey, we measure the effect of the ratio of market value to book value on the sources of financing firms though increase in equities. Based on the results, we can conclude that as the ratio of market value to book value increases, firms tend to increase their equity though an increase to the number of shares. The first hypothesis of this paper is confirmed. The second model is associated with the relationship with mean ratio of market value on weighted book value and Leverage and the results of this paper do not confirm such relationship. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.09.025 Keywords: Market timing theory, TSE, Book value, Financing |
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A BOCR and Fuzzy AHP method for identification and prioritization of carpet industry strategies
, Pages 2869-2874 Hassan Rangriz, Mahdi Hosseinpour and Saeid Esmaeili ![]() |
Abstract: Carpet is one of the most popular handcraft industries in Iran and it has created significant number of jobs in various villages and small towns in this country. There are literally many designs and plans introduced by Iranian carpet makers but during the past two decades, we have seen an increasing competition mostly from other countries such as China, India, Pakistan, etc. On the other hands, there are ongoing interests for membership of world trade organization (WTO) and it is necessary to take the necessary actions. The proposed study of this paper uses different mathematical techniques to consider different actions for changing threats to opportunities, reducing unnecessary costs, increasing revenue and market share, etc. The proposed model of this paper uses Fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (AHP), Benefits-Opportunities-Costs-Risks (BOCR) method to detect possible benefit, risk and cost components. We first setup all useful strategies and then using AHP prioritizes different actions. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.09.024 Keywords: Fuzzy AHP, BOCR, SWOT, Carpet Industry |
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A study to measure the impact of organizational culture and organizational excellence
, Pages 2875-2880 Asghar Nikbakht Elham Nikbakht, Ali Soleimani Rad and Mohammad Reza Iravani ![]() |
Abstract: Organizational culture plays an important role on increasing organization excellence and there are many evidences through different studies on this relationship. In this paper, we re-examine this relation between organizational culture and six other important factors including quality of leadership, quality of different strategies, quality of human resources, quality of participating in organizational resources, quality of organizational processes and methods of assessment. The study was held among 70 employees of one of distance learning universities located in province of Esfahan, Iran. The study uses Pearson correlation ratio as well as linear regression technique to investigate the relationships. The results confirmed that there are positive and meaningful relationship between organizational culture and quality of leadership, quality of different strategies, quality of human resources, quality of participating in organizational resources, quality of organizational processes but it does not find any meaningful relationship between organizational culture and methods of assessment. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.09.023 Keywords: Organizational culture, Organizational excellence, Quality perception |
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A study to measure the impact of customer perception, quality, environment concern and satisfaction on green customer loyalty
, Pages 2881-2888 Hamid Reza Saeednia and Saeeid Khodaei Valahzaghard ![]() |
Abstract: Green product management plays an important role in today's economy and people are increasing becoming more interested in green products. In this paper, we present an empirical study to measure the impact of customer perception, quality, environment concern and satisfaction on green customer loyalty. The study proposes two hypotheses, where the first hypothesis studies whether the quality of green product has direct impact on customer satisfaction and the second hypothesis examines whether quality of green product has direct impact on customer loyalty. The population of this paper includes all people who use paper-based drinking glass, napkin and packaging products and live in city of Tehran, Iran. Since not all people are involved in all parts of the city in such product, we have decided to select only those who are involved in using these kinds of products including hospitals, universities, etc. The sampling technique has distributed 300 questionnaires and gathered 283 good quality ones for analysis. The questionnaire consists of 19 questions in five different perspectives. The proposed study uses sequential equation modeling and the results have confirmed both hypotheses. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.09.022 Keywords: Sequential equation modeling, Green products, Perception quality, Perception image |
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Moving towards virtuousness in organization: An analysis of factors affecting virtuous organizations
, Pages 2889-2902 Majid Zamahani, Ali Akbar Ahmadi, Mohammad Ali Sarlak and Hamideh Shekari ![]() |
Abstract: For years, there has been growing interest on virtues, especially in various organizations and progressive companies are exploring their impacts in generating new, holistic, healthy, and human work environments. Many firms are trying to become more sensitive to the requirements of the community and virtuous concerns such as caring, compassion, integrity and wisdom, and less interested in ideas such as efficiency, profitability and competitive advantage. In other words, most firms are going towards virtuous firms. The primary objective of this work is to detect the drivers and principal components of a virtuous firm to put virtues into practice. The study consists of two parts. In the first part, a Delphi study among the informed individuals is conducted and request them to detect the most effective drivers of virtuous firm, while in the second step, we do an exploratory factor analysis to detect the principal factors influencing virtuous organization. The data implemented in this phase include questionnaire responses. The survey distributes 750 questionnaires and collects 574 valid responses. The factor analysis empirically grouped the drivers of virtuous organization into five factors including Leadership, Human Resource, Organizational Culture, Structure and Processes and Care for Community. These five factors describe approximately 81.305% of the total variance. Finally, we ranked the principal factors extracted from factor analysis. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.09.021 Keywords: Virtues, Virtuous Organization, Delphi Study, Exploratory Factor Analysis |
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The superiority of DEAGP in ranking decision making units over DEA-AHP method: Utilizing relative closeness to ideal decision making units
, Pages 2903-2908 Bahareh vaisi ![]() |
Abstract: Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is one of the most popular techniques for measuring relative efficiencies of various similar units. However, lack of opportunity to compare the decision making units (DMUs) on the same scale in DEA model can make it less practical to classify DMUs. In this paper, we present common weights for DMUs by applying a scientific methodology utilizing goal programming as one of multi criteria decision making (MCDM) techniques, thereby we deal with improving discrimination power for selecting the efficient DMUs. The paper investigates the validity of the ranking technique, an index called the relative closeness (RC) to the ideal DMU (IDMU). Finally, via a previously reported numerical example, the proposed data envelopment analysis-goal programming (DEAGP) model is compared with that obtained by the DEA-AHP. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.09.020 Keywords: DEAGP, Common set of weights (CSWs), Ideal decision making unit (IDMU), Anti-ideal decision making unit (ADMU), Relative closeness (RC) |
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A study on the effect of social capital on learning organization: A case study of Jihad Agriculture Organization of Kermanshah, Iran
, Pages 2909-2916 Akbar Veismoradi, Peyman Akbari and Reza Rostami ![]() |
Abstract: One of the challenges in contemporary zone of management and organizational behavior is to create and strengthen social capital. Social capital arises from individuals trying to help people build trust, relationships and cooperation. Without social capital, employees are not able to share information and knowledge. The purpose of this study is to review the relationship of social capital and the learning organizational in one of Iranian organizations called Jihad Agriculture Organization of Kermanshah. The statistical population includes 270 employees of this organization and a sample size of 159 people are chosen using Morgan statistical table for a the first six months of 2012. The research method is descriptive- survey, the type of correlation and a questionnaire for collecting information are used. A number of university professors confirmed validity of the questionnaires. Their reliabilities were obtained with Cronbach's alpha and the coefficients for questionnaire of social capital was 0.705 and for questionnaire of learning organization was 0.838, respectively. By using correlation coefficient and multiple regressions, the data were analyzed. Results in a significant level of 95% showed, social capital had a meaningful relationship with learning organizational. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.09.019 Keywords: Social capital, Organizational learning, Trust, Communication |
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A social work study on measuring the impact of government subsidies reform on economy
, Pages 2917-2922 Mohammad Reza Iravani, Behrooz Rodbaraki Kelari, FaezehTaghipour and Gholamreza Tajbakhsh ![]() |
Abstract: Government subsidies have been a major concern in many developing countries and they could create major problems such as increase in smuggling, lack of interest in investment, etc. During the past couple of years, the government of Iran decided to eliminate subsidies in different goods such as energy prices and food. In this paper, we present a survey to measure the impacts of such deregulation on Iranian economic factors including inflation, unemployment, tuition fee, consumer consumption pattern and city transportation facilities. The survey distributes a questionnaire among 51 university students aged 20 to 26 in Likert scale. We have used Pearson correlation test to study the relationship between deregulation on government subsidies and other mentioned factors. The results of the survey indicate that there is a meaningful relationship between government subsidies and unemployment, transportation facilities, consumer consumption pattern. However, the survey does not find sufficient evidence to believe that there is any relationship between government subsidies and inflation, increase in tuition fee. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.09.018 Keywords: Government subsidies, Economic reform, Unemployment, Inflation |
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An empirical study for ranking insurance firms using a hybrid of data envelopment analysis and neural network
, Pages 2923-2928 Ahmad Makui and M. Emrani Noushabadi ![]() |
Abstract: One of the primary concerns with data envelopment analysis arises when the number of inputs and outputs increases. In such a case, required computations will become time consuming and there is a concern on developing some hybrid methods to increase the capability of this method. In this paper, a combination of data envelopment analysis and multi-layer neural network is proposed, in a case study, for predicting the performance of Alborz insurance subsidiaries in large cities in Automobile insurance firms. This research can be used in the future databases for performance prediction. On the other side, these results can aid Alborz insurance in its future investments as well as the performance index usage. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.09.017 Keywords: Data envelopment analysis, Neural network, Insurance firms |
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Linking knowledge management practices and the organizational performance of Pakistan’s telecommunication
, Pages 2929-2938 Syed Muhammad Ali, Abdul Qadus, Adnan Waseem and Khalid Zaman ![]() |
Abstract: The objective of the study is to examine the relationship between knowledge management practices and the organizational performance of Pakistan’s telecommunication. The study is based on primary data collected from two hundred and ten (out of three hundred questionnaires) middle level managers of different telecommunications located in Rawalpindi & Islamabad cities of Pakistan. A self designed questionnaire was used for data collection. The data was analyzed using the techniques of multiple regression analysis. All the findings were tested at 0.01 and 0.05 level of significance. The result demonstrates that knowledge management practices have positive and significant impact on organizational performance, which reflects that organizations that prefer knowledge management practices get beneficial outcomes than their competitors. The commencement of the five facets formulates it easier for the management to centre their attentiveness on them, assuring the particular behaviors to bring out to commence them. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.09.016 Keywords: Knowledge management, Organizational learning, Organizational Performance, Telecom sector, Multiple regression, Pakistan |
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A survey of investigative entrepreneurship in physical education office of Isfahan province
, Pages 2939-2944 Khodayar Momeni, Esmail Sharifian, Korosh Ghahraman Tabrizi and Allahyar Arabmomeni ![]() |
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to investigative entrepreneur in Physical Education Office of Isfahan province. This research is performed in the administration office associated with sport in Isfahan providence. The method of research is deceptive and of the correlation-type, which is based on the survey. The statistic population includes all of expert staffs, official conventional and contract, which have been announced to be 205 in year 2012. According to Morgan table, the sample was equal to 132 people selected, randomly. Questionnaire of Wisbird entrepreneur organization is used to perform the study. The validity and reliability of the survey is confirmed using Cronback alpha (α=0.91). In this study, descriptive statistic (Frequency, Distribution, Percentage, Mean & Standard deviation) and inferential statistic (Pearson correlation test) have been used. The result of the study showed that Mean and standard deviation of organization entrepreneurship were 2.79 and. 0.28, respectively. The highest and lowest scores were calculated 4 and 1.54, respectively. Furthermore, we found out that in the distribution of aspects organizational entrepreneurship, the lowest average was related to reward and the highest was related to goal and relation. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.09.015 Keywords: Entrepreneur organization, Job creation, Isfahan providence |
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Identifying the most critical project complexity factors using Delphi method: the Iranian construction industry
, Pages 2945-2952 Mohammad Mehdi Mozaffari, Safar Fazli and Ali Sedaghat-Seresht ![]() |
Abstract: Complexity is one of the most important issues influencing success of any construction project and there are literally different studies devoted to detect important factors increasing complexity of projects. During the past few years, there have been growing interests in developing mass construction projects in Iran. The proposed study of this paper uses Delphi technique to find out about important factors as barriers of construction projects in Iran. The results show that among 47 project complexity factors, 19 factors are more important than others are. The study groups different factors into seven categories including environmental, organizational, objectives, tasks, stakeholders, technological, information systems and determines the relative importance of each. In each group, many other sub group activities are determined and they are carefully investigated. The study provides some detailed suggestions on each category to reduce the complexity of construction project. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.09.014 Keywords: Project complexity, Delphi method, Construction industry |
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The evaluation of agility in supply chain of mass construction associations in Iran: A case study of construction firm
, Pages 2953-2962 Reza Kiani Mavi, Seyed Majid Elahi Noghani, Safar Fazli and Keyvan Poloie ![]() |
Abstract: Survival of production systems has become complicated with the emergence of new areas in business. In other words, changes in business environment, which are the results of changes in customers’ needs lead us to an uncertainty in making decisions; therefore there is a need to have a flexible supply chain to confront the changes. Agility is considered as a solution to enable mass construction associations to maintain in a competitive environment of housing industry in Iran. The aim of this study is to introduce a method to evaluate the agility of supply chain for mass construction associations. The proposed method of this paper designed questionnaires to evaluate the agility of supply chain based on identified criteria and indices. The questionnaires were filled by experts and scholars and then analyzed with SPSS software. Findings of this study show that the agility of the case study of this paper is ranked 2 out of 5 or 40%. According to the evaluations of agility, the highest score goes to financial and the lowest score belongs to information technology. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.09.013 Keywords: Agility of supply chain, Mass construction associations, Evaluation |
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Investigating challenges in development of Iranian aviation industry
, Pages 2963-2968 Manouchehr Manteghi and Omid Aliasghar ![]() |
Abstract: This paper presents an investigation on existing challenges in developing aviation industry in Iran. The proposed study designs and distributes a questionnaire among all specialists who are involved with design, production and distribution of aviation industry in Iran. Our interview has revealed that there were approximately 200 potential experts as population of our survey. The designed questionnaire consists of six parts in Likert scale in terms of linguistic terms. All six parts of the survey was designed based on four segments of aviation industry in Iran. Based on the results of this survey, appropriate structure for the legislative, availability of sufficient funds for purchasing private planes, public access to the airports and airport services and availability of supply chain management and technical service centers are the most important challenges in this industry. In addition, availability of various infrastructures such as runways, hangars and maintenance centers to access the industrial towns and insufficient support from relevant organizations such as the ministry of commerce, industry and mining, civil aviation organization and other organizations in the manufacturing and aircraft are among other most important challenges in developing this industry in Iran. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.09.012 Keywords: Aviation industry, Challenges, Iran airway industry |
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Investigating how high school deaf students spend their leisure time
, Pages 2969-2974 Allahyar Arabmomeni, Khodayar Momeni, Mohammad Reza Iravani and Faezeh Taghipour ![]() |
Abstract: This paper presents an investigation on deaf students' interests in spending their leisure times. We design a questionnaire and distribute among all deaf students who are enrolled in high schools in two provinces of Iran. The questionnaire consists of three parts, in the first part, we ask female and male deaf students about their interests in various entertainment activities in Likert scale. In terms of gender, we find out that walking inside or outside house is number one favorite exercise for female students while male students mostly prefer to walk on the streets. Although male students prefer to go biking or running activities, female students prefer to go for picnic or similar activities. This could be due to limitations on female for running or biking inside cities. While going to picnic with members of family or friends is the third popular activity for male students, stretching exercises is third most popular activity among female students. Breathing exercise is the fourth most popular activity among both male and female students. The second part of the survey is associated with the barriers for having no exercise among deaf students. According to our survey, while lack of good attention from public and ordinary people on exercising deaf students is believed to be number one barrier among male students, female students blame lack of transportation facilities as the most important barrier. However, both female and male students believe these two items are the most important factors preventing them to exercise. Lack of awareness for exercising deaf students and lack of good recreational facilities are the third most important barriers among male and female students. The last part of the survey attempted to detect important entertainment activities. Watching TV, entertaining with mobile devices, chatting with friends and watching DVD or movies were the most important items influencing deaf students' free times. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.09.011 Keywords: People with disability, Deaf student, Entertainment |
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Utilizing an ANP framework for prioritizing effective criteria on performance management in cooperative organization
, Pages 2975-2980 Hosein Akhavan Alavi Mostafa Alimiri and Davood Khaleghi ![]() |
Abstract: Performance management plays an essential role on increasing efficiency of business units. It helps find important barriers against a business unit helping us setup better strategies for handling troubles. In this paper, we present an empirical study to find important factors influencing performance management in cooperative organizations. The proposed study uses analytical hierarchy process to rank important factors in three groups of team level, individual and organization levels. The survey is based on receiving feedbacks from decision makers and making a pairwise comparison on measuring the relative importance of each criterion influencing performance management. The results of our survey indicate that setting appropriate standards for performance management is the most important item followed by relationship between organization structure and performance management, performance management based on future events. The other three factors including continuous improvement and updating systems, encouraging employee for change culture and relationship between future outlook and performance management are other important factors. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.09.010 Keywords: Performance measurement, Cooperative organization, Analytical hierarchy process |
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40. ![]() |
An empirical study to determine effective factors on organizational commitment <>
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, Pages 2981-2986 Nase Azad and Sanaz Sadeghi ![]() |
Abstract: Organizational commitment plays an important role on the success of business units. Many companies rely on their human resources and when some skilled employees leave an organization, there would be a chaos in some organizations especially in small business units. The proposed study of this paper gathers the necessary information from 200 employees who work for custom organization in Iran. The results of factor analysis have indicated there are four factors influencing organizational commitments. The first factor is associated with cultural factor, the second issue is related to human resource based factors while the third factor indicates the behavior based factors and finally empowering based factors are the last item. The ratio of Chi-Square/df is equal to 2.66, which is less than 3 and this validates the results. We have also used structural equation modeling and the results show that the third factor, behavior based components, is the most important factor followed by the second factor, human resource factor. In addition, the third important factor is cultural issues followed by empowering factors. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.09.009 Keywords: Organizational commitment, Factor analysis, Structural equation modeling |
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Political behavior in organizational context: nature, research and paradigm
, Pages 2987-3000 Hasan Jafariani, Saeed Mortazavi, Shamsodin Nazemi and Peter Bull ![]() |
Abstract: This paper investigates political behavior in organization context. In the first section, it studies inappropriate terminology in political behavior arena and recommends that political behaviors are neither positive nor negative in nature. The study also demonstrates that ends and means for influencing others are two criteria for determining faces of political behavior. In the second section, related and important research are reviewed and categorized in terms of content. Finally, we present the dominant paradigm of political behavior as a philosophical infrastructure. The study also presents some guidelines for further research the limitations are discussed in conclusion part. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.09.008 Keywords: Organizational politics, Political behavior, Perception of organizational behavior, Political skill |
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Developing a benchmarking approach to evaluate the state of warranty in automakers: A case study of two biggest automakers in Middle East
, Pages 3001-3012 Mahdi Kheyrkhahan, Hamid kalaei, Hamidreza Karkehabadi and Batool Bozorgmehr ![]() |
Abstract: Warranty is recognized as an important component of product marketing and it can increase customers' confidence. All services during warranty are considered as an additional cost for producers where these expenses are associated with product reliability and warranty components. Product reliability is also influenced by decisions taken in the field of product design and process and arrangement in this period. Product reliability also plays an important role in new products for production planning. As competition increases all around the world, there is an increasing interest in providing suitable substrates for the acceleration of economic growth and development and production. Warranty is one of the basic infrastructures and behaviors in today's competitive world, which is boosting sales and typically profits and customer's satisfaction and confidence play important roles in achieving this goal. In this study, we first evaluate warranty policies and strategies and then we consider after selling services taken in a case study. Finally, some strategies are introduced to improve the current situation and to achieve suitable model for ideal situation. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.09.007 Keywords: Fuzzy AHP, Product warranty, After sale services, Quality |
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Organizational intelligence dismounting barriers prioritization: A real-world case study
, Pages 3013-3022 Ali Shahabi, Ali Faez and Damoon Fazli ![]() |
Abstract: Organizational intelligence plays an important role developing business units and organizations. Understating the barriers surrounding an organization helps us take possible actions to remove any issues. In this paper, we present an empirical investigation to find barriers in university located in Province of Semnan, Iran. The proposed study of this paper first detects important barriers and then prioritize them using analytical hierarchy process. Based on the results of this paper, structural barriers are considered as the most important issue follows by legal barriers, cultural and executive barriers. The results of our survey indicate that lack of organizational knowledge management relation with daily activities, project complexity, lack of the knowledge exchanging and sharing in the organization, lack of suitable business context and absence of a documented program for the organizational intelligence dismounting are among the most important barriers according to our AHP implementation results. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.09.006 Keywords: Organizational intelligence, Organizational intelligence dismounting barriers, Knowledge management |
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Innate and discretionary accruals quality and corporate governance: A case study of Tehran Stock Exchange
, Pages 3023-3030 Hossein Panahian, Hassan Ghodrati and Majid Nazari ![]() |
Abstract: In this paper, we present an empirical study to find the relationship between discretionary accruals quality as well as innate accruals quality and portion of non-executive board of directors, concentration of ownership ratio and board size in Tehran Stock Exchange. The survey selects 118 qualified stocks from this exchange and using a random technique chooses 42 firms. The study implements two linear regression techniques to estimate the first part of the information and then using structural equation modeling examines six hypotheses. Based on the results of this survey we can conclude that an increase on non-executive members positively influences on discretionary accruals quality and negatively influences innate accruals quality. Concentration of ownership ratio positively influences on discretionary accruals quality and negatively impacts on innate accruals quality. Finally, size of board of directors negatively impacts discretionary accruals quality and positively influences on innate accruals quality. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.09.005 Keywords: Innate and discretionary accruals quality, Corporate governance, Tehran Stock Exchange, Transparency |
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Nodes clustering using Fuzzy logic to optimize energy consumption in Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANET)
, Pages 3031-3040 Ehsan Amiri, Ali Harounabadi and Seyed Javad Mirabedini ![]() |
Abstract: Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET) consists of some nodes, which are randomly placed in operational environment. This type of network does not have any infrastructure and nodes are completely dynamic and moveable. Each node can contact with the other in-range nodes. One of the disadvantages of MANET is the low lifetime of nodes power in which the energy consumption of the network goes up due to connectivity overheads. In this paper, by presenting a Fuzzy clustering algorithm, we endeavor for a more optimized energy consumption of this network by reducing the number of re-election of clusterheads (CHs) and reducing the re-affiliation of nodes and also by selecting the best node as CH amongst current members of each cluster. The result of simulation shows that our algorithm performs better than other existing algorithm. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.09.004 Keywords: MANETs, Fuzzy, Clustering, Energy consumption |
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Investigating cultural influences on investment process in stock exchange
, Pages 3041-3048 Shamsodin Nazemi, Fariborz Rahimnia, Mohammad Lagzian and S. Morteza Ghayour ![]() |
Abstract: Cultural variety is a behavioral characteristic of investors and evaluating the cultural influences in the area of financial management on the decisions of investors plays an important role. In fact, different behaviors and decisions are required in various cultures facing the prices, price fluctuations and important or non-important published news of portfolio. In this paper, a questionnaire was designed including 22 cultural items in three criteria of values, facilities and behavior in order to measure the cultural factors affecting investment in stock exchange. Experts’ comments were used on the design of items and quintet Likert spectrum was applied for the answers. Structural equation modeling, or multivariable analysis with latent variables, is a comprehensive statistical approach for testing the hypotheses about relationships between observed and latent variables. Such analyzes have been done by LISREL software and the results showed that there was a significant relationship between investment and its triple factors and also between the items and triple factors affecting on investment. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.09.003 Keywords: Value, Behavior of Investors, Investment Culture, Cultural Factors |
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Identification and prioritization of hazardous material transportation strategies using DEA method
, Pages 3049-3054 Saeid Esmaeili, Mahdi Hosseinpour, Khashayar Sheikhi and Nader Naderi ![]() |
Abstract: Development of industries needs expansion of public transportation and, consequently, heavy transportation increases hazardous and dangerous transportation too. Therefore, we need to consider some strategies to reduce bad effects of transportation of hazardous materials such as road accidents. Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Treats (SWOT) analysis is an applicable method for designing strategies in this area. However, SWOT analysis does not provide specific strategies and it does not consider the efficiency and performance of each strategy. Applying a hybrid method of analyzing the strategies and their performance evaluation help decision makers select the best strategies based on the current limitations. In this paper, different strategies for hazardous transportation risk reduction are designed and relative efficiencies of all alternatives are compared using DEA method. The proposed model of this paper uses three inputs including implementation costs, operation and maintenance cost and operational and four outputs including accident rate reduction, fuel consumption reduction, employment rate increment and deaths number reduction. The results of the implementation using seven different strategies have yielded two important strategies including continuous improvement of vehicle standards, driving skills, transportation system quality, and loading methods and expansion of petroleum pipe network. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.09.002 Keywords: Hazardous material, Data envelopment analysis, SWOT |
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A social work study on the relationship between personality traits, prestige sensitivity, and fashion consciousness of Iranian students
, Pages 3055-3060 Mohammad Reza Iravani, Kazem Ghojavand, Faezeh Taghipour and Yosef Masomi ![]() |
Abstract: Fashion plays an important role on lifestyle and many people spend their money proportion to fashion changes. In this paper, we present an empirical study among students who attend some private schools in Iran. The study investigates whether there is any correlation between fashion consciousness as well as fashion practices and national identity, university student gender and mass media. The proposed study designs a questionnaire and distributes among 384 students who attend university and analyze the results using Pearson correlation test. The results indicate that there is a positive correlation between national consciousness and fashion, a positive correlation between using mass media applications and fashion. However, the results of the study do not indicate any significance correlation between fashion and mixture of students in terms of gender. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.09.001 Keywords: Fashion, University student, Life style |
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A survey for assessing university performance
, Pages 3061-3066 Soheila Khosroabadi, Baratali Monfaredi raz and Hosseinali Bahramzadeh ![]() |
Abstract: One of the popular methods to increase the performance of educational services such as public or private universities is to make performance measurement. The people who work for an organization are normally considered as the best people to judge about the performance of a workplace since they know most existing weakness points in their workplace. The proposed study of this paper looks into a university performance in three inside, process and outside's perspectives. We design and distribute a questionnaire among 69 university professors and 295 students. In this survey, we ask them how they evaluate university in terms of different criteria such as educational and research facilities, etc. The results of our survey indicate that the university is not in good condition in terms of research activities but it has maintained good condition in terms of other perspectives such as educational, infrastructure, etc. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.08.025 Keywords: Performance evaluation, University self assessment, Performance measurement |
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A study on the effect of size and ratio of book value to market value on excessive return
, Pages 3067-3072 Hossein Mohammadpour Zarandi and Seyed Mohsen Tabatabaei Mozdabadi ![]() |
Abstract: Stock market plays an important role on demonstrating economy direction and it provides good opportunities for people who wish to purchase a small portion of different firms' shares. In this paper, we propose an empirical study to measure the impact of the market size and the ratio of book value on market value on excessive return. The study gathers the necessary information from some of active stock shares traded on Tehran Stock Exchange over the period of 2010-2011. The proposed model of this paper uses linear regression analysis to investigate the relationship between the excessive return and other factors. The study divides the information into seven equal groups and fits the regression model using ordinary least square technique. The results indicate that there is a negative relationship between size and excessive return and a positive relationship between the ratio of BV/MV and excessive return. Although the results of both tests are positive, we have to be more cautious about what have reported on the second hypothesis. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.08.023 Keywords: Excessive return, Stock market, Investment, Tehran Stock Exchange |
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An empirical study to find important factors on building national brand: An Iranian tourism case study
, Pages 3073-3080 Abolghasem Hakimipour and Hamed Bozorgkho ![]() |
Abstract: Building national brand plays an important role on today's economy to attract interested tourists in visiting various countries. There are different factors impacting national brand such as advertisement, natural attraction, etc. In this paper, we perform an empirical investigation to find the impact of ten most important factors on building brand. The study designs and distributes a questionnaire among 384 international tourists who visited Iran during the year of 2010 and it uses factor analysis to group important factors. The results extract four groups; the first factor includes three most important components including satellite advertisement programs, public awareness on economical power and public awareness on specialized symposium and conferences. The second factor includes three other important factors, which are public awareness on human right, advertisement programs through distribution brushers and internet advertisement. The third factor includes two variables, which are public awareness on education and access to educational services and introducing cultural heritage. Finally, the last factor includes introducing natural attraction and advertisement programs through distribution brushers. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.08.022 Keywords: Brand, Tourism industry, National brand, |
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