فصلنامه فرایند مدیریت و توسعه
سال بیست و ششم شماره 2 (پیاپی 84، تابستان 1392)

As no clear-cut equivalents have been proposed in Iranian marketing literature to stand for “brand placement” and “product placement”، this fact signifies that such concepts have not yet been thoroughly addressed in our country. Audience skepticism and cynicism toward promotional advertisements، media fragmentation، ever-increasing number of Internet users، and fading away of the traditional media such as newspapers and printed press are the main reasons for rapid growing of the brand placement. This article tries to explore the impacts of individual differences on promotional hybrid techniques and cognitive effectiveness of brand placement. The researchers have conducted structured interviews with three groups of elites including academicians، film-makers، and advertising institutes to evaluate the effects of individual differences affecting brand placement. Finally، the model of individual differences was formulated and tested on 536 selected samples. To the best of the researchers’ knowledge، no previous study (nationally or internationally) has focused on audience’s individual differences on cognitive elements of brand placement effectiveness.

Today، new approaches have set the stage for thorough and deep understanding of unsustainable and unbalanced development in a way to pave the way for balanced and sustainable development in the local and regional scale. Institutionalism is a novel approach to regional development that while criticizing the traditional paradigms، introduces new ways toward the local and regional development. Accordingly، this article tries to adequately answer the strategic question “What are the causes of unsuccessful policies of regional development in Iran?” A qualitative and documentary method was applied to answer the question.. The results of the study demonstrated that despite having enjoyed many decades of experience in the regional policy making، the regional development policies in Iran have failed to consider the environmental، social and economic capacities; moreover، they have disregarded boosting the regional leadership and devising the due policies based on the local conditions، local and regional management and the participation of regional elements. In addition، vague definition of region and regional development، centralized decision-making and administrative structures، along with neglecting new methods of regional development such as knowledge development، learning promotion، socio-economic development and entrepreneurship at the local level have all curbed the grounds for regional governance، leading to unsuccessful regional development.

As organizations strive to improve their business performance and capacity for innovation، their attention is increasingly focused on how to conduct knowledge management. This cites a reason why utilizing organizational knowledge gives a strategic leverage to gain a competitive advantage in today’s business environment. A major factor causing the organizations shy away from Knowledge Management (KM) and failing to fully enjoy its privileges could be lacking a scholarly sound implementation framework that helps organizations to fulfill such a goal by providing the guidelines concerned. This study was conduced with the aim of providing a comprehensive methodology، based on a holistic framework، called I2CE. In order to achieve this aim، the study is focused on seven knowledge enablers and six knowledge processes. This research is an applied one، conducted in shipyard industry. The data were gathered through questionnaire and interview techniques. The data were later analyzed through Multi-Attribute Decision-Making Shannon Entropy technique. In the final assessment، the factors such as culture and human resources were categorized in “knowledge enablers” while knowledge creation was classified in the “processes.” Both groups were identified as the organizational preferences to embark on Knowledge Management (KM) initiatives with the aim of defining the knowledge strategy of the organization and devising the knowledge improvement programs.

Recent studies have so far failed to give a plain and evident answer about the probable effectiveness of emotional intelligence on entrepreneurship. However، apparently، some environmental variables and characteristics like ethnicity، education and gender may influence both emotional intelligence and entrepreneurship. Therefore، this article tries to study the effect of emotional intelligence on entrepreneurship among post-graduate students in the context of gender and ethnicity. The researchers selected Tarbiat Modares University post-graduate students as the sample of the research. This research has 3 major hypotheses as well as 6 minor ones. In the end، all the hypotheses were rejected، but one. Finally، ome recommendations were offered for further studies.

The concept of meritocracy in the principles of organization and management، in addition to involving the characteristic manifestation of selection، appointment and retention of managers، specifically includes a range of key factors to build a system of meritocracy، upon which there has not been a general consensus so far. Accordingly، any analysis concerning the origins، challenges and obstacles requires broad and inclusive studies. Hence، this study is aimed to assess the dimensions and components of meritocracy in managers and employees of the Islamic Azad University of Sanandaj. The research is a descriptive - exploratory one which uses documentary and field data collection methods. The research statistical population consisted of all managers and employees of the Islamic Azad University of Sanandaj، totaling a number of 521 people. 220 people were selected as the research samples، using Morgan method. Reliability of the questionnaire on the component dimensions of meritocracy was approved to be 0/87 through Cronbach''s alpha method. Meanwhile، the validity of the test was checked through questionnaires standardization and their normality in the internal research. However، factor analysis and principal component methods were employed to identify aspects of meritocracy; accordingly، exploratory analysis identified a number of 10 leading causes، later reaffirmed through confirmatory factor analysis. Software statistical methods of the study were LISREL and SPSS. The results of confirmatory factor analysis confirmed all model parameters. The study asserted that there are significant differences between the average of some dimensions of meritocracy in the managers and that of the employees.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between risk-taking behavior and performance of Bank Melli Iran branches located in the West Azerbaijan province of Iran. The performance is measured by the profitability index، i. e. profit-to-income ratio in the Bank Melli Iran branches of the West Azerbaijan province. The research data covers all the branches in the area within a six-year period، from 2005 to 2010. A couple of models were formulated to depict the relationship. The individual risk-taking behavior was taken as the independent variable in the first model while and the organizational risk-taking was the independent variable of the second one. Meanwhile، the age and educational degrees of the branch managers، staff number of the branch، balances of facilities and deposits as well as the percentage of the pending collections were considered as the controlling variables. Findings illustrated that both individual and organizational risk-taking behavior of the bank managers positively and significantly affect the performance of bank branches in a linear way. The controlling variables of “age” (in the first model) and “pending collections percentage” (in the second model) were omitted due to high regression coefficient regression. Other controlling variables indicted a positive relationship between “balances of facilities and deposits” and the “profit-to-income ratio”. Yet، the results asserted a negative and meaningful relationship between the number of staff and the managers'' educational degrees from one side and the profitability index used in this research from the other side.

The scholars have recommended sustainable development to solve the socio-economic and environmental problems of today’s world and it has been widely accepted by governments، international bodies، NGOs as well as corporations. This study sought to analyze the barriers and provide a model for “institutionalization” of sustainable development policy in Iran. The method of research is Grounded Theory while interviews and documentary method were employed to collect the required data. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the academic experts while the theoretical sampling was used as data sampling method. The data analysis was performed by means of Atlas TI application software. Research findings suggest that there are a series of cognitive، institutional-legal، policy-related and social barriers to the institutionalization of sustainable development policy in Iran. As a result، institutionalization of sustainable development policy in Iran requires a model that takes such factors along with international documents، foreign experiences and domestic expertise into consideration to propose the right recommendations to remove the barriers.

Social capital is a multidimensional and multilayered concept، frequently discussed in recent years in the fields of social science، economics and political science. Social capital is collective communications and social networks، facilitating the sense of cooperation and trust among the individuals in a society. Many sociologists and social science scholars believe that social capital is an important area of community development. Accordingly، this paper examines the relationship between social capital and the effectiveness of customs office employees in Kurdistan province. This is a descriptive، survey-type study. The data collection tool was a questionnaire whose copies were handed out among the participants after having been tested for its validity and reliability (through factor analysis). The statistical population of the research was customs office employees of three cities of Sanandaj، Marivan and Baneh in Kurdestan province، out of which 120 employees were selected as samples. Finally، 110 retuned questionnaires were analyzed. The results showed that there was a meaningful and direct relationship between all aspects of social capital variables (i. e. social trust، employees’ relations in the social networks، employees’ group participation and their involvement in the local community groups) and the effectiveness of customs employees. The results of the regression analysis indicated that the four dimensions of social capital explain 23. 8 Percent of the variance of employees'' effectiveness in the equations. Meanwhile، they indicated that employees’ group participation was the most determining factor to influence the effectiveness of employees.

Capital accumulation، as one of the major prerequisites of economic growth process، could be provided from internal or external resources. Foreign financial resources as a supplement for domestic savings، in addition to bridging the investment savings gap، are regarded as a solution to confront with foreign currency gap. Foreign debts are deemed as one of the foreign financial resources in developing countries. On the other hand، foreign direct investment involves advantages such as capital attraction، up-to-date technology and knowledge، higher management capability، higher level of employment، improved balance payments and increased competition power. The question arises here as to whether or not there is any causal relationship between foreign debt and foreign direct investment in Iran. In a try to respond to this question، this article explains theoretical principles of the subject and manner of decision-making in multi-national companies about foreign direct investment under foreign debt conditions of the host country. Later، it tests the causal relationship among the proposed variables through Vector Auto-regression model (VAR) and Granger Causality Test while conducting cognitive tests. The obtained results demonstrated that there has been no causality relationship between variables of foreign direct investment and foreign debts in Iran within the period of the study.