فصلنامه فرایند مدیریت و توسعه
سال سی و چهارم شماره 4 (پیاپی 118، زمستان 1400)

 Given the importance of how to provide services to meet the public needs, and besides explaining the issue from the Western theories’ perspective; this article has tried to rely on Islamic principles regarding the excellence of public services, and make the requirenments available to develop an appropriate pattern using this approach.

First, by reviewing the paradigms of public administration in different school of thoughts, public values management, became the basis for comparative analysis. Then based on Islamic values, and in order to discover the dimensions of excellence in servicing citizens, the Qur'anic Al-Mizan exegesis was used. Therefore, a qualitative method has been selected, which in accordance with subject matter would be thematic analysis on the textual source of data.

 The components affecting the excellence of public service in the Islamic approach can be formulated in a framework composed of two core dimensions as "virtuous actions" and "agent goodness". The obtained themes for each of these dimensions are presented in the form of 13 categories of research comprehensive codes. Finally, the distinction between the excellence of public services in the Islamic value system and the scientific approach in Western philosophy has been discussed.

Due to lack of a featured model in this field, the present study seeks to outline the components for Islamic pattern of public service excellence through which governors are able to identify the criteria for an excellent service delivery and the indicators of excellence within their executive unit.

Public Policy is a key tool for governments to exercise national sovereignty. The purpose of this research was to identify the factors affecting the implementation of public policies and determine the relationships among them using interpretive structural modeling in Iranian project-based companies active in the fields of oil and gas.

This research was qualitative in terms of method. Initially, in order to identify the components, a systematic review of literature was rendered. The statistical population of the study included senior managers of state companies active in the field of oil and gas, as well as university professors active in the field of policy-making. To collect data, 9 experts were interviewed, 55 selected articles were reviewed and a special questionnaire was administered. In order to systematically review the foundations and background of the research, an eight-step method was used, and finally, six categories were identified according to the secondary concepts. Regarding the research framework, in order to explain the relationships among variables and to classify the implementation model of public policies, the structural-interpretive modeling method was applied.

Results show that the framework for the implementation of public policies includes such elements as tools and requirements, integrity, environmental factors, effectiveness, results, and strategies. Moreover, the variables fall into four groups: autonomous, dependent, connected and independent. Also, the relationships and effects of each category are examined.

The aim of this study is to identify factors affecting the dynamics of the business model in knowledge-based startups in Kermanshah, considering the effects of Covid-19.

In terms of purpose, the research was applied and qualitative approach was used. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with key experts. Applying judgmental and snowball methods, interviews went on (with 19 experts) until theoretical saturation of data was achieved. The six-step process of theme analysis was used to analyze the data.

Effective factors on the business model dynamics include 624 codes, 64 basic themes, 15 sub-organizing themes and 5 main organizing themes. These 5 main organizing themes comprise of such factors as target market, resources, financial processes, marketing mix and stakeholders.

The results of this research may help identify new conceptual elements and an innovative framework for business model dynamics so that start-ups can overcome the challenges and limitations imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Thus, a new perspective will be provided for companies, planners and policymakers.

This study aims to present a systems model of Value Acquisition based on innovation economics in knowledge-based businesses in the field of information technology.

Beside the review of Literature, in order to further enrich the data gathering process, in-depth interviews were conducted with 12 experts in the field of information technology and consequently the most important dimensions and components were identified. Then, a questionnaire was designed and made available to 103 specialists and managers of knowledge-based businesses in the field of information technology. Adaptive neural-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) was used to validate the predicted model.

Results show that the most important dimensions affecting value acquisition based on innovation economics in knowledge-based businesses in IT domain fall into the following order of importance: business and market, innovation economics, value acquisition, information technology resources, information technology, innovation in information technology, security and law. Also, due to the amount of errors observed and the lack of meta-adaptation phenomenon in the designed ANFIS, the model has acceptable validity and high predictive power.

Presenting a systems model which includes the most important dimensions and components of value acquisition based on innovation economics, this research can help policy makers and managers involved in knowledge-based businesses in the field of information technology.

Appropriate criteria for the selection and hiring of training and development administrators for local government organizations provide the basis for the implementation of quality training of their employees. Therefore, identifying the competencies needed for these administrators and designing a relevant competency model seems to be increasingly necessary.

In terms of research methodology, it was applied and regarding data collection method, it was a qualitative-quantitative study. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data in the qualitative section. Using open coding method, all relevant key phrases were extracted and converted into a questionnaire. In the quantitative part, descriptive-survey method was applied. The questionnaires were administered to a statistical sample of 203 human resources staff of local government agencies, who were selected by stratified random sampling method using Morgan table.

The resulting competencies for administrators were classified into three main components: technical-specialized competencies including skills in assessing training and development effectiveness, skills in planning training and development courses, skills in implementing training and development programs; general competencies including personality-ethical traits; and finally, managerial competencies including communication skills, foresight, accountability, analytical thinking, flexibility, creative thinking, goal orientation, strategic thinking and team building.

The present study tries to partly fill the gap in theoretical foundations of this field by presenting a competency model for training and development administrators. By presenting a model for the competencies of these administrators, the findings of this study have introduced a new field of knowledge in the related literature.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of the acquiring and acquired firms in the context of governance and firm factors on the performance of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) based on the dimensions of Earnings per Share (EPS) and Cumulative Abnormal Return (CAR) growth.

Regarding the methodology, this applied and survey research was empirical and descriptive. The statistical population included all active firms listed in Tehran Stock Exchange. The sample consisted of blocked trading data related to mergers and acquisitions in the stock exchange. As a result, the final sample included 198 listed M&A firms.

Results show that the acquiring firms’ characteristics,    ownership of institutional investors, rate of return on assets and rate of return on equity of shareholders positively and significantly affect M&A’s performance. In addition, the total assets and trans-industrial nature of acquiring firms positively and significantly affect the performance of merged and acquired firms.  Furthermore, the buyer’s institutional ownership, amount of acquired ownership, size of the board and size of the non-executive board, as well as their experience at the time of deal positively and significantly affect the performance of merged and acquired firms. The age of the companies at the time of the deal is also an issue which has its own impact. 

Our research has valuable contributions to the theory of stewardship, agency theory, and resource-based view, which are comprehensively presented in five panels to measure their impact on the performance of mergers and acquisitions. Implications: According to the results, governance and firm factors of acquiring firms impact the likelihood success of M&A transaction. Moreover, the necessity of high value of transparency of companies' financial information during mergers and acquisitions has been confirmed.

With the emergence of new approaches in knowledge management, the need to use new tools in the knowledge management of organizations is imperative. The main purpose of this research is to design a conceptual model of knowledge management system 2.0 in Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization applying the methodology of soft systems.

The type of this research was exploratory and the data collection methods included field study, interviews, as well as descriptive and analytical questionnaires. Data collected through these methods were used to implement the seven steps of soft systems methodology. The statistical population was composed of managers and senior experts of Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization, who had full knowledge of the structure of the organization and the subjects of knowledge management and information technologies.

Based on the research findings, the main components of knowledge management system 2.0 consist of cooperation, collaboration, connection, dialogue, training, motivational incentives, managerial stability, system certainty and encouragement/punishment. Among these nine components, the most important one in the organization is cooperation, which should be expanded among employees, and all units of the organization. The enhancement of cooperation calls for supporting cooperative attitude in the organization by senior management.

It is suggested that participatory activity and a sense of atmosphere be expanded in the organization so that employees may know that their views affect the development of the organization. It is also suggested that balance be made among materialistic issues, like-mindedness and unison in the organization.