دکتر مهرداد کیانی

This research aims to identify and examine the relationship between the barriers to implementing Quality 4.0 in the Yazd tile and ceramic sector.

A systematic review methodology was employed to identify and categorize barriers, while the combined Fuzzy DEMATEL-ANP (FDANP) method was utilized in the quantitative phase to illustrate the relationship patterns among these barriers and their prioritization.

The qualitative analysis revealed 18 barriers across four categories. The Quantitative findings indicated that "High Cost of Implementation and lack of transparency in Return on Investment" emerged as the most causal barrier, while "failure to consider Quality 4.0 as a strategic issue and source of competitive advantage" was identified as the most consequential barrier to implementing Quality 4.0 in the Yazd tile and ceramic industry. Also, the key obstacles to the implementation of Quality 4.0 in the Yazd ceramic and tile industry include the lack of quantitative metrics for assessing the impact of Industry 4.0 on quality, the failure to consider Quality 4.0 as a strategic issue and a source of competitive advantage, the absence of advanced training programs for personnel, insufficient financial resources for implementing Quality 4.0, and the lack of stakeholder involvement in Quality 4.0 initiatives and projects.

Originality/Value: 

This study employs a hybrid Fuzzy DANP approach to support managers and decision-makers in strategizing for overcoming obstacles to the adoption of Quality 4.0. It achieves this by identifying barriers, determining the interrelationships among them, and prioritizing them.

Considering the significance of heritage tourism as one of the most important and increasingly welcomed types of tourism worldwide, and Iran's potential in this regard, this study set out to identify and prioritize the strategies that can contribute to the development of heritage tourism in Iran using a mixed-method approach. To this end, thirty practitioners and experts in the relevant field were interviewed to identify the intended strategies. The collected data were then analyzed using thematic analysis. Accordingly, three main strategies (dimensions) and 15 sub-strategies were identified. In the quantitative phase of the study, a questionnaire was designed based on the above-mentioned strategies and sub-strategies, asking eight tourism experts to prioritize them by responding to the items embedded within the questionnaire. The data were then analyzed using the type 2 fuzzy analytical hierarchical process (AHP) method.  Accordingly, the study found that marketing, human resources, and infrastructural strategies were the most crucially important ones for developing Iran’s cultural heritage tourism, respectively. As for the sub-strategies, offering public instructions, improving the destination’s image, organizing retraining courses, and continuously developing professional skills for current active tourism staff were found to be the most essential ones, respectively.

Circular economy and Industry 4.0 are concepts that have garnered significant attention from businesses and universities in recent years. They are currently being promoted by many governments worldwide. The synergy between these two concepts offers the potential to move towards a more sustainable society and address the environmental and economic challenges related to managing organizational operations. This research aims to analyze the factors enabling the implementation of circular economy and Industry 4.0 in the supply chain of Yazd glass factories. In the initial phase of the research, a review of various articles was conducted using the meta-synthesis method to identify and categorize relevant enablers. This process resulted in the identification of 15 enablers categorized into four dimensions: economic, human resources, organizational management, and infrastructure. In the subsequent step, the Fuzzy DEMATEL technique was employed to examine the cause-and-effect relationships. The findings indicate that, within the economic dimension, the most influential enablers are "budget allocation for the implementation of circular economy and Industry 4.0" and "stimulation of demand for circular products." In the human resources dimension, "training and development of employees" and "organizational culture" play crucial roles. In the organizational-management dimension, "support and commitment of senior management" and "cooperation and networking with supply chain partners (industrial coexistence)" are highly significant. Lastly, within the infrastructure dimension, "development of information technology standards and infrastructures" and "security and protection of intellectual property rights" are considered the most effective enablers for the implementation of circular economy and Industry 4.0 in the Yazd glass factories. The results indicate that the Ardakan glass factories of Yazd should prioritize attention to economic and infrastructural enablers when implementing circular economy and Industry 4.0.

This research aims to identify and analyze the cause-and-effect relationships of the challenges of implementing sustainable supply chain management in the polluting industries of Iran, particularly in the Yazd Glass Manufacturing Complex.

Design/methodology/approach:

 In terms of results, this research is typically an applied-developmental research. In the first step of the research, the challenges of implementing sustainable supply chain management have been identified and categorized with a systematic approach and by reviewing the published literature and articles using the Meta-Synthesis method. In the second step, the researchers identified the cause-and-effect relationships between the dimensions and challenges through the Fuzzy DEMATEL Method and asked the opinions of eight experts working in Ardakan glass factories in Yazd. The statistical population in the first step of the research included all the studies published in domestic and foreign reliable scientific databases related to the challenges affecting the implementation of sustainable supply chain management. In the second step, the statistical population included all professors and managers in the field of sustainability who were familiar with supply chain management in Ardakan glass factories in Yazd.

The results of the Meta-Synthesis method indicated 32 challenges in seven dimensions of technical, process, organisational management, human-social, institutional, supplier and economic for the implementation of sustainable supply chain management. The results of the Fuzzy DEMATEL method indicated that economic challenges were the most effective and technical challenges in the implementation of sustainable supply chain management.

Research limitations/implications: 

The studied case was one of the glass manufacturing complexes, which can limit the generalizability of the results. Considering that the current research sought to examine the relationships between challenges; therefore, not using methods of weighting and prioritizing challenges is another limitation of this research. To solve such limitations, future researchers are suggested to conduct research in this field and other industries so that better and more appropriate results can be extracted and finally, a more comprehensive model can be designed, since different industries have different characteristics and challenges. It is also suggested to name and categorize the dimensions using survey and quantitative methods such as cluster analysis; and to determine the relationships between the challenges using existing techniques in this field such as structural-interpretive modelling, network analysis process, cognitive map, etc. in different fuzzy theory (type 2, hesitant, neutrosophic, etc.), Z numbers, G and R, and the importance of challenges using techniques such as hierarchical analysis process, entropy, best and worst fuzzy, etc.

Practical implications:

 One of the most important ways to control the emission of pollutants and the increase of waste in different stages of glass production is to move towards sustainable supply chain management. Increasing the awareness of managers and economic operators about the challenges of implementing sustainable supply chain management can help them formulate strategies suitable to help reduce and solve these challenges. To compete in a world-class business, the glass industry must pay sufficient attention to all the identified challenges by focusing on the most important challenges. The use of specific guidelines and a checklist of effective challenges during decision-making can make decision-making easier and the power of decision-making more effective. Were identified, guidelines and checklists should be prepared and provided to the executive managers.Social implications: Identifying the challenges affecting the implementation of sustainable supply chain management is one of the most important factors in implementing and improving the best sustainable supply chain performance. Until the challenges are identified, it is not possible to understand which ones are more important. After the completion of this identification, industry policymakers and practitioners can implement appropriate strategies to reduce and solve such challenges and by implementing this type of supply chain, take steps towards the optimal use of natural and non-renewable resources and pollution reduction.

Originality/value:

 The main contribution of this study was the identification of the challenges of implementing sustainable supply chain management with a comprehensive and scientific approach (Meta-Synthesis) and analyzing the relationships between such challenges using the Fuzzy DEMATEL method. What distinguished this study from other studies is the combination of the challenges of implementing sustainable supply chain management as well as the network approach and examining the relationships and interactions between such challenges in the Ardakan glass factories in Yazd.

This study uses a mixed research framework to propose a model of ecotourism development in Iran. In the qualitative part, practitioners and experts were interviewed to extract the elements of the model, and the data were analyzed through thematic analysis. Therefore, four dimensions and 19 were detected. In the quantitative part, the dimensions and strategies were arranged into a questionnaire and were ranked by Iranian tourism experts. The results of analysis through hesitant fuzzy sets method revealed that the most important ecotourism development dimensions in Iran were “Management,” “Infrastructure development,” “Marketing,” and “Training and developing human resources.” Also, the most critical ecotourism development strategies were “marketing activities for increasing market share in ecotourism,” “diversifying Iran’s ecotourism products,” “improving roads leading to target villages for tourism,” and “increasing resilience of destinations in the face of natural disasters”, respectively.

Todays, university plays an important role in the knowledge-based economy and the innovation cycle, while it can be considered as a driving force of human knowledge and pursues the growth and excellence of societies. In this field, the entrepreneurial university plays an important role both as a producer and as a knowledge disseminating institution. The purpose of this study is to identify and prioritize the factors affecting the success of university entrepreneurship. The orientations of this research are a combination of applied and developmental research. The philosophical basis of this research is positivism and in terms of approach, it is inductive. The research strategy is also survey type and in terms of method, it is considered as a quantitative research. The statistical population includes all professors and administrators of Yazd University that using purposive sampling method, 10 people were selected who participated in the prioritization stage of each factor using the hesitant fuzzy TOPSIS technique. The results showed that 33 factors in educational, research, organizational, economic, inter-organizational, cultural and human dimensions, among which the factors of financial and moral support of the government for entrepreneurial activities of universities, the amount of budget allocated by the university for research and development activities, support of senior university administrators for people with ideas, attracting financial support from independent institutions, large companies and external resources, and development of ideas, plans and business models, respectively are most important effective factors are the success of university entrepreneurship.

Globalization, increasingly stringent regulations for state and nongovernmental organizations along with consumer pressure and demand for addressing environmental issues have led organizations to consider essential measures they might take to establish Green Supply Chain management to enhance their environmental and economic performance. The purpose of this applied developmental survey was to design a model to identify the key factors behind successful implementation of green supply chain management. The study commenced with scrutiny and Meta-analysis of research findings related to the factors affecting the success of green supply chain management published in accredited domestic and international scientific databases which resulted in the systematic design of a model comprising 29 items in 6 factors of green supply. Further, the key factors and roadmap for success in green supply chain management were identified via strategic analysis and development approach (SODA). The results indicated the key factors in the successful implementation of the green supply chain to be the use of machinery, physical equipment and green technologies in the organization, green packaging, green purchases, green design, the use of lean production, support and protection of middle and senior operational managers in charge of implementing green chain supply and finally the allocation of the financial resources required for the implementation of environmental plans. Overall, this research is distinct from other domestic studies in that it has proposed a modern and scientific framework for the identification of key factors that could guide senior executives and decision-makers.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of social capital mediation in the relationship between knowledge management and organizational performance. This research is a descriptive-correlational study. The statistical population of this study was the employees of Agharan and Dalan Natural Gas Company. According to Krejcie and Morgan table, 100 people were randomly selected and the research questionnaire has been distributed among them.The findings indicated that knowledge management has a positive and significant effect on social capital and organizational performance, with a coefficient of 0.633 and 0.341, respectively, while the role of the component of knowledge application (0.916) and sharing Knowledge (0.886) is more noticable. Also, the positive and significant effects of social capital on organizational performance were confirmed by a coefficient of 0.447. Among the components of social capital, the component of relationships (0.902), networks (0.877) and cooperation (0.838) have shown the major role. Finally, knowledge management by confirming the mediating role of social capital has shown an indirect, positive and significant effect (0.300) on organizational performance.

In today’s competitive and dynamic world, organizational readiness to take entrepreneurial actions has become an important prerequisite for organizational effectiveness and survival. This study aimed to analyze the mediating role of social capital in the effect of moral leadership on the entrepreneurial orientation of organizations.

This is an applied-descriptive survey, in which the statistical population included the knowledge-based companies located in Sheikh Bahaei Science and Technology Park of Isfahan. The stratified sampling method was employed to survey 174 managers and employees. The structural equation modeling (SEM) was then used for hypothesis testing in SmartPLS.

Moral leadership had positive, direct effect on the entrepreneurial orientation. It was confirmed that social capital had a mediating role in this relationship.

Relying on moral leadership and showing normative behavior, managers can increase social capital of their organizations and the entrepreneurial orientation by developing interpersonal interactions and promoting normative behavior among followers.