alireza motameni

Rapid advancements in technology have led to a significant rise in Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), necessitating the development of effective strategies for managing this growing waste stream. This study explores consumer perspectives and preferences regarding End-of-Life (EOL) options for WEEE. By analyzing a substantial dataset of 2,905,579 Twitter tweets collected between May 2019 and April 2022, and utilizing the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) technique, we were able to identify the key factors influencing consumer decisions. These factors include accessibility of recycling centers, consumer awareness regarding EOL options, trust in government initiatives, potential economic incentives, involvement of charitable organizations in collection processes, and data security concerns during electronic waste disposal. FAHP was further employed to assess the suitability of each EOL option (reuse, remanufacturing, recycling, and disposal) based on these identified factors. The findings from this study offer valuable insights that can inform WEEE management practices, promote the development of efficient electronic waste disposal strategies, and contribute to the establishment of a circular economy for electronic waste.

During centuries, humans, societies and political systems that move toward progression have shaped the basis of forming various sciences in favor of enhancing from current As-Is to proper To-Be situation. Sustainable development in recent years can be achieved through new definition of governance models and discussions on the new comprehensive form of governance called transcendent governance. On the other hand, emergent technologies such as blockchain has brought about transformations in businesses especially FinTech industry. Therefore, by investigating transcendent governance on one side and blockchain technology on the other side, this research aims at introducing a comparative model between dimensions of those aforementioned concepts.
The current research is carried out through a mixed method i.e. combination of both qualitative and quantitative methods. In the qualitative method, the dimensions of transcendent governance and features of blockchain were collected based on literature review studies. The first quantitative method was Fuzzy Delphi analysis in order to determine the approval or rejection of extracted dimensions and features. In this phase, 30 experts with academic degree of Masters and above from Management (Public Administration, Startegic, Information Technology), Political Sciences, Information Technology Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Computer Engineering and Electrical Engineering fields of study were selected to fill the correspondent questionnaire. The next quantitative method referred to extracting dimension of blockchain based on 217 experts’ opinions declared in the correspondent questionnaire, and features approved  using Exploratory Factor Analysis. This was necessary to compare transcendent governance with blockchain on the same correspondent level. After forming two sides comprising of transcendent governance and blockchain dimensions, the ISM method as the last quantitative method was carried out between these two sides to clarify the potential relations between dimensions.
In literature review, 10 dimensions including Structure, Process, Cognition and Values, Constitution, Organization and Institution, Performance Management, Policy Making, Section, International and Global Forces, Ethics- Accountability and Transparency were defined for transcendent governance. Also 13 features for blockchain including Distribution, Scalability, Network Laws, Dis-intermediation, Consensus-Orientation, Anonymity, Efficiency, Scrutiny, Reliability, Credibility, Security, Immutability and Transparency were extracted. Using Fuzzy Delphi analysis, firstly 30 experts filled the questionnaire about the correctness and coherence of transcendent governance dimensions along with blockchain features, then based on specific mathematical equations, fuzzification and defuzzification of expert’s scores were calculated. The results showed that one dimension of transcendent governance (named Section) was rejected and the rest of them were approved, and for blockchain technology, all features were approved to be applicable for further modeling. To make comparison reasonable, blockchain dimensions were extracted utilizing Exploratory Factor Analysis from features based on opinions of 217 experts. As the result, the features could be integrated under 6 main dimensions named Structure, Network Expansion Process, Network Formation Process, Intra-Network Interaction, Performance Improvement, Transparency-Security. Till here, we have 9 dimensions for transcendent governance and 6 ones for blockchain technology. To clarify relations between dimensions of transcendent governance and blockchain, ISM was exerted to all dimensions. The results showed that governance Structure with blockchain Structure and Network Formation Process, governance Process with Network Expansion Process, Network Formation Process and Intra-Network Interaction, governance Cognition and Values with Intra-Network Interaction, governance Constitution with Network Formation Process and Intra-Network Interaction, governance Organization and Institution with Network Formation Process, governance Performance Management with Performance Improvement, governance Policy Making with Network Formation Process, governance International and Global Forces with Network Formation Process, governance Ethics-Accountability and Transparency with Transparency-Security,  have bilateral relations.
This research aimed at delivering a comparative model between transcendent governance – as the most comprehensive governance model- and blockchain technology. Using various qualitative and quantitative methods, dimensions of transcendent governance and features of blockchain were investigated and blockchain dimensions were extracted. The clarified connections between the two concepts’ dimensions depicted that there is a reasonable correspondent coherence between specific dimensions of each side. The concepts discussed through transcendent governance referred to necessity of structural approach in people’s participation in network confirmation, formation and expansion and their critical role here is undeniable which is also approved via blockchain features and dimensions. The process of governance is dependent on all stakeholders and elements which form the network of people with intra-network interaction and its survival is achieved due to the feature of scalability. Governance cognition and values refer to justice and equality among participants which is met by intra-network interaction and consensus-orientation. Constitution is a legal and formal document in governance which means the same as network laws. Governance organization and institution is based on cohesion, connection and alignment of elements which refers to association and alignment of elements in forming the network. Performance management of governance that is knowledge and wisdom based, is correspondent to efficiency and scrutiny of network which leads to network performance improvement. Policy making in governance works as the director and instructor of other elements and coincides network formation laws in blockchain. International and global forces can influence how the blockchain network is formed based on international laws. And finally, ethics-accountability and transparency which are crucial in transcendent governance are matched with transparency-security as a valuable dimension of blockchain. In conclusion, the reasonable bilateral relations between transcendent governance and blockchain dimensions shows that utilizing blockchain technology as a proper mean to substantiate transcendent governance is worth taking action, and it can help governors to achieve transcendent governance based and through enforcing blockchain technology in the digital governance era.

Governance has always been a key focus throughout history across various levels of authority. The rise and expansion of the financial technology (Fintech) industry have introduced new and diverse challenges for policymakers, highlighting the growing need for an appropriate governance framework. Current global studies on Fintech governance primarily focus on the business and organizational levels, and limited research has been conducted on this topic in Iran. On a macro level, only a few studies have explored the governance of Fintech beyond the enterprise level, although it is seen as a growing field. Therefore, the need for macro-level governance in Fintech is evident both globally and in Iran. This study aims to address the question: What are the governance dimensions and components applicable to the Fintech industry? Based on this, the research seeks to develop a comprehensive framework for governance in Fintech.

Methods and Materoal:

This research follows a mixed-methods approach. In the qualitative phase, key terms such as governance, Fintech, and Fintech governance were selected as the foundation for reviewing previous studies. Using meta-synthesis and content analysis, various topics related to governance and Fintech governance were collected and categorized. Data were gathered from the Scopus and Science Direct databases, and studies were filtered based on the relevance of their titles, abstracts, methodologies, and findings. A total of 28 articles were selected for meta-synthesis, and content analysis was conducted to identify governance components relevant to the Fintech industry. Some studies directly addressed governance components applicable to Fintech, while others discussed challenges within Fintech that require governance. Both aspects were incorporated into the proposed framework, leading to an initial framework of governance components for Fintech.In the quantitative phase, the identified components were validated using the fuzzy Delphi method and potential correlations among them were explored through exploratory factor analysis (EFA). The fuzzy Delphi method was conducted using Excel with input from 15 experts, while EFA was performed using SPSS with data from 217 experts. These experts held advanced degrees in fields such as industrial management, IT management, strategic management, and public administration, with at least five years of experience in governance or Fintech management. Their insights were collected via a standardized questionnaire and analyzed accordingly. Ultimately, the final framework, comprising validated dimensions and components for Fintech governance, was presented.

Resultss:

The meta-synthesis of articles on governance, Fintech, and Fintech governance identified seven components: policymaking, foresight, facilitation, regulation, infrastructure development, monitoring, and evaluation. Expert opinions on these seven governance components, as well as on Fintech and Fintech governance, were collected through a standardized fuzzy Delphi questionnaire. Standard fuzzy Delphi calculations were then applied, and the fuzzy values for each component were determined. After fuzzification, a defuzzification process was conducted to convert fuzzy values into definitive ones. The final definitive values for each component were calculated as follows: policymaking (0.82), foresight (0.71), facilitation (0.79), regulation (0.81), infrastructure development (0.71), monitoring (0.77), and evaluation (0.76). According to the fuzzy Delphi method, the acceptable definitive value for each component is 0.7, indicating that all components meet the acceptable threshold, thereby confirming all seven components.After confirming the components, it was necessary to examine whether any latent internal correlations existed between them, allowing for their reduction into broader factors. To this end, the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy and Bartlett's test of sphericity were applied to the components based on expert opinions. The KMO value was found to be 0.787, indicating that the components could be reduced to a number of underlying factors and that the sample size was sufficient. Additionally, Bartlett's test showed good correlations among the components within each factor.To ensure the accuracy of the component categorization, the dimensions were first identified, and each dimension was then named according to the nature of the variables within it. The variance for each component was calculated, and the total variance explained by the extracted dimensions after rotation was determined. These values, known as eigenvalues, indicate the factors that remain in the analysis and the dimensions that can be extracted. Three factors, in total, accounted for 47.7% of the variance across all variables. These three dimensions were named regulation, strategy, and provision. According to Table 1, the components of monitoring and evaluation fell under the "regulation" dimension, the components of policymaking and foresight were grouped under the "strategy" dimension, and the components of facilitation, infrastructure development, and regulation were placed under the "provision" dimension.The consolidation of these dimensions and components of governance for Fintech forms the final framework that this research aims to achieve.

Conclusion and Recommendations:

In governance, some tasks are fundamental, while others are specific to the needs of the Fintech industry and must be governed. The integration of these two approaches forms the proposed governance framework. Current discussions on Fintech governance mainly focus on the organizational and business levels, with limited recent research, both in Iran and globally, addressing macro-level governance for Fintech. According to Rostoy (2019), the unique challenges and issues introduced by Fintech require a new form of governance, which strengthens the foundation of this study.By compiling and summarizing governance components and key issues for Fintech governance, seven components were identified: foresight, policymaking (Taati et al., 2021; Payandeh & Afghahi, 2023), facilitation, regulation (Sharifzadeh & Gholipour, 2003), infrastructure development (Rostoy, 2019), monitoring, and evaluation (Abrahams, 2015). After validating these components, latent correlations between them were identified, resulting in three dimensions: strategy, provision, and regulation. The strategy dimension includes foresight and policymaking, the provision dimension includes facilitation, infrastructure development, and regulation, and the regulation dimension covers monitoring and evaluation. These three dimensions form a cyclical and iterative process, with governance beginning with strategy as its foundation.Strategic foresight and policymaking are critical to starting the governance process. Policymakers and decision-makers at the national level must implement governance through strategic planning and foresight. The consideration of macro trends and the Fintech industry’s outlook is crucial for governance under the foresight component. Policymaking involves the development of national and sectoral strategies and policies that, together with foresight, form the strategic governance process.The provision aspect focuses on preparing the governing authorities to foster and support the growth of the Fintech industry. This includes measures such as facilitation, infrastructure development, and regulation. Facilitation, for instance, can be implemented both through soft measures (like legislation) and hard measures (such as platform and system development). The governing body, as the supreme authority, is well-positioned to oversee critical national issues like the economy and national security, thus possessing both the legal and technical power to facilitate Fintech growth. Governance is also evolving toward greater regulation, which is highly relevant and applicable to the Fintech industry.Finally, in the last phase of the governance cycle, regulation occurs through monitoring and evaluation. To fulfill its duties towards the public good and oversee the performance of Fintech companies, the governing body must monitor the industry and evaluate its performance to ensure accountability and, if necessary, exert control and make corrections. In other words, through regulation, the Fintech industry is held accountable for its performance, and this accountability is achieved through monitoring and evaluation.Given Iran’s political-economic structure, governance over industries, and the prevailing Islamic laws and regulations, the proposed governance framework for Fintech is applicable to Iran as well. This governance model, with a 360-degree perspective on both the specific challenges of Fintech and the general duties of governance, ensures the alignment of the Fintech industry with Iran’s macroeconomic policies. Furthermore, collaboration and synergy between the Fintech industry and the governing authorities will lead to the growth and development of the sector while ensuring the protection of public interests and citizens' rights. As such, all three pillars of governance, as outlined by Graham et al. (2003), will be balanced: the governing body fulfills its responsibilities toward society, the industry achieves its desired growth, and society benefits from the industry's advancements while safeguarding its rights.Recommendations for the use and further development of this governance framework are as follows. First, national-level policymakers should expand the seven governance components identified in this study and apply them in accordance with their duties and responsibilities to govern the Fintech industry. Second, clarity in definitions and processes related to each component or dimension will be beneficial for both Fintech and the governing body, helping to avoid many challenges and conflicts in practice, which should be addressed by the governing body as needed. Third, while the authors have endeavored to create comprehensive dimensions and components for governance, there is room for the addition of further components and the extraction of new dimensions. Future researchers are encouraged to explore and expand upon these aspects.

In the present unstable business environment, supply chains are considerably impacted by disruptions, necessitating the implementation of resilience strategies. These strategies, however, pose significant financial challenges for companies. Therefore, financing is essential in developing resilient supply chain networks. In addition to utilizing existing capital, options such as bank loans and trade credit can be employed to alleviate the financial burden and enhance working capital.  The present scholarship has failed to address the issue of financial strain resulting from the adoption of resilience strategies. Additionally, the significance of trade credit and repayment scheduling in all levels of the supply chain network also left under-researched. To fill this research gap, this paper proposes a three-tiered supply chain network consisting of main/support suppliers, factories, and distribution centers under uncertain demand conditions. The network is developed to effectively handle demand uncertainty and achieve optimal net present value and demand estimation. To solve the bi-objective model of the study, a preemptive fuzzy ideal programming approach accompanied by the implementation of the CPLEX solver is utilized. The findings lend support to the importance of securing financial support for support suppliers and establishing effective trade credit agreements across all levels of the supply chain.

One of the growing areas of Internet-based activities, both in the market and in people's personal lives, is cloud computing. Cloud service is an emerging technology that has attracted a lot of attention worldwide in recent years and provides its services over the Internet. The current research is focused on the relationship between the business model and sustainable cloud services. Therefore, based on the developed models of Buken and Short (2016) and Pellitier et al. (2012), the relationship between the components of the cloud service business model and sustainable development was evaluated. Also, the structural equation modeling strategy with partial least squares (PLS-SEM) was used to evaluate the determining factors of the business model and sustainable cloud services. The results show that the value proposition, value absorption and value creation are based on the acquisition model. And business example work affects. In addition, the effects of valuation, value proposition, economic, social and environmental factors on sustainable cloud service are positive, among which, value proposition has the strongest positive effect and social factors have the strongest negative effect on the sustainable development of cloud service

The evolution of information technology, artificial intelligence, and large volumes of data in web2, led to the formation of a new approach from the convergence of two scientific fields of business intelligence (BI) and social media analysis (SMA), which is called social business intelligence (SBI) with some researchers. Growing the number of studies in BI and SMA and the explosion of information, required coherence, integration and summary to knowledge extraction. The purpose of this paper is to recognize the capabilities that are the result of the two scientific field convergence. The bibliometric methods have been used to analyze publications tile 2022 and map the topics trend, historical graph, co-occurrence network and knowledge map of social business intelligence capabilities. The results indicate that the nature of business intelligence studies changes toward the analysis of big social media data and integration of analytical and managerial capabilities in BI with the power of marketing, communication and networking in SM. Also, five clusters of social marketing capability, data analytic capability, knowledge capability, communication capability, and transformational capability have been identified for SBI. About the role of SBI in empowering organizations in the digital era, especially in business related to marketing and innovation goals, it is recommended to equip organizations with this technology and its capabilities.

Providing financial resources is necessary for the survival of any business. In supply chain networks, bank loans and commercial credits play a crucial role in financing. Supply chain networks are always affected by financial disturbances under uncertainty condition, therefore, the design of supply chain networks considering financial flows leads to the improvement of working capital. In this research, the supply chain network is designed and developed considering commercial credibility. Considering commercial credit at all levels in a three-level supply chain network including suppliers, factories and distribution centers can be stated as the main contribution of this study. In addition, considering the timing for the repayment of commercial credits by the factories and distribution centers in uncertainty conditions is another challenge of the present research. Due to the uncertainty of demand, supply chain planning should be done in such a way that the necessary financial resources for the production operations are incorporated. In this regard, the demand is considered under scenario-based uncertainty in the proposed model in which the maximization of the net present value as well as the demand estimate are the main objectives. The CPLEX solver was used for solving the model in small-sized instances and the Bee Colony and Wale multi-objective metaheuristic algorithms were used for solving the large-sized problems. The results show how commercial credit affects physical flow. Also, the Wale metaheuristic algorithm has a better performance than the other algorithm.

In today's rapidly advancing electronics industry, the widespread use of electrical and electronic equipment has made sustainable management of end-of-life (EOL) equipment a pressing need. A global system is required to facilitate informed decision-making regarding e-waste. Manufacturers must therefore devise strategies for effectively managing products during the EOL phase. This article introduces a novel framework for managing e-waste during the EOL phase to identify the most appropriate EOL options to minimize e-waste. The proposed framework harnesses the power of Twitter as a data source, utilizing data mining techniques to extract consumer opinions on e-waste. The article also outlines the development of a Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process method and a multi-objective mathematical framework, enabling efficient decision-making in EOL processes based on e-waste information obtained from Twitter data. The study's findings have the potential to assist equipment manufacturers in identifying flaws in electrical and electronic equipment by analyzing customer opinions shared on social media platforms. Furthermore, by analyzing consumer sentiment towards e-waste, manufacturers can gain a deeper understanding of customer perspectives and develop appropriate strategic plans for selecting suitable EOL processes for returned products. This study underscores the significance of social media data in addressing e-waste management challenges, showcasing the profound impact of customer opinions.

Facility location whit taking account the competition is a critical component of strategic planning. The location affects the competitiveness and market share of a new entry firms, in long term life. In order to develop a model with more realistic characters, demand is supposed elastic. In this research, demand is defaulted with the help of an exponential function. In this paper a competitive facility location model whit two competitors which produce a commodity with elastic demand is developed The problem is modeled in the form of a location-price game. A bi-level model is developed to investigate the location and price, in location-pricing models, the location decision should come before the pricing game. From the second level and the use of Nash equilibrium, equilibrium will be obtained. In this paper, probabilistic costumer behavior whit the help of exponential function is modeled. A metaheuristic based on tabu search and Simulated annealing algorithm are proposed to search the optimal location-price solution of the model. The analysis shows that price game is more intense when incomes of consumers are lower or there are more substitution products.

Aim and

Cloud computing has become so important today that it is referred to as the fifth most common industry, after water, electricity, gas and telephone, and its development path is rapidly accelerating the entire IT infrastructure of a city or country. Introduction of new technologies such as IoT, mobile computing, health services, sensor networks and big data (Levitt, 2009; Free Iranian Cloud Computing Society, 2016). According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NISI), cloud computing is a model for providing access to a range of computing services and resources such as networks, servers, storage space, and applications on demand through the World Wide Web. It should be done quickly and with the minimum intervention of suppliers and sellers, and according to the needs of consumers, it can be prepared and used (Mel, 2011). A look at the statistics available on cloud computing technology highlights the importance of this field of technology. The authors believe that in a world moving towards sustainable development, sustainability is a winning strategy for business success (Francischelli, Santro and Candello, 2018). Therefore, introducing the business model of sustainable cloud services is one of the ways that can help companies in the cloud services industry to use this model and optimize it with their conditions and facilities to form their competitive advantage and in regional, national supply. And even compete internationally. Therefore, this research provides a framework that helps cloud service industry managers to strengthen their competitiveness in the market by identifying a sustainable business model suitable for their collection, as well as to develop competitive advantages and achieve optimal productivity.  Therefore, in the present study, we seek to identify the factors affecting the development of the cloud services business model to provide a new framework and add new components to the literature in this field.

The present study is a part of applied research. The strategy used in this research is content analysis. Content analysis is a process that leads to the analysis, summarization, classification and inference of specific features of the text. Considers content analysis to be a process of collecting, organizing, and standardizing. Content analysis is more important in humanities and social science research because of the ability to systematically analyze deeper and more complex information and comments, such as semi-instructional interview reports. In this study, exploratory interviews were conducted with 18 key informants to obtain the required information. The sampling process is purposeful and strategic and continues until the process of analysis and exploration reaches theoretical saturation.
 

From the interviews, a total of 245 initial conceptual propositions were obtained in the open coding stage. In the next coding stage, the final code was obtained by merging the obtained codes and removing the irrelevant and redundant items.
The results of the interview showed that sustainable cloud services have 5 main dimensions of economic, social, environmental, governance and ethical and business model design should be done by considering these 5 dimensions.
 Discussion and

The economic dimension refers to the production of goods and services as a prerequisite for improving living conditions; The social dimension refers to the equality of all human beings and their opportunities to access resources according to basic needs such as food, water and development through improved living conditions such as health care and education; The environmental dimension is related to the Earth ecosystem and the reduction of man-made carbon and the environmental imbalance created by the terms pollution, ozone layer, greenhouse gases, non-degradable waste, deforestation, overfishing, and The governance dimension is also related to the ways in which power is spent on managing economic and social resources for development. This issue theoretically dates back to 1990. In fact, when international aid agencies recognized that poor and developing countries were facing many obstacles to their economic development, the concept of governance also found its place as one of the drivers of economic growth and development in various economies. In the context of a favorable political and institutional environment that respects human rights, democratic principles, and the rule of law, good governance is the transparent and accountable management of human beings, nature, economic and financial resources for equitable and sustainable development. The fifth dimension of the identified components goes back to ethical issues; With the growth of information technology, the opportunity for immoral activities in the cloud has also increased and the need to control these activities has become a global concern. On the other hand, the pervasiveness of new computing technologies will transcend geographical areas and, if unable to protect individuals' privacy and pose threats to data security, will cause irreparable damage to the pervasiveness of services and concepts.
Business models express value propositions by identifying the market, identifying value chains, locating the company, combining assets for supply, and determining revenue mechanisms and cost structures.
The identified factors of the present study for the business model in the field of cloud services can be used as a modification of the concept of the usual business model with specific features 1) integration of concepts, principles and goals of sustainability in the sustainable business model and 2) integration of the concept of sustainability in the chain Value considered. Therefore; The main innovation of the present study is that a review of the research literature shows that three of the identified dimensions have been discussed separately in the literature, but two other important factors, which are the governance and ethical dimensions, are essentially in the model literature. Cloud business businesses have not been discussed and therefore it is considered as adding keywords to the cloud business literature. Therefore, in comparison; Findings of Sterwalder and Pignor (2010); Jericho and Forum (2009); Biswas (2015); Buchanan et al. (2014); Boken and Shorts (2016); Joyce and Pacquiao (2016); Gizman and Anchor (2016); Boya and Sinf Gill (2018); Gissdorfer et al. (2018); Ojala and Tirvanen (2011); Kozlowski et al. (2018); Bars et al. (2017); Dig and Egret (2018); Mousavi (2019); Kavichi and Wagononi (2020); Witt and Pilak (2020); Gani et al. (2020); Matilla et al. (2020); Da Silva et al. (2013); Dig and Eggert (2018) are in some ways consistent with the findings of the present study
One of the growing areas of Internet-based activities, both in the market and in people's personal lives, is cloud computing. Cloud service is an emerging technology that has attracted a lot of attention around the world in recent years, and this technology provides services through the Internet. The main purpose of this study is to design a conceptual model of sustainable cloud services business. Therefore, researchers in this study, using the qualitative research method and grounded theory strategy, have identified important factors and components related to the phenomenon of sustainable cloud businesses. After conducting 18 in-depth interviews with experts and specialists in the field of cloud services and sustainable development, 207 codes were floated in the open coding stage and 5 economic, social, and environmental, governance and ethical components were obtained in the central coding stage. Also in the selective coding phase, the 9 components of the Osterwalder business model, including customer segmentation, value proposition, customer relationships, distribution channels, key resources, key activities, revenue streams, cost structure and key partners linked to the five Identified component in axial coding phase and eventually a sustainable cloud services business model emerged.

The purpose of this study was to design a model of the factors affecting the revitalization of small and medium- scale ailing food companies and industries in Ardabil province. To this end, through reviewing the related literature and interviewing experts, first, 97 factors affecting the revitalization of these companies were identified, using the Fuzzy Delphi Method (FDM). Next, through exploratoratory factor analysis, the relationship between the factors was investigated. For this purpose, the factors in 10 demensions were determined and using fuzzy hierarchical analysis, these dimensions were ranked based on the views of 48 managers and senior experts of small and midum-scale food industreis in Ardabil. The results revealed the periorty of economic factors, factors related to infrastructure, factors related to research and development processes, factors related to financial problems, legal and judicial factors, respectively, and factors due to the sanctions, market-related factors, legislation related to work-place, organizing managers and staff, and social and cultural factors were the next priorities. According to the objectives of the research, the clustering of active food industries in Ardabil was done based on the available documents and the relevant industries were divided into five clusters. The effect size of each set of factors in each cluster was determined using multivariate regression method and finally the appropriate revitalization model for each cluster was identified and presented.

Considering the detailed document of the Sixth Development Plan of the country, the essence of focusing on the export of products with advanced technology as an indicator of the effectiveness of national innovation capability, is one of the important goals of development. Therefore, in this study in order to designing a dynamic system in evaluating the extent of access to the mentioned goal, through examining the evolution of the intellectual structure of national innovation capability by using the bibliographic analysis approach, the key concepts related to it were classified in clusters, and based on the extracted concepts, the main components of the promotion model of national innovation capability were identified. Then, based on the research background and holding of the focus group with experts, other variables were determined in accordance to the dimensions of promoting national innovation capability, and based on the system dynamics approach, a dynamic model was drawn. Then, different strategies to innovation capability based on behavior of the main variable of the ratio of exports of high-tech products to patents were examined and analyzed.  The findings indicated the extraction of 5 clusters which were technological catch-up and productivity, knowledge absorptive capacity, dynamic capability, technological capability, and strategic alliance, as the main concepts extracted from bibliographic analysis. By applying two main strategies of encouraging the return of elites to the country, and facilitating the commercialization of knowledge-based products, the simulated variable of the ratio of exports of high-tech products to patents showed better behavior in the future.

In this article, by presenting the scope of national innovation capability in the context of a multi-sector system, a dynamic network model is introduced. In this system, to identify Iran's performance problem, at first by bibliometric studying and holding focus group sessions with experts, the steps and indicators of the processed model were identified and designed. Then, the dynamic network data envelopment analysis model was implemented to compare Iran's performance with other countries. The model results indicated that Iran's national innovation capability has a poor performance in the third phase of its three steps that include converting patents to high-tech products and creative goods. Then, to present the proposed policy to enhance Iran’s performance in the third step of the mentioned model, by using qualitative comparative analysis of fuzzy set (fSQCA), the combinations of institutional, human capital and research, infrastructure, market sophistication, and business sophistication dimensions were investigated. For calibration of these data, K-MEANS clustering method was used. The output of the mentioned comparative analysis indicated that the combination of the two dimensions of institutions and human capital and research in promoting the country's performance is sufficient.

On the one hand, the production of defense products is indispensable because of the role it plays in deterring and promoting the national security of the country, and, on the other hand, the economic conditions prevailing in the country have made production of defense products at the lowest cost an obligatory requirement. The lean supply chain of defense industries by focusing on waste removal and reducing costs, the answer is how to produce lower cost defense products. The purpose of this research is to identify the most important practices of the defense industries lean supply chain, and then, using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, the categorization and verification of the practices based on Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), and then, using the Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) model, presents a model that shows the relationships between these practices. The power of driving and dependence of practices are also analyzed using the MICMAC technique. The results of the research show that out of a total of 84 practices introduced in the previous research for the lean supply chain, 49 practices are effective in the lean supply chain of defense industries. It consists of 8 categories and includes: Workshop level management, Quality management, Just in time, Repairs and Maintenance management, Human resource management, Suppliers relationships, New products design and Customer relationship. Customers relationship as the most basic and most driving practice and supplier relationship is the most dependent practice of the defense industries lean supply chain.

In this research, the integrated sourcing and inventory policy problem in a pharmaceutical distribution company is investigated. In order to select the superior solution, a new tool is introduced. Sourcing is one of the most critical issues in pharmaceutical industry. In addition, drug inventory shortages can cause irreparable humanitarian crises. However, only a limited number of studies has been focused on integrated sourcing and inventory policy of drugs so far. In real-world problems, it is difficult to calculate the exact cost of inventory shortage such as company reputation and humanitarian crises. To overcome this obstacle, in this study, the number of shortage is considered as a separate objective. Likewise, demands of the distributors and breakdowns of suppliers are stochastic, and due to the complicated nature of the problem is difficult to calculate the objective function by using classic methods. So, simulation is used for estimating the objectives of the problem. It’s been proved that the problem of this study is NP-Hard. Therefore, a metaheuristic multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) method is used to find the optimal solution. To test the reliability of the model and the proposed algorithm, a real drug distributing problem is used and after estimating a Pareto front, the best answer is chosen by The Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method.

Nowadays, Military products of superpowers countries have a high level of diversity, delivery speed, and appropriative operational functionality. Therefore, Production of varied, high quality and high speed delivery military products, is essential for enhance Iran's defensive deterrence power. Defense industries supply chain agility is an answer to how to produce military products with these features. This paper, with the aim of providing supply chain agility model in defense industries, first, identifies the most important supply chain agility practices, Then, using factor analysis, categorizes the practices and validates them based on structural equation modeling (SEM) and finally, using Interpretative Structural Modeling (ISM), presents a model that shows the relationships and hierarchy between these practices. The results show that out of a total of 62 practices introduced in the previous research for agile supply chain, 41 practices in the agility of the supply chain of defense industries are effective. These practices were classified in 8 categories include supplier relationship, workshop level management, organizational structure improvement, human resource management, product designing, improve and integrate the process, application of information technology, and customer relationship. Improvement of organizational structure was at the lowest level of the model. Therefore, managers first should focus on it.

Despite the growing body of research acknowledging that strong brands are critical for firms' long - term competitiveness, little research examines how firms should manage their brands internally to maximize their value and the brand performance. The aim by present study is to examine the role the role of market orientation, brand management and marketing innovation in improving brand performance. Population of study consists of active firms in the country's food industry and size of sample is 222 obtained through stratified random sampling way. Data gathering toll is the standard questionnaire, for whose reliability Cronbach alpha was applied. Present study is an applied study in terms of purpose and in terms of collecting data it is regarded as a descriptive survey. Considered model was studied using structural equations modeling. The findings show that brand management system helps companies achieve brand performance better than competitors, and market orientation and marketing innovation are two of the key constituents of the system's development. In this study, the brand management system was considered as an intermediate variable for achieving better brand performance.

Given the importance of the supply chain for gaining competitive advantage, competition between organizations is said to have been replaced by competition between supply chains. Therefore, supply chain Effective management is a key factor in the success of the organization. Disruptions as the outcome of unexpected events are an inseparable part of the supply chain of today's organizations operating in conditions of uncertainty. A resiliency approach in supply chain management has been introduced to deal with these unexpected events in the supply chain and to improve it quickly and return it to its original state before the occurrence of the event. The role of defense products in enhancing deterrence against military threats, well shows up the importance and necessity of applying a resilient approach to supply chain management of defense industries. In this paper, with the aim of developing a defense industry supply chain resonance model, we first identified the most important supply chain resilience practices, then classified them using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and then, using interpretive structural modeling (ISM) provides a model that illustrates the relationship between these actions. The power of driving and dependence of practices are also analyzed using the MICMAC technique. The results of the research show that out of a total of 37 practices introduced in the previous research for the resilient supply chain, 19 practices are effective in the resilient supply chain of defense industries. It consists of 5 categories and includes: Relationship with the suppliers, Flexibility, Agility, Redundancy and Security. Relationship with the suppliers as the most basic and most driving practice and Agility, Redundancy and Security are the most dependent practices of the defense industries resilient supply chain. Therefore, managers first of all should focus on effectively communicating with suppliers in order to enhance supply chain resilience.

The purpose of this study is to develope a sustainable recovery model for used vehicle in which economic, environmental and social impacts are balanced. This study is result or purpose based and is applied and in terms of method is mathematical programming modeling – quantitative. In order to collecting required data, a questionnaire of paired comparison applied. As well as data modeling for research in case of research, for solving various problems of mathematical programming model by Hypothetical data documentation and experts ideas in Saipa company gathered. Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process has been set appropriate criteria weight for defining social functions applied. Then, using concepts and principles of mathematical modeling has been paid to determine sets, parameters, variables, objective functions and limitations of the mathematical model for locating car waste recovery sites. Then mathematical modeling provided by multi-objective genetic algorithm solved. In this study proposed hybrid algorithm and simple NSGA-II for solving the model used and compared. Some of test problems randomly generated and solved by both algorithms. Also, case study problem is solved using proposed NSGA-II hybrid algorithm. The analysis of data for this study has been done using Excel and MATLAB. Results show that dismantling facility should be establish in Tehran, Semnan, Khorasan, Tabriz, Kashan, and processing facility should be set in Semnan, Khorasan and Tabriz. Solving the test problems show that the proposed NSGA-II hybrid algorithm in terms of solution quality is better simple NSGA-II algorithm and proposed NSGA-II hybrid algorithm is more time consuming to solve.

Military power is considered as the most important component of national power due to its role in generating deterrent capabilities against foreign threats. Advanced military equipment is considered as one of the most important pillars of the country's military power and thus has an impact on the creation and enhancement of national security, which all the people of the community benefit from. In the Islamic Republic of Iran, Military products are produced in defense industries supply chains and are available to other armed forces. The basic point is that only those products can be effective in enhancing defense capabilities that are competitive in comparison to advanced defense products. New approaches in the field of management have been introduced in order to produce competitive products. This research attempts to present a conceptual model with use of management new approaches, lean, agile and resilient in the supply chain of defense industries, in promoting national security. For this purpose, first using the Delphi method, Competitive characteristics of defense industries were identified. Then using the qualitative research method of content analysis, using semi-structured and in-depth interviews, the role of each of the three approaches in the production of competitive defense products, enhancement of deterrent capacity and national security was investigated. The results indicate that applying the new triple approaches in defense industries supply chain, as a new strategy, lead to the enhancement of deterrence and national security.

In recent decades, knowledge-based organizations (KBO) have played an important role in growth and economic development, especially in resistance economy by commercializing their scientific and technological achievements. This paper has identified the most important features of successful knowledge-based organizations in Iran. This article is a fundamental research in terms of purpose and utilizes mix method and content analysis based on papers found in the field of Iranian knowledge-based companies. At first features are identified and network analysis is done proportional to it. Then Shannon entropy is used to determine the impact coefficient of these features. The results show that 14 important features of these companies are as follows: qualified human resources, strong management, project and organizational capabilities, good business strategy, optimal management of financial resources, technical and production capabilities, marketing and sales capabilities, good technology strategy, receiving governmental timely incentives, receiving purposive incentives from funding agencies, appropriate networking, proper use of infrastructure, giving enough attention to the organization’s environment and focused activities .

Considering high potential of social networks and consequently the growing need of commercial brands for optimized advertising on this virtual environment, while this paper introduces a conceptual model in the form of 11 research hypotheses, it attempts to evaluate the factors affecting the popularity of brands in social networks. This research is applied in terms of purpose, and also descriptive-scrolling in terms of collecting data. In order to collect data, 380 questionnaires were distributed among the users of the fan page of three famous Iranian brands on Instagram. After collecting the questionnaires, SPSS and Amos Graphics software were applied. The first one for analyzing data and the latter for hypothesis tests. The findings suggest that factors such as "entertainment as well as interactive posts", "use of hashtags", "positive comments of users", "use of vivid images and videos", "putting educational materials on brand posts" and finally "Conducting competitions in form of posts " on Instagram could have a positive effects on the popularity of brand posts. In contrast, factors like "negative comments of users" are ineffective on the popularity of brand posts.

Brand competitiveness is one of the important issues emphasized in management and marketing literature in recent years. In today's world, the development of food industry market from one hand and increase in competitiveness among firms and customer's expectation on the other hand, has persuaded food companies to create a strong brand in today's competitive markets. The present study is aimed at studying and examining the effect of marketing innovation on brand competitiveness through the mediating role of technological opportunism among superior exporter firms of food industry products. Data gathering instrument was a standard questionnaire. For validity purpose, face and construct validity and for its reliability, Cronbach Alfa coefficient were adopted. The current study is practical in aim and descriptive-survey in data gathering procedure. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the research hypotheses and the effect of the conceptual model of the analysis. The results of the statistical model show that the proposed model fits the data and marketing innovation and technological opportunism have a significant positive effect on brand competitiveness while technological opportunism has a mediating role in the above relationship.

Introduction Competitiveness currently is a main in issue all over the world and is used as a means for achieving desired economic growth and sustained development. Considering the importance of these industries in high job creation (0/015 occupation in industry) and direct and indirect participation in the production of national income (almost 0/03/5 of the gross domestic production (GDP) and more than 0/015 of the value added in industry), one of the priorities and work programs in industry, mining, and business must be paying special attention to these industries. Iran has exported more than one billion and 575 million dollars foodstuffs in 1394 (Trade Promotion Organization of Iran, 1395). However, food industry in Iran doesn’t enjoy strong brands in the international markets. So, to reinforce this strategy in international markets, at first, brand competitiveness power should rise (food industry strategic plan, 1395). Having desired brand performance and increasing brand competitiveness power for food industry are issues that can create export boom for the country. No doubt, since foreign countries are seeking for known brand goods with high quality, enhancing brand performance for Iranian food industry improves exports. Thus, the main aim of the present study, with regard to branding and brand performance in today’s competitive economic conditions is examining the effect of brand performance on brand competitiveness with clarifying the role of technological opportunism among top exporter food industry companies.
Case study Research population includes managers and marketing experts in top exporter food industry companies. Population size is 36 based on Iran’s trade promotion organization list.
Materials and Methods The standard questionnaire (Santos-Vijande et al (2013), Voola et al (2012) and Xiangming & Haimei (2011)) was used as a data gathering tool and its validity and reliability was approved by nominal validity and Cronbach's alpha coefficient, respectivelyThe present study, in terms of purpose and data collection was functional and descriptive, respectively. Structural equation modeling approach was used to examine the hypothesis and conceptual model confirming.
Discussion and Results Results show that the conceptual model has overall validity and all key paths are statistically significant in the model. The model provides a good description of the brand performance and brand competitiveness. The obtained significant results show that branding has a vital role in the overall model and brand performance, is a suitable measure for the final performance.
The results also show that brand performance has a significant positive effect on brand competitiveness (α= 2/39) and technological opportunism has α= 4/00; technological opportunism with the Alpha Coefficient of 2/39 has also a significant positive effect on brand competitiveness among these firms; brand performance via technological opportunism (α=15/2) has more effect on brand competiveness. The reason is that opportunism in technology is a company potential, in which special and complex processes are involved and imitating them is difficult for other firms. Consequently, they are advantageous resources for competition and cause brand competitiveness improvement in these companies in comparison with competitors. The results confirm the vital role of branding in the international marketing. The first result was that one of the main factors in brand competitiveness is brand performance which represents branding role in overall performance evaluation of an international company.
Moreover, it is very important that companies complement information gathered from identifying and reacting to customers’ needs (brand market performance) with information obtained from identifying and reacting to technology (opportunism in technology) with developing appropriate processes. The reason is that being complementary; these variables will affect strategic decisions related to adopting new technologies in international business.
Conclusion The results show that brand performance has a significant positive effect on brand competitiveness and technological opportunism; technological opportunism has also a significant positive effect on brand competitiveness of these companies. Brand performance via technological opportunism has more effect on brand competitiveness.

According to the importance of exporting in today's competitive economic and in to the aim of reaching to the export borders of 105 trillion rials in the vision document in 1404 (Statistical Report Trade Promotion Organization of Iran, 1395), this study aimed at investigating the performance effect of export-oriented entrepreneurial behavior with clarifying the role of competitive advantage among food export companies.