فصلنامه پژوهش های مدیریت در ایران
سال نوزدهم شماره 3 (پیاپی 89، پاییز 1394)

In today's competitive world, production and inventory control in small and medium enterprises (SME) is considered as an important issue by managers, because of the influence of factors such as fluctuations in demand and failure of machines. Network Failure Prone Manufacture Systems (NFPMs) are type of production systems that failure of machines is assumed for them. In this paper, a multi-product network failure manufacturing system with perishable items is studied. The production control policy is based on the hedging point policy that contains producing and maintaining of products in order to respond to demand and avoid shortages. In this system, demand is constant and shortages (backlog and lost sale) have been allowed. The main goal of this paper is to determine the optimal production rates that minimize expected value of total production, holding, shortage, and perishable costs. Because of uncertainly and complexity of these systems, simulation optimization has been done using ARENA software. Finally, numerical example will show the efficiency of the proposed approach.

Nowadays, organizations tend to aggregate and increase the knowledge resources of work groups. In this paper, we introduce a framework to classify knowledge-sharing mechanisms, especially in project-based organizations. Prior research concentrated on identifying dimensions of knowledge sharing mechanisms such as personalization vs. codification, and individualization vs. institutionalization. Personalization strategy aims at encouraging individuals to share their knowledge directly. Information technology plays less important role, as it is only supposed to facilitate communication and knowledge sharing among the members of an organization. Codification mechanisms focus on collecting and storing codified knowledge in previously designed electronic databases to make it accessible to the organization. Individualization mechanisms facilitate the sharing of knowledge at individual level while institutionalization mechanisms facilitate knowledge sharing at group level. Taking these dimensions into account and based on an empirical study of MAPNA Corp, this paper presents a framework to utilize knowledge sharing mechanisms in organizations while they have different size, nature of work, and geographical dispersion.

This research aims to develop a conceptual model, and identify the components of Internet marketing mix. The research has been designed and implemented through a mixed methods design (quantitative -qualitative). The integrated approach used for collecting qualitative data in order to develop a conceptual model was Meta Synthesis. The quantitative data were collected through a questionnaire, and analyzed through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis using the SPSS and LISREL software tools. A total number of 180 questionnaires through a random sampling were distributed among the domain related experts (academicians and professionals), Finally, after collection and control, 145 questionnaires were analyzed. According to other results, the internet marketing mix consists of both integrated internet and common marketing mix. Based on factor loadings, it was revealed that the Internet marketing mix is more important than the common one. Applying a mixed methods design for identifying important components of Internet marketing mix could be considered as the originality and novelty of this research.

One of the most important concepts for all enterprises in every size and every sector is market performance. As the market success of the firm is a consequence of its market performance, it will be pertinent to state that performance is a direct determinant on the consequence. Today, dynamic capabilities have been identified as one of the vital necessities for the performance of organizations in turbulent environments. Given the critical role of market performance in turbulent competitive environments, this concept has attracted attention of many researchers of management science in recent years. So how to achieve this important consult for organizations is vital, and very little research has been done in this regard. Therefore, in this research, the model of improving market performance based on dynamic capabilities (IT competencies, entrepreneurial and market orientation and operational agility) is presented and tested in the electronics industry of Iran. This model is based on four management areas: strategic management literature related to dynamic capabilities, marketing literature, entrepreneurship, and information technology. The results confirm the research model. It can be concluded that the dynamic capabilities of the organization will help to improve market performance.

The aim of this research is exploring and analyzing the informational interactions among the actors of Iran’s nanotechnology domain by the quantitative exploring of their relations using Network Analysis approach. Recognition and delineation of the informational networks resulted in identification of powerful and influential actors and the weaknesses and strengths of status and relations among the actors. The results can be used by policy analysts and policy-makers as policy tools. The results in the individual level of actors revealed that Iran’s Nanotechnology Initiative Council with the highest amount of centrality is the most powerful actor of network. In the current conditions which Iran’s nanotechnology has not been entered to commercialization phase sufficiently, established institutions by the government to develop this technology have the highest amount of centrality in network. Also Nano Products Production Companies Group and Policy-Maker Institutions Group are the most powerful groups in the information network, respectively. On the other hand, Policy-maker institutions have the least informational interactions with media, non-governmental associations, and promotional institutions.

In today’s competitive business environment, using holding company has been common in the developed countries, and recently, it has also gained momentum in Iran. These companies create special value through synergy. Todays, multi-business organization management has been more important than ever, and the fact that the number of such holding companies has been increased has also intensified this. This research presents a strategic model for performing the first level of strategic performance through balanced scorecard. It can help parent companies as a dashboard in order to observe subset companies. In this research, after studying the related literature, based on the nature of the subject under study, interview with the managers of these holding companies and their subsets was the best research methodology. After identifying the dimensions, the questionnaire developed by the researchers and quantitative research methods were used for drawing the hierarchy dimensions. Eventually, a model with 11 dimensions at 4 levels was extracted.

Petroleum industry of Iran has provided one of the best opportunities for employees, but occupational exposures leading to chronic diseases such as cancer are high in the field. Ministry of Petroleum has owned an organization, which covers the personnel with health insurance, called “Petroleum Industry Health Organization” (PIHO). PIHO and Health, Safety & Environment (HSE) units play significant roles in providing the employees with health services. However, there is lack of a unique system specifying occupational cancer control. Cancer is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. On the other hand, negative impressions of cancer and heavy costs of patient’s treatment have forced the ministry to pay appropriate attention to this chronic disease. This paper aims to identify structure and design a framework for a system to occupational cancer control in Iranian petroleum industry. Due to the vast dynamic complexities (multi-dimension nature of cancer, joint exposures, and the delay between exposure and incidence) and behavioral complexities (various stakeholders and actors) in the problem, we have adopted Soft System Methodology (SSM) in order to study the current situation. We reached an agreement with the problem owner on a rich picture, CATWOE analysis, and a root definition on how this surveillance system would be considering the real world circumstances.The results were obtained through many sessions with problem stakeholders even with conflicting interests. The results revealed that it is necessary to make some changes in the actors’ information systems (occupational hygiene and medicine, hospitals and the ministry’s Pension Organization), with an emphasis on identifying and analyzing carcinogens and cancer patients in order to improve the problem situation.

Nowadays, simultaneous consideration of cardinal and ordinal data in supplier selection process is highlighted more than ever as production philosophies such as just-in-time production are being widely used. Many supplier selection optimization models traditionally presume that the average price of respective expenditures is constant. However, the reality is far from this. As a matter of fact, the suppliers often offer volume discounts in order to encourage buyers to place more orders. This paper presents an innovative approach for selecting the best suppliers in volume discount environments and in the presence of both cardinal and ordinal data. The efficiencies of the suppliers under evaluation are, at first, obtained using optimistic and pessimistic views. The optimistic view evaluates each supplier via a set of most favorable weights. The efficiencies measured by the optimistic view are called “optimistic efficiencies”. The pessimistic view evaluates each supplier via a set of most unfavorable weights. The efficiencies measured by this view are called “pessimistic efficiencies”. It is then demonstrated that these two evaluation results contradict one another, and are undoubtedly biased, non-realistic, and unconvincing. To overcome this problem, a new general performance measure is proposed, which is utilized for integrating the measures obtained from the optimistic and pessimistic views. It will be used for identifying the supplier with the best performance. A numerical example will show the application of the proposed method.

Capital structure policy is a mean to tradeoff between risk and return and many factors influencing the optimal capital structure for each company. The aim of this study is to investigate the factors affecting the capital structure of companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange and some selected stock exchanges in the developed and developing countries, and compare these determinants in a domestic versus international setting. Determinants of capital structure, considered in this research, are in the firm and country levels. In the firm level, profitability distance from bankruptcy, size and the ratio of fixed assets to total assets are used, and in the country level, the role of country’s GDP growth and stock market development is investigated. For international companies, we used Compustat Global Vantage database and World Bank databases and for domestic companies, we used Tadbirpardaz database to collect data. The findings showed the determinants significantly effecting on capital structure in four populations: the whole world, developed countries, developing countries, and Iran. Finally, we found that the developed and developing countries profitability and the size have different effects on capital structure. Alternatively in comparison between Iran and the developed countries, size and the ration of fixed assets have different effects on capital structure.