Iranian Journal of Management Studies
Volume:12 Issue: 3, Summer 2019

Economically optimal management of a continuous cover forest is considered here. Initially, there is a large number of trees of different sizes and the forest may contain several species. We want to optimize the harvest decisions over time, using continuous cover forestry, which is denoted by CCF. We maximize our objective function, the expected present value, with consideration of stochastic prices, timber quality variations and dynamically changing spatial competition. The problem is solved using an adaptive control function. The parameters of the control function are optimized via the first order optimum conditions based on a multivariate polynomial approximation of the objective function. The second order maximum conditions are investigated and used to determine relevant parameter ranges. The procedure is described and optimal results are derived for a general function multi-species CCF forest. Concrete examples from Germany, with beech, and from Sweden, with Norwegian spruce, are used to illustrate the methodology and typical numerical results. It is important to make market adapted harvest decisions. If the stochastic price variations are not considered when the harvest decisions are taken, the expected present value is reduced by 23%.

Strategy development has traditionally been an exclusive and secretive matter. However, some organizations have recently used IT to enable openness for making a strategy. The aim of this paper was to research the trends of open strategy by applying bibliometric mapping. The method involves identifying open strategy-related documents, including a sample of 1717 existing documents from 2000 to 2016. Major trends in open strategy research literature including variations across publication years, identifying active research areas, co-authorship collaboration, and contribution of different countries were explored. The results indicated that the use of open strategy concept is growing in strategic management, despite the initial nature of strategy making. Based on the results and according to the amount of published documents, the most productive year has been 2015.

In managerial and economic applications, there appear problems in which the goal is to simultaneously optimize several criteria functions (CFs). However, since the CFs are in conflict with each other in such cases, there is not a feasible point available at which all CFs could be optimized simultaneously. Thus, in such cases, a set of points, referred to as 'non-dominate' points (NDPs), will be encountered that are ineffective in relation to each other. In order to find such NDPs, many methods including the scalarization techniques have been proposed, each with their advantages and disadvantages. A comprehensive approach with scalarization perspective is the PS method of Pascoletti and Serafini. The PS method uses the two parameters of  as the starting point and  as the direction of motion to find the NDPs on the 'non-dominate' frontier (NDF). In bi-objective cases, the point  is selected on a special line, and changing point on this line leads to finding all the NDPs. Generalization of this approach is very difficult to three- or more-criteria optimization problems because any closed pointed cone in a three- or more-dimensional space is not like a two-dimensional space of a polygonal cone. Moreover, even for multifaceted cones, the method cannot be generalized, and inevitably weaker constraints must be used in the assumptions of the method. In order to overcome such problems of the PS method, instead of a hyperplane (two-dimensional line), a hypersphere is applied in the current paper, and the parameter  is changed over its boundary. The generalization of the new method for more than two criteria problems is simply carried out, and the examples, provided along with their comparisons with methods such as mNBI and NC, ensure the efficiency of the method. A case study in the realm of health care management (HCM) including two conflicting CFs with special constraints is also presented as an exemplar application of the proposed method.

This study attempts to investigate the major antecedent factors that influence manufacturing SMEs intentions toward the implementation of supplier development activities in Iranian SMEs. In order to achieve this objective, the research constructs were developed. The conceptual framework underlying this study was based on the theories of supplier development activities and social capital.  These theories were merged and developed by adding some main variables after analyzing various key antecedents that were thought to be the influential factors that determined the intention of the manufacturing firms to adopt supplier development activities. A cross sectional method was used to gather data collected from 280 Iranian manufacturing SMEs. The measures and hypotheses were analyzed with the help of the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The research supported the idea that information sharing within firms, communication methods, top management support and trust between trading partners have positive influence on information sharing between firms. Furthermore, the research showed the positive effects of information sharing between firms on inventory management and product quality on buying firms.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of corporate governance (CG), corporate social responsibility (CSR) and their interactive effect on the value of companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange. For this purpose, the data of 194 companies listed on this stock exchange, which was selected using a systematic elimination method, from 2011-2017 were collected and analyzed using the pool data technique. This research is applied and is an analytical-explanatory study. The research findings showed that corporate governance, social responsibility, and the interactive effect of corporate governance and social responsibility have a direct effect on the company's value in all four models of capital asset pricing in the companies listed in the Tehran Stock Exchange. It was also shown in the comparison of models that the market-based, single-factor model explains the relationship between these variables better than other models discussed in this study.

This unprecedented research endeavors to investigate the relationship between dark personality traits (i.e., narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy) and corruption intention through the mediation of anxiety.  Based on the resource conservation theory, it is hypothesized that those higher in dark personality traits are more inclined to corrupt when they feel anxious. Having collected data in the south of Iran from 273 employees of various organizations at two-time points in 2017 and 2018, five months apart, the authors conducted confirmatory factor analysis and used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to acquire the results. In Formative SEM, sub-constructs are considered separately since they may have diverse effects and causes, and hence, require to be considered as disparate variables (Srivastava et al. 2001) and this method is used in various studies in high-quality journals (e.g., Tang et al., 2018; Gentina et l., 2018; Gentina & Tang, 2018). In the formative SEM model, based on the data analysis, Dark Triad was formed through high narcissism and Machiavellianism and low psychopathy.  The findings revealed that the Dark Triad bears a significant indirect positive relationship with corruption intention through anxiety. Anxiety acts as a full mediator between Dark Triad and corruption intention. All in all, this study extended previous research by providing evidence that anxiety can contribute to corruption intention for those with Dark Triad traits.