نشریه اقتصاد و تجارت نوین
سال دوم شماره 4 (پیاپی 8، بهار 1386)

Foreign trade provides scale economies, technology progress, optimal resource allocation, and competition enhancement in products, which cause possibly the rise in productivity. An important characteristic of the role of foreign trade in the technological catch-up of countries is the complementary nature of technological change and human capital formation. Thus, foreign trade and human capital and their interaction effects are likely to have a crucial impact on total factor productivity. This paper examines the interaction between human capital and foreign trade on total factor productivity using panel data of the selected OIC members over the period 1980-2005. The empirical results indicate a positive effect of human capital on total factor productivity while the effect of trade in manufacturing sectors on their productivity is not statistically significant, However, exports of primary goods and consumer imports affect negatively the dependent variable. But an interacted relationship of trade and human capital has significantly a proper effect on productivity of the selected OIC members.

The main Purpose of this study is to investigate the comparative efficiency of commercial banks in Iran using stochastic frontier function as a parametric and data envelopment analysis as a non-parametric approaches. The data used cover the period 1996-2004. The findings of this paper show that there is a significant difference between non–parametric and parametric methods in measuring the efficiency in the commercial banks of Iran. The mean of cost efficiency, allocative efficiency, and technical efficiency are 65, 96, and 68 percent, respectively, using DEA approach. Moreover, a linear translog cost function is specified and estimated. The estimated Mean of efficiency is 34 percent.

Rapid developments in information and communication technology (ICT) and their applications have been identified one of the main driving forces behind globalization. ICT has become the most enabling and modern technology affecting every sector of economy. Most countries have clearly recognized the importance of e-Readiness in improving competitiveness. However, one of the biggest challenges in the field of IT is the gap between the demand and supply of qualified human resources. The shortage of human resources in IT presents a major hindrance to participate in a global economy. Most of the economies in the region have faced severe challenges in labor markets. This would have partly been due to the limited capacity for setting human resources development goals, a shortage of academic staff and trainers, inefficient institutions, and higher attrition rate of human resources to developed country. The paper proposes a comprehensive strategy and a complete integrated package for higher education to develop human resources in the field of IT in Iran.

The aim of this study is to analyze e-Commerce practices in the best container ports of global and introduce an e-Commerce model for Shahid Rajaee port in Iran. More specifically, this paper focuses the implications of e-Commerce in areas such as maritime trade, shipping, trade transport, and investment in the planning, development, operations and strategies of ports. In drawing lessons from the best container ports of global, this paper argues that the Iranian ports should enhance their capacity, boost their productivity, and increase their competitiveness to face the challenges by developing e-Commerce. This paper proposes e-Commerce implications through single window deployment model required services, standards, technologies, and law. This model can be used as a benchmark for designing and implementing e-Commerce projects and activities in other Iranian container ports.

Banking system plays a critical role in transmitting and developing infrastructures of e-Commerce in economy. Information and communication technology can make a significant contribution to supporting the development of e-Commerce and improving the efficiency of banking system in Iran. The objective of this study is to examine the organizational factors affecting the development of e-Banking in Iran. This paper uses the variables screening technique based on the stepwise multiple regression. Moreover, a questionnaire is designed to collect data. Based on the results of this study, the main determinants of the e-Commerce development include technical staff, organizational innovation, research and development, and efficient management.

This study uses an extended technology acceptance model that integrates variables connoting technographic variables into the model to investigate what determines the acceptance of internet usage by a selected group of Tehran university students. The proposed technology acceptance model is empirically tested using data collected from the Tehran university students. A confirmatory factor analysis was performed to examine the reliability and validity of the measurement model, and a structural equation modeling technique is used to evaluate the causal model. The results of this study indicate that sex and habitation's situations have a significant effect on a student's intention to use internet. Therefore, marketing managers should concern the importance of sex and habitation's situations in their decisions.

Nowadays, company's major aim is to improve organizational competitiveness in order to compete in the 21st century global markets, where those markets are electronically connected to the World Wide Web. Moreover, in this digitally markets, competition is not between companies but rather between supply chains. Consequently, the concepts of supply chain and supply chain management (SCM) have become a popular paradigm. This paradigm has intensified the development of information and communication technology (ICT) that include electronic data interchange (EDI), internet, and etc. The complexity of the SCM has also forced companies to develop information technology (IT). They choose to invest more heavily in the IT infrastructure to increase supply chain integration capabilities. The objective of this paper is to identify and prioritize information technology infrastructure Factors affecting the performance of supply chain. Mathematical multi-attribute decision making models of AHP and TOPSIS are employed to rank those factors using the data collected from SIPA YADAK Corporation. The findings show that the TOPSIS method has the advantages of yielding more precise results compared to the AHP method.