فصلنامه فرایند مدیریت و توسعه
سال بیست و پنجم شماره 4 (پیاپی 82، زمستان 1391)

This research was conducted to find an answer to a couple of questions، namely، «What is the importance and status of commercial cooperation in line with justice-based development of the country?»، and «What are the I. R. Iran''s approaches to economic and commercial cooperation?» The research hypothesis holds that the development of economic and commercial cooperation is a preliminary requirement of comprehensive and justice-based development. Hence، South-West Asia is considered a strategic region for developing I. R. Iran''s economic and commercial interactions in the framework of executive policies of the 5th development plan. Library research method was first employed to review the related literature. Later، SWOT model was used to explain the strength، weaknesses، opportunities and threats in South West Asia. At last، a number of policies were suggested in order to develop economic and commercial cooperation in the region in the framework of five stages including establishment of a basic core of more developed countries that have common interests، promoting economic convergence in the basic core countries، strengthening common purpose for cooperation among the regional countries، membership of new countries in the basic core of a regional South-West Asian treaty and finally extending the domain of economic goals to foreign policies and regional security.

Nowadays، creativity and innovation have turned into key competitive advantages for organizations. They need to improve the factors that help them in developing their creative and innovative capacities in a way that can facilitate their success in competitive markets. One of the most influential factors in developing organizational creativity and innovation is knowledge management (KM)، which leads to pushing organizational creativity envelope and improving innovation process in organizations through formulating appropriate mechanisms to get quicker access and movement of information. Considering this effect، this paper proposes a model as a framework to assess the level of organizational creativity and innovation using well-known Artificial Neural Networks as a powerful tool to consider non-liner interrelations among criteria. The model has five criteria as inputs، adopted from KMAT questionnaire، namely: process، leadership، culture، technology and measurement of knowledge management. As far as the output side of the model is concerned، it uses Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) to forecast organizational creativity، adopted from KEYS questionnaire، which indicates the number of innovations practiced in the organizations. In the end، sensitivity analysis is applied to examine the value of input variables influence on the outputs of the model. The results indicate that the «technology» has the greatest effect on organizational creativity and the «culture» has the most profound impact on organizational innovation.

This study tries to evaluate the servant organization based on OLA model in the form of a case study in Bank Melli Iran branches in Arak. For this purpose، a number of 91 individuals were selected from among the employees of the Bank Melli Iran branches throughout the city in Arak via stratified random sampling. The data were collected using OLA instrument، and later analyzed by means of parametric Student T-test and one-way ANOVA. The findings showed that the characteristics of servant organization in Arak branches of Bank Melli Iran were above the average and regarded as satisfactory. Meanwhile، one-side variance analysis of servant organization characteristics illustrated no significant relationship between age and education level in Arak branches of Bank Melli Iran.

This paper tries to identify obstacles of implementation of e-government in Ghom Province. With consideration to the review of the related literature and based on the obstacles of implementation of e-government، a questionnaire was designed with 65 questions handed out among in the statistical population of the research، composed of managers، employees and experts familiar with e-government in 39 public organizations of Ghom province. Through data analysis and Equamax method in factor analysis، a number of e-government implementation obstacles were pinpointed as follows: architecture–system-related، security-related، social، risk-related، environmental-technological، skills & management-related and technical obstacles in addition to unfamiliarity with e-government advantages، lack of budget، organizational communication obstacles and behavioral obstacles.

As the economy of Iran''s dependence on oil revenues turns the country''s economy vulnerable to foreign fluctuations and shocks resulting in exchange rate crises، it is highly recommended to promote non-oil exports. Therefore، the factors effective on Iran''s trade balance with its main trade partners، getting the highest amounts of Iran''s non-oil exports are pivotal. This article is to study the factors influencing Iran''s trade balance in the form of integrated data on six major trade partners of Iran within the period 1979-2009 based on Bahmani-Oskooee & Brooks model (1999) via ARDL method on the basis of Pesaran and et al. (2001). The results indicate that Iran''s GDP and Exchange Rate Volatility have negative impact on Iran''s trade balance while Iran''s six major trade partners'' integrated GDP and the exchange rates have positive influence on it.

The pillars of any successful management as a service institute in any system، whether public or private are laid on three major factors، namely Programming، Executing، and Supervising. Budgeting (especially performance budgeting) is deemed as a main element of planning. Supervising on how it is executed and the evaluation of the results، generally known as performance evaluation and operational audit are the major keys to materializing the goals and plans in any system. Performance budgeting is the annual performance plan besides annual budgeting indicating the relationship among the amounts of funds allocated to the each program as a part of the strategic objectives along with the results of its implementation. This study tries to analyze the internal and external factors affecting the implementation of operational budgeting in specialized holding companies as well as to suggest operational and executive solutions. On this account، 310 employees of holding companies، including 168 experts and 142 directors and deputies were selected by random stratified sampling method to fill out a researcher-made questionnaire. In the end، the results were analyzed through a one-sample T-test. The findings of the research demonstrated that there is a significant relationship between internal-external organizational factors and execution of performance budgeting in holding companies.

Marketing plan is a powerful tool to achieve organizational objectives، seize the opportunities and successfully compete with the rivals. A marketing plan is mandatory to advance the commercial objectives and efficient management in any organization. A reliable tool for evaluating the significant role of a corporation''s marketing plan would be its marketing performance assessment. Marketing performance amelioration is the key to accomplish constant improvement. Two separate questionnaires were designed to collect data. The statistical population of the research consists of Arak Petrochemical Company''s directors and supervisors out of whom a sample of 200 persons was selected to fill out the questionnaires. At first، a multidimensional scale was devised to evaluate marketing performance and plan in petrochemical industry. Later، the effect of marketing plan on marketing performance and its dimensions was investigated through structured equation modeling. According to the findings، the dimensions of marketing plan include analysis of situation، target market identification، marketing objectives، marketing strategies، marketing tactics، and marketing prediction، execution and control. Moreover، the dimensions of marketing performance evaluation consist of sale promotion، market share development، and market management improvement. In addition، the findings also revealed that marketing plan has a considerably positive and significant effect on marketing performance of the corporation. Finally، it was demonstrated that the effect of marketing plan on each dimension of the marketing performance was significant and positive.