Iranian Journal of Management Studies
Volume:7 Issue: 2, Summer 2014

This editorial paper highlights the significance of scholarly contributions from non-western contexts to business and management studies in general and marketing in particular. It calls for constructive، ethical، and committed collaborations between authors and reviewers of academic articles in order to collectively enhance knowledge generation in a global era. Using Iranian Journal of Management Studies as a case، it argues that whilst the increasingly epidemic west-centric journal rankings determine research quality perceptionsglobally، high quality research outputs from local non-western contexts can help draw the attention of researchers across the world to the value of work undertaken in non-western contexts. On this basis، it presents some hands-on suggestions for enhancing the quality of research outputsfrom non-westerncontexts، particularly in relation to new or emerging journals such as Iranian Journal of Management Studies.

Offshore employees (expatriates) working abroad are an important part of any organisational workforce، working and competing globally. The specific requirements of expatriates are quite different as compared to the local workforce of that particular company. These requirements range from base salary to the educational needs of their families، children، and spouses. The employers especially working in multi-national companies (MNCs) face challenges of satisfying and rewarding such diversified work force keeping in view of their wide-ranging requirements. No single reward package is identified as a part of HR Compensation Practices fulfilling these diversified needs. A combination of Cafeteria and Localised Approach is suiTable for addressing this problem. Factors that affect the Expatriate Compensation in motivating and retaining their offshore employees have been identified and their implication is discussed. Repatriation is also a challenge for the MNCs regarding their employees coming back to the home country. This study is valuable for both policy makers and industrialist for making strategies.

This paper evaluates the behavior of a manager in a period of time as a sample and gives detailed results and analysis in relation with organizational goals. It uses computer software to record daily activities with some details. In order to improve a manager’s behavior in relation with organizational goals TMIM was designed. TMIM measures and evaluates the time spent by the managers to improve the way of allocating their time to the organizational expectations. This model considers the time spent by managers to organizational goals and in the meantime considers the attention they pay to continuous improvement as a strong tool of productivity as well. In this model «the main activities and key processes of the organization»، «the way of communications» and، «departments and personnel» are determined first. Then، the time a manager spends to handle the organizational processes in relation with departments and personnel through a compatible communication is measured. Finally، spent times are analyzed and time management solutions are presented. The designed model was performed in an electric service providing company through figuring out the characteristics of the managerial behavior by recording and analyzing four years experiences. Before performing this model، time allocation by the managing director was not compatible with the organization''s missions and goals. After performing TMIM; analyzing results; and giving feedback، new time allocation led to obvious improvements and managerial effectiveness as a result of the manager''s performances.

Successor planning process in family businesses is recognized as one of the most important phases of family business lifecycle. Family businesses play a vital role in developing regional and global economy and fuel the creation of new jobs، new business growth and increase in entrepreneurial activities. In this study، it was attempted to investigate the impact of family business characteristics on successor planning process in such businesses in Tehran industrial towns in Iran. The data were collected from the study sample by using questionnaires. Statistical population of this research consists of managers or supervisors from 68،000 industrial units in Tehran. Industrial Towns are selected and sample population is identified as 120 samples. The findings indicated that there is a positive and significant relationship between business family characteristics especially the tendency of trusted people to succeeding and successor planning. In the meantime، constituents such as family commitment to business and the tendency of trusted people to succeeding affect successor planning directly.

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the relationship between intellectual capital (human capital efficiency، customer capital efficiency، and structural capital efficiency) and economic value added of the listed companies on the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE). The population includes 39 firms selected through systematic sampling. The data is collected from the audited financial statements of the firms provided by TSE’s website from 2007 to 2010. The results of multiple linear regression analysis show that there is a significant relationship between financial performance of firms and intellectual value added، intellectual capital efficiency، relational capital efficiency، human capital efficiency، structural capital efficiency، and economic value added. However، the results of fuzzy regression analysis indicate significant relationships between the financial performance of firms and all the independent variables except structural capital efficiency and economic value added.

Interorganizational coordination (IOC) is a critical part of planning، because planning mostly involves multiple organizational interactions. Investment and employment are considered as multi-dimensional and multi-sectional challenges that the management of them requires intersectional and interorganizational cooperation. The goal of this research is the investigation of the interorganizational coordination among the investment and employment organizations in Iran. Statistical samples are 491 people who are. mostly from managers of the organizations of the employment and investment in Iran and experts in investment. Data-collecting instrument was related to a questionnaire consisting of some standard questions with the reliability level of 0. 76. The collected data related to the variables were analyzed by a model of path analysis Regression and T-Student and Friedman tests. The research findings indicate that the six studied variables are affected by interorganizational coordination directly and indirectly. Therefore، mutual trust (1. 22) had the highest direct effect، and other variables such as ease of mutual communication (0. 37)، goal-orientation (0. 36)، mutual interests، and group thinking (0. 20) were considered important respectively. The variable compatible organizational cultures had no direct effect on the subject، while all of the six variables affected the interorganizational coordination directly. Finally، based on these results، some suggestions were given on how the managers and authorities can improve the interorganizational coordination among the investment and employment organizations in Iran.

This study that is aimed at investigating the effectiveness of «in-service training» courses in public sector organizations، as a result of the findings of a process modification training course in public organizations of Kermanshah province where 68 employees of 32 organizations of public sector (including governmental and non-governmental) scientifically studied 27 processes as a sample، during the course in various teams. At the end، reductions in “process activities number”، “time needed for performing every process”، and “distance passed in each process” were considered as indicators for effectiveness of the training course and are provided in a table in the results section. In order to collect information، some forms were designed and the participants filled them over this 3-day course. The results of statistical tests showed the effectiveness of training course on the results of process modification. In addition، by performing side tests، trend of improvement in time and distance was investigated by improvement in activities number which revealed that harmony in process modification should be considered.

Marketing literature reveals that perceived value is always considered to be of paramount importance when consumers purchase a product. In order to form a positive attitude towards green products resulting from a higher perceived value، the products proclaimed as green should incorporate the worth which consumers value the most while purchasing. The present study investigates whether there is any relationship between consumers’ attitude، perceived value، and green products. To establish such an assumption، a sample of three hundred educated respondents has been selected to participate in the survey. All the variables in the study have been measured using a questionnaire approach، adopted from previous related research. The findings have been obtained through statistical analysis in SPSS using Correlation Coefficient، Independent Sample t-test and ANOVA. The study concludes that within the given context of a developing country، consumers have negligible attitude and low perceived value of green products. Hence، no significant relationship has been found between attitude، perceived value، and green products.

The failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) is a widely used analytical technique that helps to identify and reduce the risks of failure in a system، component، or process. One important issue of FMEA is the determination of the risk priorities of failure modes. Risk ranking is produced in order to prioritize the focus on each of the failure modes that are identified. In this study، we applied FMEA which uses data envelopment analysis (DEA)، a well-known performance measurement tool، to determine the risk priorities of 10 failure modes in the Tile and Ceramic Company. The Fuzzy set theory in capturing uncertainty fuzzy logic is used to evaluate S، O، and D. Consequently، the results of the DEA – FMEA ranking show that Decorating Fault and Pinhole are ranked the first and the second، respectively، and in order to improve them some suggestions are recommended to managers of company.

There are considerable debates about the existence, nature, and application of entrepreneurship within the public sector. The present survey analyzes the application of entrepreneurship in Iranian public sector organizations. For this purpose, the situation of entrepreneurship within the head offices of Iranian public service organizations was considered. Also, based on McKeinsy and Daft’s frameworks, different internal and external factors were determined and the effects of them on organizational entrepreneurship were studied. The findings of the present study show that these organizations do not have a desirable entrepreneurial posture; in addition, to develop this posture, internal and external organizational factors should provide the necessary conditions and support entrepreneurial behaviors and activities in public organizations. This survey identifies numerous shortcomings and provides some suggestions for developing and cultivating organizational entrepreneurship, so the results and findings of this survey can clarify the route toward establishing and developing organizational entrepreneurship within Iran''s public sector. In this regard and based on the findings, a framework is provided for the relationships of internal and external factors with organizational entrepreneurship in Iran''s public service sector.

Leadership is important for nurturing employee creativity. Although how leaders can influence employee creativity is somehow unclear، previous studies show that leadership can enhance employees’ willingness to share knowledge. This study examines how leader-member exchange (LMX) affects employees’ creative work involvement through knowledge sharing. Data (n=385) was collected utilizing a questionnaire in insurance companies in northeast of Iran. Results shows that there are both direct and indirect (through knowledge sharing) relationships between LMX and creative work involvement. These results concede the importance of LMX and knowledge sharing for promoting employees’ creative work involvement.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the simultaneous effect of Corporate Culture and market orientation on the performance of small to medium-sized industrial manufacturing firms. To this end، a cross-sectional survey and variance based structural equation modeling was used for testing the hypotheses. The samples were selected based on a stratified sampling of commodity and specialty industries and consisted of 392 executives and marketing managers of Iranian industrial SMEs. The results show that the classical route among corporate culture- market orientation-customer performance- financial performance was significant and positive. The direct impact of market orientation and Corporate Culture on financial performance was not confirmed. The value of the paper is to provide unique knowledge about the effect of Corporate Culture and market orientation in small to medium-sized businesses against other larger organizations.

The build-operate-transfer (BOT) projects are a popular method of privatization of public infrastructure development. There are several risks which might affect a BOT project negatively. Concession period is one of the most important decision variables in arranging a BOT-type contract which should be determined considering the existing risks and uncertainties. A longer concession period is more beneficial to the private investor، whereas a prolonged concession period may result in loss for government investments. On the other hand، if the concession period were too short، the investor would either reject the contract offer or would be forced to increase the operation fees in order to recover the investment costs and to make a certain level of profit. In this paper، the concession period is determined using a new fuzzy logic based methodology. The proposed approach accounts for the existing risks and uncertainties. In the proposed methodology، the interests of both parties would be ensured and a win-win solution would be achieved. To evaluate the performance of the proposed methodology، the methodology was implemented in a highway project.