IRANIAN JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT SCIENCES
Year:2009 | Volume:4 | Issue:15|Papers Count:8

Today, innovation is crucial for sustainable competitive advantage. Firms need to be aware of their innovation capability and its progress over the time. Innovation capability is normally evaluated based on the output of innovation process (for example number of patents or number of new products launched to market). But, not all innovation is apt to be registered as a patent or could be the source of new product development. In the recent literature, Innovation capacity is defined as the ability of a firm to innovate which is not evaluated by the outputs of innovation process but founded on knowledge, skills and competencies embedded in this process and other related processes in the firm. Relying on Morel and Boly’s model, we have identified the determinants of innovation capacity at a firm level. A questionnaire has been also developed to evaluate these determinants. The validity and reliability of the instrument has been examined through a survey of 108 companies in industrial automation sector. Using exploratory factor analysis, five determinants of innovation capacity are identified: “Leadership of innovation activities and preparing appropriate environment”, “effective human resource management”, “well structured procedures and processes which facilitate intra and inter organizations’ communication”, “strategic management of knowledge” and “ability of new ideas generation and evaluation”. 

The current study tends to investigate the impacts of emotional and spiritual intelligence as predictive factors of transformational leadership. Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions and the ability to manage both; and spiritual intelligence is defined as the ability to utilize spiritual resources to solve real-life problems. Using exploratory and confirmative factor analysis a scale is built for measuring spiritual intelligence (the other two scales are measured applying standard questionnaires) and structural equation modeling is applied for data analysis. Results show that there is a significant relationship between emotional and spiritual intelligence and transformational leadership.

In this study the effect of organizational factors including ownership concentration, ownership structure, and organizational culture on quality of financial reporting (QFR) is examined. To test the multivariate relationships hypothesized by the research model, structural equation modeling was used. The partial- list square (PLS) method was chosen as it is more appropriate in the initial phases of developing and verifying theories. Research population consisted of 105 firms listed at the Tehran stock exchange. Results show that ownership concentration, ownership structure and organizational culture affect quality of financial reports. Among these factors, ownership concentration has an important moderating effect on relationship between ownership concentration and QFR; besides organizational structure had a positive relationship with QFR and vice versa.

This study tends to present a decision making model for evaluating the companies’ financial performance and providing the optimum way for Ranking them in Tehran stock market using financial ratios. The considered approach is based on “Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process” and “Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution”. Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process is used in determining the weights of the criteria (financial ratios) and then the final ranking is performed using these weights and Technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution. This compound method is applied in ranking and evaluating the financial performance of 30 firms in cement industry in Tehran stock exchange based on their financial tables during the years 2002 to 2008. The compound method and the result obtained from it, was compared with the results gained from each separate technique (mentioned above) and the superiority of compound method is proved. The results will be helpful for investors and also the firms who want to gain more insight about their stand point in industry.

One of the most important intangible assets of companies is their brand. In many cases, brand increases or enhances a company's tangible and intangible assets' value. The purpose of this study is to design a mechanism for measuring brand value using a hybrid approach based on the current and future status of brand value drivers. For this purpose, first brand value drivers which are the main parameters for the creation and management of brand were identified and then a process was defined for measuring the effect of each brand driver on brand value. Finally, the proposed model was used for the valuation of one of the Iranian brands and the results were compared with the results based on famous models in the world. 

Trust is one main concern for organizations tending to manage environmental dynamics efficiently and effectively. It has been argued that culture is an effective factor in trust building. In this regard this research investigates the effect of cultural dimensions (introduced by GLOBE) on trust. Results show direct relation between uncertainty avoidance, institutional collectivism, gender egalitarianism, assertiveness and human orientation and trust. On the other hand, there existed indirect relation between power distance and future orientation with trust and there was no significant relation between in-group collectivism and performance orientation and trus.