JOURNAL OF URBAN ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT
Year:2017 | Volume:5 | Issue:4 (20) |Papers Count:8

Nowadays how to finance cities by municipalities has become a big challenge. Access to favorable and sustainable revenue sources leads municipalities to play a more active role in urban environment and properly meet the needs of citizens. In this regard, This research has been conducted during the years 2004-2014 with the aim of studying the status of revenue sources of shabestar municipality in terms of sustainability indicators. This research is applied and the method is descriptive-analytic and exploratory. Data collection was carried out either documentary or field survey by using scoring forms and interviews with Municipality officials. Data analysis was conducted by using Excel, Shannon Entropy and TOPSIS techniques. The results obtained show that about 39.25 percent of municipal revenues come from general charges, 30 percent from land and buildings charges, and about 25.36 percent from other sources of funding, sale of municipality’s properties. About 43 percent of municipal revenues come from unfavorable sources, 10.85 percent from fairly favorable sources and 46.15 percent from high favorable sources.

The present study aims to explore the competitiveness of Iranian cities based on economic indices. The research is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive - analytical in terms of method. The population included all central cities in the country in 2011. In order to analyze the competitiveness of the central cities, 20 economic indices were extracted based on data from Statistical Yearbook of year 2011. In this study, Shannon’s entropy model was used to measure the significance coefficient of each index, and the TOPSIS method was used to analyze the data. The results showed inequality in the enjoyment of economic competitiveness in central cities of Iran. The city of Tehran with the rate of 99% TOPSIS is in the first rank, Ahwaz and Isfahan ranked second and third, and Zahedan, Gorgan, Khoramabad, Ilam, Zanjan, Semnan, Qom, Sanandaj, Ardabil, Shahrekord, Birjand, Bojnoord, Karaj are ranked in the last. Given that in the present study, the indices of economic competitiveness were investigated at the center of city level, and evaluation of these indices at lower urban levels largely remained vague; thus, in this regard, it is proposed that measuring the economic competitiveness indices take place on the urban scale so that in addition to explaining inter- provincial differences, the inter- regional differences can be explained and revealed in small scales.

One of the most important effective factors on more profit and success in financial and commercial activities is the place and geographical location of establishing that activity In order to achieve this important issue, we require exact locational information needing much cost and time. Thus, economic ranking of urban areas can make economic status of urban areas clear for managers. This research aims to identify economically talented areas leading to exact locating of commercial and financial centers based on their priority. This research is descriptive- analytical. Data were collected by documentary method. Statistical population includes Tehran’s 22 districts ranked based on 9 indicators. Therefore, at first, the weight of effective indicators was extracted by using Entropy method. Then, Tehran’s 22 districts were ranked economically by using four techniques of MCDM including SAW, TOPSIS, VIKOR, and LINEAR ASSIGMENT. Given the results of implementing above-mentioned methods were not compatible with each other, in order to reach a consensus for ranking the districts, integration techniques (Poset) that includes average rating method, Borda and Copeland were used. Finally, districts 6 and 3 were identified as the most economical ones.

In the third millennium and the urban world, achievement to development requires cities that they were mentioned as development engine until a few decades ago and today, they are introduced as knowledge-based cities. Such cities have a kind of economy based on knowledge and sustainable cities that their citizens live in comfort. In other words, a knowledge-based city is one aiming to achieve wisdom-based development. This important issue is done by creating, dividing, updating, and measuring knowledge continuously. In order to achieve to this purpose, citizens’ constant interaction from one hand, and interaction among them and people in other cities or urban economy from other hand is necessary. In the meantime, industrial cities, as economically and demographically important places, are very important since they are alternatives to achieve to knowledge- based cities because of their direct relationship with technology, science, job creation, and revenue creation. Thus, this research tries to evaluate feasibility of industrial cities to achieve to knowledge-based development with the aim of multiple analyses socially, economically, environmentally, institutionally etc. of industrial cities. Thus, city of arak, as one of the industrial hubs in the country, was investigated. Research methodology was descriptive- analytical by using decision-making techniques of SWOT and PESTLE. In this regard, it has been tried in this research to examine indicators of knowledge-based city in Arak, to realize abilities and limitations of city of arak by using strategic planning techniques and evaluating status, to investigate whether industrial cities, such as Arak, have necessary potential to become knowledge- based city, and to determine strategies to achieve to knowledge- based city. The findings indicated that city of Arak is able to become a knowledge- based city.

The ancient and historic site of Bisotun is one of the most reliable archaeological works of the world, which was registered in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2006. This research studies the economic value (including recreational value and existential value) of Bisotun Historical Complex using the Logit and Probit valuation models. The statistical population of the study was visitors to the historical monuments of Bisotun in 2013. The results of the survey showed that a large number of visitors are willing to pay a fee as an entrance to this complex and have fun in the area around the historic monuments. In addition, the results showed that income and education variables in both methods of Logit and Probit are one of the most important factors affecting the WTP rate of visitors to visit the historical complex of Bisotun. The average WTP calculated for the economic value of Bisotun’s historical monuments based on Logit and Probit models is estimated to be 47659.2 Rials and 50149 Rials per visit, respectively. Moreover, according to the visitors’ statistics of Bistoun historical monuments, which the Cultural Heritage Department of Kermanshah Province has announced it for 250, 000 people for 2012, and assuming that the average annual number is the same, the total annual value of the complex of historical monuments using the Logit and Probit models are estimated at 11914800000 and 12537250000 Rls, respectively.

The aim of this research is to codify scenario- based strategies in the Land and Housing Organization that has been done with drawing pictures of the future. In the present study, we used Schwartz and simultaneous methods in order to determine the strategies. The present study has been done in the year 2015 within the time horizon of 10 years. The statistical population included all senior municipal managers and experts in the Land and Housing Organization of Mashhad city (27 persons) which 15 persons selected purposefully. In the present study, the required information has been collected through library studies and semi-structured interview, trends, and uncertainty factors have been identified. Then, the impact/ uncertainty matrix was drawn. Specifying dimensions by using simultaneous (combined) method, four scenarios of high impact- high uncertainty, low impact- high uncertainty, high impact- low uncertainty, low impact- low uncertainty were codified and four strategies of (protection - supporting - participation), (correction- intervention, supporting), (non-intervention- guiding), (resistance- transforming) were proposed.

Organizational reputation is an intangible asset and is one of the most important and vital elements for the survival of the organization. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of organizational reputation in the formation of citizens’ behavioral habits. This research is descriptive-correlational study that investigates the behavioral habits of citizens based on the variable of organizational reputation. The statistical population consisted of Bank Shahr customers in Tehran city.318 people were selected by simple random sampling. In order to measure organizational reputation, the standard questionnaire of organizational loyalty, Luoma-aho (2008) with 28 questions and in five dimensions of authority, respect, trust, efficiency, and relational services and to measure behavioral intentions of customers, the eight-item questionnaire of (Zhu and Hung 2012) were used. The reliability of organizational reputation questionnaire with Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.81 and customer behavioral intention questionnaire with 0.78 were confirmed. Descriptive analysis and data analysis were performed using Pearson correlation coefficient and stepwise regression analysis methods. The results of this study indicate that there is a significant relationship between organizational reputation and its five dimensions with behavioral intentions of Bank Shahr customers. Among five dimensions of organizational reputation, two dimensions of services and respect can predict the behavioral intentions of Bank Shahr customers.

Today, tourism industry is counted as one of the largest and most diverse industries in the world so that it is a major source of foreign exchange earnings, employment, creating social justice, cultural growth, welfare increase, and a field for private sector growth and a tool for infrastructure development. Having diverse natural and human tourism attractions, city of Khoy is one of the main destinations of tourists in Iran and Western Azerbaijnan province that attract many tourists annually. Given high tourism potential and diversity of attractions, it is important and inevitable to prioritize and identify tourism prone areas in this region. Thus, attractive tourism areas in this city have been prioritized in this research with descriptive-analytical method and by using numerical Taxonomy model. According to the results, Shams Tabrizi Tower in the city of Khoy has the greatest potential to attract tourists in the city. In contrast, despite Badlan waterfall and protected area of Marakan are pure natural attractions of city of Khoy with potential tourism power, in terms of attracting tourists, but lack of facilities, services and available infrastructure, and risk of natural hazards in these areas resulted in relative failure of these areas in attracting tourists.