JOURNAL OF URBAN ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT
Year:2013 | Volume:1 | Issue:1|Papers Count:7

In recent years, the supply and demand system in tourism has experienced a significant change. Such a change is manifested in a new level of economy referred to as “experience economy”, by Pine and Gilmore (1999), according to which such economy is the final phase of economic growth which is a more evolved phase of raw materials (in agricultural economy), of goods (in industrial economy), and services (in service-based economy). In experience economy, the consumer is client which is known as guest. The final product is a mix of goods, services, and experiences which give way to added value to the guest. Pine and Gilmore in their 4E Model, upon two aspects of the extent of participation (active/passive) and the degree of the guest interaction with the environment (absorption/immersion), made a distinction between four dimensions; namely entertainment, education, a esthetics, and escapism. Inasmuch as the important issue of teen tourism has not been well accounted for in Iranian references and academic research, the current research has aimed at investigating into a case upon the 4E model in the perceptual context of the teenagers. The data were collected via library research, to shape the theoretical framework, and by means of observation and interview with 25 experts in teen tourism, as well as through a questionnaire developed based on Bogardus scale. The population included 560 male and female students of high schools in the city of Tehran. Utilizing SPSS and Excel software, the collected data were classified and analyzed. The results show that the students prefer to be completely immersed in nature while they prefer the esthetic dimension in historical texture.

Nowadays, due to the increasing rate of environmental complexities and the growing number of effective factors in making appropriate decisions, making decisions based on scientific principles has obtained a specific status among the top managers. Opting for the best consultancy firm, as one of the most important decisions the top managers would make for receiving consultancy services, has changed into a vital decision regarding the complications of the current business atmosphere and the effects of the quality of such services on the future sustenance of an economic enterprise. In this paper, in order to make a proper decision to opt for an appropriate consultant in devising strategic plans, a nine-step procedure is presented the most important advantages of which are the pre-qualification of the alternatives and the classification of decision-making criteria into general and specific groups. The proposed procedure has been investigated and analyzed utilizing the real data collected from Tehran Beautification Organization (TBO). The results show that the proposed procedure for selecting consultants for strategic plans in urban management is of high applicability and replicability.

The scaling down of the government and privatization law enforcement have resulted in the assigning of activities, used to be on the government’s shoulder, to private companies and organizations. With an increase in the number of service providers in urban services section, the related companies and organizations have been involved in a competition to increase quality and derive customers’ satisfaction and take the most from the market. The current research study aims at introducing a self-assessment model playing an effective role in increasing such organizations’ customer-satisfaction. From among the auditors of the organizations for urban services in the city of Tehran, as the population of the study, 70 were randomly selected. To collect data, an already-developed questionnaire was utilized which enjoys statistically significant validity and reliability indexes. To test the hypotheses, the average test was used and the results showed that the current model for self-assessment does not have a significant effect for deriving customer satisfaction, while the model suggested in the current study is an effective one in increasing customers’ satisfaction.

Rapid development of urbanization has resulted in a number of problems in the cities of the lesser- and more-developed countries. Spatial inequalities are among the major problems the development of which has changed the spatial structure of the cities. The continuity of spatial inequalities and the decrease in life quality in some small-sized urban districts and the ineffectuality of the current methods necessitate opting for different but feasible methods in urban planning and management. The current study aims at emphasizing the life-quality decrease in the districts with spatial inequalities requiring analysis, interpretation, and putting forward a specific structure to help detect the reasons for the appearance of unequal structure wherein life quality has decreased, the threats and problems, and the opportunities which have avoiding traditional approaches to planning and management in small-sized urban districts in consequence. To this end, one of the small-sized districts of the city of Tehran, which suffers from spatial inequality and the decrease in life-quality, was selected and the preconditions for running planning and managing in it were pointed out. It goes without saying that devising a proper plan to moderate or eliminate the inequalities, together with the increase in public cooperation in urban management, and utilizing multidimensional concept about life quality in urban planning, distinct from the common methods, are among the major objectives of the study resulting in equality and the realization of justice in the cities.

In balanced-scorecard approach, the performance of an organization is not evaluated just against financial indices. The approach evaluates organization performance through four groups of factors; namely finance, customers, internal processes, and leaning and growth measures. The method, in addition to the tangible assets of the organization, evaluates the organization intangible assets, which are of primary importance in today’s world, enabling the organization to compensate for the deficiencies. In the current study, the measures for performance evaluation have been developed based on balanced-scorecard approach (BSC) in Karaj Municipality. The study is descriptive-survey in nature as the researchers were not to change variables. Also, the method of eliciting data was upon the participants’ ideas. The research population consisted of 150 of the managers and the experts of Karaj municipality. The developed questionnaire was administered to the population and the frequency analysis of the collected data was done. Through factor analysis, the factors contributing to the strategic objectives of the municipality were extracted. The results show that the four measures of finance, customers, internal processes, and leaning and growth were of equal importance in an effort to achieve a strategic plan for municipality management. Thus, it is suggested that urban management design and implement the system based on the approach investigated in this study.

Nowadays, tourism, as a new-fledgling industry, has a lot of economic, social, and cultural effects. In this regard, residential areas, as important centers for economy, culture, service, etc. are of great importance for tourism-related activities. In order to achieve the objectives for sustainable development in tourism, considering its social, cultural, economic, environmental, and natural dimensions, a multilateral systemic analysis seems indispensable. The city of Maraqeh, due to natural, historical, and cultural potentialities, enjoys a high capacity and, through proper planning and identifying advantages and detecting its tourism limitations, attaining a sustainable development is not far to reach. The current article aims at planning strategies for the development of tourism industry in Maraqeh to attain sustainable development. The research method was analytic-descriptive and the data were collected through library sources, document, and field studies. To analyze data based on theoretical principles and field research, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats have been determined and strategies have been offered. The results show that the city of Maraqeh enjoys high potentials in tourism both history- and culture-wise and through strategies to develop tourism which requires a comprehensive planning to redefine SWOT, the development of tourism industry in this city is to come.

Municipalities’ annual budget, especially in metropolises, has seasonal and annual fluctuations which result from their dependency on unsustainable revenue resources. The high amount of unsustainable revenue resources, mostly building-related ones, has resulted in the municipalities’ uncertainty about their revenue amount due to the very fluctuations. Such an uncertainty has made the municipalities of metropolises and the central governments to guard against it. From among the methods to deal with such uncertain resources are governmental aids and legal permits. In this article, besides investigating into such methods, the legal permit for paying tax on installment plan has been analyzed which is one of the methods for avoiding unsustainable revenue for municipalities. The current article, utilizing the data on the revenue amount of Isfahan municipality from 1995 till 2009 and the GARCH pattern, has estimated the effect of paying building taxes on installment plan on the sustainability of the revenue for the municipality of Isfahan. The results show that such a method has the sustainability of the whole revenue of the municipality in consequence and that is why it is suggested that the regulations be devised and announced in a way that there could be a sustainable revenue.