JOURNAL OF URBAN ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT
Year:2017 | Volume:5 | Issue:1 (17)|Papers Count:8

Over the past few decades, competition, particularly in service companies and organizations, has been increased sharply. Organization’s social responsibility is a fundamental factor in survival of any organization or company that has been regarded particularly in last years. This research aims to investigate the impact of social responsibility activities of Bank Shahr on its performance considering the role of customers’ satisfaction and organizations’ reputation. In terms of purpose, this research is applied and its method is descriptive-correlational.400 people were selected as available sample among Bank Shahr customers in the city of Tehran as sample size. To test hypotheses and investigation of relationships between model elements, Lisrel8.8 software and structural equation modeling were used. The results indicated that social responsibility activities of Bank Shahr have positive impact on its economic performance. However, customers’ satisfaction and organization’s reputation, as mediator variables, are influential as well.

Urban projects are carried out with the aim of renovation and improvement of cities’ condition. Highways are one of urban projects addressing transport to solve traffic congestion in large cities. Sadr Multi-layered Highway in Tehran Metropolis is one of urban mega projects constructed in 2013 to improve traffic condition of private cars in northeast to northwest of Tehran. This research investigates the impact of this mega project on housing price of adjacent neighborhoods. Surrounding areas, particularly closer ones, have been affected by its construction. Thus, to measure the impact, housing and land price index- that is the most comprehensive index including quality and quantity of changes in an area- and investigation of its changes in different intervals of Sadr Multi-layered Highway were used. It seems that land and housing price had less growth near highway rather field of project. The validity of this hypothesis was investigated in the form of field studies of changes in land and housing price in the field of Sadr Multi-layered Highway through measuring changes of land and housing price index. The method of collecting data was field and reference land data. Research method is correlation analysis in this study with outreach areas. The comparison of constructing Sadr Multi-layered Highway depends on three periods i.e. before, during, and after construction and its distance from highway. Price level decreases at the distance of 0-60 meter and price level increases in the distance of 60-120 meter. Perceptible difference does not exist about the price changing of housing in the distance 120-1000 meter than whole region.

Locating potential areas of ecotourism is one of the important ideas in management and tourism development. This trend of tourism plays an important role in protecting environmental and economic resources of countries in the world. Its development in any country requires effective management and planning in this field. This research aims to identify potential areas of ecotourism in Mazandaran Province to protect natural resources and prepare the ground for sustainable financial resources for city management in this province. In terms of purpose, this research is applied and research method is descriptive-analytical. AHP, MCDM, fuzzy set interval value, and using results in geographical information system were used in order to identify potential areas of ecotourism in Mazandaran Province. The results indicated that the criterion of tourism potential (with relative normalized weigh of 0.311) had the most impact and the criterion of facilities and travel services (with normalized score of 0.120) had the least impact among four detected main criteria. However, detected areas for ecotourism development had the closest distance to tourism prominent centers and the farthest with undesirable areas as well.

Distribution of population and activity in space, called as spatial planning in development literature, is the main factor of balance and development in national and regional scale. This paper aims to evaluate the policy of small cities in regional development, the position of small cities in the western area of Zagros in population distribution, and job creation. Research method is descriptive-analytical based on documentary data that were qualified in GIS and Excel soft wares. The results indicated that population distribution and job opportunities are imbalanced between urban classes and are not in line with regional balance.68percent (9 percent of cities) of population live in few large and medium cities and only 32 percent of urban population live in small cities network and rural–urban commuting areas (RUCAs) forming 91 percent of urban areas. Spatial structure of urban occupation is imbalanced. As a result, urbanization system of the area confronts with maximum population and activity concentration, infrastructures, and types of occupation capacities focusing on service and industry sectors in in large and medium cities vis-à-vis maximum distribution in the majority of this area and its small cities. Even though regional development policies emphasize on small cities approach, urbanization changes of the area, unlike mentioned policies, have resulted in centralization and dominated by high levels of urban system, and the role of small cities has been less considered in reducing inequality and creating regional development and balance.

Zero-energy city, sustainable City and zero-carbon city are new terms in cities’ energy management. In this study, a framework of designing a Low-Carbon Eco-City (LCEC) in urban sector of Mashhad with focus on sustainable supply of electrical energy has been simulated. For this purpose, the maximum potential of biomass renewable electricity and expansion of photovoltaic capacity- required to cover remaining electricity demand in urban sector of Mashhad has been entered in Hybrid Power Generation System by using an analytical programming approach. The results indicated that biomass technology is superior technology for designing LCEC with less volatility and lower cost of production and it enters into the fossil-renewable hybrid production system with high penetration. Despite increasing capacity of photovoltaic technology up to 8GW, because of high investment cost problem, photovoltaic power generation cannot utilize in competition with the production of biomass technology. Hence it is suggested that biomass technology of sustainable development energy in the urban sector of Mashhad to be regarded as a city on the path LCEC. On the other hand, supportive policies should be adopted to reduce the cost of photovoltaic technology in order to provide the competitiveness of this technology in high capacities.

Controlling and administering cities have been more difficult with their increasing expansion and growth. Urban entrepreneurship is one of the strategies that directed cities toward self-control by reducing unemployment rate and its arising problems, creating sustainable revenue, preparing the ground for citizens’ independence etc. Thus, identifying effective factors on urban entrepreneurship can prepare the ground for its expansion, and consequently urban sustainable development. This research aims to identify effective economic factors on urban entrepreneurship in Tehran Metropolis. This research has been done by using qualitative method by semi-structured interviews with 12 Tehran Municipality officials, urban experts, and Tehran entrepreneurs by using purposeful sampling and snowball methods. Obtained data of interviews were analyzed by theme analysis method. Finally, effective economic factors on urban entrepreneurship were identified in the form of five main themes, tools, financial mechanisms, smart urban economy, urban occupations, commercialization of ideas, and urban markets.

Absorbing investment in urban area is an important factor affecting progress and prosperity of the urban economy. Investment in any province is affected by a set of major factors in the country and specific factors of that province. If it is not invested appropriately in any society, economic growth will be slowed or stopped. During last years, by notifying the policies of Article 44 of the constitution and law of attraction and protection of foreign investment, the ground has been prepared to increase private sector participation in investment. Thus, this research aims to investigate the barriers of absorbing investment in urban area in Lorestan Province. Data were collected by questionnaire from a sample of 189 economic experts and masters in the Organization of Industry, Trade and Mine in 2015. To analyze data, one sample t-test and ANOVA were used. The results indicated that development of investment infrastructures, risk (insecurity) of investment, organizations and governmental institutions’ attitude toward investment, and rules and regulations of investment affect extremely investment in Lorestan Province.

Today, municipality is counted as one of the largest social bodies. Its effectiveness requires appropriately organizational structure and employees’ commitment to increase performance. Managers should concentrate on attitude and behavior of service staff through cultural background, behavioral patterns, and managerial styles in order to obtain higher quality services. Thus, social capital results in achievement of members’ objectives by creating norms and mutual trust and it prepares a suitable ground for efficiency of human, financial, and economic capital. In this regard, this research investigates the impact of social capital on job performance by considering issues such as employees’ commitment and organizational citizenship behaviors. Statistical population includes 140 headquarters staff of Khoy Municipality. This research method is descriptive and correlational. Data were collected by questionnaire. In order to measure validity, the first and second order confirmatory factor analysis was used. To determine reliability, Cronbach’s alpha was used. Data were analyzed by Structural Equation Modeling. The results indicated positive impact of social capital on employees’ commitment, organizational citizenship behaviors, and job performance. However, the positive impact of employees’ commitment and organizational citizenship behaviors on their job performance was confirmed. As a result, it can be stated that improvement of processes related to employees’ commitment and organizational citizenship behaviors, affected by factors such as social capital, results in improvement of employees’ job performance.