Management Research in Iran
Year:2013 | Volume:17 | Issue:3|Papers Count:10

The goal of this research is providing optimization approach for bi-objective scheduling work shift and job rotation problem in order to exploit the efficient performance of employees. In this article, job rotation and shift scheduling problem were studied with function objectives of minimizing labor cost and maximizing number of job rotations. Also fatigue, learning and forgetting factors of workforces that have effect on their performance were modeled. The presented model was mixed integer and nonlinear, and genetic algorithm and t- constraint technique were used to solve it and gain Pareto sets. To illustrate the efficiency of provided algorithm, its performance was compared to the results of LINGO. The results indicated that the performance of genetic algorithm is better than that of LINGO in terms of computational time and objective function value. To analyze the relationship between the objective functions of mathematical model, the set of problems with different parameters were solved using the presented algorithm Analysis of the obtained Pareto for problems indicated that there is a conflict between the objective functions. Hence, with considering human factors that have effect on the workforce performance, work shifts and job rotation planning should be done simultaneously. Also the results indicated that the proposed optimization approach is capable to provide suitable alternatives with considering decreasing of costs, increasing of jobs' variety, and multi-skilled training policy.

Psychological capital is a new concept that has been discussed in the third millennium and entered in the field of management since 2006 Due to its unique role in organizational wealth-generation, it has become in the core attention of scholars and intellectuals research in the field of behavior, human resource management and human capital. So the main goal of this paper is designing a model to improve psychological capital in Iranian public organizations with identifying the role of human resource functions. This research has employed quantitative approach and followed correlation method. The populations for this study were employees of public organizations; the rational for selection of them was classification system in the governmental budget. Accordingly, they were classified into the three categories of general, social and economic. On the other hand, due to the wide dispersion and large organizations across the country, public organizations of Tehran province were chosen as key clusters. The research method is descriptive correlation study, and the data were collected using standard questionnaires. The data were analyzed by using structural equations and multiple regressions. The research findings showed that HR functions have significant positive relation with the psychological capital; however when organizational justice is placed as the intervening variable between them, the correlation coefficient is increased. The results also indicated that HRM functions have the greatest effect on Psycap by organizational justice. At last, fitness test of the model demonstrated that it is suitable for Iranian public organizations.

Every project has many risks, and as there are many complexities in the today projects, recognizing the most important risks is essential for the projects' success and efficiency. In this research, we tried to determine the most significant categories of project risks in the framework of risk breakdown structure of the 4th edition of Project Management Body of Knowledge Guide that can be generalized into all projects in Iran. With considering the dependencies and the interactive relations between the risks of projects, we used DEMA TEL method to determine the most significant project risks' categories on the basis of risk breakdown structure of the 4th edition of Project Management Body of Knowledge Guide. Also the fuzzy set theory was applied to measure the subjective judgments of experts with rich expertise and knowledge in Iranian projects. The results revealed that "External", "Technical", "Project Management" and "Organizational" risks are significant in sequence. In the most important risks' category, which is "External", "Regulatory" risks. In "Technical", "Project Management", and in "Organizational" risks, "Technology", "Estimating" and "Project Dependencies" are the most important risks, respectively and should be paid more attention because they are in the first rank of importance.

Classic asset pricing models assume that distribution of information is symmetric and suppose similar trade-off between risk and return among the investors. In terms of information asymmetry in which some traders may have private information, investors will be faced with information risk; this is the risk of trading with informed traders. Easley et al. (2002) introduced probability of information-based trade (PIN) as information risk measurement, and developed a microstructure model for estimating the PIN. This paper examines information risk pricing in Tehran Stock Exchange to see whether PIN can explain stock return in TSE. On the other hand, we investigated the relationship between firm PIN. The results showed that PIN (indicator of information risk) can explain stock return. A 10% increase in PIN leads to 2.8% increase in stock return. Also a negative relationship wall found between firm size and PIN.

In this paper, industrial productivity was calculated in 2025 horizon by system dynamics model. For this purpose, with regard to the effective variables behavior and data in 2000 to 2008, the productivity model was designed and simulated. The results showed that industrial total productivity and energy productivity will be constantly decreased in 2009 to the end of 2017 due to the implementation targeted subsidy plan and the rise of input prices. However, the productivity will be constantly increased from the end of 2017 up until 2024. Also the productivity of man power in relation to the capital and energy will be more constant and will have less fluctuation. With regard to the role of the productivity of production factors in value added, the investigation of policies in productivity rate change showed that by increasing of 1% annual productivity rate, the value added will be 35 as compared to the base year (2000) in industrial sector. These results provide suitable information for the decision making in industry for development and increase of productivity in futures plans.

In asset pricing and portfolio management, the Fama-French three factor model is a model designed by Eugene Fama and Kenneth French to describe stock returns. The traditional asset pricing model, known formally as the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) uses only one variable (beta), to describe the returns of a portfolio or stock with the returns of the market as a whole. In contrast, the Fama-French model uses three variables. Fama and French started with the observation that two classes of stocks have tended to do better than the market as a whole: small caps, and stocks with a high book-to-market ratio, customarily called value stocks, contrasted with growth stocks. They then added two factors to the CAPM to reflect a portfolio's exposure to these two classes. Based on Fama and French about short term, abnormal return in IPOs investors may fall into traps by involving IPOs without considering the fundamentals of stocks, which would cause their loss, so this survey is conducted to study the liquidity and leverage effects beside the Fama-French three factors on IPOs. This survey uses Amihood illiquidity measure and leverage ratio to explore the long run return (one year) considering (3 months) as short term. Regression analysis showed that among 5 major variables, only market premium and size had significant relation with long run return.

In new business environment, procurement is a vital activity in providing added value for products. It is also a determinative factor for stability and profitability. Regarding to environmental issues, purchasing is getting more complex because in green purchasing, supplier environmental responsibility must be taken into account in addition to traditional standards such as cost, quality, lead time and flexibility. Consequently, the supplier's environmental performance has become more important these days and identification of group of green criteria and selection of the suppliers accordingly has turned into a vital issue across the supply chain. This survey attempts to determine the model criteria's importance by using compound techniques of ANP-DEMATEL after vernacularing the comprehensive model of Buyukozkan and Cifci (2011), which is about assessment of green suppliers. For this purpose, six persons' ideas of Iran Heavy Diesel Company were collected by using a questionaire, and analyzed by using MATLAB and Excel. Regarding to existent criteria in this model (organization, financial performance, service level, technology, and green competence), the survey findings showed organization criteria's high priorty in green supplier's selection, and financial performance, technology, service level and green competence show other priorities accordingly.

This study seeks investigation of the impact of factors effecting on the brand performance based on the internal branding approach in (Ayandeh) Bank. A conceptual model consisting of 9 hypotheses was designed and tested. 239 employees of the mentioned Bank were selected by clustering method. Data were gathered via 51-items including 6 demographic and 45 specialized questions. Alpha Combach's coefficients were in acceptable range for all variables. For testing the model, we used path analysis by applying AMOS software and Chow test. The Findings prove the moderation role of workplace competitive climate and job satisfaction on the relationship between internal branding with brand identification and brand commitment. Path analysis indicated that internal branding impacts brand identification positively, brand commitment impacts brand performance positively, and brand identification impacts brand commitment positively. Two hypotheses including the impacts of internal branding on brand commitment and the impact of brand identification on the brand performance were not confirmed.

In the past decade, national and international financial markets have experienced several financial crises. One reason for this is the incorrect behavior of investors in making decisions because of unclear situations and cognitive mistakes .Since, domestic market has experienced such a crisis; in this study, we tried to explain the behavior of investors and identify sociological factors that influence on the conformity behavior of investors. It will help to solve financial crises in the securities market. A questionnaire was used to collect the required data. The results showed that investors satisfy their financial needs in line with their sociological needs and knowledge. Investment experience and the age of investors are both affecting on the forms of conformity behaviors, and sociological needs affect only on the normative conformity behavior. Investors' gender did not affect on any of the two forms of conformity behavior.

Illogical limits of the stock prices have led to ambiguities in optimal resource allocations. Price limit prevents increase or decrease in the stock prices with respect to the predetermined prices. There are different viewpoints on the implementation of stock price limits. The negative or positive effects of implementing stock price limits have not yet been demonstrated. Those who advocate implementation of price limits claim that these measurements can reduce price volatility while not intervening in the transactions. On the contrary, the critics argue that price limits will make more volatility (hypothesis of volatility extension), prevent stock price to reach the balance level (hypothesis for delay in reaching real price), and also intervene in transactions through limiting the stock prices (hypothesis of intervention in transactions). Different models and methods have so far been provided for measuring the effectiveness of price limits in different global stock exchanges; each of which is appropriate for certain conditions. To study the delay in reaching the real price, Z binomial test was used and Wilcoxon test was applied for studying the intervention in transactions. For this purpose, 32 companies were reviewed through the current research since 2000 to 2009. The results indicated that price limit can extend volatility and make delays in reaching the real prices. However, it does not influence on intervening the transactions.