MANAGEMENT KNOWLEDGE
Year:2007 | Volume:20 | Issue:76|Papers Count:7

Ant Colony System (ACS) is defined as a metaheuristic acting according to the behavior of natural ants. In this article ACS is used for reliability optimization of a series system under multiple- choice for the selection of the type of technology in each subsystem such that optimization of the reliability of the whole system can be achieved with regard to budget constraint. This problem is NP-hard and it could be modeled as zero-one nonlinear programming. In this paper we propose an ACS algorithm based on the artificial ant behavior which responding to the communication with previous ants and with regard to the objective function. The constructed solutions are not guaranteed to be feasible; therefore using a convenient mechanism an infeasible solution is replaced by feasible one and then they are improved by a local search. We have compared the proposed method with an Ant System (AS) algorithm. Computational results have shown that the proposed ACS has better performance in producing solutions with higher quality in particular for problems with large number of subsystems.

Understanding the factors that contribute to the success of systems implementation efforts is the main concern in the field of information systems (IS). One key factor to which many implementation problems have been attributed is user resistance to change. This paper reports the results of a survey study investigating the link between resistance reasons and system types and assessing managerial perceptions of the relative importance of various strategies for promoting acceptance in the context of management information systems (MIS) and transaction processing systems (TPS). Results of this study suggest that TPS and MIS are resisted for different reasons, and effectiveness of different promotion strategies also differs. Additionally, this study attempts to make explicit, based on a system type, the key reasons for user resistance and the strategies for promoting acceptance and also presents a pattern for successful system implementation

Growth and development are always one of the most important goals of any irm. But, new challenges in the world such as scarcity of resources and high competition have forced them to search some sustainable resources for achieving competitive advantage. Thus, diversification strategies that are entering new but related businesses- for creating synergy and the best use of resources- have been the best selection. So the question is: "how these strategies can help to gain the benefits of diversification and achieve competitive advantage?" The first step to answer this question is finding the best approach which can explain competitive advantage in multibusiness or diversified corporations. This article is going to do so with describing, comparing and selecting the best strategy for this situation.

It is believed that decision making is one of the Crucial functions of management in organizations. As the scope, range and domain of this function grows wider, the importance of decision making in management grows larger. Viewing from this perspective, strategic decisions are assessed as the most important decisions. In order to achieve to some patterns and models of read-world strategic decisions, a number of strategic decisions made by Imam Khomeini were analyzed in this research as successful examples of strategic decisions. To strengthen the research scientifically, the models were compared with some well known models in strategic decision making literature like S.W.O.T.

Based on relevant studies, the competitive scene that organizations have faced in recent years is indicated by a high level of dynamism. To survive under those circumstances is essence, the continual renewal of competitive advantage through the development of organizational and individual capacities. Some of thinker and experts claim that knowledge is the main source of sustainable competitive advantage. In order, to achieve this advantage, knowledge management can be defined as a strategic opportunity for organizations. Various studies shows that organizing based on work teams is a new tendency that favor process of knowledge management, however, this is point of important that is not enough to organize the firm around work teams, but only this teams must have special the characteristics to achieve the goals of organization. So, the main goal of this research is recognition and survey factors which favoring the management of organizational knowledge. We conducted multiple line regression and analysis of variance. In order to set about checking the hypotheses, the data were analyzed in two separated phases (creation, transfer and integration). Some other findings of research are: complementary skills and a climate of trust in work teams were more important factors that favoring the knowledge management (in each of the phases). However, features of self-managed and individual autonomy were just effective factors in knowledge creation of phase.

Persuasive evidence has described the strategic use of information technology in organizations. Also, Large investments in information technology (IT) and information systems (IS) have increased the need for successful IS/IT strategic planning (IT/ISSP). Despite the growing number of strategic IS/IT planning frameworks having been proposed, organizations still fail to successful implementing of IT/ISSP. Most importantly, numerous IS/IT strategic planning frameworks do not seem to realize that problems in this area are not merely technological, but are also caused by neglecting the interrelationship between IS/IT and organizational factors. This research attempt to identify the key mechanisms (with organizational approach) related to success in IS/IT strategic planning and propose a model for organizational readiness assessment for conduct Information Systems/ Information Technology strategic planning successfully. In this research, we use the structural equation method to model the relationship among the underlying factors.

Competitiveness is considered as a key criterion for appraising the success degree of countries, industries and enterprises in the political, economical and commercial competition fields. Research findings show that competitiveness has been discussed in three levels of national, industry and enterprise (organization or company). Among all the enterprise level seems to more considerable. In this study enterprise competitiveness has been viewed from two main perspectives: construct and behavioral. According to construct perspective, competitiveness includes two groups of factors which are composing and affecting factors. Based on behavioral perspective an enterprise faces two types of factors in its decisions and actions which are strategic and operational factors. As a result of literature review, summarization and complementary edition, totally 28 factors has been identified as competitiveness factors ({16 composing f. and 12 affecting f.} and {15 strategic f. and 13 operational f.}). The questionnaire has been developed based on these factors. The findings show that in Iran business environment, all competitiveness factors of enterprises are highly important but very weak.