Evaluation of the national entrepreneurship ecosystem is one of the most important measures that most countries are committed to. This study evaluates the entrepreneurship ecosystem of the coun-tries in accordance with the Global Entrepreneurship index (GEI) and based on the metafrontier Malmquist approach. The metafrontier Malmquist method helps to find the pattern of change for each country, to perform analyses dynamically, to identify the effects of technical and technology changes among the total changes (Malmquist), and to consider the region and level of the countries in analyses (metafrontier). The data Global Entrepreneurship index for 132 countries from 2016 to 2017 are derived from the reports of the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute. Results show that the productivity of the entrepreneurship ecosystem generally increased, but the deeper analysis indicates that this improvement was due to the technology improvement, not the technical efficiency improvement. Meanwhile, the North America region has had the best technical performance in the development of entrepreneurship ecosystem, and other areas, especially Latin America, and The Caribbean and South Asia have experienced a decline in technical efficiency. It was also found that East Asia, and Pacific, Middle East and North Africa and North America maintained a technology gap in the area of entrepreneurship ecosystems, and Latin America and The Caribbean and South Asia regions had the potential to develop technological standards. By analyzing the metafrontier, simple analysis of the entrepreneurship ecosystem performance was replaced with the deep analysis, and a more comprehensive view was achieved in this area.

The aim of this study was to analyze the effectiveness of the educational method so-called “Ban Ben Bon” on language learning and creativity of pre-school children. The study was a semi-experimental one and its statistical population included 198 children studying in the preschools of Shiraz, Iran. The sample group consisted of 30 preschool children which were selected randomly. The research tool included Torrance test of creative thinking and function test including 11 ques-tions for measuring the reading skill in preschool children. There were five preschools in Golestan town and six children were selected randomly from each five preschools. The children were asked to answer the questions of the function test, and the educating method of Ban Ben Bon was used for educating them. The results show that the educating method of Ban Ben Bon had significant ef-fect on language learning and reading but it had insignificant effect on the creativity of preschool children. Based on statistical analysis and hypothesis testing, it was found that among four ele-ments of creativity, including flexibility, innovation, expansion and fluidity, the method just had a significant effect on innovation.

In recent years, the increased incidence of natural disasters with irreparable damage to people has led to various efforts to reduce its destructive effects and consequences. Hence, humanitarian aid logistics are aimed at preserving life and reducing the suffering of people in crises. Facility location is a strategic issue in humanitarian logistics and has a planning role before the crisis. Finding the right place for establishment of the facilities can help relieve the disaster. This research is also based on the principles of non-operational defense and the design of a multi-objective mathematical model for seeking a suitable location for the facility. In this mathematical model based on four population density indexes, user appropriateness, access to the road and enclosure of the appropriate location for the establishment of a hospital, temporary care centers, shelters and warehouses is selected. The designed model is solved using Lexicographic method and via GAMS software.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of empowerment aspects on the competence level and success of the primary school principals in Pakdasht city in Iran. This research is a descriptive-survey method and in terms purpose is practical. The statistical population of this study consisted of principals of the primary schools in Pakdasht city. The total number of primary school principals in this city is 135 people (75 male schools and 60 female schools). As data gathering tool, a researcher-made questionnaire was used. In order to analyze the validity of the questionnaire in this study, the Content Validation Method was used in which the questionnaires were first examined by the experts and the necessary corrections were made. The reliability of the questionnaire was evaluated using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Research hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling and AMOS software. The results show that competence and effectiveness aspects affect competence and success of principals of the Pakdasht elementary schools. Autonomy affects the competence level of elementary school principals in Pakdasht city but does not affect principals' success. Meaningfulness aspect did not affect principals’ competency however it is effective on principals’ success in Pakdasht elementary schools. Trust aspect was not effective on the Pakdasht elementary schools principals’ competence and success.

This study develops an empirical investigation of trust antecedents and consequences in creating a collaborative business relationship between distribution companies and retailers in the cosmetics market. A conceptual framework based on trust antecedents as inputs and trust consequences as outputs is designed for both parties. In order to evaluate the performance and effectiveness of each considered trust factor for each party, a fuzzy data envelopment analysis (FDEA) based approach is proposed. In order to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed model, a real-life case study is considered. The required data are collected using interview and questionnaires, and the reliability of the collected data is examined using the Cronbach’s alpha. The obtained results indicate that there is no significant difference between both parties’ tendency towards building a collaborative business relationship based on trust. The results also indicate that information sharing is not an effective trust antecedent for both parties. The “product quality” and “product price” are the most effective trust antecedents for retailers, while the “retailer’s financial conflicts records” along with “length of partnership” are the most effective trust antecedents for distribution companies. Finally, the most effective trust consequences for distribution companies and retailers are “information sharing” and “brand advertising”, respectively.

Closed-loop supply chain management is an effective and efficient solution for a set of activities to retrieve a product from a customer and improve its value or to dispose it. Today, designing and planning a closed-loop chain is an inevitable but difficult task. In this research, a scenario-based modeling approach is presented by considering both forward and reverse flows as a closed-loop supply chains in steel industry. The proposed study also develops a multi-product and multi-period model based on a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) approach for profit maximization. The study also considers uncertainty in the amount of raw material, processing, storage and distribution of several products flow. Uncertainty is associated with the quantity and quality of the products in the reverse flow, which are directly affected by customers and sorting centers, respectively. Finally, the model is deployed in Steel industry with real data. The results show that by increasing the quality level of returned products the need for raw materials is reduced and the total profit of the supply chain is increased.

The time-cost optimization is amongst the most critical fields, which has an extensive range of implementation in project scheduling. Achieving a satisfactory balance between these factors can lead to an efficient construction project by reducing both the length of the project and costs at the same time. An effective balance can be achieved using various methods, depending on the situation. This study aims to incorporate the various algorithms used in the last 15 years to reach a satisfying balance between time and cost, including meta-heuristics, heuristics, and exact algorithms. A comprehensive view of the problems associated with time-cost optimization will be provided throughout this review to assist new and challenging researchers who are interested in this type of research. For this purpose, we have reviewed some objective functions and uncertainty techniques that could be employed in time-cost balancing problems. The literature review tables contain a variety of columns, including uncertainties such as fuzzy, probabilistic, interval, robust, and objective functions, along with cost and time, for the investigation of various types of balance issues. In the conclusion of this article, we will show the results of our literature review table using different types of graphic diagrams. For each main column of the table, we will show various types of diagrams to make the results easier to understand.

Innovation is one of the key factors distinguishing organizations from competitors in today’s high-ly competitive markets. Therefore, improving innovative performance is critical for creating com-petitive advantage. On the other hand, availability of information and knowledge can be defined as one the best ways to increase the innovation ability of organizations. Many theorists as well as practitioners emphasize on knowledge management as an enabler in enhancing organizational inno-vation. Hence, This study is carried out in the Fars governor in Iran during the year of 2017 to in-vestigate the relationship between the knowledge-based leadership and knowledge management and innovation performance. This study is descriptive / survey and the data collection is a cross-sectional and data questionnaire is used to collect the required data. Data analysis and hypotheses testing have indicated a significant relationship between knowledge-based leadership and knowledge management and innovation performance in Fars governor. The results also suggest a relationship between knowledge-based leadership and the knowledge management activities with a coefficient of 0.97. In addition, There is also a positive and meaningful relationship between knowledge management and innovation performance with a coefficient of 0.73 and between knowledge-based leadership and innovation performance with a coefficient of 0.73. The results al-so led to the existence of a relationship between knowledge based leadership, knowledge manage-ment practices and innovation performance with a coefficient of 0.7081.

The purpose of this research is to design a crisis management model in the archival centers of Iran during the pre-crisis phase. The present study was conducted with a qualitative approach using the Grounded theory method. The necessary data was collected using semi-structured interviews. Data saturation was a major factor in determining the sample size. The research population included 20 crisis management specialists and managers of archives in Iran and the data analysis was performed in three stages: open, axial, and selective coding. The paradigmatic model derived from the findings of the research includes the sections of the causal conditions, strategies, intervening conditions and the underlying conditions and their outcomes. The causal conditions are located in two categories of internal crises such as biological crises and lack of proper management, and external crises such as natural disasters, fires and human-made crises. Intervener conditions and backgrounds include cat-egories such as lack of specialist staff training, lack of appropriate environmental conditions and management mechanisms, archival building and human resources issues. To prevent and mitigate the effects of the crisis in archives, some strategies are required such as modern education for resil-ience, teaching how to use documents, standardizing buildings and equipment (non-use of steel skeletons in building archives, use of concrete skeletons Armed or metal, as well as the use of walls and doors and floors of anti-fire covers) in the building of archives and the establishment of multi-layer protective systems for the protection of documents.

The industry has expressed significant concern regarding the issue of parallel machines and the influence of learning and deterioration. This research investigates non-identical parallel machine scheduling, taking into account the simultaneous consideration of learning effects, deterioration, and past-sequence-dependent setup times. Due to the existence of uncertain parameters in real-world scenarios, the processing times and due dates are assumed to be triangular fuzzy numbers. A fuzzy nonlinear mathematical model with two objective functions is presented and solved using the fuzzy Chance Constraint Programming approach. The two objectives are the summation of earliness and tardiness, as well as makespan. To achieve an efficient near-optimal Pareto front for the problem, a hybrid NSGA-II and VNS multi-objective meta-heuristic is proposed and the results are discussed. Finally, the augmented ε-constraint method is utilized to address issues with small dimensions. The computational analysis demonstrates the effectiveness of this proposed algorithm in tackling problems, especially those with substantial dimensions.