This paper presents an empirical investigation to measure the effect of managerial ability on earning quality on selected firms listed on Tehran Stock Exchange over the period 2007-2013. The proposed study uses data envelopment analysis to measure the relative efficiency of selected firms where Sales is considered as output and Cost of goods (COGS), Selling, General and Administrative Expenses (SG & A), Net Property Plant and Equipment (PPE), Net operating Leases (OpsLease), Research & Development (R & D), Purchased Good will (Goodwill) and Other intangible assets (OtherIntan) are considered as inputs. Earning quality in this survey consists of three parts of quality of accruals, earnings and earnings forecast persistence. The results of our survey have indicated that managerial ability influences positively on earning quality.

One of the most important factors on attracting foreign investors to invest on Tehran Stock Exchange is to have transparent accounting rules and regulations. When there are some consistency between national accounting standards and international accounting standards, we may, at least, expect foreign investors to have better understanding on financial statements. In 2006, there were some changes on Iranian national accounting standards in an attempt to make them closer to international accounting standards. In this study, we select the information of 153 firms five years before and after this regulation and study the effect of convergence from national accounting standards to international accounting standards on foreign direct investment. Using some statistical tests, the study has determined that there was no meaningful relationship between foreign direct investment before and after change on accounting standards. In addition, there was no difference on the information quality before and after change on accounting standards. However, there was some meaningful relationship between the information quality and foreign direct investment.

The present study investigates the effects of participation of managers in budgeting on their management performance in the Tehran regional electricity company. Variables of this study are participation in budgeting, performance of managers, adequacy of funding and resource allocation, job satisfaction, organizational commitment and organizational trust. The type of research is survey. The study population consists of all middle level managers of Tehran Regional Electricity Company who according to the approved organizational chart were 34 in 2012. The research tool is a questionnaire. Analysis of data collected is accomplished by using the SPSS and smartPLS. The results show a significant correlation between the variables of managers & apos; participation in budgeting and organizational trust, adequacy of funding and resource allocation and job satisfaction, organizational trust of managers on organizational commitment, organizational commitment and competence in the absorption of funding and optimal resource allocation and finally the competence in funding and optimal resource allocation of managers as well as job satisfaction and management performance.

This paper presents an empirical investigation on implementation of activity based cost (ABC) method in hotel industry. The study determines four possible factors of organizational, environmental, individual and technological, which could influence on ABC implementation. The study selects a sample of 205 employees who worked for Laleh International Hotel in Iran. Using one-way t-student test, the study has determined that all variables were effective on ABC implementation while individual factor was the most important one. In addition, correlation test has determined that all variables had meaningful correlations with each other. Further investigation indicates that gender did not play essential role for ABC implementation while experienced employee tended to be more effective for the success of ABC implementation.

This paper presents an empirical study to determine the effects of four different factors including human capital, innovation capital, communication capital and information technology (IT) capital on firms’ return. The study selects the information of 50 selected firms from Tehran Stock Exchange over the period 2007-2013. Using regression analysis, the study has determined that there were some positive and meaning relationships between human capital, innovation capital, communication capital and information technology capital and firms’ return, however, each of these four factors had various effect. Other results indicate that IT capital had the greatest impact on future returns of companies and among intellectual capital components, communication capital had the highest impact on future earnings.

One of the primary assumptions in many project portfolio selection is the availability of all parameters. However, in real-world cases, many parameters are under uncertainty and the exact values are unknown in advance. This paper presents a scenario based mathematical model for project portfolio selection when parameters are under uncertainty. The problem considers two objective functions where the first one maximizes the net present value while the second objective function is the minimization of the positive deviations from the allocation of resources. The second objective function is looking for project resource leveling. The resulted model is formulated as mixed integer programming and the problem is analyzed under different conditions.

This paper presents an empirical study to determine the effects of different factors including present profit, depreciation, working capital, operating cash flow and other accruals on future earnings stability. The study selects the information of 124 selected firms from Tehran Stock Exchange over the period 2006-2012. Using two regression analysis, the study has determined that as the fluctuation of profit increases, the profitability increases too. In addition, the study has concluded that firms with minimum fluctuations preserve more stable profitability. Moreover, firms with higher fluctuation in profitability maintain more volatile profitability for the next consecutive period.

This paper presents an empirical investigation to study the effect of bank ownership concentration on capital adequacy and liquidity on 14 selected private Iranian banks located in city of Tehran, Iran. The study uses a linear regression model where ownership concentration is independent variable, size, leverage, growth domestic product and revenue growth are control variables and liquidity and capital adequacy are dependent variables. Using historical information over the period 2010-2013, the study has determined a negative and meaningful relationship between liquidity and ownership concentration. However, the study has determined a positive and meaningful relationship between capital adequacy and ownership concentration.

Spread plays essential role on market liquidity on any stock market. A high gap between bid and ask price may reduce the likelihood of trading activities while a small gap between bid and ask increases the chance of trade execution. In this paper, we present an empirical investigation on the effect of spread on abnormal return. The proposed study collects the necessary information from official statements as well as historical data over the period 2009-2013 reported on Tehran Stock Exchange to examine the relationship between spread and unusual firm performance. Using regression analysis, the study has determined a meaningful relationship between abnormal return and spread.

This paper presents an empirical investigation to study the effects of teaching contrastive skills of Islam originated from versus of holly book of Quran and cognitive-behavioral for coping on anxiety among some high school students in city of Tehran, Iran. The study uses a standard method developed by Cattell and Scheier (1963) [Cattell, R. B., & Scheier, I. H. (1963). Handbook for the IPAT Anxiety Scale Questionnaire: Self Analysis Form. Institute for Personality & Ability Testing.] to measure the anxiety. The results have indicated that both methods, contrastive skills and cognitive-behavioral, not only could reduce anxiety in short term but also it could reduce the anxiety over the long term period.