This paper presents an empirical investigation to study the effect of working capital management on profitability on Cement and Petrochemical industries. The study uses the information of 24 firms from Cement industry and 19 firms from Petrochemical industry listed on Tehran Stock Exchange. There are two independent variables including the ratio of current assets on total assets as well as the ratio of current liabilities on total assets in this survey. In addition, there are two dependent variables including return on assets (ROA) and Tobin’s Q. The study also considers firm size, sales’ growth, financial leverage, gross domestic product growth as control variables. Using stepwise regression technique, the study confirms a positive and meaningful relationship between working capital criteria and profitability. In addition, the study confirms that as the ratio of current assets to total assets increases, ROA and Tobin’s Q will be reduced, which means lower profitability would be resulted. In addition, as financial leverage increases, ROA in both industries will reduce while Tobin’s Q will increase in Cement industry and will reduce in Petrochemical industry.

Human resources management plays essential role for the success of organizations. This paper presents an empirical investigation to determine human resource management main criteria and sub-criteria based on a survey on the existing literatures and theoretical principles. The study has been applied in a municipality organization in Iran. The study uses analytical hierarchy process as well as fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) for prioritizing decision tree criteria. The results indicate job design and human resource planning criteria are ranked as the highest ones. In addition, employee recruitment and selection, employee health and hygiene, training and development and compensation system criteria are other important criteria.

This paper presents an empirical investigation to study the impact of the implementations of the recent advances on technology on total factor productivity improvement (TFP) of some Iranian insurance firms over the period 2008-2012. The study considers the number of information and communication technology (ICT) employees, insurance treaty and the number of computers used together with online users as technology advancement. Using generalized least square technique, the study has determined a positive and meaningful impact of the number of research and development employees as well as the number of personal computers together with online users on TFP improvement. However, the numbers of ICT employees and insurance treaty have no significant impact on TFP improvement.

In this study, staff job satisfaction were evaluated according to their personality differences by assessing five personality factors, based on NEO-FFI scoring and those components, which are directly associated with job satisfaction. In this regard, three data collection tools including communication satisfaction questionnaires, job descriptions index and five personality trait questionnaire were used. Based on the findings there was a positive and significant relationship between job satisfaction and personality traits (r = 0.97), and job satisfaction was depended on communication satisfaction. This research showed that communication satisfaction and job satisfaction could be predicted based on the five personality traits, which are nervousness, extraversion, empiricism, responsibility, and compatibility with others.

Nowadays teleworking has become a useful technique for business development and improving employees’ quality of life. Many people are now able to stay at home and do their daily job activities without bothering to wear formal closes. This paper presents an empirical investigation to study the effect of teleworking on quality of life using Walton (1976) method [Walton, R. E. (1973). Quality of working life-what is it. Sloan Management Review, 15(1), 11-21.]. The variables of quality of working-life according to Walton Model are: “Adequate and fair compensation”, “Safe and Healthy Working conditions”, “Opportunity for Continued Growth and Security”, “The Social Relevance of Work Life”, “Total Life Space”, “Social Integration in the Work”, “Constitutionalism in the work Organization”, “Human Progress Capabilities”. Using different statistical tests, the study indicate that teleworking had significant positive relationship with Quality of Working-Life components. The study also reports that different personal characteristics such as age, gender had no meaningful impact on teleworking.

Evaluating and prioritizing appropriate renewable energy sources is inevitably a complex decision process. Various information and conflicting attributes should be taken into account. For this purpose, multi-attribute decision making (MADM) methods can assist managers or decision makers in formulating renewable energy sources priorities by considering important objective and attributes. In this paper, a new extension of compromise ranking method with interval numbers is presented for the prioritization of renewable energy sources that is based on the performance similarity of alternatives to ideal solutions. To demonstrate the applicability of the proposed decision method, an application example is provided and the computational results are analyzed. Results illustrate that the presented method is viable in solving the evaluation and prioritization problem of renewable energy sources.

Fulfillment of the promises or brand promise plays essential role for the success of organizations. This paper presents an empirical investigation to evaluate the rate of management’s interest and personnel’s motivation in an Iranian firm named TAM Iran Khodro. The study reviews its relationship with fulfillment of corporative promises for customers. The study selects a sample of 206 employees of TAM Iran Khodro Company including managers and employees. Questionnaire is a tool for gathering information designed by the researchers. With respect to primary sample group including 40 participants, Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient was calculated as 0.905 for reliability value of this questionnaire, which validates the questionnaire. Spearman’s correlation coefficient and multiple regressions have been adopted to test different hypotheses. Research findings indicate that management’s tendency and personnel’s motivation were positively and significantly associated with fulfillment of corporative promises to customers (Brand Promise) with correlation coefficient 0.427.

Industrialized and rich nations owe much of their development to advances and achievements they have made in science and technology. These assets have not only served as engines powering their advanced economies but have also led to their exponential social growth. Thus, advancements in science and technology may be regarded as indicators of fundamental development in any modern society as it is the knowledge-based society that is in a superior position to address and resolve its basic problems. While Iran has also been taking drastic steps towards its scientific and technological development, decisive measures are yet to be taken toward developing a strategic plan for these development objectives and gaining a comprehensive understanding of its different aspects. Employing an analytic-descriptive approach, the present study aims to develop fundamental strategies for the national scientific and technological development using the SWOT strategic model. The results indicate that the development of infrastructure for access to information networks with a weight of 0.56 ranks first among the strengths while absence of a strategic development plan with a weight of 0.372 ranks first among the weaknesses. IT infrastructure with a weight of 0.608 is found to have the highest weight among the opportunities while the low relevance between educational programs (at both levels of general and higher education) and scientific and innovation requirements is found to rank first with a weight of 0.46 among the threats. Among the most essential strategies that need to be adopted, one can refer to the development of a basic framework for the uniform and need-oriented connectivity and access to IT and the Internet across the nation; creation and development of such knowledge-based systems and facilities as business and technology incubators, science parks, science a & technology corridors, and innovation clusters aiming at a knowledge-based, dynamic, and developed society; directing efforts at striking a balance between the number of university graduates and the market demands for young educated work force; and maximum involvement of the educated youths in the realization of national development objectives.

This paper presents an empirical investigation to study the effects of various factors influencing on customer loyalty, profitability and word of mouth advertisement for gaining competitive advantage in tourism industry. The study designs a questionnaire in Likert scale and distributes it among a random sample of 500 people who purchased some tours from travel agencies. Using structural equation modeling, the study has determined a positive and meaningful impact of pricing strategy, amenity, tourism services, content of trip, marketing mix elements, brand equity, competitive advantage and being exclusive on gaining competitive advantage. In addition, being exclusive and value creation influence positively on word of mouth advertisement. Finally, value creation influences on profitability, positively.

This paper presents a casual structure model between emotional intelligence and organizational citizenship behavior by using organizational commitment as mediator variable. The study is accomplished among 324 employees of united bus company in city of Tehran, Iran. Using structural equation modeling, the study has confirmed that emotional intelligence influenced on organizational citizenship behavior and commitment. The study also confirms that organizational commitment influenced on organizational citizenship behavior. Finally, the study has confirmed that there were significant relationships between emotional intelligence and its dimensions with organizational citizenship behavior and organizational commitment of employees.