Decision making about dividend payout is one of the most important decision that companies should encounter. Identifying factors that influence dividends can help managers in making an appropriate dividend policy. In the other side, companies’ dividend payouts over time and with a stable manner may influence on stock price, future earnings growth and finally investor & apos; s evaluation about owners & apos; equity. Hence, investigating the factors influencing dividend payout ratio is of high importance. In this research, we investigate the effects of various factors on dividend payout ratio of Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) listed companies. We use time series regression (panel data) in order to test the hypothesis of this study. This study provides empirical evidences by choosing a sample of 102 companies over the time span of 2005-2010. The result shows that independent variables of free cash flow and profitability current ratio have negative and significant impact on dividend payout ratio; whereas, the independent variable of leverage ratio has a positive and significant impact on dividend payout ratio. The other independent ratio such as size of the company, growth opportunities and systematic risk do not have any significant influence on dividend payout ratio.

E-commerce has created significant opportunities for the corporations to understand the customers’ expectations, desired values, to increase their satisfaction and to expand their market share, more efficiently. The most significant activity of e-commerce is in the field of e-banking and financial services. Customer satisfaction index is a concept introduced for evaluating of the service quality in electronic banking. Considering the relative importance of customer satisfaction in e-banking, defining scientific criteria for the assessment of mentioned index is very important. So, a scientific and efficient method is always needed. The purpose of this paper is to use the fuzzy data envelopment analysis (DEA) techniques for evaluating and ranking the efficiency of online customer satisfaction index in eight economic banks in Iran. Here, we first study the fuzzy set theory and the method of traditional DEA in the same model. Next, the relationship between them were developed, which provide the fuzzy DEA model with qualitative data. The SPSS and GAMS software package were employed to analyze the data collected through questionnaires. The results show that three economic banks in terms of customer satisfaction in e-banking were located on the efficiency border and were quite efficient.

Most of the time, the government of the affected country cannot handle the entire relief operations. Under such conditions, international organizations act independently but are obliged to obey the law of the country. In this paper, we propose a dynamic multi-level programming where the affected country and international organizations dynamically change their roles, being leader or follower, according to a game. The application of the proposed model is investigated for a case problem where real data are utilized to design a network for humanitarian logistics during potential earthquakes. The advantages of using multi-level modeling against considering just one player's point of view are provided to guide decision-makers under a variety of conditions. The results show for the first three periods, the gov-ernment of the affected area cannot handle the demand for the rescue operation. Thus, the international suppliers act as the leader for the first three periods. However, by decreasing the demand for the rescue operation in the last three periods, the government can manage the evacuation operation properly.

Export plays an essential role for boosting the economy of developing countries. On the other hand, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are important part of any economy. Therefore, it is important to determine the effects of various factors influencing on development of export activities. This paper presents an empirical investigation to study the effects of customer segmentation factors on the performance of export activities of SMEs in Iranian food industry. The study selects a sample of 227 people who were involved in development of SMEs in city of Tehran, Iran. The study designs a questionnaire in Likert scale consists of 34 questions, Cronbach alpha and KMO are equal to 0.809 and 0.764, respectively, which are well above the desirable levels. Using principal component analysis, the study has determined that different factors including competitive structure, organizational strategy, customer’s studies and organizational factors influencing the most on promoting export activities.

Advancement of network technology, quick growth of Internet and Internet based solutions lead many firms to apply online processes as well as electronic businesses. Internet based B2B E-C requires applying Internet and affiliated technologies for exchanging products, services and information. Implementation of business to business (B2B) requires long-term commitment of organizations. Carrying out research in this field is regarded as very important issue for recognizing effective factors on successful implementation and execution of B2B and determining current status of organization. This research deals with studying effective critical factors on successful implementation and execution of B2B. Factors are recognized through studying literature review and IT experts. Then, through case study (studying a vehicle manufacturing firm) and by using analytical network process (ANP), the importance of factor and their rank are determined. The factors that are regarded at this research are including: culture, commitment and support of senior management, government support, purposes, organizational strategies, trust, partial advantage and technical infrastructure. Results of research show that support and commitment of senior management are the highest priority factors.

Six Sigma is a philosophy of unremitting improvement and excellence in all aspects. The concept is a satisfactory modification process tool through customers, continuous improvement and stakeholder participation. Six Sigma is considered as statistical analysis, assessment scales and customer-oriented production accomplishments and it leads to defect production reduction. This paper recommends an approach to select Six Sigma projects using fuzzy multiple attribute decision making techniques composed with another concoction tool. Through insightful quarrying of literature, rudimentary criteria for selecting Six Sigma projects were revealed. The fundamental criteria were identified consuming the fuzzy hypothesis test. Having identified the most indispensable criteria, the weight of criteria were determined. Appling FANP techniques. Having calculated the weights pertinent to criteria through three methods, SAW, TOPSIS, and Fuzzy VIKOR, Six Sigma projects were introduced and prioritized. Applying the three methods engendered various results, which required the application of an amalgamation technique, entitled as Borda and it helped to clarify the final project rate.

The aim of present study is to explore the relationship between various styles of conflict management and organizational agility in Ilam state university. The study is quantitative one, having developmental orientation and comparative approach, which applies the strategy of survey research with an aim of exploration and description. It is implemented as single point and utilizes questionnaire as data collecting tool. The population and sample of the study include 425 and 205 individuals, respectively. The sample size is determined through Cochran’s formula and random sampling method has been used for sampling. In order to perform the data analysis, descriptive and inferential statistics as well as Spearman and Kendall test in SPSS were utilized. The results of the study reveal that there was a positive and significant relationship among four styles of conflict management (avoiding, forcing, compromising, and yielding), however there was no significant relationship between integrating conflict management and organizational agility.

We study a location-inventory problem in a three level supply chain network under uncertainty, which leads to risk. The (r,Q) inventory control policy is applied for this problem. Besides, uncertainty exists in different parameters such as procurement, transportation costs, supply, demand and the capacity of different facilities (due to disaster, man-made events and etc). We present a robust optimization model, which concurrently specifies: locations of distribution centers to be opened, inventory control parameters (r,Q), and allocation of supply chain components. The model is formulated as a multi-objective mixed-integer nonlinear programming in order to minimize the expected total cost of such a supply chain network comprising location, procurement, transportation, holding, ordering, and shortage costs. Moreover, we develop an effective solution approach on the basis of multi-objective particle swarm optimization for solving the proposed model. Eventually, computational results of different examples of the problem and sensitivity analysis are exhibited to show the model and algorithm & apos; s feasibility and efficiency.

The organizational employees take some actions called influential tactics to achieve their goals. Influential tactics discuss the ways to influence power bases and help employees understand how to utilize these bases. This research aims at analyzing the effect of managers’ influential tactics on employees. The influential tactics used in the research include friendship, reasoning (reasonable encouragement), coalition, pressure (courage), resorting to superiors and interaction. The research has been accomplished through quantitative descriptive method and the sample size is selected from the private and state banks of an Iranian city named Ilam. The statistical sample consists of 265 randomly chosen people determined using Morgan Table. The collected research data has been analyzed using Spearman correlation test. The research results showed that the effect of managers’ influential tactics was not the same on male and female employees.

Improving livelihood and increasing in welfare and life quality of people always have been some of the most important concerns among politicians in each country. Therefore, addressing economy and trying to reach maximum growth play essential role on having sustainable growth. One of the determinant factors in the economic growth is attraction of direct foreign investments, successfully. Direct foreign investment not only leads to capital and modern technology in absorbent country but also it causes increasing in production capacities particularly in export products. Therefore, it helps host country in context of communicating with international economy through development of export markets and research and development (R & D). In this paper, we present an empirical study to find important factors influencing foreign direct investment based on factor analysis. The study designs and distributes a questionnaire consist of 30 questions among some experts. The proposed study uses Skewness analysis to reduce the factors into 22 items and reports 5 important factors including Economic, Feasibility, Infrastructure, Incentive and Resource.