In project management literature, the concept of program is a group of related projects managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits not available from managing them individually. This paper attempts to identify program critical success factors focusing on Iran’s construction industry so that the level of relative importance of various factors could be determined for key stakeholders. Furthermore, since a program includes a set of projects, another objective of this study is to find out whether the projects of program are accomplished, successfully or not. Therefore, to run this study, first literature of topic based on research keywords is reviewed. Then a conceptual model including all the aspects of program success factors is presented. Next, critical success factors are quantitatively analyzed by performing an empirical investigation on active organizations and firms of Iran’s construction industry. The study employs questionnaire and performs interview surveys with construction program professionals and experts. Finally, the critical success factors of program are sorted according to their ranks. The results show that program-related factors maintain the highest effects on program success followed by organization-related and project-related issues.

Banking industry plays essential role for development of macro economy by giving loans to growing business plans and helping economy grow, properly. A bank normally pays a low interest to people who deposit their money into banks and collects interest from people who receive funds. When there is a healthy growth on banks’ deposit, banks’ managers hope to attract business owners to finance their projects through banks and pay interests. The proposed study of this paper investigates the relationship between lending facility and bank deposits. In addition, the study tries to find out about the possible methods for increasing bank deposits and consequently social investment. Based on the results of our survey, increasing facilities, by assuming all other conditions was remained constant, which increased banks’ deposit. In fact, people worked more with banks and branches and conveyed their resources to the banks that granted more deposits. The role of location was so effective to attract deposits so that we must consider the relationship between deposit and the amount of facility payment with location.

This paper studies the effects of cash conversion cycle (CCC) and size of selected firms listed on Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) on four variables including return of assets, return of equities, tangible assets and equity multiplier. The study selects a sample of 105 firms listed on TSE and divides them into two groups of big and small sized companies over the period 2008-2012. Using a regression analysis, the study confirmed a meaningful relationship between different variables. In other words, in our survey, CCC and size negatively influence on tangible assets, they positively influence on equity multiplier as well as ROA but the effects of CCC and size on ROE for small and big firms are mixed.

This paper presents an empirical investigation to study the effects of information and communication technology (ICT) on total quality management (TQM). The study is applied for a case study of revenue agency in city of Damghan, Iran. The proposed study consists of 33 questions in five categories including leadership and commitment of top management team, customer satisfaction, empowering employees and their partnership, organizational design perspective and quality of information system. Cronbach alpha has been calculated as 0.95, which validates the overall questionnaire. Using Pearson correlation ratio as well as t-student test, the study has determined that there was a positive and meaningful relationship between ICT and TQM components.

This study develops a model for application of electronic banking based on electronic trust among costumers of Day bank in KhoramAbad city. A sample of 150 people was selected based on stratified random sampling. Questionnaires were used for the investigation. Results indicate that technology-based factors, user-based factors, and trust had negative relationships with perceived risk types including financial, functional, personal, and private. Moreover, trust including trust in system and trust in bank had a positive relationship with tendency to use and real application of electronic banking.

This paper determines and ranks financial risk factors in Iranian corporations, using analytical hierarchy process (AHP). The present research includes one main question and four sub- questions. Its universe population includes managers, production and financial personnel of great corporations activating in Tehran Stock Exchange, who were selected to explain importance and weight of economic risks indices. The source of great corporations recognition is the Companies Registration Organization in Tehran Province, and according to this, there are 120 corporations. The results have indicated that financing risk maintains the highest priority followed by credit risk, liquidity risk, inflation risk and exchange risk. In terms of different risks associated with financing risk, risk of profit per share has been the number one priority followed by the risk of divisional profit per share, the risk of recessionary or boom and the risk of increasing partial pay profit rate. In terms of credit risk, the risk of loan has been number one priority followed by the risk of inability of loan payment and interest payment. Liquidity risk is another risk factor where demand has been the most important factor followed by rules and regulations and inflation risk. In terms of inflation, producers price risk has been the most important factor followed by consumer price risk, gross domestic product and producers price risk. Finally, in terms of different factors influencing exchange risk, export related issues are considered as the most important factors.

This research proposes a comprehensive integrated model, which investigates the relationships between atmospheric elements, emotions, perceived value and behavioral intentions. Data collected through customers of three Salian chain stores by using stratified random sampling method and the analysis uses 390 questionnaires to collect the information. Structural equations modeling by using LISREL was performed to empirically test the relationships between the constructs of this research. Results show that ambience, interaction and design factors had a positive influence on customer emotions. However, effects of ambience, interaction and design on perceived value were not significant. In addition, results indicate that customer emotions and perceived value had a positive and significant effect on behavioral intentions. Finally, it suggests that managers should focus on designing atmospheric elements in a way that contributes positively in creating positive emotions in customers, which in turn enhance customer’s positive behavioral intentions.

In this study, we estimate the macroeconomics instability index over the period 1963-2003. Using the definition of Fischer and Bleaney, the study calculates the “macroeconomics instability index”. In order to compute the macroeconomics instability index, four sub-indices of inflation rate, the fractional ratio of budget to the gross national product, the ratio of foreign debt to the gross national product, and the ratio of the free exchange rate to the official exchange rate as the determinant variables of the macroeconomics instability are considered. Then, the study estimates the equations for long-term processes for each variable and determines the deviations from the real values. We also obtain the time series for the macroeconomics instability index, using the calculated simple mean of the variables’ deviations and discuss the results.

Human resources development is one of the most important components of any organization and detecting important factors influencing on human resources management plays essential role on the success of the firms. In this paper, we present an empirical investigation to determine different factors influencing productivity of human resources of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) in province of Mazandaran, Iran. The study uses analytical hierarchy process (AHP) to rank 17 important factors and determines that personal characteristics were the most important factors followed by management related factors and environmental factors. In terms of personal characteristics, job satisfaction plays essential role on human resources development. In terms of managerial factors, paying attention on continuous job improvement by receiving appropriate training is the most important factor followed by welfare facilities for employees and using a system of reward/punishment in organization. Finally, in terms of environmental factors, occupational safety is number one priority followed by organizational rules and regulations.

This paper presents an empirical investigation to study the impact of total quality management (TQM) as well as market orientation on organizational performance on some Iranian small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The study designs a questionnaire in Likert scale and distributes it among some experts in city of Shiraz, Iran. Using structural equation modeling, the study determines that three components of market orientation including intelligence generation, intelligence dissemination, and responsiveness through TQM influences on organizational performance components including financial and non-financial performance as well as efficiency. In addition, TQM components including training, process management, supplier quality management, employee relationships, quality of data and reports and top management commitment influence positively on organizational performance in SMEs.