Energy supply security is one of the strategic issues of all states. Beside the energy supply management, the section that has received less attention is energy demand management. According to importance of residential and commercial sectors in energy consumption, in the present study energy demand of these sectors is estimated using linear and exponential functions and the coefficients are obtained from PSO algorithms. 72 different scenarios with various inputs are investigated. Data from the years 1968 to 2011 are used to develop the models and select the suitable scenario. Results show that an exponential model developed based on particle swarm optimization algorithm has had the best performance. Based on the best scenario the energy demand of residential and commercial sectors is estimated 1718 Mega barrel of crude oil equivalent up to the year 2032.

During the past few years, knowledge has played essential role for development of economy. As a result, a new concept of knowledge based economy has been developed. Knowledge based economy is responsible for creating wealth through exploring knowledge. In new millennium, knowledge has made significant impact on socio-economic changes. The proposed study of this paper performs an empirical investigation to determine fundamentals of knowledge based economy in Iran using grounded theory. The study determines five categories including development of innovation and entrepreneurship culture, knowledge creation and distribution, creating competition in economic environment and information and communication economy.

Studying the behavior of members of a firm is considered as the primary step in understanding the organization & apos; s culture. In fact, it is always essential to study organizations’ culture when a new action is about to occur. In fact, by leveraging culture, it is becoming easier to accomplish other tasks within organizations. This paper presents an empirical investigation to determine important factors influencing organizational culture in food industry. The proposed study has adapted a questionnaire based on Denison organizational culture dimensions and distributed it among different groups of employees who worked for one of Iranian food maker in city of Zahedan, Iran. Cronbach alphas for job involvement, consistency, compatibility and mission are 0.786, 0.779, 0.707 and 0.908, respectively. The results indicate that dimensions of job involvement (3.31) and organizational compatibility (3.16) are in better position compared with dimensions of consistency (3.14) and mission (3.11). The study does not find any significance difference between in internal-external focus. In other words, the organization has paid sufficient attention to internal as well as external affairs.

This paper presents an empirical investigation to examine the effect of electronic word of mouth (eWOM) on purchasing intention. The study also considers the effects of quality of eWOM, quantity of eWOM as well as reviewers’ expertise on purchasing intention. The study has accomplished among 384 people who have some experiences on buying digital devices from an Iranian well-known providers of electronic devices in city of Tehran, Iran. Using structural equation modeling, the study confirms the effects of eWOM on purchase intention. In addition, the study confirms the effects of quality of eWOM as well as reviewer’s expertise on purchase intention. Moreover, the study examines the effects of two moderator variables, brand image and product complexity, on purchase intention and while the effect of brand image on purchase intention is confirmed but the impact of complexity on purchase intention is not confirmed.

This paper presents an empirical investigation to study the effects of institutional ownership, internal audit system, the number of non-executive board members and having differentiation between chair and general managers’ responsibilities on the likelihood of stock price crash on 110 listed firms on Tehran Stock Exchange over the period 2004-2011. The study uses Chen’ model (2001) [Chen, J., Hong, H., & Stein, J. C. (2001). Forecasting crashes: Trading volume, past returns, and conditional skewness in stock prices. Journal of Financial Economics, 61(3), 345-381.] to perform the investigation. Based on the results of the survey, there is a negative and meaningful relationship between stock price crash and institutional ownership when the level of significance is ten percent. In addition, as the number of non-executive board members increases, the chance of stock price crash decreases when the level of significance is five percent. However, separation between the responsibility of chair and general managers did not seem to influence on stock price and also having internal audit system had no impact on the likelihood of stock price change.

This paper presents an empirical investigation to study the effects of ten factors on brand equity. The study provides an assessment using a brand equity model for fast moving consumer goods in cosmetic and hygiene industry. The study has accomplished among people who purchase goods in six major cities of Iran based on an adapted questionnaire originally developed by Aaker (1992a) [Aaker, D. A. (1992a). The value of brand equity. Journal of Business Strategy, 13(4), 27-32.]. Cronbach alpha has been calculated as 0.88, which is well above the minimum acceptable level of 0.7. In addition, Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling adequacy and Bartlett & apos; s test of Sphericity approximation Chi-Square are 0.878, 276628 with Sig. = 0.000, respectively. The proposed study of this paper uses structural equation modeling to test different hypotheses of the survey. The Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA), Comparative Fit Index (CFI) and Chi-Square/df are 0.067, 0.840 and 4.244 and they are within desirable levels. While the effects of seven factors on brand equity have been confirmed. However, the survey does not confirm the effects of perceived value, advertisement effectiveness and advertisement to brand on brand equity. In our survey, brand loyalty maintains the highest positive impact followed by having updated brand, trust to brand, perceived quality to brand, brand awareness, intensity of supply and perception to brand.

This paper presents an empirical investigation to study the effects of brand power experiences on power of brand in food industry. The study deigns a questionnaire in Likert scale consists of 23 questions, distributes it among 208 randomly selected people who purchase foods from three different food chains in city of Tehran, Iran. Using structural equation modeling, the study has examined the effects of six factors influence the most in our survey including Brand loyalty, Physical attributes, pricing factors, functional characteristics, brand association and brand position. The results of our survey indicate that pricing factors and brand position were the most important influential factors followed by functional characteristics and physical attributes. However, the survey does not confirm the effects of brand loyalty and brand association on brand power.

The primary concern in all portfolio management systems is to find a good tradeoff between risk and expected return and a good balance between accepted risk and actual return indicates the performance of a particular portfolio. This paper develops “A-Y Model” to measure the performance of a portfolio and analyze it during the bull and the bear market. This paper considers the daily information of one year before and one year after Iran & apos; s 2013 precedential election. The proposed model of this paper provides lost profit and unrealized loss to measure the portfolio performance. The proposed study first ranks the resulted data and then uses some non-parametric methods to see whether there is any change because of the changes in markets on the performance of the portfolio. The results indicate that despite increasing profitable opportunities in bull market, the performance of the portfolio did not match the target risk. As a result, using A-Y Model as a risk and return base model to measure portfolio management & apos; s performance appears to reduce risks and increases return of portfolio.

This paper presents an empirical investigation to study the effects of free cash flow, share diversification and capital structure on Tobin-Q in selected firms on Tehran Stock Exchange. The population of the survey includes 520 firms listed on this exchange until year 2012 and the survey uses a sample of 105 firms, randomly. The study uses the models originally developed by Palepu (1985) [Palepu, K. (1985). Diversification strategy, profit performance and the entropy measure. Strategic Management Journal, 6(3), 239-255.] to measure the effects of different factors on Tobin Q. The study has indicated that while capital structure and free cash flow influence positively on Tobin Q, diversification has maintained a negative and meaningful relationship with Tobin Q.

Measuring the effects of various factors influencing on risk of return in banking system plays essential role on making managerial decisions. This paper investigates the effects of seven factors including equities, leverage, dividend, size, growth domestic products, bank concentration and market return on risk of return in selected banks listed on Tehran Stock Exchange. The study selects the necessary data through financial statements announced on exchange as well as macro-economic figures reported by central bank of Iran to examine the hypotheses of the survey. Using some regression technique, the study has determined that only bank size and growth domestic product influence significantly on risk of return on Tehran Stock Exchange.