محمدصالح اولیاء

In this paper, a new comprehensive model has been developed to guide organizations regarding the establishment of a productivity management system with all essential elements and relations. Using the knowledge available in the literature and expert views, this research has tried to propose an evaluation scheme to measure the maturity of the system in Iranian organizations.

Design/Methodology/Approach: 

This study is typically an applied-developmental research as it introduces a framework for the assessment of productivity management systems in Iranian companies (developmental) and also attempts to offer a method for solving or simplification the complex, chronic problem of productivity in Iranian businesses (applied). From another perspective, the current research should be regarded as a qualitative research approach that seeks to describe and explain the phenomenon of productivity management system maturity based on an analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data. The main strategy adopted in identifying conceptual elements concerning the productivity management system has been encoding. The primary signs of conceptual elements have been identified with a systematic search of databases containing scientific documents and reports on one hand and during interviews with experts on the other. The main concepts and categories about the topic have been extracted through a combination of homogeneous signs.

Four categories were identified in the encoding process (labelled as four modules of the productivity management system) and 18 concepts underlying such categories were included within the four modules. Then, 76 signs were extracted from the analysis of documents and interviews as peripheral aspects or features expected from the corresponding elements. Accordingly, the first step in the establishment of a productivity management system in an organization was to provide the infrastructures required for the managerial subsystem. Next, the main processes of productivity needed to be activated based on the available or generated infrastructures. In the third step, the appropriate measures had to be taken to guarantee the sustainability of the subsystem and ensure its constant growth and development. Finally, the impacts of the establishment of the productivity management system were expected to be evaluated to indicate the extent to which the attempts made have helped to meet the various needs of different groups of extra-organizational beneficiaries (including environmental activists and local community members).

Social implications:

 Constant enhancement of productivity as one of the most significant aims of any organization, requires the establishment of a series of factors and elements that make up an organization’s productivity biome, all the aspects and layers of which need to be shaped correctly. Such a requirement can be operationalized in an organization only through the establishment of a comprehensive productivity management system, a managerial system that has not been considered accurately and practically so far in the rich literature review concerning the subject of productivity. This study was conducted to eliminate this research and administrative gap and plotted the conceptual map of such a structure through the extraction of signs of the conceptual elements concerning the managerial system using scientific documents and interviews with experts. By developing organizations that perform their activities more productively, they are more successful in achieving their goals. Therefore, people will also benefit from the performance of this productive organization and will be more satisfied.

Originality/value: 

This study has proposed a conceptual map for productivity management systems through the extraction of signs of the conceptual elements concerning the managerial system using scientific resources and interviews with experts. It has also proposed a comprehensive model showing how the productivity management system could be established in an Iranian organization using procedural documents such as the administrative guidance developed by the National Productivity Organization. The validity of the model (referred to as i-MAPS) was confirmed through the formulation and administration of the evaluation logic for the measurement of the maturity of the system and its pilot implementation in some private and public organizations in Yazd Province. The maturity of an organization in the establishment and utilization of the productivity management system can be analyzed using the developed model. Besides, the measures can be taken based on instructions extracted from the model contents to increase the organization’s success in the roadmap and to overcome probable challenges and obstacles.

This paper aims to propose an approach for identifying and prioritizing ecosystem indicators for effective ecosystem management. Specifically, fuzzy Delphi and fuzzy DEMATEL approaches are used to define ecosystem management goals and indicators, rank the importance of quality attributes in ecosystem management, and rank the effectiveness of each indicator in each pillar of ecosystem management. The ultimate goal is to provide a tool to decision-makers that can help in allocating resources more effectively and efficiently toward achieving sustainability.

Design/methodology/approach:

 The proposed approach involves a three-phase framework. Phase 1 involves identifying and determining the indicators affecting ecosystem management. This has been performed by studying theoretical articles, reviewing systematic literature, and searching previous studies to identify different indicators for each pillar of ecosystem management. A list of indicators and factors affecting each of the pillars of ecosystem management has been determined accordingly, and an initial categorization has been created using library studies. Phase 2 involves using a fuzzy Delphi method to rank the most important indicators in each pillar of ecosystem management. Experts have been asked to indicate their proposed indicators in a questionnaire based on fuzzy variables, and the degree of proportionality of the proposed factors. Phase 3 involves using a fuzzy DEMATEL approach to rank the effectiveness of each indicator in each pillar of ecosystem management. This approach handles imprecise or subjective data and can be replicated for different cities. Overall, this methodology aims to provide a comprehensive approach for identifying and prioritizing ecosystem indicators that can be used by decision-makers in environmental management and policy-making.

Findings imply that the integrated approach of the Fuzzy Delphi Method and the Fuzzy DEMATEL can be used to identify and rank the importance of quality attributes in ecosystem management, and to rank the effectiveness of each indicator in each pillar of the ecosystem management. A total of 36 indicators were identified across four pillars of ecosystem management, i.e., economic, social, environmental and institutional. The results indicated that the most important indicators for each pillar were science and technology and innovation for the economic pillar; air quality, waste treatment and energy efficiency for the environmental pillar; poverty, health, and safety and security for the social pillar; and transparent sharing of information and political stability for institutional pillar. It was also found that there was a strong interrelationship between different pillars of ecosystem management. For example, the institutional pillar had serious effects on most of the other identified EM pillars. In addition, the economic pillar was the second most influential factor. Moreover, the institutional pillar profoundly influenced the environmental pillar. Finally, the economic pillar highly affected the environmental pillar, which doubled the complexity of ecosystem management.

Research limitations/implications:

 Several limitations and implications have been addressed for future research. The number of participating experts was limited, which could affect the results and limit the possibility of their summarization. Expert bias may have influenced the results of the study. Such limitations imply that further research with a larger and more diverse group of experts is necessary to validate and expand upon such findings. This study was limited in scope to a particular ecosystem or region and the identified indicators as a result may not apply and be generalizable to other ecosystems or regions. Based on the cause-and-effect relationships between the studied elements, a hypothesis can be expanded and validated using a larger sample. Future studies could replicate this methodology in different contexts to test its applicability and effectiveness.

Practical implications: 

Decision-makers in environmental management and policy-making can use the methodology presented in this study to identify and prioritize ecosystem indicators. By using an integration of the Fuzzy Delphi Method and the Fuzzy DEMATEL, decision-makers can identify the most important indicators for each pillar of ecosystem management and evaluate their effectiveness. This information can be used to allocate resources more effectively and efficiently toward achieving sustainability. Decision-makers could use this methodology to evaluate different ecosystem management practices and policies, and develop new policies or modify existing ones to better address the needs of different stakeholders. Overall, this study provides a useful tool for decision-makers in environmental management and policy-making by providing a comprehensive approach to identifying and prioritising ecosystem indicators.

Social implications:

 This study highlights the importance of considering social factors in ecosystem management. The study identifies several social indicators, such as poverty and material deprivation, education level, public awareness and training, gender equality, and social participation. By prioritizing such indicators in ecosystem management, decision-makers can ensure that the needs and perspectives of different stakeholders are taken into account. This can help to promote social equity and cohesion, which are important for achieving sustainable development. Furthermore, by involving a wide range of stakeholders in the decision-making process, including local communities and marginalized groups, decision-makers can ensure that ecosystem management policies are more inclusive and responsive to the needs of all members of society. Overall, this study highlighted the importance of considering social factors in ecosystem management and provides a useful framework for identifying and prioritizing social indicators.

Originality/value: 

The main contribution of this study is the application of the integrated approaches of the Fuzzy Delphi Method and the Fuzzy DEMATEL to identify and rank the importance of quality attributes in ecosystem management. This methodology is innovative because it allows decision-makers to handle imprecise or subjective data, which is often encountered in ecosystem management. The study provides a three-phase framework for identifying and prioritizing ecosystem indicators, which can be replicated for different cities. Findings indicated that science and technology, air quality, poverty, and transparent sharing of information were identified as the most important quality indicators in their respective pillars of ecosystem management alternatives. This implies that decision-makers and policymakers should consider allocating more resources toward improving such areas. Overall, this study provided a useful tool for decision-makers in environmental management and policy-making by providing a comprehensive approach to identifying and prioritizing ecosystem indicators.

By increasing the role of innovation in the economy of countries and turning it into the most important competitive advantage, attention to this concept has increased. Analysis and design of systems that foster innovation have thus been the focus of science and technology policymakers in recent years. One of these systems that have generated many debates in the scientific and professional communities in the field of innovation over the past decade is the innovation ecosystem. Iran’s power and water industry, including numerous companies, research and technology organizations, technological and knowledge-based companies, and supporting institutions can be considered an innovation ecosystem whose elements interact with each other to exchange value to reach the goal of providing reliable and sustainable water and electricity for the society. This article is the result of a project to analyze, design, and establish the energy innovation ecosystem. In this direction and based on soft modeling methods, role analysis and mapping workshops were held with stakeholders and key players of the energy innovation ecosystem. The approach of complex adaptive systems was used to identify and analyze the dynamics of this ecosystem. Based on the obtained results, the roles and duties of each of the actors of Niro's innovation ecosystem were obtained in the form of an aligned structure including two levels of counter and support elements in the scope of the commercialization process. The results of this article can provide researchers and activists in this field with a new perspective on the policy-making of innovation ecosystems.

In the modern corporate economy, the vital point is to convert land resources into wealth and to have a particular and significant role in creating economic, social, and environmental outcomes. Therefore, corporate sustainability is considered a new management style in balancing social, economic, and environmental aspects. The new approach to the issue of sustainability can be used by private and public organizations as a solution for better decision-making to improve business by increasing flexibility and adaptability. Meanwhile, since the tourism industry has cultural, economic, and social benefits, it can achieve a competitive advantage, cost management, profitable financial performance, and finally customer satisfaction by paying special attention to the stability of the system. This study aims to investigate the level of customer satisfaction over time in the framework of system stability in four- and five-star hotels in Yazd province using the system dynamics approach.

Design/methodology/approach:

 In this study, an integrative approach of the fuzzy Delphi method and system dynamics has been used. First, the model variables were identified by the Fuzzy Delphi method, and then the obtained variables were modeled by the system dynamics approach.

The results of the analysis of the presented scenarios indicated that the system is highly sensitive to the number of brands, and with the increase in the number of brands, if a hotel does not improve its performance, it will severely lose its customers, as well as the best investment in terms of liquidity. Investing in advertising is significant, because advertising, in addition to introducing the product, affects the formation of customer expectations and leads to the introduction of the organization, indirectly; this in turn increases the number of customers. Therefore, practical functions have been considered in the fields of sales and corporate products and service organizations. Due to the development of a new model, basic functions can be also considered.

Research limitations/implications: 

The most important limitations of this study included the limited number of four and five-star hotels under investigation, the confidentiality of hotel financial statements, the lack of customer satisfaction evaluation systems in hotels, and the lack of familiarity with most managers with system sustainability issues.

Practical implications:

 The tourism industry has remarkable cultural, economic, and social benefits; it can achieve a competitive advantage, cost leadership, profitable financial performance, and finally customer satisfaction by paying special attention to the sustainability of the system. On the other hand, since hotel management is the beating heart of the tourism industry, it can create a competitive advantage by empowering employees, while making them aware of the importance of environmental issues and attracting their participation in the implementation of environmental policies. By creating a competitive advantage, hoteliers can reduce the total price of their services and attract the attention of a new range of environmentally friendly customers and tourists from all over the world through superiority, fame, credit, and distinction. The mentioned factors will lead to profitability and improvement of financial performance and ultimately increased customer satisfaction.

Social implications:

 Recognition of the sustainability of systems in the three aspects of economic, social, and environmental factors, not only leads to better operational results, but also decreases capital costs, improves company performance, and social factors such as social benefit activities, creates and maintains employment, improves the health and safety of employees, and improves social responsibility and social audit.

Originality/value:

 In this study, a dynamic model is developed based on the mutual and dynamic effects of economic, social, cultural, and managerial factors. It also allows hotel managers to manage their investments in different installments according to liquidity.

the main problem in the earthquake crisis is to provide relief to the final victims with proper accuracy and speed. In simple logistics models, due to the lack of social, cultural and security dimensions, large volumes of goods and services that have entered the earthquake area do not reach the real victims. In this research, a humanitarian aid model is introduced using a new approach (using dynamic systems techniques). It should be noted that the advantage of using this method in relief logistics modeling is that we can include limitations such as the impact of security and social problems in the final model and lead the model to become more realistic. Then the model is created by creating feedback loops and finally different scenarios are created and investigated .In the proposed model of this researchThe results showed that the simultaneous use of risk reduction strategies before, during and after the disaster and the improvement of security and physical protection values create an optimal logistics situation.

The market share of life insurance and savings from the portfolio of the insurance industry is considered as the criteria for the development of the countries. The share of life insurance and savings in the production insurance premium of the insurance industry has always been less than 16% in Iran, which is very low compared to the share of life insurance and savings in most of the countries wherein the share is more than 50%. The purpose of this research is to propose a dynamic model for analyzing the sale of life insurance and savings according to the special social, economic and cultural structure of Iranian society and the structure of insurance companies in the country.

Design/methodology/approach:

 In this study, first the variables affecting the sale of life insurance and savings in insurance companies and their interrelationships have been identified by reviewing the previous studies and interviewing insurance industry experts. Then, the variables including an insurance company, network sales, competitors, community members, and their items were identified. Finally, the circular causal model and the state-flow diagram of the life insurance and savings sales system in Iran have been drawn and validated using the system dynamics approach.

The results were analyzed based on four scenarios in a ten-year horizon. Based on the results, it was found that insurance premium collection, investment rate and profitability of mathematical reserves, Central Insurance of Iran investment rate regarding the income received from life insurance and savings to introduce and make people aware of the benefits of the product, affected the share of production insurance premiums and the number of life insurance policies and savings. Bank interest did not have much effect on life insurance and savings. In addition, Central Insurance of Iran could play a more effective role than the insurance companies in creating the attractiveness of this field among the insurance company's shareholders, sales network, and society.

Research limitations/implications: 

Major research limitations were the complications and lack of transparency of the regulations related to the investment of the resources received by insurance companies from the sale of life insurance and savings, as well as the lack of transparency of the investment rate regulations of the Central Insurance for the development of life insurance and savings from the previous restrictions.

Practical implications:

 Banks and bank interest were not strong competitors for insurance companies. Also, the reduction of bank interest was one of the most important factors affecting the growth of society's willingness to buy life insurance and savings, but this factor alone could not increase production insurance premiums or other key variables. The investment profit of mathematical reserves allocated to policyholders could be used as an important advertising tool by the insurance company. Increasing the profitability of reserves by investing in suitable markets increases the production insurance premium and other key and significant variables.

Social implications: 

Based on the results, it is possible to increase the share of life insurance and savings by affecting social and cultural variables such as the society's awareness of the benefits of life insurance, which shows the mutual effects of economic, social and cultural factors on the growth of the share of life insurance premiums and savings.

Originality/value: 

A dynamic model was proposed based on the mutual and dynamic effects of economic, social, cultural, and managerial factors. Also, it provides an opportunity for the managers of insurance and central insurance companies to make their decisions on the numerical number of insurance policies, and the amount of production insurance premiums.

Nowadays, it is obvious that media has a dramatic role in people's lives. Among all types of media, TV can still be powerful if it tries to know its audience and uses creative management. A management that considers the interests of the media and the audience as one is effective.To achieve this goal, we should look for solutions to increase media influence by analyzing the audience and the programs together.In this article, we used innovative joint clustering of audiences based on demographic characteristics and characteristics of television programs. Solutions are provided for members of each cluster in order to increase media influence. The data was obtained from a researcher-made questionnaire and a sample of 390 related experts and people of Yazd.According to the demands of the audience during watching peaks, the managers of Yazd’s local TV channel have to review their broadcast schedule and use the solutions provided in this article on their agenda. Evaluating the quality of clustering shows its suitable structure. The proposed solutions have been validated according to the opinions of media experts and the degree of result’s compliance with the sources related to the research topic.In this article, due to a new technique called joint clustering, the audience is clustered hierarchically and simultaneously based on demographic characteristics and television programs. in addition, the solutions are provided for members in each cluster to increase media influence.

At present, a large part of production costs and quality problems are related to design. Design for six sigma is a powerful approach for the design and development of products and services. The purpose of this research is to use design for six sigma to reduce the defects of spinning yarn. For this purpose, after examining the production line of spinning yarn, using Pareto diagram, the most important yarn defects were identified, which are: thick and thin. Then, the initial model was simulated and validated in Arena 14 software and the level of the existing process sigma was determined. In the next step, the optimization model was examined by this software. The research results show that the validated model can determine the optimal values well and significantly reduce the costs of performing multiple tests to reduce the amount of yarn defects. The results also showed a 1.55 unit improvement in the process sigma level.

Restructuring and deregulation are one of the most significant developments in the world electricity market. In this market, Generation Companies (GenCos) in an oligopolistic game with incomplete information participate in a sealed auction and offer their bids in a certain period according to the market demand. Choosing the best bid to maximize profits and minimize risks in dynamic competition with other players is one of the most important issues for GenCos. The dynamic nature of this problem can help GenCos make the best decision based on learning from the past. Using reinforcement learning and considering risk aversity of the GenCos, this paper provides an agent-based simulation of the bidding behavior of Iran's electricity market. In this simulation, the GenCos optimize their bids using a learning process based on previous bids. Although a few studies have been conducted on the modeling of risk-averse behavior of GenCos under learning conditions, risk-averse analysis based on a history of profits and losses, or sever losses, has not been focused. Thus, in this paper, the learning behavior of the GenCos is modeled by the Q-learning reinforcement learning algorithm and their risk aversion behavior is modeled by the conditional value at risk measure and risk of missed opportunities in terms of the number of auction failures (missed auction opportunities). To validate the functionality of the proposed approach, it was applied to the real data of the electricity market of Yazd province, including five GenCos with the total nominal power of 2550 MW. The results were compared for different learning conditions, risk behaviors of companies, and pay as bid and uniform pricing. The results demonstrate that learning all GenCos leads to increased competition and promoted social welfare. Also, the level of risk aversion of GenCos and the type of clearing mechanism have a direct effect on the GenCos profitability and social welfare. The results can help power plants determine the bidding strategy in competitive conditions by considering their risk level. Likewise, these results assist regulators in designing market rules in line with the actual behavior of GenCos.

The objective of this paper was to design a model of the impact of customer knowledge on corporation performance and analogy with performance aspects based on the Balanced Scorecard framework in IT security companies. For this purpose, IT industry security experts were interviewed based on the grounded theory approach. The model of the effect of customer knowledge on the performance of the organization by open, axial, and selective coding with a paradigmatic approach was drawn and the components of this model were compared with the balanced scorecard model. The results of this study, in addition to presenting the model of the effect of customer knowledge on the corporation performance aspects, showed that customer knowledge affected all four aspects of financial performance, customer, internal processes, and growth and learning based on the BSC model. This study also showed that in order to influence performance by customer knowledge, knowledge maturity and customer knowledge maturity are needed. According to research results, IT security companies can improve the financial performance index in addition to improving performance indicators by creating and developing customer knowledge management. This article is one of the first studies regarding the impact of customer knowledge on the performance of corporations in the four perspectives of the BSC model that thoroughly shows the effect of customer knowledge on the performance of the corporation.

Knowledge is an important part of any organization assets and the most important sources of the knowledge is related to the customers. Hence, companies use knowledge management in order to increase their competitive advantage, and in particular try to benefit from the customer knowledge as the major factor in the organization success. This research aims to analyse the effect of customer knowledge on organizational performance through new product development in IT industry using System Dynamics approach. For this purpose, initially, the literature was reviewed and, based on interviews with experts, and analyzing the interviews using grounded theory, the model variables were identified, relationships were determined, and the dynamical modeling of the the causal diagram was drawn. The results of this study provide a dynamic model showing that knowledge and customer knowledge affect the product development, financial performance, customer numbers, idea numbers, customer loyalty, the time from idea to launch the product, and internal processes. Besides, it was found that to increase the impact of cstomer knowledge on the company performance, knowledge maturity is essential. This research can be useful both in terms of the research approach used and the results for different fields of engineering.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of customer knowledge and customer knowledge investment on the financial and non-financial performance of IT companies. System Dynamics approach was used to analyze the interactions. Using Vensim-PLE software the Flow Diagram was plotted and the model was built and simulated for a ten-year period. Different policies were analyzed using the model. The results of the analysis indicated that customer knowledge investment affects positively the company's performance. The results also showed that more knowledge investment will not increase financial strength, and in some cases, it will reduce the company's financial strength. According to the results, information technology companies can improve their performance only through an appropriate amount of investment on customer knowledge management.

Commercialization has been defined as a process by which a technology turns into a product acceptable in the market. Evidence from around the world shows that a small percentage of technologies have been successful in commercialization and most of them have not either resulted to a product or not reached to the market stage. This reflects the high complexity of the commercialization process. One of the main strategies to overcome problems of technology commercialization is to predict commercial success of the technology before having more investment in the next stages of the commercialization. In this regard, the purpose of this study was to identify factors affecting the success of commercialization of technology and determine the relative importance of these factors. Procedures can be developed based on the factors by which an investor could decide on capitalizing on the technology. In the first phase of this study, 38 components affecting the success of technology commercialization were extracted from the related literature. Then these components were classified in four dimensions: technical specifications, economic and financial specifications, market specifications and rules and certificates. In phase 2, to refine and verify the appropriateness of the factors extracted from related literature in accordance with technology commercialization actual context and conditions in Iran's firms and industries, fuzzy Delphi method was used with the survey of elected experts including 16 experienced professionals. As a result of the effective factors refinement, 32 components in 4 dimensions were specified. Then in phase 3, the relative importance of each of components and the dimensions affecting the commercialization success were determined having a survey from the same experts group and based on Analytic Network Process (ANP) method. According to the results of phase 3, market specifications were identified as the most important dimension of technology commercialization success factor and then dimensions: technical specifications, economic and financial specifications and rules and certificates.

The aim of this study is to provide a model for measuring structural capital using identified factors in Yazd railway organization in order to manage this investment in a better way. This research in terms of purpose is applied research and in terms of methodology is descriptive survey research that due to the low population it has been surveyed by census. The data collection instrument is a research made questionnaire that its validity is through the validity of the structure and the content and its reliability is approved by Cronbach's Alpha and the composite reliability. For data analysis, structural equation modeling was used with the help of Smart-PLS software. The results confirmed the hypothesis that according to it the provided model with the five-factor evaluation, including knowledge management, processes, innovations, culture and organizational structure was approved.

In recent years, many economic and social institutions allocate their budget in a traditional manner or in some cases with the use of indicators. Although traditional methods may seem easier when the data are limited and the bargaining method is a solution however, in today's complex and changing environment, they are not ecient. Universities are among public institutions that need planning and budgeting at the university level to allocate their funds in dierent departments to achieve their objectives. In this study, we tried to provide a model at the university level to solve this problem. The model consists of three parts. In the rst part, the coecients of eciency were calculated using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The number of graduates and researchoutcomesbasedontheamountoffacultygrants as the outputs, and the number of faculty members and staastheinputsweretakenintoaccount. Inthesecond part, the coecients of eectiveness were calculated using a multi-objective mixed integer linear programming model to achieve multiple and con icting goals of the university. The goals were ratios of faculty to students, postgraduate students, faculty members with the ranking of associate professor or higher, and research grants. Then, in the third section, the coecient of each department's budget was calculated based on the current budget demand of department and eciency and eectivenesscoecients. Finally,theperformanceoftheproposed model was checked using data from Yazd University. The data for the 12 departments at the university were gathered on which basis the analysis was carried out. The results of the model and its sensitivity analysis showed that the proposed model was consistent with what is happening in the reality. The model can be applied for those organizations whose management aims at distributing the budget based on the eciency and eectiveness of the departments.

Nowadays, universities and higher education institutions have a critical role in developing countries and it is essential that their performance is evaluated with appropriate methods and criteria. Among the various functions of universities, research and scientific production is the most important one. The evaluation of scientific outputs is an attempt to assess the performance of universities. The use of scientometric indicators is a way to assess the scientific outputs of universities. In this context, a number of indicators have been defined to assess the quantity and quality of scientific outputs of researchers that can be extended to assess the institutions. Through a descriptive survey, in this paper, 285,526 scientific outputs of 76 universities affiliated to Ministry of Science, Research and Technology were selected and evaluated. The data of each university were analyzed individually using the indicators such as the number of scientific outputs, number of citations, h-index, m-parameter and g-index and the institutions were ranked. The results show that Tehran University in number of scientific outputs and number of citations, Sharif University of Technology in h-index and g-index, and Babol Noshirvani University of Technology in m-parameter are as the top Iranian Universities in the surveyed universities. The overall ranking shows that Tarbiat Modares University and Sharif University of Technology are top. Finally, we compare and discuss our ranking results with ISC and URAP ranking systems. The results show that the ranking of universities in this research in terms of the number of scientific outputs, the number of citations, h-index and g-index has a high correlation with that of ISC and URAP systems.

EFQM excellence model with specifying the position of organization in the path of excellence is a practical tool in order to understand its deficiencies and shortcoming, so that with providing guidelines in the form of improvement projects helps organizations to advance the process of appropriate management systems .EFQM self- assessing model as a tool of Total Quality Management is facing with the problem of the lack of prioritizing improvement projects because of the lack of facilities and limits of resources in enterprises hence there are the necessity of strategic prioritizing of self-assessment projects in the organization. The aim of this study is to provide the steps of moving the EFQM model to BSC model as a strategic management tool by using FTOPSIS and FANP techniques in order to strategic prioritize the improvement projects of the EFQM self-assessment. This study is functional in terms of the objective and in terms of method is a survey research and in terms of the collection of information is a field research. Statistical society consists of 7 persons of Yazd municipal managers in the form of excellence team and interview and questionnaire are tools used in the research. The result of prioritizing improvement projects led to determine importance of internal process perspective in the organization in the organization and prioritize 21 improvement projects including “ provision and updating of educational electronic ID”,” personal relocation in occupational category according to given training”,” create documentation center in municipality”

By increasing the environmental consciousness, reverse supply chain is getting known in business theory and application. However, the high costs of implementing them is one of the important impediments for managers. In the current paper, a variant of vendor managed inventory is proposed for parallel reverse supply chains and the cost functions are compared with the non-collaborative and simple collaborative cases. In the non-collaborative case, different reverse supply chains are working in isolation and there is no sharing between them. The simple collaboration is possible when the members just share a collection center as a warehouse. The proposed collaboration is designed such that these members share their information with collection center and this center plans for collecting and transferring returns to the recovery centers in a way that less inventory is hold at that center.
To compare our model with the traditional and simple collaboration, the cost functions are defined for two parallel simple three tier reverse supply chains. In order to reflect the reverse supply chain uncertainties, probability distribution of the amount of returned products is considered at the cost functions. Then, the mathematical situation for superiority of the proposed model to non-collaborative and simple collaborative case is studied using these cost functions. Two mathematical non-equalities show these situations as the result of this part.
As this collaboration is not used in the reality, to compare the results in actual case, some illustrative examples are created by two different probability distributions for return generation. Finally, a Monte Carlo simulation technique is used for about 100 samples in1000 periods. The average costs for different components of cost function are calculated. Comparing the costs shows 48% decrease in shifting from non-collaborative to simple collaborative, 54% decrease in changing the non-collaborative case to the proposed model, and 11% decrease in changing the simple collaboration to proposed one. However, the results show a high decrease in costs of the model and its superiority to other two cases. The model can be expanded to broader and longer reverse supply chains by future researchers. Some other opportunities for study subjects are also introduced in the last section.

Nowadays, Service organizations have found that the most important secret of their survival in their competitive market is attention to the customers and meet their wants.The Servqual method is a major and current methods of measuring customer satisfaction of service quality.
As service providers have their own limitations to meet the customer's needs, they should be looking for some ways in which communicate between the limitations of service providers company and the customer's demands. One of the most powerful ways to meet customer's requirements is Quality Function Development (QFD), but this method does not provide optimal solution to select service qualitative characteristic so It would seem that compilation the mathematical programming techniques with QFD is effective in this context.The purpose of this study is to identify the customer's demands according to SERVQUAL model and to find the optimal solution by use of QFD and zero-one goal programming.
The objective function nincludes: maximize the relationship between service quality characteristics and customer's demands, minimizing the cost of service quality characteristics, maximize the extensibility and creation potential of Service and This limits includes: the limitation of overall priorities of the service quality characteristics, limitation of resources allocated by the agency and limitations are extensibility and creation potential of Service quality.
The population in this study consisted of all clients is Geno Kish Travel Agency in Bandar Abbass. 135 of them were selected and questionnaires to assess the performance of quality of service and its importance and then check the qualitative characteristics and assemble QFD house. Lastly, the issue has been modeling and is solved by zero-one goal programming.
According to the obtained result from this model to improve the quality of service determined that by use of the cost of 150 million riyals, 17 service quality characteristics considered for improving the quality of agency, and seven quality characteristics Due to the quality constraints are not appropriate.

Universities and higher education institutions, as knowledge-based organizations, have a critical role in the development of countries; therefore, it is essential that their performance is evaluated according to specific criteria. Among the various functions of universities, research and knowledge production is significant; so, evaluating their scientific outputs should be a substantial part of a performance evaluation system. One of the most well-known methods for a scientific production evaluation is the use of scientometrics measures. In recent years, the scientific production of Iranian universities in engineering has been favorable; hence, we selected and analyzed 85,097 scientific papers from Iranian universities under the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology. The universities were ranked based important measures including: cumulative number of scientific outputs, number of citations, qualitative contribution, h-index, m-parameter, and g-index. Results show that the University of Tehran in both cumulative number of scientific outputs as well as number of citations, Sharif University of Technology in both h-and g- indices, Polymer & Petrochemical Institute in qualitative contribution, and Babol Noshirvani University of Technology in m-parameter as well as portion of engineering faculties in engineering outputs are the best among the surveyed universities. Moreover, our ranking has a significant correlation with that of the ISC ranking system according to the cumulative number of scientific outputs, number of citations, h-index, and g-index.

The purpose of the present research was evaluation of the quality of educational services in the physical education faculties of IAU branches across Iran and designing it`s model. This research was descriptive-analytical carried out as a field study. The population consisted of all the postgraduate students of physical education in different branches of IAU. 488 students were selected as sample using stratified random sampling and Cochran's formula. A researcher-made questionnaire (PE SERVQUAL) was used for data collection. Paired t-test, Friedman test and SEM were applied for data analysis. The results showed that there is a significant difference between the desired and the actual condition of educational services in physical education faculties of IAU (p