Investigating the Impact and Ranking of Productivity Barriers in Mazandaran Province

Although economic growth is not the only criterion of economic development, its importance has always been more than other indicators of development. Increasing production is another expression of economic growth. Today, productivity is considered as one of the influencing factors on the economic conditions of countries. Because improving productivity while increasing the gross domestic product and competitiveness of countries also increases public welfare. The aim of this study is to examine the effectiveness and ranking of productivity barriers in the agricultural and industrial sub-sectors in Mazandaran Province.

Material and Methods:

 In order to examine the obstacles and damages affecting productivity in Mazandaran Province, 65 questionnaires were completed by experts and senior managers of the executive bodies of Mazandaran Province in the summer of 2022. In order to estimate the results, the method of Analytic Hierarchy Process and Expert Choice Software and to examine the effect of each of the relevant criteria and sub-criteria on other obstacles from Structural Equation Medelling and Smart PLS software was used.

The normalized weight obtained from the results of the AHP for the criteria of environmental barriers, organizational barriers and individual barriers is 1.00, 0.966 and 0.983, respectively, with the highest weight corresponding to the criterion of environmental barriers and the lowest weight related to organizational obstacles. The results of the factor analysis showed that the environmental barrier hypothesis affects individual barriers and the organizational barrier hypothesis affects environmental barriers are meaningful؛

The results of the Analytic Hierarchy Process showed that low leadership skills of managers from individual barrier sub-criteria, lack of proper performance evaluation system from organizational barrier sub-criteria and incomplete performance information from environmental barrier sub-criteria are of the highest importance among other sub-criteria and and the most important barriers and damages affecting productivity in Mazandaran Province. In general, according to the obtained results, among the three mentioned criteria, environmental barriers have the highest importance from the point of view of high-ranking officials of organizations in Mazandaran province; Also, based on the results of SEM, environmental barriers are effective on individual barriers and organizational barriers are effective on environmental barriers.