فصلنامه بهبود مدیریت
پیاپی 60 (تابستان 1402)

This article discusses the challenges faced in constructing power plants in Iran, such as the lack of government funding and technical knowledge transfer. Power plant projects have been delegated to the private sector to address these issues. However, private sector investments have plateaued, leading to potential electricity shortages in the future. The purpose of this article is to identify the obstacles encountered by the private sector and suggest policy packages to incentivize investment. This descriptive and analytical research aims to promote the contribution of the private sector to developing and building thermal power plants. The study employs a case study approach, interviews with industry experts, and content analysis of existing reports and documents. Policy recommendations are suggested based on the identified challenges and solutions. Thematic analysis is used to process the data, and reliability is guaranteed through structured processes and peer review. The findings reveal that the most significant challenges include the inability of the Ministry of Energy to fulfill the demands of private power plants, inefficient financial flow within the power industry, and non-competitive increases in the cost of establishing and operating thermal power plants. To tackle these challenges, suggested solutions include reforming the electricity tariff system for households, high-consumption (above 5 megawatts) and export-oriented industries, devising an exclusive equipment pricing system, and dissociating equipment prices in contracts.

Nowadays, the complexities of the business environment, uncertainty and environmental fluctuations, has made the supply chain vulnerable to various types of risks; Supply chain resilience is aimed at preventing the supply chain from moving to undesirable conditions and restoring supply chain after disruption in the least time and at the least cost. Therefore, identifying and analyzing supply chain resilience factors is very important. The current research was carried out with the aim of identifying and ranking the resilience indicators of the supply chain in the food industry. Resilience indicators in each of the four dimensions of agility, flexibility, leanness and robustness were determined by studying and reviewing the literature. The research questionnaires were completed by 15 experts selected by Purposive sampling. Analyzes showed that the most important dimension of supply chain robustness was selected, with the weight of 0.399 being the most important dimension of supply chain resilience, followed by agility, leanness and flexibility. Next, ratings on each dimension were identified, with reactivity being identified as the most important indicator of agility, and inter-organizational readiness, information control system and visibility were selected as the most important indicators of flexibility, leanness and robustness of supply chain.

There are different models and methods for technology acquisition, but making the right choice and optimal use of models and methods plays an important role in success technology acquisition. In this research different methods and models are both introduced and criticized. In addition, a three dimensional model resulting from the interaction of factors related to owner, receiver, and nature of technology was chosen to survey technology acquisition methods in Iran's missile industry. Based on this model, Iran used a combination of "Optimal methods" (such as Human Exchange and Hiring method, Joint research and development method, Education method and Reverse engineering)," Possible but not Optimal methods" (such as Turnkey method) and "Methods not conforming to the selected model" (such as training and internal R&D method) for acquiring different missile technologies. Based on this, Iran has used a wide range of technology acquisition methods simultaneously and in parallel to develop its missile capabilities.

The variety of functions and tasks expected from the Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology (MSRT) to play a proper role in the innovation system requires the design of a mix of policy instruments. Although there are many policy documents and laws that have been approved especially in the last decade and the duties and powers of the MSRT are foreseen in them, previous studies show that the overall performance of Iran's innovation system is not favorable in many aspects. The design of any new policy mix should be done according to the gaps in the previous documents. This study was conducted with the method of content analysis of documents to investigate policy gaps and focused group interviews to have expert opinions about the policy mix for improving the innovation system in the field of science, research, and technology which, according to the identified gaps, consists of 7 macro policies, 25 policy goals and 60 instruments. From the viewpoint of the type of instruments, tools of the type of "regulation", "support for education, research, and human resources", "networking and infrastructure development", "information support and brokerage", "demand, market creation, and government procurement", "financial support, loans, grants" and "Tax incentives, customs exemption" had the largest share in the policy mix, respectively. In terms of the type of instruments, the number of supply-side instruments, direct support instruments, and non-financial instruments are dominant in the designed mix. The internal consistency analysis of the instruments also showed that the proposed policy mix is internally consistent.

Artificial intelligence is a rapidly emerging and crucial technology that has significantly impacted various fields, including public policy. This qualitative research aims to identify the potential applications of artificial intelligence in the public sector policy-making process. It involves extracting 339 basic themes that align with the research goal, creating 33 organizing themes from these basic themes, and classifying these concepts into four overarching themes that cover the applications, methods, advantages, and challenges of artificial intelligence in the public policy cycle. Based on the research findings, one critical application of this technology in public policy-making is prioritizing issues based on society's actual needs and demands. It also aids in diagnosing issues and problems by recognizing patterns in big data, leading to the formulation of evidence-based policies. Additionally, using methods such as machine learning algorithms, neural networks, and natural language processing has advantages such as increased intelligence and dynamism in the policy formulation process. As a result, this technology can be more efficiently applied in the public policy cycle, allowing policymakers to play a more effective role. However, several challenges require further investigation, such as ethical issues in data usage, human resource gaps, management biases, and security challenges.

Iran is one of the few countries that has experienced seven decades of development planning; Parallel to the beginning of development planning in Iran, the Plan Organization was established and has always been responsible for this in Iran. In practice, development planning in Iran has not been successful and Iran has not been able to enter the group of developed countries. Different thinkers have criticized this failure of development plans in Iran from different perspectives. This research has studied the development planning system in Iran from the perspective of the developmental state's theoretical framework. This approach has a special emphasis on the existence of the pilot agency as the institution of development custodian within a developmental state; In this research, the feasibility of the Plan and Budget Organization being the pilot agency of Iran in terms of structure and tools and achieving the developmental goals of the developmental state has been investigated. In general, although the Plan and Budget Organization has some important characteristics in playing a role as a pilot agency, but for the coherence of the tools and the promotion of the organization's activity as the institution of development custodian, it needs important changes in the bureaucracy and organizational structure.