نشریه مهندسی سیستم و بهره وری
سال چهارم شماره 4 (زمستان 1403)

Analyzing and evaluating the efficiency and predicting the rate of change is of great importance for measuring the performance of decision-making and planning units to improve their performance, so that the main competition of industrialists is over the speed of change. This issue becomes more important for electronic industries where the speed of change is high. Smart watches, as one of the advanced tools, have faced many changes and advances in recent years. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the efficiency of smart watches and also to predict the rate of technological change of the technology of these watches. In this study, a framework has been created using the nonparametric method of data envelopment analysis and the approach of technology prediction using data envelopment analysis to estimate the rate of technological change in smart watches or any smart device. Initially, the performance of 74 models of smartwatches released between 2016 and 2021 was calculated in the year of release, and then, using a technology forecasting approach, the rate of change for each device and the average change across all devices were examined and calculated. Finally, using research findings and available time series data, the conditions and rate of change for smartwatches for the next period were predicted.

Today, organizations are obliged to use flexible structures and take advantage of external sources and, in fact, outsource to exploit the opportunities. An outsourcing contract should handle the contractual uncertainties and provide the organization with flexibility in choosing various options under various conditions. The real options approach is one of the available methods to gain these conditions. In this study, valuing a water loss reduction outsourcing project by using real options is carried out with a mathematical modeling method and is compared to the NPV method. First, the net value of the outsourcing decision is obtained by comparing the two scenarios of outsourcing and non-outsourcing. Then, the abandonment option within the outsourcing contract is detected. A binomial approach with two underlying assets is applied for valuing the option. Finally, the estimation of the total project value is done by adding the option value to the net value of the outsourcing decision. Also, for the first time, identification of the contract-embedded real options and their valuation under specific conditions are analyzed. The findings indicate that with a change in cash flow, the risk-free interest rate, and the option exercise price, the value of the option oscillates, rises, and falls, respectively. It is, therefore, recommended based on the findings that real options hidden in contracts should be subjected to analyses in project evaluations for better outcomes.

In the field of improving organizational performance, innovation creation systems are of great importance, and evaluating the performance of these systems is also very important. Using data envelopment analysis as a quantitative method for performance evaluation allows organizations to examine the performance of different units according to their inputs and outputs. In this study, due to the presence of random inputs and outputs, the accuracy and validity of the evaluation results increase, and a better analysis of the performance of innovation systems can be achieved. In the present study, the performance of the organizational innovation creation system is evaluated using network data envelopment analysis with random inputs and outputs. This study was conducted with the approach of examining and comparing the efficiency of knowledge-based companies in terms of establishing an innovation creation system, and the mixed network data envelopment analysis technique with random inputs and outputs was used to examine the efficiency. In addition, the companies were prioritized using the Anderson-Patterson method.

Psychological empowerment, as an important approach in human resource management, has a significant impact on employee performance and creativity. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of psychological empowerment on employee creative performance through the mediation of success and the moderating role of competitive climate. This study is applied in terms of purpose and is classified as a descriptive-correlational research. The statistical population of the study included all employees of the Municipality of District 21 of Tehran, which included 600 people, of whom 234 were selected according to the Morgan table. The data collection tool was a questionnaire, which was the standard questionnaire of Sahadev et al. (Sahadev et al., 2024). The judgment of professors and experts in this field was used to measure the validity of the questionnaire. Cronbach's alpha was used to test the validity of the questionnaire, which was 0.89. In this study, structural equation modeling was used to examine the relationships between components using the partial least squares method. According to the data analysis, the results indicate a positive and significant effect of psychological empowerment on employees' creative performance, psychological empowerment on employees' success, and employees' success on employees' creative performance. Also, the mediating role of employees' success on psychological empowerment and employees' creative performance, and the moderating role of competitive climate on psychological empowerment and employees' creative performance were confirmed; therefore, it is necessary for managers to pay sufficient attention to these dimensions to create employees' psychological empowerment.

This study is dedicated to evaluating the impact of digital inbound marketing in achieving sustainable competitive advantage in the machine-made carpet industry. The innovation of the research is in examining the effect of digital inbound marketing in achieving sustainable competitive advantage, which has not been done before, especially in the carpet industry. To identify the effective factors, research conducted domestically and internationally was reviewed, and the most important factors affecting digital inbound marketing in order to achieve sustainable competitive advantage in the machine-made carpet industry were classified into 16 sub-criteria including: digital products and services, digital operation process, digital business model, redundancy, digital marketing visibility, situational awareness, sound risk management decisions, digital marketing collaboration agility, recovery efficiency, contingency planning, knowledge management, operating costs, return on investment, time between the start and completion of the production process, and customer satisfaction. These factors are grouped into 5 main criteria including digital inbound marketing, absorbability, responsiveness, retrieval capability, and digital inbound marketing performance, and are analyzed in Savin Machine Carpet Company. In the first stage, 30 experts with relevant expertise and experience were identified and a questionnaire including factors affecting digital inbound marketing to gain sustainable competitive advantage was designed and validated. This questionnaire led to the confirmation of all criteria. Then, the impact of these factors on digital inbound marketing was examined and the results of the KMO test were equal to 0.748, which indicates the suitability of the correlations for factor analysis. In the next stage, the correlation between the variance of the variables in question and other variables was evaluated. Finally, factor analysis of the research questionnaire was presented and the standard factor loading to examine the strength of the relationship between each factor (latent variable) and the observable variables (questionnaire items) was obtained in other cases, except in the cases of correct risk management and knowledge management decisions, which were greater than 0.3. Thus, the factor structure of the questionnaire was confirmed. Based on the results of factor loading analysis, it can be seen that recovery efficiency is the most effective factor, followed by emergency planning. After that, collaboration, then visibility and redundancy are considered as the most important and influential factors.

The aim of this study is to identify significant key factors on financial performance and ultimately confirmatory factor analysis, the model of key criteria affecting the financial performance of Iranian construction companies. The present study was mixed (qualitative-quantitative) in terms of methodology. In the first stage, a comprehensive model of key criteria affecting the financial performance of construction companies was obtained by using a meta-synthesis qualitative method with a review of previous literature in the field of financial performance, surveying, collecting data and integrating them. For its validation, the opinions of experts were used in the Delphi method and the model was designed in 5 dimensions and 12 indicators. In the quantitative stage, the survey research method and the data collection tool in this section were a researcher-made questionnaire. To measure the validity of the questionnaire, the face-content validity method was reviewed by the professors of the construction management department. The reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed using Cronbach's alpha. The questionnaire was distributed among construction companies active in the field of buildings and construction in Tehran, which were recognized as the first-ranked qualified companies by the Management and Planning Organization. Next, using a researcher-made questionnaire, the external and internal validation of the key criteria model affecting the financial performance of Iranian construction companies was examined with the help of Smart-PLS software. The external validation of the model was confirmed by convergent validity and composite reliability, and the model was presented. The present research model has been able to provide important relevant information about the financial performance of construction companies and help the company and its stakeholders in better planning its strategies and policies by focusing on several important areas for the overall improvement of the company.