This paper presents an empirical investigation to study the effects of different strategies including attribute, advantage, application, consumer, competitive advantage, pricing/quality and category on brand promise for products of LG Company in city of Tehran, Iran. The study designs two questionnaires, one for strategic positioning and the other for brand promise in Likert scale. Cronbach alphas for brand promise and strategic positioning are 0.81 and 0.79, respectively. The questionnaires are distributed among 385 randomly selected regular users of LG products and using Spearman correlation as well as Stepwise regression techniques, the effects of various strategies on brand promise are examined. The results of the implementation of Spearman correlation have indicated that there were positive and meaningful relationships between different strategies and brand promise. In addition, the results of Stepwise regression have indicated that three strategies of price/quality, consumer and application were the most important predictors of brand promise.

Nowadays, traffic safety is one of the primary principles of traffic engineering and transportation planning. Road accidents have been major problems that cause human losses, social and economic challenges. The first step to improve road traffic safety is to identify black spots, which preserve high potential of road accidents. Therefore, identifying, analyzing, prioritizing and refining these places play important role in improving transportation safety. This paper applies fuzzy Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal (TOPSIS) for ordering different black spots for a case study of highway between two cities of Qazvin and Saveh, Iran. The study performs the ranking based on two categories of tangent distance and horizontal curve. The ranking is performed according to Roadway width, Shoulder width, Traffic volume, Percentage of vehicle, Load and utility, Network access, The number of horizontal curves and Equivalent Property Damage Only (EPDO). The results are compared with frequencies of incidents and analyzed.

This paper investigates the effects of different factors influencing on the successful implementation of the business process re-engineering (BPR) in Iran. The study selects 386 experts randomly and using some statistical tests examines the effects of four groups of factors including strategic, organizational, methodologic and technological & educational issues on the success of the BPR implementation in Iran. The study designs a questionnaire in Likert scale and distributes it among some experts where Cronbach alpha was calculated as 0.71. The implementation of Pearson correlation ratio has confirmed that technological and educational factors marinated the highest effects (r = 0.523, Sig. = 0.000) followed by strategic (r = 0.505, Sig. = 0.000), organizational (r = 0.352, Sig. = 0.000) and methodologic issues (r = 0.267, Sig. = 0.000). In addition, the implementation of Stepwise regression has confirmed that technological & educational, strategic and methodologic factors influence on BPR in Iran.

Today, human capital is considered a key factor of achieving the competitive advantage in different industries. The present study, as an applied and descriptive research, aims at providing formulation and evaluation of human resource development of an Iranian Petrochemical Company (APC). The human resource experts and managers of APC together with university professors of human capital and familiar with local conditions of Khuzestan province, Iran, made up the statistical population of this research. In this connection, first the internal factors (including advantages and disadvantages) were identified using human resource excellence indicators. Then, the opportunities and threats of human resource system were found via PESTEL approach. In the next step, the primary strategies were formulated using the strength, weakness, opportunities and threats (SWOT) Matrix. The next phases of the study were included evaluation and ranking of human resource development strategies based on analytical network process (ANP) multi-criteria decision making method and grey systems theory. According to results of the research, defensive strategies (WT) are suggested as the best and most appropriate strategies in human resource area. In other words, the internal and external factors of APC are problematic. Accordingly, APC is expected to adopt WT strategy, minimize the weaknesses, and avoid threats. Subsequent to the above policy, the strategies of WO, ST, and SO are advised to employ.

Today, human capital is considered a key factor of achieving the competitive advantage in different industries. The present study, as an applied and descriptive research, aims at providing formulation and evaluation of human resource development of an Iranian Petrochemical Company (APC). The human resource experts and managers of APC together with university professors of human capital and familiar with local conditions of Khuzestan province, Iran, made up the statistical population of this research. In this connection, first the internal factors (including advantages and disadvantages) were identified using human resource excellence indicators. Then, the opportunities and threats of human resource system were found via PESTEL approach. In the next step, the primary strategies were formulated using the strength, weakness, opportunities and threats (SWOT) Matrix. The next phases of the study were included evaluation and ranking of human resource development strategies based on analytical network process (ANP) multi-criteria decision making method and grey systems theory. According to results of the research, defensive strategies (WT) are suggested as the best and most appropriate strategies in human resource area. In other words, the internal and external factors of APC are problematic. Accordingly, APC is expected to adopt WT strategy, minimize the weaknesses, and avoid threats. Subsequent to the above policy, the strategies of WO, ST, and SO are advised to employ.

This paper presents an empirical investigation to study the roles of emotional intelligence (EI) and job satisfaction (JS) on employees’ organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). The study is performed among 140 randomly selected employees who worked for an Iranian bank in province of Karaj in 2014. The study uses the questionnaire developed by Organ (1998) [Organ, D. (1988). Organizational citizenship behavior: The good soldier syndrome. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.] to measure organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). To measure emotional intelligence, Cyberia Shrink emotional intelligence quiz is employed. Finally, to measure job satisfaction, a revised version of the questionnaire introduced by Smith et al. (1969) [Smith, P. C. , Kendall, L. M., & Hulin, C. L. (1969). The Measurement of Satisfaction in Work and Retirement. Chicago: Rand McNally.] is implemented. The results of Pearson correlation have indicated that there were some positive and meaningful relationships between EI as well as JS with OCB. In addition, the results of Stepwise regression have indicated that there were some positive and meaningful relationship between all components of EI, JS with OCB.

Identifying factors that contribute to academic achievement is important. Some studies suggest a direct correlation between emotional intelligence, self-esteem and academic achievement, but others disagree about any direct relationship. This study investigates the relationship between emotional intelligence, self-esteem and academic achievement. The sample consists of 300 university students who were selected through random sampling. Bar-on emotional Intelligence questionnaire and self-esteem test pop as well as the mean scores of students were used as academic achievement. To analyze research data, descriptive and inferential statistics were used. The results of data analysis show that emotional intelligence and self-esteem had no significant relationship with achievement. The findings also show that emotional intelligence was not different between male and female students, but the self-esteem of female students was more than male students. Therefore in considering effective factors in academic achievement just psychological constructs such as emotional intelligence, self- esteem cannot be stressed.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has been an important part of enterprise decision-making and management. In this regard, Decision Tree (DT) models are the most common tools for investigating CRM and providing an appropriate support for the implementation of CRM systems. Yet, this method does not yield any estimate of the degree of separation of different subgroups involved in analysis. In this research, we compute three decision-making models in SMEs, analyzing different decision tree methods (C&RT, C4.5 and ID3). The methods are then used to compute ME and VoE for the models and they were then used to calculate the Mean Errors (ME) and Variance of Errors (VoE) estimates to investigate the predictive power of these methods. These decision tree methods were used to analyze small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME’s) datasets. The paper proposes a powerful technical support for better directing market tends and mining in CRM. According to the findings, C&RT shows a better degree of separation. As a result, we recommend using decision tree methods together with ME and VoE to determine CRM factors.

Studies have shown that in service organizations, quality can have a growth in customer satisfaction as its consequence, and when it regards the banking services, factors are brought up with regard to the quality of banking services, which include the speed in responding, providing products proportionate to the customer needs, and gaining competence. These concepts are shared by the issue of organizational agility; hence, the qualities as well as the bank's agility of the banking system embrace these concepts in common. Therefore, the study aims at studying the effect of the quality of electronic banking services on the bank's agility, and assesses the role of two mediator variables of the quality of service system and personnel behavior quality. Using a questionnaire comprised of 76 items about the above components and asking the line personnel in Bank Saderat Iran (BSI) in the branches both inside and outside of Iran, the research data was collected, and stratified random sampling was used. To analyze the data, the Structural Equation Model (SEM) was used and the PLS software was employed to perform the computations. Results indicated that the model of the study has a high Goodness of Fit, and the quality of the electronic banking services had a significant effect on the bank's agility. In addition, the quality of electronic banking services affects the service system quality. The system service quality, also affects the employees' behavior. Therefore, it can be said that the electronic services quality and the bank's agility affect the personnel behavior quality through the mediated effect of the service system quality. The results of the present study can help the bank's executives to promote their bank's agility and the personnel behavior quality.

Performance measurement in energy industry plays an important role on increasing the productivity. Electricity is also among the most essential components of energy in mega cities like Tehran. The lack of a good service in this city may result unpleasant consequences on most civilians who live in this city. This paper presents an empirical investigation to measure the performance of six major electricity contractors in city of Tehran, Iran. The study implements grey numbers to handle any uncertainty associated with numbers. The study has also adopted four main perspectives used in balanced scorecard as part of PROMETHEE method to rank different contractors.