Innovation is one of the key factors distinguishing organizations from competitors in today’s high-ly competitive markets. Therefore, improving innovative performance is critical for creating com-petitive advantage. On the other hand, availability of information and knowledge can be defined as one the best ways to increase the innovation ability of organizations. Many theorists as well as practitioners emphasize on knowledge management as an enabler in enhancing organizational inno-vation. Hence, This study is carried out in the Fars governor in Iran during the year of 2017 to in-vestigate the relationship between the knowledge-based leadership and knowledge management and innovation performance. This study is descriptive / survey and the data collection is a cross-sectional and data questionnaire is used to collect the required data. Data analysis and hypotheses testing have indicated a significant relationship between knowledge-based leadership and knowledge management and innovation performance in Fars governor. The results also suggest a relationship between knowledge-based leadership and the knowledge management activities with a coefficient of 0.97. In addition, There is also a positive and meaningful relationship between knowledge management and innovation performance with a coefficient of 0.73 and between knowledge-based leadership and innovation performance with a coefficient of 0.73. The results al-so led to the existence of a relationship between knowledge based leadership, knowledge manage-ment practices and innovation performance with a coefficient of 0.7081.

The purpose of this research is to design a crisis management model in the archival centers of Iran during the pre-crisis phase. The present study was conducted with a qualitative approach using the Grounded theory method. The necessary data was collected using semi-structured interviews. Data saturation was a major factor in determining the sample size. The research population included 20 crisis management specialists and managers of archives in Iran and the data analysis was performed in three stages: open, axial, and selective coding. The paradigmatic model derived from the findings of the research includes the sections of the causal conditions, strategies, intervening conditions and the underlying conditions and their outcomes. The causal conditions are located in two categories of internal crises such as biological crises and lack of proper management, and external crises such as natural disasters, fires and human-made crises. Intervener conditions and backgrounds include cat-egories such as lack of specialist staff training, lack of appropriate environmental conditions and management mechanisms, archival building and human resources issues. To prevent and mitigate the effects of the crisis in archives, some strategies are required such as modern education for resil-ience, teaching how to use documents, standardizing buildings and equipment (non-use of steel skeletons in building archives, use of concrete skeletons Armed or metal, as well as the use of walls and doors and floors of anti-fire covers) in the building of archives and the establishment of multi-layer protective systems for the protection of documents.

Several studies have made known that internet banking (IB) implementation is not only advanta-geous for banks, but also by perception and experience of IB users. Therefore, little is known about factors propelling user’s intention to adopt internet banking in Pakistan. Thus, the purpose of this research is to investigate the role of unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) in internet banking adoption context. A quantitative approach based survey was conducted to col-lect the data from 398 internet banking users. For statistical analysis structural equation model (SEM) approach was used. The result of this study indicates that, UTAUT model provided a good theoretical foundation in technology adoption investigation. Findings confirmed that all four predic-tors (performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating condition) were significant and had significant amount of variance in predicting user’s intention to adopt internet banking. Additionally, the IPMA test revealed that performance expectancy was the most important factor among all other variables to predict user’s intention towards adoption of internet banking. Lastly, managerial implications, limitations and future recommendations are discussed.

Automatic guided vehicle system (AGVs) plays a vital role in material handling operations for a flexible manufacturing system (FMS).Optimum AGVs fleet size selection is one of the most sig-nificant decisions in effective design and control of automated material handling system. The fleet size estimation and optimization of AGVs requires an in-depth understanding of the various factors that AGVs in the FMS relies on. In this paper, an investigation for fleet size optimization of AGVs in different layouts of FMS by application of the analytical method and grey wolf optimization al-gorithm (GWO) is carried out. Layout design is one of the significant factors for optimization of AGV’s fleet size in any FMS. Results yield from analytical and grey wolf optimization algorithm are compared and validated for the different sizes of FMS layouts by computational experiments.

Nowadays, with the expansion of economic businesses and also the dependency of economic activ-ists on the insurance industry to provide the capitals security, there is now a growing need to identi-fy and evaluate risks of the insurance industry. Therefore, in this study, a comprehensive model was developed to evaluate and manage business risk by reviewing the research literature, extensive-ly. For this purpose, an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) was developed for every business risk after identifying the relevant dimensions and the criteria and collecting the necessary data from the central insurance databases. Finally, a general model was presented to evaluate and manage risks of the insurance industry. Four major problems were also considered: optimal and ef-ficient normalization, optimal training for testing ratio for every neural network, model validation, and the easiness of user communication with the system. The results show that the model can pro-vide an accurate estimation for risk evaluation and management. Thus, this system can be consid-ered as an appropriate tool for business risk evaluation and management of insurance companies. Furthermore, the effectiveness of this method in evaluating and managing the risk at insurance companies can be turned into a neural network and such a neural network can be used as an appro-priate decision-making support tool.

This paper uses the Nash bargaining model to examine the effects of the distribution system on firms purchasing multiple inputs. We show that network combination, that is, vertical integration between a manufacturer and a retail firm, does not always bring enterprise superiority to a non-integrated firm. Although classical economic theory articulates that vertically integrated firms typi-cally have an advantage over non-integrated firms in profits, as the former can eliminate double marginalization, this is not always the case if we consider a situation of multiple inputs trading.

Developed food production lines recently have built factories for novel products to find a position in the market faster, although innovation is still expensive and risky. This study focuses on con-tributors who persuade consumers to purchase new pasta products in Tehran, and tries to determine the correlation among the criteria. This is conducted from the market experts’ view points along with a blend of grounded theory and DEMATEL. The results indicate that quality, price, packag-ing, promotion, phantasm and place parameters enhance new pasta pictures on customers’ buying decision making. According to experts, quality and price are the most influential factors and promo-tion and phantasm are completely ineffective. In addition, cultural parameters, especially local reci-pes as well as customers’ palate are important in this process.

The mobility sector including all kinds of transportation systems are facing global challenges in re-spect of green environmental issues. There has been a paradigm shift in the concept of design and manufacturing of automotive vehicles keeping in mind the scarcity of fossil fuel and the impact of emission on environment due to burning of it. The addition of hybrid and electric vehicles in pas-senger car segment has got significant momentum to address the global challenges. This research investigates the performance of a group of hybrid vehicles from customers’ perspective. Among the different brands that are available in the hybrid vehicle market, smart customers have given pri-ority to vehicle cost, mileage, tail pipe emission, comfortness and high tank size volume for long drive. Considering these attributes, selection strategy for hybrid vehicles has been developed using entropy based multi-attributive border approximation area comparison (MABAC) method. This research highlights the best hybrid vehicle which reduces air pollution in cities with other significant environmental benefits, reduces dependence on foreign energy imports and minimizes the annual fuel cost.

Six Sigma is recognized as an essential tool for continuous improvement of quality. A large num-ber of publications by various authors reflect the interest in this technique. Reviews of literature on Six Sigma have been done in the past by a few authors. However, considering the contributions in the recent times, a more comprehensive review is attempted here. The authors have examined vari-ous papers and have proposed a different scheme of classification. In addition, certain gaps that would provide hints for further research in Six Sigma have been identified. As a results the rela-tionship between Six Sigma, Design for Six Sigma (DFSS), and how these two concepts support the quality system for organizational learning and innovation performance have been discussed that would help researchers, academicians and practitioners to take a closer look at the growth, devel-opment and applicability of Six Sigma in Design.

To get ready for the hard international competition, firms have to convince themselves of the pressing necessity of optimizing its competitiveness factors. In this perspective, this article proposes a general model of management system of firms through the implementation of tools of Lean Manu-facturing. This method establishes an approach to introduce an action plan to improve the perfor-mance of a firm. Knowing that the Algerian firms do not escape the constraints of competitiveness, the adopted model is applied to two strategic firms of the Algerian industry and the final result gives a series of measures to improve their competitiveness and their performances, simultaneously.