This paper performs an investigation to explore a number of strategies underpinning virtual marketing. The study also provides several suggestions for marketers seeking to use viral marketing to position brands or to change a brand’s image, to encourage new product trials and to increase product uptake rates. In this article, we investigate the effect of external factors such as capturing the imagination, targeting credible sources, leveraging combinations of technology and easy to use product on virtual marketing. In addition, the study considers internal factors such as inclusion (the need to be part of a group, the need to be different) and affection on viral marketing. The survey has been accomplished among 140 Iranian people, who were familiar with virtual marketing and they are selected, randomly. Using Pearson correlation as well as regression analysis, the study provides some evidences that there were some positive and meaningful relationship between some internal/external factors and virtual marketing.

This paper presents an empirical investigation to study the relationship between intellectual capital and organizational innovation in an Iranian bank named Ghavamin located in city of Zanjan, Iran. The proposed study uses a questionnaire introduced by Bontis [Bontis, N. (1999). Managing organisational knowledge by diagnosing intellectual capital: framing and advancing the state of the field. International Journal of technology management, 18(5), 433-462.] for measuring the effect of intellectual capital and designs a questionnaire to measure organizational innovation. The questionnaires are distributed among 40 randomly selected managers and regular employees and using Pearson correlation as well as stepwise regression model, the study has detected positive and meaningful relationship between intellectual capital and organizational innovation.

This paper presents an empirical investigation to study the effects of knowledge management on organizational learning. The study is held in headquarter of technical and vocational training organization in city of Tehran, Iran. The proposed study measures the effects of concept of management, management, knowledge tools, measurement, change management and knowledge content on organizational learning. The study designs a questionnaire in Likert scale and selects a sample of 313 people randomly from 1680 people who work for this organization in city of Tehran, Iran. Using structural equation modeling, the study has detected a positive and meaningful relationship with knowledge management on organizational learning. In our survey, knowledge content is the most important factor followed by change management.

In this paper, we have performed a survey to study the effects of aggressive marketing, price leadership and product focus on marketing channels in relationship-oriented marketing. The study adopts a model developed earlier by Rokkan and Haugland (2002) [Rokkan, A. I., & Haugland, S. A. (2002). Developing relational exchange: effectiveness and power. European Journal of Marketing, 36(1/2), 211-230.]. The study has been executed among all managers of a firm named PET Technologies. There were 30 managers working for the proposed case study of this paper and we have designed a questionnaire in Likert scale and distributed it among all managers of this firm. Cronbach alpha is calculated as 0.931, which is well above the minimum acceptable level of 0.70. The results have confirmed that all thee marketing strategies influence on relationship-oriented marketing, positively.

The balanced scorecard (BSC) is a strategic oriented tool used comprehensively in profit and nonprofit organizations all over the world to synchronize routine processes of organizations to the mission and strategy, improve inner and outter communications, control organization performance toward strategic targets. BSC has emerged from a simple performance measurement framework to a comprehensive strategic management system. It changes an organization’s strategic plan from a passive document to an active guideline for the organization on a daily basis and provides a helpful assistance that not only enables performance measurements, but also helps planners identify what should be accomplished and measured. This study focuses on how BSC is adopted as a tool for measuring effectiveness of strategy implementation in these organizations. This study adapts the BSC as a powerful tool for reaching an organization’s performance in four significant areas: Financial perspective, Customer-Market perspective, Internal Processes perspective and Learning & Growth perspective. The results suggest that governmental organizations are somehow successful in achieving their objectives in various degrees.

Human resources play essential role on the success of many organizations and it is essential to learn more about the effects of human capital on the success of business units. This paper presents an empirical investigation to study the relationship between equity and intellectual capital among stocks listed on Tehran Stock Exchange over the period 2001-2007. Using Pearson correlation test, the study selects a sample of 77 firms and investigates the relationship between equity and three components of intellectual capital, namely; human capital, structural capital and customer capital. The study has detected a positive and meaningful relationship between equity and all components of the survey (? = 5%).

Supply chain management plays essential role on improvement of the efficiency of production systems. It helps firms meet their expectations, deliver their products on time and build a good brand. This paper performs an empirical investigation to study the effect of good relationships among various suppliers on financial figures in an Iranian automaker. The proposed study investigates the effects of seven variables including communication, cooperation, commitment, compatibility, organization climate, dependency and trust on two financial figures including return on assets and return on equities. Using structural equation modeling, the study detects that communication, dependency and trust influence positively on return on assets. In addition, communication, cooperation, trust and commitment have positive impact on return on equities.

Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP) are considered as the newest and most effective tools of enterprise resource planning and include an interconnected information, management and engineering system that meets all the needs of an organization. ERP implementation is costly and time-consuming and makes fundamental change in the process, if not implemented correctly it will cause challenges in most parts of the organization and will certainly fail. Therefore, the identification of key success factors in implementing ERP helps organizations avoid the loss of the project. This research aims to identify key success factors for ERP by examining 185 managers, professionals, experts of the Information and Communication Technology Institute associated with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology of Iran. A questionnaire was used to collect data. Findings from exploratory factor analysis indicate that five factors: 1) user friendliness, flexible and consistency 2) establishment of project management; 3) alignment with user needs; 4) Management of organizational changes, and 5) observing the principles of successful implementation of ERP affect the institute and the corresponding suggestions are proposed consistent with these findings.

During the financial crisis of 2007, many businesses and banks faced unexpected circumstances and declared bankruptcy. Market mortgage crisis and the collapse of the economic system in United States created a substantial amount of damage in world economy. Within a few years, the economic downturn was transferred to developing countries such as Iran. The recession has created conditions for Iranian companies that have led them to focus more on the subject of advertising since this is the primary tool of communication and business customers business. Success and failure of many organizations and companies depend on their advertisement planning. In this study, the factors contributing to the success and effectiveness of advertising during the recession time are identified. This survey has been accomplished on investigating an Iranian dairy firm named “Kalle”. Using a questionnaire in Likert scale, the study determines the effects of various factors of advertisement on sales improvement in this firm using Pearson correlation ratio and rank them based on Freedman test. Cronbach alpha has been calculated as 0.93. According to the results, factors that contribute to the success of advertising during a recession include: Responsiveness to customers’ needs, advertising tools, content factors, the amount of money spent and availability.

Banks are the most important tool for preparing and supplying money in each country. In recent years, by institution of the new private banks and privatization of the governmental banks, banking competition has become very complex. This paper performs an empirical investigation to study the effects of different factors on return on assets and return on equities on 18 selected Iranian firms over the period 2002-2011. Using different regression models, the study studies the effects of total assets, debt ratio, etc. on return of assets (ROA) and return on equities (ROE) on selected eighteen Iranian banks as statistical community. The study considers total assets, ownership ratio, deposits to assets ratio, and loans to assets ratio as independent variables, and ROE and ROA as dependent variables. The results indicate that the private banks returns were better than governmental banks and the commercial banks’ returns were better than special banks. There is a reverse relationship between logarithm of total assets and ownership ratio with profitability based on return of assets.