Search results

The purpose of this paper is to present a holistic approach regarding evaluation of knowledge management (KM) practices on organizational performance. The effects of seven critical success factors (CSFs), namely leadership role, organizational culture, KM strategy, processes and activities, training and education, information technology, and motivation and rewarding system, on organizational performance in the framework of four perspectives of balance scored card (BSC) approach were surveyed.

The research hypotheses were raised based on the four perspectives of this approach, namely, growth and learning, internal processes, customer and financial. By literature review, CSFs of KM and organizational performance along with their items were identified in the framework of BSC’s perspectives. Based on these constructs and their items an instrument was designed and distributed among managers and employees of the subsidiary firms of Iran National Petrochemical Company (INPC). Reliability of the instrument was calculated by Chronbach’s α for the two sections of the instrument i.e. KM practices and organizational performance. Also, using factor analysis the construct validity of the questionnaire was approved. Finally, based on the hypotheses of the study and using structural equation modeling the impacts of KM practices on organizational performance were investigated.

The results revealed that KM practices positively and meaningfully (though weak) impact overall organizational performance. This impact is significant only regarding growth and learning dimension and on the other dimensions is insignificant. Also, as customer and financial constructs were loaded on one factor based on the entity of their indicators we considered these two constructs as stakeholders construct. In addition, among the above mentioned seven CSFs, motivation and rewarding system obtained the lowest rank among the survey organizations.

The sample is restricted to only three companies, so gathering data from various parts of Iran including both manufacturing and service industries could increase the generalizability of the results obtained. Also, as in this study the data gathered were cross-sectional, a longitudinal study could help gain deeper understanding of the cause-and-effect relationship among the variables.

The most significant gap in the literature is the lack of enough application of statistical and comprehensive methods like BSC that KM makes a difference to organizational performance. This study contributes to the field of KM by empirically investigating the impact of KM practices on various measures of organizational performance in order to prove the suitability of a comprehensive approach like BSC.

The Torpedo Marine Division of Berger Chemicals have appointed Mr George Topping as South East regional manager.

This study aims to scrutiny the performance of the petrochemical sector and the technological innovation life cycle. Also, the stage of the innovation life cycle for the sector is specified. Then, scenarios are designed to improve the speed of the sector development. For this reason, for synchronizing the petrochemical sector, this study tries to combine two innovation systems (technological and sectoral systems) called “techno-sectoral innovation system” under an integrated model. Furthermore, the “functions and driving motors” are expanded in the proposed model.

By combining two concepts of the innovation systems, the complexity of the system rises to some extent. Also, to model causal relationships in the sector and non-linear connections between variables, system dynamics approach is applied. During this phase, the flow diagram of the model is translated to a simulation programme using Vensim software. Model validation is investigated using a comparison of the actual with simulated values.

The results predict the functions state of the innovation system and detect activation of innovation motors in each stage of the innovation life cycle. Validation shows the acceptable error of the indices. It can be concluded that the sector is relatively in the development state. Four scenarios have been proposed for representing policies that sector uses to motivate its companies. The best scenario is the fourth one that divides resources with different weightings among companies to accelerate switching time between sector’s motors. Finally, the fourth scenario can improve the performance of the petrochemical.

The hybrid approach shows researchers that performance of an industry can be improved based on sectoral and technological at the same time. Thus, this case-based model can contribute to other researchers, as a base model. Also, it could be customized with parameters and the relationship between players and functions. Furthermore, a dynamic switch among the motors has been presented in the model.

Iran’s non-oil export has shown noticeable growth in recent years. The gap between the oil export and non-oil export revenue has closed considerably, partly as a result of decline in the oil revenue, but mainly due to the rise in non-oil export. There are certain interesting developments in Iran’s foreign trade. One is the direction of Iran’s trade and its trading partners that has shifted from the West to the East. Another is the composition of Iran’s non-oil export from primary and agricultural products to more processed goods particularly petrochemical and other industrial products. This chapter explores Iran’s trade policies and strategies. It also focuses on the obstacles and challenges that the country still faces for further expansion of its export.

In the case of Iran, about 19 years have passed since the announcement of general energy policies. Policies adopted in the past included too many approaches and goals for the energy sector that some of them are in conflict with each other and their simultaneous implementation was impossible. Therefore, many of the expected goals of these policies have not been achieved. It is very important to adopt an appropriate approach that is compatible with the country’s characteristics and can steer energy policies. Therefore, this study aims to adopt an appropriate approach for the country’s energy sector according to the conditions and needs of the country.

A participatory scenario technique is designed and used to develop plausible projections in the case of Iran’s energy futures. Based on the proposed methodology, the research process starts with data gathering through interviews and national plans analysis. Then, findings were used as inputs to a simulation-based scenario development process. Scenarios are developed based on Monte Carlo simulation via cross-impact analysis technique purified based on expert judgments.

In this paper, to recognize Iran’s general approach to energy in the next 20 years, driving forces of change were introduced and used as input for the scenario development phase. Results showed sanctions play a significant role in Iran’s energy future and determine the directions of other driving forces. For renewable energy, it was proposed to increase the renewable share in Iran’s electricity generation mix to 5% of the total installed capacity. In the case of fossil fuel extraction, the maximum efficient rate was proposed for both oil and natural gas national production strategy.

This research is novel both in terms of application and theory. A new participatory scenario development method is used using simulations that are equipped based on experts’ judgments. Also from the practical perspective, this research targeted a future-oriented challenging problem to initialize national policy in a resource-rich developing economy (i.e. Iran).

Firms are working in a complex environment in which the updated information increase the pace of precise decision making and reduce the risk of wrong decisions. Therefore, discovering firms’ performance is a major issue. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the efficiency of Iranian plastic producing companies by using data envelopment analysis (DEA). It also discovers various drivers that significantly affect the efficiency of enterprises.

The authors studied a sample of 17 manufacturing firms to examine the relative efficiency of companies. They, then, evaluated the effects of efficiency drivers and used two methods for these purposes: DEA and bootstrapped Tobit regression model.

The study has shown that two manufacturing firms out of selected 17 are efficient under the Charnes, Cooper, and Rhodes model. Also, nine out of 17 plastic producing companies are productive under the Banker, Charnes, and Cooper model. The results of Tobit regression shows that only two efficiency drivers out of four have a significant positive influence on the efficiency of plastic producing firms.

Considering one industry and country limits the generalizability of the results provided. Besides, data availability has limited the analysis in some parts, particularly in bootstrapped Tobit regression.

The authors listed this section into benchmarking and strategical management; more importantly, the suggestions for improving the chemical industry and its future evolution are presented.

The paper is classified into two issues: the efficiency of plastic producing firms in Iran and evaluating the reason for inefficiency, apart from internal managerial procedures.

Research studies on futures studies have recently gained significant attention to create a desirable future based on the environmental change. Futures studies follow discovery, invention, presentation, test and evolution of possible, feasible and desirable futures. The purpose of this study is to examine some important aspects of the relationship between futures studies and planning and to present a model where futures scenarios have been developed as an integral part of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through the lens of dynamic capabilities theory and creative system theory.

Based on interpretive structural modeling and Delphi technique, the most important trends, proponents and uncertainties of the future of 10 Iranian petrochemical SMEs is identified and related innovative scenarios are presented.

The findings show four scenarios on the petrochemical industry including attracting investment, the presence of the private sector, attracting people's capital and sustainable development of the petrochemical industry.

The paper undertakes a first of its kind cross-disciplinary conceptual analysis to design Innovative Scenario Planning for SMEs. Despite the importance of scenario planning in SMEs, theories for understanding the nexus of entrepreneurial future studies remain underdeveloped. Therefore, there is still a theoretical gap and lack of research; hence, the current study tries to shed light on the topic and fill the gap in the entrepreneurship literature.

The paper aims to provide the prospects and challenges of cooperation concerning natural gas (NG) resources between the European Union (EU) and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), based on a “critical review” of the current state of the GCC region regarding NG production, consumption, trading movements, policy framework and existing/planned projects and programs for each GCC country individually.

The methodological four‐steps approach adopted is based on the context of the project “Creation and Operation of an EU‐GCC Clean Energy Network” (www.eugcc‐cleanergy.net). This paper summarizes the dynamic NG supply/demand situation in the GCC countries in a structured way, touching upon some pertinent policy issues and relating specific projects.

The key finding of the paper is the assessment of GCC countries' potential for future collaboration, especially with the EU. The collaboration opportunities, based on a detailed overview of existing and planned practices in the GCC countries, linking the policy to the practical commercial level, as well as the national system context is elaborated.

To the best of their knowledge, a study focused on the EU‐GCC cooperation for NG is not present in the literature. This study highlights how policy measures differ depending on the supply/demand situation of a particular country, bringing a unique perspective on how diverse the GCC region really is. Moreover, based on the specific energy projects presented, the policy level is linked to the practical commercial level. The presented approach and the related outcomes support the policy makers to enable the environment needed for concrete NG cooperation actions of mutual benefit for both regions.

After completing the case, students will be able to understand the reasons for the lack of successful strategy implementation in companies, especially engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) and general contractors in Iran’s oil, gas and petrochemical industry; understand the importance of alignment as an organization capital in successful strategy implementation and familiarize themselves with assessing the alignment readiness of companies; understand the importance of leadership as an organization capital in successful strategy implementation, comprehend one of the most essential theories of leadership in the world of management and familiarize themselves with assessing leadership readiness using this theory; and understand the importance of leadership as an organization capital in successful strategy implementation, comprehend one of the most essential models of organizational culture in the world of management and understand how to assess the readiness of organizational culture in companies.

This case discusses the reasons for strategy implementation failure at PetroSahand International Group, one of the most prominent EPC and general contractors in the oil, gas and petrochemical industry in Iran. This case also examines organization capitals such as alignment, leadership and organizational culture, the three most important factors for the successful implementation of strategies, at this company. PetroSahand is an international, project-oriented company that has been able to successfully complete more than 100 large domestic and international projects during its four decades of activity. However, the company is currently facing many difficulties such as overdue debts and projects.

The target audience of this case are graduates and undergraduates in the courses of Strategic Planning, Strategic Management, Strategy Implementation, Strategy in Action and Change Management. Additionally, this case study can be useful for senior managers of companies and can help in the successful implementation of strategies as well as improving their company’s alignment, leadership and organizational culture.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

Scenario planning has significant applications in the field of strategic management and facilitating decision making under uncertainty, and hence this study aims to integrate scenario planning and the preference ranking organisation method for enrichment evaluations (PROMETHEE) method to propose a new methodology to design a portfolio.

The methodology has been designed in two stages, the first of which identifies the investment environment in Iran and defines possible scenarios for the future based upon the opinion of experts and uncertainties established in the identified environment. In the second stage, the views of experts are elicited on business area performance within each scenario. The business areas are subsequently ranked based on their final performance scores in each scenario area using the PROMETHEE method. Through use of a linear programming model, the percentage of investment in each business area is then determined according to the net flow of the area (i.e. the priority of a certain area relative to others).

The portfolio design in an Iranian investment company has been considered as a case study. The building industry and cement industry have been selected as preferable strategic business areas based on hypothetical scenarios for investment environment in Iran over five years (2008‐2012) and the strategies of the investment company.

The integration of scenario planning and multi‐criteria decision analysis (MCDA) holds great potential for strategic decision support due to the complementary nature of these two approaches. In this article, the authors provide a methodology to apply scenario planning alongside other MCDA methods to portfolio design, focusing on an innovative use of the PROMETHEE method with scenario planning.