Search results

Due to the limitations of conventional urban planning, it is essential to develop novel techniques of urban futruing. This paper aimed to use the scenario technique to create four plausible narratives of the future of Isfahan. Also, the authors described the problems of city foresight in the Global South.

This paper chronicles the Schwartzian steps taken to build explorative scenarios of Isfahan City in Iran in 2040. After using a STEEPV (Social, Technological, Environmental, Economic, Political, Value) analysis, the authors prioritized the collected variables by combining influence diagrams, the iceberg metaphor and an expert-based survey. Once the key uncertainties were derived, four scenarios were developed and discussed.

Through thematic analysis of the official visions of Isfahan’s future and the juxtaposition of these narratives with insight yielded in the scenario-development process, the paper concludes that the Northernness of the prevailing urban imaginaries, uncritical mimetic benchmarking, depoliticization of urban futures and the decorative reductionistic visions colonize urban futures in Isfahan/Iran. Critical/deconstructive city foresight and application of discomfort/ignorance criteria in the generation of scenarios can improve the rigor and quality of city foresight in the Global South.

The application of city foresight in the Global South has been limited. The paper is a step toward bridging this gap and providing some recommendations on how city foresight in the Global South might differ from its counterparts in the Global North.

Industrial tourists can contribute to the local sites income. Apart from large and well-known industrial units, small industrial units can also introduce their products to the market by organizing tourism tours. This study aims to analyze an industrial tourism business network established in Isfahan, a large, industrial and historic city in central of Iran, as a case study.

Participants were managers and experts of organizations operated in the Industrial Tourism Network in Isfahan city. A sample of 30 participates was selected through purposive and snowball sampling approaches. Data was analyzed by qualitative content analysis and social network analysis using UCINET software.

Twenty-eight organizations participated in the Industrial Tourism Business Network of Isfahan. Macro indices of the network revealed that: density is relatively low; most of the relationships among network member organizations are reciprocal; transitivity is relatively weak indicating low network stability against environmental player; clustering is low, indicating a relatively low tendency of members to form different clusters. Micro indices indicated that in-degree and out-degree centralizations are low; overall centralization is poor. In addition, six actors were in the center and 22 actors were in the peripheral. Finally, the number of interactions of central organizations was triple than the peripheral organizations.

Limitations of this study include: The data obtained in this study only reflected the relationships among the actors studied during a specific period of time; this paper only focused on actors engaged in an industrial tourism network. Therefore, the sample might involve some bias. The results of the study contribute to our understanding of the role of networking in tourism destinations, particularly industrial sites.

According to the results, the authors may be able to advise firms operating in the tourism industry, particularly actors operate in industrial tourism, regarding how to increase their collaboration with both internal and external environment to achieve better performance.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper that has addressed an industrial tourism business network.

This study aims to investigate the key roles of human and relational capital in the export orientation and competitiveness of knowledge-intensive cooperative companies. It is also aimed to examine the moderating role of marketing knowledge capabilities.

Data from 552 managers at 86 companies, selected from knowledge-intensive export cooperatives, were analyzed with structural equation modeling with the partial least squares approach.

Results indicate that both human and relational capital exert considerable effects on competitiveness. Export orientation was a driving factor for cooperatives’ competitiveness. Human and relational capital fostered the effects of export orientation on competitiveness. Moreover, marketing knowledge capabilities were found to moderate the relationships between human and relational capital and export orientation, as well as between export orientation and competitiveness.

By highlighting the role of human capital and relational capital in export orientation and competitiveness, this study offers an analysis of important managerial processes within cooperative companies, which have not been sufficiently addressed in previous research. This research also demonstrated the moderating role of marketing knowledge capabilities in strengthening relationships between human and relational capital and export orientation, as well as between export orientation and competitiveness, which has been neglected in previous studies. These findings provide academics and practitioners with a new framework for examining the relationships between these constructs, which will enable them to establish strategies for achieving a competitive advantage.

High levels of depression and anxiety in the family caregivers of a patient with cancer affect their quality of life. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a mindful self-compassion (MSC) training program on self-compassion in the family caregivers of patients with cancer.

In 2020, this quasi-experimental study used convenience sampling to select 92 family caregivers of patients with cancer presenting to the oncology ward of Seyed-Al-Shohada Hospital, Isfahan, Iran. The subjects randomly assigned to two groups participated in an online MSC program for 1.5 months. All the participants completed a self-compassion scale (Neff) before, immediately after and one month after the intervention. The data were analyzed using the Mann–Whitney U test, the Chi-squared test, the LSD test, the t-test and repeated measures ANOVA.

The total mean score of self-compassion, respectively, obtained as 64.64 ± 8.23 and 64.44 ± 4.94 in the experimental and control groups before the intervention significantly increased to 81.15 ± 7.94 and 64.06 ± 5.22 immediately after and 78.94 ± 8.22 and 64.22 ± 4.85 one month after the intervention (P < 0.001).

Given the potential for negative psychological impacts for patients, caregivers and clinicians in cancer care, the online MSC program can be recommended to support and reduce psychological distress in them.

This paper examined the effect of the online MSC program on self-compassion in the family caregivers of patients with cancer and can contribute to our understanding of the value of integrating mental health of caregivers and care of patients with cancer.

Finding an appropriate place for temporary housing after an earthquake is one of the main challenges of disaster risk management, especially in developing countries. Therefore, it is necessary to create pre-disaster location plans for the homeless population. This study aims to systematically find safe places and select suitable sites according to influential factors.

The research methodology used is a descriptive–analytical method. A field survey with a quantitative–qualitative approach is applied to recognize physical vulnerabilities and select suitable sites for temporary settlements. Due to the occurrence of several earthquakes in recent decades around the city of Isfahan, Iran, this area has been studied. Fuzzy analytic hierarchy process, geographic information system and rapid visual screening have been used for data analysis.

According to the site selection and vulnerability criteria and their prioritization, the findings indicate that 60% of the study area is vulnerable. Moreover, vacant lots, stadiums and public green spaces that can be used as multi-purpose sites are the most appropriate options for the temporary settlement.

The research criteria are generalizable and can be used for decision-making, concerning urban fabric vulnerability and site selection of temporary housing in cities exposed to earthquake risk.

Cultural features, accessibility, land conditions, the slope and type of land, availability and construction materials were addressed in locating temporary settlements. In addition to vacant lots and open spaces, safe buildings were also identified for temporary housing, and religious minorities and similar communities were considered.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) refers to a group of complex neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by repetitive and characteristic patterns of behavior and difficulties with social communication and interaction. Puberty is an important period for teenagers with ASD. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of educational program on increasing social skills (SS) and sexual knowledge (SK) in adolescent boys with high-functioning autism (HFA) disorder.

This study was conducted using a single-subject design. Participants were three boys diagnosed with HFA disorder, selected using purposive sampling. The social skills improvement system scale and the sexual knowledge questionnaire were used to measure SS and SK. The training program consisted of 49 sessions.

Results showed that, given the comparison of scores before and after the intervention, the training program was effective in improving SS and SK.

With regard to the importance of puberty, training programs for parents and adolescents play an effective role in increasing SS and SK of adolescents with HFA disorder.

Industrial tourism not only strives to preserve industrial heritage, but can also be a strategy for being familiar with the history of industry and attracting tourists to new destinations. This paper examines the issue of promoting petroleum industrial tourism in the case of Khuzestan, Iran. The research aims at determining appropriate strategies for promoting petroleum industrial tourism.

The data were analysed through a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) model.

The results revealed the competitive strategy as the best. Lastly, strategies such as: concentric diversification, joint venture strategy, conglomerate diversification and horizontal diversification were proposed as key solutions. The results support the view that establishing an exploratory ecomuseum in the territory of Khuzestan Province can be a suitable concentric diversification strategy towards petroleum industrial sustainable tourism in the future.

The main originality of this paper includes linking tourism with the petroleum (oil and natural gas) industry and its natural landscapes for the first time in a case study. Therefore, the results of this research can extend the literature in this regards. Moreover, this paper attracts tourists to visit natural landscapes of petroleum heritage.

This study aims to propose an integrated framework for analyzing the effect of lean and agile innovation on the lean and agile supply chains.

The literature was reviewed and the dimensions of lean and agile supply chain/innovation were extracted. The statistical population included the managers and experts of pharmaceutical companies in Isfahan province. Eight pharmaceutical companies were selected. A researcher-made questionnaire was used to investigate the research variables. The face and content validity of the questionnaire and the data reliability were confirmed. After data collection, the studied companies were positioned in a two-by-two matrix and the associated data of two cells of the matrix, i.e. high lean supply chain/innovation and high agile supply chain/innovation were used for further statistical effect analysis using Smart-PLS.

The research results indicated that with the improvement of lean innovation in pharmaceutical companies, the lean supply chain improved by 97.9%; and with the improvement of agile innovation, the agile supply chain improved by 97.1%.

Considering lean innovation, pharmaceutical companies should deal with the process of conceptualizing innovation, and regarding agility strategy, their focus should be more on generating ideas to improve their agile supply chain. This study was performed during the COVID-19 pandemic and offers appropriate innovation strategies to improve the supply chain of pharmaceutical companies.

The literature review implies that no research has been conducted on the selected and classified variables of this study. Also, using the positioning matrix before statistical analysis distinguishes this paper from similar studies.

Today, coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) treatment is an evolving process, and synbiotic administration has been suggested as a new therapeutic strategy. This study aims to investigate the effect of synbiotic supplementation in COVID-19 patients.

In this placebo-controlled trial, 80 patients were randomized to receive oral synbiotic capsule (containing fructooligosaccharide and seven bacterial strains; Lactobacillus (L) casei, L. rhamnosus, Streptococcus thermophilus, Bifidobacterium breve, L. acidophilus, Bifidobacterium longum, L. bulgaricus, each one 109 colony-forming units) or placebo for two months. Inflammatory markers (Interleukin-6 [IL-6], C-reactive protein [CRP], erythrocyte sedimentation rate [ESR]) and white blood cell (WBC) count were evaluated at two timepoints (baseline, two months later). The measured variables were adjusted for confounders and analyzed by SPSS v21.0.

All 80 enrolled patients completed the study. The study adherence was good (approximately 70%). The mean changes for IL-6 were not significant (Δ = −0.6 ± 10.4 pg/mL vs Δ = +11.2 ± 50.3 pg/mL, p > 0.05). There were no significant improvements for CRP, ESR and WBC.

Administration of synbiotics for two months did not improve inflammatory markers in COVID-19 patients.

This paper aims to investigate the effect of gamified e-service quality (GE-SQ) on customer value co-creation, relationship quality and purchase intention in e-retailing.

A questionnaire was used to collect data from a sample of 549 e-retailing customers who participated in a gamified online service process. A structural equation modeling approach was adopted to analyze the model.

The empirical evidence confirmed that GE-SQ encouraged customer value co-creation behavior and relationship quality. Customer value co-creation and relationship quality led to higher purchase intention. Also, value co-creation and relationship quality partially mediated the relationship between GE-SQ and purchase intention.

The findings increase our knowledge of GE-SQ and its behavioral consequences. Moreover, the study proposes and validates a theoretical framework based on GE-SQ, value co-creation and customer relationship quality. This study provides insight into using gamification as a practical tool in the e-retailing industry.