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1 – 10 of 69Neda Hassanpour, Ali Shaemi Barzoki, Mohammad Hossein Moshref Javadi and Ali Safari
This study aimed at developing and testing a model to evaluate employee performance in Isfahan municipality.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aimed at developing and testing a model to evaluate employee performance in Isfahan municipality.
Design/methodology/approach
A mixed-method design is applied in this study. To extract the model, a semi-structured interview based on the thematic analysis approach was employed. The qualitative data were obtained using a researcher-made questionnaire from a sample of 12 municipal experts selected based on purposive sampling. In the quantitative phase, the sample consisted of 76 managers and interim managers. The validity of the questionnaire was determined by the content validity index, while the structural validity was tested based on structural equation modeling using SmartPLS software. The reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed using Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability indices.
Findings
The factors obtained in the qualitative model included performance evaluation criteria, the desired time interval for performance evaluation, results announcement, performance evaluation approach, performance evaluation method and evaluator-related variables. There should have been an agreement between evaluators and those who were evaluated in all components of the model. In the quantitative section, performance evaluation criteria, evaluators, the evaluation method and time interval were confirmed with coefficients of 0.871, 0.815, 0.646 and 0.615, respectively.
Practical implications
The novelty of this study is that it uses a mixed-method research approach to extract a performance evaluation model that is specific to the Isfahan municipality.
Originality/value
The novelty of this study is that it uses a mixed-method research approach to extract a performance evaluation model that is specific to the Isfahan municipality.
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Fatemeh Saghafi, Mohammad Reza Jalilvand, Esrafil Ahmadiyeh and Leila Nasrolahi Vosta
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…
Abstract
Purpose
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.
Design/methodology/approach
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.
Findings
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.
Research limitations/implications
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.
Practical implications
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.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper that has addressed an industrial tourism business network.
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Ali Zackery, Mohsen Taheri Demneh and Maryam Ebadi Nejad
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…
Abstract
Purpose
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.
Design/methodology/approach
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.
Findings
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.
Originality/value
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.
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Behrooz Nazemi and Mohsen Rafiean
An accurate predictive model for forecasting urban housing price in Isfahan can be useful for sellers and owners to take more appropriate actions about housing supplying. Also, it…
Abstract
Purpose
An accurate predictive model for forecasting urban housing price in Isfahan can be useful for sellers and owners to take more appropriate actions about housing supplying. Also, it can help urban housing planners and policymakers in managing of the housing market and preventing an urban housing crisis in Isfahan. The purpose of this paper is forecasting housing price in Isfahan city of Iran until 2022 using group method of data handling (GMDH).
Design/methodology/approach
This paper presents an accurate predictive model by applying the GMDH algorithm by using GMDH-Shell software for forecasting housing price in municipal boroughs of Isfahan city till the second half of 2022 based on creating time series and existing data. Alongside housing price, some other affecting factors have been also considered to control the forecasting process and make it more accurate. Furthermore, this research shows the housing price changes of boroughs on map using ArcMap.
Findings
Based on forecasting results, the housing price will increase at all boroughs of Isfahan till second half of the year 2022. Amongst them, Borough 15 will have the highest percentage of the price increasing (28.27%) to year 2022 and Borough 6 will have the lowest percentage of the price increasing (8.34%) to the year 2022. About ranking of the boroughs in terms of housing price, Borough number 6 and 3 will keep their current position at the top and Borough number 15 will stay at the bottom.
Research limitations/implications
In this research, just few factors have been selected alongside housing price to control the forecasting process owing to limitation of reliable data availability about affecting factors.
Originality/value
The most remarkable point of this paper is reaching to a mathematical formula that can accurately forecast housing price in Isfahan city which has been rarely investigated in former studies, especially in simplified form. The technique used in this paper to forecast housing price in Isfahan city of Iran can be useful for other cities too.
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Behrooz Nazemi and Mohsen Rafiean
The purpose of this paper is to use Group Method of Data Handling (GMDH)-type artificial neural network to model the affecting factors of housing price in Isfahan city housing…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to use Group Method of Data Handling (GMDH)-type artificial neural network to model the affecting factors of housing price in Isfahan city housing market.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper presents an accurate model based on GMDH approach to describing connection between housing price and considered affecting factors in case study of Isfahan city based on trusted data that have been collected from 1995 to 2017 for every six months. The accuracy of the model has been evaluated by mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), root mean square error (RMSE) and mean absolute error (MAE) in this case.
Findings
Due to the obtained value of MAPE, RMSE and MAE and also their interpretation, accuracy of modelling the factors affecting housing price in Isfahan city housing market using GMDH-type artificial neural network that has been conducted in this paper, is acceptable.
Research limitations/implications
Due to limitation of reliable data availability about affecting factors, selected period is from 1995 to 2017. Accessing to longer periods of reliable data can improve the accuracy of the model.
Originality/value
The key point of this research is reaching to a mathematical formula that accurately shows the relationships between housing price in Isfahan city and effective factors. The simplified formula can help users to use it easily for analysing and describing the status of housing market in Isfahan city of Iran.
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Arash Shahin, Ali Attafar and Monireh Samea
The purpose of this research is to propose a systematic and integrative approach for evaluating, assessing, analysing, and improving service quality and effectiveness.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to propose a systematic and integrative approach for evaluating, assessing, analysing, and improving service quality and effectiveness.
Design/methodology/approach
A new approach is proposed, in which SERVQUAL and overall administration effectiveness (OAE) are integrated. The recycling pavilion service process of Isfahan municipality is examined. By distributing 120 questionnaires containing the 22 questions of the SERVQUAL instrument developed by Parasuraman et al. in four pavilions of four different regions of the city of Isfahan, the services quality gap was measured and the OAE indicator performance was calculated. In OAE, the quality ratio was measured based on the quality gap, and performance and availability ratios were measured based on the characteristics of the recycling pavilion services.
Findings
The empirical findings imply that the application of the proposed approach has resulted in a reduction of 0.59 of the gap average and a 36 per cent improvement of the OAE indicator.
Research limitations/implications
While a general approach is proposed for service application, the results of the case study may not be generalisable.
Originality/value
The proposed approach of this study presents a method for simultaneous analysis of service quality and effectiveness.
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Mahsa Amini and Mitra Pashootanizadeh
The purpose of this paper is to assess the satisfaction of teenagers who are suffering from or are exposed to social damages of children and young adults’ publications in Iran.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess the satisfaction of teenagers who are suffering from or are exposed to social damages of children and young adults’ publications in Iran.
Design/methodology/approach
A descriptive surveys approach with practical purposes is applied here. The tools used in this study include two researcher-made questionnaires. Two sets of participants constitute the statistical populations: 120 and 50 teenagers who were affected by or are at the risk of social damages. Data collection from the first set was through census, while the same from the second set is through the disproportionate stratified random sampling method. Another statistical population is the group of premier children publishers during 2006-2016.
Findings
The teenagers’ satisfaction mainly is involved with: perceived quality, expectations and perceived value. “Music” and “Recreational and performing arts”, internet-based resources, “Electronic materials” and “Real stories” are ranked as having the highest mean value in information needs, formats and literacy genre among teenagers, respectively. The findings here indicate that the teenagers participated are satisfied with children publications to a great extent.
Originality/value
This is the first research which used the CSI Model for assessing the satisfaction of teenagers at risk and vulnerable to social damages.
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Ahmadali Asefi and Amir Ghanbarpour Nosrati
Sports facilities can play a vital role in encouraging physical activity and sport. Also, just the distribution of sports facilities is very important for better access to these…
Abstract
Purpose
Sports facilities can play a vital role in encouraging physical activity and sport. Also, just the distribution of sports facilities is very important for better access to these facilities. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to evaluate spatial justice in the distribution of built outdoor sports facilities in the city of Isfahan, Iran and provide insight for planning in terms of equitable accessibility.
Design/methodology/approach
All facilities located in the 15 areas of the city, whether private or public, built for the purpose of physical activity and sports programs were considered in this study (107 cases). To obtain information on the locations of the outdoor sports facilities, Isfahan Atlas data, which has been compiled by Isfahan Municipality was used. Arc geographic information systems environment and its different algorithms were also used to perform different calculations and prepare maps.
Findings
The results indicated the unfair distribution of built outdoor sports facilities in the city of Isfahan in terms of spatial justice based on the number of built outdoor sports facilities in each area, the population, land area, population density and the spatial pattern of the facilities.
Practical implications
In this regard, urban authorities and sport managers should make an effort to decrease or obviate inequity in access to outdoor sports facilities for the purpose of promoting participation in physical activity and sport and providing residents with numerous other benefits.
Originality/value
This paper has concluded that spatial justice in the distribution of built outdoor sports facilities for the improvement of access to these facilities is very important.
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Elham Lafzi Ghazi and Miguel Goede
The purpose of this paper is to contribute critically to understanding the structure of creative industries in Isfahan.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to contribute critically to understanding the structure of creative industries in Isfahan.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors first gather needed information about the case study and then analyze the data according to three measures of gross value added, employment and the dynamics of business for each sector of creative industries.
Findings
Results indicate that creative industries are medium-sized domestic enterprises which are comparatively weak in productivity in some sectors.
Originality/value
This paper illustrates the model of creative industries assessment for Isfahan city and, finally, provides a good understanding of the concept of the creative industries as a key element of the creative city.
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Mohammad Mahdi Ershadi and Mohamad Sajad Ershadi
Appropriate logistic planning for the pharmaceutical supply chain can significantly improve many financial and performance aspects. To this aim, a multi-objective optimization…
Abstract
Purpose
Appropriate logistic planning for the pharmaceutical supply chain can significantly improve many financial and performance aspects. To this aim, a multi-objective optimization model is proposed in this paper that considers different types of pharmaceuticals, different vehicles with determining capacities and multi-period logistic planning. This model can be updated based on new information about resources and newly identified requests.
Design/methodology/approach
The main objective function of the proposed model in this paper is minimizing the unsatisfied prioritized requests for pharmaceuticals in the network. Besides, the total transportation activities of different types of vehicles and related costs are considered as other objectives. Therefore, these objectives are optimized hierarchically in the proposed model using the Lexicographic method. This method finds the best value for the first objective function. Then, it tries to optimize the second objective function while maintaining the optimality of the first objective function. The third objective function is optimized based on the optimality of other objective functions, as well. A non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II-multi-objective particle swarm optimization heuristic method is designed for this aim.
Findings
The performances of the proposed model were analyzed in different cases and its results for different problems were shown within the framework of a case study. Besides, the sensitivity analysis of results shows the logical behavior of the proposed model against various factors.
Practical implications
The proposed methodology can be applied to find the best logistic plan in real situations.
Originality/value
In this paper, the authors have tried to use a multi-objective optimization model to guide and correct the pharmaceutical supply chain to deal with the related requests. This is important because it can help managers to improve their plans.
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