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The purpose of this paper is to propose an indirect design for sliding surface as a function of position and velocity of each joint (for mounted manipulator on base) and center of mass of mobile base which includes rotation of wheels. The aim is to control the mobile base and its mounted arms using a unified sliding surface.

A new implementation of sliding mode control has been proposed for wheeled mobile manipulators, regulation and tracking cases. In the conventional sliding mode design, the position and velocity of each coordinate are often considered as the states in the sliding surface, and consequently, the input control is found based on them. A mobile robot consisted of non-holonomic constraints, makes the definition of the sliding surface more complex and it cannot simply include the coordinates of the system.

Formulism of both sliding mode control and non-singular terminal sliding mode control were presented and implemented on Scout robot. The simulations were validated with experimental studies, which led to satisfactory analysis. The non-singular terminal sliding mode control actually had a better performance, as it was illustrated that at time 10 s, the error for that was only 8.4 mm, where the error for conventional sliding mode control was 11.2 mm.

This work proposes sliding mode and non-singular terminal sliding mode control structure for wheeled mobile robot with a sliding surface including state variables: center of mass of base, wheels’ rotation and arm coordinates.

The purpose of this paper is to emphasize the relationship between managerial ability, earnings management, internal control quality and audit fees to establish whether or not there is a significant relationship between the variables of managerial ability, earnings management, internal control quality and the audit fees.

The study sample includes 190 listed companies on the Tehran Stock Exchange during 2009–2016. Research hypotheses were tested using the statistical methods of multivariable linear regression and data envelopment analysis pattern.

The obtained results indicate that there is a significant and direct relationship between managerial ability and internal control quality as well as real earnings management and internal control quality. Based on the results obtained from the second hypothesis, the authors could claim that there is an inverse and significant relationship managerial ability and audit fees. The third hypothesis also revealed that in companies with lower audit fees, there is a stronger relationship between managerial ability and internal control quality. The results of related tests show no significant relationship between accrual-based earnings management and internal control quality.

This paper is the first study in Iran whose main focus is on the relationship between managerial ability, earnings management, internal control quality and audit fees.

The purpose of this paper is to identify factors affecting word-of-mouth (WOM) towards Islamic Banking (IB) in Jordan through understanding the roles of service quality and perceived value.

A self-administered survey was hand-delivered to the targeted sample of Islamic banks customers in Jordan. The authors delivered 400 questionnaires to customers from which 352 were deemed valid for the analysis. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed to assess the research constructs validity and composite reliability. Structural path analysis was also used to test the research model and hypothesised relationships between the variables.

Service quality has a positive and significant effect on perceived value and WOM towards IB. Convenience has a positive and significant effect on perceived value. Finally, perceived value has a positive and significant effect on WOM towards IB. Service quality exerted the strongest effect on perceived value and WOM. Also, 38 per cent of variation in perceived value was caused by religious motives, service quality and convenience path, whereas 34 per cent of variation in WOM towards IB was caused by perceived value, service quality and convenience path.

Future research needs to investigate other factors that may affect customers’ WOM concerning IB such as perceived bank image, trust and subjective norms. Future research should investigate other dimensions of perceived value such as social, psychological, emotional, sacrifice value and product values and how they affect WOM. From an international marketing standpoint, comparative studies between Jordanian and non-Jordanian Islamic customers are potential areas of future research for international marketing strategies and cross-cultural consumer behaviour analysis.

The paper identifies the determinants of WOM towards IB. Managers should focus on executing service quality strategies customised towards IB. Convenience is a major driver of perceived value and, then, WOM towards IB. Managers need to focus on key marketing messages that enhance religious motives in customers’ minds and hearts; however, attracting new customers and retaining the current ones depend on the perceived benefits in the areas of service quality, convenience and several value aspects.

This study is the first of its kind to test a model of WOM determinants in IB in Jordan. The study is thought to have made a reasonable contribution to consumer behaviour literature and, specifically, for decision-making process through developing and testing a model of WOM determinants towards IB. The study offers CEOs and marketing managers of Islamic banks new insights into the determinants of WOM and how they contribute to consumers’ decision-making process and attitudes to achieve the intended behavioural outcomes towards IB, which were not available at their hands before. These empirical findings are crucial inputs for marketing strategy formulation and implementation.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a multi-level framework for semantic modeling (MFSM) based on four signification levels: objects, classes of entities, instances and domains. In addition, four fundamental propositions of the signification process underpin these levels, namely, classification, decomposition, instantiation and contextualization.

The deductive approach guided the design of this modeling framework. The authors empirically validated the MFSM in two ways. First, the authors identified the signification processes used in articles that deal with semantic modeling. The authors then applied the MFSM to model the semantic context of the literature about lean manufacturing, a field of management science.

The MFSM presents a highly consistent approach about the signification process, integrates the semantic modeling literature in a new and comprehensive view; and permits the modeling of any semantic context, thus facilitating the development of knowledge organization systems based on semantic search.

The use of MFSM is manual and, thus, requires a considerable effort of the team that decides to model a semantic context. In this paper, the modeling was generated by specialists, and in the future should be applicated to lay users.

The MFSM opens up avenues to a new form of classification of documents, as well as for the development of tools based on the semantic search, and to investigate how users do their searches.

The MFSM can be used to model archives semantically in public or private settings. In future, it can be incorporated to search engines for more efficient searches of users.

The MFSM provides a new and comprehensive approach about the elementary levels and activities in the process of signification. In addition, this new framework presents a new form to model semantically any context classifying its objects.

This study mainly aims to explore the impact of management practices and managerial behavioral attributes on credit rating quality in Tehran Stock Exchange.

In this study, 214 firms were assessed from 2014 to 2020. The credit rating quality was measured through Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution and the entropy weighting method. In accordance with the theoretical literature, managerial entrenchment, managerial myopia, managerial overconfidence and managerial narcissism were considered as the managerial attributes. Furthermore, to examine management practices, cash flow management and accrual management were explored.

The results of this study showed that the cash flow from operations management and the accrual management has a significant positive effect on the credit rating quality. The managerial entrenchment, managerial narcissism and managerial myopia have significant negative effects on credit rating quality, while the effect of managerial overconfidence on credit rating quality is not significant.

Understanding the factors that affect the credit rating quality is of a great importance. Considering the significance of cash management in the present era and the impact of managerial psychological and behavioral characteristics in the development of the organization, empirical results of this study can help investors, capital market regulators and other stakeholders to strengthen the firm and better decisions.

This paper aims to discuss Indonesia as a country having a young generation resource crisis in agricultural sectors, and this crisis contributes more than 32.9 per cent higher unemployment than other sectors. Therefore, creative youths are needed to build the sector through entrepreneurship activities.

The low condition of youth entrepreneurship intention in agricultural sectors leading the Agriculture Ministry of Indonesia launches an Agricultural Young Entrepreneurship Growing Program 2016 (Program Penumbuhan Wirausaha Muda Pertanian, PWMP 2016). Intention in growing phase is critical to avoid the program failure.

This research was aimed to analyze entrepreneurship characteristics and factors affecting the intentions. The research was conducted in three cities, Bogor, Lampung and Bandung, with 189 respondents who accepted business support from the PWMP in 2016. The accumulated data were then analyzed using descriptive analysis and structural equation model. Respondents have highly average trends on behavior belief, normative belief, motivation to comply, control belief, control belief power and intention. While, only the evaluation of the consequence to give the medium trend is about 50.26 per cent.

Factor affects to the entrepreneurship intention in agricultural sectors is a subjective norm or external factor, and both the attitude toward behavior and perceived behavioral control factors do not affect entrepreneurship intention in the agricultural sector.

Climate change has led to a rise in the frequency, intensity and scope of droughts, posing significant implications for businesses. This study examines the impact of local community drought levels on audit pricing. Additionally, it explores the moderating effects of high-tech industries, auditor busyness and the level of local community concern regarding the drought crisis.

This study employs a mixed-methods approach to rigorously test the research hypotheses. The quantitative phase of the study utilizes a sample of 1,278 firm-year observations from Iran’s capital market. For the analysis of the quantitative data, ordinary least squares regression with clustered robust standard errors is used. Additionally, this research supplements its quantitative findings with qualitative evidence obtained through semi-structured interviews with 19 Iranian audit partners.

The results suggest that firms operating in provinces facing severe droughts experience notably higher audit fees. Furthermore, the positive relationship between drought and audit fees is weakened when auditors are busy, local community concern regarding the drought crisis is high or the firm operates within high-tech industries. These findings are supported by a range of robustness checks and qualitative evidence gathered from the field.

This research contributes to the growing literature on climate change by examining the influence of local community drought levels on audit pricing within an Iranian context. Additionally, our study sheds light on how high-tech industries, auditor workload and the level of local community concern regarding the drought crisis moderate the relationship between drought and audit fees. Importantly, our study pioneers in providing mixed-methods evidence of the association between drought severity and audit fees.

Currently, the evaluation of scientific performance of universities is one of the important indicators in various ranking systems. One way to evaluate the academic performance of universities is to analyze the scientific documents of universities in reputable international databases. The purpose of this article is to analyze and evaluate the scientific publications of Alzahra University (Iran) as the top 100–200 universities during 1986–2019.

This study was performed using bibliometrics and visualization techniques. The Scopus database was used to collect data. Affiliation search and advanced search were used to retrieve the data. Excel, VOSviewer and CRExplorer software were used to analyze the data.

The results showed that the scientific publications and received citations by Alzahra University documents during the time have been upward. At the national level, it was the most scientific collaboration with researchers at the University of Tehran. Also at the international level, the most scientific collaboration has been with the United States, Canada and Germany. In total, 80% of scientific publications were published by 20% of authors. Also, 70% of the highly cited articles were published in journals with quartile 1. Finally, clustering results showed that Alzahra University's scientific publications are in five main categories, including “chemistry,” “physics,” “biology,” “psychology and educational sciences” and “accounting sciences, management, and computer science.”

This study could be a good model for evaluating the performance of scientific productions of universities and scientific institutions with bibliometrics and visualization approaches.

The purpose of this study is to identify the situation of evaluating Iranian digital libraries using DigiQUAL protocol.

Evaluative survey research method is used in this study to assess digital libraries. In this way, digital libraries of Iranian research institutes constitute the study population. DigiQUAL protocol actually was used to evaluate eight Iranian digital libraries. Systematic observation and interview based on researcher-made checklist was used for data collection. In fact, checklist was constructed based on DigiQual protocol.

The results showed that Digital Library of Isfahan Science and Technology Town has the best performance and Noor digital library has the lowest operation in studied digital libraries. The overall score of all studied digital libraries was under 60 (out of 100) which shows the average performance of the digital libraries.

This study emphasizes on evaluating active digital libraries in Iran by DigiQUAL protocol. Because digital libraries are new in Iran and their progress need to evaluate their activity, this research was done to demonstrate their situation.