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Brain drain inflicts serious economic and social hardships on developing countries. Consequently, these countries resort to such measures as governmental regulations and economic incentives, which aim to slow down emigration of their skilled professionals. However, these measures prove generally ineffective. Furthermore, predictive research on brain drain finds only further increase in, rather than any decline of, the exodus of skilled professionals from developing countries, which exacerbates the brain drain problem. This paper advocates the use of expert systems to alleviate the scarcity of expertise caused by brain drain. The use of expert systems for this purpose appears logical, because these systems have been successfully used to combat similar problems in developed countries.

Information technology can play a strategic role at micro as well as at macro — organizational and national‐levels. Developed countries have extensively benefitted from this technology at both levels. Can developing countries duplicate this experience with the technology and thereby foster healthy economic environment within their boundaries and strengthen their abilities to compete in the global markets? This paper addresses this issue. The paper evaluates the prevalent applications of information technology in developing countries, deliberates the potential of the technology, and presents a framework for realizing this potential. The framework proposes strategies to assure smooth and accelerated diffusion of technology in organizations. Importantly, the framework points out the factors, unique to developing countries, that must be addressed in technology planning and implementation. Ignoring these factors may result in failed systems and continued technological disadvantage.

The application of correct contractor selection strategies leads to the selection of a qualified contractor and, as a result, the on-time delivery of the project with the desired quality and within the predetermined budgetary constraints. For this reason, evaluating and qualifying contractors before reviewing the proposed prices has been considered an important issue. One factor that disrupts the project completion process and the failure to achieve pre-planned goals effectively is the occurrence of contractors' disputes and claims in projects. To this end, the present study explores claim-reduction strategies for selecting effective contractors in an uncertain environment to reduce possible problems.

The two-step grey data envelopment analysis (GDEA) approach was used to measure efficiency as a powerful tool in selecting efficient contractors during tenders. This approach can extend the applications of multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) models. In other words, given some uncertainties, the unavailability of some data, and the problems with the DEA model, the two-step GDEA model was used to rank the contractors. The data confirmed the satisfactory outcomes from the selected model.

The preliminary assessment of contractors is a pre-tendering process and a step in categorizing contractors, excluding contractors lacking required qualifications, and selecting efficient contractors. At first, it will help the employer to exclude inexperienced and unqualified contractors, save resources and time, reduce threats, replace opportunities with threats, and reduce material and non-material costs during the completion of the project until the projects are put into operation. Consequently, this approach reduces claims to a minimum level and increases the organization's effective material and non-material profit.

Oil and gas plans and projects have a significant, sensitive, and decisive role in the economic, social, political, cultural, infrastructural, and all-round development of Iran; This is while most of the financial resources needed to implement the development and programs across the country come from oil revenues. Studies have indicated that despite the importance of these plans and projects, many of them are not completed successfully, and this causes irreparable losses to the country's economy and development in various fields.

1. The findings of this study can be used by organizations to select more effective contractors to assign projects and plans to them.

2. The preliminary assessment of contractors is a pre-tendering process and a step in categorizing contractors, excluding contractors who lack required qualifications, and finally selecting efficient contractors.

3. At first, it will help the employer to exclude inexperienced and unqualified contractors, save resources and time, reduce threats, replace opportunities with threats, and reduce material and non-material costs during the completion of the project until the projects are put into operation.

4. This approach also gives credit to the employer during the execution period and contributes to assessing unqualified contractors and reducing the temptation to hand over the project to an unqualified contractor but with a lower bid price.

5. Consequently, this approach reduces claims to a minimum level and increases the effective material and non-material profit of the organization.

6. Moreover, it provides an extra-organizational evaluation for contractors, motivating them to upgrade their capabilities and optimally allocate material and non-material resources, especially human resources.

The findings of this study can be used by organizations to select more effective contractors to assign projects and plans to them.

The preliminary assessment of contractors is a pre-tendering process and a step in categorizing contractors, excluding contractors who lack required qualifications, and finally selecting efficient contractors.

At first, it will help the employer to exclude inexperienced and unqualified contractors, save resources and time, reduce threats, replace opportunities with threats, and reduce material and non-material costs during the completion of the project until the projects are put into operation.

This approach also gives credit to the employer during the execution period and contributes to assessing unqualified contractors and reducing the temptation to hand over the project to an unqualified contractor but with a lower bid price.

Consequently, this approach reduces claims to a minimum level and increases the effective material and non-material profit of the organization.

Moreover, it provides an extra-organizational evaluation for contractors, motivating them to upgrade their capabilities and optimally allocate material and non-material resources, especially human resources.

Offshore structures are among the structures exposed to fire more often. Most of these structures are likely to be associated with flammable materials. In this research, some of the structures constructed on top of marine decks have been studied.

For this purpose, the upper-bound theory of plastic analysis has been used to investigate its collapse behavior. In this way, genetic algorithm has been used for application of the combination of elementary mechanisms in the classic plastic analysis problem.

The studied structures are optimized by plastic analysis theory before and after the fire and their failure modes are compared with each other. The comparison of the results indicates significant changes in the load factor value, as well as the critical collapse mode of the structure before and after the fire.

Results indicate that the combination of plastic analysis and a genetic algorithm can predict the collapse mode of the structure before and after the fire accurately.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effect of CRM performance and technological innovation on performance of media entrepreneurs considering firm size.

This is an analytical study used to empirically test the hypotheses proposed for SEM techniques using PLS and R packages. It used two steps in this way: the assessment of the outer model and the assessment of the inner model. Moreover, a bootstrapping method was employed to test indirect effects. Data were collected by distributing 127 questionnaires between the managers and deputies of active firms across Rasht, Iran.

The effect of CRM performance on SMEs performance development is partially mediated by media entrepreneurship. Moreover, the effect of technological innovation on SMEs performance development is mediated by media entrepreneurship. Furthermore, permutation test results indicated that there is no significant difference between small- and medium-sized firms.

This study used cross-sectional sampling method that can seriously limit result generalization. Therefore, conducting longitudinal studies is strongly recommended.

The results of IPMA matrix indicated the serious importance of technological innovation, as a variable with the highest importance for SMEs performance development. Nevertheless, this variable has received the lowest importance in the studied population. Therefore, SMEs’ managers should pay sufficient attention to the concepts of “product innovations” and “process innovations.”

This study is of high importance in that it has adopted new and effective indices for statistical analysis. IPMA matrix, permutation test, CTA and FIMIX are examples. In addition, plspm and Matrixpls packages in R were used for the first time in this study.

This paper aims to assess the relationship between a knowledge-based economy and fraudulent financial reporting.

The study is descriptive-correlation based on published information from enlisted firms on the Tehran Stock Exchange during 2013–2019 with a sample of 178 firms (1,246 observations). The method used for hypothesis testing is linear regression using the panel data.

The results show that a knowledge-based economy is associated negatively and significantly with financial reporting. Moreover, robust testing has also examined the hypotheses (including fixed effects, OLS and t + 1) that confirmed the study’s preliminary results.

As the study was carried out in the emergent financial markets, like Iran, to figure out the relationship between knowledge-based economy and financial reporting, it can provide helpful information for the practitioners in this field.

This study endeavours to (a) develop a comprehensive interpretive structural modelling (ISM) toolkit containing sufficient details about the suitability and procedural aspects of each ISM approach and offer points of reference for budding researchers, (b) highlight the compatibility of ISM approaches with other qualitative and quantitative approaches, and (c) chalk-out an agenda for future research.

This study is based on an extensive review of 74 studies where researchers have used one or more ISM approaches. These studies span across the different industry sectors.

There exists a huge void in terms of the methodological synthesis of ISM approaches. ISM approaches are frequently used in sync with other qualitative and quantitative approaches. Furthermore, it highlights the need of improving the robustness of the proposed ISM models by sharing the critical details of research process.

Being a review-based work, it could not illustrate the discussed ISM approaches with real data. However, it offers a research agenda for the prospective researchers.

The prerequisites, pitfalls, suitability and the procedural aspects of various ISM approaches contained in this toolkit are equally useful for the academicians as well as practitioners.

In the absence of a synthesized framework, this study contributes a comprehensive ISM toolkit which will help the researchers to choose a suitable ISM approach in a given case.

This study aims to explore the indigenous needs of married women in Pakistan due to the public health challenges they face due to marital conflict. The research focuses on investigating psychometric properties and cross-cultural validation of the revised dyadic adjustment scale’s (RDAS) Urdu translated version to assess marital relationship quality between married madrassa and non-madrassa women. The study examines empirically validated two-factor model (RDAS) between married madrassa and non-madrassa women (Busby et al., 1995; Hollist et al., 2012; Isanezhad et al., 2012; Christensen et al., 2006) and (Bayraktaroglu and Cakici, 2017). These studies approach including consensus, satisfaction and cohesion.

The investigators executed the study into two phases: a pilot test and the main survey.

The pilot study's findings specified that the Urdu translated version of the revised DAS indicated a decent internal consistency (a = 0.70). The overall revised DAS maintained a stronger test-retest correlation and tested it over 15 days (r = 0.95). The main study recorded 300 respondents' responses from madrassa and non-madrassa married women using a purposive sampling approach and recruited them from the locality of various madrassas and housing societies of Islamabad, Azad Kashmir and Rawalpindi, Pakistan. The study findings showed higher intercorrelations between total and subscales of the revised DAS. It further compared the groups with a multi-group confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) method and examined the revised DAS structure in married madrassa and non-madrassa women.

This study contributes to scientific knowledge and helps develop and validate indigenous cross-cultural instruments to examine marital life quality. It offers practical and reliable information about Pakistani couples' emotional attachment and marriage adjustment issues.

The study applied a three-factor solution, and it demonstrated a robust factorial validity in the context of Pakistani culture, which is a novel contribution to the literature.

The present study aims at quantifying the likely impacts of an environmental tax on macroeconomic variables and pollution in Iran.

The computable general equilibrium model, which allows the prediction of the economy-wide effects of any change in policy instruments, is applied.

The main findings reveal that gross domestic product, private consumption and income in both urban and rural areas will follow a declining trend as a result of environmental tax imposition. In a scenario with the highest level of tax, the predicted percentage change to the gross domestic product and private consumption is estimated at −21.32 and −40.96, respectively. In the same scenario, pollution emissions would decrease by 12.4–22.6% for CO2, CH4 and N2O.

This study uses a general equilibrium model to examine the effects of the carbon tax on environmental issues and household welfare, considering the unique conditions and regulations of Iran. While the related literature examines the CO2 tax, the current study covers more pollutants, including CO2, CH4, N2O, CO, SO2 and NOx. In addition, a distinguishing feature of the current study is that it applies a modified version of the social accounting matrix (SAM) database, which includes the heavy subsidies of energy products. Another significant feature of the current study is that it examines tax policy while tax rates are exerted endogenously (compared to previous studies).

This paper aims to present a dynamic model based on casual relationships among the most important effective factors on business–IT alignment in Agile businesses by using system dynamics modeling approach.

To study the most important factors on agility and alignment, the data were collected by questionnaires filled by 201 experts and were analyzed by SPSS and PLS. Casual relationships among studied factors and efficiency coefficients of each factor were identified by fuzzy DEMATEL technique and analyzed by MATLAB and EXCELL. Finally, the dynamic model was plotted by VENSIM.

According to the results, only “learning IT capabilities” are the most important casual factor that has the highest influence on the other factors. “Business responding capabilities” take the highest effect from the system, and “business sensing capabilities” are in the next rank.

This study underpins effective IT deployment toward developing efficient IT capabilities to gain greater agility.

The dynamic capabilities view (DCV) has emerged as an influential theoretical and management framework in modern IS and agility researches. In this regard, we propose a conceptualization of dynamic capabilities in the form of an alignment model. Based on the dynamic capabilities, and on the alignment perspectives found in Henderson and Venkatraman’s seminal model, IT alignment is modeled as a process of reconfiguration of the firm’s IT and organizational resources, competencies and capabilities.