Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles (MSNs) have received increasing attention in biomedical applicati... more Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles (MSNs) have received increasing attention in biomedical applications due to their tuneable pore size, surface area, size, surface chemistry, and thermal stability. The biocompatibility of MSNs, although generally believed to be satisfactory, is unclear. Physicochemical properties of MSNs, such as diameter size, morphology, and surface charge, control their biological interactions and toxicity. Experimental conditions also play an essential role in influencing toxicological results. Therefore, the present study includes studies from the last five years to statistically analyse the effect of various physicochemical features on MSN-induced in-vitro cytotoxicity profiles. Due to non-normally distributed data and the presence of outliers, a Kruskal–Wallis H test was conducted on different physicochemical characteristics, including diameter sizes, zeta-potential measurements, and functionalisation of MSNs, based on the viability results, and statistical dif...
Journal of Industrial Management Perspective, 2021
In this research, the issue of product allocation in a situation that there are a large number cu... more In this research, the issue of product allocation in a situation that there are a large number customers and goods are various, is investigated. Expanding the level of Internet access and increasing the desire of online shopping, raise the number of customers. In a situation where there is a great variety of goods and a large number of customers, it is difficult to solve issues such as on-time delivery of goods or services, selection and ordering in decentralized warehouses, and the issue of warehouse allocation to customers. To solve these challenges, the use of mathematical modeling with meta-heuristic solution methods has been proposed so far, but due to the large number of allocation modes, solving mathematical models is very complex and it takes time. With the improvement of computing power and storage space, data-driven methods have been studied by researchers to solve these challenges. In this study, a hybrid data-driven solution that uses data mining and mathematical modeling to manage the variety of goods and the number of customers has been proposed, that manages the variety of goods and the number of customers, and can solve mathematical models in less time. This method has been implemented on the data of "DigiKala".
Achieving e-commerce success is influenced by a variety of interrelated activities. Identifying, ... more Achieving e-commerce success is influenced by a variety of interrelated activities. Identifying, analyzing and prioritizing these activities enable decision-makers firstly to evaluate the current success state of Electronic Commerce (EC) businesses more accurately and then to develop an efficient improvement plan to allocate limited resources to achieve a higher level of success. In this research, a Fuzzy Cognitive Maps- analytical hierarchy process (FCM-AHP) approach is used to address this issue by: (1) determining interrelationships between influential activities, (2) determining how much these activities influence each other and the overall success, and (3) prioritizing activities to develop a sound improvement plan. In this approach, the FCM technique is used to indicate all possible causal interrelationships between activities and consider all feedback loops between them. Then, the AHP ( analytic hierarchy process) technique is used to determine the contribution weights of act...
International Journal of Logistics Research and Applications, 2020
Mitigating wastes, manufacturers must make the best decisions when it comes to reusing and recycl... more Mitigating wastes, manufacturers must make the best decisions when it comes to reusing and recycling returned products. As unsatisfactory products are not going to be bought by customers, managers ...
Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCMs) have been widely used for modelling and analysing causal relationship... more Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCMs) have been widely used for modelling and analysing causal relationships and feedback between components of a complex system. This research develops two efficient and effective algorithms for learning FCMs. This research also develops a structured FCM-based methodology for assessing, managing and planning change readiness for implementing a complex information system involving many interrelated readiness-relevant factors. Modelling and analysing a system using the FCM technique can be done by using either experts' knowledge or historical data about the system. This research has two main objectives: (1) developing new, accurate and fast algorithms for analysing historical data to develop FCM models, and (2) developing a FCM-based methodology using experts' knowledge for analysing and managing the readiness of an organisation for implementing a complex information system. To achieve the first objective, this research investigates whether the new forms...
Several taxonomies have been developed about ERP Critical Success Factors (CSFs) but there are fe... more Several taxonomies have been developed about ERP Critical Success Factors (CSFs) but there are few studies about readiness of organisations to accept an ERP system. This paper presents a strategic framework for companies to gain a proper level of readiness for implementing ERP systems. SMEs can make rational decisions about the best time for buying and implementing an ERP system if they understand their current readiness situation. For developing the framework, more than 100 key papers discussing ERP implementation in organisations have been collected and analysed. In this paper just some key papers are represented. Based on the results of analysing different viewpoints, 3 strategic issues and 10 strategies are proposed for gaining readiness for implementing ERP system, using the concept of strategic planning. Research findings of this study help decision makers of SMEs to attain a comprehensive picture about required actions to be accomplished for achieving readiness for implementi...
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose an approach for managing relevant factors and acti... more PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose an approach for managing relevant factors and activities for implementing data governance in an organization. The process of assessing the establishment of data governance in an organization is intrinsically imprecise, due to the characteristics of new problem settings, particularly in relation to newly generated alternatives or vaguely defined qualitative assessment criteria.Design/methodology/approachTo reject the inherent subjectiveness and imprecision involved in the evaluation process, the authors use the concept of fuzzy logic in this approach for developing the assessment model and analyzing the model for allocating the management efforts in the most efficient way to improve the data governance deployment level.FindingsThis paper identifies relevant factors and activities for implementing data governance in an organization and evaluates the state of data governance based on causal relationships between influential factors. In thi...
Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 2021
PurposeThis study through the lens of social learning theory and using the stimulus-organism-resp... more PurposeThis study through the lens of social learning theory and using the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) framework aims to show that employees' social-related use of enterprise social media (ESM) can positively affect their intentions to purchase the fashion products used by their coworkers by mediating role of their perceptions toward their coworkers' credibility in fashion (i.e. physical attractiveness, reliability in communications and experience in fashion).Design/methodology/approachTo evaluate the validity of the measurement and structural models, 361 employees who were able to take advantage of ESM with social-related motivations were surveyed within seven Iranian organizations. The collected data were analyzed using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).FindingsThe results of the study confirmed that employees' social-related use of ESM positively affects their perceptions toward their coworkers' credibility in three dimensions...
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are very costly and difficult to be implemented. Organ... more Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are very costly and difficult to be implemented. Organizations need to be ready for implementing them. They require assessing their current readiness and then, they can perform a range of activities to improve their readiness. The ERP readiness is influenced by many factors which are interrelated and any improvement in one of them has direct and indirect influences on the others. This paper develops a new approach for assessing the ERP readiness in organization by considering casual relationships between influential factors. The approach enables an organization to evaluate its ERP implementation readiness by considering two issues: (1) how the factors influence each other and (2) how they contribute on overall readiness. To address the first issue we use fuzzy cognitive maps (FCMs) and for the second issue we use the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP). An empirical study is conducted to demonstrate the assessment.
Abstract Despite the initial hype surrounding blockchain applications in the supply chain, real-w... more Abstract Despite the initial hype surrounding blockchain applications in the supply chain, real-world implementation of this disruptive technology faces significant challenges. To manage these challenges and ensure a smooth implementation, supply chain organizations must perform various activities to acquire readiness. This paper proposes a readiness assessment and management approach for blockchain implementation in the supply chain. The proposed approach allows supply chain decision-makers to (1) identify the readiness-relevant activities for blockchain implementation, (2) model the causal relationships among the identified activities, (3) assess the activities’ contribution weights to the overall readiness, and (4) develop an effective readiness improvement plan by prioritizing those activities with the most impact on the overall readiness. Fuzzy cognitive maps (FCMs) are employed to model the causal relationships between the activities. The fuzzy best-worst method (FBWM) is adopted to establish the contribution weights of the activities to the supply chain’s overall readiness. The FCM inference process is also used to incorporate feedback loops among the activities. The proposed approach is then illustrated through an empirical study.
Abstract Warranty plays an important role in retaining consumers' loyalty, increasing the com... more Abstract Warranty plays an important role in retaining consumers' loyalty, increasing the competitive advantage and the profit of companies. Moreover, warranty claim prediction based on social media is a novel area, enabling managers to foresee problems in production and take the proper measures to mitigate them. The higher the precision of the warranty claim predictions, the lower the risk the company faces. This paper examines the impacts of utilizing social media data on daily warranty claim prediction. In this paper, we showed that social media data could enhance the accuracy of daily warranty claim predictions. We cooperated with Sam Service Warranty Company that provides warranty and aftersales services for Samsung products in Iran. Warranty operational data along with Twitter data analyses were used to improve the precision of warranty claim prediction. Operational data from Sam Service Company include the total number of warranties, the number of warranties for new customers, and the number of warranties for those who return. A novel framework was presented that uses the Random Forrest algorithm for prediction of the number of daily warranty claims. The results show that our framework improves the accuracy of out-of-sample warranty claims predictions, with respective development at a range of 14.98% to 21.90% across various timeframes. Improving prediction accuracy enables managers to effectively minimize warranty-related costs, inventory levels, waste, and customer dissatisfaction while maximizing the return on investment, profit, efficiency, and customer satisfaction.
PurposeThis study utilized “social cognitive theory” to compare the impacts of organizational mem... more PurposeThis study utilized “social cognitive theory” to compare the impacts of organizational members' hedonic and work-related use of public social networks (SNs) and enterprise social networks (ESNs) on job satisfaction.Design/methodology/approachThe participants comprised 240 employees who were able to simultaneously use SNs and ESNs in the workplace with regard to both hedonic and work-related motives. The measurement and structural models were evaluated using partial least squares structural equations modeling (PLS-SEM).FindingsThe results show that organizational members' hedonic and work-related use of public SNs enhances job satisfaction. However, the hedonic and work-related use of ESNs has negative and positive impacts on job satisfaction respectively.Originality/valueThe main theoretical contribution of this study lies in showing that employees' use of social networks does not necessarily entail detrimental or beneficial consequences and depending on different...
PurposeThis study, based on the cognitive dissonance and commitment theories, aims to show that e... more PurposeThis study, based on the cognitive dissonance and commitment theories, aims to show that employees with high organizational commitment take more advantage of enterprise social networks (ESNs) due to work-related motivations. Furthermore, this study used the tricomponent attitude model to show that the employees' organizational concern and prosocial values mediate the impact of the organizational commitment on the work-related use of an ESN.Design/methodology/approachIn all, 361 employees from seven Iranian companies using different ESN software packages were surveyed. The validity of the hypotheses was evaluated using partial least square–structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).FindingsThe results of this study confirm that the employees' organizational commitment has a positive impact on their work-related use of the relevant ESN directly and through the mediating roles of their organizational concern and prosocial values.Originality/valuePrevious studies have careful...
Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 2019
Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to document that employees’ use of social ne... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to document that employees’ use of social networks (SNs) does not necessarily bring negative consequences and can indirectly benefit organizations and second, to compare the roles of public SNs and enterprise social networks (ESNs) in bringing benefits to organizations. Consequently, this study, on the basis of stimulus‒organism‒response theory, directly investigated and compared the roles of public SNs and ESNs in promoting employees’ organizational commitment from affective, normative, and continuance dimensions with regard to the mediating role of job satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach For this purpose, 240 employees of Asia-Tech Company, one of the high-speed internet service providers in Iran, who had joined Skype for Business ESN, were included in this study. Partial least squares (PLS) method was used to examine the validity of the measurement and structural models. To this end, Warp-PLS software (version 5.0) was em...
An approach for managing readiness-relevant activities using FCM and FAHP is proposed.The approac... more An approach for managing readiness-relevant activities using FCM and FAHP is proposed.The approach models causal relationships between readiness-relevant activities.It also assesses how these activities contribute to the overall readiness.A management matrix for effective allocation of limited management efforts is provided.Scenario analysis was accomplished to work out a readiness improvement plan. Any organization which plans to introduce a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system will carry out a range of activities to improve its readiness for the new system. This paper develops a new approach for managing these interrelated activities using fuzzy cognitive maps (FCMs) and the fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP). This approach enables the organization to (1) identify the readiness-relevant activities, (2) determine how these activities influence each other, (3) assess how these activities will contribute to the overall readiness and (4) prioritize these activities according to their causal interrelationships to allocate management effort for the overall readiness improvement. The approach first uses FCMs and a fuzzy connection matrix to represent all possible causal relationships between activities. It then uses FAHP to determine the contribution weights and uses FCM inference to include the effects of feedback between the activities. Based on the contribution and interrelationships between activities, a management matrix is developed to categorize them into four management zones for effective allocation of limited management efforts. An empirical study is conducted to demonstrate how the approach works.
ABSTRACT An organization requires performing readiness-relevant activities to ensure successful i... more ABSTRACT An organization requires performing readiness-relevant activities to ensure successful implementation of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. This paper develops a novel approach to managing these interrelated activities to get ready for implementing an ERP system. The approach enables an organization to evaluate its ERP implementation readiness by assessing the degree to which it can achieve the interrelated readiness relevant activities using fuzzy cognitive maps. Based on the interrelationship degrees among the activities, the approach clusters the activities into manageable groups and prioritizes them. To help work out a readiness improvement plan, scenario analysis is conducted.
International Journal of Production Economics, 2015
An organization needs to be ready before implementing a complex enterprise resource planning (ERP... more An organization needs to be ready before implementing a complex enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. To achieve this aim, organization has to address two questions: (1) "is the organization sufficiently ready to accept an ERP system" and (2) "what is the most cost effective plan for improving the readiness, if the organization is not sufficiently ready?". To estimate the current readiness an organization must consider the interrelationships between influential readiness factors and find the best improvement plan as a multi-objective trade-off between the two objectives of maximum readiness and lowest cost. In this paper we demonstrate how to calculate the readiness, and then solve the multi-objective optimization problem. We estimate readiness by using fuzzy cognitive maps to include all the complex causal relationships between factors. We solve the multi-objective optimization problem by using the NSGA-II evolutionary algorithm. The final result is a set of optimal improvement plans where an organization can choose which plan suits it the best.
Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles (MSNs) have received increasing attention in biomedical applicati... more Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles (MSNs) have received increasing attention in biomedical applications due to their tuneable pore size, surface area, size, surface chemistry, and thermal stability. The biocompatibility of MSNs, although generally believed to be satisfactory, is unclear. Physicochemical properties of MSNs, such as diameter size, morphology, and surface charge, control their biological interactions and toxicity. Experimental conditions also play an essential role in influencing toxicological results. Therefore, the present study includes studies from the last five years to statistically analyse the effect of various physicochemical features on MSN-induced in-vitro cytotoxicity profiles. Due to non-normally distributed data and the presence of outliers, a Kruskal–Wallis H test was conducted on different physicochemical characteristics, including diameter sizes, zeta-potential measurements, and functionalisation of MSNs, based on the viability results, and statistical dif...
Journal of Industrial Management Perspective, 2021
In this research, the issue of product allocation in a situation that there are a large number cu... more In this research, the issue of product allocation in a situation that there are a large number customers and goods are various, is investigated. Expanding the level of Internet access and increasing the desire of online shopping, raise the number of customers. In a situation where there is a great variety of goods and a large number of customers, it is difficult to solve issues such as on-time delivery of goods or services, selection and ordering in decentralized warehouses, and the issue of warehouse allocation to customers. To solve these challenges, the use of mathematical modeling with meta-heuristic solution methods has been proposed so far, but due to the large number of allocation modes, solving mathematical models is very complex and it takes time. With the improvement of computing power and storage space, data-driven methods have been studied by researchers to solve these challenges. In this study, a hybrid data-driven solution that uses data mining and mathematical modeling to manage the variety of goods and the number of customers has been proposed, that manages the variety of goods and the number of customers, and can solve mathematical models in less time. This method has been implemented on the data of "DigiKala".
Achieving e-commerce success is influenced by a variety of interrelated activities. Identifying, ... more Achieving e-commerce success is influenced by a variety of interrelated activities. Identifying, analyzing and prioritizing these activities enable decision-makers firstly to evaluate the current success state of Electronic Commerce (EC) businesses more accurately and then to develop an efficient improvement plan to allocate limited resources to achieve a higher level of success. In this research, a Fuzzy Cognitive Maps- analytical hierarchy process (FCM-AHP) approach is used to address this issue by: (1) determining interrelationships between influential activities, (2) determining how much these activities influence each other and the overall success, and (3) prioritizing activities to develop a sound improvement plan. In this approach, the FCM technique is used to indicate all possible causal interrelationships between activities and consider all feedback loops between them. Then, the AHP ( analytic hierarchy process) technique is used to determine the contribution weights of act...
International Journal of Logistics Research and Applications, 2020
Mitigating wastes, manufacturers must make the best decisions when it comes to reusing and recycl... more Mitigating wastes, manufacturers must make the best decisions when it comes to reusing and recycling returned products. As unsatisfactory products are not going to be bought by customers, managers ...
Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCMs) have been widely used for modelling and analysing causal relationship... more Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCMs) have been widely used for modelling and analysing causal relationships and feedback between components of a complex system. This research develops two efficient and effective algorithms for learning FCMs. This research also develops a structured FCM-based methodology for assessing, managing and planning change readiness for implementing a complex information system involving many interrelated readiness-relevant factors. Modelling and analysing a system using the FCM technique can be done by using either experts' knowledge or historical data about the system. This research has two main objectives: (1) developing new, accurate and fast algorithms for analysing historical data to develop FCM models, and (2) developing a FCM-based methodology using experts' knowledge for analysing and managing the readiness of an organisation for implementing a complex information system. To achieve the first objective, this research investigates whether the new forms...
Several taxonomies have been developed about ERP Critical Success Factors (CSFs) but there are fe... more Several taxonomies have been developed about ERP Critical Success Factors (CSFs) but there are few studies about readiness of organisations to accept an ERP system. This paper presents a strategic framework for companies to gain a proper level of readiness for implementing ERP systems. SMEs can make rational decisions about the best time for buying and implementing an ERP system if they understand their current readiness situation. For developing the framework, more than 100 key papers discussing ERP implementation in organisations have been collected and analysed. In this paper just some key papers are represented. Based on the results of analysing different viewpoints, 3 strategic issues and 10 strategies are proposed for gaining readiness for implementing ERP system, using the concept of strategic planning. Research findings of this study help decision makers of SMEs to attain a comprehensive picture about required actions to be accomplished for achieving readiness for implementi...
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose an approach for managing relevant factors and acti... more PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose an approach for managing relevant factors and activities for implementing data governance in an organization. The process of assessing the establishment of data governance in an organization is intrinsically imprecise, due to the characteristics of new problem settings, particularly in relation to newly generated alternatives or vaguely defined qualitative assessment criteria.Design/methodology/approachTo reject the inherent subjectiveness and imprecision involved in the evaluation process, the authors use the concept of fuzzy logic in this approach for developing the assessment model and analyzing the model for allocating the management efforts in the most efficient way to improve the data governance deployment level.FindingsThis paper identifies relevant factors and activities for implementing data governance in an organization and evaluates the state of data governance based on causal relationships between influential factors. In thi...
Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 2021
PurposeThis study through the lens of social learning theory and using the stimulus-organism-resp... more PurposeThis study through the lens of social learning theory and using the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) framework aims to show that employees' social-related use of enterprise social media (ESM) can positively affect their intentions to purchase the fashion products used by their coworkers by mediating role of their perceptions toward their coworkers' credibility in fashion (i.e. physical attractiveness, reliability in communications and experience in fashion).Design/methodology/approachTo evaluate the validity of the measurement and structural models, 361 employees who were able to take advantage of ESM with social-related motivations were surveyed within seven Iranian organizations. The collected data were analyzed using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).FindingsThe results of the study confirmed that employees' social-related use of ESM positively affects their perceptions toward their coworkers' credibility in three dimensions...
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are very costly and difficult to be implemented. Organ... more Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are very costly and difficult to be implemented. Organizations need to be ready for implementing them. They require assessing their current readiness and then, they can perform a range of activities to improve their readiness. The ERP readiness is influenced by many factors which are interrelated and any improvement in one of them has direct and indirect influences on the others. This paper develops a new approach for assessing the ERP readiness in organization by considering casual relationships between influential factors. The approach enables an organization to evaluate its ERP implementation readiness by considering two issues: (1) how the factors influence each other and (2) how they contribute on overall readiness. To address the first issue we use fuzzy cognitive maps (FCMs) and for the second issue we use the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP). An empirical study is conducted to demonstrate the assessment.
Abstract Despite the initial hype surrounding blockchain applications in the supply chain, real-w... more Abstract Despite the initial hype surrounding blockchain applications in the supply chain, real-world implementation of this disruptive technology faces significant challenges. To manage these challenges and ensure a smooth implementation, supply chain organizations must perform various activities to acquire readiness. This paper proposes a readiness assessment and management approach for blockchain implementation in the supply chain. The proposed approach allows supply chain decision-makers to (1) identify the readiness-relevant activities for blockchain implementation, (2) model the causal relationships among the identified activities, (3) assess the activities’ contribution weights to the overall readiness, and (4) develop an effective readiness improvement plan by prioritizing those activities with the most impact on the overall readiness. Fuzzy cognitive maps (FCMs) are employed to model the causal relationships between the activities. The fuzzy best-worst method (FBWM) is adopted to establish the contribution weights of the activities to the supply chain’s overall readiness. The FCM inference process is also used to incorporate feedback loops among the activities. The proposed approach is then illustrated through an empirical study.
Abstract Warranty plays an important role in retaining consumers' loyalty, increasing the com... more Abstract Warranty plays an important role in retaining consumers' loyalty, increasing the competitive advantage and the profit of companies. Moreover, warranty claim prediction based on social media is a novel area, enabling managers to foresee problems in production and take the proper measures to mitigate them. The higher the precision of the warranty claim predictions, the lower the risk the company faces. This paper examines the impacts of utilizing social media data on daily warranty claim prediction. In this paper, we showed that social media data could enhance the accuracy of daily warranty claim predictions. We cooperated with Sam Service Warranty Company that provides warranty and aftersales services for Samsung products in Iran. Warranty operational data along with Twitter data analyses were used to improve the precision of warranty claim prediction. Operational data from Sam Service Company include the total number of warranties, the number of warranties for new customers, and the number of warranties for those who return. A novel framework was presented that uses the Random Forrest algorithm for prediction of the number of daily warranty claims. The results show that our framework improves the accuracy of out-of-sample warranty claims predictions, with respective development at a range of 14.98% to 21.90% across various timeframes. Improving prediction accuracy enables managers to effectively minimize warranty-related costs, inventory levels, waste, and customer dissatisfaction while maximizing the return on investment, profit, efficiency, and customer satisfaction.
PurposeThis study utilized “social cognitive theory” to compare the impacts of organizational mem... more PurposeThis study utilized “social cognitive theory” to compare the impacts of organizational members' hedonic and work-related use of public social networks (SNs) and enterprise social networks (ESNs) on job satisfaction.Design/methodology/approachThe participants comprised 240 employees who were able to simultaneously use SNs and ESNs in the workplace with regard to both hedonic and work-related motives. The measurement and structural models were evaluated using partial least squares structural equations modeling (PLS-SEM).FindingsThe results show that organizational members' hedonic and work-related use of public SNs enhances job satisfaction. However, the hedonic and work-related use of ESNs has negative and positive impacts on job satisfaction respectively.Originality/valueThe main theoretical contribution of this study lies in showing that employees' use of social networks does not necessarily entail detrimental or beneficial consequences and depending on different...
PurposeThis study, based on the cognitive dissonance and commitment theories, aims to show that e... more PurposeThis study, based on the cognitive dissonance and commitment theories, aims to show that employees with high organizational commitment take more advantage of enterprise social networks (ESNs) due to work-related motivations. Furthermore, this study used the tricomponent attitude model to show that the employees' organizational concern and prosocial values mediate the impact of the organizational commitment on the work-related use of an ESN.Design/methodology/approachIn all, 361 employees from seven Iranian companies using different ESN software packages were surveyed. The validity of the hypotheses was evaluated using partial least square–structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).FindingsThe results of this study confirm that the employees' organizational commitment has a positive impact on their work-related use of the relevant ESN directly and through the mediating roles of their organizational concern and prosocial values.Originality/valuePrevious studies have careful...
Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 2019
Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to document that employees’ use of social ne... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to document that employees’ use of social networks (SNs) does not necessarily bring negative consequences and can indirectly benefit organizations and second, to compare the roles of public SNs and enterprise social networks (ESNs) in bringing benefits to organizations. Consequently, this study, on the basis of stimulus‒organism‒response theory, directly investigated and compared the roles of public SNs and ESNs in promoting employees’ organizational commitment from affective, normative, and continuance dimensions with regard to the mediating role of job satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach For this purpose, 240 employees of Asia-Tech Company, one of the high-speed internet service providers in Iran, who had joined Skype for Business ESN, were included in this study. Partial least squares (PLS) method was used to examine the validity of the measurement and structural models. To this end, Warp-PLS software (version 5.0) was em...
An approach for managing readiness-relevant activities using FCM and FAHP is proposed.The approac... more An approach for managing readiness-relevant activities using FCM and FAHP is proposed.The approach models causal relationships between readiness-relevant activities.It also assesses how these activities contribute to the overall readiness.A management matrix for effective allocation of limited management efforts is provided.Scenario analysis was accomplished to work out a readiness improvement plan. Any organization which plans to introduce a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system will carry out a range of activities to improve its readiness for the new system. This paper develops a new approach for managing these interrelated activities using fuzzy cognitive maps (FCMs) and the fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP). This approach enables the organization to (1) identify the readiness-relevant activities, (2) determine how these activities influence each other, (3) assess how these activities will contribute to the overall readiness and (4) prioritize these activities according to their causal interrelationships to allocate management effort for the overall readiness improvement. The approach first uses FCMs and a fuzzy connection matrix to represent all possible causal relationships between activities. It then uses FAHP to determine the contribution weights and uses FCM inference to include the effects of feedback between the activities. Based on the contribution and interrelationships between activities, a management matrix is developed to categorize them into four management zones for effective allocation of limited management efforts. An empirical study is conducted to demonstrate how the approach works.
ABSTRACT An organization requires performing readiness-relevant activities to ensure successful i... more ABSTRACT An organization requires performing readiness-relevant activities to ensure successful implementation of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. This paper develops a novel approach to managing these interrelated activities to get ready for implementing an ERP system. The approach enables an organization to evaluate its ERP implementation readiness by assessing the degree to which it can achieve the interrelated readiness relevant activities using fuzzy cognitive maps. Based on the interrelationship degrees among the activities, the approach clusters the activities into manageable groups and prioritizes them. To help work out a readiness improvement plan, scenario analysis is conducted.
International Journal of Production Economics, 2015
An organization needs to be ready before implementing a complex enterprise resource planning (ERP... more An organization needs to be ready before implementing a complex enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. To achieve this aim, organization has to address two questions: (1) "is the organization sufficiently ready to accept an ERP system" and (2) "what is the most cost effective plan for improving the readiness, if the organization is not sufficiently ready?". To estimate the current readiness an organization must consider the interrelationships between influential readiness factors and find the best improvement plan as a multi-objective trade-off between the two objectives of maximum readiness and lowest cost. In this paper we demonstrate how to calculate the readiness, and then solve the multi-objective optimization problem. We estimate readiness by using fuzzy cognitive maps to include all the complex causal relationships between factors. We solve the multi-objective optimization problem by using the NSGA-II evolutionary algorithm. The final result is a set of optimal improvement plans where an organization can choose which plan suits it the best.
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Papers by Sadra Ahmadi