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Considering the importance of small and medium-sized industrial units for economic growth, social cohesion, regional and local development, this study presents a model for the merger so that they can make use of each other’s capacities and facilities to achieve higher efficiency levels. The involved criteria have been chosen using the SCOR model with the consideration of sustainability, resilience and agility criteria in each part of the supply chain network. PCA has been used to reduce the dimensionality and the efficiency of units has been determined by network DEA. Next, a mathematical model has been used to determine the best combination for merger. The model chosen for the finalization of the merger process is inverse network DEA, which tries to determine the final inputs of the merged units for a specific target. In addition to theoretical benefits, the results have practical applications. The results can give supply chain partners a common language for better communication and help them settle on standardized definitions. The model has been implemented using real-world data gathered from other articles, which pertain to 26 stone industries of Iran. The DEA model and the mathematical model have been solved through GAMS and the PCA approach through MATLAB.

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2008.09.038 Byline: Mehdi Mahnam, Mohammad Reza Yadollahpour, Vahid Famil-Dardashti, Seyed Reza Hejazi Keywords: Supply chain management; Uncertainty; Fuzzy sets; Multi-objective decision making; Simulation optimization; Particle swarm optimization Abstract: Supply chain is viewed as a large-scale system that consists of production and inventory units, organized in a serial structure. Uncertainty is the main attribute in managing the supply chains. Managing a supply chain (SC) is very difficult, since various sources of uncertainty and complex interrelationships among various entities exist in the SC. Uncertainty may result from customer's demand variability or unreliability in external suppliers. In this paper we develop an inventory model for an assembly supply chain network (each unit has at most one immediate successor, but any number of immediate predecessors) which fuzzy demand for single product in one hand and fuzzy reliability of external suppliers in other hand affect on determination of inventory policy in SCM. External supplier's reliability has determined using a fuzzy expert system. Also the performance of supply chain is assessed by two criteria including total cost and fill rate. To solve this bi-criteria model, hybridization of multi-objective particle swarm optimization and simulation optimization is considered. Results indicate the efficiency of proposed approach in performance measurement. Author Affiliation: Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan 84156-83111, Iran Article History: Received 22 September 2007; Accepted 23 September 2008

This paper develops a new mathematical model to study a location-routing problem with simultaneous pickup and delivery under the risk of disruption. A remarkable number of previous studies have assumed that network components (e.g., routes, production factories, depots, etc.) are always available and can permanently serve the customers. This assumption is no longer valid when the network faces disruptions such as flood, earthquake, tsunami, terrorist attacks and workers strike. In case of any disruption in the network, tremendous cost is imposed on the stockholders. Incorporating disruption in the design phase of the network will alleviate the impact of these disasters and let the network resist disruption. In this study, a mixed integer programming (MIP) model is proposed that formulates a reliable capacitated location-routing problem with simultaneous pickup and delivery (RCLRP-SPD) services in supply chain distribution network. The objective function attempts to minimize the sum of location cost of depots, routing cost of vehicles and cost of unfulfilled demand of customers. Since the model is NP-Hard, three meta-heuristics are tailored for large-sized instances and the results show the outperformance of hybrid algorithms comparing to classic genetic algorithm. Finally, the obtained results are discussed and the paper is concluded.

Purpose: Technology entrepreneur' competence is one of the main domains of study in the field of technology entrepreneurship. In the dominant rationalistic view, competence is seen as constituted by a set of components used in performing particular functions. This study aims to expand this field of study by using an interpretive view. Design/methodology/approach: Phenomenology is proposed and explored as an interpretive methodology that is more compatible with technology entrepreneurship. The empirical material is based on interviews with 19 technology entrepreneurs who have established new technology-based firms in Iran. Findings: Findings show that the nature of the technology entrepreneurship's competence is emergent, holistic and relational. Also, the entrepreneurs' perception of entrepreneurship specifies which competence's components they develop and what meaning these components take. Originality/value: By examining how technology entrepreneurs experience competence in the context of business creation, this study moves beyond the lists or categories of competencies, and it contributes to a broader understanding of competence at technology entrepreneurship.

This paper discusses the coordination of pricing, lot-sizing and advertising policies in a dual-channel supply chain including one manufacturer and one retailer. The manufacturer produces one type of product and sells it to the retailer at wholesale price and also directly to consumers through direct channel. Consumers buy the product at retail price from the retailer and with direct sale price from the manufacturer. Demand depends on price and advertising efforts. Relationship between the manufacturer and the retailer has been modelled by two non-cooperative games of Nash and Stackelberg-retailer and one cooperative game. Finally, the change effect of the important parameters on the profit functions and the decision variables has been investigated. The results show that with increasing the cross-price sensitivity, the manufacturer's equilibrium profit for the two non-cooperative games increases. However, the increase in this parameter has no effect on the retailer's equilibrium profit.

In this study, pricing decisions are investigated on a dual-channel supply chain including one manufacturer and multiple retailers. The manufacturer sells a product through the internet and through the retail channel, simultaneously. It is assumed that the market is controlled by the manufacturer. Thus, the manufacturer becomes leader and the retailers perform as followers. In this setting, the Bertrand and collusion game-theoretic models are developed to analyse the pricing strategies among the retailers. Then, the equilibrium decisions are compared and some managerial insights are presented. It is found that the manufacturer's profit and the profit of the whole system given by the Bertrand game are higher than by the collusion, while this inference is reversed for the retailers' profits. Moreover, larger the number of the retailers in the retail channel leads to lower retailers' profits, whereas the manufacturer's profit and the profit of the whole system increase.

Technological entrepreneurship capabilities (TEC) offer a set of capabilities that help a firm to perform better in the exploration and exploitation of environmental opportunities. Open innovation (OI) concept is based on the knowledge in- and outflows across organisational boundaries. This study aims to discuss the link between OI and TEC. Literature review reveals a partial correlation between TEC and OI. The effort involve in identifying a set of relations between OI mechanisms and TEC dimensions in high-tech firms. A conceptual model and three scenarios have been investigated using fuzzy cognitive mapping. The scenarios deal with the effects of 'out-in', 'in-out', and coupled mechanisms of OI on TEC, respectively. Results revealed that implementing OI improves TEC, but the exploitation of 'in-out' mechanisms would leave a greater effect on technology paradigm and linkage dimensions, whereas the 'out-in' mechanism would rather affect the learning capabilities.

The vehicle routing problem with general soft time window involves designing a set of routes for a fleet of vehicles based at a central depot that is required to service a number of geographically dispersed customers while minimizing the total travel distance and delivery time costs. Delivery time cost function is a general piecewise linear function. In this study, we propose a mathematical model of this problem. Then an efficient hybrid column generation-metaheuristic approach is developed. In the proposed algorithm, the hybridization of column generation (CG) and the metaheuristic is performed in both integrative and collaborative modes. In the integrative phase, a quantum-inspired evolutionary algorithm is used to solve the sub-problems of column generation. In the collaborative phase, the column generation and electromagnetism algorithms are parallelized, and the information from these two algorithms is exchanged to find better solutions. Finally, the performance of the proposed approach is evaluated using a set of modified classic benchmark instances adopted from the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, for organisations to survive the socio-economical competition and achieve sustainable improvement, it is necessary to acquire the information about the performance, strategies of competitors, technological as well as procedural changes. Organisations may design a unique system for measuring their performance in order to come to the best decisions in due time. Using a new approach, this study aims at evaluating the performance of physical education divisions of Isfahan province. In this paper, the performance of 21 physical education divisions is analysed using the data envelopment analysis (DEA) and Shannon entropy. Input and output indicators have been specified separately in four departments: public sport, championships sport, educational and development and construction. DEA models have been solved for approaches using output-oriented BCC model and the efficient and inefficient divisions have separately been determined in all departments. To integrate the four efficiency scores obtained for each physical education division and ranking the divisions, two approaches have been used: the entropy method and a virtual unit. The results show an average efficiency of 85% for total divisions. 76% of physical education divisions in public sports fields, 62% in championships sports, 52% in the developmental and construction activities and 66% in educational department have had 100% efficiency.

To have information about the performance of units under supervision in an organisation is the most important task of management regarding appropriate decisions for leading. In this regard, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of units and their ranking is of particular importance to manager and the physical education organisation is not exceptional for this rule. This study aimed to evaluate the performance of 21 physical education divisions in Isfahan Province using data envelopment analysis (DEA). Input and output indicators have separately been selected in public sport, championships, educational and developmental departments. DEA models have been solved for all approaches with output-oriented BCC model and the efficient and inefficient physical education divisions have been determined in four departments. Physical education divisions were ranked by calculating ideal and anti-ideal DMU and relative closeness (RC) based on the TOPSIS approach. According to the result of ranking by RC, Najafabad and Khansar ranked as the best and the worst divisions, respectively.

This study aims to create a model to use internal measures for service quality evaluation. Using internal measures provides continuous (daily) service quality measurement and faster improvement efforts allocation, we find them more applicable and useful for service quality measurement. This paper demonstrates that using SERVQUAL lonely cannot be efficient, so we need some new improvements. This study proposes a model that can use internal measures for continuous and more effective evaluation. The quality function development method is used for translating customer expectation to internal measures. SERVQUAL dimensions or statements are employed as customer expectation that they are perceived by SERVQUAL questionnaire. Moreover, this paper tries to optimise this translation by a mixed integer linear programming mathematical model. This model can optimise the service quality translation to enrich the internal evaluation with customer opinions. Finally, the proposed model is employed for optimising the evaluation of the train’s internal service quality.

Supply chain coordination has gained considerable notice lately from both practitioners and researchers. This paper develops a model for illustrating how to use credit period to achieve supply chain coordination. A single vendor and a single buyer in a two-echelon supply chain are considered. The proposed model focuses on a centralised decision in the supply chain. We discuss how the credit period is to be determined in order to achieve channel coordination and a win–win outcome. Coordination can be achieved only in this case where both parties get a cost lower than the one in the case without coordination. The proposed model can improve the global system performance and its cost efficiency. Also, numerical examples are solved to show the efficiency of the proposed model.