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Abstract Astrocytes respond and contribute to neuroinflammation by adopting inflammatory reactive states. Although recent efforts have characterized the gene expression signatures associated with these reactive states, the cell biology underlying inflammatory reactive astrocyte phenotypes remains under-explored. Here, we used CRISPR-based screening in human iPSC-derived astrocytes to identify mTOR activation a driver of cytokine-induced endolysosomal system remodeling, manifesting as alkalinization of endolysosomal compartments, decreased autophagic flux, and increased exocytosis of certain endolysosomal cargos. Through endolysosomal proteomics, we identified and focused on one such cargo–IL-32, a disease-associated pro-inflammatory cytokine not present in rodents, whose secretion mechanism is not well understood. We found that IL-32 was partially secreted in extracellular vesicles likely to be exosomes. Furthermore, we found that IL-32 was involved in the polarization of inflammatory reactive astrocyte states and was upregulated in astrocytes in multiple sclerosis lesions. We believe that our results advance our understanding of cell biological pathways underlying inflammatory reactive astrocyte phenotypes and identify potential therapeutic targets.

In this study, an attempt has been made to investigate the impact of psychological factors on the fluctuations of coin prices in the market. Psychological factors belong to a category of factors that have given rise to the subfield of behavioral economics. On the other hand, price fluctuations near certain numbers, are an example of market inefiiciency, which contradicts the foundation of classical economic theories. The period under study in this research ranges from 1392 to 1400, including a period of price stability (1392-1396) and a priodof high fluctuations due to international sanctions(1396-1400). The price range during this period has been from 800000 Tomans to 16000000 Tomans.The GARCH (Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity) approach is used to estimate the corresponding equation. Here, a 10-day period is considered, and four time intervals around the barriers are examined. To further investigate the hypotheses and the distribution of prices around random numbers, the Nikooyi fitting method is used. The research results confirm the existence of price clustering phenomenon for coins during the period of 1396-1400. The results indicate that the dispersion of numbers in prices is not uniform, and prices show reactions to random numbers. On the other hand, the existence of this psychological phenomenon leads to the creation of a coin bubble or the deviation of coin prices from the equivalent price of 10 grams of gold, which is considered as the real and intrinsic value of the coin. In bullish market conditions, the coin bubble is more significant, but in bearish and stable market conditions, this bubble decreases."

Abstract TAR DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43) proteinopathy in brain cells is the hallmark of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) but its cause remains elusive. Asparaginase-like-1 protein (ASRGL1) cleaves isoaspartates, which alter protein folding and susceptibility to proteolysis. ASRGL 1 gene harbors a copy of the human endogenous retrovirus HML-2, whose overexpression contributes to ALS pathogenesis. Here we show that ASRGL1 expression was diminished in ALS brain samples by RNA sequencing, immunohistochemistry, and western blotting. TDP-43 and ASRGL1 colocalized in neurons but, in the absence of ASRGL1, TDP-43 aggregated in the cytoplasm. TDP-43 was found to be prone to isoaspartate formation and a substrate for ASRGL1. ASRGL1 silencing triggered accumulation of misfolded, fragmented, phosphorylated and mislocalized TDP-43 in cultured neurons and motor cortex of female mice. Overexpression of ASRGL1 restored neuronal viability. Overexpression of HML-2 led to ASRGL1 silencing. Loss of ASRGL1 leading to TDP-43 aggregation may be a critical mechanism in ALS pathophysiology.

Objective: While inefficiencies in the financial markets are the leading cause of capital misallocation, options market efficiency is a major area of interest within this field of study. Since arbitrage efforts to take advantage of arbitrage profit opportunities in the options market lead the market to efficiency, the current study seeks to explore arbitrage strategies that can be used in this regard. Methods: In the literature, there are two strategies to do the options market efficiency tests. The first strategy is to compare the market price with the implied price derived from theoretical models such as the Black-Scholes model. The second strategy is no-arbitrage options pricing relations violation test based on the hypothesis that there is no arbitrage opportunity in the market (i.e., the selected approach in this research). The advantage of examining no-arbitrage options pricing relations is that they can provide a simple way of testing the efficiency of the options market without imposing restrictions on the preferences of investors or distributional assumptions on the return of the underlying asset. The description of variables measured in empirical studies changes over time and between the different countries and research conditions. The meta-analysis approach (based on studies published from 1978 to 2019) was used to identify arbitrage strategies and the amount of profit from each strategy. In addition, the analysis of variance and a one-sample t-test was used to rank and compare the strategies. In total, 54 empirical studies with the support of more than 3.7 million options transactions and 1,315 effect sizes (research sample) were meta-analyzed. Results: The results showed that in the whole sample, the options market is always efficient. This means that the cumulative effect size for the whole sample (empirical tests performed in different countries and different time periods) is significantly different from zero. In addition, in combined strategies (which include both buy and sell options), there is more arbitrage profit opportunity than in simple strategies. The reliability of the tests was evaluated by applying 26 experimental conditions. Conclusion: In all cases, the superiority of combined strategies was confirmed. On the other hand, the reasons for the divergence of efficiency in the options market were discovered. First, combined strategies in which options are traded simultaneously have made the options market inefficient. Accordingly, it is argued that market efficiency is underestimated in cases where no-arbitrage relations are based on trading strategies including simultaneous trading of put and call. On the other hand, in such strategies, investors earn more arbitrage profit. It was pointed out that the most likely reason for this result is the complexity of these strategies, which requires the simultaneous efficiency of the call market, the put market, and the spot market. For example, in different countries, assuming transaction costs in the presence of dividends and etc., the research results remain robust.

Managers can maximize shareholders' wealth by managing variables in the financial structure (such as capital structure, dividend, and investment). Using corporate governance mechanisms, shareholders try to guide managers in this direction. The sample of this research is the statistical tests in past experimental studies that experimentally tested the research hypotheses. In this research, with the meta-analysis approach (in seven stages), the influence of the aforementioned variables on corporate governance and their effect on financial performance is tested. Due to the presence of three intermediate variables, three hypotheses about the effect of corporate governance on the mentioned variables and three hypotheses about the effect of intermediate variables on financial performance, and one hypothesis on the direct effect of corporate governance on financial performance were designed and 64 studies including a total of 260 effect size (r type) that their publication dates were between 1993 and 2019 were meta-analyzed. In the groups of the sample where the effect sizes were divergent, the random effects method, and for the convergent cases, the fixed effects method was used to calculate the cumulative effect size. Based on the results, corporate governance affects financial performance, capital structure, dividends, and investment. In addition, all three variables of capital structure, dividend, and investment have a significant influence on financial performance. For each hypothesis, after determining the size of the joint effect, a robustness test has been performed and analyzed on the results.IntroductionIn many past studies, the impact of corporate governance on the company's financial performance has been measured directly (Che et al., 2008). It is expected that corporate governance will lead to the improvement of financial performance not directly but through the impact on some structural variables of the company. If these variables do not have a favorable impact on corporate governance or on performance, the impact of corporate governance on performance will be distorted. In this research, the effect of corporate governance on mediating variables and the effect of mediating variables on financial performance are tested with a meta-analysis approach. After meta-analyzing about 110 studies searched with the keywords of corporate governance and financial performance, the mediating variables identified are capital structure (Hussainey and Aljifri, 2012), dividend (Elmagrhi, et al. 2017), and investment (Sharma, 2012). Optimal capital structure as a structure for which the wealth of shareholders is maximized is one of the mediators of corporate governance and performance. While the dividend is one of the important factors studied by previous studies in maximizing shareholders' wealth. Opportunistic managers use the extra cash for their self-serving. With the effective implementation of corporate governance mechanisms, dividend policy works to overcome agency problems (Ogden, et al., 2003). Does corporate governance influence management actions? Do companies with different degrees of governance experience different managerial practices? Do management practices facilitate the achievement of the goal of maximizing shareholders` wealth? And in general, has the development of corporate governance directly or indirectly affected the company's financial performance? These are the questions that the authors were motivated to find answer to solve the functional paradox of corporate governance and performance. Methods & MaterialThe meta-analysis of this research has been implemented in seven stages. In the first stage, corporate governance as an independent variable, financial performance as a dependent variable, and capital structure, dividend, and investment as intermediate variables were defined. In the second stage, three main steps, including determining keywords, determining databases, and searching for studies, were implemented. Indexing databases include Science Direct, Emerald, Google Scholar, SSRN, ResearchGate, Jstor, and Semantic Scholar and keywords include “Corporate governance, Board of directors, Board independence, Ownership, Concentration, Institutional ownership, Performance, Financial performance, ROE, ROS, ROA, Tobin’s Q, EVA, Return on equity, Return on Sales, Return on assets, Economic value added, Capital expenditure, Corporate investment, Positive NPV projects, Dividend, DPS, Capital structure, Debt ratio, and Leverage ratio”. In the third stage, after applying the conditions: 1) the subject of the research is following one of the hypotheses of this meta-analysis, 2) the information necessary to calculate the effect size is reported, and 3) the study is correlational. 64 published studies including 260 empirical tests (the sample of this research) were meta-analyzed between 1993 and 2019. In the fourth stage, general information, information related to the effect size, and information necessary for the reliability test were extracted, sorted in the form of an Excel spreadsheet, and entered into the CMA software for the next steps. In the fifth step, the effect size was calculated for each member of the sample (each test). In cases where the correlation coefficient between the independent and dependent variable has been calculated, the correlation coefficient has been recorded as the r effect size. In cases where the regression analysis method was used, the t statistic corresponding to each regression coefficient was converted into the effect size r with the following formula (Rosenthal, 2001).where “t” is the value of the test statistic, and n is the number of observations in the empirical test in the field study. In the sixth step, the cumulative effect size was calculated for each hypothesis. After testing the hypotheses using the significance of the cumulative effect size, it has been tried to check the robustness of the results by changing the research conditions. FindingsIn all hypotheses, the common effect size is divergent, that is, it is related to a group of different effect sizes with high deviation, and the random effects method is used for calculating the cumulative effect size. The results indicate the rejection of the null hypothesis related to all hypotheses. In other words, the effect of corporate governance on financial performance and all three mediating variables and the effect of all three mediating variables on financial performance are confirmed. Therefore, based on the meta-analysis of past studies, capital structure, dividends, and investment play a mediating role between corporate governance and financial performance. To robustness check the results, the answer to this question is considered: Does the relationship between corporate governance and financial performance change with changing the research conditions? The conditions that are the basis of the robustness check include the country's development, the corporate governance index, and the time of the study. That is, it is checked that when the tests are separated based on the development of the countries, the time of the empirical study, and the indicators of corporate governance, do the results remain the same? The robustness check results show that in developed countries the results of hypothesis 1 remain stable, but the impact of investment and dividends on financial performance is not. The time of empirical studies was categorized into three subperiods (2005-2009), (2010-2014), and (2015-2019). The direct relationship between corporate governance and financial performance and capital structure, even though it was positive and significant in the whole sample and the past, in recent years, has become insignificant. The impact of dividends and investment on financial performance and the impact of corporate governance on investment in recent years, i.e., from 2015 to 2019, has been positive and significant. In other words, these five relationships have changed from a negative state in the past years to a significant positive state in recent years. Conclusions and ResultsDuring the first hypothesis test, the existence of a positive relationship between corporate governance and financial performance and the repetition of this relationship in developing and developed countries have shown the success of shareholders in directing management and governance policies to protect their wealth. This effect on the level of financial performance indicators due to the positive and significant impact on asset return, equity return, and Q-tubin shows that the corporate governance system has been able to align the accounting and market indicators of financial performance. Since the independence of the board of directors and the audit committee has the greatest impact on financial performance (Buallay, et al., 2017; Kajola, 2008; Merendino & Melville, 2019), it is appropriate for shareholders to try to ensure that the board of directors is not empty of independent directors and that internal audit and a strong internal control system are under the supervision of independent members of the board. The positive relationship between corporate governance and capital structure, and dividends, as well as its significant relationship with financial performance (especially return on equity and return on assets) and the strengthening of both relationships in the last five years, allow this index to be one of the mediators of performance. Shareholders have managed to direct the company's financial policies to improve financial performance through corporate governance. This and the effective role of many corporate governance indicators show the effectiveness of the corporate governance system in this regard. Investment is the last mediating variable between corporate governance and financial performance. The positive relationship of this variable with corporate governance and financial performance (especially return on assets and Q-Tobin) has made it accepted as one of the mediators of these two variables in this research. It means that the shareholders have been able to control the investment policies of the management and improve the financial performance criteria through that.

Taxes as one of the economic policy tools reduce the welfare of taxpayers gradually, which leads them to avoid paying taxes, either legally or illegally and it has caused a drastic and worrying reduction in government revenue through taxes. Tax evasion phenomena is one of the essential economic problems in developing countries incloding Iran increasingly. Also, misalignment and asymmetric information of tax system of the countries about the causes of tax evasion can be added to expand it. Identifying the factors that cause tax evasion is very effective in preventing it and helping to estimate the amount of tax evasion in the community. There have been studies on the causes of tax evasion in recent years in different approach. In this paper, the meta-analysis approach has been used to determine the factors affecting tax evasion and the severity of their relationship with tax evasion for Iran. The results showed that variables such as economic factors, per capita income, technology factors, social factors, legal factors, inflation, cultural factors, trade restriction, tax burden, unemployment and government volume are factors that influence tax evasion and the cultural factors have the highest impact on tax evasion and the income per capita has the lowest impact. Factors affecting tax evasion, respectively, the most effective and their correlation coefficient are cultural factors (0.577), legal factors (0.543), social factors (0.539) and economic factors (0.467), volume Government (0.399), trade restrictions (0.392), inflation (0.367), unemployment (0.357), tax burden (0.241), technology factors (0.194) and per capita income (0.192).

Abstract Atypical Teratoid Rhabdoid Tumor (AT/RT) is a rare pediatric central nervous system cancer often characterized by deletion or mutation of SMARCB1, a tumor suppressor gene. In this study, we found that SMARCB1 regulates Human Endogenous Retrovirus K (HERV-K, subtype HML-2) expression. HML-2 is a repetitive element scattered throughout the human genome, encoding several intact viral proteins that have been associated with stem cell maintenance and tumorigenesis. We found HML-2 env expression in both the intracellular and extracellular compartments in all AT/RT cell lines (n = 4) and in 95% of AT/RT patient tissues (n = 37) evaluated. SMARCB1 knock-down in neural stem cells (NSCs) led to an upregulation of HML-2 transcription. We found that SMARCB1 binds adjacent to the HML-2 promoter, repressing its transcription via chromatin immunoprecipitation; restoration of SMARCB1 expression in AT/RT cell lines significantly downregulated HML-2 expression. Further, targeted downregulation of HML-2 transcription via CRISPR-dCas9 coupled with suppressor proteins led to cellular dispersion, decreased proliferation, and cell death in vitro. HML-2 knock-down with shRNA, siRNA, and CRISPR-dCas9 significantly decreased Ras expression as measured by qRT-PCR, suggesting that HML-2 modulates MAPK/ERK signaling in AT/RT cells. Overexpression of NRAS was sufficient to restore cellular proliferation, and MYC, a transcription factor downstream of NRAS, was bound to the HERV-K LTR significantly more in the absence of SMARCB1 expression in AT/RT cells. We show a mechanism by which these undifferentiated tumors remain pluripotent, and we demonstrate that their formation is aided by aberrant HML-2 activation, which is dependent on SMARCB1 and its interaction with MYC.

A new area in capital asset pricing is violation of direct investment assumption leading to agency CAPM. The aim of this study is to make a comparative analysis between direct and agency capital asset pricing models. So, we compared single-factor, FF three-factor and five-factor CAPM concerning agency and direct investment using the data obtained from Tehran Stock Exchange from 2009 to 2016. To test the capital asset pricing models, two methods of zero Alpha of time series models (using GRS statistics) and Beta pricing (based on Fama-Macbeth test) were used. The results of Fama-Macbeth test showed that all the capital asset pricing model, three-factor and five-Factor Model of Fama& French would yield better results in agency conditions compared to the direct conditions.

One of the major issues investors are facing with in capital markets is decision making about select an appropriate stock exchange for investing and selecting an optimal portfolio. This process is done through the risk and expected return assessment. On the other hand in portfolio selection problem if the assets expected returns are normally distributed, variance and standard deviation are used as a risk measure. But, the expected returns on assets are not necessarily normal and sometimes have dramatic differences from normal distribution. This paper with the introduction of conditional value at risk ( CVaR), as a measure of risk in a nonparametric framework, for a given expected return, offers the optimal portfolio and this method is compared with the linear programming method. The data used in this study consists of monthly returns of 15 companies selected from the top 50 companies in Tehran Stock Exchange during the winter of 1392 which is considered from April of 1388 to June of 1393. The results of this study show the superiority of nonparametric method over the linear programming method and the nonparametric method is much faster than the linear programming method.

Consumer perception regarding the uncertainty and adverse consequences of buying a product or service is regarded as one of the most important determinants for understanding consumer behavior affecting his decision-making process. The consumer perception is influenced by a number of factors and situations. Hence, it is necessary to develop a model for explaining risk perception of individual investors in the investment services market. The present study is an applied and descriptive-survey research. A self-administrated questionnaire was used for collecting the research data the reliability and validity of which were measured and confirmed in this study. In order to analyze the research data and test the research hypotheses, path analysis was used through SPSS and LISREL. The results revealed that risk propensity, trust, self-efficiency and investors’ knowledge have a significant effect on individual investors' perceived risk. In addition, the results showed that the perceived risk has a significant impact on attitude and tendency to invest.

The aim of current study was to examine the effect of perceived risk of potential tourist, middle-east image and familiarity on Iran’ image destination. For this purpose, a mixed method approach was considered. The members of couch-surfing and linkedin participated in both qualitative and quantitative studies. 74 respondents participated in the qualitative study and 520 respondents participated in the qualitative study. Content analysis techniques were used to identify the dimensions of the destination image. Available non-random sampling was used in qualitative study. The data of destination image and perceived risk dimensions were identified by exploratory factor analysis and relationships between the constructs of the model were investigated by confirmatory factor analysis using Amos. The results of qualitative method identified eight dimensions for Iran’ destination image. The results of exploratory factor analysis identified six dimensions for Irans’ image and three dimensions for perceived risk. The findings showed that perceived risk, Middle East image and familiarity had impact on the Image of Iran and destination image had impact on intention to visit Iran.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of control mechanisms of corporate governance on cash holdings in companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange. Given the development of companies and the introduction of representation theory and increased duties and authorities of the board, a question has been raised more seriously how managers who are not actually the owners of the company pursue the interests of shareholders.Considering unlimited powers delegated by the owners to the board, attention given to corporate governance has increased dramatically. Corporate governance is a set of control mechanisms within the company and outside the company that makes an appropriate balance between the equity and the needs and authority of the board. Finally, these mechanisms make the shareholders, fund suppliers and other interested groups sure that investment will be back with reasonable profits and their interests will be considered. To test the hypotheses, a sample of companies listed inTehran Stock Exchange during 2005 to 2012 has been selected. To see the effect of corporate governance on the level of cash holdings, multivariate regression model was used. For this purpose, 90 companies were chosen ad analyzed for the study. 9 criteria were used to calculate the corporate governance and the effect of the 9 criteria was tested using the software of Stata11. The results showed that the corporate governance has a positive effecton cash holdings. Among the 9 criteria, the dichotomy duties of the President of the Board & CEO, the percentage of non-responsibility, the opinion of the auditor, the change of the auditor and the independency of audit organization had no significant effect on the level of cash holdings. The rate of benefits received, however, had a negative effect while the size of Board of Directors, the percentage of institutional ownership and reliance on debt had a positive effect.

The purpose of this study is to develop a brand equity model for Isfahan as a tourism destination. The statistical population of this study consists of the inbound tourists who have traveled to Isfahan in November 2013. A sample of 200 tourists has been selected from this population. A self-administrated questionnaire has been used for collecting the research data. In order to analyze the research data and test the hypotheses, both descriptive and inferential statistics have been used. The results reveal that the tourism destination brand awareness significantly influences the perceived value, tourist satisfaction, tourism destination brand image, and tourist loyalty. The results also indicated that the perceived value significantly influences tourism destination image, tourist satisfaction and loyalty. The findings also showed that tourist satisfaction significantly influences tourism destination brand image and do not significantly influences tourist loyalty. Finally, the results revealed that tourism destination brand image significantly influences tourist loyalty.

Abstract Stock Exchange Market as a capital market works by outfit of private saving and allocating that to productive and industrial investments and recognizing effective factors on investment in stock exchange market can be regard as a start point in attracting public corporation. Hereon the individual investors and attracting their capitals are very important because of their effect on economic variables such as investment rate, volume of existing cash in the society and inflation rate. Therefore, financial and economic policy makers should have sufficient recognition of their behaviors in order to attract this social group's capitals and help them in adopting correct decision in capital market. This research tries to find an answer for the question of how individual investors in regional Isfahan Stock Exchange Market decide regarding buying the stock and which factors are effective in their decision making process. Results confirm that at error rate of 0.05, openness to new experiences and informational efficiency of the companies which are exchange member are effective on return maximizing policy, the exchange significance in family economy and informational are efficiency of the companies which are exchange member effective on technical inclination, perceived economic risks is effective on performance evolution criteria diversification and openness to new experiences and informational efficiency of the companies which are exchange member are effective on perceived performance evolution.

Stock liquidity is one of the criteria that the investors consider in their portfolio decisions. The earning management is one of the other factors that influences stock liquidity. This could examine in terms of discretionary-related earning management and the real earning management. Therefore the main purpose of this study is to estimate earning management based on the Liquidity trading companies and also examine its effect on stock liquidity of companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange. This study conducted through regression model based on panel data and then hypotheses tested through this. The results of data analysis and hypotheses test indicated that the Liquidity trading companies significantly influence stock liquidity negatively. Also effect of mediator factors on Liquidity trading companies and stock liquidity has been examined. These factors include standard deviation of daily stock returns, the average daily turnover of stocks, the average closing price of stocks traded, the average number of daily transactions of stocks, and market value of company. Also the results indicated that effects of these factors haven’t been accepted.

Improvement of human resources performance for achieving goals of the organization, is one of the most important subjects in all organizations. Therefore it's necessary schematization of plans and solutions for decreasing strain and increasing satisfaction and then Organizational Citizenship Behaviors, One of the most important of the activities is recognition of the effective variables on the OCBs for its preservation, increasing and reinforcement. This meta-analytical study wants to uphold and support the negative relation between strains & OCBs, and it has recognized the moderator variables (the characteristics of the research participants) that have been affected this relationship. Statistic society is the hole of the studies that have investigated the relationship between strains and OCBs, total studies are 169 with 845 effect sizes. Meta-analytic results revealed a negative relationship between strains and OCBs (ρ = -.21). Furthermore, this relationship is moderated by the characteristics of the research participants: the kind of gender, the number of year (tenure), the quantity of the income (or salary), and the kind of religion.

The role of marketing in explaining firms’ business performance has received significant attention throughout the history of the marketing discipline. Over the past two decades, researchers have considerably enhanced the conceptual understanding of the role of marketing in enabling firms to create and sustain a competitive advantage. Recent advances in the marketing–performance interface have also begun to provide more empirical evidence of the impact of specific marketing activities and different types of marketing-related assets on firms’ performance. On the other side, results of studies in many academic fields that are conducted about a specific issue are usually confusing and contrasting. Meta-analysis is a research approach that helps the researcher to a large extent to identify the moderating variables in the results of previous studies. Despite various researches having been conducted, such contrast is also observed in the relationship between marketing activities and organization performance. Characteristics of the research topic can be referred to among the several reasons that have been mentioned for such divergence in similar studies. It was tried in the present survey to identify the role of moderating variables regarding the characteristics of the research topic in the relationship between marketing activities and organization performance using the meta-analysis approach. The results revealed that the moderating variables related to the characteristics of the research topic consisting of marketing activity indexes, organization performance indexes, researcher field and year of publication of the research have been led to a significant difference in the results of studies regarding the effect of marketing activities on performance of organizations. Keywords: Marketing activities, Organization performance, Characteristics of research topic, Meta-analysis approach.

Business process reengineering (BPR) –the key mechanism for fundamental redesign in processes has a critical role in productivity improvement. But it needs some enablers in initiation phase including human resources acceptance. There are two behavioral theories containing factors for acceptance promotion: Innovation Diffusion and Technology Acceptance Model. In this research we have used these theories combined with BPR construct to develop a model named Business Process Reengineering Acceptance Model. By gathering survey data, this model has been tested in Isfahan Jahad Agriculture Organization. The results show that systematic factors have more effect on BPR acceptance by the employees and managers. This effect is moderated by ease of BPR execution, ease of BPR requirements providing and BPR usefulness.

Payoffs from information technology (IT) continue to generate interest and debate both among academicians and practitioners. These have led the decision makers to confusion about IT effect on firms` financial performance; they don’t know either high or low effect is because of internal or external factors of organizational environment. The mechanism for decreasing the risks is to identify the causes. In this paper we examine one of the intermediaries affecting the IT and firms’ financial performance relationship: country e-readiness. Meta-Analysis is an experienced approaches coping with the research context. Applying this approach we examine 380 studies (from 49 research reports) of IT effect on firm-level financial performance. Based on appropriate statistical tests, we present statistical evidence about country e-readiness as a factor that discriminates different field studies in terms of the positive or negative effect of IT on financial performance. The results indicate that countries e-readiness has a positive relation with IT payoffs in past studies.

بازاریابی یا مدیریت بازار، بخشی از فعالیت های سازمان ها است که نقشی حیاتی در حضور استراتژیک این سازمان ها در بازار دارد. در اواخر دهه 80 و اوایل دهه 90، تردیدهایی نسبت به ارزش فعالیت های بازاریابی در شرکت ها مطرح شد. این تردید ها ناشی از برخی اقدامات ضعیف شرکت ها در انجام فعالیت های بازاریابی و همچنین بروز تحولات و چالشها در عرصه بازار است. می توان ادعا کرد که بازاریابی هم چنان اهمیت خود را حفظ کرده است اما چهره بازاریابی و نحوه پرداختن به آن تغییر کرده است. در این مقاله سعی بر آن است که به بررسی چالش ها، مشکلات و راهکارهای لازم برای موفقیت در کسب برتری رقابتی در بازاریابی بویژه در آغاز هزاره سوم پرداخته شود.