Sharif Digital Repository

Operational capabilities are used in resource based view in strategic management literature to explain how the difference in performing similar activities results in heterogeneity between firms. In order to advance our understanding of this concept, using a system metaphor, we try to shape a framework for micro-level analysis of operational capabilities. Following two stages of holism and focus for identifying system boundaries through looking related literatures, we propose knowledge, skills and tools as general micro elements of operational capabilities in form domain. Using Dependency Structure Matrix (DSM), we finally synthesize our conceptual framework to capture interactions of... 

Every project is temporary and unique in nature. However, knowledge and lessons learned in projects may be used in other projects to improve the project management services. A learned lesson comes from past and current projects, captured through well-defined organizational processes. It aims to capture an essence of an experience which may be utilized to modify the project processes, or the situations for which that lesson applies. Although lessons learned is used in many industries and is an essential part of Project Management Body of Knowledge, no effective process has been defined to capture, validate, and reuse projects' lessons learned. A three stage system was developed and used to... 

People make decisions and express their opinions according to their communities. A natural idea for controlling the diffusion of a behavior is to find influential people, and employ them to spread a desired behavior. We investigate an influencing problem when individuals' behaviors are affected by their friends in an opinion formation process. Our goal is to design efficient algorithms for finding opinion leaders such that changing their opinions has a great impact on the overall external behaviors in the society. We study directed social networks and define a set of problems like maximizing the sum of individuals' behaviors or maximizing the number of individuals whose external behaviors... 

Change occurrence during project's life cycle and its impact on project's success is common concern of all parties in projects. Hence, predicting and managing them to mitigate their negative outcomes is critical. This study offers categorization of changes types, causes and effects arise in Iranian projects and investigates the most prevalent ones through conducting a survey. Findings demonstrate that schedule, information and time are the most frequent type, cause and impact of changes, respectively  

Free Trade Zones (FTZs) around the world offer special advantages to investors and facilitate import/export of goods in order to boost the regional economy. Integrated coastal management in these areas faces special challenges in addition to what ordinary ICZMs usually encounter. For a successful ICZM plan, the very strong business orientation in FTZs has to be taken into account, while other important aspects such as environmental, social, and cultural issues should not be overlooked. The problem becomes more difficult where the free zone is situated in sensitive and valuable environmental circumstances.Kish Island, a free trade zone in the Persian Gulf region, has recently been the focus... 

The purpose of the research is to define and analyze the dominant organizational culture in Kish and to conduct a pilot research in Iran. Designed as a survey, the research employs the five cultural dimensions of Hofstede in organizations, and by different methodology, defines the ranking of each dimension. The sample consists of 254 employees working in two public and five private organizations on Kish-Island. In addition to define the ranking for each of the five dimensions, for the first time in Iran, the survey measures the ranking of long-term orientation, and shows differences between dominant culture in Iran and the Arab countries (opposed to Hofstede's recommendation). The... 

It is widely recognized that knowledge is an essential strategic resource for a firm to achieve sustainable competitive advantage and Knowledge Management (KM) is a fundamental concept for those interested in the ever changing business world. However, KM has received little attention in Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs). Unique characteristics of SMEs affect their approach in knowledge management, so different KM processes should be applied in these firms. SMEs have very simple structures, so they have less difficulty in managing their internal knowledge than large organizations. But this is not the case for external knowledge management, especially external knowledge acquisition...