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The purpose of our study is to examine the functioning of internal capital markets (ICMs) within business groups in Iran. We document how the ultimate owner's economic interests in affiliated firms influence their investment and dividend policies.

Using hand-collected data on the ownership structures of Iranian firms, we first identify group-affiliated firms using Almeida et al.’s (2011) method. Having identified business groups, we test a number of hypotheses concerning the dynamics of the ICMs and the implications of the ultimate owner’s incentives for affiliated firms’ behavior.

We first demonstrate that investments of group-affiliated firms are less sensitive to their own cash flow (as compared to stand-alone firms) but are sensitive to the cash flows of other firms affiliated with the same group near or at the bottom of the ownership structure. We next find significant variation in dividend policy within groups, with notably higher dividends for firms close to the ultimate owner. Furthermore, we find that higher investments by firms close to the owner lead to lower dividends by firms positioned far from the owner, but the reverse does not hold.

We are the first to examine the effect of group-affiliated firms’ investments on the dividend policies of other firms based on their position within the group. Our findings illuminate how business groups prioritize funding investments in their closely held firms over paying dividends to outside investors in firms positioned farther from the group owner.

Resilient hospitals have the vital role in reducing mortality, severity of injuries by providing required emergency services during accidents and disasters. This study aims to identify and prioritize key indicators on hospital resilience.

This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2019. The draft of the indicators obtained from the systematic review of the previous study was finalized, with three expert panel sessions and 14 experts in resilience fields. The outputs of these sessions were divided into three domains including constructive resilience, infrastructural resilience and administrative resilience, 17 sub-domains and 71 indicators. Then fuzzy analytic network process method was used to weight and prioritize the final indicators of hospital disaster resilience.

Administrative resilience, logistic and financial management and strategic outsourcing agreement allocated the highest weight as domain, sub-domains and indicators, respectively. The weight of each sub-domain and indicator was also determined.

Investigating the weight of domains, sub-domains and indicators shows the importance of managerial and operational issues in hospital resilience. By using the indicators and relative weights, a tool for measuring hospital disaster resilience can be created in further studies. The output of these assessments is effective in promoting safety and increasing awareness of hospital managers and health policymakers.