Mona Jami Pour, Mahnaz Hosseinzadeh and Hannan Amoozad Mahdiraji
Today, social media is counted as an integral part of marketing strategies, which has led to a paradigm change in this field. As reported, social media marketing has been growing…
Abstract
Purpose
Today, social media is counted as an integral part of marketing strategies, which has led to a paradigm change in this field. As reported, social media marketing has been growing over the recent five years and is predicted to be exponentially growing in the future. However, despite the huge promise and intention to adopt social media marketing strategies by organisations, there remain challenges regarding the successful implementation of these new marketing programmes. Accordingly, marketing managers’ awareness of the success factors of social media marketing is essential to return investment in this area. Due to the little research been accomplished in this field, this paper aims to identify the success factors of social networks’ marketing and to rank the factors by using of interval best-worst method (BWM).
Design/methodology/approach
To serve the research aims, an extant literature review is accomplished and a focus group approach is conducted to identify the main success factors and sub-factors. To analyse the focus group discussions, a qualitative content analysis approach is applied. Interval BWM is used to calculate the weights of each identified factor.
Findings
In the final framework, six main success criteria, including strategy, process, technology, content, performance evaluation and people are identified, for each sub-criteria are developed. The interval BWM results suggest the content criterion as the most important success factor in developing a social media marketing strategy.
Research limitations/implications
First, this research provides a comprehensive insight into the success factors and best practices of social media marketing. This is the first to draw on the critical factors affecting the success of social media marketing, considering people in the organisation such as top management, employees and customers, strategy, process and performance evaluation focussing on the change management requirements for applying social media marketing and technology as the technical factor of the adoption process, simultaneously. Identifying critical success factors of social media marketing will help marketing managers to avoid falling into the trap of developing social media strategies based on less important areas and ignoring the critical ones. Besides, owing to the limited resources of organisations in implementing social media marketing strategies, prioritising and weighing the success factors will lead to a focus on more important areas.
Originality/value
Whilst the related studies have mostly concentrated on the capabilities and activities required to conduct social media marketing and the few research investigated the critical success factors most concentrated on the customer and the content-related factors, the finding of this research goes beyond that and suggests technical, process and human aspects simultaneously in the implementation process in a holistic view.
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Mahnaz Hosseinzadeh, Marzieh Samadi Foroushani, Hakim Ghayem and Mohammad Reza Mehregan
While the petroleum industry remains to be the main source of energy in the world, it is responsible for a large amount of resource consumption, environmental emission and safety…
Abstract
Purpose
While the petroleum industry remains to be the main source of energy in the world, it is responsible for a large amount of resource consumption, environmental emission and safety issues. In this industry, most of the refinery equipment are running out of their designed life cycle, leading to many challenges regarding equipment reliability, products quality, organizations’ profitability, human resources safety and job satisfaction, and environmental pollution, which affects not only the human resources of the refinery but also the people who live in the vicinity. This study aims to model and simulate the maintenance system of an oil refinery to reduce the rotating equipment’s downtime while simultaneously considering the three pillars of sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach
Considering the complexity of the system and its inherent dynamism, System Dynamics (SD) approach is applied to model and simulate the maintenance system of an oil refinery, aiming at reducing equipment’s downtime considering the three pillars of sustainability simultaneously. As a case study, the maintenance system of rotating equipment in the Abadan oil refinery of Iran is investigated.
Findings
Individual policies are investigated and categorized into three main groups: economic, social and environmental. The dynamic nature of the system demonstrates that applying combinations of the policies would be more effective than performing individual ones or even a combination of all policies at the same time. The findings show that to manage the maintenance and reliability issues in complex industries, only operational level maintenance strategies would not be helpful; rather, a holistic strategic solution counting different suppliers or even the government policies supporting the operational level maintenance decisions would be effective.
Originality/value
This study is the first which brings the perspective of sustainable policy-making in the SD modeling of a complex maintenance system like that of the petroleum industry. The developed model considers economic, environmental and social objectives simultaneously. Besides, it reflects the role of different stakeholders in the system. Furthermore, the policy-making attempt is not limited to the operational level corrective and maintenance solutions; instead, a comprehensive, holistic view is applied.
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Mona Jami Pour, Mahnaz Hosseinzadeh and Maryam Moradi
The Internet of Things (IoT), as one of the new digital technologies, has created wide applications in various industries, and one of the most influential industries of this…
Abstract
Purpose
The Internet of Things (IoT), as one of the new digital technologies, has created wide applications in various industries, and one of the most influential industries of this technology is the transportation industry. By integrating the IoT with the transportation industry, there will be dramatic changes in the industry, and it will provide many entrepreneurial opportunities for entrepreneurs to develop new businesses. Opportunity identification is at the heart of the entrepreneurial process, and entrepreneurs identify innovative goods or services to enter a new market by identifying, evaluating, and exploiting opportunities. Despite the desire of transportation managers to invest in the IoT and the increase in research in this area, limited research has focused on IoT-based entrepreneurial opportunities in the transportation industry. Therefore, the present study aims to identify IoT-based entrepreneurial opportunities in the transportation industry and examine their importance.
Design/methodology/approach
To achieve the research objective, the authors applied a mixed approach. First, adapting the lens of the industry value chain theory, a comprehensive literature review, besides a qualitative approach including semi-structured interviews with experts and thematic analysis, was conducted to identify the entrepreneurial opportunities. The identified opportunities were confirmed in the second stage using a quantitative survey method, including the Student t-test and factor analysis. Finally, the identified opportunities were weighted and ranked using the best worst method (BWM).
Findings
Entrepreneurial opportunities are classified into five main categories, including “smart vehicles”, “business partners/smart transportation supply side”, “supporting services”, “infrastructures”, and “smart transport management and control”. The infrastructures group of opportunities ranked the highest amongst the identified groups.
Originality/value
This study adds to the digital entrepreneurship opportunity recognition literature by addressing opportunities in a smart industry propelled by digital technologies, including developing new products or new applications of the available technologies. Additionally, inspired by the industry value chain theory, this article develops a framework including various digital entrepreneurial opportunity networks which are necessary to add value to any industry and, thus, could be applied by entrepreneurs to recognize opportunities for new intermediaries to enter other digital-based industries. Finally, the present study identifies the IoT-based entrepreneurial opportunities in the smart transportation industry and prioritizes them, providing practical insights regarding the creation of entrepreneurial ecosystems in the field of smart transportation for entrepreneurs and policymakers.
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Mahnaz Hosseinzadeh, Marzieh Samadi Foroushani and Razieh Sadraei
The study aims to identify the dynamic complexities and development points of the entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) in the agricultural sector of Iran to improve production factors'…
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to identify the dynamic complexities and development points of the entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) in the agricultural sector of Iran to improve production factors' productivity, including arable land, water resources and human capital.
Design/methodology/approach
First, the EE of the agricultural sector in Iran was designed following Isenberg's framework. Then, the main variables and interrelationships of the variables in each context of the ecosystem, called subsystems, were formulated using the system dynamics (SD) approach. Next, the model was simulated and validated. Afterward, different policy options were identified, embedded into the model structure and simulated. Finally, the best policy group was selected.
Findings
According to Isenberg's EE model, three groups of policies were identified and evaluated, including “entrepreneurship development financing and investment policy,” “agricultural ecosystem's supportive services development policy” and “production factors productivity development policy.” According to the simulation results, the best combination of the solution strategies was recognized. The presented SD-EE model has a generic nature in the agricultural sector and could be modified to be applied in different regions for policy-making purposes.
Originality/value
The main contribution of the study is twofold. First, Isenberg's EE framework is applied to structure the main subsystems and interrelationships of the subsystems in the agricultural sector that has previously received limited attention. Second, the research is the first to operationalize the basic theory of Isenberg's EE in practice applying a robust systemic modeling methodology like SD.
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Mona Jami Pour, Javad Mesrabadi and Mahnaz Hosseinzadeh
Today, the high cost of e-learning systems’ implementation and the difficulty of managing the infrastructures motivate educational institutions toward application of cloud-based…
Abstract
Purpose
Today, the high cost of e-learning systems’ implementation and the difficulty of managing the infrastructures motivate educational institutions toward application of cloud-based e-learning systems. This new system should be aligned with the academics’ aims and pedagogical principles to be beneficial for learners and instructors. Therefore, the vendor selection of learning systems is one of the most important processes to migrate toward cloud-based e-learning. The purpose of this paper is to develop a new framework to facilitate the vendor selection of cloud-based e-learning systems in the cloud market.
Design/methodology/approach
To identify the initial criteria as to the vendor selection of cloud-based e-learning services, a literature review is done. To enrich the initial criteria, a focus group of experts is investigated, and the framework developed; then, a survey analysis is conducted to validate the proposed framework. The extracted criteria and sub-criteria are weighted and prioritized using best-worst method (BWM).
Findings
The results indicate that the main dimensions of vendor selection framework as regards cloud-based e-learning systems are managerial, technological and pedagogical factors. The rank orders and weights of the mentioned aspects and their sub-criteria are calculated using the BWM.
Practical implications
The proposed framework helps managers to get a big picture of requirements as to cloud-based e-learning and more effectively to select appropriate vendors in this initiative. In the vendor selection process, managers must pay attention to technological issues as well as managerial and pedagogical considerations.
Originality/value
Cloud-based e-learning systems are getting increasingly essential to offer training courses more efficiently in educational institutions. Although the intersection between cloud computing and e-learning has increasingly grown in both practical and academic contexts, there are little studies on how educational institutions and organizations could be able to select appropriate cloud-based e-learning systems. This paper explores the ignored but critically important subject of cloud-based e-learning. The main contribution of this paper is to propose a novel and integrated framework containing the important aspects of vendor selection in cloud-based e-learning services. The proposed framework comprises managerial, technological and pedagogical aspects simultaneously as well as sub-criteria denoting each aspect.
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Mahnaz Hosseinzadeh, Marzieh Samadi Foroushani, Ou Tang and Mohammad Reza Mehregan
Oil is the natural resource recognized as the most important source of revenue in oil-dependent countries and is most often referred to as being susceptible to corruption owing to…
Abstract
Purpose
Oil is the natural resource recognized as the most important source of revenue in oil-dependent countries and is most often referred to as being susceptible to corruption owing to its strategic importance. A major challenge in addressing and encountering the problems in complex social systems, such as corruption, is how to structure the problematic situation and how to capture mental models of the stakeholders involved in the situation, and also how to identify the system’s behavior in response to various policy intervention attempts in the long run. This study aims to shed new lights on modeling and simulating corrupt system of the oil industry, as a complex social system needed to be structured according to social system theories’ principles.
Design/methodology/approach
Parson’s theory is applied as a basic framework to capture the complexities of a corrupt system, dividing the system into political and structural, economic, legal and judicial and cultural and social sub-systems. Then soft system dynamics methodology, which is a combination of the two well-known methodologies, soft system methodology and system dynamics, is applied to model and simulate the complexities involved in the oil industry of Iran, which owns the second-largest oil reservoir in the world and its economy is much dependent on the oil revenue, struggles with corruption, and plans for a large amount of anti-corruption activities.
Findings
After simulating and calibrating the model, three groups of policies, namely, “reducing corruption opportunities,” “reducing corruption demand,” and “increasing anti-corruption capacity” are implemented in the model. As to the simulation results, due to the mutual inter-causality of opportunity and demand for corruption, individual application of each group of policies will not be helpful for long, rather a combination of policies will conduce to substantial improvements in declining corruption in the oil industry.
Originality/value
The developed model addresses the dynamics of the complex socio-economic system of corruption in the system of oil industry via modeling and simulation. The developed four-dimension system dynamics framework could be considered as a guidance for corruption modeling in general and as a basic model for corruption modeling of oil-dependent countries’ systems in particular.
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Mona Jami Pour, Mahnaz Hosseinzadeh and Narjes Sadat Mansouri
As social media applications have turned into popular platforms for interacting with customers, creation of a consistent customer experience in social commerce has attracted the…
Abstract
Purpose
As social media applications have turned into popular platforms for interacting with customers, creation of a consistent customer experience in social commerce has attracted the attention of many practitioners and academics. The migration to create and manage customer experience in social commerce has become an essential issue that will bring new challenges for companies. Despite the increasing investment in this area, few studies have been conducted on the challenges of managing customer experience in social commerce. To fill this theoretical gap, the current study aims at comprehensively exploring the main challenges of customer experience management (CEM) in social commerce and investigating their importance and possible effects in relation to each other.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the mixed method, first, the main challenges regarding CEM in social commerce were identified by reviewing the related literature. Then the challenges were enriched and categorized by expert opinions. Next, the challenges and the categorizations were confirmed by conducting a survey analysis applying the t-test and the factor analysis method. Afterwards, the main challenges were identified and weighted. Finally, the Social Network Analysis (SNA) approach was applied to investigate the causal relationship network among the challenges.
Findings
The results indicated that the main challenges of CEM in social commerce can be categorized into eight groups. Their weights and causal effects were calculated to identify the high priority challenges. By calculating the main SNA metrics such as degree and betweenness centralities, the high priority challenges of CEM in social commerce were identified. It was revealed that challenges with high out-degree centrality can create many other challenges and those with high betweenness centrality act as intermediary points, through which cause challenges may create effect challenges.
Research limitations/implications
The research results can help marketers to get a big picture of the challenges to successfully implement CEM in social commerce and select the appropriate migration strategies more effectively. They are further recommended to pay due attention to customers' issues as well as the organizational challenges of CEM in social commerce.
Originality/value
Social media has become a priority for businesses to create and improve the customer experience; yet there is no tool to identify the challenges of CEM in this context. This study addresses the overlooked but critically important area of social commerce. The most important contribution of this research is an attempt to provide a comprehensive and integrated framework of the challenges in implementing CEM in social commerce and explore the causal effects they may have on creation of other challenges using SNA.
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Mona Jami Pour, Mahnaz Hosseinzadeh, Mohammad Bagherzadeh Azar and Fatemeh Taheri
E-learning is one area of strategic application of information technology (IT) in the educational field. In the past, massive investments in e-learning systems have neither been…
Abstract
Purpose
E-learning is one area of strategic application of information technology (IT) in the educational field. In the past, massive investments in e-learning systems have neither been necessarily effective nor created value for e-learners. As a result, e-learning systems’ evaluation has become critical. Although many researchers have studied e-learning’s performance evaluation, there is little research on e-learning assessment, which uses pedagogical principles and organizational issues along with information systems (ISs) assessment measures. Thus, the purpose of this study is to consolidate multi-dimensional aspects of e-learning evaluation by applying balanced scorecard (BSC) as a strategic performance measurement method. This study further seeks a solution for designing a systematic approach, in which three equally important considerations must be balanced: organization, pedagogy and technology.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper introduces a framework for assessing e-learning systems by using fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) and BSC. Owing to the growing use of BSC in strategic management, this study applies its four perspectives as a base for performance evaluation. To identify measures of each perspective, a comprehensive literature review has been conducted. Modifying the list of measures is completed in two phases: first by using a focus group consisting of six e-learning experts, and second, by using a survey analysis conducted among 256 Iranian e-learners. FAHP is applied to weigh and determine the rank-order of the measures.
Findings
The results propose integrating pedagogical, organizational and technical measures based on the BSC framework for evaluating e-learning systems. In the proposed framework, effective BSC perspectives and their rank-orders and weights are presented as a guideline for assessing e-learning systems in Iran.
Research implications
In e-learning initiatives, organizational issues must be considered along with technological and pedagogical factors simultaneously. The proposed framework can assist educational institutions and organizations to identify weaknesses and strengths of e-learning projects and guide them to select appropriate strategies for progress.
Originality/value
A review of the e-learning literature shows that there are few substantive theoretical accounts, which adequately integrate multiple dimensions of e-learning evaluation; yet, most researchers view e-learning evaluation as the most difficult part in the e-learning implementation process. This study proposes a new conceptual framework to evaluate e-learning initiatives systematically. The main contribution of this study is to develop a new systematic approach for e-learning systems’ evaluation that integrates two well-established managerial methodologies (BSC and FAHP), and considers pedagogical, organizational and technological aspects synchronously.
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Mohammad Malmir, Farhad Hosseinzadeh Lotfi, Reza Kazemi Matin and Mahnaz Ahadzadeh Namin
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the efficiency of a series network system with undesirable and unreturnable simultaneously.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the efficiency of a series network system with undesirable and unreturnable simultaneously.
Design/methodology/approach
The research was conducted by applying data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach to measure the efficiency score of a system and substages with an undesirable output of the second and third stages separately. For each case, new production technology was introduced, and based on them, novel DEA models were proposed.
Findings
One of the most important issues in the development of a country is the banking industry. In this study, 51 branches of commercial banks as a three-stage system with undesirable and unreturnable outputs in the second stage are considered. Then, the efficiency of each branch and substages is measured by using proposed models.
Originality/value
The efficiency of a three-stage network in the presence of undesirable and unreturnable outputs was assessed. In this model, Kousmanen’s technology was used.
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Yeganeh Charband and Nima Jafari Navimipour
The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive and detailed review of the state-of-the-art mechanisms of knowledge sharing in the education field as well as directions for…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive and detailed review of the state-of-the-art mechanisms of knowledge sharing in the education field as well as directions for future research.
Design/methodology/approach
In the current study, a systematic literature review until June 2017 is presented, which has been on the education’s mechanisms of knowledge sharing. The authors identified 237 papers, which are reduced to 71 primary studies through the paper selection process.
Findings
By providing the state-of-the-art information, the challenges and issues, this survey will directly support academics, researchers and practicing professionals in their understanding of knowledge sharing developments in education.
Research limitations/implications
There are several limitations in this study. First, this study limited the search for articles to Google scholar and four online databases. There might be other academic journals, which may be able to provide a more comprehensive picture of the articles related to the knowledge sharing in education. Second, non-English publications were excluded from this study. The authors believe research regarding the application of knowledge sharing techniques have also been discussed and published in other languages. In addition, more studies need to be carried out using other methodologies such as interviews.
Originality/value
The paper presents a comprehensive structured literature review of the articles’ mechanisms of knowledge sharing in the education field. The paper’s findings can offer insights into future research needs.