Search results

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify factors affecting agile supply chain and evaluate the effect of these factors on profitability. To that end, after reviewing the theoretical foundations of this field, the authors identified the factors affecting supply chain agility and profitability and provided an appropriate conceptual model to measure and verify this relationship.


Design/methodology/approach
A 48-item questionnaire was prepared and distributed among 270 members of staff and managers of the company from which 240 questionnaire were completed and returned. The response rate was 88 percent. Using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), 37 indicators were selected and redundant questions were excluded. Results were analyzed using the structural equation modeling technique, and the relationships between factors were obtained and the impact of each supply chain agility factor on profitability was determined and prioritized.


Findings
Through EFA, the indicators related to each supply chain agility factor and profitability were extracted and using the literature, supply chain agility indicators were classified in four factors of speed, responsiveness, competency and flexibility and the indicators related to profitability in one factor, and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted accordingly. The CFA results showed that all four factors are significantly associated with profitability, and flexibility has the greatest impact on profitability, and speed has minimal impact on profitability.


Research limitations/implications
As this study has been done in the context of Iran, cautious should be taken to generalize the results.


Originality/value
Other studies have examined the effect of agility on business performance and the relationship between them but this study, by providing a comprehensive set of supply chain agility evaluation criteria and indicators and considering all its dimensions, intends to identify the factors affecting supply chain agility and evaluate and determine the effects of these factors on profitability and examine if supply chain agility affects profitability.

In developing countries with an unstable economic system, permanent fluctuation in historical data is always a concern. Recognizing dependency and independency of variables are vague and proceeding a reliable forecast model is more complex than other countries. Although linearization of nonlinear multivariate economic time-series to predict, may give a result, the nature of data which shows irregularities in the economic system, should be ignored. New approaches of artificial neural network (ANN) help to make a prediction model with keeping data attributes. In this paper, we used the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) intraday data in 10 years to forecast the next 2 months. Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) from ANN chooses and outputs compared with the autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model. The results show, although, in long term prediction, the forecast accuracy of both models reduce, LSTM outperforms ARIMA, in terms of error of accuracy, significantly.

Culture affects individuals' perceptions and experiences of their bodies. In order to provide the most effective solutions to body image-related issues, it is necessary to understand cultures and their influences on body image in various populations. This paper focuses on the effects of culture on body image. Therefore, a systematic literature search following PRISMA guidelines was performed in the PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases, yielding 2064 articles published between 1990 and 2023. After applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, 54 articles were selected. Our findings showed a strong influence of culture on body image, highlighting the impact of societal expectations on individuals' mental well-being. Western cultures, with their preference for thinness, differ from non-Western ideals. The findings also showed the impact of regional variations within the same culture and society on body image. Furthermore, the study found that the young demographic, especially females, is the most vulnerable to body image issues; however, emerging research within our review also indicates a growing concern among males. This study underscores the necessity of culturally considering interventions to address body image issues, which are integral to improving mental health concerns like body dissatisfaction, eating disorders, depression, low self-esteem, and anxiety.

Purpose
As one of the dominant features in developing countries, gender inequality has driven individual development and the promotion of skills, behavioral and social competencies largely based on the male gender. The audit profession is considered one of the jobs where gender inequality exists, especially in developing countries. This has made educational programs more inclined toward enhancing masculine abilities, followed by less well-regarded feminine functions in the field. This study aims to present a triple-strength model of female auditors empowerment in Iran.


Design/methodology/approach
This is a goal-oriented, descriptive-applied developmental research and a mix of data types. In the qualitative section, the three-dimensional empowerment proposition of women working in the field of internal auditing (IA) were identified based on the Dacum model approach participated by 15 research experts, using cross-sectional and Delphi analyses. A total interpretive structural model analysis was performed with the participation of 20 women as internal auditors of companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE).


Findings
The purpose of this analysis was to prioritize the spectrum of the most influential indices of empowerment of female auditors in educational planning to the least effective ones in the form of the research model and to examine the relationships between them based on matrix comparisons. According to the results, 17 indices reached theoretical adequacy during the 2 rounds of Delphi analysis out of the initial 19 indices in the cross-mix analysis.


Originality/value
The results of the interpretive/structural analysis indicated that educational planning was selected to balance the other roles of women as internal auditors, and the most influential Dacum proposition was to enhance the capabilities of women in IA in listed companies in TSE.

This study estimates and compares healthcare expenditure patterns of different income deciles of urban households by ordinary least square (OLS) method. Data is obtained from houshold survey data and includes healthcare expenditure, family income, the education level of parents, number of children and the average age of parents during 2009-2014. The purpose is to identify the effectiveness of each variable on healthcare expenditure between different income deciles. Moreover, it will be examined that if there is any significant difference between effects of variables on healthcare expenditure in different income deciles. The results indicate that the pattern of healthcare expenditure varies between different income deciles. The first and second deciles show a similar pattern and the level of education of parents doesn't have any significant effect on the healthcare expenditure. In these deciles, a percent increase in family income, increases the healthcare expenditure less than 1 percent. In addition, other variables except than the education level have a positive effect on the healthcare expenditure. On the other hand, almost the same pattern is observed in other income deciles as well. Thus, family income, the average age of parents and number of children demonstrated a positive effect on healthcare expenditure and the education level of parents showed a negative effect. This finding seems to be related to the preventive effects of education. What's more is that in the ninth and tenth deciles, a percent increase in family income, leads to more than 1 percent increase in healthcare expenditure. Therefore, the most prominent suggestion to healthcare authorities is to improve the level of awareness of family. And also, this instruction can be categorize base on the average age of parents. This could be done through government agencies or insurance authorities. DOI:10.5901/mjss.2017.v8n2p301