Quarterly Scientific-Research Goljaam

This article argues that hand woven carpet - weavesrs’ job satisfaction is one of the most important factors that influences the quality of their works. Thus, it is proposed to study the degree of job satisfaction among them and some important factors which determine its variation. The scope of the research involved 834 carpet weavers in East Azarbaijan and Isfahan in 2004. in this research, a theoretical model based on objective and subjective variables has been applied.

Carpet experts consider nobility of a Qashqai rug in properties like use of suitable wool fiber, herbaceous dyeing, mental designing and bald painting. These principles were used in a variety of samples of Qashai tribe’s hand-woven carpets. On the other hand, production system in that period was based on the use of existing sources and facilities and motivated by providing financial support for the family. In this traditional period, production did not have commercial and public uses. Carpet ownership was limited to well to do families and was basically used as gift and present. However, in an industrial society several aspects of tribe life were influenced by the technological developments. The impact brought some limitations and obligations. Factors such as territorial reforms and trainings of different types changed carpet weaving and production. With the arrival of ready made factory hanks and chemical dyes quality of Qashqai products was threatened and carpets were massively produced. Merchants, dealers and intermediators’ played an important role in marketing the products. Different tribes and families produced their own carpets and a variety of designs and forms emerged. All in all, industrialization did not add to the nobility of the product in this period. Some products, however, were exceptional and represented the true value of Qashqai carpet. They made best use of the new possibilities provided by technology and industry to produce the best quality carpets, relying on the traditional elements of Qashqai carpet at the same time, incorporating some innovative elements. This opened new horizons for the carpet weavers.

This article is trying to study production and distribution system based on providing value chain with the aim of identifying production & distribution system of hand-made carpet firstly; and studying the feasibility of changing from the push system to the pull system regarding the viewpoints of the elite and expert, secondly. In order to achieve this goal, the descriptive method of research has been used. Statistical population of this study includes elite and informed experts in production & distribution of hand-made carpets. Due to acquaintance of Iran National Carpet Center (INCC) with these people, 55 experts have been selected as the statistical samples. For collecting required information, a questionnaire has been used. The results of this study show that the present system of production & distribution of hand-made carpet in Iran is based on push system, which means the production & distribution of this product is not totally based on customer taste and Iranian experts active in this field try to provide carpets for target customers with hope that they will see those carpets and their art and hopefully will be encouraged to purchase them. But in most of cases, this method is not an effective one and competitors are producing their carpets incorporating the understanding of the customers’ taste regarding color, shape, size and drawing. Also the results of this study show that with planning and informing active people in this industry, it is possible to change the system from the push type to the pull one.

The main objective of this study is evaluation of the production systems in hand-weaving household. Therefore, we use multiple criteria decision making (Taxonomy, Delphi) whit respect to economic criteria, social criteria, management criteria and qualitative criteria. The results indicate that, based on the performance of production system, employer system in large scale firms was found to be the top rank and as a result it became the best production system for the carpet industry in Azerbaijan provinces

Marketing mix is one of the most important devices that is used in marketing planning. Marketing mix refes to factors and controllable variables that Marketing managers use to satisfy target customers. Marketing scholars identify different factors for different products. In this research at first we proposed five factor model for carpet marketing mix. Then we tested and ranked these factors. Findings showed that historical and artistic gentility is the most important factor in marketing mix. Then promotion, product, price and at last place are other factors in marketing plan. 

The present study is an applied research using quantitative method. In the first step, the intended factors of marketing mix, production-export consortium and branding of Turkman carpet were studied in existing literature, and then, the quantitative method of questionnaire was used for collecting needed data and extracting basic factors. The questionnaire was prepared by the researcher. After gathering the questionnaires, the collected data were put in the SPSS software and were analyzed through various methods of inferential statistics. For measuring the significance of each component of the questionnaire, the five-point Likert scale, which has ordinal scales, was used to measure the factors and convert them to quantitative data, with giving each factor a number from 1 to 5. The data of the research was collected in a period from October of 2010 to September 2011, and the research was conducted in Golestan province. The population was constituted of five groups: 1. experts, who became expert in managing, scientific and research affairs related to carpet through working in this field; 2. exporters, who sell hand-woven carpets wholesale; 3. importers, who import Iranian hand-woven carpets from Iran into the target countries; 4. retailers, who sell the carpet to the consumers; and 5. weavers, consisting of all real or legal people who produce carpets in workshops or at homes, in cities or villages. For selecting the sample subjects from the first four groups, simple random sampling method was used; and the sample subjects of the fifth groups were selected through the Morgan table and simple random sampling. Therefore, 406 subjects were selected as samples with a balanced and appropriate proportion. By following up the project and informing about the research's goals, all questionnaires were filled out and delivered to the researcher. The Chronbach's coefficient alpha was 93%, and for prioritizing the variables, the Friedman test, and for supporting or rejecting the hypotheses, the binomial test was used. The conclusions show that all hypotheses were significant in export of Turkman hand-woven carpets. Among the hypotheses, the great potential of the province in producing hand-woven carpets was a strong point, and lack of attention to marketing mix, absence of a production- export consortium, and lack of attention to branding were of weak points, which need the especial attention of the provincial and export companies' managers and planners. At the end, besides presenting detailed conclusions and findings, the mentioned issues were summarized, and applicable suggestions were offered to the managers and experts, and also future similar researches.

The hand-woven carpet industry has faced many challenges due to internal and external factors. The use of scientific and pre-planned methods through which the impacts of these factors can be mitigated or eliminated can lead to the prosperity of this influential industry on culture, economy, and social life. Presenting a model for product development is one of these scientific methods. The product development model is used to ensure the realization of customers' demands and satisfaction regarding the product and procedures, increase quality and reduce the wastage from the phase of collecting customers' requirements to the production phase and delivery of the product to the end-user, and even supervision over after-sales services and collection of the feedback, patterns, standards, procedures, and methods. On the other hand, the process of development and production of the new products has undergone great changes due to the increase in global risks, the fast changes in customers' needs and wants, and the increased risk-taking, which has focused the attention on agility strategies in production procedures. The present study seeks to present an exclusive product development model for the Iranian hand-woven carpet industry adopting an agility approach. The study first conducts desk research to investigate goods and service development models and agile production models and proceeds to filter the indicators extracted from the studied models using expert opinions and fuzzy Delphi technique, the result of which is the compilation of 47 indicators selected by the experts out of the 147 total indicators. Afterward, measures were taken to achieve specific indicators since hand-woven carpet production is different from most other industries in nature. For this purpose, open-ended interviews and theoretical saturation (snowball technique) were used to collect new data through interviews with experts. The interviews continued to the point of theoretical saturation. In the next stage, the grounded method was used to extract codes from the open-ended interview transcripts, the result of which was the compilation of 31 new indicators. Eventually, the indicators obtained from the two methods were integrated and the exclusive model for this industry was developed using the Atlas. ti v.8 software. The final model is made up of eight main dimensions, seven sub-dimensions, and 47 sub-indicators.