PurposeThis paper aims to investigate corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices in Iran from the perspective of employees.Design/methodology/approachTo achieve the objectives of this research, the perceptions of 142 Iranian employees were examined regarding the CSR practices of their respective organizations. The required data were collected using a questionnaire. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted to refine scale items and confirm the factorial structure of the scale applied. Descriptive statistics and a t‐test were used to analyze the data.FindingsThe paper unveils information about the current status of CSR in Iran from the perspective of employees, and shows that on average Iranian employees perceive their organizations to be committed to CSR, although the mean CSR scores were relatively low in all dimensions. Also, this research shows that while the four‐factorial structure of Truker's CSR scale was confirmed in the Iranian context, some of the items had to be removed from the original scale when measuring CSR.Research limitations/implicationsThe relatively low mean on the categories of CSR among Iranian organizations from the perspective of employees indicates the infancy level of CSR among Iranian organizations and calls for further awareness among Iranian organizations and managers about the issue of CSR. This research also shows that researchers need to be cautious when using CSR scales that have been developed in Western or European contexts to measure social responsibility activities of organizations in culturally different contexts such as the Middle East. A major limitation of this research pertains to sample size, which limits the generalizability of the findings to the whole country.Practical implicationsThis research indicates the infancy level of CSR among Iranian organizations and calls for further engagement of Iranian organizations in social initiatives and community outreach endeavors.Originality/valueBeing among the first research studies of its kind to examine the CSR status in Iran, this study provides invaluable understanding and insights about the status of CSR in Iran, an important country in the Middle East. Furthermore, it validates and supports a recently proposed CSR scale by providing empirical findings from a culturally different context.

Distribution system reconfiguration problem is a complex optimization process to find a structure with minimum losses in which the satisfaction of both sides, that is consumers and distribution system companies, need to be met. One of the most significant parameters in this regard is to increase the reliability of system. This parameter, on one hand, increases the satisfaction of power consumption and on the other hand, improves the economic benefits of distribution companies. Distribution system reconfiguration, considering the reliability parameters, seems to make the attempts to solve the problem of optimization difficult. In this paper, a new heuristic approach for distribution system reconfiguration in order to decrease the power losses cost and damage cost due to power supply interruption of consumers has been presented. Radial network construction and all energized nodes constraints are the most important ones that should be considered in distribution system reconfiguration problem. Hence, in this paper a new codification is proposed which is computationally efficient and guarantees to generate only feasible radial topologies all times. In order to illustrate the performance of proposed heuristic method, modified 33-bus and 119-bus distribution networks have been employed which have led to the desired results.

Purpose -This paper investigated how perception of organization's social responsibility influenced employees' organizational commitment (OC). Besides, the moderation effect of importance of ethics and social responsibility (ICSR) has been investigated on the relationship. Design/methodology/approach -Responses from 142 business professionals working in Iran have been investigated. Exploratory factor analysis, reliability assessment and regression were applied to analyze the data. Findings -This research indicated that corporate social responsibility (CSR) positively influenced OC of employees. However, no moderation effect was observed in this study. Research limitations/implications -This study provided support for Turker's model in a different setting and added to the body of knowledge in this area by investigating Iranian context which has been rarely discussed in the literature. Practical implications -The findings of this research confirmed that employees show higher commitment when working in socially responsible organization. It also showed that all the four categories of CSR examined in this study (CSR to social and non-social stakeholders, CSR to employees, CSR to customers, and CSR to government) significantly affect OC. Social implications -The findings of this research confirmed that employees show higher commitment when working in socially responsible organization. It also showed that all the four categories of CSR examined in this study (CSR to social and non-social stakeholders, CSR to employees, CSR to customers, and CSR to government) significantly affect OC. Originality/value -Given that most of previous studies on CSR-OC relationship are conducted in Western and European settings, this study provides insights from a culturally different context by examining the relationship in a developing country where CSR is still at its infancy levels. The paper also provides empirical support for a recently proposed CSR model and validates it in a different setting.

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