Business units are always faced with investment opportunities and need to make logical decisions on an optimal investment. Indeed, the investment of each business unit should be done with regard to the resource constraints and its effectiveness through the criteria for evaluating the projects including the net present value (NPV). The paper aims to investigate the effect of long-term debt on the overinvestment of agency problem. The present research is applied in terms of its purpose and it is descriptive and correlation in terms of nature. The statistical population of the study was the financial information related to the performance of 540 companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange during 2011 and 2015. 152 companies were selected by the systematic elimination sampling. The data collection was carried out using the Tadbir Pardaz and Rahavard-e-Novin software as well as the Research Management, Islamic Studies and Development of Stock Exchange Organization and Stock Exchange Organization websites. The research data are hybrid. The data were analyzed using the F-Limer and Hausman tests using Eviews9 software. Based on the results, the pre-investment declined by 36% at a significant level less than 0.05% while increasing long-term debt by 1%, and the overinvestment reduces 69% by a one-percent increase in the financial leverage.

Stickiness of costs occurs as declining of the demand, in order to avoid adjustment costs, managers decide to maintain the unutilized resources. Managerial decisions to maintain unutilized resources can also be caused by personal considerations and result in agency costs. In this study, the effect of the agency problem on degree of costs stickiness has been examined. Free cash flow, the CEO tenure and CEO horizon has been used as variables of the agency problem and the number of 135 firms were selected in the period of the years 1383 to 1393 as a statistical sample which totally created a number of 1485 firm-year. In order to test these hypotheses of the study, multiple log-linear regression, using pooled data through generalized least squares method with cross-sectional weighting, has been applied. The findings of this study indicate that there is a positive and significant correlation between the free cash flows and the cost stickiness of goods sold, the sales, general and administrative costs and furthermore, a positive and significant correlation between CEO tenure and the cost stickiness of goods sold, and moreover, a positive and significant correlation between CEO horizon and the cost stickiness of sales, general and administrative costs; by contrast, no significant correlation between CEO horizon and cost stickiness of goods sold, CEO tenure and cost stickiness of sales administration and general cost has not been found. Overall, the results indicate that there is positive and significant relation between the agency problem and degree of costs stickiness.

Understanding cost behavior in the case of sale changes and examining the factors effective on asymmetric cost behavior lead to the greater awareness of managers' motivations and decisions. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between trade credit and corporate cost stickiness as well as the moderating effect of agency problem and customer concentration on the relationship. The sample consists of 161 firms listed in Tehran Stock Exchange in a 7 years period from 2014 to 2020. Results show that trade credit as an external governance mechanism has a significant negative relation with cost stickiness. In addition, findings show that the agency problem strengthens the relationship between trade credit and corporate cost stickiness,however, customer concentration weakens that relationship. Our study contributes the cost management literature through identifying one of the potential factors that can reduce cost stickiness in companies.

One of the factors that can be the link between our intentions and actions and their external consequences is human agency, which indicates the conscious design and intentional execution of actions by the individual in order to influence future events.Objective and Method: This research with a developmental approach of psychometric method and method 1, examines the psychometric indices of the Human Factor Characteristics Scale using the classical theory of test score measurement and the graduated question-answer theory. The purpose of this study, which included high school students in Tehran, was selected by cluster sampling of 500 people as a sample size and statistical analysis was performed on 481 data. To collect the data, the ion Human Agent Characteristics Scale (2011) was used and the research questions were evaluated using IRTPRO and SPSS software.Results:The assumption of local independence based on Pearson x2 index was established by applying Simjima's calibrated question-answer theory and the assumption of being one-dimensional based on the analysis of multidimensional question-answer theory. Diagnosis parameters with question-answer approach and classical approach Test score Both item 25 approach had the lowest and item 2 had the highest diagnosis parameter. The answer thresholds for all the questions were so far apart that no option was covered by the other option, and the options were independently selected by individuals at intervals of theta. The total scale was calculated with Cronbach's alpha of 0.945, intentionality of 0.894, foresight of 0.780, self-reactivity of 0.871 and rethinking of 0.762. Also, the role of each item in internal consistency was investigated by the loop method, which all questions had a favorable role in internal consistency of this scale. The value of the validity coefficient obtained from the question-answer theory was obtained by marginal method for intentionality 0.92, forethought 0.85, self-reaction 0.91, rethinking 0.83..

The problem of personal identity among others may stem from the following question—what does be the person that you are, from one day to the next, necessarily consist of? The diachronic problem of personal identity raises question on the necessary and sufficient conditions for the identity of the person over time. The synchronic problem is grounded in the question of what features or traits characterize a given person at one time. To answer these questions, John Locke discarded the soul and the body as necessary and sufficient substances for personal identity over time. He accepted consciousness as the only criterion for personal identity; the only thing capable of remaining the same and preserving personal identity through change. Though Locke’s argument is somewhat clear and coherent but what remains vague and incoherent is embedded in the question—what exactly is consciousness? How and why should it be the basis or criterion for the determination of personal identity? Using the method of critical analysis, I argue that Locke’s choice of consciousness as the determinant of personal identity, though quite novel, is incoherent and vague. Secondly, Locke had already presumed and anticipated clearly though fallaciously the very thing he wishes to substantiate. I therefore conclude that Locke’s argument is just another way of trying to escape but inadvertently prolonging the difficulty of apparently articulating a distinction between the psychological approach and physiological approach to the problem of personal identity. However, in my submission, I propose the concept of the “other” as alternative approach— a sort of an extrinsic-intrinsic approach to the problem of personal identity.