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Theoretical models and empirical works on the relationship between transaction-specific investments (TSIs) and firm performance have produced inconsistent results. Such results highlight a need for further investigation of long-debated questions concerning how TSIs enhance firm performance. In synthesizing transaction cost theory, a resource-based model, and relational exchange theory, this study presents a collective switching cost perspective and proposes the mediating role of supply chain integration (SCI) for reexamining TSI-performance relationships. A survey of 84 firms listed in the List of Taiwan Central Satellite Production Systems shows that TSIs positively affect firm performance and supply chain integration. Supply chain integration negatively affects firm performance relationships. This investigation confirms the mediating effect of SCI on the relationship between TSIs and firm performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid estimates of earthquake rupture properties are useful for both scientific characterization of earthquakes and emergency response to earthquake hazards. Rupture directivity is a particularly important property to constrain since seismic waves radiated in the direction of rupture can be greatly amplified, and even moderate magnitude earthquakes can sometimes cause serious damage. Knowing the directivity of earthquakes is important for ground shaking prediction and hazard mitigation, and is also useful for discriminating which nodal plane corresponds to the actual fault plane particularly when the event lacks aftershocks or outcropped fault traces. Here, we propose a 3-D multiple-time-window directivity inversion method through direct waveform fitting, with source time functions stretched for each station according to a given directivity. By grid searching for the directivity vector in 3-D space, this method determines not only horizontal but vertical directivity components, provides uncertainty estimates, and has the potential to be automated in real time. Synthetic tests show that the method is stable with respect to noise, picking errors, and site amplification, and is less sensitive to station coverage than other methods. Horizontal directivity can be properly recovered with a minimum azimuthal station coverage of 180°, whereas vertical directivity requires better coverage to resolve. We apply the new method to the Mw 6.0 Nantou, Taiwan earthquake, Mw 7.0 Kumamoto, Japan earthquake, and Mw 4.7 San Jacinto fault trifurcation (SJFT) earthquake in southern California. For the Nantou earthquake, we corroborate previous findings that the earthquake occurred on a shallow east-dipping fault plane rather than a west-dipping one. For the Kumamoto and SJFT earthquakes, the directivity results show good agreement with previous studies and demonstrate that the method captures the general rupture characteristics of large earthquakes involving multiple fault ruptures and applies to earthquakes with magnitudes as small as Mw 4.7. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Static stress changes after major earthquakes are generally believed to influence the spatial and/or temporal distribution of aftershocks and subsequent earthquake events. Aftershock sequences, for example, tend to occur in areas with an increase in Coulomb stress with similar mechanisms to the main shock. However, in regions with pre-existing crustal structures with different mechanisms, the corresponding Coulomb stress change may result in different seismic characteristics. In this study, we demonstrate that a transtensional aftershock sequence was induced by the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake on a pre-existing normal fault, in the compression- dominated western Taiwan fold-and-thrust belt. We used relocated seismicity and earthquake focal mechanisms to show that this sequence is likely occurred along a subsurface fault that strikes N10°W and dips 80° to the east, at depths greater than 5 km. A Coulomb stress change analysis also shows that this aftershock sequence were located in the area of stress increase due to the Chi-Chi earthquake. Such pre-existing normal faults are found throughout the western coastal plains of Taiwan, thus may pose important earthquake hazards for the populous cities located in the area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]