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This paper evaluates the distribution of papers published by Asian authors in Operations Research and Management Science (OR/MS) journals from 1968 to 2006. The impact of OR/MS research in Asia is compared with that of the United States and the World, and research trends are highlighted through an analysis of keywords. From 1968 to 2006, 89,293 papers were published in 60 OR/MS journals. Of these, 41.4% came from USA and 16.6% came from seven Asian countries/regions. The contribution of different countries/regions is as follows: Japan 3.7%, Taiwan 3.2%, India 2.3%, Hong Kong 2.2%, South Korea 2.1%, People's Republic of China (PRC) 1.9%, and Singapore 1.2%. Among all the articles analyzed, 20% have a single author, and 9% have more than three authors; additionally, 22 papers have been cited more than 100 times and 29% have never been cited. Most articles originating in Japan, Taiwan, India, South Korea, PRC, and Singapore are produced in collaboration with local scholars, followed by authors from the United States. Hong Kong is a notable exception, 73% of articles from Hong Kong are produced in cooperation with the PRC, followed by local scholars. The five most productive institutions are as follows: The Indian Institute of Technology, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, the National University of Singapore, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and the National Chiao-Tung University (Taiwan). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With increasing pressure to cut carbon emissions and develop sustainability plans, companies need carbon credits to offset emissions that cannot be eliminated from their operations, new global carbon exchange to launch in Singapore by 2021 end, the high-quality credit can bridge this gap and play an important role in the overall climate change mitigation strategy. The purpose of this research is to use the production data (including carbon emissions) of paper-making companies in Taiwan to establish a circular economy mathematical programming model and the concept based on the activity cost method (ABC) to explore the impact of different carbon emissions costs (such carbon tax, carbon cap-and-trade, etc.) on the company's production structure and profitability impact. The research results show that different carbon emission cost models have different effects on the company's optimal product-mix and profitability. The managerial implication is to combine the extensive application of the carbon emission credit mechanism, which can offset the carbon emissions in the production process and have a significant impact on the company's sustainable competitiveness. In addition, this study can also enable decision makers to understand the impact of different carbon emission cost models on the profitability of the company's product mix, which can be used as a reference for production planning decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study investigating the institutional and individual research contribution of researchers from Asian countries towards the literature on service science through papers from several service research journals including International Journal of Service Industry Management, Journal of Services Marketing and Journal of Service Research. It is mentioned that the top five contributors include Singapore, Taiwan and Israel, and majority of the contributions from Asian authors are based on empirical research.

Analysing the agricultural sectors of Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore, this paper examines the capability‐building process that encourages productivity and innovation. It describes and explains the origins and subsequent evolution of three forms of agricultural production system, each generating different farming capabilities and distinct forms of competitive advantages. The paper argues that Taiwan's rice‐oriented agricultural production system stimulates both productivity and innovation, helping Taiwanese farmers raise their income level and living standards. The active deployment of state institutions and a malleable labour force, evidenced in the Malaysian palm oil industry, is effective in raising farming productivity but not the ability to innovate. Singapore's aquaculture‐oriented agricultural production system is somewhat useful in stimulating productivity and innovation. Yet the city‐state's inherent lack of space and open international trade regime have circumscribed the potential of its aquaculture industry. It now relies on the regional ethnic Chinese business networks to expand the aquaculture industry's knowledge base and its industrial commons. The principles discussed in this paper provide policy lessons, or at least some initial guidance, for other developing economies aspiring to modernise their agricultural sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important challenge in the study of complex systems is to identify appropriate effective variables at different times. In this paper, we explain why structures that are persistent with respect to changes in length and time scales are proper effective variables, and illustrate how persistent structures can be identified from the spectra and Fiedler vector of the graph Laplacian at different stages of the topological data analysis (TDA) filtration process for twelve toy models. We then investigated four market crashes, three of which were related to the COVID-19 pandemic. In all four crashes, a persistent gap opens up in the Laplacian spectra when we go from a normal phase to a crash phase. In the crash phase, the persistent structure associated with the gap remains distinguishable up to a characteristic length scale ϵ * where the first non-zero Laplacian eigenvalue changes most rapidly. Before ϵ * , the distribution of components in the Fiedler vector is predominantly bi-modal, and this distribution becomes uni-modal after ϵ *. Our findings hint at the possibility of understanding market crashs in terms of both continuous and discontinuous changes. Beyond the graph Laplacian, we can also employ Hodge Laplacians of higher order for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the First International Conference of the Journal of Information Systems in Taiwan, a panel was formed to discuss the development of digital transformation with panelists from the U.S., Singapore, and New Zealand. This paper is a summary of the panelists' viewpoints and the participants' interactions during the session. The discussion demonstrates the trends and the key differences of the process of digital transformation in different countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies of East Asian welfare regimes focus on similarities between social security schemes. In contrast, this paper explores cross-national variations in public–private pension mixes in six welfare states: China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. Our research echoes the pension policy analysis of international organisations but takes a step forward with emphasis on the historical and institutional characteristics of the respective pension systems. The analysis identifies three institutional patterns. First, the statist pension system (Taiwan and China) primarily relies on public pensions to provide old-age security, with private pensions playing a rather minor role. Second, in the dualist pension system (Japan and Korea) both public and private pensions work in parallel to ensure retirement income, though a clear security gap exists between workers in the formal and informal economies. Finally, the individualist pension system (Hong Kong and Singapore) is characterised by genuine fully funded individual accounts, emphasising citizens' own responsibilities for ensuring old-age security. These three types of pension systems demonstrate distinct institutional characteristics and policy outcomes, illustrated by the juxtaposition of their institutional structures as well as by the comparison of key indicators collected from government reports and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development statistics. The paper concludes with a theoretical reflection of East Asian pension policies and a diagnosis of the distinct challenges confronted by each of the various pension patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines currency manipulation policies in foreign exchange markets. In particular, we focus on whether a country has implemented one‐sided interventions that mostly lean against the appreciation wind in foreign exchange markets. Using quarterly data from 1998:Q1 to 2017:Q2 for 10 emerging countries, we find that China, Singapore, and Taiwan engaged in one‐sided interventions. A further rolling regression analysis shows some moderate evidence that Taiwan is the only country conducting one‐sided interventions on a continuing basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outbreak of COVID-19 in early 2020 created dangerous public health conditions which pressured governments and health systems to respond in a rapid and effective manner. However, this type of rapid response required many governments to bypass standing; bureaucratic structures of health sector administration and political governance to quickly take; essential measures against a rapidly evolving public health threat. Each government's particular; configuration of governmental and health system decision-making created specific structural and functional challenges to these necessary centrally developed and coordinated strategies. Most East Asian governments (except Japan) succeeded relatively quickly in centralizing essential disease control and treatment initiatives in a timely manner. In contrast, a number of European countries, especially those with predominantly tax-based financing and politically managed health delivery systems, had greater difficulty in escaping bureaucratic governance and management constraints. Drawing on data about these governments' early stage COVID-19 control experiences, this article suggests that structural changes will be necessary if low-performing governments are to better respond to a pandemic. This paper also summarizes other relatively successful strategies. By adopting such strategies, nations can help overcome structural bureaucratic and administrative obstacles in responding to further waves of COVID-19 or similar future pandemic events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese is a highly complex language with internal variation unprecedented in most other languages. Yet, that does not mean Chinese is unique in the sense that it cannot be compared to other languages and new concepts need to be introduced for the description of it. This paper is dedicated to the question of how to apply the notion of pluricentricity to the Chinese language whilst at the same time keeping Chinese comparable to other pluricentric languages. Attempts have been made to see Chinese through a pluricentric lens, yet they have not incorporated the entirety of Chinese with its various Fangyán or have introduced concepts that distort the discussion on Chinese from its linguistic reality. To ensure comparability across pluricentric languages, this paper acknowledges that the term "Chinese" is an umbrella term that does not refer to any single Fangyán but that encompasses all of them. Hence, instead of Chinese, Fangyán are used as a point of departure for the application of pluricentricity. This paper proposes an inclusive framework of Chinese pluricentricity comprising 15 standard varieties: two Cantonese, three Hokkien and five Mandarin varieties as well as two varieties of the Chinese script and three varieties of Mandarin phonetisation systems.

During 1980, many Western countries launched public administration reforms. These reform waves also blew over to many Asian countries. With the advent of globalization and the rise of knowledge-based society, education and innovation are regarded as the driving forces behind social and economic growth and development. To enhance the national capacity, education reforms have also become common agendas among nation states since the 1980s. This paper aims at critically reviewing and comparing major policies and strategies of the higher education reform adopted by the respective government in Greater China, including mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan and Singapore. The key research questions are why these countries attempted to reform their higher education and if these countries achieve the desired results and comply with good governance. In this paper, four areas, "Rule of Law," "Transparency," "Effectiveness," and "Accountability" are evaluated to examine how these selected cases' governance in higher education have been implemented in the past 30 years.

This paper views seeking the optimal balance between state strengths and the scope of state functions for 'good governance' as the formation of a homogenization-heterogenization matrix of policy initiatives in different social settings. Homogenization refers to a global tendency for institutional changes and governance framework to change state capacity, while heterogenization refers to the local adaptation of these global transformations. The paper attempts to take educational decentralization as an example of policy initiatives to assess and analyse the significance of the two opposite poses in four East Asian newly industrialized economies (NIEs) (Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, and Taiwan). The paper's position is that it may be useful to see these four NIEs as making up two clusters. It sees political democratic transitions in Korea and Taiwan as important local factors affecting the developments of educational decentralization in the two societies, while reforms in Hong Kong and Singapore seem to be more consequences of managerial and market values. However, the NIEs face the question of how to maintain sufficient 'stateness' in the decentralization process. To conclude, the paper considers that achieving the balance of 'stateness' is the key to success in state-building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the data from the World Value Survey, this paper uses a comparative lens to assess environmental philanthropy by focusing on four predominantly Chinese societies – mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, which contributes to the debate on whether culture can sufficiently explain cross-regional variation in civic engagement, particularly in the domain of environmental philanthropy. We find that residents in mainland China shared similar environmental concerns and beliefs with people from the other regions, but they are least likely to volunteer, donate, and demonstrate for these causes. After accounting for personal characteristics, the sizeable interregional gaps on pro-environmental behaviors remain. These findings are consistent with the argument that structural differences, particularly the developing nature of civil society in mainland China, hinders environmental civic engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper examines how mobile messaging apps have changed the way that people microcoordinate. It is based on five focus groups of young adults in Singapore and Taiwan. Originally, microcoordination usually assumed dyadic interaction using either SMS or mobile voice calls. Increasingly, mediated communication uses mobile messaging apps that allow multisided interactions that facilitate task-based chat groups. Groups are easily formed but can be difficult to manage. This paper advances our understanding of microcoordination via the use of messaging apps. Specifically, it provides insights into the dual roles of instrumental and expressive interaction integral to the functioning of these messaging groups, ambient-mediated sociation in the form of readily available communication partners in groups, and the emergence of meme-based coordination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In convergence with the global norm toward more proportional representative electoral systems, many countries in East Asia have adopted quota strategies to address women's political underrepresentation (Franceschet, Krook, and Piscopo 2012; Krook 2009). Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, and Japan provide ideal case studies to investigate the impact of these efforts. While these countries share similar economic development, educational levels, and Confucian communitarian ethos, their experiences and progress on empowering women vary. For example, the level of women's legislative representation in the region ranges from a low of 8.1% in Japan to a high of 33.6% in Taiwan. And while Taiwan and South Korea embarked on constitutional reforms in the 1990s and introduced candidate quotas or reserved seats to guarantee women's legislative representation at all levels, Singapore and Japan have resisted legislating quotas but instead set 30% women parliamentarians as targets of party strategies. This collection of papers explores this intraregional variation with a comparative view on the origins and impact of quotas on women's political life. Specifically, we trace the origins of quota adoption and how they interact with the existing electoral and party institutions to improve women's legislative numbers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is it about afterschool that gives it so much potential to powerfully influence educational best practices around the world? This paper will explore what truly defines "afterschool" beyond the time- and location-based pedagogy of the term and will make the case for the use of "expanded learning" or "expanded opportunities" as the terms that most clearly describe this critical time of youth learning and development. This paper will explore the cultural and bureaucratic differences countries have that influence how young people spend their time and what those differences say about a country's views on child development and its aspirations for its youth. Beyond an exploration of cultural differences, this paper will also discuss the trends that are influencing our international efforts to shift the view of expanded learning programs beyond a safe place to keep children occupied while their parents work, toward a fundamental space for child development and educational innovation.

Copyright of Journal of Analytical Psychology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A major cluster of economic engines that have changed Asian higher education, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan have all developed high-income societies as well as world-class universities which linked local "knowledge economies" to global science and created hubs for international collaborations and mobility. However, there has been limited analysis of interdependencies between the rise of world-class universities and changes in the flows of international talent. This paper elaborates on the concept of higher education internationalization that aims at enhancing geopolitical equity in global mobility and re-positioning local students for improved access to the world-class excellence. The paper compares key themes and patterns that define the Tiger societies' unique positions in the field of global higher education.

ABSTRACT This paper empirically examines the dynamic stock return-volume relations for six emerging Asian markets: Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand. Evidence is found that trading volume Granger causes stock return in quantiles and the causal effects of volume are heterogeneous across quantiles. This shows that volume carries some information to the return and could be interpreted in light of theoretical models. In addition, we find that there is bi-directional causality between stock return and trading volume in most of the markets. The finding indicates that those Asian emerging markets with different institutions and information flows than more mature markets have present similar causal effects on the stock return-volume relation. Furthermore, the cross-country evidence shows that the US market helps to predict the returns of the emerging Asian markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asian countries have implemented inclusive asset-based policies. Using a theoretical framework, this study evaluates the extent to which the asset-based policies in Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan are inclusive. The framework of ‘inclusiveness’ of asset-based policy has four components such as universal, progressive, life-long, and adequate. The study found that, compared to asset-based policies in Korea and Taiwan, those in Singapore have strengths in universality and life-long feature. However, asset-based policies in Singapore have a weakness in progressiveness. This paper concludes by presenting policy implications for inclusive asset-based policy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article critically reviews the national innovation systems of the four little tigers in East Asia, namely Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea, in fostering R&D and technological research. A national innovation system is characterised by the interactions between the state, industries and universities in promoting innovation. This article attempts to explore such interactions in the four societies, paying particular attention to the role of higher education. Specifically, university–industry collaboration is the main body of analysis. Drawing from comparative perspectives, this article finally maps out the national innovation systems of East Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Among studies on emerging mobile broadcasting TV, theories for cross-country comparisons have seldom been applied. This paper investigates market trials of mobile broadcasting TV in Singapore and Taiwan. It uses a socio-technical perspective to examine complex relations between the co-evolving subsystems of industry/market, policy, and technology. This paper advances the understanding of how this mobile technology will evolve by interviewing key stakeholders in industry players and regulators. After Taiwan announced its mobile TV policy in December 2009, Singapore has remained indecisive. The findings show that Singapore is likely to choose the DVB-H standard and adopt the subscription model, while Taiwan will adopt DVB-H and MediaFLO and apply a hybrid model. Industry pull is found to be the driving force in developing mobile broadcasting TV, while policy delays this technology-ready mobile service. The cultural factor is considered as the underlying shaping power of the three subsystems and subtly affects technological development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - Skill shortages worldwide have intensified the need for talent management. Few papers examine the pattern of human resource (HR) and talent management practices that help retain competent employees among service multinational companies (MNCs) in Asia. The purpose of this paper is to map out a number of HR practices used by service companies and to examine the effect of talent retention as perceived by MNC managers on service delivery capacity and business growth. Design/methodology/approach- A survey data of 281 service MNCs in six Asian countries (namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand) are used to compare country and sectoral differences. Standard multiple regression analysis is conducted to test the link between HR practices, employee retention, and service firm performance. Findings - The results confirm that there are statistically significant linkages between HR practices, talent retention and firm performance. In particular, various skill training and development programs are seen to be significantly associated with capacity to deliver quality service and on firm growth as perceived by managers surveyed. Informal recruitment methods that are used more by Asian-bred firms have contributed to better retention rates. Not all formalised HR practices lead to talent retention; and the degree to which HR is perceived to have impacted on firm performance varies. Research limitations/implications - The paper focuses on examining the perceptual impacts of human resource management (HRM) practices on firm performance; rather than actual HRM impacts. The interpretation of results should be taken with caution. Originality/value- Talent management is influenced by country specific variables. This paper shows how important it is for service firms to focus on strategic selection of both formal and informal HR practices in order to deliver high quality service and to drive service firm growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper compares the health policies of Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan with the purpose of drawing policy lessons. The study finds two distinct policy clusters: Hong Kong and Singapore on the one hand, and Korea and Taiwan on the other. With respect to provision of health care, the former rely largely on public hospitals for delivering inpatient care while the latter rely on private hospitals. In matters of financing, they are similar in that out-of-pocket is a major source of financing in all four countries. However, they are also different because Korea and Taiwan have universal health insurance while the city states do not. The study concludes that public provision of hospital care, as in Hong Kong and Singapore, yields more favourable outcomes than many mainstream economists would have us believe. Conversely, private provision in combination with social insurance, as found in Korea and Taiwan, severely undermines efforts to contain health care costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relational turn of IR stresses the processual constitution of the state. The indigenous theory of Chinese IR adopts the relational turn but contends that the Chinese experiences are distinctive. Relying on the case of Singapore-Taiwan relationship, this paper argues that the Chinese relationality attests to a bilateral sensibility that does not confront the relational turn in general, which is multilateral. The case further contributes to the relational turn in showing non-security and affirmative components of relationality to the extent that the studies of the relational turn have remained embedded in the security concerns. The case applies the theory of "balance of relationship," in which nations can practice selfrestraint not in response to unilateral strategic calculus or multilateral rule making, but to bilateral reciprocity. The balance of relationship of the two proceeds at both the statist and the personal levels, introducing the affect of passion to the relational turn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently there has been an increase in the number of students learning Mandarin Chinese (in mainland China and internationally). This increase has led to speculation that Mandarin Chinese is becoming a mainstream global language to the point of becoming a "lingua franca." This paper utilizes research findings from different regions and focal points and argues that Mandarin Chinese could be accepted as a "lingua franca" within some contexts, but is unlikely to do so in others. It argues that Mandarin Chinese is generally accepted as the "lingua franca" of China and a possible "lingua franca" within the East Asian region, while unlikely to become a "lingua franca" globally. The paper compares a number of different reasons for studying Mandarin Chinese by different stakeholders (i.e. governments, school boards, individual students) as well as comparative numbers of language learners. This paper also examines if Mandarin is the dominant and undisputed form of global Chinese. It concludes by demonstrating that there is a greater need for further research into Mandarin Chinese as a "lingua franca."

Background: Rare diseases, also referred to as orphan diseases, are characterised by their low prevalence with majority of them are chronically debilitating and life threatening. Given the low prevalence and the widely dispersed but very small patient base for each disease, there may often be a disproportion in the availability of treatments and resources to manage patients, spur research and train experts. This is especially true in Southeast Asian countries that are currently in the process of implementing or revising their universal health coverage schemes. This paper aims to examine the status of rare disease management in Southeast Asian countries. It will serve as the basis for a more active discussion on how countries in the region can address an under-recognised rare disease burden and enhance national and regional capacities.Methods: The study consists of literature reviews and key stakeholders interviews in six focus countries, including the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand and five countries as best practice, comprising of France, Canada, Australia, Taiwan, and South Korea. Rare disease management initiatives across each country were examined based on the World Health Organization's framework for action in strengthening health systems.Results: The results suggest rare disease management remains challenging across Southeast Asia, as many of the focus countries face fundamental issues from basic healthcare systems to funding. Nonetheless, there are substantial improvement opportunities, including leveraging best practices from around the world and organising a multi-stakeholder and regional approach and strategy.Conclusions: Southeast Asian countries have made significant progress in the management of rare disease, but there remain key areas for substantial development opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a compilation of personal reflections from 66 contributors on the impact of, and responses to, COVID-19 in accounting education in 45 different countries around the world. It reveals a commonality of issues, and a variability in responses, many positive outcomes, including the creation of opportunities to realign learning and teaching strategies away from the comfort of traditional formats, but many more that are negative, primarily relating to the impact on faculty and student health and well-being, and the accompanying stress. It identifies issues that need to be addressed in the recovery and redesign stages of the management of this crisis, and it sets a new research agenda for studies in accounting education.

Precipitable water vapor (PWV) and zenith total delay (ZTD) are highly correlated indicators used for forecasting rainfall effectively. These two factors are widely used when establishing qualitative and quantitative rainfall forecast models. Another indicator, however, convective available potential energy (CAPE), is also highly correlated with the occurrence of rainfall, but has not been combined with PWV or ZTD in previous studies. Therefore, a novel rainfall forecast model based on support vector regression that combines CAPE and Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)-derived PWV is proposed in this paper. Moreover, annual, seasonal scales, and hourly autocorrelation for predictors were also considered, and wavelet coherence (WTC) was introduced to further reveal the correlation relationships between CAPE, PWV and rainfall in both time and frequency domains. Hourly PWV, CAPE, temperature (T) and rainfall over a time span of three years were collected from four stations in Singapore and Taiwan to evaluate the performance of the proposed model. The root mean square error (RMSE) and mean absolute error (MAE) between the measured and forecasted rainfall were calculated for each year and averaged. Subsequently, the average RMSE and MAE were determined for the annual seasonal rainfall. The annual average RMSE value was 0.71 mm and the average annual seasonal RMSE value was 0.69 mm. The annual average MAE value was 0.21 mm and the annual seasonal was 0.22 mm. The average correlation coefficient (R2) for the annual value was 0.94 and the annual seasonal R2 value was 0.93. These results indicate that the forecast accuracy at the seasonal scale is basically consistent with annual scale. Additionally, a measure called comparable RMSE (CRMS) was introduced to evaluate the forecasting accuracy across all grades of rainfall. This analysis showed that the accuracy of moderate rainfall (MR) and heavy rainfall (HR) forecasts is similar, but slight rainfall (SR) forecasts are the most accurate among seasons and schemes. • A short-term rainfall forecast method is proposed using convective available potential energy (CAPE) and GNSS-derived PWV. • The forecast accuracy of seasonal scales is consistent with annual scale. • Results showed that the forecast accuracy of moderate rainfall and heavy rainfall were comparable while that of slight rainfall was highest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper views seeking the optimal balance between state strengths and the scope of state functions for "good governance" as the formation of a homogenization-heterogenization matrix of policy initiatives in different social settings. Homogenization refers to a global tendency for institutional changes and governance framework to change state capacity, while heterogenization refers to the local adaptation of these global transformations. The paper attempts to take educational decentralization as an example of policy initiatives to assess and analyse the significance of the two opposite poses in four East Asian newly industrialized economies (NIEs) (Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, and Taiwan). The paper's position is that it may be useful to see these four NIEs as making up two clusters. It sees political democratic transitions in Korea and Taiwan as important local factors affecting the developments of educational decentralization in the two societies, while reforms in Hong Kong and Singapore seem to be more consequences of managerial and market values. However, the NIEs face the question of how to maintain sufficient "stateness" in the decentralization process. To conclude, the paper considers that achieving the balance of "stateness" is the key to success in state-building.

This paper examines the impact of profitability, stock price performance and growth opportunity on the capital structure of firms in Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong. In contrast to Kayhan and Titman (2007), it is found that firms in these three Chinese-dominated economies strongly prefer debt to equity or internal fund financing. They also take advantage of stock price appreciation by issuing more shares. An adjustment model for debt ratios is estimated. The results suggest that the leverage ratios of these firms slowly adjust toward their target levels. Deviations from the target due to the pecking order and market timing effects are found to be significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to develop an integrated policy index system using a Surface Measure of Overall Performance ( SMOP) approach to comprehensively evaluate and compare the policy input and social output of the retirement payment system in urban and rural China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. With this, a tool may be developed to help insightfully examine the old-age income policies and appropriately, and perhaps theoretically in the future, categorize the types of retirement provisions or social security policies as a whole in the East and West. The results indicate that, particularly in urban China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, a low level of de-familization and medium and high levels of gender equality are the common features of these five pensions in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. Furthermore, it is found that the retirement provisions in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan can well be divided into two groups based on the level of pension right protection and illustrate different characteristics between them accordingly. In addition, policy implications and suggestions for further reforms of these retirement payment schemes are elaborated in the light of the findings of this policy index system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the voluntary involvement of two Red Cross organizations engaged in post-disaster cross-sector collaborative efforts for the 2004 Asian Tsunami and the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake. Using Bryson, Crosby, and Stone's expanded model for nonprofit collaboration as a framework, I compare and contrast the disaster management collaborated by both voluntary organizations. The findings illuminate the strengths of voluntary involvement in disaster collaborative management, as well as its limitations during extreme events. Implications of the findings for cross-border voluntary contributions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study examines generalized trust and trust in institutions in Confucian Asia, covering six countries namely, China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam, and one dependent region, Hong Kong. Using data from the 2006 AsiaBarometer Survey, our study affirms the reliability and validity of using a two-item scale to measure generalized trust. Our analysis suggests that due to demographic differences, there are variations in the level of generalized trust of countries in Confucian Asia, despite the fact that these societies share a similar background in Confucian philosophy. The relationships between generalized trust and political trust, and between generalized trust and trust in public institutions, are weak but positive. The positive relationship between generalized trust and trust in economic institutions is only significant for some of the economies, while trust in international institutions has the weakest relationship with generalized trust for all societies. We conclude the paper with research implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Journal publication is a core avenue for sharing research in the LIS field. Effective scholarly communication is beneficial to the growth of a discipline. Bibliometrics research shows that articles in prestigious international journals are predominantly those of authors based in a few nations, however. Papers from authors outside the established nations are likely to be cited less often. This study analysed the longitudinal changes in geographical patterns of authorship, collaboration types, and factors affecting the citation impact of seven top LIS journals over a period of 29 years. In addition to data from all nations, this paper includes specific findings relating to Asian countries. Analysis of 8,140 papers shows that the internationalisation level in the sample set has increased in terms of number of nations represented and in a decreasing Gini coefficient. The presence of Asian nations such as Taiwan and Singapore as top contributing countries is particularly notable in the past 10 years. Domestic collaboration is found to be the dominant type of authorship pattern. In terms of citation impact as measured by citation counts, logistic regression was used to test the effects of author continent, country income level, collaboration type, publication year, and number of authors. Papers from lower-income countries or from Asian or European authors are found less likely to be 'more cited.' International and domestic collaboration had a positive relation with citation counts. A practical implication is that authors may consider international collaboration as a way to increase the visibility and impact of their research. Nevertheless, the reasons behind such differential citation impact require more exploration. Invisible colleges, the strengths of weak ties, and the geographic scope of a paper are some factors to be further examined. It is hoped that more research can help identify and overcome barriers in scholarly communication so as to achieve a genuine internationalisation of science [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this paper is to examine the importance of permanent and transitory shocks in explaining variations in stock prices for Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea using a trend-cycle decomposition technique. This study is novel in that in measuring the impact of shocks we not only impose common trend restrictions but also common cycle restrictions. We later undertake a post-sample forecasting exercise to confirm the efficiency gains from imposing common cycle restrictions. We find that over short horizons, transitory shocks are the dominant source of variations in stock prices for South Korea, while permanent shocks explain the bulk of the variations in stock price of Singapore and Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper used public data of the last ten years from the Institute of Shipping Economics and Logistics to analyze vessel tonnage structures of FCFs in detail. The recursive residual GM(1,1) model of Grey theory was used to compare the growth trends of vessel tonnage structures of FCFs with the rest of the world. The results show vessel tonnage structures of China and Taiwan are consistent with the world trend in which national flag vessels are reduced, while foreign flag vessels are increasing, In the next three years, vessel tonnages of China and Singapore are expected to increase rapidly, whereas much slower growth is expected in Taiwan: on the other hand, a slight decrease is forecasted for Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I develop a detailed consideration of ways in which Chinese religious practitioners, including Daoists, Christians, and spirit mediums, deploy syncretism in complex fields of practice. Rather than focusing on doctrinal blending, this study emphasises the ways in which these practitioners combine elements from diverse religious traditions through the media of ritual performance, visual representation, story, and landscape. After considering the diverse ways in which syncretic processes may be deployed in a field of practice, the paper investigates three ethnographic cases, exploring ritual co-celebration at Wudang Mountain in South-central China, charismatic Christian practices in Singapore, and the recent development of Holy Mount Zion as a Christian pilgrimage site in Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the mandated reporting of key performance indicators by public agencies to public accountability authorities in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. The author suggests that the existence of these indicators in public agencies' annual reports and budget papers does not necessarily lead to their effective use for decision making. The actual utilization of these indicators for making decisions should be described as careful and cautious. They are still affective because they give symbolic benefits to the government.

Four Asian economies – Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea and Taiwan – have grown at spectacular speeds adopting different strategies. Past debates focused on their growth takeoff. The present paper studies their future outlook. As an economy matures, sustaining economic performance requires innovation and technology upgrading. Hong Kong, under a minimalist administration, is now critically deficient in technology. Singapore, dependent on foreign multinationals, is struggling to become a creator and not just a user of technology. We seek to explain why Hong Kong and Singapore are so much less innovative than Korea and Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the time-series behaviour of house prices for the four Asian markets, namely, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo and Taipei, by using structural time-series methodology. The paper assumes two types of trend models to characterise and compare the long-run movement of house prices. It also examines the cyclical pattern hidden in the series. The long-run trend rate in these markets ranged between approximately 1.6 and 3.2 per cent per annum. Hong Kong, Singapore and Taipei have relatively higher figures, which could be expected in light of the rapidly growing economies. Surprisingly, their cyclical patterns were fairly similar, although causes of the cycles differed. The markets were found to have stochastic cycles of around one year, two to four years and seven to ten years, which were consistent with previous findings on real business cycles commonly observed internationally in other macroeconomic time series. However, the found stochastic nature suggests all these markets are not in a steady state and is still changing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Forum article addresses some of the issues raised in the article by Ying-Syuan Huang and Anila Asghar's paper entitled: "Science education reform in Confucian learning cultures: teachers' perspectives on policy and practice in Taiwan." An attempt is made to highlight the need for a more nuanced approach in considering the Confucian education tradition and its compatibility with education reforms. In particular, the article discusses issues concerning the historical development of the Confucian education tradition, challenges in reform implementation that are in reality tradition-independent, as well as opportunities and points of convergence that the Confucian education tradition presents that can in fact be favorable to implementation of reform-based pedagogies. [For "Science Education Reform in Confucian Learning Cultures: Teachers' Perspectives on Policy and Practice in Taiwan," see EJ1173394.]

Indonesia always continually failed international assessments even though many efforts have been made. The results of PISA 2012 put Indonesian students in the worst position. In contrast, East Asian countries' performance well in mathematics, reading, and science. Indeed, Singapore has the best performance in the Southeast Asia region even in the world as well as Shanghai-China. The position of Indonesia is lower than Viet Nam, Thailand, and Malaysia in South-East Asia. Therefore, by carrying out a literature review, this paper analyzes what is happening in Indonesia beyond assessment, especially in science. Assessment reform from the above East Asian countries was also depicted to complete the discussion. Thus, this paper not only analyzed the lack of science content in Indonesia compared to other countries, but also described some lessons that can be drawn in relation to the content tested in the PISA science test from East-Asian countries.

Seamless learning has a significance that has been increasing in recent years, and an increasing number of studies on the subject in the literature draws attention. This study aimed to examine the research on seamless learning between 1996 and 2020 with the bibliometric analysis method. The Scopus database was used in the collection of the data. After various screening processes, a total of 389 publications were included in the analysis. Descriptive analysis and bibliometric analysis were used in the analysis of the data. The distribution of publications by years, types of publications, sources, and languages were analyzed in the research. Additionally, visual maps were created with analyses of co-author, cocitation, and co-word. At the end of the study, it was seen that there has been an increase in the number of publications from the past to the present, articles and papers were predominant, and that most of the studies were carried out in English. As a result of bibliometric analysis, it was concluded that the most efficient countries in seamless learning were the United Kingdom, the United States, and Singapore. Also, it has been determined that the National Institute of Education, Center for International Education and Exchange, and Kyushu University institutions are dominant. The most frequently mentioned authors cited in studies in many different fields are M. Sharples, L.-H. Wong, and H. Ogata. According to the co-word analysis, the keywords seamless learning, mobile learning, ubiquitous learning, and mobile-assisted language learning stand out in the field of seamless learning.

• Provide a comprehensive overview of the solidarity in health and long-term care sectors. • The overall direction of reforms is developing toward universal coverage. • Reforms might be possible without overall consensus on solidarity. • The pay-as-you-go financial arrangements will require strong intergenerational solidarity. • The capacity of informal caregiving of family could be considered. Different from the development of health sector, there are significant variations in the underpinnings and formation timings of solidarity-based long-term care (LTC) systems. This paper compares the historical developmental trajectories and identifies factors of the transitions of the actual practices of solidarity - the scope of community, the scope of interdependence, and the costs of joint action - in the health and LTC sectors in four East Asian countries: Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore. Comparative policy analysis. Healthcare tends to be considered a universal value such that its boundary should include all residents, while LTC is closer to an entitlement of citizens. The differing solidarity reflects path dependency as well as historical legacies and policy diffusion between the health and LTC sectors. In both health and LTC sectors, the costs involved in collective service provision are not distributed evenly between generations. Centralized governance is a prevailing feature of health and LTC sectors in East Asia, allowing solidarity-based institutional arrangements to be established without an overall sense of solidarity. The relationship between solidarity and health and LTC systems is complex and dynamic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the similarities and differences faced by Singapore and Taiwan vis-à-vis the major powers in the Indo-Pacific. First, it focuses on the countries' respective differing responses to various "Indo-Pacific" strategic formulations. Next, it moves to consideration of Singapore's and Taiwan's political, geopolitical, and geocultural trajectories. This particular section also addresses the two nations' relations with other small island states across the Indo-Pacific. The subsequent sections provide a bilateral study of Singapore-Taiwan relations, followed by consideration of how Singapore and Taiwan have responded to the greater powers in the region, specifically China, India, Japan, and the United States. Faced with growing Chinese power in the region, questions of agency and strategic autonomy are drawn together in the conclusion, which finds that Singapore is operating from a position of advantage and Taiwan from a position of disadvantage in the Indo-Pacific. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the holistic picture of sustainability curricula in Asian higher education. Design/methodology/approach: Content analysis was conducted based on Asian management education for sustainability in higher education. Online courses arrangement, teaching methods, instructors' educational background and cross-referencing data between triple bottom line and sustainability courses have been investigated. Findings: The paper provides empirical insights about the current state of sustainability education in Asia. The results show that there is an opportunity for interdisciplinary integration, as there are imbalanced sustainability courses offered by business, science and engineering schools. It also suggests that Asian universities should add an international connection and active promotion of sustainability education on their Web sites. Research limitations/implications: Findings are based on web-based sustainability-related courses. Future research could apply method of case study to do a deeper study. Practical implications: The paper provides an overview of Asian management education for sustainability and curricula analysis through our research, and that this will further assist in the development of interdisciplinary integration in Asian management education for sustainability. Originality/value: This paper is the first attempt to gain better understanding of sustainability-related courses offered in leading business/management colleges in Asia.

This article focuses on the book "Multinationals and East Asian Integration," edited by Wendy Dobson and Siow Yue Chia. This book contains eleven papers examine the trade and investment activities of international firms in selected manufacturing industries in eight East Asian economies to shed light on how firm strategies affect East Asian integration. Wendy Dobson discusses synergies between firm strategies and government policies in East Asian integration. Country studies based on firm-level surveys focus on Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, China, the Philippines and Indonesa.

The article offers information on progress in scientific and technical communities in New Zealand, Taiwan and Singapore. Topics discussed include investments in research and development of the pharmaceutical industry in Singapore, creation of research facilities by researchers of Taiwan in the field of biological sciences, computer science and engineering and the National Science Challenges initiative by the government of New Zealand for research in scientific areas like natural disasters.