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Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to propose a cradle-to-cradle (C2C) zero discharge production planning system with a fuzzy hybrid optimization model that uses fuzzy comprehensive evaluation to establish fuzzy indicators, and then defuzzify the fuzzy indicators to construct a fuzzy multiobjective programming (FMOP) model. Design/methodology/approach: The FMOP model pursues overall satisfaction using a particle swarm optimization algorithm to produce the best output values for the maximum waste paper recovery rate, the condensate reuse quality and minimum total cost of the zero discharge production planning system. Findings: Recovered waste heat is seldom recycled and consumed in Taiwan. There is a need to capture and utilize heat recovery and use it in the production process supply. In contrast, waste materials are used as resources to perform waste paper recovery and recycle the waste heat of evaporation collection in the production process. Originality/value: This paper develops a system to establish the best output value for an overall high satisfaction level. According to the results, the waste paper recovery rate is 99.8 percent, condensate reuse quality water is 102.6 tons and the total cost of the zero discharge production planning system is NT$1,312,012. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to develop and empirically test a model that can predict factors affecting student recycling behavior. The theoretical model was based on motivation, place attachment, environmental concern and interpersonal altruism. Design/methodology/approach: A cross-sectional study was conducted with college students in Taiwan using self-report questionnaires. Of the 800 distributed questionnaires, 523 were completed (response rate of 65.4%) and were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Partial least squares (PLS) were used to test the models and hypotheses. Findings: The results showed that environmental concern, motivation, interpersonal altruism and place attachment have significant positive effects on recycling behavior and motivation and place attachment have significant positive effects on interpersonal altruism. This research contributes to the existing literature by discriminating between two sorts of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic. Based on these findings, suggestions for future research and practical implications are presented. Originality/value: Few studies have linked motivation, interpersonal altruism, environmental concern and place attachment to recycling behavior. Therefore, this study aimed to explore these relationships, specifically as they affect college students' behavior. This paper anticipates that increased knowledge about recycling behavior could be used to support the wider adoption of recycling practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study constructs an efficiency evaluation framework for assessing the human, structural and relational capital in the semiconductor industry of Taiwan. Furthermore, we analyze whether there are significant differences in efficiency across different levels concerning the industry supply chain (upstream, midstream and downstream), employee service tenure, capital scale and company establishment years. Design/methodology/approach: This study focuses on Taiwanese semiconductor companies, utilizing data sourced from the Taiwan Economic Journal (TEJ) Database for the period spanning 2017 to 2021, encompassing a total of five years. Due to the nondisclosure of intangible asset values by all companies, an effort was made to ensure a comparable baseline by excluding companies with incomplete or missing data. Finally, empirical analysis was conducted on a sample of 64 companies using the dynamic network data envelopment analysis method. Findings: (1) Overall efficiency demonstrates structural capital as the most prominent, followed by relational capital, while human capital shows relatively poorer efficiency. (2) To enhance the efficiency of intellectual capital, priority should be given to improving the efficiency of outputs related to intellectual property rights such as patents. (3) The midstream segment exhibits the best efficiency in both structural and relational capital. (4) Companies with longer employee service tenures exhibit superior efficiency in human capital in the long run. (5) Companies with extended establishment years and larger capital scales demonstrate superior efficiency in both human and structural capital. Originality/value: Reflecting on past literature, scholars have primarily focused on the relationship between intellectual capital and firm efficiency, often emphasizing the overall efficiency of intellectual capital. However, within organizations, human capital, structural capital, and relational capital are interrelated. This study, for the first time, assesses the efficiency of these three components within an organization. The research addresses the challenges in analyzing the efficiency of intellectual capital and introduces a highly contemporary approach – dynamic network data envelopment analysis (DNDEA). Using the semiconductor industry in Taiwan as a case study, this paper conducts empirical analysis in a captivating and worthy industry. Therefore, the ideas presented in this paper are original. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the impact of gender diversity in the composition of engagement auditors on the disclosure of key audit matters (KAMs) in a dual-signature environment. Design/methodology/approach: The authors used the unique institutional setup of Taiwan, where the law requires that audit reports be signed by two audit partners. The authors examined the effect of gender diversity composition among engagement auditors on KAM disclosure, considering behavioral differences between female and male auditors. Findings: The empirical results indicate that gender diversity composition in the dual-signature environment is associated with the number of disclosed KAM items (KAMIT) and the length of the explanations for each KAMIT. Furthermore, the authors found that gender diversity composition, particularly when led by female audit partners, has a more pronounced impact on the explanation of each KAMIT rather than on the disclosure of KAMIT. The authors also noted that the moderating effect of audit firm specialization does not influence the gender diversity composition of audit partners in disclosing KAMs. Originality/value: This study's empirical findings demonstrate that the interaction between different gender compositions in a dual-signature environment influences KAM disclosure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This response paper aims to comment on specific aspects of the position paper. Design/methodology/approach: In this paper, the author presents a response to Fischer et al.'s contribution on "The Challenge for the Digital Age: Making Learning a Part of Life." While imperatives and narratives of learning in the future have been well articulated in the literature, their paper provides insights into lifelong learning in the digital age. Findings: The author raises comments on the comprehensiveness of the lifelong learning perspectives and the calls to action. Over the years, with multiyear efforts on the research-based evolution of the design, implementation and adoption of technology-supported learning environments in some parts of the world, the author believes well-researched innovative pedagogy and design principles have already to some extent impacted transformation of learning and teaching in normal schools. By referring to the work in the running of a model school in Taiwan, the author demonstrate some of the pathways that can guide innovation and work towards operationalizing a futuristic vision that is resonant with the one painted in the paper. The paper will end with some comments on how narratives on the future of learning will evolve. Originality/value: In trying to understand the lens that the vision would bring to learning on the digital edge, the author has provided commentaries to probe into the comprehensiveness of their vision of future learning. From an Asian perspective, the author describes one effort that can help make progress in moving towards this vision. It involves realizing the vision by grounding our designs in real experiments or instantiations, such as the interest-driven creator (IDC) experimental school in Taiwan, and highlight past research efforts which have been successful in transformation of classrooms and schools such as developing seamless learning for connecting learning in different spaces afforded by mobile digital devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Limited previous studies about Vietnamese returned migrant workers reviewed that a relatively high rate of migrants returned home before their contract ended. This paper aims to explore how the decisions to return were made under social lenses. Design/methodology/approach: This paper analyses data obtained through in-depth interviews of contract workers who had worked in Taiwan with a focus on Phu Tho province in Vietnam. Findings: The authors followed O'Reilly's (2012) adaption of Practice theory in migration research to examine a group of Vietnamese labour migrants returning from Taiwan. Under this theory, external and internal structures are the two divisions of the social environment. The authors identified external structures that might enable or constraint migrant's mobility. When negotiating internal structures, Vietnamese women might end their contract early in response to family obligations. Originality/value: The findings provide insights into how women make their decisions when to return, which may contribute to a better understanding of how to assist women engaged in transnational labour migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The demand for long-term home care services has been increasing in Taiwan due to the significant growth of the older population. In order to understand the crucial roles that language and communication play in providing better long-term home care services in Taiwan, this study aims to adopt a gerontological sociolinguistic perspective to investigate how professional care workers communicate with older people in this context. Design/methodology/approach: Interviews were conducted with 58 long-term home care workers to identify their communication accommodation strategies for older people, considering their health conditions (dementia), personalities (grumpiness), living status (loneliness) and general principles of long-term home care communication. Findings: The study's findings provide practical insights for long-term home care workers to enhance their communication skills while interacting with older people. Research limitations/implications: The results could contribute to improving the quality of care services provided to older people and address their specific communication needs. Originality/value: To the best of the author's knowledge, this paper is the first attempt to identify contextually specific communication accommodations to older people in existing literature of gerontological sociolinguistics that addresses language, communication and older age. The salience of the findings in this study can be further enhanced if they were applied in the development of training programs for future Taiwanese long-term home care workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Taiwan experiences frequent seismic activity. Major earthquakes in recent history have seriously damaged the school buildings. School buildings in Taiwan are intended to serve both as places of education and as temporary shelters in the aftermath of major earthquakes. Therefore, the seismic performance assessments of school buildings are critical issues that deserve investigation. Design/methodology/approach: This paper develops a methodology that uses principal component analysis to generalize the seismic factors from the basic seismic parameters of school buildings, uses data mining to cluster different school building sizes and uses grey theory to analyze the relationship between seismic factors and the seismic performance of school buildings. Additionally, this paper employs the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to deduce the seismic assessment model for school buildings. Finally, it adopts support vector machine to validate the ANN's deductive results. Findings: An empirical study was conducted on 326 school buildings in the central area of Taichung City, Taiwan, to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Results show that thickness of wall and width of middle-row column relate significantly with school-building seismic performance. Originality/value: This paper provides a model that structural engineers or architects may use to design school buildings that are adequately resistant to earthquakes as well as a reference for future academic research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to evaluate the current situation of education for sustainable development, climate change education and environmental education in a nationwide context. Methodologically, this study calls for more research to go beyond case studies and take a similar approach to examine university curricula and facilitate cross-country comparisons. Design/methodology/approach: This paper examines the status of climate and sustainability curricula in Taiwan's higher education system. Using the course catalog for the 2020–2021 academic year, the authors constructed a unique data set that includes 1,827 courses at 29 major universities in Taiwan. In each institution, the authors search for course titles that include "climate," "sustainable/sustainability" and "environment/environmental" as keywords and code the courses according to their disciplines. Findings: The finding highlights the variations across institutional types and subject matters. Public universities have an average of 4.94 related courses per 1,000 students, whereas private universities have only 3.13. In general, the relevant courses are more concentrated in the STEM and bioscience fields. The curricula, however, are seriously constrained by the disciplinary structure and foster few transdisciplinary perspectives. Originality/value: The authors seek to go beyond case studies and offer one of the most comprehensive curricula samples at the national level. Taiwan adds an important data point, as the current literature focuses heavily on the USA and Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: As the application of artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more prevalent, many high-tech firms have employed AI applications to deal with emerging societal, technological and environmental challenges. Big data analytical capability (BDAC) has become increasingly important in the AI application processes. Drawing upon the resource-based view and the theory of planned behavior, this study aims to investigate how BDAC and collaboration affect new product performance (NPP). Practically, a harmonic working team is particularly important for creating management synergies, this empirical analysis demonstrates the importance of BDAC and collaboration for NPP. Design/methodology/approach: This paper focuses on the performance of firms that applied AI in their operations. This study collected data from firms in Greater China, including China and Taiwan, as Greater China is currently the leading manufacturer of semiconductor, electronic and electric products for AI applications in the manufacturing process. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling is employed for statistical analysis. Findings: The analytical results indicate that BDAC positively relates to collaboration capability (CC) in AI applications but not to team collaboration (TC). CC positively correlates with TC, and both CC and TC positively correlate with NPP. Further, the mediating effect was examined using the Sobel t-test, which reveals that CC is a significant mediator in the influence of BDAC on NPP. Practical implications: The strategic implementation of BDAC and collaboration can allow an enterprise to improve its NPP when driven by the external environment to use AI, which further enhances NPP. These processes indicate that AI and BDAC are both crucial for the success of a company's collaboration and for effective management to improve NPP in the face of global competition. Originality/value: This study introduces the concept of BDAC to explain the relationship between CC and TC, as they pertain to NPP. This study presented a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of the research findings and could provide a framework for managing BDAC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Though there are still political turbulences, the economic cooperation between mainland China and Taiwan is inseparable. Cooperation between enterprises on both sides has become more frequent. Studying the similarities and differences between employees in Cross-Strait enterprises can contribute to human resource management. This paper aims to study the cultural difference between employees of mainland China and in Taiwan when facing psychological contract violations. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 811 valid sample questionnaires were taken from Cross-Strait private enterprise employees. This research adopted partial least squares-structural equation model statistical analysis as an empirical research evaluation. Findings: This study finds that psychological contract violation has a significant positive impact on turnover intention and a significant negative impact on organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) in the Chinese context. There exist cultural differences between the employees of mainland China and Taiwan. When facing psychological contract violation, it is found that employees from Taiwan are more likely to have a strong turnover intention but still keep higher job performance. Employees from mainland China are found to be more likely to have higher OCB. Originality/value: The originality of this research lies in establishing a stronger theoretical model to understand employee behavior. This paper verifies the validity of this model under the Chinese context. Moreover, this paper verifies the cultural difference between Cross-Strait employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the role of international quality assurance and accreditation on higher education quality improvement and competitiveness, as well as assessing the associated benefits and challenges in the Asian context with reference to Taiwan. Design/methodology/approach: The paper used a qualitative approach to examine the case study of Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology (STUST) accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). The paper collected survey responses from service providers (i.e. STUST faculty and AACSB) and focus group discussions with students to bridge the perception-expectation gap. Findings: The qualitative results highlighted 10 key success factors and performance indicators which were later used to build a balanced scorecard (BSC) strategy for STUST quality improvement and competitiveness. Findings show that education quality assurance (via AACSB process) can directly influence the competitive advantage (i.e. for AACSB, STUST and Students) or indirectly via education quality enhancement. The results from faculty and students are consistent with the value co-creation trend to achieve continuous quality improvement more effectively and efficiently. Originality/value: This research paper is unique as the first qualitative in-depth study to discuss assurance related factors that positively or negatively affect competitiveness and quality improvement for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Asia and Taiwan. The paper also contributed by designing a BSC framework and strategy-map applicable to HEIs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how instructional leadership, a concept imported from Western scholarship, has been conceptualized in the Taiwanese context and how principal instructional leadership is realized in schools. The development trajectory of principal instructional leadership is delineated by examining empirical studies in the past two decades. Design/methodology/approach – This paper adopts an exploratory approach to review the Taiwanese empirical literature on principal instructional leadership. A total of 80 studies were systematically analyzed and common themes were identified. Findings – This paper finds that a hybrid model of the conceptualization of instructional leadership has been developed in Taiwan. Principals performed more indirect than direct leadership behaviors. A gap exists between the ideal instructional leader and the reality. Research limitations/implications – The development of a formal theory of instructional leadership is expected as various substantive theories are developed and more data are accumulated. To yield the desired outcome of knowledge acceleration, the coordination of research efforts across scholars and institutions is a must. Practical implications – The articles reviewed suggest less effort spent by principals on the teachers. Yet with a national promotion of teacher learning community, as well as cooperative and collaborative learning in recent years, principal instructional leadership behaviors are expected to rise in terms of ensuring instruction quality and professional development. Originality/value – This paper is an attempt to accumulate knowledge about principal instructional leadership in Taiwan. It is a contribution to the exploration of indigenous perspectives and practices and the understanding and building of educational leadership in Asia. [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.

Purpose: This study aims to examine the Taiwan setting, where audit partners' names are presented in the audit report and where audit committee formation is voluntary in the initial stage of audit committee reform. This paper investigates the effects of the formation of voluntary audit committees on the selection of individual audit partners, and, in turn, the audit quality. This contrasts with previous studies investigating the relationship between audit committees and auditor selection at the audit firm level. Design/methodology/approach: This paper samples all of Taiwan's publicly listed firms for the period 2007–2012 and uses Heckman's (1979) two-stage estimation model to achieve our objectives. Findings: Using different characteristics of individual engagement partners as proxies for a higher quality auditor, the main empirical results show that voluntary audit committee formation is positively related to an industry specialist lead partner and a lead partner that has a larger number of clients. In addition, this paper also finds that voluntary audit committee formation has a positive impact on audit quality (proxied by discretionary accruals). The results suggest that the voluntary formation of an audit committee contributes positively to both auditor selection and audit quality. Furthermore, an additional test shows that the main empirical results are robust to a validity threat that firms that have good corporate governance prior to the formation of voluntary audit committees tend to select high-quality audit partners. Originality/value: The paper contributes to the audit committee literature in the following ways: this paper takes advantage of Taiwan's unique setting, where forming an audit committee is not compulsory in the initial stage of audit committee reform, to investigate the voluntary audit committee, auditor selection and audit quality; this paper expands on Abbott and Parker's (2000) study of audit committee characteristics and auditor selection at the audit firm level by examining this relationship at the individual audit partner level; this paper responds to the call by Church et al. (2008) and DeFond and Francis (2005) who propose more studies on audit quality at the individual engagement partner level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate publicly traded restaurant companies and food & beverage companies from 2014 to 2019 in Taiwan to explore their human capital efficiency. Design/methodology/approach: According to the theoretical framework of human capital in micro and macro perspectives, the empirical model is built with two stages; the first stage is to examine the perspective of micro-level human capital theory through determining whether knowledge ability and working experience (proxies for micro-level human capital) can efficiently convert to employee-level output such as salary. The second stage is to test macro-level human capital theory through checking whether company inputs such as salary expenses and benefits expenditures can be efficiently transferred into enterprise annual revenues. Findings: The results of this research reveal that the average efficiency score of stage 1 is 73.6% while that of stage 2 is 75.1%; this indicates that micro-level human capital has more room to improve than macro-level human capital. Meanwhile, the findings also demonstrate that there is negative relationship between efficiency score from stage 1 and turnover rate; this implies that companies with higher micro-human capital have lower turnover rates. Furthermore, there is significantly positive relationship between a company's efficiency score from stage 2 and its return on equity (ROE). Originality/value: This study contributes to both academia and industry. From a theoretical perspective, the theory of strategic human resources management is applied through the methodology of production theory to examine human capital management efficiency in the restaurant and food and beverage industry. From a practical perspective, this study identifies the factors that assist the restaurant or food and beverage industry retain employees and gain a solid workforce, because manpower is the core resource for an industry and a country to grow sustainably. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Relationships are a critical success factor for business operations across markets with dominant Chinese culture, like Taiwan. The intersection of a high-quality institutional environment and a traditional Chinese cultural background in Taiwan provides a unique setting for exploring different types of relational mechanisms and ensuing renqing practices (i.e. reciprocal exchange of favors with empathy). The purpose of this paper is to examine when, where and how Taiwanese high-performance organizations manage and deploy interorganizational renqing across their business relationship portfolios. Answering these questions can help build a theory of interorganizational renqing and advance interorganizational reciprocity theorization more generally. Design/methodology/approach: This research is motivated by two key research questions. First is related to how renqing givers understand renqing in the context of their organizations and their interorganizational business relationship portfolios. Second, whether organizations prefer a neutral renqing balance, a renqing debt or a renqing surplus is another point of interest. The study is based on interviews with upper echelon elite informants at six high-performing Taiwanese organizations with business relationship portfolios worldwide. Findings: It is found that interorganizational renqing is deployed as a hybrid resource, taking on the functions of both an investment and a type of insurance against risk. Two notable differences between interorganizational and interpersonal renqing are also noted. First, the social exchange norm aspect of renqing points to salient social exchange norms also in interorganizational exchanges. This confirms the importance of understanding not only the regulative and normative dimensions of business relationships, as a type of institution, but also the cognitive dimensions and underlying institutional logics. Second, this study shows that unlike at the interpersonal level, the notion of renqing debt is not common at the interorganizational level – at least not within high-performance organizations with market leader positions. Originality/value: This study explores interorganizational renqing practices and their strategic deployment through the use of "accessing" and "embedding" relational mechanisms. The study also adds to the poorly understood nature of interorganizational reciprocity and provides support for developing a theory of interorganizational renqing, as a form of interorganizational reciprocity within a Chinese cultural context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to examine the effect of family ownership on the payment method of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deals. It also investigates the market reaction around the announcement of these M&A deals. Design/methodology/approach: Archival data of M&A deals of a sample of Taiwanese listed firms during 2008–2018 are collected and examined using probit, event study and OLS models. This study addresses the endogeneity concern using the two-stage least squares statistical technique and Heckman's two-step estimation method. Findings: This study finds that family firms are more likely to use cash as an exchange medium in M&A deals to avoid the problem of diluting control rights. This study further finds that family firms receive a positive market reaction around the announcement of M&A deals relative to non-family counterparts. The empirical results support the notion that family ownership is a value-creation structure. Practical implications: The findings provide additional evidence-based insights into the debate about family ownership with the aim of informing policy and offering practical recommendations to expand the US-based literature. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to provide empirical evidence on the impact of family ownership on payment method choice in M&A activities in Taiwan. It also provides novel evidence that family firms experience value gains when taking M&A investment decisions relative to non-family firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the aspects of workplace environment and the experiences of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) employees in an Asian context; a subject that has hitherto been somewhat neglected. It responds to a call for more contextual research in the field of employment diversity in organizational management in general. Design/methodology/approach: This is a mixed method study, which utilizes multiple sources of primary and secondary data and consists of in-depth personal interviews, a survey of LGBT employees, published data (including legislation and state policies), reports issued by social and media organizations, documentary evidence from Taiwanese companies and insights drawn from the existing literature. Findings: It was found that there is an interplay between the macro, meso and micro levels in the multilevel relational framework applied to diversity of employment in Taiwan. Macrolevel factors, such as supportive legislation, mass media and social tolerance toward LGBT community positively affect mesolevel factors, such as stable and secure social networks among the LGBT community in the form of legal and social organizations (NGOs, social media, bars, restaurants, etc.) as well as many companies inclusion of sexual orientation in their definitions of diversity. However, this is opposed by macrolevel, cultural values related to family structure and intergenerational relationships that inhibit pro-active integration and equality of LGBT individuals at the meso organizational level. Companies headed by older-generation leadership can be slow to advocate, support and promote sexual-orientation diversity in their workplaces. In contrast, microlevel data shows that LGBT employees receive robust psychological support from their peer group, friends and the LGBT community, although gaining acceptance by family and coworkers remains a challenge. Research limitations/implications: Future studies need to focus on the dynamics of the meso- and microlevel factors by investigating how organizational structure, perspectives of leaders and HR managers, diversity management practices and attitudes and behaviors of LGBT employees and other coworkers affect development and integration of sexual-orientation diversity programs within organizations. Practical implications: Managers, policy makers in organization as well as educators benefit from the context-sensitive findings and recommendations offered in this paper. Social implications: Understanding of LGBT individuals employment environment helps to facilitate or hinder the positive development of equal society and benefit both LGBT employees, their coworkers and managers. Originality/value: Limited research exists on the LGBT employees experiences at work in Asia. This study makes unique contribution to the understanding of sexual orientation category of diversity at work in Taiwan context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Using a data set of Taiwanese listed firms from 2002 to 2015, this paper aims to examine the determinants to voluntarily appoint independent directors. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses panel estimation to exploit both the cross-section and time-series nature of the data. Further, this paper uses Tobit regression, generalized linear model (GLM) in the additional analysis and the two-stage least squares to mitigate for a possible endogeneity issue. Findings: The main findings show that Taiwanese firms with large board sizes tend to voluntarily appoint independent directors and firms that already have independent supervisors more willingly to accept additional independent directors onto the board. Furthermore, ownership concentration and institutional ownership are positively associated with the voluntary appointment of independent directors. On the contrary, firms controlled by family members are generally reluctant to voluntarily appoint independent directors. Research limitations/implications: The findings are important for managers, shareholders, creditors and policymakers. In particular, when considering the determinants of the voluntary appointment of independent directors, the results indicate that independent supervisors, outside shareholders and institutional investors are significant factors in influencing effective internal and external corporate governance mechanisms. This research work focuses on the voluntary appointment of independent directors. It would be interesting to compare the effectiveness of voluntary appointments with a mandatory appointment within Taiwan and with other jurisdictions. Originality/value: This study incrementally contributes to the corporate governance literature in several ways. First, this study extends the earlier research by using a more comprehensive data set of non-financial Taiwanese firms and using alternative methodologies to investigate the determinants of voluntary appointment of independent directors. Second, prior studies tend to neglect the possible issue of using a censored and fractional dependent variable, the proportion of independent directors, which might yield biased and inconsistent parameter estimates when using ordinary least squares regression estimation. Finally, this study addresses the relevant econometric issues by using the Tobit, GLM and the two-stage least squares for a possible endogeneity concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The issue of concurrent jurisdiction over cross-border crimes has become common in a globalizing world, while the rigid compliance with territoriality and active personality jurisdiction has created a legal vacuum for cross-border crimes in many situations. The jurisdiction dispute between mainland China and Taiwan over cross-border telecom fraud crimes is a good example. In recent years, the Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China cracked down a series of cross-border telecom fraud crimes against mainland residents and extradited suspects to mainland China. Given a certain proportion of Taiwan residents in criminal gangs, the Taiwan side raised jurisdiction objections, arguing that mainland China had no right to exercise jurisdiction over Taiwanese criminals. The essence of the jurisdiction dispute between two sides is the concurrence of Taiwan's right to exercise active personality jurisdiction and the mainland's right to exercise passive personality jurisdiction. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the connotation of different jurisdiction principles (namely, territorial, active personality, protective and passive personality jurisdiction) and reinterpret their prioritization of applicability from a jurisprudential perspective, and thus, enhance the theoretical basis for resolving the issue of concurrent jurisdiction over cross-border crimes. Design/methodology/approach: By reviewing the historical trajectory of major jurisdiction principles since the 1920s, and studying the specificities of the case in this context, this paper argues that territorial jurisdiction and active personality jurisdiction have presumed priority but not an absolute priority for resolving the issue of concurrent jurisdiction. The applicability of protective and passive personality jurisdiction could precede the former provided the jurisdictions of territoriality or active personality are inadequate, incompetent or lack of motivation to combat crimes, which harm other jurisdictions. Findings: The developmental trajectory and contemporary connotation of major jurisdiction principles suggests that the legitimacy of the mainland's exercise of passive personality jurisdiction over Taiwan criminal suspects lies in the urgent need to recover mainland victims' significant property loss, the incompetence of Taiwan in detecting and prosecuting telecom fraud crimes committed by Taiwanese residents and targeting mainland victims and that the mainland has guaranteed the Taiwan side's right to be timely informed and fully participate in its exercise of criminal jurisdiction over crimes involving Taiwan suspects. Originality/value: Current literature on jurisdiction doctrines mainly uses a historical or descriptive approach to reveal the attitudes of different countries toward jurisdiction principles, which helps little in resolving the issue of concurrent jurisdiction over cross-border crimes in an era of globalization. This paper uses an interpretative approach, reinterprets the contemporary connotation of different jurisdiction principles and redefines the criteria for determining their prioritization in the context of the specificities of a case. It is expected to update the academic literature for resolving concurrent jurisdiction, fill the legal vacuum for combating cross-border crimes created by rigid compliance with territorial jurisdiction, and meanwhile relieve concerns about abuse of extraterritorial jurisdiction as it provides concrete standards for weighting the applicability of jurisdiction principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors associated with the adoption of agro-processing methods and to estimate their impact on farm income and farm diversification. Design/methodology/approach: Using a large-scale sample of 12,122 special crop farm households drawn from the 2015 Agricultural Census Survey in Taiwan, the semiparametric multivalued treatment effect model was estimated. Findings: The authors found that agro-processing farm households obtain higher farm incomes than non-agro-processing farm households. Among the agro-processing methods, self-processing generates higher farm income than outsourced-processing. Moreover, farm households that adopt either agro-processing method are more likely to diversify into agritourism and other agribusinesses than non-agro-processing farms. Research limitations/implications: The authors could only access data on farm income and not on agro-processing costs. Future studies may address the impact of agro-processing on farm profitability if relevant data are available. Originality/value: Very few studies have examined the relationship between agro-processing, farm income and farm diversification. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is one of the first papers to examine the impact of different agro-processing practices on farm income and farm diversification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to examine the phenomenon of the risk–return paradox from the resources side of the firm. The authors emphasize the moderating role of risk-taking capabilities in investigating the relationship between risk-taking and performance. Design/methodology/approach: Building on the disciplines of the resource-based view, the moderating effects of risk-taking capabilities on performance were tested by using Taiwan listed companies' data from information technology and electronics industries. Based on the data from 216 firms for periods from 2003 to 2007, this study runs a hierarchical moderated regression analysis to test the hypotheses in the context of diversification. Findings: The results of this study emphasize that risk-taking and its relationship with performance are context-specific. Significantly, it is contingent on the firm's risk-taking capabilities endowment. The findings also indicate that some aspects of risk-taking capabilities moderate the relationship between risk-taking and performance. Originality/value: This paper emphasizes that risk-taking capability is an essential factor in investigating the risk–return paradox. It constructs the dimensions of risk-taking capability in terms of absorptive capacity, network resources and organizational slack. Firms equipped with a high level of risk-taking capabilities benefit from risk-taking activities and should, therefore, embrace risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Safety activities have been initiated in healthcare organizations in Taiwan, but little is known about the performance and trends of safety culture on a timely basis. This study aims to comprehensively review the articles that have conducted two worldwide patient safety culture instruments (HSPSC and SAQ) in Taiwan to provide the extent of existing knowledge about healthcare professionals' perception related to patient safety. Design/methodology/approach: The Web of Science, Medline (Pubmed) and Embas were used as the database to search papers related to the patient safety culture in Taiwan from 2008 to June 30, 2019. Findings: Twenty-four relative articles in total were found and further investigations confirmed that the regular assessment of patient safety culture among hospital staff is essentially important for healthcare organizations to reduce the rates of medical errors and malpractice. Moreover, the elements influencing patient safety culture may vary due to the difference in job positions, age, experience in organization and cultural settings. Research limitations/implications: The summary of findings enables healthcare administrators and practitioners to understand key components of patient safety culture for continuous improvement in medical quality. Originality/value: Assessing the safety culture in healthcare organizations is a foundation to achieve excellent medical quality and service. The implications of this study could be useful for hospitals to establish a safer environment for patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the wastewater discharge and a zero-wastewater-discharge (ZWD) reproduction plan is designed for a paper mill in Taiwan. Design/methodology/approach: The proposed model of ZWD reproduction planning is established using the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation and Taguchi method to determine the overall wastewater recovery rate. Still the prior studies failed to address a systematic approach to optimize the waste water recovery rate. Findings: The optimal solution for clean water is 500 tons, recovery electrodialysis reversal is 345 tons, the wastewater reuse performance is 1.3 and waste heat recycling performance is 0.8, the larger number is performed well. The results shows that the maximum overall waste water recovery rate is 97.8 percent. Originality/value: A paper mill is strived for improving their sustainable development. In real situation, there is a need to address the qualitative information and qualitative data to carry out the optimal ZWD reproduction planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to examine how situational factors with social support affecting purchase intention in social commerce (SC). In Taiwan's SC, the relationship between trust belief and purchase intention has always been a key issue. Design/methodology/approach: This study presents a research model that comprises five hypothesis with five constructs, including situational factors, social support, senses, trust belief and purchase intention. The model is tested on data collected from 532 valid samples in Taiwan, using structural equation modeling. The results show that, in order of importance, control senses and raise mediation trust belief reach the better purchase intention. Findings: The findings of the study provide practical insights in understanding how seller should notice consumer's trust belief, in order to enhance purchase intention for the SC as a whole. Originality/value: Much existing consumer behavior research is focused on decision making rather than the trust belief themselves. Accordingly, analyzing how senses influence trust belief and purchase intention is an important issue in SC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to examine the potential mechanisms through which regulatory focus influences employee work-related outcomes. The effects of a dual model of regulatory focus on job satisfaction and turnover intention were investigated through psychological contracts. Design/methodology/approach: The data of a survey of 370 recruits (306 male newcomers and 64 female newcomers) in a Taiwanese military recruitment center provided significant support for the hypothesized dual model. Findings: The results revealed that regulatory focus was positively related to either job satisfaction or turnover intention. A relational contract mediated the relationship between promotion focus and job satisfaction, whereas a transactional contract mediated prevention focus and turnover intention. Research limitations/implications: The study results may not apply to other sectors because data were collected only at a military unit in Taiwan. Using Taiwanese military personnel may limit the generalization of the results to those unemployed in civilian samples or those in other countries. Samples from different countries are important to establish whether the results from the study apply to other situations. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first regulatory focus theory (RFT)-based study to report on the regulatory focus of newcomers as mediating the relationship between purposeful and work-related outcomes. Practical implications: Previous research has found that individuals with a different goal orientation may adopt different behaviors that result in different performance levels. The results here imply that newcomers with transactional contracts have intentions to leave their organizations and perceive their relationships with their organizations according to rational choice theory. Originality/value: Newcomers' distinctive self-regulatory systems and focus on meeting either nurturance or security needs were determined to get different outcomes following organizational entry. The results demonstrated that promotion-focused newcomers were satisfied with the military, whereas prevention-focused newcomers intended to leave within their first 18 weeks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address the issue of managing the major environmental costs from an accounting perspective. The current state of practices for managing the costs associated with the consumption of electricity, water and paper, as well as the generation of wastes within three universities in Taiwan, was investigated. The costs mentioned above were termed "major" environmental costs for the purpose of this study. Design/methodology/approach – Being an exploratory study, the paper followed a qualitative, case study methodology. A multiple-case design was chosen and three Taiwanese universities were investigated. The major source of data collection was through face-to-face interviews. However, available resources were also examined, such as the charts of accounts, annual reports, strategic plans, sustainability reports and information disclosed on the web-pages of the three universities. Findings – The findings demonstrated that there appeared to be a general absence of environmental management accounting (EMA) utilisation to manage the major environmental costs by the three universities. Efforts to improve environmental performance, in particular from an accounting perspective, were still lacking. Originality/value – The study contributes significantly to the following areas: providing specific information about how the major environmental costs are accounted for and managed; identifying limitations of current management accounting systems being used for the purpose of managing environmental costs; and extending the applicability of EMA to the higher education (HE) sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the connection among trust’s antecedents, dimensions and consequences in the context of e-banking. Design/methodology/approach – A survey of 510 and 122 respondents in Taiwan and New Zealand (NZ), respectively, was conducted. Findings – The empirical results indicate that, first, not all trusts’ precursors the authors considered have significant influence on generating consumers’ trust and, second, that influential weights of these precursors on building consumer trust vary across consumers and cultures. Meanwhile, all factors on the e-banking side hold greatly significant influence on consumers’ trust in both NZ and Taiwan cases. Research limitations/implications – Practical and academic implications culled from the empirical results are discussed, and these implications may also be applicable to other information and communication technology (ICT) solutions and innovation banking services. Practical implications – Before banks shift their focus on to trust resources of consumer side, banks are advised to create clients’ trust from e-banking side, such as situational normality and structural assurance. Originality/value – This paper takes a holistic view to investigate the links between trust’s dimensions, antecedents and consequences in a single research structure, and the implications may also be applicable to other ICT solutions and innovative banking services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate payout smoothing in two emerging markets – China and Taiwan. The authors conduct a comparative study of two emerging market economies that have common cultural and historical characteristics but have experienced different government systems and different approach to the market-based system. Design/methodology/approach: The authors collect firm-level data from Standard and Poor's Compustat Global database, which covers 5,298 public firms in China and Taiwan during the period 1996–2015, and use a variance decomposition methodology to estimate the smoothness of corporate payout in a common empirical framework that includes net income, and debt and investment policies. Findings: Overall, the empirical findings support recently proposed theories of joint determination of corporate payout behavior with debt and investment policies. The authors find that debt and investment policies absorb the majority of shocks to net income, and that debt policy is the main shock absorber. Furthermore, the authors show that firms in China follow a similar strategy with their counterparts in United States and smooth their payout. In contrast to firms in China and US, the payout of the Taiwanese firms is relatively highly sensitive to net income shocks. Originality/value: To the best of authors' knowledge, this study is the first to use a joint model to empirically investigate the extent to which debt and investment policies are used to keep corporate payout smooth in emerging markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to probe into the implementation of internship courses under the five-year cosmetology program in Taiwan from the perspective of Dewey's philosophies in hopes that the analysis can serve as reference for schools in planning their internship courses in the future. Design/methodology/approach: This paper probes into the off-campus internship courses under Taiwan's five-year junior college education program by applying Dewey's empirical philosophy. Findings: The study aims to understand the learning experience acquired by students from learning by doing internship courses as reference for future internship design. The current internship courses comprise the follows: summer, during the semester and for a full academic year. The experience of summer internship is career exploration, the experience for semester internship is career experience and the experience from academic-year internship is career choice. The internship strategies are designed according to the three different internship approaches, so that the internship courses can implement the educational effect of "learning from experience". Practical implications: To minimize the discrepancy between the cosmetology program under the five-year junior college education and the employment market, credit-based off-campus internship courses are arranged for students' final years at school. Social implications: Through on-site trainings, students accumulate work experience and explore into a related career field. The accumulation of experience and gaining of insights mirror the philosophy of learning by doing, which involves students' reflective thinking. Originality/value: It is hoped that the analysis can serve as reference for internship courses planning in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to show how a multiple criteria decision-making method, the analytic network process (ANP) is applied to help Taiwanese TV. companies to effectively select optimal televised sportscasters for the Olympic Games. Design/methodology/approach - After interviewing 44 practitioners, criteria for the selection of the Olympic Games televised sportscasters were collected. To avoid the complicated computing process from additional pairwise comparisons of the ANP, the 12 critical criteria that were mentioned more than 30 times by theses respondents were retained. After discussions with 18 senior executives these were classified in three perspectives to structure the hierarchy for the selection of the Olympic Games televised sportscasters. Findings - After discussions with the 18 senior executives, it is found that the selection criteria for televised sportscasters are interrelated. Unlike former contributors who ignored the interdependence among factors, a more feasible and accurate approach, the ANP, which captures the dependent relationship, is applied in this paper to handle such problems. Practical implications - According to the hierarchy base on three perspectives and 12 important criteria, Taiwanese TV companies could select the optimal Olympic Games televised sportscasters more effectively. A practical application of the ANP presented is generic and could be exploited for Taiwanese TV companies. Originality/value - The Olympic Games are one of the most important and most popular sporting events in the world. This paper contributes to a more effective selection of the optimal Olympic Games televised sportscasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine how Si-shu, a traditional form of local, private education grounded in classical instruction, responded to the rapid modernization of education during the late Qing dynasty and early Republic of China and to explain why these schools, once extraordinarily adaptable, finally disappeared. Design/methodology/approach: The authors have examined both primary and secondary sources, including government reports, education yearbooks, professional annals, public archives, and published research to analyze the social, political and institutional changes that reshaped Si-shu in the context of China's late-19th- and early-20th-century educational modernization. Findings: Si-shu went through four stages of institutional change during the last century. First, they faced increased competition from new-style (westernized) schools during the late Qing dynasty. Second, they engaged in a process of intense self-reform, particularly after the Xinhai Revolution of 1911. Third, they were marginalized by the new educational systems of the Republic of China, especially the Renxu School System of 1922 and the Wuchen School System of 1928. Finally, after the foundation of the People's Republic of China in 1949, they were considered remnants of feudal culture and forcibly replaced by modern schools. Originality/value: This paper brings hitherto unexplored Chinese sources to an English-speaking audience in an effort to shed new light on the history of traditional Chinese education. The fate of Si-shu was part of the larger modernization of Chinese education – a development that had both advantages and disadvantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore a Six Sigma implementation within a Kaizen mechanism, how the Kaizen events and methodology evolved, as well as the critical success factors as the methodology developed.Design/methodology/approach This paper begins with a review of the literature on Six Sigma and its Kaizen factors, followed by an empirical study a Kaizen event framework that was developed for a Taiwanese firm.Findings The results of the Six Sigma system proposed in this paper show that each organization used a unique Kaizen mechanism when initiating a Six Sigma project. A Kaizen event within a Kaizen mechanism can be used to obtain valuable insights about Six Sigma implementations. Firms should be able to achieve better management decisions after conducting self-assessments using the model.Originality/value This paper provides documented evidence of Six Sigma implementations with Kaizen events flow units, representative of aerospace industry. This study should prove to be of a great value to academics, consultants, researchers, and practitioners of Six Sigma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore Taiwan’s regional energy efficiency trend and complement the work of the total-factor energy efficiency (TFEE) index proposed by Hu and Wang (2006). It further extends panel data stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) modeling for estimating disaggregate energy efficiency.Design/methodology/approach This paper applies the panel data stochastic production frontier to estimate the TFEE scores for 20 administrative regions in Taiwan over the period 2004-2015. The SFA models include five inputs (employed population, amount of productive electricity power consumed, amount of electricity consumed for household and non-household electric lighting, amount of gasoline sales, and amount of diesel sales) and one output (total real income in the base year of 2011).Findings This research concludes with three main findings: the inefficient administrative regions of Taiwan include mostly large industrial parks and the petrochemical industry cluster; the top five administrative regions with inefficient diesel use are mostly metropolitan areas that the concern of air pollution caused by diesel system arouses the awareness to use less diesel fuel; and the average TFEE score on household and non-household electric lighting is higher than the usage efficiency of productive electricity power, gasoline, and diesel, but there is still room for efficiency improvement.Originality/value Most administrative regions in Taiwan are not efficient in almost all kinds of energy use. The results show that the efficiencies of using productive electricity power, gasoline, and diesel need to be improved a lot more. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine whether firms use different earnings management approaches when facing financial difficulties and the effects of industry-specialist auditors in constraining those choices. The empirical results suggest that (1) firms with lower risk of business failure but with stronger incentives to adjust earnings upward tend to use real earnings management (REM) income-increasing approaches while (2) at the same time, using discretionary accruals for income-decreasing earnings management, due to constraints imposed by specialist auditors on the use of accrual-based earnings management (AEM). This is consistent with the findings of Chi et al., and the authors do not find similar evidence for the firms with higher risk of failure. Also, (3) regardless of the level of failure risk, firms turn to REM while interestingly, such REM behavior is effectively curbed by industry-leading specialist auditors (specialist auditors with the highest client market share) on financially distressed firms. These results extend the findings of Chi et al. (2011), suggesting that industry-specialist auditors have different tolerance levels for earnings management approaches by firms with different levels of business failure risk. That is, when auditing clients with higher risk of failure, specialist auditors are more likely to maintain higher audit quality through more stringent audit testing and use of more audit staff time to prevent an occurrence of audit failure. Design/methodology/approach: The authors examine earnings management behavior across firms in Taiwan with different levels of business failure risk and the effects of audit partner industry specialization in constraining that behavior. Chi et al. (2011) studied low-risk firms with incentives to adjust earnings upward and found firms use REM when the auditors constrain AEM. The authors extend the work of Chi et al. and observe firms with different levels of failure risk. Findings: The authors find (1) lower risk firms may use discretionary accruals to adjust earnings downward while the authors find no similar evidence for financially distressed firms, (2) lower risk firms may use REM when their industry-specialist auditors curb AEM and (3) the industry leaders among specialist auditors do the same for the financially distressed firms. The results demonstrate the extent to which industry-specialist auditors apply different tolerance levels for earnings management behaviors across firms with different levels of failure risk. Originality/value: The study contributes to the literature in the following three ways: first, the authors fill a gap in the existing literature by comparing firms with higher risk of business failure to firms with lower risk of business failure to explore the possible difference in the two different kinds of earnings management behavior; second, the authors extend the findings of Chi et al. (2011) and examine whether specialist auditors, when auditing firms with higher risk of business failure, will input more audit effort to constrain their clients' use of REM and third, since business failures have a significant impact on the capital markets and any associated audit failures can have an even greater negative impact on investor confidence, the study provides information useful to auditors and regulators in the formation of salient policy regarding the use of REM by firms experiencing high risk of business failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper, because of the complexity of demand time series and the need to construct a more accurate hybrid model that can model all relationships in data, is to propose a parallel-series hybridization of seasonal neural networks and statistical models for demand time series forecasting. Design/methodology/approach: The main idea of proposed model is centered around combining parallel and series hybrid methodologies to use the benefit of unique advantages of both hybrid strategies as well as intelligent and classic seasonal time series models simultaneously for achieving results that are more accurate for the first time. In the proposed model, in contrast of traditional parallel and series hybrid strategies, it can be generally shown that the performance of the proposed model will not be worse than components. Findings: Empirical results of forecasting two well-known seasonal time series data sets, including the total production value of the Taiwan machinery industry and the sales volume of soft drinks, indicate that the proposed model can effectively improve the forecasting accuracy achieved by either of their components used in isolation. In addition, the proposed model can achieve more accurate results than parallel and series hybrid model with same components. Therefore, the proposed model can be used as an appropriate alternative model for seasonal time series forecasting, especially when higher forecasting accuracy is needed. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, the proposed model, for first time and in contrast of traditional parallel and series hybrid strategies, is developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In this paper, the authors examined the changes in labour unrest and labour quality brought by high labour standards over a considerable period in Taiwan. Then, the authors studied the role of these changes in predicting the inflow of foreign direct investment (IFDI) in the country. To test the role, the authors measured the differences in effects of the two changes on wages, working hours and employment opportunities of skilled female and skilled male workers in FDI-intensive and non-intensive industries. Design/methodology/approach: Using a model built on pooled cross-sectional time-series data from 1999 to 2012, the authors measured the effect of changes in labour unrest and the presence of skilled workers on the net inflow of FDI. Using data from the Manpower Utilisation Survey (MUS), the authors applied differences–in–Differences-in--ddifferences- (DDD) and differences–in–Differences-in-ddifferences-in--differences- (DDDD) estimation methods to test the effect of changes in labour unrest and labour quality on three labour market outcomes, namely wages, working hours and job opportunities of skilled workforce. Findings: Increasing labour unrest affected the employment opportunities of almost every unemployed person seeking skilled jobs in Taiwan. When the authors compared the adverse effect of high labour standards on employment opportunities and working hours, the authors found women looking for skilled jobs in foreign-owned firms to be the worst affected. Besides, foreign firms paid different wages to skilled educated men than what foreign firms' domestic counterparts paid to skilled educated men employed in Taiwanese firms. Practical implications: An in-depth analysis of changes in labour unrest and presence of skilled workers because of high labour standards and the extent to which such changes helped the nation to attract FDI should be useful to policymakers interested in understanding the impact of legislative measures and policy reforms on labour market outcomes across industry types, which matter to foreign investors. If changes in labour unrest and labour quality influenced the inflow of FDI more to firms in one set of industries than the others, the same should have a bearing on revamping of future enactment and enforcement in Taiwan. Originality/value: Current study findings would not only provide broad lessons to policymakers in Taiwan but findings of the authors' country case study should be able to guide growing economies that are equally careful whilst raising the labour standards as most fear that high labour standards can deter inflow of FDI because of increasing labour cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This paper investigates changes in risk-neutral distribution derived from Taiwan stockindex options under different market conditions. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether individual investor sentiment significantly influences the Taiwan option prices. Design/methodology/approach – The authors adopt the optimization method to estimate the risk-neutral distribution from the Taiwan stock index options and use the t-test to examine the difference in risk-neutral skewness, kurtosis, and confidence interval between the pre-crisis and crisis periods. This paper tests the impact of individual investor sentiment on risk-neutral skewness and confidence interval in two sub-periods. Findings – The authors find that errors in individual investors’ expectations significantly influence the Taiwan stock index option prices. Research limitations/implications – The data concerning the sentiment of speculative institutional investors are incomplete for the Taiwan option market. Therefore, this paper focusses on the analysis of individual investor sentiment. Further research can study the impact of institutional investor sentiment in emerging markets. Social implications – The previous literature has suggested that option prices reflect information before the information is revealed in stock prices. Therefore, an important implication is to analyze the information quality revealed in option prices by studying whether the changes in option prices are due to investor sentiment or non-sentiment-related components. Originality/value – Most of the studies in the literature have focussed on the US option market, and their applicability may vary across different microstructures. This paper shows that the influence of individual investor sentiment in an emerging market is different from that in the US market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of extrinsic motivation, workplace learning, employer trust and self-efficacy on foreign laborers' cross-cultural adjustment. Design/methodology/approach: This paper uses structural equation modeling to analyze the data from a sample of 258 Vietnamese laborers in Taiwan. Findings: The results show a significantly positive impact of extrinsic motivation, workplace learning, employer trust and self-efficacy on cross-cultural adjustment. Originality/value: The findings of this study provide important implications for academic researchers and organizations concerning management and development of successful foreign laborers. From a theoretical aspect, this study shows new evidence on the impacts of extrinsic motivation, workplace learning, employer trust and self-efficacy on foreign laborer cross-cultural adjustment. In addition, this study enriches theories in the field of self-determination motivation, workplace learning, trust and self-efficacy literature. From a practical aspect, this study provides implications for business managers to make better policies in training and managing foreign laborers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In the current study, the researchers tracked the steps that were taken (in the past 20 years after the occurrence of the 921 earthquake) to enhance the safety of students and teachers on campus by rebuilding the schools according to higher standards. Additionally, the researchers analyzed the process of school reconstruction in Taiwan after the Chi-Chi earthquake, as well as the resilience of the rebuilt schools. Design/methodology/approach: This paper collected extensive relevant literature to serve as a basis for data analysis. Subsequently, they examined the conditions of selected schools before and after they were affected by the earthquake, as well as the reconstruction process of these schools. The purposive sampling method was also adopted to assemble a unique and representative sample. Findings: This study concluded a new disaster risk reduction education system in Taiwan, from safe learning facilities, school disaster management and risk reduction and resilience education perspectives. It encouraged school and community collaboration regarding establishing a comprehensive disaster management framework. Originality/value: The paper kept tracks of how schools recovered and restored after the 921 earthquake based on global disaster management trends and local disaster risk reduction education. It also highlighted the major changes within the school resilience system and the importance of disaster risk reduction education in Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Service innovation has been one of the essential elements to meet the customers' requirements, but few studies discuss service innovation regarding behavioral intention in the insurance industry. This paper aims to investigate the effects of service innovation on customer behavioral intention and examines the role of word-of-mouth (WOM) and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Design/methodology/approach: This paper used a survey to assess consumer behavioral intention regarding service innovation activities from life insurance. Questionnaires were administered to consumers who have purchased life insurance in Taiwan and the survey questions were tested through factor analysis. An analysis of multiple and hierarchical regression was performed to test the hypotheses. Findings: The empirical results demonstrate that life insurance service innovation has a significantly positive influence on WOM and behavioral intention. Additionally, WOM has a partially mediating effect between service innovation and behavioral intention. Furthermore, the study indicates that CSR has a moderating effect on the relationship between service innovation and behavioral intentions. Originality/value: Considering the uniqueness of this study in the context of Taiwan, the research draws on signaling theory as the framework to explore service innovation and the impact of social responsibility on consumer behavioral intentions in the Taiwanese insurance industry. Additionally, the results can be considered a service marketing strategy and are applicable to the financial service industry in some developing Asian countries [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The paper aims to compare two general team identification processes of consumers' in-group-favor and out-group-animosity responses to sports sponsorship. Design/methodology/approach: The paper draws on two studies and four samples of professional baseball fans in Taiwan (N = 1,294). In Study 1, data from the fans of three teams were analyzed by using multi-group structural equation modeling to account for team effects and to consider parallel in-group-favor and out-group-animosity processes. In Study 2, the fans of one team were sampled and randomly assigned to assess the sponsors of one of three specific competitor teams to account for differences in team competition and rivalry. In both studies, these two processes were compared using patterns of significant relationships and differences in the indirect identification-attitude-outcome relationships. Findings: Positive outcomes of in-group-favor processes were broader in scope and were more pronounced in absolute magnitude than the negative outcomes of out-group-animosity processes across all outcomes and studies. Research limitations/implications: The research was conducted in one country and considered the sponsorship of one sport. It is possible that the results could differ for leagues within different countries, more global leagues and different fan bases. Practical implications: The results suggest that managers should carefully consider whether the negative out-group-animosity outcomes are actually present, broad enough or strong enough to warrant costly or compromising intervention, because they might not always be present or meaningful. Originality/value: The paper demonstrates the comparatively greater breadth and strength of in-group-favor processes when compared directly to out-group-animosity processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Building on the conservation of resource theory, the authors posit work-life support as an essential resource for middle managers. This paper aims to explore the positive association between work-life support, positive emotion, job satisfaction and happiness. The paper also assesses the moderating role of work pressure on work-life support and positive emotion relationship on the one hand and flextime on positive emotion and job satisfaction on the other. Design/methodology/approach: Data collected from 512 middle managers of small and medium-sized firms including manufacturing, service and finance sectors in Taiwan were used to test the hypotheses. Findings: The results reveal that work pressure strengthens the effect of work-life support on positive emotions, whereas time flexibility weakens the effect of positive emotion on job satisfaction. Work-life support positively influences happiness through the intervening variables of positive emotion and job satisfaction. Practical implications: The paper highlights the importance of creating a positive work environment, as empowering middle managers with work-life support can help them handle work pressure and work-life conflict. The negative influence of flextime on positive emotion and job satisfaction highlights the need for effective handling of flextime. Originality/value: This paper examines the work-life support and happiness of middle managers in the Chinese cultural context which has been under-explored. This paper expands the external validity of previous research results of Western samples by finding the positive influence of work pressure on work-life fit and positive emotion and negative influence of flextime on positive emotion and job satisfaction link. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Prior research mostly focuses on the effect of over-education on happiness, whereas the effect of under-education on happiness has received minimal attention. In addition, no research to date has examined the effect of both over- and under-education on happiness by using a full spectrum of workers. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to fill this research gap. Design/methodology/approach: The ordered probit model is estimated to examine the effect of the education–occupation mismatch on happiness based on 2012 survey data from Taiwan. Findings: The results generally indicate that over-education positively affects happiness, whereas under-education has a minimal effect. The effect of the education–occupation mismatch on happiness also varies with different age groups. Specifically, over-education positively affects happiness except for workers aged 42 and above, whereas negative effects of under-education are found only among workers aged between 32 and 42 when their social network is insufficiently extensive. Moreover, a worker's social network as a non-pecuniary factor, rather than income as a pecuniary factor, is a major channel through which education enhances happiness. Originality/value: Given the limited and mixed evidence on the relationship between over-education and happiness, this study contributes to the existing literature by examining whether and how the education–occupation mismatch (over- and under-education) affects the happiness of workers both directly and indirectly via pecuniary and non-pecuniary factors. The research issue remains unexplored to date. Addressing such a question should help explain the persistent trend in pursuing higher education in Taiwan, although highly educated people may suffer from unemployment and an education–occupation mismatch. Peer review: The peer review history for this paper is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-04-2019-0283 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to propose that a firm could exploit the ties of interfirm network to access external network resources (NR) to assist its sensing and responding capabilities for the variability of business environment, thereby leading to superior organizational performance. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses the survey data collected from 260 small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Taiwan to examine the causal effects of hypotheses testing. By adopting structural equation modeling technology, the direct and mediating effects among the NR, sensing capability (SC), responding capability (RC) and firm performance (FP) are explored. Findings: The result of this paper shows that a firm's NR and its organizational capabilities are critical antecedents of FP. Moreover, the mediating testing identifies NR and FP as being mediated by a firm's organizational agility (OA) and RC. Practical implications: The findings of this paper provide practical evidence that a SME could gain benefits and advantages from the joint effect of integrating NR and OA to compete with global conglomerates. Thus, a SME must put more effort into developing and maintaining its interfirm network and then figuring out its effect with its internal agility process in order to surmount unexpected changes, create advantages of the first-mover and innovation activities and boost the FP. Originality/value: This paper combines external NR and internal OA and offers a practical strategy to a SME, creating a unique competitive advantage for further development in a dynamic business environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study developed a new interpretation of the attitude contagion theory, with the information adoption model (IAM) as the theoretical basis. A review of electronic word-of-mouth studies was conducted by using informational and individual determinants to develop an integrated empirical model that identified the antecedents and consequences of consumer attitude toward online reviews. Design/methodology/approach: This study recruited 750 members of Facebook beauty fan pages in Taiwan and used the structural equation model to test research hypotheses. Findings: Results revealed that perceived " electronic word-of mouth (eWOM) credibility of online reviews" and "product involvement" could be used to explain the effects of attitude toward online reviews. Regarding the attitude contagion effect, the effect of "attitude toward online review" on both "attitude toward a product" and "attitude toward a brand" is stronger than that on "eWOM adoption." Originality/value: This paper provides valuable insights into the antecedents, consequences and mediating mechanisms that determine consumer attitude toward online reviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Organizational learning is a critical factor in generating firm innovation. While the firms are working with global business partners, not only does their absorptive learning capacity (ALC) with business partners play an important role in generating innovation from the inter-partner firm relationship, but their joint learning capacity (JLC) does as well. However, little research has simultaneously examined absorptive and JLC on innovation in global supply chain relationships. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on the knowledge-based view, inter-partner learning theory and resource dependence theory, the current study investigates the effects of two organizational learning capacities on relationship-specific innovation: ALC (firm-level) and JLC (relationship level). In addition, a firm's focus on exploitation/exploration strategy and supplier dependence is further incorporated into the study as moderators. Moreover, solutions to endogeneity issues are discussed and reported due to the usage of survey data. The model of this study was tested using data collected from 190 electronics firms in Taiwan as an emerging market. Findings: The findings of this research reveal that JLC in the presence of absorptive capacity positively influences relationship-specific innovation. Furthermore, the exploitation focus of a firm positively moderates the effects of both absorptive and JLC on relationship-specific innovation. However, supplier dependence negatively moderates the effect of JLC. Research limitations/implications: The research provides some theoretical implications for learning and innovation generation in global supply chains. Practical implications: The paper provides some managerial implications for how to manage innovations in the global supply chain relationships. Originality/value: This paper fulfills an identified need to study how innovation generation can be better managed in global supply chain contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review two work groups' (local vs foreign) perceptions, attitudes and behavior and propose a moderated mediation model to examine perceived HR practices' impact on identification with the company and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Design/methodology/approach: This paper selects 320 local and foreign production operators at high-tech firms in Taiwan. The hypotheses are tested using SEM-AMOS, and the mediation effects are analyzed by Sobel test with bootstrapping. Findings: Results show that: first, the relationship influence between identification with the company and OCB is stronger for foreign workers than for local workers; and, second, the moderated mediation of work status exists in perceived practice of rewards for the whole worker model. Research limitations/implications: To concentrate on research objective, the authors only consider the same characteristics in local and foreign workers' job environment, neglecting differences in employment conditions, living environment and cultural background. Practical implications: Two major implications are that: first, different perceptions on HR practices are based on employees' work status; and, second, in addition to adopting appreciative HR practices for the target group, firms should help employees develop a stronger identification with the company in order to encourage OCB. Originality/value: This paper studies employees' perception on HR practices, compares a three-variable model between local and foreign workers, and proposes a moderated mediation model to handle HR practices' effects on identification with the company and OCB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]