The Effects of Subliminal Advertising on Consumer Attitudes and Buying Intentions

Ming-tiem Tsai
National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan
Wen-ko Liang
National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan.Southern Taiwan University of Technology,
Mei-Ling Liu
National Cheng Kung University,Taiwan

This paper examines how subliminal advertising works when it takes the form of product placement within a popular movie. A questionnaire was designed to investigate product and brand awareness, and consumer attitudes toward the movie script, actor, product placement and life style depicted in the movie, ET, Extra-Terrestial. Multivariate variance analysis was used to test each of the main hypotheses. The study was conducted on 94 consumers, or moviegoers, who had just seen the movie in a public movie-house. The main conclusions from the analysis of their responses to the questionnaire were that: Higher brand awareness results in a greater recall rate, more positive attitudes and a stronger intention of buying-the advertised product; when brand awareness is high, a positive attitude toward the movie script leads to a higher recall rate; regardless of brand awareness, attitude toward the movie script does not influence intention of buying; when a brand ‘attains’ a certain level of awareness, the more positive the attitude toward product placement, the stronger its effect on recall rate, attitude and intention of buying; regardless of whether brand awareness is high or low, audience attitude toward the actor does influence the affect the ‘advertising effect’ of the product placed in the movie; and finally, individuals with different life-styles have different attitudes toward product placement.

Development of a Framework for Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in the Banking Industry

Han‑Yuh Liu
National Dong Hwa University, Taiwan

Although Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is arguable the most important area of concern to enterprises in an era of electronic commerce (EC), few studies have explored it from an industry‑specific perspective to develop usable action plans. The banking industry is one of the major beneficiaries of the ‘explosion’ in CRM across all sectors of the economy, but there is an absence of information and support for it in Taiwan. Embracing CRM requires changes in many aspects of enterprises. This paper employs a four‑strategic framework; of contact channel management, enterprise‑wide management, customer data management, and information technology management, in its review of what constitutes best practice in the leading banks in Taiwan with respect to CRM. It is argued that if Taiwan’s banking industry adopts this framework it should be able to respond effectively to the various internal and external challenges identified in this study as well as to develop its own CRM initiatives.

Effects of a National Health Budgeting System on Hospital Performance: A Case Study

Ching-Kuo Wei
Oriental Institute of Technology, Taiwan

This study collected data from 110 larger hospitals in Taiwan between 2000 and 2004, containing a total 550 decision-making units (DMUs). The efficiency or performance of the DMUs in the hospitals was evaluated according to different models of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and the results compared with those from the Free Disposal Hull (FDH) model. Before the introduction of a National Health Budgeting System, 61 per cent of all the hospital DMUs could be regarded as efficient or ‘good performers’ whereas this figure dropped to 39% after implementation. As regards returns to scale, it is argued that many of the hospitals DMUs are too large or are of an ‘excessive scale’ and would be more efficient if they were made smaller. In general terms the operating efficiency, or level of performance, of public and proprietary hospitals was lower after the implementation of the Budgeting System than before, whilst there was little or no change among private hospitals. In addition, this study also found that compared with the DEA models, the FDH model yielded so many efficient or good performing hospital DMUs that it was impossible to identify which were the really efficient or good performing ones among the total sample.

Psychological Contract Violation: An Individual Difference Perspective

Robert DelCampo
Universityof New Mexico

A wealth of today’s research is becoming increasing interested in the area of psychological contracts.  The psychological contract is defined as the unwritten agreement that exists between the employee and employer that contains a set of mutual expectations.  In a Journal of Organizational Behavior Special Issue on the subject, Anderson & Schalk (1998) highlight measurement, definition, added value and dynamics of the psychological contract as the major areas that future research should attempt to remedy.  This paper is an attempt to elucidate several of these areas by examining the impact of individual difference variables (more specifically personality) on reports of psychological contract violation.  The following sets forth a theoretical argument with practical implications for the developing the field and the management of psychological contracts in the workplace.

The Effects of Knowledge Management Strategy and Organization Structure on Innovation

Yao-Sheng Liao
National Pingtung Institute of Commerce, Taiwan

This study examined the effects of knowledge management (KM) strategy and organization structure on product innovation. Results from a survey of 195 firms support a contingency approach to innovation. When the personalization strategy is adopted by a firm as the KM method, its structure emphasized on centralization or technocratization can enhance innovation. When the codification strategy is emphasized, technocratization is the only appropriate organization structure that a firm can use to facilitate innovation.

The Risk Management and Monitoring Practices of Local and Foreign Banks in Taiwan: An Empirical Study

Chiou-Huey Wu
National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan
Chien-Sen Huang
Ming Chuan University, Taiwan

This study examines the risk and capital management and monitoring practices of banks in Taiwan’s banking sector, using VaR (Value at Risk) analyses in term of the Basel rulings of good practice. The purpose of the study is to these practices in the local and foreign banks that comprise the Taiwan banking industry. The main conclusions of this analysis are that support from top management is essential for the risk mechanism, and that providing global VaR and EaR (Earnings at Risk) summaries are essential for local banks.

The Causes and Consequences of the Global Inflation of CEO Salaries

Paul Lansing
University of Illinois
Sascha Knoedgen
University of Illinois

Since the 1980’s, CEO salaries have increased to ‘stratospheric’ heights. While the job has become more complex, the rise of stock options and friendly board of directors has fueled this rise in CEO salaries. Globalization of business has now made this a worldwide phenomenon. The question raised is whether CEO’s are worth their inflated salaries and if not, are there alternatives to the constant escalation of these salaries.

Asymmetric and Time Varying Volatility of the Balancing Item in Australia’s Balance of Payments Accounts

Tuck Cheong Tang
Monash UniversityMalaysia, Malaysia
Chee Wooi Hooy 
University of Malaya, Malaysia

This study complements the previous studies by Fausten and Pickett (2004), Fausten and Brooks (1996) and Tombazos (2003). It explores the possibility of fitting a pure time series model to explain the balancing item for the balanced of payments accounts using Australia data.

The results suggest the Australian balancing item can be explained well by a pure time series model. Also, the volatility of the balancing item series has a significant role in explaining the balancing item and, the behaviour is better captured in an Asymmetric-Component GARCH (AC-GARCH) model which takes into account both asymmetric and permanent-transitory volatility behaviour of the time series. In short, the Australian balancing item is found to have a long memory in digesting shocks. These findings fill the gap of existing literature.

Entry to the E-Commerce Markets of China and Taiwan: An Application of Content Analysis

Echo Huang
National Kaohsiung First University of Science and Technology, Taiwan

This article examines the e‑commerce environment in Taiwan with respect to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), then analyses market‑specific entry barriers, and categorizes entry strategies of different companies in the cross‑strait area. After observing sixteen early entrants, we report three major findings: 1) Maturity of the Taiwan e‑commerce market is superior to that of mainland China, especially its progress in business environment and government policies, 2) Perceived market entry barriers affect entry strategy adoption, and 3) Most firms adopt B2B models and form alliances to reduce investment risks and capture growing markets in the cross‑strait area.

The Development of a Three-Dimensional Model for Pricing Defaultable Bonds with Embedded Put Options

David Wang
Hsuan Chuang University, Taiwan

This paper presents a three-dimensional model for pricing defaultable bonds with embedded put options. The pricing model incorporates three essential ingredients in the pricing of defaultable bonds: stochastic interest rate, stochastic default risk, and put provision. Both the stochastic interest rate and the stochastic default risk are modeled as a square-root diffusion process. The default risk process is allowed to be correlated with the default-free term structure. The put provision is modeled as a constraint on the value of the bond in the finite difference scheme. This paper can provide new insights for future research on defaultable bond pricing models.

Six Sigma Approach to Quality Assurance in Global Supply Chains: A Study of United States Automakers

Jayanta K. Bandyopadhyay
Central Michigan University
Lawrence O. Jenicke
Central Michigan University

Quality assurance practices in the supply chain of American automakers have evolved through decades from quality inspection and quality control to statistical process control and quality auditing. Emergence of quality auditing had been accompanied by the creation of numerous customer specific quality standards. Further, with globalization of the supply chain, quality assurance practices in global supply chains have been taking a new direction from that of inspection and quality control to Six Sigma continuous quality improvement. This research, presents how a Six Sigma approach to quality management can be used successfully for continuous quality assurance and quality improvement in the global Supply chain of United States auto manufacturers for achieving competitiveness in world market place.

How Do Reputation and Legitimacy Affect Organizational Performance?

Douglas E. Thomas
University of New Mexico

This paper explores the overlap between two similar constructs, reputation and legitimacy, and their effect on organizational performance. Firms face pressures to both develop reputations based on differentiation and to achieve isomorphism by attaining legitimacy. In this paper, we discuss how an organization’s ability to balance these two pressures is related to its performance. Further, we discuss how these constructs are created at multiple levels (e.g., individual).

The Development of a Model of the Sales Agent’s Role in Service Industries

Der-Jang Chi
Chinese Culture University, Taiwan

Brand equity is used as a concept to explore the effects of sales agents and their importance in the service industry. This study integrates Aaker’s Brand Equity (1996) and  Keller’s Brand Associations (1998) Models to develop an integrated branding model to explore influences on the role of sales agents in service industries. The model developed in this paper is tested and found to be generally accurate. Implications for marketing practice in the field are discussed.

Exploring Employment Condition Dilemmas: An Interview Study with Seafarers

Jiunn-Liang Guo
China College of Maritime Technology and Commerce, Taiwan
Kung-Don Ye
National Taiwan Ocean University, Taiwan
Gin-Shuh Liang
National Taiwan Ocean University, Taiwan

This research explores the dilemmas of seafarers concerning employment conditions. To gain a thorough understanding, one of the authors boarded a Taiwanese container vessel to sail with a mixed national crew for twenty days. The author investigated the perceptions and reflections of Taiwanese seafarers toward their current employment conditions through 30 semi-structured interviews with 12 crew-members, supplemented by personal observations. Results revealed that the recruitment of Taiwanese seafarers has been affected seriously by the global competition of the shipping industry and certain domestic circumstantial factors. This study also identified two main factors, the diminishing recruitment opportunity and the low incentive to enter seafaring, contributing to the deterioration of Taiwanese seafarers’ employment conditions. In addition, we found that most Taiwanese seafarers were eager for a seafaring policy to protect their employment security as well as to improve their well-beings.

Container Volumes at East Asian Seaports: An Analysis

Ya-Fu Chang
Chang Jung Christian University, Taiwan

Since the onset of sea transportation of containers, American and European ports had been the main consolidation and distribution centers. But today, the market share rate of East Asian ports in global container transportation markets is more than 50%. In this study, we analyzed data from the top 100 container ports in the world in 2000-2004 and found that East Asian ports have become key points in the growth of global container volumes. We found that due to gaps in the development of container volumes, East Asian ports have become stratified and divided into different grades of hub ports and feeder ports. The research also found that the dramatic growth of Mainland China’s ports has affected market share rates of container volumes in Taiwan and other ports in East Asia.

The Development of an Equilibrium Asset Pricing Investment Explanation for the Equity Home Bias Effect

Tzu-Hui Pan
National Taiwan University, Taiwan

Narrow framing and loss aversion effects are integrated into an equilibrium asset pricing model. Our findings suggest that without narrow framing and loss aversion effects, the optimal portfolio choices only include the “myopic demand” component. But after adding narrow framing and loss aversion effects into utility function, the optimal portfolio choices include both “myopic demand” component and “hedging demand” component. To hedge against narrow framing and loss aversion effects, domestic investors invest a large proportion of their savings in home-country equity assets. The results of this investigation explain the empirical phenomenon and successfully solve the equity home bias puzzle.

An Internal Control Approach to the Construction of a Litigation Warning Model: An Application of Logistic Regression

Hsueh Ju Chen
National ChungHsing University, Taiwan
Shaio Yan Huang
Feng Chia University, Taiwan
Chin-Shien Lin
National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan

Recently, a series of harmful financial failures such as Enron and Worldcom have led to large losses imposed on investors. Those failures suggest that financial scandals can occur with ease when internal control systems are operated deficiently. This research tries to identify which risk factors exist in the internal control system that give rise to the probability of being sued, through analyzing sued cases. 74 sued cases and 148 non-sued cases were used to develop and test a logistic regression model that estimates the likelihood of fraud-lawsuits. The significant risk factors included in the model are: management’s capability, operating characteristics and financial stability, and susceptibility of assets to misappropriation. Further, the model achieved a test sample correct classification rate of 75% which is more accurate than practicing CPAs, with only 60% correct classifications. This suggests that a simple logistic model is able to identify fraud-lawsuits, and can become a useful tool for practitioners.

The Relationships between Defender and Prospector Business Strategies and Organizational Performance in Two Different Industries

Chung-Min Lo
Yu Da College of Business, Taiwan
Jun-Ren Wang
National College of Physical Education and Sports, Taiwan

Most strategy managers attribute organizational effectiveness to distinguishing characteristics of organizations; neglecting the influence of industry factors of the firms. Previous studies of the relationship between business strategy and organizational effectiveness have mainly focused on single industry or cross industries. This study compares two samples from the Taiwan Sporting Goods Manufacturing industry and the Hi-Tech industry at Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park from the perspective of Configuration Theory. The empirical results show: (1) Firms from the Sporting Goods Manufacturing Industry which implement a defender strategy have better financial and holistic performance than those which implement other strategies. (2) Hi-Tech Firms from the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park which implement a prospector strategy have better financial and holistic performance than those which implement other strategies. Compared to previous studies, this study suggests that top management should review and analyze the industrial environment more carefully in choosing business strategy to fit the characteristics of the environment for effective organizational performance and to achieve competitive advantages.

 

A Two-phase Knowledge Management System for the Quality Standard ISO9001

Jenn Tang
National Taipei College of Business, Taiwan
J.-Y. Tong
Chihlee Institute of Technology, Taiwan

We argue that among firms accredited with the quality standard ISO9001, the standards that are ISO9001 represent conceptual knowledge in such firms. On the basis of interviews with 3 senior managers at a certification company (SGS) and a manager from each of 30 electrical engineering companies, it is proposed the management of such conceptual knowledge (KM) is most likely to be effective, in meeting ISO9001 standards, if it is broken down into two different phases, the first that of introduction-establishment, the second that of (2) maintenance-update. In the first period, there should be distinct “announcement”, “adjustment”, and “implementation” phases in which the role of KM is to promote, coordinate and disseminate knowledge respectively. The “auditor” should wait until the second period before implementing the ISO9001 certification process for the “audited business”. According to the interviewees, only then should Corrective Action Requests (CARs) be issued with regard to the “acquisition”, “storage”, “sharing” and “dissemination” of knowledge. The interviewees stressed the significance, the necessity, of CARs for employers and employees, for firms to achieve ISO9001 certification.