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Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to compare the competitiveness of the economies of Taiwan. and Korea. Design/methodology/approach - The comparison between Taiwan and Korea is based on the average value of the data over five years (2000-2004). It applies a generalized double diamond model approach to analyse the overall competitiveness of these two small open economies. Findings -- Taiwan surpasses Korea in all decisive factors with the exception of the demand condition in the domestic diamond in the years 2000-2004, which is due to Korea's population being more than double Taiwan's. As to the international diamond, Taiwan enjoys comparatively high competitiveness, and its international diamond is better than Korea's in all four parts. Research limitations/implications -- The data sources include: Indicators of Science and Technology, Taiwan, 2004 and 2005, Korean National Statistical Office and related statistical data obtained from various government agencies, including data on factor, demand, firms strategy, structure, and rivalry covering the period from 2000 to 2004, whereas related and supporting industries only covered the years 2000-2003. Originality/value -- This is the first paper to apply a generalized double diamond model approach to analyse and to compare the competitiveness of the economies of both Taiwan and Korea. Its empirical evidences and policy implications is of interest to academicians, government officials, and business managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how corporate environmental strategies, namely, environmental management strategy (EMS) and green product strategy (GPS), affect the competitiveness of a firm. In addition, this study investigates whether the environmental collaboration in supply chains (ECSC), namely, environmental collaboration with suppliers (ECS), and environmental collaboration with customers (ECC) moderate the environment-performance relationship. Design/methodology/approach – Survey methodology and regression modeling are adopted to assess the relationship between corporate environmental strategy and competitive performance of a company, including the moderating effects of ECSC. Findings – Competitiveness is positively affected by EMS and GPS. ECSC moderately affects the links among EMS, GPS, and competitiveness. Regarding the differences between the impacts of ECS and ECC on performance, only ECS acts as a moderator in the enhancement of EMS and GPS. Thus, ECS positively contributes to enhance competitive advantage. In contrast to perceptions, ECC directly improves firm competitiveness. Research limitations/implications – The findings support the understanding that the moderating role of ECSC may explain the conflicting results in environment-performance linkages. In particular, suppliers and customers could impact EMS and GPS in direct or interactive ways, or both, to enhance the performance of a firm. Practical implications – Significant performance improvements are influenced not only by the real environmental commitment of companies to internal green management but also by the positive relations of firms with their external cooperative capabilities in environmental relationships with chain partners. Originality/value – This research is the first to suggest and empirically test the moderating impacts of ECSC on the relationship between corporate environmental strategy and competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews the role of development management on global competitiveness in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Development management has emerged in response to improvement in public service delivery, public institution building, and human resource development in the service of the internationally accepted development goals, as the stated by the United Nations Division for Public Administration and Development Management. However, most papers employing this approach seem to stay in the theoretical discussions, and rarely apply empirical evidence to specific projects, programs, or areas. Employing the competitiveness index developed by World Economic Forum (WEF) and the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), this research connects the toolkit approach to competitiveness in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. This research finds that all of these countries have adopted a series of toolkit strategies to promote their global competitiveness. These toolkits can maintain consistent growth. In terms of theory and practice, this research employs cases-comparison strategies to reveal the theoretical components of development management, and thus advance the knowledge in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The rapid development of information technology and the emergence of the Internet have created a borderless business environment and intensified market competition. Riding on the globalization trend, high-tech companies have been gradually leveraging information technology in order to shorten their manufacturing processes, enhance productivity with lower costs and prompt delivery to meet the customers’ needs. To achieve these targets and maintain competitive advantages, companies have been introducing enterprise resource planning (ERP) and knowledge management (KM). This paper finds, via literature review, that most scholars focus only on the deployment of ERP systems and improvement of flows. Few have introduced the KM concept into ERP systems. This paper collated the literature relevant to ERP and KM and integrates the findings to introduce the ERP KM concept. The most important thing is to establish a detailed introduction plan and a prior understanding of the critical success factors (CSFs) for ERP KM introduction. This paper summarizes the CSFs for ERP KM introduction via literature review and examines the influence of these CSFs on management performance. A questionnaire survey is conducted to collect the relevant data and SPSS 10.0 (statistics software) is run for statistical and multiple regression analyses. Among these CSFs, support from senior managers, corporate vision, reengineering of corporate flows and project management, selection of appropriate consulting firms and software suppliers, the identification of suitable employees to take part in ERP introduction and the proper training and education programs have positive influences on management performance. In the multiple regression analysis, all of the individual constructs are positively and significantly correlated. The explanatory power of individual variables is high. It is hoped that the research finding can serve as a reference for ERP KM introduction to corporations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors influencing whether a multinational corporation (IVINC) appoints an expatriate or a local national as the CEO of its subsidiary. Design/methodology/approach -- The study proposes a framework comprising ownership-specific, location-specific and internalization-specific factors to examine determinants of expatriate CEO assignment. MNCs' subsidiaries in Taiwan were selected for the study. Findings - For the effect on the assignment of an expatriated CEO to a subsidiary, the factors of a subsidiary's capability and size, MNC's global strategy and internalization motivation are positive; in contrast, the factor of the host country's locational advantages is negative. In addition, in circumstances of large cultural distances, the effect of high internalization motivation is positive and that of low internalization motivation is negative. Research limitations/implications -- The research does not differentiate between two different types of expatriates and focuses on advanced countries' MNCs' subsidiaries in Taiwan. The theoretical implication of the study lies in the application of the perspectives of resource-based view and transaction cost theory on an MNC's decision concerning the assignment of an expatriated CEO for subsidiaries. Practical implications -- MNCs could make a subsidiary's staffing decision by taking into account ownership-, location-, and internalization-specific factors. Failure to do so will lead to poor operation of the subsidiary. Originality/value -- The research contributes to knowledge about the determinants of expatriate CEO assignment, and illuminates the importance of ownership, location and internalization factors for MNCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper developed an approach based on data envelopment analysis and Malmquist productivity index to investigate the performance of power plants and conducted an empirical study with eight thermal power plants in Taiwan. The analysis resuIts show the productivity improvements, and thus, help Taiwan Power Company to monitor and diagnose changes in the productivity of its thermal power plants. Furthermore, this study also provides specific directions for improvements to increase competitiveness in the face of the continuing liberalization of the Taiwanese power generation market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable competitiveness is at the core of effective organizational management. However, the interpretation of the concept of competitiveness is quite divided, especially for organizations that are positioned as social enterprises and must bear profits and losses. In this context, we used the PLS-SEM method to discuss the impact of business policies on organizational resource management and select the Taiwanese farmers' associations for analysis. According to the resource-dependent model, we selected the corresponding variables from the existing operational competition indicators to represent the four major business sectors of these associations. The main contribution of this study is that through expert opinion, the evaluation indicators of the existing business performance competition can be integrated to define the competitiveness of farmers' associations. We also used the fuzzy C-means method cluster analysis to effectively divide 279 farmers' associations into six groups according to "population, land, and industry". It is possible to evaluate the competitiveness of the departments and business policies of the farmers' associations in different groups according to the performance of their departments. Presenting the differences in business policies will help the government implement effective counseling services between regions. Competitiveness based on the performance of the main functions significantly affects the business execution, asset allocation, marketing, and sales activities of the farmers' associations. This article clearly points out that an organization may achieve a competitive business objective by taking stock of its own operating and financial conditions. This is also true for non-profit social enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global Solar Photovoltaic (PV) industry is fast evolving and is heavily affected by the government policies. In this study, it has been attempted to present a detailed comparison of the solar PV industry of five countries (i.e., Taiwan, 1 China, Japan, Germany and USA) in terms of policy, industry and supply chain analyses. Based on a rich description and mapping of PV supply chain, it's found that China is the biggest producer and consumer of PV products and Taiwan is only strong in solar cell production. The double-anti duties make Taiwan overly reliant on China and Taiwan gradually loses its competitive advantage even in cell production. The success of China is explained adopting Porter's national competitiveness perspective based on the supply chain analysis. Finally, some recommendations are provided to improve national competitiveness for Taiwanese solar photovoltaic industry. This paper contributes to the clean production literature by providing a comprehensive mapping of PV industry supply chain, comparing the industry of five countries and making tailored policy recommendations to Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advancement of the Internet has changed people's ways of expressing and sharing their views with the world. Moreover, user-generated content has become a primary guide for customer purchasing decisions. Therefore, motivated by commercial interest, some sellers have started manipulating Internet ratings by writing false positive reviews to encourage the sale of their goods and writing false negative reviews to discredit competitors. These reviews are generally referred to as deceptive reviews. Deceptive reviews mislead customers in purchasing goods that are inconsistent with online information and thus obstruct fair competition among businesses. To protect the right of consumers and sellers, an effective method is required to automate the detection of misleading reviews. Previously developed methods of translating text into feature vectors usually fail to interpret polysemous words, which leads to such functions being obstructed. By using dynamic feature vectors, the present study developed several misleading review-detection models for the Chinese language. The developed models were then compared with the standard detection-efficiency models. The deceptive reviews collected from various online forums in Taiwan by previous studies were used to test the models. The results showed that the models proposed in this study can achieve 0.92 in terms of precision, 0.91 in terms of recall, and 0.91 in terms of F1-score. The improvement rate of our proposal is higher than 20%. Accordingly, we prove that our proposal demonstrated improved performance in detecting misleading reviews, and the models based on dynamic feature vectors were capable of more accurately capturing semantic terms than the conventional models based on the static feature vectors, thereby enhancing effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's increasingly competitive business world, selecting and evaluating the suppliers is one of the most important activities of a company. In the Taiwanese TV industry, selecting optimal suppliers of programs is also vital. But few attempts have so far been made to address this specific point. After reviewing the literature, we collect criteria for the selection of a program supplier. Considering the interdependence among the selection criteria, the analytic network process (ANP) is applied to help Taiwanese TV companies to effectively select optimal program suppliers. To avoid the complicated computing process from additional pairwise comparisons of the ANP, we retain the 12 critical criteria according to the opinions of the 44 senior executives about the importance of criteria: Quality, On-time, Marketability, Reputation, Rating, Finance, Relationship, Attitude, Communication, Creativity, Price and Time. Subsequently, we discuss with senior executives to group these criteria into 4 perspectives to structure the hierarchy for the selection of program suppliers. According to the hierarchy based on 4 perspectives and 12 vital criteria, Taiwanese TV companies could select optimal program suppliers more effectively. Moreover, the practical application of the ANP presented in Section 4 is generic and also suitable to be exploited for Taiwanese TV companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: It is important to increase their value by managing intellectual capital (IC), since fabless firms face an intensely competitive environment. The aim of this paper is develops a two-stage production process including IC capability and IC efficiency to characterize the IC performance of the fabless firms using a non-parametric frontier method – data envelopment analysis (DEA). The IC performance rating should be considered as a key element for achieving greater innovation and competitive advantages. The results show that IC efficiency is better than IC capability for these fabless firms; 15.8% of fabless firms perform well in both models and these firms can be treated as benchmarks for others; most firms operate at decreasing returns to scale, indicating that firms are facing a highly competitive environment; further mergers and acquisitions among firms should be considered so as to achieve economies of scale; the critical input/output measures will also help firms improve their performance and identify the key factors that impact a firm’s performance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

We examine the strategies of multiproduct plants in the Taiwanese electronics sector by introducing two new measures of product dissimilarity to capture the technological gaps of product pairs within the plant. The plant-level index is used to analyze product mix decisions of plants. We find that plants whose products have large technological gaps are more likely to give up product lines. The product-level index is used to show that, with increased competition, multiproduct plants exit markets where production technologies are farthest away from their core products and they also perform better than plants that continue to produce a wider range of products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Understanding the cost-effectiveness and the role of economic and policy instruments, such as the combined product tax-recycling subsidy scheme or a tradable permit, for scrap tire recycling has been of crucial importance in a market-oriented environmental management system. Promoting product (tire) stewardship on one hand and improving incentive-based recycling policy on the other hand requires a comprehensive analysis of the interfaces and interactions in the nexus of economic impacts, environmental management, environmental valuation, and cost–benefit analysis. This paper presents an assessment of the interfaces and interactions between the implementation of policy instruments and its associated economic evaluation for sustaining a scrap tire recycling program in Taiwan during the era of the strong economic growth of the late 1990s. It begins with an introduction of the management of the co-evolution between technology metrics of scrap tire recycling and organizational changes for meeting the managerial goals island-wide during the 1990s. The database collected and used for such analysis covers 17 major tire recycling firms and 10 major tire manufacturers at that time. With estimates of scrap tire generation and possible scale of subsidy with respect to differing tire recycling technologies applied, economic analysis eventually leads to identify the associated levels of product tax with respect to various sizes of new tires. It particularly demonstrates a broad perspective of how an integrated econometric and engineering economic analysis can be conducted to assist in implementing policy instruments for scrap tire management. Research findings indicate that different subsidy settings for collection, processing, and end use of scrap tires should be configured to ameliorate the overall managerial effectiveness. Removing the existing boundaries between designated service districts could strengthen the competitiveness of scrap tires recycling industry, helping to reduce the required levels of product tax and subsidy. With such initial breakthroughs at hand to handle the complexity of scrap tire recycling technologies, there remains unique management and policy avenues left to explore if a multi-dimensional solution is to be successful in the long run. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Purpose — This paper seeks to propose a conceptual structural equation model to investigate the relationships among human resource management (HRM), organizational learning (OL), knowledge management capability (KMC) and organizational performance (OP) and to demonstrate the direct and indirect effect of HRM on OP from the perspectives of KMC and OL. Design/methodology/approach — An empirical study is conducted in financial training centers in Taiwan and the collected survey data are used to test the relationships among the four dimensions expressed in the proposed structural equation model. Findings — The results show that HRM has a direct and significant impact on OL and KMC. HRM influences OP indirectly through OL and KMC. In addition, OL and KMC have direct and significant influences on OP. Research limitations/implications — Only data from Taiwan were collected. Therefore, the results may not be easily generalized to other areas or countries, but are useful for managers’ reference, especially for those whose circumstances are similar to those in Taiwan. Practical implications — The conceptual structural equation model provides useful information for managers to enhance OP through the adoption of appropriate HRM, OL and KMC policies. Originality/value — The study demonstrates how HRM indirectly impacts OP and illustrates the paths of influence through either OL or KMC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose — This paper seeks to identify competitive priorities, based on the opinions of top executives of manufacturing firms belonging to the Federation of Thai Industry (FTI). It is also to evaluate the implications and applicability of these findings for Thai manufacturers. Design/methodology/approach — A survey is used as a data-collection tool to gather the opinions of top executives. Its main contents are based on Takala (2002). Ten manufacturers from four industries have participated in the study. The analytical hierarchy process (AHP) is selected to analyze the survey responses. In addition, the comparison of competitive priorities among Thailand, China, and Taiwan is made. The follow-up interviews and discussion are also conducted. Findings — There are six criteria selected to reflect competitive priorities: quality, customer-focus, delivery, flexibility, know-how, and costs. The study reveals that the quality, customer-focus and delivery criteria are recognized as important priorities in order to enhance manufacturing firms’ competitiveness. The Taiwanese experiences possibly suggest more attention on innovation in order to sustain quality improvement. Practical implications — The findings illustrate the shift in competitive priorities from cost into quality and customer-focus. This shift reflects intense campaigns by relevant public agencies as well as the FTI. The awareness on these priorities is critical so that companies in the value chain can properly establish coherent manufacturing strategies and objectives. Originality/value — The knowledge on competitive priorities leads to better understanding of manufacturing strategies in the future. This knowledge can serve as a reference during an assessment of the desirable impacts from programs and initiatives conducted by public agencies and the FTI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the long-term, dynamic equilibrium relationship for strategy variables of firms in strategic groups by conducting a cointegration analysis. Replicating the Nair and Filer ( Strateg. Manage. J., 24: 145–159, ) methodology and extending it to four industries listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, we find that not all of non-stationary strategy variables have the cointegration relationships, and that only the strategy variables of strategic groups in our traditional industries (as compared to our high-tech industries) should have a long-term competitive equilibrium (cointegration relationship). In other words, we can proceed with an error correction model in some traditional industries to map out the relative positions of rival firm strategies and subsequently implement appropriate reactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a paper which outlines how Taiwan attempted to raise its global technology competitiveness. Amount of money allocated to technology development in Taiwan; Examination of models that were tested.

This article describes how the bank industry in Taiwan must function in today's tough and fiercely competitive domestic credit card market and subdued global market. Banks are increasingly emphasizing the importance of retaining customers in order to sustain market share and remain profitable. This study proposes a new model which local banks can use to detect potential customer churn and provide an early warning indicator of problems that could lead to loss of customers. The model incorporates a customer relationship management database with a built-in time factor and applied temporal abstraction to represent data for a specific time period as defined by experts. Association rule mining is applied to analyze and detect abnormal customer behavior. The results of this article indicate that the system is relatively effective in detecting customer churn early on and thus helpful at assisting banks to address issues before they escalate. Furthermore, the tested rules are further scrutinized by experts to establish the relationship between the defined rules and management. This study provides an expert system for banks to assess the quality of their marketing campaigns and reestablish faltering customer relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background There is still significant uncertainty as to whether market competition raises or lowers clinical quality in publicly funded healthcare systems. We attempted to assess the effects of market competition on inpatient care quality of stroke patients in a retrospective study of the universal single-payer health insurance system in Taiwan. Methods In this 11-year population-based study, we conducted a pooled time-series cross-sectional analysis with a fixed-effects model and the Hausman test approach by utilizing two nationwide datasets: the National Health Insurance Research Database and the National Hospital and Services Survey in Taiwan. Patients who were admitted to a hospital for ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke were enrolled. After excluding patients with a previous history of stroke and those with different types of stroke, 247 379 ischemic and 79 741 hemorrhagic stroke patients were included in our analysis. Four outcome indicators were applied: the in-hospital mortality rate, 30-day post-operative complication rate, 14-day re-admission rate and 30-day re-admission rate. Results Market competition exerted a negative or negligible effect on the medical care quality of stroke patients. Compared to hospitals located in a highly competitive market, in-hospital mortality rates for hemorrhagic stroke patients were significantly lower in moderately (β = –0.05, P < 0.01) and less competitive markets (β = –0.05, P < 0.01). Conversely, the impact of market competition on the quality of care of ischemic stroke patients was insignificant. Conclusions Simply fostering market competition might not achieve the objective of improving the quality of health care. Other health policy actions need to be contemplated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The density of convenience stores in Taiwan is the highest in the world. Among the numerous commodities, the market competition for fresh food products is the fiercest and has become a focus of convenience store operations. Due to the change in Taiwanese lifestyles and consumer acceptance of the dining-out model, the demand and supply of fresh food products in convenience stores continues to increase. To benefit marketing performance, not only do convenience stores carry out promotional activities by reducing the price of products but they constantly innovate the taste and variety of fresh food products. For example, the tide of Taiwanese bento, during which promotions were implemented in the President Chain Store, has changed consumer diet habits; despite the raised price, consumers are still willing to purchase the product. However, convenient, real-time fresh food brought by this convenience store usually causes a massive waste of food. In its manufacturing and production processes, the food production chain ranks among the top three for national greenhouse gases. Whenever a piece of food is wasted, greenhouse gases are produced. Moreover, more resources are consumed to dispose of the wasted foods and garbage, further increasing greenhouse gas emissions and multiplying the carbon footprint. The phenomenon of excessive food waste has become an urgent issue in recent years in Taiwan, which is famous for its convenient food culture and service. In addition, because of Taiwan's special economic development status, as well as rapid urbanization and family structure change, the ways to jointly affect this special consumption and food culture have become a topic worthy of discussion. Therefore, this research selected cooked food products in convenience stores as the main subject to explore the effect of social status and diet consumption from the perspective of daily social patterns and family structure data. It also examined the dilemma of excessive waste of food, to provide improvement advice as a reference to future relevant social policies and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose While service innovation is an important issue for manufacturers, relatively little research lends empirical support to the perspective that service innovation enhanced by collaborative competence may impact the competitive advantage of original equipment manufacturing (OEM) suppliers. This study aims to advance a service-dominant logic by empirically investigating the linkage between collaborative competence, service innovation and competitive advantage for OEM suppliers.Design/methodology/approach Surveys were completed by representatives of 142 Taiwanese OEM suppliers in the electronics industry.Findings The results of path analysis suggest that information competence and coordination competence have positive effects on both exploitative service innovation and explorative service innovation. There only appears to be a significant relationship between joint innovation competence and explorative service innovation. Furthermore, two-pronged service innovations contribute to a supplier’s internal and external competitive advantage.Originality/value The empirical findings have important research and practical implications that help elucidate the antecedents and outcomes of OEM suppliers’ service innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To examine the impact of provider competition under global budgeting on the use of cesarean delivery in Taiwan.Data Sources/study Setting: (1) Quarterly inpatient claims data of all clinics and hospitals with birth-related expenses from 2000 to 2008; (2) file of health facilities' basic characteristics; and (3) regional quarterly point values (price conversion index) for clinics and hospitals, respectively, from the fourth quarter in 1999 to the third quarter in 2008, from the Statistics of the National Health Insurance Administration.Study Design: Panel data of quarterly facility-level cesarean delivery rates with provider characteristics, birth volumes, and regional point values are analyzed with the fractional response model to examine the effect of external price changes on provider behavior in birth delivery services.Principal Findings: The decline in de facto prices of health services as a result of noncooperative competition under global budgeting is associated with an increase in cesarean delivery rates, with a high degree of response heterogeneity across different types of provider facilities.Conclusions: While global budgeting is an effective cost containment tool, intensified financial pressures may lead to unintended consequences of compromised quality due to a shift in provider practice in pursuit of financial rewards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A central premise of business groups is that controlling shareholders seize disproportionate control in excess of their ownership as a means of becoming and remaining competitive. We reexamine this axiom by exploring the relationship between excess control rights and performance outcomes in business groups. Using a sample of 106 Taiwanese business groups, we confirm that the effects of excess control in business groups are double edged, such that group-level excess control exhibits an inverted U-shaped relationship with group performance. At the same time, results show that when group-level excess control is high, there is a stronger negative relationship between firm-level excess control and firm performance. Moreover, the study indicates that the detrimental effect of excess control is less pronounced in business groups that are governed by family members or by professional managers. Findings offer a far deeper view than previously proposed on the excess control phenomenon in business groups, and the need to distinguish firm performance from group performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study combines product architecture and competitive action by using a survey of the Taiwan IT industry. The analytic framework is applied to the theory of situational management to observe whether there is a good fit between product architecture (modular or integral), and inter-firm competitive action (homogeneous or heterogeneous), which corresponds to the level of business performance. This study thus seeks an in-depth understanding of the relationship between product architecture and competitive action, as well as confirmation for the development direction and competitive model of Taiwan's IT industry, where some important characteristics have been found. First, to establish the competitive advantages, the product architecture needs to match the competitive action. Second, a firm usually adopts homogeneous action when its product architecture tends to be modular products; inversely, it usually adopts heterogeneous action when its product architecture tends to be integral products. Third, homogeneous competitive action has a mediating effect on modular architecture and business performance. Overall, this study provides a theoretical analytic framework to better understand the interactive relationship between product architecture and competitive action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the competitive market nowadays shortens the life cycle of products, new products should be designed to meet the customer's demand under a dynamic marketing environment so as to efficiently enhance the product strength of new products with maximization of profit. Hence, the key solution for enterprises to succeed will be the precise evaluation of new product development (NPD) performance, particularly for those who manage to survive in the intensely competitive market in Taiwan. This study is to identify the thin film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) touch panel industry and then establish an integrated model of NPD performance evaluation for enterprises. Firstly, literature review and interviews with experts are conducted to select the four aspects and 15 criteria as the main factors affecting NDP performance evaluation. Secondly, Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) is employed to identify the interrelationships among those factors. Finally, a Fuzzy theory is applied to resolve the linguistic hedges and an Analytic Network Process (ANP) is adopted to obtain the weights of all factors. A case study is performed to validate the proposed model in a Taiwanese TFT-LCD company. It not only provides the decision maker with a guidance system but also increases the competitive advantages for the TFT-LCD industry to design new products in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to increase the competitiveness of Taiwan in the international environment, the Taiwanese government has become aware of the importance of English in reforming English education and establishing a new language testing system in leading to more successful language learning. However, many scholars in Taiwan are dubious as to whether this reformed English education has really improved the English communicative ability of learners. The purpose of this study is, therefore, to investigate learners' communicative competence in terms of communication strategies, by means of administrating a set of communicative task based activities within a computer mediated environment to provide evidence of the current learning outcomes. Drawing upon the framework proposed by Bachman (1990), communication strategies could be identified. After the data collection, the learners' speech data were analysed based on the taxonomy of Poulisse (1993), and the findings revealed that the learners employed the re-conceptualisation strategy more frequently than the substitution strategy. A new strategy, named "additional strategy", was discovered during this study. Therefore, this study suggests that the importance of adopting a communicative task-based activity into classroom increases opportunities for learners to interact with each other to improve their communicative competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coopetition has become a heated issue in the last decade. In this study, a scrutinized review of previous research on coopetition is presented to clarify the research stream on coopetition, from which the implications are derived and a framework to analyse the phenomenon is proposed. Given the complex nature of coopetition, an in-depth case study was undertaken to investigate the competition-cooperation relationship and coopetition performance over a 15-year period in a Taiwanese supermarket network, which was formed by a focal company and its competitors. Performance was analysed before and after launching the coopetition strategy, in which 31 indicators were examined. The findings imply that competition ( Y ang) and cooperation ( Y in) are reciprocally rooted in and mutually promoted by each other. The findings also confirmed that cooperation with competitors did lead to better performance, at least over a period, in two ways. The first was that the adoption of coopetition permitted the attainment of performance levels beyond what would otherwise have been possible; the second was that the adoption of coopetition changed the timeframe, permitting earlier achievement of higher performance levels. This study contributes to and extends knowledge of the dynamics and consequences of cooperation with competitors and demonstrates that coopetition has a significant temporary advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To assess changes in the intensity of suicide news reporting in Taiwan's local newspapers after the arrival of a daily tabloid-type newspaper, Apple Daily (AD), and evaluate the impact of suicide news reporting on actual suicides and possible mutual causation. Methods: A counting process was used to estimate the intensity of daily suicide news items reported in the China Times (CT) and United Daily (UD) before and after the arrival of AD (2002--05). Poisson regression models were used to assess the impact of the intensity of suicide news reporting on the actual number of next day suicides. Granger's causation model was used to assess mutual causation between suicide news reporting and actual suicides. Results: There was a significant increase in reporting intensity of suicide news in the UD soon after the entry of the AD into Taiwan's media market, while a delayed increase of approximately 1 year was observed in the CT. After the arrival of the AD, the reporting intensity in the UD was significantly related to the occurrence of actual suicides (p<0.05), even after controlling for social variables, whereas no significant correlation was previously observed. Mutual causation between suicide news reporting and actual suicides was also observed. Conclusions: The presence of the AD in Taiwan has fuelled competitive reporting of suicide news among traditional newspapers. This increase in the intensity of suicide news reporting has consequently had an impact on the actual number of suicides. This provides further empirical support for improving media reporting as a key element in suicide prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Taiwanese computer and electronic products possess advantages in design, innovation, rapid response, and global market flexibility. This study aims to examine Taiwanese computer and electronics firms to explore the product marketing strategies they adopted to deal with global competition. Furthermore, it is intended to analyze firms in different marketing strategic groups in terms of their product design strategies and how they incorporated design and marketing strategies into design innovation. This analysis is applied as an integrated innovation model for allocating design and marketing strategies. Design/methodology/approach – Based on a questionnaire survey and case studies, the marketing strategies adopted by the Taiwanese computer and electronics industry can be classified into the categories of "market leader", "market focus", "market challenge" and "market niche". Findings – Firms employing different marketing strategies employed different design innovation strategies in product design. The design strategies adopted by enterprises in the market leader group incorporated aggressive innovation; those in the market focus group were characterized by focus innovation in product design; those in the market challenge group exhibited strong innovation integration in product design; and those in the market niche group exhibited flexible innovation in product design. Originality/value – The innovation models adopted by the Taiwanese computer and electronics industry were related to enterprise scale, business type, and product development category. Results of this study provide a valuable reference for enterprises with regard to R&D and marketing in relation to product innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recognizing that both the hypercompetition and competitive dynamics research streams rely on Austrian economics and its idea of temporary advantage as an intellectual cornerstone, the present study merges these related, but thus far, disparate perspectives. It develops hypotheses that relate the intensity of the hypercompetitive environment and a firm's TMT dynamics to its action aggressiveness, or the volume and speed with which a firm engages its rivals. Using a survey-based sample of 104 Taiwanese firms, this study's findings show that the hypercompetitive environment and TMT sociobehavioral integration have direct and interacting effects on firms' action aggressiveness. Moreover, action aggressiveness is an important mediator between TMT integration and firm performance, particularly under hypercompetitive conditions. As such, the study contributes to our understanding of temporary advantage by revealing TMT integration and action aggressiveness as two essential organizational mechanisms for navigating in the hypercompetitive context. Finally, reflective of temporary advantage as a defining feature of hypercompetition, our findings show that performance variation is greater within this context. The article contributes to hypercompetition and competitive dynamics research by providing an integrated perspective of competitive behavior within the broad context of hypercompetitive environment, TMT dynamics, and firm performance. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines whether market competition affects treatment expenditure and health outcomes of stroke and cardiac treatment in Taiwan. Our measure of treatment expenditure is the hospital expenditure paid at the index admission (short term) and the sum of inpatient and outpatient expenditures paid in the subsequent year (long term). Our measure of health outcome is the probability of death in 1 and 12 months after the hospital's discharge. Our measure of competition follows the method developed by Kessler and McClellan that calculates the Herfindal index based on the predicted patient flows using exogenous variables (e.g., traveling distance to hospitals). Using data of patients hospitalized for new stroke and cardiac treatment between 1997 and 2001 in Taiwan, we find that an increase of market competition results in an insignificant impact on a patient's mortality. In terms of treatment expenditure, our results indicate that hospitals facing more competition incur higher expenditures, either the short- or long-term expenditure. Finally, we find evidence showing that an increase of treatment expenditure at admission is due to a raise of length of stay and treatment intensity per day as well as the usage of expensive equipment. ( JEL I11, L13, L41) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study demonstrates how top management team (TMT) conflict impacts new product development (NPD) under cultural differences between Taiwan and the United States. Based on cultural differences, we compare Taiwan and the United States to explore how the heterogeneity of TMT composition leads to team conflict and how TMT conflict affects NPD outcomes in different stages. Several research propositions are presented and indicate that the higher TMT heterogeneity results in a higher degree of team conflict. Furthermore, cognitive conflict positively affects NPD initiation stage, but negative in the implementation stage. From a perspective of cultural differences, managers in Taiwan, compared with those in the United States, tend to sustain organizational cohesion and harmony, emphasize personal relationships, and sidestep direct conflict as much as possible. This cultural characteristic negatively affects NPD initiation, and also wears away the competitive advantages for Taiwanese companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on how the bicycle industry A-Team of Taiwan fights Chinese competitors through cooperation and innovation. It provides an overview on the A-Team, an association of 19 Taiwanese bicycle assemblers and suppliers that was formed in 2002, and its role in revitalizing the declining industry due to Chinese competition. It also discusses how the A-Team was able to achieve success in improving the industry's performance and increase its export volume and average unit price. It mentions that the A-Team accomplished its success through its product development, production efficiency, cooperation and innovation strategies.