The Alpha Risk of Taguchi Method for LTB Type Quality Characteristic with L<Subscript>8</Subscript>

In Taguchi’s parameter design, the significant parameter levels are found by maximising the signal-to-noise ratio of the quality characteristic. In the analysis of variance (ANOVA) of signal-to-noise ratio, the combination of column effects to better estimate error variance is referred to as pooling. Taguchi has suggested the strategy of pooling up. When using the pooling-up strategy, there will be a tendency to make the alpha mistake more often. In this paper, it is assumed that (1) the quality chartacteristic is normally distributed and (2) the mean and standard deviation of each factor level combination are equal, then the null hypothesis should be no significant factor. Thus, the alpha risk is that some factors are misidentified as significant factors. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the alpha risk of the Taguchi method for the-larger-the-better (LTB) type problem with orthogonal array, L₈, by simulation. The results show that the alpha risk is very high.     

Personalities of Travel Agents with Strong Sales Records in Taiwan

Studies have shown that a certain personality leads to higher job performance. This finding has led many companies to use personality traits when they hire employees. Despite abundant studies on personality, little is known about suitable personality traits for travel agents, especially in Taiwan. With 230 travel agents working in sales departments for corporate clients and transient travelers in Taiwan, their personalities, actual sales records, and managers’ performance evaluations were used to identify significant personality traits affecting job performance. The results reflect different personality traits for travel agents working with corporate clients and individual transient travelers. The results revealed that travel agents working with corporate contracts have strong commanding and continuative personalities but weak innovative and independent personalities. On the contrary, the agents working with transient travelers showed strong innovative, commending, independent, and sympathy personalities but a weak deliberate personality. Based on the findings, the implications are discussed.     

Fund ownership and stock price informativeness of Chinese listed firms

We examine the impact of mutual fund ownership on stock price informativeness in China. Existing evidence shows that stock price informativeness is low in China, and attributes this to firms’ lack of disclosure incentives under the weak investor protection institutional environment. Mutual funds are more sophisticated and influential than individual investors to monitor firms, and thus serve as an external governance mechanism to improve corporate transparency. However, the impact of mutual funds in China can also be moderated by state ownership of listed firms, which reduces firms’ dependence on outside investors for capital. Indeed, we find that mutual fund ownership is positively related to share price informativeness, but this effect is less pronounced among state-controlled firms. The main policy implication from our findings is that mutual funds contribute to the corporate information environment of emerging economies but further privatization of listed firms would be needed to realize greater benefit.     

台湾公立医院经营效率之实证研究

本研究运用资料包络分析法（DEA），探讨2001到2004年间，台湾不同体系公立医院的经营效率，并且找出改进各医院效率的方向与幅度。实证显示，医院整体效率值的排名依序为教育部体系、卫生署体系、国防部体系、退辅含体系，其中退辅会体系效率值的离散程度较小，国防部体系的离散程度则较大。纯粹技术效率值的排名依序为“教育部”体系、“退辅会”体系、“国防部”体系、“卫生暑”体系，其中“教育部”体系效率值的离散程度较小，其它各体系医院的离散程度则较大。敏感度分析显示，将产出项由‘出院人次’改为‘门急诊人次’后，各体系之平均效率值依序皆为“教育部”、“卫生署”、“退辅会”及“国防部”，与前述结果略有不同。其中“退辅会”体系之整体效率稍高于“国防部”体系，显现相较于“国防部”而言，“退辅会”‘出院人次’产出的整体效率较差，而‘门急诊人次’产出的效率则较佳；“卫生署”体系的纯粹技术效率则高于“退辅会”与“国防部”体系，显现相对而言“卫生署”体系医院‘出院人次’产出的纯粹技术效率较差，而‘门急诊人次’产出的效率则较佳。     

Economic Integration,Growth and Income Distribution

This paper constructs a two‐sector growth model with heterogeneous labour, to explore the impact of the economic integration on growth and income distribution. There are two sectors in each country, including the consumption‐good sector and the R&D sector. We suppose that the R&D sector produces new blueprints or ideas for these innovations, and hence provides the engine of growth. Assume that the talent's distribution of workers is the uniform distribution. We show that the economic integration will stimulate the developing countries' economic growth and then decrease its income inequality. In addition, we also demonstrate that if the growth rate of the advanced country rises after the integration, then income inequality of that will increase, and vice versa.     

家族企业的风险探讨——美国西北大学KELLOGG商学院家族企业中心研讨会召开

谢洛德教授是西北大学Kellogg商学院创业专业临床教授，执教自创课程“成功企业家”，担任Kellogg商学院家族企业中心联合主任（并为创始人），还是Kellogg商学院女经理人中心的联合创始人，他创办并担任创业学会会长。[编者按]     

The effect of the individual chart with variable control limits on the river pollution monitoring

This study performs a model to evaluate the river water quality monitoring system. The standard River Pollution Index which includes dissolved oxygen (DO), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD₅), suspended solids (SS), and ammonia nitrogen (NH₃-N) is collected from years 2006 to 2010 for monitoring of river water quality. Furthermore, control chart technology can monitor the river pollution and signal the aggravation of water quality. This study proposes an individual control chart with variable control limits (VCL individual chart) and verifies this chart can quickly signal the mean change of both normal can skew populations in statistical performances. In addition, this study also presents a real case that VCL individual chart is applied on monitoring the water quality of Taiwan’s river. This case shows the VCL individual chart controls successfully the river pollution, and this chart is very suitable to apply monitoring the water quality of rivers.     

Most cited business ethics publications: mapping the intellectual structure of business ethics studies in 2001–2008

This study explores the research paradigms of contemporary business ethics research in 2001–2008. With citation data from the top two business ethics journals included in the Social Sciences Citation Index, this study conducts citation and co‐citation analysis to identify the most important publications, scholars, and research themes in the business ethics area and then maps the intellectual structure of business ethics studies between 2001 and 2008. The results show that current business ethics studies cluster around four major research themes, including morality and social contract theory, ethical decision making, corporate social responsibility, and stakeholder theory. This study helps profile the invisible network of knowledge production in business ethics and provides important insights on current research paradigms of business ethics studies.     

The School’s Out effect: A new seasonal anomaly!

We provide evidence of a new seasonal anomaly during the school vacation or School’s Out (SO) period in nine East Asia and five Mediterranean stock markets. One of its characteristics is that many investors are distracted by child care activities in family-oriented economies where the school vacations last for at least five weeks. The other is that retail investors play a prominent role in these markets. The SO effect manifests itself in a lowering of weekly share turnover by 13% in East Asia and 25% in the Mediterranean markets and in a drop in the corresponding stock returns by 0.4% and 0.3%, respectively. The falls in turnover and, to a lesser extent, returns are robust to a potential confound with other seasonal effects such as the Gone Fishin’ and Sell in May and Go Away effects where these effects overlap.