Activity Segmentation of the International Heritage Tourism Market to Taiwan

The heritage tourism market has developed from being regarded as a small niche segment to a mainstream market of considerable size. In Taiwan, diversified heritage resources hold considerable appeal to the international tourism market. Little research has been completed on international heritage tourists to Taiwan, so this study utilized Taiwan as a case study and examined international tourists to the destination. It first employed cluster analysis based on activity participation to segment the market and test for the existence of “heritage tourists”. Three groups of international tourists to Taiwan were identified and they were labelled as “heritage”, “shopping” and “non-specialists”. The heritage group had a high participation rate in visiting heritage relics (90.6%). The study also profiled tourists according to the reasons they travelled to Taiwan and socio-demographic variables. The heritage tourists and other activity participation groups were compared to reveal the major motivational and socio-demographic differences involved. The findings showed that “international heritage tourists to Taiwan” were a group of visitors with relatively younger ages, middle levels of income and higher educational levels. The study defined heritage tourists who indicated visiting heritage sites as part of their reason for visiting Taiwan as “motivated heritage visitors”. Other heritage tourists who participated in heritage activities, but did not list heritage tourism as a reason for visiting Taiwan, were defined as “heritage site visitors”. Finally, the study profiled the two groups of heritage tourists and compared them, with significant differences being found in ages and nationalities.     

Cutting-edge technologies

National and international hot fusion policies have reached a policy nexus. Scientific and intellectual satisfaction is no longer sufficient to provide the motive force or the financial will needed to create viable commercial fusion. Yet market pull is still too weak to attract investors and commercial interests. Active and long-term public policy participation is the only solution. With much argument over the economic justification and strategic importance of on-going fusion research, this paper contributes to that debate with a discussion of fusion's progress, politico-economic importance and future development, with particular reference to current national and international activities. Technological problems of large-scale collaboration, actor roles and the rising strategic interests in these areas are highlighted, with a conclusion that such projects need to engage the public at a wider and broader level to help provide justification for their continued funding as well as heeding the lessons of previous large-scale international projects and avoiding national unilateralism.     

The employment elasticity in manufacturing: a comment on Mazumdar

We show that Mazumdar's recently proposed methods for estimatingthe elasticity of the wage bill with respect to output growth,and for decomposing the growth rate of the wage rate into anoutput effect, an employment effect, and a price effect, areproblematic. The decomposition proposed is a tautology becauseit can be equally derived from an accounting identity. Likewise,we show that the alleged elasticity of the wage bill with respectto output growth has to take on a value of unity by definition.     

To Help or Not to Help? The Good Samaritan Effect and the Love of Money on Helping Behavior

This research tests a model of employee helping behavior (a component of Organizational Citizenship Behavior, OCB) that involves a direct path (Intrinsic Motives → Helping Behavior, the Good Samaritan Effect) and an indirect path (the Love of Money → Extrinsic Motives → Helping Behavior). Results for the full sample supported the Good Samaritan Effect. Further, the love of money was positively related to extrinsic motives that were negatively related with helping behavior. We tested the model across four cultures (the USA., Taiwan, Poland, and Egypt). The Good Samaritan Effect was significant for all four countries. For the indirect path, the first part was significant for all countries, except Egypt, whereas the second part was significant for Poland only. For Poland, the indirect path was significant and positive. The love of money may cause one to help in one culture (Poland) but not to help in others. Results were discussed in the light of ethical decision making.

A Gender Analysis of Bank Loan Negotiations in Uganda

This paper highlights the differences between men and women in bank loan negotiations. It presents findings of an ex post facto design study that involved administering questionnaires to 289 respondents who had ever applied for a loan from a Ugandan commercial bank from 1999 through 2005. Results showed that male and female respondents differed in their negotiation behavior and outcomes. Female respondents scored higher than male respondents on self-enhancement and yielding. Male respondents scored higher than female respondents on inaction. Results further showed that female respondents receive lower payoff than male respondents from bank loan negotiations, and that both male and female respondents encounter problems in mixed gender negotiations.     

Women in grassroots leadership: Barriers and biases experienced in a membership organization dominated by men

Among governing boards traditionally dominated by men, the presence of women is becoming more common. However, these women may face prejudices and discrimination that prevent them from feeling and ultimately being successful. This qualitative study focused on the experiences of women who participated in a grassroots organization's leadership training program. Interviewees revealed that they believed gender‐related obstacles were preventing them from being effective leaders. Four significant themes emerged: persisting stereotypes and bias, separation and isolation, desire for change, and potential for added value. In response, the authors recommend organizations and practitioners engage in more intentional and complete implementation of path‐goal theory throughout the leadership development process.     

Appraising Intangible Assets from the Viewpoint of Value Drivers

This article does not intend to actually valuate intangible assets but focuses to investigate the relative value distribution of corporate intangible assets, and this links closely to the concept and application of value drivers. This is because we believe that drivers or attributes of the value significantly determine how the virtual value of these intangibles can be created for companies. We apply the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to the appraising process of intangible assets. The AHP method can mainly sort the non-financial value drivers in order according to their weighted contributions. Therefore, the key purpose of this article is to develop a tentative model for the evaluation of intangible assets, which helps business to correctly appraise corporate value ratios and avoid bias due to mainly relying on financial statements when measuring an entity’s value. In addition, in view of the significant proportion of intangible assets over total assets in high-technology industries, this research, then, uses six industries in Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan, as its research objects in order to test the applicability of its model, as well as exploring the value weights of intangible assets and its evaluation among different technology industries. Besides, the empirical result of this article is mainly to support business appraisal and thus improves the effectiveness of value-based management.     

Inter‐temporal changes in analysts’ forecast properties under the Australian continuous disclosure regime

Corporate disclosure regulations are important mechanisms for investor protection. This study examines the inter‐temporal changes in analysts’ forecast properties over the period 1988–2001 as Australia’s continuous disclosure regulation and enforcement intensity changed. The effectiveness of the continuous disclosure regime has been a question of interest since its inception, but research in this area is limited. Our results suggest that analysts’ forecast accuracy and dispersion improved for sample firms in response to the proposal and introduction of continuous disclosure regulations. However, following increased enforcement from 1998, analysts’ forecast dispersion deteriorated for small firms, possibly due to a decrease in private information received by financial analysts as regulators became more proactive in enforcing the ban on selective disclosure.