Mandatory Retirement and Older Worker Employment Decisions: Evidence from a Matched Difference‐in‐Differences Estimator

In 2008, the minimum age at which private‐sector workers in Taiwan could be forced by their employers to retire from their jobs was raised from 60 to 65 years. In this study, we evaluate the effects of the increase in the mandatory retirement age on the labour supply trend among the elderly using a nationally‐representative Taiwanese panel data set. Based upon the application of a combination of matching and difference‐in‐differences approaches, we find that postponing mandatory retirement has a significant effect, in terms of slowing down the withdrawal of the elderly from the labour force. Among elderly workers affected by the 2008 amendment, particularly those retiring from the public sector, the likelihood of re‐entering the labour market is found to be 3 to 4% higher than that for their counterparts who were not subject to such a constraint, a finding that clearly suggests that an increase in the mandatory retirement age helps to alleviate the problems associated with an aging population in countries where long‐term labour contracts are prevalent.     

The fates of De Novo and De Alio producers in the American Automobile Industry 1885–1981

Do laterally diversifying firms outlast new startups? Or does organizational inertia give the advantage to startups? We explore these questions here using the experiences of American automobile manufacturers from 1885 through 1981. We advance and test an integrative model that allows the organizational effects of entry mode to vary across the firm's life cycle. We also compare the life chances of laterally diversifying firms by industry of origin, including especially bicycle, carriage and engine manufacturers. Findings show the potentially integrative value of an evolutionary approach to strategy.     

Love and Satisfaction Drive Persistent Stickiness: Investigating International Tourist Hotel Brands

Switching resistance loyalty manifests in persistent stickiness to the incumbent brand as the sole choice in the presence of other attractive alternatives. Empirically, it is the crucial determinant of retaining customers for long duration. However, specific drivers of such loyalty in the hospitality and tourism brand categories are still unclear. The current study, integrating the brand love and customer satisfaction paradigms, addresses this issue with a focus on international tourist hotel brands. Brand love proves to be a powerful driver of switching resistance loyalty toward the hotel brand. Noteworthy, overall customer satisfaction serves to reinforce the loyalty‐driving effect of brand love. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The contingent value of firm innovativeness for business performance under environmental turbulence

Drawing on the resource-based view and contingency theory, this study investigates how technological and market turbulence influence the effect of firm innovativeness on business performance. Using a survey-based sample of 452 Taiwanese manufacturing firms in a broad range of industries, we employ a hierarchical moderated regression analysis to test two-way interaction hypotheses. The results show that technological turbulence enhances the positive effect of firm innovativeness on business performance but that market turbulence does not. The post hoc analysis indicates that when technological turbulence is high, firm innovativeness has a more positive effect on business performance. An additional sub-group analysis reveals that the positive moderating influence of market turbulence manifests only in the high-technology sub-sample. Our findings suggest that managers of manufacturing firms should nurture high levels of innovativeness to help their firms to thrive under high technological turbulence. This study contributes to the firm innovativeness literature by clarifying the boundary conditions under which firm innovativeness enhances business performance. Contrasting with previous research, our research demonstrates that the performance effect of firm innovativeness is not equally positive but instead increases with the level of technological turbulence. We shed new light on the crucial role of firm innovativeness in an environmental of high technological turbulence.     

Investigating parental intention of using internet filter software

The objective of this study is to survey the usage of internet filter software for blocking inappropriate web contents in Taiwan, and also to investigate the precedent factors for adopting such a prevention tool. We surveyed 417 households with children/adolescents (aged below 16) and home internet access. Participants answered questions which were designed based on the framework of the decomposed theory of planned behavior. The structural equation model was implemented to find out the relationships among constructs. Results show that only one in seven families currently uses internet filter software for blocking inappropriate web contents in Taiwan. Furthermore, this study also shows that attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavior control are all key factors to affect parental intention of adopting internet filter software. More specifically, compatibility, peer’s influence, self-efficacy, and facilitating conditions are four major precedent variables to influence parental intention via attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavior control. Results obtained in this study suggest the urgency of prompting the use of filter software especially when no similar alternatives are available in the market. In addition, focusing on the promotion of product’s compatible features, the use of teachers’ opinions, and the establishment of supporting resources will highly increase parental intention of using internet filter software.     

Exploring the drivers of new product success for businesses in Asia: a meta-analysis

Even though a large amount of research has investigated how different factors impact new product performance in different contexts, little attention has been paid to exploring the drivers of new product success for businesses in Asia. This study therefore focuses on this issue by using a meta-analytic approach to aggregate the empirical findings of studies published before 2011. By controlling several contextual factors (product type, unit of analysis and time), the results from generalized least-squared analyses show that the predictor–performance relationships are stronger for Asian firms when the predictors are market orientation, marketing synergy, technological synergy, product advantage, product innovativeness, cross-functional integration, top management support, pre-development proficiency, technological proficiency, market potential and technological turbulence. In addition, the results also reveal that most of the performance effects of the predictors are different between low-technology and high-technology products.     

Government bailouts and default risks of a duopoly: strong bank versus weak bank

A duopolistic loan market includes a strong bank without the problem of early closure that opts out of government bailouts and a weak bank with this problem that participates in the bailout programmes of distressed loan purchases and direct equity injections. A direct implication of our framework is that the strong bank’s equity will be priced as a standard call option, while the weak bank’s equity will be priced as a down-and-out call option. We find that an increase in either bailout (i.e. distressed loan purchases and direct equity injections) directly decreases the weak bank’s default risk but indirectly increases the strong bank’s default risk. Accordingly, either bailout contributes to banking stability since the indirect positive effect insufficiently offsets the direct negative effect, giving an overall negative response of default risks to an increase in either bailout. Higher competition by shifting to quasi-competition from collusion increases banking stability under either bailout. Our analysis suggests that competition is aligned with the regulatory objective of improving stability.