A multiple objective particle swarm optimization approach for inventory classification

This paper presents a particle swarm optimization approach for inventory classification problems where inventory items are classified based on a specific objective or multiple objectives, such as minimizing costs, maximizing inventory turnover ratios, and maximizing inventory correlation. In addition, this approach determines the best number of inventory classes and how items should be categorized for the desired objectives at the same time. Experiments are employed to determine the best combination of algorithm parameter values. Extensive numerical studies are conducted and results are compared to other known classification methods. The performance of the algorithm on a practical case is also presented.     

An Investigation of Moral Values and the Ethical Content of the Corporate Culture: Taiwanese Versus U.S. Sales People

An empirical study using two ethics-related and three sales force outcome variables was conducted in Taiwan and compared to an existing U.S. sample. Across the two national cultures, individual perceptions of corporate ethics appears to be a more direct determinant of organizational commitment than individual moral values. Differences between the two national cultures were found in ethics perception as it relates to moral values, job satisfaction, and turnover intention. Explanations for the differences are discussed.     

Venture capital in China: Past,present, and future

This article reviews the literature on venture capital in China and examines where China’s venture capital industry has been and where it is likely to go in the future. Since the 1980s, venture capital in China has grown steadily alongside the robust national economy. The future is likely to offer even greater opportunities, as entrepreneurs are encouraged and property rights improve. However, there will also be a period of transition as the market continues to mature and as new legal structures and commercial arrangements emerge. Venture capital in China has many interesting differences from that in Western countries. The venture capital industry is shaped by the institutional context and China is no exception to this. This article also examines some specific differences between the system in China and that of the United States. Future prospects for venture capital are also appraised as China continues its transition to a market economy.

Monopsony and the production-location decision of the firm

This paper incorporates monopsony power in one of the input markets within the context of the Weber-Moses triangular framework and examines the effect of an increase in monopsony power on the production-location decision of the firm. In particular, this paper shows that the optimum location of the firm is independent of monopsony power if the production funstion is homogeneous of degree one. However, if the production function is not homogeneous of degree one, the firm possessing monopsony power will have an incentive to move its location away from the monopsonized input market towards other markets under certain reasonable assumptions. Finally, some important policy implications are generated from the analysis.     

Managing the Exploitation/Exploration Paradox: The Role of a Learning Capability and Innovation Ambidexterity

Some researchers have proposed that practices facilitating learning and knowledge transfer are particularly important to innovation. Some of the practices that researchers have studied include how organizations collaborate with other organizations, how organizations promote learning, and how an organization's culture facilitates knowledge transfer and learning. And while some have proposed the importance of combining practices, there has been a distinct lack of empirical studies that have explored how these practices work together to facilitate learning and knowledge transfer that leads to the simultaneous achievement of incremental and radical innovation, what we refer to as innovation ambidexterity (IA). Yet, a firm's ability to combine these practices into a learning capability is an important means of enabling them to foster innovation ambidexterity. In this study, learning capability is defined as the combination of practices that promote intraorganizational learning among employees, partnerships with other organizations that enable the spread of learning, and an open culture within the organization that promotes and maintains sharing of knowledge. This paper examines the impact of this learning capability on innovation ambidexterity and innovation ambidexterity's effect on business performance. The resource‐based view (RBV) of the firm is used to develop a conceptual foundation for combining these practices. This study empirically examines whether these practices constitute a learning capability by analyzing primary data gathered from 214 Taiwanese owned strategic business unit (SBUs) drawn from several industries where innovation is important. The results of this study make four important contributions. First, they demonstrate that the combination of these practices has a greater impact on innovation ambidexterity than any one practice individually or when only two practices are combined. Second, the results demonstrate a relationship between innovation ambidexterity and business performance in the form of revenues, profits, and productivity growth relative to competitors. Third, the results suggest that innovation ambidexterity plays a mediating role between learning capability and business performance. That is, learning capability has an indirect impact on business performance by facilitating innovation ambidexterity that in turn fosters business performance. This study also contributes to our understanding of ambidexterity literature in a non‐Western context, i.e., Taiwan.     

Using a modified grey relation method for improving airline service quality

This study applies a modified grey relation method to improve service quality among domestic airlines in Taiwan. First, we replace the referential alternative (sequence) with an aspired alternative, which should better reflect the reality of today’s competitive markets. Second, because the compared alternatives do not usually have the same criteria/aspects, traditional methods are unsuitable to deal with them. Our model fixes this problem, allowing decision-makers to understand the gaps between alternatives and aspired levels in practice. Third, we develop a new ranking index to measure the airlines’ competitiveness in terms of service quality. To validate the effectiveness of our model, we conduct a large sample survey. We also provide managerial improvements needed by each carrier to achieve the aspired level of customer satisfaction.     

Ownership Structure and IPO Valuation—Evidence from Taiwan

We investigate the effect of ownership structure on initial public offering (IPO) valuation in the Taiwanese market, in which many large shareholders exert control through pyramidal structures and cross-shareholdings with voting rights that are in excess of cash flow rights. Our analysis indicates that outside shareholders incorporate the effect of potential expropriation by entrenched large shareholders in valuing an IPO, since a deviating voting-cash structure is negatively associated with the valuation metric at both the offer and initial secondary market prices relative to the corresponding intrinsic value. We also show that a deviating voting-cash structure correlates negatively with IPO underpricing.     

Adam Smith versus Sima Qian: Comment on the Tao of markets

In contrast with Professor Young's views ( Pacific Economic Review , 1, 137–45), this paper argues (1) that Adam Smith came to his conclusion about the "invisible hand" before 1766, and hence the intellectual debt, if any, of Smith to the great Chinese historian Sima Qian via the agency of Turgot and the two Chinese visitors is minimal; and (2) that the allocative function of the price mechanism is explicit not only in The Wealth of Nations but also in Adam Smith's lecture notes and other writings from his years at Glasgow University before he left for Europe in 1764.     

Does Trading Improve Individual Investor Performance?

From 52,649 accounts and 10,615,117 transaction records obtained from a renowned brokerage house in Taiwan we find that individual investors purchase 73.4% and sell 64.5% of their stock portfolios each month. This is more than ten times the statistics for their U.S. counterparts. In general, individual investors have positive abnormal returns from factor-based models. However, they would have earned higher returns from following a buy-and-hold strategy. We find a U-shaped rather than a monotonic turnover and performance relation. The results do not support the overconfidence argument proposed by Barber and Odean (2000, 2001) nor does the rational model of Grossman and Stiglitz (1980). We find that investors with large portfolio values tend to be informed traders whose excess trading does create performance value. We also investigate whether men are more overconfident than women and find that even though men trade more excessively than women, men's performance measures are not dramatically lower than women's. Specifically, the own-benchmark adjusted gross return for men is higher than that for women. The regression results indicate that electronic traders rather than men are overconfident.