Relationships of providing and receiving leisure social support to stress in older adults

Leisure has become a topic of interest in stress-coping research. This study examined the relationships between receiving leisure social support, providing leisure social support, leisure self-determination and leisure competence in older adults and their stress. A total of 639 community-dwelling older adults were recruited. Data were collected using face-to-face surveys, which included measures of leisure social support (receiving and providing), leisure self-determination, leisure competence and stress. Data were analysed using regression analysis. The results indicated that receiving leisure social support, providing leisure social support, leisure self-determination and leisure competence were significantly and negatively correlated with stress and that providing leisure social support was more significantly correlated with reduced stress than the other leisure factors. Implications of the results are discussed.     

The influence of attitudes towards healthy eating on food consumption when travelling

This study explores tourists' attitude towards healthy eating and its influence on their travel eating behaviour. Based on focus group interviews and literature review, two instruments were developed to measure healthy eating attitude and travel eating behaviour. Factor analysis results revealed two healthy eating attitude factors (‘food content and nutrients’ and ‘balanced diet and eating habit’), and five travel eating behaviour factors (‘novelty’, ‘risk avoidance’, ‘health steadfastness’, ‘familiarity’, and ‘food supplement and medicine’). The relationships among the factors were examined using structural equation modelling. The findings revealed that respondents who had a stronger attitude towards ‘balanced diet and eating habit’ tended to be more motivated by the ‘novelty’ factor; whereas ‘risk avoidance’, ‘health steadfastness’ and ‘familiarity’ were found to be associated with a stronger attitude towards ‘food content and nutrient’. The findings suggest that the healthy eating attitude construct is multidimensional and healthy eating conscious tourists should not be treated as a homogeneous group.     

A preliminary examination of the relationship between consumer attitude towards space travel and the development of innovative space tourism technology

With increasing global competition in service sectors, innovative technologies have radically changed the tourism industry, and to be successful innovative products/services must have clear, significant points of difference that are related to needs in the market place. Furthermore, changes in consumer perceptions that emanate from an innovation are central to its effective product and service design. Although for most of us space travel is still a faraway dream, it is in fact a future probability that will increasingly attract travellers who seek new vacation experiences, and as a result, sustain academic interest. Thus, in initiating space tourism for the purposes of recreation, leisure and knowledge enhancement, a preliminary estimation of potential global demand characteristics that are specific to consumer innovators for space travel needs to be undertaken prior to promotion of research and development. In this context, this paper investigates both consumer attitudes towards space travel by analysing the components of motivated consumer innovativeness and the interest that potential consumers have in developing space tourism technology innovations within Taiwan. Consumer innovativeness is complex and comprised four innovativeness types, namely, social, functional, hedonic and cognitive. As product/service innovation development has been relatively unexplored in the mature industry of tourism, many business managers would welcome an understanding of which vacation travellers are most likely to be the earliest buyers of such an exciting new product. With data collected from a sample of 354 Taiwanese, this research uses mediated regression to examine the influence of the four types of consumer innovativeness on consumer's attitudes and acceptance of a space tourism technology innovation, and the mediating role perceived novelty plays in the relationship. The findings indicate that only hedonic and social innovativeness are associated with improved consumer attitude and that novelty partially mediates the relationship for those two types of consumer innovativeness. The implications for theory and practice are discussed. Limitations and directions for future research are also addressed.     

中国崛起的认识论及其叙事衍生

从自我认同与群体归属两种需要的分析视角,作者得出了四种观察中国与非中国之间关系的视野:国家、亚洲、文明与天下。其中,从中国的角度出发,观察非中国的视野主要是国家与天下。如果继续按照自我认同与群体归属两种需要的区分,我们可得出国家权力、霸道、主权身份以及中心-边陲四种叙事的文本。简言之,看待中国崛起不是一件纯粹的客观之事,而是涉及观察者的群我关系之深层需要。中国研究不仅是一个应该适应国情并随之调整的方法论问题,而且它还涉及知识形成的前提,亦即中国与非中国关系所涉及的群我关系。群我关系的形成与认知须靠文化形塑,进而使行为主体形成对中国崛起的认识角度与文本选择。     

Beef import market shares in Taiwan: implications for Australia

Market shares of major beef suppliers to Taiwan, including Australia, the United States and New Zealand, were estimated econometrically to determine their relative competitiveness. The analysis, based on monthly data from June 1990 to August 1997, showed that relative prices and consumer incomes were important factors influencing suppliers' market shares. Specifically, the demand for Australian beef responded little to an increase in price and negatively to an increase in consumer income. Furthermore, the growth in Taiwan beef consumption has slowed down and Australian beef suppliers need to re-assess the market potential and develop appropriate marketing strategies to maintain competitiveness.     

自动化立体仓库模拟系统软件设计

介绍自动化立体仓库模拟系统中的软件设计。提出软件的总体设计思路,列举了系统的各功能模块,具体分析了通讯接口电路及程序实现,并介绍了软件设计中的重点及难点。     

2，4-二叔戊基苯酚合成工艺的研究

采用大孔强酸性阳离子树脂（A -35）催化剂进行了2,4-二叔戊基苯酚的合成工艺研究,考察了反应温度、进料空速、烯酚比以及反应压力对苯酚烷基化的影响。研究确定了适宜的工艺条件：进料的质量空速为0.6 h -1,反应温度为115℃,反应压力为0.6 MPa,在质量分数为30％的甲基叔戊基醚溶剂存在下,异戊烯和苯酚的物质的量比为1.5,在此条件下苯酚的单程转化率可维持在95％以上,总的选择性在95％以上。     

长历时暴雨强度公式的推求方法

近年来,随着极端暴雨事件的出现,导致城市内涝灾害频繁发生,原有降雨历时仅为2h的市政排水设计暴雨强度公式已无法满足城市暴雨设计的需求,因此就要延长暴雨采样历时,推求出长历时(24h)暴雨强度公式。针对以上问题,根据北京市提供的52a(1961-2012)原始降雨资料并进行数字化处理,结合水利的长历时特点,采用兼顾市政排水,水利排涝,内涝防治的采样方法,应用P-Ⅲ分布曲线进行频率分析后采用6种经典方法推求暴雨强度公式的参数值,优选出误差最小且满足规范要求的暴雨强度公式参数值,进而推求长历时暴雨强度公式,在此基础上与短历时暴雨强度公式比较,分析两者的差异,为城市雨水排除规划设计提供科学依据和参考。     

Interplay between internal investment and alliance specialization in R&D and marketing

A firm's efforts to build its technological and marketing capabilities are not limited to internal investments but can be extended to include external knowledge acquisitions. We examine the interaction between a firm's specialization in R&D or marketing through its internal investments and its alliances in two different industrial contexts. Our results, based on secondary data sources such as Compustat and SDC Platinum from 1985 to 2009, show that the interaction effects of internal specialization and alliance specialization are contingent on the types of tasks (i.e., R&D and marketing) and the industrial context (i.e., high- and low-tech industries). Our findings indicate that a firm in a high-tech industry is able to achieve greater gains by complementing its internal focus on R&D with its external focus on marketing or by focusing on R&D both internally and externally. In contrast, a firm in a low-tech industry is able to achieve greater performance when R&D and marketing complement each other, without regard for how they are aligned through internal investments and alliances. The firm is also able to improve its performance by focusing on marketing both internally and externally. These findings provide new insights into the complementarity between internal investments and alliances.     

The impact of earnings pressure on exploratory innovation

While earnings expectation has been shown to determine a firm’s investment decisions, the knowledge about how such expectation influences a firm’s investment horizon for innovation is still blurred. This study therefore addresses this research issue by examining the relationship between earnings pressure and exploratory innovation while investigating the moderating effects of cross‐rival effect and resource availability. By examining high‐tech industrial firms in S&P 1500 from 2000 to 2012, the results indicate that stock analysts, as information intermediaries between innovation firms and the capital market, impose pressure through earnings forecasts on firms’ exploratory innovation. Our findings also reveal that the earnings pressure‐exploratory innovation relationship can be mitigated when its competitors encounter a higher level of earnings pressure. However, a firm’s financial slack shows less significant association to moderate the earnings pressure‐exploratory innovation relationship. Possible explanations for the results in regard to their theoretical and practical implications are discussed in this study.