Collaboration strategy decision-making using the Miles and Snow typology

Engaging in collaboration may be the best way for a firm to enhance its competitive advantages, since this can offer faster access to both resources and capabilities. This study aims to develop a framework for making collaboration partner choice decisions. The authors design a strategic game model of collaboration using Miles and Snow typology. An empirical data set collected from the S&P COMPUSTAT database is adopted to verify the model, and several managerial implications are derived. This model helps a company choose a competitor as a collaborative partner and helps in the selection of a collaboration strategy.     

Culture and evaluation of service quality — a study of the service quality gaps in a Taiwanese setting

This research is built upon the work of Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1985) by exploring the service quality gap within a Taiwanese hospitality setting and reports the findings from 164 interviews among hotel managers, service staff, and hotel guests. One motive for the research was whether concepts derived from an American‐Euro‐centric conceptualisation of service relationships was transferable to another cultural setting. It was found that the influence of national, ethnic culture on perception of service is limited, but the factor of kuan‐hsi (personal relationship) and mien‐tsu (face) had some role to play in guest‐staff relationships. However, it is concluded that the globalisation of hotel corporate modes of operation have more influence in shaping expectations and thus the ServQual model has validity in such settings.     

Measuring Employee's Creativity: A New Theoretical Model and Empirical Study for Tourism Industry

Based on the componential theory of creativity, this research built and tested a new theoretical model that links the 4P model (people, product, place, and process) with creativity via several intervening variables. Survey data and two-step structural equation modeling were used to evaluate a sample of 338 employees surveyed from 57 tourism and hospitality organizations in Taiwan. As anticipated, we found that people (e.g. personality) positively affected place (e.g. organizational environment and participation) and creative process (e.g. data collection, idea generation, and confirmation), which in turn influenced product outputs of creativity and satisfaction.     

The Valuation Model for a Risky Asset When Its Risky Factors Follow Gamma Distributions

This paper constructed a pricing model for the asset with multi‐risks by specifying the risky factors (i.e., interest rate and termination hazard rates) to follow gamma distributions. The model not only avoids the possibility of the termination hazard rate taking an irrational (i.e., negative) value, but it also makes it easier to derive a valuation formula for a risky asset. Our model can also effortless apply because the parameters of the gamma distribution can easily be estimated from market data. An example using Taiwanese bond data illustrates how the model can be utilized for practical applications. To facilitate understanding of how accurately the different models price risky bonds, we compare their out‐of‐sample pricing errors for different hazard rate specifications assuming normal and gamma distributions. The results show that our pricing formula is realistic and accurate in its applications. Therefore, it should help market participants to accurately price risky assets and to effectively manage complicated portfolios.     

Developing a Novel Hybrid Model for Industrial Environment Analysis: A Study of the Gourmet and Tourism Industry in Taiwan

This study applies fuzzy set theory in attempting to evaluate important attributes of the tourism and gourmet business environment in Taiwan. This business environment is composed of various attributes that are difficult to measure. To overcome these challenges, we integrated the fuzzy Delphi method, the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory method, and the analytic network process to evaluate the business environment. We found that the most significant aspect of the tourism and gourmet business environment is human resources and that the least significant aspect of this industry is market development. The most significant criteria are enhanced industry competitiveness and opportunities to develop the industry.     

Tariff equivalents of nontariff measures: the case of European horticultural and fish imports from African countries

In the context of the Partnership Agreements between the European Union (EU) and the African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries, this study estimates ad valorem tariff equivalents of European food safety standards on imports of key horticultural and fish products from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. The study uses an extension of the price‐wedge method to account for imperfect substitution and factor endowment in monopolistic competition. The estimated tariff equivalents are 55% and 98% for imports of fresh peas from Zambia to the Netherlands and the U.K., respectively. They range from 39% to 64% for imports of green beans and avocados from Kenya and from 63% to 270% for imports of frozen fish fillets in EU countries from the East African Community. We also observe large variations in tariff equivalents for the horticultural and fish products over time and EU importing countries.     

Productivity and Trade During the Softwood Lumber Dispute

The gap in total factor productivity in sawmills and wood preservation between the US and Canada generally increased from 1958 to 2005. The present paper examines the effects of the various phases of the softwood lumber dispute, including relatively free trade, Canadian export taxes, and low and high countervailing duties, on this productivity gap. Exogenous control variables include US housing demand, the exchange rate, softwood lumber prices, and ratios of capital and nonproduction labor to labor. The effects of phases of the dispute on US imports from Canada are also examined.     

Price gouging versus price reduction in retail gasoline markets during Hurricane Rita

Using extensive hand-collected retail gas prices, I show that there was no price gouging in Bryan/College Station during Hurricane Rita. Instead, the retail price markup dropped by twelve cents during the hurricane, despite most stations running out of gas.