Do job characteristics lead to employee creativity in travel agencies?

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between job characteristics and employee creativity among different job types in travel agencies. This study collected data from 289 employees of 63 consolidated travel agencies headquartered in Taipei. The sample included tour managers, route controllers, operators and salespersons. Results indicate that both job characteristics and employee creativity differ with the four job types. Also, different job types moderate the effect of job characteristics' five dimensions on employee creativity. Implications of these findings for stimulating employee creativity as well as future research directions are also provided. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Are analysts’ earnings forecasts more accurate when accompanied by cash flow forecasts?

We examine whether analysts’ earnings forecasts are more accurate when they also issue cash flow forecasts. We find that (i) analysts’ earnings forecasts issued together with cash flow forecasts are more accurate than those not accompanied by cash flow forecasts, and (ii) analysts’ earnings forecasts reflect a better understanding of the implications of current earnings for future earnings when they are accompanied by cash flow forecasts. These results are consistent with analysts adopting a more structured and disciplined approach to forecasting earnings when they also issue cash flow forecasts. Finally, we find that more accurate cash flow forecasts decrease the likelihood of analysts being fired, suggesting that cash flow forecast accuracy is relevant to analysts’ career outcomes.     

Combination of Theory of Planned Behavior and Motivation: An Exploratory Study of Potential Beach-based Resorts in Vietnam

The decision-making process of travel destination choice is very complex. Understanding why people travel and what factors influence tourists' travel intentions has been paid much attention by tourism scholars. This study attempted to examine the predictive power of theory of planned behavior (TPB) with the addition of past behavior and travel motivation in predicting behavioral intention of choosing a beach-based resort in Vietnam. Data were collected in three cities in both northern and southern Vietnam from the end of January to post-middle of March 2010 with the participation of 327 international tourists. In general, the results aligned with previous studies which supported the applicability of the TPB model. Attitude and subjective norm but not perceived behavioral control was found to have made a made a significant contribution to the prediction of intention. The findings also indicated both extension factors had considerable impact on behavioral intention of choosing a beach-based resort in Vietnam. Implications and suggestions for future studies were also provided in the last part of the study.     

Fueling Green Dining Intention: The Self-Completion Theory Perspective

This study aims to examine how self-identity of consumers influences intention to pay a premium to consume green food. Moreover, this research investigates the relationship between recollection of past dining experience and intention to consume green food. The self-completion theory (SCT) is to explain the compensatory effects of the preference to consume green food. Exposure to environmental information demonstrates the effects of priming. Two experiments were conducted to illustrate the effects of priming and recollection of past behavior that harmed the environment of consumers. The results show that after mere exposure to information on green dining, participants preferred to consume green food (priming effects). Similar results were obtained from the experiment where participants were asked to recall their past behaviors that harmed the environment. Asking individuals to recall past behavior proved to be an effective way to motivate patrons of green dining to find a moral equilibrium (compensation effects).     

Are multinationals exporting jobs? The case of Taiwan

Does offshore production always result in job exportation? Using firm‐level data for Taiwanese multinationals that allow us to avoid reverse causality issues, this paper finds that while increasing offshore production has a negative impact on the demand for domestic manufacturing workers, this is not the case for domestic research and development workers who are often more skilled. The results also suggest that for Taiwan, there is geographical fragmentation of production activities in such a way that more skilled jobs are maintained domestically and less‐skilled jobs are exported to other developing countries. These findings confirm the prediction of the knowledge‐capital model.     

Determinants of information technology investments: The case of ATM in an emerging economy

This paper examines the determinants of automatic teller machine (ATM), a kind of information technology (IT), in the Taiwanese banking industry. The lessons learned from Taiwan's banking industry can be applied to China's banking industry to facilitate the understanding of the IT adoption strategies of Chinese financial institutions. Factors that are expected to have impact on IT investment in general and on ATM investment in particular are identified from three perspectives, namely operating scale perspective, deposit service perspective, and operating cost perspective. The results of this study indicate that operating scale, banking deposit service and operating cost are all significant determinants of ATM investment in the Taiwan banking industry. The results are useful for those banks and financial institutions outside of China in deciding their ATM investment strategies in China when trying to enter and penetrate the Chinese banking market.