Impacts of Monetary, Fiscal and Exchange Rate Policies on Output in China: A Var Approach

Applying the VAR model and using the interest rate as a monetary policy variable, we find that in the long run, output in China responds negatively to a shock to the interest rate, the real exchange rate, government debt, or the inflation rate, and it reacts positively to a shock to government deficits or lagged own output. When real M2 is chosen as a monetary policy variable, long-term output in China responds positively to a shock to real M2 or lagged own output, and it reacts negatively to a shock to the real exchange rate, government debt, or government deficits. Its response to a shock to the inflation rate is negative when government debt is used and is positive when government deficits are considered. In the short run, fiscal policy is more important than monetary policy in three out of four cases. In the long run, monetary policy is more influential than fiscal policy in three out of four cases. Therefore, the government may consider conducting monetary and fiscal policies differently in the short run and long run. The government needs to be cautious in pursuing deficit spending as its long-term impacts depend on the monetary variable employed. The policy of maintaining a relatively stable exchange rate is appropriate as the depreciation of the Yuan may hurt the economy in the short run.JEL Classifications: E5, F4, H6     

Strategic orientation and new product performance: The roles of technological capability

Although prior research has examined the linkage between strategic orientation and new product performance, existing empirical evidence suggests exploration of the effects of a firm's internal factors on this linkage is required. This study aims to fill the marketing literature gap by addressing how technological capability moderates the strategic orientation‐new product performance relationship. This study measures new product performance as a two‐dimensional construct to avoid the oversimplified bias. Research hypotheses are tested using a sample of 121 information system product projects and a hierarchical regression approach is utilized. Results show that (a) technological capability strengthens the market orientation‐performance relationship and (b) technological capability affects the financial performance effects of market and technology orientations via market performance. Copyright © 2014 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Public employees’ psychological climates and turnover intention: evidence from Korean central government agencies

The psychological climate has been argued to influence employees’ work attitudes. However, despite the abundance of recent empirical studies on turnover intention, multiple psychological climate types as predictors of turnover intention have rarely been explored in the public management domain. This study used the four types of psychological climates – clan, developmental, hierarchical and rational – of the competing values framework, which is typically used to analyse organizational effectiveness. Challenging the assumption held in prior studies of linear associations between the psychological climate and turnover intention, this study examined U-shaped associations. Curvilinear associations are based on the rarely tested assumption that an overly biased psychological climate has a deleterious effect on turnover intention. The regression results corroborated a U-shaped association of clan and rational (market) climates with turnover intention but revealed a linear association for the hierarchical climate. These findings, determined using large-sampled data from Korean central government agencies, can advance the understanding of the psychological climate and turnover intention in public management.     

Quality analysis of a categorical response with different important considerations

Most quality improvement or quality analysis frequently focused on the issue of the quantitative quality response. The issue of addressing a qualitative or a categorical quality response is seldom mentioned. Until now, only a few studies addressed the parameter optimization for achieving quality improvement for a categorical response. However, the weight effect for different categorical level of response cannot be included into their analysis and it will limit the rationality and feasibility for the real applications. The objective of this study is to propose a procedure about quality improvement based on artificial neural networks (ANNs) technique to deal with the parameter optimization of categorical response with different weight effect. A case study involving a taping process from a lead frame (L/F) manufacturer in Taiwan’s science-based park demonstrates the rationality and feasibility of the proposed approach.     

A binary tree algorithm on change points detection

In this paper, an algorithm using binary trees is developed to detect the change points of a data set in which the data are assumed to be normally distributed. Usual BIC-type criteria are considered in the binary searching procedures when the number of change points is unknown. The algorithm is also extended to the switching regression models. Simulation study confirms that our algorithm is efficient compared with the ML-method. A real data example also verifies that the proposed procedure is appropriate.     

The re-examination of the relationship between employee stock ownership and voluntary employer change intention in Taiwan

Although past literature had provided inconsistent conclusions as to whether or not employee stock ownership (ESO) can serve the function of employee retention, this paper proposes that the reason for such inconsistency lies in the inability to clarify ESO characteristics. Therefore, this study examines the relationship between ESO and voluntary employer change intention from the viewpoint of vested and portable characteristics. Study results indicated that vested ESO achieves the function of employee retention. However, when vested ESO is also portable, employees tend to spend more efforts searching for external ESO alternatives, which reinforce their voluntary employer change intention.     

A reassessment of the relationship between job specialization,job rotation and job burnout: example of Taiwan's high-technology industry

This study applies the concept of job specialization and job rotation based on early principles of job design in solving employees' perception of job burnout, using employees of Taiwan's high-technology industry as targets for re-examination. In past management systems of traditional industries, job rotation was adopted to address employees' feelings of monotony, boredom and fatigue as a result of job simplification and specialization. However, with the advancement of technology, shortening of technical life cycles and changes in job characteristics, the relationship between job rotation, job specialization and job burnout is now different from in the past. The results from 304 valid samples collected from employees of Taiwan's high-technology industry reveal that the adoption of job specialization in high-tech industry in fact raises professional efficacy and reduces employees' feeling of job burnout, which is opposed to the benefits of job design purported in past management systems. Therefore, this paper seeks to re-examine the relationship between the three variables. By implementing job rotation or job specialization systems as means to address issues related to employees' job burnout, organizations should not only consider the benefits to job management, but also adjust according to technology and environmental changes. Only by doing so could organizations release the maximum potential from human resources management systems.     

Applying digital analysis to detect fraud: an empirical analysis of US marine industry

Firms have tendency to window dress their financial statements by reporting earnings to achieve reference points represented by N × 10 ^k . Such practice of reporting rounded earnings is likely due to (1) firms may believe that investors perceive a reported earnings of $1.99 million to be significantly less than $2.0 million; and/or (2) contracts between firms and stakeholders are likely to express earnings in round numbers. Auditors have employed more sophisticated digital analysis such as Benford's law, as part of their fraud detection processes. This study investigated the window dressing behaviour among firms in the US marine industry. The findings of the study suggest that window dressing is a significant practice among the marine firms. However, the extent of the pervasiveness of such behaviour is less severe among marine firms than among all publicly-listed firms in the entire US economy, suggesting that the quality of financial statements of marine companies is higher than the overall population of public companies.     

Locating experts using social media,based on social capital and expertise similarity

Information and communication technologies boost knowledge activities, both within and across organizations, and in online communities. Determining how to effectively search for and find experts via social media has become a critical issue. Although social capital is a key driver of knowledge contribution, we have not addressed the issue of how to locate experts based on their social capital. Systems designed to locate experts typically recommend such experts based on keywords, thus failing to consider any semantic similarity between their areas of expertise and the problem domain (a.k.a., “expertise similarity”). The system designed and developed in this study recommends experts based on both their social capital and expertise similarity. We measure the social capital of experts based on their consultant service relationships and their friendships. We conduct a field experiment to evaluate user satisfaction and the system’s knowledge-contribution predictive capability. The results show that the proposed system is of high quality and delivers excellent information. Hence, users expressed their intention to use this system. In addition, the positive effect of social capital on the knowledge contribution is verified from the perspective of user behavior.     

REDUCING RECOMMENDATION INEQUALITY VIA TWO-SIDED MATCHING: A FIELD EXPERIMENT OF ONLINE DATING

Leading dating platforms usually recommend only a small fraction of users based on users' popularity and similarity, leading to recommendation inequality. We use a stylized matching model from economics to modify existing algorithms to reduce inequality. We evaluate the proposed method through a large-scale field experiment on a dating platform. Experiment results suggest that our recommender reduces inequality, improves predictive accuracy, and leads to substantially more matched couples than other competing algorithms.