The relationship between leader-member relations,job satisfaction and organizational commitment in international tourist hotels in Taiwan

The tourism industry is an indicator of the degree of internationalization and modernization of a country; and hotels are a key part in the tourism industry. According to studies on foreign tourists to Taiwan, expenses for international hotels make up the major portion of the tourists' total costs. Hence, international hotels play a significant role in the industry. The population for this study is 60 international hotels approved by the Taiwan Tourism Bureau. The sample is formed by 24 of these hotels. A questionnaire survey was conducted and 303 valid replies were received. The research analyzes cause and effect relationships among leader-member relations, as well as organizational commitment and job satisfaction utilizing structural equation modeling. The results show that job satisfaction is the mediating variable between organization commitment and leader-member relations.     

The influence of international human capital on global initiatives and financial performance

The major aim of this study is to investigate the relationships among international human capital (input-based international human capital, transformational, output-based, and competency of top management team), global initiatives (global learning and global marketing) and financial performance. The open systems view is introduced to develop a comprehensive measurement of international human capital, the human capital that enables a firm to compete globally. The structural equation modelling technique is then employed to investigate the proposed relationships. The results support our expectation that international human capital is positively associated with a firm's global initiatives and financial performance. The importance of the role of top management team competency is identified because it is positively associated with the other three international human capital components. It also indirectly fosters a firm's financial performance and global initiatives through its positive association with input-based, transformational, and output-based international human capital.     

How supply chain architecture and product architecture impact firm performance: An empirical examination

In order to enhance performance, manufacturing firms are building various capabilities and utilizing supply chain networks that are geographically dispersed around the globe. This study examines how decisions related to supply chain architecture and product architecture influence organizational competitiveness. Building on the co-specialization perspective, we evaluate the performance implications of product modularity and supply chain agility. While, product modularity constitutes a product configuration related to sourcing and assembling of products, supply chain agility is a supply chain configuration related to velocity (sensing, comprehending, and responding) and visibility (supplier network, internal operations, and external environment). Both the product and supply chain architectural decisions can impact performance, individually and in conjunction with each other. We empirically test the hypothesized relationships using data collected from 103 manufacturing firms. Results show that supply chain agility and product modularity directly enhance responsiveness and enable organizations to reduce cost. Furthermore, supply chain agility partially mediates the relationship between product modularity and both responsiveness and cost reduction. We elaborate on the key contributions of this study for both research and practice, discuss limitations, and also offer various avenues for further research.     

On the relationship between supplier integration and time-to-market

Recent operations management and innovation management research emphasizes the importance of supplier integration. However, the empirical results as to the relationship between supplier integration and time-to-market are ambivalent. To understand this important relationship, we incorporate two major recent developments. First, the literature has started to redefine supplier integration into two dimensions, supplier product integration and supplier process integration. Second, recent research has begun to examine spillover effects that extend beyond the direct costs and benefits of the supplier contract. Using survey data of 116 firms in the industrials, health care, and information technology industries, the results confirm our hypotheses and show that supplier product integration decelerates time-to-market while supplier process integration accelerates time-to-market. The results also show a positive relationship between supplier integration and the adoption of external technologies, which either decelerates or accelerates time-to-market depending on the level of internal exploration activities. Our research, thus, helps to open the ‘black-box’ of the relationship between supplier integration and time-to-market, and provides a theoretically grounded explanation to the apparent contradictory results in prior research about the influence of supplier integration on time-to-market. In addition, we contribute to research on spillover effects by emphasizing that information technology adoption and assimilation is an important spillover effect of supplier integration.     

Estimating structural equation models with non-normal variables by using transformations

We discuss structural equation models for non-normal variables. In this situation the maximum likelihood and the generalized least-squares estimates of the model parameters can give incorrect estimates of the standard errors and the associated goodness-of-fit chi-squared statistics. If the sample size is not large, for instance smaller than about 1000, asymptotic distribution-free estimation methods are also not applicable. This paper assumes that the observed variables are transformed to normally distributed variables. The non-normally distributed variables are transformed with a Box–Cox function. Estimation of the model parameters and the transformation parameters is done by the maximum likelihood method. Furthermore, the test statistics (i.e. standard deviations) of these parameters are derived. This makes it possible to show the importance of the transformations. Finally, an empirical example is presented.     

Coloured Logic Petri Nets and analysis of their reachable trees

Logic Petri nets (LPNs) can describe and analyse the batch processing function and passing value indeterminacy in cooperative systems, and alleviate the state space explosion problem. However, the indeterminate data of logical output transitions cannot be described explicitly in LPNs. Therefore, Coloured Logic Petri nets (CLPNs) are defined in this paper. It can determine the indeterminate data of logic output transitions in LPNs, i.e., the indeterminate data can be represented definitely in CLPNs. A vector matching method is proposed to judge the enabling transitions and analyse CLPNs. From the marking equation and the proposed reachable tree generation algorithm of CLPNs, a reachable tree can be built, and reachable markings are calculated. The advantage of CLPNs can be shown based on the number of leaf nodes of the reachability tree, and CLPNs can solve the indeterminate data of logical output transitions. Finally, an example shows that CLPNs can further reduce the dimensionality of reachable markings.     

Work engagement,psychological contract breach and job satisfaction

This study extends both Social Exchange Theory and the Job Demands–Resources model by examining the link between psychological contract breach (PCB) and work engagement, and by integrating job satisfaction into this exchange relationship. We argue that PCB reflects employees' feelings of resource loss, and that these feelings impact work engagement through their impact on job satisfaction. Levels of employee work engagement can therefore be viewed as reciprocation for the exchange content provided by employers. We conduct structural equation modeling on longitudinal survey data from 191 employees, and our results suggest that the negative effect of PCB on work engagement is mediated by job satisfaction.     

Recursive utility with unbounded aggregators

A new framework is presented for the study of the existence and uniqueness of solutions to the Koopmans’ equation in the unbounded case, that is based on the contraction mapping approach. In the bounded below case with bounded consumption streams, uniqueness of the solution in the whole class of weak-star continuous utility functions is obtained. When the aggregator is unbounded below and/or consumption streams are unbounded, existence of a weak-star continuous solution is shown, and a simple criterium to check the sufficient conditions for existence is provided. Juan Pablo Rincón-Zapatero and Carlos Rodríguez-Palmero gratefully acknowledge financial support by the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia and FEDER funds under Research Projects MTM2005-06534 and SEJ2005-08709/ECON, respectively, and by Consejería de Educación de la Junta de Castilla y León under Research Projects VA99/04 and VA017B05, respectively. This paper has substantially benefited from the comments of an anonymous referee. Particular and special thanks are due to Robert Becker for his very helpful comments and valuable suggestions.     

协同学在多级库存系统分析中的应用初探

讨论了协同学的基本概念;特别讨论了绝热消去方法(伺服原理)在协同学方法论中的作用、地位和意义;并运用协同学处理问题的一般步骤分析了多级库存系统,得到了序参量方程和势函数。     

对计算企业经营活动现金流量的一点思考——从基本会计等式出发

本文旨在通过对基本会计等式的运用,揭示用间接法将净收益调节为经营活动现金流量的内在逻辑性。先对基本会计等式进行逐步的分析,推导出现金流量的计算步骤。在这一过程中,可以清楚的反映出会计报表之间的明晰性。