The effects of bank relationships on firm private debt restructuring: Evidence from an emerging market

Our paper seeks to examine the direct benefit of bank relationships for a distressed borrower by assessing its influence on the success of firm private debt restructuring. We find that a distressed firm with a stronger bank relationship has a greater probability to successfully restructure its debt through private renegotiation. Accordingly, an analysis of credit rating recovery provides complementary evidence on the factors of successful debt restructuring. A duration analysis of the length of time needed for a debt restructuring to be completed is fully consistent with our documented results. We conclude that in a bank dominated financial system like Taiwan's where firms are heavily bank-dependent, the bank-firm relationship is of crucial importance to the success of financially distressed firms in private debt restructuring.     

Exploring the Factors Affecting Hotel Outsourcing in Taiwan

Two studies were conducted to examine factors affecting hotel outsourcing in Taiwan. In study 1, interviews with senior hotel managers were analyzed to explore the factors determining a hotel's outsourcing of different services. The results of the questionnaire survey used in study 2 indicated that the current and desired percentages of outsourcing for international tourist hotels in Taiwan were very low, indicating that strategic outsourcing has not received much attention in that part of the Taiwanese hospitality sector. The hotel departments that were most often outsourced were housekeeping, security, maintenance and information systems. Study 2 also showed outsourcing decisions were based only on a hotel's resources. The effect of predicting outsourcing was not significant for transaction costs. The results of this study provide both hotel management and outsourcing service providers with insights into hotel outsourcing in Taiwan.     

Spatial Price Discrimination in Input Markets with an Endogenous Market Boundary

This paper examines the welfare effect of third-degree price discrimination in a vertically related market with one upstream monopolist that sells its input to a continuum of downstream markets. Assume that the market boundary of the monopolist is endogenously determined. It is found that social welfare is necessarily lower under discriminatory than uniform pricing, even if the market area of the former is greater than that of the latter. This finding is contrary to that in the extant literature on price discrimination in final goods markets.     

Qualitative examination of employee turnover and retention strategies in international tourist hotels in Taiwan

In past decades, high employee turnover has been an important issue for many hoteliers and a focus of academic interest. Although hoteliers often use retention techniques to retain capable employees, the turnover rate remains high. The purpose of this study was to explore determinants of management-level employee turnover and to identify existing practices in human resource retention strategies. In this study, interviews with Taiwan hotel workers revealed that more than 80% of respondents had resigned from a job to pursue career advancement while 70% had experienced recruitment propositions from other hotels. Another factor of turnover may be that relating to differences between expectations and reality. This study indicates that managers need to understand more fully the needs of subordinates when providing career advice, and relevant training programs should be introduced to enhance career opportunities.     

Cash dividends,stock dividends and subsequent earnings growth

This study examines the association between dividend payout ratios and subsequent earnings growth using a unique dataset on Taiwanese firms paying dual dividends. The practice of paying dual dividends, which is quite common in Taiwan, gives rise to a novel ‘balanced-dividend hypothesis’ to be addressed in this study. The main thrusts of the hypothesis are that high cash-dividend payouts may reduce agency costs, and that high stock-dividend payouts provide a signal of optimism. The empirical evidence shows that a significant positive association between dividend payout ratios and subsequent earnings growth exists only in the dual-dividend payouts sample. After further dividing the whole sample according to their cash-to-stock ratios, the significantly positive association between dual-dividend payouts and subsequent earnings growth is discernible only in the balanced-dividend sub-samples.     

The impact of data snooping on the testing of technical analysis: An empirical study of Asian stock markets

The primary aim of this study is to investigate the validity and predictability of technical analysis in eight Asian equity markets. We employ the bootstrap tests of White (2000) and Hansen (2005) to determine whether any superior trading rule is found to exist amongst the ‘universe’ of technical trading rules identified by Sullivan et al. (1999). We use these powerful bootstrap tests to ascertain the profitability of technical analysis, along with two institutional adjustments for non-synchronous trading and transaction costs. The empirical results indicate that these three elements, data snooping, non-synchronous trading and transaction costs, have significant impact on the overall performance of technical analysis; indeed, the results for these eight Asian stock markets support the efficient market hypothesis, demonstrating that the generation of economic profits through the use of technical analysis is extremely unlikely with these particular markets.     

Input Price Discrimination and Allocation Efficiency

This research examines the effects of input price discrimination on allocation efficiency and social welfare. Instead of assuming constant marginal costs, we allow downstream firms to produce under increasing marginal costs. When downstream firms operate in separate markets, even though total output remains unchanged, consumer surplus and social welfare could be greater under discriminatory pricing than under uniform pricing. Moreover, the social desirability of input price discrimination can still hold true when downstream firms compete either in Cournot or Bertrand fashion.