Why Do We Observe Stockless Operations on the Internet? Stockless Operations Under Competition

Due to the proliferation of electronic commerce and the development of Internet technologies, many firms have considered new pricing‐inventory models. In this paper, we study the role of stockless (i.e., zero‐inventory) operations in online retailing by a considering duopoly competition in which two retailers compete to maximize profit by jointly optimizing their pricing and inventory decisions. In our model, the retailers are allowed to choose either an in‐stock policy or stockless operations with a discounted price. We first present the characteristics and properties of the equilibrium. We then demonstrate that the traditional outcome of asymmetric Bertrand competition is observed under head‐to‐head competition. However, when the two firms choose different operational policies, with corresponding optimal pricing, they can share the market under certain conditions. Finally, we report interesting observations on the interaction between pricing and inventory decisions obtained from an extensive computational study.     

Measuring business performance in the high-tech manufacturing industry: A case study of Taiwan's large-sized TFT-LCD panel companies

The nature of competition in the high-technology manufacturing industry has changed dramatically over the last two decades, and any of the traditional indicators of business performance are insufficient today. We have identified a new set of financial and non-financial performance indicators that can be used by high-tech manufacturing companies and have developed a business performance evaluation model. A data envelopment analysis (DEA), an analytic hierarchy process (AHP), and a fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making approach are used in the model. Data from large-sized thin-film transistor liquid-crystal display panel companies in Taiwan were collected via a field survey and from various published databases and were fed into the model to determine the relative business performance of the companies. We hope that our findings will help high-tech manufacturing executives determine their companies’ strengths and weaknesses and lead to future improvements in business operations.     

Quantity Discount‐Based Inventory Coordination: Effectiveness and Critical Environmental Factors

It is understood that quantity discounts provide a practical foundation for coordinating inventory decisions in supply chains. The primary objective of this research is to test, under a variety of environmental conditions, the effectiveness of quantity discounts as an inventory coordination mechanism between a buyer and a supplier. A comprehensive simulation experiment with anova has been designed to investigate the impacts of (1) choice of quantity discount‐based inventory coordination policies, (2) magnitude of demand variation, (3) buyer's and supplier's relative inventory cost structure, and (4) buyer's economic time‐between‐orders on the effectiveness of supply chain inventory coordination. The analytical results confirm that the quantity discount policies have managerial properties as a mediator for inventory coordination. The results also show that the performance of quantity discount‐based inventory coordination policies is influenced significantly by environmental factors, such as the magnitude of demand variation, the buyer's and the supplier's inventory cost structure, and the buyer's economic time‐between‐orders.     

The Effects of Cultural Familiarity and Question Preview Type on the Listening Comprehension of L2 Learners at the Secondary Level

We examined the effect of cultural familiarity and question-preview types on the listening comprehension of L2 learners. The results showed that the participants who received the full question-preview format scored higher than those receiving either the answer-option preview or question-stem preview, despite a statistically nonsignificant difference across the three previewing activities. In addition, the participants exposed to diverse cultural texts did not perform differently in their comprehension score. The findings suggest that the use of visual cues and key-vocabulary instruction in both texts may have compromised the positive psychological value of question previewing in enhancing comprehension of the unfamiliar text.     

Parent‐Adolescent Language Use and Relationships Among Immigrant Families With East Asian,Filipino, and Latin American Backgrounds

This study examined differences in the quality of relationships between immigrant parents and their adolescent children as a function of the languages with which they speak to one another. Over 620 adolescents with East Asian, Filipino, and Latin American backgrounds completed measures on parent‐adolescent language use and relationships. Adolescents who spoke in different languages with their parents reported less cohesion and discussion with their mothers and fathers than did their peers who spoke the same language with their parents. Adolescents who mutually communicated in the native language with their parents reported the highest levels of cohesion and discussion. Longitudinal analyses indicated that whereas language use did not predict differential changes in parent‐adolescent relationships over a 2‐year period, the quality of relationships did predict changes in language use. The associations between language use and relationships generally existed regardless of the families' ethnic and demographic backgrounds, and these associations did not vary across families of different backgrounds.     

Factors that influence acceptance of web-based e-learning systems for the in-service education of junior high school teachers in Taiwan

Web-based e-learning is not restricted by time or place and can provide teachers with a learning environment that is flexible and convenient, enabling them to efficiently learn, quickly develop their professional expertise, and advance professionally. Many research reports on web-based e-learning have neglected the role of the teacher's perspective in the acceptance of using web-based e-learning systems for in-service education. We distributed questionnaires to 402 junior high school teachers in central Taiwan. This study used the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as our theoretical foundation and employed the Structure Equation Model (SEM) to examine factors that influenced intentions to use in-service training conducted through web-based e-learning. The results showed that motivation to use and Internet self-efficacy were significantly positively associated with behavioral intentions regarding the use of web-based e-learning for in-service training through the factors of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. The factor of computer anxiety had a significantly negative effect on behavioral intentions toward web-based e-learning in-service training through the factor of perceived ease of use. Perceived usefulness and motivation to use were the primary reasons for the acceptance by junior high school teachers of web-based e-learning systems for in-service training.     

Deng–Yuan Huang: Life and Works

In this article, we describe briefly various professional accomplishments of Professor Deng-Yuan Huang and his contributions to the statistics profession. We have also given a list of books and research articles authored by him.     

Moving toward being analytical: A framework to evaluate the impact of influential factors on interagency collaboration

Interagency collaboration is absolutely essential to achieving the best usage of services and utilizing limited resources efficiently so that duplication of services may be avoided. Although many factors influencing interagency collaboration have been identified in the literature, the extent of their impact varies greatly. The variation has also intensified owing to the differences among social service systems. However, the majority of studies have only listed or categorized the influential factors as opposed to analyzing the extent of their impact in depth. Hence, a conceptual framework is needed to evaluate the impact of factors and to plan effective changes among individual interagency systems or collaboratives. This article proposes an overarching framework for this purpose that is composed of three dimensions: the scope of the impact of influential factors, the duration of the impact, and the developmental stage of interagency collaboration, or the so-called Scope-Duration-Stage framework (SDS). This framework will assist interagency systems in identifying key factors and will expand system capability to promote effective changes. Finally, we apply the framework in an early intervention interagency system to exemplify the application of the SDS framework.     

Customer negative events and employee service sabotage: The roles of employee hostility,personality and group affective tone

Abstract

In the service industries, customer negative events towards a service provider, such as unreasonable demands or low-quality interpersonal treatment, might trigger service sabotage behaviours by the employee in response. Mitigating the problems associated with customer negative events is therefore an important issue for both practitioners and researchers. In the present study, we incorporate the perspectives of affective events theory into our research framework to clarify the mechanisms and boundary conditions of the customer negative event–service sabotage relationship in the context of face-to-face service. Specifically, we theorize and examine whether customer negative events lead to employee service sabotage through emotional reactions of the service worker (i.e. state hostility) and whether their personality traits (i.e. extraversion and neuroticism) and the work unit context (i.e. group affective tone) moderate this process. The sample was composed of 195 hairstylists and 61 managers from 61 hair salons in Taiwan. The results of hierarchical linear modelling showed that hairstylists' state hostility mediated the negative event–sabotage relationship. In addition, hairstylists' neuroticism and the affective tone of the unit moderated the relationship between negative events and state hostility, which in turn predicted service sabotage. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are also discussed.     

Applying locally optimal criterion for classifying highly-reliable products with a control

At the research and development stage, decision-makers may wish to classify several competing designs with respect to a control (or standard) one. The classification problem may become very difficult when the products are highly reliable, since only a few (or even no) failures may be observed under normal use condition. The accelerated life test model resolves this difficulty by shortening the time of life testing and quickly provides life data of products. For highly-reliable products with a Weibull log-linear model, we propose a classification rule based on a locally optimal criterion. A suitable sampling plan based on this rule is also developed. The performance of this rule is compared with a pairwise comparison classification rule. It is shown that the sample sizes needed for the new rule are considerably lower than those needed for the pairwise comparison rule.