A Knowledge-Based Innovation for High Technology Industries and Applying to Cross Strait Marketplaces

The study discusses after China and Taiwan has finally cleared all the hurdles to gaining World Trade Organization (WTO) membership, joining in November 2001. However, foreign investors in China are increasingly embroiled in disputes with Chinese companies due to innovation barriers. Besides, after China and Taiwan joint WTO, high tech industrial competition faces globalization and digitalization two big problems Therefore, this paper examines the notion that China’s and Taiwan’s entry into the WTO and their innovation reforms in line with globalization and digitalization have a significant impact on the entire system of knowledge-based innovation management. Firstly, the study reviews innovation through a knowledge-based theory lens in the innovation supporting processes to construct a research framework. Internally, the supporting innovation processes include knowledge and technology innovation, Managing & organizing innovation. Externally, the supporting innovation processes include inter-organization networks, innovation networks and eknowledge networks and cooperation innovation. Secondly, the study through case studies critically investigates the supporting processes of innovation management in China and Taiwan in the context of their WTO entry, and puts forward exploratory ideas that may assist in creating a blueprint for deepening China’s and Taiwan’s innovation reforms. Under knowledge based and digital economy, how to overcome barriers of knowledge based innovation over the cross-strait and global markets are the most key factors for firm’s survival. To answer these questions, in this paper, a more complete integrated innovation model and knowledge based innovation supply chain (KISC) for exploring and determining innovative supporting process in high tech industries and applying to cross strait (China and Taiwan) marketplace is presented. The results of the study will benefit not only the construction of knowledge based innovation framework, but also the business model transformation of competitive advantage

QMS critical success factors affecting operational performance of port in Southern Malaysia

Despite wide acceptance of ISO 9001, research shows mixed results about the performance benefits. Even though some studies show positive benefits of ISO 9001, lack of studies find that ISO 9001 leads to higher performance. As the ground reality was questioning this theory, this study was conducted to determine the critical factors affecting the operational performance in implementing quality management system (QMS) standard based on ISO 9001:2008 requirements in Port X. There were a total of 103 respondents participated in this study, who are the employees at Port X. The data obtained from the survey was analyzed using SPSS software. Based on the results obtained from the descriptive analysis, it was found that the order of level of importance of QMS critical success factors as perceived by the respondents was top management support (M = 4.26±0.33), quality process management (M = 4.19±0.36), continual improvement (M = 4.16±0.31), measurement, monitoring and control (M = 4.15±0.31), human resource management (M = 4.14±0.34), and customer focus (M = 3.94±0.34). It was also revealed that there was a high level of overall perception (M = 4.32±0.30) among the employees towards the company’s operational performance. From the correlation analysis, there were only two of critical factors were found to be significant predictor of operational performance: top management support and continual improvement. Both factors have significant moderate and positive correlation with operational performance. In addition, it was found that all critical factors could be used to predict 47.7% of operational performance. This significant finding obtained for both critical success factors serves as an evident that the appropriate practice of these two QMS critical success factors is significant and positive to the operational performance

An exploratory study of Taiwanese long-haul package tour customers' satisfaction

Taiwan has achieved rapid and continued economic growth over the last thirty years. This economic prosperity has significantly increased the demand for outbound tourism from Taiwan. However, the immature marketing strategies of travel agencies and lack of experience of both travel agencies and outbound tourists has also increased confrontation between the two parties. This research investigated customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction on pre-tour and on-tour service encounters between Taiwanese travel agencies and their customers. It analysed the role of the tour leader and the relationship with customers on guided group tours, and the link between overall satisfaction with a travel agency and the generation of repeat business. This study adopted exploratory research to investigate the service elements provided by travel agencies and the relative factors that affect tourist satisfaction when customers are taking a long-haul package tour. The primary data was collected using three different research methods: in-depth, semi-structured face-to-face interviews with managers from 19 randomly selected Taiwanese travel agencies; participant observation of a ten day Taiwanese guided group (package) tour to Italy; and semi-structured international telephone interviews with 23 of the Taiwanese tour group participants. Additional data was received from the collaborating travel agency, which had conducted its own research on customer satisfaction on the same tour. The primary data of interview transcripts and field notes were analysed using NUDIST software. The transcripts of the findings and discussion provide a detailed ethnographic study of the experiences, which these Taiwanese tourists encountered on a long-haul package holiday. The findings indicated that Taiwanese travellers are price-sensitive, have limited individual initiative and tend to over-rely on travel agencies and tour leaders. The tour leader's performance is the key factor resulting in customers' complaints or contributing to customers' satisfaction on a tour. However, Taiwan's tour leaders are tip-sensitive and the issue of tipping plays a crucial factor in influencing the tour leaders' job performance as well as customer satisfaction. Many travel agencies indicated that customer satisfaction was not so significant and the tour leader's performance was acceptable - providing customers did not complain. A process for the success of a guided-package tour has been developed to enable travel agencies to deliver a better service, as well as engage in more effective marketing campaigns. The differences in perception between service providers and customers have been identified as an important barrier to customer satisfaction. This model suggests that travel agencies should aim at developing customers' expectations to a realistic level during the pre-tour stage. It also suggests building customers' satisfaction to a reasonable !evel during the on-tour encounter. Changing customer satisfaction from merely satisfied to totally satisfied increases production and operational costs, which may not be a wise investment in terms of the financial return - particularly in an intensely competitive market where customers are price sensitive. The model suggests that travel agencies should be aware of the importance of the tour leaders' service performance and communication skills, to explain to customers the reason why negative incidents of flow significance (NII.'s) occur and consequently to help reduce customer dissatisfaction. This study identified the key influences on customer satisfaction when customers are taking a guided package tour. Components of satisfaction - expectation, performance, attribution, emotion and equity - Identified and examined. An additional component - communication - emerged which appeared to facilitate understanding between customers and service providers. The notion of Round Table Theory was put forward as a tool to illustrate equity from a tourist consumer perspective. The variety of research methods allowed due triangulation and so increased the validity of the research. Empirical findings of this study provide a better understanding of the components of customer satisfaction of a long-haul package tour

PRO-GROWTH ABSORPTIVE STRATEGY DALAM MENINGKATKAN KINERJA BANK UMUM

Sektor perbankan memainkan peran penting dalam mempromosikan pertumbuhan ekonomi nasional. Namun, beberapa indikator kinerja keuangan maupun non-keuangan cenderung menurun sehingga dapat memasuki fase perlambatan dalam pertumbuhan ekonomi nasional. Dari perspektif dynamic capability, tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah mengkaji pro-growth absorptive strategy yang dipengaruhi oleh lingkungan Eksternal dan internal dalam meningkatkan knowledge sharing, kapabilitas inovasi, dan kinerja bank umum di Indonesia. Pendekatan dalam penelitian ini adalah deskriptif-kuantitatif, sedangkan jenis penelitian yang dilakukan dalam penelitian ini adalah penelitian survei yang bersifat deskriptif-verifikatif. Unit analisis pada penelitian ini adalah 86 bank umum komersial di Indonesia yang merupakan kantor pusat, yang terdiri atas 4 bank umum milik negara, 58 bank umum swasta, dan 24 bank pembangunan daerah (BPD). Semua populasi bank tersebut menjadi sampel. Data diolah menggunakan analisis deskriptif dan analisis verifikatif. analisis verifikatif digunakan Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa lingkungan Eksternal, lingkungan internal, pro-growth absorptive strategy, knowledge sharing, innovation capability, dan kinerja pada bank umum di Indonesia termasuk pada kategori tinggi, tetapi belum termasuk pada kategori sangat tinggi atau ideal. Lingkungan Eksternal dan lingkungan internal dapat mempengaruhi kinerja bank melalui pro-growth absorptive strategy, knowledge sharing, innovation capability sebagai variabel-variabel intervening. Namun, pengaruh lingkungan Eksternal secara langsung terhadap knowledge sharing tidak signifikan. Hal ini menunjukkan bahwa lingkungan Eksternal harus melalui pro-growth absorptive strategy untuk meningkatkan knowledge sharing, innovation capability, dan kinerja bank. Model pro-growth absorptive strategy menjadi keterbaruan dalam penelitian ini.; The banking sector plays an important role in promoting national economic growth. However, several indicators of financial and non-financial performance tended to decline so that they could enter a phase of slowdown in national economic growth. From a dynamic capability perspective, the aim of this study is to examine the a pro-growth absorptive strategy that is influenced by the external and internal environment in increasing knowledge sharing, innovation capabilities, and performance of commercial banks in Indonesia. The approach in this research is descriptive-quantitative, while the type of research carried out in this study is a descriptive-verification survey. The unit of analysis in this research is 86 commercial banks in Indonesia (the head office), consisting of 4 state-owned commercial banks, 58 private commercial banks, and 24 regional development banks (BPD). All the population of the bank were sampled. The data were processed using descriptive analysis and verification analysis. Verification analysis used Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results showed that the external environment, internal environment, development absorptive strategy, knowledge sharing, innovation capability, and performance at commercial banks in Indonesia were included in the high category, but not yet in the very high or ideal category. The external environment and the external environment can affect the bank's performance through the development absorptive strategy, knowledge sharing, innovation capability as intervening variables. However, the influence of the external environment directly on knowledge sharing is not significant. This shows that the external environment must go through a pro-growth absorptive strategy to increase knowledge sharing, innovation capability and bank performance. The pro-growth absorptive strategy model is a novelty in this study

Health, policy and medicalisation : a case study of Taiwan's health care reforms

This thesis charts the rising importance of the state in extending the influence of modern medicine, contexualised within the history and political-economic dynamics of the health care reforms in Taiwan, a leading Newly Industrialised Country (NIC) which has a distinguished record of health improvement. It highlights the processes by which health care reforms represented a shift towards medicalisation, particularly as consolidated by the creation of a universal National Health Insurance (NHI) system in 1995. The thesis seeks to analyse these processes by bridging the gap between medical sociology and health policy evaluation. It deploys a range of methods: historical analysis of secondary sources and multiple methods of data collection. These include qualitative in-depth interviews with key actors, a questionnaire survey and relevant policy documents. This thesis employs an overarching framework for analysis, which embraces both the 'political economy' and the 'cultural critique' approaches to health, in ways which seek to integrate discussion of policy issues and developments at the macro, meso, and micro-levels. It starts by locating the NHI reform against longer-term historical processes of modernisation, often as a result of outside influences, and the associated transformation of medical paradigms that occurred in different periods. It charts how particular structural factors have impinged on medicine to enable it to become dominant collegiate profession, with special reference to the role of the state promoting the legitimation of particular modes of medical intervention. The thesis highlights the fact that the NHI has extended the influence of doctors, paradoxically also provides the basis by which medical autonomy has been undermined. On the other hand, it charts the social impacts of modern medical care, and argues that the NHI has played an important role in stimulating the process medicalisation and consequently fostered a culture of dependency and passivity contained in medical technology and in the healing relationship. This thesis is a reminder that the contemporary Taiwanese health care state is arriving at a moment of crisis, and that deep reflection on the strengths and weaknesses of the NHI reform is necessary in order to deal with problems associated with growing medicalisation, public demands for greater social equity, and new threats to health, the latest being SARS

The Malaysian 'Vision 2020' national development plan : implementation problems in Sabah.

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:DXN021151 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Health, policy and medicalisation : a case study of Taiwan's health care reforms

This thesis charts the rising importance of the state in extending the influence of modern medicine, contexualised within the history and political-economic dynamics of the health care reforms in Taiwan, a leading Newly Industrialised Country (NIC) which has a distinguished record of health improvement. It highlights the processes by which health care reforms represented a shift towards medicalisation, particularly as consolidated by the creation of a universal National Health Insurance (NHI) system in 1995. The thesis seeks to analyse these processes by bridging the gap between medical sociology and health policy evaluation. It deploys a range of methods: historical analysis of secondary sources and multiple methods of data collection. These include qualitative in-depth interviews with key actors, a questionnaire survey and relevant policy documents. This thesis employs an overarching framework for analysis, which embraces both the 'political economy' and the 'cultural critique' approaches to health, in ways which seek to integrate discussion of policy issues and developments at the macro, meso, and micro-levels. It starts by locating the NHI reform against longer-term historical processes of modernisation, often as a result of outside influences, and the associated transformation of medical paradigms that occurred in different periods. It charts how particular structural factors have impinged on medicine to enable it to become dominant collegiate profession, with special reference to the role of the state promoting the legitimation of particular modes of medical intervention. The thesis highlights the fact that the NHI has extended the influence of doctors, paradoxically also provides the basis by which medical autonomy has been undermined. On the other hand, it charts the social impacts of modern medical care, and argues that the NHI has played an important role in stimulating the process medicalisation and consequently fostered a culture of dependency and passivity contained in medical technology and in the healing relationship. This thesis is a reminder that the contemporary Taiwanese health care state is arriving at a moment of crisis, and that deep reflection on the strengths and weaknesses of the NHI reform is necessary in order to deal with problems associated with growing medicalisation, public demands for greater social equity, and new threats to health, the latest being SARS.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceUniversity of Warwick : Ministry of Education, Republic of China (Taiwan) : Universities UK : Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly ExchangeGBUnited Kingdo