Impact of Intellectual Capital on Firm Performance: the Influence of Innovation Capability and Environmental Dynamism

The business values of intellectual capital (IntC) and innovation capability (InnoC) are enduring research questions, especially for high-tech firms. Although each one has been recognized as a critical factor for firm’s competitiveness, few studies discussed the influence of IntC and InnoC on firm performance in one integrated framework. Moreover, the moderating effects of environmental dynamism on IntC or InnoC to firm performance were often neglected. This paper developed a research model to explain IntC’s impact on firm performance, with InnoC as a mediating variable and environmental dynamism as a moderating variable. Using a survey study conducted in high-tech firms in China, we tested the research model and found that InnoC partly mediate the effect of IntC on firm performance. Environmental dynamism moderates the relationship between structural capital, relational capital, InnoC, and operational performance, as well as between structural capital and financial performance

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

East Asian Economies\u27 Cooperation in Cross-border Direct Investment Arrangements

While economic globalization continues to develop, the global economy keeps integrating through increasing trade and foreign direct investment (FDI). The establishment of close and comprehensive industrial production and distribution networks in the East Asian region is mainly driven by FDI cooperation between multinational enterprises (MNEs) and local firms. MNEs have played a key role in promoting vertical intra-industry trade in East Asia by setting up regional and international production networks through FDI

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

The development of subsidiary technological capability: network linkages and subsidiary autonomy

This research contributes to the literature on subsidiary evolution by exploring the developments of subsidiary technological capabilities. It has been widely acknowledged that subsidiaries have unique in-house capabilities that are embedded in two contexts: 1) the internal technology sources including the headquarter ("HQ") and affiliated-units, such as the research and development ("R&D") centres; 2) the external technology sources comprised of local, regional or global entities, such as local universities. This study examines the relationship between subsidiary capability and autonomy and the mediating effects of communication systems, by linking internal and external networks through which the subsidiary both exploits and creates particular technological capabilities, and through which the parent company HQ, exercises its control. Through a synthesis of the international business and innovation management literature review, a set of measures of technological capability, autonomy and communication have been drawn. A capability taxonomy configured for the semiconductor industry by Ernst et al. (1998) was adapted to specifically examine integrated circuit ("IC") design, production and marketing capabilities amongst five different Taiwan-based foreign wholly-owned subsidiaries in the electronics industry (particular in the integrated circuits sector). These are compared using quantitative and qualitative measures on factors such as the types and levels of technological capabilities, the degree of autonomy and the intensity of communication they have developed. The findings demonstrated that the heart of subsidiary technological-capability creating lies in exploiting the parent company's core- competitive assets and capabilities and creating its capability development using local knowledge systems, and regional and global cooperative partners. The extent to which such developments of subsidiary technological capabilities are dispersed throughout and leveraged on the multinational enterprise ("MNE")'s differentiated network, depends on the intensity of internal and external communication systems for assimilating information or knowledge. Moreover, single subsidiaries have different degrees of decision-making autonomy, which influence both the nature of the internal NINE network, and the extent of influence of the internal and external network linkages on the developments of subsidiary technological capabilities. Overall, this research concludes that subsidiary autonomy is a cyclical process between the parent company and subsidiary, which is affected by the development of a subsidiary's technological capability. The capability- creating of a subsidiary is driven by the interactions between internal and external leverages which broaden the level and types of technological capabilities (namely, marketing-, design-and production-related) in terms of the scope of responsibility, in-house capability and the capacity for assimilation and creation of 4new' technology

The Characteristics of Sino-Taiwanese Joint Ventures in the People's Republic of China

The main objective of this thesis is to shed light on the characteristics and performance of Sino-Taiwanese joint ventures (JVs) in the People's Republic of China and in particular to investigate the role played by guanxi (interpersonal relationships) in their formation and in the way they function. The research shows that guanxi enhances the effectiveness of Taiwanese joint venture partners by overcoming unanticipated external environmental factors and enabling them to deal with the complex internal managerial issues associated with the Chinese market. The different political and economic relations between Taiwan and China make the joint venture entry strategy attractive to Taiwanese investors. Taiwanese investors share similar cultural identity and speak the same dialect as much of Mainland China. The literature on international joint venture formation is reviewed and compared business made between western style networking and guanxi relationships in Chinese business communities. The impact of cultural similarity on partner selection has been added in this study of Sino-Taiwanese Ns, which therefore provides a new strategic perspective. A triangulation research method is employed to provide a systematic analysis. In particular, a first set of interviews identified the possible variables in JV development and established important contacts in China, to assist in carrying out a second questionnaire survey. A further round of interviews confirmed the validity of the findings. A strong positive correlation was found between firms' cooperative strategies and the uncertainties of the Chinese business environment. This has demonstrably influenced Taiwanese investors' decision to collaborate with Chinese firms in joint ventures. The interview evidence clearly shows the importance of guanxi at different stages of JV formation and development. The thesis concludes that the effective use of guanxi has enhanced Taiwanese investors' effectiveness within the highly uncertain business environment of China

External incentives, industrial development and regional economic integration

The revival of regional integration in the European Community (EC) in the early 1980s has brought about profound implications for the development of regional integration and its related theory. Firstly, European industry searching to promote its competitiveness highlighted the need for a "European-level" solution to European economic decline and contributions to the relaunching of European integration. Secondly, as a result of the renewed momentum for regional integration, external factors which were neglected by previous efforts in theory-exploration, have become more noticeable in the process of regional integration.The purpose of this thesis about external factors is to analyse to what extent the progress of regional integration is driven by the private sector. The relaunching of European integration which brought about the successful  passage of the Single European Act has demonstrated the crucial contribution of the business community to  accelerating  the progress of integration.This thesis further offers an analysis of the proposition that the impact of external factors on industrial development is the key to understanding the process of creating the Chinese Economic Area (CEA). It explores the argument  that instead of being motivated by political factors, the process of regional integration is primarily stimulated by  industrial development in the private sector. It concludes by suggesting a new focus for the study of regional  integration - the "external incentives-industrial development" approach, and comparative insights into the EC and  the CEA

Bargaining power, ownership and control of international joint ventures in Taiwan

This thesis provides an empirical analysis of international joint venture activities in Taiwan. The primary purpose is to examine control and its antecedents in terms of ownership, bargaining power, resources contribution, and motivation for forming international joint ventures. Primary data collected by a mail questionnaire is analysed along five core dimensions of international joint venture activities. First, the mechanism, focus, and extent of parent control is identified and tested in a number of sample characteristics. These empirical results also reveal that most joint ventures in Taiwan have higher autonomy and have more autonomy on the appointment of key function managers. Parent firms seek to focus their control over specific activities of the joint ventures rather than attempting to control the entire range of joint venture activities. Second, the results of equity shares held by the host country parents and foreign parents show that both parents have minority shareholding in the joint ventures. A higher ownership by the parents in joint ventures indicates that they have a higher percentage of board members. Third, the relative importance of a set of bargaining power is identified with hypothesis testing of the relationship between control and bargaining power. There is little evidence that the relationship between bargaining power and control is not closely associated. Fourth, the relative importance of resource contribution by parents is identified and hypotheses are tested on the relationship between control and resource contribution factors. The results are strongly supported that the relationships between resource contributions in terms of physical, invisible, financial, human, and organizational ability of parents and their control has significant and positive associations. Fifth, the relative importance of a set of motives for international joint venture formation is identified and hypotheses are tested on the relationship between control and motivation factors in terms of technological acquisition, knowledge learning, risk sharing, competitive strategy consideration, resource complementarily, market expansion. The findings reveal a limited number of significant correlations between motivation factors and control

Interpretive structural modeling of knowledge network in car industry’ R&D centers

The current research has been done with the aim of knowledge network interpretive structural modeling in car industry’s R&D centers. The key factors for implementing a knowledge network in car industry’s R&D centers have been determined and then the final graphical model has been drawn by Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) approach.The method of the current applied research includes a survey of experts and then the variables extracted through investigating research background, after that the MATLAB R2013 software is used for making compatible matrix as well as drawing graphical relations of the model by Interpretive Structural Modeling approach.After studying related works & interviewing with under-studied firms’ managers, interpretive structural modeling (ISM) & MICMAC analysis was used to generate a model for knowledge network. Previous studies had not investigated the knowledge network in car industry’s R&D centers; however, the present study implemented the knowledge network model in R&D Centers