Game-Playing Culture in an Age of Capitalist Consumption: Young Taiwanese and Collectible Card Games

Games-playing has historically been a form of leisure that is social and interactive in nature. As such, notwithstanding the dangers associated with gambling which may also be linked to games-playing, games have been considered a generally worthwhile activity which may have positive behavioral and educational externalities. However, in the age of advanced capitalism, games-playing has become subject to intensive marketing and advertising to promote consumption, particularly among young people who may have the time to play and some disposable income to invest in new games. One question this raises is the extent to which traditional games-playing modes and styles been affected by such marketing. This paper reports on research with a sample of Taiwanese undergraduate students investigating their consumption of games, the extent to which they use games to interact with other people and the changes of behavior with respect to games culture in recent years. A particular focus on the collectible card games segment of the gaming industry lends some focus to the findings described

Provincial Patronage Networks & Small Businesses in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region (GMS): Implications for the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) 2015

In East Asian cultures such as Thailand, existing patronage in local political and administrative structures can limit the ability of the state to affect its policies. Consequently, this research examines the extent to which these “guanxi†networks affect provincial small businesses, which lack the resources to persuade local provincial patronage providers to advantage them. This has implications for the ASEAN Economic Community, when cross-border economic activity is expected to increase, especially in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS). Thailand is chosen for this study because of its long history of strong power patronage systems at the provincial level and for its regional economic prominence and rich cross-border trade activities with neighboring countries such as Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia and Malaysia in the GMS. Findings from interview-based data collected from 178 small firm respondents from 31 provinces suggest that “friends and family guanxi†networks matter most for provincial small businesses. While there is an ongoing relationship between political officers and top managers of buyer (not supplier) firms, these are likely to be large firms, not small firms. Consequently, it is likely that small provincial firms, whether Thai or from neighboring countries, will not need to foster connections with local politicians and government officials

Good Governance in Cooperatives of Nepal-Relationship between Participation and Performance of Cooperatives

In this paper, an attempt has been made to examine the relationship between members’ participation and performance of cooperatives of Nepal. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the good governance in cooperatives of Nepal, in the light of the participation and its impact on performance of cooperatives in terms of deposit, volume of transactions, share capital, employment generation, loan investment, consultancy service, amount of reserve fund etc. Members’ participation is selected as independent variable whereas performance of cooperatives is considered as dependent variable in the study. Data are collected from the secondary source from the department of cooperatives of Nepal, Ministry of cooperative and poverty alleviation. Study of 16 types of cooperatives consisting of 5 years of observations from the fiscal year 2010 to 2015 AD has been included in the study. A number of tables, bar diagrams, lines and charts have been used to clarify the data. After all, the study reveals that there is positive relationship there is positive relationship between participation and performance of cooperatives. The study also concludes that good governance in cooperatives is the single most important panacea to achieve the vision, mission, objectives and goals of the cooperatives assuring happiness, rights and liberty of their members through economic, social, cultural and technological changes in their practical lives

Collaborative Provision of Graduate Education in CLMV: Case of Thailand’s Private Universities

Education entails investments in time and money from the students and, therefore, the choices of degree programs and university names are critical for students and their future careers. The demand for foreign education in the CLMV (i.e. Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam) market is fast expanding, especially for international graduate programs. Equipped with foreign degrees, the human resources of the host CLMV countries are ready for international jobs with international standards. This situation attracts investments by foreign universities to enter CLMV countries to offer degree programs, such as MBA, MPA and PhD. While Western universities are internationally recognized, the success of Asian universities operating within CLMV has not been studied. Consequently, this paper reports on research examining the success of Thai private universities that operate in CLMV countries, in particular Mynmar, which has only recently opened up to the world, as well as the developing prospects for Vietnam. Lao PDR and Cambodia. Data is collected through in-depth interviews of managers and students of international partner institutions of the host countries, through which Thai universities offer graduate degree programs. It is found that private Thai degree programs are welcomed in CLMV countries, while Thai degrees are favored over international Western degrees in terms of economic affordability and preferred over Chinese degree programs due to the socio-cultural perception that Chinese products are doubtful in quality. This is not surprising, considering that a 2014 study by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) reported that among middle-income countries of Asia, Thailand and Malaysia lead the region when it comes to providing graduate education

The Thick Black and White Ocean among Buddhist Pilgrimage Tourist Operators in Thailand

The White Ocean strategy proposed by Thai scholar Danai Chanchaochai addresses management based on Buddhist philosophy, and emphasizes the society first before looking to oneself. At the same time, there is also the concept of Black Ocean, or HòuhÄ“ixué (厚黑學) which translates to Thick Black Theory, proposed by Li Zongwu (æŽå®—å¾). Theoretically, an understanding of both white and black can lead the businessman to adjust his plans for better performance. Therefore, this research examines both Black and White concepts in the context of religious tourism, by collecting business data from tour operators that offer pilgrimage packages to Buddhists. It was found that the Buddhist aspect of the religious tour businesses puts “Blackness†profiteering goals in the background by building a “White†image of charity and donations, thus suggesting that the Black and White co-exists and are inseparable, similar to the middle path or yin-yang balance in nature

Enhancing Intercultural Collaborative Learning in a Multinational Classroom: Case of Taiwan

[[abstract]]With more international programs being offered by universities in Asia nowadays, students have the opportunity to study together with foreign classmates. However, in practice, there exists a level of mistrust and apprehension between local and foreign students, especially among those with different physical appearances and distant cultural backgrounds. This research aimed to identify and understand intercultural obstacles to in-class collaboration among local Taiwanese students and their foreigner classmates in a Taiwan international college. Data were collected through an open-ended questionnaire and participant observation from 52 students of different nationalities (Haitian, Indian, Malaysian, Indonesian, Thai, American-Chinese, New Zealand-Chinese, Mongolian and Taiwanese). In order to minimize cultural bias, two researchers jointly conducted content analysis in combination with ethnographic observation. This study found that differences in physical appearance and communication styles strongly deterred intercultural communication among the students in the beginning. It was found that in-class group discussions and group projects helped to dispel negative stereotypes, by cultivating greater mutual respect and understanding among the students in a multinational classroom. In fact, several misunderstandings and cultural conflicts could have been resolved in the classroom. Findings suggest that teachers have a crucial role in developing students' intercultural competence by implementing collaborative learning methods.[[notice]]補正完

Empirically derived strategy types for SMEs in developing countries - a study of knowledge in action

This study provides a better understanding of the interactions between firm resources, strategy choice, marketing environment, and performance in rural SMEs.To date, a strategy framework specifically for SMEs in developing countries had not been developed. Past studies adapted the Miles and Snow (1987) strategy typologies or have developed strategy types for SMEs in developing countries only conceptually. This study extended the modelling approach adopted by DeSarbo et al., (2005, 2006) by empirically deriving a strategy typology specifically for SMEs in a developing country. Based on K-means clustering of theoretically relevant strategy dimensions, two strategy clusters were identified—lower performing conservative strategy A, and higher performing customer oriented strategy B. The issue of resource limitations in strategy formulation had not been adequately addressed by past studies on SME strategy. By examining how and to what extent objective and perceived dimensions of the external environment impact the resources-strategy-performance (RSP) links in rural SMEs, the study tested the applicability of the Resource-Based View (RBV) and the Knowledge-Based View (KBV) in a new context—that of rural SMEs in a developing country. Both RBV and KBV were supported by the findings. Key strategic resources in rural SMEs were explored for its strategic and performance implications. General resources and capabilities, knowledge-based resources, and in particular “tacit” marketing knowledge, were examined in an aggregated sense through the intuitive understanding within the one SME owner-manager. Strategy choice moderated and mediated the resource-performance relationship. SMEs with higher levels of resources and capabilities tended to adopt the higher performing strategy B.The study provided further insights on the kinds of knowledge that mattered. Knowledge-based resources that were more tacit in character determined strategy choice and performance—higher customer serving skills led to adopting the higher performing strategy B, while planning skills led to adopting the lower performing strategy A.Both the objective and perceived environments influenced SME performance by moderating the resource-strategy-performance relationship. SMEs located in more munificent provinces perceived their market environment accurately, possessed higher knowledge-based resources, and were more likely to adopt the higher performing strategy B