Initial Public Offering and Corporate Governance in China's Transitional Economy

This paper empirically investigates the performance of Chinese initial public offerings (IPOs). The data used covers the period from mid-1995 to mid-1999 with the sample including 884 companies (both in the A- and B-share markets). In an examination of growth, profitability and stability of listed companies either individually or as a combination, it can be seen that the only industries in which listed companies in China display strong performance are public utilities, transportation and finance. If one examines the changes in listed companies' financial indicators following the IPO, it becomes apparent that with the exception of earnings related indicators (EPS and ROE) there are no significant changes. What's more, the financial indicators tend to fall rapidly year on year. This means that the IPO is of little obvious help to companies' operational performance, and may actually make things worse. One of the reasons for this is that in order to implement the IPO and secure stock market listing, companies tend to submit inflated figures in the financial statements that they are required to provide. Another possible factor is the poor corporate governance characteristics of Chinese enterprises.

Why Differentiation Strategy Fails?

Differentiation strategy has been considered critical for securing a competitive advantage. However, not all firms can create competitive advantages through differentiation. In this paper, we draw on a Taiwanese hotel, restaurant, and TV program provider to show why differentiation strategy fails. On the basis of these three cases, three failed differentiation strategies are proposed and a framework for implementing a differentiation strategy is provided. Finally, we present the discussion and conclusions for the theory and practice of differentiation strategy

Tauopathy

Tauopathy is a category of neurodegenerative diseases that are caused or associated with pathological tau protein. Some of the diseases are relatively common, which include Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and various Parkinsonism (PD). Tau protein is a type of microtubule-associated protein (MAP), encoded by the gene MAPT (microtubule-associated protein tau). Normally, tau binds to microtubule, supporting the assembling and structure of cytoskeletons. However, in tauopathy, normal tau protein undergoes abnormal posttranslational modifications and detaches from microtubule; furthermore, they may aggregate forming paired helical filaments (PHF) or straight filaments (SF). Abundant PHF could be observed under microscope as fibrillary tangles. In this chapter, we will introduce the pathogenesis process of tauopathy with regard to the posttranslational modifications of the protein, the animal models, and the developing treatments against tauopathy from a clinical prospective

A visual culture approach for teaching meaningful content through art

This study is an exploration of approaches to the study of art which focuses on content and creating new levels of meaning. It examines postmodern art education theory and provides examples of practical and specific implementation of these theories. Some of the issues to be addressed are arguments for incorporating an issue-based approach as well as the benefits and limitations of using visual culture in the art classroom. I found successful approaches for teaching students to appreciate art as an important part of learning about life by observing one art teacher at work in her classes. I also interviewed her and her students about her teaching methods. Both her classes and the interviews were video-taped. A condensed video document is provided to support the written thesis.* *This dissertation is a compound document (contains both a paper copy and a DVD as part of the dissertation). The DVD requires the following system requirements: Windows MediaPlayer or RealPlaye

Understanding Clients’ Intentions to Explore Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Features: A Social Capital Theory Perspective

The pervasive post-adoption of on-demand software-as-a-service (SaaS) products via the Internet has provided clients with sufficient convenience and functional flexibility to rent and build the multifunctional services they require. Prior research has called for a deeper understanding of how client firms encourage the exploration of SaaS applications in the workplace. However, exploring the best service combinations depends on the clients’ socially related motivation. Hence, we draw on social capital theory in this study to examine clients’ intentions to explore new SaaS service features. We use service quality to complement structural capital as an indicator, as it is more suitable for assessing the service structure of systems. Drawing on a sample of 246 employees in the IT service departments of small- and medium-sized companies in Taiwan, we generate the following empirical results. First, most of the main effect paths only show significant positive signs for the effect of relational capital on the intention to explore, and the effect of environmental quality on social capital is not supported. Second, we rebuild the mediation model to test the non-supported hypotheses and find that relational capital partially mediates the relationship between service quality and the intention to explore. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discusse

Establishing Non-Inferiority of a New Treatment in a Three-Arm Trial: Apply a Step-Down Hierarchical Model in a Papulopustular Acne Study and an Oral Prophylactic Antibiotics Study

Clinical trials comparing a test treatment with an active control therapy have become very popular in drug and medical device development in the last decade. An active controlled trial without a placebo, however, exhibits some major challenges in design, analysis, and interpretation, such as the determination of the non-inferiority margin or the assumption of constancy condition. When there are no ethical concerns, the comparison of a test drug with placebo usually provides the most convincing proof of the efficacy of a new treatment. Therefore, it may be advisable to conduct a three-arm trial — including placebo, active control, and the new treatment - if it is ethically justifiable such as a papulopustular acne study and an oral prophylactic antibiotics study. In this paper, we propose a statistical methodology for a three-arm non-inferiority trial with binary outcomes. We adapt the step-down hierarchical hypotheses and give a three-step testing procedure which is more realistic in conducting a clinical trial. We derived an optimal sample size allocation rule in an ethical and reliable manner to minimize the total sample size and hence to shorten the duration of the trials. Real examples from a papulopustular acne study and an oral prophylactic antibiotics study are used to demonstrate our methodology