Measuring the Relative Efficiency of IC Design Firms: A Directional Distance Functions and Meta-Frontier Approach

An alternative approach for evaluating the efficiency of integrated circuit (IC) design firms is presented in this paper. We took into account the differences between technology groups, containing one or more design firms, and input and output factors to prevent influences of scale (e.g., firm size). Specifically, we employed a directional distance function approach to data envelopment analysis in order to evaluate inefficiency scores and differences among groups based on input and output factors. We found the efficiency of Taiwan’s IC design firms to be dependent not only on firm size but also on R&D expenditure and patent revenue. Our findings suggest that these factors significantly influenced the technical efficiency of Taiwan IC design. Furthermore, by focusing on technology gaps, we offer some suggestions for the different groups based on group-frontier and meta-frontier analyses. Finally, using the results of these analyses, we extended the global results of this study, presenting ways to further improve their efficiency

The Magnitude of Switching Costs for Corporate Antivirus Software Switching Decision

Today’s businesses environment is forcing companies to become increasingly more efficient in applying Internet technology to conduct transactions. AS the possibility of infection by computer virus is much greater now than ever before, businesses search for appropriate corporate antivirus software to safeguard their computer systems. This paper considers corporate antivirus software switching as one of the major security selection problem and proposes possible avenues for software switching decision and management. In conceptual model, we draw upon switching costs where transaction costs, learning costs, and artificial costs were examined as main costs for software switching decision. Our findings shown only two out of three types of switching costs have influence over corporate antivirus software switching decisions. Despite the existence of switching costs, businesses continue to repeat software switching because the perceived risks of security threats are much greater than the switching cost itself. Furthermore, we examine various approaches to the cost of switching and then propose an index map to evaluate switching decision. Five sets of propositions are advanced to help guide this research

Towards An Integrated Effort For Managing IT Process Standards Implementation

Adopting IT process standards seems to be a trend for IT organizations to meet ad-hoc informational needs and to provide better business value. Due to the changing environments of IT organizations themselves, one key to IT success lies in not only the establishment, but also the sustainability of ad-hoc professional IT functions. As IT organizations face many kinds of process standards to implement for various IT functions and although the implementations may be different due to various IT domains, from the management point of view, these implementations may not exist individually. This article attempts to highlight a possibility of an integrated effort to effectively manage the implementations of IT standards in an IT organization. Such a shared management refers to the integrated institutionalization design, which provides a road map for all IT functions to systematically improve and sustain the implementation results. A case example is provided for demonstrating the proposed attempt

Dynamically Assessing the Intertwined Influences of ISD Project Risk Factors

This study aims to adopt an approach for assessing the mutual influences of risk factors on information system development project transferring from initialization to the control phases. Given that risks evolve dynamically, the variations of the degrees of risk influences throughout the development process of information system project must be analyzed so that effective risk management strategies can be devised in a cost-effective way at the right stage. Therefore, our study applies Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory to quantitatively assess the interdependencies among the risk factors for each project development phase. An application conducted in a private, medium-scale university in Taiwan is demonstrated. The results suggest the directions for possible improvements of risk management during university information system development process

Development of a DSS to Estimate the Sales for the Retailing Industry in Taiwan

An algorithm is constructed in this study to estimate the market sizes of daily commodity in Taiwan based on the sampled sales information provided by retailer chains. Though retailer chains provide sampled sales information from only small portions of their retailing stores, they expect to receive more valuable processed information from that. As result of this research, a DSS is proposed to compute value-added information from this joint sales information database, namely the estimation information. Through certain public accessible data such number of stores by each chain and retailers’ financial reports, the sampled sales information can be transferred to the market size information of each item in Taiwan. Two similar algorithms are constructed for convenient stores and supermarkets/hypermarkets separately. A simple integration method is used to combine these results. Finally, a DSS is built based on these estimation algorithms and is implemented successfull

IT Portfolio Investment Evaluation on E-Commerce Solution Alternatives

Our study examines the group decision-making process and proposes a multi-criteria framework for e-commerce solution investment in information technology (IT) portfolios. First, the evaluation criteria that fit in the IT evaluation context are constructed. Second, the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) is employed to determine the weights of decision criteria and the benefit score to the company. Third, the Fuzzy Multiple Criteria Decision-Making (FMCDM) approach is used to synthesize the team decision. Finally, an empirical case of five proposed portal solutions in a car manufacturing company is used to exemplify the approach

Investigation of Landslides and Debris Flows in Tachia Watershed Between Maan Dam and Techi Dam

The Chi-Chi earthquake and subsequent typhoon events induced severe landslides and debris flows in the watershed of Tachia river. It inflicted severe damage to the power generation facilities and highway links. For the rehabilitation planning, quantitative assessment of landslides, debris flows and river deposits were conducted by using aerial photos and satellite images obtained at six stages of earthquake and typhoon events. The future trends of landslide and debris flow were also investigated by using empirical models. The long-term deposition or scouring was also conducted by numerical simulation. The results show that over 50,000,000 to 70,000,000m3 of sliding volume were induced in the Chi-Chi earthquake and subsequent typhoon events during 1999 to 2005. By conservative estimation, 60% of the debris still remain in the watershed, which will cause silting of the main river channel in the future. The deposition in the main river channel will increase with decreasing rate in the future, and river channel scouring is not expected to occur in the future 20 to 30 years

Observations of a freshwater pulse induced by Typhoon Morakot off the northern coast of Taiwan in August 2009

Author Posting. © Sears Foundation for Marine Research, 2013. This article is posted here by permission of Sears Foundation for Marine Research for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Marine Research 71 (2013): 19-46, doi:10.1357/002224013807343452.In this paper we describe large-scale impacts from a typhoon on the circulation over the continental shelf and slope north of Taiwan. Typhoon Morakot was a category 2 tropical storm that landed in central Taiwan, but caused destruction primarily in southern Taiwan from Aug. 8–10, 2009. The typhoon brought record-breaking rainfall; approximately 3 m accumulated over four days in southern Taiwan. River discharge on the west coast of Taiwan increased rapidly from Aug. 6–7 and peaked on Aug. 8, yielding a total volume 27.2 km3 of freshwater discharged off the west coast of Taiwan over five days (Aug. 6–10). The freshwater mixed with ambient seawater, and was carried primarily by the northeastward-flowing Taiwan Strait current to the sea off the northern coast of Taiwan. Two joint surveys each measured the hydrography and current velocity in the Taiwan Strait and off the northeastern coast of Taiwan roughly one week and two and a half weeks after Morakot. The first survey observed an Ω-shaped freshwater pulse off the northern tip of Taiwan, in which the salinity was ∼1 lower than the climatological mean salinity. The freshwater pulse met the Kuroshio and formed a density front off the northeastern coast of Taiwan. The hydrographic data obtained in the second survey suggested that the major freshwater pulse left the sea off the northern and northeastern coasts of Taiwan, which may have been carried by the Kuroshio to the northeast. Biogeochemical sampling conducted after Morakot suggested that the concentrations of nutrients in the upper ocean off the northern coast of Taiwan increased remarkably compared with their normal values. A typhoon-induced biological bloom is attributed to the inputs both from the nutrient-rich river runoff and upwelling of the subsurface Kuroshio water.This study is supported by the National Science Council (NSC) of Taiwan under grant NSC98-2611-M-002-019-MY3. C.-C. Hung is supported by NSC under grant NSC100-2119-M- 110-003. LC was supported by ONR grant N00014-08-1-0557 and NOAA grant NA10OAR4320156