Impact of Business-to-Consumer Electronic Commerce Factors on Firm Performance in Taiwan\u27s E-Brokerage Sector

The new economy influences the entire economy, from corporations and governments to society. Business-to-consumer (B2C) electronic commerce (EC) continues to grow despite the burst of the 2000 e-bubble. Dramatic changes in EC and the significance of EC\u27s impact on firm performance are important practical issues. Variations in firm performance (outcome variable) are attributed to organization effect and to industry effect. Thus, a theoretical framework that combines a strategic typology with a resource-based view of the dynamic capabilities perspective can explain the industry and organization effect on firm performance. This non-experimental, correlational (explanatory) and causal-comparative (exploratory) survey and secondary data research design is the first to investigate the relationships among organizational characteristics (firm size and web age), CEO commitment to EC, strategy types, website design, and IT system integration capabilities on the performance of Taiwan\u27s e-brokerage firms. In this study, integrating factors of strategic types as an industry effect, CEO commitment to EC as a firm resource and website design and IT system integration as EC capabilities provided a better explanation of the performance of Taiwan\u27s e-brokerage firms. Findings indicated that strategy types showed no significant differences on the level of firm performance (online sales and market share). Another finding suggested that website design of catalog application and web age were significant contributors the to the online annual sales growth rate. In addition, CEO commitment to EC, website design of catalog application, IT system integration capabilities, and web age were significant explanatory factors of the online annual market share growth rate. Top managers of e-brokers in Taiwan must have the ability to do all things well in order to succeed in the rapidly-changing EC environment. EC firms can no longer benefit from first-mover advantage which contributes negatively to firm performance. At the same time, they need to emphasize and invest firm resources into EC and bundle and leverage EC (website design capabilities) as a way to create value for customers, build a sustainable competitive advantage, and gain superior performance over competitors

Determinants of B2C EC Success on Market Performance of Different Sizes of Firms in Taiwan's E-Brokerage Sector

Guided by a financial model, this study is the first to integrate Miles and Snow's (1978) strategic typology as an external industry effect and the resource-based view of the firm as an internal effect to explain market performance of different firm sizes in business-to-consumer e-commerce firms. Factors such as strategy types, CEO commitment to e-commerce, Web site design, and IT system integration capabilities were empirically investigated. Findings showed that prospector strategy utilized by large e-brokers significantly outperformed analyzer, defender, and reactor strategies in online market share. Top managers of small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) should choose defender or analyzer strategies to gain market performance. Large firms indeed outperformed SMEs in online market share. In addition, large firm's CEO commitment to e-commerce, Web site design and IT system integration capabilities and Web age were explanatory factors for online market share but had no effect on both market performances for SMEs. Managerial implications and future study are recommended

New genetic loci link adipose and insulin biology to body fat distribution.

Body fat distribution is a heritable trait and a well-established predictor of adverse metabolic outcomes, independent of overall adiposity. To increase our understanding of the genetic basis of body fat distribution and its molecular links to cardiometabolic traits, here we conduct genome-wide association meta-analyses of traits related to waist and hip circumferences in up to 224,459 individuals. We identify 49 loci (33 new) associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index (BMI), and an additional 19 loci newly associated with related waist and hip circumference measures (P < 5 × 10(-8)). In total, 20 of the 49 waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI loci show significant sexual dimorphism, 19 of which display a stronger effect in women. The identified loci were enriched for genes expressed in adipose tissue and for putative regulatory elements in adipocytes. Pathway analyses implicated adipogenesis, angiogenesis, transcriptional regulation and insulin resistance as processes affecting fat distribution, providing insight into potential pathophysiological mechanisms

The CSR Spillover Effect on Consumer Responses to Advertised Reference Price Promotion

This paper highlights the moderating effect of retailer CSR perception and CSR contribution type on the relationship between advertised reference price (ARP) and consumer evaluations. A two-by-three between-subjects factorial design is employed with the manipulation of ARP and CSR contribution type for hypothesis testing. Experimental results show that internal reference price, value of the deal, attitude towards the deal and purchase intention are higher for the exaggerated ARP than for the plausible ARP in the high CSR perception condition. Similar effects also occur when the retailer CSR contribution type is present in the reference price advertisement. Specifically, in-kind contribution exerts larger effects than money. This study contributes to a better understanding and crafting of integrative ARP and CSR strategies to influence consumers’ price perceptions, evaluations and intentions

Fair or Unfair: The Moderating Effect of Sustainable CSR Practices on Anticipatory Justice Following Service Failure Recovery

This paper investigates the relative effect of anticipatory justice on organizational legitimacy and consumer trust that further leads to consumer citizenship behavior following service failure recovery in Taiwan. Further, the moderating role of sustainable corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices is explored. A causal relationship and survey design with a valid sample of 269 respondents was applied. Findings indicated that organizational legitimacy and consumer trust can be restored through anticipatory justice, in particular interpersonal justice and then further mediated consumer citizenship behavior. As a moderator, a high level of sustainable CSR practices had a significantly stronger effect on anticipatory justice and organizational legitimacy than the low level one but only had an effect on interpersonal justice and consumer trust after service recovery. Practical implications are provided for service providers. The value of this research proposes an integrated model with organizational legitimacy and sustainable CSR practice that has not yet been tested in the model of service recovery. In addition, sustainable CSR practice is proposed as a moderator (high and low) that is compared in the level of strength of the relationships. This moderation effect has not been found previously in the process of service recovery

Bioconjugation of luminescent silicon quantum dots to gadolinium ions for bioimaging applications

Luminescent imaging agents and MRI contrast agents are desirable components in the rational design of multifunctional nanoconstructs for biological imaging applications. Luminescent biocompatible silicon quantum dots (SiQDs) and gadolinium chelates can be applied for fluorescence microscopy and MRI, respectively. Here, we report the first synthesis of a nanocomplex incorporating SiQDs and gadolinium ions (Gd3+) for biological applications. The nanoconstruct is composed of a PEGylated micelle, with hydrophobic SiQDs in its core, covalently bound to DOTA-chelated Gd3+. Dynamic light scattering reveals a radius of 85 nm for these nanoconstructs, which is consistent with the electron microscopy results depicting radii ranging from 25 to 60 nm. Cellular uptake of the probes verified that they maintain their optical properties within the intracellular environment. The magnetic resonance relaxivity of the nanoconstruct was 2.4 mM−1 s−1 (in terms of Gd3+ concentration), calculated to be around 6000 mM−1 s−1 per nanoconstruct. These desirable optical and relaxivity properties of the newly developed probe open the door for use of SiQDs in future multimodal applications such as tumour imaging

Metabolic Syndromes as Important Comorbidities in Patients of Inherited Retinal Degenerations: Experiences from the Nationwide Health Database and a Large Hospital-Based Cohort

This study aimed to evaluate the medical and socioeconomic impacts of IRDs using the nationwide health database and a large hospital-based cohort. This retrospective cross-sectional cohort study used data from the nationwide National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD). All patients with IRD from January 2012 to December 2016 were selected from the NHIRD and matched with the general population at a ratio of 1:4. All variables, including comorbidities, medications, service utilization, and medical costs, within 1 year from the date of the IRD diagnosis, were analyzed. Disability data were retrieved from the Taiwan Inherited retinal degeneration Project (TIP), a medical center-based database. A total of 4447 and 17,788 subjects from the nationwide database were included in the IRD and control groups, respectively. The Charlson comorbidity index score was higher in the IRD group (0.74:0.52, p &lt; 0.001). Yearly visits to the ophthalmology clinic were more frequent in the IRD group (6.80:1.06, p &lt; 0.001), particularly to tertiary medical centers (p &lt; 0.001). The IRD group showed greater odds ratios (OR) for metabolic syndrome-related comorbidities, including hypertension (OR = 1.18, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.10 to 1.26) and diabetes (OR = 1.32, 95% CI 1.21 to 1.45), and double the average yearly medical cost (2104.3 vs. 1084.6 USD, p &lt; 0.001) and ten times the yearly ophthalmology cost (369.1 vs. 36.1 USD, p &lt; 0.001). The average disability level was 54.17% for all subjects. This study revealed the large medical and socioeconomic impacts of IRD on not only patients with IRD, but also their family members and the whole society