Taiwan's Electronics Industry Research Articles

User Acceptance of Business Intelligence Systems in Taiwan's Electronics Industry

There appears to be a trend toward companies investing in business intelligence (BI) systems to improve analytical capabilities to support decision making. In this study I investigated the determinants of user acceptance of BI systems. I compared 3 competing models, that is, the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), and the decomposed TPB (DTPB), to determine which best explains users' intentions to adopt BI systems. Data collected from 330 Taiwanese electronics industry firms were tested using structural equation modeling. The findings indicate that the DTPB model was the most parsimonious and had greater explanatory power than the TAM and TPB models.

Exploring the user acceptance of business intelligence systems in Taiwan's electronics industry: applying the UTAUT model

There appears to be a current trend for companies to invest in business intelligence (BI) systems to improve analytical capabilities to support decision making. Although much attention has been paid to decision-making benefits of BI adoption, limited research has examined factors that influence user acceptance of BI systems. Therefore, this study utilises the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) to investigate the determinants of users’ behavioural intention to use BI systems, and the moderating effects of gender, age, experience and voluntariness of use on the relationships between the determinants and behavioural intention/usage behaviour. Data was collected from 330 firms in Taiwan’s electronics industry. This result shows that performance expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, and computer anxiety were significant determinants of users’ behavioural intention to use BI systems, while effort expectancy was not. Facilitating conditions and behavioural intention were significant predictors of users’ usage behaviour of BI systems.

Ownership structure and efficiency in Taiwanese electronics firms

Purpose– This study aims to examine the effect of the separation of control and ownership on the efficiency performance of Taiwanese electronics firms.Design/methodology/approach– The paper employs data envelopment analysis to estimate efficiency performance. Following Kuanet al., the paper measures the severity of a firm's agency problems using the difference between voting rights and cash flow rights, and the difference between seat control rights and cash flow rights. Using a panel dataset for the period from 2004 to 2010, the paper runs OLS regressions to find the relationship between efficiency performance and the separation of control and ownership.Findings– The results show that both the divergence between voting rights and cash flow rights, and the divergence between seat control rights and cash flow rights are significantly and negatively related to efficiency performance. Using Tobit regression in the second stage also provides a consistent result.Research limitations/implications– Shareholders, especially the minority group, should think twice before investing in a firm with a high deviation of control and ownership.Originality/value– This is the first paper to examine the effect of the separation of control and ownership on the efficiency performance of Taiwanese electronics firms. The empirical evidence suggests existence of negative entrenchment effects in the electronics industry in Taiwan.

Effects of collaborative communication on the development of market-relating capabilities and relational performance metrics in industrial markets

Research in marketing suggests that collaborative communication is important for firms to sustain competitive advantage, especially in industrial markets. This study integrates relational and resource-based views to articulate how collaborative communication influences different relational performance metrics. Based on a survey of 167 marketing executives in Taiwan's electronics industry, empirical findings indicate that market-relating capabilities (i.e., market-linking and marketing capabilities) completely mediate the collaborative communication–financial performance relationship, while market-relating capabilities partially mediate the collaborative communication–customer-focused performance relationship. In addition, collaborative communication directly influences customer cooperation performance instead of indirectly affecting it through the development of market-relating capabilities. The results of this study provide new insights into the role of collaborative communication as well as important theoretical and managerial implications.

How inter- and intra-organisational coordination affect product development performance: the role of slack resources

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to enable a better understanding of the influences of alliance coordination (i.e. inter-organisational coordination) and interfunctional coordination (i.e. intra-organisational coordination) on product development performance. Design/methodology/approach – The current study tests a posited research model and its hypotheses using the data from Taiwan's electronics industry. A survey of 159 senior executives is analyzed using a partial least squares approach. The analytic result shows that slack resources may link alliance coordination and interfunctional coordination to two product development performance metrics (i.e. product innovativeness and product development speed). Findings – This investigation reveals that both alliance coordination and interfunctional coordination positively affect product development performance, not only directly but also indirectly, through the existence of slack resources they help engender. In addition, it also finds that interfunctional coordination positively relates to alliance coordination. Practical implications – The current research provides additional knowledge regarding the associations among alliance coordination, interfunctional coordination and product development performance. This knowledge would be useful for practitioners to achieve a superior product development performance. Moreover, this research articulates the managerial implications of the link between interfunctional coordination and alliance coordination for product development executives. Originality/value – This empirical study tests an integrative model (which is one of only a few to incorporate slack resources) to explain how different types of coordination (i.e. inter- and intra-organisational coordination) may influence product development performance. Moreover, this empirical research provides initial evidence on the association between interfunctional coordination and alliance coordination.

Audit Quality of the Integrated Supply Chain – Evidence from Taiwan Electronic Industry

Many suppliers and their major customers share a common audit firm or even common auditors in endorsing financial statements (i.e., supply chain audit). Yet, accompanying with the benefits stemmed from enhanced information corroboration and expertise spillover, supply chain audit faces the challenge of potential information collusion and fee dependence. We find supply chain audit alone is not associated with high audit quality. However, supply chain audit, coupled with firm-level industry expertise, results in low discretionary accruals and weakly reduction in restatement probability. Further, sharing a common audit at firm, lead auditor, or concurring auditor-level might have differential implications for audit quality. We find sharing either a staggered common lead or concurring auditor decreases the likelihood of restatement; in contrast, sharing them simultaneously increases it. Moreover, our analyses suggest supply chain audit contributes more to audit quality for up than for middle and down stream firms. Our study is motivated by recent audit failures divulged along the supply chain, and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s (PCAOB) initiatives on mandatory audit firm rotation and engagement partner’s signature.

Value relevance on intellectual capital valuation methods: the role of corporate governance

Development of a knowledge economy has changed the main value of a firm from traditional physical assets to intellectual capital or intangible assets. Therefore, the accumulation and management of intellectual capital is the competitive advantage of knowledge-based industries. Intellectual capital valuation is the essential factor in firm valuation. Scholars have presented valuation methods of intellectual capital, such as Tobin’s Q, Knowledge Capital Earnings (KCE), and Value Added Intellectual Coefficient (VAIC). Management power of modern firms is separate from ownership, and easily occurs in the agency problem; therefore, firms must implement corporate governance to solve this problem. Researchers have presented that a complete appraisal of the firm value includes the effect of corporate governance. This study is the first to apply multi-regression models to examine value relevance on valuation methods of intellectual capital, and to further analyze the role of corporate governance for the information and electronic industry in Taiwan. The results show that Tobin’s Q, KCE, and VAIC have a positive relationship to firm value. The characteristic of director board, including board size, the ratio of outside directors, employed independent directors, and the manager concurrently the director, are correlated with the valuation of intellectual capital.

Examining the effect of user satisfaction on system usage and individual performance with business intelligence systems: An empirical study of Taiwan's electronics industry

The advent of new information technology has radically changed the end-user computing environment over the past decade. To enhance their management decision-making capability, many organizations have made significant investments in business intelligence (BI) systems. The realization of business benefits from BI investments depends on supporting effective use of BI systems and satisfying their end user requirements. Even though a lot of attention has been paid to the decision-making benefits of BI systems in practice, there is still a limited amount of empirical research that explores the nature of end-user satisfaction with BI systems. End-user satisfaction and system usage have been recognized by many researchers as critical determinants of the success of information systems (IS). As an increasing number of companies have adopted BI systems, there is a need to understand their impact on an individual end-user's performance. In recent years, researchers have considered assessing individual performance effects from IS use as a key area of concern. Therefore, this study aims to empirically test a framework identifying the relationships between end-user computing satisfaction (EUCS), system usage, and individual performance. Data gathered from 330 end users of BI systems in the Taiwanese electronics industry were used to test the relationships proposed in the framework using the structural equation modeling approach. The results provide strong support for our model. Our results indicate that higher levels of EUCS can lead to increased BI system usage and improved individual performance, and that higher levels of BI system usage will lead to higher levels of individual performance. In addition, this study's findings, consistent with DeLone and McLean's IS success model, confirm that there exists a significant positive relationship between EUCS and system usage. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Effects of interaction and entrepreneurial orientation on organizational performance: Insights into market driven and market driving

Research in marketing suggests that the notion of market driven and market driving is highly relevant for industrial markets. This study provides evidence that interaction and entrepreneurial orientations are linked to market-driven and market-driving approaches respectively. Further, this research investigates how these two orientations affect organizational performance. Based on a survey of Taiwan's electronics industry, this study indicates that both interaction and entrepreneurial orientations improve the exploitative and exploratory capabilities of an organization, which in turn contribute to superior organizational performance. The results of this study provide important theoretical and managerial implications for strategy development from both the market driven and market driving perspectives.

Consideration Factors of Reverse Logistics Implementation -A Case Study of Taiwan's Electronics Industry

This paper focuses on explore the consideration factors of reverse logistics implementation based on survey questionnaires for Taiwan's electronics industry. Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) was used to select important criteria from different companies’ experts of information and electronics firms who are in charge of related environmental management work. The priorities and ranking of each factor was obtained. The results of this research have shown the overall weights and performance ranking of the evaluation criteria with respect to the reverse logistics implementation.

Using fuzzy AHP in selecting and prioritizing sustainable supplier on CSR for Taiwan's electronics industry

With the emerging consciousness of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in supply chain, various standards or codes of conduct associated with the environmental and social aspects have been incorporated for evaluating suppliers. So, it appears to be an urgent need for research to develop an integrated and comprehensive frame related to the considerations of environmental and social aspects to systematically manage the supplier with respect to the competence of CSR in electronics industry. The study focuses on the sustainable supplier selection and assessment for Taiwanese information and electronics industry based on the literature reviews and industry expert input, a survey questionnaire was developed including environmental, social, and economy aspects. The research uses Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (Fuzzy AHP) method to prioritize and rank the various performance evaluation criteria for the sustainable supplier selection and evaluation in the Taiwanese electronics Journal of Information & Optimization Sciences Vol. 32 (2011), No. 5, pp. 1135–1153 © Taru Publications industry. The research results indicate a sustainable Taiwanese electronics firms not only can access their suppliers' economic performance, but also shall require their suppliers to acknowledge and implement the CSR and sustainable development.

Study on the effects of transformational leadership by managers and organizational justice consciousness on organizational citizenship behaviour of high-tech electronics industry in Taiwan

The high-tech electronics industry can make an important contribution to the enhancement of Taiwan’s technological standards and international competitive advantage. Under the pressures of business production performance and operations, it cannot ignore an important task for managers in Taiwan’s high-tech electronics industry that they should adopt appropriate leadership patterns, fair mechanism of construction organization, and inspire organizational citizenship behaviours in employees. On the basis of this assumption, this research is used by means of a questionnaire and to study on the effects of transformational leadership by managers and organizational justice consciousness on organizational citizenship behaviour in Taiwan’s high-tech electronics industry. Generally speaking, the research results showed that managers run transformational leadership which is unnoticeable and have low-level of organizational justice, then the organizational citizenship behaviour of their organizations’ members will be low, causing negative behaviours, such as a decrease in the centripetal force toward the company, job involvement and productivity and an increase in the turnover rate. On the contrary, managers run transformational leadership which is noticeable and have high-level of organizational justice, then the organizational citizenship behaviour of their organizations’ members will be strong, thereby having a strong centripetal force toward the company, which is also beneficial to a company’s operational performance and enhancement of productivity performance. Key words: Transformational leadership, organizational justice consciousness, organizational citizenship behaviour.

Factors affecting the adoption of design for environment in Taiwan's electrical and electronic industries

This paper aims to apply an integrated method, combining Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) and Analytic Network Process (ANP) to find the crucial factors that affect the adoption of design for environment (DfE) in Taiwan's electric and electronic industries. Combining DEMATEL with ANP aids the discovery of each incentive's priority weights. Competitive advantage has the heaviest weight and, indeed, is a relatively important driving force behind the adoption of DfE. Managers' support, governmental regulations of target markets, and firms' ethical values also play focal roles in determining DfE adoption. This design system implies that the characteristics of Taiwan's electrical and electronic industry (the most important of which are strong export orientation and global clients' increasingly stringent 'green' requirements) are driving companies to adopt DfE in order to strengthen their competitive advantage.

Is R&D Always Beneficial?

This study sets out with the aim of determining whether there is such a thing as an optimal level of research and development (R&D) intensity within which a firm can effectively maximize its sales growth ratio. We adopt an advanced panel threshold regression model to examine the relationship between R&D intensity and the growth rate in sales based upon data on firms within the electronics industry in Taiwan. The results demonstrate that R&D intensity has a positive impact on sales growth when the level of such R&D intensity is below the threshold value, and a negative impact when the level of R&D intensity is above the threshold value.

The effect of outward investment to China on domestic R&D: a two-hurdle model with endogenous ODI

Outward direct investment (ODI) and domestic R&D are interrelated, but empirical evidence is affected by the nature of a firm's data, which are heavily censored. Firm data contain a firm's yes/no decision to invest in China, yes/no decision of R&D, and the decision of R&D intensity. We thus adopt a two-hurdle model and allow the China investment decision to be endogenous in an R&D model in order to examine the effect of ODI in China on domestic R&D investment in Taiwan's electronics industry. In the model, a two-equation simultaneous subsystem is formed, in which three regression equations are specified: a decision of R&D intensity, and a yes/no decision of location to conduct R&D together with a yes/no decision to invest in China Our results indicate that China investment and R&D intensity are positively related such that ODI in China helps to raise significantly a firm's R&D intensity as compared to the estimate if the endogeneity of China investment and the nature of data were not properly accounted.

Corporate Ownership Structure and Innovation: Evidence from Taiwan's Electronics Industry

The agency problem of listed companies in East Asia is closely related to their typically concentrated ownership structures. Tight control creates an entrenchment problem that allows the controlling owners' self-interested behaviors to go unchallenged internally by the boards of directors or externally by takeover markets. The primary objective of this paper is to explore the association between the ownership and control structure and innovation. The ownership and control structure is measured first as the divergence between the ultimate owner's voting rights and the ultimate owner's cash flow rights, and second by the presence of ultimately controlling shareholder's family member as CEO or Chairman of the board, or both. Innovation is measured by patent quantity and patent quality. This paper uses patents granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to measure innovation activities. We find that innovation is significantly and negatively related to the level of agency problems. We further find that innovation is lower for firms whose controlling owner is also either the chief executive officer or the chair of the board of directors. Our findings appear to be robust with respect to examining patent count and patent quality variables.

Internal R&D effort, external imported technology and economic value added: empirical study of Taiwan's electronic industry

Technology innovation is a significant resource in the contemporary knowledge-based economy. The main sources of technology innovation are internal R&D effort and external imported technology. Two primary traditional production factors are physical capital and labour. The theoretical basis for this study is an evolutionary Cobb–Douglas production function explaining the effects of four resources (internal R&D effort, imported technology, physical capital and labour) on a firm's sales and economic value added (EVA). Time-series cross-section panel data from 219 Taiwan electronic manufacturers between 1990 and 2003 were employed for fixed effect model. Major empirical findings were observed in this study: first, Internal R&D effort can positively affect a firm's sales and EVA. Conversely, imported technology is found to have had no significant effect on sales and EVA. Second, although both physical capital and labour affect a firm's sales more than the effects of internal R&D and external imported technology, internal R&D effort contributes to a firm's EVA beyond the effects of imported technology, physical capital and labour. Third, External imported technology has neither a complementary nor a substitutive relationship with internal R&D effort.

Critical success factors of new product development in Taiwan's electronics industry

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore critical success factors of new product development in Taiwan's electronics industry which uses the approach of re‐innovation.Design/methodology/approachFocus group research was conducted. In total 71 participants from Taiwan's electronics industry were allocated into eight different groups ranging from minimum eight to maximum ten participants in a group.FindingsSuggested critical success factors of re‐innovation include time reduction in development process, cost reduction in product manufacture, products with high levels of customization, relative advantage, or added value, efficiently internal coordination and external cooperation, appropriate product introduction timing, and less aggressive competitors responses.Research limitations/implicationsA main limitation of this study is that the field data were all from Taiwanese‐based companies in certain industries. Generalization could be increased by collecting data from other countries and industries.Practical implicationsFirms using the approach of re‐innovation should take into account various characteristics of different innovation types so as to adjust their approaches of new product development.Originality/valueThe first contribution of this study is to provide information regarding the critical success factors of product re‐innovation in Taiwan's electronics industry. Second, the knowledge of new product development can be added because of an increase in the understanding of re‐innovation in the Asia‐Pacific region which has received much less attention than North America and Europe by innovation researchers.

EXPORTING AND PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH: EVIDENCE FROM THE TAIWAN ELECTRONICS PLANTS

ABSTRACTThis paper uses propensity score matching techniques and ordinary least square regressions to examine the relationship between exporting and productivity growth in the Taiwan electronics industry. Using data from three census years, we find that plants with higher productivity growth tend to enter the export market, supporting the self‐selection mechanism. The evidence of learning‐by‐exporting is mixed, however. While the plants exporting throughout the sample period show small differences in productivity growth from non‐exporters in the downturn period, continuing exporters outperform non‐exporters in the upturn period. Thus, our results suggest that the direction of causality mainly runs from productivity to exporting rather than vice versa.

The nonlinear innovation model of the electronics industry in Taiwan

This study proposed a nonlinear regression model to analyse the key factors that determine innovation success. The study findings indicated that the factors employee talent, innovation expenditures, cooperation with other companies in innovation activities and use of information technology in high-tech concentrated industries all have a significant and direct influence on the success of product innovation. This finding coincides with the conclusion in previous studies. A significant difference, however, is that this study demonstrated that the ratio of acquisition expenditure on disembodied technology (patents, etc.) to total revenue is not a positive factor for the success of product innovation and, furthermore, that firm size does not significantly influence product innovation. These results are in relation to the targets that are in this research: the successful extent of innovation of new and significantly improved products. Conversely, the study target in previous studies was whether or not the manufacturer executes innovation activities. This study concludes that the characteristics of Taiwan's industries are more important.