Taiwanese Context Research Articles

Collective Translation as Forking (分岔)

Together with a Taiwanese working group, we have been producing a Chinese translation of Aesthetic Programming: A Handbook of Software Studies, a free and open source book first written by Winnie Soon and Geoff Cox in 2020, and released in English in a git repository, dynamic website, downloadable PDF and printed form. Apart from learning to code in p5.js, the book addresses the cultural and aesthetic dimensions of programming from its insides, as a means to think and act critically, and to understand the importance of programming as a cultural practice that can develop discussion of issues that are relatively under-acknowledged in technical subjects such as gender, race and sexuality. Importantly, the book is understood as a computational object, not released as a fixed and universal teaching resource, but rather a situated curriculum with the potential for extension and customization with other arts and coding communities. The use of Git has allowed the authors to formalize its production as an iterative process, allowing for reversioning and for others to fork a copy and customize with different references, examples, critical reflections and even new chapters. The interest is in forking a book like forking software, and incorporating local knowledge and examples, and how this resonates with a politics of cultural translation. This essay will elaborate on the process of running two open participatory workshops that were conducted in Taipei and London (in 2023) with the aim to challenge some of the normative social relations of production associated with translation, and explore other possibilities of collective practice. The politics of translation has been well-established in general, but what of the specifics of translating a book such as this? Aside from the technical and aesthetic challenges and implications, this raises the question of how the Chinese language model enforces particular hegemonic worldviews that occlude differences. With all the variants of Chinese language, how is this tied to expressions of colonial power that resonates with our use of English? Given the rich variations of Chinese and indigenous languages (not least in a Taiwanese context), we are curious how we might be sensitive to language diversity that challenges the Western-centrism of programming in English (and inherent nationalisms). We are also mindful of the way that “queer” politics has informed the way that terms can be appropriated/expropriated, as a means to “talk back” to the source codes of oppression. What are the implications of drawing the practices of forking and translating together?

Exploring the Nexus between Executive Compensation and Disclosure Transparency: Evidence from Taiwan

This study investigates the relationship between executive compensation and compensation disclosure transparency in Taiwanese firms, particularly in light of recent regulatory changes that mandate increased transparency. Employing a two-stage least squares (2SLS) regression model, the analysis focuses on the impact of executive salary and bonuses on various measures of compensation disclosure. The findings reveal a significant negative relationship between predicted executive bonuses and the Compensation Committee Quality Score (CCQ), indicating that higher bonus levels are associated with lower transparency in compensation committee disclosures. Conversely, executive salaries do not show a significant impact on compensation disclosure measures, suggesting that salary levels may not be a primary determinant of disclosure transparency in the Taiwanese context. The study contributes to the understanding of the dynamics between executive remuneration and transparency in financial reporting, highlighting the importance of executive bonuses in shaping compensation disclosure practices in Taiwan. The results have implications for policymakers, corporate executives, and shareholders, emphasizing the need to consider the structure of executive compensation packages in promoting transparency and enhancing corporate governance standards.

Genome-Wide Association Study of Alopecia Areata in Taiwan: The Conflict Between Individuals and Hair Follicles.

Alopecia areata (AA) is one of the most prevalent autoimmune diseases affecting humans. Given that hair follicles are immune-privileged, autoimmunity can result in disfiguring hair loss. However, the genetic basis for AA in the Taiwanese population remains unknown. A genome-wide association study was conducted using a cohort of 408 AA cases and 8167 controls. To link variants to gene relationships, we used 882 SNPs (P<1E-05) within 74 genes that were associated with AA group to build the biological networks by IPA software. HLA diplotypes and haplotypes were analyzed using Attribute Bagging (HIBAG)-R package and chi-square analysis. Seven single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) including LINC02006 (rs531166736, rs187306735), APC (rs112800832_C_CAT), SRP19 (rs139948960, rs144784670), EGFLAM (rs16903975) and LDLRAD3 (rs79874564) were closely associated with the AA phenotype (P<5E-08). Examination of biological networks revealed that these genomic areas are associated with antigen presentation signaling, B cell and T cell development, Th1 and Th2 activation pathways, Notch signaling, crosstalk signaling between dendritic cells and natural killer cells, and phagosome maturation. Based on human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genotype analysis, four HLA genotypes (HLA-B*15:01-*40:01, HLA-DQA1*01:02-*03:03, HLA-DQA1*01:02, and HLA-DQB1*02:01) were found to be associated with AA (adjusted p-value<0.05). HLA-DQA1*01:02 is the most significantly related gene in the Taiwanese population (adjusted p-value = 2.09E-05). This study successfully identified susceptibility loci associated with AA in the Taiwanese population. These findings not only shed light on the origins of AA within the Taiwanese context but also contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the genetic factors influencing AA susceptibility.

Has there been an adequate poverty reduction policy for single-parent households? An examination of the financial support for the single-parent and two-parent families with children in the Taiwanese context

ABSTRACT Single-parent households have been the interest of policy since the 1990s in the Taiwanese context. As the impacts of the existing support to single-parent households remains unclear, this research is aimed at empirically comparing the distributional effects of policies on two-parent families and single-parent families with children, with the factors of gender, employment status and co-residence of the head of household being taken into account. Using data from Survey of Family Income and Expenditure for the years 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2019, the findings show that the economic gap between two-parent and single-parent families is growing. There have been clear signs of poverty mitigation for two-parent and single-parent families, showing that a general redistributive policy in Taiwan has been pursued to address poverty reduction for all families, but favour single-parent families. Based on the findings, policy suggestions are made regarding how to address single-parent families’ financial wellbeing.

Hybrid MADM-based study of key risk factors in house-for-pension reverse mortgage lending in Taiwan's banking industry

The issue of financial problems among the elderly has garnered the attention of multiple generations. In 2018, Taiwan formally attained an ageing society status. In order to address the financial difficulties elderly people face, an annuity system reform was launched by the Taiwanese government. Reverse mortgage lending, which is performed on the basis of house-for-pension, is an alternate method for enhancing their standard of living and sustaining their financial stability. The elderly applicants often mortgage their properties to financial institutions in order to maintain a steady cash flow for the fulfilment of their daily needs and live their remaining years in the mortgaged properties without vacating. Prior studies on house-for-pension in the Taiwanese context primarily concentrated on institutional implementation analysis but limitedly explored the uncertainty risks banks face when implementing the house-for-pension scheme. First, a literature review on the risks associated with house-for-pension reverse mortgage financing and comprehensive interviews with banking industry professionals were conducted. Subsequently, in the Taiwanese banking sector, assessment criteria for important risk factors in house-for-pension reverse mortgage financing were devised. The decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) was utilised to assess the interdependence of the assessment criteria. Next, the DEMATEL-based analytic network process (ANP) or DANP were used to calculate the weights of evaluation criteria. By employing modified VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR), a gap analysis was undertaken on the assessment criteria and sub-criteria. The study's findings serve as a guideline for the Taiwanese banking industry in formulating, improving, or amending the risk exposure mitigation measures for reverse mortgage lending.

Psychometric properties of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale for Students (UWES-S) in the Taiwanese context

Academic engagement in recent years has become the focus of determining student learning and achievement. However,despite this growing awareness that has revolutionized academic policies and educational approaches, literature on engagement in the academic context is still in its infancy. This study seeks to remedy this through the confirmation of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale for Students’ (UWES-S) promising psychometric properties and by providing empirical evidence on the relationship between academic engagement, personality traits, and social media addiction, a determinant that has yet to be explored. Our findings indicate that of the five personality traits analyzed, agreeableness had the strongest negative correlation with academic engagement, and perhaps equally as striking is the positive, albeit insignificant, association between social media and academic engagement. Furthermore, the most informative and least informative items for academic engagement were identified using IRT analysis. Finally, this study also addresses several gaps in the literature by determining that the one-factor construct of the UWES-S is an adequate measure of academic engagement compared to its three-factor counterpart and by demonstrating the measurement invariance of the UWES-S across gender, class year, and academic major in our sample of Taiwanese undergraduates.

Taiwanese multiculturalism and the political appropriation of new immigrants’ languages

ABSTRACT Since 2019, Taiwan has implemented native language education for ‘new immigrants’ from Southeast Asian countries. This paper argues that the new educational provisions reflect the Taiwanese government’s desire to appropriate new immigrants’ cultures and languages to promote a multicultural vision of Taiwanese identity. It analyses the 12-year national curriculum guidelines and the primary-level teaching materials to elucidate the role of language education in the construction of discourse on new immigrants, exploring how this reflects and reinforces official portrayals of Taiwanese society as ‘multicultural’. The analysis shows how the extension of curricular recognition to immigrants’ languages and their associated cultures is driven by a desire to project a certain vision of mainstream national identity. By showing how, in the Taiwanese context, instruction in their languages in some respects reinforces the marginalisation of immigrant communities, it provides insights that may be applicable elsewhere.

Editorial

Editorial Margherita Zanasi The second issue of 2022 presents six research articles and one review essay. Yue Meng's article explores the development of the concept of "ecology" in China throughout the twentieth century. Meng highlights the tension between, on the one hand, ecological awareness and, on the other, economic objectives as well as postcolonial, socialist, and nationalist discourses. These centralized agendas, she argues, ultimately denied ecology and made it an "unspeakable reality." Vivienne Xiangwei Guo explores the collaboration between Wu Peifu and the Endeavor Society—a group of Beijing intellectuals led by Hu Shi—that resulted in the short-lived 1922 Beiyang "Good People Cabinet." Focusing on this cooperation, Guo explores the discourse on constitutional government and the complex personal network that linked May Fourth intellectuals with public and political personalities such as Wu. Guo's article also challenges the stereotypical representation of warlords as detached from the contemporary intellectual discourse. Jianda Yuan closely examines the records of secret conversations held between the emperor of Manchukuo, Aisin-Gioro Puyi, and important Japanese political and military figures during the period 1932–1938. These records, he argues, shed light on Puyi's political ideas, revealing that he closely identified with Japanese interests in Manchuria and China Proper. Challenging the image of Puyi as a mere Japanese "puppet," Yuan argues that he had more political autonomy than is generally believed. In his article, Yu Wang explores the widespread practice in the People's Republic of China (PRC) during the 1950s and 1960s of listening to "enemy radio" such as Taiwan's Voice of Free China. Placing this practice in the contemporary Cold War context, Wang argues that it contributed to the politicization of foreign broadcasts targeting PRC listeners. It also generated tensions between central PRC organizations concerned with national security, on the one hand, and the listeners and local radio administrations, on the other. Wang also explores how the radio, as a communication technology, offered a space for listeners to imagine alternative identities. Kelly A. Hammond and Evan N. Dawley shift the focus to Taiwan. In her article, Hammond examines the outreach of the Guomindang (GMD) toward Muslim communities—both in China and globally—in the 1950s and 1960s. Its main objective, Hammond argues, was to win their support in establishing the Republic of China on Taiwan as the legitimate Chinese state while discrediting the PRC on the mainland. Building on relationships and networks established before 1949, the Nationalists attempted to mobilize postcolonial Muslim nation-states in their pursuit of international recognition. Dawley, by focusing on local gazetteers for major Taiwanese cities, reveals the limits of the Nationalists' attempt to reterritorialize Taiwan as part of China during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Dawley argues that this effort was intended to foster a Chinese national identity [End Page 89] as well as to incorporate Taiwan into China's historical narrative and its "physical and imagined geography." Although the development objectives for these cities proved successful, that of Sinification ultimately failed as urbanization unfolded within a distinctively Taiwanese context. In his review essay, Yan Bo explores different approaches to the study of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution by focusing on two recently published books: Dong Guoqiang and Andrew G. Walder's A Decade of Upheaval: The Cultural Revolution in Rural China and Alessandro Russo's Cultural Revolution and Revolutionary Culture. Four book reviews published with this issue are available at Project MUSE (muse.jhu.edu/journal/390). Finally, Yue Meng is the author featured for this issue in our interview series, available at http://hstcconline.org/interviews-with-authors/. The interview includes a link for free access to her article. [End Page 90] Copyright © 2022 Twentieth Century China Journal, Inc.

The Development of a Podcast Motivations Scale for Taiwan

ABSTRACT The current study examined motivations for podcast listeners in Taiwan by constructing a preliminary podcast motivations scale. Theoretically grounded in uses and gratifications, the current research drew upon extant work in podcast motivations and proposed a new scale as we look to podcast engagement in a Taiwanese context, considering the global marketplace of podcast popularity. As podcasts have emerged as a popular form of entertainment in Taiwan, the study participants was composed of a Taiwanese sample, with the proposed podcast motivations scale tested through exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and measurement invariance (N = 1,584). Results elicited the 15-item podcast motivations scale. Three factors were identified and explained over fifty (54.1%) percent of the variance, consisting of entertainment (21.1%), information-seeking (18.4%), and companionship (14.6%). Overall, the results indicate that this new scale is a reliable measurement for understanding the motivations of podcast listeners in Taiwan, with implications for a global consumer base as we look to the future of podcast engagement.

Merger and Acquisitions Integration, Implementation as Innovative Approach Toward Sustainable Competitive Advantage: A Case Analysis From Chinese Sports Brands.

Brand M&A has long been an extremely common strategy for expanding the scale of an organization and entering new business areas, but various signs show that many brand mergers and acquisitions (M&As) do not add value. They often lose money and fail. This research explores the value, scarcity, and non-replicability of resources in corporate M&A, as well as organizational resource management, innovation resource management, and implementation of the combination of resource utilization and brand strategy that incorporate M&As. Taking 03 of China’s sporting shoe industry cases, this study uses the literature to collect, analyze, and organize the conversations of high-level managers to compare and integrate the motivations of corporate M&As to conduct confirmatory analysis. Using case studies and cross-border M&A related secondary data from 2014 to 2021 and supplemented by senior executives’ conversations, 1,836 articles were collected as analysis units. The research results show that Chinese companies’ cross-border M&A’s main corporate strategic motives have four key elements: accelerated expansion, integration of resources, brand integration, rapid entry into the international market, and obstacles to the construction of new entrants. The research results also show that integrating resources and brand execution strategies after M&As correlates to their success or failure. The purpose of the research was first to discuss brand M&As and corporate strategies in the Taiwanese context. Secondly, it discusses the issue of the use of resources by the acquired party in specific to emerging trends in consumer resistance to innovation and acceptance of technological innovativeness in the sports industry brands. Third, it analyzes the effectiveness of brand strategy integration and implementation. Finally, it provides a strategic reference for brand M&As in the industry.

Identifying factors contributing to social vulnerability through a deliberative Q-Sort process: an application to heat vulnerability in Taiwan

Extreme heat events are gaining ever more policy and societal attention under a warming climate. Although a breadth of expertises are required to understand drivers of vulnerability to hazards such as extreme heat, it is also acknowledged that expert assessments in group settings may be subject to biases and uneven power relations. In this Technical Note, we outline a structured deliberative process for supporting experts to work collaboratively to assess social vulnerability to a climate-related hazard, in this case extreme heat in Taiwanese cities. We argue that adapting elicitation approaches such as Q-Methodology for use in collaborative settings can help to organise expert discussion and enable dialogue and mutual learning, in a way that supports consensus-building on vulnerability assessment. Outcomes from our collaborative assessments suggest elderly people living alone, elderly people over 75, pre-existing circulatory diseases and level of participation in community decision-making may all be notable drivers of heat vulnerability in the Taiwanese context. Methodologically, we argue that collaborative sorting exercises offer a way to embed local and experiential knowledges into assessments of available evidence, but that strong facilitation and additional checks are necessary to ensure an inclusive process that reflects the diversity of perspectives involved.

Reliability and Validity of the Traditional Chinese Version of the Advance Care Planning Engagement Survey: A Pilot Evaluation in Taiwanese Outpatients.

Objective: The Advance Care Planning Engagement Survey (ACP-ES) has proven effective in evaluating individuals’ engagement in advance care planning (ACP). However, a Traditional Chinese version of ACP-ES (ACPES-TC) has not yet been developed. Therefore, this study aimed to translate and preliminarily validate the ACPES-TC in the Taiwanese context. Material and Methods: A forward and backward translation process was conducted. The translated questionnaire was confirmed by clinical and academic experts. The ACPES-TC was then evaluated for its reliability and validity with participants in the community and from an outpatient clinic in a medical center in Northern Taiwan. The participants comprised healthy people aged 20 to 30 years and patients ≥55 years old, recruited from September 17 to October 28, 2019. Results: Seventy people were recruited, including 20 people aged 20 to 30 years in the community and 50 patients ≥ 55 years old from clinics. The ACPES-TC scores are significantly higher among those of older age, having financial independence, and under long-term medication (p < .05). The patients’ preference for health-related decision-making is significantly correlated with the ACPES-TC score; the point-biserial correlation coefficient is 0.46 (p < .001). The discriminant and criterion-related validities are verified. The ACPES-TC demonstrated a good internal consistency (Cronbach's α .97), acceptable one-week test-retest reliability (overall intraclass correlation coefficient 0.86), and low practice effect between the test and retest (Cohen's d .43). Conclusion: The overall reliability and validity of the ACPES-TC are fair, which could be used to evaluate the patients’ engagement in ACP in Taiwan. However, further studies with a full-scale psychometric evaluation are needed.

Dominant, passive, and recessive feminism: a postfeminist reading of Taiwanese cinema

ABSTRACT This paper aims to add to the underrepresented scholarship on feminist critique in Taiwanese cinema by investigating the ways in which female power has been represented in the female-centred Taiwanese film, The Bold, the Corrupt and the Beautiful (BCB). Through a postfeminist reading, this study attempts to challenge the dichotomy of Asian versus Western values in order to engage Taiwanese films into the global debate of feminism. By revealing the problematization of representations of the seemingly powerful female characters in BCB produced by male filmmakers, we unveil the hidden contradiction of feminism and anti-feminism in order to gain a profound understanding of women’s power relations and the socio-cultural perception of them in the Taiwanese context. We categorise the three leading female characters into significations of “dominant feminism”, “passive feminism”, and “recessive feminism”, and show how their power is exercised through scheming, seduction and detainment, respectively. Therefore, we argue that these seemingly powerful female images in BCB are all represented as stigmatic which attempts to equalize female power to negativity thereby essentially disavowing feminism.

Feasibility of Intervention Program to Prevent Adolescent Health-Compromising Behaviors.

Most people start experimenting with and/or initiating health-compromising behaviors and establishing behavioral patterns during adolescence. Possible selves and episodic future thinking have been used to foster behavioral changes. In this study, we aimed to (1) develop a program incorporating possible selves and episodic future thinking to decrease the risks associated with health-compromising behaviors, and (2) examine the feasibility and fidelity of implementing this intervention among Taiwanese adolescents. A novel combination of existing intervention approaches tailored for the Taiwanese context was applied to develop a school-based intervention, which we named the Future Mapping Master program. This program contains four core units: exploring the self, setting goals, developing strategies and problem solving, and understanding the threats of health-compromising behaviors. It includes daily episodic future thinking visualization exercises. The feasibility evaluation was conducted with 88 adolescents aged 12-14 years. Feedback from teachers and students supported the proposed program's feasibility and revealed favorable reactions to the intervention. The Future Mapping Master program is feasible and offers promising strategies for implementation in Taiwanese school settings.

Social stigma and management strategies of unmarried single mothers in Taiwan

ABSTRACT Public attitudes towards unmarried single mothers are generally negative in Taiwan, and these mothers often deal with stigmatisation and poverty. This study explores the social impacts facing unmarried single mothers and the coping strategies they take to deal with their experiences of stigma in the Taiwanese context. In-depth interviews with 30 adult unmarried single mothers and thematic analysis are adopted to collect and categorise these experiences. The study findings reveal that the challenges facing such mothers led to many becoming socially stigmatised. This study elicits the sources of this social pressure and details how the participants managed their individual situations. The findings imply that the policies and social services provided should not only aim to reduce the impact of stigma generated daily, but also to create more social and economic opportunities for this group of mothers.

Relationship between ‘employability’ and ‘higher education’ from global ranker and accreditor’s perspectives—does a gap exist between institutional policy making and implementation in taiwan higher education?

ABSTRACT Driven by global rankings and national quality assurance (QA) initiatives, Taiwan’s higher education institutions were encouraged to develop strategic plans and initiatives, in order to improve graduate student employability. The purpose of this study is to explore the polices and strategies adopted by Taiwanese higher education institutions, with a particular focus on ‘employability’, in terms of standards and indicators of QS ranking and Higher Education Evaluation & Accreditation Council of Taiwan (HEEACT) programme accreditation in 2017. This paper analysed strategic plans and self-assessments reports from 20 Taiwanese universities in order to determine the impact of ranking and QA on employability initiatives and associated implications for institutional policy. The study presents three major findings. First, the emergence of global ranking and national quality assurance systems pressured Taiwanese universities to situate several employability initiatives within their institutional strategic plans. Second, Taiwanese universities applied varying approaches to the integration of graduate employability into institutional policies and strategic plans, according to ranking and national accreditation standards. Third, the gap between institutional policy making and actual implementation of employability initiatives exists in the Taiwanese context.

Patient perceptions of students in a longitudinal integrated clerkship in Taiwan: a qualitative study

BackgroundLongitudinal integrated clerkships (LICs) are a model of clinical education growing rapidly in Western contexts. LICs use educational continuity to benefits students’ clinical learning and professional identity formation. Patient-centered care is a core component of medical professionalism in the West. To support patient-centered care, education leaders in Taiwan restructured clinical education and implemented the first longitudinal integrated clerkship in East Asia. We aimed to investigate patients’ perceptions of longitudinal relationships with the LIC students within Taiwan’s Confucian cultural and social context.MethodsWe invited patients or their family members who were cared for longitudinally by a LIC student to participate in the study. Participating patients or their family members undertook semi-structured interviews. We analyzed data qualitatively using a general inductive approach to identify themes in the patients’ descriptions of their experiences interacting with the LIC students.ResultsTwenty-five patients and family members participated in interviews: 16 patients and 9 family members. Qualitative analysis of interview transcripts identified three themes from patients’ experience receiving care from their LIC students: care facilitation, companionship, and empathy. To provide care facilitation, LIC students served as a bridge between the physicians and patients. Students served patients by reminding, consulting, tracking disease progression, and researching solutions for problems. To provide companionship, students accompanied patients interpersonally like a friend or confidant who listens and provides a presence for patients. To provide empathy, patients reported that students showed sincere concern for patients’ experience, feelings, and mood.ConclusionIn our study, Taiwanese patients’ perspectives of LIC students suggested the value of care facilitation, companionship, and empathy. We discuss these themes within the context of Confucian culture and the Taiwanese context of care.

Relationship heterogeneity in Taiwanese maritime logistics service supply chains

PurposeWith the diverse, heterogeneous nature of relationships being a key characteristic of service supply chains, their management is an important area for consideration. This is particularly true in the maritime logistics industry, yet the factors that lead to this heterogeneity are less well understood. This paper aims to explore the structure of relationships within the maritime logistics network and determine why they vary.Design/methodology/approachInterviews were carried out with 41 practitioners involved in the Taiwanese maritime logistics network. The data from these interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis and quasi-quantification.FindingsThe interviews identify that structural holes exist within this maritime logistics network, and that these particularly influence the relationships within this sector with ports being significantly affected. However, five factors are particularly identified that can further impact the strength of these relationships. Often, weak links between ports and both cargo owners and freight forwarders emerge as value-added services are provided by the network.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings are framed in a Taiwanese context, where cultural and political norms may give different results to other geographical regions. The research also limits consideration to containerized flows.Practical implicationsBy providing detailed insights into relationship structures within the maritime logistics network, managers can take steps to develop appropriate links with other members of the network, reflecting upon the factors that lead to heterogeneity.Originality/valueThis paper expands knowledge on logistics service supply chains, identifying the importance of relationships in a derived demand environment. For maritime researchers, specific factors leading to relationship heterogeneity in the network are detailed, to inform future research.

Residential Socioeconomic Environments and Areca Nut Use in Taiwan: A Comparison with Alcohol and Tobacco Use in Multilevel Analysis

Background While the association between residential socioeconomic environments and the use of globally common substances such as alcohol and tobacco has been well documented in Western countries, it remains little known about regionally important substances, such as areca nut in Asia. Objective: This study was aimed to develop residential environmental indicators in the context of Taiwan and examine their associations with areca nut use, in comparison to alcohol and tobacco use. Methods: Data were drawn from 13,392 adults across 168 townships in the 2014 National Survey on Substance Use in Taiwan. Residential socioeconomic environment variables were derived from the census and analyzed using factor analysis. Multilevel logistic regression models were used to examine the association of individual- and residential-level factors with the use of areca nut (use/nonuse), alcohol (harmful use, low-risk use, or nonuse), and tobacco (nicotine dependence, regular active use, or nonuse). Results: A three-factor structure of socioeconomic environments derived from 16 residential-level variables consisted of Rural Disadvantage, Affluence, and Family Fragmentation. Multilevel analyses showed that areca nut use was associated with both individual-level (male sex, age group 35-44 years, being divorced/widowed/separated, low educational attainment, and the occupational group of labors) and residential-level (Rural Disadvantaged and Family Fragmented) variables; such a profile was most similar to that of nicotine dependence. Conclusions: A three-factor structure could be derived for the residential-level socioeconomic environments in the Taiwanese context. Rural Disadvantaged and Family Fragmented were associated with areca nut use, which have implications for interventions targeted at the community level.

Identifying the critical factors of customer behavior: An integration perspective of marketing strategy and components of attitudes

The purpose of this empirical study is to operationalize the relationship of green marketing's influence on consumer attitudes via the mediating role of marketing mix towards green products to validate the proposed research model in the Taiwanese context of explaining consumers' willingness to be environmentally friendly. The model is based on structural equation modeling (SEM) from data collected from 977 online consumers. The findings revealed that green consumption intention was significantly and indirectly driven by attitude to green products. Additionally, the effect of perceived quality on marketing mix and consumer willingness in environmental concern is both significant and positive. However, when a restaurant has high consumer social responsibility (CnSR) for marketing mix, the consumer attitudes of cognitive, affective, and behavioral model (C-A-B model) is less effective. These findings have contributed to the revival of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and offer a comprehensive understanding of consumer attitude, consumer social responsibility, marketing mix and perceived quality impact that a restaurant has on the ability to raise consumer willingness to purchase green products or food. We provides valuable suggestions to marketers to design from the perspective of green marketing policies and strategies in order to accommodate Taiwan's indigenous green restaurants.