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Business and Economics
The idea that the Euro zone sovereign debt crisis was caused by structural weaknesses degenerating into fundamental macroeconomic imbalances in the peripheral countries prevails among international institutions such as the IMF, the ECB, and the European Commission. On the contrary, some economists believe that this crisis is the consequence of major deficiencies in the architecture of economic policy making in the Euro zone that did not allow a proper response to a global systemic crisis of the financial markets that started in the United States. The objective of this paper is to provide a better understanding of the public debt dynamics in the EU, differentiating the case of Euro zone peripheral countries. We used quarterly data from 2000 to 2011 to estimate a small-scale model that takes into account the interactions between key variables. Our results do not support entirely the official view. We conclude that the cause of the adverse debt dynamics unravelling after 2007 was a sharp GDP contraction, coupled with a substantial increase in the interest cost of debt finance due to higher self-fulfilling solvency risks perceived by creditors, interacting with a higher sensitiveness of Euro zone peripheral countries to fundamentals.
This paper uses the Jones (1995) framework to examine the contribution of imitation activities and innovative research effort on productivity growth for the US and some European leading economies. We carry out a comparative analysis for the last 50 years, with two model specifications, assuming country differences in the parameters associated with R&D effort. In the first one, the technological frontier position is determined by the country with the highest productivity, the United States. Alternatively, in the second specification, we alter the definition of the technological frontier, allowing it to transcend the leader. The empirical analysis leads to very different outcomes. The first specification estimation, using GMM techniques, indicates that American researchers are more technology growth enhancing than their European counterparts. In contrast, the results obtained for the second, using Kalman’s filter, show that when using an alternative definition of technological frontier, it is possible to observe a boost in innovation that reduces the dispersion among countries. Then, the leading European countries can take advantage; in this case, Germany exhibits the best performance, followed by the US.
The global crisis of 2008 caused both liquidity shortage and increasing insolvency in the banking system. The study focuses on credit default contagion in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region, which originated in bank runs generated by non-performing loans granted to non-financial clients. In terms of methodology, the paper relies on the one hand on review of the literature, and on the other hand on a data survey with comparative and regression analysis. To uncover credit default contagion, the research focuses on the combined impact of foreign exchange rates and foreign private indebtedness.
The paper focuses on important topics of the new banking regulation Basel III: leverage and liquidity. Using linear regression, I analysed the long term liquidity, leverage ratios and profitability of banks in the 12 emerging market new EU members and developed, old member countries between 2008 and 2010. I point out that in the EU12 there was a negative relationship between profits and interbank market dependence in 2010, while positive correlation existed between profits and funding base stability ratio. In the case of EU15 there was a negative correlation between solvency and profitability in 2008, while the relationship is positive between capital quality (more tier 1 capital) and profitability. Furthermore, I have tested the Myers-Majluf theory with monthly aggregated equity issue and the Dow Jones financial institutions index changes relating to the eurozone between 1990 and 2011. According to this theory, equity issue leads to lower equity prices. I point out that on an aggregated level (the eurozone) the theory cannot be proved. The Myers-Majluf theory is particularly important in the process of banking recapitalisation, since it dictates slower banking capitalisation. From the perspective of a macroprudential policy, capital increase would be more beneficial than asset decrease.
The development of futures studies and the future-oriented attitude of Finnish institutions and the government can serve as great example for other countries. This attitude appears in education and economy, issues in which Finland is highly competitive in Europe. We introduce the futures studies-related organizations and the foresight system of Finland. An overview of the development of futures studies and the activities, purposes of foresight institutions, with a major emphasis on the Finland Futures Research Centre will be presented. The main question is how could other countries utilize the Finnish example? Societal changes depend on the environment and its historical background, making it quite a challenge to come up with an all-adaptable answer for this question. Thus we will only present guidelines and proposals regarding the development of strategy at the end of this paper.
In the past few years, several papers have been published in the international literature on the impact of the economic crisis on health and health care. However, there is limited knowledge on this topic regarding the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. The main aims of this study are to examine the effect of the financial crisis on health care spending in four CEE countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) in comparison with the OECD countries. In this paper we also revised the literature for economic crisis related impact on health and health care system in these countries. OECD data released in 2012 were used to examine the differences in growth rates before and after the financial crisis. We examined the ratio of the average yearly growth rates of health expenditure expressed in USD (PPP) between 2008–2010 and 2000–2008. The classification of the OECD countries regarding “development” and “relative growth” resulted in four clusters. A large diversity of “relative growth” was observed across the countries in austerity conditions, however the changes significantly correlate with the average drop of GDP from 2008 to 2010. To conclude, it is difficult to capture visible evidence regarding the impact of the recession on the health and health care systems in the CEE countries due to the absence of the necessary data. For the same reason, governments in this region might have a limited capability to minimize the possible negative effects of the recession on health and health care systems.
Hayek’s theory of socio-cultural evolution is a generalization of his theory on spontaneous market order. Hayek explains both the emergence of market and social institutions serving as a social basis for that order within the framework of a unified evolutionary logic. This logic interprets the emergence and survival of spontaneous order and group-level rules of conduct as an unintended consequence of human action. In order to explain the emergence of social norms exclusively on the basis of methodological individualism, one would have to give up an exclusively evolutionary explanation of these norms. Since Hayek applies the invisible-hand explanation to the investigation of social norms, he combines the position of methodological individualism with functionalist-evolutionary arguments in his analysis. Hayek’s theory of socio-cultural evolution represents a theory in the framework of which methodological individualism and functionalism do not crowd out but complement each other.
In the past decade, talent management (TM) research has mainly focused on (large) organizations in a for-profit context. From this, it has been established that it is important to apply a contingency perspective since ‘organizations develop talent systems which reflect particular organizational objectives in the context of the strategic constraints which they face’ (Vaiman & Collings 2013). Furthermore, Vaiman & Collings (2013) state that future research thus should aim to connect the talent management policy of an organization to the corporate culture and business strategy. In addition, Thunissen et al. (2013a) acknowledge that the approach to talent is not only determined by the management of an organization but also by other stakeholders (e.g. employees and society). This article aims to contribute to these concerns in the literature by using the contextually based human resource theory (CBHRT) of Paauwe (2004) in a public sector context. The CBHRT tries to explain the choice for an HR policy by looking at several dimensions in the (institutional) environment of an organization and by taking into account the influence of stakeholders. Furthermore, by focusing on the Flemish government, this article meets the call to further research on TM in underexplored research areas.
This paper investigates the evolution of sub-central government borrowing in Spain over the period 1996–2011. The arguments and figures provided show that the intense process of political and fiscal decentralisation that took place over the 1990s and 2000s did not lead to higher debt ratios in terms of GDP at these tiers of government until 2007. Although a kind of overspending bias was in effect until the late 2000s, the paper shows that the evolution of GDP and tax revenues provided regional and local governments with enough resources to vigorously pursue their devolved public policy responsibilities and still keep their debt ratios under control. However, since 2008, when the world financial crisis broke out, the situation has changed dramatically. Even though the crisis originated in the financial sector, the paper concludes by stressing the importance of creating incentives and setting controls through institutional arrangements characterising multilevel government for all tiers of government to save in periods of economic growth in order to confront the impact of recession once it comes.
We analyse the impact of FDI on market concentration for the Portuguese manufacturing industries in the 2006–2009 period. Using panel data estimation, and after controlling for other determinants of industry concentration (entry barriers, market size, and growth), we found a significant negative impact of FDI on industry concentration. This finding is in line with the results of the empirical literature on other developed countries. Moreover, it supports the argument that FDI has positive effects on domestic firms, eventually through positive externalities, and contradicts the widespread view that in small economies FDI increases concentration. Overall, this study adds to the controversial literature on FDI and concentration, and it is the first study on this topic applied to Portugal.
Recent studies indicate a paradox: rising income has not led to increases in long-term levels of life satisfaction. Therefore, the hypothesis that citizens adapt to the growth of GDP is tested. This paper analyses empirically the relationship between a deviation in the trend of seasonally adjusted GDP growth and life satisfaction in Euro zone member countries based on data from the European Commission’s Eurobarometer report. This approach is new to the literature and it enables us to detect medium-term adaptation effects on growth rates. This adds a new way of tackling the question of why economic prosperity has had little or no influence on life satisfaction levels.We found that country-wide differences in the relationship of trend GDP growth and life satisfaction exist. Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain showed a significantly positive relationship. For other euro member countries, the hypothesis does not hold. This suggests that two different groups exist and if everything else is held constant, economic growth strategies should vary.
In our work, we compare the predictive power of different bankruptcy prediction models built on financial indicators calculable from businesses’ accounting data on the database of the first Hungarian bankruptcy model. For modelling, we use data-mining methods often applied in bankruptcy prediction: neural networks (NN), support vector machines (SVM) and the rough set theory (RST) capable of rule-based classification. The point of departure for our comparative analysis is the practical finding that black-box-type data-mining methods typically show better classification performance than models whose results are easy to interpret, i.e. there seems to be a kind of trade-off between the interpretability and predictive power of bankruptcy models. Empirical results lead us to conclude that the RST approach can be a competitive alternative to black-box-type SVM and NN models. In our research, we did not find any major trade-off between the interpretability and predictive performance of bankruptcy models on the database of the first Hungarian bankruptcy model.
During the present financial crisis, the focus of the regulation and supervision of financial institutions has shifted from being institution-based (microprudential) towards the systemic level (macroprudential). A special element of the macroprudential regulatory and supervisory toolkit is the issue of macroprudential warnings. Prior to the crisis, both the international and the domestic authorities issued warnings concerning the emergence of system-wide risks in the financial sector. However, these warnings did not result in significant changes in the behaviour of the banks, which were the main addressees of the warnings. The article analyses the practice and effectiveness of macroprudential warnings in relation to the European Central Bank and the competent Hungarian authorities. The subject matter is particularly topical, taking into account that one of the very first steps in changing the institutional framework of financial supervision, as a response to the financial crisis, has been the establishment of an institutional framework for issuing macroprudential warnings.
The main goal of the paper is to explain the role of expectations in austerity cycles during financial bailouts. The paper presents a political economy model of bailouts, where the conditions, their implementation, and market reception are considered as forms of a social dilemma. In such situations, expectations about the actions of other actors approximated by the concepts of trust or distrust play a critical role. An environment of trust is conducive to mitigating the size and effects of fiscal contraction, while an environment of distrust is likely to magnify both. It is also argued that the credibility of government is the key driving force in these self-reinforcing cycles. The crisis management experiences of Greece and Ireland serve to illustrate the theoretical model.
In the otherwise rich debate on the eastward expansion of the Eurozone, fragmented approaches prevail, leaving several conceptual avenues of this process underexplored. The case of Poland — initially a fervent enthusiast of the euro adoption and a somewhat assertive endorser today — offers in this context an opportunity to add to the debate and deepen our understanding of the logic behind eastward expansion of the Eurozone. In what follows, Poland's prospective Eurozone entry is examined from the broader angle of the historically determined conceptual and policy-making context of systemic transition. To this end, a conceptual nexus between Eurozone expansion and transition is established and examined through the historical institutionalist perspective. It is argued that rather than being solely a function of Poland's EU membership, both the decision to adopt the euro and the attainment of real and nominal convergence are predominantly a function of the, as yet unfinished, transition process. Interestingly, as this paper suggests, the inconsistency inherent in the execution of the Maastricht convergence criteria not only creates disincentives that effectively delay Poland's Eurozone entry but also triggers reform-drift and backsliding, thus casting a shadow on the prospect of the completion of the Polish transition and its sustainability.
There is some degree of consensus regarding the view that universities should become more involved in the economic and social development of their community to ensure that the knowledge they generate is useful to society. Given that one of the most pressing needs in the current economic environment is the creation of new businesses, this paper aims to study the entrepreneurial attitudes of students in two schools located in Cordoba (Spain) and Oxford (UK) devoted to the training of entrepreneurs. The results show that although there are very few differences in terms of the reasons students at both universities set up a business and the obstacles they encounter in doing so, intention to start up is much higher in the British case. The paper also examines students’ views on the feasibility of embarking on a venture of this type and the perception they have of themselves. We conclude that universities must work to counteract the adverse effects of the environment and collaborate with students to create an atmosphere conducive to social development based on the pillars of entrepreneurship and innovation.
This paper tries to reframe the man-machine problem, which has frequently changed throughout history. Originally, a machine was a helper of man, but later became its competitor and substitute. As a consequence of this, man has been pushed out of production and possibly, out of life itself. For today, nearly all man’s functions — except for consumption and creativity — can be furnished by machines. Creativity should have a special place because it is the last “shelter” of man in the conflict with machine. Almost every other faculty of man has more or less been simulated by technology. There are some key questions to be answered: Whom do the creative techniques serve? Is the target group men or machines?
The study of happiness and economics indicates a paradox: rising income has not led to increases in long term levels of life satisfaction. Evidence shows that citizens adapt to the growth of GDP, but an important difference among certain countries in connection with life satisfaction and the deviation from trend growth has been found: Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece adapt to the trend growth of their economies; other European countries, however, do not. This suggests that some characteristics of their welfare state, such as the inability to create sufficient equity might leave their citizens more dependent on economic variables such as rising income. Only in boom times can the young, uneducated or the elderly find access to the otherwise restricted labor market and have a chance to escape the poverty trap. In this regard the paper places special emphasis on the issue of global competition by linking the subject with the current state of the European Union.
The turbulence in global financial markets presents a serious challenge to the stability of the monetary policy trilemma configuration. The trilemma states that a country may simultaneously choose only two of the following three policy goals: monetary policy independence, exchange rate stability, and financial integration. In order to analyse if the financial crisis brought changes in Romania’s monetary policy preference, we have constructed indexes that measure the trilemma policy goals individually in the period between 2005 and 2012. Using these indices, we have shown that there are significant differences between the means of monetary independence and exchange rate stability indices in the pre- and post-crisis periods.
In this paper, we use the structural VAR model to analyse the dynamic effects of (discretionary) fiscal shocks on the economic activity of the private sector in Croatia between 2000 and 2012. Due to the fact that Croatia is a small open transition economy, we assume that shocks of foreign origin can have notable effects on its performance. Therefore, the original Blanchard-Perotti identification method is extended by introducing variables that represent external (foreign) demand shocks. The results show that government spending has a positive and statistically significant effect on private aggregate demand and private consumption, and that net indirect taxes have a negative and statistically significant effect on private consumption and private investment.
The fundamental problem in developing a theory of international business ethics, without imposing ethnocentric assumptions, lies in the inherent conflict between the need for universal ethics and the reality of diverse national cultures. Integrative social contracts theory holds an intermediate position between ethical universalist and relativist positions — recognizing universal hypernorms on the one hand and moral free space on the other. We argue that all businesses share a common objective of sustaining long-run economic value for their stakeholders. We develop this argument using an evolutionary logic into a hypernorm along three propositions: First, the firm influences, and is influenced by, members of the society (social context proposition). Second, managers maximize profit subject to joint constraints of technical feasibility and ethical norms (managerial decision proposition). Third, ethical norms evolve from interactions among the stakeholders without a central authority. Natural selection favors norms that maximize long run economic value for the society (natural selection proposition). We show that the hypernorm can spawn widely agreed authentic ethical norms. However, moral bounded rationality when interpreting the hypernorm generates different authentic norms in the moral free space. The evolutionary logic is testable along the dimensions of variation, inheritance and selection of ethical norms.
This paper studies the global, regional, and country-specific components of four key financial market indicators: sovereign CDS spreads, equity indices, exchange rates, and EMBI Global bond spreads. In all four markets, the results support the findings of the literature of a significant global component, but also point out the importance of regional correlations. Variance decompositions point to roughly a third of variance explained by both global and country-specific components in each of the four analysed financial markets, although there is considerable cross-country heterogeneity in this respect. The global factors of indicators are correlated across asset classes, but the market- and country-specific components of indicators are still significantly large to suggest diversification benefits of both multi-asset and multi-country portfolios. An application of the factor model suggests that the link between Central Eastern European and Euro zone periphery markets is stronger and more direct in the case of equity indices than in the case of sovereign CDS spreads.
As the world is moving ahead, all national economies need to find their own development path. The economic growth should be continually high enough to provide for a normal and growing standard of living for the citizens and, at the same time, provide opportunities for introducing and engaging the new, incoming generations in the world of business. The countries differ not only by the levels of attained development standard, but also by the possible methods which might be used for accelerating growth.The paper discusses growth factors which could help Macedonia find its way to catch up with the developed world in the long run — if this is possible. Obviously, the importance of institutions understood as the “rules of the game” and underpinning them is one of the most important issues related to development that should be seen as a conditio sine qua non and a basic prerequisite of a “developmental wave”.
Trade finance plays a significant role in the global trade of merchandise, which witnessed a sharp fall in late 2008 and early 2009. Firms across the world experienced restricted access to bank credit in the wake of the financial crisis, and this had a considerable impact on the operation and growth of their businesses. The financial crisis led to a contagion on trade finance and product sellers’ payment terms. Furthermore, corporate trade credit is a potential alternative to institutional financing that serves as an important source of finance. Corporate trade finance represents an important part of short-term financing for firms, especially during financial crises. This paper evaluates the impact of the increased use of corporate trade finance in two unique portfolios of production firms during the financial crisis. All have an active treasury organization. The analysis demonstrates the impact of the financial crisis on corporate trade credit demographically. Furthermore, it uses financial performance and working capital data of other German stock-listed production firms. It analyses how developments or changes in working capital impact a firm’s sales growth, EBIT interest, tangible net and EBITDA margin, and total asset worth.
The crisis that unfolded in 2007/2008 turned the attention of the financial world toward liquidity, the lack of which caused substantial losses. As a result, the need arose for the traditional financial models to be extended with liquidity. Our goal is to discover how Hungarian market players relate to liquidity. Our results are obtained through a series of semi-structured interviews, and are hoped to be a starting point for extending the existing models in an appropriate way. Our main results show that different investor groups can be identified along their approaches to liquidity, and they rarely use sophisticated models to measure and manage liquidity. We conclude that although market players would have access to complex liquidity measurement and management tools, there is a limited need for these, because the currently available models are unable to use complex liquidity information effectively.
Over the last decades, there has been plenty of research and publications on Political Business Cycles (PBC), aimed at analysing and explaining the use of fiscal and monetary instruments to stimulate economic growth before elections, with the intention of impressing potential voters. Previous research on PBC in Albania reveals clear evidence of fiscal expansion before elections, but no significant changes in GDP and inflation as theory predicts. One possible explanation of this result could be economic agents’ expectations, which is the subject of this paper. We analyse consumers’ expectations before elections, the main factors underlying expectations, and the way in which these expectations influence their behaviour toward spending, and consequently the macroeconomic outcomes, deploying standard econometric methods widely applied in PBC related research. According to our research results, households’ consumption spending decreases before elections because of the higher uncertainty about their future economic situation due to the highly politicised public employment.
A recent international conference, entitled Transition in Perspective offered an opportunity for the author to take stock of the achievements of the post-socialist economies since the regime change in 1989/90. The analysis was carried out in two dimensions, in the political and the economic one. Regarding the first one, the record is largely positive: many countries have regained their independence, although in some cases the price was high and the fundamentals of democracy are still missing. In civil wars and inter-ethnic fights far too many people were killed and/or displaced. Since about 2000, many countries fell in the hand of autocratic leaders. In terms of catching-up with the income levels of the advanced economies, less than half of the countries were truly successful. The people have good reasons to be disappointed.
The Hungarian economy is highly integrated in global value chains (GVC). Upgrading within GVCs is a key factor of sustaining the initial developmental push GVC participation provides. The article concentrates on R&D-based upgrading opportunities and their practical implementation by multinationals’ Hungarian subsidiaries in the automotive and electronics sectors. The content and the development of R&D activities; Hungary’s locational advantages for R&D projects, and their local impact are analysed based on interviews with twenty foreign-owned companies in the two selected sectors. We show that local R&D units’ activity is multifaceted, though they feature similar upgrading trajectories. Investors’ motivations: the knowledge- and efficiency-seeking nature of their projects and the related locational advantages are examined. We demonstrate that local R&D-intensive subsidiaries have a limited local impact except for the intensive contacts with local universities — with varying content and motives on the side of the R&D units. Drawing on our findings we formulate economic policy recommendations about the ways to foster and enhance R&D-based upgrading.
The soft budget constraint
An introductory study to volume IV of the Life’s Work series
The author’s ideas on the soft budget constraint (SBC) were first expressed in 1976. Much progress has been made in understanding the problem over the ensuing four decades. The study takes issue with those who confine the concept to the process of bailing out loss-making socialist firms. It shows how the syndrome can appear in various organizations and forms in many spheres of the economy and points to the various means available for financial rescue. Single bailouts do not as such generate the SBC syndrome. It develops where the SBC becomes built into expectations. Special heed is paid to features generated by the syndrome in rescuer and rescuee organizations. The study reports on the spread of the syndrome in various periods of the socialist and the capitalist system, in various sectors. The author expresses his views on normative questions and on therapies against the harmful effects. He deals first with actual practice, then places the theory of the SBC in the sphere of ideas and models, showing how it relates to other theoretical trends, including institutional and behavioural economics and theories of moral hazard and inconsistency in time. He shows how far the intellectual apparatus of the SBC has spread in theoretical literature and where it has reached in the process of “canonization” by the economics profession. Finally, he reviews the main research tasks ahead.
This research paper aims to provide an empirical validation of the impact of human capital accumulation and labour market institutions on productivity growth. The primary objective of this study is to analyse economic and employment growth tendencies in the period between 1985 and 2007 in various OECD member countries. In our estimations we followed a specific taxonomy to identify the features of output per capita growth in different labour-skilled branches. Besides determining the sectoral differences of labour demand by standard comparative statistics, we used a dynamic panel regression method to investigate the relationships between employment, human capital, labour institutions, and output per capita. We conclude that the high-skilled branches have achieved better economic growth performance than the lower-skilled ones in most of the OECD countries. Analysing the time series panel data of these countries our results also yield valid relationships between the level of education, labour unions and productivity growth in different branches.
To date, a series of non-traditional schemes have proliferated in the area of tax law, challenging the widely accepted principles of tax legislation. Lump-sum or presumptive taxes, redemption fees or tax amnesty, corrective taxes (bank levies), or confiscatory taxes (e.g., banker bonuses) can hardly be reconciled with the hard core of tax legislation that is established on the principles of equality and legal certainty. The present paper discusses these unorthodox types of public charges.
This study examines the impact of mother-child interactions on youth purchase decisions with a clear focus on dependent young adults living in the parental home. Two studies were carried out using both quantitative and qualitative approaches in order to understand the characteristics of young adults’ purchase decision-making. In the first study, a survey was distributed among young adults, and in the second study, several short essays from pairs of young adults and their mothers were analysed. Findings suggest that mother-child communication has a significant impact on children’s consumer decision-making style. Furthermore, these results draw particular attention to the laissez-faire communication style, which is relevant due to both its prevalence and its influence on youth decision-making. We also conclude that the product or service category is a critical consideration when the independence of young adults is evaluated in relation to their purchases.
International development cooperation has experienced large changes in recent years. One spectacular issue is the emergence of new donors, which are playing a more significant role than ever. China, India, Brazil, Russia, and the Arab countries — together with other emerging countries — support developing countries, though their activity is highly criticized by ‘traditional’ donors. The paper aims to analyse the behaviour of emerging donors with reflection on the question whether the additional resources complement or substitute the aid flows from traditional donors. The investigation shows that emerging donors do not behave as traditional donors and their aid allocation is determined by political and economic factors rather than the needs of the recipient countries. However, the statistical analysis reflects on the fact that in some cases emerging donors do behave similarly as traditional donors. Altogether, it is not proven that the additional resources complement existing aid flows.
This paper argues that the ‘New Public Management’ paradigm for public management theory and practice that has prevailed for the last thirty years is both flawed in theory and has failed in practice. We argue for an alternative to this paradigm that is rooted with the New Public Governance approach and that makes a reality of the Public Service-Dominant Logic for sustainable public services. We derive seven propositions for sustainable business practice for public services organisations from this approach.
The market risk capital charge of financial institutions has been mostly calculated by internal models based on integrated Value at Risk (VaR) approach, since the introduction of the Amendment to Basel Accord in 1996. The internal models should fulfil several quantitative and qualitative criteria. Besides others, it is the so called backtesting procedure, which was one of the main reasons why the alternative approach to market risk estimation — conditional Value at Risk or Expected Shortfall (ES) — were not applicable for the purpose of capital charge calculation. However, it is supposed that this approach will be incorporated into Basel III. In this paper we provide an extensive simulation study using various sets of market data to show potential impact of ES on capital requirements.
This study explored, from the angle of corporate social responsibility and corporate governance, the extent to which the governance of listed companies in Taiwan affected and implemented, and understood its relation with corporate value. The method of statistics using SPSS 17.0 was employed and secondary information was gathered to probe the subjects. Empirical results with data were provided herein to present substantial recommendations for reference by the industry, academia, and governments in providing right tracks for corporate development, increasing intention to invest in market, and reinforcing investors’ confidence in good corporations for making investment.
The travel industry has experienced operating difficulties because of the intense competition within the industry, difficulties in developing new products as well as the overly transparent and continuously increasing operating cost that reduces the profit margin. As a result, it is urgent that the business operating bottleneck be overcome and some strategies be implemented. These include dumping the conventional operating model, reducing basic operating costs, increasing the profit margin, and seeking alliances with companies from the same sector, relevant sectors, or even different sectors. In fact, exhibition and travel markets have originally been separate but with the booming of travel activities, more convenient transportation, greater accommodation and food options and the flourishing of local cultural attractions, the distinction between exhibition and travel has become less apparent. For the travel industry to compete for the market, providing simple travel-related services is no longer enough. Nowadays, travel agencies have to provide custom-tailored travel packages for companies or even pluralistic travel service consultations to attract clients. The study randomly sampled 500 subjects from the Taipei Travel Exhibition and asked them to complete a questionnaire. Of these, 342 valid responses were returned (68% response rate). The study found that the most emphasized aspects are the exhibition environment, followed by professional capacity, market demand, and the exhibition industry. The results of the survey clearly show that the environment is the most important aspect for holding an International Travel Fair. Of the 13 evaluation indicators, the top five most valued, in descending order, are software and hardware facilities, public relations and marketing, government’s planning policy, visibility, and knowledge and skills.
With the changing world situation, the end of World War II, the withdrawal of Japanese people from Taiwan, the eruption of Korean War, the assistance of Military Assistance Advisory Group in Taiwan, and the participation of American military in Vietnam War, a lot of US people came to Taiwan and brought a distinct lifestyle and culture, which have exerted their influence up to now. Apparently, the introduction of American culture greatly influenced the society at the time; people pursuing fashion gradually accepted western way of leisure and changed the existing traditional model. It also revealed the expansion of exotic cultural identity locally.By distributing and collecting questionnaires on-site, teachers and students of Chinese Culture University and the neighboring citizens in Yangmingshan are sampled for this study. A total of 500 copies of questionnaires were distributed, and 316 valid copies were retrieved, with the retrieval rate of 73%. Each retrieved copy stands for a valid sample. The research results are concluded as follows. 1. Cultural Identity presents significantly positive effects on Possible to purchase in Purchase Intention of American Commodity. 2. Cultural Identity reveals remarkably positive effects on Intend to Purchase in Purchase Intention of American Commodity. 3. Cultural Identity shows notably positive effects on Consider to Purchase in Purchase Intention of American Commodity. 4. The correlation between Cultural Identity and Purchase Intention of American Commodity shows partially significant differences on demographic variables.
The emergence of Internet technology-based network economy has diversified information channels so that the selectable space for consumers is enlarged. In comparison with traditional promotion and advertisement, electronic word-of-mouth marketing, as a new style marketing presenting high transparency, broad influential regions, and obvious time effectiveness, is more easily accepted by consumers.By distributing and collecting questionnaires on site, 400 copies of questionnaires were distributed to the catering consumers in CHATEAU de CHINE, and 283 valid ones were retrieved, with the retrieval rate of 71%; each retrieved copy was regarded as a valid sample. The research results show significant positive effects of Electronic Word-of-Mouth on 1. Production Selection, 2. Brand Selection, 3. Location Selection, and 4. Number of Opportunity in Purchase Decision and 5. partial effects of demographic variables on the correlations between Electronic Word-of-Mouth and Purchase Decision.
To deal with a lot of public services, first-level human resources are largely required in governmental institutes. The changes of industries and employment structure have the government, in consideration of budgets and downsizing, apply Human Resource Outsourcing and introduce temporary employees to reduce labor personnel costs and labor flexibility and to solve the demands for temporary and non-core businesses for achieving the innovation of administrative services and organizational reform as well as enhance organizational competitiveness. Acquiring expected and stable temporary employees with favorable work performance is a dilemma for personnel units. By distributing and collecting questionnaires on-site, 230 copies of questionnaires were distributed to the superiors and public servants in various sectors of Kaohsiung City Government. A total of 169 valid copies were retrieved, with the retrieval rate of 73%. The empirical results show partially positive effects of Human Resource Outsourcing on Service Concept, Customer Interface, and Delivery System in Service Innovation, significantly positive effects of Human Resource Outsourcing on Technology Option in Service Innovation, and remarkable moderating effects of background variables on the correlations between Human Resource Outsourcing and Service Innovation.
Reputation is key in the management in tourism industry. In other words, a company should present favorable corporate image to enhance the trust of the customers and further induce the purchase intention and behaviors so as to enhance the sustainable management of tourism businesses. Customers’ Trust is the support of tourism industry, as it satisfies the basic demands for travel guarantee and safety. Following the promotion of consumer awareness, consumers tend to purchase products or accept services from trusted tourism businesses, which therefore have to present excellent corporate image. Nevertheless, some tourism businesses have neglected Marketing Ethics in the development of market economy because of over-pursuing economic interests. When consumer sovereignty is infringed, consumer satisfaction would be reduced, resulting in declining customer loyalty. By distributing and collecting questionnaires on-site, adult tourists of Lion Travel are sampled as the research subjects. A total of 400 copies of questionnaires were distributed, in which 276 copies were valid, with the retrieval rate of 69%. SPSS is utilized for the data analyses, and Factor Analysis, Reliability Analysis, Regression Analysis, and Analysis of Variance are applied to testing various hypotheses. The research results are concluded as following. 1. Marketing Ethics presents partially positive effects on Service Process in Customer Satisfaction. 2. Marketing Ethics reveals partially positive effects on Service Structure in Customer Satisfaction. 3. Marketing Ethics shows significantly positive effects on Service Outcome in Customer Satisfaction. 4. Individual Attributes appear to have remarkable effects on the correlations between Marketing Ethics and Customer Satisfaction.
Tourism industry offers citizens travel services as well as provides employment opportunities and makes foreign exchange. Tourism industry for the global is similar to the economic development in a single country. Apparently, it plays a critical role in the future. With on-site questionnaire distribution and collection, customers of Caesar Park Hotel are sampled for the investigation. A total of 360 copies of questionnaires were distributed, and 257 valid copies were retrieved, with the retrieval rate of 71%. Each retrieved copy stands for a valid sample. SPSS is utilized for the data analysis and hypothesis test. The research results are concluded as below. 1. Moving Experience reveals partially positive effects on Efficiency in Operating Performance. 2. Moving Experience appears to have significantly positive effects on Growth in Operating Performance. 3. Moving Experience presents remarkably positive effects on Profitability in Operating Performance. 4. Population attributes show effects on the correlations between Moving Experience and Operating Performance.
The impact of financial crisis has resulted in the global economic depression. It is merely cultural industry that acts in a diametrically opposite way so businesses related to cultural industry are still growing. For this reason, this study tends to explore the innovation activities in cultural parks in Taiwan, from the aspect of cultural value. Nevertheless, research on cultural parks in Taiwan still focuses on architecture design and reuse of space; studies on Service Innovation are rather few. This study therefore aims to discuss Service Innovation in cultural parks themselves. With questionnaire survey, the data are further analyzed and discussed. The research findings show 1. significantly positive correlations between Service Innovation and Product Price in Customer Satisfaction, 2. partially positive correlations between Service Innovation and Service Efficiency in Customer Satisfaction, 3. remarkably positive correlations between Service Innovation and Perceived Value in Customer Satisfaction, and 4. notable effects of Customer Characteristics on the correlations between Service Innovation and Customer Satisfaction. The research results are expected to be the reference and contribution to cultural park managers.
