Hsin‐Pin Fu, Tien‐Hsiang Chang, Pei Chao and Chyou‐Huey Chiou
This study proposes an integrated collaborative web site among government agencies to enhance customer satisfaction with the service quality of government agencies.
Abstract
Purpose
This study proposes an integrated collaborative web site among government agencies to enhance customer satisfaction with the service quality of government agencies.
Design/methodology/approach
The present authors invited all involved public‐sector agencies to integrate their service processes into a model of one‐stop shopping and established collaborative mechanism for providing customized service.
Findings
The present study has identified five factors that were critical for success in such an undertaking. These factors included: establishing appropriate regulations for the implementation process; designing a viable collaborative‐service system; establishing a closely connected virtual organization; ensuring the participation of senior managers from all agencies; and obtaining the cooperation of the facilitators from various agencies (including appropriate merit and bonus incentives).
Practical implications
The real challenge for establishing the collaborative‐service web site was managerial – in combining the service processes of a dozen or more agencies to make the model work. Managerial issues that need to be addressed were the design of service processes, the overall organizational structure, the establishment of audit and supervision procedures, and the establishment an operational model for the web site.
Originality/value
This web site serves as a successful “one‐stop‐shopping” model that increases customer satisfaction with the service quality of government agencies. This study provides information for other government agencies that might wish to establish similar collaborative models to enhance service in the public sector.
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Tien‐Hsiang Chang, Chyou‐Huey Chiou, Hsin‐Pin Fu and Pei Chao
The adoption of automation has been suggested as one source to establish the competitiveness of manufacturing industries. The importance of government's role in promoting the…
Abstract
Purpose
The adoption of automation has been suggested as one source to establish the competitiveness of manufacturing industries. The importance of government's role in promoting the automation adoption has been recognized. The Industrial Development Bureau (IDB) of the Ministry of Economic Affairs in Taiwan has been promoting the “Manufacturing Automation Promotion Policy (MAPP)” for more than 10 years. From the perspective of the government agent, whether the MAPP was effective is the most concerned issue. However, there is no research on evaluating the performance of MAPP undertaken by the government. This study aims to fill the gap.
Design/methodology/approach
This study employed survey method; and a questionnaire was delivered to prospect respondents through the IDB promotion team.
Findings
According to the analytical results, it was found that responding department has a significant impact on understanding automation policy and the need for technical personnel; enterprise size significantly affects needs for technical personnel.
Practical implications
The research findings show, by implication, that the MAPP conducted by the Taiwan's IDB has been effective to a certain degree. Several suggestions for further advancing the effectiveness of the MAPP are made.
Originality/value
This study is the first research to examine the performance effectiveness of MAPP conducted by Taiwan's IDB. After a comprehensive literature, this study suggests that the program effectiveness can be evaluated in terms of awareness of MAPP, understanding of MAPP, benefits of MAPP, perceiving automation policy as incentive, needs for policy assistance, and needs for technical personnel.
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Che-Chih Tsao, Ho-Hsin Chang, Meng-Hao Liu, Ho-Chia Chen, Yun-Tang Hsu, Pei-Ying Lin, Yih-Lin Chou, Ying-Chieh Chao, Yun-Hui Shen, Cheng-Yi Huang, Kai-Chiang Chan and Yi-Hung Chen
The purpose of this paper is to propose and demonstrate a new additive manufacturing approach that breaks the layer-based point scanning limitations to increase fabrication speed…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose and demonstrate a new additive manufacturing approach that breaks the layer-based point scanning limitations to increase fabrication speed, obtain better surface finish, achieve material flexibility and reduce equipment costs.
Design/methodology/approach
The freeform additive manufacturing approach conceptually views a 3D article as an assembly of freeform elements distributed spatially following a flexible 3D assembly structure, which conforms to the surface of the article and physically builds the article by sequentially forming the freeform elements by a vari-directional vari-dimensional capable material deposition mechanism. Vari-directional building along tangential directions of part surface gives surface smoothness. Vari-dimensional deposition maximizes material output to increase build rate wherever allowed and minimizes deposition sizes for resolution whenever needed.
Findings
Process steps based on geometric and data processing considerations were described. Dispensing and forming of basic vari-directional and vari-dimensional freeform elements and basic operations of joining them were developed using thermoplastics. Forming of 3D articles at build rates of 2-5 times the fused deposition modeling (FDM) rate was demonstrated and improvement over ten times was shown to be feasible. FDM compatible operations using 0.7 mm wire depositions from a variable exit-dispensing unit were demonstrated. Preliminary tests of a surface finishing process showed a result of 0.8-1.9 um Ra. Initial results of dispensing wax, tin alloy and steel were also shown.
Originality/value
This is the first time that both vari-directional and vari-dimensional material depositions are combined in a new freeform building method, which has potential impact on the FDM and other additive manufacturing methods.
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Ming-Chao Wang, Pei-Chen Chen and Shih-Chieh Fang
Environmental turbulence represents a double-edged sword, simultaneously fueling and hindering a firm’s entrepreneurial orientation (EO). Drawing on the theories of EO and network…
Abstract
Purpose
Environmental turbulence represents a double-edged sword, simultaneously fueling and hindering a firm’s entrepreneurial orientation (EO). Drawing on the theories of EO and network relationships, this study aims to develop and test a conceptual model that provides a nuanced account of the relationship between environmental turbulence and firm EO.
Design/methodology/approach
Data for this study were collected using a survey of high-technology firms in Hsinchu Science Park (HSP) in Taiwan. Questionnaires were mailed to 297 high-technology firms in the semiconductor, photoelectric and communication industries within HSP. Completed questionnaires were received from 94 firms, which included responses from 94 research and development managers and 462 employees.
Findings
The results reveal that the degree of environmental turbulence exhibits an inverted U-shaped relationship with a firm’s EO. Moreover, this relationship is positively moderated by network relationships between firms, but negatively moderated by organizational inertia.
Originality/value
The empirical and conceptual findings have important implications for understanding EO, because the findings explain causal relationships that transform a firm’s interactive and inner control capabilities into firm-level results.
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Pei-Chen Chen, Ming-Chao Wang and Shih-Chieh Fang
Based on agency perspective on temporary agency workers, the purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between firms’ agency problems and agency cost on agency workers;…
Abstract
Purpose
Based on agency perspective on temporary agency workers, the purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between firms’ agency problems and agency cost on agency workers; moreover, intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation are considered in seeking to understand how they moderate this relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the Hsinchu Science Park directory of corporate affiliations as a sample frame, the authors adopted a paired questionnaire which included two parts in order to consider the possible problem of common method variances. The first part is completed by the manager of the firms and the second part is completed by his/her temporary agency workers. Finally, 94 firms completed questionnaires, providing a total sample of 94 R&D managers and 458 temporary agency workers. The rate of participation was 31.65 percent.
Findings
Using a questionnaire survey of 94 high-tech firms, from which a total of 94 R&D managers and 458 temporary agency workers participated, the results show that firms’ agency problems have a positive influence on the agency cost of monitoring temporary agency workers. In addition, while this relationship is negatively moderated by extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation has a non-significant moderating effect.
Originality/value
The managers of firms should consider not only the short-term flexibility of employing temporary agency workers, but also the long-term cultivation of promoting great agency workers. This could maximize the efficiency of the interaction between intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Of course, the firms should think about how to reduce the agency problems created by goal conflict, information asymmetry and risk sharing with temporary agency workers, because this could also provide a chance for the firms to decrease agency costs spent on monitoring.
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Sadrudin A. Ahmed, Alain d’Astous and Christian Champagne
This article presents the results of a survey of 202 male Taiwanese consumers. In this study, consumer judgements of two technological products varying in their level of…
Abstract
This article presents the results of a survey of 202 male Taiwanese consumers. In this study, consumer judgements of two technological products varying in their level of complexity made in highly, moderately, and newly industrialised countries were obtained in a multi‐attribute context. The results show that the country‐of‐origin image of moderately and newly industrialised countries was less negative for technologically simpler products (i.e. a television) than they were for technologically complex products (i.e. a computer). It appears that the negative image of moderately and newly industrialised countries can be attenuated by making Taiwanese consumers more familiar with products made in these countries and/or by providing them with other product‐related information such as brand name and warranty. Newly industrialised countries were perceived more negatively as countries of design than as countries of assembly, especially in the context of making technologically complex products. The image of foreign countries as producers of consumer goods was positively correlated with education. The more familiar consumers were with the products of a country, the more favourable was their evaluation of that country. Consumer involvement with purchasing a technologically complex product such as a computer was positively associated with the appreciation of products made in moderately industrialised countries. Managerial and research implications are derived from these results.
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Yunan Chen, Ivan Sun, Yuning Wu, Zhe Chao and Yuping Liu
The main purpose of this study is to examine the direct relationship between police officers' perceived technology utilization and their perception of external procedural…
Abstract
Purpose
The main purpose of this study is to examine the direct relationship between police officers' perceived technology utilization and their perception of external procedural injustice, as well as the indirect relationship through perceived self-legitimacy.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used survey data collected from 1,944 police officers in a northern Chinese province. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed to assess the direct and indirect associations between technology utilization and external procedural injustice.
Findings
Technology efficacy was negatively associated with external procedural injustice and positively associated with both self-legitimacy and public-defined legitimacy. Furthermore, officers’ self-perceived legitimacy is negatively associated with their support for procedurally unjust behaviors, while officers’ perception of public-defined legitimacy, unexpectedly, is positively related to their endorsement of procedural injustice. Conversely, technology difficulty was positively related to external procedural injustice and negatively associated with public-defined legitimacy.
Originality/value
The present study represents a first attempt to link technology utilization to external procedural injustice in the policing literature. This study provides needed evidence to support the importance role of technology utilization in shaping police officers’ occupational attitudes toward themselves and the public in an authoritarian country.
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Tung-Fei Tsai-Lin, Ming-Huei Chen, Hui-Ru Chi and Pei-Shan Chiang
Developing technological capabilities to enhance innovation performance is essential for firms to respond to external changes and competition. Based on the effect of…
Abstract
Purpose
Developing technological capabilities to enhance innovation performance is essential for firms to respond to external changes and competition. Based on the effect of organizational structure on organizational capability development, this study assesses whether a specific R&D organizational structure design can be used to develop different technological capabilities.
Design/methodology/approach
Combining organizational theory and the resource-based view as an integrated view, we propose several contrasting hypotheses to show the effects of three general R&D organizational structure designs (centralized, decentralized, and hybrid) on developing exploitative and explorative capabilities. We propose R&D slack as a moderator. 82 Taiwanese listed manufacturing firms were selected. Data on the firms' annual reports and their patent applications to the Taiwan Patent Office from 2005 to 2017 were collected.
Findings
Firms’ adoption of centralized and decentralized R&D structures has a significant positive effect on developing exploitative capability and an opposite effect on developing explorative capability. A high or low R&D slack can moderate the impact of R&D organizational structure on non-routine capability development.
Research limitations/implications
This study concludes that R&D organizational structure affects the development of different technological capabilities and that the effect of R&D organizational structure on the development of technological capabilities can be changed under the moderation of R&D slack, which means that the possibility of developing different technological capabilities under the same organizational structure will increase.
Practical implications
The top manager should consider the relationship between R&D structure design and technological capability development to manage the R&D routines to influence the generation of technological capabilities. Also, they must utilize the provision of R&D slack to modulate technological capability development.
Originality/value
This study reexamines the relationship between organizational structure and capability development. It shows that organizational structure can shape unique technological capabilities and that firms may be able to change structural elements through slack resources, enabling ambidexterity or dynamic capability development without organizational change.
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Shih-Liang Chao, Chin-Shan Lu, Kuo-Chung Shang and Ching-Chiao Yang