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This paper aims to explore the relationship of various financial and non‐financial factors to corporate value and how these factors can be used for the purpose of firm valuation. The focus is placed on a developing high‐tech industry.

The authors collect and compare data from companies within the time window of 1997 through 2010. The techniques of stepwise regression and back‐propagation neural network (BPNN) are applied to analyze this data, where the variables of operating profit margin, ROE, ROA, net income ratio, Tobin's Q and stock price are chosen to indicate firm value.

Each firm value variable appears to have a different set of estimator variables consisting of financial and non‐financial factors. The estimator variable in the set that has a high influence relative to the others tends to be financial factor. However, certain non‐financial factors appear to be considered as an estimator variable for different firm value variables more often than financial factors such as employee productivity, wealth created per employee, revenue growth rate, management expense per employee, R&D expense to management expense ratio, and R&D expenditure to total assets ratio. Further, the incorporation of BPNN shows an improvement of the result of the regression method in terms of overall estimation error, especially for operating profit margin.

The authors' investigation highlights the importance of the use of non‐financial factors for firm valuation in developing biotech industries. The result can be helpful for investors who seek to examine information variables and indicators for the opportunity presented by the above industries. In addition, the significant estimation improvement by incorporating the BNPP method into the commonly used regression method suggests the beneficial use of BPNN in refining the traditional methods in the field.

The use of supplemental damping to dissipate energy is one of the most economical and effective ways to mitigate the effects of earthquake on structures. For practicing engineers, the ideal design procedure for buildings with supplemental damping should not be too complex to implement in practice. Building on the existing theoretical frame, the purpose of this paper is to develop simple and heuristic methods for the above design procedure.

Passive displacement‐dependent devices are considered in this paper. Based on the theoretical results for added damping and added stiffness (ADAS) devices, the paper first analyzes the generated forces and the effects of ADAS devices on structures under seismic impact. We identify design parameters and variables are identified, and present the procedure of how the values of the variables (e.g. column shear force, ductility ratio) are finalized so that the design requirements can be met is presented. A four‐story six‐bay steel building frame and a ten‐story, one‐bay steel building frame, equipped with ADAS devices, are used to demonstrate the performance of the design procedure.

Empirical results show that the arrangement of damping devices based on the proposed procedure not only significantly reduces earthquake‐induced energy, but also accomplishes the goal of being cost‐effective by the control of ductility ratio.

The proposed step‐by‐step procedure is easy for practicing engineers to apply for structures equipped with displacement‐dependent dampers, although the modeling requirements may be complex. It will also allow practicing engineers to effectively design economic seismic dampers in the preliminary design phase and further explore the cost factors by comparing different building seismic performance objectives throughout design.

This paper aims to identify traits of Taiwanese investors that deviate from the typical rationale governing financial decisions, through the analysis of their asset preferences and investment criteria. It also highlights the post‐modern portfolio theory to address the behavior of Taiwanese investors found in our result and in other studies.

The time period between late 2007 and 2008 was our choice for this investigation, being a period of considerable volatility in the Taiwanese market during a major political campaign and a downturn of the economy. We took into account the factors of market environment, investment amount, expected return rate, risk tolerance and investment type to investigate the relationship between these factors and investors' preferences when selecting assets such as mutual funds, stocks, bonds and foreign currency. The analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method was then employed to analyze the survey data.

Risk tolerance is the most important factor for Taiwanese investors when they design their asset portfolios. However, they prefer stocks to other assets. When market environment and risk tolerance are considered, mutual funds are chosen over and above stocks. Whichever criterion is used, bonds turn out to be the least favored asset.

The AHP application for the purpose of this study has not been found. Our analysis echoes the phenonmena of Taiwan's investment markets known from previous studies. The result clearly provides evidence (e.g. irrational investment and risk‐seeking behavior exhibited by Taiwanese investors) applicable to the field of behavioral finance.

When firms are dealing with negative earnings and/or economic downturns, operational restructuring is often initiated as a rescue tool. Some firms recover and prevail, while the others fail to survive and are subsequently delisted from stock exchange. The purpose of this paper is to identify factors that are significantly associated with the delisting risk of restructuring firms.

The authors draw on a sample of firms with negative earnings that undertook restructuring during the 2001 economic recession. Logistic regression estimation is used to examine the delisting risk of these firms following the restructuring.

The paper finds that delisting risk increases when firms undertake repetitive restructurings, massive workforce reduction, and large‐scale asset downsizing. Firms with high levels of debt and failure to cut costs and/or narrowing its focus on core competencies are also more likely to delist.

By analyzing and synthesizing the information from empirical data and business experience, this paper provides a guide for managers to effectively plan and implement a restructuring program to improve performance amid an economic downturn.

This is the first study to examine the survivability or delisting risk of a poorly performing firm undergoing restructuring amid an economic recession.

This paper first aims to estimate the economic loss due to an earthquake, such as building‐related losses, the damage of debris generation and fire, and the social impact. Then, it seeks to evaluate the feasibility of retrofit to prevent buildings from seismic structural damages.

The HAZUS software is used for the seismic loss estimation using default demographic data, which were obtained from San Francisco Assessor record. The HAZUS estimates the damage using the earthquake of 6.7 magnitude. Based on the HAZUS report incorporated with probabilistic scenarios of earthquakes, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) guidelines are used to calculate the cost of structural rehabilitation in San Francisco.

It is recommended that either Options 1 and 3 or Options 2 and 3 provided by FEMA 156 and 157 respectively should be used to calculate the cost of seismic rehabilitation of a structure. The results provide estimated costs of retrofit plans for different types of existing buildings.

The implementation of quantitative and computer methods in the field of natural hazard management is demonstrated. The outcome provides economic guidelines for assessment and prevention (or reduction) of possible seismic loss and building damage.

The study may be a useful reference for retrofit plans for homeowners and business management. The cost estimation also can help government establish or revise some policies properly to provide homeowners with economic incentives (e.g. tax reduction, low interest loan) in retrofitting their homes.