Cheng-Kiang Farn

Social capital, behavioural control, and tacit knowledge sharing-A multi-informant design

As suggested by prior studies, tacit knowledge sharing is a natural process of social interaction. The perspectives of social capital and behavioural control are thus employed in this study to investigate an employees tacit knowledge sharing and behaviour within a workgroup. This study collects data through a multi-informant questionnaire design. Three interesting results were obtained in this study. First, results show that tacit knowledge sharing intention can be induced by affect-based trust. However, shared value is negatively related to tacit knowledge sharing intention. Second, internal control has a positive effect on tacit knowledge sharing intention, but the relationship between internal control and tacit knowledge sharing behaviour could not be confirmed. Third, external control positively moderates the relationship between tacit knowledge sharing intention and behaviour. It is interesting to note that tacit knowledge sharing intention does not necessarily lead to tacit knowledge sharing behaviour unless the moderating effect of external control is taken into account. These findings and their implications are also addressed.

Job shop scheduling heuristics and frequency of scheduling

Abstract This paper presents a job scheduling problem. Two important aspects are included in the subsequent analysis. The first is the dynamic nature whereby new jobs arrive to be included intermittently through time. The second is the uncertainty, or error in estimating process times, and the likelihood of machine breakdown. An experiment is presented which shows the performance of a number of heuristics in the form of dispatching disciplines under different scheduling conditions which are determined by the scheduling period and the level of uncertainty in the process times and machine breakdowns. Various different measures of performance which could be of importance to management are considered. These include mean ratio of flow time to process time, mean queueing time, mean lateness, percentage of jobs late and net CPU times required to generate schedules in the simulation process. Results are presented showing the relationship between the performance of the heuristics relative to the different measures...

Influence of Web Advertising Strategies, Consumer Goal-Directedness, and Consumer Involvement on Web Advertising Effectiveness

Determining the best way to utilize on-line media for advertising purposes is a critical question. This research, based on the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), incorporates consumer goal-directedness and involvement as moderators influencing when a particular advertising strategy (i. e., variation strategy vs. appeal strategy) will be appropriate for Web advertisements. The results of a laboratory experiment supported the use of ELM in the Web environment and showed how advertising strategies should be designed and implemented in accordance with consumer goal-directedness and involvement to achieve Web advertising effectiveness. The results demonstrated the uniqueness of the Web media and the importance of goal-directedness and consumer involvement in the Web advertising context.

A comparison of information management issues in the United States of America and the Republic of China

Abstract A number of research efforts in the United States of America in recent years have provided a look at issues in information management. The important factors change with time. The degree of importance of individual issues also changes as new technologies enter into information management activities. In this study, rankings of the relative importance of information management issues in both the United States of America and the Republic of China are compared. Most issues share a common level of importance. There are, however, some important differences. Those in the rankings are, to some extent, explainable by differences in the economic development and cultural environment of the two countries. Additional efforts are needed to provide more rigorous explanations.

The dynamic aspects of a production scheduling problem

This paper presents a single machine scheduling problem with sequence dependent changeover times. An optimizing solution procedure and various appropriate heuristics are reviewed. We then go on to consider the performance of these and other heuristics in the dynamic situation, as new jobs arrive to be processed and have to be added into the existing schedule at some time. Clearly an ideal solution would be to reschedule as each new job arrived, but as this is not generally practical from a computational viewpoint, it has to be carried out less frequently. The actual frequency of this rescheduling is clearly of importance, and some of the heuristics are more adaptable to this than others. Some results are presented which attempt to quantify this adaptability for the heuristics in question, and it is demonstrated that the best heuristic for the static problem is not necessarily the best heuristic in the dynamic situation.

Decision Processes and Use of Decision Aids Comparing Two Closely Related Nations in East Asia

The authors report the results of a controlled laboratory experiment comparing the decision processes of participants from Taiwan and Japan. These two nations have very close geographical, cultural, historical, and economic ties. The results show that decision processes of Taiwanese differed from those of Japanese. Specifically, decision processes adopted by Taiwanese participants were more consistent with compensatory processes than were those adopted by Japanese participants. The authors identify cultural factors that may explain the differences. These results demonstrate the danger of generalizing decision theories across national boundaries, even when the nations are seemingly closely related. The results also indicate that the differences in decision processes among nations cannot easily be characterized as East versus West.

Investigating Factors Affecting the Adoption of Electronic Toll Collection: A Transaction Cost Economics Perspective

In order to reduce the number of vehicles stuck in congestion, especially for stop-and-go traffic at toll plazas, the establishment of electronic toll collection (ETC) system has been a hot issue and dominant trend in many countries. However, despite the potential benefits for motorists, the utilization rate of vehicles has been lower than expected in Taiwan during the introduction stage. Drawing from the transaction cost economics (TCE) perspective, the objective of this study is to advance our understanding in the effects of transaction attributes (uncertainty, asset specificity, and transaction frequency) on the intention of ETC system adoption. Through empirical data collection and analysis from highway motorists who had not installed on-board unit (OBU) for ETC service in Taiwan, we found that uncertainty and asset specificity indeed positively engender motorists perceived risk. Moreover, results also reveals that perceived risk negatively influences the intention of ETC system adoption, and transaction frequency positively affects the intention for adopting ETC system. Implications for practitioners and researchers and suggestions for future research are also addressed in this study

On ordering adjustment policy under rolling forecast in supply chain planning

Rolling forecast is a useful tool for lowering total cost with regard to practical inventory management. The details regarding a rolling forecast are obtained from a customers projected ordering data. The customer estimation of a rolling forecast may deviate from actual orders because of unstable conditions or customers deliberation. This study investigates what measures a customer might apply in responding to a situation where the rolling forecast deviates from the actual order. In addition, an appropriate ordering adjustment policy is proposed for better monitoring the supply chain performance with regard to a variant level of error concerning rolling forecast data. This study also considers the influence of lead time and inventory cost structure. We adopted a simulation approach, employing a model developed and examined in several different settings. The proposed ordering adjustment policies are determined by AVG, SD, and RMSE calculated from differences existing between historical forecasts and realized data. Levels of estimate error and estimate bias in a rolling forecast are included in the experimental procedure. Results reveal that the RMSE ordering adjustment policy is the most effective in situations of normal and downside estimation bias, whereas the AVG policy is more appropriate in the case of upside estimation bias. The level of estimation error is irrelevant to the selection of ordering adjustment policies, but it is positively associated with inventory costs. Stock-out costs and lead time are positively associated with inventory costs. Accuracy of the rolling forecast is therefore deemed to be essential in a situation involving a long lead time with high stock-out costs.

Investigating Tacit Knowledge Acquisition and Sharing from the Perspective of Social Relationships-A Multilevel Model

Several researchers have frequently regarded tacit knowledge sharing among employees as a process of social interaction. This study employs the perspective of social relationship for investigating an employees tacit knowledge acquisition and sharing within a workgroup. We propose a multilevel research model that includes both individual- and group-level variables and collect data through a multi-informant questionnaire design. Analyses are based on data collected from 279 respondents participating in 93 work groups across 58 organizations in Taiwan. The results are presented in terms of four aspects as follows. First, tacit knowledge acquisition is found to be facilitated by relational embeddedness. Second, tacit knowledge acquisition has both direct and indirect effects on the tacit knowledge sharing intention. Third, descriptive norms and self efficacy have a positive effect on tacit knowledge sharing intention. Finally, the results of cross-level analyses indicate that an affiliation climate rather than a fairness climate is positively related to tacit knowledge sharing intention.

A Study on the Effects of Empowerment and Habit on Continuance Usage of Pervasive Business Intelligence Systems

Pervasive business intelligence system (BIS) have been adopted by organizations to provide internal and external information to stakeholders in decisionmaking scenarios. However, the continuance usage of pervasive BIS becomes a challenge from a practical standpoint. The aim of this study is to extend a model that explains the pervasive BIS continuance usage. In addition to Limayem et al.`s model which considers habit construct, we also include the influence of empowerment on individual authorization and intrinsic task motivation in the pervasive BIS context. The model was empirically tested using data from 117 respondents to shed light on the situation of voluntary continuance usage. Our results support the extended IS model and conclude that habit has a direct effect on pervasive BIS continuance usage. We also find psychological empowerment is influenced by structural empowerment and acts as a pure moderator between pervasive BIS continuance intention and continuance usage behavior.