Hsien-Tang Tsai

The Study of Senior Traveler Behavior in Taiwan

Abstract The age profile of the Taiwanese population is such that it contains one of the highest near ages in the world with 9% of the population being aged more than 65 years of age. The senior travel market has become an increasingly important area of interest to travel agents. This study examines the senior travel market and its behavior. Ridit analysis is used to explore the destination selection attributes of senior travelers. Three travel barrier factors were derived using factor analysis; the traveler capabilities, direct travel suppliers and indirect travel motivators. Senior travel satisfaction was explored based on tour related and tour staff service dimensions. This study offers some recommendations as to marketing techniques and means of extracting profit as a competitive strategy for traditional travel agents.

Human resource selection for software development projects using Taguchi's parameter design

Abstract Resource selection for choosing a best project team at the planning stage of a software development project is an important issue for reducing project cost, duration, and risk. Based on a real data retrieval software project, two cases of the software resource selection problem for single and multiple specialties under a dynamic, uncertain environment are considered and modeled. We then propose an integrated, efficient computational method based on design of experiments to solve the software resource selection problem, in which a critical resource diagram (CRD) is first used to show the interrelationships among human resources and tasks, followed by implementing Taguchi’s parameter design approach to select appropriate human resources. In Taguchi’s parameter design, human resources are identified as controllable factors while task complexities, which are generally unpredictable, are regarded as noise (uncontrollable) factors. The results show that our proposed approach is an efficient and effective method for human resource selection, which can achieve robust performance as well as significantly reduce project cost and duration. Moreover, use of CRDs in concert with a project planning table provides useful visual information, for example, to earmark bottleneck activities for attention, as well as cost information for budgeting management and control.

A holistic knowledge sharing framework in high-tech firms: game and co-opetition perspectives

High-tech companies are renowned for their high level of intellectual works even though they are facing a competitive environment. Knowledge sharing, therefore, plays an important role in a high-tech companys performance and innovation. In implementing knowledge sharing, high-tech firms often encounter setbacks due to neglecting human nature and the knowledge trading mechanism within organisations. This article aims to propose a holistic knowledge sharing framework by applying game theory, co-opetition, agent contest and reward systems, to solve the employees dilemma and free-rider behaviour problems. Based on this framework, we categorise high-tech firms into four types of knowledge sharing, such as job guarantee, individual performance, team performance, and team learning. Empirical results showed that the type of team learning firm with agent contest and reward systems designed for both team and individual could build a co-opetitive knowledge sharing environment.

Government performance evaluation using a balanced scorecard with a fuzzy linguistic scale

An efficient performance measurement system is essential for controlling, monitoring and improving service quality in governmental organisations. In this study, a new ‘government performance evaluating (GPE) procedure’ using a balanced scorecard structure integrated with a fuzzy linguistic scale is proposed for measuring and improving public service. The GPE procedure contributes the following: (1) integration of financial, citizen service and internal work processes as well as learning and growth perspectives in the evaluation procedure; (2) use of a fuzzy linguistic scale to convert the subjective cognition of managers into an information entity and (3) confirmation of improvement.

Single-sided economic screening models incorporating individual unit misclassification error and risk preference

Abstract Screening models are used when it is not technically, physically, or economically feasible to assess a products conformance to specifications on a performance variable. Under these circumstances, a screening variable is used to infer the quality of a product with respect to the performance variable. Past research efforts have independently addressed the design of screening inspection plans either in terms of average outgoing quality (AOQ), economic consequences, or individual unit misclassification error (IME). A model and procedure are proposed that integrates the economic consequences associated with a screening inspection plan with the concept of IME and AOQ as a basis for selecting the parameters of an optimal inspection plan. A cost function that realistically reflects the risk preference of a decision maker (DM) to the economic consequences of an inspection plan is also proposed. A general methodology, using standardized variables, is used to efficiently derive the optimal screening inspection plan for four different cost functions. A comprehensive empirical study is used to examine the sensitivity of an optimal inspection plan with respect to different cost functions. The results show that the nature of the cost function and its parameters have a significant impact on the screening selection plan and its characteristics.

Probabilistic tolerance design for a subsystem under burr distribution using taguchi's loss functions

Taguchi (1986) has derived tolerances for subcomponents, subsystems, parts and materials in which the relationship between a higher-level (Y) and a lower-level (X) quality characteristic is assumed to be deterministic and linear, namely, Y=α+βX, without an error term. Tsai (1990) developed a probabilistic tolerance design for a subsystem in which a bivariate normal distribution between the above two quality characteristics as well as Taguchis quadratic loss function were considered together to develop a closed form solution of the tolerance design for a subsystem. The Burr family is very rich for fitting sample data, and has positive domain. A bivariate Burr distribution can describe a nonlinear relationship between two quality characteristics, hence, it is adopted instead of a bivariate normal distribution and the simple solutions of three probabilistic tolerance desings for a subsystem are obtained for three cases of “nominal-is-best”, “smaller-is-berrer”, and “larger-is-beter” quality characteristics,...

Optimal mean-variance portfolio selection using Cauchy-Schwarz maximization

Fund managers highly prioritize selecting portfolios with a high Sharpe ratio. Traditionally, this task can be achieved by revising the objective function of the Markowitz mean-variance portfolio model and then resolving quadratic programming problems to obtain the maximum Sharpe ratio portfolio. This study presents a closed-form solution for the optimal Sharpe ratio portfolio by applying Cauchy–Schwarz maximization and the concept of Kuhn–Tucker conditions. An empirical example is used to demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed algorithms. Moreover, the proposed algorithms can also be used to obtain the optimal portfolio containing large numbers of securities, which is not possible, or at least is complicated via traditional quadratic programming approaches.

Revolution or evolution? An analysis of E-health innovation and impact using a hypercube model

This study utilises a hypercube innovation model to analyse the changes in both healthcare informatics and medical related delivery models based on the innovations from Tele-healthcare, electronic healthcare (E-healthcare), to mobile healthcare (M-healthcare). Further, the critical impacts of these E-health innovations on the stakeholders: healthcare customers, hospitals, healthcare complementary providers and healthcare regulators are identified. Thereafter, the critical capabilities for adopting each innovation are discussed.

A one-sided single screening procedure based on individual unit misclassification error

A procedure is proposed for screening applications in quality control that eliminates overselection (namely, the condition where the proportion of accepted screened items is greater than the proportion of conforming items in the original population) and controls for individual unit misclassification error (IME), namely, the probability of an accepted/selected item being below specification. Screening involves selecting items whose performance is within specifications based on observing one or more correlated screening variables in lieu of observing the performance variable directly. Overselection and an uncontrollably high IME can occur when (1) there is a high correlation between the performance and screening variables and (2) the proportion of conforming items among accepted items (or its complement, average outgoing quality (AOQ)), is prespecified as in, for example, Owen et al. (1975). We instead propose a procedure that prespecifies a maximum tolerable IME (emaxa) for accepted items, which eliminates...

Using the theory of planned behaviour to predict public sector training participation

Workplace learning is essential to the continuous improvement and competitiveness of organizations. Antecedent training conditions are crucial for training participation. Despite its recognized importance, few studies have proposed theory-based models for predicting the antecedents of training participation. The principal objective of this study was to test the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) for predicting public sector training participation. The second aim was to elucidate the factors that influence, directly or indirectly, employee intentions and behaviours to participate in training. A sample of 1108 participants was analysed by structural equation modelling to assess path suitability and significance. The empirical results confirmed the applicability of TPB for predicting training participation in the public sector.