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Although a number of studies have researched food firms’ unethical practices, the mechanisms used to prevent these practices remain underexplored from the perspective of corporate governance. As independent directors (IDs) have been viewed as a mechanism to deter corporate misconducts, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the influences of the ratio of IDs on the board, IDs’ industrial experience and their participation in corporate governance training courses on food firms’ unethical production practices.

This study is based on a sample of 239 firm-year observations in Taiwanese food industries. The Poisson model with fixed effects was used to test the research hypotheses.

The results show that board independence and IDs with food industry expertise were not effective in deterring food firms from unethical production practices. The expected monitoring function of IDs would only realize when they complete a sufficient number of corporate governance training courses. These courses can make IDs aware of their responsibilities and roles in governing firms.

This study is the first to identify the effects of corporate governance practices on food firms’ unethical production practices. The value of this study may provide food firms practical solutions that enable corporate executives to behave ethically.

The spatial and psychological distance within agri-food chains provides both profit and risk for supply chain members. Grounded on the transaction cost economics (TCE) and institutional theory (IT), the purpose of this paper is to test whether the adoption of multiple supply chains (MSCs), which adopt both traditional and shortened supply chains, can be used to manage uncertainty and mitigate the risk associated with a supply chain.

In order to test the hypothesis, matched questionnaire surveys were developed to collect the data from farm managers and consumers. Completed questionnaires were received from 112 respondents. The hierarchical regression analysis was performed to test hypotheses.

The result shows the positive effects of environmental and behavioral uncertainties on MSC adoption and represents the diminished moderating effects of institutions (industrial and consumption tendency) on the relationship between uncertainties and MSA adoption.

This study only explored producers and their recommended consumers; future studies can undertake questionnaire designs (one producer-to-many consumers) and empirical analyses with analytic hierarchy process theory to reexamine the hypotheses proposed in this study.

MSC adoption is a way to manage uncertainties resulting from spatial and psychological distance in the supply chain. Producers and consumers show their risk preferences by SC adoption after considering pre-constructed societal norms. Therefore, the consumers’ and producers’ choice of a supply chain reflects a process of communicating risk. The adoption of a mixed governance mode (MSC adoption) and accessing information about common practices are two ways to decrease such uncertainties.

There are multiple goals (traceability, fairness, efficiency, well-being) in the food supply chain that may be satisfied by MSC adoption. Therefore, policymakers should understand the different values of various supply chains and facilitate the development of various supply chain modes.

This study integrated the undersocialized and oversocialized perspectives (TCE and IT) to understand how uncertainties of supply chains may be diminished. Based on these perspectives, it found that the adoption of the mixed governance mode and accessing of institutional information are two ways to decrease such uncertainties.

This study expands the isomorphic logic on the participatory guarantee system (PGS) alternative certification method, which aims to level the supply chain sustainability field to determine how the alignment of disadvantaged agrifood stakeholders (e.g. small/applicant farmers, local organizations, consumers and volunteer auditors) might neutralize the negative effects of stakeholder heterogeneity (SH) on PGS recognition.

The sample comprised 113 multilateral matching questionnaires collected from disadvantaged agrifood stakeholders participating in the PGS activities of the Green Conservation Label managed by Taiwan's Tse-Xin Organic Agriculture Foundation (TOAF). This study adopted hierarchical regression to test the hypotheses.

Stakeholder alignment, external community (EC) constructs, similar backgrounds (SBs) and value congruence (VC) diminish the negative effects of SH on PGS recognition.

PGS is an agrifood supply chain social movement designed to allow underprivileged actors to enact solutions collectively to address social inequities and ecological problems through fair procedures, collective assignments and collaborative intentionality. PGS members who leverage VC, SB and EC will have a greater chance of successfully overcoming their institutional disadvantages.

Based on the PGS activities initiated by disadvantaged agrifood stakeholders, this study transformed isomorphic logics, including coercive, mimetic and normative isomorphisms, into a mechanism with which individuals can build a governance structure that helps disadvantaged agrifood stakeholders develop alternative institutions by pooling their resources.

The reliability of chip‐on‐film (COF) packages is fundamentally dependent upon the quality of the eutectic Au‐Sn joint formed between the Au bumps on the integrated circuit (IC) device and the Sn‐plated Cu inner leads. Therefore, it is essential that an appropriate bonding temperature is achieved during the inner lead bonding (ILB) process. The purpose of this paper is to identify the optimal processing conditions which maximize the reliability of the Au‐Sn joints.

The paper commences by performing an experimental investigation to establish the temperature at three specific locations within the COF/ILB system in a typical gang‐bonding process. The relationship between the setting temperature of the bonding tool and the temperature of the tool surface is then calibrated using an off‐line experimental system. An ANSYS finite element (FE) model is then constructed to simulate the temperature distribution within the COF/ILB system under representative temperature conditions. The validity of the numerical model is confirmed by comparing the simulation results with the experimental temperature measurements. The FE model is then used in a 2³ factorial design process to evaluate the effect of the principal COF/ILB processing parameters, namely the contact area, the tool temperature and the stage temperature, on the temperature induced at the interface between the Au bumps on the IC chip and the Sn‐coated Cu leads on the polyimide film.

The results reveal that the interfacial bonding temperature is determined primarily by the stage temperature.

A regression analysis model is applied to the factorial design results to construct a COF/ILB design chart which enables the rapid identification of the stage and tool temperatures required to achieve the minimum feasible eutectic bonding temperature.

The purpose of this paper is to present a novel high speed impact testing method for evaluating the effects of low temperatures on eutectic and lead‐free solder joints. Interfacial cracking failure of Sn‐based and Pb‐free solders at subzero temperatures is of significant concern for electronic assemblies that operate in harsh environments.

This paper presents a newly designed low temperature control system coupled with an Instron micro‐impact testing machine, which offers a package level test for solder bumps, and that is used at subzero temperature ranges as low as −40°C. This study examined the failure characteristics of 63Sn‐37Pb (Sn37Pb) and 96.5Sn‐3Ag‐0.5Cu (SAC305) solder joints at temperatures ranging from room temperature (R.T.) to −40°C, and at impact speeds of 1 m/s.

Three types of failure mode were identified: M1 interfacial fracture with no residual solder remaining on the pad (interfacial cracking); M2 interfacial fracture with residual solder persisting on the pad (mixed mode failure); and M3 solder ball fracture (bulk solder cracking). The experimental results indicated that the energy to peak load for both types of solders decreased significantly, by approximately 35 percent to 38 percent when the test temperature was reduced from R.T. to −40°C. In addition, the peak load of the Sn37Pb solder joint increased noticeably with a decreasing test temperature. However, the peak load of the SAC305 specimen remained virtually unchanged with a reduction in the temperature. The Sn37Pb solder joints failed in an M3 failure mode under all the considered testing temperatures. The SAC305 solder joints displayed both M1 and M2 failure modes at R.T.; however, they failed almost exclusively in M1 mode at the lowest test temperature of −40°C.

This paper presents a novel technique for evaluating high‐speed impact strength and energy absorbance of Sn‐based and Pb‐free solders at the chip level within a low temperature control system. To overcome the drawbacks experienced in other studies, this study focused specifically on cryo‐impact testing systems and the performed experimental steps to improve the accuracy of post‐test analysis.

This study seeks to address the challenge of repatriate turnover by focusing on how effective repatriation adjustment, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment are at predicting the Taiwanese repatriates' intentions to leave their organization. By building on the cross‐cultural adjustment and turnover theories and researches, this study expands these recent findings to Taiwanese repatriates.

Multiple regression was used to predict intent to leave and explain the impact of the three predictors on intent to leave. Correlation was used to compare the relationship of study variables.

The results of multiple regression indicated that repatriation adjustment was the strongest predictor of intent to leave followed by organizational commitment. The combination of the three variables can predict approximately 58 percent of the variance of intent to leave. Overall interrelations among the independent variables showed a positive strong relationship and negatively related to intent to leave the organization.

The results provide empirical evidence that repatriation adjustment, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment are negatively related to intent to leave the organization. Furthermore, the conceptual framework of this study can be a guide to future research in repatriates' turnover intention.

The results of this study may help multinational organizations in Taiwan to enhance the international assignment process of their employees and keep valuable human capital within the organization.

The purpose of this paper is to present a system that analyzes trustworthiness and ranks applications to improve the search experience.

The system adopts pointwise mutual information to calculate comment semantics. It examines subjective (signed opinions, anonymous opinions and star ratings) and objective factors (download numbers, reputation ratings) before filtering, ranking and displaying). The authors invited three experts to check three categories and compared the results using Spearman and two statistics.

A high correlation between the proposed system and the expert ranking system suggests that the system can act as decision support.

First, the authors have only tested the correlation between the proposed system and an expert ranking system; user satisfaction was not evaluated. The authors plan to conduct a later survey to gather user feedback. Second, the ranking system evaluates applications using fixed weights and disregards time. Therefore, in the future, the authors plan to enable their system to weight recent records over older ones.

User discussion forums, although helpful, have drawbacks. Not all reviews are trustworthy, and forums provide no filtering mechanisms to combat information overload. The solution to this is the authors’ system that crawls a forum, filters information, analyzes the trustworthiness of each comment and ranks the application for the user.

This paper develops a formula to analyze the trustworthiness of opinions, enabling the system to act as decision support when no professional advice is available.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between job satisfaction, family support, learning orientation, organizational socialization and cross‐cultural training and cross‐cultural adjustment in the proposed model.

A quantitative research method was used, and correction and regression were employed. The study undertook a multidimensional approach in its assessment of the adjustment of Taiwanese financial institution expatriates.

This study found that job satisfaction played an important role in the proposed model of expatriate adjustment in an international assignment. Also found to be of importance was the role of organization socialization.

The conclusions of this study pertain only to Taiwanese financial institution expatriates in the USA, and cannot be generalized for cross‐cultural adjustment in other countries.

Given the associations between job satisfaction and cross‐cultural adjustment, multinationals should ensure that they have human resource policies and practice to support the job satisfaction of expatriates. Modifying socialization policies and practices can have a positive influence on expatriates' adjustment.

This study both replicates and extends previous research on cross‐cultural adjustment. It provides objective information for expatriate selection, management and socialization.