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This paper seeks to assess the differences between learning performance and the satisfaction of learners who use digital resources in the Taiwan Libraries' History Digital Library (organized digital resources) and the Google search engine (unorganized digital resources) in problem‐solving learning for the same subject via the problem‐based learning (PBL) mode. The paper aims to explore the advantages and characteristics of using digital archives to support PBL and to offer suggestions that are helpful when using digital archives to support e‐learning.

The study adopted the quasi‐experimental design method to assign all participants into an experimental group and control group to evaluate differences in learning performance and the satisfaction of learners who use different digital resources during PBL processes. A statistical analysis scheme was employed to evaluate the learning performance of learners during PBL supported by different digital resources in terms of learning processes, PBL outcomes, and a questionnaire.

The study obtained the following conclusions: learning performance and the satisfaction of learners in the experimental group during PBL processes supported by digital archival resources were superior to those of control‐group learners who were supported by search engine resources; compared with search engine resources, the digital archival resources provide benefits in the learning phase, such as “action” (i.e. doing), in the proposed PBL mode, which has three learning phases; and compared with resources accessed through the Google search engine, PBL supported by digital archival resources should enhance searching performance and thereby increase learner willingness to use digital archives during e‐learning.

Using digital archives to support e‐learning is a new trend in the library sciences field; however, few studies have developed useful learning modes for effective e‐learning supported by digital archives. Evidential research related to e‐learning supported by digital archives is also lacking; most studies used digital archives as digital course materials, thus ignoring the principal property of digital archives – excellent resource organization.

The paper shows that by integrating the PBL mode with digital archives one can identify the advantages of digital archives in supporting e‐learning, resulting in innovative and valuable research.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the operating efficiency of accounting firm partnerships.

An empirical analysis is performed with a three-stage research method: data envelopment analysis (DEA), univariate testing and regression analysis.

The results indicate that large firms are not necessarily the most efficient. Efficient accounting firms see an average 50 percent contribution from total practice revenues and a 50 percent contribution from the number of cases. The percentage of senior managers is higher for firms with poor operating efficiency than for firms with good operating efficiency. This implies that firms with poor operating efficiency have a higher expenditure in human capital. Both efficient and inefficient firms find intense market competition to be the main challenge, followed by the challenge of market recessions. Appropriate educational training should be provided to upgrade the professional expertise and competency of staff. Response to peer competition and assistance to local accountant practices are the main reasons for setting up practice in Mainland China. The main operating mode in Mainland China is bringing personnel from Taiwan.

Using DEA, univariate testing and regression analysis, this paper aims to help the operators of accounting firms in dealing with business difficulties, finding their own core competencies, and making up for their operating disadvantages. The findings can provide references to reviewing whether their human resource allocation is appropriate and which operational type should be adopted by the accounting firms. Hence, the accounting firms can formulate their future operational strategies.

This paper aims to explore the relationship between human resource attributes and the operating performances of accounting firms by sampling data from the 2012-2013 Survey Report on Accounting Firms, as compiled by the Financial Supervisory Commission in Taiwan.

Multiple regression analysis is conducted to measure operating performances with various measurements, such as operating profits and business diversification. The independent variables include male to female ratio, percentage of senior executives, percentage of employees with higher education backgrounds, organizational vitality, human resource diversity, percentage of employees with certified public accountant (CPA) qualifications and human resource costs (HRCs). The control variables are the firm history, market shares and ownership structures since the inception of the firms.

The empirical results regarding the operating profits model suggest that the higher the male to female ratio, the percentage of employees with higher education backgrounds, organizational vitality, human resource diversity, percentage of employees with CPA qualifications and HRCs, the greater the operating profits. Meanwhile, the findings regarding the business diversification model indicate that the higher the male to female ratio, percentage of senior executives and human resource diversity, the greater the business diversification.

It is intended that the research findings can assist the management of accounting firms to understand the human resource attributes critical to operating performances, which will help to enhance the competitiveness of employees, mitigate the operating risks and improve the operating performances of the firms.

Although scholars have paid considerable attention to the relationship between technological diversification and firm performance, research on this relationship has produced mixed findings. To reconcile these inconsistent findings, this study, thus, aims to revisit the performance effect of technological diversification by considering two organizational characteristics as crucial moderators, namely, firm size and financial slack.

To test the research hypotheses, the research sample covers manufacturing firms in the 2008 Standard & Poor (S&P) 500 index. Data regarding the characteristics and patent information of the sample firms were obtained from Compustat and the US Patent and Trademark Office. The hypotheses were tested by using hierarchical regression models.

In a sample of 168 S&P 500 manufacturing firms, this study finds that technological diversification has a positive effect on firm performance. The relationship between technological diversification and firm performance is also found to be positively moderated by firm size, financial slack and their configuration.

The findings of this study further suggest that firms should be aware that the effect of technological diversification on performance can be enhanced or hindered in specific contexts.

Limited research has explored the potential marketing strategies to counter the damage associated with delayed recovery. Based on the construal level theory, this study seeks to suggest that customers tend to focus on different aspects of the compensation according to the speed of recovery. Thus, providing an adequate explanation to customers corresponding to expected recovery speed can effectively alleviate customer dissatisfaction with a delayed recovery.

This study examined the proposed hypotheses using a 2 (immediate vs delayed) by 2 (explanation: process-focused vs outcome-focused) experimental design.

The analytical results show that when an immediate recovery is available, an outcome-focused explanation will result in higher post-failure satisfaction than will a process-focused explanation. Conversely, when a delayed recovery is expected, post-failure satisfaction is higher for customers who receive a process-focused explanation than for those who receive an outcome-focused explanation.

This study thus recommends that firms should provide explanations compatible with expected recovery speed to better enhance post-failure satisfaction.

This study contributes to the body of service recovery literature by examining the differential effectiveness of outcome-focused and process-focused explanations under immediate and delayed recovery conditions. The findings provide a guideline that managers can use to formulate suitable explanations to alleviate the detrimental effects of delayed recovery.

This study compares the role of procedural justice in motivating organizational retaliatory behaviors between two employee samples, one American and the other Taiwanese. The cross‐national generality of procedural justice effects on retaliation are examined with regard to three issues. First, this study considers the comparability of the link between procedural justice and retaliation between the two national samples. Second, it examines whether procedural justice effects on retaliation are mediated by organizational identity in both samples, as has been found in previous research based on U.S. employees (Tyler & Blader, 2000). Third, it investigates whether procedural justice is defined similarly in the two samples. Results indicate moderate cultural variation in the influence of procedural justice on retaliation and in the mediating role of organizational identity. Specifically, although procedural justice was slightly less predictive of retaliation among the Taiwanese sample, the association between justice and retaliation for these respondents was fully (as opposed to partially) mediated by organizational identity. Significant national differences also emerged in the meaning of procedural justice. Taiwanese employees demonstrated a balanced influence of relational and instrumental concerns when making overall procedural fairness perceptions, while U.S. employees defined procedural fairness primarily in terms of relational concerns.

This paper aims to explore the relationship between market share and performance of large accounting firms. It also investigates whether the performance of international accounting firms is better than that of non-international accounting firms.

This paper divides the empirical analysis into two stages. The first stage constructs a multiple regression model to explore the relationship between market share, international operations and the performance of large accounting firms. The second stage uses the Tobit regression model to identify the determinants of market share of international accounting firms.

Empirical results show that there is a significant, positive relationship between market share and performance, and that the performance of international accounting firms is better than that of non-international accounting firms. Second, from the perspective of business characteristics, the scope of the most international accounting firms is traditional auditing services; namely financial attestation and tax business services.

From the clients' viewpoint, market share is one of the key indices in determining the quality of the accounting firms' service.

As the market for auditing services in Taiwan is saturated, in the future, the accounting industry will be concerned with non-auditing services. It is suggested that the large accounting firms could follow the demand changes of their clients: employ professionals in various fields to provide specialized services, adjust the range of transnational and management consultant services, and operate management consultant services more aggressively. These measures would have advantages in a fiercely competitive market.

As multinational firms seek to acquire competitive cost advantages through global sourcing, it is also important for them to develop effective strategies to reduce possible damage of a negative country‐of‐origin (COO) effect. This study aims to examine whether brand image and evaluation mode could alleviate a negative COO effect.

A 2(COO)×2(brand)×2(evaluation mode) experimental design was employed in order to examine whether brand and COO effects on product evaluation vary under different evaluation modes. The data were analyzed by a repeated measure MANOVA.

The results showed that products made in favourable countries were rated higher in joint evaluation mode than in separate evaluation mode. Conversely, products made in unfavourable countries were better evaluated in separate evaluation mode than in joint evaluation mode. The results of the study are not in favour of the notion that a strong brand image could overcome the negative effect of COO.

Conclusions of the study suggest that the COO effect plays an equally important role in consumer product evaluation for both strong and weak brands. Thus, even for a product with strong brand image, the negative consequences of COO stemming from consumersˇ unfavourable attitudes towards the manufacturing country are not likely to be completely eliminated. Moreover, to alleviate the negative impact of unfavourable COO, marketers may want to avoid direct comparison between products made in unfavourable countries with those made in favourable countries, regardless of their brand strength.

When marketing a product made in an unfavourable country, marketers should manage to create a selling environment facilitating a separate evaluation mode. In contrast, marketers should proactively manage to display products from favourable countries along with those from unfavourable countries in order to further enhance quality perceptions.

The results of the study could help marketers employ advantageous merchandizing or advertising strategies to lessen the negative effect of COO.

Taking into consideration external (technology acceptance factors, website service quality) as well as internal (specific holdup cost) factors, this paper aims to explore how internet customer satisfaction and loyalty can be associated with each other and how they are affected by these dynamics.

This study adopts structural equation modelling (SEM) as the main analytical tool. It investigates the shopping experiences of users of the major shopping websites of Taiwan.

The research results point to the following: first, customer e‐satisfaction will positively influence customer e‐loyalty directly; second, technology acceptance factors will positively influence customer e‐satisfaction and e‐loyalty directly; third, website service quality can positively influence customer e‐satisfaction and e‐loyalty directly; and fourth, specific holdup cost can positively influence customer e‐loyalty directly, but cannot positively influence customer e‐satisfaction directly.

This paper draws on the research results for implications for shopping website management and design, then suggests some ways to enhance performance for the website shopping industry.

This study aims to identify the influence exerted by the performance of human resources (HR) through effectiveness and efficiency in the success of business projects in Mexico.

The methodological design was quantitative, explanatory, observational and transversal, where a sample of 502 was used. A structural equation model (SEM) was developed using the statistical software AMOS v25 to test the hypothesis. SPSS v25 was used for data analysis. Regarding the goodness and fit indices of the SEM, χ² = 388.83/df = 143; χ²/df = 2.71; p < 0.001; GFI = 0.92; AGFI = 0.91; CFI = 0.96; TLI = 0.95; NFI = 0.94; IFI = 0.96; RMSEA = 0.05; RMR = 0.04; SRMR = 0.03, which turned out to be acceptable.

Through the results obtained through the SEM, it is shown that there is a positive and significant relationship between the performance of HR through their effectiveness (r = 0.65, p < 0.01) and efficiency (r = 0.64, p < 0.01) with respect to the success of the business projects. Likewise, the effectiveness of HR has a positive and significant influence on the efficiency (ß₂ = 0.46; p < 0.001) and the success of business projects (ß₃ = 0.89; p < 0.001) in Mexico. In the same way, efficiency positively and significantly influences the success of enterprises (ß₄ = 0.35; p < 0.001) in Mexico.

In this research, only the performance of the HR was assessed through efficiency and effectiveness as one of the variables that intervene in the development of the business project, and that is one of the main factors of analysis to achieve the success of the enterprise. In this sense, the results are limited to the extent that the findings can be generalized to business projects that are developed in different entities such as universities, incubators and other instances that promote the development of business projects and thereby guarantee success. In this sense, it is considered to carry out more research regarding these variables and others that can study the phenomenon and generate new scientific research.

HR performance is considered as one of the main factors that allow the success of business projects. However, some practical limitations are determined by the vision, strategies, as well as the orientation that entities such as universities, and incubators, among other organizations, determine to develop the business project and thus guarantee its success. Other practical implications lie in the leadership that the entrepreneur exercises in his/her work team and collaborators to generate synergy between them considering culture and identity, as well as the commitment to the business project.

The findings are relevant and of great value because they support entrepreneurship models, giving an alternative focus in the study to achieve success, specifically in the state of Guanajuato, which represents one of the main states that have with a greater number of ventures focused on the automotive, food, leather and footwear cluster, among other SMEs that promote business projects and is one of the main states of the Mexican Republic that contributes to the economic development of the region as well as the nation. Likewise, the study is relevant because there is currently not enough research focused on the variables analyzed on the success of business projects in the Mexican context.