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In order to follow the international trend of increasing transparency in financial statements, Taiwan began to implement regulations on expensing employee bonuses in 2008, a process that involves the use of specific dates as the basis for issuing the bonuses but which may also have the drawback of resulting in some degree of unfairness. The purpose of this paper is to study and solve the above problem.

The present study used Markov regime-switching models to obtain durations of different states, thereby obtaining average stock durations for use as the basis to calculate the number of shares to be distributed.

Empirical results show that replacing share prices on specific dates with those of average durations when issuing employee bonuses could better reflect employee-deserved real wages while keeping a company’s managers and management teams from being motivated to manage real earnings and manipulate share prices. When stock prices are higher, companies will tend to issue cash rather than stock bonuses, and vice versa when the prices are lower.

This study proposes a different point of view with regards to the basis for the allotted number of shares for employee bonuses under current laws and regulations, and suggests using the concept of average stock prices in place of the single-price concept implemented under the current system in order to avoid incentives to manipulate by people, so as to fairly express the true state of the enterprise.

The purpose of this paper is to apply an on‐line automatic inspection and measurement of surface defect of thin‐film transistor liquid‐crystal display (TFT‐LCD) panels in the polyimide coating process with a modified template matching method and back propagation neural network classification method.

By using the technique of searching, analyzing, and recognizing image processing methods, the target pattern image of TFT‐LCD cell defects can be obtained.

With template match and neural network classification in the database of the system, the program judges the kinds of the target defects characteristics, finds out the central position of cell defect, and analyzes cell defects.

The recognition speed becomes faster and the system becomes more flexible in comparison to the previous system. The proposed method and strategy, using unsophisticated and economical equipment, is also verified. The proposed method provides highly accurate results with a low‐error rate.

In terms of sample training, the principles of artificial neural network were used to train the sample detection rate. In sample analysis, character weight was implemented to filter the noise so as to enhance discrimination and reduce detection.

The paper describes how pre‐inspection image processing was utilized in collaboration with the system to excel the inspection efficiency of present machines as well as for reducing system misjudgment. In addition, the measure for improving cell defect inspection can be applied to production line with multi‐defects to inspect and improve six defects simultaneously, which improves the system stability greatly.

Technology has revolutionized the delivery of health-care services, with e-consultations becoming popular mode of service delivery, especially during the pandemic. Extant research has examined the adoption of e-health consultation services, with little attention paid to examine the switching behavior. This study aims to identify factors affecting patients’ intentions to switch from conventional mode i.e. visiting hospitals/clinics to e-health consultations.

To understand this we use the push–pull–mooring (PPM) framework and integrate variables from status quo bias framework to the model. A cross-section research design was used, which rendered 413 valid responses which were obtained from the patients visiting a traditional hospital setup. The data was analyzed using partial least square – structural equation modeling using SmartPLS 3.0.

Findings suggest that push effects (inconvenience and perceived risk), pull effects (opportunity for alternatives and ubiquitous care), mooring effects (trust) and inertia significantly influence patients’ switching intentions from visiting hospitals/clinics to e-health consultations. Further, habit and switching cost positively influence inertia.

This study shall enable online health-care service providers and practitioners to understand patients’ intentions to switch to online health platforms and accordingly develop related marketing strategies, services and policies to encourage them to switch to the new offerings.

The current study enriches the previous research on e-health services by applying and extending PPM framework as the base model and showing its efficiency in predicting individuals switching intentions in the context of emerging economies. This study bridges the gap by focusing on switching behavior in context of health services.

The purpose of the paper is to evaluate the essential role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on SMEs' performance by exploring the mediating role of corporate image (CI), corporate reputation (CR) and customer loyalty (CL) between CSR and firm performance (FP) in the context of an emerging country.

Based on an extended literature review on CSR, CI, CR and CL studies, the authors evaluate the impact of these four constructs on SMEs' performance in an emerging market. The paper follows a quantitative approach. The study sample was composed of 482 responses covering top executives, managers and experts. The Smart PLS SEM version 3.3.2 was used to analyse the data of the small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) of Vietnam in the year 2020–2021.

The authors' findings reveal significant and positive relationships amongst CSR, FP, CSR and CI, CSR and CR, CSR and CL, and most importantly, the findings add value to the current knowledge by exploring the mediating effect of CI, CR and CL between CSR and FP.

The study was conducted in Vietnam. As a result, the findings of the study might not be applicable for other countries, if the economic and environmental settings are different from that of Vietnam. Therefore, future research should consider for other countries, other regions. Second, due to the purpose and priority of the study, CI, CR, and CL was employed as mediators amongst the relationship between CSR and FP. Thus, future research should consider other mediators or moderators in such a relationship to see how CSR generates outcomes in the new associations.

The study regarding the role of CSR in enhancing the performance of SMEs can motivate firm's chief executive officers (CEOs) to be proactive in getting involved and practising CSR in a consistent manner. Second, the above discussion draws a very important implication for the executive level, the management level of the enterprise, which enterprises should balance the interests of business, customers, other stakeholders, the environment and society in order to optimise CSR outcomes for improving competitiveness and developing sustainably. This implication is particularly important to the survival and development of SMEs in a challenging emerging economy.

The study widens the literature regarding relationship between CSR and SMEs' performance. Besides, the study supports stakeholder theory that explains why CSR positively affects firm's performance. The significant mediating roles of CI, CR and CL were positively confirmed in the study. Although previous studies determined that such roles are strategic source of competitive advantages of enterprises, however, how CSR involved in enhancing the roles has not been deeply explored and integrated. Third, the findings of the study support the resource-based view (RBV) and resource-based perspective that explains why firm should engage in CSR activities, and CI, CR and CL can enhance firm's performance by providing strategic source of competitive advantages that facilitate business to improve its performance in sustainable direction.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, the current literature on CSR and FP shows that, to date, there has been little empirical research on the mediating mechanism of CI, CR and CL in the link between CSR and FP for SMEs. The findings of the study may have great implications for entrepreneurs and top management with respect to the strategic perspectives to drive the businesses and to improve firm's performance in a sustainable direction in the context of emerging markets. In addition, the finding might be of great interest to – and motivate – SMEs' managers to engage with CSR actions where such businesses were or are situated during and after the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. By that understanding, the Government might allow for innovative and groundbreaking policies or the reformation of old policies to leverage businesses to promote their strengths towards sustainable development in the new economic settings. The findings of the study may be a significant contribution to SMEs in Vietnam and in other emerging economies.

The purpose of this study is to propose a research model based on the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model to test whether network externality, gamification and media richness as environmental feature antecedents to learners' learning engagement (LE) can affect their continuance intention of massive open online courses (MOOCs).

Sample data for this study were collected from learners who had experience in taking the gamified MOOCs provided by the MOOC platform launched by a well-known university in Taiwan, and 315 usable questionnaires were analyzed using structural equation modeling in this study.

This study verified that learners' perceived network externality, gamification and media richness in MOOCs positively influenced their behavioral LE, emotional LE and social LE elicited by MOOCs, which collectively caused their continuance intention of MOOCs. The results support all proposed hypotheses, and the research model accounts for 75.6% of the variance in learners' continuance intention of MOOCs.

This study uses the S-O-R model as a theoretical groundwork to construct learners' continuance intention of MOOCs as a series of the internal process, which is influenced by network externality, gamification and media richness. Noteworthily, three psychological constructs, behavioral LE, emotional LE and social LE, are employed to represent learners' organisms of MOOCs usage. To date, the concepts of network externality, gamification and media richness are rarely together adopted as environmental stimuli, and psychological constructs as organisms have received lesser attention in prior MOOCs studies using the S-O-R model. Hence, this study's contribution on the application of capturing psychological constructs for completely expounding three types of environmental features as antecedents to learners' continuance intention of MOOCs is well documented.

The purpose of this paper is to facilitate the use of public communication in the development of healthy food plans for consumers. This research aims to investigate whether the influence of “fit” to individuals’ goal pursuit strategies on the effectiveness of advertisement frames can intensify persuasion to consume healthy (virtue) foods or restrain the consumption of unhealthy (vice) foods in health promotion.

Two experiments were conducted to investigate how goal-framed messages for different food types affect consumer decision making by moderating regulatory focus.

The results demonstrate that the compatibility between the mere exposure to virtue (vice) food in a negative (positive) frame drives the effectiveness of a given goal framing. However, when additional regulatory focus is added, the fit in the vice/promotion and virtue/prevention condition causes the effect of framing to disappear. Moreover, the unfit in the virtue/promotion and vice/prevention condition suppresses the virtue (vice) preference in the positive (negative) frame.

These findings suggest that under different valence framing, advertising messages provide different amounts of persuasion in virtue/vice conditions and the moderation effect of regulatory fit on framing to influence virtue/vice food preference.

Public policy executives and marketers can increase the likelihood that consumers will make healthy food choices by fitting goals to strengthen persuasion. The unfitted goal orientation between food and regulatory focus enhances the framing effect leading to food preference changes.

The framing effect disappears when additional regulatory fit the food type, but is enhanced when additional regulatory focus does not fit the food type. By bringing fit into the frame and the virtue/vice food type, this research extends the notion of regulatory fit into three pairs of given goal orientations on the persuasiveness of message framing to health-related communication. It provides a substantial explanation underlying persuasion to promote a greater understanding of virtue/vice food preferences.

With the advent of the digital era, the internet has gradually become an essential factor in people’s lives. Its increasing popularity has also caused e-commerce to thrive, and has increased the power of online marketing. In recent years, social commerce has emerged as a new mode of operation which can be distinguished from traditional e-commerce. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The main purpose of this study is to determine which factors influence a consumer’s behavioral intention in the context of social commerce websites, and to explore overall purchase intentions based on the consumer’s cognitive evaluation. The examination reveals that consumers’ multidimensional perceptions influence both their perceptions of value and their purchase intentions. Other related social awareness factors explored by this study are also shown to influence customers’ purchase intentions.

In summary, the results show that perceived value and social awareness factors influence customers’ purchasing decisions and behavioral intentions for different gender. These findings have significant theoretical and managerial implications.

Social commerce is a subset of e-commerce brought about by the development of social networking. Activities conducted on social networking websites can be considered as a form of social commerce. In Taiwan, social commerce is still in the early stages of development.

Blogs have become a widespread means for the exchange of information, where topics regarding food and nutrition feature with increasing prominence. In the sphere of online risk communication, food bloggers are relevant actors because they pass on practical information about food preparation and crucial phases of food safety (preservation, handling and cooking of food). Moreover, they have the ability to reach user networks in a rapid and capillary manner. This paper focusses on the figure of the food blogger, the context in which he/she acts and his/her perceptions and type of communication of food safety issues.

Quantitative and qualitative data were collected using an online survey and an online training programme was implemented to actively engage food bloggers in the creation of food risk communication.

This study showed that a common reason for the creation of a food blog is the love for food and the practice of caring for themselves and others through food. Food bloggers feel responsible for taking care of their users by providing accurate information related to health and safety. Communication via blogs is based on the shared experiences of users, thereby representing a type of knowledge that is closer to direct practice. Interacting with these new actors in the field of food is important for institutions traditionally committed to promoting public health and food safety.

The research stands out for its innovative purpose of using the network of food blogs as a communication tool that overcomes the traditional linear communication model (top-down) to experiment with a new participatory model and spread to Internet users good practices related to food management.

The purpose of this study is to propose the research model integrating the expectation-confirmation model with the views of learning engagement (LE) and extending DeLone and McLean information systems (IS) success model to examine whether quality determinants as antecedents to students' beliefs can influence students' continuance intention of massive open online courses (MOOCs).

Sample data for this study were collected from students enrolled in a comprehensive university in Taiwan. A total of 600 questionnaires were distributed, and 363 (60.5%) useable questionnaires were analyzed using structural equation modeling in this study.

This study proved that students' perceived knowledge quality, system quality, interface design quality, learner–instructor interaction quality, and collaboration quality all positively caused students' perceived usefulness, confirmation and LE in MOOCs, which jointly explained students' satisfaction with MOOCs and subsequently resulted in students' continuance intention of MOOCs.

This study fully evaluates IS-related and interaction-related quality determinants via an understanding of students' state of LE in explaining students' continuance intention of MOOCs that is difficult to expound with only their utilitarian perception of MOOCs. Hence, this study contributes to deep insights into an all-round quality evaluation in the field of MOOCs continuance intention and takes extrinsic and intrinsic motivators into account in the theoretical development of MOOCs continuance intention to acquire a more comprehensive and robust analysis.

This study aims to analyze the determinants influencing Chinese manufacturing companies in implementing lean manufacturing (LM).

The determinants to be explored in this study consist of technological, organizational and environmental (TOE) dimensions. A questionnaire survey was conducted on Chinese manufacturing companies, and 208 samples were analyzed.

The findings show that the relative advantage of LM and organizational support have significantly positive effects on Chinese manufacturing firms’ adoption of LM. The complexity of LM, quality of human resources, organizational readiness, customer pressure, international situation, governmental support and environmental uncertainty do not have significant effects.

This paper contributes to the literature by using the TOE model to explore the factors influencing LM adoption in the Chinese manufacturing industry.