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The flexibility of batch process enables its wide application in fine-chemical, pharmaceutical and semi-conductor industries, whilst its complexity necessitates control performance monitoring to ensure high operation efficiency. This paper proposes a data-driven approach to carry out controller performance monitoring within batch based on linear quadratic Gaussian (LQG) method.

A linear time-varying LQG method is proposed to obtain the joint covariance benchmark for the stochastic part of batch process input/output. From historical golden operation batch, linear time-varying (LTV) system and noise models are identified based on generalized observer Markov parameters realization.

Open/closed loop input and output data are applied to identify the process model as well as the disturbance model, both in Markov parameter form. Then the optimal covariance of joint input and output can be obtained by the LQG method. The Hotelling's Tˆ2 control chart can be established to monitor the controller.

(1) An observer Markov parameter approach to identify the time-varying process and noise models from both open and closed loop data, (2) a linear time-varying LQG optimal control law to obtain the optimal benchmark covariance of joint input and output and (3) a joint input and output multivariate control chart based on Hotelling's T² statistic for controller performance monitoring.

The purpose of this paper is to comment on Professor Ming-Jer Chen’s recent publication titled “Competitive dynamics: Eastern roots, Western growth” and present an asymmetry reversing perspective on the competitive dynamics between two nonobvious, invisible or indirect competitors, namely, how emerging market resource-poor firms compete and outcompete advanced country resource-rich rivals.

The author first identifies an important neglect in Professor Chen’s scholarship on competitive dynamics, i.e., the neglect of the ubiquity of the less visible competition between two actors who initially would not be considered as competitors. Then, the author proposes an asymmetry reversing theory (ART) of competitive dynamics to redress this neglect. The theory is presented in two parts. The first part describes the competitive dynamics between the two actors as a three-stage process of reversing the asymmetry in resource possession and market position between the resource-poor firm and its resource-rich rivals. The second part explains the key success factors for the resource-poor firm to go through each of the three stages.

The growth process of the resource-poor firm can be broadly divided into three stages: surviving, catching-up, and outcompeting. For ambitious yet pragmatic resource-poor firms, in the surviving stage, they often (have to) accept the asymmetry between themselves and their resource-rich rivals in terms of resource possession and market position, and try to avoid any direct competition with the strong incumbents. They often tactically appear to pursue different paths of development from those of the strong incumbents by focusing on particular product categories and market segments. Doing so allows the resource-poor firms to win times and spaces for non-interrupted growth. Once they have accumulated sufficient resources and market experiences, they start to reduce the asymmetry between themselves and their better-endowed rivals by entering the similar or same product categories and market segments. To effectively catch up and outcompete the incumbents, they often differentiate themselves from their rivals by offering cheaper products or services, adding new features to their products, providing extra services to their customers, inventing new business models, etc.

One limitation of this paper is that the ART framework has so far been built on anecdotal evidences. It needs to be tested by empirical studies and refined further in the future. Another limitation is that the proposed theory is based on competitive dynamics between emerging market resource-poor firms and advanced country resource-rich firms. It needs to be tested whether this theory has applicability to any other firms.

This paper fills an important research gap in the competitive dynamics literature by proposing an asymmetry reversing theory of competitive dynamics between a weak latecomer and a strong incumbent in a competitive field.

This article analyzes the implementation of anti-corruption reforms in Taiwan by two former presidents, Chen Shui-bian (2000-2008) and Ma Ying-jeou (2008-2016).

A three-tier research approach, including in-depth interviews, questionnaire survey, and descriptive and inferential analysis, is adopted. In addition to Chen and Ma, 11 senior anti-corruption officials who served under both presidents were interviewed by the author. The survey questions cover 12 factors which are later grouped into the five dimensions of ethical leadership, considerate leadership, delegating leadership, participatory leadership, and performance to illustrate the causal relationship between these dimensions and performance.

Ma’s personal ethics are distinct from Chen’s in kind but Ma’s overall leadership and performance outshine Chen’s in degree rather than in kind. While the gap of ethical leadership between two Taiwan presidents is significantly wider than other dimensions of leadership, the outcome of the national integrity is not proportionate to the ethical leadership gap. In other words, personal ethics are not automatically transformed into political will for enhancing anti-corruption effectiveness. Three popular forms of corruption, red envelopes (bribing), influence-peddling, and vote-buying are analyzed in the context of changing political culture through national leadership. Unfortunately, both Chen and Ma produce insignificant contributions based on public surveys.

Policy-makers and scholars can use these research findings to further explore how ethical leadership can enhance a country’s anti-corruption performance.

With China’s economic growth slowing down and the growth rate of fiscal revenue decreasing, the pressure on local government debts is further increasing. Under this background, it is of great significance to clarify the relation between local government debts and China’s economic growth in order to give full play to the positive role of local debts in stabling growth. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Therefore, this paper explores the impact of Chinese local government debt on economic growth from theoretical and empirical aspects, respectively, and compares the regional differences between different debts and economic growth dynamics.

In the theoretical model part, this paper constructs a three-sector dynamic game model, under the two circumstances of whether local government is subject to debt constraints, and examines the relation between local government debt and economic growth and other variables through numerical simulation. Research shows that when the government is not constrained by debt, there is an inverted “U” relation between government debt and economic growth. When the government is constrained by debt, the economic growth rate gradually decreases as the government debt increases.

In the theoretical analysis part, this paper tries to estimate the amount of local debts under different calibers and examines the impact of different types of local government debts on China’s economic growth and their regional differences. The results show that excessive accumulation of government hidden debts in the eastern region is not conducive to economic growth, while explicit debts in the central and western regions significantly contribute to local economic growth. The results of empirical analysis are basically consistent with the predictions of the theoretical model.

The present research aims to examine a range of momentum trading strategies for the tourism and hospitality sector.

The paper followed the methodology of Jegadeesh and Titman (1993) to construct the portfolios. In this methodology, all portfolios were formed and evaluated by their cumulative stock returns over the past J periods and holding the position for the next K periods. In total, nine formation and holding periods were used, represented by 3, 6 and 12. For example, strategy 3–3 (that is, strategy with J = 3 and K = 3) refers to the strategy that stocks are ranked based on their previous three months and then held for the next three months.

The findings demonstrated that none of these momentum investing strategies was profitable. Most of the results, however, show positive, but insignificant momentum returns. This finding can be interpreted as price reversal over a horizon of three to twelve months in the US hospitality and tourism sector. These results are robust to size, different formation and holding combinations, beta and turnover.

Regarding the research limitations, this paper only considers the US tourism and hospitality sector. Therefore, the extension of results to other developed and developing markets should be taken carefully. Also, this paper relies only on the methodology of Jegadeesh and Titman (1993). Other methodologies could be suitable avenues for future research.

Investors and portfolio managers who seek for earning abnormal returns by investing in the US HT stocks can attain their hopes by constructing portfolios based on existing guidelines in the literature and adopting a short-term reversal trading strategy or by buying past losers and selling past winners of the US tourism and hospitality stocks.

This research contributes to the hospitality finance literature by offering the investors who are interested in the US hospitality and tourism sector an uncomplicated trading rule that uses real return data and is expected to generate actual returns. Moreover, the momentum strategy of Jegadeesh and Titman (1993) is never used in the hospitality finance literature.

本研究旨在探討各種可應用於旅遊及酒店業的動量交易策略。

本文按照 Jegadeesh 和 Titman（1993）的研究方法來建造投資組合。使用這研究方法時，所有投資組合均以它們在過去J 時期的累積股票收益和在未來K 時期的持倉來建立及評價的。九個組成方式及持有期被使用，以3、6、12來表示。例如，策略3-3（那就是說，該策略以J = 3和 K = 3）指的策略是以有關的股票基於過去三個月而被分等級，繼而在未來三個月被持有。

研究結果顯示，這些投資策略全沒帶來利潤；唯大部分結果顯示正動能策略報酬，雖報酬是微不足道的。這研究結果或許可理解為在美國酒店及旅遊業為期三至十二個月的價格逆轉。這些結果就規模、不同組成方式和持有組合、beta 和成交量而言是強而有力的。

就研究的局限而言，本文只是考慮美國的酒店及旅遊業；因此，如把研究結果伸延至其它已開發或發展中的市場，則需小心處理。另外，本文只依賴 Jegadeesh 和 Titman（1993）的研究方法，就此，使用其它研究方法會是日後相關研究的適當途徑。

欲透過投資於美國酒店及旅遊股票而尋求賺取異常收益的投資者和投資組合經理可如願以償，方法是基於文獻內現存的準則建造投資組合，以及採用短期的逆轉交易策略，或買入美國酒店及旅遊業過去輸家及賣出過去贏家。

本研究為酒店金融文獻作出貢獻，因研究為對美國酒店及旅遊業有興趣的投資者提供了使用實際收益數據及預期可創造實際回報的簡單交易規則；而且， Jegadeesh 和 Titman（1993）的動量策略從未在酒店金融文獻內被使用過。

Degradable mulch film (DMF) is a potential alternate to polyethylene (PE) mulching. In this regard, the purpose of this paper is to explore the effects and paths of natural disaster shock and risk aversion influencing farmers’ DMF adoption.

This research is conducted by collecting cross-sectional data of corn farmers in Zhangye, China. First, by using the Tobit model, the paper attempts to explore the effects of natural disaster shock and risk aversion influencing farmers’ DMF adoption. Second, IV-Tobit model is applied to deal with endogenous problems between risk aversion and DMF adoption. Additionally, the researchers used a moderating model to analyze feasible paths of natural disaster shock and risk aversion impacting farmers’ DMF adoption.

The outcomes show that natural disaster shock and risk aversion significantly and positively affect farmers’ DMF adoption. Though risk aversion plays a significant moderating effect in influencing farmers’ DMF adoption by natural disaster shock, the moderating effect has a serious disguising effect. By considering the heterogeneity of risk aversion, the paper further confirms that if the intensity of natural disaster shock is increased by one unit, the intensity of MDF adoption by farmers with high-risk aversion also tends to increase by 15.85%.

This study is the pioneer one, which is evaluating the intensity of farmers’ DMF adoption from adoption ratio, investment amount, labor input and adoption time. Additionally, the research provides important guidelines for policymakers to motivate medium and low-risk aversion farmers to adopt DMF.

This study aims to identify the precedents of compulsively using a credit card, analyzing the influence of the following factors: power–prestige, anxiety, distrust and materialism.

Data collection was performed by the survey method, while the structural equation modeling technique was used for data analysis, adopting the confirmatory factor analysis and path analysis.

The impact that anxiety has on compulsive use of credit cards was confirmed. Furthermore, the influence of materialism present in an individual on the compulsive use of a credit card was also proven.

As a limitation, the power–prestige construction did not obtain satisfactory average variance extracted in the modeling. Other limitations can be pointed out; for instance, it was a sample composed of university students and with geographic restrictions.

This study highlights the importance of promoting public policies oriented toward the conscious use of credit cards. Interference in the approach of financial institutions aimed at attracting new clients in universities is also necessary.

This study aggregates information about the buying behavior of university students, how the precedents affect credit card use behavior and the harmful effects of compulsive use of credit cards.

The originality of this study is in offering a new approach to credit cards by analyzing their usage behavior, more specifically, the compulsive use of credit cards.

This study aims to examine decision factors for global sourcing, differentiated into transcontinental and continental sourcing to obtain insight into locational aspects of sourcing decisions and global trends. This study analyzed various country perceptions to reveal their influence on sourcing decisions. The country of origin (COO) theory explains why certain country perceptions and images influence purchasing experts in their selection of suppliers.

This study used a two-study approach. In Study 1, the authors conducted discrete choice card experiments with 71 purchasing experts located in Europe and the USA to examine the importance of essential decision factors for global sourcing. Given the clear evidence that location is a factor in sourcing decisions, in Study 2 the authors investigated purchasers’ perceptions and images of countries, adding country ranking experiments on various perceived characteristics such as quality, price and technology.

Study 1 provides evidence that the purchasers’ personal relationship with the supplier plays a decisive role in the supplier selection process. While product quality and location impact sourcing decisions, the attraction of the buying company and cultural barriers are less significant. Interestingly, however, these factors seem as important as price to respondents. This implies that a strong relationship with suppliers and good quality products are essential aspects of a reliable and robust supply chain in the post-COVID-19 era. Examining the locational aspect in detail, Study 2 linked the choice card experiments with country ranking experiments. In this study, the authors found that purchasing experts consider that transcontinental countries such as Japan and China offer significant advantages in terms of price and technology. China has enhanced its quality, which is recognizable in the country ranking experiments. Therefore, decisions on global sourcing are not just based on such high-impact factors as price and availability; country perceptions are also influential. Additionally, the significance of the locational aspect could be linked to certain country images of transcontinental suppliers, as the COO theory describes.

The new approach divides global sourcing into transcontinental and European sourcing to evaluate special decision factors and link these factors to the locational aspect of sourcing decisions. To deepen the clear evidence for the locational aspect and investigate the possible influence of country perceptions, the authors applied the COO theory. This approach enabled authors to show the strong influence of country perception on purchasing departments, which is represented by the locational effect. Hence, the success of transcontinental countries relies not only on factors such as their availability but also on the purchasers’ positive perceptions of these countries in terms of technology and price.

We make use of the Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) data to extract the total extent of the roads using remote sensing images. VGI data is often provided only as vector data represented by lines and not as full extent. Also, high geolocation accuracy is not guaranteed and it is common to observe misalignment with the target road segments by several pixels on the images. In this work, we use the prior information provided by the VGI and extract the full road extent even if there is significant mis-registration between the VGI and the image. The method consists of image segmentation and traversal of multiple agents along available VGI information. First, we perform image segmentation, and then we traverse through the fragmented road segments using autonomous agents to obtain a complete road map in a semi-automatic way once the seed-points are defined. The road center-line in the VGI guides the process and allows us to discover and extract the full extent of the road network based on the image data. The results demonstrate the validity and good performance of the proposed method for road extraction that reflects the actual road width despite the presence of disturbances such as shadows, cars and trees which shows the efficiency of the fusion of the VGI and satellite images.

Artificial intelligence (AI) reasoning is fuelled by high-quality, detailed behavioural data. These can usually be obtained by the biometrical sensors embedded in smart devices. The currently used data collecting approach, where data ownership and property rights are taken by the data scientists, designers of a device or a related application, delivers multiple ethical, sociological and governance concerns. In this paper, the author is opening a systemic examination of a data sharing concept in which data producers execute their data property rights.

Since data sharing concept delivers a substantially different alternative, it needs to be thoroughly examined from multiple perspectives, among them: the ethical, social and feasibility. At this stage, theoretical examination modes in the form of literature analysis and mental model development are being performed.

Data sharing concepts, framework, mechanisms and swift viability are examined. The author determined that data sharing could lead to virtuous data science by augmenting data producers' capacity to govern their data and regulators' capacity to interact in the process. Truly interdisciplinary research is proposed to follow up on this research.

Since the research proposal is theoretical, the proposal may not provide direct applicative value but is largely focussed on fuelling the research directions.

For the researchers, data sharing concepts will provide an alternative approach and help resolve multiple ethical considerations related to the internet of things (IoT) data collecting approach. For the practitioners in data science, it will provide numerous new challenges, such as distributed data storing, distributed data analysis and intelligent data sharing protocols.

Data sharing may post significant implications in research and development. Since ethical, legislative moral and trust-related issues are managed in the negotiation process, data can be shared freely, which in a practical sense expands the data pool for virtuous research in social sciences.

The paper opens new research directions of data sharing concepts and space for a new field of research.