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Focusing on social network services (SNS), the purpose of this paper is to propose a research model to investigate individuals’ SNS usage facilitators and inhibitors from the perspective of individuals’ media system dependency (MSD) and privacy concerns.

The research model will be tested with data collected from online users of Facebook. The survey yielded a total of 403 responses for the data analysis which was conducted by measurement and structural models.

The findings indicate that SNSs members strive for understanding, orientation, and play dependencies which facilitate their satisfaction and social presence, and subsequently fosters their continuance intention toward the SNS. In addition, the members’ privacy concerns decrease satisfaction and social presence online.

First, this study has contributed to the authors’ understanding of an individual’s SNS facilitators and inhibitors from the theoretical perspective (i.e. MSD theory and privacy concerns). Second, satisfaction is a strong antecedent of continuance intention and would dilute the effect of social presence on an individual’s SNS continuance intention.

Teachers, students, librarians, scholars and domain experts often spend a lot of time and effort to select good and suitable textbooks. This study aims to propose and construct a computer-aided bibliometric system to rate textbooks. Through the software system designed here, the quality of every textbook can be easily and quickly known. This system will benefit both scholars and librarians.

Four methods were used to evaluate textbooks in this study, including: questionnaire recommendation analysis, dissertation citation analysis, library circulation analysis and bibliography analysis. The system architecture includes three subsystems: the textbook indexing and searching subsystem, the statistics added-value analysis subsystem and the citation report inquiry subsystem. An example demonstrates the usability and validity of the proposed method and system. The example uses surveying textbooks. The following percentages were used in the correlation calculation: textbook citation percentage (TCP), textbook library circulation percentage (TLP) and textbook recommend percentage (TRP).

There are three textbook assessment methods applied in this study, including: dissertation citation, library circulation and questionnaire recommendation. Dissertation citations for textbooks have a high correlation value with library circulation. The frequency correlation calculation was 0.7, while the TCP, TLP and TRP correlation calculation was 0.84. Therefore, the dissertation citation method can be accepted to evaluate textbooks effectively.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first work related to evaluating surveying textbooks using a computer-aided bibliometrics system that can deal with large amounts of data and generate results quickly. This can be applied to other fields as well.

This paper aims to investigate the moderating effects of employee commitment, customer loyalty and corporate reputation on the relationship between family influence and international expansion.

A cross-national research design was conducted using both survey and secondary data of 119 firms taken from the top 1,000 Taiwanese enterprises.

This study found moderating effects in the positive impact of family influence on international expansion. Specifically, the study found the relationship between family influence and international expansion stronger for companies with greater relational support from employees, customers and the public.

Multi-level data collection and a longitudinal research design in future research could help in further understanding the relationships between the variables in this study.

This paper suggests that family business should establish enduring relationship with their employees and customers and have a plan to improve family reputation that will benefit international market expansion.

This study draws on the relational perspective to investigate how family influence results in different international expansion.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the mediating effect of business strategy (BS) on intellectual capital (IC) and financial performance (FP). The impact of financial crisis is also a major topic of this research.

This study applies BS as mediator to explore the relationships between IC, BS, and FP. Partial least squares is employed to test the reliability and validity of measurements and the significance of path coefficients, and therefore to examine the hypotheses.

IC has significant impacts on BS and FP in all samples, as well as in those years before and after the financial crisis. BS has a partial significant mediating effect between IC and FP. BS has significant effects on FP in all samples and pre-financial crisis, but has not in post-financial crisis.

IC has significant impacts on BS and FP. Moreover, the relationships of IC, BS, and FP are different during pre- and post-financial crisis. The direct effect of IC on FP is confirmed and consistent, and the indirect effect of IC on FP by BS is dependent upon the environment status.

Enterprises should pay attention to IC, BS, and the related changes in environment status. These help enterprises develop appropriate strategies, maintain competitive advantage, and upgrade FP.

This study applies BS as mediator, and explores the relationships between IC, BS, and FP. The impact of financial crisis is also discussed. The results may serve as the criteria for strategic performance management.

The purpose of this paper is to present a selection model that adopts several important criteria, enabling a durable goods franchiser to select franchisees that are most appropriate.

Questionnaires based on selection criteria are identified from modified Delphi Technique and then sent to experts and decision makers. Major criteria weights are analyzed using the analytic hierarchy process and entropy. Final weights are then determined using the compromised weighting method.

This study has demonstrated that the durable goods sector in Taiwan emphasizes the condition of a franchisee personal condition more than its store location, and our results further indicate that a franchiser should emphasize finance and business ability when selecting franchisees. Additionally, consumer purchasing power, individuals passing by and parking convenience are all important factors for selecting a franchisee.

Analysis results indicate that the proposed selection model enables a franchiser to select franchisees more reasonably by allowing them to operate effectively.

This study aims to examine the linkages between port aesthetics, destination image, tourist satisfaction and tourist loyalty in Hong Kong.

To achieve this objective, the authors surveyed 247 tourists in Hong Kong. Using factor analysis and structural equation model (SEM) to identify the constructs of port aesthetics and analyze its relationship with destination image, tourist satisfaction and tourist loyalty.

Five-port aesthetics constructs were identified, namely, leisure and culture, design and cognition, atmosphere, recreational facilities and memory. The results of SEM revealed the following: port aesthetics positively influenced destination image; destination image positively influenced tourist satisfaction; and tourist satisfaction had a positive influence on tourist loyalty. This research also found that the indirect effect of port aesthetics on tourist loyalty via destination image and tourist satisfaction.

While the environmental qualities of a port could potentially affect destination image, tourist satisfaction and loyalty, this study developed and validated a measurement instrument of perceived port aesthetics from a tourist’s perspective. Specifically, this research proposed a structural model to explain the relationships between port aesthetics, destination image, tourist satisfaction and loyalty.