Strategic decision-making is a key factor of sustainability and development in enterprises. Moreover, the top management team (TMT) of an enterprise constitutes the base for decision-making. This study employed structural equation modeling to analyze questionnaires regarding TMTs’ characteristics and strategic decision-making, and tested the mediating effects of risk perceptions and mental models and the moderating effects of psychological ownership. We investigated 289 valid questionnaires on TMTs completed by representatives from enterprises in China and found risk perceptions and mental models that serve as a mediating factor and are affected by the TMTs’ characteristics and decision-making. We also found that psychological ownership exerts moderating effects between TMTs’ characteristics and decision-making. This paper concludes with a discussion of theoretical and managerial implications for enterprise owners.
In recent decades, food safety has become a major concern due to frequent food safety incidents in many countries. This may lead to increased health risks associated with low quality food consumption, thereby reducing consumer trust in food safety. A better understanding of consumer perceptions of food safety can improve indicators that do not meet consumer expectations. We propose a food safety gap model with four gap-construct based on consumer expectations and perceptions. The model was empirically tested through a survey of 25 items, and then assessed for gaps through the importance–performance analysis (IPA). From a sample of 697 Taiwanese consumers, we found a huge gap between consumer expectations and perceptions related to food safety. More importantly, the results of the IPA indicate that most items must be immediately improved, which is vital in order to mitigate the risk of food safety.
Festivals and events are important activities related to enhancing the image of the destination. Modern festivals are spread all over the world, not only changing the rhythm of daily life but also bringing more development possibilities for the places where these festivals are held. In order to learn more about tourists’ experiences in emerging events, a detailed study of famous hot air balloon festivals was conducted in Taitung City, Taiwan. Based on the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model, the purpose of this study is to explore the relationship among these three constructs, namely stimulus: perception of marketing strategies and motivation, organism: positive emotions and satisfaction and response: revisit intention. Face-to-face surveys were conducted on-site in 2014 and 2018, a total of 896 valid questionnaires were collected from tourists who visited the Taiwan International Balloon Festival. SPSS Macros PROCESS was used to examine the measurement model. This study confirms the application of the S-O-R model in predicting tourists’ revisit intentions in the context of emerging events in the tourism industry. The survey results show that whether in 2014 or 2018, tourists’ satisfaction and tourists’ positive emotions can mediate the relationship between tourists’ perception of marketing strategies (or tourist’s motivation) and tourists’ revisit intention. Moreover, only in 2018, tourists’ visiting frequency can moderate the relationship between satisfaction and revisit intention.
Workplace learning is essential to the continuous improvement and competitiveness of organizations. Antecedent training conditions are crucial for training participation. Despite its recognized importance, few studies have proposed theory-based models for predicting the antecedents of training participation. The principal objective of this study was to test the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) for predicting public sector training participation. The second aim was to elucidate the factors that influence, directly or indirectly, employee intentions and behaviours to participate in training. A sample of 1108 participants was analysed by structural equation modelling to assess path suitability and significance. The empirical results confirmed the applicability of TPB for predicting training participation in the public sector.
Fund managers highly prioritize selecting portfolios with a high Sharpe ratio. Traditionally, this task can be achieved by revising the objective function of the Markowitz mean-variance portfolio model and then resolving quadratic programming problems to obtain the maximum Sharpe ratio portfolio. This study presents a closed-form solution for the optimal Sharpe ratio portfolio by applying Cauchy–Schwarz maximization and the concept of Kuhn–Tucker conditions. An empirical example is used to demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed algorithms. Moreover, the proposed algorithms can also be used to obtain the optimal portfolio containing large numbers of securities, which is not possible, or at least is complicated via traditional quadratic programming approaches.