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Smart card-based E-payment systems are receiving increasing attention as the number of implementations is witnessed on the rise globally. Understanding of user adoption behavior of E-payment systems that employ smart card technology becomes a research area that is of particular value and interest to both IS researchers and professionals. However, research interest focuses mostly on why a smart card-based E-payment system results in a failure or how the system could have grown into a success. This signals the fact that researchers have not had much opportunity to critically review a smart card-based E-payment system that has gained wide support and overcome the hurdle of critical mass adoption. The Octopus in Hong Kong has provided a rare opportunity for investigating smart card-based E-payment system because of its unprecedented success. This research seeks to thoroughly analyze the Octopus from technology adoption behavior perspectives.

Cultural impacts on adoption behavior are one of the key areas that this research posits to investigate. Since the present research is conducted in Hong Kong where a majority of population is Chinese ethnicity and yet is westernized in a number of aspects, assuming that users in Hong Kong are characterized by eastern or western culture is less useful. Explicit cultural characteristics at individual level are tapped into here instead of applying generalization of cultural beliefs to users to more accurately reflect cultural bias. In this vein, the technology acceptance model (TAM) is adapted, extended, and tested for its applicability cross-culturally in Hong Kong on the Octopus. Four cultural dimensions developed by Hofstede are included in this study, namely uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, individualism, and Confucian Dynamism (long-term orientation), to explore their influence on usage behavior through the mediation of perceived usefulness.

TAM is also integrated with the innovation diffusion theory (IDT) to borrow two constructs in relation to innovative characteristics, namely relative advantage and compatibility, in order to enhance the explanatory power of the proposed research model. Besides, the normative accountability of the research model is strengthened by embracing two social influences, namely subjective norm and image. As the last antecedent to perceived usefulness, prior experience serves to bring in the time variation factor to allow level of prior experience to exert both direct and moderating effects on perceived usefulness.

The resulting research model is analyzed by partial least squares (PLS)-based Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach. The research findings reveal that all cultural dimensions demonstrate direct effect on perceived usefulness though the influence of uncertainty avoidance is found marginally significant. Other constructs on innovative characteristics and social influences are validated to be significant as hypothesized. Prior experience does indeed significantly moderate the two influences that perceived usefulness receives from relative advantage and compatibility, respectively. The research model has demonstrated convincing explanatory power and so may be employed for further studies in other contexts. In particular, cultural effects play a key role in contributing to the uniqueness of the model, enabling it to be an effective tool to help critically understand increasingly internationalized IS system development and implementation efforts. This research also suggests several practical implications in view of the findings that could better inform managerial decisions for designing, implementing, or promoting smart card-based E-payment system.

The smart open house provides optimal adaptability using sensing, operating, information, and communications technology, in conjunction with open building in-filled components, to perceive user needs and environmental changes, and thereby meet the needs for sustainability and a healthy living environment. These needs are particularly pressing in view of the aged society that will emerge in Taiwan after 2020. Based on the smart open house hypothesis, this study proposes using agent-based smart skins in a smart open house, where an agent-based smart skin is embedded in a lifetime home (or ageless home) with an open system construction. The agent-based smart skin operating mechanism employs fuzzy logic inference and neuro-fuzzy learning to process environmental information from sensing devices and drive skin elements, achieving adaptive action, meeting residents' lifetime use needs, and offering a user experience-oriented smart care capability.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of four different incentives in improving hedging effectiveness and propose an alternative regulatory mechanism for China’s futures market.

The research method that this study uses is a laboratory experiment, and this study follows the basic norms of experimental research. In addition, this paper designs and conducts a game experiment between hedgers and futures brokerage firms (FBFs) under different incentive mechanisms.

By analyzing the experimental data, it is found that compared with other incentive mechanisms, hedgers’ willingness to hedge and FBFs’ regulatory intention are both significantly higher for the dynamic linkage updating mechanism, indicating that hedgers have a stronger willingness to follow their hedging plan, and FBFs are more responsible for their regulatory behaviors. Additionally, the dynamic linkage updating mechanism has a long-term impact on effective hedging in the futures market.

The findings suggest that the dynamic linkage updating mechanism is beneficial for effectively restricting both hedgers’ over-speculation and FBFs’ regulatory slack and improving the hedging efficiency of the futures market.

To solve the problem of inefficient hedging in China’s futures market, i.e., hedgers’ over-speculation and FBFs’ passive collusion with hedgers, the regulators of China’s futures market should reform the existing incentives and adopt a dynamic linkage updating mechanism to encourage all the participants to actively improve hedging effectiveness.

This paper analyzes and verifies, for the first time, the role of the dynamic linkage updating mechanism in the investing behaviors of hedgers and the regulatory behaviors of future brokerage firms. The futures market experiment that was designed and used in this study is a pioneering and exploratory experiment that applies game theory and mechanism design theory to the field of behavioral finance.

This paper proposes a framework for director evaluation in the context of Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs), taking into account the influences of traditional and modern Chinese ideologies.

Following the Delphi method, a series of semi-structured interviews were conducted with Chinese SOE directors.

The framework used has been validated by examining seven dimensions of virtue and four dimensions of competence functions in Chinese SOEs. Effective and representative characteristics of each dimension are identified through interviews.

First, through this research, indicators of virtue have been materialized and those of competence have been specified in a broader range. Second, this research provides advice for training of candidate directors whose experience were in private firms before they step in as SOE directors.

Due to such issues as the recent economic recession, low salaries, and an aging society, how people can strengthen their investment performance when managing their personal financial affairs is a critical consideration. The purpose of this paper is to consider the assessment of the performance of individual investment policies and to present an evaluation framework for measuring the degree of workability of investment policies.

The proposed evaluation framework combines the fuzzy analytical hierarchy process and the improved fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to the ideal solution to measure the efficiency scores of the alternatives (i.e. investment policies) under assessment.

This quantitative framework is formed from the criteria of investment return, taxation, risk, and individual circumstances according to prudent evaluation of private wealth management research, and is applied to appraise the investment performance of individuals in Taiwan. The findings indicate that investment performance, risks, and the investment of mutual funds are the most preferred conditions and investment policy for investors, and can offer some effective suggestions for investors as well as for future academic research.

The efficiency scores are computed based on the fuzzy Mahalanobis distances, taking into account the fuzzy correlations among experts’ criteria. The advantage of adopting the fuzzy Mahalanobis distances over the fuzzy Euclidean distances, which are typically computed in the literature, is that the undulation of the efficiency scores can be reduced.

As social commerce migrates to the mobile platform, mobile social commerce (ms–commerce), an emerging way of conducting social commerce in the mobile environment, is gaining popularity among mobile users. Although impulse buying in social commerce has been the focus of scholars in recent years, individuals' impulse-buying behavior in ms–commerce has not been highlighted and therefore is worth investigating. This study addressed that gap by differentiating and monitoring the impacts that three key targets of social identification in ms–commerce exerted on impulse buying. Furthermore, previous studies had highlighted the importance of culture in impulse buying in other contexts, so the authors examined how the effects of the key identification targets differed across cultures, as a result of cultural diversity among the ms–commerce users. Finally, the authors drew upon the lens of information technology (IT) affordances to explore how different combinations of ms–commerce affordances influenced each target of identification.

This research first applied a qualitative methodology by using semi-structured interviews with 27 ms–commerce users to extract the relevant subdimensions of IT affordances in ms–commerce. Then, the authors tested their hypotheses with survey data collected from the United States and China.

The results clearly illustrate that three key targets of social identification had varying impacts on impulse buying in different cultural dimensions. In addition, nearly all of the proposed IT affordances in ms–commerce aided users in building multiple identifications, to various degrees.

This study extends social commerce research by examining the important role that social identification plays in impulse buying in the mobile environment. Moreover, unlike previous studies that mainly had focused on ordinary buying in social commerce across cultures, this study investigated the relative importance of the targets of social identification on impulse buying in different espoused cultural dimensions. Importantly, the authors used a technology affordance lens to also uncover the context-specific stimulators of separate identification targets, thus going beyond the existing body of knowledge that focused on general beliefs.

This study aims to investigate hazards in theater venues on the performance day by combining operational risk theory with a service blueprint method.

Interviews and Delphi method are applied to find the hazards, then a survey and ANOVA are followed. The study explores a profile of hazards using data from theater venues in Taiwan and examines whether employee characteristics (i.e. professional tasks, experience and working location) affect risk perception.

The study suggests a new framework represented by a 5 (types of loss events) × 6 (service systems) matrix to check operational risks. The analyses indicate two types of hazards: risk perception about performance and operations by performers and crew (RPPOPC) and audience behaviors and safety (RPABS). RPPOPC is related to the core show, but not all employees possess high RPPOPC. Seniors have relatively low RPPOPC, and frontend house employees possess insufficient RPABS. Further, front house employees, seniors and those working in municipal cities show relatively high RPPOPC in high-loss situations.

Managers can use the analytic framework to effectively identify operational risks in the core show operations and audience service offerings. They can promote risk perception considering employee differences and loss severity. However, the framework does not discuss the cause-and-effect relationship. Incorporating a large amount of loss experience into a risk information system would help clarify this complex relationship.

This study contributes to hazard mitigation in the performing arts sector, both in the peripheral services for customers and in the core show services.

Purpose – This chapter discusses the criminalization of sharing music on peer-to-peer (p2p) networks. Taking the Italian situation into consideration, it aims to introduce a socio-legal reflection about the processes of construction of this deviance.

Design methodology/approach – Adopting a constructionist approach, this chapter first explores the ways in which the social problem of music piracy was built in Italy. The choice of the legislator to place this practice within the category of criminal behaviour was analysed and examined. In the second section, the points of view of other participants involved in the practice of file sharing are taken into account.

Findings – Placing file sharing within the jurisdiction of criminal law does not seem to respond to the needs to counter the infringement of a shared social value, but it rather seems to reflect the protagonists’ involvement into the process of legislative decision about piracy conception and idea of the damage caused by this phenomenon, promoted and conveyed by the music business. The way in which piracy is conceived by Italian legislation emerges here in its partial understanding of the effects of this practice. Sharing music on digital networks appears as a highly conflicted crime, whose harmfulness is scarcely perceived by the society. Furthermore, file sharing repression policy seems to give shape to a new victimless crime, whose harmful effects do not seem to actually fall back on artists or consumers.

Originality/value – Sharing music on the net and violating copyright is little studied from the perspective of the sociology of crime. Using this approach, this chapter contributes to a better understanding of the phenomenon.

With growing interest in the uses of hedonic technologies and gamification in system design, the concept of cognitive absorption (CA) has become increasingly salient in the information systems literature. However, little effort has been made to evaluate the research status and consolidate the current literature findings. To fill these research gaps, the authors conducted a literature review on CA. The authors then proposed an integrative framework that summarises the key elements of and variables related to CA and their relationships. The major findings of the study are discussed, and an agenda for future research is proposed.

This study investigates the impact of tourists’ perception of consumer-generated content (CGC) on their travel behaviors. Online questionnaire survey was conducted on the clients of travel agency along with onsite interviews of visitors at several busy tourist destinations/spots in Taiwan including Alishan, Sun-Moon Lake, and airports. In total 316 responses were generated. The findings indicate that usability of social media is the strongest factor that contributes to respondents’ perceived functional and hedonic quality. Functional quality of social media then draw respondents’ awareness that eventually increases their intention to visit a destination of interest. The results also indicate that functional quality is more important than hedonic in terms of increasing the propensity of using social media.