Food recalls caused by pathogens receive considerable public attention due to health risk and the potential loss to the companies involved. There are very few studies analyzing the relationship between food recalls and characteristics of the companies involved. Because of the significance of the problem and lack of available research, the association between food recalls caused by pathogen and characteristics of the companies involved is examined in this thesis. To address the problem, data on food product recalls in the United States from January 2000 to October 2009 are used. Only the events caused by pathogens are analyzed in the thesis. The firms that have multiple recall incidents are the units of analysis. The study employs an econometric model with discrete choice modeling approaches: logit and probit. There are two main hypotheses. Firstly, it is hypothesized that branding decreases the likelihood of the occurrence of the repeated recall event. Secondly, size of the firm is hypothesized to be associated with higher likelihood of recurrence. The major finding is that branding and firm size are associated with higher probability of the recurrence of food recall events associated with pathogenic contamination. A firm that produces branded products is around 15 percent more likely to have a recurrence of food recall events than a firm producing unbranded product. This finding points out the interesting and unexpected issue that branding is not associated with improved performance in food safety. Additionally, an increase in firm size has a minute but significant association with rising likelihood to have a recurrence of a food recall event. This study is the first concerning the firm level factors that can influence risk of the recurrence of food recall incidents involving pathogens. Thus, its results are distinctive and can benefit both government and private sectors with respect to food safety policy or food safety standards.

Corporations are subject to agency problems resulting from the separation of ownership and control. When the managers and shareholders¡¦ interests are not consistent, managers will not care whether capital structure is stable, and furthermore will not mind if the project would improve firm value or not. The only thing managers concern about is to maximize their own benefit. Previous work only discusses the relation between firm value and capital structure, or the connection between agency problems and firm value. However, capital structure, agency problems and firm value are multi-connected. When managers adjust firm¡¦s capital structure, firm value changes and agency costs decreases. This research examines the relation among firm value, capital structure, and agency problems of Taiwan listed companies from 1991 to 2003, excluding banks, securities, and insurance company. We address the potentially endogenous relation among these variables by estimating a three-stage least squares regression model. The empirical results show that the higher the debt ratio, the lower the firm value, and the higher the agency costs, the lower the firm value. Nevertheless, raising debt can mitigate the effect of agency problems on firm value. The higher firm value implies the better asset utilization. However, after firms¡¦ gaining profit, managers might abuse discretionary expenses, such as luxurious office, cars, and upper salaries leading to serious agency costs. In the industry aspect, debt ratio of electronic industry hurts firm value. But in the non-electronic industry, debt can mitigate the effect of agency problems, especially for firms with low tangible asset ratio, because many companies in Taiwan are facing underinvestment. Raising debt will force firms to select the best portfolio and then increase the firm value.

As a series of financial crisis and accounting scandals occur around the world, the government, many institutions and the public have put great emphasis on corporate governance. Most of the prior research focus on how the corporate governance monitoring system can enhance the firm value and reduce the financial crisis. This empirical analysis includes investment opportunity set (IOS) as an environmental factor and tests the interaction between IOS, firm performance and external corporate governance mechanisms (audit quality and institutional investor ownership) as well as internal corporate governance mechanisms (CEO duality and pledged shares ratio of directors and supervisors) in Taiwan. The sample consists of 999 Taiwan publicly listed companies both in electronics industry and non-electronics industries in 2003. This empirical study uses common factor analysis, Pearson¡¦s correlation analysis and regression analysis to test four hypotheses. The hypotheses are as follows: (1) the relationship between IOS and firm performance will be affected if the auditor is from the Big 4 auditing firm. (2) The relationship between IOS and firm performance will be changed due to the institutional investor ownership. (3) The CEO duality will influence the relationship between IOS and firm performance. (4) The pledged shares ratio of directors and supervisors has an influence on the relationship between IOS and firm performance. The results show that audit quality has no influence on the association of IOS and firm performance, but the institutional investor ownership has a negative and significant influence on that relationship. In non-electronics industries, CEO duality won¡¦t change the firm performance but a negative influence is reported in this study. Eventually, while many companies with financial distress have a higher pledged shares ratio than other normal companies, a positive influence is shown in this study when the investment opportunity set is considered.

A contingency model describing the moderating effects of perceived environmental uncertainty on the relationship between human resource flexibility (HR flexibility) and firm performance was proposed and tested. This study aimed to examine the relationship between different dimensions of HR flexibility and firm performance and further investigated the moderating effect of environmental uncertainty on this relationship. A survey research was conducted using a sample of publicly traded firms listed in Taiwan Economic Journal data bank. Data was collected from different sources, including the opinions of CEO and HR managers in each company and the public disclosure of corporate information. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses. After collecting empirical data and performing the factor analysis, five dimensions of HR flexibility, including behavior flexibility, skill flexibility, financial flexibility, functional flexibility, and market-oriented flexibility, were identified in this study. By testing Hypothesis1, results showed that skill flexibility, functional flexibility and market-oriented could predict some of the performance measures. However, behavior flexibility and financial flexibility had no significant influence on any firm performance measures. By testing Hypothesis2, three dimensions of environmental uncertainty were identified first. They were response uncertainty, effect uncertainty, and state uncertainty. Then, the results of the hierarchical regression models supported the argument that effect uncertainty positively moderated the influence of behavior, skill and functional flexibility on firm performance. But, the moderating effects of response and state uncertainty were not supported. Implications and future research directions were suggested in the final part of this study.

The research aims to explore the relationships among entrepreneurial orientation, social capital and firm performance when Taiwanese SMEs are expanding their business territory in China. Apart from social capital, there would be more other moderating variables existing in the environment. However, after literature review and in-depth interviews with the SMEs owners/directors/executives, social capital has been regarded as the possible influential factor affecting the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance. In the second part of the research, comprehensive literature and studies relating to entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurial orientation are investigated and summarized. Later, the literature of social capital and firm performance is summarized in order to develop the hypotheses to examine the relationships among entrepreneurial orientation, social capital and firm performance. This is an empirical research, assisting with in-depth interviews with Taiwanese SMEs owners/directors/executives to outline the findings more accurately. The statistical tools applied in the thesis include SPSS and AMOS. The findings of the research have come up with some practical implications and suggestion. The implications of the results might intrigue people who are interested in the influence of entrepreneurial orientation on organizational success. Lastly, some suggestions are made accordingly for the further development.

In the past, most researchers found investors tend to be overconfident when making investment decisions. This paper, under the assumption that investors have the disposition of overconfidence, tries to examine whether investors will display different degrees of overconfidence when facing different situations. Results have been found investors will have more confidence in processing the information the market has revealed to make investments when facing companies with high firm-specific risks. Therefore, firm-specific risks will influence overconfident investors¡¦ investment decisions. Furthermore, this paper tries to further divide companies under consideration into three groups according to their market share to discuss overconfident investors¡¦ behavior. Finally, this paper uses some quantitative variables to proxy public and private information to test whether investors in Taiwan tend to overreact to private information than to public information. The results have proven that investors¡¦ overreaction to private information in Taiwan comply with other behaviors of investors in other countries.

In view of the fact that multi-store firms have been normal in a real society, this paper is concerned with the spatial decision of a multi-store firm under price regulation. It is shown that a multi-store firm with monopoly power will select as decision variables the size of a single store and the number of stores at the same time. In the duopolistic market, the new entrant will not compete with all stores of the incumbent on the same location, because of the non-existence of positive profit for both firms in this case. The new entrant will select to locate differently to compete with the incumbent in the short term. It is shown that there exists a Nash equilibrium regardless of whether or not the new entrant sets up its stores in the two ends of the linear market area. However, in the long run, the incumbent will decide not only the size of the stores, but also the locations. Nash equilibrium is shown to exist also in the long run. Finally, some numerical simulations of price regulation on welfare are carried out in the last section. Keywords¡Glocation, multi-store firm, price competition

In East Asian economies, about 2/3 listed firms are controlled by family shareholders. In the US and West European, the proportions of family firms are about 33% and 44%, respectively. Thus, family-controlled listed firms are common in almost every nation. In Taiwan, nearly 70% of listed firms are family-controlled. Many previous studies have pointed out that family firms are playing an important role in global economic activities. The equity structures and management ideas of family firms are different from those of common firms. For instance, family members possess decisive equities and will usually take positions of directors or top managers. They may usually view their firms as an asset inherited from forefathers, and they should pass it on to their next generations. The impact of these differences on firm¡¦s financial decisions has become a main research focus in recent years. Previous studies of family firms mainly placed the focus on the impact of family factors on corporate performance, but this study would attempt to investigate the impact of family factors on debt decisions from the perspectives of debt-financing decision and cost of debt-financing. First of all, this study probed into whether family and non-family firms have differences debt-financing decisions. Empirical findings indicated that family firms have a lower debt ratio and a 0.2813% lower cost of debt than non-family firms. A further comparison on the factors of debt decisions showed that the difference in the impact of family and non-family firms on debt levels lies in mainly three aspects, including depreciation tax shield, operational risk, and firm size. In the aspect of cost of debt-financing, family firms are relatively more sensitive to firm size, debt ratio, and credit risk. Previous studies that applied the agent theory to investigate debt decisions focused more on the problems of debt agency problem and seldom used the inter-relationship between equity agency problem and debt agency problem to discuss the impact of equity agency problem on debt decisions. The problems of equity agency of family firms encompass the traditional equity agency between the manager and shareholders and core equity agency between controlling shareholders and external shareholders. Besides, family ownership and management can reduce the problems of traditional equity agency, and controlling shareholders using the pyramid structure of equities and cross-holding to enhance control right will increase the problems of core equity agency. Thus, based on the problems of equity agency problem, the family factors can be divided into family ownership, enhancement of control, and family management to investigate the respective impact on debt-financing decisions. In the aspect of debt-financing, it was empirically discovered that higher family ownership would lead to a closer relationship between firm value and the wealth of family shareholders. Debt financing would be avoided to reduce financial risks and maintain the wealth of family shareholders. A positive correlation existed between debt ratio and the difference between family control and family ownership, implying when the difference between family control and family ownership is higher, the problems of core equity agency between controlling shareholders and small shareholders will be more serious, and the company will be inclined to adopt debt-financing to acquire long-term capitals. The estimate coefficient of the effect of family management on debt ratio is not significance. Thus, whether the CEO is taken by a family member will not affect debt-financing decisions. In the analysis of control level, when the control level is low, firms are inclined to adopt debt-financing decisions to reduce the effect of equity dilution. On the contrary, when the control level is high, in order to avoid the loss of control benefit caused by debt monitoring, firms will be inclined to avoid debts. As a result, control and debt ratio are in an inverted U-shaped relationship. In addition, for family firms, the maintenance of control and risk control are important factors affecting their debt-financing decision. In the aspect of cost of debt, family ownership can reduce the cost of debt-financing. If the non-linear relationship of family ownership is considered, the impact of family ownership on the cost of debt-financing is non-linear and in an inverted U shape. The maximum value is 8.64%. When the family ownership exceeds 17.9%, the effect of family ownership on the cost of debt financing is negative. As the minimum family ownership was defined as 10% in this study, and the average family ownership among the samples was 21%, it could be inferred that higher family ownership would lead to a lower cost of debt-financing. In a comparison with Anderson et al. (2003), it was discovered that the average family ownership has negative influence on the cost of debt, but for the family firms in the US, higher family ownership would reduce its negative influence on cost of debt, and for domestic family firms, higher family ownership would increase its negative influence on the cost of debt. The Control-enhancing mechanisms will increase core equity problem and cost of debt, and the relationship between control enhancement and cost of debt are not in a non-linear relationship. Creditors conceive that their mortgage will be more secured if family members take the position of CEO. Thus, family CEO can reduce the cost of debt-financing.

ABSTRACT Thesis: Relationships among logistics capabilities, competitive strategy and firm performance. The purpose of this research is to find the relationships among logistics capabilities, competitive strategy and firm performance. This study tries to explore on the proposition that corporate strategy is most effective when pursued with resources/capabilities that ¡§fit¡¨. To test this proposition survey data form the Taiwan¡¦s logistics business and steel make industry are analyzed via SPSS & LISREL. The results indicate that: 1. The logistics capabilities include ¡§process capabilities¡¨, ¡¨value-added service capabilities¡¨, ¡§flexibility capabilities¡¨ and ¡§supply capabilities¡¨. Competitive strategies are based on M. E. Porter¡¦s generic business strategies include ¡§total cost leadership strategy¡¨, ¡§differentiation strategy¡¨. 2. The difference is statistically significant in those servicing business is more emphasized the important of flexibility capabilities than manufacturing industry and firms which middle annual turnover is more emphasized the important of value-added service capabilities than firms which lower annual turnover. 3. Process capabilities, value-added service capabilities, flexibility capabilities and supply capabilities are statistically significantly positively linked to differentiation strategy. Only process capabilities, value-added service capabilities, flexibility capabilities are statistically significantly positively linked to total cost leadership strategy. 4.Process capabilities, value-added service capabilities, flexibility capabilities are statistically significantly positively linked to firm performance. Both total cost leadership strategy and differentiation strategy are statistically significantly positively linked to firm performance. Only differentiation strategy is statistically significantly positively affected to firm performance. 5.The path, which most ¡§fit¡¨ model of firm performance, is process capabilities & supply capabilities linked to total cost leadership strategy and value-added service capabilities & flexibility capabilities linked to differentiation strategy. Keyword: logistics capabilities,competitive strategy,firm performance

Following Chamley, Lucas, Laitner, and Aiyagari, this dissertation continues to explore the answer for the question of zero capital taxation by discussing how taxes on capital income, labor income, and property affect the economy in the context of a vintage capital model where the embodied technology grows exogenously. The government maximizes social welfare by finding the optimal combinations of the three tax rates in the steady state and examines the welfare gain/loss over and after the transitions caused by different types of shocks. The simulation method used here is linear approximation. My results show that in the steady-state economy, given a fixed level of gov- ernment expenditure and a zero property tax rate, the capital-income tax rate that maximizes steady-state utility may be negative, zero, or positive depending on the level of government expenditure. I also find that, for many values of government spending, the highest level of steady-state utility occurs with a subsidy to capital income and a tax on labor income. Finally, I find that when taxes on capital income, labor income, and property are available, capital-income taxes are generally the last resort to finance government expenditures. My results show that in the transitional economy, when tax rates are perma- nently changed and the government expenditure is near zero, the loss of utility over the transition from no taxes to capital subsidies is too large so the idea itself is not utility-enhancing. Secondly, I find that when the government expenditure is low and a positive technology shock occurs, social welfare in the economy without capital-income taxes may perform better in the early phase of the transition but worse in the later phase of the transition than that in the economy without property taxes. How- ever, the situation becomes the opposite as government expenditures increase. In addition, when one tax is allowed to change, a changing labor-income tax may bring more utility over the transition than the other two taxes. Finally, when the govern- ment expenditure is unexpectedly reduced, I find that using property taxes rather than capital-income taxes stimulates consumption and employment more given a higher initial level of government expenditure.