Browsing by Author "Lu, Wen-Min"
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Item Benchmarking in Vietnam universities : teaching and research and revenue efficiencies(Springer, 2020-06-01) Tran, Phung Phi; Kuo, Kuo-Cheng; Lu, Wen-Min; Kweh, Qian LongAssessing university resource allocation or misallocation is necessary to understand its impact on research and teaching productivity. To achieve this insight, this study conducts a two-stage data envelopment analysis to judge the “teaching and research efficiency” and “revenue efficiency” of 61 universities in Vietnam. We analyze what variables have the most effect on the efficiencies of the universities through improving results. Moreover, this research applies scale elasticity to distinguish the benchmark performance leader among Vietnam universities. Results indicate that universities are more efficient in terms of “revenue efficiency” than “teaching and research efficiency.” The scale elasticity decomposition findings show that multidisciplinary universities perform better than those specializing in science and technology and social science and economics. Finally, the competitive map to performance advancement strategies is exhibited. This map helps the university management to enhance their efficiencies. © 2020, Education Research Institute, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.Item Capital structure and dynamic performance : evidence from ASEAN-5 banks(World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte Ltd, 2019) Nourani, Mohammad; Ting, Irene Wei Kiong; Lu, Wen-Min; Kweh, Qian LongIn today's dynamic economy, banks should focus on improving their dynamic performance to stay competitive. Using a dataset for the period 2007-2013, this paper evaluates the dynamic performance of ASEAN-5 banks through a data envelopment analysis (DEA) model, called the dynamic slacks-based measure (DSBM) model. The DEA results indicate that banks in Malaysia perform better than those in Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. Frontier projections through DEA indicate that banks in the ASEAN-5 countries underutilize their long-term assets, resulting in inefficiencies. Furthermore, this study finds that capital structure as a whole is positively related to bank performance. © 2019 World Scientific Publishing Company.Item The cubic S-curve relationship between board independence and intellectual capital efficiency: does firm size matter?(Emerald Group Holdings Ltd., 2022-09-05) Kweh, Qian Long; Lu, Wen-Min; Ting, Irene Wei Kiong; Le, Hanh Thi MyPurpose: First, this study assesses firms’ efficiency of transforming intellectual capital (IC) components into firm performance. Second, this study examines (1) cubic S-curve relationship between board independence and IC efficiency and (2) how firm size moderates the cubic S-curve relationship. Design/methodology/approach: This study employs a stochastic nonparametric envelopment of data (StoNED) framework to estimate IC efficiency, which is derived from the estimation process of transforming structural, relational and human capitals into accounting- and market-based performance indicators. This study conducts regression analyses on 1,104 firm-year observations of Taiwanese semiconductor firms over the period of 2011–2018. Findings: StoNED results suggest that sample firms' IC efficiency can be relatively improved by approximately 80%. Regression results indicate that a cubic S-curve relationship between board independence and IC efficiency exists, and firm size moderates the nonlinear effects. Practical implications: Overall, this study highlights the importance of examining the nonlinear effect of board independence on IC efficiency from the perspective of agency theory, and the moderating effect from firm size, which may suggest availability of resources from the resource-based view of the firm. Originality/value: This study contributes to the literature through the innovative application of an efficiency-based tool for evaluating IC efficiency. The cubic S-curve relationship between board independence and IC efficiency also points to the policy concerning the appropriate number of independent directors on board. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.Item Determinants of cargo and eco-efficiencies of global container shipping companies(Emerald Group Publishing Ltd., 2020) Kuo, Kuo-Cheng; Lu, Wen-Min; Kweh, Qian Long; Le, Minh-HieuPurpose: This study aims to evaluate cargo and eco-efficiency of global container shipping companies (CSCs) and explore the determinants of the CSCs' efficiencies. While the former is derived from the CSCs' operational perspective, the latter highlights environmental issue related to carbon emission reduction. Design/methodology/approach: In the first stage, a two-stage double bootstrap approach of data envelopment analysis (DEA) is applied to derive bias-corrected cargo and eco-efficiency of the top ten global CSCs under the variable returns to scale assumption. In the second stage, ordinary least squares and truncated regression are applied to examine determinants of the CSCs' efficiencies. Findings: The DEA results reveal that the cargo efficiency of the CSCs is higher than their eco-efficiency by about 2.6% under variable returns to scale in DEA. However, the bias-corrected results show that the difference is 2.9%. The overall average efficiencies suggest that the CSCs can improve their cargo (eco) efficiency by 6.9% (10.8%). In the second stage, the regression results show that the numbers of ship, return on assets and asset turnover ratio are significantly related to both cargo and eco-efficiencies, whereas the total fleet capacity positively affects cargo efficiency. Research limitations/implications: The results of this study can help the inefficient CSCs make strategic decisions to improve their performance. For example, their business experience and capacity may be contributing to their efficiencies. However, this study only focuses on the container market among the three main markets, namely, dry bulk, wet bulk and container. Originality/value: This study highlights an environmental issue in the shipping industry. While CSCs are operating their cargo efficiently in general, they should also put green initiatives into their business operations for the long-term sustainability. © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited.Item EFFECTS OF AIRCRAFT LEASED/OWNED ON OPERATIONAL AND WEALTH-CREATION EFFICIENCIES(Fabrizio Serra Editore Srl, 2021-06) Kweh, Qian Long; Ting, Irene Wei Kiong; Lu, Wen-Min; Lin, Cheng-HsienThis study examines the operational performance and wealth-creation efficiency of 22 global airlines over the period 2005-2017. That is, an airline efficiency evaluation model is proposed and assessed by employing a dynamic DEA model with network structure via a slacks-based measure approach. Moreover, this study performs a DuPont analysis and examines how leasing or owning aircraft in the airline industry explains airline efficiencies. Results corroborate that airlines with more owned aircraft relative to leased aircraft are more efficient than their counterparts in all aspects. DuPont analysis reveals that the former group of airlines' positive return on equity (ROE) on average is attributable to their higher net profit margin and asset turnover ratio, but lower equity multiplier compared with those of the latter group of airlines. The number of aircraft owned (leased) has a significantly positive (negative) effect on airline efficiencies. Taken together, this study offers empirical evidence for the relevance of change in accounting standard, particularly leasing in this study, in the transportation economics. Airlines should manage well not only their resources, but also their aircraft fleet deployment. In addition, this study points out the relevance of the textbook-based DuPont system in analyzing airlines' financial performance. © 2021 Fabrizio Serra Editore Srl. All rights reserved.Item The effects of managerial ability on firm performance and the mediating role of capital structure: evidence from Taiwan(Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2021-12) Ting, Irene Wei Kiong; Tebourbi, Imen; Lu, Wen-Min; Kweh, Qian LongThis study utilizes mediation analysis and bootstrapping to analyze the mediating effect of capital structure on the association between managerial ability and firm performance. The dataset consists of 6384 firm-year observations from the Taiwanese electronics industry during 2005–2018. Our results indicate that (1) low (high) levels of debt are likely observed in firms with CEOs with high (low) ability, (2) managerial ability positively affects firm performance, and (3) capital structure mediates the positive relationship between managerial ability and firm performance. Overall, the findings may have limited generalizability due to the specific sample characteristics and provide convincing support for the importance of capital structure as a mediator in the managerial ability-firm performance nexus. Specifically, this study highlights the need for examining the effect of managerial ability on firm performance through a mediator. © 2021, The Author(s).Item Environmental, social, and governance and corporate efficiency: mediating role of R&D in achieving sustainable development goals(Routledge, 2023) Kweh, Qian Long; Ting, Irene Wei Kiong; Ren, Chunya; Lu, Wen-MinWe examine whether and how research and development (R&D) mediates the association between environmental, social, and governance (ESG) pillars and corporate efficiency among companies within the supply chain of Microsoft Corporation from 2012 to 2020. An estimation of corporate efficiency using data envelopment analysis (DEA) indicates that companies should first improve their innovational efficiency (mean DEA score = 0.371), then operational efficiency (mean DEA score = 0.659), and finally profitability efficiency (mean DEA score = 0.695). Moreover, a mediation analysis confirms the mediating role of R&D intensity. Overall, R&D should be one of the spotlights in the supply chain amidst the highlights on ESG in this dynamic and challenging business world for companies to achieve sustainable development goals. © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.Item Evaluating the resource management and profitability efficiencies of US commercial banks from a dynamic network perspective(Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2024-12) Kweh, Qian Long; Lu, Wen-Min; Tone, Kaoru; Liu, Hsian-MingThe central concept of strategic benchmarking is resource management efficiency, which ultimately results in profitability. However, little is known about performance measurement from resource-based perspectives. This study uses the data envelopment analysis (DEA) model with a dynamic network structure to measure the resource management and profitability efficiencies of 287 US commercial banks from 2010 to 2020. Furthermore, we provide frontier projections and incorporate five variables, namely capital adequacy, asset quality, management quality, earning ability, and liquidity (i.e., the CAMEL ratings). The results revealed that the room for improvement in bank performance is 55.4%. In addition, we found that the CAMEL ratings of efficient banks are generally higher than those of inefficient banks, and management quality, earnings quality, and liquidity ratios positively contribute to bank performance. Moreover, big banks are generally more efficient than small banks. Overall, this study continues the current heated debate on performance measurement in the banking industry, with a particular focus on the DEA application to answer the fundamental question of why resource management efficiency reflects benchmark firms and provides insights into how efficient management of CAMEL ratings would help in improving their performance. © 2024, The Author(s).Item Evaluating traditional, dynamic and network business models: an efficiency-based study of Chinese insurance companies(Palgrave Macmillan, 2022-10) Nourani, Mohammad; Kweh, Qian Long; Ting, Irene Wei Kiong; Lu, Wen-Min; Strutt, AnnaItem Family control, R&D expenses and firm efficiency: evidence from Taiwanese cultural and creative industries(Emerald Publishing, 2023) Kweh, Qian Long; Le, Hanh Thi My; Ting, Irene Wei Kiong; Lu, Wen-MinItem How do peace dividends bring about human development and productivity?(Springer, 2021) Lu, Wen-Min; Kweh, Qian Long; Chen, Kang-Fuarticle.listelement.badge How does stakeholder engagement through environmental, social, and governance affect eco-efficiency and profitability efficiency? Zooming into Apple Inc.'s counterparts(John Wiley and Sons Ltd, 2023-01) Lu, Wen-Min; Kweh, Qian Long; Ting, Irene Wei Kiong; Ren, ChunyaAs global ecological degradation intensifies, a trade-off has arisen between environmental protection and production efficiency to achieve sustainable development for the environment, society, and the company itself. However, the potential reverse causality relationship between environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and corporate efficiency may lead to confusion. This study estimates the eco-efficiency of Apple Incorporated's value-chain counterparts in the first stage and creates values and profitability in the second stage of efficiency evaluation. Results obtained from the (i) directional distance function in the two-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA), (ii) additive efficiency decomposition two-stage network DEA model, and (iii) network slacks-based measure model are consistent. That is, Apple counterparts manage more efficient eco-efficiency than profitability efficiency, implying that eco-efficiency is their competitive advantage. We thus also run a regression analysis to examine how the ESG ratings of Apple counterparts explain their eco-efficiency and profitability efficiency. Although the overall ESG rating positively explains the efficiencies, we found that the individual governance rating shows no statistically significant effect. The regression results provide insight for practitioners on the importance of investing in the three aspects of a firm's collective conscientiousness for societal and environmental governance. This paper integrates companies' eco-efficiency and profitability efficiency to resolve the conflict between environmental issues and production efficiency. It also analyzes in depth the effects of ESG and its three individual factors on eco-, profitability, and average efficiencies. The diversity of research methods also provides new ideas for future research related to firm efficiency. © 2022 ERP Environment and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.Item Impact of research and development tax credits on the innovation and operational efficiencies of Internet of things companies in Taiwan(Springer, 2022-08) Kweh, Qian Long; Lu, Wen-Min; Lin, Fengyi; Deng, Yung-JrItem Impulse response function analysis of the impacts of hospital accreditations on hospital efficiency(Springer New York LLC, 2019) Lin, Fengyi; Deng, Yung-Jr; Lu, Wen-Min; Kweh, Qian LongImproving hospital efficiency is an emerging area of interest among policy makers in the new global economy’s healthcare system. To ensure accurate efficiency analyses, we consider the nonhomogeneous input/output characteristics of various hospital departments, particularly the Department of Medicine, Department of Surgery, and Department of Other Specialist Medicine. These departments employ co-inputs to produce nonhomogeneous outputs. Specifically, we employ data envelopment analysis to evaluate the efficiency of 15 veterans hospitals in Taiwan. Empirical results show that the performance of the Department of Surgery has higher quality than that of the Department of Medicine and Department of Other Specialist Medicine. In addition, we include another data science technique, namely, impulse response function analysis. The findings indicate that “the New Hospital Accreditation” introduced in 2007 and revised in 2011 improved the efficiency of all departments in their respective first year of introductions. By contrast, the efficiencies of the Department of Surgery and Department of Other Specialist Medicine immediately decreased in the second year after the introductions. © 2019, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.Item Interlocking directorates and dynamic corporate performance : the roles of centrality, structural holes and number of connections in social networks(Springer Verlag, 2021) Wang, Wei-Kang; Lu, Wen-Min; Kweh, Qian Long; Nourani, Mohammad; Hong, Rong-SueiThis study investigates how interlocking directorates affect dynamic corporate performance among 187 Taiwanese electronics companies during a 3 year sampling period (2013–2015). This study consists of two stages. First, this study measures the operational efficiency of electronics companies using the dynamic slacks-based measure model of data envelopment analysis. Second, this study adopts a truncated-regression model with bootstrap to examine the impacts of interlocking directorates on dynamic corporate performance. The empirical findings of this study indicate that centrality (direct connections), structural holes (indirect connections), and the number of connections (total connections) related to interlocking directorates have significant positive influences on the dynamic corporate performance of Taiwanese electronics companies. The results suggest that more interlocks at the board level leads to better corporate performance over a long-term period. Overall, this study uses social network analysis to shed light on the role of interlocking directorates and its importance to dynamic corporate performance from the resource dependence perspective. © 2019, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.Item Multiplicative efficiency aggregation to evaluate Taiwanese local auditing institutions performance(Springer, 2022-08) Lu, Wen-Min; Kweh, Qian Long; Yang, Kai-ChuItem Nonlinear effects of ESG on energy-adjusted firm efficiency: Evidence from the stakeholder engagement of apple incorporated(John Wiley and Sons Ltd, 2022-09) Ren, Chunya; Ting, Irene Wei Kiong; Lu, Wen-Min; Kweh, Qian LongItem Nonlinearity in the relationship between intellectual capital and corporate performance: evidence from Vietnamese listed companies(Emerald Group Holdings Ltd., 2022-09-27) Kweh, Qian Long; Ting, Irene Wei Kiong; Lu, Wen-Min; Le, Hanh Thi MyPurpose: Consensus on how intellectual capital (IC) affects corporate performance is limited because of various measurement models of IC and corporate performance. This study thus aims to further the debate on the relationship between IC and corporate performance from the perspectives of nonlinearity, the capital values of IC and the use of a holistic measure of corporate performance. Design/methodology/approach: Using 1,395 firm-year observations derived from Vietnamese listed companies from 2010 to 2018, this study focuses on (1) presenting an IC model benchmarked on value-creating expenses; (2) using a directional distance function (DDF)-based stochastic nonparametric envelopment of data (StoNED) framework to scrutinize multiple performance indicators and the capital values of people, structures and relationships simultaneously; and (3) adopting firm-year cluster-robust regressions to analyze the nonlinear association between IC and corporate performance empirically with an appropriate U test. Findings: Results suggest that human capital (HC), structural capital (SC) and relational capital (RC) are the main contributors of high corporate efficiency, whereas only HC and RC contribute to high corporate profitability. These results are absent when this study employs the conventional data envelopment analysis (DEA), which is also a multidimensional framework, as the dependent variable. More importantly, IC and its components can improve corporate performance, namely, both corporate efficiency and corporate profitability up to a critical point, after which the effects would drop. Practical implications: Overall, this study highlights not only the need to invest in IC but also its associated costs. That is, policymakers also need to note the marginal cost of investing in IC, which may in the end outweigh the benefits from IC. Originality/value: This study extends IC-related studies by investigating the nonlinear relationship between IC and corporate performance. Moreover, the value of this study also lies in the multidimensional DDF-based StoNED framework. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.Item Operational and investment efficiency of investment trust companies: Do foreign firms outperform domestic firms?(Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2022-12) Nourani, Mohammad; Kweh, Qian Long; Lu, Wen-Min; Gurrib, IkhlaasThis study examines the efficiency of investment trust companies (ITCs) from 2011 to 2020 using a meta-frontier two-stage network data envelopment analysis (DEA) based on the directional distance function (DDF). We improved the accuracy of the efficiency measurement and added a network-based ranking component to rank the top-performing entities. In the group-specific technology assessment, foreign ITCs excel in investment efficiency. Meanwhile, in the meta-technology assessment, domestic ITCs outperform foreign ITCs in terms of both investment and operational efficiencies. Group-specific technology efficiency scores were found to be lower than or equal to the meta-technology efficiency scores for both the operational and investment stages. Based on the network-based ranking approach, Yuan Ta, a domestic ITC that ranked fourth in the operational stage and first in the investment stage, can be used as a reliable benchmark. This study will enable practitioners to gain a better understanding of the performance of ITCs operating under heterogeneous technologies. © 2022, The Author(s).Item Performance analysis of the cultural and creative industry : a network-based approach(John Wiley and Sons Inc., 2017-12) Lu, Wen-Min; Kweh, Qian Long; He, Dong‐Sing; Shih, Jui‐Min