An Exploratory Study on the Balanced Scorecard Model of Social EnterpriseYoeng‐Taak Lee; Jae‐Young Moon
2008 Asian Journal on Quality
doi: 10.1108/15982688200800014
The purpose of this study is to develop BSC model of social enterprise. Performance analysis tool of BSC have been brought over from the business world, designed and created from the perspectives of profit‐based businesses. The BSC is a strategic performance measurement and management tool designed for the private sector acting as a communication/information and learning system, to measure “where we are now” and “where to aim for next”. It prescribes a plan for translating “vision” and “strategy” into concrete action across four perspectives at different stages, depending on the business. These perspectives are “financial”, “customer”, “internal processes” and “learning and growth”, each of which is connected by cause‐and‐effect relationships that reflect the firm’s strategy. Social aims of social enterprise are to accomplish desired outcomes which are to employ vulnerable people and to provide social services. The measurement factors of financial perspective are stable funding, efficiency of budgeting, stakeholders’ financial supports, and trade profit. The measurement factors of customer perspective are government, social service users, employees, local communities, supplier, social activity company, and partnership with external organizations. The measurement factors of internal process perspective are organizational culture, organizational structure/management, internal/external communication, quality of products and services, information sharing. The measurement factors of learning and growth perspective are training and development, management participation, knowledge sharing, leadership of CEO and manager, and learning culture.
The Critical Success Factors of Six Sigma in China Manufacturing IndustryMa Yi‐zhong; Yue Gang; Wang Li‐lin; Sangbok Ree
2008 Asian Journal on Quality
doi: 10.1108/15982688200800016
Six Sigma has been one of main quality improvement approaches since Motorola first invented Six Sigma in 1987. Many scholars and consult experts have discussed the critical success factors of implementing Six Sigma management, but most of them are based on related theories or qualitative analyses. In the paper, we first review critical success factor of Six Sigma status quo based on literature. Then we design the questionnaire and survey China manufacturing enterprises that have introduced Six Sigma management. And finally, we analyze the critical success factors of China manufacturing industry implementing Six Sigma management by using structural equation model and find that leadership and Six Sigma strategy, focus on market and customer, evaluation and motivation, selecting, managing and implementing Six Sigma projects are four critical success factors of China manufacturing enterprises implementing Six Sigma management. At the same time, the paper also presents the relationships between the critical success factors. The results are of important role in China manufacturing industry locating resources, eliminating waste and improving Six Sigma performance.
A Study of Environmental Management Investment AllocationShiaw‐Wen Tien; Ting‐Ting Chang; Yi‐Chan Chung; Ching‐Piao Chen; Chih‐Hung Tsai
2008 Asian Journal on Quality
doi: 10.1108/15982688200800017
The 21st century is a new century of environmental protection. Environmental protection is one of the most important subject matters yet to come. Moreover, as the public pays more attention to environmental problems, enterprises should increase their investment in environmental management. Therefore, determining the investment level for environmental management and allocating the investment to associated environmental management activities has become a major task. The principal and agent theory and sales response functions are used for analysis in this research. The allocation of capital investment in environmental management is found to have significant impact on the aggregate sales response, aggregate profit and investment level. Therefore, in preparing the budget for environmental management, enterprises should focus on investment allocation decisions, determine the investment level and allocation method using integrated means, and apply submarket data in the allocation decision‐making process. In other words, in setting the investment level, executive management should take managers’ willingness into consideration. In allocating capital investment, managers should identify the optimal allocation method based on submarket characteristics.
Research on Recognition of Graphic Symbols in Amusement Park: A Case Study of Taiwan’s Theme Amusement ParkYao‐Wen Hsu; Yi‐Chan Chung; Ching‐Piao Chen; Chih‐Hung Tsai
2008 Asian Journal on Quality
doi: 10.1108/15982688200800018
Each amusement park has a wayfinding system, while symbols are important mediums to guide tourists to find their destinations. It is very important that whether the meanings of symbols recognized by tourists immediately. This paper mainly discusses the recognition of graphic symbols in amusement park, and proposes the improvement suggestions. Materials for this study were drawn from 20 different graphic symbols of a theme amusement park in Taiwan. The testees were required to evaluate the design of graphic symbols based on symbolic meaning and graphics recognition to summarize the confusion matrix. The results show that there are three groups of graphic symbols easy to be confused, and five symbols not meeting a criterion of 67 per cent correct responses. The reasons were discussed, and improvement and relevant suggestions have been proposed, which may be helpful to redesign of symbols.
A Sustainable Strategy and Action Plan of Social Enterprise in KoreaGye‐Soo Kim
2008 Asian Journal on Quality
doi: 10.1108/15982688200800019
Social Enterprise (SE) has a vital role to play in helping meet some main commitments for Korea‐growing economy; supporting stronger communities; closing opportunity gap‐together with the developing a vibrant third sector. The Strategy and action plan is intend to grow and develop us of social enterprise business model in Korea. The sustainable strategy and action plan will be useful for Korea’s Social enterprise. This paper will suggest that from the sustainable strategy to action plan of social enterprise in Korea.
Using Analytic Network Process to Construct Evaluation Indicators of Knowledge Sharing Effectiveness in Taiwan’s High‐tech IndustriesPang‐Lo Liu; Chih‐Hung Tsai
2008 Asian Journal on Quality
doi: 10.1108/15982688200800020
High‐tech industry has been the principal economic source for Taiwan in recent years. The characteristics of high‐tech industries in Taiwan are changeable product markets, short product life cycles and high company attrition rate. In the globalization trend, the high‐tech industry has gradually increased corporate competitiveness and reached the goal of sustainable operations through knowledge management, knowledge sharing and new product research and development. Firms have aggressively strengthened and integrated their internal and external resources and enhanced knowledge sharing to increase industry operational performance. Effectively strengthening the knowledge management operation and performance evaluation of knowledge sharing in Taiwan’s high‐tech industry has become a critical issue. In the selection of knowledge sharing Key Performance Indicators (KPI), this research divided the knowledge sharing indicators into representative strategic indicators such as organizational knowledge learning, organizational knowledge resources, organizational information capacity and organizational knowledge performance through screening using Factor Analysis. The characteristics of the constructs were interdependent. This research calculated and adjusted the correlation among the key performance knowledge sharing indicators using ANP and determined the relative weight of knowledge sharing.
A Study on the Effect of the Improvement of Investment Environment with Investment Incentive on National EconomyJae‐Young Moon; Won‐Hee Lee; Pyeong‐Rak Choi; Yung‐Ho Suh
2008 Asian Journal on Quality
doi: 10.1108/15982688200800022
This research is to investigate the effect of the improvement of investment environments with investment incentive on Korean national economy by looking into the foreign investment support system in Korea. To this end, first research model was set up based on our literary study and case study was conducted on 150 foreign companies that were located in industrial complex for foreign companies, received the tax benefit and government subsidization. And it was found that even though the foreign companies were contributing to the national economy in general such as in the area of production, export, employment, development of technology, there was no significant contributory difference between the investment incentive beneficiary and non‐beneficiary foreign companies. Therefore it deemed reasonable to reconsider the way Korean government supports foreign companies in Korea and to reinforce foreign companies’ relevance to national policy agenda with additional incentives to foreign companies located in comparatively less developed areas. As a way to promote foreign investment, promotion of investment infra such as improvement of follow‐up services, openness to foreign investment, industrial deregulations in capital area, revitalization of free economic zone, efficient system to promote foreign investment and the reinforcement of public relations were considered necessary, especially the upgrading of economic structure and the integrated management of domestic and foreign investors deemed necessary for the optimal distribution of the industries.