• Journal of Applied Reliability
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.159-167
• /
• 2017

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to study research trend in the field of warranty and maintenance policy of second-hand products. Methods: To this end, we consider research articles, which deal with warranty and maintenance of the second-hand products, published on journals during the past 20 years and classify them by taxonomy scheme proposed by Shafiee and Chukova (2013). The taxonomy scheme consists of three maintenance models in warranty for second-hand product. In each models, we analyze proposed maintenance and warranty policies with respect to types of upgrade models, types of preventive maintenances, decision variables and decision criteria model. Results: We obtain the scheme of maintenance and warranty of the second-hand products and define cost related to warranty and maintenance of the second-hand item. Also, we summarize the characteristics of maintenance and warranty policies in each classified model. Conclusion: There have been several research reviews on maintenance and warranty polity of new products. This research surveys researches of authors during the past 20 years and classifies, summarizes and compares proposed maintenance and warranty policies of the second-hand products. This research provides useful information to researchers who are interested in maintenance and warranty of the second-hand products.

• STI Policy Review
• /
• v.7 no.2
• /
• pp.16-34
• /
• 2016

This study aims to identify the chronological trajectory of university science parks (USPs) in China and to discuss the roles of government-driven science and technology (S&T) policies in the development of USPs and the future directions of these entities. Our study shows that USPs in China have undergone two development waves: The first from the late 1980s to the late 1990s, when research universities expected to directly participate in economic activities, and the second from 2000 when the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and the Ministry of Education (MOE) jointly enacted the Proposed Regulation of State-level USPs Management to guide and regulate the development of USPs. The development trajectory highlights that USPs are effective platforms that link scientific research, knowledge spillovers and industrial system. However, Chinese USPs still need to confront some conundrums which may influence the processes and outcomes of UILs. Finally, we also summarize the major issues inherent in the development of USPs to guide policymakers to enact more effective policies.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
• /
• v.34 no.3
• /
• pp.31-65
• /
• 2012

We study the sustainability of the current fiscal policy of Korea, and the effects of the social welfare policy expansion, which has been recently discussed among the political circles, on the government budget and the generational equity, using generational accounting. We follow the generational accounting approach, considering the fact that most of the social welfare policies are the entitlement programs, which imposes the limitation of the policy maker's discretion to control the cost of their provision. The social welfare expenditure will change due to the change in the policy environments of the future, such as population aging. Therefore, we need to take into account the government cash flow of the future as well as of the present to investigate its effects on the fiscal sustainability, which implies that the national debt or the budget balance is not a proper index for the investigation. Our findings are as follows. The current fiscal policies are not sustainable, and the long-term budgetary imbalance is shown very serious. The required tax adjustment, which is defined as the percentage change of tax burden required to attain the long-term budgetary balance, is very large. Unless the level of the government expenditure is properly controlled, the tax burden and the social contribution level will rise to the untolerable level. Moreover, the expansion of the social welfare policies, which has been discussed among the political circles, will substantially increase the fiscal burden of the future generations. Even though the provision of the free lunch to the primary and the secondary school students, the free child care, and the discounted college tuition do not increase the fiscal burden much, because their magnitude at present is not large and will decrease due to the decrease in the number of the newborns and the students resulting from the fall in the fertility rate, that of the free health care service will increase tax burden of the future generations very much, because the magnitude of the government expenditure needed at present is very large and the population aging will further increase the magnitude of the health care expenditure. The findings indicate that the structural reforms, to prevent the explosive increase in the social welfare expenditure in the future, are necessary before the implementation of the welfare policy expansion. In particular, the cost control of the social transfers to the elderly needs to be made, because the speed of the population aging of Korea is among the highest in the world. The findings also indicate that the budget balance or the national debt can cause the fiscal illusion, which makes the Korean government budget look sound, even though the fiscal policy will rapidly increase the social welfare expenditure in the future, as the population ages. The generational accounting, which takes into account the cash flow of the future as well as of the present, unlike the budgetary balance and the national debt, which shows the results of the government financial activities of the past and the present, is a useful method to overcome the fiscal illusion.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.32-42
• /
• 2014

It is necessary to calculate prime cost of medical services accurately in order to evaluate the adequacy of medical fee. This paper aims to identify cost analysts' perception on prime cost of medical services and needs in establishing a cost accounting system in hospitals, proposing future directions and guidelines for the calculation of medical fee. A self-administered questionnaire and telephone survey on operation of a hospital cost-accounting system was conducted in November, 2012, among cost analysts currently working in the hospitals and hospital administrators planning to implement the hospital cost-accounting system. Our study shows that most of the cost analysts were aware of the importance of calculating prime cost and responded that collection of the prime cost data from government is necessary although they are less likely to provide the data in the future concerning the risk of data misuse and data security. They also responded that lack of budget allocation and excessive workload were the main reasons for not estimating the prime cost and operating cost management information system. Results show that hospital cost analysts considered the data accuracy is the most critical factor in calculating prime costs of medical services. However, there was no investment budget allocated in some hospitals or limited to less than 100 million, indicating that hospitals are reluctant to invest on implementing the cost accounting system. Respondents stated the organization that collects the prime cost of medical services among hospitals should display strong analytical capabilities, ensure data security, and maintain independence, which is most demanded. There are 57 hospitals that calculated the prime cost of medical services for 2012 by each medical department and 20 hospitals that calculated the prime cost by fee-for-services, aiming to establish a cost accounting system. Our results indicate that hospitals should voluntarily provide the accurate prime cost for medical services in order to properly evaluate the adequacy of medical fee. Consequently, it is critical to establish an independent organization to collect and appraise the data. It is also recommended that government should implement various policies to encourage hospitals to participate in the data collection to achieve the data accuracy and representativeness.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
• /
• v.7 no.12
• /
• pp.233-243
• /
• 2020

This study aims to assess the impacts of COVID-19 on International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), because of the problems associated with changing and amending the financial reports according to the policies established based on the circumstances of the epidemic. The study sample targeted several international financial reports that were amended based on epidemic conditions. The revised financial reporting period provides standardized reporting procedures for financial transactions worldwide despite the pandemic. Therefore, IFRS has been used to reduce challenges in financial reporting by monitoring the duration of social distancing while reporting matters to eliminate confirmed uncertainty and judgment. After analyzing the data obtained through global search engines, the results conducted provided evidence that COVID-19 affects financial reporting in companies around the world. Therefore, companies face difficulty reporting finances based on the challenging environment that the pandemic represents. Besides, IFRS fair value measurements consider the prices that were predicted according to current market values. The contexts of the changing the standards by IFRS to curb the effects of the COVID19 financial reporting was attained through evaluation of the online files that were randomly selected and filtered to obtain valid data.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
• /
• v.7 no.6
• /
• pp.339-349
• /
• 2020

The study evaluates the performance of public hospitals in Vietnam by applying the Balanced Scorecard (BSC). The authors first review the literature to find the research gap of performance in public hospitals. Then, we built Likert questionnaires to collect data from more than 200 managers of public hospitals in the Northwestern provinces of Vietnam. The research uses correlation regression to evaluate the performance based on the influence of factors in the BSC model, including Strategic planning, Internal process, Finance, Mission, Customer, and Employee learning and growth. The results show that the performance of public hospitals in the research sample is influenced by the factors in the BSC model in descending order based on the regression coefficient as follows: Internal process, Finance, Mission, Strategic planning, Customer, Employee learning and growth. Based on the quantitative research findings, we continue by conducting some deep interviews with specialty to propose intensive recommendations about how to implement Mission, Internal process, Financial policies, etc. to managers in public hospitals with an aim to improve the performance of public hospitals in the Northwestern mountainous region of Vietnam. The lessons could be applied for other public hospitals in Vietnam and other jurisdictions that have similar conditions.

• Asian Journal of Business Environment
• /
• v.10 no.1
• /
• pp.37-43
• /
• 2020

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between portfolio quality and financial sustainability of microfinance institutions in Kenya. Research Design, Data, and Methodology: The analysis was based on a panel dataset of 30 microfinance institutions for the period of 2010 to 2018. Data was obtained from the Microfinance information exchange (MIX) database, and it was analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics with the aid of STATA. Based on the results of the Hausman test, the study adopted the fixed effect regression model to test the research hypothesis. Results: The study found that portfolio quality had a positive significant effect on financial sustainability of Microfinance institutions in Kenya (β= 0. 211; p-value < 0.05). For the control variables; firm age had a positive effect (β= 0.773; p-value <0.05), while firm size (β= -0. 749; p-value < 0.05) had a negative effect on financial sustainability. Conclusions: The study concluded that portfolio quality has an important influence on the financial sustainability of microfinance institution. The study recommends that managers of microfinance institutions should devise good collection policies to improve portfolio quality while lessening loan default rate. The portfolio quality may improve the overall profitability and enhance investor confidence in their strategic decision-making on refinancing.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
• /
• v.7 no.8
• /
• pp.233-246
• /
• 2020

This paper investigates the effect of the involvement of the board chairman in the audit committee (AC) on earnings management (EM). It examines Bursa Malaysia-listed companies with the lowest positive earnings for the years 2013 to 2015. The Modified Jones Model by Kasznik (1999) was used to determine discretionary accruals. An AC that includes its board chairman as an ordinary member is associated with greater discretionary accruals. However, a board chairman who is also the chairman of the AC does not seem to influence discretionary accruals. This paper supports the agency theory and policy-makers' efforts to prevent board chairmen from sitting on ACs. It is the first study that uses the agency theory to describe the association between the board chairman's involvement in the both AC and EM. This study alerts policy-makers, stakeholders and researchers to the influence of a board chairman serving on the AC in curbing EM. Furthermore, it provides empirical evidence that the majority of Malaysian companies whose board chairmen are involved in the AC appoint the chairman as an ordinary member of the AC. This indicates that executive directors may affect such actions. Hence, more policies are needed to improve AC independence.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
• /
• v.7 no.10
• /
• pp.741-750
• /
• 2020

This study examines the influence of working capital management (WCM) factors on the profitability of steel companies listed on the Stock Exchange of Vietnam. Data was collected from audited financial statements of companies for a period of 10 years, from 2010 to 2019. The number of samples eligible for research is 20 out of 26 companies, which is equivalent to 76.9%. With the help of dedicated software Stata version 14, the impact determination of WCM (through 8 independent variables: DIO, DPO, DSO, CCC, SIZ, CR, LEV, GRO) to the firm's profitability (through the dependent variable) is performed through multivariate regression models. Research results from companies in the steel industry in Vietnam during this period indicate that WCM has a strong impact on the profitability of businesses. Among 8 factors affecting the profitability of steel enterprises, factors DPO, DIO, DSO, CR, SIZ, GRO have a positive impact, boosting profitability; 2 factors CCC and LEV have a negative impact on profitability; in which, the effect of CCC is negligible. This conclusion is almost in contrast to many previously published studies due to the specifics of the industry as well as the different stages of economic development associated with the economic management policies of the State.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
• /
• v.8 no.11
• /
• pp.47-66
• /
• 2021

Despite the dominance of the USD as a vehicle currency in non-US trade, most studies on the exchange rate-trade balance relationship ignore its importance. Some recent J-curve papers have proved that incorporating the role of USD as vehicle currency as a crucial determinant of trade balance can well reflect the reality of global trade and provide more detailed findings. Motivated by this new approach and by the fact that USD is substantially used in the trade between China and the EU and the UK, this paper scrutinizes how the vehicle currency USD and the bilateral exchange rates asymmetrically affect China's trade balance with each EU country and the UK. The results of NARDL estimation indicate that the USD models outperform the bilateral exchange rate (BER) models in terms of detecting significant long-run and short-run coefficients, which confirms the usefulness of the new approach. Also, this paper finds that the USD/CNY exchange rate cannot be neglected in China's trade with the EU and the UK, which can supplement China's policies on international trade and foreign exchange management.