• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.7
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• pp.3163-3167
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• 2014

Background: Breast-conserving surgery (BCS) plus radiotherapy is equivalent to modified radical mastectomy (MRM) in terms of outcome. However there is wide variation in mastectomy rates dependent both on tumour and patient characteristics. Objective: This study aimed to assess the determinants of surgery choice in Asian patients with early breast cancer in a middle-income country. Materials and Methods: 184 patients with early breast cancer treated between Jan 2008 and Dec 2010 were recruited to complete a questionnaire. Chi-square test was used to analyze the association between surgery choice and demographic and tumour factors, surgeon recommendation, family member and partner opinions, fear of recurrence, avoidance of second surgery, fear of disfigurement, interference with sex life, fear of radiation and loss of femininity. Results: 85 (46%) had BCS while 99 (54%) had mastectomy. Age >60, Chinese ethnicity, lower education level, and larger tumour size were significantly associated with mastectomy. Surgeon recommendation was important in surgery choice. Although both groups did not place much importance on interference with sex life, 14.1% of the BCS group felt it was very important compared to 5.1% in the mastectomy group and this was statistically significant. There was no statistical difference between the two groups in terms of the other factors. When analyzed by ethnicity, significantly more Malay and Indian women considered partner and family member opinions very important and were more concerned about loss of femininity compared to Chinese women. There were no statistical differences between the three ethnic groups in terms of the other factors. Conclusions: When counseling on surgical options, the surgeon has to take into account the ethnicity, social background and education level, age and reliance on partner and family members. Decision-making is usually a collective effort rather than just between the patient and surgeon, and involving the whole family into the process early is important.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.61-87
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• 2020

Five diffusion models are estimated using three different foreign exchange rates to find an appropriate model for each. Daily spot exchange rates expressed as the prices of 1 euro, 1 British pound and 100 Japanese yen in US dollars, respectively denoted by USD/EUR, USD/GBP, and USD/100JPY, are used. The maximum likelihood estimation method is implemented after deriving an approximate log-transition density function (log-TDF) of the diffusion processes because the true log-TDF is unknown. Of the five models, the most general model is the best fit for the USD/GBP, and USD/100JPY exchange rates, but it is not the case for the case of USD/EUR. Although we could not find any evidence of the mean-reverting property for the USD/EUR exchange rate, the USD/GBP, and USD/100JPY exchange rates show the mean-reversion behavior. Interestingly, the volatility function of the USD/EUR exchange rate is increasing in the exchange rate while the volatility functions of the USD/GBP and USD/100Yen exchange rates have a U-shape. Our results reveal that more care has to be taken when determining a diffusion model for the exchange rate. The results also imply that we may have to use a more general diffusion model than those proposed in the literature when developing economic theories for the behavior of the exchange rate and pricing foreign currency options or derivatives.

• Asian Journal of Business Environment
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.15-22
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• 2019

Purpose: Omni-channel retailing is a new retail phenomenon. Consumers in the omni-channel environment do not rely on one channel but integrate different channels from the same retailers freely during a particular shopping journey. The purpose of this study is to better understand omni-channel shoppers in the fashion retailing context. The present study uses consumer characteristics -- fashion innovativeness, technology innovativeness, and fashion purchase involvement -- as determinants predicting consumers' omni-channel shopping intentions for fashion products. Research design, data, and methodology: Data were collected from 403 U.S. consumers, and the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was performed to test proposed hypotheses. The survey for this research consisted of three parts. The first part measured consumer traits in terms of their innovativeness and purchase involvement. The second part was designed to measure consumers' omni-channel shopping intentions, and the third part gathered consumer demographic information. Results: The findings confirmed that fashion innovativeness, technology innovativeness, and fashion purchase involvement positively affected consumers' omni-channel shopping intentions. Conclusions: Fashion retailers should integrate various customer touchpoints and offer mobile-enabled technologies to boost consumer traffic to both online and offline stores. They also need to create a shopping environment that is optimized for customer engagement in various shopping processes and allow them to explore different shopping channel options for best purchase decisions.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.139-149
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• 2018

In the contemporary era of smart tourism, travelers face more accommodation options than ever before. The rapid expansions of alternative accommodation sector are partially owing to the growth of electronic commerce and the rise of online intermediary platforms. Online travel agencies serve as a critical distribution channel for tourism sectors, and the significance is further increased for small and micro entrepreneurs whose direct communication channels are scarce. Considering the holistic process of customer experience started with a third-party online intermediary, this study explores basic and extended attributes of small and medium-sized alternative accommodation where the comparative value is created. In order to achieve the objective, a research design was developed to synthesize the qualitative evidence. The synthesis encompasses both theoretical and practical perspectives, from a systematic review and opinions of academic professionals to an in-depth interview with an industry expert and the current practices of online travel agencies. This study suggests that the sources of value creation for alternative accommodation are not always consistent with those of the traditional. Accounting for the temporal and spatial dynamics in customer experience, the findings of this study provide insights on the comparative value of alternative accommodation, to both academic and industry audiences.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.17-26
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• 2017

Many workers today encounter the problem of overemployment which occurs when actual working hours exceed preferred or desired working hours. Overemployed workers desire to work fewer hours although this may entail a concomitant decline in earnings. This research is conducted to examine the likelihood of overemployment among employees in a particular state in Malaysia, that is, Penang. This study uses primary data that was collected in a survey encompassing a total of 525 employees in the state. A logit model is used to analyse the relationship between the likelihood of overemployment and various socio-demographic, household and work-related variables. The factors that are significantly related to overemployment are ethnicity, age, education, number of children in the household, occupation, hours of work and control over work schedule. Based on the findings of this paper, it is suggested that policies such as offering part-time jobs or job-sharing options to older workers, implementing family-friendly policies, adopting decent working time measures and strategies that give workers more control over their work schedule are some possible ways to deal with the issue of overemployment.

• Strategy21
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• s.36
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• pp.94-120
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• 2015

The Asia-Pacific Region has emerged as a arena of geopolitical competition between the U.S. and China. The Obama administration of the U.S. had laid out the concept of rebalancing strategy toward the region, concentrating its 60 percent of Naval Forces to the region till 2020 and consolidating its network of allies and partners. Whereas Chinese leader Xi Jinping also put forward the concept of new type of major power relations concerning its relations with the U.S. and a concept of 'the Asian Community of Common Destiny' aiming at a more intensified mutual relation among countries in the region. In doing so, Asia-Pacific region gradually became the arena where mutual competition and cooperation between the U.S. and China has crossfired. As a close ally to the U.S. and a partner to Japan, South Korea should develop trilateral naval cooperation by holding joint naval drill with the aim of humanitarian support and disaster relief. At the same time, Seoul also should make efforts to proceed mutual confidence building with Beijing by deepening military-to-military cooperation. These policy options will be helpful to enhance Seoul's security posture in the region.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.5-16
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• 2014

This study aims to examine the dynamics of price changes and trading volume of Kuala Lumpur Options and Financial Futures Exchange (KLOFFE) from 2000 to 2008. With augmented analysis, our results support two hypotheses. First, under information spillover, our findings support noise traders' hypothesis as the time span for variance of past trading volume to cause variance of current return is found to be asymmetric under bull and bear markets. Second, looking at the dynamic relation between volume and volatility of price changes, our findings support Liquidity-Driven Trade hypothesis as past trading volume and subsequent volatility of return exhibit positive correlation. In terms of investors' behavior in response to the news, we find that investors are more risk taking in bull market and more risk reverse in bear market. Our study suggests that investors should adjust their strategy in the futures market in a dynamic manner as the time span of new information arrival is not consistent. Also, uninformed investors with information asymmetry should expect noninformational trading from informed investors to establish their desired positions for better liquid position.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.1-25
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• 2005

Legislation on pharmaceutical reimbursement decision using economic evaluation results was made in Korea in fm, but has yet to be fully implemented. We evaluated the quality of Korean economic evaluation studies of pharmaceuticals to understand gaps between legislation and implementation. From this evaluation, we propose policy options that might strengthen the research Infrastructure In order to support such studies. We reviewed 23 published studies for drugs conducted between 1996 and 2004. Evaluation criteria included methodological characteristics, healthcare system characteristics, population characteristics, and applicability of results. Large variation in study quality was observed, particularly with study design, outcome data, treatment patterns and interpretation. Korean clinical data used was mostly from observational studies of 1-2 hospitals. Foreign data was extracted from clinical trials that did not Include Asian population and their selection criterion was not clarified. With respect to treatment patterns, medical records and hospital bills were used without adjustment regarding area, hospital type, and others. And next frequent situation relied on expert opinion from academic physicians in specialty practice. preference measures, when used, were not elicited from the Korean population. $78.3\%$ of studies did not clarify the funding source. If the Korean economic evaluation policy is to provide meaningful data for decision makers, the quality of cost-effectiveness studies will need to improve dramatically. This may involve access to or creation of better data, more diverse funding, unproved training of researchers and evaluators, and partnerships with technology manufacturers.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.17-27
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• 2018

In 21^st Century business world, services are carried out in multifaceted, competitive and rationality manner that are characterized by evolving many factors, which are often unpredictable. On-the-go banking is a product in financial sector. However, it faces serious pitfalls being it riskiness. Bank customers compete for time-saving options. On contrary, PCBs compete for marginalizing its operating costs for enhancing its revenues. On strategic tactics, PCBs targets city customers in multi-facets including offering incentives for enhanced usages of on-the-go banking. Influencing customer's intention, attitude and behavior in banking, PCBs also offers incentive under market system along with often informational asymmetry. However, it causes exploitation. In most cases customers don't read terms & conditions of services. They don't save contract-copy. These weaknesses cause abuses. Customer faces hidden charges, extra fees, account hacked. Addressing the issue, Voluntary Insurance Option is proposed where PCBs will introduce it as a product of bank-services. Transferring risk away from customer will benefit both PCBs and bank-customers. This product can attract new customers who were on the brink using digital banking but just felt it was too risky. This model can facilitate the parties involved for increasing usage of on-the-go banking-services while customers can maintain optimal utility of usages.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.11
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• pp.95-100
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• 2020

Nifty Bank Index has started trading in futures and options (F&O) segment from 13^th June 2005 in National Stock Exchange. The purpose of the study is to enhance the literature by examining expiration effect on the price volatility and price reversal of Underlying Index in India. Historical data used for the current study primarily comprise of daily close prices of Nifty Bank which is the only equity sectoral index in India which is traded in derivatives market and its Future contract value is derived from the underlying CNX Bank Index during the period 1^st January 2010 till 31^st March 2020. To check stationarity of the data, Augmented Dicky Fuller test was used. The study employed ARMA- EGARCH model for analysing the data. The empirical results revealed that there is no effect on the mean returns of underlying Index and EGARCH (1,1) model furthermore shows there is existence of leverage effect in the Bank Index i.e., negative shocks causes more fluctuations in the Index than positive news of similar magnitude. The outcome of the study specifies that there is no effect on volatility on the underlying sectoral index due to expiration days and also observed no price reversal effect once the expiration days are over.