No abstract

Abstract:The impacts of high technology industries have been growing increasingly to technological innovations and global economic developments, while the concerns in sustainability are calling for facilitating green materials and cleaner production in the industrial value chains. Today's manufacturing companies are not striving for individual capacities but for the effective working with green supply chains. However, in addition to environmental and social objectives, cost and economic feasibility has become one of the most critical success factors for improving supply chain management with green component procurement collaboration, especially for the electronics OEM (original equipment manufacturing) companies whose procurement costs often make up a very high proportion of final product prices. This paper presents a case study from the systems perspective by using System Dynamics simulation analysis and statistical validations with empirical data. Empirical data were collected from Taiwanese manufacturing chains-among the world's largest manufacturing clusters of high technology components and products-and their global green suppliers to examine the benefits of green component procurement collaborations in terms of shared costs and improved shipping time performance. Two different supply chain collaboration models, from multi-layer ceramic capacitor (MLCC) and universal serial bus 3.0 (USB 3.0) cable procurements, were benchmarked and statistically validated. The results suggest that the practices of collaborative planning for procurement quantity and accurate fulfillment by suppliers are significantly related to cost effectiveness and shipping time efficiency. Although the price negotiation of upstream raw materials for the collaborative suppliers has no statistically significant benefit to the shipping time efficiency, the shared cost reduction of component procurement is significantly positive for supply chain collaboration among green manufacturers. Managerial implications toward sustainable supply chain management were also discussed.

Purpose Unique product design is a highlight of sustainable branding. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether product design affects customers’ psychological responses (i.e. cognitive and affective responses) to smartphones, and, in turn, affects their brand loyalty (i.e. attitudinal and behavioral brand loyalty), further advancing the knowledge of product design and brand management. Design/methodology/approach This work used survey data from 456 Taiwanese with experience using smartphone. Structural equation modeling was employed to test the proposed model and hypotheses. Findings The results indicate that the product design significantly affects both cognitive response and affective response, which, in turn, significantly affect both attitudinal brand loyalty and behavioral brand loyalty. The findings also suggest that the moderating effect of product involvement on the relationship between product design and affective response is statistically significant, although it does not positively and significantly moderate the link between product design and cognitive response. Research limitations/implications This study has two main limitations. First, this study was conducted in the context of smartphones, thus potentially constraining the generalization of the results to other industries. Second, the data in this study were obtained from a cross-sectional design. Practical implications These findings can permit companies to generate more brand loyalty in their customers and guide their management of assets and marketing activities. Originality/value This paper presents new insights into the nature and importance of product design in brand value.

National policies for science parks and innovation have been identified as one of the major driving forces for the innovation-driven economy, especially for publicly funded science parks. To investigate this collaborative ecosystem (government-academia-industry) for growth and sustainable development, this paper proposes a nation-wide economic impact analysis of science parks and innovation policy based on historical data drawn from one of the globally recognized high-technology industrial clusters in Taiwan. Systems thinking with causal loop analysis are adopted to improve our understanding of the collaborative ecosystem with science park policies. First, from a holistic viewpoint, the role of government in a science parks and innovation ecosystem is reviewed. A systems analysis of an innovation-driven economy with a science park policy is presented as a strategy map for policy implementers. Second, the added economic value and employment of the benchmarked science parks is evaluated from a long range perspective. Third, the concepts of government-academia-industry collaboration and policies to innovation ecosystem are introduced while addressing the measures and performance of innovation and applied R&D in the science parks. We conclude with a discussion of lessons learned and the policy implications of science park development and an innovation ecosystem.

No abstract