Logistics opportunities in Asia and development in Taiwan

The economy in Asia is growing rapidly. As a consequence, transportation and communication technologies and the changing needs of customers and shippers have resulted in Asian and Taiwan's logistics being in transition. This paper discusses why logistics changes, and explores the opportunities for Asian logistics development. The issues of logistics perspectives of private sectors in Taiwan are then raised. Finally, logistics development in Taiwan is described.     

Application of perceived value model to identify factors affecting passengers' repurchase intentions on city bus: A case of the Taipei metropolitan area

This paper establishes and tests the perceived value model, which is applied to identify the factors affecting the passengers' repurchase intentions on city bus. In this study, perceived value is a trade-off between perceived benefits and perceived costs. And the main part of perceived benefits is service quality. We (1) measured service quality using a multiple-items scale, (2) integrated perceived non-monetary price as a part of perceived costs, and (3) simultaneously incorporated the attractiveness of alternative modes. Data was collected via a questionnaire survey in the Taipei metropolitan area and the model was tested using path analysis performed by LISREL. The results indicate that all causal relationships are statistical significant. Finally, this study concludes by discussing managerial implications and making suggestions for future research.     

Survey analysis of supply chain adjustment for Taiwanese information technology firms

Owing to the globalization of industry, the explosion in customer services and product life-cycle compression, most manufacturers have been adjusting the processes and activities of their supply chains to remain competitive and optimize total profit. The aim here was to explore the issues surrounding the changes in manufacturing supply chains and the consequential impact on freight transport demand. A questionnaire to survey Taiwanese information technology (IT) firms was designed and conducted to chart in detail the changes in supply chains of manufacturers, the trends in the international division of labour, and the strategic adjustment of manufacturing and logistics strategies. Surveys and interviews led to the conclusions that (1) vertical integration and international division of labour are very conspicuous among Taiwanese IT firms, (2) there are different strategies of supply chain adjustment at various stages of the product life-cycle, (3) with the transformation of the supply chain, manufacturers require faster transport services, i.e. the demand for air transport may increase and the demand for sea transport may decrease, and (4) once the firms decide on foreign investment, the availability of international transport services becomes one of the considerations for factory offshore relocation. However, transport cost is not a major consideration for firms' supply chain adjustments.