Although the composition of the board of directors has important implications for different aspects of firm performance, prior studies tend to focus on financial performance. The effects of board ...composition on corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance remain an under-researched area, particularly in the period following the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX). This article specifically examines two important aspects of board composition (i.e., the presence of outside directors and the presence of women directors) and their relationship with CSR performance in the Post-SOX era. With data covering over 500 of the largest companies listed on the U.S. stock exchanges and spanning 64 different industries, we find empirical evidence showing that greater presence of outside and women directors is linked to better CSR performance within a firm's industry. Treating CSR performance as the reflection of a firm's moral legitimacy, our study suggests that deliberate structuring of corporate boards may be an effective approach to enhance a firm's moral legitimacy.
Data are limited on the efficacy and safety of pegylated interferon plus ribavirin for patients with hepatitis C virus genotype 1 (HCV-1) receiving hemodialysis.
To compare the efficacy and safety of ...combination therapy with pegylated interferon plus low-dose ribavirin and pegylated interferon monotherapy for treatment-naive patients with HCV-1 receiving hemodialysis.
Open-label, randomized, controlled trial. (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT00491244).
8 centers in Taiwan.
205 treatment-naive patients with HCV-1 receiving hemodialysis.
48 weeks of pegylated interferon-α2a, 135 µg weekly, plus ribavirin, 200 mg daily (n = 103), or pegylated interferon-α2a, 135 µg weekly (n = 102).
Sustained virologic response rate and adverse event-related withdrawal rate.
Compared with monotherapy, combination therapy had a greater sustained virologic response rate (64% vs. 33%; relative risk, 1.92 95% CI, 1.41 to 2.62; P < 0.001). More patients receiving combination therapy had hemoglobin levels less than 8.5 g/dL than those receiving monotherapy (72% vs. 6%; risk difference, 66% CI, 56% to 76%; P < 0.001). Patients receiving combination therapy required a higher dosage (mean, 13 946 IU per week SD, 6449 vs. 5833 IU per week SD, 1169; P = 0.006) and longer duration (mean, 29 weeks SD, 9 vs. 18 weeks SD, 7; P = 0.004) of epoetin-β than patients receiving monotherapy. The adverse event-related withdrawal rates were 7% in the combination therapy group and 4% in the monotherapy group (risk difference, 3% CI, -3% to 9%).
Open-label trial; results may not be generalizable to patients on peritoneal dialysis.
In treatment-naive patients with HCV-1 receiving hemodialysis, combination therapy with pegylated interferon plus low-dose ribavirin achieved a greater sustained virologic response rate than pegylated interferon monotherapy.
National Center of Excellence for Clinical Trial and Research.
Although percutaneous liver biopsy (PLB) is the gold standard for staging hepatic fibrosis in hemodialysis patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) before renal transplantation or antiviral therapy, ...concerns exist about serious postbiopsy complications. Using transient elastography (TE, Fibroscan(®)) to predict the severity of hepatic fibrosis has not been prospectively evaluated in these patients.
A total of 284 hemodialysis patients with CHC were enrolled. TE and aspartate aminotransferase-to-platelet ratio index (APRI) were performed before PLB. The severity of hepatic fibrosis was staged by METAVIR scores ranging from F0 to F4. Receiver operating characteristic curves were used to assess the diagnostic accuracy of TE and APRI, taking PLB as the reference standard.
The areas under curves of TE were higher than those of APRI in predicting patients with significant hepatic fibrosis (≥F2) (0.96 versus 0.84, P<0.001), those with advanced hepatic fibrosis (≥F3) (0.98 versus 0.93, P=0.04), and those with cirrhosis (F4) (0.99 versus 0.92, P=0.13). Choosing optimized liver stiffness measurements of 5.3, 8.3, and 9.2 kPa had high sensitivity (93-100%) and specificity (88-99%), and 87, 97, and 93% of the patients with a fibrosis stage of ≥F2, ≥F3, and F4 were correctly diagnosed without PLB, respectively.
TE is superior to APRI in assessing the severity of hepatic fibrosis and can substantially decrease the need of staging PLB in hemodialysis patients with CHC.
What are the impacts of socio-emotional wealth on the corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance of family firms? Using panel data (2007–2012) of publicly listed firms in Taiwan, this research ...adopts the perspective of socio-emotional wealth to compare the CSR performance of family and non-family firms. We found that overall socio-emotional wealth (measured by majority ownership and the ratio of independent directors on the board) is positively associated with CSR performance, and family ventures out-perform non-family firms. Theoretical, managerial and policy-making implications are provided.
This study examines the influence of green creativity to the green new product performances. Creativity is a key source of organization’s competitive advantage (Barney, 1991) and increases the ...likelihood of new product success by providing effective product differentiation (Song, 2018). Building on the thesis of Natural Resource-based view (Hart, 1995), we study the impact of green creativity on the performances of green new products. This study also shows that family involvement plays a role in the green performances of family businesses. We pay particular attention to family firms because of two reasons. First, family businesses represent a significant proportion of the corporate sector in both developed and developing countries (Faccio and Lang 2002). Second, family firms have different behavioral patterns when reacting to stakeholders’ pressures (Huaang, Ding, and Kao, 2009; Sharma and Sharma, 2011) for better environmental management practices. This study surveyed 134 family-owned, high-tech manufacturers in Taiwan. The findings show that the green creativity is positively and significantly related to green new product performances. Our analytical results also show that family involvement moderates the relationship between green creativity and green new product performances.
Objective Data comparing the efficacy and safety of combination therapy with peginterferon plus low-dose ribavirin and peginterferon monotherapy in treatment-naive haemodialysis patients with ...hepatitis C virus genotype 2 (HCV-2) infection are limited. Design In this randomised trial, 172 patients received 24 weeks of peginterferon alfa-2a 135 μg/week plus ribavirin 200 mg/day (n=86) or peginterferon alfa-2a 135 μg/week (n=86). The efficacy and safety endpoints were sustained virological response (SVR) rate and adverse event (AE)-related withdrawal rate. Results Compared with monotherapy, combination therapy had a greater SVR rate (74% vs 44%, relative risk (RR): 1.68 95% CI 1.29 to 2.20; p<0.001). The beneficial effect of combination therapy was more pronounced in patients with baseline viral load ≥800 000 IU/mL than those with baseline viral load <800 000 IU/mL (RR: 3.08 95% CI 1.80 to 5.29 vs RR: 1.11 95% CI 0.83 to 1.45; interaction p=0.001). Patients receiving combination therapy were more likely to have a haemoglobin level of <8.5 g/dL (70% vs 8%, risk difference (RD): 62% 95% CI 50% to 73%; p<0.001) and required a higher dosage mean: 13 417vs 6667 IU/week, p=0.027 of epoetin β to manage anaemia than those receiving monotherapy. The AE-related withdrawal rates were 6% and 3% in combination therapy and monotherapy groups, respectively (RD: 2% 95% CI −4% to 9%). Conclusions In treatment-naive haemodialysis patients with HCV-2 infection, combination therapy with peginterferon plus low-dose ribavirin achieved a greater SVR rate than peginterferon monotherapy. Most haemodialysis patients can tolerate combination therapy. Trial registration number ClinicalTrial.gov number, NCT00491244.
Renal supportive care (RSC) denotes a care program dedicated for patients with acute, chronic renal failure, and end-stage renal disease (ESRD), aiming to offer maximal symptom relief and optimize ...patients' quality of life. The uncertainty of prognosis for patients with chronic kidney disease and ESRD, the sociocultural issues inherent to the Taiwanese society, and the void of structured and practical RSC pathway, contributes to the underrecognition and poor utilization of RSC. Taiwanese patients rarely receive information regarding RSC as part of a standardized care and are not commonly offered this option. In National Taiwan University Hospital Jinshan branch, we started a RSC subprogram, supported by the community-based palliative/hospice care main program. We focused on understanding the need and providing the choice of RSC to suitable candidates. A three-step and four-phase protocol was designed and implemented to identify appropriate patients and to enhance the applicability of the RSC. We harnessed family visit and home-based family meeting as a vehicle to understand the patients' preferences, to discover what ESRD patients and their family value most, and to introduce the option of RSC. In the current review, we described our pilot experience of establishing a RSC program in Taiwan, and discuss its potential advantage.
Abstract
One striking finding from recent natural environmental management research is that family firms are more likely to engage in environmentally friendly practices. However, the source of such ...difference is less clear. The primary objective of our research is to investigate if family firms react to stakeholder pressures differently when making natural environmental management decisions. We survey 235 manufacturing firms from the chemical, and the electronic and information technology industries in Taiwan to test our hypotheses. The results of regression analysis show that family firms pay much more attention to their internal stakeholders than non-family firms. This finding complements the current discussions on family business uniqueness. It also contributes to provide a more comprehensive framework of stakeholder salience.
The objective of this research is to examine the relationship between signals including governance and management practices and the performance of family firms IPOs. Using IPO data of 129 family ...firms and 129 comparable non-family firms from the Taiwan Stock Exchange, our findings highlighted the role of non-family insiders, or non-family affiliated directors in the IPOs of family firms. Our comparison between family and non-family IPOs shows hiring prestigious underwriters significantly improves the performance of family firm IPOs. Finally, we found the industries of IPO firms moderate the relationship between corporate governance characteristics and IPO performances, as non-family firms in technology industries are perceived to be more legitimate than their family counterparts. This paper makes three contributions to existing research. Firstly, we contribute to the legitimacy theory by suggesting an interaction effect between internal (organizational) and external (environmental) factors. Secondly, our analysis highlighted the roles of affiliated directors and industry in the performances of public family firms. Thirdly, this study contributes to the family business research by underscoring the differences between family and non-family firms in the IPO context.
All organizations experience resource paucity at some point in their life-cycles. In this paper, we derive a human resource theory of family employee involvement in the family enterprise when it ...experiences resource paucity. We use a combination of social identity and stewardship theories to explain why family employees provide a competitive advantage to the family enterprise in such situations. Our paper contributes to ongoing theory development in familiness by showing that family identification and stewardship behaviors during resource paucity differentiate family and non-family employees. These differences explain the higher odds of survival among family enterprises facing resource paucity compared to non-family ones.
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