Evaluating the Sustainable Operating Performance of Electronics Industry Groups: Taiwanese Firms in Mainland China

Mainland China’s economy is growing rapidly, with China-made electronic products selling around the world. Taiwan's electronics groups running operations or production locations in Mainland China have performed strongly in recent years. At one time more than 90% of the world's laptops were manufactured by Taiwanese makers, largely in China. This study assessed the sustainability operating performance of the top 20 Taiwanese electronic groups (including 272 companies) with an average of 38 years of sustained operation in China, using the Data Envelopment Analysis Method (DEA) to measure the performance and operating efficiency of the group as a whole, with net operating revenue and pre-tax profit margin as the output elements, and total assets, capital, and total expenses as input elements, to assess whether changes in operating performance and productivity over the three-year period (2018–2020) are significant. The results showed that two Taiwanese electronics groups (Quanta Computer and Catcher Technology) were relatively efficient during the study period and that the overall productivity of the electronics groups was in a state of sustainability. This study uses the industrial cluster viewpoint to evaluate the sustainability operating performance of the groups. Results show that using DEA for performance evaluation is both comprehensive and practical. The findings of this study may be used as a reference in creating sustainable operations and improving a firm’s production efficiency through the evaluation of firm resource allocation.

Aqueous Self-assembly of Peptide-Diketopyrrolopyrrole Conjugates with Variation of N-alkyl Side Chain and π-Core Lengths

Peptidic sequences when conjugated to π-electronic groups form self-assembled networks of π-electron pathways. These materials hold promise for bio-interfacing charge transporting applications because of their aqueous processability and compatibility. In this work, we incorporated diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP), a well-established π-core for organic electronic applications, within the peptidic sequence. We embedded different numbers of thiophene rings (2 and 3) on both sides of the DPP to alter the length of the π-cores. We also varied the length of the N-alkyl side chains (methyl, butyl, hexyl) attached to the DPP core. These variations allowed us to explicitly study the effect of π-core and N-alkyl side-chain length on photophysical properties and morphology of the resulting nanomaterials. All of these molecules formed H-type aggregates in the assembled state. Longer π-cores have relatively red-shifted absorption maxima whereas the N-alkyl variation did not present significant photophysical changes.

Patterns in Electronic Brainstorming

Research has shown that some groups using electronic brainstorming generate more unique ideas than groups using nominal group brainstorming, while others do not. This study examined two factors through which group size may affect brainstorming performance: synergy and social loafing. Groups brainstormed using three techniques to manipulate synergy and two group sizes to manipulate social loafing. We found no social loafing effects. We found a time effect: nominal brainstorming groups that received no synergy from the ideas of others produced more ideas than electronic groups in the first time period and fewer ideas in the last time period. We conclude that synergy from the ideas of others is only important when groups brainstorm for longer time period. We also conclude that electronic brainstorming groups should be given at least 30 minutes to work on tasks, or else they will be unlikely to develop synergy.

Patterns in Electronic Brainstorming

Previous research has shown that some groups using electronic brainstorming generate more unique ideas than groups using nominal group brainstorming, while others do not. This study examined two factors through which group size may affect brainstorming performance: synergy and social loafing. Groups brainstormed using three techniques to manipulate synergy and two group sizes to manipulate social loafing. We found no social loafing effects. There were significant differences in synergy, but not the ones we had theorized. Instead, we found a time effect: nominal brainstorming groups that received no synergy from the ideas of others produced more ideas than electronic groups in the first time period and fewer ideas in the last time period. We conclude that synergy from the ideas of others is only important when groups brainstorm for longer time periods and may have a harder time generating ideas. We also conclude that electronic brainstorming groups, whether in the field or in the research laboratory, should be given at least 30 minutes to work on tasks or else they will be unlikely to develop synergy.

Understanding the reversible anodic behaviour and fluorescence properties of fluorenylazomethines — A structure–property study

A series of fluorenylazomethine dyads and triads were prepared by simple condensation between the corresponding amine and aldehyde fluorene derivatives. These compounds were prepared as model compounds for investigating the effects of substitution and electronic groups on both the electrochemical properties and fluorescence quantum yields. It was found that the oxidation potential could be decreased by both incorporating electron donating groups and increasing the degree of conjugation. It was further found that alkylation in the fluorene’s 9-position increased the azomethine degree of conjugation by forcing all the fluorene moieties to be coplanar with the azomethine bonds to which they are attached. Meanwhile, reversible radical cation behaviour was possible by substituting the terminal 2,2′-positions with atoms other than hydrogen. The radical cation was theoretically found to be distributed evenly across the fluorene, corroborating the reversible anodic behaviour with 2,2′-substitution. The fluorescence quantum yields of the azomethines were not found to be dependent on substitution. This was because the azomethine fluorescence was found to be quenched relative to their precursors regardless of substitution. The fluorescence could be restored at both low temperature and by acid protonation.

Vox Electronica: Nostalgia, Irony and Cyborgian Vocalities in Kraftwerk’s Radioaktivität and Autobahn

This paper takes a close look at the music of Kraftwerk, perhaps the best known of the ‘electronic’ groups of former West Germany’s so-called neue Welle, in order to raise some fundamental questions about the politics of elektronische Musik before the dawn of the digital age and, in particular, how constructions and performances of the voice in late analogue technology rehearse new and critical strategies of resistance in the aftermath of 1968.It is a commonplace of recent cultural-theoretical considerations of digital technology to ascribe to it a fundamental re-positioning of imaginations of the subject, of authorship and of agency in the broadest sense. What has never really been fully worked through in this (usually utopian) figuration of digital technology is the extent to which technology can be conceived as ‘autonomous’ (as Rosie Braidotti would have it) or whether new technologies in themselves are a guarantor of new cultural formations. In particular, this paper seeks to test the extent to which Kraftwerk’s pre-digital imagination can be read as an expression of the politics of the so-called Tendenzwende (a ‘turning inwards’ from explicitly activist politics to a more diffuse politics of the personal) of the Schmidt- and early Kohlzeit. The article looks in particular at Kraftwerk’s use of what might be termed the ‘electronic sublime’ as a way of disengaging the music from the ego-centred practices of earlier German rock music and as a way of anticipating new German subject positions and political identities in the light of de-industrialization and globalization.