Purpose This paper aims to examine the effect of ownership structure and board gender diversity on charitable donations for a group of listed electronics companies in Taiwan. Design/methodology/approach Using linear regression analysis, this paper analyses the ownership structure, board gender diversity and charitable donations of 380 Taiwanese electronics companies (2011-2013). Findings While domestic institutional investors, such as domestic mutual funds and corporate investors, take more of agency logic view, it negatively impacts on charitable donations. However, the empirical findings of this paper indicate that board gender diversity with the critical number of female directors was positively related to charitable donation. Thus, it is clear that female directors reaching critical numbers were taking more of a stakeholder view of institutional logic, emphasizing the balance of interests of internal and external stakeholders. Research limitations/implications This paper is limited to selected Taiwanese electronics companies over a two-year time frame, and charitable donations are the only proxy of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activity. The paper suggests that, as predicted by stakeholder theory and critical mass theory, companies with boards composed of at least three female directors make higher charitable donations. Practical implications This paper indicates that female directors on the board should have more voices on the board regarding the necessity and importance of CSR. Originality/value The paper contributes to existing literature by looking into the effects of ownership structure and board gender diversity on charitable donations.

This study explores the early stages of the female entrepreneurial process from conception to venture start up. Seventy-eight female entrepreneurs' stories, published on the Flying Goose Program website, were collected and analyzed by content. Engaged in different industries, they are mostly small-and medium-sized enterprises or microenterprises in personal service industry. The results describe the women entrepreneur as: middle-aged, married, college degree, with work experience, no management experience, no financial backup, mostly in traditionally personal service industry. In addition to their dreams, interests, and specific skills and knowledge, these women have a desire to solve life problems or assist disadvantaged groups in society. When they have an entrepreneurial idea, they are likely to share it with and receive approval and affirmation from their families-particularly their husbands. Government assistance is a major factor affecting their venture start up decision making. They access related business knowledge from training courses. Practical and policy implications for female entrepreneurship are provided.

What we try to put forth in this paper is that own-brand building on the part of contract manufacturers is infl uenced by the interplay of two sets of forces derived from the initial decision mode of the selected original equipment manufacturing business. The fi rst set of forces relates to competence, with competence in terms of product design and development. It infl uences the ability of contract manufacturers to develop their own-design products. The second set of forces has to do with the constraints, by which we mean the concentrated customer structure that limits the extent to which contract manufacturers develop their design and development competence for own-brand product. In regard to this, we suggest that while the design and development competence of contract manufacturers will positively trigger their own-brand building, the concentrated customer structure will have moderating effects on the relationship between design and development competence and own-brand building. Furthermore, while brand building may provide contract manufacturers with another growth opportunity, it may also give rise to a confl ict of interests with existing customers because of the potential threat of competition. We argue that contract manufacturers with own-brand can effectively minimise the threat of confl ict with their customers and create value through various means, which include leveraging existing competence into related product lines, selecting geographic target markets cautiously and entering such markets at the growth stage of the product life cycle.

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For the expansion of international Weight Management franchisor, the local master franchisee not only exactly provides a platform to combine the organizational knowledge and local market knowledge but also takes more responsibilities of gaining sustainable competitive advantages from its network in new market. Therefore this paper presents a case study exploring transferring, detecting, and exploring capabilities of a local master franchisee to exploit and enhance the international franchisor’s dynamic capabilities in international operations.