Knowledge brokering for

transference to the pilots safety

behavior
Yi-Hsin Lin
Department of Leisure and Recreation Management, Asia University,
Taichung, Taiwan
Abstract
Purpose This study aims to use organizational identication, organizational culture and safety
culture as the intervening variables between safety mission statements and safety behavior to survey
and model the process of brokering knowledge from the top strategy makers to the workers on
assignments. A pilot empirical research initiative was launched to determine the linkage between
safety missions and safety behavior in the airline industry.
Design/methodology/approach First, descriptive statistics and independent-sample t-tests were
used to evaluate the mean, standard deviation (SD) and the relationship between the safety mission
statement, organizational identication, organizational culture, safety culture and safety behavior and
the respondents years of working for the sampled airline. In addition, Pearson correlation analysis
was used to test the relationships between the ve factors. Finally, path analysis was used to examine
the direct effects and indirect effects between individual factors.
Findings The ndings show that organizational identication and organizational culture are two
important intervening variables between the safety mission statement (knowledge brokering) and
safety behavior. The results of Pearson correlation analysis indicate that ve factors are highly
correlated with each other, especially the safety mission statement and organizational identication;
organizational culture and safety culture; organizational identication and organizational culture; and
safety culture and safety behavior. Besides, the safety mission statement has a negative direct effect on
the pilots safety behavior.
Originality/value To understand the process of using the safety mission statement to change
safety behavior can signicantly increase the benets of brokering knowledge. Furthermore, this
study has provided an overview of the ight crews perceptions on how safety is managed in the
aviation industry. Based on the ndings, it is concluded that organizations in the various sectors of the
airline could do better in managing safety, and in brokering the safety knowledge in the industry. At
another level, this study provides an opportunity to explore the validity of causal relationships among
different areas.
Keywords Safety mission statement, Organizational identication, Organizational culture,
Safety culture, Safety behavior, Knowledge brokering, Safety, Airlines
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Learning and innovation are two top issues related to an organizations operations and
management. When faced with a changing environment, an organization must process
the learning of old knowledge and the creation of new knowledge to overcome various
challenges. Knowledge is contextual and, when learned, often remains entangled in its
original situation and meaning (Berger and Luckman, 1967; Nonaka, 1994; Hargadon,
2002). Rolls et al. (2008) point out that knowledge brokering is a key element in
providing the right information to the right people at the right time and in the right
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0025-1747.htm
MD
50,7
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Management Decision
Vol. 50 No. 7, 2012
pp. 1326-1338
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0025-1747
DOI 10.1108/00251741211247030
place to enable more effective job completion. They refer to brokering knowledge as a
process of connecting people, building relationships that uncover shared needs and
share knowledge and evidence that improves role effectiveness. On the other hand, a
mass of things is involved and the boundaries are also numerous, reecting the
dynamic nature of the process (Kim et al., 2011). Individuals in knowledge brokering
organizations learn about the resources within each domain, capturing and storing that
knowledge not only for use in current projects, but also for use in future projects (Levitt
and March, 1988; Huber, 1991; Hargadon, 2002). Brokering knowledge is one means of
lessening the information decit of users that may result from particular information
needs not being fullled or where potentially useful information exists but users do not
know about it. A knowledge broker plays a critical role in supporting the innovative
behaviors of individuals within organizations and provides opportunities for
individuals and organizational capacity development (Dobbins et al., 2009).
A mission statement is potentially an invaluable tool for formulating and
implementing an organizations strategy (Baetz and Bart, 1996). The mission
statement consists of strong norms and values that inuence the way in which people
behave. It refers to the level of consensus that exists among organizational members
regarding their view of the purpose of the institution. An organizational mission
statement is often viewed as one of the most integral keystone aspects for any effective
strategic planning exercise (Ireland and Hitt, 1992) and for any organization to be
managed successfully (Bart, 2000). Williams et al. (2005) concluded that the effectiveness
of mission statements is contingent on the extent to which they are communicated to the
organizations members. The mission statement is one of the more promising lines of
inquiry in efforts to understand the organizational effectiveness of postsecondary
institutions and to assist campus ofcials in improving institutional performance
(Chaffee and Tierney, 1988; Davies, 1986; Massy and Wilger, 1992). A mission statement
establishes the values, beliefs, and guidelines and determines its relationships with its
stakeholders employees, customers, shareholders, suppliers, government, and the
community (Ackoff, 1987). Bart (1997) looked at six primary mission statement drivers in
his study, namely, to provide a common purpose, dene the business scope, set
standards for behavior, help employees identify with the rm, create shared values, and
inspire employees. According to this view, a well-crafted mission statement conveys the
impression that organizational knowledge has been given the power to communicate the
organizations direction and purpose, to serve as a control mechanism, to focus decision
making, to create a balance between the competing interests of various stakeholders, and
to motivate and inspire organizational members (Bart and Tabone, 2000; Bartkus et al.,
2000; Desmidt et al., 2008).
Transport safety is the most important topic in airline management. Safety also
becomes very important in a newly-emerging context within mission statements
(Kemp and Dwyer, 2003). The relationship between organizational identication and
organizational culture (Hatch and Schultz, 1997; Ravasi and Schultz, 2006) and safety
culture and safety behavior (Cooper, 2000; Cooper and Phillips, 2004) has been
discussed extensively in the safety literature including that on aviation. Some studies
point out that an organizations culture can not only be distinguished, but that culture
is the source of safety culture that then directly affects safety behavior. From a
knowledge brokering perspective, the safety mission statement has an important
bearing on the pilots safety behavior. This study uses organizational identication,
The pilots safety
behavior
1327
organizational culture and safety culture as the intervening variables between safety
mission statements and safety behavior to survey and model the process of brokering
knowledge from the top strategy makers to the workers on assignments. A pilot
empirical research initiative was launched to determine the linkage between safety
missions and safety behavior in the airline industry.
2. Conceptual background and hypothesis
An effective mission statement will help to motivate organizational members and instill
strong norms and values that inuence their behavior (Bart and Tabone, 2000; Bartkus
et al., 2000; Desmidt et al., 2008; Williams et al., 2005). Bart (1997) established that the
mission statement promotes the setting of employees behavior standards, helps them
identify with the organization and creates shared values. Campbell and Yeung (1991)
regard the organizations mission statement as cultural glue that is applied to strong
norms and values that inuence the way in which people behave. A clear mission
statement can help to establish a general tone or organizational climate for individuals to
identify with the organizations purpose and standards of behavior expected from them
(Klemme et al., 1991). In a study by Kemp and Dwyer (2003), a number of the mission
statements of 50 international airlines were found to refer to the high standards of
expected behavior from their employees. According to this view, a well-crafted mission
statement that reects an organizations identity is a self-reexive product of the
dynamic processes of organizational culture (Hatch, 1993), and organizational symbols
are thus embedded in organizational culture (Hatch and Schultz, 1997). Hall et al. (1970)
and Schneider et al. (1971) showed that the individual accepts the organizations values
and goals (mission statement) to the point that these values and goals become the
individuals own and change his or her behavior (Riketta, 2005). Of particular note, the
beliefs and values transmitted through an organizational culture may indeed direct
employee behavior indirectly. Besides, a crews behavior and thereby safety can be
inuenced by professional culture, organizational culture, and national culture (Bullis
and Tompkins, 1989). Thus, we propose the following ten hypotheses:
H1. The safety mission statement has a positive inuence on organizational
identication.
H2. The safety mission statement has a positive inuence on organizational
culture.
H3. The safety mission statement has a positive inuence on safety culture.
H4. The safety mission statement has a positive inuence on safety behavior.
H5. Organizational identication has a positive inuence on organizational
culture.
H6. Organizational identication has a positive inuence on safety culture.
H7. Organizational identication has a positive inuence on safety behavior.
H8. Organizational culture has a positive inuence on safety culture.
H9. Organizational culture has a positive inuence on safety behavior.
H10. Safety culture has a positive inuence on safety behavior.
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3. Method
3.1 Participants and procedure
Completed questionnaires were received from 46 pilots of an international airline in
Taiwan, which represented an overall response rate of 92 per cent. All of the pilots in
the sample were male, and 73.9 per cent were Taiwanese. A total of 72 per cent of the
respondents were aged between 31 and 50. Their crew positions were roughly equally
divided between CAPT and F/O. Questionnaire survey respondents consisted of line
pilots (82.6 per cent), instructors (10.9 per cent), sim check airmen (2.2 per cent), and
other statuses (2.2 per cent). Most noticeably, more than 82 per cent of respondents had
over 5,000 hours of total ight experience and only 10.8 per cent had less than 3,000
hours. The results showed that 80 per cent of respondents had worked for this airline
between six and 20 years. Besides, there was one sim check airman and one line check
airman who took part in this survey which implied that respondents had abundant
practical experience to answer the questions.
3.2 Measures
Measurement items for evaluating the safety mission statement, organizational
identication, organizational culture, safety culture and safety behavior were mainly
adapted from prior research. The questions in the questionnaire were based on a
review of the literature and airline industry characteristics. The questionnaire
consisted of six sections. The rst section included the background and personal
information of the respondent. The questions in the other ve sections of the
questionnaire were assessed by means of a ve-point Likert scale, anchored by the
level of agreement ranging from 1 strongly disagree to 5 strongly agree.
Section 2 of the questionnaire dealt with the measurement of the safety mission
statement with eight items extracted from previous studies (Pearce and David, 1987;
Kemp and Dwyer, 2003). It included ve dimensions, namely, the safety philosophy,
public image, concern for employees, consumer rights and interests, and self-concept.
The Cronbach-alpha for this scale was 0.84.
In section 3, six items were used to measure the employees organizational
identication. These items included the sense of feeling it an honor to work in the
company, not considering moving to another company, and reasonable benets and
rewards in the company so far (Mael and Ashforth, 1992; Olkkonen and Lipponen,
2006). The Cronbach-alpha for this scale was 0.86. Section 4 dealt with the
measurement of the organizational culture with six items based on Glaser et al. (1987)
and Helmreich and Merritt (1998). The Cronbach-alpha for this scale was 0.72. In
section 5, seven items were used to measure the safety culture based on Helmreich and
Merritt (1998) and the Cronbach-alpha for this scale was 0.88. Finally, section 6 dealt
with the measurement of safety behavior with six items based on DeJoy (2005) and
Baker (1998). The Cronbach-alpha for this scale was 0.91, which indicated high internal
reliability.
3.3 Data analysis
First, descriptive statistics and independent-sample t-tests were used to evaluate the
mean, standard deviation (SD) and the relationship between the safety mission
statement, organizational identication, organizational culture, safety culture and
safety behavior and the respondents years of working for the sampled airline. In
The pilots safety
behavior
1329
addition, Pearson correlation analysis was used to test the relationships between the
ve factors. Finally, path analysis was used to examine the direct effects and indirect
effects between individual factors. All analyses were conducted using SPSS 17.0
software.
4. Empirical results and analysis
4.1 Perceptions of ve factors between short and long work experiences for the sampled
airline
Hargadon (2002) indicated that in organizations this process of linking existing
knowledge to new situations, of creating new combinations of existing ideas, must
occur across individuals and groups, and over time. Besides, the time spent moving
down the learning curve can be considerably shortened when recombining known
elements in new ways. Of particular note, time is a key point during the process of
brokering knowledge. A comparison of Short (under ten years) and Long (above 11
years) experience in this airline was carried out in this study by performing t-test
analysis. The 46 survey respondents were divided into two groups, namely, pilots with
short (n 20, 43.5 per cent) and long (n 26, 56.5 per cent) experience based on their
work for this sample airline. The t-tests were conducted on the two groups perceptions
regarding the safety mission statement, organizational identication, organizational
culture, safety culture, and safety behavior, as shown in Tables I-V.
Table I shows the respondents level of agreement with the safety mission statement
in descending order of agreement. Respondents agreed with most of the safety mission
statement and only two items had mean scores above the neutral point of 3.5 (items 6
and 8). Besides, The company provides safe working and operational environments to
ensure employees and customers safety led to signicant differences between the
two groups perceptions, and Short experiences (4.76) were higher than Long ones
(4.55). Table II shows the respondents level of agreement with organizational
Short
(n 26)
Long
(n 20)
Safety mission statement Mean SD Mean SD F-ratio F-prob.
The company makes efforts to support safe and
dependable transport service 4.81 0.40 4.70 0.47 2.70 0.11
The company provides safe working and operational
environments to ensure employees and customers
safety 4.76 0.43 4.55 0.83 5.92 0.02
*
Safety is the core value of management in my company 4.58 0.58 4.45 0.83 1.74 0.19
The company will perform and implement its social
responsibility 4.15 0.73 4.20 0.77 0.20 0.66
The company makes efforts to reduce and improve its
environmental pollution caused by its operations 4.00 0.89 4.05 1.00 0.01 0.95
The company provides excellent benets and services
to its employees 3.00 1.10 3.50 0.89 0.01 0.92
The company provides excellent opportunities for re-
education and re-training 4.15 0.78 4.05 0.89 0.01 0.92
Employees are important assets of the company 3.00 1.10 3.35 0.81 0.20 0.66
Note:
*
p , 0.05 level
Table I.
Comparison of views on
airlines safety mission
statement of pilots with
short and long work
experience with this
airline
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identication. I feel a complete human resource management system in my company
revealed signicant differences between the two groups perceptions, and Long
experiences (3.40) were higher than Short ones (3.38). As for Table III, there were no
signicant differences between two groups perceptions regarding the organizational
culture. Table IV indicated that there was one signicant difference between the two
groups perceptions and that was The company is able to support enough resources to
deal with issues of safety. The pilot with Long experience (4.30) scored higher than his
counterpart with Short experience (4.23) in regard to safety culture. Finally, there was
only one signicant difference between the two groups perceptions of safety behavior.
The score for I can appraise and identify the important behavior about safety for
Long experience (4.70) was higher than that for Short experience (4.54). Meanwhile, the
majority of respondents agreed with all of the safety behaviors (their mean scores were
all above the neutral point 3.5) and pilots with Long experience almost all had higher
scores than those with Short experience.
Short
(n 26)
Long
(n 20)
Organizational identication Mean SD Mean SD F-ratio F-prob.
I feel a reasonable benet and reward in my company 3.08 1.06 3.05 0.69 3.15 0.08
I feel a complete human resource management system
in my company 3.38 0.98 3.40 0.50 6.52 0.01
*
I feel my company can equitably discuss various
matters 3.00 1.02 3.20 0.70 1.61 0.21
I feel insulted when someone criticizes my company 3.62 0.94 3.60 0.99 0.01 0.91
I am very interested in how others think about my
company 4.00 0.85 3.95 0.76 0.08 0.78
It is an honor to work in my company 4.08 0.80 3.95 0.69 0.36 0.55
I will not consider moving to another company at
present 3.88 0.99 4.00 0.65 8.16 0.01
Note:
*
p , 0.01 level
Table II.
Comparison of views on
airlines organizational
identication of pilots
with short and long work
experience
Short
(n 26)
Long
(n 20)
Organizational culture Mean SD Mean SD F-ratio F-prob.
The company has a clear leadership style 4.08 0.89 3.95 0.83 0.69 0.41
The leadership style is supported and identied by
employees 2.96 0.96 3.25 0.64 0.83 0.37
The company provides unobstructed two-way
communication 3.23 1.11 3.35 0.88 0.45 0.51
The company asks employees to hold high levels of
ethics 4.54 0.51 4.40 0.60 0.91 0.35
The company encourages employees to participate in
all affairs 3.46 0.95 3.65 0.81 0.10 0.75
The company has integral supervisory and managerial
ability 4.35 0.85 3.90 0.91 0.71 0.40
Table III.
Comparison of views on
airlines organizational
culture of pilots with
short and long work
experience
The pilots safety
behavior
1331
Table VI shows the Pearson correlation coefcients between the safety mission
statement, organizational identication, organizational culture, safety culture, and
safety behavior. It was found that all were positively and signicantly related to each
other. There are ve belief factors: the safety mission statement and organizational
Short
(n 26)
Long
(n 20)
Safety culture Mean SD Mean SD F-ratio F-prob.
The company is able to support enough resources to
deal with issues of safety 4.23 0.72 4.30 0.47 0.51 0.03
*
The company has effective rules and regulations to
deal with a crisis 4.42 0.58 4.10 0.55 0.35 0.07
The company is able to improve the level of safety
continuously 4.42 0.58 4.15 0.75 0.44 0.51
Concept and attitude related to safety can be applied to
my daily duties 4.50 0.51 4.35 0.67 2.11 0.15
I always keep my concerns about safety issues and
relay them to someone else 4.50 0.51 4.55 0.60 0.71 0.40
I already have adequate knowledge of safety
performance 4.27 0.67 4.35 0.67 0.06 0.81
I can maintain my ethic to implement ying duties 4.62 0.50 4.70 0.47 1.42 0.24
Note:
*
p , 0.05 level
Table IV.
Comparison of views on
airlines safety culture of
pilots with short and long
work experience
Short
(n 26)
Long
(n 20)
Safety behavior Mean SD Mean SD F-ratio F-prob.
I can appraise and identify the important behavior
about safety 4.54 0.51 4.70 0.47 4.16 0.05
*
I can actively attract compliance with the goal of safety
in my company 4.50 0.51 4.60 0.60 0.14 0.71
I can review my behaviors constantly 4.46 0.51 4.60 0.60 0.18 0.67
I can actively report my proposed erroneous behaviors
for review 4.23 0.65 4.20 0.70 0.06 0.81
I can regard safety as the policy of my action 4.46 0.51 4.60 0.60 0.18 0.67
I hope to modify my behaviors to obtain rewards and
feedback 4.15 0.78 4.30 0.73 0.03 0.86
Note:
*
p , 0.05 level
Table V.
Comparison of views on
airlines safety behavior
of pilots with short and
long work experience
Safety mission
statement
Organizational
identication
Organizational
culture
Safety
culture
Organizational identication 0.67
*
Organizational culture 0.70
*
0.78
*
Safety culture 0.62
*
0.56
*
0.54
*
Safety behavior 0.42
*
0.51
*
0.45
*
0.74
*
Note:
*
Correlation is signicant at the 0.01 level (two-tailed)
Table VI.
Correlation coefcients of
individual factors
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identication (r 0.67, p 0.01), the safety mission statement and organizational
culture (r 0.70, p 0.01), the safety mission statement and safety culture (r 0.62,
p 0.01), organizational identication and organizational culture (r 0.78, p 0.01),
and safety culture and safety behavior (r 0.74, p 0.01).
Finally, this study uses Path analysis to explore the causal linkages among the
safety mission statement, organizational identication, organizational culture, safety
culture, and safety behavior for the sample airline. The results in Figure 1 report that
the path coefcients for the safety mission statement ! organizational
identication, safety mission statement !organizational culture, safety mission
statement !safety culture, organizational identication !organizational culture,
and safety culture !safety behavior are all positively signicant at the 0.05 level.
Furthermore, a negative and insignicant relationship between the safety mission
statement and safety behavior has been found. The ndings indicate that
organizational identication and organizational culture are both important
intervening variables between the airlines safety mission statement and pilots
safety behavior.
Table VII conveys the information regarding the independent variables and
dependent variable that also shows that path analysis, which this study adopts to
explore the causal relationships among the safety mission statement, organizational
identication, organizational culture, safety culture, and safety behavior, is ideal and
can effectively explain the data for the sample airline. An important implication of the
ndings is that organizational identication and organizational culture are two
important intervening variables. The safety mission statement has a positively
signicant and direct effect on the organizational identication (0.70), organizational
culture (0.32) and safety culture (0.42). Meanwhile, it also has a negatively direct effect
(-0.18) and positively indirect effect (0.59) on safety behavior. Ultimately, the total effect
is 0.44, which arises due to the effect through organizational identication,
Figure 1.
Path diagram representing
the measurement model
The pilots safety
behavior
1333
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Table VII.
Results of the direct effect
and indirect effect of
individual factors
MD
50,7
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organizational culture and safety culture. Organizational identication has a
signicant direct effect on organizational culture (0.56) and raises the effect on
safety behavior of the organizational culture and safety culture. On the other hand,
safety culture has a highly and signicantly direct effect on safety behavior (0.72).
Although the path coefcients including the direct and indirect effects are calculated,
these values provide evidence that the safety mission statement does contribute to the
safety behavior through the organizational identity, organizational culture and safety
culture.
The path coefcient estimates (see Table VIII) are partly signicant and only four
results support the hypotheses presented in the study. In H1 it is proposed that the
safety mission statement has a positively signicant impact on organizational
identication. The path coefcient is 0.70 with a t-value of 5.99, which is signicant at
the p , 0.001 level. This can be interpreted as meaning that the safety mission
statement has a strong direct effect on organizational identication. Thus, H1 is
supported. H2 proposes that the safety mission statement has a positively signicant
impact on organizational culture. The path coefcient is 0.32 with a t-value of 2.66,
which is signicant at the p , 0.001 level and H2 is supported. H3 proposes that the
safety mission statement has a signicant positive impact on safety culture. The path
coefcient is 0.42 with a t-value of 2.47 and H3 is supported. H5 posits a positive effect
of organizational identication on organizational culture. The path coefcient is 0.56
with a t-value of 4.66 and H5 is supported. In H10 it is proposed that safety culture has
a positively signicant impact on safety behavior. The path coefcient is 0.72 with a
t-value of 5.31, which is signicant at the p , 0.001 level. This also means that safety
culture has a strong direct effect on safety behavior. For H4, H6, H7, H8 and H9, none
of the t-values reach the 0.05 signicance levels, and thus these hypotheses are not
supported.
5. Conclusions
Although there have been many studies on organizational issues and the issue of
safety, there have only been limited attempts to integrate the safety mission statement
Hypotheses
Standardized
coefcient t-value Test result
H1: Safety mission statement !Organizational
identication
0.70 5.99
* *
Supported
H2: Safety mission statement !Organizational culture 0.32 2.66
*
Supported
H3: Safety mission statement !Safety culture 0.42 2.47
*
Supported
H4: Safety mission statement !Safety behavior 20.18 21.13 Not supported
H5: Organizational identication !Organizational
culture
0.56 4.66
*
Supported
H6: Organizational identication !Safety culture 0.20 1.02 Not supported
H7: Organizational identication !Safety behavior 0.22 1.30 Not supported
H8: Organizational culture !Safety culture 0.10 0.50 Not supported
H9: Organizational culture !Safety behavior 0.01 0.06 Not supported
H10: Safety culture !Safety behavior 0.72 5.31
* *
Supported
Notes:
*
p , 0.05 level,
* *
p , 0.001 level
Table VIII.
Test results of ten
hypotheses
The pilots safety
behavior
1335
within the context of knowledge brokering. In this study, tests were performed on a
survey conducted on one international airlines pilots in Taiwan. The tests included
those related to Pearson correlation analysis and path analysis. The results presented
in the previous sections provided at least three important insights. First, this study
showed that organizational identication as it has been measured in previous research
is correlated with a number of practically and theoretically interesting variables. It was
found to be an important intervening variable that may be a useful predictor for many
practically relevant variables between knowledge brokering and nal output. Second,
the results of the Pearson correlation analysis indicated that ve factors were highly
correlated with each other, most notably the safety mission statement and
organizational identication, organizational culture and safety culture;
organizational identication and organizational culture; and safety culture and
safety behavior. Consistent with Campbell and Yeung (1991), the mission statement
was found to consist of a purpose, strategy, behavior and values. The safety mission
statement was found to be a good tool for generating commitment and enthusiasm
among ight crew when choosing organizational purposes reecting higher level
values. Besides, as mentioned earlier, organizational identication and organizational
culture were two important intervening variables between the safety mission
statement (knowledge brokering) and safety behavior. As emphasized by Rolls et al.
(2008) and Kim et al. (2011), knowledge within the organization is complex because the
brokering of knowledge is based on individual interpretation, cognition and behavior.
It is the reason why the safety mission statement had a negative direct effect on the
pilots safety behavior.
Regardless of how much effort the organization makes to formulate rules and
introduce technology to improve safety, the effects of those efforts can be tempered by
the employees level of identication. However, the mission statement establishes the
values, beliefs, and guidelines as to the way in which the organization conducts its
business and denes its relationships with its stakeholders (Ackoff, 1987). Therefore,
the organizations managers and strategy makers should not only focus on safety
policy and technology, but should also remodel the efciency process of brokering
knowledge that may instill the right concepts and behavior within employees. Thus
understanding the process of using the safety mission statement to change safety
behavior can signicantly increase the benets of brokering knowledge.
Furthermore, this study has provided an overview of the ight crews perceptions
on how safety is managed in the aviation industry. Based on the ndings, it is
concluded that organizations in the various sectors of the airline could do better in
managing safety, and in brokering the safety knowledge in the industry. At another
level, this study provides an opportunity to explore the validity of causal relationships
among different areas.
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Corresponding author
Yi-Hsin Lin can be contacted at: yhin1218@asia.edu.tw
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