Purpose - This study empirically analyses the sale changes in large retail stores directly resulting from increased controls on those stores. More specifically, we discuss the economic impacts on Korean regulations that restrict trading hours and mandate statutory store closure 'holidays' twice per month. Research design, data and methodology - we attempt to empirically analyse the economic effects of trading hours regulations through quantitative analysis of the sales revenue data of large retail stores. We introduce the data and methods of empirical analysis used to analyse the economic effects of trading-hour regulations on large retail stores. We use a panel regression to analyse the sales losses of large retail stores caused by the new constraints on business hours. Results - The results of this study show that the sales of large retail stores fell by the average of 3.4% per month during the regulation periods. However, regulations affecting large retail stores have various economic impacts, including variations in sales, changes in consumption patterns, and influences on consumer welfare and national economy. Conclusions - Such changes may also be captured by other metrics: accordingly, further researches are needed to measure the impact of regulations on economic indicators such as employment and GDP.

Purpose - Many researchers analyze VMI as a supply chain collaboration program to reveal its true value. Most of them focus on the dyadic relationship in two stage supply chain systems. This study examines the effect of VMI when it is applied to the different parts of three stage supply chain systems. Research design, data, and methodology - Based on three stage supply chain, this study compares three different systems including full VMI, partial VMI, and non-VMI by using mathematical models. The performances of three systems are compared with the numerical examples of the proposed supply chain models. Results - The numerical examples reveal that full VMI where the manufacturer controls inventories at all stages outperforms any other systems in terms of the system profit and enables all individual members to gain greater profits than non-VMI. Meanwhile, under partial VMI where VMI is implemented between the wholesaler and retailer, only these two members improve their performances and the manufacturer who does not belong to VMI makes less profit than even under non-VMI. This study also examines the impact of market size and profit margin on the system performance. Conclusions - The result of this study supports the common belief that VMI secures the best result when it is applied to the entire supply chain system. The additional findings from the numerical analysis are discussed.

Purpose - This paper proposes some ideas with a view to reducing any possible accidents caused by unlicensed drivers and an illegal use of other's name, particularly by teenagers in consideration of easy and simple instruction on smartphone with very weak and mere consciousness on auto life. Research design, data, and methodology - This study analyzes some accident cases between cargo trucks and rental cars in South Korea, and unlicensed vehicle with unlicensed drivers who use rental cars collided with cargo trucks which were loaded a lot of goods to be delivered to buyer designated. In order to fulfill this research, a case study accompanied with literature survey was conducted. Ideal suggestion for the right growth on rental car industry will be realized by legislation of the law. Results - This paper classified bodily injury of the victim, property damage and damaged cargo arising out of the unlicensed who is driving on car sharing service in South Korea. Conclusions - For the purpose of reducing cargo accidents caused by unlicensed drivers and an illegal use of other's name particularly by teenagers, this paper proposes some ideas of Amendment of the law, Paradigm shift of car sharing company, Preparation by association side and Technical Complementary Measures in South Korea.

Purpose - Many studies have shown the effects of the external images of female flight attendants on the customers' satisfaction. Recently, the perception of male flight attendants has become more important and positive, and airlines are hiring a significant number of male flight attendants every year. Due to the lack of research on the male flight attendant, however, the images of male flight attendants were investigated for this study. Research, design, data and methodology - Using survey techniques with 204 respondents, this study used analytical data based their resulting analysis. Results - The study examined whether the image of the male flight attendant affects the cognitive and emotional perceptions of customers. The focus of the present study is the external image of the male flight attendant, and the following image-component divisions were formed: hairstyle, body type, uniform, speech, and facial expression. Conclusions - The study purpose sought to determine whether the image of the male flight attendant exert effects on the emotional and cognitive images of airlines, and if these images have a positive effect on the customers' satisfaction and loyalty for an airline, so that airlines can use the external image of the male flight attendant to help with its own image reinforcement.

Purpose - According to agency theory, managers have incentives to adjust firm revenues to meet earnings expectations or delay bad news disclosure because of performance-based compensation and their reputation in the market. When the bad news accumulates, stock prices fail to reflect all available information. Thus, market prices of stocks are higher than their intrinsic value. After all, bad news crosses the tipping point, it comes out all at once. That results in stock crashes. Auditors can decrease stock crash risk by reducing agency costs through their informational role. Especially, stock price crash risk is expected to be lower for firms adopting high-quality audits. We focus on distribution and service industry to examine the relation between audit quality and stock price crash risk. Industry specialization and auditor size are used as proxies for auditor quality. Research design, data and methodology - Our sample contains distribution and service industry firms listed in KOSPI and KOSDAQ during a period of 2004-2011. We use a logistic regression to test whether auditor quality influences crash risk. Auditor quality was measured by industry specialist auditor and Big4 / non-Big4 dichotomy. Following the approach in prior researches, we use firm-specific weekly returns to measure crash risk. Firms experiencing at least one stock price crash in a specific week during year are classified as the high risk group. Results - The result of analyzing 429 companies in distribution and service industry is summarized as follows: Above all, it is shown that higher audit quality has a significant negative(-) effect on the crash risk. Crash risk is alleviated for firms audited by industry specialist auditors and Big 4 audit firms. Therefore, our results show that hypotheses are supported. Conclusions - This study is very meaningful as the first study which investigated the effects of high audit quality on stock price crash risk. We provide evidence that high-quality auditors reduce stock price crash risk. Our finding implies that the risk of extreme losses can be reduced through screening of high-quality auditors. Therefore investors and regulators may utilize our findings in their investment and rule making decisions.

Purpose - PB products at convenience stores take up about 20% of all products, and strategies for differentiation from other companies and brand image building are very important. This study would investigate the strategy for differentiating PB products and successful brand building strategy, focusing on BGF Retail that is operating 'CU', the leader in the convenience store industry in Korea. Research design, data, and methodology - This study would attempt to make an exploratory approach to PB products limited to those in convenience stores. As a research subject, this study chose BGF Retail, the operator of CU, which is the leader in the convenience store industry in Korea and chose the case study method in order to examine the strategy for differentiating PB products in convenience stores more in depth. For this purpose, this study collected materials such as papers, newspaper articles and various reports on convenience store-related PB products and conducted an in-depth study including more practical contents through an interview with CU workers. Results - CU pursued the diversity of PB products and has had the diversity of products, more than 120 kinds. It founded a product research institute and has been in charge of the differentiation strategy from planning products to launching them. Changing the target layer of consumers to those in middle age of the 40s-50s, it succeeded in the strategy expanding the consumer class. In the long run, despite it changed the name of the company, it has built a successful image, and both revenue and operating profit have continuously grown up. Conclusions - In results, CU has reset the changing main target population, and the product research institute succeeded in the innovation of products, reflecting new trends the customers want. Through this study, the practical implications could be provided for competitors.

Purpose - Although e-learning has this advantage, currently many organizations have failed to recognize the necessity for basic e-learning educational training. It follows that practitioners working in the above organizations face the difficulty of having to find educational training processes of boosting their capabilities by themselves, rather than being able to utilize the educational training processes offered by e-learning. So of their own accord, learners have considered the necessity of information relating to being able to choose between high quality educational training processes. The purpose of this study is to propose opening e-learning content information for enabling an efficient choice of learning processes related to e-learning. Research design, data, and methodology - To pinpoint the items of e-learning content information, the study was initiated according to the following process. First, information relating to e-learning content (offered on e-learning websites) was researched. Second, based on the items of information which emerged from the research, selection and validity verification took place with 5 e-learning specialists as the subjects. Third, the opinions of adult learners at K University were collated relating to the items of information which emerged from the research. Results - The e-learning content information was comprised of 16 items in order to improve the choosing process for learner's e-learning contents. The analysis results showed that when learners were choosing e-learning processes, the most highly considered item was 'mobile support' (4.35). Following this (in order) were 'tuition fees' (4.30), 'certificate issuing' (4.23), and 'awareness of educational institution' (4.18). The least considered items were 'recruiting learners' (3.01) and 'tutor support' (3.18). Conclusions - The 16 items of e-learning content information in this study, were deemed to be helpful to learners in providing them with a choice of desirable e-learning process when this process was offered to them. Following this, there is a need for service institutions offering e-learning processes to make public the information suggested by this study. Research into educational methods additionally points to a necessity for not only e-learning forms, but also offline educational methods and a combination of blended learning to be offered and run parallel to e-learning.

Purpose - The online-to-offline (O2O) business model has brought considerable changes to the traditional Chinese business model. The main difference between O2O and pure online consumption is that O2O offers a richer experience and word-of-mouth. it is easier to trigger online word-of-mouth. However, few scholars have been concerned about the impact of experiential value on customer satisfaction and online word-of-mouth (e-WOM) in the study of O2O. This study takes the O2O business model in China's catering industry as its research object and uses structural equation modelling to analyze the impact of online and offline experiential values on customer satisfaction and e-WOM. Research design, data, and methodology - According to previous researches, consumer experiential value is mainly divided into return on investment (economy and efficiency), service excellence, playfulness and aesthetics. According to the characteristics of O2O in China's catering industry, this study divides the online experience value into efficiency and economy (return on investment). The offline part is divided into return on investment (economy and efficiency), service excellence, playfulness and aesthetics. Using a web-based survey, we collected 303 valid samples. Structural equation modelling was used to create the research model. Results - The results show that efficiency (online) and service excellence (offline) have a significant effect on customer satisfaction. Economics (online) and playfulness (offline) have a positive impact on customers' e-WOM. In addition, the higher the customer satisfaction, the greater the positive impact on the spread by word of mouth. However, aesthetic(offline) and return on investment(offline) have no significant impact to customer satisfaction and e-WOM. Conclusions - The study findings show that the key to boost customer satisfaction in the catering industry is to improve product quality and service. Although traditional competitive strategies such as online discount have been questioned by many scholars about their decreasing effectiveness, they are indispensable means to attract online traffic and trigger e-WOM. The traditional enterprises can reconstruct traditional business processes through the O2O model to effectively improve customer satisfaction and word of mouth by improving the experiential value of economy and efficiency. Additionally, it can be used as the natural advantages of online communication to induce customers to engage in word of mouth and attract more potential customers.