• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.28 no.4 s.51
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• pp.809-844
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• 1995

The purposes of this study are to define the scope of occupational health management and to classify occupational management by review of related journals from 1945 to 1994 in Korea. The steps of this study were as follows: (1) Search of secondary reference; (2) Collection and review of primary reference; (3) Survey; and (4) Analysis and discussion. The results were as follows ; 1. Most of the respondents majored in occupational health(71.6%), and were working in university (68.3%), males and over the age 40. Seventy percent of the respondents agreed with the idea that classification of occupational health management is necessary, and 10% disagreed. 2. After integration of the idea of respondents, we reclassified the scope of occupational health management. It was defined 3 parts, that is , occupational health system, occupational health service and others (such as assessment, epidemiology, cost-effectiveness analysis and so on). 3. The number of journals on occupational health management was 510. It was sightly increased from 1986 and abruptly increased after 1991. The kinds of journals related to occupational health management were The Korean Journal of Occupational Medicine(18.2%), Several Kinds of Medical Colloge Journal(17.0%), The Korean Journal Occupational Health(15.1%), The Korean Journal of Preventive Medicine(15.1%) and others(34.6%). As for the contents, the number of journals on occupational health management systems was 33(6.5%) and occupational health services 477(93.5%). Of the journals on occupational health management systems, the number of journals on the occupational health resource system was 15(45.5%), occupational finance system 8(24.2%), occupational health management system 6(18.2%), occupational organization 3(9.1%) and occupational health delivery system 1 (3.0%). Of the journals on occupational health services, the number of journals on disease management was 269(57.2%), health management 116(24.7%), working environmental management 85(18.1%). As for the subjects, the number of journals on general workers was 185(71.1%), followed by women worker, white coiler workers and so on. 4. Respondents made occupational health service(such as health management, working environmental management and health education) the first priority of occupational health management. Tied for the second are quality analysis(such as education, training and job contents of occupational health manager) and occupational health systems(such as the recommendation of systems of occupational and general disease and occupational health organization). 5. Thirty seven respondents suggested 48 ideas about the future research of occupational health management. The results were as follows: (1) Study of occupational health service 40.5%; (2) Study of organization system 27.1%; (3) Study of occupational health system (e.g. information network) 8.3%; (4) Study of working condition 6.2%; and (5) Study of occupational health service analysis 4.2%.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Food Science of Animal Resources Conference
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• 1995.11a
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• pp.1-48
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• 1995

식생활은 인간 생활의 주체이고 먹는다는 것은 그 수단이다. 그중 중요한 하나의 명제는 인간이 놓여진 여러 환경에서 어떻게 건강을 유지하고 그 개체가 소유하고 있는 능력을 최대치까지 생리적으로 성장 발전시킴과 동시에 최대한 수명을 연장시키기 위한 식물 섭취방법을 마이크로 레벨까지 해명하는데 있다. 인간은 일생동안 엄청난 양의 음식물을 먹는다(70세 수명일 경우 200만 파운드 즉 체중의 1,400배). 그러나 먹기는 먹되 자신의 건강과 장수를 위하여 어떤 음식을 어떻게 선택하여 어떻게 먹어야 하는 문제가 매우 중요하다. 최근 우리나라도 국민 소득이 늘면서 식생활은 서구화 경향으로 기우는 듯하다. 공해를 비롯한 수입식품 등 여러 가지 문제점이 제기됨에 따라 자연식과 건강식을 주장하는 소리가 높이 일고 있다. 그중에는 축산 식품이 콜레스테롤 함량이 다른 식품에 비하여 높게 함유하고 있다는 것으로 심혈관질환의 주범인양 무차별 강조하는 나머지 육식공포 내지는 계란 등의 혐오감 마저 불러 일으키는 경향까지 있는 듯하다. 따라서 본논고에서는 축산식품중의 콜레스테롤 함량수준이 과연 성인병의 주범인지 아니면 다른 지방산과 관련해서 올바르게 평가하고 그 문제점과 대책을 개관해 보고 요약하면 다음과 같다. 1. 사람은 유사이래 본능적으로 주변의 식물이나 동물의 고기를 먹고 성장하여 자손을 증식시키고 어느 사이에 늙으면 죽음을 맞이 하는 싸이클을 반복하면서 기나긴 세월동안 진화를 하여 오늘날의 인간으로서의 자태를 이루었다. 유인원과 같은 인류의 선조들은 수렵을 통해 육식을 많이 하였을 것이므로 인간은 원래 육식동물이 아닐까? 구석기시대의 유물을 보면 많은 뼈가 출토되고 “얄타미라”나 “라스코” 동굴벽화가 선명하게 묘사되고 있다. 2. 우리나라 선조 승구족의 일파가 백두산을 비롯한 만주 송화강 유역에 유입되면서 수렵과 목축을 주요 식품획득의 수단으로 식품문화권을 형성하면서 남하하여 한반도 민족의 조상인 맥족(貊族)으로 맥적(貊炙)이라고 하는 요리(오늘날의 불고기)를 먹었다는 기록이 있다. 3. 인간의 수명을 1900년대로 거슬러 올라가서 뉴질랜드가 세계최장수국(호주는 2위)로서 평균수명은 남자 58세, 여자 69세인 반면 일본과 한국은 당시 남자 36세, 여자 37세이던 것이 일본은 1989년에 이르러 세계 최장수국으로 등장했으나 1990년 당시 뉴질랜드${\cdot}$호주 등은 목축 및 밀(小麥) 생산국가였기 때문이라는 것과 일본은 오늘날 합리적인 식생활 국가라는 것을 간과해서는 안된다. 4. 우리나라 10대 사망원인중 (1994년도) 뇌혈관질환이 1위, 교통사고 2위, 암이 3위 순위로서 연령별로는 10~30대의 불의의 사고(교통사고), 40~60대는 암, 70대 이상은 뇌혈관질환이 가장 많다. 구미${\cdot}$일 7개국 정상국가들은 심질환 사망이 가장 높다. 5. 식생활의 변화에 있어서 우리나라는 주식으로 섭취해 왔던 곡류는 70년 대비 94년에는 0.7배 감소된 반면 육류 5배, 계란 2.4배, 우유는 무려 29.3배 증가되었다. 식생활 패턴이 서구화 경향으로 바뀌는 것 같다. 6. 71년도 우리나라의 지질섭취량은 국민 1인당 1일 평균 13.1g에 섭취에너지의 5.7%수준이었으나 92년도에는 34.5g으로서 총에너지 섭취량의 16.6%에 달하고 총섭취 지방질중 동물성 섭취 비율은 47%를 차지 한다. 국민 평균 혈청콜레스테롤 농도는 80년에 비해 88년에는 11%가 증가되었고 80년에 210mg/dl 이상 되는 콜레스테롤 혈증인 사람의 비율이 5%에서 88년에는 23%로 크게 증가했다. 7. 세계 정상국가들의 단백질 즉 축산식품의 섭취는 우리나라보다 적게는 2배, 많게는 6~7배 더 섭취하고 90년도 우리나라의 지질섭취량은 일본의 1/3수준에 불과하다. 8. 콜레스테롤은 인체를 비롯한 모든 동물체에 필수적으로 분포하고 있는 것으로 체내 존재하고 있는 총량은 90~150g, 이중 혈청콜레스테롤은 4%(6g)를 차지하고 있음에도 불구하고 이 아주 적은 콜레스테롤에 일희일비(一喜一悲) 논쟁은 60~70년 끄러오고 있다. 9. 콜레스테롤의 생체내 기능으로서는 (1) 세포벽의 지지물질 (2) 신경세포 보호막물질 (3) 담즙산의 합성 (4) 비타민 D의 합성 (5) 임신시에 반듯이 필요한 분자 (6) 기타 여러 가지 기능을 수행하는 것으로 필수적인 물질이다. 10. 우리가 식이를 통해서 섭취 콜레스테롤을 550mg정도를 섭취한다고 하더라도 이 정도의 양은 배설 소모되는 양과 거의 맞먹는 양이다. 피부와 땀샘에서 소실되는 양만도 100~300mg에 달하기 때문에 미국농무성에서 섭취량을 300mg로 제한하는 것은 무의미하다. 11. 콜레스테롤 운반체로서의 지단백질은 그 밀도가 낮은 것으로부터 킬로미크론(chylomicron), 초저밀도 지단백질(VLDL), 저밀도 지단백질(LDL) 및 고밀도 지단백질(HDL)으로 나누는데 LDL은 혈청콜레스테롤 중 약 70%, HDL은 약20%를 함유한다. 12. 혈중 콜레스테롤 수준에 영향을 미치는 요인을 열거하여 보면 다음과 같다. 1) 음식을 통해서 섭취되는 콜레스테롤 중 단지 10~40%정도가 흡수되고, 체내에서 합성되는 콜레스테롤이 증가할수록 식이콜레스테롤은 실제 혈청콜레스테롤 수준에 거의 영향을 미치지 않으므로 식이중함량에 대하여 공포를 느끼고 기피할 필요가 없다. 2) 고도불포화지방산, 단가불포화지방산, 포화지방산의 비 즉 P/M/S의 비가 균형되도록 권장한다. 3) 동맥경화를 비롯한 성인병의 원인이 되는 혈전증에는 EPA의 양을 높여줌으로서 성인병을 예방할 수 있다. 4) 오메가6지방산 아라키도닉산과 오메가3지방산인 EPA로 유도되는 에이코사에노이드 또는 프로스타노이드는 오메가6와 3지방산을 전구체로 하여 생합성되는 중요한 생리활성 물질이다. 5) 사람은 일반적으로 20세에서 60세까지 나이를 먹어감에 따라 혈중 콜레스테롤 수준이 증가하고 60세 이후부터는 일정한 수준을 유지하며 심장보호성 HDL-콜레스테롤은 감소하는 반면에 죽상경화성 LDL콜레스테롤은 증가한다. 6) 높은 HDL콜레스테롤 수준이 심장병 발생 위험요인을 감소시키는 기능을 갖고 있기 때문에 좋은 HDL이라 부르고, LDL은 나쁜 콜레스테롤이라 부르기도 하는데, 이것은 유전적 요인보다도 환경적 요인이 보다 큰 영향을 미친다. 7) 이것은 생활 형태와 영양섭취상태를 포함해서 개인적 생활패턴에 영향을 받는다. 8) 많은 실험에서 혈중 콜레스테롤 상승은 노년의 가령(加齡)에 적응하기 위한 자연적 또는 생리적인 세포의 생화학적이고 대사적인 기능을 위해 필수적일 수 있다는 것을 간과해서는 안될 것이다. 이 점으로 미루어 노년의 여성들을 위한 콜레스테롤 농도를 200mg/dl이 가장 알맞은 양이 아닌 듯하다. 9) 스트레스는 두가지 모양으로 유발되는데 해로은 스트레스(negative), 이로운 스트레스(positive)로서 긴장완화는 혈중 콜레스테롤 농도를 10% 떨어진다. 10) 자주 운동을 하는 사람들은 혈중 HDL콜레스테롤치가 운동을 하지 않는 사람보다 높다. 육체적인 운동의 정도와 혈중 HDL콜레스테롤 농도와는 정비례한다. 11) 흡연은 지방을 흡착시키므로 혈전증의 원이이 되며 혈관속의 HDL농도를 감소시킨다. 12) 에너지의 과잉섭취에 의한 체중 증가느 일반적으로 지단백질대사에 영향을 미치고, 간에서는 콜레스테롤 과잉 생산과 더불어 VLDL콜레스테롤의 LDL콜레스테롤 혈증을 나타냄으로 운동과 더불어 비만이 되지 않도록 하여야 한다. 13. 콜레스테롤 함량에 대한 조절기술 1) 식품의 우열을 평가할 때 단순히 동물성 또는 식물성 식품으로 분류해서 총괄적으로 논한다는 것은 지양되어야 한다. 이것은 그 식품에 함유하고 있는 지방산의 종류에 따라서 다르기 때문이다. 2) 인체의 원할한 기능 유지를 위해서는 P /M /S비율 뿐만 아니라 섭취 지방질의 오메가6 /오메가3계 지방산의 비율이 모두 적절한 범위에 있어야 하며 한두가지 지방산만이 과량일 때는 또 다른 불균형을 일으킬 수 있다는 점을 알아야 한다. 3) 닭고기는 오메가6지방산 함량을 높이기 위하여 사료중에 등푸른 생선이나 어분이나 어유를 첨가하여 닭고기는 첨가수준에 따라 증가됨을 알 수 있다. 4) 오늘날 계란내의 지방산 조성을 변화시켜 난황내의 오메가 3계열 지방산 함량을 증가시킨 계란의 개발이 활발해졌다. 14. 계란 콜레스테롤에 대한 소비자들의 부정적 인식을 불식시키고자 계란의 클레스테롤 함량을 낮추는 과제가 등장하면서 그 기술개발이 여러모로 시도되고 있으나 아직 실용 단계에 이르지 못했다. 15. 계란의 콜레스테롤 문제에 대한 대책으로서 난황의 크기를 감소시키는 방법에 대한 연구도 필요하다. 16. 계란 중 콜레스테롤 함량 분석치는 표현 방식에 따라서 소비자들을 혼란시킬 가능성이 있다. 또한 과거에는 비색법으로 분석했으나 오늘날은 효소법으로 분석하면 분석치에 상당한 차이가 있다. 17. 소비자의 요구를 만족시키고 버터 소비를 촉진시키기 위해 콜레스테롤을 감소시키는 물리적${\cdot}$생물학적 방식이 제안되어 있으나 현장적용이 가능한 것은 아직 없다. 18. 우리나라에서 이미 시판되고 있는 DHA우유가 선보였고 무콜레스테롤 버터의 경우 트란스(trans)형 지방산에 관해서는 논란의 여지가 많을 것이다. 끝으로 국가 목표의 하나는 복지사회 건설에 있고 복지국가 실현에는 국민 기본 욕망의 하나인 식생활 합리화가 선행되어야 한다. 소득이 늘고 국가가 발전해감에 따라 영양식${\cdot}$건강식 및 기호식을 추구하게 됨을 매우 당연한 추세라 하겠다. 우리의 식생활이 날로 향상되어 지난날의 당질 위주에서 점차 축산물쪽으로 질적 개선이 이루어진다는 것은 고무적임에 틀림없다. 이 축산물을 통한 풍요로운 식의 문화를 창출하면서 건강과 장수 그리고 후손에 이르기까지 번영하고 국가 경쟁력 강화에 심혈을 기우려야 할 때이다.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.1-28
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• 2012

I. Introduction : The purpose of this study is to test empirically hypothetical causality among constructs used in previous studies to build the model of relational market behavior on customers' participation and consumer-brand relationship after introducing theories of relationship marketing, loyalty program, consumer-brand relationship, customers' participation in service marketing as previous studies with regard to relational market behavior, which Bagozzi(1995) and Peterson(1995) commented on constructs and definition suggested by Sheth and Parvatiyar (1995). For this purpose, loyalty program by the service provider, customers' participation and consumer-brand relationship as preceding variables explain relational market behavior defined by Sheth and Parvatiyar(1995). This study proposes that loyalty program as a tool of relationship marketing will be effective in that consumers' participation in marketing relationship results in a narrow range of choice(Sheth and Parvatiyar, 1995) because consumers think that their participation motive result in benefits(Peterson, 1995). Also, it is proposed that the quality of consumer-brand relationship explain the performance of relationship as well as the intermediary effect because the loyalty program could be evaluated based on relationship with customers. We reviewed the variables with regard to performance of relationship based on relation maintain in marketing literature, and then tested our hypotheses related to several performance variables including loyalty and intention of relation maintain based on the previous studies and constructs(Bendapudi and Berry, 1997 ; Bettencourt, 1997 ; Palmatier, Dant, Grewal and Evans, 2006 ; You Jae Yi and Soo Jin Lee, 2006). II. Study Model : Analyses about hypothetical causality were proceeded. The marketing effect of loyalty program on relational market behavior was empirically tested in study regarding a service provider. The research model in according to the path hypotheses (loyalty program ${\rightarrow}$ customers' participation ${\rightarrow}$ consumer-brand relationship ${\rightarrow}$ relational market behavior and loyalty program ${\rightarrow}$ consumer-brand relationship, and loyalty program ${\rightarrow}$ relational market behavior and customers' participation ${\rightarrow}$ consumer-brand relationship, and customers' participation ${\rightarrow}$ relational market behavior) proceeded as an activity for customer relation management was suggested. The main purpose of study is to see if relational market behavior could be brought as a result of developing relationship between consumers and a corporate into being stronger and more valuable when a corporate or a service provider try aggressively to build the relationship with customers (Bettencourt, 1997; Palmatier, Dant, Grewal and Evans, 2006; Sheth and Parvatiyar, 1995). III. Conclusion : The results of research into the membership fitness club, one of service areas with high level of customer participation (Bitner, Faranda, Hubbert and Zeithaml, 1997; Chase, 1978; Kelley, Donnelly, Jr. and Skinner, 1990) are as follows: First, causalities in according to path hypotheses were tested, after the preceding variables affecting relational market behavior and conceptual frame were suggested. In study, all hypotheses were supported as expected. This result confirms the proposition suggested by Sheth and Parvatiyar(1995), who claimed that intention of consumer and corporate to participate in marketing relationship brings high level of marketing productivity. Also, as a corporate or a service provider try aggressively to build relationship with customers, the relationship between consumers and a corporate can be developed into stronger and more valuable one (Bettencourt, 1997; Palmatier, Dant, Grewal and Evans, 2006). This finding supports the logic of relationship marketing. Second, because the question regarding the path hypothesis of consumer-brand relationship ${\rightarrow}$ relational market behavior are still at issue, the further analyses were conducted. In particular, there existed the mediating effects of consumer-brand relationship toward relational market behavior. Also, multiple regressions were conducted to see if which one strongly influences relational market behavior among specific question items with regard to consumer-brand relationship. As a result, the influence between items composing consumer-brand relationship and ones composing relational market behavior was different. Among items composing consumer-brand relationship, intimacy was an influence of sustaining relationship, word of mouth, and recommendation, intimacy and interdependence were influences of loyalty, intimacy and self-connection were influences of tolerance and advice. Notably, commitment among items measuring consumer-brand relationship had the negative influence with relational market behavior. This means that bringing relational market behavior is not consumer-brand relationship without personal commitment, but effort to build customer relationship like intimacy, interdependence, and self-connection. This finding confirms the results of Breivik and Thorbjornsen(2008). They reported that six variables composing the quality of consumer-brand relationship have higher explanation in regression model directly affecting performance of consumer-brand relationship. As a result of empirical analysis, among the constructs with regard to consumer-brand relationship, intimacy(B=0.512), interdependence(B=0.196), and quality of partner(B=0.153) had the effects on relation maintain. On the contrary, self-connection, love and passion, and commitment had little effect and did not show the statistical significance(p<0.05). On the other hand, intimacy(B=0.668) and interdependence(B=0.181) had the high regression estimates on word of mouth and recommendation. Regarding the effect on loyalty, explanation level of the model was high(R2=0.515), intimacy(0.538), interdependence(0.223), and quality of partner(0.177) showed the statistical significance(p<0.05). Furthermore, intimacy(0.441) had the strong effect as well as self-connection(0.201) and interdependence (0.163) had the effect on tolerance and forgive. And these three variables showed effects even on advice and suggestion, intimacy(0.373), self-connection(0.270), interdependence (0.155) respectively. Third, in study with regard to the positive effect(loyalty program ${\rightarrow}$ customers' participation, loyalty program ${\rightarrow}$ consumer-brand relationship, loyalty program ${\rightarrow}$ relational market behavior, customers' participation ${\rightarrow}$ consumer-brand relationship, customers' participation ${\rightarrow}$ relational market behavior, consumer-brand relationship ${\rightarrow}$ relational market behavior), the path hypothesis of customers' participation ${\rightarrow}$ consumer-brand relationship, was supported. The fact that path hypothesis of customers' participation ${\rightarrow}$ consumer-brand relationship was supported confirms assertion by Bitner(1995), Fournier(1994), Sheth and Parvatiyar(1995) about consumer relationship to participate in marketing relationship.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.59-87
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• 2014

In MIS field, the researches on payment services are focused on adoption factors of payment service using behavior theories such as TRA(Theory of Reasoned Action), TAM(Technology Acceptance Model), and TPB (Theory of Planned Behavior). The previous researches presented various adoption factors according to types of payment service, nations, culture and so on even though adoption factors of identical payment service were presented differently by researchers. The payment service industry relatively has strong path dependency to the existing payment methods so that the research results on the identical payment service are different due to payment culture of nation. This paper aims to suggest a successful adoption factor of noble payment service regardless of nation's culture and characteristics of payment and prove it. In previous researches, common adoption factors of payment service are convenience, ease of use, security, convenience, speed etc. But real cases prove the fact that adoption factors that the previous researches present are not always critical to success to penetrate a market. For example, PayByPhone, NFC based parking payment service, successfully has penetrated to early market and grown. In contrast, Google Wallet service failed to be adopted to users despite NFC based payment method which provides convenience, security, ease of use. As shown in upper case, there remains an unexplained aspect. Therefore, the present research question emerged from the question: "What is the more essential and fundamental factor that should takes precedence over factors such as provides convenience, security, ease of use for successful penetration to market". With these cases, this paper analyzes four cases predicted on the following hypothesis and demonstrates it. "To successfully penetrate a market and sustainably grow, new payment service should find non-customer of the existing payment service and provide noble payment method so that they can use payment method". We give plausible explanations for the hypothesis using multiple case studies. Diners club, Danal, PayPal, Square were selected as a typical and successful cases in each category of payment service. The discussion on cases is primarily non-customer analysis that noble payment service targets on to find the most crucial factor in the early market, we does not attempt to consider factors for business growth. We clarified three-tier non-customer of the payment method that new payment service targets on and elaborated how new payment service satisfy them. In case of credit card, this payment service target first tier of non-customer who can't pay for because they don't have any cash temporarily but they have regular income. So credit card provides an opportunity which they can do economic activities by delaying the date of payment. In a result of wireless phone payment's case study, this service targets on second of non-customer who can't use online payment because they concern about security or have to take a complex process and learn how to use online payment method. Therefore, wireless phone payment provides very convenient payment method. Especially, it made group of young pay for a little money without a credit card. Case study result of PayPal, online payment service, shows that it targets on second tier of non-customer who reject to use online payment service because of concern about sensitive information leaks such as passwords and credit card details. Accordingly, PayPal service allows users to pay online without a provision of sensitive information. Final Square case result, Mobile POS -based payment service, also shows that it targets on second tier of non-customer who can't individually transact offline because of cash's shortness. Hence, Square provides dongle which function as POS by putting dongle in earphone terminal. As a result, four cases made non-customer their customer so that they could penetrate early market and had been extended their market share. Consequently, all cases supported the hypothesis and it is highly probable according to 'analytic generation' that case study methodology suggests. We present for judging the quality of research designs the following. Construct validity, internal validity, external validity, reliability are common to all social science methods, these have been summarized in numerous textbooks(Yin, 2014). In case study methodology, these also have served as a framework for assessing a large group of case studies (Gibbert, Ruigrok & Wicki, 2008). Construct validity is to identify correct operational measures for the concepts being studied. To satisfy construct validity, we use multiple sources of evidence such as the academic journals, magazine and articles etc. Internal validity is to seek to establish a causal relationship, whereby certain conditions are believed to lead to other conditions, as distinguished from spurious relationships. To satisfy internal validity, we do explanation building through four cases analysis. External validity is to define the domain to which a study's findings can be generalized. To satisfy this, replication logic in multiple case studies is used. Reliability is to demonstrate that the operations of a study -such as the data collection procedures- can be repeated, with the same results. To satisfy this, we use case study protocol. In Korea, the competition among stakeholders over mobile payment industry is intensifying. Not only main three Telecom Companies but also Smartphone companies and service provider like KakaoTalk announced that they would enter into mobile payment industry. Mobile payment industry is getting competitive. But it doesn't still have momentum effect notwithstanding positive presumptions that will grow very fast. Mobile payment services are categorized into various technology based payment service such as IC mobile card and Application payment service of cloud based, NFC, sound wave, BLE(Bluetooth Low Energy), Biometric recognition technology etc. Especially, mobile payment service is discontinuous innovations that users should change their behavior and noble infrastructure should be installed. These require users to learn how to use it and cause infra-installation cost to shopkeepers. Additionally, payment industry has the strong path dependency. In spite of these obstacles, mobile payment service which should provide dramatically improved value as a products and service of discontinuous innovations is focusing on convenience and security, convenience and so on. We suggest the following to success mobile payment service. First, non-customers of the existing payment service need to be identified. Second, needs of them should be taken. Then, noble payment service provides non-customer who can't pay by the previous payment method to payment method. In conclusion, mobile payment service can create new market and will result in extension of payment market.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.69-98
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• 2009

We investigated what factors motivate gamers to participate in a guild and why they continue to be engaged as members of the guild. We find that, based on the result of focus group interviews with MMORPG gamers, social support and self-esteem factors play important roles. Considering both prior research and the focus group interviews we have conducted, we define social support and character control as independent variables. Character identity, guild identity, and self-esteem are proposed as mediating variables while guild flow and game loyalty as dependent variables. Accordingly, we develop the research model and hypotheses, and verify them empirically. Based on our experiences of playing the WoW game, we proposed a research model and conducted focus-group interviews (FGIs). FGIs involve formulating a hypothesis and then collecting some relevant data. FGIs were conducted face-to-face with students of C University in Korea. We formulated structured interview schedules, and the questions were based on our research variables and personal experiences. The questions for the interviews encompassed the following areas: (a) the demographic characteristics of the focus group; (b) the number of years for which respondents had played online games; (c) the motive for starting a game; (d) the number of game-characters assumed by each gamer; (e) the type of game played; and (f) other issues such as the reasons for involvement in the play, the willingness to reuse the game in case new versions were released, etc. On average, it took two hours to interview each of three groups. A primary set of FGIs was conducted with three groups on the premise that there would be some differences caused by character race (Horde vs. Alliance) or by playable server (Normal vs. Combat). With respect to the manner of playing, we found that guild members shared information, felt a sense of belonging, and played computer games for quite a long time through the guild; however, they did not undergo these experiences when playing alone. Gamers who belonged to a specific guild helped other players without expecting compensation for that, freely shared information about the game, gave away items for free, and more generous with other members who made mistakes. The guild members were aware of the existence other members and experienced a sense of belonging through interactions with, and evaluations from, other players. It was clear that social support was shown within the guild and that it played an important role as a major research variable. Based on the results of the first FGIs, a second set of in-depth FGIs was carried out with a focus on the psychology of the individual within the guild and the social community of the guild. The second set of FGIs also focused on the guild's offline meetings. Gamers, over all, recognize the necessity of joining a community, not only off-line but also online world of the guild. They admit that the guild is important for them to easily and conveniently enjoy playing online computer games. The active behavior and positive attitudes of existing guild members can motivate new members of the guild to adapt themselves to the guild environment. They then adopt the same behaviors and attitudes of established guild members. In this manner, the new members of the guild strengthen the bonds with other gamers while feeling a sense of belonging, and developing social identity, thereby. It was discovered that the interaction among guild members and the social support encouraged new gamers to quickly develop a sense of social identity and increase their self-esteem. The guild seemed to play the role of socializing gamers. Sometimes, even in the real world, the guild members helped one another; therefore, the features of the guild also spilled over to the offline environment. We intend to use self-esteem, which was found through the second set of FGIs, as an important research variable. To collect data, an online survey was designed with a questionnaire to be completed by WoW gamers, who belong to a guild. The survey was registered on the best three domestic game-sites: 'WoW playforum,' 'WoW gamemeca,' and 'Wow invent.' The selected items to be measured in the questionnaire were decided based on prior research and data from FGIs. To verify the content of the questionnaire, we carried out a pilot test with the same participants to point out ambiguous questions as a way to ensure maximum accuracy of the survey result. A total of 244 responses were analyzed from the 250 completed questionnaires. The SEM analysis was used to test goodness-of-fit of the model. As a result, we found important results as follows: First, according to the statistics, social support had statistically significant impacts on character control, character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Second, character control had significant effects on character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Third, character identity shows its clear impact on self-esteem and game loyalty. Fourth, guild identity affected self-esteem, guild flow and game loyalty. Fifth, self-esteem had a positive influence on the guild flow. These days, the number of virtual community is rising along with its significance largely because of the nature of the online games. Accordingly, this study is designed to clarify the psychological relationship between gamers within the guild that has been generally established by gamers to play online games together. This study focuses on the relationships in which social support influences guild flow or game loyalty through character control, character identity, guild identity, and self-esteem, which are present within a guild in the MMORPG game environment. The study results are as follows. First, the effects of social support on character control, character identity, guild identity and self-esteem are proven to be statistically significant. It was found that character control improves character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Among the seven variables, social support, which is derived from FGIs, plays an important role in this study. With the active support of other guild members, gamers can improve their ability to develop good characters and to control them. Second, character identity has a positive effect on self-esteem and game loyalty, while guild identity has a significant effect on self-esteem, guild flow and game loyalty. Self-esteem affects guild flow. It was found that the higher the character and guild identities become, the greater the self-esteem is established. Contrary to the findings of prior research, our study results indicate that the relationship between character identity and guild flow is not significant. Rather, it was found that character identity directly affects game players' loyalty. Even though the character identity had no direct effect on increasing guild flow, it has indirectly affected guild flow through self-esteem. The significant relationship between self-esteem and guild flow indicates that gamers achieve flow, i.e., a feeling of pleasure and excitement through social support. Several important implications of this study should be noted. First, both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to conduct this study. Through FGIs, it was observed that both social support and self-esteem are important variables. Second, because guilds had been rarely studied, this research is expected to play an important role in the online community. Third, according to the result, six hypotheses (H1, H5, H6, H7, H8, and H11) setup based on FGIs, were statistically significant; thus, we can suggest the corresponding relationships among the variables as a guideline for follow-up research. Our research is significant as it has following implications: first, the social support of the guild members is important when establishing character control, character identity, guildidentity and self-esteem. It is also a major variable that affects guild flow and game loyalty. Second, character control when improved by social support shows notable influence on the development of character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Third, character identity and guild identity are major factors to help establish gamers' own self-esteem. Fourth, character identity affects guild flow through self-esteem and game loyalty. The gamers usually express themselves through characters; the higher character identity is, the more loyalty a gamer has. Fifth, guild identity, established within the guild, has clear effects on self-esteem, guild flow and game loyalty. Sixth, qualitative and quantitative methods are employed to conduct this study. Based on the results of focus group interviews and SEM analysis, we find that the social support by guild members and psychological factors are significant in strengthening the flow of guild and loyalty to the game. As such, game developers should provide some extra functions for guild community, through which gamers can play online games in collaboration with one another. Also, we suggest that positive self-esteem which is built up through social support can help gamers achieve higher level of flow and satisfaction, which will consequently contribute to minimizing the possibility for the players to develop negative attitude toward the guild they belong to.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.57-77
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• 2013

Social media has become one of the most popular media in web and mobile application. In 2011, social networks and blogs are still the top destination of online users, according to a study from Nielsen Company. In their studies, nearly 4 in 5active users visit social network and blog. Social Networks and Blogs sites rule Americans' Internet time, accounting to 23 percent of time spent online. Facebook is the main social network that the U.S internet users spend time more than the other social network services such as Yahoo, Google, AOL Media Network, Twitter, Linked In and so on. In recent trend, most of the companies promote their products in the Facebook by creating the "Facebook Page" that refers to specific product. The "Like" option allows user to subscribed and received updates their interested on from the page. The film makers which produce a lot of films around the world also take part to market and promote their films by exploiting the advantages of using the "Facebook Page". In addition, a great number of streaming service providers allows users to subscribe their service to watch and enjoy movies and TV program. They can instantly watch movies and TV program over the internet to PCs, Macs and TVs. Netflix alone as the world's leading subscription service have more than 30 million streaming members in the United States, Latin America, the United Kingdom and the Nordics. As the matter of facts, a million of movies and TV program with different of genres are offered to the subscriber. In contrast, users need spend a lot time to find the right movies which are related to their interest genre. Recent years there are many researchers who have been propose a method to improve prediction the rating or preference that would give the most related items such as books, music or movies to the garget user or the group of users that have the same interest in the particular items. One of the most popular methods to build recommendation system is traditional Collaborative Filtering (CF). The method compute the similarity of the target user and other users, which then are cluster in the same interest on items according which items that users have been rated. The method then predicts other items from the same group of users to recommend to a group of users. Moreover, There are many items that need to study for suggesting to users such as books, music, movies, news, videos and so on. However, in this paper we only focus on movie as item to recommend to users. In addition, there are many challenges for CF task. Firstly, the "sparsity problem"; it occurs when user information preference is not enough. The recommendation accuracies result is lower compared to the neighbor who composed with a large amount of ratings. The second problem is "cold-start problem"; it occurs whenever new users or items are added into the system, which each has norating or a few rating. For instance, no personalized predictions can be made for a new user without any ratings on the record. In this research we propose a clustering method according to the users' genre interest extracted from social network service (SNS) and user's movies rating information system to solve the "cold-start problem." Our proposed method will clusters the target user together with the other users by combining the user genre interest and the rating information. It is important to realize a huge amount of interesting and useful user's information from Facebook Graph, we can extract information from the "Facebook Page" which "Like" by them. Moreover, we use the Internet Movie Database(IMDb) as the main dataset. The IMDbis online databases that consist of a large amount of information related to movies, TV programs and including actors. This dataset not only used to provide movie information in our Movie Rating Systems, but also as resources to provide movie genre information which extracted from the "Facebook Page". Formerly, the user must login with their Facebook account to login to the Movie Rating System, at the same time our system will collect the genre interest from the "Facebook Page". We conduct many experiments with other methods to see how our method performs and we also compare to the other methods. First, we compared our proposed method in the case of the normal recommendation to see how our system improves the recommendation result. Then we experiment method in case of cold-start problem. Our experiment show that our method is outperform than the other methods. In these two cases of our experimentation, we see that our proposed method produces better result in case both cases.

• Korean small business review
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.67-93
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• 2009

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relations between financial constraints and dividend smoothing of innovative small and medium sized enterprises(SMEs) listed on Korea Securities Market and Kosdaq Market of Korea Exchange. The innovative SMEs is defined as the firms with high level of R&D intensity which is measured by (R&D investment/total sales) ratio, according to Chauvin and Hirschey (1993). The R&D investment plays an important role as the innovative driver that can increase the future growth opportunity and profitability of the firms. Therefore, the R&D investment have large, positive, and consistent influences on the market value of the firm. In this point of view, we expect that the innovative SMEs can adjust dividend payment faster than the noninnovative SMEs, on the ground of their future growth opportunity and profitability. And also, we expect that the financial unconstrained firms can adjust dividend payment faster than the financial constrained firms, on the ground of their financing ability of investment funds through the market accessibility. Aivazian et al.(2006) exert that the financial unconstrained firms with the high accessibility to capital market can adjust dividend payment faster than the financial constrained firms. We collect the sample firms among the total SMEs listed on Korea Securities Market and Kosdaq Market of Korea Exchange during the periods from January 1999 to December 2007 from the KIS Value Library database. The total number of firm-year observations of the total sample firms throughout the entire period is 5,544, the number of firm-year observations of the dividend firms is 2,919, and the number of firm-year observations of the non-dividend firms is 2,625. About 53%(or 2,919) of these total 5,544 observations involve firms that make a dividend payment. The dividend firms are divided into two groups according to the R&D intensity, such as the innovative SMEs with larger than median of R&D intensity and the noninnovative SMEs with smaller than median of R&D intensity. The number of firm-year observations of the innovative SMEs is 1,506, and the number of firm-year observations of the noninnovative SMEs is 1,413. Furthermore, the innovative SMEs are divided into two groups according to level of financial constraints, such as the financial unconstrained firms and the financial constrained firms. The number of firm-year observations of the former is 894, and the number of firm-year observations of the latter is 612. Although all available firm-year observations of the dividend firms are collected, deletions are made in the case of financial industries such as banks, securities company, insurance company, and other financial services company, because their capital structure and business style are widely different from the general manufacturing firms. The stock repurchase was involved in dividend payment because Grullon and Michaely (2002) examined the substitution hypothesis between dividends and stock repurchases. However, our data structure is an unbalanced panel data since there is no requirement that the firm-year observations data are all available for each firms during the entire periods from January 1999 to December 2007 from the KIS Value Library database. We firstly estimate the classic Lintner(1956) dividend adjustment model, where the decision to smooth dividend or to adopt a residual dividend policy depends on financial constraints measured by market accessibility. Lintner model indicates that firms maintain stable and long run target payout ratio, and that firms adjust partially the gap between current payout rato and target payout ratio each year. In the Lintner model, dependent variable is the current dividend per share(DPS_t), and independent variables are the past dividend per share(DPS_t-1) and the current earnings per share(EPS_t). We hypothesized that firms adjust partially the gap between the current dividend per share(DPS_t) and the target payout ratio(Ω) each year, when the past dividend per share(DPS_t-1) deviate from the target payout ratio(Ω). We secondly estimate the expansion model that extend the Lintner model by including the determinants suggested by the major theories of dividend, namely, residual dividend theory, dividend signaling theory, agency theory, catering theory, and transactions cost theory. In the expansion model, dependent variable is the current dividend per share(DPS_t), explanatory variables are the past dividend per share(DPS_t-1) and the current earnings per share(EPS_t), and control variables are the current capital expenditure ratio(CEA_t), the current leverage ratio(LEV_t), the current operating return on assets(ROA_t), the current business risk(RISK_t), the current trading volume turnover ratio(TURN_t), and the current dividend premium(DPREM_t). In these control variables, CEA_t, LEV_t, and ROA_t are the determinants suggested by the residual dividend theory and the agency theory, ROA_t and RISK_t are the determinants suggested by the dividend signaling theory, TURN_t is the determinant suggested by the transactions cost theory, and DPREM_t is the determinant suggested by the catering theory. Furthermore, we thirdly estimate the Lintner model and the expansion model by using the panel data of the financial unconstrained firms and the financial constrained firms, that are divided into two groups according to level of financial constraints. We expect that the financial unconstrained firms can adjust dividend payment faster than the financial constrained firms, because the former can finance more easily the investment funds through the market accessibility than the latter. We analyzed descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation, and median to delete the outliers from the panel data, conducted one way analysis of variance to check up the industry-specfic effects, and conducted difference test of firms characteristic variables between innovative SMEs and noninnovative SMEs as well as difference test of firms characteristic variables between financial unconstrained firms and financial constrained firms. We also conducted the correlation analysis and the variance inflation factors analysis to detect any multicollinearity among the independent variables. Both of the correlation coefficients and the variance inflation factors are roughly low to the extent that may be ignored the multicollinearity among the independent variables. Furthermore, we estimate both of the Lintner model and the expansion model using the panel regression analysis. We firstly test the time-specific effects and the firm-specific effects may be involved in our panel data through the Lagrange multiplier test that was proposed by Breusch and Pagan(1980), and secondly conduct Hausman test to prove that fixed effect model is fitter with our panel data than the random effect model. The main results of this study can be summarized as follows. The determinants suggested by the major theories of dividend, namely, residual dividend theory, dividend signaling theory, agency theory, catering theory, and transactions cost theory explain significantly the dividend policy of the innovative SMEs. Lintner model indicates that firms maintain stable and long run target payout ratio, and that firms adjust partially the gap between the current payout ratio and the target payout ratio each year. In the core variables of Lintner model, the past dividend per share has more effects to dividend smoothing than the current earnings per share. These results suggest that the innovative SMEs maintain stable and long run dividend policy which sustains the past dividend per share level without corporate special reasons. The main results show that dividend adjustment speed of the innovative SMEs is faster than that of the noninnovative SMEs. This means that the innovative SMEs with high level of R&D intensity can adjust dividend payment faster than the noninnovative SMEs, on the ground of their future growth opportunity and profitability. The other main results show that dividend adjustment speed of the financial unconstrained SMEs is faster than that of the financial constrained SMEs. This means that the financial unconstrained firms with high accessibility to capital market can adjust dividend payment faster than the financial constrained firms, on the ground of their financing ability of investment funds through the market accessibility. Futhermore, the other additional results show that dividend adjustment speed of the innovative SMEs classified by the Small and Medium Business Administration is faster than that of the unclassified SMEs. They are linked with various financial policies and services such as credit guaranteed service, policy fund for SMEs, venture investment fund, insurance program, and so on. In conclusion, the past dividend per share and the current earnings per share suggested by the Lintner model explain mainly dividend adjustment speed of the innovative SMEs, and also the financial constraints explain partially. Therefore, if managers can properly understand of the relations between financial constraints and dividend smoothing of innovative SMEs, they can maintain stable and long run dividend policy of the innovative SMEs through dividend smoothing. These are encouraging results for Korea government, that is, the Small and Medium Business Administration as it has implemented many policies to commit to the innovative SMEs. This paper may have a few limitations because it may be only early study about the relations between financial constraints and dividend smoothing of the innovative SMEs. Specifically, this paper may not adequately capture all of the subtle features of the innovative SMEs and the financial unconstrained SMEs. Therefore, we think that it is necessary to expand sample firms and control variables, and use more elaborate analysis methods in the future studies.