• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• 제11권5호
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• pp.77-90
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• 2016

This study is to examine the importance of site selection and service quality in franchise business as food service franchise became one of the fastest-growing service industries today. The chief finding of this study is as follows: First, a survey in locational and service quality factors affecting food service franchise shows that responders are more concerned with hygiene and visibility of the store than proximity and transportation advantages which reflects low statistical significance, thus the distance did not seem to be a big problem for the responders in the context that they mostly visit nearby food franchise. Second, the examination of the influence by the service quality factors and customer satisfaction shows significant positive relation with customer response, speed and accuracy, and accuracy factors which reveals that the responders prefer prompt response and swift judgment toward the customer's needs and expectations, professional knowledge services to the credibility factors in which little correlation with the customer satisfaction were found. Third, the examination of the influence by the service quality factors, locational factors, and re-visit reveals that customer response and specialty showed statistically significant correlation with intention of WOM (Word of Mouth) and revisit, which suggests that swift judgment and response toward the customer's needs and expectations, professional knowledge services is of great importance to both customer satisfaction and revisit. The study on the aspects of locational and service quality factors affecting franchise industry's customer satisfaction was conducted as above, an investigation in both factors' influence on the customer satisfaction was made, and based on the results of the analysis, this research seeks an optimal operation strategy of a franchise business. Food service franchise are relatively very competent to business adminstration and reaction capability to consumption changes due to the already established market, and there are stores springing up everywhere inspired by the founders who are too confident of their success in the franchise business. However, it is necessary for the franchise beginners to figure out a zone oriented, regular customer oriented business strategy than just complying with the head office manual. Owing to an increasing trend of opening medium to large sized stores and investments in the wake of converting to multiple business type Korean food franchise, there is growing need to set up new concept of store development and operational management strategy in order to overcome the excessive competition and limited sales volume of the old-fashioned small sized, small capital franchise stores. Furthermore, as most business category of food service franchise serve very similar menus, from a product differentiation point of view, it is required to map out flexible sales concept including the adoption of competitive and low-price strategy. In conclusion, as is shown in the analytical research, the customers' optimal choice fluctuate over their preferences like customer convenience and circumstances rather than insisting on specific brand, thus it will be necessary for the franchise stores to draw up aggressive strategy and planning in running food service franchise to maximize their profits.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• 제18권2호
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• pp.41-72
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• 2008

The purpose of this study is the investigation of the effects of user participation, network effect, social influence, and usefulness on stickiness and continued use on Internet communities. In this research, stickiness refers to repeat visit and visit duration to an Internet community. Continued use means the willingness to continue to use an Internet community in the future. Internet community-based companies can earn money through selling the digital contents such as game, music, and avatar, advertizing on internet site, or offering an affiliate marketing. For such money making, stickiness and continued use of Internet users is much more important than the number of Internet users. We tried to answer following three questions. Fist, what is the effects of user participation on stickiness and continued use on Internet communities? Second, by what is user participation formed? Third, are network effect, social influence, and usefulness that was significant at prior research about technology acceptance model(TAM) still significant on internet communities? In this study, user participation, network effect, social influence, and usefulness are independent variables, stickiness is mediating variable, and continued use is dependent variable. Among independent variables, we are focused on user participation. User participation means that Internet user participates in the development of Internet community site (called mini-hompy or blog in Korea). User participation was studied from 1970 to 1997 at the research area of information system. But since 1997 when Internet started to spread to the public, user participation has hardly been studied. Given the importance of user participation at the success of Internet-based companies, it is very meaningful to study the research topic of user participation. To test the proposed model, we used a data set generated from the survey. The survey instrument was designed on the basis of a comprehensive literature review and interviews of experts, and was refined through several rounds of pretests, revisions, and pilot tests. The respondents of survey were the undergraduates and the graduate students who mainly used Internet communities. Data analysis was conducted using 217 respondents(response rate, 97.7 percent). We used structural equation modeling(SEM) implemented in partial least square(PLS). We chose PLS for two reason. First, our model has formative constructs. PLS uses components-based algorithm and can estimated formative constructs. Second, PLS is more appropriate when the research model is in an early stage of development. A review of the literature suggests that empirical tests of user participation is still sparse. The test of model was executed in the order of three research questions. First user participation had the direct effects on stickiness(${\beta}$=0.150, p<0.01) and continued use (${\beta}$=0.119, p<0.05). And user participation, as a partial mediation model, had a indirect effect on continued use mediated through stickiness (${\beta}$=0.007, p<0.05). Second, optional participation and prosuming participation significantly formed user participation. Optional participation, with a path magnitude as high as 0.986 (p<0.001), is a key determinant for the strength of user participation. Third, Network effect (${\beta}$=0.236, p<0.001). social influence (${\beta}$=0.135, p<0.05), and usefulness (${\beta}$=0.343, p<0.001) had directly significant impacts on stickiness. But network effect and social influence, as a full mediation model, had both indirectly significant impacts on continued use mediated through stickiness (${\beta}$=0.11, p<0.001, and ${\beta}$=0.063, p<0.05, respectively). Compared with this result, usefulness, as a partial mediation model, had a direct impact on continued use and a indirect impact on continued use mediated through stickiness. This study has three contributions. First this is the first empirical study showing that user participation is the significant driver of continued use. The researchers of information system have hardly studies user participation since late 1990s. And the researchers of marketing have studied a few lately. Second, this study enhanced the understanding of user participation. Up to recently, user participation has been studied from the bipolar viewpoint of participation v.s non-participation. Also, even the study on participation has been studied from the point of limited optional participation. But, this study proved the existence of prosuming participation to design and produce products or services, besides optional participation. And this study empirically proved that optional participation and prosuming participation were the key determinant for user participation. Third, our study compliments traditional studies of TAM. According prior literature about of TAM, the constructs of network effect, social influence, and usefulness had effects on the technology adoption. This study proved that these constructs still are significant on Internet communities.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• 제21권3호
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• pp.71-96
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• 2011

Within the traditional medical delivery system, patients residing in medically vulnerable areas, those with body movement difficulties, and nursing facility residents have had limited access to good healthcare services. However, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) provides us with a convenient and useful means of overcoming distance and time constraints. ICT is integrated with biomedical science and technology in a way that offers a new high-quality medical service. As a result, rapid technological advancement is expected to play a pivotal role bringing about innovation in a wide range of medical service areas, such as medical management, testing, diagnosis, and treatment; offering new and improved healthcare services; and effecting dramatic changes in current medical services. The increase in aging population and chronic diseases has caused an increase in medical expenses. In response to the increasing demand for efficient healthcare services, a telehealth service based on ICT is being emphasized on a global level. Telehealth services have been implemented especially in pilot projects and system development and technological research. With the service about to be implemented in earnest, it is necessary to study its overall acceptance by consumers, which is expected to contribute to the development and activation of a variety of services. In this sense, the study aims at positively examining the structural relationship among the acceptance factors for telehealth services based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Data were collected by showing audiovisual material on telehealth services to online panels and requesting them to respond to a structured questionnaire sheet, which is known as the information acceleration method. Among the 1,165 adult respondents, 608 valid samples were finally chosen, while the remaining were excluded because of incomplete answers or allotted time overrun. In order to test the reliability and validity of the assessment scale items, we carried out reliability and factor analyses, and in order to explore the causal relation among potential variables, we conducted a structural equation modeling analysis using AMOS 7.0 and SPSS 17.0. The research outcomes are as follows. First, service quality, innovativeness of medical technology, and social influence were shown to affect perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of the telehealth service, which was statistically significant, and the two factors had a positive impact on willingness to accept the telehealth service. In addition, social influence had a direct, significant effect on intention to use, which is paralleled by the TAM used in previous research on technology acceptance. This shows that the research model proposed in the study effectively explains the acceptance of the telehealth service. Second, the research model reveals that information privacy concerns had a insignificant impact on perceived ease of use of the telehealth service. From this, it can be gathered that the concerns over information protection and security are reduced further due to advancements in information technology compared to the initial period in the information technology industry, and thus the improvement in quality of medical services appeared to ensure that information privacy concerns did not act as a prohibiting factor in the acceptance of the telehealth service. Thus, if other factors have an enormous impact on ease of use and usefulness, concerns over these results in the initial period of technology acceptance may become irrelevant. However, it is clear that users' information privacy concerns, as other studies have revealed, is a major factor affecting technology acceptance. Thus, caution must be exercised while interpreting the result, and further study is required on the issue. Numerous information technologies with outstanding performance and innovativeness often attract few consumers. A revised bill for those urgently in need of telehealth services is about to be approved in the national assembly. As telemedicine is implemented between doctors and patients, a wide range of systems that will improve the quality of healthcare services will be designed. In this sense, the study on the consumer acceptance of telehealth services is meaningful and offers strong academic evidence. Based on the implications, it can be expected to contribute to the activation of telehealth services. Further study is needed to assess the acceptance factors for telehealth services, such as motivation to remain healthy, health care involvement, knowledge on health, and control of health-related behavior, in order to develop unique services according to the categorization of customers based on health factors. In addition, further study may focus on various theoretical cognitive behavior models other than the TAM, such as the health belief model.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• 제19권3호
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• pp.99-124
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• 2009

Many firms in Korea have adopted and used advanced information technology in an effort to boost efficiency. The process of adapting to the new technology, at the same time, can vary from one firm to another. As such, this research focuses on several relevant factors, especially the roles of social interaction as a key variable that influences the technology adaptation process and the outcomes. Thus far, how a firm goes through the adaptation process to the new technology has not been yet fully explored. Previous studies on changes undergone by a firm or an organization due to information technology have been pursued from various theoretical points of views, evolved from technological and institutional views to an integrated social technology views. The technology adaptation process has been understood to be something that evolves over time and has been regarded as cycles between misalignments and alignments, gradually approaching the stable aligned state. The adaptation process of the new technology was defined as "appropriation" process according to Poole and DeSanctis (1994). They suggested that this process is not automatically determined by the technology design itself. Rather, people actively select how technology structures should be used; accordingly, adoption practices vary. But concepts of the appropriation process in these studies are not accurate while suggested propositions are not clear enough to apply in practice. Furthermore, these studies do not substantially suggest which factors are changed during the appropriation process and what should be done to bring about effective outcomes. Therefore, research objectives of this study lie in finding causes for the difference in ways in which advanced information technology has been used and adopted among organizations. The study also aims to explore how a firm's interaction with social as well as technological factors affects differently in resulting organizational changes. Detail objectives of this study are as follows. First, this paper primarily focuses on the appropriation process of advanced information technology in the long run, and we look into reasons for the diverse types of the usage. Second, this study is to categorize each phases in the appropriation process and make clear what changes occur and how they are evolved during each phase. Third, this study is to suggest the guidelines to determine which strategies are needed in an individual, group and organizational level. For this, a substantially grounded theory that can be applied to organizational practice has been developed from a longitudinal comparative case study. For these objectives, the technology appropriation process was explored based on Structuration Theory by Giddens (1984), Orlikoski and Robey (1991) and Adaptive Structuration Theory by Poole and DeSanctis (1994), which are examples of social technology views on organizational change by technology. Data have been obtained from interviews, observations of medical treatment task, and questionnaires administered to group members who use the technology. Data coding was executed in three steps following the grounded theory approach. First of all, concepts and categories were developed from interviews and observation data in open coding. Next, in axial coding, we related categories to subcategorize along the lines of their properties and dimensions through the paradigm model. Finally, the grounded theory about the appropriation process was developed through the conditional/consequential matrix in selective coding. In this study eight hypotheses about the adaptation process have been clearly articulated. Also, we found that the appropriation process involves through three phases, namely, "direct appropriation," "cooperate with related structures," and "interpret and make judgments." The higher phases of appropriation move, the more users represent various types of instrumental use and attitude. Moreover, the previous structures like "knowledge and experience," "belief that other members know and accept the use of technology," "horizontal communication," and "embodiment of opinion collection process" are evolved to higher degrees in their dimensions of property. Furthermore, users continuously create new spirits and structures, while removing some of the previous ones at the same time. Thus, from longitudinal view, faithful and unfaithful appropriation methods appear recursively, but gradually faithful appropriation takes over the other. In other words, the concept of spirits and structures has been changed in the adaptation process over time for the purpose of alignment between the task and other structures. These findings call for a revised or extended model of structural adaptation in IS (Information Systems) literature now that the vague adaptation process in previous studies has been clarified through the in-depth qualitative study, identifying each phrase with accuracy. In addition, based on these results some guidelines can be set up to help determine which strategies are needed in an individual, group, and organizational level for the purpose of effective technology appropriation. In practice, managers can focus on the changes of spirits and elevation of the structural dimension to achieve effective technology use.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• 제26권4호
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• pp.250-257
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• 2015

Multi-leaf collimator (MLC) systems are frequently used to deliver photon-based radiation, and allow conformal shaping of treatment beams. Many proton beam centers currently make use of aperture and snout systems, which involve use of a snout to shape and focus the proton beam, a brass aperture to modify field shape, and an acrylic compensator to modulate depth. However, it needs a lot of time and cost of preparing treatment, therefore, we developed the manual MLC for solving this problem. This study was carried out with the intent of designing an MLC system as an alternative to an aperture block system. Radio-activation and dose due to primary proton beam leakage and the presence of secondary neutrons were taken into account during these iterations. Analytical calculations were used to study the effects of leaf material on activation. We have fabricated tray model for adoption with a wobbling snout ($30{\times}40cm^2$) system which used uniform scanning beam. We designed the manual MLC and tray and can reduce the cost and time for treatment. After leakage test of new tray, we upgrade the tray with brass and made the safety tool. First, we have tested the radio-activation with usually brass and new brass for new manual MLC. It shows similar behavior and decay trend. In addition, we have measured the leakage test of a gantry with new tray and MLC tray, while we exposed the high energy with full modulation process on film dosimetry. The radiation leakage is less than 1%. From these results, we have developed the design of the tray and upgrade for safety. Through the radio-activation behavior, we figure out the proton beam leakage level of safety, where there detects the secondary particle, including neutron. After developing new design of the tray, it will be able to reduce the time and cost of proton treatment. Finally, we have applied in clinic test with original brass aperture and manual MLC and calculated the gamma index, 99.74% between them.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제17권9호
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• pp.4517-4525
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• 2016

Background: Sperm DNA damage is underlying aetiology of poor implantation and pregnancy rates but also affects health of offspring and may also result in denovo mutations in germ line and post fertilization. This may result in complex diseases, polygenic disorders and childhood cancers. Childhood cancer like retinoblastoma (RB) is more prevalent in developing countries and the incidence of RB has increased more than three fold in India in the last decade. Recent studies have documented increased incidence of cancers in children born to fathers who consume alcohol in excess and tobacco or who were conceived by assisted conception. The aetiology of childhood cancer and increased disease burden in these children is lin ked to oxidative stress (OS) and oxidative DNA damage( ODD) in sperm of their fathers. Though several antioxidants are in use to combat oxidative stress, the effect of majority of these formulations on DNA is not known. Yoga and meditation cause significant decline in OS and ODD and aid in regulating OS levels such that reactive oxygen speues meditated signal transduction, gene expression and several other physiological functions are not disrupted. Thus, this study aimed to analyze sperm ODD as a possible etiological factor in childhood cancer and role of simple life style interventions like yoga and meditation in significantly decreasing seminal oxidative stress and oxidative DNA damage and thereby decreasing incidence of childhood cancers. Materials and Methods: A total of 131 fathers of children with RB (non-familial sporadic heritable) and 50 controls (fathers of healthy children) were recruited at a tertiary center in India. Sperm parameters as per WHO 2010 guidelines and reactive oxygen species (ROS), DNA fragmentation index (DFI), 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxy guanosine (8-OHdG) and telomere length were estimated at day 0, and after 3 and 6 months of intervention. We also examined the compliance with yoga and meditation practice and smoking status at each follow-up. Results: The seminal mean ROS levels (p<0.05), sperm DFI (p<0.001), 8-OHdG (p<0.01) levels were significantly higher in fathers of children with RB, as compared to controls and the relative mean telomere length in the sperm was shorter. Levels of ROS were significantly reduced in tobacco users (p<0.05) as well as in alcoholics (p<0.05) after intervention. DFI reduced significantly (p<0.05) after 6 months of yoga and meditation practice in all groups. The levels of oxidative DNA damage marker 8-OHdG were reduced significantly after 3 months (p<0.05) and 6 months (p<0.05) of practice. Conclusions: Our results suggest that OS and ODD DNA may contribute to the development of childhood cancer. This may be due to accumulation of oxidized mutagenic base 8OHdG, and elevated MDA levels which results in MDA dimers which are also mutagenic, aberrant methylation pattern, altered gene expression which affect cell proliferation and survival through activation of transcription factors. Increased mt DNA mutations and aberrant repair of mt and nuclear DNA due to highly truncatred DNA repair mechanisms all contribute to sperm genome hypermutability and persistant oxidative DNA damage. Oxidative stress is also associated with genome wide hypomethylation, telomere shortening and mitochondrial dysfunction leading to genome hypermutability and instability. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to report decline in OS and ODD and improvement in sperm DNA integrity following adoption of meditation and yoga based life style modification.This may reduce disease burden in next generation and reduce incidence of childhood cancers.

• The Journal of Society for e-Business Studies
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• 제25권1호
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• pp.135-176
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• 2020

This study is to investigate the factors affecting the usage intentions of 5G service between 5G service subscribers and non-subscribers based on the Integratively Extended Technology Acceptance Model in the initial B2C 5G service market. We designed the integratively extended technology acceptance model to find the more specific factors to affect the usage intentions by integrating the exogenous factors including the technical factors, the social factors, and the personal factors with the ETAM(Extended Technology Acceptance Model). Referring to the previous studies, we constructed the hypotheses of structural influence relationship from the exogenous factors to the dependent usage intentions factors through the mediating belief factors. We designed the 5G service usage intentions model based on these hypotheses and operational definitions of the factors. Using the analysis of SEM(Structural Equation Model), the proposed model and the hypotheses were empirically tested by the data collected from 245 subscribed respondents and 245 non-subscribed respondents. As a result, the perceived ease of use has an effect on the perceived usefulness and enjoyment, and the perceived usefulness/enjoyment and the personal innovativeness have positive effects on the usage intentions of both groups.

• Korean Security Journal
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• 제14호
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• pp.485-516
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• 2007

Jeju Special Self-Government Province adopted an autonomous police system for the first time since 60 years in Korean police. The purpose of autonomous police system is to offer a police service to be suitable in regional conditions. But Jeju autonomous police system for nearly one year after adoption is criticized to be established on the ground of political reason but not local decentralization. Actually Jeju autonomous police has not a clear cut jurisdiction and operation scope because of the jurisdiction duplication between national and autonomous police. The original task is confined on environment and sightseeing so on given to administration police for local self-government. So criminal investigation authority on general crimes is not to Jeuju autonomous police on account of special judicial police. First, it is the structural rationalization of Jeju autonomous police system. It speaks that Jeju provincial police bureau and police station have to be as national police institution, on the other hand, patrol district station and police box have to be as autonomous police institution. Of course, functional division has to be followed. National police performs managing all the assembly and demonstration by the management law on assembly and demonstration including the suppression against any large scale demonstration and disturbance, also the investigation on serious crimes just as international crimes and broaden area crimes including all the felony. Together national police performs the duty concerned to all the foreign affairs and national securities in along with the investigation on traffic accidents. On the other hand, autonomous police performs the function for citizen's life safety as crime prevention and the enforcement on the violation against police operation law, together the traffic management and the regulation on traffic violations. and the investigation on minor crime as simple violence or petty larceny including the management on local big events. Second, the budgetary of autonomous police is rationalized by the share of budgeting between Korean government and Jeju special self-government province. Third, urgent arrest authority on general crime and the rights of claims for the summary trial on minor crimes are given to autonomous police. Of course, this problem is resolved naturally in case of giving the investigation rights to autonomous police on minor crimes.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• 제23권6호
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• pp.494-506
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• 2002

The Korean Standard-Time (KST) in practice is about 30 minutes earlier than Korea’s solar-time. Suitability of tile KST is analysed by whether it is suitable for the society in general and for the mental and physical health of the Korean people. About 56% of the countries in the world use single standard-time coincident, 18% are 30 minutes earlier, and 21% are an hour or more earlier than their solar-times, respectively, and only 5% have standard-times 30 minutes later than their solar-time. This means adoption of the standard-time earlier than the solar-time is rather acceptable in most countries without any harm to the mental and physical health of their people. Because Korea is located on the western margin of the I-time zone (which is used standard longitude of 135$^{\circ}$E and is used as KST), KST is about 30 minutes earlier than Korea’s solar-time. This situation does not seem to affect adversely the physical, physiological or psychological activities of the people of Korea. It also helps in effective use of the daily time schedule throughout the year, moreover it diminishes the necessity of the summer-time system in the Korea. If H$^{\ast}$-time of the longitude of 127.5$^{\circ}$E that passes through middle of the Korean peninsular is used as KST, non-integer time difference from UTC is inevitable which may be of great inconvenience, and also the introduction of a summer-time system like most countries in high latitude, using their standard-time coincidentally with or even earlier than their solar time, will become essential.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• 제2권2호
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• pp.93-120
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• 2007

To promote the commercialization of high technology based start-up company, it is essential to activate technology trading for the Innovative Small & Medium companies which eager to acquire technology competitiveness through technology trading and facilitate financial system which provide Small & Medium companies with technology commercialization money. This study focus on enhancing credibility of technology valuation solutions through the improvement of the existing technology valuation solutions. The existing technology valuation solutions in practice have deficiency in reasonable valuation because of subjective technology factor's calculation. And the commercialization risk of high technology based start-up companies cannot be fully reflected in the existing valuation solutions. The high risk of technology commercialization acts as a hurdle in the facilitation of providing money for the start-up companies. The improved new model will have more acceptable objectivity and reasonably reflect the commercialization risk of start-up companies. The new model has two distinctive features compared to existing solutions. The new model newly adopts commercialization success factor which reflects the risk of high technology based start-up company. And the new model excludes technology factor which is controversial among interested parties. The exclusion of technology factor will improve the objectivity of technology valuation and the adoption of commercialization success factor will solicit investor and capitalist who concern the high risk of technology based start-up companies. In conclusion, the improved new model is expected to activate technology trading and facilitate the money market through which high technology based start-up companies raise commercialization money.