• Title/Summary/Keyword: Analysis of application

Search Result 20,806, Processing Time 0.065 seconds

Critical Analyses of '2nd Science Inquiry Experiment Contest' (과학탐구 실험대회의 문제점 분석)

  • Paik, Seoung-Hey
    • Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
    • /
    • v.15 no.2
    • /
    • pp.173-184
    • /
    • 1995
  • The purpose of this study was to analyse the problems of 'Science Inquiry Experiment Contest(SIEC)' which was one of 8 programs of 'The 2nd Student Science Inquiry Olympic Meet(SSIOM)'. The results and conclusions of this study were as follows: 1. It needs to reconsider the role of practical work within science experiment because practical work skills form one of the mainstays in current science. But the assessment of students' laboratory skills in the contest was made little account of. It is necessary to remind of what it means to be 'good at science'. There are two aspects: knowing and doing. Both are important and, in certain respects, quite distinct. Doing science is more of a craft activity, relying more on craft skill and tacit knowledge than on the conscious application of explicit knowledge. Doing science is also divided into two aspects, 'process' and 'skill' by many science educators. 2. The report's and checklist's assessment items were overlapped. Therefore it was suggested that the checklist assessment items were set limit to the students' acts which can't be found in reports. It is important to identify those activities which produce a permanent assessable product, and those which do not. Skills connected with recording and reporting are likely to produce permanent evidence which can be evaluated after the experiment. Those connected with manipulative skills involving processes are more ephemeral and need to be assessed as they occur. The division of student's experimental skills will contribute to the accurate assess of student's scientific inquiry experimental ability. 3. There was a wide difference among the scores of one participant recorded by three evaluators. This means that there was no concrete discussion among the evaluators before the contest. Despite the items of the checklists were set by preparers of the contest experiments, the concrete discussions before the contest were necessary because students' experimental acts were very diverse. There is a variety of scientific skills. So it is necessary to assess the performance of individual students in a range of skills. But the most of the difficulties in the assessment of skills arise from the interaction between measurement and the use. To overcome the difficulties, not only must the mark needed for each skill be recorded, something which all examination groups obviously need, but also a description of the work that the student did when the skill was assessed must also be given, and not all groups need this. Fuller details must also be available for the purposes of moderation. This is a requirement for all students that there must be provision for samples of any end-product or other tangible form of evidence of candidates' work to be submitted for inspection. This is rather important if one is to be as fair as possible to students because, not only can this work be made available to moderators if necessary, but also it can be used to help in arriving at common standards among several evaluators, and in ensuring consistent standards from one evaluator over the assessment period. This need arises because there are problems associated with assessing different students on the same skill in different activities. 4. Most of the students' reports were assessed intuitively by the evaluators despite the assessment items were established concretely by preparers of the experiment. This result means that the evaluators were new to grasp the essence of the established assessment items of the experiment report and that the students' assessment scores were short of objectivity. Lastly, there are suggestions from the results and the conclusions. The students' experimental acts which were difficult to observe because they occur in a flash and which can be easily imitated should be excluded from the assessment items. Evaluators are likely to miss the time to observe the acts, and the students who are assessed later have more opportunity to practise the skill which is being assessed. It is necessary to be aware of these problems and try to reduce their influence or remove them. The skills and processes analysis has made a very useful checklist for scientific inquiry experiment assessment. But in itself it is of little value. It must be seen alongside the other vital attributes needed in the making of a good scientist, the affective aspects of commitment and confidence, the personal insights which come both through formal and informal learning, and the tacit knowledge that comes through experience, both structured and acquired in play. These four aspects must be continually interacting, in a flexible and individualistic way, throughout the scientific education of students. An increasing ability to be good at science, to be good at doing investigational practical work, will be gained through continually, successively, but often unpredictably, developing more experience, developing more insights, developing more skills, and producing more confidence and commitment.

  • PDF

Study of Scatter Influence of kV-Conebeam CT Based Calculation for Pelvic Radiotherapy (골반 방사선 치료에서 산란이 kV-Conebeam CT 영상 기반의 선량계산에 미치는 영향에 대한 연구)

  • Yoon, KyoungJun;Kwak, Jungwon;Cho, Byungchul;Kim, YoungSeok;Lee, SangWook;Ahn, SeungDo;Nam, SangHee
    • Progress in Medical Physics
    • /
    • v.25 no.1
    • /
    • pp.37-45
    • /
    • 2014
  • The accuracy and uniformity of CT numbers are the main causes of radiation dose calculation error. Especially, for the dose calculation based on kV-Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) image, the scatter affecting the CT number is known to be quite different by the object sizes, densities, exposure conditions, and so on. In this study, the scatter impact on the CBCT based dose calculation was evaluated to provide the optimal condition minimizing the error. The CBCT images was acquired under three scatter conditions ("Under-scatter", "Over-scatter", and "Full-scatter") by adjusting amount of scatter materials around a electron density phantom (CIRS062, Tissue Simulation Technology, Norfolk, VA, USA). The CT number uniformities of CBCT images for water-equivalent materials of the phantom were assessed, and the location dependency, either "inner" or "outer" parts of the phantom, was also evaluated. The electron density correction curves were derived from CBCT images of the electron density phantom in each scatter condition. The electron density correction curves were applied to calculate the CBCT based doses, which were compared with the dose based on Fan Beam Computed Tomography (FBCT). Also, 5 prostate IMRT cases were enrolled to assess the accuracy of dose based on CBCT images using gamma index analysis and relative dose differences. As the CT number histogram of phantom CBCT images for water equivalent materials was fitted with a gaussian function, the FHWM (146 HU) for "Full-scatter" condition was the smallest among the FHWM for the three conditions (685 HU for "under scatter" and 264 HU for "over scatter"). Also, the variance of CT numbers was the smallest for the same ingredients located in the center and periphery of the phantom in the "Full-scatter" condition. The dose distributions calculated with FBCT and CBCT images compared in a gamma index evaluation of 1%/3 mm criteria and in the dose difference. With the electron density correction acquired in the same scatter condition, the CBCT based dose calculations tended to be the most accurate. In 5 prostate cases in which the mean equivalent diameter was 27.2 cm, the averaged gamma pass rate was 98% and the dose difference confirmed to be less than 2% (average 0.2%, ranged from -1.3% to 1.6%) with the electron density correction of the "Full-scatter" condition. The accuracy of CBCT based dose calculation could be confirmed that closely related to the CT number uniformity and to the similarity of the scatter conditions for the electron density correction curve and CBCT image. In pelvic cases, the most accurate dose calculation was achievable in the application of the electron density curves of the "Full-scatter" condition.

The Development of Quality Assurance Program for CyberKnife (사이버나이프의 품질관리 절차서 개발)

  • Jang, Ji-Sun;Kang, Young-Nam;Shin, Dong-Oh;Kim, Moon-Chan;Yoon, Sei-Chul;Choi, Ihl-Bohng;Kim, Mi-Sook;Cho, Chul-Koo;Yoo, Seong-Yul;Kwon, Soo-Il;Lee, Dong-Han
    • Radiation Oncology Journal
    • /
    • v.24 no.3
    • /
    • pp.185-191
    • /
    • 2006
  • [ $\underline{Purpose}$ ]: Standardization quality assurance (QA) program of CyberKnife for suitable circumstances in Korea has not been established. In this research, we investigated the development of QA program for CyberKnife and evaluation of the feasibility under applications. $\underline{Materials\;and\;Methods}$: Considering the feature of constitution for systems and the therapeutic methodology of CyberKnife, the list of quality control (QC) was established and divided dependent on the each period of operations. And then all these developed QC lists were categorized into three groups such as basic QC, delivery specific QC, and patient specific QC based on the each purpose of QA. In order to verify the validity of the established QA program, this QC lists was applied to two CyberKnife centers. The acceptable tolerance was based on the undertaking inspection list from the CyberKnife manufacturer and the QC results during last three years of two CyberKnife centers in Korea. The acquired measurement results were evaluated for the analysis of the current QA status and the verification of the propriety for the developed QA program. $\underline{Results}$: The current QA status of two CyberKnife centers was evaluated from the accuracy of all measurements in relation with application of the established QA program. Each measurement result was verified having a good agreement within the acceptable tolerance limit of the developed QA program. $\underline{Conclusion}$: It is considered that the developed QA program in this research could be established the standardization of QC methods for CyberKnife and confirmed the accuracy and stability for the image-guided stereotactic radiotherapy.

A Study on the recognition and Attitude of Home Health Nursing System (가정간호사 제도에 대한 인식 및 태도 조사연구)

  • Lee Sung Ja
    • Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
    • /
    • v.12 no.1
    • /
    • pp.132-146
    • /
    • 1998
  • This Study was attempted to provide the basic data necessary in the development and introduction of Home Health Nursing System by investigating the recognition and attitude level of Home Health Nursing System. The data were collected by means of questionaires presented to 74 patients who had been admitted in C general hospital in Chon Ju, from June 30, 1997. As the tool for this study, the questionares developed by Kim Yong. Soon, et al (1990) and Han Bok Hee(1993) were modified and supplemented for the aim of this study. The computer was used for data analysis. The items about the charateristics of the subjects and the attitude to the management plan of Home Health Nursing System were represented as the frequency and percentage. The standard deviation and calculation average were produced on the items related to definition, recognition, necessity, expected effect of the attitude of Home Health Nursing System and the items related to admission. The ANOVA test was .used according to the characteristics of variables to analyze the necessity and difference of Home Health Nursing System. The results of this study were as follows 1) The general characteristics of the subjects were as follows ; for sex, man, $58.1\%$ ; for age, 50-59 years, $29.7\%$ ; for the level of education, high school, $51.4\%$ ; $79.7\%$ of them were married; for the family forms, small family, $73.0\%$ ; and $68.9\%$ of them take the monthly income over 100 million won. 2) The characteristics related to admissions of the subjects were as follows ; for clinic, surgical department, $78.4\%$ ; addmission not more then 7days, $47.3\%$ ; for the operation-performance $71.6\%$ of them were experienced; for the admission route, via outpatients clinic, $54.1\%$ ; for waiting period to the admission day, 1-2 days, $71.6\%$. 3) The difficulties comming from the hospitalization were related mostly to the factor that they felt hospital life more inconvenient than home.(3.66) The reasons for the difficulties in the admission which was due to insufficient beds in the hospital was related to the concentration to the general hospital because of 'The Whole National Medical Insurance System'(4.05). 4) On the previous informations about the Home Health Nursing System, those who have heard of only the name were 42 $(56.8\%)$, and on the recognition of it, they thought that it is periodic treatment by the licenced nurses for the recovering pateints after early discharge(3.73). On the attitude about the necessity of Home Health Nursing System, they thought that it is necessary because of the increasing trend of a psychological disease by the change of environment and complexity of the social structure(4.24). On the expected effect of Home Health Nursing System, they answered that it is convinient for the family of the patient to take care of them(4.l8). 5) On the attitude to the management plan of the Home Health Nursing System, those who had intention to participate in the system in the case of systemic support were 42(56.8). In the visiting time, 'visit periodically' and 'visit when the patient needs' were $28(37.8\%)$ respectively. For the application of medical insurance, if possoble, they will use $(91.9\%)$; for the method of payment for the treatment, 'pay by the time required' was $23(31.1\%)$, for the subject of management, 'National public institute must operate' was $33(44.6\%)$. 6) The relationship between the general characteristics of the subjects and the necessity of Home Health Nursing System showed the notable difference in the age (F=3.508, P<0.05) and marrage state (F=5.402, P<.023).

  • PDF

Measurement of Effective Half-life Using Dual Time I-131 Whole Body Scan in Patients with Differentiated Thyroid Cancer Treated by High Dose Therapy (고용량 방사성옥소 치료를 받은 갑상선분화암 환자에서 Dual Time I-131 Whole Body Scan을 이용한 유효반감기의 측정)

  • Yoon, Jae Sik;Lee, Jae Gon;Lee, Ki Hyun;Lim, Kwang Seok;Choi, Hak Ki;Lee, Sang Mi
    • The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
    • /
    • v.18 no.1
    • /
    • pp.98-103
    • /
    • 2014
  • Purpose: The effective half life of I-131 is useful to calculate radiation dose, period of hospitalization, and exposure dose of surrounding people from patient. However, it is difficult to measure. This study estimates the effective half life in whole body and thyroid in using of value of residual radioactivity obtained from the early and delay images of Dual time I-131 whole body scan. Also, the correlations between the effective half life and serum creatinine, GFR, and administration dose were investigated in this study. Materials and Methods: The targets were 50 patients administration high dose of I-131 from February to August in 2013, having normal range of serum creatinine and over $30{\mu}IU/mL$ of TSH levels. After administration radioactive I-131, the early scan in the 3rd day and the delay scan in the 5-6th days were performed. To measure the residual radioactivity in the whole body and thyroid, ROI was set and then background radioactivity was corrected to estimate. The effective half life was estimated by calculating the ratio of measured values between the early and delay images. To compare the effective half lives of the whole body and thyroid, it was analyzed by Independent t-test, and each correlation of the effective half life, GFR, serum creatinine, and the dose of administration were analyzed by calculating the pearson's correlation coefficient. All of the analysis were determined to be statistically significant when P<0.05. Results: The effective half life of the whole body was $17.06{\pm}5.50$ hours and of the thyroid was $17.22{\pm}5.41$ hours. The two effective half life did not show significant difference (P=0.887). As the value of GFR was increased, the effective half life of whole body (r=-0.407, P=0.003) and of thyroid (r=-0.473, P=0.001) were significantly decreased; as the value of serum creatinine was increased, the effective half life of whole body (r=0.309, P=0.029) and of thyroid (r=0.371, P=0.008) were significantly increased. In the administration dose, effective half life did not have correlations. Conclusion: The effective half life of I-131 of patients treated for their thyroids were estimated only by using the images of Dual time I-131 whole body scan. Also, the correlations with the effective life, GFR, and serum creatinine were examined. This study might be utilized for a study on optimization for the period of hospitalization of patients treated by high dose of I-131 and on evaluation for internal absorbed dose of MIRD schema in application of the effective half life.

  • PDF

The Effect of Temperature and Concentration of Setting Solution on the Rheological Properties of Injectable Calcium Phosphate (경화액의 농도와 온도가 인산칼슘시멘트의 유변학적 성질에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구)

  • Yoo, Hyun-Mi;Chang, Seok-Woo;Park, Dong-Sung
    • Journal of Dental Rehabilitation and Applied Science
    • /
    • v.25 no.1
    • /
    • pp.73-82
    • /
    • 2009
  • Injectable calcium phosphate cement (CPC) has been used as bone substitute successfully due to good biocompatibility and osteoconductivity. One of the important mechanical characteristics of CPC is flowablility, which can be evaluated by measuring rheological parameters. However, there have been few studies that measured rheological properties of CPC. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of temperature and concentrations of 2 kinds of setting solutions, hydroxyprophyl methylcellulose (HPMC) and polyacrylic acid (PAA), on rheological properties of CPC. The CPC used was dicalcium phosphate dihydrate (DCPD). Rheological properties of CPC paste were measured using rheometer. The effect of concentrations of each solution (2% and 1% HPMC and 35% and 17.5% PAA) was evaluated. The effect of temperature ($25^{\circ}C$ and $37^{\circ}C$) on the rheological properties of CPC was also investigated. The statistical analysis was carried out with Mann-whitney test with Bonferronis collection. CPC with both setting solutions showed shear thinning behavior. Higher concentrations of setting solution (2% HPMC and 35% PAA) produced significantly higher viscosity than lower concentrations of setting solution (1% HPMC and 17.5% PAA). CPC with HPMC showed significantly higher viscosity at $37^{\circ}C$ that at $25^{\circ}C$. CPC with PAA showed lower viscosity at $37^{\circ}C$ than at $25^{\circ}C$, although the difference was not statistically significant. The results showed that CPC with HPMC or PAA solutions are pseudoplastic and the concentrations of setting solutions and temperature may have an effect on the rheological properties of CPC paste. These results showed that the flowability of injectable CPC could be improved by use of increasing frequency of oscillation. In clinical practice, the use of ultrasonic vibration would be helpful in application of injectable CPC. CPC with HPMC could be more easily applicated at $25^{\circ}C$ than $37^{\circ}C$. The use of lower concentrations of HPMC and PAA solution would be beneficial in terms of flowability.

A Multimodal Profile Ensemble Approach to Development of Recommender Systems Using Big Data (빅데이터 기반 추천시스템 구현을 위한 다중 프로파일 앙상블 기법)

  • Kim, Minjeong;Cho, Yoonho
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
    • /
    • v.21 no.4
    • /
    • pp.93-110
    • /
    • 2015
  • The recommender system is a system which recommends products to the customers who are likely to be interested in. Based on automated information filtering technology, various recommender systems have been developed. Collaborative filtering (CF), one of the most successful recommendation algorithms, has been applied in a number of different domains such as recommending Web pages, books, movies, music and products. But, it has been known that CF has a critical shortcoming. CF finds neighbors whose preferences are like those of the target customer and recommends products those customers have most liked. Thus, CF works properly only when there's a sufficient number of ratings on common product from customers. When there's a shortage of customer ratings, CF makes the formation of a neighborhood inaccurate, thereby resulting in poor recommendations. To improve the performance of CF based recommender systems, most of the related studies have been focused on the development of novel algorithms under the assumption of using a single profile, which is created from user's rating information for items, purchase transactions, or Web access logs. With the advent of big data, companies got to collect more data and to use a variety of information with big size. So, many companies recognize it very importantly to utilize big data because it makes companies to improve their competitiveness and to create new value. In particular, on the rise is the issue of utilizing personal big data in the recommender system. It is why personal big data facilitate more accurate identification of the preferences or behaviors of users. The proposed recommendation methodology is as follows: First, multimodal user profiles are created from personal big data in order to grasp the preferences and behavior of users from various viewpoints. We derive five user profiles based on the personal information such as rating, site preference, demographic, Internet usage, and topic in text. Next, the similarity between users is calculated based on the profiles and then neighbors of users are found from the results. One of three ensemble approaches is applied to calculate the similarity. Each ensemble approach uses the similarity of combined profile, the average similarity of each profile, and the weighted average similarity of each profile, respectively. Finally, the products that people among the neighborhood prefer most to are recommended to the target users. For the experiments, we used the demographic data and a very large volume of Web log transaction for 5,000 panel users of a company that is specialized to analyzing ranks of Web sites. R and SAS E-miner was used to implement the proposed recommender system and to conduct the topic analysis using the keyword search, respectively. To evaluate the recommendation performance, we used 60% of data for training and 40% of data for test. The 5-fold cross validation was also conducted to enhance the reliability of our experiments. A widely used combination metric called F1 metric that gives equal weight to both recall and precision was employed for our evaluation. As the results of evaluation, the proposed methodology achieved the significant improvement over the single profile based CF algorithm. In particular, the ensemble approach using weighted average similarity shows the highest performance. That is, the rate of improvement in F1 is 16.9 percent for the ensemble approach using weighted average similarity and 8.1 percent for the ensemble approach using average similarity of each profile. From these results, we conclude that the multimodal profile ensemble approach is a viable solution to the problems encountered when there's a shortage of customer ratings. This study has significance in suggesting what kind of information could we use to create profile in the environment of big data and how could we combine and utilize them effectively. However, our methodology should be further studied to consider for its real-world application. We need to compare the differences in recommendation accuracy by applying the proposed method to different recommendation algorithms and then to identify which combination of them would show the best performance.

Evaluation of Spatial and Temporal Variations of Water Quality in Lake Shihwa and Outer Sea by Using Water Quality Index in Korea: A Case Study of Influence of Tidal Power Plant Operation (수질평가지수를 이용한 시화호 내측 및 외측 해역의 시·공간적 수질 변화 평가: 조력발전소 가동에 따른 영향 연구)

  • Ra, Kongtae;Kim, Joung-Keun;Kim, Eun-Soo;Kim, Kyung-Tae;Lee, Jung-Moo;Kim, Sung-Keun;Kim, Eu-Yeol;Lee, Seung-Yong;Park, Eun-Ju
    • Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
    • /
    • v.16 no.2
    • /
    • pp.102-114
    • /
    • 2013
  • The basin of Lake Shihwa is one of highly industrialized region of Korea and a current environmental issue of study area is the operation of tidal power plant (TPP) to improve water quality. The application of water quality index (WQI) which integrates five physiochemical parameters (transparency, DO, DIN, DIP and chlorophyll-a) of water quality in Lake Shihwa and outer sea during 2011~2012 were performed not only to evaluate the spatial and temporal distribution of the water quality but also to assess the effect of water quality improvement by the operation of tidal power plant. The higher WQI values were observed in monitored sites near the industrial complexes in Lake Shihwa and the outfall of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in outer sea. This indicates that the quality of seawater is influenced by diffuse non-point sources from industrial, municipal and agricultural areas in Lake Shihwa and by point sources from the effluence of municipal and industrial wastewater throughout WWTPs in outer sea. Mean WQI value decreased from 53.0 in 2011 to 42.8 in 2012 of Lake Shihwa. Water quality has improved significantly after TPP operation because enhancement of seawater exchange between Lake Shihwa and outer sea leads to improve a hypoxic condition which is primarily a problem in Lake Shihwa. Mean WQI of outer sea showed similar values between 2011 and 2012. However, the results of hierarchical cluster analysis and the deterioration of water quality in summer season indicate that the operation of tidal power plant was not improved the water quality in the upper most area of Lake Shihwa. To successfully improve overall water quality of Lake Shihwa, it is urgently necessary to manage and reduce of non-point pollution sources of the basin of Lake Shihwa.

Distribution and Interrelationship of Smoking, Drinking, and Physical Exercising among Some Rural Adult, an Application of the Transtheoretical Model (행동수정의 단계적 변화론 모형(Transtheoretical Model)에 의한 일부 농촌성인의 흡연, 음주 및 운동행태 분포와 상호 관련성)

  • Lee, Moo-Sik;Lee, Young-Sung;Shin, Hyun-Hwa;Lee, Kun-Sei;Yoon, Seok-Jun;Jung, Ki-Hweon;Kim, Eun-Young;Chun, Byung-Chul
    • Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
    • /
    • v.25 no.1
    • /
    • pp.113-131
    • /
    • 2000
  • Transtheoretical model of change has been proven very effective in explaining both the acquisition and cessation of many health related behaviors. The objectives of this study were to describe the distribution of smokers by stage of change of smoking, alcoholic drinking, and exercising in rural residents and to develope health promotion strategies. This study was done in Okchun County of Chungbuk Province. The representative sample were 892 residents over 30 years old. The questionnaires of interview included socio-demographic, the six stage distribution of smoking, alcoholic drinking, and exercising. In male, 50.6% of smokers were in the precontemplation stage, 32.5% in the contemplation. In female, corresponding figures were 60.6% and 28.8%. Precontemplation and contemplation stage of drinker were 72.8%, 19.3% in male and 80.3%, 15.5%. Distribution of exercise were 80.6%, 1.8% in male, 87.6%, 1.2% in female, respectively. The stage distribution of smoker, alcoholic drinker, and exerciser was shift to left of the distribution. And the stage distribution was slightly differ with each health behavior. The stage of change with smoking, drinking and exercising was correlated with each other but not concordant. So interventions in rural residents need to take into account the large proportion of precontemplators repeatedly observed among smoker, drinker, and non-exerciser. And intervention strategies of each risk behavior should be different approach. Result of concordance analysis suggest reconstruct validity of the transtheoretical model in our country due to ethnic and sociocultural difference. This results and theory should be tested in prospective intervention studies for seeking the possible gateway of health behavior.

  • PDF

Relationship between Brand Personality and the Personality of Consumers, and its Application to Corporate Branding Strategy

  • Kim, Young-Ei;Lee, Jung-Wan;Lee, Yong-Ki
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
    • /
    • v.18 no.3
    • /
    • pp.27-57
    • /
    • 2008
  • Many consumers enjoy the challenge of purchasing a brand that matches well with their own values and personalities (for example, Ko et al., 2008; Ko et al., 2006). Therefore, the personalities of consumers can impact on the final selection of a brand and its brand personality in two ways: first, the consumers may incline to purchase a brand or a product that reflects their own personalities; second, consumers tend to choose a company that has similar brand personalities to those brands that are being promoted. Therefore, the objectives of this study are following: 1. Is there any empirical relationship between a consumer's personality and the personality of a brand that he or she chooses? 2. Can a corporate brand be differentiated by the brand personality? In short, consumers are more likely to hold favorable attitudes towards those brands that match their own personality and will most probably purchase those brands matching well with their personality. For example, Matzler et al. (2006) found that extraversion and openness were positively related to hedonic product value; and that the personality traits directly (openness) and indirectly (extraversion, via hedonic value) influenced brand effects, which in turn droved attitudinal and purchase loyalty. Based on the above discussion, the following hypotheses are proposed: Hypothesis 1: the personality of a consumer is related to the brand personality of a product/corporate that he/she purchases. Kuksov (2007) and Wernerfelt (1990) argued that brands as a symbolic language allowed consumers to communicate their types to each other and postulated that consumers had a certain value of communicating their types to each other. Therefore, how brand meanings are established, and how a firm communicate with consumers about the meanings of the brand are interesting topics for research (for example, Escalas and Bettman, 2005; McCracken, 1989; Moon, 2007). Hence, the following hypothesis is proposed: Hypothesis 2: A corporate brand identity is differentiated by the brand personality. And there are significant differences among companies. A questionnaire was developed for collecting empirical measures of the Big-Five personality traits and brand personality variables. A survey was conducted to the online access panel members through the Internet during December 2007 in Korea. In total, 500 respondents completed the questionnaire, and considered as useable. Personality constructs were measured using the Five-factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) scale and a total of 30 items were actually utilized. Brand personality was measured using the five-dimension scale developed by Aaker (1997). A total of 17 items were actually utilized. The seven-point Likert-type scale was the format of responses, for example, from 1 indicating strongly disagreed to 7 for strongly agreed. The Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) was used for an empirical testing of the model, and the Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) was applied to estimate numerical values for the components in the model. To diagnose the presence of distribution problems in the data and to gauge their effects on the parameter estimates, bootstapping method was used. The results of the hypothesis-1 test empirically show that there exit certain causality relationship between a consumer's personality and the brand personality of the consumer's choice. Thus, the consumer's personality has an impact on consumer's final selection of a brand that has a brand personality matches well with their own personalities. In other words, the consumers are inclined to purchase a brand that reflects their own personalities and tend to choose a company that has similar brand personalities to those of the brand being promoted. The results of this study further suggest that certain dimensions of the brand personality cause consumers to have preference to certain (corporate) brands. For example, the conscientiousness, neuroticism, and extraversion of the consumer personality have positively related to a selection of "ruggedness" characteristics of the brand personality. Consumers who possess that personality dimension seek for matching with certain brand personality dimensions. Results of the hypothesis-2 test show that the average "ruggedness" attributes of the brand personality differ significantly among Korean automobile manufacturers. However, the result of ANOVA also indicates that there are no significant differences in the mean values among manufacturers for the "sophistication," "excitement," "competence" and "sincerity" attributes of the corporate brand personality. The tight link between what a firm is and its corporate brand means that there is far less room for marketing communications than there is with products and brands. Consequently, successful corporate brand strategies must position the organization within the boundaries of what is acceptable, while at the same time differentiating the organization from its competitors.

  • PDF