• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.145-150
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• 2021

The trend of globalization leads an increased need for international freight transportation and accelerates the development of the international logistics industry. The objective of this paper is to identify the critical factors that affect the choice of logistics service provider (LSP). The data sample was collected through a questionnaire, responded by 218 companies that outsource logistics services. The analysis uses descriptive statistics; exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and regression analysis were conducted with SPSS. The role of capabilities, customer service, and company reputation were evaluated and tested. Our findings show that capabilities and customer service have a considerable impact on the choice of LSP. The findings also indicate that company reputation do not have significant impact on the choice of LSP. They also showed that the capabilities is the variable that has the most significant effect on the choice of LSP. An implication of this study is that the competition should not only focus on pricing, but should be extended to improving enterprises capabilities, i.e., upgrading human resources, modernizing the modes of transportation, expanding business geographically and developing new technologies. Our study provides LSP managers with insights into how to meet customer expectations in the competitive logistics service sector.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.1-24
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• 1998

There exists a general consensus in Korea that patients tend to concentrate in large hospitals and this tendency is partly responsible for inefficiency in health services. The process of choosing a medical care provider for health care services and evaluating the provider after utilization seems to involve many diverse factors to become very complex. Therefore a systemsatic study is needed to achieve sufficient understanding of the proeess. For this point of view, this study investigates patient's selection of medical care institution for delivery care services and their evaluation of the institution after delivery. In more specific, the objectives of the study are twofold: 1) to identify the factors associated with expectant mothers' choice of type of medical care institution for delivery among tertiary hospitals, general hospitals, small hospitals, and clinics: and 2) to understand the factors affecting patient evaluation of the medical care institution after delivery. The data used for the analysis were collected through face-to-face interviews with those women who had childbirth during the period from January 1, 1996 to the date of interview in February 1998. The survey was conducted using preqared structured questionnaire in Seoul. The sample was drawn from each of arbitrarily defined four regions of Seoul, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast and Southwest, in proportion to the number of births reported in 1996 in each of them. The distribution of the interviewed women by educational level was made similar to that of mothers of new babies reported in 1996. The sample size was planned to be about 300, but ended up with analytical sample of 319. Major conclusions emerged from the analysis can be summarized as follows: 1) Large hospitals were evaluated as much better for technical quality than other types of institutions, whereas they were compared similar to or worse for other attributes. And it was found that technical quality of care is considered as the most important condition of medical care institution for delivery, while the amount of direct cost is considered as the least important one. Taken together, the utilization of large hospitals is not likely to decrease even though they cannot give satisfaction to patients in other aspects than technical quality. 2) The activeness in the search for information affected the respondents' evaluation of medical care institutions, which would influence their later decision or recommendation to other persons as to the choice of source of health care services. Therefore, increased efforts should be directed to improving availability of useful and correct information for patients in relation to the utilization of health care services. 3) Since the findings of this study were obtained from the analysis of delivery care services, their applicability to other kinds of services may be limited. Thus it would be useful to conduct a comparative study of several kinds of services explicitly taking into account the characteristics of those services in the analysis.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.131-157
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• 2012

Despite the voluminous research on switching barriers, the notion that they can generate negative responses has not been investigated. Further, a critical question is what determines the strength of such negative responses. To address this question, the classic theory of psychological reactance is briefly reviewed, and the idea of switching barrier is advanced. This study attempts to suggest a model on the negative effects of switching- frustrated situation, based on the studies on psychological reactance. According to psychological reactance theory(Brehm 1966), whenever a freedom is threatened or removed, individuals are motivated, at least temporarily, to restore their freedom. For example, if individuals think they are free to engage in behaviors .v, y, or z, then threatening their freedom to engage in x would cause psychological reactance. This reactance could be reduced by an increase in the perceived attractiveness of engaging in, the threatened behavior(Kivetz 2005). This investigation seeks to extend existing switching barrier research in three important ways. First, while the past research has emphasized only positive role of switching barrier, this study address negative role of it by applying psychological reactance theory. Second, to find negative results of switching barrier, I suggest negative psychological response including regret to the past choice, resentment to the present provider, and strong desire to the alternative provider. Third, I suggest the perceived severity of the switching barriers, the attractiveness of the alternative as switching-frustrated situation which can lead to negative results. And, in addition to these relationships, I added moderated effects of perceived justice for better explanation. So this study includes the following hypotheses. H1-1 ~ H1-3: The attractiveness of the alternative has a positive effect regret to the past choice (h1-1), resentment to the present provider (h1-2), and strong desire to the alternative provider (h1-3). H2-1 ~ H2-3 : The perceived severity of the switching barrier has a positive effect regret to the past choice (h2-1), resentment to the present provider (h2-2), and strong desire to the alternative provider (h2-3). H3-1 ~ H3-3 : The positive relationships between the attractiveness of the alternative and consumer' negative responses will be stronger at low level of perceived justice than at high level of perceived justice. H4-1 ~ H4-3 : The positive relationships between the perceived severity of the switching barrier and consumer' negative responses will be stronger at low level of perceived justice than at high level of perceived justice. Survey research is employed to test hypotheses involving perceived severity of the switching barrier(Hess 2008), attractiveness of the alternative(Anderson and Narus 1990; Ohanian 1990),regret(Glovich and Medvec 1995), resentment, strong desire(Alcohol Urge Questionaire: Bohn et al. 1995), perceived justice(Bies and Moag 1986; Clemmer 1993; Lind and Tyler 1998). Previous researches, such as reactance theory, emotion and service failure, have been referenced to measure constructs. All items were measured on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree". We collected data involving various service field, and used 249 respondents to analyze these data using the moderated regression. The results of our analysis suggest, as expected, that the perceived severity of the switching barrier had positive effects on regret to the past choice(b = .197, p< .01), resentment to the present provider(b = .214, p< .01), and strong desire to the alternative provider(b = .254, p< .001). And the attractiveness of the alternative had positive effects on regret to the past choice(b = .353, p<.001), resentment to the present provider(b = .174, p< .01), and strong desire to the alternative provider(b = .265, p< .001). However, our findings indicate perceived justice partly moderates relationship between switching-frustrated situation and psychological negative response. The study has brought to light a number of insights between switching barriers and consumer' negative responses that have been subject to little prior research. In particular, this study adds to the existing understanding of the psychological responses to switching barriers in switching- frustrated situation. This research therefore has significance to marketers for strategic marketing programs, particularly in terms of customer retention and switching barrier strategies. Since consumers could exhibit negative responses to switching barrier, companies would be able to lose their customer when they thoughtlessly use switching barrier for remaining customer. Although the study has these contributions, there are several limitations including unsupported hypotheses and research method. So, we need to make up for these limitations in the future researches.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.49-68
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• 2014

In 2012, Korea adopted RPS after having implemented FIT for 10 years since 2002. We show how the choice of policy between RPS and FIT affects firm's choice of intermediate goods between a domestic and a foreign supplier, given the presence of transaction costs, When transaction costs are not sufficiently high, RPS is found to create a favorable environment for the domestic provider, which has comparative disadvantage initially, to be able to enter the market and to catch up with the foreign provider. The result implies that the Korean government's decision to implement RPS was optimal, given Korea's comparative disadvantage in green energy relative to major developed countries.

• Journal of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.185-204
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• 2009

The USIM(universal subscriber identity module)-unlock introducing in July 1, 2008 might be led to a significant change that mobile service provider's dominance is considerably dispersed to the handset manufacturer and distributor. Under USIM-unlock environment, mobile service provider, handset manufacturer, and distributor have to make their decisions on their handset distribution channel strategies: the closed distribution channel strategy or the open distribution channel strategy. The change of distribution channel strategy between members in distribution channel can be understood as a matter of strategy choice, and we have developed a theoretical model and analyzed how to make a decision for the member's optimal distribution strategy based on 3-person game model between members of mobile phone distribution channel, under both of '1 subscriber-1 handset' and '1 subscriber-multiple handset' assumptions. Under '1 subscriber-1 handset' assumption, the closed strategy controlled by mobile service provider is all players' optimal solution because the maximum size of the mobile phone market is limited by subscribers. But, as total expected profit by the handset and distribution subsides is a deficit, mobile service provider have to choose the open strategy and consider the conversion to MNO(mobile network operator). Under '1 subscriber-multiple handset' assumption, mobile service provider is trying to find the way how to lock-in its service and mobile phone and how to maximize ARPU(average revenue per unit), while handset manufacturer and distributor have to look for the way how to maximize the mobile phone market using their own marketing efforts, because it is expected that total mobile handset demand for the open market is bigger than demand for the closed market under '1 subscriber-multiple handset' assumption.

• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.61-74
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• 2007

In this paper we consider the Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) Service that starts recently in Korea and gains popularity. DMB makes it possible to watch high quality TV programs while we are in motion. The service provider or the service researcher are interested in the factors that influence the user's choice of new service such as DMB. Understanding the factors make them create the powerful marketing strategies and develop the new service or product that is attractive for users. We therefore find the factors influencing the user's choice of DMB service, and propose a model for analyzing the relationship between the factors and the intention of buying. The model is based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). We extend the TAM by adding factors including functional attributes of DMB service. We survey the significant functional attributes influencing the intention of buying by using the proposed model.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.31-52
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• 2011

The cutthroat competition of the market for the medical services caused changes and developments of hospital management from the traditional provider-oriented management to a consumer-oriented management toward the customer. And the popularization of on-line community through the growth and spread of internet technology is developed into an important exploration activity to provide various medical information to patient(or customer) who wishes a high-quality medical services. This is an on-line Word-of-Mouth(WOM). It is a kind of information exploration that is performed by customers before choosing the hospital with off-line word-of-mouth. In this study, we develop our research model to verify the causal relationships among on/off-line WOM, key determinants of hospital choice and the customer's will to make use of the hospitals, and total effect of these variables. We adopt a component-based PSL method for an empirical analysis of the patients experienced dermatology or obstetrics gynecology. Finally, we understand the characteristics of the various medical services and draw new and significant strategic previews.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.61 no.3
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• pp.77-101
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• 2009

As a case study in the field of policy implementation research, this study focuses on how the logic of consumer choice and provider competition operates on the front line of policy processing. To find the implementation process of the program, 39 interview data were analyzed, including voucher users, care workers, social workers in 4 agencies and local public officers in one of the district in Seoul, and relevant officials from the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family affairs and the Center for Social Service Management. The main results are as follows: In the level of policy implementation, user choice and competition, which was the main logic behind the implementation of the voucher program, did not occur as expected by policy makers. Instead of user choosing his/her provider, it was found that the providers were choosing its users. Secondly, the case study found that providers have formed a caucus which allocated the local users equally amongst the providers. In this process, local public officers have supported the meeting by providing them with a list of users. Such results may be interpreted as a habitual execution from the tradition of supply-side subsidy, rather than the way of implementation in the market system. Thirdly, although voucher users could not choose their preferred agency in the first stage of service, some other choices exists so that users may choose their preferred care-giver and time for service. Finally, the change of agency and care-giver in the way of delivering services were observed.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.159-179
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• 2006

With the advances in information technologies and the wide acceptance of IT outsourcing practices, subscription-based information & telecommunications services(ITS) become more available. Convergence and intensified industry competition have made it an imperative for the ITS providers to keep their current customers and acquire new customers at the same time. In this study, we developed a framework for effective customer management based on the factors influencing the post-purchase customer choice: stay with the present provider or switch to another one. Specifically, we classified the factors into four categories: Holding factors, Defect factors, Inducement factors, and Hurdle factors depending on the characteristics of the influence and direction of the influence. Based on the classification, we developed a post-purchase customer choice model for the subscription-based ITS providers. Then, we illustrated a possible application of the model in the context of the broadband Internet access service. The model could be used to increase the competitive advantage of service providers through the effective customer management in the subscription-based ITS market.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.109-117
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• 2011

Purpose: This study examined the impact factors of cesarean section based on the ecological approach in Korea. Methods: Population-based data (Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs) were used from 2,849 delivery cases during 2003~2009. Data were analyzed using geographic statistics with STATA 10.0 and hierarchical logistic regression with SPSS/WIN 12.0. Results: The range of cesarean section rate was 28.8~44.7% with geographic distribution. The proportion of mother's problem was increasing in choice of cesarean section. According to the ecological model, age of mother (OR=1.08), time of birth (OR=0.79), delivery in hospital (OR=1.83), delivery in clinic (OR=1.46), and education of mother (OR=2.61) had significant impact on cesarean section. Conclusion: This study contributes to provide the impact factors of the high cesarean rate in Korea ecologically. Policy maker and health care provider can consider these results to reduce cesarean section rate.