• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.382-389
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• 2022

Objectives: The Korean Industrial Standard (KS) for sterile acupuncture needles was established in 2009 based on research on the quality control of acupuncture needles. We aimed to determine the quality of acupuncture needles available in South Korea in 2021 by examining their surface condition and chemical composition using field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). Methods: In South Korea, there are 23 brands of acupuncture needles, and we examined 10-15 needles from each brand, resulting in a total of 285 needles. The microstructures of the needles were assessed by SEM. Using SEM images, we evaluated the acupuncture needle tips for the following defects/aspects: scratches, lumps, detached coating, bent tip, and tip sharpness. EDS was used to determine the chemical composition of the selected acupuncture needles. Results: Overall, 88.4% of 285 needles were found to have at least one type of abnormality. The most frequently observed abnormalities were scratches and dents on the surface (68.1%), followed by detached coating (63.2%), and lumps (61.8%); blunt tips were observed in about 24% of them. Of 252 needles with at least one defect, 86.9% had two or more types of defects. The ratio of the number of needles with any defect to that of needles without any defect varied among brands, ranging from 50% to 100%. Regarding foreign materials, higher proportions of Si and O were observed on the needles, indicating incomplete or detached silicone coating. Conclusion: The quality of acupuncture needles varied among brands, suggesting that further improvements can be made through various inspection methods.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.55-64
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• 2011

This study is important in its focus to find key clues in the marketing strategy, consumer behavior, and communication processes that define the infantile obesity market. The study, the first of its kind, surveyed a target audience, purchasing group, and housewives in their quest to determine purchasing decisions and effective branding strategy planning for the infantile obesity market. Another key component of the study was to focus on the key direct and/or indirect distribution channels for the subject market. Recently, obesity has emerged as a major social concern; some studies show that the onslaught of an adverse eating culture in Korea emanates from the prevalence of fast-food dining establishments. Obesity among children leads to adult obesity, especially if the young people's parents are overweight; notably, if either one or both of the parents are obese, the percentage of young people eventually being obese is approximately 80 to 85 percent. Because obesity is the cause of many major health concerns later in life, the struggle for a healthy life is considerably adversely affected by parents' consumer behavior. Infantile obesity, resulting in adult obesity, is also an important national economic and social issue. The sizable direct and indirect economic costs, as well as the tremendous social costs of obesity, cannot be overstated. Effective food branding and advertising centered on food preferences and dietary behaviors, especially to children, creates an effective marketing effort that, ultimately, leads to positive results. Thus, the purpose of this study is to demonstrate that the treatment of childhood obesity in Korea, through the activation of a brand and retail market, can effectively solve social and economic problems that result from infantile and childhood obesity. In this study, obesity markets and distribution channels in the purchase decision-making factors determining factor based on it effective inspection and branding strategies and brand marketing communications strategy proposed measures contribute to the obesity drug market and further enable the childhood obesity problem is intended to assist in solving.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.22 no.7
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• pp.107-117
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• 2024

Purpose: Consumers have become more interested in eating organic food in recent decades because of the effect of merchants' advertising. Eating organic food is also shown to strengthen immunity, especially during the recent COVID-19 pandemic. However, consumers may find it more difficult to choose organic food retailers than to purchase conventional goods. This is because of the uncertainty characterizing the process of selecting organic food retailers, despite the growing rivalry across supermarket chains that sell organic goods. This study explores how consumers' perceived image (social responsibility and ability image) of organic food stores affects consumer loyalty. Research design, data and methodology: The data for the analysis were collected using Macromill Embrain, an online research service agency. The data were analyzed using SPSS 26 and Smart PLS 4.0. Results: Based on structural equation modeling, the findings of the study demonstrate that store image positively impactsstore loyalty, and that the mediator (perceived value) affects the relationship between the two variables. Conclusions: Organic food stores must understand consumers to improve store loyalty. Efforts such as providing a user community that enables joint behavior by sharing experiences among customers or launching campaigns to improve consumers' perceived brand identity can increase store loyalty.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.315-320
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• 2020

Pellets are manufactured using wood by-products. The combustion efficiency of pellets depends on the pellet manufacturing process, the types of materials mixed while manufacturing and the wood pellet stoves themselves. In this study, we developed a multi-layer combustor to be used in a wood pellet stove, for the purpose of reducing environmental pollution and energy waste due to incomplete combustion. The multi-layer combustor was designed to compensate for the shortcomings of existing combustors. A CAD (Computer Aided Design) model was verified using a 3D printer and a prototype was developed. The combustion experiments were conducted on commercial and proposed combustors using pellets of the same brand, manufacturing date, place and specifications. From the experiments, it was found that the proposed combustor produced the lowest carbon monoxide (CO) emission and highest thermal efficiency.

• Journal of the Korea Fashion and Costume Design Association
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.49-61
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• 2020

This study analyzed the social media accounts and performed a Big Data analysis of Z-generation fashion using Textom Text Mining Techniques program and Ucinet Big Data analysis program. The research results are as follows: First, as a result of keyword analysis on 67.646 Z-generation fashion social media posts over the last 5 years, 220,211 keywords were extracted. Among them, 67 major keywords were selected based on the frequency of co-occurrence being greater than more than 250 times. As the top keywords appearing over 1000 times, were the most influential as the number of nodes connected to 'Z generation' (29595 times) are overwhelmingly, and was followed by 'millennials'(18536 times), 'fashion'(17836 times), and 'generation'(13055 times), 'brand'(8325 times) and 'trend'(7310 times) Second, as a result of the analysis of Network Degree Centrality between the key keywords for the Z-generation, the number of nodes connected to the "Z-generation" (29595 times) is overwhelmingly large. Next, many 'millennial'(18536 times), 'fashion'(17836 times), 'generation'(13055 times), 'brand'(8325 times), 'trend'(7310 times), etc. appear. These texts are considered to be important factors in exploring the reaction of social media to the Z-generation. Third, through the analysis of CONCOR, text with the structural equivalence between major keywords for Gen Z fashion was rearranged and clustered. In addition, four clusters were derived by grouping through network semantic network visualization. Group 1 is 54 texts, 'Diverse Characteristics of Z-Generation Fashion Consumers', Group 2 is 7 Texts, 'Z-Generation's teenagers Fashion Powers', Group 3 is 8 Texts, 'Z-Generation's Celebrity Fashions' Interest and Fashion', Group 4 named 'Gucci', the most popular luxury fashion of the Z-generation as one text.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.879-888
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• 2017

Recently, the Smart household appliances to provide Smart services have been actively spreaded by providing IoT(Internet of Things). Also, the appliances which Wi-Fi and Bluetooth can directly control are preferred. But until now, the most household appliances are based on IR(InfraRed) and the each procotols of them are different. In this paper, to solve these problems, we suggested the system to control both smart appliances and general appliances by using Smart phone. The system is "Wi-Fi to IR" gateway which receives the Wi-Fi signal to convert to IR signal and transmit it. Also, we made the remote control function in specific brands' appliances possible to most brands without limitation and tried to control not only one remote controller for one TV brand but also for all brand without limitation.

• Journal of the Korea Fashion and Costume Design Association
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.193-206
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• 2017

The Seongsu handmade shoes street consists of subsidiaries, leather shoe manufacturers, and shoe stores associated with the business as a domestic shoe business cluster. Since its development in the 1980s, the shoe industry has been a center of shoe manufacturing but since the 2000s, it has lacked a fully developed environment, a uniform distribution system, market-oriented brand, marketing and design, and also suffers from an aging workforce. Seoul officials and Seongsu-dong small business owners must overcome these difficulties through town enterprise development, brand creation and marketing co-promoting composition of the characterization and distance, but the situation is still insignificant. The purpose of this study is to determine the actual situation as targeted at small merchant handmade shoes Seongsu-dong Street, to determine the factors in the problem, and to propose substantial improvements for Seongsu handmade shoes street. This study was a survey of street sales outlets in Seongsu handmade shoes street in Seoul. The spatial extent of the study was to set up the scope by reference to the directions given through the Seongsu handmade shoes street site. To build infrastructure facilities and distribution systems for the betterment of handmade shoes Seongsu-dong street, it is important to gain a competitive edge through a specialized industry such as a marketing strategy to establish branding as a specialized company. Shoemakers should also seek their own activation measures in areas such as training professionals, universities and corporate projects for joint participation in the ongoing development of new content. To pioneer the domestic and international sales channels, it is important to broaden the sales infrastructure. These areas will ultimately enable a significant contribution to strengthening national competitiveness.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.1122-1130
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• 2001

Recently the importance of distribution channel design has been focused on due to a turbulent environment. The channel design strategy involves the choice of an optimal channel arrangement including channel width, channel depth, the types of intermediaries to be used, and the specific responsibilities of each channel member. The purpose of this paper is to investigate changes of distribution intensity in the infant & children's wear brand from 1997 to 1999, when Korea has faced changes before and after IMF intervention that influenced the Korean economy greatly. Thus, this study provides channel managers with some guidelines for establishing and adjusting the infant & children's wear channel strategies. The data is collected by the Korean Fashion Brand Annual published by Apparel News Co., from 1997 to 1999. infant & children's wear brands are selected and analyzed with Pearson correlation. Statistic analysis has shown different results in the type of brands in terms of distribution intensity. The type of brands between infant's wear and those for children differ in price and launching period. In the case of infant's wear brands, the launching period and total sales should be considered in designing channel distributions, while for children's brands total sales are significant. As the price increases, children's wear brands are significantly linked to their distribution intensity only in certain times at the starting point of IMF intervention. IMF intervention do not seem to influence the distribution intensity of infant's wear brands much as it did children's wear brands. It seems that the infant's wear industry is more stable than the children s wear industry. As a result, the marketer who plans distribution intensity for the infant's and children's wear brands should consider total sales, the launching period and the price according to the type of brands he deals with.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.161-186
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• 2006

Since launching a spoonful yogurt 'Yoplait' for the first time in the nation, Binggrae Co. has established the reputation of the Yoplait brand, and secured its leading position in the yogurt market. This study examined how Binggrae as a market pioneer (in the spoonful yogurt market) or a market follower(in the drinking yogurt market) has developed and responded to the yogurt market in which competition between companies are becoming fierce. Instead of being bound by conventional competition rules, Binggrae was found to have implemented distinctive marketing strategies for new products. That is, providing new values, the company led the market to change the paradigm of competition in the yogurt market. Together with long-term strategic marketing plans to manage the assets of the Yoplait brand, Binggrae Yoplait is required to put continuous efforts into marketing to lead the market.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society for Industrial Systems Conference
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• 2007.02a
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• pp.32-34
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• 2007

The global market for mobile phone business is already matured. Accordingly， the repurchasing issue for the mobile phone is being weighted drastically by the marketers. The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationships among seven crucial factors, and also examines the differences between Korean and Indonesian markets concerning the relationships of these key success factors. This research classifies these two markets as a matured market and an emerging market respectively. The structural model is tested with the data from each of the sub-samples. The analysis of the multi-group structural equation model (MSEM) showed that compared to Korean, Indonesian had more emphasized on extra-functions for the mobile phone as well as giving more influence on satisfaction from brand image. Due to the different market situation and users, the lessons to which product features must be more emphasized could be obtained for the product managers in the industry.