• Title/Summary/Keyword: Complex method

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Color Analyses on Digital Photos Using Machine Learning and KSCA - Focusing on Korean Natural Daytime/nighttime Scenery - (머신러닝과 KSCA를 활용한 디지털 사진의 색 분석 -한국 자연 풍경 낮과 밤 사진을 중심으로-)

  • Gwon, Huieun;KOO, Ja Joon
    • Trans-
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    • v.12
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    • pp.51-79
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    • 2022
  • This study investigates the methods for deriving colors which can serve as a reference to users such as designers and or contents creators who search for online images from the web portal sites using specific words for color planning and more. Two experiments were conducted in order to accomplish this. Digital scenery photos within the geographic scope of Korea were downloaded from web portal sites, and those photos were studied to find out what colors were used to describe daytime and nighttime. Machine learning was used as the study methodology to classify colors in daytime and nighttime, and KSCA was used to derive the color frequency of daytime and nighttime photos and to compare and analyze the two results. The results of classifying the colors of daytime and nighttime photos using machine learning show that, when classifying the colors by 51~100%, the area of daytime colors was approximately 2.45 times greater than that of nighttime colors. The colors of the daytime class were distributed by brightness with white as its center, while that of the nighttime class was distributed with black as its center. Colors that accounted for over 70% of the daytime class were 647, those over 70% of the nighttime class were 252, and the rest (31-69%) were 101. The number of colors in the middle area was low, while other colors were classified relatively clearly into day and night. The resulting color distributions in the daytime and nighttime classes were able to provide the borderline color values of the two classes that are classified by brightness. As a result of analyzing the frequency of digital photos using KSCA, colors around yellow were expressed in generally bright daytime photos, while colors around blue value were expressed in dark night photos. For frequency of daytime photos, colors on the upper 40% had low chroma, almost being achromatic. Also, colors that are close to white and black showed the highest frequency, indicating a large difference in brightness. Meanwhile, for colors with frequency from top 5 to 10, yellow green was expressed darkly, and navy blue was expressed brightly, partially composing a complex harmony. When examining the color band, various colors, brightness, and chroma including light blue, achromatic colors, and warm colors were shown, failing to compose a generally harmonious arrangement of colors. For the frequency of nighttime photos, colors in approximately the upper 50% are dark colors with a brightness value of 2 (Munsell signal). In comparison, the brightness of middle frequency (50-80%) is relatively higher (brightness values of 3-4), and the brightness difference of various colors was large in the lower 20%. Colors that are not cool colors could be found intermittently in the lower 8% of frequency. When examining the color band, there was a general harmonious arrangement of colors centered on navy blue. As the results of conducting the experiment using two methods in this study, machine learning could classify colors into two or more classes, and could evaluate how close an image was with certain colors to a certain class. This method cannot be used if an image cannot be classified into a certain class. The result of such color distribution would serve as a reference when determining how close a certain color is to one of the two classes when the color is used as a dominant color in the base or background color of a certain design. Also, when dividing the analyzed images into several classes, even colors that have not been used in the analyzed image can be determined to find out how close they are to a certain class according to the color distribution properties of each class. Nevertheless, the results cannot be used to find out whether a specific color was used in the class and by how much it was used. To investigate such an issue, frequency analysis was conducted using KSCA. The color frequency could be measured within the range of images used in the experiment. The resulting values of color distribution and frequency from this study would serve as references for color planning of digital design regarding natural scenery in the geographic scope of Korea. Also, the two experiments are meaningful attempts for searching the methods for deriving colors that can be a useful reference among numerous images for content creator users of the relevant field.

Experimental investigation of the photoneutron production out of the high-energy photon fields at linear accelerator (고에너지 방사선치료 시 치료변수에 따른 광중성자 선량 변화 연구)

  • Kim, Yeon Su;Yoon, In Ha;Bae, Sun Myeong;Kang, Tae Young;Baek, Geum Mun;Kim, Sung Hwan;Nam, Uk Won;Lee, Jae Jin;Park, Yeong Sik
    • The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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    • v.26 no.2
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    • pp.257-264
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    • 2014
  • Purpose : Photoneutron dose in high-energy photon radiotherapy at linear accelerator increase the risk for secondary cancer. The purpose of this investigation is to evaluate the dose variation of photoneutron with different treatment method, flattening filter, dose rate and gantry angle in radiation therapy with high-energy photon beam ($E{\geq}8MeV$). Materials and Methods : TrueBeam $ST{\time}TM$(Ver1.5, Varian, USA) and Korea Tissue Equivalent Proportional Counter (KTEPC) were used to detect the photoneutron dose out of the high-energy photon field. Complex Patient plans using Eclipse planning system (Version 10.0, Varian, USA) was used to experiment with different treatment technique(IMRT, VMAT), condition of flattening filter and three different dose rate. Scattered photoneutron dose was measured at eight different gantry angles with open field (Field size : $5{\time}5cm$). Results : The mean values of the detected photoneutron dose from IMRT and VMAT were $449.7{\mu}Sv$, $2940.7{\mu}Sv$. The mean values of the detected photoneutron dose with Flattening Filter(FF) and Flattening Filter Free(FFF) were measured as $2940.7{\mu}Sv$, $232.0{\mu}Sv$. The mean values of the photoneutron dose for each test plan (case 1, case 2 and case 3) with FFF at the three different dose rate (400, 1200, 2400 MU/min) were $3242.5{\mu}Sv$, $3189.4{\mu}Sv$, $3191.2{\mu}Sv$ with case 1, $3493.2{\mu}Sv$, $3482.6{\mu}Sv$, $3477.2{\mu}Sv$ with case 2 and $4592.2{\mu}Sv$, $4580.0{\mu}Sv$, $4542.3{\mu}Sv$ with case 3, respectively. The mean values of the photoneutron dose at eight different gantry angles ($0^{\circ}$, $45^{\circ}$, $90^{\circ}$, $135^{\circ}$, $180^{\circ}$, $225^{\circ}$, $270^{\circ}$, $315^{\circ}$) were measured as $3.2{\mu}Sv$, $4.3{\mu}Sv$, $5.3{\mu}Sv$, $11.3{\mu}Sv$, $14.7{\mu}Sv$, $11.2{\mu}Sv$, $3.7{\mu}Sv$, $3.0{\mu}Sv$ at 10MV and as $373.7{\mu}Sv$, $369.6{\mu}Sv$, $384.4{\mu}Sv$, $423.6{\mu}Sv$, $447.1{\mu}Sv$, $448.0{\mu}Sv$, $384.5{\mu}Sv$, $377.3{\mu}Sv$ at 15MV. Conclusion : As a result, it is possible to reduce photoneutron dose using FFF mode and VMAT method with TrueBeam $ST{\time}TM$. The risk for secondary cancer of the patients will be decreased with continuous evaluation of the photoneutron dose.

Studies on the selection in soybean breeding. -II. Additional data on heritability, genotypic correlation and selection index- (대두육종에 있어서의 선발에 관한 실험적연구 -속보 : 유전력ㆍ유전상관, 그리고 선발지수의 재검토-)

  • Kwon-Yawl Chang
    • KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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    • v.3
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    • pp.89-98
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    • 1965
  • The experimental studies were intended to clarify the effects of selection, and also aimed at estimating the heritabilities, the genotypic correlations among some agronomic characters, and at calculating the selection index on some selective characters for the selection of desirable lines, under different climatic conditions. Finally practical implications of these studies, especially on the selection index, were discussed. Twenty-two varieties, determinate growing habit type, were selected at random from the 138 soybean varieties cultivated the year before, were grown in a randomized block design with three replicates at Chinju, Korea, under May and June sowing conditions. The method of estimating heritabilities for the eleven agronomic characters-flowering date, maturity date, stem length, branch numbers per plant, stem diameter, plant weight, pod numbers per plant, grain numbers per plant and 100 grain weight, shown in Table 3, was the variance components procedures in a replicated trial for the varieties. The analysis of covariance was used to obtain the genotypic correlations and phenotypic correlations among the eight characters, and the selection indexes for some agronomic characters were calculated by Robinson's method. The results are summarized as follows: Heritabilities : The experiment on the genotype-environment interaction revealed that in almost all of the characters investigated the interaction was too large to be neglected and materially affected the estimates of various genotypic parameters. The variation in heritability due to the change of environments was larger in the characters of low heritability than in those of high heritability. Heritability values of flowering date, fruiting period (days from flowering to maturity), stem length and 100 grain weight were the highest in both environments, those of yield(grain weight) and other characters were showed the lower values(Table 3). These heritability values showed a decreasing trend with the delayed sowing in the experiments. Further, all calculated heritability values were higher than anticipated. This was expected since these values, which were the broad sense heritability, contain the variance due to dominance and epistasisf in addition to the additive genetic variance. Genotypic correlations : Genotypic correlations were slightly higher than the corresponding phenotypic correlations in both environments, but the variation in values due to the change of environment appeared between grain weight and some other characters, especially an increase between grain weight and flowering date, and the total growing period(Table 6). Genotypic correlations between grain weight and other characters indicated that high seed yield was genetically correlated with late flowering, late maturity, and the other five characters namely branch numbers per plant, stem diameter, plant weight, pod numbers per plant and grain numbers per plant, but not with 100 grain weight of soybeans. Pod numbers and grain numbers per plant were more closely correlated with seed yields than with other characters. Selection index : For the comparison and the use of selection indexes in the selection, two kinds of selection indexes were calculated, the former was called selection index A and the later selection index B as shown in Table 7. Selection index A was calculated by the values of grain weight per plant as the character of yield(character Y), but the other, selection index B, was calculated by the values of pod numbers per plant, instead of grain weight per plant, as the character of yield'(character Y'). These results suggest that selection index technique is useful in soybean breeding. In reality, however, as the selection index varies with population and environment, it must be calculated in each population to which selection is applied and in each environment in which the population is located. In spite of the expected usefulness of selection index technique in soybean breeding, unsolved problems such as the expense, time and labor involved in calculating the selection index remain. For these reasons and from these experimental studies, it was recognized that in the breeding of self-fertilized soybean plants the selection for yield should be based on a more simple selection index such as selection index B of these experiments rather than on the complex selection index such as selection index A. Furthermore, it was realized that the selection index for the selection should be calculated on the basis of the data of some 3-4 agronomic characters-maturity date(X$_1$), branch numbers per plant(X$_2$), stem diameter(X$_3$) and pod numbers per plant etc. It must be noted that it should be successful in selection to select for maturity date(X$_1$) which has high heritability, and the selection index should be calculated easily on the basis of the data of branch numbers per plant(X$_2$), stem diameter(X$_3$) and pod numbers per plant, directly after the harvest before drying and threshing. These characters should be very useful agronomic characters in the selection of Korean soybeans, determinate growing habit type, as they could be measured or counted easily thus saving time and expense in the duration from harvest to drying and threshing, and are affected more in soybean yields than the other agronomic characters.

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A Study on Forestation for Landscaping around the Lakes in the Upper Watersheds of North Han River (북한강상류수계(北漢江上流水系)의 호수단지주변삼림(湖水団地周辺森林)의 풍경적시업(風景的施業)에 관(関)한 연구(硏究))

  • Ho, Ul Yeong
    • Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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    • v.54 no.1
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    • pp.1-24
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    • 1981
  • Kangweon-Do is rich in sightseeing resources. There are three sightseeing areas;first, mountain area including Seolak and Ohdae National Parks, and chiak Provincial Park; second eastern coastal area; third lake area including the watersheds of North Han River. In this paper, several methods of forestation were studied for landscaping the North Han River watersheds centering around Chounchon. In Chunchon lake complex, there are four lakes; Uiam, Chunchon, Soyang and Paro from down to upper stream. The total surface area of the above four lakes is $14.4km^2$ the total pondage of them 4,155 million $m^3$, the total generation of electric power of them 410 thousand Kw, and the total forest area bordering on them $1,208km^2$. The bordering forest consists of planned management forest ($745km^2$) and non-planned management forest ($463km^2$). The latter is divided into green belt zone, natural conservation area, and protection forest. The forest in green belt amounts to $177km^2$ and centers around the 10km radios from Chunchon. The forest in natural conservation area amounts to $165km^2$, which is established within 2km sight range from the Soyang-lake sides. Protection forest surrounding the lakes is $121km^2$ There are many scenic places, recreation gardens, cultural goods and ruins in this lake complex, which are the same good tourist resources as lakes and forest. The forest encirelng the lakes has the poor average growing stock of $15m^3/ha$, because 70% of the forest consists of the young plantation of 1 to 2 age class. The ration of the needle-leaved forest, the broad-leaved forest and the mixed forest in 35:37:28. From the standpoint of ownership, the forest consists of national forest (36%), provincial forest (14%), Gun forest (5%) and private forest(45%). The greater part of the forest soil, originated from granite and gneiss, is much liable to weathering. Because the surface soil is mostly sterile, the fertilization for improving the soil quality is strongly urged. Considering the above-mentioned, the forestation methods for improving landscape of the North Han River Watersheds are suggested as follows: 1) The mature-stage forest should be induced by means of fertilizing and tendering, as the forest in this area is the young plantation with poor soil. 2) The bare land should be afforested by planting the rapid growing species, such as rigida pine, alder, and etc. 3) The bare land in the canyon with moderate moist and comparatively rich soil should be planted with Korean-pine, larch, ro fir. 4) Japaness-pine stand should be changed into Korean-pine, fir, spruce or hemlock stand from ravine to top gradually, because the Japanese-pine has poor capacity of water conservation and great liability to pine gall midge. 5) Present hard-wood forest, consisting of miscellaneous trees comparatively less valuable from the point of wood quality and scenerity, should be change into oak, maple, fraxinus-rhynchophylla, birch or juglan stand which is comparatively more valuable. 6) In the mountain foot within the sight-range, stands should be established with such species as cherry, weeping willow, white poplar, machilus, maiden-hair tree, juniper, chestnut or apricot. 7) The regeneration of some broad-leaved forests should be induced to the middle forest type, leading to the harmonious arrangement of the two storied forest and the coppice. 8) For the preservation of scenery, the reproduction of the soft-wood forest should be done under the selection method or the shelter-wood system. 9) Mixed forest should be regenerated under the middle forest system with upper needle-leaved forest and lower broad-leaved forest. In brief, the nature's mysteriousness should be conserved by combining the womanly elegance of the lakes and the manly grandeur of the forest.

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Effect of Service Convenience on the Relationship Performance in B2B Markets: Mediating Effect of Relationship Factors (B2B 시장에서의 서비스 편의성이 관계성과에 미치는 영향 : 관계적 요인의 매개효과 분석)

  • Han, Sang-Lin;Lee, Seong-Ho
    • Journal of Distribution Research
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    • v.16 no.4
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    • pp.65-93
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    • 2011
  • As relationship between buyer and seller has been brought closer and long-term relationship has been more important in B2B markets, the importance of service and service convenience increases as well as product. In homogeneous markets, where service offerings are similar and therefore not key competitive differentiator, providing greater convenience may enable a competitive advantage. Service convenience, as conceptualized by Berry et al. (2002), is defined as the consumers' time and effort perceptions related to buying or using a service. For this reason, B2B customers are interested in how fast the service is provided and how much save non-monetary cost like time or effort by the service convenience along with service quality. Therefore, this study attempts to investigate the impact of service convenience on relationship factors such as relationship satisfaction, relationship commitment, and relationship performance. The purpose of this study is to find out whether service convenience can be a new antecedent of relationship quality and relationship performance. In addition, this study tries to examine how five-dimensional service convenience constructs (decision convenience, access convenience, transaction convenience, benefit convenience, post-benefit convenience) affect customers' relationship satisfaction, relationship commitment, and relationship performance. The service convenience comprises five fundamental components - decision convenience (the perceived time and effort costs associated with service purchase or use decisions), access convenience(the perceived time and effort costs associated with initiating service delivery), transaction convenience(the perceived time and effort costs associated with finalizing the transaction), benefit convenience(the perceived time and effort costs associated with experiencing the core benefits of the offering) and post-benefit convenience (the perceived time and effort costs associated with reestablishing subsequent contact with the firm). Earlier studies of perceived service convenience in the industrial market are none. The conventional studies that have dealt with service convenience have usually been made in the consumer market, or they have dealt with convenience aspects in the service process. This service convenience measure for consumer market can be useful tool to estimate service quality in B2B market. The conceptualization developed by Berry et al. (2002) reflects a multistage, experiential consumption process in which evaluations of convenience vary at each stage. For this reason, the service convenience measure is good for B2B service environment which has complex processes and various types. Especially when categorizing B2B service as sequential stage of service delivery like Kumar and Kumar (2004), the Berry's service convenience measure which reflect sequential flow of service deliveries suitable to establish B2B service convenience. For this study, data were gathered from respondents who often buy business service and analyzed by structural equation modeling. The sample size in the present study is 119. Composite reliability values and average variance extracted values were examined for each variable to have reliability. We determine whether the measurement model supports the convergent validity by CFA, and discriminant validity was assessed by examining the correlation matrix of the constructs. For each pair of constructs, the square root of the average variance extracted exceeded their correlations, thus supporting the discriminant validity of the constructs. Hypotheses were tested using the Smart PLS 2.0 and we calculated the PLS path values and followed with a bootstrap re-sampling method to test the hypotheses. Among the five dimensional service convenience constructs, four constructs (decision convenience, transaction convenience, benefit convenience, post-benefit convenience) affected customers' positive relationship satisfaction, relationship commitment, and relationship performance. This result means that service convenience is important cue to improve relationship between buyer and seller. One of the five service convenience dimensions, access convenience, does not affect relationship quality and performance, which implies that the dimension of service convenience is not important factor of cumulative satisfaction. The Cumulative satisfaction can be distinguished from transaction-specific customer satisfaction, which is an immediate post-purchase evaluative judgment or an affective reaction to the most recent transactional experience with the firm. Because access convenience minimizes the physical effort associated with initiating an exchange, the effect on relationship satisfaction similar to cumulative satisfaction may be relatively low in terms of importance than transaction-specific customer satisfaction. Also, B2B firms focus on service quality, price, benefit, follow-up service and so on than convenience of time or place in service because it is relatively difficult to change existing transaction partners in B2B market compared to consumer market. In addition, this study using partial least squares methods reveals that customers' satisfaction and commitment toward relationship has mediating role between the service convenience and relationship performance. The result shows that management and investment to improve service convenience make customers' positive relationship satisfaction, and then the positive relationship satisfaction can enhance the relationship commitment and relationship performance. And to conclude, service convenience management is an important part of successful relationship performance management, and the service convenience is an important antecedent of relationship between buyer and seller such as the relationship commitment and relationship performance. Therefore, it has more important to improve relationship performance that service providers enhance service convenience although competitive service development or service quality improvement is important. Given the pressure to provide increased convenience, it is not surprising that organizations have made significant investments in enhancing the convenience aspect of their product and service offering.

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An Exploratory Study on the Components of Visual Merchandising of Internet Shopping Mall (인터넷쇼핑몰의 VMD 구성요인에 대한 탐색적 연구)

  • Kim, Kwang-Seok;Shin, Jong-Kuk;Koo, Dong-Mo
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.18 no.2
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    • pp.19-45
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    • 2008
  • This study is to empirically examine the primary dimensions of visual merchandising (VMD) of internet shopping mall, namely store design, merchandise, and merchandising cues, to be a attractive virtual store to the shoppers. The authors reviewed the literature related to the major components of VMD from the perspective of the AIDA model, which has been mainly applied to the offline store settings. The major purposes of the study are as follows; first, tries to derive the variables related with the components of visual merchandising through reviewing the existing literatures, establish the hypotheses, and test it empirically. Second, examines the relationships between the components of VMD and the attitude toward the VMD, however, putting more emphasis on finding out the component structure of the VMD. VMD needs to be examined with the perspective that an online shopping mall is a virtual self-service or clerkless store, which could reduce the number of employees, help the shoppers search, evaluate and purchase for themselves, and to be explored in terms of the in-store persuasion processes of customers. This study reviewed the literatures related to store design, merchandise, and merchandising cues which might be relevant to the store, product, and promotion respectively. VMD is a total communication tool, and AIDA model could explain the in-store consumer behavior of online shopping. Store design has to do with triggering a consumer attention to the online mall, merchandise with a product related interest, and merchandising cues with promotions such as recommendation and links that induce the desire to pruchase. These three steps might be seen as the processes for purchase actions. The theoretical rationale for the relationship between VMD and AIDA could be found in Tyagi(2005) that the three steps of consumer-oriented merchandising are a store, a product assortment, and placement, in Omar(1999) that three types of interior display are a architectural design display, commodity display, and point-of-sales(POS) display, and in Davies and Ward(2005) that the retail store interior image is related to an atmosphere, merchandise, and in-store promotion. Lee et al(2000) suggested as the web merchandising components a merchandising cues, a shopping metaphor which is an assistant tool for search, a store design, a layout(web design), and a product assortment. The store design which includes differentiation, simplicity and navigation is supposed to be related to the attention to the virtual store. Second, the merchandise dimensions comprising product assortments, visual information and product reputation have to do with the interest in the product offerings. Finally, the merchandising cues that refer to merchandiser(MD)'s recommendation of products and providing the hyperlinks to relevant goods for the shopper is concerned with attempt to induce the desire to purchase. The questionnaire survey was carried out to collect the data about the consumers who would shop at internet shopping malls frequently. To select the subject malls, the mall ranking data announced by a mall rating agency was used to differentiate the most popular and least popular five mall each. The subjects was instructed to answer the questions after navigating the designated mall for five minutes. The 300 questionnaire was distributed to the consumers, 166 samples were used in the final analysis. The empirical testing focused on identifying and confirming the dimensionality of VMD and its subdimensions using a structural equation modeling method. The confirmatory factor analysis for the endogeneous and exogeneous variables was carried out in four parts. The second-order factor analysis was done for a store design, a merchandise, and a merchandising cues, and first-order confirmatory factor analysis for the attitude toward the VMD. The model test results shows that the chi-square value of structural equation is 144.39(d.f 49), significant at 0.01 level which means the proposed model was rejected. But, judging from the ratio of chi-square value vs. degree of freedom, the ratio was 2.94 which smaller than an acceptable level of 3.0, RMR is 0.087 which is higher than a generally acceptable level of 0.08. GFI and AGFI is turned out to be 0.90 and 0.84 respectively. Both NFI and NNFI is 0.94, and CFI 0.95. The major test results are as follows; first, the second-order factor analysis and structural equational modeling reveals that the differentiation, simplicity and ease of identifying current status of the transaction are confirmed to be subdimensions of store design and to be a significant predictors of the dependent variable. This result implies that when designing an online shopping mall, it is necessary to differentiate visually from other malls to improve the effectiveness of the communications of store design. That is, the differentiated store design raise the contrast stimulus to sensory organs to promote the memory of the store and to have a favorable attitude toward the VMD of a store. The results that navigation which means the easiness of identifying current status of shopping affects the attitude to VMD could be interpreted that the navigating processes via the hyperlinks which is characteristics of an internet shopping is a complex and cognitive process and shoppers are likely to lack the sense of overall structure of the store. Consequently, shoppers are likely to be alost amid shopping not knowing where to go. The orientation tool enhance the accessibility of information to raise the perceptive power about the store environment.(Titus & Everett 1995) Second, the primary dimension of merchandise and its subdimensions was confirmed to be unidimensional respectively, have a construct validity, and nomological validity which the VMD dimensions supposed to have a positive correlation with the dependent variable. The subdimensions of product assortment, brand fame and information provision proved to have a positive effect on the attitude toward the VMD. It could be interpreted that the more plentiful the product and brand assortment of the mall is, the more likely the shoppers to favor it. Brand fame and information provision as well affect the VMD attitude, which means that the more famous the brand, the more likely the shoppers would trust and feel familiar with the mall, and the plentifully and visually presented information could have the shopper have a favorable attitude toward the store VMD. Third, it turned out to be that merchandising cue of product recommendation and hyperlinks affect the VMD attitude. This could be interpreted that recommended products could reduce the uncertainty related with the purchase decision, and the hyperlinks to relevant products would help the shopper save the cognitive effort exerted into the information search and gathering, which could lead to a favorable attitude to the VMD. This study tried to sheds some new light on the VMD of online store by reviewing the variables mentioned to be relevant with offline VMD in the existing literatures, and tried to link the VMD components from the perspective of AIDA model. The effect size of the VMD dimensions on the attitude was in the order of the merchandise, the store design and the merchandising cues.It is said that an internet has an unlimited place for display, however, the virtual store is not unlimited since the consumer has a limited amount of cognitive ability to process the external information and internal memory. Particularly, the shoppers are likely to face some difficulties in decision making on account of too many alternative and information overloads. Therefore, the internet shopping mall manager should take into consideration the cost of information search on the part of the consumer, to establish the optimal product placements and search routes. An efficient store composition would be possible by reducing the psychological burdens and cognitive efforts exerted to information search and alternatives evaluation. The store image is in most part determined by the product category and its brand it deals in. The results of this study support this proposition that the merchandise is most important to the VMD attitude than other components, the manager is required to take a strategic approach to VMD. The internet users are getting more accustomed and more knowledgeable about the internet media and more likely to accept the internet as a shopping channel as the period of time during which they use the internet to shop become longer. The web merchandiser should be aware that the product introduction using a moving pictures and a bulletin board become more important in order to present the interactive product information visually and communicate with customers more actively, therefore leading to making the quantity and quality of product information more rich.

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The Effects of Online Service Quality on Consumer Satisfaction and Loyalty Intention -About Booking and Issuing Air Tickets on Website- (온라인 서비스 품질이 고객만족 및 충성의도에 미치는 영향 -항공권 예약.발권 웹사이트를 중심으로-)

  • Park, Jong-Gee;Ko, Do-Eun;Lee, Seung-Chang
    • Journal of Distribution Research
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    • v.15 no.3
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    • pp.71-110
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    • 2010
  • 1. Introduction Today Internet is recognized as an important way for the transaction of products and services. According to the data surveyed by the National Statistical Office, the on-line transaction in 2007 for a year, 15.7656 trillion, shows a 17.1%(2.3060 trillion won) increase over last year, of these, the amount of B2C has been increased 12.0%(10.2258 trillion won). Like this, because the entry barrier of on-line market of Korea is low, many retailers could easily enter into the market. So the bigger its scale is, but on the other hand, the tougher its competition is. Particularly due to the Internet and innovation of IT, the existing market has been changed into the perfect competitive market(Srinivasan, Rolph & Kishore, 2002). In the early years of on-line business, they think that the main reason for success is a moderate price, they are awakened to its importance of on-line service quality with tough competition. If it's not sure whether customers can be provided with what they want, they can use the Web sites, perhaps they can trust their products that had been already bought or not, they have a doubt its viability(Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Malhotra, 2005). Customers can directly reserve and issue their air tickets irrespective of place and time at the Web sites of travel agencies or airlines, but its empirical studies about these Web sites for reserving and issuing air tickets are insufficient. Therefore this study goes on for following specific objects. First object is to measure service quality and service recovery of Web sites for reserving and issuing air tickets. Second is to look into whether above on-line service quality and on-line service recovery have an impact on overall service quality. Third is to seek for the relation with overall service quality and customer satisfaction, then this customer satisfaction and loyalty intention. 2. Theoretical Background 2.1 On-line Service Quality Barnes & Vidgen(2000; 2001a; 2001b; 2002) had invented the tool to measure Web sites' quality four times(called WebQual). The WebQual 1.0, Step one invented a measuring item for information quality based on QFD, and this had been verified by students of UK business school. The Web Qual 2.0, Step two invented for interaction quality, and had been judged by customers of on-line bookshop. The WebQual 3.0, Step three invented by consolidating the WebQual 1.0 for information quality and the WebQual2.0 for interactionquality. It includes 3-quality-dimension, information quality, interaction quality, site design, and had been assessed and confirmed by auction sites(e-bay, Amazon, QXL). Furtheron, through the former empirical studies, the authors changed sites quality into usability by judging that usability is a concept how customers interact with or perceive Web sites and It is used widely for accessing Web sites. By this process, WebQual 4.0 was invented, and is consist of 3-quality-dimension; information quality, interaction quality, usability, 22 items. However, because WebQual 4.0 is focusing on technical part, it's usable at the Website's design part, on the other hand, it's not usable at the Web site's pleasant experience part. Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Malhorta(2002; 2005) had invented the measure for measuring on-line service quality in 2002 and 2005. The study in 2002 divided on-line service quality into 5 dimensions. But these were not well-organized, so there needed to be studied again totally. So Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Malhorta(2005) re-worked out the study about on-line service quality measure base on 2002's study and invented E-S-QUAL. After they invented preliminary measure for on-line service quality, they made up a question for customers who had purchased at amazon.com and walmart.com and reassessed this measure. And they perfected an invention of E-S-QUAL consists of 4 dimensions, 22 items of efficiency, system availability, fulfillment, privacy. Efficiency measures assess to sites and usability and others, system availability measures accurate technical function of sites and others, fulfillment measures promptness of delivering products and sufficient goods and others and privacy measures the degree of protection of data about their customers and so on. 2.2 Service Recovery Service industries tend to minimize the losses by coping with service failure promptly. This responses of service providers to service failure mean service recovery(Kelly & Davis, 1994). Bitner(1990) went on his study from customers' view about service providers' behavior for customers to recognize their satisfaction/dissatisfaction at service point. According to them, to manage service failure successfully, exact recognition of service problem, an apology, sufficient description about service failure and some tangible compensation are important. Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Malhorta(2005) approached the service recovery from how to measure, rather than how to manage, and moved to on-line market not to off-line, then invented E-RecS-QUAL which is a measuring tool about on-line service recovery. 2.3 Customer Satisfaction The definition of customer satisfaction can be divided into two points of view. First, they approached customer satisfaction from outcome of comsumer. Howard & Sheth(1969) defined satisfaction as 'a cognitive condition feeling being rewarded properly or improperly for their sacrifice.' and Westbrook & Reilly(1983) also defined customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction as 'a psychological reaction to the behavior pattern of shopping and purchasing, the display condition of retail store, outcome of purchased goods and service as well as whole market.' Second, they approached customer satisfaction from process. Engel & Blackwell(1982) defined satisfaction as 'an assessment of a consistency in chosen alternative proposal and their belief they had with them.' Tse & Wilton(1988) defined customer satisfaction as 'a customers' reaction to discordance between advance expectation and ex post facto outcome.' That is, this point of view that customer satisfaction is process is the important factor that comparing and assessing process what they expect and outcome of consumer. Unlike outcome-oriented approach, process-oriented approach has many advantages. As process-oriented approach deals with customers' whole expenditure experience, it checks up main process by measuring one by one each factor which is essential role at each step. And this approach enables us to check perceptual/psychological process formed customer satisfaction. Because of these advantages, now many studies are adopting this process-oriented approach(Yi, 1995). 2.4 Loyalty Intention Loyalty has been studied by dividing into behavioral approaches, attitudinal approaches and complex approaches(Dekimpe et al., 1997). In the early years of study, they defined loyalty focusing on behavioral concept, behavioral approaches regard customer loyalty as "a tendency to purchase periodically within a certain period of time at specific retail store." But the loyalty of behavioral approaches focuses on only outcome of customer behavior, so there are someone to point the limits that customers' decision-making situation or process were neglected(Enis & Paul, 1970; Raj, 1982; Lee, 2002). So the attitudinal approaches were suggested. The attitudinal approaches consider loyalty contains all the cognitive, emotional, voluntary factors(Oliver, 1997), define the customer loyalty as "friendly behaviors for specific retail stores." However these attitudinal approaches can explain that how the customer loyalty form and change, but cannot say positively whether it is moved to real purchasing in the future or not. This is a kind of shortcoming(Oh, 1995). 3. Research Design 3.1 Research Model Based on the objects of this study, the research model derived is

    . 3.2 Hypotheses 3.2.1 The Hypothesis of On-line Service Quality and Overall Service Quality The relation between on-line service quality and overall service quality I-1. Efficiency of on-line service quality may have a significant effect on overall service quality. I-2. System availability of on-line service quality may have a significant effect on overall service quality. I-3. Fulfillment of on-line service quality may have a significant effect on overall service quality. I-4. Privacy of on-line service quality may have a significant effect on overall service quality. 3.2.2 The Hypothesis of On-line Service Recovery and Overall Service Quality The relation between on-line service recovery and overall service quality II-1. Responsiveness of on-line service recovery may have a significant effect on overall service quality. II-2. Compensation of on-line service recovery may have a significant effect on overall service quality. II-3. Contact of on-line service recovery may have a significant effect on overall service quality. 3.2.3 The Hypothesis of Overall Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction The relation between overall service quality and customer satisfaction III-1. Overall service quality may have a significant effect on customer satisfaction. 3.2.4 The Hypothesis of Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty Intention The relation between customer satisfaction and loyalty intention IV-1. Customer satisfaction may have a significant effect on loyalty intention. 3.2.5 The Hypothesis of a Mediation Variable Wolfinbarger & Gilly(2003) and Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Malhotra(2005) had made clear that each dimension of service quality has a significant effect on overall service quality. Add to this, the authors analyzed empirically that each dimension of on-line service quality has a positive effect on customer satisfaction. With that viewpoint, this study would examine if overall service quality mediates between on-line service quality and each dimension of customer satisfaction, keeping on looking into the relation between on-line service quality and overall service quality, overall service quality and customer satisfaction. And as this study understands that each dimension of on-line service recovery also has an effect on overall service quality, this would examine if overall service quality also mediates between on-line service recovery and each dimension of customer satisfaction. Therefore these hypotheses followed are set up to examine if overall service quality plays its role as the mediation variable. The relation between on-line service quality and customer satisfaction V-1. Overall service quality may mediate the effects of efficiency of on-line service quality on customer satisfaction. V-2. Overall service quality may mediate the effects of system availability of on-line service quality on customer satisfaction. V-3. Overall service quality may mediate the effects of fulfillment of on-line service quality on customer satisfaction. V-4. Overall service quality may mediate the effects of privacy of on-line service quality on customer satisfaction. The relation between on-line service recovery and customer satisfaction VI-1. Overall service quality may mediate the effects of responsiveness of on-line service recovery on customer satisfaction. VI-2. Overall service quality may mediate the effects of compensation of on-line service recovery on customer satisfaction. VI-3. Overall service quality may mediate the effects of contact of on-line service recovery on customer satisfaction. 4. Empirical Analysis 4.1 Research design and the characters of data This empirical study aimed at customers who ever purchased air ticket at the Web sites for reservation and issue. Total 430 questionnaires were distributed, and 400 were collected. After surveying with the final questionnaire, the frequency test was performed about variables of sex, age which is demographic factors for analyzing general characters of sample data. Sex of data is consist of 146 of male(42.7%) and 196 of female(57.3%), so portion of female is a little higher. Age is composed of 11 of 10s(3.2%), 199 of 20s(58.2%), 105 of 30s(30.7%), 22 of 40s(6.4%), 5 of 50s(1.5%). The reason that portions of 20s and 30s are higher can be supposed that they use the Internet frequently and purchase air ticket directly. 4.2 Assessment of measuring scales This study used the internal consistency analysis to measure reliability, and then used the Cronbach'$\alpha$ to assess this. As a result of reliability test, Cronbach'$\alpha$ value of every component shows more than 0.6, it is found that reliance of the measured variables are ensured. After reliability test, the explorative factor analysis was performed. the factor sampling was performed by the Principal Component Analysis(PCA), the factor rotation was performed by the Varimax which is good for verifying mutual independence between factors. By the result of the initial factor analysis, items blocking construct validity were removed, and the result of the final factor analysis performed for verifying construct validity is followed above. 4.3 Hypothesis Testing 4.3.1 Hypothesis Testing by the Regression Analysis(SPSS) 4.3.2 Analysis of Mediation Effect To verify mediation effect of overall service quality of and , this study used the phased analysis method proposed by Baron & Kenny(1986) generally used. As shows, Step 1 and Step 2 are significant, and mediation variable has a significant effect on dependent variables and so does independent variables at Step 3, too. And there needs to prove the partial mediation effect, independent variable's estimate ability at Step 3(Standardized coefficient $\beta$eta : efficiency=.164, system availability=.074, fulfillment=.108, privacy=.107) is smaller than its estimate ability at Step 2(Standardized coefficient $\beta$eta : efficiency=.409, system availability=.227, fulfillment=.386, privacy=.237), so it was proved that overall service quality played a role as the partial mediation between on-line service quality and satisfaction. As
    shows, Step 1 and Step 2 are significant, and mediation variable has a significant effect on dependent variables and so does independent variables at Step 3, too. And there needs to prove the partial mediation effect, independent variable's estimate ability at Step 3(Standardized coefficient $\beta$eta : responsiveness=.164, compensation=.117, contact=.113) is smaller than its estimate ability at Step 2(Standardized coefficient $\beta$eta : responsiveness=.409, compensation=.386, contact=.237), so it was proved that overall service quality played a role as the partial mediation between on-line service recovery and satisfaction. Verified results on the basis of empirical analysis are followed. First, as the result of , it shows that all were chosen, so on-line service quality has a positive effect on overall service quality. Especially fulfillment of overall service quality has the most effect, and then efficiency, system availability, privacy in order. Second, as the result of , it shows that all were chosen, so on-line service recovery has a positive effect on overall service quality. Especially responsiveness of overall service quality has the most effect, and then contact, compensation in order. Third, as the result of and , it shows that and all were chosen, so overall service quality has a positive effect on customer satisfaction, customer satisfaction has a positive effect on loyalty intention. Fourth, as the result of and , it shows that and all were chosen, so overall service quality plays a role as the partial mediation between on-line service quality and customer satisfaction, on-line service recovery and customer satisfaction. 5. Conclusion This study measured and analyzed service quality and service recovery of the Web sites that customers made a reservation and issued their air tickets, and by improving customer satisfaction through the result, this study put its final goal to grope how to keep loyalty customers. On the basis of the result of empirical analysis, suggestion points of this study are followed. First, this study regarded E-S-QUAL that measures on-line service quality and E-RecS-QUAL that measures on-line service recovery as variables, so it overcame the limit of existing studies that used modified SERVQUAL to measure service quality of the Web sites. Second, it shows that fulfillment and efficiency of on-line service quality have the most significant effect on overall service quality. Therefore the Web sites of reserving and issuing air tickets should try harder to elevate efficiency and fulfillment. Third, privacy of on-line service quality has the least significant effect on overall service quality, but this may be caused by un-assurance of customers whether the Web sites protect safely their confidential information or not. So they need to notify customers of this fact clearly. Fourth, there are many cases that customers don't recognize the importance of on-line service recovery, but if they would think that On-line service recovery has an effect on customer satisfaction and loyalty intention, as its importance is very significant they should prepare for that. Fifth, because overall service quality has a positive effect on customer satisfaction and loyalty intention, they should try harder to elevate service quality and service recovery of the Web sites of reserving and issuing air tickets to maximize customer satisfaction and to secure loyalty customers. Sixth, it is found that overall service quality plays a role as the partial mediation, but now there are rarely existing studies about this, so there need to be more studies about this.

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