• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.25-51
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• 2012

Researches about the relationship between SST(Self Service Technology) and TRI(Technology Readiness Index) have been carried out after TRI was developed by Parasuraman and his colleagues(2000). We hypothesize Consumer Readiness can also influence consumer's motivation, attitude, and intent to use SST. Currently, there has been no research on this subject. In this study, we investigated the relationship between TR, Consumer Readiness and SST Core Attitudinal Model which Dabholkar & Bagozzi(1994) proposed. The researchers also investigated moderating effects of consumer traits and situational factors to verify the acceptance of such forms of service delivery by all kinds of consumers and under different situational contexts. Self consciousness, the need for interaction with an employee, and the technology anxiety were used as consumer trait variables. Perceived waiting time and perceived crowding were used as situational variables. 380 questionnaires were distributed to a sample group of people in their 20's and 30's, and the data were analyzed with structural equation model using AMOS 18.0 program. All of Cronbach's alpha values representing reliabilities were satisfactory. The values of Composite Reliability(CR) and Average Variance Extracted(AVE) also showed the above criteria, thus providing evidence of convergent validity. To confirm discriminant validity among the constructs, confirmatory factor analysis and correlations among all the variables were examined. The results were satisfactory. The results of this study are summarized as follows. 1. Optimism and innovativeness of TR partially influenced the motivation to use SST. People who tend to be optimistic use SST because of ease of use and fun. The innovative however, usually use SST due to its performance. However, consumer readiness of role clarity, ability and self-efficacy influence all the components of motivation to use SST, ease of use, performance and fun. The relative effect of consumer readiness on the motivation to use SST was much stronger and more significant than that of TR. No other previous studies have examined the effects of Consumer Readiness on SST usage motivation, attitude and intention. It is academically meaningful that the researchers verified that Consumer Readiness is the important precedent construct influencing the self service technology core Attitudinal Model. Our findings suggest that marketers should consider fun and ease of use attributes to promote the use of self service technology. In addition, the SST usage frequency will rise rapidly when role clarity, ability, and self-efficacy which anybody can easily handle SST is assured. If the SST usage rate is increased, waiting times for customers could be decreased. Shorter waiting time could lead to higher customer satisfaction. It may also result in making a long-term profit owing to the reduced number of employees. Thus, presentation of using SST by employees or videos showing how to use it will promote the usage attitude and intent. 2. In SST core attitudinal model, performance and fun factors among SST usage motivation affected attitudes of using SST. The attitude of using SST highly influenced intent to use SST. This result is consistent with previous researches that dealt with the relationship between motivation, attitude and intention. Expectation of using SST could result in good performance just like the effect of ordering menu to service employees and to have fun since fun during its use could promote more SST usage rate. 3. In the relationship among motivation, attitude and intent in SST core attitudinal model, the moderating effect of consumer traits(self-consciousness, need for interaction with service employees and technology anxiety) and situational factors(perceived crowding and perceived waiting time) were tested. The results also supported the hypothesized moderating effects except perceived crowding. The highly self-conscious tended to form attitudes to use SST because of its fun compared to those who were less self-conscious because of its performance. People who had a high need for interaction with service employees tended to use SST for its performance. This result indicates that if ordering results are assured, SST is easily accessible to even consumers who have a high need for interaction with a service employee. When SST is easy to use, attitudes strengthen intent among people who had a high level of anxiety of technology. People who had low technology anxiety formed attitudes to use SST because of its performance. Service firms must ensure their self service technology is designed to be easy to use for those who have a high level of technology anxiety. Shorter perceived waiting times strengthened the attitude to use self service technology because of its fun. If the fun aspect is assured, people willing to use self service technology even perceive waiting time to be shorter than it actually is. Greater perceived waiting times form higher level of intent to use self service technology than those of shorter perceived waiting times. This implies that people view self service technology as a faster alternative to ordering service employees. The fun aspect of self service technology will attract a higher rate of usage for self service technology. 4. It has been proven that ease of use, performance and fun aspects are very important factors in motivation to form attitudes and intent to use self service technology regardless of the amount of perceived waiting time, self-consciousness, need for interaction with service employees, and technology anxiety. Service firms must consider these motivation aspects(ease of use, performance and fun)strongly in their promotion to use self service technology. Ease of use, assuring absolute performance compared to interaction with service employees', and adding a fun aspect will positively strengthen consumers' attitudes and intent to use self service technology. Summarizing the moderating effects, fun is the most valuable factor triggering SST usage attitude and intention. Therefore, designing self service technology to be fun will be the key to its success. This study focused on the touch screen self service technology in fast food restaurant. Although it has its limits due to the fact that it is hard to generalize the results to any other self service technology, the conceptual framework of this study can be applied to future research of any other service site.

• The korean journal of orthodontics
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• v.28 no.1 s.66
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• pp.135-142
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• 1998

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effect of incisor protrusion on the mucogingival parameters including the width of attached gingiva. Thirty-seven young adults with lower anterior crowding were selected for this study. From the study model, the degrees of relative and absolute protrusions were measured for each lower incisor. Clinical non height, the width of keratinized gingiva, probing depth and the width of attached gingiva were measured with digital vernier calipers and Florida Probe System. Through comparing the difference of the above measurements between protruded and non-protruded incisors, and correlation analysis between each measurement, following results were obtained: 1. The protruded incisor showed narrow width of keratinized and attached gingiva comparing to non-protruded incisor. 2. The protruded incisor showed greater clinical crown height comparing to non-protruded side while there was no difference in the probing depth between protruded and non-protruded side. 3. The difference in the width of attached gingiva between protruded and non-protruded incisors showed higher significance in the lateral incisor than in the central incisor. 4. The degree of relative protrusion showed higher correlation with the width of attached gingiva than the degree of absolute protrusion. 5. Clinical crown height showed higher correlation with the width of attached gingiva than the degree of protrusion.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.131-150
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to observe the spread pattern of open source software (OSS) while establishing relations with surrounding actors during its operation period. In order to investigate the change pattern of participants in the OSS, we use a netnography on the basis of online data, which can trace the change patterns of the OSS depending on the passage of time. For this, the cases of three OSSs (e.g. jQuery, MooTools, and YUI), which are JavaScript frameworks, were compared, and the corresponding data were collected from the open application programming interface (API) of GitHub as well as blog and web searches. This research utilizes the translation process of the actor-network theory to categorize the stages of the change patterns on the OSS translation process. In the project commencement stage, we identified the type of three different OSS-related actors and defined associated relationships among them. The period, when a master commences a project at first, is refined through the course for the maintenance of source codes with persons concerned (i.e. project growth stage). Thereafter, the period when the users have gone through the observation and learning period by being exposed to promotion activities and codes usage respectively, and becoming to active participants, is regarded as the 'leap of participants' stage. Our results emphasize the importance of promotion processes in participants' selection of the OSS for participation and confirm the crowding-out effect that the rapid speed of OSS development retarded the emergence of participants.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.51-66
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• 2014

The relationship study between SMEs' R&D and business performance is important research subject. The objective of this paper is to evaluate whether the effectiveness of government's R&D subsidy for SMEs is supported. The positive perspective is that the support policy stimulates the SMEs innovation activities including R&D and thus contributes to the performance, but the negative view is that the support policy rather decreases the firm's own R&D investment and thus the result is not necessarily promising. This paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of government subsidy on SMEs' R&D. This study suggested DID and Random Effect Models for analysis using the panel data of 2,807 SMEs in manufacturing sector. The data was collected from the 'Survey on SMEs Technology & R&D 2011' conducted by Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business. The results are as follows. First, government's subsidy has crowded out 4.7% of beneficiary's internal R&D investment. Second, government's subsidy has increased 27.3% of beneficiary's R&D intensity in spite of 4.7% internal R&D investment reduction. Third, government's subsidy didn't have a relationship with firm performance but the R&D intensity made positive influence on the firm performance. Finally, R&D intensity has increased the 6.7% of firm performance. These results mean that government's subsidy give a positive impact on SMEs' performance through R&D intensity with relatively small crowding-out effect.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.1101-1121
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• 2016

Base isolation, one of the popular seismic protection approaches proven to be effective in practical applications, has been widely applied worldwide during the past few decades. As the techniques mature, it has been recognised that, the biggest issue faced in base isolation technique is the challenge of great base displacement demand, which leads to the potential of overturning of the structure, instability and permanent damage of the isolators. Meanwhile, drain, ventilation and regular maintenance at the base isolation level are quite difficult and rather time- and fund- consuming, especially in the highly populated areas. To address these challenges, a number of efforts have been dedicated to propose new isolation systems, including segmental building, additional storey isolation (ASI) and mid-storey isolation system, etc. However, such techniques have their own flaws, among which whipping effect is the most obvious one. Moreover, due to their inherent passive nature, all these techniques, including traditional base isolation system, show incapability to cope with the unpredictable and diverse nature of earthquakes. The solution for the aforementioned challenge is to develop an innovative vibration isolation system to realise variable structural stiffness to maximise the adaptability and controllability of the system. Recently, advances on the development of an adaptive magneto-rheological elastomer (MRE) vibration isolator has enlightened the development of adaptive base isolation systems due to its ability to alter stiffness by changing applied electrical current. In this study, an innovative semi-active storey isolation system inserting such novel MRE isolators between each floor is proposed. The stiffness of each level in the proposed isolation system can thus be changed according to characteristics of the MRE isolators. Non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm type II (NSGA-II) with dynamic crowding distance (DCD) is utilised for the optimisation of the parameters at isolation level in the system. Extensive comparative simulation studies have been conducted using 5-storey benchmark model to evaluate the performance of the proposed isolation system under different earthquake excitations. Simulation results compare the seismic responses of bare building, building with passive controlled MRE base isolation system, building with passive-controlled MRE storey isolation system and building with optimised storey isolation system.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.1-43
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• 2019

The significance of SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) is gradually highlighted as we have entered the age of "New Normal." The South Korean government support these enterprises to boost economic growth and create more jobs. It also releases numerous policies such as national R&D projects and expanding tax incentive services particularly aiming at promoting dramatic investment in R&D and technological innovation. There is a sharp contrast regarding the efficiency of direct or indirect supports for encouraging R&D investment launched by SMEs depending on researchers. However, there has been little attempt to explore the optimal combination of two policy tools. Amid promoting affiliated governmental departments in charge of SMEs policies and constantly growing R&D investment, it is an appropriate time to discuss the medium and long-term direction for the optimal policy mix of direct and indirect supports. In this study, the author obtained 32 relevant studies published earlier in the domestic journals, explored literatures more systematically, and further conducted a meta-analysis. It is dedicated to summarizing relevant controversies and organizes them empirically beyond merely verifying whether policy support stimulates private R&D investment by SMEs. The meta-analysis showed that it would be effective to support as tax for large enterprises, while subsidiary support for SMEs. However, indirect support needs to be progressively increased as direct support primarily accounts for the entire R&D support for South Korean SMEs.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.121-138
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• 2018

This study aims to suggest effective management performances of nonprofit arts organizations among competitive environment. To examine the factors which affect the performance of nonprofit performing arts organizations such as external environment, cultural capital, orchestra characters and government grants, this study analyzed the data of 990 tax forms of the US Internal Revenue Service(IRS) of the top 73 symphony orchestras and government sources in USA. Independent variables are measured as sponsorship amount which is the biggest part of orchestras' income, and ticket sales which is profit of inherent business purpose. As a result, the performance of the orchestra is affected positively by the income and influenced by the orchestras' characteristics including age, size, and conductor. Also government grants to the orchestras are essential for organizations to sustain their business. But, there are two different sides on these effects that small to medium groups are influenced by crowding in effect and bigger groups are more likely conducted by business overview. Lastly, cultural capital is no significant relationships to orchestras' management performances. This scope of the study is limited to American symphony orchestras; however, this study is significant in that empirical analysis on nonprofit performing arts organizations from an economic view point and contribute on other nonprofit arts organizations to develop their strategic plan for sustainable business.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.1-24
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• 2010

I. Introduction The industry of domestic discount store was reorganized with 2 bigs and 1 middle, and then Home Plus took over Home Ever in 2008. In present, Oct, 2008, E-Mart has 118 outlets, Home Plus 112 outlets, and Lotte Mart 60 stores. With total number of 403 outlets, they are getting closer to a saturation point. We know that the industry of discount store has been getting through the mature stage in retail life cycle. There are many efforts to maintain existing customers rather than to get new customers. These competitions in this industry lead firms to acknowledge 'store loyalty' to be the first strategic tool for their sustainable competitiveness. In other words, the strategic goal of discount store is to boost up the repurchase rate of customers throughout increasing store loyalty. If owners of retail shops can figure out main factors for store loyalty, they can easily make more efficient and effective retail strategies which bring about more sales and profits. In this practical sense, there are many papers which are focusing on the antecedents of store loyalty. Many researchers have been inspecting causal relationships between antecedents and store loyalty; store characteristics, store image, atmosphere in store, sales promotion in store, service quality, customer characteristics, crowding, switching cost, trust, satisfaction, commitment, etc., In recent times, many academic researchers and practitioners have been interested in 'dual path model for service loyalty'. There are two paths in store loyalty. First path has an emphasis on symbolic and emotional dimension of service brand, and second path focuses on quality of product and service. We will call the former an extrinsic path and call the latter an intrinsic path. This means that consumers' cognitive path for store loyalty is not single but dual. Existing studies for dual path model are as follows; First, in extrinsic path, some papers in domestic settings show that there is 'store personality-identification-loyalty' path. Second, service quality has an effect on loyalty, which is a behavioral variable, in the mediation of customer satisfaction. But, it's very difficult to find out an empirical paper applied to domestic discount store based on this mediating model. The domestic research for store loyalty concentrates on not only intrinsic path but also extrinsic path. Relatively, an attention for intrinsic path is scarce. And then, we acknowledge that there should be a need for integrating extrinsic and intrinsic path. Also, in terms of retail industry, this study is meaningful because retailers want to achieve their competitiveness by using store loyalty. And so, the purpose of this paper is to integrate and complement two existing paths into one specific model, dual path model. This model includes both intrinsic and extrinsic path for store loyalty. With this research, we would expect to understand the full process of forming customers' store loyalty which had not been clearly explained. In other words, we propose the dual path model for discount store loyalty which has been originated from store personality and service quality. This model is composed of extrinsic path, discount store personality$\rightarrow$store identification$\rightarrow$store loyalty, and intrinsic path, service quality of discount store$\rightarrow$customer satisfaction$\rightarrow$store loyalty. II. Research Model Dual path model integrates intrinsic path and extrinsic path into one specific model. Intrinsic path put an emphasis on quality characteristics and extrinsic path focuses on brand characteristics. Intrinsic path is based on information processing perspective, and extrinsic path emphasizes symbolic and emotional dimension of brand. This model is composed of extrinsic path, discount store personality$\rightarrow$store identification$\rightarrow$store loyalty, and intrinsic path, service quality of discount store$\rightarrow$customer satisfaction$\rightarrow$store loyalty. Hypotheses are as follows; Hypothesis 1: Service quality perceived by customers in discount store has an positive effect on customer satisfaction Hypothesis 2: Store personality perceived by customers in discount store has an positive effect on store identification Hypothesis 3: Customer satisfaction in discount store has an positive effect on store loyalty. Hypothesis 4: Store identification has an positive effect on store loyalty. III. Results and Implications We examined consumers who patronize discount stores for samples of this study. With the structural equation model(SEM) analysis, we empirically tested the validity and fitness of the dual path model for store loyalty in discount stores. As results, the fitness indices of this model were well fitted to data obtained. In an intrinsic path, service quality(SQ) is positively related to customer satisfaction(CS), customer satisfaction(CS) has very significantly positive effect on store loyalty(SL). Also, in an extrinsic path, the store personality(SP) is positively related to store identification(SI), it shows significant effect on store loyalty. Table 1 shows the results as follows; There are some theoretical and practical implications. First, Many studies on discount store loyalty have been executed from various perspectives. But there has been no integrative view on this issue. And so, this research was theoretically designed to integrate various and controversial arguments into one systematic model. We empirically tested dual path model forming store loyalty, and brought up a systematic and integrative framework for future studies. We want to expect creative and aggressive research activities. Second, a few established papers are focused on the relationship between antecedents and store loyalty; store characteristics, atmosphere, sales promotion in store, service quality, trust, commitment, etc., There has been some limits in understanding thoroughly the formation process of store loyalty with a singular path, intrinsic or extrinsic. Beyond these limits in single path, we could propose the new path for store loyalty. This is meaningful. Third, discount store firms make and execute marketing strategies for increasing store loyalty. This research provides real practitioners with reference framework needed for actual strategy formation. Because this paper shows integrated and systematic path for store loyalty. A special feature of this study is to represent 6 sub dimensions of service quality in intrinsic path and 4 sub dimensions of store personality in extrinsic path. Marketers can make more analytic marketing planning with concrete sub dimensions of service quality and store personality. When marketers of discount stores make strategic planning like MPR, Ads, campaign, sales promotion, they can use many items which are more competitive than competitors.

• Economic Analysis
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.1-33
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• 2020

Recent discussions about a minimum wage increase (MWI) and its influence on the economy have mainly focused on the quantitative aspects, such as labor costs and employment. However, concerning the qualitative aspects, an MWI could have positive effects by enhancing firm productivity and crowding out marginal firms from the market. These positive effects of an MWI can offset, to some extent, its potential negative effects - increasing labor costs and decreasing employment, among others. In this regard we empirically examine the impact of an MWI on firm productivity (total factor productivity). Using firm level panel data from the manufacturing industry in Korea, we calculate the influence rates of a minimum wage by sector and by firm size (number of workers), and analyze its effects on firm productivity. In particular, the production functions of the firms are estimated by taking into account endogeneity among the input factors, in order to resolve the drawbacks of existing studies - underestimating the capital factor coefficient and overestimating the labor factor coefficient. This study finds that the influences of an MWI on wages, employment, and productivity are substantially different across sectors and firm sizes. While an MWI has shown to have positive influences on productivity growth in the manufacturing industry as a whole, each sector demonstrates a different direction of effect, and the degree of productivity change also varies by sector. The impacts of an MWI on firm productivity are generally estimated to be more negative for smaller firms, but in some sectors the effects are found to be positive. In addition, the wage increases resulting from an MWI seem to cause a productivity enhancement across all sectors in the manufacturing industry. The policy implications of this study are as follows. Considering the empirical findings that an MWI causes an increase in productivity in many sectors of the manufacturing industry, it would be desirable to take into consideration not only the negative side effects but also the positive effects of an MWI when designing any future minimum wage policy. Moreover, in spite of there being a uniform minimum wage, this study finds that the diverse influence rates of a minimum wage across firms have different impacts on wages, employment, and productivity across sectors or firm size. This finding could be conducive to discussions about differentiation among minimum wage schemes by sector or firm size.

• The korean journal of orthodontics
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.399-410
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• 2011

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the difference in frictional resistance among metal, ceramic, self-ligation brackets and coated or non-coated Ni-Ti archwires at various bracket-archwire angulations during the sliding movement of an orthodontic archwire, using an orthodontic sliding simulation device. Methods: Four types of bracket (Micro-arch Perpect Clear2 Clippy-C and Damon3 and 5 types of orthodontic archwire (0.014", 0.016", and 0.016" ${\times}$ 0.022" inch coated Ni-Ti, and 0.016" and 0.016" ${\times}$ 0.022" inch Ni-Ti) were used. Further, the bracket- archwire angles were set at 4 different angulations: $0^{\circ}$, $3^{\circ}$, $6^{\circ}$, and $9^{\circ}$. Results: The frictions from all the experimental groups were found to be significantly increased in order of self-ligation brackets, Micro-arch and Perpect Clear2 ($p$ < 0.001). The presence of a coat had no effect on the friction of the same sized archwires at $0^{\circ}$ and $3^{\circ}$ bracket-archwire angles ($p$ < 0.001). Coated archwires had significantly higher frictions than the same sized non-coated archwires at $6^{\circ}$ and $9^{\circ}$ bracket-archwire angles ($p$ < 0.001). The frictions increased significantly as the bracket-archwire angles were increased ($p$ < 0.001). Conclusions: The use of self-ligation brackets will be beneficial in clinical situations where a low frictional force is required. Further, in cases where crowding is not severe, the use of coated archwires should not cause problems. However, more additional explanation is required considering the fact that the damage of coated archwire and exposure of the metal portion in case of binding and notching and the effects of saliva were not taken into account.