• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.23-35
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• 2009

A hypermarket as the one of the most globally standardized retailing format is also the type of store among various types of stores that the most active in expanding into other foreign markets. Recently, as several Korean retailing companies start to penetrate into Chinese market they differentiate themselves with modern facilities and customers service oriented high-end concept. China and Korea as Far East Asian countries share many common values, however precise and careful analysis should be carried out since there may also be critical differences in socio-economic aspects as well as in consumption patterns due to the level of development stages of retail industry among two countries. Even though precise and careful study is crucial on Chinese retailing market and consumers, none of researches and studies on 'how the quality of service dimensional structure is different between Korea and China', and 'what will be the most important and influential service dimensional factors for Chinese consuers compared to the hypermarkets customers in Korea' in order to improve the level of Chinese consumers satisfaction' have been fulfilled At this point of view, this study uses KD-SQS (Rho Eun Jung & Sir Yong Gu, 2008) which is a measure of Korean hypermarkets service quality to set up a hypothesis on Korean and Chinese consumers, and an empirical analysis is conducted. We try to get the answers about how the comparative importance of Service quality dimensions which decides the level of customer satisfaction is different depending on the cultural dimensions and socio-economic factors among two countries, Korea and China. Based upon the results, we try to give a valuable suggestion of what service dimensional factors should be reinforced to improve the level of CS in Chinese retailing market. Hypotheses for this study are as follows : H1. Each dimension of Service Quality significantly affects the level of CS H2. The effect of 'Basic Benefit' in service quality dimensions on the level of CS is greater in China than in Korea H3. The effect of 'Promotion' in service quality dimensions on the level of CS is greater in China than in Korea H4. The effect of 'Physical Aspects'in service quality dimensions on the level of CS is greater in Korea than in China. H5. The effect of 'Personal Interaction' in service quality dimensions on the level of CS is greater in China than in Korea H6. The effect of 'Policy' in service quality dimensions on the level of CS will be greater in Korean than in China H7. The effect of additional convenience in service quality dimensions on the level of CS will be greater in Korean than in China. More than 1,100 data were collected directly from the surveys of Chinese and Korean consumers in order to verify the hypotheses above. In Korea, stores which have floor space of over $9,000m^2$and opened later than year 2000 were selected for the samples, and thus Gayang, Wolgye, Sangbong, Eunpyeong, Suh-Suwon, Gojan stores and their customers were surveyed. In China, notable differences in the income levels and consumer behaviors between cities and regions were considered, and thus the research area was limited to the stores only in Shanghai. 6 stores which have the size of over $6,000m^2$ and opened later than 2000, such as Ruihong, Intu, Mudanjang, Sanrin, Raosimon, and Ranchao stores were selected for the survey. SPSS 12.0 and AMOS 7.0 were used as statistical tools, and exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and multi-group analysis were conducted. In order to carry out a multi group analysis that decides whether the structure variables which shows the different effects of 6 service dimensions in Korean and Chinese groups is statistically valid, configural invariance, metric invariance, and structural invariance are tested in order. At the results of the tests, 3 out of 7 hypotheses were supported and other 4 hypotheses were denied. According to the study, 4 dimensions (Basic Benefit, Physical Environment, Policy, and additional convenience) were positively correlated with CS in Korea, and 3 dimensions (i.e. basic benefit, policy, additional convenience) were significant in China. However, the significance of the service-dimensions was turned out to be partially different in Korea and China. The Basic Benefit is more influential in deciding the level of CS in china than Korea, however Physical Aspect is more important factor in Korea. 'Policy dimension' did not make significant difference between two countries. In the 'additional convenience dimension', the differences in 'socio-economic factors' than in'cultural background' were considered as more important in Chinese consumers than Korean. Overall, the improvement of Service quality will be crucial factors to increase the level of CS in Chinese market same as Korean market. In addition, more emphases need to be placed on the service qualities of 'Basic Benefit' and 'additional convenience' dimensions in China. In particular, 'low price' and 'product diversity' that constitute 'Basic Benefit' are proved to be comparatively disadvantageous and weak points of Korean companies compared to global players, and thus the prompt strengthening those dimensions would be urgent for Korean retailers. Moreover, additional conveniences such as various tenants and complex service and entertaining area will be more important in China than in Korea. Besides, Applying advanced Korean Hypermaret`s customer policy to Chinese consumers will help to get higher reliability and to differentiate themselves to other competitors. However, as personal interaction, physical aspect, promotions were proved as not significant for the level of CS in China, Korean companies need to reconsider the priority order of resource allocations when they tap into Chinese market.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.13 no.7
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• pp.307-319
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• 2019

This study aims to provide the basic materials for the development of leisure and tourism contents in connection with Osaek cableway for the revitalization of Osaek District. For such a purpose, the following policy directions were presented through the analysis of the present situation and conditions of Osaek District, the direction of development of leisure and tourism contents of Osaek District, etc. The first is increasing the participation of local residents and reinforcing their capabilities. The suggested promotion plans are ① establishing organizational system and strengthening support, ② reinforcing the capabilities of local residents and ③ constructing networks with external human resources. The second is setting the guidelines for contents development. It was proposed to prepare contents for leisure experience using the natural environment of Osaek District in response to the trend of increase of people who enjoy "contents using culture and arts" and leisure. The third is typological approach to contents. It was proposed to develop cultural contents with the theme of Osaek such as "Osaek Light Festival", "Osaek Concert", "Osaek Photo Exhibition" and "Osaek Good Men and Women Contest" for the promotion of the brand of the place name of Osaek and the creation of the "Picture Book Village" for the compilation of the history and culture of Osaek District with pictures. The fourth is securing marketing channels. For this, it was proposed to produce the website of Yangyang County or a website tentatively named as "Osaek-ri with Beautiful Osaek" and introduce an integrated travel product (transportation + lodging + foods + experience (hot spring, mineral water therapy, leisure experience, etc.) + purchasing local specialty products, etc.) composed of the leisure and tourism contents, transportation, lodging, foods, etc. of Osaek District through travel agencies. The final policy direction presented was phased implementation of the development and operation of the contents. Proposed policies include support of a consulting project to upgrade the organization of local residents; implementation of "Tourism Dure (Cooperative)" project for the solution of the problem of tourism in Osaek District by the residents themselves together using the space of culture and arts made by remodeling idle public and private facilities after benchmarking exemplary places; system improvement for the introduction of leisure and tourism contents appropriate for local conditions; and the establishment of a master plan for the introduction of various leisure and tourism contents in Osaek District.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.41-68
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• 2006

Today, Manufacturing companies execute the logistics outsourcing that commits the non-core logistic function to the specialized logistics corporation, which makes the manufacturing company focus on its core competence, product development and marketing, reduces logistics cost and improves customer service level. Recently, Logistics outsourcing is developed into cooperative sourcing based on the partnership. Case study on the logistics outsourcing will provide the good guideline for planning of the outsourcing strategy. The objective of this research is making a sense about 4PL through the case of UPS-Samsung Electro-Mechanics and catching major issue to provide the guideline for the cooperation outsourcing strategy. We investigated historical backgrounds of the logistics outsourcing between UPS and Samsung Electro-Mechanics. We also investigated problems occurred in outsourcing process at the five dimensions-organizational problem, CEO's short-term views, cultural gap between two companies, integration of IT system, and different understanding about outcomes. We expect to give many implications to manufacturing companies which want to cooperate with specialized logistics corporation.

• Journal of Conservation Science
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.85-95
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• 2017

Oil paints are mixtures of pigments, drying oils and additives. In the past, oil paints were mainly composed of inorganic pigments. However, recently color matching techniques vary depending on manufacturers due to the development of various kinds of synthetic pigments. Despite this, most studies of oil paints in South Korea are about durability tests, and there is no comparative study on the characteristics of commercial oil paint components. This study aims to compare the properties of four different kinds of oil paints from four manufacturers, which are the most popularity used. Extender pigments in oil paint from C brand differed from that of other manufacturers and various kinds of coloring pigments were differently used depending on the oil paints and the manufacturers. The mixing ratios and the pigment types differed even for oil paints having the same product name. It is assumed that these differences could affect the colors. The result of this study is expected to contribute to the analysis of artworks through the accumulation of scientific data of oil paints. In addition, it can be utilized as a scientific basis for art history studies, including the characteristics of artists or production year.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.28 no.11
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• pp.1834-1845
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• 2018

The lactobacilli associated with a fermented goat milk product from Tajikistan were isolated to characterize their technological properties and antibiotic resistances in order to assess their suitability for development as starter cultures. In this study, twenty three strains were identified by 16S rRNA sequencing as typical dairy-associated lactic acid bacterial strains, i.e. L. plantarum, L. pentosus, L. delbrueckii, L. helveticus and L. paracasei. These strains were generally susceptible to most antibiotics tested in this study and this allowed a selection of strains as safe starters. The draft genomes of four representative strains were sequenced and the number of contigs of the four assembled genomes ranged from 51 to 245 and the genome sizes ranged from 1.75 to 3.24 Mbp. These representative strains showed differences in their growth behavior and pH-reducing abilities in in vitro studies. The co-inoculation of these Lactobacillus spp. strains together with a yeast Kluyveromyces marxianus MBT-5698, or together with the yeast and an additional Streptococcus thermophilus MBT-2, led to a pH reduction to 3.4 after 48 h. Only in the case of fermentation inoculated with the co-culture, the viscosity of the milk increased noticeably. In contrast, fermentations with single strains did not lead to gelation of the milk or to a decrease in the pH after 24h. The results of this study provide a comprehensive understanding of the predominant lactobacilli related to Tajikistani fermented milk products.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.12 no.9
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• pp.340-347
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• 2012

In Korea, the game software and service industry is the core cultural industry from it's significant academic and policy. However, recent growth is slowing down because of increasing competition in the industry. In other words, most of the companies growth have reached limit caused by focusing only on short-term revenue-generating management, Therefore, the game software and service companies are needed to emphasize strategic planning of R&D and product development based on the long-term perspective. The purpose of this analysis is to measure the efficiency of management by data envelopment analysis(DEA), using data from 20 companies in the game software and service industry. Input variances are number of labor, total asset, and total investment and output variances are total sale and enterprise value. The results are followings: First, There was a different efficiency between the companies in the game software and service industry. The eight companies was inefficiency. Second, six inefficiency companies were excessive number of the employees and investment assets. third, four companies were CRS, five companies were IRS and eleven companies were DRS. From the result, five companies have to increase the scale of input variance and eleven companies also have to improve efficiency of input variance.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.492-506
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• 2008

This paper aims to explore the characteristics of regional network of Korean firms in Dalian City, China, which is focused on social, cultural and institutional characteristics. To achieve this goal, the paper attempts to analyze the supply of raw material and parts, sales and cooperative relations of the firms. Among Korean firms in Dalian City, the characteristic of non-local network can be seen in supply enterprise of raw material, parts and semi products. On the other hand, a tighter local network relationship can be seen in sales. Large companies appear stronger in non-local network than small businesses and small businesses are stronger in local network. In terms of cooperation among enterprises, many firms have networks of joint marketing, joint use of equipments, exchange of techniques and information with the supply enterprise. With the customer enterprise, there is a network in joint marketing and manpower training. Especially, most of the customer enterprises are Chinese ones, which have extensive networks in big cities, such as in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Tianjin and Dalian. In local network, the Korean firms in Dalian cooperate in product development, finance and manpower training with local firms. And in non-local cooperation, Korean firms are active in tech support, information exchange and R&D.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.38
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• pp.15-36
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• 1988

In this paper, I consider the development of methods in contemporary human geography in terms of a dialectical relation of action and structure, and try to draw a new horizon of method toward which geographical research and spatial theory would develop. The positivist geography which was dominent during 1960s has been faced both with serious internal reflections and strong external criticisms in the 1970s. The internal reflections that pointed out its ignorance of spatial behavior of decision-makers and its simplication of complex spatial relations have developed behavioural geography and systems-theoretical approach. Yet this kinds of alternatives have still standed on the positivist, geography, even though they have seemed to be more real and complicate than the previous one, The external criticisms that have argued against the positivist method as phenomenalism and instrumentalism suggest some alternatives: humanistic geography which emphasizes intention and action of human subject and meaning-understanding, and structuralist geography which stresses on social structure as a totality which would produce spatial phenomena, and a theoretical formulation. Human geography today can be characterized by a strain and conflict between these methods, and hence rezuires a synthetic integration between them. Philosophy and social theory in general are in the same in which theories of action and structural analysis have been complementary or conflict with each other. Human geography has fallen into a further problematic with the introduction of a method based on so-called political ecnomy. This method has been suggested not merely as analternative to the positivist geography, but also as a theoretical foundation for critical analysis of space. The political economy of space with has analyzed the capitalist space and tried to theorize its transformation may be seen either as following humanistic(or Hegelian) Marxism, such as represented in Lefebvre's work, or as following structuralist Marxism, such as developed in Castelles's or Harvey's work. The spatial theory following humanistic Marxism has argued for a dialectic relation between 'the spatial' and 'the social', and given more attention to practicing human agents than to explaining social structures. on the contray, that based on structuralist Marxism has argued for social structures producing spatial phenomena, and focused on theorising the totality of structures, Even though these two perspectives tend more recently to be convergent in a way that structuralist-Marxist. geographers relate the domain of economic and political structures with that of action in their studies of urban culture and experience under capitalism, the political ecnomy of space needs an integrated method with which one can overcome difficulties of orthhodox Marxism. Some novel works in philosophy and social theory have been developed since the end of 1970s which have oriented towards an integrated method relating a series of concepts of action and structure, and reconstructing historical materialism. They include Giddens's theory of structuration, foucault's geneological analysis of power-knowledge, and Habermas's theory of communicative action. Ther are, of course, some fundamental differences between these works. Giddens develops a theory which relates explicitly the domain of action and that of structure in terms of what he calls the 'duality of structure', and wants to bring time-space relations into the core of social theory. Foucault writes a history in which strategically intentional but nonsubjective power relations have emerged and operated by virtue of multiple forms of constrainst wihthin specific spaces, while refusing to elaborate any theory which would underlie a political rationalization. Habermas analyzes how the Western rationalization of ecnomic and political systems has colonized the lifeworld in which we communicate each other, and wants to formulate a new normative foundation for critical theory of society which highlights communicatie reason (without any consideration of spatial concepts). On the basis of the above consideration, this paper draws a new norizon of method in human geography and spatial theory, some essential ideas of which can be summarized as follows: (1) the concept of space especially in terms of its relation to sociery. Space is not an ontological entity whch is independent of society and has its own laws of constitution and transformation, but it can be produced and reproduced only by virtue of its relation to society. Yet space is not merlely a material product of society, but also a place and medium in and through which socety can be maintained or transformed.(2) the constitution of space in terms of the relation between action and structure. Spatial actors who are always knowledgeable under conditions of socio-spatial structure produce and reproduce their context of action, that is, structure; and spatial structures as results of human action enable as well as constrain it. Spatial actions can be distinguished between instrumental-strategicaction oriented to success and communicative action oriented to understanding, which (re)produce respectively two different spheres of spatial structure in different ways: the material structure of economic and political systems-space in an unknowledged and unitended way, and the symbolic structure of social and cultural life-space in an acknowledged and intended way. (3) the capitalist space in terms of its rationalization. The ideal development of space would balance the rationalizations of system space and life-space in a way that system space providers material conditions for the maintainance of the life-space, and the life-space for its further development. But the development of capitalist space in reality is paradoxical and hence crisis-ridden. The economic and poltical system-space, propelled with the steering media like money, and power, has outstriped the significance of communicative action, and colonized the life-space. That is, we no longer live in a space mediated communicative action, but one created for and by money and power. But no matter how seriously our everyday life-space has been monetalrized and bureaucratised, here lies nevertheless the practical potential which would rehabilitate the meaning of space, the meaning of our life on the Earth.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.160-174
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• 2005

Despite the decrease in the number of children due to low birth rate, the domestic children's apparel market has been achieving steady growth as family income is rising thanks to more opportunities for working women, parents spend more on their children, and they prefer brand products that make their children look special. In addition, the market is suffering from hard competition as large enterprises have joined the race. The present study purposed to survey the children's apparel market in Korea, which is in a transitional period, and to contribute to the development of the market with Korean brands. For this purpose, we analyzed the characteristics of children's apparel brands in the 21st century based on the current state of the domestic children's apparel market and, based on the findings, forecasted the future trend of children's apparel brands, suggested improvements for expected problems, proposed standards for coping with changes such as diversification, high quality and differentiation in the children's apparel market, and provided consumers with information on how to purchase products. According to the result of analyzing the characteristics of children's apparel brands in the 21st century, brands are categorized largely into four types - life cultural brands, functional product brands, character brands and brands advancing to China. Life cultural brands equipped with all necessities for children are expanding, and with the deepening social problems of environmental pollution and the reduction of the child population, functional products made of environment-friendly materials are spreading widely, targeting infants and children. Furthermore, for extending age targets and diversifying products, children's apparel is using characters. The use of characters is expected to have a considerable effect on the growth of brands because children are more subjective as consumers than before and they are more easily persuaded with characters. Domestic children's apparel brands advancing to China have a high expectation of success in overcoming the limitation of the local market that has reached its peak and growing into global brands. Korean apparel makers are struggling to overcome the depressed domestic market, to recover consumers' consumption, to cope with market opening, to pursue high value of sensibility and to expand the seniors' market, etc. In this situation, future trends of children's apparel brands will be the expansion of family brands, brand totalization, quality price, niche market (pre-teen market), etc. In response to these trends, we made the following suggestions for improvement. 1. Children's apparel brands are evolving into family brands as well as into total brands through voluming. Today, however, apparel makers are advancing to the children's apparel market with the concept of adults' apparel and, as a result, children's apparel is merely adults' apparel of reduced size, having problems in design, color and materials. Thus, apparel makers must develop design considering the wide range of size and the characteristics of children's apparel, strengthen sourcing abilities to create revenues, and make thorough survey of customers to find common denominators between adults' apparel and children's apparel considering that characteristic that the target class is different from the buyer class. Furthermore, they must make active investments in human resources, develop outstanding products through advanced planning and design, and support marketing techniques and management systems to stores. 2. As the declining birth rate will continue to have a negative effect on the market, it may be difficult to expand the market size but there is still a margin for growth through high-sensibility and high-quality products. The competitiveness of brands is determined by their market shares. Accordingly, concepts should be specialized according to lifestyle, customers' diverse needs should be satisfied, and cross-coordination should be achieved within a brand. 3. Considering Korean parents who do not spare investment in their children despite shrinking consumption, functional products must be high value-added goods that can enhance efficiency. However, in the current situation of the infants' apparel industry where a textile manufacturer supply its products to multiple brands, it is difficult to develop unique products only based on materials. Thus, it is considered urgent to appeal to consumers not by relying on materials only but by finding methods of applying their own characters to children's dress.

• Archives of design research
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.95-104
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• 2004

Creativity is a important keyword for users as well as for main design organization who needs it. But little attention has been given to the aspect of user's creativity, also there has been a few attempt to apply it into design development until now. Nowadays in design areas, user's experiences and actions are changing the passive states receiving meanings into the active states creating meanings voluntarily. It is resonable to suppose that creative stage is important for users and they have the possibility of new ideas of uses and creating new productions. User's experiences of objects includes that of being formed or supported previously and that of voluntary interpretations acquired for himself, which it may be the possibilities predicted in design process or unknown user's action areas. It is likely that creative use process by themselves are the actions applied and deviated from usability and function by main design organization, also creative productions are arranged and made by users. These have a scope of examination and research in probability that is occurs frequently in user. In this research, approaching with a term, 'User gestures', User gestures are the characteristic action areas based on user's voluntary behaviors, where are revealed a unessential and non-operational function as a action itself and various transformation and creation of products as a outcome of action. This fact proves clearly that user gestures have a worth of alive spectrum to observe aspects of user culture and could be a attractive approach to seek easily new design concept for designer and developer. A further direction of this study will be following areas, Ethnography methods research of user gestures, Cultural research to phenomenon of user design and UGSBD(User gesture scenario based design) research. And it seems probable that they are applied in design development as follows, User initiative customization products, User participatory recycling products and creativity-experience design.