• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2019.05a
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• pp.162-162
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• 2019

Water Distribution Network (WDN) is a critical infrastructure to be maintained ensuring proper water supply to wide-spread consumers. The WDN consists of pipes, valves, pumps and tanks, and these elements interact each other to provide adequate system performance. If elements fail by internal or external interruptions, it may result in adverse impact to water service with different degree depending on the failed element. To determine an appropriate maintenance priority, the critical elements need to be identified and mapped in the network. In order to identify and prioritize the critical elements in WDN, an element-based simulation approach is proposed, in which all the elements composing the WDN are reviewed one at a time. The element-based criticality is measured using several resilience indexes that are newly developed in this study. The proposed resilience indexes are used to quantify the impacts of element failure to water service degradation. Here, three resilience indexes are developed, such as User Demand Severity, Economic Value Loss and Water Age Degradation, each of which intends to measure different aspects of consequences, such as social, economic, and water quality, respectively. For demonstration, the proposed approach is applied to a benchmark water network to identify and prioritize the critical elements.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.61-68
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• 2021

Purpose: Retailing is one of the fastest-growing sectors in Vietnam. In the sight of foreign investors, the Vietnamese retailing market is very prospective. However, the current competition is very intensive, and retailers are keen on gaining new customers. Hence, Vietnamese retailers have paid more attention to customer loyalty. Saigon Co.op is one of the largest retailers in Vietnam, but its consumers have more choices over a retailer. As a result, Saigon Co.op has realized the significance of customer loyalty. This study aims to determine the factors impacting customer loyalty of Saigon Co.op supermarket in Vietnam. Research design, data and methodology: this study applied the multiple regression analysis with 250 samples collected from Saigon Co.op customers. The questionnaire is provided to respondents via Google Form, and the link is sent to the fan page of Co.op mart on Facebook. Two hundred eighty-seven samples were collected, but 37 samples were removed due to missing values. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and regression analysis are used for data analysis on SPSS software version 20. Results: The findings show all four determinants of Saigon Co.op's customer loyalty, including Product Quality, Brand Image, Price Strategy and Service Quality. Conclusions: managerial recommendations are provided for supermarkets to improve their customer loyalty in Vietnam and other emerging markets. Limitations and suggestions for further research are also discussed.

• Communications for Statistical Applications and Methods
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.393-410
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• 2021

The Korean Long-Term Care Insurance (K-LTCI) provides financial support for long-term care service to people who need various types of assistance with daily activities. As the number of elderly people in Korea is expected to increase in the future, the demand for long-term care insurance would also increase over time. Projection of future expenditure on K-LTCI depends on the number of beneficiaries within the grading system of K-LTCI based on the test scores of applicants. This study investigated the suitability of mixture distributions to the model K-LTCI score distribution using recent empirical data on K-LTCI, provided by the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS). Based on the developed mixture models, the number of beneficiaries in each grade and its variability under the current grading system were estimated by simulation. It was observed that a mixture model is suitable for K-LTCI score distribution and may prove useful in devising a funding plan for K-LTCI benefit payment and investigating the effects of any possible revision in the K-LTCI grading system.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.241-248
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• 2022

This study examines changes in income for Vietnam's service labors during COVID-19. A person's income depends on several factors, such as educational level, working area, the number of activities creating jobs, the cost of living, investment, etc. This research was based on a survey of 479 workers in Vietnam's service sector, who were evenly distributed across sectors (tourism and aviation) and workplaces (State and private). Based on the collected data, the REM regression model was used to analyze the factors influencing employee income when COVID-19 took place. The research returns show that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a considerable influence on labor incomes, and there are income disparities that exist between workers by work area and by gender. This study indicates that workers' wages in Vietnam decreased by an average of 12.22 million VND per month after the outbreak of COVID-19. In addition, the results also show that the income of workers after COVID-19 differs depending on their position (the average salary of laborers working in the public sector is about 3.946 million VND higher than the average salary of laborers in the private sector); furthermore, the incomes of workers also vary by gender.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.109-115
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• 2023

This paper studied the problem of determining the optimal inventory level to meet the customer service target level in a situation where the customer demand for each branch of a nationwide retailer is uncertain. To this end, ISR (In-Stock Ratio) was defined as a key management indicator (KPI) that can be used from the perspective of a nationwide retailer such as Samsung, LG, or Apple that sells goods at branches nationwide. An optimization model was established to allow the retailer to minimize the total amount of inventory held at each branch while meeting the customer service target level defined as the average ISR. This paper proves that there is always an optimal solution in the model and expresses the optimal solution in a generalized form using the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker condition regardless of the shape of the probability distribution of customer demand. In addition, this paper studied the case where customer demand follows a specific probability distribution such as a normal distribution, and an expression representing the optimal inventory level for this case was derived.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.22 no.8
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• pp.137-145
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• 2024

Purpose: This paper aims to reveal similarities and differences in behaviors in negative consumer-brand relationships. Thus, we focused on consumer motivation which includes intensity and direction of behaviors. The motivation for negative customer behavior has been discussed in the context of brand hate, but there is only limited research that has tried to measure it using quantitative methods. We are trying to measure customers' motivation in negative consumer-brand relationships and reveal the relationship between in-field customers' negative behaviors. Research design, data, and methodology: We adopt Reactive-Proactive aggression to measure the motivation of customers' behaviors in a negative consumer-brand relationship. Also, to reveal the relationship between in-field behavior and customer aggression, we survey Korean game communities to reactive-proactive aggression and behaviors, whether they participate, in each observed behavior during the serial negative consumer movements that occurred in the Korean game industry. As a methodology, we run multinomial logistic regression. Results: We observed 9 behaviors in this case, and we found that reactive-proactive aggression is related to participation and motivation of these behaviors. Conclusions: We suggest the potential of reactive-proactive aggression as motivation for customers' complex negative behaviors. Based on this potential, we hope reactive-proactive aggression could be used to reveal similarities and differences in behaviors in negative consumer-brand relationships.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.16 no.11
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• pp.57-64
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• 2018

Purpose - As the importance of salesperson attitudes and behaviors enhancing customer perception and loyalty have increased, many retail companies put emphasis on internal marketing activities. The issue also has captured the interest of academics, but most of the previous research tends to be limited to investigating antecedents of salesperson job satisfaction and commitment. Based on the consumer-brand relationship concepts, this study aims to examine the effects of the salesperson-brand relationships on customers' service evaluation and store loyalty. Research design, data, and methodology - In a structural equation model, it is hypothesized that salesperson brand identification influences salespersons' brand trust and affect, which are the two dimensions of consumer-brand relationships. Salespersons' brand trust and affect are expected to increase salespersons' customer orientation, which in turn influences customers' service evaluations and store loyalty. To test this hypotheses a set of data collected from department stores in Seoul is utilized. Results - First, it was found that salesperson brand identification is a significant antecedent to salespersons' brand trust and affects, the two dimensions of salesperson brand relationships. Second, salespersons' brand trust and affect were found to enhance salespersons' customer-oriented behaviors. Third, salespersons' customer orientation showed a significant effect on customers' service evaluation. When a salesperson makes more effort to provide useful information for fulfilling customer needs, customers evaluate the salesperson's service more positively. Finally, customers' service evaluation had a positive impact on customers' store loyalty. Conclusions - This study provides significant academic and practical implications. First, based on the theory of consumer-brand relationships, the concept of salesperson-brand relationships was introduced and found to be an effective motivator of salespersons' customer oriented attitudes and behaviors. Therefore, the two dimensions of brand relationships, brand trust and affect, should be considered as the critical factors both in developing theoretical research and improving long-term company performance. Also, internal marketing activities should focus on maximizing employees' brand identification. That is, retail companies need to put emphasis on sharing their brand values and personality with internal customers to strengthen the brand relationships with salespersons and to enhance customer responses.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.5-22
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• 2007

This research is focused on the effects of salesmen's service-justice and using the IT devices on customer response. Specially, I want to know for the response when our customer take the service from the salesmen. From analysis of the resulting data, using the IT devices are increased the quality of salesmen's service-justice. Salesmen's distributive-justice affects to positive the relationship quality. But procedural justice and interactional justice cannot affect to positive the relationship quality. Maybe, I think that the reason will be a feature of insurance goods. And relationship quality affect to positive the customer's response. There are limitations on generalization due to the results based on only insurance industry, but this study will be a useful exploratory step before designing a future survey.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.107-121
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• 2020

Purpose: Shared mobility services are the most notable in the shared economy; however, they have yet to be activated in Korea due to various regulations and conflicts amongst stakeholders. Nevertheless, shared mobility has become an irresistible trend of the times, as it can cause a great deal of economic and environmental benefits. In this vein, the purpose of this study is to contribute to the revitalization of shared mobility services in Korea and to provide service providers with implications for developing consumer-oriented marketing strategies. Research design, data and methodology: Based on the reasons that the users do not use shared mobility service, the factors influencing the behaviors of shared mobility users are structured and analyzed in a reliable, technical and procedural manner. To this end, the theory of reasoned action (TRA) of Ajzen and Fisbbein, the initial trust model (ITM), task technology fit (TTF) and switching cost (SC) are adopted. A total of 202 questionnaires were collected from the respondents who were aware of shared mobility. Then statistical processing of the collected data used SmartPLS(v.3.2.8), a PLS-SEM (Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling) analysis program. The steps of the analysis are as follows. First, a PLS-Algorithm analysis was performed to evaluate the measurement model, and a Bootstraping and Blindfolding analysis was performed to evaluate the structural model and verify the hypotheses. Second, a multi-group analysis (PLS-MGA) was conducted to further analyze the differences depending on whether or not users experienced shared mobility service. Results: The results showed that initial trusts model (ITM) and task technology fit (TTF) have positive effects on users' behaviors through the mediation of the intention to use. As opposed to the assumption, switching costs did not have negative moderating effects in relation to the intention to use and users' behaviors. The influence of IT self-efficacy was significant, depending on the prior experience to use shared mobility services. Conclusions: This study will contribute to the revitalization of domestic shared mobility services and the formulation of service providers' marketing strategies. In future studies, there is a need to explore, reconstruct, and validate factors other than the impact factors of the shared mobility services used in this research model.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.87-97
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• 2020

Purpose: The aim of this study is to understand the internal and external responses that consumers experience when they are exposed to an innovative system in retail stores. This study considered the SST(Self-Service Technology) system in a retail setting as a type of functional environmental stimuli and selected a smart shopping cart as an example of SST system. The influences of functional environmental stimuli on consumers' emotional, cognitive, and behavioral responses were examined by applying S-O-R model. In addition, this study attempted to extend the traditional S-O-R model by (a) incorporating personal characteristics variables such as time pressure and perceived crowding and (b) considering not only emotional but also cognitive aspects of consumers' internal responses. Research Design, Data, and Methodology: This study used a video-scenario technique. Participants watched a video about grocery shopping situations using a smart shopping cart and responded to their emotional, cognitive, and behavioral responses. An online survey was conducted using Amazon's Mechanical Turk (N = 185). All participants were US consumers over 20 years old and had been shopping at the grocery store in the last month. Data were analyzed through structural equations modeling with AMOS 20. Results: Test results showed that consumers who perceived higher levels of time pressure and perceived crowding in usual shopping situations were more likely to evaluate the SST system favorably. The results showed that personal characteristics have a significant impact on consumers' evaluation of functional environmental stimuli in retail setting. As consumers evaluated the SST system favorably, they experienced more positive affect and less negative affect during their shopping behaviors. Positive affect led to good service quality inference, which further increased patronize intention. However, negative affect did not show a significant impact on service quality inference, but only on patronize intention. Conclusions: This study attempted to investigate the influence of SST system by extending the traditional S-O-R model. This study classified the SST system as functional environmental stimulus of retail stores and analyzed the effect of stimulus on consumers' internal and external responses. The results of this study showed that the introduction of innovative SST can serve as an effective store differentiation strategy in an increasingly competitive retail environment.