• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.75-97
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• 2013

While good return policies are suggested as one of the critical services for e-commerce, ambivalence between the burden of the cost and shoppers' satisfaction may prevent e-tailers from increasing their level of leniency. Based on the S-O-R model, this study has attempted to develop a grounded theory to explain how lenient return policies shape online shoppers' perceptions and responses, with a focus on cultural influences in the relationship. In order to check the cultural effects of the lenient return policy, thirty two female and eleven male undergraduate students in South Korean shoppers, who are accustomed to strict return policies, participated in the semi-structured interview. A series of open-ended questions were designed to explore consumers' reactions toward four different levels of the lenient return policy: from the strict type in South Korea to the lenient type in the U.S. Using qualitative research methods, this research has defined three types of dimensions of lenient return policy: return possible period, complexity of progress, and other restrictions. While previous researchers did not pay much attention, the last dimension, other restrictions, is shown to be the most significant in influencing online shoppers' perceptions, especially in South Korea. Also, the impacts on online shoppers' perceptions from the three types of sub-dimensions of return policy were somewhat different. Whereas a longer return possible period was considered more favorable, a medium level of complexity and restrictions were considered more desirable. In summary, this result showed that shoppers in Eastern cultures, i.e. South Korean online shoppers, seem favorable to a medium level of lenient return policies, while allowing for taking precautions against possible fraudulent behaviors and setting other restrictions. Therefore, most of retailers in South Korea recommended that e-tailers who adopt the most lenient return policies raise the bar to guard ethical shoppers from fraudulent users. Next, lenient return policies can enhance ease of use, usefulness, affect, and trust while relieving perceived risk, which is connected to intention to purchase, satisfaction, and loyalty. Interestingly, lenient return policies are more likely to change the behavioral responses of online shoppers, such as return and purchase, rather than change their attitudes or beliefs such as image, satisfaction, and loyalty. This tendency can be seen more clearly in the direct influences of return policy on responses. The reaction to lenient return policy is mostly the intention to return or to purchase. This suggests that return policy serves the e-tailers as a powerful tool in increasing online shoppers' purchase intention at the moment of purchase. Therefore, e-tailers who plan to expand their market to eastern countries, including South Korea, have to build a shield of restrictions around their lenient return policy, rather than immediately applying their original liberalized return policy. Also, e-tailers in South Korea need to review their strict and undifferentiated return policies to deal with the unsatisfied reactions of online shoppers toward their normal return policies. Although the present study was confined to the return policies currently being practiced by popular e-tailers, it would be worthwhile to develop effective return policies separately for each country, especially South Korea, keeping the culture of the relevant country in mind.

• Journal of Dental Rehabilitation and Applied Science
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.82-90
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• 2024

It often happens that a removable partial denture needs to be repaired due to tissue changes in the remaining alveolar ridge, fracture of the denture, or fracture of the abutment tooth. There are several advantages to retrofitting a customized surveyed crown under the existing RPD. Retrofitting a crown to the RPD decreases the economic burden to the patient and avoids the need for several appointments to fabricate a new RPD. It is difficult for artificial teeth used to repair dentures due to fractured natural teeth to have a shape similar to that of natural teeth, and to repair aesthetic artificial teeth, it is necessary to manufacture customized artificial teeth similar to the shape of each patient's teeth. Recently, CAD/CAM technology has been used to fabricate customized prosthetics on existing RPD to achieve high retention and fitness accuracy, and by manufacturing customized artificial teeth, more aesthetic and harmonious artificial tooth repair is possible. This is a case in which a denture was repaired using a digital method to fabricate a customized prosthesis on an existing partial denture and customized artificial teeth that mirrored the adjacent dentition, saving time and cost, simplifying the process, and achieving aesthetically and functionally satisfactory results.

• The Journal of Korean Obstetrics and Gynecology
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.89-103
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• 2024

Objectives: This study analyzed an online survey targeting women and Korean medicine doctors who participated in the Yeosu City Postpartum Health Center Support Project. Through this, we would like to discuss the direction of support for postpartum health care support projects and new policies to encourage childbirth. Methods: In this study, we examined the results of an online survey from 73 women and 29 Korean medicine doctors. We examined 39 items, including basic information, childbirth-related items, Korean medicine treatment-related items, business satisfaction, and policies, answered by 73 women and 29 Korean medicine doctors who responded to the online survey. Results: The average age of women was 33.62±4.19 years, and the average age of Korean medicine doctors was 49.82±8.60 years. Musculoskeletal pain appeared most commonly in both maternal and Korean medicine doctors' online surveys. The visit date from the date of delivery was 36.87±27.06 days. Gungguijohyeol-um and Boheo-tang were widely used. The survey score of women whose main symptoms improved after taking herbal medicine was 3.04±1.15 points, and the survey score of Korean medical doctors was 4.13±0.74 points. The positive response to the policy was 73.7% for satisfaction with the overall policy to encourage childbirth, 54.8% for perceived support, and 65.7% for reduction of economic burden. Conclusions: Women who participated in the postpartum health care support project and received Korean medicine treatment and Korean medicine doctors who performed Korean medicine treatment were very satisfied. The most frequent postpartum symptom was musculoskeletal pain. The degree of improvement in main symptoms after taking herbal medicine was higher among Korean medicine doctors than among women. Among childbirth policies, the areas that should be prioritized are childbirth support projects and postpartum care projects.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.19-26
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• 2024

In workplaces handling flammable gas such as hydrogen, hazardous area is determined through KS C IEC 60079-10-1 standard. Because this standard determines the hazardous distance based on the release characteristic regardless of the type of gas, indoor/outdoor conditions, and atmospheric conditions, concerns are being raised about the effectiveness. In this study, simulations (PHAST, HyRAM) were performed to calculate the hazardous distance for hydrogen under various release characteristics and atmospheric conditions, and compared these results to IEC standard log-log graph. Also, we performed regression analysis according to each result. we found that the simulation results were 0.6 to 3.8 times less than the IEC standard, presented convenient linear regression equations. In addition, We confirmed that the results of hazardous distance varied based on wind velocity and atmospheric stability at the same release characteristic. In addition, we derived linear regression equations for release characteristics and hazardous distance that can be conveniently utilized. So, when classifying hazardous area in workplaces where they handle the hydrogen, the integrated graph and linear regression equation are helpful for confirming the hazardous area. Moreover, it is expected that the economic burden will be minimized by being able to classify reasonable hazardous area and to greatly reduce the risk of hydrogen explosion.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.181-190
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• 2012

After industrialization, the labor force participation rates of women, especially married women is drastically increasing. So, this study was designed to analyze the determinants of married women's employment status considered. For this, the determinants of married women's employment status were divided into individual-related, children-related, household-related and job-related variables to establish the research models. Based on this, the following results were drawn from a multinominal logistic regression analysis of the determinants of married women's employment status. First, an analysis of individual-related variable showed that married women had the employment status of labor wages with residence in the center of the city and high academic background. Second, an analysis of children-related variable showed that they had the employment status of labor wages with many their children and no their children under the age of six. Third, an analysis of household-related variable showed that they had the self-employment status of labor wages with nuclear family and few income earners of family members. Finally, an analysis of job-related variable showed that they had the employment status of labor wages when they got a job before they got married, their husband didn't get a job, and their husband worked in a professional field. As for findings stated above, as there was a difference in the determinants of married women's employment status, the ways for improvement in the married women's employment status would be suggested as follows. First, married women with young children have the low employment status, basically, requiring problem-solving ways for this because the housekeeping and child-rearing burden caused by marriage and childbirth are factors that continue to obstruct a job. For this, the flexible working hours system, which housekeeping and child-rearing can harmonize with economic activities like developed countries, needs to be activated. But the activation of such flexible working system will produce actual results under institutional protection, such as a related-protection law. Second, the Leave of Child Care System is debated as one of the most representatively systems that housekeeping can harmonize with economic activities. Now, although the System is legislated, the use is very poor.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.5-35
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• 2004

This research is about the change of the occupation and the income of the subscriber of the medical expenditure due to the economic influence on them. The data of this study are based on 4,215 of medical cost payers among respondents of the survey on "Health and Retirement", which was the fourth additional research of Korea Labor and Income Panel Survey. The main findings of this study are as follows: First, the average medical cost is 5.5% of the income. The ratio of the medical cost to an earned income is highly different between low-income group and high income group. For the low income group, the medical cost reaches up to 1/3 of the total family income. That proves that the medical cost si a heavy burden on them. The group with the high medical expenditure seems to be supported by their own private property and other family members whenever it is needed. But it doesn't show the exact sources of the property, which includes the fund from the interests and real estates. On the other hand, only 14.4% of the subscribers changed their job status on the 5th year, and 85.6% of those kept their job status until the 5th year from the 4th year. This shows that the amount of the medical cost could be the important factor for them to change their job; for example, it is crucial whether the medical expenditure is over the average rate or not. Furthermore, the change of the occupation caused by the medical cost has the negative influence on the gross income. It makes the economic conditions of the family get worse. Therefore, the health insurance in Korea is lack of the compensational function, which substitutes the family income reduced by the change of the job status due to the high medical cost.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.285-301
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• 2020

Looking at the problem of aging in the nation from a demographic perspective, it is not a problem of the overall population, but of the structure of the population. It is the baby boomer and post-baby boomers, the largest population in the country. Baby boomers were born between 1955 and 1963, and currently have a population of 7001,333, which is 13.6 percent (as of 2015). The Post-Baby Boomer generation was born between 1964 and 1974, with a total population of 9,567,171, accounting for 18.8 percent of the total population. In particular, baby boomers and post-baby boomers (32.4% of the total population) have begun to retire or will retire soon. The average life expectancy continues to increase due to the development of medical technology, and the falling birth rate of newborns and the declining population of the production population are darkening the domestic economy. In a policy proposal aimed at easing the nation's falling economic growth rate, women's participation rate is as high as Sweden and men's efforts to increase it as high as Japan's, while the elderly rate is desirable to maintain Korea's high level. This is because the expansion of the elderly generation's participation in economic activities could ease a sharp drop in economic growth and reduce the burden of supporting the elderly population. The study, based on this social problem awareness and problem solving plan, looks at the relationship between career orientation and satisfaction in start-up education based on the diverse career base of active seniors, and also suggests the importance of customized start-up education on the diversity of active seniors by clarifying the relationship between them, and suggests the desirable direction of senior start-up policy design, funding, and start-up education. Based on the theoretical background, the concept of five factors was defined: active senior, career-oriented, satisfaction level of start-up education, willingness to start a business, and the concept definition of an active senior, which is particularly key to the baby boomers in their 50s and 60s, is generally regarded as a source of consumption or welfare benefits, but in this study, the concept of active start-up is reflected in the domestic start-up market by young people in their 40s, 50s and 60s. As a result of a hypothesis test. Hypothesis 1 and Hypothesis 5: Career orientation has been verified to affect the willingness to start a business and the behavior of preparation for a start-up. Hypothesis 3: The willingness to start a business has been verified as having an effect between startup preparation actions. Hypothesis 4: The satisfaction level of start-up education has been verified to affect start-up preparation behavior. However, hypothesis 2: The satisfaction level of education for start-ups does not affect the willingness to start a business. Such results can be inferred that satisfaction in start-up education does not have a direct effect on the will to start a business and increases the will to start a business through the influence of personal career orientation.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.99-124
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• 2012

Our society has long been talking about necessity for innovation. Since companies in particular need to carry out business innovation in their overall processes, they have attempted to apply many innovation factors on sites and become to pay more attention to their innovation. In order to achieve this goal, companies has applied various information technologies (IT) on sites as a means of innovation, and consequently IT have been greatly developed. It is natural for the field of IT to have faced another revolution which is called cloud computing, which is expected to result in innovative changes in software application via the Internet, data storing, the use of devices, and their operations. As a vehicle of innovation, cloud computing is expected to lead the changes and advancement of our society and the business world. Although many scholars have researched on a variety of topics regarding the innovation via IT, few studies have dealt with the issue of could computing as IT. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to set the variables of innovation attributes based on the previous articles as the characteristic variables and clarify how these variables affect "Performance Expectancy" of companies and the intention of using cloud computing. The result from the analysis of data collected in this study is as follows. The study utilized a research model developed on the innovation diffusion theory to identify influences on the adaptation and spreading IT for cloud computing services. Second, this study summarized the characteristics of cloud computing services as a new concept that introduces innovation at its early stage of adaptation for companies. Third, a theoretical model is provided that relates to the future innovation by suggesting variables for innovation characteristics to adopt cloud computing services. Finally, this study identified the factors affecting expectation and the intention to use the cloud computing service for the companies that consider adopting the cloud computing service. As the parameter and dependent variable respectively, the study deploys the independent variables that are aligned with the characteristics of the cloud computing services based on the innovation diffusion model, and utilizes the expectation for performance and Intention to Use based on the UTAUT theory. Independent variables for the research model include Relative Advantage, Complexity, Compatibility, Cost Saving, Trialability, and Observability. In addition, 'Acceptance for Adaptation' is applied as an adjustment variable to verify the influences on the expected performances from the cloud computing service. The validity of the research model was secured by performing factor analysis and reliability analysis. After confirmatory factor analysis is conducted using AMOS 7.0, the 20 hypotheses are verified through the analysis of the structural equation model, accepting 12 hypotheses among 20. For example, Relative Advantage turned out to have the positive effect both on Individual Performance and on Strategic Performance from the verification of hypothesis, while it showed meaningful correlation to affect Intention to Use directly. This indicates that many articles on the diffusion related Relative Advantage as the most important factor to predict the rate to accept innovation. From the viewpoint of the influence on Performance Expectancy among Compatibility and Cost Saving, Compatibility has the positive effect on both Individual Performance and on Strategic Performance, while it showed meaningful correlation with Intention to Use. However, the topic of the cloud computing service has become a strategic issue for adoption in companies, Cost Saving turns out to affect Individual Performance without a significant influence on Intention to Use. This indicates that companies expect practical performances such as time and cost saving and financial improvements through the adoption of the cloud computing service in the environment of the budget squeezing from the global economic crisis from 2008. Likewise, this positively affects the strategic performance in companies. In terms of effects, Trialability is proved to give no effects on Performance Expectancy. This indicates that the participants of the survey are willing to afford the risk from the high uncertainty caused by innovation, because they positively pursue information about new ideas as innovators and early adopter. In addition, they believe it is unnecessary to test the cloud computing service before the adoption, because there are various types of the cloud computing service. However, Observability positively affected both Individual Performance and Strategic Performance. It also showed meaningful correlation with Intention to Use. From the analysis of the direct effects on Intention to Use by innovative characteristics for the cloud computing service except the parameters, the innovative characteristics for the cloud computing service showed the positive influence on Relative Advantage, Compatibility and Observability while Complexity, Cost saving and the likelihood for the attempt did not affect Intention to Use. While the practical verification that was believed to be the most important factor on Performance Expectancy by characteristics for cloud computing service, Relative Advantage, Compatibility and Observability showed significant correlation with the various causes and effect analysis. Cost Saving showed a significant relation with Strategic Performance in companies, which indicates that the cost to build and operate IT is the burden of the management. Thus, the cloud computing service reflected the expectation as an alternative to reduce the investment and operational cost for IT infrastructure due to the recent economic crisis. The cloud computing service is not pervasive in the business world, but it is rapidly spreading all over the world, because of its inherited merits and benefits. Moreover, results of this research regarding the diffusion innovation are more or less different from those of the existing articles. This seems to be caused by the fact that the cloud computing service has a strong innovative factor that results in a new paradigm shift while most IT that are based on the theory of innovation diffusion are limited to companies and organizations. In addition, the participants in this study are believed to play an important role as innovators and early adapters to introduce the cloud computing service and to have competency to afford higher uncertainty for innovation. In conclusion, the introduction of the cloud computing service is a critical issue in the business world.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.153-172
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• 1990

The present paper investigates the potential value of strategic antitrust policy in an oligopolistic international market. The market is characterized by a non-cooperative Cournot-Nash equilibrium and by asymmetry in costs among firms in the world market. The model is useful for two reasons. First, it is important in the context of policy-making to examine the conditions under which it may be beneficial to relax antitrust law to enhance competitiveness. Second, the explicit derivation of the level of cost-saving required for a gain in total domestic surplus provides an empirical rule for excluding industries that do not satisfy the requirements for a socially beneficial antitrust exemption. Results of the analysis include a criterion that tells how the cost-saving and concentration effects of a merger offset each other. The criterion is derived from fairly general assumptions on demand functions and is simple enough to be applied as a part of the merger guidelines. Another interesting policy implication of our analysis is that promoting mergers would not be a beneficial strategy in a net importing industry where cost-saving opportunities are thin. Cost-saving domestic mergers are more likely to increase national welfare in exporting industries. The best candidate industries for application of strategic antitrust policy are those with the following characteristics: (i) a large potential for efficiency enhancement; (ii) high market concentration at the world but not the domestic level; (iii) a high ratio of exports to imports. Recently, many policymakers and economists in Korea have also come to believe that the appropriate antitrust policy in an era of increased foreign competition may actually be to encourage rather than to prohibit domestic mergers. The Industry Development Act of 1986 and the proposed bill for Mergers and Conversions in the Financial Industry of 1990 reflect this changing perspective on antitrust policy. Antitrust laws may burden domestic firms in the sense that they have a more constrained strategy set. Expenditures to avoid antitrust attacks could also increase costs for domestic firms. But there is no clear evidence that the impact of antitrust policy is significant enough to harm the competitiveness of domestic firms. As a matter of fact, it is necessary for domestic financial institutions to become large in scale in this era of globalization. However, the absence of empirical evidence for efficiency enhancement from mergers suggests caution in the relaxation of antitrust standards.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.333-342
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• 1999

Objectives: Most descriptive studies of cancer have focused either or cancer incidence or mortality. Cancer prevalence has rarely been estimated. Cancer prevalence data can be used as a measure of the economic and social burden of cancer and are also useful for health care planning. This study attempts to estimate cancer prevalence in Kangwha county. Methods: This investigation is based on data of Kangwha cancer registry. The data include all cases of cancer diagnosed from 1983 through 1992. We define 'prevalent cases' as cancer patients who is alive as of January 1, 1993. For each five-year age group, the number of 'known prevalent cases' is added to the number of 'estimated prevalent cases'. Prevalence is calculated by dividing these sums by the populations of Kangwha County on December 31, 1992(derived from Kangwha Statistics Annual). Results: Crude prevalence of cancel among males and females are 536.7 and 601.1 per 100,000 respectively. Gastric cancer is the most common malignant neoplasm(213.2 per 100,000, crude prevalence) among males. It is followed by lung cancer(45.1 per 100,000), liver cancer(32.8 per 100,000), rectal cancer(25.4 per 100,000) and colon cancer(25.4 per 100,000). Cervical cancer is the most common cancer(201.9 per 100,000, crude prevalence) and is fellowed by gastric cancer(91.5 per 100,000), thyroid cancer(64.8 per 100,000), breast cancer(57.2 per 100,000) and rectal cancer(32.7 per 100,000) among females. Conclusions: We tried to estimate cancer prevalence based on the Kangwha cancer registry for the first time in Korea. The estimation of cancer prevalence based on a population-based cancer registry will be more correct and useful as the data accumulate. We will make another estimation in the near future.