• Information Systems Review
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.135-156
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• 2017

An intelligent personal assistant (IPA) is a software agent that assists people to perform basic tasks or services for an individual by commonly providing information via natural language. In spite of the versatile capabilities of the IPA to answer a user's simple information-based queries, such as the weather and driving directions, the actual usage rates for IPA services are limited to date. In this research, to evaluate the factors affecting the intention to use IPA, we develop an empirical model based on technology acceptance model, innovation diffusion theory, and IS success model. Afterward, we collect 203 questionnaires from actual users of IPAs. Finally, the structural equation model validates the causal relationship between the constructs of the model. Consequently, the innovation characteristics of IPA drawn from innovation diffusion theory, namely, relative advantage, compatibility, observability, all exerted a positive influence on perceived usefulness. Furthermore, information quality, a quality characteristic of IPA obtained from DeLone and McLean's IS success model, presented a positive effect on perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. Finally, the perceived intelligence of IPA displayed a positive influence on perceived usefulness and ease of use. This characteristic was also a major factor that can increase the intention to use the IPA. Given these research findings, this study is significant for identifying factors that may influence the intention to use the IPA by providing strategic guidelines to relevant business operators and establishing an integrated model.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.159-178
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• 2024

This study aims to assess the direct and indirect impacts of local fiscal expenditures on water quality. Panel data spanning from 2010 to 2018 for 173 cities and districts in Korea are assembled, and a two-stage dynamic panel model is utilized for our estimation. The empirical findings reveal several key insights. Firstly, local fiscal expenditures on water quality are effective in ameliorating both Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) and Total Phosphorus (T-P). Notably, the direct impact on T-P surpasses that on BOD in the short and long run. Secondly, expenditures dedicated to water quality improvement demonstrate a positive effect on local economic growth, and an inverted U-shaped relationship is observed between BOD and local economic growth. Due to the positive linkage, the indirect effect on BOD suggests, on average, a deterioration in water quality during local economic growth. Thirdly, concerning BOD, the direct effect of government expenditure on water quality improvement outweighs the indirect effect, but in the case of T-P, the indirect effect is not significant, and the total effect is solely determined by the direct impact. Despite local fiscal expenditures potentially exacerbating water quality through regional economic growth, the study finds that the direct enhancement of water quality remains a more substantial factor in the short and long run.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.147-176
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• 2003

This Paper Presents a new measurement technique to derive the level of BSRC (Basic Science and Research Capacity) index by use of the factor analysis which is extended with the assumption of the standard normal probability distribution of the selected explanatory variables. The new measurement method is used to forecast the gap of Korea's BSRC level compared with those of major OECD countries in terms of time lag and to make their international comparison during the time period of 1981∼1999, based on the assumption that the BSRC progress function of each country takes the form of the logistic curve. The US BSRC index is estimated to be 0.9878 in 1981, 0.9996 in 1990 and 0.99991 in 1999, taking the 1st place. The US BSRC level has been consistently the top among the 16 selected variables, followed by Japan, Germany, France and the United Kingdom, in order. Korea's BSRC is estimated to be 0.2293 in 1981, taking the lowest place among the 16 OECD countries. However, Korea's BSRC indices are estimated to have been increased to 0.3216 (in 1990) and 0.44652 (in 1999) respectively, taking 10th place. Meanwhile, Korea's BSRC level in 1999 (0.44652) is estimated to reach those of the US and Japan in 2233 and 2101, respectively. This means that Korea falls 234 years behind USA and 102 years behind Japan, respectively. Korea is also estimated to lag 34 years behind Germany, 16 years behind France and the UK, 15 years behind Sweden, 11 years behind Canada, 7 years behind Finland, and 5 years behind the Netherlands. For the period of 1981∼1999, the BSRC development speed of the US is estimated to be 0.29700. Its rank is the top among the selected OECD countries, followed by Japan (0.12800), Korea (0.04443), and Germany (0.04029). the US BSRC development speed (0.2970) is estimated to be 2.3 times higher than that of Japan (0.1280), and 6.7 times higher than that of Korea. German BSRC development speed (0.04029) is estimated to be fastest in Europe, but it is 7.4 times slower than that of the US. The estimated BSRC development speeds of Belgium, Finland, Italy, Denmark and the UK stand between 0.01 and 0.02, which are very slow. Particularly, the BSRC development speed of Spain is estimated to be minus 0.0065, staying at the almost same level of BSRC over time (1981 ∼ 1999). Since Korea shows BSRC development speed much slower than those of the US and Japan but relative]y faster than those of other countries, the gaps in BSRC level between Korea and the other countries may get considerably narrower or even Korea will surpass possibly several countries in BSRC level, as time goes by. Korea's BSRC level had taken 10th place till 1993. However, it is estimated to be 6th place in 2010 by catching up the UK, Sweden, Finland and Holland, and 4th place in 2020 by catching up France and Canada. The empirical results are consistent with OECD (2001a)'s computation that Korea had the highest R&D expenditures growth during 1991∼1999 among all OECD countries ; and the value-added of ICT industries in total business sectors value added is 12% in Korea, but only 8% in Japan. And OECD (2001b) observed that Korea, together with the US, Sweden, and Finland, are already the four most knowledge-based countries. Hence, the rank of the knowledge-based country was measured by investment in knowledge which is defined as public and private spending on higher education, expenditures on R&D and investment in software.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.57-63
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• 2009

With an exponential increase in electronic commerce (e-commerce), marketers are attempting to gain a competitive advantage by emphasizing service quality and post interaction service aspects, which leads to customer satisfaction or behavioral consequence. Particularly for apparel, service quality is one of the key determinants in encouraging customer e-loyalty, and hence the success of apparel retailing in the context of electronic commerce. Therefore, this study explores e-service quality (E-SERVQUAL) factors and their unique effects on e-loyalty for apparel online shopping based on Parasuraman et al' s (2005) framework. Specific objectives of this study are to identify underlying dimension of E-SERVQUAL, and analyze a structural model for examining the effect of E-SERVQUAL on e-loyalty for online apparel shopping. For the theoretical framework of service quality in the context of online shopping, literatures on traditional and electronic service quality factors were comparatively reviewed, and two aspects of core and recovery services were identified. This study hypothesized that E-SERVQUAL has an effect on e-loyalty; customer satisfaction has a positive effect on e-service loyalty for apparel online shopping; and customer satisfaction mediates in the effect of E-SERVQUAL on e-loyalty for apparel online shopping. A self-administered questionnaire was developed based on literatures. A total of 252 usable questionnaires were obtained from online consumers who had purchase experience with online shopping for apparel products and reside in standard metropolitan areas, in the United States. Factor analysis (e.g., exploratory, confirmatory) was conducted to assess the validity and reliability and the structural equation model including measurement and structural models was estimated via LISREL 8.8 program. Findings showed that the E-SERVQUAL of shopping websites for apparel consisted of five factors: Compensation, Fulfillment, Efficiency, System Availability, and Responsiveness. This supports Parasuraman (2005)'s E-S-QUAL encompassing two aspects of core service (e.g., fulfillment, efficiency, system availability) and recovery related service (e.g., compensation, responsiveness) in the context of apparel shopping online. In the structural equation model, there are five exogenous latent variables for e-SERVQUAL factors; and two endogenous latent variables (e.g., customer satisfaction, e-loyalty). For the measurement model, the factor loadings for each respective construct were statistically significant and were greater than .60 and internal consistency reliabilities ranged from .85 to .88. In the estimated structural model of the e-SERVEQUAL factors, the system availability was found to have direct and positive effect on e-loyalty, whereas efficiency had a negative effect on e-loyalty for apparel online shopping. However, fulfillment was not a significant predictor for explaining consequences of E-SERVQUAL for apparel online shopping. This finding implies that perceived service quality of system available was likely to increase customer satisfaction for apparel online shopping. However, it was not supported that e-loyalty was determined by service quality, because service quality has an indirect effect on e-loyalty (i.e., repurchase intention) by mediating effect of value or satisfaction in the context of online shopping for apparel. In addition, both compensation and responsiveness were found to have a significant impact on customer satisfaction, which influenced e-loyalty for apparel online shopping. Thus, there was significant indirect effect of compensation and responsiveness on e-loyalty. This suggests that the recovery-specific service factors play an important role in maximizing customer satisfaction levels and then maintaining customer loyalty to the online shopping site for apparel. The findings have both managerial and research implications. Fashion marketers can establish long-term relationship with their customers based on continuously measuring customer perceptions for recovery-related service quality, such as quick responses to problem and returns, and compensation for customers' problem after their purchases. In order to maintain e-loyalty, recovery services play an important role in the first choice websites for consumers to purchase clothing. Given that online consumers may shop anywhere, a marketing strategy for improving competitive advantages is to provide better service quality, maximize satisfaction, and turn to creating customers' e-loyalty for apparel online shopping. From a researcher's perspective, there are some limitations of this research that should be considered when interpreting its findings. For future research, findings provide a basis for the further study of this important topic along both theoretical and empirical dimensions. Based on the findings, more comprehensive models for predicting E-SERVQUAL's consequences can be developed and tested. For global fashion marketing, this study can expand to a cross-cultural approach into e-service quality for apparel by including multinational samples.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.121-134
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• 2016

The current insurance market is facing a real problem that the high cost of insurance spent in maintaining a non- face-to-face sales channels face of the channel facing growing contribution to the reduction of side. As a result, the productivity issue facing designers of representative organizations in the organization channel will be referred to an urgent problem. As a result of improved organizational productivity architect that is the goal of this study to demonstrate what a performance improvement factor of insurance agents. Personality factors and individual insurance agents individual-environmental suitability and job satisfaction, consider the impact on turnover intention year of the results architects extroversion, sincerity, openness, it won a chronic, emotional gender, personality representing the honesty factor is organizational commitment and job satisfaction It has had a significant impact on. In other words, this is a lively and extroverted nature of the actuary, the more harmonious interpersonal relationships and higher emotional empathy with others can raise the extent that has a strong sense of belonging and attachment to their company's commitment. Whereas personality factors were not significant influence turnover intention has. This can be made to represent the need for screening of agents introduced from the introduction stage. Depending on the personality factors of organizational commitment, personal planners also occurs because of the differences and job satisfaction. Whereas turnover of agents is the result of empirical factors that are affected by other agents than to individual character generated by the character of the individual agents. Compliance boss, job suitability, individuals representing a fellow fitness, tissue compatibility environmental compliance is having a significant impact on both the degree of organizational commitment, job satisfaction and turnover intention. In other words, the boss or colleague, values and personality, working method, as fits well the concerns and pursuing goals are similar, and their job aptitude higher the suitability of the organization is about to have a sense of belonging and attachment to the company commitment can do. This is the result of a demonstration that the work environment of the actuary agents productivity gains and loyalty depends on the insurance company, which currently belongs.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.39-47
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• 2009

The importance of securing water resources and their efficient management has attracted more attention recently due to water deficit. In water budget analysis, however, evapotranspiration(${\lambda}E$) has been approximated as the residual in the water balance equation or estimated from empirical equations and assumptions. To minimize the uncertainties in these estimates, it is necessary to directly measure ${\lambda}E$. In this study, using the eddy covariance technique, we have measured ${\lambda}E$ in a mixed forest in the Seolmacheon catchment in Korea from September 2007 to December 2008. During the growing season(May-July), ${\lambda}E$ in this mixed forest averaged about $2.2\;mm\;d^{-1}$, whereas it was on average $0.5\;mm\;d^{-1}$ during the non-growing season in winter. The annual total ${\lambda}E$ in 2008 was $581\;mm\;y^{-1}$, which is about 1/3 of the annual precipitation of 1997 mm. Despite the differences in the amount and frequency of precipitation, the accumulated ${\lambda}E$ during the overlapping period(i.e., September to December) for 2007 and 2008 was both ${\sim}110$ mm, showing virtually no difference. The omega factor, which is a measure of decoupling between forest and the atmosphere, was on average 0.5, indicating that the contributions of equilibrium ${\lambda}E$ and imposed ${\lambda}E$ to the total ${\lambda}E$ were about the same. The results suggest that ${\lambda}E$ in this mixed forest was controlled by various factors such as net radiation, vapor pressure deficit, and canopy conductance. In this study, based on the direct measurements of ${\lambda}E$, we have quantified the relative contribution of ${\lambda}E$ in the water balance of a mixed forest in the Seolmacheon catchment. In combination with runoff data, the information on ${\lambda}E$ would greatly enhance the reliability of water budget analysis in this catchment.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.59-76
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• 2019

Most technology-based entrepreneurship(TBE) go through an process of decline or disappear without overcoming the valley of death(VoD). The purpose of this study is to identify the growth dimension of TBE and to test the influence of firms activities on firms growth over time. This study identified the two-dimensional growth dimension divided by size and profit through exploratory factor analysis(EFA) of a number of growth indicators. Then, we defined the discrete state of growth firm in four states, divided by size and profit, and five states, including the closure of business. Multi-nomial logit model is used to predict the effect of TBE activities on a discrete state of growth firm(size×profit, closure of business) based on multiple independent variables. The independent variables are based on five representative firms activities: employment, marketing, R&D, financial activities, and general management activities. The growth stage of TBE over time has been categorized into three stages: early stage, middle stage, and late stage of business, taking into account the main periods during which the survival rate of startups sharply decreases. The analytical data of this study was based on the secondary data of the start-up supporting companies of government and public institutions. The subjects of analysis were TBE within 10 years. As a result of the empirical analysis, the employment and marketing activities of TBE show that early and mid-term activities had an effect on the state of firms growth. However, if there is a difference, employment activities have both positive and negative effects, while marketing activities have only a positive effect on size and profit growth. And besides, R&D activities, financial activities, and general management activities throughout the entire process of firms growth were found to be firms activities that have both positive and negative effects on firms growth. In addition, the age of the founder, the firms' industry, and the geographic location of the firms, which are general characteristics of the company, were found to have a distinctive effect on the growth status of the firms according to the growth stage.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.127-139
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• 2017

In recent 10 years the attention to social entrepreneurship has raised increasing among scholars, public sector, and community development. However less research has been conducted on how social entrepreneurship intention create a social enterprise and what factors can be affected to the social entrepreneurial intentions. This paper aims at contributing to identify the antecedents of entrepreneurial behavior and intentions. Especially, we have had a strong interests in compassion factors which haven't been used as important variables to encourage for people to do social entrepreneurial activities. Also, we try to find the moral obligation and perceived social support as antecedents of social entrepreneurial intentions. Finding show that compassion and moral obligation affect to the social entrepreneurial intention. Especially this study identify the external factor of society with the variable, perceived social support. Once individuals recognize that the infrastructure and societal positive mood on social entrepreneurship is friendly to social entrepreneurship, people have a tendency to try to do some social entrepreneurial activities. Only few empirical studies exist in this research domain. A study of more than 271 Korean college students has studied which personal traits predict certain characteristics of social entrepreneurs (such as having social vision or looking for social innovational opportunities). In addition to those antecedents, students experience is the critical factor that enabled continued expansion of the social entrepreneurial activities. The results of this research show how we can nurture social entrepreneurs and how we can develop the social environment to promote social entrepreneurship.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.67-77
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to develop the entrepreneurial mentoring scale on start-up mentoring situation. In recent years, as the needs for entrepreneurship have grown from domestic to foreign, entrepreneurship education is actively being carried out. The entrepreneurial mentoring is strengthening its weight and contents in entrepreneurship education. However, research on the mentoring function scale designed to reflect the characteristics of entrepreneurial mentoring is rarely performed in Korea. In this study, we conducted a qualitative and quantitative research to achieve the research goal. First, we derive the entrepreneurial mentoring scales through literature review and expert group discussions, and we conducted the empirical analysis to draw conclusions. The results of this study are as follows. In the first step, literature review was conducted. In the second step, four major factors and questionnaires were derived through expert group discussion. In the third step, the doctoral level specialists developed 16 questionnaire items to measure the four factors of entrepreneurial mentoring derived from the second step and verified the content validity and the facial validity in fourth step. As a result of this survey, we conducted questionnaires on founding mentors who belonged to 17 Creation Economic Innovation Centers nationwide (153) and analyzed the problem solving, networking, communication, and motivation formation through exploratory factor analysis. This questionnaire was used to survey the entrepreneurial mentors who belonged to the 17 Center for Creative Economy and Innovation under the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning of South Korea(153). In fifth step, as the results of factor analysis such as EFA and CFA, we could confirm four factors including problem solving, networking, communication, and motivation. The significance of this study is as follows. First, academic significance was the first study of the entrepreneurial mentoring function scale reflecting the characteristics of entrepreneur mentoring as a qualitative and quantitative approach in Korea. Second, it is hoped that practitioners will be able to better measure the mentoring function of entrepreneurial mentors and contribute to improving the quality of future entrepreneurial mentoring programs.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.1-33
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• 2008

As the interest in the business-to-business(B2B) electronic commerce is increasing, many companies are participating in the B2B e-Marketplaces. The e-Marketplace is defined as the virtual market that many players take part in to transact. The e-Marketplace has an influenced on the manner in which organizational buyers and sellers interact. As a result, it is important to develop an understanding of the behaviors of firms that use these electronic marketplaces. The purpose of this study is to develop a comprehensive model for trust and commitment of B2B e-Marketplace and empirically to examine their structural relationships. Drawing from trust and commitment theory in the interorganizational relationship and B2B electronic commerce context, this study identifies network externality, interactivity, justice, quality of information sharing, institutional assurance as the determinants of trust and commitment of e-Marketplace. The proposed model hypothesized that (1) trust is a function of network externality, interactivity, justice, quality of information sharing, institutional assurance, (2) attitudinal and behavioral commitment is a function of trust, (3) behavioral commitment is a function of attitudinal commitment. The proposed model is tested using organizational-level survey data from 187 buying organizations that conduct business in MRO e-Marketplaces. The data were tested by reliability test, correlation analysis, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and covariance structure analysis. The results indicate that (1) trust is influenced by network externality, interactivity, justice, institutional assurance, (2) attitudinal commitment and behavioral commitment is influenced by trust (3) behavioral commitment is influenced by attitudinal commitment. Also, the empirical results confirmed that trust play a strong, central role in determinging e-Marketplace commitment. The key theoretical contribution of this research is that it begins to extend interorganizational information system literature in areas such as B2B Internet e-Marketplace. Managerially, this study contributes tn the understanding of the role of B2B e-Markeplace providers in Internet situation. And Limitations of this study and guidelines for future researches are also discussed.