• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.75-99
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• 2012

Innovation can come from inside or outside organizations. Recently, organizations have begun turning to external knowledge more often, through various forms of collective intelligence (CI) as collaborative platform to solve complex problems. Several factors facilitate this CI utilization phenomenon. First, with the rapid development of Internet and social media, numerous web applications have become available to millions of the Internet users over the past few decades. Web 2.0 and social media have become innovative web applications that provide an environment for human social interaction and collaboration. Second, the diffusion of simple and easy-to-use technologies that enable users to interact and design web applications without programming skills have led to vast, previously unknown amounts of user-generated content. Finally, the Internet has enabled communities to connect and collaborate, creating a virtual world of CI. In this study, web enabled CI is defined as a composed ability of individuals who are acting as a single cognitive unit to achieve common goals, think reasonably, solve problems, make decisions, carry out complex tasks, and develop creative ideas collectively through participation and collaboration on the web. Although CI plays a critical role in organizational innovation and collaboration, the dubious quality of CI is still problem that is difficult to solve. In general, the quality level of content collected from the crowd is lower than that from professionals. Thus, it is important to identify determinants of CI quality and to analyze the relationship between CI quality and its usefulness. However, there is a lack of empirical study on the quality factors of web-enabled CI. There exist a variety of web enabled CI sites such as Threadless, iStockphoto or InnoCentive, Wikipedia, and Youtube. One of the most successful forms of web-enabled CI is the Wikipedia online encyclopedia, accessible all over the world. Another one example is Naver KnowledgeiN, a typical and popular CI site offering question and answer (Q&A) services. It is necessary to study whether or not different types of CI have a different effect on CI quality and its usefulness. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to answer to following research questions: ${\bullet}$ What determinants are important to CI quality? ${\bullet}$ What is the relationship between CI quality factors and the usefulness of web-enabled CI? ${\bullet}$ Does CI type have a moderating effect on the relationship between CI quality, its determinants, and CI usefulness? Online survey using Google Docs with email and Kakao Talk was conducted for collecting data from Wikipedia and Naver KnowledgeiN users. A totoal of 490 valid responses were collected, where users of Wikipedia were 220 while users of Naver KnowledgeiN were 270. Expertise of contributors, community size, and diversity of contributors were identified as core determinants of perceived CI quality. Perceived CI quality has significantly influenced perceived CI usefulness from a user's perspective. For improving CI quality, it is believed that organizations should ensure proper crowd size, facilitate CI contributors' diversity and attract as many expert contributors as possible. Hypotheses that CI type plays a role of moderator were partially supported. First, the relationship between expertise of contributors and perceived CI quality was different according to CI type. The expertise of contributors played a more important role in CI quality in the case of Q&A services such as Knowledge iN compared to wiki services such as Wikipedia. This implies that Q&A service requires more expertise and experiences in particular areas rather than the case of Wiki service to improve service quality. Second, the relationship between community size and perceived CI quality was different according to CI type. The community size has a greater effect on CI quality in case of Wiki service than that of Q&A service. The number of contributors in Wikipeda is important because Wiki is an encyclopedia service which is edited and revised repeatedly from many contributors while the answer given in Naver Knowledge iN can not be corrected by others. Finally, CI quality has a greater effect on its usefulness in case of Wiki service rather than Q&A service. In this paper, we suggested implications for practitioners and theorists. Organizations offering services based on collective intelligence try to improve expertise of contributeros, to increase the number of contributors, and to facilitate participation of various contributors.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.95-116
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• 2009

Increasingly the institutional theory has been an important theoretical view of decision making process and IT adoption in many academic researches. This study used the institutional theory as a lens through which we can understand the factors that enable the effective appropriation of advanced information technology. It posits that mimetic, coercive, and normative pressures existing in an institutionalized environment could influence the participation of top managers or decision makers and the involvement of users toward an effective use of IT in their tasks. Since the introduction of IT, organizational members have been using IT in their daily tasks, creating and recreating rules and resources according to their own methods and needs. That is to say, the adaptation process of the IT and outcomes are different among organizations. The previous studies on a diverse use of IT refer to the appropriation of technology from the social technology view. Users appropriate IT through not only technology itself, but also in terms of how they use it or how they make the social practice in their use of it. In this study, the concepts of institutional pressure, appropriation, participation of decision makers, and involvement of users toward the appropriation are explored in the context of the appropriation of the mobile electronic medical record system (M-EMRS) in particularly a hospital setting. Based on the conceptual definition of institutional pressure, participation and involvement, operational measures are reconstructed. Furthermore, the concept of appropriation is measured in the aspect of three sub-constructs-consensus on appropriation, faithful appropriation, and attitude of use. Grounded in the relevant theories to appropriation of IT, we developed a research framework in which the effects of institutional pressure, participation and involvement on the appropriation of IT are analyzed. Within this theoretical framework, we formulated several hypotheses. We developed a second order institutional pressure and appropriation construct. After establishing its validity and reliability, we tested the hypotheses with empirical data from 101 users in 3 hospitals which had adopted and used the M-EMRS. We examined the mediating effect of the participation of decision makers and the involvement of users on the appropriation and empirically validated their relationships. The results show that the mimetic, coercive, and normative institutional pressure has an effect on the participation of decision makers and the involvement of users in the appropriation of IT while the participation of decision makers and the involvement of users have an effect on the appropriation of IT. The results also suggest that the institutional pressure and the participation of decision makers influence the involvement of users toward an appropriation of IT. Our results emphasize the mediating effect of the institutional pressure on the appropriation of IT. Namely, the higher degree of the participation of decision makers and the involvement of users, the more effective appropriation users will represent. These results provide strong support for institutional-based variables as predictors of appropriation. These findings also indicate that organizations should focus on the role of participation of decision makers and the involvement of users for the purpose of effective appropriation, and these are the practical implications of our study. The theoretical contribution of this study is lies in the integrated model of the effect of institutional pressure on the appropriation of IT. The results are consistent with the institutional theory and support previous studies on adaptive structuration theory.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.1-42
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• 2009

In a knowledge-based society, a firm's intellectual capital represents the wealth of ideas and ability to innovate, which are indispensable elements for the future growth. Therefore, the intellectual capital is evidently recognized as the most valuable asset in the organization. Considered as intangible asset, intellectual capital is the basis based on which firms can foster their sustainable competitive advantage. One of the essential components of the intellectual capital is a social capital, indicating the firm's individual members' ability to build a firm's social networks. As such, social capital is a powerful concept necessary for understanding the emergence, growth, and functioning of network linkages. The more social capital a firm is equipped with, the more successfully it can establish new social networks. By providing a shared context for social interactions, social capital facilitates the creation of new linkages in the organizational setting. This concept of "person-environment fit" has long been prevalent in the management literature. The fit is grounded in the interaction theory of behavior. The interaction perspective has a fairly long theoretical tradition, beginning with proposition that behavior is a function of the person and environment. This view asserts that neither personal characteristics nor the situation alone adequately explains the variance in behavioral and attitudinal variables. Instead, the interaction of personal and situational variables accounts for the greatest variance. Accordingly, the person-environment fit is defined as the degree of congruence or match between personal and situational variables in producing significant selected outcomes. In addition, information systems acceptance factors enable organizations to build large electronic communities with huge knowledge resources. For example, the Intranet helps to build knowledge-based communities, which in turn increases employee communication and collaboration. It is vital since through active communication and collaborative efforts can employees build common basis for shared understandings that evolve into stronger relationships embedded with trust. To this aim, the electronic communication network allows the formation of social network to be more viable to rapid mobilization and assimilation of knowledge assets in the organizations. The purpose of this study is to investigate: (1) the impact of person-environment fit(person-job fit, person-person fit, person-group fit, person-organization fit) on social capital(network ties, trust, norm, shared language); (2) the impact of information systems acceptance factors(availability, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use) on social capital; (3) the impact of social capital on personal performance(work performance, work satisfaction); and (4) the mediating role of social capital between person-environment fit and personal performance. In general, social capital is defined as the aggregated actual or collective potential resources which lead to the possession of a durable network. The concept of social capital was originally developed by sociologists for their analysis in social context. Recently, it has become an increasingly popular jargon used in the management literature in describing organizational phenomena outside the realm of transaction costs. Since both environmental factors and information systems acceptance factors affect the network of employee's relationships, this study proposes that these two factors have significant influence on the social capital of employees. The person-environment fit basically refers to the alignment between characteristics of people and their environments, thereby resulting in positive outcomes for both individuals and organizations. In addition, the information systems acceptance factors have rather direct influences on the social network of employees. Based on such theoretical framework, namely person-environment fit and social capital theory, we develop our research model and hypotheses. The results of data analysis, based on 458 employee cases are as follow: Firstly, both person-environment fit(person-job fit, person-person fit, person-group fit, person-organization fit) and information systems acceptance factors(availability perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use) significantly influence social capital(network ties, norm, shared language). In addition, person-environment fit is a stronger factor influencing social capital than information systems acceptance factors. Secondly, social capital is a significant factor in both work satisfaction and work performance. Finally, social capital partly plays a mediating role between person-environment fit and personal performance. Our findings suggest that it is vital for firms to understand the importance of environmental factors affecting social capital of employees and accordingly identify the importance of information systems acceptance factors in building formal and informal relationships of employees. Firms also need to reflect their recognition of the importance of social capital's mediating role in boosting personal performance. Some limitations arisen in the course of the research and suggestions for future research directions are also discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.59-67
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• 2016

In landscape design by public institutions, although the costs and species of landscape trees stipulated by the Korean Public Procurement Service(PPS) are generally adhered to, the PPS regulations about planting trees with well-developed rootlets are almost entirely neglected. This study aimed to evaluate the performance of buried container modules, which are a new technology and product in landscape production that is able to reduce the defect rate while complying with regulations. To this end, this study measured rootlet density, rootlet development length, rootlet survival rate on excavation, and impairments of tree growth for 3 months after root pruning, and compared these variables for the container modules with those for trees that underwent root pruning in bare ground, and those that were cultivated in a container above ground. The results were as follows: First, the rootlet density was 88% for the trees in container modules, which was very high. Trees that underwent standard root pruning in bare ground had a somewhat lower density of 64%. Meanwhile, the trees that were cultivated in pots above ground died, invalidating measurement. Second, in terms of rootlet development and rootlet survival rate, the trees in container modules showed a mean length of 10.4cm, and 100% survival rate, indicating that there was no rootlet damage caused by excavation. For the trees that only underwent root pruning in bare ground, the mean length was 25.6cm and the rootlet survival rate was only half that of the trees in container modules, at 56%, demonstrating considerable damage. Rootlet development did not occur at all in the trees grown in pots. Third, the trees in container modules and those that underwent root pruning in bare ground did not show any deaths during the root pruning process, or any impairments such as stunted leaf growth. Conversely, the trees grown in pots nearly all died, and severe impairments of tree growth were observed. As shown by the results above, when we evaluated the performance of buried container modules, they showed the most outstanding performance of the three models tested in this study. The container modules prevent defects by stimulating early rooting in environments that with poor conditions for growth, or in trees that are not suited to the summer environment Therefore, it is expected that they would be an optimal means by which to enable compliance with rules such as the regulation presented by the PPS.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.233-244
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• 2018

The purpose of this study was to improve awareness of network marketing business in South Korea, which takes a quite negative view of network marketing, to raise awareness of "starting up a business" as independent business owners, to assist them in building their own subjecthood in network business and entrepreneurial identity, and ultimately to give some suggestions on how to improve their self-directed entrepreneurial competency and the quality of their business management. To make an empirical analysis of 121 independent business owners of Korean native network marketing, the personal and background variables of the entrepreneurs were selected as independent variables, and entrepreneurship was selected as a mediator variable. The selected dependent variables were financial and non-financial business performances. A multiple regression analysis was conducted by inputting the variables. The findings of the study were as follows: It produced an effect of more financial performance when the innovation of the independent business owners of network marketing was better, and this innovation was possible to have only when they improved in entrepreneurial efficacy and locus of control. In contrast, only authenticity had an effect on boosting non-financial business performance among the factors of entrepreneurship. To have authenticity, it's necessary to strengthen achievement needs and awareness of locus of control among the personal characteristics of the independent business owners of network marketing. Among the factors of entrepreneurship, there was better authenticity when their personal networks were broader among their background characteristics. In addition, self-efficacy that was one of personal characteristics made a direct contribution to the enhancement of non-financial performance. As a result, independent business owners of network marketing are required to hold a strong belief in their own business, to be active in business activities and to have a high efficacy as spontaneous principal agents, and they also are required to have more adventurous, planned, active and propulsive achievement needs that enable them to attain the goals of their business and keep moving forward. Besides, they should foster their locus-of-control competency that is to control, endure and be responsible for a variety of phenomena or incidents that they face, and there will be better financial performance or non-financial performance only when they demonstrate their self-belief and confidence and when they have faith in and conviction about themselves. For independent business owners of network marketing, a consumer-centered thinking that entails authenticity and trustworthiness and touches the hearts of customers is a more effective marketing strategy than an egocentric thinking as sellers when they approach customers. And they are expected to make progress in terms of the quality of business management when their business attachment or enthusiasm is great enough to match their own efficacy with entrepreneurial identity or strike a balance between them.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.209-217
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• 2010

Retinal prostheses are being developed to restore vision for the blind with retinal diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa (RP) or age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Since retinal prostheses depend upon electrical stimulation to control neural activity, optimal stimulation parameters for successful encoding of visual information are one of the most important requirements to enable visual perception. Therefore, in this paper, we focused on retinal ganglion cell (RGC) responses to different voltage stimulation parameters and compared threshold charge densities in normal and rd1 mice. For this purpose, we used in vitro preparation for the retina of normal and rd1 mice on micro-electrode arrays. When the neural network of rd1 mouse retinas is stimulated with voltage-controlled pulses, RGCs in degenerated retina also respond to voltage amplitude or voltage duration modulation as well in wild-type RGCs. But the temporal pattern of RGCs response is very different; in wild-type RGCs, single peak within 100 ms appears while in RGCs in degenerated retina multiple peaks (~4 peaks) with ~10 Hz rhythm within 400 ms appear. The thresholds for electrical activation of RGCs are overall more elevated in rd1 mouse retinas compared to wild-type mouse retinas: The thresholds for activation of RGCs in rd1 mouse retinas were on average two times higher ($70.50{\sim}99.87\;{\mu}C/cm^2$ vs. $37.23{\sim}61.65\;{\mu}C/cm^2$) in the experiment of voltage amplitude modulation and five times higher ($120.5{\sim}170.6\;{\mu}C/cm^2$ vs. $22.69{\sim}37.57\;{\mu}C/cm^2$) in the experiment of voltage duration modulation than those in wild-type mouse retinas. This is compatible with the findings from human studies that the currents required for evoking visual percepts in RP patients is much higher than those needed in healthy individuals. These results will be used as a guideline for optimal stimulation parameters for upcoming Korean-type retinal prosthesis.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.65-72
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• 2006

Recent technical advances in the biorecognition engineering and the microparticle fabrication may enable us to develop the single step purification using magnetic particle, because of its simplicity, efficacy, ease of automation, and process economics. In this study, we used commercial magnetic particles from Seradyn, Inc. (Indianapolis, USA). It was ca. 2.8 micron in diameter, consisted of polystyrene core and magnetite coating, and its surface had carboxyl groups. The model, capture protein was IgG and anti-IgG was used as the ligand molecule. We studied the different surfaces ('nude', ester-activated, and anti-IgG coated) for their biorecognition of IgG. At a high pH condition, we could reduce non-specific binding. Also anti-IgG immobilized magnetic particle could capture IgG more selectively. We attempted 'oriented immobilization' of anti-IgG, in which the polysaccharides moiety near the C-terminus was selectively oxidized and linked to the hydrazine-coated MP, to improve the efficacy of biorecognitive binding. Using this method, the IgG capturing ability was improved by ca. 2 fold. From the binary mixture of the IgG-insulin, IgG could be more selectively captured. In summary, the oriented immobilization of oxidized anti-IgG proved to be as effective as the streptavidin-biotin system and yet simpler and cost-effective. This immobilization method can find its applications in protein biochips and biotargeting.

• Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.211-221
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• 2010

Proteoglycan is highly hydrophilic and negatively charged which enable them attract the water. The objective of study was to investigate the effects of Proteoglycan on microtensile bond strength of dentin adhesives and on architecture of dentin collagen matrix of acid etched dentin by removing the chondroitin sulphate attached on Proteoglycan. A flat dentin surface in mid-coronal portion of tooth was prepared. After acid etching, half of the specimens were immersed in 0.1 U/mL chondroitinase ABC (C-ABC) for 48 h at $37^{\circ}C$, while the other half were stored in distilled water. Specimens were bonded with the dentin adhesive using three different bonding techniques (wet, dry and re-wet) followed by microtensile bond strength test. SEM examination was done with debonded specimen, resin-dentin interface and acid-etched dentin surface with/without C-ABC treatment. For the subgroups using wet-bonding or dry-bonding technique, microtensile bond strength showed no significant difference after C-ABC treatment (p > 0.05). Nevertheless, the subgroup using rewetting technique after air dry in the Single Bond 2 group demonstrated a significant decrease of microtensile bond strength after C-ABC treatment. Collagen architecture is loosely packed and some fibrils are aggregated together and relatively collapsed compared with normal acid-etched wet dentin after C-ABC treatment. Further studies are necessary for the contribution to the collagen architecture of noncollagenous protein under the various clinical situations and several dentin conditioners and are also needed about long-term effect on bond strength of dentin adhesive.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.215-225
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• 2016

This study seeks to find an alternative to the requirement for proving the competitiveness of Korean performing arts before entering into the overseas market by deriving the factors causing entry into the market to be delayed based on an analysis of the current status. Between 2007 to 2014, the overseas revenues from Korean performing arts increased by 16.4% compared to the total amount of financial support, as the number of free performances given overseas and the average guaranteed number of performances overseas are both at a standstill. Also, the size of the audience increased by a mere 3.3 times, which is an even lower growth rate than that for the number of performances, 3.8 times, during the same period. Furthermore, the audience size per unit is suffering from long-term stagnation. The main causes are as follows: 1) applying one-dimensional methods to performing arts exchanges and expanding the overseas market, 2) the existing confused concepts between profit and non-profit contents, 3) the weaknesses of the market expansion strategy, because of programming practices focusing on providers, such as presenters and producers, rather than consumers. As a result, the necessary basic research, including consumer surveys, has not been done yet. In order to understand the implications of this analysis and solve the problem of the delayed overseas expansion of Korean performing arts, the Korean wave industry was examined as a representative example. Consumer surveys for the performing arts, possibly benchmarked to the "Korean Wave Consumer Survey Index (KWCSI)", are expected to be done in the near future. In addition, through the development of a specific consumer index of the performing arts, customized marketing strategies by continent and country need to be established. This empirical study of the overseas expansion of performing arts can be utilized as a bridge between the academic and real worlds. This work may also enable a variety of strategies to be established for the overseas expansion of the performing arts.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.236-250
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• 2016

This study was conducted to provide baseline data regarding functional cosmetics so that Inula. based cosmetics can increase its competitiveness in the market as well as to understand current trends to enable anticipation of demands for future product development. For this research, general consumers over the age of 20 residing in Seoul and the Gyeonggi district were surveyed. The results show consumers preferred serum-type products among various types of cosmetics, and that they purchased these once every 1-3 months. Consumers also preferred these products in less than 10-30ml capacity, and at costs of less than 30,000-50,000 KRW. For whitening, functional cosmetics consumers also preferred the serum type, in less than 30-50ml capacity and priced less than 30,000-50,000 KRW. Consumers preferred to purchase functional cosmetics in single units. The major purchasing location, with a high preference rate, was cosmetic stores, and the major sources of information, also with high preference rates, were 'experienced reviews from family, friends and acquaintances' and 'TV advertisements'. Respondents selected 'over 50,000 KRW' the most for all items when responding to 'Purchase Intent for Functional Cosmetics containing Inula', and responded that they were willing to pay 10%-30% more for functional cosmetics containing Inula compared to standard functional cosmetics. These results show that businesses in the cosmetics industry need to take consumer demand into account when developing new functional cosmetic products, as well as establish plans to create specialized spaces that provide better quality service and increase word of mouth effect through better utilization of various types of offline media, social media, and blogs. The study also shows a need for businesses to develop products fully utilizing the Inula flower, which has been shown to be effective as a natural skin whitener, wrinkle reducer and skin moisturizer, to appeal to the increasing number of customers interested in health and beauty.