• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.113-145
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• 2009

Recently, due to the globalization of the IT(Information Technology) market, devices and systems designed in one country are used in other countries as well. This phenomenon is becoming the key factor for increased interest on cross-cultural, or cross-national, research within the IT area. However, as the IT market is becoming bigger and more globalized, a great number of IT practitioners are having difficulty in designing and developing devices or systems which can provide optimal experience. This is because not only tangible factors such as language and a country's economic or industrial power affect the user experience of a certain device or system but also invisible and intangible factors as well. Among such invisible and intangible factors, the cultural characteristics of users from different countries may affect the user experience of certain devices or systems because cultural characteristics affect how they understand and interpret the devices or systems. In other words, when users evaluate the quality of overall user experience, the cultural characteristics of each user act as a perceptual lens that leads the user to focus on a certain elements of experience. Therefore, there is a need within the IT field to consider cultural characteristics when designing or developing certain devices or systems and plan a strategy for localization. In such an environment, existing IS studies identify the culture with the country, emphasize the importance of culture in a national level perspective, and hypothesize that users within the same country have same cultural characteristics. Under such assumptions, these studies focus on the moderating effects of cultural characteristics on a national level within a certain theoretical framework. This has already been suggested by cross-cultural studies conducted by scholars such as Hofstede(1980) in providing numerical research results and measurement items for cultural characteristics and using such results or items as they increase the efficiency of studies. However, such national level culture has its limitations in forecasting and explaining individual-level behaviors such as voluntary device or system usage. This is because individual cultural characteristics are the outcome of not only the national culture but also the culture of a race, company, local area, family, and other groups that are formulated through interaction within the group. Therefore, national or nationally dominant cultural characteristics may have its limitations in forecasting and explaining the cultural characteristics of an individual. Moreover, past studies in psychology suggest a possibility that there exist different cultural characteristics within a single individual depending on the subject being measured or its context. For example, in relation to individual vs. collective characteristics, which is one of the major cultural characteristics, an individual may show collectivistic characteristics when he or she is with family or friends but show individualistic characteristics in his or her workplace. Therefore, this study acknowledged such limitations of past studies and conducted a research within the framework of 'theoretically integrated model of user satisfaction and emotional attachment', which was developed through a former study, on how the effects of different experience elements on emotional attachment or user satisfaction are differentiated depending on the individual cultural characteristics related to a system or device usage. In order to do this, this study hypothesized the moderating effects of four cultural dimensions (uncertainty avoidance, individualism vs, collectivism, masculinity vs. femininity, and power distance) as suggested by Hofstede(1980) within the theoretically integrated model of emotional attachment and user satisfaction. Statistical tests were then implemented on these moderating effects through conducting surveys with users of four digital devices (mobile phone, MP3 player, LCD TV, and refrigerator) in three countries (US, Germany, and Russia). In order to explain and forecast the behavior of personal device or system users, individual cultural characteristics must be measured, and depending on the target device or system, measurements must be measured independently. Through this suggestion, this study hopes to provide new and useful perspectives for future IS research.

• Korean Security Journal
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• no.21
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• pp.75-94
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• 2009

Since mechanical security systems are mostly composed of electronic, information and communication devices, they have effects in the aspects of overall social environment and crime-oriented environment. Also, the importance is increasing for wireless recognition of RFID and tracing function, which will be usefully utilized in controlling the incomings and outgoings of people/vehicles or allowance, surveillance and control. This is resulting from the increase in the care for the elderly according to the overall social environment, namely, the aging society, and the number of women entering, as well as the increase in the number of heinous crimes. The purpose of this study is to examine the theoretical considerations on ubiquitous sensor network and present a direction for securities companies for their development by focusing on the technological and application areas. To present strategies of response to a new environment for security companies, First, a diversification strategy is needed for security companies. The survival of only high level of security companies in accordance with the principle of liberal market competition will bring forth qualitative growth and competitiveness of security market. Second, active promotion by security companies is needed. It is no exaggeration to say that we are living in the modern society in the sea of advertisements and propaganda. The promotional activities that emphasize the areas of activity or importance of security need to be actively carried out using the mass media to change the aware of people regarding security companies, and they need to come up with a plan to simultaneously carry out the promotional activities that emphasize the public aspect of security by well utilizing the recent trend that the activities of security agents are being used as a topic in movies or TV dramas. Third, technically complementary establishment of ubiquitous sensor network and electronic tag is needed. Since they are used in mobile electronic tag services such as U-Home and U-Health Care, they are used throughout our lives by forming electronic tag environment within safe ubiquitous sensor network based on the existing privacy guideline for the support of mobile electronic tag terminal commercialization, reduction in communication and information usage costs, continuous technical development and strengthening of privacy protection, and the system of cooperation of academic-industrial-research needs to be established among the academic world and private research institutes for these parts.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.21-28
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• 2012

While recent economic stagnation has left consumers dispirited, rapid growth has been seen in the domestic coffee industry recently. With the growth in coffee consumption, a tremendous increase in the number of specialty coffee shops has been seen in the domestic coffee market. The expectation that markets specializing in coffee will continue to grow for a long time will cause existing enterprises to expand their shops and increase the rate of entry of new shops. Intense competition in the domestic coffee market will force companies to create a competitive advantage through differentiated marketing strategies. This paper focuses on how the shopping value and repatronage intention of customers using coffee shops is affected by service quality. Moreover, this paper intends to examine the service quality that is critical for the successful management of relationships and the values that are important to consumers. For these purposes, the discriminative effect of service quality on shopping value was analyzed and the effect of utilitarian and hedonic value on repatronage intention was reviewed. The results of this study are detailed below. First, interaction and outcome quality can positively affect the hedonic value, whereas environment quality is not meaningful for utilitarian value. Considering the relative effect on utilitarian value outcome, the effect of outcome quality is greater than that of interaction. This result shows that the role of outcome quality is most important for improving utilitarian value. Second, outcome and environment quality positively affect hedonic value; however, interaction quality does not meaningfully increase hedonic value. These results indicate that customers recognize hedonic value on the basis of their evaluation of the service outcomes and the background to delivery service. In particular, it was revealed that the relative effect of outcome quality on hedonic value is greater than that of environment quality. Third, both utilitarian value and hedonic value had a positive effect on repatronage intention. The relative influence of the hedonic value is that the shopping value affects the repatronage intention more than the utilitarian value. These results mean that customers recognize coffee shops as spaces for satisfying utilitarian and hedonic values, and they place more importance on the benefits of the emotional experience than functional needs. Finally, this study suggests that output quality is more important than other service factors, and the results of this paper give some implications to the coffee shop industry that customers seek utilitarian needs based on economic value and place more weight on hedonic value, such as that offered by relationship media.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.225-270
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• 2008

We analyze macroeconomic consequences of pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) public pension system with a simple overlapping generations model. Contrary to large body of existing literatures offering quantitative results based on simulation study, we take another route by adopting a highly simplified framework in search of qualitatively tractable analytical results. The main contribution of our results lies in providing a sound theoretical foundation that can be utilized in interpreting various quantitative results offered by simulation studies of large scale general equilibrium models. We present a simple overlapping generations model with a defined benefit(DB) PAYGO public pension system as a benchmark case and derive an analytical equilibrium solution utilizing graphical illustration. We also discuss the modifications of the benchmark model required to encompass a defined contribution(DC) public pension system into the basic framework. Comparative statics analysis provides three important implications; First, introduction and expansion of the PAYGO public pension, DB or DC, result in lower level of capital accumulation and higher expected rate of return on the risky asset. Second, it is shown that the progress of population aging is accompanied by lower capital stock due to decrease in both demand and supply of risky asset. Moreover, risk premium for risky asset increases(decreases) as the speed of population aging accelerates(decelerates) so that the possibility of so-called "the great meltdown" of asset market cannot be excluded although the odds are not high. Third, it is most likely that the switch from DB PAYGO to DC PAYGO would result in lower capital stock and higher expected return on the risky asset mainly due to the fact that the young generation regards DC PAYGO pension as another risky asset competing against the risky asset traded in the market. This theoretical prediction coincides with one of the firmly established propositions in empirical literature that the currently dominant form of public pension system has the tendency to crowd out private capital accumulation.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.76-89
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• 2017

Tourism is being used as a tool to regenerate declining spaces. Therefore, the government is carrying out various projects to create tourist attractions to revitalize the traditional marketplace, which is declining nationwide. Because of these government-led projects, traditional marketplaces have been transformed into tourist attractions, and some markets have received enough positive feedback that they have been successfully revitalized economically. However, as marketplaces have become tourist destinations, negative views about government support projects are also increasing. This also leads to conflicts due to differences in perception and interests of stakeholders. This paper examines the process of the marketplace becoming a tourist destination focused on the Tongin Market, in Seoul which has been regenerated as a tourist attraction through a government support project. The purpose of this study is, first, to examine the background of tourist markets becoming tourist attractions and the issues surrounding them. The second was to explore in depth the types of conflict perceptions of visitors, residents and tourists, and the perception of their responses. As a research method, the process of the revitalization of traditional markets through news and existing literature, issues and the difference of perceptions about tourist-centric traditional marketplaces were examined. In addition, the Q methodology was used, which is a qualitative research methodology that can measure the difference of viewpoints and perceptions of specific events in order to analyze the difference of perception among visitors in traditional marketplaces. The results of the study show that there are three main perspectives of difference among visitors' perceptions about government support projects in traditional marketplaces and the marketplace becoming a tourist attraction. The 'policy dependent perspective' emphasizes the necessity of government regulations, a 'critical perspective' criticizes the government's traditional marketplace support policy, and the 'neutral perspective' acknowledges the need for government-led projects and accentuating the internal competitiveness of the marketplace. The study provided the environment for academic discussion about traditional marketplaces, which are becoming tourist attractions nationwide. In addition, this paper can contribute to providing implications for future government projects by analyzing the perception of marketplace visitors.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.21-40
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• 2000

The retail trades in many countries have changed recently according to the high quality, diversification, and marked individuality of consumer needs. Under the continually competing system of the WTO agreement, corporations based in the USA and the EU try to raise their market share in other countries so it is inevitable for Korean retail enterprises to compete with them. This paper is aimed at contributing to the efficient growth for Korean retail trade from the analysis of the development process in retail trade and its changing locations comparing Korea and the USA. Retailers in the USA have practiced diversified marketing strategies considerably in order to survive in a rapidly changing retailing environment. American retailing, which has the most advanced marketing system in the world, has been of growing concern to marketing strategies in Korea. The following is a brief summary of this study. 1. Speedy and higher quality consumption is needed in accordance with the great increase in the single-family household and the female labor force participation both in Korea and in the USA. Senior citizens have become a new consumer group due to the aging population. In the future the retail trade will switch over to diversified retail formats and internet shopping as countries are transformed into information and communication societies. 2. In Korea, the former retail system characterized by markets and department stores has been greatly changed since the late 1980s with emphasis on high quality and convenience in consumption behaviors, with large domestic enterprises and foreign distribution corporations participating in Korean retailing. In the USA, retailing mergers and takeovers by major retails, bankruptcies, and extra-large shopping centers have emerged since the late 1980s. Recently, the USA retailing formats have been changed from the lower price-oriented discount types to the large scale theme parks. Much emphasis was put on entertainment, resorts, and convention centers. On the other hand, non-store types, such as the internet shopping, the CATV shopping, as well as catalog and mail-order sales are drastically increasing, although the proportion of their sales is low up to now. 3. In Korea, most of the retail facilities are concentrated in Seoul and the Metropolitan Region, and the distribution ratio of facilities came to 52% in 1997. The periodic markets, traditional markets which open on a periodic basis, are located mainly in Chollanam-do and Kyungsangbuk-do. The large-sized discount stores have expanded their locations to the over-crowded apartment complexes in new towns, located in the Metropolitan Region, and the large provincial cities, unlike the suburban locations in the USA. Therefore we needed to give attention to the locational relations in retail facilities between Seoul & the Metropolitan Region and rural settlement areas. In the USA, urban areas grew quickly with the development of the automobile in the 1920s, and the location of stores changed from a dispersed style centering around rural areas to a centralized one in urban areas. There is an accelerated growth for suburban areas, which have grown rapidly since 1950. As the membership warehouse clubs were introduced in the 1970s, the decentralization of location was more intensified. On the other hand, inner cities were revitalized by rearranging existing facilities to cope with suburban areas. And the location-free virtual retailing & TV shopping are also growing every year. 4. In view of the above, the continuous and desirable development devices in Korean retail trade are summarized as follows: First, the countermeasures against economies of scale, increase in retailing sales, and rise of a employment percentage in retailing are in need. Second, a scheme of lowering the proportion of food retail sales, and increasing a ratio of durable goods sales need to be worked out. Third, the original ideas are needed to apply positively information, communication and technology to retailing, to graft the traditional types on modem ones based on the social culture. Fourth, strategies are needed to strengthen the competitiveness of our retail trade through cooperation and chains of smaller retailers, the large enterprises participating in the distribution industry. Fifth, in order to realize the above, the retail industry, the administration, and the academic world should support the retail segment with concern and a practical strategy plan.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.17-30
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• 2020

In the shipping industry, it is essential to engage in the preemptive prediction of freight rate volatility through market monitoring. Considering that freight rates have already started to fall, the loss of shipping companies will soon be uncontrollable. Therefore, in this study, factors affecting the freight rates of bulk carriers, which have relatively large freight rate volatility as compared to container freight rates, were quantified and analyzed. In doing so, we intended to contribute to future shipping market monitoring. We performed an analysis using a vector error correction model and estimated the influence of six independent variables on the charter rates of bulk carriers by Handy Size, Supramax, Panamax, and Cape Size. The six independent variables included the bulk carrier fleet volume, iron ore traffic volume, ribo interest rate, bunker oil price, and Euro-Dollar exchange rate. The dependent variables were handy size (32,000 DWT) spot charter rates, Supramax 6 T/C average charter rates, Pana Max (75,000 DWT) spot charter, and Cape Size (170,000 DWT) spot charter. The study examined charter rates by size of bulk carriers, which was different from studies on existing specific types of ships or fares in oil tankers and chemical carriers other than bulk carriers. Findings revealed that influencing factors differed for each ship size. The Libo interest rate had a significant effect on all four ship types, and the iron ore traffic volume had a significant effect on three ship types. The Ribo rate showed a negative (-) relationship with Handy Size, Supramax, Panamax, and Cape Size. Iron ore traffic influenced three types of linearity, except for Panamax. The size of shipping companies differed depending on their characteristics. These findings are expected to contribute to the establishment of a management strategy for shipping companies by analyzing the factors influencing changes in the freight rates of charterers, which have a profound effect on the management performance of shipping companies.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.129-149
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• 2021

Recently, interest in social robots that can socially interact with humans is increasing. Thanks to the development of ICT technology, social robots have become easier to provide personalized services and emotional connection to individuals, and the role of social robots is drawing attention as a means to solve modern social problems and the resulting decline in the quality of individual lives. Along with the interest in social robots, the spread of social robots is also increasing significantly. Many companies are introducing robot products to the market to target various target markets, but so far there is no clear trend leading the market. Accordingly, there are more and more attempts to differentiate robots through the design of social robots. In particular, anthropomorphism has been studied importantly in social robot design, and many approaches have been attempted to anthropomorphize social robots to produce positive effects. However, there is a lack of research that systematically describes the mechanism by which anthropomorphism for social robots is formed. Most of the existing studies have focused on verifying the positive effects of the anthropomorphism of social robots on consumers. In addition, the formation of anthropomorphism of social robots may vary depending on the individual's motivation or temperament, but there are not many studies examining this. A vague understanding of anthropomorphism makes it difficult to derive design optimal points for shaping the anthropomorphism of social robots. The purpose of this study is to verify the mechanism by which the anthropomorphism of social robots is formed. This study confirmed the effect of the human-likeness of social robots(Within-subjects) and the construal level of consumers(Between-subjects) on the formation of anthropomorphism through an experimental study of 3×2 mixed design. Research hypotheses on the mechanism by which anthropomorphism is formed were presented, and the hypotheses were verified by analyzing data from a sample of 206 people. The first hypothesis in this study is that the higher the human-likeness of the robot, the higher the level of anthropomorphism for the robot. Hypothesis 1 was supported by a one-way repeated measures ANOVA and a post hoc test. The second hypothesis in this study is that depending on the construal level of consumers, the effect of human-likeness on the level of anthropomorphism will be different. First, this study predicts that the difference in the level of anthropomorphism as human-likeness increases will be greater under high construal condition than under low construal condition.Second, If the robot has no human-likeness, there will be no difference in the level of anthropomorphism according to the construal level. Thirdly,If the robot has low human-likeness, the low construal level condition will make the robot more anthropomorphic than the high construal level condition. Finally, If the robot has high human-likeness, the high construal levelcondition will make the robot more anthropomorphic than the low construal level condition. We performed two-way repeated measures ANOVA to test these hypotheses, and confirmed that the interaction effect of human-likeness and construal level was significant. Further analysis to specifically confirm interaction effect has also provided results in support of our hypotheses. The analysis shows that the human-likeness of the robot increases the level of anthropomorphism of social robots, and the effect of human-likeness on anthropomorphism varies depending on the construal level of consumers. This study has implications in that it explains the mechanism by which anthropomorphism is formed by considering the human-likeness, which is the design attribute of social robots, and the construal level of consumers, which is the way of thinking of individuals. We expect to use the findings of this study as the basis for design optimization for the formation of anthropomorphism in social robots.

• Composites Research
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.241-248
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• 2021

As the electric vehicle market grows, there is an issue of light weight vehicles to increase battery efficiency. Therefore, it is going to replace the battery module cover that protects the battery module of electric vehicles with high strength/high heat-resistant polymer composite material which has lighter weight from existing aluminum materials. It also aims to respond to the early electric vehicle market where technology changes quickly by combining 3D printing technology that is advantageous for small production of multiple varieties without restrictions on complex shapes. Based on the composite material mechanics, the critical length of glass fibers in short glass fiber (GF)/polycarbonate (PC) composite materials manufactured through extruder was derived as 453.87 ㎛, and the side feeding method was adopted to improve the residual fiber length from 365.87 ㎛ and to increase a dispersibility. Thus, the optimal properties of tensile strength 135 MPa and Young's modulus 7.8 MPa were implemented as GF/PC composite materials containing 30 wt% of GF. In addition, the filament extrusion conditions (temperature, extrusion speed) were optimized to meet the commercial filament specification of 1.75 mm thickness and 0.05 mm standard deviation. Through manufactured filaments, 3D printing process conditions (temperature, printing speed) were optimized by multi-optimization that minimize porosity, maximize tensile strength, and printing speed to increase the productivity. Through this procedure, tensile strength and elastic modulus were improved 11%, 56% respectively. Also, by post-processing, tensile strength and Young's modulus were improved 5%, 18% respectively. Lastly, using the FEA (finite element analysis) technique, the structure of the battery module cover was optimized to meet the mechanical shock test criteria of the electric vehicle battery module cover (ISO-12405), and it is satisfied the battery cover mechanical shock test while achieving 37% lighter weight compared to aluminum battery module cover. Based on this research, it is expected that 3D printing technology of polymer composite materials can be used in various fields in the future.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.191-200
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• 2020

Companies are seeking to maximize profits through exports and imports in the ultra-fast, ultra-high-speed modern society. It is only possible to sustain its survival if it targets the global market, not based on any specific region. The K-POP group is also targeting overseas markets in a manner similar to the various global strategies used when companies make inroads into foreign markets, including exports, contracts and direct investment. The K-POP group is engaged in various forms of activities, ranging from simple forms of performance (export) that are visited and staged by an invitation from a certain foreign country to series performances (license) by an invitation from a local promoter and tour performances using its capabilities. The K-POP group is seeking to go beyond the art of single-stage performances and make a systematic plan and make inroads into foreign countries in the form of direct investment suitable for each foreign country. The K-POP group made inroads into overseas markets in the form of simple performances from the late 1990s to 2005, when 'Korean Wave' was first introduced. Group H.O.T., etc. are typical examples. Since then, it has sought to enter overseas markets in the form of franchises by accepting overseas members by 2018, starting with Super Junior in 2005. Since then, the K-POP group in the form of joint investment attempted as group IZ*ONE in 2018 appeared, and a voice story came out in September 2018 when South Korea's JYP Entertainment and Tencent of China joined forces. Unlike K-POP Group, which has entered foreign markets with a global strategy based on the existing export method (H.O.T.), 'Boystory' is a representative group that is made with joint investment, which is a direct investment method. In February 2020, RBW released 'D1Verse,' a five-member group selected by Vietnam's reality show, as a joint investment-type group. This shows the possibility that domestic and foreign companies will release a group in the form of joint investment in order to pursue both globalization and localization.