• Title/Summary/Keyword: Gain management

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Thermal Behavior and Leaf Temperature in a High Pressure Sodium Lamp Supplemented Greenhouse (고압나트륨등 보광 온실의 열적 거동 및 엽온 분석)

  • Seungri Yoon;Jin Hyun Kim;Minju Shin;Dongpil Kim;Ji Wong Bang;Ho Jeong Jeong;Tae In Ahn
    • Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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    • v.32 no.1
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    • pp.48-56
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    • 2023
  • High-pressure sodium (HPS) lamps have been widely used as a useful supplemental light source to emit sufficient photosynthetically active radiation and provide a radiant heat, which contribute the heat requirement in greenhouses. The objective of this study to analyze the thermal characteristics of HPS lamp and thermal behavior in supplemented greenhouse, and evaluate the performance of a horizontal leaf temperature of sweet pepper plants using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. We simulated horizontal leaf temperature on upper canopy according to three growth stage scenarios, which represented 1.0, 1.6, and 2.2 plant height, respectively. We also measured vertical leaf and air temperature accompanied by heat generation of HPS lamps. There was large leaf to air temperature differential due to non-uniformity in temperature. In our numerical calculation, thermal energy of HPS lamps contributed of 50.1% the total heat requirement on Dec. 2022. The CFD model was validated by comparing measured and simulated data at the same operating condition. Mean absolute error and root mean square error were below 0.5, which means the CFD simulation values were highly accurate. Our result about vertical leaf and air temperature can be used in decision making for efficient thermal energy management and crop growth.

A Case Study on the Development of Environment Friendly Citrus Farming in Jeju - Focusing on Graduate Farms of Korea National College of Agriculture and Fisheries (제주 친환경 감귤 농업 발전을 위한 사례연구 - 한농대 졸업생 농가를 중심으로 -)

  • Kang, S.K.;Kim, J.S.
    • Journal of Practical Agriculture & Fisheries Research
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    • v.16 no.1
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    • pp.37-53
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    • 2014
  • The purpose of this research is to find what difficulties the agricultural successors, the Korea National College of Agriculture and Fisheries (KNCAF) graduates, face with in implementing eco-friendly agriculture in Jeju, and what solutions they can be provided with. This research, a case study on the basis of open-ended survey questions, has 6 cases out of 8 graduates who have or had implemented eco-friendly citrus farming. In Jeju, 24 graduates have involved in citrus farming. According to the case study, only one case was environment-friendly farming method at the pesticide-free level, and the others at organic farming level. All the cases have tried to alter main crops or to diversify management for coping with global climate change and market-opening. On analyzing operating cost to gain product of merchantable quality, it revealed that the environment-friendly farming method needs much more managing efforts than the conventional farming does. But to the contrary, the materials cost in the environment-friendly farming method was lower than in the conventional farming method. In the total production and the price, the environment-friendly farming was 20~50% lower and 10~50% higher than the conventional farming, respectively. Difficulties which the graduates confronted with in implementing the environment-friendly agriculture are as below. Firstly, many of the difficulties have resulted from lack of the environment-friendly farming techniques, and the high cost of farm scale improvement due to high price of land and topographical features of Jeju. Secondly, the agricultural successors, the KNCAF graduates, have trouble in obtaining approval of their parents to changeover from the conventional farming to the environment-friendly farming. Lastly, there is no advisory organizations and experts for environment-friendly farming in the given area. For shift to the environment-friendly farming, followings are needed. Agricultural Technology & Extension center, with cooperation of leading farms in environment-friendly farming, should have a key role in offering education and consults on the environment-friendly farming techniques. Also, this organization should inform rapidly the research results to the farmers, and their feed-back should be involved in the next research. Therefore, it is suggested that the forum called 'Environment-friendly Organic Farming Forum in Jeju' tentatively is organized.

The Satisfaction Analysis of Suburban Rural Human Settlements in Henan Province, China -Focused on Tai Nan Village - (중국 허난성(河南省) 도시 근교형 농촌 거주환경 만족도 분석 - 태남마을(太南村)을 중심으로 -)

  • Hou, ShuJun;Jung, Teayeol
    • Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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    • v.51 no.1
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    • pp.72-84
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    • 2023
  • The Rural Revitalization Strategy (2018-2022), published by the Chinese State Council in 2018, represents a new period of rural development in China. Suburban areas are more convenient than other rural areas in integrated urban-rural development but are under greater pressure from construction and industrial pollution. As a rural area with a high proportion of rural areas, it would be valuable for Henan province to gain a comprehensive grasp of rural human settlementst while identifying problems and proposing solutions. The purpose of this study is to analyze the satisfaction of the evaluation items based on the usage status and life perception of the residents of Tai Nan village, a suburb-type rural village in Henan province. The study proposes improvement programs based on the evaluation results. As a result of the study, 24 evaluation items were derived and divided into five categories: "Living Service Facilities", "Housing Environment, "Road Environment", "Health & Ecology Environment", and "Social & Cultural Environment". The Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation Method was used to find the overall satisfaction level of the human living environment in Tai Nan village, which was "average", among which "Living Service Facilities" was the most important "Health & Ecology Environment" was the least satisfied. Based on these results, an improvement plan is proposed in three stages. First, the living service will be improved while strengthening the facility management of the hygiene and the ecological environment. Second, reasonable improvement of housing and the road environment will be applied. Third, programs will be introduced to cultivate residents' ability to build their own and improve the social and cultural environment. This study provides basic data for the future improvement of rural settlements in the suburban areas of Henan province and is of great significance in gradually improving the the residents' quality of life.

The Impact of the Internet Channel Introduction Depending on the Ownership of the Internet Channel (도입주체에 따른 인터넷경로의 도입효과)

  • Yoo, Weon-Sang
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.19 no.1
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    • pp.37-46
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    • 2009
  • The Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce announced in May 2008 that U.S. retail e-commerce sales for 2006 reached $ 107 billion, up from $ 87 billion in 2005 - an increase of 22 percent. From 2001 to 2006, retail e-sales increased at an average annual growth rate of 25.4 percent. The explosive growth of E-Commerce has caused profound changes in marketing channel relationships and structures in many industries. Despite the great potential implications for both academicians and practitioners, there still exists a great deal of uncertainty about the impact of the Internet channel introduction on distribution channel management. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the ownership of the new Internet channel affects the existing channel members and consumers. To explore the above research questions, this study conducts well-controlled mathematical experiments to isolate the impact of the Internet channel by comparing before and after the Internet channel entry. The model consists of a monopolist manufacturer selling its product through a channel system including one independent physical store before the entry of an Internet store. The addition of the Internet store to this channel system results in a mixed channel comprised of two different types of channels. The new Internet store can be launched by the independent physical store such as Bestbuy. In this case, the physical retailer coordinates the two types of stores to maximize the joint profits from the two stores. The Internet store also can be introduced by an independent Internet retailer such as Amazon. In this case, a retail level competition occurs between the two types of stores. Although the manufacturer sells only one product, consumers view each product-outlet pair as a unique offering. Thus, the introduction of the Internet channel provides two product offerings for consumers. The channel structures analyzed in this study are illustrated in Fig.1. It is assumed that the manufacturer plays as a Stackelberg leader maximizing its own profits with the foresight of the independent retailer's optimal responses as typically assumed in previous analytical channel studies. As a Stackelberg follower, the independent physical retailer or independent Internet retailer maximizes its own profits, conditional on the manufacturer's wholesale price. The price competition between two the independent retailers is assumed to be a Bertrand Nash game. For simplicity, the marginal cost is set at zero, as typically assumed in this type of study. In order to explore the research questions above, this study develops a game theoretic model that possesses the following three key characteristics. First, the model explicitly captures the fact that an Internet channel and a physical store exist in two independent dimensions (one in physical space and the other in cyber space). This enables this model to demonstrate that the effect of adding an Internet store is different from that of adding another physical store. Second, the model reflects the fact that consumers are heterogeneous in their preferences for using a physical store and for using an Internet channel. Third, the model captures the vertical strategic interactions between an upstream manufacturer and a downstream retailer, making it possible to analyze the channel structure issues discussed in this paper. Although numerous previous models capture this vertical dimension of marketing channels, none simultaneously incorporates the three characteristics reflected in this model. The analysis results are summarized in Table 1. When the new Internet channel is introduced by the existing physical retailer and the retailer coordinates both types of stores to maximize the joint profits from the both stores, retail prices increase due to a combination of the coordination of the retail prices and the wider market coverage. The quantity sold does not significantly increase despite the wider market coverage, because the excessively high retail prices alleviate the market coverage effect to a degree. Interestingly, the coordinated total retail profits are lower than the combined retail profits of two competing independent retailers. This implies that when a physical retailer opens an Internet channel, the retailers could be better off managing the two channels separately rather than coordinating them, unless they have the foresight of the manufacturer's pricing behavior. It is also found that the introduction of an Internet channel affects the power balance of the channel. The retail competition is strong when an independent Internet store joins a channel with an independent physical retailer. This implies that each retailer in this structure has weak channel power. Due to intense retail competition, the manufacturer uses its channel power to increase its wholesale price to extract more profits from the total channel profit. However, the retailers cannot increase retail prices accordingly because of the intense retail level competition, leading to lower channel power. In this case, consumer welfare increases due to the wider market coverage and lower retail prices caused by the retail competition. The model employed for this study is not designed to capture all the characteristics of the Internet channel. The theoretical model in this study can also be applied for any stores that are not geographically constrained such as TV home shopping or catalog sales via mail. The reasons the model in this study is names as "Internet" are as follows: first, the most representative example of the stores that are not geographically constrained is the Internet. Second, catalog sales usually determine the target markets using the pre-specified mailing lists. In this aspect, the model used in this study is closer to the Internet than catalog sales. However, it would be a desirable future research direction to mathematically and theoretically distinguish the core differences among the stores that are not geographically constrained. The model is simplified by a set of assumptions to obtain mathematical traceability. First, this study assumes the price is the only strategic tool for competition. In the real world, however, various marketing variables can be used for competition. Therefore, a more realistic model can be designed if a model incorporates other various marketing variables such as service levels or operation costs. Second, this study assumes the market with one monopoly manufacturer. Therefore, the results from this study should be carefully interpreted considering this limitation. Future research could extend this limitation by introducing manufacturer level competition. Finally, some of the results are drawn from the assumption that the monopoly manufacturer is the Stackelberg leader. Although this is a standard assumption among game theoretic studies of this kind, we could gain deeper understanding and generalize our findings beyond this assumption if the model is analyzed by different game rules.

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Study of nosocomial rotavirus infection in neonates admitted to a postpartum-care center (서울시내 1개 산후 조리원에서 시행한 로타바이러스 선별검사에 대한 분석)

  • Park, Ji Young;Kim, Dong Hwan;Bae, Seung Young;Choi, Chang Hee;Cho, Eun Young;Choi, Jeong Hoon;Kim, Sun Mi
    • Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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    • v.14 no.2
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    • pp.145-154
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    • 2007
  • Purpose : Rotavirus is one of the most important etiologic agents of nosocomial infections among the neonates. This study was designed to investigate nosocomial rotavirus infection in neonates who were admitted to a postpartum-care center after birth. Methods : From March 2005 to September 2006, 957 healthy neonates were examined for rotavirus antigen in stool by immunochromatographic method and 216 neonates were rotavirus antigen positive within 24 hours after admitted to a postpartum-care center. We reviewed the nursing charts retrospectively such as characteristics, monthly distribution, birth hospitals, delivery methods, feeding types and clinical manifestations. Results : Among 957 neonates, 216 neonates (22.6%) were rotavirus antigen positive and there were no differences in sex, birth weight, gestational age. Monthly positive rate of rotavirus antigen showed diversity from 10% to 36%. According to birth hospitals, positive rate showed diversity from 3.5% to 53.6%. Out of 957 neonates, 655 cases (68.4%) were born of vaginal delivery and mean hospitalized duration was 2.4 days, 302 cases (31.6%) were born of cesarean section and mean hospitalized duration was 5.7 days. 17.6% of vaginal delivery and 33.4% of cesarean section were rotavirus antigen positive. The positive rate was higher in neonates by cesarean section than vaginal delivery (P<0.001). According to feeding types, positive rate of rotavirus antigen was lower in breast-fed group than formula-fed group (P<0.001). Proportion of symptomatic case among rotavirus antigen positive was 34.7%. Most common clinical manifestation was diarrhea (61.3%), following poor feeding (45.3%), fever (40.0%), vomiting (25.3%), delayed weight gain (12.0%), and decreased urine amount (5.3%). Conclusion : Some neonates were already infected before admission to a postpartum-care center. Without meticulous management, nosocomial rotavirus infection would transmit rapidly in a postpartum-care center spreading to the community. Recommendation of breast-feeding, routine rotavirus screeing test with or without symptom, and isolation of all rotavirus antigen positive neonates in a postpartum-care center seem to be necessary. Also attentive hygiene education and further investigations of rotavirus infection in a postpartum-care center would be needed.

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Awareness Activation of Dance Copyrights and Research of Effectiveness Plans (무용의 저작권 인식 활성화와 실효성 방안 연구)

  • LEE, Seoeun
    • Trans-
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    • v.2
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    • pp.1-38
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    • 2017
  • Dance, as an art which expresses thoughts and emotions by movement human, is included in work that its copyright has to be protected, choreographers who are creators and dancers who are performing can exercise their rights included in copyright laws. However, artists who work in the dancing scene have lack of awareness about copyrights and the application level is low. The purpose of this thesis is to look into the current status and issues about dance copyright and to discuss activation plans and effectiveness plans for dance copyrights. The main point is to check into the level of awareness for dance copyrights with choreographers, dancers and students majoring in dance who are in charge of the art of dancing, to present issues about the necessity of the dance copyrights protection plans by analyzing interviews-in-depth and to prepare the dance copyrights protection plans which are concretely realistic. For the research methods, first, I looked into ideas and contents about copyrights through a document research and then, wanted to prepare theoretical background by reviewing actual cases of performing art copyrights related to dance. Next, I carried out surveys about awareness of copyrights with students majoring in dance, choreographers and dancers then carried out analysis of actual proof. Also, I chose three famous dancers who are actively performing in the current dancing scene and did interviews-in-depth about dance copyrights then carried out a recording analysis. I tried to complement the analysis by discussing deeper which I couldn't deal with in the previous surveys and to contemplate awareness activation of dance copyrights and plans. As a result of the research, the level of the awareness about dance copyrights through age, major, education and career was very low. The level of awareness was almost same compared to the previous research 10 years ago. 'Music', which can be an element of copyright issue in dance, was the highest in rate, and dance was recognized as an art which is combined with various elements as a combination work. The way of protection for works of choreography and performance only used data preservation and contracts and didn't register copyrights or record in dace notation. Majority of responders answered that they couldn't have any education about copyrights while they were recognizing the necessity of education and management for copyrights. The analysis of interviews-in-depth was also matched to the result of the previous surveys and a deeper discussion about the status of dance copyrights and issues was carried out. The plans of effectiveness for dance copyrights through the result of previous research are as followings. First, an advanced education is necessary above all to increase the awareness and application of copyrights in dancing scene. Long-term education like study curriculums and short-term education like special courses and seminars should be combined, and education about copyrights for dance groups, choreographers, dancers and students majoring in dance should keep on going. Second, revision of performing art works is necessary for the activation of dance copyrights, and establishing a dance copyright association to manage copyrights systematically and training dance copyright experts are necessary as well. Third, as the way of copyright protection for choreographers and dancers, an establishment for relation gain and loss about copyrights is necessary when creating dance works and performing, and registration of dance works should be activated. Also, the dancing scene should sign contracts for choreography and performance and this contract culture should be activated, and it should systematically preserve and manage choreography and performance records through basic ways. Hereby, it is considered to prepare a foundation to foster the awareness of dance copyrights and activate dance copyrights.

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A Study on Personal hygiene of Primary School Students (초등학교 아동의 개인위생에 대한 조사)

  • Kim, Jae-Sam;Nam, Cbul-Hyun;Kang, Hae-Yang
    • Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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    • v.9 no.1
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    • pp.109-123
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    • 1996
  • The study was designed to gain necessary basic data, in order to grasp the actual condition on personal hygiene of primary school students and to help school health education and child health education data development of parents of students, the survery was carried out through this reporter's interview for mothers who have primary school pupil in KyungBug area during the period of a month from 14 the April to 30 the April 1994. The results of this study can be summarized as follows. 1. As for general characteristics, the percent of answer mothers with 30~34 years 44.9%, and the percent of answer mothers with 35~39 years was 37.6%, 14.6% of answer mother was 40 years and over. The most house types was apartment house, that is 64.8% and independence house was 18.9%, 13.7% of answer mothers was multivalent house residents. As for level of school career, the percent of high school was 64.2% and the percent of university was 20.5%, 10.1% of answer mothers was finishment of middle school. As for religion a lack of religion was 38.4% and a Buddhist was 36.8%, a christian was 13.4%, 10.4% of answer mothers was a catholic. As for jobs, the percent of office was 33.9%, specialist and expert skiller was 17.3%, self-management was 16.0%, fishing and agrarian villiages was 11.6%, public service personnel and shool personnel was 9.1%. As for the number of sons and daughters, the percent of two was 70.5%, the percent of one was 16.0%, and the percent of male students was 54.1%. As for level of economic life middle level was 59.9%. 2. The percentage of washing hand after school hours was 66.8% and not washing hand after school hours was 33.2%. In washing hand after school hours family of independence house, mothers that have schoolcareer of university, female students, three and over of sons and daughters was high individually (p<0.05). 3. As for paring one's nails, once a ten days was 52.9% once a five days was 22.5% once a fifteen days was 19.0%, once a twenty and over was 5.6%. 4. 54.7% of primary school students of answer mother's take a bath once a few days and 31.6% take a bath once a week, 10.1% take a bath once a tendays. 5. The percentage of changing of underwear once a day was 60.9%, once a few days was 37.1%, once a week was 2.0%, as for changing of underwear, sons and daughters that has mothers with 29 years and downward, one number of sons and daughters, females students was high individually (p<0.01). 6. The percentage of haircut once a 20~30 days was 59.9%, once a 31~40 days was 17.9%, once a 40 days and over was 16.6%. As for the percentage of haircut once a 20~30 days apartment house residents, male students was high (p<0.01). 7. The percentage of experience in taking nutrition was 79.8% and the percentage of experience in taking restorative was 72.3%. As for taking nutrition, apartment house residents, one number of sons and daughters, male students was high individually (p<0.01). As for taking restorative apartment house residents, on number of sons and daughters, male students was high individually (p<0.05). 8. The percentage of habit of unbalanced diet was 44.0%, sons and daughters that have mother with 40 years and over apartment house residents, male students, one number of sons and daughters was high indivdually (p<0.05). 9. As for hygiene condition of sons and daughters, the percentage of good state of health was 65.2%, middle state of health was 3.5% bad state of health was 11.4%. In good state of health sons and daughters that have mothers with 29 years and downward, multivalent house residents, three numbers of sons and daughters, female students, high birth was high individually. 10. As for fattness of sons and daughters, existence was 18.2%. No existence was 81.8%. in existence sons and daughters who have mothers with 40 years and downward, independence house resident, special job and expert skill job, three and over number of sons and daughters, female students, low birth was high individually. 11. As for use aspect of medical facilities of sons and daughters, hospital doctors was 53.1%, drugstore was 42.3%, chinese medicine hospitals or health organization was 4.6%. In usage of drugstore, sons and daughters of mothers with 29 years, 40 years and over was 55.6%, 61.4% individully, inusage of hospital doctors 30~34 years, 34~39 tears was 64.5%, 49.1% individully (p<0.01), apartment house residents, one or two numbers of sons and daughters, male students was high individually. In the percentage of using drugstore, school career of middle school and downward, in occupation, three and over numbers of sons and daughters, low birth was high individually (p<0.05). According to the results mentioned above. An actual condition and a related matters on personal hygiene of primary school students must be used as the basis data of a health education program and a health data of a health education program and a health data related, a teaching materials development and must be helped to the health life education of parents of students and childs.

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The Effect of Users' Personality on Emotional and Cognitive Evaluation in UCC Web Site Usage (UCC(user-created-contents) 웹 사이트에서 사용자의 인성이 감정적, 인지적 평가와 UCC 활용에 미치는 영향)

  • Moon, Yun-Ji;Kang, So-Ra;Kim, Woo-Gon
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.20 no.3
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    • pp.167-190
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    • 2010
  • The research conducted here focuses on the effect of factors that affect the behavior of UCC (User Created Content) website users, other than user's rational recognition of how useful a UCC website can be. Most discussions in the existing literature on information systems have focused on users' evaluation how a UCC website can help to attain the users' own goals. However, there are other factors and this research pays attention to an individual's 'personality,' which is stable and biological in nature. Specifically, I have noted here that 'extroversion' and 'neuroticism,' the two common personality factors presented in Eysenck's most representative 'EPQ Model' and 'Big Five Model,' are the two personality factors that affect a site's 'usefulness,' by this I mean how useful does the user consider the website and its content. How useful a site is considered by the user is the other factor that has been regarded as the antecedent factor that influences the adoption of information systems in the existing MIS (Management Information System) research. Secondly, as using or creating a UCC website does not guarantee the user's or the creator's extrinsic motivation, unlike when using the information system within an organization, there is a greater likelihood that the increase in user's activities in relation to a UCC website is motivated by emotional factors rather than rational factors. Thus, I have decided to include the relationship between an individual's personality and what they find pleasurable in the research model. Thirdly, when based on the S-O-R Paradigm of Mehrabian and Russell, the two cognitive factors and emotional factors are finally affected by stimulus, and thus these factors ultimately have an effect on an individual's respondent behavior. Therefore, this research has presented an assumption that the recognition of how useful the site and content is and what emotional pleasure it provides will finally affect the behavior of the UCC website users. Finally, the relationship between the recognition of how useful a site is and how pleasurable it is to useand UCC usage may differ depending on certain situational conditions. In other words, the relationship between the three factors may vary according to how much users are involved in the creation of the website content. Creation thus emerges as the keyword of UCC. I analyzed the above relationships through the moderating variable of the user's involvement in the creation of the site. The research result shows the following: When it comes to the relationship between an individual's personality and what they find pleasurable it is extroverted users who have a greater likelihood to feel pleasure when using a UCC website, as was expected in this research. This in turn leads to a more active usage of the UCC web site because a person who is an extrovert likes to spend time on activities with other people, is sensitive to new experiences and stimuli and thus actively responds to these. An extroverted person accepts new UCC activities as part of his/her social life, rather than getting away from this new UCC environment. This is represented by the term 'Foxonomy' where the users meet a variety of users from all over the world and contact new types of content created by these users. However, neuroticism creates the opposite situation to that created by extroversion. The representative symptoms of neuroticism are instability, stress, and tension. These dispositions are more closely related to stress caused by a new environment rather than this creatingcuriosity or pleasure. Thus, neurotic persons have an uneasy feeling and will eventually avoid the situation where their own or others' daily lives are frequently exposed to the open web environment, this eventually makes them have a negative attitude towards the web environment. When it comes to an individual's personality and how useful site is, the two personality factors of extroversion and neuroticism both have a positive relationship with the recognition of how useful the site and its content is. The positive, curious, and social dispositions of extroverted persons tend to make them consider the future usefulness and possibilities of a new type of information system, or website, based on their positive attitude, which has a significant influence on the recognition of how useful these UCC sites are. Neuroticism also favorably affects how useful a UCC website can be through a different mechanism from that of extroversion. As the neurotic persons tend to feel uneasy and have much doubt about a new type of information system, they actively explore its usefulness in order to relieve their uncomfortable feelings. In other words, neurotic persons seek out how useful a site can be in order to secure their own stable feelings. Meanwhile, extroverted persons explore how useful a site can be because of their positive attitude and curiosity. As a lot of MIS research has revealed that the recognition of how useful a site can be and how pleasurable it can be to use have been proven to have a significant effect on UCC activity. However, the relationship between these factors reveals different aspects based on the user's involvement in creation. This factor of creationgauges the interest of users in the creation of UCC contents. Involvement is a variable that shows the level of an individual's mental effort in creating UCC contents. When a user is highly involved in the creation process and makes an enormous effort to create UCC content (classed a part of a high-involvement group), their own pleasure and recognition of how useful the site is have a significantly higher effect on the future usage of the UCC contents, more significantly than the users who sit back and just retrieve the UCC content created by others. The cognitive and emotional response of those in the low-involvement group is unlikely to last long,even if they recognize the contents of a UCC website is pleasurable and useful to them. However, the high-involvement group tends to participate in the creation and the usage of UCC more favorably, connecting the experience with their own goals. In this respect, this research presents an answer to the question; why so many people are participating in the usage of UCC, the representative form of the Web 2.0 that has drastically involved more and more people in the creation of UCC, even if they cannot gain any monetary or social compensation. Neither information system nor a website can succeed unless it secures a certain level of user base. Moreover, it cannot be further developed when the reasons, or problems, for people's participation are not suitably explored, even if it has a certain user base. Thus, what is significant in this research is that it has studied users' respondent behavior based on an individual's innate personality, emotion, and cognitive interaction, unlike the existing research that has focused on 'compensation' to explain users' participation with the UCC website. There are also limitations in this research. Firstly, I divided an individual's personality into extroversion and neuroticism; however, there are many other personal factors such as neuro-psychiatricism, which also needs to be analyzed for its influence on UCC activities. Secondly, as a UCC website comes in many types such as multimedia, Wikis, and podcasting, these types need to be included as a sub-category of the UCC websites and their relationship with personality, emotion, cognition, and behavior also needs to be analyzed.

The Effect of Price Discount Rate According to Brand Loyalty on Consumer's Acquisition Value and Transaction Value (브랜드애호도에 따른 가격할인율의 차이가 소비자의 획득가치와 거래가치에 미치는 영향)

  • Kim, Young-Ei;Kim, Jae-Yeong;Shin, Chang-Nag
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.17 no.4
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    • pp.247-269
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    • 2007
  • In recent years, one of the major reasons for the fierce competition amongst firms is that they strive to increase their own market shares and customer acquisition rate in the same market with similar and apparently undifferentiated products in terms of quality and perceived benefit. Because of this change in recent marketing environment, the differentiated after-sales service and diversified promotion strategies have become more important to gain competitive advantage. Price promotion is the favorite strategy that most retailers use to achieve short-term sales increase, induce consumer's brand switch, in troduce new product into market, and so forth. However, if marketers apply or copy an identical price promotion strategy without considering the characteristic differences in product and consumer preference, it will cause serious problems because discounted price itself could make people skeptical about product quality, and the changes of perceived value might appear differently depending on other factors such as consumer involvement or brand attitude. Previous studies showed that price promotion would certainly increase sales, and the discounted price compared to regular price would enhance the consumer's perceived values. On the other hand, discounted price itself could make people depreciate or skeptical about product quality, and reduce the consumers' positivity bias because consumers might be unsure whether the current price promotion is the retailer's best price offer. Moreover, we cannot say that discounted price absolutely enhances the consumer's perceived values regardless of product category and purchase situations. That is, the factors that affect consumers' value perceptions and buying behavior are so diverse in reality that the results of studies on the same dependent variable come out differently depending on what variable was used or how experiment conditions were designed. Majority of previous researches on the effect of price-comparison advertising have used consumers' buying behavior as dependent variable. In order to figure out consumers' buying behavior theoretically, analysis of value perceptions which influence buying intentions is needed. In addition, they did not combined the independent variables such as brand loyalty and price discount rate together. For this reason, this paper tried to examine the moderating effect of brand loyalty on relationship between the different levels of discounting rate and buyers' value perception. And we provided with theoretical and managerial implications that marketers need to consider such variables as product attributes, brand loyalty, and consumer involvement at the same time, and then establish a differentiated pricing strategy case by case in order to enhance consumer's perceived values properl. Three research concepts were used in our study and each concept based on past researches was defined. The perceived acquisition value in this study was defined as the perceived net gains associated with the products or services acquired. That is, the perceived acquisition value of the product will be positively influenced by the benefits buyers believe they are getting by acquiring and using the product, and negatively influenced by the money given up to acquire the product. And the perceived transaction value was defined as the perception of psychological satisfaction or pleasure obtained from taking advantage of the financial terms of the price deal. Lastly, the brand loyalty was defined as favorable attitude towards a purchased product. Thus, a consumer loyal to a brand has an emotional attachment to the brand or firm. Repeat purchasers continue to buy the same brand even though they do not have an emotional attachment to it. We assumed that if the degree of brand loyalty is high, the perceived acquisition value and the perceived transaction value will increase when higher discount rate is provided. But we found that there are no significant differences in values between two different discount rates as a result of empirical analysis. It means that price reduction did not affect consumer's brand choice significantly because the perceived sacrifice decreased only a little, and customers are satisfied with product's benefits when brand loyalty is high. From the result, we confirmed that consumers with high degree of brand loyalty to a specific product are less sensitive to price change. Thus, using price promotion strategy to merely expect sale increase is not recommendable. Instead of discounting price, marketers need to strengthen consumers' brand loyalty and maintain the skimming strategy. On the contrary, when the degree of brand loyalty is low, the perceived acquisition value and the perceived transaction value decreased significantly when higher discount rate is provided. Generally brands that are considered inferior might be able to draw attention away from the quality of the product by making consumers focus more on the sacrifice component of price. But considering the fact that consumers with low degree of brand loyalty are known to be unsatisfied with product's benefits and have relatively negative brand attitude, bigger price reduction offered in experiment condition of this paper made consumers depreciate product's quality and benefit more and more, and consumer's psychological perceived sacrifice increased while perceived values decreased accordingly. We infer that, in the case of inferior brand, a drastic price-cut or frequent price promotion may increase consumers' uncertainty about overall components of product. Therefore, it appears that reinforcing the augmented product such as after-sale service, delivery and giving credit which is one of the levels consisting of product would be more effective in reality. This will be better rather than competing with product that holds high brand loyalty by reducing sale price. Although this study tried to examine the moderating effect of brand loyalty on relationship between the different levels of discounting rate and buyers' value perception, there are several limitations. This study was conducted in controlled conditions where the high involvement product and two different levels of discount rate were applied. Given the presence of low involvement product, when both pieces of information are available, it is likely that the results we have reported here may have been different. Thus, this research results explain only the specific situation. Second, the sample selected in this study was university students in their twenties, so we cannot say that the results are firmly effective to all generations. Future research that manipulates the level of discount along with the consumer involvement might lead to a more robust understanding of the effects various discount rate. And, we used a cellular phone as a product stimulus, so it would be very interesting to analyze the result when the product stimulus is an intangible product such as service. It could be also valuable to analyze whether the change of perceived value affects consumers' final buying behavior positively or negatively.

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