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Legal status of Priave Transaction Regarding the Geostationary Satellite Orbit (지구정지궤도의 사적 거래의 국제법상 지위에 관한 연구)

  • Shin, Hong Kyun
    • The Korean Journal of Air & Space Law and Policy
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    • v.29 no.2
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    • pp.239-272
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    • 2014
  • The rights and obligations of the Member States of ITU in the domain of international frequency management of the spectrum/orbit resource are incorporated in the Constitution and Convention of the ITU and in the Radio Regulations that complement them. These instruments contain the main principles and lay down the specific regulations governing the major elements such as rights and obligations of member administrations in obtaining access to the spectrum/orbit resource, as well as international recognition of these rights by recording frequency assignments and, as appropriate, any associated orbits, including the geostationary-satellite orbits used or intended to be used in the Master International Frequency Register (MIFR) Coordination is a further step in the process leading up to notification of the frequency assignments for recording in the MIFR. This procedure is a formal regulatory obligation both for an administration seeking to assign a frequency in its network and for an administration whose existing or planned services may be affected by that assignment. Regulatory problem lies in allowing administrations to fulfill their "bringing into use" duty for preserving his filing simply putting any satellites, whatever nationlity or technical specification may be, into filed orbit. This sort of regulatory lack may result in the emergence of the secondary market for satellite orbit. Within satellite orbit secondary market, the object of transaction may be the satellite itself, or the regulatory rights in rem, or the orbit registered in the MIFR. Recent case of selling the Koreasat belongs to the typical example of orbit transaction between private companies, the legality of which remains doubtedly controversial from the perspective of international space law as well as international transaction law. It must be noted, however, that the fact is the Koreasat 3 and its filed orbit is for sale.

Empirical Research on the R&D Investment and Performance of Venture Businesses (벤처기업의 R&D 투자와 성과에 관한 실증연구)

  • Lee, D.K.;Lee, C.K.;Kim, J.H.
    • 한국벤처창업학회:학술대회논문집
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    • 2008.04a
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    • pp.179-208
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    • 2008
  • In this research, an empirical analysis was performed to determine the correlation between management performance and R&D investment for domestic venture businesses in each industry. Specifically, an empirical analysis for each industry was attempted not only to clarify the general hypothesis on the relationship between management performance and R&D investment for venture businesses but also to demonstrate that differences exist for each industry. Empirical analysis was conducted for eight industries with respect to the $2002{\sim}2006$ panel data extracted as investigative results from the "Investigation Report on Science and Technology R&D Activities" published by the Ministry of Science and Technology. Industrial classification was limited to the middle-level classification (2-digit) in the Korea Standard Industry Code (KSIC) owing to the limited number of panels. Although this research only verified the overall positive effect of R&D activities and funds for existing research on corporate value or productivity and management performance, it was able to document the difference for each individual industry and each business size unlike existing research.Furthermore, the reliability of the research results was enhanced by targeting companies that have been continuously conducting R&D and management activities using consistent 5-year panel data in the analysis. Again, this was something that existing research did not have. Finally, through the use of recent data from 2002 after the IMF economic crisis up to 2006 in the empirical analysis, this research proposed the problems due to the prevailing circumstances at the time of entering the advanced nation stage based on an empirical analysis; the prevailing problems during the pursuit of advanced nation status before the IMF crisis broke out were not tackled. The key empirical analysis yielded several results. First, capital and size of the labor force have a positive correlation with the management performance for the entire company or the venture business. This applies to all eight industries as the subjects of the analysis. Second, although the number of years since a company has been established can have positive or negative correlation with management performance for the entire company or venture business in specific industries, a definite overall trend cannot be identified. Third, R&D investment can be said to have an overall positive effect on corporate management performance. Fourth, the size of the research staff cannot be said to be a factor unilaterally affecting the management performance of the entire company or the venture business. Fifth, the number of years a research institute has been in operation, which was assumed to have a positive effect on the management performance of a company because of the accumulated R&D know-how -- definitely acts as a positive factor contributing to the management performance of a company.

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The Effects of Structural Factors of Administered Channels on the Retailer's Trust in the Supplier and Long-Term Orientation: Focusing on the Moderating Effect of Relationship Lifecycle (관리형 유통경로의 구조적 요인이 소매상의 공급자 신뢰와 장기지향성에 미치는 영향: 관계수명주기의 조절효과)

  • Park, Jong-Hee;Kim, Do-Yle;Kim, Seon-Hee
    • Journal of Distribution Research
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    • v.16 no.1
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    • pp.65-93
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    • 2011
  • This paper aims to explore how relational constructs(supplier's idiosyncratic investment, retailer's dependence, and dyadic communication) impact the buyer's trust across the relationship lifecycle. Companies make great efforts to create trust and maintain long-term relationship with buyers. Buyer and supplier relationships evolve through distinct lifecycles. In each phase, buyers and suppliers exhibit different patterns of behaviour. Also, they have different attitudes toward, and expectation of, one another. In this study, the final outcome investigated is long-term orientation from the buyer's perspective. Data were collected from 296 survey questionnaires of retailers engaging in Crops Protected Material industry in Korea. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were used to purify the measurement scales. And structural equation analysis and Chow test were used to test the hypotheses. The result indicates that the effect of retailer's dependence on the trust is greatest. Especially, the effect of dependence is growing as the relationship has developed. Supplier's idiosyncratic investment increases trust in the early phase, while it is not found to affect trust in the maturity phase. In the early phase, the determination of trust begins to be increasingly influenced by partner's relationship investment only because other clues are not observed yet. Reciprocal communication has a positive effect on trust, and long-term orientation is directly influenced by retailer's trust. Communication's effect is greater in the build-up phase than in the maturity phase. A limitation of this study is the unequal sample size in each of the relationship phases. Literature has suggested that the effects of relational constructs on outcomes are different across relationship phases. This study shows that different relational constructs have different effects on trust depending upon the relationship phase.

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An Empirical Study on the Success Factors of Implementing Product Life Cycle Management Systems (제품수명주기관리 시스템 도입의 성공요인에 관한 실증연구)

  • Kim, Jeong-Beom
    • Journal of KIISE:Software and Applications
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    • v.37 no.12
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    • pp.909-918
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    • 2010
  • To analyze the national competitiveness of Korea leads to the conclusion that global high-tech enterprises have been playing leading and pulling roles in making Korea in line with advanced countries even though the country is lacking in various natural resources. The characteristics of these companies above are as follows; Firstly, these enterprises continue to accumulate core technologies and know-how with highly competent human resources and well-organized management. Secondly, they are well structured and equipped with information technology infrastructures which are, for example, ERP, SCM, CRM, and PLM. Among them PLM is considered to be the principal core information technology infra in manufacturing industry. The urgent task of manufacturing industry recently is to develop new products to accept various needs of consumers, and to launch the products in time to market, which requires the manufactures to be equipped with product development infra and system to upgrade product fulfillment and mass production system in a short period. The introduction of PLM System is a solution of core strategy as a manufacturer for collaboration, global development, reengineering of manufacturing system, the innovation and efficiency of manufacturing process, and product quality improvement. The purpose of this study is to analyze the success factors of introducing PLM System and its practicing effectiveness. And the results of empirical study are as follows; (1) Technical success factors positively impact system quality and user satisfaction, (2) Organizational success factors positively impact system quality, but does not impact user satisfaction, (3) Environmental success factors positively impact system quality and user satisfaction, (4) System quality positively impacts user satisfaction, (5) User satisfaction positively impacts the effectiveness of implementing PLM systems, but system quality does not impact it.

An Ethnographic Study about Taegyo Practice in Korea (태교 실천에 대한 일상생활 기술적 연구)

  • 김현옥
    • Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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    • v.27 no.2
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    • pp.411-422
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    • 1997
  • The purpose of this study is twofold : (i) to investigate how much effort the married couples are making for the good health of both the pregnant woman and her unborn child from the time of their marriage to and during the period of conception : and (ii) to comprehensive investigate socio-cultural back-grounds which affect prenatal effort. Result of this study provide a basis for the prenatal care program which will be appropriate to our culture. This study has been done by the ethnographic research method. The subjects of this study are 53 people in all consisting of 33 pregnant women and 20 husbands. In order to investigate socio-cultural factors which influence Taegyo, producers of Taegyo music were interviewed. In addition the researcher surveyed the markets of Taegyo music, participated in special courses of prenatal education, analyzed the content of the books and periodicals dealing with Taegyo, and collected the concept of Taegyo distributed by the mass media. The full-fledged study continued for eight months from February to August.1996. The data were analyzed as soon as they were collected. Spradly's(1979, 1980) developmental, sequential method of domain analysis. taxonomic analysis, componential analysis, and theme analysis in this order was adopted as the procedure of analyzing the data. To obtain the exactness of study, Sandelowski's (1986) four criteria, that is, Credibility, Fittingness, Auditability, and Confirmability were applied to all stages of data collection, data analysis, the interpretation of the result, and the description of the result. The following are the result : 1. The couples' Taegyo at the stage of preconception was related to their physical, psychological, spiritual conditions under which a healthy baby will be born. Specific methods they prefer are : "the choice of one's spouse." "physical check-up," "physical good health, " "praying, " and so on. 2. When the marriod couple have sex in order to conceive, their Taegyo was related to the imposition of their physical, psychological, and environmental conditions. Specific methods they prefer are : "having sex at specific time, " "having sex in nice place." "to purify their minds while having sex," and so on. 3. The married couples' Taegyo while they are in pregnancy was related to the imposition of their physical. psychological, emotionmental. environmental, social and spiritual conditions. Specific methods they prefer are : "listening to music. " "reading," "looking at beautiful things only," "to avoid looking at or listening to bad things." "to eat food in good shape, " "to avoid drugs," "eating Korean herbal medicine." "sexual abstinence," "to avoid dangerous places," "to keep emotional tranquility," "moderate exercises and rest." "leading a pure life." "praying." "being aware of their words and behavior." "for the couple to keep a good relationship." "interaction with their unborn child," "to support Taegyo for pregnant women," and so on. 4. The married couple put Taegyo into practice on the basis of the following principles : the principle of respecting an unborn child, the principle of forming a good disposition. the principle of top-down parental love, the principle of synergy between a pregnant woman and her unborn child, the principle of expecting a good child, the principle of forming a good habit, and the principle of acquiring a parental role. 5. The practice of Taegyo is influenced by such factors as the married couple, the supporting system, and the mass media. As the husband -and-wife factor, their information of Taegyo, the degree of importance is assigned to their characters, their time to spare, their healthiness, the age of pregnant woman, their conception plan, their religion, their belief of the Taegyo effects, and the birth of a baby in this order. The factor of the supporting system consists of her husband's support, her family support, and her neighbor's support. The mass media factors include the broadcasting media, books specialized in Taegyo, periodicals for pregnant women, booklets for advertizing powdered milk, Taegyo music of record manufacturing companies, and the teaching materials for gifted children. Among these the mass media is especially taking advantage of Taegyo as its main source of economic profits are leading the public behavior pattern to a prodigal one. Taegyo is a self-control behavior which requires practice for the following : the physical and psychological good health of the pregnant woman and her unborn child, the development of the unborn child's good character, the development of the unborn child's intelligence and talents, the expectation of the unborn child's good features. shape a good habit, the expectation of the unborn child's bright future, and the learning of a parental role, the expectation of male birth. Above all it is a type of our good cultural tradition which pursues a value higher than the one that the prenatal care does. The principles of pregnancy care inherent in the habit of Taegyo will provide us a guideline for the development of the prenatal care.

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Dual Codec Based Joint Bit Rate Control Scheme for Terrestrial Stereoscopic 3DTV Broadcast (지상파 스테레오스코픽 3DTV 방송을 위한 이종 부호화기 기반 합동 비트율 제어 연구)

  • Chang, Yong-Jun;Kim, Mun-Churl
    • Journal of Broadcast Engineering
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    • v.16 no.2
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    • pp.216-225
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    • 2011
  • Following the proliferation of three-dimensional video contents and displays, many terrestrial broadcasting companies have been preparing for stereoscopic 3DTV service. In terrestrial stereoscopic broadcast, it is a difficult task to code and transmit two video sequences while sustaining as high quality as 2DTV broadcast due to the limited bandwidth defined by the existing digital TV standards such as ATSC. Thus, a terrestrial 3DTV broadcasting with a heterogeneous video codec system, where the left image and right images are based on MPEG-2 and H.264/AVC, respectively, is considered in order to achieve both high quality broadcasting service and compatibility for the existing 2DTV viewers. Without significant change in the current terrestrial broadcasting systems, we propose a joint rate control scheme for stereoscopic 3DTV service based on the heterogeneous dual codec systems. The proposed joint rate control scheme applies to the MPEG-2 encoder a quadratic rate-quantization model which is adopted in the H.264/AVC. Then the controller is designed for the sum of the left and right bitstreams to meet the bandwidth requirement of broadcasting standards while the sum of image distortions is minimized by adjusting quantization parameter obtained from the proposed optimization scheme. Besides, we consider a condition on maintaining quality difference between the left and right images around a desired level in the optimization in order to mitigate negative effects on human visual system. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed bit rate control scheme outperforms the rate control method where each video coding standard uses its own bit rate control algorithm independently in terms of the increase in PSNR by 2.02%, the decrease in the average absolute quality difference by 77.6% and the reduction in the variance of the quality difference by 74.38%.

A Study on the Fashion Information Activities of Clothing Manufactures (의류제조업체의 패션 정보활동에 관한 연구)

  • 송미령
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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    • v.22
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    • pp.135-158
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    • 1994
  • The fashion industry of today is closely re-lated with the information activity. This study investigates now they take advantage of the fashion information by analysing some related fields including fashion design. Furthormore this study identify the factor which makes the design activity distinctive and predict and fu-ture trend in design. The purposes of this study through analysis are : to help find the way to facilitate the fashion industry and to develop the fashion merchandising in order to activate the re-cession of manufacturers and to improve competitiveness in the world market and to contribute to the academic achievement in the study of fashion merchandising. In the experimental approach the tasks of research are as follows: Research 1: The application of fashion infor-mation is discussed in terms of process and level. Research 2: The differences of the fashion design activities are captured on the basis of the characteristics of manufactures and fashion specialists and fashion information ac-tivities. The factors are identified which pre-dict and discriminate the results of fashion de-sign activities. The questionaire and interview were conduc-ted among women's clothing manufactures in Seoul and their fashion specialists in charge of merchandise development. The methods of survey were designed on the basis of theories developed so far and on he advice from the social scientists and fashion specialists. the methods were corrected and complemented through the 1st and 2nd preliminary investigations before their application For data analysis cronbach's a coefficient fre-quency percentage average standard devi-ation pearson's correlation coefficient were calculated and t-test F-test(ANOVA) Duncan's multiple range test regression and Discriminant analysis were conducted. The results of analysis throughout the experimen-tal studies were as follows: 1. The analysis of fashion in formation (1) the present application of information a. The source of information : Both the foreign and the domestic information came mostly from fashion journals magazines newspapers and other periodicals, the main source of market information was collected from the survey of popular items in recent years the data about the life-style of customers and their tastes for wearing were widely used as the information about consumers. b. The applicaton of information : The most widely used information was about fabrics. The foreign information was prefered on the whole. The domestic problems pointed out in this investgation were that the domestic journals showed the lack of specialty and the special organizations for fashion informatino were in urgent need. (2) The research of fashion information a. The various processes and levels of in-formation activities: Among the process of collection analysis and distribution the collec-tion process showed a good acheivement whereas the distribution whereas the distribution didn't. In levels of the systematic activities the acceptance of support and the utility of supported instruments the first indicated a high degree whereas the second showed lowest. b. The correlationship among subvariables : There was a significant correlation between the collection and the analysis process. The systematic activities revealed close relation-ship with the analysis process and the accept-ance of support with the distribution process. The close correlation was found between the utility of supported instruments and the analy-sis process. 2. The analysis of the fashion design activities (1) No significant differences were found in the design activities when the characteristics of companies were compared only. (2) According to the characteristics of fashion specialists the one with age experi-ence and high income showed rather good achievement but no significant differences were captured among sex department in charge title academic background education in abroad and field experience (3) The fashion information activities were strongly correlated with the design achieve-ment : The analysis process and the system-atic activity level had a great influence on the design activities. (4) In order to examine which cha-racteristics in (1-3) made it possible to pre-dct and discriminate the achievement in de-sign activities the Discriminant analysis was carried out. The results were as follows: the fashion information activities showed the highest discriminant rate. Next came the in-come level experience and age in that order Those four variables discrimated 37 from 50 who showed great achievement in design area (74%) and 51 from 83 in low achievement group (81%) Thus the total discriminant rate was 77.5%.

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A Study on Construction of Region-Based Cartoon Creation & Production Center (지역 중심의 만화 창· 제작센터 구축에 대한 연구)

  • Lee, Jin-hee;Kim, Byoung-Soo
    • Cartoon and Animation Studies
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    • s.45
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    • pp.147-175
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    • 2016
  • This thesis aims to research ways for the regional balanced development of cartoon creation & production environment being centered in metropolitan area in Korean cartoon industry which has rapidly changed since 2013. As a cartoon can not only be produced with relative lower production cost comparing to those of other cultural contents industries, but also can be produced only if the minimal requirements for cartoon production is prepared, so the cartoon is a field that the decentralization can be accomplished very easily. Currently, most cartoon-relevant companies and cartoon promotion institutions are located in Seoul an Bucheon, etc. However, cartoon artists live nationwide, and even cartoon artists producing their works abroad are reached to a significant number. In some regions like Daejeon, Busan, Suncheon and Gyeongbuk (Gyeongsangbuk-do), there have been appeared full-scale movement to construct regional cartoon creation & production centers since 2015. This thesis aimed to investigate each region's movement to construct cartoon creation & production center with oversea cases, and to check how such movement could be balanced and harmonized with each region's unique features. First of all, this thesis analyzed the status quo of government's policy nurturing the cartoon industry. Korean government's cartoon-promotion policy around the axis of the Cartoon Industry's Mid.Long-Term Development Plan has been developed around the Korea Creative Content Agency and the Korea Manwha(cartoon) Contents Agency in Bucheon, but as the webtoon industry has rapidly grown up, the necessity for building a cartoon promotion institution in each region has been raised since 2015. With the establishment of 4th Cartoon Industry Mid.Long-Term Development Plan to be executed from 2019, it seems that full-scaled support framework for cartoon regional balanced development should be occupied. For the case of foreign countries, cartoon promotion institutions and relevant events have been developed around regions from early times like San-Diego, USA(Comicon), Angouleme, France(National Image Center), Kyoto (Cartoon Museum), Sakaiminato(Misuki Sigeru Road), Japan gave a lot of implications. In the section of conclusion, this study aimed to suggest the importance of and necessity for establishing a cartoon creation & production center in each region appropriately for the region's identity and characteristics with specific plans. Based on that, this thesis aimed to suggest a vision for cartoon & webtoon industry that regional creation & production system can be settled almost only in the cultural contents industry.

토양 및 지하수 Investigation 과 Remediation에 대한 현장적용

  • Wallner, Heinz
    • Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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    • 2000.11a
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    • pp.44-63
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    • 2000
  • Situated close to Heathrow Airport, and adjacent to the M4 and M25 Motorways, the site at Axis Park is considered a prime location for business in the UK. In consequnce two of the UK's major property development companies, MEPC and Redrew Homes sought the expertise of Intergeo to remediate the contaminated former industrial site prior to its development. Industrial use of the twenty-six hectare site, started in 1936, when Hawker Aircraft commence aircraft manufacture. In 1963 the Firestone Tyre and Rubber Company purchased part of the site. Ford commenced vehicle production at the site in the mid-1970's and production was continued by Iveco Ford from 1986 to the plant's decommissioning in 1997. Geologically the site is underlain by sand and gravel, deposited in prehistory by the River Thames, with London Clay at around 6m depth. The level of groundwater fluctuates seasonally at around 2.5m depth, moving slowly southwest towards local streams and watercourses. A phased investigation of the site was undertaken, which culminated in the extensive site investigation undertaken by Intergeo in 1998. In total 50 boreholes, 90 probeholes and 60 trial pits were used to investigate the site and around 4000 solid and 1300 liquid samples were tested in the laboratory for chemical substances. The investigations identified total petroleum hydrocarbons in the soil up to 25, 000mg/kg. Diesel oil, with some lubricating oil were the main components. Volatile organic compounds were identified in the groundwater in excess of 10mg/l. Specific substances included trichloromethane, trichloromethane and tetrachloroethene. Both the oil and volatile compounds were widely spread across the site, The specific substances identified could be traced back to industrial processes used at one or other dates in the sites history Slightly elevated levels of toxic metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were also identified locally. Prior to remediation of the site and throughout its progress, extensive liaison with the regulatory authorities and the client's professional representatives was required. In addition to meetings, numerous technical documents detailing methods and health and safety issues were required in order to comply with UK environmental and safety legislation. After initially considering a range of options to undertake remediation, the following three main techniques were selected: ex-situ bioremediation of hydrocarbon contaminated soils, skimming of free floating hydrocarbon product from the water surface at wells and excavations and air stripping of volatile organic compounds from groundwater recovered from wells. The achievements were as follows: 1) 350, 000m3 of soil was excavated and 112, 000m3 of sand and gravel was processed to remove gravel and cobble sized particles; 2) 53, 000m3 of hydrocarbon contaminated soil was bioremediated in windrows ; 3) 7000m3 of groundwater was processed by skimming to remove free floating Product; 4) 196, 000m3 of groundwater was Processed by air stripping to remove volatile organic compounds. Only 1000m3 of soil left the site for disposal in licensed waste facilities Given the costs of disposal in the UK, the selected methods represented a considerable cost saving to the Clients. All other soil was engineered back into the ground to a precise geotechnical specification. The following objective levels were achieved across the site 1) By a Risk Based Corrective Action (RBCA) methodology it was demonstrated that soil with less that 1000mg/kg total petroleum hydrocarbons did not pose a hazard to health or water resources and therefore, could remain insitu; 2) Soils destined for the residential areas of the site were remediated to 250mg/kg total petroleum hydrocarbons; in the industrial areas 500mg/kg was proven acceptable. 3) Hydrocarbons in groundwater were remediated to below the Dutch Intervegtion Level of 0.6mg/1; 4) Volatile organic compounds/BTEX group substances were reduced to below the Dutch Intervention Levels; 5) Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and metals were below Inter-departmental Committee for the Redevelopment of Contaminated Land guideline levels for intended enduse. In order to verify the qualify of the work 1500 chemical test results were submitted for the purpose of validation. Quality assurance checks were undertaken by independent consultants and at an independent laboratory selected by Intergeo. Long term monitoring of water quality was undertaken for a period of one year after remediation work had been completed. Both the regulatory authorities and Clients representatives endorsed the quality of remediation now completed at the site. Subsequent to completion of the remediation work Redrew Homes constructed a prestige housing development. The properties at "Belvedere Place" retailed at premium prices. On the MEPC site the Post Office, amongst others, has located a major sorting office for the London area. Exceptionally high standards of remediation, control and documentation were a requirement for the work undertaken here.aken here.

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Impact of Net-Based Customer Service on Firm Profits and Consumer Welfare (기업의 온라인 고객 서비스가 기업의 수익 및 고객의 후생에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구)

  • Kim, Eun-Jin;Lee, Byung-Tae
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.17 no.2
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    • pp.123-137
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    • 2007
  • The advent of the Internet and related Web technologies has created an easily accessible link between a firm and its customers, and has provided opportunities to a firm to use information technology to support supplementary after-sale services associated with a product or service. It has been widely recognized that supplementary services are an important source of customer value and of competitive advantage as the characteristics of the product itself. Many of these supplementary services are information-based and need not be co-located with the product, so more and more companies are delivering these services electronically. Net-based customer service, which is defined as an Internet-based computerized information system that delivers services to a customer, therefore, is the core infrastructure for supplementary service provision. The importance of net-based customer service in delivering supplementary after-sale services associated with product has been well documented. The strategic advantages of well-implemented net-based customer service are enhanced customer loyalty and higher lock-in of customers, and a resulting reduction in competition and the consequent increase in profits. However, not all customers utilize such net-based customer service. The digital divide is the phenomenon in our society that captures the observation that not all customers have equal access to computers. Socioeconomic factors such as race, gender, and education level are strongly related to Internet accessibility and ability to use. This is due to the differences in the ability to bear the cost of a computer, and the differences in self-efficacy in the use of a technology, among other reasons. This concept, applied to e-commerce, has been called the "e-commerce divide." High Internet penetration is not eradicating the digital divide and e-commerce divide as one would hope. Besides, to accommodate personalized support, a customer must often provide personal information to the firm. This personal information includes not only name and address, but also preferences information and perhaps valuation information. However, many recent studies show that consumers may not be willing to share information about themselves due to concerns about privacy online. Due to the e-commerce divide, and due to privacy and security concerns of the customer for sharing personal information with firms, limited numbers of customers adopt net-based customer service. The limited level of customer adoption of net-based customer service affects the firm profits and the customers' welfare. We use a game-theoretic model in which we model the net-based customer service system as a mechanism to enhance customers' loyalty. We model a market entry scenario where a firm (the incumbent) uses the net-based customer service system in inducing loyalty in its customer base. The firm sells one product through the traditional retailing channels and at a price set for these channels. Another firm (the entrant) enters the market, and having observed the price of the incumbent firm (and after deducing the loyalty levels in the customer base), chooses its price. The profits of the firms and the surplus of the two customers segments (the segment that utilizes net-based customer service and the segment that does not) are analyzed in the Stackelberg leader-follower model of competition between the firms. We find that an increase in adoption of net-based customer service by the customer base is not always desirable for firms. With low effectiveness in enhancing customer loyalty, firms prefer a high level of customer adoption of net-based customer service, because an increase in adoption rate decreases competition and increases profits. A firm in an industry where net-based customer service is highly effective loyalty mechanism, on the other hand, prefers a low level of adoption by customers.