• Title/Summary/Keyword: Management model

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Stock Assessment and Management Implications of Small Yellow Croker in Korean Waters (한국 근해 참조기의 자원평가 및 관리방안)

  • ZHANG Chang Ik;KIM Suam;YOON Seong-Bong
    • Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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    • v.25 no.4
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    • pp.282-290
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    • 1992
  • Based on surplus production models using fishery data for the last 20 years, a stock assessment was conducted for the small yellow croaker in Korean waters. The maximum sustainable yields (MSY) from the Schaefer and Fox models were estimated to be 37,000 metric tons (mt) and 33,450 mt. Zhang's model using time-series biomass with instantaneous coefficients of fishing mortality (F) and using time-series biomass and catch yielded MSY estimates of 45,328 mt and 40,160 mt, respectively. A yield-per-recruit analysis showed that the current yield per recruit of about 20g with F= 1.11 $yr^{-l}$, where the age at first capture $(t_c)$ is 0.604, was much lower than the maximum possible yield per recruit of 43g. Fixing $t_c$ at the current level and reducing fishing intensity (F) from 1.11 $yr^{-l}$ to 0.4 $yr^{-l}$ yielded only a small increase in predicted yield per recruit, from 20 to 25g. However, estimated yield per recruit increased to 43g by increasing $(t_c)$ from the current age (0.604) to age three with F fixed at the current level. This age at first capture corresponded to the optimal length which was obtained from the $F_{0.1}$ method. According to the analysis of stock recovery strategies employing the Zhang model, the optimum equilibrium biomass $(B^*_{MSY})$ which produces the maximum yield could be achieved after approximately five years at the lower fishing intensity (F=0.5).

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Improvement of Shelf-life and Quality in Fresh-Cut Tomato Slices:

  • Hong Ji Heun
    • Proceedings of the Korean Society of Postharvest Science and Technology of Agricultural Products Conference
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    • 2004.10a
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    • pp.67-72
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    • 2004
  • Quality of fresh-cut tomato slices was compared during cold storage under various modified atmosphere packaging conditions. Chilling injury of slices in containers sealed with Film A was higher than with Film B; these films had oxygen transmission rates of 87.4 and 60.0 ml $h^{-1}\;m^{-2}\;atm^{-1}$ at $5^{\circ}C\;and\;99\%$ RH, respectively. While slices in containers with an initial atmospheric composition of air, $4\%\;CO_2+1\;or\;20\%\;O_2,\;8\%\;CO_2+1\;or\;20\%\;O_2,\;or\;12\%\;CO_2+20\%\;O_2$ showed fungal growth, slices in containers with $12\%\;CO_2+1\%\;O_2$ did not. Low ethylene in containers enhanced chilling injury. Modified atmosphere packaging provided good quality tomato slices with a shelf-life of 2 weeks or more at $5^{\circ}C$. Experiments were conducted to compare changes in quality of slices of red tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. 'Sunbeam') fruit from plants grown using black polyethylene or hairy vetch mulches under various foliar disease management systems including: no fungicide applications (NF), a disease forecasting model (Tom-Cast), and weekly fungicide applications (WF), during storage at $5^{\circ}C$ under a modified atmosphere. Slices were analyzed for firmness, soluble solids content (SSC), titratable acidity (TA), pH, electrolyte leakage, fungi, yeasts, and chilling injury. With both NF and Tom-Cast fungicide treatments, slices from tomato fruit grown with hairy vetch (Vicia villosa Roth) mulch were firmer than those from tomato fruit grown with black polyethylene mulch after 12 days storage. Ethylene production of slices from fruit grown using hairy vetch mulch under Tom-Cast was about 1.5- and 5-fold higher than that of slices from WF and NF fungicide treatments after 12 days, respectively. The percentage of water-soaked areas (chilling injury) for slices from tomato fruit grown using black polyethylene mulch under NF was over 7-fold that of slices from tomato fruit grown using hairy vetch under Tom-Cast. When stored at $20^{\circ}C$, slices from light-red tomato fruit grown with black polyethylene or hairy vetch mulches both showed a rapid increase in electrolyte leakage beginning 6 hours after slicing. However, slices from tomato fruit grown using the hairy vetch mulch tended to have lower electrolyte leakage than those grown with black polyethylene mulch. These results suggest that tomato fruit from plants grown using hairy vetch mulch may be more suitable for fresh-cut slices than those grown using black polyethylene mulch. Also, use of the disease forecasting model Tom-Cast, which can result in lower fungicide application than is currently used commercially, resulted in high quality fruit for fresh-cut processing. Experiments were conducted to determine if ethylene influences chilling injury, as measured by percentage of slices exhibiting water-soaked areas in fresh-cut tomato slices of 'Mountain Pride' and 'Sunbeam' tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.). Ethylene concentration in containers without ventilation significantly increased during storage at $5^{\circ}C$, whereas little or no accumulation of ethylene occurred in containers with one or six perforations. Chilling injury was greatest for slices in containers with six perforations, compared to slices in containers with one perforation, and was over 13-fold greater than that of slices in control containers with no perforations. An experiment was also performed to investigate the effectiveness of including an ethylene absorbent pad in containers on subsequent ethylene accumulation and chilling injury. While ethylene in the no-pad controls increased continually during storage of both 'Mountain Pride' and 'Sunbeam' tomatoes at $5^{\circ}C$ under modified atmosphere conditions, no increase in accumulation of ethylene was observed in containers containing ethylene absorbent pads throughout storage. The ethylene absorbent pad treatment resulted in a significantly higher percentage of chilling injury compared with the no-pad control. In studies aimed at inhibiting ethylene production using AVG during storage of slices, the concentration of ethylene in control containers (no AVG) remained at elevated levels throughout storage, compared to containers with slices treated with AVG. Chilling injury in slices treated with AVG was 5-fold greater than that of controls. Further, we tested the effect of ethylene pretreatment of slices on subsequent slice shelf-life and quality. In slices treated with ethylene (0, 0.1, 1, or $10\;{mu}L\;L^{-1}$) immediately after slicing, ethylene production in non-treated controls was greater than that of all other ethylene pre-treatments. However, pretreatment of slices 3 days after slicing resulted in a different pattern of ethylene production during storage. Ihe rate of ethylene production by slices treated with 1 L $L^{-1}$ ethylene 3 days after slicing was greater during storage than any of the other ethylene treatments. With slices pre-treated with ethylene, both immediately and 3 days after slicing, the rate of ethylene production tended to show an negative correlation with chilling injury. Chemical name used: 1-aminoethoxyvinylglycine (AVG).

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The Effect of Hotel Employee's Service Orientation on Service Performance, Job Satisfaction, and Organizational Commitment (호텔기업 종업원의 서비스지향성이 서비스 성과, 직무만족과 조직몰입에 미치는 영향)

  • Park, Dae-Hwan
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.17 no.4
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    • pp.1-22
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    • 2007
  • Customer satisfaction is important in an increasingly competitive and global marketplace. This implies that customer service is a critical factor for many organizations. In service encounter context, customer satisfaction is affected by employees' attitudes and behaviors. Accordingly, service firms have been focusing on selecting high quality of service employees, which resulted the ability to identify and select quality service- or customer- oriented employees to become critical for an organization's success. It was suggested that customer service orientation links to performance and subsequent organizational revenue. Moreover, it was found that service encounter failures were among the major reasons for customers' service switch. Therefore, the selection of customer service oriented employees is a key factor in establishing customer service - a potential source of sustained competitive advantage. However, the measurement of employee service orientation is more confusing than that of definitive answers. The difficulty of measuring service orientation is attributed to the use of broad versus narrow measures of personality. Advocates for the broad perspective prefer using basic personality constructs, such as the Big Five personality traits. On the contrary, the latter prefer a construct-oriented approach of personality research that provides a better measure of job performance because it requires the specification of the relationship of the personality traits with multiple dimensions of job performance. The customer service orientation was defined as "a set of basic individual predispositions and an inclination to provide service, to be courteous and to be helpful in dealing with customers and associates." Similarly, it is a fact that the Big five personality traits are predictors of customer orientation, and employee's self- and supervisor performance. They propose that basic personality traits may be too far removed from focal service behaviors to be able to predict specific service behaviors (customer orientation) and service worker performance. Also, customer orientation is defined as "an employee's tendency or predisposition to meet customer needs in an on-the-job context." This means that people who have job-relevant personality traits such as concern, empathy, and conscientiousness will be more adept at customer service than people who do not possess these traits. However, little attention has been given to the exploration of the service orientation of customer-contact employees who play a key role in creating satisfactory service encounters in the hospitality industry except for Kim, McCahon, & Miller (2003)'s study, especially in family restaurants context. Thus, the purposes of this study are to examine and validate the customer service orientation of customer-contact employees using the instrument developed by Donavan (1999) in Korean family restaurants, because the scale was developed to measure the personality traits related job behaviors. And this study explores the relationships between customer service orientation, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and self service performance using structural equation modeling (SEM). And this study explores the relationships between customer service orientation, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and self service performance using structural equation modeling (SEM). For these purposes the author developed several hypotheses as follows: H1: Employee's service orientation is associated with service performance. H2: Employee's service orientation is positively associated with job satisfaction. H3: Employee's service orientation is positively associated with organizational commitment. H4: Service performance is positively associated with job satisfaction. H5: Service performance is positively associated with organizational commitment. H6: Job satisfaction is negatively associated with organizational commitment. The data were collected from 278 employees in 5 deluxe hotels located in Pusan, Korea. The researcher contacted the manager of the restaurants, and managers consented to administer surveys to their employees. The survey was executed during one month period in the October of 2007. The data were analyzed with structural equation modeling with LISREL 8.7 W. The result of the overall model analysis appeared as follows: $X^2$=122.638 (p = 0.00), df=59, GFI=.936, AGFI=.901, NFI=.948, CFI=.971, RMSEA=.0625. Since the result of the overall model analysis demonstrated a good fit, we could further analyze our data. The findings can be summarized as follows: First, the greater the employee service orientation, the greater the service performance. Second, the greater the employee service orientation, the greater the job satisfaction. Third, the greater the employee service orientation, the greater the organizational commitment. Fourth, the greater the service performance, the greater the job satisfaction. Fifth, the greater the service performance, the greater the organizational commitment. Finally, the greater the job satisfaction, the greater the organizational commitment. Seventh, the greater the customer satisfaction, the greater the customer loyalty.

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Therapeutic Compliance for Calcium Supplements and Its Related Factors in Rural Osteoporotic Women (일부 농촌지역 여성 골다공증 환자의 칼슘보조제 치료순응도와 결정요인)

  • Chun, Byung-Yeol;Kam, Sin;Lee, Young-Ja;Lee, Sang-Won;Lee, Kyung-Eun;Lee, Young-Seok;Kim, Bong-Kee
    • Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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    • v.26 no.2
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    • pp.111-132
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    • 2001
  • This study was conducted to examine the therapeutic compliance and its related factors in rural women with osteoporosis. A questionnaire survey was performed from April to May in 2000 for 140 osteoporotic patients who were diagnosed from April to June in 1999 through community health program. The study employed the health belief model for predicting and explaining sick role behavior. The analysis techniques employed included contingency table analysis and path analysis using LISREL. The major results of this study were as follows: Of the subjects, 12.1% were continuously complaint, 53.6% were intermittently compliant, and 34.3% were non- compliant to calcium supplement therapy. As the result of path analysis, the therapeutic compliance was significantly higher(${\mid}T{\mid}$ >2.0) as patients had higher perceived severity of disease, lower perceived barriers of treatment, and when patients thought their disease status as severe. As the patients had higher educational level, more experience of mass media contact or health education about osteoporosis, and when family had more concern for patient treatment, they had higher perceived susceptibility of complication(bone fracture)${\mid}T{\mid}$ >2.0). The patients had higher perceived severity(${\mid}T{\mid}$ >2.0) as they had more educational level, more advice for treatment from their doctors, and when family had more concern for their treatment. As the patients had more advice for treatment from their doctors and when family had more concern for their treatment, they had higher perceived benefit of treatment and lower perceived barriers to treatment(${\mid}T{\mid}$ >2.0). In order to improve the therapeutic compliance in rural osteoporotic women, it would be necessary that the patient should recognize their disease severity properly. And the perceived barriers should be removed through supportive environments for osteoporosis treatment such as doctor 's more advice and family 's more concern for treatment. In addition, effective and continuous management system for osteoporotic patients should be established.

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Organizational Factors Facilitating the Internationalization of Korean Franchising Companies (해외진출 국내 프랜차이즈기업의 조직특성)

  • Lim, Young-Kun;Lee, Dong-Whuy;Kim, Hee-Jung
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.19 no.2
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    • pp.40-52
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    • 2009
  • Franchising is one of the fastest growing types of business. It is already popular and well-known in the U.S., and has been growing in many other countries including Korea. Furthermore, many Korean franchising companies have expanded their business overseas actively. According to the data by the Ministry of Industry and Resource, 82 companies out of a sample of 500 franchising companies are already operating in many foreign countries and 48% of them have started their foreign business since 2006. This clearly indicates the fast growing current trend of foreign operation by Korean franchising companies. In spite of the fast growing trend of foreign expansion in the industry, academic research on internationalization of franchising companies is extremely difficult to find. Accordingly, academic research on the issue is necessary and urgent in Korea. Among the various research questions on internationalization of franchising business, this study intends to investigate the difference in organizational factors between the franchising companies doing foreign operation and those doing business only domestically. More specifically, this research has the following purposes. First, considering the lack of theoretical basis of previous studies, resource-based theory and agency theory are employed as the theoretical bases. Second, this study explains the difference in internationalization based on organizational factors such as company size, history and growth rate. Third, the five hypotheses regarding the difference in organizational factors are presented and tested empirically, which is the first attempt in the area of this topic. Finally, the study attempts to clarify the conflicting implications among theories regarding some organizational factos such as growth rate. As the theoretical background, resource-based theory and agency theory are discussed. According to resource-based theory, a firm can grow continuously when it has competence and resource, and also the ability to develop them. The competence and resource can include capital, human resource, management skill, market information, ability to manage risk, etc. Meanwhile, agency theory views the relationship between franchisor and franchisee as an agency relationship. In agency theory, bonding capability and monitoring capability are the two key factors which promote internationalization of franchising companies. Based on the two theories, a conceptual model is designed. The model consists of two groups of variables. One is organizational factors including size, history, growth rate, price bonding and geographic dispersion. The other is whether a franchising company is operating overseas or not. We developed the following five research hypotheses basically describing the relationship between organizational factors and internationalization of franchising companies. H1: The size of franchising companies operating overseas is larger than that of franchising companies operating domestically. H2: The history of franchising companies operating overseas is longer than that of franchising companies operating domestically. H3: The growth rate of franchising companies operating overseas is higher than that of franchising companies operating domestically. H4: The price bonding of franchising companies operating overseas is higher than that of franchising companies operating domestically. H5: The geographic dispersion of franchising companies operating overseas is wider than that of franchising companies operating domestically. Data for the analyses are obtained from 2005 Korea Franchise Survey data co-generated by Ministry of Industry and Resource, GS1 Korea, and Korea Franchise Association. Out of 2,804 population companies, 2,489 companies are excluded for various reasons and 315 companies are selected as the final sample. Prior to hypotheses tests, validity and reliability of the measures of size, history, growth rate and price bonding are examined for further analyses. Geographic dispersion is not validated since it is measured using nominal data. A series of independent sample T-tests is used to find out whether there exists any significant difference between the companies internationalized and those operating only domestically for each organizational factor. Among the five factors, size and geographic dispersion show significant difference, growth rate and price bonding do not reveal any difference and, finally, history factor shows conflicting results in the difference depending on how to measure it.

    shows the summary statistics for hypotheses testing. In conclusion, the results show that the size and history, which are the key variables in resource-based theory, have a significant relationship with internationalization and that geographic area, which belongs to agency theory, also has a strong relationship with internationalization. The results support the findings of extant research and, therefore, prove the usefulness of resource-based theory and agency theory in explaining internationalization of franchising companies. However, growth rate and price-bonding do not show a clear difference between the two types of companies. Accordingly, these two factors need further attention in the future research. Although this study shows meaningful findings theoretically and practically, it has several limitations. First, only organizational factors are considered even if there are various environmental factors influencing franchising firm's internationalization. Second, only being internationalized or not is considered. That is, modes of entry and the size of foreign operations are not included in the study. Third, internationalization strategy is often determined based on the desire for business expansion and higher profitability and egoistical reasons of the CEOs. However, this type of factors belonging to behavioral science is not discussed in the study. Finally, organizational ecology perspective is usefully applicable in explaining the survival and performance of internationally operating companies. Accordingly, research propositions based on this perspective need to be developed and tested.

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  • The Strategy for the Environmental Education through the Practical Arts(TechnologyㆍHome economics) Subject in a viewpoint of the Clothing & Textiles resources (의생활자원 관점에서의 실과(기술ㆍ가정) 환경교육방안에 관한 연구)

    • Chung Mee-Kyung
      • Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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      • v.16 no.3
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      • pp.131-146
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      • 2004
    • The Purpose of this study is to suggest strategies for environmental education through the Practical Arts(TechnologyㆍHome economics) Subject in a viewpoint of the clothing & textiles resources to resolve problems in the clothing life area. For this, this study was carried out through review of literature which is related with the consumption, the environmental problems, the environmental policies, and regulations of the government and new environmental technologies, of clothing & textiles industries and environmental education. The major findings of the study were as follows; 1) The environmental education system model in a viewpoint of the Clothing & Textiles resources was developed. This model system is consisted with interactions on school, government, industry, home and non-government organizations. Thus, the fact that Practical Arts(TechnologyㆍHome economics) Subject were the most effective subject to teaching the environmental education viewpoint of the Clothing & Textiles resources was confirmed. 2) The standards were analysed out to analyse the contents in the clothing area of the Practical Arts(TechnologyㆍHome economics) Subject. It were consist of 4 factors and 12 elements under the factors: Awareness of clothing & textile resources(clothing consumption, production of clothing & textile and environmental problems). Planning and buying of clothing(planning, buying), Management of clothing(understand of textile. human body & environment, laundering and Environmental pollution, arrangement & conservation) Recycling & exhaust of clothing(contribution, redesign, recycling, exhaust) 3) Analysing the current Practical Arts (TechnologyㆍHome economics) subject from the Environmental education in the clothing section, the environmental education related with clothing were taught the most in the middle school course, and environmental contents were concentrated in the recycling factors. but not so much on other factors. 4) After analysing the Practical Arts (TechnologyㆍHome economics) subject, the strategies were suggested for reinforcing the environmental education in the clothing of the Practical Arts(TechnologyㆍHome economics) subject.

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    A Comparative Case Study on the Adaptation Process of Advanced Information Technology: A Grounded Theory Approach for the Appropriation Process (신기술 사용 과정에 관한 비교 사례 연구: 기술 전유 과정의 근거이론적 접근)

    • Choi, Hee-Jae;Lee, Zoon-Ky
      • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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      • v.19 no.3
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      • pp.99-124
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      • 2009
    • Many firms in Korea have adopted and used advanced information technology in an effort to boost efficiency. The process of adapting to the new technology, at the same time, can vary from one firm to another. As such, this research focuses on several relevant factors, especially the roles of social interaction as a key variable that influences the technology adaptation process and the outcomes. Thus far, how a firm goes through the adaptation process to the new technology has not been yet fully explored. Previous studies on changes undergone by a firm or an organization due to information technology have been pursued from various theoretical points of views, evolved from technological and institutional views to an integrated social technology views. The technology adaptation process has been understood to be something that evolves over time and has been regarded as cycles between misalignments and alignments, gradually approaching the stable aligned state. The adaptation process of the new technology was defined as "appropriation" process according to Poole and DeSanctis (1994). They suggested that this process is not automatically determined by the technology design itself. Rather, people actively select how technology structures should be used; accordingly, adoption practices vary. But concepts of the appropriation process in these studies are not accurate while suggested propositions are not clear enough to apply in practice. Furthermore, these studies do not substantially suggest which factors are changed during the appropriation process and what should be done to bring about effective outcomes. Therefore, research objectives of this study lie in finding causes for the difference in ways in which advanced information technology has been used and adopted among organizations. The study also aims to explore how a firm's interaction with social as well as technological factors affects differently in resulting organizational changes. Detail objectives of this study are as follows. First, this paper primarily focuses on the appropriation process of advanced information technology in the long run, and we look into reasons for the diverse types of the usage. Second, this study is to categorize each phases in the appropriation process and make clear what changes occur and how they are evolved during each phase. Third, this study is to suggest the guidelines to determine which strategies are needed in an individual, group and organizational level. For this, a substantially grounded theory that can be applied to organizational practice has been developed from a longitudinal comparative case study. For these objectives, the technology appropriation process was explored based on Structuration Theory by Giddens (1984), Orlikoski and Robey (1991) and Adaptive Structuration Theory by Poole and DeSanctis (1994), which are examples of social technology views on organizational change by technology. Data have been obtained from interviews, observations of medical treatment task, and questionnaires administered to group members who use the technology. Data coding was executed in three steps following the grounded theory approach. First of all, concepts and categories were developed from interviews and observation data in open coding. Next, in axial coding, we related categories to subcategorize along the lines of their properties and dimensions through the paradigm model. Finally, the grounded theory about the appropriation process was developed through the conditional/consequential matrix in selective coding. In this study eight hypotheses about the adaptation process have been clearly articulated. Also, we found that the appropriation process involves through three phases, namely, "direct appropriation," "cooperate with related structures," and "interpret and make judgments." The higher phases of appropriation move, the more users represent various types of instrumental use and attitude. Moreover, the previous structures like "knowledge and experience," "belief that other members know and accept the use of technology," "horizontal communication," and "embodiment of opinion collection process" are evolved to higher degrees in their dimensions of property. Furthermore, users continuously create new spirits and structures, while removing some of the previous ones at the same time. Thus, from longitudinal view, faithful and unfaithful appropriation methods appear recursively, but gradually faithful appropriation takes over the other. In other words, the concept of spirits and structures has been changed in the adaptation process over time for the purpose of alignment between the task and other structures. These findings call for a revised or extended model of structural adaptation in IS (Information Systems) literature now that the vague adaptation process in previous studies has been clarified through the in-depth qualitative study, identifying each phrase with accuracy. In addition, based on these results some guidelines can be set up to help determine which strategies are needed in an individual, group, and organizational level for the purpose of effective technology appropriation. In practice, managers can focus on the changes of spirits and elevation of the structural dimension to achieve effective technology use.

    An Empirical Study on How the Moderating Effects of Individual Cultural Characteristics towards a Specific Target Affects User Experience: Based on the Survey Results of Four Types of Digital Device Users in the US, Germany, and Russia (특정 대상에 대한 개인 수준의 문화적 성향이 사용자 경험에 미치는 조절효과에 대한 실증적 연구: 미국, 독일, 러시아의 4개 디지털 기기 사용자를 대상으로)

    • Lee, In-Seong;Choi, Gi-Woong;Kim, So-Lyung;Lee, Ki-Ho;Kim, Jin-Woo
      • 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.

    Perspective of breaking stagnation of soybean yield under monsoon climate

    • Shiraiwa, Tatsuhiko
      • Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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      • 2017.06a
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      • pp.8-9
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      • 2017
    • Soybean yield has been low and unstable in Japan and other areas in East Asia, despite long history of cultivation. This is contrasting with consistent increase of yield in North and South America. This presentation tries to describe perspective of breaking stagnation of soybean yield in East Asia, considering the factors of the different yields between regions. Large amount of rainfall with occasional dry-spell in the summer is a nature of monsoon climate and as frequently stated excess water is the factor of low and unstable soybean yield. For example, there exists a great deal of field-to-field variation in yield of 'Tanbaguro' soybean, which is reputed for high market value and thus cultivated intensively and this results in low average yield. According to our field survey, a major portion of yield variation occurs in early growth period. Soybean production on drained paddy fields is also vulnerable to drought stress after flowering. An analysis at the above study site demonstrated a substantial field-to-field variation of canopy transpiration activity in the mid-summer, but the variation of pod-set was not as large as that of early growth. As frequently mentioned by the contest winners of good practice farming, avoidance of excess water problem in the early growth period is of greatest importance. A series of technological development took place in Japan in crop management for stable crop establishment and growth, that includes seed-bed preparation with ridge and/or chisel ploughing, adjustment of seed moisture content, seed treatment with mancozeb+metalaxyl and the water table control system, FOEAS. A unique success is seen in the tidal swamp area in South Sumatra with the Saturated Soil Culture (SSC), which is for managing acidity problem of pyrite soils. In 2016, an average yield of $2.4tha^{-1}$ was recorded for a 450 ha area with SSC (Ghulamahdi 2017, personal communication). This is a sort of raised bed culture and thus the moisture condition is kept markedly stable during growth period. For genetic control, too, many attempts are on-going for better emergence and plant growth after emergence under excess water. There seems to exist two aspects of excess water resistance, one related to phytophthora resistance and the other with better growth under excess water. The improvement for the latter is particularly challenging and genomic approach is expected to be effectively utilized. The crop model simulation would estimate/evaluate the impact of environmental and genetic factors. But comprehensive crop models for soybean are mainly for cultivations on upland fields and crop response to excess water is not fully accounted for. A soybean model for production on drained paddy fields under monsoon climate is demanded to coordinate technological development under changing climate. We recently recognized that the yield potential of recent US cultivars is greater than that of Japanese cultivars and this also may be responsible for different yield trends. Cultivar comparisons proved that higher yields are associated with greater biomass production specifically during early seed filling, in which high and well sustained activity of leaf gas exchange is related. In fact, the leaf stomatal conductance is considered to have been improved during last a couple of decades in the USA through selections for high yield in several crop species. It is suspected that priority to product quality of soybean as food crop, especially large seed size in Japan, did not allow efficient improvement of productivity. We also recently found a substantial variation of yielding performance under an environment of Indonesia among divergent cultivars from tropical and temperate regions through in a part biomass productivity. Gas exchange activity again seems to be involved. Unlike in North America where transpiration adjustment is considered necessary to avoid terminal drought, under the monsoon climate with wet summer plants with higher activity of gas exchange than current level might be advantageous. In order to explore higher or better-adjusted canopy function, the methodological development is demanded for canopy-level evaluation of transpiration activity. The stagnation of soybean yield would be broken through controlling variable water environment and breeding efforts to improve the quality-oriented cultivars for stable and high yield.

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    Does Home Oxygen Therapy Slow Down the Progression of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases?

    • Han, Kyu-Tae;Kim, Sun Jung;Park, Eun-Cheol;Yoo, Ki-Bong;Kwon, Jeoung A;Kim, Tae Hyun
      • Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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      • v.18 no.2
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      • pp.128-135
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      • 2015
    • Purpose: As the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) began to cover home oxygen therapy (HOT) services from 2006, it is expected that the new services have contributed to overall positive outcome of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We examined whether the usage of HOT has helped slow down the progression of COPD. Methods: We examined hospital claim data (N=10,798) of COPD inpatients who were treated in 2007~2012. We performed ${\chi}^2$ tests to analyze the differences in the changes to respiratory impairment grades. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors that are associated with the use of HOT. Finally, a generalized linear mixed model was used to examine association between the HOT treatment and changes to respiratory impairment grades. Results: A total of 2,490 patients had grade 1 respiratory impairment, and patients with grades 2 or 3 totaled 8,308. The OR for use of HOT was lower in grade 3 patients than others (OR: 0.33, 95% CI: 0.30~0.37). The maintenance/mitigation in all grades, those who used HOT had a higher OR than non-users (OR: 1.41, 95% CI: 1.23~1.61). Conclusion: HOT was effective in maintaining or mitigating the respiratory impairment in COPD patients.


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