• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.821-832
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• 2021

Economic deprivation of households remains a significant economic issue in the world. Researchers have shown great concern in identifying crucial factors to enhance poor households' socio-economic performance. Therefore, this paper aims to develop a new conceptual framework to investigate the influence of different microfinance services on households' socioeconomic performance using moderated mediation analysis of various crucial factors. Focus-group interviews with managements of the microfinance institution, i.e. Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM), and a systematic literature review were conducted for this purpose, and a new framework for the future study has been developed. The result from focus-group interviews and systematic literature review propose microfinance financial services, training programs, and business coaching as independent factors, whereas household socioeconomic performance as a dependent factor in the proposed model. Specifically, this study provides the direction to scholars to empirically test the direct relationship between financial services and household socioeconomic performance and the indirect relationship between training programs, business coaching, and household socioeconomic performance. Further, microfinance institutions' service efficiency is also included as a moderator that can strengthen microfinance services' effectiveness. The study also provides useful implications for policymakers, financial institutions, households, micro-enterprises, and researchers to better understand microfinance interventions and household economic mechanisms.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.18-27
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• 2021

This study aims to develop an improved evaluation technology for assessing CANDU-6 safety. For this purpose, the multiple steam generator tube rupture (mSGTR) followed by an unmitigated station blackout (SBO) in a CANDU-6 plant was selected as a hypothetical event scenario and the analysis model to evaluate the plant responses was envisioned into the MARS-KS input model. The model includes logic models for controlling the pressure and inventory of the primary heat transport system (PHTS) decreasing due to the u-tubes' rupture, as well as the main features of PHTS with a simplified model for the horizontal fuel channels, the secondary heat transport system including the shell side of steam generators, feedwater and main steam line, and moderator system. A steady state condition was successfully achieved to confirm the stable convergence of the key parameters. Until the turbine trip, the fuel channels were adequately cooled by forced circulation of coolant and supply of main feedwater. However, due to the continuous reduction of PHTS pressure and inventory, the reactor and turbine were shut down and the thermal-hydraulic behaviors between intact and broken loops got asymmetric. Furthermore, as the conditions of low-flow coolant and high void fraction in the broken loop persisted, leading to degradation of decay heat removal, it was evaluated that the peak cladding temperature (PCT) exceeded the limit criteria for ensuring nuclear fuel integrity. This study is expected to provide the technical bases to the accident management strategy for transient conditions with multiple events.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.17-29
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• 2020

Purpose: As the untact culture has spread due to the recent COVID-19, the service industry as well as the beauty salon is shrinking. In order to overcome such a crisis in beauty salons, the lower dimension of beauty salon service quality is divided into servicescape, technical service, and employee service, and actions are taken with the 'perceived value of the customer' as a parameter. In this study, S-O-R(Stimulus-Organism-Response) theory was applied for customer-centered analysis, and gender and regularity were selected as moderator variables to add practical implications. Research design, data, and methodology: All constructs were measured using items developed and used in the previous study. A total of 261 questionnaires were collected online using NaverForm. The data were analyzed using factor analysis, correlation analysis, and measurement model analysis with SPSS 22.0 and AMOS 22.0. After testing the research model and hypothesis for the entire group, a multi-group analysis was conducted by dividing into male and female groups, regular customers, and non-regular customers. Results: First, this study showed that the service environment of beauty salon customers had a negative (-) effect on perceived utilitarian value, and the technical service and perceived hedonic value had a positive (+) effect on the customer's behavioral intention. Technical service and employee service had a positive (+) effect on perceived hedonic value, but perceived hedonic value did not affect customer's behavioral intention. Second, there is no statistically significant difference in each path between male and female groups. Third, there was a statistically significant difference between regular customers and non-regular customers, only the path that the servicescape influences the perceived hedonic value. Conclusion: According to the results of this study, technical service and utilitarian value should be considered in order to induce behavioral intention of customers, and technical service quality should be considered first. Also, operating a beauty salon requires a differentiated approach to the salon servicescape according to the ratio of non-regular and regular customers. The beauty salon servicescape generally showed negative practical value for non-regular customers, but positive for the Hedinic value for servicescape such as comfortable service and clean interior for regular customers.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.95-106
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of non-pharmacological interventions for Korean adults with insomnia. Literature review was performed for articles published between 2000 and 2016 in electronic databases. Sixteen articles met the inclusion criteria. Data were analyzed by R version 3.3.1 for windows. Meta-analysis was performed using the random effects model; the overall effect size of non-pharmacological interventions on sleep was significantly large (Hedges' g=2.36, 95% CI: 1.44~3.28). For heterogeneity, a moderator analysis was performed using the study design, participants, age group, intervention, presence of hospitalization, and sleep measurement. There was a statistically significant difference between the effects of moderator variables, except for the study design and participants. Of the interventions, auricular acupressure reported to have the largest effect size on sleep. The findings in this study indicate that non-pharmacological interventions have a positive effect on sleep, providing objective evidence to improve sleep in adults with insomnia using effective interventions.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.10 no.11
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• pp.61-70
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• 2012

Purpose - The entry of Super Supermarkets (SSM), operated by large corporations, into the retail distribution market weakens the competitive power of local supermarkets (SM) and their families leading to a rapid collapse of the local-SM market. Accordingly, this is a very sensitive and urgent issue in Korean society and politics. Therefore, the government is required to take steps to activate a local-SM market and regain the loyalty of their customers. However, in spite of the urgent need of a comparative study on the advantages and competitive power of local-SM in relation to the SSM, little research has been done on this issue to date. One purpose of this study is to analyze the differences in store characteristics of the local SM and SSM, and to explore the relationships amongst various store characteristics, such as consumption emotion, relation quality, and store loyalty between store types to provide an efficient solution to activate a local-SM market. Research design, data, methodology - To analyze the differences in the evaluation of store characteristics between store types, and to test the moderator and mediator effects, data were collected from 488 customers in Seoul, Incheon,and Gyeonggi Province. The theoretical model consists of four hypotheses, and data was processed to test these using factor analysis, t-test, regression analysis, hierarchical regression, and the three step regression proposed by Baron and Kenny. Results - First, the analysis shows that local-SM customers evaluate location characteristic factors significantly higher compared to SSM customers. However, SSM customers evaluate quality of merchandise, sales promotion activities, and store environment significantly higher. Yet, there are no significant differences in the evaluation of consumption emotion, relation quality,and store loyalty between the store types. Second, the analysis of moderator effects of the store type show that sales promotion and store atmosphere factors have a significantly negative moderating effecton positive consumption emotion, while positive consumption emotion has a significantly positive moderating effect on absorption of relation quality, while there are no significant moderating effects between consumption emotion and store loyalty. Third, while both trust and absorption of relation quality are partially mediated between consumption emotion and store loyalty, only absorption is partially mediated between positive consumption emotion and store loyalty. There are no significant mediating effects of absorption between negative consumption emotion and store loyalty. Conclusions - We strongly recommend that location restrictions on entrance of SSM into local-SM market should either be further strengthened or sustained for the activation of the local store market. Government should strengthen financial support to improve the quality of merchandise, sales promotion, employee education, store environment of the local-SM by providing appropriate business consulting. Moreover, the result implies that the owners of alocal-SM should take measures to increase customers' absorption and store loyalty, such as store cleanliness, maintaining a delightful atmosphere at the store, and training employees on attitudes towards customers. As this study is restricted within Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi Province, care needs to be taken in generalizing the interpretation and application to the national level.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1996.05b
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• pp.379-384
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• 1996

Thermal-hydraulic performance has been analyzed for an advanced reactor core loaded with hexagonal fuel assemblies. Currently available CHF prediction models and data base for triangular lattice bundles have been thoroughly reviewed, and as a result the KfK-3 CHF correlation with limit CHFR of 1.235 has been determined to be most appropriate. The pressure drop model in COBRA-IV-I code has been modified for the analysis of triangular lattice rod bundles. In view of maximizing the thermal margin, the geometry of a hexagonal fuel assembly, such as rod diameter and rod pitch, has been optimized with a fixed fuel assembly cross sectional area The optimum value of the moderator-to-fuel volume ratio is estimated to lie between 0.65 to 1 with 9.5 mm rod diameter. The thermal margin of these hexagonal fuel assemblies in the AP600 core has been evaluated and compared with that of square lattice fuel assemblies such as VANTAGE-5H and KOFA. The analysis result shows that the performances of hexagonal fuel assemblies are more favorable than the square fuel assemblies in the aspect of steady-state overpower margin.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.8
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• pp.353-360
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• 2020

The main aim of study is to identify the factors that affect the purchasing intention of young adults. The reference group is an important factor in determining the underlying causes of young adults' purchasing intentions. However, the literature states that young adults prefer to buy brands they trust in order to eliminate the risks that may arise when buying products they may not know. Moving from this perspective, the study proposes a conceptual model that including structural relationships between brand trust, reference group, and purchasing intention. The study aims to contribute to the literature by discussing the moderator role of brand trust in this structure. A series of hypotheses are tested via a survey completed by 749 young people between the ages of 20 and 30 living in Istanbul, Turkey. The data were analyzed with IBM SPSS-23 and AMOS-18 program. In addition to descriptive, reliability, and factor (exploratory and confirmatory) analysis, hierarchical regression analysis was performed to test the research hypotheses. The results show that the reference group positively influences the purchasing intention, and brand trust plays a moderating role in this relationship. The findings are discussed and some practical suggestions are made for mobile phone manufacturers.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.191-199
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• 2019

This study is about online purchases of foods that have been reluctant to deal with distribution processes and reliability issues. We find out that attributes of the online food market affects behavior intention and whether it differs according to consumption tendency. A survey was conducted on consumers who had ever purchased food online for hypothesis testing. Reliability and feasibility were reviewed for the collected data and the hypothesis was verified through structural equation model analysis. While product diversity, product information and customer service factors of the online food market significantly affect behavior intention, price is not. We identified differences in the impact of behavior intention on consumption tendencies. For the Gaseongbi group, only the product information factors have significant effect on behavior, and for the Gasimbi group, the price and customer service factors have a significant effect on behavior intention. The findings provide theoretical and practical implications for marketers to study various marketing method based on consumer tendencies.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.20 no.8
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• pp.123-133
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• 2022

Purpose: As moment-based marketing messages (i.e., messages related to current moments or event), companies put significant investments to distribute TV advertising related to external moments in a retail environment. While the literature offers strong support for the value of distributions of context-based messaging to advertisers, less attention has been given to how to design those messages to effectively communicate across channels. This research adds a new dimension of analysis to the study of advertising context and its cross-channel effects on online consumer behavior. Research Design, Data and Methodology: A system-of-equations Tobit regression model was adopted using data collected from an advertising agency that consists of 1,223 TV ads aired during the Rio Olympics and NCAA, tagging from consumers, and a text analysis. Results: First, TV ads with high centrality of context lead to lower online search behavior and higher online social actions. Second, how brands can design messages more effectively was explored by using product information as a moderator that could improve the impact of context-based TV advertisements. Conclusions: Given that expenses in traditional channels are still one of the biggest channel management decisions, it is critical to understand how consumer engagement varies by design of context-based TV advertising.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.81-103
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• 2006

Given the increasing of adoption of use of Mobile Wireless Technology(MWT), this study aims at investigating the key influencing determinants of individuals' MWT adoption and use. Based on the Technology Acceptance Model(TAM), the research model proposed new constructs and casual relations, Perceived Safety(PS), Perceived Costs(PC), Company's Willingness to Fund(CWF), and Experience(E) as a moderator. The model was tested using Structural Equation Modeling(SEM) using AMOS 5.0 analysis on the sample collected from 387 MBA and Executive MBA students of several domestic and foreign universities. The results show that not only the variables, except Perceived Usefulness, in the original TAM model, but also new variables in the research model had a significant influence on other variables. The implications of the findings suggest a new theoretical framework for future IS/IT research and offers suggestions that the developers of MWT should consider regarding the technology