• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.139-165
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• 2012

This paper examine the roles of social rapport and friendship which are the representative variables of strong emotional bonds between customers and firms in service relationship marketing. As results, social rapport and friendship were confirmed as positive moderators between a relational antecedent variable and a relational mediator variable. In other words, emotional bonds, such as social rapport and friendship, stimulated relationship development in service relationship marketing. Meanwhile, customer-firm emotional bonds seemed to be a negative effect on the stage of a relational mediator variable and a relational outcome variable. This meant that relational mediator variable and emotional bond variables(social rapport and friendship) individually had an positive effect on a relational outcome variable. If emotional bonds between customers and firms had already built, they could have positive influence on the relational outcome, regardless of relational mediator variables. Conclusively, firms' relational efforts focus on the building the emotional bonds with customers, not on the process of relational antecedents, mediators, and consequences.

• Healthcare Informatics Research
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.346-358
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• 2018

Objectives: The association between obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and mortality or serious cardiovascular events over a long period of time is not clearly understood. The aim of this observational study was to estimate the clinical effectiveness of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment on an outcome variable combining mortality, acute myocardial infarction (AMI), and cerebrovascular insult (CVI) during a follow-up period of 15.5 years ($186{\pm}58$ months). Methods: The data set consisted of 978 patients with an apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) ${\geq}5.0$. One-third had used CPAP treatment. For the first time, a data-driven causal Bayesian network (DDBN) and a hypothesis-driven causal Bayesian network (HDBN) were used to investigate the effectiveness of CPAP. Results: In the DDBN, coronary heart disease (CHD), congestive heart failure (CHF), and diuretic use were directly associated with the outcome variable. Sleep apnea parameters and CPAP treatment had no direct association with the outcome variable. In the HDBN, CPAP treatment showed an average improvement of 5.3 percentage points in the outcome. The greatest improvement was seen in patients aged ${\leq}55$ years. The effect of CPAP treatment was weaker in older patients (>55 years) and in patients with CHD. In CHF patients, CPAP treatment was associated with an increased risk of mortality, AMI, or CVI. Conclusions: The effectiveness of CPAP is modest in younger patients. Long-term effectiveness is limited in older patients and in patients with heart disease (CHD or CHF).

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.77-94
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• 2013

Really new products (RNPs) provide novel benefits yet many consumers are reluctant to accept these highly innovative new products. Previous literature has shown that mental simulation is an effective method for enhancing the evaluation of RNPs. However, Castano et al. (2008) and Zhao, Hoeffler, and Zauberman (2011) demonstrate conflicting results as to which type of mental simulation (i.e., process versus outcome) is more effective for the enhancement of RNP evaluation. The authors try to reconcile these results by incorporating a moderating variable which is personal need for structure (PNS). PNS is an individual difference variable that taps the differences in people's propensity to cognitively structure and simplify their environment (Neuberg and Newsom 1993). From the analysis of the previous two works, the authors point out that consumers' susceptibility to uncertainty may contribute to the different results, and suggest that this susceptibility is dependent on consumers' PNS. To test the hypotheses established, an experiment was conducted. Waterless washing machine was presented as a RNP and PNS was measured by using the 12-item PNS Scale (Thompson et al. 2001). The results of the study show that for high-PNS consumers, process simulation is more effective than outcome simulation for enhancing the evaluation of a RNP, whereas for low-PNS consumers, outcome simulation is more effective than process simulation. This research contributes to the mental simulation and new product literature by suggesting and verifying that PNS moderates the effects of process versus outcome simulations for enhancing the evaluation of RNPs. This research provides important managerial implications for marketing managers of RNPs, indicating that they should take account of the target consumers' PNS in planning marketing communications. Specifically, when targeting high-PNS consumers, marketing communications that encourage process simulation may be more effective than those that encourage outcome simulation. In contrast, when targeting low-PNS consumers, marketing communications that encourage outcome simulation may be more effective than those that encourage process simulation.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.546-552
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• 2016

With the increasing popularity of computer games as a leisure activity, there has been a rise in the interest in the effectiveness of serious games. Many of the earlier researches are focused on evaluation of effects, types, developments of serious games, whereas little is known about the after effects of serious games. The aim of this paper is to examine the previous literatures on serious games in regard to their impacts and outcomes of gaming for the purpose of empirical evidence as impacts and outcomes are needed for exploratory study of variable outcomes of educational serious games. It is worth noting that current review would be used as an outcome indicator for verifying the after effects of both cognitive and educational after the usage of these educational serious games.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.69-74
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• 2013

Leishmania tropica is one of the causative agents of leishmaniasis in humans. Routes of infection have been reported to be an important variable for some species of Leishmania parasites. The role of this variable is not clear for L. tropica infection. The aim of this study was to explore the effects of route of L. tropica infection on the disease outcome and immunologic parameters in BALB/c mice. Two routes were used; subcutaneous in the footpad and intradermal in the ear. Mice were challenged by Leishmani major, after establishment of the L. tropica infection, to evaluate the level of protective immunity. Immune responses were assayed at week 1 and week 4 after challenge. The subcutaneous route in the footpad in comparison to the intradermal route in the ear induced significantly more protective immunity against L. major challenge, including higher delayed-type hypersensitivity responses, more rapid lesion resolution, lower parasite loads, and lower levels of IL-10. Our data showed that the route of infection in BALB/c model of L. tropica infection is an important variable and should be considered in developing an appropriate experimental model for L. tropica infections.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.17-25
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• 1998

This study was done to evaluate the quality of clinical nursing care using the variables of structure, process, and outcome and to analyze the relationship between the variables. This study also explored which variables are validating indicators to evaluate the quality of nursing care. The results analyzed by multiple regression showed that, generally structural variables did not contribute to the variance in outcome scores, but process variables of nursing care contributed significantly to the outcome variable of patient satisfaction. A combination of structure and process variables explained outcome variables more than structural variables alone. Also, patient satisfaction and hospital preference were significantly related to each other. Therefore, if nursing quality evaluation relies solely upon on structural variables such as number of available nurses and workload, it would be inaccurate because process variables of nursing care are strongly related to outcome variables and the two categories of structure and process variables helped to strengthen the relationships. Thus, it is important to focus on variables of structure, process, ant outcome together in evaluating nursing care quality.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.23-49
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• 2007

Salespeople act at the point of MOT with customers and deliver the enterprise's message to the customers. They build up relationships with customers as well as deliver the customer's message to the enterprise. The salespeople's activity at the point of MOT with the customers and the degree of satisfaction of the customers' needs will affect the customers' attitude toward the enterprise, brand loyalty, and retention intention. Ultimately, it will influence the enterprise's financial performance. The control of salespe1ople is one of the most interesting topics of marketing. This research investigates the relationships of the control types over salespeople(positive/negative outcome control, positive/negative behavior control) and job satisfaction and their mediating variables. The mediating variables in the relationships have been identified as outcome/behavior-related role clarity and self-efficacy. The purpose of this study is more specifically as follows: First, it investigate how the perception of salespeople control types affect role-clarity. Second, it examines how the perception of salespeople control types influence self-efficacy. Third, it investigate the mediating role of role-clarity between the perception of salespeople control types and self-efficacy. Fourth, it investigates how role-clarity affect self-efficacy and job satisfaction. Finally, it will investigates how self-efficacy influences job satisfaction. Data were collected from the pharmaceutical industry salespeople and analyzed by SPSS 12.0 and AMOS　6.0. The data were collected by 400 respondents and 377 valid questionnaires were analyzed. The results are summarized as follows: First, positive/negative outcome controls had a positive relationship with outcome-related role clarity. Also positive behavior control had a positive effect on behavior-related role clarity, but negative behavior control didn't influence behavior-related role clarity. Second, positive outcome control influenced self-efficacy positively, but positive behavior control didn't have a positive effect on self-efficacy. In addition negative outcome control and negative behavior control had a positive effect on self-efficacy due to the mediating role of outcome-related and behavior-related role clarity. Third, outcome-related role clarity and behavior-related role clarity influenced self-efficacy positively. Behavior-related role clarity had a positive effect on job satisfaction, but outcome-related role clarity didn't influence job satisfaction. Finally, self-efficacy didn't have any effect on job satisfaction. The contributions of this study are as follows: First, existing studies have investigated the direct causal relationship between salespeoples' control type and performance, but this study investigates the structural causality between salespeoples' control types, responses, and performances. Second, this study found the mediating role of outcome-related/behavior-related role-clarity between outcome/behavior control and self-efficacy. Finally, the findings of this study further insight to existing studies on the relationship between job satisfaction and self-efficacy. The confidence of salespeoples' task influenced job satisfaction positively in existing articles,field studies, but the relationship between these two variables was not significant in this study. This means that there can be a different relationship between confidence and job satisfaction according to salespeoples' business. That is, the business environment may not be satisfying, even if the salespeople say that they have ability and confidence about their business. This means that able salespeople who have ability and confidence about their business are not satisfied with their job advancement in the company. Therefore, enterprise need to provide training that can establish a business environment that can satisfy the salespeole's expectation level which will secure good salespeople. This study may have limitation when applied to future studies. First,in this study as with existing studies it investigates the control level that salespeople feel is being measured. Actuality, the control level that a manager enforces and the control level that salespeople perceive when one is late can be different. There is need to measure lateness from both the perspective of the manager and salespeople should be done to supplement this study in the future Second, this study used variables that were connected with action result but salespeople's job satisfaction is due to the result of control. But, focusing on result of control can provide a more important financial result than sales performance. This study is also limited in that it did not consider financial result by result of control. Further studies on this will need to be done in the future. Third, this study may have a further limitation,because the investigation was restricted to pharmaceutical salespeople selling to hospitals. It is necessary to execute investigations in various industries to increase the generalization of the study findings Fourth, in this study, role clarity and self-efficacy by response variable for control and considered job satisfaction by outcome variable of control was considered. But, can other variables be considered beside response variable and result variable for control? For example, can financial affairs and change of post by outcome variable along with business stress by response variable for control be considered? Therefore, future studies need to consider various control variables. Finally, there is limited supporting research in the field of marketing which restricts the generalization of the study finding along with collecting material through random sampling of a limited size. This research summarizes the research in this area, the difference from the previous research, and provides a discussion of its limitations and the need and direction for further future research.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.44-54
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• 2014

In spite of effective curative therapy, morbidity and mortality remain high for hospitalized patients with tuberculosis(TB) in Korea. The purpose of this study was to identify patient and hospital characteristics associated with hospital care outcome. Using annual patient survey data produced by Korea Institute for Health and Social Affair, we identified 8,562 hospital discharge with primary diagnosis of TB. Logistic regression analyses were performed on a model that included age, gender, residence area, insurance status, hospital admission source, length of stay, hospital ownership and class of hospital as the explanatory variables and outcome of treatments as the dependent variable. The results show that negative outcome was associated with the patients older than 65 years, medical aid beneficiary, admission through emergency department, and the patients admitted to public owned hospitals. On the other hand, the patients who were admitted to teaching hospitals were associated with positive outcome. To improve hospital treatment outcome of TB patients, more vigorous strategies should be implemented targeting the older and poor population in regard to social support as well as the clinical management and prevention.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.11 no.12
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• pp.29-40
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• 2013

This study analyzed that adjustment roles of the organization and Information System strategy suitability factors between influence and introduction outcome factors in the IT outsourcing in government offices. Influence factors of IT outsourcing are organization factor(information system maturity, CEO's support), trade factor(asset speciality, uncertainty, using degree of information system), risk factor(risk of security, risk of increase in cost, risk of losing autonomy). And outcome factors are set as economic effect and technology effect. We analyzed that organization and IS strategy suitability factors as moderator variables. Results are the followings. It was analyzed that organization and IS strategy suitability factors are in charge of adjusting role among information system maturity which is lower variable of organization factor, CEO's support, uncertainty of trade factor's lower variable, risk of security which is risk factor's lower variable, risk of increase in cost, loss of autonomy. Therefore, in order for organization to increase the outcome of information technology, organization strategy and IS strategy should be promoted in combined manner. However, it was analyzed that strategy suitability could not take the adjusting role between asset specialty and introduction outcome.

• Journal of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.127-146
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• 2004

While 'Computer self-efficacy' is widely studied In the social science field with regard to the training effectiveness, little research has focused on clarifying the role of 'needs' in relation to self-efficacy and outcome expectations. in this regard, this study investigated the effects of 'needs to learn computer shills,' extending the social cognitive theory. A survey instrument was adopted and modified from previous studies to measure behavioral modeling, prior experience, Perceived computer self-efficacy, Perceived needs to learn computer skills and outcome expectations. A total of 209 practitioners were surveyed in this study. As a result, most part of the social cognitive theory was again Proven to be effective, and the 'needs to learn computer skills' was proven to be significant as a moderating variable between computer self-efficacy and outcome expectations. Implications of the research were discussed, and further studies were suggested at the end.