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The Role of Social Capital and Identity in Knowledge Contribution in Virtual Communities: An Empirical Investigation (가상 커뮤니티에서 사회적 자본과 정체성이 지식기여에 미치는 역할: 실증적 분석)

  • Shin, Ho Kyoung;Kim, Kyung Kyu;Lee, Un-Kon
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.22 no.3
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    • pp.53-74
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    • 2012
  • A challenge in fostering virtual communities is the continuous supply of knowledge, namely members' willingness to contribute knowledge to their communities. Previous research argues that giving away knowledge eventually causes the possessors of that knowledge to lose their unique value to others, benefiting all except the contributor. Furthermore, communication within virtual communities involves a large number of participants with different social backgrounds and perspectives. The establishment of mutual understanding to comprehend conversations and foster knowledge contribution in virtual communities is inevitably more difficult than face-to-face communication in a small group. In spite of these arguments, evidence suggests that individuals in virtual communities do engage in social behaviors such as knowledge contribution. It is important to understand why individuals provide their valuable knowledge to other community members without a guarantee of returns. In virtual communities, knowledge is inherently rooted in individual members' experiences and expertise. This personal nature of knowledge requires social interactions between virtual community members for knowledge transfer. This study employs the social capital theory in order to account for interpersonal relationship factors and identity theory for individual and group factors that may affect knowledge contribution. First, social capital is the relationship capital which is embedded within the relationships among the participants in a network and available for use when it is needed. Social capital is a productive resource, facilitating individuals' actions for attainment. Nahapiet and Ghoshal (1997) identify three dimensions of social capital and explain theoretically how these dimensions affect the exchange of knowledge. Thus, social capital would be relevant to knowledge contribution in virtual communities. Second, existing research has addressed the importance of identity in facilitating knowledge contribution in a virtual context. Identity in virtual communities has been described as playing a vital role in the establishment of personal reputations and in the recognition of others. For instance, reputation systems that rate participants in terms of the quality of their contributions provide a readily available inventory of experts to knowledge seekers. Despite the growing interest in identities, however, there is little empirical research about how identities in the communities influence knowledge contribution. Therefore, the goal of this study is to better understand knowledge contribution by examining the roles of social capital and identity in virtual communities. Based on a theoretical framework of social capital and identity theory, we develop and test a theoretical model and evaluate our hypotheses. Specifically, we propose three variables such as cohesiveness, reciprocity, and commitment, referring to the social capital theory, as antecedents of knowledge contribution in virtual communities. We further posit that members with a strong identity (self-presentation and group identification) contribute more knowledge to virtual communities. We conducted a field study in order to validate our research model. We collected data from 192 members of virtual communities and used the PLS method to analyse the data. The tests of the measurement model confirm that our data set has appropriate discriminant and convergent validity. The results of testing the structural model show that cohesion, reciprocity, and self-presentation significantly influence knowledge contribution, while commitment and group identification do not significantly influence knowledge contribution. Our findings on cohesion and reciprocity are consistent with the previous literature. Contrary to our expectations, commitment did not significantly affect knowledge contribution in virtual communities. This result may be due to the fact that knowledge contribution was voluntary in the virtual communities in our sample. Another plausible explanation for this result may be the self-selection bias for the survey respondents, who are more likely to contribute their knowledge to virtual communities. The relationship between self-presentation and knowledge contribution was found to be significant in virtual communities, supporting the results of prior literature. Group identification did not significantly affect knowledge contribution in this study, inconsistent with the wealth of research that identifies group identification as an important factor for knowledge sharing. This conflicting result calls for future research that examines the role of group identification in knowledge contribution in virtual communities. This study makes a contribution to theory development in the area of knowledge management in general and virtual communities in particular. For practice, the results of this study identify the circumstances under which individual factors would be effective for motivating knowledge contribution to virtual communities.

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A Study on Switching Intention of Mobile Telecommunication Service User: Focused on Group Differences Based on Innovativeness (이동통신 서비스 이용자의 전환의도에 관한 연구: 개인 혁신성에 따른 집단 간의 차이를 중심으로)

  • Oh, Jong-Chul;Yoon, Sung-Joon
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.19 no.1
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    • pp.9-21
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    • 2009
  • Recently, the researches to explain Switching Behavior through Theory of Planned Behavior have been discovered. Many researches say that System factors of mobile telecommunication service(MTS) is positively associated with Switching Intention. But There is no difference of system factors between mobile telecommunication services because of IT technique Development. Thus, this study investigated whether switching cost and alternative's attractiveness influence switching intention concerning mobile telecommunication service by adopting Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) as an underlying theoretical premise. The study also attempted to determine the moderating effects of personal innovativeness on switching intention. For these purposes the author has developed several hypotheses as follows: H-1. The switching cost of different MTS is associated with the attitude of MTS which is using. H-2. The switching cost of different MTS is associated with the subjective norm of MTS which is using. H-3. The switching cost of different MTS is associated with the perceived behavior control of MTS which is using. H-4. The alternative's attractiveness of different MTS is associated with the attitude of MTS which is using. H-5. The alternative's attractiveness of different MTS is associated with the subjective norm of MTS which is using. H-6. The alternative's attractiveness of different MTS is associated with the perceived behavior control of MTS which is using. H-7. The switching cost of different MTS is associated with the switching intention. H-8. The alternative's attractiveness of different MTS is associated with the switching intention. H-9. The attitude of MTS is associated with the switching intention. H-10. The subjective norm of MTS is associated with the switching intention. H-11. The perceived behavior control of MTS is associated with the switching intention. H-12. The personal innovativeness has been a moderating effects to switching intention. Data has been collected from 403 respondents for this study using a questionnaire method. The survey for the actual analysis of the research was done and analyzed with the customers who have an experience of using Mobile telecommunication service and the samples were selected among the middle and high school students who live in Seoul area, the university students who live in Seoul, Gyeonggi and Chungcheng Provinces, and the ordinary workers who are working in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province. The survey was done for 23 days from March 28, 2008 through April 12, 2008. The positive analysis was done with SPSS 12.0K statistics package and visual PLS program using the analysis techniques of frequency analysis, reliability analysis, correlation analysis and factor analysis. In addition, structural equation modeling was conducted using AMOS 5.0. The data was analyzed by frequency analysis using SPSS 12.0 and structural equation modeling using AMOS 5.0. The result of the overall model analysis is as follows: Chi-Square=378.306, d.f.=107, p-value=0.0, GFI=.904, AGFI= 0.863, IFI= 0.939, NFI= 0.917, RMSEA= 0.079, TLI= 0.922. The results of the overall model analysis were coherent. The following study results were revealed: First, switching cost was related positively to attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavior control, three components of TPB. Second, alternative's attractiveness was related negatively to subjective norm but positively to perceived behavior control. Third, switching cost and attitude was related negatively to switching intention, while perceived behavior control was related positively to switching intention. Finally, the study found the moderating effects of personal innovativeness on switching intention. Based on the results, the study offers marketing strategic implications for mobile telecommunication service industry.

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Empirical Analysis of Consumer Behavior on the Internet Shopping Mall Choice from the Schema Perspective: Comparison Between Bricks & Clicks and Pure-Player Shopping Mall (스키마 관점에서 살펴본 인터넷 쇼핑몰 선택에 대한 소비자행동의 이해: Bricks & Clicks와 Pure-Player 인터넷 쇼핑몰 비교를 중심으로)

  • Chung, Nam-Ho;Lee, Kun-Chang
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.17 no.4
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    • pp.165-186
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    • 2007
  • With the advent of a wide variety of Internet shopping malls, consumers can choose a best appealing shopping mall from among the Bricks-and-Clicks and Pure-Player malls. Pure-Players launched their operation grandiosely with the early stage of Internet use in 1995. However, after the burst of Dot-com company bubbles in 1997, Pure-Players introduce various types of business models to meet potential needs of consumers. While Pure-Players suffer skeptical views from market analysts as well as consumers, traditional offline companies learned important lessons from Dot-com companies collapse phenomena, and expanded their business channels into online in the name of Bricks-and-Clicks. Nowadays, Bricks-and-Clicks successfully establish in the market as one of reliable business partners among consumers. Therefore, it is no surprise that recent competitions between Bricks-and Clicks and Pure-Players become fiercer than ever to attract potential customers to their websites. In this situation, consumers can choose a shopping mall to their best satisfaction. Consumers can enjoy both offline and online options for shopping because Bricks-and Clicks provide both offline and online channels to consumers, which is compared with Pure-Players offering only online channel. Offline channel is unique in providing consumers with chances to touch and feel target products and services. Meanwhile, online channel is considered very viable and convenient shopping options for consumers. In this respect, it is easily assumed that consumers will show different online shopping behavior when they have to choose either Bricks-and-Clicks mall or Pure-Player mall for the sake of shopping. Remaining research issue in this case is how much consumers' schema would influence online shopping behavior between Bricks-and-Clicks and Pure-Players. Basically, schema is a framework for synthetic information recognition that individual consumers have and is very characteristic in that it focuses not on fragmentary facts but on the combination of various causes affecting results. Consumers' schema is closely represented by trust, structural assurance, and perceived relative advantage towards a specific type of shopping mall. In literature, there exist a lot of studies comparing Bricks-and-Clicks and Pure-Players. However, there is no study to pursue the analysis of consumer behaviors comparing Bricks-and Clicks and Pure-Players from the schema perspective. Therefore, this study aims to investigate this research gap. Empirical analysis is adopted by garnering valid questionnaires from 514 Internet shopping mall users. 237 were mainly using Bricks-and-Clicks for shopping, while 277 were found to visit Pure-Players for shopping. PLS was applied to analyze the survey data to verify the proposed research hypotheses. Findings from the empirical test results are as follows. First, consumers perceive more trust and relative advantage in Pure-Players, comparing with Bricks-and-Clicks. This result is against widely-accepted perception that Bricks-and-Clicks would be perceived by consumers as more trustworthy and relatively advantageous because they have offline reputation and stores. Therefore, it becomes more obvious that Internet is becoming daily necessaries, and consumers increasingly feel very comfortable in using the Internet for their own personal purposes. Second, consumers have firm faith in transaction safety, regardless Bricks-and-Clicks and Pure-Players. This seems due to the fact that most of shopping malls showing dubious transaction safety have no place in the market. In a nutshell, empirical results tell us that Pure-Players will grow very much in the future, to the extent that consumers perceive no difference in comparison with Bricks-and-Clicks. Besides, consumers' schema accumulated through trust and perceived relative advantage plays crucial role in determining consumer behavior.

Estimation of Moisture Content in Cucumber and Watermelon Seedlings Using Hyperspectral Imagery (초분광영상 이용 오이 및 수박 묘의 수분함량 추정)

  • Kim, Seong-Heon;Kang, Jeong-Gyun;Ryu, Chan-Seok;Kang, Ye-Seong;Sarkar, Tapash Kumar;Kang, Dong Hyeon;Ku, Yang-Gyu;Kim, Dong-Eok
    • Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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    • v.27 no.1
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    • pp.34-39
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    • 2018
  • This research was conducted to estimate moisture content in cucurbitaceae seedlings, such as cucumber and watermelon, using hyperspectral imagery. Using a hyperspectral image acquisition system, the reflectance of leaf area of cucumber and watermelon seedlings was calculated after providing water stress. Then, moisture content in each seedling was measured by using a dry oven. Finally, using reflectance and moisture content, the moisture content estimation models were developed by PLSR analysis. After developing the estimation models, performance of the cucumber showed 0.73 of $R^2$, 1.45% of RMSE, and 1.58% of RE. Performance of the watermelon showed 0.66 of $R^2$, 1.06% of RMSE, and 1.14% of RE. The model performed slightly better after removing one sample from cucumber seedlings as outlier and unnecessary. Hence, the performance of new model for cucumber seedlings showed 0.79 of $R^2$, 1.10% of RMSE, and 1.20% of RE. The model performance combined with all samples showed 0.67 of $R^2$, 1.26% of RMSE, and 1.36% of RE. The model of cucumber showed better performance than the model of watermelon. This is because variables of cucumber are consisted of widely distributed variation, and it affected the performance. Further, accuracy and precision of the cucumber model were increased when an insignificant sample was eliminated from the dataset. Finally, it is considered that both models can be significantly used to estimate moisture content, as gradients of trend line are almost same and intersected. It is considered that the accuracy and precision of the estimating models possibly can be improved, if the models are constructed by using variables with widely distributed variation. The improved models will be utilized as the basis for developing low-priced sensors.

Exploring Influence of Network Structure, Organizational Learning Culture, and Knowledge Management Participation on Individual Creativity and Performance: Comparison of SI Proposal Team and R&D Team (네트워크 구조와 조직학습문화, 지식경영참여가 개인창의성 및 성과에 미치는 영향에 관한 실증분석: SI제안팀과 R&D팀의 비교연구)

  • Lee, Kun-Chang;Seo, Young-Wook;Chae, Seong-Wook;Song, Seok-Woo
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.20 no.4
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    • pp.101-123
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    • 2010
  • Recently, firms are operating a number of teams to accomplish organizational performance. Especially, ad hoc teams like proposal preparation team are quite different from permanent teams like R&D team in the sense of how the team forms network structure and deals with organizational learning culture and knowledge management participation efforts. Moreover, depending on the team characteristics, individual creativity will differ from each other, which will lead to organizational performance eventually. Previous studies in the field of creativity are lacking in this issue. So main objectives of this study are organized as follows. First, the issue of how to improve individual creativity and organizational performance will be analyzed empirically. This issue will be performed depending on team characteristics such as ad hoc team and permanent team. Antecedents adopted for this research objective are cultural and knowledge factors such as organizational learning culture, and knowledge management participation. Second, the network structure such as degree centrality, and structural hole is used to analyze its influence on individual creativity and organizational performance. SI (System Integration) companies are facing severely tough requirements from clients to submit very creative proposals. Also, R&D teams are widely accepted as relatively creative teams because their responsibilities are focused on suggesting innovative techniques to make their companies remain competitive in the market. SI teams are usually ad hoc, while R&D teams are permanent on an average. By taking advantage of these characteristics of the two kinds of teams, we will prove the validity of the proposed research questions. To obtain the survey data, we accessed 7 SI teams (74 members), and 6 R&D teams (63 members), collecting 137 valid questionnaires. PLS technique was applied to analyze the survey data. Results are as follows. First, in case of SI teams, organizational learning culture affects individual creativity significantly. Meanwhile, knowledge management participation has a significant influence on Individual creativity for the permanent teams. Second, degree centrality Influences individual creativity significantly in case of SI teams. This is comparable with the fact that structural hole has a significant impact on individual creativity for the R&D teams. Practical implications can be summarized as follows: First, network structure of ad hoc team should be designed differently from one of permanent team. Ad hoc team is supposed to show a high creativity in a rather short period, implying that network density among team members should be improved, and those members with high degree centrality should be encouraged to show their Individual creativity and take a leading role by allowing them to get heavily engaged in knowledge sharing and diffusion. In contrast, permanent team should be designed to take advantage of structural hole instead of focusing on network density. Since structural hole can be utilized very effectively in the permanent team, strong arbitrators' merits in the permanent team will increase and therefore helps increase both network efficiency and effectiveness too. In this way, individual creativity in the permanent team is likely to lead to organizational creativity in a seamless way. Second, way of Increasing individual creativity should be sought from the perspective of organizational culture and knowledge management. Organization is supposed to provide a cultural atmosphere in which Innovative idea suggestions and active discussion among team members are encouraged. In this way, trust builds up among team members, facilitating the formation of organizational learning culture. Third, in the ad hoc team, organizational looming culture should be built such a way that individual creativity can grow up fast in a rather short period. Since time is tight, reasonable compensation policy, leader's Initiatives, and learning culture formation should be done In a short period so that mutual trust is built among members quickly, and necessary knowledge and information can be learnt rapidly. Fourth, in the permanent team, it should be kept in mind that the degree of participation in knowledge management determines level of Individual creativity. Therefore, the team ought to facilitate knowledge circulation process such as knowledge creation, storage, sharing, utilization, and learning among team members, which will lead to team performance. In this way, firms must control knowledge networks in permanent team and ad hoc team in a way mentioned above so that individual creativity as well as team performance can be maximized.

A Study on the Effect of Location-based Service Users' Perceived Value and Risk on their Intention for Security Enhancement and Continuous Use: With an Emphasis on Perceived Benefits and Risks (위치기반서비스 사용자의 지각된 가치와 위험이 보안강화의도와 지속이용의도에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구: 지각된 혜택과 위험을 중심으로)

  • Park, Kyung Ah;Lee, Dae Yong;Koo, Chulmo
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.24 no.3
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    • pp.299-323
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    • 2014
  • The reason location based service is drawing attention recently is because smart phones are being supplied increasingly. Smart phone, basically equipped with GPS that can identify location information, has the advantage that it can provide contents and services suitable for the user by identifying user location accurately. Offering such diverse advantages, location based services are increasingly used. In addition, for use of location based services, release of user's personal information and location data is essentially required. Regarding personal information and location data, in addition to IT companies, general companies also are conducting various profitable businesses and sales activities based on personal information, and in particular, personal location data, comprehending high value of use among personal information, are drawing high attentions. Increase in demand of personal information is raising the risk of personal information infringement, and infringements of personal location data also are increasing in frequency and degree. Therefore, infringements of personal information should be minimized through user's action and efforts to reinforce security along with Act on the Protection of Personal Information and Act on the Protection of Location Information. This study aimed to improve the importance of personal information privacy by empirically analyzing the effect of perceived values on the intention to strengthen location information security and continuously use location information for users who received location-based services (LBS) in mobile environments with the privacy calculation model of benefits and risks as a theoretical background. This study regarded situation-based provision, the benefit which users perceived while using location-based services, and the risk related to personal location information, a risk which occurs while using services, as independent variables and investigated the perceived values of the two variables. It also examined whether there were efforts to reduce risks related to personal location information according to the values of location- based services, which consumers perceived through the intention to strengthen security. Furthermore, it presented a study model which intended to investigate the effect of perceived values and intention of strengthening security on the continuous use of location-based services. A survey was conducted for three hundred ten users who had received location-based services via their smartphones to verify study hypotheses. Three hundred four questionnaires except problematic ones were collected. The hypotheses were verified, using a statistical method and a logical basis was presented. An empirical analysis was made on the data collected through the survey with SPSS 12.0 and SmartPLS 2.0 to verify respondents' demographic characteristics, an exploratory factor analysis and the appropriateness of the study model. As a result, it was shown that the users who had received location-based services were significantly influenced by the perceived value of their benefits, but risk related to location information did not have an effect on consumers' perceived values. Even though users perceived the risk related to personal location information while using services, it was viewed that users' perceived value had nothing to do with the use of location-based services. However, it was shown that users significantly responded to the intention of strengthening security in relation to location information risks and tended to use services continuously, strengthening positive efforts for security when their perceived values were high.

A Study on the Performance of Cloud-based VDI Adoption: Comparing between IS administrators and business users (클라우드 기반 VDI 도입 성과에 관한 연구 - 시스템 관리자와 일반 사용자의 비교를 중심으로 -)

  • Kim, Il-Han;Kwon, Sun-Dong
    • Management & Information Systems Review
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    • v.37 no.2
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    • pp.149-167
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    • 2018
  • The purpose of this study is to analyze the performance of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure(VDI) adoption. VDI performance was measured by IS manager (system quality, security, and managerial operation) and business user (usability, access, and user satisfaction). The survey questionnaires were developed for measuring VDI performance. 84 data samples were collected from the companies that had adopted cloud-based VDI. This research model was verified by Smart-PLS and SPSS. The research findings were as follows: First, the companies using VDI experienced actual performance, but they did not attain their expectation. Second, as results of comparing between IS managers and business users, IS administrators had considerably higher performance than business users, which indicates that there were big differences in performance perception among users. Compared with prior research such as technical trend, system construction, and performance improvement, this study has the following implications. First, by comparing the expected performance with the actual performance of the companies that have implemented and operating VDI, it was suggested how a company that wants to adopt VDI can manage the expectation level of VDI and achieve higher actual performance. Second, because the perception of VDI performance differs between business users and system managers, it is meaningful that a fair evaluation of VDI performance requires a balanced consideration of business users and system managers.

Effect of Sample Preparation on Predicting Chemical Composition and Fermentation Parameters in Italian ryegrass Silages by Near Infrared Spectroscopy (시료 전처리 방법이 근적외선분광법을 이용한 이탈리안 라이그라스 사일리지의 화학적 조성분 및 발효품질 평가에 미치는 영향)

  • Park, Hyung Soo;Lee, Sang Hoon;Choi, Ki Choon;Lim, Young Chul;Kim, Jong Gun;Seo, Sung;Jo, Kyu Chea
    • Journal of Animal Environmental Science
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    • v.18 no.3
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    • pp.257-266
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    • 2012
  • Near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) has become increasingly used as a rapid, accurate method of evaluating some chemical constituents in cereal and dired animal forages. Analysis of forage quality by NIRS usually involves dry grinding samples. Costs might be reduced if samples could be analyzed without drying or grinding. The objective of this study was to investigate effect of sample preparations on prediction ability of chemical composition and fermentation parameter for Italian ryegrass silages by NIRS. A population of 147 Italian ryegrass silages representing a wide range in chemical parameters were used in this investigation. Samples were scanned at 1nm intervals over the wavelength range 680-2500 nm and the optical data recorded as log 1/Reflectance (log 1/R) and scanned in oven-dried grinding and fresh ungrinding condition. The spectral data were regressed against a range of chemical parameters using partial least squares (PLS) multivariate analysis in conjunction with four spectral math treatments to reduced the effect of extraneous noise. The optimum calibrations were selected on the basis of minimizing the standard error of cross validation (SECV) and maximizing the correlation coefficient of cross validation (${R^2}_{CV}$). The results of this study show that NIRS predicted the chemical parameters with high degree of accuracy in oven-dried grinding treatment except for moisture contents. Prediction accuracy of the moisture contents was better for fresh ungrinding treatment (SECV 1.37%, $R^2$ 0.96) than for oven-dried grinding treatments (SECV 4.31%, $R^2$ 0.68). Although the statistical indexes for accuracy of the prediction were the lower in fresh ungrinding treatment, fresh treatment may be acceptable when processing is costly or when some changes in component due to the processing are expected. Results of this experiment showed the possibility of NIRS method to predict the chemical composition and fermentation parameter of Italian ryegrass silages as routine analysis method in feeding value evaluation and for farmer advice.

Studies on Determinant Factors of SCM Performance: From the Supplier Perspective (SCM 성과 결정요인에 관한 통합적 연구: 공급업체 관점으로)

  • Park, Kwang-Oh;Chang, Hwal-Sik
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.21 no.1
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    • pp.1-27
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    • 2011
  • In an attempt to cope with widespread, dynamic, and accelerating changes in both internal and external business environments, companies often utilize information technologies such as SCM(Supply Chain Management). To date, SCM research has mainly focused on the effects of dynamic factors on SCM success and emphasized adoption strategies and critical success factors. Consequently, the effects of more static factors such as interdependency between SCM partners have been largely ignored. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to examine the effects of both dynamic and static factors on SCM performance by controlling for information quality and partnership quality. The five factors examined in this study include innovative ness, mutual dependency, quality of information, partnership quality, and SCM performance. All factors were examined from the perspective of part suppliers, except the mutual dependency which was examined from two aspects: supplier's dependency on customer and customer's dependency on supplier. Data was collected through five hundred survey questionnaires distributed to the part supplier companies that have implemented SCM systems for at least one year. As a result, a total of 170 valid responses were obtained. A structural equation research model was fitted using SAS 9.1.3 and SMART-PLS 2.0. The results of this study can be summarized as follows. First, innovativeness positively affected SCM information quality. SCM partnership quality, and ultimately SCM performance. The path coefficient between innovativeness and information quality was 0.387, with a t-value of 3.528. Innovativeness also had a positively direct effect on partnership quality. The path coefficient was 0.351 with a t-value of 3.366. The total effect of innovativeness on partnership quality was significant, although its indirect effect on partnership quality by altering information quality was negligible. The total indirect effect of innovativeness on SCM performance by affecting information quality and partnership quality was significant with a p-value of 0.014. Innovativeness played an important role in determining SCM performance. Second, mutual dependency showed no significant effect on SCM information quality. This result contradicts the earlier assertion that the more dependent two companies are, the more accurate and timely the information they exchange ought to be. This study showed that this may not be the case; a partner may provide information of poor quality even when it is strongly dependent on the other. Mutual dependency showed significant effect on partnership quality. However, when the mutual dependency perceived by suppliers was divided into two parts, one being a supplier's dependency on its customer company and the other being a customer's dependency on the supplier, the latter showed a significant impact on the perceived SCM partnership quality. This result indicates that a customer company can hardly improve the partnership quality perceived by suppliers by making them more dependent. It improves only when the suppliers perceive that their partners, typically having more bargaining power, are more dependent on them. The overall effect of mutual dependency of any kind on SCM performance, however, was not significant. Although mutual dependency has been mentioned as an important static factor influencing almost every aspect of cooperation on a supply chain, its influences may not be as significant as it was initially perceived to be. Third, the correlation between information quality and partnership quality was 0.448 with a p-value of less than 0.001. Information quality had a path coefficient of 0.256 to partnership quality with a t-value of 2.940. The quality of information exchanged between partners may have an impact on their partnership quality. Fourth, information quality also had a significant impact on SCM performance with a path coefficient of 0.325 with a t-value of 3.611. In this study, SCM performance was divided into four categories: product quality, cost saving, service quality, and order fulfillment. Information quality has Significant impacts on product quality, cost saving and service quality, but not on order fulfillment. Fifth, partnership quality, as expected, had a significant impact on SCM performance. The path coefficient was 0.403 with a t-value of 3.539. Partnership quality, like information quality, had positive impacts on product quality, cost saving and service quality, but showed no impact on order fulfillment. It seemed that order fulfillment is the hardest category of performance that SCM can satisfy. One major limitation of this study is that it surveyed only the suppliers. To better understand the dual aspects of SCM, it is important to survey both suppliers and the assemblers, especially in pairs. This research, to our best knowledge, was the first attempt to study the level of dependency between the two groups by measuring the dual aspects of SCM and studying mutual dependency from the categories of suppliers and assemblers each.. In the future, a more comprehensive and precise measurement of SCM characteristics needs to be achieved by examining from both the supplier's and assembler's perspectives.

A Study on the Moderating Effect of Perceived Voluntariness in the Organizational Information System Usage and Performance (정보시스템 사용과 성과에 있어서 자발성의 조절효과에 관한 연구)

  • Lee, Seung-Chang;Lee, Ho-Geun;Jung, Chang-Wook;Chung, Nam-Ho;Suh, Eung-Kyo
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.19 no.2
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    • pp.195-221
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    • 2009
  • According to an industry report, a large number of organizations have invested in Organizational Information System(OIS) in the past few years. Several research results indicate that successful investments in OIS lead to productivity enhancement, while failed ones result in undesirable consequences such as financial losses and dissatisfaction among employees. In spite of huge investments, however, many organizations have failed in achieving the hoped-for returns from OIS. Thus, understanding user acceptance, adoption, and usage of new IS(Information Systems) is an important issue for IS practitioners. Indeed, study of the user acceptance of new information system has been one of the most important research topics in the contemporary IS literature. Several theoretical models are tested to examine 'user acceptance' and 'usage behavior' in IS context. While many research models incorporate 'ease of use' or 'usefulness' as important factors in explaining user acceptance, Technology Acceptance Model(TAM) has been one of the most widely applied models in user acceptance and usage behavior. Even in recent IS studies that employ theories of innovation diffusion in the area of IS implementation, a major focus has been on the user's perception of information technologies. In this research, we study 'voluntariness' as an important factor in IS acceptance by users. Voluntariness is defined as "the degree to which the use of the innovation is perceived as being voluntary, or of free will" When examining the diffusion of accepting OIS, a thoughtful consideration should be given to 'perceived voluntariness.' Current article has following research questions: 1) What models are appropriate to explain the success of OIS? and 2) How does the 'voluntariness' affect the success of OIS? In order to answer these questions, a research model is proposed to describe the detailed nature of association among three independent variables (IT usage level, task interdependency, and organizational support), a mediating variable (IS usage), a dependent variable (perceived performance), and a moderating variable(perceived voluntariness). The central claim of this article is that organizations hardly realize expected returns from OIS investments unless perceived voluntariness is effectively managed after operating OIS. As an example of OIS in this study we have selected the Intranet of Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF). ROKAF has implemented the Intranet in an attempt to improve communication and coordination within the organization. To test our research model and hypotheses, survey questionnaires were first sent out to 400 Intranet users. With the assistance of ROKAF, Intranet users were initially identified among its members, and subjects were randomly drawn from the pool. 377 survey responses were finally returned. The unit of measurement and analysis in this research is a personal level. Path analysis based on structural equation modeling was used to test research hypotheses. Construct validity represents accordance between the theoretical base concept of constructs and its measurement items. Tests for the reliability and discriminant validity are accepted, thus verifying our survey instrument. In this research, we have proposed a conceptual framework to highlight the importance of perceived voluntariness after organization deploys OIS. The results of our analysis present several key finding. First, all three independent variables (IT usage level, task interdependency, and organizational support) have significant effects on IS usage, which will eventually improve performance. Thus, IS usage plays a mediating role between antecedent variables (IT usage level. task interdependency, and organizational support) and performance improvement. Second, the effect of the task dependency was the highest for IS usage among the three antecedent variables. This is highly plausible since one of the Intranet's major capabilities is to facilitate communication among members within an organization. Accordingly, we conclude that the higher the task dependency, the higher Intranet usage. The effect of user's IT usage level was the second, while the effect of the organizational support was the third. Finally, the perceived voluntariness plays a pivotal role in enhancing perceived performance in personal level after launching the Intranet. Relationships among investigated variables were significantly different between groups with a high level and a low level of voluntariness. The impact of the Intranet usage on the performance was greater in the higher level voluntariness group than in the lower one. For the lower level voluntariness group, the user's IT usage had the highest effect on the Intranet usage among the three antecedent variables. In short, our study suggests that the higher the perceived voluntariness is the more IS usage will be. Perceived voluntariness was found to have a moderating effect on the relationships among user IT usage level, task interdependency, IS usage, and perceived performance, supporting all the hypotheses on the moderating effect. Most of all, user IT usage level has the strongest influence on IS usage, indicating that users with superior IT usage are more likely to enjoy a high level of perceived performance.