• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.144-155
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• 1996

During the 1990s the workplace has grown more complex and business competition has increased world-wide. All organizations, whether for-profit or non-profit have been forced to respond to market changes. More advanced information and technology, greater product diversity, shorter product life cycles, increased quality requirements, more regulation oversight, decreasing productivity, more competitors, and increasing overhead costs have motivated organizations to focus on ways to deliver products cheaper, better, and faster. Many organizations are searching for ways to reduce costs through downsizing, reengineering business processes, implementing quality management, outsourcing, and improving cost management. Support departments that provide services internal to an organization such as human resources, legal, and environmental, safety, and health (ES&H) are often the first organization targeted for cost reduction and cost control initiatives because these functions are part of a rapidly increasing overhead cost. Recently, ES&H functions are incresingly being integrated into the business of business to contribute value to organization beyond mere compliance with ES&H regulations. The discussions and development of the ISO compatible Environmental Management Standards or Occupational Safety and Health Management Standards is another impetus to integrate ES&H function into the business of business. Thus, ES&H professional need new skills to analyze the cost of their function and communicate the value of the products and services they provide. In recent years, the need for and the importance developing cost management and business skills by ES&H professionals have been emphasized in the literature. Communicating with decision makers in terms of cost and value to the organization, and by using business language and business arguments is the first step toward effectively integrating ES&H activities into the business of business. Activity-based costing (ABC) is a cost management method that measures the cost of a product or service based on the actual use of resources by activities, and based on the actual amount of activities used to produce a product or service. ABC is recommended as a tool for managers of ES&H organizations to determine the cost of developing and providing ES&H products within a for-profit firm or non-profit agency. This paper discusses the trend of integration of ES&H functions into the mainstream of business activities within an organization. The general principles of treditional cost accounting are presented as a bases for understandging why and how ABC will provide more accurate estimates of cost. The principles and concepts of ABS are presented as a tool for determining more accurately the true cost of ES&H products and services.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.35-69
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• 1995

The managerial environment of hospitals in Korea characterized by low levels of medical insurance fees is worsening by increasing government regulations as to the utilization of medical services, rising costs of labor, material, and medical equipments, growing patient expectations concerning the quality of services, and escalating competitions among large hospitals in the market. Hospitals should seek for their survival strategies in this harsh environment and they should have information about costs of their products in doing so. However, it has not been available due to the complexity of the production process of hospital services. The objectives of this study were to develop a service-based cost accounting model and to apply the developed model to a study hospital to obtain cost information of hospital services. A model commonly used for the job-order product cost accounting in the manufacturing industry was modified for the use in hospitals in Korea. Actual costs, instead of standard costs, incurred to produce a unit of services during a given period of time were estimated in the model. Data required to implement the model included financial information, statistics for the allocation of supportive cost center costs to final cost centers, statistics for the allocation of final cost center costs to services, and the volume of each services charged to patients during a study period. The model was executed using data of a university teaching hospital located in Seoul for the fiscal year 1992. Data for financial information, allocation statistics fo supportive service costs, and the volume of services, most of them in electronic form, were available to the study. Data for allocation statistics of final cost center costs were collected in the study. There were 15 types of evaluation and management service, 2, 923 types of technical service, and 2, 608 types of drug and material service charged to patients in the study hospital during the fiscal year 1992. Labor costs of each of seven types of pesonnel, material costs of 611 types of drugs and materials, and depreciation costs of 212 types of medical equipments, miscellaneous costs, and indirect costs incurred in producing a unit of each services were estimated. Medical insurance fees for basic services such as evaluation and management of inpatients and outpatients, injection, and filling prescriptions, and for operating procedures were found to be set lower than costs. Infrequent services which use expensive medical equipments showed negative revenuse as well. On the other hand, fees for services not covered by the insurance such as CT, MRI and Sonogram, and for laboratory tests were higher than costs. This study has a significance in making it possible for a hospital to obtain cost information for all types of services which produced income based on all types of expenses incurred during a given period of time. This information can assist the management of a hospital in finding an effective cost reduction strategy, an efficient service-mix strategy under a given fee structure, and an optimum strategy for within-hospital resource allocations.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.185-194
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• 2020

The study aims to identify and measure factors affecting the perception of the selling price of luxury apartments in Hanoi. We conducted a questionnaire consisting of 29 observation variables with a 5-point Likert scale. Independent variables were measured from 1 "without effect" to 5 "strongly". Based on the desk review and results of interviews, a total of 500 questionnaires were sent to research participants for collection; 458 of them met standard and were subject to be analyzed. This study employs Cronbach's Alpha test, and regression model. The results of Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Multiple Regression Analysis (MRA) identify five main determinants influencing the perception of the selling price of luxury apartments in Hanoi, including Physical characteristics of a luxury apartment (PC); Location and position of an apartment (LP); Surrounding Area (SA); Quality of service provided by managers; (QS) and Demographics factor (DF). Based on the findings, some recommendations have been proposed to help the firm leaders design appropriate personnel policies for creating better price satisfaction for customers in the future. On this basis, the authors propose a number of recommendations to improve the quality of luxury apartments, thereby contributing to the development of the market for luxury apartments in Hanoi.

• Asian Journal of Business Environment
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.5-16
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• 2021

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the impact of auditor-client traffic convenience on accrual -based and real earnings management of the client firms. Research design, data and methodology: Using a sample of firms listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges over the period of 2007 to 2018, this paper empirically investigates the association between auditor-client traffic convenience and earnings management. We use three measures of auditor-client traffic convenience: railway traffic convenience, expressway traffic convenience, and air traffic convenience. The accrual-based earnings management is measured by abnormal accruals estimated by industry and year using the Modified Jones Model. Results: Findings indicate that traffic convenience is conducive to detecting and restraining positive accrual earnings management and real earnings management. After changing the measurement of independent variable and dependent variable, including potential omitted variables, the results are statistically unchanged. Further, the research shows that traffic convenience can not only improve audit quality, but also lead to higher fee premiums. Auditors didn't share with clients the cost reduction benefits caused by traffic convenience. Conclusions: Traffic convenience provides auditors with easy access to the client firms, alleviating the information asymmetry and improving corporate earnings quality. The findings have implications for regulators, audit practitioners and stakeholders.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.10
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• pp.95-107
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• 2020

This study analyzes the effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activity on investors' heterogeneous beliefs. The hypothesis of this study is based on the conflicting effects of CSR activities on firm value and earning's quality. Investors' heterogeneous beliefs used in the empirical analysis of this study are trading volume, and CSR activity is measured by the KEJI Index (Korea Economic Justice Institute Index). This study performs an empirical analysis using regression analysis including control variables. CSR activities are found to have a positive relationship with trading volume. This is consistent regardless of the low and high accounting information (earning's quality). It can be interpreted that Korea's CSR activity acts as an incentive to increase investors' heterogeneous beliefs about target companies. In other words, it implies that the investor judges CSR activities negatively when evaluating firm value. This study could have a policy implication in that it analyzes how CSR activities affect investors' decision-making. In other words, this study analyzed CSR activities from the perspective of shareholders. Therefore, this study is expected to provide useful information for policymaking by regulatory agencies. In particular, its contribution is to presents data that CSR activities can be a negative factor in evaluating firm values.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.54-65
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• 2021

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify influencing factors on vision-related quality of life in patients with retinal diseases receiving intravitreal injections by examining relationships among anxiety, depression, coping, eye health behaviors and vision-related quality of life. Methods: One hundred and five outpatients who were diagnosed with macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy were recruited from one university hospital during August 16, 2019 to March 25, 2020. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequency and percentage, mean, standard deviation), and t-tests, ANOVA, Scheffé test, Pearson's correlations, and stepwise multiple regressions using the IBM SPSS Statistics 25.0. Results: The vision-related quality of life according to general characteristics of retinal disease patients with intravitreal injection showed significant differences in age (F=3.01, p=.034), subjective economic status (F=5.83, p=.004), types of retinal disease (t=2.62, p=.010), and disease in both eyes (t=-3.04, p=.003). The vision-related quality of life showed a significant positive correlation with age (r=.24, p=.012), and negative correlations with anxiety (r=-.66, p<.001), depression (r=-.48, p<.001), and emotion-focused coping (r=-.20, p=.036). The hierarchical regression analysis indicated that factors affecting vision-related quality of life in patients with retinal diseases were anxiety and subjective economic status, accounting for 47.0% of the variances of the vision-related quality of life. Conclusion: Based on our results, health professionals need to pay attention to patients with low socioeconomic status due to frequent treatments. Also, a program needs to be developed to decrease anxiety for outpatients receiving intravitreal injections to improve their vision-related quality of life.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.289-311
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• 2008

This study is a development of quality scale and a measurement of quality levels for the Hospital Information System(HIS) used in the hospital industry. This study is to provide decision-making guidelines for hospital managers, system analysts, and software designers, and to provide feedback for the users' information needs. The target people of the study were medical doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and clerical staff. The service contexts of usability were diagnosis/treatment, nursing, medicine preparation, and treatment fee receipt/claim. The quality factors were the efficiency, effectiveness, and satisfaction of IS09241-11. This study shows that the current domestic HISs are mostly based on patient diagnosis/treatment and treatment fee accounting, and that other quality scales are necessary according to different job categories, specializations, positions, and service domains. Especially, the low quality of HIS was found in the abnormal service processing, information sharing by outside institutions, and standardization. It may be added that the HIS should be improved and developed in these respects.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.19-27
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the water quality and phytoplankton community in Bukhan River which account for 44.4 % of the total inflow into Lake Paldang, using multivariate statistical techniques (i.e., correlation analysis, principal component analysis (PCA)/factor analysis (FA)). Water samples were collected from March to November 2015 and the following parameters measured; water temperature, pH, DO, EC, SS, BOD, Chl-a, COD, TN, $NO_3-N$, $NH_3-N$, TP, DTP, $PO_4-P$, and phytoplankton community. The water quality of the main stream and the tributaries were not significantly different apart from the relatively high concentration of BOD, COD and nutrients recorded in MH. The highest cell density of Stephanodiscus hantzschii and Merismopedia glauca dominated phytoplankton was observed in PD. Based on the correlation analysis, total phytoplankton and cyanophyceae were highly correlated with BOD, COD and nutrients. PCA/FA resulted in four main factors accounting for 82.240 % of the total variance in the water quality dataset. The group of component 1 (TN, DTN, DO, $NO_3-N$, water temperature) and component 2 ($PO_4-P$, T-P, DTP, SS) were classified as nutrient element factor whereas component 3 (Chl-a, COD, BOD, $NH_3-N$, pH) was related to organic substances. Hence, the identification of the main potential environmental pollution factors in Bukhan River will help policy makers make better and more informed decisions on how to improve the water quality.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.508-517
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• 2000

For shift quality improvement, torque sensors are currently too expensive to be used on production vehicles. To achieve smooth acceleration shift, the reference trajectory of the clutch slip speed for accomplishing the shift process within a designated shift completion time and its relationship with the clutch actuating torque were suggested by Jeong and Lee (1999). In order to facilitate the proposed algorithm, nonlinear estimators for necessary information such as the axle shaft torque, clutch friction and turbine torque were designed using only speed sensors. Accounting for the modeling error, a control law for this indirect smooth shift was proposed based on the above mentioned suggestions. Simulation results of the proposed estimators and shift controller were presented and further considerations for practical applications are discussed.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.203-236
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• 2002

Environmental Performance Evaluation(EPE) is a key process of Corporate Environmental Management. This paper presents the results of an empirical survey on the status of current practices in EPE of Korean firms. Based on a corporate environmental management(CEM) model, which is initially developed by Hibbitt and Kamp-Roelands(2001) and modified in terms of EPE, the survey is peformed on the population of Korean firms, which are composed of firms certified as "environmentally friendly" by Korean government and/or certified under Is014001, and compares its results with those of Europe's. Although the relatively low response rate and some methodological limitations makes us be cautious about the interpretation, the results shows many interesting aspects of the current states of Korean firms' EPE practices. That is, the levels of EPE implementation in the environmentally-leading companies of Korea are almost the same as that of European companies, I. e., in the-final-part-of-developing-stage (3rd stage) level of the CEM model. It is also shown that as In Europe's case, Korean firms are also moving slower in external relationships than in internal control and management, are more developed in the parameters like environmental policy, Internal control, Information system, which are requirements of certification under Is014001, than in parameters like life cycle analysis and full cost accounting, which requires more research efforts, etc.orts, etc.