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The Determination of Trust in Franchisor-Franchisee Relationships in China (중국 프랜차이즈 시스템에서의 본부와 가맹점간 신뢰의 영향요인)

  • Shin, Geon-Cheol;Ma, Yaokun
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.18 no.2
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    • pp.65-88
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    • 2008
  • Since the implementation of economic reforms in 1978, the Chinese economy grows rapidly at an average annul growth rate of 9% over the post two decades. Franchising has been widely recognized as an important source of entrepreneurial activity. Trust is important in that it facilitates relational exchanges by permits partners to transcend short-run inequities or risks to concentrate on long-term profits or gains. In the relationship between the franchisors and franchisees, trust has been described as an important source of competitive advantage. However, little research has been done on the factors affecting trust in Chinese franchisor-franchisee relationships. The purpose of this study is to investigate what factors affect the trust in the franchise system in China, and to provide guidelines and insights to franchisors which enter Chinese market. In this study, according to Morgan and Hunt (1994), trust is defined as the extending when one party has confidence in an exchange partner's reliability and integrity. We offered a conceptual model of the empirical study. The model shows that the factors affecting the trust include franchisor's supports, communication, satisfaction with previous outcome and conflict. We also suggested the franchisor's supports and communication like to enhance the franchisee's satisfaction with previous outcome, and the franchisor's supports, communication and he franchisee's satisfaction with previous outcome tend to decrease conflict. Before the formal study, a pretest involving exploratory interviews with owners from three franchisees was conducted to make sure the questionnaire was relevant and clear to the respondents. The data were collected using trained interviewers to carry out personal interviews with the aid of an unidentified, muti-page, structured questionnaire. The respondents comprised of owners, managers, and owner managers of franchisee-owned food service franchises located in Beijing, China. Even though a total of 256 potential franchises were initially contacted, the finally usable sample consisted of 125 respondents. As expected, the sampling method was successful in soliciting respondents with waried personal and firm characteristics. Self-administrated questionnaires were used for all measures. And established scales were used to measure the latent constructs in this study. The measures tapped the franchisees' perceptions of the relationship with the referent franchisor. Five-point Likert-type scales ranging from "strongly disagree" (=1) to "strongly agree" (=7) were used throughout the constructs (trust, eight items; support, five items; communication, four items; satisfaction, six items; conflict, three items). The reliability measurements traditionally employed, such as the Cronbach's alpha, were used. All the reliabilities were greater than.80. The proposed measurement model was estimated using SPSS 12.0 and AMOS 5.0 analysis package. We conducted A series of exploratory factor analyses and confirmatory factor analyses to assess the convergent validity, discriminant validity, and reliability. The results indicate reasonable overall fits between the model and the observed data. The overall fit of measurement model were $X^2$= 159.699, p=0.004, d.f. = 116, GFI =.879, NFI =.898, CFI =.969, IFI =.970, TLI =.959, RMR =.058. The results demonstrated that the data reasonably fitted the model. We also examined construct reliability and reliability and average variance extracted (AVE). The construct reliability of each construct was greater than.80 and the AVE of each construct was greater than.50. According to the analysis of Structure Equation Modeling (SEM), the results of path model indicated an adequate fit of the model: $X^2$= 142.126, p = 0.044, d.f. = 115, GFI =.892, NFI =.909, CFI =.981, IFI =.981, TLI =.974, RMR =.057. As hypothesized, the results showed that it is strategically important to establish trust in a franchise system, and the franchisor's supports, communication and satisfaction with previous outcome tend to reinforce franchisee's trust. The results also showed trust seems to decrease as the experience of conflict episodes increases. And we also noticed that franchisor's supports and communication tend to enhance the franchisee's satisfaction with previous outcome, and communication tend to decrease conflict. If the trust between the franchisor and franchisee can be established in a franchise system, franchising offers many benefits and reduces many costs. To manage a mutual trust of relationship with their franchisees, franchisor's should provide support effectively to their franchisees. Effective assistant services have direct effect on franchisees' satisfaction with previous outcome and trust in franchisor. Especially, franchise sales process, orientation, and training in the start-up period are key elements for success of the franchise system. Franchisor's support is an accumulated separate satisfaction evaluation with different kind of service provided by the franchisor. And providing support definitely can improve the trustworthy image of the franchisor. In the franchise system, conflicts of interests and exertions of different power sources are very common. The experience of conflict episodes seems to negatively relate to trust. Therefore, it is important to reduce the negative side of the relationship conflicts. Communication actually plays a broader role in reducing conflict and establish mutual trust in franchisor-franchisee relationship. And effective communication between franchisors and franchisees can improve franchisees' satisfaction toward the franchise system. As the diversification of Chinese markets, both franchisors and franchisees must keep the relevant, timely, and reliable communication. And it is very important to improve the quality of communication. Satisfaction with precious outcomes seems to positively relate to trust. Franchisors and franchisees that are highly satisfied with the previous outcomes that flow from their relationship will perceive their partner as advancing their goal achievement. Therefore, it is necessary for both franchisor and their franchisees to make the welfare of partner with effort. Little literature has focused on what factors affect the trust between franchisors and their franchisees in China. This study developed the hypotheses regarding the factors affecting trust in the transaction relationship. The results of data analysis supported the hypotheses strongly. There are certain limitations in this study. First, we may point out that some other factors missed in this study could be significantly important. Second, the context of this study, food service industry, limits its potential generalizability for all franchise systems. More studies in different categories of franchise system are needed to broaden its generalizability. Third, the model was tested empirically in a sample in Beijing, more empirical tests of the proposed model in other Chinese areas are needed. Finally, the analysis in this study was solely based on the perception of franchisees and the opinions of franchisors were not included.

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Effects on the Rumen Microbial Fermentation Characteristics of Lignosulfonate Treated Soybean Meal (Lignosulfonate처리 대두박의 반추위 내 미생물 발효특성에 미치는 영향)

  • Lee, Hun-Jong;Lee, Seung-Heon;Bae, Gui-Seck;Park, Je-Hwan;Chang, Moon-Baek
    • Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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    • v.52 no.5
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    • pp.413-426
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    • 2010
  • This study was conducted to investigate the effects on fermentation characteristics of rumen microorganism by different types and levels of lignosulfonate treated soybean meal (LSBM) in in vitro test and rumen simulation continuous culture (RSCC) system in dairy cows. The experiment I was control and 12 treatments (each with 3 replications) in vitro test to demonstrate composition of different types of treatments with lignosulfonate (Desulfonate, Na, Ca and solution) and levels (2, 4 and 8%) of soybean meal in the dairy cow diet. LSBM source treatments in the dairy cow diet showed pH value, $NH_3$-N concentration and total VFA concentration lower than control at all levels and incubation times (p<0.05). Dry matter digestibility of LSBM source treatments showed lower than control (p<0.05). Gas production and rumen microbial synthesis was decreased by rumen microbial fermentation for incubation times. Undegradable protein (UDP) concentration of all LSBM treatments was decreased for incubation times, and significantly higher than control (p<0.05). In the experiment II compared diets of the control, LSBM Na 2%, LSBM Sol 2%, which are high performance to undegradable protein (UDP) concentration experiment I in vitro test, and heated treatment lignosulfonate (LSBM Heat) 2% in the dairy cow diet from four station RSCC system ($4{\times}4$ Latin square). A rumen microbial fermentation characteristic was stability during 12~15 days of experimental period in all treatments. The pH value of LSBM treatments was higher than control treatment (p<0.05). The $NH_3$-N concentration, VFA concentration and rumen microbial synthesis of LSBM treatments were lower than control (p<0.05). The undegradable protein (UDP) showed LSBM Na 2% (45.28%), LSBM Sol 2% (43.52%) and LSBM Heat 2% (43.49%) higher than control (41.55%), respectively (p<0.05). Those experiments were designed to improve by-pass protein of diet and milk protein in the dairy cows. We will conduct those experiments the in vivo test by LSBM treatments in dairy cows diet.

A Survey on Physical Complaints Related with Farmers' Syndrome of Vinylhouse and Non-vinylhouse Farmers (비닐하우스 재배농민과 일반농민의 농부증 관련 신체증상 호소율 조사)

  • Lee, Ju-Young;Park, Jung-Han;Kim, Doo-Hie
    • Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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    • v.27 no.2 s.46
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    • pp.258-273
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    • 1994
  • To compare the physical complaints of vinylhouse farmers with those of non-vinylhouse farmers, a personal interviews on 250 vinylhouse and 142 non-vinylhouse farmers were conducted in Sungjoo county in Kyungpook province selected by a random sampling from July 5 to July 10, 1993. Blood pressure of the subjects was also measured. Vinylhouse farmers had a higher average age, larger family size, shorter experience of farming, more working hours per day and working days per year and higher annual income than the non-vinylhouse farmers. The frequency of pesticide spray of the vinylhouse farmers was 3.4 times on the average in June 1993 as compared with 2.0 times of non-vinylhouse farmers, and 16.7 times for the vinylhouse farmers during the last one year while it was 8.3 times for the non-vinylhouse farmers in the same period. While 39.6% of vinylhouse farmers experienced pesticide intoxication symptoms such as headache, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, itching, and skin irritation, etc. during the month of June, 25.4% of non-vinylhouse farmers experienced such symptoms. The most frequent symptoms among eight symptoms that constitute the farmers' syndrome were lumbago, numbness of hand or foot, shoulder pain and dizziness regardless of sex and type of farming. Prevalence of the farmers' syndrome in male and female among vinylhouse farmers were 22.1%, 43.4%, respectively, and the prevalence in non-vinylhouse farmers was 23.2% for male and 50.7% for female. There was no statistically significant difference in the prevalence of farmers' syndrome between vinylhouse and non-vinylhouse farmers. However, the prevalence in female was about 2 times higher than that of male. When the effects of other factors were adjusted by multiple logistic regression for farmers' syndrome, the prevalence in female was 3.0 times higher than that of male. The prevalence of farmers' syndrome was increased as the age of farmers increased in both vinylhouse and non-vinylhouse farmers, and adjusted odds ratio of farmers' syndrome increased by 3% as the age increased by 1 year. Adjusted odds ratio for Farmers' syndrome in farmers who experienced pesticide intoxication during the month of June was 3.1 times higher than that of farmers who did not have such experience. While the prevalence of hypertension in male and female non-vinylhouse farmers were 22.4%, 13.7%, respectively, the prevalence in vinylhouse farmers were 13.5% for male and 12.0% for female. However, there was no association between farmers' syndrome and hypertension. It was found in this study that the vinylhouse farmers are at a high risk of pesticide intoxication, which is associated with tile common physical complaints. To reduce such risk it is necessary to develop farming methods which do not require the pesticide or may use less pesticide, a safer method of pesticide spraying, and the protective equipments which can be worn at a high temperature and have a better protective effect. Also education of farmers for the correct methods of ventilation after pesticide spraying in the vinylhouse and wearing the protective equipments may be considered as a supportive method. Since inappropriate posture at work and intensive labor may cause farmers' syndrome, it is recommended to develop farming tools which reduce physical burden and take a rest and exercise periodically during work. It is necessary to strengthen the hypertension management program of the Kyungpook province, because the prevalence of hypertension was as high as about 15%.

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Biodiversity and Community Composition of Benthic Macroinvertebrates from Upo Wetlands in Korea (우포습지의 저서성 대형무척추동물 다양성과 군집 특성)

  • 배연재;조신일;황득휘;이황구;나국본
    • Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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    • v.18 no.1
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    • pp.75-91
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    • 2004
  • Biodiversity and seasonal community composition of benthic macroinvertebrates were studied from Upo wetlands in Gyeongsangnam-do, Korea, comprising Upo (4 sites), Mokpo (2 sites), Sajipo (1 site), Jjokjibeol (1 site), Yeobeol (1 site), and Topyeongcheon (2 sites) areas from October 2002 to August 2003. As a result, it was known that Upo wetlands retained relatively well-preserved littoral zones which may provide good habitats for benthic macroinvertebrates; however, frequent disturbances of littoral zones caused by flood were the major factor affecting on the survival and distribution of benthic macroinvertebrates in the areas. During the study period, a total of 135 species of benthic macroinvertebrates in 10 genera, 59 families, 16 orders, 7 classes, and 3 phyla were collected those of which are the highest degree of diversity of the taxa ever known in Korean wetlands: aquatic insects 103 spp. (Diptera 27 spp., Odonata 24 spp., Coleoptera 19 spp., Hemiptera 16 spp., Ephemeroptera 9 spp., Trichoptera 7 spp., and Collembola 1 sp.), Crustacea 2 spp., Mollusca 19 spp. (Gastropoda 12 spp. and Bivalvia 7 spp.), and Annelids 11 spp. (Oligocaeta 1 sp. and Hirudinea 10 spp.). Sajipo (St.G) and Jjokjibeol (St.H) areas yielded relatively larger numbers of species, 54 spp. and 53 spp., respectively, while more than 40 species occurred at most other sites. Based on quantitative sampling (0.5m${\times}$2m), aquatic insects (88.0%), particularly chironomids in Diptera (61.0%), occupied major proportion of the total individuals of benthic macroinvertebrates, while Mollusca (5.3%), Annelida (3.5%), and Crustacea (3.2%) occupied minor proportions. In standing water areas, diverse groups of benthic macroinvertebrates such as chironomids, demselflies, aquatic bugs, aquatic beetles, crustaceans, and gastropods were dominant in terms of individual number; in the running water areas, on the other hand, chironomids and baetid mayflies were dominant. However, gastropods, i.e. viviparids, were the dominant group of benthic macroinvertebrates in most study areas in terms of biomass. Dominance indices were 0.22-0.51 (mean$\pm$sd 0.42$\pm$0.09) in autumn, 0.31-0.96 (0.02$\pm$0.23) in winter, and 0.30-0.89 (0.57$\pm$0.18) in summer; diversity indices were 3.50-4.26 (3.80$\pm$0.24) in autumn,1.55-4.50 (3.10$\pm$1.01) in winter, and 1.35-3.77 (2.55$\pm$0.09) in summer. Highly movable or true aquatic benthic macroinvertebyates such as aquatic bugs, aquatic beetles, and gastropods recovered earlier after flood. In the study sites of Upo wetlands, Upo and Sajipo areas showed relatively higher values of average diversity index which may indicate a good habitat condition for benthic macroinvertebrates.

Ecological Characteristics of Leading Shoot Elongation in the Plantation (I) (조림목(造林木) 신초생장(新稍生長)의 생태학적특성(生態學的特性)에 관(關)한 연구(硏究) (I))

  • Ma, Sang Kyu;Kuk, Ung Hum
    • Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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    • v.47 no.1
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    • pp.37-43
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    • 1980
  • This study have done to get the basical information that would be useful to make the ecological planting, selection of suitable species and weeding plan by the relation between the leading shoot elongation of several species and the climatic factors in the plantation. Sampling measurement have been done in the trial forest of Korean German Forest Management Project located in Joil-ri, Samnam-myeon and Ichcon-ri, Sangbug-myeon, Ulju-gun. The former is in lowland at 100m latidude and the latter is in highland of 600 m latitude. The elongation of leading shoot has been measured in the plantation with 10 days interval from the beginning of March in 1979 and the climatic datas has gotten in the weather station closed to the plantation. 1. The change of air temperature and rainfall in each measuring site is like Fig 1. and 2. The similar temperature in 600 m high latitude is coming about 10 days latter than 100 m latitude. 2. Genus pine as Pinus thunbergii, P. rigida, P. rigitaeda. P. koraiensis and P. taeda begin their leading shoot growth during March and air temperature in that time is around $6^{\circ}C$. In highland their beginning of leading shoot elongation has been found out 10 days latter than lowland. However Abies, Larix and Picea has shown to open their leading shoot during May, 40 days late in comparing with genus pine, and then temperature is making around $15^{\circ}C$. But Cryptomeria, Chamaecyparis and Cedrus deodora has shown their leading shoot opening in March in lowland and May in high land. The reason of late opening, specially in highland, seems to be the influence of winter frost. 3. Most of leading shoot elongation of genus pine has finished during the end 10 days of April and May under range of air temperate $10^{\circ}C$ and $20^{\circ}C$ and other species has finished most of their elongation during the end 10 days of May and June with air temperature range of $18^{\circ}C$ to $20^{\circ}C$. So the suitable season of weeding works show to genus pine in May and other species in June. 4. The leading shoot growth of genus pine has started earlier and closed earlier too than other species and, when over than $20^{\circ}C$ air temperature, their growth is decreasing quickly. Pices abies as well show to be decreased suddenly in over than $20^{\circ}C$ temperature. Other species show the similar trend when over than $22^{\circ}C$. This reason is considered as high temperature of summer season. 5. Annual elongated days of leading shoot of Picea abies is 50 days, Abies hollophylla 70 days, and more than 85 percentage of shoot growth of Pinus koraiensis and Larix leptolepsis are growing during 70 dys as well. The shoot growing days of Chamaecyparis, P. rigida, P. rigitaeda, P. taeda and P. shunbergii show longer period as over than 120 days. 6. The shoot elongation times per year of Abies and Picea has closed as one times and Genus pine is continuring their elongation more than two times. But Cryptomeria, Chamaecyparis, Cedrus deodora and Larix show one or two times elongation depending on the measuring site. The reason of continuring elongation more than than two times seems to be influenced by the temperature in summer season except the genetical reason. 7. Depending on the above results, as the high temperature in summer season could give the influence to grow the leading shoot in the plantation, this would be the considering point on the ecological planting and selection of the suitable species to the slope aspect. The elongation pattern by the season show to be the considering point too to decide the the weeding and fertilizer dressing time by the species.

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The Effects of Online Service Quality on Consumer Satisfaction and Loyalty Intention -About Booking and Issuing Air Tickets on Website- (온라인 서비스 품질이 고객만족 및 충성의도에 미치는 영향 -항공권 예약.발권 웹사이트를 중심으로-)

  • Park, Jong-Gee;Ko, Do-Eun;Lee, Seung-Chang
    • Journal of Distribution Research
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    • v.15 no.3
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    • pp.71-110
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    • 2010
  • 1. Introduction Today Internet is recognized as an important way for the transaction of products and services. According to the data surveyed by the National Statistical Office, the on-line transaction in 2007 for a year, 15.7656 trillion, shows a 17.1%(2.3060 trillion won) increase over last year, of these, the amount of B2C has been increased 12.0%(10.2258 trillion won). Like this, because the entry barrier of on-line market of Korea is low, many retailers could easily enter into the market. So the bigger its scale is, but on the other hand, the tougher its competition is. Particularly due to the Internet and innovation of IT, the existing market has been changed into the perfect competitive market(Srinivasan, Rolph & Kishore, 2002). In the early years of on-line business, they think that the main reason for success is a moderate price, they are awakened to its importance of on-line service quality with tough competition. If it's not sure whether customers can be provided with what they want, they can use the Web sites, perhaps they can trust their products that had been already bought or not, they have a doubt its viability(Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Malhotra, 2005). Customers can directly reserve and issue their air tickets irrespective of place and time at the Web sites of travel agencies or airlines, but its empirical studies about these Web sites for reserving and issuing air tickets are insufficient. Therefore this study goes on for following specific objects. First object is to measure service quality and service recovery of Web sites for reserving and issuing air tickets. Second is to look into whether above on-line service quality and on-line service recovery have an impact on overall service quality. Third is to seek for the relation with overall service quality and customer satisfaction, then this customer satisfaction and loyalty intention. 2. Theoretical Background 2.1 On-line Service Quality Barnes & Vidgen(2000; 2001a; 2001b; 2002) had invented the tool to measure Web sites' quality four times(called WebQual). The WebQual 1.0, Step one invented a measuring item for information quality based on QFD, and this had been verified by students of UK business school. The Web Qual 2.0, Step two invented for interaction quality, and had been judged by customers of on-line bookshop. The WebQual 3.0, Step three invented by consolidating the WebQual 1.0 for information quality and the WebQual2.0 for interactionquality. It includes 3-quality-dimension, information quality, interaction quality, site design, and had been assessed and confirmed by auction sites(e-bay, Amazon, QXL). Furtheron, through the former empirical studies, the authors changed sites quality into usability by judging that usability is a concept how customers interact with or perceive Web sites and It is used widely for accessing Web sites. By this process, WebQual 4.0 was invented, and is consist of 3-quality-dimension; information quality, interaction quality, usability, 22 items. However, because WebQual 4.0 is focusing on technical part, it's usable at the Website's design part, on the other hand, it's not usable at the Web site's pleasant experience part. Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Malhorta(2002; 2005) had invented the measure for measuring on-line service quality in 2002 and 2005. The study in 2002 divided on-line service quality into 5 dimensions. But these were not well-organized, so there needed to be studied again totally. So Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Malhorta(2005) re-worked out the study about on-line service quality measure base on 2002's study and invented E-S-QUAL. After they invented preliminary measure for on-line service quality, they made up a question for customers who had purchased at amazon.com and walmart.com and reassessed this measure. And they perfected an invention of E-S-QUAL consists of 4 dimensions, 22 items of efficiency, system availability, fulfillment, privacy. Efficiency measures assess to sites and usability and others, system availability measures accurate technical function of sites and others, fulfillment measures promptness of delivering products and sufficient goods and others and privacy measures the degree of protection of data about their customers and so on. 2.2 Service Recovery Service industries tend to minimize the losses by coping with service failure promptly. This responses of service providers to service failure mean service recovery(Kelly & Davis, 1994). Bitner(1990) went on his study from customers' view about service providers' behavior for customers to recognize their satisfaction/dissatisfaction at service point. According to them, to manage service failure successfully, exact recognition of service problem, an apology, sufficient description about service failure and some tangible compensation are important. Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Malhorta(2005) approached the service recovery from how to measure, rather than how to manage, and moved to on-line market not to off-line, then invented E-RecS-QUAL which is a measuring tool about on-line service recovery. 2.3 Customer Satisfaction The definition of customer satisfaction can be divided into two points of view. First, they approached customer satisfaction from outcome of comsumer. Howard & Sheth(1969) defined satisfaction as 'a cognitive condition feeling being rewarded properly or improperly for their sacrifice.' and Westbrook & Reilly(1983) also defined customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction as 'a psychological reaction to the behavior pattern of shopping and purchasing, the display condition of retail store, outcome of purchased goods and service as well as whole market.' Second, they approached customer satisfaction from process. Engel & Blackwell(1982) defined satisfaction as 'an assessment of a consistency in chosen alternative proposal and their belief they had with them.' Tse & Wilton(1988) defined customer satisfaction as 'a customers' reaction to discordance between advance expectation and ex post facto outcome.' That is, this point of view that customer satisfaction is process is the important factor that comparing and assessing process what they expect and outcome of consumer. Unlike outcome-oriented approach, process-oriented approach has many advantages. As process-oriented approach deals with customers' whole expenditure experience, it checks up main process by measuring one by one each factor which is essential role at each step. And this approach enables us to check perceptual/psychological process formed customer satisfaction. Because of these advantages, now many studies are adopting this process-oriented approach(Yi, 1995). 2.4 Loyalty Intention Loyalty has been studied by dividing into behavioral approaches, attitudinal approaches and complex approaches(Dekimpe et al., 1997). In the early years of study, they defined loyalty focusing on behavioral concept, behavioral approaches regard customer loyalty as "a tendency to purchase periodically within a certain period of time at specific retail store." But the loyalty of behavioral approaches focuses on only outcome of customer behavior, so there are someone to point the limits that customers' decision-making situation or process were neglected(Enis & Paul, 1970; Raj, 1982; Lee, 2002). So the attitudinal approaches were suggested. The attitudinal approaches consider loyalty contains all the cognitive, emotional, voluntary factors(Oliver, 1997), define the customer loyalty as "friendly behaviors for specific retail stores." However these attitudinal approaches can explain that how the customer loyalty form and change, but cannot say positively whether it is moved to real purchasing in the future or not. This is a kind of shortcoming(Oh, 1995). 3. Research Design 3.1 Research Model Based on the objects of this study, the research model derived is

    . 3.2 Hypotheses 3.2.1 The Hypothesis of On-line Service Quality and Overall Service Quality The relation between on-line service quality and overall service quality I-1. Efficiency of on-line service quality may have a significant effect on overall service quality. I-2. System availability of on-line service quality may have a significant effect on overall service quality. I-3. Fulfillment of on-line service quality may have a significant effect on overall service quality. I-4. Privacy of on-line service quality may have a significant effect on overall service quality. 3.2.2 The Hypothesis of On-line Service Recovery and Overall Service Quality The relation between on-line service recovery and overall service quality II-1. Responsiveness of on-line service recovery may have a significant effect on overall service quality. II-2. Compensation of on-line service recovery may have a significant effect on overall service quality. II-3. Contact of on-line service recovery may have a significant effect on overall service quality. 3.2.3 The Hypothesis of Overall Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction The relation between overall service quality and customer satisfaction III-1. Overall service quality may have a significant effect on customer satisfaction. 3.2.4 The Hypothesis of Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty Intention The relation between customer satisfaction and loyalty intention IV-1. Customer satisfaction may have a significant effect on loyalty intention. 3.2.5 The Hypothesis of a Mediation Variable Wolfinbarger & Gilly(2003) and Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Malhotra(2005) had made clear that each dimension of service quality has a significant effect on overall service quality. Add to this, the authors analyzed empirically that each dimension of on-line service quality has a positive effect on customer satisfaction. With that viewpoint, this study would examine if overall service quality mediates between on-line service quality and each dimension of customer satisfaction, keeping on looking into the relation between on-line service quality and overall service quality, overall service quality and customer satisfaction. And as this study understands that each dimension of on-line service recovery also has an effect on overall service quality, this would examine if overall service quality also mediates between on-line service recovery and each dimension of customer satisfaction. Therefore these hypotheses followed are set up to examine if overall service quality plays its role as the mediation variable. The relation between on-line service quality and customer satisfaction V-1. Overall service quality may mediate the effects of efficiency of on-line service quality on customer satisfaction. V-2. Overall service quality may mediate the effects of system availability of on-line service quality on customer satisfaction. V-3. Overall service quality may mediate the effects of fulfillment of on-line service quality on customer satisfaction. V-4. Overall service quality may mediate the effects of privacy of on-line service quality on customer satisfaction. The relation between on-line service recovery and customer satisfaction VI-1. Overall service quality may mediate the effects of responsiveness of on-line service recovery on customer satisfaction. VI-2. Overall service quality may mediate the effects of compensation of on-line service recovery on customer satisfaction. VI-3. Overall service quality may mediate the effects of contact of on-line service recovery on customer satisfaction. 4. Empirical Analysis 4.1 Research design and the characters of data This empirical study aimed at customers who ever purchased air ticket at the Web sites for reservation and issue. Total 430 questionnaires were distributed, and 400 were collected. After surveying with the final questionnaire, the frequency test was performed about variables of sex, age which is demographic factors for analyzing general characters of sample data. Sex of data is consist of 146 of male(42.7%) and 196 of female(57.3%), so portion of female is a little higher. Age is composed of 11 of 10s(3.2%), 199 of 20s(58.2%), 105 of 30s(30.7%), 22 of 40s(6.4%), 5 of 50s(1.5%). The reason that portions of 20s and 30s are higher can be supposed that they use the Internet frequently and purchase air ticket directly. 4.2 Assessment of measuring scales This study used the internal consistency analysis to measure reliability, and then used the Cronbach'$\alpha$ to assess this. As a result of reliability test, Cronbach'$\alpha$ value of every component shows more than 0.6, it is found that reliance of the measured variables are ensured. After reliability test, the explorative factor analysis was performed. the factor sampling was performed by the Principal Component Analysis(PCA), the factor rotation was performed by the Varimax which is good for verifying mutual independence between factors. By the result of the initial factor analysis, items blocking construct validity were removed, and the result of the final factor analysis performed for verifying construct validity is followed above. 4.3 Hypothesis Testing 4.3.1 Hypothesis Testing by the Regression Analysis(SPSS) 4.3.2 Analysis of Mediation Effect To verify mediation effect of overall service quality of and , this study used the phased analysis method proposed by Baron & Kenny(1986) generally used. As shows, Step 1 and Step 2 are significant, and mediation variable has a significant effect on dependent variables and so does independent variables at Step 3, too. And there needs to prove the partial mediation effect, independent variable's estimate ability at Step 3(Standardized coefficient $\beta$eta : efficiency=.164, system availability=.074, fulfillment=.108, privacy=.107) is smaller than its estimate ability at Step 2(Standardized coefficient $\beta$eta : efficiency=.409, system availability=.227, fulfillment=.386, privacy=.237), so it was proved that overall service quality played a role as the partial mediation between on-line service quality and satisfaction. As
    shows, Step 1 and Step 2 are significant, and mediation variable has a significant effect on dependent variables and so does independent variables at Step 3, too. And there needs to prove the partial mediation effect, independent variable's estimate ability at Step 3(Standardized coefficient $\beta$eta : responsiveness=.164, compensation=.117, contact=.113) is smaller than its estimate ability at Step 2(Standardized coefficient $\beta$eta : responsiveness=.409, compensation=.386, contact=.237), so it was proved that overall service quality played a role as the partial mediation between on-line service recovery and satisfaction. Verified results on the basis of empirical analysis are followed. First, as the result of , it shows that all were chosen, so on-line service quality has a positive effect on overall service quality. Especially fulfillment of overall service quality has the most effect, and then efficiency, system availability, privacy in order. Second, as the result of , it shows that all were chosen, so on-line service recovery has a positive effect on overall service quality. Especially responsiveness of overall service quality has the most effect, and then contact, compensation in order. Third, as the result of and , it shows that and all were chosen, so overall service quality has a positive effect on customer satisfaction, customer satisfaction has a positive effect on loyalty intention. Fourth, as the result of and , it shows that and all were chosen, so overall service quality plays a role as the partial mediation between on-line service quality and customer satisfaction, on-line service recovery and customer satisfaction. 5. Conclusion This study measured and analyzed service quality and service recovery of the Web sites that customers made a reservation and issued their air tickets, and by improving customer satisfaction through the result, this study put its final goal to grope how to keep loyalty customers. On the basis of the result of empirical analysis, suggestion points of this study are followed. First, this study regarded E-S-QUAL that measures on-line service quality and E-RecS-QUAL that measures on-line service recovery as variables, so it overcame the limit of existing studies that used modified SERVQUAL to measure service quality of the Web sites. Second, it shows that fulfillment and efficiency of on-line service quality have the most significant effect on overall service quality. Therefore the Web sites of reserving and issuing air tickets should try harder to elevate efficiency and fulfillment. Third, privacy of on-line service quality has the least significant effect on overall service quality, but this may be caused by un-assurance of customers whether the Web sites protect safely their confidential information or not. So they need to notify customers of this fact clearly. Fourth, there are many cases that customers don't recognize the importance of on-line service recovery, but if they would think that On-line service recovery has an effect on customer satisfaction and loyalty intention, as its importance is very significant they should prepare for that. Fifth, because overall service quality has a positive effect on customer satisfaction and loyalty intention, they should try harder to elevate service quality and service recovery of the Web sites of reserving and issuing air tickets to maximize customer satisfaction and to secure loyalty customers. Sixth, it is found that overall service quality plays a role as the partial mediation, but now there are rarely existing studies about this, so there need to be more studies about this.

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