• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.6
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• pp.152-171
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• 2002

This study analyses the avatar service, which is recognized as an alternative strategy of animation industry. The research questions of this study are following: (1) How have the avatar services been developed and what are the present dominant types? (2) Which structural characteristics of e-business environment are needed for the success of avatar services? (3) What is the economic characteristics of avatar business model? To solve these research questions, the basic conditions and the structural characteristics of avatar services have been investigated. In the first place, two forms of avatar service are classified. One is the internet service site whole primary service is to provide chatting service based on avatar service. The other is the portal site in which many kinds of products and services are presented as bundles to meet the needs of internet users. So avatar service is one of bundles which those portal sites are providing with. In this study, the big five internet service sites are selected based on the profits they earned through the sales of avatar service. The result of analysis is that the pricing strategy of those big five sites is very different from those of traditional off-line markets. The pricing mechanism are based on the value which internet users endow with the avatar items, not based on the costs of making the products. Avatar is the representative informative goods. The informative goods have the original cost structures, constant fixed costs and zero marginal costs, so the providers of avatar services make much of the subjective values of consumers. The sayclub, which is the most successful avatar service site and earn the average sales of 3 billing won a month, takes the aggressive strategy of pricing avatar items at highest price in the industry. The avatar service providers which make lots of profits are planning of making differentiate the services, introducing well-known brand items and star-named items. Nevertheless, the fact that the members of the sayclub are not decreasing means that the network effect of the site is so strongly manifest. Moreover, the costs the members have paid for the avatar items are so big not as to switch from one site to the other site, it can be very costly. These switching costs are endemic in high-technology industries and digital contents industries. It can be so large that switching suppliers is virtually unthinkable, a situation known as 'lock-in'. When switching costs are substantial, competition can be intense to attract new customers, since, one they are locked in, they can be a substantial source of profit. The consumers of avatar items have switching costs if they subscribe for the new avatar service site. The switching costs can be subscription costs as well as the costs of giving up the items they already paid for. One common example of switching costs involves specialized supplies, as with inkjet printer cartridges. In this example, the switching cost is the purchase of a new printer. The market is competitive ex ante, but since cartridges are incompatible, it is monopolized dx post. So the providers of printer/cartridges set pricing printer so cheap and cartridges expensive. On the contrary, since the avatar service can be successful with the strong network effect, the providers of avatar services have to compete aggressively for new customers. So they allow the subscription at a low price(almost marginal cost) in the early market. The network effect can be maximized when the members are sufficiently growing. The providers which have the monopoly power with sufficient subscribers. begin to raise the prices over the lifetime of the product and make profits.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.147-165
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• 2009

Virtual community(VC) will increasingly be organized as commercial enterprises, with the objective of earning an attractive financial return by providing members with valuable resources and environment. For example, Cyworld.com in Korea uses several community services to enable customers of Cyworld to take control of their own value as potential purchasers of products and services. Although initial adoption is important for online network service success, it does not necessarily result in the desired managerial performance unless the initial usage is continuously related to the continuous usage and purchase. Particularly, the customer who receives relevant online services and is well equipped with online network services, will trust the online service provider and perceive less risk and experience more activities such as continuous usage and purchase. Thus, how to promote continued online service usage or, alternatively, how to prevent discontinuance is a critical issue for VC service providers to consider. By aggregating a wide range of information and online environments for customers and providing trust to its members, the service providers of virtual communities help to reduce the perceived risk of continuous usage and purchase. Drill down, online service managers realize that achieving strong and sustained customers who continuously use online service and purchase on it is crucial. Therefore, the research into this online service continuance will identify the relationship between the initial usage and the continuous usage and purchase. The research of continuous usage or post adoption has recently emerged as an important issue in the IS literature. Individuals' information systems(IS) continuous usage decisions are congruent with consumers' repeat purchase decisions. The TAM(Technology Acceptance Model) paradigm has been strongly confirmed across a wide range from product purchase on EC to online service usage contexts. The analysis of IS usage based on TAM has proven to be successful across almost online service contexts. However, most of previous studies have focused on only an area (i.e., VC or EC). Just little research has tried to analyze the relationship between VC and EC. The effect of some factors on user intention, captured through several theories such as TAM, has been demonstrated. Yet, few studies have explored the salient relationships of VC users' EC acceptance. To fill this gap between VC and EC research, this paper attempts to develop a research model that extends the TAM perspective in view of the additional contributions of trust in the service provider and trust in members on some factors that affect EC and VC adoption. In this extension, we applied the TAM-to-TAM(T2T) model, and analyzed the transfer effect of trust between these two TAMs. The research model was empirically tested on the context of a social network service. The model was to extend TAM with the trust concept for the virtual community environment from the perspective of tasks. By building an extended model of TAM and examining the relationships between trust and the existing variables of TAM, it is aimed to explain a user's continuous intention to use VC and purchase on EC. The unit of analysis in this paper is an individual user of a virtual community. The population of interest is the individual with the experiences in virtual community. The data for this paper was made available via a Web survey of VC users. In total, 281 cases were gathered for about one week, but there were some missing values in the sample and there were some inappropriate cases. Thus, only 248 cases were finally analyzed. We chose the structural equation analysis to test the hypotheses and it is better suited for explaining complex relationships than the other methods. In this test, AMOS was used to test the Structural Equation Model (SEM). Noticeable results have been found in the T2T model regarding the factors affecting the intention to use of virtual community and loyalty. Our result showed that trust transfer plays a key role in forming the two adoption beliefs. Overall, this study preliminarily confirms the salience of trust transfer in online service.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.201-223
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to verify empirically the causal relationship between service quality, ease of use, customer satisfaction, and repurchase intention of mobile shopping mall. And this study is to investigate the ease of use and customer satisfaction mediating effect of between service quality and repurchase intention. Therefore, 323 university students in Jeonnam area were surveyed and the structural equation model was derived based on previous research. Service quality of mobile shopping mall make a significant effect on using easiness, purchasing satisfaction and repurchase intention. However, among service quality of mobile shopping mall, service scape like mobile interface and site design made a positive effect on purchasing satisfaction, but did not any effect on repurchase intention. In other words, service quality factors that make positive effects on customer's pleasant using and repurchase intention make a positive effect on repurchase intention when providing and using the service customer wants faithfully rather than external part of the site and mutually influencing attitude or behavior well. The implications suggested by this study are as follows. First, service quality of mobile shopping mall makes a significant effect on repurchase intention, so it's necessary to improve CS service system so as to treat customers' inquiries or inconveniences actively during mobile shopping and return and refund of defective products quickly and conveniently. And, in addition to the finally used factors in analysis process, benefits using customers' grade by number of purchases, such as various events, coupons, reserve, etc. and active contents marketing strategies providing more various pleasures and values of shopping are necessary. Second, satisfaction of mobile shopping mall makes a positive effect on repurchase intention, so visiting of site and repurchasing of product are continuously done as customers' satisfaction on shopping mall is increasing. Therefore, shopping mall site requires differentiation of contents, exact plan and practice of service, marketing, etc. so that customers can feel more satisfaction. This study is significant as it systematically analyzed concepts of components that service quality of mobile shopping mall makes an effect on using easiness, purchasing satisfaction, and repurchase intention, verified the relations, systematized it by theoretical structure, and widened the understanding of effects making an effect on repurchase intention.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.188-198
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• 2010

This study attempts to examine the influence that negative WOM (NWOM) has in an online context. It specifically focuses on the impact of the service failure description and the perceived intention of the communication provider on consumer evaluations of firm competence, attitude toward the firm, positive word of mouth and behavioral intentions. Studies of communication persuasiveness focus on "who says what; to whom; in which channel; with what effect (Chiu 2007)." In this research study, we examine electronic web posting, particularly focusing on two aspects of "what": the level of service failure communicated and perceived intention of the individual posting. It stands to reason electronic NWOM that appears to be trying to damage a product’s or firm's reputation will be viewed as more biased and will thus be considered as less credible. According to attribution theory, people search for the causes of events especially those that are negative and unexpected (Weiner 2006). Hennig-Thurau and Walsh (2003) state "since the reader has only limited knowledge and trust of the author of an online articulation the quality of the contribution could be expected to serve as a potent moderator of the articulation-behavior relationship. We therefore posit the following hypotheses: H1. Subjects exposed to electronic NWOM describing a high level of service failure will provide lower scores on measures of (a) firm competence, (b) attitude toward the firm, (c) positive word of mouth, and (d) behavioral intention than will subjects exposed to electronic NWOM describing a low level of service failure. H2. Subjects exposed to electronic NWOM with a warning intent will provide lower scores on measures of (a) firm competence, (b) attitude toward the firm, (c) positive word of mouth, and (d) behavioral intention than will subjects exposed to electronic NWOM with a vengeful intent. H3. Level of service failure in electronic NWOM will interact with the perceived intention of the electronic NWOM, such that there will be a decrease in mean response on measures of (a) firm competence, (b) attitude toward the firm, (c) positive word of mouth, and (d) behavioral intention from electronic NWOM with a warning intent to a vengeful intent. The main study involved a2 (service failure severity) x2 (NWOM with warning versus vengeful intent) factorial experiment. Stimuli were presented to subjects online using a mock online web posting. The scenario described a service failure associated with non-acceptance of a gift card in a brick-and-mortar retail establishment. A national sample was recruited through an online research firm. A total of 113 subjects participated in the study. A total of 104 surveys were analyzed. The scenario was perceived to be realistic with 92.3% giving the scenario a greater than average response. Manipulations were satisfactory. Measures were pre-tested and validated. Items were analyzed and found reliable and valid. MANOVA results found the multivariate interaction was not significant, allowing our interpretation to proceed to the main effects. Significant main effects were found for post intent and service failure severity. The post intent main effect was attributable to attitude toward the firm, positive word of mouth and behavioral intention. The service failure severity main effect was attributable to all four dependent variables: firm competence, attitude toward the firm, positive word of mouth and behavioral intention. Specifically, firm competence for electronic NWOM describing high severity of service failure was lower than electronic NWOM describing low severity of service failure. Attitude toward the firm for electronic NWOM describing high severity of service failure was lower than electronic NWOM describing low severity of service failure. Positive word of mouth for electronic NWOM describing high severity of service failure was lower than electronic NWOM describing low severity of service failure. Behavioral intention for electronic NWOM describing high severity of service failure was lower for electronic NWOM describing low severity of service failure. Therefore, H1a, H1b, H1c and H1d were all supported. In addition, attitude toward the firm for electronic NWOM with a warning intent was lower than electronic NWOM with a vengeful intent. Positive word of mouth for electronic NWOM with a warning intent was lower than electronic NWOM with a vengeful intent. Behavioral intention for electronic NWOM with a warning intent was lower than electronic NWOM with a vengeful intent. Thus, H2b, H2c and H2d were supported. However, H2a was not supported though results were in the hypothesized direction. Otherwise, there was no significant multivariate service failure severity by post intent interaction, nor was there a significant univariate service failure severity by post intent interaction for any of the three hypothesized variables. Thus, H3 was not supported for any of the four hypothesized variables. This study has research and managerial implications. The findings of this study support prior research that service failure severity impacts consumer perceptions, attitude, positive word of mouth and behavioral intentions (Weun et al. 2004). Of further relevance, this response is evidenced in the online context, suggesting the need for firms to engage in serious focused service recovery efforts. With respect to perceived intention of electronic NWOM, the findings support prior research suggesting reader's attributions of the intentions of a source influence the strength of its impact on perceptions, attitude, positive word of mouth and behavioral intentions. The implication for managers suggests while consumers do find online communications to be credible and influential, not all communications are weighted the same. A benefit of electronic WOM, even when it may be potentially damaging, is it can be monitored for potential problems and additionally offers the possibility of redress.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.61-118
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• 2008

The purpose of this research is to construct research framework for international franchising based on existing literature and to identify research components in the framework. Franchise can be defined as management styles that allow franchisee use various management assets of franchisor in order to make or sell product or service. It can be divided into product distribution franchise that is designed to sell products and business format franchise that is designed for running it as business whatever its form is. International franchising can be defined as a way of internationalization of franchisor to foreign country by providing its business format or package to franchisee of host country. International franchising is growing fast for last four decades but academic research on this is quite limited. Especially in Korea, research about international franchising is carried out on by case study format with single case or empirical study format with survey based on domestic franchise theory. Therefore, this paper tries to review existing literature on international franchising research, providing research framework, and then stimulating new research on this field. International franchising research components include motives and environmental factors for decision of expanding to international franchising, entrance modes and development plan for international franchising, contracts and management strategy of international franchising, and various performance measures from different perspectives. First, motives of international franchising are fee collection from franchisee. Also it provides easier way to expanding to foreign country. The other motives including increase total sales volume, occupying better strategic position, getting quality resources, and improving efficiency. Environmental factors that facilitating international franchising encompasses economic condition, trend, and legal or political factors in host and/or home countries. In addition, control power and risk management capability of franchisor plays critical role in successful franchising contract. Final decision to enter foreign country via franchising is determined by numerous factors like history, size, growth, competitiveness, management system, bonding capability, industry characteristics of franchisor. After deciding to enter into foreign country, franchisor needs to set entrance modes of international franchising. Within contractual mode, there are master franchising and area developing franchising, licensing, direct franchising, and joint venture. Theories about entrance mode selection contain concepts of efficiency, knowledge-based approach, competence-based approach, agent theory, and governance cost. The next step after entrance decision is operation strategy. Operation strategy starts with selecting a target city and a target country for franchising. In order to finding, screening targets, franchisor needs to collect information about candidates. Critical information includes brand patent, commercial laws, regulations, market conditions, country risk, and industry analysis. After selecting a target city in target country, franchisor needs to select franchisee, in other word, partner. The first important criteria for selecting partners are financial credibility and capability, possession of real estate. And cultural similarity and knowledge about franchisor and/or home country are also recognized as critical criteria. The most important element in operating strategy is legal document between franchisor and franchisee with home and host countries. Terms and conditions in legal documents give objective information about characteristics of franchising agreement for academic research. Legal documents have definitions of terminology, territory and exclusivity, agreement of term, initial fee, continuing fees, clearing currency, and rights about sub-franchising. Also, legal documents could have terms about softer elements like training program and operation manual. And harder elements like law competent court and terms of expiration. Next element in operating strategy is about product and service. Especially for business format franchising, product/service deliverable, benefit communicators, system identifiers (architectural features), and format facilitators are listed for product/service strategic elements. Another important decision on product/service is standardization vs. customization. The rationale behind standardization is cost reduction, efficiency, consistency, image congruence, brand awareness, and competitiveness on price. Also standardization enables large scale R&D and innovative change in management style. Another element in operating strategy is control management. The simple way to control franchise contract is relying on legal terms, contractual control system. There are other control systems, administrative control system and ethical control system. Contractual control system is a coercive source of power, but franchisor usually doesn't want to use legal power since it doesn't help to build up positive relationship. Instead, self-regulation is widely used. Administrative control system uses control mechanism from ordinary work relationship. Its main component is supporting activities to franchisee and communication method. For example, franchisor provides advertising, training, manual, and delivery, then franchisee follows franchisor's direction. Another component is building franchisor's brand power. The last research element is performance factor of international franchising. Performance elements can be divided into franchisor's performance and franchisee's performance. The conceptual performance measures of franchisor are simple but not easy to obtain objectively. They are profit, sale, cost, experience, and brand power. The performance measures of franchisee are mostly about benefits of host country. They contain small business development, promotion of employment, introduction of new business model, and level up technology status. There are indirect benefits, like increase of tax, refinement of corporate citizenship, regional economic clustering, and improvement of international balance. In addition to those, host country gets socio-cultural change other than economic effects. It includes demographic change, social trend, customer value change, social communication, and social globalization. Sometimes it is called as westernization or McDonaldization of society. In addition, the paper reviews on theories that have been frequently applied to international franchising research, such as agent theory, resource-based view, transaction cost theory, organizational learning theory, and international expansion theories. Resource based theory is used in strategic decision based on resources, like decision about entrance and cooperation depending on resources of franchisee and franchisor. Transaction cost theory can be applied in determination of mutual trust or satisfaction of franchising players. Agent theory tries to explain strategic decision for reducing problem caused by utilizing agent, for example research on control system in franchising agreements. Organizational Learning theory is relatively new in franchising research. It assumes organization tries to maximize performance and learning of organization. In addition, Internalization theory advocates strategic decision of direct investment for removing inefficiency of market transaction and is applied in research on terms of contract. And oligopolistic competition theory is used to explain various entry modes for international expansion. Competency theory support strategic decision of utilizing key competitive advantage. Furthermore, research methodologies including qualitative and quantitative methodologies are suggested for more rigorous international franchising research. Quantitative research needs more real data other than survey data which is usually respondent's judgment. In order to verify theory more rigorously, research based on real data is essential. However, real quantitative data is quite hard to get. The qualitative research other than single case study is also highly recommended. Since international franchising has limited number of applications, scientific research based on grounded theory and ethnography study can be used. Scientific case study is differentiated with single case study on its data collection method and analysis method. The key concept is triangulation in measurement, logical coding and comparison. Finally, it provides overall research direction for international franchising after summarizing research trend in Korea. International franchising research in Korea has two different types, one is for studying Korean franchisor going overseas and the other is for Korean franchisee of foreign franchisor. Among research on Korean franchisor, two common patterns are observed. First of all, they usually deal with success story of one franchisor. The other common pattern is that they focus on same industry and country. Therefore, international franchise research needs to extend their focus to broader subjects with scientific research methodology as well as development of new theory.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.163-173
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• 2014

Since the 1990s, the brand has established itself as an important factor to consumers. Consumers is affected by not only the product's physical properties and functions but also the sensitivity associated with the consumption or the product itself. Thus, Many studies has been very active because of the increased interest to the brand that is recognized as one of the intangible assets that create value for the company. The purpose of this paper is to provide the result of methodical analysis about the relationship among leading variables that affect on brand loyalty. Concretely, by methodically defining the relationship among perceived brand quality, customer satisfaction and brand trust, that is leading variable which affect on brand loyalty, focused on frequently used oil companies, this paper would suggest scientific and practical implications through draw a conclusion that this relationship contributes on brand loyalty. The results of empirical test are as follows. Customer perceived brand quality based on fuel quality, positively influence on customer satisfaction and brand trust. Then, customer satisfaction and brand trust positively influence on brand loyalty. According to the results of this study in the oil market, customer cannot distinguish fuel product quality itself among oil companies. Therefore it is strongly suggested that oil companies build and maintain brand loyalty on the basis of perceived brand quality, customer satisfaction and brand trust.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.99-124
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• 2006

The purposes of the study are two-folds. First, it analyzes how factors other than price(e.g. delivery service, saving point policies, free gifts) impact total price for various products and different types of stores. Second, it analyzes how to increase market efficiencies through price level, price differences, and the frequency of price changes for different shops, various products and different types of transactions. By analyzing the price level within different types of stores, there found that prices at on-line store were lower than off-line shops. It also found price differences between pure on-line, hybrid, and off-line store. Comparing prices by product size, there found that pure on-line shops have a lower price compared to others. The results showed that on-line store had lower price variation compared to off-line shops. When comparing pure on-line store to hybrid store, hybrid store had lower price variation. In terms of the frequency of price changes, hybrid stores had higher price fluctuations. In terms of total price differences for delivery distances, pure on-line store had great price fluctuation, excluding cosmetic goods. In conclusion, if we consider price level and price fluctuations, on-line store had more efficiencies and was superior in terms of price effectiveness. Hybrid shops, on the other hand, had greater advantages for seasonal goods and dominant products. Therefore, market entry strategies should differ based on order quantity, type of store(pure on-line, hybrid, off-line), product characteristics(seasonality, product life), etc.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.10 no.10
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• pp.35-43
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• 2012

Purpose - The current analysis has been done in order to verify the difference between consumer attitudes on the distributor's PB products in terms of practical shopping value and attitudes about the product according to its perceived quality. Research design, data, and methodology - The target respondents of this study were those who have bought PB products at large-scale discount stores within the past six months. We asked homemakers, office workers, and students who live in Seoul or Daejon to respond to a questionnaire by filling out self-evaluations, and collected the completed questionnaires. To test the hypothesis, a t-test was carried out by group for 25 percent of the high and low rankings, including a quarter of the total respondents, to verify attitudes toward products and brands, purchase satisfaction, and re-purchase intention according to the practical shopping value and recognized quality of PB products. A variance analysis was conducted to see if there were differences among groups in terms of practical shopping value and perceived quality. Scheffe's back testing was used to identify differences between groups. Results - The result of the investigation of consumer attitudes according to practical shopping value is as follows. First, it was verified that consumer attitudes about PB products increase as practical shopping value increases. Second, there was no significant. Third, it was verified that repurchase intentions for PB products get higher as the practical shopping value of the consumer increases. The following is the result of the investigation of consumer attitudes according to the perceived quality of PB products. First, it was verified that the product attitude improves as the perceived quality of PB products increases. Second, the research confirmed that the brand attitude improves as the perceived quality of PB products increases. Third, consumer satisfaction is higher when the perceived quality of PB products is high. Fourth, this study verified that repurchase intentions for PB products are higher as the perceived quality of the product increases. Finally, the results of identifying differences between groups for perceived quality and shopping value are as follows. It was identified that there were differences in shopping value according to the characteristics of the groups. However, perceived quality does not change according to the characteristics of groups. Conclusions - These results have practical implications for the marketing strategy of PB products in order to satisfy consumer demands and provide a differentiated service by the distributor. In addition, it is suggested that a communication strategy may be necessary to increase brand loyalty and ensure the continual growth and value creation of PB products as symbolic products for distributors.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.382-388
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• 2010

This study was aimed to examine the quality characteristics of the bread with the muffin added with the by-product of fermented ethanol from wheat rye that has high $\beta$-glucan contents. In the muffin added with TEFB (Triticale Ethanol Fermentation By-product), the height of the muffin decreased as the additive contents increased. There was no significant difference among the volumes of the muffins added with TEFB 0%, 5%, 10% and 15%. In the muffin added with TEFB, the height of the muffin decreased as the additive contents increased. In the moisture measurement of TEFB muffin, the moisture contents increased as the TEFB additive contents increased. Using SEM, showed that as TEFB additive contents increased, gluten contents was relatively lowered, which led to the reduced gas retention power and generation of rough tissues. In chromaticity, as the TEFB additive contents increased, the brightness decreased and the redness and yellowness decreased as well. The result of texture measurement showed that as the TEFB additive contents increased, hardness increased. springiness decreased gradually as the TEFB additive contents increased. There was no significant difference in cohesiveness (p<0.005). Although there as signigicant difference between the control group and the additive group in gumminess (p<0.005), there was no significant difference for a certain amount of additive contents (p<0.05). While there was significant difference in chewiness between the control group and the additive group (p<0.05). there was no significant difference for a certain amount of additive contents (p<0.05). The result of taste test of TEFB added muffin showed that the preference for the muffins added with 5% or more TEFB decreased. This study found that more than 5% of TEFB additives to muffin decreases the preference level.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartD
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• v.13D no.3 s.106
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• pp.383-390
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• 2006

Product-line engineering is a dreaming goal in software engineering research. Unfortunately, the current underlying technologies do not seem to be still not much matured enough to make it viable in the industry. Based on our experiences in working on mobile telephony systems over 3 years, now we are in the course of developing an approach to product-line engineering for mobile telephony system software. In this paper, the experiences are shared together with our research motivation and idea. Consequently, we propose an approach to building and maintaining telephony application logics from the perspective of scenes. As a Domain-Specific Language(DSL), Menu Navigation Viewpoint(MNV) DSL is designed to deal with the problem domain of telephony applications. The functional requirements on how a set of telephony application logics are configured can be so various depending on manufacturer, product concept, service carrier, and so on. However, there is a commonality that all of the currently used telephony application logics can be generally described from the point of user's view, with a set of functional features that can be combinatorially synthesized from typical telephony services(i.e. voice/video telephony, CBS/SMS/MMS, address book, data connection, camera/multimedia, web browsing, etc.), and their possible connectivity. MNV DSL description acts as a backbone software architecture based on which the other types of telephony application logics are placed and aligned to work together globally.