• Title/Summary/Keyword: Service Quality Uncertainty

Search Result 54, Processing Time 0.028 seconds

Improvement and Application of Total Maximum Daily Load Management System of Korea: 2. Determination of Margin of Safety and Allocation of Pollutant Loads (우리나라 오염총량관리제도의 적용 및 개선: 2. 안전율 산정 및 삭감부하량 할당)

  • Kim, Kyung-Tae;Chung, Eun-Sung;Kim, Sang-Ug;Lee, Kil Seong
    • Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
    • /
    • v.26 no.1
    • /
    • pp.168-176
    • /
    • 2010
  • This study proposes the improvement of the present Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) management system of MOE (Ministry of Environment). The margin of safety (MOS) is calculated by a method using standard error and a method using variability and uncertainty. The allocation of pollutant loads are calculated using three methods, equal load reduction method, equal percent removal method and method using equity standards. This study applied the improved TMDL management system to the Anyangcheon watershed. Since MOS varies from 12% to 44% due to the high variability of measured and simulated data, it must not be ignored in the TMDL. The method using equity standards is the most proper in this application since the others produced unrealistic allocations. Area, runoff, water use quantity, population and budget are considered for equity standards. This study shows that this allocation method can be also applicable for the administrative units as well as the sub-watersheds. Finally, Hydrologic Simulation Program-FORTRAN (HSPF) with the allocated pollutant load was used to confirm whether it satisfy the water quality standard or not. This study will be helpful to improve the MOS and allocation system TMDL in the future.

A Study on the Construction of IoT based System for District Heating Customer-side Energy Efficiency Management (지역난방 수용가측 효율관리를 위한 IoT 기반 시스템 구축에 관한 연구)

  • Yun, Jungmee;Lee, Sanghak;Ahn, Changkoo;Eom, Jaesik
    • Journal of Energy Engineering
    • /
    • v.26 no.3
    • /
    • pp.113-122
    • /
    • 2017
  • The district heating system, which is the main axis of Korea's collective energy business, contributes to the national benefit and safety with the economical heat energy supply system.However, due to the uncertainty of management subjects and the shortage of professional technical personnel, there are many problems such as deterioration of thermal efficiency and unfairness of the price of the apartment houses. In this paper, we propose the monitoring points necessary for the efficiency and fault management of the district heating customer-side. And we propose a standard reference model to standardize it. We propose a technical methodology to improve the service quality and energy efficiency of the district heating facilities by applying IoT sensor technology, real-time monitoring and integrated management system.

Consideration factors in implementing blockchain technology-based DID platform using ANP methodology - From a two-sided market perspective - (ANP 방법론을 이용한 블록체인 기술 기반 DID 플랫폼 구현 시 고려요소 - 양면시장 관점에서-)

  • Choi, Seungho;Youn, Daemyung
    • Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
    • /
    • v.27 no.4
    • /
    • pp.127-136
    • /
    • 2022
  • As technological development continues, platforms with more diverse structures are emerging. Existing research predicts that a new structure based on technology and innovation will affect the two-sided market. This study evaluated the decentralized identifier (DID) platform, a new platform based on blockchain technology, of the importance of this platform from the perspective of the two-sided market. Using the Analytic Network Process, IT, platform, and blockchain experts conducted a dual comparison survey. Data with a consistency ratio value of 0.1 or less were selected and analyzed for 12 data. The research results showed the importance of service quality, policy support, openness, and uncertainty. This study is expected to be used to support the development of strategic decision-making for blockchain and DID platform-based business companies.

The Fuzzy QFD Approach to Importance the Public Sector Information Performance Measurement Category (퍼지 QFD를 활용한 공공부문 정보화 성과 측정범주 중요도 도출)

  • Oh, Jin-Seok;Song, Young-Il
    • Information Systems Review
    • /
    • v.12 no.2
    • /
    • pp.189-203
    • /
    • 2010
  • Is presenting guidance of information performance measurement as government PRM version 2.0 these common reference models in public sector. Government PRM is consisted of assessment classification system and standard line of sight and performance management standard form. Through this, is sorting performance element and define cause-and effect. Government PRM is supplying measurement categories at assessment classification system, but relative importance for application standard by measurement categories is not presenting. In this study, importance for government PRM's measurement categories been applying by commonness Test of information performance measurement of public sector wishes to deduce estimation and priority. Research model used Fuzzy QFD, and designed so that can reflect well PRM's development purpose. I applied Fuzzy AHP and FPP method that graft together fuzzy theory to minimize uncertainty and ambiguity in that expert opinion. Is drawn to element that "Standard model offer for information department and management" is the most important in government PRM's development purpose. "Quality of service" is showing the highest priority in customer results in measurement category. Importance for government PRM's measurement categories can offer common valuation basis in government and public institution. Hereafter if examine closely quantitative cause-and effect for structure model of measurement classification system when study government PRM more objective and efficient reference model become.

The Nutritional Status by Stress on Freshmen of University (대학 신입생의 스트레스 민감 여부에 따른 영양상태)

  • Lee, Young-Hee;Rhie, Seung-Gyo;Won, Hyang-Rye
    • The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
    • /
    • v.17 no.4
    • /
    • pp.81-95
    • /
    • 2006
  • This study was made to find out how stress affect on nutrition status of the college freshmen who were experiencing physical growth and development as well as drastic emotional change. 400 male and female freshmen in 4 year colleges were surveyed respectively through the health check-up procedure for college entrance in February, In order to find out the stress in each group frustration, deprivation, lack of self efficacy, type A behavior and anxiety response were surveyed through 10 questions with total 40 points by assigning 4 points for each question. Diet Status was expressed by DDS (Dietary Diversity Score by 5 food groups) and DVS(Dietary Variety Score). 24-hrs recall method was used to find out the quantity of daily nutrient of EAR(estimated adquacy ratio) by KDRIs(Korean Dietary Recommended Intakes). Nutrition level was analyzed by Can-Pro for professionals (Korea Nutrition Association). And for the quality intake, percentage was calculated and MAR(Mean Adequacy Ratio) were produced. Highest point was obtained in the stress of anxiety with the total 40 score of 30.20, and the scores were 29.79, 28.67, and 28.39 for deprivation, type A behavior and frustration respectively. There was no difference of blood components in accordance with stress type. Stress type was divided into less sensitive group and highly sensitive one and the relationship with the blood nutrient status was observed. The difference of blood component and blood pressure in sensitive and highly sensitive groups was observed in deprivation and anxiety. The index of blood pressure(p<0.05), hemoglobin(p<0.01), HDL-cholesterol(p<0.05), and Fe(p<0.05) was high in the deprivation of sensitive group. Blood pressure and hemoglobin was high in type A of sensitive group(p<0.05). And the contents of blood triglyceride was high in the anxiety of sensitive group(p<0.001) The result of nutrition intake analysis according to stress type showed that there was low intake for energy, riboflavin, and niacin. When the degree of deprivation was high there was a lack of riboflavin intake and there was no significant difference of nutrition intake in lack of self efficacy, type A behavior and anxiety response. Thus, it is necessary for colleges to educate the students to maintain mental stability through various programs and activities after catching a kind and extent of the stress college students we meeting with like the confusion of value system, open heterosexual relationship, and the employment difficulties linked with political uncertainty and economic recession.

  • PDF

Development of the Phased Array Ultrasonic Testing Technique for Nuclear Power Plant's Small Bore Piping Socket Weld (원전 소구경 배관 소켓용접부 위상배열 초음파검사 기술 개발)

  • Yoon, Byung-Sik;Kim, Yong-Sik;Lee, Jeong-Seok
    • Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
    • /
    • v.33 no.4
    • /
    • pp.368-375
    • /
    • 2013
  • Failure of small bore piping welds is a recurring problem at nuclear power plants. And the socket weld cracking in small bore piping has caused unplanned plant shutdowns for repair and high economic impact on the plants. Consequently, early crack detection, including the detection of manufacturing defects, is of the utmost importance. Until now, the surface inspection methods has been applied according to ASME Section XI requirements. But the ultrasonic inspection as a volumetric method is also applying to enforce the inspection requirement. However, the conventional manual ultrasonic inspection techniques are used to detect service induced fatigue cracks. And there was uncertainty on manual ultrasonic inspection because of limited access to the welds and difficulties with contact between the ultrasonic probe and the OD(outer diameter) surface of small bore piping. In this study, phased array ultrasonic inspection technique is applied to increase inspection speed and reliability. To achieve this object, the 3.5 MHz phased array ultrasonic transducer are designed and fabricated. The manually encoded scanner was also developed to enhance contact conditions and maintain constant signal quality. Additionally inspection system is configured and inspection procedure is developed.

An Analysis of Nursing Decision Tasks, Characteristics, and Problems with Decision Making (환자 간호에 대한 간호사의 의사결정 내용과 특성 및 의사결정 장애요인에 관한 분석)

  • 최희정
    • Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
    • /
    • v.29 no.4
    • /
    • pp.880-891
    • /
    • 1999
  • The purpose of this study was to describe nursing decision tasks, their characteristics, and problems associated with decision making. The subjects were 32 nurses who had at least one-year nursing experience and worked on medical-surgical units or intensive care units(ICU). They were asked to describe their decision making experiences in patient care situations and to identify the characteristics of each decisions. They were also asked to describe perceived problems associated with decision making in nursing. The responses on nursing decision tasks and problems were analyzed with content analysis and the decision characteristics were identified by statistical analysis of variance. It was found that there were 16 nursing decisions which are as follows : decisions related to interpreting and selecting appropriate strategies for pain management(6.6%) ; decisions related to providing emotional support (0.7%) ; decisions related to explaining the patient's condition and rationale for procedures(1.1%) ; decisions related to assisting patients to integrate the implications of illness and recovering into their lifestyles(2.9%) ; decisions related to detecting significant changes In patients and selecting appropriate intervention strategies (17.2%) ; decisions related to anticipating problems and selecting preventive measures(4.2%) ; decisions related to identifying emergency situations(0.4%) ; decisions related to effective management of patient crisis until physician assistance becomes available(2.8%) ; decisions related to starting and maintaining intravenous therapy(2.6%) ; decisions related to administering medications(8.1%) ; decisions related to combating the hazards of immobility(7.3%) : decisions related to treating wound management strategies(5.5%) ; decisions related to relieving patient discomfort(13.9) ; decisions related to selecting appropriate strategy according to the changing situation of the patient(18.2%) ; decisions related to selecting the best strategy for patient management(5.3%) ; and decisions related to coordinating, ordering, and meeting the various needs of the patient (3.1%). The nurses reported the fellowing problems in decision making : difficulties due to lack of knowledge and experience (18.6%) ; uncertainty and complexity of decision tasks(15.2%) ; lack of time to make decisions(2.9%) ; personal values which conflict with other staff(15.7%) ; lack of selection autonomy(30.0%) ; and organizational barriers(7.6%). Continuing education programs and decision support systems for frequent nursing decision tasks can be established on the basis of these results. Then decision ability in nurses will increase through the education programs and decision support systems, and then quality of nursing service will be better.

  • PDF

Factors Influencing Chinese Customers' Selection of Health Care Service Countries: Focusing on Word-of-Mouth Moderating Effects (중국고객 해외의료관광국가 선택의도에 영향을 미치는 요인에 관한 연구: 구전 조절효과를 중심으로)

  • Zhang, Jun;Lee, Hoon-Young
    • Journal of Distribution Science
    • /
    • v.13 no.12
    • /
    • pp.41-52
    • /
    • 2015
  • Purpose - Given globalization, the new niche market of medical tourism is likely to experience sustainable growth for various reasons, such as aging populations and a shift in the medical consumerism paradigm toward prevention. Importantly, understanding medical customers' behavior is necessary to benefit from a competitive advantage in this industry. The existing research primarily accessed the key factors of medical quality and costs to explain health customers' behavior but is limited in terms of enabling an understanding of the decision process. This limitation exists because, given the intangibility and greater associated risks in the highly professional industry of international medical tourism, most customers lack the knowledge and experience needed to evaluate the central factors-such as the medical competence of health care countries-before purchases. Therefore, they actively search for useful information through various distributions to reduce uncertainty and to make better choices. Interestingly, most of these information channels are associated with word-of-mouth (WOM). However, no evidence is found in the literature to estimate the effect of WOM in the medical tourism field. Thus, this study focuses on WOM to explore its interaction with key medical characteristic factors and the attractiveness of destinations referred to by sources. This study also affects customers' evaluations and, in turn, influences their intention to seek health care services abroad. Research design, data, and methodology - The literature review addressed an interesting research model for estimating the relations among WOM, medical characteristics, attractiveness, and customers' choice intention regarding international health care. In the key economic regions in China, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Shandong, and Guangdong, 2,500 survey questionnaires were distributed to potential customers of different ages, education, and income levels. A resulting 1,717 (68.68 percent of the original 2,500) usable surveys were obtained for analysis. Moderated regression analysis was used to determine the effects of WOM in the decision process regarding international health care destinations. Results - The results indicate that WOM is a good moderator of the relationships between the factors evaluated by sources and customers. More importantly, the WOM effects reflect the factors of tie strength, credibility, and vividness. The results also reveal that, given the moderating role of WOM, the intention of potential Chinese customers to seek the referred health care country varies according to the medical characteristics of medical competency and reputation as evaluated by customers. In contrast, the travel attractiveness of the attractions, facilities, accessibility, and social environment are critical determinants of destination choice intention. Conclusions - The moderating role of WOM has been confirmed through the international healthcare destination selection process. Medical tourism managers should user WOM as an effective marketing tool for industry development. Specially, marketers should consider the effects of WOM determinants, such as tie strength, credibility, and vividness, to develop an effective strategy. Furthermore, this study estimates the factors that affect customers' selection of medical tourism destinations. Health care managers or policy makers should consider a broad variety of variables that may attract more Chinese customers to international health care.

The Effect of Herding Behavior and Perceived Usefulness on Intention to Purchase e-Learning Content: Comparison Analysis by Purchase Experience (무리행동과 지각된 유용성이 이러닝 컨텐츠 구매의도에 미치는 영향: 구매경험에 의한 비교분석)

  • Yoo, Chul-Woo;Kim, Yang-Jin;Moon, Jung-Hoon;Choe, Young-Chan
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
    • /
    • v.18 no.4
    • /
    • pp.105-130
    • /
    • 2008
  • Consumers of e-learning market differ from those of other markets in that they are replaced in a specific time scale. For example, e-learning contents aimed at highschool senior students cannot be consumed by a specific consumer over the designated period of time. Hence e-learning service providers need to attract new groups of students every year. Due to lack of information on products designed for continuously emerging consumers, the consumers face difficulties in making rational decisions in a short time period. Increased uncertainty of product purchase leads customers to herding behaviors to obtain information of the product from others and imitate them. Taking into consideration of these features of e-learning market, this study will focus on the online herding behavior in purchasing e-learning contents. There is no definite concept for e-learning. However, it is being discussed in a wide range of perspectives from educational engineering to management to e-business etc. Based upon the existing studies, we identify two main view-points regarding e-learning. The first defines e-learning as a concept that includes existing terminologies, such as CBT (Computer Based Training), WBT (Web Based Training), and IBT (Internet Based Training). In this view, e-learning utilizes IT in order to support professors and a part of or entire education systems. In the second perspective, e-learning is defined as the usage of Internet technology to deliver diverse intelligence and achievement enhancing solutions. In other words, only the educations that are done through the Internet and network can be classified as e-learning. We take the second definition of e-learning for our working definition. The main goal of this study is to investigate what factors affect consumer intention to purchase e-learning contents and to identify the differential impact of the factors between consumers with purchase experience and those without the experience. To accomplish the goal of this study, it focuses on herding behavior and perceived usefulness as antecedents to behavioral intention. The proposed research model in the study extends the Technology Acceptance Model by adding herding behavior and usability to take into account the unique characteristics of e-learning content market and e-learning systems use, respectively. The current study also includes consumer experience with e-learning content purchase because the previous experience is believed to affect purchasing intention when consumers buy experience goods or services. Previous studies on e-learning did not consider the characteristics of e-learning contents market and the differential impact of consumer experience on the relationship between the antecedents and behavioral intention, which is the target of this study. This study employs a survey method to empirically test the proposed research model. A survey questionnaire was developed and distributed to 629 informants. 528 responses were collected, which consist of potential customer group (n = 133) and experienced customer group (n = 395). The data were analyzed using PLS method, a structural equation modeling method. Overall, both herding behavior and perceived usefulness influence consumer intention to purchase e-learning contents. In detail, in the case of potential customer group, herding behavior has stronger effect on purchase intention than does perceived usefulness. However, in the case of shopping-experienced customer group, perceived usefulness has stronger effect than does herding behavior. In sum, the results of the analysis show that with regard to purchasing experience, perceived usefulness and herding behavior had differential effects upon the purchase of e-learning contents. As a follow-up analysis, the interaction effects of the number of purchase transaction and herding behavior/perceived usefulness on purchase intention were investigated. The results show that there are no interaction effects. This study contributes to the literature in a couple of ways. From a theoretical perspective, this study examined and showed evidence that the characteristics of e-learning market such as continuous renewal of consumers and thus high uncertainty and individual experiences are important factors to be considered when the purchase intention of e-learning content is studied. This study can be used as a basis for future studies on e-learning success. From a practical perspective, this study provides several important implications on what types of marketing strategies e-learning companies need to build. The bottom lines of these strategies include target group attraction, word-of-mouth management, enhancement of web site usability quality, etc. The limitations of this study are also discussed for future studies.

The Effect of Price Discount Rate According to Brand Loyalty on Consumer's Acquisition Value and Transaction Value (브랜드애호도에 따른 가격할인율의 차이가 소비자의 획득가치와 거래가치에 미치는 영향)

  • Kim, Young-Ei;Kim, Jae-Yeong;Shin, Chang-Nag
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
    • /
    • v.17 no.4
    • /
    • pp.247-269
    • /
    • 2007
  • In recent years, one of the major reasons for the fierce competition amongst firms is that they strive to increase their own market shares and customer acquisition rate in the same market with similar and apparently undifferentiated products in terms of quality and perceived benefit. Because of this change in recent marketing environment, the differentiated after-sales service and diversified promotion strategies have become more important to gain competitive advantage. Price promotion is the favorite strategy that most retailers use to achieve short-term sales increase, induce consumer's brand switch, in troduce new product into market, and so forth. However, if marketers apply or copy an identical price promotion strategy without considering the characteristic differences in product and consumer preference, it will cause serious problems because discounted price itself could make people skeptical about product quality, and the changes of perceived value might appear differently depending on other factors such as consumer involvement or brand attitude. Previous studies showed that price promotion would certainly increase sales, and the discounted price compared to regular price would enhance the consumer's perceived values. On the other hand, discounted price itself could make people depreciate or skeptical about product quality, and reduce the consumers' positivity bias because consumers might be unsure whether the current price promotion is the retailer's best price offer. Moreover, we cannot say that discounted price absolutely enhances the consumer's perceived values regardless of product category and purchase situations. That is, the factors that affect consumers' value perceptions and buying behavior are so diverse in reality that the results of studies on the same dependent variable come out differently depending on what variable was used or how experiment conditions were designed. Majority of previous researches on the effect of price-comparison advertising have used consumers' buying behavior as dependent variable. In order to figure out consumers' buying behavior theoretically, analysis of value perceptions which influence buying intentions is needed. In addition, they did not combined the independent variables such as brand loyalty and price discount rate together. For this reason, this paper tried to examine the moderating effect of brand loyalty on relationship between the different levels of discounting rate and buyers' value perception. And we provided with theoretical and managerial implications that marketers need to consider such variables as product attributes, brand loyalty, and consumer involvement at the same time, and then establish a differentiated pricing strategy case by case in order to enhance consumer's perceived values properl. Three research concepts were used in our study and each concept based on past researches was defined. The perceived acquisition value in this study was defined as the perceived net gains associated with the products or services acquired. That is, the perceived acquisition value of the product will be positively influenced by the benefits buyers believe they are getting by acquiring and using the product, and negatively influenced by the money given up to acquire the product. And the perceived transaction value was defined as the perception of psychological satisfaction or pleasure obtained from taking advantage of the financial terms of the price deal. Lastly, the brand loyalty was defined as favorable attitude towards a purchased product. Thus, a consumer loyal to a brand has an emotional attachment to the brand or firm. Repeat purchasers continue to buy the same brand even though they do not have an emotional attachment to it. We assumed that if the degree of brand loyalty is high, the perceived acquisition value and the perceived transaction value will increase when higher discount rate is provided. But we found that there are no significant differences in values between two different discount rates as a result of empirical analysis. It means that price reduction did not affect consumer's brand choice significantly because the perceived sacrifice decreased only a little, and customers are satisfied with product's benefits when brand loyalty is high. From the result, we confirmed that consumers with high degree of brand loyalty to a specific product are less sensitive to price change. Thus, using price promotion strategy to merely expect sale increase is not recommendable. Instead of discounting price, marketers need to strengthen consumers' brand loyalty and maintain the skimming strategy. On the contrary, when the degree of brand loyalty is low, the perceived acquisition value and the perceived transaction value decreased significantly when higher discount rate is provided. Generally brands that are considered inferior might be able to draw attention away from the quality of the product by making consumers focus more on the sacrifice component of price. But considering the fact that consumers with low degree of brand loyalty are known to be unsatisfied with product's benefits and have relatively negative brand attitude, bigger price reduction offered in experiment condition of this paper made consumers depreciate product's quality and benefit more and more, and consumer's psychological perceived sacrifice increased while perceived values decreased accordingly. We infer that, in the case of inferior brand, a drastic price-cut or frequent price promotion may increase consumers' uncertainty about overall components of product. Therefore, it appears that reinforcing the augmented product such as after-sale service, delivery and giving credit which is one of the levels consisting of product would be more effective in reality. This will be better rather than competing with product that holds high brand loyalty by reducing sale price. Although this study tried to examine the moderating effect of brand loyalty on relationship between the different levels of discounting rate and buyers' value perception, there are several limitations. This study was conducted in controlled conditions where the high involvement product and two different levels of discount rate were applied. Given the presence of low involvement product, when both pieces of information are available, it is likely that the results we have reported here may have been different. Thus, this research results explain only the specific situation. Second, the sample selected in this study was university students in their twenties, so we cannot say that the results are firmly effective to all generations. Future research that manipulates the level of discount along with the consumer involvement might lead to a more robust understanding of the effects various discount rate. And, we used a cellular phone as a product stimulus, so it would be very interesting to analyze the result when the product stimulus is an intangible product such as service. It could be also valuable to analyze whether the change of perceived value affects consumers' final buying behavior positively or negatively.

  • PDF