• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.39-48
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• 2011

One of the major reasons for fierce competition among firms is that they strive to increase their own market shares in the same market with similar and apparently undifferentiated products in terms of quality and perceived benefit. Due to such changes in the marketing environment, differentiated after-sales service and diversified promotion strategies have become more important in the race to gain a competitive advantage. Price discount is one of the popular promotion strategies that most retailers use, especially to increase sales, but offering a price discount does not always lead to the expected result. If marketers apply an identical price-promotion strategy without considering the characteristic differences in products and consumer preferences, the discounted price itself may make people skeptical about the quality of the product. Moreover, the changes in perceived value may appear differently depending on factors such as consumer involvement. This implies that variables such as the level of consumer involvement, brand loyalty, and external reference prices, in reality, would have different effects on how consumers perceive the value of price discounts. The variables that affect consumers' perceived values and buying decisions are diverse and complicated. Several studies have examined the effects of such variables as external reference price, selling price, and brand on consumers' perceived value of products. Results have not shown consistent patterns. Therefore, we must note that the factors affecting consumers' value perceptions and buying behaviors are diverse and that the results of studies on the same dependent variable come out differently depending on what that variable is. This study focused on the level of consumer involvement as a salient variable that supposedly affects the perceived value of a product, willingness to buy, and search intentions. We tried to examine whether a price discount affects the perceived value-such as perceived acquisition value and perceived transaction value-in different ways depending on the level of consumer involvement. In addition, we proposed managerial implications that marketers need to consider as a whole, for instance, product attributes, brand loyalty, and involvement and then established a differentiated pricing strategy, case by case, in order to effectively enhance consumers' perceived values. As a result, we found that perceived transaction value positively affects perceived acquisition value and when discounting the price of a high-involvement product enhances the consumer's willingness to buy, but perceived acquisition value does not affect the search intentions significantly. In the case of discounting prices of low-involvement products, on the other hand, the perceived transaction value has a positive effect on the willingness to buy, but the negative effect of perceived acquisition value on the search intentions was not significant. We suppose that people doubt a product's quality because of a declined perceived quality derived from a price discount. Even though the price discount enhanced the transaction value, people eventually increased their level of searching for additional product information. From the results of this study, we suggest that marketers ought to establish an appropriate value-enhancing strategy based on the understanding of which perceived value consumers rely on more when they conduct purchasing behavior because consumers perceive the degree of importance of acquisition value or transaction value differently, depending on their level of involvement.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.25-51
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• 2008

Researchers have been continuously interested in the adoption of information technology (IT) since it is of great importance to the information systems success and it is also an important stage to the success. Adoption alone, however, does not ensure information systems success because it does not necessarily lead to achieving organizational or individual objectives. When an organization or an individual decide to adopt certain information technologies, they have objectives to accomplish by using those technologies. Adoption itself is not the ultimate goal. The period after adoption is when users continue to use IT and intended objectives can be accomplished. Therefore, continued IT use in the post-adoption period accounts more for the accomplishment of the objectives and thus information systems success. Previous studies also suggest that continued IT use in the post-adoption period is one of the important factors to improve long-term productivity. Despite the importance there are few empirical studies focusing on the user behavior of continued IT use in the post-adoption period. User behavior in the post-adoption period is different from that in the pre-adoption period. According to the technology acceptance model, which explains well about the IT adoption, users decide to adopt IT assessing the usefulness and the ease of use. After adoption, users are exposed to new experiences and they shape new beliefs different from the thoughts they had before. Users come to make decisions based on their experiences of IT use whether they will continue to use it or not. Most theories about the user behaviors in the pre-adoption period are limited in describing them after adoption since they do not consider user's experiences of using the adopted IT and the beliefs formed by those experiences. Therefore, in this study, we explore user's experiences and beliefs in the post-adoption period and examine how they affect user's intention to continue to use IT. Through deep literature reviews on the construction of subjective beliefs by experiences, we draw three meaningful constructs which theoretically have great impacts on the continued use of IT: perceived habit, confirmation, and computer self-efficacy. Then, we examine the role of the subjective beliefs on the cognitive/affective attitudes and intention to continue to use that IT. We set up a research model and conducted survey research. Since IT use implies interactions among a user, IT, and a task, we carefully selected the sample of users using same/similar IT to perform same/similar tasks, to exclude unwanted influences of other factors than subjective beliefs on the IT use. We also considered that the sample of users were able to make decisions to continue to use IT volitionally or at least quasi-volitionally. For each construct, we used measurement items recognized for reliability and widely used in the previous research. We slightly modified some items proper to the research context and a pilot test was carried out for forty users of a portal service in a university. We performed a full-scale survey after verifying the reliability of the measurement. The results show that the intention to continue to use IT is strongly influenced by cognitive/affective attitudes, perceived habits, and computer self-efficacy. Confirmation affects the intention to continue indirectly through cognitive/affective attitudes. All the constructs representing the subjective beliefs built by the experiences of IT use have direct and/or indirect impacts on the intention of users. The results also show that the attitudes in the post-adoption period are formed, at least partly, by the experiences of IT use and newly shaped beliefs after adoption. The findings suggest that subjective beliefs built by the experiences have deep impacts on the continued use. The results of the study signify that while experiencing IT in the post-adoption period users form new beliefs, attitudes, and intentions which may be different from those of the pre-adoption period. The results of this study partly demonstrate that the beliefs shaped by the behaviors, those are the experiences of IT use, influence users' attitudes and intention. The results also suggest that behaviors (experiences) also change attitudes while attitudes shape behaviors. If we combine the findings of this study with the results of the previous research on IT adoption, we can propose a cycle of IT adoption and use where behavior shapes attitude, the attitude forms new behavior, and that behavior shapes new attitude. Different from the previous research, the study focused on the user experience after IT adoption and empirically demonstrated the strong influence of the subjective beliefs formed in the post-adoption period on the continued use. This partly confirms the differences between attitudes in the pre-adoption and in the post-adoption period. Users continuously change their attitudes and intentions while experiencing (using) IT. Therefore, to make users adopt IT and to make them use IT after adoption is a different problem. To encourage users to use IT after adoption, experiential variables such as perceived habit, confirmation, and computer self-efficacy should be managed properly.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.253-262
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• 2015

The sustainability of Cypripedium japonicum, a rare plant designated by the Korea Forest Service, is threatened due to artificial factors such as habitat loss and climate change etc. and internal factors such as changes in biological properties of the habitat etc. but conservation research has not been performed in South Korea. The objective of this study is to establish the species conservation strategies by analyzing the characteristics of their habitats, including: 1) Population characteristics, and 2) habitat analysis of the vegetation and abiotic environments. From April to September, 2014, population characteristics [density (stems $m^{-2}$), flowering rate (%), and leaf area ($cm^2$)] in Cypripedium japonicum habitats such as Chuncheon (CC), Hwacheon (HC), Muju (MJ), and Gwangyang (GY) and vegetation characteristics (plant sociological research and ordination analysis), and abiotic environments [temperature ($^{\circ}C$), relative humidity (%), transmitted light ($mol{\cdot}m^{-2}{\cdot}d^{-1}$) and canopy openness (%)] were measured. Cypripedium japonicum was mainly distributed at elevation 450 to 990 m and 5 to $30^{\circ}$ slope. Slope direction was shown as 0 to $110^{\circ}$. Habitats temperature (mean $18.94^{\circ}C$) was well matched to seasonal changes. Differences among sites showed greater level according to latitude difference. It showed the highest in habitat, GY located in the South. On the other hand, relative humidity (77.38%) didn't show much difference among sites. The average degree of canopy openness was 18.17%. It showed the highest at HC (22.1%) and the lowest at MJ (16.1%). The average degree of transmitted light was $9.1mol{\cdot}m^{-2}{\cdot}d^{-1}$. It showed the highest at CC ($10.6mol{\cdot}m^{-2}{\cdot}d^{-1}$) and the lowest at GY ($6.87mol{\cdot}m^{-2}{\cdot}d^{-1}$). Chlorophyll content showed average 26.12 SPAD. It showed the highest at MJ (30.64 SPAD value) and the lowest at HC (23.69 SPAD value). Leaf area was average $253.35cm^2$. It showed the highest at CC ($281.51cm^2$) and the lowest at HC ($238.23cm^2$).

• Korean journal of food and cookery science
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.335-345
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• 2010

The objective of this study was to model the kinetics of S. aureus survival on high risk foods in school foodservice operations. After inoculating S. aureus ATCC25923 onto the various high risk foods, the effects of competitive microorganism, storage temperatures($25^{\circ}C$, $35^{\circ}C$), and initial contamination levels ($1.0{\times}10^2\;CFU/g$, $1.0{\times}10^5\;CFU/g$) on the growth of S. aureus were investigated. Lag time decreased and specific growth rate increased with a storage temperature ($25^{\circ}C$<$35^{\circ}C$) and with a higher initial inoculation level ($1.0{\times}10^2\;CFU/g$<$1.0{\times}10^5\;CFU/g$). Previously it was shown that S. aureus is a weaker competitor than other organisms, but it proliferates aggressively in a noncompetitive environment. However, in our study, when S. aureus was used to inoculate japchae (glass noodles with sauteed vegetables) and meat ball, the growth of S. aureus was similar and more active with competitive organisms than that without competitive organisms. Regardless of other factors, the initial level of S. aureus was a more significant factor of the growth. High inoculation levels of S. aureus were reached at 6 log CFU/g within 3 hours. An incubation temperature of $35^{\circ}C$ and the animal protein component of menu items also were identified as significant factors influencing the growth of S. aureus. Therefore, the duration of time meals are stored before serving should be considered a critical control point. Food service providers must control time and temperature to insure the safety of cooked foods.

• Journal of Dairy Science and Biotechnology
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.21-35
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• 2016

Recently, there has been a rapid increase in the sale and purchase of an array of organic products. In particular, organic milk has grown in popularity. This growth could lead to expensive, premium retail prices for various organic cow's milk products. In fact, most consumers believe that (1) dairy farming to produce organic milk is beneficial for human health and (2) organic milk products are made without the use of various antibiotics, synthetic chemicals, genetic modification, extra hormones, and so on. Several factors, including breed, diet, and stage of lactation, are known to influence the composition of milk. Therefore, this review (1) presents a research outline to compare organic and conventional milk and (2) provides a summary of individual elements that affect the composition of milk.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.457-479
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• 2013

Through a Chinese rise, Chinese dream is actualizing as the world's great power. According to outlook of World Bank and IMF, Around 2030 China will be a great power bigger than America's economic power. The rise of China will give a huge impact to the whole world. China expands her influence through a global manufacturing base and a global market. To actualize 'Peaceful Rise' Strategy, China has many constraints. Chinese society is facing many difficult social problem due to side effects of a rapid development. Such as the spread of corruption, the severity of wealth gap, environmental degradation and energy shortage. Internationally there are containment from hegemon so-called 'China threat' dispute, Taiwan issue and territorial disputes. Western countries are hostile to China for two reasons. Based on expectations, one is China's socialist system and the other is the rising China which will compete for supremacy with Europe and America. Recent emergence of Chinese nationalism and the containment of the neighboring countries are also serious limiting factors. Domestically they have the rampant corruption in the bureaucracy, weakened capacity of Communist rule, wealth disparity due to the discriminatory economic development strategy, seriousness of rural problem, social instability, lack of social security systems and the development gap between the eastern coastal areas and western inland areas, ethnic minorities problems, the constraint of sustainable development issues due to lack of resources, environmental pollution and energy constraints. Like the former Soviet Union, China may face a dismantlement. After the rise, China may encounter possibilities of a war between great powers or a collapse of Chinese society caused by deepening internal conflict. Serious economic polarization would make peasants and urban workers, who are social vulnerable people, to turn their back to communist party and threaten the justification and the appropriateness of the ruling communist party. Chinese government will think internal system security threat is more formidable risk factor than a system security threat from the hegemon. The decline of great country comes from internal reasons rather than external reasons. To achieve peaceful rise, unification with Taiwan is an essential prerequisite. Taiwan issues are complex problems which equipped with international and domestic factors. Lack of energy resources, environmental pollution in China will bring economic crisis to Korean enterprises. Important influence to Korean economy will be a changeover of the method in economic development. It will turn the balance of investment and consumption, GDP-centered growth to consumption and environment-centered growth. Services industries including finance, environment, culture, education, health care and social welfare will grow. Change in China's growth model will give a great challenge upon the intermediate goods industry in Korea. Korea should reduce the portion of machinery, automotive, semiconductor, steel and chemical-centered export industry to China, and should increase the proportion of the service industry.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.52
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• pp.117-141
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• 2003

This study is to identify the efficiency in Busan social welfare agencies between input factors and output factors. For this purpose, gathered are the 2001 services reports of those study agencies. This study used 4 difference model, model 1; comparing input factor(social worker number & labor cost) about output factor(the total number of program used person), model 2; comparing input factor(the total number of social welfare agencies staff & the total working expenses) about output factor(the total number of program used person), model 3; comparing input factor(the total number of volunteer, social welfare agencies staff & a period of operation) about output factor(the total number of program used person), model 4; comparing input factor(the total number of volunteer, social welfare agencies staff, a period of operation & the total working expenses) about output factor(the total number of program used person). Charnes's study(1978) provided an analytical tool for efficiency services output of non-profit organizations, and DEA(Data Envelopment Analysis) was a analytical framework for evaluating the impact of social service outcome. the finding are as follows : (1) In the results of comparing 4 models as same standard, we can find 35-55%(16-25) efficiency agencies among the 45 social welfare agencies. (2) For all DMU becoming the efficiency 1 to standard of output factor, model 1; 33 agencies are increasing the social worker number($\Delta$0.8 number), 10 agencies are raising the labor cost of social worker($\Delta$1,189,000 Won), model 2; 30 agencies are increasing the total number of social welfare agencies staff($\Delta$1.25 number), 14 agencies are raising the total working expenses($\Delta$1,447,000 Won), model 3; 8 agencies are increasing the total number of social welfare agencies staff($\Delta$2.26 number), 14 agencies are increasing the total number of volunteer($\Delta$52 number), and 10 agencies are increasing a period of operation($\Delta$13 month), model 4; 24 agencies are increasing the total number of social welfare agencies staff($\Delta$1.8 number), 12 agencies are raising the total working expenses($\Delta$5,017,000 Won), 12 agencies are increasing the total number of volunteer($\Delta$43.2 number), and 23 agencies are increasing a period of operation($\Delta$16 month).

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.96 no.4
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• pp.438-447
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to understand the ecosystem structure and function and soil water changes in Tricholoma matsutake producing pine stands. The investigated stands were pine forest in Sogrisan National Park in Chungbuk-do of Korea. For the purpose we investigated main vegetation, leaf area index(LAI) as ecosystem structural factors and measured photosynthesis, transpiration, xylem water potential, and soil water changes as ecosystem functional factors. Vertical vegetation structure of the site was composed of Pinus densiflora as a overstory species, Quercus mongolica as midstory, Rhododendron mucronulatum, R. schlippenbachii and Fraxinus sieboldiana as understory ones. In the stands LAI was 3.8 during June to September, 2.6 in October and 2.1 during November to April. Photosyntheses of the trees were 6.0 to $7.0{\mu}mol\;CO_2/m^2/s$ in August, and for P. densiflora about $4.0{\mu}mol\;CO_2/m^2/s$ and for Q. mongolica $2.0{\mu}mol\;CO_2/m^2/s$ in mid October. However, R. mucronulatum stopped fixing $CO_2$ and F. sieboldiana shed off the leaves already in mid October. Transpirations were 2.5 to $3.5mmol\;H_2O/m^2/s$ in late August and about $1.0mmol/H_2O/m^2/s$ in mid October. Plant water potentials were -10 to -22 bars for P. densiflora and -5 to -12 bars for the other woody species. The lowest potentials was in late August and highest in late October. Soil water in the stand was closely related to topography. Soil water contents were 7 to 11% at the ridge, 8 to 15% at the hillside and 11 to 19% at the base. Soil temperatures were 0.2 to $0.4^{\circ}C$ higher in T. matustuake colony than noncolony. Mid September soil temperature decreased to $19^{\circ}C$ at which T. matsutake forms primordia. In T. matsutake colony soil moisture was 0.5 to 2.0% lower due to metabolism for consuming water. We suggest that the complicate relationships between ecosystem structure and function in Tricholoma matsutake producing pine stand need to be further investigated.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.129-155
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• 2008

The rate of antibiotics prescription for an acute airway infection significantly varies depending upon the diagnosis type, specialty, and the location of the hospital along with many other related factors. The objective of this study is to empirically investigate the possible relationship between the antibiotics prescription rates for an acute airway infection and the degree of competition in the hospital market regions of mainly the providers of primary medical care services such as clinics, internal medicines, pediatrics and otorhinolaryngology department. Using the data from Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) regarding the hospitals' antibiotics prescription rates for the acute airway infection and controlling for selected variables of demand and supply sectors, this study tries to figure out that the degree of competition in the hospital market, regardless of what type of competition indexes we employed, has a statistically significant effect on the variations of antibiotics prescription rate of the clinics in local areas. This result implies that as an economic consideration itself, the change in the degree of competition in the hospital market can play a crucial role influencing the treatment behaviors of the medical doctors. More specifically, this study reveals that as the degree of competition increases the antibiotics prescription rate goes up. This result means that if the market becomes more competitive in a specific region so that it might cause a reduction in doctor's income, doctors with rational decision-making process, recognize that the benefit created from inducing patients' seemingly unnecessary demand for medical care (income effect) would be higher than the costs associated with sustaining their targeted income (substitution effect). It is because that the doctors are more likely to prescribe antibiotics which create relatively higher margins than other medical care services in order to sustain their targeted income when the hospital market competition becomes tighter. Even though this study empirically confirms that antibiotics prescription can be affected by the economic incentives, it still raises following issues as limitations of the study: first issue is about the representativeness of the hospital regions segregated for this study, which might be weak in explaining whether these regions are mutually exclusive in reality. Patients actually consider the quality of services, transportation cost, time costs, and any other related factors choosing the doctors or hospitals, and in that sense, this study rules out 'border-crossing' in using the medical care services. Second issue arises in capturing the data of antibiotics prescription rate. Since we use the average rate for each medical institution, we cannot figure out the average rate for each patient so that we are not able to control for the variation of patients' medical conditions. It is because of the unavailability of data regarding each patient's medical condition from HIRA. Thirdly, since this study mainly analyzes the medical institutions providing primary care such as clinics, internal medicines, pediatrics, and otorhinolaryngology department, it is skeptical of whether those institutions can represent the hospital market in respective regions and truly reflect the degree of competition. It needs to extend the study areas and disease types as well as any micro data for future studies.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.49-67
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• 1996

On of Revolutionary changes of the commercial facilities is appearance of supermarket since the 1970's. It means modernization of retail establishment size. Simultaneously, and then path of distribution resulted in change. Namely, function of wholesale and retail is mixed, path of distribution is shortened, and then distribution function become more influential. By these changes, producer, manager and consumer can be benefit. That is, a change of commercial part is accurance to change of society and economy of region. The aim of the study is to examine commercial properties of supermarket in Kwangju city, and then, it is concerned with life of residents. Factor analysis is applied to the study. The results are as follows: Four factors are abstracted. The first factor of large explanation on properties of supermarket is accounted for years of management, land lent, number of establishments of wholesale${\cdot>$retail${\cdot>$service, age of manager, distance of neighbour residence, and so on. Namely, these may be regarded as commercial environmental feature. Moreover, regional distribution on the ground of factor score is concentrated on CBD and it's neighbour area, which are the areas of highest land lent in Kwangju city. The second factor is accounted for number of supermarket and number of population in each 'dong' (smallest factor-scored area is new housing complex in an outer ring of Kwangju. The third factor is accounted for number of workers, and size of establishment. Regional distribution is concentrated on neighbour of CBD and the outer ring area. These are scattered in contrast to the first and second factors which are continuous. The fourth factor is noted on a sale price of non-foodstuffs, that is, a feature of formation of goods. The highest factor score areas are the CBD, neighbour area of the CBD and a part of an outer ring area. On the other hand, the property of supermarket is preferred to 'the near distance' according to consumer's viewpoint. Furthermore, the location of supermarket, which is actually used by residents, is almost near residental area. It means that condition of location of supermarket is important in the distance of neighbour residence. Besides, supermarkets in Kwangju city are actually situated at residental area, that is, those locations in Kwangju city correspond to preference of consumer's viewpoint. Moreover, this result corresponds to the first factor of the analysis. Namely, the distance of property of supermarket from neighbour residence has very important effect on both of consumer and manager. In the end, supermarket is strongly related to life of residents. It means that supermarket is also responsible to quality of life. On the other hand, commercial facilities have been changed according to consumer's needs and social environments. For these reasons, commercial properties of supermarket must be reexamined in according to diverse commercial facilities and change of commercial environments.