• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.95-115
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• 2011

Food service is the major part of franchise business in Korea, accounting for 69.9% of the brands in the market. As the food service industry becomes mature, many franchisees have struggled to survive in the market. In general, consumers have higher levels of expectation toward service quality of franchised outlets compared that of (non-franchised) independent ones. They also tend to believe that franchisees deliver standardized service at the uniform food price, regardless of their locations. Such beliefs seem to be important reasons that consumers prefer franchised outlets to independent ones. Nevertheless, few studies examined the impact of qualify features of franchisees on customer satisfaction so far. To this end, this study examined the characteristics of various quality features of franchisees in the food service industry, regarding their relationship with customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction. The quality perception of heavy-users was also compared with that of light-users in order to find insights for developing differentiated marketing strategy for the two segments. Customer satisfaction has been understood as a one-dimensional construct while there are recent studies that insist two-dimensional nature of the construct. In this regard, Kano et al. (1984) suggested to categorize quality features of a product or service into five types, based on their relation to customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction: Must-be quality, Attractive quality, One-dimensional quality, Indifferent quality, and Reverse quality. According to the Kano model, customers are more dissatisfied when Must-be quality(M) are not fulfilled, but their satisfaction does not arise above neutral no matter how fully the quality fulfilled. In comparison, customers are more satisfied with a full provision of Attactive quality(A) but manage to accept its dysfunction. One-dimensional quality(O) results in satisfaction when fulfilled and dissatisfaction when not fulfilled. For Indifferent quality(I), its presence or absence influences neither customer satisfaction nor dissatisfaction. Lastly, Reverse quality(R) refers to the features whose high degree of achievement results in customer dissatisfaction rather than satisfaction. Meanwhile, the basic guidelines of the Kano model have a limitation in that the quality type of each feature is simply determined by calculating the mode statistics. In order to overcome such limitation, the relative importance of each feature on customer satisfaction (Better value; b) and dissatisfaction (Worse value; w) were calculated following the formulas below (Timko, 1993). The Better value indicates how much customer satisfaction is increased by providing the quality feature in question. In contrast, the Worse value indicates how much customer dissatisfaction is decreased by providing the quality feature. Better = (A + O)/(A+O+M+I) Worse = (O+M)/(A+O+M+I)(-1) An on-line survey was performed in order to understand the nature of quality features of franchisees in the food service industry by applying the Kano Model. A total of twenty quality features (refer to the Table 2) were identified as the result of literature review in franchise business and a pre-test with fifty college students in Seoul. The potential respondents of our main survey was limited to the customers who have visited more than two restaurants/stores of the same franchise brand. Survey invitation e-mails were sent out to the panels of a market research company and a total of 257 responses were used for analysis. Following the guidelines of Kano model, each of the twenty quality features was classified into one of the five types based on customers' responses to a set of questions: "(1) how do you feel if the following quality feature is fulfilled in the franchise restaurant that you visit," and "(2) how do you feel if the following quality feature is not fulfilled in the franchise restaurant that you visit." The analyses revealed that customers' dissatisfaction with franchisees is commonly associated with the poor level of cleanliness of the store (w=-0.872), kindness of the staffs(w=-0.890), conveniences such as parking lot and restroom(w=-0.669), and expertise of the staffs(w=-0.492). Such quality features were categorized as Must-be quality in this study. While standardization or uniformity across franchisees has been emphasized in franchise business, this study found that consumers are interested only in uniformity of price across franchisees(w=-0.608), but not interested in standardizations of menu items, interior designs, customer service procedures, and food tastes. Customers appeared to be more satisfied when the franchise brand has promotional events such as giveaways(b=0.767), good accessibility(b=0.699), customer loyalty programs(b=0.659), award winning history(b=0.641), and outlets in the overseas market(b=0.506). The results are summarized in a matrix form in Table 1. Better(b) and Worse(w) index indicate relative importance of each quality feature on customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction, respectively. Meanwhile, there were differences in perceiving the quality features between light users and heavy users of any specific franchise brand in the food service industry. Expertise of the staffs was labeled as Must-be quality for heavy users but Indifferent quality for light users. Light users seemed indifferent to overseas expansion of the brand and offering new menu items on a regular basis, while heavy users appeared to perceive them as Attractive quality. Such difference may come from their different levels of involvement when they eat out. The results are shown in Table 2. The findings of this study help practitioners understand the quality features they need to focus on to strengthen the competitive power in the food service market. Above all, removing the factors that cause customer dissatisfaction seems to be the most critical for franchisees. To retain loyal customers of the franchise brand, it is also recommended for franchisor to invest resources in the development of new menu items as well as training programs for the staffs. Lastly, if resources allow, promotional events, loyalty programs, overseas expansion, award-winning history can be considered as tools for attracting more customers to the business.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.383-393
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• 2017

This study was conducted to analyze the dietary lifestyle of local Chinese consumers and to classify dietary characteristics according to their dietary lifestyle factors and dietary behaviors. This investigation was conducted for 1 month from 1 January 2017 targeting 300 adult males and females living in China using the online survey company surveymonkey. Four factors relating to dietary lifestyle were identified, gourmet factor, healthy factor, convenience factor and economic factor, and these were grouped into 4 clusters according to their dietary lifestyle factor scores. Group 1, the gourmet economy group, showed a high percentage of living alone and a high frequency of eating out, but a relatively low percentage of three regular meals per day. Their dietary lifestyle was sensitive to gourmet factors and economic factors, but less sensitive to health and convenience factors. Group 2, the wide interest group, contained a high percentage of individuals in their 30s, as well as more highly educated individuals and a higher income than other groups. Because their dietary lifestyle scores tended to be higher than those of other groups, they sought a variety of new foods and gourmet meals for enjoyment of dining and life, as well as well-being food materials and foods related to health. Group 3, the health economic group, constituted a family-type consumer group with lower income level than the other groups. Members of this group were seeking health food and natural food in their dietary lifestyle and tended to pursue a high economic profit ratio when purchasing food. Finally, group 4 showed a relatively higher percentage of women over 30 and individuals with a college level or higher education than the other groups. This group was more interested in health and taste than price and convenience, and showed the highest LOHAS orientation among middle aged Chinese women. Moreover, members of this group directly utilized their knowledge regarding nutrition in real life.

• Korean Security Journal
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• no.18
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• pp.169-190
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• 2009

Today, the rapid advance of scientific technologies has brought about fundamental changes to the types and levels of terrorism while the war against the world more than one thousand small and big terrorists and crime organizations has already begun. A method highly likely to be employed by terrorist groups that are using 21st Century state of the art technology is cyber terrorism. In many instances, things that you could only imagine in reality could be made possible in the cyber space. An easy example would be to randomly alter a letter in the blood type of a terrorism subject in the health care data system, which could inflict harm to subjects and impact the overturning of the opponent's system or regime. The CIH Virus Crisis which occurred on April 26, 1999 had significant implications in various aspects. A virus program made of just a few lines by Taiwanese college students without any specific objective ended up spreading widely throughout the Internet, causing damage to 30,000 PCs in Korea and over 2 billion won in monetary damages in repairs and data recovery. Despite of such risks of cyber terrorism, a great number of Korean sites are employing loose security measures. In fact, there are many cases where a company with millions of subscribers has very slackened security systems. A nationwide preparation for cyber terrorism is called for. In this context, this research will analyze the current status of Korea's cyber security systems and its laws from a policy perspective, and move on to propose improvement strategies. This research suggests the following solutions. First, the National Cyber Security Management Act should be passed to have its effectiveness as the national cyber security management regulation. With the Act's establishment, a more efficient and proactive response to cyber security management will be made possible within a nationwide cyber security framework, and define its relationship with other related laws. The newly passed National Cyber Security Management Act will eliminate inefficiencies that are caused by functional redundancies dispersed across individual sectors in current legislation. Second, to ensure efficient nationwide cyber security management, national cyber security standards and models should be proposed; while at the same time a national cyber security management organizational structure should be established to implement national cyber security policies at each government-agencies and social-components. The National Cyber Security Center must serve as the comprehensive collection, analysis and processing point for national cyber crisis related information, oversee each government agency, and build collaborative relations with the private sector. Also, national and comprehensive response system in which both the private and public sectors participate should be set up, for advance detection and prevention of cyber crisis risks and for a consolidated and timely response using national resources in times of crisis.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.1-10
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• 2013

RFID(Radio Frequency Identification) system is non-contact identification technology. A basic RFID system consists of a reader, and a set of tags. RFID tags can be divided into active and passive tags. Active tags with power source allows their own operation execution and passive tags are small and low-cost. So passive tags are more suitable for distribution industry than active tags. A reader processes the information receiving from tags. RFID system achieves a fast identification of multiple tags using radio frequency. RFID systems has been applied into a variety of fields such as distribution, logistics, transportation, inventory management, access control, finance and etc. To encourage the introduction of RFID systems, several problems (price, size, power consumption, security) should be resolved. In this paper, we proposed an algorithm to significantly alleviate the collision problem caused by simultaneous responses of multiple tags. In the RFID systems, in anti-collision schemes, there are three methods: probabilistic, deterministic, and hybrid. In this paper, we introduce ALOHA-based protocol as a probabilistic method, and Tree-based protocol as a deterministic one. In Aloha-based protocols, time is divided into multiple slots. Tags randomly select their own IDs and transmit it. But Aloha-based protocol cannot guarantee that all tags are identified because they are probabilistic methods. In contrast, Tree-based protocols guarantee that a reader identifies all tags within the transmission range of the reader. In Tree-based protocols, a reader sends a query, and tags respond it with their own IDs. When a reader sends a query and two or more tags respond, a collision occurs. Then the reader makes and sends a new query. Frequent collisions make the identification performance degrade. Therefore, to identify tags quickly, it is necessary to reduce collisions efficiently. Each RFID tag has an ID of 96bit EPC(Electronic Product Code). The tags in a company or manufacturer have similar tag IDs with the same prefix. Unnecessary collisions occur while identifying multiple tags using Query Tree protocol. It results in growth of query-responses and idle time, which the identification time significantly increases. To solve this problem, Collision Tree protocol and M-ary Query Tree protocol have been proposed. However, in Collision Tree protocol and Query Tree protocol, only one bit is identified during one query-response. And, when similar tag IDs exist, M-ary Query Tree Protocol generates unnecessary query-responses. In this paper, we propose Adaptive M-ary Query Tree protocol that improves the identification performance using m-bit recognition, collision information of tag IDs, and prediction technique. We compare our proposed scheme with other Tree-based protocols under the same conditions. We show that our proposed scheme outperforms others in terms of identification time and identification efficiency.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.495-505
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• 2016

Purpose: This study was conducted to investigate and analyze the association between stress from shift and non-shift work as well as the effects living habits have on eating habits in order to identify why and how workers can improve their health and form proper eating habits for higher working efficiency. Methods: The subjects of this study were 361 workers from K manufacturing company from April 7 to 11, 2014 and they were surveyed using a questionnaire. The subjects were divided into two groups according to working pattern: shift workers (n = 216) and non-shift workers (n = 110). Results: In the general characteristics, there were significant differences in age, work career, work time, marriage, monthly income, and education levels between the two groups. For healthy behaviors, significant differences in subjective health status, moderate physical activity, drinking, smoking, and sleep time were observed between shift workers and non-shift workers. For eating habits, scores of non-shift workers having a regular mealtime, balanced meal composition, and vegetable and seaweed intakes were significantly higher than those of shift workers. The sum score of dietary habits in non-shift workers was also significantly lower than that in shift workers (p < 0.05). Total job stress score did not significantly differ between the two groups. Conclusion: The sum of eating habit scores according to work types was $16.1{\pm}0.6$ in non-shift workers and $14.0{\pm}0.3$ in shift workers. These results suggest that it is necessary to provide food suitable to characteristics of different workers according to work type which should be provided along with daily nutrition counseling to help subjects recognize their status.

• Korean Journal of Cleft Lip And Palate
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.85-92
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• 2006

Korean Cleft Lip and Palate Association (KCLPA) was founded in 1996. The first overseas charity operation was in Karachi, Pakistan, 2002 and our association has visited fourteen times in six countries for the free cleft surgery: Pakistan, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Jordan and Vietnam. The cumulated number of operated patients reaches to 280. Before our association, many Korean oral and maxillofacial surgeons have performed charity operations individually since 1964. It was started from Vietnam but the activity is now carried on in Africa, middle-east Asia, south-east Asia, China, and Korea as an official team. LG electronics, a Korean company helped to propagate our team's activity to middle-east Asia to Africa. This paper is a report concerning about the results of our association's charity activities especially in Kenya, east Africa. We provided free cleft surgery for 30 patients in 2004 and 27 patients in 2005, in Nairobi. As the blood test for HIV of the cleft patients was not allowed before and during surgery, our surgeons and nurses were cautious about every movement during the surgeries. Thus the operation time for each patient was longer than any other time. The attitude of the local hospital and the doctors seemed to be accustomed to this situation. They helped us in case of needle injuries. Safety of medical staff and patients is more important than the number of the patients operated in charity operation. This belief should be approached being parallel and multidisciplinary as an international cooperation, focusing on international funding for medical support and continuous education for local doctors who are willing to devote to their people.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.19 no.11
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• pp.1538-1546
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• 2009

This study was conducted to estimate the in vitro fermentation characteristics and in situ degradabilities of total mixed rations fermented by the synbiotic co-cultures composed of various anaerobic microorganisms in the rumen of cow. Seventy two TMR bags (4 treatments $\times$ 6 fermentation days $\times$ 3 replications) were manufactured for in vitro and in situ experiments. The experiment was composed of four treatments including the control, the mould and bacteria synbiotics (T1), the mould and yeast synbiotics (T2) and the bacteria and yeast synbiotics (T3). Each treatment had six fermentation days (1, 3, 5, 7, 14, 21 day) with three replications. Two rumen cannulated Holstein cows (550 ㎏ of mean body wt) were used for in situ trial, and a total of 96 nylon bags were retrieved from the rumen according to eight fermentation times (1, 3, 6, 9, 18, 24, 48 and 72 hr). The mean fermentation temperatures of TMRs by supplementation of anaerobic micoorganism co-cultures ranged from $22.97^{\circ}C$ to $26.07^{\circ}C$, and tended to increase steadily during the entire period. pH values of the F-TMRs ranged from 4.39 to 4.98 and tended to decrease with the extension of the fermentation period, and decreased by supplementation of synbiotics (p<0.05). The ammonia concentrations of F-TMRs were not affected by addition of synbiotic co-cultures during the early fermentation period (within 7 days), but was lowest (p<0.05) in T3 during the late fermentation periods (after 14 days). Lactic acid concentration of F-TMR was lowest in T3 at 1 day of fermentation, but was not different from treatments in the other fermentation days. Microbial growth rates of F-TMR reached a peak at 7 days of fermentation, and afterward tended to decrease. In in situ experiment, the DM disappearance rates were higher in T1 than the control during early fermentation times (within 3 hours), but was vice versa at 48 hours of fermentation (p<0.05). There was no significant difference in effective DM degradability among treatments. NDF and ADF disappearance rates in situ were similar to those of DM. From the above results, the supplementation of synbiotics, particularly the mould and bacteria synbiotics, resulted in improving the pH and concentration of lactic acid of F-TMR as parameters of fermentation compare to the control, and also had higher in situ disappearance rates of DM, NDF and ADF than the control at early fermentation time. However, effective DM degradability was not affected by supplementation of synbiotics.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.744-757
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• 2012

This study was designed to obtain basic data for the globalization of Korean food and the expansion of food exports through contract foodservices. A survey of dietary habits and attitudes toward school foodservices was given to students in three American international schools served by a domestic contract foodservice management company located in Seoul and Gyeonggi area. The results showed an average of three meals taken daily 3.39 times for male students and 2.95 times for female students and the time required for a meal was about 24~26 minutes. The average breakfast frequency was 5.10 times(4.59 times for male students and 5.35 times for female students) and many students reported skipping breakfast due to a lack of time. The average weekly frequency of dining out was 1.78 times(2.15 times for male students and 1.60 times for female students). In all schools, irrespective of gender and grade, students responded that a desire for snacking was 'why they want to have cookies', and snacking hours were frequently listed as 'between noon and evening'. Many also responded that an unbalanced diet is the reason some snacks are 'not to their taste'. Overall, students were highly satisfied with the foodservice menu, although there was a significant difference in what was considered proper food temperature, proper food seasoning, suitable amounts of food, and freshness of food. Male and female students were specifically highly satisfied with the 'freshness of food materials' and 'variety of menu' respectively. Overall, all students were highly satisfied with the foodservice, including the 'cleanliness of tables and trays'.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Prosthodontics
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.406-415
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• 2009

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare the marginal fitness and fracture load of the zirconia copings according to the design with different thickness and coloration. Material and methods: The evaluation was based on 80 zirconia copings. Zirconia copings were fabricated in design with different thicknesses using CAD/CAM system (Everset, KAVO dental GmbH, Biberach, Germany). The designs of copings were divided into four groups. The first group consisted of copings with uniform thickness of 0.3 mm. The thickness in the second group was 0.3 mm on the buccal surface and 0.6 mm on the lingual surface. The third group consisted of coping with uniform thickness of 0.6 mm. The thickness in the fourth group was 0.6 mm on the buccal surface and 1mm on the lingual surface. Each group consisted of 10 colored and 10 uncolored copings. Half of the copings (40) processed with a milling system according to the specific design were sent to be given a color (A3) through saturation in special dye by a manufacturing company. Just after sintering, the marginal discrepancies of copings were measured on the buccal, lingual, mesial and distal surfaces of metal die, under a Video Microscope System (sv-35, Sometech, Seoul, Korea) at a magnification of $\times$ 100. It was remeasured after the adjusting of the inner surface. Next, all copings were luted to the metal dies using reinforced cement {GC FujiCEM (GC Corp. Tokyo, Japan)} and mounted on the testing jig in a Universal Testing Machine (Instron 4467, Norwood, MA, USA). The results were analyzed statistically using the one-way ANOVA test. Results: The obtained results were as follow: 1. The measured value of marginal discrepancy right after sintering was the greatest in the contraction of the buccal area in all groups, except for group I2. 2. There was no significant difference of marginal fitness among the groups in the colored zirconia group (P<.05). 3. When the marginal fitness among the groups in the uncolored zirconia group was considered, group II2 had the smallest marginal discrepancy. 4. When the colored and uncolored groups with the same design were compared, there was a significant difference between I1 and II1 groups. In group 2, 3, and 4, the uncolored zirconia had the greatest marginal fitness (P<.05). 5. After adjustment of inner surface, there was no significant difference in the marginal fitness in all groups when color and design of the zirconia coping were compared. 6. The fracture load of CAD/CAM zirconia copings showed significant difference in group 1, 2, 3, and 4. I4 and II4 had the strongest fracture load. 7. When groups with different color and same design were compared, all colored groups showed greater fracture load (P>.05), with no significance. Conclusion: There was difference in the marginal fitness according to the design and coloration of zirconia copings right after sintering, but it was decided that the copings may well be used clinically if the inner surface are adjusted. The copings should be thick enough for the reinforcement of fracture strength. But considering the esthetics of the visible surfaces (labial and buccal surface), the thickness of copings may be a little thin, without giving any significant effect on the fracture strength. This type of design may be considered when giving priority to preservation of tooth or esthetics.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.269-277
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• 2010

Previous studies have shown that the most important factor affecting customer loyalty in the service industry is service quality. However, on the subject of whether service quality has a direct or indirect effect on customer loyalty, scholars' views apparently vary. Some studies suggest that service quality has a direct and fundamental influence on customer loyalty (Bai and Liu, 2002). However, others have shown that service quality not only directly affects customer loyalty, it also has an indirect impact on customer loyalty by influencing customer satisfaction and perceived value (Cronin, Brady, and Hult, 2000). Currently, there are few domestic articles that specifically address the relationship between service quality and customer loyalty in the mobile communication industry. Moreover, research has studied customer loyalty as a whole variable, rather than breaking it down further into multiple dimensions. Based on this analysis, this paper summarizes previous study results, establishes an effect mechanism model among service quality, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty in the mobile communication industry, and presents a statistical test on model assumptions by using customer investigation data from Heilongjiang Mobile Company. It provides theoretical guidance for mobile service management based on the discussion of the hypothesis test results. For data collection, the sample comprised mobile users in Harbin city, and the survey was taken by random sampling. Out of a total of 300 questionnaires, 276 (92.9%) were recovered. After excluding invalid questionnaires, 249 remained, for an effective rate of 82.6 percent for the study. Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ coefficient was adapted to assess the scale reliability, and validity testing was conducted on the questionnaire from three aspects: content validity, construct validity. and convergent validity. The study tested for goodness of fit mainly from the absolute and relative fit indexes. From the hypothesis testing results, overall, four assumptions have not been supported. The ultimate affective relationship of service quality, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty is demonstrated in Figure 2. On the whole, the service quality of the communication industry not only has a direct positive significant effect on customer loyalty, it also has an indirect positive significant effect on customer loyalty through service quality; the affective mechanism and extent of customer loyalty are different, and are influenced by each dimension of service quality. This study used the questionnaires of existing literature from home and abroad and tested them in empirical research, with all questions adapted to seven-point Likert scales. With the SERVQUAL scale of Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1988), or PZB, as a reference point, service quality was divided into five dimensions-tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy-and the questions were simplified down to nineteen. The measurement of customer satisfaction was based mainly on Fornell (1992) and Wang and Han (2003), ending up with four questions. Based on the study’s three indicators of price tolerance, first choice, and complaint reaction were used to measure attitudinal loyalty, while repurchase intention, recommendation, and reputation measured behavioral loyalty. The collection and collation of literature data produced a model of the relationship among service quality, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty in mobile communications, and China Mobile in the city of Harbin in Heilongjiang province was used for conducting an empirical test of the model and obtaining some useful conclusions. First, service quality in mobile communication is formed by the five factors mentioned earlier: tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. On the basis of PZB SERVQUAL, the study designed a measurement scale of service quality for the mobile communications industry, and obtained these five factors through exploratory factor analysis. The factors fit basically with the five elements, indicating the concept of five elements of service quality for the mobile communications industry. Second, service quality in mobile communications has both direct and indirect positive effects on attitudinal loyalty, with the indirect effect being produced through the intermediary variable, customer satisfaction. There are also both direct and indirect positive effects on behavioral loyalty, with the indirect effect produced through two intermediary variables: customer satisfaction and attitudinal loyalty. This shows that better service quality and higher customer satisfaction will activate the attitudinal to service providers more active and show loyalty to service providers much easier. In addition, the effect mechanism of all dimensions of service quality on all dimensions of customer loyalty is different. Third, customer satisfaction plays a significant intermediary role among service quality and attitudinal and behavioral loyalty, indicating that improving service quality can boost customer satisfaction and make it easier for satisfied customers to become loyal customers. Moreover, attitudinal loyalty plays a significant intermediary role between service quality and behavioral loyalty, indicating that only attitudinally and behaviorally loyal customers are truly loyal customers. The research conclusions have some indications for Chinese telecom operators and others to upgrade their service quality. Two limitations to the study are also mentioned. First, all data were collected in the Heilongjiang area, so there might be a common method bias that skews the results. Second, the discussion addresses the relationship between service quality and customer loyalty, setting customer satisfaction as mediator, but does not consider other factors, like customer value and consumer features, This research will be continued in the future.