• Analyses & Alternatives
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.87-115
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• 2024

This study examines the effect of R&D investment on firm performance and value of Chinese private firms. Through R&D investment, firms aim to acquire knowledge and technological resources to create innovation and competitive advantage, which ultimately enhances firm performance and value. However, unlike other investments, R&D investments are characterized by high adjustment costs and risks, uncertainty and asymmetric information. In addition, the effect of R&D investment on firm performance and value has been shown to be mixed results due to various internal and external contextual factors. Therefore, this study intends to consider how the ESG activities of firms, which have recently attracted attention, act as a contextual factor in the results of R&D investment. This is because interaction with stakeholders through ESG activities is considered to be an important factor in securing competitive advantages and sustainable growth. In this context, this study measures the effect of a firm's R&D investment on its business performance by dividing it into financial performance and value, respectively, and examines the moderating effect of ESG score on the relationship. Based on empirical analysis of all Chinese private firms from 2010 to 2019, the results show that a firm's R&D investment has a negative impact on performance and a positive impact on value. Furthermore, a high ESG score of private firms positively moderates each relationship, emphasizing the importance of ESG activities.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.93-113
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• 2012

Early conflict research in channel and organization area have focused on the definition of conflict construct, its cause, consequence and identified conflict resolution management. Recent studies about conflict, however, have explored new assumption of complexity, a multidimensional conflict construct, contextual conflict management strategies, positive and negative conflict/consequence, and the conflict resolution strategy. Although many literatures exists on channel conflict resolution, little research has been done about relationship learning and performance from conflict resolution perspective. This study explores how channel members can achieve a relationship learning, as a conflict resolution mechanism, which enhance co-created value in marketing channel relationship. Therefore we propose that conflict resolution strategies(collaborating behavior and avoiding behavior) influence channel performance(effectiveness and efficiency) through relationship learning processes(learning via information exchange, joint interpretation and coordination, relationship-specific knowledge memory), in view of buyer-seller relationship. The research model is shown at

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.60 no.4
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• pp.555-580
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to explore the factors of situational interest in math learning, and based on the results, to reveal the factors of situational interest included in teaching and learning methods, teaching and learning activities in mathematics class, and extracurricular activities outside of class. As a result of conducting a questionnaire to high school students, the factors of situational interest in learning mathematics were divided into 10 detail-domain(Enjoy, Curiosity, Competence / Real life, Other subjects, Career / Prior knowledge, Accumulation knowledge / Transformation, Analysis), 4 general-domain(Emotion, Attitude / Knowledge, Understanding), 2 higher-domain(Affective / Cognitive) were extracted. In addition, it was revealed that various factors of situational interest were included teaching and learning methods, teaching and learning activities and extracurricular activities. When examining the meaning of 10 situational interest factors, it can be expected that the factors for developing individual interest are included, so it can be expected to serve as a basis for expanding the study on the development of individual interest in mathematics learning. In addition, in order to maintain individual interest continuously, it is necessary to maintain situational interest by seeking continuous changes in teaching and learning methods in the school field. Therefore, it can be seen that the process of exploring the contextual interest factors included in teacher-centered teaching and learning methods and student-centered teaching and learning activities and extracurricular activities is meaningful.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.523-532
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• 2010

In the field of user interface design for interactive product, it is becoming more important than ever to understand emotional quality and its characteristics. By a series of experiments on emotional quality of user interface, this paper aimed to develope a systematic approach to investigating emotional quality. First, a emotional quality framework that consists of 6 dimensions (Usefulness, Easy of Use, Aesthetics, Stimulation, Identification, and Harmony) and 18 elements was developed through two experiments that users and UI expert participated in. Second, by conducting a user survey based on the emotional quality framework, it was illustrated how various emotional qualities of interactive product can be evaluated and what effects they have on overall satisfaction of the product. Finally, this paper analyzed the relative importance of emotional quality dimensions and the contextual factors that change emotional quality, and provided basic knowledge related to the construction of emotional quality for the succeeding studies.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.129-139
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• 2005

The rapid growth of IT technologies enables the quality of human's daily life to be improved dramatically, Contrasting to the services in previous computing environment directed by user's request, the services in ubiquitous computing era of new IT technology are provided through recognizing users intention and utilizing context-aware information suited to the user. According to the contextual information, agents need to set a dynamic goal to achieve and work collaboratively with other agents. Agents that take control over their behaviors with capability of communicating with other agents become a thrust in this up-coming computing environment. This work focuses on building ontologies, shared knowledge bases among agents, to improve semantical interoperability among agents. More attention is given to the construction and effective management of ontology repository along with its requirement and organization. Ontology agent suggested takes an initiative role to manage the repository in a distributed manner and to facilitate the use of ontology in a multi-agent environment.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.18
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• pp.8541-8551
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• 2016

Background: The coverage of breast and cervical cancer screening has only slightly increased in the past decade in Thailand, and these cancers remain leading causes of death among women. This study identified socioeconomic and contextual factors contributing to the variation in screening uptake and coverage. Materials and Methods: Secondary data from two nationally representative household surveys, the Health and Welfare Survey (HWS) 2007 and the Reproductive Health Survey (RHS) 2009 conducted by the National Statistical Office were used. The study samples comprised 26,951 women aged 30-59 in the 2009 RHS, and 14,619 women aged 35 years and older in the 2007 HWS were analyzed. Households of women were grouped into wealth quintiles, by asset index derived from Principal components analysis. Descriptive and logistic regression analyses were performed. Results: Screening rates for cervical and breast cancers increased between 2007 and 2009. Education and health insurance coverage including wealth were factors contributing to screening uptake. Lower or non-educated and poor women had lower uptake of screenings, as were young, unmarried, and non-Buddhist women. Coverage of the Civil Servant Medical Benefit Scheme increased the propensity of having both screenings, while the universal coverage scheme increased the probability of cervical screening among the poor. Lack of awareness and knowledge contributed to non-use of both screenings. Women were put off from screening, especially Muslim women on cervical screening, because of embarrassment, fear of pain and other reasons. Conclusions: Although cervical screening is covered by the benefit package of three main public health insurance schemes, free of charge to all eligible women, the low coverage of cervical screening should be addressed by increasing awareness and strengthening the supply side. As mammography was not cost effective and not covered by any scheme, awareness and practice of breast self examination and effective clinical breast examination are recommended. Removal of cultural barriers is essential.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.34 no.12
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• pp.2022-2038
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• 2010

Our study was designed to provide some insights on positive country image and the mechanisms of influence that Asian fashion industries can draw upon for future benefit. We focused on a country image and fashion products with Asian ethnic influence. Asian traditional costume elements reflected in contemporary fashion products may be important representative tools for national cultural identity. This study qualitatively investigated how and to what extent country image and additional information influence the evaluation of fashion products influenced by Chinese, Japanese, and Korean traditional dress. We conducted four focus-group interviews (FGI) with 30 students from a fashion program at a university in the United States. We analyzed the evaluation of fashion products influenced by Chinese, Japanese, and Korean traditional dress, and their associations with country image. Our qualitative analysis offered more developed empirical evidence for the various paths through which country image affects the evaluation of fashion products influenced by the ethnic dress of Asians. The results of our study showed that the more direct the source of prior knowledge, the larger the influence on product evaluation. This study showed that certain cues in the evaluation of fashion products with Asian ethnic influence induce changes in the affective state (that stem from the psychological and social nature of fashion products) and illustrate the necessity of considering the affective processes involved in the appropriate use of the country image. In the fashion industry, extrinsic properties such as the country image significantly influence the attitude and purchasing decisions of consumers. The significance of this study lies in its verification of the relationship between the country image and additional information. Modular and situational-contextual influences are also revealed as important factors that deserve more attention, as well as considerations regarding the dimensions of the country image described in attitude theory.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.54
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• pp.76-97
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• 2011

What are the meanings of abduction as a methodology of Cultural Studies? By contextualizing Charles Sanders Peirce's logic of abduction in the discipline of Cultural Studies, I explore the epistemological discussion on the modern scientific research methodology of social sciences. Abduction is a kind of logical inference, which is often associated with guessing or intuition. Peirce's method of abduction and Cultural Studies' contextual formation in effect address an alternative methodology to positivism. Criticizing the modern Eurocentric structure of knowledge construction, I suggest that the virtue of abduction, as a logic of discovery, should be re-discovered in the context of Cultural Studies. Abduction holds important lessons for Cultural Studies as well as social sciences in general because of its focus on intuition, empathy, and intellectual collaboration. Through its elaboration of the logic of abduction, Cultural Studies is able to maintain not only its epistemological ground but also its methodological communicability.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.40-48
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• 2007

This paper presents a novel texture segmentation method using multilayer perceptron (MLP) networks and Markov random fields in multiscale Bayesian framework. Multiscale wavelet coefficients are used as input for the neural networks. The output of the neural network is modeled as a posterior probability. Texture classification at each scale is performed by the posterior probabilities from MLP networks and MAP (maximum a posterior) classification. Then, in order to obtain the more improved segmentation result at the finest scale, our proposed method fuses the multiscale MAP classifications sequentially from coarse to fine scales. This process is done by computing the MAP classification given the classification at one scale and a priori knowledge regarding contextual information which is extracted from the adjacent coarser scale classification. In this fusion process, the MRF (Markov random field) prior distribution and Gibbs sampler are used, where the MRF model serves as the smoothness constraint and the Gibbs sampler acts as the MAP classifier. The proposed segmentation method shows better performance than texture segmentation using the HMT (Hidden Markov trees) model and HMTseg.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.2241-2247
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• 2012

Objective: This qualitative study retrospectively examined the experience and psychological impact of contralateral prophylactic mastectomy (CPM) among Southern Chinese females with unilateral breast cancer history who underwent BRCA1/2 genetic testing. Limited knowledge is available on this topic especially among Asians; therefore, the aim of this study was to acquire insight from Chinese females' subjective perspectives. Methods: A total of 12 semi-structured in-depth interviews, with 11 female BRCA1/BRCA 2 mutated gene carriers and 1 non-carrier with a history of one-sided breast cancer and genetic testing performed by the Hong Kong Hereditary Breast Cancer Family Registry, who subsequently underwent CPM, were assessed using thematic analysis and a Stage Conceptual Model. Breast cancer history, procedures conducted, cosmetic satisfaction, pain, body image and sexuality issues, and cancer risk perception were discussed. Retrieval of medical records using a prospective database was also performed. Results: All participants opted for prophylaxis due to their reservations concerning the efficacy of surveillance and worries of recurrent breast cancer risk. Most participants were satisfied with the overall results and their decision. One-fourth expressed different extents of regrets. Psychological relief and decreased breast cancer risk were stated as major benefits. Spouses' reactions and support were crucial for post-surgery sexual satisfaction and long-term adjustment. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that thorough education on cancer risk and realistic expectations of surgery outcomes are crucial for positive adjustment after CPM. Appropriate genetic counseling and pre-and post-surgery psychological counseling were necessary. This study adds valuable contextual insights into the experiences of living with breast cancer fear and the importance of involving spouses when counseling these patients.