• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.12 no.3
• /
• pp.221-229
• /
• 1992

A series of experiments on the resuspension of deposited fine-grained sediments were carried out in a recirculating straight flume to investigate the influence of the sediment type, water content and bed shear stress (${\tau}_b$) on the resuspension characteristics of the sediments. The sediments were sampled from Youngkwang coast and Youngdo coast which are located in the western sea and southeastern sea of Korea, respectively. Critical bed shear stress (${\tau}_c$) for resuspension was deduced for each experimental series. For the same sediment, critical bed shear stress for resuspension decreased but suspension mass or rate increased with increasing water content. The resuspension of deposited fine-grained sediments depended strongly on the water content, and the sediment type characterizing the inter-particle bond strength. It has been found that critical bed shear stress for resuspension in the unidirection flow is about 4 times higher than that in the combined wave-current flow, In case of lower bed shear stress, after an initially high suspension, suspension mass approaches a constant value due to the bed hardening with increasing time, but in case of higher bed shear stress, suspension mass increased successively due to the bed softening with time. Initial suspension rate, $E={\alpha}_3({\tau}_b/{\tau}_c-1)^{\beta}$ (where ${\alpha}_3$ and ${\beta}$=empirical constants), was estimated for each experimental series, ${\alpha}_3$ and ${\beta}$ values for the same sediment increased with water content.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.31 no.6C
• /
• pp.203-212
• /
• 2011

This paper investigates the caharactheristics of the earth pressure magnigue and distribution in jointed rockmass for a safe and economic design and construction of earth retaining structures installed in rock stratum. For this purpose, this study will first investigate the limitations and problems of the existing earth pressure studies and then to overcome them th study will conduct the discontinuum numerical parametric studies based on the Discrete Element Method (DEM), which can consider the joint characteristics in rock stratum. The controlled parameters include rock type and joint conditions (joint shear strength and joint angle), and the magnitude and distribution characteristics of earth pressure have been investigated considering the interactions between the ground and the retaining structures. In addition, the comparison between the earth pressures induced in rock stratum and Peck's earth pressure for soil ground has been carried out. From the comparison, it is found that the earth pressure magnitude and distribution in jointed rockmass has been highly affected by rock type and joint condition and has shown different characteristics compared with the Peck's empirical earth pressure. This result would hereafter be utilized as an important information and a useful data for the assessment of earth pressure for designing a retaining structures installed in jointed rockmass.

• Journal of Christian Education in Korea
• /
• v.61
• /
• pp.233-262
• /
• 2020

Rapidly developing modern science &technology have a profound impact on Christians and pastoral work. Recently, the 4th Industrial Revolution has induced lots of discussions in the field of church and theology, and artificial intelligence (AI) has become an important issue in many ways. Nevertheless, there is a lack of empirical research on how the AI would affect church and pastoral work. This study examined and analyzed the theological students' perception of AI. A survey was conducted on the perception of seven sub-areas of 220 male and female theological students at major seminaries in Korea. The seven subareas were including the degree of interest in AI, social influence, AI's alternative influence, and AI's church influence. The results showed that theological students generally agree with the academic relevance of AI or the need for education on AI. However, it presented alow perception of the impact of AI on the church. Such recognition may reflect the following belief. Students are aware that the AI is a necessary and important part of social and general education, but at the same time, they think the AI may not significantly threaten the church. Therefore, wes uggest that considering a response of Christian education to raise the perception of theological students of AI, courses related to science and technology should be organized in the curriculum of seminaries at various levels from the perspective of the Christian worldview.

• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.14 no.6
• /
• pp.45-52
• /
• 2016

Purpose - This study was conducted to present a study on the perception and satisfaction with the brand agricultural products targeted at consumers who use a lot of local products. According to the data of 2011, the total number of the brand agricultural products of Korea is 5,291 with various kinds. Research design, data and methodology - The survey shows that the brand agricultural products are being used by some specific people. However, it can be a useful idea which can help the consumption of brand agricultural products to be expanded if we understand how consumers' recognitions are different between various groups. For an empirical Analysis, the response data of 110 adult patients residing in the metropolitan area were used and conducted with a factor analysis, frequency analysis in order to ensure the validity and conducted a regression analysis and correlation analysis using SPSS statistical program. Results - According to the analysis, it showed consumers with an interest in brand agricultural products are 40-50 age housewives and the middle class of about 5 million won in monthly income more than 3 million won with a college education. As for consumers' purchasing status, all the subjects said that they had experienced buying brand agricultural products and the level of satisfaction for them was very high. Relatively, consumers' satisfaction level with high income and education is high. And recognition of the brand agricultural products was found mainly goes through word of mouth. The age and income are very important factors in customers' repurchase for brand agricultural products. The result of the analysis for the influences on brand agricultural products of customer satisfaction suggests even if the recognitions for safety, quality, and value are vital factors, the recognition of quality doesn't influence on brand agricultural products statistically and significantly. It was analysed if there were any differences between recognitions by group to brand agricultural products, that is to say recognition of safety, quality and value and the result can be summarized as follows. There are all statistical significant differences depending on their age, educational background and income. In the case of 30 or 40 aged, as they got the education level of college and graduate school and earned relatively high income, most customers have positive recognition on the brand agricultural products. This implies the group which can buy and consume the brand agricultural more easily has much more positive recognition. Conclusion - The results of this study shows consumers' brand awareness and satisfaction with brand agricultural products are affected by their age and income level. The purpose of this study is to find the information that can help brand agricultural products markets to be expanded by understanding the factors which encourage consumers to behave repurchase as well as customers' various levels of recognition to the brand agricultural products. The survey says that brand agricultural products are being used by some specific people.

• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.13 no.10
• /
• pp.135-142
• /
• 2015

Purpose - Following the speedy development of the smart phone industry, tourism companies started to increase their brand recognition and sales volume by adopting mobile applications. However, applications for tourism industries are still insignificant. This study tries to analyze empirical evidence from Korean and Chinese consumers who have used mobile tour applications. By using an expansion of the technology acceptance model (TAM), this study will find what factors have effects on user intention for mobile tour applications. The findings will be helpful for the development of mobile tour applications and the tourism industries. Research design, data, and methodology - This study uses the TAM, which was presented by Davis in 1989. This study uses consumer acceptance level, consumer choice attitude, and use intention as the basic variables to fit to the TAM, and adopts choice content quality, brand value, and usage motivation as additional variables to analyze. This study has developed several hypotheses and collected data from 620 users who used mobile applications for tourism during April 1 to April 30, 2015. A total of 612 valid questionnaires were collected and used in the data analysis. The data was analyzed with structural equation modeling using SPSS Win/pc and Amos 22.0. Results - The findings can be summarized as follows: First, the content quality affects the consumer acceptance degree and choice attitude. Second, the brand value has a directly positive effect on the consumer acceptance degree and choice attitude. It is clear that the content quality and brand value play important roles in raising consumer acceptance and choice attitude. Third, usage motivation has no effect on the consumer acceptance degree and choice attitude. Fourth, the acceptance degree does not have any effect on the consumer choice attitude. Fifth, the acceptance degree affects the use intention. Last, the consumer choice attitude affects the use intentions. This indicates that consumer acceptance and choice attitude must both be achieved to induce use intention among consumers. Finally, the effects of the mobile tour application content quality and brand value on consumer acceptance degree and choice attitude were confirmed. Additionally, the effects of the consumer acceptance degree and choice attitude on use intentions were analyzed. Conclusion - It is not meaningful for tourism marketing to launch tour applications in the mobile market without understanding tourism consumer characteristics. When developing mobile tour applications, companies should focus on the characters of consumer choice attitudes as high quality, high brand value, usefulness, and ease of mobile tour applications. This study has limitations in that it did not consider negative factors such as perceived risks or analyze whether there are differences between Korean and Chinese consumers. In the future, we will consider equipping the same mobile tour applications commonly used by both Korean and Chinese consumers, and then examine negative factors as well as the differences in mobile tour applications between Korean and Chinese consumers.

• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.51-60
• /
• 2013

Purpose - The objective of this paper is to investigate the effect of asset specificity, the level of information sharing, the importance of information sharing, and an integrated collaborative environment on supply chain performance. Research design, data, and methodology - Data collection was implemented as follows: questionnaires were distributed to 250 companies that have business ties with Halla Climate Control Corporation. The empirical study to test our hypothesis was based on statistical analysis (using SPSS 18.0 and AMOS 18.0). The hypothesis of this paper is that the asset specificity variable has positive effects on the following variables: Level of information sharing, the importance of information sharing, and integrated collaborative environment. Moreover the variables, the level of information sharing, and the importance of information sharing are strongly influenced by the variable integrated collaborative environment, and these when combined, have an effect on the dependent variable, supply chain performance. We tested our hypothesized model utilizing path analysis with latent variables. Results - According to the results of our analysis, hypothesis H1, which tests whether there is a relationship between asset specificity and the integrated collaborative environment, is supported at the 0.01 level. Hypotheses H2 and H3 were also confirmed, and asset specificity had positive effects (+) on the level of information sharing variable. The importance of the information sharing variable was statistically significant at the 0.01 level. Hypotheses H4 and H5 posited that the integrated collaborative environment variable would have a positive effect on the level of information sharing; the importance of information sharing variable was strongly supported statistically, with a significant p-value below. Moreover, the level of information sharing (H6), and the importance of information sharing (H7) variables also had a statistically relevant influence on supply chain performance. As a result, existence of a collaborative system between companies would influence supply chain performance by strengthening real-time information access and information sharing. Thus, it is important to construct a collaborative environment where information sharing among companies and cooperation is possible. Conclusions - First, with rapid changes in the business environment, it becomes necessary for enterprises to acquire the right information in order to properly implement SCM. For successful SCM, firms should understand the importance of collaboration with supply chain partners and an internally built collaboration system, which in turn will better promote a partnership commitment with suppliers as well as collaborative integration with buyers. A collaborative system, as we suggest in this paper, facilitates the maintenance of a long-term relationship of trust, and can help reinforce information sharing. Second, it is necessary to increase information sharing over time via a collaborative system so that employees of the suppliers become aware of the system. The more proactive and positive attitudes are towards such a collaborative system by the managerial group, the higher the level of information sharing will be among the users. Successful SCM performance is achieved by information sharing through a collaborative environment rather than by investing only in setting up an information system.

• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.61-72
• /
• 2013

Purpose - It is widely accepted that the process of developing marketing strategy is composed of three steps: market segmentation, target market selection and positioning. However, mass marketing strategy based on cost reduction through economies of scale and standardized products, can be also an effective strategic option. Many marketing scholars including Theodore Levitt emphasize the importance of applying the mass production concept to various industries including service industries. Especially, in times of economic downturn, the capability of providing consumers with low-priced, value products can be an important source of competitive advantage, as well as the ability of providing high-priced premium products. Marketers should decide whether they will implement mass marketing strategy or target marketing strategy. The present study theoretically shows that firms should understand the target customers' price elasticity as well as the firm's cost structure in order to make such a strategic decision. Research design, data, and methodology - Instead of implementing an empirical study, this study provides a theoretical(mathematical) investigation on the effect of consumers' price elasticity on a firm's optimal price level, profit, sales volume, revenue, and cost. The results are mostly deduced from derivative calculations and several graphs are utilized to represent the results on the relationships between the variables under study. Results - The analytical results suggest that it is more profitable for a firm to adopt the segment/target marketing strategy (more specifically the differentiation strategy) when the degree of consumers' heterogeneity is high and the proportion of the fixed cost in the total cost is low. On the other hand, if the degree of consumers' heterogeneity is low and the fixed cost is high, it is better to adopt the mass marketing strategy or the cost leadership strategy. The strategy of concentrating on a single target market will be effective when consumers' needs are highly heterogeneous but the fixed cost is high. Any of the three types of generic strategies proposed my Porter(1980, 1985) can be applied when both the consumers' heterogeneity and the fixed cost are low. This study also proposes the contribution-margin-based method for developing the optimal pricing strategy. Conclusions - One of the primary roles of marketers is to find a proper compromise between the two conflicting goals of maximizing customer satisfaction and minimizing cost. In order to do so, he or she should understand the characteristics of the target customers as well as the cost structure of the firm. In addition to the theoretical analyses, this study discusses several business cases and explains how superior companies find the optimal compromise position between these two goals and dominate the market. One of the radical changes recently taking place in business arena is the reduction of production and distribution costs of both physical goods and information due to the advancement and the wide diffusion of information technology. The cost reduction combined with lowered priced elasticity incurred by customized products and services, will enable many firms to adopt the mass customization strategy.

• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.11 no.10
• /
• pp.63-72
• /
• 2013

Purpose - This study analyzes the relationship and dynamic interactions between stock price index, interest rate, price index, and housing price indices using Korean monthly data from 2000 to 2013, based on a VAR model. This study also examines Granger causal relationships among these variables in order to determine whether the time series of one is useful in forecasting another, or to infer certain types of causal dependency between stochastic variables. Research design, data, and methodology - We used Korean monthly data for all variables from 2000: M1 to 2013: M3. First, we checked the correlations among different variables. Second, we conducted the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test and the co-integration test using the VAR model. Third, we employed Granger Causality tests to quantify the causal effect from time series observations. Fourth, we used the impulse response function and variance decomposition based on the VAR model to examine the dynamic relationships among the variables. Results - First, stock price Granger affects interest rate and all housing price indices. Price index Granger, in turn, affects the stock price and six metropolitan housing price indices. However, none of the Granger variables affect the price index. Therefore, it is the stock markets (and not the housing market) that affects the housing prices. Second, the impulse response tests show that maximum influence on stock price is its own, and though it is influenced a little by interest rate, price index affects it negatively. One standard deviation (S.D.) shock to stock price increases the housing price by 0.08 units after two months, whereas an impulse shock to the interest rate negatively impacts the housing price. Third, the variance decomposition results report that the shock to the stock price accounts for 96% of the variation in the stock price, and the shock to the price index accounts for 2.8% after two periods. In contrast, the shock to the interest rate accounts for 80% of the variation in the interest rate after ten periods; the shock to the stock price accounts for 19% of the variation; however, shock to the price index does not affect the interest rate. The housing price index in 10 periods is explained up to 96.7% by itself, 2.62% by stock price, 0.68% by price index, and 0.04% by interest rate. Therefore, the housing market is explained most by its own variation, whereas the interest rate has little impact on housing price. Conclusions - The results of the study elucidate the relationship and dynamic interactions among stock price index, interest rate, price index, and housing price indices using VAR model. This study could help form the basis for more appropriate economic policies in the future. As the housing market is very important in Korean economy, any changes in house price affect the other markets, thereby resulting in a shock to the entire economy. Therefore, the analysis on the dynamic relationships between the housing market and economic variables will help with the decision making regarding the housing market policy.

• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.10 no.11
• /
• pp.79-88
• /
• 2012

Purpose - The objective of this paper is to suggest that a company's CRM activities have an effect on customer loyalty in the Korean retail industry. Typically, Korean customers use large local marts with convenience in the absence of any other choice. Therefore, this study aims to shed light on the fact that customers do not break away from their preferred retail stores, either owing to their stringent loyalty (the lie loyalty) or difficulty in turning to alternative choices. Research design, data, methodology - By surveying a sample of 200 hyper-markets through a questionnaire, and excluding dubious and missing responses, I obtained 181 samples to be included in the empirical analysis. The survey was conducted for two weeks during October 2011. AMOS and SPSS18 statistical packages were used for conducting statistical analysis for this study. This paper was developed using the concept of customer equity on CRM, which is known to have a positive impact on customer loyalty through the satisfaction and switching-barrier parameters. The hypothesis of this paper is that customer equity is composed of relationship equity, value equity and brand equity, and that the relationship equity variable has positive effects on the value equity and brand equity amongst other types of customer equity. Moreover, customer equity influences customer loyalty through parameters including customer satisfaction and switching costs in the Korean retail industry. Results - According to the results of the analysis, it was confirmed that relationship value had a positive effect (+) on all variables, including the perceived QoS (Quality of Service), store brand images, economic value, and store convenience. It was also confirmed that the assumption that the perceived QoS (Quality of Service), economic value, and store convenience had a positive effect on customer satisfaction was shown to be statistically significant, with a p-value below 0.05. Only the store brand value variable had an effect on the switching-cost variable with respect to the causal sequence of the variables, including the perceived QoS, store brand value, economic value, and store convenience. The remaining variables did not seem to influence the switching-cost variable. On the other hand, another effect showed that customer satisfaction had a statistically significant influence on the switching-costs variable. Moreover, the customer satisfaction and switching-cost variables also had a statistical influence on customer loyalty. Conclusions - The CRM activities had an influence on various variables (including perceived QoS, perceived economic value, store brand value, and store convenience) pertaining to customer values. Customer satisfaction and switching-cost had some effects on customer loyalty as a parameter. This confirms that stringent loyalty exists with respect to customer loyalty in the retail industry. The fact that the variable had such a statistically significant influence on the switching-cost and store brand equity variables means that consumers react to the reputation of a brand, confidence about the store, and quality confidence. The implications of this study in the retail industry should be further extended to devise strategies for customer retention.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
• /
• v.8 no.5
• /
• pp.95-109
• /
• 2017

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to classify the quality factors of coffee shop customers with the service quality based on the SERVQUAL, selection attributes, and service qualities used in previous studies. The path structure of coffee shops' quality factors → customer satisfaction → trust → behavioral intention was analyzed in order to confirm the system of coffee shops' quality factors. Research design, data, and methodology - The survey of was conducted with college students of Kangwon University. A total of 250 questionnaires were distributed, with 232 collected. Of them, Excluding 36 respondents' because of incomplete answers and missing values, 196 responses were used in the final analysis. Empirical analysis was made through factor analysis, correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis, simple regression analysis and mediating regression analysis by using Statistics Package SPSS 19.0. Results - The results are as follows: Firstly, coffee shops' quality factors were classified into seven categories like service encounter quality, product quality, cleanliness, overall interior, purchase quality, convenience, and aesthetics. Secondly, service encounter quality, product quality, purchase quality, and aesthetics had a positive effect on customer satisfaction, respectively. Thirdly, it showed that service encounter quality, product quality, overall interior, purchase quality, and aesthetics had a positive effect on trust, respectively. Fourthly, customer satisfaction had a positive effect on behavioral intention. Lastly, after verifying the effect relations of trust between customer satisfaction about coffee shop and behavioral intention, customer satisfaction has a positive effect on trust and trust has a positive effect on behavioral intention. On the other hand, trust did not have a mediating effect between customer satisfaction and behavioral intention. But, cleanliness, convenience, and overall interior did not have a positive effect on customer satisfaction. Conclusions - Coffee shop consumers put importance on price, discount systems, taste, and freshness, but more on courteous and kind services of coffee shop staff or comfortable and calming atmosphere of inner space. Thereby, coffee shop marketers need to take factors like service encounter quality and aesthetics into more consideration. In addition, customer satisfaction has an effect on trust, while trust on behavioral intention, even though trust is not mediated between customer satisfaction and behavior intention.