• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
• /
• v.19 no.4
• /
• pp.57-63
• /
• 2009

With an exponential increase in electronic commerce (e-commerce), marketers are attempting to gain a competitive advantage by emphasizing service quality and post interaction service aspects, which leads to customer satisfaction or behavioral consequence. Particularly for apparel, service quality is one of the key determinants in encouraging customer e-loyalty, and hence the success of apparel retailing in the context of electronic commerce. Therefore, this study explores e-service quality (E-SERVQUAL) factors and their unique effects on e-loyalty for apparel online shopping based on Parasuraman et al' s (2005) framework. Specific objectives of this study are to identify underlying dimension of E-SERVQUAL, and analyze a structural model for examining the effect of E-SERVQUAL on e-loyalty for online apparel shopping. For the theoretical framework of service quality in the context of online shopping, literatures on traditional and electronic service quality factors were comparatively reviewed, and two aspects of core and recovery services were identified. This study hypothesized that E-SERVQUAL has an effect on e-loyalty; customer satisfaction has a positive effect on e-service loyalty for apparel online shopping; and customer satisfaction mediates in the effect of E-SERVQUAL on e-loyalty for apparel online shopping. A self-administered questionnaire was developed based on literatures. A total of 252 usable questionnaires were obtained from online consumers who had purchase experience with online shopping for apparel products and reside in standard metropolitan areas, in the United States. Factor analysis (e.g., exploratory, confirmatory) was conducted to assess the validity and reliability and the structural equation model including measurement and structural models was estimated via LISREL 8.8 program. Findings showed that the E-SERVQUAL of shopping websites for apparel consisted of five factors: Compensation, Fulfillment, Efficiency, System Availability, and Responsiveness. This supports Parasuraman (2005)'s E-S-QUAL encompassing two aspects of core service (e.g., fulfillment, efficiency, system availability) and recovery related service (e.g., compensation, responsiveness) in the context of apparel shopping online. In the structural equation model, there are five exogenous latent variables for e-SERVQUAL factors; and two endogenous latent variables (e.g., customer satisfaction, e-loyalty). For the measurement model, the factor loadings for each respective construct were statistically significant and were greater than .60 and internal consistency reliabilities ranged from .85 to .88. In the estimated structural model of the e-SERVEQUAL factors, the system availability was found to have direct and positive effect on e-loyalty, whereas efficiency had a negative effect on e-loyalty for apparel online shopping. However, fulfillment was not a significant predictor for explaining consequences of E-SERVQUAL for apparel online shopping. This finding implies that perceived service quality of system available was likely to increase customer satisfaction for apparel online shopping. However, it was not supported that e-loyalty was determined by service quality, because service quality has an indirect effect on e-loyalty (i.e., repurchase intention) by mediating effect of value or satisfaction in the context of online shopping for apparel. In addition, both compensation and responsiveness were found to have a significant impact on customer satisfaction, which influenced e-loyalty for apparel online shopping. Thus, there was significant indirect effect of compensation and responsiveness on e-loyalty. This suggests that the recovery-specific service factors play an important role in maximizing customer satisfaction levels and then maintaining customer loyalty to the online shopping site for apparel. The findings have both managerial and research implications. Fashion marketers can establish long-term relationship with their customers based on continuously measuring customer perceptions for recovery-related service quality, such as quick responses to problem and returns, and compensation for customers' problem after their purchases. In order to maintain e-loyalty, recovery services play an important role in the first choice websites for consumers to purchase clothing. Given that online consumers may shop anywhere, a marketing strategy for improving competitive advantages is to provide better service quality, maximize satisfaction, and turn to creating customers' e-loyalty for apparel online shopping. From a researcher's perspective, there are some limitations of this research that should be considered when interpreting its findings. For future research, findings provide a basis for the further study of this important topic along both theoretical and empirical dimensions. Based on the findings, more comprehensive models for predicting E-SERVQUAL's consequences can be developed and tested. For global fashion marketing, this study can expand to a cross-cultural approach into e-service quality for apparel by including multinational samples.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.28 no.6
• /
• pp.656-662
• /
• 2018

Flavin-containing monooxygenases from Corynebacterium (cFMOs) were mutagenized based on homology modeling to develop variants with an enhanced indigoid production capability. The four mutants, F170Y, A210G, A210S, and T326S, which fused to a maltose-binding protein (MBP), were constructed, and their biochemical properties were characterized. Of these, purified MBP-T326S required a higher concentration of exogenous FAD (100 mM) than the wild-type MBP-cFMO for optimal activity and showed a 3.8-fold increase in the $k_{cat}/K_m$ value at $100{\mu}M$ FAD compared to that of MBP-cFMO at $2{\mu}M$ FAD. The indole oxygenase activities of MBP-T326S decreased to 63-77% compared to that of the MBP-cFMO In addition, MBP-T326S displayed a very low level of futile NADPH oxidase activities (21-24%) in the absence of a substrate. Mutant proteins except for T326S displayed similar $K_m$ and increased $k_{cat}/K_m$ values compared to the wild-type. MBP-F170Y and -A210S mutants showed elevated indole oxygenase activity higher than 3.1- and 2.9-fold, respectively, in comparison with MBP-cFMO. When indigoid production was carried out in LB broth with 2.5 g/l of tryptophan, Escherichia coli expressing cFMO produced 684 mg/l of indigo and 104 mg/l of indirubin, while cells harboring T326S produced 1,040 mg/l of indigo and 112 mg/l of indirubin. The results indicate that the production of indigo was 13% higher when compared to a previous report in which an E. coli expressing FMO from Methylophaga produced 920 mg/l of indigo. The protein engineering of cFMO based on homology modeling provided a more rational strategy for developing indigoid-producing strains.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
• /
• v.28 no.2
• /
• pp.135-142
• /
• 2001

A novel sterategy has been established to determine the origin of the Primordial Germ Cells (PGCs) in avian embryos directly and the developmental fate of the PGCs for the application to Poultry biotechnology. Cells were removed from 1) the centre of area pellucida, 2) the outer of area pellucida and 3) the area opaca of the stage X blastoderm (Eyal-Giladi & Kochav, 1976). When the cells were removed from the centre of area pellucida, the mean number of circulating PGCs in blood was significantly decreased in the embryo at stage 15 (Hamburger & Hamilton, 1951) as compared to intact embryos. When the cells were replenished with donor cells, no reduction in the PGCs number was observed. The removal of cells at the outer of area pellucida or at the area opaca had no effect on the number of PGCs. In case, another set of the manipulated embryos were cultured ex vivo to the hatching and reared to the sexual maturity, the absence of germ cells and degeneration of seminiferous tubules was observed in resulting chickens derived from the blastoderm in which the cells were removed from the centre of the area pellucida. It was concluded that the avian Primordial Germ cells are originated at the center of area pellucida. Developmental ability of the cells to differentiate into somatic cells and germ cells in chimeras were analyzed. Somatic chimerism was detected as black feather attributed from donor cells. Molecular identification by use of female - specific DNA was performed. It was confirmed that the donor cells could be differentiated into chimeric body and erythrocytes. Donor cells retained the ability to differentiate into germline in chimeric gonads. More than 70% of the generated chimeras transmitted donor derived gametes to their offspring indicating that the cells at the center of area pellucida had the high ability to differentiate into germ cells. A molecular technique to identify germline chimerism has been developed by use of gene scan analysis. Strain specific DNA fragments were amplified by the method. It would be greatly contributed for the detection of germline chimerism. Mixed- sex chimeras which contained both male and female cells were produced to investigate the developmental fate of male and female cells in ovary and testes. The sex combinations of donor and recipient of the resulting chimeras were following 4 pairs; (1) chimeras (ZZ/ZZ) produced by a male donor (ZZ) and a male recipient (ZZ), (2) chimeras (ZW/ZW) produced by a female donor (ZW) and a female recipient (ZW), (3) chimeras (ZZ/ZW) Produce by a male donor (ZZ) and a female recipient (ZW), (4) chimeras (ZW/ZZ) produced by a female donor (ZW) and a male recipient (ZZ). It was found that genetically male avian germ cells could differentiate into functional ova and that genetically female germ cells can differentiate into functional spermatozoa in the gonad of the mixed- sex chimeras. An ability for introduction of exogenous DNA into the PGCs from stage X blastoderms were analyzed. Two reporter genes, SV-$\beta$gal and RSV-GFP, were introduced into the PGCs. Expression of bacterial/gal was improved by complexing DNA with liposome detectedcc in 75% of embryos at 3 days embryos. At the embryos incubated for 1 day, expression of the GFP was observed all the embryos. At day 3 of incubation, GFP was detected in about 70% of the manipulated embryos. In case of GFP, expression of the transgene was detected in 30 %e of the manipulated embryos. These results suggested that the cells is one of the most promising vectors for transgenesis. The established strategy should be very powerfull for application to poultry biotechnology.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
• /
• v.32 no.2
• /
• pp.55-92
• /
• 2010

In terms of labor market accomplishments, such as income, size of the company, and the matching quality between one's job and college major (specialization), a very large discrepancy is observed between the graduates from colleges located in Seoul and those outside Seoul. But, when the department average score of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) at the time of college entrance is controlled for, the discrepancy is found to be reduced to a considerable degree. In the case of wage gap, at least two third can be explained by the SAT score gap. The remaining wage gap seems to reflect the characteristics of workplace. In other words, graduates with high SAT scores enter colleges located in Seoul and thus tend to find better jobs leading to earning differences. This result that confirms the importance of aptitude test scores suggests that in the labor market, one of the major reasons behind a lower accomplishment of the graduate from local colleges is due to a lower competitiveness of local colleges in attracting the brightest students. But, this should not be viewed as only an internal problem of local colleges. This is because the growth of local economies tends to haul the advancement of local colleges in that area rather than being the other way around. The agglomeration effect in Seoul where headquarters of large corporations and financial institutions gather is the factor that has elevated the status of colleges located in Seoul since this provides highly preferred job choices of graduates. When the competitiveness of college is significantly influenced by exogenous factors, such as the vicinity to Seoul, the effort being made by colleges alone would not be enough to improve the situation. However, the central government, too, is not in the position to carry out countermeasure policies for such problems. The regional development strategy boosted through supportive policies for local colleges, such as financial support, is not based on the persuasive and empirical grounds. It is true that college education is universal and that the government''s intervention in assisting local colleges to secure basic conditions, such as tenure faculty and adequate facilities is necessary. However, the way of intervention should not be a support-only type. In order to improve the efficiency and effect of financial support, restructuring programs, including the merger and integration of insolvent colleges, should be underway prior to providing support. In addition, when the policy is focused on education recipients-local college students, and not on education providers-local colleges, the importance of regional gap in compulsory education (elementary and junior high schools) turns out to be much important as the gap between metropolitan area colleges and local colleges. Considering the educational gap before college entrance shown from the discrepancies of aptitude test scores among different regions, the imbalance between regions in terms of human resources is apparently derived from compulsory education, and not from college education. Therefore, there is a need to double the policy efforts to reduce the educational gap among different regions. In addition, given the current situation where it is difficult to find appropriate ex post facto policy measures to solve the problem of income gap between the graduates from metropolitan colleges and local colleges, it can be said that improving the environment for compulsory education in local areas is a growing necessity for bridging the educational gap among different regions.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
• /
• v.31 no.3
• /
• pp.143-151
• /
• 2022

This study was carried out to investigate quantitative characteristics of the cooling effect in a single-span arch greenhouse with roll-up side vents depending on operation of circulation and exhaust fans during ventilation, in order to suggest a practical strategy regarding installation or operation of forced ventilation systems. The examination was conducted under 3 different ventilation conditions (side vents only, side vents + circulation fans, and side vents + circulation fans + exhaust fans). In each condition, variations of internal and external air temperatures and exogenous environmental factors were recorded during ventilation, and the cooling effects were investigated by comparing the normalized temperature difference (NTD) of each ventilation condition. In the morning time (11:00-12:00), a temporary peak in the temperature difference was observed at the beginning of ventilation regardless of ventilation methods. The time taken to the maximum NTD was decreased from 340 s to 110s, and the NTD was dropped from 1.158 to 1.037 as the more forced ventilation systems were operated. The more operations caused the passing time over specific NTD values reduced by 60% as the time was reduced from 1,030 s to 550 s at NTD = 0.8, 1,610 s to 915 s at NTD = 0.6, and 2,315 s to 1,360 s at NTD = 0.4. The temporary peak in NTD was not observed in the afternoon time (14:00-15:00) but it was dropped as quickly as the ventilation started. Also the more operations resulted in the passing time over specific NTD values reduced by 70% as the time was reduced from 560 s to 345 s at NTD = 0.8, from 825 s to 540 s at NTD = 0.6, and from 1,145 s to 810 s at NTD = 0.4. Conclusively, the intervention of the forced ventilation system is recommended in the morning time or in high thermal conditions to achieve more effective and economical ventilation.