• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.142-157
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• 2015

This study examines how traditional knowledge functions in the specific techniques to make pottery in terms of the traditional knowledge on the pottery techniques of Onggi potters. It focuses on how traditional pottery manufacturing skills are categorized and what aspects are observed with regard to the techniques. The pottery manufacturing process is divided into the preparation step of raw material, the molding step of pottery, and the final plasticity step. Each step involves unique traditional knowledge. The preparation step mainly comprises the knowledge on different kinds of mud. The knowledge is about the colors and properties of mud, the information on the regional distribution of quality mud, and the techniques to optimize mud for pottery manufacturing. The molding step mainly involves the structure and shape of spinning wheels, the techniques to accumulate mud, ways to use different kinds of tools, the techniques to dry processed pottery. The plasticity step involves the knowledge on kilns and the scheme to build kilns, the skills to stack pottery inside of the kilns, the knowledge on firewood and efficient ways of wood burning, the discrimination of different kinds of fire and the techniques to stoke the kilns. These different kinds of knowledge may be roughly divided into three categories : the preparation of raw material, molding, and plasticity. They are closely connected with one another, which is because it becomes difficult to manufacture quality pottery even with only one incorrect factor. The contents of knowledge involved in the manufacturing process of pottery focused are mainly about raw material, color, shape, distribution aspect, fusion point, durability, physical property, etc, which are all about science. They are rather obtained through the experimental learning process of apprenticeship, not through the official education. It is not easy to categorize the knowledge involved. Most of the knowledge can be understood in the category of ethnoscience. In terms of the UNESCO world heritage of intangible cultural assets, the knowledge is mainly about 'the knowledge on nature and universe'. Unique knowledge and skills are, however, identified in the molding step. They can be referred to 'body techniques', which unify the physical stance of potters, tools they employ, and the conceived pottery. Potters themselves find it difficult to articulate the knowledge. In case stated, it cannot be easily understood without the experience and knowledge on the field. From the preparation of raw material to the complete products, the techniques and traditional knowledge involved in the process of manufacturing pottery are closely connected, employing numerous categories and levels. Such an aspect can be referred to as a 'techniques chain'. Here the techniques mean not only the scientific techniques but also, in addition to the skills, the knowledge of various techniques and levels including habitual, unconscious behaviors of potters.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.61-72
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• 2019

Since the financial crisis in 1997, large scale unemployment and poverty have become serious, but there has been a surge in public and social job creation projects. However, with the limitations of low-wage and short-term jobs, the need for long-term, high quality jobs gradually began to garner attention. In recent years, social enterprises have grown both quantitatively and qualitatively and interest in social enterprises has increased; more specifically, scholars are interested in the determinants of success and failure of social enterprises in the academic field. In this study, we examined the effects of social enterprise characteristics on financial and social performance. In particular, we empirically analyzed social enterprises registered in the Korea Social Enterprise Agency. The financial performance of the social enterprise was measured using the net income ratio, operating income ratio, and the return on asset. The social performance of the social enterprise was measured by the total number of workers and the employment rate of vulnerable social groups. The characteristics of the social enterprise included CEO characteristics (gender, age, experience in operating the social enterprise), firm size, and the elapsed time of authentication. The results of the empirical analysis are as follows. First, as a result of analysis for the effect on financial performance, we found that the financial performance has a statistically significant, positive relationship with firm size, organizational form, government subsidies, and capital adequacy ratio. And we found that the social performance has a statistically significant, negative relationship with CEO age and credit debt dependence. Second, as a result of analysis for the effect on social performance, we found that the total number of workers had a significant, positive relationship with CEO gender and CEO age, as well as firm size, government subsidies; whereas the total number of workers had a significant, negative relationship with certification type and industry dummy. Comparatively, the employment rate of the vulnerable social groups had a significant, positive relationship with CEO gender and certification type, but there was no statistically significant relationship with the government subsidies or firm size.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.100 no.3
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• pp.423-431
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• 2011

The changes of forest degradation in North Korea have closely been related to political, economic and social conditions at all different times. The deforestation by local people for their livelihood has been accelerated when the recession has been worsened due to the 1990's collapse of socialism and the years of natural disasters, and the fall of the centralized and planned economy system. The serious recession in the 1990's has brought many changes in the North Korean society since the 2000's. Not only the underground economy, but also the market in which personal trades are occurred have been expanded as the distribution system of the planned economy system had fallen. In addition, even many state institutions have also increased timber harvest for export to acquire insufficient foreign currency. Eventually, North Korea felt the limits of utilization of forest resources under socialism then started to seek measures to restore devastated forest, while realizing the need of support from the international society. Therefore, some NGOs of South Korea started to give financial support on building tree nurseries in which seedlings for planting are produced to help the rehabilitation of the degraded forests in North Korea. Therefore, Planning of the basic directions for forest rehabilitation programs considering to economic and social conditions of North Korea are needed based on the successful rehabilitation experience of South Korea in the 1970's. First of all, relationships which was built after collapse of centrally planned economy between districts, businesses and workers must be consider to rehabilitate forests in North Korea. Secondly, due to the nature of forest rehabilitation projects this is very needs voluntary participation of resident for a long time, and then forest rehabilitation projects can create jobs for local resident, they can obtain continuous income on the forest rehabilitation projects field in order to promote resident's work in forest rehabilitation projects. Thirdly, the rate dependence on forests of the residents living must keep the level down by rural development projects going side by side with forest rehabilitation projects. Fourthly, use of exsisting forest management system in North Korea is also needed to ensure administrative power and labor for grand scale plantations in a short period of time. Meanwhile after the success of Forest Rehabilitation, it is very important to improve exsisting forest management system.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.145-154
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• 2021

This study aims to investigate teachers' perceptions of the composition of high school science elective courses ahead of the 2022 curriculum revision, and to derive implications for the organization of the 2022 revised science curriculum in preparation for the full implementation of the high school credit system. To this end, a survey was conducted by randomly sampling high schools across the country. A total of 192 science teachers responded to the questionnaire. In addition, 12 high school science teachers were selected as a focus group, and in-depth interviews were conducted to investigate opinions on the restructuring of elective courses in science. Main research results include 129 (67.2%) science teachers in the survey answered that the current 2015 curriculum's science and elective courses system should be maintained. In the next curriculum, when reconstructing science elective subjects, it is necessary to provide an opportunity to experience the entire contents of each science field through Science I·II system as before, and to ensure student choice in preparation for the credit system. In addition, the opinion that general elective subjects should be organized to include all the contents of science I and II subjects was the highest. Through in-depth interviews, science teachers emphasized that the current science I subject system allows access to the content areas of science as much as possible as the number of subjects is small, and that subjects, such as physics, where the hierarchy of concepts is important, should deal with important content within one subject rather than divided by area. On the other hand, in the current I subject system, there is no subject for liberal arts students to choose from, so teachers suggested that science electives should be organized by subdividing each content area. Based on the research results, the necessity of organizing high school science elective courses in consideration of the purpose of the high school credit system, ways to organize science-convergence elective courses as subjects for all students regardless of career aptitude, ways to organize science-career elective courses, and ways to organize science elective courses in connection with the college admission system were proposed.

• Asia-pacific Journal of Multimedia Services Convergent with Art, Humanities, and Sociology
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• v.8 no.12
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• pp.425-435
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to investigate the cultural value as well as business value of Juk-Bang-Ryeum(fishing instrument made by bamboo weir) by the investigation of remains in Gyeongnam Sacheon area and reviewing various historical literatures. The research will contribute to make back data necessary for the registration of World Heritage(UNESCO) and Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems(FAO). Fisheries, along with agriculture, have been great significance in human history. In particular, the Fisheries has been considered very important industry due to the geopolitical characteristics of our country surrounded by the sea. We can imagine may types of fishing practices and instruments at the agricultural age. Nonetheless, there are a few fishery heritages such as collecting and hunting tools that remains today. Fortunately, there are many Juk-Bang-Ryeum which is actually operate now from the past 500 years ago at the The Sacheon and Namhae areas. We could found some literature records about it in the historical ancient literatures. We could also infer that Juk-Bang-Ryeum was an important fishery resource of the country for a long time. It was built on the basis of scientific principles to capture fishes using the rapid tide of the natural geological straits, and it prove the wisdom of our ancestors. We also could found some unique cultural heritages that was important to the local community. Naturally, it has been managed as an important asset for the residents. In addition to such historical and humanistic values, it also has business and educational value. It can be useful to understand scientific fishery principles as well as fishery experience field. It has business value as an important tourism resource in the region in connection with historical relics and geological environment resources. In conclusion, it is a valuable asset to be handed down as a valuable cultural heritage.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.117-129
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• 2023

Organizations must seek change in order to adapt to environmental changes and achieve better performance. However, despite this obvious statement, empirical analysis has been almost non-existent due to the difficulty of manipulating organizational performance or change. In this study, we overcame these limitations and analyzed the causes and effects of organizational change by assuming a professional sports team as a venture company, which is relatively easy to objectively measure and evaluate organizational change or performance. We systematically collected and preprocessed traditional and advanced metrics of National Basketball Association (NBA) statistics along with preprocessed trade data from eight years of regular seasons (2014~2015-2021~2022) to analyze our research model. Assessment of process macro model 7 derives the following empirical result. The results of the empirical analysis depict that NBA teams with low organizational performance in the previous season are more likely to make organizational changes through player trades to improve performance. Into the bargain player trades mediate the static relationship between the winning percentage in the previous season and the winning percentage in the current season. However, the indirect effect of a team's previous season's performance on player trades appears to vary depending on the current situations and context of each NBA team. Teams that made the playoffs in the previous season tend to make fewer trades than teams that did not and the previous season's performance is highly correlated with the current season's performance. On the other hand, teams that did not make the playoffs in the previous season tend to make a relatively larger amount of player trades in total, and the mediating effect of trades vanishes in this case. In other words, teams that did not make the playoffs in the previous season experience a larger change in performance due to trades than teams that made the playoffs, even if they achieved the same winning percentage. This empirical analysis of the inverse relationship between organizational change and the performance of professional sports teams has both theoretical and practical implications in the field of sports industry and management by analyzing the fundamentals of organizational change and the performance of professional sports teams.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.123-139
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• 2019

The job classification system of major job sites differs from site to site and is different from the job classification system of the 'SQF(Sectoral Qualifications Framework)' proposed by the SW field. Therefore, a new job classification system is needed for SW companies, SW job seekers, and job sites to understand. The purpose of this study is to establish a standard job classification system that reflects market demand by analyzing SQF based on job offer information of major job sites and the NCS(National Competency Standards). For this purpose, the association analysis between occupations of major job sites is conducted and the association rule between SQF and occupation is conducted to derive the association rule between occupations. Using this association rule, we proposed an intelligent job classification system based on data mapping the job classification system of major job sites and SQF and job classification system. First, major job sites are selected to obtain information on the job classification system of the SW market. Then We identify ways to collect job information from each site and collect data through open API. Focusing on the relationship between the data, filtering only the job information posted on each job site at the same time, other job information is deleted. Next, we will map the job classification system between job sites using the association rules derived from the association analysis. We will complete the mapping between these market segments, discuss with the experts, further map the SQF, and finally propose a new job classification system. As a result, more than 30,000 job listings were collected in XML format using open API in 'WORKNET,' 'JOBKOREA,' and 'saramin', which are the main job sites in Korea. After filtering out about 900 job postings simultaneously posted on multiple job sites, 800 association rules were derived by applying the Apriori algorithm, which is a frequent pattern mining. Based on 800 related rules, the job classification system of WORKNET, JOBKOREA, and saramin and the SQF job classification system were mapped and classified into 1st and 4th stages. In the new job taxonomy, the first primary class, IT consulting, computer system, network, and security related job system, consisted of three secondary classifications, five tertiary classifications, and five fourth classifications. The second primary classification, the database and the job system related to system operation, consisted of three secondary classifications, three tertiary classifications, and four fourth classifications. The third primary category, Web Planning, Web Programming, Web Design, and Game, was composed of four secondary classifications, nine tertiary classifications, and two fourth classifications. The last primary classification, job systems related to ICT management, computer and communication engineering technology, consisted of three secondary classifications and six tertiary classifications. In particular, the new job classification system has a relatively flexible stage of classification, unlike other existing classification systems. WORKNET divides jobs into third categories, JOBKOREA divides jobs into second categories, and the subdivided jobs into keywords. saramin divided the job into the second classification, and the subdivided the job into keyword form. The newly proposed standard job classification system accepts some keyword-based jobs, and treats some product names as jobs. In the classification system, not only are jobs suspended in the second classification, but there are also jobs that are subdivided into the fourth classification. This reflected the idea that not all jobs could be broken down into the same steps. We also proposed a combination of rules and experts' opinions from market data collected and conducted associative analysis. Therefore, the newly proposed job classification system can be regarded as a data-based intelligent job classification system that reflects the market demand, unlike the existing job classification system. This study is meaningful in that it suggests a new job classification system that reflects market demand by attempting mapping between occupations based on data through the association analysis between occupations rather than intuition of some experts. However, this study has a limitation in that it cannot fully reflect the market demand that changes over time because the data collection point is temporary. As market demands change over time, including seasonal factors and major corporate public recruitment timings, continuous data monitoring and repeated experiments are needed to achieve more accurate matching. The results of this study can be used to suggest the direction of improvement of SQF in the SW industry in the future, and it is expected to be transferred to other industries with the experience of success in the SW industry.

• The Korean Nurse
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.77-96
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• 1997

The duty shifts of hospital nurses not only affect nurses' physical and mental health but also present various personnel management problems which often result in high turnover rates. In this context a study was carried out from October to November 1995 for a period of two months to find out the status of hospital nurses' duty shift patterns, and preferred duty hours and fixed duty shifts. The study population was 867 RNs working in five general hospitals located in Seoul and its vicinity. The questionnaire developed by the writer was used for data collection. The response rate was 85.9 percent or 745 returns. The SAS program was used for data analysis with the computation of frequencies, percentages and Chi square test. The findings of the study are as follows: 1. General characteristics of the study population: 56 percent of respondents was (25 years group and 76.5 percent were "single": the predominant proportion of respondents was junior nursing college graduates(92.2%) and have less than 5 years nursing experience in hospitals(65.5%). For their future working plan in nursing profession, nearly 50% responded as uncertain The reasons given for their career plan was predominantly 'personal growth and development' rather than financial reasons. 2. The interval for rotations of duty stations was found to be mostly irregular(56.4%) while others reported as weekly(16.1%), monthly(12.9%), and fixed terms(4.6%). 3. The main problems related to duty shifts particularly the evening and night duty nurses reported were "not enough time for the family, " "afraid of security problems after the work when returning home late at night." and "lack of leisure time". "problems in physical and physiological adjustment." "problems in family life." "lack of time for interactions with fellow nurses" etc. 4. The forty percent of respondents reported to have '1-2 times' of duty shift rotations while all others reported that '0 time'. '2-3 times'. 'more than 3 times' etc. which suggest the irregularity in duty shift rotations. 5. The majority(62.8%) of study population found to favor the rotating system of duty stations. The reasons for favoring the rotation system were: the opportunity for "learning new things and personal development." "better human relations are possible. "better understanding in various duty stations." "changes in monotonous routine job" etc. The proportion of those disfavor the rotating 'system was 34.7 percent. giving the reasons of"it impedes development of specialization." "poor job performances." "stress factors" etc. Furthermore. respondents made the following comments in relation to the rotation of duty stations: the nurses should be given the opportunity to participate in the. decision making process: personal interest and aptitudes should be considered: regular intervals for the rotations or it should be planned in advance. etc. 6. For the future career plan. the older. married group with longer nursing experiences appeared to think the nursing as their lifetime career more likely than the younger. single group with shorter nursing experiences ($x^2=61.19.{\;}p=.000;{\;}x^2=41.55.{\;}p=.000$). The reason given for their future career plan regardless of length of future service, was predominantly "personal growth and development" rather than financial reasons. For further analysis, the group those with the shorter career plan appeared to claim "financial reasons" for their future career more readily than the group who consider the nursing job as their lifetime career$(x^2$= 11.73, p=.003) did. This finding suggests the need for careful .considerations in personnel management of nursing administration particularly when dealing with the nurses' career development. The majority of respondents preferred the fixed day shift. However, further analysis of those preferred evening shift by age and civil status, "< 25 years group"(15.1%) and "single group"(13.2) were more likely to favor the fixed evening shift than > 25 years(6.4%) and married(4.8%)groups. This differences were statistically significant ($x^2=14.54, {\;}p=.000;{\;}x^2=8.75, {\;}p=.003$). 7. A great majority of respondents(86.9% or n=647) found to prefer the day shifts. When the four different types of duty shifts(Types A. B. C, D) were presented, 55.0 percent of total respondents preferred the A type or the existing one followed by D type(22.7%). B type(12.4%) and C type(8.2%). 8. When the condition of monetary incentives for the evening(20% of salary) and night shifts(40% of. salary) of the existing duty type was presented. again the day shift appeared to be the most preferred one although the rate was slightly lower(66.4% against 86.9%). In the case of evening shift, with the same incentive, the preference rates for evening and night shifts increased from 11.0 to 22.4 percent and from 0.5 to 3.0 percent respectively. When the age variable was controlled. < 25 yrs group showed higher rates(31.6%. 4.8%) than those of > 25 yrs group(15.5%. 1.3%) respectively preferring the evening and night shifts(p=.000). The civil status also seemed to operate on the preferences of the duty shifts as the single group showed lower rate(69.0%) for day duty against 83. 6% of the married group. and higher rates for evening and night duties(27.2%. 15.1%) respectively against those of the married group(3.8%. 1.8%) while a higher proportion of the married group(83. 6%) preferred the day duties than the single group(69.0%). These differences were found to be statistically all significant(p=.001). 9. The findings on preferences of three different types of fixed duty hours namely, B, C. and D(with additional monetary incentives) are as follows in order of preference: B type(12hrs a day, 3days a wk): day shift(64.1%), evening shift(26.1%). night shift(6.5%) C type(12hrs a day. 4days a wk) : evening shift(49.2%). day shift(32.8%), night shift(11.5%) D type(10hrs a day. 4days a wk): showed the similar trend as B type. The findings of higher preferences on the evening and night duties when the incentives are given. as shown above, suggest the need for the introductions of different patterns of duty hours and incentive measures in order to overcome the difficulties in rostering the nursing duties. However, the interpretation of the above data, particularly the C type, needs cautions as the total number of respondents is very small(n=61). It requires further in-depth study. In conclusion. it seemed to suggest that the patterns of nurses duty hours and shifts in the most hospitals in the country have neither been tried for different duty types nor been flexible. The stereotype rostering system of three shifts and insensitiveness for personal life aspect of nurses seemed to be prevailing. This study seems to support that irregular and frequent rotations of duty shifts may be contributing factors for most nurses' maladjustment problems in physical and mental health. personal and family life which eventually may result in high turnover rates. In order to overcome the increasing problems in personnel management of hospital nurses particularly in rostering of evening and night duty shifts, which may related to eventual high turnover rates, the findings of this study strongly suggest the need for an introduction of new rostering systems including fixed duties and appropriate incentive measures for evenings and nights which the most nurses want to avoid, In considering the nursing care of inpatients is the round-the clock business. the practice of the nursing duty shift system is inevitable. In this context, based on the findings of this study. the following are recommended: 1. The further in-depth studies on duty shifts and hours need to be undertaken for the development of appropriate and effective rostering systems for hospital nurses. 2. An introduction of appropriate incentive measures for evening and night duty shifts along with organizational considerations such as the trials for preferred duty time bands, duty hours, and fixed duty shifts should be considered if good quality of care for the patients be maintained for the round the clock. This may require an initiation of systematic research and development activities in the field of hospital nursing administration as a part of permanent system in the hospital. 3. Planned and regular intervals, orientation and training, and professional and personal growth should be considered for the rotation of different duty stations or units. 4. In considering the higher degree of preferences in the duty type of "10hours a day, 4days a week" shown in this study, it would be worthwhile to undertake the R&D type studies in large hospital settings.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.61-118
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• 2008

The purpose of this research is to construct research framework for international franchising based on existing literature and to identify research components in the framework. Franchise can be defined as management styles that allow franchisee use various management assets of franchisor in order to make or sell product or service. It can be divided into product distribution franchise that is designed to sell products and business format franchise that is designed for running it as business whatever its form is. International franchising can be defined as a way of internationalization of franchisor to foreign country by providing its business format or package to franchisee of host country. International franchising is growing fast for last four decades but academic research on this is quite limited. Especially in Korea, research about international franchising is carried out on by case study format with single case or empirical study format with survey based on domestic franchise theory. Therefore, this paper tries to review existing literature on international franchising research, providing research framework, and then stimulating new research on this field. International franchising research components include motives and environmental factors for decision of expanding to international franchising, entrance modes and development plan for international franchising, contracts and management strategy of international franchising, and various performance measures from different perspectives. First, motives of international franchising are fee collection from franchisee. Also it provides easier way to expanding to foreign country. The other motives including increase total sales volume, occupying better strategic position, getting quality resources, and improving efficiency. Environmental factors that facilitating international franchising encompasses economic condition, trend, and legal or political factors in host and/or home countries. In addition, control power and risk management capability of franchisor plays critical role in successful franchising contract. Final decision to enter foreign country via franchising is determined by numerous factors like history, size, growth, competitiveness, management system, bonding capability, industry characteristics of franchisor. After deciding to enter into foreign country, franchisor needs to set entrance modes of international franchising. Within contractual mode, there are master franchising and area developing franchising, licensing, direct franchising, and joint venture. Theories about entrance mode selection contain concepts of efficiency, knowledge-based approach, competence-based approach, agent theory, and governance cost. The next step after entrance decision is operation strategy. Operation strategy starts with selecting a target city and a target country for franchising. In order to finding, screening targets, franchisor needs to collect information about candidates. Critical information includes brand patent, commercial laws, regulations, market conditions, country risk, and industry analysis. After selecting a target city in target country, franchisor needs to select franchisee, in other word, partner. The first important criteria for selecting partners are financial credibility and capability, possession of real estate. And cultural similarity and knowledge about franchisor and/or home country are also recognized as critical criteria. The most important element in operating strategy is legal document between franchisor and franchisee with home and host countries. Terms and conditions in legal documents give objective information about characteristics of franchising agreement for academic research. Legal documents have definitions of terminology, territory and exclusivity, agreement of term, initial fee, continuing fees, clearing currency, and rights about sub-franchising. Also, legal documents could have terms about softer elements like training program and operation manual. And harder elements like law competent court and terms of expiration. Next element in operating strategy is about product and service. Especially for business format franchising, product/service deliverable, benefit communicators, system identifiers (architectural features), and format facilitators are listed for product/service strategic elements. Another important decision on product/service is standardization vs. customization. The rationale behind standardization is cost reduction, efficiency, consistency, image congruence, brand awareness, and competitiveness on price. Also standardization enables large scale R&D and innovative change in management style. Another element in operating strategy is control management. The simple way to control franchise contract is relying on legal terms, contractual control system. There are other control systems, administrative control system and ethical control system. Contractual control system is a coercive source of power, but franchisor usually doesn't want to use legal power since it doesn't help to build up positive relationship. Instead, self-regulation is widely used. Administrative control system uses control mechanism from ordinary work relationship. Its main component is supporting activities to franchisee and communication method. For example, franchisor provides advertising, training, manual, and delivery, then franchisee follows franchisor's direction. Another component is building franchisor's brand power. The last research element is performance factor of international franchising. Performance elements can be divided into franchisor's performance and franchisee's performance. The conceptual performance measures of franchisor are simple but not easy to obtain objectively. They are profit, sale, cost, experience, and brand power. The performance measures of franchisee are mostly about benefits of host country. They contain small business development, promotion of employment, introduction of new business model, and level up technology status. There are indirect benefits, like increase of tax, refinement of corporate citizenship, regional economic clustering, and improvement of international balance. In addition to those, host country gets socio-cultural change other than economic effects. It includes demographic change, social trend, customer value change, social communication, and social globalization. Sometimes it is called as westernization or McDonaldization of society. In addition, the paper reviews on theories that have been frequently applied to international franchising research, such as agent theory, resource-based view, transaction cost theory, organizational learning theory, and international expansion theories. Resource based theory is used in strategic decision based on resources, like decision about entrance and cooperation depending on resources of franchisee and franchisor. Transaction cost theory can be applied in determination of mutual trust or satisfaction of franchising players. Agent theory tries to explain strategic decision for reducing problem caused by utilizing agent, for example research on control system in franchising agreements. Organizational Learning theory is relatively new in franchising research. It assumes organization tries to maximize performance and learning of organization. In addition, Internalization theory advocates strategic decision of direct investment for removing inefficiency of market transaction and is applied in research on terms of contract. And oligopolistic competition theory is used to explain various entry modes for international expansion. Competency theory support strategic decision of utilizing key competitive advantage. Furthermore, research methodologies including qualitative and quantitative methodologies are suggested for more rigorous international franchising research. Quantitative research needs more real data other than survey data which is usually respondent's judgment. In order to verify theory more rigorously, research based on real data is essential. However, real quantitative data is quite hard to get. The qualitative research other than single case study is also highly recommended. Since international franchising has limited number of applications, scientific research based on grounded theory and ethnography study can be used. Scientific case study is differentiated with single case study on its data collection method and analysis method. The key concept is triangulation in measurement, logical coding and comparison. Finally, it provides overall research direction for international franchising after summarizing research trend in Korea. International franchising research in Korea has two different types, one is for studying Korean franchisor going overseas and the other is for Korean franchisee of foreign franchisor. Among research on Korean franchisor, two common patterns are observed. First of all, they usually deal with success story of one franchisor. The other common pattern is that they focus on same industry and country. Therefore, international franchise research needs to extend their focus to broader subjects with scientific research methodology as well as development of new theory.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2010

Purpose: This retrospective study was performed to evaluate the efficacy of radiation therapy (RT) and to investigate the prognostic factors for thymoma when treated with RT. Materials and Methods: We analyzed 21 patients with thymoma and also received RT from March 2002 to January 2008. The median follow-up time was 37 months (range, 3 to 89 months). The median patient age was 57 years (range, 24 to 77 years) and the gender ratio of males to females was 4：3. Of the 21 patients, complete resections (trans-sternal thymectomy) and R2 resections were performed in 14 and 1 patient, respectively. A biopsy was performed in 6 patients (28.7%). The WHO cell types in the 21 patients were as follows: 1 patient (4.8%) had type A, 10 patients (47.6%) had type B1-3, and 10 patients (47.6%) had type C. Based on Masaoka staging, 10 patients (47.6%) were stage II, 7 patients (33.3%) were stage III, and 4 patients (19.1%) were stage IVa. Three-dimensional RT was adminstered to the tumor volume (planned target volume), including the anterior mediastinum and the residual disease. The total RT dose ranged from 52.0 to 70.2 Gy (median dose, 54 Gy). Consistent with the WHO criteria, the response rate was only analyzed for the 6 patients who received a biopsy only. The prognostic factors analyzed for an estimate of survival included age, gender, tumor size, tumor pathology, Masaoka stage, the possibility of treatment by performing surgery, the presence of myasthenia gravis, and RT dose. Results: The 3-year overall survival rate (OS) and the progression free survival rate (PFS) were 80.7% and 78.2%, respectively. Among the 10 patients with WHO cell type C, 3 of 4 patients (75%) who underwent a complete resection and 3 of 6 patients (50%) who underwent a biopsy survived. Distant metastasis developed in 4 patients (19.1%). The overall response rate in the 6 patients who received biopsy only were as follows: partial remission in 4 patients (66.7%), stable disease in 1 patient (16.6%), and progressive disease in 1 patient (16.6%). Acute RTOG radiation pneumonitis occurred in 1 patient (4.8%), grade 2 occurred in 2 patients (9.5%), grade 3 occurred in 1 patient (4.8%), and grade 4 occurred in 1 patient (4.8%). A univariate analysis revealed that the significant prognostic factors for OS were age (${\geq}60$, 58.3%; <60, 100%; p=0.0194), pathology (WHO cell type A-B3, 100%; C, 58.3%; p=0.0194) and, whether the patient underwent surgery (yes, 93.3%; no, 50%; p=0.0096). Conclusion: For the 15 patients who received surgery, there was no local failure within the radiation field. In patients with WHO cell type C, surgical procedures could have resulted in a more favorable outcome than biopsy alone. We report here our clinical experience in 21 patients with thymoma who were treated by radiation therapy.