• Journal of Information Technology Services
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.221-251
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• 2014

This paper is to investigate the degree of impact of social media use on buyer's value. Buyers of innovative digital devise are classified into three groups based on adopting behaviors. This study focuses on the degree of changes in information accessability and trust, and their associations with increased value perceived in resulting quality life. The result shows the gap in information accessability has disappeared while the one in trust remained. This implies that the gap among adopters in diffusion curve, so-called the chasm notion is very likely to be lessened or disappeared due to social network openness. Also, shown are the relationship of these variables with the degree of purchase value more stable with information accessability than with trust, all in varying patterns though. It implies that information sharing through social media be accompanied with source credibility in order to be of more value not only to buyers but also to sellers especially for new interactive devices.

• Healthcare Informatics Research
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.276-282
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• 2018

Objectives: Due to the uncontrolled increase of the mobile health applications and their scarce use by elderly for reason of absence credibility of measurements by lack scientific support, the aim of this study was to evaluate the differences between the biophysical measurements based on standard instrument against a mobile application using controlled experiments with elderly to propose an effective validation model of the developed apps. Methods: The subjects of the study (50 people) were elderly people who wanted to check their weight and cardiac status. For this purpose, two mobile applications were used to measure energy expenditure based on physical activity (Activ) and heart rate (SMCa) during controlled walking at specific speeds. Minute-by-minute measurements were recorded to evaluate the average error and the accuracy of the data acquired through confidence intervals by means of statistical analysis of the data. Results: The experimental results obtained by the Activ/SMCa apps showed a consistent statistical similarity with those obtained by specialized equipment with confidence intervals of 95%. All the subjects were advised and trained on the use of the applications, and the initial registration of data to characterize them served to significantly affect the perceived ease of use. Conclusions: This is the first model to validate a health-app with elderly people allowed to demonstrate the anthropometric and body movement differences of subjects with equal body mass index (BMI) but younger. Future studies should consider not only BMI data but also other variables, such as age and usability perception factors.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.25-36
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• 2018

Nowadays, it is hard to imagine one's life without smart phones or the internet. Furthermore, not only do people form groups offline, but also online. Based on the cognitive dissonance theory, there have been many studies about how an offline group's initiation affects attitudes toward the group. However, there has not been a study about how an online group's initiation can affect attitudes toward the group. Therefore, this study aims to find out how cognitive dissonance aroused by initiation affects the attitudes toward the online community, which represents groups that are formed online. In addition, this study examined how perceived similarity affects changes in attitude aroused by cognitive dissonance. Participants were assigned to a group in three ways as follows: without a registration process, with a simple registration process, and/or with a complex registration process. Perceived similarity was calculated by the difference between the current body mass index (BMI) and the target BMI of the participant. Attitudes toward the online group were measured by perceived source credibility, perceived information quality, satisfaction, information usefulness, and continuance intention. Contrary to the cognitive dissonance theory, the results showed that when applied to offline social groups, there were conflicting results. There were cases where there was no difference in the evaluation between initiation conditions. However, other cases showed that groups with the most complex registration process were found to have the worst evaluation. People were more favorable toward the group when the perceived similarity was larger. Interestingly, people who had higher perceived similarity had more positive attitudes toward the groups that had been assigned with a registration process compared to the group formed without a registration process. Conversely, people with lower perceived similarity had more positive attitudes toward the group when there was no initiation process. Online communities may use the results of this study to design more suitable registration processes for their communities.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.115-130
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• 2001

Dieting behaviors prevail among most women and are highly increasing among female adolescents who don't have to lose weight. The dieting behaviors of normal or low weight groups are highly related to the negative impact of health risk behaviors. We need a strategy for intervening in the dieting behaviors of relevant groups. With this background, a study was conducted to examine the current situation of dieting behaviors and related factors in middle school girls, and to provide guidelines for the relevant dieting group. This survey was carried out by self-questionnaires passed out to 901 middle school girls from 3 middle schools in Seoul. Data were collected from April 10th, 2000 to April 17th, 2000 and 794 respondents' data were finally selected for analysis. The instruments of this study were Shin's scale for effects of mass-media, Birleson's depression self-rating scale translated by shim, Rosenberg's self-esteem scale, Smilkstein's Family APGAR score translated by Yoon, Kim's school-related adjustment scale. The credibility of instruments was 0.41~0.83 in the pilot study and 0.70~0.86 in the main study. The summary of results was as follows: 1. The general characteristics of respondents were analyzed. In comparison of grade and dieting behaviors, the subjects of the group perceived that their body image was obeser than their real body image and their ideal body image was slenderer than their current body image. A dieter's body image was seriously distorted. 2. The dieting behaviors were analyzed. The Subjects' BMI was within the normal to low range -- they didn't have to lose weight. But actually 47.3% of the respondents were dieters. Their main dieting methods were exercise(71.8%), computer games(64.9%) such as DDR and pump, and intake reduction(64.1%). Most dieters were using desirable methods such as exercise and intake control. But unhealthy methods such as saunax, smoking and harmful drug-use were also used by a few dieters. The main reason for dieting was attractiveness. The chief resources of dieting methods were mass-media(67.8%), friends(64.3%), and parents & relatives(35.1%). Only a few subjects obtained the information from health professionals. While they were trying to lose weight, 42.1% of the subjects experienced side effects such as dizziness(45.0%), apathy(20.5%), appetite loss(18.5%), amenorrhea and the irregularity of the menstrual cycle(16.6%). 3. The relationship between dieting behaviors and factors was analyzed. Dieting behaviors were significantly related to the experience of menarche, the experience of dating with heterosexuals, perceived body image, self-esteem, depression, family's relationship, school instruction-related adjustment, school life-related adjustment, and the effect of mass-media. After that, the multiple logistic regression was used. The analysis revealed that dating, perceived body image, the experience of menarche and the effect of mass media were significant factors. In conclusion, strategies for preventing irrelevant dieting behaviors are urgently required to enhance female adolescents' ability to choose the right information from countless others and to recognize their optimum body image.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.59-72
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• 2019

Purpose - Blockchain technology, which has the characteristics of credibility, security, integrity and decentralization, has brought innovation to internet platforms that mediate peer to peer transactions, as well as changes to the contents distribution services. Blockchain-based copyright distribution platforms can solve problems which have been articulated on prior internet social networks: increased market dominance of platform business because of centralization with no reward to creators who upload on platforms, and lack of fairness, such as unfair profit distribution between the copyright holder and businesses. With this background, the current research confirmed the factors that affect the intention of usage and behaviors, targeting potential users of blockchain-based copyright distribution platforms. Research design, data, and methodology - Centered around the UTAUT2 Model, the research model was designed with 'Perceived Security' added as Construct, and 'Age' and 'Knowledge Level' added as moderating variables. For data, 607 responses were collected by an online survey, and 601 responses were included in the final analysis. We analyzed the research model and sample by using SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 23.0 on the collected responses. Results - First, results of research on whether Constructs make positive effects on Intention of use is: social influence, facilitating conditions, habit, and perceived security had positive effects on intention of use, and performance expectancy, effort expectancy, hedonic motivation, and economic value did not. Second, results of the research on whether facilitating condition, habit, and intention of use made an impact on using behaviors, it was shown that only habit and intention of use made positive effects. Third, in two groups divided by age above or under 40, group effort expectancy, intention of use, habit, and intention of use had controlling effects, and facilitating condition, intention of use, perceived security, and intention of use had effects in both groups. Conclusions - The research shows that no matter how great a blockchain-based platform is, if advantages of blockchain are not proved in various industries and utilized in real life like the internet, blockchain-based distribution systems will develop slowly. Rather than a short-term inducement emphasizing technology, there is a need for a strategic approach that can foster the environment.

• The Journal of Society for e-Business Studies
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.111-136
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• 2012

The global recession has made it more difficult for companies to invest in IT, and they are increasingly aware of the environmental costs of so doing. In these circumstances, cloud computing has emerged as a new paradigm in the business IT sector. Governments, institutes and companies around the world, as well as specifically in Korea since 2009, have turned to this model of providing IT resources. This study is concerned to identify those characteristics of cloud computing that affect its introduction on a company's part; it offers a theoretical framework describing cloud services and seeks to establish causal linkages between antecedent factors and a company's introduction and application of this form of IT provision. The features of cloud computing in particular contexts that the study selected for analysis were its scalability, speed, security, potential compatibility with existing services, efficiency, economic feasibility, dependency and credibility. The study thus related these to whether or not cloud computing was adopted, verifying adjustment effects for cloud services. On the basis of a survey of enterprise IT decision-makers, it emerged through a statistical analysis of correlations that cloud computing's efficiency, economic feasibility and credibility had an effect on its introduction. This study's results should be of use to vendors and potential purchasers of cloud computing services. It is one of the first pieces of research on cloud computing from the customer perspective, based on the perceived characteristics of cloud services as they are seen and valued by users.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.15 no.9
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• pp.87-97
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• 2017

This paper examined how consumers' attitude toward the telecommunication expense was affected by news reports through the experiment. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four group (control group, high-expense-claimed-media group, low-expense-claimed-media group, and both-exposed-media group), and asked to indicate credibility & neutrality toward media report, similarity between media report, and their own thought, their attitude toward the telecommunication expense. The result of ANOVA showed that the high-expense-claimed-media was perceived more credible and neutral than the low-expense-claimed-media. ANCOVA was conducted to eliminate the impact of similarity between media report and their own thought on the evaluation of credibility & neutrality toward media report, and the result showed that there was no difference. Also, participants evaluated the telecommunication service so expensive, regardless of what kind of media reports they were exposed. We found that consumers' prior belief, which telecommunication service was expensive, might interrupt consumers' learning process for new information from media. To resolve the social pressure about mobile service rate-cutting, it is necessary to investigate how to dampen consumers' stereotype about the telecommunication expense. The future research using the framing effect could be considerable.

• Journal of the Korean BIBLIA Society for library and Information Science
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.157-173
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• 2019

Due to the fact that cognitive authority influences an individual's thoughts so that a given information is perceived as appropriate, people evaluate information based on their cognitive authority. The purpose of the present study is to examine the perception of the cognitive authority of online information sources used by college students to carry out their academic tasks, and to determine whether such perceptions affect the quality assessment of information sources, such as webpages, e-journals, and Wikipedia,. Specifically, we measured how cognitive authority, which were formed by the author, the surface, and the content of an information source influenced its accuracy, usefulness, completeness, and expertise. For this purpose, online surveys were conducted with college students, and 172 valid responses were obtained. Findings indicated that all the characteristics that formed the cognitive authority of an information source had significant impacts on its accuracy, usefulness, completeness, and expertise. The study suggests academic implications that confirm the associations between cognitive authority and credibility of information in the context of online information sources. Furthermore, the study provides practical implications that system developers or operators of information sources need to consider diverse factors that affect their cognitive authority to promote users' trust on the information that they deliver.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.65-96
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• 2012

Brand has received much attention from considerable marketing research. When consumers consume product or services, they are exposed to a lot of brand related stimuli. These contain brand personality, brand experience, brand identity, brand communications and so on. A special kind of new crisis occasionally confronting companies' brand management today is the brand related rumor. An important influence on consumers' purchase decision making is the word-of-mouth spread by other consumers and most decisions are influenced by other's recommendations. In light of this influence, firms have reasonable reason to study and understand consumer-to-consumer communication such as brand rumor. The importance of brand rumor to marketers is increasing as the number of internet user and SNS(social network service) site grows. Due to the development of internet technology, people can spread rumors without the limitation of time, space and place. However relatively few studies have been published in marketing journals and little is known about brand rumors in the marketplace. The study of rumor has a long history in all major social science. But very few studies have dealt with the antecedents and consequences of any kind of brand rumor. Rumor has been generally described as a story or statement in general circulation without proper confirmation or certainty as to fact. And it also can be defined as an unconfirmed proposition, passed along from people to people. Rosnow(1991) claimed that rumors were transmitted because people needed to explain ambiguous and uncertain events and talking about them reduced associated anxiety. Especially negative rumors are believed to have the potential to devastate a company's reputation and relations with customers. From the perspective of marketer, negative rumors are considered harmful and extremely difficult to control in general. It is becoming a threat to a company's sustainability and sometimes leads to negative brand image and loss of customers. Thus there is a growing concern that these negative rumors can damage brands' reputations and lead them to financial disaster too. In this study we aimed to distinguish antecedents of brand rumor transmission and investigate the effects of brand rumor characteristics on rumor spread intention. We also found key components in personal acceptance of brand rumor. In contextualist perspective, we tried to unify the traditional psychological and sociological views. In this unified research approach we defined brand rumor's characteristics based on five major variables that had been found to influence the process of rumor spread intention. The five factors of usefulness, source credibility, message credibility, worry, and vividness, encompass multi level elements of brand rumor. We also selected product involvement as a control variable. To perform the empirical research, imaginary Korean 'Kimch' brand and related contamination rumor was created and proposed. Questionnaires were collected from 178 Korean samples. Data were collected from college students who have been experienced the focal product. College students were regarded as good subjects because they have a tendency to express their opinions in detail. PLS(partial least square) method was adopted to analyze the relations between variables in the equation model. The most widely adopted causal modeling method is LISREL. However it is poorly suited to deal with relatively small data samples and can yield not proper solutions in some cases. PLS has been developed to avoid some of these limitations and provide more reliable results. To test the reliability using SPSS 16 s/w, Cronbach alpha was examined and all the values were appropriate showing alpha values between .802 and .953. Subsequently, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted successfully. And structural equation modeling has been used to analyze the research model using smartPLS(ver. 2.0) s/w. Overall, R² of adoption of rumor is .476 and R² of intention of rumor transmission is .218. The overall model showed a satisfactory fit. The empirical results can be summarized as follows. According to the results, the variables of brand rumor characteristic such as source credibility, message credibility, worry, and vividness affect argument strength of rumor. And argument strength of rumor also affects rumor intention. On the other hand, the relationship between perceived usefulness and argument strength of rumor is not significant. The moderating effect of product involvement on the relations between argument strength of rumor and rumor W.O.M intention is not supported neither. Consequently this study suggests some managerial and academic implications. We consider some implications for corporate crisis management planning, PR and brand management. This results show marketers that rumor is a critical factor for managing strong brand assets. Also for researchers, brand rumor should become an important thesis of their interests to understand the relationship between consumer and brand. Recently many brand managers and marketers have focused on the short-term view. They just focused on strengthen the positive brand image. According to this study we suggested that effective brand management requires managing negative brand rumors with a long-term view of marketing decisions.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.197-204
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• 2017

This study aimed to examine character evaluation criteria and components for selecting creative convergent talents in college admissions. In this study, pre-college students' perceptions were surveyed on various issues related to character education and evaluation implemented in K-12 school system. It was found that the character education programs intended to enhance students' care for others, interpersonal skills, and honesty were most actively operated within the secondary educational systems. The results of the study also indicated that the programs for fostering interpersonal skills, care for others, and sincerity were perceived as the most effective programs. Based on the results of the study, we discussed ways to improve the quality of character education programs operated in school curriculum and to improve the credibility of character evaluation in the college admission process.