• Title/Summary/Keyword: testing model

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Three-Dimensional High-Frequency Electromagnetic Modeling Using Vector Finite Elements (벡터 유한 요소를 이용한 고주파 3차원 전자탐사 모델링)

  • Son Jeong-Sul;Song Yoonho;Chung Seung-Hwan;Suh Jung Hee
    • Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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    • v.5 no.4
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    • pp.280-290
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    • 2002
  • Three-dimensional (3-D) electromagnetic (EM) modeling algorithm has been developed using finite element method (FEM) to acquire more efficient interpretation techniques of EM data. When FEM based on nodal elements is applied to EM problem, spurious solutions, so called 'vector parasite', are occurred due to the discontinuity of normal electric fields and may lead the completely erroneous results. Among the methods curing the spurious problem, this study adopts vector element of which basis function has the amplitude and direction. To reduce computational cost and required core memory, complex bi-conjugate gradient (CBCG) method is applied to solving complex symmetric matrix of FEM and point Jacobi method is used to accelerate convergence rate. To verify the developed 3-D EM modeling algorithm, its electric and magnetic field for a layered-earth model are compared with those of layered-earth solution. As we expected, the vector based FEM developed in this study does not cause ny vector parasite problem, while conventional nodal based FEM causes lots of errors due to the discontinuity of field variables. For testing the applicability to high frequencies 100 MHz is used as an operating frequency for the layer structure. Modeled fields calculated from developed code are also well matched with the layered-earth ones for a model with dielectric anomaly as well as conductive anomaly. In a vertical electric dipole source case, however, the discontinuity of field variables causes the conventional nodal based FEM to include a lot of errors due to the vector parasite. Even for the case, the vector based FEM gave almost the same results as the layered-earth solution. The magnetic fields induced by a dielectric anomaly at high frequencies show unique behaviors different from those by a conductive anomaly. Since our 3-D EM modeling code can reflect the effect from a dielectric anomaly as well as a conductive anomaly, it may be a groundwork not only to apply high frequency EM method to the field survey but also to analyze the fold data obtained by high frequency EM method.

A Study on the Framework of Customer Orientation, Interest Rate Sensitivity, and Customer Loyalty in the Banking Services: The Moderating Roles of Deposit Interest and Loan Interest Rates (은행서비스에서 고객지향성, 금리민감도, 고객애호도의 구조에 관한 연구: 예금이자율과 대출이자율의 조절효과)

  • Ha, Hong-Youl;Choi, Chang-bok
    • Asia Marketing Journal
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    • v.12 no.3
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    • pp.43-62
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    • 2010
  • The notion of customer orientation is now importantly considered in the context of banking industries. Despite customer-oriented organizational cultures, there are few studies addressing the relationship between customer orientation and its outcomes. In particular, this study aims at testing the effect of customer orientation as a key marketing effort designed by a bank. This is because interest rate sensitivity is critical for evaluating banking services after raising the base rate. In so doing, first, this study investigates the relationships among customer orientation, interest rate sensitivity, and customer loyalty. Second, this paper examines how the moderating effects of both deposit interest and loan interest rates influence the linkages of customer orientation-interest rate sensitivity and customer orientation-customer loyalty. To test the proposed model, research data are collected from 304 subjects who use banking services(e.g., Shin-Han, Kookmin, the First Bank, Hana, and Woori banks). Each construct was measured by published items and the psychometric properties of the three constructs, excluding two constructs of the moderators, were evaluated by employing the method of confirmatory factor analysis via the use of AMOS. The model fit was also evaluated using the CFI, TLI, and RMSEA fit indices that are recommended based on their relative stability and insensitivity to sample size. The findings show that the relationship between customer orientation and customer loyalty is significant, whereas the relationships between customer orientation and interest rate sensitivity and between interest rate sensitivity and customer loyalty are not supported. Although customer orientation is highly evaluated, customers' interest rate sensitivity that results in the comparison of interest rates plays an important role in reducing the effect of customer orientation. As a consequence, interest rate sensitivity does not influence customer loyalty. First of all, one of interesting results in this study is that the moderating effect of loan interest rate is quite different from deposit interest rate. In the case of deposit interest rate, the linkages both customer orientation-interest rate sensitivity and customer orientation-customer loyalty are insignificant. In the case of loan interest rate, however, the two proposed linkages are supported. As our proposed relationships are still in its infancy in the context of banking industry, our study contributes to enhance scholars' knowledge of bank services and provides insights for practitioners when their marketing strategies, particularly both deposit and interest rates, have to be established. Finally, this research also illuminates the need for further research that considers the influence of customer orientation on consumer's decision-making and bank profits. More specifically, the results are encouraging and will lead us to further investigate this key outcome of the banking deposit/interest rates.

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The Effects of Relational Behaviors on Supply Chain Leadership and Financial Performance: The Role of Leader Ethicality (공급체인 리더의 관계적 행동이 리더의 리더십과 팔로워의 재무성과에 미치는 영향: 리더 윤리성의 역할)

  • Kim, Sang Deok
    • Asia Marketing Journal
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    • v.13 no.3
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    • pp.183-208
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    • 2011
  • After more than 25 years of accumulated research evidence, there is little doubt that leadership behavior is related to a wide variety of positive individual and organizational outcomes. Indeed, leadership behavior has been empirically linked to increased employee satisfaction, organizational commitment, extra effort, turnover intention, organizational citizenship behavior, and overall employee performance. However, it is important to point out that although leadership behavior has been linked to a number of positive organizational outcomes, research regarding the antecedents of such behavior is limited. Especially there is little research dealing with the antecedents of inter-organizational leadership behavior. Supply chain leadership can be defined as the activities undertaken by the supply chain leader to influence the management programs and strategies of supply chain members. Supply chain performance is influenced by leadership of supply chain leader. Although research on supply chain leadership can be broadly categorized, many researchers have been preoccupied with analyzing supply chain leadership by the power-influence approach measuring such as control, power, and power bases. Also they have not examined the relationship between leadership and financial performance. This study has started to overcome those research gaps. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of relational behaviors on supply chain leadership, and the effect of such leadership behavior on financial performance of supply chain followers. In addition, this study also try to find out moderating variable existing in the relationship. To be concrete, First, this study develops a model of the antecedents of four conceptually distinct forms of relational behaviors such as training, fair reward, offering vision, and inter-organizational communication, and tests the hypothesized differential effects of relational behavior forms on supply chain leadership. Second, this study tests the effect of supply chain leadership on financial performance. Third, this study investigates the extent to which this leadership-performance relationship is moderated by leader ethicality. The reason why this study deals with convenience store supply chain is that there is very strong inter-dependence between a franchisor and its suppliers. Their strong inter-dependence makes their relationship as the relationship between a superior and subordinates and creates an atmosphere that leadership occur without difficulty. For the purpose of empirical testing, 217 respondents of suppliers of convenience store supply chain in Korea were surveyed and the analysis utilizing partial least square model indicated that training, fair reward, inter-organizational communication had positive effects on supply chain leadership, and such leadership had positive effect on financial performance of followers. On the other hand, offering vision had no effect on supply chain leadership. In addition, leader ethicality had moderating effect on the relationship between supply chain leadership and financial performance.

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The Effects of Managers on Organizational Performance in NBA and KBL Teams: The Moderating Role of Player Capabilities (프로스포츠 산업 조직 구성원의 역량에 따른 관리자의 역할: 미국프로농구(NBA)와 한국프로농구(KBL)의 감독과 선수단 전력 수준에 관한 실증연구 분석)

  • TAE SUNG, LEE;PHILSOO, KIM;SANG HYUN, LEE;SANG BUM, LEE
    • Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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    • v.17 no.6
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    • pp.195-208
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    • 2022
  • The role of venture CEO and their intrinsic capabilities on organizational performance can be determined by the level of resource synchronization initiated by the focal managers. Despite the important role of venture CEOs, a systematic lack of in-depth theoretical and empirical studies on ruminating the relationship between the effects of a CEO's capabilities and organizational performance depending on the level of resource synchronization exist for the rationale of investigation. To supplement the limitations of previous studies, this research empirically analyzes the role of managers specifically synchronizing organizational resources that affect organizational performance in the professional sports industry. Based on the entrepreneurship theory and resource-based view (RBV), this research conceptualizes the roles of venture CEO and basketball head coach in the professional sports industry as very similar in terms of organizational structure and performance mechanism embedding entrepreneurial characteristics necessary for managing organizational resources. In this research, we hypothesized (1) organizational resource synchronization will mediate the positive relationship between the ability of professional basketball head coach and organizational performance and (2) the indirect effect of the professional basketball head coach's capabilities on organizational performance mediated by resource synchronization will be moderated by the capabilities of players. To test these hypotheses, we utilized the PROCESS macro model 58 with the empirical data of 9 seasons (2013~2014-2021~2022) of 30 National Basketball Association (NBA) and 10 Korean Basketball League (KBL) teams. The statistical results showed that (1) resource synchronization mediates the positive relationship between professional basketball head coach capabilities and organizational performance and (2) the capabilities of players moderated the indirect effects of the abilities of head coaches on team performance via resource synchronization. This paper contributes to both academic and practical domains of entrepreneurship by empirically testing the research model through objective professional sports data.

An Exploratory Study on the Components of Visual Merchandising of Internet Shopping Mall (인터넷쇼핑몰의 VMD 구성요인에 대한 탐색적 연구)

  • Kim, Kwang-Seok;Shin, Jong-Kuk;Koo, Dong-Mo
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.18 no.2
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    • pp.19-45
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    • 2008
  • This study is to empirically examine the primary dimensions of visual merchandising (VMD) of internet shopping mall, namely store design, merchandise, and merchandising cues, to be a attractive virtual store to the shoppers. The authors reviewed the literature related to the major components of VMD from the perspective of the AIDA model, which has been mainly applied to the offline store settings. The major purposes of the study are as follows; first, tries to derive the variables related with the components of visual merchandising through reviewing the existing literatures, establish the hypotheses, and test it empirically. Second, examines the relationships between the components of VMD and the attitude toward the VMD, however, putting more emphasis on finding out the component structure of the VMD. VMD needs to be examined with the perspective that an online shopping mall is a virtual self-service or clerkless store, which could reduce the number of employees, help the shoppers search, evaluate and purchase for themselves, and to be explored in terms of the in-store persuasion processes of customers. This study reviewed the literatures related to store design, merchandise, and merchandising cues which might be relevant to the store, product, and promotion respectively. VMD is a total communication tool, and AIDA model could explain the in-store consumer behavior of online shopping. Store design has to do with triggering a consumer attention to the online mall, merchandise with a product related interest, and merchandising cues with promotions such as recommendation and links that induce the desire to pruchase. These three steps might be seen as the processes for purchase actions. The theoretical rationale for the relationship between VMD and AIDA could be found in Tyagi(2005) that the three steps of consumer-oriented merchandising are a store, a product assortment, and placement, in Omar(1999) that three types of interior display are a architectural design display, commodity display, and point-of-sales(POS) display, and in Davies and Ward(2005) that the retail store interior image is related to an atmosphere, merchandise, and in-store promotion. Lee et al(2000) suggested as the web merchandising components a merchandising cues, a shopping metaphor which is an assistant tool for search, a store design, a layout(web design), and a product assortment. The store design which includes differentiation, simplicity and navigation is supposed to be related to the attention to the virtual store. Second, the merchandise dimensions comprising product assortments, visual information and product reputation have to do with the interest in the product offerings. Finally, the merchandising cues that refer to merchandiser(MD)'s recommendation of products and providing the hyperlinks to relevant goods for the shopper is concerned with attempt to induce the desire to purchase. The questionnaire survey was carried out to collect the data about the consumers who would shop at internet shopping malls frequently. To select the subject malls, the mall ranking data announced by a mall rating agency was used to differentiate the most popular and least popular five mall each. The subjects was instructed to answer the questions after navigating the designated mall for five minutes. The 300 questionnaire was distributed to the consumers, 166 samples were used in the final analysis. The empirical testing focused on identifying and confirming the dimensionality of VMD and its subdimensions using a structural equation modeling method. The confirmatory factor analysis for the endogeneous and exogeneous variables was carried out in four parts. The second-order factor analysis was done for a store design, a merchandise, and a merchandising cues, and first-order confirmatory factor analysis for the attitude toward the VMD. The model test results shows that the chi-square value of structural equation is 144.39(d.f 49), significant at 0.01 level which means the proposed model was rejected. But, judging from the ratio of chi-square value vs. degree of freedom, the ratio was 2.94 which smaller than an acceptable level of 3.0, RMR is 0.087 which is higher than a generally acceptable level of 0.08. GFI and AGFI is turned out to be 0.90 and 0.84 respectively. Both NFI and NNFI is 0.94, and CFI 0.95. The major test results are as follows; first, the second-order factor analysis and structural equational modeling reveals that the differentiation, simplicity and ease of identifying current status of the transaction are confirmed to be subdimensions of store design and to be a significant predictors of the dependent variable. This result implies that when designing an online shopping mall, it is necessary to differentiate visually from other malls to improve the effectiveness of the communications of store design. That is, the differentiated store design raise the contrast stimulus to sensory organs to promote the memory of the store and to have a favorable attitude toward the VMD of a store. The results that navigation which means the easiness of identifying current status of shopping affects the attitude to VMD could be interpreted that the navigating processes via the hyperlinks which is characteristics of an internet shopping is a complex and cognitive process and shoppers are likely to lack the sense of overall structure of the store. Consequently, shoppers are likely to be alost amid shopping not knowing where to go. The orientation tool enhance the accessibility of information to raise the perceptive power about the store environment.(Titus & Everett 1995) Second, the primary dimension of merchandise and its subdimensions was confirmed to be unidimensional respectively, have a construct validity, and nomological validity which the VMD dimensions supposed to have a positive correlation with the dependent variable. The subdimensions of product assortment, brand fame and information provision proved to have a positive effect on the attitude toward the VMD. It could be interpreted that the more plentiful the product and brand assortment of the mall is, the more likely the shoppers to favor it. Brand fame and information provision as well affect the VMD attitude, which means that the more famous the brand, the more likely the shoppers would trust and feel familiar with the mall, and the plentifully and visually presented information could have the shopper have a favorable attitude toward the store VMD. Third, it turned out to be that merchandising cue of product recommendation and hyperlinks affect the VMD attitude. This could be interpreted that recommended products could reduce the uncertainty related with the purchase decision, and the hyperlinks to relevant products would help the shopper save the cognitive effort exerted into the information search and gathering, which could lead to a favorable attitude to the VMD. This study tried to sheds some new light on the VMD of online store by reviewing the variables mentioned to be relevant with offline VMD in the existing literatures, and tried to link the VMD components from the perspective of AIDA model. The effect size of the VMD dimensions on the attitude was in the order of the merchandise, the store design and the merchandising cues.It is said that an internet has an unlimited place for display, however, the virtual store is not unlimited since the consumer has a limited amount of cognitive ability to process the external information and internal memory. Particularly, the shoppers are likely to face some difficulties in decision making on account of too many alternative and information overloads. Therefore, the internet shopping mall manager should take into consideration the cost of information search on the part of the consumer, to establish the optimal product placements and search routes. An efficient store composition would be possible by reducing the psychological burdens and cognitive efforts exerted to information search and alternatives evaluation. The store image is in most part determined by the product category and its brand it deals in. The results of this study support this proposition that the merchandise is most important to the VMD attitude than other components, the manager is required to take a strategic approach to VMD. The internet users are getting more accustomed and more knowledgeable about the internet media and more likely to accept the internet as a shopping channel as the period of time during which they use the internet to shop become longer. The web merchandiser should be aware that the product introduction using a moving pictures and a bulletin board become more important in order to present the interactive product information visually and communicate with customers more actively, therefore leading to making the quantity and quality of product information more rich.

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Study on the Relationships Among Perceived Shopping Values, Brand Equity, and Store Loyalty of Korean and Chinese Consumers: A Case of Large Discount Store (한국과 중국 소비자의 쇼핑 경험가치 지각과 브랜드자산 및 점포충성도의 관계에 관한 비교 연구: 대형 할인점을 중심으로)

  • Hwang, Soonho;Oh, Jongchul;Yoon, Sungjoon
    • Asia Marketing Journal
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    • v.14 no.2
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    • pp.209-237
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    • 2012
  • 1. Research Purpose Consumers rely on various clues to evaluate their decision to patronize a retail store, and store brand is one of them (Dodds 1991; Grewal et al. 1998). As consumers find ever increasing variety of contact points connecting them to specific store, the value of experiential shopping as a means of increasing store's brand equity warrants greater attention from scholars of retail management. Retail shopping values are credited for creating not only cognitive experiences like brand knowledge but also emotional experiences such as shopping pleasure and pride (Schmitt 1999). This may be because today's consumers place emphasis on emotional values associated with shopping pleasure, lifestyle brought to life, brand relationship, and store atmosphere more than utilitarian values such as product quality and price. Many previous literature found this to be true (Ahn and Lee 2011; Mathwick et al. 2001). This brings forth important research issues and questions regarding the roles of shopping experiential values and brand equity with regard to consumer's retail patronage choice. However, despite this importance, research on this area remains quite inadequate (Hwang 2010). For this reason, this study aims to verify the relationships among experiential shopping values, retail store brand equity and tries to link that with customer loyalty by surveying large-scale discount store shoppers in Korea and China. 2. Research Contents In order to carry out the research objective, this study conducted comprehensive literature survey on previous literature by discussing major findings and implications with regard to shopping values and retail brand equity and store loyalty. For data collection, researcher employed survey-based research method where data were collected in two major cities of Korea (Seoul) and China (Bejing) and sampling frame was based on patrons of large discount stores in both countries. Specific research questions raised in this study are as follows; RQ1: How do Korean and Chinese consumers differently perceive of shopping values regarding shopping at large-sclae discount stores? RQ2: Are there differences in consumers' emotional consumption propensities? RQ3: Do Korean and Chinese consumers display different perceptions of brand equity towards large-scale discount stores? RQ4: Are there differences in relationships between shopping values and brand equity for Korean and Chinese consumers? For statistical analysis, SPSS17.0, AMOS17.0 and SmartPLS were employed. 3. Research Results The data collected through face-to-face survey conducted in Seoul and Bejing revealed appropriate data validity and reliability as a result of exploratory/confirmatory factor analysis and reliability tests, andh SEM model yielding satisfactory model fitness. The result of the study may be summarized by three main points. First, as a result of testing differences in consumption dispositions, Chinese consumers showed higher scores in aesthetic and symbolic dispositions, whereas Korean consumers scored higher in hedonic disposition. Second, testing on perceptions toward brand equity of large discount stores showed that Korean consumers exhibited more positive perceptions of brand awareness and brand image than Chinese counterparts. Third, the result of exploratory factor analysis on the experiential shopping values revealed different factors for each country. On Korean side, consumer interest value, aesthetic value, and hedonic value were prominent, whereas on Chinese side, hedonic value, aesthetic value, consumer interest value, and service excellence value were found salient. 4. Research Implications While many previous studies on inter-country differences in retailing area mainly focused on cultural dispositions or orientations to explain the differences, this study sets itself apart by specifically targeting individual consumer's shopping values from an experiential viewpoint. The study result provides important theoretical as well as practical implications for large-scale discount store, especially the impotance of fully exploring the linkage between shopping values and brand equity, which has significant influence on loyalty. Therefore, the specific implications deriving from the result shed some important insights upon the consumption values based on shopping experiences and brand equity. The differences found in store shoppers between the two countries may also provide useful insights for Korean and Chinese retailers who plan to expand their operations globally. Related strategic implications derived from this study is the importance of localizing retail strategy which is based on the differences found in experiential shopping values between the two country groups. Especially the finding that Chinese consumers value consumer interest and service excellence, whereas Koreans place importance on hedonic or aesthetic values indicates the need to differentiate the consumer's psychographical profiles when it comes to expanding retail operations globally. Particularly important will be to pursue price-orienated strategy in China in consideration of the high emphasis on consumer interests and service excellence, but to emphasize the symbolic aspects of brand equity in Korea by maximizing the brand equity associated with aesthetic values and hedonic orientations. 5. Recommendations This study focused on generic retail branded discount stores in both countries, thus making it difficult to tease out store-specific strategies based on specific retail brands. Future studies may benefit fro employing actual brand names in survey questionnaire to verify relationship between shopping values and brand-based store strategy. As with other studies of this nature, this study needs to strengthen the result's generalizability by selecting respondents from a wider spectrum of respondents.

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The Ability of Anti-tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha(TNF-${\alpha}$) Antibodies Produced in Sheep Colostrums

  • Yun, Sung-Seob
    • 한국유가공학회:학술대회논문집
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    • 2007.09a
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    • pp.49-58
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    • 2007
  • Inflammatory process leads to the well-known mucosal damage and therefore a further disturbance of the epithelial barrier function, resulting abnormal intestinal wall function, even further accelerating the inflammatory process[1]. Despite of the records, etiology and pathogenesis of IBD remain rather unclear. There are many studies over the past couple of years have led to great advanced in understanding the inflammatory bowel disease(IBD) and their underlying pathophysiologic mechanisms. From the current understanding, it is likely that chronic inflammation in IBD is due to aggressive cellular immune responses including increased serum concentrations of different cytokines. Therefore, targeted molecules can be specifically eliminated in their expression directly on the transcriptional level. Interesting therapeutic trials are expected against adhesion molecules and pro-inflammatory cytokines such as TNF-${\alpha}$. The future development of immune therapies in IBD therefore holds great promises for better treatment modalities of IBD but will also open important new insights into a further understanding of inflammation pathophysiology. Treatment of cytokine inhibitors such as Immunex(Enbrel) and J&J/Centocor(Remicade) which are mouse-derived monoclonal antibodies have been shown in several studies to modulate the symptoms of patients, however, theses TNF inhibitors also have an adverse effect immune-related problems and also are costly and must be administered by injection. Because of the eventual development of unwanted side effects, these two products are used in only a select patient population. The present study was performed to elucidate the ability of TNF-${\alpha}$ antibodies produced in sheep colostrums to neutralize TNF-${\alpha}$ action in a cell-based bioassay and in a small animal model of intestinal inflammation. In vitro study, inhibitory effect of anti-TNF-${\alpha}$ antibody from the sheep was determined by cell bioassay. The antibody from the sheep at 1 in 10,000 dilution was able to completely inhibit TNF-${\alpha}$ activity in the cell bioassay. The antibodies from the same sheep, but different milkings, exhibited some variability in inhibition of TNF-${\alpha}$ activity, but were all greater than the control sample. In vivo study, the degree of inflammation was severe to experiment, despite of the initial pilot trial, main trial 1 was unable to figure out of any effect of antibody to reduce the impact of PAF and LPS. Main rat trial 2 resulted no significant symptoms like characteristic acute diarrhea and weight loss of colitis. This study suggested that colostrums from sheep immunized against TNF-${\alpha}$ significantly inhibited TNF-${\alpha}$ bioactivity in the cell based assay. And the higher than anticipated variability in the two animal models precluded assessment of the ability of antibody to prevent TNF-${\alpha}$ induced intestinal damage in the intact animal. Further study will require to find out an alternative animal model, which is more acceptable to test anti-TNF-${\alpha}$ IgA therapy for reducing the impact of inflammation on gut dysfunction. And subsequent pre-clinical and clinical testing also need generation of more antibody as current supplies are low.

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A Study on Perceived Quality affecting the Service Personal Value in the On-off line Channel - Focusing on the moderate effect of the need for cognition - (온.오프라인 채널에서 지각된 품질이 서비스의 개인가치에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구 -인지욕구의 조정효과를 중심으로-)

  • Sung, Hyung-Suk
    • Journal of Distribution Research
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    • v.15 no.3
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    • pp.111-137
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    • 2010
  • The basic purpose of this study is to investigate perceived quality and service personal value affecting the result of long-term relationship between service buyers and suppliers. This research presented a constructive model(perceived quality affecting the service personal value and the moderate effect of NFC) in the on off line and then propose the research model base on prior researches and studies about relationships among components of service. Data were gathered from respondents who visit at the education service market. For this study, Data were analyzed by AMOS 7.0. We integrate the literature on services marketing with researches on personal values and perceived quality. The SERPVAL scale presented here allows for the creation of a common ground for assessing service personal values, giving a clear understanding of the key value dimensions behind service choice and usage. It will lead to a focus of future research in services marketing, extending knowledge in the field and stimulating further empirical research on service personal values. At the managerial level, as a tool the SERPVAL scale should allow practitioners to evaluate and improve the value of a service, and consequently, to define strategies and actions to address services for customers based on their fundamental personal values. Through qualitative and empirical research, we find that the service quality construct conforms to the structure of a second-order factor model that ties service quality perceptions to distinct and actionable dimensions: outcome, interaction, and environmental quality. In turn, each has two subdimensions that define the basis of service quality perceptions. The authors further suggest that for each of these subdimensions to contribute to improved service quality perceptions, the quality received by consumers must be perceived to be reliable, responsive, and empathetic. Although the service personal value may be found in researches that explore individual values and their consequences for consumer behavior, there is no established operationalization of a SERPVAL scale. The inexistence of an established scale, duly adapted in order to understand and analyze personal values behind services usage, exposes the need of a measurement scale with such a purpose. This need has to be rooted, however, in a conceptualization of the construct being scaled. Service personal values can be defined as a customer's overall assessment of the use of a service based on the perception of what is achieved in terms of his own personal values. As consumer behaviors serve to show an individual's values, the use of a service can also be a way to fulfill and demonstrate consumers'personal values. In this sense, a service can provide more to the customer than its concrete and abstract attributes at both the attribute and the quality levels, and more than its functional consequences at the value level. Both values and services literatures agree, that personal value is the highest-level concept, followed by instrumental values, attitudes and finally by product attributes. Purchasing behaviors are agreed to be the end result of these concepts' interaction, with personal values taking a major role in the final decision process. From both consumers' and practitioners' perspectives, values are extremely relevant, as they are desirable goals that serve as guiding principles in people's lives. While building on previous research, we propose to assess service personal values through three broad groups of individual dimensions; at the self-oriented level, we use (1) service value to peaceful life (SVPL) and, at the social-oriented level, we use (2) service value to social recognition (SVSR), and (3) service value to social integration (SVSI). Service value to peaceful life is our first dimension. This dimension emerged as a combination of values coming from the RVS scale, a scale built specifically to assess general individual values. If a service promotes a pleasurable life, brings or improves tranquility, safety and harmony, then its user recognizes the value of this service. Generally, this service can improve the user's pleasure of life, since it protects or defends the consumer from threats to life or pressures on it. While building upon both the LOV scale, a scale built specifically to assess consumer values, and the RVS scale for individual values, we develop the other two dimensions: SVSR and SVSI. The roles of social recognition and social integration to improve service personal value have been seriously neglected. Social recognition derives its outcome utility from its predictive utility. When applying this underlying belief to our second dimension, SVSR, we assume that people use a service while taking into consideration the content of what is delivered. Individuals consider whether the service aids in gaining respect from others, social recognition and status, as well as whether it allows achieving a more fulfilled and stimulating life, which might then be revealed to others. People also tend to engage in behavior that receives social recognition and to avoid behavior that leads to social disapproval, and this contributes to an individual's social integration. This leads us to the third dimension, SVSI, which is based on the fact that if the consumer perceives that a service strengthens friendships, provides the possibility of becoming more integrated in the group, or promotes better relationships at the social, professional or family levels, then the service will contribute to social integration, and naturally the individual will recognize personal value in the service. Most of the research in business values deals with individual values. However, to our knowledge, no study has dealt with assessing overall personal values as well as their dimensions in a service context. Our final results show that the scales adapted from the Schwartz list were excluded. A possible explanation is that although Schwartz builds on Rokeach work in order to explore individual values, its dimensions might be especially focused on analyzing societal values. As we are looking for individual dimensions, this might explain why the values inspired by the Schwartz list were excluded from the model. The hierarchical structure of the final scale presented in this paper also presents theoretical implications. Although we cannot claim to definitively capture the dimensions of service personal values, we believe that we come close to capturing these overall evaluations because the second-order factor extracts the underlying commonality among dimensions. In addition to obtaining respondents' evaluations of the dimensions, the second-order factor model captures the common variance among these dimensions, reflecting the respondents' overall assessment of service personal values. Towards this fact, we expect that the service personal values conceptualization and measurement scale presented here contributes to both business values literature and the service marketing field, allowing for the delineation of strategies for adding value to services. This new scale also presents managerial implications. The SERPVAL dimensions give some guidance on how to better pursue a highly service-oriented business strategy. Indeed, the SERPVAL scale can be used for benchmarking purposes, as this scale can be used to identify whether or not a firms' marketing strategies are consistent with consumers' expectations. Managerial assessment of the personal values of a service might be extremely important because it allows managers to better understand what customers want or value. Thus, this scale allows us to identify what services are really valuable to the final consumer; providing knowledge for making choices regarding which services to include. Traditional approaches have focused their attention on service attributes (as quality) and service consequences(as service value), but personal values may be an important set of variables to be considered in understanding what attracts consumers to a certain service. By using the SERPVAL scale to assess the personal values associated with a services usage, managers may better understand the reasons behind services' usage, so that they may handle them more efficiently. While testing nomological validity, our empirical findings demonstrate that the three SERPVAL dimensions are positively and significantly associated with satisfaction. Additionally, while service value to social integration is related only with loyalty, service value to peaceful life is associated with both loyalty and repurchase intent. It is also interesting and surprising that service value to social recognition appears not to be significantly linked with loyalty and repurchase intent. A possible explanation is that no mobile service provider has yet emerged in the market as a luxury provider. All of the Portuguese providers are still trying to capture market share by means of low-end pricing. This research has implications for consumers as well. As more companies seek to build relationships with their customers, consumers are easily able to examine whether these relationships provide real value or not to their own lives. The selection of a strategy for a particular service depends on its customers' personal values. Being highly customer-oriented means having a strong commitment to customers, trying to create customer value and understanding customer needs. Enhancing service distinctiveness in order to provide a peaceful life, increase social recognition and gain a better social integration are all possible strategies that companies may pursue, but the one to pursue depends on the outstanding personal values held by the service customers. Data were gathered from 284 respondents in the korean discount store and online shopping mall market. This research proposed 3 hypotheses on 6 latent variables and tested through structural equation modeling. 6 alternative measurements were compared through statistical significance test of the 6 paths of research model and the overall fitting level of structural equation model. and the result was successful. and Perceived quality more positively influences service personal value when NFC is high than when no NFC is low in the off-line market. The results of the study indicate that service quality is properly modeled as an antecedent of service personal value. We consider the research and managerial implications of the study and its limitations. In sum, by knowing the dimensions a consumer takes into account when choosing a service, a better understanding of purchasing behaviors may be realized, guiding managers toward customers expectations. By defining strategies and actions that address potential problems with the service personal values, managers might ultimately influence their firm's performance. we expect to contribute to both business values and service marketing literatures through the development of the service personal value. At a time when marketing researchers are challenged to provide research with practical implications, it is also believed that this framework may be used by managers to pursue service-oriented business strategies while taking into consideration what customers value.

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The comparison of microtensile bond strength with immediate and delayed dentin sealing (즉시 상아질 봉쇄와 지연 상아질 봉쇄에 따른 상아질 접착의 미세인장 결합강도 비교)

  • Lee, Heung-Bae;Han, Chong-Hyun;Shim, Jun-Sung;Kim, Sun-Jai
    • The Journal of Korean Academy of Prosthodontics
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    • v.46 no.4
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    • pp.372-380
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    • 2008
  • Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of various methods of dentin bonding agent application on microtensile bond strength between dentin and resin, using a 2-step etch-and-rinse dentin bonding agent. Material and methods: Twenty freshly extracted human molars were obtained and divided into 4 groups of 5 teeth. 2-step etch-and-rinse dentin bonding agent was used for all groups. The control specimens were prepared using a direct immediate bonding technique. The delayed dentin sealing (A, C) specimens were prepared using an indirect approach with delayed dentin sealing. For group A, resin was built-up on uncured dentin bonding agent, and for group C, resin was built-up on pre-cured dentin bonding agent. Preparation of the immediate dentin sealing (B) specimens also used an indirect approach with immediate dentin sealing immediately following preparation. All teeth were prepared for a microtensile bond strength test. Specimens were stored in water for 24 hours. Ten beams (1.0 ${\times}$ 1.0 ${\times}$ 11 mm) from each tooth were selected for testing. Bond strength data (MPa) were analyzed with a one-way ANOVA test, and post hoc comparison was done using the Scheffe's test. Results: The mean microtensile bond strengths of control group, B and C (DDS with pre-cure) were not statisticaaly different from each other at 32.7, 33.3, 34.2 MPa. the bond strength for group A (DDS without pre-cure), 19.5 MPa, was statistically different (P < .01) from the other 3 groups. Conclusion: When preparing teeth for indirect bonded restorations, DDS with pre-curing dentin bonding agent and IDS results in the same bond strength between dentin and resin. On the contrast, the bond strength was decreased when DDS without pre-curing dentin bonding agent was used.

A Study on the Historical Development of Research Community in Korea: Focused on the Government Supported Institutes (연구자 집단의 성장과 변천: 정부 출연 연구 기관을 중심으로)

  • Park Jin-Hee
    • Journal of Science and Technology Studies
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    • v.6 no.1 s.11
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    • pp.119-152
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    • 2006
  • This paper deals with the historical development of research community in Korea. As the former studies of the korean scientific community show, the government supported institutes played an important role in the formation of research community. Therefore the theme of this study is concerned with the historical development of the government supported institutes and the features of their researcher group. In this paper following questions will be answered: How the social status of these researcher group is changed, what kind of response on social problems or national politics they had, and which characteristic they showed with regards to the identity problem. After the korean liberation the government institutes, such as the Chungang Kongop Yonguso(industrial research center)and the Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute, contributed to the development of the first generation of research group. However this research group could hardly identify themselves as researcher, because they spent much time on testing, evaluation or education. The identity problem is also resulted from the deficiency of authority as research institute. The status of researcher had no difference from that of civil servant. With the establishment of KIST the korean research community came into blossom. The government supported institutes, which were founded after the model of KIST, allowed quantitative and qualitative growth of research community. Thanks to the guarantee of institutional authority and the new reward system, the researcher could get respect and improve its social status. During this period the researcher volunteered to help the government policies. We can find often the nationalistic statements in the research community. During 1990s the research group demonstrated different behaviors and attitude toward the government. The nationalistic ideology disappeared. Instead of that, the research group criticized the government policies and took actions against the government. Those changes are related with the lowered position of government supported institutes.

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