• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.129-144
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• 2014

This study is to examine the effect of mutualistic benevolence, altruistic benevolence, and communication on affective commitment, calculative commitment, and switching intentions and investigate how two commitment dimensions play mediating roles between two benevolence constructs and communication, and switching intentions. For these purposes the author developed a structural model which consists of several constructs. In this model, benevolence factor that consists of mutualistic benevolence and altruistic benevolence, and communication were proposed to affect two commitment constructs and result in, increase switching intentions. Thus, two commitment constructs(e.g., affective and calculative commitment) were proposed as core mediating variables between mutualistic benevolence, altruistic benevolence, and communication, and switching intentions. The data were collected from 210 automobile parts buyers and were analyzed using frequency, reliability, and confirmatory factor analysis and SEM (structural equation model) with SPSS/WIN 20.0 and AMOS 20.0. The data were analyzed with structural equation modeling with AMOS 20.0 and SPSS Win/PC 20.0. The result of the overall model analysis appeared as follows: ${\chi}2=224.885$, d.f=123(${\chi}2/df=1.828$), p=0.000, GFI=.898, AGFI=.859, IFI=.967, NFI=.930, TLI=.958, RMSEA=.063, CFI=.966. Since the result of the overall model analysis demonstrated a good fit, we could further analyze our data. The findings can be summarized as follows: According to structural equation modeling analysis, firstly, mutualistic benevolence has direct effects on calculate commitment and affective commitment. Secondly, altruistic benevolence has a positively direct effect on calculate commitment. Thirdly, communication has a statistically direct effect on affective commitment. Fourthly, calculative commitment has direct effects on affective commitment and switching intentions. Lastly, affective commitment has a direct effect on switching intentions.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.103-128
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• 2013

When a consumer needs a product or service and multiple sellers are available online, the process of selecting a seller to buy online from is complex since the process involves many behavioral dimensions that have to be taken into account. As a part of this selection process, consumers may set minimum trust expectation that can be used to screen out less trustworthy sellers. In the previous research, the level of consumers' trust expectation has been anchored on two important factors: product involvement and perceived risk. Product involvement refers to the extent to which a consumer perceives a specific product important. Thus, the higher product involvement may result in the higher trust expectation in sellers. On the other hand, other related studies found that when consumers perceived a higher level of risk (e.g., credit card fraud risk), they set higher trust expectation as well. While abundant research exists addressing the relationship between product involvement and perceived risk, little attention has been paid to the integrative view of the link between the two constructs and their impacts on the trust expectation. The present paper is a step toward filling this research gap. The purpose of this paper is to understand the process by which a consumer chooses an online merchant by examining the relationships among product involvement, perceived risk, trust expectation, and intention to buy from an e-tailer. We specifically focus on the mediating role of perceived risk in the relationships between enduring product involvement and the trust expectation. That is, we question whether product involvement affects the trust expectation directly without mediation or indirectly mediated by perceived risk. The research model with four hypotheses was initially tested using data gathered from 635 respondents through an online survey method. The structural equation modeling technique with partial least square was used to validate the instrument and the proposed model. The results showed that three out of the four hypotheses formulated were supported. First, we found that the intention to buy from a digital storefront is positively and significantly influenced by the trust expectation, providing support for H4 (trust expectation ${\rightarrow}$ purchase intention). Second, perceived risk was found to be a strong predictor of trust expectation, supporting H2 as well (perceived risk ${\rightarrow}$ trust expectation). Third, we did not find any evidence of direct influence of product involvement, which caused H3 to be rejected (product involvement ${\rightarrow}$ trust expectation). Finally, we found significant positive relationship between product involvement and perceived risk (H1: product involvement ${\rightarrow}$ perceived risk), which suggests that the possibility of complete mediation of perceived risk in the relationship between enduring product involvement and the trust expectation. As a result, we conducted an additional test for the mediation effect by comparing the original model with the revised model without the mediator variable of perceived risk. Indeed, we found that there exists a strong influence of product involvement on the trust expectation (by intentionally eliminating the variable of perceived risk) that was suppressed (i.e., mediated) by the perceived risk in the original model. The Sobel test statistically confirmed the complete mediation effect. Results of this study offer the following key findings. First, enduring product involvement is positively related to perceived risk, implying that the higher a consumer is enduringly involved with a given product, the greater risk he or she is likely to perceive with regards to the online purchase of the product. Second, perceived risk is positively related to trust expectation. A consumer with great risk perceptions concerning the online purchase is likely to buy from a highly trustworthy online merchant, thereby mitigating potential risks. Finally, product involvement was found to have no direct influence on trust expectation, but the relationship between the two constructs was indirect and mediated by the perceived risk. This is perhaps an important theoretical integration of two separate streams of literature on product involvement and perceived risk. The present research also provides useful implications for practitioners as well as academicians. First, one implication for practicing managers in online retail stores is that they should invest in reducing the perceived risk of consumers in order to lower down the trust expectation and thus increasing the consumer's intention to purchase products or services. Second, an academic implication is that perceived risk mediates the relationship between enduring product involvement and trust expectation. Further research is needed to elaborate the theoretical relationships among the constructs under consideration.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.1-24
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• 2010

I. Introduction The industry of domestic discount store was reorganized with 2 bigs and 1 middle, and then Home Plus took over Home Ever in 2008. In present, Oct, 2008, E-Mart has 118 outlets, Home Plus 112 outlets, and Lotte Mart 60 stores. With total number of 403 outlets, they are getting closer to a saturation point. We know that the industry of discount store has been getting through the mature stage in retail life cycle. There are many efforts to maintain existing customers rather than to get new customers. These competitions in this industry lead firms to acknowledge 'store loyalty' to be the first strategic tool for their sustainable competitiveness. In other words, the strategic goal of discount store is to boost up the repurchase rate of customers throughout increasing store loyalty. If owners of retail shops can figure out main factors for store loyalty, they can easily make more efficient and effective retail strategies which bring about more sales and profits. In this practical sense, there are many papers which are focusing on the antecedents of store loyalty. Many researchers have been inspecting causal relationships between antecedents and store loyalty; store characteristics, store image, atmosphere in store, sales promotion in store, service quality, customer characteristics, crowding, switching cost, trust, satisfaction, commitment, etc., In recent times, many academic researchers and practitioners have been interested in 'dual path model for service loyalty'. There are two paths in store loyalty. First path has an emphasis on symbolic and emotional dimension of service brand, and second path focuses on quality of product and service. We will call the former an extrinsic path and call the latter an intrinsic path. This means that consumers' cognitive path for store loyalty is not single but dual. Existing studies for dual path model are as follows; First, in extrinsic path, some papers in domestic settings show that there is 'store personality-identification-loyalty' path. Second, service quality has an effect on loyalty, which is a behavioral variable, in the mediation of customer satisfaction. But, it's very difficult to find out an empirical paper applied to domestic discount store based on this mediating model. The domestic research for store loyalty concentrates on not only intrinsic path but also extrinsic path. Relatively, an attention for intrinsic path is scarce. And then, we acknowledge that there should be a need for integrating extrinsic and intrinsic path. Also, in terms of retail industry, this study is meaningful because retailers want to achieve their competitiveness by using store loyalty. And so, the purpose of this paper is to integrate and complement two existing paths into one specific model, dual path model. This model includes both intrinsic and extrinsic path for store loyalty. With this research, we would expect to understand the full process of forming customers' store loyalty which had not been clearly explained. In other words, we propose the dual path model for discount store loyalty which has been originated from store personality and service quality. This model is composed of extrinsic path, discount store personality$\rightarrow$store identification$\rightarrow$store loyalty, and intrinsic path, service quality of discount store$\rightarrow$customer satisfaction$\rightarrow$store loyalty. II. Research Model Dual path model integrates intrinsic path and extrinsic path into one specific model. Intrinsic path put an emphasis on quality characteristics and extrinsic path focuses on brand characteristics. Intrinsic path is based on information processing perspective, and extrinsic path emphasizes symbolic and emotional dimension of brand. This model is composed of extrinsic path, discount store personality$\rightarrow$store identification$\rightarrow$store loyalty, and intrinsic path, service quality of discount store$\rightarrow$customer satisfaction$\rightarrow$store loyalty. Hypotheses are as follows; Hypothesis 1: Service quality perceived by customers in discount store has an positive effect on customer satisfaction Hypothesis 2: Store personality perceived by customers in discount store has an positive effect on store identification Hypothesis 3: Customer satisfaction in discount store has an positive effect on store loyalty. Hypothesis 4: Store identification has an positive effect on store loyalty. III. Results and Implications We examined consumers who patronize discount stores for samples of this study. With the structural equation model(SEM) analysis, we empirically tested the validity and fitness of the dual path model for store loyalty in discount stores. As results, the fitness indices of this model were well fitted to data obtained. In an intrinsic path, service quality(SQ) is positively related to customer satisfaction(CS), customer satisfaction(CS) has very significantly positive effect on store loyalty(SL). Also, in an extrinsic path, the store personality(SP) is positively related to store identification(SI), it shows significant effect on store loyalty. Table 1 shows the results as follows; There are some theoretical and practical implications. First, Many studies on discount store loyalty have been executed from various perspectives. But there has been no integrative view on this issue. And so, this research was theoretically designed to integrate various and controversial arguments into one systematic model. We empirically tested dual path model forming store loyalty, and brought up a systematic and integrative framework for future studies. We want to expect creative and aggressive research activities. Second, a few established papers are focused on the relationship between antecedents and store loyalty; store characteristics, atmosphere, sales promotion in store, service quality, trust, commitment, etc., There has been some limits in understanding thoroughly the formation process of store loyalty with a singular path, intrinsic or extrinsic. Beyond these limits in single path, we could propose the new path for store loyalty. This is meaningful. Third, discount store firms make and execute marketing strategies for increasing store loyalty. This research provides real practitioners with reference framework needed for actual strategy formation. Because this paper shows integrated and systematic path for store loyalty. A special feature of this study is to represent 6 sub dimensions of service quality in intrinsic path and 4 sub dimensions of store personality in extrinsic path. Marketers can make more analytic marketing planning with concrete sub dimensions of service quality and store personality. When marketers of discount stores make strategic planning like MPR, Ads, campaign, sales promotion, they can use many items which are more competitive than competitors.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.245-276
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• 2008

Brand equity is one of the most important concepts in business practice as well as in academic research. Successful brands can allow marketers to gain competitive advantage (Lassar et al.,1995), including the opportunity for successful extensions, resilience against competitors' promotional pressures, and the ability to create barriers to competitive entry (Farquhar, 1989). Branding plays a special role in service firms because strong brands increase trust in intangible products (Berry, 2000), enabling customers to better visualize and understand them. They reduce customers' perceived monetary, social, and safety risks in buying services, which are obstacles to evaluating a service correctly before purchase. Also, a high level of brand equity increases consumer satisfaction, repurchasing intent, and degree of loyalty. Brand equity can be considered as a mixture that includes both financial assets and relationships. Actually, brand equity can be viewed as the value added to the product (Keller, 1993), or the perceived value of the product in consumers' minds. Mahajan et al. (1990) claim that customer-based brand equity can be measured by the level of consumers' perceptions. Several researchers discuss brand equity based on two dimensions: consumer perception and consumer behavior. Aaker (1991) suggests measuring brand equity through price premium, loyalty, perceived quality, and brand associations. Viewing brand equity as the consumer's behavior toward a brand, Keller (1993) proposes similar dimensions: brand awareness and brand knowledge. Thus, past studies tend to identify brand equity as a multidimensional construct consisted of brand loyalty, brand awareness, brand knowledge, customer satisfaction, perceived equity, brand associations, and other proprietary assets (Aaker, 1991, 1996; Blackston, 1995; Cobb-Walgren et al., 1995; Na, 1995). Other studies tend to regard brand equity and other brand assets, such as brand knowledge, brand awareness, brand image, brand loyalty, perceived quality, and so on, as independent but related constructs (Keller, 1993; Kirmani and Zeithaml, 1993). Walters(1978) defined information search as, "A psychological or physical action a consumer takes in order to acquire information about a product or store." But, each consumer has different methods for informationsearch. There are two methods of information search, internal and external search. Internal search is, "Search of information already saved in the memory of the individual consumer"(Engel, Blackwell, 1982) which is, "memory of a previous purchase experience or information from a previous search."(Beales, Mazis, Salop, and Staelin, 1981). External search is "A completely voluntary decision made in order to obtain new information"(Engel & Blackwell, 1982) which is, "Actions of a consumer to acquire necessary information by such methods as intentionally exposing oneself to advertisements, taking to friends or family or visiting a store."(Beales, Mazis, Salop, and Staelin, 1981). There are many sources for consumers' information search including advertisement sources such as the internet, radio, television, newspapers and magazines, information supplied by businesses such as sales people, packaging and in-store information, consumer sources such as family, friends and colleagues, and mass media sources such as consumer protection agencies, government agencies and mass media sources. Understanding consumers' purchasing behavior is a key factor of a firm to attract and retain customers and improving the firm's prospects for survival and growth, and enhancing shareholder's value. Therefore, marketers should understand consumer as individual and market segment. One theory of consumer behavior supports the belief that individuals are rational. Individuals think and move through stages when making a purchase decision. This means that rational thinkers have led to the identification of a consumer buying decision process. This decision process with its different levels of involvement and influencing factors has been widely accepted and is fundamental to the understanding purchase intention represent to what consumers think they will buy. Brand equity is not only companies but also very important asset more than product itself. This paper studies brand equity model and influencing factors including information process such as information searching and information resources in the fashion market in Asia and Europe. Information searching and information resources are influencing brand knowledge that influences consumers purchase decision. Nine research hypotheses are drawn to test the relationships among antecedents of brand equity and purchase intention and relationships among brand knowledge, brand value, brand attitude, and brand loyalty. H1. Information searching influences brand knowledge positively. H2. Information sources influence brand knowledge positively. H3. Brand knowledge influences brand attitude. H4. Brand knowledge influences brand value. H5. Brand attitude influences brand loyalty. H6. Brand attitude influences brand value. H7. Brand loyalty influences purchase intention. H8. Brand value influence purchase intention. H9. There will be the same research model in Asia and Europe. We performed structural equation model analysis in order to test hypotheses suggested in this study. The model fitting index of the research model in Asia was $X^2$=195.19(p=0.0), NFI=0.90, NNFI=0.87, CFI=0.90, GFI=0.90, RMR=0.083, AGFI=0.85, which means the model fitting of the model is good enough. In Europe, it was $X^2$=133.25(p=0.0), NFI=0.81, NNFI=0.85, CFI=0.89, GFI=0.90, RMR=0.073, AGFI=0.85, which means the model fitting of the model is good enough. From the test results, hypotheses were accepted. All of these hypotheses except one are supported. In Europe, information search is not an antecedent of brand knowledge. This means that sales of global fashion brands like jeans in Europe are not expanding as rapidly as in Asian markets such as China, Japan, and South Korea. Young consumers in European countries are not more brand and fashion conscious than their counter partners in Asia. The results have theoretical, practical meaning and contributions. In the fashion jeans industry, relatively few studies examining the viability of cross-national brand equity has been studied. This study provides insight on building global brand equity and suggests information process elements like information search and information resources are working differently in Asia and Europe for fashion jean market.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.73-79
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• 1985

The crystal and molecular structure of acetone 4-benzylthiosemicarbazone, $C_{11}H_{15}N_3S$, has been determined by the single crystal X-ray diffraction methods. The crystals are monoclinic, space group $P2_1/c$ with unit cell dimensions, a = 10.249(7), b = 11.403(9), c = 10.149(7)TEX>${\AA}$, ${\beta}$ = 90.9$(1)^0$ and z = 4. The intensities were collected on an automatic four-circle diffractometer with graphite-monochromated Mo-$K_{\alpha}$ radiation. The structure was solved by direct methods and refined by full matrix least-squares methods. The final R was 0.045 for 1554 observed reflections. S-C(8)-N(2)-N(3)-C(9)-C(10) atoms make a zigzag planar chain. There are no unusual bond lengths and angles. There are two independent hydrogen bonds in the crystal structure. One is N-H${\cdots}$S intermolecular hydrogen bond with the length of 3.555${\AA}$ and makes dimer-like units. The other is N-H${\cdots}$N intramolecular hydrogen bond with the length of 2.568${\AA}$. The structure was compared with those of other thiosemicarbazone derivatives.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.81-89
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• 2005

Background: Hysteroscopy is considered to be the gold standard not only for visualizing the cervical canal and the uterine cavity, but also for treating many different types of benign pathologies localized to those regions. The advent and evolution of endoscopic imaging and surgery during the last two decades has added new dimensions to the armamentarium of a gynecologist to combat intrauterine lesions. Office hysteroscopy is increasingly being used as a first line investigation for abnormal uterine bleeding and other diseases involving the uterine cavity. The aim of our study is to assess the diagnostic and operative efficacy of office hysteroscopy. Materials and Methods: In our department, 140 patients underwent a hysteroscopy examination and 18 of these underwent an office based hysteroscopy examination from September 1995 to March 2005. The cases who underwent an office based hysteroscopy examination were reviewed in order to assess the clinical usefulness and significance in the management of intrauterine lesions. Results: Major indication was abnormal uterine bleeding(12 cases, 66.7%). The others were a missed IUD and infertility. The hysteroscopic findings were a normal uterine cavity(6 cases, 33.3%), IUD in situ, polyp, submucosal myoma, endometrial hyperplasia and a placenta remnant. Conclusion: Office hysteroscopy is a safe, quick and effective method for making an intrauterine evaluation. In addition, it provides immediate results, offers the capacity of direct targeted biopsies of suspicious focal lesions, and offers the direct treatment of some intrauterine conditions.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.175-179
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to determine and compare prostate size using ultrasound and computed tomography (CT). The prostate gland was evaluated in eight normal Beagle dogs. Length, depth, and width of the prostate gland were measured by ultrasound and volume of the prostate was obtained from the two ellipsoid formula (US1, US2). Height, length, width, area, and volume of the prostate gland were measured by CT. Ratios of prostatic height, length, and width to the sixth lumbar vertebral body length were calculated. There was no significant difference between the US1 and US2 method, and between US2 and CT method, respectively. The prostatic volume calculated by US1 method was significantly lower than those with CT (p=0.029). The Upper limits of ratios of prostate length, height, and width to the length of the sixth lumbar vertebra were 1.3, 1.1, and 1.7, respectively. Among these prostate dimensions, prostate length and height could be a useful index in estimating prostate size regardless of body weight.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.2349-2354
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• 2014

While the number of smart phone subscribers excessing 30 million people, Korea is leaping into the 'smart powerhouse' from IT powerhouse. The popularizat+ion of smart devices so called 'PC in the hand', brought surely change to people's life style, and also it had led to a revolutionary change to and also to business and government. In several corporations of each countries, a variety of smart devices smart devices such as smart phone, tablet PC and E-books have been developing. Nowadays, the usage of the smart phone is not only the simple function calling. It has become a culture of the terminal type in the hand anywhere at any time, which makes can communicate with the others in anywhere and anytime. However, some of the subscribers who visit the website for PC version with the mobile devices screen, can feel kind of discomfort while surfing the net on a smartphone devices because the install of the existing video and flash files and the screen size for computer is not available for mobile devices. Therefore, in this paper, we studied on effective mobile contents generation program using QR code that is two dimensions bar code under the smart device environment. Also, unlike previous QR code generator that decorate standardized design, we realize an original QR code generation system from user perspective.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.491-503
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• 2014

In this paper, a $TM_{31}$ higher order mode half circular-ring microstrip antenna with monopole-like radiation characteristic for on-body communication is proposed. By using shorting vias, $TM_{31}$ resonance mode was excited, while achieving compact low-profile antenna with monopole-like radiation characteristics. To overcome the narrow bandwidth of a patch antenna, a C-shape half ring patch with shorting vias having $TM_{31}$ mode is closely located around a half circular patch. For size reduction, half mode is adopted. The proposed antenna has the overall dimensions of $0.25{\lambda}_0{\times}0.46{\lambda}_0{\times}0.025{\lambda}_0$ at the industrial, scientific, and medical(ISM) 2.45 GHz band(2.4~2.485 GHz) and the 10-dB return loss is 4.24 % ranging from 2.38 to 2.49 GHz. To verify body effect, two-thirds muscle equivalent semi solid phantom was fabricated and used to measure the antenna performance. A communication link is analysed to investigate the effect of human-body movements and antenna locations.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.38 no.11
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• pp.785-791
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• 1994

The $Sr_1-_xY_xMnO_3$ (x = 0.0∼1.0) system was synthesized using amorphous citrate process. The stability of various structures and the electronic transport properties of this system were investigated. X-ray diffraction study indicated that the $Sr_1-_xY_xMnO_3$ system has three different structures depending on composition, namely, 4L-hexagonal perovskite (when x is less than 0.3), pseudocubic perovskite (when x is 0.3∼0.7), and hexagonal nonperovskite (when x is larger than 0.7) structures. The structural changes and electronic properties were interpreted based on two factors, i.e., the size of cations and the oxidation state of manganese ion. When the concentration of Y substitution exceeds 30%, the Mn-Mn repulsive interaction dominates over intermetallic attraction, and thus structure changes to pseudocubic perovskite. In perovskite phase the unit cell dimensions increases with increasing $Mn^{3+}$ ions due to yttrium substitution. The band gap of $Sr_{0.9}Y_{0.1}MnO_3$ is greater than that of $Sr_{0.5}Y_{0.5}MnO_3$. The greater band gap of $Sr_{0.9}Y_{0.1}MnO_3$ indicates that the 4L-hexagonal structure is more stabilized than cubic perovskite due to the Mn-Mn bond.