• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.65-88
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• 2008

Since the implementation of economic reforms in 1978, the Chinese economy grows rapidly at an average annul growth rate of 9% over the post two decades. Franchising has been widely recognized as an important source of entrepreneurial activity. Trust is important in that it facilitates relational exchanges by permits partners to transcend short-run inequities or risks to concentrate on long-term profits or gains. In the relationship between the franchisors and franchisees, trust has been described as an important source of competitive advantage. However, little research has been done on the factors affecting trust in Chinese franchisor-franchisee relationships. The purpose of this study is to investigate what factors affect the trust in the franchise system in China, and to provide guidelines and insights to franchisors which enter Chinese market. In this study, according to Morgan and Hunt (1994), trust is defined as the extending when one party has confidence in an exchange partner's reliability and integrity. We offered a conceptual model of the empirical study. The model shows that the factors affecting the trust include franchisor's supports, communication, satisfaction with previous outcome and conflict. We also suggested the franchisor's supports and communication like to enhance the franchisee's satisfaction with previous outcome, and the franchisor's supports, communication and he franchisee's satisfaction with previous outcome tend to decrease conflict. Before the formal study, a pretest involving exploratory interviews with owners from three franchisees was conducted to make sure the questionnaire was relevant and clear to the respondents. The data were collected using trained interviewers to carry out personal interviews with the aid of an unidentified, muti-page, structured questionnaire. The respondents comprised of owners, managers, and owner managers of franchisee-owned food service franchises located in Beijing, China. Even though a total of 256 potential franchises were initially contacted, the finally usable sample consisted of 125 respondents. As expected, the sampling method was successful in soliciting respondents with waried personal and firm characteristics. Self-administrated questionnaires were used for all measures. And established scales were used to measure the latent constructs in this study. The measures tapped the franchisees' perceptions of the relationship with the referent franchisor. Five-point Likert-type scales ranging from "strongly disagree" (=1) to "strongly agree" (=7) were used throughout the constructs (trust, eight items; support, five items; communication, four items; satisfaction, six items; conflict, three items). The reliability measurements traditionally employed, such as the Cronbach's alpha, were used. All the reliabilities were greater than.80. The proposed measurement model was estimated using SPSS 12.0 and AMOS 5.0 analysis package. We conducted A series of exploratory factor analyses and confirmatory factor analyses to assess the convergent validity, discriminant validity, and reliability. The results indicate reasonable overall fits between the model and the observed data. The overall fit of measurement model were $X^2$= 159.699, p=0.004, d.f. = 116, GFI =.879, NFI =.898, CFI =.969, IFI =.970, TLI =.959, RMR =.058. The results demonstrated that the data reasonably fitted the model. We also examined construct reliability and reliability and average variance extracted (AVE). The construct reliability of each construct was greater than.80 and the AVE of each construct was greater than.50. According to the analysis of Structure Equation Modeling (SEM), the results of path model indicated an adequate fit of the model: $X^2$= 142.126, p = 0.044, d.f. = 115, GFI =.892, NFI =.909, CFI =.981, IFI =.981, TLI =.974, RMR =.057. As hypothesized, the results showed that it is strategically important to establish trust in a franchise system, and the franchisor's supports, communication and satisfaction with previous outcome tend to reinforce franchisee's trust. The results also showed trust seems to decrease as the experience of conflict episodes increases. And we also noticed that franchisor's supports and communication tend to enhance the franchisee's satisfaction with previous outcome, and communication tend to decrease conflict. If the trust between the franchisor and franchisee can be established in a franchise system, franchising offers many benefits and reduces many costs. To manage a mutual trust of relationship with their franchisees, franchisor's should provide support effectively to their franchisees. Effective assistant services have direct effect on franchisees' satisfaction with previous outcome and trust in franchisor. Especially, franchise sales process, orientation, and training in the start-up period are key elements for success of the franchise system. Franchisor's support is an accumulated separate satisfaction evaluation with different kind of service provided by the franchisor. And providing support definitely can improve the trustworthy image of the franchisor. In the franchise system, conflicts of interests and exertions of different power sources are very common. The experience of conflict episodes seems to negatively relate to trust. Therefore, it is important to reduce the negative side of the relationship conflicts. Communication actually plays a broader role in reducing conflict and establish mutual trust in franchisor-franchisee relationship. And effective communication between franchisors and franchisees can improve franchisees' satisfaction toward the franchise system. As the diversification of Chinese markets, both franchisors and franchisees must keep the relevant, timely, and reliable communication. And it is very important to improve the quality of communication. Satisfaction with precious outcomes seems to positively relate to trust. Franchisors and franchisees that are highly satisfied with the previous outcomes that flow from their relationship will perceive their partner as advancing their goal achievement. Therefore, it is necessary for both franchisor and their franchisees to make the welfare of partner with effort. Little literature has focused on what factors affect the trust between franchisors and their franchisees in China. This study developed the hypotheses regarding the factors affecting trust in the transaction relationship. The results of data analysis supported the hypotheses strongly. There are certain limitations in this study. First, we may point out that some other factors missed in this study could be significantly important. Second, the context of this study, food service industry, limits its potential generalizability for all franchise systems. More studies in different categories of franchise system are needed to broaden its generalizability. Third, the model was tested empirically in a sample in Beijing, more empirical tests of the proposed model in other Chinese areas are needed. Finally, the analysis in this study was solely based on the perception of franchisees and the opinions of franchisors were not included.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.57-78
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• 2020

With the development of the Internet, consumers have had an opportunity to check product information easily through E-Commerce. Product reviews used in the process of purchasing goods are based on user experience, allowing consumers to engage as producers of information as well as refer to information. This can be a way to increase the efficiency of purchasing decisions from the perspective of consumers, and from the seller's point of view, it can help develop products and strengthen their competitiveness. However, it takes a lot of time and effort to understand the overall assessment and assessment dimensions of the products that I think are important in reading the vast amount of product reviews offered by E-Commerce for the products consumers want to compare. This is because product reviews are unstructured information and it is difficult to read sentiment of reviews and assessment dimension immediately. For example, consumers who want to purchase a laptop would like to check the assessment of comparative products at each dimension, such as performance, weight, delivery, speed, and design. Therefore, in this paper, we would like to propose a method to automatically generate multi-dimensional product assessment scores in product reviews that we would like to compare. The methods presented in this study consist largely of two phases. One is the pre-preparation phase and the second is the individual product scoring phase. In the pre-preparation phase, a dimensioned classification model and a sentiment analysis model are created based on a review of the large category product group review. By combining word embedding and association analysis, the dimensioned classification model complements the limitation that word embedding methods for finding relevance between dimensions and words in existing studies see only the distance of words in sentences. Sentiment analysis models generate CNN models by organizing learning data tagged with positives and negatives on a phrase unit for accurate polarity detection. Through this, the individual product scoring phase applies the models pre-prepared for the phrase unit review. Multi-dimensional assessment scores can be obtained by aggregating them by assessment dimension according to the proportion of reviews organized like this, which are grouped among those that are judged to describe a specific dimension for each phrase. In the experiment of this paper, approximately 260,000 reviews of the large category product group are collected to form a dimensioned classification model and a sentiment analysis model. In addition, reviews of the laptops of S and L companies selling at E-Commerce are collected and used as experimental data, respectively. The dimensioned classification model classified individual product reviews broken down into phrases into six assessment dimensions and combined the existing word embedding method with an association analysis indicating frequency between words and dimensions. As a result of combining word embedding and association analysis, the accuracy of the model increased by 13.7%. The sentiment analysis models could be seen to closely analyze the assessment when they were taught in a phrase unit rather than in sentences. As a result, it was confirmed that the accuracy was 29.4% higher than the sentence-based model. Through this study, both sellers and consumers can expect efficient decision making in purchasing and product development, given that they can make multi-dimensional comparisons of products. In addition, text reviews, which are unstructured data, were transformed into objective values such as frequency and morpheme, and they were analysed together using word embedding and association analysis to improve the objectivity aspects of more precise multi-dimensional analysis and research. This will be an attractive analysis model in terms of not only enabling more effective service deployment during the evolving E-Commerce market and fierce competition, but also satisfying both customers.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.51-89
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• 2007

INTRODUCTION Due to the high broadband internet penetration rate and its group-oriented culture, various types of online communities operate in Korea. This study use 'Uses and Gratification Approach, and argue that members' usage-needs satisfaction with brand community is an important factor for promoting community commitment. Based on previous studies identifying the effect of brand image on consumers' responses to various marketing stimuli, this study hypothesizes that brand image can be a moderate variable affecting the relationship between usage-needs satisfaction with brand community and members' commitment to brand community. This study analyzes the influence of usage-needs satisfaction on brand community commitment and how apparel brand image affects the relationships between usage-needs satisfactions and community commitments. The hypotheses of this study are proposed as follows. H1-3: The usage-needs satisfaction of apparel brand community (interest, transaction, relationship needs) influences emotional (H1), continuous (H2), and normative (H3) commitments to apparel brand communities. H4-6: Apparel brand image has a moderating effect on the relationship between usage-needs satisfaction and emotional (H4), continuous (H5), and normative (H6) commitments to apparel brand communities. METHODS Brand communities founded by non-company affiliates were excluded and emphasis was placed instead on communities created by apparel brand companies. Among casual apparel brands registered in 6 Korean portal sites in August 2003, a total of 9 casual apparel brand online communities were chosen, depending on the level of community activity and apparel brand image. Data from 317 community members were analyzed by exploratory factor analysis, moderated regression analysis, ANOVA, and scheffe test. Among 317 respondents answered an online html-type questionnaire, 80.5% were between 16 to 25 years old. There were a total of 150 respondents from apparel brand communities(n=3) recording higher-than-average brand image scores (Mean > 3.75) and a total of 162 respondents from apparel brand communities(n=6) recording lower-than-average brand image scores(Mean < 3.75). In this study, brand community commitment was measured by a 5-point Likert scale: emotional, continuous and normative commitment. The degree of usage-needs satisfaction (interest, transaction, relationship needs) was measured on a 5-point Likert scale. The level of brand image was measured by a 5-point Likert scale: strength, favorability, and uniqueness of brand associations. RESULTS In the results of exploratory factor analysis, the three usage-needs satisfactions with brand community were classified as interest, transaction, and relationship needs. Brand community commitment was also divided into the multi-dimensional factors: emotional, continuous, and normative commitments. The regression analysis (using a stepwise method) was used to test the influence of 3 independent variables (interest-needs satisfaction, transaction-needs, and relationship-needs satisfactions) on the 3 dependent variables (emotional, continuous and normative commitments). The three types of usage-needs satisfactions are positively associated with the three types of commitments to apparel brand communities. Therefore, hypothesis 1, 2, and 3 were significantly supported. Moderating effects of apparel brand image on the relationship between usage-needs satisfaction and brand community commitments were tested by moderated regression analysis. The statistics result showed that the influence of transaction-needs on emotional commitment was significantly moderated by apparel brand image. In addition, apparel brand image had moderating effects on the relationship between relationship-needs satisfaction and emotional, continuous and normative commitments to apparel brand communities. However, there were not significant moderate effects of apparel brand image on the relationships between interest-needs satisfaction and 3 types of commitments (emotional, continuous and normative commitments) to apparel brand communities. In addition, the influences of transaction-needs satisfaction on 2 types of commitments (continuous and normative commitments) were not significantly moderated by apparel brand image. Therefore, hypothesis 4, 5 and 6 were partially supported. To explain the moderating effects of apparel brand image, four cross-tabulated groups were made by averages of usage-needs satisfaction (interest-needs satisfaction avg. M=3.09, transaction-needs satisfaction avg. M=3.46, relationship-needs satisfaction M=1.62) and the average apparel brand image (M=3.75). The average scores of commitments in each classified group are presented in Tables and Figures. There were significant differences among four groups. As can be seen from the results of scheffe test on the tables, emotional commitment in community group with high brand image was higher than one in community group with low brand image when transaction-needs satisfaction was high. However, when transaction-needs satisfaction was low, there was not any difference between the community group with high brand image and community group with low brand image regarding emotional commitment to apparel brand communities. It means that emotional commitment didn't increase significantly without high satisfaction of transaction-needs, despite the high apparel brand image. In addition, when apparel brand image was low, increase in transaction-needs did not lead to the increase in emotional commitment. Therefore, the significant relationship between transaction-needs satisfaction and emotional commitment was found in only brand communities with high apparel brand image, and the moderating effect of apparel brand image on this relationship between two variables was found in the communities with high satisfaction of transaction-needs only. Statistics results showed that the level of emotional commitment is related to the satisfaction level of transaction-needs, while overall response is related to the level of apparel brand image. We also found that the role of apparel brand image as a moderating factor was limited by the level of transaction-needs satisfaction. In addition, relationship-needs satisfaction brought significant increase in emotional commitment in both community groups (high and low levels of brand image), and the effect of apparel brand image on emotional commitment was significant in both community groups (high and low levels of relationship-needs satisfaction). Especially, the effect of brand image was greater when the level of relationship-needs satisfaction was high. in contrast, increase in emotional commitment responding to increase in relationship-needs satisfaction was greater when apparel brand image is high. The significant influences of relationship-needs satisfaction on community commitments (continuous and normative commitments) were found regardless of apparel brand image(in both community groups with low and high brand image). However, the effects of apparel brand image on continuous and normative commitments were found in only community group with high satisfaction level of relationship-needs. In the case of communities with low satisfaction levels of relationship needs, apparel brand image marginally increases continuous and normative commitments. Therefore, we could not find the moderating effect of apparel brand image on the relationship between relationship-needs satisfaction and continuous and normative commitments in community groups with low satisfaction levels of relationship needs, CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS From the results of this study, we draw several conclusions; First, the increases in usage-needs satisfactions through apparel brand communities result in the increases in commitments to apparel brand communities, wheres the degrees of such relationship depends on the level of apparel brand image. That is, apparel brand image is a moderating factor strengthening the relationship between usage-needs satisfaction and commitment to apparel brand communities. In addition, the effect of apparel brand image differs, depending on the level and types of community usage-needs satisfactions. Therefore, marketers of apparel brand companies must determine the appropriate usage-needs, depending on the type of commitment they wish to increase and the level of their apparel brand image, to promote member's commitments to apparel brand communities. Especially, relationship-needs satisfaction was very important factor for increasing emotional, continuous and normative commitments to communities. However the level of relationship-needs satisfaction was lower than interest-needs and transaction-needs. satisfaction. According to previous study on apparel brand communities, relationship-need satisfaction was strongly related to member's intention of participation in their communities. Therefore, marketers need to develope various strategies in order to increase the relationship- needs as well as interest and transaction needs. In addition, despite continuous commitment was higher than emotional and normative commitments, all types of commitments to apparel brand communities had scores lower than 3.0 that was mid point in 5-point scale. A Korean study reported that the level of members' commitment to apparel brand community influenced customers' identification with a brand and brand purchasing behavior. Therefore, marketers should try to increase members' usage-needs satisfaction and apparel brand image as the necessary conditions for bringing about community commitments. Second, marketers should understand that they should keep in mind that increasing the level of community usage needs (transaction and relationship) is most effective in raising commitment when the level of apparel brand image is high, and that increasing usage needs (transaction needs) satisfaction in communities with low brand image might not be as effective as anticipated. Therefore, apparel companies with desirable brand image such as luxury designer goods firms need to create formal online brand communities (as opposed to informal communities with rudimentary online contents) to satisfy transaction and relationship needs systematically. It will create brand equity through consumers' increased emotional, continuous and normative commitments. Even though apparel brand is very famous, emotional commitment to apparel brand communities cannot be easily increased without transaction-needs satisfaction. Therefore famous fashion brand companies should focus on developing various marketing strategies to increase transaction-needs satisfaction.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.169-176
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• 1996

A scanning electron microscopic study was performed to observe the surface ultrastructures of the third-stage larvae of Gnathostoma hispidun. The early third-stage larvae (EL3) were collected from the viscera of Chinese loaches by the artificial digestion method . The advanced third-stage larvae (AdL3) were recovered from mice experimentally infected with EL3. Both larval worms were fixed with 2.5% glutaraldehyde, dehydrated in graded alcohol. dryad in critical point dryer, and coated with gold. The specimens were observed with a SEM (DS- l30C). On the head bulb of both larval stage, the mouth had a pair of lateral lips of equal size and of half moon shape. Each lip had a couple of labial papillae and a small amphid located between the two papillae. The hooklets on the head bulb had single-pointed tips and curved posteriorly. The cuticular spines of EL3 were larger and more densely distributed in the anterior area (about 1.8 Mm in length) and gradually decreased in size and number posteriorly. The cuticular spines in the anterior area of AdL3 were sharp-pointed and about 4.5 Mm in length, and those in the middle area were about 1.75 Mm. The velvety cuticular folds and dot-like cuticular spines were distributed in the posterior area. A cervical papilla was located between the 7th and 8th transverse striations. A dome-like body papilla was located at the posterior 1/4 of body. An ellipsoidal excretory pore was located between the 17th and 18th striations. From the above results, it is suggested that the characteristic SEM findings obtained from this study may be helpful on the species identification of larval Gncthostomn.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.54-68
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• 1985

It is desirable to collect the solar thermal energy at relatively high temperature in order to minimize the size of thermal storage system and to enlarge the scope of solar thermal energy utilization. So far the concentrating solar collector has been developed to collect solar thermal energy at relatively high temperature, but it has some difficulties in maintaining the volumetric body of solar collector for long term utilization. On the other hand, the flat-plate solar collector has been developed to collect the solar thermal energy at low temperature, and it has advantages in maintaining the system for long term utilization, since it's thickness is thin and not volumetric. In this study, to develop a solar collector that has both advantages of collecting solar thermal energy at high temperature and fixing conveniently the collector system for long term period, a cylindrical parabolic concentrating solar collector was designed, which has two rows of parabolic reflectors and thin thickness such as the flat-plate solar collector, maintaining the optical form of concentrating solar collector. The characteristics of the concentrating parabolic solar collector newly designed was analysed and the results are summarized as follows; 1. The temperature of the air enclosed in solar collector was all the same as $50^{\circ}C$ in both cases of the open and closed loop, and when the heat transfer fluid was not circulated in tubular absorber, the maximum surface temperature of the absorber was $118-120^{\circ}C$, this results suggested that the heat transfer fluid could be heated up to $118^{\circ}C$. 2. In case of longitudinal installation of the solar collector, the temperature difference of heat transfer fluid between inlet and outlet was $4^{\circ}-6^{\circ}C$ at the flow rate of $110-130{\ell}/hr$, and the collected solar energy per unit area of collector was $300-465W/m^2$. 3. The collected solar energy per unit area for 7 hours was 1960 Kcal/$m^2$ for the open loop and 220 Kcal/$m^2$ for the closed loop. Therefore it is necessary to combine the open and closed loop of solar collectors to improve the thermal efficiency of solar collector. 4. The thermal efficiency of the solar collector (C.P.C.S.C.) was proportional to the density of solar radiation, indicating the maximum thermal efficiency ${\eta}_{max}=58%$ with longitudinal installation and ${\eta}_{max}=45%$ with lateral installation. 5. The thermal efficiency of the solar collector (C.P.C.S.C.) was increased in accordance with the increase of flow rate of heat transfer fluid, presenting the flow rate of $110{\ell}/hr$ was the value of turning point of the increasing rate of the collector efficiency, therefore the flow rate of $110{\ell}/hr$ was considered as optimum value for the test of the solar collector (C.P.C.S.C.) performance when the heat transfer fluid is a liquid. 6. In both cases of longitudinal and lateral installation of the solar collector (C.P.C.S.C.), the thermal efficiency was decreased linearly with an increase in the value of the term ($T_m-T_a$)/Ic and the increasing rate of the thermal efficiency was not effected by the installation method of solar collector.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.43-51
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• 2017

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the dosimetric effects of couch attenuation and air gaps using 3D phantom for prone breast radiation therapy. Materials and method: A 3D printer(Builder Extreme 1000) and computed tomography (CT) images of a breast cancer patient were used to manufacture the customized breast phantom. Eclipse External Beam Planning 13.6 (Varian Medical Systems Palo Alto, CA, USA) was used to create the treatment plan with a dose of 200 cGy per fraction with 6 MV energy. The Optically Stimulated Luminescence Detector(OSLD) was used to measure the skin dose at four points (Med 1, Med 2, Lat 1, Lat 2) on the 3D phantom and ion-chamber (FC65-G) were used to perform the in-vivo dosimetry at the two points (Anterior, Posterior). The Skin dose and in-vivo dosimetry were measured with reference air gap (3 cm) and increased air gaps (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 cm) from reference distance between the couch and 3D phantom. Results: As a result, measurement for the skin dose at lateral point showed a similar value within ${\pm}4%$ compared to the plan. While the air gap increased, skin dose at medial 1 was reduced. And it was also reduced over 7 % when the air gap was more than 3 cm compared to radiation therapy plan. At medial 2 it was reduced over 4 % as well. The changes of dose from variety of the air gap showed similar value within ${\pm}1%$ at posterior. As the air gap was increased, the dose at anterior was also increased and it was increased by 1 % from the air gap distance more than 3 cm. Conclusion: Dosimetrical measurement using 3D phantom is very useful to evaluate the dosimetric effects of couch attenuation and air gaps for prone breast radiation therapy. And it is possible to reduce the skin dose and increase the accuracy of the radiation dose delivery by appling the optimized air gap.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.27-57
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• 2008

Many consumers enjoy the challenge of purchasing a brand that matches well with their own values and personalities (for example, Ko et al., 2008; Ko et al., 2006). Therefore, the personalities of consumers can impact on the final selection of a brand and its brand personality in two ways: first, the consumers may incline to purchase a brand or a product that reflects their own personalities; second, consumers tend to choose a company that has similar brand personalities to those brands that are being promoted. Therefore, the objectives of this study are following: 1. Is there any empirical relationship between a consumer's personality and the personality of a brand that he or she chooses? 2. Can a corporate brand be differentiated by the brand personality? In short, consumers are more likely to hold favorable attitudes towards those brands that match their own personality and will most probably purchase those brands matching well with their personality. For example, Matzler et al. (2006) found that extraversion and openness were positively related to hedonic product value; and that the personality traits directly (openness) and indirectly (extraversion, via hedonic value) influenced brand effects, which in turn droved attitudinal and purchase loyalty. Based on the above discussion, the following hypotheses are proposed: Hypothesis 1: the personality of a consumer is related to the brand personality of a product/corporate that he/she purchases. Kuksov (2007) and Wernerfelt (1990) argued that brands as a symbolic language allowed consumers to communicate their types to each other and postulated that consumers had a certain value of communicating their types to each other. Therefore, how brand meanings are established, and how a firm communicate with consumers about the meanings of the brand are interesting topics for research (for example, Escalas and Bettman, 2005; McCracken, 1989; Moon, 2007). Hence, the following hypothesis is proposed: Hypothesis 2: A corporate brand identity is differentiated by the brand personality. And there are significant differences among companies. A questionnaire was developed for collecting empirical measures of the Big-Five personality traits and brand personality variables. A survey was conducted to the online access panel members through the Internet during December 2007 in Korea. In total, 500 respondents completed the questionnaire, and considered as useable. Personality constructs were measured using the Five-factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) scale and a total of 30 items were actually utilized. Brand personality was measured using the five-dimension scale developed by Aaker (1997). A total of 17 items were actually utilized. The seven-point Likert-type scale was the format of responses, for example, from 1 indicating strongly disagreed to 7 for strongly agreed. The Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) was used for an empirical testing of the model, and the Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) was applied to estimate numerical values for the components in the model. To diagnose the presence of distribution problems in the data and to gauge their effects on the parameter estimates, bootstapping method was used. The results of the hypothesis-1 test empirically show that there exit certain causality relationship between a consumer's personality and the brand personality of the consumer's choice. Thus, the consumer's personality has an impact on consumer's final selection of a brand that has a brand personality matches well with their own personalities. In other words, the consumers are inclined to purchase a brand that reflects their own personalities and tend to choose a company that has similar brand personalities to those of the brand being promoted. The results of this study further suggest that certain dimensions of the brand personality cause consumers to have preference to certain (corporate) brands. For example, the conscientiousness, neuroticism, and extraversion of the consumer personality have positively related to a selection of "ruggedness" characteristics of the brand personality. Consumers who possess that personality dimension seek for matching with certain brand personality dimensions. Results of the hypothesis-2 test show that the average "ruggedness" attributes of the brand personality differ significantly among Korean automobile manufacturers. However, the result of ANOVA also indicates that there are no significant differences in the mean values among manufacturers for the "sophistication," "excitement," "competence" and "sincerity" attributes of the corporate brand personality. The tight link between what a firm is and its corporate brand means that there is far less room for marketing communications than there is with products and brands. Consequently, successful corporate brand strategies must position the organization within the boundaries of what is acceptable, while at the same time differentiating the organization from its competitors.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.127-133
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• 2014

North Korea's uranium enrichment facility is a matter of international concern. It is of particular alarming to South Korea with regard to the security and safety of the country. This situation requires continuous monitoring of the DPRK and emergency preparedness on the part of the ROK. To assess the detectability of an undeclared uranium enrichment plant in North Korea, uranium concentrations in the air at both a short and a long distance from the enrichment facility were estimated. $UF_6$ source terms were determined by using existing information on North Korean facility and data from the operation experience of enrichment plants from other countries. Using the calculated source terms, two atmospheric dispersion models (Gaussian Plume Model and HYSPLIT models) and meteorological data were used to estimate the uranium particle concentrations from the Yongbyon enrichment facility. A maximum uranium concentration and its location are dependent upon the meteorological conditions and the height of the UF6 release point. This study showed that the maximum uranium concentration around the enrichment facility was about $1.0{\times}10^{-7}g{\cdot}m^{-3}$. The location of the maximum concentration was within about 0.4 km of the facility. It has been assumed that the uranium sample of about a few micrograms (${\mu}g$) could be obtained; and that few micrograms of uranium can be easily measured with current measurement instruments. On the contrary, a uranium concentration at a distance of more than 100 kilometers from the enrichment facility was estimated to be about $1.0{\times}10^{-13}{\sim}1.0{\times}10^{-15}g{\cdot}m^{-3}$, which is less than back-ground level. Therefore, based on the results of our paper, an air sample taken within the vicinity of the Yongbyon enrichment facility could be used to determine as to whether or not North Korea is carrying out an undeclared nuclear program. However, the air samples taken at a longer distance of a few hundred kilometers would prove difficult in detecting a clandestine nuclear activities.

• The korean journal of orthodontics
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• v.36 no.2 s.115
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• pp.145-152
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to evaluate electroless plating as a method of increasing the diameter of an orthodontic wire in comparison with eletroplating. After pretreatment plating of the 0.016 inch stainless steel orthodontic wire, electroless plating was performed at $90^{\circ}C$ until the diameter of the wire was increased to 0.018 inch. During the process of electroless plating, the diameter of the wire was measured every 5 minutes to examine the increasing ratio of the wire's diameter per time unit. And to examine the uniformity, the diameter at 3 points on the electroless-plated orthodontic wire was measured. An X-ray diffraction test for analyzing the nature of the plated metal and a 3-point bending test for analyzing the physical property were performed. The electroless-plated wire group showed a increased tendency for stiffness, yield strength, and ultimate strength than the electroplated wire group. And there was a statistically significant difference between the two groups for stiffness and ultimate strength. In the electroless-plated wire group, the increasing ratio of the diameter was $0.00461{\pm}0.00003mm/5min$ (0.00092 mm/min). In the electroplated wire group, it was $0.00821{\pm}0.00015mm/min$. The results of the uniformity test showed a tendency for uniformity in both the plating methods. The results of this study suggest that electroless plating of the wire is closer to the ready-made wire than electroplating wire in terms of the physical property. However, the length of plating time needs further consideration for the clinical application of electroless plating.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.541-551
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• 2012

In our previous work, we reported consumers' perceptions of body shape and weight control. In an ongoing effort, we analyzed the purchasing behavior, intake patterns, future purchasing decisions, and degree of satisfaction in individuals consuming dietary formula for weight control (DF) or heath/functional foods (HFFs) by using the same survey questions. Portfolio analysis for marketing strategy was also investigated. Subjects were divided into two groups according to consumption of DF or HFF during the previous year : DF group (n = 89) and HFF group (n = 110). Average intake frequency was $1.7{\pm}0.7$ per day for HFFs and $1.5{\pm}0.9$ per day for the DF, and the most prevalent form was pill (58.2%) for HFFs and bar (42.7%) for DF. Duration of intake was $3.1{\pm}2.3$ months for HFFs versus $3.9{\pm}3.5$ months for DF. The average degree of satisfaction was $3.6{\pm}0.6$ on a 5-point scale, meaning 'relatively satisfied'. For the weight control method to be used in the future, 44.5% of the HFF group selected 'HFFs' while 47.2% of the DF group selected 'DF', showing a tendency to use the current product type in the future. The average planned period for the intake was $3.8{\pm}3.7$ months for HFFs and $3.0{\pm}2.4$ months for DF (p < 0.05). The HFF group emphasized efficacy, functional ingredients of the products, reliable products, and higher satisfaction, whereas the DF group emphasized the added materials in addition to weight control effects.