• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.43-72
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• 2009

Recently, user-created content (UCC) have emerged as popular medium of on-line participation among users. The Internet environment has been constantly evolving, attracting active participation and information sharing among common users. This tendency is a significant deviation from the earlier Internet use as an one-way information channel through which users passively received information or contents from contents providers. Thanks to UCCs online users can now more freely generate and exchange contents; therefore, identifying the critical factors that affect content-generating activities has increasingly become an important issue. This paper proposes a set of critical factors for stimulating contents generation and sharing activities by Internet users. These factors were derived from the theories of folklores such as tales and songs. Based on some shared traits of folklores and UCC content, we found four critical elements which should be heeded in constructing UCC contents, which are: context of culture, context of situation, skill of generator, and response of audience. In addition, we selected three major UCC websites: a specialized contents portal, a general internet portal, and an official contents service site, They have different use environments, user interfaces, and service policies, To identify critical factors for generating, sharing and transferring UCC, we traced user activities, interactions and flows of content in the three UCC websites. Moreover, we conducted extensive interviews with users and operators as well as policy makers in each site. Based on qualitative and quantitative analyses of the data, this research identifies nine critical factors that facilitate contents generation and sharing activities among users. In the context of culture, we suggest voluntary community norms, proactive use of copyrights, strong user relationships, and a fair monetary reward system as critical elements in facilitating the process of contents generation and sharing activities. Norms which were established by users themselves regulate user behavior and influence content format. Strong relationships of users stimulate content generation activities by enhancing collaborative content generation. Particularly, users generate contents through collaboration with others, based on their enhanced relationship and specialized skills. They send and receive contents by leaving messages on website or blogs, using instant messenger or SMS. It is an interesting and important phenomenon, because the quality of contents can be constantly improved and revised, depending on the specialized abilities of those engaged in a particular content. In this process, the reward system is an essential driving factor. Yet, monetary reward should be considered only after some fair criterion is established. In terms of the context of the situation, the quality of contents uploading system was proposed to have strong influence on the content generating activities. Among other influential factors on contents generation activities are generators' specialized skills and involvement of the users were proposed. In addition, the audience response, especially effective development of shared interests as well as feedback, was suggested to have significant influence on contents generation activities. Content generators usually reflect the shared interest of others. Shared interest is a distinct characteristic of UCC and observed in all the three websites, in which common interest is formed by the "threads" embedded with content. Through such threads of information and contents users discuss and share ideas while continuously extending and updating shared contents in the process. Evidently, UCC is a new paradigm representing the next generation of the Internet. In order to fully utilize this innovative paradigm, we need to understand how users take advantage of this medium in generating contents, and what affects their content generation activities. Based on these findings, UCC service providers should design their websites as common playground where users freely interact and share their common interests. As such this paper makes an important first step to gaining better understand about this new communication paradigm created by UCC.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.158-166
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• 2014

Apparel design is an economic activity to create values for users over the value chain of a product. In this paper, the contribution of apparel design is defined as the enhancement of users' perceived values by improving users' experience of products. In this context, the value of a product corresponds to compensation for experience or a promise for experience of a product. Experience can be sensory or psychological benefits to users. To evaluate the value of apparel design, the researcher identified and analyzed the apparel design parameters affecting users' experience and benefits of products such as macro-, micro-environmental factors, value chain factors, apparel designer factors, and user factors. For an analytical modeling of the values of apparel design, this paper introduces the concept of a utility function from economics. In economics, utility is a measure of desirability or satisfaction that can be correlative to need or desire. The measure of value can be found in the price which a user is willing to pay for the fulfillment or satisfaction of need or desire via the experience of a product.

• International Journal of Contents
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.62-68
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• 2010

More and more researchers and practitioners in the field of e-commerce are paying attentions to the retention of online customers. However, only a few researches can be addressed in the context of internet shopping mall repurchase intention. This study aims at investigating and delineating the important characteristic factors which affect consumers' repurchase intentions by conducting an empirical analysis. In order to fulfill this purpose effectively, a comprehensive review of previous studies regarding information system success model was performed in order to render a stronger theoretical foundation for our study. Finally, based on the DeLone and McLean (2003) IS success model, information quality, system quality, service quality, customer satisfaction and repurchase intention were employed as five constructs in the research model and hypotheses on mutual relationships between these constructs were established accordingly. Structural equation modeling was employed to analyze the data collected from 204 internet shopping mall consumers in China. Our theoretical model exhibited a good fit with the observed data. The empirical results showed particularly strong support for the effects of information quality, service quality and user satisfaction. The findings of this research contributed to the extension of repurchase intention study in the context of Internet shopping malls. Our research also offered implications for practitioners in regards to devising internet shopping malls so as to increase consumers' repurchase intention to use these services.

• Journal of Korean language education
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.209-233
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to analyze the pragmatic functions of '-ketun(yo)' expressed in the discourse associating with the context of communication based on the actual conversations of Korean native speakers. As discourse is closely related to the context, contextual factors surrounding the discourse should be actively considered in order to reveal the function of grammar expressed in the discourse. Also, there is need to consider the grammatical functions in terms of the linguistic user which is the subject of interaction in the discourse. Based on this necessity, in this study, we analyzed the pragmatic functions of '-ketun(yo).' As a result, '-ketun(yo)-' had a great influence on the formation and expansion of the shared context in communication contexts. The shared context is expanded through generative mutual knowledge and priori mutual knowledge. As a result of the conversation analysis, '-ketun(yo)-' was used at a high frequency in the expansion of generative mutual knowledge formation. In addition, '-ketun(yo)-' appeared to have a discourse cohesion function that binds topics with other topics. In the case that '-ketun(yo)-' is formed through priori mutual knowledge, '-ketun(yo)-' could be used as a sign to lead the union of the speaker and the listener. This study has significance in that it examines the pragmatic functions of '-ketun(yo)-' in relation to the context of communication based on actual utterance.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.27-55
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• 2008

Due to the increasing and intensifying competition in the Internet shopping market, it has been recognized as very important to develop an effective policy and strategy for acquiring loyal customers. For this reason, web site designers need to know if a new Internet shopping mall(ISM) will be accepted. Researchers have been working on identifying factors for explaining and predicting user acceptance of an ISM. Some studies, however, revealed inconsistent findings on the antecedents of user acceptance of a website. Lack of consideration for individual differences in user ability is believed to be one of the key reasons for the mixed findings. The elaboration likelihood model (ELM) and several studies have suggested that individual differences in ability plays an moderating role on the relationship between the antecedents and user acceptance. Despite the critical role of user ability, little research has examined the role of user ability in the Internet shopping mall context. The purpose of this study is to develop a user acceptance model that consider the moderating role of user ability in the context of Internet shopping. This study was initiated to see the ability of the technology acceptance model(TAM) to explain the acceptance of a specific ISM. According to TAM. which is one of the most influential models for explaining user acceptance of IT, an intention to use IT is determined by usefulness and ease of use. Given that interaction between user and website takes place through web interface, the decisions to accept and continue using an ISM depend on these beliefs. However, TAM neglects to consider the fact that many users would not stick to an ISM until they trust it although they may think it useful and easy to use. The importance of trust for user acceptance of ISM has been raised by the relational views. The relational view emphasizes the trust-building process between the user and ISM, and user's trust on the website is a major determinant of user acceptance. The proposed model extends and integrates the TAM and relational views on user acceptance of ISM by incorporating usefulness, ease of use, and trust. User acceptance is defined as a user's intention to reuse a specific ISM. And user ability is introduced into the model as moderating variable. Here, the user ability is defined as a degree of experiences, knowledge and skills regarding Internet shopping sites. The research model proposes that the ease of use, usefulness and trust of ISM are key determinants of user acceptance. In addition, this paper hypothesizes that the effects of the antecedents(i.e., ease of use, usefulness, and trust) on user acceptance may differ among users. In particular, this paper proposes a moderating effect of a user's ability on the relationship between antecedents with user's intention to reuse. The research model with eleven hypotheses was derived and tested through a survey that involved 470 university students. For each research variable, this paper used measurement items recognized for reliability and widely used in previous research. We slightly modified some items proper to the research context. The reliability and validity of the research variables were tested using the Crobnach's alpha and internal consistency reliability (ICR) values, standard factor loadings of the confirmative factor analysis, and average variance extracted (AVE) values. A LISREL method was used to test the suitability of the research model and its relating six hypotheses. Key findings of the results are summarized in the following. First, TAM's two constructs, ease of use and usefulness directly affect user acceptance. In addition, ease of use indirectly influences user acceptance by affecting trust. This implies that users tend to trust a shopping site and visit repeatedly when they perceive a specific ISM easy to use. Accordingly, designing a shopping site that allows users to navigate with heuristic and minimal clicks for finding information and products within the site is important for improving the site's trust and acceptance. Usefulness, however, was not found to influence trust. Second, among the three belief constructs(ease of use, usefulness, and trust), trust was empirically supported as the most important determinants of user acceptance. This implies that users require trustworthiness from an Internet shopping site to be repeat visitors of an ISM. Providing a sense of safety and eliminating the anxiety of online shoppers in relation to privacy, security, delivery, and product returns are critically important conditions for acquiring repeat visitors. Hence, in addition to usefulness and ease of use as in TAM, trust should be a fundamental determinants of user acceptance in the context of internet shopping. Third, the user's ability on using an Internet shopping site played a moderating role. For users with low ability, ease of use was found to be a more important factors in deciding to reuse the shopping mall, whereas usefulness and trust had more effects on users with high ability. Applying the EML theory to these findings, we can suggest that experienced and knowledgeable ISM users tend to elaborate on such usefulness aspects as efficient and effective shopping performance and trust factors as ability, benevolence, integrity, and predictability of a shopping site before they become repeat visitors of the site. In contrast, novice users tend to rely on the low elaborating features, such as the perceived ease of use. The existence of moderating effects suggests the fact that different individuals evaluate an ISM from different perspectives. The expert users are more interested in the outcome of the visit(usefulness) and trustworthiness(trust) than those novice visitors. The latter evaluate the ISM in a more superficial manner focusing on the novelty of the site and on other instrumental beliefs(ease of use). This is consistent with the insights proposed by the Heuristic-Systematic model. According to the Heuristic-Systematic model. a users act on the principle of minimum effort. Thus, the user considers an ISM heuristically, focusing on those aspects that are easy to process and evaluate(ease of use). When the user has sufficient experience and skills, the user will change to systematic processing, where they will evaluate more complex aspects of the site(its usefulness and trustworthiness). This implies that an ISM has to provide a minimum level of ease of use to make it possible for a user to evaluate its usefulness and trustworthiness. Ease of use is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the acceptance and use of an ISM. Overall, the empirical results generally support the proposed model and identify the moderating effect of the effects of user ability. More detailed interpretations and implications of the findings are discussed. The limitations of this study are also discussed to provide directions for future research.

• Journal of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.71-88
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• 2007

This study investigates the factors that influence the user's (postal workers') satisfaction with using PDAs in the Korea Postal Services. This study is concerned about the success of IS when employees are mandated to use IS to increase their productivity. The factors examined in this study include independent variables (information quality and system quality), dependent variables (perceived usefulness and user satisfaction), and mediator (compatibility with work). All these factors were found significant for causal relations. We especially notice the role of compatibility with work as full mediator.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.328-358
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• 2019

Business-to-Business electronic commerce websites are a common form of inter-organizational systems that span organizational boundaries and enables organizations to exchange information in a seamless fashion. To reap the desired benefits it is important that the website be used in the intended manner. The level and extent of use of a business-to-business website depends partly on the inclination to use the website by the users in the primary organization and in the user organizations independently and the combined inclination of the organizations together. This combined inclination is referred to as the System Inclination, with dominance playing a key role. Each organization has certain characteristics of its own and may differ significantly in their inclination to use. It is important to analyze the factors that determine this inclination to use, so that organizations can adopt appropriate management mechanisms to control it. This paper proposes a framework to explain the organizational factors and their influence on the inclination to use a website, based on study of four Indian buyer-supplier dyads. Inclination to use is found to be influenced by factors like top management support, website characteristics, adequate support mechanisms, user group orientation towards electronic commerce and basic IT drive among the employees, at both the primary and user organizations.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.632-638
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• 2012

A smartphone is one of the best candidate devices on which context based services can be provided because a smartphone has considerably powerful computing ability and large memory capacity and it is a personal belonging. One of the most important factors of context is the moving status of the smartphone. For example, if the smartphone is not moving and the user is in an exhibition room then we can conclude that the user is watching an exhibit. This paper proposes an algorithm of determining the moving status of a smartphone for the first time. Our test results showed that the proposed algorithm is 100% correct.

• Journal of Information Technology Services
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.145-161
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• 2022

The data is a key catalyst for the development of the fourth industry, and has been viewed as an essential element of the new industry, with technology convergence such as artificial intelligence, augmented/virtual reality, self-driving and 5 G. This will determine the price and value of the data as the user uses data in which the data is based on the context of the situation, rather than the data itself of the past supplier-centric data. This study began with, what factors will increase the value of data from a user perspective not a supplier perspective The study was limited to public data and users conducted research on users using data, such as analysis or development based on data. The study was designed to gauge the value of data that was not studied in the user's perspective, and was instrumental in raising the value of data in the jurisdiction of supplying and managing data.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.18 no.7
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• pp.149-156
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• 2020

This study investigated the key factors affecting online relational intimacy in the context of SNS. Based on the use and gratification theory, self-presentation, relationship formation and information searching were identified as the main needs of SNS usage. These needs were expected to influence online relational intimacy through user satisfaction, subjective well-being, and disclosing information behaviors. The theoretical framework was validated by a longitudinal method. Hypotheses were tested by using the partial least squares to data from 199 Facebook users. Self-presentation and information searching had a significant impact on both user satisfaction and subjective well-being. However, relationship formation did not significantly affect both user satisfaction and subjective well-being. User satisfaction had a significant direct effect only on online relational intimacy. Subjective well-beings played a significant role in enhancing both disclosing information behaviors and online relational intimacy. Finally, it has been found that disclosing information behaviors are a key factor in enhancing online relational intimacy. The results of this study are expected to provide academic and practical implications for the key antecedents of online relational intimacy.