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Recognition and Request for Medical Direction by 119 Emergency Medical Technicians (119 구급대원들이 지각하는 의료지도의 필요성 인식과 요구도)

  • Park, Joo-Ho
    • The Korean Journal of Emergency Medical Services
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    • v.15 no.3
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    • pp.31-44
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    • 2011
  • Purpose : The purpose of emergency medical services(EMS) is to save human lives and assure the completeness of the body in emergency situations. Those who have been qualified on medical practice to perform such treatment as there is the risk of human life and possibility of major physical and mental injuries that could result from the urgency of time and invasiveness inflicted upon the body. In the emergency medical activities, 119 emergency medical technicians mainly perform the task but they are not able to perform such task independently and they are mandatory to receive medical direction. The purpose of this study is to examine the recognition and request for medical direction by 119 emergency medical technicians in order to provide basic information on the development of medical direction program suitable to the characteristics of EMS as well as for the studies on EMS for the sake of efficient operation of pre-hospital EMS. Method : Questionnaire via e-mail was conducted during July 1-31, 2010 for 675 participants who are emergency medical technicians, nurses and other emergency crews in Gyeongbuk. The effective 171 responses were used for the final analysis. In regards to the emergency medical technicians' scope of responsibilities defined in Attached Form 14, Enforcement regulations of EMS, t-test analysis was conducted by using the means and standard deviation of the level of request for medical direction on the scope of responsibilities of Level 1 & Level 2 emergency medical technicians as the scale of medical direction request. The general characteristics, experience result, the reason for necessity, emergency medical technicians & medical director request level, medical direction method, the place of work of the medical director, feedback content and improvement plan request level were analyzed through frequency and percentage. The level of experience in medical direction and necessity were analyzed through ${\chi}^2$ test. Results : In regards to the medical direction experience per qualification, the experience was the highest with 53.3% for Level 1 emergency medical technicians and 80.3% responded that experience was helpful. As for the recognition on the necessity of medical direction, 71.3% responded as "necessary" and it turned out to be the highest of 76.9% in nurses. As for the reason for responding "necessary", the reason for reducing the risk and side-effects from EMS for patients was the largest(75.4%), and the reason of EMS delay due to the request of medical direction was the highest(71.4%) for the reason for responding "not necessary". In regards to the request level of the task scope of emergency medical technicians, injection of certain amount of solution during a state of shock was the highest($3.10{\pm}.96$) for Level 1 emergency rescuers, and the endotracheal intubation was the highest($3.12{\pm}1.03$) for nurses, and the sublingual administration of nitroglycerine(NTG) during chest pain was the highest($2.62{\pm}1.02$) for Level 2 emergency medical technicians, and regulation of heartbeat using AED was the highest($2.76{\pm}.99$) for other emergency crews. For the revitalization of medical direction, the improvement in the capability of EMS(78.9%) was requested from emergency crew, and the ability to evaluate the medical state of patient was the highest(80.1%) in the level of request for medical director. The prehospital and direct medical direction was the highest(60.8%) for medical direction method, and the emergency medical facility was the highest(52.0%) for the placement of medical director, and the evaluation of appropriateness of EMS was the highest(66.1%) for the feedback content, and the reinforcement of emergency crew(emergency medical technicians) personnel was the highest(69.0%) for the improvement plan. Conclusion : The medical direction is an important policy in the prehospital EMS activity because 119 emergency medical technicians agreed the necessity of medical direction and over 80% of those who experienced medical direction said it was helpful. In addition, the simulation training program using algorithm and case study through feedback are necessary in order to enhance the technical capability of ambulance teams on the item of professional EMS with high level of request in the task scope of emergency medical technicians, and recognition of medical direction is the essence of the EMS field. In regards to revitalizing medical direction, the improvement of the task performance capability of 119 emergency medical technicians and medical directors, reinforcement of emergency medical activity personnel, assurance of trust between emergency medical technicians and the emergency physician, and search for professional operation plan of medical direction center are needed to expand the direct medical direction method for possible treatment beforehand through the participation by medical director even at the step in which emergency situation report is received.

A Case Study on Venture and Small-Business Executives' Use of Strategic Intuition in the Decision Making Process (벤처.중소기업가의 전략적 직관에 의한 의사결정 모형에 대한 사례연구)

  • Park, Jong An;Kim, Young Su;Do, Man Seung
    • Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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    • v.9 no.1
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    • pp.15-23
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    • 2014
  • A Case Study on Venture and Small-Business Executives' Use of Strategic Intuition in the Decision Making Process This paper is a case study on how Venture and Small-Business Executives managers can take advantage of their intuitions in situations where the business environment is increasingly uncertain, a novel situation occurs without any data to reflect on, when rational decision-making is not possible, and when the business environment changes. The case study is based on a literature review, in-depth interviews with 16 business managers, and an analysis of Klein, G's (1998) "Generic Mental Simulation Model." The "intuition" discussed in this analysis is classified into two types of intuition: the Expert Intuition which is based on one's own experiences, and Strategic Intuition which is based on the experience of others. Case study strategic management intuition and intuition, the experts were utilized differently. Features of professional intuition to work quickly without any effort by, while the strategic intuition, is time-consuming. Another feature that has already occurred, one expert intuition in decision-making about the widely used strategic intuition was used a lot in future decision-making. The case study results revealed that managers were using expert intuition and strategic intuition differentially. More specifically, Expert Intuition was activated effortlessly, while strategic intuition required more time. Also, expert intuition was used mainly for making judgments about events that have already happened, while strategic intuition was used more often for judgments regarding events in the future. The process of strategic intuition involved (1) Strategic concerns, (2) the discovery of medium, (3) Primary mental simulation, (4) The offsetting of key parameters, (5) secondary mental simulation, and (6) the decision making process. These steps were used to develop the "Strategic Intuition Decision-making Model" for Venture and Small-Business Executives. The case study results further showed that firstly, the success of decision-making was determined in the "secondary mental simulation' stage, and secondly, that more difficulty in management was encountered when expert intuition was used more than strategic intuition and lastly strategic intuition is possible to be educated.

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The Selection of Appropriate Sampler for the Assessment of Macrobenthos Community in Saemangeum, the West Coast of Korea (새만금 외해역에서 대형 저서동물 군집 조사를 위한 적정 채집기의 선택)

  • 유재원;김창수;박미라;이형곤;이재학;홍재상
    • The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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    • v.8 no.3
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    • pp.285-294
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    • 2003
  • To select an appropriate sampler for the environmental monitoring survey in coastal waters of Saemangeum, Jeollabuk-do, a macrobenthic sampling was conducted in April 2002. Employed samplers were dredge (type Charcot), a semi-quantitative sampler and Smith-McIntyre (SM) and van Veen grab (VV) as quantitative ones. One haul was tried for dredge and 3 replicates (0.1 ㎡${\times}$3) for SM and W at each of 11 stations. Comparisons of sediment volume in sampler bucket and of precision of biological parameters (i.e., density, biomass, species number and diversity index, H') were made between SM and VV. Sediment volume was significantly different (SM > VV) at p-value of 0.0050 (paired t-test) and, in average, 3 replicate samples of SM and VV satisfied a precision level of 0.2 by applying 4th root transformation. Patterns of observed and expected species numbers and H' were compared. Dredge-VV samples showed higher affinity than any other pair. Several dominant species in the area were underestimated in dredge samples (e.g., polychaete Heteromastus filiformis. Aricidea assimilis etc.). Quantifying the agreement pattern of multi-species responses was accomplished by estimating correlations between similarity matrices. Correlation between dredge and VV was slightly higher, but near-per-fect matches were found in general. Different ranks and composition among principal species lists were presumably linked to the effect of penetration depth that differs among samplers. Lower level of some species' abundance in VV samples (ca. 50% compared with those of SM) was explained in this context. It seem appropriate to regard the effect as a probable cause of relatively higher correlations in dredge-VV, Overall bio-logica1 features indicated that a better choice could be SM in situations of requiring high data quality. The others work well, however, on observing and defining faunal characteristics and their capability cannot be questionted if we do not expect a first-order quality.

A Survey of the Current Information Activities in the Advanced Developing Countries (중진국의 정보유통체제 연구)

  • Choi Sung-jin
    • Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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    • v.7
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    • pp.89-195
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    • 1980
  • The advanced developing countries including Korea are assumed to have reached a developmental stage which necessitates them to formulate and implement a plan for a national information network. Most of the governments in the advanced developing countries are well aware of the necessity for such a plan and some of them have actually commenced their studies on the feasibility of a national network of their own hoping to achieve maximum utility of their limited information resources. Two urgent problems facing planners in the design of a national information network are identified. One is lack of an optimum organisational model to enable them to meet their own situations, and the other is lack of a guideline to help designers evaluate the alternative structures and models when they are available. In resolving these two problems, network planners in the advanced developing countries would benefit from the achievement of the objectives of the present study. The major objective is to elicit and describe common information needs, desires and value of the people using information, and other common factors which are responsible for the present information services in the advanced developing countries and which have implications for the basic structure of the national information network. The value of this study is to aid administrators in Korea and those in the other advanced developing countries who are responsible for making national policies and who are now beginning to recognise the need for information services with the planning of economic and social development so as to enable all the groups in the community to have access to the information which are essential for decision making, research work, studies and even for recreational reading. This recognition will hopefully give them a rational basis for formulating right policies on information services. The methodology utlised for collecting the required data in this study falls under the category of observation and largely consists of the two techniques: literature review and postal questionnaire. Background information on the individual advanced developing: countries was gathered from monographic and periodical literature. and country reports presented at the various international conferences were analysed for other relevant data. For most of the data needed for the present study, a questionnaire on 'Library and Information Services as They Are Available in the Selected Countries' was formulated. This questionnaire was designed to be completed without help, by an expert who was well informed of the library and information services in his or her country. The questionnaire was intended to look in details at what information services in the advanced developing countries were doing-whom they were serving, in what way, and how well and establish to what extent they were meeting the nation's information requirements. It was also intended to ascertain the respondents' ideas on possible future developments in information provision in their countries, that is, in the advanced devanced developing countries. The questionnaire was posted to a total of 63 natinal librarians, directors of national information centres and those of other major libraries or information centres in 21 selected countries. Complete usable responses were received from 34 persons in 14 countries. In order to identify common characteristics of the information needs and desires in the advanced developing countries and the present situation of the information services to meet them, and the requirements and constraints peculiar to those countries which bought to be considered in the design of a national information network for advanced developing countries, an individual report on the current status of information activities for each of the fourteen countries chosen for this study, was presented. The procedure used was to arrange the data acquired in the questionnaire responses and other sources, in the form of fifteen country reports to be summarised by cross-section characteristics later.

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A Phenomenological Study for Hospitalized Elderly무s Powerlessness (병원에 입원한 노인의 무력감 현상 연구)

  • 최영희;김경은
    • Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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    • v.26 no.1
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    • pp.223-247
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    • 1996
  • This study was done to provide information which would lead to nursing care of the elderly being more holistically through an understanding of the phenomena of powerlessness based on the lived experience of powerlessness by the elderly, the meaning the elderly give to such phenomena, and what essence of powerlessness is. The methodology used in this study was Max Van Manen's phenomenological method based on the philosophy of Merleu-Ponty and a concerted approach was realized through the 11 steps suggested in the Van Manen's method. Data collection was done from March 2, 1995 to December 30, 1995. The subjects for this study were four elderly persons who lived with their families and who were over 60 years of age. Data were collected about the lived experience of the elderly, this researcher's experience of powerlessness, the linguistic meaning of powerlessness, idioms of the word or a feeling of powerlessness, and descriptions of powerlessness in the elderly as they appeared in the literature, are works, and phenomenological literature. All data were used to provide insights into the phenomena of powerlessness. Data about the experience of powerlessness by the elderly were collected through open interviews, participation, and observation. In the analysis of the theme of this study, the aspects of the theme, powerlessness in the elderly were clarified, thereby abstracting and finding meaningful statements by the elderly about their feeling of powerlessness, and then those significant statements were expressed as linguistic transformations. The summarized findings from the study are as follows : 1. Five meanings of powerlessness in the elderly were defined. 〈weakness〉, 〈dependence〉, 〈frustration〉, 〈worthlessness〉 and 〈giving up〉. 2. 〈Weakness〉 means that the elderly experience, not only their aging but also, their becoming weak and the loss of physical function frequently caused by diseases. 〈Dependence〉 means that the elderly experience dependence without any influence from the surroundings and that elderly patients who are hospitalized lose their autonomy, follow entirely their doctor's prescriptions, use aid equipment and directions, and depend only on those things. 〈Frustration〉 means that the elderly experience the loss of their roles from the past, there by feeling that there is no work for them to do anymore and therefore feel unable to do anything. 〈Worthlessness〉 means that the elderly experience the feeling of losing their social roles from the past, having no financial ability, thereby being a burden to their children or the people around them, and therefore regarding themselves useless. 〈Giving up〉 means that the elderly experience the feeling of closeness to death in the final stage of their lifetime, lose hope to be healed from their disease, and recognize the incontrollability of their own body. 3. From a general view of the meaning of the theme the powerlessness in the elderly-the most essential meaning of the theme is the 〈sense of loss〉. For the elderly are experiencing a sense of loss in the situation of being elderly and therefore being often hospitalized. Brief definitions of the five phenomena could be 〈weakness〉 meaning the loss of physical strength, 〈dependence〉 the loss of mentality caused by disease and hospitalization, 〈frustration〉 and 〈worthlessness〉 the loss of social performance caused by the loss of social functions from the past, and lastly 〈giving up〉 the loss of the controllability of such situations of aging and suffering disease. In light of the discussion above, it is understandable that the hospitalized elderly experience powerlessness not only as it related to their diseases but also to their normal aging, and this related to other characteristics of being elderly means that the 〈sense of loss〉 is the very essence of their powerlessness. 4. While most cases are of the normal elderly experiencing powerlessness in relation to their social network, cases of elderly who are hospitalized are of those experiencing powerlessness in relation to the loss of their physical desire. 5. The findings discussed above can serve as guidelines for nurses who take care of the ill elderly who are hospitalized and that can provide cues to appropriate nursing service, recognizing that the subjective experience of the objective age of the elderly is so important. Nurses can provide highly qualitative nursing service, based on their deep understanding of the suffering of the elderly due to feelings of powerlessness.

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A Study on the Legal System in the Inter-Governmental Agreement on the International Space Station (국제우주정거장협정의 법제도에 관한 고찰방안)

  • Kim, Jong-Bok
    • The Korean Journal of Air & Space Law and Policy
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    • v.22 no.1
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    • pp.9-27
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    • 2007
  • The purpose of this paper is to study about the legal system of the Inter-governmental Agreement on the International Space Station('IGA') which was signed on Jan 29,1998. This paper is divided into three main parts ; 1) a review of ISS, 2) the principal rules of IGA, 3) the legal system of IGA. First, the paper draws an outline of ISS by dealing with (1) the definition, characteristics, and functions of ISS, (2) the composition of ISS. Second, the paper explains the principal rules of IGA which include (1) the rule of 'Partnership' and (2) the rule of 'Peaceful Purpose'. Third, the legal system of IGA is studied by looking at five different aspects: (1) the registration system, (2) a general jurisdiction, criminal jurisdiction and a control of jurisdiction, (3) intellectual property rights and other rights beside intellectual property, (4) cross-waiver of liability and several elements in compensation of damages, (5) the dispute resolution. IGA contains new contents and applications of legal system which was not included in the former space law. Therefore IGA will work as a model law for international cooperation of space development. It is important for us to study the matter of ISS, because disputes on the ISS are left solely to contracting parties although IGA will regulate overall situations. The renewed IGA is even more important because all the space development is expected to take place on an international cooperation basis. On the basis of this paper, all the important parts of IGA is expected to be further studied so that the research can contribute to the establishment of the legal system of space development in Korea.

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A study on the Types of Utilization and Administration of Common Forests in Korea (마을공동소유림(共同所有林)의 이용(利用) 및 관리실태(管理實態) 조사연구(調査硏究))

  • Lee, Mahn Woo
    • Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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    • v.61 no.1
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    • pp.60-68
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    • 1983
  • Ever since the day of pre-modernized society where the farming skill had been in the stagnant condition, the common farmwoodlands have been utilized in common (collectivelly) by villagers in order to harvest farmwoodlands and fuelwoods. Later, during the process of modernization, most of the common farmwoodlands were transferred into national or public forests by the administrative enforcement, but there were still various types of village (common) forests such as the common forests owned by joint owners, village block associations, village forest productive societies, Village Forestry Association(V.F.A.), and the national or public forests leased to V.F.A. As Village Forestry Association is organized with a few villages, each of common forests ow nod to the villages is obliged to be diversely controlled by other managers than the chief of V.F.A. Therefore, it is to be desired that the control of common forests should be under Gun Forestry Association Union. While the rate of the use of common forests for fuelwoods and cemetery has been considerably high, villagers wish to promote the timber forest establishment through the collective management by their improved farming skills and economical situations. In these present circumstances the village forest productive societies should be guided to work in closer cooperation with Gun Forestry Association Union. Since the management of common forests is still extensive, it still remains in the semi-management condition under which we can not find any management plan or measure to control forest damage. Especially the small area common forests should have appropriate size for the joint management. This will promote the forest productivity through the lease for reforestation of disposable national forests or public county forests and the contracts for profit sharing. Today owing to increasing forest value, frequent dispute has occurred on the common right telated to the village forests and rationalization of forest management has been disregarded. If a necessary measure were taken to control the dispute such as transferring the registeration right of ownership to the village forest productive society, the confidence of local inhabitants can be regained and the productivity of forests can be naturally increased.

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A Study on the Legal System in the Inter-Governmental Agreement on the International Space Station (국제우주정거장협정의 법제도에 관한 고찰)

  • Kim, Jong-Bok
    • The Korean Journal of Air & Space Law and Policy
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    • no.spc
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    • pp.17-34
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    • 2007
  • The purpose of this paper is to study about the legal system of the Inter-governmental Agreement on the International Space Station('IGA') which was signed on Jan 29,1998. This paper is divided into three main parts ; 1) a review of ISS, 2) the principal rules of IGA, 3) the legal system of IGA. First, the paper draws an outline of ISS by dealing with (1) the definition, characteristics, and functions of ISS, (2) the composition of ISS. Second, the paper explains the principal rules of IGA which include (1) the rule of 'Partnership' and (2) the rule of 'Peaceful Purpose'. Third, the legal system of IGA is studied by looking at five different aspects: (1) the registration system, (2) a general jurisdiction, criminal jurisdiction and a control of jurisdiction, (3) intellectual property rights and other rights beside intellectual property, (4) cross-waiver of liability and several elements in compensation of damages, (5) the dispute resolution. IGA contains new contents and applications of legal system which was not included in the former space law. Therefore IGA will work as a model law for international cooperation of space development. It is important for us to study the matter of ISS, because disputes on the ISS are left solely to contracting parties although IGA will regulate overall situations. The renewed IGA is even more important because all the space development is expected to take place on an international cooperation basis. On the basis of this paper, all the important parts of IGA is expected to be further studied so that the research can contribute to the establishment of the legal system of space development in Korea.

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An Examination of Knowledge Sourcing Strategies Effects on Corporate Performance in Small Enterprises (소규모 기업에 있어서 지식소싱 전략이 기업성과에 미치는 영향 고찰)

  • Choi, Byoung-Gu
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.18 no.4
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    • pp.57-81
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    • 2008
  • Knowledge is an essential strategic weapon for sustaining competitive advantage and is the key determinant for organizational growth. When knowledge is shared and disseminated throughout the organization, it increases an organization's value by providing the ability to respond to new and unusual situations. The growing importance of knowledge as a critical resource has forced executives to pay attention to their organizational knowledge. Organizations are increasingly undertaking knowledge management initiatives and making significant investments. Knowledge sourcing is considered as the first important step in effective knowledge management. Most firms continue to make an effort to realize the benefits of knowledge management by using various knowledge sources effectively. Appropriate knowledge sourcing strategies enable organizations to create, acquire, and access knowledge in a timely manner by reducing search and transfer costs, which result in better firm performance. In response, the knowledge management literature has devoted substantial attention to the analysis of knowledge sourcing strategies. Many studies have categorized knowledge sourcing strategies into intemal- and external-oriented. Internal-oriented sourcing strategy attempts to increase firm performance by integrating knowledge within the boundary of the firm. On the contrary, external-oriented strategy attempts to bring knowledge in from outside sources via either acquisition or imitation, and then to transfer that knowledge across to the organization. However, the extant literature on knowledge sourcing strategies focuses primarily on large organizations. Although many studies have clearly highlighted major differences between large and small firms and the need to adopt different strategies for different firm sizes, scant attention has been given to analyzing how knowledge sourcing strategies affect firm performance in small firms and what are the differences between small and large firms in the patterns of knowledge sourcing strategies adoption. This study attempts to advance the current literature by examining the impact of knowledge sourcing strategies on small firm performance from a holistic perspective. By drawing on knowledge based theory from organization science and complementarity theory from the economics literature, this paper is motivated by the following questions: (1) what are the adoption patterns of different knowledge sourcing strategies in small firms (i,e., what sourcing strategies should be adopted and which sourcing strategies work well together in small firms)?; and (2) what are the performance implications of these adoption patterns? In order to answer the questions, this study developed three hypotheses. First hypothesis based on knowledge based theory is that internal-oriented knowledge sourcing is positively associated with small firm performance. Second hypothesis developed on the basis of knowledge based theory is that external-oriented knowledge sourcing is positively associated with small firm performance. The third one based on complementarity theory is that pursuing both internal- and external-oriented knowledge sourcing simultaneously is negatively or less positively associated with small firm performance. As a sampling frame, 700 firms were identified from the Annual Corporation Report in Korea. Survey questionnaires were mailed to owners or executives who were most erudite about the firm s knowledge sourcing strategies and performance. A total of 188 companies replied, yielding a response rate of 26.8%. Due to incomplete data, 12 responses were eliminated, leaving 176 responses for the final analysis. Since all independent variables were measured using continuous variables, supermodularity function was used to test the hypotheses based on the cross partial derivative of payoff function. The results indicated no significant impact of internal-oriented sourcing strategies while positive impact of external-oriented sourcing strategy on small firm performance. This intriguing result could be explained on the basis of various resource and capital constraints of small firms. Small firms typically have restricted financial and human resources. They do not have enough assets to always develop knowledge internally. Another possible explanation is competency traps or core rigidities. Building up a knowledge base based on internal knowledge creates core competences, but at the same time, excessive internal focused knowledge exploration leads to behaviors blind to other knowledge. Interestingly, this study found that Internal- and external-oriented knowledge sourcing strategies had a substitutive relationship, which was inconsistent with previous studies that suggested complementary relationship between them. This result might be explained using organizational identification theory. Internal organizational members may perceive external knowledge as a threat, and tend to ignore knowledge from external sources because they prefer to maintain their own knowledge, legitimacy, and homogeneous attitudes. Therefore, integrating knowledge from internal and external sources might not be effective, resulting in failure of improvements of firm performance. Another possible explanation is small firms resource and capital constraints and lack of management expertise and absorptive capacity. Although the integration of different knowledge sources is critical, high levels of knowledge sourcing in many areas are quite expensive and so are often unrealistic for small enterprises. This study provides several implications for research as well as practice. First this study extends the existing knowledge by examining the substitutability (and complementarity) of knowledge sourcing strategies. Most prior studies have tended to investigate the independent effects of these strategies on performance without considering their combined impacts. Furthermore, this study tests complementarity based on the productivity approach that has been considered as a definitive test method for complementarity. Second, this study sheds new light on knowledge management research by identifying the relationship between knowledge sourcing strategies and small firm performance. Most current literature has insisted complementary relationship between knowledge sourcing strategies on the basis of data from large firms. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, this study identifies substitutive relationship between knowledge sourcing strategies using data from small firms. Third, implications for practice highlight that managers of small firms should focus on knowledge sourcing from external-oriented strategies. Moreover, adoption of both sourcing strategies simultaneousiy impedes small firm performance.

The Experience and Competence of Physicians Who Provide Emergency Health Care at Public Health Sub-Centers on Remote Islands in Korea (도서지역 보건지소 공중보건의사의 응급의료 경험 및 대처능력 고찰)

  • Seo, Je-Hyun;Lee, Su-Jin;Ha, Jeong-Hoon;Kwon, Duck-Geun;Kim, Jung-Ho;Lee, Jae-Hyuk;Na, Baeg-Ju;Kang, Yoon-Hwa
    • Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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    • v.36 no.1
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    • pp.36-46
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    • 2011
  • Objectives: To investigate the experience and competence of physicians providing emergency medical services at public health sub-centers on remote Korean islands. Methods: This study enrolled 79 doctors who work at public health sub-centers on remote Korean islands. Data were collected in December 2009 via self-administered e-mail questionnaires. The response rate was 44.3%. Results: Emergent situations occurred at most (58.68%) of the public health sub-centers that were surveyed in December 2009. An average of 1.92 cases required treatment by public health physicians. Only 20.25% of the physicians were specialists in emergency medicine, while the remainder were general practitioners (GPs) without clinical experience as emergency doctors. We also found that the physicians we surveyed had insufficient knowledge of emergency medical care. At some health centers only one doctor was available, and there was no medical team in holiday, although most of the physicians indicated that the ideal number of doctors per center was two or three. In cases of emergency, patients were often sent to the mainland by ship without receiving first-aid treatment. The public health sub-centers lacked the necessary medical equipment to save lives in emergencies and lacked escort systems for emergency patients. Conclusions: The Korean government should address the importance of providing emergency care in remote areas. Health administrators should provide suitable manpower, medical equipment, guidelines for emergency medicine, and education for public health physicians on remote islands.