• Journal of the Korea Knowledge Information Technology Society
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.11-23
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• 2018

This paper empirically investigates the factors that influence the consumer choice of an app market based on the rational choice theory. The app market is the only channel where a consumer can buy smartphone apps, which give various functional convenience and are considered to be a major contributor to the proliferation of smartphones. Analyses of 281 questionnaires show that usability and structural guarantees as benefit factors significantly influence the app market choice. From the cost perspectives, both monetary and non-monetary conversion costs are found to significantly influence the app market choice. On the other hand, customer trust, information quality, and market image were found to have no significant effect on app market selection. In particular, Korean app market platform providers (KT, LG U +) seem to be superior in terms of structural guarantees, such as customer center operation and damage compensation regulations, compared to overseas app market platform operators (Google). However, in the case of the Google App Market, it is pre-installed on all Android phones, so it is not inconvenient to install additional apps to use other app market. This is disadvantageous to domestic app market platform operators, and it is necessary to establish a policy solution point. In terms of operator costs, both monetary and non-monetary conversion costs have a significant impact on app market choice. In particular, non-monetary conversion costs have a negative impact on Korean app market platform operators. It can be explained that the service expectation level of the domestic app market is low and it is recognized that the time cost factor such as membership is large for new users to use. It seems to be necessary to improve the domestic app market business. Meanwhile, extant research on smartphone apps focuses on the purchase of apps themselves, but not on the selection of the app market itself. In order to fill in this gap, this study focuses on the determinants of app market selection, including the characteristics of an app market and the switching costs.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.71-100
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• 2014

While the role of emotional antecedents of effective selling behavior would be important, the issue has not been fully addressed in the sales literature. To fill this gap, we conceptualize and empirically examine the relationships among salesperson's emotional regulation processes such as emotional intelligence (EI) and emotional labor (EL), effective selling behavior, and sales performance on the basis of educational, occupational, social psychology literature and marketing literature (e.g., Henning-Thurau, Groth, Paul, and Gremler 2006; Kidwell et al. 2011; Liu et al. 2008; Mayer, Salovey, and Caruso 2008). First, salesperson's EI is defined as his or her capability that enables correct perceptions about emotional situations in sales interactions. The EI is expected to work as psychological resources for different types of EL (i.e., deep acting and surface acting) to be performed by salesperson as emotional expression strategies (e.g., Lie et al. 2008). It is, then, expected that the features of EL selected by the salesperson would lead to different levels of adaptive selling behavior (ASB) and thereby sales performance (Monaghan 2006). Further, given that salesperson's customer orientation (CO) is found to be an important correlate of ASB (Franke and Park 2006), it is expected that CO would moderate the relationship between EL and ASB (Rozell, Pettijohn, and Parker 2004). Hence, this research attempts to shed additional light on emotionally-driven (EL) as well as cognitively-driven (CO) antecedents of ASB (Frank and Park 2006). The findings of the survey research, done with 336 salespersons in insurance and financial companies, are summarized as follows. First, salespersons with a high level of EI are found to use both deep acting (regulating the emotions themselves) and surface acting (controlling only emotional expressions) in a versatile way, when implementing EL. Second, the more the salesperson performs deep acting, the more he or she shows ASB. It is, then, important for salespersons to use deep acting more frequently in the EL process in order to enhance the quality of interacting with customers through ASB. On the other hand, the salesperson's surface acting did not have a significant relationship with ASB. Moreover, CO was found to moderate the relationship between the salesperson's deep acting and ASB. That is, the context of high CO culture and individual salesperson's deep acting would synergistically make the selling efforts adaptive to customer preferences. Conceptualizing and empirically verifying the antecedent roles of important emotional constructs such as EI and EL in salesperson's effective selling behavior (ASB) and sales performance is a major theoretical contribution in the sales literature. Managerially, this research provides a deeper understanding on the nature of tasks performed by salespersons in service industries and a few guidelines for managing the sales force. First, sales organizations had better consciously assess EI capacity in the selection and nurturing processes of salespersons, given that EI can efficiently drive EL and the resulting effective selling behavior and performance. Further, the concept of EL could provide a framework to understand the salespersons' emotional experiences in depth. Especially, sales organizations may well think over how to develop deep acting capabilities of their sales representatives. In this direction, the training on deep acting strategies would be an essential task for improving effective selling behavior and performance of salespersons. This kind of training had better incorporate the perspectives of customers such that many customers can actually discern whether salespersons are doing either surface acting or deep acting. Finally, based on the synergistic effects of deep acting and CO culture, how to build and sustain CO is always an ever-important task in sales organizations. While the prior sales literature has emphasized the process and structure of highly customer-oriented sales organization, our research not only corroborates the important aspects of customer-oriented sales organization, but also adds the important dimension of competent sales representatives who can resonate with customers by deep acting for sales excellence.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.1-22
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• 2013

This case focuses on Shanghai Tang, the first truly Chinese luxury brand that appeals to both Westerners and, more recently, to Chinese consumers worldwide. A visionary and wealthy businessman Sir David Tang created this company from scratch in 1994 in Hong Kong. Its story, spanned over almost two decades, has been fascinating. It went from what best a Chinese brand could be in the eyes of Westerners who love the Chinese culture, to a nearly-bankrupted company in 1998, before being acquired by Richemont, the second largest luxury group in the world. Since then, its turnaround has been spectacular with a growing appeal among Chinese luxury consumers who represent the core segment of the luxury industry today. The main objective of this case study is to formally examine how Shanghai Tang overcame its downfall and re-emerged as one the very few well- known Chinese luxury brands. More specifically, this case highlights the ways with which Shanghai Tang made a transitional change from a brand for Westerners who love the Chinese culture, to a brand for both, Westerners who love the Chinese culture and Chinese who love luxury. A close examination reveals that Shanghai Tang has followed the brand identity concept that consists of two major components: functional and emotional. The functional component for developing a luxury brand concerns all product characteristics that will make a product 'luxurious' in the eyes of the consumer, such as premium quality of cachemire from Mongolia, Chinese silk, lacquer, finest leather, porcelain, and jade in the case of Shanghai Tang. The emotional component consists of non-functional symbolic meanings of a brand. The symbolic meaning marks the major difference between a premium and a luxury brand. In the case of Shanghai Tang, its symbolic meaning refers to the Chinese culture and the brand aims to represent the best of Chinese traditions and establish itself as "the ambassador of modern Chinese style". It touches the Chinese heritage and emotions. Shanghai Tang has reinvented the modern Chinese chic by drawing back to the stylish decadence of Shanghai in the 1930s, which was then called the "Paris of the East", and this is where the brand finds inspiration to create its own myth. Once the functional and emotional components assured, Shanghai Tang has gone through a four-stage development to become the first global Chinese luxury brand: introduction, deepening, expansion, and revitalization. Introduction: David Tang discovered a market gap and had a vision to launch the first Chinese luxury brand to the world. The key success drivers for the introduction and management of a Chinese luxury brand are a solid brand identity and, above all, a creative mind, an inspired person. This was David Tang then, and this is now Raphael Le Masne de Chermont, the current Executive Chairman. Shanghai Tang combines Chinese and Western elements, which it finds to be the most sustainable platform for drawing consumers. Deepening: A major objective of the next phase is to become recognized as a luxury brand and a fashion or design authority. For this purpose, Shanghai Tang has cooperated with other well-regarded luxury and lifestyle brands such as Puma and Swarovski. It also expanded its product lines from high-end custom-made garments to music CDs and restaurant. Expansion: After the opening of his first store in Hong Kong in 1994, David Tang went on to open his second store in New York City three years later. However this New York retail operation was a financial disaster. Barely nineteen months after the opening, the store was shut down and quietly relocated to a cheaper location of Madison Avenue. Despite this failure, Shanghai Tang products found numerous followers especially among Western tourists and became "souvenir-like" must-haves. However, despite its strong brand DNA, the brand did not generate enough repeated sales and over the years the company cumulated heavy debts and became unprofitable. Revitalizing: After its purchase by Richemont in 1998, Le Masne de Chermont was appointed to lead the company, reposition the brand and undertake some major strategic changes such as revising the "Shanghai Tang" designs to appeal not only to Westerners but also to Chinese consumers, and to open new stores around the world. Since then, Shanghai Tang has become synonymous to a modern Chinese luxury lifestyle brand.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.129-160
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• 2006

The purposes of this study were to find 1) the realities of social anxiety and perception of various kinds of social problems that exists in Korean society as well as the perception on the events that causes the social anxiety, 2) to see the difference of perceived level of social anxiety through variables of social demography and difference of perception on Korean society. The sample was distributed according to population size distinguishing the nation to 6 regions. The data of 1,375 adult respondents were analysed. The results are as follows. First of all, respondents mentioned that the most immediate problem to be solved in Korean society was financial anxiety, and the most desirable state of society was when the society is financially stabled. Single question was measured about social anxiety of Korean society and scored 6.84 from full marks of 10, showing difference in variables for instance sex, age, and subjective S.E.S. where women, aged under 20, and perceived low class group showed the highest rate of social anxiety. However, there weren't any difference found in social anxiety of the variables like presence of religion, educational background, residence, and monthly average household income. Also, there were differences in level of social anxiety according to the difference of perception of Korean society. Higher the perceived unpredictability, uncontrollability, and unmovability to the upper class, unfairness, and uncertainty, unreliability of the Korean society, higher the social anxiety. And the lower the perceived chance of success of reformation, higher the social anxiety. It was also found that the perceived social anxiety is influenced by social accidents and phenomenon as unemployment, economic depression, and the gap between rich and poor as well as the increase of crime through effluence of personal information. Finally the limitations and implications of this study were discussed.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.131-159
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• 2023

Recently, amidst the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic shifting towards an endemic phase, there has been a rise in discussions and debates about the future of the metaverse. Simultaneously, major metaverse platforms like Roblox have been launching services integrated with generative AI, and Apple's mixed reality hardware, Vision Pro, has been announced, creating new expectations for the metaverse. In this situation where the outlook for the metaverse is divided, it is crucial to diagnose the metaverse from an ecosystem perspective, examine its key ecological features, driving forces for development, and future possibilities for advancement. This study utilized Wang's (2021) Information Ecology Theory (IET) framework, which is representative of ecosystem research in the field of Information Systems (IS), to derive the Metaverse Industrial Ecosystem (MIE). The analysis revealed that the MIE consists of four main domains: Tech Landscape, Category Ecosystem, Metaverse Platform, and Product/Service Ecosystem. It was found that the MIE exhibits characteristics such as digital connectivity, the integration of real and virtual worlds, value creation capabilities, and value sharing (Web 3.0). Furthermore, the interactions among the domains within the MIE and the four characteristics of the ecosystem were identified as driving forces for the development of the MIE at an ecosystem level. Additionally, the development of the MIE at an ecosystem level was categorized into three distinct stages: Narrow Ecosystem, Expanded Ecosystem, and Everywhere Ecosystem. It is anticipated that future advancements in related technologies and industries, such as robotics, AI, and 6G, will promote the transition from the current Expanded Ecosystem level of the MIE to an Everywhere Ecosystem level, where the connection between the real and virtual worlds is pervasive. This study provides several implications. Firstly, it offers a foundational theory and analytical framework for ecosystem research, addressing a gap in previous metaverse studies. It also presents various research topics within the metaverse domain. Additionally, it establishes an academic foundation that integrates concept definition research and impact studies, which are key areas in metaverse research. Lastly, referring to the developmental stages and conditions proposed in this study, businesses and governments can explore future metaverse markets and related technologies. They can also consider diverse metaverse business strategies. These implications are expected to guide the exploration of the emerging metaverse market and facilitate the evaluation of various metaverse business strategies.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.12 no.5_spc
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• pp.149-167
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• 2006

Korean society is rapidly changing to aging society comparing the other industrialized countries, however, the studies of elderly driver's driving behavior and accidents are not enough in Korea for elderly driver's accident prevention. This study focused on the elderly driver's psychological effects on elderly driver's driving behavior and traffic accidents; carefulness and aberrant driving behavior. - Elderly driver's traffic accidents The high percentage of elderly driver's accidents occurs in intersections and when turning left. There was a significant difference of the opponent vehicle's speed when left turn, between elderly driver and young driver; the elderly driver choose the higher speed of opponent vehicle than young driver when left turning. This result means that elderly driver has some problems with deciding the vehicle's speed and gap acceptance(Sunyeol Lee, Soonchul Lee, and Inseok Kim, 2006)(Table 1). - Carefulness and driving confidence In order to understand elderly driver's carefulness, this study compared the elderly driver's driving confidence. Driving confidence was consisted of 4 factors; environment of traffic condition, safe driving, driving ability and attention. Elderly driver's confidence was lower than young driver's. Elderly driver in high driving confidence group, showed longer driving history and they were tend to commit violations more frequently than elerly driver in low driving confidence group. Young driver, whose driving confidence level was high answered more driving history, annual mileage, the frequency of committing traffic violation and the experience of accident within lats 5 years(Soonchul Lee, Juseok Oh, Sunjin Park, Soonyeol Lee and Inseok Kim, 2006)(Table 2). This study examined the total time required until deciding to turn left in the no traffic signal intersection between elderly driver and young driver. The result showed that the time of elderly driver was significant longer than young driver(Sunyeol Lee et al, 2006)(Table 3). - Elderly driver's aberrant behavior Driver behavior Questionnaire(DBQ) was measured to understand the aberrant behavior; violation, error and lapse. The tend of aberrant behavior was observed by aging(Sunjin Park, Soonchul Lee, Jonghoi, Kim and Inseok Kim, 2006). Elderly driver's DBQ score was lower than young driver's(Table 4). Elderly and young driver showing longer driving history were in low DBQ score group. Elderly driver had high error score and young driver had high violation score. Young driver's aberrant driving behaviour was associated with annual mileage and the frequency of committing traffic violation. Elderly driver's aberrant driving behaviour was associated with annual mileage and experience of accident. Especially elderly driver whose violation, error and lapse score was high answered more committing experience of accident within last 5 years.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.1-16
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• 2023

Due to imbalances in supply and demand within the labor market, start-ups have emerged as crucial players in the generation of high-quality employment opportunities, particularly in stagnant job markets. In response to this trend, governments are allocating substantial financial and human resources to initiatives that support start-up development. This has led to an increasing rate of engagement in start-up ventures across diverse age groups, not limited to younger individuals. Start-ups are enterprises focused on the commercialization of innovative ideas with the aim of achieving profitability in the marketplace. Research concerning the successful market integration of new products and the attainment of sustainable growth is pivotal. Such research is instrumental not only for the success of start-ups but also for realizing the broader social functions and contributions that these enterprises can offer. Previous research has often examined new product market-entry strategies, often referred to as new product marketing, particularly for large companies and SMEs. However, there is a gap in studies focusing on prototype marketing strategies specific to start-ups. Thus, this study aims to examine the impact of Pre-announcing marketing strategies on the market attention garnered by start-ups with low recognition and limited infrastructure, and how such attention contributes to their sustainable growth. Specifically, the study aims to uncover the causal relationship between information attributes like relevance, vividness, and novelty in building customer relationships, and their impact on purchase intentions influenced by performance expectations and hedonic motivations. In terms of Pre-announcing information attributes, relevance, vividness, and novelty positively influence performance expectations and hedonic motivations as outlined in the extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2). These factors, in turn, positively impact the purchase intention for pre-announced new products from start-ups. These findings are expected to provide both theory and practical insights into the factors influencing market entry through the use of Pre-announcing marketing strategies for start-up new products.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.13-28
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• 2022

Korean Government Budget Supports for startups have been spiked and resulted in increasing the number and scaling up Startup Accelerating managers. It have skyrocketed the strong demand for their qualified roles. However, unclear role description and gap between required role and their capability have discouraged startup manager's self-efficacy resulted in declining their full commitment and causing poor role performance. The focus of this research falls on empirical analysis to the effect of startup accelerating manager's capability characteristics on their full commitment and performance to start-up support groups. This research is expected to deliver diverse policy alternatives to build up manager's core competencies to accelerate their self-efficacy leading their full role commitments and finally pushing up policy performance. In addition, this research will found more strong literature review for the following researches in this emerging fields. This research is brought four highlighting results with respect to four research problems. First, it propose proper concept of startup accelerating manager based upon its legal entitlement. Second, it drive required core competencies of manager for successful their accountability. Third, it analyze the unique features of startup accelerating manger's capabilities against business incubation manger. Fourth, it empirically analyze in coming with government startup funding, the effect of self-efficacy including employment status, job environment, etc. on their organizational commitment and job performance. This research reveal the required unique core competencies of manger into founder sourcing ability, project managing ability, startup proving and pivoting ability, consulting ability for successful investment raising. As of this empirical research results, First, manager's ability have positively effect on their job performance, full commitment, and self-efficacy. Second, self-efficacy have a mediating effect on manager's ability, job performance, full commitment. This research derive key policy implication of requiring to build up more accelerating ability, of manager from the basics to advance level by customized and algorithm based traing program. This accelerating ability buildup program will not only surge self-efficacy of manger resulting in making full commitment and better job performance, but also devote to categorizing the unique new feature and position of manger as seed investment and supporter.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.38-47
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• 2024

Background: Korea's population of children and adolescents has decreased by 2.88 million over the past decade and is expected to decline further due to the unprecedented low birth rate. In the fee-for-service compensation system, the decline in the pediatric population relates directly to the profit decrease in the pediatric clinics. This study analyzed whether the worsening profits of pediatric clinics impacted their closure. Methods: We built annual data for pediatric and other department clinics (internal medicine, otolaryngology, and family medicine) using the status of medical institute and health insurance claims data from 2012 to 2022. Then, we analyzed whether institutional variables such as annual profit and regional variables (Herfindahl-Hirschman index, the number of clinics per 100,000, etc.) affected the closure of clinics. The methods used in this study are descriptive statistics and chi-square analysis. Odds ratios for each variable were estimated by generalized estimating equations (GEE). Results: The closure rate of pediatric clinics was 2.66%-7.04% in 2012-2022, which was consistently higher than those of internal medicine, otolaryngology, and family medicine clinics. The profit gap per institution between the pediatric and the other clinics grew from 126 million won in 2012 to 245 million won in 2019. In the GEE analysis, profit decrease compared to the previous year with lower profit was the main factor that increased the closure of pediatric and other department clinics. After adjusting profit-related variables, the decrease in the pediatric population itself did not relate to the closure of pediatric clinics. The number of pediatric clinics or monopolies also did not affect the closure of pediatric clinics. Conclusion: The worsening profit is the crucial factor for the closure of pediatric clinics, while the pediatric population is decreasing. For this reason, it is necessary to actively seek ways to maintain a stable treatment system for children and adolescents.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.113-121
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• 2024

Purpose: In response to the surge in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) omicron variant cases, we have implemented preemptive testing for preschool and school. The purpose is to quickly detect COVID-19 cases using a rapid antigen test (RAT) kit so that normal school activities can continue. Methods: The results entered in The Healthcare Self-Test App were merged with the information on the status of confirmed cases in the COVID-19 Information Management System by Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) for preschool and school of students and staffs March 2 to May 1, 2022 to analyze the RAT positive rate and positive predictive value of RAT. Results: In preschool and school 19,458,575 people were tested, weekly RAT positive rate ranged from 1.10% to 5.90%, positive predictive value of RAT ranged from 86.42% to 93.18%. By status, RAT positive rate ranged from 1.13% to 6.16% for students, 0.99% to 3.93% for staffs, positive predictive value of RAT ranged from 87.19% to 94.03% for students, 77.55% to 83.10% for staffs. RAT positive rate by symptoms ranged from 76.32% to 88.02% for those with symptoms and 0.34% to 1.11% for those without symptoms. As a result of preschool and school RAT, 943,342 confirmed cases were preemptively detected, before infection spread in preschool and school. Conclusions: RAT was well utilized to detect confirmed cases at an early stage, reducing the risk of transmission to minimize the educational gap in preschool and school. To compensate for the limitations of RAT, further research should continue to reevaluate the performance of RAT as new strains of viruses continue to emerge. We will have to come up with various ways to utilize it, such as performing periodic and repeated RAT and parallel polymerase chain reaction.