• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.657-689
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to develop a substantive theory on 'eating alone'(honbob)and the process of maintaining the lifestyle of eating alone for the need of a non-judgmental understanding on the new 'honbob' lifestyle. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 10 male and female workers in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do, who voluntarily eat alone over 70% of their meals per week with the minimum duration of 5 years. Data analysis was performed using grounded theory proposed by Strauss & Corbin (1998) in the qualitative research method. As a result, a paradigm model on the process of maintaining 'honbob' was derived. Based on categorical analysis, the causal condition was 'not trying to tune' and the central phenomenon was 'following the desire to set efficiency as the top priority. Contextual conditions were 'the atmosphere of fierce competition', 'weakening of organizational culture', 'diffusion of individualistic culture'. The intervening conditions were 'personal trait and emotional experience', 'job characteristics of less organization culture'. The action/interaction strategies were 'accepting internal conflicts', 'acting in autonomy', 'finding relationship through media', and 'distancing from superficial relationship'. The consequences were 'enjoying time for self-exploration', 'valuing self-care', 'becoming a epicurean conventionalist', and 'becoming aware of the need for balance'. The core category has been shown as 'self-oriented in accordance to priority of efficiency and being able to appreciate the importance of social group'. The Such phenomenon passes through four different stages - first, the stage of weighing time efficiency while beginning hon-bob; second, the stage of conflict when one feels nervous and not free from others' view; third, the stage of adjustment to justify his/her 'hon-bob'; and the final stage of balance to perceive the importance of social group while going on 'honbob'. The study had the aim of increasing the understanding and acceptance of the new 'honbob' lifestyle through an in-depth exploration of office worker's 'honbob' experience and the process of maintaining 'honbob' so the society can better accept it and, further, to embrace co-existence of various cultures.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.635-648
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• 2023

In the current situation of social distancing due to COVID-19, the use of one-person hair salons, which are safer than franchise hair salons, is emerging again. One-man hair salons provide personalized services at high prices, so they can be said to be an industry that required high quality services than franchise hair salons. Despite these characteristics, many studies on hair salon services are focused on franchise hair salons. Therefore, this study was conducted through empirical analysis with the purpose of finding out how the service quality of a one-man hair salon, which required high service quality, affects behavioral intention through the coexistence of customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction. As a result of this study, it was found that the pleasure of consumers in one-person hair salons increases the intention to revisit the most. Those pleasure showed that it is more important to respond and empathize with consumers as well as its expertise of hair designers than the appearance of beauty salons. Through this study, the characteristics of a one-man hair salon were examined and significant results were found.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.155-172
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• 2024

The COVID-19 pandemic not only posed an enormous human crisis, but also had a profound impact on firms' survival. Social distancing and global lockdown measures designed to protect human lives have paradoxically impaired the business environment. As a result, firms that sought to gain competitive advantage by leveraging external resources were cut off from the external world and faced unexpected challenges. Under these circumstances, researches were conducted in the early stage of the pandemic to explore how certain firms survived while others fell, but they were limited to re-examining business performance using traditional financial factors. However, this study aims to investigate the role of entrepreneurs' competency in crisis situations from the Resource-Based View (RBV), as such competency plays an important role in improving business performance and subsequently the probability of startups' survival. Specifically, we evaluated the performance as of end of 2019 of 1,127 startups evaluated by the Korea Technology Finance Corporation (KOTEC), which provides policy financing based on technology assessment, in 2016. We then conducted an empirical study to determine the mediating role of business performance in the relationship between entrepreneurial competencies and firm survival by verifying how many of the sample firms were still in operation at the end of June 2023, when the Korean government declared COVID-19 as an endemic. For this purpose, we defined technological, financial, and marketing competencies as the sub-factors of entrepreneurial competency, and sales growth rate and employment growth rate as the sub-factors of business performance. The results of the empirical analysis showed that technological and financial competencies of the entrepreneur had a positive impact on both business performance and firm survival, and that sales growth rate and employment growth rate mediated the relationship between technological competence and firm survival. However, the positive influence of entrepreneurs' financial competence of the survival of startups was only evident through the growth of employment. This study is the first study in South Korea to define the survival factors of startups in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, and is expected to contribute to the theoretical and practical discussions on the importance of entrepreneurs' competency as a firms' survival factor based on RVB.

• Journal of Venture Innovation
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.1-15
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• 2021

Due to long-term social distancing due to the spread of COVID-19, business trends of restaurant companies are being implemented in accordance with the changed environment such as packaging and subscription. However, even in this environment, upscale restaurants are generating high profits by trying to differentiate themselves from existing restaurants by providing high-quality services with the best facilities. Therefore, this study describes how customers' experience of upscale restaurant service influences behavioral loyalty. That is, the purpose of this study is to determine the effect of service experience on cognitive satisfaction and emotional attachment, and to examine the causal role of cognitive satisfaction and emotional attachment by confirming the relationship between these constructs and relationship commitment and behavioral loyalty. To verify this, data were collected through face-to-face interviews with 300 consumers who recently used a upscale restaurant. Of the collected data, 275 copies(91.6%) were used for the final analysis, and inaccurate or erroneous data among 25 response sheets were excluded. In this study, the validity and reliability of the data were checked and the research hypothesis was verified by using SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 20 statistical package. Frequency analysis was performed to confirm the demographic characteristics of the respondent. Structural equation model analysis(SEM) was used to confirm the fit of the research model and to verify the research hypothesis. As a result of the research hypothesis analysis, it was found that service experience had a positive effect on cognitive satisfaction, and cognitive satisfaction had a positive effect on emotional attachment, relationship commitment, and behavioral loyalty. Also, it was found that emotional attachment had a positive effect on relationship commitment and behavioral loyalty, and relationship commitment had a positive effect on behavioral loyalty. However, service experience did not affect emotional attachment. With this study, marketers and managers of upscale restaurants such as hotel restaurants need to accurately select their target audience, understand their service needs, and then present the appropriate service to them. In addition, they should not only induce cognitive satisfaction by providing excellent service to their customers, but also identify moments of truth and present appropriate services so that satisfied customers can strengthen their emotional attachment. In addition, it is necessary to strengthen the relationship with their firms by forming friendly relationships with customers who have high emotional attachment, and also to induce relationship commitment so that such customers have a strong sense of belonging and attachment to their firms.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.57 no.1
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• pp.153-169
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• 2024

Purpose: The main goal of this study was to identify the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on grocery purchases (i.e., fresh and processed foods by grain, vegetable, fruit, seafood, and meat categories) in Korea. To understand the specific impact of COVID-19, the study period was divided into 3 segments: PRE-COVID-19, INTER-COVID-19, and POST-COVID-19. Methods: We used the microdata of household income and expenditure from Statistics Korea (KOSTAT), representing households across the country. The data comprised monthly grocery expenditure data from January 2019 to September 2022. First, we compared the PRE-COVID-19 period to INTER-COVID-19 and then INTER-COVID-19 to POST-COVID-19 and used multiple regression analysis. The covariates used were the gender and age of the head of the household, the household's monthly income, the number of family members, the price index, and the month (dummy variable). Results: The expenditures on all grocery categories except fresh fruit increased from PRE-COVID-19 to INTER-COVID-19. From INTER-COVID-19 to POST-COVID-19, almost all grocery category spending declined, with processed meat being the only exception. Most purchases of protein sources, increased during INTER-COVID-19 compared to PRE-COVID-19, while ham/sausage/bacon for meat protein, fish cakes and canned seafood for seafood protein, and soy milk for plant-based protein did not decrease during POST-COVID-19 compared to INTER-COVID-19. Conclusion: These results show an overall increase in in-home grocery expenditure during COVID-19 due to an increase in eating at home, followed by a decrease in this expenditure in the POST-COVID-19 period. Among the trends, the protein and highly processed convenience food categories did not see a decline in spending during the POST-COVID-19 period, which is a reflection of the preferences of consumers in the post-COVID-19 period.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.97-111
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• 2023

Purpose: Childhood obesity has become a social problem due to the social distancing necessitated by the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. This study aimed to identify the dietary problems of obese children through various dietary assessment methods and to confirm the usefulness of each method. Methods: The subjects were 88 students in the 4th to 6th grade of elementary school who participated in the nutrition camp organised by the Busan Metropolitan Office of Education, 2020. To evaluate dietary problems and assess diet quality, 24-hour meal records, monthly food intake frequency, and Dietary Screening Test (DST) data were analyzed. Results: Of the subjects, 15.7%, 30.3%, and 53.9% were normal weight, overweight, and obese, respectively. The average age was 11.77 ± 0.77 years and the average body mass index was 23.96 ± 3.01 kg/m². It was observed from the 24-hour meal record method that the overweight and obese subject groups consumed fewer green vegetables (p < 0.001) and white vegetables (p < 0.01) than the normal weight group. In the monthly food intake frequency method, the consumption of ramen (p < 0.01), snacks (p < 0.05), and sausages (p < 0.05) were high in the obese group, and that of anchovies, broccoli, and sweet pumpkin was high in the normal group (p < 0.05). The comparative data from the DST revealed that the overweight and obese groups had less vegetable intake than the normal weight group (p < 0.01) and had higher intakes of dairy products, fast food, and sweet snacks (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The usefulness of each method in the dietary evaluation of obese children was confirmed. To address the problem of obesity, it is necessary to evaluate the dietary problem and approach it with a customized solution tailor-made for the individual subject.