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

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

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Traditional Landscape Architecture
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.14-23
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to contribute in building credibility of the methodology of the appearance of the traditional colors and the interpretation of the meaning of those appearances by analyzing the spatial construction and configuration and the traditional colors that appear in spatial elements about the scenery component that appear in Seyeonjeong. We conducted a literature research about the traditional colors, the background of the creation of Seyeonjeong, and etc. For the contents for the empirical analysis, we took the scenery and space elements in the poems, such as Eobusasisa and O-u-ga, and the contents of poems related to ojeongsaek (five Korean traditional colors) based on the Yin-Yang and the Five Elements ideology Particularly, after dividing the spatial elements appearing in Seyoenjeong into visual, synesthetic, symbolic/cognitive spatial element, we further distinguished the visual space into positions and directions of the of the spaces and the scenery of the season; the synesthetic space into seasons, time and five senses; and the symbolic/cognitive space into chiljeong (or the seven passions) and sadan (or the four clues). Then we carried out the study by analyzing the correlation between the intention of the garden creation and the meaning of the spaces, through the analysis of ojeongsaek system for each spatial element. Firstly, spatial structure and format that appear in Seyeonjeong can be divided into two directional axes of southeast and northwest according to the flat form of the Seyeongjeong's rectangular palace, with Seyeongjoeng as the center. Secondly, in spatial component element, the frequencies of appearance of the traditional colors of Seyoenjeong are 33.2% for white, 20.8% for blue, 20.8% for black, 18.7% for red and 6.3% for yellow. Thirdly, based on the analysis of the traditional colors the most frequent appearance of 'white' left a room for interpretation like the creation of Seyeonjeong was to enjoy secular living without lingering political feelings so that the high mountains remain clear and clean. Also, the predominant frequency of appearance of blue, similar frequency of appearance of black and red, and the least frequent appearance of yellow is in agreement with or can be at least interpreted related to Yun Seon-do's intention for creating Seyeonjeong not for political rank or power but as a place to enjoy nature, through which he can build on his knowledge, and to lead rest of his life as a noble being through plays, like dancing and writing poems. Fourthly, these interpretations of the analysis of the frequency of appearance of the traditional colors of Seyeongjong shows the reliability, validity, and consistency of the methodology of the analysis of the frequency of appearance of the traditional colors and the interpretation of the meanings in the context that the color white appears most frequently in Soswewon as well and that the background life of the Soswewon's creator Yangsanbo can be interpreted in a similarly way. Above all, this study is significant from the fact that we proposed a theory about the method of analysis and interpretation of the traditional colors in a traditional landscape space. Moreover, there is a great significance of discovering that traditional colors appear in traditional spaces and this can be used as a methodological framework to interpret things like, intention for creation of (buildings/architectures).

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.217-227
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• 2006

Micronutrient status in soils and crops of plastic film house and their relationship were investigated. Total 203 plastic film houses were selected (red pepper, 66; cucumber, 63; tomato, 74) in Yeongnam region and soil and leaf samples were collected. Hot-water extractable B and 0.1 N HCl extractable Cu, Zn, Fe, and Mn in soil samples and total micronutrients in leaf samples were analyzed. Contents Zn, Fe, and Mn in most of the investigated soils were higher than the upper limits of optimum level for general crop cultivation. Contents of Cu in most soils of cucumber and tomato cultivation were higher than the upper limit of optimum level, but Cu contents in about 30% of red pepper cultivation soils were below the sufficient level. Contents of B in most soils of cucumber and tomato were above the sufficient level but in 48% of red pepper cultivation soils B were found to be deficient. Micronutrient contents in leaf of investigated crops were much variable. Contents of B, Fe, and Mn were mostly within the sufficient levels, while in 71% of red pepper samples Cu was under deficient level and in 44% of cucumber samples Cu contents were higher than the upper limit of sufficient level. Contents of Zn in red pepper and cucumber samples were mostly within the sufficient level but in 62% of tomato samples Zn contents were under deficient condition. However, any visible deficiency or toxicity symptoms of micronutrients were not found in the crops. No consistent relationships were found between micronutrient contents in soil and leaf, and this indicates that growth and absorption activity of root and interactions among the nutrients in soil might be important factors in overall micronutrient uptake of crops. For best management of micronutrients in plastic film house, much attention should be focused on the management of soil and plant characteristics which control the micronutrient uptake of crops.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.20 no.1 s.51
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• pp.47-60
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• 2007

While sedimentological researches on Western coastal tidal flats of Korea have been much pelformed previously, mineralogical and biogeochemical studies are beginning to be studied. The objectives of this study were to investigate mineralogical characteritics of the inter-tidal flat sediments and to explore phase transformation of iron(oxyhydr)oxides and biomineralization by metal-reducing bacteria enriched from the inter-tidal flat sediments from Muan, Jeollanam-do, Korea. Inter-tidal flat sediment samples were collected in Chungkye-myun and Haeje-myun, Muan-gun, Jeollanam-do. Particle size analyses were performed using the pipette method and sedimentation method. The separates including sand, silt and clay fractions were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and X-ray diffiaction (XRD). After enriching the metal-.educing bacteria from the into,-tidal flat sediments, the bacteria were used to study phase transformation of the synthesized iron (oxyhydr)oxides and iron biomineralization using lactate or glucose as the electron donors and Fe(III)-containing iron oxides as the electron accepters. Mineralogical studies showed that the sediments of tidal flats in Chung]rye-myun and Haeje-myun consist of quartz, plagioclase, microcline, biotite, kaolinite and illite. Biogeochemical researches showed that the metal-reducing bacteria enriched from the inter-tidal flat sediments reduced reddish brown akaganeite and mineralized nanometer-sized black magnetite. The bacteria also reduced the reddish brown ferrihydrite into black amorphous phases and reduced the yellowish goethite into greenish with formation of nm-sized phases. These results indicate that microbial Fe(III) reduction may play one of important roles in iron and carbon biogeochemistry as well as iron biomineralization in subsurface environments.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.67-74
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• 2015

In recent years, frequent itemset mining for considering the importance of each item has been intensively studied as one of important issues in the data mining field. According to strategies utilizing the item importance, itemset mining approaches for discovering itemsets based on the item importance are classified as follows: weighted frequent itemset mining, frequent itemset mining using transactional weights, and utility itemset mining. In this paper, we perform empirical analysis with respect to frequent itemset mining algorithms based on transactional weights. The mining algorithms compute transactional weights by utilizing the weight for each item in large databases. In addition, these algorithms discover weighted frequent itemsets on the basis of the item frequency and weight of each transaction. Consequently, we can see the importance of a certain transaction through the database analysis because the weight for the transaction has higher value if it contains many items with high values. We not only analyze the advantages and disadvantages but also compare the performance of the most famous algorithms in the frequent itemset mining field based on the transactional weights. As a representative of the frequent itemset mining using transactional weights, WIS introduces the concept and strategies of transactional weights. In addition, there are various other state-of-the-art algorithms, WIT-FWIs, WIT-FWIs-MODIFY, and WIT-FWIs-DIFF, for extracting itemsets with the weight information. To efficiently conduct processes for mining weighted frequent itemsets, three algorithms use the special Lattice-like data structure, called WIT-tree. The algorithms do not need to an additional database scanning operation after the construction of WIT-tree is finished since each node of WIT-tree has item information such as item and transaction IDs. In particular, the traditional algorithms conduct a number of database scanning operations to mine weighted itemsets, whereas the algorithms based on WIT-tree solve the overhead problem that can occur in the mining processes by reading databases only one time. Additionally, the algorithms use the technique for generating each new itemset of length N+1 on the basis of two different itemsets of length N. To discover new weighted itemsets, WIT-FWIs performs the itemset combination processes by using the information of transactions that contain all the itemsets. WIT-FWIs-MODIFY has a unique feature decreasing operations for calculating the frequency of the new itemset. WIT-FWIs-DIFF utilizes a technique using the difference of two itemsets. To compare and analyze the performance of the algorithms in various environments, we use real datasets of two types (i.e., dense and sparse) in terms of the runtime and maximum memory usage. Moreover, a scalability test is conducted to evaluate the stability for each algorithm when the size of a database is changed. As a result, WIT-FWIs and WIT-FWIs-MODIFY show the best performance in the dense dataset, and in sparse dataset, WIT-FWI-DIFF has mining efficiency better than the other algorithms. Compared to the algorithms using WIT-tree, WIS based on the Apriori technique has the worst efficiency because it requires a large number of computations more than the others on average.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.295-308
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• 1996

1. Retrospect of Political Geographic Studies since Liberation, 1945 : 1) Period from 1945 to mid 1960s : There was not political geography as a science in Korea at the time of liberation from Japan 1945. At that time were not pure political geographers in Korea. In 1947, Moon-Hwa Pyo, economics professor, published a book titled Outline of Korean Geopolitics. This book was a first one in the field of political geography and available at that time in the logical descriptions. Bok-Hyon Choi was a first political geographer who in 1959 wrote a book titled Political geography for the collegians of Seoul National University. Professor Choi introduced American-style political geography through the book above mentioned. In 1963, Kie-Joo Hyong published an article titled "Korean Unification: Possibility from the Geopolitical Viewpoint" which was a first article published by Korean young scholar who studied geography in this country. 2) Period from late 1960s to late 1980s : Both Yoon Cha and Duck-Soon Im published frequently several articles of political geography or geopolitics respectively in 1968-1969. And they issued geopolitical disputes on Korean geopolitical structure and an application of rimland theory to Korean peninsula in 1969 through a magazine named Joung-Kyong Younku (the political and economic researches). The disputes played an important role of showing political geography (or geopolitics) to political sciences especially international political Science. Active researches still continued in 1970s. In that atmosphere the first Korean book of political geography written by a post-liberation scholar (Duck-Soon Im) titled Principles of Political Geography was published in 1973. This book was influenced much by American political geography after Second World War. In 1980s, the researches continued more actively. Especially administrative districts, capital cities, and sub-capital cities were frequently studied during this period. 3) Period from late 1980s to Present: Recent Studies : 1985 was a year of much production of articles of political geography. The first Ph.D thesis of political geography published in the same year in our country. And since 1985 produced many M.A. articles. Several categories of esearches of political geography was made in the period from late 1980s to present. Capital cities, Korean unification, administrative districts, urban politics, elections, sub-capital cities, and defense walls were important research categories. Reviewing the researches from 1945 to present. I found eight categories of political geography in Korea: capital cities, administrative districts, geopolitical structure of Korean peninsula, division and unification of Korea, sub-capital cities, defense walls, elections, and urban politics. Each category includes several scholars respectiveiy. 2. Study Tasks and Prospects in Korean Political Geography: In relation to Korean circumstances there are three study-tasks. The first task of Korean people is unification of two Koreas. Political geographers of Korea must al survey titled Survey Methods of Human Geography for collegians. This book was first one on survey part in Korea. The book however, is insufficient in comprehensiveness in aspects too. I think that the important tasks of general-synoptic human geography in Korea are \circled1 publication of comprehensive books of human geography in the aspects and methodologies for collegians and \circled2 acceptance of academic world of human geography in Korea of variety in methodologies of human geography for future progress. progress.

• Trans-
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• v.2
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• pp.1-38
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• 2017

Dance, as an art which expresses thoughts and emotions by movement human, is included in work that its copyright has to be protected, choreographers who are creators and dancers who are performing can exercise their rights included in copyright laws. However, artists who work in the dancing scene have lack of awareness about copyrights and the application level is low. The purpose of this thesis is to look into the current status and issues about dance copyright and to discuss activation plans and effectiveness plans for dance copyrights. The main point is to check into the level of awareness for dance copyrights with choreographers, dancers and students majoring in dance who are in charge of the art of dancing, to present issues about the necessity of the dance copyrights protection plans by analyzing interviews-in-depth and to prepare the dance copyrights protection plans which are concretely realistic. For the research methods, first, I looked into ideas and contents about copyrights through a document research and then, wanted to prepare theoretical background by reviewing actual cases of performing art copyrights related to dance. Next, I carried out surveys about awareness of copyrights with students majoring in dance, choreographers and dancers then carried out analysis of actual proof. Also, I chose three famous dancers who are actively performing in the current dancing scene and did interviews-in-depth about dance copyrights then carried out a recording analysis. I tried to complement the analysis by discussing deeper which I couldn't deal with in the previous surveys and to contemplate awareness activation of dance copyrights and plans. As a result of the research, the level of the awareness about dance copyrights through age, major, education and career was very low. The level of awareness was almost same compared to the previous research 10 years ago. 'Music', which can be an element of copyright issue in dance, was the highest in rate, and dance was recognized as an art which is combined with various elements as a combination work. The way of protection for works of choreography and performance only used data preservation and contracts and didn't register copyrights or record in dace notation. Majority of responders answered that they couldn't have any education about copyrights while they were recognizing the necessity of education and management for copyrights. The analysis of interviews-in-depth was also matched to the result of the previous surveys and a deeper discussion about the status of dance copyrights and issues was carried out. The plans of effectiveness for dance copyrights through the result of previous research are as followings. First, an advanced education is necessary above all to increase the awareness and application of copyrights in dancing scene. Long-term education like study curriculums and short-term education like special courses and seminars should be combined, and education about copyrights for dance groups, choreographers, dancers and students majoring in dance should keep on going. Second, revision of performing art works is necessary for the activation of dance copyrights, and establishing a dance copyright association to manage copyrights systematically and training dance copyright experts are necessary as well. Third, as the way of copyright protection for choreographers and dancers, an establishment for relation gain and loss about copyrights is necessary when creating dance works and performing, and registration of dance works should be activated. Also, the dancing scene should sign contracts for choreography and performance and this contract culture should be activated, and it should systematically preserve and manage choreography and performance records through basic ways. Hereby, it is considered to prepare a foundation to foster the awareness of dance copyrights and activate dance copyrights.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.153-169
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• 2012

Exhibitions have played a key role of effective marketing activity which directly informs services and products to current and potential customers. Through participating in exhibitions, exhibitors have got the opportunity to make face-to-face contact so that they can secure the market share and improve their corporate images. According to this economic importance of exhibitions, show organizers try to adopt a new IT technology for improving their performance, and researchers have also studied services which can improve the satisfaction of visitors through analyzing visit patterns of visitors. Especially, as smart technologies make them monitor activities of visitors in real-time, they have considered booth recommender systems which infer preference of visitors and recommender proper service to them like on-line environment. However, while there are many studies which can improve their performance in the side of new technological development, they have not considered the choice factor of visitors for booth recommender systems. That is, studies for factors which can influence the development direction and effective diffusion of these systems are insufficient. Most of prior studies for the acceptance of new technologies and the continuous intention of use have adopted Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Extended Technology Acceptance Model (ETAM). Booth recommender systems may not be new technology because they are similar with commercial recommender systems such as book recommender systems, in the smart exhibition environment, they can be considered new technology. However, for considering the smart exhibition environment beyond TAM, measurements for the intention of reuse should focus on how booth recommender systems can provide correct information to visitors. In this study, through literature reviews, we draw factors which can influence the satisfaction and reuse intention of visitors for booth recommender systems, and design a model to forecast adaptation of visitors for booth recommendation in the exhibition environment. For these purposes, we conduct a survey for visitors who attended DMC Culture Open in November 2011 and experienced booth recommender systems using own smart phone, and examine hypothesis by regression analysis. As a result, factors which can influence the satisfaction of visitors for booth recommender systems are the effectiveness, perceived ease of use, argument quality, serendipity, and so on. Moreover, the satisfaction for booth recommender systems has a positive relationship with the development of reuse intention. For these results, we have some insights for booth recommender systems in the smart exhibition environment. First, this study gives shape to important factors which are considered when they establish strategies which induce visitors to consistently use booth recommender systems. Recently, although show organizers try to improve their performances using new IT technologies, their visitors have not felt the satisfaction from these efforts. At this point, this study can help them to provide services which can improve the satisfaction of visitors and make them last relationship with visitors. On the other hands, this study suggests that they managers along the using time of booth recommender systems. For example, in the early stage of the adoption, they should focus on the argument quality, perceived ease of use, and serendipity, so that improve the acceptance of booth recommender systems. After these stages, they should bridge the differences between expectation and perception for booth recommender systems, and lead continuous uses of visitors. However, this study has some limitations. We only use four factors which can influence the satisfaction of visitors. Therefore, we should development our model to consider important additional factors. And the exhibition in our experiments has small number of booths so that visitors may not need to booth recommender systems. In the future study, we will conduct experiments in the exhibition environment which has a larger scale.

• Proceedings of the Safety Management and Science Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.355-380
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• 2004

I test the hypothesis that the gradual diffusion of information across asset markets leads to cross-asset return predictability in Korea. Using thirty-six industry portfolios and the broad market index as our test assets, I establish several key results. First, a number of industries such as semiconductor, electronics, metal, and petroleum lead the stock market by up to one month. In contrast, the market, which is widely followed, only leads a few industries. Importantly, an industry's ability to lead the market is correlated with its propensity to forecast various indicators of economic activity such as industrial production growth. Consistent with our hypothesis, these findings indicate that the market reacts with a delay to information in industry returns about its fundamentals because information diffuses only gradually across asset markets. Traditional theories of asset pricing assume that investors have unlimited information-processing capacity. However, this assumption does not hold for many traders, even the most sophisticated ones. Many economists recognize that investors are better characterized as being only boundedly rational(see Shiller(2000), Sims(2201)). Even from casual observation, few traders can pay attention to all sources of information much less understand their impact on the prices of assets that they trade. Indeed, a large literature in psychology documents the extent to which even attention is a precious cognitive resource(see, eg., Kahneman(1973), Nisbett and Ross(1980), Fiske and Taylor(1991)). A number of papers have explored the implications of limited information- processing capacity for asset prices. I will review this literature in Section II. For instance, Merton(1987) develops a static model of multiple stocks in which investors only have information about a limited number of stocks and only trade those that they have information about. Related models of limited market participation include brennan(1975) and Allen and Gale(1994). As a result, stocks that are less recognized by investors have a smaller investor base(neglected stocks) and trade at a greater discount because of limited risk sharing. More recently, Hong and Stein(1999) develop a dynamic model of a single asset in which information gradually diffuses across the investment public and investors are unable to perform the rational expectations trick of extracting information from prices. Hong and Stein(1999). My hypothesis is that the gradual diffusion of information across asset markets leads to cross-asset return predictability. This hypothesis relies on two key assumptions. The first is that valuable information that originates in one asset reaches investors in other markets only with a lag, i.e. news travels slowly across markets. The second assumption is that because of limited information-processing capacity, many (though not necessarily all) investors may not pay attention or be able to extract the information from the asset prices of markets that they do not participate in. These two assumptions taken together leads to cross-asset return predictability. My hypothesis would appear to be a very plausible one for a few reasons. To begin with, as pointed out by Merton(1987) and the subsequent literature on segmented markets and limited market participation, few investors trade all assets. Put another way, limited participation is a pervasive feature of financial markets. Indeed, even among equity money managers, there is specialization along industries such as sector or market timing funds. Some reasons for this limited market participation include tax, regulatory or liquidity constraints. More plausibly, investors have to specialize because they have their hands full trying to understand the markets that they do participate in

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.31-54
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• 2007

The exchange between buyers and sellers in the industrial market is changing from short-term to long-term relationships. Long-term relationships are governed mainly by formal contracts or informal agreements, but many scholars are now asserting that controlling relationship by using formal contracts under environmental dynamism is inappropriate. In this case, partners will depend on each other's flexibility or interdependence. The former, flexibility, provides a general frame of reference, order, and standards against which to guide and assess appropriate behavior in dynamic and ambiguous situations, thus motivating the value-oriented performance goals shared between partners. It is based on social sacrifices, which can potentially minimize any opportunistic behaviors. The later, interdependence, means that each firm possesses a high level of dependence in an dynamic channel relationship. When interdependence is high in magnitude and symmetric, each firm enjoys a high level of power and the bonds between the firms should be reasonably strong. Strong shared power is likely to promote commitment because of the common interests, attention, and support found in such channel relationships. This study deals with environmental dynamism in high-tech industry. Firms in the high-tech industry regard it as a key success factor to successfully cope with environmental changes. However, due to the lack of studies dealing with environmental dynamism and supply chain commitment in the high-tech industry, it is very difficult to find effective strategies to cope with them. This paper presents the results of an empirical study on the relationship between environmental dynamism and supply chain commitment in the high-tech industry. We examined the effects of consumer, competitor, and technological dynamism on supply chain commitment. Additionally, we examined the moderating effects of flexibility and dependence of supply chains. This study was confined to the type of high-tech industry which has the characteristics of rapid technology change and short product lifecycle. Flexibility among the firms of this industry, having the characteristic of hard and fast growth, is more important here than among any other industry. Thus, a variety of environmental dynamism can affect a supply chain relationship. The industries targeted industries were electronic parts, metal product, computer, electric machine, automobile, and medical precision manufacturing industries. Data was collected as follows. During the survey, the researchers managed to obtain the list of parts suppliers of 2 companies, N and L, with an international competitiveness in the mobile phone manufacturing industry; and of the suppliers in a business relationship with S company, a semiconductor manufacturing company. They were asked to respond to the survey via telephone and e-mail. During the two month period of February-April 2006, we were able to collect data from 44 companies. The respondents were restricted to direct dealing authorities and subcontractor company (the supplier) staff with at least three months of dealing experience with a manufacture (an industrial material buyer). The measurement validation procedures included scale reliability; discriminant and convergent validity were used to validate measures. Also, the reliability measurements traditionally employed, such as the Cronbach's alpha, were used. All the reliabilities were greater than.70. A series of exploratory factor analyses was conducted. We conducted confirmatory factor analyses to assess the validity of our measurements. A series of chi-square difference tests were conducted so that the discriminant validity could be ensured. For each pair, we estimated two models-an unconstrained model and a constrained model-and compared the two model fits. All these tests supported discriminant validity. Also, all items loaded significantly on their respective constructs, providing support for convergent validity. We then examined composite reliability and average variance extracted (AVE). The composite reliability of each construct was greater than.70. The AVE of each construct was greater than.50. According to the multiple regression analysis, customer dynamism had a negative effect and competitor dynamism had a positive effect on a supplier's commitment. In addition, flexibility and dependence had significant moderating effects on customer and competitor dynamism. On the other hand, all hypotheses about technological dynamism had no significant effects on commitment. In other words, technological dynamism had no direct effect on supplier's commitment and was not moderated by the flexibility and dependence of the supply chain. This study makes its contribution in the point of view that this is a rare study on environmental dynamism and supply chain commitment in the field of high-tech industry. Especially, this study verified the effects of three sectors of environmental dynamism on supplier's commitment. Also, it empirically tested how the effects were moderated by flexibility and dependence. The results showed that flexibility and interdependence had a role to strengthen supplier's commitment under environmental dynamism in high-tech industry. Thus relationship managers in high-tech industry should make supply chain relationship flexible and interdependent. The limitations of the study are as follows; First, about the research setting, the study was conducted with high-tech industry, in which the direction of the change in the power balance of supply chain dyads is usually determined by manufacturers. So we have a difficulty with generalization. We need to control the power structure between partners in a future study. Secondly, about flexibility, we treated it throughout the paper as positive, but it can also be negative, i.e. violating an agreement or moving, but in the wrong direction, etc. Therefore we need to investigate the multi-dimensionality of flexibility in future research.