• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.59-69
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• 2023

FIDIC White Book is a Model Services Agreement between the Client and the Consultant. This study aimed to derive the Key Risk Sub-Clauses out of 63 Sub-Clauses of General Conditions of the FIDIC White Book by using the Delphi technique. A panel of 40 experts with more than 10 years of experience and expertise in overseas construction services agreements and FIDIC White Book was formed, and the reliability was improved in the direction of increasing the consensus of experts through a total of three Delphi survey processes. In the first Delphi survey, a closed-type survey was conducted on the impact of risk among 63 Sub-Clauses of General Conditions on a Likert 5-point scale, and 26 main risk Sub-Clauses were derived. The Content Validity of the results of the first Delphi survey was verified with the CVR value. In the 2nd and 3rd Delphi surveys, a closed-type survey was conducted on a Likert 10-point scale for 26 main risk Sub-Clauses and the risk possibility and impact of each main risk Sub-Clause were evaluated. The reliability of the 3rd Delphi survey result was verified with the COV value. Total 14 Key Risk Sub-Clauses were derived by applying the average risk possibility and impact of each of the 26 main risk Sub-Clauses to the PI Risk Matrix. The results of deriving Key Risk Sub-Clauses showed that agreement on specific scope of service, delay management, and change management were the most important. As a result of this study, from a practical point of view, consultants of consulting companies provide guidelines that should be reviewed to minimize contractual risks when signing service contracts with clients. From an academic point of view, the direction of research on deriving key risks related to service contracts for consultants participating in overseas construction is presented.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.275-291
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• 2023

Global warming has made the polar regions more accessible, leading to increased demand for the construction of new resource-development plants in oil-rich permafrost regions. The selection of locations of resource-development plants in permafrost regions should consider the surface displacement resulting from thawing and freezing of the active layer of permafrost. However, few studies have considered surface displacement in the selection of optimal locations of resource-development plants in permafrost region. In this study, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) analysis using a range of geospatial information variables was performed to select optimal locations for the construction of oil-sands development plants in the permafrost region of southern Athabasca, Alberta, Canada, including consideration of surface displacement. The surface displacement velocity was estimated by applying the Small BAseline Subset Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar technique to time-series Advanced Land Observing Satellite Phased Array L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar images acquired from February 2007 to March 2011. ERA5 reanalysis data were used to generate geospatial data for air temperature, surface temperature, and soil temperature averaged for the period 2000~2010. Geospatial data for roads and railways provided by Statistics Canada and land cover maps distributed by the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation were also used in the AHP analysis. The suitability of sites analyzed using land cover, surface displacement, and road accessibility as the three most important geospatial factors was validated using the locations of oil-sand plants built since 2010. The sensitivity of surface displacement to the determination of location suitability was found to be very high. We confirm that surface displacement should be considered in the selection of optimal locations for the construction of new resource-development plants in permafrost regions.

• Therapeutic Science for Rehabilitation
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.9-22
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• 2023

The Lifestyle-DEPER (Decision, Execution, Personal Factors, Environment, Resources) model explains lifestyle formation. Lifestyles are shaped through the decision, execution, and habituation stages. Factors influencing the establishment of a lifestyle are categorized as environmental, resource, and personal. The environment encompasses our surroundings and social, physical, cultural, and virtual environments. Resources refer to what individuals possess, such as health, time, economic, and social resources. Personal factors include competencies, needs, and values. At the lifestyle establishment stage, each of these factors influences a different stage. These collective processes are referred to as events, encompassing both personal and social events. Health-related lifestyle factors include physical activity, nutrition, social relationships, and occupational participation. These are the goals of lifestyle intervention. The intervention strategy based on the Lifestyle-DEPER model, called KEEP (Knowledge, Evaluation, Experience, Plan), is a comprehensive approach to promoting a healthy lifestyle by considering lifestyle formation stages and their influencing factors. This study introduces the Lifestyle-DEPER model and presents a lifestyle intervention strategy (KEEP) to promote health. Further research is required to validate the practicality of the model after applying interventions based on the lifestyle construction model.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.53-73
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• 2023

Although it is mandatory to wear a seat belt that can minimize human injury when traffic accident occurs, the number of traffic accident casualties not wearing seat belts still accounts for a significant proportion.The seat belt wearing detection system for all seats is a system that identifies whether all seat passengers wear a seat belt and encourages their usage, also it can be a useful technical countermeasure. Firstly, this study established the viability of system implementation by assessing the factors influencing the severity of injuries in traffic accidents through the development of an ordered probit model. Analysis results showed that the use of seat belts has statistically significant effects on the severity of traffic accidents, reducing the probability of death or serious injury by 0.054 times in the event of a traffic accident. Secondly, a meta-analysis was conducted based on prior research related to seat belts and injuries in traffic accidents to estimate the expected reduction in accident severity upon the implementation of the system.The analysis of the effect of accident severity reduction revealed that wearing seat belts would lead to a 63.3% decrease in fatal accidents, with the front seats showing a reduction of 75.7% and the rear seats showing a reduction of 58.1% in fatal accidents. Lastly, Using the results of the meta-analysis and traffic accident statistics, the expected decrease in the number of traffic accident casualties with the implementation of the system was derived to analyze the traffic safety effects of the proposed detection system. The analysis demonstrated that with an increase in the adoption rate of the system, the number of casualties in accidents where seat belts were not worn decreased. Specifically, at a system adoption rate of 60%, it is anticipated that the number of fatalities would decrease by more than three times compared to the current scenario. Based on the analysis results, operational strategies for the system were proposed to increase seat belt usage rates and reduce accident severity.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.35-52
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• 2023

Recently, as the non-face-to-face environment has developed due to COVID-19 and environmental pollution, the importance of online digital healthcare is increasing, and venture start-ups and activities such as health care, telemedicine, and digital treatments are also actively underway. This study conducted the impact on the acceptability of digital healthcare smartwatches with an integrated approach of the expanded integrated technology acceptance model (UTAUT2) and the behavioral inference model (BRT). The most advanced integrated technology acceptance model for innovative technology acceptance research was used to identify major factors such as utility expectations, social effects, convenience, price barriers, lack of alternatives, and behavioral intentions. For the study, about 410 responses from ordinary people in their teens to 60s across the country were collected, and based on this, the hypothesis was verified using structural equations after testing reliability and validity of the data. SPSS 23 and AMOS 23 were used for research analysis. Studies have shown that personal innovation has a significant impact on the reasons for acceptance (use value, social impact, convenience of use), attitude, and non-use (price barriers, lack of alternatives, and barriers to use). These results are the same as the results of previous studies that confirmed the influence of the main value of innovative ICT on user acceptance intention. In addition, the reason for acceptance had a significant effect on attitude, but the effect of the reason for non-acceptance was not significant. It can be analyzed that consumers are interested in new ICT products and new services, but purchase them more carefully and selectively. This study has evolved from the acceptance analysis of general-purpose consumer innovation technology to the acceptance analysis of consumer value in smartwatch digital healthcare, which is a new and important area in the future. Industrially, it can contribute to the product's purchase and marketing. It is hoped that this study will contribute to increasing research in the digital healthcare sector, which will play an important role in our lives in the future, and that it will develop into in-depth factors that are more suitable for consumer value through integrated approach models and integrated analysis of consumer acceptance and non-acceptance.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.33-51
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• 2022

This study analyzes newly listed companies on KOSDAQ from 2011 to 2020 for both firms having experience in attracting venture investment before listing (VI) and those without having experience in attracting venture investment (NVI) by examining differences between two groups (VI and NVI) with respect to both the level of listing performance and that of firm performance (growth) after the listing. This paper conducts descriptive statistics, mean difference, and multiple regression analysis. Independent variables for regression models include VC investment, firm age at the time of listing, firm type, firm location, firm size, the age of VC, the level of expertise of VC, and the level of fitness of VC with investment company. Throughout this paper, results suggest that listing performance and post-listed growth are better for VI than NVI. VC investment shows a negative effect on the listing period and a positive effect on the sales growth rate. Also, the amount of VC investment has negative effects on the listing period and positive effects on the market capitalization at the time of IPO and on sales growth among growth indicators. Our evidence also implies a significantly positive effect on growth after listing for firms which belong to R&D specialized industries. In addition, it is statistically significant for several years that the firm age has a positive effect on the market capitalization growth rate. This shows that market seems to put the utmost importance on a long-term stability of management capability. Finally, among the VC characteristics such as the age of VC, the level of expertise of VC, and the level of fitness of VC with investment company, we point out that a higher market capitalization tends to be observed at the time of IPO when the level of expertise of anchor VC is high. Our paper differs from prior research in that we reexamine the venture ecosystem under the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 which stimulates the degradation of the business environment. In addition, we introduce more effective variables such as VC investment amount when examining the effect of firm type. It enables us to indirectly evaluate the validity of technology exception policy. Although our findings suggest that related policies such as the technology special listing system or the injection of funds into the venture ecosystem are still helpful, those related systems should be updated in a more timely fashion in order to support growth power of firms due to the rapid technological development. Furthermore, industry specialization is essential to achieve regional development, and the growth of the recovery market is also urgent.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.43-63
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• 2004

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to classify the patterns of health behaviors of some rural residents in Korea by sub-grouping them into populations with similar patterns of diet quality, physical activity, alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking, and then to investigate the relationship between these health behavior patterns and health status or health management of them. Methods: The study subjects were 722 rural residents above 20 years old on a typical rural district in Korea, and the data used in this study was from the survey data for health planning of a health center. Study questionnaire for this survey was developed from modifying the questionnaire for 'National Nutrition and Health Study' conducted in 1998. To classify health behavior patterns, cluster analysis was conducted. And to test the association of health behavior patterns with health status or health management, multiple logistic regression analysis were conducted. Results: The results and their implications of this study were as follows: 1. We identified six health behavior typologies : 67.8% of the sample had a good diet quality but showed sedentary activity level(good diet lifestyle) and 10.9% had heavy smoking behavior(smoking lifestyle). Individuals included in fitness lifestyle cluster(6.2%) had high physical activity level and those in drinking life style(2.6%) had had mainly large amount of alcohol. Zero point six percent of sample were included in hedonic lifestyle cluster, who showed poor health behaviors in all. Those included in passive lifestyle(11.9%) had no active health promoting activities but tended to avoid risk taking health behavior such as cigarette smoking and alcohol drinking. 2. As a result of logistic regression analysis, to compare with the individuals in good diet lifestyle, the prevalence of chronic diseases of those in fitness lifestyle showed higher and that of those in smoking lifestyle, drinking lifestyle, hedonic lifestyle, passive lifestyle showed lower than them, retrospectively. 3. Adjusting with general characteristics and health status, to compare with the individuals in good diet lifestyle, the proportion of those who had good health management practices in fitness lifestyle was higher, and the proportion of those who had health check in past 2 years was lower than them, retrospectively. Conclusions: There were some differences in health behavior patterns between rural population and national population, which influenced significantly on health status and health management practice of them. We suggested that the health promotion program for them be developed with considering these points.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.37-63
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• 2012

In franchise business, exclusive sales territory (sometimes EST in table) protection is a very important issue from an economic, social and political point of view. It affects the growth and survival of both franchisor and franchisee and often raises issues of social and political conflicts. When franchisee is not familiar with related laws and regulations, franchisor has high chance to utilize it. Exclusive sales territory protection by the manufacturer and distributors (wholesalers or retailers) means sales area restriction by which only certain distributors have right to sell products or services. The distributor, who has been granted exclusive sales territories, can protect its own territory, whereas he may be prohibited from entering in other regions. Even though exclusive sales territory is a quite critical problem in franchise business, there is not much rigorous research about the reason, results, evaluation, and future direction based on empirical data. This paper tries to address this problem not only from logical and nomological validity, but from empirical validation. While we purse an empirical analysis, we take into account the difficulties of real data collection and statistical analysis techniques. We use a set of disclosure document data collected by Korea Fair Trade Commission, instead of conventional survey method which is usually criticized for its measurement error. Existing theories about exclusive sales territory can be summarized into two groups as shown in the table below. The first one is about the effectiveness of exclusive sales territory from both franchisor and franchisee point of view. In fact, output of exclusive sales territory can be positive for franchisors but negative for franchisees. Also, it can be positive in terms of sales but negative in terms of profit. Therefore, variables and viewpoints should be set properly. The other one is about the motive or reason why exclusive sales territory is protected. The reasons can be classified into four groups - industry characteristics, franchise systems characteristics, capability to maintain exclusive sales territory, and strategic decision. Within four groups of reasons, there are more specific variables and theories as below. Based on these theories, we develop nine hypotheses which are briefly shown in the last table below with the results. In order to validate the hypothesis, data is collected from government (FTC) homepage which is open source. The sample consists of 1,896 franchisors and it contains about three year operation data, from 2006 to 2008. Within the samples, 627 have exclusive sales territory protection policy and the one with exclusive sales territory policy is not evenly distributed over 19 representative industries. Additional data are also collected from another government agency homepage, like Statistics Korea. Also, we combine data from various secondary sources to create meaningful variables as shown in the table below. All variables are dichotomized by mean or median split if they are not inherently dichotomized by its definition, since each hypothesis is composed by multiple variables and there is no solid statistical technique to incorporate all these conditions to test the hypotheses. This paper uses a simple chi-square test because hypotheses and theories are built upon quite specific conditions such as industry type, economic condition, company history and various strategic purposes. It is almost impossible to find all those samples to satisfy them and it can't be manipulated in experimental settings. However, more advanced statistical techniques are very good on clean data without exogenous variables, but not good with real complex data. The chi-square test is applied in a way that samples are grouped into four with two criteria, whether they use exclusive sales territory protection or not, and whether they satisfy conditions of each hypothesis. So the proportion of sample franchisors which satisfy conditions and protect exclusive sales territory, does significantly exceed the proportion of samples that satisfy condition and do not protect. In fact, chi-square test is equivalent with the Poisson regression which allows more flexible application. As results, only three hypotheses are accepted. When attitude toward the risk is high so loyalty fee is determined according to sales performance, EST protection makes poor results as expected. And when franchisor protects EST in order to recruit franchisee easily, EST protection makes better results. Also, when EST protection is to improve the efficiency of franchise system as a whole, it shows better performances. High efficiency is achieved as EST prohibits the free riding of franchisee who exploits other's marketing efforts, and it encourages proper investments and distributes franchisee into multiple regions evenly. Other hypotheses are not supported in the results of significance testing. Exclusive sales territory should be protected from proper motives and administered for mutual benefits. Legal restrictions driven by the government agency like FTC could be misused and cause mis-understandings. So there need more careful monitoring on real practices and more rigorous studies by both academicians and practitioners.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.109-153
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• 1992

This paper estimates a translog cost function for the Korea's banking industry and derives various implications on the prospect for the Korean banking structure in the future based on the estimated efficiency indicators for the banking sector. The Korean banking industry is permitted to operate trust business to the full extent and the security business to a limited extent, while it is formally subjected to the strict, specialized banking system. Security underwriting and investment businesses are allowed in a very limited extent only for stocks and bonds of maturity longer than three year and only up to 100 percent of the bank paid-in capital. Until the end of 1991, the ceiling was only up to 25 percent of the total balance of the demand deposits. However, they are prohibited from the security brokerage business. While the in-house integration of security businesses with the traditional business of deposit and commercial lending is restrictively regulated as such, Korean banks can enter the security business by establishing subsidiaries in the industry. This paper, therefore, estimates the efficiency indicators as well as the cost functions, identifying the in-house integrated trust business and security investment business as important banking activities, for various cases where both the production and the intermediation function approaches in modelling the financial intermediaries are separately applied, and the banking businesses of deposit, lending and security investment as one group and the trust businesses as another group are separately and integrally analyzed. The estimation results of the efficiency indicators for various cases are summarized in Table 1 and Table 2. First, security businesses exhibit economies of scale but also economies of scope with traditional banking activities, which implies that in-house integration of the banking and security businesses may not be a nonoptimal banking structure. Therefore, this result further implies that the transformation of Korea's banking system from the current, specialized system to the universal banking system will not impede the improvement of the banking industry's efficiency. Second, the lending businesses turn out to be subjected to diseconomies of scale, while exhibiting unclear evidence for economies of scope. In sum, it implies potential efficiency gain of the continued in-house integration of the lending activity. Third, the continued integration of the trust businesses seems to contribute to improving the efficiency of the banking businesses, since the trust businesses exhibit economies of scope. Fourth, deposit services and fee-based activities, such as foreign exchange and credit card businesses, exhibit economies of scale but constant returns to scope, which implies, the possibility of separating those businesses from other banking and trust activities. The recent trend of the credit card business being operated separately from other banking activities by an independent identity in Korea as well as in the global banking market seems to be consistent with this finding. Then, how can the possibility of separating deposit services from the remaining activities be interpreted? If one insists a strict definition of commercial banking that is confined to deposit and commercial lending activities, separating the deposit service will suggest a resolution or a disappearance of banking, itself. Recently, however, there has been a suggestion that separating banks' deposit and lending activities by allowing a depository institution which specialize in deposit taking and investing deposit fund only in the safest securities such as government securities to administer the deposit activity will alleviate the risk of a bank run. This method, in turn, will help improve the safety of the payment system (Robert E. Litan, What should Banks Do? Washington, D.C., The Brookings Institution, 1987). In this context, the possibility of separating the deposit activity will imply that a new type of depository institution will arise naturally without contradicting the efficiency of the banking businesses, as the size of the banking market grows in the future. Moreover, it is also interesting to see additional evidences confirming this statement that deposit taking and security business are cost complementarity but deposit taking and lending businesses are cost substitute (see Table 2 for cost complementarity relationship in Korea's banking industry). Finally, it has been observed that the Korea's banking industry is lacking in the characteristics of natural monopoly. Therefore, it may not be optimal to encourage the merger and acquisition in the banking industry only for the purpose of improving the efficiency.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.459-470
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• 2007

Domestically, finishing pigs are marketed at 110 kg on an average. However, it is thought to be feasible to increase the market weight to 120kg or greater without decreasing the carcass quality, because most domestic pigs for pork production have descended from lean-type lineages. The present study was undertaken to investigate the growth efficiency and profitability of ‘high’-market wt pigs and the physicochemical characteristics and consumers' acceptability of the high-wt carcass. A total of 96 (Yorkshire × Landrace) × Duroc-crossbred gilts and barrows were fed a finisher diet ad laibtum in 16 pens beginning from 90-kg BW, after which the animals were slaughtered at 110kg (control) or ‘high’ market wt (135 and 125kg in gilts & barrows, respectively) and their carcasses were analyzed. Average daily gain and gain:feed did not differ between the two sex or market wt groups, whereas average daily feed intake was greater in the barrow and high market wt groups than in the gilt and 110-kg market wt groups, respectively(P<0.01). Backfat thickness of the high-market wt gilts and barrows corrected for 135 and 125-kg live wt, which were 23.7 and 22.5 mm, respectively, were greater (P<0.01) than their corresponding 110-kg counterparts(19.7 & 21.1 mm). Percentages of the trimmed primal cuts per total trimmed lean (w/w), except for that of loin, differed statistically (P<0.05) between two sex or market wt groups, but their numerical differences were rather small. Crude protein content of the loin was greater in the high vs. 110-kg market group (P<0.01), but crude fat and moisture contents and other physicochemical characteristics including the color of this primal cut were not different between the two sexes or market weights. Aroma, marbling and overall acceptability scores were greater in the high vs. 110-kg market wt group in sensory evaluation for fresh loin (P<0.01); however, overall acceptabilities for cooked loin, belly and ham were not different between the two market wt groups. Marginal profits of the 135- and 125-kg high-market wt gilt and barrow relative to their corresponding 110-kg ones were approximately -35,000 and 3,500 wons per head under the current carcass grading standard and price. However, if it had not been for the upper wt limits for the A- and B-grade carcasses, marginal profits of the high market wt gilt and barrow would have amounted to 22,000 and 11,000 wons per head, respectively. In summary, 120～125-kg market pigs are likely to meet the consumers' preference better than the 110-kg ones and also bring a profit equal to or slightly greater than that of the latter even under the current carcass grading standard. Moreover, if only the upper wt limits of the A- & B-grade carcasses were removed or increased to accommodate the high-wt carcass, the optimum market weights for the gilt and barrow would fall upon their target weights of the present study, i.e. 135 and 125 kg, respectively.