Background: The dysfunction of multiple organs is found to be caused by reactive oxygen species as a major modulator of microvascular injury after hemorrhagic shock. Hemorrhagic shock, one of many causes inducing acute lung injury, is associated with increase in alveolocapillary permeability and characterized by edema, neutrophil infiltration, and hemorrhage in the interstitial and alveolar space. Aggressive and rapid fluid resuscitation potentially might increased the risk of pulmonary dysfunction by the interstitial edema. Therefore, in order to improve the pulmonary dysfunction induced by hemorrhagic shock, the present study was attempted to investigate how to reduce the inflammatory responses and edema in lung. Material and Method: Male Sprague-Dawley rats, weight 300 to 350 gm were anesthetized with ketamine(7 mg/kg) intramuscular Hemorrhagic Shock(HS) was induced by withdrawal of 3 mL/100 g over 10 min. through right jugular vein. Mean arterial pressure was then maintained at
In the field of dentistry, there existed relatively few emergency patients or patients who need intensive care and thus had low medical dispute rates. However, these days, there is a general tendency of increased medical disputes. Although many medical disputes are caused by medical accidents of the dentists, because dental assistants are also lawfully involved in practicing dentistry, there is a possibility of medical disputes or medical accidents caused by dental assistants. Therefore, the role of the dental assistants cannot be ignored. This study consists of a survey given to dental hygienists currently working in general hospitals, dental hospitals and private dental clinics. Following is the results of the analysis of 275 respondents' backgrounds, medical disputes rates including patients' complaints, their understanding of medical regulations and their general understanding of overall dental practice and medical disputes. 1. 251 of 274(91.6%) respondents doubted the risk of medical accident and dispute. 2. 81(29.5%) dental hygienist experienced complaint from patients. They have been working in the private dental clinic, the rate of this experience was high. 3. 349 case of 1805(19.3%) the complaints by patients, highest percentage among its category, were those regarding dental fees and poor service. 4. 129 case of 1805(7.1%) patients' complaints, highest percentage among it's subcategory, were those regarding the absence of explanations of precautions or request of agreements before dental treatment. 5. 252 of 267 (94.4%) dental hygienists chart after a scaling treatment. However, only 55(20.7%) dental hygienists chart the fact of explaining the precautions. 6. 6(2.2%) dental hygienists do not inspect patients' medical history, if patients don't mention it. 7. 104 of 274(38.0%) dental hygienists responded to be capable of administering first aid treatment. 8. 115(41.8%) dental hygienists have a first aid kit and equipment. 9. In case of medical dispute, 268(97.8%) dental hygienists respond that, charting plays a big role in resolving the dispute. 10. In case of medical dispute, 272(93.3%) dental hygienists respond that, explanation and agreement before treatment have an important role in settlement of dispute 11. Only 160(58.4%) dental hygienists responded correct answer that the duration of keeping medical records is 10 years. 12. 124(45.3%) respondents thought that it is legal for a dental hygienist to take a panoramic dental X-ray, 71(25.9%) respondents thought that it is legal practice cervical resin treatment by dental hygienist, and 37(13.5%) respondents thought that it is legal extract primary teeth by dental hygienist. 13. 24(18.76%) respondents thought that it doesn't matter to tell patient's state to others 14. 272(99.27%) responded that receiving education for the prevention of medical disputes was needed and of them, 61.0% thought it was urgent. 15. 186(64.2%) has never had classes regarding the prevention of medical disputes while in school and 212(77.4%) has not had the same type of classes after graduating from school. 16. 256(93.4%) responded that there will be even more of an increased number of medical disputes. Among them, 83.3% of respondents though that due to the increased opportunity of acquiring information through the internet and mass media. The study shows that 29.5 percentage of dental hygienists have experienced the medical disputes and complaints and they are lack of recognition of medical regulations and dental hygienist's official duty. So, there is a big potential of the percentage to increase. Therefore, the correct understanding of explaining precautions and requesting agreement before dental treatments and performing them are mandatory. Moreover, classes regarding the prevention and counterplans of medical disputes need to be widely offered.
This study investigated research trends of JDS that KODISA published and gave implications to elevate quality of scholarly journals. In other words, the study classified scientific system of distribution area to investigate research trends and to compare it with other scholarly journals of distribution and to give implications for higher level of JDS. KODISA published JDS Vol.1 No.1 for the first time in 1999 followed by Vol.8 No.3 in September 2010 to show 109 theses in total. KODISA investigated subjects, research institutions, number of participants, methodology, frequency of theses in both the Korean language and English, frequency of participation of not only the Koreans but also foreigners and use of references, etc. And, the study investigated JDR of KODIA, JKDM(The Journal of Korean Distribution & Management) and JDA that researched distribution, so that it found out development ways. To investigate research trends of JDS that KODISA publishes, main category was made based on the national science and technology standard classification system of MEST (Ministry Of Education, Science And Technology), table of classification of research areas of NRF(National Research Foundation of Korea), research classification system of both KOREADIMA and KLRA(Korea Logistics Research Association) and distribution science and others that KODISA is looking for, and distribution economy area was divided into general distribution, distribution economy, distribution, distribution information and others, and distribution management was divided into distribution management, marketing, MD and purchasing, consumer behavior and others. The findings were as follow: Firstly, main category occupied 47 theses (43.1%) of distribution economy and 62 theses (56.9%) of distribution management among 109 theses in total. Active research area of distribution economy consisted of 14 theses (12.8%) of distribution information and 9 theses (8.3%) of distribution economy to research distribution as well as distribution information positively every year. The distribution management consisted of 25 theses (22.9%) of distribution management and 20 theses (18.3%) of marketing, These days, research on distribution management, marketing, distribution, distribution information and others is increasing. Secondly, researchers published theses as follow: 55 theses (50.5%) by professor by himself or herself, 12 theses (11.0%) of joint research by professors and businesses, Professors/students published 9 theses (8.3%) followed by 5 theses (4.6%) of researchers, 5 theses (4.6%) of businesses, 4 theses (3.7%) of professors, researchers and businesses and 2 theses (1.8%) of students. Professors published theses less, while businesses, research institutions and graduate school students did more continuously. The number of researchers occupied single researcher (43 theses, 39.5%), two researchers (42 theses, 38.5%) and three researchers or more (24 theses, 22.0%). Thirdly, professors published theses the most at most of areas. Researchers of main category of distribution economy consisted of professors (25 theses, 53.2%), professors and businesses (7 theses, 14.9%), professors and businesses (7 theses, 14.9%), professors and researchers (6 theses, 12.8%) and professors and students (3 theses, 6.3%). And, researchers of main category of distribution management consisted of professors (30 theses, 48.4%), professors and businesses (10 theses, 16.1%), and professors and researchers as well as professors and students (6 theses, 9.7%). Researchers of distribution management consisted of professors, professors and businesses, professors and researchers, researchers and businesses, etc to have various types. Professors mainly researched marketing, MD and purchasing, and consumer behavior, etc to demand active participation of businesses and researchers. Fourthly, research methodology was: Literature research occupied 45 theses (41.3%) the most followed by empirical research based on questionnaire survey (44 theses, 40.4%). General distribution, distribution economy, distribution and distribution management, etc mostly adopted literature research, while marketing did empirical research based on questionnaire survey the most. Fifthly, theses in the Korean language occupied 92.7% (101 theses), while those in English did 7.3% (8 theses). No more than one thesis in English was published until 2006, and 7 theses (11.9%) were published after 2007 to increase. The theses in English were published more to be affirmative. Foreigner researcher published one thesis (0.9%) and both Korean researchers and foreigner researchers jointly published two theses (1.8%) to have very much low participation of foreigner researchers. Sixthly, one thesis of JDS had 27.5 references in average that consisted of 11.1 local references and 16.4 foreign references. And, cited times was 0.4 thesis in average to be low. The distribution economy cited 24.2 references in average (9.4 local references and 14.8 foreign references and JDS had 0.6 cited reference. The distribution management had 30.0 references in average (12.1 local references and 17.9 foreign references) and had 0.3 reference of JDS itself. Seventhly, similar type of scholarly journal had theses in the Korean language and English: JDR( Journal of Distribution Research) of KODIA(Korea Distribution Association) published 92 theses in the Korean language (96.8%) and 3 theses in English (3.2%), that is to say, 95 theses in total. JKDM of KOREADIMA published 132 theses in total that consisted of 93 theses in the Korean language (70.5%) and 39 theses in English (29.5%). Since 2008, JKDM has published scholarly journal in English one time every year. JDS published 52 theses in the Korean language (88.1%) and 7 theses in English (11.9%), that is to say, 59 theses in total. Sixthly, similar type of scholarly journals and research methodology were: JDR's research methodology had 65 empirical researches based on questionnaire survey (68.4%), followed by 17 literature researches (17.9%) and 11 quantitative analyses (11.6%). JKDM made use of various kinds of research methodologies to have 60 questionnaire surveys (45.5%), followed by 40 literature researches (30.3%), 21 quantitative analyses (15.9%), 6 system analyses (4.5%) and 5 case studies (3.8%). And, JDS made use of 30 questionnaire surveys (50.8%), followed by 15 literature researches (25.4%), 7 case studies (11.9%) and 6 quantitative analyses (10.2%). Ninthly, similar types of scholarly journals and Korean researchers and foreigner researchers were: JDR published 93 theses (97.8%) by Korean researchers except for 1 thesis by foreigner researcher and 1 thesis by joint research of the Korean researchers and foreigner researchers. And, JKDM had no foreigner research and 13 theses (9.8%) by joint research of the Korean researchers and foreigner researchers to have more foreigner researchers as well as researchers in foreign countries than similar types of scholarly journals had. And, JDS published 56 theses (94.9%) of the Korean researchers, one thesis (1.7%) of foreigner researcher only, and 2 theses (3.4%) of joint research of both the Koreans and foreigners. Tenthly, similar type of scholarly journals and reference had citation: JDR had 42.5 literatures in average that consisted of 10.9 local literatures (25.7%) and 31.6 foreign literatures (74.3%), and cited times accounted for 1.1 thesis to decrease. JKDM cited 10.5 Korean literatures (36.3%) and 18.4 foreign literatures (63.7%), and number of self-cited literature was no more than 1.1. Number of cited times accounted for 2.9 literatures in 2008 and then decreased continuously since then. JDS cited 26,8 references in average that consisted of 10.9 local references (40.7%) and 15.9 foreign references (59.3%), and number of self-cited accounted for 0.2 reference until 2009, and it increased to be 2.1 references in 2010. The author gives implications based on JDS research trends and investigation on similar type of scholarly journals as follow: Firstly, JDS shall actively invite foreign contributors to prepare for SSCI. Secondly, ratio of theses in English shall increase greatly. Thirdly, various kinds of research methodology shall be accepted to elevate quality of scholarly journals. Fourthly, to increase cited times, Google and other web retrievals shall be reinforced to supply scholarly journals to foreign countries more. Local scholarly journals can be worldwide scholarly journal enough to be acknowledged even in foreign countries by improving the implications above.
Purpose: This research aimed to investigate the actual condition and satisfaction of volunteer activity in Australian hospital. Methods: Data was collected by self reported questionnaire from 101 volunteers and analyzed by frequency and percentage, t-test, ANOVA and Sheffe and Pearson's correlation coefficients using SPSS 12.0. Results: 1. Years involved in volunteer work were
Purpose: The
Korean verse has flexibly changed its form and contents according to the historical background of the times. This fact arouses reader sympathy because it has reflected ideas, historical aspects and realities of the times. However, korean verse has kept its own characteristics in some ways, allowing it to exist today. It holds its form as 3 verses of three by three or four meter and three letters of the last of three verses. It makes every different version which has specific aspects of each times in the same 'sijo' area. 'Sijo' in Korean poems, is the first form that has been changed from formal to private functionally. As a result of that common verses in the Goryeo to Joseon eras were going with the stream of the times. Verse was the plate for justice so that there was no double meaning, symbols, or technical sentences. It had to show the idea of Myungchundo Jwonginryun. The theme was commonly fitted within certain areas. such as blessings, fidelity, devotion, etc. Around the end of the Joseon era, there was activation of private verses - a form of sijo with no restrictions on the length of the first two verses. Some ideas had been changed because Sarimpa gained power, domestic conflict, and the introduction of practical science. These things had an effect on the form of Sijo. After all, it shows the ideas of collapsing feudalism, resistance of confucian ideas, equality of the sexes, and opposition to the group who rule the government. Thus Sasul Sijo seems to have the tendency of resistance to reality. It was a specialty of realism poetry It explained our life in detail and reflected real life by being an intermediary of realism. This met and represented the demand of a reader's expectations. After 1905, there was new form of sijo that is very different, in form and content, from the previous versions. It was even different in areas of what people accepted. They started to think sijo was not the form of lyrical verse that is once was. It became a 'record of reading'. The form changed to 'hung or huhung' that satirized the times and the ending of a word in the last verse. Although this form could deliver the tension in statement, it was too iu from the original form. Therefore, it didn't last long, and its position got smaller because of the free verse that had western influence and was emerging in the times. In the middle of 1920, there was a movement of Sijo revival. It was lead by Choinamsun. He wrote poems and Sijo which were effected by western ideas in his early works. Although he worked with that, he took the lead in the movement of Sijo revival. He published the collection of Sijo
Myogilsang on Diamond Mountain, signed and dated (2000) by Seon-u Yeong (1946-2009), is the first work by a North Korean artist to enter the collection of the National Museum of Korea (fig. 1a). The donor acquired the painting directly from the artist in Pyeongyang in 2006. In consequence, there are no issues with the painting's authenticity.This painting is the largest among all existing Korean paintings, whether contemporary or from the Joseon Dynasty, to depict this iconography (see chart 1. A Chronological List of Korean Myogilsang Paintings.) It is ink and color on paper, measures 130.2 × 56.2 centimeters, and is in a hanging scroll format. Since this essay is intended as a brief introduction of the painting and not in-depth research into it, I will simply examine the following four areas: 1. Seon-u Yeong's background; 2. The location and the traditional appellation of the rock-cut image known as Myogilsang; 3. The iconography of the image; and 4) A comparative analysis of Seon-u Yeong's painting in light of other paintings on the same theme. Finally, I will present two more of his works to broaden the understanding of Seon-u Yeong as a painter. 1. Seon-u Yeong: According to the donor, who met Seon-u at his workshop in the Cheollima Jejakso (Flying Horse Workshop) three years before the artist's death, he was an individual of few words but displayed a firm commitment to art. His preference for subjects such as Korean landscapes rather than motifs of socialist realism such as revolutionary leaders is demonstrated by the fact that, relative to his North Korean contemporaries, he seems to have produced more paintings of the former. In recent years, Seon-u Yeong has been well publicized in Korea through three special exhibitions (2012 through 2019). He graduated from Pyeongyang College of Fine Arts in 1969 and joined the Central Fine Arts Production Workshop focusing on oil painting. In 1973 he entered the Joseon Painting Production Workshop and began creating traditional Korean paintings in ink and color. His paintings are characterized by intense colors and fine details. The fact that his mother was an accomplished embroidery specialist may have influenced on Seon-u's choice to use intense colors in his paintings. By 1992, he had become a painter representing the Democratic People's Republic of Korea with several titles such as Artist of Merit, People's Artist, and more. About 60 of his paintings have been designated as National Treasures of the DPRK. 2. The Myogilsang rock-cut image is located in the Manpok-dong Valley in the inner Geumgangsan Mountain area. It is a high-relief image about 15 meters tall cut into a niche under 40 meters of a rock cliff. It is the largest of all the rock-cut images of the Goryeo period. This image is often known as "Mahayeon Myogilsang," Mahayeon (Mahayana) being the name of a small temple deep in the Manpokdong Valley (See fig. 3a & 3b). On the right side of the image, there is an intaglio inscription of three Chinese characters by the famous scholar-official and calligrapher Yun Sa-guk (1728-1709) reading "妙吉祥"myogilsang (fig. 4a, 4b). 3. The iconography: "Myogilsang" is another name for the Bhodhisattva Mañjuśrī. The Chinese pronunciation of Myogilsang is "miaojixiang," which is similar in pronunciation to Mañjuśrī. Therefore, we can suggest a 妙吉祥 ↔ Mañjuśrī formula for the translation and transliteration of the term. Even though the image was given a traditional name, the mudra presented by the two hands in the image calls for a closer examination. They show the making of a circle by joining the thumb with the ring finger (fig. 6). If the left land pointed downward, this mudra would conventionally be considered "lower class: lower life," one of the nine mudras of the Amitabha. However, in this image the left hand is placed across its abdomen at an almost 90-degree angle to the right hand (fig. 6). This can be interpreted as a combination of the "fear not" and the "preaching" mudras (see note 10, D. Saunders). I was also advised by the noted Buddhist art specialist Professor Kim Jeong-heui (of Won'gwang University) to presume that this is the "preaching" mudra. Therefore, I have tentatively concluded that this Myogilsang is an image of the Shakyamuni offering the preaching mudra. There is no such combination of hand gestures in any other Goryeo-period images. The closest I could identify is the Beopjusa Rock-cut Buddha (fig. 7) from around the same time. 4. Comparative analysis: As seen in
Previous studies of reward programs have generally focused on designing the best programs for consumers and suggested that consumers' perception of the value of reward programs can vary according to the type of reward program (e.g., hedonic vs. utilitarian and direct vs. indirect) and its timing (e.g., immediate vs. delayed). These studies have typically assumed that consumers' preference for reward programs has a positive effect on brand loyalty. However, Dowling and Uncles (1997) pointed out that this preference does not necessarily foster brand loyalty. In this regard, the present study verifies this assumption by examining the effects of consumers' perception of the value of reward programs on their brand loyalty. Although reward programs are widely used by online shopping malls, most studies have examined the conditions under which consumers are most likely to value loyalty programs in the context of offline shopping. In the context of online shopping, however, consumers' preferences may have little effect on their brand loyalty because they have more opportunities for comparing diverse reward programs offered by many online shopping malls. That is, in online shopping, finding attractive reward programs may require little effort on the part of consumers, who are likely to switch to other online shopping malls. Accordingly, this study empirically examines whether consumers' perception of the value of reward programs influences their brand loyalty in the context of online shopping. Meanwhile, consumers seek utilitarian and/or hedonic value from their online shopping activity(Jones et al., 2006; Barbin et al., 1994). They visit online shopping malls to buy something necessary (utilitarian value) and/or enjoy the process of shopping itself (hedonic value). In this sense, reward programs may reinforce utilitarian as well as hedonic value, and their effect may vary according to the type of reward (utilitarian vs. hedonic). According to Chaudhuri and Holbrook (2001), consumers' perception of the value of a brand can influence their brand loyalty through brand trust and affect. Utilitarian value influences brand loyalty through brand trust, whereas hedonic value influences it through brand affect. This indicates that the effect of this perception on brand trust or affect may be moderated by the type of reward program. Specifically, this perception may have a greater effect on brand trust for utilitarian reward programs than for hedonic ones, whereas the opposite may be true for brand affect. Given the above discussion, the present study is conducted with three objectives in order to provide practical implications for online shopping malls to strategically use reward program for establishing profitable relationship with customers. First, the present study examines whether reward programs can be an effective marketing tool for increasing brand loyalty in the context of online shopping. Second, it investigates the paths through which consumers' perception of the value of reward programs influences their brand loyalty. Third, it analyzes the effects of this perception on brand trust and affect by considering the type of reward program as a moderator. This study suggests and empirically analyzes a new research model for examining how consumers' perception of the value of reward programs influences their brand loyalty in the context of online shopping. The model postulates the following 10 hypotheses about the structural relationships between five constructs: (H1) Consumers' perception of the value of reward programs has a positive effect on their program loyalty; (H2) Program loyalty has a positive effect on brand loyalty; (H3) Consumers' perception of the value of reward programs has a positive effect on their brand trust; (H4) Consumers' perception of the value of reward programs has a positive effect on their brand affect; (H5) Brand trust has a positive effect on program loyalty; (H6) Brand affect has a positive effect on program loyalty; (H7) Brand trust has a positive effect on brand loyalty; (H8) Brand affect has a positive effect on brand loyalty; (H9) Consumers' perception of the value of reward programs is more likely to influence their brand trust for utilitarian reward programs than for hedonic ones; and (H10) Consumers' perception of the value of reward programs is more likely to influence their brand affect for hedonic reward programs than for utilitarian ones. To test the hypotheses, we considered a sample of 220 undergraduate students in Korea (male:113). We randomly assigned these participants to one of two groups based on the type of reward program (utilitarian: transportation card, hedonic: movie ticket). We instructed the participants to imagine that they were offered these reward programs while visiting an online shopping mall. We then asked them to answer some questions about their perception of the value of the reward programs, program loyalty, brand loyalty, brand trust, and brand affect, in that order. We also asked some questions about their demographic backgrounds and then debriefed them. We employed the structural equation modeling (SEM) method with AMOS 18.0. The results provide support for some hypotheses (H1, H3, H4, H7, H8, and H9) while providing no support for others (H2, H5, H6, H10) (see Figure 1). Noteworthy is that the path proposed by previous studies, "value perception → program loyalty → brand loyalty," was not significant in the context of online shopping, whereas this study's proposed path, "value perception → brand trust/brand affect → brand loyalty," was significant. In addition, the results indicate that the type of reward program moderated the relationship between consumers' value perception and brand trust but not the relationship between their value perception and brand affect. These results have some important implications. First, this study is one of the first to examine how consumers' perception of the value of reward programs influences their brand loyalty in the context of online shopping. In particular, the results indicate that the proposed path, "value perception → brand trust/brand affect → brand loyalty," can better explain the effects of reward programs on brand loyalty than existing paths. Furthermore, these results suggest that online shopping malls should place greater emphasis on the type of reward program when devising reward programs. To foster brand loyalty, they should reinforce the type of shopping value that consumers emphasize by providing them with appropriate reward programs. If consumers prefer utilitarian value to hedonic value, then online shopping malls should offer utilitarian reward programs and vice versa.
The objective of this research is to do a cultural comparison on the daily lives of the children of Korea, Japan and China. To achieve this objective, the questionnares were distributed to the 2940 mothers of children from the ages of 3 to 6 in the countries of Korea, Japan and China. The target audience consisted of 941 mothers living in Seoul and Kyunggi area for Korea, 1007 mothers living in Tokyo for Japan, and 992 mothers living in Beijing for China. As a result of the research, we found out that firstly, although children in general got up anytime between 7:00am to 9:00am and went to bed between 8:00pm and 11:00pm, 61.5% of the Korean children went to bed after 10pm and 16.8% after 11pm. Besides that, we found that compared to 3.51% of Korean children who got up before 6am, 13.41% of Japanese children and 17.24% of Chinese children got up before 6:00am. So we could see that the Korean children got up later and went to bed later than their Japanese and Chinese counterpart. This pattern could also be seen in the average rising time and bed time. Korean children went to bed at 10:00pm and woke up at 7:75am whereas the Japanese children went to bed at 9:28pm and woke up at 7:39am, and the Chinese children went to bed at 9:05pm and woke up at 7:05am. The average sleeping hours for Japanese children was 10.12 hours, 9.50 hours for the Chinese and 9.75 hours for the Korean. As a result, we could see that the Korean children went to bed later, got up later and slept fewer hours than their Japanese and Chinese counterparts. Also, since the rising time and bedtime of the Korean children was later than those of the Chinese and Japanese counterparts, the former s' breakfast and dinner time was also much later. Secondly, we looked at the time children went off to and came back from institutes such as kindergarten and child care centers. The Chinese were earliest at going with average attendance at 7:83am, the Japanese came next at 8:59am and the Korean children were last at 8:90am, whereas the Japanese came first in coming back home at 3:36pm, Korean next at 3:91pm and the Chinese last at 5:46pm. Next when we looked at the hours spent at the kindergartens and child care centers, Japan spent 6.76 hours, Korea 7.01 hours and China spent the longest hours with 9.63 hours. Excluding China where all preschool institutes are centralized into kindergartens, we nest looked at time children went to and came back from the institutes as well as the time spent there. In the case of kindergarten, there was not much difference but in the case of child care centers, the Japanese children went to the child care centers mach earlier and came home later than the Korean children. Also, the time spent at the child care center was much longer for the Japanese than the Korean children. This fact coincides with the Korean mothers' number one wish to the kindergartens and child care centers i.e. for the institutes to prolong their school hours. Thus, the time spent at child care centers for Korea was 7.75 hours, 9.39 hours for Japan and 9.63 hours for China. The time for Korea was comparatively much shorter than that of Japan and China but if we consider the fact that 50% of the target audience was working mothers, we could easily presume that the working parents who usually use the child care centers would want the child care centers to prolong the hours looked after their children. Besides this, the next most wanted wish mothers have towards the child care centers and kindergartens was for those institutes to "look after their children when sick". This item showed high marks in all three countries, and the marks in Korea was especially higher when compared to Japan and China. Thirdly, we looked at the private extracurricular activities of the children. We found that 72.6% of the Korean children, 61.7% of the Japanese children, and 64.6% of the Chinese children were doing private extracurricular activities after attending kindergarten or day care centers. Amongst the private extracurricular activities done by Korean children, the most popular one was worksheet with 51.9% of the children doing it. Drawing (15.20%) and English (11.6%) came next. Swimming (21.95%) was the most popular activity for Japan, with English (17.48%), music (15,79%) and sports (14.70%) coming next. For China, art (30.95%) was first with English (22.08%) and music (19.96%) following next. All three countries had English as the most popular activity related to art and physical activities after school hours, but the rate for worksheet studies was much higher for Korea compared to Japan China. The reason Koreans universally use worksheet in because the parents who buy the worksheet are mothers who have easy access to advertisement or salespeople selling those products. The price is also relatively cheap, the worksheet helps the children to grow the basic learning ability in preparation for elementary school, and it is thought to help the children to build the habit of studying everyday. Not only that but it is estimated that the worksheet education is being conducted because parents can share the responsibility of the children's learning with the worksheet-teacher who make home visits. Looking at the expenses spent on private extracurricular activities as compared to income, we found that China spent 5% of income for activities outside of regular education, Korea 3% and Japan 2%. Fourthly, we looked at the amount of time children spent on using multimedia. The majority of the children in Korea, Japan and China watch television almost every day. In terms of video games, the Japanese children played the games the most, with Korea and China following next. The Korean children used the computer the most, with Japan and China next. The Korean children used about 21.17% of their daily time on computers which is much more than the Japanese who used 20.62% of their time 3 or 4 times a week, or the Chinese. The Chinese children were found to use considerably less time on multimedia compared to the Korean of Japanese.
The purpose of this paper is to explore the relations between financial constraints and dividend smoothing of innovative small and medium sized enterprises(SMEs) listed on Korea Securities Market and Kosdaq Market of Korea Exchange. The innovative SMEs is defined as the firms with high level of R&D intensity which is measured by (R&D investment/total sales) ratio, according to Chauvin and Hirschey (1993). The R&D investment plays an important role as the innovative driver that can increase the future growth opportunity and profitability of the firms. Therefore, the R&D investment have large, positive, and consistent influences on the market value of the firm. In this point of view, we expect that the innovative SMEs can adjust dividend payment faster than the noninnovative SMEs, on the ground of their future growth opportunity and profitability. And also, we expect that the financial unconstrained firms can adjust dividend payment faster than the financial constrained firms, on the ground of their financing ability of investment funds through the market accessibility. Aivazian et al.(2006) exert that the financial unconstrained firms with the high accessibility to capital market can adjust dividend payment faster than the financial constrained firms. We collect the sample firms among the total SMEs listed on Korea Securities Market and Kosdaq Market of Korea Exchange during the periods from January 1999 to December 2007 from the KIS Value Library database. The total number of firm-year observations of the total sample firms throughout the entire period is 5,544, the number of firm-year observations of the dividend firms is 2,919, and the number of firm-year observations of the non-dividend firms is 2,625. About 53%(or 2,919) of these total 5,544 observations involve firms that make a dividend payment. The dividend firms are divided into two groups according to the R&D intensity, such as the innovative SMEs with larger than median of R&D intensity and the noninnovative SMEs with smaller than median of R&D intensity. The number of firm-year observations of the innovative SMEs is 1,506, and the number of firm-year observations of the noninnovative SMEs is 1,413. Furthermore, the innovative SMEs are divided into two groups according to level of financial constraints, such as the financial unconstrained firms and the financial constrained firms. The number of firm-year observations of the former is 894, and the number of firm-year observations of the latter is 612. Although all available firm-year observations of the dividend firms are collected, deletions are made in the case of financial industries such as banks, securities company, insurance company, and other financial services company, because their capital structure and business style are widely different from the general manufacturing firms. The stock repurchase was involved in dividend payment because Grullon and Michaely (2002) examined the substitution hypothesis between dividends and stock repurchases. However, our data structure is an unbalanced panel data since there is no requirement that the firm-year observations data are all available for each firms during the entire periods from January 1999 to December 2007 from the KIS Value Library database. We firstly estimate the classic Lintner(1956) dividend adjustment model, where the decision to smooth dividend or to adopt a residual dividend policy depends on financial constraints measured by market accessibility. Lintner model indicates that firms maintain stable and long run target payout ratio, and that firms adjust partially the gap between current payout rato and target payout ratio each year. In the Lintner model, dependent variable is the current dividend per share(DPSt), and independent variables are the past dividend per share(DPSt-1) and the current earnings per share(EPSt). We hypothesized that firms adjust partially the gap between the current dividend per share(DPSt) and the target payout ratio(Ω) each year, when the past dividend per share(DPSt-1) deviate from the target payout ratio(Ω). We secondly estimate the expansion model that extend the Lintner model by including the determinants suggested by the major theories of dividend, namely, residual dividend theory, dividend signaling theory, agency theory, catering theory, and transactions cost theory. In the expansion model, dependent variable is the current dividend per share(DPSt), explanatory variables are the past dividend per share(DPSt-1) and the current earnings per share(EPSt), and control variables are the current capital expenditure ratio(CEAt), the current leverage ratio(LEVt), the current operating return on assets(ROAt), the current business risk(RISKt), the current trading volume turnover ratio(TURNt), and the current dividend premium(DPREMt). In these control variables, CEAt, LEVt, and ROAt are the determinants suggested by the residual dividend theory and the agency theory, ROAt and RISKt are the determinants suggested by the dividend signaling theory, TURNt is the determinant suggested by the transactions cost theory, and DPREMt is the determinant suggested by the catering theory. Furthermore, we thirdly estimate the Lintner model and the expansion model by using the panel data of the financial unconstrained firms and the financial constrained firms, that are divided into two groups according to level of financial constraints. We expect that the financial unconstrained firms can adjust dividend payment faster than the financial constrained firms, because the former can finance more easily the investment funds through the market accessibility than the latter. We analyzed descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation, and median to delete the outliers from the panel data, conducted one way analysis of variance to check up the industry-specfic effects, and conducted difference test of firms characteristic variables between innovative SMEs and noninnovative SMEs as well as difference test of firms characteristic variables between financial unconstrained firms and financial constrained firms. We also conducted the correlation analysis and the variance inflation factors analysis to detect any multicollinearity among the independent variables. Both of the correlation coefficients and the variance inflation factors are roughly low to the extent that may be ignored the multicollinearity among the independent variables. Furthermore, we estimate both of the Lintner model and the expansion model using the panel regression analysis. We firstly test the time-specific effects and the firm-specific effects may be involved in our panel data through the Lagrange multiplier test that was proposed by Breusch and Pagan(1980), and secondly conduct Hausman test to prove that fixed effect model is fitter with our panel data than the random effect model. The main results of this study can be summarized as follows. The determinants suggested by the major theories of dividend, namely, residual dividend theory, dividend signaling theory, agency theory, catering theory, and transactions cost theory explain significantly the dividend policy of the innovative SMEs. Lintner model indicates that firms maintain stable and long run target payout ratio, and that firms adjust partially the gap between the current payout ratio and the target payout ratio each year. In the core variables of Lintner model, the past dividend per share has more effects to dividend smoothing than the current earnings per share. These results suggest that the innovative SMEs maintain stable and long run dividend policy which sustains the past dividend per share level without corporate special reasons. The main results show that dividend adjustment speed of the innovative SMEs is faster than that of the noninnovative SMEs. This means that the innovative SMEs with high level of R&D intensity can adjust dividend payment faster than the noninnovative SMEs, on the ground of their future growth opportunity and profitability. The other main results show that dividend adjustment speed of the financial unconstrained SMEs is faster than that of the financial constrained SMEs. This means that the financial unconstrained firms with high accessibility to capital market can adjust dividend payment faster than the financial constrained firms, on the ground of their financing ability of investment funds through the market accessibility. Futhermore, the other additional results show that dividend adjustment speed of the innovative SMEs classified by the Small and Medium Business Administration is faster than that of the unclassified SMEs. They are linked with various financial policies and services such as credit guaranteed service, policy fund for SMEs, venture investment fund, insurance program, and so on. In conclusion, the past dividend per share and the current earnings per share suggested by the Lintner model explain mainly dividend adjustment speed of the innovative SMEs, and also the financial constraints explain partially. Therefore, if managers can properly understand of the relations between financial constraints and dividend smoothing of innovative SMEs, they can maintain stable and long run dividend policy of the innovative SMEs through dividend smoothing. These are encouraging results for Korea government, that is, the Small and Medium Business Administration as it has implemented many policies to commit to the innovative SMEs. This paper may have a few limitations because it may be only early study about the relations between financial constraints and dividend smoothing of the innovative SMEs. Specifically, this paper may not adequately capture all of the subtle features of the innovative SMEs and the financial unconstrained SMEs. Therefore, we think that it is necessary to expand sample firms and control variables, and use more elaborate analysis methods in the future studies.