• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.53-77
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• 2015

Mobile commerce provides a convenient shopping experience in which users can buy products without the constraints of time and space. Mobile commerce has already set off a mega trend in Korea. The market size is estimated at approximately 15 trillion won (KRW) for 2015, thus far. In the Korean market, social commerce and open market are key components. Social commerce has an overwhelming open market in terms of the number of users in the Korean mobile commerce market. From the point of view of the industry, quick market entry, and content curation are considered to be the major success factors, reflecting the rapid growth of social commerce in the market. However, academics' empirical research and analysis to prove the success rate of social commerce is still insufficient. Henceforward, it is to be expected that social commerce and the open market in the Korean mobile commerce will compete intensively. So it is important to conduct an empirical analysis to prove the differences in user experience between social commerce and open market. This paper is an exploratory study that shows a comparative analysis of social commerce and the open market regarding user experience, which is based on the mobile users' reviews. Firstly, this study includes a collection of approximately 10,000 user reviews of social commerce and open market listed Google play. A collection of mobile user reviews were classified into topics, such as perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use through LDA topic modeling. Then, a sentimental analysis and co-occurrence analysis on the topics of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use was conducted. The study's results demonstrated that social commerce users have a more positive experience in terms of service usefulness and convenience versus open market in the mobile commerce market. Social commerce has provided positive user experiences to mobile users in terms of service areas, like 'delivery,' 'coupon,' and 'discount,' while open market has been faced with user complaints in terms of technical problems and inconveniences like 'login error,' 'view details,' and 'stoppage.' This result has shown that social commerce has a good performance in terms of user service experience, since the aggressive marketing campaign conducted and there have been investments in building logistics infrastructure. However, the open market still has mobile optimization problems, since the open market in mobile commerce still has not resolved user complaints and inconveniences from technical problems. This study presents an exploratory research method used to analyze user experience by utilizing an empirical approach to user reviews. In contrast to previous studies, which conducted surveys to analyze user experience, this study was conducted by using empirical analysis that incorporates user reviews for reflecting users' vivid and actual experiences. Specifically, by using an LDA topic model and TAM this study presents its methodology, which shows an analysis of user reviews that are effective due to the method of dividing user reviews into service areas and technical areas from a new perspective. The methodology of this study has not only proven the differences in user experience between social commerce and open market, but also has provided a deep understanding of user experience in Korean mobile commerce. In addition, the results of this study have important implications on social commerce and open market by proving that user insights can be utilized in establishing competitive and groundbreaking strategies in the market. The limitations and research direction for follow-up studies are as follows. In a follow-up study, it will be required to design a more elaborate technique of the text analysis. This study could not clearly refine the user reviews, even though the ones online have inherent typos and mistakes. This study has proven that the user reviews are an invaluable source to analyze user experience. The methodology of this study can be expected to further expand comparative research of services using user reviews. Even at this moment, users around the world are posting their reviews about service experiences after using the mobile game, commerce, and messenger applications.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.1-33
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• 2019

The small and medium sized enterprises (hereinafter SMEs) are already at a competitive disadvantaged when compared to large companies with more abundant resources. Manufacturing SMEs not only need a lot of information needed for new product development for sustainable growth and survival, but also seek networking to overcome the limitations of resources, but they are faced with limitations due to their size limitations. In a new era in which connectivity increases the complexity and uncertainty of the business environment, SMEs are increasingly urged to find information and solve networking problems. In order to solve these problems, the government funded research institutes plays an important role and duty to solve the information asymmetry problem of SMEs. The purpose of this study is to identify the differentiating characteristics of SMEs that utilize the public information support infrastructure provided by SMEs to enhance the innovation capacity of SMEs, and how they contribute to corporate performance. We argue that we need an infrastructure for providing information support to SMEs as part of this effort to strengthen of the role of government funded institutions; in this study, we specifically identify the target of such a policy and furthermore empirically demonstrate the effects of such policy-based efforts. Our goal is to help establish the strategies for building the information supporting infrastructure. To achieve this purpose, we first classified the characteristics of SMEs that have been found to utilize the information supporting infrastructure provided by government funded institutions. This allows us to verify whether selection bias appears in the analyzed group, which helps us clarify the interpretative limits of our study results. Next, we performed mediator and moderator effect analysis for multiple variables to analyze the process through which the use of information supporting infrastructure led to an improvement in external networking capabilities and resulted in enhancing product competitiveness. This analysis helps identify the key factors we should focus on when offering indirect support to SMEs through the information supporting infrastructure, which in turn helps us more efficiently manage research related to SME supporting policies implemented by government funded institutions. The results of this study showed the following. First, SMEs that used the information supporting infrastructure were found to have a significant difference in size in comparison to domestic R&D SMEs, but on the other hand, there was no significant difference in the cluster analysis that considered various variables. Based on these findings, we confirmed that SMEs that use the information supporting infrastructure are superior in size, and had a relatively higher distribution of companies that transact to a greater degree with large companies, when compared to the SMEs composing the general group of SMEs. Also, we found that companies that already receive support from the information infrastructure have a high concentration of companies that need collaboration with government funded institution. Secondly, among the SMEs that use the information supporting infrastructure, we found that increasing external networking capabilities contributed to enhancing product competitiveness, and while this was no the effect of direct assistance, we also found that indirect contributions were made by increasing the open marketing capabilities: in other words, this was the result of an indirect-only mediator effect. Also, the number of times the company received additional support in this process through mentoring related to information utilization was found to have a mediated moderator effect on improving external networking capabilities and in turn strengthening product competitiveness. The results of this study provide several insights that will help establish policies. KISTI's information support infrastructure may lead to the conclusion that marketing is already well underway, but it intentionally supports groups that enable to achieve good performance. As a result, the government should provide clear priorities whether to support the companies in the underdevelopment or to aid better performance. Through our research, we have identified how public information infrastructure contributes to product competitiveness. Here, we can draw some policy implications. First, the public information support infrastructure should have the capability to enhance the ability to interact with or to find the expert that provides required information. Second, if the utilization of public information support (online) infrastructure is effective, it is not necessary to continuously provide informational mentoring, which is a parallel offline support. Rather, offline support such as mentoring should be used as an appropriate device for abnormal symptom monitoring. Third, it is required that SMEs should improve their ability to utilize, because the effect of enhancing networking capacity through public information support infrastructure and enhancing product competitiveness through such infrastructure appears in most types of companies rather than in specific SMEs.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.14
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• pp.1-40
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• 1973

There is a general tendency to increase nitrogen level in rice production to insure an increased yield. On the other hand, percentage of ripened grains is getting decreased with such an increased fertilizer level. Decreasing of the percentage is one of the important yield limiting factors. Especially the newly developed rice variety, 'Tongil' is characterized by a relatively low percentage of ripened grains as compared with the other leading varieties. Therefore, these studies were aimed to finding out of some measures for the improvement of ripening in rice. The studies had been carried out in the field and in the phytotron during the period of three years from 1970 to 1972 at the Crop Experiment Station in Suwon. The results obtained from the experiments could be summarized as follows: 1. The spikelet of Tongil was longer in length, more narrow in width, thinner in thickness, smaller in the volume of grains and lighter in grain weight than those of Jinheung. The specific gravity of grain was closely correlated with grain weight and the relationship with thickness, width and length was getting smaller in Jinheung. On the other hand, Tongil showed a different pattern from Jinheung. The relationship of the specific gravity with grain weight was the greatest and followed by that with the width, thickness and length, in order. 2. The distribution of grain weight selected by specific gravity was different from one variety to another. Most of grains of Jinheung were distributed over the specific gravity of 1.12 with its peak at 1.18, but many of grains of Tongil were distributed below 1.12 with its peak at 1.16. The brown/rough rice ratio was sharply declined below the specific gravity of 1.06 in Jinheung, but that of Tongil was not declined from the 1.20 to the 0.96. Accordingly, it seemed to be unfair to make the specific gravity criterion for ripened grains at 1.06 in the Tongil variety. 3. The increasing tendency of grain weight after flowering was different depending on varieties. Generally speaking, rice varieties originated from cold area showed a slow grain weight increase while Tongil was rapid except at lower temperature in late ripening stage. 4. In the late-tillered culms or weak culms, the number of spikelets was small and the percentage of ripened grains was low. Tongil produced more late-tillered culms and had a longer flowering duration especially at lower temperature, resulting in a lower percentage of ripened grains. 5. The leaf blade of Tongil was short, broad and errect, having light receiving status for photosynthesis was better. The photosynthetic activity of Tongil per unit leaf area was higher than that of Jinheung at higher temperature, but lower at lower temperature. 6. Tongil was highly resistant to lodging because of short culm length, and thick lower-internodes. Before flowering, Tongil had a relatively higher amount of sugars, phosphate, silicate, calcium, manganese and magnesium. 7. The number of spikelets of Tongil was much more than that of Jinheung. The negative correlation was observed between the number of spikelets and percentage of ripened grains in Jinheung, but no correlation was found in Tongil grown at higher temperature. Therefore, grain yield was increased with increased number of spikelets in Tongil. Anthesis was not occurred below 21$^{\circ}C$ in Tongil, so sterile spikelets were increased at lower temperature during flowering stage. 8. The root distribution of Jinheung was deeper than that of Tongil. The root activity of Tongil evaluated by $\alpha$-naphthylamine oxidation method, was higher than that of Jinheung at higher temperature, but lower at lower temperature. It is seemed to be related with discoloration of leaf blades. 9. Tongil had a better light receiving status for photosynthesis and a better productive structure with balance between photosynthesis and respiration, so it is seemed that tongil has more ideal plant type for getting of a higher grain yield as compared with Jinheung. 10. Solar radiation during the 10 days before to 30 days after flowering seemed enough for ripening in suwon, but the air temperature dropped down below 22$^{\circ}C$ beyond August 25. Therefore, it was believed that air temperature is one of ripening limiting factors in this case. 11. The optimum temperature for ripening in Jinheung was relatively lower than that of Tongil requriing more than $25^{\circ}C$. Air temperature below 21$^{\circ}C$ was one of limiting factors for ripening in Tongil. 12. It seemed that Jinheung has relatively high photosensitivity and moderate thermosensitivity, while Tongil has a low photosensitivity, high thermosensitivity and longer basic vegetative phase. 13. Under a condition of higher nitrogen application at late growing stage, the grain yield of Jinheung was increased with improvement of percentage of ripened grains, while grain yield of Tongil decreased due to decreasing the number of spikelets although photosynthetic activity after flowering was. increased. 14. The grain yield of Jinheung was decreased slightly in the late transplanting culture since its photosynthetic activity was relatively high at lower temperature, but that of Tonil was decreased due to its inactive photosynthetic activity at lower temperature. The highest yield of Tongil was obtained in the early transplanting culture. 15. Tongil was adapted to a higher fertilizer and dense transplanting, and the percentage of ripened grains was improved by shortening of the flowering duration with increased number of seedlings per hill. 16. The percentage of vigorous tillers was increased with a denser transplanting and increasing in number of seedlings per hill. 17. The possibility to improve percentage of ripened grains was shown with phosphate application at lower temperature. The above mentioned results are again summarized below. The Japonica type leading varieties should be flowered before August 20 to insure a satisfactory ripening of grains. Nitrogen applied should not be more than 7.5kg/10a as the basal-dressing and the remained nitrogen should be applied at the later growing stage to increase their photosynthetic activity. The morphological and physiological characteristics of Tongil, a semi-dwarf, Indica $\times$ Japonica hybrid variety, are very different from those of other leading rice varieties, requring changes in seed selection by specific gravity method, in milling and in the cultural practices. Considering the peculiar distribution of grains selected by the method and the brown/rough rice ratio, the specific gravity criterion for seed selection should be changed from the currently employed 1.06 to about 0.96 for Tongil. In milling process, it would be advisable to bear in mind the specific traits of Tongil grain appearance. Tongil is a variety with many weak tillers and under lower temperature condition flowering is delayed. Such characteristics result in inactivation of roots and leaf blades which affects substantially lowering of the percentage of ripened grains due to increased unfertilized spikelets. In addition, Tongil is adapted well to higher nitrogen application. Therefore, it would be recommended to transplant Tongil variety earlier in season under the condition of higer nitrogen, phosphate and silicate. A dense planting-space with three vigorous seedlings per hill should be practiced in this case. In order to manifest fully the capability of Tongil, several aspects such as the varietal improvement, culural practices and milling process should be more intensively considered in the future.he future.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.19-45
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• 2008

This study is to empirically examine the primary dimensions of visual merchandising (VMD) of internet shopping mall, namely store design, merchandise, and merchandising cues, to be a attractive virtual store to the shoppers. The authors reviewed the literature related to the major components of VMD from the perspective of the AIDA model, which has been mainly applied to the offline store settings. The major purposes of the study are as follows; first, tries to derive the variables related with the components of visual merchandising through reviewing the existing literatures, establish the hypotheses, and test it empirically. Second, examines the relationships between the components of VMD and the attitude toward the VMD, however, putting more emphasis on finding out the component structure of the VMD. VMD needs to be examined with the perspective that an online shopping mall is a virtual self-service or clerkless store, which could reduce the number of employees, help the shoppers search, evaluate and purchase for themselves, and to be explored in terms of the in-store persuasion processes of customers. This study reviewed the literatures related to store design, merchandise, and merchandising cues which might be relevant to the store, product, and promotion respectively. VMD is a total communication tool, and AIDA model could explain the in-store consumer behavior of online shopping. Store design has to do with triggering a consumer attention to the online mall, merchandise with a product related interest, and merchandising cues with promotions such as recommendation and links that induce the desire to pruchase. These three steps might be seen as the processes for purchase actions. The theoretical rationale for the relationship between VMD and AIDA could be found in Tyagi(2005) that the three steps of consumer-oriented merchandising are a store, a product assortment, and placement, in Omar(1999) that three types of interior display are a architectural design display, commodity display, and point-of-sales(POS) display, and in Davies and Ward(2005) that the retail store interior image is related to an atmosphere, merchandise, and in-store promotion. Lee et al(2000) suggested as the web merchandising components a merchandising cues, a shopping metaphor which is an assistant tool for search, a store design, a layout(web design), and a product assortment. The store design which includes differentiation, simplicity and navigation is supposed to be related to the attention to the virtual store. Second, the merchandise dimensions comprising product assortments, visual information and product reputation have to do with the interest in the product offerings. Finally, the merchandising cues that refer to merchandiser(MD)'s recommendation of products and providing the hyperlinks to relevant goods for the shopper is concerned with attempt to induce the desire to purchase. The questionnaire survey was carried out to collect the data about the consumers who would shop at internet shopping malls frequently. To select the subject malls, the mall ranking data announced by a mall rating agency was used to differentiate the most popular and least popular five mall each. The subjects was instructed to answer the questions after navigating the designated mall for five minutes. The 300 questionnaire was distributed to the consumers, 166 samples were used in the final analysis. The empirical testing focused on identifying and confirming the dimensionality of VMD and its subdimensions using a structural equation modeling method. The confirmatory factor analysis for the endogeneous and exogeneous variables was carried out in four parts. The second-order factor analysis was done for a store design, a merchandise, and a merchandising cues, and first-order confirmatory factor analysis for the attitude toward the VMD. The model test results shows that the chi-square value of structural equation is 144.39(d.f 49), significant at 0.01 level which means the proposed model was rejected. But, judging from the ratio of chi-square value vs. degree of freedom, the ratio was 2.94 which smaller than an acceptable level of 3.0, RMR is 0.087 which is higher than a generally acceptable level of 0.08. GFI and AGFI is turned out to be 0.90 and 0.84 respectively. Both NFI and NNFI is 0.94, and CFI 0.95. The major test results are as follows; first, the second-order factor analysis and structural equational modeling reveals that the differentiation, simplicity and ease of identifying current status of the transaction are confirmed to be subdimensions of store design and to be a significant predictors of the dependent variable. This result implies that when designing an online shopping mall, it is necessary to differentiate visually from other malls to improve the effectiveness of the communications of store design. That is, the differentiated store design raise the contrast stimulus to sensory organs to promote the memory of the store and to have a favorable attitude toward the VMD of a store. The results that navigation which means the easiness of identifying current status of shopping affects the attitude to VMD could be interpreted that the navigating processes via the hyperlinks which is characteristics of an internet shopping is a complex and cognitive process and shoppers are likely to lack the sense of overall structure of the store. Consequently, shoppers are likely to be alost amid shopping not knowing where to go. The orientation tool enhance the accessibility of information to raise the perceptive power about the store environment.(Titus & Everett 1995) Second, the primary dimension of merchandise and its subdimensions was confirmed to be unidimensional respectively, have a construct validity, and nomological validity which the VMD dimensions supposed to have a positive correlation with the dependent variable. The subdimensions of product assortment, brand fame and information provision proved to have a positive effect on the attitude toward the VMD. It could be interpreted that the more plentiful the product and brand assortment of the mall is, the more likely the shoppers to favor it. Brand fame and information provision as well affect the VMD attitude, which means that the more famous the brand, the more likely the shoppers would trust and feel familiar with the mall, and the plentifully and visually presented information could have the shopper have a favorable attitude toward the store VMD. Third, it turned out to be that merchandising cue of product recommendation and hyperlinks affect the VMD attitude. This could be interpreted that recommended products could reduce the uncertainty related with the purchase decision, and the hyperlinks to relevant products would help the shopper save the cognitive effort exerted into the information search and gathering, which could lead to a favorable attitude to the VMD. This study tried to sheds some new light on the VMD of online store by reviewing the variables mentioned to be relevant with offline VMD in the existing literatures, and tried to link the VMD components from the perspective of AIDA model. The effect size of the VMD dimensions on the attitude was in the order of the merchandise, the store design and the merchandising cues.It is said that an internet has an unlimited place for display, however, the virtual store is not unlimited since the consumer has a limited amount of cognitive ability to process the external information and internal memory. Particularly, the shoppers are likely to face some difficulties in decision making on account of too many alternative and information overloads. Therefore, the internet shopping mall manager should take into consideration the cost of information search on the part of the consumer, to establish the optimal product placements and search routes. An efficient store composition would be possible by reducing the psychological burdens and cognitive efforts exerted to information search and alternatives evaluation. The store image is in most part determined by the product category and its brand it deals in. The results of this study support this proposition that the merchandise is most important to the VMD attitude than other components, the manager is required to take a strategic approach to VMD. The internet users are getting more accustomed and more knowledgeable about the internet media and more likely to accept the internet as a shopping channel as the period of time during which they use the internet to shop become longer. The web merchandiser should be aware that the product introduction using a moving pictures and a bulletin board become more important in order to present the interactive product information visually and communicate with customers more actively, therefore leading to making the quantity and quality of product information more rich.