Retrospect and prospect of political geography and general-synoptic part of human geography in Korea (한국 정치지리학과 인문지리학 일반 50년의 회고)
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- Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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- v.31 no.2
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- pp.295-308
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- 1996
1. Retrospect of Political Geographic Studies since Liberation, 1945 : 1) Period from 1945 to mid 1960s : There was not political geography as a science in Korea at the time of liberation from Japan 1945. At that time were not pure political geographers in Korea. In 1947, Moon-Hwa Pyo, economics professor, published a book titled Outline of Korean Geopolitics. This book was a first one in the field of political geography and available at that time in the logical descriptions. Bok-Hyon Choi was a first political geographer who in 1959 wrote a book titled Political geography for the collegians of Seoul National University. Professor Choi introduced American-style political geography through the book above mentioned. In 1963, Kie-Joo Hyong published an article titled "Korean Unification: Possibility from the Geopolitical Viewpoint" which was a first article published by Korean young scholar who studied geography in this country. 2) Period from late 1960s to late 1980s : Both Yoon Cha and Duck-Soon Im published frequently several articles of political geography or geopolitics respectively in 1968-1969. And they issued geopolitical disputes on Korean geopolitical structure and an application of rimland theory to Korean peninsula in 1969 through a magazine named Joung-Kyong Younku (the political and economic researches). The disputes played an important role of showing political geography (or geopolitics) to political sciences especially international political Science. Active researches still continued in 1970s. In that atmosphere the first Korean book of political geography written by a post-liberation scholar (Duck-Soon Im) titled Principles of Political Geography was published in 1973. This book was influenced much by American political geography after Second World War. In 1980s, the researches continued more actively. Especially administrative districts, capital cities, and sub-capital cities were frequently studied during this period. 3) Period from late 1980s to Present: Recent Studies : 1985 was a year of much production of articles of political geography. The first Ph.D thesis of political geography published in the same year in our country. And since 1985 produced many M.A. articles. Several categories of esearches of political geography was made in the period from late 1980s to present. Capital cities, Korean unification, administrative districts, urban politics, elections, sub-capital cities, and defense walls were important research categories. Reviewing the researches from 1945 to present. I found eight categories of political geography in Korea: capital cities, administrative districts, geopolitical structure of Korean peninsula, division and unification of Korea, sub-capital cities, defense walls, elections, and urban politics. Each category includes several scholars respectiveiy. 2. Study Tasks and Prospects in Korean Political Geography: In relation to Korean circumstances there are three study-tasks. The first task of Korean people is unification of two Koreas. Political geographers of Korea must al survey titled Survey Methods of Human Geography for collegians. This book was first one on survey part in Korea. The book however, is insufficient in comprehensiveness in aspects too. I think that the important tasks of general-synoptic human geography in Korea are \circled1 publication of comprehensive books of human geography in the aspects and methodologies for collegians and \circled2 acceptance of academic world of human geography in Korea of variety in methodologies of human geography for future progress. progress.
The nationwide weed survey was conducted in lowland rice fields over whole country of Korea in 1992 in order to determine a change of weed community and to identify a major dominant weed species and/or problem weed. Based on morphological characteristics of weeds, population ratio of broad leaf weed was 42.6%, grasses weed-9.0%, sedges-33.4% and others were 15.0%. Annual weed was 33.4% while perennial weed was 66.6% in terms of life cycle of weeds. Meanwhile, there was different weed occurrence as affected by planting method of the rice plant. In hand transplanted paddy fields predominant weed species was Sagittaria trifolia L., Monochoria vaginalis Presl., and Aneilema japonica Kunth. In machine transplanted rice fields of infant and young rice seedling Eleocharis kuroguwai Ohwi. and S. trifolia L. were more predominant. There was high occurrence of M. vaginalis, Echinochloa crus-galli L., and Leesia japonica Makino in water seeding while E. crus-galli and Cyperus serotinus Rottb. were predominant weed species in dry seeded rice. Monoculture of the rice plant would cause to high occurrence of E. kuroguwai, S. trifolia, M. vaginalis, E. crus-galli, and Sagittaria pygmaea Miq and there was higher population of S. trifolia, S. pygmaea, M. vaginalis, E crus-galli, and E. kuroguwai in double cropping system based on rice culture. In particular, there was high different weed occurrence under different transplanting times. E. kuroguwai, S. trifolia, S. pygmaea, M. vaginalis, and C. serotinus were higher population at the transplanting of 25 May and S. trifolia, E crus-galli, C. serotinus, and M. vaginalis at 10 June and S. pygmaea, E. kuroguwai, M. vaginalis, S. trifolia, and E. crusgalli at 25 June in Korea, respectively. Autumn tillage in terms of tillage time would cause more predominant weed species such as S. trifolia, E. kuroguwai, M. vaginalis, and S. pygmaea while spring tillage was higher population of E. kuroguwai, S. trifolia, E. crusgalli, M. vaginalis, and S. pygmaea. In plain area of paddy field there was higher occurrence of E. kuroguwai, S. trifolia, M. vaginalis, E. crus-galli, and S. pygmaea and in mid-mountainous area S. trifolia, E. kuroguwai, M. vaginalis, E. crus-galli, and Ludwigia prostrate Roxb. while in mountainous area S. trifolia, M. vaginalis, Potamogeton distinctus Ben., E. kuroguwai, and E. crus-galli were. In 1992 the most ten predominant weed species at the rice field of Korea based on summed dominant ratio(SDR) were E. kuroguwai > S. trifolia > E. crus-galli > M. vaginalis > S. pygmaea > C. serotinus > L. prostrate > P. distinctus > A. japonica > Scirpus juncoides Roxb.
INTRODUCTION Due to the high broadband internet penetration rate and its group-oriented culture, various types of online communities operate in Korea. This study use 'Uses and Gratification Approach, and argue that members' usage-needs satisfaction with brand community is an important factor for promoting community commitment. Based on previous studies identifying the effect of brand image on consumers' responses to various marketing stimuli, this study hypothesizes that brand image can be a moderate variable affecting the relationship between usage-needs satisfaction with brand community and members' commitment to brand community. This study analyzes the influence of usage-needs satisfaction on brand community commitment and how apparel brand image affects the relationships between usage-needs satisfactions and community commitments. The hypotheses of this study are proposed as follows. H1-3: The usage-needs satisfaction of apparel brand community (interest, transaction, relationship needs) influences emotional (H1), continuous (H2), and normative (H3) commitments to apparel brand communities. H4-6: Apparel brand image has a moderating effect on the relationship between usage-needs satisfaction and emotional (H4), continuous (H5), and normative (H6) commitments to apparel brand communities. METHODS Brand communities founded by non-company affiliates were excluded and emphasis was placed instead on communities created by apparel brand companies. Among casual apparel brands registered in 6 Korean portal sites in August 2003, a total of 9 casual apparel brand online communities were chosen, depending on the level of community activity and apparel brand image. Data from 317 community members were analyzed by exploratory factor analysis, moderated regression analysis, ANOVA, and scheffe test. Among 317 respondents answered an online html-type questionnaire, 80.5% were between 16 to 25 years old. There were a total of 150 respondents from apparel brand communities(n=3) recording higher-than-average brand image scores (Mean > 3.75) and a total of 162 respondents from apparel brand communities(n=6) recording lower-than-average brand image scores(Mean < 3.75). In this study, brand community commitment was measured by a 5-point Likert scale: emotional, continuous and normative commitment. The degree of usage-needs satisfaction (interest, transaction, relationship needs) was measured on a 5-point Likert scale. The level of brand image was measured by a 5-point Likert scale: strength, favorability, and uniqueness of brand associations. RESULTS In the results of exploratory factor analysis, the three usage-needs satisfactions with brand community were classified as interest, transaction, and relationship needs. Brand community commitment was also divided into the multi-dimensional factors: emotional, continuous, and normative commitments. The regression analysis (using a stepwise method) was used to test the influence of 3 independent variables (interest-needs satisfaction, transaction-needs, and relationship-needs satisfactions) on the 3 dependent variables (emotional, continuous and normative commitments). The three types of usage-needs satisfactions are positively associated with the three types of commitments to apparel brand communities. Therefore, hypothesis 1, 2, and 3 were significantly supported. Moderating effects of apparel brand image on the relationship between usage-needs satisfaction and brand community commitments were tested by moderated regression analysis. The statistics result showed that the influence of transaction-needs on emotional commitment was significantly moderated by apparel brand image. In addition, apparel brand image had moderating effects on the relationship between relationship-needs satisfaction and emotional, continuous and normative commitments to apparel brand communities. However, there were not significant moderate effects of apparel brand image on the relationships between interest-needs satisfaction and 3 types of commitments (emotional, continuous and normative commitments) to apparel brand communities. In addition, the influences of transaction-needs satisfaction on 2 types of commitments (continuous and normative commitments) were not significantly moderated by apparel brand image. Therefore, hypothesis 4, 5 and 6 were partially supported. To explain the moderating effects of apparel brand image, four cross-tabulated groups were made by averages of usage-needs satisfaction (interest-needs satisfaction avg. M=3.09, transaction-needs satisfaction avg. M=3.46, relationship-needs satisfaction M=1.62) and the average apparel brand image (M=3.75). The average scores of commitments in each classified group are presented in Tables and Figures. There were significant differences among four groups. As can be seen from the results of scheffe test on the tables, emotional commitment in community group with high brand image was higher than one in community group with low brand image when transaction-needs satisfaction was high. However, when transaction-needs satisfaction was low, there was not any difference between the community group with high brand image and community group with low brand image regarding emotional commitment to apparel brand communities. It means that emotional commitment didn't increase significantly without high satisfaction of transaction-needs, despite the high apparel brand image. In addition, when apparel brand image was low, increase in transaction-needs did not lead to the increase in emotional commitment. Therefore, the significant relationship between transaction-needs satisfaction and emotional commitment was found in only brand communities with high apparel brand image, and the moderating effect of apparel brand image on this relationship between two variables was found in the communities with high satisfaction of transaction-needs only. Statistics results showed that the level of emotional commitment is related to the satisfaction level of transaction-needs, while overall response is related to the level of apparel brand image. We also found that the role of apparel brand image as a moderating factor was limited by the level of transaction-needs satisfaction. In addition, relationship-needs satisfaction brought significant increase in emotional commitment in both community groups (high and low levels of brand image), and the effect of apparel brand image on emotional commitment was significant in both community groups (high and low levels of relationship-needs satisfaction). Especially, the effect of brand image was greater when the level of relationship-needs satisfaction was high. in contrast, increase in emotional commitment responding to increase in relationship-needs satisfaction was greater when apparel brand image is high. The significant influences of relationship-needs satisfaction on community commitments (continuous and normative commitments) were found regardless of apparel brand image(in both community groups with low and high brand image). However, the effects of apparel brand image on continuous and normative commitments were found in only community group with high satisfaction level of relationship-needs. In the case of communities with low satisfaction levels of relationship needs, apparel brand image marginally increases continuous and normative commitments. Therefore, we could not find the moderating effect of apparel brand image on the relationship between relationship-needs satisfaction and continuous and normative commitments in community groups with low satisfaction levels of relationship needs, CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS From the results of this study, we draw several conclusions; First, the increases in usage-needs satisfactions through apparel brand communities result in the increases in commitments to apparel brand communities, wheres the degrees of such relationship depends on the level of apparel brand image. That is, apparel brand image is a moderating factor strengthening the relationship between usage-needs satisfaction and commitment to apparel brand communities. In addition, the effect of apparel brand image differs, depending on the level and types of community usage-needs satisfactions. Therefore, marketers of apparel brand companies must determine the appropriate usage-needs, depending on the type of commitment they wish to increase and the level of their apparel brand image, to promote member's commitments to apparel brand communities. Especially, relationship-needs satisfaction was very important factor for increasing emotional, continuous and normative commitments to communities. However the level of relationship-needs satisfaction was lower than interest-needs and transaction-needs. satisfaction. According to previous study on apparel brand communities, relationship-need satisfaction was strongly related to member's intention of participation in their communities. Therefore, marketers need to develope various strategies in order to increase the relationship- needs as well as interest and transaction needs. In addition, despite continuous commitment was higher than emotional and normative commitments, all types of commitments to apparel brand communities had scores lower than 3.0 that was mid point in 5-point scale. A Korean study reported that the level of members' commitment to apparel brand community influenced customers' identification with a brand and brand purchasing behavior. Therefore, marketers should try to increase members' usage-needs satisfaction and apparel brand image as the necessary conditions for bringing about community commitments. Second, marketers should understand that they should keep in mind that increasing the level of community usage needs (transaction and relationship) is most effective in raising commitment when the level of apparel brand image is high, and that increasing usage needs (transaction needs) satisfaction in communities with low brand image might not be as effective as anticipated. Therefore, apparel companies with desirable brand image such as luxury designer goods firms need to create formal online brand communities (as opposed to informal communities with rudimentary online contents) to satisfy transaction and relationship needs systematically. It will create brand equity through consumers' increased emotional, continuous and normative commitments. Even though apparel brand is very famous, emotional commitment to apparel brand communities cannot be easily increased without transaction-needs satisfaction. Therefore famous fashion brand companies should focus on developing various marketing strategies to increase transaction-needs satisfaction.