• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.95-116
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• 2009

Increasingly the institutional theory has been an important theoretical view of decision making process and IT adoption in many academic researches. This study used the institutional theory as a lens through which we can understand the factors that enable the effective appropriation of advanced information technology. It posits that mimetic, coercive, and normative pressures existing in an institutionalized environment could influence the participation of top managers or decision makers and the involvement of users toward an effective use of IT in their tasks. Since the introduction of IT, organizational members have been using IT in their daily tasks, creating and recreating rules and resources according to their own methods and needs. That is to say, the adaptation process of the IT and outcomes are different among organizations. The previous studies on a diverse use of IT refer to the appropriation of technology from the social technology view. Users appropriate IT through not only technology itself, but also in terms of how they use it or how they make the social practice in their use of it. In this study, the concepts of institutional pressure, appropriation, participation of decision makers, and involvement of users toward the appropriation are explored in the context of the appropriation of the mobile electronic medical record system (M-EMRS) in particularly a hospital setting. Based on the conceptual definition of institutional pressure, participation and involvement, operational measures are reconstructed. Furthermore, the concept of appropriation is measured in the aspect of three sub-constructs-consensus on appropriation, faithful appropriation, and attitude of use. Grounded in the relevant theories to appropriation of IT, we developed a research framework in which the effects of institutional pressure, participation and involvement on the appropriation of IT are analyzed. Within this theoretical framework, we formulated several hypotheses. We developed a second order institutional pressure and appropriation construct. After establishing its validity and reliability, we tested the hypotheses with empirical data from 101 users in 3 hospitals which had adopted and used the M-EMRS. We examined the mediating effect of the participation of decision makers and the involvement of users on the appropriation and empirically validated their relationships. The results show that the mimetic, coercive, and normative institutional pressure has an effect on the participation of decision makers and the involvement of users in the appropriation of IT while the participation of decision makers and the involvement of users have an effect on the appropriation of IT. The results also suggest that the institutional pressure and the participation of decision makers influence the involvement of users toward an appropriation of IT. Our results emphasize the mediating effect of the institutional pressure on the appropriation of IT. Namely, the higher degree of the participation of decision makers and the involvement of users, the more effective appropriation users will represent. These results provide strong support for institutional-based variables as predictors of appropriation. These findings also indicate that organizations should focus on the role of participation of decision makers and the involvement of users for the purpose of effective appropriation, and these are the practical implications of our study. The theoretical contribution of this study is lies in the integrated model of the effect of institutional pressure on the appropriation of IT. The results are consistent with the institutional theory and support previous studies on adaptive structuration theory.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.718-736
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• 2014

This study was intended to determine PCK of the middle school science teachers on Mendelian genetics and factors influenced to form their PCKs. Two science teachers with biology major with a teaching experience over 5 years were chosen as the subject. Data were collected by class observation, semi-structured interview, teacher questionnaire survey, Content Representation and Pedagogical and Professional-experience Repertoire. The collected data were analyzed based on Magnusson's PCK for science teaching consisting of five components: (a) the orientation toward teaching science, (b) the knowledge of science curriculum, (c) the knowledge of students' understanding, (d) the knowledge of assessment, and (e) the knowledge and belief in the instructional strategies to teach science. Teachers could have the orientation toward teaching science served as an assisting role to support students' abilities. Both subject teachers seemed to focus on giving lectures. Their efforts to improve students' exploration methods and abilities were not expressed enough in their real classes and they found that students struggled to understand Mendelian genetics. Therefore, they should have explained them in an easier way and worked harder to make their students understood accurately and applied basic and advanced concepts of Mendelian genetics. They found students' preconception and misconception regarding Mendelian genetics and wished to enhance their learning effects by various teaching strategies such as correcting misconception, adding the history of science and simply assessing students' affirmative domains. It was also found that factors influenced to form PCK regarding Mendelian genetics by both teachers were as follows: teacher's personality and endeavor, textbooks and guidance books, schools and their circumstances, teaching experience, experience as a learner, interaction with their colleagues, and university curriculum. Both teachers said that it was important for teachers to make every efforts to give better classes.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.159-165
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• 2018

In recent years, universal design concepts have been introduced that are designed to make everybody more comfortable and safe to use for products, buildings, environments, services, and so on. In the case of urban railroad history, it is important to maintain facilities that incorporate the universal design concept because it is an important facility that serves as a base of city life and there are various users. This research is the last annual task of 5 years as part of the project of "Development of Technique to Improve the Convenience of Urban Railway History User" by the National Institute of Transportation Technology Promotion Agency. The purpose of this study is to develop criteria and method of facilities convenience evaluation based on UD and to evaluate user convenience by selecting test bed station. For this purpose, the UD principle of the historic facilities of Weihai Urban Railway was established and detailed evaluation criteria were presented. As a result of evaluating the test bed history using the 5-point Likert scale of the joint research institute / railway operating agency / expert, 50.3% of convenience improvement was achieved. As a result of evaluating the applicability according to the UD principle, 48.7% Respectively. The evaluation criteria and methodology based on the UD suggested in this study is a quantitative method for evaluating UD application of urban railway facilities in the future.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.148-162
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• 1993

There is much speculation that modern capi-talist society is undergoing fundamental and qualitative chnge towards flexible specialization. The purpose of this study is to examine this hypothesis. This paper focusses on: the idea of flexible specialization; the significance of this transition; industrial district; and the implicati-ons of this new production system for Korean industrial space. Main arguments of this study are as follows: First, as all different groups of researchers apply the idea of flexible specialization according to their own specifications, the current debate on this topic is not much fruitful. Not surpri-singly, the concept of flexible specialization has overlapped with subocontracting. This intergration of subcontracting into flexible specialization systems, however, is inappropriate because the two concepts have different historical contexts. The other cause of this controversy is its inherent weekness, conceptual ambiguity. Thus, today's flexibility becomes tomorrow's rigidity. Secondly, transition towards flexible speciali-zation has only been partially achieved even in advanced capitalist countries. The application of dualistic explanatory framework, such as rigidity versus flexibiity, mass production versus small-lot multi-product production, and de-skilling versus re-skilling, has resulted in great exaggeration of the transformation, from Fordism to post-Fordism. There is no intermediary part between two places. Considering that the workers allocated to the Fordist mass production assembly line are not as large as one might imagine, the shift from mass to flexible production has only limited implications for the transformation of capitalist economy. Thirdly, 'industrial district' contorversy has contributed to highlighting the importance of small firms and areas as production space. The agglomeration of small firms in specific areas is common in Korea, but it is quite different from the industrial district based on flexible specialization. The Korean phenomenon stems from close interactions with its major parent firm rather than interactions between flexible, specialized, autonomous and technology-intensive smll firms. Most Korean subcontractors are still low-skilled, labour-intensive, and heavily dependent on their mojor parent firms. Thus, the assertion that the Seoul Metropolitan Area adopts flexible specialization has no base. Fourthly, the main concern of flexible speciali zation is small firms. However, the corporate organization that needs product diversification and technological specialization is oligopolistic large corporations typified by multinational corporations. It is because of this that most of these organizations are adoptiong Fordist mass production methods. The problem of product diversification will be resolved naturally if economic internationalization progresses further. What is more important for business success is the quality and price competitiveness of firms rather than product diversification. Lastly, in order to dispel further misunderst-anding on this issue, it is imparative that the conceptual ambiguity is resolved most urgently. This study recommends adoption of more speci-fied and direct terminology (such as, factory automation, computer design, out-sourcing, the exploitation of part-time labor, job redesign) rather than that of ideological ones (such as, Taylorism, Fordism, neo-Taylorism, neo-Fordism, post-fordism, flexible specialization, peripheral post-Fordism). As the debates on this topic just started, we still have long way to go until consensus is reached.

• Proceedings of the Korean Ceranic Society Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.1-112
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• 2005

This report is results of a research on recent R&D trends in electroceramics, mainly focusing on the papers submitted to the organizing committee of the International Conference on Electroceramics 2005 (ICE-2005) which was held at Seoul on 12-15 June 2005. About 380 electroceramics researchers attended at the ICE-2005 from 17 countries including Korea, presenting and discussing their recent results. Therefore, we can easily understand the recent research trends in the field of electroceramics by analyses of the subject and contents of the submitted papers. In addition to the analyses of the papers submitted to the ICE-2005, we also collected some informations about domestic and international research trends to help readers understand this report easily. We analysed the R&D trends on the basis of four main categories, that is, informatics electroceramics, energy and environment ceramics, processing and characterization of electroceramics, and emerging fields of electroceramics. Each main category has several sub-categories again. The informatics ceramics category includes integrated dielectrics and ferroelectrics, oxide and nitride semiconductors, photonic and optoelectronic devices, multilayer electronic ceramics and devices, microwave dielectrics and high frequency devices, and piezoelectric and MEMS applications. The energy and environment ceramics category has four sub-categories, that is, rechargable battery, hydrogen storage, fuel cells, and advanced energy conversion concepts. In the processing and characterization category, there exist domain, strain, and epitaxial dynamics and engineering sub-category, innovative processing and synthesis sub-category, nanostructured materials and nanotechnology sub- category, single crystal growth and characterization sub-category, theory and modeling sub-category. Nanocrystalline electroceramics, electroceramics for smart sensors, and bioceramics sub-categories are included to the emerging fields category. We hope that this report give an opportunity to understand the international research trend, not only to Korean ceramics researchers but also to science and technology policy researchers.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.133-144
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• 2004

A model and a measure which can evaluate the risk of rear end collision are developed. Most traffic accidents involve multiple causes such as the human factor, the vehicle factor, and the highway element at any given time. Thus, these factors should be considered in analyzing the risk of an accident and in developing safety models. Although most risky situations and accidents on the roads result from the poor response of a driver to various stimuli, many researchers have modeled the risk or accident by analyzing only the stimuli without considering the response of a driver. Hence, the reliabilities of those models turned out to be low. Thus in developing the model behaviors of a driver, such as reaction time and deceleration rate, are considered. In the past, most studies tried to analyze the relationships between a risk and an accident directly but they, due to the difficulty of finding out the directional relationships between these factors, developed a model by considering these factors, developed a model by considering indirect factors such as volume, speed, etc. However, if the relationships between risk and accidents are looked into in detail, it can be seen that they are linked by the behaviors of a driver, and depending on drivers the risk as it is on the road-vehicle system may be ignored or call drivers' attention. Therefore, an accident depends on how a driver handles risk, so that the more related risk to and accident occurrence is not the risk itself but the risk responded by a driver. Thus, in this study, the behaviors of a driver are considered in the model and to reflect these behaviors three concepts related to accidents are introduced. And safe stopping distance and accident occurrence probability were used for better understanding and for more reliable modeling of the risk. The index which can represent the risk is also developed based on measures used in evaluating noise level, and for the risk comparison between various situations, the equivalent risk level, considering the intensity and duration time, is developed by means of the weighted average. Validation is performed with field surveys on the expressway of Seoul, and the test vehicle was made to collect the traffic flow data, such as deceleration rate, speed and spacing. Based on this data, the risk by section, lane and traffic flow conditions are evaluated and compared with the accident data and traffic conditions. The evaluated risk level corresponds closely to the patterns of actual traffic conditions and counts of accident. The model and the method developed in this study can be applied to various fields, such as safety test of traffic flow, establishment of operation & management strategy for reliable traffic flow, and the safety test for the control algorithm in the advanced safety vehicles and many others.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.160-174
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• 2005

Despite the decrease in the number of children due to low birth rate, the domestic children's apparel market has been achieving steady growth as family income is rising thanks to more opportunities for working women, parents spend more on their children, and they prefer brand products that make their children look special. In addition, the market is suffering from hard competition as large enterprises have joined the race. The present study purposed to survey the children's apparel market in Korea, which is in a transitional period, and to contribute to the development of the market with Korean brands. For this purpose, we analyzed the characteristics of children's apparel brands in the 21st century based on the current state of the domestic children's apparel market and, based on the findings, forecasted the future trend of children's apparel brands, suggested improvements for expected problems, proposed standards for coping with changes such as diversification, high quality and differentiation in the children's apparel market, and provided consumers with information on how to purchase products. According to the result of analyzing the characteristics of children's apparel brands in the 21st century, brands are categorized largely into four types - life cultural brands, functional product brands, character brands and brands advancing to China. Life cultural brands equipped with all necessities for children are expanding, and with the deepening social problems of environmental pollution and the reduction of the child population, functional products made of environment-friendly materials are spreading widely, targeting infants and children. Furthermore, for extending age targets and diversifying products, children's apparel is using characters. The use of characters is expected to have a considerable effect on the growth of brands because children are more subjective as consumers than before and they are more easily persuaded with characters. Domestic children's apparel brands advancing to China have a high expectation of success in overcoming the limitation of the local market that has reached its peak and growing into global brands. Korean apparel makers are struggling to overcome the depressed domestic market, to recover consumers' consumption, to cope with market opening, to pursue high value of sensibility and to expand the seniors' market, etc. In this situation, future trends of children's apparel brands will be the expansion of family brands, brand totalization, quality price, niche market (pre-teen market), etc. In response to these trends, we made the following suggestions for improvement. 1. Children's apparel brands are evolving into family brands as well as into total brands through voluming. Today, however, apparel makers are advancing to the children's apparel market with the concept of adults' apparel and, as a result, children's apparel is merely adults' apparel of reduced size, having problems in design, color and materials. Thus, apparel makers must develop design considering the wide range of size and the characteristics of children's apparel, strengthen sourcing abilities to create revenues, and make thorough survey of customers to find common denominators between adults' apparel and children's apparel considering that characteristic that the target class is different from the buyer class. Furthermore, they must make active investments in human resources, develop outstanding products through advanced planning and design, and support marketing techniques and management systems to stores. 2. As the declining birth rate will continue to have a negative effect on the market, it may be difficult to expand the market size but there is still a margin for growth through high-sensibility and high-quality products. The competitiveness of brands is determined by their market shares. Accordingly, concepts should be specialized according to lifestyle, customers' diverse needs should be satisfied, and cross-coordination should be achieved within a brand. 3. Considering Korean parents who do not spare investment in their children despite shrinking consumption, functional products must be high value-added goods that can enhance efficiency. However, in the current situation of the infants' apparel industry where a textile manufacturer supply its products to multiple brands, it is difficult to develop unique products only based on materials. Thus, it is considered urgent to appeal to consumers not by relying on materials only but by finding methods of applying their own characters to children's dress.

• Journal of Legislation Research
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• no.53
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• pp.375-418
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• 2017

Recently, a specialized hospital designation system has been introduced. In this regard, it is a question of whether a hospital can be searched by using the term 'specialized hospital' or 'specialized' in Internet online search. In this paper, it was examined whether there is a possibility that the medical institution might be mistaken as a specialized hospital designated by the Ministry of Health and Welfare when the concept of 'specialized hospital' or 'specialized' was used in advertisements. The name specialized hospitals can basically have three general meaning. So, if there is a possibility of confusion or misunderstanding in connection with this general meaning, it may be false advertising. The use of concepts other than these general meanings in law does not mean that general meaning disappears from consumer perception. Therefore, although the concept of a specialized hospital in the medical service act is defined in a special sense, the meaning of the specialized hospital should also be considered according to general recognition. In conclusion, the "Guideline for Specialized Hospital Advertising" prepared by the Ministry of Health and Welfare shows that the establishment of a wide range of prohibition limits the freedom of expression of medical institutions. In addition, the comprehensive prohibition of search terms such as 'specialized', and 'advanced' prevents consumers from freely searching for medical institutions with expertise. These guidelines, which are being deprived of the opportunity for professional medical institutions to advertise themselves appropriately, must be thoroughly reviewed.

• Journal of Broadcast Engineering
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.836-848
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• 2019

This paper aims at providing a critical view over the cybernetics theory especially of first generation on which the artificial intelligence heavily depends nowadays. There has been a commonly accepted thought that the conception of artificial intelligence could not has been possible without being influenced by N. Wiener's cybernetic feedback based information system. Despite the founder of contemporary cybernetics' ethical concerns in order to avoid an increasing entropy phenomena(social violence, economic misery, wars) produced through a negative dynamics of the western modernity regarded as the most advanced form of humanism. In this civilizationally changing atmosphere, the newly born cybernetic technology was thus firmly believed as an antidote to these vices deeply rooted in humanism itself. But cybernetics has been turned out to be a self-organizing, self-controlling mechanical system that entails the possibility of telegraphing human brain (which are transformed into patterns) through the uploading of human brain neurons digitalized by the artificial intelligence embedded into computing technology. On this background emerges posthuman (or posthumanism) movement of which concepts have been theorized mainly by its ardent apostles like N. K. Hayles, Neil Bedington, Laurent Alexandre, Donna J. Haraway. The converging of NBIC Technologies leading to the opening of a much more digitalizing society has served as a catalyst to promote the posthuman representations and different narratives especially in the contemporary visual arts as well as in the study of humanities including philosophy and fictional literature. Once Bruno Latour wrote "Modernity is often defined in terms of humanism, either as a way of saluting the birth of 'man' or as a way of announcing his death. But this habit is itself modern, because it remains asymmetrical. It overlooks the simultaneous birth of 'nonhumaniy' - things, or objects, or beasts, - and the equally strange beginning of a crossed-out God, relegated to the sidelines."4) These highly suggestive ideas enable us to better understand what kind of human beings would emerge following the dazzlingly accelerating advancement of artificial intelligence technology. We wonder whether or not this newly born humankind would become essentially Homo Artificialis as a neuronal man stripping off his biological apparatus. However due to this unprecedented situation humans should deal with enormous challenges involving ethical, metaphysical, existential implications on their life.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.1-31
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• 2021

With the growing importance of technology innovation as a key factor for firms' competitive advantage, 'innovation persistence' became also an important research subject. 'Innovation Persistence' is a concept that indicates whether or not firms' innovation activity or performance continues. However, the data used for innovation studies are carried out as cross-sectional surveys in most countries. For this reason, studies dealing with longitudinal aspect of innovation persistence are rare. In particular, there is almost no research on innovation persistence using Korean innovation survey data. This study reviews the concepts and characteristics of innovation persistence based on extant literature, and perform an empirical analysis on the status and features of Korean firms' technology innovation persistence. Based on the data of the Korean Innovation Survey (KIS) conducted every other year from 2012 to 2018, panel data on 3,379 firms which observed multiple times are constructed. As a result, only part of the firms with persistent innovation were observed (for innovation performance 10~12%, for innovation activity 15~17%), and it was found that the persistence of non-innovation was remarkable(about 52~57%). And it was confirmed that the persistence of innovation activities is stronger than that of innovation performance. Besides, some features by sub-types of innovation appeared. Product innovation showed higher persistence than process innovation, and internal R&D also showed higher persistence than joint/external R&D. As a result of additional logit analysis to identify factors, it was found that radical or gradual product innovation is the most influential factor in persisting innovation in the next period. Since the sample selection bias due to a limitations of raw data might exist in the panel data constructed in this study, it should be noted that faulty generalization of the results are not allowed. Nevertheless, this is the first study to examine the technology innovation persistence targeting Korean firms and is expected to be a starting point for follow-up studies. It is anticipated that advanced research results will be drawn through the establishment of official panel data and improved methodologies.