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The Effect of Price Discount Rate According to Brand Loyalty on Consumer's Acquisition Value and Transaction Value (브랜드애호도에 따른 가격할인율의 차이가 소비자의 획득가치와 거래가치에 미치는 영향)

  • Kim, Young-Ei;Kim, Jae-Yeong;Shin, Chang-Nag
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.17 no.4
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    • pp.247-269
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    • 2007
  • In recent years, one of the major reasons for the fierce competition amongst firms is that they strive to increase their own market shares and customer acquisition rate in the same market with similar and apparently undifferentiated products in terms of quality and perceived benefit. Because of this change in recent marketing environment, the differentiated after-sales service and diversified promotion strategies have become more important to gain competitive advantage. Price promotion is the favorite strategy that most retailers use to achieve short-term sales increase, induce consumer's brand switch, in troduce new product into market, and so forth. However, if marketers apply or copy an identical price promotion strategy without considering the characteristic differences in product and consumer preference, it will cause serious problems because discounted price itself could make people skeptical about product quality, and the changes of perceived value might appear differently depending on other factors such as consumer involvement or brand attitude. Previous studies showed that price promotion would certainly increase sales, and the discounted price compared to regular price would enhance the consumer's perceived values. On the other hand, discounted price itself could make people depreciate or skeptical about product quality, and reduce the consumers' positivity bias because consumers might be unsure whether the current price promotion is the retailer's best price offer. Moreover, we cannot say that discounted price absolutely enhances the consumer's perceived values regardless of product category and purchase situations. That is, the factors that affect consumers' value perceptions and buying behavior are so diverse in reality that the results of studies on the same dependent variable come out differently depending on what variable was used or how experiment conditions were designed. Majority of previous researches on the effect of price-comparison advertising have used consumers' buying behavior as dependent variable. In order to figure out consumers' buying behavior theoretically, analysis of value perceptions which influence buying intentions is needed. In addition, they did not combined the independent variables such as brand loyalty and price discount rate together. For this reason, this paper tried to examine the moderating effect of brand loyalty on relationship between the different levels of discounting rate and buyers' value perception. And we provided with theoretical and managerial implications that marketers need to consider such variables as product attributes, brand loyalty, and consumer involvement at the same time, and then establish a differentiated pricing strategy case by case in order to enhance consumer's perceived values properl. Three research concepts were used in our study and each concept based on past researches was defined. The perceived acquisition value in this study was defined as the perceived net gains associated with the products or services acquired. That is, the perceived acquisition value of the product will be positively influenced by the benefits buyers believe they are getting by acquiring and using the product, and negatively influenced by the money given up to acquire the product. And the perceived transaction value was defined as the perception of psychological satisfaction or pleasure obtained from taking advantage of the financial terms of the price deal. Lastly, the brand loyalty was defined as favorable attitude towards a purchased product. Thus, a consumer loyal to a brand has an emotional attachment to the brand or firm. Repeat purchasers continue to buy the same brand even though they do not have an emotional attachment to it. We assumed that if the degree of brand loyalty is high, the perceived acquisition value and the perceived transaction value will increase when higher discount rate is provided. But we found that there are no significant differences in values between two different discount rates as a result of empirical analysis. It means that price reduction did not affect consumer's brand choice significantly because the perceived sacrifice decreased only a little, and customers are satisfied with product's benefits when brand loyalty is high. From the result, we confirmed that consumers with high degree of brand loyalty to a specific product are less sensitive to price change. Thus, using price promotion strategy to merely expect sale increase is not recommendable. Instead of discounting price, marketers need to strengthen consumers' brand loyalty and maintain the skimming strategy. On the contrary, when the degree of brand loyalty is low, the perceived acquisition value and the perceived transaction value decreased significantly when higher discount rate is provided. Generally brands that are considered inferior might be able to draw attention away from the quality of the product by making consumers focus more on the sacrifice component of price. But considering the fact that consumers with low degree of brand loyalty are known to be unsatisfied with product's benefits and have relatively negative brand attitude, bigger price reduction offered in experiment condition of this paper made consumers depreciate product's quality and benefit more and more, and consumer's psychological perceived sacrifice increased while perceived values decreased accordingly. We infer that, in the case of inferior brand, a drastic price-cut or frequent price promotion may increase consumers' uncertainty about overall components of product. Therefore, it appears that reinforcing the augmented product such as after-sale service, delivery and giving credit which is one of the levels consisting of product would be more effective in reality. This will be better rather than competing with product that holds high brand loyalty by reducing sale price. Although this study tried to examine the moderating effect of brand loyalty on relationship between the different levels of discounting rate and buyers' value perception, there are several limitations. This study was conducted in controlled conditions where the high involvement product and two different levels of discount rate were applied. Given the presence of low involvement product, when both pieces of information are available, it is likely that the results we have reported here may have been different. Thus, this research results explain only the specific situation. Second, the sample selected in this study was university students in their twenties, so we cannot say that the results are firmly effective to all generations. Future research that manipulates the level of discount along with the consumer involvement might lead to a more robust understanding of the effects various discount rate. And, we used a cellular phone as a product stimulus, so it would be very interesting to analyze the result when the product stimulus is an intangible product such as service. It could be also valuable to analyze whether the change of perceived value affects consumers' final buying behavior positively or negatively.

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Consideration on Shielding Effect Based on Apron Wearing During Low-dose I-131 Administration (저용량 I-131 투여시 Apron 착용여부에 따른 차폐효과에 대한 고찰)

  • Kim, Ilsu;Kim, Hosin;Ryu, Hyeonggi;Kang, Yeongjik;Park, Suyoung;Kim, Seungchan;Lee, Guiwon
    • The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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    • v.20 no.1
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    • pp.32-36
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    • 2016
  • Purpose In nuclear medicine examination, $^{131}I$ is widely used in nuclear medicine examination such as diagnosis, treatment, and others of thyroid cancer and other diseases. $^{131}I$ conducts examination and treatment through emission of ${\gamma}$ ray and ${\beta}^-$ ray. Since $^{131}I$ (364 keV) contains more energy compared to $^{99m}Tc$ (140 keV) although it displays high integrated rate and enables quick discharge through kidney, the objective of this study lies in comparing the difference in exposure dose of $^{131}I$ before and after wearing apron when handling $^{131}I$ with focus on 3 elements of external exposure protection that are distance, time, and shield in order to reduce the exposure to technicians in comparison with $^{99m}Tc$ during the handling and administration process. When wearing apron (in general, Pb 0.5 mm), $^{99m}Tc$ presents shield of over 90% but shielding effect of $^{131}I$ is relatively low as it is of high energy and there may be even more exposure due to influence of scattered ray (secondary) and bremsstrahlung in case of high dose. However, there is no special report or guideline for low dose (74 MBq) high energy thus quantitative analysis on exposure dose of technicians will be conducted based on apron wearing during the handling of $^{131}I$. Materials and Methods With patients who visited Department of Nuclear Medicine of our hospital for low dose $^{131}I$ administration for thyroid cancer and diagnosis for 7 months from Jun 2014 to Dec 2014 as its subject, total 6 pieces of TLD was attached to interior and exterior of apron placed on thyroid, chest, and testicle from preparation to administration. Then, radiation exposure dose from $^{131}I$ examination to administration was measured. Total procedure time was set as within 5 min per person including 3 min of explanation, 1 min of distribution, and 1 min of administration. In regards to TLD location selection, chest at which exposure dose is generally measured and thyroid and testicle with high sensitivity were selected. For preparation, 74 MBq of $^{131}I$ shall be distributed with the use of $2m{\ell}$ syringe and then it shall be distributed after making it into dose of $2m{\ell}$ though dilution with normal saline. When distributing $^{131}I$ and administering it to the patient, $100m{\ell}$ of water shall be put into a cup, distributed $^{131}I$ shall be diluted, and then oral administration to patients shall be conducted with the distance of 1m from the patient. The process of withdrawing $2m{\ell}$ syringe and cup used for oral administration was conducted while wearing apron and TLD. Apron and TLD were stored at storage room without influence of radiation exposure and the exposure dose was measured with request to Seoul Radiology Services. Results With the result of monthly accumulated exposure dose of TLD worn inside and outside of apron placed on thyroid, chest, and testicle during low dose $^{131}I$ examination during the research period divided by number of people, statistics processing was conducted with Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test using SPSS Version. 12.0K. As a result, it was revealed that there was no significant difference since all of thyroid (p = 0.345), chest (p = 0.686), and testicle (p = 0.715) were presented to be p > 0.05. Also, when converting the change in total exposure dose during research period into percentage, it was revealed to be -23.5%, -8.3%, and 19.0% for thyroid, chest, and testicle respectively. Conclusion As a result of conducting Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test, it was revealed that there is no statistically significant difference (p > 0.05). Also, in case of calculating shielding rate with accumulate exposure dose during 7 months, it was revealed that there is irregular change in exposure dose for inside and outside of apron. Although the degree of change seems to be high when it is expressed in percentage, it cannot be considered a big change since the unit of accumulated exposure dose is in decimal points. Therefore, regardless of wearing apron during high energy low dose $^{131}I$ administration, placing certain distance and terminating the administration as soon as possible would be of great assistance in reducing the exposure dose. Although this study restricted $^{131}I$ administration time to be within 5 min per person and distance for oral administration to be 1m, there was a shortcoming to acquire accurate result as there was insufficient number of N for statistics and it could be processed only through non-parametric method. Also, exposure dose per person during lose dose $^{131}I$ administration was measured with accumulated exposure dose using TLD rather than through direct-reading exposure dose thus more accurate result could be acquired when measurement is conducted using electronic dosimeter and pocket dosimeter.

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A Comparative Analysis of Social Commerce and Open Market Using User Reviews in Korean Mobile Commerce (사용자 리뷰를 통한 소셜커머스와 오픈마켓의 이용경험 비교분석)

  • Chae, Seung Hoon;Lim, Jay Ick;Kang, Juyoung
    • 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.

The study on the entry of dental technicians in the public health center for a manpower supply and demand plane (Centering around a denture insurance policy in 2012) (인력수급 대책을 위한 치과기공사의 보건지소 진출에 관한 연구 - 2012년 틀니보험화 정책을 중심으로 -)

  • Lee, Jong-Do;Kim, Jeong-Sook;Park, Kwang-Sig
    • Journal of Technologic Dentistry
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    • v.32 no.4
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    • pp.417-433
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    • 2010
  • Purpose: This study evaluated the manpower planning of dental technicians. Methods: Methods : Survey was conducted regarding subject's general characteristics, characteristics of dental technician's occupational view and working conditions, and reason to enter into branches of the public health enter. The survey sample consisted of 323 dental technicians (221 male/ 102 female). Survey was conducted for one month from August 1 to September 1 in 2010. Following results were obtained. Results: 1. Regarding general characteristics of the subjects, there was a slight male predilection with 68.4%. Subjects in their 40s occupied the highest proportion of 32.2%. Majority of subjects worked in the big cities (71.5%). Favored working places were dental laboratory (57.6%) and dental hospital or dental clinic (19.5%). Although no position is available in the public sector such as public health center or health care civil servant, 9.3% preferred working in the public health center. Public sector is more favored than 2-year technical colleges or dental supply and equipment companies. In respect to education, 57% of the subjects graduated college. 67.8% were married. Subjects who specialize in the porcelain or all-ceramic were 57.9%. With regard to current position, head of the dental laboratory was most common. 2. Following occupation characteristics were found. Economic reason took the highest proportion when deciding their occupation (39.9%) followed by gaining social experience (36.5%). Majority of the subjects (76.5%) wanted to work as dental technicians until their retirement. 71.5% pursuit to become a manager of the dental laboratory. 76.1% agreed on opening a dental technician position in the public health center. Regarding an authority to lead developing the dental technician position in the public sector, majority of the subject chose ministry of health and welfare (35.6%) and Korean dental technologist association (34.7%). Employment (average, 30%) and turnover rate (average, 36.5%) of dental technology college graduates ranged from 40% to 60%. Most important factors for the employment were practical experience (41.2%) and competency (34.4%). With regard to job satisfaction, so-so as 46.7% and satisfactory was 42.7% 3. In respect to the reason for opening a position in the public health center, 'It is needed to continue denture rogram for elderly patients' obtained the highest score (4.14 point). 'Institutional devices are required to open a position for dental technicians as a public healthcare provider' received high score (4.11 point). 4. Concerning the working conditions, 'professional knowledge is required' received the highest score (4.23) followed by 'too short maternity and parental leave' (4.21). 5. Relationship between general characteristics of the subjects and favor of working in the public health center was investigated. Significant differences were found according to the current and favored working area, favored occupation, education level, marital status, and specialty. Working in the public health center was favored by following subjects: working in mid- or small-sized cities (4.16 point, p<0.05); PhD degree-holder (4.59 point, p<0.01). 6. Among general characteristics of the subjects, significant difference of working conditions was found in the following factors: gender; working areas; favored working areas; favored working positions, and education level. Majority of subjects favored working in big cities and currently work in big cities although satisfaction was comparatively low (3.75 score). 7. Future plan to work in public health center was evaluated according to occupational characteristics. Subject's intention to work in the public healthcare center was significantly affected by opening of dental technician position, leading authority, average turnover rate, and factors affecting employment. Working in the public health care center was favored by the following subjects: Dental technicians who actively supported opening of the dental technician position (4.34 point, p<0.001); subjects who thought the Korean dental technologist association is responsible for the opening of positions in the public sector (4.26 point, p<0.001); and subjects who thought that attitude and character are important for the employment (p<0.001). 8. Concerning difference of working conditions according to the occupational characteristics, significant difference was demonstrated by factors such as a reason to choose to be a dental technician, work plan, pursuing position, responsible authority, average employment rate, and job satisfaction. High standard of working conditions was required in subjects who selected to be a dental technician for the leisure time after work (s.05 point, p<0.01), who planted to work until their marriage (4.25 point, p<0.001), and who pursuit to be a manager (3.98, p<0.05). 9. In respect to influence of general characteristics on the advancement to public health centers, the coefficient of determination (R2) was 0.068 and age affected the working condition with significant difference according to the pvalue. 10. Regarding influence of general characteristics on the advancement to public health centers, the coefficient of determination (R2) was 0.335 and work plan, opening of dental technician position in the public sector, and responsible authority had significant influence over the subject's intention to work in the public health center according to the p-value. 11. With regard to the influence of general characteristics on the advancement to public health centers, the coefficient of determination (R2) was 0.091 and reason to choose to be a dental technician, work plan, and responsible authority significantly affected subject's working conditions. Conclusion: Korean society is becoming a super-aged society according to several statistics. As aged population is rapidly increasing, national health insurance plans to cover denture for senior citizen over 75 years old from 2012. Therefore, dental technicians are urgently needed in the public health centers all over the nation. Many subjects in this study planed to work until their retirement and recognized dental technician's expertise. Ministry of health and welfare and Korean dental technologist association should co-operate each other to prepare foundation and institutional devices for dental technicians to advance into the public health center. This will improve oral health of the population. This study showed urgency of medical facilities and services which meets increasing number of aged population and welfare of the population.

The study of MDCT of Radiation dose in the department of Radiology of general hospitals in the local area (일 지역 종합병원 영상의학과 MDCT선량에 대한 연구)

  • Shin, Jung-Sub
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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    • v.6 no.4
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    • pp.281-290
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    • 2012
  • The difference of radiation dose of MDCT due to different protocols between hospitals was analyzed by CTDI, DLP, the number of Slice and the number of DLP/Slice in 30 cases of the head, the abdomen and the chest that have 10 cases each from MDCT examination of the department of diagnostic imaging of three general hospitals in Gyeongsangbuk-do. The difference of image quality, CTDI, DLP, radiation dose in the eye and radiation dose in thyroid was analyzed after both helical scan and normal scan for head CT were performed because a protocol of head CT is relatively simple and head CT is the most frequent case. Head CT was significantly higher in two-thirds of hospitals compared to A hospital that does not exceed a CTDI diagnostic reference level (IAEA 50mGy, Korea 60mGy) (p<0.001). DLP was higher in one-third of hospitals than a diagnostic reference level of IAEA 1,050mGy.cm and Korea 1,000mGy.cm and two-thirds exceeded the recommendation of Korea and those were significantly higher than A hospital that does not exceed a diagnostic reference level (p<0.001). Abdomen CT showed 119mGy that was higher than a diagnostic reference level of IAEA 25mGy and Korea 20mGy in one-third. DLP in all hospitals was higher that Korea recommendation of 700mGy.cm. Among target hospitals, C hospital showed high radiation dose in all tests because MPR and 3D were of great importance due to low pitch and high Tube Curren. To analyze the difference of radiation dose by scan methods, normal scan and helical scan for head CT of the same patient were performed. In the result, CTDI and DLP of helical CT were higher 63.4% and 93.7% than normal scan (p<0.05, p<0.01). However, normal scan of radiation dose in thyroid was higher 87.26% (p<0.01). Beam of helical CT looked like a bell in the deep part and the marginal part so thyroid was exposed with low radiation dose deviated from central beam. In addition, helical scan used Gantry angle perpendicularly and normal scan used it parallel to the orbitomeatal line. Therefore, radiation dose in thyroid decreased in helical scan. However, a protocol in this study showed higher radiation dose than diagnostic reference level of KFDA. To obey the recommendation of KFDA, low Tube Curren and high pitch were demanded. In this study, the difference of image quality between normal scan and helical scan was not significant. Therefore, a standardized protocol of normal scan was generally used and protective gear for thyroid was needed except a special case. We studied a part of CT cases in the local area. Therefore, the result could not represent the entire cases. However, we confirmed that patient's radiation dose in some cases exceeded the recommendation and the deviation between hospitals was observed. To improve this issue, doctors of diagnostic imaging or technologists of radiology should perform CT by the optimized protocol to decrease a level of CT radiation and also reveal radiation dose for the right to know of patients. However, they had little understanding of the situation. Therefore, the effort of relevant agencies with education program for CT radiation dose, release of radiation dose from CT examination and addition of radiation dose control and open CT contents into evaluation for hospital services and certification, and also the effort of health professionals with the best protocol to realize optimized CT examination.

Development of Supplemental Equipment to Reduce Movement During Fusion Image Acquisition (융합영상(Fusion image)에서 움직임을 줄이기 위한 보정기구의 개발)

  • Cho, Yong Gwi;Pyo, Sung Jae;Kim, Bong Su;Shin, Chae Ho;Cho, Jin Woo;Kim, Chang Ho
    • The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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    • v.17 no.2
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    • pp.84-89
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    • 2013
  • Purpose: Patients' movement during long image acquisition time for the fusion image of PET-CT (Positron Emission Tomography-Computed Tomography) results in unconformity, and greatly affects the quality of the image and diagnosis. The arm support fixtures provided by medical device companies are not manufactured considering the convenience and safety of the patients; the arm and head movements (horizontal and vertical) during PET/CT scan cause defects in the brain fundus images and often require retaking. Therefore, this study aims to develop patient-compensation device that would minimize the head and arm movements during PET/CT scan, providing comfort and safety, and to reduce retaking. Materials and Methods: From June to July 2012, 20 patients who had no movement-related problems and another 20 patients who had difficulties in raising arms due to shoulder pain were recruited among the ones who visited nuclear medicine department for PET Torso scan. By using Patient Holding System (PHS), different range of motion (ROM) in the arm ($25^{\circ}$, $27^{\circ}$, $29^{\circ}$, $31^{\circ}$, $33^{\circ}$, $35^{\circ}$) was applied to find the most comfortable angle and posture. The manufacturing company was investigated for the permeability of the support material, and the comfort level of applying bands (velcro type) to fix the patient's head and arms was evaluated. To find out the retake frequency due to movements, the amount of retake cases pre/post patient-compensation were analyzed using the PET Torso scan data collected between January to December 2012. Results: Among the patients without movement disorder, 18 answered that PHS and $29^{\circ}$ arm ROM were the most comfortable, and 2 answered $27^{\circ}$ and $31^{\circ}$, respectively. Among the patients with shoulder pain, 15 picked $31^{\circ}$ as the most comfortable angle, 2 picked $33^{\circ}$, and 3 picked $35^{\circ}$. For this study, the handle was manufactured to be adjustable for vertical movements. The material permeability of the patient-compensation device has been verified, and PHS and the compensation device were band-fixed (velcro type) to prevent device movements. A furrow was cut for head fixation to minimize the head and neck movements, fixing bands were attached for the head, wrist, forearm, and upper arm to limit movements. The retake frequency of PET Torso scan due to patient movements was 11.06% (191 cases/1,808 patients) before using the movement control device, and 2.65% (48 cases/1,732 patients) after using the device; 8.41% of the frequency was reduced. Conclusion: Recent change and innovation in the medical environment are making expensive medical image scans, and providing differentiated services for the customers is essential. To secure patient comfort and safety during PET/CT scans, ergonomic patient-compensation devices need to be provided. Therefore, this study manufactured a patientcompensation device with vertically adjustable ergonomic ROM according to the patient's body shape and condition during PET Torso scan. The defects in the basal ganglia images due to arm movements were reduced, and retaking was decreased.

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A Contemplation on Measures to Advance Logistics Centers (물류센터 선진화를 위한 발전 방안에 대한 소고)

  • Sun, Il-Suck;Lee, Won-Dong
    • Journal of Distribution Science
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    • v.9 no.1
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    • pp.17-27
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    • 2011
  • As the world becomes more globalized, business competition becomes fiercer, while consumers' needs for less expensive quality products are on the increase. Business operations make an effort to secure a competitive edge in costs and services, and the logistics industry, that is, the industry operating the storing and transporting of goods, once thought to be an expense, begins to be considered as the third cash cow, a source of new income. Logistics centers are central to storage, loading and unloading of deliveries, packaging operations, and dispensing goods' information. As hubs for various deliveries, they also serve as a core infrastructure to smoothly coordinate manufacturing and selling, using varied information and operation systems. Logistics centers are increasingly on the rise as centers of business supply activities, growing beyond their previous role of primarily storing goods. They are no longer just facilities; they have become logistics strongholds that encompass various features from demand forecast to the regulation of supply, manufacturing, and sales by realizing SCM, taking into account marketability and the operation of service and products. However, despite these changes in logistics operations, some centers have been unable to shed their past roles as warehouses. For the continuous development of logistics centers, various measures would be needed, including a revision of current supporting policies, formulating effective management plans, and establishing systematic standards for founding, managing, and controlling logistics centers. To this end, the research explored previous studies on the use and effectiveness of logistics centers. From a theoretical perspective, an evaluation of the overall introduction, purposes, and transitions in the use of logistics centers found issues to ponder and suggested measures to promote and further advance logistics centers. First, a fact-finding survey to establish demand forecast and standardization is needed. As logistics newspapers predicted that after 2012 supply would exceed demand, causing rents to fall, the business environment for logistics centers has faltered. However, since there is a shortage of fact-finding surveys regarding actual demand for domestic logistic centers, it is hard to predict what the future holds for this industry. Accordingly, the first priority should be to get to the essence of the current market situation by conducting accurate domestic and international fact-finding surveys. Based on those, management and evaluation indicators should be developed to build the foundation for the consistent advancement of logistics centers. Second, many policies for logistics centers should be revised or developed. Above all, a guideline for fair trade between a shipper and a commercial logistics center should be enacted. Since there are no standards for fair trade between them, rampant unfair trades according to market practices have brought chaos to market orders, and now the logistics industry is confronting its own difficulties. Therefore, unfair trade cases that currently plague logistics centers should be gathered by the industry and fair trade guidelines should be established and implemented. In addition, restrictive employment regulations for foreign workers should be eased, and logistics centers should be charged industry rates for the use of electricity. Third, various measures should be taken to improve the management environment. First, we need to find out how to activate value-added logistics. Because the traditional purpose of logistics centers was storage and loading/unloading of goods, their profitability had a limit, and the need arose to find a new angle to create a value added service. Logistic centers have been perceived as support for a company's storage, manufacturing, and sales needs, not as creators of profits. The center's role in the company's economics has been lowering costs. However, as the logistics' management environment spiraled, along with its storage purpose, developing a new feature of profit creation should be a desirable goal, and to achieve that, value added logistics should be promoted. Logistics centers can also be improved through cost estimation. In the meantime, they have achieved some strides in facility development but have still fallen behind in others, particularly in management functioning. Lax management has been rampant because the industry has not developed a concept of cost estimation. The centers have since made an effort toward unification, standardization, and informatization while realizing cost reductions by establishing systems for effective management, but it has been hard to produce profits. Thus, there is an urgent need to estimate costs by determining a basic cost range for each division of work at logistics centers. This undertaking can be the first step to improving the ineffective aspects of how they operate. Ongoing research and constant efforts have been made to improve the level of effectiveness in the manufacturing industry, but studies on resource management in logistics centers are hardly enough. Thus, a plan to calculate the optimal level of resources necessary to operate a logistics center should be developed and implemented in management behavior, for example, by standardizing the hours of operation. If logistics centers, shippers, related trade groups, academic figures, and other experts could launch a committee to work with the government and maintain an ongoing relationship, the constraint and cooperation among members would help lead to coherent development plans for logistics centers. If the government continues its efforts to provide financial support, nurture professional workers, and maintain safety management, we can anticipate the continuous advancement of logistics centers.

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Assessment of Nutrient Intakes of Lunch Meals for the Aged Customers at the Elderly Care Facilities Through Measuring Cooking Yield Factor and the Weighed Plate Waste (조리 중량 변화 계수 및 잔반계측법을 이용한 노인복지시설 이용자의 점심식사 영양섭취평가)

  • Chang, Hye-Ja;Yi, Na-Young;Kim, Tae-Hee
    • Journal of Nutrition and Health
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    • v.42 no.7
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    • pp.650-663
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    • 2009
  • The purposes of this study were to investigate one portion size of menus served and to evaluate nutrient intake of lunch at three elderly care facility food services located in Seoul. A weighed plate method was employed to measure plate wastes and consumption of the menus served. Yield factors were calculated from cooking experiments based on standardized recipes, and were used to evaluate nutrient intake. One hundred elderly participated in this study for measuring plate waste and were asked to complete questionnaire. Nutrient analyses for the served and consumed meal were performed using CAN program. The yield factors of rice dishes after cooking are 2.4 regardless of rice dish types, 1.58 for thick soups, 0.60 to 0.70 for meat dishes, and 1.0 to 1.25 branched vegetable. Average consumption quantity of dishes were 235.97 g for rice, 248.53 g for soup, 72.83 g for meat dishes, 39.80 g for vegetables and 28.36 g for Kimchi. On average the food waste rate is 14.0%, indicating the second highest plate waste percentage of Kimchi (26.2%), and meat/fish dish (17.3%). The evaluation results of NAR (Nutrition Adequacy Ratio) showed that iron (0.12), calcium (0.64), riboflavin (0.80), and folic acid (0.97) were less than 1.0 in both male and female elderly groups, indicating significant differences of NAR among three facilities. Compared to the 1/3 Dietary Reference Intake (DRIs) for the elderly groups, nutrient intake analysis demonstrated that calcium (100%) and iron (100%), followed by riboflavin, vitamin A, and Vitamin B6 did not met of the 1/3 EAR (Estimated Average Requirement). For the nutritious meal management, a professional dietitian should be placed at the elderly care center to develop standardized recipes in consideration of yield factors and the elderly's health and nutrition status.

Performance analysis of Frequent Itemset Mining Technique based on Transaction Weight Constraints (트랜잭션 가중치 기반의 빈발 아이템셋 마이닝 기법의 성능분석)

  • Yun, Unil;Pyun, Gwangbum
    • Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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    • v.16 no.1
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    • pp.67-74
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    • 2015
  • In recent years, frequent itemset mining for considering the importance of each item has been intensively studied as one of important issues in the data mining field. According to strategies utilizing the item importance, itemset mining approaches for discovering itemsets based on the item importance are classified as follows: weighted frequent itemset mining, frequent itemset mining using transactional weights, and utility itemset mining. In this paper, we perform empirical analysis with respect to frequent itemset mining algorithms based on transactional weights. The mining algorithms compute transactional weights by utilizing the weight for each item in large databases. In addition, these algorithms discover weighted frequent itemsets on the basis of the item frequency and weight of each transaction. Consequently, we can see the importance of a certain transaction through the database analysis because the weight for the transaction has higher value if it contains many items with high values. We not only analyze the advantages and disadvantages but also compare the performance of the most famous algorithms in the frequent itemset mining field based on the transactional weights. As a representative of the frequent itemset mining using transactional weights, WIS introduces the concept and strategies of transactional weights. In addition, there are various other state-of-the-art algorithms, WIT-FWIs, WIT-FWIs-MODIFY, and WIT-FWIs-DIFF, for extracting itemsets with the weight information. To efficiently conduct processes for mining weighted frequent itemsets, three algorithms use the special Lattice-like data structure, called WIT-tree. The algorithms do not need to an additional database scanning operation after the construction of WIT-tree is finished since each node of WIT-tree has item information such as item and transaction IDs. In particular, the traditional algorithms conduct a number of database scanning operations to mine weighted itemsets, whereas the algorithms based on WIT-tree solve the overhead problem that can occur in the mining processes by reading databases only one time. Additionally, the algorithms use the technique for generating each new itemset of length N+1 on the basis of two different itemsets of length N. To discover new weighted itemsets, WIT-FWIs performs the itemset combination processes by using the information of transactions that contain all the itemsets. WIT-FWIs-MODIFY has a unique feature decreasing operations for calculating the frequency of the new itemset. WIT-FWIs-DIFF utilizes a technique using the difference of two itemsets. To compare and analyze the performance of the algorithms in various environments, we use real datasets of two types (i.e., dense and sparse) in terms of the runtime and maximum memory usage. Moreover, a scalability test is conducted to evaluate the stability for each algorithm when the size of a database is changed. As a result, WIT-FWIs and WIT-FWIs-MODIFY show the best performance in the dense dataset, and in sparse dataset, WIT-FWI-DIFF has mining efficiency better than the other algorithms. Compared to the algorithms using WIT-tree, WIS based on the Apriori technique has the worst efficiency because it requires a large number of computations more than the others on average.

A Study on the Effects of Support Service of Gyeonggi-do Cultural Contents Area Business Incubating Center on Corporate Performance: Focusing on the Business Validity of Business Start-Up Items (경기도 문화콘텐츠분야 창업보육센터 지원서비스가 입주기업 성과에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구: 창업아이템의 사업타당성을 중심으로)

  • Hong, Dae Ung;Lee, Il han;Son, Jong Seo
    • Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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    • v.12 no.4
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    • pp.47-60
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    • 2017
  • As the recent cultural contents area start-ups are creating remarkable outcomes such as investment attraction together with the reinforced institutional supports from the government, this study aimed to reverify the significance of researches related to correlation analysis between service of Business Incubating Center of Small & Medium Business Administration operated with no separation of business type, and corporate performance, in the aspect of Business Incubating Center in cultural contents area, and also to suggest the importance of establishing the business incubating system in the systematic and rational cultural contents area through the differentiated business incubating service by verifying the significant effects of the business validity of items on corporate performance, and then discovering services suitable for business incubating in cultural contents area, targeting Gyeonggi-do cultural contents area Business Incubating Center recently showing the biggest growth. Especially, contrary to the existing researches, in order to verify the characteristics of Gyeonggi-do Cultural Contents Business Incubating Center, the personal support service and marketing support service were included. It also aimed to understand the effects of the business validity of start-up items on corporate performance. Summarizing the results of this study, contrary to the results of the existing researches saying that spatial & additional support service, management support service, technical support service, personal support service, and marketing support service had significant effects on corporate performance, among the support service of Gyeonggi-do cultural contents area Business Incubating Center, the spatial & additional support service, personal support service, and marketing support service had significantly positive(+) effects on corporate performance while the management support service and technical support service had no significant effects on it. Comparing with the results of the researches on the support service of Business Incubating Center(BI) of Small & Medium Business Administration, the effects of the management support service and technical support service of Gyeonggi-do cultural contents area Business Incubating Center on corporate financial/non-financial performance were not huge. Also, in the results of analyzing the business validity of star-up items, the spatial & additional support service, management support service, and technical support service did not have significant effects on the business validity of start-up items while the personal support service and marketing support service had significantly positive(+) effects on it. In case when selecting companies, Gyeonggi-do Business Incubating Center emphasized the business validity of start-up items. However, the support service provided after the selection did not have huge effects on the business validity of start-up items. Lastly, in the results of analyzing the effects of the business validity of start-up items in Gyeonggi-do cultural contents area on corporate performance, among the success factors of business start-up, the business validity of start-up items was an important element having effects on corporate performance(financial/non-financial) in the cultural contents area.

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