• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.141-173
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• 2007

The study examines how the environmental factors of store influence service brand personality and repurchase intention in the service environment. The service industry has been experiencing the intensified competition with the industry's continuous growth and the influence from rapid technological advancement. Under the circumstances, it has become ever more important for the brand competitiveness to be distinctively recognized against competition. A brand needs to be distinguished and differentiated from competing companies because they are all engaged in the similar environment of the service industry. The differentiation of brand achievement has become increasingly important to highlight certain brand functions to include emotional, self-expressive, and symbolic functions since the importance of such functions has been further emphasized in promoting consumption activities. That is the recent role of brand personality that has been emphasized in the service industry. In other words, customers now freely and actively express their personalities or egos in consumption activities, taking an important role in construction of a brand asset. Hence, the study suggests that it is necessary to disperse the recognition and acknowledgement that the maintenance of the existing customers contributes more to boost repurchase intention when it is compared to the efforts to create new customers, particularly in the service industry. Meanwhile, the store itself can offer a unique environment that may influence the consumer's purchase decision. Consumers interact with store environments in the process of,virtually, all household purchase they make (Sarel 1981). Thus, store environments may encourage customers to purchase. The roles that store environments play are to provide informational cues to customers about the store and goods and communicate messages to stimulate consumers' emotions. The store environments differentiate the store from competing stores and build a unique service brand personality. However, the existing studies related to brand in the service industry mostly concentrated on the relationship between the quality of service and customer satisfaction, and they are mostly generalized while the connective studies focused on brand personality. Such approaches show limitations and are insufficient to investigate on the relationship between store environment and brand personality in the service industry. Accordingly, the study intends to identify the level of contribution to the establishment of brand personality made by the store's physical environments that influence on the specific brand characteristics depending on the type of service. The study also intends to identify what kind of relationships with brand personality exists with brand personality while being influenced by store environments. In addition, the study intends to make meaningful suggestions to better direct marketing efforts by identifying whether a brand personality makes a positive influence to induce an intention for repurchase. For this study, the service industry is classified into four categories based on to the characteristics of service: experimental-emotional service, emotional -credible service, credible-functional service, and functional-experimental service. The type of business with the most frequent customer contact is determined for each service type and the enterprise with the highest brand value in each service sector based on the report made by the Korea Management Association. They are designated as the representative of each category. The selected representatives are a fast-food store (experimental-emotional service), a cinema house (emotional-credible service), a bank (credible-functional service), and discount store (functional-experimental service). The survey was conducted for the four selected brands to represent each service category among consumers who are experienced users of the designated stores in Seoul Metropolitan City and Gyeonggi province via written questionnaires in order to verify the suggested assumptions in the study. In particular, the survey adopted 15 scales, which represent each characteristic factor, among the 42 unique characteristics developed by Jennifer Aaker(1997) to assess the brand personality of each service brand. SPSS for Windows Release 12.0 and LISREL were used in the analysis of data verification. The methodology of the structural equation model was used for the study and the pivotal findings are as follows. 1) The environmental factors ware classified as design factors, ambient factors, and social factors. Therefore, the validity of measurement scale of Baker et al. (1994) was proved. 2) The service brand personalities were subdivided as sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness, which makes the use of the brand personality scales by Jennifer Aaker(1997) appropriate in the service industry as well. 3) One-way ANOVA analysis on the scales of store environment and service brand personality showed that there exist statistically significant differences in each service category. For example, the social factors were highest in discount stores, while the ambient factors and design factors were highest in fast-food stores. The discount stores were highest in the sincerity and excitement, while the highest point for banks was in the competence and ruggedness, and the highest point for fast-food stores was in the sophistication, The consumers will make a different respond to the physical environment of stores and service brand personality that are inherent to the corresponding service interface. Hence, the customers will make a different decision-making when dealing with different service categories. In this aspect, the relationships of variables in the proposed hypothesis appear to work in a different way depending on the exposed service category. 4) The store environment factors influenced on service brand personalities differently by category of service. The factors of store's physical environment are transferred to a brand and were verified to strengthen service brand personalities. In particular, the level of influence on the service brand personality by physical environment differs depending on service category or dimension, which indicates that there is a need to apply a different style of management to a different service category or dimension. It signifies that there needs to be a brand strategy established in order to positively influence the relationship with consumers by utilizing an appropriate brand personality factor depending on different characteristics by service category or dimension. 5) The service brand personalities influenced on the repurchase intention. Especially, the largest influence was made in the sophistication dimension of service brand personality scale; the unique and characteristically appropriate arrangement of physical environment will make customers stay in the service environment for a long time and will lead to give a positive influence on the repurchase intention. 6) The store environment factors influenced on the repurchase intention. Particularly, the largest influence was made on the social factors of store environment. The most intriguing finding is that the service factor among all other environment factors gives the biggest influence to the repurchase intention in most of all service types except fast-food stores. Such result indicates that the customers pay attention to how much the employees try to provide a quality service when they make an evaluation on the service brand. At the same time, it also indicates that the personal factor is directly transmitted to the construction of brand personality. The employees' attitude and behavior are the determinants to establish a service brand personality in the process of enhancing service interface. Hence, there should be a reinforced search for a method to efficiently manage the service staff who has a direct contact with customers in order to make an affirmative improvement of the customers' brand evaluation at the service interface. The findings suggest several managerial implications. 1) Results from the empirical study indicated that store environment factors have a strong positive impact on a service brand personality. To increase customers' repurchase intention of a service brand, the management is required to effectively manage store environment factors and create a friendly brand personality based on the corresponding service environment. 2) Mangers and researchers must understand and recognize that the store environment elements are important marketing tools, and that brand personality influences on consumers' repurchase intention. Based on such result of the study, a service brand could be utilized as an efficient measure to achieve a differentiation by enforcing the elements that are most influential among all other store environments for each service category. Therefore, brand personality established involving various store environments will further reinforce the relationship with customers through the elevated brand identification of which utilization to induce repurchase decision can be used as an entry barrier. 3) The study identified the store environment as a component of service brand personality for the store's effective communication with consumers. For this, all communication channels should be maintained with consistency and an integrated marketing communication should be executed to efficiently approach to a larger number of customers. Mangers and researchers must find strategies for aligning decisions about store environment elements with the retailers' marketing and store personality objectives. All ambient, design, and social factors need to be orchestrated so that consumers can take an appropriate store personality. In this study, the induced results from the previous studies were extended to the service industry so as to identify the customers' decision making process that leads to repurchase intention and a result similar to those of the previous studies. The findings suggested several theoretical and managerial implications. However, the situation that only one service brand served as the subject of analysis for each service category, and the situation that correlations among store environment elements were not identified, as well as the problem of representation in selection of samples should be considered and supplemented in the future when further studies are conducted. In addition, various antecedents and consequences of brand personality must be looked at in the aspect of the service environment for further research.

• Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.3361-3394
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• 1974

The purpose of this thesis is to disclose some characteristics of water consumption in relation to the quantities of dry matters through the growing period for two statured varieties of paddy rice which are a tall statured variety and a short one, including the water consumption during seedling period, and to find out the various coefficients of evapotranspiration that are applicable for the water use of an expected yield of the two varieties. PAL-TAL, a tall statured variety, and TONG-lL, a short statured variety were chosen for this investigation. Experiments were performed in two consecutive periods, a seedling period and a paddy field period, In the investigation of seedling period, rectangular galvanized iron evapotranspirometers (91cm${\times}$85cm${\times}$65cm) were set up in a way of two levels (PAL-TAL and TONG-lL varieties) with two replications. A standard fertilization method was applied to all plots. In the experiment of paddy field period, evapotanspiration and evaporation were measured separately. For PAL-TAL variety, the evapotranspiration measurements of 43 plots of rectangular galvanized iron evapotranspirometer (91cm${\times}$85cm${\times}$65cm) and the evaporation measurements of 25 plots of rectangular galvanized iron evaporimeter (91cm${\times}$85cm${\times}$15cm) have been taken for seven years (1966 through 1972), and for TONG-IL variety, the evapotranspiration measurements of 19 plots and the evaporation measurements of 12 plots have been collected for two years (1971 through 1972) with five different fertilization levels. The results obtained from this investigation are summarized as follows: 1. Seedling period 1) The pan evaporation and evapotranspiration during seedling period were proved to have a highly significant correlation to solar radiation, sun shine hours and relative humidity. But they had no significant correlation to average temperature, wind velocity and atmospheric pressure, and were appeared to be negatively correlative to average temperature and wind velocity, and positively correlative to the atmospheric pressure, in a certain period. There was the highest significant correlation between the evapotranspiration and the pan evaporation, beyond all other meteorological factors considered. 2) The evapotranpiration and its coefficient for PAL-TAL variety were 194.5mm and 0.94∼1.21(1.05 in average) respectively, while those for TONG-lL variety were 182.8mm and 0.90∼1.10(0.99 in average) respectively. This indicates that the evapotranspiration for TONG-IL variety was 6.2% less than that for PAL-TAL variety during a seedling period. 3) The evapotranspiration ratio (the ratio of the evapotranspiration to the weight of dry matters) during the seedling period was 599 in average for PAL-TAL variety and 643 for TONG-IL variety. Therefore the ratio for TONG-IL was larger by 44 than that for PAL-TAL variety. 4) The K-values of Blaney and Criddle formula for PAL-TAL variety were 0.78∼1.06 (0.92 in average) and for TONG-lL variety 0.75∼0.97 (0.86 in average). 5) The evapotranspiration coefficient and the K-value of B1aney and Criddle formular for both PAL-TAL and TONG-lL varieties showed a tendency to be increasing, but the evapotranspiration ratio decreasing, with the increase in the weight of dry matters. 2. Paddy field period 1) Correlation between the pan evaporation and the meteorological factors and that between the evapotranspiration and the meteorological factors during paddy field period were almost same as that in case of the seedling period (Ref. to table IV-4 and table IV-5). 2) The plant height, in the same level of the weight of dry matters, for PAL-TAL variety was much larger than that for TONG-IL variety, and also the number of tillers per hill for PAL-TAL variety showed a trend to be larger than that for TONG-IL variety from about 40 days after transplanting. 3) Although there was a tendency that peak of leaf-area-index for TONG-IL variety was a little retarded than that for PAL-TAL variety, it appeared about 60∼80 days after transplanting. The peaks of the evapotranspiration coefficient and the weight of dry matters at each growth stage were overlapped at about the same time and especially in the later stage of growth, the leaf-area-index, the evapotranspiration coefficient and the weight of dry matters for TONG-IL variety showed a tendency to be larger then those for PAL-TAL variety. 4) The evaporation coefficient at each growth stage for TONG-IL and PAL-TALvarieties was decreased and increased with the increase and decrease in the leaf-area-index, and the evaporation coefficient of TONG-IL variety had a little larger value than that of PAL-TAL variety. 5) Meteorological factors (especially pan evaporation) had a considerable influence to the evapotranspiration, the evaporation and the transpiration. Under the same meteorological conditions, the evapotranspiration (ET) showed a increasing logarithmic function of the weight of dry matters (x), while the evaporation (EV) a decreasing logarithmic function of the weight of dry matters; 800kg/10a x 2000kg/10a, ET=al+bl logl0x (bl>0) EV=a2+b2 log10x (a2>0 b2<0) At the base of the weight of total dry matters, the evapotranspiration and the evaporation for TONG-IL variety were larger as much as 0.3∼2.5% and 7.5∼8.3% respectively than those of PAL-TAL variety, while the transpiration for PAL-TAL variety was larger as much as 1.9∼2.4% than that for TONG-IL variety on the contrary. At the base of the weight of rough rices the evapotranspiration and the transpiration for TONG-IL variety were less as much as 3.5% and 8.l∼16.9% respectively than those for PAL-TAL variety and the evaporation for TONG-IL was much larger by 11.6∼14.8% than that for PAL-TAL variety. 6) The evapotranspiration coefficient, the evaporation coefficient and the transpiration coefficient and the transpiration coefficient were affected by the weight of dry matters much more than by the meteorological conditions. The evapotranspiratioa coefficient (ETC) and the evaporation coefficient (EVC) can be related to the weight of dry matters (x) by the following equations: 800kg/10a x 2000kg/10a, ETC=a3+b3 logl0x (b3>0) EVC=a4+b4 log10x (a4>0, b4>0) At the base of the weights of dry matters, 800kg/10a∼2000kg/10a, the evapotranspiration coefficients for TONG-IL variety were 0.968∼1.474 and those for PAL-TAL variety, 0.939∼1.470, the evaporation coefficients for TONG-IL variety were 0.504∼0.331 and those for PAL-TAL variety, 0.469∼0.308, and the transpiration coefficients for TONG-IL variety were 0.464∼1.143 and those for PAL-TAL variety, 0.470∼1.162. 7) The evapotranspiration ratio, the evaporation ratio (the ratio of the evaporation to the weight of dry matters) and the transpiration ratio were highly affected by the meteorological conditions. And under the same meteorological condition, both the evapotranspiration ratio (ETR) and the evaporation ratio (EVR) showed to be a decreasing logarithmic function of the weight of dry matters (x) as follows: 800kg/10a x 2000kg/10a, ETR=a5+b5 logl0x (a5>0, b5<0) EVR=a6+b6 log10x (a6>0 b6<0) In comparison between TONG-IL and PAL-TAL varieties, at the base of the pan evaporation of 343mm and the weight of dry matters of 800∼2000kg/10a, the evapotranspiration ratios for TONG-IL variety were 413∼247, while those for PAL-TAL variety, 404∼250, the evaporation ratios for TONG-IL variety were 197∼38 while those for PAL-TAL variety, 182∼34, and the transpiration ratios for TONG-IL variety were 216∼209 while those for PAL-TAL variety, 222∼216 (Ref. to table IV-23, table IV-25 and table IV-26) 8) The accumulative values of evapotranspiration intensity and transpiration intensity for both PAL-TAL and TONG-IL varieties were almost constant in every climatic year without the affection of the weight of dry matters. Furthermore the evapotranspiration intensity appeared to have more stable at each growth stage. The peaks of the evapotranspiration intensity and transpiration intensity, for both TONG-IL and PAL-TAL varieties, appeared about 60∼70 days after transplanting, and the peak value of the former was 128.8${\pm}$0.7, for TONG-IL variety while that for PAL-TAL variety, 122.8${\pm}$0.3, and the peak value of the latter was 152.2${\pm}$1.0 for TONG-IL variety while that for PAL-TAL variety, 152.7${\pm}$1.9 (Ref.to table IV-27 and table IV-28) 9) The K-value in Blaney & Criddle formula was changed considerably by the meteorological condition (pan evaporation) and related to be a increasing logarithmic function of the weight of dry matters (x) for both PAL-TAL and TONG-L varieties as follows; 800kg/10a x 2000kg/10a, K=a7+b7 logl0x (b7>0) The K-value for TONG-IL variety was a little larger than that for PAL-TAL variety. 10) The peak values of the evapotranspiration coefficient and k-value at each growth stage for both TONG-IL and PAL-TAL varieties showed up about 60∼70 days after transplanting. The peak values of the former at the base of the weights of total dry matters, 800∼2000kg/10a, were 1.14∼1.82 for TONG-IL variety and 1.12∼1.80, for PAL-TAL variety, and at the base of the weights of rough rices, 400∼1000 kg/10a, were 1.11∼1.79 for TONG-IL variety and 1.17∼1.85 for PAL-TAL variety. The peak values of the latter, at the base of the weights of total dry matters, 800∼2000kg/10a, were 0.83∼1.39 for TONG-IL variety and 0.86∼1.36 for PAL-TAL variety and at the base of the weights of rough rices, 400∼1000kg/10a, 0.85∼1.38 for TONG-IL variety and 0.87∼1.40 for PAL-TAL variety (Ref. to table IV-18 and table IV-32) 11) The reasonable and practicable methods that are applicable for calculating the evapotranspiration of paddy rice in our country are to be followed the following priority a) Using the evapotranspiration coefficients based on an expected yield (Ref. to table IV-13 and table IV-18 or Fig. IV-13). b) Making use of the combination method of seasonal evapotranspiration coefficient and evapotranspiration intensity (Ref. to table IV-13 and table IV-27) c) Adopting the combination method of evapotranspiration ratio and evapotranspiration intensity, under the conditions of paddy field having a higher level of expected yield (Ref. to table IV-23 and table IV-27). d) Applying the k-values calculated by Blaney-Criddle formula. only within the limits of the drought year having the pan evaporation of about 450mm during paddy field period as the design year (Ref. to table IV-32 or Fig. IV-22).

• Korean small business review
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.67-93
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• 2009

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relations between financial constraints and dividend smoothing of innovative small and medium sized enterprises(SMEs) listed on Korea Securities Market and Kosdaq Market of Korea Exchange. The innovative SMEs is defined as the firms with high level of R&D intensity which is measured by (R&D investment/total sales) ratio, according to Chauvin and Hirschey (1993). The R&D investment plays an important role as the innovative driver that can increase the future growth opportunity and profitability of the firms. Therefore, the R&D investment have large, positive, and consistent influences on the market value of the firm. In this point of view, we expect that the innovative SMEs can adjust dividend payment faster than the noninnovative SMEs, on the ground of their future growth opportunity and profitability. And also, we expect that the financial unconstrained firms can adjust dividend payment faster than the financial constrained firms, on the ground of their financing ability of investment funds through the market accessibility. Aivazian et al.(2006) exert that the financial unconstrained firms with the high accessibility to capital market can adjust dividend payment faster than the financial constrained firms. We collect the sample firms among the total SMEs listed on Korea Securities Market and Kosdaq Market of Korea Exchange during the periods from January 1999 to December 2007 from the KIS Value Library database. The total number of firm-year observations of the total sample firms throughout the entire period is 5,544, the number of firm-year observations of the dividend firms is 2,919, and the number of firm-year observations of the non-dividend firms is 2,625. About 53%(or 2,919) of these total 5,544 observations involve firms that make a dividend payment. The dividend firms are divided into two groups according to the R&D intensity, such as the innovative SMEs with larger than median of R&D intensity and the noninnovative SMEs with smaller than median of R&D intensity. The number of firm-year observations of the innovative SMEs is 1,506, and the number of firm-year observations of the noninnovative SMEs is 1,413. Furthermore, the innovative SMEs are divided into two groups according to level of financial constraints, such as the financial unconstrained firms and the financial constrained firms. The number of firm-year observations of the former is 894, and the number of firm-year observations of the latter is 612. Although all available firm-year observations of the dividend firms are collected, deletions are made in the case of financial industries such as banks, securities company, insurance company, and other financial services company, because their capital structure and business style are widely different from the general manufacturing firms. The stock repurchase was involved in dividend payment because Grullon and Michaely (2002) examined the substitution hypothesis between dividends and stock repurchases. However, our data structure is an unbalanced panel data since there is no requirement that the firm-year observations data are all available for each firms during the entire periods from January 1999 to December 2007 from the KIS Value Library database. We firstly estimate the classic Lintner(1956) dividend adjustment model, where the decision to smooth dividend or to adopt a residual dividend policy depends on financial constraints measured by market accessibility. Lintner model indicates that firms maintain stable and long run target payout ratio, and that firms adjust partially the gap between current payout rato and target payout ratio each year. In the Lintner model, dependent variable is the current dividend per share(DPS_t), and independent variables are the past dividend per share(DPS_t-1) and the current earnings per share(EPS_t). We hypothesized that firms adjust partially the gap between the current dividend per share(DPS_t) and the target payout ratio(Ω) each year, when the past dividend per share(DPS_t-1) deviate from the target payout ratio(Ω). We secondly estimate the expansion model that extend the Lintner model by including the determinants suggested by the major theories of dividend, namely, residual dividend theory, dividend signaling theory, agency theory, catering theory, and transactions cost theory. In the expansion model, dependent variable is the current dividend per share(DPS_t), explanatory variables are the past dividend per share(DPS_t-1) and the current earnings per share(EPS_t), and control variables are the current capital expenditure ratio(CEA_t), the current leverage ratio(LEV_t), the current operating return on assets(ROA_t), the current business risk(RISK_t), the current trading volume turnover ratio(TURN_t), and the current dividend premium(DPREM_t). In these control variables, CEA_t, LEV_t, and ROA_t are the determinants suggested by the residual dividend theory and the agency theory, ROA_t and RISK_t are the determinants suggested by the dividend signaling theory, TURN_t is the determinant suggested by the transactions cost theory, and DPREM_t is the determinant suggested by the catering theory. Furthermore, we thirdly estimate the Lintner model and the expansion model by using the panel data of the financial unconstrained firms and the financial constrained firms, that are divided into two groups according to level of financial constraints. We expect that the financial unconstrained firms can adjust dividend payment faster than the financial constrained firms, because the former can finance more easily the investment funds through the market accessibility than the latter. We analyzed descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation, and median to delete the outliers from the panel data, conducted one way analysis of variance to check up the industry-specfic effects, and conducted difference test of firms characteristic variables between innovative SMEs and noninnovative SMEs as well as difference test of firms characteristic variables between financial unconstrained firms and financial constrained firms. We also conducted the correlation analysis and the variance inflation factors analysis to detect any multicollinearity among the independent variables. Both of the correlation coefficients and the variance inflation factors are roughly low to the extent that may be ignored the multicollinearity among the independent variables. Furthermore, we estimate both of the Lintner model and the expansion model using the panel regression analysis. We firstly test the time-specific effects and the firm-specific effects may be involved in our panel data through the Lagrange multiplier test that was proposed by Breusch and Pagan(1980), and secondly conduct Hausman test to prove that fixed effect model is fitter with our panel data than the random effect model. The main results of this study can be summarized as follows. The determinants suggested by the major theories of dividend, namely, residual dividend theory, dividend signaling theory, agency theory, catering theory, and transactions cost theory explain significantly the dividend policy of the innovative SMEs. Lintner model indicates that firms maintain stable and long run target payout ratio, and that firms adjust partially the gap between the current payout ratio and the target payout ratio each year. In the core variables of Lintner model, the past dividend per share has more effects to dividend smoothing than the current earnings per share. These results suggest that the innovative SMEs maintain stable and long run dividend policy which sustains the past dividend per share level without corporate special reasons. The main results show that dividend adjustment speed of the innovative SMEs is faster than that of the noninnovative SMEs. This means that the innovative SMEs with high level of R&D intensity can adjust dividend payment faster than the noninnovative SMEs, on the ground of their future growth opportunity and profitability. The other main results show that dividend adjustment speed of the financial unconstrained SMEs is faster than that of the financial constrained SMEs. This means that the financial unconstrained firms with high accessibility to capital market can adjust dividend payment faster than the financial constrained firms, on the ground of their financing ability of investment funds through the market accessibility. Futhermore, the other additional results show that dividend adjustment speed of the innovative SMEs classified by the Small and Medium Business Administration is faster than that of the unclassified SMEs. They are linked with various financial policies and services such as credit guaranteed service, policy fund for SMEs, venture investment fund, insurance program, and so on. In conclusion, the past dividend per share and the current earnings per share suggested by the Lintner model explain mainly dividend adjustment speed of the innovative SMEs, and also the financial constraints explain partially. Therefore, if managers can properly understand of the relations between financial constraints and dividend smoothing of innovative SMEs, they can maintain stable and long run dividend policy of the innovative SMEs through dividend smoothing. These are encouraging results for Korea government, that is, the Small and Medium Business Administration as it has implemented many policies to commit to the innovative SMEs. This paper may have a few limitations because it may be only early study about the relations between financial constraints and dividend smoothing of the innovative SMEs. Specifically, this paper may not adequately capture all of the subtle features of the innovative SMEs and the financial unconstrained SMEs. Therefore, we think that it is necessary to expand sample firms and control variables, and use more elaborate analysis methods in the future studies.