• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.221-257
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• 2020

This study examined whether popular music lyrics, the new research topic, reflect changes in Koreans' cultural orientation and whether individuals' cultural orientation is related to the genre of popular music that they prefer. In Study 1, we content analyzed popular music lyrics from 1980 to 2018 to see if Koreans' cultural orientations changed over time. The analysis showed that as the release dates approached the 2010s, the lyrics expressed the ideal attitudes of individualist cultures more frequently than those of collectivist cultures; this suggests that Koreans have gradually become more individualistic over time. In Study 2, we examined the relationships between individuals' cultural orientations, preferences for various genres of popular music, and functions of music. The analysis showed that people with more collectivistic attitudes tended to prefer mid- and low-arousal music, such as Ballads and Rap/Hiphop, while those with less collectivistic attitudes preferred high-arousal music, such as Rock/Metal. This result is partly consistent with the hypothesis that collectivistic people would prefer lower to higher arousal music. In addition, our analysis showed the strongest positive relationship between collectivism and the social function of music; this result can be interpreted as indicating that collectivistic people use music to maintain good interpersonal relationships. This paper concludes by discussing the implications of these findings, the limitations of this study, and directions for further research.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.393-417
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• 2022

The current study analyzes the usage of social network services(SNS) according to one's collectivistic and individualistic tendency and the relationship with addiction. Additionally, the study attempted to controll intrapersonal variables such as gender, personalitly, and age, which affect SNS the usage. Also, Collectivistic-individualistic tendency in SNS and offline environment may not correspond to one another. Therefore, the study measured the collectivistic-individualistic tendency regarding of the two environment separately. For this purpose, we designed a new measurement scale to measure collectivistic-individualistic tendencies in for the SNS by involving a kin vs nonkin context. The sample consisted of 253 adolescents ranging from 13 to 15 years old and 246 adults ranging from 18 to 25 years old, which sums up to 499 samples in total. Results indicated that individualistic tendency within SNS showed a positive relationship with the amount of SNS usage and SNS addiction. Furthermore, female users spent more time on SNS and showed a higher level addiction than males. While adults had longer experience with SNS and spent more time on it daily than adolescents, they did not show a significant difference in regards to SNS addiction. The correlation analysis indicated that collectivistic-individualistic tendencies in SNS were weakly correlated to that of offline environments. The kin individualistic tendency in SNS significantly predicted SNS addiction after controlling for the effect of age, personality, gender, and offline collectivistic-individualistic tendency. Taken together, these findings indicate the need for an appropriate collectivistic-individualist tendency scale that correspond to the SNS context. The results also suggest that kin individualistic tendency in the SNS environment can be the main factor for SNS addiction.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.191-201
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• 2023

The provision of onboard Internet services is recognized as one of the measures to enhance the appeal of seafarers and improve seafarer welfare. This study aims to investigate the influence of seafarers' leisure activities using the Internet on shipboard culture. Shipboard culture was examined using Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory. An empirical analysis was conducted on crewmembers regarding their Internet-based leisure activities and the shipboard culture. As a result, it was observed that sociability activities through the Internet while onboard significantly influenced power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term orientation. The investigation of shipboard culture revealed uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, and long-term orientation, along with low power distance and individualism cultures. In addition, an analysis of shipboard culture according to seafarers' characteristics showed significant differences in certain shipboard cultures based on seafarers' attributes.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.177-203
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• 2014

It is well known that personality and situation which person possess have an impact on the relationships between stress coping and psychological wellbeing. Although most of studies on cultural self-construal have used the concept of individual/collectivism (independent/interdependent) scale, a part of research showed that it was not similar results when the concepts were used with Korean samples. We applied new scale, subjective-objective self, to our study. Two hundred eighty three participants (M = 21.66) participated in the present research. We found that persons with higher subjective self used more problem solving and seeking help, and less denial coping methods. Next, the higher subjective self influenced happiness and interpersonal relationship satisfaction. Finally, the coping methods of problem solving and seeking help influenced more happiness and interpersonal relationship satisfaction among people with higher objective self than did among people with higher subjective self. The implication for study were discussed.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.41-66
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• 2005

The goal of this study was to investigate factors influencing North Korea defectors's psychological alienation by comparing South Koreans and North Korean defectors in the sense of values, lifestyles, attribution styles and stereotypes. To pursue this goal, a questionnaire was distributed to 143 South Koreans and 99 North Korean defectors, According to results, in comparison with South Koreans, North Korean defectors placed more values on 'nation' than 'individual or family', on the 'support of parents' than 'a great success', In the lifestyles, the North Korean defectors than South Koreans put higher significance in 'traditional familism', 'traditional collectivism', 'social consciousness', and 'traditional hierarchy'. As for stereotypes, South Korean people considered the North Korean defectors defiant, critical, egoistic, and competitive people. Also, South Koreans perceived North Korean defectors as more negatively than North Korean defectors did themselves. In case of alienation, North Korean defectors reported that their workplace was the most common place where they were alienated. As a result of investigating factors investigating the North Korean defectors' alienation, it showed that 'affluent life' in their values, 'cultural openness' in the lifestyles, and 'inside attribution' in the attribution styles were critical. Finally, it discussed limitations of the present study and the research required in the future.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.5-16
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• 2009

Against the backdrop of the increasing trend towards economic globalisation, many international firms are indicating that decisions on how to enter foreign markets remains one of the key strategic challenges confronting them. Despite the rich body of literature on the topic, the fact that these challenges have continued to dominate global marketing strategy discourses point to someevident lacunae. Accordingly, this paper considers the variables, categorised in terms of firm contexts (standardisation, market research, competition, structure, competitive advantage) and host country-contexts (economic development, cultural differences, regulation and political risk), which influence the degree of involvement of UK companies in overseas markets. Following hypotheses were drawn from literature review: H1: The greater the level of competition, the higher the degree of involvement in the overseas market. H2: The more centralised the firm's organisation structure, the higher the degree of involvement in the overseas market. H3a: The adoption of a low cost-approach to competitive advantage will lead to a higher degree of involvement. H3b: The adoption of an innovation-approach to competitive advantage will lead to a higher degree of involvement. H3c: The adoption of a market research approach to competitive advantages will lead to a higher degree of involvement. H3d: The adoption of a breadth of strategic target-approach to competitive advantage will lead to a lower degree of involvement. H4: The higher the degree of standardisation of the international marketing mix the higher the degree of involvement. H5: The greater the degree of economic development in the host market, the higher the degree of involvement. H6: The greater the cultural differences between home and host countries, the lower the degree of involvement. H7: The greater the difference in regulations between the home country and the host country, the lower the degree of involvement. H8: The higher the political risk in the host country, the lower the degree of involvement. A questionnaire instrument was constructed using, wherever possible, validated measures of the concepts to serve the aims of this study. Following two sets of mailings, 112 usable completed questionnaires were returned. Correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis were used to analyze data. Statistically, the paper suggests that factors relating to the level of competition, competitive advantages and economic development are strong in influencing foreign market involvements. On the other hand, unexpectedly, cultural factors (especially individualism/collectivism and low and high power distance dimensions) proved to have weak moderating effects. The reason for this, in part, is due to the pervading forces of globalisation and the attendant effect on global marketing. This paper has contributed to the general literature in a way that point to two mainimplications. First, with respect to research on national systems, the study may hold out some important lessons especially for developing nations. Most of these nations are known to be actively seeking to understand what it takes to attract foreign direct investment, expand domestic market and move their economies from the margin to the mainstream global economy. Second, it should be realised that competitive conditions remain in constant flux (even in mature industries and mature economies). This implies that a range of home country factors may be as important as host country factors in explaining firms' strategic moves and the degree of foreign market involvement. Further research can consider the impact of the home country environment on foreign market involvement decisions. Such an investigation will potentially provide further perspectives not only on the influence of national origin but also how home country effects are confounded with industry effects.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.113-145
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• 2009

Recently, due to the globalization of the IT(Information Technology) market, devices and systems designed in one country are used in other countries as well. This phenomenon is becoming the key factor for increased interest on cross-cultural, or cross-national, research within the IT area. However, as the IT market is becoming bigger and more globalized, a great number of IT practitioners are having difficulty in designing and developing devices or systems which can provide optimal experience. This is because not only tangible factors such as language and a country's economic or industrial power affect the user experience of a certain device or system but also invisible and intangible factors as well. Among such invisible and intangible factors, the cultural characteristics of users from different countries may affect the user experience of certain devices or systems because cultural characteristics affect how they understand and interpret the devices or systems. In other words, when users evaluate the quality of overall user experience, the cultural characteristics of each user act as a perceptual lens that leads the user to focus on a certain elements of experience. Therefore, there is a need within the IT field to consider cultural characteristics when designing or developing certain devices or systems and plan a strategy for localization. In such an environment, existing IS studies identify the culture with the country, emphasize the importance of culture in a national level perspective, and hypothesize that users within the same country have same cultural characteristics. Under such assumptions, these studies focus on the moderating effects of cultural characteristics on a national level within a certain theoretical framework. This has already been suggested by cross-cultural studies conducted by scholars such as Hofstede(1980) in providing numerical research results and measurement items for cultural characteristics and using such results or items as they increase the efficiency of studies. However, such national level culture has its limitations in forecasting and explaining individual-level behaviors such as voluntary device or system usage. This is because individual cultural characteristics are the outcome of not only the national culture but also the culture of a race, company, local area, family, and other groups that are formulated through interaction within the group. Therefore, national or nationally dominant cultural characteristics may have its limitations in forecasting and explaining the cultural characteristics of an individual. Moreover, past studies in psychology suggest a possibility that there exist different cultural characteristics within a single individual depending on the subject being measured or its context. For example, in relation to individual vs. collective characteristics, which is one of the major cultural characteristics, an individual may show collectivistic characteristics when he or she is with family or friends but show individualistic characteristics in his or her workplace. Therefore, this study acknowledged such limitations of past studies and conducted a research within the framework of 'theoretically integrated model of user satisfaction and emotional attachment', which was developed through a former study, on how the effects of different experience elements on emotional attachment or user satisfaction are differentiated depending on the individual cultural characteristics related to a system or device usage. In order to do this, this study hypothesized the moderating effects of four cultural dimensions (uncertainty avoidance, individualism vs, collectivism, masculinity vs. femininity, and power distance) as suggested by Hofstede(1980) within the theoretically integrated model of emotional attachment and user satisfaction. Statistical tests were then implemented on these moderating effects through conducting surveys with users of four digital devices (mobile phone, MP3 player, LCD TV, and refrigerator) in three countries (US, Germany, and Russia). In order to explain and forecast the behavior of personal device or system users, individual cultural characteristics must be measured, and depending on the target device or system, measurements must be measured independently. Through this suggestion, this study hopes to provide new and useful perspectives for future IS research.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.43
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• pp.67-102
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to analyze the human rights found in the North Korean Constitution and their core problem by focusing on elements of human rights suggested by Daesoon Jinrihoe's doctrine of Haewon-sangsaeng (解冤相生 the Resolution of Grievances for Mutual Beneficence). Haewon-sangsaeng is seemingly the only natural law that could resolve human resentment lingering from the Mutual Contention of the Former World while leading humans work for the betterment of one another. Haewon-sangsaeng, as a natural law, includes the right to life, the right to autonomous decision-making, and duty to act according to human dignity (physical freedom, the freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of press, etc.), the right to equal treatment in one's social environment, and the right to ensure the highest level of health through treatment. The North Korean Constitution does not have a character as an institutional device to guarantee natural human rights, the fundamental principle of the Constitution, and stipulates the right of revolutionary warriors to defend dictators and dictatorships. The right to life is specified so that an individual's life belongs to the life of the group according to their socio-political theory of life. Rights to freedom are stipulated to prioritize group interests over individual interests in accordance with the principle of collectivism. The right to equality and the right to health justify discrimination through class discrimination. The right to life provided to North Koreans is not guaranteed due to the death penalty system found within the North Korean Criminal Code and the Criminal Code Supplementary Provisions. The North Korean regime deprives North Koreans of their right to die with dignity through public executions. The North Korean regime places due process under the direction of the Korea Worker's Party, recognizes religion as superstition or opium, and the Korea Worker's Party acknowledge the freedoms of bodily autonomy, religion, media, or press. North Koreans are classified according to their status, and their rights to equality are not guaranteed because they are forced to live a pre-modern lifestyle according to the patriarchal order. In addition, health rights are not guaranteed due biased availability selection and accessibility in the medical field as well as the frequent shortages of free treatments.

• Journal of Consumption Culture
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.143-169
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• 2012

Consumption is the most important cultural keyword in the modern society. This study tried an exploratory comparison of consumer culture of Korea, USA and Sweden in response to the needs on cultural comparison research perspective. Triandis's cultural dimensions were adopted to explore each country's cultural characteristics. A qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted to consumers who lived both in Korea and USA, or in Korea and Sweden, which enabled them to get familiar with each country's consumer culture. The research found that the culture is projected to the consumer culture in a micro domain. The individualism allowed consumers in USA and Sweden to be unconscious of other's eyes. But collectivism in Korea made Korean consumers locked in other's judgement. In contrast, in a macro domain of consumer culture such as donation and pro-environmental consumption, consumption practices were in a dissonance with their cultural orientation, where includes interaction with society and environment. In addition, in a post-materialistic society, symbolism of consumption goods gets weakened and experiential consumption evolves with a transition from mass consumption society to plural culture society. Lastly, consumer culture functions as a creative mechanism of new culture by consumer's reflexive planning, which is one of the clues of an autonomous consumer culture. This study tried to explore the consumer culture of Korea, USA and Sweden as an exploratory trial for the comparison of consumer cultures. To increase empirical consumer culture study, refined questionnaire item pool is to be extracted through various exploratory researches, which can be utilized commonly in various cultures. Moreover, an additional research is in need about a consumer culture in a macro domain and experiential consumer culture in a post-materialism society.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.101-118
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• 2019

Alexithymia refers to a psychological deficit of identifying and describing one's feelings. It has benn reported that the level of alexithymia of East-Asians is generally higher than that of Western Europeans. Recently one research conducted in U.S. suggested that the interdependent self-construal from East-Asians' collectivism culture might be a cause of this cross-cultural difference. In the current study, we examined the relationship between the level of independent and interdependent self-construal of Korean college students and their level of alexithymia, as well as their ambivalence over emotional expressiveness and emotion suppression. The correlation analysis shows that the Korean students' alexithymia level does not correlate with their level of interdependent self-construal, but negatively correlates with their level of independent self-construal. Moreover, it is also correlated with the level of ambivalence over emotional expressiveness(AEE) and emotion suppression(ES). Thus, we setup a double-mediation model between the deficiency of independent self-construal and alexithymia via AEE and ES, and estimate mediation effects using Hayes and Preacher(2014)s' Process analysis. The results show that the deficiency of independent self-construal has a direct effect as well as indirect effects of AEE and ES on the alexithymia level. Further analysis on the indirect effects reveals that the mediation effect of AEE and the double mediation effect of ES via AEE are significant, but the mediation effect of ES is not significant. Current results imply that the interdependent self-construal from the traditional collectivistic culture may not cause Korean college students' problems on the emotional expression, but the relatively lower independent self-construal may cause them. The deficiency of independent self-constural may raise up the level of self-defensive ambivalence over emotional expressiveness and suppress emotional expression by themselves, which can result in alexithymia.