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A Servicism Model of the New Economy System (서비스주의 경제시스템의 구조와 운용 연구)

  • Hyunsoo Kim
    • Journal of Service Research and Studies
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    • v.11 no.1
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    • pp.1-20
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    • 2021
  • This study was conducted to derive a model of a sustainable economic system for humanity in the era of service economy that requires a paradigm shift. A new long-term sustainable development model has been built on the basis of thousands of years of economic operation experience. Currently, the world is operating the capitalism as the main economic system because there is no better alternative, and the changing economic and social environment such as the advent of the 4th Industrial Revolution is exacerbating the problems of the capitalism, such as job shortages and inequality. In this study, we analyzed the economic management system experienced by human society, and derived an economic system model that is ideal for the modern and future society and is sustainable in the long term. The conditions for a long-term sustainable economic system were presented first. It must be a model that can solve the problems of the current economic system. It must be a model that is faithful to the characteristics of the modern economic society and the nature of the economy itself. And since the new economic system is for humanity, it must be based on the common principles of human society. It should be a model that continuously guarantees core values such as equality and freedom required by human society. After analyzing the problems of the current economic system and analyzing the conditions required for the new system, the basic axioms that the new economic system should be based on were presented, and a desirable model was derived based on this. The structure of the derived model and the specific operation model were presented. In the future, research is needed to specify the operational model so that this model can be settled well in different environments for each country.

Contents of mercury, lead, cadmium, and arsenic in dried marine products (건포류의 수은, 납, 카드뮴 및 비소 함유량)

  • Ok, Hwang Young;Kim, Su Un;Ryu, Seung Hee;Ham, Hee Jin;Park, Gun Yong;Park, Seog Gee
    • Analytical Science and Technology
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    • v.22 no.4
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    • pp.336-344
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    • 2009
  • This survey was carried out to estimate the contents of heavy metals (Hg, Pb, Cd, and As) in 10 kinds of dried marine products (n=189) which are closely related to food resources. The contents of heavy metals were estimated by inductively coupled plasma spectrometer (ICP) and mercury analyzer. The values of heavy metals in dried marine products were as follows (Mean${\pm}$SD (range), mg/kg). The average contents of heavy metals in the dried marine products were Hg $0.058{\pm}0.069$ (0.002~0.502) mg/kg, Pb $0.178{\pm}0.598$ (ND~5.130) mg/kg, Cd $0.306{\pm}0.610$ (ND~6.802) mg/kg, As $5.282{\pm}6.158$ (ND~71.760) mg/kg. The range of heavy metal contents in dried marine products are low level, except of lead contents (n=2). In the comparison of heavy metal content by anchovy size, it was shown that cadmium, mercury and arsenic were meaningfully different. The contents of heavy metals by the shape of shrimp and Alaska Pollack were shown that the result of each group was meaningless. In the comparison imported production with domestic production, in the case of common squid, cadmium and arsenic were meaningfully different. The weekly average intakes of Hg, Pb and Cd from dried marine products takes about 1.17~11.52% of PTWI (Provisional Tolerable Weekly Intakes) that FAO/WHO Joint Food Additive and Contaminants Committee has set to evaluate their safeties.

A Study on the Environmental Instruction focused on ethical inquiry in elementary school (윤리적 탐구 중심의 초등 도덕과 환경수업)

  • Song, Youngmin
    • The Journal of Korean Philosophical History
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    • no.28
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    • pp.87-116
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    • 2010
  • In elementary, environmental education have been doing in various subjects. The features of environmental instruction would be reflected on contents of environmental education and characteristics of each subjects. These contents of environmental education might be contained normative contents, and it is moral subject that treats these normative contents systematically. Then environmental instruction of moral subject in elemental school should be approach and inquire teaching contents related to environment education. In elementary school curriculum of moral subject, teaching contents related to environment are 'preciousness of life' and 'right views of Nature and protection of the environment'. By these contents, moral instruction can approach to life of animal and plants centered on the reason to take them preciously and relation between nature and humans centered on the moral consideration. It is a difference that approaches to the environmental education not by factual understanding but by normative understanding in moral instruction. It must be focused on ethical inquiry for normative approach and reserving identity of moral subject. Necessary conditions for ethical inquiry to the environmental instruction are moral status of things besides humans. For the ethical inquiry to the moral status of nature environments, teachers could be set the logic of instruction based on the developments of environmental ethics. Formal cohesiveness of environmental instruction could be developed in sequence of ethical inquiry on moral status to the life of animal, life of plants, and whole system of nature. For this, teacher could reflect on their instruction focused on some explanations. That is, it is explanation to the animal life based on the individual-extended human oriented ethics for human, plants life based on the individual-non human oriented ethics, whole natural system based on the holistic-non human oriented ethics. When teachers reflect these explanation, they can compose their instruction as 'finding something in common with humans and animals', 'reflection on the attitude to the commons', 'thinking about reasons on the different attitudes to the commons', 'the things that disappear as plants die', 'thinking on values about non organism'. These plan of instruction could be critically reconstruct by other teachers. But environmental consciousness by ethical inquiry should be hold on instruction to the environment reflected on identity of moral subject.

A Comparative Study on the Ginseng Consumption Culture of College Consumers in Korea and China - Focused on Attitudes Toward Ginseng and Intention to Purchase it - (한국과 중국 소비자의 인삼 소비문화 비교 연구 -대학생 소비자의 인삼에 대한 태도와 구매 의도를 중심으로)

  • Siwuel Kim
    • Journal of Ginseng Culture
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    • v.6
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    • pp.135-151
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    • 2024
  • In order to compare the ginseng consumption culture of Korean and Chinese college students, their purchase status of ginseng products, attitudes toward ginseng, and satisfaction with ginseng products were examined, and the purchase and recommendation intention of ginseng products was investigated. It targeted 267 Korean college students and 318 Chinese college students who had experience eating ginseng products. As a result of the survey, in the case of Korean college student consumers, interest in ginseng products increased compared to before COVID-19, and the intention to purchase and recommend ginseng products increased. In addition, the higher the satisfaction with ginseng, the higher the frequency of ginseng purchase experience, the higher the social benefit attitude toward ginseng, and the higher the age, the higher the intention to purchase and recommend ginseng products. Chinese college student consumers had higher parental purchases than Korea, higher positive intentions to purchase and recommend social and psychological benefits, and their 20s are already more interested and friendly than Korea. What Korean college students and Chinese college student consumers have in common is that interest in health, safety, and environment has increased since before COVID-19, and interest in ginseng-related products has changed in individual experiences, indicating that individual experiences are important and Chinese college student consumers are influenced by parents. In particular, COVID-19 is an opportunity to recognize the importance of health, which is important to those in their 20s, and is actually related to purchase intention. Focusing on these results, it seems that expansion to preferred products for college student consumers and differentiation of marketing strategies according to family influence and consumption culture should be made, and these new changes due to COVID-19 seem to be a timely opportunity. At a time when interest in health and safety has increased, strategic preparations are needed for the future consumersociety to respond to changesin product diversity and convergence, changes in marketing media to meet consumer consumption values, and changesin consumer family types, such assingle households.

A Study of the Influencing Factors for Decision Making on Construction Contract Types : Focused on DoD Construction Acquisitions with Firm Fixed Price and Cost Reimbursable in FAR (건설공사 대가지급방식의 의사결정 영향요인에 관한 연구 - 미국 연방조달규정에 따른 미국 국방성의 정액계약과 실비정산계약을 중심으로 -)

  • Son, Young-Hoon;Kim, Kyung-Rai
    • Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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    • v.25 no.2
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    • pp.23-35
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    • 2024
  • This study analyzed the correlation between each of the 12 influencing factors in FAR 16.04 and the decision-making process for construction contract types, using data from a total of 2,406 DoD Construction Acquisitions spanning from 2008 to 2022. The study considered 12 independent variables, grouped into 4 Characteristics with 3 factors each. Meanwhile, all other contract types were categorized into two types: Firm-Fixed-Price (FFP) and Cost-Reimbursement Contract (CRC), which served as the dependent variables. The findings revealed that FFP contracts significantly dominated in terms of acquisition volume. In line with prevailing beliefs, logistic data analysis and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) analysis of Relative Weights from Experts' Survey demonstrated that independent variables like Uncertainty of the Scope of Work and Complexity found out to be increasing the likelihood of selecting CRC. The number of contractors in the market does indeed influence the possibilities of contract decision-making between CRC and FFP. Meanwhile, the p-values of the top 3 influencing factors on CRC from the AHP analysis-namely, Appropriateness of CAS, Project Urgency, and Cost Analysis-exceeded 0.05 in the binominal regression results, rendering it inconclusive whether they significantly influenced the construction contract type decision, particularly with respect to payment methods. This outcome partly results from the fact that a majority of respondents possessed specific experiences related to the USFK relocation project. Furthermore, influencing factors in construction projects behave differently than common beliefs suggest. As a result, it is imperative to consider the 12 influencing factors categorized into 4 Characteristics areas before establishing acquisition strategies for targeted construction projects.

The Cross-Cultural Study about Effects of Service Quality Dimensions on CS in Korea and China (할인점 서비스품질의 각 차원이 CS에 미치는 영향에 대한 한(韓).중(中)간 비교 문화적 연구)

  • Noh, Eun-Jeong;Seo, Yong-Goo
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.19 no.1
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    • pp.23-35
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    • 2009
  • A hypermarket as the one of the most globally standardized retailing format is also the type of store among various types of stores that the most active in expanding into other foreign markets. Recently, as several Korean retailing companies start to penetrate into Chinese market they differentiate themselves with modern facilities and customers service oriented high-end concept. China and Korea as Far East Asian countries share many common values, however precise and careful analysis should be carried out since there may also be critical differences in socio-economic aspects as well as in consumption patterns due to the level of development stages of retail industry among two countries. Even though precise and careful study is crucial on Chinese retailing market and consumers, none of researches and studies on 'how the quality of service dimensional structure is different between Korea and China', and 'what will be the most important and influential service dimensional factors for Chinese consuers compared to the hypermarkets customers in Korea' in order to improve the level of Chinese consumers satisfaction' have been fulfilled At this point of view, this study uses KD-SQS (Rho Eun Jung & Sir Yong Gu, 2008) which is a measure of Korean hypermarkets service quality to set up a hypothesis on Korean and Chinese consumers, and an empirical analysis is conducted. We try to get the answers about how the comparative importance of Service quality dimensions which decides the level of customer satisfaction is different depending on the cultural dimensions and socio-economic factors among two countries, Korea and China. Based upon the results, we try to give a valuable suggestion of what service dimensional factors should be reinforced to improve the level of CS in Chinese retailing market. Hypotheses for this study are as follows : H1. Each dimension of Service Quality significantly affects the level of CS H2. The effect of 'Basic Benefit' in service quality dimensions on the level of CS is greater in China than in Korea H3. The effect of 'Promotion' in service quality dimensions on the level of CS is greater in China than in Korea H4. The effect of 'Physical Aspects'in service quality dimensions on the level of CS is greater in Korea than in China. H5. The effect of 'Personal Interaction' in service quality dimensions on the level of CS is greater in China than in Korea H6. The effect of 'Policy' in service quality dimensions on the level of CS will be greater in Korean than in China H7. The effect of additional convenience in service quality dimensions on the level of CS will be greater in Korean than in China. More than 1,100 data were collected directly from the surveys of Chinese and Korean consumers in order to verify the hypotheses above. In Korea, stores which have floor space of over $9,000m^2$and opened later than year 2000 were selected for the samples, and thus Gayang, Wolgye, Sangbong, Eunpyeong, Suh-Suwon, Gojan stores and their customers were surveyed. In China, notable differences in the income levels and consumer behaviors between cities and regions were considered, and thus the research area was limited to the stores only in Shanghai. 6 stores which have the size of over $6,000m^2$ and opened later than 2000, such as Ruihong, Intu, Mudanjang, Sanrin, Raosimon, and Ranchao stores were selected for the survey. SPSS 12.0 and AMOS 7.0 were used as statistical tools, and exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and multi-group analysis were conducted. In order to carry out a multi group analysis that decides whether the structure variables which shows the different effects of 6 service dimensions in Korean and Chinese groups is statistically valid, configural invariance, metric invariance, and structural invariance are tested in order. At the results of the tests, 3 out of 7 hypotheses were supported and other 4 hypotheses were denied. According to the study, 4 dimensions (Basic Benefit, Physical Environment, Policy, and additional convenience) were positively correlated with CS in Korea, and 3 dimensions (i.e. basic benefit, policy, additional convenience) were significant in China. However, the significance of the service-dimensions was turned out to be partially different in Korea and China. The Basic Benefit is more influential in deciding the level of CS in china than Korea, however Physical Aspect is more important factor in Korea. 'Policy dimension' did not make significant difference between two countries. In the 'additional convenience dimension', the differences in 'socio-economic factors' than in'cultural background' were considered as more important in Chinese consumers than Korean. Overall, the improvement of Service quality will be crucial factors to increase the level of CS in Chinese market same as Korean market. In addition, more emphases need to be placed on the service qualities of 'Basic Benefit' and 'additional convenience' dimensions in China. In particular, 'low price' and 'product diversity' that constitute 'Basic Benefit' are proved to be comparatively disadvantageous and weak points of Korean companies compared to global players, and thus the prompt strengthening those dimensions would be urgent for Korean retailers. Moreover, additional conveniences such as various tenants and complex service and entertaining area will be more important in China than in Korea. Besides, Applying advanced Korean Hypermaret`s customer policy to Chinese consumers will help to get higher reliability and to differentiate themselves to other competitors. However, as personal interaction, physical aspect, promotions were proved as not significant for the level of CS in China, Korean companies need to reconsider the priority order of resource allocations when they tap into Chinese market.

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Business Relationships and Structural Bonding: A Study of American Metal Industry (산업재 거래관계와 구조적 결합: 미국 금속산업의 분석 연구)

  • Han, Sang-Lin;Kim, Yun-Tae;Oh, Chang-Yeob;Chung, Jae-Moon
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.18 no.3
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    • pp.115-132
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    • 2008
  • Metal industry is one of the most representative heavy industries and the median sales volume of steel and nonferrous metal companies is over one billion dollars in the case America [Forbes 2006]. As seen in the recent business market situation, an increasing number of industrial manufacturers and suppliers are moving from adversarial to cooperative exchange attitudes that support the long-term relationships with their customers. This article presents the results of an empirical study of the antecedent factors of business relationships in metal industry of the United States. Commitment has been reviewed as a significant and critical variable in research on inter-organizational relationships (Hong et al. 2007, Kim et al. 2007). The future stability of any buyer-seller relationship depends upon the commitment made by the interactants to their relationship. Commitment, according to Dwyer et al. [1987], refers to "an implicit or explicit pledge of relational continuity between exchange partners" and they consider commitment to be the most advanced phase of buyer-seller exchange relationship. Bonds are made because the members need their partners in order to do something and this integration on a task basis can be either symbiotic or cooperative (Svensson 2008). To the extent that members seek the same or mutually supporting ends, there will be strong bonds among them. In other words, the principle that affects the strength of bonds is 'economy of decision making' [Turner 1970]. These bonds provide an important idea to study the causes of business long-term relationships in a sense that organizations can be mutually bonded by a common interest in the economic matters. Recently, the framework of structural bonding has been used to study the buyer-seller relationships in industrial marketing [Han and Sung 2008, Williams et al. 1998, Wilson 1995] in that this structural bonding is a crucial part of the theoretical justification for distinguishing discrete transactions from ongoing long-term relationships. The major antecedent factors of buyer commitment such as technology, CLalt, transaction-specific assets, and importance were identified and explored from the perspective of structural bonding. Research hypotheses were developed and tested by using survey data from the middle managers in the metal industry. H1: Level of technology of the relationship partner is positively related to the level of structural bonding between the buyer and the seller. H2: Comparison level of alternatives is negatively related to the level of structural bonding between the buyer and the seller. H3: Amount of the transaction-specific assets is positively related to the level of structural bonding between the buyer and the seller. H4: Importance of the relationship partner is positively related to the level of structural bonding between the buyer and the seller. H5: Level of structural bonding is positively related to the level of commitment to the relationship. To examine the major antecedent factors of industrial buyer's structural bonding and long-term relationship, questionnaire was prepared, mailed out to the sample of 400 purchasing managers of the US metal industry (SIC codes 33 and 34). After a follow-up request, 139 informants returnedthe questionnaires, resulting in a response rate of 35 percent. 134 responses were used in the final analysis after dropping 5 incomplete questionnaires. All measures were analyzed for reliability and validity following the guidelines offered by Churchill [1979] and Anderson and Gerbing [1988]., the results of fitting the model to the data indicated that the hypothesized model provides a good fit to the data. Goodness-of-fit index (GFI = 0.94) and other indices ( chi-square = 78.02 with p-value = 0.13, Adjusted GFI = 0.90, Normed Fit Index = 0.92) indicated that a major proportion of variances and covariances in the data was accounted for by the model as a whole, and all the parameter estimates showed statistical significance as evidenced by large t-values. All the factor loadings were significantly different from zero. On these grounds we judged the hypothesized model to be a reasonable representation of the data. The results from the present study suggest several implications for buyer-seller relationships. Theoretically, we attempted to conceptualize the antecedent factors of buyer-seller long-term relationships from the perspective of structural bondingin metal industry. The four underlying determinants (i.e. technology, CLalt, transaction-specific assets, and importance) of structural bonding are very critical variables of buyer-seller long-term business relationships. Our model of structural bonding makes an attempt to systematically examine the relationship between the antecedent factors of structural bonding and long-term commitment. Managerially, this research provides industrial purchasing managers with a good framework to assess the interaction processes with their partners and, ability to position their business relationships from the perspective of structural bonding. In other words, based on those underlying variables, industrial purchasing managers can determine the strength of the company's relationships with the key suppliers and its state of preparation to be a successful partner with those suppliers. Both the supplying and customer companies can also benefit by using the concept of 'structural bonding' and evaluating their relationships with key business partners from the structural point of view. In general, the results indicate that structural bonding gives a critical impact on the level of relationship commitment. Managerial implications and limitations of the study are also discussed.

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Econometric Analysis on Factors of Food Demand in the Household : Comparative Study between Korea and Japan (가계 식품수요 요인의 계량분석 - 한국과 일본의 비교 -)

  • Jho, Kwang-Hyun
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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    • v.14 no.4
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    • pp.371-383
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    • 1999
  • This report gave analysis of food demand both in Korea and Japan through introducing the concept of cohort analysis to the conventional demand model. This research was done to clarify the factors which determine food demand of the household. The traits of the new model for demand analysis are to consider and quantify those effects on food demand not only of economic factors such as expenditure and price but also of non-economic factors such as the age and birth cohort of the householder. The results of the analysis can be summarized as follows: 1) The comparison of the item-wise elasticities of food demand demonstrates that the expenditure elasticity is higher in Korea than in Japan and that the expenditure elasticity is -0.1 for cereal and more than 1 for eating-out in both countries. In respect to price elasticity, the absolute values of all the items except alcohol and cooked food are higher in the Korea than in Japan, and especially the price elasticities of beverages, dairy products and fruit are predominantly higher in Japan. In this way, both expenditure and price elasticities of a large number of items are higher in Korea than in Japan, which may be explained from the fact that the level of expenditure is higher in Japan than in Korea. 2) In both of Korea and Japan, as the householder grows older, the expenditure for each item increases and the composition of expenditure changes in such a way that these moves may be regarded as due to the age effect. However, there are both similarities and differences in the details of such moves between Korea and Japan. Those two countries have this trait in common that the young age groups of the householder spend more on dairy products and middle age groups spend more on cake than other age groups. In the Korea, however, there can be seen a certain trend that higher age groups spend more on a large number of items, reflecting the fact that there are more two-generation families in higher age groups. Japan differs from Korea in that expenditure in Japan is diversified, depending upon the age group. For example, in Japan, middle age groups spend more on cake, cereal, high-caloric food like meat and eating-out while older age groups spend more for Japanese-style food like fish/shellfish and vegetable/seaweed, and cooked food. 3) The effect of the birth cohort effect was also demonstrated. The birth cohort effect was introduced under the supposition that the food circumstances under which the householder was born and brought up would determine the current expenditure. Thus, the following was made clear: older generations in both countries placed more emphasis upon stable food in their composition of food consumption; the share of livestock products, oil/fats and externalized food was higher in the food composition of younger generation; differences in food composition among generations were extremely large in Korea while they were relatively small in Japan; and Westernization and externalization of diet made rapid increases simultaneously with generation changes in Korea while they made any gradual increases in Japan during the same time period. 4) The four major factors which impact the long-term change of food demand of the household are expenditure, price, the age of the householder, and the birth cohort of the householder. Investigations were made as to which factor had the largest impact. As a result, it was found that the price effect was the smallest in both countries, and that the relative importance of the factor-by-factor effects differed among the two countries: in Korea the expenditure effect was greater than the effects of age and birth cohort while in Japan the effects of non-economic factors such as the age and birth cohort of householder were greater than those of economic factors such as expenditures.

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The Impact of e-Store Personality on e-Store Loyalty-Focus on the Mediating Role of Identification, Trust, and Engagement (온라인에서 점포 개성이 점포 충성도에 미치는 영향-동일시, 신뢰, 인게이지먼트의 매개 역할을 중심으로)

  • Park, Hyo-Hyun;Jung, Gang-Ok;Lee, Seung-Chang
    • Journal of Distribution Research
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    • v.16 no.2
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    • pp.57-94
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    • 2011
  • Nowadays, it is common that most consumers are purchasing goods in e-stores. The e-stores eager to attract, revisit, retain, and finally convert them into loyal customers. The e-store marketers have planned and executed numerous marketing efforts. As one of the marketing activities, e-store managers attempt to build web sites that meet customers' functional and psychological needs. A wide array of studies has been done to identify factors that could affect customers' response of web sites. Majority of studies were conducted to verify technology-related and functional variables of the website which facilitate transactions and enhance customer responses such as purchase intention and website loyalty. However, there has been little research on the external cues of website and psychological variables of consumer that could have positive influences on customer response. The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of e-store personality on e-store loyalty through mediating variables such as e-store identification, e-store trust, and e-store engagement. The authors of this study develop the model and set up the six main hypotheses and a set of sub-hypotheses based on a literature review, shown in

    . This model is composed of four paths such as dimensions of e-store personality${\rightarrow}$e-store identification, e-store identification${\rightarrow}$e-store loyalty, e-store identification ${\rightarrow}$e-store trust${\rightarrow}$e-store loyalty, and e-store identification${\rightarrow}$e-store engagement${\rightarrow}$e-store loyalty. II. Research Method Ladies under 30s were the respondents of this survey. Data were collected from January 20th to February 26th in 2010. A total of 200 questionnaires were distributed and 169 respondents were analysed finally to test hypotheses because 31 questionnaires had incorrect or missing responses. SPSS 12.0 and LISREL 7.0 program were used to test frequency, reliability, factor, and structural equation modeling analysis. III. Result and Conclusion According to results from factor analysis, eigen value was over 1.0 and items which were below 0.6 were deleted. Consequently, 9 factors(% of total variance is 72.011%) were searched. All Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ values are over the recommended level(${\alpha}$ > 0.7). The overall fit indices are acceptable such as ${\chi}^2$=2028.36(p=0.00), GFI=0.87, AGFI=0.82, CFI=0.81, IFI=0.92, RMR=0.075. All factor loadings were over the recommended level. As the result of discriminant validity check with chi-square difference test between paired constructs, each construct has good discriminant validity. The overall fit indices of final model are acceptable such as ${\chi}^2$=340.73(df=36, p=0.00), GFI=0.92, AGFI=0.81, CFI=0.91, IFI=0.91, RMR=0.085. As test results, 5 out of 6 hypotheses are supported because there are statistically significant casual relationships in structural equation model, shown in . First of all, hypothesis 1 is partially supported because sub-hypothesis 1-1 and 1-2 are supported, whereas sub-hypothesis 1-3, 1-4, and 1-5 are rejected. Specifically, it reveals that warmth and sophistication dimensions in e-store personality have positive influence on e-store identification, however, activity, progressiveness, and strictness does not have any significant relationship on e-store identification. Secondly, hypothesis 2 was supported. Therefore, it can be said that e-store identification has a positive impact on e-store trust. Thirdly, hypothesis 3 is also supported. Hence, there is a positive relationship between e-store identification and e-store engagement. Fourthly, hypothesis 4 is supported too. e-store identification has a positive influence on e-store loyalty. Fifthly, hypothesis 5 is also accepted. This indicates that e-store trust is a precedent variable which positively affects e-store loyalty. Lastly, it reveals that e-store engagement has a positive impact on e-store loyalty. Therefore, hypothesis 6 is supported. The findings of the study imply that some dimensions of e-store personality have a positive influence on e-store identification, and that e-store identification has direct and indirect influence on e-store loyalty through e-store trust and e-store engagement positively. These results also suggest that the e-store identification in e-store personality is a precedent variable which positively affects e-store loyalty directly and indirectly through e-store trust and engagement as a mediating variable. Therefore, e-store marketers need to implement website strategy based on e-store personality, e-store identification, e-store trust, and e-store engagement to meet customers' psychological needs and enhance e-store loyalty. Finally, the limitations and future study directions based on this study are discussed.

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  • Effect of 6-Hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) on the Expression of Hypothalamus-Pituitary Axis Hormone Genes in Male Rats (수컷 흰쥐의 시상하부-뇌하수체 축 호르몬 유전자 발현에 미치는 6-Hydroxydopamine(6-OHDA)의 영향)

    • Heo, Hyun-Jin;Ahn, Ryun-Sup;Lee, Sung-Ho
      • Development and Reproduction
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      • v.13 no.4
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      • pp.257-264
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      • 2009
    • A neurotoxin, 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) has been widely used to create animal model for Parkinson's disease (PD) due to its specific toxicity against dopaminergic (DA) neurons. Since DA signals modulate a broad spectrum of CNS physiology, one can expect profound alterations in neuroendocrine activities of both PD patients and 6-OHDA treated animals. Limited applications of 6-OHDA injection model, however, have been made on the studies of hypothalamuspituitary neuroendocrine circuits. The present study was performed to examine whether blockade of brain catecholamine (CA) biosynthesis with 6-OHDA can make any alteration in the transcriptional activities of hypothalamus-pituitary hormone genes in adult male rats. Three-month-old male rats (SD strain) were received 6-OHDA ($200{\mu}g$ in $10{\mu}\ell$ of saline/animal) by intracerebroventricular (icv) injection, and sacrificed after two weeks. To determine the mRNA levels of hypothalamuspituitary hormone genes, total RNAs were extracted and applied to the semi-quantitative RT-PCRs. The mRNA levels of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), the rate-limiting enzyme for the catecholamine biosynthesis, were significantly lower than those from the control group (control:6-OHDA=1:0.72${\pm}$0.02AU, p<0.001), confirming the efficacy of 6-OHDA injection. The mRNA levels of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) and corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH) in the hypothalami from 6-OHDA group were significantly lower than those from the control group (GnRH, control:6-OHDA=1:0.39${\pm}$0.03AU, p<0.001; CRH, control:6-OHDA=1:0.76${\pm}$0.07AU, p<0.01). There were significant decreases in the mRNA levels of common alpha subunit of glycoprotein homones (Cg$\alpha$), LH beta subunit (LH-$\beta$), and FSH beta subunit (FSH-$\beta$) in pituitaries from 6-OHDA group compared to control values (Cg$\alpha$, control:6-OHDA=1:0.81${\pm}$0.02AU, p<0.001; LH-$\beta$, control:6-OHDA=1:0.68${\pm}$0.04AU, p<0.001; FSH-$\beta$, control:6-OHDA=1:0.84${\pm}$0.05AU, p<0.001). Similarly, the level of adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH) transcripts from 6-OHDA group was significantly lower than that from the control group (control: 6-OHDA=1:0.86${\pm}$0.04AU, p<0.01). The present study demonstrated that centrally injected DA neurotoxin could downregulate the transcriptional activities of the two hypothalamus-pituitary neuroendocrine circuits, i.e., GnRH-gonadotropins and CRH-ACTH systems. These results suggested that hypothalamic CA input might affect on the activities of gonad and adrenal through modulation of hypothalamus-pituitary function, providing plausible explanation for frequent occurrence of sexual dysfunction and poor stress-response in PD patients.

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