• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.41-68
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• 2006

Today, Manufacturing companies execute the logistics outsourcing that commits the non-core logistic function to the specialized logistics corporation, which makes the manufacturing company focus on its core competence, product development and marketing, reduces logistics cost and improves customer service level. Recently, Logistics outsourcing is developed into cooperative sourcing based on the partnership. Case study on the logistics outsourcing will provide the good guideline for planning of the outsourcing strategy. The objective of this research is making a sense about 4PL through the case of UPS-Samsung Electro-Mechanics and catching major issue to provide the guideline for the cooperation outsourcing strategy. We investigated historical backgrounds of the logistics outsourcing between UPS and Samsung Electro-Mechanics. We also investigated problems occurred in outsourcing process at the five dimensions-organizational problem, CEO's short-term views, cultural gap between two companies, integration of IT system, and different understanding about outcomes. We expect to give many implications to manufacturing companies which want to cooperate with specialized logistics corporation.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.11 no.12
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• pp.25-37
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• 2013

Purpose - The structure of retailing has changed as retailers develop markets in response to business environment changes. This study aims to analyze the general situation of retailers in order to predict future global strategy using case studies of overseas expansion strategy and the Metro Group's global strategy. Research design, data, and methodology - The backgrounds to the new retail business model and retailer classification are analyzed as theoretical data. In addition, the key success point of the Metro Group's "cash and carry" strategy is analyzed as is the Metro Group's global CFAR (collaborative planning, forecasting, and replenishment) strategy. Finally, the plan for cooperation and precise forecasting under the Metro Group's supply chain management are analyzed from the promotion environment viewpoint. Related materials analyzed included the 2012 annual report, the Metro Group's web page, and a video interview with the executive in charge of global strategy and the new market development department. Some data were revised to avoid disrupting essential aspects of the case studies. Results - The important finding was that the Metro Group could be a world-class retail company with its successful global expansion strategy. The Metro Group's global strategy's primary goal is to have a leading business position in Eastern and Western Europe. The "cash and carry" strategy is highest priority in its overseas expansion strategy. Moreover, the Metro Group has standardized product planning capacity, which could be applied in various countries with different structural and cultural backgrounds. This is the main reason that the Metro Group could rapidly become successful in the Eastern Europe and Asian markets through its structural overseas expansion strategies. In addition, the Metro Group emphasizes the importance of supply chain management. Conclusions - First, retailers should create additional value through utilizing the domestic market, market power, and economies of scale to launch a global strategy to maximize benefits from diversification. Second, the political, economic, and cultural background of the target country needs to be understood to successfully implement the overseas expansion strategy. Third, the main factor of successful cooperation with a local partner is how quickly the company gains total understanding of the business resources and core competence of its partner. All organizations should focus on the achievement of goals in order to successfully operate the partnership. Fourth, retailers should improve their business, financial and organizational structure. Moreover, the work processes and company culture should also be improved to respond strongly in the competitive global market. Fifth, the essential point of a successful retail business is the control capacity of its branding and format. The retailer could avoid forecasting errors through supply chain management by perfectly distributing the actual amount of its inventory. In addition, the risks along the supply chain are effectively shared between the supply chain partners. Finally, the central tendency of the market is to gain in strength with this taking place across all parts of the business.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.83-91
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• 2018

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to explore the introduction and activation of smart training for the effective training of vocational ability development of companies in the 4th industrial revolution era, we analyze the present status of smart training introduction and related difficulties and propose concrete activation plan. Research design, data, and methodology - Through the online survey, we tried to confirm the recognition of corporate about smart training. Questionnaires include what are the benefits, expectations, and difficulties of smart training, etc. The survey was conducted from August 21, 2017 to September 4, 2017. A total of 69 companies participated in the questionnaire. The questionnaire results were analyzed through frequency analysis and contents analysis. Based on the results of the questionnaire, we found out the cause of inhibition of smart training activation and suggested activation strategies. Results - The main reason for the provision of smart training is the expectation of the training performance and the recognition that it is possible to provide training in a flexible manner. The effectiveness of smart training operation was evaluated as a high level of contribution to the development of creative training course and the capacity of training institute. As a result of checking factors that hinders the activation of smart training, the most important reason is that the time and cost burden of the training institutes is excessive. The lack of expertise in the design of smart training courses and the burden of employers and trainees. Conclusions - In order to activate smart training, it is necessary to find solutions to the obstacles at the internal or external level of training institutions. The internal barriers to the training organization are lack of internal competence for preparation and course management. In this regard, we need to consider providing consulting, best practices or guidance in the process of designing and operating smart training. On the other hand, as an external obstacle factor, it is necessary to provide incentives to participate in smart training. In addition, further research is needed on strategies that can lead to participation in smart training from the viewpoint of employers and learners.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.31 no.9
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• pp.1420-1430
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• 2018

Objective: Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) is a major ingredient of catechin polyphenols and is considered one of the most promising bioactive compounds in green tea because of its strong antioxidant properties. However, the protective role of EGCG in bovine oocyte in vitro maturation (IVM) has not been investigated. Therefore, we aimed to study the effects of EGCG on IVM of bovine oocytes. Methods: Bovine oocytes were treated with different concentrations of EGCG (0, 25, 50, 100, and $200{\mu}M$), and the nuclear and cytoplasmic maturation, cumulus cell expansion, intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, total antioxidant capacity, the early apoptosis and the developmental competence of in vitro fertilized embryos were measured. The mRNA abundances of antioxidant genes (nuclear factor erythriod-2 related factor 2 [NRF2], superoxide dismutase 1 [SOD1], catalase [CAT], and glutathione peroxidase 4 [GPX4]) in matured bovine oocytes were also quantified. Results: Nuclear maturation which is characterized by first polar body extrusion, and cytoplasmic maturation characterized by peripheral and cortical distribution of cortical granules and homogeneous mitochondrial distribution were significantly improved in the $50{\mu}M$ EGCG-treated group compared with the control group. Adding $50{\mu}M$ EGCG to the maturation medium significantly increased the cumulus cell expansion index and upregulated the mRNA levels of cumulus cell expansion-related genes (hyaluronan synthase 2, tumor necrosis factor alpha induced protein 6, pentraxin 3, and prostaglandin 2). Both the intracellular ROS level and the early apoptotic rate of matured oocytes were significantly decreased in the $50{\mu}M$ EGCG group, and the total antioxidant ability was markedly enhanced. Additionally, both the cleavage and blastocyst rates were significantly higher in the $50{\mu}M$ EGCG-treated oocytes after in vitro fertilization than in the control oocytes. The mRNA abundance of NRF2, SOD1, CAT, and GPX4 were significantly increased in the $50{\mu}M$ EGCG-treated oocytes. Conclusion: In conclusion, $50{\mu}M$ EGCG can improve the bovine oocyte maturation, and the protective role of EGCG may be correlated with its antioxidative property.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.105-118
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• 2015

Purpose - Currently, strengthening small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in terms of competitiveness is a key economic issue. However, the problem is that many SMEs lack the internal competence required to cope with a rapidly changing market structure. Such problems can act as an obstacle to economic development, yet most SMEs in Korea are dealing with this problem today. A company's source of competitive advantage is changing from quantity to quality, facility to knowledge, and hardwork to creativity. Under such circumstances, a company should place learning and sharing of knowledge and continuously creating new knowledge as its priority. This study aims to identify the effect of a chief executive officer's (CEO) compassion and forgiveness - positive factors in organizational emotion - on learning organization activities and organizational performance, through a theoretical comparison. Research design, data, and methodology - For this study, SMEs based in Daejeon and Chungcheong area were selected. To secure credibility of the data, the subjects were selected among those who have been working at the business for six months or longer. The survey was conducted for 30 days from March 5, 2015 to April 5, 2015. Both offline and online surveys were conducted. Fifty companies were chosen and 700 questionnaires were distributed, with 506 used for analysis. Fifty subject companies (25 from Daejeon, 10 from Chungnam, 10 from Chungbuk, and five from Sejong) were selected and the objective, target, and survey content were explained to a manager at each company either face-to-face or on the phone. Of the total of 700 questionnaires distributed via mail or e-mail, 78.6% or 550 copies were returned. Excluding 44 insufficient questionnaires, the remainder, 506 questionnaires, were used for analysis. Results - This study analyzed how the CEO's compassion and forgiveness affects learning organization activities and organizational performance. First, compassion of the CEO at the SMEs directly affected the learning organization activities and indirectly affected the organizational performance. Second, forgiveness of the CEO at the SMEs did not affect the learning organization activities and organizational performance directly or indirectly. Conclusions - The study conclusions are as follows. First, CEO compassionate behavior at the SMEs was a significant variable that directly and indirectly affected learning organization activities and organizational performance. Therefore, the CEO of an SME can create a positive organizational atmosphere through compassionate behaviors in the organization. Second, the forgiving behavior of the CEO did not have direct or indirect effects on learning organization activities and organizational performance. However, the reason for a CEO to continue his or her forgiving behavior is because it strengthens employee resilience, commitment, and self-efficacy to protect the organization from negative influences such as layoffs, risks, and wrongdoings. The action of forgiveness does not have direct or indirect effects. However, the CEO shall continue such behavior to strengthen members' physiological resilience, commitment, and self - effectiveness, and to protect the organization from risks including layoff and external negative factors.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.41-52
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• 2015

Purpose - Given globalization, the new niche market of medical tourism is likely to experience sustainable growth for various reasons, such as aging populations and a shift in the medical consumerism paradigm toward prevention. Importantly, understanding medical customers' behavior is necessary to benefit from a competitive advantage in this industry. The existing research primarily accessed the key factors of medical quality and costs to explain health customers' behavior but is limited in terms of enabling an understanding of the decision process. This limitation exists because, given the intangibility and greater associated risks in the highly professional industry of international medical tourism, most customers lack the knowledge and experience needed to evaluate the central factors-such as the medical competence of health care countries-before purchases. Therefore, they actively search for useful information through various distributions to reduce uncertainty and to make better choices. Interestingly, most of these information channels are associated with word-of-mouth (WOM). However, no evidence is found in the literature to estimate the effect of WOM in the medical tourism field. Thus, this study focuses on WOM to explore its interaction with key medical characteristic factors and the attractiveness of destinations referred to by sources. This study also affects customers' evaluations and, in turn, influences their intention to seek health care services abroad. Research design, data, and methodology - The literature review addressed an interesting research model for estimating the relations among WOM, medical characteristics, attractiveness, and customers' choice intention regarding international health care. In the key economic regions in China, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Shandong, and Guangdong, 2,500 survey questionnaires were distributed to potential customers of different ages, education, and income levels. A resulting 1,717 (68.68 percent of the original 2,500) usable surveys were obtained for analysis. Moderated regression analysis was used to determine the effects of WOM in the decision process regarding international health care destinations. Results - The results indicate that WOM is a good moderator of the relationships between the factors evaluated by sources and customers. More importantly, the WOM effects reflect the factors of tie strength, credibility, and vividness. The results also reveal that, given the moderating role of WOM, the intention of potential Chinese customers to seek the referred health care country varies according to the medical characteristics of medical competency and reputation as evaluated by customers. In contrast, the travel attractiveness of the attractions, facilities, accessibility, and social environment are critical determinants of destination choice intention. Conclusions - The moderating role of WOM has been confirmed through the international healthcare destination selection process. Medical tourism managers should user WOM as an effective marketing tool for industry development. Specially, marketers should consider the effects of WOM determinants, such as tie strength, credibility, and vividness, to develop an effective strategy. Furthermore, this study estimates the factors that affect customers' selection of medical tourism destinations. Health care managers or policy makers should consider a broad variety of variables that may attract more Chinese customers to international health care.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.16 no.8
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• pp.63-68
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• 2018

Purpose - Lettuce (Lactuca sativ L.) is one of the economically important vegetable crops, which worldwide market value is over 100 billion U.S. dollar. In Korea, about 89.7 kilo ton of lettuce was produced in 3400ha in 2016, recoded as No. 1 vegetable crop in domestic green house production. However, recently, domestic lettuce production and cultivation areas are all getting decreased. Thus, novel approaches are needed to be implemented to revive the production. Research design, data and methodology - In this review paper, we first prioritized the end-user traits which are imperative to positively stimulate the domestic lettuce market and discussed relevant genomics strategies. Especially, we assessed a possibility whether school meal program would be a potential niche market. Results - The genomics technologies, which become widely applied in the crop biotechnology since 2008 when next generation sequencing method was developed, may be a good solution in the crop improvement, efficiently gathering valuable information of agriculturally useful traits. Significantly, in lettuce, the high quality whole genome sequence, based on Lactuca sativa cv. Salinas, is publically available and this genomics platform, thus, would be implemented in lettuce breeding program to innovate relevant end-user traits both for the farmers and customers, including the disease resistance to the Fusarium wilt, productivity under hot weather conditions, various nutritional qualities and so forth. These improvements will boost domestic lettuce industries in the near future. Conclusions - Due to the nutritional distinctions comparing to the western style lettuces, domestic leaf lettuces could be one of the important vegetables in the school meal programs. To make it happen, we would better devise diverse recipes to make a salad with it, instead of only using as a wrap vegetable. Meanwhile, novel lettuce varieties need to be developed, which are favorable to the students and also easy to be handled with while processing. Overall, to achieve international competence in the lettuce industries, we need to create elite lettuce varieties that satisfies domestic farmers as well as customers, suitable to various niche markets, such as school meal program. Thus, efficient breeding programs using genomics approaches should be established in advance and careful monitoring on the preference of the related customers for a niche market be continued persistently.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.35-46
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• 2015

Purpose - This paper attempted to investigate the relationships among the perception of job insecurity and organizational effectiveness, and it examines these relationships while considering the moderating effect of trust in the manager and self-efficacy. Job insecurity is an independent variable, organizational effectiveness aspects (job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intention) are dependent variables, and trust and self-efficacy are moderators. Research design, data, and methodology - Regression analysis was used to verify the effects. The measurement items were already deemed as reliable and valid in the previous study, but for this purpose, some modifications were made. To examine the model, this study relied on the samples chosen from Korean employees in the six franchise business firms. The survey was conducted on 288 workers. Each question is based on a 5-point Likert type scale. The data were analyzed using SPSS 18.0. Results - The results of the study are summarized as follows. First, job insecurity has an influence on organizational effectiveness aspects (negatively on job satisfaction, negatively on organizational commitment, and positively on turnover intention). Second, analyzing the moderating effect of trust, trust in manager is mediated between job insecurity and organizational effectiveness aspects (on organizational commitment and on turnover intention). However, employees' trust in manager had no significant moderating effect on the job insecurity-job satisfaction relationship. Third, self-efficacy is mediated between job insecurity and organizational effectiveness aspects (on job satisfaction, on organizational commitment, and on turnover intention). Conclusions - First, it is necessary to be aware of the seriousness of employees' job insecurity in franchise firms, which have played a pivotal role in national economic growth, and to create a detailed plan for reducing insecurity and actively implementing it. To this end, the franchise companies should implement efficiency efforts such as obtaining an appropriate capacity of equipped personnel and a training program. Second, there are moderating effects of self-efficacy and trust in the relationship between job insecurity and organizational effectiveness. Depending on business conditions, stability and instability can only be experienced in the organizations of franchise companies. This can give rise to instability in employment. Therefore, it is necessary to develop and utilize a system that can be minimized with a change in the new awareness of employment instability. After all, a good leader (manager) must accumulate personal trust and build up a core competence that is necessary to become competent in the field himself. Even if you lack the material resources to improve performance, if the leader with the core competencies (e.g., technical/management /organization/marketing/design) can gain the trust of the supervisor, you can get a good organizational performance. Therefore, you should foster a healthy organizational culture through education such as leadership training and employee training to be built on trust between the leaders and the employees. In addition, you need to focus on HRD&M training in order to increase the self-efficacy of the supervisor.

• Journal of the Korean Data Analysis Society
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.2993-3002
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• 2018

This case study introduces the process of developing the technology rating evaluation model for investment. The technology evaluation rating model for investment is a project that the Financial Services Commission and the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy collaborated to expand the scope of technology finance from loan to investment. The technology evaluation model for investment was developed with the aim of predicting high growth companies. The model consists of a statistical model and an expert model. Here, statistical models were modeled by using logistic regression analysis. Expert models gathered opinions of experts and identified the weight of each evaluation item and set the model. The rating system of the model is composed of 10 grades. The distribution of the model was consistent with KTRS grade distribution. Interestingly, the emphasis is on technology and marketability. In the technology valuation grade model for the goddess, there is a considerable difference from the emphasis on managerial competence or business performance.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.33-41
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• 2010

In the age of globalization, effective and efficient corporate management is becoming more important as domestic and international business circumstances changes. In the middle of endless changes in business circumstances, fast reaction to customers and market, and offering customized goods and service became essential. In this respect, CRM designed to utilize customer information scientifically and systematically, has become an essential system and marketing strategy to enhance corporate competitiveness. CRM has placed the importance of customers in the front of marketing and has focused every process and business minds on customers. Recent change in the market and the trend of establishing and introducing CRM system has lead us to concentrate on the introduction of CRM in the financial institutions. This study searched for several views about CRM in academic and industrial papers. Through theoretical approach on CRM, the background of the introduction of CRM, the purpose of CRM, the characteristic and application of CRM, and the expected effect of CRM will be discussed. This study is focused on financial institutions where CRM is widely used. And through documents about examples of the introduction of CRM, the status of the establishment of domestic CRM and the necessity and trend of CRM will be discussed. Also the problem of CRM in the financial institutions and the improvement of CRM in domestic banks will be analyzed. When discussing CRM in the financial area, customers are the main source of corporate profit and through relationship management with the customers enhancing loyalty and maximizing profit can be obtained. Especially in CRM in financial institutions, maintaining existing customers makes higher profit ratio, so repurchasing and cross selling becomes important for obtaining lifetime value of existing customers who contribute to most of the profit of corporations. As a result, CRM should be completely customer oriented. CRM in financial institutions is not merely marketing work, but organizational competence which is made up of standardized work process through total process integration inside the corporation. Corporations which plan to introduce CRM should analyze the characteristics and conditions of corporations and establish purpose and strategy of CRM. And they need long term view to find out the factors which best fit for the introduction of CRM. To enable this, strategy composed of daily marketing activity and CRM concept is necessary. Also continued improvement through drill and training for operating organization should be followed to maintain CRM well. And corporate culture must settle customer as the center of corporate value. The race for introducing and improving CRM has already begun. CRM should not be regarded as a choice. It should be accepted as something essential. In this reality financial institutions should solve subdivision problem of customers and necessity of customers with the mind of 'customer's profit is my profit'. Customer focused management should not be emphasized only by words. Efforts like viewing from the customer's point must be nurtured to provide methods to help customers. That is, we should not just follow what is done in foreign countries. We should solve the problem of our customers according to the situation of our country, our industry, our corporation. Then we can gain the trust of customers, and the value derived from the customers will become the background of CRM which will lead the corporation to success.