• Title/Summary/Keyword: Construct validity

Search Result 930, Processing Time 0.029 seconds

The Effect of E-SERVQUAL on e-Loyalty for Apparel Online Shopping (재망상복장구물중전자(在网上服装购物中电子)E-SERVQUAL 대전자충성도적영향(对电子忠诚度的影响))

  • Kim, Eun-Young;Jackson, Vanessa P.
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
    • /
    • v.19 no.4
    • /
    • pp.57-63
    • /
    • 2009
  • With an exponential increase in electronic commerce (e-commerce), marketers are attempting to gain a competitive advantage by emphasizing service quality and post interaction service aspects, which leads to customer satisfaction or behavioral consequence. Particularly for apparel, service quality is one of the key determinants in encouraging customer e-loyalty, and hence the success of apparel retailing in the context of electronic commerce. Therefore, this study explores e-service quality (E-SERVQUAL) factors and their unique effects on e-loyalty for apparel online shopping based on Parasuraman et al' s (2005) framework. Specific objectives of this study are to identify underlying dimension of E-SERVQUAL, and analyze a structural model for examining the effect of E-SERVQUAL on e-loyalty for online apparel shopping. For the theoretical framework of service quality in the context of online shopping, literatures on traditional and electronic service quality factors were comparatively reviewed, and two aspects of core and recovery services were identified. This study hypothesized that E-SERVQUAL has an effect on e-loyalty; customer satisfaction has a positive effect on e-service loyalty for apparel online shopping; and customer satisfaction mediates in the effect of E-SERVQUAL on e-loyalty for apparel online shopping. A self-administered questionnaire was developed based on literatures. A total of 252 usable questionnaires were obtained from online consumers who had purchase experience with online shopping for apparel products and reside in standard metropolitan areas, in the United States. Factor analysis (e.g., exploratory, confirmatory) was conducted to assess the validity and reliability and the structural equation model including measurement and structural models was estimated via LISREL 8.8 program. Findings showed that the E-SERVQUAL of shopping websites for apparel consisted of five factors: Compensation, Fulfillment, Efficiency, System Availability, and Responsiveness. This supports Parasuraman (2005)'s E-S-QUAL encompassing two aspects of core service (e.g., fulfillment, efficiency, system availability) and recovery related service (e.g., compensation, responsiveness) in the context of apparel shopping online. In the structural equation model, there are five exogenous latent variables for e-SERVQUAL factors; and two endogenous latent variables (e.g., customer satisfaction, e-loyalty). For the measurement model, the factor loadings for each respective construct were statistically significant and were greater than .60 and internal consistency reliabilities ranged from .85 to .88. In the estimated structural model of the e-SERVEQUAL factors, the system availability was found to have direct and positive effect on e-loyalty, whereas efficiency had a negative effect on e-loyalty for apparel online shopping. However, fulfillment was not a significant predictor for explaining consequences of E-SERVQUAL for apparel online shopping. This finding implies that perceived service quality of system available was likely to increase customer satisfaction for apparel online shopping. However, it was not supported that e-loyalty was determined by service quality, because service quality has an indirect effect on e-loyalty (i.e., repurchase intention) by mediating effect of value or satisfaction in the context of online shopping for apparel. In addition, both compensation and responsiveness were found to have a significant impact on customer satisfaction, which influenced e-loyalty for apparel online shopping. Thus, there was significant indirect effect of compensation and responsiveness on e-loyalty. This suggests that the recovery-specific service factors play an important role in maximizing customer satisfaction levels and then maintaining customer loyalty to the online shopping site for apparel. The findings have both managerial and research implications. Fashion marketers can establish long-term relationship with their customers based on continuously measuring customer perceptions for recovery-related service quality, such as quick responses to problem and returns, and compensation for customers' problem after their purchases. In order to maintain e-loyalty, recovery services play an important role in the first choice websites for consumers to purchase clothing. Given that online consumers may shop anywhere, a marketing strategy for improving competitive advantages is to provide better service quality, maximize satisfaction, and turn to creating customers' e-loyalty for apparel online shopping. From a researcher's perspective, there are some limitations of this research that should be considered when interpreting its findings. For future research, findings provide a basis for the further study of this important topic along both theoretical and empirical dimensions. Based on the findings, more comprehensive models for predicting E-SERVQUAL's consequences can be developed and tested. For global fashion marketing, this study can expand to a cross-cultural approach into e-service quality for apparel by including multinational samples.

  • PDF

The Application of Operations Research to Librarianship : Some Research Directions (운영연구(OR)의 도서관응용 -그 몇가지 잠재적응용분야에 대하여-)

  • Choi Sung Jin
    • Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
    • /
    • v.4
    • /
    • pp.43-71
    • /
    • 1975
  • Operations research has developed rapidly since its origins in World War II. Practitioners of O. R. have contributed to almost every aspect of government and business. More recently, a number of operations researchers have turned their attention to library and information systems, and the author believes that significant research has resulted. It is the purpose of this essay to introduce the library audience to some of these accomplishments, to present some of the author's hypotheses on the subject of library management to which he belives O. R. has great potential, and to suggest some future research directions. Some problem areas in librianship where O. R. may play a part have been discussed and are summarized below. (1) Library location. It is usually necessary to make balance between accessibility and cost In location problems. Many mathematical methods are available for identifying the optimal locations once the balance between these two criteria has been decided. The major difficulties lie in relating cost to size and in taking future change into account when discriminating possible solutions. (2) Planning new facilities. Standard approaches to using mathematical models for simple investment decisions are well established. If the problem is one of choosing the most economical way of achieving a certain objective, one may compare th althenatives by using one of the discounted cash flow techniques. In other situations it may be necessary to use of cost-benefit approach. (3) Allocating library resources. In order to allocate the resources to best advantage the librarian needs to know how the effectiveness of the services he offers depends on the way he puts his resources. The O. R. approach to the problems is to construct a model representing effectiveness as a mathematical function of levels of different inputs(e.g., numbers of people in different jobs, acquisitions of different types, physical resources). (4) Long term planning. Resource allocation problems are generally concerned with up to one and a half years ahead. The longer term certainly offers both greater freedom of action and greater uncertainty. Thus it is difficult to generalize about long term planning problems. In other fields, however, O. R. has made a significant contribution to long range planning and it is likely to have one to make in librarianship as well. (5) Public relations. It is generally accepted that actual and potential users are too ignorant both of the range of library services provided and of how to make use of them. How should services be brought to the attention of potential users? The answer seems to lie in obtaining empirical evidence by controlled experiments in which a group of libraries participated. (6) Acquisition policy. In comparing alternative policies for acquisition of materials one needs to know the implications of each service which depends on the stock. Second is the relative importance to be ascribed to each service for each class of user. By reducing the level of the first, formal models will allow the librarian to concentrate his attention upon the value judgements which will be necessary for the second. (7) Loan policy. The approach to choosing between loan policies is much the same as the previous approach. (8) Manpower planning. For large library systems one should consider constructing models which will permit the skills necessary in the future with predictions of the skills that will be available, so as to allow informed decisions. (9) Management information system for libraries. A great deal of data can be available in libraries as a by-product of all recording activities. It is particularly tempting when procedures are computerized to make summary statistics available as a management information system. The values of information to particular decisions that may have to be taken future is best assessed in terms of a model of the relevant problem. (10) Management gaming. One of the most common uses of a management game is as a means of developing staff's to take decisions. The value of such exercises depends upon the validity of the computerized model. If the model were sufficiently simple to take the form of a mathematical equation, decision-makers would probably able to learn adequately from a graph. More complex situations require simulation models. (11) Diagnostics tools. Libraries are sufficiently complex systems that it would be useful to have available simple means of telling whether performance could be regarded as satisfactory which, if it could not, would also provide pointers to what was wrong. (12) Data banks. It would appear to be worth considering establishing a bank for certain types of data. It certain items on questionnaires were to take a standard form, a greater pool of data would de available for various analysis. (13) Effectiveness measures. The meaning of a library performance measure is not readily interpreted. Each measure must itself be assessed in relation to the corresponding measures for earlier periods of time and a standard measure that may be a corresponding measure in another library, the 'norm', the 'best practice', or user expectations.

  • PDF

Development of nutrition quotient for Korean preschoolers (NQ-P): Item selection and validation of factor structure (취학전아동 대상 영양지수 개발 : 평가항목 선정과 구성 타당도 검증)

  • Lee, Jung-Sug;Kang, Myung-Hee;Kwak, Tong-Kyung;Chung, Hae Rang;Kwon, Sehyug;Kim, Hye-Young;Hwang, Ji-Yun;Choi, Young-Sun
    • Journal of Nutrition and Health
    • /
    • v.49 no.5
    • /
    • pp.378-394
    • /
    • 2016
  • Purpose: Screening of preschool-age children for nutrition programs to improve dietary intake and behaviors requires cost-effective and easily administered validated assessment tools. The purpose of this study was to develop a parent/caregiver-administered instrument for measuring diet quality and behaviors of preschoolers as a nutrition quotient for preschoolers (NQ-P). Methods: Development of NQ-P was carried out in three steps: item generation, item reduction, and validation. The 24-h dietary record was selected as the gold standard reference tool. The 38 items of the NQ-P checklist were derived from a systematic literature review, expert in-depth interviews, statistical analysis of the fifth Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data, and national nutrition policies and recommendations. Self-administered questionnaires were delivered to parents who recorded 24-h dietary intakes of 100 responders aged 3~5 yr. Pearson's correlation was used to measure the level of agreement between questionnaires. Item reduction was performed, and 20 items were selected based on survey results, expert reviews, and priorities of national nutrition policy and recommendations. The 412 nationwide subjects sampled through daycare centers completed the 20-item checklist questionnaire. The construct validity of the NQ-P was assessed using confirmatory factor analysis, LISREL. Results: After analyses of exploratory factors, NQ-P items identified three dimensions of diet (balance, moderation, and environment). The three-factor structure accounted for 49.28% of the total variance. Standardized path coefficients were used as weights of the items. The NQ-P and three-factor scores of the subjects were calculated by the obtained weights of the questionnaire items. Conclusion: A food behavior checklist for preschoolers' NQ would be a useful and suitable instrument for evaluating nutrition adequacy and dietary quality of Korean preschoolers.

The identification of optimal data range for the discrimination between won and lost

  • Han, Doryung;Choi, Hyongjun
    • Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
    • /
    • v.25 no.7
    • /
    • pp.103-111
    • /
    • 2020
  • Performance indicators have often investigated and developed in order to identify foundational elements and factors for an enhancement of performance in sports. In order to identify the valid performance indicators it is important that the indicators used within a performance analysis system discriminate between the winning and losing performances within a match (Hughes and Bartlett, 2002). However, the performance indicators proposed in research studies on basketball performance have not been used for real-time analysis and feedback within a coaching context. Such real-time support for the coach and players has been described within research on other sports (Choi et al., 2004; O'Donoghue, 2001; Palmer et al., 1997). Within the process of real-time feedback, the identification of relevant performance indicators that distinguish winning and losing performances should be the first stage of the development of a real-time analysis system. Therefore, this study investigated the differences between winning and losing teams in terms of a set of performance indicators gathered during the analysis of 10 English National Basketball League matches. Winning and losing teams were compared using whole match data (N=10) as well as individual quarters (N=40). A series of Wilcoxon Signed Ranks tests was used to identify the relevant performance indicators that discriminate between winning and losing performers within whole matches and individual quarters. The tests found that 3 point shots made (p<0.05) and Assists (p<0.05) were significantly different between winning and losing teams within matches. However, 2 point shots made (p<0.05), 2 point shots attempted (P<0.05), percentages of 2 point shots scored (p<0.05), 3 point shots made (p<0.05), Defensive Rebounds (p<0.05) and Assists (p<0.05) were significantly different between winning and losing performance within quarters. The analysis task should be based on relevant performance indicators which explain the current performances to performance analysts and coaches. Within a real-time analysis and feedback scenario, this will have the additional benefit of supporting a decision based on immediate performance within the most recent quarter. Consequently, the real-time analysis system would use performance indicators which have the property of construct validity to support the decisions of the coach.

RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF A KOREAN EMPATHY CONSTRUCT HATING SCALE (한국인의 공감 측정 도구에 관한 연구)

  • KIM, MOON SIL
    • Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
    • /
    • v.18 no.1
    • /
    • pp.26-33
    • /
    • 1988
  • 내담자와 상담자간의 관계형성 추진에 관한 연구가 C. Rogers에 의해 시작된 이래, 돕는자 또는 상담자가 가져야 할 주요 조건으로서 공감, 존중, 온정, 확고부동함, 진지성, 자기노출, 직면반응 등을 들고 있으며 이중 둘 또는 세 요소 등을 선택하여 그 효과를 보고 있으나 역시 가장 주요한 요소로써는 공감을 들고 있다. 공감에 관한 연구는 그 본질의 정서적 측면, 인지적 측면 또는 복합적인 측면을 강조하면서 시도되고 있으나 간호원은 돕는자로써 환자의 문제해결을 위한 전수자적 역할을 해야한다는 점을 고려할때 간호현상에서의 공감에 관한 연구는 복합적인 측면을 강조하는 공감이 어 야 한다고 생각한다. 간호학자들도 간호원의 돕는 행위중 주요 요소로써 공감을 들고 있으며 특히 Lamonica는 공감측정을 위한 도구를 개발하였으며 공감이란 환자가 간호원이 환자의 입장을 이해하고 도와준다는 사실을 인지하고 그 고마움을 표현하는 것을 의미한다고 하였다. 본 연구자는 간호원-환자간의 촉진적 관계형성을 위한 교육내용 개발에 대한 기본 연구로써 한국인의 공감 정도를 측정할 수 있는 도구개발의 중요성을 느껴 Lamonica 의 공감측정 도구를 번역하게 되었다. 본 연구의 구체적인 목적은 미국문화권에서 사용되는 공감측정 도구가 한국인에게 적합하고 의미있게 번역되었는지를 확인하고 또한 한국인이 인지한 공감에 대한 탐색을 하는데 있다. 위 목적달성을 위하여 횡문화적 연구과정을 통한 개념분석, 도구 개발에 대한 통계분석을 시도하였다. 한국인의 공감 개념 분석을 위하여 미국 텍사스 오스틴에 있는 한국인에게 공감의 뜻, 동의어, 어떤 경우에 공감을 느꼈는지, 어떤 경우에 비공감적임을 느꼈는지를 물은 결과 한국인이 갖는 공감의 의미는 미국인의 것과 유사하지만 그 표현방법의 차이가 있음을 알게 되었다. 따라서 두 국가에서 사용되는 공감의 의미가 유사하고 또한 간호학자인 Lamonica가 개발한 공감측정 도구를 한국인에게 사용하는데 무리가 없을 것으로 판단되었다. 도구의 번역은 텍사스 주립대학 박사과정 지원생인 임상 심리 학자에게 의뢰하고 그 정확성을 판단하기 위해 인간을 대상으로 하는 학문을 연구하는 한국인(간호학, 사회학, 신문방송, 광고학, 심리학 전공)에게 그 정확성 유무를 물어 최고 27점, 최하 9점중 22점 미만인 문항에 대해서는 미국 간호학자와 의논하여 수정ㆍ보완하였다. 그 후 일반인으로 간주되는 한국인에게 그 도구의 이해 여부를 확인한 후 통계분석을 시도하였다. 대상자는 미국 텍사스 오스틴에 거주하면서 한국을 떠난지 3년 미만인 성인 45명을 대상으로 하였다. 2차에 걸친 자료수집 과정상 5명의 자료는 분석 불가능하다고 판단되어 총 40명의 자료를 spss- X를 이용하여 cronbach's alpha, test-retest stability, intercorrelation matrix 분석을 통한 결과는 다음과 같다. 1) cronbach's alpha는 1차 .9353 2차 .9666으로써 문항의 동질성을 보였고, 3, 4주 간격으로 행한 test-retest stability는 .7619(p=000)이였다. 2) 반면에 intercorrelation matrix에서는 역관계 또는 무관계를 보였으며 84문항중 26문항의 item-to-total correlation값이 .35미만이었고 이 중 16문항은 .30 미만이었다. 이들을 제외한 68문항과 58문항의 각각의 item-to-total correlation간은 .96이었고 test retest stability 역시 .76으로써 84문항 전체에 관한 값과 유사하였다. 3) 역상관 또는 무상관의 값을 보인 문항을 미국 간호학자와 재검토한 결과 본래 문항에서의 단어 의미가 복합적이거나 불분명한 것이었고 또는 미국 문화권에서 사용되는 특이한 용어임을 알 수 있었다. 따라서 한국인 공감 측정 도구의 타당성을 높이기 위해 역통역을 시도하였다. 그후 공감에 관한 연구를 하고 있는 미국 학자에게 그 정확성을 판단하여 최종적으로 58문항이 한국인 공감측정 도구로서 적합하다는 판단을 하였다. 위 결과를 통한 결론 및 제언은 다음과 같다. 인간의 행위는 조건화된 문화권에 따라 다를 수 있으며, 이것은 같은 현상을 인지하는데도 영향을 미치게 되며 본 연구와 같이 어떤 현상에 대한 횡문화적 연구는 그 행위를 이해하는데 도움을 준다. 그러나 한국에서 간호에 대한 연구가 한국적 토착화 과정에 있으므로 그 연구 방법이나 도구사용이 서구의 것을 도입해야 하는 입장을 고려할 때 도구번역 과정은 원래의 의미나 함축성을 내포한 번역이어야 하며 소홀히 해서는 안될 과정임을 재확인되었다. 또한 추후 연구로써 다양한 계층의 다수를 대상으로 한 한국인 공감 측정 도구의 타당성을 재확인해야 하며 요인분석을 시도할 필요성이 있다고 사려된다.

  • PDF

The Learning Experience of 7th Graders on NOS (Nature of Science) as a Process in Research-Based "Becoming a Scientist" Mentor-mentee Program (중학생의 "과학자 되어보기" 멘토-멘티 프로그램 참여를 통한 과정으로서 과학의 본성 학습 경험)

  • Jung, Chan-Mi;Shin, Dong-Hee
    • Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
    • /
    • v.35 no.4
    • /
    • pp.629-648
    • /
    • 2015
  • This study is a case study examining how research-based 'authentic' science education program contextually facilitates students' learning on NOS as a process. We developed 'Becoming a Scientist' mentor-mentee program and applied it to six Korean 7th graders for 8 months. A mentor, who is also a researcher, provided scaffolding and coaching, and her mentees were to perform the whole process of science research, including selecting the research subject and questions, planning research design, doing experiments, collecting and analysing data, writing research paper, and experiencing poster presentation at an academic conference. The research questions are 1) What would the students experience at every step of their research process?, and 2) Which perceptions would they construct NOS as a process? Data include classroom observations, interview, mentor's journal, and students' learning products. The results show that the mentees have experienced their views of NOS as a process in various ways such as role of research question and purpose, validity of measured value, researcher's subjectivity in interpreting data, experience of making public and peer review, and significance of academic conference. This study has shown that students' actual experience in scientific research enhanced their views about NOS as process without explicit and reflective approaches. We defined 'authenticity' associated with not only with its similarity to what scientists do but to learner's identity as scientific researcher. Based on the situated learning theory, this study sheds light on the necessity of reconsideration about the meaning of authenticity and embodying authentic context in science education for better NOS learning.

A Study on the Effects of the Institutional Pressure on the Process of Implementation and Appropriation of System: M-EMRS in Hospital Organization (시스템의 도입과 전유 과정에 영향을 미치는 제도적 압력에 관한 연구: 병원조직의 모바일 전자의무기록 시스템을 대상으로)

  • Lee, Zoon-Ky;Shin, Ho-Kyoung;Choi, Hee-Jae
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
    • /
    • v.19 no.2
    • /
    • pp.95-116
    • /
    • 2009
  • Increasingly the institutional theory has been an important theoretical view of decision making process and IT adoption in many academic researches. This study used the institutional theory as a lens through which we can understand the factors that enable the effective appropriation of advanced information technology. It posits that mimetic, coercive, and normative pressures existing in an institutionalized environment could influence the participation of top managers or decision makers and the involvement of users toward an effective use of IT in their tasks. Since the introduction of IT, organizational members have been using IT in their daily tasks, creating and recreating rules and resources according to their own methods and needs. That is to say, the adaptation process of the IT and outcomes are different among organizations. The previous studies on a diverse use of IT refer to the appropriation of technology from the social technology view. Users appropriate IT through not only technology itself, but also in terms of how they use it or how they make the social practice in their use of it. In this study, the concepts of institutional pressure, appropriation, participation of decision makers, and involvement of users toward the appropriation are explored in the context of the appropriation of the mobile electronic medical record system (M-EMRS) in particularly a hospital setting. Based on the conceptual definition of institutional pressure, participation and involvement, operational measures are reconstructed. Furthermore, the concept of appropriation is measured in the aspect of three sub-constructs-consensus on appropriation, faithful appropriation, and attitude of use. Grounded in the relevant theories to appropriation of IT, we developed a research framework in which the effects of institutional pressure, participation and involvement on the appropriation of IT are analyzed. Within this theoretical framework, we formulated several hypotheses. We developed a second order institutional pressure and appropriation construct. After establishing its validity and reliability, we tested the hypotheses with empirical data from 101 users in 3 hospitals which had adopted and used the M-EMRS. We examined the mediating effect of the participation of decision makers and the involvement of users on the appropriation and empirically validated their relationships. The results show that the mimetic, coercive, and normative institutional pressure has an effect on the participation of decision makers and the involvement of users in the appropriation of IT while the participation of decision makers and the involvement of users have an effect on the appropriation of IT. The results also suggest that the institutional pressure and the participation of decision makers influence the involvement of users toward an appropriation of IT. Our results emphasize the mediating effect of the institutional pressure on the appropriation of IT. Namely, the higher degree of the participation of decision makers and the involvement of users, the more effective appropriation users will represent. These results provide strong support for institutional-based variables as predictors of appropriation. These findings also indicate that organizations should focus on the role of participation of decision makers and the involvement of users for the purpose of effective appropriation, and these are the practical implications of our study. The theoretical contribution of this study is lies in the integrated model of the effect of institutional pressure on the appropriation of IT. The results are consistent with the institutional theory and support previous studies on adaptive structuration theory.

Case Study of Menu Satisfaction Index in Business & Industry Food Service (산업체급식 메뉴 만족도 조사도구의 활용에 대한 사례연구)

  • Lee, Hae-Young;Ahn, Sun-Jung;Yang, Il-Sun
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
    • /
    • v.37 no.11
    • /
    • pp.1443-1451
    • /
    • 2008
  • This study was performed to develop menu satisfaction index in Business & Industry (B&I) food service and to survey customer's menu satisfaction using the index. The menu satisfaction index included 16 items with Likert 5 point. Cronbach's alpha to assess the internal reliability of the developed scales was 0.8917, which indicated highly reliable. Construct validity was assessed by principal components analysis and then four factors explaining 65.964% of the total variance were found. Among the 15 items of menu satisfaction, the average scores of all items were above 3.0 out of 5. As a result of analysis on menu satisfaction factors, 'propriety of food temperature' (3.52 out of 5) was the highest consideration followed by 'sufficiency of format' (3.46), 'excellence in food' (3.35) and 'well-being orientation' (3.31). It could be said that customer's perception on the menu quality was very positive. Four factors were correlated with overall menu satisfaction positively. Especially, 'excellence in food', and 'well-being orientation' and 'sufficiency of format' affected significantly on overall menu satisfaction. It concluded that customers were satisfied with portion size, temperature, price but their needs for taste and health/nutrition-related service would be increased. The menu satisfaction developed in this study should be applied to other B & I food service operation by type.

Application of the Homogenization Analysis to Calculation of a Permeability Coefficient (투수계수 산정을 위한 균질화 해석법의 적응)

  • 채병곤
    • Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
    • /
    • v.9 no.1
    • /
    • pp.79-86
    • /
    • 2004
  • Hydraulic conductivity along rock fracture is mainly dependent on fracture geometries such as orientation, aperture, roughness and connectivity. Therefore, it needs to consider fracture geometries sufficiently on a fracture model for a numerical analysis to calculate permeability coefficient in a fracture. This study performed new type of numerical analysis using a homogenization analysis method to calculate permeability coefficient accurately along single fractures with several fracture models that were considered fracture geometries as much as possible. First of all, fracture roughness and aperture variation due to normal stress applied on a fracture were directly measured under a confocal laser scaning microscope (CLSM). The acquired geometric data were used as input data to construct fracture models for the homogenization analysis (HA). Using the constructed fracture models, the homogenization analysis method can compute permeability coefficient with consideration of material properties both in microscale and in macroscale. The HA is a new type of perturbation theory developed to characterize the behavior of a micro inhomogeneous material with a periodic microstructure. It calculates micro scale permeability coefficient at homogeneous microscale, and then, computes a homogenized permeability coefficient (C-permeability coefficient) at macro scale. Therefore, it is possible to analyze accurate characteristics of permeability reflected with local effect of facture geometry. Several computations of the HA were conducted to prove validity of the HA results compared with the empirical equations of permeability in the previous studies using the constructed 2-D fracture models. The model can be classified into a parallel plate model that has fracture roughness and identical aperture along a fracture. According to the computation results, the conventional C-permeability coefficients have values in the range of the same order or difference of one order from the permeability coefficients calculated by an empirical equation. It means that the HA result is valid to calculate permeability coefficient along a fracture. However, it should be noted that C-permeability coefficient is more accurate result than the preexisting equations of permeability calculation, because the HA considers permeability characteristics of locally inhomogeneous fracture geometries and material properties both in microscale and macroscale.

The Effect of Information Service Quality on Customer Loyalty: A Customer Relationship Management Perspective (정보서비스품질이 고객로열티에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구: 고객관계관리 관점)

  • Kim, Hyung-Su;Gim, Seung-Ha;Kim, Young-Gul
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
    • /
    • v.18 no.1
    • /
    • pp.1-23
    • /
    • 2008
  • As managing customer relationship gets more important, companies are strengthening information service using multi-channels to their customers as a part of their customer relationship management (CRM) initiatives. It means companies are now accepting such information services not as simple information -delivering tools, but as strategic initiatives for acquiring and maintaining customer loyalty. In this paper, we attempt to validate whether or not such various information services would impact on organizational performance in terms of CRM strategy. More specifically, our research objective is to answer the next three questions: first, how to construct the instruments to measure not information quality but information service quality?; second, which attributes of information service quality can influence corporate image and customer loyalty?; finally, does each information service type have unique characteristics compared with others in terms of influencing corporate image and customer loyalty? With respect to providing answers to those questions, the previous studies had been limited in that those studies failed to consider the variety of types of information service or restricted the quality of information service to information quality. An appropriate research model answering the above questions should consider the fact that most companies are utilizing multi channels for their information services, and include the recent strategic information service such as customer online community. Moreover, since corporate information service could be regarded as a type of products or services delivered to customer, it is necessary to adopt the criteria for assessing customer's perceived value when to measure the quality of information service. Therefore, considering both multi-channels and multi-traits may enable us to tell the detailed causal routes showing which quality attributes of which information service would affect corporate image and customer loyalty. As information service channels, we include not only homepage and DM (direct mail), which are the most frequently applied information service channels, but also online community, which is getting more strategic importance in recent years. With respect to information service quality, we abstract information quality, convenience of information service, and timeliness of information service through a wide range of relevant literature reviews. As our dependant variables, we consider corporate image and customer loyalty that both of them are the critical determinants of organizational performance, and also attempt to grasp the relationship between the two constructs. We conducted a huge online survey at the homepage of one of representative dairy companies in Korea, and gathered 367 valid samples from 407 customers. The reliability and validity of our measurements were tested by using Cronbach's alpha coefficient and principal factor analysis respectively, and seven hypotheses were tested through performing correlation test and multiple regression analysis. The results from data analysis demonstrated that timeliness and convenience of homepage have positive effects on both corporate image and customer loyalty. In terms of DM, its' information quality was represented to influence both corporate image and customer loyalty, but we found its' convenience have a positive effect only on corporate image. With respect to online community, we found its timeliness contribute significantly both to corporate image and customer loyalty. Finally, as we expected, corporate image was revealed to provide a great influence to customer loyalty. This paper provides several academic and practical implications. Firstly, we think our research reinforces CRM literatures by developing the instruments for measuring information service quality. The previous relevant studies have mainly depended on the measurements of information quality or service quality which were developed independently. Secondly, the fact that we conducted our research in a real situation may enable academics and practitioners to understand the effects of information services more clearly. Finally, since our study involved three different types of information service which are most frequently applied in recent years, the results from our study might provide operational guidelines to the companies that are delivering their customers information by multi-channel. In other words, since we found that, in terms of customer loyalty, the key areas would be different from each other according to the types of information services, our analysis would help to make decisions such as selecting strengthening points or allocating resources by information service channels.