• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
• /
• v.50 no.6
• /
• pp.581-586
• /
• 2018

Enterococcus spp. have been considered major indicator organisms for antibiotic resistance due to their ability to easily acquire and to harbor antibiotic resistance. In this study, Enterococcus spp. were isolated from 174 retail fresh-cut products (fresh vegetable salads, microgreens, and sprouts) in Korea. Among the 20 Enterococcus isolates obtained, 18 (90.0%) were Enterococcus faecalis and 2 (10.0%) were Enterococcus faecium. The patterns of antibiotic resistance against nine antimicrobials were analyzed. Most of the isolates (85.0%) were resistant to quinupristin/dalfopristin, 40.0% and 50.0% of the isolates showed intermediate resistance to two critically important antimicrobials for human medicine, ciprofloxacin and erythromycin, respectively. Vancomycin-resistant enterococci were not detected in this study. Given the importance of antimicrobial resistance of enterococci in food safety as well as in public health, our results regarding the occurrence (level of contamination) and antimicrobial resistance of Enterococcus spp. could provide useful information that aids the risk analysis of antibiotic resistance.

• Food Science and Industry
• /
• v.49 no.3
• /
• pp.55-61
• /
• 2016

Even though the food safety system in the United States is one of the best in the world, many millions of people become sick and thousands die from foodborne illnesses caused by any of a number of microbial pathogens and other contaminants. Large recalls of United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food Drug and Administration (US FDA)-regulated food products due to findings of E. coli O157:H7, Listeria, Salmonella, and other problems occur each year. As the US FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) passed in 2011, FSMA will require food processing, manufacturing, shipping, and other regulated entities to conduct an analysis of the most likely safety hazards and to design and implement risk-based controls to reduce or eliminate these hazards. FSMA also mandates increased scrutiny of food imports, which account for a growing share of U.S. food consumption; food import shipments will have to be accompanied by documentation showing that they can meet safety standards that are at least equivalent to those in the U.S. On September 17, 2015, the US FDA published final rules for Preventive Controls for Human and Animal Food and, continuing into 2016, the US FDA intends to finalize the remaining five rules it has proposed to implement FSMA. Among these rules, this article will review and discuss Preventive Controls for Human Food Rule and its components, and suggest how to comply with these FSMA rules as foreign human food and ingredients suppliers to the US.

• Korea Trade Review
• /
• v.43 no.3
• /
• pp.219-243
• /
• 2018

This study focused on the rapidly growing Chinese market by developing an evaluation model for overseas direct sales websites for Chinese consumers. In addition, we developed specific strategic alternatives for each sub-market by conducting multi-group analysis for each consumer's characteristics. Results showed that the level of concern about site use had a stronger impact on persistent use behavior. In addition, among antecedents that affect the level of assurance and concern, we found that these includes not only the perceived benefits and perceived risk factors identified in previous studies but also social-cultural factors. In addition, this study compares the evaluation of overseas direct sales website according to the level of involvement of users. This study analyzes the differences in coefficients among the paths and suggest practical implications for each group.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.7-29
• /
• 2012

Smartphone and its applications (i.e. apps) are increasingly penetrating consumer markets. According to a recent report from Korea Communications Commission, nearly 50% of mobile subscribers in South Korea are smartphone users that accounts for over 25 million people. In particular, the importance of smartphone has risen as a geospatially-aware device that provides various location-based services (LBS) equipped with GPS capability. The popular LBS include map and navigation, traffic and transportation updates, shopping and coupon services, and location-sensitive social network services. Overall, the emerging location-based smartphone apps (LBA) offer significant value by providing greater connectivity, personalization, and information and entertainment in a location-specific context. Conversely, the rapid growth of LBA and their benefits have been accompanied by concerns over the collection and dissemination of individual users' personal information through ongoing tracking of their location, identity, preferences, and social behaviors. The majority of LBA users tend to agree and consent to the LBA provider's terms and privacy policy on use of location data to get the immediate services. This tendency further increases the potential risks of unprotected exposure of personal information and serious invasion and breaches of individual privacy. To address the complex issues surrounding LBA particularly from the user's behavioral perspective, this study applied the privacy calculus model (PCM) to explore the factors that influence the adoption of LBA. According to PCM, consumers are engaged in a dynamic adjustment process in which privacy risks are weighted against benefits of information disclosure. Consistent with the principal notion of PCM, we investigated how individual users make a risk-benefit assessment under which personalized service and locatability act as benefit-side factors and information privacy risks act as a risk-side factor accompanying LBA adoption. In addition, we consider the moderating role of trust on the service providers in the prohibiting effects of privacy risks on user intention to adopt LBA. Further we include perceived ease of use and usefulness as additional constructs to examine whether the technology acceptance model (TAM) can be applied in the context of LBA adoption. The research model with ten (10) hypotheses was tested using data gathered from 98 respondents through a quasi-experimental survey method. During the survey, each participant was asked to navigate the website where the experimental simulation of a LBA allows the participant to purchase time-and-location sensitive discounted tickets for nearby stores. Structural equations modeling using partial least square validated the instrument and the proposed model. The results showed that six (6) out of ten (10) hypotheses were supported. On the subject of the core PCM, H2 (locatability ${\rightarrow}$ intention to use LBA) and H3 (privacy risks ${\rightarrow}$ intention to use LBA) were supported, while H1 (personalization ${\rightarrow}$ intention to use LBA) was not supported. Further, we could not any interaction effects (personalization X privacy risks, H4 & locatability X privacy risks, H5) on the intention to use LBA. In terms of privacy risks and trust, as mentioned above we found the significant negative influence from privacy risks on intention to use (H3), but positive influence from trust, which supported H6 (trust ${\rightarrow}$ intention to use LBA). The moderating effect of trust on the negative relationship between privacy risks and intention to use LBA was tested and confirmed by supporting H7 (privacy risks X trust ${\rightarrow}$ intention to use LBA). The two hypotheses regarding to the TAM, including H8 (perceived ease of use ${\rightarrow}$ perceived usefulness) and H9 (perceived ease of use ${\rightarrow}$ intention to use LBA) were supported; however, H10 (perceived effectiveness ${\rightarrow}$ intention to use LBA) was not supported. Results of this study offer the following key findings and implications. First the application of PCM was found to be a good analysis framework in the context of LBA adoption. Many of the hypotheses in the model were confirmed and the high value of $R^2$ (i.,e., 51%) indicated a good fit of the model. In particular, locatability and privacy risks are found to be the appropriate PCM-based antecedent variables. Second, the existence of moderating effect of trust on service provider suggests that the same marginal change in the level of privacy risks may differentially influence the intention to use LBA. That is, while the privacy risks increasingly become important social issues and will negatively influence the intention to use LBA, it is critical for LBA providers to build consumer trust and confidence to successfully mitigate this negative impact. Lastly, we could not find sufficient evidence that the intention to use LBA is influenced by perceived usefulness, which has been very well supported in most previous TAM research. This may suggest that more future research should examine the validity of applying TAM and further extend or modify it in the context of LBA or other similar smartphone apps.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.18 no.9
• /
• pp.101-112
• /
• 2017

The purpose of this paper is the comparative analysis of factors affecting the intention to use mobile payment services. This research compares the types of mobile payment services and different age groups. The result reveals that consumers' innovativeness has a positive impact on the intention to use mobile payment services in case of smartphone-only pay and compatibility and image have a positive effect on the intention to use mobile payment services in case of online pay. There is no significant influencing factor in the case of mobile app card. Moreover, the study reveals that consumers' innovativeness, trust in other domains, and compatibility positively affect the intention to use mobile payment services in the 30-49 age group. In the 50-69 age group, image has a positive impact and perceived risk has a negative impact on the intention to use mobile payment services. There is no significant influence factor in the 10-29 age group. This study is a first-time comparative analysis of factors affecting the intention to use mobile payment services focusing on the types of mobile payment services and different age groups.

• Journal of Family Relations
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.129-147
• /
• 2016

Objective: This study examined the role of siblings with respect to living arrangements between married children and their parents. Previous studies have rarely considered the possibility that family context such as siblings may be associated with intergenerational residential proximity. Method: Using data from first wave of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing (2006), I investigated if, among married children, their sibling characteristics may be associated with the probability of their coresiding with the parent(s), living nearby (within a 30-minute distance from parent(s) by public transportation), or living further away. Specifically, the total numbers of sisters and brothers, the numbers of siblings coresiding with the parent(s) and living nearby, their relative position in the sibling network (first-born son, later-born son, first-born daughter, later-born daughter), and sibship existence and gender configurations (only child, son with brother(s) only, son with sister(s) only, son with both brother(s) and sister(s), daughter with brother(s) only, daughter with sister(s) only, daughter with both brother(s) and sister(s)) were evaluated in the study. For data analysis, multinomial logit models with robust standard errors were estimated using the Stata mlogit procedure. Results: Results suggest that the probability of a married child living together with the parent(s), relative to living close by, was significantly higher the more sisters he or she has. Being a son, especially first-born son, was associated with a higher probability of intergenerational coresidence compared to near residence, respectively. Also, the numbers of siblings coresiding with the parent(s) and living in close proximity were linked to a higher risk of intergenerational coresidence and near residence. Supplementary analyses revealed that the last finding was held over and above the total number of siblings, their relative position in the sibling network, as well as sibling existence and gender configurations. Conclusion: Overall, the study findings indicate that sibling characteristics have significant impacts on intergenerational living arrangement. The influence of traditional patrilineal norm of intergenerational coresidence and a trend towards modified extended family have emerged when siblings characteristics are taken into consideration as determinants of intergenerational living arrangement.

• Journal of Distribution Research
• /
• v.6 no.2
• /
• pp.19-40
• /
• 2002

According to the secondary data, private brand(PB)'s share of retail sales is 25-30% in the USA, but about 45 in Korea. In Korea PB's average price is 23.3% less than manufacturer brand. It is very interest that PB's price advantage doesn't have a good effect on it's share of retail sales. This research's objective is to study why Korean consumers don't purchase private brand cheaper than manufacturer brand. A theoretical reasoning depends on information cue theory and means-ends model of perceived value. A unit of analysis is consumers who purchase private brand at E-mart in Pusan city, one of largest discount store in Korea. Hypothesis tested by Lisrel's structural equation model and interesting results as follows: First, favorable brand image among extrinsic cues is most positively correlated with perceived quality/sacrifice and intrinsic cues is also statistically significant. This fact imply that intrinsic cues; package, logo, country of origin are very important in the adoption of private brand in Korea. Second, compared with manufacturer's brand, PB's perceived price is positively correlated with perceived quality/sacrifice. This fact imply a assimilation effect between manufacturer's brand and private brand. Finally, a correlation between perceived sacrifice and PB proneness is satistically insignificant, but perceived quality has a significant effect on its proneness. this fact imply that innovators(about 4% of potential consumer) are risk-taker.

• Strategy21
• /
• s.37
• /
• pp.104-143
• /
• 2015

China's new grand strategy, the "One Belt, One Road Initiative" (also Belt Road Initiative, or BRI) has two primary components: Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the "Silk Road Economic Belt" in September 2013 during a visit to Kazakhstan, and the "21^st Century Maritime Silk Route Economic Belt" in a speech to the Indonesian parliament the following month. The BRI is intended to supply China with energy and new markets, and also to integrate the countries of Central Asia, the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN), and the Indian Ocean Region - though not Northeast Asia - into the "Chinese Dream". The project will be supported by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), due to open in 2016 with 57 founding members from all around the world, and China has already promised US$ 50 billion in seed funding. China's vision includes networks of energy pipelines, railways, sea port facilities and logistics hubs; these will have obvious commercial benefits, but also huge geopolitical significance. China seems to have two distinct aims: externally, to restore its historical sphere of influence; and internally, to cope with income inequalities by creating middle-class jobs through enhanced trade and the broader development of its economy. In South Korea, opinion on the BRI is sharply polarized. Economic and industrial interests, including Korea Railroad Corporation (KORAIL), support South Korean involvement in the BRI and closer economic interactions with China. They see how the BRI fits nicely with President Park Geun-hye's Eurasia Initiative, and anticipate significant commercial benefits for South Korea from better connections to energy-rich Russia and the consumer markets of Europe and Central Asia. They welcome the prospect of reduced trade barriers between China and South Korea, and of improved transport infrastructure, and perceive the political risks as manageable. But some ardently pro-US pundits worry that the political risks of the BRI are too high. They cast doubt on the feasibility of implementing the BRI, and warn that although it has been portrayed primarily in economic terms, it actually reveals a crucial Chinese geopolitical strategy. They are fearful of China's growing regional dominance, and worried that the BRI is ultimately a means to supplant the prevailing US-led regional security structure and restore the Middle Kingdom order, with China as the only power that matters in the region. According to this view, once China has complete control of the regional logistics hubs and sea ports, this will severely limit the autonomy of China's neighbors, including South Korea, who will have to toe the Chinese line, both economically and politically, or risk their own peace and prosperity.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.49-59
• /
• 2020

Purpose: Online and social media and mobile shopping are increasing and companies are required to provide personal information in order to supplement the non-invasive characteristics of the channels. With the increased provision of personal information, consumers' personal and social concerns about the prevention of personal information infringement are also increasing, and in response, personal or opt-in marketing has emerged to compensate for reckless information abuse. Despite the background of this emergence, the existing prior studies are limited to ignoring the negative feelings of consumers in the real world, including only the net function and positive effect of the opt-in mail. Research design, data and methodology: The research framework was intended to utilize the impact of human marketing activities on consumer attitudes combined with positive and negative factors. Factors that positively affect attitudes toward permation marketing were presented, such as informality, and perceived risks were presented as negative impact factors. Also, based on previous prior research, the prior factors of opt-in marketing were to present the effect on purchase intent through the medium of attitude toward opt-in marketing. Results: In this study, we used the framework of a two factor theory to address positive and negative factors as a leading factor in the customer attitude toward opt-in mail advertising, and as a result, functionality and personalization have a positive effect on customer attitude and perceived risk have a negative impact on customer attitude. In addition, it was confirmed that the customer attitude formed this way affects the intention to purchase again. Conclusions: This study suggests that we have demonstrated that marketing, an opt-in marketing that has been recognized as part of marketing that is deployed after obtaining customer consent, has been applied without any other marketing methodology. E-mail advertising at this point also provides practical implications that the system safeguards are in place under an opt-in protocol or system, and that even if an e-mail advertisement is carried out, customers will need to look at the level of awareness about the risks, and suggests that they need to consider the customer's journey that could lead to purchase at the content level.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.14 no.5
• /
• pp.2140-2149
• /
• 2013

Managing uncertainty or discontinuity in an innovation is still a challenge to most companies. For sustainable corporate survival over the long term, one of the problems caused by discontinuous innovation is the innovator's dilemma. In specific, the dynamics between discontinuous innovation and incumbents inspires the interestof researchers and managers. This paper employs catastrophe theory as a theoretical basis to explain the driving force of new discontinuous change. In other words, we extract the control variables overcoming innovation dilemma by interpreting the dynamics of corporate strategy for discontinuous innovation from the perspective of catastrophe theory. First, we define four types of discontinuity such as technology discontinuity, product discontinuity, business discontinuity, and consumer preference discontinuity. Second, we analyze the dynamics of the competition between companies by interpreting the cases of discontinuous innovation. This analyzing process enables us to identify the control variable which can, in advance, respond to the discontinuous situation.