• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.65-88
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• 2008

Since the implementation of economic reforms in 1978, the Chinese economy grows rapidly at an average annul growth rate of 9% over the post two decades. Franchising has been widely recognized as an important source of entrepreneurial activity. Trust is important in that it facilitates relational exchanges by permits partners to transcend short-run inequities or risks to concentrate on long-term profits or gains. In the relationship between the franchisors and franchisees, trust has been described as an important source of competitive advantage. However, little research has been done on the factors affecting trust in Chinese franchisor-franchisee relationships. The purpose of this study is to investigate what factors affect the trust in the franchise system in China, and to provide guidelines and insights to franchisors which enter Chinese market. In this study, according to Morgan and Hunt (1994), trust is defined as the extending when one party has confidence in an exchange partner's reliability and integrity. We offered a conceptual model of the empirical study. The model shows that the factors affecting the trust include franchisor's supports, communication, satisfaction with previous outcome and conflict. We also suggested the franchisor's supports and communication like to enhance the franchisee's satisfaction with previous outcome, and the franchisor's supports, communication and he franchisee's satisfaction with previous outcome tend to decrease conflict. Before the formal study, a pretest involving exploratory interviews with owners from three franchisees was conducted to make sure the questionnaire was relevant and clear to the respondents. The data were collected using trained interviewers to carry out personal interviews with the aid of an unidentified, muti-page, structured questionnaire. The respondents comprised of owners, managers, and owner managers of franchisee-owned food service franchises located in Beijing, China. Even though a total of 256 potential franchises were initially contacted, the finally usable sample consisted of 125 respondents. As expected, the sampling method was successful in soliciting respondents with waried personal and firm characteristics. Self-administrated questionnaires were used for all measures. And established scales were used to measure the latent constructs in this study. The measures tapped the franchisees' perceptions of the relationship with the referent franchisor. Five-point Likert-type scales ranging from "strongly disagree" (=1) to "strongly agree" (=7) were used throughout the constructs (trust, eight items; support, five items; communication, four items; satisfaction, six items; conflict, three items). The reliability measurements traditionally employed, such as the Cronbach's alpha, were used. All the reliabilities were greater than.80. The proposed measurement model was estimated using SPSS 12.0 and AMOS 5.0 analysis package. We conducted A series of exploratory factor analyses and confirmatory factor analyses to assess the convergent validity, discriminant validity, and reliability. The results indicate reasonable overall fits between the model and the observed data. The overall fit of measurement model were $X^2$= 159.699, p=0.004, d.f. = 116, GFI =.879, NFI =.898, CFI =.969, IFI =.970, TLI =.959, RMR =.058. The results demonstrated that the data reasonably fitted the model. We also examined construct reliability and reliability and average variance extracted (AVE). The construct reliability of each construct was greater than.80 and the AVE of each construct was greater than.50. According to the analysis of Structure Equation Modeling (SEM), the results of path model indicated an adequate fit of the model: $X^2$= 142.126, p = 0.044, d.f. = 115, GFI =.892, NFI =.909, CFI =.981, IFI =.981, TLI =.974, RMR =.057. As hypothesized, the results showed that it is strategically important to establish trust in a franchise system, and the franchisor's supports, communication and satisfaction with previous outcome tend to reinforce franchisee's trust. The results also showed trust seems to decrease as the experience of conflict episodes increases. And we also noticed that franchisor's supports and communication tend to enhance the franchisee's satisfaction with previous outcome, and communication tend to decrease conflict. If the trust between the franchisor and franchisee can be established in a franchise system, franchising offers many benefits and reduces many costs. To manage a mutual trust of relationship with their franchisees, franchisor's should provide support effectively to their franchisees. Effective assistant services have direct effect on franchisees' satisfaction with previous outcome and trust in franchisor. Especially, franchise sales process, orientation, and training in the start-up period are key elements for success of the franchise system. Franchisor's support is an accumulated separate satisfaction evaluation with different kind of service provided by the franchisor. And providing support definitely can improve the trustworthy image of the franchisor. In the franchise system, conflicts of interests and exertions of different power sources are very common. The experience of conflict episodes seems to negatively relate to trust. Therefore, it is important to reduce the negative side of the relationship conflicts. Communication actually plays a broader role in reducing conflict and establish mutual trust in franchisor-franchisee relationship. And effective communication between franchisors and franchisees can improve franchisees' satisfaction toward the franchise system. As the diversification of Chinese markets, both franchisors and franchisees must keep the relevant, timely, and reliable communication. And it is very important to improve the quality of communication. Satisfaction with precious outcomes seems to positively relate to trust. Franchisors and franchisees that are highly satisfied with the previous outcomes that flow from their relationship will perceive their partner as advancing their goal achievement. Therefore, it is necessary for both franchisor and their franchisees to make the welfare of partner with effort. Little literature has focused on what factors affect the trust between franchisors and their franchisees in China. This study developed the hypotheses regarding the factors affecting trust in the transaction relationship. The results of data analysis supported the hypotheses strongly. There are certain limitations in this study. First, we may point out that some other factors missed in this study could be significantly important. Second, the context of this study, food service industry, limits its potential generalizability for all franchise systems. More studies in different categories of franchise system are needed to broaden its generalizability. Third, the model was tested empirically in a sample in Beijing, more empirical tests of the proposed model in other Chinese areas are needed. Finally, the analysis in this study was solely based on the perception of franchisees and the opinions of franchisors were not included.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.49-58
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• 2020

In the era of the fourth industrial revolution, the world is undergoing rapid social change. The purpose of this study is to predict the expected changes and necessary competencies and desired curriculum and teaching methods in the field of mechanical engineering in the near future. The research method was a Delphi study. It was conducted three times with 20 mechanical engineering experts. The results of the study are as follows: In the field of mechanical engineering, it will be increased the situational awareness by the use of measurement sensors, development of computer applications, flexibility and optimization by user's needs and mechanical equipment, and demand for robots equipped with AI. The mechanical engineer's career perspectives will be positive, but if it is stable, it will be a crisis. Therefore active response is needed. The competencies required in the field of mechanical engineering include collaborative skills, complex problem solving skills, self-directed learning skills, problem finding skills, creativity, communication skills, convergent thinking skills, and system engineering skills. The undergraduate curriculum to achieve above competencies includes four major dynamics, basic science, programming coding education, convergence education, data processing education, and cyber physical system education. Preferred mechanical engineering teaching methods include project-based learning, hands-on education, problem-based learning, team-based collaborative learning, experiment-based education, and software-assisted education. The mechanical engineering community and the government should be concerned about the education for mechanical engineers with the necessary competencies in the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution, which will make global competitiveness in the mechanical engineering fields.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.2172-2180
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• 2016

As increasing the emphasis of competence-based learning, Project-base instruction is adopted more with frequency at the educational field. This study focuses on developing the methodology of project-based instructional system. The first one is to manage the project independently not to link with any module. The second one is to link a project to a module. And the third one is to link a project to the more than two major modules. Also It suggests the tool for project based instruction. Before & after class conducting the inspection for increasing satisfaction of instruction by the systematic management and improvement, the project base instruction shows the positive effect to promote the creative personality and problem solving ability. The contentment of the class increases 7% more at the 2nd year than the 1st. As a result, it can derive the evaluation of the pupils' higher achievement rate.

• Asia-pacific Journal of Multimedia Services Convergent with Art, Humanities, and Sociology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.219-227
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• 2017

Current military command information system uses electronic equipment a lot on which semiconductor chip is attached. It seems its' importance will increase more with latest information communication technology developing. Electronic equipment which uses electricity contains regular tolerance to high output electric signal. And EMC specification is the standardized of this electronic equipment's tolerance. On the other hand, the Institute of Atomic Energy Research has ever declared that high output electromagnetic pulse(EMP) will be broken out within the radius of 170Km when 10kt nuclear explosion occurs at an altitude of 40Km above Seoul. Then, the region suffer from the damage of most electronic equipments. Therefore, the norm to protect the influences in that case is defined by EMP protection specification. Most common electronic equipments meet the EMC norm, but there is no way to check whether they meet the EMP norm or not. That is because it is difficult to check whether they meet EMP protection norm and is on the matter of cost. Except inevitable cases, there is no review of checking whether they meet the norm or not. Considering the above, in this research, we speculate about the measures to improve military EMP protection ability by analyzing the EMC-EMP correlation and checking the EMP protection ability of general electronic equipment through the analysis.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.79-86
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• 2015

Recently, the tendency in the education system is toward the convergent curriculum to developing people of interdisciplinary abilities. This study was conducted to develop a clinical competence assessment program that assists health department students' clinical practice and to examine its learning effects. Study samples were composed 94 graduating student nurses who were from nursing dept of on M city. This study employed a one-group pre-post test design. knowledge, clinical competence and professional images were significantly higher in post test group. That was enhanced by clinical competence assessment program than that of the pretest group (p<.001). The results indicate that it will help students in clinical adaptability of the department of healthcare-Affiliated. Further study will be needed to identify the effect of a clinical competence and communication skills.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.29 no.4B
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• pp.329-337
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• 2009

In this study we briefly introduce the electronic float system based on the GPS and RF communication technology and present some field application results. The system is capable of operating 15 floats simultaneously for making discharge measurement. Since the electronic floats (EFs) acquire flow paths, they can improve velocity measurement accuracy up to 10%. Additionally, measured velocities by the EFs show good agreement with those by an ADCP. Relative difference in sub-section area calculated by the electronic and conventional float methods is -79~71% and, due to convergent tendency of floats flowing along near banks, it increases much larger. It is possible to improve accuracy up to 5~6% in making discharge measurement by the electronic floats at site with irregular flow paths and section arrangement. The electronic float system is capable of calculating more accurate velocity and section area using position information based on GPS. By real-time measurement of velocity, cross-section area and discharge, the electronic float system is expected to reduce manpower and improve accuracy, rapidity and efficiency of flood discharge measurements.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.11
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• pp.746-754
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• 2016

Smart healthcare systems, a convergent industry based on information and communications technologies (ICT), has emerged from personal health management to remote medical treatment as a distinguished industry. The smart healthcare environment provides technology to deliver vital information, such as pulse rate, body temperature, health status, and so on, from wearable devices to the hospital network where the physician is located. However, since it deals with the patient's personal medical information, there is a security issue for personal information management, and the system may be vulnerable to cyber-attacks in wireless networks. Therefore, this study focuses on a key-development and device-management system to generate keys in the smart environment to safely manage devices. The protocol is designed to provide safe communications with the generated key and to manage the devices, as well as the generated key. The security level is analyzed against attack methods that may occur in a healthcare environment, and it was compared with existing key methods and coding capabilities. In the performance evaluation, we analyze the security against attacks occurring in a smart healthcare environment, and the security and efficiency of the existing key encryption method, and we confirmed an improvement of about 15%, compared to the existing cipher systems.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.65-76
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• 2015

Purpose - This article aims to present and test a model regarding franchisors' supporting activities that may positively influence franchisees' attitude toward the franchising headquarter and their own business performance. Moreover, the authors examine the moderating effect of competitive intensity between franchisee attitude and business performance. Most previous research focused on behavioral performance measurements such as satisfaction, trust, and commitment. There are few empirical studies that focus on financial performance data because it is difficult to determine a relational mechanism between behavioral and financial performance. Moreover, financial data is confidential and difficult to collect in many cases. However, this study measures financial performance (e.g., sales revenue per square meter) differently than most previous research, which is mostly focused on the behavioral performance measurements. Research design, data, and methodology - To test our hypotheses, we selected 137 franchisee managers who are running chains of one of the foremost bakery franchise brands in South Korea. This study carefully investigated the reliability, content validity, convergent validity, and discriminant validity of the proposed instrument by analyzing the data obtained from the samples. The data was analyzed using the AMOS structural equation modeling program. Results - The results indicated that: non-financial support activities (e.g., information exchange and communication) had a positive impact on the franchisee attitude toward the franchising headquarter. The franchisee attitude in turn had a positive effect on the headquarters' business performance. Furthermore, competitive intensity could enhance the relationship between franchisee attitude toward franchising headquarter and business performance in a local franchise market. However, financial support activities (e.g., rewards and promotional support) and training had no relationship with either franchisee attitude or business performance. Conclusions - This study provides some practical implications to franchisors in terms of franchise operation and store opening strategies. With respect to the franchise operation strategy, franchisors need to focus on non-financial rather than financial support. Most franchisees consider the necessity of financial support activities and not their sufficiency because these activities are specified in their franchise contract. In addition, it is important for franchisees to maintain a positive attitude for the franchise headquarters. The franchisees with a positive attitude for the franchisor can show a high degree of solidarity for various support activities, and it consequently determines franchisees' sales performance. In terms of franchise store opening strategy, this study suggests an additional criterion that can be considered in determining the location of direct and non-direct management stores (e.g., franchisees' stores). In this research, franchise stores located within high level of competitive intensity are shown to have a high relationship between franchisee attitudes of franchisor support activities and business performance compared to the franchisees located within low competitive intensity level. This result shows that opening non-direct franchise stores is more effective than direct stores in higher competitive market situations. Research contribution, implications, and further research directions are discussed at the end of the paper.

• Korean Journal of General Education
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.237-254
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• 2010

For years, poor research and working conditions in the field of science and engineering in Korea led to the migration of gifted students to seek a better academic environment. The primary reason for such a phenomenon is the lack of a coherent education system for gifted students. With the support from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the Korea Foundation for the Advancement of Science & Creativity, Hanyang University launched an exploring project to introduce an Honors Program, aiming to provide specialized and systematic learning opportunities as well as supporting greater academic achievements for gifted students at university-level. Students admitted to this program were selected not by conventional standards but by competency-based selection process, assessed through an in-depth interview. The specific goal of this program is to prepare gifted and talented students not only for an academic pioneer with the highest caliber in the field of science, but also for a global leader equipped with a creative view as well as integrity and a convergent mind. Distinctive features of this program include emphasis on fundamental science and consilience, problem solving skills, first-hand education, interpersonal skills, and global communication skills as well as individualization of the learning experience, among many others. This paper provides a short glimpse of the focus and methodology Honors Program in Hanyang University offers.

• Korea Science and Art Forum
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• v.31
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• pp.21-32
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• 2017

Local festivals form the regional cultures and atmosphere of communication; they increase the demand of domestic tourism businesses and thus, have an important role in ripple effects (e.g. regional image improvement, tourist influx, job creation, regional contents development, and local product sales) and economic revitalization. IoT (Internet of Thing) technologies have been developed especially, beacon-one of the IoT services has been applied as plenty of types and forms both domestically and internationally. However, notwithstanding expansion of current digital mobile technologies, it still remains as difficult for the individual to track the information about all the local festivals and to fulfill the tourists' needs of enjoying festivals given the weak strategic approaches and advertisement activities. Furthermore, current festival-related mobile applications don't function well as delivering information and have numerous contents issues (e.g. ways of information delivery within the festival places, independent application usage for each festival, one time usage due to one time event). This research, based on the background mentioned above, aims to develop the local festival mobile application and data analysis system applying beacon technology. First of all, three algorithms were developed, namely, 'festival crowding algorithm', 'visitor stats algorithm', and 'customized information algorithm', and then beta test was followed with the developed application and data analysis system. As a result, they could form the database of visitors' types and behaviors, and provide functions and services, such as personalized information, waiting time for festival contents, and 'hot place' function. Besides, in Google Play store, they also got the titles given with more than 13,000 downloads within first three months and as the most exposed application related with festivals; and, thus, got credited with their marketability and excellence. This research follows this order: chapter 2 shows the literature review of local festival related with technology development, beacon service, and festival application. In Chapter 3, design plans and conditions are described of developing local festival mobile application and data analysis system with beacon. Chapter 4 evaluates the results of the beta performance test to verify applicability of the developed application and data analysis system, and lastly, chapter 5 explains the conclusion and suggests the future research.