• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.133-137
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• 2010

Purpose: The main function of vitamin D is the mineralization of the brain by increase of calcium and phosphorus, in case it is insufficient in children, lime deposition on cartilage cannot occur so it leads to rachitis, and in adults, it leads to osteomalacia or osteoporosis. It is also strongly believed in the academic world that vitamin D can restrict the growth of cancer cells and prevent heart diseases, which is also somewhat proven in epidemiological researches. While the right density of vitamin D is still being studied, 20-32 ng/mL is believed to be the most ideal density. Therefore, I wanted analyze how much density of 25-Hydroxyvitamin D3 that Koreans possess. Materials and Methods: From February 20th, 2008 to April 21st, 2009, the collection of 2800 serums, from medical examination treated subjects by Neodin Medical Institute, have been tested. The targets were tested by 25-Hydroxyvitamin D (125I Kit: Diasorin, USA), and were analyzed by dividing into many different categories (gender, age, season, region). Results: The average density of male were 20 ng/mL, female 17.08 ng/mL. Per age groups, the density of males were as follows: 10~20-18 ng/mL, 21~30-17 ng/mL, 31~40-19 ng/mL, 41~50-21 ng/mL, 51~60-22 ng/mL, 61~70-22 ng/mL, 71~80-22 ng/mL and 81~90-19.9 ng/mL. Average density of females per age groups, were as follows: 10~20-16 ng/mL, 20~30-15.26 ng/mL, 30~40-16 ng/mL, 40~50-17 ng/mL, 50~60-19 ng/mL, 60~70-19 ng/mL, 70~80-19 ng/mL, and 80~90-17 ng/mL. Per seasons, From December to May, the subjects showed the density of 15.97 ng/mL, while from June to November, it showed 21.60 ng/mL. On density of males from January to April regionally, Seoul+Gyeonggi-Do-15.52 ng/mL, Gangwon-Do-15.33 ng/mL, Choongchung-Do-18.03 ng/mL, Jeonla-Do-18.68 ng/mL, Gyungsang-Do-18.76 ng/mL and Cheju Do-21.23 ng/mL. Conclusions: The vitamin D of Koreans is has been insufficient compared to the suggested amount. Ultraviolet rays, which is the main source of vitamin D is critical, therefore it is suggested that more outdoor activities can definitely help.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.95-115
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• 2011

Food service is the major part of franchise business in Korea, accounting for 69.9% of the brands in the market. As the food service industry becomes mature, many franchisees have struggled to survive in the market. In general, consumers have higher levels of expectation toward service quality of franchised outlets compared that of (non-franchised) independent ones. They also tend to believe that franchisees deliver standardized service at the uniform food price, regardless of their locations. Such beliefs seem to be important reasons that consumers prefer franchised outlets to independent ones. Nevertheless, few studies examined the impact of qualify features of franchisees on customer satisfaction so far. To this end, this study examined the characteristics of various quality features of franchisees in the food service industry, regarding their relationship with customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction. The quality perception of heavy-users was also compared with that of light-users in order to find insights for developing differentiated marketing strategy for the two segments. Customer satisfaction has been understood as a one-dimensional construct while there are recent studies that insist two-dimensional nature of the construct. In this regard, Kano et al. (1984) suggested to categorize quality features of a product or service into five types, based on their relation to customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction: Must-be quality, Attractive quality, One-dimensional quality, Indifferent quality, and Reverse quality. According to the Kano model, customers are more dissatisfied when Must-be quality(M) are not fulfilled, but their satisfaction does not arise above neutral no matter how fully the quality fulfilled. In comparison, customers are more satisfied with a full provision of Attactive quality(A) but manage to accept its dysfunction. One-dimensional quality(O) results in satisfaction when fulfilled and dissatisfaction when not fulfilled. For Indifferent quality(I), its presence or absence influences neither customer satisfaction nor dissatisfaction. Lastly, Reverse quality(R) refers to the features whose high degree of achievement results in customer dissatisfaction rather than satisfaction. Meanwhile, the basic guidelines of the Kano model have a limitation in that the quality type of each feature is simply determined by calculating the mode statistics. In order to overcome such limitation, the relative importance of each feature on customer satisfaction (Better value; b) and dissatisfaction (Worse value; w) were calculated following the formulas below (Timko, 1993). The Better value indicates how much customer satisfaction is increased by providing the quality feature in question. In contrast, the Worse value indicates how much customer dissatisfaction is decreased by providing the quality feature. Better = (A + O)/(A+O+M+I) Worse = (O+M)/(A+O+M+I)(-1) An on-line survey was performed in order to understand the nature of quality features of franchisees in the food service industry by applying the Kano Model. A total of twenty quality features (refer to the Table 2) were identified as the result of literature review in franchise business and a pre-test with fifty college students in Seoul. The potential respondents of our main survey was limited to the customers who have visited more than two restaurants/stores of the same franchise brand. Survey invitation e-mails were sent out to the panels of a market research company and a total of 257 responses were used for analysis. Following the guidelines of Kano model, each of the twenty quality features was classified into one of the five types based on customers' responses to a set of questions: "(1) how do you feel if the following quality feature is fulfilled in the franchise restaurant that you visit," and "(2) how do you feel if the following quality feature is not fulfilled in the franchise restaurant that you visit." The analyses revealed that customers' dissatisfaction with franchisees is commonly associated with the poor level of cleanliness of the store (w=-0.872), kindness of the staffs(w=-0.890), conveniences such as parking lot and restroom(w=-0.669), and expertise of the staffs(w=-0.492). Such quality features were categorized as Must-be quality in this study. While standardization or uniformity across franchisees has been emphasized in franchise business, this study found that consumers are interested only in uniformity of price across franchisees(w=-0.608), but not interested in standardizations of menu items, interior designs, customer service procedures, and food tastes. Customers appeared to be more satisfied when the franchise brand has promotional events such as giveaways(b=0.767), good accessibility(b=0.699), customer loyalty programs(b=0.659), award winning history(b=0.641), and outlets in the overseas market(b=0.506). The results are summarized in a matrix form in Table 1. Better(b) and Worse(w) index indicate relative importance of each quality feature on customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction, respectively. Meanwhile, there were differences in perceiving the quality features between light users and heavy users of any specific franchise brand in the food service industry. Expertise of the staffs was labeled as Must-be quality for heavy users but Indifferent quality for light users. Light users seemed indifferent to overseas expansion of the brand and offering new menu items on a regular basis, while heavy users appeared to perceive them as Attractive quality. Such difference may come from their different levels of involvement when they eat out. The results are shown in Table 2. The findings of this study help practitioners understand the quality features they need to focus on to strengthen the competitive power in the food service market. Above all, removing the factors that cause customer dissatisfaction seems to be the most critical for franchisees. To retain loyal customers of the franchise brand, it is also recommended for franchisor to invest resources in the development of new menu items as well as training programs for the staffs. Lastly, if resources allow, promotional events, loyalty programs, overseas expansion, award-winning history can be considered as tools for attracting more customers to the business.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.165-176
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• 2004

Purpose: Firstly, to analyze facto in terms of radiation treatment that might potentially cause subfrontal relapse in two patients who had been treated by craniospinal irradiation (CSI) for medulloblastoma, Secondly, to explore an effective salvage treatment for these relapses. Materials and Methods: Two patients who had high-risk disease (T3bMl, T3bM3) were treated with combined chemoradiotherapy CT-simulation based radiation-treatment planning (RTP) was peformed. One patient who experienced relapse at 16 months after CSI was treated with salvage surgery followed by a 30.6 Gy IMRT (intensity modulated radiotherapy). The other patient whose tumor relapsed at 12 months after CSI was treated by surgery alone for the recurrence. To investigate factors that might potentially cause subfrontal relapse, we evaluated thoroughly the charts and treatment planning process including portal films, and tried to find out a method to give help for placing blocks appropriately between subfrotal-cribrifrom plate region and both eyes. To salvage subfrontal relapse in a patient, re-irradiation was planned after subtotal tumor removal. We have decided to treat this patient with IMRT because of the proximity of critical normal tissues and large burden of re-irradiation. With seven beam directions, the prescribed mean dose to PTV was 30.6 Gy (1.8 Gy fraction) and the doses to the optic nerves and eyes were limited to 25 Gy and 10 Gy, respectively. Results: Review of radiotherapy Portals clearly indicated that the subfrontal-cribriform plate region was excluded from the therapy beam by eye blocks in both cases, resulting in cold spot within the target volume, When the whole brain was rendered in 3-D after organ drawing in each slice, it was easier to judge appropriateness of the blocks in port film. IMRT planning showed excellent dose distributions (Mean doses to PTV, right and left optic nerves, right and left eyes: 31.1 Gy, 14.7 Gy, 13.9 Gy, 6.9 Gy, and 5.5 Gy, respectively. Maximum dose to PTV: 36 Gy). The patient who received IMRT is still alive with no evidence of recurrence and any neurologic complications for 1 year. Conclusion: To prevent recurrence of medulloblastoma in subfrontal-cribriform plate region, we need to pay close attention to the placement of eye blocks during the treatment. Once subfrontal recurrence has happened, IMRT may be a good choice for re-irradiation as a salvage treatment to maximize the differences of dose distributions between the normal tissues and target volume.

• Journal of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.39-61
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• 2008

Objectives : The present study was performed to investigate whether acupuncture stimulation in the rats affected regeneration properties of the injured sciatic nerve. A differential effect of acupuncture stimulation on the one point near the spinal nerve root controlling sciatic nerve activity and the other point in the peripheral area subordinated by injured nerve was compared. Materials and Methods: Rat sciatic nerves were injured by crush, and the effects on axonal regeneration on injured sciatic nerves were evaluated by acupuncture stimulation at two different regions. In proximal acupuncture stimulation group, acupuncture stimulation was performed on Huatuo Jiaji(EX B2) points located from L5 to S1 vertebral levels to stimulate the nearest spinal nerve root that innervates sciatic nerves. In distal acupuncture stimulation group, acupuncture stimulation was performed on Zusanli(ST 36) and Weizhong(BL 40) points to stimulate at peripheral area dominated by injured sciatic nerves. Acupuncture stimulation was given every other days for 1 or 2 weeks. Sciatic nerve tissues collected from acupuncture stimulation experimental groups, injury control group, and intact animal group were used for protein analysis by Western blotting or Hoechst nuclear staining. To determine axonal regeneration, Dil fluorescence dye was injected into the sciatic nerve 0.5 cm distal to the injury site in individual animal groups and Dil-labeled cells by retrograde tracing were measured in the DRG at lumbar 5 or in the spinal cord. DRG sensory neurons prepared from individual animal groups were used to measure the extent of neurite outgrowth and for immunofluorescence staining with anti-GAP-43 antibody. Results : Animal groups given proximal or distal acupuncture stimulation showed upregulation of GAP-43 and Cdc2 protein levels in the sciatic nerve at 7 days after injury. Cdk2 protein levels were strongly induced by nerve injury, but did not show changes by acupuncture stimulation. Phospho-Erk1/2 protein levels were elevated by acupuncture stimulation above those present in the injury control animals. These increase in regeneration-associated protein levels appeared to be related with increase cell proliferation in the injured sciatic nerves. Hoechst 33258 staining of sciatic nerve tissue to visualize nuclei of individual cells showed increased Schwann cell number in the distal portion of the injured nerve 7 and 14 days after injury and further increases by acupuncture stimulation particularly at the proximal position. Measurement of axonal regeneration by retrograde tracing showed significantly increased Dil-labeled cells in proximal acupuncture stimulation group compared to distal acupuncture stimulation group and injury control group. Finally, an evaluation of axonal regeneration by retrograde tracing showed increased number of Dil labeled cells in the DRG at lumbar 5 or in the ventral horn of the spinal cord at lower thoracic level at 7 days after nerve injury. Conclusions : The present data show that the proximal acupuncture stimulation at Huatuo Jiaji(EX B2) points governing injured sciatic nerves was more effective for axonal regeneration than the distal acupuncture stimulation. Further studies on functional recovery or associated molecular mechanisms should be critical for developing animal models and clinical applications.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.9-17
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• 2004

Purpose : Although Improve of CT, MRI Radio-diagnosis and Radiation Therapy Planing, but we still use ICRU38 Planning system(2D film-based) broadly. 3-Dimensional ICR plan(CT image based) is not only offer tumor and normal tissue dose but also support DVH information. On this study, we plan irradiation-goal dose on CTV(CTV plan) and irradiation-goal dose on ICRU 38 point(ICRU38 plan) by use CT image. And compare with tumor-dose, rectal-dose, bladder-dose on both planning, and analysis DVH Method and Material : Sample 11 patients who treated by Ir-192 HDR. After 40Gy external radiation therapy, ICR plan established. All the patients carry out CT-image scanned by CT-simulator. And we use PLATO(Nucletron) v.14.2 planing system. We draw CTV, rectum, bladder on the CT image. And establish plan irradiation-$100\%$ dose on CTV(CTV plan) and irradiation-$100\%$ dose on A-point(ICRU38 plan) Result : CTV volume($average{\pm}SD$) is $21.8{\pm}26.6cm^3$, rectum volume($average{\pm}SD$) is $60.9{\pm}25.0cm^3$, bladder volume($average{\pm}SD$) is $116.1{\pm}40.1cm^3$ sampled 11 patients. The volume including $100\%$ dose is $126.7{\pm}18.9cm^3$ on ICRU plan and $98.2{\pm}74.5cm^3$ on CTV plan. On ICRU planning, the other one's $22.0cm^3$ CTV volume who residual tumor size excess 4cm is not including $100\%$ isodose. 8 patient's $12.9{\pm}5.9cm^3$ tumor volume who residual tumor size belows 4cm irradiated $100\%$ dose. Bladder dose(recommended by ICRU 38) is $90.1{\pm}21.3\%$ on ICRU plan, $68.7{\pm}26.6\%$ on CTV plan, and rectal dose is $86.4{\pm}18.3\%,\;76.9{\pm}15.6\%$. Bladder and Rectum maximum dose is $137.2{\pm}50.1\%,\;101.1{\pm}41.8\%$ on ICRU plan, $107.6{\pm}47.9\%,\;86.9{\pm}30.8\%$ on CTV plan. Therefore CTV plan more less normal issue-irradiated dose than ICRU plan. But one patient case who residual tumor size excess 4cm, Normal tissue dose more higher than critical dose remarkably on CTV plan. $80\%$over-Irradiated rectal dose(V80rec) is $1.8{\pm}2.4cm^3$ on ICRU plan, $0.7{\pm}1.0cm^3$ on CTV plan. $80\%$over-Irradiated bladder dose(V80bla) is $12.2{\pm}8.9cm^3$ on ICRU plan, $3.5{\pm}4.1cm^3$ on CTV plan. Likewise, CTV plan more less irradiated normal tissue than ICRU38 plan. Conclusion : Although, prove effect and stability about previous ICRU plan, if we use CTV plan by CT image, we will reduce normal tissue dose and irradiated goal-dose at residual tumor on small residual tumor case. But bigger residual tumor case, we need more research about effective 3D-planning.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.18-30
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• 1973

The flag and lower leaves (4th or 5th) of rice plant from the field of NPK simple trial and from three low productive area were analyzed in order to find out certain diagnostic criteria of nutritional status at harvest. 1. Nutrient contents in the leaves from no fertilizer, minus nutrient and fertilizer plots revealed each criterion for induced deficiency (severe deficient case induced by other nutrients), deficiency (below the critical concentration), insufficiency (hidden hunger region), sufficiency (luxuary consumption stage) and excess (harmful or toxic level). 2. Nitrogen contents for the above five status was less than 1.0%, 1.0 to 1.2, 1.2 to 1.6, 1.6 to 1.9 and greater than 1.9, respectively. 3. It was less than 0.3%, 0.3 to 0.4, 0.4 to 0.55 and greater than 0.55 for phosphorus $(P_2O_5)$ but excess level was not clear. 4. It was below 0.5%, 0.5 to 0.9, 0.9 to 1.2, 1.2 to 1.4 and above 1.4 for potassium. 5. It was below 4%, 4 to 6, 6 to 11 and above 11 for silicate $(SiO_2)$ and no excess was appeared. 6. Potassium in flag leaf seemed to crow out nitrogen to ear resulting better growth of ear by the inhibition of overgrowth of flag leaf. 7. Phosphorus accelerated the transport of Mg, Si, Mn and K in this order from lower leaf to flag, and retarded that of Ca and N in this order at flowering while potassium accelerated in the order of Mn, and Ca, and retarded in the order of Mg, Si, P and N at milky stage. 8. Transport acceleration index (TAI) expressed as (F_2L_1-F_1L_2)\;100/F_1L_1$ where F and L stand for other nutrient cotents in flag and lower leaf and subscripts indicate the rate of a nutrient applied, appears to be suitable for the effect of the nutrient on the translocation of others. 9. The content of silicate $(SiO_2)$ in the flag was lower than that of lower leaf in the early season cultivation indicating hinderance in translocation or absorption. It was reverse in the normal season cultivation. 10. The infection rate of Helminthosporium frequently occurred in the potassium deficient field seemed to be related more to silicate and nitrogen content than potassium in the flag leaf. 11. Deficiency of a nutrient occured simultaniously with deficiency of a few other ones. 12. Nutritional disorder under the field condition seems mainly to be attributed to macronutrients and the role of micronutrient appears to be none or secondary.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.35-55
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• 2013

Information technology is a critical resource necessary for any company hoping to support and realize its strategic goals, which contribute to growth promotion and sustainable development. The selection of information technology and its strategic use are imperative for the enhanced performance of every aspect of company management, leading a wide range of companies to have invested continuously in information technology. Despite researchers, managers, and policy makers' keen interest in how information technology contributes to organizational performance, there is uncertainty and debate about the result of information technology investment. In other words, researchers and managers cannot easily identify the independent factors that can impact the investment performance of information technology. This is mainly owing to the fact that many factors, ranging from the internal components of a company, strategies, and external customers, are interconnected with the investment performance of information technology. Using an agent-based simulation technique, this research extracts factors expected to affect investment performance on information technology, simplifies the analyses of their relationship with economic modeling, and examines the performance dependent on changes in the factors. In terms of economic modeling, I expand the model that highlights the way in which product quality moderates the relationship between information technology investments and economic performance (Thatcher and Pingry, 2004) by considering the cost of information technology investment and the demand creation resulting from product quality enhancement. For quality enhancement and its consequences for demand creation, I apply the concept of information quality and decision-maker quality (Raghunathan, 1999). This concept implies that the investment on information technology improves the quality of information, which, in turn, improves decision quality and performance, thus enhancing the level of product or service quality. Additionally, I consider the effect of word of mouth among consumers, which creates new demand for a product or service through the information diffusion effect. This demand creation is analyzed with an agent-based simulation model that is widely used for network analyses. Results show that the investment on information technology enhances the quality of a company's product or service, which indirectly affects the economic performance of that company, particularly with regard to factors such as consumer surplus, company profit, and company productivity. Specifically, when a company makes its initial investment in information technology, the resultant increase in the quality of a company's product or service immediately has a positive effect on consumer surplus, but the investment cost has a negative effect on company productivity and profit. As time goes by, the enhancement of the quality of that company's product or service creates new consumer demand through the information diffusion effect. Finally, the new demand positively affects the company's profit and productivity. In terms of the investment strategy for information technology, this study's results also reveal that the selection of information technology needs to be based on analysis of service and the network effect of customers, and demonstrate that information technology implementation should fit into the company's business strategy. Specifically, if a company seeks the short-term enhancement of company performance, it needs to have a one-shot strategy (making a large investment at one time). On the other hand, if a company seeks a long-term sustainable profit structure, it needs to have a split strategy (making several small investments at different times). The findings from this study make several contributions to the literature. In terms of methodology, the study integrates both economic modeling and simulation technique in order to overcome the limitations of each methodology. It also indicates the mediating effect of product quality on the relationship between information technology and the performance of a company. Finally, it analyzes the effect of information technology investment strategies and information diffusion among consumers on the investment performance of information technology.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.191-207
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• 2021

Up to this day, mobile communications have evolved rapidly over the decades, mainly focusing on speed-up to meet the growing data demands of 2G to 5G. And with the start of the 5G era, efforts are being made to provide such various services to customers, as IoT, V2X, robots, artificial intelligence, augmented virtual reality, and smart cities, which are expected to change the environment of our lives and industries as a whole. In a bid to provide those services, on top of high speed data, reduced latency and reliability are critical for real-time services. Thus, 5G has paved the way for service delivery through maximum speed of 20Gbps, a delay of 1ms, and a connecting device of 106/㎢ In particular, in intelligent traffic control systems and services using various vehicle-based Vehicle to X (V2X), such as traffic control, in addition to high-speed data speed, reduction of delay and reliability for real-time services are very important. 5G communication uses high frequencies of 3.5Ghz and 28Ghz. These high-frequency waves can go with high-speed thanks to their straightness while their short wavelength and small diffraction angle limit their reach to distance and prevent them from penetrating walls, causing restrictions on their use indoors. Therefore, under existing networks it's difficult to overcome these constraints. The underlying centralized SDN also has a limited capability in offering delay-sensitive services because communication with many nodes creates overload in its processing. Basically, SDN, which means a structure that separates signals from the control plane from packets in the data plane, requires control of the delay-related tree structure available in the event of an emergency during autonomous driving. In these scenarios, the network architecture that handles in-vehicle information is a major variable of delay. Since SDNs in general centralized structures are difficult to meet the desired delay level, studies on the optimal size of SDNs for information processing should be conducted. Thus, SDNs need to be separated on a certain scale and construct a new type of network, which can efficiently respond to dynamically changing traffic and provide high-quality, flexible services. Moreover, the structure of these networks is closely related to ultra-low latency, high confidence, and hyper-connectivity and should be based on a new form of split SDN rather than an existing centralized SDN structure, even in the case of the worst condition. And in these SDN structural networks, where automobiles pass through small 5G cells very quickly, the information change cycle, round trip delay (RTD), and the data processing time of SDN are highly correlated with the delay. Of these, RDT is not a significant factor because it has sufficient speed and less than 1 ms of delay, but the information change cycle and data processing time of SDN are factors that greatly affect the delay. Especially, in an emergency of self-driving environment linked to an ITS(Intelligent Traffic System) that requires low latency and high reliability, information should be transmitted and processed very quickly. That is a case in point where delay plays a very sensitive role. In this paper, we study the SDN architecture in emergencies during autonomous driving and conduct analysis through simulation of the correlation with the cell layer in which the vehicle should request relevant information according to the information flow. For simulation: As the Data Rate of 5G is high enough, we can assume the information for neighbor vehicle support to the car without errors. Furthermore, we assumed 5G small cells within 50 ~ 250 m in cell radius, and the maximum speed of the vehicle was considered as a 30km ~ 200 km/hour in order to examine the network architecture to minimize the delay.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.131-157
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• 2012

Despite the voluminous research on switching barriers, the notion that they can generate negative responses has not been investigated. Further, a critical question is what determines the strength of such negative responses. To address this question, the classic theory of psychological reactance is briefly reviewed, and the idea of switching barrier is advanced. This study attempts to suggest a model on the negative effects of switching- frustrated situation, based on the studies on psychological reactance. According to psychological reactance theory(Brehm 1966), whenever a freedom is threatened or removed, individuals are motivated, at least temporarily, to restore their freedom. For example, if individuals think they are free to engage in behaviors .v, y, or z, then threatening their freedom to engage in x would cause psychological reactance. This reactance could be reduced by an increase in the perceived attractiveness of engaging in, the threatened behavior(Kivetz 2005). This investigation seeks to extend existing switching barrier research in three important ways. First, while the past research has emphasized only positive role of switching barrier, this study address negative role of it by applying psychological reactance theory. Second, to find negative results of switching barrier, I suggest negative psychological response including regret to the past choice, resentment to the present provider, and strong desire to the alternative provider. Third, I suggest the perceived severity of the switching barriers, the attractiveness of the alternative as switching-frustrated situation which can lead to negative results. And, in addition to these relationships, I added moderated effects of perceived justice for better explanation. So this study includes the following hypotheses. H1-1 ~ H1-3: The attractiveness of the alternative has a positive effect regret to the past choice (h1-1), resentment to the present provider (h1-2), and strong desire to the alternative provider (h1-3). H2-1 ~ H2-3 : The perceived severity of the switching barrier has a positive effect regret to the past choice (h2-1), resentment to the present provider (h2-2), and strong desire to the alternative provider (h2-3). H3-1 ~ H3-3 : The positive relationships between the attractiveness of the alternative and consumer' negative responses will be stronger at low level of perceived justice than at high level of perceived justice. H4-1 ~ H4-3 : The positive relationships between the perceived severity of the switching barrier and consumer' negative responses will be stronger at low level of perceived justice than at high level of perceived justice. Survey research is employed to test hypotheses involving perceived severity of the switching barrier(Hess 2008), attractiveness of the alternative(Anderson and Narus 1990; Ohanian 1990),regret(Glovich and Medvec 1995), resentment, strong desire(Alcohol Urge Questionaire: Bohn et al. 1995), perceived justice(Bies and Moag 1986; Clemmer 1993; Lind and Tyler 1998). Previous researches, such as reactance theory, emotion and service failure, have been referenced to measure constructs. All items were measured on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree". We collected data involving various service field, and used 249 respondents to analyze these data using the moderated regression. The results of our analysis suggest, as expected, that the perceived severity of the switching barrier had positive effects on regret to the past choice(b = .197, p< .01), resentment to the present provider(b = .214, p< .01), and strong desire to the alternative provider(b = .254, p< .001). And the attractiveness of the alternative had positive effects on regret to the past choice(b = .353, p<.001), resentment to the present provider(b = .174, p< .01), and strong desire to the alternative provider(b = .265, p< .001). However, our findings indicate perceived justice partly moderates relationship between switching-frustrated situation and psychological negative response. The study has brought to light a number of insights between switching barriers and consumer' negative responses that have been subject to little prior research. In particular, this study adds to the existing understanding of the psychological responses to switching barriers in switching- frustrated situation. This research therefore has significance to marketers for strategic marketing programs, particularly in terms of customer retention and switching barrier strategies. Since consumers could exhibit negative responses to switching barrier, companies would be able to lose their customer when they thoughtlessly use switching barrier for remaining customer. Although the study has these contributions, there are several limitations including unsupported hypotheses and research method. So, we need to make up for these limitations in the future researches.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.80 no.1
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• pp.72-81
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• 1991

This study was carried out to provide necessary information for improving quarrying industry management in Korea. The results of the study are summarized as follows : 1. In aggregate and building-stone quarrying firms the managers over 40 years of age are 97% and 89.1%, the ones above education level of high school are 90% and 85% and the ones not more than 10 years of quarrying experience are 70% and 52%, respectively. Accordingly it can be pointed out that most of the managers of two types of firms are relatively old, have high educational background, while quarrying experiences of building-stone firm managers are longer than that of aggregate firm managers. 2. Most of the management forms are social corporation(60%) for aggregate quarry firms and private management(76%) for building-stone firms. Average areas of permitted stone-pits of aggregate and building-stone quarries are about 2.86ha and 1.66ha respectively. That is, aggregate quarrying firms are carried on a larger scale than building-stone quarrying firms. 3. The yearly average product of aggregate quarrying firms has increased steadily from $88.961m^3$ in 1985 to $144.028m^3$ in 1988, while, in case of building-stone quarry firms, it has significantly increased from $4.155m^3$ to $19.462m^3$ from 1985 to 1987, but reduced to $13.400m^3$ in 1988. Unstable production activities of building-stone quarrying firms may require continuous government support. 4. Major cost items are equipment rental, depreciation, salaries, repair, maintenance for aggregate quarrying firms, and salaries, depreciation, fuel, tax for building-stone quarrying firms. The yearly average rate of return is about 9.7% for aggregate quarry firms and 2.6% for building-stone quarry firms. It can be pointed out that aggregate quarrying firms is better managed than building-stone quarrying firms. 5. The production elasticity of salary for aggregate quarrying firms is 0.495, that of employees is 0.559, and that of capital service is 0.513. The sum of the elasticities is 1.257>1. Fur building-stone quarrying firms, that of employees is 0.492, that of variable costs is 0.192, and that of capital service is 0.498. The sum of elasticities is 1.172>1, thus denotes the increasing returns to scale for both types quarrying firms. 6. The ratio of marginal value product to opportunity cost of empolyees is 2.54, that of variable costs is 3.62, and that of capital service is 1.45, in aggregate quarrying firms. That of employees is 2.47, that is variable costs was 2.34, and that of capital service is 19.67 in building-stone quarrying firms. Therefore the critical factors for more expansion of management scale in aggregate quarrying firms are variable cost and employees, and are capital service in building-stone quarry ing firms. 7. The break-even points of stone sales are about 0.587 billion won and 0.22 billion won in aggregate and building-stone quarrying firms respectively. The optimum sales Level for profit maximization are about 2.0 billion and 0.5 billion in aggregate and building-stone quarry firms respectively.