• Agribusiness and Information Management
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.1-7
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• 2018

In the present day context of changing information needs of the farmers and diversified production systems there is an urgent need to look for the effective extension support system for the small and marginal farmers in the developing countries like India. The rapid developments in the collection and analysis of field data by using the spatial technologies like GPS&GIS were made available for the extension functionaries and clientele for the diversified information needs. This article describes the GIS and GPS based decision support system in precision agriculture for the resource poor farmers. Precision farming techniques are employed to increase yield, reduce production costs, and minimize negative impacts to the environment. The parameters those can affect the crop yields, anomalous factors and variations in management practices can be evaluated through this GPS and GIS based applications. The spatial visualisation capabilities of GIS technology interfaced with a relational database provide an effective method for analysing and displaying the impacts of Extension education and outreach projects for small and marginal farmers in precision agriculture. This approach mainly benefits from the emergence and convergence of several technologies, including the Global Positioning System (GPS), geographic information system (GIS), miniaturised computer components, automatic control, in-field and remote sensing, mobile computing, advanced information processing, and telecommunications. The PPP convergence of person (farmer), project (the operational field) and pixel (the digital images related to the field and the crop grown in the field) will better be addressed by this decision support model. So the convergence and emergence of such information will further pave the way for categorisation and grouping of the production systems for the better extension delivery. In a big country like India where the farmers and holdings are many in number and diversified categorically such grouping is inevitable and also economical. With this premise an attempt has been made to develop a precision farming model suitable for the developing countries like India.

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.155-183
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• 2012

Means-Ends Network model was used to identify factors of means objective(means supplied by vendor) and fundamental objectives(purchasing motivations) for purchasing decision-making structure and dimensions of customer values on purchasers of internet shopping mall in Korea and China. In Means-Ends Network 6 factors(shopping travel, shipping assurance, vendor trust, online payment, product choice, and recommender systems) were found as a means objectives and 3 factors(shopping convenience, internet environment, customer support) as a fundamental objectives of shopping. However the results of hypotheses test for Means-Ends Network show some important differences between two countries. Something important to notice here is that Chinese customers shopping in China recognize shipping assurance factor and vendor trust factor as important factors satisfying all fundamental objectives unlike as in the case of our country. As these two factors are attribution factors responsible to the sellers, it is identified that customers do not trust the sellers and sellers have not met the expectations of customers. Therefore, these results show that the seller efforts assuring the reliability of the seller themselves, such as conducting its own compensation scheme are more important rather than the establishment of the guarantee institution to guarantee reliability and delivery assurance of sellers and implementation of legal and institutional apparatus such as the settlement of e-commerce licence system. Though this study presents such an important marketing implications, it can be pointed out that the limits are this research was done on the general Internet shopping malls without considering the Internet shopping mall types of diversity, the survey was designed around the student samples for convenience of the investigation because it was an international survey and the collected data has been limited to the western coast cities, such as China's Beijing, Shanghai, and Dalian.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.493-498
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• 2013

This paper is aimed to priority evaluation of preliminary cases for IMO -IMS(International Maritime Organization- Information Management System) using fuzzy TOPSIS(Technique for Order Performance by Similarity to Ideal Solution) and AHP(Analytic Hierarchy Process). To this solve, therefore, this paper extract 24 preliminary cases and select 4 major preliminary alternative cases after analysing the structure of its alternative cases using FSM(Fuzzy Structure Modeling). Also, the weights of evaluation factors determine using AHP which able to keep the consistency when decision-makers assess. In AHP method, but, the numbers of paired comparison incerase as much as the numbers of the comparison items increase and because this evaluation have the many of vagueness, the decision of final ranking is used to fuzzy TOPSIS method which is included TOPSIS and Fuzzy Set Theory. The result are developed as order as Management of IMO Convention Information, Delivery of IMO Convention Information, Total IMO Database, Knowledge Hub of IMO Convention Information in IMO-IMS.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.6047-6052
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• 2013

A cosmetic manufacturing process requires a mold that is inevitable for mass production. Cosmetic containers are one of major factors affecting the customer's purchase decision. In addition, the manufacturing cost in cosmetic container comprises a large portion of the entire product cost. Therefore, a mold satisfying the economical feasibility, aesthetics and functionality is necessary. Among the cosmetic containers, square shape containers have a tendency of having a short shot defect product. The square shaped cosmetic containers are mostly produced as a side gate shape on the two-plate molds. On the other hand, there are two disadvantages, such as gate trace and post processing requirement. The overlap-gateproposed in this study has the characteristics of intaglio gate cutting and no need for post processing. The delivery system of the overlap gate was simulated and compared with the side gate via Moldflow. The improvement in flow, frozen rate, density, and Air trap was confirmed. Based on the simulation results, the mold and performed injection molding was fabricated. In this study, the possibility of the mass production of high aesthetic and functionality cosmetic containers was verified.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.67-79
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• 2016

Purpose - Over recent years, we have concerned about safety and quality on food products because of delivery complexity. The dependence of foreign food products escalate supply of products. And there are often negligent accident of marine and agricultural products. Therefore, the complexity increases the importance of safety on food and information quality for consumers. In spite of the interest augmentation of various interested parties, there is decrease in reliability and effectiveness, if it would be established without the right directivity. For the study, we tried to examine the first considerations the point of - view in service environment and information quality with accepting and diffusing the Traceability System. Then, we tried to verify the relationships between the factors of TS and the determinants of behavior decision. Next, we made efforts to find the mutual relationship among distributors, producers, consumers and the other prerequisite factors from the point of view in service environment and information quality in order to operate effectively the information perspective and system. Research design, data, and methodology - For the purpose of this study, the samples of consumers were targeted to Traceability System, and 661 people have been investigated. Through theoretical discussion of previous research, nine hypotheses were established, the influence of Continuous User Intention in TS. In order to test the hypotheses, a survey had conducted for 661 consumers as opinion leaders in their 20s-60s as data, and structural equation modeling was used. The difference analysis between Agricultural and Marine Products in TS; SPSS 22.0 and AMOS 22.0 were used for statistical analysis. Results - The major findings from this study were as follow; all factors of information quality excluding completeness and a social-impact had effects on the ease of use; all factors excluding understand ability in information quality and a social-impact had effects on the usefulness; completeness and social-impact had effects on perceived value; the ease of use had effects on usefulness and perceived value; usefulness had effects on perceived value and the intention of continuous use. From the results of different analysis, the CPLT(Completeness) factor has positive effects on Easy of USE and PV(Perceived Value) strongly in agricultural products. On the other hand, Social Duty has positive effects on Easy of Use strongly in marine products. Conclusion - In the age of information overflowing, TS will be a burden for users if it places too much emphasis upon accessibility. To accept and diffuse TS safely, therefore, Information System should be settled first into initial market formation. In addition, if TS elements are considered in conjunction with information factors and user environment, the acceptance and diffusion of TS would make synergy effect, even better. That is, this study contributes to the acceptance and diffusion of Traceability System. Accordingly, information quality will be settled into initial market formation. Also, social-impact element will be considered in conjunction with information quality's factors, and it will make synergy effect.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.305-311
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• 2015

Background: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship nursing personal and workplace system factors (work disability) and work ability index scores in Ontario, Canada. Methods: A total of 111 registered nurses were randomly selected from the total number of registered nurses on staff in the labor, delivery, recovery, and postpartum areas of four northeastern Ontario hospitals. Using a stratified random design approach, 51 participants were randomly selected in four northeastern Ontario cities. Results: A total of 51 (45.9% response rate) online questionnaires were returned and another 60 (54.1% response rate) were completed using the paper format. The obstetric workforce in northeastern Ontario was predominately female (94.6%) with a mean age of 41.9 (standard deviation = 10.2). In the personal systems model, three variables: marital status (p = 0.025), respondent ethnicity (p = 0.026), and mean number of patients per shift (p = 0.049) were significantly contributed to the variance in work ability scores. In the workplace system model, job and career satisfaction (p = 0.026) had a positive influence on work ability scores, while work absenteeism (p = 0.023) demonstrated an inverse relationship with work ability scores. In the combined model, all the predictors were significantly related to work ability scores. Conclusion: Work ability is closely related to job and career satisfaction, and perceived control at work among obstetric nursing. In order to improve work ability, nurses need to work in environments that support them and allow them to be engaged in the decision-making processes.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.163-179
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• 2010

Recentlythe concept of fast fashion is drawing attention as customer needs are diversified and supply lead time is getting shorter in fashion industry. It is emphasized as one of the critical success factors in the fashion industry how quickly and efficiently to satisfy the customer needs as the competition has intensified. Because the fast fashion is inherently susceptible to trend, it is very important for fashion retailers to make quick decisions regarding items to launch, quantity based on demand prediction, and the time to respond. Also the planning decisions must be executed through the business processes of procurement, production, and logistics in real time. In order to adapt to this trend, the fashion industry urgently needs supports from intelligent quick response(QR) system. However, the traditional functions of QR systems have not been able to completely satisfy such demands of the fast fashion industry. This paper proposes an intelligent quick response system for the fast fashion(IQRS-FF). Presented are models for QR process, QR principles and execution, and QR quantity and timing computation. IQRS-FF models support the decision makers by providing useful information with automated and rule-based algorithms. If the predefined conditions of a rule are satisfied, the actions defined in the rule are automatically taken or informed to the decision makers. In IQRS-FF, QRdecisions are made in two stages: pre-season and in-season. In pre-season, firstly master demand prediction is performed based on the macro level analysis such as local and global economy, fashion trends and competitors. The prediction proceeds to the master production and procurement planning. Checking availability and delivery of materials for production, decision makers must make reservations or request procurements. For the outsourcing materials, they must check the availability and capacity of partners. By the master plans, the performance of the QR during the in-season is greatly enhanced and the decision to select the QR items is made fully considering the availability of materials in warehouse as well as partners' capacity. During in-season, the decision makers must find the right time to QR as the actual sales occur in stores. Then they are to decide items to QRbased not only on the qualitative criteria such as opinions from sales persons but also on the quantitative criteria such as sales volume, the recent sales trend, inventory level, the remaining period, the forecast for the remaining period, and competitors' performance. To calculate QR quantity in IQRS-FF, two calculation methods are designed: QR Index based calculation and attribute similarity based calculation using demographic cluster. In the early period of a new season, the attribute similarity based QR amount calculation is better used because there are not enough historical sales data. By analyzing sales trends of the categories or items that have similar attributes, QR quantity can be computed. On the other hand, in case of having enough information to analyze the sales trends or forecasting, the QR Index based calculation method can be used. Having defined the models for decision making for QR, we design KPIs(Key Performance Indicators) to test the reliability of the models in critical decision makings: the difference of sales volumebetween QR items and non-QR items; the accuracy rate of QR the lead-time spent on QR decision-making. To verify the effectiveness and practicality of the proposed models, a case study has been performed for a representative fashion company which recently developed and launched the IQRS-FF. The case study shows that the average sales rateof QR items increased by 15%, the differences in sales rate between QR items and non-QR items increased by 10%, the QR accuracy was 70%, the lead time for QR dramatically decreased from 120 hours to 8 hours.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.164-174
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• 2008

It is crucial In decision making to select a project delivery system (PDS) adjusted accordingly to the project characteristics. Furthermore, selecting a tendering system is the kernel in the process of selecting PDS. In October 2007, the Ministry of Finance and the Economy of Korea launched two new project delivery systems, "Best Value Contract (Design-Bid-Build)" and "Bridging Contracts (Design-Build)" by revising enforcement ordinances of "Act on Contracts to Which the State is a Party" to provoke the tendering systems. In order to support the proposed purpose, this research developed a selection model for suitable tendering system, which helps a public owner select a tendering system appropriate to the project characteristics. First, the framework of the model was set throughout analyzing previous researches and interviewing relevant experts. Additionally, by analyzing the survey result from 265 experts engaged in architectural and civil engineering business, the relative weights of the selection factors and the effectiveness values of the alternatives were suggested as the quantitative evaluation references. Finally, the practical guideline was suggested to apply this model to three public projects scheduled to be delivered. The result of applying the model to three case projects showed that further researches were needed to make the selection process logical and to suggest the standard weights and effectiveness values according to project type.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.164-170
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• 2017

The CNC machine tool field is showing a growing trend with the recent rapid development of manufacturing industries such as semiconductors, automobiles, medical devices, various inspection and test equipment, mechanical metal processing equipment, aircraft, shipbuilding and electronic equipment. However, small and medium-sized machining companies that use CNC machine tools are experiencing difficulties in increasingly intense competition. Especially, small companies which are receiving orders from 3rd or 4th venders are very difficult in business management. In recent years, company S experienced difficulty to make product quality and delivery time due to the ignorance of the processing method when manufacturing cooling plate jig made of SUS304 material used for cell phone liquid crystal glass processing. In order to solve these problems, we redesigned the process according to the size of our company and tried to manage all processes with quantified data. In the meantime, we have found that there is a need to improve the cutter process, which accounts for most of the machining process. Therefore, we have investigated the correlation between RPM and FEED of three cutters that have been used in the past. As a result, we found that it is the most urgent problem to solve the roughing process during the cutter operation which occupies more than 70% of the total machining. In order to shorten the machining time and improve the quality in machining of SUS304 cooling plate jig, we select the main factors such as price, tool life, maintenance cost, productivity, quality, RPM, and FEED and use AHP to find the most suitable milling cutter. We also tried to solve the problem of delivery, quality and production capacity which was a big problem of S company through experiment operation with selected cutter tool. As a result, the following conclusions were drawn. First, the most efficient of the three cutters currently available in the machining center has proven to be an M-cutter. Second, although one additional facility was required, it was possible to produce the existing facilities without additional investment by supplementing the lack of production capacity due to productivity improvement. Third, the Company's difficulties in delivery and capacity shortfalls have been resolved. Fourth, annual sales increased by KRW 109 million and profits increased by KRW 32 million annually. Fifth, it can confirm the usefulness of AHP method in corporate decision making and it can be utilized in various facility investment and process improvement in the future.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.61-118
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• 2008

The purpose of this research is to construct research framework for international franchising based on existing literature and to identify research components in the framework. Franchise can be defined as management styles that allow franchisee use various management assets of franchisor in order to make or sell product or service. It can be divided into product distribution franchise that is designed to sell products and business format franchise that is designed for running it as business whatever its form is. International franchising can be defined as a way of internationalization of franchisor to foreign country by providing its business format or package to franchisee of host country. International franchising is growing fast for last four decades but academic research on this is quite limited. Especially in Korea, research about international franchising is carried out on by case study format with single case or empirical study format with survey based on domestic franchise theory. Therefore, this paper tries to review existing literature on international franchising research, providing research framework, and then stimulating new research on this field. International franchising research components include motives and environmental factors for decision of expanding to international franchising, entrance modes and development plan for international franchising, contracts and management strategy of international franchising, and various performance measures from different perspectives. First, motives of international franchising are fee collection from franchisee. Also it provides easier way to expanding to foreign country. The other motives including increase total sales volume, occupying better strategic position, getting quality resources, and improving efficiency. Environmental factors that facilitating international franchising encompasses economic condition, trend, and legal or political factors in host and/or home countries. In addition, control power and risk management capability of franchisor plays critical role in successful franchising contract. Final decision to enter foreign country via franchising is determined by numerous factors like history, size, growth, competitiveness, management system, bonding capability, industry characteristics of franchisor. After deciding to enter into foreign country, franchisor needs to set entrance modes of international franchising. Within contractual mode, there are master franchising and area developing franchising, licensing, direct franchising, and joint venture. Theories about entrance mode selection contain concepts of efficiency, knowledge-based approach, competence-based approach, agent theory, and governance cost. The next step after entrance decision is operation strategy. Operation strategy starts with selecting a target city and a target country for franchising. In order to finding, screening targets, franchisor needs to collect information about candidates. Critical information includes brand patent, commercial laws, regulations, market conditions, country risk, and industry analysis. After selecting a target city in target country, franchisor needs to select franchisee, in other word, partner. The first important criteria for selecting partners are financial credibility and capability, possession of real estate. And cultural similarity and knowledge about franchisor and/or home country are also recognized as critical criteria. The most important element in operating strategy is legal document between franchisor and franchisee with home and host countries. Terms and conditions in legal documents give objective information about characteristics of franchising agreement for academic research. Legal documents have definitions of terminology, territory and exclusivity, agreement of term, initial fee, continuing fees, clearing currency, and rights about sub-franchising. Also, legal documents could have terms about softer elements like training program and operation manual. And harder elements like law competent court and terms of expiration. Next element in operating strategy is about product and service. Especially for business format franchising, product/service deliverable, benefit communicators, system identifiers (architectural features), and format facilitators are listed for product/service strategic elements. Another important decision on product/service is standardization vs. customization. The rationale behind standardization is cost reduction, efficiency, consistency, image congruence, brand awareness, and competitiveness on price. Also standardization enables large scale R&D and innovative change in management style. Another element in operating strategy is control management. The simple way to control franchise contract is relying on legal terms, contractual control system. There are other control systems, administrative control system and ethical control system. Contractual control system is a coercive source of power, but franchisor usually doesn't want to use legal power since it doesn't help to build up positive relationship. Instead, self-regulation is widely used. Administrative control system uses control mechanism from ordinary work relationship. Its main component is supporting activities to franchisee and communication method. For example, franchisor provides advertising, training, manual, and delivery, then franchisee follows franchisor's direction. Another component is building franchisor's brand power. The last research element is performance factor of international franchising. Performance elements can be divided into franchisor's performance and franchisee's performance. The conceptual performance measures of franchisor are simple but not easy to obtain objectively. They are profit, sale, cost, experience, and brand power. The performance measures of franchisee are mostly about benefits of host country. They contain small business development, promotion of employment, introduction of new business model, and level up technology status. There are indirect benefits, like increase of tax, refinement of corporate citizenship, regional economic clustering, and improvement of international balance. In addition to those, host country gets socio-cultural change other than economic effects. It includes demographic change, social trend, customer value change, social communication, and social globalization. Sometimes it is called as westernization or McDonaldization of society. In addition, the paper reviews on theories that have been frequently applied to international franchising research, such as agent theory, resource-based view, transaction cost theory, organizational learning theory, and international expansion theories. Resource based theory is used in strategic decision based on resources, like decision about entrance and cooperation depending on resources of franchisee and franchisor. Transaction cost theory can be applied in determination of mutual trust or satisfaction of franchising players. Agent theory tries to explain strategic decision for reducing problem caused by utilizing agent, for example research on control system in franchising agreements. Organizational Learning theory is relatively new in franchising research. It assumes organization tries to maximize performance and learning of organization. In addition, Internalization theory advocates strategic decision of direct investment for removing inefficiency of market transaction and is applied in research on terms of contract. And oligopolistic competition theory is used to explain various entry modes for international expansion. Competency theory support strategic decision of utilizing key competitive advantage. Furthermore, research methodologies including qualitative and quantitative methodologies are suggested for more rigorous international franchising research. Quantitative research needs more real data other than survey data which is usually respondent's judgment. In order to verify theory more rigorously, research based on real data is essential. However, real quantitative data is quite hard to get. The qualitative research other than single case study is also highly recommended. Since international franchising has limited number of applications, scientific research based on grounded theory and ethnography study can be used. Scientific case study is differentiated with single case study on its data collection method and analysis method. The key concept is triangulation in measurement, logical coding and comparison. Finally, it provides overall research direction for international franchising after summarizing research trend in Korea. International franchising research in Korea has two different types, one is for studying Korean franchisor going overseas and the other is for Korean franchisee of foreign franchisor. Among research on Korean franchisor, two common patterns are observed. First of all, they usually deal with success story of one franchisor. The other common pattern is that they focus on same industry and country. Therefore, international franchise research needs to extend their focus to broader subjects with scientific research methodology as well as development of new theory.