• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.10
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• pp.93-107
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• 2016

Purpose - This study aims to derive directions and implications for improving performance in operating agrifood export organizations by identifying significant performance impact factors. Research design, data, and methodology - A seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) model was estimated using data from a survey conducted among 120 exporters including 16 leading export organizations. In the SUR estimation, the export volume and price are used as dependent variables and securing the quantity of products ordered and exported, quality management, and marketing activities are considered as explanatory variables for the operation performance. Results - The amount of farmer education, the manpower in charge of marketing, and the interaction terms between whether or not they belong to a leading export organization and the item dummy for mushrooms have a significant impact on the export volume where the export volume is specified as a dependent variable. The export volume is greater with a greater amount of farmer education and greater manpower in charge of marketing from the perspective of quality management. When the export price is estimated as a dependent variable, the manpower in charge of marketing is shown to have a significant impact on the export price. Conclusions - The government needs to strengthen its support of the performance of agrifood export organizations. The analysis indicates that the education of and consulting with farmers, and the manpower number in charge of marketing are key factors in the operation performance of export organizations. Therefore, supporting the export organizations in expanding their human resources in charge of marketing can increase the export volumes for agrifoods. Given, however, that the export volume associated with joint payments, human resources specialized in quality management, and the amount of participation in export exhibitions are not significant factors, it is essential to improve the supporting policies for those areas. The manpower in charge of marketing from the perspective of marketing has a significant impact on both the export volume and export price. Thus, we identify this as the most important category that should be supported to enhance performance in export organizations.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.10
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• pp.65-72
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• 2015

Purpose - A rapidly changing business environment places great demands on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). These SMEs need to find strategic alternatives for continued growth and, ultimately, survival. Thus, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are deemed an acceptable solution. Research to date has dealt with M&A in major organizations and focused on post merger integration (PMI). Our study focuses on SMEs, as they are relatively new and unknown to the public. Therefore, this study highlights successful M&A and decision making for SMEs through a case study analysis. Research design, data, and methodology - For this study, we examined an M&A case between company S, which produces cell phone parts, and company P, which produces SSD cases. We reviewed theories and previous studies in M&A literature. We comprehensively examined the decision-making procedure at each M&A stage, describing the situation of the buying company and the selling company from the period of the M&A announcement through deal completion. In addition, we conducted interviews with both companies. The data regarding this case study were collected through interviews with managers of both companies who actively participated in the M&A process. When necessary, we asked them about additional relevant information during the interviews. Results - The result of the M&A between company S and company P was deemed acceptable with the exception of the long negotiation period. However, company S was not able to prepare for PMI after the acquisition due to a controversy over acquisition values. Moreover, the employees of the newly formed company, especially those who came from company P, complained about the M&A and attempted to leave. Thus, implications for successful M&As of SMEs are as follows: First, the procedural compliance of the M&A is needed. Second, support is needed from the CEO for the working group, rather than excessive intervention during due diligence. Third, the right, talented members of the organization should be part of the process of the M&A. Fourth, the use of various types of outside expert or business consultants is needed. Fifth, the strategic intervention by Human Resource managers is required. Last, sharing M&A information among employees is important as information dissemination will help employees be more receptive to such a change. However, this study has several limitations as a single case study; more varied SME M&A case studies are needed in order to generalize the results of the study. Conclusions - Most of the research dealing with M&As has focused on major companies and PMI and neglected SMEs. Thus, our study focuses on SMEs and the decision-making procedures for M&A. This study has significantly contributed to the literature in this area and has provided practical information around the implications of sound decision-making during M&As. Specifically, the results of the study contribute to the need for research on M&A among SMEs, which to date has often been neglected as a topic of choice.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.10 no.11
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• pp.61-70
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• 2012

Purpose - The entry of Super Supermarkets (SSM), operated by large corporations, into the retail distribution market weakens the competitive power of local supermarkets (SM) and their families leading to a rapid collapse of the local-SM market. Accordingly, this is a very sensitive and urgent issue in Korean society and politics. Therefore, the government is required to take steps to activate a local-SM market and regain the loyalty of their customers. However, in spite of the urgent need of a comparative study on the advantages and competitive power of local-SM in relation to the SSM, little research has been done on this issue to date. One purpose of this study is to analyze the differences in store characteristics of the local SM and SSM, and to explore the relationships amongst various store characteristics, such as consumption emotion, relation quality, and store loyalty between store types to provide an efficient solution to activate a local-SM market. Research design, data, methodology - To analyze the differences in the evaluation of store characteristics between store types, and to test the moderator and mediator effects, data were collected from 488 customers in Seoul, Incheon,and Gyeonggi Province. The theoretical model consists of four hypotheses, and data was processed to test these using factor analysis, t-test, regression analysis, hierarchical regression, and the three step regression proposed by Baron and Kenny. Results - First, the analysis shows that local-SM customers evaluate location characteristic factors significantly higher compared to SSM customers. However, SSM customers evaluate quality of merchandise, sales promotion activities, and store environment significantly higher. Yet, there are no significant differences in the evaluation of consumption emotion, relation quality,and store loyalty between the store types. Second, the analysis of moderator effects of the store type show that sales promotion and store atmosphere factors have a significantly negative moderating effecton positive consumption emotion, while positive consumption emotion has a significantly positive moderating effect on absorption of relation quality, while there are no significant moderating effects between consumption emotion and store loyalty. Third, while both trust and absorption of relation quality are partially mediated between consumption emotion and store loyalty, only absorption is partially mediated between positive consumption emotion and store loyalty. There are no significant mediating effects of absorption between negative consumption emotion and store loyalty. Conclusions - We strongly recommend that location restrictions on entrance of SSM into local-SM market should either be further strengthened or sustained for the activation of the local store market. Government should strengthen financial support to improve the quality of merchandise, sales promotion, employee education, store environment of the local-SM by providing appropriate business consulting. Moreover, the result implies that the owners of alocal-SM should take measures to increase customers' absorption and store loyalty, such as store cleanliness, maintaining a delightful atmosphere at the store, and training employees on attitudes towards customers. As this study is restricted within Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi Province, care needs to be taken in generalizing the interpretation and application to the national level.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.19 no.11
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• pp.211-225
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to develop the E-STEAM program emphasizing the engineering design process and apply them to young children to examine their effects on scientific problem-solving ability and communication ability. In order to develop the E-STEAM program, activities were organized by reviewing previous studies and websites related to STEAM and engineering education. The organized activities were selected as final activities after consulting with experts. To examine the effectiveness of the program, 50 subjects(experimental group: 25, control group:25) participated in K kindergarten in G city. The experimental group took part in the E-STEAM activities during 7 weeks, while the control group took part in the traditional science activities. The procedure for this study consisted of a pre-study, a pre-test, the treatment, and a post-test schedule. The results of this study were as follows: First, the experimental group showed significantly higher score than the control group in total problem-solving ability. Second, the experimental group showed significantly higher score than the control group in total communication ability. These findings suggest that the experience of E-STEAM activities for young children can be effective teaching-learning methods for young children's problem solving ability and communication ability.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.87-94
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• 2002

Recently, there have been numerous attempts to expand the traditional temporary soil nailing system into a permanent wall. Two reasons for this include the soil nailed system's advantage of efficient and economic use of subgrade space and its ability to decrease the total construction cost. However, the systematic and logical design approach has not been proposed yet. The permanent soil nailing wall system, which utilizes precast concrete from soil nailing system, is already used in many countries, but the study of cast-in-place concrete lacing or rigid walls in bottom-up construction of traditional soil nailing walls is imperfect and insufficient. In this paper, various laboratory model tests have been carried out to investigate the influence of parameters, including stiffness of the rigid wall to the soil nailing structure with respect to failure mode, displacement patterns and tensile forces at the nail head in several levels of load. Then, the variation of earth pressure distribution on the soil nailing wall, built with a rigid front plate, is sought through different levels of surcharge load and tensile forces at the nail head.

• Journal of KIISE:Computing Practices and Letters
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.224-234
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• 2005

As the network-related technology develops the number of both Internet users and the usage are explosively increasing. The networking traffic is increasing in the campus as the networking system inside universities, following the trend, adds more nodes and various networking services. Nonetheless, the quality of services for users has been degraded. Accordingly, core problems, which can cause troubles for network management, design and expansion of the network, and the cost policy, has appeared. To effectively cope with the problems with analyses a great number of technicians, tools, and budget are needed. However, it is not possible for mid and small-sized colleges to spend such a high expenditure for professional consulting. To reduce the cost and investment creating the optimized environment, the analyses on the replacement of the tools, changing the network structure, and performance analysis about capacity planning of networking is necessary. For this reason, in this paper, framework-based performance management tools are used for all steps that are related to the subject of the analysis for the network management. As the major research method, the current data in detailed categories are collected, processed, and analyzed to provide the solution for the problems. As a result we could manage the network, server, and application more systematically and react efficiently to errors and degrading of performance that affect the networking tasks. Also, with the scientific and organized analyses the overall efficiency is upgraded by optimizing the cost for managing the operation of entire system.

• The Korean Journal of Rehabilitation Nursing
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.31-45
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• 2001

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between self-concept and self-care activities of the cerebral palsied adolescents and to gain the baseline data for development of effective rehabilitation nursing intervention program of the cerebral palsied adolescents. The design of this study was a descriptive correlational study. The subjects of the study were 160 cerebral palsied adolescents attending at special schools located in Seoul and Kyonggi and rehabilitation centers located in Seoul, Kyonggi and Kyongnam province. The data was collected from May 20 to July 20, 2000. The instrument used for this study were the self-concept scale(50items 4point scale) and self-care activities scale(29items 4point scale). Self-Concept Scale had developed by Fitt(1965), which was standardized by Chung(1968) and modified by Kim(1984). Self-Care Activities Scale developed by the researcher through out the consulting of expert and pilot study on the basis of ADL check list developed by Kang(1984) and LDSQ-3(Lambeth Disability Screening Questionnair-3) developed by Na et al. (1995). The data was analyzed by the SPSS/PC+program using frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, t-test, ANOVA & Scheffe test and Pearson's correlation coefficient. The results of this study were as follows; 1. The mean score of self-concept was $138.55{\pm}17.20$(range: 50-100), which the item mean score was $2.77{\pm}0.34$(range: 1-4). The score of subarea of the self-concept was the highest score in family self ($3.01{\pm}0.54$) and the lowest score in physical self ($2.52{\pm}0.42$). 2. The mean score of self-care activities was $95.25{\pm}21.69$ (range: 29-116), which the item mean score was $3.28{\pm}0.75$ (range: 1-4). The score of subarea of the self-care activities was the highest score in feeding($3.75{\pm}0.59$) and the lowest score in walking($2.64{\pm}1.21$). 3. There were statistically significant difference in the score of self-concept according to the age (F=3.24, P=.04), the grads (F=4.36, P=.01), and types of cerebral palsy (F=2.42, P=.03). 4. There were statistically significant difference in the score of self-care activities according to the age (F=8.29, P=.00), the grads (F=16.05, P=.00), types of living place (F=6.46, P=.00), types of cerebral palsy (F=48.92, P=.00), whether or not receiving a rehabilitation therapy (t=-3.64, P=.00), whether or not receiving a vocational training (t=2.14, P=.03), and whether or not using a device (t=-7.42, P=.00). 5. There was not significant correlation between self-concept and self-care activities (r=.081, P=.311).

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.669-679
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• 2016

Architectural firms that would like to adopt the BIM are currently in an unfavorable position because of reduced orders, polarization of orders, and low price design. This study was conducted to evaluate plausible methods for supporting introduction of BIM into small sized firms. Before suggesting plans for support, we analyzed support projects and laws relating to support for small sized firms, after which we conducted a survey of small sized firms that support the project. The survey was completed by 242 architects and consisted of questions regarding the following aspects: current status and problems associated with BIM utilization, preference of certain policies for BIM introduction support, and reasonable level of support. After the survey, it was concluded that architectural firms are willing to use BIM and agree with the need for financial support for BIM program purchase and education, as well as to support BIM experts and fund low interest loans. In conclusion, it is proposed that support plans for small sized architectural firms in the areas of BIM introduction consulting, financial funding for the introductory process, provision of education and experts, order support, and promotions for accomplishment be provided.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.12 no.8
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• pp.71-82
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• 2014

Purpose - This study is to examine the effect of environmental orientation on innovation, environmental and market performance in Korean franchise firms' context. This study also investigates how environmental orientation, innovation and environmental performance play mediating roles between environmental orientation and market performance. For these purposes, the authors developed a structural model which consists of several constructs. In the model, environmental orientation was proposed to affect innovation and environmental performance, while innovation and environmental performance influence market performance. Specifically, innovation and environmental performance were proposed as core mediators between franchise firms' environmental orientation and market performance. Research design, data, and methodology - The data were collected from 155 franchise firms in Korea during January 2012. The results of factor analysis with reliability test with Cronbach's α warranted unidimensionality of the measures for each construct. In addition, nomological validity of the measures of each construct was warranted from the result of correlation analysis. The data were analyzed with reliability analysis, and structural equation modeling with SPSS Win/PC 18.0 and AMOS 18.0. Results - The results of the overall model analysis appeared as follow: χ²=52.388(df=21), p=.000. GFI=.932, AGFI=.854, NFI=.964, CFI=.978, RMSEA=.099, RMR=.059. Since the result of the overall model analysis demonstrated a good fit, we further analyzed our data. The findings can be summarized as follows: Firstly, the environmental orientation had a positive effect on innovation and environmental performance, but had not a direct effect on market performance. Secondly, innovation had a positive effect on environmental performance, but had not a direct effect on market performance. Thirdly, environmental performance had a positive effect on market performance. Conclusions - The results of this study show that, in order to achieve competitive advantages and environmental and market performance in turbulent market situation, franchise firms should emphasize internal and external environmental orientation, and put through improvements in perspective of technology, organization, and product. Consequently, this research suggests that environmental orientation is a motive for franchise companies' innovation, environmental performance, and market performance. It also suggests theoretical and managerial implications, limitations, and further research directions.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2015

This paper introduces the development of imaging luminance meter which measures the luminances of external/internal road tunnel. The developed imaging luminance meter complies with both L20 method and Veiling luminance method of the international standards, CIE88. In this paper the L20 method is mainly presented because most of tunnels currently adapt L20 method. The developed system has an embedded computer to operate at stand-alone. The system has a ethernet port, a heater, a fan, a defroster, a wiper and sun shielder. Compensation algorithm is applied for correcting non-linear responses to the luminance and integration time. The accuracy of measurement is less than 1% when it calibrated at the public certification institute. The developed system was also tested at the real field, road tunnel. The test results were very similar with the reference luminance meter and showed that the developed system operates well at the real field. Partial sensor saturations were happened to show the less luminance, because there were the high reflecting objects in the real field. Further study should be followed for high luminance measurement.