• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.53-78
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• 2006

We call this world network society. Logistics is one of important network systems which connect people, materials and information. The World Economy Conditions of 21st Century has been Changed so rapidly. These Changes are more conspicuous in Northeast Asia than other Regions. China, North Korea and Russia have reformed their Economical and Social Systems, which enlarged the Trade Volume and Traffic Demand in this Area and between Europe. The Railway System Crossing the Eurasia Continent, such as TSR(Trans Siberian Railway), TCR(Trans China Railway), TMR(Trans Manchuria Railway), TMGR(Trans Mongolia Railway) and TKR(Trans Korea Railway), have been becoming very important to enhance the International Transportation efficiency and to connect each continents by International Railways. This Paper investigated and surveyed the logistical Environments surrounding this Korea Peninsula. And concerned with the Crossing Continents Railway, TSR,TCR(TMR, TMGR), TKR, operating Conditions and Tasks that must be considered and solved were also investigated. Especially the Current Logistical Conditions of China, Russia, and North Korea and their Problems were surveyed. And the SWOT of these Railways were analyzed and compared. The Visions and Goals of these Inter-Continental Railways were suggested in terms of their Rationalization of Operations and efficient Connections among many Countries. Not only the Policies and Strategies/Tactics which should be considered but also and Many detail countermeasures which should be introduced and adopted were suggested.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.15-27
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• 2011

Although a huge number of academic researchers have paid considerable attention to exploring both the degree to which store image influences retailer brand customers and how to develop store personality, they have overlooked the contemporary retail context in which retailers have developed many different types of retailer brands, that is, price-oriented or quality-oriented retailer brands. Rather than focusing on the latter, much literature has looked at the former. Accordingly, even though there are many articles related to store image, a few authors have shown their interest in identifying the extent to which store personality affects customers purchasing retailer brands at lower prices. As a result, their efforts have been to illustrate the relationship between store image and consumer behaviours buying retailer brands. In that multiple retailers over the world such as E-Mart, Lotte-Mart, Tesco Korea and Tesco UK have actively introduced not only the quality-focused retailer brands that quality is better than, or equal to national brands, and prices are slightly higher than, or equal to them, but also price-focused retailer brands, academicians should make an effort to investigate how store image affects customers purchasing a quality-oriented retailer brand, comparing with previous research results. That is why the authors illustrate the extent to which store personality components influence retailer brand customers, including particularly quality-oriented retailer brand customers through an empirical research. By adopting a questionnaire method as a research technique to illuminate the relationship between store image components and retailer brand customers, research validity increases and further, data gathered through a field survey are analysed through a few statistic analysis methods, in order to minimise statistical deviations. Compared with the prior research concentrated on price-focused retailer brands, the authors have significantly shed light on customer behaviours purchasing retailer brand products with higher quality. When it comes to store personality components, the research suggests the following five items: merchandise attributes, services, physical facilities, promotions, and institutional image, considering the subcomponents mentioned by the previous research. Proposing the conceptual research model which those elements are differently hypothesised, according to retailer brand types: PR (Price-oriented Retailer brand) and QR (Quality-oriented Retailer brand), the research is proceeded. Through empirical research, the authors found that amongst the five items, only promotion influenced retailer brand customers in the Korean retailing marketplace, unlike other countries explored by many researchers, such as UK. Although much literature emphasises that those elements are closely related to retailer brand buying proneness, it is completely not fit to the Korean market. Also, research findings provide new insights into the degree of store image effects on retailer brand customers for academiciansand practitioners. Whether the retailer brand development program that a retailer has carried simultaneously both price-focused and quality-focused retailer brand types is practically profitable should be explored in the future.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.67-76
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• 2019

Purpose - The Korean child welfare services may have different feelings between providers and users. Few studies on the child welfare service quality have been conducted and research on the coorientation model of child welfare services are nonexistent. We compared the perceptions of Korean child welfare service providers and users in this study. It will have many applications in the service quality fields by applying a coorientation model. Research design, data, and methodology - In order to enhance user satisfaction with child welfare services, around 200 samples were carried out both in Busan and Kyungsangnamdo randomly. Seven point Likert scale was used in the questionnaire. Two measurements were made to evaluate the different positions on the part of child welfare service providers and users to assess their mutual orientation. Paired t-test verification was conducted for congruency analysis, and the verification of agreement and accuracy was analyzed by independent t-tests. Results - We empirically examined the differences between the providers and the users stance. The results are as follows. We have verified the statistical significance of the difference in perception between providers and users. We also confirmed a degree of agreement, a degree of congruency, a degree of accuracy and a degree of meta agreement in the study. In the Korean child welfare service quality, the coorientation model of process quality appeared in the form of semi-dissensus, the coorientation model of results quality were shown in the form of ignorances and the coorientation model of physical environment quality were investigated in the form of semi-dissensus. Conclusion - The study concluded that users need to understand more about the providers in order to enhance the coorientation model in process quality and physical environmental quality, and the providers need to persuade the users clearly about the positive factors. To enhance the coorientation model of the result quality, it can be misunderstood by guessing that the other party will positively evaluate it. Therefore, users believe that they need to talk more clearly to the provider about the results of the korean child welfare service quality to reduce misunderstandings and to understand each other about the resulting quality.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.10 no.8
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• pp.33-44
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• 2019

Purpose - As the scope of existing digital transformation expanded to various degrees, the Fourth Industrial Revolution came into being. In 2016, Klaus Schwab, Chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF), said that the new technologies that lead the fourth industrial revolution are AI, Block chain, IoT, Big Data, Augmented Reality, and Virtual Reality. This technology is expected to be a full-fledged fusion of digital, biological and physical boundaries. Everything in the world is connected to the online network, and the trend of 'block chain' technology is getting attention because it is a core technology for realizing a super connective society. If the block chain is commercialized at the World Knowledge Forum (WKF), it will be a platform that can be applied to the entire industry. The block chain is rapidly evolving around the financial sector, and the impact of block chains on logistics, medical services, and public services has increased beyond the financial sector. Research design, data, and methodology - Figure analysis of data and social science analytical software of IBM SPSS AMOS 23.0 and IBM Statistics 23.0 were used for all the data researched. Data were collected from hotel employees in China from 25th March to 10th May. Results - The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the block chain characteristics of the existing hotel reservation system on the intention to use and to examine the influence of the block chain characteristics of the hotel reservation system on the intention to use, We rearranged the variables having the same or similar meaning and analyzed the effect of these factors on the intention to use the block chain characteristic of the hotel reservation system. 339 questionnaires were used for analysis. Conclusions - There are only sample hotel workers in this study, and their ages are in their 20s and 30s. In future studies, samples should be constructed in various layers and studied. In this study, the block chain characteristics are set as five variables as security, reliability, economical efficiency, availability, and diversity. Among them, Security and reliability made positive effects on the perceived usefulness. Also, security and economics did on the perceived ease. Availability and diversity did on both perceived usefulness and perceived ease. Perceived ease did on perceived usefulness. And perceived ease and perceived usefulness did on user intent. But security and economics did not on the perceived usefulness

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Navigation and Port Research Conference
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.441-449
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• 2005

The purpose of this research is to present the improvement measure of lagging behind coastal shipping system to be a logistic hub-nation with a competitive edge. For this purpose, this research tries to find out major northeast asia environment factors and accordingly the effects of its. The effects of coastal shipping system's development strategy is analysed by structural equation model and multiple regression model. Research results show that three types of coastal shipping developing strategy(connected transportation system, structure of coastal shipping system, governmental support policy) will contribute much to be logistic hub-nation. The contribution effects is increasing cargo from strengthened feeder transport system and maximizing logistic service &minimizing logistic costs. From the result, some implications are derived as follow. First, familiar environmental balanced ocean-coastal transport system is required. Second the one-stop logistic service system is necessary to build excusive feeder port, and to establish Ro-Ro ship & high-speed ship, etc.. Third, governmental support policy and subsidy(tax exempted oil & various tax benefits) are required to bring up lagging behind coastal shipping system to be a logistic hub-nation with a competitive edge.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.73-83
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• 2016

Purpose - The parcel delivery service(courier) industry all over the world has been expanding its market so far, but its growth has been declining in recent years. In this situation, most parcel delivery companies are having trouble with managing themselves because of the pressure from the customer to increase service level and decrease the rate. The purpose of this study is to provide ways to improve competitive advantages of the parcel delivery service industry by evaluating the multi-period operating efficiency of Korea, Japan and global service providers. Research design, data, and methodology - The data for the period of 2011 to 2014 were collected from the annual reports published by parcel delivery companies. In this study, we analyze the marketability (revenue), profitability (operating profits), and management conditions (net profits) of parcel service companies by combining information on human resources (number of employees) and material resources (total assets and equity). Therefore, the number of employees, total assets, and equity are selected as input variables, and revenue, operating profits, and net profits as the output variables. In this study, DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) is used to measure the comparative efficiency and MPI (Malmquist Productivity Index) is used to analyze the trend of change of the efficiency for a multi-year period. Results - The operational efficiency scores of medium-sized parcel delivery companies in Korea are higher than other larger competitors such as Korean, Japan and Global larger companies. As of 2014, Logen(1.878) was found to be the most efficient parcel delivery enterprise, followed by KGB (1.224), and Kyoungdong(1.002). Otherwise, Hanjin(0.235), CJ(0.262), Hyundai Logistics(0.657), DHL(0.611), UPS(0.766), FedEx(0.498), TNT(0.350), Yamato(0.762) and Sagawa(0.520), larger sized companies, were done inefficiently. The productivity of parcel delivery companies is influenced by endogenous factors as well as exogenous ones such as changes in business environment and technological advances. Conclusions - Korean medium-sized companies have relatively high efficiency scores in operation. That is why they still survive the competitive market in Korea where market restructuring on the industry has been expected to be conducted for many years. The reason why medium-sized couriers had higher efficient scores than larger couriers is that most of couriers spend more operating expenses versus unit price of delivery which is the amount of money that is needed in order to send a package by parcel service. So the delivery unit price must be taken into account by all the expenses associated with the cost of fuel, labor and maintenance expenses for facilities, etc. therefore, the unit price must be increased to strengthen business competitive power. In order for the industry to have more competitive advantage, the companies need to make profits by increasing demand volume and raising the delivery rate to provide high-quality delivery service to customers. And both endogenous and exogenous change must take precedence in order to strengthen their competitiveness.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.99-106
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• 2016

Purpose - The antecedent to the relationship between the effect of the characteristics of strategic alliances and the performance of container liner shipping companies has been investigated in this study as container liner shipping companies' strategic alliances. It affects positively and negatively home, partner, and the third parties' performance in container liner shipping companies. Extensive literature reviews on shipper's strategic alliances reveal that strategic alliances in financial and non-financial performance of container liner shipping companies show the performance such as economic effects, business performance, global supply chain management performance, customer satisfaction, and forward integration and backward integration performance. The purpose of this study is to test empirically that the relationship between the characteristics of strategic alliances and financial and non-financial performance in container liner shipping companies. Structured equation modeling and confirmatory factor analysis were used to test the hypothesis using AMOS statistics program. Most previous researches focused on the relationship between the characteristics of strategic alliances and alliance types. There are few empirical studies that focus on business performance data because it is difficult to collect data in container liner shipping companies. However, this research measures financial and non-financial performance differently compared with the previous researches focusing on the characteristics of strategic alliances and alliance types measurements. Research design, data, and methodology - The conceptual model for the study is based on the studies of Lim (2010), Chen & Zhen (2009), and Wang & Meng (2014). The model is built around the factors of characteristics of strategic alliances and business performance. Cost, marketing, and service factors are regarded as proxy for the characteristics of strategic alliances. The financial and non-financial performance are regarded as proxy for the performance of strategic alliances. Based on the analysis of one hundred cases such as forwarder, shipper, and liner shipping companies, this study uses structural equation modeling to verify the effects of the characteristics of strategic alliances on business performance. Conclusions - This study provides container liner shipping companies to get some policy and practical implications in terms of the characteristics of strategic alliances and business performance. First, the cost factor for alliances characteristics has a positively significant influence on the financial and non-financial performance of strategic alliances. The cost factor relationship between high and low performance group does not have a significant difference on the performance of strategic alliances. Second, the marketing factor of alliances characteristics has a positively significant influence on the financial and non-financial performance of strategic alliances. The high performance group's marketing factor has a great non-financial performance than low performance group, but the low performance group's marketing factor has a grater financial performance than high performance group factor does. Third, the service factor of alliances characteristics has a negative influence on the non-financial performance of strategic alliances. The high performance group's service factor has a great non-financial performance than low performance group. Based on the findings from this study, related implications and future avenues deserve to be discussed.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.12 no.9
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• pp.113-123
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• 2014

Purpose - After Korea's Free Economic Zone (FEZ) system was launched in 2003, there have been many debates about upgrading it and its support systems. However, as of 2013, there were insufficient results. Further, upon the designation of the East Coast and Chungbuk as official FEZs from February 4, 2013 by the 56th the Commission, there is a concern that many people are in the area designated as FEZ 8. This study investigates Korea's new FEZ system as part of Korea's primary new economic development policy in the 21st century. Therefore, this study examines views on the weaknesses of the past ten years of FEZs so that Korea can expand its FEZ system. Research design, data, and methodology -Many countries have considered the FEZ as an economic special zone. By reviewing previous research models, this study provides an update using recent data and materials, until 2013, from the Center of Free Economic Zones. In previous studies, the lack of support systems was attributed to proposals to ensure operational autonomy and differentiation of each FEZ; however, the main cause cannot be solved through regulatory issues, as difficulties caused by the operational system are responsible for the problems. We wish to analyze the FEZ, specifically the operational system; this is the main issue of this study. Results - After the first FEZs were established, it became necessary to have basic plans, as investment results in 2013 compared to the same period this year led to lower earnings in the first half of 2014. We propose an improvement of the operational system because in the free economic zones, the operational system is the root cause of the underlying problem. The results of this research are as follows. The weak management of the FEZ system is influenced by weak investment, delayed development, foreigners' living facilities, benefits of foreign investments, the control tower's policy making decision process, quickness of the process of satisfying legal requirements, and support For the independence of FEZs. Conclusion - Local governments do not have legal rights over FEZ deregulation and investment industries. This study suggests that the local government should have more independence from the central government. Moreover, independent management committees are more effective for ensuring public rights, better employee responsibilities, and better-qualified personnel. The FEZ committee struggles to effectively manage the locations of FEZs, foreign investments, and related facilities under the control of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. Thus, the FEZ committee should be under either the Prime Minister's office or the Presidential committee, to control and effectively coordinate between the local and central governments. If the problem clearly applies to the operational system in 2013, it is necessary to provide materials and methods so that the results of the first half of 2014 can be computed despite the data limits and lack of resources, and the data can be analyzed in a more diachronic thesis.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.9
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• pp.95-110
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• 2016

Purpose - Based on expectation-disconfirmation theory, this study attempted to fill the gap in the literature by treating the expected profitability as a moderator in the relationship between these constructs, identifying what instrumental factors have effects on dissatisfaction, in turn lead to exit intention, neglect, voice, and loyalty, and provide the managerial implications for building long-term relationship to enhance the partnership between franchisor and franchisee. Research design, data and methodology - In order to test the hypotheses, the authors developed several hypotheses. The data were collected from 254 franchisees in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province with SPSS 18.0 and SmartPLS 2.0. Results - The findings of the study are as follows. First, marketing support and competitiveness of product and service had a negative effect on dissatisfaction, but did not on logistics support. Second, franchisee dissatisfaction had a positive effect on exit intention and neglect, and had a negative effect on loyalty. However, franchisee dissatisfaction had not a significant effect on voice. Third, expected profits play a moderating role in the relationships between marketing support, competitiveness of product and service and dissatisfaction, between dissatisfaction and exit intention, voice, loyalty, and neglect. First, marketing support and competitiveness of product and service were found to have a greater influence on dissatisfaction for the low expected profitability group than the highly expected profitability group. Also, dissatisfaction had a greater impact on exit intention, voice, and neglect for the low expected profitability group than the high expected profitability group while dissatisfaction had a weaker impact on loyalty for high expected profitability group. Conclusions - The result of this study indicates that franchisors should reduce dissatisfaction and prevent or improve complaint behaviors by continuously identifying the impact relationship between franchisee dissatisfaction and decision factors caused by difference in expectations for roles of franchisees and franchisors. In addition, franchisors should acknowledge that the impacts of marketing support, and product and service competitiveness on franchisee dissatisfaction and on exit intention, neglect, and loyalty differ by expected profits. Therefore they should provide support in perceiving high expected profits through creating direct profits including high sales, low costs, and low rents.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.39C no.9
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• pp.828-840
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• 2014

There is a new evolution in technological advancement taking place called the Internet of Things (IoT). The IoT enables physical world objects in our surroundings to be connected to the Internet. For this idea to come to life, two architectures are required: the Sensing Entity in the environment which collects data and connects to the cloud and the Cloud Service that hosts the data. In particular, the combination of wireless sensor network for sensing and cloud computing for managing sensor data is becoming a popular intervention for the IoT era. The pharmaceutical cold chain requires controlled environmental conditions for the sensitive products in order for them to maintain their potency and fit for consumption. The monitoring of distribution process is the only assurance that a process has been successfully validated. The distribution process is so critical that anomaly at any point will result in the process being no longer valid. Taking the cold chain monitoring to IoT and using its benefits and power will result in better management and product handling in the cold chain. In this paper, Arduino based wireless sensor network for storage and logistics (land and sea) is presented and integrated with Xively cloud service to offer a real-time and innovative solution for pharmaceutical cold chain monitoring.