• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.75-87
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• 1996

Background: Lung cancer is the second most frequent malignancy in man in Korea. Surgery is the best treatment modality for non-small cell lung cancer, but most patients were presented in far advanced stage. So radiation therapy(RT) with or without chemotherapy is the next choice and radiation-induced pneumonitis and pulmonary fibrosis is the major limiting factor for the curative RT. Radiation pneumonitis is manifested with fever, cough and dyspnea, 2~3 months after the termination of radiotherpy. Chest X ray shows infiltration, typically limited to the radiation field, but occasionally bilateral infiltration was reported. Also Gibson et al reported that BAL lymphocytosis was found in both lungs, even though the radiation was confined to one lung. The aim of this study is to investigate the change of adhesion molecules expression on BAL cells and serum soluble ICAM-1(sICAM-1) level after the RT and its relationship to the development of radiation pneumonitis. The second aim is to confirm the bilaterality of change of BAL cell pattern and adhesion molecule expression. Subjects: BAL and the measurement of sICAM level in serum and BALF were done on 29 patients with lung cancer who received RT with curative intention. The BAL was done before the RT in 16 patients and 1~2 month after RT in 18 patients. 5 patients performed BAL before and after RT. Result: Clinically significant radiation pneumonitis developed in 7 patients. After RT, total cell count in BAL was significantly increased from $(20.2{\pm}10.2){\times}10^6\;cells/ml$ to $(35.3{\pm}21.6){\times}10^6\;cells/ml$ (p=0.0344) and %lymphocyte was also increased from $5.3{\pm}4.2%$ to $39.6{\pm}23.4%$ (p=0.0001) in all patient group. There was no difference between ipsilateral and contraleteral side to RT, and between the patients with and without radiation-pneumonitis. In whole patient group, the level of sICAM-1 showed no significant change after RT(in serum: $378{\pm}148$, $411{\pm}150\;ng/ml$, BALF: $20.2{\pm}12.2$, $45.1{\pm}34.8\;ng/ml$, respectively), but there was a significant difference between the patients with pneumonitis and without pneumonitis (serum: $505{\pm}164$ vs $345{\pm}102\;ng/ml$, p=0.0253, BALF: $67.9{\pm}36.3$ vs $25.2{\pm}17.9\;ng/ml$, p=0.0112). The expression of ICAM-1 on alveolar macrophages (AM) tends to increase after RT (RMFI: from $1.28{\pm}0.479$ to $1.63{\pm}0.539$, p=0.0605), but it was significantly high in patients with pneumonitis ($2.10{\pm}0.390$) compared to the patients without pneumonitis ($1.28{\pm}0.31$, p=0.0002). ICAM-1 expression on lymphocytes and CD 18 (${\beta}2$-integrin) expression tended to be high in the patients with pneumonitis but the difference was statiastically not significant. Conclusion: Subclinical alveolitis on the basis of BAL finding developed bilaterally in all patients after RT. But clinically significant pneumonitis occurred in much smaller fraction and the ICAM-1 expression on AM and the sICAM-1 level in serum were good indicator of it.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.24 no.3 s.35
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• pp.363-372
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• 1991

We used the health screening data of some rural and urban residents to examine the cross-sectional association between leukocyte count and hypertension. The 206 male and 203 female rural residents were selected by multi-stage cluster sampling method in Kyungsan-Kun area of Kyungbuk province in 1985 and 600 urban residents were selected by the same sampling method as the rural residents in Daegu city of the same province in 1986 compatible with age-sex distribution of Daegu city of 1985 census, but of whom 384 actually responded. The rest of 600 were replaced by age and sex with those who were members of the medical insurance plan visiting the health management department of the university hospital to get the biannual preventive medical checkups. Excluded in the analysis were those having hypertensive history, diseases and extreme outlying values of the screening tests, leaving 373 rural and 571 urban residents. Leukocyte count was measured with ELT-8 Laser shadow method and the unit $cells/mm^3$, Blood pressures were determined with an aneroid sphygmomanometer with pre-standardized method and hypertensives were defined as those showing systolic blood pressure more than 140mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure more than 90mmHg. Total residents pooled (N=944) showed a significant difference between hypertensives and normotensives ($6965.93{\pm}1997.01\;vs\;6490.61{\pm}1941.32,\;P=0.00$) and in rural residents was noted the similar significant difference (P=0.03). None of significant differences were noted in any stratum stratified by residency and sex. Compared to the lowest quintile of WBC, 2/5 quintile showed odds ratio 0.99 (95% Confidence interval, Ci 0.62-1.59), 3/5 quintile 1.41 (95% CI 0.90-2.21), 4/5 quintile 1.76 (95% CI. 1.14-2.72), and highest quintile 1.80 (1.15-2.82) in the total residents. Likelihood ratio test for linear trend for it indicated a significant trend ($X^2_{trend}=5.53,\;df=1,\;P<0.05$). There were no other significant odds ratios compared to the lowest quintile of WBC in strata stratified by residency and sex. The odds ratios in total residents which had showed significant odds ratios became nonsignificant and of reduced magnitude after controlling age, frequency of smoking and drinking with multiple logistic. regression. In each stratum, it changed magnitudes of odds ratios slightly and unstably. None of the trend tests showed any significant trend. These results suggest that the Friedman et al's finding of association between leukocyte count and hypertension may be due to an statistical type I error resulting from the data dredging in an exploratory study, in which more than 800 variables were screened as possible predictors of hypertension.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.189-196
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• 2007

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to investigate the clinical significance of age and basal serum FSH in predicting the outcomes of in vitro fertilization (IVF) in patients with poor-ovarian response. Methods: From January 2000 to December 2004, 85 second IVF cycles of 85 poor-ovarian response patients under the age of 42 with a back-ground of the first IVF cycles at our infertility center and 5 or less oocytes were retrieved and their basal serum FSH levels of 15$\sim$25 mIU/ml were enrolled in this study. Exclusion criteria were patients with a male factor for the etiology of infertility and undergoing genetic diagnosis of embryo such as PGD. Flare-up protocol was used for ovarian stimulation in all cases. Results: When we stratified the study groups by patient's age, the younger age group (age<35, n=35) showed significantly higher implantation rate (19.0% versus 4.0%, p<0.05) and higher ongoing pregnancy rate (100% versus 14.3%, p<0.05) than the older age group (age$\geq$35, n=50). And then, when we stratified the study populations by basal serum FSH level, the lower FSH group (basal serum FSH<20 mIU/ml, n=58) showed significantly higher number of retrieved oocytes (4.6$\pm$0.7 versus 2.2$\pm$0.5, p<0.05) and lower cancellation rate (19.0% versus 55.6%, p<0.05) than higher FSH group (basal serum FSH$\geq$20 mIU/ml, n=27). Conclusions: In conclusion, it was suggested that the patient's age could predict the IVF outcomes in respect to its potency of pregnancy and ongoing pregnancy. Serum basal FSH levels could predict more accurately the ovarian response of cycle, but not clinical outcomes.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.39 no.7 s.264
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• pp.511-519
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• 2006

Background: Loss of cardiomyocytes in the myocardial infarction leads to regional contractile dysfunction, and necrotized cardiomyocytes in infracted ventricular tissues are progressively replaced by fibroblasts forming scar tissue. Although cardiomyoplasty, or implantation of ventricular assist device or artificial heart was tried in refractory heart failure, the cardiac transplantation was the only therapeutic modality because these other therapeutic strategies were not permanent. Cell transplantation is tried instead of cardiac transplantation, especially bone marrow is the most popular donated organ. But because bone marrow aspiration procedure is invasive and painful, and it had the fewer amounts of cellular population, the adipose tissue is recommended for harvesting of mesenchymal stem cells. Material and Method: After adipose tissues were extracted from abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue and intra-abdominal adipose tissue individually, the cellular components were obtained by same method. These cellular components were tried to transformation with the various titers of 5-azacytidine to descript the appropriate concentration of 5-azacytidine and possibility of transformation ability of adipose tissue. Group 1 is abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue and Group 2 is intra-abdominal adipose tissue-retroperitoneal adipose tissue and omentum. Cellular components were extracted by collagenase and $NH_4Cl$ et al, and these components were cultured by non-induction media - DMEM media containing 10% FBS and inducted by none, $3{\mu}mol/L,\;6{\mu}mol/L,\;and\;9{\mu}mol/L$ 5-azacytidine after the 1st and 2nd subculture. After 4 weeks incubation, tile cell blocks were made, immunostaining was done with the antibodies of CD34, heavy myosin chain, troponin T, and SMA. Result: Immunostaining of the transformed cells for troponin T was positive in the $6{\mu}mol/L\;&\;9{\mu}mol/L$ 5-azacytidine of Group 1 & 2, but CD34 and heavy myosin chain antibodies were negative and SMA antibody was positive in the $3{\mu}mol/L\;&\;6{\mu}mol/L$ 5-azacytidne of Group 2. Conclusion: These observations confirm that adult mesenchymal stem cells isolated from the abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissues and intra-abdominal adipose tissues can be chemically transformed into cardiomyocytes. This can potentially be a source of autologous cells for myocardial repair.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.32-42
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• 1996

Objectives : Upper airway resistance syndrome(UARS) is a sleep-related breathing disorder characterized by abnormal negative intrathoracic pressure during sleep. Abnormally increased negative intrathoracic pressure results in microarousal and sleep fragmentation which underlay UARS-associated complaints of daytime fatigue and sleepiness. Although daytime dysfunction in patients with UARS is comparable to that of sleep apnea syndrome, UARS has been relatively unnoticed in clinical setting. That is why UARS is apt to be excluded in diagnosing of sleep-related breathing disorders since its respiratory disturbance index and arterial oxygen saturation are within normal limits. The current study presents a summary of clinical and polysomnographic characteristics found in patients with UARS. The present study aims (1) to explore characteristics of patients diagnosed with UARS, (2) to characterize the polysomnographic findings of UARS patients, and (3) to enhance the understanding of UARS through those clinical and laboratory characteristics. Methods : This was a retrospective study of 20 UARS patients (male 15, female 5) and 30 obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) patients (male 21, female 9) at the Stanford Sleep Disorders Clinic. We diagnosed patients as having UARS when they met critenia, RDI < 5 characteristic findings of an elevated esophageal pressure($<-10\;cmH_2O$), frequent arousals secondary to an elevated esophageal pressure, and symptoms of daytime fatigue and sleepiness. We used polysomnographic value, which is standardized by Williams et al(1974), as normal control. Statiotical test were done with student t-tests. Results : (1) Mean age of UARS was $41.0\;{\pm}\;14.8$ years and OSA was $50.9\;{\pm}\;12.0$ years. UARS subject was significantly younger than OSA subject (p<0.05). (2) The total score of Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) was UARS $9.7\;{\pm}\;6.3$ and OSAS $11.2\;{\pm}\;6.3$. There was no significant difference between two groups. (3) The mean body mass index was UARS $28.1\;{\pm}\;5.7\;kg/m^2$ and OSAS $32.9\;{\pm}\;7.0\;kg/m^2$. UARS had significantly lower meen body man index than OSAS subjects (p<0.05). (4) The polysomnographic parameters of UARS were not significantly different from those of OSA except RDI(p<0.001), $SaO_2$ (p<0.001) and slow wave sleep latency (p<0.05). (5) Compared with normal control, Total sleep time in UARS subjects was significantly shorter (p<0.001), sleep efficiency index was significantly lower (p<0.001), total awakening percentage was significantly higher (p<0.001), and sleep stage 1 (p<0.001) were significantly higher. (6) OSA patients showed poor sleep quality and distinct abnormal sleep architectures compared with normal control. Conclusions : Conclusions from the above results are as follows : (1) UARS patients were younger and had lower body mass index when umpared with OSA patients. (2) The quality of sleep and sleep architectures of the UARS and OSA patients are significantly different from those of normal control. (3) ESS scores and awakening frequencies of UARS are similar with those of OSA, suggesting that daytime dysfunction of UARS patients may be comparable to those of OSA patients. (4) The RDI and the $SaO_2$ which are important indicators in diagnosing sleep-related breathing disorders, of UARS subjects are close to normal value. (5) According to the the above results, we unclude that despite the absence of $SaO_2$ drops and the absence of an elevated number of apnea and hypopnea, subjects developed clinical complaints which were associated with laborious breathing, elevated Pes nadir, and frequently snoring. (6) Accordingly, we suggest including LIARS in the differential diagnosis list when sleep related breathing disorder is suspected clinically and overnight polysomnographic findings except snoring and frequent microarousal are within normal limits.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.101-123
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• 2012

Currently, Social Media, it has widely a renown keyword and its related social trends and businesses have been fastly applied into various contexts. Social media has become an important research area for scholars interested in online technologies and cyber space and their social impacts. Social media is not only including web-based services but also mobile-based application services that allow people to share various style information and knowledge through online connection. Social media users have tendency to common identity- and bond-attachment through interactions such as 'thumbs up', 'reply note', 'forwarding', which may have driven from various factors and may result in delivering information, sharing knowledge, and specific experiences et al. Even further, almost of all social media sites provide and connect unknown strangers depending on shared interests, political views, or enjoyable activities, and other stuffs incorporating the creation of contents, which provides benefits to users. As fast developing digital devices including smartphone, tablet PC, internet based blogging, and photo and video clips, scholars desperately have began to study regarding diverse issues connecting human beings' motivations and the behavioral results which may be articulated by the format of antecedents as well as consequences related to contents that people create via social media. Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, or Cyworld users are more and more getting close each other and build up their relationships by a different style. In this sense, people use social media as tools for maintain pre-existing network, creating new people socially, and at the same time, explicitly find some business opportunities using personal and unlimited public networks. In terms of theory in explaining this phenomenon, social capital is a concept that describes the benefits one receives from one's relationship with others. Thereby, social media use is closely related to the form and connected of people, which is a bridge that can be able to achieve informational benefits of a heterogeneous network of people and common identity- and bonding-attachment which emphasizes emotional benefits from community members or friend group. Social capital would be resources accumulated through the relationships among people, which can be considered as an investment in social relations with expected returns and may achieve benefits from the greater access to and use of resources embedded in social networks. Social media using for their social capital has vastly been adopted in a cyber world, however, there has been little explaining the phenomenon theoretically how people may take advantages or opportunities through interaction among people, why people may interactively give willingness to help or their answers. The individual consciously express themselves in an online space, so called, common identity- or bonding-attachments. Common-identity attachment is the focus of the weak ties, which are loose connections between individuals who may provide useful information or new perspectives for one another but typically not emotional support, whereas common-bonding attachment is explained that between individuals in tightly-knit, emotionally close relationship such as family and close friends. The common identify- and bonding-attachment are mainly studying on-offline setting, which individual convey an impression to others that are expressed to own interest to others. Thus, individuals expect to meet other people and are trying to behave self-presentation engaging in opposite partners accordingly. As developing social media, individuals are motivated to disclose self-disclosures of open and honest using diverse cues such as verbal and nonverbal and pictorial and video files to their friends as well as passing strangers. Social media context, common identity- and bond-attachment for self-presentation seems different compared with face-to-face context. In the realm of social media, social users look for self-impression by posting text messages, pictures, video files. Under the digital environments, people interact to work, shop, learn, entertain, and be played. Social media provides increasingly the kinds of intention and behavior in online. Typically, identity and bond social capital through self-presentation is the intentional and tangible component of identity. At social media, people try to engage in others via a desired impression, which can maintain through performing coherent and complementary communications including displaying signs, symbols, brands made of digital stuffs(information, interest, pictures, etc,). In marketing area, consumers traditionally show common-identity as they select clothes, hairstyles, automobiles, logos, and so on, to impress others in any given context in a shopping mall or opera. To examine these social capital and attachment, we combined a social capital theory with an attachment theory into our research model. Our research model focuses on the common identity- and bond-attachment how they are formulated through social capitals: cognitive capital, structural capital, relational capital, and individual characteristics. Thus, we examined that individual online kindness, self-rated expertise, and social relation influence to build common identity- and bond-attachment, and the attachment effects make an impact on both the willingness to help, however, common bond seems not to show directly impact on information sharing. As a result, we discover that the social capital and attachment theories are mainly applicable to the context of social media and usage in the individual networks. We collected sample data of 256 who are using social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Cyworld and analyzed the suggested hypotheses through the Structural Equation Model by AMOS. This study analyzes the direct and indirect relationship between the social network service usage and outcomes. Antecedents of kindness, confidence of knowledge, social relations are significantly affected to the mediators common identity-and bond attachments, however, interestingly, network externality does not impact, which we assumed that a size of network was a negative because group members would not significantly contribute if the members do not intend to actively interact with each other. The mediating variables had a positive effect on toward willingness to help. Further, common identity attachment has stronger significant on shared information.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.141-177
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• 2011

I. Research Objectives: Most of the previous studies on diffusion have concentrated on efficacy of WOM communication with the use of variables at individual level (Iacobucci 1996; Midgley et al. 1992). However, there is a paucity of studies which investigated network's structural properties as antecedents of WOM from the perspective of consumers' sociocultural propensities. Against this research backbone, this study attempted to link the network's structural properties and consumer' WOM behavior on cross-national basis. The major research objective of this study was to examine the relationship between network properties and WOM by comparing Korean and Chinese consumers. Specific objectives of this research are threefold; firstly, it sought to examine whether network properties (i.e., tie strength, centrality, range) affect WOM (WOM intention and quality of WOM). Secondly, it aimed to explore the moderating effects of cutural orientation (uncertainty avoidance and individuality) on the relationship between network properties and WOM. Thirdly, it substantiates the role of innovativeness as antecedents to both network properties and WOM. II. Research Hypotheses: Based on the above research objectives, the study put forth the following research hypotheses to validate. ${\cdot}$ H 1-1 : The Strength of tie between two counterparts within network will positively influence WOM effectivenes ${\cdot}$ H 1-2 : The network centrality will positively influence the WOM effectiveness ${\cdot}$ H 1-3 : The network range will positively influence the WOM effectiveness ${\cdot}$ H 2-1 : The consumer's uncertainty avoidance tendency will moderate the relationship between network properties and WOM effectiveness ${\cdot}$ H 2-2 : The consumer's individualism tendency will moderate the relationship between network properties and WOM effectiveness ${\cdot}$ H 3-1 : The consumer's innovativeness will positively influence the social network properties ${\cdot}$ H 3-2 : The consumer's innovativeness will positively influence WOM effectiveness III. Methodology: Through a pilot study and back-translation, two versions of questionnaire were prepared, one in Korean and the other in Chinese. The chinese data were collected from the chinese students enrolled in language schools in Suwon city in Korea, while Korean data were collected from students taking classes in a major university in Seoul. A total of 277 questionnaire were used for analysis of Korean data and 212 for Chinese data. The reason why Chinese students living in Korea rather than in China were selected was based on two factors: one was to neutralize the differences (ie, retail channel availability) that may arise from living in separate countries and the second was to minimize the difference in communication venues such as internet accessibility and cell phone usability. SPSS 12.0 and AMOS 7.0 were used for analysis. IV. Results: Prior to hypothesis verification, mean differences between the two countries in terms of major constructs were performed with the following result; As for network properties (tie strength, centrality and range), Koreans showed higher scores in all three constructs. For cultural orientation traits, Koreans scored higher only on uncertainty avoidance trait than Chinese. As a result of verifying the first research objective, confirming the relationship between network properties and WOM effectiveness, on Korean side, tie strength(Beta=.116; t=1.785) and centrality (Beta=.499; t=6.776) significantly influenced on WOM intention, and similar finding was obtained for Chinese side, with tie strength (Beta=.246; t=3.544) and centrality (Beta=.247; t=3.538) being significant. However, with regard to WOM argument quality, Korean data yielded only centrality (Beta=.82; t=7.600) having a significant impact on WOM, whereas China showed both tie strength(Beat=.142; t=2.052) and centrality(Beta=.348; t=5.031) being influential. To answer for the second research objective addressing the moderating role of cultural orientation, moderated regression anaylsis was performed and the result showed that uncertainty avoidance moderated between network range and WOM intention for both Korea and China, But for Korea, the uncertainty avoidance moderated between tie strength and WOM quality, while for China it moderated between network range and WOM intention. And innovativeness moderated between tie strength and WOM intention for Korea but it moderated between network range and WOM intention for China. As a result of analysing for third research objective, we found that for Korea, innovativeness positively influenced centrality only (Beta=.546; t=10.808), while for China it influenced both tie strength (Beta=.203; t=2.998) and centrality(Beta=.518; t=8.782). But for both countries alike, the innovativeness influenced positively on WOM (WOM intention and WOM quality). V. Implications: The study yields the two practical implications. Firstly, the result suggests that companies targeting multinational customers need to identify segments which are susceptible to the positive WOM and WOM information based on individual traits such as uncertainty avoidance and individualism and based on that, develop marketing communication strategy. Secondly, the companies need to divide the market on Roger's five innovation stages and based on this information, enforce marketing strategy which utilizes social networking tools such as public media and WOM. For instance, innovator and early adopters, if provided with new product information, will be able to capitalize upon the network advantages and thus add informational value to network operations using SNS or corporate blog.

• 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.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.1-24
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• 2012

Franchises have recently emerged as the most rapidly expanding industry positioned to create a large impact in the domestic economic. The Chinese franchise industry developed rapidly in the period prior and subsequent to WTO accession with more than 50% of new franchises brands emerging since 2000. M&A transactions in the Chinese franchise industry have progressed actively. In the period from 2005-2007, due to the wholesale and retail market opening in accordance with the guidelines laid forth within the MOU by the WTO the Chinese franchise market is now the largest market in the world all despite a short history of only 20 years. The amount of franchise market research on China is disproportional to its current size and development potential. Beginning in the 1990s, market research conducted by the International Franchise Association focused on emerging markets in Eastern Europe and China. While the research dealt with the Chinese investment environment, it insufficiently explained the market region and cultural environment. The purpose of this research is (i) to investigate the determinants of the performance of franchise systems in China and (ii) new contract renewals based on performance factors. This study will complement existing research in terms of the franchisee perspective. This study may also prove of the benefit to the franchise companies entering the Chinese franchise market enabling them to develop an effective strategy. This study shows that support, incentives, and system standardization by franchisor yielded a positive effect on management performance. This is consistent with previous studies by Shin (2000) and Kim (2008) targeting Korean franchises. Therefore, in the Chinese market, the franchisor must focus on support, incentives, and system standardization rather than concentrate only on the recruitment of franchisees in order to improve revenue. Hypotheses regarding franchisor control have been dismissed in existing research, in the opinion of this study, due to their complexity and inability to control the merchant as a one-kind-assessment-standard. Our findings show that the franchisees' financial condition, management ability and entrepreneurial spirit, among franchisee's characteristics, have a positive effect on franchisor's business performance and satisfaction for the franchisee. This is consistent with previous studies on headquarters' management performance of Lussier (1996), Heo and Jang (2008), and franchisees' financial condition, management ability and entrepreneurial spirit effect on franchisor's satisfaction of Weaven and Franzer (2007), Kim (2009), Han (2009), and Yoon etc. (2008). Therefore, when permitting a franchisee, financial condition, management ability, entrepreneurship of the franchisee should be carefully considered. Among relational factors between franchisor and franchisee, trust has the positive influence on the management performance of the franchisor while conflict has a negative effect. However, trust, commitment and conflict factors have been shown not to have any impact on the satisfaction of the franchise headquarters. This result is consistent with the previous studies of Pavlou and Ba (2000), Morrison (1999), Weaven and Frazer (2007), Kim and Park (1994), Sohn (2007) which show that trust between franchisor and the franchisees have a positive effect and that conflict has a negative impact on franchisor's management performance. Other factors causing a negative effective on the franchisor's management performance are a rapid environmental changes and uncertainty in the business. This is consistent with Campbell et al (2007), Kim and Kim (2009), Han and Baek (2008). Finally, the high management performance and satisfaction of the franchise headquarters has a positive effect on the intention of franchise renewal. In the case of large markets such as China, the franchisor's strategy and the role is very important. In this study, we also investigated the characteristics of franchisor and franchisee, relationship, and environmental uncertainty affecting on the management performance and satisfaction of franchisor. Recently, Korean franchises are attempting to enter foreign markets through the rise in popularity of Korean culture and entertainment commonly referred to as the Korean wave. This study provides recommendations for Korean franchises intending on entering the Chinese market. First, in order to achieve stable profits, the franchise corporation needs to support the operation of the individual franchisee through incentives and standardization of services. Second, because trust between the franchisor and franchisee has a positive effect on management performance, on-going discussion and cooperation is necessary to reduce the level of conflict.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.447-468
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• 1996

The peat layer was deposited on the abandoned channel of incised meander of River Banbyuncheon with 7 meter thickness on Youngyang basin. The late Quaternary environmental change on the study area was discussed based on pollen anaalysis and radiocarbon-dating from this peat. The swamp which was caused to sediment the peat, was produced by which the fan debris from the adjacent slope damed the waterflow on the abandoned channel. The peat layer contains continuous vegetational history from 60,000y.B.P. to Recent. The peat deposit was divided into two layers by the organic thin sand horizon, which was sedimented at one time and made unconformity between the lower decomposed compact peat layers and the upper fresh fiberous peat layer. As the result of the pollen analysis, both peat layers from the two boring sites, Profile YY1 and Profile YY2 were divided into five Pollenzones(Pollenzone I, II, III, IV and V) and 12 Subzones which were mainly corresponded by the AP (Arboreal Pollen)-Dominance. The two profiles have some differences on the sedimentary facies and on the pollen composition as well. Therefore these were in common with the Pollenone III, however the Pollenzone I and II existed only on the Profile YY1 and the Pollenzone IV and V existed only on the Profile YY2. The lower layer containing the Pollenzone I, II and III revealed vegetational records of Pleistocene, which was characterized as tundra-like landscape and thin forested landscapes. It represented the NAP (Non-Arboreal Pollen)-period with a plenty of Artemisia sp., Sanguisorba sp., Umbelliferae, Gramineae and Cyperaceae. However a relatively high proportion of the boreal trees with Picea sp., Pinus sp. and Betula sp. as AP was observed in the lower layer. The upper layer contained the Pollenzone IVb and V and vegetational history in Holocene which was characterized by thick forested landscape with rich tree pollen. It represented AP-period with plenty of Pinus sp. and Quercus sp. as temperate trees. The temperature fluctuation supposed from the vegetational records is as follows; the Pollenzone I(Betula-Dominance, about 57,000y.B.P.) represents relatively cold period. The Pollenzone II(EMW-Domi-nance, 57,000-43,000y.B.P.)represents relatively warm period. This period is supposed to be Interstadial, the transi-tional stage from Alt- to Mittel Wurm. The Pollenzone III(Butula-, Pinus- and Picea-Dominace in turns, 43,000-15,000y.B.P.) reproesents cold period which had been built from Mittel-to Jung Wurm. Especially the Subzone IIId represents the coldest period throughout the Pollenzone III. It is corresponds to Wurm Glacial Maximu. It is supposed that the mean temperature in July of this period was coller about 10${^\circ}$C than present. The Pollenzone IV and V represent the vegetational history of Holocene. Tilia, Quercus and Pinus were dominant in turns during this period. Subzone IVb and Pollenzone I and II at east coastal plain of Korean penninsula reported by JO(1979).