• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.22-33
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• 2019

The government has steadily revised and developed laws and systems for activating remodeling of apartments in response to the problems of aged apartments. However, despite such efforts, remodeling has yet to be activated. For many reasons, this study noted that there were no tools for reasonable profitability judgements and decision making in the preliminary stages of the remodeling project. Thus, the feasibility evaluation model was developed. Generally, the profitability judgements are made after the conceptual design. However, decisions to drive remodeling projects are made at the preliminary stage. So a feasibility evaluation model is required at the preliminary stage. Accordingly, In this study, a feasibility evaluation model was developed for determining preliminary stage profitability. Construction costs, business expenses, financial expenses, and generally sales revenue were calculated using the initial available information and remodeling variables derived through the existing cases. Through this process, we developed an algorithm that can give an overview of the return on investment. In addition, the preliminary stage feasibility evaluation model developed was applied to three cases to verify the applicability of the model. Although applied in three cases, the difference between the model's forecast and actual case values is less than 5%, which is considered highly applicable. If cases are expanded in the future, it will be a useful tool that can be used in actual work. The feasibility evaluation model developed in this study will support decision making by union members, and if the model is applied in different regions, it will be expected to help local governments to understand the size of possible remodeling projects.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.191-209
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• 2015

Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) in social media has been recognized as one of the most influential marketing tools across various businesses. Understanding eWOM in social media is critical to reach potential global consumers easily and quickly in the hospitality industry. However, few empirical studies in hospitality attempted to evaluate the effectiveness of eWOM in social media from a global perspective. Given the competitive climate of the hospitality market, it is meaningful for hospitality marketers to evaluate the effectiveness of eWOM in social media and the influence of cultural factors to promote customers and increase profitability globally. The main purpose of this study was to examine the influence of cultural values on social media eWOM in the hospitality industry in China, Korea, and the USA. The result of this study indicates Chinese and American people engage more than Korean people when they try to purchase hospitality product and service This study particularly provided a cross-cultural study of comparison among these countries and the findings of this study are expected to provide important practical assistance for global marketing strategies in social media.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.480-497
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• 2002

This paper is concerned with unveiling the responsiveness of large Korean firms to external shock by examining corporate restructuring in terms of production and organization. Throughout empirical research, I speculate on how corporate restructuring influences and relates to corporate teaming and adaptation. The main findings of this research are as follows. First, the restructuring of business structure was expected to strengthen core competencies and improve profitability and the restructuring of organizational structure to make it possible for responding more quickly to radical changes in its business environment. Second, both downsizing and employment adjustment have assisted the firm with unlearning obsolete practices, preconditions necessary for effectively accomplishing new teaming practices. Third, both the spatial reorganization of production activities and process innovation require and involve learning processes. In conclusion, it claims that corporate restructuring can be seen as a powerful loaming tool, particularly in the context of radical economic change.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.111-116
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• 2015

Interest and great demand for blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum) have increased, as V. corymbosum is now one of the most economically important crops in Korea. It is expected that blueberry production and the area planted for cultivation will increase consistently in the years ahead because of high profitability and the consumer's demand for healthy ingredients. Effective mass production of blueberry is urgently needed for commercial cultivation establishment, but a main limitation is lack of a propagation system that produces a disease-free plant material for commercial plantation. A large amount of research has focused entirely on developing tissue culture techniques for blueberry propagation. However, controlling fungal and bacterial contamination of woody plant material is extremely difficult. Our study was conducted to investigate the effect of biocide addition during the in vitro culture of blueberry on plantlet growth and contamination occurrence. Four biocides, including Plant Preservative Mixture ($PPM^{TM}$), vancomycin, nystatin and penicillin G, were used in varying concentrations during the in vitro propagation of blueberry. When nystatin was added into the medium at low concentrations, the overall growth of blueberry plantlets was retarded. Addition of vancomycin and penicillin G in high concentrations decreased contamination but induced plantlet mortality. On the other hand, when 1ml/L $PPM^{TM}$ was added, the growth characteristics of blueberry plantlets did not significantly differ from non-treatment (control), and the contamination occurrence rate was very low. From these results, we found that the addition of the appropriate biocide could provide an effective method to reduce contamination in the culture process, thereby raising in vitro production efficiency.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.59 no.2
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• pp.13-18
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• 2017

Farmers seek for high profitability by increasing the best use of land, and the selection of crops is the first and basic way to achieve their goals. When farmers select crops, the climate, price and productivity of crops are usually considered at the first stage. However, a crucial factor is to understand general characteristics of soils where the crops were grown, but many farmers are lacking in detailed knowledge about soils. The purpose of this study is to search and analyses factors based upon related soil and others in decision-making for the selection of crops. In result, the cultivated rate of the top 5 corps in the suitable areas for cultivation (SAC) is only 53 % which shows most farmers are plants their crops in unsuitable sites. To examine factors influencing on the selection of crops except for soils, surveys about their farm characteristic and Korea Soil Information System (KSIS) were conducted. The result of survey shows 20 % of farmers know KSIS. To increase that rate, there were many changes on soil's characteristic, and at the same time, climate conditions should be updated. It can be expected to increase the rate of farmers' utilization of KSIS.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.25-37
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• 2018

In recent times, private sector allocates the risk between private sector investors in terms of equity transaction and agreement transaction. The additional risk-allocation have made the cash flows of private sector investors fluctuated and some of the PPP projects delayed. Therefore, analyzing the impact of the risk reallocation between private sector investors on their cash flows is critical for encouraging the private sector participants. In this study, a model to evaluate the financial viability of PPP project is developed based on the discounted cash flow analysis. The model can analyze the variability by equity and agreement transaction by identifying key variables of equity transaction, influence factors of agreement transaction, and relationship between the transactions and investor's profitability. It is expected that the private sector can determine the investment decision for PPP projects when the risk reallocation is occurred.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.77-90
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• 2012

As the influence of service industry into domestic economy is increasing, it also has been influenced more powerfully at the domestic GDP(Gross Domestic Product) relative importance and employment relative importance continuously. By means of these reason, the Korean government announced the synthetic countermeasure for strengthening the competitive power of service industry in December, 2006. After then, it announced phase I of 'service industry advancing plan' which is concrete execution plan in April, 2008. Also, it is announced to announce phase II plans in september, 2008 and phase III plan in December, 2008 additionally. Service quality is the most powerful competitive means at service marketing and a key point for improving service productivity. The improvement of service quality has considerable influence on survival and profitability of service industry. Therefore, the study of objective service quality measurement in service industry is very important issue. The purpose of this study is to suggest a measurement model of service quality using fuzzy theory and AHP which measuring service quality objectively in subjective environment. It is expected that this study will help the improvement of competition power of service industry as well as establishment of effective decision-making.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.213-233
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• 2002

Recently, a lot of companies intend to make spin-offs as the Internet usage is proliferating in the business area. A spin-off means a small but autonomous company which is thought to show higher profitability rather than it stays under the influence of a mother enterprise. To prove our hypotheses, we collected questionnaire data from 104 companies considering spin-offs. From experiments with Factor Analysis, we found that there exist four factors which decision-makers should consider before deciding spin-offs such as competence of unit, competence of mother company, competence of spin-off company, and support of mother company. After massive experiments with Regression Analysis we also found that there are significant three performance factors such as competence of unit, competence of spin-off company, and support of mother company. The survey also asked about three potential strategies that they may have been following for achieving business objectives: Cost leadership, Focus, and Differentiation, Six benefits factors emerged from this study: External competitiveness, Internal competency, Productivity, Change, Cost saving, and Improvement. External competitiveness was the most important benefit, and it predicted a Differentiation and Focus strategy. Productivity and Improvement also predicted a Differentiation strategy. External competitiveness, Change, and Cost saving predicted a Cost leadership strategy. However, organizations followed Differentiation and Focus strategies significantly more than Cost leadership. The assessment thus sheds light on the link between information strategy and spin off. We hope that based on our results, many companies considering a spin-off can make a right decision and expect higher performance in a turbulent business environment.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.29-45
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• 1985

Computed Tomography Scanner (CT) is highly expensive in operation as well as purchasing. That reason may cause not only to increase the burden of patients but also to waste the capital resources leading to financial difficulties. However the numbers of CT installed throughout the country is increasing, because of efficiency in medical care, patient's concern, competitions among the hospitals within the same area. In the non-Metropolitan area the scanners were expected to be less utilized and less profitable. Nine hospitals equipped with the CT were studied on the utilization of that equipment during the period from November 1984 to February 1985 in non-Metropolitan area and break-even point in one hospital was analyzed for estimating profitabilities. The results were as follows ; 1. Among those nine hospitals, four hospitals had less than 400 beds, which is one of the restrictive minimum standards on the installation of Whole-body Computed Tomography Scanner. 2. The operating time during the normal operation period was longer than those of any other studies, but the accumulated down time was also longer than those of any other studies. The average number of scanning per week for each CT was 45, while the estimated number of for the break-even point was 56.7 cases. 3. When the downtime was excluded in calculating the average operation would be much closer to the cases for the break-even point. Therefore the break-down of the equipment was to be a main cause of the low profitability. 4. The average scanning rate for head area was 33.6%, however three of the nine hospitals showed about 20%. 5. If scanning ratio for the body parts excepting head was increased, the number of scanning for the break-even point would be diminished. 6. The small size hospital especially located near the Metropolitan area showed largest loss in the CT operation. In purchasing the highly expensive equipments in hospitals, demand should be taken into account and planning is recommended.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.161-169
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• 2016

Purpose: To improve the insufficient mechanized forage harvesting system, an integrated forage harvester that produces midsize round bales was developed. Methods: The harvesting performance of the developed harvester was tested in a forage plantation. The harvesting performance was evaluated by investigating the bale production performance and residue ratios of the harvester at three levels of tractor driving speeds. Results: The bales outputs per hour by driving speed shown by the harvester were 30 bales (6.8 MT) at 2.3 km/h, 36 bales (8.4 MT) at 3.2 km/h, and 44 bales (10.5 MT) at 5.1 km/h in the case of rye-straw. In the case of rice-straw, they were 43 bales (8.8 MT) at 4.3 km/h, 44 bales (9.7 MT) at 5.0 km/h, and 48 bales (10.7 MT) at 6.2 km/h. In the case of Italian ryegrass (IRG), they were 35 bales (10.7 MT) at 7.0 km/h, 37 bales (12.0 MT) at 8.3 km/h, and 38 bales (13.2 MT) at 9.5 km/h. The average ratios of residues to the available quantities were 2.61% in the case of rye-straw, 1.89% in the case of rice-straw, and 1.57% in the case of IRG. When residues smaller than 200 mm, which cannot be collected, were excluded, the residue ratios of all crops were good, as they did not exceed 1.0%. Conclusions: Since the baling and wrapping functions, which had been separately operated, were integrated into the developed harvester, the developed harvester is expected to maximize bale production efficiency and increase labor productivity, thereby increasing farming profitability.