Cholho Song;Hyun-Ah Choi;Jiwon Son;Youngjin Ko;Stephan A. Pietsch;Woo-Kyun Lee
Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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v.41
no.4
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pp.400-412
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2023
In this study, the biogeochemistry management (BGC-MAN) model was applied to North and South Korea pine and oak forest stands to evaluate the Net Primary Productivity (NPP), an indicator of forest ecosystem productivity. For meteorological information, historical records and East Asian climate scenario data of Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) were used. For vegetation information, pine (Pinus densiflora) and oak(Quercus spp.) forest stands were selected at the Gwangneung and Seolmacheon in South Korea and Sariwon, Sohung, Haeju, Jongju, and Wonsan, which are known to have tree nurseries in North Korea. Among the biophysical information, we used the elevation model for topographic data such as longitude, altitude, and slope direction, and the global soil database for soil data. For management factors, we considered the destruction of forests in North and South Korea due to the Korean War in 1950 and the subsequent reforestation process. The overall mean value of simulated NPP from 1991 to 2100 was 5.17 Mg C ha-1, with a range of 3.30-8.19 Mg C ha-1. In addition, increased variability in climate scenarios resulted in variations in forest productivity, with a notable decline in the growth of pine forests. The applicability of the BGC-MAN model to the Korean Peninsula was examined at a time when the ecosystem process-based models were becoming increasingly important due to climate change. In this study, the data on the effects of climate change disturbances on forest ecosystems that was analyzed was limited; therefore, future modeling methods should be improved to simulate more precise ecosystem changes across the Korean Peninsula through process-based models.
Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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v.16
no.2
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pp.3361-3394
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1974
The purpose of this thesis is to disclose some characteristics of water consumption in relation to the quantities of dry matters through the growing period for two statured varieties of paddy rice which are a tall statured variety and a short one, including the water consumption during seedling period, and to find out the various coefficients of evapotranspiration that are applicable for the water use of an expected yield of the two varieties. PAL-TAL, a tall statured variety, and TONG-lL, a short statured variety were chosen for this investigation. Experiments were performed in two consecutive periods, a seedling period and a paddy field period, In the investigation of seedling period, rectangular galvanized iron evapotranspirometers (91cm${\times}$85cm${\times}$65cm) were set up in a way of two levels (PAL-TAL and TONG-lL varieties) with two replications. A standard fertilization method was applied to all plots. In the experiment of paddy field period, evapotanspiration and evaporation were measured separately. For PAL-TAL variety, the evapotranspiration measurements of 43 plots of rectangular galvanized iron evapotranspirometer (91cm${\times}$85cm${\times}$65cm) and the evaporation measurements of 25 plots of rectangular galvanized iron evaporimeter (91cm${\times}$85cm${\times}$15cm) have been taken for seven years (1966 through 1972), and for TONG-IL variety, the evapotranspiration measurements of 19 plots and the evaporation measurements of 12 plots have been collected for two years (1971 through 1972) with five different fertilization levels. The results obtained from this investigation are summarized as follows: 1. Seedling period 1) The pan evaporation and evapotranspiration during seedling period were proved to have a highly significant correlation to solar radiation, sun shine hours and relative humidity. But they had no significant correlation to average temperature, wind velocity and atmospheric pressure, and were appeared to be negatively correlative to average temperature and wind velocity, and positively correlative to the atmospheric pressure, in a certain period. There was the highest significant correlation between the evapotranspiration and the pan evaporation, beyond all other meteorological factors considered. 2) The evapotranpiration and its coefficient for PAL-TAL variety were 194.5mm and 0.94∼1.21(1.05 in average) respectively, while those for TONG-lL variety were 182.8mm and 0.90∼1.10(0.99 in average) respectively. This indicates that the evapotranspiration for TONG-IL variety was 6.2% less than that for PAL-TAL variety during a seedling period. 3) The evapotranspiration ratio (the ratio of the evapotranspiration to the weight of dry matters) during the seedling period was 599 in average for PAL-TAL variety and 643 for TONG-IL variety. Therefore the ratio for TONG-IL was larger by 44 than that for PAL-TAL variety. 4) The K-values of Blaney and Criddle formula for PAL-TAL variety were 0.78∼1.06 (0.92 in average) and for TONG-lL variety 0.75∼0.97 (0.86 in average). 5) The evapotranspiration coefficient and the K-value of B1aney and Criddle formular for both PAL-TAL and TONG-lL varieties showed a tendency to be increasing, but the evapotranspiration ratio decreasing, with the increase in the weight of dry matters. 2. Paddy field period 1) Correlation between the pan evaporation and the meteorological factors and that between the evapotranspiration and the meteorological factors during paddy field period were almost same as that in case of the seedling period (Ref. to table IV-4 and table IV-5). 2) The plant height, in the same level of the weight of dry matters, for PAL-TAL variety was much larger than that for TONG-IL variety, and also the number of tillers per hill for PAL-TAL variety showed a trend to be larger than that for TONG-IL variety from about 40 days after transplanting. 3) Although there was a tendency that peak of leaf-area-index for TONG-IL variety was a little retarded than that for PAL-TAL variety, it appeared about 60∼80 days after transplanting. The peaks of the evapotranspiration coefficient and the weight of dry matters at each growth stage were overlapped at about the same time and especially in the later stage of growth, the leaf-area-index, the evapotranspiration coefficient and the weight of dry matters for TONG-IL variety showed a tendency to be larger then those for PAL-TAL variety. 4) The evaporation coefficient at each growth stage for TONG-IL and PAL-TALvarieties was decreased and increased with the increase and decrease in the leaf-area-index, and the evaporation coefficient of TONG-IL variety had a little larger value than that of PAL-TAL variety. 5) Meteorological factors (especially pan evaporation) had a considerable influence to the evapotranspiration, the evaporation and the transpiration. Under the same meteorological conditions, the evapotranspiration (ET) showed a increasing logarithmic function of the weight of dry matters (x), while the evaporation (EV) a decreasing logarithmic function of the weight of dry matters; 800kg/10a x 2000kg/10a, ET=al+bl logl0x (bl>0) EV=a2+b2 log10x (a2>0 b2<0) At the base of the weight of total dry matters, the evapotranspiration and the evaporation for TONG-IL variety were larger as much as 0.3∼2.5% and 7.5∼8.3% respectively than those of PAL-TAL variety, while the transpiration for PAL-TAL variety was larger as much as 1.9∼2.4% than that for TONG-IL variety on the contrary. At the base of the weight of rough rices the evapotranspiration and the transpiration for TONG-IL variety were less as much as 3.5% and 8.l∼16.9% respectively than those for PAL-TAL variety and the evaporation for TONG-IL was much larger by 11.6∼14.8% than that for PAL-TAL variety. 6) The evapotranspiration coefficient, the evaporation coefficient and the transpiration coefficient and the transpiration coefficient were affected by the weight of dry matters much more than by the meteorological conditions. The evapotranspiratioa coefficient (ETC) and the evaporation coefficient (EVC) can be related to the weight of dry matters (x) by the following equations: 800kg/10a x 2000kg/10a, ETC=a3+b3 logl0x (b3>0) EVC=a4+b4 log10x (a4>0, b4>0) At the base of the weights of dry matters, 800kg/10a∼2000kg/10a, the evapotranspiration coefficients for TONG-IL variety were 0.968∼1.474 and those for PAL-TAL variety, 0.939∼1.470, the evaporation coefficients for TONG-IL variety were 0.504∼0.331 and those for PAL-TAL variety, 0.469∼0.308, and the transpiration coefficients for TONG-IL variety were 0.464∼1.143 and those for PAL-TAL variety, 0.470∼1.162. 7) The evapotranspiration ratio, the evaporation ratio (the ratio of the evaporation to the weight of dry matters) and the transpiration ratio were highly affected by the meteorological conditions. And under the same meteorological condition, both the evapotranspiration ratio (ETR) and the evaporation ratio (EVR) showed to be a decreasing logarithmic function of the weight of dry matters (x) as follows: 800kg/10a x 2000kg/10a, ETR=a5+b5 logl0x (a5>0, b5<0) EVR=a6+b6 log10x (a6>0 b6<0) In comparison between TONG-IL and PAL-TAL varieties, at the base of the pan evaporation of 343mm and the weight of dry matters of 800∼2000kg/10a, the evapotranspiration ratios for TONG-IL variety were 413∼247, while those for PAL-TAL variety, 404∼250, the evaporation ratios for TONG-IL variety were 197∼38 while those for PAL-TAL variety, 182∼34, and the transpiration ratios for TONG-IL variety were 216∼209 while those for PAL-TAL variety, 222∼216 (Ref. to table IV-23, table IV-25 and table IV-26) 8) The accumulative values of evapotranspiration intensity and transpiration intensity for both PAL-TAL and TONG-IL varieties were almost constant in every climatic year without the affection of the weight of dry matters. Furthermore the evapotranspiration intensity appeared to have more stable at each growth stage. The peaks of the evapotranspiration intensity and transpiration intensity, for both TONG-IL and PAL-TAL varieties, appeared about 60∼70 days after transplanting, and the peak value of the former was 128.8${\pm}$0.7, for TONG-IL variety while that for PAL-TAL variety, 122.8${\pm}$0.3, and the peak value of the latter was 152.2${\pm}$1.0 for TONG-IL variety while that for PAL-TAL variety, 152.7${\pm}$1.9 (Ref.to table IV-27 and table IV-28) 9) The K-value in Blaney & Criddle formula was changed considerably by the meteorological condition (pan evaporation) and related to be a increasing logarithmic function of the weight of dry matters (x) for both PAL-TAL and TONG-L varieties as follows; 800kg/10a x 2000kg/10a, K=a7+b7 logl0x (b7>0) The K-value for TONG-IL variety was a little larger than that for PAL-TAL variety. 10) The peak values of the evapotranspiration coefficient and k-value at each growth stage for both TONG-IL and PAL-TAL varieties showed up about 60∼70 days after transplanting. The peak values of the former at the base of the weights of total dry matters, 800∼2000kg/10a, were 1.14∼1.82 for TONG-IL variety and 1.12∼1.80, for PAL-TAL variety, and at the base of the weights of rough rices, 400∼1000 kg/10a, were 1.11∼1.79 for TONG-IL variety and 1.17∼1.85 for PAL-TAL variety. The peak values of the latter, at the base of the weights of total dry matters, 800∼2000kg/10a, were 0.83∼1.39 for TONG-IL variety and 0.86∼1.36 for PAL-TAL variety and at the base of the weights of rough rices, 400∼1000kg/10a, 0.85∼1.38 for TONG-IL variety and 0.87∼1.40 for PAL-TAL variety (Ref. to table IV-18 and table IV-32) 11) The reasonable and practicable methods that are applicable for calculating the evapotranspiration of paddy rice in our country are to be followed the following priority a) Using the evapotranspiration coefficients based on an expected yield (Ref. to table IV-13 and table IV-18 or Fig. IV-13). b) Making use of the combination method of seasonal evapotranspiration coefficient and evapotranspiration intensity (Ref. to table IV-13 and table IV-27) c) Adopting the combination method of evapotranspiration ratio and evapotranspiration intensity, under the conditions of paddy field having a higher level of expected yield (Ref. to table IV-23 and table IV-27). d) Applying the k-values calculated by Blaney-Criddle formula. only within the limits of the drought year having the pan evaporation of about 450mm during paddy field period as the design year (Ref. to table IV-32 or Fig. IV-22).
Price promotion typically reduces the price for a given quantity or increases the quantity available at the same price, thereby enhancing value and creating an economic incentive to purchase. It often is used to encourage product or service trial among nonusers of products or services. Thus, it is important to understand the effects of price promotions on quality perception made by consumer who do not have prior experience with the promoted brand. However, if consumers associate a price promotion itself with inferior brand quality, the promotion may not achieve the sales increase the economic incentives otherwise might have produced. More specifically, low qualitative perception through price promotion will undercut the economic and psychological incentives and reduce the likelihood of purchase. Thus, it is important for marketers to understand how price promotional informations about a brand have impact on consumer's unfavorable quality perception of the brand. Previous literatures on the effects of price promotions on quality perception reveal inconsistent explanations. Some focused on the unfavorable effect of price promotion on consumer's perception. But others showed that price promotions didn't raise unfavorable perception on the brand. Prior researches found these inconsistent results related to the timing of the price promotion's exposure and quality evaluation relative to trial. And, whether the consumer has been experienced with the product promotions in the past or not may moderate the effects. A few studies considered differences among product categories as fundamental factors. The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of price promotional informations on consumer's unfavorable quality perception under the different conditions. The author controlled the timing of the promotional exposure and varied past promotional patterns and information presenting patterns. Unlike previous researches, the author examined the effects of price promotions setting limit to pretrial situation by controlling potentially moderating effects of prior personal experience with the brand. This manipulations enable to resolve possible controversies in relation to this issue. And this manipulation is meaningful for the work sector. Price promotion is not only used to target existing consumers but also to encourage product or service trial among nonusers of products or services. Thus, it is important for marketers to understand how price promotional informations about a brand have impact on consumer's unfavorable quality perception of the brand. If consumers associate a price promotion itself with inferior quality about unused brand, the promotion may not achieve the sales increase the economic incentives otherwise might have produced. In addition, if the price promotion ends, the consumer that have purchased that certain brand will likely to display sharply decreased repurchasing behavior. Through a literature review, hypothesis 1 was set as follows to investigate the adjustive effect of past price promotion on quality perception made by consumers; The influence that price promotion of unused brand have on quality perception made by consumers will be adjusted by past price promotion activity of the brand. In other words, a price promotion of an unused brand that have not done a price promotion in the past will have a unfavorable effect on quality perception made by consumer. Hypothesis 2-1 was set as follows : When an unused brand undertakes price promotion for the first time, the information presenting pattern of price promotion will have an effect on the consumer's attribution for the cause of the price promotion. Hypothesis 2-2 was set as follows : The more consumer dispositionally attribute the cause of price promotion, the more unfavorable the quality perception made by consumer will be. Through test 1, the subjects were given a brief explanation of the product and the brand before they were provided with a $2{\times}2$ factorial design that has 4 patterns of price promotion (presence or absence of past price promotion * presence or absence of current price promotion) and the explanation describing the price promotion pattern of each cell. Then the perceived quality of imaginary brand WAVEX was evaluated in the scale of 7. The reason tennis racket was chosen is because the selected product group must have had almost no past price promotions to eliminate the influence of average frequency of promotion on the value of price promotional information as Raghubir and Corfman (1999) pointed out. Test 2 was also carried out on students of the same management faculty of test 1 with tennis racket as the product group. As with test 1, subjects with average familiarity for the product group and low familiarity for the brand was selected. Each subjects were assigned to one of the two cells representing two different information presenting patterns of price promotion of WAVEX (case where the reason behind price promotion was provided/case where the reason behind price promotion was not provided). Subjects looked at each promotional information before evaluating the perceived quality of the brand WAVEX in the scale of 7. The effect of price promotion for unfamiliar pretrial brand on consumer's perceived quality was proved to be moderated with the presence or absence of past price promotion. The consistency with past promotional behavior is important variable that makes unfavorable effect on brand evaluations get worse. If the price promotion for the brand has never been carried out before, price promotion activity may have more unfavorable effects on consumer's quality perception. Second, when the price promotion of unfamiliar pretrial brand was executed for the first time, presenting method of informations has impact on consumer's attribution for the cause of firm's promotion. And the unfavorable effect of quality perception is higher when the consumer does dispositional attribution comparing with situational attribution. Unlike the previous studies where the main focus was the absence or presence of favorable or unfavorable motivation from situational/dispositional attribution, the focus of this study was exaus ing the fact that a situational attribution can be inferred even if the consumer employs a dispositional attribution on the price promotional behavior, if the company provides a persuasive reason. Such approach, in academic perspectih sis a large significance in that it explained the anchoring and adjng ch approcedures by applying it to a non-mathematical problem unlike the previous studies where it wis ionaly explained by applying it to a mathematical problem. In other wordn, there is a highrspedency tmatispositionally attribute other's behaviors according to the fuedach aal attribution errors and when this is applied to the situation of price promotions, we can infer that consumers are likely tmatispositionally attribute the company's price promotion behaviors. Ha ever, even ueder these circumstances, the company can adjng the consumer's anchoring tmareduce the po wibiliute thdispositional attribution. Furthermore, unlike majority of previous researches on short/long-term effects of price promotion that only considered the effect of price promotions on consumer's purchasing behaviors, this research measured the effect on perceived quality, one of man elements that affects the purchasing behavior of consumers. These results carry useful implications for the work sector. A guideline of effectively providing promotional informations for a new brand can be suggested through the outcomes of this research. If the brand is to avoid false implications such as inferior quality while implementing a price promotion strategy, it must provide a clear and acceptable reasons behind the promotion. Especially it is more important for the company with no past price promotion to provide a clear reason. An inconsistent behavior can be the cause of consumer's distrust and anxiety. This is also one of the most important factor of risk of endless price wars. Price promotions without prior notice can buy doubt from consumers not market share.
In recent years, one of the major reasons for the fierce competition amongst firms is that they strive to increase their own market shares and customer acquisition rate in the same market with similar and apparently undifferentiated products in terms of quality and perceived benefit. Because of this change in recent marketing environment, the differentiated after-sales service and diversified promotion strategies have become more important to gain competitive advantage. Price promotion is the favorite strategy that most retailers use to achieve short-term sales increase, induce consumer's brand switch, in troduce new product into market, and so forth. However, if marketers apply or copy an identical price promotion strategy without considering the characteristic differences in product and consumer preference, it will cause serious problems because discounted price itself could make people skeptical about product quality, and the changes of perceived value might appear differently depending on other factors such as consumer involvement or brand attitude. Previous studies showed that price promotion would certainly increase sales, and the discounted price compared to regular price would enhance the consumer's perceived values. On the other hand, discounted price itself could make people depreciate or skeptical about product quality, and reduce the consumers' positivity bias because consumers might be unsure whether the current price promotion is the retailer's best price offer. Moreover, we cannot say that discounted price absolutely enhances the consumer's perceived values regardless of product category and purchase situations. That is, the factors that affect consumers' value perceptions and buying behavior are so diverse in reality that the results of studies on the same dependent variable come out differently depending on what variable was used or how experiment conditions were designed. Majority of previous researches on the effect of price-comparison advertising have used consumers' buying behavior as dependent variable. In order to figure out consumers' buying behavior theoretically, analysis of value perceptions which influence buying intentions is needed. In addition, they did not combined the independent variables such as brand loyalty and price discount rate together. For this reason, this paper tried to examine the moderating effect of brand loyalty on relationship between the different levels of discounting rate and buyers' value perception. And we provided with theoretical and managerial implications that marketers need to consider such variables as product attributes, brand loyalty, and consumer involvement at the same time, and then establish a differentiated pricing strategy case by case in order to enhance consumer's perceived values properl. Three research concepts were used in our study and each concept based on past researches was defined. The perceived acquisition value in this study was defined as the perceived net gains associated with the products or services acquired. That is, the perceived acquisition value of the product will be positively influenced by the benefits buyers believe they are getting by acquiring and using the product, and negatively influenced by the money given up to acquire the product. And the perceived transaction value was defined as the perception of psychological satisfaction or pleasure obtained from taking advantage of the financial terms of the price deal. Lastly, the brand loyalty was defined as favorable attitude towards a purchased product. Thus, a consumer loyal to a brand has an emotional attachment to the brand or firm. Repeat purchasers continue to buy the same brand even though they do not have an emotional attachment to it. We assumed that if the degree of brand loyalty is high, the perceived acquisition value and the perceived transaction value will increase when higher discount rate is provided. But we found that there are no significant differences in values between two different discount rates as a result of empirical analysis. It means that price reduction did not affect consumer's brand choice significantly because the perceived sacrifice decreased only a little, and customers are satisfied with product's benefits when brand loyalty is high. From the result, we confirmed that consumers with high degree of brand loyalty to a specific product are less sensitive to price change. Thus, using price promotion strategy to merely expect sale increase is not recommendable. Instead of discounting price, marketers need to strengthen consumers' brand loyalty and maintain the skimming strategy. On the contrary, when the degree of brand loyalty is low, the perceived acquisition value and the perceived transaction value decreased significantly when higher discount rate is provided. Generally brands that are considered inferior might be able to draw attention away from the quality of the product by making consumers focus more on the sacrifice component of price. But considering the fact that consumers with low degree of brand loyalty are known to be unsatisfied with product's benefits and have relatively negative brand attitude, bigger price reduction offered in experiment condition of this paper made consumers depreciate product's quality and benefit more and more, and consumer's psychological perceived sacrifice increased while perceived values decreased accordingly. We infer that, in the case of inferior brand, a drastic price-cut or frequent price promotion may increase consumers' uncertainty about overall components of product. Therefore, it appears that reinforcing the augmented product such as after-sale service, delivery and giving credit which is one of the levels consisting of product would be more effective in reality. This will be better rather than competing with product that holds high brand loyalty by reducing sale price. Although this study tried to examine the moderating effect of brand loyalty on relationship between the different levels of discounting rate and buyers' value perception, there are several limitations. This study was conducted in controlled conditions where the high involvement product and two different levels of discount rate were applied. Given the presence of low involvement product, when both pieces of information are available, it is likely that the results we have reported here may have been different. Thus, this research results explain only the specific situation. Second, the sample selected in this study was university students in their twenties, so we cannot say that the results are firmly effective to all generations. Future research that manipulates the level of discount along with the consumer involvement might lead to a more robust understanding of the effects various discount rate. And, we used a cellular phone as a product stimulus, so it would be very interesting to analyze the result when the product stimulus is an intangible product such as service. It could be also valuable to analyze whether the change of perceived value affects consumers' final buying behavior positively or negatively.
In an attempt to obtain a basic information to develop an effective integrated system of controlling sheath blight of rice in Korea, the transition of this disease, the variation of cultural characters and pathogenicity of the pathogen, environmental conditions affecting the disease outbreak and varietal resistance have been investigated. 1. Rice sheath blight which has been minor disease in the past was widely spread, especially since 1971. This disease has promptly spread all over the country and infected 65.2% of total rice growing area in 1976. Various factors are considered to be related to such transition of this disease. Above all, increace of application of nitrogenous fertilizer, early season and earlier cultivation of rice, introduction of more susceptible "Tongil" varieties etc. must be important factors influencing the outbreak of this disease. 2. Great variations in cultural characteristics-such as mycelial growth rate, color of the medium, amount of the aerial mycelium, shape and color of the sclerotia- and in the pathogenicity of isolates of the pathogen, Thanatephorus cucumeris Dank were observed. The optimum temperature for mycelial growth also varied with isolates, from $25^{\circ}C$ to $30^{\circ}C$. There were not necessarily any correlation between curtural characteristics and pathogenicity of isolates of Thanatephorus cucumens. 3. Mycelial grow th of isolates of Thanatephorus cucumens on the PDA medium were correlated with the air temperatures of the region where the isolates were collected. The isolates from the regions with high temperature grew well on PDA medium at $35^{\circ}C$ than those from the region with low temperature, on the other hand, the isolates from the regions with the low temperature grew well on the same medium at $12^{\circ}C$ than those from the regions with high temperature. 4. Pectin polygalacturonase (PG) and cellulase (Cx) were most active on the 3rd day after inoculation on the leaves of rice plant with Thanatephorus cucumeris, whereas pectin methylestrase (PE) was most active on the 4th day after inoculation. Relationship between the activities of PE of isolates and the strength of pathogenicity of isolates was obtained, but PG and cellulase activities were not correlated with pathogenicity of isolates. 5. The tolerence of sclerotia from in-vitro culture to low temperature varied with their water content, the dried cultural sclerotia were more tolerent than wet ones, Dried cultural sclerotia maintained almost 100% germinability for 45 days at $-20^{\circ}C$, whereas wet sclerotia lost viability at $-5^{\circ}C$. The germination ratio of the sclerotia after overwintering changed from 18% to 70% according to the water content of the test paddy fields and the ratio was low in wet paddy condition. 6. To investigate the host range of this fungi in and near paddy field, 17 weeds were inoculated with fungi. The lesions of sheath blight disease was obserbed on Sagittaria trifolia L., Echinochloa crusgalli P. Beauv., Monochoria vaginal is Presl, Polygonum Hydropiper L., Eclipta prostrata L., Digitaria sanguinalis Scapoli. 7. When the level of nitrogen applied was doubled over standard level, total nitrogen content in rice sheath increased, ami when silicate was applied, starch content in rice sheath decreased, inducing the rice plants more susceptible to sheath blight disease. Increased dressing of potash ferilizer reduced the incidence of sheat blight disease. 8. The percentage of infected stems in the early period increased more in the narrow hill plot than in the wide hill plot, but in the late period this tendency was inversed; the percentage of infected stems as well as severity in the wide hill plot increased more compared to the narrow hill plot, and the disease severity in the one plant per hill plot was also low. The number of stems in the wide hill plot was more than the number of stems in the narrow hill plot. This indicates that the microclimate, such as the relative humidity, in the narrow hill plot was more favorable for the development of this disease. 9. There was a high negative correlation between the disease severity of varieties to the sheath blight and the maturity of the varieties, that is, the early varieties were more susceptible than the late ones, and much-tillering varieties usually showed more infection than less tillering varieties. 10. No relationship was obtained between the percentage of infected stems in the early period and the severity after heading, whereas a distinct relationship was obtained between former and latter after Aug. 10.
Internet commerce has been growing at a rapid pace for the last decade. Many firms try to reach wider consumer markets by adding the Internet channel to the existing traditional channels. Despite the various benefits of the Internet channel, a significant number of firms failed in managing the new type of channel. Previous studies could not cleary explain these conflicting results associated with the Internet channel. One of the major reasons is most of the previous studies conducted analyses under a specific market condition and claimed that as the impact of Internet channel introduction. Therefore, their results are strongly influenced by the specific market settings. However, firms face various market conditions in the real worlddensity and disutility of using the Internet. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of various market environments on a firm's optimal channel strategy by employing a flexible game theory model. We capture various market conditions with consumer density and disutility of using the Internet.
shows the channel structures analyzed in this study. Before the Internet channel is introduced, a monopoly manufacturer sells its products through an independent physical store. From this structure, the manufacturer could introduce its own Internet channel (MI). The independent physical store could also introduce its own Internet channel and coordinate it with the existing physical store (RI). An independent Internet retailer such as Amazon could enter this market (II). In this case, two types of independent retailers compete with each other. In this model, consumers are uniformly distributed on the two dimensional space. Consumer heterogeneity is captured by a consumer's geographical location (ci) and his disutility of using the Internet channel (${\delta}_{N_i}$).
shows various market conditions captured by the two consumer heterogeneities.
(a) illustrates a market with symmetric consumer distributions. The model captures explicitly the asymmetric distributions of consumer disutility in a market as well. In a market like that is represented in
(c), the average consumer disutility of using an Internet store is relatively smaller than that of using a physical store. For example, this case represents the market in which 1) the product is suitable for Internet transactions (e.g., books) or 2) the level of E-Commerce readiness is high such as in Denmark or Finland. On the other hand, the average consumer disutility when using an Internet store is relatively greater than that of using a physical store in a market like (b). Countries like Ukraine and Bulgaria, or the market for "experience goods" such as shoes, could be examples of this market condition.
summarizes the various scenarios of consumer distributions analyzed in this study. The range for disutility of using the Internet (${\delta}_{N_i}$) is held constant, while the range of consumer distribution (${\chi}_i$) varies from -25 to 25, from -50 to 50, from -100 to 100, from -150 to 150, and from -200 to 200.
summarizes the analysis results. As the average travel cost in a market decreases while the average disutility of Internet use remains the same, average retail price, total quantity sold, physical store profit, monopoly manufacturer profit, and thus, total channel profit increase. On the other hand, the quantity sold through the Internet and the profit of the Internet store decrease with a decreasing average travel cost relative to the average disutility of Internet use. We find that a channel that has an advantage over the other kind of channel serves a larger portion of the market. In a market with a high average travel cost, in which the Internet store has a relative advantage over the physical store, for example, the Internet store becomes a mass-retailer serving a larger portion of the market. This result implies that the Internet becomes a more significant distribution channel in those markets characterized by greater geographical dispersion of buyers, or as consumers become more proficient in Internet usage. The results indicate that the degree of price discrimination also varies depending on the distribution of consumer disutility in a market. The manufacturer in a market in which the average travel cost is higher than the average disutility of using the Internet has a stronger incentive for price discrimination than the manufacturer in a market where the average travel cost is relatively lower. We also find that the manufacturer has a stronger incentive to maintain a high price level when the average travel cost in a market is relatively low. Additionally, the retail competition effect due to Internet channel introduction strengthens as average travel cost in a market decreases. This result indicates that a manufacturer's channel power relative to that of the independent physical retailer becomes stronger with a decreasing average travel cost. This implication is counter-intuitive, because it is widely believed that the negative impact of Internet channel introduction on a competing physical retailer is more significant in a market like Russia, where consumers are more geographically dispersed, than in a market like Hong Kong, that has a condensed geographic distribution of consumers.