• Title/Summary/Keyword: Follow-up Service

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Analysis on the trends and causes of inhabitant's behavioral changes in medical institutions's utilization after enforcement of regional medical insurance. (pilot-project area of regional medical insurance; mainly Kun-wi and Kwang-hwa county) (의료보험(醫療保險) 실시이후(實施以後) 지역주민(地域住民)의 의료기관이용행태(醫療機關利用行態) 변화(變化) 추이(推移)와 그 요인(要因)에 관한 조사연구(調査硏究))

  • Park, Jung-Yeon
    • Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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    • v.3 no.2
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    • pp.47-76
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    • 1989
  • The objectives of this study was to analyze the major causes of decreasing utilization rate of health care institutios in pilot-project area of regional medical insurance, Kwang-hwa and Kun-wi country. After the implementation of medical insurance, utilization rate of health institutions turned out' to be lower than it was estimated, when the pilot-project of regional medical insurance was planned. It might be due to changes in inhabitant's behavioral attitude toward medical insurance. So this study was made to find measures for financial stability by increasing utilization rate of health care institutions and to be available for basic demand-supply program of medical care. The hypothesis of this study was as follows; First. there is difference in understanding health care institutions between Kun-wi and Kwang-hwa. Second. respondesnts of inquiry survey have exact knowledge of their past experience of treatment taken prior to enforcement of medical insurance, Questionaire survey was made as to each 700 household among total 11, 884 households in Kun-wi and 20,919 households in Kwang-hwa. In case of Kun-wi, 70% of inquired households (491) gave their answers. In Kwang-hwa, the number was 560 households (80% of inquireds). Dollected data was processed and analyzed by way of using SPSS batch system. To evaluate facto rs distribution aspects of data and to make comparison between two area, percentage and $X^2$ distribution were applied. The results were as follows; L The utilization rate of health care institutions in Kun-wi and Kwang-hwa was lower than it was estimated. when pilot-project of medical insurance was planned. 2. Prior to the implementation of medical insurance. inhabitants in two area chose the medical institutions considering such factors. First was medical care fee cheap. second in habitant's residence, Third was the institutions conveniently easy of access. 3. After the implementation of medical insurance. 26.1% of inqurieds in Kun-wi and 41.6% in Kwang-hwa, changed medical institutions. In case of Kwn-wi, from health care institution (p 0.05), and in case of Kwang-hwa, vice versa, from general medical institutions to health care institutions. 4. Evaluation by factors were made such as follows. Inquired gave high marks to following facts: In case of Kun-wi, general medical institutions were difficult of access and relation between patients: was not friendly, but burden of medical expenditure was light. Effects of treatment and facilities was good. In case of Kwang-hwa, inquired gave high evaluation marks to the follow ing facts; facilities of medical institutions was not good, but the burden of medical expenditure was light. 5. After the implementation of medical insurance, the services was evaluated as good, but inquired hopec for lessening the burden of medical expenditure. 6. In case of exact understanding of cost-sharing, the evaluation rate in Kwang-hwa was higher than that of Kun-wi (p < 0.005). And positive attitude toward necessity of medical insurance was also good in Kwang-hwa (p < 0.05). 7. In case of inquired's attitude toward medical institutions, Kwang-hwa showed positive response (p < 0.05) 8. In the case of comparison between general medical institution and health care institution, two area showed similar positive response; medical manpower, facilities of medical institutions and effest: of treatement was good. 9. In comprehensive evaluation of benefit-service; the general medical institution's positiveness was higher than that of health care institutions in Kun-wi. But in Kwang-hwa vice-versa. 10. If the medical expenditure of general medical institution and health care institutions was equal 77% of inquireds in Kun-wi and 59.1% in Kwang-hwa answered that they chose general medical insurance. Considering results above mentioned, the conclusion of this study was made as follows. 1. In Kwang-hwa county, where the understanding of health care institutions's was good, the utilization's of health care institutions was shown high. Therefore, in case of Kwang-hwa, betterment: should be made to induce increasing utilization rate for negative factors of health care institutions. 2. In case of Kun-wi, where the understanding of health care institutions was on the decrease, measures for changing such negative factors should be taken by way of strengthening public relations. And cases of Kwang-hwa should also be studied. 3. On the side of financial stabilization and establishing health care delivery system, primary health care should be available. Therefore, the major cause of inhabitant's avoiding health care institutions should be known. And measures for activating that institutions have to be taken. So, the facilities of health care institution have to be improved up to the level of clinic. And supportive measures for securing equipment and improving health care services should also be taken. It is necessary that strategy for public relations should be employed with policy considerations and supports.

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Application of HHIE-S(Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly-Screening version) to screening test of noise-induced hearing loss (소음성 난청 선별검사에 HHIE-S(Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly-Screening version)의 적용)

  • Lee, Mi-Young;Suh, Suk-Kwon;Lee, Choong-Won
    • Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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    • v.29 no.3 s.54
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    • pp.539-553
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    • 1996
  • The study was conducted from May to September in 1994 to investigate applicability of the Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly-Screening version(HHIE-S) in parallel with the pure-tone audiometer to the initial screening test of noise-induced hearing loss(NIHL) in some noise-exposed workers. Subjects were selected by systemic sampling that took every 10th person from 6, 700 workers taking the annual occupational health examination by the department of Health Maintenance of Dongsan Hospital Keimyung University in Taegu. The authors administered the pure-tone audiometric test and self-reported questionnaire of HHIE-S including items of sociodemographic and job-related variables concurrently. The final subjects analysed were 1,019(488 males and 531 females) excluding fourteen persons who had many missing values in their questionnaires. The reliability coefficients of HHIE-S scale by Cronbach's alpha were 0.84. In the univariate analysis of hearing handicap measured by the HHIE-S, work duration, military service and the hearing threshold loss at 1KHz and 4KHz by the initial audiometer were significant in males while age, work duration and hearing threshold loss at 1KHz and 4KHz were significant in females. In the stepwise linear regression analysis, hearing threshold loss at 1KHz and 4KHz, was the only selected variable explaining the hearing handicap in males and hearing threshold loss at 1KHz and 4KHz, age, and work duration were selected in females. In ROC curves for HHIE-S scores against NIHL as gold standard which was defined by the follow-up audiogram as more than 30dB of the average of 0.5/1/2KHz and 50dB at 4KHz, the optimal cutoff for the parallel HHIE-S appeared to be 8. The results suggest that HHIE-S appeared to have some reliability and validity in this data and might be used in screening NIHL in parallel with pure-tone audiometer in noise-exposed workers.

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A Study on the Problem and Improvement of CRM in Financial Institutions (금융기관의 CRM문제점과 개선방안에 관한연구)

  • Lee, Sang-Youn;Oh, Sung-Taek;Kim, Moon-Jung
    • The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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    • v.1 no.1
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    • pp.33-41
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    • 2010
  • In the age of globalization, effective and efficient corporate management is becoming more important as domestic and international business circumstances changes. In the middle of endless changes in business circumstances, fast reaction to customers and market, and offering customized goods and service became essential. In this respect, CRM designed to utilize customer information scientifically and systematically, has become an essential system and marketing strategy to enhance corporate competitiveness. CRM has placed the importance of customers in the front of marketing and has focused every process and business minds on customers. Recent change in the market and the trend of establishing and introducing CRM system has lead us to concentrate on the introduction of CRM in the financial institutions. This study searched for several views about CRM in academic and industrial papers. Through theoretical approach on CRM, the background of the introduction of CRM, the purpose of CRM, the characteristic and application of CRM, and the expected effect of CRM will be discussed. This study is focused on financial institutions where CRM is widely used. And through documents about examples of the introduction of CRM, the status of the establishment of domestic CRM and the necessity and trend of CRM will be discussed. Also the problem of CRM in the financial institutions and the improvement of CRM in domestic banks will be analyzed. When discussing CRM in the financial area, customers are the main source of corporate profit and through relationship management with the customers enhancing loyalty and maximizing profit can be obtained. Especially in CRM in financial institutions, maintaining existing customers makes higher profit ratio, so repurchasing and cross selling becomes important for obtaining lifetime value of existing customers who contribute to most of the profit of corporations. As a result, CRM should be completely customer oriented. CRM in financial institutions is not merely marketing work, but organizational competence which is made up of standardized work process through total process integration inside the corporation. Corporations which plan to introduce CRM should analyze the characteristics and conditions of corporations and establish purpose and strategy of CRM. And they need long term view to find out the factors which best fit for the introduction of CRM. To enable this, strategy composed of daily marketing activity and CRM concept is necessary. Also continued improvement through drill and training for operating organization should be followed to maintain CRM well. And corporate culture must settle customer as the center of corporate value. The race for introducing and improving CRM has already begun. CRM should not be regarded as a choice. It should be accepted as something essential. In this reality financial institutions should solve subdivision problem of customers and necessity of customers with the mind of 'customer's profit is my profit'. Customer focused management should not be emphasized only by words. Efforts like viewing from the customer's point must be nurtured to provide methods to help customers. That is, we should not just follow what is done in foreign countries. We should solve the problem of our customers according to the situation of our country, our industry, our corporation. Then we can gain the trust of customers, and the value derived from the customers will become the background of CRM which will lead the corporation to success.

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Nutritional Characteristics and Some Bioactive Components Contents of Sophorae fructus (괴각(槐角)의 식품영양학적 접근 및 몇 가지 생리활성물질 함량 분석)

  • Choi, Young-Su;Shin, Eon-Hwan;Park, Sung-Jin;Kim, Jong-Dai
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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    • v.37 no.9
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    • pp.1154-1161
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    • 2008
  • The purpose of this study is to determine the possibility of using Sophorae fructus as natural health food source. To accomplish this purpose, the contents of general and antioxidative nutrients of Sophora fructus were measured. The contents of carbohydrate, crude protein, crude lipid and ash are 75.9%, 16.4%, 2.41%, and 5.2%, respectively, while the calories of Sophora fructus was 337.3 kcal. Total dietary fiber was 15.07% of total carbohydrates. The percentages of water soluble dietary fiber to insoluble dietary fiber were 1.09% and 10.36%, respectively. The protein was composed of a total of 18 different kinds of amino acids. The contents of essential and non-essential amino acids were 2,310.91 mg and 5,218.52 mg. The K was the largest mineral followed by Ca, P and Mg, which means Sophorae fructus is alkali material. The contents of saturated fatty acids, monounsaturated fatty acids and polyunsaturated fatty acids were 24.94%, 32.40%, and 32.86%, respectively. Therefore, the amount of the total unsaturated fatty acid was higher than that of any other plant. The content of vitamin C in Sophorae fructus was higher than that of any other plant, which suggests that it could increase blood elasticity. The content of rutin, which is responsible for capillary vessel permeability, was 1.78%. The contents of water soluble antioxidative materials in 1 mL of water-extracted Sophorae fructus were $4.95\;{\mu}g$ which is comparable to 1,560.96 mmol of vitamin C in antioxidant effect. The general nutrients and other antioxidatant bioactive materials in Sophorae fructus were also potential materials for good health food. It is expected that a follow up study on Sophorae fructus through developing processed food and evaluation of their functional properties would provide useful information as a source of medicinal foods.

Oxidative Stress Induced Damage to Paternal Genome and Impact of Meditation and Yoga - Can it Reduce Incidence of Childhood Cancer?

  • Dada, Rima;Kumar, Shiv Basant;Chawla, Bhavna;Bisht, Shilpa;Khan, Saima
    • Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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    • v.17 no.9
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    • pp.4517-4525
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    • 2016
  • Background: Sperm DNA damage is underlying aetiology of poor implantation and pregnancy rates but also affects health of offspring and may also result in denovo mutations in germ line and post fertilization. This may result in complex diseases, polygenic disorders and childhood cancers. Childhood cancer like retinoblastoma (RB) is more prevalent in developing countries and the incidence of RB has increased more than three fold in India in the last decade. Recent studies have documented increased incidence of cancers in children born to fathers who consume alcohol in excess and tobacco or who were conceived by assisted conception. The aetiology of childhood cancer and increased disease burden in these children is lin ked to oxidative stress (OS) and oxidative DNA damage( ODD) in sperm of their fathers. Though several antioxidants are in use to combat oxidative stress, the effect of majority of these formulations on DNA is not known. Yoga and meditation cause significant decline in OS and ODD and aid in regulating OS levels such that reactive oxygen speues meditated signal transduction, gene expression and several other physiological functions are not disrupted. Thus, this study aimed to analyze sperm ODD as a possible etiological factor in childhood cancer and role of simple life style interventions like yoga and meditation in significantly decreasing seminal oxidative stress and oxidative DNA damage and thereby decreasing incidence of childhood cancers. Materials and Methods: A total of 131 fathers of children with RB (non-familial sporadic heritable) and 50 controls (fathers of healthy children) were recruited at a tertiary center in India. Sperm parameters as per WHO 2010 guidelines and reactive oxygen species (ROS), DNA fragmentation index (DFI), 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxy guanosine (8-OHdG) and telomere length were estimated at day 0, and after 3 and 6 months of intervention. We also examined the compliance with yoga and meditation practice and smoking status at each follow-up. Results: The seminal mean ROS levels (p<0.05), sperm DFI (p<0.001), 8-OHdG (p<0.01) levels were significantly higher in fathers of children with RB, as compared to controls and the relative mean telomere length in the sperm was shorter. Levels of ROS were significantly reduced in tobacco users (p<0.05) as well as in alcoholics (p<0.05) after intervention. DFI reduced significantly (p<0.05) after 6 months of yoga and meditation practice in all groups. The levels of oxidative DNA damage marker 8-OHdG were reduced significantly after 3 months (p<0.05) and 6 months (p<0.05) of practice. Conclusions: Our results suggest that OS and ODD DNA may contribute to the development of childhood cancer. This may be due to accumulation of oxidized mutagenic base 8OHdG, and elevated MDA levels which results in MDA dimers which are also mutagenic, aberrant methylation pattern, altered gene expression which affect cell proliferation and survival through activation of transcription factors. Increased mt DNA mutations and aberrant repair of mt and nuclear DNA due to highly truncatred DNA repair mechanisms all contribute to sperm genome hypermutability and persistant oxidative DNA damage. Oxidative stress is also associated with genome wide hypomethylation, telomere shortening and mitochondrial dysfunction leading to genome hypermutability and instability. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to report decline in OS and ODD and improvement in sperm DNA integrity following adoption of meditation and yoga based life style modification.This may reduce disease burden in next generation and reduce incidence of childhood cancers.

Historical Review on the Security Service for the Royal Household in the "Goryeo" Era (고려시대 왕실호위제도의 사적 고찰)

  • Lee, Sung-Jin;Kim, Eui-Young;Lee, Jong-Hwan
    • Korean Security Journal
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    • no.14
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    • pp.413-429
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    • 2007
  • The Guard over the royal household in the "Goryeo" era was the same as if was over the President or Ruler of a nation today. In those days, a king represented a nation and any threat to the safety of a king could bring the destruction of a nation and the dispersion of the people. by reviewing the change of the 2-Gun 6-Wi system of the era, it can be, summed up as follow, Ther will be suggestions. The Guard might focus on a king's personal safety in the wake of the system of the Silla and Taebong dynasties until the establishment of the Goryeo Dynasty's unique political system. "Goryeo" rebuilt the royal palace in Gyeonyeong-gun to take the shape of unified country after its accomplishment of unification of the late three countries, Then it was afraid of the rebellion and uprising of local powerful clans, The country put them under control and organized the local army with them in the era of Kings, Seongjong, through the kings, Seongjong and Gwangjong. The army system of "Goryeo" consisted of 2-Gun and 6-Wi, and 2-Gun placed above the 6-Wi played the role of the Royal guards, and among the organizations a certain army under the specific name of "Gyeonyong-gun" guarded the kings in the nearest position. An aristocratic culture enjoyed its golden age in the period of stability of the aristocracy of "Goryeo", but afterward in the confusion of the aristocratic disruption and incompatible confrontation the country lost its control, and faced military rebellions by treating civil officials well and ill-treating military officials The safety of kings become unstable with the grasping political power by the military officials, and "Dobang" was established in the era of Choi's family to grasp political power. In the era of Choi Woo, he gathered his men and organized his familys army with them and managed the personnel administration with the civil officials of "Jeongbang and Seobang under his command. Such a fact shows the similarity to today's task of guarding. Considering the facts that "Sambyeolcho, the military ground of the military-men-rule, was at the center of the struggling against Mongolia and that even after the fall of the military regime, they rebelled and fought against Mongolia to the end, we came to know that the nationalism in the era of the military era was great. In the transition of external situations from "Myeong" to "Won"(Chinese dynasties), the conflict between the old "Won"-friendly power and the new "Myeong"-friendly power caused the weakness of the power to guard the royal household, and "Goryeo" at last gave way to the newly rising "Joseon" led by Lee, Seong Gye who won the people's confidence.

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Analysis on the Use Characteristics of Citizen based on Urban Green Spaces Type - Focuses on Suwon-City - (도시녹지 유형에 따른 도시민의 이용 특성 연구 - 수원시를 대상으로 -)

  • Kim, Yea Sung;Kim, Hyun;Ko, Jinsoo
    • Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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    • v.42 no.5
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    • pp.31-40
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    • 2014
  • The importance of green spaces in the city is growing each day. Local governments are taking charge of park development works that are having difficulty in developing and managing urban parks due to high land value as well as a shortage in finances. This is even though an urban park is defined as an urban planning facility and the law provides park area per person. Civil residents, meanwhile, are using not only urban parks provided by law but also other green areas such as rivers, reservoirs, and school playgrounds because they recognize urban green areas by the concept of use. In this study, accordingly, urban green areas were sorted into two types, urban parks, parks provided by law, and other green areas, and the difference in use pattern and use satisfaction by type was analyzed. As a result of analysis, there was no remarkable difference between the two types. According to such results, it was found that it is necessary to include other green areas, such as rivers, reservoirs, school green areas, and apartment green areas in addition to the current park green areas provided by law when park area per person is calculated, and such calculation of urban green areas reflecting local characteristics can reduce local governments' financial burden and improve the effectiveness of future urban park policies. It is judged that such results can become a plan against the cancellation of unexecuted urban facilities. The fact that accessibility factors, such as road satisfaction, access convenience, and convenient movement, are affecting satisfaction with the use of urban parks suggests that it is important to improve urban park accessibilities rather than to quantitatively expand park area in order to improve satisfaction with urban parks. Considering that people travel to urban green areas mostly by walking, it is necessary for access convenience to conduct follow-up studies such as barrier-free and securing walking stability through analysis of routes to urban green areas.

The Effect of Herding Behavior and Perceived Usefulness on Intention to Purchase e-Learning Content: Comparison Analysis by Purchase Experience (무리행동과 지각된 유용성이 이러닝 컨텐츠 구매의도에 미치는 영향: 구매경험에 의한 비교분석)

  • Yoo, Chul-Woo;Kim, Yang-Jin;Moon, Jung-Hoon;Choe, Young-Chan
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.18 no.4
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    • pp.105-130
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    • 2008
  • Consumers of e-learning market differ from those of other markets in that they are replaced in a specific time scale. For example, e-learning contents aimed at highschool senior students cannot be consumed by a specific consumer over the designated period of time. Hence e-learning service providers need to attract new groups of students every year. Due to lack of information on products designed for continuously emerging consumers, the consumers face difficulties in making rational decisions in a short time period. Increased uncertainty of product purchase leads customers to herding behaviors to obtain information of the product from others and imitate them. Taking into consideration of these features of e-learning market, this study will focus on the online herding behavior in purchasing e-learning contents. There is no definite concept for e-learning. However, it is being discussed in a wide range of perspectives from educational engineering to management to e-business etc. Based upon the existing studies, we identify two main view-points regarding e-learning. The first defines e-learning as a concept that includes existing terminologies, such as CBT (Computer Based Training), WBT (Web Based Training), and IBT (Internet Based Training). In this view, e-learning utilizes IT in order to support professors and a part of or entire education systems. In the second perspective, e-learning is defined as the usage of Internet technology to deliver diverse intelligence and achievement enhancing solutions. In other words, only the educations that are done through the Internet and network can be classified as e-learning. We take the second definition of e-learning for our working definition. The main goal of this study is to investigate what factors affect consumer intention to purchase e-learning contents and to identify the differential impact of the factors between consumers with purchase experience and those without the experience. To accomplish the goal of this study, it focuses on herding behavior and perceived usefulness as antecedents to behavioral intention. The proposed research model in the study extends the Technology Acceptance Model by adding herding behavior and usability to take into account the unique characteristics of e-learning content market and e-learning systems use, respectively. The current study also includes consumer experience with e-learning content purchase because the previous experience is believed to affect purchasing intention when consumers buy experience goods or services. Previous studies on e-learning did not consider the characteristics of e-learning contents market and the differential impact of consumer experience on the relationship between the antecedents and behavioral intention, which is the target of this study. This study employs a survey method to empirically test the proposed research model. A survey questionnaire was developed and distributed to 629 informants. 528 responses were collected, which consist of potential customer group (n = 133) and experienced customer group (n = 395). The data were analyzed using PLS method, a structural equation modeling method. Overall, both herding behavior and perceived usefulness influence consumer intention to purchase e-learning contents. In detail, in the case of potential customer group, herding behavior has stronger effect on purchase intention than does perceived usefulness. However, in the case of shopping-experienced customer group, perceived usefulness has stronger effect than does herding behavior. In sum, the results of the analysis show that with regard to purchasing experience, perceived usefulness and herding behavior had differential effects upon the purchase of e-learning contents. As a follow-up analysis, the interaction effects of the number of purchase transaction and herding behavior/perceived usefulness on purchase intention were investigated. The results show that there are no interaction effects. This study contributes to the literature in a couple of ways. From a theoretical perspective, this study examined and showed evidence that the characteristics of e-learning market such as continuous renewal of consumers and thus high uncertainty and individual experiences are important factors to be considered when the purchase intention of e-learning content is studied. This study can be used as a basis for future studies on e-learning success. From a practical perspective, this study provides several important implications on what types of marketing strategies e-learning companies need to build. The bottom lines of these strategies include target group attraction, word-of-mouth management, enhancement of web site usability quality, etc. The limitations of this study are also discussed for future studies.

Chemical Compositions of Fermented Codonopsis lanceolata (발효더덕의 화학성분)

  • Park, Sung-Jin;Seong, Dong-Ho;Park, Dong-Sik;Kim, Seung-Seop;Gou, Jing-Yu;Ahn, Ju-Hee;Yoon, Won-Byung;Lee, Hyeon-Yong
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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    • v.38 no.3
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    • pp.396-400
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    • 2009
  • Dodok (Codonopsis lanceolata Bench. et Hook) root contains abundant pharmaceutical substances and is widely used as a food and a medicinal herb. To identify the major components, fermented Codonopsis lanceolata was analyzed for its chemical compositions prior to their pharmaceutical substances, which were used as the fundamental data. The contents of carbohydrate, crude protein, crude lipid and ash are 79.3%, 13.0%, 2.40% and 5.3%, respectively. The calories of fermented Codonopsis lanceolata was 390.5 kcal. Total dietary fiber was 47.4% of total carbohydrates. The protein was composed of 18 different amino acids. The contents of essential and non-essential amino acids were 8,118.18 mg and 10,913.42 mg. The K was the largest mineral followed by P, Ca and Mg, which means fermented Codonopsis lanceolata is alkali material. The contents of saturated fatty acids, monounsaturated fatty acids and polyunsaturated fatty acids were 37.76%, 3.84%, and 35.64%, respectively. Therefore, the amount of the total unsaturated fatty acid was higher than that of any other plant. The content of crude saponin in fermented Codonopsis lanceolata was 60.1 mg/g. It is expected that a follow up study on fermented Codonopsis lanceolata through development and evaluation of processed foods for their functional properties would provide useful information as a source of medicinal foods.

A Study on the New Branding and Customer Integration of the M&A Process : Focused on the Brand Name and Membership System of Two Companies (인수합병 과정의 브랜드 및 고객 통합에 관한 연구 : 백화점의 브랜드 네임 및 회원 통합을 중심으로)

  • Kim, Gyu-Bae
    • Journal of Distribution Science
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    • v.10 no.6
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    • pp.27-37
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    • 2012
  • Many studies have focused on the importance of organizational integration when companies try to achieve growth through mergers and acquisitions (M&A). However, there has been little research that focuses on the new branding or customer base integration of the M&A process, despite the fact that this integration is very important for achieving M&A goals and business performance in industries such as retail. The purpose of this study is to provide an M&A case study of the retail industry, focused especially on the new branding and customer integration of two department stores. This study examined key integration processes in terms of brand name and membership systems of both companies by examining how the merged company achieved its new branding and the integration of its membership systems. The methodology of this research is the case study, which is used in both normative and empirical studies for distribution research in Korea. This research analyzes the case of both new branding and customer membership systems of the two companies. The new branding initiatives of this case centered on decision making including brand extension and brand naming. The customer membership integration of the two companies is analyzed on the basis of the customer reward programs that include both financial and service rewards. This study shows the success factors of new branding and customer integration in the M&A process in terms of achieving marketing goals and business performance as follows: First, companies should identify the integration areas by analyzing the brand and membership of both companies and make a balanced decision for both the customer and company. Second, the goals of new branding and membership integration in the M&A process should not emphasize business efficiency from a short-term perspective but rather should consider brand power and business synergy from a long-term perspective. Third, the post-merger integration process of the brand or customer areas requires not only the organized execution of integration tasks but also follow-up programs for changes in business strategy and marketing-related programs to realize the synergy effects of integrated organization. Although this study provides a detailed review and analysis of the new branding and customer integration processes in post-merger integration and in identifying the primary decision-making areas of these processes, there are some limitations requiring further research that may overcome or compensate for these limitations. The suggested future research areas are as follows: First, since this research is a case study of only one M&A, it makes few theoretical contributions such as new propositions or theories or possibilities for generalization. This limitation can be overcome through further research using multiple cases, which may lead to new propositions. Second, the methodology of this study lacks sufficient rigor in terms of its analytic approach because this case study was developed and analyzed descriptively. Further research is needed to compensate for these limitations, such as using a theory-based approach or comparative analysis approach that makes case analysis more systematic.

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