• Asia pacific journal of information systems
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.123-137
• /
• 2007

The advent of the Internet and related Web technologies has created an easily accessible link between a firm and its customers, and has provided opportunities to a firm to use information technology to support supplementary after-sale services associated with a product or service. It has been widely recognized that supplementary services are an important source of customer value and of competitive advantage as the characteristics of the product itself. Many of these supplementary services are information-based and need not be co-located with the product, so more and more companies are delivering these services electronically. Net-based customer service, which is defined as an Internet-based computerized information system that delivers services to a customer, therefore, is the core infrastructure for supplementary service provision. The importance of net-based customer service in delivering supplementary after-sale services associated with product has been well documented. The strategic advantages of well-implemented net-based customer service are enhanced customer loyalty and higher lock-in of customers, and a resulting reduction in competition and the consequent increase in profits. However, not all customers utilize such net-based customer service. The digital divide is the phenomenon in our society that captures the observation that not all customers have equal access to computers. Socioeconomic factors such as race, gender, and education level are strongly related to Internet accessibility and ability to use. This is due to the differences in the ability to bear the cost of a computer, and the differences in self-efficacy in the use of a technology, among other reasons. This concept, applied to e-commerce, has been called the "e-commerce divide." High Internet penetration is not eradicating the digital divide and e-commerce divide as one would hope. Besides, to accommodate personalized support, a customer must often provide personal information to the firm. This personal information includes not only name and address, but also preferences information and perhaps valuation information. However, many recent studies show that consumers may not be willing to share information about themselves due to concerns about privacy online. Due to the e-commerce divide, and due to privacy and security concerns of the customer for sharing personal information with firms, limited numbers of customers adopt net-based customer service. The limited level of customer adoption of net-based customer service affects the firm profits and the customers' welfare. We use a game-theoretic model in which we model the net-based customer service system as a mechanism to enhance customers' loyalty. We model a market entry scenario where a firm (the incumbent) uses the net-based customer service system in inducing loyalty in its customer base. The firm sells one product through the traditional retailing channels and at a price set for these channels. Another firm (the entrant) enters the market, and having observed the price of the incumbent firm (and after deducing the loyalty levels in the customer base), chooses its price. The profits of the firms and the surplus of the two customers segments (the segment that utilizes net-based customer service and the segment that does not) are analyzed in the Stackelberg leader-follower model of competition between the firms. We find that an increase in adoption of net-based customer service by the customer base is not always desirable for firms. With low effectiveness in enhancing customer loyalty, firms prefer a high level of customer adoption of net-based customer service, because an increase in adoption rate decreases competition and increases profits. A firm in an industry where net-based customer service is highly effective loyalty mechanism, on the other hand, prefers a low level of adoption by customers.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.34-46
• /
• 2007

Objectives: This study was to assess characteristics in acute stroke patients according to Sasangconstitution (SC). Methods : We assessed the type of SC of acute stroke patients in $2^{nd}$ Department of Internal Medicine at KyungHee University Oriental Hospital from October 2005 to September 2006. Each subject's SC type was confirmed when the result of QSCC II+ was in accordance with the opinion of the Sasangconstitutional medicine specialist. We investigated general characteristics, stroke type, blood test results, alcohol drinking, smoking and dietary preferences according to SC. Results: 108 subjects were included in the final analysis. This study showed that out of the total patients, the proportion of So-yang to Tae-eum to So-eum was equal to 5.5 to 3.5 to 1. Especially, men were higher proportion So-yang while women recorded a more significant ratio of Tae-eum. Also, the BMI, waist circumference, hip circumference, and WC/HC ratio recorded significantly high results. The result indicated that even though the Tae-eum let on the highest numerical value in the aspect of their past history and the final diagnosis, no significant difference was revealed according to SC. The ratio of cerebral infarction to cerebral hemorrhage was 9 to 1. SVO, LAA, SUE are the 3 types of cerebral infarction classified by TOAST; SVO ranked the highest while SUE ranked the lowest in all constitutions. The blood test result displayed that averages of both TL and the T-chol were the highest in Tae-eum while that of hematocrit in So-yangand that of HDL-chol in So-eum. However, there was no significant difference. There were no significant differences classified by gender or by SC in the aspect of the alcohol drinking and smoking history. The majority of So-yang and Tae-eum demonstrated a preference for meat while So-eum and So-yang displayed high preferences for sea food. Conclusions : With respect to these results. we could observe the general disposition of various characteristic distributions according to SC of acute stroke patients. For further research in this field. it seems necessary to construct fundamental databases for the prevention and treatment of stroke by increasing the number of patients observed and by analyzing delicate characteristics of each constitution type.

• Food Engineering Progress
• /
• v.14 no.4
• /
• pp.307-315
• /
• 2010

The safety and security of food supply should be one of the primary responsibilities of any government. Estimation of nation's food commodity intakes is important to control the potential risks in food systems since food hazards are often associated with quality and safety of food commodities. The food intake databases provided by Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) are good resources to estimate the demographic data of intakes of various food commodities. A limitation of the KNHANES databases, however, is that the food intakes surveyed are not based on commodities but ingredients and their mixtures. In this study, reasonable calculation strategies were applied to convert the food intakes of the ingredients mixtures from the KNHANES into food commodity intakes. For example, Perilla leaf consumed with meat, raw fish, and etc. in Korean diets was used to estimate its Korean intakes and develop algorithms for demographic analysis. Koreans have consumed raw, blanched, steamed, and canned perilla leaf products. The average daily intakes of the perilla leaf were analyzed demographically, for examples, the intakes by gender, age, and etc. The average daily intakes of total perilla leaf were 2.03${\pm}$0.27 g in 1998, 2.11${\pm}$0.26 g in 2001, 2.29${\pm}$0.27 g in 2005, 2.75${\pm}$0.35 g in 2007, and 2.27${\pm}$0.20 g in 2008. Generally, people equal to or over 20 years of age have shown higher perilla leaf intakes than people below 20. This study would be contributed to the estimation of intakes of possible chemical contaminants such as residual pesticides and subsequent analysis for their potential risk.