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Financial Fraud Detection using Text Mining Analysis against Municipal Cybercriminality (지자체 사이버 공간 안전을 위한 금융사기 탐지 텍스트 마이닝 방법)

  • Choi, Sukjae;Lee, Jungwon;Kwon, Ohbyung
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.23 no.3
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    • pp.119-138
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    • 2017
  • Recently, SNS has become an important channel for marketing as well as personal communication. However, cybercrime has also evolved with the development of information and communication technology, and illegal advertising is distributed to SNS in large quantity. As a result, personal information is lost and even monetary damages occur more frequently. In this study, we propose a method to analyze which sentences and documents, which have been sent to the SNS, are related to financial fraud. First of all, as a conceptual framework, we developed a matrix of conceptual characteristics of cybercriminality on SNS and emergency management. We also suggested emergency management process which consists of Pre-Cybercriminality (e.g. risk identification) and Post-Cybercriminality steps. Among those we focused on risk identification in this paper. The main process consists of data collection, preprocessing and analysis. First, we selected two words 'daechul(loan)' and 'sachae(private loan)' as seed words and collected data with this word from SNS such as twitter. The collected data are given to the two researchers to decide whether they are related to the cybercriminality, particularly financial fraud, or not. Then we selected some of them as keywords if the vocabularies are related to the nominals and symbols. With the selected keywords, we searched and collected data from web materials such as twitter, news, blog, and more than 820,000 articles collected. The collected articles were refined through preprocessing and made into learning data. The preprocessing process is divided into performing morphological analysis step, removing stop words step, and selecting valid part-of-speech step. In the morphological analysis step, a complex sentence is transformed into some morpheme units to enable mechanical analysis. In the removing stop words step, non-lexical elements such as numbers, punctuation marks, and double spaces are removed from the text. In the step of selecting valid part-of-speech, only two kinds of nouns and symbols are considered. Since nouns could refer to things, the intent of message is expressed better than the other part-of-speech. Moreover, the more illegal the text is, the more frequently symbols are used. The selected data is given 'legal' or 'illegal'. To make the selected data as learning data through the preprocessing process, it is necessary to classify whether each data is legitimate or not. The processed data is then converted into Corpus type and Document-Term Matrix. Finally, the two types of 'legal' and 'illegal' files were mixed and randomly divided into learning data set and test data set. In this study, we set the learning data as 70% and the test data as 30%. SVM was used as the discrimination algorithm. Since SVM requires gamma and cost values as the main parameters, we set gamma as 0.5 and cost as 10, based on the optimal value function. The cost is set higher than general cases. To show the feasibility of the idea proposed in this paper, we compared the proposed method with MLE (Maximum Likelihood Estimation), Term Frequency, and Collective Intelligence method. Overall accuracy and was used as the metric. As a result, the overall accuracy of the proposed method was 92.41% of illegal loan advertisement and 77.75% of illegal visit sales, which is apparently superior to that of the Term Frequency, MLE, etc. Hence, the result suggests that the proposed method is valid and usable practically. In this paper, we propose a framework for crisis management caused by abnormalities of unstructured data sources such as SNS. We hope this study will contribute to the academia by identifying what to consider when applying the SVM-like discrimination algorithm to text analysis. Moreover, the study will also contribute to the practitioners in the field of brand management and opinion mining.

A Study on Developing the List of Actual Condition Research to Improve the Facilities for the handicapped, aged men, pregnant women and nursing mother - a focus on public building - (장애인ㆍ노인ㆍ임산부등의 편의 증진시설 실태조사 리스트 개발연구 -공공건물을 중심으로)

  • 유석종;양우창;유상완;온순기
    • Archives of design research
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    • v.17 no.1
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    • pp.77-88
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    • 2004
  • It was 1988 when people pay attention to an importance of the facilities for the handicapped, with Seoul Paralympics. In early 1990s, regular efforts were made to improve a physical environment for the handicapped, which results in reforming the Welfare Law for the Handicapped all over the surface. However, keeping pace with the expansion of the western universal design concept, it is required to evaluate a new concept in which way the facilities for the handicapped must be installed. That is, any physical environment, which regards the handicapped as an independent subject, tend to isolate them from normal people rather than satisfy their needs. making the handicapped feel more discriminated. All the facilities for the handicapped has to reflect a general idea that the facilities are opened for all the people including the handicapped. Being recently reformed and enacted in order to reflect this essential point, 'the raw of contributing to the convenience of the handicapped, aged men, pregnant women and nursing mother(1998)' even covers the aged men, pregnant women and nursing mother, not to mention of the handicapped. In addition, the law states clearly that all the handicapped can share all the facilities with the normal people, inducing the handicapped to more actively participate in society. Consequently, the handicapped are acquiring their rights by directly demanding for correction of varied discrimination. Though even more facilities have been provided, most of them are deficient in the quality, setting limits to the handicapped person's living field as well as social activities. Especially, most public buildings in our country rarely provide the adequate facilities for the handicapped, aged men, pregnant women and nursing mother. Therefore, this study is focused on developing the list of actual condition research that can effectively detect the inadequacy of facilities in public buildings. Then it will find the aspects to be improved in a systematic and scientific way to propose a practical method to improve the facilities in public buildings.

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A Dynamic Prefetch Filtering Schemes to Enhance Usefulness Of Cache Memory (캐시 메모리의 유용성을 높이는 동적 선인출 필터링 기법)

  • Chon Young-Suk;Lee Byung-Kwon;Lee Chun-Hee;Kim Suk-Il;Jeon Joong-Nam
    • The KIPS Transactions:PartA
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    • v.13A no.2 s.99
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    • pp.123-136
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    • 2006
  • The prefetching technique is an effective way to reduce the latency caused memory access. However, excessively aggressive prefetch not only leads to cache pollution so as to cancel out the benefits of prefetch but also increase bus traffic leading to overall performance degradation. In this thesis, a prefetch filtering scheme is proposed which dynamically decides whether to commence prefetching by referring a filtering table to reduce the cache pollution due to unnecessary prefetches In this thesis, First, prefetch hashing table 1bitSC filtering scheme(PHT1bSC) has been shown to analyze the lock problem of the conventional scheme, this scheme such as conventional scheme used to be N:1 mapping, but it has the two state to 1bit value of each entries. A complete block address table filtering scheme(CBAT) has been introduced to be used as a reference for the comparative study. A prefetch block address lookup table scheme(PBALT) has been proposed as the main idea of this paper which exhibits the most exact filtering performance. This scheme has a length of the table the same as the PHT1bSC scheme, the contents of each entry have the fields the same as CBAT scheme recently, never referenced data block address has been 1:1 mapping a entry of the filter table. On commonly used prefetch schemes and general benchmarks and multimedia programs simulates change cache parameters. The PBALT scheme compared with no filtering has shown enhanced the greatest 22%, the cache miss ratio has been decreased by 7.9% by virtue of enhanced filtering accuracy compared with conventional PHT2bSC. The MADT of the proposed PBALT scheme has been decreased by 6.1% compared with conventional schemes to reduce the total execution time.

Public Attitudes Toward Dying with Dignity and Hospice.Palliative Care (품위 있는 죽음과 호스피스.완화의료에 대한 일반 국민들의 태도)

  • Yun, Young-Ho;Rhee, Young-Sun;Nm, So-Young;Chae, Yu-Mie;Heo, Dae-Seuk;Lee, So-Woo;Hong, Young-Seon;Kim, Si-Young;Lee, Kyung-Sik
    • Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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    • v.7 no.1
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    • pp.17-28
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    • 2004
  • Purpose: Even though there have been various efforts for the dying with dignity of terminal patients, no researches focused on the public attitudes. Methods: In February 2004, we sampled 1,055 persons over 20 years of age from the sixteen cities and local districts of Korea through the quota sampling method according to their gender, age, and location. We conducted a telephone survey with a structured questionnaire on the attitudes toward dying with dignity and hospice palliative care. Results: The most important conditions for the dying with dignity on the patients' views were 'removing burdens for other people' (27.8%). Over the half of the samples chose their home as a preference for place of death (54.8%). 82.3% of the respondents agreed to the idea of withdrawing the medically futile life-sustaining treatment. Fifty seven percents of the answered public said that they intended to use the hospice service in case of terminal illness. Eighty percents thought that health care insurance should cover hospice service, and 80.9% gave positive response to the necessity of advance directives. Respondents emphasized 'the financial support for the terminal patients' (29.8%), 'covering hospice service with health insurance' (16.5%), and 'the education and public relation for settlement of desirable dying culture and hospice service' (15.9%) as the roles and responsibilities of the government for the dying with dignity. Conclusion: This study shows that there is a possibility of significant consensus on hospice and palliative care system for the dying with dignity of patients and reduction of the suffering for their families among the general public.

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Is Religion Possible in the Age of Artificial Intelligence? - From the View of Kantian and Blochian Philosophy of Religion - (인공지능시대에도 종교는 가능한가? - 칸트와 블로흐의 종교철학적 관점에서 -)

  • Kim, Jin
    • Journal of Korean Philosophical Society
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    • v.147
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    • pp.117-146
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    • 2018
  • This paper discusses, whether religion is possible even in the age of artificial intelligence, and whether humans alone are the subject of religious faith or ultra intelligent machines with human minds can be also subjects of faith. In order for ultra intelligent machines to be subjects of faith in the same conditions as humans, they must be able to have unique characteristics such as emotion, will, and self-consciousness. With the advent of ultra intelligent machines with the same level of cognitive and emotional abilities as human beings, the religious actions of artificial intelligence will be inevitable. The ultra intelligent machines after 'singularity' will go beyond the subject of religious belief and reign as God who can rule humans, nature and the world. This is also the common view of Morabeck, Kurzweil and Harari. Leonhart also reminds us that technological advances should make us used to the fact that we are now 'gods'. But we fear we may face distopia despite the general affluence of the 'Star Trec' economy. For this reason, even if a man says he has learned the religious truth, one can't help but wonder if it is true. Kant and Bloch are thinkers who critically reflected on our religious ideals and highest concept in different world-view premises. Kant's concept of God as 'idea of pure reason' and 'postulate of practical reason', can seem like a 'god of gap' as Jesse Bering said earlier. Kant recognized the need for religious faith only on a strict basis of moral necessity. The subjects of religious faith should always strive to do the moral good, but such efforts themselves were not enough to reach perfection and so postulated immortality of the soul. But if an ultra intelligent machines that has emerged above a singularity is given a new status in an intellectual explosion, it can reach its morality by blocking evil tendencies and by the infinite evolution of super intelligence. So it will no longer need Kant's 'Postulate for continuous progress towards greater goodness', 'Postulate for divine grace' and 'Postulate for infinite expansion of the kingdom of God on earth.' Artificial intelligence robots would not necessarily consider religious performance in the Kant's meaning, and therefore religion will also have to be abolished. Ernst Bloch transforms Kant's postulate to be Persian dualism. Therefore, in Bloch, even though the ultra intelligent machines is a divine being, one must critically ask whether it is a wicked or a good God. Artificial intelligence experts warn that ultra intellectual machine as Pandora's gift will bring disaster to mankind. In the Kant's Matrix, a ultra intelligent machines, which is the completion of morality and God itself, may fall into a bad god in Bloch's Matrix. Therefore, despite the myth of singularity, we still believe that ultra intelligent machines, whether as God leads us to the completion of one of our only religious beliefs, or as bad god to the collapse of mankind through complete denial of existence.

A Study on the Perceptions of Confucius and Mencius over Yi-Li Issues (의리(義利) 문제에 대한 공자와 맹자의 인식 연구)

  • Bahk, Yeong-Jin
    • (The)Study of the Eastern Classic
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    • no.68
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    • pp.283-317
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    • 2017
  • Issues over morality and profit usually address relations between moral principles and material gains. In the history of traditional Oriental philosophy, discussions about them were called "Yi-Li zhi bian." The ideas of Confucius and Mencius also contain various discussions about Yi-Li. Both Confucius and Mencius defined Yi as a value concept to represent "natural," "appropriate" or "just" and regarded Yi as an external moral principle on the one hand and an internal moral emotion on the other hand. They had, at the same time, differences, as well. While Confucius placed importance on the external and acquired nature of Yi as a goal of morality, Mencius argued for the internal and innate nature of Yi as the nature of morality partially while recognizing its externality overall. Such Yi is a general term for subjective moral emotions and objective moral principles. Li was a concept of fact to represent "gain," "profit" or "profit-making." Both of them were against private interest and emphasized public interest. As for their differences, Confucius was positive about Li to some degree by saying "One should think of Yi when making profit," whereas Mencius was almost negative about Li and perceived it to be for Yi by saying "One should give up even his own life for Yi." He meant Li's dependence on Yi and also Yi's absoluteness for Ri. Both of them found a mix of opposite features in Yi such as internality and externality, subjectivity and objectivity, specificity and generality, and uniqueness and universality and also in Li such as individuality and specialty and public and private interest. Those features have both disadvantages including theoretical irrationality and logical contradiction and advantages including ideological diversity and conceptual polysemy. If efforts are made to avoid their disadvantages and highlight their advantages, they will provide some elements to consult in the creation of new global ethics required today when East and West are becoming one. In the modern society, the Yi-Li issues can be divided into the issues of morality and economy, personal and social profit, and moral ideal and material gain. If these modern Yi-Li issues are combined with the traditional Yi-Li issues, two paths will emerge over the order of Yi-Li. Of the many perceptions of Yi-Li issues of Confucius and Mencius, the idea of "Yi First, Li Later" can be very useful for creating a new ethics theory to represent "humanism" that we all need today when everyone considers their own pursuit of profit and satisfaction of needs as the best values. Sound Yi-Li relations will be possible only through Yi's orientation toward externality based on internality and Li's pursuit of private interest on the premise of public interest according to the spirit of "Yi First, Li Later."

A Study on the Naejeong (內庭) of Daesoon Jinrihoe Temple Complexes: Focusing on Literary Sources and Context (대순진리회 도장 건축물 내정(內庭)에 대한 연구 - 내정의 문헌 출처와 그 맥락을 중심으로 -)

  • Cha, Seon-keun
    • Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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    • v.37
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    • pp.1-52
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    • 2021
  • The Naejeong, the inner court, which is one of the structures found in the temple complexes of Daesoon Jinrihoe. It serves the function of leading and controlling the operation and direction of Korean religions in general. Considering that the dictionary meaning of 'Naejeong' is 'a place to manage the affairs of the state from inside a palace,' the name and function of the structure appear to be in harmony. However, in the Daesoon Jinrihoe context, it is said that the name 'Naejeong (內庭 'Neiting' in Chinese)' is related to a verse from a Daoist scripture. It has not been revealed whether or not the scripture is historical, and what contents or contextual meanings it contains. This study tries to pursue this matter and introduce the original source of the Naejeong in Daesoon Jinrihoe as likely coming from Qianbapinxianjing (前八品仙經, The Former Scripture of the Eight Phases That Reveal the Means to Acquire Immortality). This scripture was compiled in Lüzu-quanshu(呂祖全書, The Entire Collection of Ancestor Lü). This text and its contextual meanings will also be examined. The origin of Qianbapinxianjing dates back to either the late Ming Dynasty or the early Qing. In those days, there existed a group of literati who worshipped Ancestor Lü because he had saved people and taught the art of immortality. The group organized Daoist Spirit-Writing Altars (鸞壇道敎) and invoked the spirit of Ancestor Lü. They were said to have been taught through messages received from spirit-writing sessions (降乩) with Ancestor Lü and several Daoist scriptures were composed by them in this manner. At Immortals-Gathering Pavilion (集仙樓) of Wandian (萬店) in Guangling (廣陵), China, some literati in that group conducted a spirit-writing session with Ancestor Lü between 1589 and 1626, and they produced a scripture which contained the passage, "A crow and a rabbit gather in the middle valley (烏兎結中谷) while a turtle entwined with a snake is in the inner court (龜蛇盤內庭)." They titled the scripture, The Five Movements and Filial Piety (五行端孝). This passage symbolically expresses the accomplishment of immortality in Neidan (internal alchemy) which, within the human body, combines the two energies of yin and yang which are Water and Fire in the Five Movements scheme. This kind of cultivation is said to be achieved only by maintaining the highest possible degree of filial piety. In this context, the Naejeong where a turtle is entwined with a snake (龜蛇合體) was a term that symbolically depicted a place wherein one transforms into an immortal through cultivation. The Five Movements and Filial Piety was included in Qianbapinxianjing after it had been compiled with the other scriptures containing Ancestor Lü's teachings. In 1744, Qianbapinxianjing was included in Lüzu-quanshu, the entire 32-volume collection of Ancestor Lü and printed for the first time. This underlies the belief in Ancestor Lü (呂祖信仰) which embraces the idea of the redemption of people, teaches the arts of immortality, and features Daoist Spirit-Writing Altars, filial piety, the art of Neidan, and the combination of Water and Fire.

Research and Consideration of Eco-friendly Radiation Shielding using CT Contrast Agent (CT 조영제를 이용한 친환경적인 방사선 차폐에 관한 연구 및 고찰)

  • Sung-Gil Kim;Yeon-Sang Ji
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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    • v.17 no.6
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    • pp.827-833
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    • 2023
  • CT(Computed Tomography) contrast agents are commonly used in general hospitals and university hospitals when taking radiographic examinations. The CT contrast medium contains a mixture of a substance called "Iodine", which absorbs radiation energy and makes it appear white in the CT image, further improving the image quality. In addition, the CT contrast agent, which moves like blood in the blood vessels, clearly differentiates it from muscle and water, so CT contrast agents are widely used in hospitals. These CT contrast agents absorb X-rays, but in order to absorb X-rays, they must have a high density or a high radiation absorption coefficient. Since the CT contrast agent is injected into the blood vessels, if the density is high, the blood vessels are strained and the patient is in shock. For this reason, it is necessary to match the density similar to that of water and always pay attention to side effects. In addition, the amount of CT contrast medium is adjusted according to the patient's body shape, and the remaining contrast medium is discarded. However, This study tried to find out the idea of recycling it as a radiation shielding material. Since the CT contrast medium has a high radiation absorption coefficient at a density similar to that of water, the amount to absorb radiation is adjusted, the amount of contrast medium and the amount of water are adjusted, and the amount of radiation absorbed is determined by mixing with water. In addition, a study was conducted to find out the result of the difference in radiation absorption in various ways by comparing the radiation quality coefficient and absorption coefficient with other substances or materials in an environmentally friendly method harmless to the human body by mixing CT contrast medium and water.

Recognition Level of Organization, Motivation and Job Satisfaction Factors of the Staff of Health Centers (보건소직원의 조직에 대한 인식과 동기부여요인 및 직무만족요인)

  • 남철현;위광복
    • Health Policy and Management
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    • v.10 no.3
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    • pp.19-49
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    • 2000
  • This study was conducted to help staff members of health centers manage personnel by examining the staff members' recognition level of organization structure of health centers, their motivation, their job satisfaction level and its related factors. Data were collected from 471 staff members of 14 health centers from March 3, 1999 to April 30, 1999. The results of this study are summarized as follows. In recognition levels of organization structure of health centers, the recognition level of necessity of discretion right was highest(3.55 points on the base of 5 points), while the recognition level of the location of decision making right was lowest(2.77 points). The general recognition of organization structure of health centers was 3.06 points, the suitability of division of duties was 3.05 points, and the optimum of manpower and budget was 2.93 points. The staff members' general recognition level of the organization structure appeared significantly higher in case of the groups of small and medium sized cities, above fifties, below high school graduate, above the sixth grade, public service experience of above 20 years, service period of below 2 years at present post, and average monthly salary of one million, eight hundred and ten thousand won. In the recognition level of the location of decision making right, the groups of big cities, male, the married, above the sixth grade, health and administration posts, average monthly salary of one million, three hundred and ten thousand won to one million, and eight hundred thousand won were significantly higher than the other groups. The recognition level of necessity of discretion right was higher in case of the groups of the twenties, the unmarried, above college graduate, nursing post, public service experience of below 5 years, service period of below 2 years at present post, and average monthly salary of below eight hundred thousand won. In the recognition level of suitability of division of duties, the groups of small and medium sized cities, the married, medical technicians, public service experience of above 20 years, and service period of below 4 years at present post were significantly higher than the other groups. In the staff members' recognition levels of organization management, the recognition level of opinion response when making decision was highest(2.92 points). The recognition level of rationality of the target amount establishment method was 2.88 points and the recognition level of personnel management was 2.63 points. The recognition level of personnel management was significantly higher in case of the groups of small and medium sized cities, the forties, above the sixth grade, medical technicians, public service experience of above 20 years, service period of below 2 years at present post, and average monthly salary of above one million, eight hundred and ten thousand won. In the recognition level of opinion response when making decision, the groups of small and medium sized cities, female, the eighth grade, health and administration posts, and service period of below 2 years at present post were higher than the other groups. The recognition level of rationality of the target amount establishment method was significantly higher in case of the groups of above fifties, below high school graduate, above the sixth grade, medical service post, and public service experience of 15 to 20 years. The factors significantly influencing sanitation were sex, education level, the period of public service experience, general recognition of organization structure, recognition of necessity of discretion right, recognition of suitability of division of duties, and recognition of opinion response when making decision. The factors which significantly influenced motivation were marital status, grade, recognition of the location of decision making right, recognition of necessity of discretion right, recognition of division of duties, recognition of opinion response when making decision, and sanitation. Sex, education level, recognition of suitability of division of duties, recognition of the target amount establishment method, and motivation influenced job satisfaction significantly. The factors significantly influencing organization culture were age, the period of public service experience, service period at present post, recognition of optimum of manpower and budget, recognition of suitability of division of duties, recognition of opinion response when making decision, and recognition of rationality of the target amount establishment method. In the coming days, the staff members' job satisfaction level must be increased through motivation and efficient conduct of duty must be accomplished through rational organization structure and management. Moreover, change of the staff members' consciousness and administrative system which are suitable for local autonomy system have to be established with increase of local residents' consciousness level and education level. Forming organization culture by reformative idea which fits the new era, public health service by the Community Health Act and health education service by the Health Promotion Act must be carried out efficiently. In doing so, financial support of central government and active efforts and concerns of local governments have to be devoted in order to get public health service in which peculiarity of the community is considered to be pursued well.

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Business Relationships and Structural Bonding: A Study of American Metal Industry (산업재 거래관계와 구조적 결합: 미국 금속산업의 분석 연구)

  • Han, Sang-Lin;Kim, Yun-Tae;Oh, Chang-Yeob;Chung, Jae-Moon
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.18 no.3
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    • pp.115-132
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    • 2008
  • Metal industry is one of the most representative heavy industries and the median sales volume of steel and nonferrous metal companies is over one billion dollars in the case America [Forbes 2006]. As seen in the recent business market situation, an increasing number of industrial manufacturers and suppliers are moving from adversarial to cooperative exchange attitudes that support the long-term relationships with their customers. This article presents the results of an empirical study of the antecedent factors of business relationships in metal industry of the United States. Commitment has been reviewed as a significant and critical variable in research on inter-organizational relationships (Hong et al. 2007, Kim et al. 2007). The future stability of any buyer-seller relationship depends upon the commitment made by the interactants to their relationship. Commitment, according to Dwyer et al. [1987], refers to "an implicit or explicit pledge of relational continuity between exchange partners" and they consider commitment to be the most advanced phase of buyer-seller exchange relationship. Bonds are made because the members need their partners in order to do something and this integration on a task basis can be either symbiotic or cooperative (Svensson 2008). To the extent that members seek the same or mutually supporting ends, there will be strong bonds among them. In other words, the principle that affects the strength of bonds is 'economy of decision making' [Turner 1970]. These bonds provide an important idea to study the causes of business long-term relationships in a sense that organizations can be mutually bonded by a common interest in the economic matters. Recently, the framework of structural bonding has been used to study the buyer-seller relationships in industrial marketing [Han and Sung 2008, Williams et al. 1998, Wilson 1995] in that this structural bonding is a crucial part of the theoretical justification for distinguishing discrete transactions from ongoing long-term relationships. The major antecedent factors of buyer commitment such as technology, CLalt, transaction-specific assets, and importance were identified and explored from the perspective of structural bonding. Research hypotheses were developed and tested by using survey data from the middle managers in the metal industry. H1: Level of technology of the relationship partner is positively related to the level of structural bonding between the buyer and the seller. H2: Comparison level of alternatives is negatively related to the level of structural bonding between the buyer and the seller. H3: Amount of the transaction-specific assets is positively related to the level of structural bonding between the buyer and the seller. H4: Importance of the relationship partner is positively related to the level of structural bonding between the buyer and the seller. H5: Level of structural bonding is positively related to the level of commitment to the relationship. To examine the major antecedent factors of industrial buyer's structural bonding and long-term relationship, questionnaire was prepared, mailed out to the sample of 400 purchasing managers of the US metal industry (SIC codes 33 and 34). After a follow-up request, 139 informants returnedthe questionnaires, resulting in a response rate of 35 percent. 134 responses were used in the final analysis after dropping 5 incomplete questionnaires. All measures were analyzed for reliability and validity following the guidelines offered by Churchill [1979] and Anderson and Gerbing [1988]., the results of fitting the model to the data indicated that the hypothesized model provides a good fit to the data. Goodness-of-fit index (GFI = 0.94) and other indices ( chi-square = 78.02 with p-value = 0.13, Adjusted GFI = 0.90, Normed Fit Index = 0.92) indicated that a major proportion of variances and covariances in the data was accounted for by the model as a whole, and all the parameter estimates showed statistical significance as evidenced by large t-values. All the factor loadings were significantly different from zero. On these grounds we judged the hypothesized model to be a reasonable representation of the data. The results from the present study suggest several implications for buyer-seller relationships. Theoretically, we attempted to conceptualize the antecedent factors of buyer-seller long-term relationships from the perspective of structural bondingin metal industry. The four underlying determinants (i.e. technology, CLalt, transaction-specific assets, and importance) of structural bonding are very critical variables of buyer-seller long-term business relationships. Our model of structural bonding makes an attempt to systematically examine the relationship between the antecedent factors of structural bonding and long-term commitment. Managerially, this research provides industrial purchasing managers with a good framework to assess the interaction processes with their partners and, ability to position their business relationships from the perspective of structural bonding. In other words, based on those underlying variables, industrial purchasing managers can determine the strength of the company's relationships with the key suppliers and its state of preparation to be a successful partner with those suppliers. Both the supplying and customer companies can also benefit by using the concept of 'structural bonding' and evaluating their relationships with key business partners from the structural point of view. In general, the results indicate that structural bonding gives a critical impact on the level of relationship commitment. Managerial implications and limitations of the study are also discussed.

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