• Title/Summary/Keyword: Global Behavior

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Experimental and analytical study of squat walls with alternative detailing

  • Leonardo M. Massone;Cristhofer N. Letelier;Cristobal F. Soto;Felipe A. Yanez;Fabian R. Rojas
    • Computers and Concrete
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    • v.33 no.5
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    • pp.497-507
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    • 2024
  • In squat reinforced concrete walls, the displacement capacity for lateral deformation is low and the ability to resist the axial load can quickly be lost, generating collapse. This work consists of testing two squat reinforced concrete walls. One of the specimens is built with conventional detailing of reinforced concrete walls, while the second specimen is built applying an alternative design, including stirrups along the diagonal of the wall to improve its ductility. This solution differs from the detailing of beams or coupling elements that suggest building elements equivalent to columns located diagonally in the element. The dimensions of both specimens correspond to a wall with a low aspect ratio (1:1), where the height and length of the specimen are 1.4 m, with a thickness of 120 mm. The alternative wall included stirrups placed diagonally covering approximately 25% of the diagonal strut of the wall with alternative detailing. The walls were tested under a constant axial load of 0.1f'cAg and a cyclic lateral displacement was applied in the upper part of the wall. The results indicate that the lateral strength is almost identical between both specimens. On the other hand, the lateral displacement capacity increased by 25% with the alternative detailing, but it was also able to maintain the 3 complete hysteretic cycles up to a drift of 2.5%, reaching longitudinal reinforcement fracture, while the base specimen only reached the first cycle of 2% with rapid degradation due to failure of the diagonal compression strut. The alternative design also allows 46% more energy dissipation than the conventional design. A model was used to capture the global response, correctly representing the observed behavior. A parametric study with the model, varying the reinforcement amount and aspect ratio, was performed, indicating that the effectiveness of the alternative detailing can double de drift capacity for the case with a low aspect ratio (1.1) and a large longitudinal steel amount (1% in the web, 5% in the boundary), which decreases with lower amounts of longitudinal reinforcement and with the increment of aspect ratio, indicating that the alternative detailing approach is reasonable for walls with an aspect ratio up to 2, especially if the amount of longitudinal reinforcement is high.

A Study on the Change of AIDS Knowledge and Sexual Behavior among Middle and High School Students through AIDS Prevention Education (중고등학생의 에이즈 예방교육(豫防敎育)을 통한 에이즈 지식(知識)과 성의식(性意識) 변화(變化)에 관(關)한 연구(硏究))

  • Kwon, Kwan-Woo;Lee, Kyoung-Mu;Kim, Joung-Soon
    • Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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    • v.12 no.1
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    • pp.109-129
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    • 1999
  • AIDS is worldwide problem. It has threatens societies and is potentially a big problem among youth. UNAIDS has warned that collective global responses are necessary; with half of the newly infected being children and young people in 1998, educating youth below age 24 is essential. Because of both their unexpected, strong sexual activities and an easjer tendency to change their behavior than adults, UNAIDS emphasizes the importance of prevention education for youth. In Korea, 4 cases of HIV infection have officially been reported among high school students. Considering the potential seriousness of HIV infection among youth, the Korean AntiAIDS Federation (KAAF) began an education programme for Korean youth (middle & high school pupils) as one intervention method in 1993. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of the education programs performed and to develop a better programme. The intervention method used in this study was mainly a lecture in a big or small auditorium or through broadcasting systems using audio-visual teaching aids. The period of this survey was from Nov. 10 to Dec. 26. in 1998. The subjects surveyed were 792 pupils who were sampled from 12 different middle and high schools in Seoul by a two-stage cluster sampling. Self-recording the structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Data were analyzed by using a paired t-test to compare the knowledge difference before and after the interrention method. A chi-square test to compare the consciousness difference between pre-post-education results was used, and an ANOVA was ased to compare the knowledge difference among the selected groups. Major results of this study are summarized as follows: (1) AIDS knowledge significantly changed after AIDS prevention education. (2) The direct lecture in a big or small auditorium is more effective than an indirect lecture through a broadcasting system or through audio-visual teaching aids. (3) Those who had not seen obscene materials (e.g. pornography films, magazines etc.) acguired much more knowledge than others after AIDS prevention education. (4) Those who had no girlfriend/or boyfriend acquired much more knowledge than the others after AIDS prevention education. (5) As to the attitudes toward chastity, more girls than boys and students who had not seen obscene materials rather than those who already had were liable to support the state ment: "all should remain chase" and their consciousness on "being chaste" changed much more than that of others after intervention. (6) As to the individual evaluation of lectures, 23.1% shows "very good", 44.1% "good", 26.9% "normar" '-' thus, the positive evaluation was to 94.2%. The negative response was 5.8%. (7) As to the desire for AIDS education sponsored by KAAF in the future, more than 90.5% showed a positive reaction. (8) As to the educators in future education methods, pupils wanted lecturers from outside their schood. (9) Students from vocational high schools have seen obscene materials much more than other groups and the percentage of those who had a girlfriend/or boyfriend was higher than that of the others as wello. (10) 90% of those who watched obscene materials responded that they experienced these materials while at middle school and 100% before reaching the second grade of high school. (11) The number of boys who have experienced obscene materials is twice as many as that of girls. (12) The percentage of boys who have a girlfriend is much higher than the percentage of girls who have a boyfriend. (13) Among those who have friends of the opposite sex, 11.1% say that they hare had sexual contact and 20.8% hare experienced kissing and caressing.

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The Effects of Price Salience on Consumer Perception and Purchase Intentions (개격현저대소비자감지화구매의도적영향(价格显著对消费者感知和购买意图的影响))

  • Martin-Consuegea, David;Millan, Angel;Diaz, Estrella;Ko, Eun-Ju
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.20 no.2
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    • pp.149-163
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    • 2010
  • Previous studies have shown that retail price promotion change consumers' purchase behavior and that retailers use price promotion more frequently. Keeping constant the benefits received by consumers, there are several ways for retailers to communicate a price promotion. For example, retailers can present a price reduction in absolute terms ($, ${\euro}$), percentage terms (%), or some combinations of these two methods (Della Bitta et al. 1981). Communicating a price promotion in different ways is similar to the framing of purchase decisions (Monroe 1990). Framing effects refers to the finding that subjects respond differently to different descriptions of the same decision question (Frisch 1993). Thus, the presentation of the promotion has an impact on consumer deal evaluation and hence retail sales. In fact, much research in marketing attests to the effects of price presentation on deal perception (Lichtenstein and Bearden 1989; Urbany et al. 1988; Yadav and Monroe 1993). In this sense, a number of marketing researches have argued that deal perceptions are also determined by the degree to which consumers are able to calculate the discounts and final purchase prices accurately (Estelami 2003a; Morwitz et al. 1998), which suggests that marketers may be able to enhance responses to discounts by improving calculation accuracy. Consequently, since calculation inaccuracies in the aggregate lead to the underestimation of discounts (Kim and Kramer 2006), consumers are more likely to appreciate a discounted offer following deeper processing of price information that enables them to evaluate a price discount more accurately. The purpose of this research is to examine the effect of different presentations of discount prices on consumer price perceptions. To be more precise, the purpose of this study is to investigate how different implementations of the same price promotion (semantic and visual salience) affect consumers' perceptions of the promotion and their purchase decisions. Specifically, the analysis will focus on the effect of price presentation on evaluation, purchase intentions and perception of savings. In order to verify the hypotheses proposed in the research, this paper will present an experimental analysis dealing with several discount presentations. In this sense, a2 (Numerical salience presentation: absolute and relative) x2 (Worded salience presentation: novel and traditional) x2 (Visual salience: red and blue) design was employed to investigate the effects of discount presentation on three dependent variables: evaluation, purchase intentions and perception of savings. Respondents were exposed to a hypothetical advertisement that they had to evaluate and were informed of the offer conditions. Once the sample finished evaluating the advertisement, they answered a questionnaire related to price salience and dependent dimensions. Then, manipulation checks were conducted to ensure that respondents remembered their treatment conditions. Next, a $2{\times}2{\times}2$ MANOVA and follow-up univariate tests were conducted to verify the research hypotheses suggested and to examine the effects of the individual factors (price salience) on evaluation, purchase intentions and perceived savings. The results of this research show that semantic and visual salience presentations have significant main effects and interactions on evaluation, purchase intentions and perception of savings. Significant numerical salience interactions affected evaluation and purchase intentions. Additionally, a significant worded salience main effect on perception of savings and interactions on evaluation and purchase intentions were found. Finally, visual salience interactions have significant effects on evaluation. The main findings of this research suggest practical implications that firms should consider when planning promotion-based discounts to attract consumer attention. Consequently, because price presentation has important effects on consumer perception, retailers should consider which effect is wanted in order to design an effective discount presentaion. Specifically, retailers should present discounts with a traditional style that facilitates final price calculation. It is thus important to investigate ways in which marketers can enhance the accuracy of consumers' mental arithmetic to improve responses to price discounts. This preliminary study on the effect of price presentation on consumer perception and purchase intentions opens the line of research for further research. The results obtained in this research may have been determined by a number of limiting conceptual and methodological factors. In this sense, the research deals with a variety of discount presentations as well as with their effects; however, the analysis could include additional salience dimensions and effects on consumers. Furthermore, a similar study could be carried out including a larger, more inclusive and heterogeneous sample of consumers. In addition, the experiment did not require sample individuals to actually buy the product, so it is advisable to compare the effects obtained in the research with real consumer behavior and perception.

Examining the Relationships among Attitude toward Luxury Brands, Customer Equity, and Customer Lifetime Value in a Korean Context (측시이한국위배경적사치품패태도(测试以韩国为背景的奢侈品牌态度), 고객자산화고객종신개치지간적관계(顾客资产和顾客终身价值之间的关系))

  • Kim, Kyung-Hoon;Park, Seong-Yeon;Lee, Seung-Hee;Knight, Dee K.;Xu, Bing;Jeon, Byung-Joo;Moon, Hak-Il
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.20 no.1
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    • pp.27-34
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    • 2010
  • During the past 10 years, sales of luxury goods increased significantly to more than US$ 130 billion in 2007. In this industry, more than half of the revenue comes from Asia where the average income has risen significantly, and the demand for luxury products is forecast to grow rapidly. Purchasing luxury brands appears to be an intriguing social phenomenon that is profitable for companies in this region. As a newly developed country, Korea is one of the most attractive luxury markets in Asia. Currently, a total of 120 luxury fashion brands have entered the Korean market, primarily in luxury districts in Seoul where the competition is fierce. The purposes of this study are to: (1) identify antecedents of attitude toward luxury brands, (2) examine the effect of attitudes toward luxury brands on customer equity, (3) determine the impact of attitudes toward luxury brands on customer lifetime value, and (4) investigate the influence of customer equity on customer life time value. Previous studies have examined materialism, social need, experiential need, need for uniqueness, conformity, and fashion involvement as antecedents of attitude toward luxury brands. Richins and Dowson (1992) suggested that that materialism influences consumption behavior relative to quantity of goods purchased. Nueno and Quelch (1998) reported that the ownership of luxury brands conveys information related to the owner's social status, communicates an image of success and prestige, and is a determinant of purchase behavior. Experiential need is recognized as an important aspect of consumption, especially for new products developed to meet consumer demand. Since luxury goods, by definition are relatively scarce, ownership of these types of products may fulfill consumers' need for uniqueness. In this study, value equity, relationship equity, and brand equity are examined as drivers of customer equity. The sample (n = 114) was undergraduate and graduate students at two private women's universities in Seoul, Korea. Data collection was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire survey in March, 2009. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, factor analysis, reliability analysis, and regression analysis using SPSS 15.0 software. Data analysis resulted in a number of conclusions. First, experiential need and fashion involvement positively influence participants' attitude toward luxury brands. Second, attitude toward luxury brands positively influences brand equity, followed by value equity and relationship equity. However, there is no significant relationship between attitude toward luxury brand and customer lifetime value. Finally, relationship equity positively influences customer lifetime value. In conclusion, young consumers are an important potential consumer group that tries different brands to discover the ones most suitable for them. Luxury marketers that use effective marketing strategies to attract and engender loyalty among this potentially lucrative consumer group may increase customer equity and lifetime value.

Structural Relationships Among Factors to Adoption of Telehealth Service (원격의료서비스 수용요인의 구조적 관계 실증연구)

  • Kim, Sung-Soo;Ryu, See-Won
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.21 no.3
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    • pp.71-96
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    • 2011
  • Within the traditional medical delivery system, patients residing in medically vulnerable areas, those with body movement difficulties, and nursing facility residents have had limited access to good healthcare services. However, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) provides us with a convenient and useful means of overcoming distance and time constraints. ICT is integrated with biomedical science and technology in a way that offers a new high-quality medical service. As a result, rapid technological advancement is expected to play a pivotal role bringing about innovation in a wide range of medical service areas, such as medical management, testing, diagnosis, and treatment; offering new and improved healthcare services; and effecting dramatic changes in current medical services. The increase in aging population and chronic diseases has caused an increase in medical expenses. In response to the increasing demand for efficient healthcare services, a telehealth service based on ICT is being emphasized on a global level. Telehealth services have been implemented especially in pilot projects and system development and technological research. With the service about to be implemented in earnest, it is necessary to study its overall acceptance by consumers, which is expected to contribute to the development and activation of a variety of services. In this sense, the study aims at positively examining the structural relationship among the acceptance factors for telehealth services based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Data were collected by showing audiovisual material on telehealth services to online panels and requesting them to respond to a structured questionnaire sheet, which is known as the information acceleration method. Among the 1,165 adult respondents, 608 valid samples were finally chosen, while the remaining were excluded because of incomplete answers or allotted time overrun. In order to test the reliability and validity of the assessment scale items, we carried out reliability and factor analyses, and in order to explore the causal relation among potential variables, we conducted a structural equation modeling analysis using AMOS 7.0 and SPSS 17.0. The research outcomes are as follows. First, service quality, innovativeness of medical technology, and social influence were shown to affect perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of the telehealth service, which was statistically significant, and the two factors had a positive impact on willingness to accept the telehealth service. In addition, social influence had a direct, significant effect on intention to use, which is paralleled by the TAM used in previous research on technology acceptance. This shows that the research model proposed in the study effectively explains the acceptance of the telehealth service. Second, the research model reveals that information privacy concerns had a insignificant impact on perceived ease of use of the telehealth service. From this, it can be gathered that the concerns over information protection and security are reduced further due to advancements in information technology compared to the initial period in the information technology industry, and thus the improvement in quality of medical services appeared to ensure that information privacy concerns did not act as a prohibiting factor in the acceptance of the telehealth service. Thus, if other factors have an enormous impact on ease of use and usefulness, concerns over these results in the initial period of technology acceptance may become irrelevant. However, it is clear that users' information privacy concerns, as other studies have revealed, is a major factor affecting technology acceptance. Thus, caution must be exercised while interpreting the result, and further study is required on the issue. Numerous information technologies with outstanding performance and innovativeness often attract few consumers. A revised bill for those urgently in need of telehealth services is about to be approved in the national assembly. As telemedicine is implemented between doctors and patients, a wide range of systems that will improve the quality of healthcare services will be designed. In this sense, the study on the consumer acceptance of telehealth services is meaningful and offers strong academic evidence. Based on the implications, it can be expected to contribute to the activation of telehealth services. Further study is needed to assess the acceptance factors for telehealth services, such as motivation to remain healthy, health care involvement, knowledge on health, and control of health-related behavior, in order to develop unique services according to the categorization of customers based on health factors. In addition, further study may focus on various theoretical cognitive behavior models other than the TAM, such as the health belief model.

An Empirical Study of Discontinuous Use Intention on SNS: From a Perspective of Society Comparison Theory (사회비교이론 관점에서 살펴본 SNS 이용중단 의도)

  • Cha, Kyung Jin;Lee, Eun Mok
    • The Journal of Society for e-Business Studies
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    • v.20 no.3
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    • pp.59-77
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    • 2015
  • Social networking sites (SNS), such as Facebook, provide abundant social comparison opportunities. Given the widespread use of SNSs, the purpose of the present study was to examine the impact of exposure to social media-based social comparison on user's negative emotions and discontinuous use intention on SNS. We present evidence that under the use of SNS, social comparison activities diverge into three patterns, with explicit self-evaluation desire made against similar target (lateral comparison), self-defense desire made against less fortunate target (downward comparison), and self-enhancement desire made with more fortunate target (upward comparison). Such social comparison processes frequently arise, as people are increasingly using on SNSs, the downward contacts ameliorating self-esteem with positive emotions, but the upward contacts and standard contacts with lateral status enabling a person to compare his or her situation with others and simultaneously increase negative emotions due to its differences with others. In other words, as people increasingly relying on SNSs for a variety of everyday tasks, they risk overexposure to upward or standard social comparison information that may have a cumulative detrimental impact on future intention on SNS use. This study with survey with 209 SNS users found that these negative emotions lead to negative fatigue (attitude) and then discontinuous use intention (behavior) on SNS. Our findings are among the first to explicitly examine discontinuous use intention on SNS using social comparison theory and our results are consistent with those of past research showing that upward social comparisons can be detrimental.

A Study on Consumer Characteristics According to Social Media Use Clusters When Purchasing Agri-food Online (온라인 농식품 구매시 소셜미디어 이용 군집에 따른 소비자특성에 대한 연구)

  • Lee, Myoung-Kwan;Park, Sang-Hyeok;Kim, Yeon-Jong
    • Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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    • v.16 no.4
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    • pp.195-209
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    • 2021
  • According to the 2019-2020 social media usage survey conducted by the Seoul e-commerce center, 5 out of 10 consumers have experienced shopping through social media. The cost of traditional advertising media has been reduced and advertising spending on social media has risen by 74%, indicating that social media is becoming a more important marketing element. While the number of users of social media has increased and corporate marketing activities have increased accordingly, research has been conducted in various aspects of marketing such as user motivation for social media, satisfaction, and purchase intention. There was no subdivided study on the differences in the social media usage frequency of consumers in actual purchasing behavior. This study attempted to identify differences in consumer characteristics by cluster in the agrifood purchase situation by grouping them by type according to the frequency of use of social media for consumers who purchase agri-food online. Product involvement, product need, and online purchase channel Consumer characteristics such as demographic distribution, perceived risk, and eating and lifestyle in each cluster were checked for the three agrifood purchase situations including choice, and types for each cluster were presented. To this end, questionnaire data on the frequency of social media use and online agrifood purchase behavior were collected from 245 consumers, and the validity of the measurement variables was secured through factor analysis and reliability analysis. As a result of cluster analysis according to the frequency of social media use, it was divided into three clusters. The first cluster was a group that mainly used open social media, and the second cluster was a group that used both open and closed social media and online shopping malls; The third cluster was a group with low online media usage overall, and the characteristics of each cluster appeared. Through regression analysis, the effect on product involvement, product need, and purchase channel selection when purchasing agri-food online through each of the three clusters was confirmed through regression analysis. As a result of the regression analysis, the characteristic of cluster 1 in the situation of purchasing agri-food online is a male in his 30s living in a rural area who has no reluctance to purchase agri-food on social media or online shopping malls. The characteristics of cluster 2 are mainly consumers who are interested in purchasing health food, and the consumer characteristics are represented. In the case of cluster 3, when purchasing products online, they purchase after considering quality and price a lot, and the consumer characteristics are represented as people who are more confident in purchasing offline than online. Through this study, it is judged that by identifying the differences in consumer characteristics that appear in the agri-food purchase situation according to the frequency of social media use, it can be helpful in strategic judgments in marketing practice on social media customer targeting and customer segmentation.

The Effect of Consumption Value and Consumers' Need for Cognition on Satisfaction through the Mediating Role of Trust in Online Shopping Websites (소비가치와 소비자의 인지욕구가 온라인 쇼핑 웹사이트에 대한 신뢰성을 매개로 만족도에 미치는 영향)

  • Lee, Yun-sun
    • Journal of Venture Innovation
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    • v.6 no.4
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    • pp.99-111
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    • 2023
  • This study aims to confirm that consumers' satisfaction with online shopping websites has changed to a phenomenon different from the past. In other words, in a situation where the use of e-commerce is expanding worldwide after the pandemic and various types of commerce such as mobile commerce and social commerce are formed, the consumer's information processing and decision-making process are meaningful in examining the behavior that has been changed based on the perceived motivation level of consumers by the new environment according to the consumption value and personal characteristics perceived by the consumer. In other words, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of consumption value and need for cognition on the satisfaction toward online websites as a mediating role in the trust of the website. As a result of testing Hypothesis 1, not only the hedonic value of the consumer for the website but also the utilitarian value had a positive influence on the satisfaction toward the website, and in particular, the utilitarian value showed a relatively greater influence than the hedonic value. However, the negative relationship between the need for cognition and satisfaction was found to be at a significant level under one-sided verification. In Hypothesis 2, only the utilitarian value among the consumption values of 2-1 showed a positive effect on satisfaction through a mediating role of trust. It was confirmed that the utilitarian value among the consumption values was an important factor in the satisfaction toward the website. The significance of this study is that, unlike previous research results, not only consumption value based on senses and emotions but also utilitarian value has a greater influence. Therefore, utilitarian value and need for cognition have a stronger influence on satisfaction if they play a mediating role based on the trust of the website used by consumers. These findings reflect the current market trend of online consumption, and they are helpful in the management and strategy of online websites based on consumer behavior understanding and major factors.

Relationships Among Employees' IT Personnel Competency, Personal Work Satisfaction, and Personal Work Performance: A Goal Orientation Perspective (조직구성원의 정보기술 인적역량과 개인 업무만족 및 업무성과 간의 관계: 목표지향성 관점)

  • Heo, Myung-Sook;Cheon, Myun-Joong
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.21 no.4
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    • pp.63-104
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    • 2011
  • The study examines the relationships among employee's goal orientation, IT personnel competency, personal effectiveness. The goal orientation includes learning goal orientation, performance approach goal orientation, and performance avoid goal orientation. Personal effectiveness consists of personal work satisfaction and personal work performance. In general, IT personnel competency refers to IT expert's skills, expertise, and knowledge required to perform IT activities in organizations. However, due to the advent of the internet and the generalization of IT, IT personnel competency turns out to be an important competency of technological experts as well as employees in organizations. While the competency of IT itself is important, the appropriate harmony between IT personnel's business capability and technological capability enhances the value of human resources and thus provides organizations with sustainable competitive advantages. The rapid pace of organization change places increased pressure on employees to continually update their skills and adapt their behavior to new organizational realities. This challenge raises a number of important questions concerning organizational behavior? Why do some employees display remarkable flexibility in their behavioral responses to changes in the organization, whereas others firmly resist change or experience great stress when faced with the need to alter behavior? Why do some employees continually strive to improve themselves over their life span, whereas others are content to forge through life using the same basic knowledge and skills? Why do some employees throw themselves enthusiastically into challenging tasks, whereas others avoid challenging tasks? The goal orientation proposed by organizational psychology provides at least a partial answer to these questions. Goal orientations refer to stable personally characteristics fostered by "self-theories" about the nature and development of attributes (such as intelligence, personality, abilities, and skills) people have. Self-theories are one's beliefs and goal orientations are achievement motivation revealed in seeking goals in accordance with one's beliefs. The goal orientations include learning goal orientation, performance approach goal orientation, and performance avoid goal orientation. Specifically, a learning goal orientation refers to a preference to develop the self by acquiring new skills, mastering new situations, and improving one's competence. A performance approach goal orientation refers to a preference to demonstrate and validate the adequacy of one's competence by seeking favorable judgments and avoiding negative judgments. A performance avoid goal orientation refers to a preference to avoid the disproving of one's competence and to avoid negative judgements about it, while focusing on performance. And the study also examines the moderating role of work career of employees to investigate the difference in the relationship between IT personnel competency and personal effectiveness. The study analyzes the collected data using PASW 18.0 and and PLS(Partial Least Square). The study also uses PLS bootstrapping algorithm (sample size: 500) to test research hypotheses. The result shows that the influences of both a learning goal orientation (${\beta}$ = 0.301, t = 3.822, P < 0.000) and a performance approach goal orientation (${\beta}$ = 0.224, t = 2.710, P < 0.01) on IT personnel competency are positively significant, while the influence of a performance avoid goal orientation(${\beta}$ = -0.142, t = 2.398, p < 0.05) on IT personnel competency is negatively significant. The result indicates that employees differ in their psychological and behavioral responses according to the goal orientation of employees. The result also shows that the impact of a IT personnel competency on both personal work satisfaction(${\beta}$ = 0.395, t = 4.897, P < 0.000) and personal work performance(${\beta}$ = 0.575, t = 12.800, P < 0.000) is positively significant. And the impact of personal work satisfaction(${\beta}$ = 0.148, t = 2.432, p < 0.05) on personal work performance is positively significant. Finally, the impacts of control variables (gender, age, type of industry, position, work career) on the relationships between IT personnel competency and personal effectiveness(personal work satisfaction work performance) are partly significant. In addition, the study uses PLS algorithm to find out a GoF(global criterion of goodness of fit) of the exploratory research model which includes a mediating variable, IT personnel competency. The result of analysis shows that the value of GoF is 0.45 above GoFlarge(0.36). Therefore, the research model turns out be good. In addition, the study performs a Sobel Test to find out the statistical significance of the mediating variable, IT personnel competency, which is already turned out to have the mediating effect in the research model using PLS. The result of a Sobel Test shows that the values of Z are all significant statistically (above 1.96 and below -1.96) and indicates that IT personnel competency plays a mediating role in the research model. At the present day, most employees are universally afraid of organizational changes and resistant to them in organizations in which the acceptance and learning of a new information technology or information system is particularly required. The problem is due' to increasing a feeling of uneasiness and uncertainty in improving past practices in accordance with new organizational changes. It is not always possible for employees with positive attitudes to perform their works suitable to organizational goals. Therefore, organizations need to identify what kinds of goal-oriented minds employees have, motivate them to do self-directed learning, and provide them with organizational environment to enhance positive aspects in their works. Thus, the study provides researchers and practitioners with a matter of primary interest in goal orientation and IT personnel competency, of which they have been unaware until very recently. Some academic and practical implications and limitations arisen in the course of the research, and suggestions for future research directions are also discussed.

The Effect of Price Discount Rate According to Brand Loyalty on Consumer's Acquisition Value and Transaction Value (브랜드애호도에 따른 가격할인율의 차이가 소비자의 획득가치와 거래가치에 미치는 영향)

  • Kim, Young-Ei;Kim, Jae-Yeong;Shin, Chang-Nag
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.17 no.4
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    • pp.247-269
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    • 2007
  • 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.

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