• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.41-52
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• 2015

Purpose - Given globalization, the new niche market of medical tourism is likely to experience sustainable growth for various reasons, such as aging populations and a shift in the medical consumerism paradigm toward prevention. Importantly, understanding medical customers' behavior is necessary to benefit from a competitive advantage in this industry. The existing research primarily accessed the key factors of medical quality and costs to explain health customers' behavior but is limited in terms of enabling an understanding of the decision process. This limitation exists because, given the intangibility and greater associated risks in the highly professional industry of international medical tourism, most customers lack the knowledge and experience needed to evaluate the central factors-such as the medical competence of health care countries-before purchases. Therefore, they actively search for useful information through various distributions to reduce uncertainty and to make better choices. Interestingly, most of these information channels are associated with word-of-mouth (WOM). However, no evidence is found in the literature to estimate the effect of WOM in the medical tourism field. Thus, this study focuses on WOM to explore its interaction with key medical characteristic factors and the attractiveness of destinations referred to by sources. This study also affects customers' evaluations and, in turn, influences their intention to seek health care services abroad. Research design, data, and methodology - The literature review addressed an interesting research model for estimating the relations among WOM, medical characteristics, attractiveness, and customers' choice intention regarding international health care. In the key economic regions in China, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Shandong, and Guangdong, 2,500 survey questionnaires were distributed to potential customers of different ages, education, and income levels. A resulting 1,717 (68.68 percent of the original 2,500) usable surveys were obtained for analysis. Moderated regression analysis was used to determine the effects of WOM in the decision process regarding international health care destinations. Results - The results indicate that WOM is a good moderator of the relationships between the factors evaluated by sources and customers. More importantly, the WOM effects reflect the factors of tie strength, credibility, and vividness. The results also reveal that, given the moderating role of WOM, the intention of potential Chinese customers to seek the referred health care country varies according to the medical characteristics of medical competency and reputation as evaluated by customers. In contrast, the travel attractiveness of the attractions, facilities, accessibility, and social environment are critical determinants of destination choice intention. Conclusions - The moderating role of WOM has been confirmed through the international healthcare destination selection process. Medical tourism managers should user WOM as an effective marketing tool for industry development. Specially, marketers should consider the effects of WOM determinants, such as tie strength, credibility, and vividness, to develop an effective strategy. Furthermore, this study estimates the factors that affect customers' selection of medical tourism destinations. Health care managers or policy makers should consider a broad variety of variables that may attract more Chinese customers to international health care.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.35-44
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• 2013

Purpose - This study aims to (a) analyze local citizens' perception of a local company, the Gwangyang Steel and Iron Company (GSIC); (b) compare the perception toward the local company with that of national citizens' perceptions towards many other unspecified companies, which were surveyed biannually by The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI); and (c) analyze how such companies evaluate perceptions towards them, in relation to citizens' socioeconomic position, such as their education status. Research design, data, methodology - The data were collected using a questionnaire, which was given to a sample of local citizens in cities. To test the hypotheses, factor analyses, a t-test, and an ANOVA were conducted. The total number of respondents was 1798. The data gathered from the respondents of the sample were analyzed using SPSS Win 19.0 software. Perception towards the company was evaluated on the corporate favorite index (CFI). The CFI index shows how positive citizens feel towards a company. It is calculated using five leading factors, consisting of the following: contribution to the economy, productivity, international competitiveness, social contribution, and ethical management. The higher the level of positive feelings exhibited, the closer the index will come to 100. Results - As a result of the analysis, the CFI index towards the GSIC stood at 67.3. The CFI index towards the company is 16.5 points higher than that of the index towards the many other unspecified companies, which were surveyed by the bi-annual KCCI study in the first half of 2011. The other five indexes stood as follows: contribution to the economy, productivity, social contribution, and ethical management was 69.2, 71.2, 64.6, and 58.6, respectively. These indexes are 18.3, 4.6, 27.6, and 35.6, respectively, higher than those found by the KCCI study. However, international competitiveness is 73.0 (9.8 points lower than that of the KCCI study). This survey thus shows that the CFI of the local citizens towards the global company GSIC is very high when compared with the CFI index towards the many other unspecified companies that was determined by the KCCI survey. Conclusions - This survey shows that local citizens have high expectations of economic activity, increasing working opportunities, and regional cooperation projects from the local company, GSIC. In addition, the CFI index towards GSIC evaluates results depending on the respondent's relationship with the company, and their educational status. Respondents, whose family or relatives were working as employees of GSIC, have relatively positive perceptions of GSIC, and respondents with a relatively higher educational status also share positive perceptions. Local citizens expect the profit-making of the company to operate in accordance with management activities, and at the same time, they expect that the wealth generated by the company will return to wider society.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.75-82
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• 2020

There have been often cases of collapse for geogrid reinforced soil (GRS) retaining wall. Hence, social interest in the reinforcement and restoration of the collapsed GRS wall is increasing day by day. However, there are only few researches. For this reason, a series of numerical analyses using the Plaxis 2D program was conducted in this study to analyze the suitable reinforcement methods that can be applied on the existing damaged GRS wall caused by overturning of the modular blocks facing and the surface settlement at the backfill as the results from the design failure. The restoration plan used in this study is composed of two cases: (Case 1) soil nailing reinforcement and reinforced concrete (RC) wall facing construction on the existing damaged GRS wall; and (Case 2) removal of the entire damaged GRS wall and then reconstruction. The results on the internal stability of the GRS wall show that Case 1 obtained a greater safety factor than Case 2 for tensile force while Case 2 had a greater safety factor than Case 1 for pullout failures. Case 1 was found to be more stable than Case 2 in terms of the global slope safety by shear strength reduction method and the external deformation behavior by numerical analysis. In this study, the existing damaged GRS wall which was reinforced using Case 1 method shows more stable external behavior.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.656-664
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• 2020

This study obtained basic data for developing human resources with creativity convergence competency by surveying and analyzing the level of creativity convergence competency of university students. The study was conducted from October 1, 2019 to November 10, 2019 on university students attending the departments of computer science, pharmaceutical engineering, physical therapy and dental hygiene. The data from 296 students was finally used for this study, and IBM SPSS/Win statics 23.0 programs were used to analyze the data. Students who graduated from Seoul/Gyeonggi High School or those students with high undergraduate satisfaction were found to have high creativity convergence ability, and these results were statistically significant. Further, the group of students who had experience with Campus/Suburban competition, Global Competency training/ International exchange programs or the Capstone Design/Team Based Project showed high creativity convergence competency, and these results were statistically significant. Thus, this study identified the necessity of developing and operating various extra-curricular programs at education institutes in order to enhance students' creativity convergence capability.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.27-39
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• 2020

With the COVID-19 pandemic, the global economy has stagnated and our daily lives have changed. The rural economy is also experiencing damage, such as an average of 65% or more decrease in the number of visitors to rural experience resort villages due to the spread of COVID-19. In order to minimize the damage arising from the prolonged coronavirus, a hospitality system in response to changes in rural tourism behavior and consumer demand is needed to revitalize rural areas and maintain continuous economic independence. Therefore, this study attempted to find ways to utilize landscape resources such as education, culture, history, and ecology in order to complement the existing experience programs in connection with local resources and local environment. Wibong Village, which is the subject of the study, attempted to revitalize the village using the resources through the "Creative village creation" project in 2015. Due to poor management of historical resources, difficulty in operating experience programs, and response to changes in the natural environment, the rate of implementation of the project plan was very low. Currently, the demand for experience is also decreasing due to the COVID-19 effect, so it was judged that it was necessary to develop an experience village program suitable for the needs of experienced visitors by discovering additional local resources for the continuous operation of the experience village. In order to solve the problem of the use of landscape resources and the spatial composition of the study site, additional investigations of local resources were made, and an experience program course that could be operated by theme was proposed by configuring a space suitable for the use of landscape resources. By dividing the additionally investigated landscape resources into history, ecology, and region, an experiential course was created to separate the traffic lines, and the space composition for large-scale experienced visitors that had been previously operated was constructed in a form suitable for the post-corona era. In addition, at least two experiential tour courses that can be operated by period were proposed to maintain economic effects. Starting with this study, if further research on the creation and spatial composition of a rural experience village centered on the connection with the region, it will be used as research results that can be referenced in projects such as village creation, rural space planning, and living area analysis. It is expected that it will be able to effectively cope with the construction of a rural area suitable for the post-corona era, where demand is expected to increase in the future.

• Journal of Service Research and Studies
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.1-15
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• 2016

Despite that Korea has tried radical efforts in the global flow of regulatory reform in the past twenty years, the result was not radical at all, but rather disappointing. One examines the possibility of paradigm shift in regulatory reform based on new theoretic perspectives. Regulatory reform, one argues, is not just a neo-liberal approach to cut off overflowing regulation. It is a highly conflictual struggle in state order to move from industrial age paradigm to service age paradigm. In the process of the great shift states become integrated into the world of life constructed by the exercise of civil rights. The relation between the civic socio-economic life and the state apparatus became totally different. Past effort for deregulation missed this point without correct recognition of the role of civil freedom and rights in service economy. One treats three typical forms of regulation whereby conventional rules and regulations effectively damper the development of services: reciprocal perspective in contract management, industrial mind in urban and spaces design, and old way of human capital management. According these analyses a new initiative of regulatory reform is proposed to take place at the National Assembly.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.742-753
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• 2022

Recently, the globalization of culture and the global trend of K-culture have become a good background for further developing and promoting Korean traditional culture. However, although Korean traditional music has an excellent notation method called Jeongganbo developed by King Sejong, it is gradually not being used as the universality of Western notation. However, since the 7th curriculum, the proportion of introduction and utilization of Jeongganbo in elementary music education has been increasing. And this is a good opportunity to re-generalize our unique traditional notation. On the other hand, in addition to practicing the interpretation of the notation method, more diverse tools will be needed to activate the practice of Jeongganbo. Therefore, this study studied the design of a web program that can make Jeongganbo on the web without installation or download. In addition, in order to increase the user's convenience in the process of publishing Jeongganbo, it designs and proposes a method of inputting using a computer keyboard like a piano keyboard and method of listening to input music information through MIDI function and save it as a file. Through this study, it is possible to develop a web program that anyone can easily and simply approach, practice, and publish, and it is expected to be a useful tool for practicing Korean traditional music or publishing traditional music in the future.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.70-79
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• 2010

There has been some research conducted that addressed immoral consumer behaviors in Korea; however, most of this research focused on purchasing counterfeits or shoplifting. High return rates of apparel and used apparel returns have been acknowledged as problem areas within the fashion industry. However, very few researchers have addressed this issue. Therefore, the goal of this research was to explore consumer's retail borrowing experience using a mixed methods approach. In study 1 Korean consumer's retail borrowing experiences was explored through focus group interviews. Findings informed study 2 an examination of apparel consumers' attitudes toward retail borrowing behavior via an online survey. Findings assist both researchers' and practitioners' understanding of retail borrowing behaviors and provide insight into retail borrowing issues in the apparel retail industry. For study 1, five focus-group interviews were conducted with seven panels of individuals that had retail borrowing experience within the past year. Thirty-five Korean consumers who lived in a metropolitan area participated in the focus group interviews. Most of consumers were in their 20's (n=21) and were women (n=24). Most participants purchased apparel items from a retail store and returned the worn items for either a full refund or exchanged the worn item for another item. Motives underlying retail borrowing behavior included social needs, job-related needs, fashion needs, and "smart shopping." Similar to existing research findings from other countries, social needs were the most frequently mentioned cause of retail borrowing in fashion stores. Consumers' moral values, attitude toward large corporations, and prior retail borrowing experience were mentioned as possible factors affecting consumers' retail borrowing behavior. For study 2, the questionnaire used to gather the data was developed based on the findings of part I and existing research. Questions concerning consumers' moral beliefs, sensation seeking tendencies, self-worth, past retail job experience, retail borrowing experience, and some demographic characteristics were included in the questionnaire. The data were collected via an online survey using an online panel provided by a commercial online research company located in Seoul, Korea. In order to obtain various consumers, a quota sample was (male: female=1:1, 20's:30's:40's=1:1:1, retail experience: no retail experience=1:3) obtained from the company. A total of 401 consumers who had shopped for apparel items during the prior 6 months participated in the online survey. The results indicated that 19.7% of the respondents reported they had experience borrowing fashion merchandise. Among these individuals, male borrowers (57%) outnumbered female borrowers. In terms of age distribution, x2 revealed that there was a statistical difference between respondents with and without retail borrowing experiences: 41.8% of the respondents with retail borrowing experience were in their 40's, while respondents without retail borrowing experience were evenly distributed between their 20's to 40's. There was also a significant difference between respondents with and without retail borrowing experience in terms of income: respondents with retail borrowing experience tended to have higher incomes than those without retail borrowing experience. T-tests were performed to compare respondents' fashion shopping behavior, moral beliefs, sensation-seeking tendencies, and attitudes toward retail borrowing behavior between participants with and without retail borrowing experience. As compared to those with no borrowing experience, respondents with experience tended to shop for fashion items more frequently and spent more on shopping for fashion items. Consumers with experience borrowing tended to have higher sensation-seeking tendencies than consumers without retail borrowing experience. A regression analysis revealed that attitudes toward fashion retail borrowing were negatively related to consumers' moral beliefs, but positively related to monthly fashion shopping frequency, sensation-seeking tendencies, and past fashion retail borrowing experience. Among these variables, past retail borrowing experience was the most significant predictor, followed by moral beliefs. This research serves as an initial attempt to address the motives that underlie retail borrowing behaviors and the factors affecting those behaviors. The findings of this study may facilitate an understanding of the consumer's retail borrowing, which will provide a basis for approaches that may help decrease retail borrowing and inappropriate returns at fashion retail stores. The findings may also provide materials for consumer education over the long term. In order to better understand fashion retail borrowing behavior, more research is needed in the future.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.47-61
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to understand the laws related to the safety management of children's play facilities(LRSMCPF) including the "Safety Supervision Law of Children's Play Facilities(SSLCPF)" and the "Quality Management and Industrial Products Safety Management Law(QMIPSAL)", in order to analyze the problems by 4 phases-development of products, landscape design, landscape construction and maintenance considering landscape project procedure-and to propose a revision of the laws. The results are as follows: 1. The various LRSMCPF, SSLCPF and QMIPSAL, as basic laws for the safety management of children's play facilities, were insufficient regarding the features of children's play facilities and play spaces, which are both comparatively varied and complex. 2. In development of products, the one-year duration of safety certification based on QMIPSAL was too short and the procedure for safety certification were redundant in both products and plants inspection, and export and import product inspection. 3. The field inspection of construction sites based on SSLCPF was repeated with quality control and a consultation of rules based on "Construction Technology Management Law". 4. There are not enough safety inspection organizations regarding children's play facilities to meet the demand of safety certification, safety inspection, and safety education in the near future. 5. For children's play safety, the establishment of a general safety management system for children's play connected with the phases is needed to ensure safe play equipment, to construct safe playgrounds, and to manage play facilities. The criteria, regulations, and procedure regarding safety certification and safety inspection of play facilities must be revised efficiently and standardized to a global level as well. To improve the system and contents of safety certification and inspection, authorization of safety inspection organizations based on landscape architecture is needed. Further study will be required to concretely analyze in detail the laws, enforcement decrees and rules, and ordinances that consider the practical experience of professional landscape architects, inspectors, and lawyers.

• Journal of Korean Society of Disaster and Security
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.59-75
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• 2020

This study is a case study that applied 'UNDRR's Urban Disaster Resilience Scorecard', an evaluation tool necessary for Incheon Metropolitan City to be certified as an international safe city. I would like to present an example that the results derived from this scorecard contributed to the Incheon Metropolitan City Disaster Reduction Plan. Of course, the Disaster Resilience Scorecard can't provide a way to improve the resilience of every disaster facing the city. However, it is to find the weakness of the resilience that the city faces, and to propose a solution to reduce the city's disaster risk. This is to help practitioners to recognize the disaster risks that Incheon Metropolitan City faces. In addition, the solution recommended by UNDRR was suggested to provide resilience in areas vulnerable to disasters. It was confirmed that this process can contribute to improving the disaster resilience of Incheon Metropolitan City. UNDRR has been spreading 'Climate Change, Disaster-resistant City Creation Campaign', aka MCR (Making Cities Resilient) Campaign, to cities all over the world since 2010 to reduce global cities' disasters. By applying the disaster relief guidelines adopted by UNDRR, governments, local governments, and neighboring cities are encouraged to collaborate. As a result of this study, Incheon Metropolitan city's UN Urban Resilience Scorecard was evaluated as a strong resilience field by obtaining scores of 4 or more (4.3~5.0) in 5 of 10 essentials; 1. Prepare organization for disaster resilience and prepare for implementation, 4. Strong resilience Urban development and design pursuit, 5. Preservation of natural cushions to enhance the protection provided by natural ecosystems, 9. Ensure effective disaster preparedness and response, 10. Rapid restoration and better reconstruction. On the other hand, in the other five fields, scores of less than 4 (3.20~3.85) were obtained and evaluated as weak resilience field; 2. Analyze, understand and utilize current and future risk scenarios, 3. Strengthen financial capacity for resilience, 6. Strengthen institutional capacity for resilience, 7. Understanding and strengthening social competence for resilience, 8. Strengthen resilience of infrastructure. In addition, through this study, the risk factors faced by Incheon Metropolitan City could be identified by priority, resilience improvement measures to minimize disaster risks, urban safety-based urban development plans, available disaster reduction resources, and integrated disasters. Measures were prepared.