• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.225-248
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• 2013

Korean government has been implementing a smart grid testbed in Jeju Island for the low-carbon green growth. As smart grids are in the early stage of their diffusion, strategic guidelines and related measures are needed to spread them successfully. In general, the successful diffusion of new technologies or new products are mostly determined in its early stages. With the introduction of smart grids, the electricity market paradigm will be transformed into user-oriented from provider-oriented. Thus, a study on the diffusion of smart grids from the perspective of users is necessary. This paper examines factors affecting the adoption and diffusion of smart grids from users' perspectives and provide strategic guidelines for diffusing the smart grid. Researchers conducted in-depth interviews with 41 people who have been already using smart grids in the Jeju testbed. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. The interviews were recorded on a digital voice recorder memory and subsequently transcribed verbatim. A total of 133 pages of transcripts were obtained from about 10 hours interviews. 97 concepts, 47 sub-categories and 19 categories were identified through open coding of grounded theory. We suggested a paradigm model for diffusing smart grids and total of seven propositions as strategic guidelines.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.117-138
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• 2017

While prior work has noted the importance of knowledge creation in gaining competitive advantages, much less is understood about why firms do not actually use what they create. Building upon institutional approaches to organization studies, we offer a new framework to explain the gap between knowledge creation and utilization. We test our framework in an empirical context of sustainable innovation and environmental technologies where ideas of environmental sustainability have recently gained public popularity and shaped how interested audiences make evaluative assessments of firms. In such a context, firms are apt to perceive the social attention toward sustainability to be a normative pressure, which causes them to create new knowledge and develop technologies consistent with the pressure. Using data from the government-initiated certification system for green technologies, our study finds that firms do not always fully implement new environmental technologies they develop in response to the certification program, the situation we refer to as knowledge decoupling. We also examine a set of conditions under which knowledge decoupling becomes more or less amplified. Taken together, our findings show how a firm's knowledge creation and utilization is shaped by its external institutional environment as well as internal learning processes.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.5-15
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• 2018

Purpose - This study aims to identify of prospective areas for the formation of information and high technology clusters, and propose the new distribution of Kazakhstan's regions according to the innovative development and the ability to perceive IT products. Research design, data, and methodology - The application of scientific methods in this research will allow to systematize the available data, from both a theoretical and empirical perspective. In addition, the authors proposed methodological approaches, which have a three-tiered gradation: macro-level, meso-level and micro-level. Results - This study confirms the importance of using of proposed methods and its application for real data in order to the formation of IT and high technology clusters. Further, the obtained results allowed identifying of the distribution of Kazakhstan's regions by innovative development and specialization with using of HHI indexes. Conclusions - According to the results of this theoretical and empirical study proved that distribution of the regions of Kazakhstan and results of HHI indexes shows the power of the agglomeration effect. In addition, according to the conducted survey, we conclude that in Kazakhstan there are sufficient organizational and economic opportunities, trends and conditions for the formation of IT and high technology clusters.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.52-62
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• 2013

Owners' efforts to acquire Green building certification, which started in 2002, have been rapidly increasing since 2006. The causes of the increased owners' interests are due to various incentives, legal obligation, and purpose of advertising. As project owners generally are deficient in capabilities and knowledge on how to deal with administrative works on certification, they tend to fulfill the minimum requirements for certification. However, effective administration process need capabilities of identifying individual making decision point and review information. The implementation of green building certification system is expected to provide comfort to both occupants and potential users. Furthermore it contributes to reducing energy costs throughout the phase of O&M. In addition, technology innovation in green industry can be obtained. Therefore, this study is intended to support owners in order that they can clarify certification tasks and make a rational decision-making in time. For this purpose, first of all, the major decision points were selected as the gateways of green building certification process. And then management system based on IDEF3 modeling was developed for supporting owners' decision-making performance. This management system will improve owners' overall capacity in handling all the tasks regarding the certification of Green building.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.145-150
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• 2013

Optimal preparation guidelines of a cathode catalyst layer by non-precious metal catalysts were evaluated based on electrochemical performance in single-chamber microbial fuel cells (MFCs). Experiments for catalyst loading rate revealed that iron(II) phthalocyanine (FePc) can be a promising alternative, comparable to platinum (Pt) and cobalt tetramethoxyphenylporphyrin (CoTMPP), including effects of substrate concentration. Results showed that using an optimal FePc loading of $1mg/cm^2$ was equivalent to a Pt loading of $0.35mg/cm^2$ on the basis of maximum power density. Given higher loading rates or substrate concentrations, FePc proved to be a better alternative for Pt than CoTMPP. Under the optimal loading rate, it was further revealed that 40 wt% of FePc to carbon support allowed for the best power generation. These results suggest that proper control of the non-precious metal catalyst layer and substrate concentration are highly interrelated, and reveal how those combinations promote the economic power generation of single-chamber MFCs.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.13-23
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• 2011

In this study, Mike11 will be used as the numerical model where a data assimilation method will be applied to it. This paper aims to gain an insight and understanding of data assimilation in flood forecasting models. It will start with a general discussion of data assimilation, followed by a description of the methodology and discussion of the statistical error forecast model used, which in this case is the linear regression. This error forecast model is applied to the water level forecast simulated by MIKE11 to produced improved forecast and validated against real measurements. It is found that there exists a phase error in the improved forecasts. Hence, 2 general formula are used to account for this phase error and they have shown improvement to the accuracy of the forecasts, where one improved the immediate forecast of up to 5 hours while the other improved the estimation of the peak discharge.

• International Journal of Quality Innovation
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.132-137
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• 2002

The quality improvement methodology Six Sigma gained enormous international popularity in the past few years, mainly due to its successful implementation at General Electric. Six Sigma is now commonly understood not only as a statistical measure for process performance (6$\sigma$ stands for 3.4 defects per million opportunities) to improve product quality but it has also become a strategic initiative undertaken by many organisations to improve management quality. In the centre of the Six Sigma methodology is the improvement project, often referred to as Black Belt or Green Belt project. Although every business is different and business priorities differ from company to company, however all businesses face the same problem when it comes to Six Sigma projects: How to choose the right project\ulcorner This article intends to provide some answers to this and other frequently asked questions about Six Sigma projects.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.23 no.7
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• pp.654-661
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• 2013

The dynamic characteristics of a free-piston stirling engine(FPSE) with regard to the working frequency is investigated from theoretical and experimental studies. The FPSE is modeled as a two degree-of-freedom linear vibration system. A theoretical expression on the working frequency is derived from the instability condition for self-excitation based on the linear vibration model. A ${\gamma}$-type free-piston stirling engine is fabricated for experimental studies, and its working frequency is measured on various heater temperatures. Comparisons between the theoretical and experimental results reveal that the working frequency of the test FPSE depends on both the temperature of the compression space and the temperature difference between the expansion and compression spaces.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.110-115
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• 2024

Global sustainable energy needs and carbon neutrality goals make hydrogen a key future energy source. South Korea and Japan lead with proactive hydrogen policies, including South Korea's Hydrogen Law and Japan's strategy updates aiming for a hydrogen-centric society by 2050. A notable advance is the solar thermal chemical water-splitting cycle for green hydrogen production, spotlighted by Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER) and Niigata University's joint initiative. This method uses solar energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, offering a carbon-neutral hydrogen production route. The study focuses on international collaboration in solar energy for thermochemical water-splitting and E-fuel production, highlighting breakthroughs in catalyst and reactor design to enhance solar thermal technology's commercial viability for sustainable fuel production. Collaborations, like ARENA in Australia, target global carbon emission reduction and energy system sustainability, contributing to a cleaner, sustainable energy future.

• STI Policy Review
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.111-129
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• 2012

The integration of products and services is being expanded in both manufacturing and service companies such as in Apple's iPod & iTunes, Amazon's Kindle, and Hyundai Motor Company's Mozen. This phenomenon has recently accelerated due to multiple factors including market change, lessening of differences in quality of products or services, the paradigm of participation and sharing, and deindustrialization and evolution toward becoming a service economy. The objective of this paper is to investigate and analyze the status and characteristics of integration of products and services in Korean firms and to suggest policy directions promoting this integration. Towards this purpose, income statements from the Korea Listed Companies Association (KLCA) database of companies listed on the Korea Stock Exchange are analyzed regarding the servitization of manufacturing firms as well as the productization of service firms. In addition, this research investigates the Korean Innovation Survey 2011 database for the service sector and 2010 database for the manufacturing sector in order to evaluate R&D activity in each. In the manufacturing sector, the average ratio of service sales (servitization) was low at 0.208, with bias in the level and distribution of ratios associated with the manufacturing sector. 18 out of a total of 23 sectors (78%) have low servitization, showing there's a long way to go for servitization in the Korean manufacturing sector. In the service sector, the average ratio of product sales (productization) was 9.53%, which is relatively high compared to that of the manufacturing sector. However, the distribution of ratios is also biased, as with the manufacturing sector. Based on this analysis, policy directions are proposed in terms of 1) R&D, 2) concept boost, 3) R&D result spread, 4) statistics, 5) infrastructure and 6) green growth.