• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.246-262
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• 2024

The survey conducted from 2018 to 2020 aimed to investigate the changes in fish fauna and community characteristics in the upper reaches of the Seomgang River, Korea. During the survey period, 35 sites were selected, resulting in the collection of 7,817 fish belonging to 12 families and 40 species. The dominant species was Zacco koreanus, with a relative abundance of 34.5%, followed by Z. platypus at 28.7%. Other significant species included Rhynchocypris oxycephalus (10.2%), Pungtungia herzi (5.3%), and Squalidus gracilis majimae (4.3%). Notably, four protected species - Acheilognathus signifer, Gobiobotia brevibarba, and Cottus koreanus, designated as class II endangered wildlife by the Ministry of Environment- were identified. These species predominantly inhabit the middle and lower reaches, except for Gobiobotia brevibarba, which is found in the upper reaches. Nineteen species, accounting for a 47.5% endemism rate, were endemic to Korea. The study also noted the presence of one climate-sensitive species, Cottus koreanus, and two exotic species, Carassius cuvieri and Micropterus salmoides. Community analysis indicated a trend of decreasing dominance and increasing diversity and richness from upstream to downstream, with a distinct division into uppermost reaches, upper reaches, middle and lower reaches, and lakes. The construction of the Hwaseong Dam has had a significant direct and indirect impact on the fish community. The habitat and abundance of endangered species such as R. pseudosericeus, A. signifer, and G. brevibarba decreased dramatically immediately after the dam's construction, transforming the submerged area from lotic to lentic environments. Approximately 20 years later, the habitats have stabilized, leading to an increase in the fish population and a recovery of the previously diminished endangered species. The river health (FAI) was also evaluated, with 27 sites rated as very good (A), seven as good (B), and one as fair (C). However, endangered species such as A. signifer continue to face threats from dam and river construction, while C. Koreanus has experienced a severe population decline due to river works. Additionally, the presence of the ecosystem-disrupting species M. salmoides in Hwaseong Lake raises concerns. To ensure a stable habitat for fish in the upper reaches of the Seomgang River, it is crucial to avoid indiscriminate river construction, urgently implement restoration policies for endangered species such as A. signifer, and develop management strategies to control the spread of invasive species such as bass.

• Journal of Christian Education in Korea
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• v.75
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• pp.83-102
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• 2023

Purpose of Research: The purpose of this study is to emphasize that the understanding of the elderly must change to a more positive one as a way to resolve social problems caused by aging. And this study proposes understanding and education about the human rights of the elderly as one of the measures. Research Contents and Methods: The research aims to achieve its purpose through the following contents and methods. First, this study examines the issue of elder abuse that occurs in old age to understand the importance of human rights for the elderly in the context of aging. One of the causes of elder abuse is the lack of understanding of the human rights of the elderly. What are the rights of the elderly? To this end, the text explains the understanding of the human rights of the elderly according to UNESCO, as well as the policy on the human rights of the elderly in Korea. Based on this, the importance of human rights education for the elderly was argued. This is because an increase in awareness has a significant impact on improving the human rights of the elderly. In particular, this study argues that the church is also affected by the aging phenomenon. Therefore, it is argued that the church should also take an interest in the human rights of the elderly. And it was emphasized that human rights education for the elderly should be approached from a Christian perspective. Results/Conclusions: In conclusion, this study emphasizes the importance of protecting the human rights of the elderly and proposes three aspects of christian human rights for the elderly. First, there is a need for self-dignity education for the elderly. Second, it is necessary to learn about and empathize with the lives of the elderly in order to recognize and respect their rights across different generations. Third, education on mutual respect was proposed as a means to alleviate conflicts between the elderly and other generations, and to promote harmony and respect for rights. It is believed that this will play an important role in bridging the generation gap caused by aging. Unfortunately, this study has a limitation in that it does not address methodological approaches and education, as it primarily focuses on theoretical proposals. Therefore, it is hoped that further studies will continue to be conducted to develop specific alternatives aimed at enhancing the human rights of the elderly.

• Industry Promotion Research
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.57-75
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• 2024

This study examined how ESG activities of convenience stores, affect consumers' store loyalty. Using 300 valid samples of convenience store users collected through an online specialized agency (Company M), this study empirically analyzed the effects of environmental (E), social (S), and governance (G) activities among ESG on trust and store loyalty, and the mediating effects of trust and the moderating effects of eco-friendly values, social media activity, and consumer-company identification. The results of the analysis showed that, first, governance activities had a positive effect on trust, and environmental activities and trust had a positive effect on store loyalty, but social activities had no effect Second, trust had a moderating effect only on the relationship between governance activities and store loyalty, and third, in the relationship between ESG activities and trust, eco-friendly values and social media activity had moderating effects on environmental, social, and governance activities, and consumer-company identification had moderating effects on environmental and governance activities, but not on social activities. Therefore, convenience store brands should further strengthen their environmental and social activities to build consumer trust, especially environmental activities, which only directly affect store loyalty, so they should be more cautious and proactive. In addition, intensive marketing activities are needed to build trust among consumers who have high eco-friendly values, social media activity, and consumer-company identification. Therefore, this study confirms the critical view of consumers despite the social contribution activities of convenience store brands, and suggests that in order to improve them, it is necessary to strengthen social activity efforts, actively participate in ESG activities of on-site franchisees who are customer contact points, and educate employees.

• The Korean Journal of Quaternary Research
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• v.33 no.1_2
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• pp.1-23
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• 2021

In response to the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases, the global mean temperature is rising rapidly. In particular, the warming of the Arctic is two to three times faster than the rest. Associated with the rapid Arctic warming, the sea ice shows decreasing trends in all seasons. The faster Arctic warming is due to ice-albedo feedback by the presence of snow and ice in polar regions, which have higher reflectivity than the ocean, the bare land, or vegetation, higher long-wave heat loss to space than lower latitudes by lower surface temperature in the Arctic than lower latitudes, different stability of atmosphere between the Arctic and lower latitudes, where low stability leads to larger heat losses to atmosphere from surface by larger latent heat fluxes than the Arctic, where high stability, especially in winter, prohibits losing heat to atmosphere, increase in clouds and water vapor in the Arctic atmosphere that subsequently act as green house gases, and finally due to the increase in sensible heat fluxes from low latitudes to the Arctic via lower troposphere. In contrast to the rapid Arctic warming, in midlatitudes, especially in eastern Asia and eastern North America, cold air outbreaks occur more frequently and last longer in recent decades. Two pathways have been suggested to link the Arctic warming to cold air outbreaks over midlatitudes. The first is through troposphere in synoptic-scales by enhancing the Siberian high via a development of Rossby wave trains initiated from the Arctic, especially the Barents-Kara Seas. The second is via stratosphere by activating planetary waves to stratosphere and beyond, that leads to warming in the Arctic stratosphere and increase in geopotential height that subsequently weakens the polar vortex and results in cold air outbreaks in midlatitudes for several months. There exists lags between the Arctic warming and cold events in midlatitudes. Thus, understanding chain reactions from the Arctic warming to midlatitude cooling could help improve a predictability of seasonal winter weather in midlatitudes. This study reviews the results on the Arctic warming and its connection to midlatitudes and examines the trends in surface temperature and the Arctic sea ice.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.20 no.1 s.21
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• pp.165-203
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• 1987

This project was a service-cum-research effort with a quasi-experimental study design to examine the health benefits of an integrated Family Planning (FP)/Maternal & Child health (MCH) Service approach that provides crucial factors missing in the present on-going programs. The specific objectives were: 1) To test the effectiveness of trained nurse/midwives (MW) assigned as change agents in the Health Sub-Center (HSC) to bring about the changes in the eight FP/MCH indicators, namely; (i)FP/MCH contacts between field workers and their clients (ii) the use of effective FP methods, (iii) the inter-birth interval and/or open interval, (iv) prenatal care by medically qualified personnel, (v) medically supervised deliveries, (vi) the rate of induced abortion, (vii) maternal and infant morbidity, and (viii) preinatal & infant mortality. 2) To measure the integrative linkage (contacts) between MW & HSC workers and between HSC and clients. 3) To examine the organizational or administrative factors influencing integrative linkage between health workers. Study design; The above objectives called for quasi-experimental design setting up a study and control area with and without a midwife. An active intervention program (FP/MCH minimum 'package' program) was conducted for a 2 year period from June 1982-July 1984 in Seosan County and 'before and after' surveys were conducted to measure the change. Service input; This study was undertaken by the Soonchunhyang University in collaboration with WHO. After a baseline survery in 1981, trained nurses/midwives were introduced into two health sub-centers in a rural setting (Seosan county) for a 2 year period from 1982 to 1984. A major service input was the establishment of midwifery services in the existing health delivery system with emphasis on nurse/midwife's role as the link between health workers (nurse aids) and village health workers, and the referral of risk patients to the private physician (OBGY specialist). An evaluation survey was made in August 1984 to assess the effectiveness of this alternative integrated approach in the study areas in comparison with the control area which had normal government services. Method of evaluation; a. In this study, the primary objective was first to examine to what extent the FP/MCH package program brought about changes in the pre-determined eight indicators (outcome and impact measures) and the following relationship was first analyzed; b. Nevertheless, this project did not automatically accept the assumption that if two or more activities were integrated, the results would automatically be better than a non-integrated or categorical program. There is a need to assess the 'integration process' itself within the package program. The process of integration was measured in terms of interactive linkages, or the quantity & quality of contacts between workers & clients and among workers. Intergrative linkages were hypothesized to be influenced by organizational factors at the HSC clinic level including HSC goals, sltrurture, authority, leadership style, resources, and personal characteristics of HSC staff. The extent or degree of integration, as measured by the intensity of integrative linkages, was in turn presumed to influence programme performance. Thus as indicated diagrammatically below, organizational factors constituted the independent variables, integration as the intervening variable and programme performance with respect to family planning and health services as the dependent variable: Concerning organizational factors, however, due to the limited number of HSCs (2 in the study area and 3 in the control area), they were studied by participatory observation of an anthropologist who was independent of the project. In this observation, we examined whether the assumed integration process actually occurred or not. If not, what were the constraints in producing an effective integration process. Summary of Findings; A) Program effects and impact 1. Effects on FP use: During this 2 year action period, FP acceptance increased from 58% in 1981 to 78% in 1984 in both the study and control areas. This increase in both areas was mainly due to the new family planning campaign driven by the Government for the same study period. Therefore, there was no increment of FP acceptance rate due to additional input of MW to the on-going FP program. But in the study area, quality aspects of FP were somewhat improved, having a better continuation rate of IUDs & pills and more use of effective Contraceptive methods in comparison with the control area. 2. Effects of use of MCH services: Between the study and control areas, however, there was a significant difference in maternal and child health care. For example, the coverage of prenatal care was increased from 53% for 1981 birth cohort to 75% for 1984 birth cohort in the study area. In the control area, the same increased from 41% (1981) to 65% (1984). It is noteworthy that almost two thirds of the recent birth cohort received prenatal care even in the control area, indicating that there is a growing demand of MCH care as the size of family norm becomes smaller 3. There has been a substantive increase in delivery care by medical professions in the study area, with an annual increase rate of 10% due to midwives input in the study areas. The project had about two times greater effect on postnatal care (68% vs. 33%) at delivery care(45.2% vs. 26.1%). 4. The study area had better reproductive efficiency (wanted pregancies with FP practice & healthy live births survived by one year old) than the control area, especially among women under 30 (14.1% vs. 9.6%). The proportion of women who preferred the 1st trimester for their first prenatal care rose significantly in the study area as compared to the control area (24% vs 13%). B) Effects on Interactive Linkage 1. This project made a contribution in making several useful steps in the direction of service integration, namely; i) The health workers have become familiar with procedures on how to work together with each other (especially with a midwife) in carrying out their work in FP/MCH and, ii) The health workers have gotten a feeling of the usefulness of family health records (statistical integration) in identifying targets in their own work and their usefulness in caring for family health. 2. On the other hand, because of a lack of required organizational factors, complete linkage was not obtained as the project intended. i) In regards to the government health worker's activities in terms of home visiting there was not much difference between the study & control areas though the MW did more home visiting than Government health workers. ii) In assessing the service performance of MW & health workers, the midwives balanced their workload between 40% FP, 40% MCH & 20% other activities (mainly immunization). However, $85{\sim}90%$ of the services provided by the health workers were other than FP/MCH, mainly for immunizations such as the encephalitis campaign. In the control area, a similar pattern was observed. Over 75% of their service was other than FP/MCH. Therefore, the pattern shows the health workers are a long way from becoming multipurpose workers even though the government is pushing in this direction. 3. Villagers were much more likely to visit the health sub-center clinic in the study area than in the control area (58% vs.31%) and for more combined care (45% vs.23%). C) Organization factors (admistrative integrative issues) 1. When MW (new workers with higher qualification) were introduced to HSC, it was noted that there were conflicts between the existing HSC workers (Nurse aids with less qualification than MW) and the MW for the beginning period of the project. The cause of the conflict was studied by an anthropologist and it was pointed out that these functional integration problems stemmed from the structural inadequacies of the health subcenter organization as indicated below; i) There is still no general consensus about the objectives and goals of the project between the project staff and the existing health workers. ii) There is no formal linkage between the responsibility of each member's job in the health sub-center. iii) There is still little chance for midwives to play a catalytic role or to establish communicative networks between workers in order to link various knowledge and skills to provide better FP/MCH services in the health sub-center. 2. Based on the above findings the project recommended to the County Chief (who has power to control the administrative staff and the technical staff in his county) the following ; i) In order to solve the conflicts between the individual roles and functions in performing health care activities, there must be goals agreed upon by both. ii) The health sub·center must function as an autonomous organization to undertake the integration health project. In order to do that, it is necessary to support administrative considerations, and to establish a communication system for supervision and to control of the health sub-centers. iii) The administrative organization, tentatively, must be organized to bind the health worker's midwive's and director's jobs by an organic relationship in order to achieve the integrative system under the leadership of health sub-center director. After submitting this observation report, there has been better understanding from frequent meetings & communication between HW/MW in FP/MCH work as the program developed. Lessons learned from the Seosan Project (on issues of FP/MCH integration in Korea); 1) A majority or about 80% of the couples are now practicing FP. As indicated by the study, there is a growing demand from clients for the health system to provide more MCH services than FP in order to maintain the achieved small size of family through FP practice. It is fortunate to see that the government is now formulating a MCH policy for the year 2,000 and revising MCH laws and regulations to emphasize more MCH care for achieving a small size family through family planning practice. 2) Goal consensus in FP/MCH shouBd be made among the health workers It administrators, especially to emphasize the need of care of 'wanted' child. But there is a long way to go to realize the 'real' integration of FP into MCH in Korea, unless there is a structural integration FP/MCH because a categorical FP is still first priority to reduce the rate of population growth for economic reasons but not yet for health/welfare reasons in practice. 3) There should be more financial allocation: (i) a midwife should be made available to help to promote the MCH program and coordinate services, (in) there should be a health sub·center director who can provide leadership training for managing the integrated program. There is a need for 'organizational support', if the decision of integration is made to obtain benefit from both FP & MCH. In other words, costs should be paid equally to both FP/MCH. The integration slogan itself, without the commitment of paying such costs, is powerless to advocate it. 4) Need of management training for middle level health personnel is more acute as the Government has already constructed 90 MCH centers attached to the County Health Center but without adequate manpower, facilities, and guidelines for integrating the work of both FP and MCH. 5) The local government still considers these MCH centers only as delivery centers to take care only of those visiting maternity cases. The MCH center should be a center for the managment of all pregnancies occurring in the community and the promotion of FP with a systematic and effective linkage of resources available in the county such as i.e. Village Health Worker, Community Health Practitioner, Health Sub-center Physicians & Health workers, Doctors and Midwives in MCH center, OBGY Specialists in clinics & hospitals as practiced by the Seosan project at primary health care level.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.439-446
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• 2009

Nitrogen balance in the regional scale which was calculated the difference between nitrogen input and output was estimated to assess the impact of rice cultivation on water environment. Nitrogen balances in Gyeonggi province, where nitrogen concentration in irrigation water was high and in Chungnam province, where nitrogen absorbtion by rice was high, were -5.4 and -8.3 kg $-8.3kg\;ha^{-1}\;yr^{-1}$, respectively. Nitrogen balances of paddy field in Gangwon province, where nitrogen output was small and irrigation water was clean, and in Gyeongnam province, where organic matter content of soil was high and rice yield was low, were 4.9 and $14.0kg\;ha^{-1}\;yr^{-1}$, respectively. Average nitrogen balance and total nitrogen absorption of paddy field in Korea were estimated to $-0.3kg\;ha^{-1}\;yr^{-1}$ and $-3,315Mg\;yr^{-1}$, respectively. When the nitrogen concentration in irrigation water was increased by $1mg \;L^{-1}$, nitrogen balance of rice paddy changed by $-2.91kg\;ha^{-1}\;yr^{-1}$. Also, when nitrogen fertilizer applied was decreased from 110 to $90kg\;ha^{-1}$ and the same harvest was maintained, the nitrogen absorption by rice paddy from irrigation water was estimated to increase by 10,600 Mg per year in Korea. However, in cases, the harvest was reduced to either 90% or 85%, nitrogen balances were changed from -11.7 to -2.3 and $2.4kg\;ha^{-1}$, respectively. These results suggest that the reduction of nitrogen fertilizer use may not always lead to a negative nitrogen balance and sustainable agriculture can achieve by not cutting down the use of fertilizer only but by reduction of fertilizer application concurrently by maintenance of harvest and by utilization of environmental characteristics such as nutrient contents in irrigation water and soils.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.1-10
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to categorize the gap between coffee shop 'importance' (as perceived by customers before patronizing the coffee shop) and 'satisfaction' (perception of customers after patronizing the coffee shop) as positive or negative and to analyze the effect of these gaps on purchasing behavior. To do this, I used the gap between importance and satisfaction regarding the choice of a coffee shop as the explanatory variable and performed an empirical analysis of the direction and size of the effect of the gap on purchasing behavior (overall satisfaction, willingness-to-revisit) by applying the Ordered Probit Model (OPM). A previous study that used IPA to evaluate the effects of gaps estimated the direction and size of a quadrant but failed to analyze the effect of gaps on customers. In this study, I evaluated the effects of positive and negative gaps on customer satisfaction and willingness-to-revisit. Using OPM, I quantified the effect of positive and negative gaps on overall customer satisfaction and willingness-to-revisit. Per-head expenditure, frequency of visits, and coffee-purchasing place had the most positive effects on overall customer satisfaction. Frequency of visits, followed by per-head expenditure and then coffee-purchasing place, had the most positive impact on willingness-to-visit. Thus per-head expenditure and frequency of visits had the greatest positive effects on overall satisfaction and willingness-to-revisit. This finding implies that the higher the actual satisfaction (gap) of customers who spend KRW5,000 or more once or more per week at coffee shops is, the higher their overall satisfaction and willingness-to-revisit are. Despite the fact that economical efficiency had a significant effect on overall satisfaction and willingness-to-revisit, college and university students still use coffee shops and are willing to spend KRW5,000 because they do not only purchase coffee as a product itself, but use the coffee shop for other activities, such as working, meeting friends, or relaxing. College and university students also access the Internet in coffee shops via personal laptops, watch movies, and study; thus, coffee shops should provide their customers with the appropriate facilities and services. The fact that a positive gap for coffee shop brand had a positive effect on willingness-to-revisit implies that the higher the level of customer satisfaction, the greater the willingness-to-revisit. A negative gap for this factor, on the other hand, implies that the lower the level of customer satisfaction, the lower the willingness-to-revisit. Thus, the brand factor has a comparatively greater effect on satisfaction than the other factors evaluated in this study. Given that the domestic coffee culture is becoming more upscale and college/university students are sensitive to this trend, students are attentive to brands. In most upscale coffee shops in Korea, the outer wall is built out of glass that can be opened, the interiors are exotic with an open kitchen. These upscale coffee shops function as landmarks and match the taste of college/university students. Coffee shops in Korea have become a cultural brand. To make customers feel that coffee shops are upscale, good quality establishments and measures to provide better services in terms of brand factor should be instituted. The intensified competition among coffee shop brands in Korea as a result of the booming industry indicates that provision of additional services is needed to differentiate competitors. These customers can also use a scanner free of charge. Another strategy that can be used to boost brands could be to provide and operate a seminar room for seminars and group study. If coffee shops adopt these types of strategies, college/university students would be more likely to consider the expenses they incur worthwhile and, subsequently, they would be more likely to be satisfied with the brands of these coffee shops, with an associated increase in their willingness-to-revisit. Gender and study year had the most negative effects on overall satisfaction and willingness-to-revisit. Female students were more likely to be satisfied and be willing to return than male students, and third and fourth-year students were more likely to be satisfied and willing-to-return than first or second-year students. Students who drink coffee, read books, and use laptops alone at coffee shops are easily noticeable. High-grade students tend to visit coffee shops alone in order to use their time efficiently for self-development and to find jobs. The economical efficiency factor had the greatest effect on overall satisfaction and willingness-to-revisit in terms of a positive gap. The higher the actual satisfaction (gap) of students with the price of the coffee, the greater their overall satisfaction and willingness-to-revisit. Economical efficiency with a negative gap had a negative effect on willingness-to-revisit, which implies that a less negative gap will result in a greater willingness-to-revisit. Amid worsening market conditions, coffee shops located around colleges/universities are using strategies, such as a point or membership card, strategic alliances with credit-card companies, development of a set menu or seasonal menu, and free coffee-shot services to increase their competitive edge. Product power also had a negative effect in terms of a negative gap, which indicates that a higher negative gap will result in a lower willingness-to-revisit. Because there are many more customers that enjoy coffee in this decade, as compared to previous decades, the new generation of customers, namely college/university students, want various menu items in addition to coffee, and coffee shops should, therefore, add side menu items, such as waffles, rice cakes, cakes, sandwiches, and salads. For example, Starbucks Korea is making efforts to enhance product power by selling rice cakes flavored in strawberry, wormwood, and pumpkin, and providing coffee or cream free of charge. In summary, coffee shops should focus on increasing their economical efficiency, brand, and product power to enhance the satisfaction of college/university students. Because shops adjacent to colleges or universities enjoy a locational advantage, providing differentiated services in terms of economical efficiency, brand, and product power, is likely to increase customer satisfaction and return visits. Coffee shop brands should, therefore, be innovative and embrace change to meet their customers' desires. Because this study only targeted college/university students in Seoul, comparative studies targeting diverse regions and age groups are required to generalize the findings and recommendations of this study.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.24-31
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• 2009

Firms produce various products that differ by function, design, color, etc. Product proliferation occurs for three different reasons. When there exist economies of scope, the unit cost for a product is lower when it is produced in conjunction with another product than when it is produced separately. Second, consumers are heterogeneous in the sense that they have different tastes, preferences, or price elasticities. A firm can earn more profit by segmenting consumers into different groups with similar characteristics. For example, product proliferation helps a firm increase profits by satisfying various consumer needs more precisely. The third reason for product proliferation is based on strategy. Producing a number of products can not only deter entry by providing few niches, but can also cause a firm to react efficiently to a low-price entry. By producing various products, a firm can reduce niches so that potential entrants have less incentive to enter. Moreover, a firm can produce new products in response to entry, which is called fighting brands. That is, when an entrant tries to attract consumers with a low price, an incumbent introduces a new lower-quality product while maintaining the price of the existing product. The drawback of product proliferation, however, is cannibalization. Some consumers who would have bought a high-price product switch to a low-price product. Moreover, it is possible that proliferation can decrease profits when a new product is less differentiated from a rival’s than is the existing product because of more severe competition. Many studies have analyzed the effect of product line rivalry in the areas of economics and marketing. They show how a monopolist can solve the problem of cannibalization by adjusting quality in a market where consumers differ in their preferences for quality. They find that a consumer who prefers high-quality products will obtain his or her most preferred quality, but a consumer who has not such preference will obtain less than his or her preferred quality to reduce cannibalization. This study analyzed the effects of product line rivalry in a duopoly market with two types of consumers differentiated by quality preference. I assume that the two firms are asymmetric in the sense that an incumbent can produce both high- and low-quality products, while an entrant can produce only a low-quality product. The effects of product proliferation can be explained by comparing the market outcomes when an incumbent produces both products to those when it produces only one product. Compared to the case in which an incumbent produces only a high-quality product, the price of a low-quality product tends to decrease in a consumer segment that prefers low-quality products because of more severe competition. Prices, however, tend to increase in a segment with high preferences because of less severe competition. It is known that when firms compete over prices, it is optimal for a firm to increase its price when its rival increases its price, which is called a strategic complement. Since prices are strategic complements, we have two opposing effects. It turns out that the price of a high-quality product increases because the positive effect of reduced competition outweighs the negative effect of strategic complements. This implies that an incumbent needs to increase the price of a high-quality product when it is also introducing a low-quality product. However, the change in price of the entrant’s low-quality product is ambiguous. Second, compared to the case in which an incumbent produces only a low-quality product, prices tend to increase in a consumer segment with low preferences but decrease in a segment with high preferences. The prices of low-quality products decrease because the negative effect outweighs the positive effect. Moreover, when an incumbent produces both kinds of product, the price of an incumbent‘s low-quality product is higher, even though the quality of both firms’ low-quality products is the same. The reason for this is that the incumbent has less incentive to reduce the price of a low-quality product because of the negative impact on the price of its high-quality product. In fact, the effects of product line rivalry on profits depend not only on changes in price, but also on sales and cannibalization. If the difference in marginal cost is moderate compared to the difference in product quality, the positive effect of product proliferation outweighs the negative effect, thereby increasing the profit. Furthermore, if the cost difference is very large (small), an incumbent is better off producing only a low (high) quality product. Moreover, this study also analyzed the effect of product line rivalry when a firm can determine product characteristics by focusing on the issue of fighting brands. Recently, Korean air and Asiana airlines have established budget airlines called Jin air and Air Busan, respectively, to confront the launching of budget airlines such as Hansung airline and Jeju air, among others. In addition, as more online bookstores have entered the market, a leading off-line bookstore Kyobo began its own online bookstore. Through fighting brands, an incumbent with a high-quality product can increase profits by producing an additional low-quality product when its low-quality product is more differentiated from that of the entrant than is its high-quality product.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.45-69
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• 2016

Recently, sentiment analysis using open Internet data is actively performed for various purposes. As online Internet communication channels become popular, companies try to capture public sentiment of them from online open information sources. This research is conducted for the purpose of analyzing pulbic sentiment of Korean Top-10 companies using a multi-categorical sentiment lexicon. Whereas existing researches related to public sentiment measurement based on big data approach classify sentiment into dimensions, this research classifies public sentiment into multiple categories. Dimensional sentiment structure has been commonly applied in sentiment analysis of various applications, because it is academically proven, and has a clear advantage of capturing degree of sentiment and interrelation of each dimension. However, the dimensional structure is not effective when measuring public sentiment because human sentiment is too complex to be divided into few dimensions. In addition, special training is needed for ordinary people to express their feeling into dimensional structure. People do not divide their sentiment into dimensions, nor do they need psychological training when they feel. People would not express their feeling in the way of dimensional structure like positive/negative or active/passive; rather they express theirs in the way of categorical sentiment like sadness, rage, happiness and so on. That is, categorial approach of sentiment analysis is more natural than dimensional approach. Accordingly, this research suggests multi-categorical sentiment structure as an alternative way to measure social sentiment from the point of the public. Multi-categorical sentiment structure classifies sentiments following the way that ordinary people do although there are possibility to contain some subjectiveness. In this research, nine categories: 'Sadness', 'Anger', 'Happiness', 'Disgust', 'Surprise', 'Fear', 'Interest', 'Boredom' and 'Pain' are used as multi-categorical sentiment structure. To capture public sentiment of Korean Top-10 companies, Internet news data of the companies are collected over the past 25 months from a representative Korean portal site. Based on the sentiment words extracted from previous researches, we have created a sentiment lexicon, and analyzed the frequency of the words coming up within the news data. The frequency of each sentiment category was calculated as a ratio out of the total sentiment words to make ranks of distributions. Sentiment comparison among top-4 companies, which are 'Samsung', 'Hyundai', 'SK', and 'LG', were separately visualized. As a next step, the research tested hypothesis to prove the usefulness of the multi-categorical sentiment lexicon. It tested how effective categorial sentiment can be used as relative comparison index in cross sectional and time series analysis. To test the effectiveness of the sentiment lexicon as cross sectional comparison index, pair-wise t-test and Duncan test were conducted. Two pairs of companies, 'Samsung' and 'Hanjin', 'SK' and 'Hanjin' were chosen to compare whether each categorical sentiment is significantly different in pair-wise t-test. Since category 'Sadness' has the largest vocabularies, it is chosen to figure out whether the subgroups of the companies are significantly different in Duncan test. It is proved that five sentiment categories of Samsung and Hanjin and four sentiment categories of SK and Hanjin are different significantly. In category 'Sadness', it has been figured out that there were six subgroups that are significantly different. To test the effectiveness of the sentiment lexicon as time series comparison index, 'nut rage' incident of Hanjin is selected as an example case. Term frequency of sentiment words of the month when the incident happened and term frequency of the one month before the event are compared. Sentiment categories was redivided into positive/negative sentiment, and it is tried to figure out whether the event actually has some negative impact on public sentiment of the company. The difference in each category was visualized, moreover the variation of word list of sentiment 'Rage' was shown to be more concrete. As a result, there was huge before-and-after difference of sentiment that ordinary people feel to the company. Both hypotheses have turned out to be statistically significant, and therefore sentiment analysis in business area using multi-categorical sentiment lexicons has persuasive power. This research implies that categorical sentiment analysis can be used as an alternative method to supplement dimensional sentiment analysis when figuring out public sentiment in business environment.

• Korean Journal of Animal Reproduction
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.275-289
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• 2002

The objective of this study was to develop an in vitro assessment of sperm fertilizing capacity of bulls and investigate the factors influencing sperm function and characteristics of frozen-thawed bovine spermatozoa. in vitro fertilization (IVF), the evaluation of motility and normal morphology, HOST (hypoosmotic swelling test), Ca-ionophore induced acrosome reaction, luminol and lucigenin-dependent chemiluminescence for the measurement of reactive oxygen species (ROS), the measurement of malondialdehyde formation for the analysis of lipid peroxidation (LPO), and the evaluation of DNA fragmentation using the method of 747-mediated nick end labelling (TUNEL) by flow cytometry were performed in frozen-thawed bovine spermatozoa. Correlations between the rates of fertilization, blastocyst formation after IVF and the values of respective assays were investigated. 1. IVF rate and blastocyst formation rate averaged 64.4% and 34.3% for spermatozoa from high -fertility bull group and averaged 18.5% and 6.2% for spermatozoa from low-fertility bull group, respectively. There were significantly different between two bull groups. Sperm motility and percentage acrosome reaction averaged 79.0% and 66.2% for spermatozoa from high-fertility bull group and averaged 40.7% and 22.9% for spermatozoa from low-fertility bull group, respectivitely. There were not different between two bull groups. 2. Luminol depenent chemiluminescence, LPO and DNA fragementation averaged 6.4, 2.0 nmol and 2.6% from spermatozoa from high-fertility bull group and averaged 6.5, 3.1 nmol and 7.4% for spermatozoa from low-fertility bull group, respectively. There were significantly different between two bull groups. There was no significant difference in lucigenin dependent chemiluminescence between two bull groups. 3. Fertilization rate was positively correlated with motility and the rate of Ca-ionophore induced acrosome reaction, but negatively correlated with the frequency of luminol-dependent chemiluminescence, the rate of LPO, and the percentage of sperm with DNA fragmentation. There was no correlation between fertilization rate and the percentage of swollen spermatozoa, normal morphology, and the frequency of lucigenin-dependent chemiluminescence. 4. Blastocyst formation rate was positively correlated with the rate of Ca-ionophore induced acrosome reaction, but negatively correlated with the frequency of luminol-dependent chemiluminescence, the rate of LPO, and the percentage of sperm with DNA fragmentation. There was no correlation between blastocyst formation rate and motility, the percentage of swollen spermatozoa, normal morphology, and the frequency of lucigenin-dependent chemiluminescence. In conclusion, these data suggest that ROS significantly impact semen quality. The assays of this study may provide a basis fur improving in vitro assessment of sperm fertilizing capacity.