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Characteristics and Implications of Sports Content Business of Big Tech Platform Companies : Focusing on Amazon.com (빅테크 플랫폼 기업의 스포츠콘텐츠 사업의 특징과 시사점 : 아마존을 중심으로)

  • Shin, Jae-hyoo
    • Journal of Venture Innovation
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    • v.7 no.1
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    • pp.1-15
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    • 2024
  • This study aims to elucidate the characteristics of big tech platform companies' sports content business in an environment of rapid digital transformation. Specifically, this study examines the market structure of big tech platform companies with a focus on Amazon, revealing the role of sports content within this structure through an analysis of Amazon's sports marketing business and provides an outlook on the sports content business of big tech platform companies. Based on two-sided market platform business models, big tech platform companies incorporate sports content as a strategy to enhance the value of their platforms. Therefore, sports content is used as a tool to enhance the value of their platforms and to consolidate their monopoly position by maximizing profits by increasing the synergy of platform ecosystems such as infrastructure. Amazon acquires popular live sports broadcasting rights on a continental or national basis and supplies them to its platforms, which not only increases the number of new customers and purchasing effects, but also provides IT solution services to sports organizations and teams while planning and supplying various promotional contents, thus creates synergy across Amazon's platforms including its advertising business. Amazon also expands its business opportunities and increases its overall value by supplying live sports contents to Amazon Prime Video and Amazon Prime, providing technical services to various stakeholders through Amazon Web Services, and offering Amazon Marketing Cloud services for analyzing and predicting advertisers' advertising and marketing performance. This gives rise to a new paradigm in the sports marketing business in the digital era, stemming from the difference in market structure between big tech companies based on two-sided market platforms and legacy global companies based on one-sided markets. The core of this new model is a business through the development of various contents based on live sports streaming rights, and sports content marketing will become a major field of sports marketing along with traditional broadcasting rights and sponsorship. Big tech platform global companies such as Amazon, Apple, and Google have the potential to become new global sports marketing companies, and the current sports marketing and advertising companies, as well as teams and leagues, are facing both crises and opportunities.

<Field Action Report> Local Governance for COVID-19 Response of Daegu Metropolitan City (<사례보고> 코로나바이러스감염증-19 유행과 로컬 거버넌스 - 2020년 대구광역시 유행에 대한 대응을 중심으로 -)

  • Kyeong-Soo Lee;Jung Jeung Lee;Keon-Yeop Kim;Jong-Yeon Kim;Tae-Yoon Hwang;Nam-Soo Hong;Jun Hyun Hwang;Jaeyoung Ha
    • Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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    • v.49 no.1
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    • pp.13-36
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    • 2024
  • Objectives: The purpose of this field case report is 1) to analyze the community's strategy and performance in responding to infectious diseases through the case of COVID-19 infectious disease crisis response of Daegu Metropolitan City, and 2) to interpret this case using governance theory and infectious disease response governance framework. and 3) to propose a strategic model to prepare for future infectious disease outbreaks of the community. Methods: Cases of Daegu Metropolitan City's infectious disease crisis response were analyzed through researchers' participatory observations. And review of OVID-19 White Paper of Daegu Metropolitan City, Daegu Medical Association's COVID-19 White Paper, and literature review of domestic and international governance, and administrative documents. Results: Through the researcher's participatory observation and literature review, 1) establishment of leadership and response system to respond to the infectious disease crisis in Daegu Metropolitan City, 2) citizen's participation and communication strategy through the pan-citizen response committee, 3) cooperation between Daegu Metropolitan City and governance of public-private medical facilities, 4) decision-making and crisis response through participation and communication between the Daegu Metropolitan City Medical Association, Medi-City Daegu Council, and medical experts of private sector, 5) symptom monitoring and patient triage strategies and treatment response for confirmed infectious disease patients by member of Daegu Medical Association, 6) strategies and implications for establishing and utilizing a local infectious disease crisis response information system were derived. Conclusions: The results of the study empirically demonstrate that collaborative governance of the community through the participation of citizens, private sector experts, and community medical facilities is a key element for effective response to infectious disease crises.

The Effect of Information Quality and System Quality on Knowledge Service Competence: Focusing on Knowledge Service Types (지식서비스의 정보품질과 시스템품질이 지식서비스 역량에 미치는 영향: 지식서비스 유형을 중심으로)

  • Geun-Wan Park;Hyun-Ji Park;Sung-Hoon Mo;Cheol-Hyun Lim;Hee-Seok Choi;Seok-Hyoung Lee;Hye-Jin Lee;Seung-June Hwang;Chang-Hee Han
    • Information Systems Review
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    • v.21 no.4
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    • pp.1-29
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    • 2019
  • The knowledge resources take a role in promoting the sustainable growth of organization. Therefore, it is important for the members of organization to acquire knowledge consistently so that the company can continue to grow. Knowledge service is the field that provides information and infrastructure which enable the members of organization to acquire new knowledge. As we recognized the importance of knowledge services, we analyzed the level of knowledge service management and development through the impact of knowledge quality on user capabilities. First, the matrix of knowledge patterns was presented based on the type of information and the level of customer interaction. According to patterns, the knowledge service was classified into three types of information providing, information analysis, and infrastructure, and then the results of structural model analysis were presented for each type. It found that the impact of knowledge service quality on user competence was different according to the type of service. The results suggested new indicators for measuring the performance of knowledge services, and provided information for reconstructing services based on the user considering the integrated operation of knowledge service and organizational designing knowledge service.

Relationship between job satisfaction of dental hygienists and patient safety cultural activities (치과위생사의 직무만족도와 환자안전문화 활동의 관련성)

  • Bo Young Park;Chae-Rin Kang;Yu-gyeong Byun;Eun-Seo Seong;Soo-Young Lee;Ji-Eun Lee;Yu-Jin Ham;Mi Sook Yoon
    • Journal of Korean Dental Hygiene Science
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    • v.6 no.2
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    • pp.115-127
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    • 2023
  • Background: This study was conducted to determine the level of job satisfaction and patient safety cultural activities for dental hygienists and to determine the relationship between job satisfaction and patient safety cultural activities. Methods: A survey was conducted on 214 dental hygienists, and data from the final 180 were analyzed. Job satisfaction consisted of a total of 20 questions, and patient safety cultural activities included a total of 25 questions. The survey was conducted on a 5-point scale. Results: The average job satisfaction score of the study subjects was 3.44 points. Among patient safety cultural activities, infection control had the highest average score (4.12 points) and radiation safety management had the lowest average score (3.10 points). Patients with less than 3 years of clinical experience (4.01 points) had higher patient safety culture activity scores than those with 3 to 10 years of clinical experience (3.72 points) and those with more than 10 years of clinical experience (3.69 points). The level of patient safety cultural activities was statistically significantly higher as age, less clinical experience, and job satisfaction increased (p<0.05). Conclusion: In the case of dental hygienists, patient safety cultural activities must be carried out throughout the entire work, so an active will to practice patient safety cultural activities is necessary. In order to improve the performance of patient safety cultural activities, it is necessary to adjust the workload of dental hygienists to improve job satisfaction and create a work environment in which they can focus on patient safety cultural activities.

FAMILY DYNAMICS OF INCEST PERCEIVED BY ADOLESECENTS (청소년이 지각한 근친상간의 가족역동)

  • Kim, Hun-Soo;Shin, Hwa-Sik
    • Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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    • v.6 no.1
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    • pp.56-64
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    • 1995
  • Family is a primary unit of the major socialization processing for children. Parents among the family members are one of the most important figures from whom the child and adolescent acquire a wide variety of behavior patterns, attitudes, values and norms. An organization of family members product family structural functioning. Abnormal family structure is one of the most important reference models in the learning of antisocial patterns of behavior. Therefore incest and child sexual abuse including spouse abuse, elderly abuse, and neglect occurs in the abnormal family structural setting. In particular, incest, a specific form of sexual abuse, was once thought to be a phenomenon of great rarity, but our clinical experiences, especially over the past decade, have made us aware that incest and child sexual abuse is not rare case and on the increasing trend. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the family problem and dynamics of incest family, and character pattern of post-incest adolescent victim in Korea. A total of 1,838 adolescents from middle and high school(1,237) and juvenile correctional institute(601) were studied, sampled from Korean student population and adolescent delinquent population confined in juvenile correctional institutes, using proportional stratified random sampling method. The subjects' ages ranged from 12 to 21 years. Data were collected through questionnaire survey. Data analysis was done by IBM PC of Behavior Science Center at the Korea university, using SAS program. Statistical methods employed were Chi-square, principal component analysis and t-test etc. The results of this study were as follows ; 1) Of 1,071 subjects, 40(3.7%) reported incest experiences(sibling incest : 1.6% ; another type of incest : 2.1%) in their family setting. 2) The character pattern of post-incest adolescent victim was more socially maladjusted, immature, impulsive, rigid, anxious and dependent than non-incest adolescent. Also they showed some problem in academic performance and their assertiveness. 3) The other family members of incest family revealed more psychological and behavioral problem such as depression, alcoholism, psychotic disorder and criminal act than the non-incest family, even though there is no evidence of the context between them. 4) The family dynamics of incest family tended to be dysfunctional trend, as compared with non-incest family. It showed that the psychological instability of family member, parental rejection toward their children, coldness and indifference among family member and marital discordance between the parents had significant correlation with incest.

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Review of Sexual Dysfunction in Male Schizophrenics (남자 정신분열병 환자에서 성기능장애에 대한 검토)

  • Choi, Yeong Tae;Cheon, Jin Sook;Oh, Byoung Hoon
    • Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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    • v.7 no.1
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    • pp.85-98
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    • 2000
  • Objective : There are four possible explanations for the sexual dysfunction of schizophrenics. The first is the possibility of a real structural aspect. The second possibility is that sexual function changes secondary to the illness. The third possibility is that there are medical and sociocultural barriers to sexual expression for chronic schizophrenics. The fourth possibility is that sexual dysfunction due to antipsychotic medication. However, we didn't know the precise cause of sexual dysfunction in schizophrenics. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the mechanism of illness itself and antipsychotics on sexual dysfunction in male schizophrenics. Methods : The serum prolactin(PRL), testosterone(TST), and the plasma serotonin(5-HT) concentrations were measured by radioimmunoassay and high performance liquid chromatography method for 100 healthy male schizophrenics according to the DSM-IV. Concomitantly, the severity of psychotic symptoms using Clinical Global Impression(CGI), Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale(BPRS), Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale(PANSS), and the severity of side effects for antipsychotics using Extrapyramidal Side Effects Scale(EPSE), Anticholinergic Side Effects Scale(ACSE), the cognitive function using PANSS-Cognitive Function(PANSS-CF), Mini Mental State Exam-Korean(MMSE-K), and the sexual dysfunction using Sexual Functioning Questionnaire(SFQ), Questionnaire for Sexual Dysfunction in Men were assessed. The PRL, TST, and 5-HT levels of 50 healthy male controls who had no medical, neurological, and psychiatric illnesses were evaluated. The sexual function using SFQ(items FGa, FNa) were also assessed. Furthermore, the correlation with age, education, religion, economic status, age at onset, duration of illnesses, duration of admission, levels of PRL, TST, 5-HT, antipsychotic dosages, potency, benztropine, total duration of medication, EPSE, ACSE, CGI, BPRS, PANSS, PANSS-CF, MMSE-K and sexual dysfunctions were identified in male schizophrenics. Results : 1) The frequencies of sexual dysfunctions for schizophrenics(80%) were significantly(p<0.001) higher than those for controls(42%). The sexual dysfunctions according to sexual response cycle were 'low sexual desire' 76%, 'impairment of achieving erection' 75%, 'impairment of maintaining erection' 75%, 'impairment of obtaining orgasm' 32%, 'impairment in the quality of orgasm' 61%, 'impairment in quantity of ejaculate' 44%, 'premature ejaculation' 15%, and 'delayed ejaculation' 50%. 2) The PRL, 5-HT levels of schizophrenics($28.5{\pm}20.6ng/ml$, $298.5{\pm}89.1ng/ml$) were significantly(p<0.001) higher than those of controls($10{\pm}5.6ng/ml$, $169.2{\pm}37.8ng/ml$), while the TST levels of schizophrenics($4.3{\pm}1.5ng/ml$) and controls($4.5{\pm}1.2ng/ml$) were not significantly different. The sexual dysfunctions of schizophrenics who had abnormal 5-HT levels($4.7{\pm}1.3$ scores) were significantly(p<0.05) higher than those of who had normal 5-HT levels($3.8{\pm}1.6$ scores) on item D7. 3) The sexual dysfunctions of unmarried schizophrenics were significantly(p<0.01 : p<0.05) higher than those of married schizophrenics($6.1{\pm}2.8$ scores, $4.7{\pm}1.3$ scores on item FGa : ${\beta}$=-0.211 on item FNa). The sexual dysfunctions were positively correlated with the rise of 5-HT levels(r=0.209, p<0.05 on item D4 and r=0.241, p<0.05 on item D7), the higher age at onset(r=0.275, p<0.01 on item FNa : r=-0.202, p<0.05 on item FDa), the longer duration of illnesses(r=0.237, p<0.05 on item D6), the longer duration of admission(r=0.234, p<0.05 on item D4 : r=0.328, p<0.05 on item D6), the longer total duration of medication(r=0.237, p<0.05 on item D6). However, age, education, religion, economic status, PRL, TST levels, antipsychotics dosage, potency, benztropine, ACSE, CGI, BPRS, PANSS, PANSS-CF, MMSE-K scores were not correlated with increased sexual dysfunctions. Conclusions : Male schizophrenics have significantly more sexual dysfunction to compare with controls. The higher frequencies of sexual dysfunctions were low sexual desire and erectile disorder. The unmarried, higher age at onset, and longer duration of diseases were positively correlated with increased sexual dysfunctions. Also high 5-HT levels were positively correlated with increased sexual dysfunctions. This means that studies of plasma 5-HT levels, albeit questionable indicators of central 5-HT function, offer some additional support for the association of sexual dysfunction with excess 5-HT activity as primary pathology of schizophrenia. Our findings suggest that excess 5-HT activity seems to affect the patient's sexual function.

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A Study on Improvement on National Legislation for Sustainable Progress of Space Development Project (우주개발사업의 지속발전을 위한 국내입법의 개선방향에 관한 연구)

  • Lee, Kang-Bin
    • The Korean Journal of Air & Space Law and Policy
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    • v.25 no.1
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    • pp.97-158
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    • 2010
  • The purpose of this paper is to research on the contents and improvement of national legislations relating to space development in Korea to make the sustainable progress of space development project in Korea. Korea has launched its first satellite KITST-1 in 1992. The National Space Committee has established "The Space Development Promotion Basic Plan" in 2007. The plan addressed the development of total 13 satellites by 2010 and the space launch vehicle by 2020, and the launch of moon exploration spaceship by 2021. Korea has built the space center at Oinarodo, Goheng Province in June 2009. In Korea the first small launch vehicle KSLV-1 was launched at the Naro Space Center in August 2009, and its second launch was made in June 2010. The United Nations has adopted five treaties relating to the development of outer space as follows : The Outer Space Treaty of 1967, the Rescue and Return Agreement of 1968, the Liability Convention of 1972, the Registration Convention of 1974, and the Moon Treaty of 1979. All five treaties has come into force. Korea has ratified the Outer Space Treaty, the Rescue and Return Agreement, the Liability Convention and the Registration Convention excepting the Moon Treaty. Most of development countries have enacted the national legislation relating to the development of our space as follows : The National Aeronautic and Space Act of 1958 and the Commercial Space Act of 1998 in the United States, Outer Space Act of 1986 in England, Establishment Act of National Space Center of 1961 in France, Canadian Space Agency Act of 1990 in Canada, Space Basic Act of 2008 in Japan, and Law on Space Activity of 1993 in Russia. There are currently three national legislations relating to space development in Korea as follows : Aerospace Industry Development Promotion Act of 1987, Outer Space Development Promotion Act of 2005, Outer Space Damage Compensation Act of 2008. The Ministry of Knowledge Economy of Korea has announced the Full Amendment Draft of Aerospace Industry Development Promotion Act in December 2009, and it's main contents are as follows : (1) Changing the title of Act into Aerospace Industry Promotion Act, (2) Newly regulating the definition of air flight test place, etc., (3) Establishment of aerospace industry basic plan, establishment of aerospace industry committee, (4) Project for promoting aerospace industry, (5) Exploration development, international joint development, (6) Cooperative research development, (7) Mutual benefit project, (8) Project for furthering basis of aerospace industry, (9) Activating cluster of aerospace industry, (10) Designation of air flight test place, etc., (11) Abolishing the designation and assistance of specific enterprise, (12) Abolishing the inspection of performance and quality. The Outer Space Development Promotion Act should be revised with regard to the following matters : (1) Overlapping problem in legal system between the Outer Space Development Promotion Act and the Aerospace industry Development promotion Act, (2) Distribution and adjustment problem of the national research development budget for space development between National Space Committee and National Science Technology Committee, (3) Consideration and preservation of environment in space development, (4) Taking the legal action and maintaining the legal system for policy and regulation relating to space development. The Outer Space Damage Compensation Act should be revised with regard to the following matters : (1) Definition of space damage and indirect damage, (2) Currency unit of limit of compensation liability, (3) Joint liability and compensation claim right of launching person of space object, (4) Establishment of Space Damage Compensation Council. In Korea, it will be possible to make a space tourism in 2013, and it is planned to introduce and operate a manned spaceship in 2013. Therefore, it is necessary to develop the policy relating to the promotion of commercial space transportation industry. Also it is necessary to make the proper maintenance of the current Aviation Law and space development-related laws and regulations for the promotion of space transportation industry in Korea.

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Intelligent Brand Positioning Visualization System Based on Web Search Traffic Information : Focusing on Tablet PC (웹검색 트래픽 정보를 활용한 지능형 브랜드 포지셔닝 시스템 : 태블릿 PC 사례를 중심으로)

  • Jun, Seung-Pyo;Park, Do-Hyung
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.19 no.3
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    • pp.93-111
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    • 2013
  • As Internet and information technology (IT) continues to develop and evolve, the issue of big data has emerged at the foreground of scholarly and industrial attention. Big data is generally defined as data that exceed the range that can be collected, stored, managed and analyzed by existing conventional information systems and it also refers to the new technologies designed to effectively extract values from such data. With the widespread dissemination of IT systems, continual efforts have been made in various fields of industry such as R&D, manufacturing, and finance to collect and analyze immense quantities of data in order to extract meaningful information and to use this information to solve various problems. Since IT has converged with various industries in many aspects, digital data are now being generated at a remarkably accelerating rate while developments in state-of-the-art technology have led to continual enhancements in system performance. The types of big data that are currently receiving the most attention include information available within companies, such as information on consumer characteristics, information on purchase records, logistics information and log information indicating the usage of products and services by consumers, as well as information accumulated outside companies, such as information on the web search traffic of online users, social network information, and patent information. Among these various types of big data, web searches performed by online users constitute one of the most effective and important sources of information for marketing purposes because consumers search for information on the internet in order to make efficient and rational choices. Recently, Google has provided public access to its information on the web search traffic of online users through a service named Google Trends. Research that uses this web search traffic information to analyze the information search behavior of online users is now receiving much attention in academia and in fields of industry. Studies using web search traffic information can be broadly classified into two fields. The first field consists of empirical demonstrations that show how web search information can be used to forecast social phenomena, the purchasing power of consumers, the outcomes of political elections, etc. The other field focuses on using web search traffic information to observe consumer behavior, identifying the attributes of a product that consumers regard as important or tracking changes on consumers' expectations, for example, but relatively less research has been completed in this field. In particular, to the extent of our knowledge, hardly any studies related to brands have yet attempted to use web search traffic information to analyze the factors that influence consumers' purchasing activities. This study aims to demonstrate that consumers' web search traffic information can be used to derive the relations among brands and the relations between an individual brand and product attributes. When consumers input their search words on the web, they may use a single keyword for the search, but they also often input multiple keywords to seek related information (this is referred to as simultaneous searching). A consumer performs a simultaneous search either to simultaneously compare two product brands to obtain information on their similarities and differences, or to acquire more in-depth information about a specific attribute in a specific brand. Web search traffic information shows that the quantity of simultaneous searches using certain keywords increases when the relation is closer in the consumer's mind and it will be possible to derive the relations between each of the keywords by collecting this relational data and subjecting it to network analysis. Accordingly, this study proposes a method of analyzing how brands are positioned by consumers and what relationships exist between product attributes and an individual brand, using simultaneous search traffic information. It also presents case studies demonstrating the actual application of this method, with a focus on tablets, belonging to innovative product groups.

Multi-Dimensional Analysis Method of Product Reviews for Market Insight (마켓 인사이트를 위한 상품 리뷰의 다차원 분석 방안)

  • Park, Jeong Hyun;Lee, Seo Ho;Lim, Gyu Jin;Yeo, Un Yeong;Kim, Jong Woo
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.26 no.2
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    • pp.57-78
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    • 2020
  • With the development of the Internet, consumers have had an opportunity to check product information easily through E-Commerce. Product reviews used in the process of purchasing goods are based on user experience, allowing consumers to engage as producers of information as well as refer to information. This can be a way to increase the efficiency of purchasing decisions from the perspective of consumers, and from the seller's point of view, it can help develop products and strengthen their competitiveness. However, it takes a lot of time and effort to understand the overall assessment and assessment dimensions of the products that I think are important in reading the vast amount of product reviews offered by E-Commerce for the products consumers want to compare. This is because product reviews are unstructured information and it is difficult to read sentiment of reviews and assessment dimension immediately. For example, consumers who want to purchase a laptop would like to check the assessment of comparative products at each dimension, such as performance, weight, delivery, speed, and design. Therefore, in this paper, we would like to propose a method to automatically generate multi-dimensional product assessment scores in product reviews that we would like to compare. The methods presented in this study consist largely of two phases. One is the pre-preparation phase and the second is the individual product scoring phase. In the pre-preparation phase, a dimensioned classification model and a sentiment analysis model are created based on a review of the large category product group review. By combining word embedding and association analysis, the dimensioned classification model complements the limitation that word embedding methods for finding relevance between dimensions and words in existing studies see only the distance of words in sentences. Sentiment analysis models generate CNN models by organizing learning data tagged with positives and negatives on a phrase unit for accurate polarity detection. Through this, the individual product scoring phase applies the models pre-prepared for the phrase unit review. Multi-dimensional assessment scores can be obtained by aggregating them by assessment dimension according to the proportion of reviews organized like this, which are grouped among those that are judged to describe a specific dimension for each phrase. In the experiment of this paper, approximately 260,000 reviews of the large category product group are collected to form a dimensioned classification model and a sentiment analysis model. In addition, reviews of the laptops of S and L companies selling at E-Commerce are collected and used as experimental data, respectively. The dimensioned classification model classified individual product reviews broken down into phrases into six assessment dimensions and combined the existing word embedding method with an association analysis indicating frequency between words and dimensions. As a result of combining word embedding and association analysis, the accuracy of the model increased by 13.7%. The sentiment analysis models could be seen to closely analyze the assessment when they were taught in a phrase unit rather than in sentences. As a result, it was confirmed that the accuracy was 29.4% higher than the sentence-based model. Through this study, both sellers and consumers can expect efficient decision making in purchasing and product development, given that they can make multi-dimensional comparisons of products. In addition, text reviews, which are unstructured data, were transformed into objective values such as frequency and morpheme, and they were analysed together using word embedding and association analysis to improve the objectivity aspects of more precise multi-dimensional analysis and research. This will be an attractive analysis model in terms of not only enabling more effective service deployment during the evolving E-Commerce market and fierce competition, but also satisfying both customers.

Predicting the Direction of the Stock Index by Using a Domain-Specific Sentiment Dictionary (주가지수 방향성 예측을 위한 주제지향 감성사전 구축 방안)

  • Yu, Eunji;Kim, Yoosin;Kim, Namgyu;Jeong, Seung Ryul
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.19 no.1
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    • pp.95-110
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    • 2013
  • Recently, the amount of unstructured data being generated through a variety of social media has been increasing rapidly, resulting in the increasing need to collect, store, search for, analyze, and visualize this data. This kind of data cannot be handled appropriately by using the traditional methodologies usually used for analyzing structured data because of its vast volume and unstructured nature. In this situation, many attempts are being made to analyze unstructured data such as text files and log files through various commercial or noncommercial analytical tools. Among the various contemporary issues dealt with in the literature of unstructured text data analysis, the concepts and techniques of opinion mining have been attracting much attention from pioneer researchers and business practitioners. Opinion mining or sentiment analysis refers to a series of processes that analyze participants' opinions, sentiments, evaluations, attitudes, and emotions about selected products, services, organizations, social issues, and so on. In other words, many attempts based on various opinion mining techniques are being made to resolve complicated issues that could not have otherwise been solved by existing traditional approaches. One of the most representative attempts using the opinion mining technique may be the recent research that proposed an intelligent model for predicting the direction of the stock index. This model works mainly on the basis of opinions extracted from an overwhelming number of economic news repots. News content published on various media is obviously a traditional example of unstructured text data. Every day, a large volume of new content is created, digitalized, and subsequently distributed to us via online or offline channels. Many studies have revealed that we make better decisions on political, economic, and social issues by analyzing news and other related information. In this sense, we expect to predict the fluctuation of stock markets partly by analyzing the relationship between economic news reports and the pattern of stock prices. So far, in the literature on opinion mining, most studies including ours have utilized a sentiment dictionary to elicit sentiment polarity or sentiment value from a large number of documents. A sentiment dictionary consists of pairs of selected words and their sentiment values. Sentiment classifiers refer to the dictionary to formulate the sentiment polarity of words, sentences in a document, and the whole document. However, most traditional approaches have common limitations in that they do not consider the flexibility of sentiment polarity, that is, the sentiment polarity or sentiment value of a word is fixed and cannot be changed in a traditional sentiment dictionary. In the real world, however, the sentiment polarity of a word can vary depending on the time, situation, and purpose of the analysis. It can also be contradictory in nature. The flexibility of sentiment polarity motivated us to conduct this study. In this paper, we have stated that sentiment polarity should be assigned, not merely on the basis of the inherent meaning of a word but on the basis of its ad hoc meaning within a particular context. To implement our idea, we presented an intelligent investment decision-support model based on opinion mining that performs the scrapping and parsing of massive volumes of economic news on the web, tags sentiment words, classifies sentiment polarity of the news, and finally predicts the direction of the next day's stock index. In addition, we applied a domain-specific sentiment dictionary instead of a general purpose one to classify each piece of news as either positive or negative. For the purpose of performance evaluation, we performed intensive experiments and investigated the prediction accuracy of our model. For the experiments to predict the direction of the stock index, we gathered and analyzed 1,072 articles about stock markets published by "M" and "E" media between July 2011 and September 2011.