• 한국추진공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국추진공학회 2003년도 제20회 춘계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.91-93
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• 2003

A comprehensive numerical study is carried out to investigate for the understanding of the flow evolution and flame development in a supersonic combustor with normal injection of ncumally injecting hydrogen in airsupersonic flows. The formulation treats the complete conservation equations of mass, momentum, energy, and species concentration for a multi-component chemically reacting system. For the numerical simulation of supersonic combustion, multi-species Navier-Stokes equations and detailed chemistry of H2-Air is considered. It also accommodates a finite-rate chemical kinetics mechanism of hydrogen-air combustion GRI-Mech. 2.11[1], which consists of nine species and twenty-five reaction steps. Turbulence closure is achieved by means of a k-two-equation model (2). The governing equations are spatially discretized using a finite-volume approach, and temporally integrated by means of a second-order accurate implicit scheme (3-5).The supersonic combustor consists of a flat channel of 10 cm height and a fuel-injection slit of 0.1 cm width located at 10 cm downstream of the inlet. A cavity of 5 cm height and 20 cm width is installed at 15 cm downstream of the injection slit. A total of 936160 grids are used for the main-combustor flow passage, and 159161 grids for the cavity. The grids are clustered in the flow direction near the fuel injector and cavity, as well as in the vertical direction near the bottom wall. The no-slip and adiabatic conditions are assumed throughout the entire wall boundary. As a specific example, the inflow Mach number is assumed to be 3, and the temperature and pressure are 600 K and 0.1 MPa, respectively. Gaseous hydrogen at a temperature of 151.5 K is injected normal to the wall from a choked injector.A series of calculations were carried out by varying the fuel injection pressure from 0.5 to 1.5MPa. This amounts to changing the fuel mass flow rate or the overall equivalence ratio for different operating regimes. Figure 1 shows the instantaneous temperature fields in the supersonic combustor at four different conditions. The dark blue region represents the hot burned gases. At the fuel injection pressure of 0.5 MPa, the flame is stably anchored, but the flow field exhibits a high-amplitude oscillation. At the fuel injection pressure of 1.0 MPa, the Mach reflection occurs ahead of the injector. The interaction between the incoming air and the injection flow becomes much more complex, and the fuel/air mixing is strongly enhanced. The Mach reflection oscillates and results in a strong fluctuation in the combustor wall pressure. At the fuel injection pressure of 1.5MPa, the flow inside the combustor becomes nearly choked and the Mach reflection is displaced forward. The leading shock wave moves slowly toward the inlet, and eventually causes the combustor-upstart due to the thermal choking. The cavity appears to play a secondary role in driving the flow unsteadiness, in spite of its influence on the fuel/air mixing and flame evolution. Further investigation is necessary on this issue. The present study features detailed resolution of the flow and flame dynamics in the combustor, which was not typically available in most of the previous works. In particular, the oscillatory flow characteristics are captured at a scale sufficient to identify the underlying physical mechanisms. Much of the flow unsteadiness is not related to the cavity, but rather to the intrinsic unsteadiness in the flowfield, as also shown experimentally by Ben-Yakar et al. [6], The interactions between the unsteady flow and flame evolution may cause a large excursion of flow oscillation. The work appears to be the first of its kind in the numerical study of combustion oscillations in a supersonic combustor, although a similar phenomenon was previously reported experimentally. A more comprehensive discussion will be given in the final paper presented at the colloquium.

• 지능정보연구
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• 제20권2호
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• pp.179-192
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• 2014

최근 IT 환경의 변화에 따라 웹 서비스를 기반으로 대규모 사용자 대상의 상호 참여적인 MOOC(Massive Open Online Courses)과 같은 온라인 교육 환경이 부상하고 있다. 그러나 온라인 교육 시스템은 원거리로 학습이 이루어짐에 따라 학습자의 자발적 동기를 꾸준히 유지하기 어려우며, 또한 학습자 간에 지식을 공유하고 공유한 지식을 활용하는 기능이 부족하다. 이러한 문제를 극복하기 위해 구성주의적 학습이론과 집단지성에 기반하여 학습자가 보유한 학습자료를 공유하고 개인화된 학습자료 추천을 받을 수 있는 학습자료 북마킹 서비스인 WeStudy를 구현하였다. 위키피디아(Wikipedia), 슬라이드쉐어 (SlideShare), 비디오렉쳐스 (VideoLectures) 등 현존하는 집단지성 기반 서비스들의 주요 기능으로부터 필요한 집단지성 기능들을 검토하였으며, 본 서비스의 주요 기능으로 1) 리스트 및 그래프 형태의 학습자료 리스트 시각화, 2) 개인화된 학습자료 추천, 3) 보다 상세한 학습자료 추천을 위한 관심 학습자 지정 등을 도출하여 시스템을 설계하였다. 이후, 웹 기반으로 구현된 세 가지 주요기능 별로 개량된 휴리스틱 사용성 평가 방법을 통해 개발된 시스템의 사용성 평가를 실시하였다. 10명의 HCI 분야 전공자 및 현업 종사자를 대상으로 정량적 및 정성적인 평가 결과, 세 가지의 주요 기능에서 전반적으로 사용성이 우수한 것으로 판정되었다. 주요 기능 별 정성적인 평가에서 도출된 여러 마이너 이슈들을 반영할 필요가 있으며, 향후 대규모 사용자를 대상으로 본 서비스를 보급하고 이용할 수 있도록 제공하여 자발적인 지식 공유 환경을 조성할 수 있을 것으로 전망된다.

• Journal of Korean Medical Science
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• 제33권49호
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• pp.323.1-323.12
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• 2018

Background: Vitamin K antagonist (VKA) to prevent thromboembolism in non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) patients has limitations such as drug interaction. This study investigated the clinical characteristics of Korean patients treated with VKA for stroke prevention and assessed quality of VKA therapy and treatment satisfaction. Methods: We conducted a multicenter, prospective, non-interventional study. Patients with $CHADS_2{\geq}1$ and treated with VKA (started within the last 3 months) were enrolled from April 2013 to March 2014. Demographic and clinical features including risk factors of stroke and VKA treatment information was collected at baseline. Treatment patterns and international normalized ratio (INR) level were evaluated during follow-up. Time in therapeutic range (TTR) > 60% indicated well-controlled INR. Treatment satisfaction on the VKA use was measured by Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire for Medication (TSQM) after 3 months of follow-up. Results: A total of 877 patients (age, 67; male, 60%) were enrolled and followed up for one year. More than half of patients (56%) had $CHADS_2{\geq}2$ and 83.6% had $CHA_2DS_2-VASc{\geq}2$. A total of 852 patients had one or more INR measurement during their follow-up period. Among those patients, 25.5% discontinued VKA treatment during follow-up. Of all patients, 626 patients (73%) had poor-controlled INR (TTR < 60%) measure. Patients' treatment satisfaction measured with TSQM was 55.6 in global satisfaction domain. Conclusion: INR was poorly controlled in Korean NVAF patients treated with VKA. VKA users also showed low treatment satisfaction.

• 대한원격탐사학회지
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• 제37권5_1호
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• pp.903-916
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• 2021

지형은 고도, 경사, 측면으로 설명되는 지표면의 물리적인 모양을 나타내는 것으로 지형적 조건에 따라 에너지의 이동이 결정된다. 이것은 태양 에너지를 얼마나 많이 받을지, 바람이나 비가 얼마나 많은 영향을 미칠지 등에 대한 중요한 결정 요인들로 지표면 상에 존재하는 모든 생물, 특히 산림 식생의 입지 환경에 큰 영향을 준다. 도서지역 산림과 같이 자연적으로 형성된 지형 인자가 산림 식생의 생태환경을 결정하는 요인이 될 때 보다 정확한 지형 인자들의 계산은 도서산림의 입지환경을 이해하는데 매우 중요하다. 최근에는 연구자, 학교, 산업 및 정부를 위해 수많은 무료오픈소스 소프트웨어 지리정보시스템 프로그램(Free Open Source Software Geographic Information Systems, FOSS GIS)들이 이러한 지형인자들을 보다 정확하게 계산하기 위해 다양한 알고리즘을 적용하고 있다. FOSS GIS 프로그램은 사용자 요구에 맞게 수정이 가능한 유연한 알고리즘을 제공한다. 이와 같은 수요에 맞춰 이 연구에서는 지형 분석이 특히 중요한 도서지역 산림을 대상으로 하여 FOSS GIS 프로그램들의 지형인자 계산 결과값을 비교해 보고 향후 지역 생태 연구에 있어 지형 인자 계산 방법을 결정할 때 그 기준을 마련하고자 한다. 연구 지역은 전라남도 도서 지역을 대상으로 하였고 FOSS GIS 프로그램 중 가장 널리 사용되는 GRASS GIS와 SAGA GIS로 처리하였다. 입지환경에 있어 가장 널리 사용되는 설명인자인 경사도와 TWI(Topographical Wetness Index) 지도를 각 FOSS GIS 프로그램으로 생성하고 그 차이를 분석하여 각 FOSS GIS 프로그램의 장단점을 토의하였다.

• 기록학연구
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• 제42호
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• pp.135-183
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• 2014

우리나라는 높은 수준의 IT기술과 인터넷 보급률 덕분에 웹 전시를 제공할 수 있는 환경을 갖추고 있다. 그러나 소규모 공공기관의 웹 전시는 단순히 오프라인 전시프로그램을 소개하거나 웹전시 자체로는 활성화 되지 못한 채 운영되고 있다. 이와 같이 공공기관의 웹 전시가 활성화 되지 못하는 이유로는 웹 전시에 대한 인식 부족, 시스템 구축비용 문제, 전문 인력 부재 등을 들 수 있다. 이런 상황에서 시스템에 대한 전문지식을 갖춘 인력과 예산이 부족한 소규모 기관에서는 공개 소프트웨어의 적극적인 활용이 필요하다. 본고는 기록을 전시하기 위한 공개 소프트웨어인 OMEKA의 주요 기능을 소개하고 해외 사례 및 설치에서 전시에 이르는 활용을 살펴보았다. 그리고 OMEKA가 가진 특징을 고려할 때 전시효과와 효용을 높이기 위해 보강되고 갖추어야 할 점을 검토하였다. OMEKA는 전문적 기술 없이도 멀티미디어의 웹 전시가 가능해 시청각 기록물의 활용도가 높은 장점이 있다. 따라서 OMEKA는 설치가 쉽고 운영비용이 저렴하다는 장점뿐만 아니라 새로운 기술 발달 추세에 맞는 기술적 유연성을 갖춘 프로그램으로 다양한 기관의 목적을 구현하는데 적합하다. OMEKA는 디지털 컬렉션과 웹 전시 등 콘텐츠 관리를 위한 프로그램으로서 전통적인 아카이브 활용 프로그램과 달리 이용자에게 친화적이다. 특히 전시 기능이 탁월하여 이미 여러 도서관과 소규모 박물관, 학교 등에서 다양하게 활용되고 있다. OMEKA를 활용, 공공기관의 전시 서비스 수준을 향상시켜 이용자의 만족도를 높이면 이를 통해 공공기관에 대한 사회 전반의 인식을 변화 시킬 수 있을 것이다. 기관에서 보유한 기록에 대해 주제와 내용에 맞는 기획으로 전시 컬렉션을 제공할 수 있고 기관과 이용자의 상호작용을 통해 기록물 활용에 있어 긍정적인 결과를 얻을 수 있다. 따라서 OMEKA는 웹 전시가 필요하지만 전시를 위한 환경 조성에 어려움을 겪고 있는 공공기관에 현실적인 해결책을 제시할 수 있을 거라 기대된다.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• 제15권4호
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• pp.103-129
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• 2014

Differentiated positioning becomes increasingly difficult when brand salience weakens. Also, the daily increase in new media use and information load has led to a social climate that regards advertising stimuli as spamming. For these reasons, the focus of advertisement-related communication is shifting from persuading consumers through the direct delivery of information to an emphasis on appealing to their emotions using matching stimuli to enhance persuasion effects. Recently, both academia and industry have increasingly shown an interest in storytelling methods that can generate positive emotional responses and attitude changes by arousing consumers' narrative processing. The purpose of storytelling is to elicit consumers' emotional experience to meet the objectives of advertisement producers. Therefore, the most important requirement for storytelling in advertising is that it evokes consumers' sympathy for the main character in the advertisement. This does not involve advertisements directly persuading consumers, but rather, consumers themselves finding an answer through the advertisement's story. Thus, consumers have an indirect experience regarding the product features and usage through empathy with the advertisement's main character. In this study, we took the results of a precedent study as the starting point, according to which consumers' emotional response can be altered depending on the storytelling methods adopted for storytelling ads. Previous studies have reported that drama-type and vignette-type storytelling methods have a considerably different impact on the emotional responses of advertising audiences, due to their different structural characteristics. Thus, this study aims to verify that emotional response aroused by different types of advertisement storytelling (drama ads vs. vignette ads) can be controlled by the socio-psychological gender difference of advertising audiences and that the interaction effects between the socio-psychological gender differences of the audience and the gender stereotype of emotions to which advertisements appeal can exert an influence on emotional responses to types of storytelling in advertising. To achieve this, an experiment was conducted employing a between-group design consisting of 2 (storytelling type: drama ads vs. vignette ads) × 2 (socio-psychological gender of the audience: masculinity vs. femininity) × 2 (advertising appeal emotion type: male stereotype emotion vs. female stereotype emotion). The experiment revealed that the femininity group displayed a strong and consistent empathy for drama ads regardless of whether the ads appealed to masculine or feminine emotions, whereas the masculinity group displayed a stronger empathy for drama ads appealing to the emotional types matching its own gender as well as for vignette ads. The theoretical contribution of this study is significant in that it sheds light on the controllability of the audiences' emotional responses to advertisement storytelling depending on their socio-psychological gender and gender stereotype of emotions appealed to through advertising. Specifically, its considerable practical contribution consists in easing unnecessary creative constraints by comprehensively analyzing essential advertising strategic factors such as the target consumers' gender and the objective of the advertisement, in contrast to the oversimplified view of previous studies that considered emotional responses to storytelling ads were determined by the different types of production techniques used. This study revealed that emotional response to advertisement storytelling varies depending on the target gender of and emotion type appealed to by the advertisement. This suggests that an understanding of the targeted gender is necessary prior to producing an advertisement and that in deciding on an advertisement storytelling type, strategic attention should be directed to the advertisement's appeal concept or emotion type. Thus, it is safe to use drama-type storytelling that expresses masculine emotions (ex. fun, happy, encouraged) when the advertisement target, like Bacchus, includes both men and women. For brands and advertisements targeting only women (ex. female clothes), it is more effective to use a drama-type storytelling method that expresses feminine emotions (lovely, romantic, sad). The drama method can be still more effective than the vignette when women are the main target and a masculine concept-based creative is to be produced. However, when male consumers are targeted and the brand concept or advertisement concept is focused on feminine emotions (ex. romantic), vignette ads can more effectively induce empathy than drama ads.

• 간호행정학회지
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• 제3권1호
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• pp.51-64
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• 1997

The purpose of the study was to introduce an integrated approach of new Casuistry and specified principlism in resolving ethical problems and studying nursing ethics. In studying clinical ethics and nursing ethics, there is no systematic research method. While nurses often experience ethical dilemmas in practice, much of previous research on nursing ethics has focused merely on describing the existing problems. In addition, ethists presented theoretical analysis and critics rather than providing the specific problems solving strategies. There is a need in clinical situations for an integrated method which can provide the objective description for existing problem situations as well as specific problem solving methods. We inherit two distinct ways of discussing ethical issues. One of these frames these issues in terms of principles, rules, and other general ideas; the other focuses on the specific features of particular kinds of moral cases. In the first way general ethical rules relate to specific moral cases in a theoretical manner, with universal rules serving as "axioms" from which particular moral judgments are deduced as theorems. In the seconds, this relation is frankly practical. with general moral rules serving as "maxims", which can be fully understood only in terms of the paradigmatic cases that define their meaning and force. Theoretical arguments are structured in ways that free them from any dependence on the circumstances of their presentation and ensure them a validity of a kind that is not affected by the practical context of use. In formal arguments particular conclusions are deduced from("entailed by") the initial axioms or universal principles that are the apex of the argument. So the truth or certainty that attaches to those axioms flows downward to the specific instances to be "proved". In the language of formal logic, the axioms are major premises, the facts that specify the present instance are minor premises, and the conclusion to be "proved" is deduced (follows necessarily) from the initial presises. Practical arguments, by contrast, involve a wider range of factors than formal deductions and are read with an eye to their occasion of use. Instead of aiming at strict entailments, they draw on the outcomes of previous experience, carrying over the procedures used to resolve earlier problems and reapply them in new problmatic situations. Practical arguments depend for their power on how closely the present circumstances resemble those of the earlier precedent cases for which this particular type of argument was originally devised. So. in practical arguments, the truths and certitudes established in the precedent cases pass sideways, so as to provide "resolutions" of later problems. In the language of rational analysis, the facts of the present case define the gounds on which any resolution must be based; the general considerations that carried wight in similar situations provide warrants that help settle future cases. So the resolution of any problem holds good presumptively; its strengh depends on the similarities between the present case and the prededents; and its soundness can be challenged (or rebutted) in situations that are recognized ans exceptional. Jonsen & Toulmin (1988), and Jonsen (1991) introduce New Casuistry as a practical method. The oxford English Dictionary defines casuistry quite accurately as "that part of ethics which resolves cases of conscience, applying the general rules of religion and morality to particular instances in which circumstances alter cases or in which there appears to be a conflict of duties." They modified the casuistry of the medieval ages to use in clinical situations which is characterized by "the typology of cases and the analogy as an inference method". A case is the unit of analysis. The structure of case was made with interaction of situation and moral rules. The situation is what surrounds or stands around. The moral rule is the essence of case. The analogy can be objective because "the grounds, the warrants, the theoretical backing, the modal qualifiers" are identified in the cases. The specified principlism was the method that Degrazia (1992) integrated the principlism and the specification introduced by Richardson (1990). In this method, the principle is specified by adding information about limitations of the scope and restricting the range of the principle. This should be substantive qualifications. The integrated method is an combination of the New Casuistry and the specified principlism. For example, the study was "Ethical problems experienced by nurses in the care of terminally ill patients"(Um, 1994). A semi-structured in-depth interview was conducted for fifteen nurses who mainly took care of terminally ill patients. The first stage, twenty one cases were identified as relevant to the topic, and then were classified to four types of problems. For instance, one of these types was the patient's refusal of care. The second stage, the ethical problems in the case were defined, and then the case was analyzed. This was to analyze the reasons, the ethical values, and the related ethical principles in the cases. Then the interpretation was synthetically done by integration of the result of analysis and the situation. The third stage was the ordering phase of the cases, which was done according to the result of the interpretation and the common principles in the cases. The first two stages describe the methodology of new casuistry, and the final stage was for the methodology of the specified principlism. The common principles were the principle of autonomy and the principle of caring. The principle of autonomy was specified; when competent patients refused care, nurse should discontinue the care to respect for the patients' decision. The principle of caring was also specified; when the competent patients refused care, nurses should continue to provide the care in spite of the patients' refusal to preserve their life. These specification may lead the opposite behavior, which emphasizes the importance of nurse's will and intentions to make their decision in the clinical situations.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• 제18권4호
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• pp.27-55
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• 2008

Due to the increasing and intensifying competition in the Internet shopping market, it has been recognized as very important to develop an effective policy and strategy for acquiring loyal customers. For this reason, web site designers need to know if a new Internet shopping mall(ISM) will be accepted. Researchers have been working on identifying factors for explaining and predicting user acceptance of an ISM. Some studies, however, revealed inconsistent findings on the antecedents of user acceptance of a website. Lack of consideration for individual differences in user ability is believed to be one of the key reasons for the mixed findings. The elaboration likelihood model (ELM) and several studies have suggested that individual differences in ability plays an moderating role on the relationship between the antecedents and user acceptance. Despite the critical role of user ability, little research has examined the role of user ability in the Internet shopping mall context. The purpose of this study is to develop a user acceptance model that consider the moderating role of user ability in the context of Internet shopping. This study was initiated to see the ability of the technology acceptance model(TAM) to explain the acceptance of a specific ISM. According to TAM. which is one of the most influential models for explaining user acceptance of IT, an intention to use IT is determined by usefulness and ease of use. Given that interaction between user and website takes place through web interface, the decisions to accept and continue using an ISM depend on these beliefs. However, TAM neglects to consider the fact that many users would not stick to an ISM until they trust it although they may think it useful and easy to use. The importance of trust for user acceptance of ISM has been raised by the relational views. The relational view emphasizes the trust-building process between the user and ISM, and user's trust on the website is a major determinant of user acceptance. The proposed model extends and integrates the TAM and relational views on user acceptance of ISM by incorporating usefulness, ease of use, and trust. User acceptance is defined as a user's intention to reuse a specific ISM. And user ability is introduced into the model as moderating variable. Here, the user ability is defined as a degree of experiences, knowledge and skills regarding Internet shopping sites. The research model proposes that the ease of use, usefulness and trust of ISM are key determinants of user acceptance. In addition, this paper hypothesizes that the effects of the antecedents(i.e., ease of use, usefulness, and trust) on user acceptance may differ among users. In particular, this paper proposes a moderating effect of a user's ability on the relationship between antecedents with user's intention to reuse. The research model with eleven hypotheses was derived and tested through a survey that involved 470 university students. For each research variable, this paper used measurement items recognized for reliability and widely used in previous research. We slightly modified some items proper to the research context. The reliability and validity of the research variables were tested using the Crobnach's alpha and internal consistency reliability (ICR) values, standard factor loadings of the confirmative factor analysis, and average variance extracted (AVE) values. A LISREL method was used to test the suitability of the research model and its relating six hypotheses. Key findings of the results are summarized in the following. First, TAM's two constructs, ease of use and usefulness directly affect user acceptance. In addition, ease of use indirectly influences user acceptance by affecting trust. This implies that users tend to trust a shopping site and visit repeatedly when they perceive a specific ISM easy to use. Accordingly, designing a shopping site that allows users to navigate with heuristic and minimal clicks for finding information and products within the site is important for improving the site's trust and acceptance. Usefulness, however, was not found to influence trust. Second, among the three belief constructs(ease of use, usefulness, and trust), trust was empirically supported as the most important determinants of user acceptance. This implies that users require trustworthiness from an Internet shopping site to be repeat visitors of an ISM. Providing a sense of safety and eliminating the anxiety of online shoppers in relation to privacy, security, delivery, and product returns are critically important conditions for acquiring repeat visitors. Hence, in addition to usefulness and ease of use as in TAM, trust should be a fundamental determinants of user acceptance in the context of internet shopping. Third, the user's ability on using an Internet shopping site played a moderating role. For users with low ability, ease of use was found to be a more important factors in deciding to reuse the shopping mall, whereas usefulness and trust had more effects on users with high ability. Applying the EML theory to these findings, we can suggest that experienced and knowledgeable ISM users tend to elaborate on such usefulness aspects as efficient and effective shopping performance and trust factors as ability, benevolence, integrity, and predictability of a shopping site before they become repeat visitors of the site. In contrast, novice users tend to rely on the low elaborating features, such as the perceived ease of use. The existence of moderating effects suggests the fact that different individuals evaluate an ISM from different perspectives. The expert users are more interested in the outcome of the visit(usefulness) and trustworthiness(trust) than those novice visitors. The latter evaluate the ISM in a more superficial manner focusing on the novelty of the site and on other instrumental beliefs(ease of use). This is consistent with the insights proposed by the Heuristic-Systematic model. According to the Heuristic-Systematic model. a users act on the principle of minimum effort. Thus, the user considers an ISM heuristically, focusing on those aspects that are easy to process and evaluate(ease of use). When the user has sufficient experience and skills, the user will change to systematic processing, where they will evaluate more complex aspects of the site(its usefulness and trustworthiness). This implies that an ISM has to provide a minimum level of ease of use to make it possible for a user to evaluate its usefulness and trustworthiness. Ease of use is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the acceptance and use of an ISM. Overall, the empirical results generally support the proposed model and identify the moderating effect of the effects of user ability. More detailed interpretations and implications of the findings are discussed. The limitations of this study are also discussed to provide directions for future research.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• 제19권3호
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• pp.69-98
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• 2009

We investigated what factors motivate gamers to participate in a guild and why they continue to be engaged as members of the guild. We find that, based on the result of focus group interviews with MMORPG gamers, social support and self-esteem factors play important roles. Considering both prior research and the focus group interviews we have conducted, we define social support and character control as independent variables. Character identity, guild identity, and self-esteem are proposed as mediating variables while guild flow and game loyalty as dependent variables. Accordingly, we develop the research model and hypotheses, and verify them empirically. Based on our experiences of playing the WoW game, we proposed a research model and conducted focus-group interviews (FGIs). FGIs involve formulating a hypothesis and then collecting some relevant data. FGIs were conducted face-to-face with students of C University in Korea. We formulated structured interview schedules, and the questions were based on our research variables and personal experiences. The questions for the interviews encompassed the following areas: (a) the demographic characteristics of the focus group; (b) the number of years for which respondents had played online games; (c) the motive for starting a game; (d) the number of game-characters assumed by each gamer; (e) the type of game played; and (f) other issues such as the reasons for involvement in the play, the willingness to reuse the game in case new versions were released, etc. On average, it took two hours to interview each of three groups. A primary set of FGIs was conducted with three groups on the premise that there would be some differences caused by character race (Horde vs. Alliance) or by playable server (Normal vs. Combat). With respect to the manner of playing, we found that guild members shared information, felt a sense of belonging, and played computer games for quite a long time through the guild; however, they did not undergo these experiences when playing alone. Gamers who belonged to a specific guild helped other players without expecting compensation for that, freely shared information about the game, gave away items for free, and more generous with other members who made mistakes. The guild members were aware of the existence other members and experienced a sense of belonging through interactions with, and evaluations from, other players. It was clear that social support was shown within the guild and that it played an important role as a major research variable. Based on the results of the first FGIs, a second set of in-depth FGIs was carried out with a focus on the psychology of the individual within the guild and the social community of the guild. The second set of FGIs also focused on the guild's offline meetings. Gamers, over all, recognize the necessity of joining a community, not only off-line but also online world of the guild. They admit that the guild is important for them to easily and conveniently enjoy playing online computer games. The active behavior and positive attitudes of existing guild members can motivate new members of the guild to adapt themselves to the guild environment. They then adopt the same behaviors and attitudes of established guild members. In this manner, the new members of the guild strengthen the bonds with other gamers while feeling a sense of belonging, and developing social identity, thereby. It was discovered that the interaction among guild members and the social support encouraged new gamers to quickly develop a sense of social identity and increase their self-esteem. The guild seemed to play the role of socializing gamers. Sometimes, even in the real world, the guild members helped one another; therefore, the features of the guild also spilled over to the offline environment. We intend to use self-esteem, which was found through the second set of FGIs, as an important research variable. To collect data, an online survey was designed with a questionnaire to be completed by WoW gamers, who belong to a guild. The survey was registered on the best three domestic game-sites: 'WoW playforum,' 'WoW gamemeca,' and 'Wow invent.' The selected items to be measured in the questionnaire were decided based on prior research and data from FGIs. To verify the content of the questionnaire, we carried out a pilot test with the same participants to point out ambiguous questions as a way to ensure maximum accuracy of the survey result. A total of 244 responses were analyzed from the 250 completed questionnaires. The SEM analysis was used to test goodness-of-fit of the model. As a result, we found important results as follows: First, according to the statistics, social support had statistically significant impacts on character control, character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Second, character control had significant effects on character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Third, character identity shows its clear impact on self-esteem and game loyalty. Fourth, guild identity affected self-esteem, guild flow and game loyalty. Fifth, self-esteem had a positive influence on the guild flow. These days, the number of virtual community is rising along with its significance largely because of the nature of the online games. Accordingly, this study is designed to clarify the psychological relationship between gamers within the guild that has been generally established by gamers to play online games together. This study focuses on the relationships in which social support influences guild flow or game loyalty through character control, character identity, guild identity, and self-esteem, which are present within a guild in the MMORPG game environment. The study results are as follows. First, the effects of social support on character control, character identity, guild identity and self-esteem are proven to be statistically significant. It was found that character control improves character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Among the seven variables, social support, which is derived from FGIs, plays an important role in this study. With the active support of other guild members, gamers can improve their ability to develop good characters and to control them. Second, character identity has a positive effect on self-esteem and game loyalty, while guild identity has a significant effect on self-esteem, guild flow and game loyalty. Self-esteem affects guild flow. It was found that the higher the character and guild identities become, the greater the self-esteem is established. Contrary to the findings of prior research, our study results indicate that the relationship between character identity and guild flow is not significant. Rather, it was found that character identity directly affects game players' loyalty. Even though the character identity had no direct effect on increasing guild flow, it has indirectly affected guild flow through self-esteem. The significant relationship between self-esteem and guild flow indicates that gamers achieve flow, i.e., a feeling of pleasure and excitement through social support. Several important implications of this study should be noted. First, both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to conduct this study. Through FGIs, it was observed that both social support and self-esteem are important variables. Second, because guilds had been rarely studied, this research is expected to play an important role in the online community. Third, according to the result, six hypotheses (H1, H5, H6, H7, H8, and H11) setup based on FGIs, were statistically significant; thus, we can suggest the corresponding relationships among the variables as a guideline for follow-up research. Our research is significant as it has following implications: first, the social support of the guild members is important when establishing character control, character identity, guildidentity and self-esteem. It is also a major variable that affects guild flow and game loyalty. Second, character control when improved by social support shows notable influence on the development of character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Third, character identity and guild identity are major factors to help establish gamers' own self-esteem. Fourth, character identity affects guild flow through self-esteem and game loyalty. The gamers usually express themselves through characters; the higher character identity is, the more loyalty a gamer has. Fifth, guild identity, established within the guild, has clear effects on self-esteem, guild flow and game loyalty. Sixth, qualitative and quantitative methods are employed to conduct this study. Based on the results of focus group interviews and SEM analysis, we find that the social support by guild members and psychological factors are significant in strengthening the flow of guild and loyalty to the game. As such, game developers should provide some extra functions for guild community, through which gamers can play online games in collaboration with one another. Also, we suggest that positive self-esteem which is built up through social support can help gamers achieve higher level of flow and satisfaction, which will consequently contribute to minimizing the possibility for the players to develop negative attitude toward the guild they belong to.