• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.9
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• pp.71-79
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• 2015

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to find out the effect of changes in the differentiated "servicescape" on the business performance in the hair salon industry using a case study. For this, we selected hair salon M located in Suwon. The shop is innovatively different from existing shops in terms of spatial layout and functionality. We conducted in-depth research, beginning with the launch of the shop concept through investment and ongoing stable sales. Research design, data, and methodology - The M hair salon is a start up shop providing a differentiated servicescape (physical environment where the service takes place) located in Suwon, Yeongtong-gu. We conducted research to investigate how spatial layout and functionality of the servicescape impact customers' perceived quality. The interview period and case analysis was May 2014 through March 2015, covering 11 months. To conduct the case analysis, we analyzed the spatial layout and functionality of existing shops and interviewed customers and experts about the difference between hair salon M and existing shops. Results - Our results found clues to the positive effect of spatial layout and functionality among servicescape factors on perceived service quality at the salon. The shop showed a fast payback of the principal investment, growth potential in contrast to competitors near the salon, and 45 percent returning customers. The problem with the spatial layout at existing shops was that customers were aware of the way other people were looking at them, since viewing angles overlapped, therefore there was a limitation to the relationship intensity with an exclusive hair designer. In contrast, the layout of the stands at the M salon kept the number of dressing stands limited to maximize the customer's emotional response. Additionally, because of the new layout of dressing stands hiding other customer voices and appearance in the salon, customers perceived their service space as independent. Therefore, they did not have to focus on their personal emotional response, which was one of the advantages of the new layout. Conclusions - This study conducted case study analysis by offering a new perspective focusing on spatial layout, previously not considered as an independent variable of quality evaluations and customer satisfaction in existing literature on hair salon management. Therefore, this study contributes to the field by offering an opportunity to discover the causal relationships between the overlooked physical environment and a customer's perceived quality. However, a process objectifying the results of the study through empirical analysis and hypotheses is needed to overcome the limitations of the case study approach and generalize the results. Moreover, it would be beneficial to conduct further empirical study of the relationship between the spatial layout provided in the case and a customer's emotional response and change in mood. In addition, an analysis is needed regarding how customers feel about the factors using the Kano Model. These suggestions would be considered in further study.

• Journal of Digital Contents Society
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.661-667
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• 2008

The dynamics of business cycles has been changed by the macroscopic economic forces because of the introduction of new technical know-how each year. These the dynamics of business has a significant influence on the investment of enterprise in the information communication field. Today, the most important goal of the IT investment is simply not to lower the production cost any more, but to improve the usefulness for the customers and partners in order to obtain the optimized mass products. Therefore, the enterprises have been concentrating their all abilities on the automation, integration, and optimization of business process using BPM. In addition, they are concentrating their efforts on the business expansion by approaching the technical aspect using RFID application system. However, in order to accomplish a successful enterprise ability, the technical view, business process view, and organization view must be considered together. We suggested the method considering organization view, via the technical element, i.e., RFID system for approaching the business process. Furthermore, we tried the optimization of assignment using Context Analysis methodology and proposed the method to reduce the element with respect to the time, human, and expense by applying the Case Study method that minimizes the iteration times through the transmitted processing procedure and type. The proposed method gave us the expectation that it will bring out the innovative improvement with respect to the time, expense, quality, and customer's satisfaction in the process from the analysis of business process to the analysis and design of system.

• The Journal of Society for e-Business Studies
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.23-38
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• 2012

Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games(MMORPGs) headed by some Korean game companies such as NC Soft, NHN, and Nexon have exploded in recent years. However, it becomes one of the major challenges for the MMORPG developers to design their games to appeal to gamers since only a few MMORPGs succeed whereas they require a huge amount of initial investment. Under this background, our study derives the major elements for designing MMORPG from the literature, and identifies the ones critical to the users' satisfaction and their willingness to pay among the derived elements. Though most previous studies on the design elements of MMORPG have used analytic hierarchy process(AHP), our study adopts artificial neural network(ANN) as the tool for identifying key success factors in designing MMORPG. The results of our study show that the elements of the game contents quality have a bigger effect on the user's satisfaction, whereas the ones of the value-added systems have a bigger effect on the user's willingness to pay. They also show that user interface affects both the user's satisfaction and willingness to pay most. These results imply that the strategies for the development of MMORPG should be aligned with its goal and market penetration strategy. They also imply that the satisfaction and revenue generation from MMORPG cannot be achieved without convenient and easy control environment. It is expected that the new findings of our study would be useful forthe developers or publishers of MMORPGs to build their own business strategies.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.307-319
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• 1998

This study is an empirical investigation and study on the measurement of nursing service quality as perceived by patients. A series of H1. H2. H3 alternative hypotheses were tested using a sample of 250 patients in Taegu City. Korea. HI hypothese were tested for application of five component of service quality (SERVQlTAL and SE RPERF : tangiblity. reliability. responsiveness. accessibility. understandability) in Taegu area Hospitals. Validity test - the five components of service quality were rearranged into two components of service quality (personal factor. nonpersonal factor). Although SERVQUAL was verified in USA. application for five components of service quality in Korea indicated that it need more analytical studies. Nobody can deny the fact that the recent growth of the nursing service quality is one of the most important driving forces of hospital management. In many hospitals. the nursing quality charges more than 50% of the medical service quality. As a result. many hospital managers should be enormous interests in the investment potentiality of the nursing service. However. doesn't many researchers invest their time and effort on the research of the quality control in nursing service. Nursing service management is the process to satisfy customer's desires and expectations through the various service activities. Presently nursing service are being faced with three Common tasks of improving quality of nursing service. competitively differential advantage and productivity because of quantitative expansion of Nursing service. Such a phenomenon is also found in our medical service industry. resulting from increasing demands for medical service owing to national medical insurance policy and consumer's attitude change emphasizing prevention of illness. excessiveness of medical facilities in large cities and increasing medical lawsuits due to influence of consumerism. Therefore. under such circumstances. this research on nursing service is conducted from nursing managements to improve the nursing service quality problems faced by medical institutions. The results of this theoretical/empirical research are as follows: 1. Nursing service Quality is regarded as patients' perceived quality and evaluated on the basis (5 dimension) of technical and functional quality. 2. Nursing service Quality is a concept of patients evaluation on the measurable multi-dimensions intrinsic and extrinsic attributes of service. 3. Nursing service Quality is conceptually defined as the difference between the perceived service and the expected service. 4. Korean consumers trend to evaluate nursing service quality based on such dimensions as responsiveness and reliability. understandability. accessibility. tangibility. 5. After analyzing whether or not there are some differences in respective medical institution. it was found that there are significant difference on understandability. reliability. communicability. courtesy. competence. 6. After analyzing the difference between the expected nursing service and the nursing perceived service, it was found that the expected nursing service is higher than the perceived service in every medical institution. 7. HI hypothesis was tested with regard to the validity test between SERVQUAL and SERVPERF in nursing service quality. The result of validity test between SERVQUAL and SERVPERF was found to have differential result. That is the R2 of SERVPERF is higher than that of SERVQUAL. Therefore. HI was verified in nursing management. H2. H3 hypotheses were tested whether or not the nursing service quality and patient satisfaction is the preceding variable. The result of H2 hypothes is that the nursing service quality is the preceding variable of patient satisfaction and the patient satisfaction is that of revisiting intention. After analyzing whether or not there is any differences on the demographic variable of five nursing service quality factor. it was found that there are statistically significant differences on communicability and courtesy at the sex. understand ability. accessibility and tangibility at the age. understandability at the academic background respectively.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.65-93
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• 2011

As relationship between buyer and seller has been brought closer and long-term relationship has been more important in B2B markets, the importance of service and service convenience increases as well as product. In homogeneous markets, where service offerings are similar and therefore not key competitive differentiator, providing greater convenience may enable a competitive advantage. Service convenience, as conceptualized by Berry et al. (2002), is defined as the consumers' time and effort perceptions related to buying or using a service. For this reason, B2B customers are interested in how fast the service is provided and how much save non-monetary cost like time or effort by the service convenience along with service quality. Therefore, this study attempts to investigate the impact of service convenience on relationship factors such as relationship satisfaction, relationship commitment, and relationship performance. The purpose of this study is to find out whether service convenience can be a new antecedent of relationship quality and relationship performance. In addition, this study tries to examine how five-dimensional service convenience constructs (decision convenience, access convenience, transaction convenience, benefit convenience, post-benefit convenience) affect customers' relationship satisfaction, relationship commitment, and relationship performance. The service convenience comprises five fundamental components - decision convenience (the perceived time and effort costs associated with service purchase or use decisions), access convenience(the perceived time and effort costs associated with initiating service delivery), transaction convenience(the perceived time and effort costs associated with finalizing the transaction), benefit convenience(the perceived time and effort costs associated with experiencing the core benefits of the offering) and post-benefit convenience (the perceived time and effort costs associated with reestablishing subsequent contact with the firm). Earlier studies of perceived service convenience in the industrial market are none. The conventional studies that have dealt with service convenience have usually been made in the consumer market, or they have dealt with convenience aspects in the service process. This service convenience measure for consumer market can be useful tool to estimate service quality in B2B market. The conceptualization developed by Berry et al. (2002) reflects a multistage, experiential consumption process in which evaluations of convenience vary at each stage. For this reason, the service convenience measure is good for B2B service environment which has complex processes and various types. Especially when categorizing B2B service as sequential stage of service delivery like Kumar and Kumar (2004), the Berry's service convenience measure which reflect sequential flow of service deliveries suitable to establish B2B service convenience. For this study, data were gathered from respondents who often buy business service and analyzed by structural equation modeling. The sample size in the present study is 119. Composite reliability values and average variance extracted values were examined for each variable to have reliability. We determine whether the measurement model supports the convergent validity by CFA, and discriminant validity was assessed by examining the correlation matrix of the constructs. For each pair of constructs, the square root of the average variance extracted exceeded their correlations, thus supporting the discriminant validity of the constructs. Hypotheses were tested using the Smart PLS 2.0 and we calculated the PLS path values and followed with a bootstrap re-sampling method to test the hypotheses. Among the five dimensional service convenience constructs, four constructs (decision convenience, transaction convenience, benefit convenience, post-benefit convenience) affected customers' positive relationship satisfaction, relationship commitment, and relationship performance. This result means that service convenience is important cue to improve relationship between buyer and seller. One of the five service convenience dimensions, access convenience, does not affect relationship quality and performance, which implies that the dimension of service convenience is not important factor of cumulative satisfaction. The Cumulative satisfaction can be distinguished from transaction-specific customer satisfaction, which is an immediate post-purchase evaluative judgment or an affective reaction to the most recent transactional experience with the firm. Because access convenience minimizes the physical effort associated with initiating an exchange, the effect on relationship satisfaction similar to cumulative satisfaction may be relatively low in terms of importance than transaction-specific customer satisfaction. Also, B2B firms focus on service quality, price, benefit, follow-up service and so on than convenience of time or place in service because it is relatively difficult to change existing transaction partners in B2B market compared to consumer market. In addition, this study using partial least squares methods reveals that customers' satisfaction and commitment toward relationship has mediating role between the service convenience and relationship performance. The result shows that management and investment to improve service convenience make customers' positive relationship satisfaction, and then the positive relationship satisfaction can enhance the relationship commitment and relationship performance. And to conclude, service convenience management is an important part of successful relationship performance management, and the service convenience is an important antecedent of relationship between buyer and seller such as the relationship commitment and relationship performance. Therefore, it has more important to improve relationship performance that service providers enhance service convenience although competitive service development or service quality improvement is important. Given the pressure to provide increased convenience, it is not surprising that organizations have made significant investments in enhancing the convenience aspect of their product and service offering.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.218-231
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• 2001

Background : The purpose of this study was to investigate the understanding and the attitude of Korean hospital CEOs toward the healthcare quality improvement. Methods : A mailed questionnaire survey to the CEOs of hospitals with 400 beds or more was conducted between September 15 and October 30, 2000. Of the 108 hospitals eligible for the study, 58 participated, yielding a response rate of 54 percent. Result : The hospital CEOs have expressed that their hospital management was arduous job, and they had been pressured by increasing competitions among healthcare providers. They indicated that the low fees of health insurance made their hospital management difficult. The results also indicated that there was general consensus that the improvement of service quality was important in encouraging their organizations, but the investment of manpower and equipment ranked higher than the improvement of service quality. The majority of the CEOs have good understanding about quality improvement activities. However the facts that in general QI must be focused at the process of services and customer satisfaction, meanwhile quality improvement activities are helpful for the organizational productivity embarrassed them. The hospital CEOs responded that there were successful changes in terms of quality of care, patient satisfaction, and process efficiency after QI activities, but no increase in patient number and profit. Lack of understanding to QI activities and limited budget seem to attribute unsatisfactory outcomes. Conclusion : The majority of Korean hospital CEOs have a good understanding and attitude about QI activities. As mentioned in the result, despite of several limitations, several facts regarding the CEOs of hospital in Korean can be elucidated. (1) The general cognition of the QI project is relatively high, and it is accepted with positive concern, (2) the priority of the QI project, however, is not set higher than other projects and (3) the specific concepts of the actual QI project such as customer (patient)-focused work driving, the recognition of the work accomplishment, and the importance of rewards have not sufficiently understood.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.17-25
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• 2014

Purpose - This study used empirical methods to investigate the consciousness structure of vendors in the S marketing area, which is a commercial revitalization district in the country, and examined its effect on their business activities. Based on the results derived through the performance of an actual proof analysis, this study aims to facilitate the promotion of changes in the consciousness structures of traditional market vendors, with a view to allowing them to adapt to the current economic realities in the country. Further, this study aims to provide suggestions that would improve the efficiency of the commercial revitalization program of the government. Research design, data, and methodology - This study examined all the stores in the S marketing area using a questionnaire survey conducted over three weeks beginning on July 4, 2012, and involved the performance of a data analysis on 1,859 samples. The questionnaire consisted of two parts. The first part addressed the market revitalization and the second part addressed the store management strategies. Questionnaire responses were calibrated based on a Likert scale. Statistical analysis was conducted using PASW version 18.0. Results - The results of the analysis of the consciousness structure of merchants in the S marketing area have led to the discovery that they have a medium level of satisfaction with market revitalization. There was a difference in the perceptions of the concept of store management between merchants and customers. Merchants have poor strategies for store management, which do not go much beyond an imitation of the practices of large domestic discount stores. Conclusions - The appearance of big discount stores and the accompanying changes in people's consumption patterns have led to a decline in local market areas. The government has sought new ways to secure autogenic power for local markets. To create regional economies, the government enacted a revised "Law for creating traditional markets and shopping streets" in 2010 and introduced a commercial district revitalization program. This program, which originally supported only the S marketing area, has subsequently expanded into neighboring shopping districts so that the whole of the regional market can be revitalized. However, since the revitalization of the traditional market and the government support required for it were mostly limited to facilities, the result has not proved to be effective. Although there are several reasons why the government investment was characterized by poor efficiency, traditional market vendors' consciousness structure, which did not adapt well to the vagaries of time and its consequent changes, was a major cause. Only when vendors have a true merchant spirit can they have a real service focus that will enable them to clearly understand the distribution organization. This will have the effect of bring about complete customer satisfaction and will ensure the survival and development of traditional markets.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.627-653
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• 2006

The purpose of this study lies in understanding how the spectrum assigned for each mobile operator affects the consumers of mobile service. For this purpose, we have observed the change of path coefficient in the structural equation, using control variables. However, the structure of the mobile service market in Korea has become fixed. Considering this tendency and the conclusion of this study, the 'lock-in effect' occurs seriously in the mobile service market in Korea. It can be explained by the fact that CS(Customer Satisfaction) of the cellular subscribers little affects customer loyalty but the market dominance of the cellular service in the actual market has continued for a long time. In this study, we figured out a strong prejudice about call quality, which is caused by spectrum difference among competitors. Cellular subscribers tends to believe that call quality of their cellular service is better than that of PCS. In addition, we found that PCS operators can catch customer's retention by investment into network in order to increase call quality.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.117-125
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• 2018

This paper examined the problems concerning recognition of business selection and operation, etc. and the presentation of the corresponding improvement measures. For this purpose, according to the results of a questionnaire survey on recognition of detailed business operation of the fire safety shared tax, satisfaction in business execution, financial operation measures for the subject of fire fighters, fire fighters have been shown to be indifferent to the detailed business field of fire safety shared tax, investment contents, etc. in the operation of fire safety shared tax. In terms of satisfaction after execution of the shared tax, reduction of the aging rates for firefighting equipment and improvement of dissemination rate was shown to be high with Fire Sergeant (M = 3.70) and a service duration of more than 16 years (M=3.64). To improve the measures of finance, there was considerable feedback saying that the reduction in state subsidy was inappropriate. In view of the diversification and development of the fire safety shared tax businesses being operated on a limited basis along with the overlap of most state subsidy businesses with safety field businesses, legal system improvement is needed for the stable securing of insufficient firefighting financial resources so that the full amount of shared tax can be invested in firefighting fields.

• Journal of the Korean Dietetic Association
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.197-208
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• 2003

This study was surveyed to provide the information on current operational practices and issues of contract-managed foodservice companies. Questionnaires were distributed to 79 contract-managed foodservice companies (eight large-size, 48 mid-size, 23 small-size companies) from March to May in 2002. The contract-managed foodservice companies provided averages of 269,184 (range 140,036-503,500), 14,837 (range 450-75,269), and 4,065 (range 930-8,050) meals daily from large, medium, and small-size companies, respectively. The companies managed to averages of 268.2 (160-619) foodservice contracts at large-size companies, 21.9 (5-63) contracts at mid-size companies, and 4.7 (1-10) contracts at small-size companies. The average numbers of dietitians were 298.6 (range 104-671) in large-size companies, 22.2(6-86) in mid-size companies, and 3.8(1-9) in small-size companies. The averages of sales were 156.5 billion at large-size companies, 6.7 billion at mid-size companies, and 1.7 billion at small-size companies in 2001. The contract was two types including management fee contract(5%), and profit and loss contract(95%). The cost ratios for office foodservice were 59.5% at food cost, 24.2% at labor cost, 6.3% at profit, and 10.1% at other cost. For hospital foodservice, the ratios were 54.0% at the food cost, 34.6% at labor cost, 3.0% at profit, and 11.8% at other cost. For high school foodservice, the ratios were 62.2% at the food cost, 21.5% at labor cost, 5.4% at profit, and 11.2% at other cost. When the contractors managed to the foodservice, the most important matters were the sanitation management and customer satisfaction. Also, the difficult problems were excess investment of equipments and low meal prices.