• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.95-115
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• 2011

Food service is the major part of franchise business in Korea, accounting for 69.9% of the brands in the market. As the food service industry becomes mature, many franchisees have struggled to survive in the market. In general, consumers have higher levels of expectation toward service quality of franchised outlets compared that of (non-franchised) independent ones. They also tend to believe that franchisees deliver standardized service at the uniform food price, regardless of their locations. Such beliefs seem to be important reasons that consumers prefer franchised outlets to independent ones. Nevertheless, few studies examined the impact of qualify features of franchisees on customer satisfaction so far. To this end, this study examined the characteristics of various quality features of franchisees in the food service industry, regarding their relationship with customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction. The quality perception of heavy-users was also compared with that of light-users in order to find insights for developing differentiated marketing strategy for the two segments. Customer satisfaction has been understood as a one-dimensional construct while there are recent studies that insist two-dimensional nature of the construct. In this regard, Kano et al. (1984) suggested to categorize quality features of a product or service into five types, based on their relation to customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction: Must-be quality, Attractive quality, One-dimensional quality, Indifferent quality, and Reverse quality. According to the Kano model, customers are more dissatisfied when Must-be quality(M) are not fulfilled, but their satisfaction does not arise above neutral no matter how fully the quality fulfilled. In comparison, customers are more satisfied with a full provision of Attactive quality(A) but manage to accept its dysfunction. One-dimensional quality(O) results in satisfaction when fulfilled and dissatisfaction when not fulfilled. For Indifferent quality(I), its presence or absence influences neither customer satisfaction nor dissatisfaction. Lastly, Reverse quality(R) refers to the features whose high degree of achievement results in customer dissatisfaction rather than satisfaction. Meanwhile, the basic guidelines of the Kano model have a limitation in that the quality type of each feature is simply determined by calculating the mode statistics. In order to overcome such limitation, the relative importance of each feature on customer satisfaction (Better value; b) and dissatisfaction (Worse value; w) were calculated following the formulas below (Timko, 1993). The Better value indicates how much customer satisfaction is increased by providing the quality feature in question. In contrast, the Worse value indicates how much customer dissatisfaction is decreased by providing the quality feature. Better = (A + O)/(A+O+M+I) Worse = (O+M)/(A+O+M+I)(-1) An on-line survey was performed in order to understand the nature of quality features of franchisees in the food service industry by applying the Kano Model. A total of twenty quality features (refer to the Table 2) were identified as the result of literature review in franchise business and a pre-test with fifty college students in Seoul. The potential respondents of our main survey was limited to the customers who have visited more than two restaurants/stores of the same franchise brand. Survey invitation e-mails were sent out to the panels of a market research company and a total of 257 responses were used for analysis. Following the guidelines of Kano model, each of the twenty quality features was classified into one of the five types based on customers' responses to a set of questions: "(1) how do you feel if the following quality feature is fulfilled in the franchise restaurant that you visit," and "(2) how do you feel if the following quality feature is not fulfilled in the franchise restaurant that you visit." The analyses revealed that customers' dissatisfaction with franchisees is commonly associated with the poor level of cleanliness of the store (w=-0.872), kindness of the staffs(w=-0.890), conveniences such as parking lot and restroom(w=-0.669), and expertise of the staffs(w=-0.492). Such quality features were categorized as Must-be quality in this study. While standardization or uniformity across franchisees has been emphasized in franchise business, this study found that consumers are interested only in uniformity of price across franchisees(w=-0.608), but not interested in standardizations of menu items, interior designs, customer service procedures, and food tastes. Customers appeared to be more satisfied when the franchise brand has promotional events such as giveaways(b=0.767), good accessibility(b=0.699), customer loyalty programs(b=0.659), award winning history(b=0.641), and outlets in the overseas market(b=0.506). The results are summarized in a matrix form in Table 1. Better(b) and Worse(w) index indicate relative importance of each quality feature on customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction, respectively. Meanwhile, there were differences in perceiving the quality features between light users and heavy users of any specific franchise brand in the food service industry. Expertise of the staffs was labeled as Must-be quality for heavy users but Indifferent quality for light users. Light users seemed indifferent to overseas expansion of the brand and offering new menu items on a regular basis, while heavy users appeared to perceive them as Attractive quality. Such difference may come from their different levels of involvement when they eat out. The results are shown in Table 2. The findings of this study help practitioners understand the quality features they need to focus on to strengthen the competitive power in the food service market. Above all, removing the factors that cause customer dissatisfaction seems to be the most critical for franchisees. To retain loyal customers of the franchise brand, it is also recommended for franchisor to invest resources in the development of new menu items as well as training programs for the staffs. Lastly, if resources allow, promotional events, loyalty programs, overseas expansion, award-winning history can be considered as tools for attracting more customers to the business.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2007.03a
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• pp.88-95
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• 2007

In this paper, the authors discussed the overview of a method for estimating working area for development of a monitoring system for labor management using RFID technology. RSSI (Receive Signal Strength Indication) data of RFID tag was obtained from readers set around the indoor space. An estimating model of the working area was prepared. The model had a range of the percentage of correctly classified from 61% to 95%. According to the result, the possibility of the monitoring system and the factors necessary to develop for practical were proposed.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.56-64
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• 2020

This paper is a follow up to the previous study which reveals that smartphone users are divided into three subcategories according to their usage characteristics. In this paper, these groups are called as 'general', 'entertainment', and 'work-assistant', taking into account their respective characteristics. The 'general' is a group whose smartphone usage characteristics are not focused on a specific purpose, the 'entertainment' is focused on music, internet, SNS, picture, and e-banking, and the 'work-assistant' is on work, GPS, diary. Inter-relation between the importance and satisfaction for the purchase determinants to the groups is investigated. In addition, Kano analysis of quality attributes is also performed, which includes quality type, satisfaction/dissatisfaction index, and PCSI (Potential Customer Satisfaction Improvement) index. The analysis result are as follows. Firstly, inter-relation between importance and satisfaction differs by user group. 'Internet', 'Ease of use', and 'Performance' purchase determinants are evaluated as competitive determinants in 'work-assistant' user group. Secondly Kano quality types of quality characteristics also differs by user group. 'Application' was classified as an attractive (A) types to 'entertainment' group and so on. 'Internet' 'Failure/Bug', 'Touch response rate' and 'Charging' are located in 'Nice' Region of S-PCSI Diagram and have to be considered as strategic quality characteristics. The results of this study is expected to give some helps in establishing a customer tailored quality strategy.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.167-177
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• 2022

Unlike previous studies on AI chatbot preference that focused mostly on satisfaction, this study considered both satisfaction and dissatisfaction. This study established that (1) AI chatbot preference is driven by attractive, must-be, and one-dimensional qualities, (2) AI chatbot need to develop service strategies by taking into account users' satisfaction and dissatisfaction in accordance with preference drivers, and (3) users view interaction as a requisite and thus, if they are not satisfied with services of a AI chatbot, they don't tend to appeal their opinion and leave the service with AI chatbot. This study emphasizes that a AI chatbot that desires to be a dominant market player must provide differentiated services according to the preference drivers and must continuously encourage user participation in order to improve service quality.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.57-70
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• 2011

The paper presents the results of a study on the determinants of customer satisfaction for a retail bank using the data of 2009 NCSI(National Customer Satisfaction Index, KPC). In doing so, it uses a revised version of the traditional analyses based on derived measures of attribute importance. The need for a revised methodology is prompted by the insights of the two- and three-factor theories of customer satisfaction, such as Kano's framework. Indeed, the evidence from 1635 customers of 6 Korean banks confirms an asymmetric relationship between attribute performances and overall customer satisfaction. The results from both a traditional and our revised approach are compared. While this approach can be applied across different industries, it should not be assumed that the numerical results presented in the paper apply to contexts with substantially different underlying characteristics. General trends and practical implications for banking services are reported in the conclusions.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.131-143
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• 2014

Purpose: This paper discusses the intrinsic assumption of one-dimensional relationship between the upper and lower levels in AHP(Analytic Hierarchy Process) for the Preliminary Feasibility Study of National R&D Program. This assumptions has not been questioned in academia and industry so far. Methods: This discussion is induced by understanding the Theory of Attractive Quality (Kano et al. 1984) and explains the limitation of AHP in the preliminary feasibility study of national R&D program. Results: In this paper, we propose a new questioning method based on two dimensional perspective, which is named as 2D-AHP (two dimensional AHP), to overcome the limitation. The main idea stems from the observation that the relationship between the upper and lower levels in AHP can vary depending on the subject of R&D. Conclusion: The two dimensional perspective pointed out in this paper should be more deeply studied in the field of MCDM(multi-criteria decision making) since it can be applied to the more general problems in human decision making.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.75-81
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• 2014

To establish a new creative economy, the worldwide efforts have been made to wriggle out the old economic paradigm after the financial crisis of 2008. When it comes to the limitation of the viability. the start up companies have a high risk of failure. Therefore business incubator (BI) should carry out the role to improve their viability. As for the maximization of the effect on the business incubating services as move in companies, it is important for BI to increase the level of business incubating services by the systemic and scientific measurement. This study showed that the quality of the BI center services was measured by Kano analysis and the previous research as follows. First, BI quality attribute by Timko's customer satisfaction came out into the attractive qualities on the 14 items that amount to the 70% of 20 business incubating services items. It is desirable to perform the strategy for the satisfaction. Secondly, basic business incubating services were interpreted as the one-dimensional quality like incubating spaces, parking facilities, security facilities, industry technology development funds, and incubating managers. Finally, training and educational service was recognized as indifferent quality. Futhermore, the improvement and the limitation of this study as well as the interpretation of analysis results are also provided.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.39-56
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• 2015

This study calculated the potential customer satisfaction improvement index (PCSI index) and average satisfaction coefficient (ASC) by categorizing quality attributes based on the Kano analysis for medical service quality. This study seeks to suggest ways to increase the efficiency of medical business management by determining priority to improve after applying the indexes to IPA. To achieve such purposes, this study conducted a survey on 150 outpatients of a premium general hospital and 200 workers in four different sections in the same hospital. As a result of the analysis, there was a difference in the awareness of service quality to improve patient satisfaction between the outpatients and workers. Therefore, the focus should be put on those items deemed important by the patients rather than those that the workers called attention to in order to effectively improve service quality. Along with efforts to alleviate or eliminate inconveniences experienced by patients, it is necessary to provide training programs for workers on customer reception and management such as delivering services with a kind manner and giving explanations in a proper and professional manner and exhibiting the right attitude.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.47-63
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• 2011

The rapid spread of the Smartphone usage among the public has brought great changes to the overall society. Aiming to gain their competitiveness with better Smartphone service quality, manufacturers are endeavoring to keep the pace with the popularization of mobile internet and social changes. Researches on the Smartphone service quality are actively undergoing in the academic circles as well. A great many of studies ranging from the past mobile services to the recent Smartphone services have thus far focused on proposing the systematic arrangement and the typology in terms of service quality, which in turn have provided the theoretical foundation and broaden the scope of comprehension. Besides technical aspects of the mobile and Smartphone services, the earlier studies in the behavioral domain, however, only took into considerations the positive aspect of users' satisfaction with the quality of services via new media devices like Smartphone. The rationale behind this mainly comes from the assumption that as the opposite definition of satisfaction is dissatisfaction, the services are not adopted if dissatisfied. However, it is not always true to conclude that service users are satisfied when the service is functionally fulfilled and dissatisfied otherwise. That is because there exist some cases that quality attributes provide satisfaction when achieved fully, but do not cause dissatisfaction when not fulfilled. And there also exist other cases that quality attributes are taken for granted when fulfilled but result in dissatisfaction when not fulfilled. To account this multi-dimensional feature of service quality attributes in relation with user satisfaction, this study took advantage of Kano model following the identification of a set of the Smartphone service quality attributes by investigating the previous studies. Categorizing of the service quality elements reflecting the customers' needs would perhaps help manage Smartphone service quality, enabling business managers to identify which quality attributes more emphasis to put on and what strategy to establish for the future.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.193-204
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• 2022

This study analyzed the degree of influence of measurement and improvement of customer satisfaction level targeting kiosk users. In modern times, due to the development of technology and the improvement of the online environment, the probability that simple labor tasks will disappear after 10 years is close to 90%. Even in domestic research, it is predicted that 'simple labor jobs' will disappear due to the influence of advanced technology with a probability of about 36%. there is. In particular, as the demand for non-face-to-face services increases due to the Corona 19 virus, which is recently spreading globally, the trend of introducing kiosks has accelerated, and the global market will grow to 83.5 billion won in 2021, showing an average annual growth rate of 8.9%. there is. However, due to the unmanned nature of these kiosks, some consumers still have difficulties in using them, and consumers who are not familiar with the use of these technologies have a negative attitude towards service co-producers due to rejection of non-face-to-face services and anxiety about service errors. Lack of understanding leads to role conflicts between sales clerks and consumers, or inequality is being created in terms of service provision and generations accustomed to using technology. In addition, since kiosk is a representative technology-based self-service industry, if the user feels uncomfortable or requires additional labor, the overall service value decreases and the growth of the kiosk industry itself can be suppressed. It is important. Therefore, interviews were conducted on the main points of direct use with actual users centered on display color scheme, text size, device design, device size, internal UI (interface), amount of information, recognition sensor (barcode, NFC, etc.), Display brightness, self-event, and reaction speed items were extracted. Afterwards, using the questionnaire, the Kano model quality attribute classification of each expected evaluation item was carried out, and Timko's customer satisfaction coefficient, which can be calculated with accurate numerical values The PCSI Index analysis was additionally performed to determine the improvement priorities by finally classifying the improvement impact of the kiosk expected evaluation items through research. As a result, the impact of improvement appears in the order of internal UI (interface), text size, recognition sensor (barcode, NFC, etc.), reaction speed, self-event, display brightness, amount of information, device size, device design, and display color scheme. Through this, we intend to contribute to a comprehensive comparison of kiosk-based research in each field and to set the direction for improvement in the venture industry.