• Title/Summary/Keyword: Key sharing

Search Result 611, Processing Time 0.025 seconds

Performance Analysis on Collaborative Activities of Multidisciplinary Research in Government Research Institutes (국가 출연연구소의 협업적 융합연구 성과 분석)

  • Cho, Yong-rae;Woo, Chung-won;Choi, Jong-hwa
    • Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
    • /
    • v.20 no.4
    • /
    • pp.1089-1121
    • /
    • 2017
  • 'Technological convergence' is the recent innovation trend which facilitates to solve social crux as well as to generate new industries. Korean government research institutes (GRIs) have taken a pivotal role for economic growth which capitalized on technology-oriented strategies. Recently, the policy interests on the transition of their role and mission towards multidisciplinary research organization is increasingly shed lights. This study regards the collaborative activities as one of the key success factors in the multidisciplinary research. In this sense, this study sets research purposes as follows: First, we intend to define a concept and to confine a scope of multidisciplinary research from the view point of R&D purposes and problem-solving process. Second, we categorize the collaboration and the relevant performances which reflect the characteristics of the multidisciplinary research. Third, we analyze the characteristics of collaborative activities and the effects of strength on the research performances. To this end, this study conducted a survey of 104 research project directors, which have experienced at least one of two types of multidisciplinary research projects through National R&D project or NST (National Research Council of Science & Technology) convergence research project. Then, we conducted regression analysis by utilizing the survey results in order to verify the relation between the collaborative activities and the performances. As results of analyses, first, the diversification of collaboration partners was a salient factor in the process of knowledge creation. Second, collective works among the researchers in similar area and domain enhanced mission-oriented technology development projects such as patent creation or technology transfer. Third, we verified that the diversity of created knowledge and the degree of relation continuity between researchers increased in the condition of guaranteeing individual researcher's independence and autonomy as well as sharing various technological capabilities. These results provide the future policy directions related to the methods to measure the collaboration and performance analysis for multidisciplinary research.

Case Study on the Enterprise Microblog Usage: Focusing on Knowledge Management Strategy (기업용 마이크로블로그의 사용행태에 대한 사례연구: 지식경영전략을 중심으로)

  • Kang, Min Su;Park, Arum;Lee, Kyoung-Jun
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
    • /
    • v.21 no.1
    • /
    • pp.47-63
    • /
    • 2015
  • As knowledge is paid attention as a new production factor that generates added value, studies continue to apply knowledge management to business environment. In addition, as ICT (Information Communication Technology) was engrafted in business environment, it leads to increasing task efficiency and productivity of individual workers. Accordingly, the way that a business achieves its goal has changed to one in which its individual members are willing to take part in the organization and share information to create new values (Han, 2003) and studies for the system and service to support such transition are carrying out. Of late, a new concept called 'Enterprise 2.0' newly appears. It is the extension of Wen 2.0 and its technology, which focus on participation, sharing and openness, to the work environment of a business (Jung, 2013). Enterprise 2.0 is being used as a collaborative tool to prop up individual creativity and group brain power by combining Web 2.0 technologies such as blog, Wiki, RSS and tag with business software (McAfee, 2006). As Tweeter gets popular, Enterprise Microblog (EMB), which is an example of Enterprise 2.0 for business, has been developed as equivalent to Tweeter in business circle and SaaS (Software as a Service) such as Yammer was introduced The studies of EMB mainly focus on demonstrating its usability in terms of intra-firm communication and knowledge management. However existing studies lean too much towards large-sized companies and certain departments, rather than a company as a whole. Therefore, few studies have been conducted on small and medium-sized companies that have difficulty preparing separate resources and supplying exclusive workforce to introduce knowledge management. In this respect, the present study placed its analytic focus on small-sized companies actually equipped with EMB to know how they use it. And, based on the findings, this study examined their knowledge management strategies for EMB from the point of codification and personalization. Hypothesis -"as a company grows, it shifts EMB strategy from codification to personalization'- was established on the basis of reviewing precedent studies and literature. To demonstrate the hypothesis, this study analyzed the usage of EMB by small companies that have used it from foundation. For case study, the duration of the use was divided into 2 spans and longitudinal analysis was employed to examine the contents of the blogs. Using the key findings of the analysis, this study is aimed to propose practical implications for the operation of knowledge management of small-sized company and the suitable application of knowledge management system for operation Knowledge Management Strategy can be classified by codification strategy and personalization strategy (Hansen et. al., 1999), and how to manage the two strategies were always studied. Also, current studies regarding the knowledge management strategy were targeted mostly for major companies, resulting in lack of studies in how it can be applied on SMEs. This research, with the knowledge management strategy suited for SMEs, sets an Enterprise Microblog (EMB), and with the EMB applied on SMEs' Knowledge Management Strategy, it is reviewed on the perspective of SMEs' Codification and Personalization Strategies. Through the advanced research regarding Knowledge Management Strategy and EMB, the hypothesis is set that "Depending on the development of the company, the main application of EMB alters from Codification Strategy to Personalization Strategy". To check the hypothesis, SME that have used the EMB called 'Yammer' was analyzed from the date of their foundation until today. The case study has implemented longitudinal analysis which divides the period when the EMBs were used into three stages and analyzes the contents. As the result of the study, this suggests a substantial implication regarding the application of Knowledge Management Strategy and its Knowledge Management System that is suitable for SME.

A Study on Improvement of Laws regarding Welfare for the Aged (노인복지 관련법제의 발전방향)

  • Park, Ji-Soon
    • Journal of Legislation Research
    • /
    • no.41
    • /
    • pp.87-123
    • /
    • 2011
  • Korea is expected to become an 'aged society' with more than 14 percent of the public aged 65 years or more by 2018. The rapid aging is giving rise to various problems within the society along with falling birthrate in a short period of time. In this context, the role and function of laws on welfare for the aged must be particularly emphasized. Also the Senior Citizens Welfare Act is of great importance as it provides social welfare service on the basis of functional connection with social insurance and public assistance. First, this paper looks into the history of laws related to welfare for the elderly such as the Senior Welfare Act, the Act on Long-term Care Insurance for Senior Citizens and the Basic Old Age Pension Act as well as the findings of earlier studies. In the second place, it will break down such laws by main components aiming to examine details of the laws and questions raised regarding them and to seek ways to achieve improvement with an emphasis on health care, old age income security, housing welfare(assisted living facilities), job security for the aged. The Senior Welfare Act offers substance of social welfare service for the elderly. Income security, health and medical care, welfare measures through long-term care and assisted living facilities, social participation by working are the key elements and all of them should be closely associated to ensure citizens get sufficient public support in their old age. For this purpose, the Senior Welfare Act is under a normative network with laws such as Act on Long-term Care Insurance for Senior Citizens and Basic Old Age Pension Act. Current laws on welfare for the aged including Senior Welfare Act are not sufficiently responsive to the aged society of the 21st century. Income security combined with decent social participation, health and medical care closely connected with long-term care system, efficient expense sharing between government and local government, enhancement of effectiveness of welfare measures can be considered as means to improve current welfare system so that the elderly can enjoy their old age with dignity and respect.

A Study on the Direction of Human Identity and Dignity Education in the AI Era. (AI시대, 인간의 정체성과 존엄성 교육의 방향)

  • Seo, Mikyoung
    • Journal of Christian Education in Korea
    • /
    • v.67
    • /
    • pp.157-194
    • /
    • 2021
  • The issue of AI's ethical consciousness has been constantly on the rise. AI learns and imitates everything behavior human beings do, just like a child. Therefore, the ethical consciousness we currently demand from AI is first the ethical consciousness required of humans, and at the center of it is the dignity of humans. Thus, this study analyzed human identity and its problems according to the development of AI technology, apologized the theological premises and characteristics of human dignity, and sought the direction of human dignity education as follows. First, this study discussed the development of AI and its relation to human beings. The development of AI's technology has led to the sharing of "reason or intelligence" with machines called AI which have been restricted to the exclusive property of mankind. This raised the question of the superior humanity which humans would be remained to be distinguished from AI machines. Second, this study discussed transhumanism and human identity. Transhumanism has been argued for the combination of AI machines and humans in order to improve inefficient human intelligence and human capabilities. However, the combination of AI machines with humans raised the issue of human identity. In the AI era, human identity is to believe thoughts that God had when he built us. Third, this study apologized theological premise and characteristic about human dignity. Human dignity has become a key concept of the constitution and international human rights treaties around the world. Nonetheless, declarative conviction that human is dignified is difficult to be understanded without Christian theological premise. Theological premise of human dignity lies on the fact that human is dignified feature being granted life by Heavenly Father. This feature lies on longing for "Goodness" and "eternality", pursuit of beauty, a happy being in relationship with others. Fourth, this study presented the direction of human dignity education. The direction of human dignity education has to awaken what is identity of human and how human beings were created and how much they are precious. Furthermore, it lead human to ponder consciously and accept the highest value of what human beings are, how they were created, and how precious they are. That is about educating human identity, and its core is that regardless of the circumstances - the wealth gap, knowledge level, skin color, gender, age, disability, etc. - all people are in God's image and for the glory of God, thereby being very important to God.

The Formation and Types of Business Archives m Germany (독일 경제아카이브즈의 형성과 유형)

  • Kim, Young-Ae
    • The Korean Journal of Archival Studies
    • /
    • no.8
    • /
    • pp.137-180
    • /
    • 2003
  • The term 'Business Archives' is not familiar with us in our society. Some cases can be found that materials are collected for publishing the history of a firm on commemoration of some decades of its foundation. However, the appropriate management of these collected materials doesn't seem to be followed in most of companies. The Records and archives management is inevitable in order to maximize the utility of Information and knowledge in the business world. The interest in records management has been grown, especially in the fields of business management and information technology. However, the importance of business archives hasn't been conceived yet. And also no attention has been paid to the business archives as social resources and the responsibility of the society as a whole for their preservation. The company archives doesn't have a long history in Germany although the archives of the nation, the aristocracy, communes and churches have a long tradition. However the company archives of Krupps which was established in 1905, is regarded as the first business archives in the world, It means that Germany has taken a key role to lead the culture of business archives. This paper focuses on the process of the establishment of business archives in Germany and its characteristics. The business archives in Germany can be categorized in three types: company archives, regional business archives and branch archives. It must be noted here that each type of these was generated in the context of the accumulation of the social resources and its effective use. A company archives is established by an individual company for the preservation of and use of the archives that originated in the company. The holdings in the company archives can be used as materials for decision making of policies, reporting, advertising, training of employees etc. They function not only as sources inside the company, but also as raw sources for the scholars, contributing to the study of the social-economic history. Some archives of German companies are known as a center of research. A regional business archives manages materials which originated m commerce chambers, associations and companies in a certain region. There are 6 regional business archives in Germany. They collect business archives which aren't kept in a proper way or are under pressure of damage in the region for which they are responsible. They are also open to the public offering the sources for the study of economic history, social history like company archives, so that they also play a central role as a research center. Branch business archives appeared relatively late in Germany. The first one is established in Bochum in 1969. Its general duties and goals are almost similar with ones of other two types of archives. It has differences in two aspects. One is that the responsibility of the branch business archives covers all the country, while regional business archives collects archives in a particular region. The other is that a branch business archives collects materials from a single industry. For example, the holdings of Bochum archives are related with the mining industry. The mining industry-specialized Bochum archives is run as an organization in combination with a museum, which is called as German mine museum, so that it plays a role as a cultural center with the functions of exhibition and research. The three types of German business archives have their own functions but they are also closely related each other under the German Association of Business Archivists. They are sharing aims to preserve primary materials with historical values in the field of economy and also contribute to keeping the archives as a social resources by having feed back with the public, which leads the archives to be a center of information and research. The German case shows that business archives in a society should be preserved not only for the interest of the companies, but also for the utilities of social resources. It also shows us how business archives could be preserved as a social resource. It is expected that some studies which approach more deeply on this topic will be followed based on the considerations from the German case.

Mohist's Idea of YiLi and Jianai (묵가의 의리관(義利觀)과 겸애(兼愛))

  • Lee, Taesung;Yun, Muhak
    • (The)Study of the Eastern Classic
    • /
    • no.67
    • /
    • pp.297-325
    • /
    • 2017
  • In this paper, the ideological features of Mohism were examined through the analysis into the viewpoint of Mohism on justice and benefit and "universal love" based on it. Even before the viewpoint on justice and benefit became a main agenda in Confucianism, Mohism and the Hundred Schools of Thought, there had been discussions on it, and the relation between "justice" and "benefit" was generally understood as that of means and ends(本末) or that of the thing and its functions(體用). What succeeded to this tendency and set it as an individual's moral standard was the viewpoint of Confucianism including Confucius. Of course, the Confucian view was focused on the politicians or leaders of those times. Compared to which, Mohism represented the stance of their group members and pursued the interest of groups and the society rather than that of individuals. Accordingly, while Confucianism considered "justice" more important than "benefit", Mohism could understand both of them unificatively. The crucial reason why Mohism could be most active during the Warring States Period is that it had its metaphysical basis on "the disposition of Providence." Accompanying this, the viewpoint of Mohism on justice and benefit was internally reflected in its key arguments including "universal love." That is so-called "Jianxiangai, Jiaoxiangli", that is to say, "that loving each other is namely benefiting each other." On the other hand, the fact that the viewpoint of Mohism on justice and benefit, and furthermore, the ideological foundation of its ten main arguments including universal love was "the disposition of Providence" became a double-edged sword. It was because it could be easily accepted by the laborers, farmers, and craftsmen consisting of Mohism of those times, but it instead became the reason for falling into ruins since the establishment of the feudal empire of Qin and Han(秦漢). In the feudal empire, the ideology and activities of Mohism as an individual group couldn't be embraced. For example, the way to set "Heaven"(the heavenly king) above "the sovereign ruler" might be a decisive limit to the legitimacy and rationality of the regime. Moreover, the arguments by Mohism, such as "Jieyong", "Jiezang", "Feiyue" and others couldn't be taken easily by the privileged class. Therefore, Mohism couldn't do any activities as an academic school until Seojedongjeom(西勢東漸) during the Qing dynasty later, and it was different from Confucianism. In brief, ideas of Mohism including universal love ended up as an utopian idea historically, but the conception of sharing mutual interest along with mutual love and consideration with Confucianism from the position of the relatively disadvantaged in the society has a value worthy of being appreciated even today.

Research Trends in The Journal of Daesoon Academy of Sciences : 『The Journal of Daesoon』 Vol.1-Vol.25 (1996~2015) (『대순사상논총』의 연구 동향에 관한 연구- 『대순사상논총』 1집-25집(1996~2015) -)

  • Chang, In-ho
    • Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
    • /
    • v.27
    • /
    • pp.201-243
    • /
    • 2016
  • This paper analyzes the research trends from 358 scholarly articles published in the Journal of Daesoon Academy of Sciences from the first published journal in 1996 to the most recent journal published on the 25th of 2015 and proposes ideas for improvement. First of all, "The Journal of Daesoon Academy of Sciences" does not meet the standards required by the National Research Foundation, falling short of the most important conditions for the registration such as the periodicity and punctuality expected from academic journals. Furthermore, in terms of the Bibliometrical analysis, the number of articles published by the journal is decreasing and the consistency, with regards to rules and principles regulating publication details and bibliography formats, is nonexistent. Although various authors seemed to be meeting these criteria on the surface, the ratio of co-authored articles is too small. Securing researchers specializing in Daesoon Thought for expanding the size of the journal is important, but it is also important to diversify the research topics through exchanging ideas among researchers from various organizations. Here are some ideas for the improvement of the Journal of Daesoon Academy of Sciences: First, in order to meet the standards for punctuality and periodicity, it would be best to publish the journal twice a year with 12 to 15 articles. Second, the journal must become searchable through the creation of a database. Third, the key words and abstracts of articles must be written in Korean and English to facilitate the sharing of articles among researchers. Fourth, the journal must have a diverse and outstanding editorial board which takes into account the geographical situations of its board members. Fifth, the Journal must include articles on relevant topics that reflect the core topics of the Daesoon Thought and other studies. Sixth, articles must have a front page that contains bibliographical items to convey information to the reader. Seventh, it is essential that the journal have a clear publication date detailing the year, month, and day as well as a standard numbering scheme (i.e, Vol. and no).

About the Multi-layered Communication of Princess Pari on the Webtoon Platform of Daum -Focusing on Analysis of Narrative Structure and Comments (Daum 웹툰 <바리공주>를 통해 본 고전 기반 웹툰 콘텐츠의 다층적 대화 양상 -서사구조와 댓글 분석을 중심으로)

  • Choe, Key-Sook
    • Journal of Popular Narrative
    • /
    • v.25 no.3
    • /
    • pp.303-345
    • /
    • 2019
  • This article analyzes the multi-layered communication in the Webtoon Princess Pari, released on the Daum portal site, created (written and illustrated) by Kim Naim, through analyzing the narrative structure and comments with the qualitative / quantitative methodology. The webtoon Princess Pari is structured in an omnibus style in which unit narratives are intermittently articulated, multi-lined, and interconnected. As integrated narratives which link with unitary narratives, Pari's growth story as a shaman and a romance narrative are structured. The classical original story of the shaman was used as a prehistory corresponding to the prequel of the webtoon through a preview, and the writer restructured the narrative to overcome the contradictions of the gender asymmetry and the patriarchal ideology of the original text. The viewer then creates a conversational space by giving critical and reflective comments. According to a statistical analysis conducted through sampling, the types of comments can be classified as follows: Appreciation and criticism of the contents ≫ Emotional response ≫ Intuitive overall review ≫ Knowledge and reflection ≫ Comments on comments. In the process of creation and acceptance of the Webtoon, a multi-layered dialogue between classical and modern, content and audience, acceptance and creation has been at play. In the creation dimension, the writer used a device to fill the gap of mythical symbols of the contents. At the level of the audience, they formed a culture of sharing information, knowledge, and reflection about tradition/folk/culture through comments. This corresponds to classical and modern dialogue through the webtoon. The viewers form a sympathetic bond, attempt hermeneutical coordination, supplement the information, and search for a balanced angle through controversial conversation. In addition, by commenting on attitudes, views, and perspective, the commentators showed a behavioral pattern corresponding to meta-criticism in literature. The viewers' comments acted as feedback on the creation of the webtoons, so that the creation and acceptance itself influenced the production of the content of the webtoon. The webtoon Princess Pari, which was based on Korean classical narrative, has been reorganized onto 'moving and dynamic' content, which leads to sense, thinking, criticism and reflection through the formation of various dialogues.

The Impact of Human Resource Innovativeness, Learning Orientation, and Their Interaction on Innovation Effect and Business Performance : Comparison of Small and Medium-Sized vs. Large-Sized Companies (인적자원의 혁신성, 학습지향성, 이들의 상호작용이 혁신효과 및 사업성과에 미치는 영향 : 중소기업과 대기업의 비교연구)

  • Yoh, Eunah
    • Korean small business review
    • /
    • v.31 no.2
    • /
    • pp.19-37
    • /
    • 2009
  • The purpose of this research is to explore differences between small and medium-sized companies and large-sized companies in the impact of human resource innovativeness(HRI), learning orientation(LO), and HRI-LO interaction on innovation effect and business performance. Although learning orientation has long been considered as a key factor influencing good performance of a business, little research was devoted to exploring the effect of HRI-LO interaction on innovation effect and business performance. In this study, it is investigated whether there is a synergy effect between innovative human workforce and learning orientation corporate culture, in addition to each by itself, to generate good business performance as well as a success of new innovations in the market. Research hypotheses were as follows, including H1) human resource innovativeness(HRI), learning orientation(LO), and interactions of HRI and LO(HRI-LO interaction) positively affect innovation effect, H2) there is a difference of the effect of HRI, LO, and HRI-LO interaction on innovation effect between large-sized and small-sized companies, H3) HRI, LO, HRI-LO interaction, innovation effect positively affect business performance, and H4) there is a difference of the effect of HRI, LO, HRI-LO interaction, and innovation effect on business performance between large-sized and small-sized companies. Data were obtained from 479 practitioners through a web survey since the web survey is an efficient method to collect a national data at a variety of fields. A single respondent from a company was allowed to participate in the study after checking whether they have more than 5-year work experiences in the company. To check whether a common source bias is existed in the sample, additional data from a convenient sample of 97 companies were gathered through the traditional survey method, and were used to confirm correlations between research variables of the original sample and the additional sample. Data were divided into two groups according to company size, such as 352 small and medium-sized companies with less than 300 employees and 127 large-sized companies with 300 or more employees. Data were analyzed through t-test and regression analyses. HRI which is the innovativeness of human resources in the company was measured with 9 items assessing the innovativenss of practitioners in staff, manager, and executive-level positions. LO is the company's effort to encourage employees' development, sharing, and utilizing of knowledge through consistent learning. LO was measured by 18 items assessing commitment to learning, vision sharing, and open-mindedness. Innovation effect which assesses a success of new products/services in the market, was measured with 3 items. Business performance was measured by respondents' evaluations on profitability, sales increase, market share, and general business performance, compared to other companies in the same field. All items were measured by using 6-point Likert scales. Means of multiple items measuring a construct were used as variables based on acceptable reliability and validity. To reduce multi-collinearity problems generated on the regression analysis of interaction terms, centered data were used for HRI, LO, and Innovation effect on regression analyses. In group comparison, large-sized companies were superior on annual sales, annual net profit, the number of new products/services in the last 3 years, the number of new processes advanced in the last 3 years, and the number of R&D personnel, compared to small and medium-sized companies. Also, large-sized companies indicated a higher level of HRI, LO, HRI-LO interaction, innovation effect and business performance than did small and medium-sized companies. The results indicate that large-sized companies tend to have more innovative human resources and invest more on learning orientation than did small-sized companies, therefore, large-sized companies tend to have more success of a new product/service in the market, generating better business performance. In order to test research hypotheses, a series of multiple-regression analysis was conducted. In the regression analysis examining the impact on innovation effect, important results were generated as : 1) HRI, LO, and HRI-LO affected innovation effect, and 2) company size indicated a moderating effect. Based on the result, the impact of HRI on innovation effect would be greater in small and medium-sized companies than in large-sized companies whereas the impact of LO on innovation effect would be greater in large-sized companies than in small and medium-sized companies. In other words, innovative workforce would be more important in making new products/services that would be successful in the market for small and medium-sized companies than for large-sized companies. Otherwise, learning orientation culture would be more effective in making successful products/services for large-sized companies than for small and medium-sized companies. Based on these results, research hypotheses 1 and 2 were supported. In the analysis of a regression examining the impact on business performance, important results were generated as : 1) innovation effect, LO, and HRI-LO affected business performance, 2) HRI by itself did not have a direct effect on business performance regardless of company size, and 3) company size indicated a moderating effect. Specifically, an effect of the HRI-LO interaction on business performance was stronger in large-sized companies than in small and medium-sized companies. It means that the synergy effect of innovative human resources and learning orientation culture tends to be stronger as company is larger. Referring to these result, research hypothesis 3 was partially supported whereas hypothesis 4 was supported. Based on research results, implications for companies were generated. Regardless of company size, companies need to develop the learning orientation corporate culture as well as human resources' innovativeness together in order to achieve successful development of innovative products and services as well as to improve sales and profits. However, the effectiveness of the HRI-LO interaction would be varied by company size. Specifically, the synergy effect of HRI-LO was stronger to make a success of new products/services in small and medium-sized companies than in large-sized companies. However, the synergy effect of HRI-LO was more effective to increase business performance of large-sized companies than that of small and medium-sized companies. In the case of small and medium-sized companies, business performance was achieved more through the success of new products/services than much directly affected by HRI-LO. The most meaningful result of this study is that the effect of HRI-LO interaction on innovation effect and business performance was confirmed. It was often ignored in the previous research. Also, it was found that the innovativeness of human workforce would not directly influence in generating good business performance, however, innovative human resources would indirectly affect making good business performance by contributing to achieving the development of new products/services that would be successful in the market. These findings would provide valuable managerial implications specifically in regard to the development of corporate culture and education program of small and medium-sized as well as large-sized companies in a variety of fields.

Resolving the 'Gray sheep' Problem Using Social Network Analysis (SNA) in Collaborative Filtering (CF) Recommender Systems (소셜 네트워크 분석 기법을 활용한 협업필터링의 특이취향 사용자(Gray Sheep) 문제 해결)

  • Kim, Minsung;Im, Il
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
    • /
    • v.20 no.2
    • /
    • pp.137-148
    • /
    • 2014
  • Recommender system has become one of the most important technologies in e-commerce in these days. The ultimate reason to shop online, for many consumers, is to reduce the efforts for information search and purchase. Recommender system is a key technology to serve these needs. Many of the past studies about recommender systems have been devoted to developing and improving recommendation algorithms and collaborative filtering (CF) is known to be the most successful one. Despite its success, however, CF has several shortcomings such as cold-start, sparsity, gray sheep problems. In order to be able to generate recommendations, ordinary CF algorithms require evaluations or preference information directly from users. For new users who do not have any evaluations or preference information, therefore, CF cannot come up with recommendations (Cold-star problem). As the numbers of products and customers increase, the scale of the data increases exponentially and most of the data cells are empty. This sparse dataset makes computation for recommendation extremely hard (Sparsity problem). Since CF is based on the assumption that there are groups of users sharing common preferences or tastes, CF becomes inaccurate if there are many users with rare and unique tastes (Gray sheep problem). This study proposes a new algorithm that utilizes Social Network Analysis (SNA) techniques to resolve the gray sheep problem. We utilize 'degree centrality' in SNA to identify users with unique preferences (gray sheep). Degree centrality in SNA refers to the number of direct links to and from a node. In a network of users who are connected through common preferences or tastes, those with unique tastes have fewer links to other users (nodes) and they are isolated from other users. Therefore, gray sheep can be identified by calculating degree centrality of each node. We divide the dataset into two, gray sheep and others, based on the degree centrality of the users. Then, different similarity measures and recommendation methods are applied to these two datasets. More detail algorithm is as follows: Step 1: Convert the initial data which is a two-mode network (user to item) into an one-mode network (user to user). Step 2: Calculate degree centrality of each node and separate those nodes having degree centrality values lower than the pre-set threshold. The threshold value is determined by simulations such that the accuracy of CF for the remaining dataset is maximized. Step 3: Ordinary CF algorithm is applied to the remaining dataset. Step 4: Since the separated dataset consist of users with unique tastes, an ordinary CF algorithm cannot generate recommendations for them. A 'popular item' method is used to generate recommendations for these users. The F measures of the two datasets are weighted by the numbers of nodes and summed to be used as the final performance metric. In order to test performance improvement by this new algorithm, an empirical study was conducted using a publically available dataset - the MovieLens data by GroupLens research team. We used 100,000 evaluations by 943 users on 1,682 movies. The proposed algorithm was compared with an ordinary CF algorithm utilizing 'Best-N-neighbors' and 'Cosine' similarity method. The empirical results show that F measure was improved about 11% on average when the proposed algorithm was used

    . Past studies to improve CF performance typically used additional information other than users' evaluations such as demographic data. Some studies applied SNA techniques as a new similarity metric. This study is novel in that it used SNA to separate dataset. This study shows that performance of CF can be improved, without any additional information, when SNA techniques are used as proposed. This study has several theoretical and practical implications. This study empirically shows that the characteristics of dataset can affect the performance of CF recommender systems. This helps researchers understand factors affecting performance of CF. This study also opens a door for future studies in the area of applying SNA to CF to analyze characteristics of dataset. In practice, this study provides guidelines to improve performance of CF recommender systems with a simple modification.