• Title/Summary/Keyword: Least Square Method

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Repeatabilities and Correlations among Average Daily Gain, Backfat Thickness and Lean Percent in Swine (검정종료돈의 체중변화에 따른 일당중체량, 등지방두께 및 정육율의 반복력과 상관)

  • Kim, H.C.;Kim, B.W.;Song, K.L.;Oh, H.S.;Son, C.J.;Ha, D.W.;Lee, J.G.
    • Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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    • v.44 no.5
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    • pp.523-530
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    • 2002
  • Repeatabilities and Correlations among Average Daily Gain, Backfat Thickness and Lean Percent in Swine The repeatability, correlation and rank correlation coefficients among average daily gain, backfat thickness and lean percent were estimated on the basis of records tested from August 1999 to February 2000 with 695 pigs of Duroc, Landrace and Yorkshire boars and gilts tested at 2nd Korea Swine Test Station located in Ha-dong, Kyeongnam Province. The effect of the sex, breed and month of measured were estimated by the least square method. The repeatabilities were estimated from the component of variance among repeated measurements of the trait for the same animal. The results obtained are summarized as follow ; 1. The means of the major economic traits studied were 142.1 days, 173.7 days and 182.5 days for age at 1st, 2nd and 3rd measure, 57.9%, 56.2% and 55.2% for lean percent at 1st, 2nd and 3rd measure, 1.33cm, 1.61cm and 1.63cm for backfat thickness at 1st, 2nd and 3rd measure, 946.6g, 879.2g and 879.4g for average daily gain at 1st, 2nd and 3rd measure, respectively. 2. The correlation coefficients between the backfat thicknesses measured at 1st and 2nd, at 2nd and 3rd, at 1st and 3rd were 0.424, 0.700 and 1.424, respectively. The correlation coefficients between the lean percent measured at 1st and 2nd, at 2nd and 3rd, at 1st and 3rd were 0.493, 0.619 and 0.471, respectively. The correlation coefficients between the average daily gain measured at 1st and 2nd, at 2nd and 3rd, at 1st and 3rd were 0.716, 0.861 and 0.601, respectively. 3. The rank correlation coefficients between backfat thickness measured at 1st and 2nd, at 2nd and 3rd, at 1st and 3rd were 0.438, 0.693 and 0.441, respectively. The rank correlation coefficients between lean percent measured at 1st and 2nd, at 2nd and 3rd, at 1st and 3rd were 0.508, 0.593 and 0.478, respectively. The rank correlation coefficients between average daily gain measured at 1st and 2nd, at 2nd and 3rd, at 1st and 3rd were 0.704, 0.834 and 0.571, respectively. 4. The estimated repeatabilities of the traits studied were 0.428 for the lean percent, 0.374 for the backfat thickness and 0.673 for the average daily gain, respectively.

Factors Influencing the Adoption of Location-Based Smartphone Applications: An Application of the Privacy Calculus Model (스마트폰 위치기반 어플리케이션의 이용의도에 영향을 미치는 요인: 프라이버시 계산 모형의 적용)

  • Cha, Hoon S.
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.22 no.4
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    • pp.7-29
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    • 2012
  • Smartphone and its applications (i.e. apps) are increasingly penetrating consumer markets. According to a recent report from Korea Communications Commission, nearly 50% of mobile subscribers in South Korea are smartphone users that accounts for over 25 million people. In particular, the importance of smartphone has risen as a geospatially-aware device that provides various location-based services (LBS) equipped with GPS capability. The popular LBS include map and navigation, traffic and transportation updates, shopping and coupon services, and location-sensitive social network services. Overall, the emerging location-based smartphone apps (LBA) offer significant value by providing greater connectivity, personalization, and information and entertainment in a location-specific context. Conversely, the rapid growth of LBA and their benefits have been accompanied by concerns over the collection and dissemination of individual users' personal information through ongoing tracking of their location, identity, preferences, and social behaviors. The majority of LBA users tend to agree and consent to the LBA provider's terms and privacy policy on use of location data to get the immediate services. This tendency further increases the potential risks of unprotected exposure of personal information and serious invasion and breaches of individual privacy. To address the complex issues surrounding LBA particularly from the user's behavioral perspective, this study applied the privacy calculus model (PCM) to explore the factors that influence the adoption of LBA. According to PCM, consumers are engaged in a dynamic adjustment process in which privacy risks are weighted against benefits of information disclosure. Consistent with the principal notion of PCM, we investigated how individual users make a risk-benefit assessment under which personalized service and locatability act as benefit-side factors and information privacy risks act as a risk-side factor accompanying LBA adoption. In addition, we consider the moderating role of trust on the service providers in the prohibiting effects of privacy risks on user intention to adopt LBA. Further we include perceived ease of use and usefulness as additional constructs to examine whether the technology acceptance model (TAM) can be applied in the context of LBA adoption. The research model with ten (10) hypotheses was tested using data gathered from 98 respondents through a quasi-experimental survey method. During the survey, each participant was asked to navigate the website where the experimental simulation of a LBA allows the participant to purchase time-and-location sensitive discounted tickets for nearby stores. Structural equations modeling using partial least square validated the instrument and the proposed model. The results showed that six (6) out of ten (10) hypotheses were supported. On the subject of the core PCM, H2 (locatability ${\rightarrow}$ intention to use LBA) and H3 (privacy risks ${\rightarrow}$ intention to use LBA) were supported, while H1 (personalization ${\rightarrow}$ intention to use LBA) was not supported. Further, we could not any interaction effects (personalization X privacy risks, H4 & locatability X privacy risks, H5) on the intention to use LBA. In terms of privacy risks and trust, as mentioned above we found the significant negative influence from privacy risks on intention to use (H3), but positive influence from trust, which supported H6 (trust ${\rightarrow}$ intention to use LBA). The moderating effect of trust on the negative relationship between privacy risks and intention to use LBA was tested and confirmed by supporting H7 (privacy risks X trust ${\rightarrow}$ intention to use LBA). The two hypotheses regarding to the TAM, including H8 (perceived ease of use ${\rightarrow}$ perceived usefulness) and H9 (perceived ease of use ${\rightarrow}$ intention to use LBA) were supported; however, H10 (perceived effectiveness ${\rightarrow}$ intention to use LBA) was not supported. Results of this study offer the following key findings and implications. First the application of PCM was found to be a good analysis framework in the context of LBA adoption. Many of the hypotheses in the model were confirmed and the high value of $R^2$ (i.,e., 51%) indicated a good fit of the model. In particular, locatability and privacy risks are found to be the appropriate PCM-based antecedent variables. Second, the existence of moderating effect of trust on service provider suggests that the same marginal change in the level of privacy risks may differentially influence the intention to use LBA. That is, while the privacy risks increasingly become important social issues and will negatively influence the intention to use LBA, it is critical for LBA providers to build consumer trust and confidence to successfully mitigate this negative impact. Lastly, we could not find sufficient evidence that the intention to use LBA is influenced by perceived usefulness, which has been very well supported in most previous TAM research. This may suggest that more future research should examine the validity of applying TAM and further extend or modify it in the context of LBA or other similar smartphone apps.

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The Reinforcing Mechanism of Sustaining Participations in Open Source Software Developers: Based on Social Identity Theory and Organizational Citizenship Behavior Theory (오픈 소스 개발자들의 참여 의도 강화 기제 및 참여 지속 의도에 관한 연구: 사회 정체성 이론과 조직시민행동 이론에 기반하여)

  • Choi, Junghong;Choi, Joohee;Lee, Hye Sun;Hwangbo, Hwan;Lee, Inseong;Kim, Jinwoo
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.23 no.3
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    • pp.1-23
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    • 2013
  • Open Source Software Development (OSSD) differentiates itself from traditional closed software development in that it reveals its source codes online and allows anyone to participate in projects. Even though its success was in doubt, many of the open collaborative working models produced successful results. Academia started to get interested in how developers are willing to participate even when there are no extrinsic rewards for their efforts. Many studies tried to explain developers' motivations, and the pursuit of ideology, reputation, and altruism are found to be the answers. Those studies, however, focused mostly on how the first contribution is made out of a certain motivation. Nowadays, OSSD reaches at its maturity and 70% of professional developers have used or utilized open source software or code in their works. As the proportion of people experiencing OSS, the accounts from previous studies are expected to be weakened. Also, extant literature fails to explain how the motivation of participating in OSS evolves over time and experiences. Given that changing over time or over experiences is the natural in the perception of motivation, studies in an attempt to understand how the motivation changes or evolves are in need. In this study, we aimed to explain how the perception about OSS from past usage or related experiences leads to the intention to sustain OSS participations. By doing so, we try to bridge the gap between previous studies and the actual phenomenon. We argued that perceived instrumentality about OSS learned from past experiences will first affect the formation of organizational identity towards general OSS community. And once the organizational identity is formed, it will affect the one's following behaviors related to OSS development, most likely to sustain the favoring stance toward OSS community. Our research distinguishes itself from previous one in that it divides the paths from organizational identity formed to the intention to sustain the voluntary helping behaviors, by altruistic and conforming intentions. Drawing on this structural model, we could explain how organizational identity engages in forming the sustaining intention from past experiences, and that the intention to help at individual level and organizational level works at different level in OSS community. We grounded our arguments on Social identity theory and Organizational Citizenship theory. We examined our assumption by constructing a structural equation model (SEM) and had 88 developers to answer our online surveys. The result is analyzed by PLS (partial least square) method. Consequently, all paths but one in our model are supported, the one which assumed the association between perceived instrumentality and altruistic intention. Our results provide directions in designing online collaborative platforms where open access collaboration is meant to occur. Theoretically, our study suggests that organizational citizenship behavior can occur from organizational identity, even in bottom-up organizational settings. More specifically, we also argue to consider both organizational level and individual level of motivation in inducing sustained participations within the platforms. Our result can be interpreted to indicate the importance of forming organizational identity in sustaining the participatory behaviors. It is because there was no direct association between perceived instrumentality from past experiences and altruistic behavior, but the perception of organizational identity bridges the two constructs. This means that people with no organizational identity can sustain their participations through conforming intention from only the perception of instrumentality, but it needs little more than that for the people to feel the intention to directly help someone in the community-first to form the self-identity as a member of the given community.

The Molecular Weight Dependance of Paramagnetic Gd-chelates on T1 and T2 Relaxation Times (상자성 복합체의 분자량에 따른 T1 및 T2 자기이완시간에 관한 연구)

  • Kim In-Sung;Lee Young-Ju;Kim Ju-Hyun;Sujit Dutta;Kim Suk-Kyung;Kim Tae-Jeong;Kang Duk-Sik;Chang Yong-Min
    • Progress in Medical Physics
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    • v.17 no.2
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    • pp.61-66
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    • 2006
  • To evaluate the T1, T2 magnetic relaxation properties of water molecule according to molecular weight of paramagnetic complex. 4-aminomethyicyclohexane carboxylic acid (0.63 g, 4 mmol) was mixed with the suspension solution of DMF (15 ml) and DTPA-bis-anhydride (0.71 g, 2 mmol) to synthesize the ligand. The ligand was then mixed with $Gd_2O_3$ (0.18 g, 0.5 mmol) to synthesize Gd-chelate. For the measurement of magnetic relaxivity of paramagnetic compounds, the compounds were diluted to 1 mM and then the relaxation times were measured at 1.57 (64 MHz). Inversion-recovery pulse sequence was employed for T1 relaxation measurement and CPMG (Carr-Purcell-Meiboon-Gill) pulse sequence was employed for T2 relaxation measurement. In case of inversion recovery sequence, total 35 images with different inversion time(T1)s ranging from 50 msec to 1,750 msec. To estimate the relaxation times, the signal intensity of each sample was measured using region of Interest (ROI) and then fitted by non-linear least square method to yield T1, T2 relaxation times and also R1 and R2. Compared to T1=($205.1{\pm}2.57$) msec and T2=($209.4{\pm}4.28$) msec of Omniscan (Gadodiamide), which is commercially available paramagnetic MR agent, T1 and T2 values of new paramagnetic complexes were reduced along with their molecular weight. That is, T1 value was ranged from $(96.35{\pm}2.04)\;to\;(79.38{\pm}1.55)$ msec and T2 value was ranged from $(91.02{\pm}2.08)\;to\;(76.66{\pm}1.84)$ msec. Among new paramagnetic complexes, there is a tendency that the R1 and R2 increase as the molecular weight is increases. As molecular weight of paramagnetic complex increases, T1 and T2 relaxation times reduce and thus the increase of relaxivity (R1 and R2) Is proportional to molecular weight.

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Seasonal sea Level oscillations in the East Sea (Sea of Japan) (동해 해수면의 계절적인 변동에 대하여)

  • OH, IM SANG;RABINOVICH, ALEXANDER B.;PARK, MYOUNG SOOK;MANSUROV, ROALD N.
    • 한국해양학회지
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    • v.28 no.1
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    • pp.1-16
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    • 1993
  • The monthly mean sea levels at 48 stations located at the East and Yellow Seas coasts of Korea, Russia and Japan are processed to investigate seasonal sea level variations. The strong seasonal variations are found to be at the west coast of Korea (42.1 cm in Kunsan), in the region of the Korea strait and near the southern part of Primorye (30-33 cm); the weak ones near the southwestern coast of the Sakhalin Island (10-12 cm). Practically for the whole study area except the southwest Sakhalin, the general picture of the seasonal sea level changes is alike: the mean sea level rises in summer-autumn and falls in winter-spring. The spectral analysis of the records also shows that the seasonal oscillations strongly dominate in the sea level variations, more than 80% or total energy in the southern part of the investigated region and 50-70% in the northern part relate to these oscillations. The annal peak significantly prevails in spectra of the monthly sea levels for the majority of stations, the semiannual peak is also well manifested, but the seasonal peaks of higher order (corresponding to the periods of four and three months) reveal only at some records. The maximal amplitudes of annual component by a least square method are found at the Yellow Sea coast of Korea (20-21 cm) and also near the Japanese coast of the korea Strait (19-19 cm). The semiannual component has the maximal amplitudes (3-4 cm) near the south and southwestern coasts of the Sakhalin Island. The annual range of the sea levels is much weaker here than in the other regions, the relative investment of the seasonal oscillations in total energetic budget is only 35-40%, annual ($A_1$) and semiannual ($A_2$) components have nearly the same amplitude (seasonal factor $F=A_1/A_2=0.9-1.2$). On the basis of the present examination on sea level changes together with the results of Tomizawa et. al.(1984) the whole investigated area may be divided into 10 subregions, 2 of them are related to the Yellow Sea and Western part of the Korea Strait (Y1, Y2), the other ones (E1-E8) to the East Sea.

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The Cross-Sectional Characteristic and Spring-Neap Variation of Residual Current and Net Volume Transport at the Yeomha Channel (경기만 염하수로에서의 잔차류 및 수송량의 대조-소조 변동과 단면 특성)

  • Lee, Dong Hwan;Yoon, Byung Il;Woo, Seung-Buhm
    • Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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    • v.29 no.5
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    • pp.217-227
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    • 2017
  • The object of this study is to estimate the net volume transport and the residual flow that changed by space and time at southern part of Yeomha channel, Gyeonggi Bay. The cross-section observation was conducted at the mid-part (Line2) and the southern end (Line1) of Yeomha channel for 13 hours during neap and spring-tides, respectively. The Lagrange flux is calculated as the sum of Eulerian flux and Stokes drift, and the residual flow is calculated by using least square method. It is necessary to unify the spatial area of the observed cross-section and average time during the tidal cycle. In order to unify the cross-sectional area containing such a large vertical tidal variation, it was necessary to convert into sigma coordinate system by horizontally and vertically for every hour. The converted sigma coordinate system is estimated to be 3~5% error when compared with the z-level coordinate system which shows that there is no problem for analyzing the data. As a result, the cross-sectional residual flow shows a southward flow pattern in both spring and neap tides at Line2, and also have characteristic of the spatial residual flow fluctuation: it northwards in the main line direction and southwards at the end of both side of the waterway. It was confirmed that the residual flow characteristics at Line2 were changed by the net pressure due to the sea level difference. The analysis of the net volume transport showed that it tends to southwards at $576m^3s^{-1}$, $67m^3s^{-1}$ in each spring tide and neap tide at Line2. On the other hand, in the control Line1, it has tendency to northwards at $359m^3s^{-1}$ and $248m^3s^{-1}$. Based on the difference between the two observation lines, it is estimated that net volume transport will be out flow about $935m^3s^{-1}$ at spring tide stage and about $315m^3s^{-1}$ at neap tide stage as the intertidal zone between Yeongjong Island and Ganghwa Island. In other words, the difference of pressure gradient and Stokes drift during spring and neap tide is main causes of variation for residual current and net volume transport.

Association Between the Polymorphism on Intron 5 of the Lipoprotein Lipase Gene and Carcass Traits in Hanwoo (Korean cattle) (한우 Lipoprotein Lipase 유전자 Intron 5번의 Polymorphism과 경제 형질과의 관련성 분석)

  • Lee, H.J.;Lee, S.H.;Cho, Y.M.;Yoon, H.B.;Jeon, B. K.;Oh, S.J.;Kwon, M.S.;Yoon, D.H.
    • Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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    • v.46 no.6
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    • pp.947-956
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    • 2004
  • The primary role of lipoprotein lipase(LPL) is the hydrolysis of triglycerides(TG) from the core of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins such as chylomicrons and very low density lipoproteins in plasma. Fatty acids liberated by LPL on capillary endothelial surfaces are available for tissues as energy sources especially in muscles or for storage in the form of TG in adipose tissues. Therefore, as the candidate gene related to the carcass traits of the beef cattle, we have directly sequenced the exon 5${\sim}$exon 6 region in the bovine LPL gene for discovery of single nucleotide polymorphism(SNP) with 24 unrelated Hanwoo(Korean cattle). Novel eight sequence variants were detected: three loci on exon 5, three on intron 5 and two on exon 6. All SNPs identified were strongly linked each other, and one hundred twenty eight Hanwoo samples were genotyped one SNP on intron 5 using PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism method by digestion with Hae III restriction enzyme. The allele frequency of the polymorphism was 0.76 and 0.24. The effects of this polymorphism on the breeding values of the carcass weight, loin muscle area, back fat thickness and marbling score were analyzed using least square methods of SAS GLM. The marbling score of BB genotype was significantly higher than those of AA and AB genotypes(P<0.05). This result indicates that this polymorphism may be associated with the variation of marbling score. Further study is warranted to investigate the phenotypic association in Hanwoo.

Relationships between Meteorological Factors and Growth and Yield of Alisma plantago L. in Seungju Area (승주지방(昇州地方)에서 기상요인(氣象要因)과 택사(澤瀉) 생육(生育) 및 수량(收量)과의 관계(關係))

  • Kwon, Byung-Sun;Lim, June-Taeg;Chung, Dong-Hee;Hwang, Jong-Jin
    • Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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    • v.2 no.1
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    • pp.7-13
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    • 1994
  • This study was conducted to investigate the relationships between yearly variations of climatic factors and yearly variations of productivity in Alisma plantago L. In addition, correlation coefficients among yield and yield components were estimated. The data of yield and yield components were collected from the Statistical Year Book of Seungju province, Reserach Report of Seungju Extension Station of Rural Development Administration, and farmers for 10 years from 1983 to 1992. The meteorological data gathered at the Seungju Weather Station for the same period were used to find out the relationships between climatic factors and productivity. Yearly variation of the amount of precipitation in October and the minimum temperature in November were large with coefficients of variation(C.V.) of 106.44, 144.08%, respectively, but the variation of the average temperature, maximum temperature, minimum temperature from July to September were relatively small. Fresh weight and dry weight of roots vary greatly with C. V. of 30.62, 31.85%, respectivly. Plant height and stem length show more or less small C. V. of 5.51, 6. 26%, respectively and leaf width, leaf length, number of stems and root diameter show still less variation. Correlation coefficients between maximum temperature in November and plant height, stem diamter, number of stems, root diamter and dry weight of roots are positively significant at the 5% level. There are high signficant positive correlations observed, between yield and yield components. The maximum temperature would be used as a predictive variable for the estimation of dry weight of roots and number of stems. Simple linear regression equations by the least square method are estimated for number of stems $(Y_1)$ and the maximum temperature in November(X) as $Y_1=4.7114+0.5333\;X\;(R^2=0.4410)$, and for dry weight of roots$(Y_2)$ and the maximum temperature in November(X) as $Y_2=55.0405+14.3233\;X\;(R^2=0.4511)$

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A Study on Actual Usage of Information Systems: Focusing on System Quality of Mobile Service (정보시스템의 실제 이용에 대한 연구: 모바일 서비스 시스템 품질을 중심으로)

  • Cho, Woo-Chul;Kim, Kimin;Yang, Sung-Byung
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.24 no.4
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    • pp.611-635
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    • 2014
  • Information systems (IS) have become ubiquitous and changed every aspect of how people live their lives. While some IS have been successfully adopted and widely used, others have failed to be adopted and crowded out in spite of remarkable progress in technologies. Both the technology acceptance model (TAM) and the IS Success Model (ISSM), among many others, have contributed to explain the reasons of success as well as failure in IS adoption and usage. While the TAM suggests that intention to use and perceived usefulness lead to actual IS usage, the ISSM indicates that information quality, system quality, and service quality affect IS usage and user satisfaction. Upon literature review, however, we found a significant void in theoretical development and its applications that employ either of the two models, and we raise research questions. First of all, in spite of the causal relationship between intention to use and actual usage, in most previous studies, only intention to use was employed as a dependent variable without overt explaining its relationship with actual usage. Moreover, even in a few studies that employed actual IS usage as a dependent variable, the degree of actual usage was measured based on users' perceptual responses to survey questionnaires. However, the measurement of actual usage based on survey responses might not be 'actual' usage in a strict sense that responders' perception may be distorted due to their selective perceptions or stereotypes. By the same token, the degree of system quality that IS users perceive might not be 'real' quality as well. This study seeks to fill this void by measuring the variables of actual usage and system quality using 'fact' data such as system logs and specifications of users' information and communications technology (ICT) devices. More specifically, we propose an integrated research model that bring together the TAM and the ISSM. The integrated model is composed of both the variables that are to be measured using fact as well as survey data. By employing the integrated model, we expect to reveal the difference between real and perceived degree of system quality, and to investigate the relationship between the perception-based measure of intention to use and the fact-based measure of actual usage. Furthermore, we also aim to add empirical findings on the general research question: what factors influence actual IS usage and how? In order to address the research question and to examine the research model, we selected a mobile campus application (MCA). We collected both fact data and survey data. For fact data, we retrieved them from the system logs such information as menu usage counts, user's device performance, display size, and operating system revision version number. At the same time, we conducted a survey among university students who use an MCA, and collected 180 valid responses. A partial least square (PLS) method was employed to validate our research model. Among nine hypotheses developed, we found five were supported while four were not. In detail, the relationships between (1) perceived system quality and perceived usefulness, (2) perceived system quality and perceived intention to use, (3) perceived usefulness and perceived intention to use, (4) quality of device platform and actual IS usage, and (5) perceived intention to use and actual IS usage were found to be significant. In comparison, the relationships between (1) quality of device platform and perceived system quality, (2) quality of device platform and perceived usefulness, (3) quality of device platform and perceived intention to use, and (4) perceived system quality and actual IS usage were not significant. The results of the study reveal notable differences from those of previous studies. First, although perceived intention to use shows a positive effect on actual IS usage, its explanatory power is very weak ($R^2$=0.064). Second, fact-based system quality (quality of user's device platform) shows a direct impact on actual IS usage without the mediating role of intention to use. Lastly, the relationships between perceived system quality (perception-based system quality) and other constructs show completely different results from those between quality of device platform (fact-based system quality) and other constructs. In the post-hoc analysis, IS users' past behavior was additionally included in the research model to further investigate the cause of such a low explanatory power of actual IS usage. The results show that past IS usage has a strong positive effect on current IS usage while intention to use does not have, implying that IS usage has already become a habitual behavior. This study provides the following several implications. First, we verify that fact-based data (i.e., system logs of real usage records) are more likely to reflect IS users' actual usage than perception-based data. In addition, by identifying the direct impact of quality of device platform on actual IS usage (without any mediating roles of attitude or intention), this study triggers further research on other potential factors that may directly influence actual IS usage. Furthermore, the results of the study provide practical strategic implications that organizations equipped with high-quality systems may directly expect high level of system usage.

The Mediating Role of Perceived Risk in the Relationships Between Enduring Product Involvement and Trust Expectation (지속적 제품관여도와 소비자 요구신뢰수준 간의 영향관계: 인지된 위험의 매개 역할에 대한 실증분석을 중심으로)

  • Hong, Ilyoo B.;Kim, Taeha;Cha, Hoon S.
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.23 no.4
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    • pp.103-128
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    • 2013
  • When a consumer needs a product or service and multiple sellers are available online, the process of selecting a seller to buy online from is complex since the process involves many behavioral dimensions that have to be taken into account. As a part of this selection process, consumers may set minimum trust expectation that can be used to screen out less trustworthy sellers. In the previous research, the level of consumers' trust expectation has been anchored on two important factors: product involvement and perceived risk. Product involvement refers to the extent to which a consumer perceives a specific product important. Thus, the higher product involvement may result in the higher trust expectation in sellers. On the other hand, other related studies found that when consumers perceived a higher level of risk (e.g., credit card fraud risk), they set higher trust expectation as well. While abundant research exists addressing the relationship between product involvement and perceived risk, little attention has been paid to the integrative view of the link between the two constructs and their impacts on the trust expectation. The present paper is a step toward filling this research gap. The purpose of this paper is to understand the process by which a consumer chooses an online merchant by examining the relationships among product involvement, perceived risk, trust expectation, and intention to buy from an e-tailer. We specifically focus on the mediating role of perceived risk in the relationships between enduring product involvement and the trust expectation. That is, we question whether product involvement affects the trust expectation directly without mediation or indirectly mediated by perceived risk. The research model with four hypotheses was initially tested using data gathered from 635 respondents through an online survey method. The structural equation modeling technique with partial least square was used to validate the instrument and the proposed model. The results showed that three out of the four hypotheses formulated were supported. First, we found that the intention to buy from a digital storefront is positively and significantly influenced by the trust expectation, providing support for H4 (trust expectation ${\rightarrow}$ purchase intention). Second, perceived risk was found to be a strong predictor of trust expectation, supporting H2 as well (perceived risk ${\rightarrow}$ trust expectation). Third, we did not find any evidence of direct influence of product involvement, which caused H3 to be rejected (product involvement ${\rightarrow}$ trust expectation). Finally, we found significant positive relationship between product involvement and perceived risk (H1: product involvement ${\rightarrow}$ perceived risk), which suggests that the possibility of complete mediation of perceived risk in the relationship between enduring product involvement and the trust expectation. As a result, we conducted an additional test for the mediation effect by comparing the original model with the revised model without the mediator variable of perceived risk. Indeed, we found that there exists a strong influence of product involvement on the trust expectation (by intentionally eliminating the variable of perceived risk) that was suppressed (i.e., mediated) by the perceived risk in the original model. The Sobel test statistically confirmed the complete mediation effect. Results of this study offer the following key findings. First, enduring product involvement is positively related to perceived risk, implying that the higher a consumer is enduringly involved with a given product, the greater risk he or she is likely to perceive with regards to the online purchase of the product. Second, perceived risk is positively related to trust expectation. A consumer with great risk perceptions concerning the online purchase is likely to buy from a highly trustworthy online merchant, thereby mitigating potential risks. Finally, product involvement was found to have no direct influence on trust expectation, but the relationship between the two constructs was indirect and mediated by the perceived risk. This is perhaps an important theoretical integration of two separate streams of literature on product involvement and perceived risk. The present research also provides useful implications for practitioners as well as academicians. First, one implication for practicing managers in online retail stores is that they should invest in reducing the perceived risk of consumers in order to lower down the trust expectation and thus increasing the consumer's intention to purchase products or services. Second, an academic implication is that perceived risk mediates the relationship between enduring product involvement and trust expectation. Further research is needed to elaborate the theoretical relationships among the constructs under consideration.