• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.141-156
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• 2008

Market structure analysis is a very useful tool to analyze the competition boundary of the brand or the company. But most of the studies in market structure analysis, the concern lies in nondurable goods such as candies, soft drink and etc. because of the their availability of the data. In the field of durable goods, the limitation of the data availability and the repurchase time period constrain the study. In the analysis of the automobile market, those of views might be more persuasive. The purpose of this study is to analyze the structure of automobile market based on some idea suggested by prior studies. Usually the buyers of the automobile tend to buy upper tier when they buy in the next time. That kind of behavior make it impossible to analyze the structure of automobile market under the level of automobile model. For that reason I tried to analyze the market structure in the brand or company level. In this study, consideration data was used for market structure analysis. The reasons why we used the consideration data are summarized as following. Firstly, as the repurchase time cycle is too long, brand switching data which is used for the market analysis of nondurable good is not avaliable. Secondly, as we mentioned, the buyers of the automobile tend to buy upper tier when they buy in the next time. We used survey data collected in the U.S.A. market in the year of 2005 through questionaire. The sample size was 8,291. The number of brand analyzed in this study was 9 among 37 which was being sold in U.S.A. market. Their market share was around 50%. The brands considered were BMW, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Dodge, Ford, Honda, Mercedes, and Toyota. �� ratio was derived from frequency of the consideration set. Actually the frequency is different from the brand switch concept. In this study to compute the �� ratio, the frequency of the consideration set was used like a frequency of brand switch for convenience. The study can be divided into 2 steps. The first step is to build hypothetical market structures. The second step is to choose the best structure based on the hypothetical market structures, Usually logit analysis is used for the choice best structure. In this study we built 3 hypothetical market structure. They are type-cost, cost-type, and unstructured. We classified the automobile into 5 types, sedan, SUV(Sport Utility Vehicle), Pickup, Mini Van, and Full-size Van. As for purchasing cost, we classified it 2 groups based on the median value. The median value was $28,800. To decide best structure among them, maximum likelihood test was used. Resulting from market structure analysis, we find that the automobile market of USA is hierarchically structured in the form of 'automobile type - purchasing cost'. That is, result showed that automobile buyers considered function or usage first and purchasing cost next. This study has some limitations in the analysis level and variable selection. First, in this study only type of the automobile and purchasing cost were as attributes considered for purchase. Considering other attributes is very needful. Because of the attributes considered, only 3 hypothetical structure could be analyzed. Second, due to the data, brand level analysis was tried. But model level analysis would be better because automobile buyers consider model not brand. To conduct model level study more cases should be obtained. That is for acquiring the better practical meaning, brand level analysis should be conducted when we consider the actual competition which occurred in the real market. Third, the variable selection for building nested logit model was very limited to some avaliable data. In spite of those limitations, the importance of this study lies in the trial of market structure analysis of durable good.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.285-291
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• 2008

Purpose: Although automatic quantification software of myocardial perfusion SPECT provides highly objective and reproducible quantitative measurements, there is still some limitation in the direct use of quantitative measurements. In this study we derived parameters using normal variation of perfusion measurements, and tried to test the usefulness of these parameters. Materials and Methods: In order to calculate normal variation of perfusion measurements on myocardial perfusion SPECT, 55 patients (M:F = 28:27) of low-likelihood for coronary artery disease were enrolled and $^{201}TI$ rest/$^{99m}Tc$-MIBI stress SPECT studies were performed. Using 20-segment model, mean (m) and standard deviation (SD) of perfusion were calculated in each segment. As a myocardial viability assessment group, another 48 patients with known coronary artery disease, who underwent coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) were enrolled. $^{201}TI$ rest/$^{99m}Tc$-MIBI stress / $^{201}TI$ 24-hr delayed SPECT was performed before CABG and SPECT was followed up 3 months after CABG. From the preoperative 24-hr delayed SPECT, $Q_{delay}$ (perfusion measurement), ${\Delta}_{delay}$ ($Q_{delay}$ - m) and $Z_{delay}$ (($Q_{delay}$ - m)/SD) were defined and diagnostic performances of them for myocardial viability were evaluated using area under curve (AUC) on receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Results: Segmental perfusion measurements showed considerable normal variations among segments. In men, the lowest segmental perfusion measurement was $51.8{\pm}6.5$ and the highest segmental perfusion was $87.0{\pm}5.9$, and they are $58.7{\pm}8.1$ and $87.3{\pm}6.0$, respectively in women. In the viability assessment $Q_{delay}$ showed AUC of 0.633, while those for ${\Delta}_{delay}$ and $Z_{delay}$ were 0.735 and 0.716, respectively. The AUCs of ${\Delta}_{delay}$ and $Z_{delay}$ were significantly higher than that of $Q_{delay}$ (p = 0.001 and 0.018, respectively). The diagnostic performance of ${\Delta}_{delay}$, which showed highest AUC, was 85% of sensitivity and 53% of specificity at the optimal cutoff of -24.7. Conclusion: On automatic quantification of myocardial perfusion SPECT, the normal variation of perfusion measurements were considerable among segments. In the viability assessment, the parameters considering normal variation showed better diagnostic performance than the direct perfusion measurement. This study suggests that consideration of normal variation is important in the analysis of measurements on quantitative myocardial perfusion SPECT.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.73-83
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• 2023

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the viral load dynamics in children with underlying malignancies diagnosed with symptomatic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Methods: This was a retrospective longitudinal cohort study of patients <19 years old with underlying hemato-oncologic malignancies that were diagnosed with their first symptomatic severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-confirmed COVID-19 infection during March 1 to August 30, 2022. Review of electronic medical records and telephone surveys were undertaken to assess the clinical presentations and transmission route of the patients. Thresholds of negligible likelihood of infectious virus was defined as E gene reverse transcription (RT)-PCR cycle threshold (Ct) value ≥25. Results: During the 6-month study period, a total of 43 children with 44 episodes of COVID-19 were included. Of the 44 episodes, the median age of the patients included was 8 years old (interquartile range [IQR], 4.9-10.5), and the most common underlying disease was acute lymphoid leukemia (n=30, 68.2%), followed by patients post-hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (n=8, 18.2%). Majority of the patients had mild COVID-19 (n=32, 72.7%), and three patients (7.0%) had severe/critical COVID-19. Furthermore, 2.3% (n=1) died of COVID-19 associated acute respiratory distress syndrome. The largest percentage of the patients showed E gene RT-PCR Ct value ≥25 between 15-21 days (n=13, 39.4%), followed by 22-28 days (n=10, 30.3%). In 15.2% (n=5), E gene RT-PCR Ct value remained <25 beyond 28 days after initial positive PCR. Refractory malignancy status (β, 67.0; 95% confidence interval, 7.0-17.0; P=0.030) was significantly associated with prolonged duration of E gene RT-PCR <25. A patient with prolonged duration of E gene RT-PCR Ct value <25 was suspected to have infectivity shown by the transmission of the virus to his mother at day 86 after his initial positive test. Conclusions: Children that acquire symptomatic COVID-19 during refractory malignancy state are at a high risk for prolonged shedding warranting PCR-based transmission precautions in this cohort of patients.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.57 no.4
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• pp.397-416
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• 2024

This study assessed the hydrogeological properties of the deep geological environment to develop safety criteria for the natural barriers used in the deep geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste in Korea. The assessment focused on the distribution and trends of hydraulic conductivity and permeability properties appropriate for the domestic geological environment, using various in-situ hydraulic test data collected for groundwater development and management. To develop a depth-hydrogeological property relationship model suitable for domestic conditions, the study reviewed various international research examples and applied a representative model that explains the trends of hydraulic conductivity and permeability with depth. The development of the model suitable for Korea involved applying ensemble regression analysis to account for the uncertainty of various factors in the collected data. The results confirmed that existing international depth-hydrogeological property relationship models adequately describe the characteristics of the domestic geological environment. Considering the preferred hydrogeological criteria suggested by countries like Sweden, Germany, and Canada, there is a high likelihood that a suitable geological environment exists in Korea. Additionally, the application of hydrogeological criteria indicative of low-permeability environments showed that suitable conditions for disposal construction increase at depths greater than 300 m, where the influence of fractures on groundwater flow might be minimal at depths exceeding 500 m. This research can serve as foundational information for establishing hydrogeological safety standards for natural barriers in Korea according to international regulatory guidelines.

• 한국초등상담교육학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.01a
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• pp.223-245
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• 2004

The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in depression, irrational faith and the school adaptation of elementary school students by their sex and region, to provide basic materials to teach children with the likelihood to be depressed by analyzing the correlation of depression, irrational faith and school adaptation, and help them to have healthy emotion and behaviors. To achieve these goals, following agenda were set. First, what are the differences in the depression, the irrational faith and the school adaptation of elementary school students by their sex and region? Second, what is the relationship between the depression characteristics and the irrational faith of elementary school students? Third, what is the relationship between the irrational faith and the school adaptation of elementary school students? Fourth, what is the relationship between the depression characteristics and school adaptation of elementary school students? : To resolve these agenda, the subjects were selected from Grade 6 students from the elementary schools locatec in Suwon and Hwaseong. The jubjects were selected from the two schools in Suwon and three schools in Hwaseong which were randomly chosen. The subjects were 670 in total. 70 insincere answers were excluded from the analysis. Therefore the subjects used in the analysis were 600 in total(150 male and female students in city respectively and 150 male and female students in rural area respectively). The tools used for this study were Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), Irrational Faith Test (over-self-reliance, dichotomy, determinism, over-concern, evasive faith, over dependent faith), School Adaptation Test (Attitudes to teachers and school environments, hobbies and specialties, academic achievements, peer relationship). Materials were processed with the SPSS program for ANOVA and correlation analysis. All the statistical values were verified at .05 level. The followings are the results of the analysis of the collected data. First, in the analysis of depression, there was significant difference between male and female students (F=4.75, p<.05). Female students (X =56.93) showed a little higher value than male students (X =53.83). There was significant difference between regions (F=13.02, p<.001), too. Rural area students (X =57.93) showed higher value than city area students (X =52.82). When analyzing irrational faith, there was significant difference between male and female students (F=S.60, p<.05). Female students (X =81.32) showed a little higher value than male students (X =77.72). There was no significant difference according to regions. When analyzing the school adaptation, there was no significant difference according to either sex or region. Second, depression and irrational faith showed highly positive correlations in all areas. In particular, over concern and evasive faith showed the highest correlation with depression inclination (r=.68, p<.001). When looking into the results by sex and by region, female students (r=.70, p<.001) and the rural area students (r=.69, p<.001) showed higher correlation between depression and irrational faith than male students and city area students (r=.63, p<.001). Additionally, in all areas including by sex and by region, a positive correlation was shown. In all variables such as male students (r=.63, p<.001), female students (r=.72, p<.001), city area students (r=.66, p<.001), and rural area students (r=.69, p<.001), over concern and evasive faith showed the highest correlation with depression inclinations. Third, irrational faith (overall) and its sub factors such as over-self-reliance, dichotomy, determinism, over-concern and evasive faith had significant negative correlations with school adaptation (overall) and its sub factors in the scope of $r=-.27{\sim}-.52$. Determinism out of the sub factors of the irrational faith had the highest negative correlation with school adaptation (overall) and sub factors at the scope of $r=-.37{\sim}-.51$. However, over-self-reliance showed the negative correlation with school adaptation (overall) and its sub factors only partially. When looking into the results by gender, both genders showed significant negative correlation between irrational faith (overall) and its sub factors with school adaptation. Male students showed highly negative correlations with school adaptation (overall) and its sub factors in determinism ($r=-.35{\sim}-52$) and over-concern and evasive faith($r=-.31{\sim}-.51$), and fern ale students showed in over-self-reliance ($r=-.27{\sim}-.45$). However over-self-reliance showed negative correlation with school adaptation and its sub factors only partially. When looking into by region, both city and rural areas showed significant negative correlation between irrational faith (overall) and it sub factors, and school adaptation. Rural areas showed higher negative correlation in irrational faith (overall) ($r=-.39{\sim}-.53$) and over-self-reliance ($r=-.32{\sim}-.44$) and dichotomy ($r=-.28{\sim}-.39$) than city areas. However over-self-reliance showed negative correlation with school adaptation and its sub factors only partially. Fourth, depression and school adaptation showed the negative correlation in all areas. In particular, academic achievements and peer relationship showed the highest negative correlation with depression (r=-.53 p<.001). When looking into the results by sex and by region, female students (r=-.62, p<.001) and rural area students (r=-.61, p<.001) showed higher negative correlation with depression and school adaptation than female students (r=-.56, p<.001) and city area students (r=-.57, p<.001). Although there was negative correlation in all areas by sex and by region, male students (r=-.52, p<.001) and rural area students (r=-.56, p<.001) showed the highest negative correlation in peer relationship and female students (r=-.57, p<.001) and city area students (r=-.56, p<.001) showed the highest negative correlation in academic records. Based on the results of the study, it is proposed to provide elementary school students sho are likely to be depressed very easily with careful counselling and teaching based on the attention and love in school fields so that they can adapt themselves to home, school and society with positive and reasonable thinking.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Toxicology Conference
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• 2002.05b
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• pp.106.2-132
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• 2002

형질전환 (유전자 결핍; Knockout) Min 마우스를 이용하여 대장암 발생에서 배추, 양배추 주성분인 indole-3-carbinol (I3C)의 대장암 예방효과를 규명하고자 하였다. 실험동물로는 C57BL/6J-Apc$^{min/+}$(Min 마우스)계의 5내지 6주령의 수컷 이형접합체 형질전환 마우스 70마리와 C57BL/6J계의 동일 산자, 동일 주령의 수컷 wildtype 비형질전환 마우스 10kfl를 The Jackson Laboratory 사 (Bar harber, ME, USA)로부터 직접 구입하였다. C57BL/6J-Apc$^{min/+}$계 수컷 이형접합체 형질전환 (Min)마우스 70마리를 각 군 20내지 25마리씩 세군으로 나누었다. Group 1에는 20마리, Group 2에는 25마리, Group 3에는 25마리를 배치하고, I3C 투여 실험군 (Group 1과 2)에는 실험시작시에 AIN-76A 분말사료에 I3C가 각각 100 및 300ppm이 함유되도록 조제하여 공급하였다. 그리고 실험군(Group 3)에는 실험시작부터 종료시까지 AIN-76A 정제고형사료(Teklad사, WI, USA)를 자유로이 급이하였다. 각군간의 체중, 사료 및 음수소비량을 매 2주마다 측정하였고, 10주간 (16주령)의 실험종료시에는 최종체중과 간장, 신장, 비장 등의 장기무게를 측정하여 상대장기 무게비를 산출하였다. 대조군으로서 C57BL/6J계의 동일 산자, 동일 주령의 수컷 wildtype 비형질전환 마우스 10마리는 같은 조건의 사육실에서 AIN-76A 정제고형사료를 33주간 자유로이 급이하였다. 실험동물은 부검전에 하룻밤 동안 절식하고 이산화탄소 흡입 마취하에서 흉대동맥을 절단하여 방혈하고 각 장기(심장, 폐, 위)를 적출하여 생리심염수에 넣어 장기무게를 측정하고 포르말린에 고정하였다. 소장과 대장의 검사를 위하여 위의 식도부위와 직장을 실로 결찰하여 적출하고 생리심염수를 주입하여 팽창시켜, 십이지장, 공장, 및 회장, 그리고 대장으로 나누어 여과지에 펼친 후 포르말린에 고정하였다. 소장과 대장은 육안 및 자동 영상분석길ㄹ 이용한 분석이 끝난 후에 각 부위별로 4-6개의 절편을 작제하여 포르말린에 재고정하고, 통상적인 조직처리과정, 파리핀 포매 및 3-4$\mu$m 두께의 조직절편을 제작하여 H&E 염색을 실시하여 현미경으로 검경하였다. 약 1주일간의 포르말린 고정이 끝난 소장 및 대장을 부위별, 별 종양개수 및 분포를 자동영상분석기(Kontron Co. Ltd., Germany)로 분석하였다. 체의 변화, 장기무게, 사료소비량 및 마리당 종양의 개수에 대한 통계학적 유의성 검증을 위하여 Duncan's t-test로 통계처리 하였고, 종양 발생빈도에 대하여는 Likelihood ration Chi-square test로 유의성을 검증하였다. C57BL/6J-Apc$^{min/+}$계 수컷 이형접합체 형질전환 마우스에 AIN-76A 정제사료만을 투여한 대조군의 대장선종의 발생률은 84%(Group 3; 21/25례)로써 I3C 100ppm 및 300ppm을 투여한 경우에 있어서는 각군 모두 60%(Group 1; 12/20 례, Group 2; 15/25 례)로 감소하는 경향을 나타내었다. 대장선종의 마리당 발생개수에 있어서는 C57BL/6J-Apc$^{min/+}$계 수컷 이형접합체 형질전환 마우스에 AIN-76A 정제사료만을 투여한 대조군은 1.40$\pm$0.24(100%)에 비하여 I3C 저농도 투여 실험군(Group 1; 0.85$\pm$0.23; 61%, P<0.01), 그리고 I3C 고농도 투여 실험군(Group 2 ; 1.32$\pm$0.29 ; 94%)의 순으로 감소하였다. 선종의 크기별 종양의 발생개수의 분포에 있어서 I3C 저농도 투여 실험군에 있어서는 선종의 크기가 3mm이하의 수가 현저하게 감소하였다. C57BL/6J-Apc$^{min/+}$계 수컷 이형접합체 형질전환 마우스에 AIN-76A 정제사료만을 투여한 대조군의 부위별 소장선종의 발생수는 십이지장부위를 제외하고 각 군에서 유의한 변화는 관찰되지 않았다. 십이지장 종양의 발생개수에서만 I3C 저농도 투여 실험군(Group 1 ; 3.11$\pm$0.85)이 대조군 (Group 3: 1.48$\pm$0.35) 및 I3C 고농도 투여 실험군(Group 2: 1.56$\pm$0.47)에 비하여 유의성 있게 증가하였다. (P<0.05). 따라서 I3C은 소장에서는 암예방 효과가 뚜렷하지 않으나, 대장에 대한 암에방 효과가 있을 것으로 생각된다. 소장 및 대장을 제외한 간장, 신장, 비장, 심장, 폐 그리고 위 등의 기타 장기에서의 조직병리학적 변화는 관찰되지 않았다. 소장 및 대장의 종양은 선종(polyps)으로 관찰되었다. 지난 10여년간 형질전환 및 유전자 결핍 실험동물의 종류가 기하 급수적으로 증가하여 이용되고 있다. 가족성 대장 선종성 용종증(FAP)의 대표적인 모델로 이용되고 있는 C57BL/6J-Apc$^{min/+}$계 수컷 이형접합체 형질전환 마우스를 사용하여 배추나 양배추의 주요성분인 Indole-3-carbinol(I3C)의 대장암 예방효과가 있는지를 검색하여 본 결과 AIN-76A정제사료만을 투여한 대조군의 대장선종의 발생률 84%에 비하여 I3C 100 및 300ppm을 투여한 실험군에 있어서 각군 모두 60%로서 감소하는 경향을 나타내었으며, 대장선종의 마리당 발생개수에 있어서는 대조군의 1.40$\pm$1.041를 100%로 환산하였을 경우 I3C 저농도 및 고농도 투여 실험군에서는 각각 약 61%와 94%를 나타내여 감소하였다. 특히 대장선종의 크기별 분포에 있어서 선종의 크기가 3mm이하의 수가 현저하게 감소하였다. 따라서 저농도 I3C의 투여는 실험적 유전성 가족성 대장 선종성 용종증 모델에 있어서 어느정도 암 예방효과가 있는 것으로 생각된다. 그러나 소장 선종의 발생에는 별 영향이 없는 것으로 생각된다. 그러나 본 실험에 사용된 C57BL/6J-Apc$^{min/+}$계 수컷 이형접합체 형질전환 마우스는 실험개시 시점이 7내지 8주령이 경과하여 이미 태생기부터 소장 및 대장의 선종 발생이 진행되어 온 것을 감안하고 특히 비스테로이드계 항염증 소염제(NSAIDS)와 같은 강력한 COX-2억제제가 아님을 고려하면, 상당한 선종의 발생을 억제할 수 있는 가능성이 매우 높다고 생각한다. 또한 이제까지 배추나 양배추 성분의 복합성분들에 대한 실험적 대장암 모델에서의 촉진효과 등에 대한 보고들이 있어 온 점을 고려할 때 위암(Kim 등, 1994) 간암(Kim 등, 1994), 유방암(Grubbs, 등, 1995; Bradlow 등, 1995)에 대한 예방효과가 있을 것으로 생각된다. 앞으로 이러한 종양조직내에서의 COX-2 및 iNOS mRNA와 단백질의 발현정도를 분자병리학적으로 연구중에 있으며, 향후 십자화과식물 성분인 indole-3-carbinol이 마우스뿐 만 아니라 랫드의 화학발암물질에 의한 대장종양에 대한 억제효과 있는지 연구 필요가 있다. Min 마우스와 같은 형질 전환(유전자결핍;knockout) 실험동물을 이용한 새로운 중기 발암성 시험범의 확립을 통한 각종 환경 유해물질의 발암성 유무 및 COX-2 억제작용이 있는 식품인자의 암예방 후보물질을 체계적으로 검색하는데 유용하게 활용될 수 있을 것으로 생각한다.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.17-27
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• 2009

Price promotion typically reduces the price for a given quantity or increases the quantity available at the same price, thereby enhancing value and creating an economic incentive to purchase. It often is used to encourage product or service trial among nonusers of products or services. Thus, it is important to understand the effects of price promotions on quality perception made by consumer who do not have prior experience with the promoted brand. However, if consumers associate a price promotion itself with inferior brand quality, the promotion may not achieve the sales increase the economic incentives otherwise might have produced. More specifically, low qualitative perception through price promotion will undercut the economic and psychological incentives and reduce the likelihood of purchase. Thus, it is important for marketers to understand how price promotional informations about a brand have impact on consumer's unfavorable quality perception of the brand. Previous literatures on the effects of price promotions on quality perception reveal inconsistent explanations. Some focused on the unfavorable effect of price promotion on consumer's perception. But others showed that price promotions didn't raise unfavorable perception on the brand. Prior researches found these inconsistent results related to the timing of the price promotion's exposure and quality evaluation relative to trial. And, whether the consumer has been experienced with the product promotions in the past or not may moderate the effects. A few studies considered differences among product categories as fundamental factors. The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of price promotional informations on consumer's unfavorable quality perception under the different conditions. The author controlled the timing of the promotional exposure and varied past promotional patterns and information presenting patterns. Unlike previous researches, the author examined the effects of price promotions setting limit to pretrial situation by controlling potentially moderating effects of prior personal experience with the brand. This manipulations enable to resolve possible controversies in relation to this issue. And this manipulation is meaningful for the work sector. Price promotion is not only used to target existing consumers but also to encourage product or service trial among nonusers of products or services. Thus, it is important for marketers to understand how price promotional informations about a brand have impact on consumer's unfavorable quality perception of the brand. If consumers associate a price promotion itself with inferior quality about unused brand, the promotion may not achieve the sales increase the economic incentives otherwise might have produced. In addition, if the price promotion ends, the consumer that have purchased that certain brand will likely to display sharply decreased repurchasing behavior. Through a literature review, hypothesis 1 was set as follows to investigate the adjustive effect of past price promotion on quality perception made by consumers; The influence that price promotion of unused brand have on quality perception made by consumers will be adjusted by past price promotion activity of the brand. In other words, a price promotion of an unused brand that have not done a price promotion in the past will have a unfavorable effect on quality perception made by consumer. Hypothesis 2-1 was set as follows : When an unused brand undertakes price promotion for the first time, the information presenting pattern of price promotion will have an effect on the consumer's attribution for the cause of the price promotion. Hypothesis 2-2 was set as follows : The more consumer dispositionally attribute the cause of price promotion, the more unfavorable the quality perception made by consumer will be. Through test 1, the subjects were given a brief explanation of the product and the brand before they were provided with a $2{\times}2$ factorial design that has 4 patterns of price promotion (presence or absence of past price promotion * presence or absence of current price promotion) and the explanation describing the price promotion pattern of each cell. Then the perceived quality of imaginary brand WAVEX was evaluated in the scale of 7. The reason tennis racket was chosen is because the selected product group must have had almost no past price promotions to eliminate the influence of average frequency of promotion on the value of price promotional information as Raghubir and Corfman (1999) pointed out. Test 2 was also carried out on students of the same management faculty of test 1 with tennis racket as the product group. As with test 1, subjects with average familiarity for the product group and low familiarity for the brand was selected. Each subjects were assigned to one of the two cells representing two different information presenting patterns of price promotion of WAVEX (case where the reason behind price promotion was provided/case where the reason behind price promotion was not provided). Subjects looked at each promotional information before evaluating the perceived quality of the brand WAVEX in the scale of 7. The effect of price promotion for unfamiliar pretrial brand on consumer's perceived quality was proved to be moderated with the presence or absence of past price promotion. The consistency with past promotional behavior is important variable that makes unfavorable effect on brand evaluations get worse. If the price promotion for the brand has never been carried out before, price promotion activity may have more unfavorable effects on consumer's quality perception. Second, when the price promotion of unfamiliar pretrial brand was executed for the first time, presenting method of informations has impact on consumer's attribution for the cause of firm's promotion. And the unfavorable effect of quality perception is higher when the consumer does dispositional attribution comparing with situational attribution. Unlike the previous studies where the main focus was the absence or presence of favorable or unfavorable motivation from situational/dispositional attribution, the focus of this study was exaus ing the fact that a situational attribution can be inferred even if the consumer employs a dispositional attribution on the price promotional behavior, if the company provides a persuasive reason. Such approach, in academic perspectih sis a large significance in that it explained the anchoring and adjng ch approcedures by applying it to a non-mathematical problem unlike the previous studies where it wis ionaly explained by applying it to a mathematical problem. In other wordn, there is a highrspedency tmatispositionally attribute other's behaviors according to the fuedach aal attribution errors and when this is applied to the situation of price promotions, we can infer that consumers are likely tmatispositionally attribute the company's price promotion behaviors. Ha ever, even ueder these circumstances, the company can adjng the consumer's anchoring tmareduce the po wibiliute thdispositional attribution. Furthermore, unlike majority of previous researches on short/long-term effects of price promotion that only considered the effect of price promotions on consumer's purchasing behaviors, this research measured the effect on perceived quality, one of man elements that affects the purchasing behavior of consumers. These results carry useful implications for the work sector. A guideline of effectively providing promotional informations for a new brand can be suggested through the outcomes of this research. If the brand is to avoid false implications such as inferior quality while implementing a price promotion strategy, it must provide a clear and acceptable reasons behind the promotion. Especially it is more important for the company with no past price promotion to provide a clear reason. An inconsistent behavior can be the cause of consumer's distrust and anxiety. This is also one of the most important factor of risk of endless price wars. Price promotions without prior notice can buy doubt from consumers not market share.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.99-124
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• 2012

Our society has long been talking about necessity for innovation. Since companies in particular need to carry out business innovation in their overall processes, they have attempted to apply many innovation factors on sites and become to pay more attention to their innovation. In order to achieve this goal, companies has applied various information technologies (IT) on sites as a means of innovation, and consequently IT have been greatly developed. It is natural for the field of IT to have faced another revolution which is called cloud computing, which is expected to result in innovative changes in software application via the Internet, data storing, the use of devices, and their operations. As a vehicle of innovation, cloud computing is expected to lead the changes and advancement of our society and the business world. Although many scholars have researched on a variety of topics regarding the innovation via IT, few studies have dealt with the issue of could computing as IT. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to set the variables of innovation attributes based on the previous articles as the characteristic variables and clarify how these variables affect "Performance Expectancy" of companies and the intention of using cloud computing. The result from the analysis of data collected in this study is as follows. The study utilized a research model developed on the innovation diffusion theory to identify influences on the adaptation and spreading IT for cloud computing services. Second, this study summarized the characteristics of cloud computing services as a new concept that introduces innovation at its early stage of adaptation for companies. Third, a theoretical model is provided that relates to the future innovation by suggesting variables for innovation characteristics to adopt cloud computing services. Finally, this study identified the factors affecting expectation and the intention to use the cloud computing service for the companies that consider adopting the cloud computing service. As the parameter and dependent variable respectively, the study deploys the independent variables that are aligned with the characteristics of the cloud computing services based on the innovation diffusion model, and utilizes the expectation for performance and Intention to Use based on the UTAUT theory. Independent variables for the research model include Relative Advantage, Complexity, Compatibility, Cost Saving, Trialability, and Observability. In addition, 'Acceptance for Adaptation' is applied as an adjustment variable to verify the influences on the expected performances from the cloud computing service. The validity of the research model was secured by performing factor analysis and reliability analysis. After confirmatory factor analysis is conducted using AMOS 7.0, the 20 hypotheses are verified through the analysis of the structural equation model, accepting 12 hypotheses among 20. For example, Relative Advantage turned out to have the positive effect both on Individual Performance and on Strategic Performance from the verification of hypothesis, while it showed meaningful correlation to affect Intention to Use directly. This indicates that many articles on the diffusion related Relative Advantage as the most important factor to predict the rate to accept innovation. From the viewpoint of the influence on Performance Expectancy among Compatibility and Cost Saving, Compatibility has the positive effect on both Individual Performance and on Strategic Performance, while it showed meaningful correlation with Intention to Use. However, the topic of the cloud computing service has become a strategic issue for adoption in companies, Cost Saving turns out to affect Individual Performance without a significant influence on Intention to Use. This indicates that companies expect practical performances such as time and cost saving and financial improvements through the adoption of the cloud computing service in the environment of the budget squeezing from the global economic crisis from 2008. Likewise, this positively affects the strategic performance in companies. In terms of effects, Trialability is proved to give no effects on Performance Expectancy. This indicates that the participants of the survey are willing to afford the risk from the high uncertainty caused by innovation, because they positively pursue information about new ideas as innovators and early adopter. In addition, they believe it is unnecessary to test the cloud computing service before the adoption, because there are various types of the cloud computing service. However, Observability positively affected both Individual Performance and Strategic Performance. It also showed meaningful correlation with Intention to Use. From the analysis of the direct effects on Intention to Use by innovative characteristics for the cloud computing service except the parameters, the innovative characteristics for the cloud computing service showed the positive influence on Relative Advantage, Compatibility and Observability while Complexity, Cost saving and the likelihood for the attempt did not affect Intention to Use. While the practical verification that was believed to be the most important factor on Performance Expectancy by characteristics for cloud computing service, Relative Advantage, Compatibility and Observability showed significant correlation with the various causes and effect analysis. Cost Saving showed a significant relation with Strategic Performance in companies, which indicates that the cost to build and operate IT is the burden of the management. Thus, the cloud computing service reflected the expectation as an alternative to reduce the investment and operational cost for IT infrastructure due to the recent economic crisis. The cloud computing service is not pervasive in the business world, but it is rapidly spreading all over the world, because of its inherited merits and benefits. Moreover, results of this research regarding the diffusion innovation are more or less different from those of the existing articles. This seems to be caused by the fact that the cloud computing service has a strong innovative factor that results in a new paradigm shift while most IT that are based on the theory of innovation diffusion are limited to companies and organizations. In addition, the participants in this study are believed to play an important role as innovators and early adapters to introduce the cloud computing service and to have competency to afford higher uncertainty for innovation. In conclusion, the introduction of the cloud computing service is a critical issue in the business world.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.24 no.3 s.35
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• pp.363-372
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• 1991

We used the health screening data of some rural and urban residents to examine the cross-sectional association between leukocyte count and hypertension. The 206 male and 203 female rural residents were selected by multi-stage cluster sampling method in Kyungsan-Kun area of Kyungbuk province in 1985 and 600 urban residents were selected by the same sampling method as the rural residents in Daegu city of the same province in 1986 compatible with age-sex distribution of Daegu city of 1985 census, but of whom 384 actually responded. The rest of 600 were replaced by age and sex with those who were members of the medical insurance plan visiting the health management department of the university hospital to get the biannual preventive medical checkups. Excluded in the analysis were those having hypertensive history, diseases and extreme outlying values of the screening tests, leaving 373 rural and 571 urban residents. Leukocyte count was measured with ELT-8 Laser shadow method and the unit $cells/mm^3$, Blood pressures were determined with an aneroid sphygmomanometer with pre-standardized method and hypertensives were defined as those showing systolic blood pressure more than 140mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure more than 90mmHg. Total residents pooled (N=944) showed a significant difference between hypertensives and normotensives ($6965.93{\pm}1997.01\;vs\;6490.61{\pm}1941.32,\;P=0.00$) and in rural residents was noted the similar significant difference (P=0.03). None of significant differences were noted in any stratum stratified by residency and sex. Compared to the lowest quintile of WBC, 2/5 quintile showed odds ratio 0.99 (95% Confidence interval, Ci 0.62-1.59), 3/5 quintile 1.41 (95% CI 0.90-2.21), 4/5 quintile 1.76 (95% CI. 1.14-2.72), and highest quintile 1.80 (1.15-2.82) in the total residents. Likelihood ratio test for linear trend for it indicated a significant trend ($X^2_{trend}=5.53,\;df=1,\;P<0.05$). There were no other significant odds ratios compared to the lowest quintile of WBC in strata stratified by residency and sex. The odds ratios in total residents which had showed significant odds ratios became nonsignificant and of reduced magnitude after controlling age, frequency of smoking and drinking with multiple logistic. regression. In each stratum, it changed magnitudes of odds ratios slightly and unstably. None of the trend tests showed any significant trend. These results suggest that the Friedman et al's finding of association between leukocyte count and hypertension may be due to an statistical type I error resulting from the data dredging in an exploratory study, in which more than 800 variables were screened as possible predictors of hypertension.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.27-55
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• 2008

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