• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.53-77
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• 2015

Mobile commerce provides a convenient shopping experience in which users can buy products without the constraints of time and space. Mobile commerce has already set off a mega trend in Korea. The market size is estimated at approximately 15 trillion won (KRW) for 2015, thus far. In the Korean market, social commerce and open market are key components. Social commerce has an overwhelming open market in terms of the number of users in the Korean mobile commerce market. From the point of view of the industry, quick market entry, and content curation are considered to be the major success factors, reflecting the rapid growth of social commerce in the market. However, academics' empirical research and analysis to prove the success rate of social commerce is still insufficient. Henceforward, it is to be expected that social commerce and the open market in the Korean mobile commerce will compete intensively. So it is important to conduct an empirical analysis to prove the differences in user experience between social commerce and open market. This paper is an exploratory study that shows a comparative analysis of social commerce and the open market regarding user experience, which is based on the mobile users' reviews. Firstly, this study includes a collection of approximately 10,000 user reviews of social commerce and open market listed Google play. A collection of mobile user reviews were classified into topics, such as perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use through LDA topic modeling. Then, a sentimental analysis and co-occurrence analysis on the topics of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use was conducted. The study's results demonstrated that social commerce users have a more positive experience in terms of service usefulness and convenience versus open market in the mobile commerce market. Social commerce has provided positive user experiences to mobile users in terms of service areas, like 'delivery,' 'coupon,' and 'discount,' while open market has been faced with user complaints in terms of technical problems and inconveniences like 'login error,' 'view details,' and 'stoppage.' This result has shown that social commerce has a good performance in terms of user service experience, since the aggressive marketing campaign conducted and there have been investments in building logistics infrastructure. However, the open market still has mobile optimization problems, since the open market in mobile commerce still has not resolved user complaints and inconveniences from technical problems. This study presents an exploratory research method used to analyze user experience by utilizing an empirical approach to user reviews. In contrast to previous studies, which conducted surveys to analyze user experience, this study was conducted by using empirical analysis that incorporates user reviews for reflecting users' vivid and actual experiences. Specifically, by using an LDA topic model and TAM this study presents its methodology, which shows an analysis of user reviews that are effective due to the method of dividing user reviews into service areas and technical areas from a new perspective. The methodology of this study has not only proven the differences in user experience between social commerce and open market, but also has provided a deep understanding of user experience in Korean mobile commerce. In addition, the results of this study have important implications on social commerce and open market by proving that user insights can be utilized in establishing competitive and groundbreaking strategies in the market. The limitations and research direction for follow-up studies are as follows. In a follow-up study, it will be required to design a more elaborate technique of the text analysis. This study could not clearly refine the user reviews, even though the ones online have inherent typos and mistakes. This study has proven that the user reviews are an invaluable source to analyze user experience. The methodology of this study can be expected to further expand comparative research of services using user reviews. Even at this moment, users around the world are posting their reviews about service experiences after using the mobile game, commerce, and messenger applications.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.253-277
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• 2002

Nowaday, the advanced technology in information and communication has been leading the dramatic change of transaction paradigm expansion from physical basis to electronic one. As we know, financial services support most of financial exchange between two business parties. So the expansion of electronic transaction paradigm affects to every financial institutions which provide financial services. Thus, financial institutions have accepted e-Finance systems and providing internet financial services to live in the competition. The purpose of this study is to contribute the qualitative enhancement of its customer service, rapid diffusion and accurate strategy establishment for e-Finance industry in the user side. Through the literature review and factor and reliability analysis, this study selects six diffusion factors such as efficiency of perceived e-Finance, reliability and safety of e-Finance in perceived e-Finance itself's characteristic; confidence, technical factors and the customer service quality of e-Finance system in perception on e-Finance System; inclination to innovation in the personal characteristic. According to result of hypothesis verification by using logistics regression analysis, technical factors and the customer service quality of e-Finance system in perception on e-Finance System and inclination to innovation in the personal characteristic gave statistically positive effect to the diffusion decision at the significant level 0.05 and 0.01. However efficiency of perceived e-Finance, reliability and safety of e-Finance in perceived e-Finance itself's characteristic didn't affect to diffusion decision and confidence of e-Finance system in perception on e-Finance System didn't have any statistical significancy. This study can be used as a basic material for the forward empirical study of diffusion factors in the user side and be able to apply to company and government policy making or embodiment, determination for customer service quality degree of financial institutions. But this study has some limitations like didn't touch satisfaction factors and its effect, only deal domestic customers and didn't use multi-regression analysis.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.23
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• pp.41-74
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• 2007

In Korea, corporate merger activities were activated since 1980, and nowadays(particuarly since 1986) the changes in domestic and international economic circumstances have made corporate managers have strong interests in merger. Korea and America have different business environments and it is easily conceivable that there exists many differences in motives, methods, and effects of mergers between the two countries. According to recent studies on takeover bids in America, takeover bids have information effects, tax implications, and co-insurance effects, and the form of payment(cash versus securities), the relative size of target and bidder, the leverage effect, Tobin's q, number of bidders(single versus multiple bidder), the time period (before 1968, 1968-1980, 1981 and later), and the target firm reaction (hostile versus friendly) are important determinants of the magnitude of takeover gains and their distribution between targets and bidders at the announcement of takeover bids. This study examines the theory of takeover bids, the status quo and problems of merger in Korea, and then investigates how the announcement of merger are reflected in common stock returns of bidding firms, finally explores empirically the factors influencing abnormal returns of bidding firms' stock price. The hypotheses of this study are as follows ; Shareholders of bidding firms benefit from mergers. And common stock returns of bidding firms at the announcement of takeover bids, shows significant differences according to the condition of the ratio of target size relative to bidding firm, whether the target being a member of the conglomerate to which bidding firm belongs, whether the target being a listed company, the time period(before 1986, 1986, and later), the number of bidding firm's stock in exchange for a stock of the target, whether the merger being a horizontal and vertical merger or a conglomerate merger, and the ratios of debt to equity capital of target and bidding firm. The data analyzed in this study were drawn from public announcements of proposals to acquire a target firm by means of merger. The sample contains all bidding firms which were listed in the stock market and also engaged in successful mergers in the period 1980 through 1992 for which there are daily stock returns. A merger bid was considered successful if it resulted in a completed merger and the target firm disappeared as a separate entity. The final sample contains 113 acquiring firms. The research hypotheses examined in this study are tested by applying an event-type methodology similar to that described in Dodd and Warner. The ordinary-least-squares coefficients of the market-model regression were estimated over the period t=-135 to t=-16 relative to the date of the proposal's initial announcement, t=0. Daily abnormal common stock returns were calculated for each firm i over the interval t=-15 to t=+15. A daily average abnormal return(AR) for each day t was computed. Average cumulative abnormal returns($CART_{T_1,T_2}$) were also derived by summing the $AR_t's$ over various intervals. The expected values of $AR_t$ and $CART_{T_1,T_2}$ are zero in the absence of abnormal performance. The test statistics of $AR_t$ and $CAR_{T_1,T_2}$ are based on the average standardized abnormal return($ASAR_t$) and the average standardized cumulative abnormal return ($ASCAR_{T_1,T_2}$), respectively. Assuming that the individual abnormal returns are normal and independent across t and across securities, the statistics $Z_t$ and $Z_{T_1,T_2}$ which follow a unit-normal distribution(Dodd and Warner), are used to test the hypotheses that the average standardized abnormal returns and the average cumulative standardized abnormal returns equal zero.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.37-45
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• 2012

The popularity of courier services in Korea has made it an essential part of the country's domestic logistics industry, bolstering the growth not only of the national economy, but also the quality of people's daily lives. An effective strategy for courier companies in Korea would be to provide high-quality services to their existing target markets with the goal of maximizing customer loyalty. This study investigates structural relationships between customer loyalty and service quality as a set of factors and between customer trust and customer satisfaction. These antecedent relationships will be used to understand the "performance formation model" through service quality. In this study, service quality, as a set of factors, is considered to be the independent variable, while customer satisfaction and customer trust are both treated as intervening variables. Finally, customer loyalty is the dependent variable. Following a review of the literature, this paper's proffered hypothesis will be investigated in terms of whether the independent and intervening variables significantly affect customer loyalty. A statistical analysis of the empirical research was carried out using both SPSS 18.0 and AMOS 18.0 The results of this study's empirical analysis show three conclusions. First, among the intervening variables (customer satisfaction and customer trust), customer satisfaction is significantly correlated with customer loyalty. Customer trust, however, was shown to have little or no relationship to customer loyalty. Second, the quality of service variable seems to influence customer satisfaction, customer trust, and customer loyalty. Third, with respect to the relationship of intervening variables, customer trust affects customer satisfaction. Thus, the companies that have a competitive advantage in Korea have successfully maximized customer loyalty for their existing customers. Courier companies will need to research and study customer needs. Therefore, this research suggests that effective courier service management can be better understood through the application of the service quality performance formation model, which can enhance the quality of service provided by domestic courier services. This research is limited to investigating qualitative variables, such as the service quality factors, customer satisfaction, and customer trust. It would be helpful for future research on courier services to consider quantitative variables, such as price and weight.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.163-179
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• 2010

Recentlythe concept of fast fashion is drawing attention as customer needs are diversified and supply lead time is getting shorter in fashion industry. It is emphasized as one of the critical success factors in the fashion industry how quickly and efficiently to satisfy the customer needs as the competition has intensified. Because the fast fashion is inherently susceptible to trend, it is very important for fashion retailers to make quick decisions regarding items to launch, quantity based on demand prediction, and the time to respond. Also the planning decisions must be executed through the business processes of procurement, production, and logistics in real time. In order to adapt to this trend, the fashion industry urgently needs supports from intelligent quick response(QR) system. However, the traditional functions of QR systems have not been able to completely satisfy such demands of the fast fashion industry. This paper proposes an intelligent quick response system for the fast fashion(IQRS-FF). Presented are models for QR process, QR principles and execution, and QR quantity and timing computation. IQRS-FF models support the decision makers by providing useful information with automated and rule-based algorithms. If the predefined conditions of a rule are satisfied, the actions defined in the rule are automatically taken or informed to the decision makers. In IQRS-FF, QRdecisions are made in two stages: pre-season and in-season. In pre-season, firstly master demand prediction is performed based on the macro level analysis such as local and global economy, fashion trends and competitors. The prediction proceeds to the master production and procurement planning. Checking availability and delivery of materials for production, decision makers must make reservations or request procurements. For the outsourcing materials, they must check the availability and capacity of partners. By the master plans, the performance of the QR during the in-season is greatly enhanced and the decision to select the QR items is made fully considering the availability of materials in warehouse as well as partners' capacity. During in-season, the decision makers must find the right time to QR as the actual sales occur in stores. Then they are to decide items to QRbased not only on the qualitative criteria such as opinions from sales persons but also on the quantitative criteria such as sales volume, the recent sales trend, inventory level, the remaining period, the forecast for the remaining period, and competitors' performance. To calculate QR quantity in IQRS-FF, two calculation methods are designed: QR Index based calculation and attribute similarity based calculation using demographic cluster. In the early period of a new season, the attribute similarity based QR amount calculation is better used because there are not enough historical sales data. By analyzing sales trends of the categories or items that have similar attributes, QR quantity can be computed. On the other hand, in case of having enough information to analyze the sales trends or forecasting, the QR Index based calculation method can be used. Having defined the models for decision making for QR, we design KPIs(Key Performance Indicators) to test the reliability of the models in critical decision makings: the difference of sales volumebetween QR items and non-QR items; the accuracy rate of QR the lead-time spent on QR decision-making. To verify the effectiveness and practicality of the proposed models, a case study has been performed for a representative fashion company which recently developed and launched the IQRS-FF. The case study shows that the average sales rateof QR items increased by 15%, the differences in sales rate between QR items and non-QR items increased by 10%, the QR accuracy was 70%, the lead time for QR dramatically decreased from 120 hours to 8 hours.

• Asian Journal of Business Environment
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.25-34
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• 2012

It is possible to use pallet for forwarding as chinese cabbages and radishes are general large-scale trading items at the agricultural wholesale market though, however, most of these are forwarded as it have packed in net bags or in P·E bags. Thus, it is still hard for palletizing. The type of packing the product in the net bag makes it difficult for palletizing. It is not a stable shape enough and easily collapsed for pallet loading. Because of this collapsibility, the corrugated cardboard box is being used to enhance forwarding efficiency, but the existing corrugated cardboard box could be crushed easily by moist what is from the agricultural product's property and it also could be squashed by the mass of the loaded box layers on itself. In contrary, the functional waterproof corrugated cardboard box is not collapsed through palletizing and it is efficient for product management with it's ventilation function in respond to pre-cooling effect. Furthermore, because it has various functional shapes as the open type, the partition type and so on, it is effective for maintaining freshness of the product and standardizing the distribution of agricultural product. It is well-known that it is possible to introduce this box to cargo-works of agricultural product. Consequently, the recognition of main distributors about the pallet distribution of the chinese cabbage and the radish was apprehended in this study for activating mechanization of loading and unloading. The survey was conducted to the main distributors such as the forwarder, the auction dealer and the commission merchant with Garak-dong wholesale market as the center. The appropriate packing materials and problems of the existing method for loading and unloading were derived through the survey. Especially, it was focused on analyzing the difference of recognition between the subject groups for the way of using waterproof cardboard corrugated box to deal with the difficult product for packing in normal corrugated box because of the box's absorption of moist from the agricultural product like a chinese cabbage and a radish. Total In the cases of the forwarders and the commission merchants, the net was highly responded as 45%, 74% from each groups for the best packing material for mechanization of distribution and the waterproof corrugated cardboard box was responded as 20%, 22% from each groups as much preferable than multi-stage wooden box. However, for the radish, the waterproof corrugated cardboard box was the best material as 56%, and the auction trader group supported it for 80%. So, the using the waterproof corrugated cardboard box for mechanization of distribution was negative for the chinese cabbage, but it was positive for the radish. The average was 2.42, the standard deviation was 1.24. The negative response(about 55%) was prevailing more than positive response(about 23%). It could be analyzed that even there was the positive recognition for using the waterproof corrugated cardboard box for the radish though the preference for low price of net bag in the chinese cabbage forwarding procedure. Still now, it seems that is a burden for using the waterproof corrugated cardboard box with high price. In the analysis on the recognition differences about using the waterproof corrugated cardboard box for the chinese cabbages and the radish between the forwarders and the commission merchants, generally the negative recognition was prevailing, but the forwarders(2.696) were more positive for using the waterproof corrugated cardboard box than the commission merchants(2.145).

• Journal of Venture Innovation
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.23-40
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• 2023

This study examines the customer value factors affecting the intention to continue using the mobile app of department stores, which are traditional offline retailers, in the retail industry that is rapidly digitalizing and becoming mobile. This study clarifies multidimensional customer value in three dimensions; functional, convenience, and social. Functional value refers to the integrated channel, and consistent customer experience provided between channels in the omnichannel retail environment, while convenience value is the convenience of saving time and effort save while customers use a mobile app. Social value refers to the improvement of social approval or social self-concept occurring due to the use of products or services related to green marketing within the mobile app of the department store. The influence of each on the dependent variable, the mobile app's continuous use intention, was analyzed by using the three dimensions of customer value as independent variables. Data was collected from customers who have a history of using the mobile app of Shinsegae Department Store in Korea, and a confirmatory analysis was conducted using Smart PLS 4.0. The analysis results showed that all three dimensions of customer value; functional value, convenience value, and social value, had a positive (+) influence on customers' intention to continue using the mobile app, and the influence of functional value had the greatest impact. As functional value appears to be the most important influencing factor due to the omnichannel retail trend by advancement of technology, it suggests that it is important for department stores, and offline retailers, to provide integrated channels. This provides insights into the direction of customer-centered strategy formulation for activating department store mobile apps and suggests basic analytical data for customized services and marketing activities that department stores can effectively meet the changing expectations and demands of customers through new mobile channels rather than existing offline channels.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.5-15
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• 2010

This study investigated research trends of JDS that KODISA published and gave implications to elevate quality of scholarly journals. In other words, the study classified scientific system of distribution area to investigate research trends and to compare it with other scholarly journals of distribution and to give implications for higher level of JDS. KODISA published JDS Vol.1 No.1 for the first time in 1999 followed by Vol.8 No.3 in September 2010 to show 109 theses in total. KODISA investigated subjects, research institutions, number of participants, methodology, frequency of theses in both the Korean language and English, frequency of participation of not only the Koreans but also foreigners and use of references, etc. And, the study investigated JDR of KODIA, JKDM(The Journal of Korean Distribution & Management) and JDA that researched distribution, so that it found out development ways. To investigate research trends of JDS that KODISA publishes, main category was made based on the national science and technology standard classification system of MEST (Ministry Of Education, Science And Technology), table of classification of research areas of NRF(National Research Foundation of Korea), research classification system of both KOREADIMA and KLRA(Korea Logistics Research Association) and distribution science and others that KODISA is looking for, and distribution economy area was divided into general distribution, distribution economy, distribution, distribution information and others, and distribution management was divided into distribution management, marketing, MD and purchasing, consumer behavior and others. The findings were as follow: Firstly, main category occupied 47 theses (43.1%) of distribution economy and 62 theses (56.9%) of distribution management among 109 theses in total. Active research area of distribution economy consisted of 14 theses (12.8%) of distribution information and 9 theses (8.3%) of distribution economy to research distribution as well as distribution information positively every year. The distribution management consisted of 25 theses (22.9%) of distribution management and 20 theses (18.3%) of marketing, These days, research on distribution management, marketing, distribution, distribution information and others is increasing. Secondly, researchers published theses as follow: 55 theses (50.5%) by professor by himself or herself, 12 theses (11.0%) of joint research by professors and businesses, Professors/students published 9 theses (8.3%) followed by 5 theses (4.6%) of researchers, 5 theses (4.6%) of businesses, 4 theses (3.7%) of professors, researchers and businesses and 2 theses (1.8%) of students. Professors published theses less, while businesses, research institutions and graduate school students did more continuously. The number of researchers occupied single researcher (43 theses, 39.5%), two researchers (42 theses, 38.5%) and three researchers or more (24 theses, 22.0%). Thirdly, professors published theses the most at most of areas. Researchers of main category of distribution economy consisted of professors (25 theses, 53.2%), professors and businesses (7 theses, 14.9%), professors and businesses (7 theses, 14.9%), professors and researchers (6 theses, 12.8%) and professors and students (3 theses, 6.3%). And, researchers of main category of distribution management consisted of professors (30 theses, 48.4%), professors and businesses (10 theses, 16.1%), and professors and researchers as well as professors and students (6 theses, 9.7%). Researchers of distribution management consisted of professors, professors and businesses, professors and researchers, researchers and businesses, etc to have various types. Professors mainly researched marketing, MD and purchasing, and consumer behavior, etc to demand active participation of businesses and researchers. Fourthly, research methodology was: Literature research occupied 45 theses (41.3%) the most followed by empirical research based on questionnaire survey (44 theses, 40.4%). General distribution, distribution economy, distribution and distribution management, etc mostly adopted literature research, while marketing did empirical research based on questionnaire survey the most. Fifthly, theses in the Korean language occupied 92.7% (101 theses), while those in English did 7.3% (8 theses). No more than one thesis in English was published until 2006, and 7 theses (11.9%) were published after 2007 to increase. The theses in English were published more to be affirmative. Foreigner researcher published one thesis (0.9%) and both Korean researchers and foreigner researchers jointly published two theses (1.8%) to have very much low participation of foreigner researchers. Sixthly, one thesis of JDS had 27.5 references in average that consisted of 11.1 local references and 16.4 foreign references. And, cited times was 0.4 thesis in average to be low. The distribution economy cited 24.2 references in average (9.4 local references and 14.8 foreign references and JDS had 0.6 cited reference. The distribution management had 30.0 references in average (12.1 local references and 17.9 foreign references) and had 0.3 reference of JDS itself. Seventhly, similar type of scholarly journal had theses in the Korean language and English: JDR( Journal of Distribution Research) of KODIA(Korea Distribution Association) published 92 theses in the Korean language (96.8%) and 3 theses in English (3.2%), that is to say, 95 theses in total. JKDM of KOREADIMA published 132 theses in total that consisted of 93 theses in the Korean language (70.5%) and 39 theses in English (29.5%). Since 2008, JKDM has published scholarly journal in English one time every year. JDS published 52 theses in the Korean language (88.1%) and 7 theses in English (11.9%), that is to say, 59 theses in total. Sixthly, similar type of scholarly journals and research methodology were: JDR's research methodology had 65 empirical researches based on questionnaire survey (68.4%), followed by 17 literature researches (17.9%) and 11 quantitative analyses (11.6%). JKDM made use of various kinds of research methodologies to have 60 questionnaire surveys (45.5%), followed by 40 literature researches (30.3%), 21 quantitative analyses (15.9%), 6 system analyses (4.5%) and 5 case studies (3.8%). And, JDS made use of 30 questionnaire surveys (50.8%), followed by 15 literature researches (25.4%), 7 case studies (11.9%) and 6 quantitative analyses (10.2%). Ninthly, similar types of scholarly journals and Korean researchers and foreigner researchers were: JDR published 93 theses (97.8%) by Korean researchers except for 1 thesis by foreigner researcher and 1 thesis by joint research of the Korean researchers and foreigner researchers. And, JKDM had no foreigner research and 13 theses (9.8%) by joint research of the Korean researchers and foreigner researchers to have more foreigner researchers as well as researchers in foreign countries than similar types of scholarly journals had. And, JDS published 56 theses (94.9%) of the Korean researchers, one thesis (1.7%) of foreigner researcher only, and 2 theses (3.4%) of joint research of both the Koreans and foreigners. Tenthly, similar type of scholarly journals and reference had citation: JDR had 42.5 literatures in average that consisted of 10.9 local literatures (25.7%) and 31.6 foreign literatures (74.3%), and cited times accounted for 1.1 thesis to decrease. JKDM cited 10.5 Korean literatures (36.3%) and 18.4 foreign literatures (63.7%), and number of self-cited literature was no more than 1.1. Number of cited times accounted for 2.9 literatures in 2008 and then decreased continuously since then. JDS cited 26,8 references in average that consisted of 10.9 local references (40.7%) and 15.9 foreign references (59.3%), and number of self-cited accounted for 0.2 reference until 2009, and it increased to be 2.1 references in 2010. The author gives implications based on JDS research trends and investigation on similar type of scholarly journals as follow: Firstly, JDS shall actively invite foreign contributors to prepare for SSCI. Secondly, ratio of theses in English shall increase greatly. Thirdly, various kinds of research methodology shall be accepted to elevate quality of scholarly journals. Fourthly, to increase cited times, Google and other web retrievals shall be reinforced to supply scholarly journals to foreign countries more. Local scholarly journals can be worldwide scholarly journal enough to be acknowledged even in foreign countries by improving the implications above.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.239-248
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• 2010

This paper describes a collaborative project between academia and industry which focused on improving the marketing and product development strategies for two private label apparel brands of a large regional department store chain in the southeastern United States. The goal of the project was to revitalize product lines of the two brands by incorporating student ideas for new solutions, thereby giving the students practical experience with a real-life industry situation. There were a number of key players involved in the project. A privately-owned department store chain based in the southeastern United States which was seeking an academic partner had recognized a need to update two existing private label brands. They targeted middle-aged consumers looking for casual, moderately priced merchandise. The company was seeking to change direction with both packaging and presentation, and possibly product design. The branding and product development divisions of the company contacted professors in an academic department of a large southeastern state university. Two of the professors agreed that the task would be a good fit for their classes - one was a junior-level Intermediate Brand Management class; the other was a senior-level Fashion Product Development class. The professors felt that by working collaboratively on the project, students would be exposed to a real world scenario, within the security of an academic learning environment. Collaboration within an interdisciplinary team has the advantage of providing experiences and resources beyond the capabilities of a single student and adds "brainpower" to problem-solving processes (Lowman 2000). This goal of improving the capabilities of students directed the instructors in each class to form interdisciplinary teams between the Branding and Product Development classes. In addition, many universities are employing industry partnerships in research and teaching, where collaboration within temporal (semester) and physical (classroom/lab) constraints help to increase students' knowledge and experience of a real-world situation. At the University of Tennessee, the Center of Industrial Services and UT-Knoxville's College of Engineering worked with a company to develop design improvements in its U.S. operations. In this study, Because should be lower case b with a private label retail brand, Wickett, Gaskill and Damhorst's (1999) revised Retail Apparel Product Development Model was used by the product development and brand management teams. This framework was chosen because it addresses apparel product development from the concept to the retail stage. Two classes were involved in this project: a junior level Brand Management class and a senior level Fashion Product Development class. Seven teams were formed which included four students from Brand Management and two students from Product Development. The classes were taught the same semester, but not at the same time. At the beginning of the semester, each class was introduced to the industry partner and given the problem. Half the teams were assigned to the men's brand and half to the women's brand. The teams were responsible for devising approaches to the problem, formulating a timeline for their work, staying in touch with industry representatives and making sure that each member of the team contributed in a positive way. The objective for the teams was to plan, develop, and present a product line using merchandising processes (following the Wickett, Gaskill and Damhorst model) and develop new branding strategies for the proposed lines. The teams performed trend, color, fabrication and target market research; developed sketches for a line; edited the sketches and presented their line plans; wrote specifications; fitted prototypes on fit models, and developed final production samples for presentation to industry. The branding students developed a SWOT analysis, a Brand Measurement report, a mind-map for the brands and a fully integrated Marketing Report which was presented alongside the ideas for the new lines. In future if the opportunity arises to work in this collaborative way with an existing company who wishes to look both at branding and product development strategies, classes will be scheduled at the same time so that students have more time to meet and discuss timelines and assigned tasks. As it was, student groups had to meet outside of each class time and this proved to be a challenging though not uncommon part of teamwork (Pfaff and Huddleston, 2003). Although the logistics of this exercise were time-consuming to set up and administer, professors felt that the benefits to students were multiple. The most important benefit, according to student feedback from both classes, was the opportunity to work with industry professionals, follow their process, and see the results of their work evaluated by the people who made the decisions at the company level. Faculty members were grateful to have a "real-world" case to work with in the classroom to provide focus. Creative ideas and strategies were traded as plans were made, extending and strengthening the departmental links be tween the branding and product development areas. By working not only with students coming from a different knowledge base, but also having to keep in contact with the industry partner and follow the framework and timeline of industry practice, student teams were challenged to produce excellent and innovative work under new circumstances. Working on the product development and branding for "real-life" brands that are struggling gave students an opportunity to see how closely their coursework ties in with the real-world and how creativity, collaboration and flexibility are necessary components of both the design and business aspects of company operations. Industry personnel were impressed by (a) the level and depth of knowledge and execution in the student projects, and (b) the creativity of new ideas for the brands.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.93-111
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• 2013

As Internet and information technology (IT) continues to develop and evolve, the issue of big data has emerged at the foreground of scholarly and industrial attention. Big data is generally defined as data that exceed the range that can be collected, stored, managed and analyzed by existing conventional information systems and it also refers to the new technologies designed to effectively extract values from such data. With the widespread dissemination of IT systems, continual efforts have been made in various fields of industry such as R&D, manufacturing, and finance to collect and analyze immense quantities of data in order to extract meaningful information and to use this information to solve various problems. Since IT has converged with various industries in many aspects, digital data are now being generated at a remarkably accelerating rate while developments in state-of-the-art technology have led to continual enhancements in system performance. The types of big data that are currently receiving the most attention include information available within companies, such as information on consumer characteristics, information on purchase records, logistics information and log information indicating the usage of products and services by consumers, as well as information accumulated outside companies, such as information on the web search traffic of online users, social network information, and patent information. Among these various types of big data, web searches performed by online users constitute one of the most effective and important sources of information for marketing purposes because consumers search for information on the internet in order to make efficient and rational choices. Recently, Google has provided public access to its information on the web search traffic of online users through a service named Google Trends. Research that uses this web search traffic information to analyze the information search behavior of online users is now receiving much attention in academia and in fields of industry. Studies using web search traffic information can be broadly classified into two fields. The first field consists of empirical demonstrations that show how web search information can be used to forecast social phenomena, the purchasing power of consumers, the outcomes of political elections, etc. The other field focuses on using web search traffic information to observe consumer behavior, identifying the attributes of a product that consumers regard as important or tracking changes on consumers' expectations, for example, but relatively less research has been completed in this field. In particular, to the extent of our knowledge, hardly any studies related to brands have yet attempted to use web search traffic information to analyze the factors that influence consumers' purchasing activities. This study aims to demonstrate that consumers' web search traffic information can be used to derive the relations among brands and the relations between an individual brand and product attributes. When consumers input their search words on the web, they may use a single keyword for the search, but they also often input multiple keywords to seek related information (this is referred to as simultaneous searching). A consumer performs a simultaneous search either to simultaneously compare two product brands to obtain information on their similarities and differences, or to acquire more in-depth information about a specific attribute in a specific brand. Web search traffic information shows that the quantity of simultaneous searches using certain keywords increases when the relation is closer in the consumer's mind and it will be possible to derive the relations between each of the keywords by collecting this relational data and subjecting it to network analysis. Accordingly, this study proposes a method of analyzing how brands are positioned by consumers and what relationships exist between product attributes and an individual brand, using simultaneous search traffic information. It also presents case studies demonstrating the actual application of this method, with a focus on tablets, belonging to innovative product groups.