• Asia pacific journal of information systems
• /
• v.30 no.2
• /
• pp.284-307
• /
• 2020

Customer engagement has been the main objective of brand companies in their marketing through social networking sites (SNS). Facebook is the most popular platform for SNS marketing, especially for companies that try to engage with their customers by providing various values through their brand pages (i.e., brand communities). The management of brand pages, therefore, becomes "the means" by which to achieve the result ("the end") of SNS marketing, and visitors to the brand pages (i.e., brand communities) then come to have a favorable attitude toward the brand. Based on a "means-ends" framework, this study examines the development of engagement between customers and brands in terms of brand page engagement as the means objective and brand attitude as the ends objective in the context of Facebook. This study further examines the antecedents and consequences of brand page engagement based on the customer value theory with two-stage data collection. This study contributes to the literature by explaining the roles and effects of brand page engagement in SNS marketing. This study further provides guidance to SNS providers and practitioners on SNS marketing strategies.

• The Journal of Society for e-Business Studies
• /
• v.11 no.3
• /
• pp.1-12
• /
• 2006

In this study, a value framework for ubiquitous computing is developed and presented. Using 'value focused thinking' approach suggested by Keeney, twenty-two potential users of ubiquitous computing were interviewed and 435 statements were obtained from these interviews. Subsequent purification and redundancy removal process reduces these 435 statements into 166 objectives users have in their mind when thinking about ubiquitous computing. These 166 objectives were again simplified into 37 objectives by clustering. Through a focus group interview, these objectives were again classified into a means-ends network diagram by analyzing reciprocal relationships among them. Resulting means-ends network reveals the value framework inherent within the perception of users. This framework will be useful as a reference in developing new business models in ubiquitous computing as well as developing technologies themselves.

• The Journal of Information Systems
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.155-183
• /
• 2012

Means-Ends Network model was used to identify factors of means objective(means supplied by vendor) and fundamental objectives(purchasing motivations) for purchasing decision-making structure and dimensions of customer values on purchasers of internet shopping mall in Korea and China. In Means-Ends Network 6 factors(shopping travel, shipping assurance, vendor trust, online payment, product choice, and recommender systems) were found as a means objectives and 3 factors(shopping convenience, internet environment, customer support) as a fundamental objectives of shopping. However the results of hypotheses test for Means-Ends Network show some important differences between two countries. Something important to notice here is that Chinese customers shopping in China recognize shipping assurance factor and vendor trust factor as important factors satisfying all fundamental objectives unlike as in the case of our country. As these two factors are attribution factors responsible to the sellers, it is identified that customers do not trust the sellers and sellers have not met the expectations of customers. Therefore, these results show that the seller efforts assuring the reliability of the seller themselves, such as conducting its own compensation scheme are more important rather than the establishment of the guarantee institution to guarantee reliability and delivery assurance of sellers and implementation of legal and institutional apparatus such as the settlement of e-commerce licence system. Though this study presents such an important marketing implications, it can be pointed out that the limits are this research was done on the general Internet shopping malls without considering the Internet shopping mall types of diversity, the survey was designed around the student samples for convenience of the investigation because it was an international survey and the collected data has been limited to the western coast cities, such as China's Beijing, Shanghai, and Dalian.

• The Journal of Information Systems
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.121-144
• /
• 2006

For constructing the purchasing decision-making model to maximize customer value on the electronic commerce, Means-Ends Network model was used for identifying means and fundamental objectives and their relationships were analyzed by the structural equation. A questionnaire survey of 481 customers in their internet shopping experiences was conducted to extract valid means and fundamental objectives' factors. As a result, 6 means objectives shopping travel, shipping errors, vendor trust, online payment, product choice, and recommender systems and 3 fundamental objectives-shopping convenience, internet ecology, and customer support were founded. Using these 9 factors, structural equation was analyzed 4 times to ensure statistical validities and to establish new interrelationships among them. The results showed that fundamental objectives are affected by the strong relationships within means objectives. This interrelationship with mens and fundamental objectives is interpreted as the purchasing decision-making model to maximize customer value on the electronic commerce in this paper.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.1-5
• /
• 2014

When renewable sources are connected to the distribution network in the form of a distributed generators(DGs), the effect of intermittent output appears as voltage fluctuation. The surplus power at the consumer ends results in the reverse power flow to the distribution network. This reverse power flow causes several problems to the distribution network such as overvoltage. Application of the reactive power control equipment and power flow control by means of BTB inverter have been suggested as the general solutions to overcome the overvoltage, but they are not economically feasible since they require high cost devices. Herein, we suggest the feeder loop line switch control method to solve the problem.

• The Journal of Society for e-Business Studies
• /
• v.8 no.4
• /
• pp.129-149
• /
• 2003

Explosive growth of mobile devices over the past years has greatly increased commercial interests in mobile commerce, but mobile commerce has not yet seen enough increase on demand side as anticipated. Despite the slow start, mobile commerce has a lot of potential from users' perspective. In order to make this potential a reality, businesses must focus on the values from their customers' perspective, not technical competencies. This research employed Keeney's(1992) value focused thinking approach and explore values of mobile commerce from actual users' viewpoint. In depth interviews were conducted with seventy Practical users of mobile commerce. Through an extensive focus group sessions, 748 statements obtained from actual users were classified into 18 categories of means objectives and 12 categories of fundamental objectives of mobile commerce. The means-ends network diagram of values seen in mobile commerce by actual users were presented and compared to typical electronic commerce diagram. Results suggest the mobile commerce needs to be handled differently from the traditional electronic commerce.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.413-418
• /
• 2011

The thermodynamic properties of steam table are obtained by measurement or approximate calculation under appropriate assumptions. Therefore they are supposed to have basic measurement errors. And thermodynamic properties should be modeled through function approximation for using in numerical analysis. In order to make noised thermodynamic properties corresponding to measurement errors, random numbers are generated, adjusted to appropriate magnitudes and added to original thermodynamic properties. Both neural networks and quadratic spline interpolation method are introduced for function approximation of these modified thermodynamic properties in the saturated water based on pressure and temperature. In analysis spline interpolation method gives much less relative errors than neural networks at both ends of data. Excluding the both ends of data, the relative errors of neural networks is generally within ${\pm}0.2%$ and those of spline interpolation method within ${\pm}0.5$~1.5%. This means that the neural networks give smaller relative errors compared with quadratic spline interpolation method within range of use. From this fact it was confirmed that the neural networks trace the original values better than the quadratic interpolation method and neural networks are more appropriate method in modelling the saturated steam table.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
• /
• v.39 no.2
• /
• pp.119-128
• /
• 2016

Use of ICT in Government has ability to improve service delivery to its citizens, and yet many developing countries have lagged behind in the implementation of e-Government. Many e-Government initiatives also failed to achieve their objectives in developing countries. This paper therefore aims to identify critical failure or success factors in Kenya, using Heeks' Factor Model. A survey questionnaire was developed and data were collected and analyzed from officials and interested citizens. The analysis results enabled to highlight seven specific success and failure factors, and their constituent elements in Kenya. The Kenyan overall e-Government implementation score belongs to the Zone of Improvement (3.52 of total 5.0), which means partial success or failure. The enablers of e-Government projects are good strategy formulation, and internal and external drive, whereas main failures of e-Government are weak ICT infrastructure. The areas for improvement are project management, design, competencies and funding. Data analysis highlights both strengths and weaknesses for each factor or variable. In particular, Kenyan government excels at the drive for change by top to bottom government officers as well as external stakeholders, while the government officers who are using e-Government are satisfied with the availability of vision, strategy and plan of e-Government implementation. Both technologies and e-transactions laws were the worst of all the variables in e-Government implementation. Two areas should be improved using immediate corrective action. In-depth study reveals that government officers and citizens can't fully use their laptop and mobile devices due to the lack of both ICT network and its operating technology, and legal system associated with the transaction of business information. Finally, the study ends up with recommendations for policy makers to shape the future of e-Government system in both developing and developed countries.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.305-322
• /
• 2006

An increasing number of cities employ rescaling strategies that not only construct metropolitan production network scaled down from national context, but also tune up new governance to effectively control local geographies of the city. In this context, urban redevelopment has emerged a key 'global' strategy to empower governmental institutions of the city, which not only eliminate such threatening spatial variables as deteriorated housing, working-class ghettos, and crime areas, but also increase and extract exchange value of those spaces. I view such practices a process of 'glurbanization'. This paper investigates how state/city government employs the discourse of urban re/development for 'inventing' poverty at an urban scale: how it institutionalizes the discourse for implementing concrete projects: and how urban institutional apparatus appropriate their discursive practices of redevelopment for their own ends in the city. By particularly focusing on the California Redevelopment Law and the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles, this paper analyzes the ways in which the law and the agency extract value from what they define 'blight areas' by means of eminent domain and tax increment revenues. For empirical analysis I employ discourse analysis and institutional ethnography. I conclusively argue that the urban spaces stigmatized as 'blight areas' are increasingly entrapped by the urban redevelopment agency, which extracts increased exchange value from the areas and redirects it for supporting external investors, private developers, and the body of the agency itself.