• Title/Summary/Keyword: Mediating role

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A Theory Construction on the Care Experience for Spouses of Patients with Chronic Illness (만성질환자 배우자의 돌봄 경험에 대한 이론 구축)

  • Choi, Kyung-Sook;Eun, Young
    • Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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    • v.30 no.1
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    • pp.122-136
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    • 2000
  • Chronic illness requiring attention and management during a long period of time puts great burden onto patients, their family and society. For patients with chronic illnesses, providing social support is the most important, and the fundamental support comes from their spouses. Amount and quality of support from spouses seems to differentiated according to the sex of patients. Female patients tend to believe that their spouses are not very supportive. Therefore, the researchers assessed the burden of husbands of female arthritis patients to discover the factors that result in greater burden. Also, they developed a theoretical model of husbands′ care for their wives through a qualitative research into husbands′ experience. Method 1: The study material was 650 female arthritis patients registered in an arthritis clinic. The questionnaire about the disease experience of female arthritis patients and the burden of husbands were sent. Returned questionnaires numbered 210(32.3%) and 27 were excluded because of inadequate answers. The remaining 183 questionnaires were analyzed. The mean age of the patients was 51 years and the mean age of spouses was 55 years. The mean marital period was 28 years. The average duration since diagnosis was 9.1 years. Education level was varied from primary school to graduate school, and average income/month was 1,517,300 won. Method 2: Initial questionnaire studies on the burden of husbands were performed. Among 183 responding husbands, 23 consented to participate for a qualitative research. Data was obtained by direct and telephone interviews. The mean age of participants was 58 years, and the educational level and socioeconomic status also varied. Result: 1. Husbands′ burden: The average burden was 57.68 with a range of 6-96. 2. Burden and general characteristics: The husband′s burden correlated with the age of the patients, numbers in the family, therapy methods, patient′s level of discomfort, patient′s disease severity, patient′s level of dependence and the husband′s understanding of the level of severity. 3. Linear correlation analysis on burden: The husbands′ burden is explained in 22.5% by husband′s recognition of level of severity and husbands′ age. 4. There were four patterns of the burden on husbands: both objectve burden and subjective burden were high(pattern I), both of objectve burden and subjective burden were low(pattern II), objective burden was high but subjective burden was low(pattern III), objective burden was low but subjective burden was high(pattern IV). The pattern was correlated with the family income, educational level of the patients and their husbands, therapy methods, patient′s level of discomfort, patient′s disease severity, patient′s level of dependence and husband′s understanding of level of severity. 5. The core category of the caring experience of the husbands with arthritis patients was "companionship". The causal factor was the patients′ experience due to symptoms : physical disfigurement, pain, immobility, limitation of house chores, and limitation of social activities. Contextural factors are husbands′ identification of housework and husbands′ concern about the disease. The mediating factors are economic problems, fear of aging, feeling of limitation and family support. The strategy for interaction is mind control and how to solve emotional stress. The "companionship" resulted from caring activities, participation of household activities, helping patients′ to coping with emotional experience. 6. Companionship is established through the process of entering intervention, and caring state of mind. Entering intervention is the phase of participation of therapy and involvement of houseworks. The caring phase consists of decision on therapy, providing therapy, providing direct care, and taking over the household role of wife. Through caring phase, the changing phase set a stage in which husbands consolidate the relationship with their wives, and are reminded of the meaning of marriage. As a result, in changing phase, husbands′ companionship is enhanced. In conclusion, nursing care of chronic illnesses should include a family member especially the spouse. All information on disease shoud be provided to patients and whole family member. Strong support should also be provided to overcome difficulties in taking over role of other sex. Then the quality of life of patients and families will be much improved.

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Results of Coventional Radiotherapy for Carcinomas of the Tonsillar Region (편도암의 방사선 치료 성적)

  • Nah Byung Sik;Nam Taek Keun;Ahn Sung Ja;Chung Woong Ki
    • Radiation Oncology Journal
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    • v.15 no.2
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    • pp.97-104
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    • 1997
  • of $PLC-\gamma$ 1 activity. Results : In the immunohistochemistry, the expression of $PLC-\beta$ was negative for all grnups. The expression of $PLC-\gamma$ 1 was highest in the group III followed by group II in the proliferative zone of mucosa. The expression of PKC-01 was strong1y positive in group I followed by group II in the damaged surface epithelium. The above findings were also confirmed in the immunoblotting study. In the irnrnunoblotting study, the expressions of $PLC-\beta,\;PLC-\gamma\;1,\;and\;PLC-\delta$ were the same as the results of immunohistochemistry The expression of ras oncoprotein was weakly Positive in groups II, III and IV. The of EGFR was the highest in the group II, III, followed by group W and the expression of PKC was weakly positive in the group II and III. Conclusion : $PLC-\gamma$ 1 mediated signal transduction including ras oncoprotein, EGFR, and PKC play a significant role irL mucosal regeneration after irradiation. $PLC-\delta$ 1 mediated signal transduction might have an important role in mucosal damage after irradiation. Further studies will be necessary to confirm the signal transduction mediating the $PLC-\delta$ 1.

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An Empirical Study on the Importance of Psychological Contract Commitment in Information Systems Outsourcing (정보시스템 아웃소싱에서 심리적 계약 커미트먼트의 중요성에 대한 연구)

  • Kim, Hyung-Jin;Lee, Sang-Hoon;Lee, Ho-Geun
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.17 no.2
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    • pp.49-81
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    • 2007
  • Research in the IS (Information Systems) outsourcing has focused on the importance of legal contracts and partnerships between vendors and clients. Without detailed legal contracts, there is no guarantee that an outsourcing vendor would not indulge in self-serving behavior. In addition, partnerships can supplement legal contracts in managing the relationship between clients and vendors legal contracts by itself cannot deal with all the complexity and ambiguity involved with IS outsourcing relationships. In this paper, we introduce a psychological contract (between client and vendor) as an important variable for IS outsourcing success. A psychological contract refers to individual's mental beliefs about his or her mutual obligations in a contractual relationship (Rousseau, 1995). A psychological contract emerges when one party believes that a promise of future returns has been made, a contribution has been given, and thus, an obligation has been created to provide future benefits (Rousseau, 1989). An employmentpsychological contract, which is a widespread concept in psychology, refers to employer and employee expectations of the employment relationship, i.e. mutual obligations, values, expectations and aspirations that operate over and above the formal contract of employment (Smithson and Lewis, 2003). Similar to the psychological contract between an employer and employee, IS outsourcing involves a contract and a set of mutual obligations between client and vendor (Ho et al., 2003). Given the lack of prior research on psychological contracts in the IS outsourcing context, we extend such studies and give insights through investigating the role of psychological contracts between client and vendor. Psychological contract theory offers highly relevant and sound theoretical lens for studying IS outsourcing management because of its six distinctive principles: (1) it focuses on mutual (rather than one-sided) obligations between contractual parties, (2) it's more comprehensive than the concept of legal contract, (3) it's an individual-level construct, (4) it changes over time, (5) it affects organizational behaviors, and (6) it's susceptible to organizational factors (Koh et al., 2004; Rousseau, 1996; Coyle-Shapiro, 2000). The aim of this paper is to put the concept, psychological contract commitment (PCC), under the spotlight, by finding out its mediating effects between legal contracts/partnerships and IS outsourcing success. Our interest is in the psychological contract commitment (PCC) or commitment to psychological contracts, which is the extent to which a partner consistently and deeply concerns with what the counter-party believes as obligations during the IS project. The basic premise for the hypothesized relationship between PCC and success is that for outsourcing success, client and vendor should continually commit to mutual obligations in which both parties believe, rather than to only explicit obligations. The psychological contract commitment playsa pivotal role in evaluating a counter-party because it reflects what one party really expects from the other. If one party consistently shows high commitment to psychological contracts, the other party would evaluate it positively. This will increase positive reciprocation efforts of the other party, thus leading to successful outsourcing outcomes (McNeeley and Meglino, 1994). We have used matched sample data for this research. We have collected three responses from each set of a client and a vendor firm: a project manager of the client firm, a project member from the vendor firm with whom the project manager cooperated, and an end-user of the client company who actually used the outsourced information systems. Special caution was given to the data collection process to avoid any bias in responses. We first sent three types of questionnaires (A, Band C) to each project manager of the client firm, asking him/her to answer the first type of questionnaires (A).

Effects of Entrepreneurial Competencies on Entrepreneurial Satisfaction and Life Satisfaction: Moderator Effect of Person-Job Fit (창업가역량이 창업만족도와 삶의 만족도에 미치는 영향: 직무적합도의 조절효과 검증)

  • Lee, Sung Ho;Nam, Jung Min
    • Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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    • v.16 no.4
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    • pp.85-99
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    • 2021
  • Due to the continuous unemployment problem, the number of jobs is gradually decreasing, and entrepreneurship is emerging as an alternative. This is because, despite the government operating various start-up support programs to build a start-up-friendly culture, young entrepreneurs cannot endure the valley of death and disappear. Therefore, through this study, we intend to provide implications by analyzing the impact on Entrepreneurial satisfaction, which is essential for continuously running a business, and life satisfaction, which can act as a social awareness. This study was conducted with 573 non-wage workers who belonged to the founders among the participants of the 'College Graduation Occupational Migration Path Survey(GOMS)' survey provided by the Korea Employment Information Service. In order to analyze the relationship between entrepreneurial competency and job fit, Entrepreneurial satisfaction, and life satisfaction, the analysis was conducted using the SPSS 23.0 program. The main research results are summarized as follows. First, entrepreneurial competency has a positive effect on Entrepreneurial satisfaction and life satisfaction. Second, job fit indicates a moderating role in the relationship between entrepreneurial competency and Entrepreneurial satisfaction. Third, start-up satisfaction appears to have a partial mediating role in the relationship between entrepreneurial competency and life satisfaction. Fourth, as a result of analyzing the difference between groups according to the type of start-up(single/partnership), the group that worked together showed higher Entrepreneurial satisfaction and life satisfaction. The main implications of this study are: First, in order to increase the Entrepreneurial satisfaction and life satisfaction of university graduates who are the subject of the study, it will be necessary to design a program that can diagnose and enhance the entrepreneurial competency of students at the university level. Second, entrepreneurial competency is a basic intrinsic factor that founders must have, and it should act as an important evaluation factor when selecting founders for support programs from start-up support organizations as well as founders. Third, it is necessary to maintain mutual trust by documenting problems (positions, wages, management rights, distribution of profits, etc.) that may occur in joint ventures with objective data. Fourth, it is necessary to establish an environment in which the MZ generation, armed with the challenging spirit and creativity, can continue to take on challenges even if they fail.

An Effects of Authentic Leadership and Transformational Leadership on Change Supportive Behavior in Small and Medium-size Business: Focused on Mediating Effect of Positive Psychological Capital (중소기업에서 상사의 변혁적 리더십과 진성 리더십이 변화지지행동에 미치는 영향: 긍정심리자본의 매개효과에 관한 연구)

  • Kim, Kyu Han;Huh, Chul Moo
    • Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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    • v.14 no.2
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    • pp.135-149
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    • 2019
  • Today, a growing number of companies are in trouble because leaders are lack of authentic leadership. Small and midium sized companies have the same issue. To correct the issue, there must be a real change in the relationship between managers and employees of the company as well as outside the company. In 21st century, authentic leadership is required. However, the research about determinants of change supportive behavior is not sufficient. Therefore, the purpose of this study is how manager's transformational leadership and authentic leadership affects change supportive behavior of employees in small and midium sized companies. The study also has to prove the role of positive psychological capital as a parameter. Data were collected from 424 employees working for small and midium sized companies in metropolitan area around Seoul and Gyeonggi. The data were analyzed using statistical package SPSS ver.21.0 and AMOS ver.18.0. Based on the research, First, the transformational leadership does not affect the change supportive behavior. However, authentic leadership affects the change supportive behavior. Also, positive psychological capital playes a role as parameter when transformational and authentic leadership, that are independent variable, affect change supportive behavior. On the other hand, the research shows that authentic leadership has more influence than transformational leadership on positive psychological capital. Transformational leadership without genuine attitude cannot affect change support behavior of employees in small and medium sized companies. Therefore, to affect change supportive behavior of employee, authentic leadership with genuine mind is required. After discussing the conclusions and implications of this study. the direction of the study for the follow - up study was suggested.

A Study on the Entrepreneurial Orientation and the Performance of Startups: The Mediating Effects of Technological Orientation and Social Capital (스타트업의 기업가지향성과 성과에 관한 연구: 기술지향성과 사회적 자본의 매개효과)

  • Lee, Eun A;Seo, Joung Hae;Shim, Yun Soo
    • Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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    • v.14 no.2
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    • pp.47-59
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    • 2019
  • Various studies have been carried out on the subject of entrepreneurship, which is required to create new businesses and organizations during the early process of startups based on innovative technologies and ideas. At the same time, the concept of organizational entrepreneurial orientation, which explains how to manage enterprises in the process of pioneering new products and markets, is drawing more and more attention for the purpose of continuously creating and maintaining a competitive edge of startups. This study focused on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and startup performance and the role of technological orientation and social capital. An empirical research was conducted on 144 different startup companies residing in startup supporting institutions. To evaluate the suitability of the research model, a PLS-based structural equation model was used. The research results are as follows: First, the entrepreneurial orientation of startups was found to have a positive effect on startup performance. Second, it was shown that entrepreneurial orientation had a positive effect on all three dimensions of social capital and technological orientation. Third, it has been shown that technological orientation and the cognitive dimension of social capital mediates the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and startup performance. Through this, it was confirmed that entrepreneurial orientation directly affects startup performance, and it even influences the growth of startups by increasing technological superiority and social capital which is inherent in the network. Also, the research identified the need for additional research on the relationship between the strengthening of technological orientation and strategical orientation in startups. This study is expected to expand the discussion about social capital in the field of startup related research by affirming the role and importance of the cognitive system embedded in the network as well as the connectivity of networks, which has been already emphasized in previous startup related studies. Finally, the results of this study were reflected to present new practical implications.

Effects of Social Exclusion on Displaced Aggression: the Mediatingon Effect of Stress and Conditional Direct Effect of Social Support (사회적 배제가 전위된 공격성에 미치는 영향: 스트레스의 매개효과 및 사회적지지의 조건부 직접효과)

  • Yoonjae Noh;Sangyeon Yoon
    • Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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    • v.29 no.4
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    • pp.455-476
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    • 2023
  • This study focused on the characteristics of motiveless crimes that mainly originated from interpersonal problems and were acts of revenge against innocent third parties. This study confirmed the relationship between the experience of social exclusion and displaced aggression and examined the relationship between the two variables. We sought to confirm the role of related factors such as stress and social support. For this purpose, we established and tested hypotheses about the mediatingon effect of stress and the moderated mediatingon effect of social support on the effect of social exclusion experience on displaced aggression among 353 adult males aged between 19 and 49 years. The main results are that, first, social exclusion had a positive effect on displaced aggression. Second, stress was found to partially mediate the relationship between social exclusion and displaced aggression. Third, the hypothesis that social support would moderate the mediating effect of stress was not provedvaild, but the conditional direct effect of social support was confirmed in the mediation model. In other words, social support did not affect the indirect effect mediated by stress, but appeared to moderate the direct effect between social exclusion and displaced aggression. Social exclusion's prediction of displaced aggression was significant only in the average social support group (mean) and the high group (M+1SD), and appeared to increase as the group increased. This means that in groups with high social support, displaced aggression is used as a stress control strategy, which is a different result from previous studies that found that social support plays a role in lowerings aggression. People with low levels of social support showed unexpected results in that they used displaced aggression less frequently despite their experiencinge of social exclusion. In the discussion, the social implications of these results were interpreted, and additional research ideas were proposed to specify the relationship between social exclusion and displaced aggression.

The Effect of CEO's Entrepreneurship on Intra-organization Innovation through Creative self-efficacy and the Moderating Effect of Organizational Commitment (창의적 효능감을 통해 조직 내 혁신을 유발하는 CEO의 기업가정신과 조직몰입의 조절효과)

  • Kim, Sun-Wang;Sung, Eul-Hyun
    • Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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    • v.19 no.2
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    • pp.45-61
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    • 2024
  • This study looked in-depth at the importance of cultivating and manifesting entrepreneurship, which is emphasized for companies to gain a competitive advantage and promote innovation in the uncertain environment that organizations face and in the development of technology due to recent industrial advancement, the following innovative performance, and the mechanisms in the performance process. Entrepreneurship is emphasized as a key factor in inducing creative work performance, creation and application of new ideas, and innovative performance at various levels within the organization in various global companies. In particular, this study examined the influence of the CEO's cultivation and expression of entrepreneurship as an organizational leader on the innovative behavior of organizational members, which is a leading factor in the organization's innovative performance, and the role of creative self-efficacy as a mechanism. Through this, the study was to verify the importance of creativity and cultivating a sense of self-efficacy for demonstrating innovative performance within an organization. Additionally, it was to confirm the role of organizational commitment of organizational members as a situational factor. For the empirical analysis, a total of 247 office workers were surveyed, sampled from 10 venture companies engaged in the manufacturing industry in industrial complexes in Daejeon, Korea. As the result of empirical analysis showed, it was confirmed that each sub-factor of the CEO's entrepreneurship had a positive effect on the innovative behavior of organizational members. And in the process, the importance of the creative self-efficacy of members to demonstrate innovative performance was verified by confirming positively significant mediating effect of creative self-efficacy. Furthermore, in the case of organizational commitment, it was found that the innovativeness and proactiveness of the CEO strengthened the positive influence on the creative efficacy of the organization members. Based on the results of empirical analysis, theoretical and practical implications were provided to improve the importance of cultivating and manifesting the CEO's entrepreneurship to demonstrate innovation within the organization.

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Effects of firm strategies on customer acquisition of Software as a Service (SaaS) providers: A mediating and moderating role of SaaS technology maturity (SaaS 기업의 차별화 및 가격전략이 고객획득성과에 미치는 영향: SaaS 기술성숙도 수준의 매개효과 및 조절효과를 중심으로)

  • Chae, SeongWook;Park, Sungbum
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.20 no.3
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    • pp.151-171
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    • 2014
  • Firms today have sought management effectiveness and efficiency utilizing information technologies (IT). Numerous firms are outsourcing specific information systems functions to cope with their short of information resources or IT experts, or to reduce their capital cost. Recently, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) as a new type of information system has become one of the powerful outsourcing alternatives. SaaS is software deployed as a hosted and accessed over the internet. It is regarded as the idea of on-demand, pay-per-use, and utility computing and is now being applied to support the core competencies of clients in areas ranging from the individual productivity area to the vertical industry and e-commerce area. In this study, therefore, we seek to quantify the value that SaaS has on business performance by examining the relationships among firm strategies, SaaS technology maturity, and business performance of SaaS providers. We begin by drawing from prior literature on SaaS, technology maturity and firm strategy. SaaS technology maturity is classified into three different phases such as application service providing (ASP), Web-native application, and Web-service application. Firm strategies are manipulated by the low-cost strategy and differentiation strategy. Finally, we considered customer acquisition as a business performance. In this sense, specific objectives of this study are as follows. First, we examine the relationships between customer acquisition performance and both low-cost strategy and differentiation strategy of SaaS providers. Secondly, we investigate the mediating and moderating effects of SaaS technology maturity on those relationships. For this purpose, study collects data from the SaaS providers, and their line of applications registered in the database in CNK (Commerce net Korea) in Korea using a questionnaire method by the professional research institution. The unit of analysis in this study is the SBUs (strategic business unit) in the software provider. A total of 199 SBUs is used for analyzing and testing our hypotheses. With regards to the measurement of firm strategy, we take three measurement items for differentiation strategy such as the application uniqueness (referring an application aims to differentiate within just one or a small number of target industry), supply channel diversification (regarding whether SaaS vendor had diversified supply chain) as well as the number of specialized expertise and take two items for low cost strategy like subscription fee and initial set-up fee. We employ a hierarchical regression analysis technique for testing moderation effects of SaaS technology maturity and follow the Baron and Kenny's procedure for determining if firm strategies affect customer acquisition through technology maturity. Empirical results revealed that, firstly, when differentiation strategy is applied to attain business performance like customer acquisition, the effects of the strategy is moderated by the technology maturity level of SaaS providers. In other words, securing higher level of SaaS technology maturity is essential for higher business performance. For instance, given that firms implement application uniqueness or a distribution channel diversification as a differentiation strategy, they can acquire more customers when their level of SaaS technology maturity is higher rather than lower. Secondly, results indicate that pursuing differentiation strategy or low cost strategy effectively works for SaaS providers' obtaining customer, which means that continuously differentiating their service from others or making their service fee (subscription fee or initial set-up fee) lower are helpful for their business success in terms of acquiring their customers. Lastly, results show that the level of SaaS technology maturity mediates the relationships between low cost strategy and customer acquisition. That is, based on our research design, customers usually perceive the real value of the low subscription fee or initial set-up fee only through the SaaS service provide by vender and, in turn, this will affect their decision making whether subscribe or not.

The Impacts of Social Support and Psychological Factors on Guild Members' Flow and Loyalty in MMORPG (MMORPG에서 길드 구성원들의 사회적 지지와 심리적 요인들이 플로우 및 충성도에 미치는 영향)

  • Kang, Ju-Seon;Ko, Yoon-Jung;Ko, Il-Sang
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.19 no.3
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    • pp.69-98
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    • 2009
  • We investigated what factors motivate gamers to participate in a guild and why they continue to be engaged as members of the guild. We find that, based on the result of focus group interviews with MMORPG gamers, social support and self-esteem factors play important roles. Considering both prior research and the focus group interviews we have conducted, we define social support and character control as independent variables. Character identity, guild identity, and self-esteem are proposed as mediating variables while guild flow and game loyalty as dependent variables. Accordingly, we develop the research model and hypotheses, and verify them empirically. Based on our experiences of playing the WoW game, we proposed a research model and conducted focus-group interviews (FGIs). FGIs involve formulating a hypothesis and then collecting some relevant data. FGIs were conducted face-to-face with students of C University in Korea. We formulated structured interview schedules, and the questions were based on our research variables and personal experiences. The questions for the interviews encompassed the following areas: (a) the demographic characteristics of the focus group; (b) the number of years for which respondents had played online games; (c) the motive for starting a game; (d) the number of game-characters assumed by each gamer; (e) the type of game played; and (f) other issues such as the reasons for involvement in the play, the willingness to reuse the game in case new versions were released, etc. On average, it took two hours to interview each of three groups. A primary set of FGIs was conducted with three groups on the premise that there would be some differences caused by character race (Horde vs. Alliance) or by playable server (Normal vs. Combat). With respect to the manner of playing, we found that guild members shared information, felt a sense of belonging, and played computer games for quite a long time through the guild; however, they did not undergo these experiences when playing alone. Gamers who belonged to a specific guild helped other players without expecting compensation for that, freely shared information about the game, gave away items for free, and more generous with other members who made mistakes. The guild members were aware of the existence other members and experienced a sense of belonging through interactions with, and evaluations from, other players. It was clear that social support was shown within the guild and that it played an important role as a major research variable. Based on the results of the first FGIs, a second set of in-depth FGIs was carried out with a focus on the psychology of the individual within the guild and the social community of the guild. The second set of FGIs also focused on the guild's offline meetings. Gamers, over all, recognize the necessity of joining a community, not only off-line but also online world of the guild. They admit that the guild is important for them to easily and conveniently enjoy playing online computer games. The active behavior and positive attitudes of existing guild members can motivate new members of the guild to adapt themselves to the guild environment. They then adopt the same behaviors and attitudes of established guild members. In this manner, the new members of the guild strengthen the bonds with other gamers while feeling a sense of belonging, and developing social identity, thereby. It was discovered that the interaction among guild members and the social support encouraged new gamers to quickly develop a sense of social identity and increase their self-esteem. The guild seemed to play the role of socializing gamers. Sometimes, even in the real world, the guild members helped one another; therefore, the features of the guild also spilled over to the offline environment. We intend to use self-esteem, which was found through the second set of FGIs, as an important research variable. To collect data, an online survey was designed with a questionnaire to be completed by WoW gamers, who belong to a guild. The survey was registered on the best three domestic game-sites: 'WoW playforum,' 'WoW gamemeca,' and 'Wow invent.' The selected items to be measured in the questionnaire were decided based on prior research and data from FGIs. To verify the content of the questionnaire, we carried out a pilot test with the same participants to point out ambiguous questions as a way to ensure maximum accuracy of the survey result. A total of 244 responses were analyzed from the 250 completed questionnaires. The SEM analysis was used to test goodness-of-fit of the model. As a result, we found important results as follows: First, according to the statistics, social support had statistically significant impacts on character control, character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Second, character control had significant effects on character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Third, character identity shows its clear impact on self-esteem and game loyalty. Fourth, guild identity affected self-esteem, guild flow and game loyalty. Fifth, self-esteem had a positive influence on the guild flow. These days, the number of virtual community is rising along with its significance largely because of the nature of the online games. Accordingly, this study is designed to clarify the psychological relationship between gamers within the guild that has been generally established by gamers to play online games together. This study focuses on the relationships in which social support influences guild flow or game loyalty through character control, character identity, guild identity, and self-esteem, which are present within a guild in the MMORPG game environment. The study results are as follows. First, the effects of social support on character control, character identity, guild identity and self-esteem are proven to be statistically significant. It was found that character control improves character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Among the seven variables, social support, which is derived from FGIs, plays an important role in this study. With the active support of other guild members, gamers can improve their ability to develop good characters and to control them. Second, character identity has a positive effect on self-esteem and game loyalty, while guild identity has a significant effect on self-esteem, guild flow and game loyalty. Self-esteem affects guild flow. It was found that the higher the character and guild identities become, the greater the self-esteem is established. Contrary to the findings of prior research, our study results indicate that the relationship between character identity and guild flow is not significant. Rather, it was found that character identity directly affects game players' loyalty. Even though the character identity had no direct effect on increasing guild flow, it has indirectly affected guild flow through self-esteem. The significant relationship between self-esteem and guild flow indicates that gamers achieve flow, i.e., a feeling of pleasure and excitement through social support. Several important implications of this study should be noted. First, both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to conduct this study. Through FGIs, it was observed that both social support and self-esteem are important variables. Second, because guilds had been rarely studied, this research is expected to play an important role in the online community. Third, according to the result, six hypotheses (H1, H5, H6, H7, H8, and H11) setup based on FGIs, were statistically significant; thus, we can suggest the corresponding relationships among the variables as a guideline for follow-up research. Our research is significant as it has following implications: first, the social support of the guild members is important when establishing character control, character identity, guildidentity and self-esteem. It is also a major variable that affects guild flow and game loyalty. Second, character control when improved by social support shows notable influence on the development of character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Third, character identity and guild identity are major factors to help establish gamers' own self-esteem. Fourth, character identity affects guild flow through self-esteem and game loyalty. The gamers usually express themselves through characters; the higher character identity is, the more loyalty a gamer has. Fifth, guild identity, established within the guild, has clear effects on self-esteem, guild flow and game loyalty. Sixth, qualitative and quantitative methods are employed to conduct this study. Based on the results of focus group interviews and SEM analysis, we find that the social support by guild members and psychological factors are significant in strengthening the flow of guild and loyalty to the game. As such, game developers should provide some extra functions for guild community, through which gamers can play online games in collaboration with one another. Also, we suggest that positive self-esteem which is built up through social support can help gamers achieve higher level of flow and satisfaction, which will consequently contribute to minimizing the possibility for the players to develop negative attitude toward the guild they belong to.