• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.19-45
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• 2008

This study is to empirically examine the primary dimensions of visual merchandising (VMD) of internet shopping mall, namely store design, merchandise, and merchandising cues, to be a attractive virtual store to the shoppers. The authors reviewed the literature related to the major components of VMD from the perspective of the AIDA model, which has been mainly applied to the offline store settings. The major purposes of the study are as follows; first, tries to derive the variables related with the components of visual merchandising through reviewing the existing literatures, establish the hypotheses, and test it empirically. Second, examines the relationships between the components of VMD and the attitude toward the VMD, however, putting more emphasis on finding out the component structure of the VMD. VMD needs to be examined with the perspective that an online shopping mall is a virtual self-service or clerkless store, which could reduce the number of employees, help the shoppers search, evaluate and purchase for themselves, and to be explored in terms of the in-store persuasion processes of customers. This study reviewed the literatures related to store design, merchandise, and merchandising cues which might be relevant to the store, product, and promotion respectively. VMD is a total communication tool, and AIDA model could explain the in-store consumer behavior of online shopping. Store design has to do with triggering a consumer attention to the online mall, merchandise with a product related interest, and merchandising cues with promotions such as recommendation and links that induce the desire to pruchase. These three steps might be seen as the processes for purchase actions. The theoretical rationale for the relationship between VMD and AIDA could be found in Tyagi(2005) that the three steps of consumer-oriented merchandising are a store, a product assortment, and placement, in Omar(1999) that three types of interior display are a architectural design display, commodity display, and point-of-sales(POS) display, and in Davies and Ward(2005) that the retail store interior image is related to an atmosphere, merchandise, and in-store promotion. Lee et al(2000) suggested as the web merchandising components a merchandising cues, a shopping metaphor which is an assistant tool for search, a store design, a layout(web design), and a product assortment. The store design which includes differentiation, simplicity and navigation is supposed to be related to the attention to the virtual store. Second, the merchandise dimensions comprising product assortments, visual information and product reputation have to do with the interest in the product offerings. Finally, the merchandising cues that refer to merchandiser(MD)'s recommendation of products and providing the hyperlinks to relevant goods for the shopper is concerned with attempt to induce the desire to purchase. The questionnaire survey was carried out to collect the data about the consumers who would shop at internet shopping malls frequently. To select the subject malls, the mall ranking data announced by a mall rating agency was used to differentiate the most popular and least popular five mall each. The subjects was instructed to answer the questions after navigating the designated mall for five minutes. The 300 questionnaire was distributed to the consumers, 166 samples were used in the final analysis. The empirical testing focused on identifying and confirming the dimensionality of VMD and its subdimensions using a structural equation modeling method. The confirmatory factor analysis for the endogeneous and exogeneous variables was carried out in four parts. The second-order factor analysis was done for a store design, a merchandise, and a merchandising cues, and first-order confirmatory factor analysis for the attitude toward the VMD. The model test results shows that the chi-square value of structural equation is 144.39(d.f 49), significant at 0.01 level which means the proposed model was rejected. But, judging from the ratio of chi-square value vs. degree of freedom, the ratio was 2.94 which smaller than an acceptable level of 3.0, RMR is 0.087 which is higher than a generally acceptable level of 0.08. GFI and AGFI is turned out to be 0.90 and 0.84 respectively. Both NFI and NNFI is 0.94, and CFI 0.95. The major test results are as follows; first, the second-order factor analysis and structural equational modeling reveals that the differentiation, simplicity and ease of identifying current status of the transaction are confirmed to be subdimensions of store design and to be a significant predictors of the dependent variable. This result implies that when designing an online shopping mall, it is necessary to differentiate visually from other malls to improve the effectiveness of the communications of store design. That is, the differentiated store design raise the contrast stimulus to sensory organs to promote the memory of the store and to have a favorable attitude toward the VMD of a store. The results that navigation which means the easiness of identifying current status of shopping affects the attitude to VMD could be interpreted that the navigating processes via the hyperlinks which is characteristics of an internet shopping is a complex and cognitive process and shoppers are likely to lack the sense of overall structure of the store. Consequently, shoppers are likely to be alost amid shopping not knowing where to go. The orientation tool enhance the accessibility of information to raise the perceptive power about the store environment.(Titus & Everett 1995) Second, the primary dimension of merchandise and its subdimensions was confirmed to be unidimensional respectively, have a construct validity, and nomological validity which the VMD dimensions supposed to have a positive correlation with the dependent variable. The subdimensions of product assortment, brand fame and information provision proved to have a positive effect on the attitude toward the VMD. It could be interpreted that the more plentiful the product and brand assortment of the mall is, the more likely the shoppers to favor it. Brand fame and information provision as well affect the VMD attitude, which means that the more famous the brand, the more likely the shoppers would trust and feel familiar with the mall, and the plentifully and visually presented information could have the shopper have a favorable attitude toward the store VMD. Third, it turned out to be that merchandising cue of product recommendation and hyperlinks affect the VMD attitude. This could be interpreted that recommended products could reduce the uncertainty related with the purchase decision, and the hyperlinks to relevant products would help the shopper save the cognitive effort exerted into the information search and gathering, which could lead to a favorable attitude to the VMD. This study tried to sheds some new light on the VMD of online store by reviewing the variables mentioned to be relevant with offline VMD in the existing literatures, and tried to link the VMD components from the perspective of AIDA model. The effect size of the VMD dimensions on the attitude was in the order of the merchandise, the store design and the merchandising cues.It is said that an internet has an unlimited place for display, however, the virtual store is not unlimited since the consumer has a limited amount of cognitive ability to process the external information and internal memory. Particularly, the shoppers are likely to face some difficulties in decision making on account of too many alternative and information overloads. Therefore, the internet shopping mall manager should take into consideration the cost of information search on the part of the consumer, to establish the optimal product placements and search routes. An efficient store composition would be possible by reducing the psychological burdens and cognitive efforts exerted to information search and alternatives evaluation. The store image is in most part determined by the product category and its brand it deals in. The results of this study support this proposition that the merchandise is most important to the VMD attitude than other components, the manager is required to take a strategic approach to VMD. The internet users are getting more accustomed and more knowledgeable about the internet media and more likely to accept the internet as a shopping channel as the period of time during which they use the internet to shop become longer. The web merchandiser should be aware that the product introduction using a moving pictures and a bulletin board become more important in order to present the interactive product information visually and communicate with customers more actively, therefore leading to making the quantity and quality of product information more rich.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.17-25
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• 2015

This research is to analyze the mediating effect of corporate reputation between the organizational slack and corporate performance in venture SMEs. That is, after controlling the firm size, firm age, social capital, environmental uncertainty, we test three hypothesis. First, we test the hypothesis that organizational slack has a positive effect on corporate reputation. Second, we test the hypothesis that corporate reputation has a positive effect on corporate performance. Third, we test the positive mediating role of corporate reputation between organizational slack and corporate performance. For this research, we administered the questionnaire surveys, and got the 250 effective data(companies) of korean venture SMEs. We use SPSS 18.0, and analysis the validity, reliability, correlation and multiple regression analysis of research model. As a result, we can find the three meaningful results. First, organizational slack, especially not absorbed slack but unabsorbed slack, has positive effect on the corporate reputation. Second, corporate reputation has positive effect on corporate performance. Third, corporate reputation has mediating effect between organizational slack, especially not absorbed slack but unabsorbed slack, and corporate performance. Although this research has some limitations of generalization because of the limited size of samples, we has meaning information related to the venture companies in the academic and business field.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.3-30
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• 2012

In the development process, small and medium-sized enterprises in China have shown their unique features and regularities which are closely related to China's national condition and economic characteristics. But in 2008, because of the global financial crisis which started in the USA, the rate of Chinese export and the rate of economic growth has evidently slowed. Due to shortage of funds, foreign orders fell, increase the value of RMB, lack of talented factors, Chinese SMEs are facing bankruptcy. In this context, the purpose of this study is to examine the effects of domestic and international market environment, the government assistance for entering overseas market, entrepreneur characteristics, etc. on the global performance. Based on these, a research model and some hypotheses were set up and tested by the multiple regression analysis with total 317 effective survey data. The results of this paper are as follows. First, a positive effect relation on the financial performance was shown for the companies with high domestic and international market environment in the aspect of market environment. According to such analysis result, it was found that the market environment in which SMEs belong to is a very important factor. Second, in the aspect of government export assistance related to overseas, market development showed a positive effect relation on the both financial and non-financial performance. However, the direct financial assistance showed a positive effect relation only on the non-financial performance. Overall, it was found that the government assistance program on entering overseas market is having significant effects on SMEs, but direct financial assistance have not achieved the desired results. Third, the innovative-ness and progressiveness of entrepreneur showed a positive effect relation on the global market performance. However, the risk-taking of entrepreneur only showed a negative effect relation on the non-financial performance. Overall, it was found that the entrepreneurship of SMEs is an important and influential factor. This is a result implying that the propensity of taking too much risk is not desirable based on the uncertainty of the global environment market. To sum up, this study confirmed that the market environment, the government assistance and entrepreneur characteristics, which are the major prerequisites of global performance, have effects on global performance.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.5-33
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• 1995

The objective of the study are two-fold: one is to explore the relationship between environment, organizational structure, and organizational effectiveness of public health centers in Korea, and the other is to examine the validity of contingency theory for improving the organizational structure of public health care agencies, with special emphasis on public health nursing administration. Accordingly, the conceptual model of the study consisted of three different concepts: environment, organizational structure, and organizational effectiveness, which were built up from the contingency theory. Data were collected during the period from 1st of May through 30th of June, 1990. From the total of 249 health centers in the country, one hundred and five centers were sampled non proportionally, according to the geopolitical distribution. Out of 105, 73 health centers responded to mailed questionnaire. The health centers were the unit of the study, and a various statistical analysis techniques were used: Reliability analysis(Cronbach's Alpha) for 4 measurement tools; Shapiro-Wilk statistic for normality test of measured scores of 6 variables: ANOVA, Pearson Correlaion analysis, regressional analysis, and canonical correlation analysis for the test of the relationships and differences between the variables. The results were. as follows : 1. No significant differences between forma lization, decision-making authority and environmental complexity were found(F=1.383, P=.24 ; F=.801, P=.37). 2. Negative relationships between formalization and decision-making authority for both urban and rural health centers were found(r=-.470, P=.002 ; r=-.348, P=.46). 3. No significant relationship between formalization and job satisfaction for both urban and rural health centers were found (r=-.242, P=.132, r=-.060, P=.739). 4. Significant positive relationship between decision - making authority and job satisfaction were found in urban health centers (r=.504, P=.0009), but no such relationship was observed in rural health centers. Regression coefficient between them was statistically significant($\beta=1.535$, P=.0002), and accuracy of regression line was accepted (W=.975, P= .420). 5. No significant relationships among formalization and family planning services, maternal health services, and tuberculosis control services for both urban and rural health centers were found. 6. Among decision-making authority and family planning services, maternal health services, and tuberculosis control services, significant positive relationship was found between de cision-making authority and family planning services(r=.286, P=.73). 7. A significant difference was found in maternal health services by the type of health centers (F=5.13, P=.026) but no difference was found in tuberculosis control services by the type of health centers, formalization, and decision-making authority. 8. A significant positive relationships were found between family planning services and maternal health services and tuberculosis control services, and between maternal health services and tuberculosis control services (r=-.499, P=.001 ; r=.457, P=.004 ; r=.495, P=.002) in case of urban health centers. In case of rural health centers, relationships between family planning services and tuberculosis control services, and between maternal health services and tuberculosis control services were statistically significant (r=.534, P=.002 ; r=.389, P=.027). No significant relationship was found between family planning and maternal health services. 9. A significant positive canonical correlation was found between the group of independent variables consisted of formalization and de cision-making authority and the group of dependent variables consisted of family planning services, maternal health services and tuberculosis control services(Rc=.455, P=.02). In case of urban health centers, no significant canonical correlation was found between them, but significant canoncial correlation was found in rural health centers(Rc=.578, P=.069), 10. Relationships between job satisfaction and health care productivity was not found significant. Through these results, the assumed relationship between environment and organizational structure was not supported in health centers. Therefore, the relationship between the organizational effectiveness and the congruence between environment and organizational structure that contingency theory proposes to exist was not able to be tested. However decision-making authority was found as an important variable of organizational structure affecting family planning services and job satisfaction in urban health centers. Thus it was suggested that decentralized decision making among health professionals would be a valuable strategy for improvement of organizational effectiveness in public health centers. It is also recommended that further studies to test contingency theory would use variability and uncertainty to define environment of public health centers instead of complexity.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.51 no.7
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• pp.671-689
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• 2008

The economic recession of North Korea has been prolonged, the need for humanitarian assistance for the women and children of DPRK has been raised. In March 2006, South Korean government signed MOU with World Health Organization (WHO) to financially support "Improving Women's and Children's Health in DPRK (IWCH)" project. The assistance projects through UNICEF and the non-government organizations of South Korea were also followed. IWCH project consists of three parts; nutrition, disease management, children and maternity care. The first term (2006-2007) of the project leading by WHO was finished, and the second term (2008-2010) is just begun. The projects driven by NGOs have relatively been delayed due to difficulties in negotiating on project contents and places with North Korea. Recently, however, re-modeling processes of an obstetric/gynecology hospital and a children hospital in Nampo were started. Up to recently, South Korean government has played only a limited role in the humanitarian assistance for North Korea. IWCH project is, however, a full-scale initiative driven by government based on a systematic review of need and priorities. A significant amount of budget and relatively long term (five year) project compare to the previous short term and small size programs were expected to make more meaningful achievement. Despite these positive aspects, the project remains a list of unsolved problems a lack of mutual trust, a different decision making process between South and North Korea, a lack of conflict management process, and unpredictability and complexity of international politics. In spite of such kind of political uncertainty, the health care sector will be a leading area in the process of improving relationship between South and North Korea, particularly, humanitarian assistance for women and children will play a crucial role in the process. The successful implementation of IWCH project, therefore, will contribute to provide the reference model in developing the mutually constructive relationship between South and North

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.59-83
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• 2012

Agriculture is a primary industry that influenced by the weather or meterological factors more than other industry. Global warming and worldwide climate changes, and unusual weather phenomena are fatal in agricultural industry and human life. Therefore, many previous studies have been made to find the relationship between weather and the productivity of agriculture. Meterological factors also influence on the distribution of agricultural product. For example, price of agricultural product is determined in the market, and also influenced by the weather of the market. However, there is only a few study was made to find this link. The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of meterological factors on the distribution of agricultural products, focusing on the distribution of chinese cabbages. Chinese cabbage is a main ingredient of Kimchi, and basic essential vegetable in Korean dinner table. However, the production of chinese cabbages is influenced by weather and very fluctuating so that the variation of its price is so unstable. Therefore, both consumers and farmers do not feel comfortable at the unstable price of chinese cabbages. In this study, we analyze the real transaction data of chinese cabbage in wholesale markets and meterological factors depending on the variety and geography. We collect and analyze data of meterological factors such as temperatures, humidity, cloudiness, rainfall, snowfall, wind speed, insolation, sunshine duration in producing and consuming region of chinese cabbages. The result of this study shows that the meterological factors such as temperature and humidity significantly influence on the volume and price of chinese cabbage transaction in wholesale market. Especially, the weather of consuming region has greater correlation effects on transaction than that of producing region in all types of chinese cabbages. Among the whole agricultural lifecycle of chinese cabbages, 'seeding - harvest - shipment - wholesale', meterological factors such as temperature and rainfall in shipment and wholesale period are significantly correlated with transaction volume and price of crops. Based on the result of correlation analysis, we make a regression analysis to verify the meterological factors' effects on the volume and price of chines cabbage transaction in wholesale market. The results of stepwise regression analysis are shown in