• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.59-87
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• 2014

In MIS field, the researches on payment services are focused on adoption factors of payment service using behavior theories such as TRA(Theory of Reasoned Action), TAM(Technology Acceptance Model), and TPB (Theory of Planned Behavior). The previous researches presented various adoption factors according to types of payment service, nations, culture and so on even though adoption factors of identical payment service were presented differently by researchers. The payment service industry relatively has strong path dependency to the existing payment methods so that the research results on the identical payment service are different due to payment culture of nation. This paper aims to suggest a successful adoption factor of noble payment service regardless of nation's culture and characteristics of payment and prove it. In previous researches, common adoption factors of payment service are convenience, ease of use, security, convenience, speed etc. But real cases prove the fact that adoption factors that the previous researches present are not always critical to success to penetrate a market. For example, PayByPhone, NFC based parking payment service, successfully has penetrated to early market and grown. In contrast, Google Wallet service failed to be adopted to users despite NFC based payment method which provides convenience, security, ease of use. As shown in upper case, there remains an unexplained aspect. Therefore, the present research question emerged from the question: "What is the more essential and fundamental factor that should takes precedence over factors such as provides convenience, security, ease of use for successful penetration to market". With these cases, this paper analyzes four cases predicted on the following hypothesis and demonstrates it. "To successfully penetrate a market and sustainably grow, new payment service should find non-customer of the existing payment service and provide noble payment method so that they can use payment method". We give plausible explanations for the hypothesis using multiple case studies. Diners club, Danal, PayPal, Square were selected as a typical and successful cases in each category of payment service. The discussion on cases is primarily non-customer analysis that noble payment service targets on to find the most crucial factor in the early market, we does not attempt to consider factors for business growth. We clarified three-tier non-customer of the payment method that new payment service targets on and elaborated how new payment service satisfy them. In case of credit card, this payment service target first tier of non-customer who can't pay for because they don't have any cash temporarily but they have regular income. So credit card provides an opportunity which they can do economic activities by delaying the date of payment. In a result of wireless phone payment's case study, this service targets on second of non-customer who can't use online payment because they concern about security or have to take a complex process and learn how to use online payment method. Therefore, wireless phone payment provides very convenient payment method. Especially, it made group of young pay for a little money without a credit card. Case study result of PayPal, online payment service, shows that it targets on second tier of non-customer who reject to use online payment service because of concern about sensitive information leaks such as passwords and credit card details. Accordingly, PayPal service allows users to pay online without a provision of sensitive information. Final Square case result, Mobile POS -based payment service, also shows that it targets on second tier of non-customer who can't individually transact offline because of cash's shortness. Hence, Square provides dongle which function as POS by putting dongle in earphone terminal. As a result, four cases made non-customer their customer so that they could penetrate early market and had been extended their market share. Consequently, all cases supported the hypothesis and it is highly probable according to 'analytic generation' that case study methodology suggests. We present for judging the quality of research designs the following. Construct validity, internal validity, external validity, reliability are common to all social science methods, these have been summarized in numerous textbooks(Yin, 2014). In case study methodology, these also have served as a framework for assessing a large group of case studies (Gibbert, Ruigrok & Wicki, 2008). Construct validity is to identify correct operational measures for the concepts being studied. To satisfy construct validity, we use multiple sources of evidence such as the academic journals, magazine and articles etc. Internal validity is to seek to establish a causal relationship, whereby certain conditions are believed to lead to other conditions, as distinguished from spurious relationships. To satisfy internal validity, we do explanation building through four cases analysis. External validity is to define the domain to which a study's findings can be generalized. To satisfy this, replication logic in multiple case studies is used. Reliability is to demonstrate that the operations of a study -such as the data collection procedures- can be repeated, with the same results. To satisfy this, we use case study protocol. In Korea, the competition among stakeholders over mobile payment industry is intensifying. Not only main three Telecom Companies but also Smartphone companies and service provider like KakaoTalk announced that they would enter into mobile payment industry. Mobile payment industry is getting competitive. But it doesn't still have momentum effect notwithstanding positive presumptions that will grow very fast. Mobile payment services are categorized into various technology based payment service such as IC mobile card and Application payment service of cloud based, NFC, sound wave, BLE(Bluetooth Low Energy), Biometric recognition technology etc. Especially, mobile payment service is discontinuous innovations that users should change their behavior and noble infrastructure should be installed. These require users to learn how to use it and cause infra-installation cost to shopkeepers. Additionally, payment industry has the strong path dependency. In spite of these obstacles, mobile payment service which should provide dramatically improved value as a products and service of discontinuous innovations is focusing on convenience and security, convenience and so on. We suggest the following to success mobile payment service. First, non-customers of the existing payment service need to be identified. Second, needs of them should be taken. Then, noble payment service provides non-customer who can't pay by the previous payment method to payment method. In conclusion, mobile payment service can create new market and will result in extension of payment market.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.77-110
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• 2017

Recently, the diversification and individualization of consumption patterns through the web and mobile devices based on the Internet have been rapid. As this happens, the efficient operation of the offline store, which is a traditional distribution channel, has become more important. In order to raise both the sales and profits of stores, stores need to supply and sell the most attractive products to consumers in a timely manner. However, there is a lack of research on which SKUs, out of many products, can increase sales probability and reduce inventory costs. In particular, if a company sells products through multiple in-store stores across multiple locations, it would be helpful to increase sales and profitability of stores if SKUs appealing to customers are recommended. In this study, the recommender system (recommender system such as collaborative filtering and hybrid filtering), which has been used for personalization recommendation, is suggested by SKU recommendation method of a store unit of a distribution company that handles a homogeneous brand through a plurality of sales stores by country and region. We calculated the similarity of each store by using the purchase data of each store's handling items, filtering the collaboration according to the sales history of each store by each SKU, and finally recommending the individual SKU to the store. In addition, the store is classified into four clusters through PCA (Principal Component Analysis) and cluster analysis (Clustering) using the store profile data. The recommendation system is implemented by the hybrid filtering method that applies the collaborative filtering in each cluster and measured the performance of both methods based on actual sales data. Most of the existing recommendation systems have been studied by recommending items such as movies and music to the users. In practice, industrial applications have also become popular. In the meantime, there has been little research on recommending SKUs for each store by applying these recommendation systems, which have been mainly dealt with in the field of personalization services, to the store units of distributors handling similar brands. If the recommendation method of the existing recommendation methodology was 'the individual field', this study expanded the scope of the store beyond the individual domain through a plurality of sales stores by country and region and dealt with the store unit of the distribution company handling the same brand SKU while suggesting a recommendation method. In addition, if the existing recommendation system is limited to online, it is recommended to apply the data mining technique to develop an algorithm suitable for expanding to the store area rather than expanding the utilization range offline and analyzing based on the existing individual. The significance of the results of this study is that the personalization recommendation algorithm is applied to a plurality of sales outlets handling the same brand. A meaningful result is derived and a concrete methodology that can be constructed and used as a system for actual companies is proposed. It is also meaningful that this is the first attempt to expand the research area of the academic field related to the existing recommendation system, which was focused on the personalization domain, to a sales store of a company handling the same brand. From 05 to 03 in 2014, the number of stores' sales volume of the top 100 SKUs are limited to 52 SKUs by collaborative filtering and the hybrid filtering method SKU recommended. We compared the performance of the two recommendation methods by totaling the sales results. The reason for comparing the two recommendation methods is that the recommendation method of this study is defined as the reference model in which offline collaborative filtering is applied to demonstrate higher performance than the existing recommendation method. The results of this model are compared with the Hybrid filtering method, which is a model that reflects the characteristics of the offline store view. The proposed method showed a higher performance than the existing recommendation method. The proposed method was proved by using actual sales data of large Korean apparel companies. In this study, we propose a method to extend the recommendation system of the individual level to the group level and to efficiently approach it. In addition to the theoretical framework, which is of great value.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.209-237
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• 2012

1. Research Purpose Consumers rely on various clues to evaluate their decision to patronize a retail store, and store brand is one of them (Dodds 1991; Grewal et al. 1998). As consumers find ever increasing variety of contact points connecting them to specific store, the value of experiential shopping as a means of increasing store's brand equity warrants greater attention from scholars of retail management. Retail shopping values are credited for creating not only cognitive experiences like brand knowledge but also emotional experiences such as shopping pleasure and pride (Schmitt 1999). This may be because today's consumers place emphasis on emotional values associated with shopping pleasure, lifestyle brought to life, brand relationship, and store atmosphere more than utilitarian values such as product quality and price. Many previous literature found this to be true (Ahn and Lee 2011; Mathwick et al. 2001). This brings forth important research issues and questions regarding the roles of shopping experiential values and brand equity with regard to consumer's retail patronage choice. However, despite this importance, research on this area remains quite inadequate (Hwang 2010). For this reason, this study aims to verify the relationships among experiential shopping values, retail store brand equity and tries to link that with customer loyalty by surveying large-scale discount store shoppers in Korea and China. 2. Research Contents In order to carry out the research objective, this study conducted comprehensive literature survey on previous literature by discussing major findings and implications with regard to shopping values and retail brand equity and store loyalty. For data collection, researcher employed survey-based research method where data were collected in two major cities of Korea (Seoul) and China (Bejing) and sampling frame was based on patrons of large discount stores in both countries. Specific research questions raised in this study are as follows; RQ1: How do Korean and Chinese consumers differently perceive of shopping values regarding shopping at large-sclae discount stores? RQ2: Are there differences in consumers' emotional consumption propensities? RQ3: Do Korean and Chinese consumers display different perceptions of brand equity towards large-scale discount stores? RQ4: Are there differences in relationships between shopping values and brand equity for Korean and Chinese consumers? For statistical analysis, SPSS17.0, AMOS17.0 and SmartPLS were employed. 3. Research Results The data collected through face-to-face survey conducted in Seoul and Bejing revealed appropriate data validity and reliability as a result of exploratory/confirmatory factor analysis and reliability tests, andh SEM model yielding satisfactory model fitness. The result of the study may be summarized by three main points. First, as a result of testing differences in consumption dispositions, Chinese consumers showed higher scores in aesthetic and symbolic dispositions, whereas Korean consumers scored higher in hedonic disposition. Second, testing on perceptions toward brand equity of large discount stores showed that Korean consumers exhibited more positive perceptions of brand awareness and brand image than Chinese counterparts. Third, the result of exploratory factor analysis on the experiential shopping values revealed different factors for each country. On Korean side, consumer interest value, aesthetic value, and hedonic value were prominent, whereas on Chinese side, hedonic value, aesthetic value, consumer interest value, and service excellence value were found salient. 4. Research Implications While many previous studies on inter-country differences in retailing area mainly focused on cultural dispositions or orientations to explain the differences, this study sets itself apart by specifically targeting individual consumer's shopping values from an experiential viewpoint. The study result provides important theoretical as well as practical implications for large-scale discount store, especially the impotance of fully exploring the linkage between shopping values and brand equity, which has significant influence on loyalty. Therefore, the specific implications deriving from the result shed some important insights upon the consumption values based on shopping experiences and brand equity. The differences found in store shoppers between the two countries may also provide useful insights for Korean and Chinese retailers who plan to expand their operations globally. Related strategic implications derived from this study is the importance of localizing retail strategy which is based on the differences found in experiential shopping values between the two country groups. Especially the finding that Chinese consumers value consumer interest and service excellence, whereas Koreans place importance on hedonic or aesthetic values indicates the need to differentiate the consumer's psychographical profiles when it comes to expanding retail operations globally. Particularly important will be to pursue price-orienated strategy in China in consideration of the high emphasis on consumer interests and service excellence, but to emphasize the symbolic aspects of brand equity in Korea by maximizing the brand equity associated with aesthetic values and hedonic orientations. 5. Recommendations This study focused on generic retail branded discount stores in both countries, thus making it difficult to tease out store-specific strategies based on specific retail brands. Future studies may benefit fro employing actual brand names in survey questionnaire to verify relationship between shopping values and brand-based store strategy. As with other studies of this nature, this study needs to strengthen the result's generalizability by selecting respondents from a wider spectrum of respondents.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.295-304
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• 2008

Background: Various experimental trials for the development of bioprosthetic devices are actively underway, secondary to the limited supply of autologous and homograft tissue to treat cardiac diseases. In this study, porcine bioprostheses that were treated with glutaraldehyde (GA), ethanol, or sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS) were examined with light microscopy and transmission electron microscopy for mechanical and physical imperfections before implantation, Material and Method: 1) Porcine pericardium, aortic valve, and pulmonary valve were examined using light microscopy and JEM-100CX II transmission electron microscopy, then compared with human pericardium and commercially produced heterografts. 2) Sections from six treated groups (GA-Ethanol, Ethanol-GA, SDS only, SDS-GA, Ethanol-SDS-GA and SDS-Ethanol-GA) were observed using the same methods. Result: 1) Porcine pericardium was composed of a serosal layer, fibrosa, and epicardial connective tissue. Treatment with GA, ethanol, or SDS had little influence on the collagen skeleton of porcine pericardium, except in the case of SDS pre-treatment. There was no alteration in the collagen skeleton of the porcine pericardium compared to commercially produced heterografts. 2) Porcine aortic valve was composed of lamina fibrosa, lamina spongiosa, and lamina ventricularis. Treatment with GA, ethanol, or SDS had little influence on these three layers and the collagen skeleton of porcine aortic valve, except in the case of SDS pre-treatment. There were no alterations in the three layers or the collagen. skeleton of porcine aortic valve compared to commercially produced heterografts. Conclusion: There was little physical and mechanical damage incurred in porcine bioprosthesis structures during various glutaraldehyde fixation processes combined with anti-calcification or decellularization treatments. However, SDS treatment preceding GA fixation changed the collagen fibers into a slightly condensed form, which degraded during transmission electron micrograph. The optimal methods and conditions for sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS) treatment need to be modified.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.3-12
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• 2011

Purpose: With increasing medical use of radiation and radioactive isotopes, there is a need to better manage the risk of radiation exposure. This study aims to grasp and analyze the individual radiation exposure situations of radiation-related workers in a medical facility by specific job, in order to instill awareness of radiation danger and to assist in safety and radiation exposure management for such workers. Materials and Methods: From January 1, 2010 December 31, 2010, medical practitioners working in the radiation is classified as a regular personal radiation dosimetry, and subsequently one year 540 people managed investigation department to target workers, dose sectional area, working period, identify the job function-related tasks for a deep dose, respectively, the annual average radiation dose were analyzed. Frequency analysis methods include ANOVA was performed. Results: Medical radiation workers in the department an annual radiation dose of Nuclear and 4.57 mSv a was highest, dose zone-specific distribution of nuclear medicine and in the 5.01~19.05 mSv in the high dose area distribution showed departmental radiation four of the annual radiation dose of Nuclear and 7.14 mSv showed the highest radiation dose. More work an average annual radiation dose according to the job function related to the synthesis of Cyclotron to 17.47 mSv work showed the highest radiation dose, Gamma camera Cinema Room 7.24 mSv, PET/CT Cinema Room service is 7.60 mSv, 2.04 mSv in order of intervention high, were analyzed. Working period, according to domain-specific average annual dose of radiation dose from 10 to 14 in oral and maxillofacial radiology practitioners as high as 1.01~3.00 mSv average dose showed the Department of Radiology, 1-4 years, 5-9 years, respectively, 1.01 workers~8.00 mSv in the range of the most high-dose region showed the distribution, nuclear medicine, and the 1-4 years, 5-9 years 3.01~19.05 mSv, respectively, workers of the highest dose showed the distribution of the area in the range of 10 to 14 years, Workers at 15-19 3.01~15.00 mSv, respectively in the range of the high-dose region were distributed. Conclusion: These results suggest that medical radiation workers working in Nuclear Medicine radiation safety management of the majority of the current were carried out in the effectiveness, depending on job characteristics has been found that many differences. However, this requires efforts to minimize radiation exposure, and systematic training for them and for reasonable radiation exposure management system is needed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.357-365
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• 2011

The variation of the dissolved inorganic nutrients were investigated four times per year in the costal area of Gunsan, Yellow Sea from 2001 to 2010. Water samples were collected at 10 stations and phsico-chemical parameters were analyzed including water temperature, salinity, suspended solids, dissolved oxygen, chemical oxygen demand, chlorophyll a and dissolved inorganic nutrients. The average of dissolved inorganic nitrogen(DIN) for ten years at Gunsan area showed similar concentration between surface and bottom. The average of DIN at surface was 0.421mg/L (0.198~0.846mg/L) and bottom was 0.344mg/L(0.148~0.717mg/L). The highest value of annual average of DIN at surface was 0.846mg/L in 2002 and the lowest value was 0.198mg/L in 2010. The percentage of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate for the average DIN of 10 years showed 27%, 3% and 70% which showed most of DIN was nitrate. Dissolved inorganic phosphate(DIP) for ten years at Gunsan area showed similar concentration between surface and bottom and DIP was decreasing from 2003 to 2010. The average of DIP of 10 years was 0.024mg/L and annual average 0.021mg/L in 2008, 0.007mg/L in 2009 and 0.008mg/L in 2010 which showed decreasing pattern from 2007 to 2010. The average of DIN/DIP ratio from 2002 to 2010 was 6.0(3.2~10.1) at surface and 4.6(2.6~7.0) at bottom. The average value of dissolved inorganic silicate from 2004 to 2010 showed 0.372mg/L at surface layer and 0.352mg/L at bottom layer and was on decreased from 2006 to 2010. The Spearman's correlation analysis was carried out to knowrelation among the salinity and dissolved inorganic nutrients at the surface and bottom layer. The correlation factor of DIN was -0.72, DIP was -0.46 and dissolved inorganic silicate was -0.63 at surface layer and DIN was -0.70, DIP was -0.44 and dissolved inorganic silicate was -0.57 at bottom layer. The dissolved inorganic nutrients at the nearshore of Gunsan was affected from the freshwater discharge of Geum river. Especially, a lot of DIN flowed into the nearshore of Gunsan from Guem river. The concentration of dissolved inorganic nutrients at Gunsan showed high at station 1, 2 and 3 and there was a little concentration differences according to the cruise time. The concentration of dissolved inorganic nutrients showed high value at the station 1, 2, 3 which exist nearshore of Gunsan city and it means these stations mainly affected by Geum river and Gunsan city. The annual average of dissolved inorganic nutrients showed gradually decreased from 2003 to 2010 and we need more research on this conditions.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.71-94
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• 1990

This paper reviews the rationale of monetary and banking intervention by an outside authority, either the government or the central bank, and seeks to delineate clearly the optimal limits to the monetary and banking deregulation currently underway in Korea as well as on a global scale. Furthermore, this paper seeks to establish an objective and balanced view on the role of the central bank, especially in light of the current discussion on the restructuring of Korea's central bank, which has been severely contaminated by interest-group politics. The discussion begins with the recognition that the modern free banking school and the new monetary economics are becoming formidable challenges to the traditional role of the government or the central bank in the monetary and banking sector. The paper reviews six arguments that have traditionally been presented to support intervention: (1) the possibility of an over-issue of bank notes under free banking instead of central banking; (2) externalities in and the public good nature of the use of money; (3) economies of scale and natural monopoly in producing money; (4) the need for macro stabilization policy due to the instability of the real sector; (5) the external effects of bank failure due to the inherent instability of the existing banking system; and (6) protection for small banknote users and depositors. Based on an analysis of the above arguments, the paper speculates on the optimal role of the government or central bank in the monetary and banking system and the optimal degree of monetary and banking deregulation. By contrast to the arguments for free banking or laissez-faire monetary systems, which become fashionable in recent years, monopoly and intervention by the government or central bank in the outside money system can be both necessary and optimal. In this case, of course, an over-issue of fiat money may be possible due to political considerations, but this issue is beyond the scope of this paper. On the other hand, the issue of inside monies based on outside money could indeed be provided for optimally under market competition by private institutions. A competitive system in issuing inside monies would help realize, to the maxim urn extent possible, external economies generated by using a single outside money. According to this reasoning, free banking activities will prevail in the inside money system, while a government monopoly will prevail in the outside money system. This speculation, then, also implies that the monetary and banking deregulation currently underway should and most likely will be limited to the inside money system, which could be liberalized to the fullest degree. It is also implied that it will be impractical to deregulate the outside money system and to allow market competition to provide outside money, in accordance with the arguments of the free banking school and the new monetary economics. Furthermore, the role of the government or central bank in this new environment will not be significantly different from their current roles. As far as the supply of fiat money continues to be monopolized by the government, the control of the supply of base money and such related responsibilities as monetary policy (argument(4)) and the lender of the last resort (argument (5)) will naturally be assigned to the outside money supplier. However, a mechanism for controlling an over-issue of fiat money by a monopolistic supplier will definitely be called for (argument(1)). A monetary policy based on a certain policy rule could be one possibility. More importantly, the deregulation of the inside money system would further increase the systemic risk inherent in the current fractional banking system, while enhancing the efficiency of the system (argument (5)). In this context, the role of the lender of the last resort would again become an instrument of paramount importance in alleviating liquidity crises in the early stages, thereby disallowing the possibility of a widespread bank run. Similarly, prudential banking supervision would also help maintain the safety and soundness of the fully deregulated banking system. These functions would also help protect depositors from losses due to bank failures (argument (6)). Finally, these speculations suggest that government or central bank authorities have probably been too conservative on the issue of the deregulation of the financial system, beyond the caution necessary to preserve system safety. Rather, only the fullest deregulation of the inside money system seems to guarantee the maximum enjoyment of external economies in the single outside money system.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.115-132
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• 2008

Metal industry is one of the most representative heavy industries and the median sales volume of steel and nonferrous metal companies is over one billion dollars in the case America [Forbes 2006]. As seen in the recent business market situation, an increasing number of industrial manufacturers and suppliers are moving from adversarial to cooperative exchange attitudes that support the long-term relationships with their customers. This article presents the results of an empirical study of the antecedent factors of business relationships in metal industry of the United States. Commitment has been reviewed as a significant and critical variable in research on inter-organizational relationships (Hong et al. 2007, Kim et al. 2007). The future stability of any buyer-seller relationship depends upon the commitment made by the interactants to their relationship. Commitment, according to Dwyer et al. [1987], refers to "an implicit or explicit pledge of relational continuity between exchange partners" and they consider commitment to be the most advanced phase of buyer-seller exchange relationship. Bonds are made because the members need their partners in order to do something and this integration on a task basis can be either symbiotic or cooperative (Svensson 2008). To the extent that members seek the same or mutually supporting ends, there will be strong bonds among them. In other words, the principle that affects the strength of bonds is 'economy of decision making' [Turner 1970]. These bonds provide an important idea to study the causes of business long-term relationships in a sense that organizations can be mutually bonded by a common interest in the economic matters. Recently, the framework of structural bonding has been used to study the buyer-seller relationships in industrial marketing [Han and Sung 2008, Williams et al. 1998, Wilson 1995] in that this structural bonding is a crucial part of the theoretical justification for distinguishing discrete transactions from ongoing long-term relationships. The major antecedent factors of buyer commitment such as technology, CLalt, transaction-specific assets, and importance were identified and explored from the perspective of structural bonding. Research hypotheses were developed and tested by using survey data from the middle managers in the metal industry. H1: Level of technology of the relationship partner is positively related to the level of structural bonding between the buyer and the seller. H2: Comparison level of alternatives is negatively related to the level of structural bonding between the buyer and the seller. H3: Amount of the transaction-specific assets is positively related to the level of structural bonding between the buyer and the seller. H4: Importance of the relationship partner is positively related to the level of structural bonding between the buyer and the seller. H5: Level of structural bonding is positively related to the level of commitment to the relationship. To examine the major antecedent factors of industrial buyer's structural bonding and long-term relationship, questionnaire was prepared, mailed out to the sample of 400 purchasing managers of the US metal industry (SIC codes 33 and 34). After a follow-up request, 139 informants returnedthe questionnaires, resulting in a response rate of 35 percent. 134 responses were used in the final analysis after dropping 5 incomplete questionnaires. All measures were analyzed for reliability and validity following the guidelines offered by Churchill [1979] and Anderson and Gerbing [1988]., the results of fitting the model to the data indicated that the hypothesized model provides a good fit to the data. Goodness-of-fit index (GFI = 0.94) and other indices ( chi-square = 78.02 with p-value = 0.13, Adjusted GFI = 0.90, Normed Fit Index = 0.92) indicated that a major proportion of variances and covariances in the data was accounted for by the model as a whole, and all the parameter estimates showed statistical significance as evidenced by large t-values. All the factor loadings were significantly different from zero. On these grounds we judged the hypothesized model to be a reasonable representation of the data. The results from the present study suggest several implications for buyer-seller relationships. Theoretically, we attempted to conceptualize the antecedent factors of buyer-seller long-term relationships from the perspective of structural bondingin metal industry. The four underlying determinants (i.e. technology, CLalt, transaction-specific assets, and importance) of structural bonding are very critical variables of buyer-seller long-term business relationships. Our model of structural bonding makes an attempt to systematically examine the relationship between the antecedent factors of structural bonding and long-term commitment. Managerially, this research provides industrial purchasing managers with a good framework to assess the interaction processes with their partners and, ability to position their business relationships from the perspective of structural bonding. In other words, based on those underlying variables, industrial purchasing managers can determine the strength of the company's relationships with the key suppliers and its state of preparation to be a successful partner with those suppliers. Both the supplying and customer companies can also benefit by using the concept of 'structural bonding' and evaluating their relationships with key business partners from the structural point of view. In general, the results indicate that structural bonding gives a critical impact on the level of relationship commitment. Managerial implications and limitations of the study are also discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.909-919
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to investigate the demand and use of fresh-cut produce in school foodservice and restaurant industries. The subjects of this survey study were 200 school nutritionists and 70 cooks or managers in the restaurant industry nationwide. The data were collected by means of self-administered or e-mail questionnaires. Data analysis was completed using the SPSS window (ver. 12.0) program including frequency, $\chi^2$-test and t-test. Survey questions assessed the general characteristic of respondents, and the supply, use, and demand of fresh-cut produce in school foodservice and restaurant industries. Over 74% of the subjects have used fresh-cut produce. Most of the school foodservice (84.0%) kept fresh-cut produce for one day, while restaurant industry (28.3%) kept them up to three days. The nutritionists of school foodservice and managers of restaurant industry considered origin and date of production as the most important factor, respectively, when fresh-cut produce were being used. Fresh-cut root vegetable, such as potato and carrot was used mostly. The main reason not to use the fresh cut produce was due to the distrust of the fresh-cut produce safety in school foodservice and cost in restaurant industry. The main problem in fresh-cut produce use was the need of rewashing (29.9%) in school foodservice and irregular size (39.0%) in restaurant industry. These results indicate that the quality standard and size specification must be prepared with production guideline of safe fresh-cut produce.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.102-113
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to examine parental perceptions on the importance, performance level, and satisfaction with foodservice quality at daycare centers in the Compensation and Welfare Service institute. The questionnaire was developed to measure thirty-two attributes of foodservice operations are administered to 598 parents and 23 foodservice supervisors from June 22, 2009 to July 10, 2009. The parents placed a high importance on the need for foodservices, earning 4.70 points out of 5 points. Their perceptions of foodservice quality menu, foodservice ingredients and effects, facilities, sanitation, and service scored even higher than performance. The overall satisfaction level for foodservice compared to performance was 4.33 and 4.03 points out of 5 points, respectively. Multiple regression analysis indicated that 98.6% of the variance in parents' overall satisfaction scores was explained by six dimensions.