• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.131-154
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• 2013

New internet technologies have created a revolutionary new platform which allows consumers to make decision about product price and quality quickly and provides information about themselves through the transcript of online reviews. By expressing their feelings toward products or services on virtual opinion platforms, users extend their influence into cyberspace as electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM). Existing research indicates that an impact of eWOM on the consumer decision process is influential. For both academic researchers and practitioners, investigating this phenomenon of information sharing in online website is essential given the increasing number of consumers using them as sources of purchase decisions. It is worthwhile to examine the extent to which opinion seekers are willing to accept and adopt online reviews and which factors encourage adoption. Discerning the most motivating aspects of information adoption in particular, could help electronic marketers better promote their brand and presence on the internet. The objectives of this study are to investigate how online WOM influences a persons' purchase decision by discovering which factors encourage information adoption. Especially focused on the self-efficacy, this research investigates how self-efficacy affects on information usefulness and adoption of online information. Although people are exposed to same review or comment about product or service, some accept the reviews while others do not. We notice that accepting online reviews mainly depends on the person's preference or personal characteristics. This study empirically examines this issue by using cognitive dissonance theory. Specifically, in the movie industry, we address few questions-is always positive WOM generating positive effect? What if the movie isn't the person's favorite genre? What if the person who is very self-assertive so doesn't take other's opinion easily? In these cases of cognitive dissonance, is always WOM generating same result? While many studies have focused on one direct of WOM which indicates positive (or negative) informative reviews or comments generate positive (or negative) results and more (or less) profits, this study investigates not only directional properties of WOM but also how people change their opinion towards product or service positive to negative, negative to positive through the online WOM. An experiment was conducted quantitatively by using a sample of 168 users who have experience within the online movie review site, 'Naver Movie'. Users were required to complete a survey regarding reviews and comments taken from the real movie page. The data reflected user's perceptions of online WOM information that determined users' adoption level. Analysis results provide empirical support for the proposed theoretical perspective. When user can't agree with the opinion of online WOM information, in other words, when cognitive dissonance between online WOM information and users' preference occurs, perceived self-efficacy significantly decreases customers' perception of usefulness. And this perception of usefulness plays an important role in determining users' intention to adopt online WOM information. Most of researches have been concentrated on characteristics of online WOM itself such as quality or vividness of information, credibility of source and direction of online WOM, etc. for describing effect of online WOM, but our results suggest that users' personal character (e.g., self-efficacy) plays decisive role for acceptance of online WOM information. Higher self-efficacy means lower possibility to accept the information that represents counter opinion because of cognitive dissonance, whereas the people that have lower self-efficacy are willing to accept the online WOM information as true and refer to purchase decision. This study suggests a model for understanding role of direction of online WOM information. Also, our result implicates the importance of online review supervision and personalized information service by confirming switching opinion negative to positive is more difficult than positive to negative through the online WOM information. This implication would help marketers to manage online reviews of their products or services.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.21-32
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• 2016

Studies have observed various phenomena regarding the effect of the interaction between type, price, and brand image of a product on consumers' purchase intent and product quality perception. Yet, few have studied the effect of the interaction between product type and manufacturing method on these factors. However, the advent of three-dimensional (3D) printers added a new manufacturing method, 3D printing, to the traditional methods of handicraft and automated machine-based production, and research is necessary since this new framework might affect consumers' purchase intent and product quality perception. Therefore, this study aimed to verify the effects of the interaction between product type and manufacturing method on purchase intent and product quality perception. To achieve this, in our experiment 1, we selected product types with different characteristics (drone vs. violin vs. cup), and measured whether consumers preferred different manufacturing methods for each product type. The results showed that consumers preferred the 3D printing method for technologically advanced products such as drones, the handmade method for violins, and the automated machine-based manufacturing method, which allows mass production, for cups. Experiment 2 attempted to verify the effects of the differences in manufacturing method preferences for each product type on consumers' purchase intent and product quality perception. Our findings are as follows: for drones, the purchase intent was highest when 3D printing was used; for violins, the purchase intent was highest when the violins were handmade; for cups, the purchase intent was highest when machine-based manufacturing was used. Moreover, whereas the product quality perception for drones did not differ across different manufacturing methods, consumers perceived that handmade violins had the highest quality and that cups manufactured with 3D printing had the lowest quality (the purchase intent for cups was also lowest when 3D printing was used). This study is anticipated to provide a wide range of implications in various areas, including consumer psychology, marketing, and advertising.

• Korean Journal of Breeding Science
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.288-291
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• 2009

A new commercial rice variety "Donghaejinmi" is a japonica rice (Oryza sativa L.) with lodging resistance and high grain quality. It has been developed by the rice breeding team of Yeongdeog Substation, National Institute of Crop Science (NICS), RDA. This variety was derived from a cross between "Milyang 64" as a resistance source of brown planthopper (Bph) and "Milyang 165" as grain quality source. The donor parent, "Milyang64" has been backcrossed three times with recurrent parent, "Milyang165" and selected by the pedigree breeding method. The pedigree of "Donghaejinmi", designated as "Yeongdeog 41" in 2003, was YR21259-B-B-68-1. It has a short culm length with 69 cm and medium-late growth time. This variety is resistant to stripe virus and moderately resistant to leaf blast disease with durable resistance. It also has tolerance to unfavorable environment such as cold, dried wind and storm. Milled rice kernel of "Donghaejinmi" is translucent, clear in chalkness and good at eating quality in panel test. The merit of this variety is high head rice ratio, which is essential element to produce an article of superior quality rice brand. The yield potential of "Donhaejinmi" in milled rice is about 6.05 MT/ha at ordinary fertilizer level of local adaptability test. This cultivar would be adaptable to Yeongnam inland plains and eastern costal area of Yeongnam province.

• Korea Science and Art Forum
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.119-133
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• 2019

This study is as skyscrapers are becoming increasingly taller, more constructors have decided the height alone cannot be a sufficient differentiator. As a result, atypical architecture is emerging as a new competitive factor. Also, it can be used for symbolizing the economic competitiveness of a country, city, or business through its form. Before the introduction of digital media, there was a discrepancy between the structure and form of a building and correcting this discrepancy required a separate structural medium. Since the late 1980s, however, digitally-based atypical form development began to be used experimentally, and, until the 2000s, it was used mostly for super-tall skyscrapers for offices or for industrial chimneys and communication towers. Since the 2000s, many global brand hotels and commercial and residential buildings have been built as super-tall skyscrapers, which shows the recent trend in architecture that is moving beyond the traditional limits. Complex atypical structure is formed and the formative characteristics of diagonal lines and curved surfaces, which are characteristics of atypical architecture, are created digitally. Therefore, it's goal is necessary to identify a new relationship between the structure and forms. According to the data of Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), 100-story and taller buildings were classified into typical, diagonal, curved, and segment types in order to define formative shapes of super-tall skyscrapers and provide a ground of the design process related to the initial formation of the concept. The purpose of this study was to identify the correlation between different forms for building atypical architectural shapes that are complex and diverse. The study results are presented as follows: Firstly, complex function follows convergence form characteristics. Secondly, fold has inside of architecture with repeat. Thirdly, as curve style which has pure twist, helix twist, and spiral twist. The findings in this study can be used as basic data for classifying and predicting trends of the future super-tall skyscrapers.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.1-22
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• 2017

'The worstest environment disaster', 'World's first biocide massacre', 'Home-based Sewol ferry disaster' are all phrases attached to the recent humidifier disinfectant disaster. In the spring of 2011, four of 8 pregnant women including 1 adult man passed away at a university hospital in Seoul due to breathing failure. Epidemiologic investigation conducted by the Korean CDC soon revealed the inhalation of humidifier disinfectant, which had been widely used in Korea during the winter, to be responsible for the disease. As well as lung fibrosis hardening of the lungs, other diseases including asthma, rhinitis, skin disease, liver disease, fetal disease or cancers have been researched for their relation with exposure to the products. By February 9, 2017, 5,342 cases had registered for health problems and 1,131 of them were already dead (20.8% mortality rate). Based on studies by government agencies and a telephone survey of the general population by Seoul National University and civic groups, around 20% of the general public of Korea has used these products. Since the market release of the first product by SK Chemical in 1994, over 7.1 million items from around 20 brands were sold up to 2011. Most of the products were manufactured by well-known large conglomerates such as SK, Lotte, Samsung, Shinsegye, LG, and GS, as well as some European companies including UK-based Reckitt Benckiser and TESCO, the German firm Henkel, the Danish firm KeTox, and an Irish company. Even though this disaster was unveiled in 2011 by the Korean government, the issue of the victims was neglected for over five years. In 2016, an unexpected but intensive investigation by prosecutors found that Reckitt Benckiser manipulated and concealed animal tests for its own brand and brought several university experts and company employees to court. The matter was an intense social issue in Korea from May to June with a surge in media coverage. The prosecutor's investigation and a nationwide boycott campaign organized by victims and environmental groups against Reckitt Benckiser, whose product had been used by more than 70% of victims, led to the producer's official apology and a compensation scheme. A legislative investigation organized after the April 2016 national election revealed the producers' faults and the government's responsibility, but failed to meet expectations. A special law for the victims passed the National Assembly in January 2017 and a punitive system together with a massive environmental epidemiology investigation are expected to be the only solutions for this tragedy. Sciences of medicine, toxicology and environmental health have provided decisive evidence so far, but for the remaining problems the perspectives of social sciences such as sociology and jurisprudence are highly necessary, similar to with the Minamata disease and Wonjin Rayon events. It may not be easy to follow this issue using unfamiliar terminology from medical and chemical science and the long, complicated history of the event. For these reasons the author has attempted to write this article in a question and answer format to render it easier to follow. The 17 questions are: Q1 What is humidifier disinfectant? Q2 What kind of health problems are caused by humidifier disinfectant? Q3 How many victims are there? Q4 What is the analysis of the 1,112 cases of death? Q5 What is the problem with the government's diagnostic criteria and the solution? Q6 Who made what brands? Q7 Has there been a recall? What is still on sale? Q8 Was safety not checked by any producers? Q9 What are the government's responsibilities? Q10 Is it true that these products were sold only in Korea? Q11 Why and how was it unveiled only in 2011 after 17 years of sales? Q12 What delayed the resolution of the victim issue? Q13 What is the background of the prosecutor's investigation in early 2016? Q14 Is it possible to report new victim cases without evidence of product purchase? Q15 What is happening with the victim issue? Q16 How does it compare with the cases of Minamata disease and Wonjin Rayon? Q17 Are there prevention measures and lessons?

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.15-27
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• 2020

Streamflow discharge as a fundamental riverine quantity plays a crucial role in water resources management, thereby requiring accurate in-situ measurement. Recent advances in instrumentations for the streamflow discharge measurement has complemented or substituted classical devices and methods. Among various potential methods, surface current meter using microwave has increasingly begun to be applied not only for flood but also normal flow discharge measurement, remotely and safely enabling practitioners to measure flow velocity postulating indirect contact. With minimized field preparedness, this method facilitated and eased flood discharge measurement in the difficult in-situ conditions such as extreme flood in active ways emitting 24.125 GHz microwave without relying on natural lights. In South Korea, a rectangular shaped instrument named with Microwave Water Surface Current Meter (MWSCM) has been developed and commercially released around 2010, in which domestic agencies charging on streamflow observation shed lights on this approach regarding it as a potential substitute. Considering this brand-new device highlighted for efficient flow measurement, however, there has been few noticeable efforts in systematic and comprehensive evaluation of its performance in various measurement and riverine conditions that lead to lack in imminent and widely spreading usages in practices. This study attempted to evaluate the MWSCM in terms of instrumen's monitoring configuration particularly regarding tilt and yaw angle. In the middle of pointing the measurement spot in a given cross-section, the observation campaign inevitably poses accuracy issues related with different tilt and yaw angles of the instrument, which can be a conventionally major source of errors for this type of instrument. Focusing on the perspective of instrument configuration, the instrument was tested in a controlled outdoor river channel located in KICT River Experiment Center with a fixed flow condition of around 1 m/s flow speed with steady flow supply, 6 m of channel width, and less than 1 m of shallow flow depth, where the detailed velocity measurements with SonTek micro-ADV was used for validation. As results, less than 15 degree in tilting angle generated much higher deviation, and higher yawing angle proportionally increased coefficient of variance. Yaw angles affected accuracy in terms of measurement area.

• Archives of design research
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• v.20 no.3 s.71
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• pp.61-72
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• 2007

Having started with "Space War", the first game produced by MIT in the 1960's, the gaming industry expanded rapidly and grew to a large size over a short period of time: the brand new games being launched on the market are found to contain many different elements making up a single content in that it is often called the 'the most comprehensive ultimate fruits' of the design technologies. This also translates into a large increase in the number of things which need to be considered in developing games, complicating the plans on the financial budget, the work force, and the time to be committed. Therefore, an approach for analyzing the elements which make up a game, computing the importance of each of them, and assessing those games to be developed in the future, is the key to a successful development of games. Many decision-making activities are often required under such a planning process. The decision-making task involves many difficulties which are outlined as follows: the multi-factor problem; the uncertainty problem impeding the elements from being "quantified" the complex multi-purpose problem for which the outcome aims confusion among decision-makers and the problem with determining the priority order of multi-stages leading to the decision-making process. In this study we plan to suggest AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) so that these problems can be worked out comprehensively, and logical and rational alternative plan can be proposed through the quantification of the "uncertain" data. The analysis was conducted by taking FPS (First Person Shooting) which is currently dominating the gaming industry, as subjects for this study. The most important consideration in conducting AHP analysis is to accurately group the elements of the subjects to be analyzed objectively, and arrange them hierarchically, and to analyze the importance through pair-wise comparison between the elements. The study is composed of 2 parts of analyzing these elements and computing the importance between them, and choosing an alternative plan. Among these this paper is particularly focused on the Delphi technique-based objective element analyzing and hierarchy of the FPS games.

• Archives of design research
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• v.20 no.3 s.71
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• pp.29-38
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• 2007

The competition to capture a larger slice of the market in Mobile Communication business is increasing among companies. In order to achieve and maintain a competitive advantage in the Asian market, it is critical to continue to develop new technology. Understanding the underlying distinctive characteristics and needs of each market and the cultural backgrounds that drive those needs is a necessary focus. Companies with marketing strategies based on a correct understanding of market needs will capture dominant positions in the market. The purpose of this study is to identify those differences in user behavior and cultural tendencies among different people in different countries in the mobile telecommunication market. This research is based on an on-line survey in three countries (Korea, China, and Japan). Below are the contents of the survey on the mobile phone based on: 1) User behavior 2) Design preference 3) Purchasing behavior 4) User awareness on manufacturer brand. Through the analysis of this questionnaire it is possible to identify the differences and similarities among countries dearly. 1) Cultural trends and perceptions related to mobile phone usage were largely caused by differences in the state of technology, policies and business strategies of mobile sonics carriers and manufacturers, and national tendencies, of each country. 2) Korean and Japanese users produced similar responses to the questions related to advanced technology, whereas Korean and Chinese users responded similarly to national tendency-related questions. 3) To the questions related to business strategies of mobile service carriers and manufacturers, users in all three countries displayed markedly different responses. Once again, accurate analysis of the differences and similarities related to mobile phone usage in each country will help the companies in this industry to gain a competitive edge in the market. This study should not stop at simple comparison but be a framework for giving companies a dear future direction for technological development.

• Archives of design research
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• v.19 no.1 s.63
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• pp.253-262
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• 2006

Research of color has been developed and also has raised consumer desire through changing from a tool to pursue curiosity or beauty to a tool creating effects in the 20th century. People have been interested in colors as a dynamic expression of results since the color TV appeared. The meaning of colors has been recently diversified as the roles of colors became important to the emotional aspects of design. While auto colors have developed along with such changes of the times, black led the color trend during the first half of the 20th century from 1900 to 1950, a transitional period of economic growth and world war. Since then, automobile production has increased apace with the rapid economic growth throughout the world and automobiles became the most expensive item out of the goods that people use. Accordingly, increasing production induced facility investment in mass production and a technology leveling was achieved. Auto manufacturing processes are very complicated, auto makers gradually recognized that software changes such as to colors or materials was an easier way for the improvement of brand identity as opposed to hardware changes such as the mechanical or design components of the body. Color planning and development systems were segmented in various aspects. In the segmentation issue, pigment technology and painting methods are important elements that have an influence on body colors and have a higher technical correlation with colors than in other industries. In other words, the advanced mixture of pigments is creating new body colors that have not existed previously. This diversifies the painting structure and methods and so maximizes the transparency and depth of body colors. Thus, body colors that are closely related to technical factors will increase in the future and research on color preferences by region have been systemized to cope with global competition due to the expansion and change of auto export regions.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.37-48
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• 2009

The standardization of marketing has been one of the most focused research topics in international marketing. The term "global marketing" was often used to mean an internationally standardized marketing strategy based on similarities between foreign markets. Marketing standardization was discussed only within the context of traditional physical marketplaces. Since then, the digital "marketspace" of the Internet had emerged in the 90's, and it became one of the most important drivers of the globalization process opening new opportunities for the standardization of global marketing activities. On the other hand, the opinion that a greater adoption of the Internet by customers may lead to a higher degree of customization and differentiation of products rather than standardization is also quite popular. Considering this disagreement, it is notable that comprehensive studies which focus upon the marketing standardization especially in the context of global e-commerce are missing to a high degree. On this background, the two basic research questions being addressed in this study are: (1) To what extent do companies standardize their marketing in international e-commerce? (2) Is there an impact of marketing standardization on the performance (or success) of these companies? Following research hypotheses were generated based upon literature review: H 1: Internationally engaged e-commerce firms show a growing readiness for marketing standardization. H 2: Marketing standardization exerts positive effects on the success of companies in international e-commerce. H 3: In international e-commerce, marketing mix standardization exerts a stronger positive effect on the economic as well as the non-economic success of companies than marketing process standardization. H 4: The higher the non-economic success in international e-commerce firms, the higher the economic success. The data for this research were obtained from a questionnaire survey conducted from February to April 2005. The international e-commerce companies of various industries in Germany and all subsidiaries or headquarters of foreign e-commerce companies based in Germany were included in the survey. 118 out of 801 companies responded to the questionnaire. For structural equation modelling (SEM), the Partial-Least. Squares (PLS) approach in the version PLS-Graph 3.0 was applied (Chin 1998a; 2001). All of four research hypotheses were supported by result of data analysis. The results show that companies engaged in international e-commerce standardize in particular brand name, web page design, product positioning, and the product program to a high degree. The companies intend to intensify their efforts for marketing mix standardization in the future. In addition they want to standardize their marketing processes also to a higher degree, especially within the range of information systems, corporate language and online marketing control procedures. In this study, marketing standardization exerts a positive overall impact on company performance in international e-commerce. Standardization of marketing mix exerts a stronger positive impact on the non-economic success than standardization of marketing processes, which in turn contributes slightly stronger to the economic success. Furthermore, our findings give clear support to the assumption that the non-economic success is highly relevant to the economic success of the firm in international e-commerce. The empirical findings indicate that marketing standardization is relevant to the companies' success in international e-commerce. But marketing mix and marketing process standardization contribute to the firms' economic and non-economic success in different ways. The findings indicate that companies do standardize numerous elements of their marketing mix on the Internet. This practice is in part contrary to the popular concept of a "differentiated standardization" which argues that some elements of the marketing mix should be adapted locally and others should be standardized internationally. Furthermore, the findings suggest that the overall standardization of marketing -rather than the standardization of one particular marketing mix element - is what brings about a positive overall impact on success.