• 벤처창업연구
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• 제15권3호
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• pp.121-132
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• 2020

대학생은 학교 내에서 배운 이론적인 지식을 바탕으로 한 가지 분야에서 전문성을 키우는 과정을 거치게 된다. 이러한 학교생활을 토대로 경력 개발의 방향은 과거의 취업 중심의 형태에서 벗어나 전 생애에 걸쳐 취업과 창업을 선택하기 위한 업의 전환을 고려하는 형태로 바뀌어가고 있다. 교육의 방향 또한 기존의 지식을 전달받고 암기하는 형식 학습에서 보다 자율적이면서 학습자의 적극적인 참여를 중심으로 하는 무형식학습과 팀 기반 학습의 필요성이 더욱 강조되고 있다. 이 연구에서는 대학생의 무형식학습 활동이 구직능력과 창업의도에 영향을 미치는지 확인하고자 한다. 이를 통하여 기존의 취업역량에만 연결시켜왔던 연구에 창업을 더함으로써 새로운 시사점을 제시하고자 한다. 또한, 기업 및 교육 현장의 팀워크가 중요해짐에 따라 팀 기반학습 만족도에 따라 무형식학습 활동이 구직능력과 창업의도에 어떠한 영향력을 보이는지도 함께 살펴보았다. 연구결과의 요약은 다음과 같다. 첫째, 대학생의 무형식학습은 구직능력에 유의한 영향을 미치지만 창업의도에는 직접적인 영향을 미치지 않는 것으로 확인되었다. 둘째, 구직능력은 대학생의 무형식학습과 창업의도를 완전매개하였다. 셋째, 팀 기반 학습의 만족도는 대학생의 무형식학습에 따른 구직능력에 유의한 영향을 미치지 못했으나 구직능력과 창업의도 사이에는 정의 영향을 미치는 것으로 확인되었다. 이 연구는 대학 내 구직능력과 창업의도를 높이기 위해 무형식학습이 필요하며, 이 과정에서 만족도 높은 팀 기반 학습을 진행하는 것이 중요함을 시사하고 있다.

• 한국수산과학회지
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• 제18권4호
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• pp.316-324
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• 1985

북양에서 어획되는 대형 빨강오징어의 효과적인 이용방안의 하나로서 훈액처리진공포장 및 열탕살균법을 병용하여 훈제조미오징어 가공조건을 구명하고, 저장중의 품질안정성을 실험하였다. 동결오징어를 해동한 다음, 탈피한 동부육에 대하여 설탕 $5\%$, 식염 $2.5\%$, 솔비톨 $12\%$, monosodium glutamate $1\%$로 된 혼합조미료를 살포하여 조미($5^{\circ}C$, 15시간)한 다음 건조($45^{\circ}C$, 6시간)하였다. 건조후 $10\%$ Smoke-EZ(Alpha foods Co., Ltd)용액에 1분간 침지후 재건조($45^{\circ}C$, 1시간)한 것을 훈액제품으로 하여 적층 필름포장주머니(polyethylene/polyester : $12{\mu}m/70{\mu}m,\;15{\times}15cm$)에 충전하여 진공포장한 후 $95^{\circ}C$에서 30분간 살균하였다. 제품을 상온, 저온($5^{\circ}C$) 및 $35^{\circ}C$의 항온기에 90일간 저장하여 두고, 저장중 제품의 품질안정성을 측정하였다. 제품은 저장 90일까지 품질에 손상없이 상온에서도 안전하게 저장할 수 있었고, 훈액처리함으로서 풍미나 색조면에 있어서 재래식훈제품과 같은 효과를 낼 수 있으며 훈연처리제품의 결점도 충분히 보완할 수 있는 조미오징어 훈제품을 가공할 수 있다는 결론을 얻었다. 원료오징어와 제품중에서 함량이 많은 유리아미노산은 arginine, taurine, glycine 및 proline이었고, 핵산관련물질로서는 hypoxanthine의 함양이 많았다. 그리고 지방산조성 중 함량이 많은 것은 docosahexaenoic acid(22:6), hexadecanoic acid(16:0) 및 eicosapentaenoic acid(20:5)였다.

• 한국해양환경ㆍ에너지학회지
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• 제18권2호
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• pp.64-73
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• 2015

2009년 7월 3일부터 7월 27일까지 러시아 조사선 R/V Lavrentyev를 이용하여 러시아 연안으로부터 4개의 Line(D, R, E, A)을 따라 표층 30 m 수심의 시료를 26개 정점에서 채수하여 Pb와 Cd의 농도를 분석하였다. 해역별로 Pb와 Cd의 농도를 비교하면, 연안역에서는 러시아 연안(평균 Pb, 0.08; Cd, 0.10 nM )보다 우리나라 동해 연안의 농도(평균 Pb, 0.49; Cd, 0.11 nM)가 Pb의 경우 6.0배 높은 반면 Cd의 농도는 비슷하게 나타났으며, 난수역(평균 Pb, 0.22; Cd, 0.10 nM)은 냉수역(평균 Pb, 0.13; Cd, 0.14 nM)에 비해 Cd의 농도는 0.4배 낮은 반면, Pb의 농도는 약 1.7배 높게 나타났다. 또한 Pb와 Cd의 농도 분포는 표층 수온 $10^{\circ}C$를 기점으로 구분되는 특성을 보이고 있다. $10^{\circ}C$ 이하에서 수온이 감소함에 따라 농도가 증가하는 추세로 한류수의 농도가 주변 연안이나 외해의 해수보다 농도가 다소 높게 나타났으며, $10^{\circ}C$ 이상에서는 온도가 증가함에 따라 농도가 증가하는 추세로서 대마난류와 인접국가(우리나라와 일본)의 직접적인 영향권에 있는 울릉분지에서 높은 농도를 보이고 있다. 특히 Pb의 경우, 고온의 대마난류가 유입되는 정점 D10을 최고점으로 고위도로 북상할수록 수온의 감소와 더불어 농도의 감소 현상이 두드러지게 나타났으며, 서지중해와 동태평양의 측정치보다 다소 높게 나타나서 대만난류를 통한 유입량과 우리나라와 일본으로부터 대기를 통한 전달량의 영향이 상대적으로 클 것으로 추론할 수 있다. 따라서 동해 표층수의 Cd농도 분포는 주로 동해에 존재하는 다양한 수괴의 혼합에 의해 영향을 받는 반면, Pb은 대기와 대마난류를 통한 전달량에 의해 크게 영향을 받으며, 기타 강물을 통한 유입과 유,무기성 입자물질과의 상호작용에 의해 결정될 것이다.

• 대한원격탐사학회지
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• 제36권5_3호
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• pp.1037-1051
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• 2020

최근 기후변화로 인해 강도가 높은 태풍의 빈도가 높아짐에 따라 태풍 예측의 중요성이 강조되고 있는 데, 태풍경로예측에 비해 태풍강도예측에 대한 연구는 미비한 상황이다. 이에 본 연구에서는 딥러닝 모델인 Multi-task learning (MTL) 기법을 활용하여 정지궤도기상위성을 활용한 관측자료와 수치예보모델을 융합한 실시간 추정 및 6시간, 12시간 후의 태풍강도예측 모델을 제안하고자 한다. 본 연구에서는 2011년에서 2016년까지 북서태평양에서 발생한 총 142개의 태풍을 대상으로 강도 예측 연구를 시행하였다. 한국 최초의 기상위성인 Communication, Ocean and Meteorological Satellite (COMS) Meteorological Imager (MI)를 활용하여 태풍의 관측영상을 추출하였고, National Center of Environmental Prediction (NCEP)에서 제공하는 Climate Forecast System version 2 (CFSv2)를 활용하여 6시간, 12시간 후의 태풍 주변 대기 및 해양 예측변수를 추출하였다. 본 연구에서는 각 입력자료의 활용성을 정량화 하기 위하여, 위성 기반 태풍관측영상만을 활용한 MTL 모델(Scheme 1)과 수치예보모델을 융합적으로 활용한 MTL 모델(Scheme 2)을 구축하고, 각 모델의 훈련 및 검증 성능을 정량적으로 비교하였다. 실시간 강도 추정의 결과 scheme 1과 scheme 2에서 비슷한 성능을 보이는 반면, 6시간, 12시간 후 태풍강도예측의 경우 scheme 2에서 각각 13%, 16% 개선된 결과를 보였다. 태풍 단계별 예측성능에 대한 분석을 시행한 결과, 저강도 태풍일수록 낮은 평균제곱근오차를 보인 반면, 대부분의 강도 단계에서 평균제곱근편차비는 30% 미만의 값을 보이며 유의미한 검증 결과를 보였다. 이에 본 연구에서 제시한 두가지 모델을 기반으로 2014년 발생한 태풍 HALONG의 시계열검증을 시행하였다. 그 결과, scheme 1의 경우 태풍 초기발달단계에서 태풍의 강도를 약 20 kts가량 과대 추정하는 경향을 보이는데, 환경예측자료를 융합한 scheme 2에서는 오차가 약 5 kts가량으로 과대 추정 경향이 줄어들었다. 본 연구에서 제시하는 현재, 6시간, 12시간 후 강도를 동시에 추출하는 MTL 모델은 Single-tasking model 대비 약 300%의 시간 효율을 보이며, 향후 신속한 태풍 예보 정보 추출에 큰 기여를 할 수 있을 것으로 기대된다.

• 한국해양학회지:바다
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• 제6권1호
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• pp.13-26
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• 2001

망간각의 조직 및 지화학적 특성과 코발트 연대측정법(Co-chronometry)을 이용하여, 망간각 형성 이후의 서태평양 지역 고해양환경 변화를 파악하기 위하여 마샬제도 배타적 경제수역 내 Lomilik과 Litakpooki 해저산에서 채취된 6개의 망간각을 분석하였다. 망간각은 조직과 지화학적 성분 차이에 의해, 치밀한 조직(층 1), 퇴적물이나 철산화물이 충진되어 있는 다공성 조직(층 2),그리고 탄산염불화 인회석(Carbonate Fluoapatite)이 충진 또는 치환하고 있는 흑색의 균질한 조직(층 3)의 3개 층으로 구분된다. 층 1은 층 2에 비해 Mn, Co, Ni, Mg의 함량이 높고, 층 2는 Fe, Al, Ti, Ba, Cu, Zn의 함량이 높다. 층 3은 Ca, p의 함량이 층 1과 층 2에 비해 현저히 높으며, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni등의 함량은 층 1과 층 2에 비해 낮다. 코발트 연대측정법 결과에 근거할 때, 연구지역의 망간각은 최소 56~31 Ma(초기 에오세${\sim}$올리고세)전에 형성되기 시작한 것으로 추정된다. 층 1과 층 2, 층 2와 층 3의 경계면은 7${\sim}$3 Ma, 26${\sim}$14 Ma정도이다. 층 3은 층 2가 형성되기 이전의 인산화 작용으로 Ca와 P의 함량이 높으며, 미세조직들이 잘 보존되어 있는 것으로 보아 층 3의 철${\cdot}$망간산화물들이 아산화(suboxic)환경에서 재결정되었다고 보기는 힘들다. 또한 층 3에서 Mn에 비해 상대적으로 더 낮은 Co 함량 등을 고려할 때 과거 지질시대동안 Co 공급량이 일정치 않았을 가능성도 있다. 다공성 조직의 층 2는 약 26${\sim}$9 Ma 동안 형성되었다. 공극사이에 유공충을 포함한 생물기원퇴적물이 포함되어 있으며, Ba, Cu, Zn 등 수층 생물과 관련된 원소의 함량이 높은 것으로 보아 층 2는 고에너지환경에서 형성되었음을 시사한다. 또한 층 2에서 Al의 증가는 쇄설기원 물질의 유입에 의한 것으로 추정된다. 플라이오세 이후에 형성된 층 1은 치밀한 조직을 보이며, 형성 이후 속성작용을 받지 않았다.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• 제17권2호
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• pp.49-81
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• 2007

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

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• 제17권2호
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• pp.123-137
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• 2007

The advent of the Internet and related Web technologies has created an easily accessible link between a firm and its customers, and has provided opportunities to a firm to use information technology to support supplementary after-sale services associated with a product or service. It has been widely recognized that supplementary services are an important source of customer value and of competitive advantage as the characteristics of the product itself. Many of these supplementary services are information-based and need not be co-located with the product, so more and more companies are delivering these services electronically. Net-based customer service, which is defined as an Internet-based computerized information system that delivers services to a customer, therefore, is the core infrastructure for supplementary service provision. The importance of net-based customer service in delivering supplementary after-sale services associated with product has been well documented. The strategic advantages of well-implemented net-based customer service are enhanced customer loyalty and higher lock-in of customers, and a resulting reduction in competition and the consequent increase in profits. However, not all customers utilize such net-based customer service. The digital divide is the phenomenon in our society that captures the observation that not all customers have equal access to computers. Socioeconomic factors such as race, gender, and education level are strongly related to Internet accessibility and ability to use. This is due to the differences in the ability to bear the cost of a computer, and the differences in self-efficacy in the use of a technology, among other reasons. This concept, applied to e-commerce, has been called the "e-commerce divide." High Internet penetration is not eradicating the digital divide and e-commerce divide as one would hope. Besides, to accommodate personalized support, a customer must often provide personal information to the firm. This personal information includes not only name and address, but also preferences information and perhaps valuation information. However, many recent studies show that consumers may not be willing to share information about themselves due to concerns about privacy online. Due to the e-commerce divide, and due to privacy and security concerns of the customer for sharing personal information with firms, limited numbers of customers adopt net-based customer service. The limited level of customer adoption of net-based customer service affects the firm profits and the customers' welfare. We use a game-theoretic model in which we model the net-based customer service system as a mechanism to enhance customers' loyalty. We model a market entry scenario where a firm (the incumbent) uses the net-based customer service system in inducing loyalty in its customer base. The firm sells one product through the traditional retailing channels and at a price set for these channels. Another firm (the entrant) enters the market, and having observed the price of the incumbent firm (and after deducing the loyalty levels in the customer base), chooses its price. The profits of the firms and the surplus of the two customers segments (the segment that utilizes net-based customer service and the segment that does not) are analyzed in the Stackelberg leader-follower model of competition between the firms. We find that an increase in adoption of net-based customer service by the customer base is not always desirable for firms. With low effectiveness in enhancing customer loyalty, firms prefer a high level of customer adoption of net-based customer service, because an increase in adoption rate decreases competition and increases profits. A firm in an industry where net-based customer service is highly effective loyalty mechanism, on the other hand, prefers a low level of adoption by customers.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• 제17권2호
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• pp.97-122
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• 2007

Conventional networking and telecommunications infrastructure characterized by wires, fixed location, and inflexibility is giving way to mobile technologies. Numerous research reports point to the ultimate domination of wireless communication. With the increasing prevalence of advanced cell-phones, various mobile data services (hereafter MDS) are gaining popularity. Although cellular networks were originally introduced for voice communications, statistics indicate that data services are replacing the matured voice service as the growth engine for telecom service providers. For example, SK Telecom, the Korea's largest mobile service provider, reported that 25.6% of revenue and 28.5% of profit came from MDS in 2006 and the share is growing. Statistics also indicate that, in 2006, the average revenue per user (ARPU) for voice didn't change but MDS grew seven percents from the previous year, further highlighting its growth potential. MDS is defined "as an assortment of digital data services that can be accessed using a mobile device over a wide geographic area." A variety of MDS have been deployed, with a few reaching the status of killer applications. Many of them need to access the Internet through the cellular-phone infrastructure. In the past, when the cellular network didn't have acceptable bandwidth for data services, SMS (short messaging service) dominated MDS. Now, Internet-ready, next-generation cell-phones are driving rich digital data services into the fabric of everyday life, These include news on various topics, Internet search, mapping and location-based information, mobile banking and gaming, downloading (i.e., screen savers), multimedia streaming, and various communication services (i.e., email, short messaging, messenger, and chaffing). The huge economic stake MDS has on its stakeholders warrants focused research to understand associated dynamics behind its adoption. Lyytinen and Yoo(2002) pointed out the limitation of traditional adoption models in explaining the rapid diffusion of innovations such as P2P or mobile services. Also, despite the increasing popularity of MDS, unexpected drop in its usage is observed among some people. Intrigued by these observations, an exploratory study was conducted to examine decision factors of MDS usage. Data analysis revealed that the increase and decrease of MDS use was influenced by different forces. The findings of the exploratory study triggered our confirmatory research effort to validate the uni-directionality of studied factors in affecting MDS usage. This differs from extant studies of IS/IT adoption that are largely grounded on the assumption of bi-directionality of explanatory variables in determining the level of dependent variables (i.e., user satisfaction, service usage). The research goal is, therefore, to examine if increase and decrease in the usage of MDS are explained by two separate groups of variables pertaining to information quality and system quality. For this, we investigate following research questions: (1) Does the information quality of MDS increase service usage?; (2) Does the system quality of MDS decrease service usage?; and (3) Does user motivation for subscribing MDS moderate the effect information and system quality have on service usage? The research questions and subsequent analysis are grounded on the two factor theory pioneered by Hertzberg et al(1959). To answer the research questions, in the first, an exploratory study based on 378 survey responses was conducted to learn about important decision factors of MDS usage. It revealed discrepancy between the influencing forces of usage increase and those of usage decrease. Based on the findings from the exploratory study and the two-factor theory, we postulated information quality as the motivator and system quality as the de-motivator (or hygiene) of MDS. Then, a confirmative study was undertaken on their respective role in encouraging and discouraging the usage of mobile data service.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• 제18권4호
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• pp.57-81
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• 2008

Knowledge is an essential strategic weapon for sustaining competitive advantage and is the key determinant for organizational growth. When knowledge is shared and disseminated throughout the organization, it increases an organization's value by providing the ability to respond to new and unusual situations. The growing importance of knowledge as a critical resource has forced executives to pay attention to their organizational knowledge. Organizations are increasingly undertaking knowledge management initiatives and making significant investments. Knowledge sourcing is considered as the first important step in effective knowledge management. Most firms continue to make an effort to realize the benefits of knowledge management by using various knowledge sources effectively. Appropriate knowledge sourcing strategies enable organizations to create, acquire, and access knowledge in a timely manner by reducing search and transfer costs, which result in better firm performance. In response, the knowledge management literature has devoted substantial attention to the analysis of knowledge sourcing strategies. Many studies have categorized knowledge sourcing strategies into intemal- and external-oriented. Internal-oriented sourcing strategy attempts to increase firm performance by integrating knowledge within the boundary of the firm. On the contrary, external-oriented strategy attempts to bring knowledge in from outside sources via either acquisition or imitation, and then to transfer that knowledge across to the organization. However, the extant literature on knowledge sourcing strategies focuses primarily on large organizations. Although many studies have clearly highlighted major differences between large and small firms and the need to adopt different strategies for different firm sizes, scant attention has been given to analyzing how knowledge sourcing strategies affect firm performance in small firms and what are the differences between small and large firms in the patterns of knowledge sourcing strategies adoption. This study attempts to advance the current literature by examining the impact of knowledge sourcing strategies on small firm performance from a holistic perspective. By drawing on knowledge based theory from organization science and complementarity theory from the economics literature, this paper is motivated by the following questions: (1) what are the adoption patterns of different knowledge sourcing strategies in small firms (i,e., what sourcing strategies should be adopted and which sourcing strategies work well together in small firms)?; and (2) what are the performance implications of these adoption patterns? In order to answer the questions, this study developed three hypotheses. First hypothesis based on knowledge based theory is that internal-oriented knowledge sourcing is positively associated with small firm performance. Second hypothesis developed on the basis of knowledge based theory is that external-oriented knowledge sourcing is positively associated with small firm performance. The third one based on complementarity theory is that pursuing both internal- and external-oriented knowledge sourcing simultaneously is negatively or less positively associated with small firm performance. As a sampling frame, 700 firms were identified from the Annual Corporation Report in Korea. Survey questionnaires were mailed to owners or executives who were most erudite about the firm s knowledge sourcing strategies and performance. A total of 188 companies replied, yielding a response rate of 26.8%. Due to incomplete data, 12 responses were eliminated, leaving 176 responses for the final analysis. Since all independent variables were measured using continuous variables, supermodularity function was used to test the hypotheses based on the cross partial derivative of payoff function. The results indicated no significant impact of internal-oriented sourcing strategies while positive impact of external-oriented sourcing strategy on small firm performance. This intriguing result could be explained on the basis of various resource and capital constraints of small firms. Small firms typically have restricted financial and human resources. They do not have enough assets to always develop knowledge internally. Another possible explanation is competency traps or core rigidities. Building up a knowledge base based on internal knowledge creates core competences, but at the same time, excessive internal focused knowledge exploration leads to behaviors blind to other knowledge. Interestingly, this study found that Internal- and external-oriented knowledge sourcing strategies had a substitutive relationship, which was inconsistent with previous studies that suggested complementary relationship between them. This result might be explained using organizational identification theory. Internal organizational members may perceive external knowledge as a threat, and tend to ignore knowledge from external sources because they prefer to maintain their own knowledge, legitimacy, and homogeneous attitudes. Therefore, integrating knowledge from internal and external sources might not be effective, resulting in failure of improvements of firm performance. Another possible explanation is small firms resource and capital constraints and lack of management expertise and absorptive capacity. Although the integration of different knowledge sources is critical, high levels of knowledge sourcing in many areas are quite expensive and so are often unrealistic for small enterprises. This study provides several implications for research as well as practice. First this study extends the existing knowledge by examining the substitutability (and complementarity) of knowledge sourcing strategies. Most prior studies have tended to investigate the independent effects of these strategies on performance without considering their combined impacts. Furthermore, this study tests complementarity based on the productivity approach that has been considered as a definitive test method for complementarity. Second, this study sheds new light on knowledge management research by identifying the relationship between knowledge sourcing strategies and small firm performance. Most current literature has insisted complementary relationship between knowledge sourcing strategies on the basis of data from large firms. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, this study identifies substitutive relationship between knowledge sourcing strategies using data from small firms. Third, implications for practice highlight that managers of small firms should focus on knowledge sourcing from external-oriented strategies. Moreover, adoption of both sourcing strategies simultaneousiy impedes small firm performance.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• 제18권4호
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• pp.105-130
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• 2008

Consumers of e-learning market differ from those of other markets in that they are replaced in a specific time scale. For example, e-learning contents aimed at highschool senior students cannot be consumed by a specific consumer over the designated period of time. Hence e-learning service providers need to attract new groups of students every year. Due to lack of information on products designed for continuously emerging consumers, the consumers face difficulties in making rational decisions in a short time period. Increased uncertainty of product purchase leads customers to herding behaviors to obtain information of the product from others and imitate them. Taking into consideration of these features of e-learning market, this study will focus on the online herding behavior in purchasing e-learning contents. There is no definite concept for e-learning. However, it is being discussed in a wide range of perspectives from educational engineering to management to e-business etc. Based upon the existing studies, we identify two main view-points regarding e-learning. The first defines e-learning as a concept that includes existing terminologies, such as CBT (Computer Based Training), WBT (Web Based Training), and IBT (Internet Based Training). In this view, e-learning utilizes IT in order to support professors and a part of or entire education systems. In the second perspective, e-learning is defined as the usage of Internet technology to deliver diverse intelligence and achievement enhancing solutions. In other words, only the educations that are done through the Internet and network can be classified as e-learning. We take the second definition of e-learning for our working definition. The main goal of this study is to investigate what factors affect consumer intention to purchase e-learning contents and to identify the differential impact of the factors between consumers with purchase experience and those without the experience. To accomplish the goal of this study, it focuses on herding behavior and perceived usefulness as antecedents to behavioral intention. The proposed research model in the study extends the Technology Acceptance Model by adding herding behavior and usability to take into account the unique characteristics of e-learning content market and e-learning systems use, respectively. The current study also includes consumer experience with e-learning content purchase because the previous experience is believed to affect purchasing intention when consumers buy experience goods or services. Previous studies on e-learning did not consider the characteristics of e-learning contents market and the differential impact of consumer experience on the relationship between the antecedents and behavioral intention, which is the target of this study. This study employs a survey method to empirically test the proposed research model. A survey questionnaire was developed and distributed to 629 informants. 528 responses were collected, which consist of potential customer group (n = 133) and experienced customer group (n = 395). The data were analyzed using PLS method, a structural equation modeling method. Overall, both herding behavior and perceived usefulness influence consumer intention to purchase e-learning contents. In detail, in the case of potential customer group, herding behavior has stronger effect on purchase intention than does perceived usefulness. However, in the case of shopping-experienced customer group, perceived usefulness has stronger effect than does herding behavior. In sum, the results of the analysis show that with regard to purchasing experience, perceived usefulness and herding behavior had differential effects upon the purchase of e-learning contents. As a follow-up analysis, the interaction effects of the number of purchase transaction and herding behavior/perceived usefulness on purchase intention were investigated. The results show that there are no interaction effects. This study contributes to the literature in a couple of ways. From a theoretical perspective, this study examined and showed evidence that the characteristics of e-learning market such as continuous renewal of consumers and thus high uncertainty and individual experiences are important factors to be considered when the purchase intention of e-learning content is studied. This study can be used as a basis for future studies on e-learning success. From a practical perspective, this study provides several important implications on what types of marketing strategies e-learning companies need to build. The bottom lines of these strategies include target group attraction, word-of-mouth management, enhancement of web site usability quality, etc. The limitations of this study are also discussed for future studies.