• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.139-166
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• 2010

The supply chain management (SCM) systems have emerged as strong managerial tools for manufacturing firms in enhancing competitive strength. Despite of large investments in the SCM systems, many companies are not fully realizing the promised benefits from the systems. A review of literature on adoption, implementation and success factor of IOS (inter-organization systems), EDI (electronic data interchange) systems, shows that this issue has been examined from multiple theoretic perspectives. And many researchers have attempted to identify the factors which influence the success of system implementation. However, the existing studies have two drawbacks in revealing the determinants of systems implementation success. First, previous researches raise questions as to the appropriateness of research subjects selected. Most SCM systems are operating in the form of private industrial networks, where the participants of the systems consist of two distinct groups: focus companies and vendors. The focus companies are the primary actors in developing and operating the systems, while vendors are passive participants which are connected to the system in order to supply raw materials and parts to the focus companies. Under the circumstance, there are three ways in selecting the research subjects; focus companies only, vendors only, or two parties grouped together. It is hard to find researches that use the focus companies exclusively as the subjects probably due to the insufficient sample size for statistic analysis. Most researches have been conducted using the data collected from both groups. We argue that the SCM success factors cannot be correctly indentified in this case. The focus companies and the vendors are in different positions in many areas regarding the system implementation: firm size, managerial resources, bargaining power, organizational maturity, and etc. There are no obvious reasons to believe that the success factors of the two groups are identical. Grouping the two groups also raises questions on measuring the system success. The benefits from utilizing the systems may not be commonly distributed to the two groups. One group's benefits might be realized at the expenses of the other group considering the situation where vendors participating in SCM systems are under continuous pressures from the focus companies with respect to prices, quality, and delivery time. Therefore, by combining the system outcomes of both groups we cannot measure the system benefits obtained by each group correctly. Second, the measures of system success adopted in the previous researches have shortcoming in measuring the SCM success. User satisfaction, system utilization, and user attitudes toward the systems are most commonly used success measures in the existing studies. These measures have been developed as proxy variables in the studies of decision support systems (DSS) where the contribution of the systems to the organization performance is very difficult to measure. Unlike the DSS, the SCM systems have more specific goals, such as cost saving, inventory reduction, quality improvement, rapid time, and higher customer service. We maintain that more specific measures can be developed instead of proxy variables in order to measure the system benefits correctly. The purpose of this study is to find the determinants of SCM systems success in the perspective of vendor companies. In developing the research model, we have focused on selecting the success factors appropriate for the vendors through reviewing past researches and on developing more accurate success measures. The variables can be classified into following: technological, organizational, and environmental factors on the basis of TOE (Technology-Organization-Environment) framework. The model consists of three independent variables (competition intensity, top management support, and information system maturity), one mediating variable (collaboration), one moderating variable (government support), and a dependent variable (system success). The systems success measures have been developed to reflect the operational benefits of the SCM systems; improvement in planning and analysis capabilities, faster throughput, cost reduction, task integration, and improved product and customer service. The model has been validated using the survey data collected from 122 vendors participating in the SCM systems in Korea. To test for mediation, one should estimate the hierarchical regression analysis on the collaboration. And moderating effect analysis should estimate the moderated multiple regression, examines the effect of the government support. The result shows that information system maturity and top management support are the most important determinants of SCM system success. Supply chain technologies that standardize data formats and enhance information sharing may be adopted by supply chain leader organization because of the influence of focal company in the private industrial networks in order to streamline transactions and improve inter-organization communication. Specially, the need to develop and sustain an information system maturity will provide the focus and purpose to successfully overcome information system obstacles and resistance to innovation diffusion within the supply chain network organization. The support of top management will help focus efforts toward the realization of inter-organizational benefits and lend credibility to functional managers responsible for its implementation. The active involvement, vision, and direction of high level executives provide the impetus needed to sustain the implementation of SCM. The quality of collaboration relationships also is positively related to outcome variable. Collaboration variable is found to have a mediation effect between on influencing factors and implementation success. Higher levels of inter-organizational collaboration behaviors such as shared planning and flexibility in coordinating activities were found to be strongly linked to the vendors trust in the supply chain network. Government support moderates the effect of the IS maturity, competitive intensity, top management support on collaboration and implementation success of SCM. In general, the vendor companies face substantially greater risks in SCM implementation than the larger companies do because of severe constraints on financial and human resources and limited education on SCM systems. Besides resources, Vendors generally lack computer experience and do not have sufficient internal SCM expertise. For these reasons, government supports may establish requirements for firms doing business with the government or provide incentives to adopt, implementation SCM or practices. Government support provides significant improvements in implementation success of SCM when IS maturity, competitive intensity, top management support and collaboration are low. The environmental characteristic of competition intensity has no direct effect on vendor perspective of SCM system success. But, vendors facing above average competition intensity will have a greater need for changing technology. This suggests that companies trying to implement SCM systems should set up compatible supply chain networks and a high-quality collaboration relationship for implementation and performance.

• Korean Security Journal
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• no.14
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• pp.517-534
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• 2007

Since the beginning of human society, there have always been struggles and competitions for survival and prosperity, terrorism is not a recent phenomenon, however in modern times it has progressed to reflect the advances in civilization and power structures. At the time of the 9.11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. A., a new world order was in the process of being established after the breakdown of the Cold War era. The attacks drove both the Western and the Islamic worlds into heightened fear of terrorism and war, which threatened the quality of life of the whole mankind. Through two war campaigns against the Islamic world, it seems the U.S. has been pushing its own militaristic security road map of the Greater Middle East democratic initiative, justifying it as a means to retaliate and eradicate the terrorist threats towards themselves. However, with its five-year lopsided victories that cost the nation almost four thousand military casualties, and the war expenses that could match the Vietnam war, the U.S. does not yet seem to be totally emancipated from the fears of terrorism. Terrorism, in itself, is a means of resisting forced rules a form of alternative competition by the weak against the strong, and a way of expressing a dismissive response against dictatorial ideas or orders which allow for no normal changes. Intrinsically, the nature of terrorism is a reaction opposing power logics. Confronted with the absolute military power of the U.S., the Islamic strategies of terrorism have begun to rapidly evolve into a new stage. The new strategies take advantage of their civilization and circumstances, they train and inspire their front-line fighters on the Internet, and issue their orders through the clandestine network of the Al Qaeda operatives. These spontaneously generated strategies have been gained speed among the second, and third Islamic generations, many of whom are now spread throughout western societies. This represents a failure of the power-driven, one-sided overseas security initiatives by the U.S., and is creating a culture of fear and distrust in western societies. It is feared that the U.S. war campaigns have made the clash of religions far worse than before, and may ever lead to global ethnic separations and large-scale population movements. Eventually, it may result in the terrorist groups, enlarged and secretly supported by the huge sums of oil money, driving all mankind into a series of irreparable catastrophes.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.8
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• pp.233-267
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• 2001

The management environment in Korea today is undergoing rapid changes; in particular, domestic corporations and businesses are confronting formidable adversity with IMF crisis and WTO. Though cost cutback, higher quality, rapid production, and diversification of products were accepted as important requirements for competitiveness in the past, they have been replaced by brand power. Consumption patterns have changed their focus from function to image orientation. This is why managers in corporations have invested enormous amounts of resources into producing powerful brands, which can attract consumers' attention greatly enough to improve the image of their products. Brands are regarded as a vital vehicle for marketing strategies and thus as a legal asset. Brands with remarkable and favorable image can secure a loyal consumer groups stable revenues. M & A, currently active between corporations, makes brand equity all the more important. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of internal marketing and increased brand diversification on brand equity by combining them as influential factors with marketing mix factor. For this purpose, literature review was make on previous fragmented studies of influential factors on brand equity build-up. Based on the findings of this study, some operational implications were suggested for marketing managers. The findings and implications of the present study are as follows; First, efficient communication among organization members was found to have a significant effect on product quality. Second, job satisfaction and efficient communication among members was shown to significantly influence price policies. Thirdly, efficient communication among organization workers proved to have a significant effect on distribution strategies. Forth, efficient communication among members was demonstrated to significantly influence advertisement and other public-relations activities. Fifth, opacity of market environment appeared to have a significant effect on product quality, prior market entrance as perceived by organization members turned to be of negative influence on product quality. Sixth, opacity of market environment was found to have a significant effect on price policies. Seventh, opacity of market environment was shown to be of significant effect on distribution strategies. Eighth, grater opacity of market environment proved to improve advertisement and other public-relations activities. Ninth, price policies, distribution strategies, advertisement and public-relations activities were found to have a significant effect on brand equity value. To sum up these findings, in order for corporations and businesses to cope with consumers' needs that are increasingly segmented, internal marketing strategies and brand diversification should be implemented so as to generate greater synergy effect. It is also important to stress that differentiated, higher competitiveness should be secured for Korean corporations and businesses to survive in the drastically changing, globalized market environment. In this regard, continuous and long-term management strategies for brand equity build-up should be ensured and is essential in the present unlimited competition. The last but not least important point to notice is that to increase brand equity value, intensive investment and constant emphasis should be made on internal marketing management on intra-organizational members before strengthening external marketing.

• Journal of the Korean Recycled Construction Resources Institute
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.21-28
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• 2017

The steel-plate concrete(SC) is used in a form of module assembly construction in the outer wall of nuclear-power plant and LNG containment. Since the steel-plate concrete modules are generally manufactured from the plant, the weight of SC has significantly effect on the total construction cost in the aspect of shipment. Therefore, the use of lightweight aggregates concrete(LWAC), which fill the inside of SC module can be a solution. However, the amount of used lightweight aggregates(LWA) is limited in the use of current concrete mixing process due to the concrete quality problems and it also determines the allowable minimum density of LWAC. In this research, the preplaced casting method is applied because of increasing the volume fraction of LWA significantly, which results from the producing process of pre-packing the LWA in the formwork and filling the interstitial voids between LWA using cement paste grout. The density and compressive strength of selected preplaced LWAC were $1,600kg/m^3$ and 30MPa and it was applied for the mock-up specimens of SC panel. It was used for the 3-point bending test for evaluating its structural performance. The results show that the preplaced LWAC can reduce the density of concrete with the adequate mechanical and structural performance.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.401-418
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• 2000

1. Production of the artificial zeolite from coal ash Coal fly ash is mainly composed of several oxides including $SiO_2$ and $Al_2O_3$ derived from inorganic compounds remained after burning. As minor components, $Fe_2O_3$ and oxides of Mg, Ca, P, Ti (trace) are also contained in the ash. These components are presented as glass form resulting from fusion in the process of the combustion of coal. In other word, coal ash may refer to a kind of aluminosilicate glass that is known to easily change to zeolite-like materials by hydrothermal reaction. Lots of hot seawater is disposing near thermal power plants after cooling turbine generator periodically. Using seawater in the hydrothermal reaction caused to produce low price artificial zeolite by reduction of sodium hydroxide consumption, heating energy and water cost. As coal ash were reacted hydrothermally, peaks of quartz and mullite in the ash were weakened and disappeared, and new Na-Pl peaks were appeared strengthily. Si-O-Si bonding of the bituminous coal ash was changed to Si-O-Al (and $Fe^{3+}$) bonding by the reaction. Therefore the produced Na-Pl type zeolite had high CEC of 276.7 $cmol^+{\cdot}kg^{-1}$ and well developed molecular sieve structure with low concentration of heavy metals. 2. Utilization of the artificial zeolite in agro-environment The artificial zeolite(1g) could remove 123.5 mg of zinc, 164.7 mg copper, 184.4 mg cadmium and 350.6 mg lead in the synthetic wastewater. The removability is higher 2.8 times in zinc, 3.3 times in copper, 4.7 times in cadmium and 4.8 times in lead than natural zeolite and charcoal powder. When the heavy metals were treated at the ratio of 150 $kg{\cdot}ha^{-1}$ to the rice plant, various growth inhibition were observed; brownish discoloration and death of leaf sheath, growth inhibition in culm length, number of panicles and grains, grain ripening and rice yield. But these growth inhibition was greatly alleviated by the application of artificial zeolite, therefore, rice yield increased $1.1{\sim}3.2$ times according to the metal kind. In addition, the concentration of heavy metals in the brown rice also lowered by $27{\sim}75%$. Artificial Granular Zeolites (AGZ) was developed for the purification of wastewater. Canon exchange capacity was 126.8 $cmol^+{\cdot}kg^{-1}$. AGZ had Na-Pl peaks mainly with some minor $C_3S$ peaks in X-ray diffractogram. In addition, AGZs had various pore structure that may be adhere the suspended solid and offer microbiological niche to decompose organic pollutants. AGZ could remove ammonium, orthophosphate and heavy metals simultaneously. Mixing ratio of artificial zeolite in AGZs was related positively with removal efficiency of $NH_4\;^+$ and negatively with that of $PO_4\;^{3-}$. Root growth of rice seedling was inhibited severely in the mine wastewater because of strong acidity and high concentration of heavy metals. As AGZ(1 kg) stayed in the wastewater(100L) for 4days, water quality turned into safely for agricultural usage and rice seedlings grew normally.

• Archives of design research
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• v.19 no.5 s.67
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• pp.55-64
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• 2006

As digital systems were introduced to automotive design in the mid 1980s, the design process has adopted many digital programs to save time compared to the conventional hand drafting. Digital technology was introduced not only to satisfy the reeds of the global environment, as the number of automobiles exported to many different parts of the world has increased, but also to save time and effort in developing several models of quality automobiles. Therefore, every automotive manufacturer in the world has expanded its virtual reality(VR) studio to establish visualization systems that visualize automobiles in the actual size and a co-operation system that enables simultaneous feedback from all of its design studios around the world. Unlike the existing design reviewing methos, the new improved feedback system is assessed as a reasonable method to evaluates and understand how the automobiles are actually manufactured in simulation. It is especially helpful when advanced products and concept cars require fast results. Other strengths of the new system include shorter development period, cost efficiency, no more manual labor, various designs within a short period of time, and realistic visualization of concepts. Large-scale products, including automobiles, need to be projected in the actual size and high clarity through the Power-wall System and are examined in a virtual space called a Cave. Therefore, it took much time to establish digital infrastructure. An infrastructure would constantly require system improvement and performance enhancement, but it is certain that now is the right time for the take-off to utilizing the strengths of digital design and improve the weaknesses. In this respect, this study provided an understanding of the importance of digital design based on digital reinforcements and examined an effective utilization of digital technology for an efficient development of automobiles in the future.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.1-12
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• 2011

Large-sized multi-touch screen is usually made using infrared rays. That is because it has technical constraints or cost problems to make the screen with the other ways using such as existing resistive overlays, capacitive overlay, or acoustic wave. Using infrared rays to make multi-touch screen is easy, but is likely to have technical limits to be implemented. To make up for these technical problems, two other methods were suggested through Surface project, which is a next generation user-interface concept of Microsoft. One is Frustrated Total Internal Reflection (FTIR) which uses infrared cameras, the other is Diffuse Illumination (DI). FTIR and DI are easy to be implemented in large screens and are not influenced by the number of touch points. Although FTIR method has an advantage in detecting touch-points, it also has lots of disadvantages such as screen size limit, quality of the materials, the module for infrared LED arrays, and high consuming power. On the other hand, DI method has difficulty in detecting touch-points because of it's structural problems but makes it possible to solve the problem of FTIR. In this thesis, we study the algorithms for effectively correcting the distort phenomenon of optical lens, and image processing algorithms in order to solve the touch detecting problem of the original DI method. Moreover, we suggest calibration algorithms for improving the accuracy of multi-touch, and a new tracking technique for accurate movement and gesture of the touch device. To verify our approaches, we implemented a table-based multi touch screen.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Plant Biotechnology Conference
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• 2002.04b
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• pp.33-40
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• 2002

We, Tong Yang Moolsan Co. Ltd. (TYM) set up the mass-production system for virus-free seed garlic via tissue culture technique. TYM's tissue culture technique is called as 'Multiple shoot propagation technique'. This technique can lead mass propagation of genetically homogeneous seed garlic in a short period because of its highly proliferation ,ate of in vitro shoots $(15^{10}/year)$. TYM researchers applied the technique to some selected garlic cultivars with superior characteristics and carried out Held test of productivity in the inside and outside of the country for several years. According to the yearly results of Held test with virus-free seed garlic, we ascertained that virus-free seed garlic can produce the highly yield increase (max. above 50%) and also can enhance the product quality. Consequently, we estimated that TYM's seed garlic will contribute to farmers with increase of income and can elevate the national position of garlic market in the world for its competitive power of technical and production cost.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.73-83
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• 2016

Purpose - The parcel delivery service(courier) industry all over the world has been expanding its market so far, but its growth has been declining in recent years. In this situation, most parcel delivery companies are having trouble with managing themselves because of the pressure from the customer to increase service level and decrease the rate. The purpose of this study is to provide ways to improve competitive advantages of the parcel delivery service industry by evaluating the multi-period operating efficiency of Korea, Japan and global service providers. Research design, data, and methodology - The data for the period of 2011 to 2014 were collected from the annual reports published by parcel delivery companies. In this study, we analyze the marketability (revenue), profitability (operating profits), and management conditions (net profits) of parcel service companies by combining information on human resources (number of employees) and material resources (total assets and equity). Therefore, the number of employees, total assets, and equity are selected as input variables, and revenue, operating profits, and net profits as the output variables. In this study, DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) is used to measure the comparative efficiency and MPI (Malmquist Productivity Index) is used to analyze the trend of change of the efficiency for a multi-year period. Results - The operational efficiency scores of medium-sized parcel delivery companies in Korea are higher than other larger competitors such as Korean, Japan and Global larger companies. As of 2014, Logen(1.878) was found to be the most efficient parcel delivery enterprise, followed by KGB (1.224), and Kyoungdong(1.002). Otherwise, Hanjin(0.235), CJ(0.262), Hyundai Logistics(0.657), DHL(0.611), UPS(0.766), FedEx(0.498), TNT(0.350), Yamato(0.762) and Sagawa(0.520), larger sized companies, were done inefficiently. The productivity of parcel delivery companies is influenced by endogenous factors as well as exogenous ones such as changes in business environment and technological advances. Conclusions - Korean medium-sized companies have relatively high efficiency scores in operation. That is why they still survive the competitive market in Korea where market restructuring on the industry has been expected to be conducted for many years. The reason why medium-sized couriers had higher efficient scores than larger couriers is that most of couriers spend more operating expenses versus unit price of delivery which is the amount of money that is needed in order to send a package by parcel service. So the delivery unit price must be taken into account by all the expenses associated with the cost of fuel, labor and maintenance expenses for facilities, etc. therefore, the unit price must be increased to strengthen business competitive power. In order for the industry to have more competitive advantage, the companies need to make profits by increasing demand volume and raising the delivery rate to provide high-quality delivery service to customers. And both endogenous and exogenous change must take precedence in order to strengthen their competitiveness.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.110-115
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• 2011

Objectives: The aim of this study is to survey for finding asbestos containing equipment at the laboratories using picture based questionnaire and polarized light microscopic analysis. Methods: This study was conducted from 2009 to 2010 at a university in Seoul. In 2009, picture based questionnaire was distributed to 100 laboratories during the regular laboratory air quality monitoring. In 2010, we emailed all professors of the same university who have laboratories to participate voluntarily this survey. For the laboratories consented to participate survey, picture based questionnaire was distributed and collected. Suspected asbestos containing material and apparatus were collected at the laboratories which replied they have suspected material and equipment. Collected samples were analyzed with polarized light microscope at the laboratory accredited by ministry of employment and labor in Korea. Results: Total of 18 out of 100 laboratories reported that they had suspected asbestos containing equipment in 2009. Twenty-three samples were collected and three samples (13%), one heating mantle and two pairs of insulation gloves, contained asbestos. Thirty four laboratories reported they had suspected asbestos containing material or equipment in 2010. Sixty samples were collected and four of them (6%), two pairs of insulation gloves, one packing rope in dry oven and, one pair of tongs, contained asbestos. All founded asbestos was chrysotile and the content of chrysotile was more than 90% for all equipment except heating mantle which has less than 1%. Conclusions: We confirmed that asbestos was still used at the laboratories though strict regulations on asbestos use in Korea. The method of picture based questionnaire invented in this study could be applied for asbestos survey to other research institute or university where there are many laboratories because of its simplicity and accessibility without huge man power, cost and time.