• Title/Summary/Keyword: Power-on Effect

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A Study on a New Working-system of Mechanical Land Clearing and Development of Fertle Soil. (기계개간의 새로운 작업체계와 숙지화 촉진에 관한 연구)

  • Hwang, Eun
    • Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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    • v.13 no.1
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    • pp.2162-2176
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    • 1971
  • From the ancient times our forefathers settled down in this peninsular and cultivated the hills and waste-lands into fields. Instead of fertilizing the lands they moved to find other fertile lands and lived a feudal life of agriculture and various machines played a main role in the land reclamation. The best method of land clearing, the time and efficiency in the operation and the effect of growing crops should sysematically analized prior to the time of 3rd Five-year Economic Development(1972-1976) in order to cultivated 210,000 ha of waste-land or the modernization of our country. The present study was investigated to find out a new working-system of mechanical land clearing and development of fertile soil. The results are as follows: 1) The land reclamation in natural slope is much more encourageable in land clearing and farming when the slope is below ten grades than bench terrace. 2) Weeds were mixed with soil in the land clearing work in order to supply organic materials and to make soil swollen instead of burning of just removing. 3) The equipments such as bulldozers, harrows, power tillers and so on should be prepared in order to do a systematic work in the land clearing. 4) The work of pulling-up roots is dependent upon the forms of roots spreading under the ground. The work of the pulling-up the straight roots was most difficult. 5) The land clearing work of the wrinkled style blocks was easy in pulling up roots and in the time of first plowing. The harrowing work could also be simply done. 6) The amount of soil carried was $240m^3/10a$, 15.6% increased amount from the standard block, while the required time of clearing work was 2 hours 15 minutes 45 seconds/10a, the one third of time required for the standard block. 7) The time disc harrowing work increased 50%, or 15 minutes/10a compared to the harrowing work required in the cultivated soil. 8) The time of rotary tilling increased 2.4 times or 1 hour 47 minutes 43 seconds/10a compared to the time required in the cultivated soil. 9) The reclamed land should be fertilized according to the soil quality, especially added fertilizer should be more than 1,200kg/10a, limes 20kg/10a. In order to produce added fertilizer grass fields should be needed. 10) The experiment of pasture growing is now progressing and therefore the effect of land clearing and the degree of developed soil will be investigated before long.

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Herbicidal and Antifungal Activities of the aqueous extracts of Several Naturalized Plants (수종의 귀화식물 수용성추출물의 제초 및 항균 활성 탐색)

  • Hyoun, Do-Gyoung;Song, Jin-Young;Kim, Tae-Keun;Jung, Dae-Cheon;Song, Sang-Churl;Kang, Young-Sik;Cha, Jin-Woo;Lee, Hee-Sean;Yang, Young-Hoan;Kim, Hyoun-Chol;Song, Chang-Khil
    • Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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    • v.22 no.2
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    • pp.303-319
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    • 2014
  • The study researched germination of the plants and growth of experimented bacteria according to concentration of water extract in order to provide basic data for developing natural agricultural resources by using naturalized plants including Solidago altissima, Amaranthus retroflexus and Sida spinosa. As concentration of water extract increased, most of test plants showed a decrease in relative germinability. Sida spinosa(r=-0.540, p<0.01), Physalis wrightii(r=-0.693, p<0.01), Amaranthus retroflexu(r=-0.724, p<0.01), Solidago altissima(r=-0.728, p<0.01) and Eclipta prostrata(r=-0.779, p<0.01) showed tendency of decrease in relative germinative power in order, respectively. For average germination period, as concentration of the processed group increased, the time for germination increased (r = 0.769, p<0.01) and according to donor plants and test plants, there was a little difference. Also, as concentration of water extract of donor plant, length of above-aerial part(r=-0.587, p<0.01), length of underground part(r=-0.741, p<0.01), fresh weight(r=-0.574, p<0.01) and generation of root hair decreased. An then, for growth of test fungi according to concentration of water extract of donor plants, growths of Botrytis cinerea(r=-0.266, p<0.05), Diaporthe citri(r=-0.323 p<0.01), Colletotrichum gloeosporioides(r=-0.512, p<0.01), Pythiumultimum(r=-0.581, p<0.01) and Rhizoctonia solani(r=-0.806, p<0.01) were repressed in order, respectively. For total amount of content of phenol with herbicidal and Antifungal activities, S. altissima $17.3{\pm}0.5mg/g$, A. retroflexus $13.1{\pm}0.3mg/g$, P. wrightii $12.0{\pm}0.4mg/g$, S. spinosa $9.5{\pm}0.1mg/g$ and E. prostrata L. $4.1{\pm}0.1mg/g$ showed in order, respectively. As these results are summarized, donor plants which were naturalized, have competitive advantage because they release phenolic compounds with allelopathic effect and affect on germination, growth and fungi growth on underground flora compared to native plants and they have eligibility for natural herbicide and germicide.

A Study on the Influence of the Quality of the Care Service of the Caregivers in a Nursing Hospital for the Elderly in the Intent of Reuse: Focusing on Chinese-Korean Caregivers (노인요양병원 간병인의 돌봄서비스 질이 재이용의도에 미치는 영향 연구: 중국동포 간병인을 중심으로)

  • Song, In Sik
    • Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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    • v.20 no.5
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    • pp.456-467
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    • 2019
  • The rapid aging of South Korea is causing difficulties in meeting the man-power demands for the increasing number of elderly nursing hospitals. To cope with this gap in supply and demand, more foreign workers are now being hired to provide elderly care services. The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of the quality of the care services provided by foreign caregivers in nursing hospitals for the elderly. For this purpose, the researcher surveyed 249 senior citizens who are receiving care services from Chinese-Korean caregivers in six elderly nursing hospitals in Seoul and Gyeonggi region. The data collected from the survey were analyzed through SPSS and AMOS. The result of the analyses showed that, first, the quality factors of the care services of the caregivers at elderly nursing hospitals, such as reliability, responsibility, empathy, formality, and expertise, all turned out to have a positive correlation with the trust in, satisfaction with, and intent to revisit the institute. Second, thefluencing factors for the qualities of the care services by Chinese-Korean care givers in elderly nursing hospitals included responsiveness, materiality, and expertise, while the factors that influenced satisfaction with significance included trust, materiality, and expertise. Also, the trust in and satisfaction with the institution both influenced the intent of revisit in a positive manner. Third, the indirect effect of trust in the relationship between the quality of the care services by the Chinese-Korean care givers and satisfaction, appeared in all independent variable except for responsiveness, which was a factor of the quality of the care services. And, it was also shown that the satisfaction level had an indirect effect in the relationship between trust and revisiting intent. The result of this study implicates that, in order to cause the quality of the care service by the Chinese-Korean care givers in elderly nursing hospitals to increase the revisit rate, it would be necessary to provide a strategy to increase the levels of trust and satisfaction through a higher quality level of care services.

Effect of Nurida-Ball exercise on muscle function, spinal alignment, and dynamic balance capacity in Middle-Aged Men (누리다 볼 운동이 중년 남성의 근기능, 척추정렬 및 동적 균형능력에 미치는 영향)

  • Choi, Dong-Hun;Kim, Tae-Kyung;Park, Jae-Myoung;Jung, Jong-Hwan;Yeom, Dong-Chul;Cho, In-Ho;Cho, Joon-Yong;Koo, Jung-Hoon
    • Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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    • v.37 no.6
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    • pp.1556-1566
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    • 2020
  • The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of Nurida-Ball exercise on isokinetic muscle function, spinal alignment, and dynamic balance capacity in middle-aged men. All middle-aged men(n=16) were divided into 2 groups: Ball exercise(BE, n=8) and control(CON, n=8) group. BE group performed the Nurida-Ball exercise(30 min/day, 3 days/week, 8 weeks) and isokinetic knee and trunk muscle function, spinal alignment, and dynamic balance capacity were measured. All of the measured variables calculated the mean and standard deviation and verified normality using the Shapiro-Wilk test. The independent t-test method and the Paired t-test method were then analyzed to identify differences between groups. This study found that isokinetic knee and trunk muscle function was significantly strengthened in the BE compared with CON group by increasing peak torque(PT) of right and left knee extension(60°/sec, p<0.01, respectively), average power(AP) of right and left knee extension(60°/sec, p<0.05, p<0.01, respectively), and PT of right knee flexion(180°/sec, p<0.05) and AP of right knee extension(180°/sec, p<0.05). In the change of isokinetic trunk muscle function, only PT of trunk extension(180°/sec) was increased in the BE compared with the CON group(p<0.05). In addition, Nurida-ball exercise can improve the spinal alignment by reducing the trunk inclination(p<0.05) in the BE compared with the CON group. Finally, dynamic balance capacity was also enhanced in the BE compared with the CON group by decreasing the score of overall balance index(OBI, p<0.01) and Antero-posterior balance index(p<0.05) in the Stage-6, and OBI(p<0.05) in the Stage-1. This result demonstrated that Nurida-ball exercise may improve spinal alignment, dynamic balance capacity, and isokinetic muscle function, which might be an effective way for the improvement of health-related fitness in middle-aged men.

The protective effect of Eucommia ulmoides leaves on high glucose-induced oxidative stress in HT-29 intestinal epithelial cells (고당으로 유도된 산화적 스트레스에 대한 두충 잎 추출물의 장 상피 세포 보호 효과)

  • Han Su Lee;Jong Min Kim;Hyo Lim Lee;Min Ji Go;Ju Hui Kim;Hyun Ji Eo;Chul-Woo Kim;Ho Jin Heo
    • Food Science and Preservation
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    • v.31 no.1
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    • pp.183-196
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    • 2024
  • This study investigated the protective effect of the aqueous extract of Eucommia ulmoides leaves (AEEL) against high glucose-induced human colon epithelial HT-29 cells. The 2,2'-azino-bis (3-ethyl benzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS), 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazy (DPPH) radical scavenging activities, ferric reducing/antioxidant power (FRAP), and malondialdehyde (MDA) analyses indicated that AEEL had significant antioxidant activities. The 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay showed that AEEL increased cell viability against high glucose-, H2O2-, and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced cytotoxicity in HT-29 cells. Also, the 2'-7'-dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate (DCF-DA) assay indicated that AEEL decreased intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) against high glucose-, H2O2-, and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced cytotoxicity in HT-29 cells. AEEL showed inhibitory activities against α-glucosidase and inhibited the formation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs). AEEL showed significant positive effects on the viability and titratable acidity of L. brevis. The high-performance liquid chromatogram (HPLC) analysis identified chlorogenic acid and rutin as the major compounds of AEEL. These results suggested that AEEL has the potential to be used as a functional food source to suppress blood glucose levels and protect the gut from high glucose-induced oxidative stress.

A Study for Strategy of On-line Shopping Mall: Based on Customer Purchasing and Re-purchasing Pattern (시스템 다이내믹스 기법을 활용한 온라인 쇼핑몰의 전략에 관한 연구 : 소비자의 구매 및 재구매 행동을 중심으로)

  • Lee, Sang-Gun;Min, Suk-Ki;Kang, Min-Cheol
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.18 no.3
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    • pp.91-121
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    • 2008
  • Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce or eCommerce, has become a major business trend in these days. The amount of trade conducted electronically has grown extraordinarily by developing the Internet technology. Most electronic commerce has being conducted between businesses to customers; therefore, the researches with respect to e-commerce are to find customer's needs, behaviors through statistical methods. However, the statistical researches, mostly based on a questionnaire, are the static researches, They can tell us the dynamic relationships between initial purchasing and repurchasing. Therefore, this study proposes dynamic research model for analyzing the cause of initial purchasing and repurchasing. This paper is based on the System-Dynamic theory, using the powerful simulation model with some restriction, The restrictions are based on the theory TAM(Technology Acceptance Model), PAM, and TPB(Theory of Planned Behavior). This article investigates not only the customer's purchasing and repurchasing behavior by passing of time but also the interactive effects to one another. This research model has six scenarios and three steps for analyzing customer behaviors. The first step is the research of purchasing situations. The second step is the research of repurchasing situations. Finally, the third step is to study the relationship between initial purchasing and repurchasing. The purpose of six scenarios is to find the customer's purchasing patterns according to the environmental changes. We set six variables in these scenarios by (1) changing the number of products; (2) changing the number of contents in on-line shopping malls; (3) having multimedia files or not in the shopping mall web sites; (4) grading on-line communities; (5) changing the qualities of products; (6) changing the customer's degree of confidence on products. First three variables are applied to study customer's purchasing behavior, and the other variables are applied to repurchasing behavior study. Through the simulation study, this paper presents some inter-relational result about customer purchasing behaviors, For example, Active community actions are not the increasing factor of purchasing but the increasing factor of word of mouth effect, Additionally. The higher products' quality, the more word of mouth effects increase. The number of products and contents on the web sites have same influence on people's buying behaviors. All simulation methods in this paper is not only display the result of each scenario but also find how to affect each other. Hence, electronic commerce firm can make more realistic marketing strategy about consumer behavior through this dynamic simulation research. Moreover, dynamic analysis method can predict the results which help the decision of marketing strategy by using the time-line graph. Consequently, this dynamic simulation analysis could be a useful research model to make firm's competitive advantage. However, this simulation model needs more further study. With respect to reality, this simulation model has some limitations. There are some missing factors which affect customer's buying behaviors in this model. The first missing factor is the customer's degree of recognition of brands. The second factor is the degree of customer satisfaction. The third factor is the power of word of mouth in the specific region. Generally, word of mouth affects significantly on a region's culture, even people's buying behaviors. The last missing factor is the user interface environment in the internet or other on-line shopping tools. In order to get more realistic result, these factors might be essential matters to make better research in the future studies.

Protective Effects of Chemical Drugs on the Course of Uranium-induced Acute Renal Failure (우라늄오염에 의한 신부전증에 미치는 제염제의 방호효과)

  • Kim, Tae-Hwan;Chung, In-Yong;Kim, Sung-Ho;Kim, Kyeng-Jung;Bang, Hyo-Chang;Yoo, Seong-Yul;Chin, Soo-Yil
    • Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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    • v.15 no.2
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    • pp.27-39
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    • 1990
  • Appreciable radiation exposures certainly were occurred in the reactor burn-up, the nuelear fall-out and the surroundings of nuclear installations with radioactive effluents. Therefore, radioactive nuclides is not only potentially hazardous to workers of nuclear power plants and related industrials, but also the wokers who handle radioactive nuclides in biochemical research and nuclear medicine diagnostics. And in the case of occurring the nuclear accidents, the early medical treatment of radiation injury should be necessary but little is established medical procedures to decontaminate the victims of internal contamination of radioactive nuclides in korea. Accordingly, to achieve the basic data for protective roles and medical treatment of radiation injury, the present studies were carrid out to evaluate the decontamination of uranium by the chemical drugs. The results observed were summarized as follows: 1. The combined treatmet group of sodium bicarbonate and saline with uranyl nitrate injection simultaneously and the dithiothreitol group that was administered 30 minutes after uranyl nitrate injection were increased significantly in the change of body weight than uranyl nitrate-only group (P<0.005). 2. All the experimental groups were increased the fluid intake and urine volume on the uranyl nitrate-induced acute renal failure. but the combined treatment group of sodium bicarbonate and saline with uranyl nitrate injection simultaneously and the dithiothreitol group that was administered 30 minutes after uranyl nitrate injection have the higher increment of fluid intake and urine volume (P<0.05). 3. When sodium bicarbonate and saline was treated with uranyl nitrate injection simultaneously. and dithiothreitol was administered 30 minutes after uranyl nitrate injection. there was significantly reduced in BUN concentration (P<0.01). 4. When dithiothreitol was administered 30 minutes after uranyl nitrate injection. there was reduced more significantly on the increment of serum creatinine concentration than that observed in uranyl nitrate-only group(P<0.01). but when the combined treatment of sodium bicarbonate and saline with uranyl nitrate simultaneously, there was still. albeit much less marked. decrease in serum creatinine concentration. 5. The sodium bicarbonate and saline was treated with uranyl nitrate simultaneously and dithiothreitol was administered at 30 minutes after uranyl nitrate were excreted markedly higher urine creatinine concentration than the uranyl nitrate-only group. 6. Uranyl nitrate has been used in experimental animals to produce hydropic degeneration and swelling of proximal tubules, disappearance of microvilli and brush border or necrosis in the kidney and centrilobular necrosis, congestion, and telangiectasia of the liver. When the sodium bicarbonate and saline was treated with uranyl nitrate simultaneously, and dithiothreitol was administered. 30 minutes after uranyl nitrate, there was more marked the protective effect than uranyl nitrate-only group. Finally, if the sodium bicarbonate and saline may administered as quickly as possible each time that some risk for internal contamination, with uranium, and dithiothreitol is administered 30 minutes after uranium contamination, there ameliorates the course of uranyl nitrate-induced acute renal failure.and this effect is assocciated with prevention of uranium (heavy metal)-induced alterations in BUN, serum creatinine, urine creatinine, fluid intake, urine volume and body weight.

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Recent Progress in Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Research: A Review of Papers Published in the Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering in 2014 (설비공학 분야의 최근 연구 동향: 2014년 학회지 논문에 대한 종합적 고찰)

  • Lee, Dae-Young;Kim, Sa Ryang;Kim, Hyun-Jung;Kim, Dong-Seon;Park, Jun-Seok;Ihm, Pyeong Chan
    • Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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    • v.27 no.7
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    • pp.380-394
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    • 2015
  • This article reviews the papers published in the Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering during 2014. It is intended to understand the status of current research in the areas of heating, cooling, ventilation, sanitation, and indoor environments of buildings and plant facilities. Conclusions are as follows. (1) The research works on the thermal and fluid engineering have been reviewed as groups of heat and mass transfer, cooling and heating, and air-conditioning, the flow inside building rooms, and smoke control on fire. Research issues dealing with duct and pipe were reduced, but flows inside building rooms, and smoke controls were newly added in thermal and fluid engineering research area. (2) Research works on heat transfer area have been reviewed in the categories of heat transfer characteristics, pool boiling and condensing heat transfer and industrial heat exchangers. Researches on heat transfer characteristics included the results for thermal contact resistance measurement of metal interface, a fan coil with an oval-type heat exchanger, fouling characteristics of plate heat exchangers, effect of rib pitch in a two wall divergent channel, semi-empirical analysis in vertical mesoscale tubes, an integrated drying machine, microscale surface wrinkles, brazed plate heat exchangers, numerical analysis in printed circuit heat exchanger. In the area of pool boiling and condensing, non-uniform air flow, PCM applied thermal storage wall system, a new wavy cylindrical shape capsule, and HFC32/HFC152a mixtures on enhanced tubes, were actively studied. In the area of industrial heat exchangers, researches on solar water storage tank, effective design on the inserting part of refrigerator door gasket, impact of different boundary conditions in generating g-function, various construction of SCW type ground heat exchanger and a heat pump for closed cooling water heat recovery were performed. (3) In the field of refrigeration, various studies were carried out in the categories of refrigeration cycle, alternative refrigeration and modelling and controls including energy recoveries from industrial boilers and vehicles, improvement of dehumidification systems, novel defrost systems, fault diagnosis and optimum controls for heat pump systems. It is particularly notable that a substantial number of studies were dedicated for the development of air-conditioning and power recovery systems for electric vehicles in this year. (4) In building mechanical system research fields, seventeen studies were reported for achieving effective design of the mechanical systems, and also for maximizing the energy efficiency of buildings. The topics of the studies included energy performance, HVAC system, ventilation, and renewable energies, piping in the buildings. Proposed designs, performance performance tests using numerical methods and experiments provide useful information and key data which can improve the energy efficiency of the buildings. (5) The field of architectural environment was mostly focused on indoor environment and building energy. The main researches of indoor environment were related to the evaluation of work noise in tunnel construction and the simulation and development of a light-shelf system. The subjects of building energy were worked on the energy saving of office building applied with window blind and phase change material(PCM), a method of existing building energy simulation using energy audit data, the estimation of thermal consumption unit of apartment building and its case studies, dynamic window performance, a writing method of energy consumption report and energy estimation of apartment building using district heating system. The remained studies were related to the improvement of architectural engineering education system for plant engineering industry, estimating cooling and heating degree days for variable base temperature, a prediction method of underground temperature, the comfort control algorithm of car air conditioner, the smoke control performance evaluation of high-rise building, evaluation of thermal energy systems of bio safety laboratory and a development of measuring device of solar heat gain coefficient of fenestration system.

A Meta Analysis of Using Structural Equation Model on the Korean MIS Research (국내 MIS 연구에서 구조방정식모형 활용에 관한 메타분석)

  • Kim, Jong-Ki;Jeon, Jin-Hwan
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.19 no.4
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    • pp.47-75
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    • 2009
  • Recently, researches on Management Information Systems (MIS) have laid out theoretical foundation and academic paradigms by introducing diverse theories, themes, and methodologies. Especially, academic paradigms of MIS encourage a user-friendly approach by developing the technologies from the users' perspectives, which reflects the existence of strong causal relationships between information systems and user's behavior. As in other areas in social science the use of structural equation modeling (SEM) has rapidly increased in recent years especially in the MIS area. The SEM technique is important because it provides powerful ways to address key IS research problems. It also has a unique ability to simultaneously examine a series of casual relationships while analyzing multiple independent and dependent variables all at the same time. In spite of providing many benefits to the MIS researchers, there are some potential pitfalls with the analytical technique. The research objective of this study is to provide some guidelines for an appropriate use of SEM based on the assessment of current practice of using SEM in the MIS research. This study focuses on several statistical issues related to the use of SEM in the MIS research. Selected articles are assessed in three parts through the meta analysis. The first part is related to the initial specification of theoretical model of interest. The second is about data screening prior to model estimation and testing. And the last part concerns estimation and testing of theoretical models based on empirical data. This study reviewed the use of SEM in 164 empirical research articles published in four major MIS journals in Korea (APJIS, ISR, JIS and JITAM) from 1991 to 2007. APJIS, ISR, JIS and JITAM accounted for 73, 17, 58, and 16 of the total number of applications, respectively. The number of published applications has been increased over time. LISREL was the most frequently used SEM software among MIS researchers (97 studies (59.15%)), followed by AMOS (45 studies (27.44%)). In the first part, regarding issues related to the initial specification of theoretical model of interest, all of the studies have used cross-sectional data. The studies that use cross-sectional data may be able to better explain their structural model as a set of relationships. Most of SEM studies, meanwhile, have employed. confirmatory-type analysis (146 articles (89%)). For the model specification issue about model formulation, 159 (96.9%) of the studies were the full structural equation model. For only 5 researches, SEM was used for the measurement model with a set of observed variables. The average sample size for all models was 365.41, with some models retaining a sample as small as 50 and as large as 500. The second part of the issue is related to data screening prior to model estimation and testing. Data screening is important for researchers particularly in defining how they deal with missing values. Overall, discussion of data screening was reported in 118 (71.95%) of the studies while there was no study discussing evidence of multivariate normality for the models. On the third part, issues related to the estimation and testing of theoretical models on empirical data, assessing model fit is one of most important issues because it provides adequate statistical power for research models. There were multiple fit indices used in the SEM applications. The test was reported in the most of studies (146 (89%)), whereas normed-test was reported less frequently (65 studies (39.64%)). It is important that normed- of 3 or lower is required for adequate model fit. The most popular model fit indices were GFI (109 (66.46%)), AGFI (84 (51.22%)), NFI (44 (47.56%)), RMR (42 (25.61%)), CFI (59 (35.98%)), RMSEA (62 (37.80)), and NNFI (48 (29.27%)). Regarding the test of construct validity, convergent validity has been examined in 109 studies (66.46%) and discriminant validity in 98 (59.76%). 81 studies (49.39%) have reported the average variance extracted (AVE). However, there was little discussion of direct (47 (28.66%)), indirect, and total effect in the SEM models. Based on these findings, we suggest general guidelines for the use of SEM and propose some recommendations on concerning issues of latent variables models, raw data, sample size, data screening, reporting parameter estimated, model fit statistics, multivariate normality, confirmatory factor analysis, reliabilities and the decomposition of effects.

Influences of Firm Characteristics and the Host Country Environment on the Degree of Foreign Market Involvement (기업특성과 호스트국가 환경이 해외시장 관여도에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구)

  • Maktoba, Omar;Nwankwo, Sonny
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.19 no.2
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    • pp.5-16
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    • 2009
  • Against the backdrop of the increasing trend towards economic globalisation, many international firms are indicating that decisions on how to enter foreign markets remains one of the key strategic challenges confronting them. Despite the rich body of literature on the topic, the fact that these challenges have continued to dominate global marketing strategy discourses point to someevident lacunae. Accordingly, this paper considers the variables, categorised in terms of firm contexts (standardisation, market research, competition, structure, competitive advantage) and host country-contexts (economic development, cultural differences, regulation and political risk), which influence the degree of involvement of UK companies in overseas markets. Following hypotheses were drawn from literature review: H1: The greater the level of competition, the higher the degree of involvement in the overseas market. H2: The more centralised the firm's organisation structure, the higher the degree of involvement in the overseas market. H3a: The adoption of a low cost-approach to competitive advantage will lead to a higher degree of involvement. H3b: The adoption of an innovation-approach to competitive advantage will lead to a higher degree of involvement. H3c: The adoption of a market research approach to competitive advantages will lead to a higher degree of involvement. H3d: The adoption of a breadth of strategic target-approach to competitive advantage will lead to a lower degree of involvement. H4: The higher the degree of standardisation of the international marketing mix the higher the degree of involvement. H5: The greater the degree of economic development in the host market, the higher the degree of involvement. H6: The greater the cultural differences between home and host countries, the lower the degree of involvement. H7: The greater the difference in regulations between the home country and the host country, the lower the degree of involvement. H8: The higher the political risk in the host country, the lower the degree of involvement. A questionnaire instrument was constructed using, wherever possible, validated measures of the concepts to serve the aims of this study. Following two sets of mailings, 112 usable completed questionnaires were returned. Correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis were used to analyze data. Statistically, the paper suggests that factors relating to the level of competition, competitive advantages and economic development are strong in influencing foreign market involvements. On the other hand, unexpectedly, cultural factors (especially individualism/collectivism and low and high power distance dimensions) proved to have weak moderating effects. The reason for this, in part, is due to the pervading forces of globalisation and the attendant effect on global marketing. This paper has contributed to the general literature in a way that point to two mainimplications. First, with respect to research on national systems, the study may hold out some important lessons especially for developing nations. Most of these nations are known to be actively seeking to understand what it takes to attract foreign direct investment, expand domestic market and move their economies from the margin to the mainstream global economy. Second, it should be realised that competitive conditions remain in constant flux (even in mature industries and mature economies). This implies that a range of home country factors may be as important as host country factors in explaining firms' strategic moves and the degree of foreign market involvement. Further research can consider the impact of the home country environment on foreign market involvement decisions. Such an investigation will potentially provide further perspectives not only on the influence of national origin but also how home country effects are confounded with industry effects.

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