• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.5-16
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• 2009

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities have been shown to be potential factors that can improve corporate image and increase the ability of corporations to compete. However, most previous studies related to CSR activities investigated how these activities influence product and corporate evaluation, as well as corporate image. In addition, some researchers treated consumers' perceptions of corporate motives as moderator variables in evaluating the relationship between corporate social responsibilities and consumer response. However, motive-based theories have some weaknesses. Corporate social responsibility activities cause two motives(egoistic vs. altruistic) for consumers, but recently, Vlachos et al. (2008) argued that these motives should be segmented. Thus, it is possible to transform the original theory into a modified theory model (persuasion knowledge model, PKM). Vlachos et al. (2008) segmented corporate social responsibility motives into four types and compared the effects of these motives on customer loyalty. Prior studies have proved that CSR activities with positive motives have positive influences on customer loyalty. However, the psychological reasons underlying this finding have not been determined empirically. Thus, the objectives of this research are twofold. First, we attempt to determine why most customers favor companies that they feel have positive motives for their corporate social responsibility activities. Second, we attempt to measure the effects of consumers' reciprocity when society benefits from corporate social responsibility activities. The following research hypotheses are constructed. H1: Values-driven motives for corporate social responsibility activities have a positive influence on the perceived reciprocity. H2: Stakeholder-driven motives for corporate social responsibility activities have a negative influence on the perceived reciprocity. H3: Egoistic-driven motives for corporate social responsibility activities have a negative influence on perceived reciprocity. H4: Strategic-driven motives for corporate social responsibility activities have a negative influence on perceived reciprocity. H5: Perceived reciprocity for corporate social responsibility activities has a positive influence on consumer loyalty. A single company is selected as a research subject to understand how the motives behind corporate social responsibility influence consumers' perceived reciprocity and customer loyalty. A total sample of 200 respondents was selected for a pilot test. In addition, to ensure a consistent response, we ensured that the respondents were older than 20 years of age. The surveys of 172 respondents (males-82, females-90) were analyzed after 28 invalid questionnaires were excluded. Based on our cutoff criteria, the model fit the data reasonably well. Values-driven motives for corporate social responsibility activities had a positive effect on perceived reciprocity (t = 6.75, p < .001), supporting H1. Morales (2005) also found that consumers appreciate a company's social responsibility efforts and the benefits provided by these efforts to society. Stakeholder-driven motives for corporate social responsibility activities did not affect perceived reciprocity (t = -.049, p > .05). Thus, H2 was rejected. Egoistic-driven motives (t = .3.11, p < .05) and strategic-driven (t = -4.65, p < .05) motives had a negative influence on perceived reciprocity, supporting H3 and H4, respectively. Furthermore, perceived reciprocity had a positive influence on consumer loyalty (t = 4.24, p < .05), supporting H5. Thus, compared with the general public, undergraduate students appear to be more influenced by egoistic-driven motives. We draw the following conclusions from our research findings. First, value-driven attributions have a positive influence on perceived reciprocity. However, stakeholder-driven attributions have no significant effects on perceived reciprocity. Moreover, both egoistic-driven attributions and strategic-driven attributions have a negative influence on perceived reciprocity. Second, when corporate social responsibility activities align with consumers' reciprocity, the efforts directed towards social responsibility activities have a positive influence on customer loyalty. In this study, we examine whether the type of motivation affects consumer responses to CSR, and in particular, we evaluate how CSR motives can influence a key internal factor (perceived reciprocity) and behavioral consumer outcome (customer loyalty). We demonstrate that perceived reciprocity plays a mediating role in the relationship between CSR motivation and customer loyalty. Our study extends the research on consumer CSR-inferred motivations, positing them as a direct indicator of consumer responses. Furthermore, we convincingly identify perceived reciprocity as a sub-process mediating the effect of CSR attributions on customer loyalty. Future research investigating the ultimate behavior and financial impact of CSR should consider that the impacts of CSR also stem from perceived reciprocity. The results of this study also have important managerial implications. First, the central role that reciprocity plays indicates that managers should routinely measure how much their socially responsible actions create perceived reciprocity. Second, understanding how consumers' perceptions of CSR corporate motives relate to perceived reciprocity and customer loyalty can help managers to monitor and enhance these consumer outcomes through marketing initiatives and management of CSR-induced attribution processes. The results of this study will help corporations to understand the relative importance of the four different motivations types in influencing perceived reciprocity.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.497-509
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• 2002

Background : The mechanisms through which cellular activation results in intracellular mycobacterial killing is only partially understood. However, in vitro studies of human immunity to Mycobacterium tuberculosis have been largely modeled on the work reported by Crowle, which is complicated by several factors. The whole blood culture is simple and allows the simultaneous analysis of the relationship between bacterial killing and the effect of effector cells and humoral factors. In this study, we attempted to determine the extent to which M. tuberculosis is killed in a human whole blood culture and to explore the role of the host and microbial factor in this process. Methods : The PPD positive subject were compared to the umbilical cord blood and patients with tuberculosis, diabetes and lung cancer. The culture is performed using heparinized whole blood diluted with a culture medium and infected with a low number of M. avium or M. tuberculosis $H_{37}Ra$ for 4 days by rotating the culture in a $37^{\circ}C$, 5% $CO_2$ incubator. In some experiments, methlprednisolone- or pentoxifyline were used to inhibit the immune response. To assess the role of the T-cell subsets, CD4+, CD8+ T-cells or both were removed from the blood using magnetic beads. The ${\Delta}$ log killing ratio was defined using a CFU assay as the difference in the log number of viable organisms in the completed culture compared to the inoculum. Results : 1. A trend was noted toward the improved killing of mycobacteria in PPD+ subjects comparing to the umbilical cord blood but there was no specific difference in the patients with tuberculosis, diabetes and lung cancer. 2. Methylprednisolone and pentoxifyline adversely affected the killing in the PPD+ subjects umbilical cord blood and patients with tuberculosis. 3. The deletion of CD4+ or CD8+ T-lymphocytes adversely affected the killing of M. avium and M. tuberculosis $H_{37}Ra$ by PPD+ subjects. Deletion of both cell types had an additive effect, particularly in M. tuberculosis $H_{37}Ra$. 4. A significantly improved mycobacterial killing was noted after chemotherapy in patients with tuberculosis and the ${\Delta}$ logKR continuously decreased in a 3 and 4 days of whole blood culture. Conclusion : The in vitro bactericidal assay by human whole blood culture model was settled using a CFU assay. However, the host immunity to M. tuberculosis was not apparent in the human whole blood culture bactericidal assay, and patients with tuberculosis showed markedly improved bacterial killing after anti-tuberculous chemotherapy compared to before. The simplicity of a whole blood culture facilitates its inclusion in a clinical trial and it may have a potential role as a surrogate marker in a TB vaccine trial.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.177-198
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• 2018

Recently, as economic property it has become necessary to acquire and utilize the framework for water resource measurement and performance management as the property of water resources changes to hold "public property". To date, the evaluation of water technology has been carried out by feasibility study analysis or technology assessment based on net present value (NPV) or benefit-to-cost (B/C) effect, however it is not yet systemized in terms of valuation models to objectively assess an economic value of technology-based business to receive diffusion and feedback of research outcomes. Therefore, K-water (known as a government-supported public company in Korea) company feels the necessity to establish a technology valuation framework suitable for technical characteristics of water resources fields in charge and verify an exemplified case applied to the technology. The K-water evaluation technology applied to this study, as a public interest goods, can be used as a tool to measure the value and achievement contributed to society and to manage them. Therefore, by calculating the value in which the subject technology contributed to the entire society as a public resource, we make use of it as a basis information for the advertising medium of performance on the influence effect of the benefits or the necessity of cost input, and then secure the legitimacy for large-scale R&D cost input in terms of the characteristics of public technology. Hence, K-water company, one of the public corporation in Korea which deals with public goods of 'water resources', will be able to establish a commercialization strategy for business operation and prepare for a basis for the performance calculation of input R&D cost. In this study, K-water has developed a web-based technology valuation model for public interest type water resources based on the technology evaluation system that is suitable for the characteristics of a technology in water resources fields. In particular, by utilizing the evaluation methodology of the Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in Japan to match the expense items to the expense accounts based on the related benefit items, we proposed the so-called 'K-water's proprietary model' which involves the 'cost-benefit' approach and the FCF (Free Cash Flow), and ultimately led to build a pipeline on the K-water research performance management system and then verify the practical case of a technology related to "desalination". We analyze the embedded design logic and evaluation process of web-based valuation system that reflects characteristics of water resources technology, reference information and database(D/B)-associated logic for each model to calculate public interest-based and profit-based technology values in technology integrated management system. We review the hybrid evaluation module that reflects the quantitative index of the qualitative evaluation indices reflecting the unique characteristics of water resources and the visualized user-interface (UI) of the actual web-based evaluation, which both are appended for calculating the business value based on financial data to the existing web-based technology valuation systems in other fields. K-water's technology valuation model is evaluated by distinguishing between public-interest type and profitable-type water technology. First, evaluation modules in profit-type technology valuation model are designed based on 'profitability of technology'. For example, the technology inventory K-water holds has a number of profit-oriented technologies such as water treatment membranes. On the other hand, the public interest-type technology valuation is designed to evaluate the public-interest oriented technology such as the dam, which reflects the characteristics of public benefits and costs. In order to examine the appropriateness of the cost-benefit based public utility valuation model (i.e. K-water specific technology valuation model) presented in this study, we applied to practical cases from calculation of benefit-to-cost analysis on water resource technology with 20 years of lifetime. In future we will additionally conduct verifying the K-water public utility-based valuation model by each business model which reflects various business environmental characteristics.

• Journal of Science of Art and Design
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• v.7
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• pp.64-104
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• 2005

Visual media transmits image and information reproduced in large quantities, such as a photography, film, television, video, advertisement, or computer image. Correspondence to the students' reception and recognition of culture in the future. arrangements for the field of studies of visual culture. 'Visual Culture' implies cultural phenomena of visual images via visual media, which includes not only the categories of traditional arts like a painting, sculpture, print, or design, but the performance arts including a fashion show or parade of carnival, and the mass and electronic media like a photography, film, television, video, advertisement, cartoon, animation, or computer image. In the world of visual media, Image' functions as an essential medium of communication. Therefore, people call the culture of today fra of Image Culture', which has been converted from an alphabet convergence era to an image convergence one. Image, via visual media, has become a dominant means for communication in large part of human life, so we can designate an Image' as a typical aspect of visual culture today. Image, as an essential medium of communication, plays an important role in contemporary society. The one way is the conversion of analogue image like an actual picture, photograph, or film into digital one through the digitalization of digital camera or scanner as 'an analogue/digital commutator'. The other is a way of process with a computer drawing, or modeling of objects. It is appropriate to the production of pictorial and surreal images. Digital images, produced by the other, can be divided into the form of Pixel' and form of Vector'. Vector is a line linking the point of departure to the point of end, which organizes informations. Computer stores each line's standard location and correlative locations to one another Digital image shows for more 'Perfectness' than any other visual media. Digital image has been evolving in the diverse aspects, such as a production of geometrical or organic image compositing, interactive art, multimedia art, or web art, which has been applied a computer as an extended trot of painting. Someone often interprets digitalized copy with endless reproduction of original even as an extension of a print. Visual af is no longer a simple activity of representation by a painter or sculptor, but now is intimately associated with a matter of application of media. There is some problem in images via visual media. First, the image via media doesn't reflect a reality as it is, but reflects an artificial manipulated world, that is, a virtual reality. Second, the introduction of digital effect and the development of image processing technology have enhanced a spectacle of destructive and violent scenes. Third, a child intends to recognize the interactive images of computer game and virtual reality as a reality, or truth. Education needs not only to point out an ill effect of mass media and prevent the younger generation from being damaged by it, but also to offer a knowledge and know-how to cope actively with social, cultural circumstances. Visual media education is one of these essential methods for the contemporary and future human being in the overflowing of image informations. The fosterage of 'Visual Literacy' can be considered as a very purpose of visual media education. This is a way to lead an individual to the discerning, active consumer and producer of visual media in life as far as possible. The elements of 'Visual Literacy' can be divided into a faculty of recognition related to the visual media, a faculty of critical reception, a faculty of appropriate application, a faculty of active work and a faculty of creative modeling, which are promoted at the same time by the education of 'visual literacy'. In conclusion, the education of 'Visual Literacy' guides students to comprehend and discriminate the visual image media carefully, or receive them critically, apply them properly, or produce them creatively and voluntarily. Moreover, it leads to an artistic activity by means of new media. This education can be approached and enhanced by the connection and integration with real life. Visual arts and education of them play an important role in the digital era depended on visual communications via image information. Visual me야a of day functions as an essential element both in daily life and in arts. Students can soundly understand visual phenomena of today by means of visual media, and apply it as an expression tool of life culture as well. A new recognition and valuation visual image and media education is required to cultivate the capability of active, upright dealing with the changes of history of civilization. 1) Visual media education helps to cultivate a sensibility for images, which reacts to and deals with the circumstances. 2) It helps students to comprehend the contemporary arts and culture via new media. 3) It supplies a chance of students' experiencing a visual modeling by means of new media. 4) There are educational opportunities of images with temporality and spaciality, and therefore a discerning person becomes to increase. 5) The modeling activity via new media leads students to be continuously interested in the school and production of plastic arts. 6) It raises the ability of visual communications dealing with image information society. 7) An education of digital image is significant in respect of cultivation of man of talent for the future society of image information as well. To correspond to the changing and developing social, cultural circumstances, and the form and recognition of students' reception of them, visual arts education must arrange the field of studying on a new visual culture. Besides, a program needs to be developed, which is in more systematic and active level in relation to visual media education. Educational contents should be extended to the media for visual images, that is, photography, film, television, video, computer graphic, animation, music video, computer game and multimedia. Every media must be separately approached, because they maintain the modes and peculiarities of their own according to the conveyance form of message. The concrete and systematic method of teaching and the quality of education must be researched and developed, centering around the development of a course of study. Teacher's foundational capability of teaching should be cultivated for the visual media education. In this case, it must be paid attention to the fact that a technological level of media is considered as a secondary. Because school education doesn't intend to train expert and skillful producers, but intends to lay stress on the essential aesthetic one with visual media under the social and cultural context, in respect of a consumer including a man of culture.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.81-86
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• 2007

The cone-beam CT (CBCT) which is acquired using on-board imager (OBI) attached to a linear accelerator is widely used for the image guided radiation therapy. In this study, the effect of respiratory motion on the quality of CBCT image was evaluated. A phantom system was constructed in order to simulate respiratory motion. One part of the system is composed of a moving plate and a motor driving component which can control the motional cycle and motional range. The other part is solid water phantom containing a small cubic phantom ($2{\times}2{\times}2cm^3$) surrounded by air which simulate a small tumor volume in the lung air cavity CBCT images of the phantom were acquired in 20 different cases and compared with the image in the static status. The 20 different cases are constituted with 4 different motional ranges (0.7 cm, 1.6 cm, 2.4 cm, 3.1 cm) and 5 different motional cycles (2, 3, 4, 5, 6 sec). The difference of CT number in the coronal image was evaluated as a deformation degree of image quality. The relative average pixel intensity values as a compared CT number of static CBCT image were 71.07% at 0.7 cm motional range, 48.88% at 1.6 cm motional range, 30.60% at 2.4 cm motional range, 17.38% at 3.1 cm motional range The tumor phantom sizes which were defined as the length with different CT number compared with air were increased as the increase of motional range (2.1 cm: no motion, 2.66 cm: 0.7 cm motion, 3.06 cm: 1.6 cm motion, 3.62 cm: 2.4 cm motion, 4.04 cm: 3.1 cm motion). This study shows that respiratory motion in the region of inhomogeneous structures can degrade the image quality of CBCT and it must be considered in the process of setup error correction using CBCT images.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.421-429
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• 2003

Purpose : Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is commonly used to treat cancer patients as adjunct treatment, but if the microvascular tissue transfer is performed simulataneously with cancer resection surgery, the induction chemotherapy might affect the survival rate of vascularized free flap. Our study will focus on the effect of induction chemotherapy on the free flaps which were made on white rat abdomen after injection of 5-FU. Materials and Methods: The experimental rat groups were divided into three groups (total 24 rats) as a normal control group, 24 hrs group after 5-FU injection, 3 days group after 5-FU injection. Inferior abdominal island flaps of 8 Sprague Dawley rats on each group were made and immediately were induced into an ischemic state by clamping the supplying inferior epigastric artery and vein with microvascular clamp for a hour to induce a similiar free flap circumstance, then the inferior abdominal skin flaps were reperfused by releasing the clamps. The flaps on abdomen were repositioned and sutured. The experimental data for flap survival rate was collected by digital photo taking, analysed by computer image program to compare with the flap luminosity. The rats were sacrificed at 3 days, 5 days, 7 days after flap preparation and specimens of the flap were taken and stained with H-E staining. The microscopic finding was made under magnification of 200 and 400. Results: 1. Gross findings on each groups showed the healing condition was good as following sequences; normal, 24 hrs group after chemotherapy, 3 days group after chemotherpy. 2. The values of flap luminosity for evaluation of flap survival rate also showed the same sequences as gross findings of healing state. 3. The microscopic findings of epidermis necrosis, inflammation state, dermis fibrosis, vessel change, fatty tissue layer thinning were compared with each group. The 3 days group after chemotherapy showed remarkably poor healing condition compared to other groups. Conclusion: Chemotherapy agents affected the healing process of free flap, but healing condition was recovered spontaneously as post-injection periods passed out. In opposite to our expectation, 3 days group showed the bad flap condition in comparing with 24 hours group which was considered as immatured body circulation state of chemotherapy agent. It showed that 3 weeks in human being after chemotherapy was not proper as timing of microvascular tissue transfer if 3 days group in rat was considered as same healing period of 3 weeks in human being. More delayed healing timing than 3 weeks might be required in clinical application of free tissue transfer.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.71-103
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• 2009

Considering the expenditure size of public institutions centering on public enterprises, about 28% of Korea's GDP in 2007, public institutions have significant influence on the Korean economy. However, still in the new government, there are voices of criticism about the need of constant reform on public enterprises due to their irresponsible management impeding national competitiveness. Especially, political controversy over appointment of executives such as CEOs of public enterprises has caused the distrust of the people. As one of various reform measures for public enterprises, this study analyzes the effect of internal governance structure of public enterprises on their managerial performance, since, regardless of privatization of public enterprises, improving the governance structure of public enterprises is a matter of great importance. There are only a few prior researches focusing on the governance structure and managerial performance of public enterprises compared to those of private enterprises. Most of prior researches studied the relationship between parachuting employment of CEO and managerial performance, and concluded that parachuting produces negative effect on managerial performance. However, different from the results of such researches, recent studies suggest that there is no relationship between employment type of CEOs and managerial performance in public enterprises. This study is distinguished from prior researches in view of following. First, prior researches focused on the relationship between employment type of public enterprises' CEOs and managerial performance. However, in addition to this, this study analyzes the relationship of internal auditors and managerial performance. Second, unlike prior researches studying the relationship between employment type of public corporations' CEOs and managerial performance with an emphasis on parachuting employment, this study researches impact of employment type as well as expertise of CEOs and internal auditors on managerial performance. Third, prior researchers mainly used non-financial indicators from various samples. However, this study eliminated subjectivity of researchers by analyzing public enterprises designated by the government and their financial statements, which were externally audited and inspected. In this study, regression analysis is applied in analyzing the relationship of independence and expertise of public enterprises' CEOs and internal auditors and managerial performance in the same year. Financial information from 2003 to 2007 of 24 public enterprises, which are designated by the government, and their personnel information from the board of directors are used as samples. Independence of CEOs is identified by dividing CEOs into persons from the same public enterprise and persons from other organization, and independence of internal auditors is determined by classifying them into two groups, people from academic field, economic world, and civic groups, and people from political community, government ministries, and military. Also, expertise of CEOs and internal auditors is divided into business expertise and financial expertise. As control variables, this study applied foundation year, asset size, government subsidies as a proportion to corporate earnings, and dummy variables by year. Analysis showed that there is significantly positive relationship between independence and financial expertise of internal auditors and managerial performance. In addition, although business expertise and financial expertise of CEOs were not statistically significant, they have positive relationship with managerial performance. However, unlike a general idea, independence of CEOs is not statistically significant, but it is negatively related to managerial performance. Contrary to general concerns, it seems that the impact of independence of public enterprises' CEOs on managerial performance has slightly decreased. Instead, it explains that expertise of public enterprises' CEOs and internal auditors plays more important role in managerial performance rather than their independence. Meanwhile, there are limitations in this study as follows. First, in contrast to private enterprises, public enterprises simultaneously pursue publicness and entrepreneurship. However, this study focuses on entrepreneurship, excluding considerations on publicness of public enterprises. Second, public enterprises in this study are limited to those in the central government. Accordingly, it should be carefully considered when the result of this study is applied to public enterprises in local governments. Finally, this study excludes factors related to transparency and democracy issues which are raised in appointment process of executives of public enterprises, as it may cause the issue of subjectivity of researchers.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.262-268
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• 2010

Virtual communities (VCs) have developed rapidly, with more and more people participating in them to exchange information and opinions. A virtual community is a group of people who may or may not meet one another face to face, and who exchange words and ideas through the mediation of computer bulletin boards and networks. A business-to-consumer virtual community (B2CVC) is a commercial group that creates a trustworthy environment intended to motivate consumers to be more willing to buy from an online store. B2CVCs create a social atmosphere through information contribution such as recommendations, reviews, and ratings of buyers and sellers. Although the importance of B2CVCs has been recognized, few studies have been conducted to examine members' word-of-mouth behavior within these communities. This study proposes a model of involvement, statistics, trust, "stickiness," and word-of-mouth in a B2CVC and explores the relationships among these elements based on empirical data. The objectives are threefold: (i) to empirically test a B2CVC model that integrates measures of beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors; (ii) to better understand the nature of these relationships, specifically through word-of-mouth as a measure of revenue generation; and (iii) to better understand the role of stickiness of B2CVC in CRM marketing. The model incorporates three key elements concerning community members: (i) their beliefs, measured in terms of their involvement assessment; (ii) their attitudes, measured in terms of their satisfaction and trust; and, (iii) their behavior, measured in terms of site stickiness and their word-of-mouth. Involvement is considered the motivation for consumers to participate in a virtual community. For B2CVC members, information searching and posting have been proposed as the main purpose for their involvement. Satisfaction has been reviewed as an important indicator of a member's overall community evaluation, and conceptualized by different levels of member interactions with their VC. The formation and expansion of a VC depends on the willingness of members to share information and services. Researchers have found that trust is a core component facilitating the anonymous interaction in VCs and e-commerce, and therefore trust-building in VCs has been a common research topic. It is clear that the success of a B2CVC depends on the stickiness of its members to enhance purchasing potential. Opinions communicated and information exchanged between members may represent a type of written word-of-mouth. Therefore, word-of-mouth is one of the primary factors driving the diffusion of B2CVCs across the Internet. Figure 1 presents the research model and hypotheses. The model was tested through the implementation of an online survey of CTrip Travel VC members. A total of 243 collected questionnaires was reduced to 204 usable questionnaires through an empirical process of data cleaning. The study's hypotheses examined the extent to which involvement, satisfaction, and trust influence B2CVC stickiness and members' word-of-mouth. Structural Equation Modeling tested the hypotheses in the analysis, and the structural model fit indices were within accepted thresholds: ${\chi}^2^$/df was 2.76, NFI was .904, IFI was .931, CFI was .930, and RMSEA was .017. Results indicated that involvement has a significant influence on satisfaction (p<0.001, ${\beta}$=0.809). The proportion of variance in satisfaction explained by members' involvement was over half (adjusted $R^2$=0.654), reflecting a strong association. The effect of involvement on trust was also statistically significant (p<0.001, ${\beta}$=0.751), with 57 percent of the variance in trust explained by involvement (adjusted $R^2$=0.563). When the construct "stickiness" was treated as a dependent variable, the proportion of variance explained by the variables of trust and satisfaction was relatively low (adjusted $R^2$=0.331). Satisfaction did have a significant influence on stickiness, with ${\beta}$=0.514. However, unexpectedly, the influence of trust was not even significant (p=0.231, t=1.197), rejecting that proposed hypothesis. The importance of stickiness in the model was more significant because of its effect on e-WOM with ${\beta}$=0.920 (p<0.001). Here, the measures of Stickiness explain over eighty of the variance in e-WOM (Adjusted $R^2$=0.846). Overall, the results of the study supported the hypothesized relationships between members' involvement in a B2CVC and their satisfaction with and trust of it. However, trust, as a traditional measure in behavioral models, has no significant influence on stickiness in the B2CVC environment. This study contributes to the growing body of literature on B2CVCs, specifically addressing gaps in the academic research by integrating measures of beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors in one model. The results provide additional insights to behavioral factors in a B2CVC environment, helping to sort out relationships between traditional measures and relatively new measures. For practitioners, the identification of factors, such as member involvement, that strongly influence B2CVC member satisfaction can help focus technological resources in key areas. Global e-marketers can develop marketing strategies directly targeting B2CVC members. In the global tourism business, they can target Chinese members of a B2CVC by providing special discounts for active community members or developing early adopter programs to encourage stickiness in the community. Future studies are called for, and more sophisticated modeling, to expand the measurement of B2CVC member behavior and to conduct experiments across industries, communities, and cultures.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.27-42
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• 2020

Traditional companies with offline stores were unable to secure large display space due to the problems of cost. This limitation inevitably allowed limited kinds of products to be displayed on the shelves, which resulted in consumers being deprived of the opportunity to experience various items. Taking advantage of the virtual space called the Internet, online shopping goes beyond the limits of limitations in physical space of offline shopping and is now able to display numerous products on web pages that can satisfy consumers with a variety of needs. Paradoxically, however, this can also cause consumers to experience the difficulty of comparing and evaluating too many alternatives in their purchase decision-making process. As an effort to address this side effect, various kinds of consumer's purchase decision support systems have been studied, such as keyword-based item search service and recommender systems. These systems can reduce search time for items, prevent consumer from leaving while browsing, and contribute to the seller's increased sales. Among those systems, recommender systems based on association rule mining techniques can effectively detect interrelated products from transaction data such as orders. The association between products obtained by statistical analysis provides clues to predicting how interested consumers will be in another product. However, since its algorithm is based on the number of transactions, products not sold enough so far in the early days of launch may not be included in the list of recommendations even though they are highly likely to be sold. Such missing items may not have sufficient opportunities to be exposed to consumers to record sufficient sales, and then fall into a vicious cycle of a vicious cycle of declining sales and omission in the recommendation list. This situation is an inevitable outcome in situations in which recommendations are made based on past transaction histories, rather than on determining potential future sales possibilities. This study started with the idea that reflecting the means by which this potential possibility can be identified indirectly would help to select highly recommended products. In the light of the fact that the attributes of a product affect the consumer's purchasing decisions, this study was conducted to reflect them in the recommender systems. In other words, consumers who visit a product page have shown interest in the attributes of the product and would be also interested in other products with the same attributes. On such assumption, based on these attributes, the recommender system can select recommended products that can show a higher acceptance rate. Given that a category is one of the main attributes of a product, it can be a good indicator of not only direct associations between two items but also potential associations that have yet to be revealed. Based on this idea, the study devised a recommender system that reflects not only associations between products but also categories. Through regression analysis, two kinds of associations were combined to form a model that could predict the hit rate of recommendation. To evaluate the performance of the proposed model, another regression model was also developed based only on associations between products. Comparative experiments were designed to be similar to the environment in which products are actually recommended in online shopping malls. First, the association rules for all possible combinations of antecedent and consequent items were generated from the order data. Then, hit rates for each of the associated rules were predicted from the support and confidence that are calculated by each of the models. The comparative experiments using order data collected from an online shopping mall show that the recommendation accuracy can be improved by further reflecting not only the association between products but also categories in the recommendation of related products. The proposed model showed a 2 to 3 percent improvement in hit rates compared to the existing model. From a practical point of view, it is expected to have a positive effect on improving consumers' purchasing satisfaction and increasing sellers' sales.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.361-373
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• 2015

This study was carried out to evaluate the antioxidant and antibacterial activities of Glycyrriza uralensis Fisher (Jecheon, Korea) extracts obtained by various extraction conditions (85% ethanol, heating temperatures and times), and to establish the optimal extraction condition of G. uralensis for the application as cosmetic ingredients. The extracts obtained under different conditions were concentrated and made in the powdered (sample-1) and were the crude extract solutions without concentration (sample-2). The antioxidant effects were determined by free radical scavenging activity ($FSC_{50}$), ROS scavenging activity ($OSC_{50}$), and cellular protective effects. Antibacterial activity was determined by minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) on human skin flora. DPPH free radical scavenging activity of sample-1 ($100{\mu}g/mL$) was 10% higher in group extracted for 6 h than 12 h, but sample-2 didn't show any significant differences. The extraction yield extracted with same temperature for 12 h was 2.6 times higher than 6 h, but total flavonoid content was 1.1 times higher. These results indicated that total flavonoid content hardly increased with increasing extraction time. Free radical scavenging activity, ROS scavenging activity and cellular protective effects were not dependent on the yield of extraction, but total flavonoid content of extraction. Antibacterial activity on three skin flora (S. aureus, B. subtilis, P. acnes)of sample-1 in different extraction conditions were evaluated on same concentration, and the group extracted at 25 and $40^{\circ}C$ showed 16 times higher than methyl paraben ($2,500{\mu}g/mL$). In conclusion, 85% ethanol extracts of G. uralensis extracted at $40^{\circ}C$ for 6 h showed the highest antioxidant and antibacterial activity. These results indicate that the extraction condition is important to be optimized by comprehensive evaluation of extraction yield with various conditions, yield of active component, and activity test with concentrations, and activity of 100% extract, for manufacturing process of products.