• Title/Summary/Keyword: Product Data

Search Result 6,564, Processing Time 0.037 seconds

A Study on the Born Global Venture Corporation's Characteristics and Performance ('본글로벌(born global)전략'을 추구하는 벤처기업의 특성과 성과에 관한 연구)

  • Kim, Hyung-Jun;Jung, Duk-Hwa
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
    • /
    • v.17 no.3
    • /
    • pp.39-59
    • /
    • 2007
  • The international involvement of a firm has been described as a gradual development process "a process in which the enterprise gradually increases its international involvement in many studies. This process evolves in the interplay between the development of knowledge about foreign markets and operations on one hand and increasing commitment of resources to foreign markets on the other." On the basis of Uppsala internationalization model, many studies strengthen strong theoretical and empirical support. According to the predictions of the classic stages theory, the internationalization process of firms have been recognized and characterized gradual evolution to foreign markets, so called stage theory: indirect & direct export, strategic alliance and foreign direct investment. However, termed "international new ventures" (McDougall, Shane, and Oviatt 1994), "born globals" (Knight 1997; Knight and Cavusgil 1996; Madsen and Servais 1997), "instant internationals" (Preece, Miles, and Baetz 1999), or "global startups" (Oviatt and McDougall 1994) have been used and come into spotlight in internationalization study of technology intensity venture companies. Recent researches focused on venture company have suggested the phenomenons of 'born global' firms as a contradiction to the stages theory. Especially the article by Oviatt and McDougall threw the spotlight on international entrepreneurs, on international new ventures, and on their importance in the globalising world economy. Since venture companies have, by definition. lack of economies of scale, lack of resources (financial and knowledge), and aversion to risk taking, they have a difficulty in expanding their market to abroad and pursue internalization gradually and step by step. However many venture companies have pursued 'Born Global Strategy', which is different from process strategy, because corporate's environment has been rapidly changing to globalization. The existing studies investigate that (1) why the ventures enter into overseas market in those early stage, even in infancy, (2) what make the different international strategy among ventures and the born global strategy is better to the infant ventures. However, as for venture's performance(growth and profitability), the existing results do not correspond each other. They also, don't include marketing strategy (differentiation, low price, market breadth and market pioneer) that is important factors in studying of BGV's performance. In this paper I aim to delineate the appearance of international new ventures and the phenomenons of venture companies' internationalization strategy. In order to verify research problems, I develop a resource-based model and marketing strategies for analyzing the effects of the born global venture firms. In this paper, I suggested 3 research problems. First, do the korean venture companies take some advantages in the aspects of corporate's performances (growth, profitability and overall market performances) when they pursue internationalization from inception? Second, do the korean BGV have firm specific assets (foreign experiences, foreign orientation, organizational absorptive capacity)? Third, What are the marketing strategies of korean BGV and is it different from others? Under these problems, I test then (1) whether the BGV that a firm started its internationalization activity almost from inception, has more intangible resources(foreign experience of corporate members, foreign orientation, technological competences and absorptive capacity) than any other venture firms(Non_BGV) and (2) also whether the BGV's marketing strategies-differentiation, low price, market diversification and preemption strategy are different from Non_BGV. Above all, the main purpose of this research is that results achieved by BGV are indeed better than those obtained by Non_BGV firms with respect to firm's growth rate and efficiency. To do this research, I surveyed venture companies located in Seoul and Deajeon in Korea during November to December, 2005. I gather the data from 200 venture companies and then selected 84 samples, which have been founded during 1999${\sim}$2000. To compare BGV's characteristics with those of Non_BGV, I also had to classify BGV by export intensity over 50% among five or six aged venture firms. Many other researches tried to classify BGV and Non_BGV, but there were various criterion as many as researchers studied on this topic. Some of them use time gap, which is time difference of establishment and it's first internationalization experience and others use export intensity, ration of export sales amount divided by total sales amount. Although using a mixed criterion of prior research in my case, I do think this kinds of criterion is subjective and arbitrary rather than objective, so I do mention my research has some critical limitation in the classification of BGV and Non_BGV. The first purpose of research is the test of difference of performance between BGV and Non_BGV. As a result of t-test, the research show that there are statistically efficient difference not only in the growth rate (sales growth rate compared to competitors and 3 years averaged sales growth rate) but also in general market performance of BGV. But in case of profitability performance, the hypothesis that is BGV is more profit (return on investment(ROI) compared to competitors and 3 years averaged ROI) than Non-BGV was not supported. From these results, this paper concludes that BGV grows rapidly and gets a high market performance (in aspect of market share and customer loyalty) but there is no profitability difference between BGV and Non_BGV. The second result is that BGV have more absorptive capacity especially, knowledge competence, and entrepreneur's international experience than Non_BGV. And this paper also found BGV search for product differentiation, exemption strategy and market diversification strategy while Non_BGV search for low price strategy. These results have never been dealt with other existing studies. This research has some limitations. First limitation is concerned about the definition of BGV, as I mentioned above. Conceptually speaking, BGV is defined as company pursue internationalization from inception, but in empirical study, it's very difficult to classify between BGV and Non_BGV. I tried to classify on the basis of time difference and export intensity, this criterions are so subjective and arbitrary that the results are not robust if the criterion were changed. Second limitation is concerned about sample used in this research. I surveyed venture companies just located in Seoul and Daejeon and also use only 84 samples which more or less provoke sample bias problem and generalization of results. I think the more following studies that focus on ventures located in other region, the better to verify the results of this paper.

  • PDF

A Study on the Economical Nutrition Supplement of Cereal Food for Improvement in our National Eating Habits (국민식생활(國民食生活) 향상(向上)을 위(爲)한 곡류제품(穀類製品)의 경제적( 經濟的) 영향강화(營養强化)에 관(關)한 연구(硏究))

  • Ju, Jin-Soon;Yu, Jong-Yull;Kim, Sook-He;Lee, Ki-Yull;Han, In-Kyu
    • Journal of Nutrition and Health
    • /
    • v.6 no.1
    • /
    • pp.1-9
    • /
    • 1973
  • I. Subject of the Study: Studies on the economical nutrition supplement of cereal foods for the improvement in our notional eating habits. II. Purpose and Importance of the Study: 1. Our nation is confronted with the situation that the rice, a principal food, short of some essential amino acids, lysine and threonine, leads to imbalanced meals insufficient in the nutrient of protein, to bring many difficulties in the elevation of our national physique. 2. The shortage of even the rice imperfect in the nutrient of protein makes the import of lots of foreign rice inevitable. It is considered that the protein supplement and decrease in the consumption amount, of rice, is a serious key to the solution of our food difficulty, and then a way of the proetin supplement of rice through the addition of essential amino acid is to be rarely applied in the view of the our present finance and situation. 3. In the present experiment, therefore, it aims to the suggestion of an aspect of the improvement in our national eating habits guiding in the nutrition elevation which our nation can afford economically through the development of first, a way of the protein supplement by the mixture of cereals producted plentifully in our country, and second, a way of the decrease in the consumption amount and the improvement in the nutrition of rice through the substitution of the other cereals for rice. III. Contents of Scope of the Study: 1. Objects of the study: Objects of the study are the following three items; a) The nutrition supplement of rice through the mixture of cereals. Our nation makes mainly rice as a principal food, but practically many kinds of cereal are produced in our country. They contain different levels and qualities of each nutrient and they are different from one another in the kinds of essential amino acid consisting protein. For that reason, the mutual complement efficeincy of insufficient nutrients is observed through the mixture of cereals. b) The nutrition supplement of rice through the addition of superior protein sources to rice, a principal food. The development of rice as superior foods in the sense of nutrition is conducted through the risement in protein quality by the addition of protein sources in good quality, for example, fish flour (anchovy flour), egg powder, milk powder, and so on, and through the supplement of vitamins and minerals. c) The decrease in the consumption amount of rice through the substitution of the other cereals for rice, as a principal food. The compensation for the short amount of rice is made by the reduction in the consumption of rice through the discovery of a way of substitution of the other cereals for rice, as a principal food and of the settlement of problems in nutrition and finance subsequent to this. 2. Contents of the study: a) An ideal mixture-ratio of cereals is established for rats by feeding mixed foods(rice-barely or rice-wheat) containing 5%, 15%, 25%, 35% and 45% level of either barely or wheat. b) The nutritive value is determined in the whole subsititution of other foods for rice, and then, a way of the complement of over and under nutrients is devised. c) The ideal combination is investigated for rats through feeding mixed foods of main food, rice and supplement foods of protein sources, soy bean, fish flour, egg powder and milk Powder. d) According to results from the above three experiments, the concise functional test for men and the examination of economical property are made. 3. Scope of the study: a) The observation of the effect of each diet on the growth rate for rats. The growth rate of rats was observed for 15 groups of mixed foods of a main food, rice, and wheat flour, barley powder or soy bean powder, respectively, and 12 groups of wheat flour diets supplemented with $1{\sim}3%$ milk powder, and rice or wheat flour diets supplemented with 5% of milk powder, egg powder, fish flour or soy bean powder, respectively. b) The determination of food consumption. The food consumption was determined at weekly intervals for 27 kinds of diet described in a) item. c) The determination of food efficiency rate. The food efficiency rate for each diet was determined by calculation from the gained body weight and the food consumption amount at the same intervals described in b) item. d) The determination of protein efficiency rate. The protein efficiency rate for each diet was determined by calculation form gained body weight and the protein amount of the food consumption amount at the same intervals described c) item. e) The determination of the body component. The hematocrite and hemoglobin levels in the blood, total nitrogen in the serum, blood sugar, and lipids and glycogen in the liver were determined. f) The observation of nitrogen balance. As a means of the observation of nitrogen balance, the total nitrogen in the urine was determined. g) The analysis of economical property. The economical property was analyzed as the gained body weight to the amount equivalent to one won through the conversion of the food consumption amount into money. h) The functional test for men. The concise functional test for men was made in order to establish if the best diet for experimental animals can be applied to men. IV. Results of the Study: The national food product plan, nationwide nutritive enlightment and the improvement activities in our country eating habits, especially, mixed and powder food problems are to be significantly referred, and the following results must be applied. a) In the mixed foods of cereals, the mixed food of the rice-barley containing $5{\sim}15%$ level of barley is best in terms of nutrition. b) The addition of superior protein sources, egg, Bilk, soy bean, or fish, respectively to either rice or wheat flour makes a great risement in the nutritive value. c) The animal protein is more effective in the elevation of nutritive value of cereals. d) Rice takes the most nutritive operation and has the highest preference, among rice, wheat flour and barley. e) Wheat flour is more economical than rice in evaluation of the gained body weight to the regular money, and the addition of fish or soy bean is more economical than that of any other supplement food. But the above results are true of the range of nutrition and economical property. f) The study on the nutrition composition and barley will lead to the improvement in our national eating habits as mixed food of the rice-barley containing $5{\sim}15%$ level of barley is more nutritive. g) This study on the nutrition only for the growing animal can not be considered as a perfect and entire evaluation. Consequently, the perfect data for our national nutrition can be obtained from the experiment similar to this for the much longer period examining, in details, the growth rate, change of physical strength, mental and bodily change, average life span, and resistance ability to infectious diseases.

  • PDF

The Effect of Retailer-Self Image Congruence on Retailer Equity and Repatronage Intention (자아이미지 일치성이 소매점자산과 고객의 재이용의도에 미치는 영향)

  • Han, Sang-Lin;Hong, Sung-Tai;Lee, Seong-Ho
    • Journal of Distribution Research
    • /
    • v.17 no.2
    • /
    • pp.29-62
    • /
    • 2012
  • As distribution environment is changing rapidly and competition is more intensive in the channel of distribution, the importance of retailer image and retailer equity is increasing as a different competitive advantages. Also, consumers are not functionally oriented and that their behavior is significantly affected by the symbols such as retailer image which identify retailer in the market place. That is, consumers do not choose products or retailers for their material utilities but consume the symbolic meaning of those products or retailers as expressed in their self images. The concept of self-image congruence has been utilized by marketers and researchers as an aid in better understanding how consumers identify themselves with the brands they buy and the retailer they patronize. Although self-image congruity theory has been tested across many product categories, the theory has not been tested extensively in the retailing. Therefore, this study attempts to investigate the impact of self image congruence between retailer image and self image of consumer on retailer equity such as retailer awareness, retailer association, perceived retailer quality, and retailer loyalty. The purpose of this study is to find out whether retailer-self image congruence can be a new antecedent of retailer equity. In addition, this study tries to examine how four-dimensional retailer equity constructs (retailer awareness, retailer association, perceived retailer quality, and retailer loyalty) affect customers' repatronage intention. For this study, data were gathered by survey and analyzed by structural equation modeling. The sample size in the present study was 254. The reliability of the all seven dimensions was estimated with Cronbach's alpha, composite reliability values and average variance extracted values. We determined whether the measurement model supports the convergent validity and discriminant validity by Exploratory factor analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis. For each pair of constructs, the square root of the average variance extracted values exceeded their correlations, thus supporting the discriminant validity of the constructs. Hypotheses were tested using the AMOS 18.0. As expected, the image congruence hypotheses were supported. The greater the degree of congruence between retailer image and self-image, the more favorable were consumers' retailer evaluations. The all two retailer-self image congruence (actual self-image congruence and ideal self-image congruence) affected customer based retailer equity. This result means that retailer-self image congruence is important cue for customers to estimate retailer equity. In other words, consumers are often more likely to prefer products and retail stores that have images similar to their own self-image. Especially, it appeared that effect for the ideal self-image congruence was consistently larger than the actual self-image congruence on the retailer equity. The results mean that consumers prefer or search for stores that have images compatible with consumer's perception of ideal-self. In addition, this study revealed that customers' estimations toward customer based retailer equity affected the repatronage intention. The results showed that all four dimensions (retailer awareness, retailer association, perceived retailer quality, and retailer loyalty) had positive effect on the repatronage intention. That is, management and investment to improve image congruence between retailer and consumers' self make customers' positive evaluation of retailer equity, and then the positive customer based retailer equity can enhance the repatonage intention. And to conclude, retailer's image management is an important part of successful retailer performance management, and the retailer-self image congruence is an important antecedent of retailer equity. Therefore, it is more important to develop and improve retailer's image similar to consumers' image. Given the pressure to provide increased image congruence, it is not surprising that retailers have made significant investments in enhancing the fit between retailer image and self image of consumer. The enhancing such self-image congruence may allow marketers to target customers who may be influenced by image appeals in advertising.

  • PDF

Protective Effect of Plantago asiatica L. Extract Against Ferric Nitrilotriacetate (Fe-NTA) Induced Renal Oxidative Stress in Wistar Rats (차전초 추출물을 투여한 랫드에서의 Fe-NTA 유발 산화스트레스에 대한 신장보호 효과)

  • Hong, Chung-Oui;Hong, Seung-Teak;Koo, Yun-Chang;Yang, Sung-Yong;Lee, Ji-Young;Lee, Yanhouy;Ha, Young-Min;Lee, Kwang-Won
    • Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
    • /
    • v.26 no.2
    • /
    • pp.107-113
    • /
    • 2011
  • Plantago asiatica L. (PA), which is widely distributed in Korea, Japan and China, has traditionally been used as a popular folk medicine for the treatment of liver diseases. A variety of activities of PA was reported, that is hepatoprotective, anti-inflammatory, anti-glycation and anti-oxidant effect. Ferric nitrilotriacetate (Fe-NTA) is a potent nephrotoxic agent and has been reported to induce renal proximal tubular necrosis. In the present study, pre-treatment with PA extract (PAE) in Wistar rat followed by Fe-NTA i.p. treatment (13.5 mg Fe/kg body weight) was performed to detect the renal protective effect of PAE. Only Fe-NTA treated group showed increases in the level of serum blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and serum creatinine (Cr), and renal tissue malondialdehyde (MDA), product of lipid peroxidation. Moreover, the level of biomarkers indicate the antioxidants status, reduced glutathione (GSH), glutathione-S-transferase (GST) and glutathione reductase (GR) were decreased. However, PAE pre-treated group showed decreases in the levels of serum BUN, serum Cr and renal tissue MDA in concentration dependent manner and increases in the level of GSH, GST and GR. These results are significantly different (p < 0.05) to the other groups. Our data suggest that PAE may be used as an chemopreventive material against Fe-NTA-mediated renal oxidative stress.

Effects of Joining Coalition Loyalty Program : How the Brand affects Brand Loyalty Based on Brand Preference (브랜드 선호에 따라 제휴 로열티 프로그램 가입이 가맹점 브랜드 충성도에 미치는 영향)

  • Rhee, Jin-Hwa
    • Journal of Distribution Research
    • /
    • v.17 no.1
    • /
    • pp.87-115
    • /
    • 2012
  • Introduction: In these days, a loyalty program is one of the most common marketing mechanisms (Lacey & Sneath, 2006; Nues & Dreze, 2006; Uncles et al., 20003). In recent years, Coalition Loyalty Program is more noticeable as one of progressed forms. In the past, loyalty program was operating independently by single product brand or single retail channel brand. Now, companies using Coalition Loyalty Program share their programs as one single service and companies to participate to this program continue to have benefits from their existing program as well as positive spillover effect from the other participating network companies. Instead of consumers to earn or spend points from single retail channel or brand, consumers will have more opportunities to utilize their points and be able to purchase other participating companies products. Issues that are related to form of loyalty programs are essentially connected with consumers' perceived view on convenience of using its program. This can be a problem for distribution companies' strategic marketing plan. Although Coalition Loyalty Program is popular corporate marketing strategy to most companies, only few researches have been published. However, compared to independent loyalty program, coalition loyalty program operated by third parties of partnership has following conditions: Companies cannot autonomously modify structures of program for individual companies' benefits, and there is no guarantee to operate and to participate its program continuously by signing a contract. Thus, it is important to conduct the study on how coalition loyalty program affects companies' success and its process as much as conducting the study on effects of independent program. This study will complement the lack of coalition loyalty program study. The purpose of this study is to find out how consumer loyalty affects affiliated brands, its cause and mechanism. The past study about loyalty program only provided the variation of performance analysis, but this study will specifically focus on causes of results. In order to do these, this study is designed and to verify three primary objects as following; First, based on opinions of Switching Barriers (Fornell, 1992; Ping, 1993; Jones, et at., 2000) about causes of loyalty of coalition brand, 'brand attractiveness' and 'brand switching cost' are antecedents and causes of change in 'brand loyalty' will be investigated. Second, influence of consumers' perception and attitude prior to joining coalition loyalty program, influence of program in retail brands, brand attractiveness and spillover effect of switching cost after joining coalition program will be verified. Finally, the study will apply 'prior brand preference' as a variable and will provide a relationship between effects of coalition loyalty program and prior preference level. Hypothesis Hypothesis 1. After joining coalition loyalty program, more preferred brand (compared to less preferred brand) will increase influence on brand attractiveness to brand loyalty. Hypothesis 2. After joining coalition loyalty program, less preferred brand (compared to more preferred brand) will increase influence on brand switching cost to brand loyalty. Hypothesis 3. (1)Brand attractiveness and (2)brand switching cost of more preferred brand (before joining the coalition loyalty program) will influence more positive effects from (1)program attractiveness and (2)program switching cost of coalition loyalty program (after joining) than less preferred brand. Hypothesis 4. After joining coalition loyalty program, (1)brand attractiveness and (2)brand switching cost of more preferred brand will receive more positive impacts from (1)program attractiveness and (2)program switching cost of coalition loyalty program than less preferred brand. Hypothesis 5. After joining coalition loyalty program, (1)brand attractiveness and (2)brand switching cost of more preferred brand will receive less impacts from (1)brand attractiveness and (2)brand switching cost of different brands (having different preference level), which joined simultaneously, than less preferred brand. Method : In order to validate hypotheses, this study will apply experimental method throughout virtual scenario of coalition loyalty program if consumers have used or available for the actual brands. The experiment is conducted twice to participants. In a first experiment, the study will provide six coalition brands which are already selected based on prior research. The survey asked each brand attractiveness, switching cost, and loyalty after they choose high preference brand and low preference brand. One hour break was provided prior to the second experiment. In a second experiment, virtual coalition loyalty program "SaveBag" was introduced to participants. Participants were informed that "SaveBag" will be new alliance with six coalition brands from the first experiment. Brand attractiveness and switching cost about coalition program were measured and brand attractiveness and switching cost of high preference brand and low preference brand were measured as same method of first experiment. Limitation and future research This study shows limitations of effects of coalition loyalty program by using virtual scenario instead of actual research. Thus, future study should compare and analyze CLP panel data to provide more in-depth information. In addition, this study only proved the effectiveness of coalition loyalty program. However, there are two types of loyalty program, which are Single and Coalition, and success of coalition loyalty program will be dependent on market brand power and prior customer attitude. Therefore, it will be interesting to compare effects of two programs in the future.

  • PDF

Derivation of the Synthetic Unit Hydrograph Based on the Watershed Characteristics (유역특성에 의한 합성단위도의 유도에 관한 연구)

  • 서승덕
    • Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
    • /
    • v.17 no.1
    • /
    • pp.3642-3654
    • /
    • 1975
  • The purpose of this thesis is to derive a unit hydrograph which may be applied to the ungaged watershed area from the relations between directly measurable unitgraph properties such as peak discharge(qp), time to peak discharge (Tp), and lag time (Lg) and watershed characteristics such as river length(L) from the given station to the upstream limits of the watershed area in km, river length from station to centroid of gravity of the watershed area in km (Lca), and main stream slope in meter per km (S). Other procedure based on routing a time-area diagram through catchment storage named Instantaneous Unit Hydrograph(IUH). Dimensionless unitgraph also analysed in brief. The basic data (1969 to 1973) used in these studies are 9 recording level gages and rating curves, 41 rain gages and pluviographs, and 40 observed unitgraphs through the 9 sub watersheds in Nak Oong River basin. The results summarized in these studies are as follows; 1. Time in hour from start of rise to peak rate (Tp) generally occured at the position of 0.3Tb (time base of hydrograph) with some indication of higher values for larger watershed. The base flow is comparelatively higher than the other small watershed area. 2. Te losses from rainfall were divided into initial loss and continuing loss. Initial loss may be defined as that portion of storm rainfall which is intercepted by vegetation, held in deppression storage or infiltrated at a high rate early in the storm and continuing loss is defined as the loss which continues at a constant rate throughout the duration of the storm after the initial loss has been satisfied. Tis continuing loss approximates the nearly constant rate of infiltration (${\Phi}$-index method). The loss rate from this analysis was estimated 50 Per cent to the rainfall excess approximately during the surface runoff occured. 3. Stream slope seems approximate, as is usual, to consider the mainstreamonly, not giving any specific consideration to tributary. It is desirable to develop a single measure of slope that is representative of the who1e stream. The mean slope of channel increment in 1 meter per 200 meters and 1 meter per 1400 meters were defined at Gazang and Jindong respectively. It is considered that the slopes are low slightly in the light of other river studies. Flood concentration rate might slightly be low in the Nak Dong river basin. 4. It found that the watershed lag (Lg, hrs) could be expressed by Lg=0.253 (L.Lca)0.4171 The product L.Lca is a measure of the size and shape of the watershed. For the logarithms, the correlation coefficient for Lg was 0.97 which defined that Lg is closely related with the watershed characteristics, L and Lca. 5. Expression for basin might be expected to take form containing theslope as {{{{ { L}_{g }=0.545 {( { L. { L}_{ca } } over { SQRT {s} } ) }^{0.346 } }}}} For the logarithms, the correlation coefficient for Lg was 0.97 which defined that Lg is closely related with the basin characteristics too. It should be needed to take care of analysis which relating to the mean slopes 6. Peak discharge per unit area of unitgraph for standard duration tr, ㎥/sec/$\textrm{km}^2$, was given by qp=10-0.52-0.0184Lg with a indication of lower values for watershed contrary to the higher lag time. For the logarithms, the correlation coefficient qp was 0.998 which defined high sign ificance. The peak discharge of the unitgraph for an area could therefore be expected to take the from Qp=qp. A(㎥/sec). 7. Using the unitgraph parameter Lg, the base length of the unitgraph, in days, was adopted as {{{{ {T}_{b } =0.73+2.073( { { L}_{g } } over {24 } )}}}} with high significant correlation coefficient, 0.92. The constant of the above equation are fixed by the procedure used to separate base flow from direct runoff. 8. The width W75 of the unitgraph at discharge equal to 75 per cent of the peak discharge, in hours and the width W50 at discharge equal to 50 Per cent of the peak discharge in hours, can be estimated from {{{{ { W}_{75 }= { 1.61} over { { q}_{b } ^{1.05 } } }}}} and {{{{ { W}_{50 }= { 2.5} over { { q}_{b } ^{1.05 } } }}}} respectively. This provides supplementary guide for sketching the unitgraph. 9. Above equations define the three factors necessary to construct the unitgraph for duration tr. For the duration tR, the lag is LgR=Lg+0.2(tR-tr) and this modified lag, LgRis used in qp and Tb It the tr happens to be equal to or close to tR, further assume qpR=qp. 10. Triangular hydrograph is a dimensionless unitgraph prepared from the 40 unitgraphs. The equation is shown as {{{{ { q}_{p } = { K.A.Q} over { { T}_{p } } }}}} or {{{{ { q}_{p } = { 0.21A.Q} over { { T}_{p } } }}}} The constant 0.21 is defined to Nak Dong River basin. 11. The base length of the time-area diagram for the IUH routing is {{{{C=0.9 {( { L. { L}_{ca } } over { SQRT { s} } ) }^{1/3 } }}}}. Correlation coefficient for C was 0.983 which defined a high significance. The base length of the T-AD was set to equal the time from the midpoint of rain fall excess to the point of contraflexure. The constant K, derived in this studies is K=8.32+0.0213 {{{{ { L} over { SQRT { s} } }}}} with correlation coefficient, 0.964. 12. In the light of the results analysed in these studies, average errors in the peak discharge of the Synthetic unitgraph, Triangular unitgraph, and IUH were estimated as 2.2, 7.7 and 6.4 per cent respectively to the peak of observed average unitgraph. Each ordinate of the Synthetic unitgraph was approached closely to the observed one.

  • PDF

Studies on the Derivation of the Instantaneous Unit Hydrograph for Small Watersheds of Main River Systems in Korea (한국주요빙계의 소유역에 대한 순간단위권 유도에 관한 연구 (I))

  • 이순혁
    • Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
    • /
    • v.19 no.1
    • /
    • pp.4296-4311
    • /
    • 1977
  • This study was conducted to derive an Instantaneous Unit Hydrograph for the accurate and reliable unitgraph which can be used to the estimation and control of flood for the development of agricultural water resources and rational design of hydraulic structures. Eight small watersheds were selected as studying basins from Han, Geum, Nakdong, Yeongsan and Inchon River systems which may be considered as a main river systems in Korea. The area of small watersheds are within the range of 85 to 470$\textrm{km}^2$. It is to derive an accurate Instantaneous Unit Hydrograph under the condition of having a short duration of heavy rain and uniform rainfall intensity with the basic and reliable data of rainfall records, pluviographs, records of river stages and of the main river systems mentioned above. Investigation was carried out for the relations between measurable unitgraph and watershed characteristics such as watershed area, A, river length L, and centroid distance of the watershed area, Lca. Especially, this study laid emphasis on the derivation and application of Instantaneous Unit Hydrograph (IUH) by applying Nash's conceptual model and by using an electronic computer. I U H by Nash's conceptual model and I U H by flood routing which can be applied to the ungaged small watersheds were derived and compared with each other to the observed unitgraph. 1 U H for each small watersheds can be solved by using an electronic computer. The results summarized for these studies are as follows; 1. Distribution of uniform rainfall intensity appears in the analysis for the temporal rainfall pattern of selected heavy rainfall event. 2. Mean value of recession constants, Kl, is 0.931 in all watersheds observed. 3. Time to peak discharge, Tp, occurs at the position of 0.02 Tb, base length of hlrdrograph with an indication of lower value than that in larger watersheds. 4. Peak discharge, Qp, in relation to the watershed area, A, and effective rainfall, R, is found to be {{{{ { Q}_{ p} = { 0.895} over { { A}^{0.145 } } }}}} AR having high significance of correlation coefficient, 0.927, between peak discharge, Qp, and effective rainfall, R. Design chart for the peak discharge (refer to Fig. 15) with watershed area and effective rainfall was established by the author. 5. The mean slopes of main streams within the range of 1.46 meters per kilometer to 13.6 meter per kilometer. These indicate higher slopes in the small watersheds than those in larger watersheds. Lengths of main streams are within the range of 9.4 kilometer to 41.75 kilometer, which can be regarded as a short distance. It is remarkable thing that the time of flood concentration was more rapid in the small watersheds than that in the other larger watersheds. 6. Length of main stream, L, in relation to the watershed area, A, is found to be L=2.044A0.48 having a high significance of correlation coefficient, 0.968. 7. Watershed lag, Lg, in hrs in relation to the watershed area, A, and length of main stream, L, was derived as Lg=3.228 A0.904 L-1.293 with a high significance. On the other hand, It was found that watershed lag, Lg, could also be expressed as {{{{Lg=0.247 { ( { LLca} over { SQRT { S} } )}^{ 0.604} }}}} in connection with the product of main stream length and the centroid length of the basin of the watershed area, LLca which could be expressed as a measure of the shape and the size of the watershed with the slopes except watershed area, A. But the latter showed a lower correlation than that of the former in the significance test. Therefore, it can be concluded that watershed lag, Lg, is more closely related with the such watersheds characteristics as watershed area and length of main stream in the small watersheds. Empirical formula for the peak discharge per unit area, qp, ㎥/sec/$\textrm{km}^2$, was derived as qp=10-0.389-0.0424Lg with a high significance, r=0.91. This indicates that the peak discharge per unit area of the unitgraph is in inverse proportion to the watershed lag time. 8. The base length of the unitgraph, Tb, in connection with the watershed lag, Lg, was extra.essed as {{{{ { T}_{ b} =1.14+0.564( { Lg} over {24 } )}}}} which has defined with a high significance. 9. For the derivation of IUH by applying linear conceptual model, the storage constant, K, with the length of main stream, L, and slopes, S, was adopted as {{{{K=0.1197( {L } over { SQRT {S } } )}}}} with a highly significant correlation coefficient, 0.90. Gamma function argument, N, derived with such watershed characteristics as watershed area, A, river length, L, centroid distance of the basin of the watershed area, Lca, and slopes, S, was found to be N=49.2 A1.481L-2.202 Lca-1.297 S-0.112 with a high significance having the F value, 4.83, through analysis of variance. 10. According to the linear conceptual model, Formular established in relation to the time distribution, Peak discharge and time to peak discharge for instantaneous Unit Hydrograph when unit effective rainfall of unitgraph and dimension of watershed area are applied as 10mm, and $\textrm{km}^2$ respectively are as follows; Time distribution of IUH {{{{u(0, t)= { 2.78A} over {K GAMMA (N) } { e}^{-t/k } { (t.K)}^{N-1 } }}}} (㎥/sec) Peak discharge of IUH {{{{ {u(0, t) }_{max } = { 2.78A} over {K GAMMA (N) } { e}^{-(N-1) } { (N-1)}^{N-1 } }}}} (㎥/sec) Time to peak discharge of IUH tp=(N-1)K (hrs) 11. Through mathematical analysis in the recession curve of Hydrograph, It was confirmed that empirical formula of Gamma function argument, N, had connection with recession constant, Kl, peak discharge, QP, and time to peak discharge, tp, as {{{{{ K'} over { { t}_{ p} } = { 1} over {N-1 } - { ln { t} over { { t}_{p } } } over {ln { Q} over { { Q}_{p } } } }}}} where {{{{K'= { 1} over { { lnK}_{1 } } }}}} 12. Linking the two, empirical formulars for storage constant, K, and Gamma function argument, N, into closer relations with each other, derivation of unit hydrograph for the ungaged small watersheds can be established by having formulars for the time distribution and peak discharge of IUH as follows. Time distribution of IUH u(0, t)=23.2 A L-1S1/2 F(N, K, t) (㎥/sec) where {{{{F(N, K, t)= { { e}^{-t/k } { (t/K)}^{N-1 } } over { GAMMA (N) } }}}} Peak discharge of IUH) u(0, t)max=23.2 A L-1S1/2 F(N) (㎥/sec) where {{{{F(N)= { { e}^{-(N-1) } { (N-1)}^{N-1 } } over { GAMMA (N) } }}}} 13. The base length of the Time-Area Diagram for the IUH was given by {{{{C=0.778 { ( { LLca} over { SQRT { S} } )}^{0.423 } }}}} with correlation coefficient, 0.85, which has an indication of the relations to the length of main stream, L, centroid distance of the basin of the watershed area, Lca, and slopes, S. 14. Relative errors in the peak discharge of the IUH by using linear conceptual model and IUH by routing showed to be 2.5 and 16.9 percent respectively to the peak of observed unitgraph. Therefore, it confirmed that the accuracy of IUH using linear conceptual model was approaching more closely to the observed unitgraph than that of the flood routing in the small watersheds.

  • PDF

A Study on the Meaning and Strategy of Keyword Advertising Marketing

  • Park, Nam Goo
    • Journal of Distribution Science
    • /
    • v.8 no.3
    • /
    • pp.49-56
    • /
    • 2010
  • At the initial stage of Internet advertising, banner advertising came into fashion. As the Internet developed into a central part of daily lives and the competition in the on-line advertising market was getting fierce, there was not enough space for banner advertising, which rushed to portal sites only. All these factors was responsible for an upsurge in advertising prices. Consequently, the high-cost and low-efficiency problems with banner advertising were raised, which led to an emergence of keyword advertising as a new type of Internet advertising to replace its predecessor. In the beginning of 2000s, when Internet advertising came to be activated, display advertisement including banner advertising dominated the Net. However, display advertising showed signs of gradual decline, and registered minus growth in the year 2009, whereas keyword advertising showed rapid growth and started to outdo display advertising as of the year 2005. Keyword advertising refers to the advertising technique that exposes relevant advertisements on the top of research sites when one searches for a keyword. Instead of exposing advertisements to unspecified individuals like banner advertising, keyword advertising, or targeted advertising technique, shows advertisements only when customers search for a desired keyword so that only highly prospective customers are given a chance to see them. In this context, it is also referred to as search advertising. It is regarded as more aggressive advertising with a high hit rate than previous advertising in that, instead of the seller discovering customers and running an advertisement for them like TV, radios or banner advertising, it exposes advertisements to visiting customers. Keyword advertising makes it possible for a company to seek publicity on line simply by making use of a single word and to achieve a maximum of efficiency at a minimum cost. The strong point of keyword advertising is that customers are allowed to directly contact the products in question through its more efficient advertising when compared to the advertisements of mass media such as TV and radio, etc. The weak point of keyword advertising is that a company should have its advertisement registered on each and every portal site and finds it hard to exercise substantial supervision over its advertisement, there being a possibility of its advertising expenses exceeding its profits. Keyword advertising severs as the most appropriate methods of advertising for the sales and publicity of small and medium enterprises which are in need of a maximum of advertising effect at a low advertising cost. At present, keyword advertising is divided into CPC advertising and CPM advertising. The former is known as the most efficient technique, which is also referred to as advertising based on the meter rate system; A company is supposed to pay for the number of clicks on a searched keyword which users have searched. This is representatively adopted by Overture, Google's Adwords, Naver's Clickchoice, and Daum's Clicks, etc. CPM advertising is dependent upon the flat rate payment system, making a company pay for its advertisement on the basis of the number of exposure, not on the basis of the number of clicks. This method fixes a price for advertisement on the basis of 1,000-time exposure, and is mainly adopted by Naver's Timechoice, Daum's Speciallink, and Nate's Speedup, etc, At present, the CPC method is most frequently adopted. The weak point of the CPC method is that advertising cost can rise through constant clicks from the same IP. If a company makes good use of strategies for maximizing the strong points of keyword advertising and complementing its weak points, it is highly likely to turn its visitors into prospective customers. Accordingly, an advertiser should make an analysis of customers' behavior and approach them in a variety of ways, trying hard to find out what they want. With this in mind, her or she has to put multiple keywords into use when running for ads. When he or she first runs an ad, he or she should first give priority to which keyword to select. The advertiser should consider how many individuals using a search engine will click the keyword in question and how much money he or she has to pay for the advertisement. As the popular keywords that the users of search engines are frequently using are expensive in terms of a unit cost per click, the advertisers without much money for advertising at the initial phrase should pay attention to detailed keywords suitable to their budget. Detailed keywords are also referred to as peripheral keywords or extension keywords, which can be called a combination of major keywords. Most keywords are in the form of texts. The biggest strong point of text-based advertising is that it looks like search results, causing little antipathy to it. But it fails to attract much attention because of the fact that most keyword advertising is in the form of texts. Image-embedded advertising is easy to notice due to images, but it is exposed on the lower part of a web page and regarded as an advertisement, which leads to a low click through rate. However, its strong point is that its prices are lower than those of text-based advertising. If a company owns a logo or a product that is easy enough for people to recognize, the company is well advised to make good use of image-embedded advertising so as to attract Internet users' attention. Advertisers should make an analysis of their logos and examine customers' responses based on the events of sites in question and the composition of products as a vehicle for monitoring their behavior in detail. Besides, keyword advertising allows them to analyze the advertising effects of exposed keywords through the analysis of logos. The logo analysis refers to a close analysis of the current situation of a site by making an analysis of information about visitors on the basis of the analysis of the number of visitors and page view, and that of cookie values. It is in the log files generated through each Web server that a user's IP, used pages, the time when he or she uses it, and cookie values are stored. The log files contain a huge amount of data. As it is almost impossible to make a direct analysis of these log files, one is supposed to make an analysis of them by using solutions for a log analysis. The generic information that can be extracted from tools for each logo analysis includes the number of viewing the total pages, the number of average page view per day, the number of basic page view, the number of page view per visit, the total number of hits, the number of average hits per day, the number of hits per visit, the number of visits, the number of average visits per day, the net number of visitors, average visitors per day, one-time visitors, visitors who have come more than twice, and average using hours, etc. These sites are deemed to be useful for utilizing data for the analysis of the situation and current status of rival companies as well as benchmarking. As keyword advertising exposes advertisements exclusively on search-result pages, competition among advertisers attempting to preoccupy popular keywords is very fierce. Some portal sites keep on giving priority to the existing advertisers, whereas others provide chances to purchase keywords in question to all the advertisers after the advertising contract is over. If an advertiser tries to rely on keywords sensitive to seasons and timeliness in case of sites providing priority to the established advertisers, he or she may as well make a purchase of a vacant place for advertising lest he or she should miss appropriate timing for advertising. However, Naver doesn't provide priority to the existing advertisers as far as all the keyword advertisements are concerned. In this case, one can preoccupy keywords if he or she enters into a contract after confirming the contract period for advertising. This study is designed to take a look at marketing for keyword advertising and to present effective strategies for keyword advertising marketing. At present, the Korean CPC advertising market is virtually monopolized by Overture. Its strong points are that Overture is based on the CPC charging model and that advertisements are registered on the top of the most representative portal sites in Korea. These advantages serve as the most appropriate medium for small and medium enterprises to use. However, the CPC method of Overture has its weak points, too. That is, the CPC method is not the only perfect advertising model among the search advertisements in the on-line market. So it is absolutely necessary that small and medium enterprises including independent shopping malls should complement the weaknesses of the CPC method and make good use of strategies for maximizing its strengths so as to increase their sales and to create a point of contact with customers.

  • PDF

The Effect of Mutual Trust on Relational Performance in Supplier-Buyer Relationships for Business Services Transactions (재상업복무교역중적매매관계중상호신임대관계적효적영향(在商业服务交易中的买卖关系中相互信任对关系绩效的影响))

  • Noh, Jeon-Pyo
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
    • /
    • v.19 no.4
    • /
    • pp.32-43
    • /
    • 2009
  • Trust has been studied extensively in psychology, economics, and sociology, and its importance has been emphasized not only in marketing, but also in business disciplines in general. Unlike past relationships between suppliers and buyers, which take considerable advantage of private networks and may involve unethical business practices, partnerships between suppliers and buyers are at the core of success for industrial marketing amid intense global competition in the 21st century. A high level of mutual cooperation occurs through an exchange relationship based on trust, which brings long-term benefits, competitive enhancements, and transaction cost reductions, among other benefits, for both buyers and suppliers. In spite of the important role of trust, existing studies in buy-supply situations overlook the role of trust and do not systematically analyze the effect of trust on relational performance. Consequently, an in-depth study that determines the relation of trust to the relational performance between buyers and suppliers of business services is absolutely needed. Business services in this study, which include those supporting the manufacturing industry, are drawing attention as the economic growth engine for the next generation. The Korean government has selected business services as a strategic area for the development of manufacturing sectors. Since the demands for opening business services markets are becoming fiercer, the competitiveness of the business service industry must be promoted now more than ever. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the mutual trust between buyers and suppliers on relational performance. Specifically, this study proposed a theoretical model of trust-relational performance in the transactions of business services and empirically tested the hypotheses delineated from the framework. The study suggests strategic implications based on research findings. Empirical data were collected via multiple methods, including via telephone, mail, and in-person interviews. Sample companies were knowledge-based companies supplying and purchasing business services in Korea. The present study collected data on a dyadic basis. Each pair of sample companies includes a buying company and its corresponding supplying company. Mutual trust was traced for each pair of companies. This study proposes a model of trust-relational performance of buying-supplying for business services. The model consists of trust and its antecedents and consequences. The trust of buyers is classified into trust toward the supplying company and trust toward salespersons. Viewing trust both at the individual level and the organizational level is based on the research of Doney and Cannon (1997). Normally, buyers are the subject of trust, but this study supposes that suppliers are the subjects. Hence, it uniquely focused on the bilateral perspective of perceived risk. In other words, suppliers, like buyers, are the subject of trust since transactions are normally bilateral. From this point of view, suppliers' trust in buyers is as important as buyers' trust in suppliers. The suppliers' trust is influenced by the extent to which it trusts the buying companies and the buyers. This classification of trust using an individual level and an organization level is based on the suggestion of Doney and Cannon (1997). Trust affects the process of supplier selection, which works in a bilateral manner. Suppliers are actively involved in the supplier selection process, working very closely with buyers. In addition, the process is affected by the extent to which each party trusts its partners. The selection process consists of certain steps: recognition, information search, supplier selection, and performance evaluation. As a result of the process, both buyers and suppliers evaluate the performance and take corrective actions on the basis of such outcomes as tangible, intangible, and/or side effects. The measurement of trust used for the present study was developed on the basis of the studies of Mayer, Davis and Schoorman (1995) and Mayer and Davis (1999). Based on their recommendations, the three dimensions of trust used for the study include ability, benevolence, and integrity. The original questions were adjusted to the context of the transactions of business services. For example, a question such as "He/she has professional capabilities" has been changed to "The salesperson showed professional capabilities while we talked about our products." The measurement used for this study differs from those used in previous studies (Rotter 1967; Sullivan and Peterson 1982; Dwyer and Oh 1987). The measurements of the antecedents and consequences of trust used for this study were developed on the basis of Doney and Cannon (1997). The original questions were adjusted to the context of transactions in business services. In particular, questions were developed for both buyers and suppliers to address the following factors: reputation (integrity, customer care, good-will), market standing (company size, market share, positioning in the industry), willingness to customize (product, process, delivery), information sharing (proprietary information, private information), willingness to maintain relationships, perceived professionalism, authority empowerment, buyer-seller similarity, and contact frequency. As a consequential variable of trust, relational performance was measured. Relational performance is classified into tangible effects, intangible effects, and side effects. Tangible effects include financial performance; intangible effects include improvements in relations, network developing, and internal employee satisfaction; side effects include those not included either in the tangible or intangible effects. Three hundred fifty pairs of companies were contacted, and one hundred five pairs of companies responded. After deleting five company pairs because of incomplete responses, one hundred five pairs of companies were used for data analysis. The response ratio of the companies used for data analysis is 30% (105/350), which is above the average response ratio in industrial marketing research. As for the characteristics of the respondent companies, the majority of the companies operate service businesses for both buyers (85.4%) and suppliers (81.8%). The majority of buyers (76%) deal with consumer goods, while the majority of suppliers (70%) deal with industrial goods. This may imply that buyers process the incoming material, parts, and components to produce the finished consumer goods. As indicated by their report of the length of acquaintance with their partners, suppliers appear to have longer business relationships than do buyers. Hypothesis 1 tested the effects of buyer-supplier characteristics on trust. The salesperson's professionalism (t=2.070, p<0.05) and authority empowerment (t=2.328, p<0.05) positively affected buyers' trust toward suppliers. On the other hand, authority empowerment (t=2.192, p<0.05) positively affected supplier trust toward buyers. For both buyers and suppliers, the degree of authority empowerment plays a crucial role in the maintenance of their trust in each other. Hypothesis 2 tested the effects of buyerseller relational characteristics on trust. Buyers tend to trust suppliers, as suppliers make every effort to contact buyers (t=2.212, p<0.05). This tendency has also been shown to be much stronger for suppliers (t=2.591, p<0.01). On the other hand suppliers trust buyers because suppliers perceive buyers as being similar to themselves (t=2.702, p<0.01). This finding confirmed the results of Crosby, Evans, and Cowles (1990), which reported that suppliers and buyers build relationships through regular meetings, either for business or personal matters. Hypothesis 3 tested the effects of trust on perceived risk. It has been found that for both suppliers and buyers the lower is the trust, the higher is the perceived risk (t=-6.621, p<0.01 for buyers; t=-2.437, p<0.05). Interestingly, this tendency has been shown to be much stronger for buyers than for suppliers. One possible explanation for this higher level of perceived risk is that buyers normally perceive higher risks than do suppliers in transactions involving business services. For this reason, it is necessary for suppliers to implement risk reduction strategies for buyers. Hypothesis 4 tested the effects of trust on information searching. It has been found that for both suppliers and buyers, contrary to expectation, trust depends on their partner's reputation (t=2.929, p<0.01 for buyers; t=2.711, p<0.05 for suppliers). This finding shows that suppliers with good reputations tend to be trusted. Prior experience did not show any significant relationship with trust for either buyers or suppliers. Hypothesis 5 tested the effects of trust on supplier/buyer selection. Unlike buyers, suppliers tend to trust buyers when they think that previous transactions with buyers were important (t=2.913 p<0.01). However, this study did not show any significant relationship between source loyalty and the trust of buyers in suppliers. Hypothesis 6 tested the effects of trust on relational performances. For buyers and suppliers, financial performance reportedly improved when they trusted their partners (t=2.301, p<0.05 for buyers; t=3.692, p<0.01 for suppliers). It is interesting that this tendency was much stronger for suppliers than it was for buyers. Similarly, competitiveness was reported to improve when buyers and suppliers trusted their partners (t=3.563, p<0.01 for buyers; t=3.042, p<0.01 for suppliers). For suppliers, efficiency and productivity were reportedly improved when they trusted buyers (t=2.673, p<0.01). Other performance indices showed insignificant relationships with trust. The findings of this study have some strategic implications. First and most importantly, trust-based transactions are beneficial for both suppliers and buyers. As verified in the study, financial performance can be improved through efforts to build and maintain mutual trust. Similarly, competitiveness can be increased through the same kinds of effort. Second, trust-based transactions can facilitate the reduction of perceived risks inherent in the purchasing situation. This finding has implications for both suppliers and buyers. It is generally believed that buyers perceive higher risks in a highly involved purchasing situation. To reduce risks, previous studies have recommended that suppliers devise risk-reducing tactics. Moving beyond these recommendations, the present study uniquely focused on the bilateral perspective of perceived risk. In other words, suppliers are also susceptible to perceived risks, especially when they supply services that require very technical and sophisticated manipulations and maintenance. Consequently, buyers and suppliers must solve problems together in close collaboration. Hence, mutual trust plays a crucial role in the problem-solving process. Third, as found in this study, the more authority a salesperson has, the more he or she can be trusted. This finding is very important with regard to tactics. Building trust is a long-term assignment; however, when mutual trust has not been developed, suppliers can overcome the problems they encounter by empowering a salesperson with the authority to make certain decisions. This finding applies to suppliers as well.

  • PDF

A Study on Perceived Quality affecting the Service Personal Value in the On-off line Channel - Focusing on the moderate effect of the need for cognition - (온.오프라인 채널에서 지각된 품질이 서비스의 개인가치에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구 -인지욕구의 조정효과를 중심으로-)

  • Sung, Hyung-Suk
    • Journal of Distribution Research
    • /
    • v.15 no.3
    • /
    • pp.111-137
    • /
    • 2010
  • The basic purpose of this study is to investigate perceived quality and service personal value affecting the result of long-term relationship between service buyers and suppliers. This research presented a constructive model(perceived quality affecting the service personal value and the moderate effect of NFC) in the on off line and then propose the research model base on prior researches and studies about relationships among components of service. Data were gathered from respondents who visit at the education service market. For this study, Data were analyzed by AMOS 7.0. We integrate the literature on services marketing with researches on personal values and perceived quality. The SERPVAL scale presented here allows for the creation of a common ground for assessing service personal values, giving a clear understanding of the key value dimensions behind service choice and usage. It will lead to a focus of future research in services marketing, extending knowledge in the field and stimulating further empirical research on service personal values. At the managerial level, as a tool the SERPVAL scale should allow practitioners to evaluate and improve the value of a service, and consequently, to define strategies and actions to address services for customers based on their fundamental personal values. Through qualitative and empirical research, we find that the service quality construct conforms to the structure of a second-order factor model that ties service quality perceptions to distinct and actionable dimensions: outcome, interaction, and environmental quality. In turn, each has two subdimensions that define the basis of service quality perceptions. The authors further suggest that for each of these subdimensions to contribute to improved service quality perceptions, the quality received by consumers must be perceived to be reliable, responsive, and empathetic. Although the service personal value may be found in researches that explore individual values and their consequences for consumer behavior, there is no established operationalization of a SERPVAL scale. The inexistence of an established scale, duly adapted in order to understand and analyze personal values behind services usage, exposes the need of a measurement scale with such a purpose. This need has to be rooted, however, in a conceptualization of the construct being scaled. Service personal values can be defined as a customer's overall assessment of the use of a service based on the perception of what is achieved in terms of his own personal values. As consumer behaviors serve to show an individual's values, the use of a service can also be a way to fulfill and demonstrate consumers'personal values. In this sense, a service can provide more to the customer than its concrete and abstract attributes at both the attribute and the quality levels, and more than its functional consequences at the value level. Both values and services literatures agree, that personal value is the highest-level concept, followed by instrumental values, attitudes and finally by product attributes. Purchasing behaviors are agreed to be the end result of these concepts' interaction, with personal values taking a major role in the final decision process. From both consumers' and practitioners' perspectives, values are extremely relevant, as they are desirable goals that serve as guiding principles in people's lives. While building on previous research, we propose to assess service personal values through three broad groups of individual dimensions; at the self-oriented level, we use (1) service value to peaceful life (SVPL) and, at the social-oriented level, we use (2) service value to social recognition (SVSR), and (3) service value to social integration (SVSI). Service value to peaceful life is our first dimension. This dimension emerged as a combination of values coming from the RVS scale, a scale built specifically to assess general individual values. If a service promotes a pleasurable life, brings or improves tranquility, safety and harmony, then its user recognizes the value of this service. Generally, this service can improve the user's pleasure of life, since it protects or defends the consumer from threats to life or pressures on it. While building upon both the LOV scale, a scale built specifically to assess consumer values, and the RVS scale for individual values, we develop the other two dimensions: SVSR and SVSI. The roles of social recognition and social integration to improve service personal value have been seriously neglected. Social recognition derives its outcome utility from its predictive utility. When applying this underlying belief to our second dimension, SVSR, we assume that people use a service while taking into consideration the content of what is delivered. Individuals consider whether the service aids in gaining respect from others, social recognition and status, as well as whether it allows achieving a more fulfilled and stimulating life, which might then be revealed to others. People also tend to engage in behavior that receives social recognition and to avoid behavior that leads to social disapproval, and this contributes to an individual's social integration. This leads us to the third dimension, SVSI, which is based on the fact that if the consumer perceives that a service strengthens friendships, provides the possibility of becoming more integrated in the group, or promotes better relationships at the social, professional or family levels, then the service will contribute to social integration, and naturally the individual will recognize personal value in the service. Most of the research in business values deals with individual values. However, to our knowledge, no study has dealt with assessing overall personal values as well as their dimensions in a service context. Our final results show that the scales adapted from the Schwartz list were excluded. A possible explanation is that although Schwartz builds on Rokeach work in order to explore individual values, its dimensions might be especially focused on analyzing societal values. As we are looking for individual dimensions, this might explain why the values inspired by the Schwartz list were excluded from the model. The hierarchical structure of the final scale presented in this paper also presents theoretical implications. Although we cannot claim to definitively capture the dimensions of service personal values, we believe that we come close to capturing these overall evaluations because the second-order factor extracts the underlying commonality among dimensions. In addition to obtaining respondents' evaluations of the dimensions, the second-order factor model captures the common variance among these dimensions, reflecting the respondents' overall assessment of service personal values. Towards this fact, we expect that the service personal values conceptualization and measurement scale presented here contributes to both business values literature and the service marketing field, allowing for the delineation of strategies for adding value to services. This new scale also presents managerial implications. The SERPVAL dimensions give some guidance on how to better pursue a highly service-oriented business strategy. Indeed, the SERPVAL scale can be used for benchmarking purposes, as this scale can be used to identify whether or not a firms' marketing strategies are consistent with consumers' expectations. Managerial assessment of the personal values of a service might be extremely important because it allows managers to better understand what customers want or value. Thus, this scale allows us to identify what services are really valuable to the final consumer; providing knowledge for making choices regarding which services to include. Traditional approaches have focused their attention on service attributes (as quality) and service consequences(as service value), but personal values may be an important set of variables to be considered in understanding what attracts consumers to a certain service. By using the SERPVAL scale to assess the personal values associated with a services usage, managers may better understand the reasons behind services' usage, so that they may handle them more efficiently. While testing nomological validity, our empirical findings demonstrate that the three SERPVAL dimensions are positively and significantly associated with satisfaction. Additionally, while service value to social integration is related only with loyalty, service value to peaceful life is associated with both loyalty and repurchase intent. It is also interesting and surprising that service value to social recognition appears not to be significantly linked with loyalty and repurchase intent. A possible explanation is that no mobile service provider has yet emerged in the market as a luxury provider. All of the Portuguese providers are still trying to capture market share by means of low-end pricing. This research has implications for consumers as well. As more companies seek to build relationships with their customers, consumers are easily able to examine whether these relationships provide real value or not to their own lives. The selection of a strategy for a particular service depends on its customers' personal values. Being highly customer-oriented means having a strong commitment to customers, trying to create customer value and understanding customer needs. Enhancing service distinctiveness in order to provide a peaceful life, increase social recognition and gain a better social integration are all possible strategies that companies may pursue, but the one to pursue depends on the outstanding personal values held by the service customers. Data were gathered from 284 respondents in the korean discount store and online shopping mall market. This research proposed 3 hypotheses on 6 latent variables and tested through structural equation modeling. 6 alternative measurements were compared through statistical significance test of the 6 paths of research model and the overall fitting level of structural equation model. and the result was successful. and Perceived quality more positively influences service personal value when NFC is high than when no NFC is low in the off-line market. The results of the study indicate that service quality is properly modeled as an antecedent of service personal value. We consider the research and managerial implications of the study and its limitations. In sum, by knowing the dimensions a consumer takes into account when choosing a service, a better understanding of purchasing behaviors may be realized, guiding managers toward customers expectations. By defining strategies and actions that address potential problems with the service personal values, managers might ultimately influence their firm's performance. we expect to contribute to both business values and service marketing literatures through the development of the service personal value. At a time when marketing researchers are challenged to provide research with practical implications, it is also believed that this framework may be used by managers to pursue service-oriented business strategies while taking into consideration what customers value.

  • PDF