• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.81-101
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• 2012

A franchise system develops competitive products for a franchise store through the system established by the franchise head office. Therefore, it has advantages of expanding the marketing effect since the risk of failure is reduced for a founder and the franchise head office supports the overall sales, advertisement and promotional activities. Also, a franchise store has advantages of fulfilling necessary facilities and tools on advantageous terms, reducing expenses by purchasing in bulk, and getting a supply of products with stable qualities. However, aside from such advantages, franchise head offices are forcing franchise stores to make unnecessary investments in equipments and remodel the interior. Also, franchise business operators are being made to share the cost of marketing and multiple franchise stores are being approved within the same business district, and franchise business operators are suffering damages. Therefore, cases of shutting down a franchise store or not renewing the contract are frequent. From the position of a franchise head office, profits that are generated from franchise fees, interior remodeling fees and supplying facilities and materials will increase as the number of new franchise stores increases. However, franchise stores are faced with difficulties due to excessive competitions between similar types of businesses and the overlapping of business districts that come from increases in the number of stores, and they eventually end up shutting down. Therefore, in order for a franchise business operator and franchise head office to grow and develop continuously, opening new stores is important, but successfully renewing the contract by maintaining a relationship with an existing franchise business operator is desirable. In this aspect, a study that examines the elements that can affect the relationship between a franchise business operator and franchise head office is believed to be important for the development of the franchise industry and creating safe jobs for the public. With an emphasis on the relationship between a franchise head office and franchise store, this study attempted to examine the effect of characteristics of a franchise head office and franchise business operator on the bilateral relationship such as the faith and immersion, and wished to review the effects of such faith and immersion on the satisfaction of a franchise store, including an intention of renewing the contract. In particular, in the current situation of great uncertainties in the market, this study also wished to examine how uncertain market elements will affect the relationship between the characteristics of a franchise head office and franchise business operator, and the faith and immersion. The study revealed that among the characteristics of a franchise head office, the standardization management of a franchise head office hinders a franchise store's faith and immersion in a franchise head office. Also, a franchise head office's support was shown to increase a franchise store's faith and immersion. However, it was revealed that a franchise head office's regulation and incentive policies for a franchise store do not affect a franchise store's faith and immersion. Among characteristics of a franchise business operator, a franchise store's healthy financial status and entrepreneur spirits were shown to enhance the faith and immersion in a franchise head office. However, it was shown that excellent business abilities of a franchise business operator actually reduce the immersion for a franchise head office. Also, the faith and immersion in a franchise head office were shown to enhance the intention of renewing the contract by increasing the satisfaction for a franchise head office. In addition, it was originally believed that the effects of a franchise business operator's characteristics on the faith and immersion in a franchise head office will vary depending on the market uncertainty, but the effect of a franchise business operator's characteristics depending on the recognition of uncertainties was shown to be insignificant. Such findings show that instead of making a franchise store pay for equipment investments and marketing and obtaining profits by force, a franchise head office should actively support a franchise store so that a franchise store's business activities can be conducted well, which will bring profits to a franchise store and ultimately to a franchise head office. This is a more desirable direction for the development of both parties. Implications of such findings are summarized as follows. First, it was shown that a franchise head office's standardization management actually reduces a franchise store's faith and immersion. Therefore, it is believed that instead of conducting standardization managements for regulating and managing franchise stores, measures should be developed so that franchise stores can actually participate voluntarily. For this, a head office should put in efforts to develop and provide standardized manuals, and make sure that a self-review system takes root. Second, a franchise head office's incentives did not have significant effects on the faith and immersion, but the support was shown to be effective. Therefore, it can be seen that instead of taking post-measures for a franchise store, taking pre-measures of actively supporting is more effective in maintaining a franchise store. Third, among characteristics of a franchise head office, it was shown that a franchise store's healthy financial status increased the faith and immersion in a franchise head office. Therefore, when selecting a franchise business operator, instead of thoughtlessly opening up franchise stores for the profit of a head office, it is believed that reviewing a franchise business operator's financial firepower and credit status is necessary. As for academic implications, previous studies examined the relationship by focusing on the characteristics of a franchise head office and franchise store, but this study focused on the characteristics of a franchise business operator. Therefore, this study dealt with the importance of a franchise business operator's competence, and is significant because it revealed the fact that a franchise business operator's excellent commercialization ability can become an element that hinders the immersion in a franchise head office. It was originally believed that a franchise store's characteristics will have different effects on the faith and immersion depending on the market uncertainty, but it was shown that the effect of a franchise store's characteristics depending on the recognition of uncertainties was insignificant, and that is the limitation of this study.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.110-122
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• 2010

The emergence of the field of organizational buying behavior in the mid-1960’s with the publication of Industrial Buying and Creative Marketing (1967) set the stage for a new paradigm of thinking about how business was conducted in markets other than those serving ultimate consumers. Whether it is "industrial marketing" or "business-to-business marketing" (B-to-B), organizational buying behavior remains the core differentiating characteristic of this domain of marketing. This paper explores the impact of several dynamic factors that have influenced how organizations relate to one another in a rapidly increasing interdependence, which in turn can impact organizational buying behavior. The paper also raises the question of whether or not the major conceptual models of organizational buying behavior in an interdependent world are still relevant to guide research and managerial thinking, in this dynamic business environment. The paper is structured to explore three questions related to organizational interdependencies: 1. What are the factors and trends driving the emergence of organizational interdependencies? 2. Will the major conceptual models of organizational buying behavior that have developed over the past half century be applicable in a world of interdependent organizations? 3. What are the implications of organizational interdependencies on the research and practice of organizational buying behavior? Consideration of the factors and trends driving organizational interdependencies revealed five critical drivers in the relationships among organizations that can impact their purchasing behavior: Accelerating Globalization, Flattening Networks of Organizations, Disrupting Value Chains, Intensifying Government Involvement, and Continuously Fragmenting Customer Needs. These five interlinked drivers of interdependency and their underlying technological advances can alter the relationships within and among organizations that buy products and services to remain competitive in their markets. Viewed in the context of a customer driven marketing strategy, these forces affect three levels of strategy development: (1) evolving customer needs, (2) the resulting product/service/solution offerings to meet these needs, and (3) the organization competencies and processes required to develop and implement the offerings to meet needs. The five drivers of interdependency among organizations do not necessarily operate independently in their impact on how organizations buy. They can interact with each other and become even more potent in their impact on organizational buying behavior. For example, accelerating globalization may influence the emergence of additional networks that further disrupt traditional value chain relationships, thereby changing how organizations purchase products and services. Increased government involvement in business operations in one country may increase costs of doing business and therefore drive firms to seek low cost sources in emerging markets in other countries. This can reduce employment opportunitiesn one country and increase them in another, further accelerating the pace of globalization. The second major question in the paper is what impact these drivers of interdependencies have had on the core conceptual models of organizational buying behavior. Consider the three enduring conceptual models developed in the Industrial Buying and Creative Marketing and Organizational Buying Behavior books: the organizational buying process, the buying center, and the buying situation. A review of these core models of organizational buying behavior, as originally conceptualized, shows they are still valid and not likely to change with the increasingly intense drivers of interdependency among organizations. What will change however is the way in which buyers and sellers interact under conditions of interdependency. For example, increased interdependencies can lead to increased opportunities for collaboration as well as conflict between buying and selling organizations, thereby changing aspects of the buying process. In addition, the importance of communication processes between and among organizations will increase as the role of trust becomes an important criterion for a successful buying relationship. The third question in the paper explored consequences and implications of these interdependencies on organizational buying behavior for practice and research. The following are considered in the paper: the need to increase understanding of network influences on organizational buying behavior, the need to increase understanding of the role of trust and value among organizational participants, the need to improve understanding of how to manage organizational buying in networked environments, the need to increase understanding of customer needs in the value network, and the need to increase understanding of the impact of emerging new business models on organizational buying behavior. In many ways, these needs deriving from increased organizational interdependencies are an extension of the conceptual tradition in organizational buying behavior. In 1977, Nicosia and Wind suggested a focus on inter-organizational over intra-organizational perspectives, a trend that has received considerable momentum since the 1990's. Likewise for managers to survive in an increasingly interdependent world, they will need to better understand the complexities of how organizations relate to one another. The transition from an inter-organizational to an interdependent perspective has begun, and must continue so as to develop an improved understanding of these important relationships. A shift to such an interdependent network perspective may require many academicians and practitioners to fundamentally challenge and change the mental models underlying their business and organizational buying behavior models. The focus can no longer be only on the dyadic relations of the buying organization and the selling organization but should involve all the related members of the network, including the network of customers, developers, and other suppliers and intermediaries. Consider for example the numerous partner networks initiated by SAP which involves over 9000 companies and over a million participants. This evolving, complex, and uncertain reality of interdependencies and dynamic networks requires reconsideration of how purchase decisions are made; as a result they should be the focus of the next phase of research and theory building among academics and the focus of practical models and experiments undertaken by practitioners. The hope is that such research will take place, not in the isolation of the ivory tower, nor in the confines of the business world, but rather, by increased collaboration of academics and practitioners. In conclusion, the consideration of increased interdependence among organizations revealed the continued relevance of the fundamental models of organizational buying behavior. However to increase the value of these models in an interdependent world, academics and practitioners should improve their understanding of (1) network influences, (2) how to better manage these influences, (3) the role of trust and value among organizational participants, (4) the evolution of customer needs in the value network, and (5) the impact of emerging new business models on organizational buying behavior. To accomplish this, greater collaboration between industry and academia is needed to advance our understanding of organizational buying behavior in an interdependent world.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.53-77
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• 2015

Mobile commerce provides a convenient shopping experience in which users can buy products without the constraints of time and space. Mobile commerce has already set off a mega trend in Korea. The market size is estimated at approximately 15 trillion won (KRW) for 2015, thus far. In the Korean market, social commerce and open market are key components. Social commerce has an overwhelming open market in terms of the number of users in the Korean mobile commerce market. From the point of view of the industry, quick market entry, and content curation are considered to be the major success factors, reflecting the rapid growth of social commerce in the market. However, academics' empirical research and analysis to prove the success rate of social commerce is still insufficient. Henceforward, it is to be expected that social commerce and the open market in the Korean mobile commerce will compete intensively. So it is important to conduct an empirical analysis to prove the differences in user experience between social commerce and open market. This paper is an exploratory study that shows a comparative analysis of social commerce and the open market regarding user experience, which is based on the mobile users' reviews. Firstly, this study includes a collection of approximately 10,000 user reviews of social commerce and open market listed Google play. A collection of mobile user reviews were classified into topics, such as perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use through LDA topic modeling. Then, a sentimental analysis and co-occurrence analysis on the topics of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use was conducted. The study's results demonstrated that social commerce users have a more positive experience in terms of service usefulness and convenience versus open market in the mobile commerce market. Social commerce has provided positive user experiences to mobile users in terms of service areas, like 'delivery,' 'coupon,' and 'discount,' while open market has been faced with user complaints in terms of technical problems and inconveniences like 'login error,' 'view details,' and 'stoppage.' This result has shown that social commerce has a good performance in terms of user service experience, since the aggressive marketing campaign conducted and there have been investments in building logistics infrastructure. However, the open market still has mobile optimization problems, since the open market in mobile commerce still has not resolved user complaints and inconveniences from technical problems. This study presents an exploratory research method used to analyze user experience by utilizing an empirical approach to user reviews. In contrast to previous studies, which conducted surveys to analyze user experience, this study was conducted by using empirical analysis that incorporates user reviews for reflecting users' vivid and actual experiences. Specifically, by using an LDA topic model and TAM this study presents its methodology, which shows an analysis of user reviews that are effective due to the method of dividing user reviews into service areas and technical areas from a new perspective. The methodology of this study has not only proven the differences in user experience between social commerce and open market, but also has provided a deep understanding of user experience in Korean mobile commerce. In addition, the results of this study have important implications on social commerce and open market by proving that user insights can be utilized in establishing competitive and groundbreaking strategies in the market. The limitations and research direction for follow-up studies are as follows. In a follow-up study, it will be required to design a more elaborate technique of the text analysis. This study could not clearly refine the user reviews, even though the ones online have inherent typos and mistakes. This study has proven that the user reviews are an invaluable source to analyze user experience. The methodology of this study can be expected to further expand comparative research of services using user reviews. Even at this moment, users around the world are posting their reviews about service experiences after using the mobile game, commerce, and messenger applications.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.409-437
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to present the specific ways of successful localization by analyzing the success and failures case for localization within the framework of the strategic models through a theoretical background and strategic models of localization. The strategic models of localization are divided by management aspects such as the localization of product and sourcing, the localization of human resources, the localization of marketing, the localization of R&D, harmony with a local community and delegation of authority between headquarters and local subsidiaries. The results, by comparing and analyzing the success and failures case for localization of individual companies operating in India, indicate that in terms of localization of product and sourcing, there are successful companies which procure a components locally and produce a suitable model which local consumers prefer and the failed companies which can not meet local consumers' needs. In case of localization of human resources, most companies recognize the importance of this portion and make use of superior human resource aggressively through a related education. In case of localization of marketing, It is found that the successful companies perform pre-market research & management and build a effective marketing skills & after service network and select local business partner which has a technical skills and carry out a business activities, customer support, complaint handling with their own organization. In terms of localization of R&D, the successful major companies establish and operate R&D center to promote a suitable model for local customers. In part of harmony with a local community, it shows that companies which made a successful localization understand the cultural environment and contribute to the community through CSR. In aspect of delegation of authority between headquarters and local subsidiaries, it is found that most of Korean companies are very weak for this part. there is a tendency to be determined by the head office rather than local subsidiaries. Implication of this thesis is that Korean enterprises in India should carry forward localization of products and components, foster of local human resource who recognize management and system of company and take part in voluntary market strategy decision, wholly owned subsidiary, establishment and operation of R & D center, understanding of local culture and system, corporate social responsibility, autonomy in management.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.181-193
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• 2020

This study is a study that analyzes consumer perception by utilizing text mining, which is a recent issue. we analyzed the consumer's perception of Samsung Galaxy by analyzing consumer reviews of Samsung Galaxy YouTube ads. for analysis, 1,819 consumer reviews of YouTube ads were extracted. through this data pre-processing, keywords for advertisements were classified and extracted into nouns, adjectives, and adverbs. after that, frequency analysis and emotional analysis were performed. Finally, clustering was performed through CONCOR. the summary of this study is as follows. the first most frequently mentioned words were Galaxy Note (n = 217), Good (n = 135), Pen (n = 40), and Function (n = 29). it can be judged through the advertisement that consumers "Galaxy Note", "Good", "Pen", and "Features" have good functional aspects for Samsung mobile phone products and positively recognize the Note Pen. in addition, the recognition of "Samsung Pay", "Innovation", "Design", and "iPhone" shows that Samsung's mobile phone is highly regarded for its innovative design and functional aspects of Samsung Pay. second, it is the result of sentiment analysis on YouTube advertising. As a result of emotional analysis, the ratio of emotional intensity was positive (75.95%) and higher than negative (24.05%). this means that consumers are positively aware of Samsung Galaxy mobile phones. As a result of the emotional keyword analysis, positive keywords were "good", "good", "innovative", "highest", "fast", "pretty", etc., negative keywords were "frightening", "I want to cry", "discomfort", "sorry", "no", etc. were extracted. the implication of this study is that most of the studies by quantitative analysis methods were considered when looking at the consumer perception study of existing advertisements. In this study, we deviated from quantitative research methods for advertising and attempted to analyze consumer perception through qualitative research. this is expected to have a great influence on future research, and I am sure that it will be a starting point for consumer awareness research through qualitative research.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.47-58
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• 2009

The marketing environment has become competitive to an extent that requires firms to target their products at markets that span national boundaries. However, competitive clout cannot be achieved in global consumer markets unless firms thoroughly understand and adequately respond to the core values and needs of those consumers. Brand equity is one of the most important assets to a company. Especially in sportswear markets, brand equity is the crucial value added to a product by its brand name. Factors such as country of origin also influence customer's attitude towards brand equity. Therefore, this paper discusses the relationship between country of origin effect and brand equity, and how they influence consumers' loyalty for respective brands. This paper focused on the sports shoes market, because it is an increasing area of opportunity for world manufacturers. The objectives of this study were the following. (1) Test the effect of country of origin on brand equity. (2) Test how brand equity influences consumers' brand loyalty. (3) Find whether there are differences in the effects of country of origin and brand equity among the three countries. (4) Find whether there are differences in the effects of country of origin and brand equity among the different lifestyles. Based on the review of literature results, the hypotheses are concluded as the following: H1-a: Country image has positive influence on country of origin. H1-b: Product perception has positive influence on country of origin. H2-a: Perceived quality has positive effect on brand equity. H2-b: Perceived price has positive effect on brand equity. H3: Country of origin has positive effect on brand equity. H4: Brand equity has a positive impact on brand loyalty. Research model was constructed (see Fig. 1). After data analysis, the following results were concluded: sports shoes purchase behavior showed significant differences among Korean, Chinese, and American consumers for favorite brand, purchased brand, purchased place, information usage, and favorite sports games. The results of this study also extend the research of the relationship among country of origin, brand equity and brand loyalty to the sports shoes market. Brand equity was proven to have a significant relationship with brand loyalty for all countries. The factors which can influence brand equity are different for different countries. The third finding of this paper is that we identified different three lifestyles, adventurer, follower, and laggard, for Korean, Chinese and American consumers. Without the nationality boundary, seeing the emergence of a new group of consumers who have similar preferences and buy similar brands is more important. All of the consumers consider brand equity to keep their brand loyalty. Perceived price is the only factor which can influence brand equity for adventurers; brand is more important for them. The laggards were not influenced by any factor. All of the factors expect perceived price are important for the followers. Marketing managers should consider brand equity when introducing their brand into a new market. Also localization is the basic strategy that all the sports shoes companies should understand. But as a global brand, understanding the same characteristics for each country is more important to build global strategy.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.37-48
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• 2009

The standardization of marketing has been one of the most focused research topics in international marketing. The term "global marketing" was often used to mean an internationally standardized marketing strategy based on similarities between foreign markets. Marketing standardization was discussed only within the context of traditional physical marketplaces. Since then, the digital "marketspace" of the Internet had emerged in the 90's, and it became one of the most important drivers of the globalization process opening new opportunities for the standardization of global marketing activities. On the other hand, the opinion that a greater adoption of the Internet by customers may lead to a higher degree of customization and differentiation of products rather than standardization is also quite popular. Considering this disagreement, it is notable that comprehensive studies which focus upon the marketing standardization especially in the context of global e-commerce are missing to a high degree. On this background, the two basic research questions being addressed in this study are: (1) To what extent do companies standardize their marketing in international e-commerce? (2) Is there an impact of marketing standardization on the performance (or success) of these companies? Following research hypotheses were generated based upon literature review: H 1: Internationally engaged e-commerce firms show a growing readiness for marketing standardization. H 2: Marketing standardization exerts positive effects on the success of companies in international e-commerce. H 3: In international e-commerce, marketing mix standardization exerts a stronger positive effect on the economic as well as the non-economic success of companies than marketing process standardization. H 4: The higher the non-economic success in international e-commerce firms, the higher the economic success. The data for this research were obtained from a questionnaire survey conducted from February to April 2005. The international e-commerce companies of various industries in Germany and all subsidiaries or headquarters of foreign e-commerce companies based in Germany were included in the survey. 118 out of 801 companies responded to the questionnaire. For structural equation modelling (SEM), the Partial-Least. Squares (PLS) approach in the version PLS-Graph 3.0 was applied (Chin 1998a; 2001). All of four research hypotheses were supported by result of data analysis. The results show that companies engaged in international e-commerce standardize in particular brand name, web page design, product positioning, and the product program to a high degree. The companies intend to intensify their efforts for marketing mix standardization in the future. In addition they want to standardize their marketing processes also to a higher degree, especially within the range of information systems, corporate language and online marketing control procedures. In this study, marketing standardization exerts a positive overall impact on company performance in international e-commerce. Standardization of marketing mix exerts a stronger positive impact on the non-economic success than standardization of marketing processes, which in turn contributes slightly stronger to the economic success. Furthermore, our findings give clear support to the assumption that the non-economic success is highly relevant to the economic success of the firm in international e-commerce. The empirical findings indicate that marketing standardization is relevant to the companies' success in international e-commerce. But marketing mix and marketing process standardization contribute to the firms' economic and non-economic success in different ways. The findings indicate that companies do standardize numerous elements of their marketing mix on the Internet. This practice is in part contrary to the popular concept of a "differentiated standardization" which argues that some elements of the marketing mix should be adapted locally and others should be standardized internationally. Furthermore, the findings suggest that the overall standardization of marketing -rather than the standardization of one particular marketing mix element - is what brings about a positive overall impact on success.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.14 no.6 s.67
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• pp.913-919
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• 2004

Mitochondrial DNA mutations have been reported in recent years in association with sensorineural hering loss. The purpose of this study is to identify the association between the noise-induced sensorineural hearing loss and the A to G mutation at nucleotide 3243, 1555, 7445 of mitochondrial DNA. Study subjects were established by history and chart review, and audiological and clinical data were obtained. Blood was sampled from 214 normal controls, 102 noise-induced hearing loss, and 28 sensorineural hearing loss. The DNA of these individuals were extracted, and mitochondrial DNA fragments were analyzed by polymerase chain reaction. Subsequently, the coding sequence of mitochondrial DNA 3243, 1555, 7445 were sequenced, and compared to the normal sequence, and all sequence variations were analyzed by restriction enzymes. Mitochondrial DNA mutations $(3243A{\rightarrow}G,\;1555A{\rightarrow}4G,\;7445A{\rightarrow}G)$ were not detected by polymerase chain reactions in any patients with noise-induced hearing loss, sensorineural hearing loss, and normal controls. The DNA sequencing of PCR products did not revealed an A to G substitution at nucleotide 3243, 1555, 7445 of mitochondrial DNA. The noise-induced sensorineural hearing loss was not associated with mitochondrial DNA mutation $(3243A{\rightarrow}G,\;1555A{\rightarrow}4G,\;7445A{\rightarrow}G)$.

• Korean Journal of Plant Tissue Culture
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.1-35
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• 1997

Fertilized egg, by successive cell divisions, differentiates into different tissues and organs with various structures and functions. Different cells and tissues contain different proteins, products of selective gene expression. Not all the genes in any genomes are equally active, temporal and spatial gene expression being the general rule. Present paper attempts to review the tanscriptional mechanisms or the initiations of transcription from several angles. In some of the organisms the genes in the process of transcription or the genes in the inactive state can be seen under the light microscope. Some bands of Drosophila polytene chromosomes may exhibit a swollen or puff appearance under certain conditions. A puff, unfolded or decondensed form of chromomere, represents sets of intense transcriptional activity or RNA synthesis. The heterochromatic X chromosome whose genes remain inactive in the female mammals can be visualized as a dark staining structure called Barr body, Configuration of chromatin differs between transcribed and nontranscribed chromatin. Modification to the chromatin facilitates RNA synthesis. The movement of large polymerase molecule along the DNA would probably be facilitated if some modifications of the chromatin configuration is effected. Methylation of cytosines in CG sequences is associated with inactive genes. Methylation can play a role in determination of mammalian cells during embryogenesis. Demethylation is necessary for the gene to be expressed during development A histone modification that is also known to be correlated with transcriptional capacity of chromatin is acetylation of the lysine residues of the core histones. Chromatin containing a high level of histone acetylation is very sensitive to DNase 1. For the transcription to occur TBP must first bind to the TATA box. Another TF, TF IIB, then binds to the promoter-TBP complex, facilitating the access of RNA polymerase to the transcription initiation site. As recently as eight years ago researchers assumed that histones were irrelevant to the regulation of gene expression. Histones combine with the DNA to form nucleosome of the chromatin. Histones are vital participant in gene regulation. Histone and basal factors compete for access to TATA box. When DNA is exposed to basal factors before histones are introduced, the basal factors assemble on TATA boxes preventing the access of histones, allowing transcription to occur, for transcription to begin, activator protein at the upstream activation sequence or enhancer must interact with the tail of histone H4 at TATA box and cause the histone role particle to dissociate from the TATA box leading to partial breakup of the histone core particle and allowing the basal factors to bind to the TATA box. New concept of genomic flux in contrast to the old concept of static genome has been developed based on the powerful new molecular techniques. Genomic changes such as repetitive DNAs and transposable elements, it is assumed but not yet proved, may affect some of the developmental patterns that characterize particular cells, tissues, organs, and organisms. In the last decade or so remarkable achievement have been made in the researches of the structures and functions of TFs and the specific target sequences located in promoters or enhancers where these TFs bind. TFs have independent domains that bind DNA and that activate transcription. DNA binding domain of TFs serves to bring the protein into the right location. There are many types of DNA binding domains. Common types of motifs can be found that are responsible for binding to DNA. The motifs are usually quite short and comprise only a small part of the protein structure. Steroid receptors have domains for hormone binding, DNA binding, and activating transcription. The zinc finger motif comprises a DNA binding domain. Leucine zipper consist of a stretch of amino acids with a leucine residue in every seventh position Two proteins form a dimer because they interact by means of leucine zippers on similar α-helical domain. This positions their DNA binding basic domains for interaction with the two halves of a DNA sequence with dyad symmetry of TGACTCA, ACTGAGT.

• Journal of Dairy Science and Biotechnology
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.55-62
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• 2009

Milk is called an almost complete food in terms of nutrition, especially for the younger generations because it contains a number of nutrients required for growth and development. Lactose intolerance is defined as a malabsorption of lactose in the intestine with some typical symptoms of abdominal pains and bloating, and occurred at 75% of global populations, which hampers milk consumption worldwide. Lacks of milk consumption in the underdeveloped countries frequently lead to many nutrients deficiencies, so that diseases including osteoporosis, hypertension, and colon cancer are more prevalent in the recent days. Lactose in foods needs to be hydrolyzed prior to intestinal absorption. The hydrolytic enzyme responsible for splitting lactose into its monomeric forms, glucose and galactose, is called as lactase or $\beta$-galactosidase. The former is primarily used as blood sugar and energy source and the latter used in glycolipid synthesis of brain tissues in infants. Lactose is clinically diagnosed with the breath hydrogen production test as well as intestinal biopsy. Reportedly, symptoms of lactose intolerance are widely prevalent at 25% of Europeans, 50 to 80% of Hispanics, South Indians, Africans, and Jews, almost 100% of Asians and native Americans. For the adults, phenotype of lactase persistence, which is able to hydrolyse lactose, is more common in the northern Europeans, but in the other area lactase non-persistence or adult-type hypolactasia is dominant. Genetic analysis on human lactase gene continued that lactase persistence was closely related to the err site of 1390 single nucleotide polymorphism from the 5'-end. To alleviate severity of lactose intolerance symptoms, some eating patterns including drinking milk a single cup or less, consumption along with other foods, whole milk rather than skimmed milk, and drink with live yogurt cultures, are highly recommended for the lactose maldigesters. Also, delay of gastric emptying is effective to avoid the symptoms from lactose intolerance. Frequency of lactose intolerance with conventional diagnosis is thought overestimated mainly because the subjects are exposed to too much lactose of 50 g rather than a single serving amount. Thus simple and accurate diagnostic method for lactose intolerance need to be established. It is thought that fermented milk products and low- or free lactose milks help improve currently stagnant milk consumption due to lactose intolerance which contributes to major barrier in milk marketing especially in Asian countries.