• Title/Summary/Keyword: Products Review

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ATHEROSCLEROSIS, CHOLESTEROL AND EGG - REVIEW -

  • Paik, I.K.;Blair, R.
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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    • v.9 no.1
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    • pp.1-25
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    • 1996
  • The pathogenesis of atherosclerosis can not be summarized as a single process. Lipid infiltration hypothesis and endothelial injury hypothesis have been proposed and investigated. Recent developments show that there are many points of potential interactions between them and that they can actually be regarded as two phases of a single, unifying hypothesis. Among the many risk factors of atherosclerosis, plasma homocysteine and lipoprotein(a) draw a considerable interest because they are independent indicators of atherogenicity. Triglyceride (TG)-rich lipoproteins (chylomicron and VLDL) are not considered to be atherogenic but they are related to the metabolism of HDL cholesterol and indirectly related to coronary heart disease (CHD). LDL can of itself be atherogenic but the oxidative products of this lipoprotein are more detrimental. HDL cholesterol has been considered to be a favorable cholesterol. The so-called 'causalist view' claims that HDL traps excess cholesterol from cellular membranes and transfers it to TG-rich lipoproteins that are subsequently removed by hepatic receptors. In the so-called 'noncausalist view', HDL does not interfere directly with cholesterol deposition in the arterial wall but instead reflects he metabolism of TG-rich lipoproteins and their conversion to atherogenic remnants. Approximately 70-80% of the human population shows an effective feedback control mechanism in cholesterol homeostasis. Type of dietary fat has a significant effect on the lipoprotein cholesterol metabolism and atherosclerosis. Generally, saturated fatty acids elevate and PUFA lower serum cholesterol, whereas MUFA have no specific effect. EPA and DHA inhibit the synthesis of TG, VLDL and LDL, and may have favourable effects on some of the risk factors. Phospholipids, particularly lecithin, have an antiatherosclerotic effect. Essential phospholipids (EPL) may enhance the formation of polyunsaturated cholesteryl ester (CE) which is less sclerotic and more easily dispersed via enhanced hydrolysis of CE in the arterial wall. Also, neutral fecal steroid elimination may be enhanced and cholesterol absorption reduced following EPL treatment. Antioxidants protect lipoproteins from oxidation, and cells from the injury of toxic, oxidized LDL. The rationale for lowering of serum cholesterol is the strong association between elevation of plasma or serum cholesterol and CHD. Cholesterol-lowing, especially LDL cholesterol, to the target level could be achieved using diet and combination of drug therapy. Information on the link between cholesterol and CHD has decreased egg consumption by 16-25%. Some clinical studies have indicated that dietary cholesterol and egg have a significant hypercholesterolemic effect, while others have indicated no effect. These studies differed in the use of purified cholesterol or cholesterol in eggs, in the range of baseline and challenge cholesterol levels, in the quality and quantity of concomitant dietary fat, in the study population demographics and initial serum cholesterol levels, and clinical settings. Cholesterol content of eggs varies to a certain extent depending on the age, breed and diet of hens. However, egg yolk cholesterol level is very resistant to change because of the particular mechanism involved in yolk formation. Egg yolk contains a factor of factors responsible for accelerated cholesterol metabolism and excretion compared with crystalline cholesterol. One of these factors could be egg lecithin. Egg lecithin may not be as effective as soybean lecithin in lowering serum cholesterol level due probably to the differences of fatty acid composition. However, egg lecithin may have positive effects in hypercholesterolemia by increasing serum HDL level and excretion of fecal cholesterol. The association of serum cholesterol with egg consumption has been widely studied. When the basal or control diet contained little or no cholesterol, consumption of 1 or 2 eggs daily increased the concentration of plasma cholesterol, whereas that of the normolipemic persons on a normal diet was not significantly influenced by consuming 2 to 3 eggs daily. At higher levels of egg consumption, the concentration of HDL tends to increase as well as LDL. There exist hyper-and hypo-responders to dietary (egg) cholesterol. Identifying individuals in both categories would be useful from the point of view of nutrition guidelines. Dietary modification of fatty acid composition has been pursued as a viable method of modifying fat composition of eggs and adding value to eggs. In many cases beneficial effects of PUFA enriched eggs have been demonstrated. Generally, consumption of n-3 fatty acids enriched eggs lowered the concentration of plasma TG and total cholesterol compared to the consumption of regular eggs. Due to the highly oxidative nature of PUFA, stability of this fat is essential. The implication of hepatic lipid accumulation which was observed in hens fed on fish oils should be explored. Nutritional manipulations, such as supplementation with iodine, inhibitors of cholesterol biosynthesis, garlic products, amino acids and high fibre ingredients, have met a limited success in lowering egg cholesterol.

Development of Korean Green Business/IT Strategies Based on Priority Analysis (한국의 그린 비즈니스/IT 실태분석을 통한 추진전략 우선순위 도출에 관한 연구)

  • Kim, Jae-Kyeong;Choi, Ju-Choel;Choi, Il-Young
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.20 no.3
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    • pp.191-204
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    • 2010
  • Recently, the CO2 emission and energy consumption have become critical global issues to decide the future of nations. Especially, the spread of IT products and the increased use of internet and web applications result in the energy consumption and CO2 emission of IT industry though information technologies drive global economic growth. EU, the United States, Japan and other developed countries are using IT related environmental regulations such as WEEE(Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment), RoHS(Restriction of the use of Certain Hazardous Substance), REACH(Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of CHemicals) and EuP(Energy using Product), and have established systematic green business/IT strategies to enhance the competitiveness of IT industry. For example, the Japan government proposed the "Green IT initiative" for being compatible with economic growth and environmental protection. Not only energy saving technologies but energy saving systems have been developed for accomplishing sustainable development. Korea's CO2 emission and energy consumption continuously have grown at comparatively high rates. They are related to its industrial structure depending on high energy-consuming industries such as iron and steel Industry, automotive industry, shipbuilding industry, semiconductor industry, and so on. In particular, export proportion of IT manufacturing is quite high in Korea. For example, the global market share of the semiconductor such as DRAM was about 80% in 2008. Accordingly, Korea needs to establish a systematic strategy to respond to the global environmental regulations and to maintain competitiveness in the IT industry. However, green competitiveness of Korea ranked 11th among 15 major countries and R&D budget for green technology is not large enough to develop energy-saving technologies for infrastructure and value chain of low-carbon society though that grows at high rates. Moreover, there are no concrete action plans in Korea. This research aims to deduce the priorities of the Korean green business/IT strategies to use multi attribute weighted average method. We selected a panel of 19 experts who work at the green business related firms such as HP, IBM, Fujitsu and so on, and selected six assessment indices such as the urgency of the technology development, the technology gap between Korea and the developed countries, the effect of import substitution, the spillover effect of technology, the market growth, and the export potential of the package or stand-alone products by existing literature review. We submitted questionnaires at approximately weekly intervals to them for priorities of the green business/IT strategies. The strategies broadly classify as follows. The first strategy which consists of the green business/IT policy and standardization, process and performance management and IT industry and legislative alignment relates to government's role in the green economy. The second strategy relates to IT to support environment sustainability such as the travel and ways of working management, printer output and recycling, intelligent building, printer rationalization and collaboration and connectivity. The last strategy relates to green IT systems, services and usage such as the data center consolidation and energy management, hardware recycle decommission, server and storage virtualization, device power management, and service supplier management. All the questionnaires were assessed via a five-point Likert scale ranging from "very little" to "very large." Our findings show that the IT to support environment sustainability is prior to the other strategies. In detail, the green business /IT policy and standardization is the most important in the government's role. The strategies of intelligent building and the travel and ways of working management are prior to the others for supporting environment sustainability. Finally, the strategies for the data center consolidation and energy management and server and storage virtualization have the huge influence for green IT systems, services and usage This research results the following implications. The amount of energy consumption and CO2 emissions of IT equipment including electrical business equipment will need to be clearly indicated in order to manage the effect of green business/IT strategy. And it is necessary to develop tools that measure the performance of green business/IT by each step. Additionally, intelligent building could grow up in energy-saving, growth of low carbon and related industries together. It is necessary to expand the affect of virtualization though adjusting and controlling the relationship between the management teams.

Manufacturing process and food safety analysis of sous-vide production for small and medium sized manufacturing companies: Focusing on the Korean HMR market (중소규모 생산업체의 수비드 제품 생산을 위한 공정 및 안전성 분석: 한국 HMR 시장 중심으로)

  • Choi, Eugene;Shin, Weon Sun
    • Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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    • v.52 no.1
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    • pp.1-10
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    • 2020
  • The present study identified the restrictions on the use of sous-vide products in the Korean HMR market for small and medium-sized manufacturing companies. A detailed literature review revealed that the HMR market in Korea is close to saturation. Notably, the technologically advanced products produced using sous-vide seem to display significant potential to overcome market saturation. The sous-vide method differs from conventional cooking techniques and is characterized by maintenance of food texture along with flavor enhancement. However, due to the unfamiliarity of the manufacturers with this method and the unclear food safety regulations, mass food manufacturing companies do not agree on using this method; hence, sous-vide production is usually undertaken by small/medium sized companies catering primarily through online marketing portals. This study highlights the various restrictions to the implementation of sous-vide production, and discusses several practical implications of sous-vide production that would help users of this technique enter the HMR market.

The Impact of Perceived Risks Upon Consumer Trust and Purchase Intentions (인지된 위험의 유형이 소비자 신뢰 및 온라인 구매의도에 미치는 영향)

  • Hong, Il-Yoo B.;Kim, Woo-Sung;Lim, Byung-Ha
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.21 no.4
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    • pp.1-25
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    • 2011
  • Internet-based commerce has undergone an explosive growth over the past decade as consumers today find it more economical as well as more convenient to shop online. Nevertheless, the shift in the common mode of shopping from offline to online commerce has caused consumers to have worries over such issues as private information leakage, online fraud, discrepancy in product quality and grade, unsuccessful delivery, and so forth, Numerous studies have been undertaken to examine the role of perceived risk as a chief barrier to online purchases and to understand the theoretical relationships among perceived risk, trust and purchase intentions, However, most studies focus on empirically investigating the effects of trust on perceived risk, with little attention devoted to the effects of perceived risk on trust, While the influence trust has on perceived risk is worth studying, the influence in the opposite direction is equally important, enabling insights into the potential of perceived risk as a prohibitor of trust, According to Pavlou (2003), the primary source of the perceived risk is either the technological uncertainty of the Internet environment or the behavioral uncertainty of the transaction partner. Due to such types of uncertainty, an increase in the worries over the perceived risk may negatively affect trust, For example, if a consumer who sends sensitive transaction data over Internet is concerned that his or her private information may leak out because of the lack of security, trust may decrease (Olivero and Lunt, 2004), By the same token, if the consumer feels that the online merchant has the potential to profit by behaving in an opportunistic manner taking advantage of the remote, impersonal nature of online commerce, then it is unlikely that the merchant will be trusted, That is, the more the probable danger is likely to occur, the less trust and the greater need to control the transaction (Olivero and Lunt, 2004), In summary, a review of the related studies indicates that while some researchers looked at the influence of overall perceived risk on trust level, not much attention has been given to the effects of different types of perceived risk, In this context the present research aims at addressing the need to study how trust is affected by different types of perceived risk, We classified perceived risk into six different types based on the literature, and empirically analyzed the impact of each type of perceived risk upon consumer trust in an online merchant and further its impact upon purchase intentions. To meet our research objectives, we developed a conceptual model depicting the nomological structure of the relationships among our research variables, and also formulated a total of seven hypotheses. The model and hypotheses were tested using an empirical analysis based on a questionnaire survey of 206 college students. The reliability was evaluated via Cronbach's alphas, the minimum of which was found to be 0.73, and therefore the questionnaire items are all deemed reliable. In addition, the results of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) designed to check the validity of the measurement model indicate that the convergent, discriminate, and nomological validities of the model are all acceptable. The structural equation modeling analysis to test the hypotheses yielded the following results. Of the first six hypotheses (H1-1 through H1-6) designed to examine the relationships between each risk type and trust, three hypotheses including H1-1 (performance risk ${\rightarrow}$ trust), H1-2 (psychological risk ${\rightarrow}$ trust) and H1-5 (online payment risk ${\rightarrow}$ trust) were supported with path coefficients of -0.30, -0.27 and -0.16 respectively. Finally, H2 (trust ${\rightarrow}$ purchase intentions) was supported with relatively high path coefficients of 0.73. Results of the empirical study offer the following findings and implications. First. it was found that it was performance risk, psychological risk and online payment risk that have a statistically significant influence upon consumer trust in an online merchant. It implies that a consumer may find an online merchant untrustworthy if either the product quality or the product grade does not match his or her expectations. For that reason, online merchants including digital storefronts and e-marketplaces are suggested to pursue a strategy focusing on identifying the target customers and offering products that they feel best meet performance and psychological needs of those customers. Thus, they should do their best to make it widely known that their products are of as good quality and grade as those purchased from offline department stores. In addition, it may be inferred that today's online consumers remain concerned about the security of the online commerce environment due to the repeated occurrences of hacking or private information leakage. Online merchants should take steps to remove potential vulnerabilities and provide online notices to emphasize that their website is secure. Second, consumer's overall trust was found to have a statistically significant influence on purchase intentions. This finding, which is consistent with the results of numerous prior studies, suggests that increased sales will become a reality only with enhanced consumer trust.

Present Status on the Pesticide Residue Monitoring Program of South Korea and Its Improvement (한국의 잔류농약 모니터링 프로그램 현황과 개선)

  • Lee, Mi-Gyung
    • Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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    • v.34 no.3
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    • pp.219-226
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    • 2019
  • This study was conducted to understand the overall status of the monitoring program for pesticide residues in foods of South Korea. Further propositions for its improvement were made, and from this study, the status on this program can be summarized as follows. In South Korea, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) is responsible for overall control of pesticide residue monitoring. Depending on the time of monitoring (sampling at distribution or production step), the government agency responsible for monitoring is different: MFDS, Regional Offices of Food and Drug Safety and local governments are responsible for monitoring of foods at the distribution step, while the National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service (NAQS) and local governments are responsible for monitoring of foods in the production step (partially at sale and distribution steps). According to purpose of monitoring, domestic monitoring programs could be divided into two types: MFDS's "Residue Survey" and NAQS's "National Residue Survey" are conducted mainly for risk assessment purposes and various monitoring programs by the Regional Offices of Food and Drug Safety and local governments are conducted mainly for regulation purposes. For imported foods, monitoring should be conducted at both steps of customs clearance and distribution: the MFDS and the Regional Offices of Food and Drug Safety are responsible for the former, and for the latter, local governments are also responsible. However, it appeared that systematic and consistent monitoring programs are not being conducted for imported foods at the distribution step. Based on the information described above and more detailed information included in this paper, the following proposals for improving the monitoring program were forwarded: i) further clarification of monitoring program purpose, ii) strengthening of the monitoring program for imported foods, iii) providing the public with monitoring results by publication of an annual report and database. It is thought that exhaustive review on the pesticide residue monitoring program and efforts for its improvement are needed in order to assure both food safety and the success of the recently begun positive list system (PLS).

Introduction of the International Standardization of ISO in the Production and Quality of Herbal Medicines and a Review of Countermeasures (한약재 생산 및 품질부문의 ISO국제표준화 등재현황 소개 및 대응방안 고찰)

  • Kim, Yong Il;Kang, Young Min;Han, Sin-Hee;Hur, Mok;Kim, Young Guk;Chang, Jae Ki
    • Journal of the Korean Society of International Agriculture
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    • v.30 no.4
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    • pp.257-268
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    • 2018
  • Recently, the international standardization of ISO in the field of Oriental Herbal Medicine has been progressing rapidly under the direction of China's promotion. China's intention to promote international standardization is to extend its influence to the world and beyond the domestic market. The Oriental medicine system in East Asia has similar roots in academic terms, but the medicines that can be supplied and received in each country are different and have developed independently. The international standardization of medicinal herbs is expected to function in a direction that weakens such differentiation and independence. From a commercial point of view, international standardization is no different from creating evaluation criteria for oriental medicinal products, and it is expected that its potential impact on domestic and overseas markets and producers will be large. In particular, the international standardization centered on China can lead to favorable evaluation criteria for China, which may further negatively affect the market competitiveness of domestic raw materials, which have been pushed back by Chinese manufacturers. If the domestic production base is weakened, not only will the farmers suffer but the supply and demand of raw materials will also be manipulated, safety management control will be reduced, and the development of oriental herbal products using domestic raw materials will be hurt. Therefore, in the promotion of international standardization, it is necessary not only to reflect the value of Korean herbal medicine but also to provide strategic responses to protect the domestic production base. However, in the case of recent initiatives, there is no precedent in analyzing influence on the production partners and the related industries. In addition, there are few related papers and reports on the subject, so the publicity process has not been done sufficiently. In response to this, this study will examine the countermeasures against the international standardization of herbal medicines through reviewing its present status and evaluating the agenda of the Korean initiative.

Using Platforms as Market Creation Strategies for Small and Medium-Sized Service Robotics Companies in South Korea: The ROBOPRINT Case Study (국내 중소 서비스용 로봇 기업의 플랫폼을 이용한 시장 창출 전략: 로보프린트 사례연구)

  • Oh, Soo Jung
    • Korean small business review
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    • v.43 no.2
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    • pp.59-86
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    • 2021
  • The platform concept has been used for business operations in various forms: product platforms, transaction platforms and industry platforms. All these platforms have common characteristics of having 'core' that is reused frequently and 'peripherals' that are less reusable and changed often. Companies use platforms to enable efficient development and creation of product family, transactions and innovation. These platforms provide new opportunities for many small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) by bringing changes to traditional industrial structures focused on the products rather than platforms. The service robotics industry in South Korea is mainly composed of technology-intensive SMEs due to its small market size. Although these SMEs succeed in developing technologies, they have difficulties creating and expanding markets to sell products. Thus, this study addresses the characteristics and problems of the South Korean service robotics industry and analyses how ROBOPRINT, one of the SMEs in the service robotics industry, successfully creates and continuously expands the service robot market by adopting platform concept. The results indicate that ROBOPRINT has been applying two types of platforms: product and transaction platforms. First, ROBOPRINT created art robots that were apartment mural service robots. Rather than selling art robots, the company developed various robots such as painting robots, building exterior wall-cleaning robots by reusing the core technology of the robots. The company also developed various robots according to the buyers request. In addition, the company used the robots to directly provide apartment mural services for customers. This mural service has been extended into various areas, not only in apartments but also in soundproof walls, underground passages, and retaining walls. Besides, ROBOPRINT added new services continuously by developing technologies such as virtual reality. Second, ROBOPRINT mediated mural service buyers and mural designers. This platform reduced buyers' workload, which necessitates requesting mural services to ROBOPRINT and searching for mural designers. For designers, this opened up new opportunities to participate in the mural business. The platform attracted both mural buyers and designers who were scattered before. Finally, ROBOPRINT seeks to expand the platform's scope to outside company. To share internally reused ROBOPRINT's technology with other companies, the company participated in Daegu city's 'New Technology Platform Industry'. Furthermore, ROBOPRINT is trying to share the service platform by leasing robots to other companies. This allows external agents to develop technologies and provide services by reusing resources from ROBOPRINT. This study contributes to existing theories by showing that SMEs continuously create and expand markets by building various platforms. Moreover, it provides useful implications for practitioners by describing the firm's specific platform-building strategy.

Establishment of Safety Factors for Determining Use-by-Date for Foods (식품의 소비기한 참고치 설정을 위한 안전계수)

  • Byoung Hu Kim;Soo-Jin Jung;June Gu Kang;Yohan Yoon;Jae-Wook Shin;Cheol-Soo Lee;Sang-Do Ha
    • Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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    • v.38 no.6
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    • pp.528-536
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    • 2023
  • In Korea, from January 2023, the Act on Labeling and Advertising of Food was revised to reflect the use-by-date rather than the sell-by-date. Hence, the purpose of this study was to establish a system for calculating the safety factor and determining the recommended use-by-date for each food type, thereby providing a scientific basis for the recommended use-by-date labels. A safety factor calculation technique based on scientific principles was designed through literature review and simulation, and opinions were collected by conducting surveys and discussions including industry and academia, among others. The main considerations in this study were pH, Aw, sterilization, preservatives, packaging for storage improvement, storage temperature, and other external factors. A safety factor of 0.97 was exceptionally applied for frozen products and 1.0 for sterilized products. In addition, a between-sample error value of 0.08 was applied to factors related to product and experimental design. This study suggests that clearly providing a safe use-by-date will help reduce food waste and contribute to carbon neutrality.

A Study on the Strategy for Enhancing the Service Export linked with Manufacturing Sector : focused on Stage System and Special Lighting Service (제조-서비스 연계형 수출상품화 모델 개발전략 - 무대장치 및 특수조명서비스 수출산업을 중심으로 -)

  • Park, Moon-Suh
    • International Commerce and Information Review
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    • v.10 no.4
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    • pp.457-491
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    • 2008
  • As stage equipment export markets along with special lighting service lack the attraction for already globally established businesses, such markets can be viewed as an advantageous opportunity for SMEs as in general. In reality, global businesses tend to focus on large construction projects and this indicates relatively less substantial markets such as stage equipment and special lighting service export are more suitable for SME businesses. However, possible problems may be recognized as following; doubtful capabilities by such businesses to join in the vast and competitive global market and pursue manufacturing and service based export. This point is also supported by the fact that such in general SME businesses have substantially less experience in exporting products and services abroad. Realizing the distinctive features of the Korean economy, it is unarguable that every sector and area of global market must be regarded and monitored closely. Hence, it can be argued that there is an imminent need for establishment of supportive institution to assist export process of combination of stage equipments and special lighting service. This study emphasizes the need to improve export process of stage equipments, special lighting services as well as other related products and services which have been focused in domestic market only until now. Further, it also analyzed the potential prospect of such direction reconciling current crisis our manufacturing industry is facing. Even though it maybe regarded as one of the niche market for export of Korea in the short term view, stage equipment and special lighting service industry may rapidly grow as the global cultural industries have grown along with the increase of national income earnings overall. Due to such advantageous features, it can be expected that such industries will show strong growth in the near future. After analyzing the fact that Korea's plants (eg. powerplants) export sector is at its boom, there is a need to transform stage equipment and special lighting service export market into a primary market from a secondary(niche) market for SMEs. This study is viewed from the Korean economic and export sector aspect in the aim of seeking a solution to conquest our realistic limit in our export sector by developing a suitable export model. There have been cases of very few attempts to expand abroad by SMEs who have failed miserably due to their failure to adapt to foreign culture, practice and languages as well as substantial lack in experience in export marketing. Despite this, neglecting our manufacturing industry as it is which is showing its limit and problems is out of option therefore, it is imminent that we come up with an effective measure to address this problem and service export can be suggested as one of them. This study reveals manufacturing-service export model of stage equipment and special lighting service and its related areas is recognized as a field with a very strong future and furthermore, it is expected to bring synergy effects in manufacturing and services sector as well. Further, the operation strategy contains combination, composition and fusion(convergence) of manufacturing and service sectors which could derive various of export products which displays greater success probability or this export model. The outcome of this research is expected to become a useful source for enterprises related to such industry which are seeking a possible global expansion. Furthermore, it is also expected to become a catalyst which fastens the process of global expansion and not only that, we are firmly assured that this study will become an opportunity to improve our current policies and institutions related to this area's export market.

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An Exploratory Study on the Effects of Relational Benefits and Brand Identity : mediating effect of brand identity (관계혜택과 브랜드 동일시의 역할에 관한 탐색적 연구: 브랜드 동일시의 매개역할을 중심으로)

  • Bang, Jounghae;Jung, Jiyeon;Lee, Eunhyung;Kang, Hyunmo
    • Asia Marketing Journal
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    • v.12 no.2
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    • pp.155-175
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    • 2010
  • Most of the service industries including finance and telecommunications have become matured and saturated. The competitions have become severe while the differences among brands become smaller. Therefore maintaining good relationships with customers has been critical for the service providers. In case of credit card and debit card, the similar patterns are shown. It is important for them to maintain good relationships with customers, and therefore, they have used marketing program which provides customized services to customers and utilizes the membership programs. Not only do they build and maintain good relationships, but also highlight their brands from the emotional aspects. For example, KB Card or Hyundai Card uses well-known designers' works for their credit card design. As well, they differentiate the designs of credit cards to stress on their brand personalities. BC Card introduced the credit card with perfume that a customer would like. Even though the credit card is small and not shown to public easily, it becomes more important for those companies to touch the customers' feelings with the brand personalities and their images. This is partly because of changes in consumers' lifestyles. Y-generations becomes highly likely to express themselves in many different ways and more emotional than X-generations. For the Y-generations, therefore, even credit cards in the wallet should be personalized and well-designed. In line with it, credit cards with good design can be seen as an example of brand identity, where different design for each customer can be used to recognize the membership groups that customers want to belong. On the other hand, these credit card companies offer the special treatment benefits for those customers who are heavy users for the cards. For example, those customers who love sports will receive some special discounts when they use their credit cards for sports related products. Therefore this study attempted to explore the relationships between relational benefits, brand identification and loyalty. It has been well known that relational benefits and brand identification lead to loyalty independently from many other studies, but there has been few study to review all the three variables all together in a research model. Furthermore, as reviewed above, in the card industry, many companies attempt to associate the brand image with their products to fit their customers' lifestyles while relational benefits are still playing an important role for their business. Therefore in our research model, relational benefits, brand identification, and loyalty are all included. We focus on the mediating effect of brand identification. From the relational benefits perspective, only special treatment benefit and confidence benefit are included. Social benefit is not applicable for this credit card industry because not many cases of face-to-face interaction can be found. From the brand identification perspective, personal brand identity and social brand identity are reviewed and included in the model. Overall, the research model emphasizes that the relationships between relational benefits and loyalty will be mediated by the effect of brand identification. The effects of relational benefits which are confidence benefit and special treatment benefits on loyalty will be realized when they fit to the personal brand identity and social brand identity. In the research model, therefore, the relationships between confidence benefit and social brand identity, and between confidence benefit and personal identity are hypothesized while the effects of special treatment benefit on social brand identity and personal brand identity are hypothesized. Loyalty, then, is hypothesized to have positive relationships with personal brand identity and social brand identity. In addition, confidence benefit among the relational benefits is expected to have a direct, positive relationship with loyalty because confidence benefit has been recognized as a critical factor for good relationships and satisfaction. Data were collected from college students who have been using either credit cards or debit cards. College students were regarded good subjects because they are in Y-generation cohorts and have tendency to express themselves more. Total sample size was two hundred three at the beginning, but after deleting those data with many missing values, one hundred ninety-seven data points were remained and used for the model testing. Measurement items were brought from the previous literatures and modified for this research. To test the reliability, using SPSS 14, chronbach's α was examined and all the values were from .874 to .928 exceeding over .7. Using AMOS 7.0, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to investigate the measurement model. The measurement model was found good fit with χ2(67)=188.388 (p= .000), GFI=.886, AGFI=.821, CFI=.941, RMSEA=.096. Using AMOS 7.0, structural equation modeling has been used to analyze the research model. Overall, the research model fit were χ2(68)=188.670 (p= .000), GFI=.886, AGFI=,824 CFI=.942, RMSEA=.095 indicating good fit. In details, all the paths hypothesized in the research model were found significant except for the path from social brand identity to loyalty. Personal brand identity leads to loyalty while both confidence benefit and special treatment benefit have a positive relationships with personal and social identities. As well, confidence benefit has a direct positive effect on loyalty. The results indicates the followings. First, personal brand identity plays an important role for credit/debit card usage. Therefore even for the products which are not shown to public easy, design and emotional aspect can be important to fit the customers' lifestyles. Second, confidence benefit and special treatment benefit have a positive effects on personal brand identity. Therefore it will be needed for marketers to associate the special treatment and trust and confidence benefits with personal image, personality and personal identity. Third, this study found again the importance of confidence and trust. However interestingly enough, social brand identity was not found to be significantly related to loyalty. It can be explained that the main sample of this study consists of college students. Those strategies to facilitate social brand identity are focused on high social status groups while college students have not been established their status yet.

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