• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.85-109
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• 2018

Recommender system recommends the items expected to be purchased by a customer in the future according to his or her previous purchase behaviors. It has been served as a tool for realizing one-to-one personalization for an e-commerce service company. Traditional recommender systems, especially the recommender systems based on collaborative filtering (CF), which is the most popular recommendation algorithm in both academy and industry, are designed to generate the items list for recommendation by using 'overall rating' - a single criterion. However, it has critical limitations in understanding the customers' preferences in detail. Recently, to mitigate these limitations, some leading e-commerce companies have begun to get feedback from their customers in a form of 'multicritera ratings'. Multicriteria ratings enable the companies to understand their customers' preferences from the multidimensional viewpoints. Moreover, it is easy to handle and analyze the multidimensional ratings because they are quantitative. But, the recommendation using multicritera ratings also has limitation that it may omit detail information on a user's preference because it only considers three-to-five predetermined criteria in most cases. Under this background, this study proposes a novel hybrid recommendation system, which selectively uses the results from 'traditional CF' and 'CF using multicriteria ratings'. Our proposed system is based on the premise that some people have holistic preference scheme, whereas others have composite preference scheme. Thus, our system is designed to use traditional CF using overall rating for the users with holistic preference, and to use CF using multicriteria ratings for the users with composite preference. To validate the usefulness of the proposed system, we applied it to a real-world dataset regarding the recommendation for POI (point-of-interests). Providing personalized POI recommendation is getting more attentions as the popularity of the location-based services such as Yelp and Foursquare increases. The dataset was collected from university students via a Web-based online survey system. Using the survey system, we collected the overall ratings as well as the ratings for each criterion for 48 POIs that are located near K university in Seoul, South Korea. The criteria include 'food or taste', 'price' and 'service or mood'. As a result, we obtain 2,878 valid ratings from 112 users. Among 48 items, 38 items (80%) are used as training dataset, and the remaining 10 items (20%) are used as validation dataset. To examine the effectiveness of the proposed system (i.e. hybrid selective model), we compared its performance to the performances of two comparison models - the traditional CF and the CF with multicriteria ratings. The performances of recommender systems were evaluated by using two metrics - average MAE(mean absolute error) and precision-in-top-N. Precision-in-top-N represents the percentage of truly high overall ratings among those that the model predicted would be the N most relevant items for each user. The experimental system was developed using Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). The experimental results showed that our proposed system (avg. MAE = 0.584) outperformed traditional CF (avg. MAE = 0.591) as well as multicriteria CF (avg. AVE = 0.608). We also found that multicriteria CF showed worse performance compared to traditional CF in our data set, which is contradictory to the results in the most previous studies. This result supports the premise of our study that people have two different types of preference schemes - holistic and composite. Besides MAE, the proposed system outperformed all the comparison models in precision-in-top-3, precision-in-top-5, and precision-in-top-7. The results from the paired samples t-test presented that our proposed system outperformed traditional CF with 10% statistical significance level, and multicriteria CF with 1% statistical significance level from the perspective of average MAE. The proposed system sheds light on how to understand and utilize user's preference schemes in recommender systems domain.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.93-108
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• 2014

To support business decision making, interests and efforts to analyze and use transaction data in different perspectives are increasing. Such efforts are not only limited to customer management or marketing, but also used for monitoring and detecting fraud transactions. Fraud transactions are evolving into various patterns by taking advantage of information technology. To reflect the evolution of fraud transactions, there are many efforts on fraud detection methods and advanced application systems in order to improve the accuracy and ease of fraud detection. As a case of fraud detection, this study aims to provide effective fraud detection methods for auction exception agricultural products in the largest Korean agricultural wholesale market. Auction exception products policy exists to complement auction-based trades in agricultural wholesale market. That is, most trades on agricultural products are performed by auction; however, specific products are assigned as auction exception products when total volumes of products are relatively small, the number of wholesalers is small, or there are difficulties for wholesalers to purchase the products. However, auction exception products policy makes several problems on fairness and transparency of transaction, which requires help of fraud detection. In this study, to generate fraud detection rules, real huge agricultural products trade transaction data from 2008 to 2010 in the market are analyzed, which increase more than 1 million transactions and 1 billion US dollar in transaction volume. Agricultural transaction data has unique characteristics such as frequent changes in supply volumes and turbulent time-dependent changes in price. Since this was the first trial to identify fraud transactions in this domain, there was no training data set for supervised learning. So, fraud detection rules are generated using outlier detection approach. We assume that outlier transactions have more possibility of fraud transactions than normal transactions. The outlier transactions are identified to compare daily average unit price, weekly average unit price, and quarterly average unit price of product items. Also quarterly averages unit price of product items of the specific wholesalers are used to identify outlier transactions. The reliability of generated fraud detection rules are confirmed by domain experts. To determine whether a transaction is fraudulent or not, normal distribution and normalized Z-value concept are applied. That is, a unit price of a transaction is transformed to Z-value to calculate the occurrence probability when we approximate the distribution of unit prices to normal distribution. The modified Z-value of the unit price in the transaction is used rather than using the original Z-value of it. The reason is that in the case of auction exception agricultural products, Z-values are influenced by outlier fraud transactions themselves because the number of wholesalers is small. The modified Z-values are called Self-Eliminated Z-scores because they are calculated excluding the unit price of the specific transaction which is subject to check whether it is fraud transaction or not. To show the usefulness of the proposed approach, a prototype of fraud transaction detection system is developed using Delphi. The system consists of five main menus and related submenus. First functionalities of the system is to import transaction databases. Next important functions are to set up fraud detection parameters. By changing fraud detection parameters, system users can control the number of potential fraud transactions. Execution functions provide fraud detection results which are found based on fraud detection parameters. The potential fraud transactions can be viewed on screen or exported as files. The study is an initial trial to identify fraud transactions in Auction Exception Agricultural Products. There are still many remained research topics of the issue. First, the scope of analysis data was limited due to the availability of data. It is necessary to include more data on transactions, wholesalers, and producers to detect fraud transactions more accurately. Next, we need to extend the scope of fraud transaction detection to fishery products. Also there are many possibilities to apply different data mining techniques for fraud detection. For example, time series approach is a potential technique to apply the problem. Even though outlier transactions are detected based on unit prices of transactions, however it is possible to derive fraud detection rules based on transaction volumes.

• 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 the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.478-486
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to analyze consumer consumption and product concept demands of Korean rice-wine. An online survey, conducted from April 28, 2010 to May 6 2010, targeted 200 consumers in Seoul and the Gyeonggi-do area. More than half of the respondents (51.3%) drank rice-wine because of the taste. The common reasons for dissatisfaction with rice-wine were hangovers (35.7%) and taste (16.9%). From analyzing rice-wine preferences, the most preferred ingredient was rice (57.8%), while the most preferred aroma and taste was derived from the fruit (48.7% and 58.4%, respectively). The most common methods consumers observed for promoting rice-wine consumption were the "development and management of rice-wine brands" (59.7%), and "continuous promotion" (44.8%). The most important attributes of a rice-wine product included its taste (4.60), followed by its quality (4.41) using 5-point Likert scale. An importance-performance analysis (IPA) was performed for the 17 attributes of rice-wine and identified targets for product management strategies, including the "usage of domestic ingredients", "ease of purchase", clarity of "product information", and "external image". Therefore, developing solid concepts in marketing strategy are required and may be achieved by understanding the consumer preferences and demands of rice-wine.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.466-476
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• 2006

The objective of this study was to compare and analyze the acceptability and consumption attitude for soy foods between Korean and Canadian university students as young consumers. This survey was carried out by questionnaire and the subjects were n=516 in Korea and n=502 in Canada. Opinions for soy foods in terms of general knowledge were that soy foods are healthy (86.5% in Korean and 53.4% in Canadian) or neutral (11.6% in Korean and 42.8% in Canadian), dairy foods can be substituted by soy foods (51.9% in Korean and 41.8% in Canadian), and soy foods are not only for vegetarians and milk allergy Patients but also for ordinary People (94.2% in Korean and 87.6% in Canadian). In main sources of information about soy foods, the rate by commercials on TV, radio or magazine was the highest (58.0%) for Korean students and the rate by family or friend was the highest(35.7%) for Canadian students. In consumption attitude, all of Korean students have purchased soy foods but only 55.4% of Canadian students have purchased soy foods, and soymilk was remarkably recognized and consumed then soy beverage and margarine in order. 76.4% of Korean students and 65.1% of Canadian students think soy foods are general and popular and can purchase easily, otherwise, in terms of price, soy foods were expensively recognized as 'more expensive than dairy foods' was 59.1% (Korean) and 54.7% (Canadian), and 'similar to dairy foods' was 36.8% (Korean) and 39.9% (Canadian). Major reasons for the rare consumption were 'I am not interested in soy foods' in Korean students (27.3%) and 'I prefer dairy foods to soy foods' in Canadian students (51.7%). However, consumption of soy foods in both countries are very positive and it will be increased.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.27-34
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• 2010

During the past 10 years, sales of luxury goods increased significantly to more than US$ 130 billion in 2007. In this industry, more than half of the revenue comes from Asia where the average income has risen significantly, and the demand for luxury products is forecast to grow rapidly. Purchasing luxury brands appears to be an intriguing social phenomenon that is profitable for companies in this region. As a newly developed country, Korea is one of the most attractive luxury markets in Asia. Currently, a total of 120 luxury fashion brands have entered the Korean market, primarily in luxury districts in Seoul where the competition is fierce. The purposes of this study are to: (1) identify antecedents of attitude toward luxury brands, (2) examine the effect of attitudes toward luxury brands on customer equity, (3) determine the impact of attitudes toward luxury brands on customer lifetime value, and (4) investigate the influence of customer equity on customer life time value. Previous studies have examined materialism, social need, experiential need, need for uniqueness, conformity, and fashion involvement as antecedents of attitude toward luxury brands. Richins and Dowson (1992) suggested that that materialism influences consumption behavior relative to quantity of goods purchased. Nueno and Quelch (1998) reported that the ownership of luxury brands conveys information related to the owner's social status, communicates an image of success and prestige, and is a determinant of purchase behavior. Experiential need is recognized as an important aspect of consumption, especially for new products developed to meet consumer demand. Since luxury goods, by definition are relatively scarce, ownership of these types of products may fulfill consumers' need for uniqueness. In this study, value equity, relationship equity, and brand equity are examined as drivers of customer equity. The sample (n = 114) was undergraduate and graduate students at two private women's universities in Seoul, Korea. Data collection was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire survey in March, 2009. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, factor analysis, reliability analysis, and regression analysis using SPSS 15.0 software. Data analysis resulted in a number of conclusions. First, experiential need and fashion involvement positively influence participants' attitude toward luxury brands. Second, attitude toward luxury brands positively influences brand equity, followed by value equity and relationship equity. However, there is no significant relationship between attitude toward luxury brand and customer lifetime value. Finally, relationship equity positively influences customer lifetime value. In conclusion, young consumers are an important potential consumer group that tries different brands to discover the ones most suitable for them. Luxury marketers that use effective marketing strategies to attract and engender loyalty among this potentially lucrative consumer group may increase customer equity and lifetime value.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.235-248
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• 2010

This study was carried out to the actual conditions and improvement of the eco-forests master plan in South Korea, and suggested its problems and improvement direction. Results from survey and analysis of limiting factors or constraints in the construction plans of eco-forests in Korea revealed that there were highly frequent problems involving site feasibility, topographic aspect, and existing vegetation. The results of survey on the status of land use indicated that the average ratio of the use of private estate was 29.7%, so then it was estimated that a great amount of investment in purchase of eco-forest site would be required. Results from survey on major introduced facilities showed that there was high frequency of introduction of infrastructure, building facility, recreational facility, convenience facility, and information facility, and that there was low frequency of introduction of plant culture system, ecological facility, structural symbol and sculpture, and the likes. There was just one eco-forest park where more than 500 species of plants grew, and the result of investigation indicated that the diversity of plant species in 11 eco-forest parks was lower than the standards for construction of eco-forest. Results from analysis of the projects costs revealed that investment cost in facilities was higher than planting costs, and that a large amount of investment was made in the initial stage of the project. There was no planned budget for the purpose of cultivating and maintaining the plants and vegetation after construction of eco-forest. The basic concepts in construction of eco-forests were established according to the guidelines presented by the Korea Forest Service; however, the detailed work of the project was planned with its user-oriented approach. Then the construction of eco-forest was being planned following the directions, which would lead to development of a plant garden similar to arboretum or botanical garden. Therefore, it is required that the architect who designs eco-forest as well as the public officer concerned firmly establish the concepts of eco-forest, and that, through close analysis of development conditions, a candidate site to fit the purpose of constructing eco-forest be selected, and also a substantive management plan be established upon completion of construction of eco-forest.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.277-284
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to examine the perception of dental hygiene freshmen about their major and their occupational consciousness. The subjects in this study were 361 dental hygiene freshmen at three different colleges in Gyeonggi province. After a survey was conducted, the collected data were analyzed with SPSS WIN 11.5 program. The findings of the study were as follows: 1. As for their view of occupation, the students made a well-paying job a priority(M = 2.97), and looked upon an occupation as a means of living(M = 1.60). Regarding the use of the profits of dental hospitals and clinics, they believed that they should reinvest their profits in a purchase of machinery, an expansion of facilities or technical development(M = 2.00). 2. Concerning relations between their motivation of college entrance and their satisfaction with their major, 96.6 percent of those who found their major satisfactory or quite satisfactory considered it to right up with their alley. 82.6 percent of them chose their major to get a stable job, and 62.8 percent of them did it through the advice of their families, relatives or regular teachers. 59.1 percent of them did it in consideration of their college entrance examination scores. Every student who were pressed for economic reasons to choose their major were unsatisfied with it. Thus, their motivation of college entrance made a statistically significantly wide difference to their satisfaction with major(p < 0.01). 3. They got a mean of 3.10 in occupational consciousness. By sub- category, they scored highest in interpersonal and work ethics(3.19 respectively). They got a mean of 3.04 in academic ethics, and got a mean of 2.99 in professional ethics, which was the lowest mark. 4. As to connections between their general characteristics and occupational consciousness, their occupational awareness was significantly different according to their motivation of college entrance and information they acquired at the time of college entrance(p < 0.05). In regard to the relationship of their satisfaction with major to their occupational awareness, their occupational consciousness statistically significantly varied with their department, their willingness of staying as a dental hygienist, the future prospect of dental hygienist (p < 0.01).

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.44 no.12
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• pp.1865-1872
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• 2015

This study attempted to investigate consumer perceptions and attitudes towards reducing sugar intake by providing data to develop guidelines for the government and food-related industries to encourage Korean consumers to maintain appropriate levels of sugar intake. A survey was conducted on 238 adult consumers regarding their purchasing power for products with high sugar content in Seoul and Bundang, Gyeonggi area from September 1~30, 2013. Nutritional information on sugary products had a greater impact than media and others' recommendations on consumer awareness regarding need to reduce sugar intake. External factors such as health and weight control were stronger reasons for consuming reduced amounts of sugar or sugar-free products than internal factors such as sweetness. However, internal factors-such as taste-did not have a greater effect on consuming reduced amounts of sugar or sugar-free products than environmental factors-such as absence of purchase channels. Consumers indicated higher acceptance for 50% reduction in sweetness of existing commercial products. Regarding methods of lowering sugar intake, sugar replacement and reducing sugar consumption both generally and at home were preferred. In addition, consumers were likely to pay 10~14% more for sugar-reduced products than for existing products. Overall, consumers expressed positive attitudes towards reducing sugar intake in the future, although those in their twenties tended to be more passive than other age groups.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.307-331
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• 2008

The CEO and the Corporate Image is considered very important in the aspect of marketing. The fact that CEO image itself influences the company or value of the product directly and indirectly has been verified through many cases. Recently, the differentiation of products and services between companies became difficult because the disparity in technique between companies retrenched. As a result, the rate of people who decide to purchase or invest their money based on the corporate image or reputation has been increased. Also in the knowledge society like today, the talented employees are the company's customer and the company's necessity for managing those brains of marketing perspective on how to satisfy and attract the customers is being embossed. The Fashion industry is one of the most value-added industry and in those value-added businesses, the most important factor is the human resources' knowledge power. However the study of the relationships among the CEO image, the corporate image and employment brand value in fashion industry has not been carried out yet. This research considers that dynamic relationship exists among the CEO image, corporate image and employment brand value that affects a company's main goal of pursuing benefits and intends to investigate the relationships of the three concepts. The specific purposes of this study were, 1) to analyze the impact of CEO image on a corporate image, 2) to analyze the impact of corporate image on employment brand value, 3) to analyze the impact of CEO image on employment brand value, 4) to analyze whether corporate image plays a mediating role in the relationship between CEO image and employment brand value or not. A survey design with a structured questionnaire was employed for this research. A convenience sample of 398 subjects was selected from two groups, which are university students majoring in fashion and practitioners working in fashion industry. For the data analysis, descriptive statistic (i.e., frequency, percentage), factor analysis, and multiple regression analysis were used by utilizing SPSS 12.0 for Windows program. The results for this research are as follows, first, the study of the impact of CEO image (i.e., Managerial Competence, Reliability/Leadership, Personal Attractiveness) on corporate image (i.e., Product Image, Corporate Social Responsibility Image, Corporate Cultural Image) brought conclusion that the CEO image generally affected the corporate image in fashion industry. Managerial Competence and Reliability/Leadership affected Product Image, Corporate Social Responsibility Image and Corporate Cultural Image. However, while CEO's Personal Attractiveness affected Product Image and Corporate Social Responsibility Image, it did not affect Corporate Cultural Image. Second, the study of the impact of corporate image on employment brand value brought conclusion that corporate image (i.e., Product Image, Corporate Social Responsibility Image, Corporate Cultural Image) affected employment brand value. Corporate Cultural Image affected employment brand value the most and then the Corporate Social Responsibility Image and Product Image. Third, the study of the impact of CEO image on employment brand value brought conclusion that CEO image (i.e., Managerial Competence, Reliability/Leadership, Personal Attractiveness) affected the employment brand value. CEO's Reliability/Leadership affected the employment brand value the most and then CEO's Personal Attractiveness and CEO's Managerial Competence. Forth, the study examined whether corporate image plays a mediating role in relationship of CEO image and employment brand value and concluded that it does. Corporate image played a full mediating role between CEO's Managerial Competence and employment brand value while it played a partial mediating role between CEO's Reliability/Leadership and CEO's Personal Attractiveness. This study is meaningful in a sense that it examines the relationship among the CEO image, corporate image and employment brand value which has not been carried out yet in fashion industry. It will ultimately contribute to the success of a fashion company by providing useful information of establishing strategies for managing proper the CEO and the corporate image to the fashion company and operating the talented employees.