• Title/Summary/Keyword: Self-Service Technology

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Impacts of R&D and Smallness of Scale on the Total Factor Productivity by Industry (R&D와 규모의 영세성이 산업별 총요소생산성에 미치는 영향)

  • Kim, Jung-Hwan;Lee, Dong-Ki;Lee, Bu-Hyung;Joo, Won
    • Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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    • v.2 no.4
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    • pp.71-102
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    • 2007
  • There were many comprehensive analyses conducted within the existing research activities wherein factors affecting technology progress including investment in R&D vis-${\Box}$-vis their influences act as the determinants of TFP. Note, however, that there were few comprehensive analysis in the industrial research performed regarding the impact of the economy of scale as it affects TFP; most of these research studies dealt with the analysis of the non -parametric Malmquist productivity index or used the stochastic frontier production function models. No comprehensive analysis on the impacts of individual independent variables affecting TFP was performed. Therefore, this study obtained the TFP increase rate of each industry by analyzing the factors of the existing growth accounting equation and comprehensively analyzed the TFP determinants by constructing a comprehensive analysis model considering the investment in R&D and economy of scale (smallness by industry) as the influencers of TFP by industry. First, for the TFP increase rate of the 15 industries as a whole, the annual average increase rate for 1993${\sim}$ 1997 was approximately 3.8% only; during 1999${\sim}$ 2000 following the foreign exchange crisis, however, the annual increase rate rose to approximately 7.8%. By industry, the annual average increase rate of TFP between 1993 and 2000 stood at 11.6%, the highest in the electrical and electronic equipment manufacturing business and IT manufacturing sector. In contrast, a -0.4% increase rate was recorded in the furniture and other product manufacturing sectors. In the case of the service industry, the TFP increase rate was 7.3% in the transportation, warehousing, and communication sectors. This is much higher than the 2.9% posted in the electricity, water, and gas sectors and -3.7% recorded in the wholesale, food, and hotel businesses. The results of the comprehensive analysis conducted on the determinants of TFP showed that the correlations between R&D and TFP in general were positive (+) correlations whose significance has yet to be validated; in the model where the self-employed and unpaid family workers were used as proxy variables indicating the smallness of industry out of the total number of workers, however, significant negative (-) correlations were noted. On the other hand, the estimation factors of variables surrogating the smallness of scale in each industry showed that a consistently high "smallness of scale" in an industry means a decrease in the increase rate of TFP in the same industry.

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A Study on the Development of Assessment Index for Catastrophic Incident Warning Sign at Refinery and Pertrochemical Plants (정유 및 석유화학플랜트 중대사고 전조신호 평가지표 개발에 관한 연구)

  • Yun, Yong Jin;Park, Dal Jae
    • Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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    • v.57 no.5
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    • pp.637-651
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    • 2019
  • In the event of a major accident such as an explosion in a refinery or a petrochemical plant, it has caused a serious loss of life and property and has had a great impact on the insurance market. In the case of catastrophic incidents occurring in process industries such as refinery and petrochemical plants, only the proximate causes of loss have been drawn and studied from inspectors or claims adjustors responsible for claims of property insurers, incident cause investigators, and national forensic service workers. However, it has not been done well for conducting root cause analysis (RCA) and identifying the factors that contributed to the failure and establishing preventive measures before leading to chemical plant's catastrophic incidents. In this study, the criteria of warning signs on CCPS catastrophic incident waning sign self-assessment tool which was derived through the RCA method and the contribution factor analysis method using the swiss cheese model principle has been reviewed first. Secondly, in order to determine the major incident warning signs in an actual chemical plant, 614 recommendations which have been issued during last the 17 years by loss control engineers of global reinsurers were analyzed. Finally, in order to facilitate the assessment index for catastrophic incident warning signs, the criteria for the catastrophic incident warning sign index at chemical plants were grouped by type and classified into upper category and lower category. Then, a catastrophic incident warning sign index for a chemical plant was developed using the weighted values of each category derived by applying the analytic hierarchy process (pairwise comparison method) through a questionnaire answered by relevant experts of the chemical plant. It is expected that the final 'assessment index for catastrophic incident warning signs' can be utilized by the refinery and petrochemical plant's internal as well as external auditors to assess vulnerability levels related to incident warning signs, and identify the elements of incident warning signs that need to be tracked and managed to prevent the occurrence of serious incidents in the future.

The Exploration of New Business Areas in the Age of Economic Transformation : a Case of Korean 'Hidden Champions' (Small and Medium Niche Enterprises (경제구조 전환기에서 새로운 비즈니스 영역의 창출 : 강소기업의 성공함정과 신시장 개척)

  • Lee, Jangwoo
    • Korean small business review
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    • v.31 no.1
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    • pp.73-88
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    • 2009
  • This study examines the characteristics of 24 Korean hidden champions such as key success factors, core competences, strategic problems, and desirable future directions. The study categorized them into 8 types with Danny Miller's four trajectories and top manager's decision making style(rationality and passion). Danny Miller argued in his book, Icarus paradox, that outstanding firms will extend their orientations until they reach dangerous extremes and their momentum will result in common trajectories of decline. He suggested four very common success types: Craftsmen, Builders, Pioneers, Salesmen. He also suggested common trajectories of decline:Focusing(from Craftsmen to Tinkers), Venturing(from Builders to Imperialists), Inventing(from Pioneers to Escapists), Decoupling(from Salesmen to Drifts). In Korea, successful startups appear to possess three kinds of drive: Technology-drive, Vision-drive, Market-drive. Successful technology-driven firms tend to grow as craftsmen or pioneers. Successful vision-driven and market-driven ones tend to grow as builders and salesmen respectively. Korean top managers or founders seem to have two kinds of decision making style: Passion-based and Rationality-bases. Passion-based(passionate) entrepreneurs are biased towards action or proactiveness in competing and getting things done. Rationality- based ones tend to emphasis the effort devoted to scanning and analysing information to better understand a company's threats, opportunities and options. Consequently this study suggested 4*2 types of Korean hidden champions: (1) passionate craftsmen, (2) rational craftsmen, (3) passionate builders, (4) rational builders, (5) passionate pioneers, (6) rational pioneers, (7) passionate salesmen, (8) rational salesmen. These 8 type firms showed different success stories and appeared to possess different trajectories of decline. These hidden champions have acquired competitive advantage within domestic or globally niche markets in spite of the weak market power and lack of internal resources. They have maintained their sustainable competitiveness by utilizing three types of growth strategy; (1) penetrating into the global market, (2) exploring new service market, (3) occupying the domestic market. According to the types of growth strategy, these firms showed different financial outcomes and possessed different issues for maintaining their competitiveness. This study found that Korean hidden champions were facing serious challenges from the transforming economic structure these days and possessed the decline potential from their success momentum or self-complacence. It argues that they need to take a new growth engine not to decline in the turbulent environment. It also discusses how firms overcome the economic crisis and find a new business area in promising industries for the future. It summarized the recent policy of Korean government called as "Green Growth" and discussed how small firms utilize such benefits and supports from the government. Other implications for firm strategies and governmental policies were discussed.

A Study on the Buyer's Decision Making Models for Introducing Intelligent Online Handmade Services (지능형 온라인 핸드메이드 서비스 도입을 위한 구매자 의사결정모형에 관한 연구)

  • Park, Jong-Won;Yang, Sung-Byung
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.22 no.1
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    • pp.119-138
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    • 2016
  • Since the Industrial Revolution, which made the mass production and mass distribution of standardized goods possible, machine-made (manufactured) products have accounted for the majority of the market. However, in recent years, the phenomenon of purchasing even more expensive handmade products has become a noticeable trend as consumers have started to acknowledge the value of handmade products, such as the craftsman's commitment, belief in their quality and scarcity, and the sense of self-esteem from having them,. Consumer interest in these handmade products has shown explosive growth and has been coupled with the recent development of three-dimensional (3D) printing technologies. Etsy.com is the world's largest online handmade platform. It is no different from any other online platform; it provides an online market where buyers and sellers virtually meet to share information and transact business. However, Etsy.com is different in that shops within this platform only deal with handmade products in a variety of categories, ranging from jewelry to toys. Since its establishment in 2005, despite being limited to handmade products, Etsy.com has enjoyed rapid growth in membership, transaction volume, and revenue. Most recently in April 2015, it raised funds through an initial public offering (IPO) of more than 1.8 billion USD, which demonstrates the huge potential of online handmade platforms. After the success of Etsy.com, various types of online handmade platforms such as Handmade at Amazon, ArtFire, DaWanda, and Craft is ART have emerged and are now competing with each other, at the same time, which has increased the size of the market. According to Deloitte's 2015 holiday survey on which types of gifts the respondents plan to buy during the holiday season, about 16% of U.S. consumers chose "homemade or craft items (e.g., Etsy purchase)," which was the same rate as those for the computer game and shoes categories. This indicates that consumer interests in online handmade platforms will continue to rise in the future. However, this high interest in the market for handmade products and their platforms has not yet led to academic research. Most extant studies have only focused on machine-made products and intelligent services for them. This indicates a lack of studies on handmade products and their intelligent services on virtual platforms. Therefore, this study used signaling theory and prior research on the effects of sellers' characteristics on their performance (e.g., total sales and price premiums) in the buyer-seller relationship to identify the key influencing e-Image factors (e.g., reputation, size, information sharing, and length of relationship). Then, their impacts on the performance of shops within the online handmade platform were empirically examined; the dataset was collected from Etsy.com through the application of web harvesting technology. The results from the structural equation modeling revealed that the reputation, size, and information sharing have significant effects on the total sales, while the reputation and length of relationship influence price premiums. This study extended the online platform research into online handmade platform research by identifying key influencing e-Image factors on within-platform shop's total sales and price premiums based on signaling theory and then performed a statistical investigation. These findings are expected to be a stepping stone for future studies on intelligent online handmade services as well as handmade products themselves. Furthermore, the findings of the study provide online handmade platform operators with practical guidelines on how to implement intelligent online handmade services. They should also help shop managers build their marketing strategies in a more specific and effective manner by suggesting key influencing e-Image factors. The results of this study should contribute to the vitalization of intelligent online handmade services by providing clues on how to maximize within-platform shops' total sales and price premiums.

A Study on the Utilization Level of Traditional Medicine by Residents - On the basis of Use of Folk Medical Techniques - (주민(住民)의 전통의술(傳統醫術) 이용도(利用度) 조사연구(調査硏究) - 민속요법(民俗療法) 이용(利用)을 중심(中心) 으로 -)

  • Kim, Jin-Soon
    • Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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    • v.13 no.1
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    • pp.3-18
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    • 1988
  • The general objective of this research is to study behavioral pattern of health care utilization and to measure the level of utilization of the traditional medicine. The specific objective is to study utilization pattern and content of folk medicine which is the indegenous medical technology recognized part of traditional medicine. This research was under taken to generate valid information that will provide basis data for formulating general direction for health education activities and for designing service package for general population. A social survey method was employed to obtain required information for the research activities, The survey field team consisted of 20 surveyors who all participated is an intensive 2 day training course. A total of 3091 households were visited and interviewed by the field team during the period 7 September to 6 October 1987. The major findings obtained from the information collected by the field survey are as follows ; 1) General characteristics of the study households 2562 households out of 3091 households visited were selected for final data process, 80.2 of the selected households were nuclear families ; 17.4%, extended families ; others 2.4%. Only 4.3 percent of the study population in the urban households indicated "no schooling" whereas 14.2% of the rural household members falls within this category. Study population in the urban areas are more protected against diseases by the national medical insurance system than those in rural areas. In their self appraisal of living standard, those who responded with low group are 39.6% and 50.3% respectively by urban and rural households. 2) Morbidity status Period prevalence rate for all diseases during the preceding 15 days before the date of the household interview v as 243,0 per 1,000 study population. For cases with the illness duration of within 15 days, the initial points of medical entry were diversied ; 56.9%, drug stores ; 30.9%, clinics and hospitals ; 4.6% folk medicine ; 1.7% clinics of Korean oriental medicine. Among the chronic case; with illness duration of over 90 days, 34.6% of these people utilized clinics and hospitals of modern medicine ; 31.6%, drug stores ; 18.6% clinics of Korean oriental medicine ; 6.8% folk medical techniques. Noticeable is the almost ten fold increase from the mere 0.9% in the utilization of Korean oriental medicine, whereas in the utilization of folk medicine, it is short of two-fold increase. 3) Folk medicine and its utilization Households that use folk medicine for relief and care of signs and symptoms commonly encountered in daily life, number 1969 households, which accounts for 76.9% of all the study households. This rather high level use of folk medicine is not different from rural to urban areas. The order of frequency of utilizing folk medicine among the study people are : the highest 14.3% for the relief of indigestion ; 8.6% for burns ; 5.1% for common cold ; 4.7% for hiccough ; and 4.2% for hordeolum. A present various procedures of folk medicine is being used to relieve all kinds of symptoms. 192 symptoms are identified at present. The most frequently used procedures of folk medicine appear to be based either on principles of the Korean oriental medicine or of scientific knowledge. Based on these survey findings, proposals for utilizing folk medicine are as follows First, this survey's findings will be feed back to both on the job training and on the spot guidance of community health practitioners, public health nurses and other peripheral work force in the health field, who are in daily contacts with community. This feed back will assure that the health personnel carry out their health education and information activities that are based on the utilization pattern of folk medicine as found in the survey result. Second, studies will be soon implemented that are designed to measure the efficiency and potency of these procedures and to improve these procedures of folk medicine were most frequently used by the community. Third, studies will continue to systematize medicinal plants and skills of Korean oriental medicine that are easily available at minimal cost in daily life for the prevention of diseases and management of emergency cases.

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Consumption and Preference for Bokbunja (Rubus coreanus Miquel) Products (복분자 제품에 대한 기호도 및 이용실태 조사)

  • Lee, Jeong-Ae;Park, Geum-Soon
    • Korean journal of food and cookery science
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    • v.27 no.3
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    • pp.11-20
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    • 2011
  • The purpose of this study was to investigate the use and perception of adults concerning bokbunja (Rubus coreanus Miquel) products. Self-administered questionnaires were collected from 502 residents in the Daegu and Gyeongbuk area. According to the survey more females in their 20s responded than males (45.2 and 54.8%, respectively). In total, 82.6% of respondents had an income of under 4,000,000 won per month and most were living in the city. The results regarding knowledge about bokbunja products showed that the bokbunja wine score was highest (3.66), and intake frequency showed that over half of the respondents had never eaten bokbunja products. The preference for bokbunja wine by males was higher than that for females, whereas the others products showed higher scores for females than for males. When asked about how they knew about bokbunja products, 37.0% of males and 46.9% of females responded a family member or neighbor. When purchasing bokbunja products, males and females answered that they considered taste, country of origin, and manufacturer, and price. Approximately 48% of the respondents answered that they purchased bokbunja products in the grocery and department store. As a result, popularization of bokbunja products was based on product development and sales promotion, and the product development factor significantly influenced preference for bokbunja products.

A study on the state of inservice education for dental hygienists and their relevant awareness (치과위생사의 보수교육 실태 및 인식에 관한 연구)

  • Jung, Jae-Yeon;Kim, Kyung-Mi;Cho, Myung-Sook;Ahn, Geum-Sun;Song, Kyoung-Hee;Choi, Hye-Jung;Choi, Youn-Seon;Hwang, Yoon-Sook
    • Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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    • v.7 no.1
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    • pp.73-89
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    • 2007
  • The purpose of this study was to examine the reality of inservice education provided to members of Korean Dental Hygienists Association, the state of relevant academic conferences, and the perception of the members about inservice education and academic conference. It's basically meant to help boost their participation in inservice education and their satisfaction with it, and to show some of the right directions for that. The subjects in this study were dental hygienists who attended a symposium on July 1, 2006. After a survey was conducted, the answer sheets from 489 participants were analyzed, and the findings of the study were as follows: 1. General hospitals and university hospitals made up the largest group(91.4%) that gave a monthly leave of absence, and the second largest group was dental hospitals(75.4%), followed by dental clinics(58.3%) and public dental clinics(48.0%). The most common closing time in dental clinics and dental hospitals was 5 p.m., and that was 12 p.m. in general hospitals and university hospitals. The dental hygienists in public dental clinics didn't work on Saturdays. By type of workplace, treatment was the most common duty for the dental hygienists in dental clinics and dental hospitals to perform, and those who worked at general hospitals, university hospitals and public health clinics were in charge of extensive range of jobs. 2. The rates of the dental hygienists who took that education stood at 94.9% in public dental clinics, 78.7% in dental hospitals and 75.3% in dental clinics, general hospitals and university hospitals. Regarding how many marks they got on an yearly basis, those who got eight marks or more made up the largest group(55.6%), followed by four marks or more(11.8%), six marks or more(3.4%), and two marks or more(1.5%). As for the usefulness of inservice education for their job performance, the largest number of the dental hygienists(40.8%) found it to be helpful, and the second greatest group(37.5%) considered its effectiveness to be so-so. The third largest group(8.4%) found it to be of great use, and the fourth biggest group(4.2%) considered it to be of no service. The fifth biggest group(l.3%) thought it was absolutely useless. By type of workplace, the workers in dental clinics, dental hospitals, general hospitals and university hospitals wanted the most to learn how to take care of clinical work(acquisition of up-to-date technology), and those in public health clinics hoped the most to learn about public dental health. By type of workplace, the workers in dental clinics had their sight set on self-development the most, and the dental hygienists in dental hospitals, general hospitals, university hospitals and public health clinics were most in pursuit of acquiring new knowledge. By type of workplace, the specific given conditions at work were most singled out by the dental clinic workers as the reason, and the dental hospital employees pointed out time constraints the most. The dental hygienists in general hospitals and university hospitals cited time constraints and financial burden the most, and the public health clinic personnels mentioned inaccessibility of a place for inservice education as the reason. 3. The public health clinic workers participated in academic conferences the most(90.8%), followed by the general and university hospital personnels(68.8%), dental hospital employees(65.6%) and dental clinic workers(65.5%). By type of workplace, the public health clinic workers(73.5%) expressed the most satisfaction, followed by the general and university hospital employees(67.7%), dental clinic workers(62.3%) and dental hospital personnels(54.1%). By type of workplace, the employees of dental clinics, dental hospitals, general hospitals and university hospitals preferred Saturdays, and the public health clinic workers had a liking for weekdays. As for a favored place, hotels were most preferred, followed by university hospitals, general hospitals, college lecture rooms, district halls and local public institutions. Hotels were most favored regardless of the type of workplace. 4. Regarding outlook on inservice education, they had the highest opinion on the facilities and given conditions of lecture rooms($3.41{\pm}0.83$), followed by the professionalism of lecturers($3.34{\pm}0.83$), procedures of receipt and attendance confirmation($3.34{\pm}0.83$) and class size($3.13{\pm}0.89$). On the contrary, they took the most dismal view of the inaccessibility of a place of inservice education($2.08{\pm}0.92$), followed by limited opportunity and limited date for that education($2.51{\pm}0.99$), extra financial burden($2.53{\pm}1.18$) and high tuition fee($2.57{\pm}0.96$).

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An Analysis of the Roles of Experience in Information System Continuance (정보시스템의 지속적 사용에서 경험의 역할에 대한 분석)

  • Lee, Woong-Kyu
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.21 no.4
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    • pp.45-62
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    • 2011
  • The notion of information systems (IS) continuance has recently emerged as one of the most important research issues in the field of IS. A great deal of research has been conducted thus far on the basis of theories adapted from various disciplines including consumer behaviors and social psychology, in addition to theories regarding information technology (IT) acceptance. This previous body of knowledge provides a robust research framework that can already account for the determination of IS continuance; however, this research points to other, thus-far-unelucidated determinant factors such as habit, which were not included in traditional IT acceptance frameworks, and also re-emphasizes the importance of emotion-related constructs such as satisfaction in addition to conscious intention with rational beliefs such as usefulness. Experiences should also be considered one of the most important factors determining the characteristics of information system (IS) continuance and the features distinct from those determining IS acceptance, because more experienced users may have more opportunities for IS use, which would allow them more frequent use than would be available to less experienced or non-experienced users. Interestingly, experience has dual features that may contradictorily influence IS use. On one hand, attitudes predicated on direct experience have been shown to predict behavior better than attitudes from indirect experience or without experience; as more information is available, direct experience may render IS use a more salient behavior, and may also make IS use more accessible via memory. Therefore, experience may serve to intensify the relationship between IS use and conscious intention with evaluations, On the other hand, experience may culminate in the formation of habits: greater experience may also imply more frequent performance of the behavior, which may lead to the formation of habits, Hence, like experience, users' activation of an IS may be more dependent on habit-that is, unconscious automatic use without deliberation regarding the IS-and less dependent on conscious intentions, Furthermore, experiences can provide basic information necessary for satisfaction with the use of a specific IS, thus spurring the formation of both conscious intentions and unconscious habits, Whereas IT adoption Is a one-time decision, IS continuance may be a series of users' decisions and evaluations based on satisfaction with IS use. Moreover. habits also cannot be formed without satisfaction, even when a behavior is carried out repeatedly. Thus, experiences also play a critical role in satisfaction, as satisfaction is the consequence of direct experiences of actual behaviors. In particular, emotional experiences such as enjoyment can become as influential on IS use as are utilitarian experiences such as usefulness; this is especially true in light of the modern increase in membership-based hedonic systems - including online games, web-based social network services (SNS), blogs, and portals-all of which attempt to provide users with self-fulfilling value. Therefore, in order to understand more clearly the role of experiences in IS continuance, analysis must be conducted under a research framework that includes intentions, habits, and satisfaction, as experience may not only have duration-based moderating effects on the relationship between both intention and habit and the activation of IS use, but may also have content-based positive effects on satisfaction. This is consistent with the basic assumptions regarding the determining factors in IS continuance as suggested by Oritz de Guinea and Markus: consciousness, emotion, and habit. The principal objective of this study was to explore and assess the effects of experiences in IS continuance, with special consideration given to conscious intentions and unconscious habits, as well as satisfaction. IN service of this goal, along with a review of the relevant literature regarding the effects of experiences and habit on continuous IS use, this study suggested a research model that represents the roles of experience: its moderating role in the relationships of IS continuance with both conscious intention and unconscious habit, and its antecedent role in the development of satisfaction. For the validation of this research model. Korean university student users of 'Cyworld', one of the most influential social network services in South Korea, were surveyed, and the data were analyzed via partial least square (PLS) analysis to assess the implications of this study. In result most hypotheses in our research model were statistically supported with the exception of one. Although one hypothesis was not supported, the study's findings provide us with some important implications. First the role of experience in IS continuance differs from its role in IS acceptance. Second, the use of IS was explained by the dynamic balance between habit and intention. Third, the importance of satisfaction was confirmed from the perspective of IS continuance with experience.