• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.85-100
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• 2008

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) funded collaborative project on The Economic Feasibility Analysis of Crop Cultivation Practice Project in Pirganj and Kurigram Districts in Bangladesh will started during 2008-2012, for 4 years with total project cost of US$ 571,270. The project will be implemented in 6 villages; has 1,097 hectares areas which is divided into 948 hectares of agricultural land, 52 hectares of forest land and 345 hectares of other land, covered 1,059 households equal to 5,305 persons in Pirganj and Kurigram districts The project has proposed to be implemented in joint collaboration by Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC), Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) and Rangpur Dinajpur Rural Service (RDRS) Bangladesh with full participation of the farmers' groups of respective project site. The specific objectives of the project are: (1) to estimate the productivity of paddy, wheat, maize, tobacco and sugarcane (2) to determine the cost of production and returns to the above mentioned crops (3) to study the interrelationship between inputs and output of the above mentioned crops and (4) to examine the resource utilization patterns at farm level. In this project analysis, the net incremental profit is US$33,028. The expected incremental project benefit and incremented production cost are estimated as US$ 219,959 and US$ 186,931 respectively. The financial decision making criteria would be followed in this crop cultivation practice project. After the project implementation, the expected project benefits are assumed to be continued for 15 years. The benefit cost ratio (B/C) of the project is estimated at 1.077 (table 11) when using discount rate of 10% as an opportunity cost of capital in Bangladesh. FIRR of project is estimated at 26.15% which is bigger than the opportunity cost by more than double. So this project is financially feasible and acceptable. Therefore, this project should be extended to other areas to increase the farm income and economic growth of marginal poor farmers in Bangladesh.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.191-217
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• 2014

The Purpose of this study is to find the effect factors of R&D investment in SMEs which plays an important role in the national economy, and the differences of the effect factors by the type of SMEs. The subject of this study is about 3,400 SMEs mentioned in "The survey of technical statistics on SMEs in 2007" by Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business. The effect factors are related with the size of business, the infrastructure of R&D and the activities of R&D which have been studied by many researchers. The methods of analysis are regression analysis, moderating effect analysis and the software package used is SPSS 12.0. The results of the study are as fallow. First, it was found that unlike in previous studies which show the effect of the elements of business's size, research infrastructure, research activities on R&D investment, one element alone can't be considered for meaningful result but the various elements have effect on R&D investment at the same time. In other words, the number of employees and the sales as the elements of business's size, the ratio of researchers, the technical ability, the ratio of equipment possession and the intellectual properties as the elements of R&D infrastructure, the activity of ideas and joint research as the elements of R&D activities have positive(+) effect, whereas the participation of CEO in the activity of R&D as the elements of R&D activities activity has negative(-) one. The number of employees, the ratio of researchers, and the sales had relatively high influence whereas equipment possession, technical ability, intellectual properties, the participation of CEO in the research, the activity of idea, joint research had relatively low influence. Next, it was also found that there are differences of the effect factors over the types of SMEs. SMEs were classified into 19 types by eight criteria such as start-ups and existing business by business age; small business and medium business by size; manufacturing business and service business by product type;independent business and subcontractor business by dealing type; businesses in the entering, growing, maturing and restructuring stage by growth stage; businesses with low, medium and high technology by technological level; pioneering business and non-pioneering business by industrial type; and businesses with state-of-the-art technology and non-advanced business by the level of business activities. The meaning of this study lies in the fact that it found the various effect factors should be considered at the same time when conducting study on SMEs' R&D investment, and the differences by the type should be acknowledged. This study surpassed the limitations of the previous studies which focused on a couple of factors and types. This study result can also be considered for other studies on achievement, organization, marketing and others. Moreover, it shows that a differential policy by business type is needed when formulating SME policy.

• Culinary science and hospitality research
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.1-15
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• 2012

This study analyzed the influence of the quality of medicinal food on perceived values, repurchase intention and recommendation intention. The objective of this study is to suggest the efficient operating direction for specialized medicinal food restaurants to grow as an axis of the food service industry by showing the future direction of medicinal food and establishing marketing strategies to maintain/secure customers. From June 15th to July 2nd, 2009, the survey was conducted for the customers of medicinal food restaurants, located in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do. After distributing 250 copies of questionnaire, 195 of them were collected and total 192 were used for the analysis after excluding three copies due to lack of showing sincerity. The analysis results of this study can be summarized as follows. First, the quality of medicinal food was found to have a significant influence on 'functional value(t=5.519)' while having no influence on 'social value.' Second, the 'nutritional quality' of medicinal food was analyzed as having a significant influence on 'social value(t=10.954)' and 'functional value'(t=8.237).' Third, the 'medicinal quality' of medicinal food was analyzed as having no significant influence on 'social value(t=1.191)' and 'functional value(t=0.022).' Fourth, it was found that 'social value' had a significant influence on repurchase intention(t=9.743) and recommendation intention(t=9.154). Fifth, the functional value was analyzed as having a significant influence on repurchase intention(t=7.895) and recommendation intention(t=8.143). The results of the empirical analysis shown in this study properly support the theoretical standard system to achieve successful performance and useful information necessary for systematic operation of specialized medicinal food restaurants.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2010

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate supply factors of urban parks to answer the research question: What are the causal effects of supply factors of urban parks on visitor satisfaction? After reviewing the literature and the Korean park planning process, we constructed a conceptual framework and have formulated the hypothesis of this research. We had obtained data through a questionnaire, which surveyed 452 visitors at 8 urban parks in Daegu Metropolitan City in 2008, based on a stratified sampling method. After the elimination of 96 unsuitable samples, we have analyzed the data using descriptive statistical methods, Pearson's correlation analysis and a path analysis method. We have found that: 1) While the direct and indirect effect of accessibility(ACC) on visitor satisfaction(VS) turned out to be 0.184 and 0.220, respectively, the indirect effect of information(IFM) and promotion(PRM) on VS turned out to be 0.101 and 0.177, respectively. 2) While the direct and indirect effect of service(SVR) on VS turned out to be 0.130 and 0.236, respectively, the direct effect of ACC turned out to be 0.698. 3) While the direct effect of ACC, SVR and attraction(ATT) on VS turned out to be 0.184, 0.130 and 0.698, respectively, composing 67.96% of causal effect, the indirect effect of ACC, IFM, PRM and SVR on VS turned out to be 0.220, 0.101, 0.177 and 0.236, respectively, composing 42.04% of causal effect. 4) The magnitude of causal effect of supply factors on VS turned out to be ATT(39.98%), ACC(23.14%), SVR(20.96%), PRM(10.14%) and IFM(5.78%) in order, and 5) the causal effect of external supply factors of ACC, IFM and PRM compose 39.06% of the causal effect while that of the internal supply factors of SVR and ATT is 69.94%. The research results suggest that: 1) Planning for park marketing strategy and remedial directions for existing urban parks, in order to increase visitor satisfaction, be focused on IFM and PRM, especially. 2) The research approach and path analysis method adopted by this research be valid and highly useful for planning and evaluation of other recreation areas. It is recommended that: 1) Structural Equation Model on supply factors of urban parks be established in the future. 2) Evaluation of supply factors by type of urban park be performed.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.133-146
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• 2012

University dining services have received less attention than commercial food services or other institutional food services. Marketing practitioners and researchers recognize the major impact that perceived value has on consumer behavior. The mediating role of value has not been verified in relation to satisfaction in university dining establishments, including Korea. This study intends to investigate the relationships among value, satisfaction and revisit intention of university dining attributes. This study also examines whether university dining service attributes dimensions influence value. Further, this study verifies the role of value as a mediator in the formation of customer satisfaction and revisit intention. Structural Equation Modeling has been applied to the collected data from students of three universities in Korea. The study resulted in that university dining attributes, such as food, menu and convenience, positively affected value of the university dining services. Further analysis with examination of indirect effects confirmed the positive impact of value on satisfaction in university dining services. This study verified the mediating role of value on satisfaction as student's satisfaction is enhanced through the elevation of value of university food services. Enhanced satisfaction via value also led to improvement in revisit intention. This study contributes to the academia by verifying the mediating role of value in the formation of customer satisfaction in a university dining context. This study also offers practical implications to the industry, such as suggestions on developing strategies for value-added products and services to the university dining establishments. This value research for university dining services is also meaningful by triggering future research on market segmentation, product differentiation and positioning policies. In the long run, improving value and satisfaction with university dining services need to be realized to enhance overall college experiences and other competitive advantages, such as student recruitment and enrollment, student academic evaluations, and university reputation.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.47-57
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• 2005

To investigate the characteristics of edible flowers as a food material, we have examined the kinds, colors, sizes, fresh weights, pigments and shipping periods of edible flowers marketed on the cropping farms, selling agencies and Internet shopping malls from February through September, 2005. Thirty six kinds of edible flowers were marketed in Korea, and all but the chrysanthemum were introduced species. The characteristics of edible flowers were shown differently by the varieties following the same kinds of flowers. Those colors were yellow (twenty five kinds), red (twenty three), pink (twenty), white (eighteen), and orange (sixteen). Flower diameters were measured and showed that seven kinds of edible flowers were 1.0 to 2.0cm, fourteen 2.0 to 3.0cm, sixteen 3.0 to 4.0cm, eight 4.0 to 5.0cm, and nine over 5.0cm. Flower fresh weights were measured as follows: twenty one kinds of edible flowers were under 0.5g ($58.3\%$), eight were $0.6\∼1.0g(22.2\%$), and six were $1.1{\∼}1.5g(16.7\%$). The taste of edible flowers was often bitter (twenty one kinds), sweet and sour (seven), somewhat fragrant (six), fishy (three), and others (nine). The pigments of edible flowers were anthoxanthin (twenty seven kinds), flavonoid (twenty three), carotenoid (seventeen), and betanidin (four).

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.1-23
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• 2016

Purpose Self-congruity deals with the effect of symbolic value-expressive attributes on consumer decision and behavior, which is the theoretical foundation of the "non-utilitarian destination positioning". Functional congruity refers to utilitarian evaluation of a product or service by consumers. In addition, recent years, social network services, especially mobile social network services have created many opportunities for e-WOM communication that enables consumers to share personal consumption related information anywhere at any time. Moreover, self-construal is a hot and popular topic that has been discussed in the field of modem psychology as well as in marketing area. This study aims to examine the moderating effect of self-construal on the relationship between self-congruity, functional congruity and tourists' positive electronic word of mouth (e-WOM). Design/methodology/approach In order to verify the hypotheses, we developed a questionnaire with 32 survey items. We measured all the items on a five-point Likert-type scale. We used Sojump.com to collect questionnaire and gathered 218 responses from whom have visited Korea before. After a pilot test, we analyzed the main survey data by using SPSS 20.0 and AMOS 18.0, and employed structural equation modeling to test the hypotheses. We first estimated the measurement model for its overall fit, reliability and validity through a confirmatory factor analysis and used common method bias test to make sure that whether measures are affected by common-method variance. Then we tested the hypotheses through the structural model and used regression analysis to measure moderating effect of self-construal. Findings The results reveal that the effect of self-congruity on tourists' positive e-WOM is stronger for tourists with an independent self-construal compared with those with interdependent self-construal. Moreover, it shows that the effect of functional congruity on tourists' positive e-WOM becomes salient when tourists' self-construal is primed to be interdependent rather than independent. We expect that the results of this study can provide important implications for academic and practical perspective.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.22
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• pp.137-165
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• 2007

It seems high time to increase productivity by adopting e-business to overcome challenges posed by both external factors including the appreciation of Korean won, oil hikes and fierce global competition and domestic issues represented by disparities between large corporations and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), Seoul metropolitan and local cities, and export and domestic demand all of which weaken future growth engines in the Korean economy. The demands of the globalization era are for innovative changes in businessprocess and industrial structure aiming for creating new values. To this end, e-business is expected to play a core role in the sophistication of the Korean economy through new values and innovation. In order to examine business performance in e-business-adopting industries, this study analyzed the home shopping industry by closely looking into the financial ratios including the ratio of net profit to sales, the ratio of operation income to sales, the ratio of gross cost to sales cost, the ratio of gross cost to selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expense, and return of investment (ROI). This study, for best outcome, referred to corporate financial statements as a main resource to calculate financial ratios by utilizing Data Analysis, Retrieval and Transfer System (DART) of the Financial Supervisory Service, one of the Korea's financial supervisory authorities. First of all, the result of the trend analysis on the ratio of net profit to sales is as following. CJ Home Shopping has registered a remarkable increase in its ratio of net profit rate to sales since 2002 while its competitors find it hard to catch up with CJ's stunning performances. This is partly due to the efficient management compared to CJ's value of capital. Such significance, if the current trend continues, will make the front-runner assume the largest market share. On the other hand, GS Home Shopping, despite its best organized system and largest value of capital among others, lacks efficiency in management. Second of all, the result of the trend analysis on the ratio of operation income to sales is as following. Both CJ Home Shopping and GS Home Shopping have, until 2004, recorded similar growth trend. However, while CJ Home Shopping's operating income continued to increase in 2005, GS Home Shopping observed its operating income declining which resulted in the increasing income gap with CJ Home Shopping. While CJ Home Shopping with the largest market share in home shopping industryis engaged in aggressive marketing, GS Home Shopping due to its stability-driven management strategies falls behind CJ again in the ratio of operation income to sales in spite of its favorable management environment including its large capital. Companies in the Group B were established in the same year of 2001. NS Home Shopping was the first in the Group B to shift its loss to profit. Woori Home Shopping has continued to post operating loss for three consecutive years and finally was sold to Lotte Group in 2007, but since then, has registered a continuing increase in net income on sales. Third of all, the result of the trend analysis on the ratio of gross cost to sales cost is as following. Since home shopping falls into sales business, its cost of sales is much lower than that of other types of business such as manufacturing industry. Since 2002 in gross costs including cost of sales, SG&A expense, and non-operating expense, cost of sales turned out to have remarkably decreased. Group B has also posted a notable decline in the same sector since 2002. Fourth of all, the result of the trend analysis on the ratio of gross cost to SG&A expense is as following. Due to its unique characteristics, the home shopping industry usually posts ahigh ratio of SG&A expense. However, more than 80% of SG&A expense means the result of lax management and at the same time, a sharp lower net income on sales than other industries. Last but not least, the result of the trend analysis on ROI is as following. As for CJ Home Shopping, the curve of ROI looks similar to that of its investment on fixed assets. As it turned out, the company's ratio of fixed assets to operating income skyrocketed in 2004 and 2005. As far as GS Home Shopping is concerned, its fixed assets are not as much as that of CJ Home Shopping. Consequently, competition in the home shopping industry, at the moment, is among CJ, GS, Hyundai, NS and Woori Home Shoppings, and all of them need to more thoroughly manage their costs. In order for the late-comers of Group B and other home shopping companies to advance further, the current lax management should be reformed particularly on their SG&A expense sector. Provided that the total sales volume in the Internet shopping sector is projected to grow over 20 trillion won by the year 2010, it is concluded that all the participants in the home shopping industry should put strategies on efficient management on costs and expenses as their top priority rather than increase revenues, if they hope to grow even further after 2007.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.73-91
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• 2013

Advertising market has been facing new challenges due to dramatic change in advertising channels and the advent of innovative media such as mobile devices. Recent research related to mobile devices is mainly focused on the fact that mobile devices could identify users'physical location in real-time, and this sheds light on how location-based technology is utilized to achieve competitive advantage in advertising market. With the introduction of smartphone, the functionality of smartphone has become much more diverse and context awareness is one of the areas that require further study. This work analyses the influence of context awareness value resulted from the transformation of advertising channel in mobile communication market, and our research result reflects recent trend in advertising market environment which is not considered in previous studies. Many constructs has intensively been studied in the context of advertising channel in traditional marketing environment, and entertainment, irritation and information are considered to be the most widely accepted variables that has positive relationship with advertising value. Also, in smartphone advertisement, four main dimensions of context awareness value are recognized: identification, activity, timing and location. In this study, we assume that these four constructs has positive relationship with context awareness value. Finally, we propose that advertising value and context awareness value positively influence smartphone advertising attitude. Partial Least Squares (PLS) structural model is used in our theoretical research model to test proposed hypotheses. A well designed survey is conducted for college students in Korea, and reliability, convergent validity and discriminant validity of constructs and measurement indicators are carefully evaluated and the results show that reliability and validity are confirmed according to predefined statistical criteria. Goodness-of-fit of our research model is also supported. In summary, the results collectively suggest good measurement properties for the proposed research model. The research outcomes are as follows. First, information has positive impact on advertising value while entertainment and irritation have no significant impact. Information, entertainment and irritation together account for 38.8% of advertising value. Second, along with the change in advertising market due to the advent of smartphone, activity, timing and location have positive impact on context awareness value while identification has no significant impact. In addition, identification, activity, location and time together account for 46.3% of context awareness value. Third, advertising value and context awareness value both positively influence smartphone advertising attitude, and these two constructs explain 31.7% of the variability of smartphone advertising attitude. The theoretical implication of our research is as follows. First, the influence of entertainment and irritation is reduced which are known to be crucial factors according to previous studies related to advertising value, while the influence of information is increased. It indicates that smartphone users are not likely interested in entertaining effect of smartphone advertisement, and are insensitive to the inconvenience due to smartphone advertisement. Second, in today' ubiquitous computing environment, it is effective to provide differentiated advertising service by utilizing smartphone users'context awareness values such as identification, activity, timing and location in order to achieve competitive business advantage in advertising market. For practical implications, enterprises should provide valuable and useful information that might attract smartphone users by adopting differentiation strategy as smartphone users are sensitive to the information provided via smartphone. Also enterprises not only provide useful information but also recognize and utilize smarphone users' unique characteristics and behaviors by increasing context awareness values. In summary, our result implies that smartphone advertisement should be optimized by considering the needed information of smartphone users in order to maximize advertisement effect.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.366-374
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• 2012

Recently pathogenic E. coli is one of the main foodborne pathogens resulting in many patients in Korea. To understand the characteristics of pathogenic E. coli outbreaks in Korea, the epidemiological investigation reports of pathogenic E. coli outbreak in 2009 (41 reports) and in 2010 (27 reports) were collected in the web site of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reviewed and analysed in this study. The main places of the pathogenic E. coli outbreaks were food catering service area (64.8%) and restaurants (25.0%). The main type of the pathogens were EPEC (44.7%) and ETEC (34.2%). EAEC and EHEC was responsible for 10.5 and 9.2%, respectively. Eight of 68 outbreak cases were caused by more than 2 types of pathogenic E. coli which implicates the complicated contamination pathways of pathogenic E. coli. The incidence rate of pathogenic E. coli was $33.6{\pm}30.5%$ and the main symptoms were diarrhea, stomach ache, nausea, vomiting, and fever etc. The two identified food sources were identified as frozen hamburger pattie and squid-vegetable mixture. To improve the food source identification by epidemiological investigation, food poisoning notification to the agency should not be delayed, whole food items attributed the outbreak should be collected and detection method of the various pathogenic E. coli in food has to be improved. In conclusion, the characteristics between the EHEC outbreaks in the western countries and the EPEC or ETEC outbreaks in Korea needs to be distinguished to prepare food safety management plan. In addition, the development of the trace back system to find the contamination pathway with the improved detection method in food and systemic and cooperative support by the related agencies are necessary.