• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.127-142
• /
• 2016

Deep learning model is a kind of neural networks that allows multiple hidden layers. There are various deep learning architectures such as convolutional neural networks, deep belief networks and recurrent neural networks. Those have been applied to fields like computer vision, automatic speech recognition, natural language processing, audio recognition and bioinformatics where they have been shown to produce state-of-the-art results on various tasks. Among those architectures, convolutional neural networks and recurrent neural networks are classified as the supervised learning model. And in recent years, those supervised learning models have gained more popularity than unsupervised learning models such as deep belief networks, because supervised learning models have shown fashionable applications in such fields mentioned above. Deep learning models can be trained with backpropagation algorithm. Backpropagation is an abbreviation for "backward propagation of errors" and a common method of training artificial neural networks used in conjunction with an optimization method such as gradient descent. The method calculates the gradient of an error function with respect to all the weights in the network. The gradient is fed to the optimization method which in turn uses it to update the weights, in an attempt to minimize the error function. Convolutional neural networks use a special architecture which is particularly well-adapted to classify images. Using this architecture makes convolutional networks fast to train. This, in turn, helps us train deep, muti-layer networks, which are very good at classifying images. These days, deep convolutional networks are used in most neural networks for image recognition. Convolutional neural networks use three basic ideas: local receptive fields, shared weights, and pooling. By local receptive fields, we mean that each neuron in the first(or any) hidden layer will be connected to a small region of the input(or previous layer's) neurons. Shared weights mean that we're going to use the same weights and bias for each of the local receptive field. This means that all the neurons in the hidden layer detect exactly the same feature, just at different locations in the input image. In addition to the convolutional layers just described, convolutional neural networks also contain pooling layers. Pooling layers are usually used immediately after convolutional layers. What the pooling layers do is to simplify the information in the output from the convolutional layer. Recent convolutional network architectures have 10 to 20 hidden layers and billions of connections between units. Training deep learning networks has taken weeks several years ago, but thanks to progress in GPU and algorithm enhancement, training time has reduced to several hours. Neural networks with time-varying behavior are known as recurrent neural networks or RNNs. A recurrent neural network is a class of artificial neural network where connections between units form a directed cycle. This creates an internal state of the network which allows it to exhibit dynamic temporal behavior. Unlike feedforward neural networks, RNNs can use their internal memory to process arbitrary sequences of inputs. Early RNN models turned out to be very difficult to train, harder even than deep feedforward networks. The reason is the unstable gradient problem such as vanishing gradient and exploding gradient. The gradient can get smaller and smaller as it is propagated back through layers. This makes learning in early layers extremely slow. The problem actually gets worse in RNNs, since gradients aren't just propagated backward through layers, they're propagated backward through time. If the network runs for a long time, that can make the gradient extremely unstable and hard to learn from. It has been possible to incorporate an idea known as long short-term memory units (LSTMs) into RNNs. LSTMs make it much easier to get good results when training RNNs, and many recent papers make use of LSTMs or related ideas.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
• /
• v.19 no.3
• /
• pp.17-27
• /
• 2009

Price promotion typically reduces the price for a given quantity or increases the quantity available at the same price, thereby enhancing value and creating an economic incentive to purchase. It often is used to encourage product or service trial among nonusers of products or services. Thus, it is important to understand the effects of price promotions on quality perception made by consumer who do not have prior experience with the promoted brand. However, if consumers associate a price promotion itself with inferior brand quality, the promotion may not achieve the sales increase the economic incentives otherwise might have produced. More specifically, low qualitative perception through price promotion will undercut the economic and psychological incentives and reduce the likelihood of purchase. Thus, it is important for marketers to understand how price promotional informations about a brand have impact on consumer's unfavorable quality perception of the brand. Previous literatures on the effects of price promotions on quality perception reveal inconsistent explanations. Some focused on the unfavorable effect of price promotion on consumer's perception. But others showed that price promotions didn't raise unfavorable perception on the brand. Prior researches found these inconsistent results related to the timing of the price promotion's exposure and quality evaluation relative to trial. And, whether the consumer has been experienced with the product promotions in the past or not may moderate the effects. A few studies considered differences among product categories as fundamental factors. The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of price promotional informations on consumer's unfavorable quality perception under the different conditions. The author controlled the timing of the promotional exposure and varied past promotional patterns and information presenting patterns. Unlike previous researches, the author examined the effects of price promotions setting limit to pretrial situation by controlling potentially moderating effects of prior personal experience with the brand. This manipulations enable to resolve possible controversies in relation to this issue. And this manipulation is meaningful for the work sector. Price promotion is not only used to target existing consumers but also to encourage product or service trial among nonusers of products or services. Thus, it is important for marketers to understand how price promotional informations about a brand have impact on consumer's unfavorable quality perception of the brand. If consumers associate a price promotion itself with inferior quality about unused brand, the promotion may not achieve the sales increase the economic incentives otherwise might have produced. In addition, if the price promotion ends, the consumer that have purchased that certain brand will likely to display sharply decreased repurchasing behavior. Through a literature review, hypothesis 1 was set as follows to investigate the adjustive effect of past price promotion on quality perception made by consumers; The influence that price promotion of unused brand have on quality perception made by consumers will be adjusted by past price promotion activity of the brand. In other words, a price promotion of an unused brand that have not done a price promotion in the past will have a unfavorable effect on quality perception made by consumer. Hypothesis 2-1 was set as follows : When an unused brand undertakes price promotion for the first time, the information presenting pattern of price promotion will have an effect on the consumer's attribution for the cause of the price promotion. Hypothesis 2-2 was set as follows : The more consumer dispositionally attribute the cause of price promotion, the more unfavorable the quality perception made by consumer will be. Through test 1, the subjects were given a brief explanation of the product and the brand before they were provided with a $2{\times}2$ factorial design that has 4 patterns of price promotion (presence or absence of past price promotion * presence or absence of current price promotion) and the explanation describing the price promotion pattern of each cell. Then the perceived quality of imaginary brand WAVEX was evaluated in the scale of 7. The reason tennis racket was chosen is because the selected product group must have had almost no past price promotions to eliminate the influence of average frequency of promotion on the value of price promotional information as Raghubir and Corfman (1999) pointed out. Test 2 was also carried out on students of the same management faculty of test 1 with tennis racket as the product group. As with test 1, subjects with average familiarity for the product group and low familiarity for the brand was selected. Each subjects were assigned to one of the two cells representing two different information presenting patterns of price promotion of WAVEX (case where the reason behind price promotion was provided/case where the reason behind price promotion was not provided). Subjects looked at each promotional information before evaluating the perceived quality of the brand WAVEX in the scale of 7. The effect of price promotion for unfamiliar pretrial brand on consumer's perceived quality was proved to be moderated with the presence or absence of past price promotion. The consistency with past promotional behavior is important variable that makes unfavorable effect on brand evaluations get worse. If the price promotion for the brand has never been carried out before, price promotion activity may have more unfavorable effects on consumer's quality perception. Second, when the price promotion of unfamiliar pretrial brand was executed for the first time, presenting method of informations has impact on consumer's attribution for the cause of firm's promotion. And the unfavorable effect of quality perception is higher when the consumer does dispositional attribution comparing with situational attribution. Unlike the previous studies where the main focus was the absence or presence of favorable or unfavorable motivation from situational/dispositional attribution, the focus of this study was exaus ing the fact that a situational attribution can be inferred even if the consumer employs a dispositional attribution on the price promotional behavior, if the company provides a persuasive reason. Such approach, in academic perspectih sis a large significance in that it explained the anchoring and adjng ch approcedures by applying it to a non-mathematical problem unlike the previous studies where it wis ionaly explained by applying it to a mathematical problem. In other wordn, there is a highrspedency tmatispositionally attribute other's behaviors according to the fuedach aal attribution errors and when this is applied to the situation of price promotions, we can infer that consumers are likely tmatispositionally attribute the company's price promotion behaviors. Ha ever, even ueder these circumstances, the company can adjng the consumer's anchoring tmareduce the po wibiliute thdispositional attribution. Furthermore, unlike majority of previous researches on short/long-term effects of price promotion that only considered the effect of price promotions on consumer's purchasing behaviors, this research measured the effect on perceived quality, one of man elements that affects the purchasing behavior of consumers. These results carry useful implications for the work sector. A guideline of effectively providing promotional informations for a new brand can be suggested through the outcomes of this research. If the brand is to avoid false implications such as inferior quality while implementing a price promotion strategy, it must provide a clear and acceptable reasons behind the promotion. Especially it is more important for the company with no past price promotion to provide a clear reason. An inconsistent behavior can be the cause of consumer's distrust and anxiety. This is also one of the most important factor of risk of endless price wars. Price promotions without prior notice can buy doubt from consumers not market share.

• Asia Marketing Journal
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.157-176
• /
• 2012

Brand switching data frequently used in market structure analysis is adequate to analyze non- durable goods, because it can capture competition between specific two brands. But brand switching data sometimes can not be used to analyze goods like automobiles having long term duration because one of main assumptions that consumer preference toward brand attributes is not changed against time can be violated. Therefore a new type of data which can precisely capture competition among durable goods is needed. Another problem of using brand switching data collected from actual purchase behavior is short of explanation why consumers consider different set of brands. Considering above problems, main purpose of this study is to analyze market structure for durable goods with consideration set. The author uses exploratory approach and latent class clustering to identify market structure based on heterogeneous consideration set among consumers. Then the relationship between some factors and consideration set formation is analyzed. Some benefits and two demographic variables - age and income - are selected as factors based on consumer behavior theory. The author analyzed USA automotive market with top 11 brands using exploratory approach and latent class clustering. 2,500 respondents are randomly selected from the total sample and used for analysis. Six models concerning market structure are established to test. Model 1 means non-structured market and model 6 means market structure composed of six sub-markets. It is exploratory approach because any hypothetical market structure is not defined. The result showed that model 1 is insufficient to fit data. It implies that USA automotive market is a structured market. Model 3 with three market structures is significant and identified as the optimal market structure in USA automotive market. Three sub markets are named as USA brands, Asian Brands, and European Brands. And it implies that country of origin effect may exist in USA automotive market. Comparison between modal classification by derived market structures and probabilistic classification by research model was conducted to test how model 3 can correctly classify respondents. The model classify 97% of respondents exactly. The result of this study is different from those of previous research. Previous research used confirmatory approach. Car type and price were chosen as criteria for market structuring and car type-price structure was revealed as the optimal structure for USA automotive market. But this research used exploratory approach without hypothetical market structures. It is not concluded yet which approach is superior. For confirmatory approach, hypothetical market structures should be established exhaustively, because the optimal market structure is selected among hypothetical structures. On the other hand, exploratory approach has a potential problem that validity for derived optimal market structure is somewhat difficult to verify. There also exist market boundary difference between this research and previous research. While previous research analyzed seven car brands, this research analyzed eleven car brands. Both researches seemed to represent entire car market, because cumulative market shares for analyzed brands exceeds 50%. But market boundary difference might affect the different results. Though both researches showed different results, it is obvious that country of origin effect among brands should be considered as important criteria to analyze USA automotive market structure. This research tried to explain heterogeneity of consideration sets among consumers using benefits and two demographic factors, sex and income. Benefit works as a key variable for consumer decision process, and also works as an important criterion in market segmentation. Three factors - trust/safety, image/fun to drive, and economy - are identified among nine benefit related measure. Then the relationship between market structures and independent variables is analyzed using multinomial regression. Independent variables are three benefit factors and two demographic factors. The result showed that all independent variables can be used to explain why there exist different market structures in USA automotive market. For example, a male consumer who perceives all benefits important and has lower income tends to consider domestic brands more than European brands. And the result also showed benefits, sex, and income have an effect to consideration set formation. Though it is generally perceived that a consumer who has higher income is likely to purchase a high priced car, it is notable that American consumers perceived benefits of domestic brands much positive regardless of income. Male consumers especially showed higher loyalty for domestic brands. Managerial implications of this research are as follow. Though implication may be confined to the USA automotive market, the effect of sex on automotive buying behavior should be analyzed. The automotive market is traditionally conceived as male consumers oriented market. But the proportion of female consumers has grown over the years in the automotive market. It is natural outcome that Volvo and Hyundai motors recently developed new cars which are targeted for women market. Secondly, the model used in this research can be applied easier than that of previous researches. Exploratory approach has many advantages except difficulty to apply for practice, because it tends to accompany with complicated model and to require various types of data. The data needed for the model in this research are a few items such as purchased brands, consideration set, some benefits, and some demographic factors and easy to collect from consumers.

• Korean small business review
• /
• v.33 no.4
• /
• pp.77-93
• /
• 2011

Since 2000, the employment rate of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) has dwindled while the creation of new jobs and the emergence of healthy SMEs have been stagnant. The fundamental reason for these symptoms is that the economic structure is disadvantageous to SMEs. In particular, the greater gap between SMEs and large enterprises has resulted in polarization, and the resulting imbalance has become the largest obstacle to improving SMEs' competitiveness. For example, the total productivity has continued to drop, and the average productivity of SMEs is now merely 30% of that of large enterprises, and the average wage of SMEs' employees is only 53% of that of large enterprises. Along with polarization, rapid industrialization has also caused anti-enterprise consensus, the collapse of the middle class, hostility towards establishments, and other aftereffects. The general consensus is that unless these problems are solved, South Korea will not become an advanced country. Especially, South Korea is now facing issues that need urgent measures, such as the decline of its economic growth, the worsening distribution of profits, and the increased external volatility. Recognizing such negative trends, the MB administration proposed a win-win growth policy and recently introduced a new national value called "ecosystemic development." As the terms in such policy agenda are similar, however, the conceptual differences among such terms must first be fully understood. Therefore, in this study, the concepts of win-win growth policy and ecosystemic development, and the need for them, were surveyed, and their differences from and similarities with other policy concepts like win-win cooperation and symbiotic development were examined. Based on the results of the survey and examination, the study introduced a South Korean model of win-win growth, targeting the promotion of a sound balance between large enterprises and SMEs and an innovative ecosystem, and finally, proposing future policy tasks. Win-win growth is not an academic term but a policy term. Thus, it is less advisable to give a theoretical definition of it than to understand its concept based on its objective and method as a policy. The core of the MB administration's win-win growth policy is the creation of a partnership between key economic subjects such as large enterprises and SMEs based on each subject's differentiated capacity, and such economic subjects' joint promotion of growth opportunities. Its objective is to contribute to the establishment of an advanced capitalistic system by securing the sustainability of the South Korean economy. Such win-win growth policy includes three core concepts. The first concept, ecosystem, is that win-win growth should be understood from the viewpoint of an industrial ecosystem and should be pursued by overcoming the issues of specific enterprises. An enterprise is not an independent entity but a social entity, meaning it exists in relationship with the society (Drucker, 2011). The second concept, balance, points to the fact that an effort should be made to establish a systemic and social infrastructure for a healthy balance in the industry. The social system and infrastructure should be established in such a way as to create a balance between short- term needs and long-term sustainability, between freedom and responsibility, and between profitability and social obligations. Finally, the third concept is the behavioral change of economic entities. The win-win growth policy is not merely about simple transactional relationships or determining reasonable prices but more about the need for a behavior change on the part of economic entities, without which the objectives of the policy cannot be achieved. Various advanced countries have developed different win-win growth models based on their respective cultures and economic-development stages. Japan, whose culture is characterized by a relatively high level of group-centered trust, has developed a productivity improvement model based on such culture, whereas the U.S., which has a highly developed system of market capitalism, has developed a system that instigates or promotes market-oriented technological innovation. Unlike Japan or the U.S., Europe, a late starter, has not fully developed a trust-based culture or market capitalism and thus often uses a policy-led model based on which the government leads the improvement of productivity and promotes technological innovation. By modeling successful cases from these advanced countries, South Korea can establish its unique win-win growth system. For this, it needs to determine the method and tasks that suit its circumstances by examining the prerequisites for its success as well as the strengths and weaknesses of each advanced country. This paper proposes a South Korean model of win-win growth, whose objective is to upgrade the country's low-trust-level-based industrial structure, in which large enterprises and SMEs depend only on independent survival strategies, to a high-trust-level-based social ecosystem, in which large enterprises and SMEs develop a cooperative relationship as partners. Based on this objective, the model proposes the establishment of a sound balance of systems and infrastructure between large enterprises and SMEs, and to form a crenovative social ecosystem. The South Korean model of win-win growth consists of three axes: utilization of the South Koreans' potential, which creates community-oriented energy; fusion-style improvement of various control and self-regulated systems for establishing a high-trust-level-oriented social infrastructure; and behavioral change on the part of enterprises in terms of putting an end to their unfair business activities and promoting future-oriented cooperative relationships. This system will establish a dynamic industrial ecosystem that will generate creative energy and will thus contribute to the realization of a sustainable economy in the 21st century. The South Korean model of win-win growth should pursue community-based self-regulation, which promotes the power of efficiency and competition that is fundamentally being pursued by capitalism while at the same time seeking the value of society and community. Already existing in Korea's traditional roots, such objectives have become the bases of the Shinbaram culture, characterized by the South Koreans' spontaneity, creativity, and optimism. In the process of a community's gradual improvement of its rules and procedures, the trust among the community members increases, and the "social capital" that guarantees the successful control of shared resources can be established (Ostrom, 2010). This basic ideal can help reduce the gap between large enterprises and SMEs, alleviating the South Koreans' victim mentality in the face of competition and the open-door policy, and creating crenovative corporate competitiveness. The win-win growth policy emerged for the purpose of addressing the polarization and imbalance structure resulting from the evolution of 21st-century capitalism. It simultaneously pursues efficiency and fairness on one hand and economic and community values on the other, and aims to foster efficient interaction between the market and the government. This policy, however, is also evolving. The win-win growth policy can be considered an extension of the win-win cooperation that the past 'Participatory Government' promoted at the enterprise management level to the level of systems and culture. Also, the ecosystemic development agendum that has recently emerged is a further extension that has been presented as a national ideal of "a new development model that promotes the co-advancement of environmental conservation, growth, economic development, social integration, and national and individual development."

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.110-123
• /
• 2000

The short-term music therapy was performed for adolescents with conduct disorder admitted to Seoul National Mental Hospital for 3 months from Jun to September, 1998. This case study focused mainly on two female patients who participated regularly in the group music therapy. The music therapy process was divided into three phases；beginning, opening up, and closing. This music therapy session consisted of three parts；hello song as beginning, various musical activities, and sound & movement activity as closing. Free musical improvisation, song discussion, musical monodrama, and sound & movement were the mainly applied techniques. Free improvisation was used to enhance, motivate, identify and contain the adolescents' feelings and ideas. Song discussion was used to convey their thoughts and to support each other. Musical monodrama was used to make them have insights into interpersonal relationships. Sound & movement was used to enhance spontaneity. It made them explore their body and voice as an expressive medium. Throughout three months period of music therapy, patient A's communication skill, socialization, and behavior areas were assessed with improvement. She could use music as a symbolic form and was able to share her feelings about herself and her family. Patient B's self-expression and cognitive areas were assessed with improvement. She became more spontaneous and could verbalize her emotions during the group session. Music as a non-verbal and therefore often a non-threatening medium wherein so much can be expressed provided two female patients an atmosphere where a sense of trust may be regained.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• /
• v.3 no.1
• /
• pp.26-45
• /
• 1992

This study presents the behavioral and cognitive changes by administration of methylphenidate(MPH) and imipramine(IMI) for the treatment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder(ADHD) in $5_{1/2}{\sim}12$ years old children referred to child psychiatric clinics. Behavioral changes are assessed with parent's and teacher's ratings. Drug effects on attention. short-term memory, and impulsivity are evaluated with psychological tests in laboratory. The changes were assessed twice in a 8-week periods. The data were analyzed seperately for 15 subjects each drug using repeated measured analysis of variance(ANOVA). The findings indicates that behavioral and cognitive impairments are improved by both drugs, but impulsivity is not. And MPH is superior to IMI on the improvement of attentional problem ; especially the findings indicates important differences between simple task and complex. perceptual-search task. These data confirm the effectiveness of MPH for treatment of ADHD, also raise questions regarding assessment method of attention and impulsivity as fell as importance of impulsivity in ADHD.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.35 no.3
• /
• pp.257-271
• /
• 2002

One of the main interests in relation to heavily contaminated gully-pot sediment in urban area is the short term mobility of heavy metals, which depends on the pH of acidic rainwater and on the buffering effects of carbonate minerals. The buffering effects of carbonates are determined by titration (acid addition). Leaching experiments are carried out in solutions with variable initial HN03 contents for 24h. The gully-pot sediment appears to be predominantly buffered by calcite and dolomite. In case of sediment samples, which highly contain carbonates, pH decreases more slowly with increasing acidity. On the other hand, for the sediment samples, which less contain carbonate minerals, pH rapidly drops until it reaches about 2 then it decreases slowly. The leaching reactions are delayed until more acid is added to compensate for the buffering effects of carbonates. The Zn, Cu, Pb and Mn concentrations of leachate rapidly increase with decreased pH, while Cd, Co, Ni, Cr and Fe dissolutions are very slow and limited. The solubility of heavy metals depends not only on thc pH values of leachatc but also on the speciation in which metals are associated with sediment particles. In slightly to moderately acid conditions, Zn, Cd, Co, Ni and Cu dissolutions become increasingly important. As deduced from leaching runs, the relative mobility of heavy metals at pH of 5 is found to be: Zn > Cd > Co > Ni > Cu » Pb > Cr, suggesting that moderately acid rainwater leach Zn, Cd, Co, Ni and Cu from thc contaminated gully-pot sediment, while Pb and Cr would remain fixed. The buffering effects of Ca- and Mg-carbonates play an important role in delaying as well as limiting the leaching reactions of heavy metals from highly contaminated gully-pot sediment. The extent of such a secondary environmental pollution will thus depends on how well the metals in sediment can be leached by somewhat acidic rain water. Changes in the physicochemical environments may result in the severe environmental pollution of heavy metals. These results are to be taken into account in the management of contaminated sediments during rainstorms.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
• /
• v.21 no.5
• /
• pp.587-609
• /
• 2019

Short-and long-term stabilities of bentonite, favored material as buffer in geological repositories for high-level waste were reviewed in this paper in addition to alternative design concepts of buffer to mitigate the thermal load from decay heat of SF (Spent Fuel) and further increase the disposal efficiency. It is generally reported that the irreversible changes in structure, hydraulic behavior, and swelling capacity are produced due to temperature increase and vapor flow between $150{\sim}250^{\circ}C$. Provided that the maximum temperature of bentonite is less than $150^{\circ}C$, however, the effects of temperature on the material, structural, and mineralogical stability seems to be minor. The maximum temperature in disposal system will constrain and determine the amount of waste to be disposed per unit area and be regarded as an important design parameter influencing the availability of disposal site. Thus, it is necessary to identify the effects of high temperature on the performance of buffer and allow for the thermal constraint greater than $100^{\circ}C$. In addition, the development of high-performance EBS (Engineered Barrier System) such as composite bentonite buffer mixed with graphite or silica and multi-layered buffer (i.e., highly thermal-conductive layer or insulating layer) should be taken into account to enhance the disposal efficiency in parallel with the development of multilayer repository. This will contribute to increase of reliability and securing the acceptance of the people with regard to a high-level waste disposal.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.30 no.3A
• /
• pp.201-209
• /
• 2010

Generally, PSC girder bridge uses total gross cross section to resist applied loads unlike reinforced concrete member. Also, it is used as short and middle span (less than 30 m) bridges due to advantages such as ease of design and construction, reduction of cost, and convenience of maintenance. But, due to recent increased public interests for environmental friendly and appearance appealing bridges all over the world, the demands for longer span bridges have been continuously increasing. This trend is shown not only in ordinary long span bridge types such as cable supported bridges but also in PSC girder bridges. In order to meet the increasing demands for new type of long span bridges, PSC hollow box girder with H-type steel as compression reinforcements is developed for bridge with a single span of more than 50 m. The developed PSC girder applies compressive prestressing at H-type compression reinforcements using unbonded PS tendon. The purpose of compressive prestressing is to recover plastic displacement of PSC girder after long term service by releasing the prestressing. The static test composed of 4 different stages in 3-point bending test is performed to verify safety of the bridge. First stage loading is applied until tensile cracks form. Then in second stage, the load is removed and the girder is unloaded. In third stage, after removal of loading, recovery of remaining plastic deformation is verified as the compressive prestressing is removed at H-type reinforcements. Then, in fourth stage, loading is continued until the girder fails. The experimental results showed that the first crack occurs at 1,615 kN with a corresponding displacement of 187.0 mm. The introduction of the additional compressive stress in the lower part of the girder from the removal of unbonded compressive prestressing of the H-type steel showed a capacity improvement of about 60% (7.7 mm) recovery of the residual deformation (18.7 mm) that occurred from load increase. By using prestressed H-type steel as compression reinforcements in the upper part of cross section, repair and rehabilitation of PSC girders are relatively easy, and the cost of maintenance is expected to decrease.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.247-269
• /
• 2007

In recent years, one of the major reasons for the fierce competition amongst firms is that they strive to increase their own market shares and customer acquisition rate in the same market with similar and apparently undifferentiated products in terms of quality and perceived benefit. Because of this change in recent marketing environment, the differentiated after-sales service and diversified promotion strategies have become more important to gain competitive advantage. Price promotion is the favorite strategy that most retailers use to achieve short-term sales increase, induce consumer's brand switch, in troduce new product into market, and so forth. However, if marketers apply or copy an identical price promotion strategy without considering the characteristic differences in product and consumer preference, it will cause serious problems because discounted price itself could make people skeptical about product quality, and the changes of perceived value might appear differently depending on other factors such as consumer involvement or brand attitude. Previous studies showed that price promotion would certainly increase sales, and the discounted price compared to regular price would enhance the consumer's perceived values. On the other hand, discounted price itself could make people depreciate or skeptical about product quality, and reduce the consumers' positivity bias because consumers might be unsure whether the current price promotion is the retailer's best price offer. Moreover, we cannot say that discounted price absolutely enhances the consumer's perceived values regardless of product category and purchase situations. That is, the factors that affect consumers' value perceptions and buying behavior are so diverse in reality that the results of studies on the same dependent variable come out differently depending on what variable was used or how experiment conditions were designed. Majority of previous researches on the effect of price-comparison advertising have used consumers' buying behavior as dependent variable. In order to figure out consumers' buying behavior theoretically, analysis of value perceptions which influence buying intentions is needed. In addition, they did not combined the independent variables such as brand loyalty and price discount rate together. For this reason, this paper tried to examine the moderating effect of brand loyalty on relationship between the different levels of discounting rate and buyers' value perception. And we provided with theoretical and managerial implications that marketers need to consider such variables as product attributes, brand loyalty, and consumer involvement at the same time, and then establish a differentiated pricing strategy case by case in order to enhance consumer's perceived values properl. Three research concepts were used in our study and each concept based on past researches was defined. The perceived acquisition value in this study was defined as the perceived net gains associated with the products or services acquired. That is, the perceived acquisition value of the product will be positively influenced by the benefits buyers believe they are getting by acquiring and using the product, and negatively influenced by the money given up to acquire the product. And the perceived transaction value was defined as the perception of psychological satisfaction or pleasure obtained from taking advantage of the financial terms of the price deal. Lastly, the brand loyalty was defined as favorable attitude towards a purchased product. Thus, a consumer loyal to a brand has an emotional attachment to the brand or firm. Repeat purchasers continue to buy the same brand even though they do not have an emotional attachment to it. We assumed that if the degree of brand loyalty is high, the perceived acquisition value and the perceived transaction value will increase when higher discount rate is provided. But we found that there are no significant differences in values between two different discount rates as a result of empirical analysis. It means that price reduction did not affect consumer's brand choice significantly because the perceived sacrifice decreased only a little, and customers are satisfied with product's benefits when brand loyalty is high. From the result, we confirmed that consumers with high degree of brand loyalty to a specific product are less sensitive to price change. Thus, using price promotion strategy to merely expect sale increase is not recommendable. Instead of discounting price, marketers need to strengthen consumers' brand loyalty and maintain the skimming strategy. On the contrary, when the degree of brand loyalty is low, the perceived acquisition value and the perceived transaction value decreased significantly when higher discount rate is provided. Generally brands that are considered inferior might be able to draw attention away from the quality of the product by making consumers focus more on the sacrifice component of price. But considering the fact that consumers with low degree of brand loyalty are known to be unsatisfied with product's benefits and have relatively negative brand attitude, bigger price reduction offered in experiment condition of this paper made consumers depreciate product's quality and benefit more and more, and consumer's psychological perceived sacrifice increased while perceived values decreased accordingly. We infer that, in the case of inferior brand, a drastic price-cut or frequent price promotion may increase consumers' uncertainty about overall components of product. Therefore, it appears that reinforcing the augmented product such as after-sale service, delivery and giving credit which is one of the levels consisting of product would be more effective in reality. This will be better rather than competing with product that holds high brand loyalty by reducing sale price. Although this study tried to examine the moderating effect of brand loyalty on relationship between the different levels of discounting rate and buyers' value perception, there are several limitations. This study was conducted in controlled conditions where the high involvement product and two different levels of discount rate were applied. Given the presence of low involvement product, when both pieces of information are available, it is likely that the results we have reported here may have been different. Thus, this research results explain only the specific situation. Second, the sample selected in this study was university students in their twenties, so we cannot say that the results are firmly effective to all generations. Future research that manipulates the level of discount along with the consumer involvement might lead to a more robust understanding of the effects various discount rate. And, we used a cellular phone as a product stimulus, so it would be very interesting to analyze the result when the product stimulus is an intangible product such as service. It could be also valuable to analyze whether the change of perceived value affects consumers' final buying behavior positively or negatively.