• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.27-57
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• 2008

Many consumers enjoy the challenge of purchasing a brand that matches well with their own values and personalities (for example, Ko et al., 2008; Ko et al., 2006). Therefore, the personalities of consumers can impact on the final selection of a brand and its brand personality in two ways: first, the consumers may incline to purchase a brand or a product that reflects their own personalities; second, consumers tend to choose a company that has similar brand personalities to those brands that are being promoted. Therefore, the objectives of this study are following: 1. Is there any empirical relationship between a consumer's personality and the personality of a brand that he or she chooses? 2. Can a corporate brand be differentiated by the brand personality? In short, consumers are more likely to hold favorable attitudes towards those brands that match their own personality and will most probably purchase those brands matching well with their personality. For example, Matzler et al. (2006) found that extraversion and openness were positively related to hedonic product value; and that the personality traits directly (openness) and indirectly (extraversion, via hedonic value) influenced brand effects, which in turn droved attitudinal and purchase loyalty. Based on the above discussion, the following hypotheses are proposed: Hypothesis 1: the personality of a consumer is related to the brand personality of a product/corporate that he/she purchases. Kuksov (2007) and Wernerfelt (1990) argued that brands as a symbolic language allowed consumers to communicate their types to each other and postulated that consumers had a certain value of communicating their types to each other. Therefore, how brand meanings are established, and how a firm communicate with consumers about the meanings of the brand are interesting topics for research (for example, Escalas and Bettman, 2005; McCracken, 1989; Moon, 2007). Hence, the following hypothesis is proposed: Hypothesis 2: A corporate brand identity is differentiated by the brand personality. And there are significant differences among companies. A questionnaire was developed for collecting empirical measures of the Big-Five personality traits and brand personality variables. A survey was conducted to the online access panel members through the Internet during December 2007 in Korea. In total, 500 respondents completed the questionnaire, and considered as useable. Personality constructs were measured using the Five-factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) scale and a total of 30 items were actually utilized. Brand personality was measured using the five-dimension scale developed by Aaker (1997). A total of 17 items were actually utilized. The seven-point Likert-type scale was the format of responses, for example, from 1 indicating strongly disagreed to 7 for strongly agreed. The Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) was used for an empirical testing of the model, and the Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) was applied to estimate numerical values for the components in the model. To diagnose the presence of distribution problems in the data and to gauge their effects on the parameter estimates, bootstapping method was used. The results of the hypothesis-1 test empirically show that there exit certain causality relationship between a consumer's personality and the brand personality of the consumer's choice. Thus, the consumer's personality has an impact on consumer's final selection of a brand that has a brand personality matches well with their own personalities. In other words, the consumers are inclined to purchase a brand that reflects their own personalities and tend to choose a company that has similar brand personalities to those of the brand being promoted. The results of this study further suggest that certain dimensions of the brand personality cause consumers to have preference to certain (corporate) brands. For example, the conscientiousness, neuroticism, and extraversion of the consumer personality have positively related to a selection of "ruggedness" characteristics of the brand personality. Consumers who possess that personality dimension seek for matching with certain brand personality dimensions. Results of the hypothesis-2 test show that the average "ruggedness" attributes of the brand personality differ significantly among Korean automobile manufacturers. However, the result of ANOVA also indicates that there are no significant differences in the mean values among manufacturers for the "sophistication," "excitement," "competence" and "sincerity" attributes of the corporate brand personality. The tight link between what a firm is and its corporate brand means that there is far less room for marketing communications than there is with products and brands. Consequently, successful corporate brand strategies must position the organization within the boundaries of what is acceptable, while at the same time differentiating the organization from its competitors.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.39-47
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• 2016

Younger starters to be ready on the entrepreneurial performance and raising and producing potential creative person who demonstrates entrepreneurial spirit are not only important factor for added value creation along with national growth but also economic development to join the ranks of advanced countries. Thereby, a lots of interests and supports are focused in entrepreneurship and the startup activities. However, to create business achievement, we should nurture successful entrepreneurship based on using infrastructure in entrepreneurial ecosystem induced by aggressive investments and supports of the policy. Therefore, this study is empirical test of 203 young CEO of techniques which possibly create added value and national development, inventive type in knowledge service and opportunity type. Research finding is that entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial preparation have meaningful effects on the performance and the ready state. Entrepreneurship has no direct effects on entrepreneurial infra system. Entrepreneurial preparation has meaningful effects on entrepreneurial infra system. We induced that it is hard to earn business achievement by only using entrepreneurial infra system in that entrepreneurial infra system has no effect on business achievement. Lastly, entrepreneurship infra system has no relationship as mediating effects with effects of entrepreneurship on business achievement in mediating effect test. While young CEOs with entrepreneurship create business achievement without using entrepreneurship infra, entrepreneurship infra has relationship as mediating effect with effect of entrepreneurial preparation on business achievement. Namely, we induced the result that using entrepreneurship infra aggressively improve achievement in entrepreneurial preparation. Through this study, we need entrepreneurship education for young CEOs and effort to develop entrepreneur's competence to improve achievement and we concluded that approaching systematically in entrepreneurial preparation and using various entrepreneurship infra aggressively are important factors to improve achievement.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.167-175
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• 2006

With the recent prevalence of helical CT and multi-slice CT, which deliver higher radiation dose than conventional CT due to overbeaming effect in X-ray exposure and interpolation technique in image reconstruction. Although multi-detector and helical CT scanner provide a variety of opportunities for patient dose reduction, the potential risk for high radiation levels in CT examination can't be overemphasized in spite of acquiring more diagnostic information. So much more concerns is necessary about dose characteristics of CT scanner, especially dose efficient design as well as dose modulation software, because dose efficiency built into the scanner's design is probably the most important aspect of successful low dose clinical performance. This study was conducted to evaluate z-axis geometric dose efficiency in single detector CT and each level multi-detector CT, as well as to compare z-axis dose efficiency with change of technical scan parameters such as focal spot size of tube, beam collimation, detector combination, scan mode, pitch size, slice width and interval. The results obtained were as follows ; 1. SDCT was most highest and 4 MDCT was most lowest in z-axis geometric dose efficiency among SDCT, 4, 8, 16, 64 slice MDCT made by GE manufacture. 2. Small focal spot was 0.67-13.62% higher than large focal spot in z-axis geometric dose efficiency at MDCT. 3. Large beam collimation was 3.13-51.52% higher than small beam collimation in z-axis geometric dose efficiency at MDCT. 4. Z-axis geometric dose efficiency was same at 4 slice MDCT in all condition and 8 slice MDCT of large beam collimation with change of detector combination, but was changed irregularly at 8 slice MDCT of small beam collimation and 16 slice MDCT in all condition with change of detector combination. 5. There was no significant difference for z-axis geometric dose efficiency between conventional scan and helical scan, and with change of pitch factor, as well as change of slice width or interval for image reconstruction. As a conclusion, for reduction of patient radiation dose delivered from CT examination we are particularly concerned with dose efficiency of equipment and have to select proper scanning parameters which increase z-axis geometric dose efficiency within the range of preserving optimum clinical information in MDCT examination.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to find out which factors determine the success of start-up in the initial market and what are the most important determinants. For the empirical analysis, the questionnaire related to the analysis of success factors for start-up success was designed according to the quantitative analysis (AHP technique). First, we selected 8 representative success factors for successful start-up in the initial market. In order to determine the degree of priority among these factors, we surveyed 12 entrepreneurs who are interested in entrepreneurship, universities, research institutes, and public officials. As a result of the empirical analysis, 51% of the funds in the tier 1 were ranked as the top priority to determine success factors. Followed by research and development (32.5%), management (8.7%) and marketing (7.8%). In particular, when each of the four items is calculated as 100 according to the result of the tier 1, and the tier 2 is converted, the foreign investment is analyzed as 43.7%. It was followed by 15.14% of R & D facilities, 14.07% of ideas, 8.7% of managerial ability, 7.29% of domestic investment, 5.85% of buyer feedback, 3.3% of development strategy and 1.95% of marketing strategy. Among the eight success factors, overseas investment items showed the closest preference to half, and it was the most important variable that determines the success or failure of market entry. The implication of this study is that many start-ups in Korea expect to receive investment and support from overseas accelerators. This means that overseas investment itself has been recognized as a start-up that makes services and products that can be used in the global market. A high preference for attracting foreign investment is due to the fact that the amount of investment is larger than that of Korea and that it can flexibly cope with the pressure on the performance compared to domestic investors. In this study, it was meaningful that we could confirm this fact through questionnaires of start-up experts. In future research, we need to find a viable alternative through studying how to provide start-up to foreign direct investment at the national level.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.19-30
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• 2008

Proper development of fertilized oocyte to blastocyst is a key step in mammalian development to implantation. During development of preimplantation embryos, the mammalian embryo needs supply the energy substrate for keep viability. Usually mammalian oocyte get substrate especially energy substrate from oviduct and uterus, because it does not store much substrate into cytoplasm during oogenesis. Carbohydrates are known as a main energy substrate for preimplantation stage embryos. Glucose, lactate and pyruvate are essential component in preimplantation embryo culture media and there are stage specific preferences to them. Glucose transporter and $H^+$-monocarboxylate cotransporter are a main mediator for carbohydrate transport and those expression levels are primarily under the control of intrinsic or extrinsic factors like insulin and glucose. Other organic substances, amino acids, lipids and nucleotides are used as energy substance and cellular regulation factor. Though since 1960s, successful development of fertilized embryo to blastocyst has been accomplished with chemically defined medium for example BWW and give rise to normal offspring in mammals, the role of metabolites and the regulation of intermediary metabolism are still poorly understood. Glucose may permit expression of metabolic enzymes and transporters in compacting morula, capable of generating the energy required for blastocyst formation. In addition, it has been suggested that the cytokines can modulate the metabolic rate of carbohydrate in embryos and regulate the preimplantation embryonic development through control the metabolic rate. Recently we showed that lactate can be used as a mediator for preimplantation embryonic development. Those observations indicate that metabolites of carbohydrate are required by the early embryo, not only as an energy source, but also as a key substrate for other regulatory and biosynthetic pathways. In addition metabolites of carbohydrate may involve in cellular activity during development of preimplantation embryos. It is suggested that through these regulation and with other regulation mechanisms, embryo and uterus can prepare the embryo implantation and further development, properly.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.301-312
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• 2008

Satisfaction of consumer preferences is a key factor for the success of the products. Therefore, design mangers try to develop the profitable products through the intensive survey on the consumer preferences. Although the studies on the preferable product design and the design factors have long been carried out, most of these studies dealt only with the design factors preferable for individual product category ignoring the relationship of the product categories which are related to each other. For designers and design managers, in this study, we propose the guidelines of successful product development by finding preferred common and distinct design factors through analysis of the relations between the consumer preferences and design factors in various portable electric devices. To this end, we analyzed the preferred common and distinct design factors from portable electric devices including the electronic dictionaries, notebook computers, cellular phones, and MP3 players. We used hierarchical regression analysis for the effects of the design factors on the preferences among the product categories and regression analysis for the effects among each product category. The analysis on the preferred common design factors among the four product categories revealed that consumers did not care about the whole body type but preferred white color, metallic and glassy texture in the body. Also, the preferred design factors in the each product category are as follows; oval body shape and black color in electronic dictionaries, white color, metallic and glassy texture in notebook computers, plastic texture in cellular phones, rectangular body shape and plastic texture in MP3 players. In the case of notebook computers, the preferred common and distinct design factors were the same. We expect these results will be helpful for designers and design managers to identify the preferred design factors to consider when developing the various portable electric devices.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.281-286
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• 2006

This study was conducted to investigate the hormonal changes in cultured medium during in vitro culture of bovine oviduct epithelial cells (BOEC) supplemented with interleukin (IL)-4 of 0.001, 0.01, 0.1 or 1 ng/ml. BOEC were collected from the oviduct and washed 3 times with 1% antibiotic-mycotic-DMEM medium and cultured at $39^{\circ}C$, 5% $CO_2$, 95% air for 24$\sim$120 hrs. The cultured media were analyzed hormonal changes with hormonal analyzing kit (progesterone (P4), estradiol (E2) : Perkin Elmer, USA) and Transforming growth factor (TGF)-$\beta$ with Eliza kit (Promega, USA). The production of P4 in 0.001 IL-4 was increased as the culture time increased. P4 production was significantly higher in the medium cultured for 120 hrs than 24 hrs (P<0.05). P4 production in 0.01 ng/ml group was similar to that of 0.001 ng/ml. The production of E2 in 0.001 and 0.01 ng/ml groups were increased to 72 hrs like P4 production and showed significantly different between the culture periods (P<0.05). After the culture for 96 hrs, P4 and E2 production were increased to 96 hrs, but decreased at 120 hrs. The production of TGF-$\beta$ showed no changes according to culture period or supplementation of IL-4. In conclusion, the supplementation of IL-4 can increase the production of P4 and E2 and might have important role for the successful pregnancy in bovine.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.155-160
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• 2001

Objective: ICSI with testicular sperm could achieve optimal fertilization and pregnancy. This study was performed to observe the influence on fertilization and pregnancy of motility of fresh testicular sperm and sperm extracted from frozen-thawed seminiferous tubules in obstructive azoospermia. Materials and Methods: We analysed clinical outcome of ICSI using fresh testicular sperm and sperm extracted from thawed seminiferous tubules. The presence of motility were compared to determine the factor for optimal fertilization and pregnancy rates. Results: In 316 cases of TESE-ICSI in obstructive azoospermia, ICSI with fresh testicular sperm (fresh sperm group) were 163 cases and ICSI with sperm testicular sperm extracted from frozen-thawed seminiferous tubule (thawed sperm group) were 153 cases. The fertilization rates were 71.3% and pregnancy rates were 32.5% in fresh sperm group, in thawed sperm group, 65.1% and 33.3% respectively. The fertilization and pregnancy rates of motile and non-motile testicular sperm were 72.9% and 33.6%, 50.0% and 18.2%, respectively (p<0.05). The fertilization and pregnancy rates of motile and non-motile sperm extracted from the thawed seminiferous tubule were 67.8% and 34.7%, 55.1% and 28.1%, respectively (p<0.05). The comparative of the results of ICSI using motile fresh testicular sperm and motile sperm extracted from thawed seminiferous tubule, fertilization and pregnancy rates were not significantly different (72.9% and 33.6%, 67.8% and 34.7%, respectively). Conclusion: These results suggest that successful pregnancy in TESE-ICSI treatment is influenced by the motility of fresh testicular sperm and sperm extracted from thawed seminiferous tubule in obstructive azoospennic patients.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.37-43
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• 1992

Postoperative hypoxemia in the absence of hypoventilation occurs more often after thoracic or upper abdominal surgery than lower abdominal operations or surgery on extremities. Although the factors which produce postoperative alveolar collapse have not been fully evaluated, the dominant factor of postoperative hypoxemia is shunt of blood passing collapsed alveoli and the postoperative pain is associated with restriction of depth of breathing, sighing and movement. In 1979, the first successful clinical usage of epidurally administered morphine for control of postoperative pain was reported by Behar and associates. This study was carried out for twenty patients who received posterolateral thoracostomy with bleb resection between May 1990 and May 1991 and who were primary spontaneous recurrent pneumothoraxes under general endotracheal anesthesia. For the relief of post-thoracotomy pain following of the general anesthesia, we selected ten patients as control group which were treated intermittently IM with injection of pethidine(50 mg) according to the conventional method and another ten patients as study group which were managed with thoracic epidural analgesia. The tip of the catheter was inserted to T4-5 epidural space through T12-L1 or L1-2 interspinous region before the induction of the general anesthesia and then the epidural analgesics(0.25% bupivacaine 15 ml+morphine 3 mg) was injected once a day via the catheter until 4 th POD in the study group. The epidural catheters were removed at postoperative 4 th day in study group. Clinical observations were done about vital signs, ABG, tidal volume, FVC and occurence of adverse effects during postoperative 2hr, 8hr, 1st day, 2nd day, 7th day in both groups. The results were as follows; (1) The values of $V_T$ and FVC were significantly improved in study group(85% and 66%) as compared with control group(76% and 61%) during the postoperative 4 day of the epidural analgesia. (2) After the end of the epidural analgesia(7th POD), the values of FVC were improved invertly rather in control group(98%) than study group(84%). It suggested that the reduction of FVC in study group were caused by the raised pain sensitivity following the end of epidural analgesia. (3) The side effects of epidural analgesia such as transient urinary retention(2 cases), itching sensation(1) and headache(1) were noted.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.131-163
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to empirically analyze how social comparative learning of forum participants affects learning effects with an emphasis on participants' characteristics. As today's society is changing at a fast pace, the desire for new knowledge and information has grown accordingly. To quench this thirst for knowledge and information, seminars, symposiums, conferences, forums, conventions, exhibitions, and more are taking place as part of knowledge sharing events across the world. Also, the increased need for knowledge and information exchange has led the development and growth of the convention industry and Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Events (Exhibitions)(MICE) industry. Especially, forum is a type of event which invites professionals and specialists to discuss diverse topics and share their knowledge and experience with the audience. The participants utilize it as an opportunity to get close to information providers and enjoy the pleasure of knowledge exchange. However, there have been few empirical analyses on who the participants are, why they attend forum, how they pick up and learn new information and knowledge, and what kinds of learning effects they achieve after the event. This paper is to analyze how social comparative learning of the forum's participants influences learning effects based on Albert Bandura's Social Learning Theory (1977, 1997, 1982. 2001) and Leon Festinger's Social Comparative Theory (1950, 1954). By dividing the participants into two groups, one with high level of self-efficacy and the other with low level of self-efficacy, we have examined the differences in learning effects between the two groups using them as moderating variables. This study was conducted in 'MBN Y Forum 2016,' which is one of the most representative knowledge exchange forums of South Korea. An online survey was distributed out and, 1,307(39.2%) out of the total participants of 3,338 have completed the survey. The survey included questions about whether the participants have gained positive or negative motivations by comparing themselves to the speakers (upward comparison learning) and other participants (lateral comparison learning). The results have shown the quality of messages that the speakers are presenting as knowledge providers is the most significant factor that acts on learning effects. Particularly, the participants had higher levels of self-efficacy and self-esteem than average people. They had a clear goal to learn from the speakers (upward comparison) and received positive motivations from them. In other words, no negative learning effects had been found. This presents a managerial implication that having a qualified speaker is necessary for a forum to be successful. On the other hand, the results from the comparison with the other participants (lateral comparison) were different. The participants were likely to compare themselves to the other participants through observational learning. They could compare listening attitudes, language skills, or capabilities to ask a question. The results have showed the participants received positive motivations from the lateral group but at the same time were jealous of abilities of the others. When the quality of a question by a participant is not good enough, it can have a negative influence on the participants' learning effects. The first group with high levels of self-efficacy and self-esteem had no correlation to negative learning effects from the speakers. They rather had a strong desire to learn from the speakers. On the contrary, the participants perceived the lateral group as a learning subset and competitor. The second group with low levels of self-efficacy and self-esteem saw the quasi-group as a rival. This presents that the individual learning effects can be different depending on the participants' characteristics.