• Korean Journal of Radiology
• /
• v.22 no.12
• /
• pp.1974-1984
• /
• 2021

Objective: This study aimed to compare the efficacy between no-touch (NT) radiofrequency ablation (RFA) and conventional RFA using twin internally cooled wet (TICW) electrodes in the bipolar mode for the treatment of small hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC). Materials and Methods: In this single-center, two-arm, parallel-group, prospective randomized controlled study, we performed a 1:1 random allocation of eligible patients with HCCs to receive NT-RFA or conventional RFA between October 2016 and September 2018. The primary endpoint was the cumulative local tumor progression (LTP) rate after RFA. Secondary endpoints included technical conversion rates of NT-RFA, intrahepatic distance recurrence, extrahepatic metastasis, technical parameters, technical efficacy, and rates of complications. Cumulative LTP rates were analyzed using Kaplan-Meier analysis and the Cox proportional hazard regression model. Considering conversion cases from NT-RFA to conventional RFA, intention-to-treat and as-treated analyses were performed. Results: Enrolled patients were randomly assigned to the NT-RFA group (37 patients with 38 HCCs) or the conventional RFA group (36 patients with 38 HCCs). Among the NT-RFA group patients, conversion to conventional RFA occurred in four patients (10.8%, 4/37). According to intention-to-treat analysis, both 1- and 3-year cumulative LTP rates were 5.6%, in the NT-RFA group, and they were 11.8% and 21.3%, respectively, in the conventional RFA group (p = 0.073, log-rank). In the as-treated analysis, LTP rates at 1 year and 3 years were 0% and 0%, respectively, in the NT-RFA group sand 15.6% and 24.5%, respectively, in the conventional RFA group (p = 0.004, log-rank). In as-treated analysis using multivariable Cox regression analysis, RFA type was the only significant predictive factor for LTP (hazard ratio = 0.061 with conventional RFA as the reference, 95% confidence interval = 0.000-0.497; p = 0.004). There were no significant differences in the procedure characteristics between the two groups. No procedure-related deaths or major complications were observed. Conclusion: NT-RFA using TICW electrodes in bipolar mode demonstrated significantly lower cumulative LTP rates than conventional RFA for small HCCs, which warrants a larger study for further confirmation.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
• /
• v.22 no.5
• /
• pp.69-77
• /
• 2021

The main channels of the financial industry are rapidly changing to mobile. In this environment, banks are focusing on information and communication technology to secure their competitiveness, and rapid innovation is being pursued especially in the payment settlement sector. In October 2019, Korea also introduced open banking services to accelerate the financial innovation, such as the open conversion of financial settlement networks and the expansion of the use of simple payments. In this paper, an empirical study was conducted on the effect of domestic open banking quality factors on usage intention. The service quality factors for open banking were classified into interface design, innovation, security, and data sharing, and the technology acceptance model (TAM) was used to verify whether it has a significant effect on perceived convenience, usefulness and intention to use. According to the analysis results, while innovation and security did not have a significant effect on convenience and usefulness, interface design and data sharing were found to have an effect on perceived convenience. The results would provide implications for some quality issues for companies seeking to introduce open banking services as well as for the related academic arena.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.87-98
• /
• 2017

As the market for coffee chains becomes fierce, it is important for coffee chains to establish an enduring relationship with customers and encourage them to revisit their stores. Thus, it becomes important to understand consumers' repurchase decision-making mechanisms in the context of coffee chains. Customer satisfaction, perceived switching costs, and regret were considered as the main factors of customers' repurchase intentions. Especially, the effect of regret experience of coffee chains on consumers' repurchase decision was examined. In addition, coffee quality, physical environment quality, service encounters performance, and brand trust were considered as attributes of coffee shop selection, and their effects on customer satisfaction and perceived switching cost were investigated. The results of the study showed that customer satisfaction and perceived switching costs had a positive effect on repurchase intention, while regret had a negative effect on repurchase intention. Coffee quality and physical environmental quality had no significant effect on customer satisfaction and perceived conversion cost. Service encounter performance had a significant impact on perceived switching costs alone. Brand trust had a significant impact on both customer satisfaction and perceived switching cost.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
• /
• v.29 no.6
• /
• pp.211-221
• /
• 2024

Live streaming commerce has emerged as an innovative e-commerce model. This study, based on the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), aims to explore the impact of Key Opinion Consumers' (KOCs) attributes in live streaming commerce on purchase intentions on short video platforms. A survey was conducted with 411 consumers, and data analysis and hypothesis testing were performed using SPSS 24.0 and AMOS 23.0 software. Research has found that differences in consumers' information processing abilities lead to different pathway selections. Central route factors such as recommendation consistency, product involvement, and professionalism, as well as peripheral route factors such as recommendation timeliness, all have significant positive effects on consumers' purchase intention. However, visual cues in the peripheral route do not have a significant impact. This study aims to provide theoretical support and practical guidance for the development of the live streaming commerce industry, and to help companies adjust their promotion strategies based on differences in consumer information processing, thereby improving purchase conversion rates.

• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.51-69
• /
• 2019

One of the most considerate phenomena of the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is the use of digital devices. Digitalization is rapidly advancing through all areas of industry and life. Customer journey with digitalization is looking totally different from previous customer journey. The research targets were users of fashion, automobiles, cosmetics and online shopping malls. We analyzed 300 people for each valid questionnaire. The results of the study are as follows. First, it has been proven that digital experience affects positive (+) impact on purchasing intention and positive (+) impact on recommending intention and negative impact (-) on switching intent and subsequently affects positive impact (+) to purchase and incase of switching intent, negative impact (-) to purchase. Unlike traditional methods such as SPC(Service Profit Chain), the Digital experience to Purchase process Chain (DPC) has been identified to be suitable in the digital age. Second, the digital satisfied group (5 score-very satisfaction) has shown same result as above. However the digital neutral group (even though 4 score- satisfaction in five-point scale), specially in a highly competitive industry, has different from the satisfied group and 3 score-normal is same as dissatisfied group. It means that this group is that If there is a high level of attractiveness of substitute goods, there is a high possibility of switching them. It has supported Jones and Sasser [1995] that there have been two types of loyalty of true long-term loyalty and what we call false loyalty in the highly competitive industry zone which is commoditization or low differentiation, many substitutes, low cost of switching. Identifying true loyalty and false loyalty is crucial to establishing a customer experience strategy. it is necessary to actively utilize long-term digital experiences strategy to increase the total satisfaction of digital experience through all of customer purchasing journey in order to enhance the digital customer experience. It is difficult to see the effect as a one-time event. It should be scaled over the entire customer purchase process over a long period of time, which can positively affect purchase intention, recommendation intention, and conversion intention. This is also why it is difficult for second-runners to overtake first-runners in a short period.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.241-254
• /
• 2014

This case study surveyed management situations of environmentally friendly farming(EFF) producers' organization and their main activities. Farmers are aging as an average age of 55-year old and producing fruit-bearing vegetables. The EFF did not increase farmer's income, however, price and income was stabilized more than that of conventional farming because of contract farming. Farm household liabilities are caused by purchasing agricultural machinery, materials and so on. Farmers of EFF have been also cultivating conventional farming, but they don't plan much conversion intention of conventional farming into EFF owing to lack of differentiated and stable market for their EFF products. And they are guessing that EFF income will increase a little. For increasing of EFF income, they think that it is necessary to reduce production cost, produce high quality production, develop processing foods, enlarge contract farming and so on.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
• /
• v.21 no.3
• /
• pp.321-334
• /
• 2013

This case study surveyed management situations of environmentally friendly farming (EFF) and their awareness situations. Farmers are aging as an average age of 62-year old. The EFF did not increase farmer's income, however, farm income of EFF was more than that of conventional farming. Farm household liabilities showed large deviation among farmers. Livestock and greenhouse farm households have more liabilities because of facilities and feed cost. Farmers of EFF have been also cultivating conventional farming, but they don't plan much conversion intention of conventional farming into EFF owing to lack of differentiated and stable market for their environment-friendly agriculture products. And they are guessing that EFF income will usually not increase more. For increasing of EFF income, they think that it is necessary to enlarge production area, change to high-income crop, develop processing foods, change to organic farming and so on.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
• /
• v.25 no.5
• /
• pp.438-448
• /
• 2024

Objective: To evaluate the therapeutic outcomes of no-touch radiofrequency ablation (NT-RFA) using twin cooled wet (TCW) electrodes in patients experiencing recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after undergoing locoregional treatments. Materials and Methods: We conducted a prospective, single-arm study of NT-RFA involving 102 patients, with a total of 112 recurrent HCCs (each ≤ 3 cm). NT-RFA with TCW electrodes was implemented under the guidance of ultrasonography (US)-MR/CT fusion imaging. If NT-RFA application proved technically challenging, conversion to conventional tumor puncture RFA was permitted. The primary metric for evaluation was the mid-term cumulative incidence of local tumor progression (LTP) observed post-RFA. Cumulative LTP rates were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Multivariable Cox proportional hazard regression was used to explore factors associated with LTP. Considering conversion cases from NT-RFA to conventional RFA, intention-to-treat (ITT; including all patients) and per-protocol (PP; including patients not requiring conversion to conventional RFA alone) analyses were performed. Results: Conversion from NT-RFA to conventional RFA was necessary for 24 (21.4%) out of 112 tumors. Successful treatment was noted in 111 (99.1%) out of them. No major complications were reported among the patients. According to ITT analysis, the estimated cumulative incidences of LTP were 1.9%, 6.0%, and 6.0% at 1, 2, and 3 years post-RFA, respectively. In PP analysis, the cumulative incidence of LTP was 0.0%, 1.3%, and 1.3% at 1, 2, and 3 years, respectively. The number of previous locoregional HCC treatments (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 1.265 per 1 treatment increase; P = 0.004), total bilirubin (aHR, 7.477 per 1 mg/dL increase; P = 0.012), and safety margin ≤ 5 mm (aHR, 9.029; P = 0.016) were independently associated with LTP in ITT analysis. Conclusion: NT-RFA using TCW electrodes is a safe and effective treatment for recurrent HCC, with 6.0% (ITT analysis) and 1.3% (PP analysis) cumulative incidence of LTP at 2 and 3-year follow-ups.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.75-91
• /
• 2024

Recently, global business environment is changing dramatically along with the acceleration of technological innovation amid the war, climatic change, and geopolitical instability. Accordingly, it is difficult to predict or plan for the future as the volatility, complexity, ambiguity, and uncertainty of the industrial ecosystem continue to increase. Therefore, organizations are undergoing inevitable restructuring in accordance with their survival strategy, for instance, removing marginal businesses or firing. Accordingly, office workers are seeking a startup as an alternative for their continuous economic activity amid rising anxiety factors that make them think they would lose their jobs unintentionally. Here, this study is aimed to verify through what paths office workers' self-determination influences the process of converting to a startup. For this study, an online survey was carried out, and 310 respondents' valid data were analyzed through SPSS and AMOS. To sum up the results, first, office workers' self-determination did not have significant effects on entrepreneurial intention. However, it was confirmed that self-determination had positive (+) effects on innovativeness and perception of the startup support system. This result shows that their psychology works to prepare step by step by accumulating innovative experiences and increasing perception of the startup support system from a long-term life path perspective rather than challenging startups right way. Second, innovativeness is found to have positive (+) effects on entrepreneurial intention. Also, perception of the startup support system had positive (+) effects on entrepreneurial intention. This implies that when considering startups, they are highly aware of the government's various startup support systems. Third, innovativeness is found to have positive (+) effects on perception of the startup support system. It is judged that perception of the startup support system is valid for prospective founders to exhibit their innovativeness and realize new ideas. Fourth, it was confirmed that innovativeness and perception of the startup support system mediated correlation between self-determination and entrepreneurial intention, and perception of the startup support system mediated correlation between innovativeness and entrepreneurial intention, which shows that it is a crucial factor in entrepreneurial intention. Although previous studies related to startups deal with students mostly, this study targets office workers who form a great part in economic activities, which makes it academically valuable in terms of being differentiated from others and extending the scope of research. Also, when we consider the fact that the motivation for self-determination alone fails to stimulate entrepreneurial intention and the complete mediation of innovativeness and the startup support system, it has great implications in practical aspects such as the government's human and material support systems. In the selection and analysis of samples, this study exhibits a limitation that the problem of common method bias is not completely resolved. Also, additional definitive research is needed on whether entrepreneurial intention is formed and converted into startup behavior. Academically and practically, this study deals with the relationship between humans' psychological motives and startups which has not been handled sufficiently in previous studies. The conversion of office workers to startups is expected to have effects on individuals' economic stability and the state's job creation; therefore, it needs to be investigated continuously for its great value.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
• /
• v.15 no.6
• /
• pp.1009-1017
• /
• 2015

Objectives: The study aimed to investigate the effect of communication competence on the organizational effectiveness in dental hygienists. Methods: A self-reported questionnaire was completed by 248 dental hygienists in Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggido from November 1 to 30, 2014. The questionnaire consisted of general characteristics of the subjects(4 items), job characteristics(10 items), communication competence(49 items), organizational commitment(15 items), job satisfaction(16 items), and turnover intention(5 items). The instrument for communication competence and organizational commitment was done by Likert 5 points scale. Data were analyzed by t test, one way ANOVA, stepwise multiple regression test, and post-hoc Scheffe test using SPSS 18.0 program Results: The average of communication competence was 3.49(${\pm}0.28$). Of the sub-factors of communication competence, interpretational competence had the highest score of 3.65(${\pm}0.33$) followed by self-presentation 3.50(${\pm}0.49$), message conversion 3.50(${\pm}0.47$), role performance 3.44(${\pm}0.37$), and goal setting competence 3.28(${\pm}0.60$). There were significant effects in the organizational commitment including workplace(dental clinic=1, ${\beta}$=-0.254), weekly average working hours($${\leq_-}40$$ hours=1, ${\beta}$=0.182), role performance(${\beta}$=0.163), self-presentation(${\beta}$=0.144), goal setting competence(${\beta}$=0.130), and position(head=1, ${\beta}$=0.137). There were significants effects in the job satisfaction including position(head=1, ${\beta}$=0.217), weekly average working hours($${\leq_-}40$$ hours=1, ${\beta}$=0.204), education level(graduate school=1, ${\beta}$=0.184), job career(3~6 years=1, ${\beta}$=-0.181), goal setting competence(${\beta}$=0.194), and interpretational competence(${\beta}$=0.124). Conclusions: The communication competence of the dental hygienists showed a partial effect on the organizational effectiveness. In order to improve the organizational commitment and job satisfaction and the turnover intention, a variety of efforts must be taken and focused on goal setting competence, role performance, self-presentation, and interpretational competence.