• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.201-211
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• 2014

This study is to identify whether a difference exists between factors that influence the time when independently owned nail shops and franchises commence business. Futhermore, we set out to investigate the criteria for nail shop owners use when selecting franchise nail shops with a relatively high level of customer satisfaction and performance, to discuss the necessity of a franchise agreement. An actual analysis has revealed that there is a difference in factors that influence management at the time of and after the inception of independently owned shops and franchise nail shops. Business performance of franchise shops, as a result of evaluating customer satisfaction or monthly sales, turns out to be higher than independently owned shops. The criteria for selecting franchise stores includes intensity of competitiveness in the same business district, accessibility, ability to keep up with current trends, directors' skills, color scheme, excellence of company logo, interesting interior, reasonable prices compared to the level of cosmetic procedure and efforts to motivate employees. Overall, the deciding factor enabling shops to operate continuously is constant supervision from the headquarters of the franchise company.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.206-223
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• 2017

This study examines the role of visual merchandising (VMD) in creating effective interior displays for fashion "select shops"(shops that carry a wide selection of brands) amid the recent changes in consumption trends, with consumer needs becoming increasingly individualized and diversified. Fashion select shop interior displays can be categorized as self-service, showcase, counter, and environmental display spaces. Regarding the VMD elements that contribute to effective interior displays, we reached the following conclusions. First, in self-service displays, in order to heighten sales efficacy, display elements should be presented in such a way as to enable customers to select products with ease by themselves. Second, the mere presence of showcase displays was found to be insufficient; if, however, select shops use showcase displays to arrange products according to the flow of customer traffic, enabling the creation of a gentrified atmosphere for products, this may contribute to a differentiated image of brands, heightening perceived product value. Third, in counter displays, having a harmonious arrangement of display and presentation elements promotes sales by inspiring customer confidence. Fourth, regarding environmental displays, it is important for stores to have attractive interior designs and decorations in order to reproduce settings in which products are actually used, as this can inspire interest in products and promote customers' purchasing intention.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Rural Architecture
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.63-70
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• 2014

This study is aimed to represent the streetscape in 1960s' focused on Seong-An street of Cheong-ju through the existing business types and buildings, literature, photo details, and interview of the longest-term householders. Results of this study are as follows : Firstly, the types of 1st-floor shops were diverse with general merchandise, apparel, medical, bank, restaurant, and etc in 1960s'. The present shops of them are 'Dong-kwang lasa', 'Jung-geum dang', 'Cheong-ju pharmacy' including the existing 'the Korea development', 'Korea first', and 'Woori' bank. Secondly, the streetscape around post office looks just as it did in the old 1960s'. In the other section the present typical buildings are 'Namseon pharmacy ', 'Kukje department', 'Samyang shop', 'Daeyang shop', 'Park shop', and etc. These old 3-4story buildings are reinforced concrete in contrasted with the former wooden and masonry in structure, and converted in use and appearance. Thirdly, the streetscape of Seong-An is ultimately represented by presuming the other buildings and equipments through aerial and street photograph in the old 1960s'.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.196-204
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• 2018

Objectives: To determine urinary mercury levels in e-waste workers in Southern Thailand and the airborne mercury levels in the e-waste shops where they worked, to describe the associations between urinary and airborne mercury levels, and to evaluate the prevalence of mercury exposure-related health effects among e-waste workers. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted by interviewing 79 workers in 25 e-waste shops who lived in Nakhon Si Thammarat Province, Thailand. Information on general and occupational characteristics, personal protective equipment use, and personal hygiene was collected by questionnaire. Urine samples were collected to determine mercury levels using a cold-vapor atomic absorption spectrometer mercury analyzer. Results: The e-waste workers' urinary mercury levels were $11.60{\mu}5.23{\mu}g/g$ creatinine (range, 2.00 to $26.00{\mu}g/g$ creatinine) and the mean airborne mercury levels were $17.00{\mu}0.50{\mu}g/m^3$ (range, 3.00 to $29.00{\mu}g/m^3$). The urinary and airborne mercury levels were significantly correlated (r=0.552, p<0.001). The prevalence of self-reported symptoms was 46.8% for insomnia, 36.7% for muscle atrophy, 24.1% for weakness, and 20.3% for headaches. Conclusions: Personal hygiene was found to be an important protective factor, and should therefore be stressed in educational programs. Employers should implement engineering measures to reduce urinary mercury levels and the prevalence of associated health symptoms among e-waste workers.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.16 no.11
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• pp.22-35
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• 1999

The block assembly process takes more than half of the total shipbuilding processes. Therefore, it is very important to have a practically useful block assembly process planning system which can build plans of maximum efficiency with minimum man-hours required. However, the process plans are often not readily executable in the assembly shops due to severe imbalance of workloads. This problem arises because the process planning is done on block by block basis in current practice without paying any attention to the load distribution among the assembly shops. this paper presents the development of an automated hull block assembly process planning system which results in the most effective use of production resources and also produces plans that enable efficient time management. If the load balance of assembly shops is to be considered at the time of process planning, the task becomes complicated because of the increased computational complexity. To solve this problem, a new approach is adopted in this research in which the load balancing function and process planning function are iterated alternately providing to each other contexts for subsequent improvement. The result of case study with the data supplied from the shipyard shows that the system developed in this research is very effective and useful.

• Culinary science and hospitality research
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.287-295
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• 2009

The purpose of the study was to investigate university students' using coffee shops. For this study, 265 university students in seoul were surveyed from October 6 to October 10, 2008, and 250 copies of the questionnaire were analyzed. A statistical data analysis was completed using SPSS programs. The results of this study revealed that the importance and performance which university students showed in using coffee shops were 4.03 and 3.01 out of 5 respectively. The Importance-Performance Analysis(IPA) used for obtaining information on coffee shops suggested that the items regarded as important but discontented were price, sanitation of ice, water, appliances, the store and employees in general, and cold storage condition.

• FLOWER RESEARCH JOURNAL
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.209-215
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• 2018

The survey conducted with 120 florists in Korean domestic flower shops to investigate the use and awareness of floral preservatives in Korea. As a result, only 19.8% of the domestic florists use floral preservatives frequently in their shops, whereas 45.5% do not use them at all, suggesting very low use frequency. Korean domestic florists considered the use of floral preservatives mostly for storing cut flowers to preventing bacteria growth. For the reasons not to use floral preservatives, 51.4% of the Korean domestic florists did not value its usefulness, showing a lack of awareness of floral preservatives. However, 44.2% of the florists who had the experience with floral preservatives satisfied with the effect of floral preservatives, and 49.5% of the respondents positively answered to recommend floral preservatives to others. General awareness on floral preservatives among Korean domestic florists was positive. 50.5% of the florists with the experience with the floral preservative had the high intention to re-purchase the flower preservatives. The low use frequency and lack of recognition of floral preservatives in Korea were likely due to very few floral preservative brands and little advertising. However, the high satisfaction level and repurchase intention rate shown by the florists indicates that increasing advertising and education for the floral preservatives would improve the accessibility and awareness of the products and their effects increasing the opportunity to use floral preservatives among Korean domestic florists, further enhancing consumers' satisfaction by improving the cut flower quality and its vase life.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.34 no.7
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• pp.1087-1099
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• 2010

This study explores the retail environment factors of the changes mentioned in the "Factors and Directions of the Change of the Apparel Retail Structure in Korea" (Part I) to understand the changes in apparel retail institutions. This study was done through a literature research method and the results are as follows. First, changing consumer needs and trends require extensive new products, a method to manufacture diverse products according to the market demand, and the necessity to manufacture based on trends in demand. This limits the role of mass production, which brought about more flexible manufacturing modes, scaled down manufacturing factories, promoted more cooperative subcontract relationships, and increased global sourcing which uses other companies at the most appropriate global venue. How to organize and use cooperative networks that benefit companies is the key to global competitiveness in the new era and the information technology developed around retail shops plays a key role. Consequently, the management of consumers and their information becomes critical and retail distribution functions become a key corporate function. In addition, it is difficult for small shops to introduce effective new technologies that encourage the growth of large companies. Second, apparel companies that use to benefit from scale merits based on the previous mass production system are now becoming effective by using economies of scale through mass retailing while shops are enlarging their sizes as a way to survive. On the other hand, inexpensive clothes become even more inexpensive while expensive ones become even more expensive, promoting polarization and diverse price ranges that widen consumer options.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.10
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• pp.47-57
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• 2016

Purpose - This study's purpose is to investigate the market structure of the Korean duty free shop industry that has received recent attention from researchers and practitioners. By raising the question of whether or not the Korean duty free shop industry is unequivocally monopolistic, a wider viewpoint is provided. The study seeks to offer insights and managerial implications for marketers and policy makers who are in charge of regulating major Korean duty free shops. Research design, data, and methodology - The authors use secondary data from various sources, including Korea Customs Service and the Moodie Report, to investigate the structure of the duty free shop industry of Korea. Based on several theories, they present various criteria and statistical evidence such as K-firm concentration ratio, HHI, consumer substitutability, excess profit, and marketing costs. Results - In terms of consumer substitutability, it is difficult to confirm whether or not the Korean duty free shop industry is monopolistic. Notwithstanding monopoly characteristics in terms of market share, neither the company Lotte nor Shilla appear to have market dominating power. It is not easy for either of them to control prices or to achieve a much lower operational profit ratio due to a dominant bargaining power. Moreover, the license is not an economic rent. In this situation, it is not easy for these companies to obtain an excessive profit. Conclusions - Considering that most global duty free shops are trying to go upscale to improve bargaining power, it does not seem likely that rigid regulations are needed in the industry. Even though the Korean duty free industry ostensibly has a monopolistic structure, government and policy-makers should look beyond the surface. They should take global and other reasonable criteria into consideration when they establish or change regulation policies. Thorough understanding and appropriate support are needed for the Korean duty free shop industry. Additionally, duty free shops should position themselves as global companies struggling against unlimited international competition, rather than Korean domestic companies. At the same time, they need to give customers appropriate information about the benefits they provide.

• Culinary science and hospitality research
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.206-224
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to examine the formation of customer's repeated use that is real long-term commitment in franchise/chain coffee shops. 457 effective samples were analyzed using PASW 18.0 and AMOS 18.0. The results of the analysis of the relationships between user experience, customer satisfaction, customer commitment and repeated use are as follows. First, it was presented that atmosphere, price fairness and coffee product quality had a positive impact on customer satisfaction. Second, customer satisfaction had a positive impact on customer commitment and repeated use. Finally, there was the mediating effect of continuous commitment between customer satisfaction and repeated use. Based on the results of the above analysis, the managerial implications for increasing repeated use of coffee shops are as follows. First, the strategy for enhancing performance of user experience is to try to improve atmosphere(facilities, ambient/lighting), price fairness, coffee product quality(taste, flavor, temperature). Second, the strategy for forming repeated use is to enhance customer commitment(affective commitment, continuous/normative commitment).