• ETRI Journal
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.813-823
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• 2018

In existing mobile computing environments, users need to choose between their privacy and the services that they can receive from an application. However, existing mobile platforms do not allow users to perform such trade-offs in a fine-grained manner. In this study, we investigate whether users can effectively make utility-privacy trade-offs when they are provided with a multilevel privacy control method that allows them to recognize the different quality of service that they will receive from an application by limiting the disclosure of their private information in multiple levels. We designed a research model to observe users' utility-privacy trade-offs in accordance with the privacy control methods and other factors such as the trustworthiness of an application, quality level of private information, and users' privacy preferences. We conducted a user survey with 516 participants and found that, compared with the existing binary privacy controls, both the service utility and the privacy protection levels were significantly increased when the users used the multilevel privacy control method.

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.141-160
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• 2018

Purpose The purpose of this study is to verify mobile game users' perceived utilities about real (price) and virtual (Ruby) currencies, which are the major factors of in-app purchase (IAP) widely used as a business model in a mobile game industry. Design/methodology/approach By using sales volume and sales frequency data for products sold in an 'S' mobile game from the 'D' mobile game company, we conducted a conjoint analysis according to the procedure recommended by Bicheno (2009). Findings The results of this study indicate that (1) mobile game users have greater utility for a virtual currency (Ruby) than for a real currency (price), (2) mobile game users' utility for virtual (Ruby) and real (price) currencies varies depending on sales volume and sales frequency, as well as (3) mobile markets (e.g., Google Play Store vs. Apple App Store), and (4) mobile game users have greater utility for a virtual currency (Ruby) which can be used readily than later.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.158-166
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• 2014

Apparel design is an economic activity to create values for users over the value chain of a product. In this paper, the contribution of apparel design is defined as the enhancement of users' perceived values by improving users' experience of products. In this context, the value of a product corresponds to compensation for experience or a promise for experience of a product. Experience can be sensory or psychological benefits to users. To evaluate the value of apparel design, the researcher identified and analyzed the apparel design parameters affecting users' experience and benefits of products such as macro-, micro-environmental factors, value chain factors, apparel designer factors, and user factors. For an analytical modeling of the values of apparel design, this paper introduces the concept of a utility function from economics. In economics, utility is a measure of desirability or satisfaction that can be correlative to need or desire. The measure of value can be found in the price which a user is willing to pay for the fulfillment or satisfaction of need or desire via the experience of a product.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.107-134
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• 2003

This study intends to analyze the utility of library catalogs from library users 'point of view. Emphasis was on verifying how useful library catalogs are as a tool in order to satisfy the information need of library users. To the end, this study developed the criteria and indicators that can be used to measure the utility of library catalogs from users' viewpoint. On the basis of it, the utility of library catalogs was measured systematically. Sample catalog records for the utility verification were selected from 6 most representative university libraries in Korea. The result of verification was presented and described with the typical examples, and the key factors that caused the low utility of library catalogs were a]so identified and discussed.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.16 no.7
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• pp.5-16
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• 2018

Purpose - This study posits that sustainable mobility of the sharing economy plays a key role to consider environment benefits. The purpose of this study is to investigate the bicycle-sharing economy as an emerging and alternative mode of transportation service and provide managerial and policy implications. The bicycle-sharing economy is still at an early stage of introduction as a transportation mode, while the governmental sector is promoting public bicycle-sharing to encourage bicycle as a substitute for private cars. Research design, data, and methodology - This study analyzed the current status of bicycle sharing programs through a survey that was distributed randomly to users and non-users across the country. Using factor analysis, satisfaction and loyalty for the existing users and intention to use and expected satisfaction for the potential users were examined in relation to utility factors. Results - The results show that economic utility affects satisfaction for user, while storage, mobility, and economic utility affects intention to use for potential users. The findings of this study indicate that in order to promote a bicycle-sharing scheme, it would be better to focus on the scheme's economic advantage to be truly effective. Conclusions - The findings of the study could be applicable to future directions of the sharing economy as a means to achieve the sustainable development of society.

• The Journal of Society for e-Business Studies
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.1-17
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• 2021

This paper elucidates the effect of characteristics of service quality on continuance usage intention of digital healthcare service using mediating factors of user expectation and user utility. First, we classified independent factors into three types such as service system characteristics, user characteristics, and healthcare service characteristics from the previous studies, and investigated the effect of three independent factors on continuance usage intention of digital healthcare service. Second, we analyzed the impact of two mediating factors, user expectation and user utility, on the continuance usage intention. We developed a research model that includes three types of independent factors, mediated factors of user expectation and user utility, and a dependent factor of continuance usage intention. We surveyed a total of 357 samples from digital healthcare service users and analyzed the research model. The research results significantly show that Characteristics of Users is essential factor impacting a dependent factor of Continuance Usage Intention. The results indicate the followings: (1) Characteristics of Users including the variables of Innovation impacts User Expectation, and User Expectation affects Users Utility, and Users Utility also affects Continuance Usage Intention. (2) Characteristics of Service Systems including the variables of Functionality, Compatibility, and Convenience and Characteristics of users of Innovation variable impact the mediating factor of User Expectation, and User Expectation also affects the factor of Continuance Usage Intention. (3) Characteristics of Healthcare Services including the variables of Reliability, Ease of Operation, Safety, and Accuracy impact User Utility, and User Utility also affects Continuance Usage Intention.

• Korean Management Science Review
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.97-108
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• 2015

This study proposes a mathematical model to estimate the economic value of weather forecast service, among which the precipitation forecast service is focused. The value is calculated in terms of users' satisfaction or dissatisfaction resulted from the users' decisions made by using the precipitation probabilistic forecasts and thresholds. The satisfaction values can be quantified by the traditional value score model, which shows the scaled utility values relative to the perfect forecast information. This paper extends the value score concept to a collective value score model which is defined as a weighted sum of users' satisfaction based on threshold distribution in a group of the users. The proposed collective value score model is applied to the picnic scenario by using four hypothetical sets of probabilistic forecasts, i.e., under-confident, over-confident, under-forecast and over-forecast. The application results show that under-confident type of forecasts outperforms the others as a measure of the maximum collective value regardless of users' dissatisfaction patterns caused by two types of forecast errors, e.g., miss and false alarm.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.14 no.8
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• pp.3328-3349
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• 2020

With rapid development of ubiquitous computing and location-based services (LBSs), human trajectory data and associated activities are increasingly easily recorded. Inappropriately publishing trajectory data may leak users' privacy. Therefore, we study publishing trajectory data while preserving privacy, denoted privacy-preserving activity trajectories publishing (PPATP). We propose S-PPATP to solve this problem. S-PPATP comprises three steps: modeling, algorithm design and algorithm adjustment. During modeling, two user models describe users' behaviors: one based on a Markov chain and the other based on the hidden Markov model. We assume a potential adversary who intends to infer users' privacy, defined as a set of sensitive information. An adversary model is then proposed to define the adversary's background knowledge and inference method. Additionally, privacy requirements and a data quality metric are defined for assessment. During algorithm design, we propose two publishing algorithms corresponding to the user models and prove that both algorithms satisfy the privacy requirement. Then, we perform a comparative analysis on utility, efficiency and speedup techniques. Finally, we evaluate our algorithms through experiments on several datasets. The experiment results verify that our proposed algorithms preserve users' privay. We also test utility and discuss the privacy-utility tradeoff that real-world data publishers may face.

• Journal of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.1-19
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• 2003

This paper studies power and rate control for data users on the forward link of CDMA system with two cells. The QoS for data users is specified by delay and error rate constraints as well as a family of utility functions representing system throughput and fairness among data users. Optimal power and rate allocation problem is mathematically formulated as a nonlinear programming problem, which is to maximize total utility under delay and error rate constraints, and optimal power and rate allocation scheme (OPRAS) is proposed to obtain a good solution in a fast time. Computational experiments show that the proposed scheme OPRAS works very well and increases total utility compared to the separate power and rate allocation scheme (SPARS) which considers each cell individually.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.107-126
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• 2004

As the information society matures, an analysis on possible outputs of internet usage is needed. Thus, this study was peformed in order to understand the utility cognition and negative outputs of internet users. The method used in this study was a web-based questionnaire that was administered to the internet users. Five hundred married men and women were analyzed with a factor and a multiple regression analysis. Results were as follows: First, many kinds of internet usages - information searching, internet shopping, electronic mail, instant messaging, and decision-making dependent on internet information - were differentiated with age. Second, the altitude about the internet was an important explanatory variable in the types of internet usage. Third, negative outputs of internet usage were great in terms of information resource management and unbalanced scheduling in daily time spent. Fourth, utility cognition was affected by qualitative elements on internet usage more than the quantitative ones.