• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.85-111
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• 2012

Introduction : The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between perceptual characteristics of consumers and intent of relational continuance for PB(Private Brand) products in discount stores. This study was conducted as an empirical study based on survey. For the empirical study, factors of PB products as characteristics perceived by consumers such as perceived quality, store image, brand image and perceived value were deduced from preceding studies. The effect of such factors on intent of relational continuance mediated by brand trust and brand equity of PB products was structurally examined. Research Model : Based on theory analysis and hypotheses, constructed a Structural Equation Model(SEM). The research model is shown in Figure 1. Research Method : This paper is based on s qualitative study of selected literature and empirical data. The survey for empirical study was carried out on consumers in Gyeonggi and Busan between January 2012 and May 2012. 300 surveys were distributed and 253 (84.3%) of them were returned. After excluding omissions and insincere responses, 245 surveys (81.6%) were used for final analysis as effective samples. Result : First of all, the Reliability was carried out for instrument used. The lower limit of 0.7 for Cronbach's Alpha as suggested by Hair et al. (1998). And Construct validity was established by carrying out exploratory factor analysis by Varimax rotation for all. Four factor result for the consumer's perceptual characteristics of PB Products, two mediating factors and one dependent factor. All constructs included in research framework have acceptable validity and reliability. Table 1 shows the factor loading, eigen value, explained variance and Cronbach's alpha for each factor. In order to assure validity of constructs, I implemented Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), using AMOS 20.0. In confirmatory factor analysis, researcher can take control over the specification of indicators for each factor by hypothesizing that a specific factor is loaded with the relevant indicators. Moreover, CFA is particularly useful in the validation of scale for the measurement of specific construct. CFA result summarized Table 2 shows that the fit measures of all constructs fulfill the recommended level and loadings are significant. To test causal relationship between constructs in the research model, used AMOS 20.0 that provides a graphic module as method for analysing Structural Equation Modeling. The result of hypothesis test is shown in Table 3. As a result of empirical study, perceived quality, brand image and perceived value as selected attributes for PB products showed significantly positive (+) effect on brand trust and brand equity. Furthermore, brand trust and brand equity showed significantly positive (+) effect on intent of relational continuance. However, store image of discount stores selling the PB products was analyzed to have positive (+) effect on brand trust and no significant effect on brand equity. Discussion : Based on the results of this study, the relationship between overall quality, store image, brand image and value perceived by consumers about PB products and intent of relational continuance was structurally verified as being mediated by brand trust and brand equity. Looking at the results, a strategic approach that maximizes brand trust and equity value for PB products by large discount stores is required on top of basic efforts to improve quality, brand image and value of PB products in order to maximize consumer's intent of relational continuance and to continuously attract repeated purchase of products.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.495-504
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• 2018

This study was conducted to develop items to measure scientific core competency based on statements of scientific core competencies presented in the 2015 revised national science curriculum and to identify the validity and reliability of the newly developed items. Based on the explanations of scientific reasoning, scientific inquiry ability, scientific problem-solving ability, scientific communication ability, participation/lifelong learning in science presented in the 2015 revised national science curriculum, 25 items were developed by five science education experts. To explore the validity and reliability of the developed items, data were collected from 11,348 students in elementary, middle, and high schools nationwide. The content validity, substantive validity, the internal structure validity, and generalization validity proposed by Messick (1995) were examined by various statistical tests. The results of the MNSQ analysis showed that there were no nonconformity in the 25 items. The confirmatory factor analysis using the structural equation modeling revealed that the five-factor model was a suitable model. The differential item functioning analyses by gender and school level revealed that the nonconformity DIF value was found in only two out of 175 cases. The results of the multivariate analysis of variance by gender and school level showed significant differences of test scores between schools and genders, and the interaction effect was also significant. The assessment items of science core competency based on the 2015 revised national science curriculum are valid from a psychometric point of view and can be used in the science education field.

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.1-23
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• 2016

Purpose Self-congruity deals with the effect of symbolic value-expressive attributes on consumer decision and behavior, which is the theoretical foundation of the "non-utilitarian destination positioning". Functional congruity refers to utilitarian evaluation of a product or service by consumers. In addition, recent years, social network services, especially mobile social network services have created many opportunities for e-WOM communication that enables consumers to share personal consumption related information anywhere at any time. Moreover, self-construal is a hot and popular topic that has been discussed in the field of modem psychology as well as in marketing area. This study aims to examine the moderating effect of self-construal on the relationship between self-congruity, functional congruity and tourists' positive electronic word of mouth (e-WOM). Design/methodology/approach In order to verify the hypotheses, we developed a questionnaire with 32 survey items. We measured all the items on a five-point Likert-type scale. We used Sojump.com to collect questionnaire and gathered 218 responses from whom have visited Korea before. After a pilot test, we analyzed the main survey data by using SPSS 20.0 and AMOS 18.0, and employed structural equation modeling to test the hypotheses. We first estimated the measurement model for its overall fit, reliability and validity through a confirmatory factor analysis and used common method bias test to make sure that whether measures are affected by common-method variance. Then we tested the hypotheses through the structural model and used regression analysis to measure moderating effect of self-construal. Findings The results reveal that the effect of self-congruity on tourists' positive e-WOM is stronger for tourists with an independent self-construal compared with those with interdependent self-construal. Moreover, it shows that the effect of functional congruity on tourists' positive e-WOM becomes salient when tourists' self-construal is primed to be interdependent rather than independent. We expect that the results of this study can provide important implications for academic and practical perspective.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.47-75
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• 2009

Recently, researches on Management Information Systems (MIS) have laid out theoretical foundation and academic paradigms by introducing diverse theories, themes, and methodologies. Especially, academic paradigms of MIS encourage a user-friendly approach by developing the technologies from the users' perspectives, which reflects the existence of strong causal relationships between information systems and user's behavior. As in other areas in social science the use of structural equation modeling (SEM) has rapidly increased in recent years especially in the MIS area. The SEM technique is important because it provides powerful ways to address key IS research problems. It also has a unique ability to simultaneously examine a series of casual relationships while analyzing multiple independent and dependent variables all at the same time. In spite of providing many benefits to the MIS researchers, there are some potential pitfalls with the analytical technique. The research objective of this study is to provide some guidelines for an appropriate use of SEM based on the assessment of current practice of using SEM in the MIS research. This study focuses on several statistical issues related to the use of SEM in the MIS research. Selected articles are assessed in three parts through the meta analysis. The first part is related to the initial specification of theoretical model of interest. The second is about data screening prior to model estimation and testing. And the last part concerns estimation and testing of theoretical models based on empirical data. This study reviewed the use of SEM in 164 empirical research articles published in four major MIS journals in Korea (APJIS, ISR, JIS and JITAM) from 1991 to 2007. APJIS, ISR, JIS and JITAM accounted for 73, 17, 58, and 16 of the total number of applications, respectively. The number of published applications has been increased over time. LISREL was the most frequently used SEM software among MIS researchers (97 studies (59.15%)), followed by AMOS (45 studies (27.44%)). In the first part, regarding issues related to the initial specification of theoretical model of interest, all of the studies have used cross-sectional data. The studies that use cross-sectional data may be able to better explain their structural model as a set of relationships. Most of SEM studies, meanwhile, have employed. confirmatory-type analysis (146 articles (89%)). For the model specification issue about model formulation, 159 (96.9%) of the studies were the full structural equation model. For only 5 researches, SEM was used for the measurement model with a set of observed variables. The average sample size for all models was 365.41, with some models retaining a sample as small as 50 and as large as 500. The second part of the issue is related to data screening prior to model estimation and testing. Data screening is important for researchers particularly in defining how they deal with missing values. Overall, discussion of data screening was reported in 118 (71.95%) of the studies while there was no study discussing evidence of multivariate normality for the models. On the third part, issues related to the estimation and testing of theoretical models on empirical data, assessing model fit is one of most important issues because it provides adequate statistical power for research models. There were multiple fit indices used in the SEM applications. The test was reported in the most of studies (146 (89%)), whereas normed-test was reported less frequently (65 studies (39.64%)). It is important that normed- of 3 or lower is required for adequate model fit. The most popular model fit indices were GFI (109 (66.46%)), AGFI (84 (51.22%)), NFI (44 (47.56%)), RMR (42 (25.61%)), CFI (59 (35.98%)), RMSEA (62 (37.80)), and NNFI (48 (29.27%)). Regarding the test of construct validity, convergent validity has been examined in 109 studies (66.46%) and discriminant validity in 98 (59.76%). 81 studies (49.39%) have reported the average variance extracted (AVE). However, there was little discussion of direct (47 (28.66%)), indirect, and total effect in the SEM models. Based on these findings, we suggest general guidelines for the use of SEM and propose some recommendations on concerning issues of latent variables models, raw data, sample size, data screening, reporting parameter estimated, model fit statistics, multivariate normality, confirmatory factor analysis, reliabilities and the decomposition of effects.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.1-13
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• 2009

Alkalinity and total carbon contents were measured by acid neutralizing titration (ANT), back titration (BT), gravitational weighing (GW), non-dispersive infrared-total carbon (NDIR-TC) methods for assessing precision and accuracy of alkalinity and total carbon concentration in $CO_2$-rich water. Artificial $CO_2$-rich water(ACW: pH 6.3, alkalinity 68.8 meq/L, $HCO_3^-$ 2,235 mg/L) was used for comparing the measurements. When alkalinity measured in 0 hr, percent errors of all measurement were 0~12% and coefficient of variation were less than 4%. As the result of post-hoc analysis after repeated measure analysis of variance (RM-AMOVA), the differences between the pair of methods were not significant (within confidence level of 95%), which indicates that the alkalinity measured by any method could be accurate and precise when it measured just in time of sampling. In addition, alkalinity measured by ANT and NDIR-TC were not change after 24 and 48 hours open to atmosphere, which can be explained by conservative nature of alkalinity although $CO_2$ degas from ACW. On the other hand, alkalinity measured by BT and GW increased after 24 and 48 hours open to atmosphere, which was caused by relatively high concentration of measured total carbon and increasing pH. The comparison between geochemical modeling of $CO_2$ degassing and observed data showed that pH of observed ACW was higher than calculated pH. This can be happen when degassed $CO_2$ does not come out from the solution and/or exist in solution as $CO_{2(g)}$ bubble. In that case, $CO_{2(g)}$ bubble doesn't affect the pH and alkalinity. Thus alkalinity measured by ANT and NDIR-TC could not detect the $CO_2$ bubble although measured alkalinity was similar to the calculated alkalinity. Moreover, total carbon measured by ANT and NDIR-TC could be underestimated. Consequently, it is necessary to compare the alkalinity and total carbon data from various kind of methods and interpret very carefully. This study provide technical information of measurement of dissolve $CO_2$ from $CO_2$-rich water which could be natural analogue of geologic sequestration of $CO_2$.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.21-36
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• 2019

Dead fuel moisture content is a key variable in fire danger rating as it affects fire ignition and behavior. This study evaluates simple regression models estimating the moisture content of standardized 10-h fuel stick (10-h FMC) at three sites with different characteristics(urban and outside/inside the forest). Equilibrium moisture content (EMC) was used as an independent variable, and in-situ measured 10-h FMC was used as a dependent variable and validation data. 10-h FMC spatial distribution maps were created for dates with the most frequent fire occurrence during 2013-2018. Also, 10-h FMC values of the dates were analyzed to investigate under which 10-h FMC condition forest fire is likely to occur. As the results, fitted equations could explain considerable part of the variance in 10-h FMC (62~78%). Compared to the validation data, the models performed well with R2 ranged from 0.53 to 0.68, root mean squared error (RMSE) ranged from 2.52% to 3.43%, and bias ranged from -0.41% to 1.10%. When the 10-h FMC model fitted for one site was applied to the other sites, $R^2$ was maintained as the same while RMSE and bias increased up to 5.13% and 3.68%, respectively. The major deficiency of the 10-h FMC model was that it poorly caught the difference in the drying process after rainfall between 10-h FMC and EMC. From the analysis of 10-h FMC during the dates fire occurred, more than 70% of the fires occurred under a 10-h FMC condition of less than 10.5%. Overall, the present study suggested a simple model estimating 10-h FMC with acceptable performance. Applying the 10-h FMC model to the automatic mountain weather observation system was successfully tested to produce a national-scale 10-h FMC spatial distribution map. This data will be fundamental information for forest fire research, and will support the policy maker.

• 한국노년학
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.173-200
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• 2017

This study is designed to verify the actual effect on the prevention of the elderly suicide of the integrated crisis intervention service which has been widely provided across all local communities in Gyeonggi-province focusing on the integrated crisis intervention model developed for the prevention of elderly suicide. The integrated crisis intervention model for the local communities and its manual were developed for the prevention of elderly suicide by integrating the crisis intervention theory which contains local community's integrated system approach and the stress vulnerability theory. For the analysis of the effect, the geriatric depression and suicidal ideation scale was adopted and the data was collected as follows; The data was collected from 258 people in the first preliminary test. Then, it was collected from the secondary test of 184 people after the integrated crisis intervention service was performed for 6 months. The third collection of data was made from 124 people after 2 or 3 years later using the backward tracing method. As for the analysis, the researcher used the R Statistics computing to conduct the test equating, and the vertical scaling between measuring points. Then, the researcher conducted descriptive statistics analysis and univariate analysis of variance, and performed multi-level modeling analysis using Bayesian estimation. As a result of the study, it was found out that the integrated crisis intervention model which has been developed for the elderly suicide prevention has a statistically significant effect on the reduction of elderly suicide in terms of elderly depression and suicide ideation in the follow-up measurement after the implementation of crisis intervention rather than in the first preliminary scores. The integrated crisis intervention model for the prevention of elderly suicide was found to be effective to the extent of 0.56 for the reduction of depression and 0.39 for the reduction of suicidal ideation. However, it was found out in the backward tracing test conducted 2-3 years after the first crisis intervention that the improved values returned to its original state, thus showing that the effect of the intervention is not maintained for long. Multilevel analysis was conducted to find out the factors such as the service type(professional counseling, medication, peer counseling), characteristics of the client (sex, age), the characteristics of the counselor(age, career, major) and the interaction between the characteristics of the counselor and intervention which affect depression and suicidal ideation. It was found that only medication can significantly reduce suicidal ideation and that if the counselor's major is counseling, it significantly further reduces suicidal ideation by interacting with professional counseling. Furthermore, as the characteristics of the suicide prevention experts are found to regulate the intervention effect on elderly suicide prevention in applying integrated crisis intervention model, the primary consideration should be given to the counseling ability of these experts.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.65-93
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• 2011

As relationship between buyer and seller has been brought closer and long-term relationship has been more important in B2B markets, the importance of service and service convenience increases as well as product. In homogeneous markets, where service offerings are similar and therefore not key competitive differentiator, providing greater convenience may enable a competitive advantage. Service convenience, as conceptualized by Berry et al. (2002), is defined as the consumers' time and effort perceptions related to buying or using a service. For this reason, B2B customers are interested in how fast the service is provided and how much save non-monetary cost like time or effort by the service convenience along with service quality. Therefore, this study attempts to investigate the impact of service convenience on relationship factors such as relationship satisfaction, relationship commitment, and relationship performance. The purpose of this study is to find out whether service convenience can be a new antecedent of relationship quality and relationship performance. In addition, this study tries to examine how five-dimensional service convenience constructs (decision convenience, access convenience, transaction convenience, benefit convenience, post-benefit convenience) affect customers' relationship satisfaction, relationship commitment, and relationship performance. The service convenience comprises five fundamental components - decision convenience (the perceived time and effort costs associated with service purchase or use decisions), access convenience(the perceived time and effort costs associated with initiating service delivery), transaction convenience(the perceived time and effort costs associated with finalizing the transaction), benefit convenience(the perceived time and effort costs associated with experiencing the core benefits of the offering) and post-benefit convenience (the perceived time and effort costs associated with reestablishing subsequent contact with the firm). Earlier studies of perceived service convenience in the industrial market are none. The conventional studies that have dealt with service convenience have usually been made in the consumer market, or they have dealt with convenience aspects in the service process. This service convenience measure for consumer market can be useful tool to estimate service quality in B2B market. The conceptualization developed by Berry et al. (2002) reflects a multistage, experiential consumption process in which evaluations of convenience vary at each stage. For this reason, the service convenience measure is good for B2B service environment which has complex processes and various types. Especially when categorizing B2B service as sequential stage of service delivery like Kumar and Kumar (2004), the Berry's service convenience measure which reflect sequential flow of service deliveries suitable to establish B2B service convenience. For this study, data were gathered from respondents who often buy business service and analyzed by structural equation modeling. The sample size in the present study is 119. Composite reliability values and average variance extracted values were examined for each variable to have reliability. We determine whether the measurement model supports the convergent validity by CFA, and discriminant validity was assessed by examining the correlation matrix of the constructs. For each pair of constructs, the square root of the average variance extracted exceeded their correlations, thus supporting the discriminant validity of the constructs. Hypotheses were tested using the Smart PLS 2.0 and we calculated the PLS path values and followed with a bootstrap re-sampling method to test the hypotheses. Among the five dimensional service convenience constructs, four constructs (decision convenience, transaction convenience, benefit convenience, post-benefit convenience) affected customers' positive relationship satisfaction, relationship commitment, and relationship performance. This result means that service convenience is important cue to improve relationship between buyer and seller. One of the five service convenience dimensions, access convenience, does not affect relationship quality and performance, which implies that the dimension of service convenience is not important factor of cumulative satisfaction. The Cumulative satisfaction can be distinguished from transaction-specific customer satisfaction, which is an immediate post-purchase evaluative judgment or an affective reaction to the most recent transactional experience with the firm. Because access convenience minimizes the physical effort associated with initiating an exchange, the effect on relationship satisfaction similar to cumulative satisfaction may be relatively low in terms of importance than transaction-specific customer satisfaction. Also, B2B firms focus on service quality, price, benefit, follow-up service and so on than convenience of time or place in service because it is relatively difficult to change existing transaction partners in B2B market compared to consumer market. In addition, this study using partial least squares methods reveals that customers' satisfaction and commitment toward relationship has mediating role between the service convenience and relationship performance. The result shows that management and investment to improve service convenience make customers' positive relationship satisfaction, and then the positive relationship satisfaction can enhance the relationship commitment and relationship performance. And to conclude, service convenience management is an important part of successful relationship performance management, and the service convenience is an important antecedent of relationship between buyer and seller such as the relationship commitment and relationship performance. Therefore, it has more important to improve relationship performance that service providers enhance service convenience although competitive service development or service quality improvement is important. Given the pressure to provide increased convenience, it is not surprising that organizations have made significant investments in enhancing the convenience aspect of their product and service offering.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.57-94
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• 2011

Nowadays, it is common that most consumers are purchasing goods in e-stores. The e-stores eager to attract, revisit, retain, and finally convert them into loyal customers. The e-store marketers have planned and executed numerous marketing efforts. As one of the marketing activities, e-store managers attempt to build web sites that meet customers' functional and psychological needs. A wide array of studies has been done to identify factors that could affect customers' response of web sites. Majority of studies were conducted to verify technology-related and functional variables of the website which facilitate transactions and enhance customer responses such as purchase intention and website loyalty. However, there has been little research on the external cues of website and psychological variables of consumer that could have positive influences on customer response. The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of e-store personality on e-store loyalty through mediating variables such as e-store identification, e-store trust, and e-store engagement. The authors of this study develop the model and set up the six main hypotheses and a set of sub-hypotheses based on a literature review, shown in