• Clinical Endoscopy
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• v.57 no.1
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• pp.105-111
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• 2024

Background/Aims: The pancreatic pseudocyst (PP) is a type of fluid collection that typically develops as a delayed complication of acute pancreatitis. Drainage is indicated for symptomatic patients and/or associated complications, such as infection and bleeding. Drainage modalities include percutaneous, endoscopic, laparoscopic, and open drainage. This study aimed to assess trends in the utilization of different drainage modalities for treating PP from 2016 to 2020. The trends in mortality, mean length of hospital stay, and mean hospitalization costs were also assessed. Methods: The National Inpatient Sample database was used to obtain data. The variables were generated using International Classification of Diseases-10 diagnostic and procedural codes. Results: Endoscopic drainage was the most commonly used drainage modality in 2018-2020, with an increasing trend over time (385 procedures in 2018 to 515 in 2020; p=0.003). This is associated with a decrease in the use of other drainage modalities. A decrease in the hospitalization cost for PP requiring drainage was also noted (29,318 United States dollar [USD] in 2016 to 18,087 USD in 2020, p<0.001). Conclusions: Endoscopic drainage is becoming the most commonly used modality for the treatment of PP in hospitals located in the US. This new trend is associated with decreasing hospitalization costs.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.60-67
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• 2010

Korea's large-scale incinerating facilities of domestic waste were built in the late 1980's. It was found that most of the incinerators were designed during the period and even the ones constructed afterwards have been built without any changes or modifications. However, the nature of waste fed into incinerators is undergoing a radical change due to government policies on waste collection, which is upheld by a research into changes in the heating value of domestic wastes. As a result, refractories and stokers are being damaged in many of the facilities due to overheating. On the other hand, the formation of clinkers on boilers' heating surface, which curbs he at transfer, results in problems such as a fall in used heating value and a rise in the temperature of combustion chambers. Methods are being deployed to resolve the problems-such as spraying water on piles of waste, incinerating food waste by mixing together what has been separately collected, spraying water on combustion chambers, etc. Such actions are not a fundamental solution, nor redesigning and rebuilding incineration facilities is cost-effective. This research seeks to develop a fundamental solution to address the situation.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.24 no.8
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• pp.32-42
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• 2024

The Internet of Things (IoT) is set to transform patient care by enhancing data collection, analysis, and management through medical sensors and wearable devices. However, the convergence of IoT device vulnerabilities and the sensitivity of healthcare data raises significant data integrity and privacy concerns. In response, this research introduces the Smart-Coord system, a practical and affordable solution for securing healthcare IoT. Smart-Coord leverages blockchain technology and coordinate-based access management to fortify healthcare IoT. It employs IPFS for immutable data storage and intelligent Solidity Ethereum contracts for data integrity and confidentiality, creating a hierarchical, AES-CBC-secured data transmission protocol from IoT devices to blockchain repositories. Our technique uses a unique coordinate system to embed confidentiality and integrity regulations into a single access control model, dictating data access and transfer based on subject-object pairings in a coordinate plane. This dual enforcement technique governs and secures the flow of healthcare IoT information. With its implementation on the Matic network, the Smart-Coord system's computational efficiency and cost-effectiveness are unparalleled. Smart-Coord boasts significantly lower transaction costs and data operation processing times than other blockchain networks, making it a practical and affordable solution. Smart-Coord holds the promise of enhancing IoT-based healthcare system security by managing sensitive health data in a scalable, efficient, and secure manner. The Smart-Coord framework heralds a new era in healthcare IoT adoption, expertly managing data integrity, confidentiality, and accessibility to ensure a secure, reliable digital environment for patient data management.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.5-5
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• 2011

The research and development of hybrid electric vehicle (HEV), plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) and electric vehicle (EV) are intensified due to the energy crisis and environmental concerns. In order to meet the challenging requirements of powering HEV, PHEV and EV, the current lithium battery technology needs to be significantly improved in terms of the cost, safety, power and energy density, as well as the calendar and cycle life. One new technology being developed is the utilization of composite cathode by mixing two different types of insertion compounds [e.g., spinel $LiMn_2O_4$ and layered $LiMO_2$ (M=Ni, Co, and Mn)]. Recently, some studies on mixing two different types of cathode materials to make a composite cathode have been reported, which were aimed at reducing cost and improving self-discharge. Numata et al. reported that when stored in a sealed can together with electrolyte at $80^{\circ}C$ for 10 days, the concentrations of both HF and $Mn^{2+}$ were lower in the can containing $LiMn_2O_4$ blended with $LiNi_{0.8}Co_{0.2}O_2$ than that containing $LiMn_2O_4$ only. That reports clearly showed that this blending technique can prevent the decline in capacity caused by cycling or storage at elevated temperatures. However, not much work has been reported on the charge-discharge characteristics and related structural phase transitions for these composite cathodes. In this presentation, we will report our in situ x-ray diffraction studies on this mixed composite cathode material during charge-discharge cycling. The mixed cathodes were incorporated into in situ XRD cells with a Li foil anode, a Celgard separator, and a 1M $LiPF_6$ electrolyte in a 1 : 1 EC : DMC solvent (LP 30 from EM Industries, Inc.). For in situ XRD cell, Mylar windows were used as has been described in detail elsewhere. All of these in situ XRD spectra were collected on beam line X18A at National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) at Brookhaven National Laboratory using two different detectors. One is a conventional scintillation detector with data collection at 0.02 degree in two theta angle for each step. The other is a wide angle position sensitive detector (PSD). The wavelengths used were 1.1950 ${\AA}$ for the scintillation detector and 0.9999 A for the PSD. The newly installed PSD at beam line X18A of NSLS can collect XRD patterns as short as a few minutes covering $90^{\circ}$ of two theta angles simultaneously with good signal to noise ratio. It significantly reduced the data collection time for each scan, giving us a great advantage in studying the phase transition in real time. The two theta angles of all the XRD spectra presented in this paper have been recalculated and converted to corresponding angles for ${\lambda}=1.54\;{\AA}$, which is the wavelength of conventional x-ray tube source with Cu-$k{\alpha}$ radiation, for easy comparison with data in other literatures. The structural changes of the composite cathode made by mixing spinel $LiMn_2O_4$ and layered $Li-Ni_{1/3}Co_{1/3}Mn_{1/3}O_2$ in 1 : 1 wt% in both Li-half and Li-ion cells during charge/discharge are studied by in situ XRD. During the first charge up to ~5.2 V vs. $Li/Li^+$, the in situ XRD spectra for the composite cathode in the Li-half cell track the structural changes of each component. At the early stage of charge, the lithium extraction takes place in the $LiNi_{1/3}Co_{1/3}Mn_{1/3}O_2$ component only. When the cell voltage reaches at ~4.0 V vs. $Li/Li^+$, lithium extraction from the spinel $LiMn_2O_4$ component starts and becomes the major contributor for the cell capacity due to the higher rate capability of $LiMn_2O_4$. When the voltage passed 4.3 V, the major structural changes are from the $LiNi_{1/3}Co_{1/3}Mn_{1/3}O_2$ component, while the $LiMn_2O_4$ component is almost unchanged. In the Li-ion cell using a MCMB anode and a composite cathode cycled between 2.5 V and 4.2 V, the structural changes are dominated by the spinel $LiMn_2O_4$ component, with much less changes in the layered $LiNi_{1/3}Co_{1/3}Mn_{1/3}O_2$ component, comparing with the Li-half cell results. These results give us valuable information about the structural changes relating to the contributions of each individual component to the cell capacity at certain charge/discharge state, which are helpful in designing and optimizing the composite cathode using spinel- and layered-type materials for Li-ion battery research. More detailed discussion will be presented at the meeting.

• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2010

This survey was conducted to investigate the status and strategy of swine manure utilization of 109 swine farms in the Gyeongnam, Korea. The personal properties of owner, types of swine buildings, facilities and equipment for manure management, conditions for manure recycling and farming for recycling resources were surveyed. Age of farm owners were occupied as 44.1% for 50s followed by the 60s with one-forth and 40s with 22.9%. Educational background of farm owners, a high school graduate makes up the largest proportion of farm owners followed by a college graduation with 35.8%. The swine manure collection methods were occupied as 34.9% with totally slurry system and more than 50% slurry system with 34.9% of farms. The manure management cost per ton were occupied as more than two-third with 10,000 won~15,000 won. The cost will pay for manure management, 10,000 won~15,000 won per ton makes up the largest proportion of farm owners. Separator, loader and vehicle to collection, transportation of liquid manure were occupied as 72.5%, 44% and 10.1%, respectively. Recognition of the farming for recycling resources were occupied as 37.6%, however, 25.8% of swine farm owners don't know that. More than sixty percent of swine farms will take a recycling system according to the farming for recycling resources. Conclusively, we have a suggestion in order to promotion of the farming for recycling resources in the Gyeongnam with increasing the portion of recycling of swine manure in each county and revitalizing the marketing of the liquid and solid swine manure fertilizers.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.67-76
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• 2013

Landfill require special care due to the dangers of nearby surface water and underground water pollution caused by leakage of leachate. The leachate does not leak due to the installation of the geomembrane but sharp wastes or landfill equipment can damage the geomembrane and therefore a means of protecting the geomembrane is required. In Korea, in accordance with the waste control act being modified in 1999, protecting the geosynthetics liner on top of the slope of landfill and installing a drainage layer to fluently drain leachate became mandatory, and technologies are being researched to both protect the geomembrane and quickly drain leachate simultaneously. Therefore, this research has its purpose in studying the drainage functions of leachate and protection functions of the geomembrane in order to examine the application possibilities of Geo-Multicell-Composite (GMC) as a Leachate Collection Removal and Protection System (LCRPs) at the slope on top of the geomembrane of landfill by observing methods of inserting filler with high-quality water permeability at the drainage net. GMC's horizontal permeability coefficient is $8.0{\times}10^{-4}m^2/s$ to legal standards satisfeid. Also crash gravel used as filler respected by vertical permeability is 5.0 cm/s, embroidering puncture strength 140.2 kgf. A result of storm drain using artificial rain in GMC model facility, maxinum flow rate of 1,120 L/hr even spray without surface runoff was about 92~97% penetration. Further study, instead of crash gravel used as a filler, such as using recycled aggregate utilization increases and the resulting construction cost is expected to savings.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.166-170
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• 2000

Three methods for heat collection, which were the flat solar collector, two fan with radiator, and square pipe method, were studied to sue efficiently solar energy in the three different glasshouses for two years. The flat plate solar collector method was made use of the commercial solar collector with collection area of 24$m^2$, the method of two fans with radiators collected solar energy at the top of the glasshouse. An thermal storage tank was constructed underneath in teach glasshouses. When an area of 1,000$m^2$ was heated to the minimum temperature of 9$^{\circ}C$, the decrease rate of heating fuel for the flat plate solar collector, the fan attached radiator and the square pipe methods were 7%, 19% and 28% respectively. The flat plate solar collector method, which could be heated approximately 40-50$m^2$, was currently used by most of the farmer. Under the condition, the decrease rate of annual heating fuel was 14% which was not better for an economic annual heating fuel. If the fan with radiator method was operated, the use of installation and maintenance were required. So, it could not be good economic efficiency of solar heating. The heating efficiency of the square pipe method was relatively better thant those of the flat plate solar collector or the fan attached radiator. Since the cost of materials and its installation of the use of square pipe method was lower than any other method. However, corrosion of the pipe, greater shade in the greenhouse and strength against the square pipe were problems that should be overcome in the square pipe method.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.110 no.4
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• pp.630-647
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• 2021

We determined the current problem of the restoration deposit-estimation system, stipulated by the Mountainous Districts Management Act, using the Delphi technique. Consequently, we proposed a standard model for forest land restoration to derive a reasonable deposit-estimation system. With the result of the Delphi survey, the inappropriateness of land-use type and slope gradient classifications was shown; the insufficiency of standard works was a significant problem in the current system. A way to solve these problems was devised, to reorganize the current land-use type into the subject of the site. The specific subjects included the following: (i) to permit or report forest land-use change and temporary use of forest land, (ii) to report temporary use of forest land, (iii) to permit stone collection or sale for mineral mining, and (iv) to allow sediment collection. The current slope gradient subdivision into (a) θ<10°, (b) 10°≦θ<15°, (c) 15°≦θ<20°, (d) 20°≦θ<25°, (e) 25°≦θ<30°, and (f) θ≧30° and the reorganization of 17 standard works into 22 standard works were deemed as solutions, along with seven additional works. We developed 24 standard models for the forest land restoration project based on the aforementioned results. The deposits estimated by these models ranged from 34,185,000 (Korean) won to 607,403,000 won. If additional works, premiums, discounts, and supervision fees are added to the models, the deposit increases to an estimated 668,143,000 won subject to permission for stone collection or sale and mineral mining. Experts agree on the distribution of the restoration deposits estimated by these models at a high level in the Delphi survey. Our findings are expected to contribute to securing the appropriateness of the restoration cost deposited for the smooth performance of the vicariously executed restoration project.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.137-154
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• 2002

It's not easy to renew old brand of over 50 years history to the tastes of new consumer of our time. Most of national brands that has a history of some 20 years in Korea have strove for continuation and growth of brand to no avails, which can be taken as a good example of current situation. For instance, C company, one of the National brand of US which has a history of 51 years, has made its position secure as a fashion group and based itself on a sound foundation by establishing new marketing strategy and completing successful brand renewal in the process of strategic M&A with Italian company. Those successful marketing strategies are as follows. 1) they regarded both market and consumer oriented marketing activity as company's highest priority strategy and put great emphasis upon concentration on target market and reestablishment of brand image of business casual wear. 2) Setting up and operating planning team composed of merchandizer alone in Milano, they set the direction of plan on the basis of concentrated research on potential item in market according to thorough market research done by buying office in Korea, branch office in Hong Kong and buyer in US prior to blueprint planning for season. 3) Great emphasis was placed on business which focused on intensive presentation of basic key item for apparel career women who are main consumer group in the midium-low prices market in US and on supplementation of size and color. they named this line 'collectibles' and helped their customer develop their own clothes plan without worrying about the change of color and fabric by supporting same fabric and color throughout the year and enabled them to add variation easily by supplementing new trend item. 4) Company set black as a main color that lots of apparel career women find easy to care and to express their own image and presented them with pebble which belongs to navy and beige and added fashion color such as wine and brown etc as season goes by. They constructed basic line in order for their customers to coordinate purchased item with new one or to add them to present collection, and to achieve efficient sale by setting up strategy which allows this cross coordination and changing pattern occasionally. 5) Though basic jacket for 99$, short slim skirt for 49$ are products within midium-low prices range, in the material planning stage aiming at production of item that has both resonable function appealing to consumer and is fashionable, synthetic material had to be used as a main source due to price competitiveness. Despite this situation, considering comfortable sense of fit and refined drape of silhouette that has no sign of cheap material, whole collectible line was divided into two items, which contributed to reduction of cost. In case of material that is composed of triacetate and polyester in 70 to 30 ratio, was used up to 4 million yard, which allowed drastic curtailment of cost accompanied by concentration. In case of 'collectibles' line, using Korean material mainly, C company chose to have their product sewed in Southeast Asian countries where transportation is well developed and both productivity and quality verified by operating global production system which aiming at cutdown of cost through outsourcing production from the country where labor cost is low and getting finished product. Polarization between present consumers telling us that consumers with the mind of middle classes in the past no longer exists between consumers who seek after only fine article of highest quality and wise consumers who are sensible enough to judge bubble on correlation between price and quality. To cope with this change in new consumer mind, apparel makes changing their policy so as to produce item that has reasonable quality and falls within affordable price range anywhere in the world. and they're striving to get out of difficult situation by operating global marketing strategy which stresses separation of planning, production and sale and sensibility of fashion shared worldwide. The marketing strategy of C company can be exemplified as a successful one.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.61-118
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• 2008

The purpose of this research is to construct research framework for international franchising based on existing literature and to identify research components in the framework. Franchise can be defined as management styles that allow franchisee use various management assets of franchisor in order to make or sell product or service. It can be divided into product distribution franchise that is designed to sell products and business format franchise that is designed for running it as business whatever its form is. International franchising can be defined as a way of internationalization of franchisor to foreign country by providing its business format or package to franchisee of host country. International franchising is growing fast for last four decades but academic research on this is quite limited. Especially in Korea, research about international franchising is carried out on by case study format with single case or empirical study format with survey based on domestic franchise theory. Therefore, this paper tries to review existing literature on international franchising research, providing research framework, and then stimulating new research on this field. International franchising research components include motives and environmental factors for decision of expanding to international franchising, entrance modes and development plan for international franchising, contracts and management strategy of international franchising, and various performance measures from different perspectives. First, motives of international franchising are fee collection from franchisee. Also it provides easier way to expanding to foreign country. The other motives including increase total sales volume, occupying better strategic position, getting quality resources, and improving efficiency. Environmental factors that facilitating international franchising encompasses economic condition, trend, and legal or political factors in host and/or home countries. In addition, control power and risk management capability of franchisor plays critical role in successful franchising contract. Final decision to enter foreign country via franchising is determined by numerous factors like history, size, growth, competitiveness, management system, bonding capability, industry characteristics of franchisor. After deciding to enter into foreign country, franchisor needs to set entrance modes of international franchising. Within contractual mode, there are master franchising and area developing franchising, licensing, direct franchising, and joint venture. Theories about entrance mode selection contain concepts of efficiency, knowledge-based approach, competence-based approach, agent theory, and governance cost. The next step after entrance decision is operation strategy. Operation strategy starts with selecting a target city and a target country for franchising. In order to finding, screening targets, franchisor needs to collect information about candidates. Critical information includes brand patent, commercial laws, regulations, market conditions, country risk, and industry analysis. After selecting a target city in target country, franchisor needs to select franchisee, in other word, partner. The first important criteria for selecting partners are financial credibility and capability, possession of real estate. And cultural similarity and knowledge about franchisor and/or home country are also recognized as critical criteria. The most important element in operating strategy is legal document between franchisor and franchisee with home and host countries. Terms and conditions in legal documents give objective information about characteristics of franchising agreement for academic research. Legal documents have definitions of terminology, territory and exclusivity, agreement of term, initial fee, continuing fees, clearing currency, and rights about sub-franchising. Also, legal documents could have terms about softer elements like training program and operation manual. And harder elements like law competent court and terms of expiration. Next element in operating strategy is about product and service. Especially for business format franchising, product/service deliverable, benefit communicators, system identifiers (architectural features), and format facilitators are listed for product/service strategic elements. Another important decision on product/service is standardization vs. customization. The rationale behind standardization is cost reduction, efficiency, consistency, image congruence, brand awareness, and competitiveness on price. Also standardization enables large scale R&D and innovative change in management style. Another element in operating strategy is control management. The simple way to control franchise contract is relying on legal terms, contractual control system. There are other control systems, administrative control system and ethical control system. Contractual control system is a coercive source of power, but franchisor usually doesn't want to use legal power since it doesn't help to build up positive relationship. Instead, self-regulation is widely used. Administrative control system uses control mechanism from ordinary work relationship. Its main component is supporting activities to franchisee and communication method. For example, franchisor provides advertising, training, manual, and delivery, then franchisee follows franchisor's direction. Another component is building franchisor's brand power. The last research element is performance factor of international franchising. Performance elements can be divided into franchisor's performance and franchisee's performance. The conceptual performance measures of franchisor are simple but not easy to obtain objectively. They are profit, sale, cost, experience, and brand power. The performance measures of franchisee are mostly about benefits of host country. They contain small business development, promotion of employment, introduction of new business model, and level up technology status. There are indirect benefits, like increase of tax, refinement of corporate citizenship, regional economic clustering, and improvement of international balance. In addition to those, host country gets socio-cultural change other than economic effects. It includes demographic change, social trend, customer value change, social communication, and social globalization. Sometimes it is called as westernization or McDonaldization of society. In addition, the paper reviews on theories that have been frequently applied to international franchising research, such as agent theory, resource-based view, transaction cost theory, organizational learning theory, and international expansion theories. Resource based theory is used in strategic decision based on resources, like decision about entrance and cooperation depending on resources of franchisee and franchisor. Transaction cost theory can be applied in determination of mutual trust or satisfaction of franchising players. Agent theory tries to explain strategic decision for reducing problem caused by utilizing agent, for example research on control system in franchising agreements. Organizational Learning theory is relatively new in franchising research. It assumes organization tries to maximize performance and learning of organization. In addition, Internalization theory advocates strategic decision of direct investment for removing inefficiency of market transaction and is applied in research on terms of contract. And oligopolistic competition theory is used to explain various entry modes for international expansion. Competency theory support strategic decision of utilizing key competitive advantage. Furthermore, research methodologies including qualitative and quantitative methodologies are suggested for more rigorous international franchising research. Quantitative research needs more real data other than survey data which is usually respondent's judgment. In order to verify theory more rigorously, research based on real data is essential. However, real quantitative data is quite hard to get. The qualitative research other than single case study is also highly recommended. Since international franchising has limited number of applications, scientific research based on grounded theory and ethnography study can be used. Scientific case study is differentiated with single case study on its data collection method and analysis method. The key concept is triangulation in measurement, logical coding and comparison. Finally, it provides overall research direction for international franchising after summarizing research trend in Korea. International franchising research in Korea has two different types, one is for studying Korean franchisor going overseas and the other is for Korean franchisee of foreign franchisor. Among research on Korean franchisor, two common patterns are observed. First of all, they usually deal with success story of one franchisor. The other common pattern is that they focus on same industry and country. Therefore, international franchise research needs to extend their focus to broader subjects with scientific research methodology as well as development of new theory.