With the development of the web, two-way communication and evaluation became possible and marketing paradigms shifted. In order to meet the needs of consumers, web design trends are continuously responding to consumer feedback. As the web becomes more and more important, both academics and businesses are studying consumer emotions and satisfaction on the web. However, some consumer characteristics are not well considered. Demographic characteristics such as age and sex have been studied extensively, but few studies consider psychological characteristics such as regulatory focus (i.e., emotional regulation). In this study, we analyze the effect of web style on consumer emotion. Many studies analyze the relationship between the web and regulatory focus, but most concentrate on the purpose of web use, particularly motivation and information search, rather than on web style and design. The web communicates with users through visual elements. Because the human brain is influenced by all five senses, both design factors and emotional responses are important in the web environment. Therefore, in this study, we examine the relationship between consumer emotion and satisfaction and web style and design. Previous studies have considered the effects of web layout, structure, and color on emotions. In this study, however, we excluded these web components, in contrast to earlier studies, and analyzed the relationship between consumer satisfaction and emotional indexes of web-style only. To perform this analysis, we collected consumer surveys presenting 40 web style themes to 204 consumers. Each consumer evaluated four themes. The emotional adjectives evaluated by consumers were composed of 18 contrast pairs, and the upper emotional indexes were extracted through factor analysis. The emotional indexes were 'softness,' 'modernity,' 'clearness,' and 'jam.' Hypotheses were established based on the assumption that emotional indexes have different effects on consumer satisfaction. After the analysis, hypotheses 1, 2, and 3 were accepted and hypothesis 4 was rejected. While hypothesis 4 was rejected, its effect on consumer satisfaction was negative, not positive. This means that emotional indexes such as 'softness,' 'modernity,' and 'clearness' have a positive effect on consumer satisfaction. In other words, consumers prefer emotions that are soft, emotional, natural, rounded, dynamic, modern, elaborate, unique, bright, pure, and clear. 'Jam' has a negative effect on consumer satisfaction. It means, consumer prefer the emotion which is empty, plain, and simple. Regulatory focus shows differences in motivation and propensity in various domains. It is important to consider organizational behavior and decision making according to the regulatory focus tendency, and it affects not only political, cultural, ethical judgments and behavior but also broad psychological problems. Regulatory focus also differs from emotional response. Promotion focus responds more strongly to positive emotional responses. On the other hand, prevention focus has a strong response to negative emotions. Web style is a type of service, and consumer satisfaction is affected not only by cognitive evaluation but also by emotion. This emotional response depends on whether the consumer will benefit or harm himself. Therefore, it is necessary to confirm the difference of the consumer's emotional response according to the regulatory focus which is one of the characteristics and viewpoint of the consumers about the web style. After MMR analysis result, hypothesis 5.3 was accepted, and hypothesis 5.4 was rejected. But hypothesis 5.4 supported in the opposite direction to the hypothesis. After validation, we confirmed the mechanism of emotional response according to the tendency of regulatory focus. Using the results, we developed the structure of web-style recommendation system and recommend methods through regulatory focus. We classified the regulatory focus group in to three categories that promotion, grey, prevention. Then, we suggest web-style recommend method along the group. If we further develop this study, we expect that the existing regulatory focus theory can be extended not only to the motivational part but also to the emotional behavioral response according to the regulatory focus tendency. Moreover, we believe that it is possible to recommend web-style according to regulatory focus and emotional desire which consumers most prefer.
The characteristics of the Brazilian tensile strengths(σt) parallel to the rock cleavages in Jurassic granite from Geochang were analysed. The evaluation for the six directions of rock cleavages was performed using the parameter values on microcrack length and the above strength. The strength values of the five test specimens belonging to each direction were classified into five groups. The strength values of these five groups increase in order of group A < B < C < D < E. The close dependence between the above microcrack and strength was derived. The analysis results of this study are summarized as follows. First, the chart showing the variation and characteristics of strength among the three rock cleavages were made. In the above chart, the strength values of six directions belonging to each group were arranged in order of rift(R1 and R2), grain(G1 and G2) and hardway(H1 and H2). The strength distribution lines of the five groups concentrate in the direction of R1. And the widths among the above five lines indicating strength difference(Δσt) are the most narrowest in R1 direction. From the related chart, the variation characteristics among the two directions forming each rock cleavage were derived. G2(2)-test specimen shows higher value and lower value of the difference in strength compared to the case of G1(1)-test specimen. These kinds of phenomena are the same as the case between the test specimen H2(2) and H1(1). The strength characteristics of the above test specimens (2) suggest lower microcrack density value and higher degree of uniformity in the distribution of microcracks arrayed parallel to the loading direction compared to those of test specimens (1). The six strength values belonging to each group were arranged in increasing order in the above chart. The strength values of the test specimens belonging to both group D and E appear in order of R1 < R2 < G1 < H1 < G2 < H2. Therefore, the strength values of group D and E can be indicator values for evaluating the six directions of rock cleavages. Second, the correlation chart between slope angle(θ) and strength difference(Δσt) were made. The values of the above two parameters were obtained from the five strength distribution lines connecting between the two directions. From the chart related to rift plane(G1-H1, R'), grain plane(R1-H2, G') and hardway plane(R2-G2, H'), the slope values of linear functions increase in order of R'(0.391) < G'(0.470) < H'(0.485). Among three planes, the charts related to hardway plane show the highest distribution density among the five groups. From the related chart for rift(R1-R2, R), grain(G1-G2, G) and hardway(H1-H2, H), the slope values of linear functions increase in order of rift(0.407) < hardway(0.453) < grain(0.460). Among three rock cleavages, the charts related to rift show the highest frequency of groups belonging to the lower region. Taken together, the width of distribution of the slope angle among the three planes and three rock cleavages increase in order of H' < G < R' < R < G' < H. Third, the correlation analysis among the parameters related to microcrack length and the tensile strengths was performed. These parameters may include frequency(N), total length(Lt), mean length(Lm), median length(Lmed) and density(ρ). The correlation charts among individual parameters on the above microcrack(X) and corresponding five levels of tensile strengths for the five groups(Y) were made. From the five kinds of correlation charts, the values of correlation coefficients(R2) increase along with the five levels of strengths. The mean values of the five correlation coefficients from each chart increase in order of 0.22(N) < 0.34(Lt) < 0.38(ρ) < 0.57(Lmed) < 0.58(Lm). Fourth, the correlation chart among the corresponding maximum strength for group E(X) and the above five parameters(Y) were made. From the related chart, the values of correlation coefficient increase in order of 0.61(N) < 0.81(Lt) < 0.87(ρ) < 0.93(Lm) < 0.96(Lmed). The two parameters that have the highest correlations are median length with maximum strength. Through the above correlation analysis between microcrack and strength, the credibility for the results from this study can be enhanced.
With the continued globalization of world markets, transfer pricing has become one of the dominant sources of controversy in international taxation. Transfer pricing is the process by which a multinational corporation calculates a price for goods and services that are transferred to affiliated entities. Consider a Korean electronic enterprise that buys supplies from its own subsidiary located in China. How much the Korean parent company pays its subsidiary will determine how much profit the Chinese unit reports in local taxes. If the parent company pays above normal market prices, it may appear to have a poor profit, even if the group as a whole shows a respectable profit margin. In this way, transfer prices impact the taxable income reported in each country in which the multinational enterprise operates. It's importance lies in that around 60% of international trade involves transactions between two related parts of multinationals, according to the OECD. Multinational enterprises (hereafter MEs) exert much effort into utilizing organizational advantages to make global investments. MEs wish to minimize their tax burden. So MEs spend a fortune on economists and accountants to justify transfer prices that suit their tax needs. On the contrary, local governments are not prepared to cope with MEs' powerful financial instruments. Tax authorities in each country wish to ensure that the tax base of any ME is divided fairly. Thus, both tax authorities and MEs have a vested interest in the way in which a transfer price is determined, and this is why MEs' international transfer prices are at the center of disputes concerned with taxation. Transfer pricing issues and practices are sometimes difficult to control for regulators because the tax administration does not have enough staffs with the knowledge and resources necessary to understand them. The authors examine transfer pricing practices to provide relevant resources useful in designing tax incentives and regulation schemes for policy makers. This study focuses on identifying the relevant business and environmental factors that could influence the international transfer pricing of MEs. In this perspective, we empirically investigate how the management perception of related variables influences their choice of international transfer pricing methods. We believe that this research is particularly useful in the design of tax policy. Because it can concentrate on a few selected factors in consideration of the limited budget of the tax administration with assistance of this research. Data is composed of questionnaire responses from foreign firms in Korea with investment balances exceeding one million dollars in the end of 2004. We mailed questionnaires to 861 managers in charge of the accounting departments of each company, resulting in 121 valid responses. Seventy six percent of the sample firms are classified as small and medium sized enterprises with assets below 100 billion Korean won. Reviewing transfer pricing methods, cost-based transfer pricing is most popular showing that 60 firms have adopted it. The market-based method is used by 31 firms, and 13 firms have reported the resale-pricing method. Regarding the nationalities of foreign investors, the Japanese and the Americans constitute most of the sample. Logistic regressions have been performed for statistical analysis. The dependent variable is binary in that whether the method of international transfer pricing is a market-based method or a cost-based method. This type of binary classification is founded on the belief that the market-based method is evaluated as the relatively objective way of pricing compared with the cost-based methods. Cost-based pricing is assumed to give mangers flexibility in transfer pricing decisions. Therefore, local regulatory agencies are thought to prefer market-based pricing over cost-based pricing. Independent variables are composed of eight factors such as corporate tax rate, tariffs, relations with local tax authorities, tax audit, equity ratios of local investors, volume of internal trade, sales volume, and product life cycle. The first four variables are included in the model because taxation lies in the center of transfer pricing disputes. So identifying the impact of these variables in Korean business environments is much needed. Equity ratio is included to represent the interest of local partners. Volume of internal trade was sometimes employed in previous research to check the pricing behavior of managers, so we have followed these footsteps in this paper. Product life cycle is used as a surrogate of competition in local markets. Control variables are firm size and nationality of foreign investors. Firm size is controlled using dummy variables in that whether or not the specific firm is small and medium sized. This is because some researchers report that big firms show different behaviors compared with small and medium sized firms in transfer pricing. The other control variable is also expressed in dummy variable showing if the entrepreneur is the American or not. That's because some prior studies conclude that the American management style is different in that they limit branch manger's freedom of decision. Reviewing the statistical results, we have found that managers prefer the cost-based method over the market-based method as the importance of corporate taxes and tariffs increase. This result means that managers need flexibility to lessen the tax burden when they feel taxes are important. They also prefer the cost-based method as the product life cycle matures, which means that they support subsidiaries in local market competition using cost-based transfer pricing. On the contrary, as the relationship with local tax authorities becomes more important, managers prefer the market-based method. That is because market-based pricing is a better way to maintain good relations with the tax officials. Other variables like tax audit, volume of internal transactions, sales volume, and local equity ratio have shown only insignificant influence. Additionally, we have replaced two tax variables(corporate taxes and tariffs) with the data showing top marginal tax rate and mean tariff rates of each country, and have performed another regression to find if we could get different results compared with the former one. As a consequence, we have found something different on the part of mean tariffs, that shows only an insignificant influence on the dependent variable. We guess that each company in the sample pays tariffs with a specific rate applied only for one's own company, which could be located far from mean tariff rates. Therefore we have concluded we need a more detailed data that shows the tariffs of each company if we want to check the role of this variable. Considering that the present paper has heavily relied on questionnaires, an effort to build a reliable data base is needed for enhancing the research reliability.
Mystic experience such as seeing an vision could be explained as experiencing elusive and mysterious unique existence in religious way. In depth psychology, which is based on unconsciousness like analytical psychology, this could be explained as a something that gives a meaning of life and purpose through discovering health and healing. The importance of primodial experience in depth psychology is that it can possibly discover the base of present acts. In Christian theology, symbolic mystery and truth of religious experience that appear in Christian tradition have interest on human situation. These two fields' approach methods are different, but both show common interest on unique experience which can be said properly as raw experience. Various visions appear in many parts of the Bible. Among many visions, the book of Zechariah, one of the 12 Prophets, describes rich and diverse 8 visions through chapter 1 to chapter 8. However, due to the Genre of revelation, it lacks historicity, and because of vagueness and symbolic meanings, its visions are hard to understand and interpret. Theologically, visions of Zechariah show communality of Israelites by reconstructing kingdom of Judah and church in a way of historical circumstances. Though, these visions could deliver the meaning of an ethnical aspect as reporting continuous conversation between the God and humans. Furthermore, it could mean a personal aspect of the Prophet Zechariah as reaching for a opportunity of new change. Moreover, those who read these visions could try to interpret the meanings of various images which represent meeting mysterious existences. Therefore, the Author would concentrate on the fact that 8 visions in the book of Zechariah, which has not been received much attention to neither Christians nor non-believers, develop in chiastic structure (stylistic contrast), so that tries to interpret the first, second, seventh, and the eighth visions in analytic psychology way. In visions of Zechariah, excepting the 4th vision which probably was inserted later, rest of 7 visions each shows the stage of the hours of darkness. 1st to 3rd visions represent evening, 5th vision represents deep in the night, and 6th to 8th visions represent dawn to morning. Moreover, since structure of visions arranged in chiastic way, horse appears in 1st and 8th vision, measuring rope and measure tools are used as main motif in 2nd and 7th vision. However, same motifs could have different symbolic meanings and roles as visions are formed in different situations and conditions. In the first vision, angels who ride horses look around the world and report it is calm and peaceful. Concerning the political situation back in the day, the world being calm and peaceful in the beginning of evening means that it is not ready to change to a whole new world. Psychologically, if there is no readiness to adopt new world, it means being hopeless. It is sending you a message to get out of those kinds of situation. Moreover, appearance of four angels who rode red, brown, and white horses to a myrtus tree in the valley means that it is time for individuation and it is right and good timing for changing. In second vision, you will be able to see that Israelites had long years being caught in the shadows by foreign country, and long years succumbed by the strength of four horns, which shows the progress of renewing strength and being oneness with oneself from overwhelmed situation by paternity. In seventh vision, meaning of two women bringing the godness of the sky, who were locked up in a rice basket, back to the temple in Babylon is going towards in a level of Self-actualization by separating one's ego captured excessively by matherhood and putting back to a place where it was before. In eighth vision, chariots pulled by horses are scattered far and wide, and horses which went to north had rest in the land of North. After horses and chariots are seen between two mountains of bronze with the image of Self and anima/animus. These images can be explained as the changing progress are almost completed and the God and human, in other words Self and ego are being united and is now time for rest. All of 8 visions contains the conversation between angel and Zechariah who willing to know the meaning of visions. Zechariah asks the angel actively about the meaning of visions because of his wish for Israelites to return home and rebuild church. Conversation among the God, Zechariah, who asks questions until he knows everything, an Angel, who gives answer to given questions, is conversation between ego and anima/animus. Eventually, it is a conversation between Self and ego.