• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.5-14
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• 2016

Purpose - Competitive industry structure and recent economic depression challenge a survival of Korean small- and medium-sized food franchising companies (SMFCs), albeit the explosive growth of the Korean food service industry for last few decades. Against this backdrop, it examines how these SMFCs overcome liabilities of smallness and resource scarcity to strengthen competitive advantage in the market. To tackle this, in this article we focus on corporate entrepreneurship and human resources as a knowledge-based asset for these SMFCs. Furthermore, the ratio of employee turnover is high in SMFCs. We view that such brain-drain may result in poor performance of the Korean SMFCs. As such, we pay attention to the role of organizational commitment to an organization as a solution for enhancing individual-level employees' loyalty toward their organization. Research design, data, and methodology - Our research question is to what extent corporate entrepreneurship (i.e., innovative organizational culture, organizational autonomy, and administrative innovation) affects an individual-level attitude toward the organization and, in turn, employee creativity and satisfaction in the Korean SMFCs context. We collected data from employees in SMFCs for three months. A total of 126 valid questionnaires were collected, and analyzed the data using partial least squares path modeling. Results - The reliable and valid measurement model feed into testing the structural model. Our findings suggest that innovative organizational culture and organizational autonomy positively affect employee commitment. Particularly, organizational autonomy has a greater effect than innovative culture on employee commitment. However, the relationship between administrative innovation and employee commitment is not significant. We also find that employee commitment positively affects both employee creativity and satisfaction. Conclusions - Our contribution to the existing franchising business and management literature is twofold. First, the conceptual model includes three antecedents in the organizational entrepreneurship dimension to organizational commitment. Second, we conceptualize organizational commitment as employee commitment, and validate its impact on employee creativity and job satisfaction at an individual performance level. Overall, this article suggests that it is critically important for the Korean SMFCs to develop corporate entrepreneurship in order to facilitate employees' positive attitudes toward their organizations.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.71-82
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• 2024

Purpose: Despite significant research on decision-making, researchers struggle to comprehend the decision-making process. This paper aims to not only examine the relationship between problem-solving skills, cognitive competency, and decision-making but also develop measurement instruments for cognitive competency and problem-solving skills to better model decision-making. Research Design, Methodology and Approach: A cross-sectional study was conducted by surveying 292 university students in HCM City, Vietnam, via email sent randomly by Google Forms. This study identifies the conceptual framework and tests the hypotheses using a deductive approach. The SPSS program was used to evaluate the scales' reliability, and the SmartPLS program was used to assess the measurement and structural models. Results: The results show that the research model better modelled the relationship between problem-solving skills, cognitive competency, and decision-making. Although thinking ability has no direct impact on decision-making, both creativity and problem-solving skills have a positive impact on decision-making. The mediating role of problem-solving skills is also determined by the positive relationship between cognitive competency and decision-making. Conclusions: This study highlights decision-making efficiency through the cognitive process from low to high levels and provides for policymakers and managers to explain the decision-making process in a variety of sectors, such as distribution chains, marketing, and human resource distribution.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.90 no.3
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• pp.233-252
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• 2024

This research explores a new finite element model for the free vibration analysis of bi-directional functionally graded (BDFG) beams. The model is based on an efficient higher-order shear deformation beam theory that incorporates a trigonometric warping function for both transverse shear deformation and stress to guarantee traction-free boundary conditions without the necessity of shear correction factors. The proposed two-node beam element has three degrees of freedom per node, and the inter-element continuity is retained using both C1 and C0 continuities for kinematics variables. In addition, the mechanical properties of the (BDFG) beam vary gradually and smoothly in both the in-plane and out-of-plane beam's directions according to an exponential power-law distribution. The highly elevated performance of the developed model is shown by comparing it to conceptual frameworks and solution procedures. Detailed numerical investigations are also conducted to examine the impact of boundary conditions, the bi-directional gradient indices, and the slenderness ratio on the free vibration response of BDFG beams. The suggested finite element beam model is an excellent potential tool for the design and the mechanical behavior estimation of BDFG structures.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.22-28
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• 2015

The design on a riser in 1MW OTEC system is performed. The minimum diameter of the riser is decided depending on intake quantity of deep-sea water to supply an OTEC cycle. An applicable pipe material is selected from analyzing the properties of commercial pipes. The selected HDPE pipe with the low density and strength is reinforced with a lumped block attached at the end of and wire ropes along the riser. A lumped block, connected to a floating structure by wire ropes, with 25% and 50% weight of a GFRP riser is designed to be attached the end of a riser. The structural safety of the HDPE riser with wire rope supporting axial loads induced by a lumped block is analyzed under the harsh ocean environmental condition near Hawaii ocean with the numerical method. The final dimension of the riser and accessories is determined considering the economic point of view. The designed riser will be applicable to the construction of the 1 MW OTEC pilot plant.

• Journal of Dental Rehabilitation and Applied Science
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.145-155
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• 2002

The results of the present feasibility study are summarized as follows, 1. The three unit bridge of knitted material and UD fibre reinforcement has both the rigidity and the strength against a vertical occlusal load of 75N. 2. Stress concentration at the junctional area between the bridge and the abutments, i.e. between the pontic and the knitted caps was observed. In the case of the bridge with reinforcement straps, it was partly shown that the concentration problem could be improved by simply increasing the fillet size at the area. Further refining in the surface of the junctional area will be needed to ensure a further improvement in the stress distribution. This will require some trade off in the level of the stress and the available space. A parametric study will help to decide the appropriate size of the fillet. 3. Design refinement is a must to improve the stress distribution and realize the most favourable shape in terms of fabrication. The current straight bar with a constant cross section area can be redesigned to a tapered shape. The curve from the dental arch should also be placed on the pontic design. In accordance with design refinement, the resistance of the bridge frame to other load cases should be evaluated. 4. Although not included in the present feasibility study, it is estimated that bridges of the anterior teeth can be made strong enough with the knitted material without further reinforcement using unidirectional materials. In this regard, a feasibility study on design concepts and stress analysis for 3, 4, 5 unit bridge is suggested. 5. Two types of bridge were analysed in terms of fatigue. The safe life design concept, i.e. fatigue design concept, looks reasonable for the bridge where if cracks should form and propagate there is virtually nothing a dentist to do. The bridge must be designed so that no crack will be initiated during the life span. In the case of crowns, however, if constructed with composite resin with knitted materials, it might be possible to repair them, which in general is impossible for crowns of PFM or of metal. Therefore for composite resin crowns, a damage tolerance design concept can be applied and reasonably higher operational stresses can be allowed. In this case, of course, a periodic inspection program should be established in parallel. 6. Parts of future works in terms of structural viewpoint which need to be addressed are summarized as the following: 1) To develop processing technology to accommodate design concepts; 2) More realistic modelling of the bridge and analysis-geometry and loading condition. Thickness variation in the knitted material, taper in the pontic, design for anterior tooth bridge, the effect of combined loads, etc, will need to be included; 3) To develop appropriate design concepts and design goals for the fibre composite FPD aiming at taking the best advantage of knitted materials, including the damage tolerance design concept; 4) To develop testing method and perform test such as static ultimate load test, fatigue test, repair test, etc, as necessary.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.18-31
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• 2018

Rotorcrafts have more severe crashworthiness conditions than fixed wing aircraft owing to VTOL and hovering. Recently, with the increasing demand for highly efficient transportation system, application of composite materials to aircraft structures is increasing. However, due to the characteristics of composite materials that are susceptible to impact and crash, demand to prove the crashworthiness of composite structures is also increasing. The purpose of present study is to derive the structural concept of composite subfloor for rotorcrafts and verify it. In order to design a crashworthy composite subfloor, the conceptual design of the testbed helicopter for the demonstration and the derivation of energy absorbing requirement were carried out, and the composite energy absorber was designed and verified. Finally, the testbed for the demonstration of a crashworthy composite structure was fabricated, and performed free drop test. It was confirmed that the test results meet the criteria for ensuring occupant survivability.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.1 no.2 s.2
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• pp.98-107
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• 2000

Increased use of computers in AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) has expanded the amount of information gained from CAD (Computer Aided Design), PMIS (Project Management Information System), Structural Analysis Program, and Scheduling Program as well as making it more complex. And the productivity of AEC industry is largely dependent on well management and efficient reuse of this information. Accordingly, such trend incited much research and development on ITC (Information Technology in Construction) and CIC (Computer Integrated Construction) to be conducted. In exemplifying such effort, many researchers studied and researched on IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) since its development by IAI (International Alliance for Interoperability) for the product based information sharing. However, in spite of some valuable outputs, these researches are yet in the preliminary stage and deal mainly with conceptual ideas and trial implementations. Research on unveiling the process of the IFC application development, the core of the Design Information management system, and its applicable plan still need be done. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to determine the technologies needed for Design Information management system using IFC, and to present the key roles and the process of the IFC application development and its applicable plan. This system play a role to integrate the architectural information and the structural information into the product model and to group many each product items with various levels and aspects. To make the process model, we defined two activities, 'Product Modeling', 'Application Development', at the initial level. Then we decomposed the Application Development activity into five activities, 'IFC Schema Compile', 'Class Compile', 'Make Project Database Schema', 'Development of Product Frameworker', 'Make Project Database'. These activities are carried out by C++ Compiler, CAD, ObjectStore, ST-Developer, and ST-ObjectStore. Finally, we proposed the applicable process with six stages, '3D Modeling', 'Creation of Product Information', 'Creation and Update of Database', 'Reformation of Model's Structure with Multiple Hierarchies', 'Integration of Drawings and Specifications', and 'Creation of Quantity Information'. The IFCs, including the other classes which are going to be updated and developed newly on the construction, civil/structure, and facility management, will be used by the experts through the internet distribution technologies including CORBA and DCOM.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.9
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• pp.81-93
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• 2015

Purpose - "Showrooming" refers to the phenomenon where a shopper visits a store to see and compare products but makes the purchase online at a lower price. Surveys on showrooming activities at home and abroad indicate that a significant number of consumers pursue showrooming activities. The advent of "showroomers," who engage in buying activities, hovering both on and offline, while selectively choosing sales channels to suit their needs, is powerful enough to erode the borders between channels and bring about seismic changes in the distribution industry. However, surprisingly, there has been no in-depth discussion on showrooming. This study seeks to theoretically investigate what impact personal characteristics have on showrooming preferences and attitudes in a multi-channel environment. Specifically, assumptions have been made that price perception, perceived performance risk, and trust in online shopping not only have a direct impact on showrooming attitudes but also indirectly affect it through the means of contact motivation. Research design, data, and methodology - To test the hypotheses, this study conducted a survey of male and female shoppers, ages 20 through 40s, who live in metropolitan areas, and have actively showroomed fashion items in the last six months. A clothing item usually purchased after a careful decision-making process was chosen as the target product of the study. The survey was conducted between October and November 2014, using a professional survey service provider. A total of 200 surveys were collected, of which 198 were used for analysis. Conceptual model Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and Amos 18.0 were employed for data analysis and model verification. In addition, following the confirmatory factor analysis and measurement model analysis, the theoretical model that corresponds to the research model was analyzed. Results - Analysis results show that price perception, perceived performance risk, and trust in online shopping have a statistically significant and positive (+) impact on showrooming attitudes. In addition, in terms of the indirect influence of price perception and perceived performance risk on showrooming attitudes through means of contact motivation, price perception had a statistically significant and positive impact on means of contact motivation, whereas perceived performance risk did not have a statistically significant impact on it, with the relevant hypothesis rejected. Conclusions - These analysis results imply that the ultimate goal of consumers is to maximize their shopping benefits by selectively and strategically taking advantage of different channels in a complementary manner. This study presents many implications for distributors to encourage a deep understanding of showrooming consumers who have complicated consumption behaviors and to build channel integration strategies. This study has limitations in theoretical and practical implications. Therefore, subsequent studies need to focus on verifying that showrooming activities are based on reasonable and planned decisions by applying the theory of reasoned or planned behavior. In addition, the scope of the study should expand to include web showrooming, where consumers conduct product research online and purchase offline.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.59-67
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• 2019

Purpose - The Millennial Generation, which grew in the wake of the spread of the Internet and rapid changes in the media environment, is rapidly moving from the traditional broadcasting environment to the Internet-broadcasting environment in terms of content acceptance. With the emergence of UGC (User-generated content), the change in the status of single-person content creators enables the growth of multi-channel networks (MCN), a new content-distribution platform and an agency concept for single creators. Youtube-based MCN produces multiple single star producers and casts and provides its own video series through Youtube. It is also emerging as a major M&A target for global media providers in terms of providing content to a wide range of consumers with the same interests and consumption characteristics. In addition, for the Millennials generation, which are part of their lives, MCN is becoming the most suitable media for TGIF (Twitter, Google, i-phone, Facebook). Accordingly, this study defines newly emerging MCNs and analyzes the factors for accepting MCN-produced content based on the push-pull-mooring (PPM) model. Research design, data, and methodology - An empirical analysis is performed through a questionnaire survey. For this purpose, 204 people who have experience of watching MCN were studied. Collected data is processed through analysis of a structural equation model using R to test the hypothesis. Results - For the MCN service to become an alternative to existing media, it is necessary to continuously promote cultural diversity and diversity of attempts that conventional media cannot provide. It is the attractiveness of the alternative that has the greatest influence on the intention to switch to a MCN service. When we look at MCN content so far, certain patterns such as game progress, introduction, food, and chat rooms have already appeared. We need to overcome this and develop a completely new conceptual content that we have never seen before. This requires a more generous viewer perception of the topics covered. For diversity, linguistic and verbal violence should be tolerant in common sense to provide a foundation for securing cultural diversity. Conclusions - In this study, we tried to develop a comprehensive approach to the substitution effect of MCN. In terms of academic achievement, the PPM model is used to enhance the utilization of media and broadcasting. Practical implications are to provide an analytical framework for verifying alternative or complementary effects when viewers switch to MCN.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.99-106
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• 2016

Purpose - The antecedent to the relationship between the effect of the characteristics of strategic alliances and the performance of container liner shipping companies has been investigated in this study as container liner shipping companies' strategic alliances. It affects positively and negatively home, partner, and the third parties' performance in container liner shipping companies. Extensive literature reviews on shipper's strategic alliances reveal that strategic alliances in financial and non-financial performance of container liner shipping companies show the performance such as economic effects, business performance, global supply chain management performance, customer satisfaction, and forward integration and backward integration performance. The purpose of this study is to test empirically that the relationship between the characteristics of strategic alliances and financial and non-financial performance in container liner shipping companies. Structured equation modeling and confirmatory factor analysis were used to test the hypothesis using AMOS statistics program. Most previous researches focused on the relationship between the characteristics of strategic alliances and alliance types. There are few empirical studies that focus on business performance data because it is difficult to collect data in container liner shipping companies. However, this research measures financial and non-financial performance differently compared with the previous researches focusing on the characteristics of strategic alliances and alliance types measurements. Research design, data, and methodology - The conceptual model for the study is based on the studies of Lim (2010), Chen & Zhen (2009), and Wang & Meng (2014). The model is built around the factors of characteristics of strategic alliances and business performance. Cost, marketing, and service factors are regarded as proxy for the characteristics of strategic alliances. The financial and non-financial performance are regarded as proxy for the performance of strategic alliances. Based on the analysis of one hundred cases such as forwarder, shipper, and liner shipping companies, this study uses structural equation modeling to verify the effects of the characteristics of strategic alliances on business performance. Conclusions - This study provides container liner shipping companies to get some policy and practical implications in terms of the characteristics of strategic alliances and business performance. First, the cost factor for alliances characteristics has a positively significant influence on the financial and non-financial performance of strategic alliances. The cost factor relationship between high and low performance group does not have a significant difference on the performance of strategic alliances. Second, the marketing factor of alliances characteristics has a positively significant influence on the financial and non-financial performance of strategic alliances. The high performance group's marketing factor has a great non-financial performance than low performance group, but the low performance group's marketing factor has a grater financial performance than high performance group factor does. Third, the service factor of alliances characteristics has a negative influence on the non-financial performance of strategic alliances. The high performance group's service factor has a great non-financial performance than low performance group. Based on the findings from this study, related implications and future avenues deserve to be discussed.