• Information Systems Review
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.69-97
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• 2019

Knowledge service firms are able to have higher 'Organizational Performance (OP)' by improving efficiency in management processes on customer problem solving. This study explores the role of inefficiency that has been overlooked up to now compared to the management process efficiency. We also suggest in this study 'Hierarchical Culture (HC)' and 'IT Relatedness (IR)' as the factors influencing the inefficiency of management processes, and propose the moderating effect of 'Task Difficulty (TD)' on the relationship between independent factors and 'Inefficiency of Business Process(IP)'. The results of analysis show that 'HC' has a positive effect on 'IP', and 'IR' has a negative effect on 'IP'. 'TD' was significant moderator of between independent variables and 'IP'. 'IP' was shown to play a full mediating role between independent factors and 'OP'. In conclusion, knowledge service firms are desired to reduce 'HC' and enhance 'IR' by minimizing unnecessary formal procedures, securing flexibility in decision making through appropriate empowerment, creating a smooth flow of knowledge, and enhancing the level of IT resource management and utilization. In addition, in order to effectively reduce 'IP', it is required that a company with a high degree of 'TD' to more reduce a 'HC' and a company with a low degree of 'TD' to more enhance a 'IR'.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.71-94
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• 2017

Recommender systems reduce information overload and enhance choice quality. This technology is used in many services and industry. Previous studies did not consider recommendation quantity and the repetitive recommendations of an item. This study is the first to examine recommender systems by considering recommendation quantity and repetitive recommendations. Only a limited number of items are displayed in offline stores because of their physical limitations. Determining the type and number of items that will be displayed is an important consideration. In this study, I suggest the use of a user-based recommender system that can recommend the most appropriate items for each store. This model is evaluated by MAE, Precision, Recall, and F1 measure, and shows higher performance than the baseline model. I also suggest a new performance evaluation measure that includes Quantity Precision, Quantity Recall, and Quantity F1 measure. This measure considers the penalty for short or excess recommendation quantity. Novelty is defined as the proportion of items in a recommendation list that consumers may not experience. I evaluate the new revenue creation effect of the suggested model using this novelty measure. Previous research focused on recommendations for customer online, but I expand the recommender system to cover stores offline.

• The Journal of Bigdata
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.149-163
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• 2023

Due to the continuous growth of the E-commerce market, the volume of orders that fulfillment centers have to process has increased, and various customer requirements have increased the complexity of order processing. Along with this trend, the operational efficiency of fulfillment centers due to increased labor costs is becoming more important from a corporate management perspective. Using historical performance data as training data, this study focused on real-time box recommendations applicable to packaging areas during fulfillment center shipping. Four types of data, such as product information, order information, packaging information, and delivery information, were applied to the machine learning model through pre-processing and feature-engineering processes. As an input vector, three characteristics were used as product specification information: width, length, and height, the characteristics of the input vector were extracted through a feature engineering process that converts product information from real numbers to an integer system for each section. As a result of comparing the performance of each model, it was confirmed that when the Gradient Boosting model was applied, the prediction was performed with the highest accuracy at 95.2% when the product specification information was converted into integers in 21 sections. This study proposes a machine learning model as a way to reduce the increase in costs and inefficiency of box packaging time caused by incorrect box selection in the fulfillment center, and also proposes a feature engineering method to effectively extract the characteristics of product specification information.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.39-59
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• 2007

The international involvement of a firm has been described as a gradual development process "a process in which the enterprise gradually increases its international involvement in many studies. This process evolves in the interplay between the development of knowledge about foreign markets and operations on one hand and increasing commitment of resources to foreign markets on the other." On the basis of Uppsala internationalization model, many studies strengthen strong theoretical and empirical support. According to the predictions of the classic stages theory, the internationalization process of firms have been recognized and characterized gradual evolution to foreign markets, so called stage theory: indirect & direct export, strategic alliance and foreign direct investment. However, termed "international new ventures" (McDougall, Shane, and Oviatt 1994), "born globals" (Knight 1997; Knight and Cavusgil 1996; Madsen and Servais 1997), "instant internationals" (Preece, Miles, and Baetz 1999), or "global startups" (Oviatt and McDougall 1994) have been used and come into spotlight in internationalization study of technology intensity venture companies. Recent researches focused on venture company have suggested the phenomenons of 'born global' firms as a contradiction to the stages theory. Especially the article by Oviatt and McDougall threw the spotlight on international entrepreneurs, on international new ventures, and on their importance in the globalising world economy. Since venture companies have, by definition. lack of economies of scale, lack of resources (financial and knowledge), and aversion to risk taking, they have a difficulty in expanding their market to abroad and pursue internalization gradually and step by step. However many venture companies have pursued 'Born Global Strategy', which is different from process strategy, because corporate's environment has been rapidly changing to globalization. The existing studies investigate that (1) why the ventures enter into overseas market in those early stage, even in infancy, (2) what make the different international strategy among ventures and the born global strategy is better to the infant ventures. However, as for venture's performance(growth and profitability), the existing results do not correspond each other. They also, don't include marketing strategy (differentiation, low price, market breadth and market pioneer) that is important factors in studying of BGV's performance. In this paper I aim to delineate the appearance of international new ventures and the phenomenons of venture companies' internationalization strategy. In order to verify research problems, I develop a resource-based model and marketing strategies for analyzing the effects of the born global venture firms. In this paper, I suggested 3 research problems. First, do the korean venture companies take some advantages in the aspects of corporate's performances (growth, profitability and overall market performances) when they pursue internationalization from inception? Second, do the korean BGV have firm specific assets (foreign experiences, foreign orientation, organizational absorptive capacity)? Third, What are the marketing strategies of korean BGV and is it different from others? Under these problems, I test then (1) whether the BGV that a firm started its internationalization activity almost from inception, has more intangible resources(foreign experience of corporate members, foreign orientation, technological competences and absorptive capacity) than any other venture firms(Non_BGV) and (2) also whether the BGV's marketing strategies-differentiation, low price, market diversification and preemption strategy are different from Non_BGV. Above all, the main purpose of this research is that results achieved by BGV are indeed better than those obtained by Non_BGV firms with respect to firm's growth rate and efficiency. To do this research, I surveyed venture companies located in Seoul and Deajeon in Korea during November to December, 2005. I gather the data from 200 venture companies and then selected 84 samples, which have been founded during 1999${\sim}$2000. To compare BGV's characteristics with those of Non_BGV, I also had to classify BGV by export intensity over 50% among five or six aged venture firms. Many other researches tried to classify BGV and Non_BGV, but there were various criterion as many as researchers studied on this topic. Some of them use time gap, which is time difference of establishment and it's first internationalization experience and others use export intensity, ration of export sales amount divided by total sales amount. Although using a mixed criterion of prior research in my case, I do think this kinds of criterion is subjective and arbitrary rather than objective, so I do mention my research has some critical limitation in the classification of BGV and Non_BGV. The first purpose of research is the test of difference of performance between BGV and Non_BGV. As a result of t-test, the research show that there are statistically efficient difference not only in the growth rate (sales growth rate compared to competitors and 3 years averaged sales growth rate) but also in general market performance of BGV. But in case of profitability performance, the hypothesis that is BGV is more profit (return on investment(ROI) compared to competitors and 3 years averaged ROI) than Non-BGV was not supported. From these results, this paper concludes that BGV grows rapidly and gets a high market performance (in aspect of market share and customer loyalty) but there is no profitability difference between BGV and Non_BGV. The second result is that BGV have more absorptive capacity especially, knowledge competence, and entrepreneur's international experience than Non_BGV. And this paper also found BGV search for product differentiation, exemption strategy and market diversification strategy while Non_BGV search for low price strategy. These results have never been dealt with other existing studies. This research has some limitations. First limitation is concerned about the definition of BGV, as I mentioned above. Conceptually speaking, BGV is defined as company pursue internationalization from inception, but in empirical study, it's very difficult to classify between BGV and Non_BGV. I tried to classify on the basis of time difference and export intensity, this criterions are so subjective and arbitrary that the results are not robust if the criterion were changed. Second limitation is concerned about sample used in this research. I surveyed venture companies just located in Seoul and Daejeon and also use only 84 samples which more or less provoke sample bias problem and generalization of results. I think the more following studies that focus on ventures located in other region, the better to verify the results of this paper.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.29-62
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• 2012

As distribution environment is changing rapidly and competition is more intensive in the channel of distribution, the importance of retailer image and retailer equity is increasing as a different competitive advantages. Also, consumers are not functionally oriented and that their behavior is significantly affected by the symbols such as retailer image which identify retailer in the market place. That is, consumers do not choose products or retailers for their material utilities but consume the symbolic meaning of those products or retailers as expressed in their self images. The concept of self-image congruence has been utilized by marketers and researchers as an aid in better understanding how consumers identify themselves with the brands they buy and the retailer they patronize. Although self-image congruity theory has been tested across many product categories, the theory has not been tested extensively in the retailing. Therefore, this study attempts to investigate the impact of self image congruence between retailer image and self image of consumer on retailer equity such as retailer awareness, retailer association, perceived retailer quality, and retailer loyalty. The purpose of this study is to find out whether retailer-self image congruence can be a new antecedent of retailer equity. In addition, this study tries to examine how four-dimensional retailer equity constructs (retailer awareness, retailer association, perceived retailer quality, and retailer loyalty) affect customers' repatronage intention. For this study, data were gathered by survey and analyzed by structural equation modeling. The sample size in the present study was 254. The reliability of the all seven dimensions was estimated with Cronbach's alpha, composite reliability values and average variance extracted values. We determined whether the measurement model supports the convergent validity and discriminant validity by Exploratory factor analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis. For each pair of constructs, the square root of the average variance extracted values exceeded their correlations, thus supporting the discriminant validity of the constructs. Hypotheses were tested using the AMOS 18.0. As expected, the image congruence hypotheses were supported. The greater the degree of congruence between retailer image and self-image, the more favorable were consumers' retailer evaluations. The all two retailer-self image congruence (actual self-image congruence and ideal self-image congruence) affected customer based retailer equity. This result means that retailer-self image congruence is important cue for customers to estimate retailer equity. In other words, consumers are often more likely to prefer products and retail stores that have images similar to their own self-image. Especially, it appeared that effect for the ideal self-image congruence was consistently larger than the actual self-image congruence on the retailer equity. The results mean that consumers prefer or search for stores that have images compatible with consumer's perception of ideal-self. In addition, this study revealed that customers' estimations toward customer based retailer equity affected the repatronage intention. The results showed that all four dimensions (retailer awareness, retailer association, perceived retailer quality, and retailer loyalty) had positive effect on the repatronage intention. That is, management and investment to improve image congruence between retailer and consumers' self make customers' positive evaluation of retailer equity, and then the positive customer based retailer equity can enhance the repatonage intention. And to conclude, retailer's image management is an important part of successful retailer performance management, and the retailer-self image congruence is an important antecedent of retailer equity. Therefore, it is more important to develop and improve retailer's image similar to consumers' image. Given the pressure to provide increased image congruence, it is not surprising that retailers have made significant investments in enhancing the fit between retailer image and self image of consumer. The enhancing such self-image congruence may allow marketers to target customers who may be influenced by image appeals in advertising.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.111-131
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• 2007

As a brand becomes a core asset in creating a corporation's value, brand marketing has become one of core strategies that corporations pursue. Recently, for customer relationship management, possession and consumption of goods were centered on brand for the management. Thus, management related to this matter was developed. The main reason of the increased interest on the relationship between the brand and the consumer is due to acquisition of individual consumers and development of relationship with those consumers. Along with the development of relationship, a corporation is able to establish long-term relationships. This has become a competitive advantage for the corporation. All of these processes became the strategic assets of corporations. The importance and the increase of interest of a brand have also become a big issue academically. Brand equity, brand extension, brand identity, brand relationship, and brand community are the results derived from the interest of a brand. More specifically, in marketing, the study of brands has been led to the study of factors related to building of powerful brands and the process of building the brand. Recently, studies concentrated primarily on the consumer-brand relationship. The reason is that brand loyalty can not explain the dynamic quality aspects of loyalty, the consumer-brand relationship building process, and especially interactions between the brands and the consumers. In the studies of consumer-brand relationship, a brand is not just limited to possession or consumption objectives, but rather conceptualized as partners. Most of the studies from the past concentrated on the results of qualitative analysis of consumer-brand relationship to show the depth and width of the performance of consumer-brand relationship. Studies in Korea have been the same. Recently, studies of consumer-brand relationship started to concentrate on quantitative analysis rather than qualitative analysis or even go further with quantitative analysis to show effecting factors of consumer-brand relationship. Studies of new quantitative approaches show the possibilities of using the results as a new concept of viewing consumer-brand relationship and possibilities of applying these new concepts on marketing. Studies of consumer-brand relationship with quantitative approach already exist, but none of them include sub-dimensions of consumer-brand relationship, which presents theoretical proofs for measurement. In other words, most studies add up or average out the sub-dimensions of consumer-brand relationship. However, to do these kind of studies, precondition of sub-dimensions being in identical constructs is necessary. Therefore, most of the studies from the past do not meet conditions of sub-dimensions being as one dimension construct. From this, we question the validity of past studies and their limits. The main purpose of this paper is to overcome the limits shown from the past studies by practical use of previous studies on sub-dimensions in a one-dimensional construct (Naver & Slater, 1990; Cronin & Taylor, 1992; Chang & Chen, 1998). In this study, two arbitrary groups were classified to evaluate reliability of the measurements and reliability analyses were pursued on each group. For convergent validity, correlations, Cronbach's, one-factor solution exploratory analysis were used. For discriminant validity correlation of consumer-brand relationship was compared with that of an involvement, which is a similar concept with consumer-based relationship. It also indicated dependent correlations by Cohen and Cohen (1975, p.35) and results showed that it was different constructs from 6 sub-dimensions of consumer-brand relationship. Through the results of studies mentioned above, we were able to finalize that sub-dimensions of consumer-brand relationship can viewed from one-dimensional constructs. This means that the one-dimensional construct of consumer-brand relationship can be viewed with reliability and validity. The result of this research is theoretically meaningful in that it assumes consumer-brand relationship in a one-dimensional construct and provides the basis of methodologies which are previously preformed. It is thought that this research also provides the possibility of new research on consumer-brand relationship in that it gives root to the fact that it is possible to manipulate one-dimensional constructs consisting of consumer-brand relationship. In the case of previous research on consumer-brand relationship, consumer-brand relationship is classified into several types on the basis of components consisting of consumer-brand relationship and a number of studies have been performed with priority given to the types. However, as we can possibly manipulate a one-dimensional construct through this research, it is expected that various studies which make the level or strength of consumer-brand relationship practical application of construct will be performed, and not research focused on separate types of consumer-brand relationship. Additionally, we have the theoretical basis of probability in which to manipulate the consumer-brand relationship with one-dimensional constructs. It is anticipated that studies using this construct, which is consumer-brand relationship, practical use of dependent variables, parameters, mediators, and so on, will be performed.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.241-253
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• 2023

In the current rapidly changing environment, each country continues to make efforts to create jobs and strengthen technological competitiveness. In particular, support and revitalization policies for venture companies and start-ups are known to play a role in increasing national competitiveness. Companies should make appropriate replacements amid growing uncertainties in the environment in which business life is shortened and customer needs are diversified due to intensifying competition. First of all, it is important for companies to make efforts to strengthen their internal capabilities on their own. However, venture companies lack internal resources and capabilities, so support from the external environment is important enough to lead to the survival of the company(Timmons, 1994). Financial support and certification systems are being operated at the national level to strengthen the competitiveness of companies. However, financial support can lower a company's self-sustainability depending on the situation, so non-financial support such as R&D support and start-up education is considered to be helpful in the long term for venture growth(Aghion et al., 2012; Jeon & Ko, 2021). Non-financial support is divided into commercialization, facilities, space, childcare, manpower, and certification systems, and this study confirmed the benefits of the venture company confirmation system, which is a certification system. To this end, the 2021 venture company precision survey data and venture company sales data were used, and analyzed using the SPSS 26.0 package and SPSS PROCESS MACRO. As a result of the analysis, it was confirmed that the level of the management environment of venture companies has a positive effect on the benefits of the venture confirmation system or increasing the level of venture company capabilities, but it is difficult to lead to actual management performance. In addition, it was confirmed that the level of venture company competency mediates the relationship between the level of the venture company's business environment and management performance. As a result, even if the level of the venture company's business environment is positive or venture-friendly, it can be said that companies with internal capabilities to digest support from the external environment increase management performance.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.89-116
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• 2008

RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is regarded as a core technology of ubiquitous computing. Although it has some technical limitations such as technological standardization of RFID tags as well as economical limitations, many companies around the world have already accepted RFID to improve their management efficiency. In this regard, this study is to meet with results that the adoption of RFID technology willbring opportunities that companies' operational process are improved and customer satisfaction is highly strengthened. This research focuses on providing more understanding for building RFID marketing strategy to suppliers who want to sell their RFID products to customers through analyzing purchasing process. The findings are as follows; First, the study shows that buying center members usually take product reliability and precision of technical specification in the case of new-task buying situation while they put their first purchasing priority on prices in the straight rebuy. Second, the finding presents that in new-task buying situation and the straight rebuy purchasing personnel get information about new products through product performance test, organizational engineers, opinions from other companies' purchasing personnel, and checking out samples. Third, this research demonstrates when it comes to purchasing risk in their first purchasing, the persons who are in charge of material purchasing are inclined to be aware of the risk most in technical problems, followed by financial problems and time delay problems in order. And in addition to those risks are mentioned above, once-again-purchasers take the risk like an opportunity loss for better products into consideration. Fourth, the study shows that the role of concerning departments makes no difference in each purchasing stage. Accordingly marketers need to beef up the differentiated strategy to persuade their customers Fifth, the findings of this study demonstrate that purchasing decision making is much influenced by the final users. So suppliers are supposed to perform the most active marketing strategy at the first stage of purchasing through various resources. Finally, the study presents that the suppliers who will have had close relationships with their customers need to give consistent information to them so that their customers can have lower motive in purchasing products from competitors.

• Archives of design research
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• v.18 no.4 s.62
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• pp.95-104
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to estimate the determinants of product design and analyze the impacts of product design on quality competitiveness, product reliability, and consumer satisfaction in an attempt to provide a foundation for the theory of design management. For this empirical analysis, this study has derived the relevant measurement variables from a survey on 400 Korean manufacturing firms during the period of $August{\sim}October$ 2003. The empirical findings are summarized as follows: First, the determinants of product design are very significantly (at p<0.001) estimated to be the R&D capability, the level of R&D expenditure, the level of innovative activities(5S, TQM, 6Sigma, QC, etc.). This empirical result can support Pawar and Driva(1999)'s two principles by which the performance of product design and product development can be simultaneously evaluated in the context of CE(concurrent engineering) of NPD(newly product development) activities. Second, the hypothesis on the causality: product design${\rightarrow}$quality competitiveness${\rightarrow}$customer satisfaction${\rightarrow}$customer loyalty is very significantly (at p<0.001) accepted. This implies that product design positively affects consumer satisfaction, not directly but indirectly, by influencing quality competitiveness. This empirical result of this study can also support the studies of for example Flynn et al.(1994), Ahire et at.(1996), Afire and Dreyfus(2000) which conclude that design management is a significant determinant of product quality. The aforementioned empirical results are important in the following sense: the empirical result that quality competitiveness plays a bridging role between product design and consumer satisfaction can reconcile the traditional debate between QFD(quality function development) approach asserted by product developers and conjoint analysis maintained by marketers. The first empirical result is related to QFD approach whereas the second empirical result is related to conjoint analysis. At the same time, the empirical results of this study can support the rationale of design integration(DI) of Ettlie(1997), i.e., the coordination of the timing and substance of product development activities performed by the various disciplines and organizational functions of a product's life cycle. Finally, the policy implication (at the corporate level) from the empirical results is that successful design management(DM) requires not only the support of top management but also the removal of communication barriers, (i.e. the adoption of cross-functional teams) so that concurrent engineering(CE), the simultaneous development of product and process designs can assure product development speed, design quality, and market success.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.137-154
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• 2008

The increase of the supply of medical service and the increase of hospitals have intensified the competition of hospitals, and the advancement towards internationalization in the opening of medical industry has triggered the infinite competition of medical profession. In addition, the high expectation of customers and quality improvement in the medical care in accordance with the improvement of overall income, and the change of active role of medical consumers according to the popularization and the improvement of rights awareness reflect the customer needs and choice in the medical service. Customers wanted to receive the kind and pleasant service under the up-to-date medical service. Therefore, as a solution, hospital coordinators were emerged for the purpose of smooth treatment and customer satisfaction by generalizing all service of hospital. Accordingly, this thesis attempted to investigate the effect of hospital coordinator education curriculum on the education satisfaction and the quality of medical service. In order to solve the purpose of this study, I, author reviewed the existing literatures, established hypothesis, and verified hypothesis by using the variety of statistics techniques such as reliability, validity, frequency analysis, and regression analysis. The verification of hypothesis is as followings: First, among education training factors of hospital coordinators, the quality of instructor significantly affects the satisfaction of hospital coordinator education training. Second, among training factors of hospital coordinator, the attitude of trainee significantly affects the training satisfaction of hospital coordinator. Third, among education training factors of hospital coordinator, education course significantly affects the training satisfaction of hospital coordinator education. As the qualities of instructor are better equipped, the satisfaction of education becomes higher. It indicates that the education method of instructors is important as an index to represent the qualities of instructor such as the appropriateness of education method, preparation, passion, visual materials, the adequacy of education procession, and specialized knowledge, and it has important effect on the satisfaction of education. In order to enhance the satisfaction of hospital coordinator education, the creation of education environment, making trainee concentrate on the education, is required by appropriately allocating programs, arousing interest in education, based on the attitude of trainee, discussion, and preliminary programs, preparation, ahead of enforcement of education. Fourth, the satisfaction of hospital coordinator education training significantly affects the reliability among the qualities of medical service. Fifth, satisfaction of hospital coordinator education training significantly affects hospitality I kindness among the qualities of medical service. If the education satisfaction of trainee is high, it is effective in the practical application such as dealing with complaints, the duty performance for the patients, and so on in offering the medical service, related to reliability and furthermore, we can find the positive change in the attitude change of medical professions related to the reliability of hospital coordinator. In addition, in the process of offering medical services such as the kind explanation on the duty, rapid response to the customers inquiry, and tidy uniform, practical effect was verified. Sixth, the education training factor of hospital coordinator significantly affects the reliability among the quality of medical service. Seventh, the education training factors of hospital coordinator significantly affect hospitality/kindness. In the education of hospital coordinator, the methods to attract the interest of trainee by emphasizing reliability should be sought and for gaining the practical effect of hospital coordinator education, the sufficient preparation and investigation on the education curriculum should be prerequisite and under this condition, intensified discussion on the instructor and education course is needed. In the design of education course, more education hours and subjects should be allocated in the part of hospitality in order to improve the practical application of hospitality. Therefore, it is meaningful in a sense that this study newly approached the components of hospital coordinator education and the need to modify the quality components of medical service in accordance with the study subjects was raised. This study also finds its meaning in that it provides basic materials for the study of future hospital coordinator education by suggesting the system development model of hospital coordinator education through preliminary study of education training. In addition, this study is meaningful in the aspect that it suggested the direction of education training by showing how the hospital coordinator education training would applied to the hospital coordinator course of the Continuing Education Center at Pusan and Kyungnam National University to some extent. Since all investigation of this study was approached from the side of hospital coordinator, the thoughts of patients who are beneficiaries of medical service, and care givers cannot be identified. Therefore, the satisfaction of patients and care givers through the experience of medical service, which is the essential prerequisite of medical service, should be importantly considered and investigated. Accordingly, The study of comparing and analyzing the views of both patients and care givers should be carried out in the future.