• Title/Summary/Keyword: economics value

Search Result 2,066, Processing Time 0.029 seconds

A Destructive Method in the Connection of the Algorithm and Design in the Digital media - Centered on the Rapid Prototyping Systems of Product Design - (디지털미디어 환경(環境)에서 디자인 특성(特性)에 관한 연구(硏究) - 실내제품(室內製品) 디자인을 중심으로 -)

  • Kim Seok-Hwa
    • Journal of Science of Art and Design
    • /
    • v.5
    • /
    • pp.87-129
    • /
    • 2003
  • The purpose of this thesis is to propose a new concept of design of the 21st century, on the basis of the study on the general signification of the structures and the signs of industrial product design, by examining the difference between modern and post-modern design, which is expected to lead the users to different design practice and interpretation of it. The starting point of this study is the different styles and patterns of 'Gestalt' in the post-modern design of the late 20th century from modern design - the factor of determination in industrial product design. That is to say, unlike functional and rational styles of modern product design, the late 20th century is based upon the pluralism characterized by complexity, synthetic and decorativeness. So far, most of the previous studies on design seem to have excluded visual aspects and usability, focused only on effective communication of design phenomena. These partial studies on design, blinded by phenomenal aspects, have resulted in failure to discover a principle of fundamental system. However, design varies according to the times; and the transformation of design is reflected in Design Pragnanz to constitute a new text of design. Therefore, it can be argued that Design Pragnanz serves as an essential factor under influence of the significance of text. In this thesis, therefore, I delve into analysis of the 20th century product design, in the light of Gestalt theory and Design Pragnanz, which have been functioning as the principle of the past design. For this study, I attempted to discover the fundamental elements in modern and post-modern designs, and to examine the formal structure of product design, the users' aesthetic preference and its semantics, from the integrative viewpoint. Also, with reference to history and theory of design my emphasis is more on fundamental visual phenomena than on structural analysis or process of visualization in product design, in order to examine the formal properties of modern and post-modern designs. Firstly, In Chapter 1, 'Issues and Background of the Study', I investigated the Gestalt theory and Design Pragnanz, on the premise of formal distinction between modern and post-modern designs. These theories are founded upon the discussion on visual perception of Gestalt in Germany in 1910's, in pursuit of the principle of perception centered around visual perception of human beings. In Chapter 2, I dealt with functionalism of modern design, as an advance preparation for the further study on the product design of the late 20th century. First of all, in Chapter 2-1, I examined the tendency of modern design focused on functionalism, which can be exemplified by the famous statement 'Form follows function'. Excluding all unessential elements in design - for example, decoration, this tendency has attained the position of the international style based on the spirit of Bauhause - universality and regularity - in search of geometric order, standardization and rationalization. In Chapter 2-2, I investigated the anthropological viewpoint that modern design started representing culture in a symbolic way including overall aspects of the society - politics, economics and ethics, and its criticism on functionalist design that aesthetic value is missing in exchange of excessive simplicity in style. Moreover, I examined the pluralist phenomena in post-modern design such as kitsch, eclecticism, reactionism, hi-tech and digital design, breaking away from functionalist purism of modern design. In Chapter 3, I analyzed Gestalt Pragnanz in design in a practical way, against the background of design trends. To begin with, I selected mass product design among those for the 20th century products as a target of analysis, highlighting representative styles in each category of the products. For this analysis, I adopted the theory of J. M Lehnhardt, who gradated in percentage the aesthetic and semantic levels of Pragnantz in design expression, and that of J. K. Grutter, who expressed it in a formula of M = O : C. I also employed eight units of dichotomies, according to the G. D. Birkhoff's aesthetic criteria, for the purpose of scientific classification of the degree of order and complexity in design; and I analyzed phenomenal aspects of design form represented in each unit. For Chapter 4, I executed a questionnaire about semiological phenomena of Design Pragnanz with 28 units of antonymous adjectives, based upon the research in the previous chapter. Then, I analyzed the process of signification of Design Pragnanz, founded on this research. Furthermore, the interpretation of the analysis served as an explanation to preference, through systematic analysis of Gestalt and Design Pragnanz in product design of the late 20th century. In Chapter 5, I determined the position of Design Pragnanz by integrating the analyses of Gestalt and Pragnanz in modern and post-modern designs In this process, 1 revealed the difference of each Design Pragnanz in formal respect, in order to suggest a vision of the future as a result, which will provide systemic and structural stimulation to current design.

  • PDF

Economic Feasibility of Hill Land Development (산지개발(山地開發)의 경제성)

  • Kim, Dong-Min
    • Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
    • /
    • v.11 no.4
    • /
    • pp.283-295
    • /
    • 1979
  • A new Farmland Expansion and Development Promotion Law was enacted in 1975. This law authorizes the Government to undertake development within a declared "reclamation area", wherever the land owners are unable to do so. In order to give additional impetus to conversion of waste hilly land into productive farmland, these hilly land development projects were conducted as large scale scheme which include soil fertility improvements such as the application of lime and phosphate. Farmland Expansion and Development Promotion Corps has attempted to undertake annual farm surveys in order to obtain some information about hilly land agriculture and farming operations within the reclamation project areas since 1976. As survey data accumulates, more and more clear picture of hilly land farming come to appear and enable us to conduct in-depth study. Effects of such upland reclamation include converting of previously unproductive slopeland into cultivable farmland for lucrative and commercial farming or food production. Furthermore, idle or marginal resources such as farm labor, equipment and compost would be fully employed. Socio-economic effects would include increases in land value and attitude change of farmers. On the other hand the preservation of natural environments might be damaged to the some extend by the projects. As shown in Table 7, the average farm size increased from 3,156 pyeong($3.3m^2$) to 5,562 pyeong, a 76.2% increase. The proportion of small farms with less than I ha dropped from 59.8% to 34.4%, but that of the large farms over 2 ha rose from 13.1% to 32.0% (See Table 8). The survey results indicate that as the farming on reclaimed uplands become time-honored, the acreage devoted for food crop production decreases against the economic crop growing acreage (see Table 6). For example, in the case of uplands reclaimed in 1972, the ratio of food crop acreages decreased from 99.7% in 1972 to 62.5% in 1977, whereas that of economic crop acreages increased from 0.3% in 1972 to 37.5% in 1977. The government used to actively encourage the farmers to carry out food crop production in the reclaimed upland targting toward the realization of self-sufficiency in food grains. It is, however, apparent that the farmers did hardly take the government advises as far as their economic interest were concerned. Yield per 10a. of various crops from the reclaimed uplands by year were surveyed as seen in Table 12. On the average, barley production in the reclaimed areas achieved 83.3% of the average unit yield from the existing upland in its 5 th year. Soybean yields showed a modest increase from 64% in the first year to 95%, in the 5 th year. In contrast, economic crops such as red pepper, totacco and radish achieved their maximum target yields in 3 years from starting to cultivate on the reclaimed farms. In order to test the post economic viability, an economic analysis was performed for each of selected subprojects on the basis of the data obtained through survey. The average actual internal economic rate of return on upland reclamation investments was found to be 20.3% which exceeded other types of projects of land and water development such as tidal land reclamation, irrigation or paddy rearrangement. The actual IRRs of subcategories of upland reclamation projects varied from 17.9% to 21.4% depending upon the kinds of cropping system adopted in each reclaimed areas such as food, economic, fruit or forage crops.

  • PDF

Appraisal of the Special Production Area Development Project in Rural Area and Countermeasures for Off-farm Income Increase (The Case of Chungnam Province) (농어촌(農漁村) 특산단지개발사업(特産團地開發事業)의 평가(評價)와 농외소득증대방안(農外所得增大方案) (충청남도(忠淸南道)를 중심(中心)으로))

  • Lim, Jae Hwan
    • Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
    • /
    • v.18 no.2
    • /
    • pp.164-179
    • /
    • 1991
  • Korean agriculture has encountered two problems. One is internal income disparity between rural and urbarn area and the other is external Uruguay Round trade problems as an abolition of direct and indirect import barriers, reduction in export subsidies and to reduce internal price supports. These problems will be brought severe farm problems such as decreasing farm household income and repressing agricultural growth in the near future. Considering the above inevitable facts Korean government has implemented several development projects such as rural industrial area development project, rural special production area development project, leisuresight seeing farm development project, traditional food development project, unskilled labor training project for off-farm employment and so on, to increase farm household income through off-farm income increase. This study was mainly concentrated on the identification of operational problems and post evaluation of the rural special production area development projects which aimed at increasing non-farm incomes and giving employment opportunity for rural farmers in small factories processing regional special farm products and mine products. The main findings and problems to be solved for the successful project implementation are as followed ; 1. Total number of the special production area development projects as of the end of 1991 was amount to 138, and total number of farm household participated were estimated at 2,079, and total amount of off-farm income per farm household was reached to 3,011 thousand won. 2. The total number of processed special products have increased from 21 items in 1981 to 56 items in 1991. On the other hand the total number of farm household participated in the projects have decreased from 2,518 to 2,079 during same period. 3. Total amount of investment for the projects has increased from 1,429 million won in 1981 to 24,760 million won in 1991 but the rate of G'T loan of the total investment has reduced from 24.5% to 5.2% during same period. 4. 138 special production area development project are classified into 6 kinds of commodity groups such as 19 of general industrial good production areas, 52 of folks-industrial art objects production areas, 39 of food processing areas, 9 of fiber and texstile processing areas, 18 of agricultural and fishery inputs processing areas and 1 of stone processing area. 5. The total production value in 1990 was estimated 20,169 million won of which export was amount to 2,627 million won. 6. The finacial rate of return of the UNGOK KUGIJA Tea processing Project operated by UNGOK coops and BAKSAN ginseng tea processing project were estimated at 45.4% (B/C Ratio=1.17, NPV=152.5 million won) and 17.7% (B/C Ratio=1.12, NPV=120.2 million won) respectively. 7. More favorite terms and condition of the loan including collateral problems have to be given to farmers participated. Heavy investment and G'T subsidy policies should be started for the successful project implementation anf farm household income increase. 8. To expand market demand of the rural special goods G'T have to provide special program of TV or other mass media for commodity propaganda and the total cost concerned must be supported by G'T subsidy. 9. The special farm products as GUGUJA,MOSI'Ramie', Ginseng. SOGOKJU,HEMP,Mushroom.DUGYUNJU and Chesnut processing projects have to be propelled and expanded for off-farm income increase in Chung Nam Province. 10. Direct operational pattern of the special production area by coops is more favorable to farmers and recommendable considering with off-farm income increase and market demand creation throughout Korea. 11. In rural area, special organizations for project appraisal are not exist. Accordingly special training program, project appraisal, formulation and preparation for civil servants concerned have to be prepared for project selection and sound implementation under limited budget and financial support.

  • PDF

Quality and Antioxidant Properties of Tofu Coagulated with 'Tsugaru' Apple (Malus domestica Borkh) Juice (쓰가루 사과즙을 이용한 두부의 품질 및 항산화 특성)

  • Kim, Dong-Ho;Hong, Kyeong-Nam;Lim, Yeo-Kyeong;Cha, Seung-Hyeon;Ryu, Ji-Eun;Cho, Jin-Ho;Kim, Dae-Il;Yoo, Do-Il;Jang, Keum-Il
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
    • /
    • v.45 no.8
    • /
    • pp.1130-1137
    • /
    • 2016
  • In this study, we investigated the quality, antioxidant properties, and sensory characteristics of tofu coagulated with 'Tsugaru' apple (Malus domestica Borkh) juice. Yield, $^{\circ}Brix$, pH, total acidity, total polyphenol content, 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) radical scavenging activity, and 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity of 'Tsugaru' apple juice were 60%, 10.3, 3.89, 0.51%, 2.26 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE)/g, $20{\mu}g$ L-ascorbic acid equivalent (AE)/g, and $75{\mu}g$ AE/g, respectively. In case of Tofu coagulated with 20% (w/v) 'Tsugaru' apple juice, yield, $^{\circ}Brix$, pH, total acidity, hardness, chewiness, cohesiveness, total polyphenol content, ABTS radical scavenging activity, and DPPH radical scavenging activity were 165%, 6.23, 0.27%, 513 g, 315, 0.61, 12.04 mg GAE/g, $80.67{\mu}g$ AE/g, and $92.32{\mu}g$ AE/g, respectively. Both the manufacture yield and pH of tofu decreased with increasing amount of 'Tsugaru' apple juice, whereas total acidity increased. Regarding the texture and chromaticity of tofu coagulated with increasing amounts of 'Tsugaru' apple juice, hardness, chewiness, and a- and b-values increased, whereas cohesiveness and L-value both decreased. In terms of antioxidant activities, total polyphenol content and DPPH radical scavenging activity increased, whereas ABTS radical scavenging activity was maintained within a certain range. Finally, concerning the sensory evaluation (taste, color, flavor, and overall preference) of tofu coagulated with 30% (w/w) 'Tsugaru' apple juice showed the highest scores. Taken together, these results support the possible use of 'Tsugaru' apple juice in producing various foods, as addition of juice enhanced quality, antioxidant properties, and sensory characteristics of tofu.

An Examination of Knowledge Sourcing Strategies Effects on Corporate Performance in Small Enterprises (소규모 기업에 있어서 지식소싱 전략이 기업성과에 미치는 영향 고찰)

  • Choi, Byoung-Gu
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
    • /
    • v.18 no.4
    • /
    • pp.57-81
    • /
    • 2008
  • Knowledge is an essential strategic weapon for sustaining competitive advantage and is the key determinant for organizational growth. When knowledge is shared and disseminated throughout the organization, it increases an organization's value by providing the ability to respond to new and unusual situations. The growing importance of knowledge as a critical resource has forced executives to pay attention to their organizational knowledge. Organizations are increasingly undertaking knowledge management initiatives and making significant investments. Knowledge sourcing is considered as the first important step in effective knowledge management. Most firms continue to make an effort to realize the benefits of knowledge management by using various knowledge sources effectively. Appropriate knowledge sourcing strategies enable organizations to create, acquire, and access knowledge in a timely manner by reducing search and transfer costs, which result in better firm performance. In response, the knowledge management literature has devoted substantial attention to the analysis of knowledge sourcing strategies. Many studies have categorized knowledge sourcing strategies into intemal- and external-oriented. Internal-oriented sourcing strategy attempts to increase firm performance by integrating knowledge within the boundary of the firm. On the contrary, external-oriented strategy attempts to bring knowledge in from outside sources via either acquisition or imitation, and then to transfer that knowledge across to the organization. However, the extant literature on knowledge sourcing strategies focuses primarily on large organizations. Although many studies have clearly highlighted major differences between large and small firms and the need to adopt different strategies for different firm sizes, scant attention has been given to analyzing how knowledge sourcing strategies affect firm performance in small firms and what are the differences between small and large firms in the patterns of knowledge sourcing strategies adoption. This study attempts to advance the current literature by examining the impact of knowledge sourcing strategies on small firm performance from a holistic perspective. By drawing on knowledge based theory from organization science and complementarity theory from the economics literature, this paper is motivated by the following questions: (1) what are the adoption patterns of different knowledge sourcing strategies in small firms (i,e., what sourcing strategies should be adopted and which sourcing strategies work well together in small firms)?; and (2) what are the performance implications of these adoption patterns? In order to answer the questions, this study developed three hypotheses. First hypothesis based on knowledge based theory is that internal-oriented knowledge sourcing is positively associated with small firm performance. Second hypothesis developed on the basis of knowledge based theory is that external-oriented knowledge sourcing is positively associated with small firm performance. The third one based on complementarity theory is that pursuing both internal- and external-oriented knowledge sourcing simultaneously is negatively or less positively associated with small firm performance. As a sampling frame, 700 firms were identified from the Annual Corporation Report in Korea. Survey questionnaires were mailed to owners or executives who were most erudite about the firm s knowledge sourcing strategies and performance. A total of 188 companies replied, yielding a response rate of 26.8%. Due to incomplete data, 12 responses were eliminated, leaving 176 responses for the final analysis. Since all independent variables were measured using continuous variables, supermodularity function was used to test the hypotheses based on the cross partial derivative of payoff function. The results indicated no significant impact of internal-oriented sourcing strategies while positive impact of external-oriented sourcing strategy on small firm performance. This intriguing result could be explained on the basis of various resource and capital constraints of small firms. Small firms typically have restricted financial and human resources. They do not have enough assets to always develop knowledge internally. Another possible explanation is competency traps or core rigidities. Building up a knowledge base based on internal knowledge creates core competences, but at the same time, excessive internal focused knowledge exploration leads to behaviors blind to other knowledge. Interestingly, this study found that Internal- and external-oriented knowledge sourcing strategies had a substitutive relationship, which was inconsistent with previous studies that suggested complementary relationship between them. This result might be explained using organizational identification theory. Internal organizational members may perceive external knowledge as a threat, and tend to ignore knowledge from external sources because they prefer to maintain their own knowledge, legitimacy, and homogeneous attitudes. Therefore, integrating knowledge from internal and external sources might not be effective, resulting in failure of improvements of firm performance. Another possible explanation is small firms resource and capital constraints and lack of management expertise and absorptive capacity. Although the integration of different knowledge sources is critical, high levels of knowledge sourcing in many areas are quite expensive and so are often unrealistic for small enterprises. This study provides several implications for research as well as practice. First this study extends the existing knowledge by examining the substitutability (and complementarity) of knowledge sourcing strategies. Most prior studies have tended to investigate the independent effects of these strategies on performance without considering their combined impacts. Furthermore, this study tests complementarity based on the productivity approach that has been considered as a definitive test method for complementarity. Second, this study sheds new light on knowledge management research by identifying the relationship between knowledge sourcing strategies and small firm performance. Most current literature has insisted complementary relationship between knowledge sourcing strategies on the basis of data from large firms. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, this study identifies substitutive relationship between knowledge sourcing strategies using data from small firms. Third, implications for practice highlight that managers of small firms should focus on knowledge sourcing from external-oriented strategies. Moreover, adoption of both sourcing strategies simultaneousiy impedes small firm performance.

Effect of Blue Light on the Major Components of Soybean-sprouts (Blue광(光) 조사(照射)가 콩나물의 주요성분(主要成分)에 미치는 영향(影響))

  • Kim, Kwang-Soo;Kim, Soon-Dong;Kim, Jin-Koo;Kim, Ju-Nam;Kim, Kyoung-Ju
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
    • /
    • v.11 no.4
    • /
    • pp.7-12
    • /
    • 1982
  • Growth of soybean sprouts(Glycine Max L.) and amounts of some chemical components were measured when they were exposed to blue light (120lux, 3hrs/day) during their growth. Hypocotyl length of irradiated soybean sprouts exceeded slightly that of control (dark) soybean sprouts, but the tfresh weight of whole sprouts as well as each part of the sprout showed no difference between the two groups. Chlorophyll content of cotyledon under blue light increased significantly with the lapse of days (3.57 and $8.45\;{\mu}g/100g$ fresh weight on the 3rd and 7th day). Bluelight irradiated sprouts contained more vitamin C than control sprouts (21.7% and 30.8% higher for the cotyledon and hypocotyl). Total amount of protein was not affected. Hypocotyl protein content was 8% of that in original soybean. Blue light did not affect the activity of trypsin inhibitor of sprouts. Similar activity of the inhibitor was observed in the cotyledon whereas hypocotyl showed activity corresponding to 23.7% of original bean. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoretogram for the protein showed 10, 9, and 11 bands in the original bean. 5th day cotyledon and hypocotyl respectively. Especially, band 3 of low Rm value was major protein component for the hypocotyl. Band 5 and 11 could be seen only in the protein of hypocotyl from bluelight irradiated sprouts, whereas no effect of blue light on the electrophoretogram was observed for the cotyledon.

  • PDF

Financial Analysis of Vegetation Control for Sustainable Production of Songyi (Tricholoma matsutake) in Korea (송이생산(生産)을 지속가능(持續可能)하게 하기 위한 소나무림내(林內) 식생정리(植生整理) 작업(作業)의 경제성(經濟性) 분석(分析))

  • Koo, Chang Duck;Bilek, E.M.
    • Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
    • /
    • v.87 no.4
    • /
    • pp.519-527
    • /
    • 1998
  • An economic study of vegetation control to increase production of Songyi (Korean name far pine mushroom, matsutake, Tracholoma matsutake (S. Ito & Imai) Sing.) in red pine (Panes densiflora) stands in Korea was undertaken. In Korea, Songyi grows only in red pine stands. Harvest of this mushroom provides a significant income source to rural people in Korea yielding exports of US$20 million to US$80 million per year. However, hypogeous Songyi colonies and the mushroom production are declining, partly because shade tolerant species are succeeding the shade intolerant red pine. Past research says that it is possible to deep Songyi production increasing by controlling under-story vegetation. But few people are wilting to invest in the necessary control. Our analysis found that the economics of vegetation control appear to be quite favorable, showing an internal rate of return (IRR) of 20.7 percent in 15 years. However, positive returns do not occur for at least eight years and even then, the returns may not appear to the landowner to be a result of vegetation control efforts only because the mushroom production has been greatly variable depending on weather conditions. In a sensitivity analysis, it was found that the number of circular mushroom colonies was critically important for the cash flow. Results of this analysis are also sensitive to assumptions about annual growth length(0.16m radial growth=1.0m/circular length growth) of Songyi colony. However, the primary goal of vegetation control should be to keep the young colonies growing. Further research in the behavior of hypogeous Songyi colonies after vegetation control would help to improve our confidence in the results.

  • PDF

Valuation of Mining Investment Projects by the Real Option Approach - A Case Study of Uzbekistan's Copper Mining Industry - (실물옵션평가방법에 의한 광산투자의 가치평가 -우즈베키스탄 구리광산업의 사례연구를 중심으로-)

  • Makhkamov, Mumm Sh.;Kim, Dong-Hwan
    • Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
    • /
    • v.8 no.6
    • /
    • pp.1634-1647
    • /
    • 2007
  • "To invest or not to invest?" Most business leaders are frequently faced with this question on new and ongoing projects. The challenge lies in deciding what projects to choose, expand, contract, defer, or abandon. The project valuation tools used in this process are vital to making the right decisions. Traditional tools such as discounted cash flow (DCF)/net present value (NPV) assume a "fixed" path ahead, but real world projects face uncertainties, forcing us to change the path often. Comparing to other traditional valuation methods, the real options approach captures the flexibility inherent to investment decisions. The use of real options has gained wide acceptance among practitioners in a number of several industries during the last few decades. Even though the options are present in all types of business decisions, it is still not considered as a proper method of valuation in some industries. Mining has been comparably slow to adopt new valuation techniques over the years. The reason fur this is not entirely clear. One possible reason is the level and types of risks in mining. Not only are these risks high, but they are also more numerous and involve natural risks compared with other industries. That is why the purpose of this study is to deal with a more practical approach to project valuation, known as real options analysis in mining industry. This paper provides a case study approach to the copper mining industry using a real options analysis. It shows how companies can minimize investment risks, exercise flexibility in decision making and maximize returns.

  • PDF

Fabric Dyeing with Lichen Parmotrema austrosinence and Improvement of Dyeability by Chitosan Treatment (Parmotrema austrosinence(지의류)를 이용한 직물염색과 키토산 처리에 의한 염색성 향상)

  • Yoo, Hye-Ja;Lee, Hye-Ja;Rhie, Jeon-Sook
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
    • /
    • v.32 no.6
    • /
    • pp.882-889
    • /
    • 2008
  • Three fabrics, 100% silk, nylon and cotton each, were dyed with a lichen dye solution prepared by a fermentation method under conditions of varying dyebath pH and temperature. To verify the effect of chitosan on fabric dyeing, the 100% cotton fabric was treated with a chitosan solution before dyeing. The K/S, CIE $L^*$, $a^*$, $b^*$, ${\Delta}E$ and Munsell values of the dyed samples were measured. Colorfastness of each sample was also investigated. The maximum K/S value was measured at 520nm wavelength for the dyed silk fabric and at 480nm for the dyed cotton and nylon. The K/S values for the dyed silk fabric were much greater than those of the other fabrics. The dyed silk fabric showed a red tone on the Munsell color system, and the dyed nylon and cotton fabrics a yellowish red tone. Dye affinity to fabrics was better in a neutral or acidic dyebath. As dyeing temperature increased, K/S values increased for the dyed nylon and cotton fabrics but not for the silk. Dyeability of cotton fabrics could improve by Chitosan treatment. As for most natural dyes, colorfastness of all dyed samples was poor. The silk fabric showed an excellent dry cleaning fastness of Grade 5.

The Effects of LBS Information Filtering on Users' Perceived Uncertainty and Information Search Behavior (위치기반 서비스를 통한 정보 필터링이 사용자의 불확실성과 정보탐색 행동에 미치는 영향)

  • Zhai, Xiaolin;Im, Il
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
    • /
    • v.24 no.4
    • /
    • pp.493-513
    • /
    • 2014
  • With the development of related technologies, Location-Based Services (LBS) are growing fast and being used in many ways. Past LBS studies have focused on adoption of LBS because of the fact that LBS users have privacy concerns regarding revealing their location information. Meanwhile, the number of LBS users and revenues from LBS are growing rapidly because users can get some benefits by revealing their location information. Little research has been done on how LBS affects consumers' information search behavior in product purchase. The purpose of this paper is examining the effect of LBS information filtering on buyers' uncertainty and their information search behavior. When consumers purchase a product, they try to reduce uncertainty by searching information. Generally, there are two types of uncertainties - knowledge uncertainty and choice uncertainty. Knowledge uncertainty refers to the lack of information on what kinds of alternatives are available in the market and/or their important attributes. Therefore, consumers having knowledge uncertainty will have difficulties in identifying what alternatives exist in the market to fulfil their needs. Choice uncertainty refers to the lack of information about consumers' own preferences and which alternative will fit in their needs. Therefore, consumers with choice uncertainty have difficulties selecting best product among available alternatives.. According to economics of information theory, consumers narrow the scope of information search when knowledge uncertainty is high. It is because consumers' information search cost is high when their knowledge uncertainty is high. If people do not know available alternatives and their attributes, it takes time and cognitive efforts for them to acquire information about available alternatives. Therefore, they will reduce search breadth. For people with high knowledge uncertainty, the information about products and their attributes is new and of high value for them. Therefore, they will conduct searches more in-depth because they have incentive to acquire more information. When people have high choice uncertainty, people tend to search information about more alternatives. It is because increased search breadth will improve their chances to find better alternative for them. On the other hand, since human's cognitive capacity is limited, the increased search breadth (more alternatives) will reduce the depth of information search for each alternative. Consumers with high choice uncertainty will spend less time and effort for each alternative because considering more alternatives will increase their utility. LBS provides users with the capability to screen alternatives based on the distance from them, which reduces information search costs. Therefore, it is expected that LBS will help users consider more alternatives even when they have high knowledge uncertainty. LBS provides distance information, which helps users choose alternatives appropriate for them. Therefore, users will perceive lower choice uncertainty when they use LBS. In order to test the hypotheses, we selected 80 students and assigned them to one of the two experiment groups. One group was asked to use LBS to search surrounding restaurants and the other group was asked to not use LBS to search nearby restaurants. The experimental tasks and measures items were validated in a pilot experiment. The final measurement items are shown in Appendix A. Each subject was asked to read one of the two scenarios - with or without LBS - and use a smartphone application to pick a restaurant. All behaviors on smartphone were recorded using a recording application. Search breadth was measured by the number of restaurants clicked by each subject. Search depths was measured by two metrics - the average number of sub-level pages each subject visited and the average time spent on each restaurant. The hypotheses were tested using SPSS and PLS. The results show that knowledge uncertainty reduces search breadth (H1a). However, there was no significant correlation between knowledge uncertainty and search depth (H1b). Choice uncertainty significantly reduces search depth (H2b), but no significant relationship was found between choice uncertainty and search breadth (H2a). LBS information filtering significantly reduces the buyers' choice uncertainty (H4) and reduces the negative relationship between knowledge uncertainty and search breadth (H3). This research provides some important implications for service providers. Service providers should use different strategies based on their service properties. For those service providers who are not well-known to consumers (high knowledge uncertainty) should encourage their customers to use LBS. This is because LBS would increase buyers' consideration sets when the knowledge uncertainty is high. Therefore, less known services have chances to be included in consumers' consideration sets with LBS. On the other hand, LBS information filtering decrease choice uncertainty and the near service providers are more likely to be selected than without LBS. Hence, service providers should analyze geographically approximate competitors' strength and try to reduce the gap so that they can have chances to be included in the consideration set.