• Journal of Nutrition and Health
• /
• v.49 no.2
• /
• pp.111-124
• /
• 2016

Purpose: The current study was conducted for evaluation and comparison of dietary behavior and food intake in different regions of Lao PDR. Methods: The survey was conducted on 979 people aged 40~59 years old living in 25 urban provinces and 25 rural provinces in four districts (VTE Capital-Chanthabuly, Xaysetha, VTE Province-Phonhong, and Thoulakhom) of Laos. General demographic information, health status, and dietary behavior were surveyed using a questionnaire. Results: The literacy ratio (p = 0.000), education level (p = 0.000), asset ownership level (p = 0.000), and government and private employee ratio (p = 0.000) were higher in urban subjects compared with rural subjects. The mean value of weight (p = 0.000), waist circumference (p = 0.000), and diastolic blood pressure (p = 0.009) and alcohol consumption (p = 0.000), self-rated health status (p = 0.001), and the rate of obesity (p = 0.000) were significantly higher in urban subjects compared with rural subjects. However, the rate of current smoker was significantly higher in the rural group (p = 0.023). Meals are becoming more westernized by higher frequency of eating out, consumption of fatty meat and fried or stir-fried food in urban areas compared to rural areas. Urban subjects had relatively better balanced meals compared to rural subjects whereas they consumed insufficient meals per day and consumed meals irregularly compared to rural subjects. Intake of fruit and milk was significantly higher in urban subjects compared with rural subjects. However, the intake of vegetables was significantly higher in rural areas than urban areas. Conclusion: The result of this study showed that the traditional Lao diet is being replaced by an unhealthy western dietary pattern, which may be a risk factor for increasing development of non-communicable disease (NCD) in Lao PDR. Planning of proper personalized nutritional intervention and education in each area is needed to decrease the health risks of NCD.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
• /
• v.20 no.2
• /
• pp.123-134
• /
• 2010

Considering the benefits for both consumers and suppliers, firms are taking advantage of the Internet as a medium to communicate with and sell products to their consumers. This trend makes the online shopping environment a growing field for both researchers and practitioners. This paper contributes by testing a model of online consumer behavior with websites varying in levels of hedonism. Unlike past studies, we included all three types of emotions (arousal, pleasure, and dominance) and flow into the model. In this study, we assumed that website interfaces, such as background colors, music, and fonts impact the three types of emotions at the initial exposure to the site (Mazaheri, Richard, and Laroche, 2011). In turn, these emotions influence flow and consumers' perceptions of the site atmospherics-perception of site informativeness, effectiveness, and entertainment. This assumption is consistent with Zajonc (1980) who argued that affective reactions are independent of perceptual and cognitive operations and can influence responses. We, then, propose that the perceptions of site atmospherics along with flow, influence customers' attitudes toward the website and toward the product, site involvement, and purchase intentions. In addition, we studied the moderating impact of the level of hedonism of websites on all the relationship in the model. Thus, the path coefficients were compared between "high" and "low" hedonic websites. We used 39 real websites from 12 product categories (8 services and 4 physical goods) to test the model. Among them, 20 were perceived as high hedonic and 19 as low hedonic by the respondents. The result of EQS 6.1 support the overall model: $\chi^2$=1787 (df=504), CFI=.994; RMSEA=.031. All the hypotheses were significant. In addition, the results of multi-groups analyses reveal several non-invariant structural paths between high and low hedonic website groups. The findings supported the model regarding the influence of the three types of emotions on customers' perceptions of site atmospherics, flow, and other customer behavior variables. It was found that pleasure strongly influenced site attitudes and perceptions of site entertainment. Arousal positively impacted the other two types of emotions, perceptions of site informativeness, and site involvement. Additionally, the influence of arousal on flow was found to be highly significant. The results suggested a strong association between dominance and customers' perceptions of site effectiveness. Dominance was also found to be associated with site attitudes and flow. Moreover, the findings suggested that site involvement and attitudes toward the product are the most important antecedents of purchase intentions. Site informativeness and flow also significantly influenced purchase intentions. The results of multi-group analysis supported the moderating impacts of hedonism of the websites. Compared to low (high) hedonic sites, the impacts of utilitarian (hedonic) attributes on other variables were stronger in high (low) hedonic websites. Among the three types of emotions, dominance (controlling feelings) effects were stronger in high hedonic sites and pleasure effects were stronger in low hedonic sites. Moreover, the impact of site informativeness was stronger for high hedonic websites compared to their low-hedonic counterparts. On the other hand, the influence of effectiveness of information on perceptions of site informativeness and the impact of site involvement on product attitudes were stronger for low hedonic websites than for high hedonic ones.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.111-116
• /
• 2005

Objectives: Although many reports have been written on seasonal variations in mood and behavior in foreign countries, few reports have dealt with Korean adolescents, except medical students. The goal of this study was to estimate the frequency of seasonal variations in mood and behavior among Korean high school students. Methods: A total of 656 high school students living in southeastern Seoul participated in this study. The subjects were investigated with the Korean translated version of the Seasonal Pattern Assessment Questionnaire (SPAQ), and their responses were evaluated for seasonal patterns in mood and behavior change according to Kasper's criteria to make SAD (seasonal affective disorder) or SSAD (subclinical seasonal affective disorder) diagnosis. Results: A total of 565 subjects completed the questionnaire and the responses (M：F=324：241) were collected and used for analysis. The mean age was 16.73 (SD=0.65) years, and mean global seasonality score 5.88 (SD=4.72). Of the respondents, 413 (73.1%) reported problems related with seasonal changes. Total prevalence rates were 13.6% for SAD, 10.8% for S-SAD. The estimated frequencies were 5.1% for summer SAD, 3.2% for summer S-SAD, 0.5% for winter SAD and 1.1% for winter S-SAD. The prevalence rate of summer SAD or S-SAD was higher than winter SAD or S-SAD. Conclusion: The subjects showed a higher prevalence rate of summer type than winter type in SAD or S-SAD. These results were similar to those of other studies carried out in East Asian countries. However, the unpleasant feelings resulting from high temperature and humidity in summer rather than depression may have influenced the results. Therefore, it is necessary to make new SAD criteria of the SPAQ suitable for East Asian countries.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
• /
• v.20 no.2
• /
• pp.63-68
• /
• 2013

Objectives: Several evidence has been suggested that the circadian gene variants contribute to the pathogenesis of seasonal affective disorder. In this study, we aimed to investigate the polymorphism in RORA (Retinoid-related orphan receptor A) gene in relation to seasonal variations among healthy young adults in Seoul, Korea. Methods: A total of 507 young healthy adult subjects were recruited by advertisement. Seasonal variations were assessed by the Seasonality Pattern Assessment Questionnaire (SPAQ). Single-nucleotide polymorphism in the RORA rs11071547 gene was genotyped by PCR in 507 individuals. Considering summer type as confounding factor, we conducted analysis 478 subjects except 29 subjects of summer type. The Chi-square test was conducted to compare differences between groups of seasonals and non-seasonals. Association between genotypes and Global Seasonality Score (GSS) were tested using ANCOVA (Analysis of covariance). Results: In this sample, the prevalence of SAD was 12.1% (winter type 9.3%, summer type 2.8%). There is no significant difference in genotyping distribution of RORA rs11071547 between groups of seasonals and non-seasonals. Global seasonality score (GSS) and scores of all subscales except body weight and appetite were not significantly different between the group with C allele homozygote and the group with T allele homozygote and heterozygote (p-value 0.138). Scores of body weight and appetite were significantly higher in group with C allele homozygotes. Conclusion: These results suggest that RORA gene polymorphism play a role in seasonal variations in appetite and body weight and is associated with susceptibility to seasonal affective disorder in some degree in the population studied.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
• /
• v.40 no.1
• /
• pp.92-99
• /
• 2012

Many wildlife habitats have been destroyed and fragmented during the rapid industrialization and urbanization process in Korea. It is essential to connect these fragmented habitats to reduce road-kill of many types of endangered urban wildlife. The site selection for wildlife passages must take into account the behavior of the wildlife species for safe crossing utilizing many artificial barriers in urban areas. This study attempted to identify potential wildlife passage sites for the endangered and protected leopard cats of Gangseo Ecological Park in Seoul, Korea. A space syntax analysis, an analytical technique to objectively evaluate the spatial configurations related to passage selection, found that the integration value represents the accessibility and connectivity of spaces. In this paper, this means that the bigger the integration value, the more frequently the leopard cat passes through. The leopard cats were captured and radio-tracked for 72 hours once a month from March to June of 2009. The ArcGIS and Animal Movement of Hawth Tools were used to analyze the home range and movement paths, and Axwoman 4.0 was used to analyze space syntax. The daily average movement distance was $2.099{\pm}1.08km$. During the survey period, the leopard cats crossed over an urban expressway more than 20 times, running the risk of road-kill. The range of global integration values was 0.458~1.834, while that of the local integration was 0.210~6.061. Five sites that met across the leopard cats' movement routes and roads were selected to measure the local and global integrate values. Among these sites, the higher the integration value, the higher the road-kill possibility. Thus, two of five sites with high global and local integration values were suggested as potential wildlife passage sites for the leopard cats. Now, three tunnel passages are under construction at the suggested sites for which local integration value was highest (LI=4.369). Further studies are scheduled to verify these potential sites as suitable wildlife passages.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
• /
• v.20 no.1
• /
• pp.59-69
• /
• 2010

Green or an environmental consciousness has been a major issue for businesses and government offices, as well as consumers, worldwide. In response to this movement, the Korean government announced, in the early 2000s, the era of "Green Growth" as a way to encourage green-related business activities. The Korean fashion industry, in various levels of involvement, presents diverse eco-friendly products as a part of the green movement. These apparel products include organic products and recycled clothing. For these companies to be successful, they need information about who are the consumers who consider green issues (e.g., environmental sustainability) as part of their personal values when making a decision for product purchase, use, and disposal. These consumers can be considered as eco-sumers. Previous studies have examined consumers' purchase intention for or with eco-friendly products. In addition, studies have examined influential factors used to identify the eco-sumers or green consumers. However, limited attention was paid to eco-sumers' disposal or recycling behavior of clothes in comparison with their green product purchases. Clothing disposal behaviors are ways that consumer can get rid of unused clothing and in clue temporarily lending the item or permanently eliminating the item by "handing down" (e.g., giving it to a younger sibling), donating, exchanging, selling, or simply throwing it away. Accordingly, examining purchasing behaviors of eco-friendly fashion items in conjunction with clothing disposal behaviors should improve understanding of a consumer's clothing consumption behavior from the environmental perspective. The purpose of this exploratory study is to provide descriptive information about Korean eco-sumers who have ecologically-favorable lifestyles and behaviors when buying and disposing of clothes. The objectives of this study are to (a) categorize Koreans on the basis of clothing disposal behaviors; (b) investigate the differences in demographics, lifestyles, and clothing consumption values among segments; and (c) compare the purchase intention of eco-friendly fashion items and influential factors among segments. A self-administered questionnaire was developed based on previous studies. The questionnaire included 10 items of clothing disposal behavior, 22 items of LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) characteristics, and 19 items of consumption values, measured by five-point Likert-type scales. In addition, the purchase intention of two eco-friendly fashion items and 11 attributes of each item were measured by seven-point Likert type scales. Two polyester fleece pullovers, made from fabric created from recycled bottles with the PET identification code, were selected from one Korean brand and one US imported brand among outdoor sportswear brands. A brief description of each product with a color picture was provided in the survey. Demographic variables (i.e., gender, age, marital status, education level, income, occupation) were also included. The data were collected through a professional web survey agency during May 2009. A total of 600 final usable questionnaires were analyzed. The age of respondents ranged from 20 to 49 years old with a mean age of 34 years. Fifty percent of the respondents were males and about 58% were married, and 62% reported having earned university degrees. Principal components factor analysis with varimax rotation was used to identify the underlying dimensions of the clothing disposal behavior scale, and three factors were generated (i.e., reselling behavior, donating behavior, non-recycling behavior). To categorize the respondents on the basis of clothing disposal behaviors, k-mean cluster analysis was used, and three segments were obtained. These consumer segments were labeled as 'Resale Group', 'Donation Group', and 'Non-Recycling Group.' The classification results indicated approximately 98 percent of the original cases were correctly classified. With respect to demographic characteristics among the three segments, significant differences were found in gender, marital status, occupation, and age. LOHAS characteristics were reduced into the following five factors: self-satisfaction, family orientation, health concern, environmental concern, and voluntary service. Significant differences were found in the LOHAS factors among the three clusters. Resale Group and Donation Group showed a similar predisposition to LOHAS issues while the Non-Recycling Group presented the lowest mean scores on the LOHAS factors compared to the other segments. The Resale and Donation Groups described themselves as enjoying or being satisfied with their lives and spending spare-time with family. In addition, these two groups cared about health and organic foods, and tried to conserve energy and resources. Principal components factor analysis generated clothing consumption values into the following three factors: personal values, social value, and practical value. The ANOVA test with the factors showed differences primarily between the Resale Group and the other two groups. The Resale Group was more concerned about personal value and social value than the other segments. In contrast, the Non-Recycling Group presented the higher level of social value than did Donation Group. In a comparison of the intention to purchase eco-friendly products, the Resale Group showed the highest mean score on intent to purchase Product A. On the other hand, the Donation Group presented the highest intention to purchase for Product B among segments. In addition, the mean scores indicated that the Korean product (Product B) was more preferable for purchase than the U.S. product (Product A). Stepwise regression analysis was used to identify the influence of product attributes on the purchase intention of eco product. With respect to Product A, design, price and contribution to environmental preservation were significant to predict purchase intention for the Resale Group, while price and compatibility with my image factors were significant for the Donation Group. For the Non-Recycling Group, design, price compatibility with the factors of my image, participation to eco campaign, and contribution to environmental preservation were significant. Price appropriateness was significant for each of the three clusters. With respect to Product B, design, price and compatibility with my image factors were important, but different attributes were associated significantly with purchase intention for each of the three groups. The influence of LOHAS characteristics and clothing consumption values on intention to purchase Products A and B were also examined. The LOHAS factor of health concern and the personal value factor were significant in the relationships with the purchase intention; however, the explanatory powers were low in the three segments. Findings showed that each group as classified by clothing disposal behaviors showed differences in the attributes of a product, personal values, and the LOHAS characteristics that influenced their purchase intention of eco-friendly products. Findings would enable organizations to understand eco-friendly behavior and to design appropriate strategic decisions to appeal eco-sumers.

• Journal of the Korean Society for information Management
• /
• v.28 no.2
• /
• pp.117-133
• /
• 2011

There have been little comprehensive research for studying impact of foreign journals on Korean scientists. The main reason for this is because there was no extensive citation index database of domestic journals for analysis. Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI) built the Korea Science Citation Database (KSCD), and have provided Korea Science Citation Index (KSCI) and Korea Journal Citation Reports (KJCR) services. In this article, citing behavior of Korean scientists on foreign journals was examined by using KSCD that covers Korean core journals. This research covers (1) analysis of foreign document types cited, (2) analysis of citation counts of foreign journals by subject and the ratio of citing different disciplines, (3) analysis of language and country of foreign documents cited, (4) analysis of publishers of journals and whether or not journals are listed on global citation index services and (5) analysis for current situation of subscribing to foreign electronic journals in Korea. The results of this research would be useful for establishing strategies for licensing foreign electronic journals and for information services. From this research, immediacy citation rate (average 1.46%), peak-time (average 3.9 years) and half-life (average 8 years) of cited foreign journals were identified. It was also found that Korean scientistis tend to cite journals covered in SCI(E) or SCOPUS, and 90% of cited foreign journals have been licensed by institutions in Korea.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.53-67
• /
• 2009

For the last decades, service quality has been studied as one of the most important tools for a service company to compete with the other companies. Based on these past researches, it has been agreed that the service quality is a basic and powerful tool to create the competitive advantage. Due to similar reason, many service marketing practitioners have been also focused on the service quality to retain the existing consumers and collect the new consumers. However, service quality is subjectively perceived by individual consumers. Consumer evaluation of service quality can be different from each other. Especially consumers with one life-style may evaluate the service quality differently from the consumers with the other life-styles. Therefore we need to know whether there are differences in service quality perception on the categories of life-style. Life-style refers to a distinctive mode of living in its aggregate and broadest sense. It embodies the patterns that were developed and emerged from the dynamics of living in a society. Since the concept of life-style and its relationship to marketing was introduced in 1963 by William Lazer, methods of measuring the life-style and their application have been developed. Life-style has been usually used to segment the marketplace because it offers marketers a unique and important view of the market. When Life-style is combined with clustering methods, life-style segmentation can generate identifiable whole persons rather than isolated fragment. Life-style segmentation begins with people instead of products and classifies them into different life-style types, each characterized by a unique style of living based on a wide range of activities, interests, and opinions(Plummer, 1974). In this study we applies the life-style segmentation based on the AIO(Activities, Interests, and Opinions) to the consumers of the large discount stores. In Korea, the large discount store market has entered into maturity stage so that the market differentiation strategy is becoming a more critical issue to the marketing practitioners. One of the most important tools to differentiate from the competitors in large discount store market is continuously to provide service of better quality than competitors. This study tries to find answers about the following questions: 1) How can we categorize the consumer life-styles in the large discount store? 2) What are the characteristics of the categorized groups? 3) Are there any differences in service quality perception among the consumers with different life-styles 4) Are there any differences in consumer behavior among them in the large discount store? For the purpose, we collected survey data from consumers and analyzed the data with the SPSS package where we had $X^2$-test, factor analysis, ANOVA, MANOVA, and cluster analysis. The survey was made during one month in the April of 2008. Among the collected 306 copies of questionnaires, 281 copies were chosen as the effective samples for empirical analysis except 25 copies with wrong responses. To identify the life-style patterns, we used the measures employed by Kim and Kwon(1999), where 44 items on a seven-point scale were used to measure factors of the life-style patterns. The Principal Component Method was used for factor extraction, and the VARIMAX orthogonal factor rotation was employed. The 7 items showing low factor loading were eliminated. The results of the factor analysis suggested that nine factors of the life-style patterns were identified as follows: 1) the equality-of-sexes and pursuit-of-independence tendency 2) self-management tendency 3) sociable tendency 4) self-display tendency 5) degree of a dilettante life 6) pursuit-of-information tendency 7) bargain hunter tendency 8) TV preference tendency 9) pursuit-of-leisure tendency. Next, after the K-means cluster analysis was performed with nine factors of the life-style patterns, the life-styles of the respondents were classified into four groups which are named as the 'progressive practicality-oriented group', 'positive success-oriented group', 'sociable ostentation-oriented group', 'stable conservation-oriented group'. The analysis results for usage behavior between the market segments showed statistically significant differences in the frequency of usage, duration time in the store, consumer satisfaction, and loyalty. Also, we tried to investigate whether the large discount store consumers differently perceive the quality of service based upon the types of life-style. To measure the service quality of large discount store, we adapted several measurement models measuring the service quality such as SERVPERF, BCP, R-SERVPERF, R-BCP. MANOVA and One-Way ANOVA were performed to confirm the difference in service quality perception based on the market segments. The results have also shown significant differences between life-style types in service quality perception. These findings show that the large discount store marketers should consider consumer life-style as one of the most important market segments for marketing and understand the difference in service quality perception between life-style types. Our findings give important implications to marketers of large discount stores as well as life-style researchers. First, this study showed there were significant differences in consumer's service quality perception and usage behavior between the types of life-style. It provides evidence that the life-style approach can be a important basis in segmenting the large discount store market and will make consumers perceive the service quality high. Second, most previous researches on service quality have been in aggregate level. However, our results imply that the future research on service quality have to focus on segment level.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.45-61
• /
• 2024

This study looked in-depth at the importance of cultivating and manifesting entrepreneurship, which is emphasized for companies to gain a competitive advantage and promote innovation in the uncertain environment that organizations face and in the development of technology due to recent industrial advancement, the following innovative performance, and the mechanisms in the performance process. Entrepreneurship is emphasized as a key factor in inducing creative work performance, creation and application of new ideas, and innovative performance at various levels within the organization in various global companies. In particular, this study examined the influence of the CEO's cultivation and expression of entrepreneurship as an organizational leader on the innovative behavior of organizational members, which is a leading factor in the organization's innovative performance, and the role of creative self-efficacy as a mechanism. Through this, the study was to verify the importance of creativity and cultivating a sense of self-efficacy for demonstrating innovative performance within an organization. Additionally, it was to confirm the role of organizational commitment of organizational members as a situational factor. For the empirical analysis, a total of 247 office workers were surveyed, sampled from 10 venture companies engaged in the manufacturing industry in industrial complexes in Daejeon, Korea. As the result of empirical analysis showed, it was confirmed that each sub-factor of the CEO's entrepreneurship had a positive effect on the innovative behavior of organizational members. And in the process, the importance of the creative self-efficacy of members to demonstrate innovative performance was verified by confirming positively significant mediating effect of creative self-efficacy. Furthermore, in the case of organizational commitment, it was found that the innovativeness and proactiveness of the CEO strengthened the positive influence on the creative efficacy of the organization members. Based on the results of empirical analysis, theoretical and practical implications were provided to improve the importance of cultivating and manifesting the CEO's entrepreneurship to demonstrate innovation within the organization.

• Information Systems Review
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.99-123
• /
• 2019

The software industry is a high value-added industry in the knowledge information age, and its importance is growing as it not only plays a key role in knowledge creation and utilization, but also secures global competitiveness. Among various SW available in today's business environment, Open Source Software(OSS) is rapidly expanding its activity area by not only leading software development, but also integrating with new information technology. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to empirically examine and analyze the effect of factors on the switching behavior to OSS. To accomplish the study's purpose, we suggest the research model based on "Push-Pull-Mooring" framework. This study empirically examines the two categories of antecedents for switching behavior toward OSS. The survey was conducted to employees at various firms that already switched OSS. A total of 268 responses were collected and analyzed by using the structural equational modeling. The results of this study are as follows; first, continuous maintenance cost, vender dependency, functional indifference, and SW resource inefficiency are significantly related to switch to OSS. Second, network-oriented support, testability and strategic flexibility are significantly related to switch to OSS. Finally, the results show that willingness to secures SW competitiveness has a moderating effect on the relationships between push factors and pull factor with exception of improved knowledge, and switch to OSS. The results of this study will contribute to fields related to OSS both theoretically and practically.