• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.23-49
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• 2007

Salespeople act at the point of MOT with customers and deliver the enterprise's message to the customers. They build up relationships with customers as well as deliver the customer's message to the enterprise. The salespeople's activity at the point of MOT with the customers and the degree of satisfaction of the customers' needs will affect the customers' attitude toward the enterprise, brand loyalty, and retention intention. Ultimately, it will influence the enterprise's financial performance. The control of salespe1ople is one of the most interesting topics of marketing. This research investigates the relationships of the control types over salespeople(positive/negative outcome control, positive/negative behavior control) and job satisfaction and their mediating variables. The mediating variables in the relationships have been identified as outcome/behavior-related role clarity and self-efficacy. The purpose of this study is more specifically as follows: First, it investigate how the perception of salespeople control types affect role-clarity. Second, it examines how the perception of salespeople control types influence self-efficacy. Third, it investigate the mediating role of role-clarity between the perception of salespeople control types and self-efficacy. Fourth, it investigates how role-clarity affect self-efficacy and job satisfaction. Finally, it will investigates how self-efficacy influences job satisfaction. Data were collected from the pharmaceutical industry salespeople and analyzed by SPSS 12.0 and AMOS　6.0. The data were collected by 400 respondents and 377 valid questionnaires were analyzed. The results are summarized as follows: First, positive/negative outcome controls had a positive relationship with outcome-related role clarity. Also positive behavior control had a positive effect on behavior-related role clarity, but negative behavior control didn't influence behavior-related role clarity. Second, positive outcome control influenced self-efficacy positively, but positive behavior control didn't have a positive effect on self-efficacy. In addition negative outcome control and negative behavior control had a positive effect on self-efficacy due to the mediating role of outcome-related and behavior-related role clarity. Third, outcome-related role clarity and behavior-related role clarity influenced self-efficacy positively. Behavior-related role clarity had a positive effect on job satisfaction, but outcome-related role clarity didn't influence job satisfaction. Finally, self-efficacy didn't have any effect on job satisfaction. The contributions of this study are as follows: First, existing studies have investigated the direct causal relationship between salespeoples' control type and performance, but this study investigates the structural causality between salespeoples' control types, responses, and performances. Second, this study found the mediating role of outcome-related/behavior-related role-clarity between outcome/behavior control and self-efficacy. Finally, the findings of this study further insight to existing studies on the relationship between job satisfaction and self-efficacy. The confidence of salespeoples' task influenced job satisfaction positively in existing articles,field studies, but the relationship between these two variables was not significant in this study. This means that there can be a different relationship between confidence and job satisfaction according to salespeoples' business. That is, the business environment may not be satisfying, even if the salespeople say that they have ability and confidence about their business. This means that able salespeople who have ability and confidence about their business are not satisfied with their job advancement in the company. Therefore, enterprise need to provide training that can establish a business environment that can satisfy the salespeole's expectation level which will secure good salespeople. This study may have limitation when applied to future studies. First,in this study as with existing studies it investigates the control level that salespeople feel is being measured. Actuality, the control level that a manager enforces and the control level that salespeople perceive when one is late can be different. There is need to measure lateness from both the perspective of the manager and salespeople should be done to supplement this study in the future Second, this study used variables that were connected with action result but salespeople's job satisfaction is due to the result of control. But, focusing on result of control can provide a more important financial result than sales performance. This study is also limited in that it did not consider financial result by result of control. Further studies on this will need to be done in the future. Third, this study may have a further limitation,because the investigation was restricted to pharmaceutical salespeople selling to hospitals. It is necessary to execute investigations in various industries to increase the generalization of the study findings Fourth, in this study, role clarity and self-efficacy by response variable for control and considered job satisfaction by outcome variable of control was considered. But, can other variables be considered beside response variable and result variable for control? For example, can financial affairs and change of post by outcome variable along with business stress by response variable for control be considered? Therefore, future studies need to consider various control variables. Finally, there is limited supporting research in the field of marketing which restricts the generalization of the study finding along with collecting material through random sampling of a limited size. This research summarizes the research in this area, the difference from the previous research, and provides a discussion of its limitations and the need and direction for further future research.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.223-252
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• 2008

In this study, we attempt to propose a choice-based diffusion model with switching cost, which can be used to forecast the dynamic substitution and competition among previous and new products at both individual-level and aggregate level, especially when market data for new products is insufficient. Additionally, we apply the proposed model to the empirical case of substitution and competition among Analog Cable TV that represents previous fixed charged broadcasting service and Digital Cable TV and Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) that are new ones, verify the validities of our proposed model, and finally derive related empirical implications. For empirical application, we obtained data from survey conducted as follows. Survey was administered by Dongseo Research to 1,000 adults aging from 20 to 60 living in Seoul, Korea, in May of 2007, under the title of 'Demand analysis of next generation fixed interactive broadcasting services'. Conjoint survey modified as follows, was used. First, as the traditional approach in conjoint analysis, we extracted 16 hypothetical alternative cards from the orthogonal design using important attributes and levels of next generation interactive broadcasting services which were determined by previous literature review and experts' comments. Again, we divided 16 conjoint cards into 4 groups, and thus composed 4 choice sets with 4 alternatives each. Therefore, each respondent faces 4 different hypothetical choice situations. In addition to this, we added two ways of modification. First, we asked the respondents to include the status-quo broadcasting services they subscribe to, as another alternative in each choice set. As a result, respondents choose the most preferred alternative among 5 alternatives consisting of 1 alternative with current subscription and 4 hypothetical alternatives in 4 choice sets. Modification of traditional conjoint survey in this way enabled us to estimate the factors related to switching cost or switching threshold in addition to the effects of attributes. Also, by using both revealed preference data(1 alternative with current subscription) and stated preference data (4 hypothetical alternatives), additional advantages in terms of the estimation properties and more conservative and realistic forecast, can be achieved. Second, we asked the respondents to choose the most preferred alternative while considering their expected adoption timing or switching timing. Respondents are asked to report their expected adoption or switching timing among 14 half-year points after the introduction of next generation broadcasting services. As a result, for each respondent, 14 observations with 5 alternatives for each period, are obtained, which results in panel-type data. Finally, this panel-type data consisting of $4{\ast}14{\ast}1000=56000$observations is used for estimation of the individual-level consumer adoption model. From the results obtained by empirical application, in case of forecasting the demand of new products without considering existence of previous product(s) and(or) switching cost factors, it is found that overestimated speed of diffusion at introductory stage or distorted predictions can be obtained, and as such, validities of our proposed model in which both existence of previous products and switching cost factors are properly considered, are verified. Also, it is found that proposed model can produce flexible patterns of market evolution depending on the degree of the effects of consumer preferences for the attributes of the alternatives on individual-level state transition, rather than following S-shaped curve assumed a priori. Empirically, it is found that in various scenarios with diverse combinations of prices, IPTV is more likely to take advantageous positions over Digital Cable TV in obtaining subscribers. Meanwhile, despite inferiorities in many technological attributes, Analog Cable TV, which is regarded as previous product in our analysis, is likely to be substituted by new services gradually rather than abruptly thanks to the advantage in low service charge and existence of high switching cost in fixed charged broadcasting service market.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.32-43
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• 2009

Trust has been studied extensively in psychology, economics, and sociology, and its importance has been emphasized not only in marketing, but also in business disciplines in general. Unlike past relationships between suppliers and buyers, which take considerable advantage of private networks and may involve unethical business practices, partnerships between suppliers and buyers are at the core of success for industrial marketing amid intense global competition in the 21st century. A high level of mutual cooperation occurs through an exchange relationship based on trust, which brings long-term benefits, competitive enhancements, and transaction cost reductions, among other benefits, for both buyers and suppliers. In spite of the important role of trust, existing studies in buy-supply situations overlook the role of trust and do not systematically analyze the effect of trust on relational performance. Consequently, an in-depth study that determines the relation of trust to the relational performance between buyers and suppliers of business services is absolutely needed. Business services in this study, which include those supporting the manufacturing industry, are drawing attention as the economic growth engine for the next generation. The Korean government has selected business services as a strategic area for the development of manufacturing sectors. Since the demands for opening business services markets are becoming fiercer, the competitiveness of the business service industry must be promoted now more than ever. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the mutual trust between buyers and suppliers on relational performance. Specifically, this study proposed a theoretical model of trust-relational performance in the transactions of business services and empirically tested the hypotheses delineated from the framework. The study suggests strategic implications based on research findings. Empirical data were collected via multiple methods, including via telephone, mail, and in-person interviews. Sample companies were knowledge-based companies supplying and purchasing business services in Korea. The present study collected data on a dyadic basis. Each pair of sample companies includes a buying company and its corresponding supplying company. Mutual trust was traced for each pair of companies. This study proposes a model of trust-relational performance of buying-supplying for business services. The model consists of trust and its antecedents and consequences. The trust of buyers is classified into trust toward the supplying company and trust toward salespersons. Viewing trust both at the individual level and the organizational level is based on the research of Doney and Cannon (1997). Normally, buyers are the subject of trust, but this study supposes that suppliers are the subjects. Hence, it uniquely focused on the bilateral perspective of perceived risk. In other words, suppliers, like buyers, are the subject of trust since transactions are normally bilateral. From this point of view, suppliers' trust in buyers is as important as buyers' trust in suppliers. The suppliers' trust is influenced by the extent to which it trusts the buying companies and the buyers. This classification of trust using an individual level and an organization level is based on the suggestion of Doney and Cannon (1997). Trust affects the process of supplier selection, which works in a bilateral manner. Suppliers are actively involved in the supplier selection process, working very closely with buyers. In addition, the process is affected by the extent to which each party trusts its partners. The selection process consists of certain steps: recognition, information search, supplier selection, and performance evaluation. As a result of the process, both buyers and suppliers evaluate the performance and take corrective actions on the basis of such outcomes as tangible, intangible, and/or side effects. The measurement of trust used for the present study was developed on the basis of the studies of Mayer, Davis and Schoorman (1995) and Mayer and Davis (1999). Based on their recommendations, the three dimensions of trust used for the study include ability, benevolence, and integrity. The original questions were adjusted to the context of the transactions of business services. For example, a question such as "He/she has professional capabilities" has been changed to "The salesperson showed professional capabilities while we talked about our products." The measurement used for this study differs from those used in previous studies (Rotter 1967; Sullivan and Peterson 1982; Dwyer and Oh 1987). The measurements of the antecedents and consequences of trust used for this study were developed on the basis of Doney and Cannon (1997). The original questions were adjusted to the context of transactions in business services. In particular, questions were developed for both buyers and suppliers to address the following factors: reputation (integrity, customer care, good-will), market standing (company size, market share, positioning in the industry), willingness to customize (product, process, delivery), information sharing (proprietary information, private information), willingness to maintain relationships, perceived professionalism, authority empowerment, buyer-seller similarity, and contact frequency. As a consequential variable of trust, relational performance was measured. Relational performance is classified into tangible effects, intangible effects, and side effects. Tangible effects include financial performance; intangible effects include improvements in relations, network developing, and internal employee satisfaction; side effects include those not included either in the tangible or intangible effects. Three hundred fifty pairs of companies were contacted, and one hundred five pairs of companies responded. After deleting five company pairs because of incomplete responses, one hundred five pairs of companies were used for data analysis. The response ratio of the companies used for data analysis is 30% (105/350), which is above the average response ratio in industrial marketing research. As for the characteristics of the respondent companies, the majority of the companies operate service businesses for both buyers (85.4%) and suppliers (81.8%). The majority of buyers (76%) deal with consumer goods, while the majority of suppliers (70%) deal with industrial goods. This may imply that buyers process the incoming material, parts, and components to produce the finished consumer goods. As indicated by their report of the length of acquaintance with their partners, suppliers appear to have longer business relationships than do buyers. Hypothesis 1 tested the effects of buyer-supplier characteristics on trust. The salesperson's professionalism (t=2.070, p<0.05) and authority empowerment (t=2.328, p<0.05) positively affected buyers' trust toward suppliers. On the other hand, authority empowerment (t=2.192, p<0.05) positively affected supplier trust toward buyers. For both buyers and suppliers, the degree of authority empowerment plays a crucial role in the maintenance of their trust in each other. Hypothesis 2 tested the effects of buyerseller relational characteristics on trust. Buyers tend to trust suppliers, as suppliers make every effort to contact buyers (t=2.212, p<0.05). This tendency has also been shown to be much stronger for suppliers (t=2.591, p<0.01). On the other hand suppliers trust buyers because suppliers perceive buyers as being similar to themselves (t=2.702, p<0.01). This finding confirmed the results of Crosby, Evans, and Cowles (1990), which reported that suppliers and buyers build relationships through regular meetings, either for business or personal matters. Hypothesis 3 tested the effects of trust on perceived risk. It has been found that for both suppliers and buyers the lower is the trust, the higher is the perceived risk (t=-6.621, p<0.01 for buyers; t=-2.437, p<0.05). Interestingly, this tendency has been shown to be much stronger for buyers than for suppliers. One possible explanation for this higher level of perceived risk is that buyers normally perceive higher risks than do suppliers in transactions involving business services. For this reason, it is necessary for suppliers to implement risk reduction strategies for buyers. Hypothesis 4 tested the effects of trust on information searching. It has been found that for both suppliers and buyers, contrary to expectation, trust depends on their partner's reputation (t=2.929, p<0.01 for buyers; t=2.711, p<0.05 for suppliers). This finding shows that suppliers with good reputations tend to be trusted. Prior experience did not show any significant relationship with trust for either buyers or suppliers. Hypothesis 5 tested the effects of trust on supplier/buyer selection. Unlike buyers, suppliers tend to trust buyers when they think that previous transactions with buyers were important (t=2.913 p<0.01). However, this study did not show any significant relationship between source loyalty and the trust of buyers in suppliers. Hypothesis 6 tested the effects of trust on relational performances. For buyers and suppliers, financial performance reportedly improved when they trusted their partners (t=2.301, p<0.05 for buyers; t=3.692, p<0.01 for suppliers). It is interesting that this tendency was much stronger for suppliers than it was for buyers. Similarly, competitiveness was reported to improve when buyers and suppliers trusted their partners (t=3.563, p<0.01 for buyers; t=3.042, p<0.01 for suppliers). For suppliers, efficiency and productivity were reportedly improved when they trusted buyers (t=2.673, p<0.01). Other performance indices showed insignificant relationships with trust. The findings of this study have some strategic implications. First and most importantly, trust-based transactions are beneficial for both suppliers and buyers. As verified in the study, financial performance can be improved through efforts to build and maintain mutual trust. Similarly, competitiveness can be increased through the same kinds of effort. Second, trust-based transactions can facilitate the reduction of perceived risks inherent in the purchasing situation. This finding has implications for both suppliers and buyers. It is generally believed that buyers perceive higher risks in a highly involved purchasing situation. To reduce risks, previous studies have recommended that suppliers devise risk-reducing tactics. Moving beyond these recommendations, the present study uniquely focused on the bilateral perspective of perceived risk. In other words, suppliers are also susceptible to perceived risks, especially when they supply services that require very technical and sophisticated manipulations and maintenance. Consequently, buyers and suppliers must solve problems together in close collaboration. Hence, mutual trust plays a crucial role in the problem-solving process. Third, as found in this study, the more authority a salesperson has, the more he or she can be trusted. This finding is very important with regard to tactics. Building trust is a long-term assignment; however, when mutual trust has not been developed, suppliers can overcome the problems they encounter by empowering a salesperson with the authority to make certain decisions. This finding applies to suppliers as well.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.404-412
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• 2012

The main object of this study is to render a better dental education to mental disabilities, teachers, and their parents. By providing a better dental education to them, mental disabilities would understand the importance of their oral hygiene. The study was held in Seoul at two different locations, named H and E mental welfare facilities. Ninety Three mental disabilities were studied by observing their oral behavior, simple oral hygiene index and plaque index prior and post to dental education. At the end of education, following result were gathered from two mental facilities. First, the level of oral behavior in Class 1,2, and 3 mental disabilities were observed prior and post to the dental education. Overall, there was no significant difference among Class 1 mental disabilities with the dental education. Second, in simple oral hygiene index, the severity of mental illness has affected on their oral behavior (F=6.322, p<.001). Third, in simple oral hygiene index, the frequency of dental education, regardless of severity of mental illness has affected on their oral hygiene (F=5.961, p<.01). Fourth, the plaque index also illustrated that the frequency of dental education, regardless of severity of dental illness has affected on their oral hygiene (F=5.126, p<.05). Finally, the general characteristics of mental disabilities according to changes in oral health awareness to gender, age, disability type, educational level do not statistically significant in all variables. Their simple oral hygiene index and plaque index advanced, although after a while they started to lose focus, which brought back their old habits. Nevertheless, in conclusion I believe that helping mental disabilities more frequently to constant reminder, will not only keep them entertained, but help them realize how important oral hygiene practice is, hopefully increasing and benefiting those with mental disabilities for future reference.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.28-36
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• 2009

While existing literature has focused extensively on the strengths and weaknesses of the Chaebol and their ownership and governance, there have been few studies of Korean non-Chaebol firms. However, Lee, Lee and Pennings (2001) did not specifically investigate the competitive strategies that non-Chaebol firms use to survive against the Chaebol in the domestic Korean market. The motivation of this paper is to document, through four exploratory case studies, the successful competitive strategies of non-Chaebol Korean companies against the Chaebol and then offer some propositions that may be useful to other entrepreneurial firms as well as public policy makers. Competition and cooperation as conceptualized by product similarity and cooperative inter.firm relationship respectively, are major dimensions of firm.level marketing strategy. From these two dimensions, we develop the following $2{\times}2$ matrix, with 4 types of competitive strategies for non-Chaebol companies against the Chaebol (Fig. 1.). The non-Chaebol firm in Cell 1 has a "me-too" product for the low-end market while conceding the high-end market to a Chaebol. In Cell 2, the non-Chaebol firm partners with a Chaebol company, either as a supplier or complementor. In Cell 3, the non-Chaebol firm engages in direct competition with a Chaebol. In Cell 4, the non-Chaebol firm targets an unserved part of the market with an innovative product or service. The four selected cases such as E.Rae Electronics Industry Company (Co-exister), Intops (Supplier), Pantech (Competitor) and Humax (Niche Player) are analyzed to provide each strategy with richer insights. Following propositions are generated based upon our conceptual framework: Proposition 1: Non-Chaebol firms that have a cooperative relationship with a Chaebol will perform better than firms that do not. Proposition 1a; Co-existers will perform better than Competitors. Proposition 1b: Partners (suppliers or complementors) will perform better than Niche players. Proposition 2: Firms that have no product similarity with a Chaebol will perform better than firms that have product similarity. Proposition 2a: Partners (suppliers or complementors) will perform better than Co.existers. Proposition 2b: Niche players will perform better than Competitors. Proposition 3: Niche players should perform better than Co-existers. Proposition 4: Performance can be rank.ordered in descending order as Partners, Niche Players, Co.existers, Competitors. A team of experts was constituted to categorize each of these 216 non-Chaebol companies into one of the 4 cells in our typology. Simple Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) in SPSS statistical software was used to test our propositions. Overall findings are that it is better to have a cooperative relationship with a Chaebol and to offer products or services differentiated from a Chaebol. It is clear that the only profitable strategy, on average, to compete against the Chaebol is to be a partner (supplier or complementor). Competing head on with a Chaebol company is a costly strategy not likely to pay off for a non-Chaebol firm. Strategies to avoid head on competition with the Chaebol by serving niche markets with differentiated products or by serving the low-end of the market ignored by the Chaebol are better survival strategies. This paper illustrates that there are ways in which small and medium Korean non-Chaebol firms can thrive in a Chaebol environment, though not without risks. Using different combinations of competition and cooperation firms may choose particular positions along the product similarity and cooperative relationship dimensions to develop their competitive strategies-co-exister, competitor, partner, niche player. Based on our exploratory case-study analysis, partner seems to be the best strategy for non-Chaebol firms while competitor appears to be the most risky one. Niche players and co-existers have intermediate performance, though the former do better than the latter. It is often the case with managers of small and medium size companies that they tend to view market leaders, typically the Chaebol, with rather simplistic assumptions of either competition or collaboration. Consequently, many non-Chaebol firms turn out to be either passive collaborators or overwhelmed competitors of the Chaebol. In fact, competition and collaboration are not mutually exclusive, and can be pursued at the same time. As suggested in this paper, non-Chaebol firms can actively choose to compete and collaborate, depending on their environment, internal resources and capabilities.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.280-293
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• 2002

In this study, we analyzed the long-term distribution patterns of $CH_4$ determined from the Moo-Ahn (MAN) observatory in relation with those derived from the world major background monitoring sites. Comparison of the data were made using those data sets collected for the period between Aug. 1995 to Dec. 1991. The mean $CH_4$ concentration of MAN observatory was measured to be 1898${\pm}$85.3 ppb, recording the highest concentration of all the monitoring sites. When the concentration of $CH_4$ for different stations was compared over latitudinal scale, its concentration appeared to increase systematically as a function of latitude with an exception of MAN (and the other Korean monitoring site at Tae Ahn). Moreover, such phenomenon was more distinctive in Northern than Southern Hemisphere. According to the analysis of the monthly distribution patterns of $CH_4$ at MAN observatory, its concentration level began to increase from the months of February/March and peaked during August. In addition, when the level of oscillation in monthly concentrations (between the maximum and minimum values) was checked, differences were significant between MAN and other monitoring stations. If the rate of concentration change was checked using the data sets collected for this limited time period in terms of linear regression analysis, results for MAN showed the highest annual increasing rate of 16.5 ppb. It is hence suggested that the largest variability in the $CH_4$ distribution patterns at MAN observatory may be reflected by the high irregularity in its source/sink processes.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.111-124
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• 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 Chest Surgery
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.394-398
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• 2010

Background: The overexpression of transforming growth factor-beta 1 receptor II (TGF-${\beta}1$RII) and transforming growth factor-beta 1 (TGF-${\beta}1$) ligand may be involved in the formation of a bulla. In this study, we tested if serum TGF-${\beta}1$ ligand levels correlated with the expression level of TGF-${\beta}1$RII and TGF-${\beta}1$ in bullous tissues from patients with spontaneous pneumothorax. Material and Method: Bullous lung tissues and blood samples were obtained from 19 patients with spontaneous pneumothorax, 18 males and 1 female, aged 17 to 35 years old. The bullous tissues were obtained by video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS), fixed in formalin, embedded in paraffin, and cut into $5{\sim}6{\mu}m$ thick slices. Sections were immunohistochemically stained with primary antibodies against TGF-${\beta}1$ or TGF-${\beta}1$RII, and serum levels of TGF-${\beta}1$ in patients and normal controls was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Result: Of the 19 patients, 16 were TGF-${\beta}1$ positive and 10 were TGF-${\beta}1$RII positive. Among the 16 TGF-${\beta}1$ positives, 9 were also TGF-${\beta}1RII$ positive. As seen previously, strong immunohistochemical staining of TGF-${\beta}1$RII and TGF-${\beta}$ was detected in the boundary region between the bullous and normal lung tissues. Average TGF-${\beta}1$ blood levels of both TGF-${\beta}1$ and TGF-${\beta}1$RII positive patients was $38.36{\pm}16.2ng/mL$, and that of five controls was $54.06{\pm}15ng/mL$. Conclusion: These results suggest that overexpression of TGF-${\beta}1$ and TGF-${\beta}1$RII expression may be involved in the formation of bullae. TGF-${\beta}1$ blood levels in patients with primary spontaneous pneumothorax is lower than normal people, suggesting that the high level of local TGF-${\beta}1$ expression in the bullous tissue region, but not in the whole blood, may contribute more in the formation of bullae.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.19-37
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• 2013

From the perspective of labor welfare, forty-hour-a-week working system:(FWS) has been an important goal throughout world, and in fact, advanced countries implemented this a long time ago. However, there are differences in opinions concerning FWS; some people emphasizes the improvement in life quality, while others point out that this measure increases the cost of wages and has limited effectiveness. Thus, discussions about the success of FWS have emerged from diverse perspectives; One thing that should be made clear before debating FWS is that reducing laborers' working hours is already a global trend, and Korea, also intends to extend it. Therefore, in order to maximize the benefits resulting from the execution of the system and to identify measures that can be used to solve the problems related to FWS, it is necessary to consider actual laborers' use of leisure resources and whether they have increased or decreased as a result of FWS. It is also necessary to look at the differences in workers' leisure activity with and without the system. To evaluate and diagnose FWS's political effect from the perspective of laborers' leisure satisfaction and improvements in life quality, this study examines differences in leisure expenses, leisure hours, use of and demand for leisure resources such as leisure space, and types of leisure activity, according to the execution of FWS, This research is based on the "2012 Survey on National Leisure Activity" conducted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. In addition, through analysis of the differences in leisure satisfaction and happiness levels, the study intends to confirm the necessity of executing FWS and ensuring that the system is in use. The study results can be briefly summed up as followa:: First, regarding the general findings of the study, a significant result was shown in terms of the execution of FWS according to income level. The finding that the execution of FWS works differently according to the working environment or life quality reassures us of the common notion in society that working environment or life quality may differ in relation to social characteristics. The utility of weekday leisure hours did not indicate a statistically significant difference, but in terms of weekend leisure hours, laborers practicing FWS had an additional 30 minutes of leisure time than those who did not. Furthermore, regarding leisure expenses, laborers practicing FWS indicated more monthly average leisure expenses or expected leisure expenses. In relation to leisure activity, those working at a company executing FWS engaged in culture and art activities more frequently than those working at the companies that did not. On the other hand, those working at companies without FWS indicated more hobbies, amusement activities, rest, and other activities than those working at the companies with FWS. In terms of vacation experience, those working at companies with FWS had more vacation time than those working at companies without it; on average, they had longer vacations by 1.64 days. Regarding their leisure life satisfaction and happiness level, those working at companies with FWS indicated higher satisfaction and greater happiness than those working at companies without it. The findings mentioned above represent the preliminary results of this paper, and the remainder of the research will provide more detailed analysis results and suggestions corresponding to them.

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