• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.69-98
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• 2009

We investigated what factors motivate gamers to participate in a guild and why they continue to be engaged as members of the guild. We find that, based on the result of focus group interviews with MMORPG gamers, social support and self-esteem factors play important roles. Considering both prior research and the focus group interviews we have conducted, we define social support and character control as independent variables. Character identity, guild identity, and self-esteem are proposed as mediating variables while guild flow and game loyalty as dependent variables. Accordingly, we develop the research model and hypotheses, and verify them empirically. Based on our experiences of playing the WoW game, we proposed a research model and conducted focus-group interviews (FGIs). FGIs involve formulating a hypothesis and then collecting some relevant data. FGIs were conducted face-to-face with students of C University in Korea. We formulated structured interview schedules, and the questions were based on our research variables and personal experiences. The questions for the interviews encompassed the following areas: (a) the demographic characteristics of the focus group; (b) the number of years for which respondents had played online games; (c) the motive for starting a game; (d) the number of game-characters assumed by each gamer; (e) the type of game played; and (f) other issues such as the reasons for involvement in the play, the willingness to reuse the game in case new versions were released, etc. On average, it took two hours to interview each of three groups. A primary set of FGIs was conducted with three groups on the premise that there would be some differences caused by character race (Horde vs. Alliance) or by playable server (Normal vs. Combat). With respect to the manner of playing, we found that guild members shared information, felt a sense of belonging, and played computer games for quite a long time through the guild; however, they did not undergo these experiences when playing alone. Gamers who belonged to a specific guild helped other players without expecting compensation for that, freely shared information about the game, gave away items for free, and more generous with other members who made mistakes. The guild members were aware of the existence other members and experienced a sense of belonging through interactions with, and evaluations from, other players. It was clear that social support was shown within the guild and that it played an important role as a major research variable. Based on the results of the first FGIs, a second set of in-depth FGIs was carried out with a focus on the psychology of the individual within the guild and the social community of the guild. The second set of FGIs also focused on the guild's offline meetings. Gamers, over all, recognize the necessity of joining a community, not only off-line but also online world of the guild. They admit that the guild is important for them to easily and conveniently enjoy playing online computer games. The active behavior and positive attitudes of existing guild members can motivate new members of the guild to adapt themselves to the guild environment. They then adopt the same behaviors and attitudes of established guild members. In this manner, the new members of the guild strengthen the bonds with other gamers while feeling a sense of belonging, and developing social identity, thereby. It was discovered that the interaction among guild members and the social support encouraged new gamers to quickly develop a sense of social identity and increase their self-esteem. The guild seemed to play the role of socializing gamers. Sometimes, even in the real world, the guild members helped one another; therefore, the features of the guild also spilled over to the offline environment. We intend to use self-esteem, which was found through the second set of FGIs, as an important research variable. To collect data, an online survey was designed with a questionnaire to be completed by WoW gamers, who belong to a guild. The survey was registered on the best three domestic game-sites: 'WoW playforum,' 'WoW gamemeca,' and 'Wow invent.' The selected items to be measured in the questionnaire were decided based on prior research and data from FGIs. To verify the content of the questionnaire, we carried out a pilot test with the same participants to point out ambiguous questions as a way to ensure maximum accuracy of the survey result. A total of 244 responses were analyzed from the 250 completed questionnaires. The SEM analysis was used to test goodness-of-fit of the model. As a result, we found important results as follows: First, according to the statistics, social support had statistically significant impacts on character control, character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Second, character control had significant effects on character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Third, character identity shows its clear impact on self-esteem and game loyalty. Fourth, guild identity affected self-esteem, guild flow and game loyalty. Fifth, self-esteem had a positive influence on the guild flow. These days, the number of virtual community is rising along with its significance largely because of the nature of the online games. Accordingly, this study is designed to clarify the psychological relationship between gamers within the guild that has been generally established by gamers to play online games together. This study focuses on the relationships in which social support influences guild flow or game loyalty through character control, character identity, guild identity, and self-esteem, which are present within a guild in the MMORPG game environment. The study results are as follows. First, the effects of social support on character control, character identity, guild identity and self-esteem are proven to be statistically significant. It was found that character control improves character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Among the seven variables, social support, which is derived from FGIs, plays an important role in this study. With the active support of other guild members, gamers can improve their ability to develop good characters and to control them. Second, character identity has a positive effect on self-esteem and game loyalty, while guild identity has a significant effect on self-esteem, guild flow and game loyalty. Self-esteem affects guild flow. It was found that the higher the character and guild identities become, the greater the self-esteem is established. Contrary to the findings of prior research, our study results indicate that the relationship between character identity and guild flow is not significant. Rather, it was found that character identity directly affects game players' loyalty. Even though the character identity had no direct effect on increasing guild flow, it has indirectly affected guild flow through self-esteem. The significant relationship between self-esteem and guild flow indicates that gamers achieve flow, i.e., a feeling of pleasure and excitement through social support. Several important implications of this study should be noted. First, both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to conduct this study. Through FGIs, it was observed that both social support and self-esteem are important variables. Second, because guilds had been rarely studied, this research is expected to play an important role in the online community. Third, according to the result, six hypotheses (H1, H5, H6, H7, H8, and H11) setup based on FGIs, were statistically significant; thus, we can suggest the corresponding relationships among the variables as a guideline for follow-up research. Our research is significant as it has following implications: first, the social support of the guild members is important when establishing character control, character identity, guildidentity and self-esteem. It is also a major variable that affects guild flow and game loyalty. Second, character control when improved by social support shows notable influence on the development of character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Third, character identity and guild identity are major factors to help establish gamers' own self-esteem. Fourth, character identity affects guild flow through self-esteem and game loyalty. The gamers usually express themselves through characters; the higher character identity is, the more loyalty a gamer has. Fifth, guild identity, established within the guild, has clear effects on self-esteem, guild flow and game loyalty. Sixth, qualitative and quantitative methods are employed to conduct this study. Based on the results of focus group interviews and SEM analysis, we find that the social support by guild members and psychological factors are significant in strengthening the flow of guild and loyalty to the game. As such, game developers should provide some extra functions for guild community, through which gamers can play online games in collaboration with one another. Also, we suggest that positive self-esteem which is built up through social support can help gamers achieve higher level of flow and satisfaction, which will consequently contribute to minimizing the possibility for the players to develop negative attitude toward the guild they belong to.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.111-137
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• 2010

The basic purpose of this study is to investigate perceived quality and service personal value affecting the result of long-term relationship between service buyers and suppliers. This research presented a constructive model(perceived quality affecting the service personal value and the moderate effect of NFC) in the on off line and then propose the research model base on prior researches and studies about relationships among components of service. Data were gathered from respondents who visit at the education service market. For this study, Data were analyzed by AMOS 7.0. We integrate the literature on services marketing with researches on personal values and perceived quality. The SERPVAL scale presented here allows for the creation of a common ground for assessing service personal values, giving a clear understanding of the key value dimensions behind service choice and usage. It will lead to a focus of future research in services marketing, extending knowledge in the field and stimulating further empirical research on service personal values. At the managerial level, as a tool the SERPVAL scale should allow practitioners to evaluate and improve the value of a service, and consequently, to define strategies and actions to address services for customers based on their fundamental personal values. Through qualitative and empirical research, we find that the service quality construct conforms to the structure of a second-order factor model that ties service quality perceptions to distinct and actionable dimensions: outcome, interaction, and environmental quality. In turn, each has two subdimensions that define the basis of service quality perceptions. The authors further suggest that for each of these subdimensions to contribute to improved service quality perceptions, the quality received by consumers must be perceived to be reliable, responsive, and empathetic. Although the service personal value may be found in researches that explore individual values and their consequences for consumer behavior, there is no established operationalization of a SERPVAL scale. The inexistence of an established scale, duly adapted in order to understand and analyze personal values behind services usage, exposes the need of a measurement scale with such a purpose. This need has to be rooted, however, in a conceptualization of the construct being scaled. Service personal values can be defined as a customer's overall assessment of the use of a service based on the perception of what is achieved in terms of his own personal values. As consumer behaviors serve to show an individual's values, the use of a service can also be a way to fulfill and demonstrate consumers'personal values. In this sense, a service can provide more to the customer than its concrete and abstract attributes at both the attribute and the quality levels, and more than its functional consequences at the value level. Both values and services literatures agree, that personal value is the highest-level concept, followed by instrumental values, attitudes and finally by product attributes. Purchasing behaviors are agreed to be the end result of these concepts' interaction, with personal values taking a major role in the final decision process. From both consumers' and practitioners' perspectives, values are extremely relevant, as they are desirable goals that serve as guiding principles in people's lives. While building on previous research, we propose to assess service personal values through three broad groups of individual dimensions; at the self-oriented level, we use (1) service value to peaceful life (SVPL) and, at the social-oriented level, we use (2) service value to social recognition (SVSR), and (3) service value to social integration (SVSI). Service value to peaceful life is our first dimension. This dimension emerged as a combination of values coming from the RVS scale, a scale built specifically to assess general individual values. If a service promotes a pleasurable life, brings or improves tranquility, safety and harmony, then its user recognizes the value of this service. Generally, this service can improve the user's pleasure of life, since it protects or defends the consumer from threats to life or pressures on it. While building upon both the LOV scale, a scale built specifically to assess consumer values, and the RVS scale for individual values, we develop the other two dimensions: SVSR and SVSI. The roles of social recognition and social integration to improve service personal value have been seriously neglected. Social recognition derives its outcome utility from its predictive utility. When applying this underlying belief to our second dimension, SVSR, we assume that people use a service while taking into consideration the content of what is delivered. Individuals consider whether the service aids in gaining respect from others, social recognition and status, as well as whether it allows achieving a more fulfilled and stimulating life, which might then be revealed to others. People also tend to engage in behavior that receives social recognition and to avoid behavior that leads to social disapproval, and this contributes to an individual's social integration. This leads us to the third dimension, SVSI, which is based on the fact that if the consumer perceives that a service strengthens friendships, provides the possibility of becoming more integrated in the group, or promotes better relationships at the social, professional or family levels, then the service will contribute to social integration, and naturally the individual will recognize personal value in the service. Most of the research in business values deals with individual values. However, to our knowledge, no study has dealt with assessing overall personal values as well as their dimensions in a service context. Our final results show that the scales adapted from the Schwartz list were excluded. A possible explanation is that although Schwartz builds on Rokeach work in order to explore individual values, its dimensions might be especially focused on analyzing societal values. As we are looking for individual dimensions, this might explain why the values inspired by the Schwartz list were excluded from the model. The hierarchical structure of the final scale presented in this paper also presents theoretical implications. Although we cannot claim to definitively capture the dimensions of service personal values, we believe that we come close to capturing these overall evaluations because the second-order factor extracts the underlying commonality among dimensions. In addition to obtaining respondents' evaluations of the dimensions, the second-order factor model captures the common variance among these dimensions, reflecting the respondents' overall assessment of service personal values. Towards this fact, we expect that the service personal values conceptualization and measurement scale presented here contributes to both business values literature and the service marketing field, allowing for the delineation of strategies for adding value to services. This new scale also presents managerial implications. The SERPVAL dimensions give some guidance on how to better pursue a highly service-oriented business strategy. Indeed, the SERPVAL scale can be used for benchmarking purposes, as this scale can be used to identify whether or not a firms' marketing strategies are consistent with consumers' expectations. Managerial assessment of the personal values of a service might be extremely important because it allows managers to better understand what customers want or value. Thus, this scale allows us to identify what services are really valuable to the final consumer; providing knowledge for making choices regarding which services to include. Traditional approaches have focused their attention on service attributes (as quality) and service consequences(as service value), but personal values may be an important set of variables to be considered in understanding what attracts consumers to a certain service. By using the SERPVAL scale to assess the personal values associated with a services usage, managers may better understand the reasons behind services' usage, so that they may handle them more efficiently. While testing nomological validity, our empirical findings demonstrate that the three SERPVAL dimensions are positively and significantly associated with satisfaction. Additionally, while service value to social integration is related only with loyalty, service value to peaceful life is associated with both loyalty and repurchase intent. It is also interesting and surprising that service value to social recognition appears not to be significantly linked with loyalty and repurchase intent. A possible explanation is that no mobile service provider has yet emerged in the market as a luxury provider. All of the Portuguese providers are still trying to capture market share by means of low-end pricing. This research has implications for consumers as well. As more companies seek to build relationships with their customers, consumers are easily able to examine whether these relationships provide real value or not to their own lives. The selection of a strategy for a particular service depends on its customers' personal values. Being highly customer-oriented means having a strong commitment to customers, trying to create customer value and understanding customer needs. Enhancing service distinctiveness in order to provide a peaceful life, increase social recognition and gain a better social integration are all possible strategies that companies may pursue, but the one to pursue depends on the outstanding personal values held by the service customers. Data were gathered from 284 respondents in the korean discount store and online shopping mall market. This research proposed 3 hypotheses on 6 latent variables and tested through structural equation modeling. 6 alternative measurements were compared through statistical significance test of the 6 paths of research model and the overall fitting level of structural equation model. and the result was successful. and Perceived quality more positively influences service personal value when NFC is high than when no NFC is low in the off-line market. The results of the study indicate that service quality is properly modeled as an antecedent of service personal value. We consider the research and managerial implications of the study and its limitations. In sum, by knowing the dimensions a consumer takes into account when choosing a service, a better understanding of purchasing behaviors may be realized, guiding managers toward customers expectations. By defining strategies and actions that address potential problems with the service personal values, managers might ultimately influence their firm's performance. we expect to contribute to both business values and service marketing literatures through the development of the service personal value. At a time when marketing researchers are challenged to provide research with practical implications, it is also believed that this framework may be used by managers to pursue service-oriented business strategies while taking into consideration what customers value.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.39 no.12
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• pp.1880-1892
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• 2010

The purposes of this study were to: a) provide evidence concerning the effects of emotional intelligence on job outcomes, b) examine the impacts of emotional intelligence on employee-related variables such as 'job satisfaction', 'organizational commitment', 'organizational performance', and 'turnover intention' c) identify the conceptual framework underlying emotional intelligence. A survey was conducted to collect data from foodservice managers (N=231). Statistical analyses were completed using SPSS Win (16.0) for descriptive analysis, reliability analysis, factor analysis, t-test, correlation analysis, cluster analysis and AMOS (16.0) for confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The concept of emotional intelligence (EI) has been on the radar screens of many leaders and managers over the last several decades. The emotional intelligence is generally accepted to be a combination of emotional and interpersonal competencies that influence behavior, thinking and interaction with others. The main results of this study were as follows. The four EI (Emotional Intelligence) dimensions correlated significantly with age. The means of job satisfaction score were above the midpoint (3.04 point) scale. The organizational commitment score was above the midpoint (3.41 point) scale and was higher at 'loyalty' factor than 'commitment' factor. The means of organizational performance score were above the midpoint (3.34) scale. The correlations among the four EI (emotional intelligence) factors were significant with job satisfaction; organizational commitment, organizational performance and turnover intention. The test of hypothesis using structural equation modeling found that emotional intelligence produced positive effects on job attitude and job performance. Emotional intelligence enhanced organizational commitment, and in turn, managers' attitude produced positive effects on organizational performance; emotional intelligence also had a direct impact on organizational performance. This study has identified the effect of emotional intelligence on organizational performance and attitudes toward one's job.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.147-174
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• 2005

To understand the physical processes that control the high-latitude lower thermospheric dynamics, we quantify the forces that are mainly responsible for maintaining the high-latitude lower thermospheric wind system with the aid of the National Center for Atmospheric Research Thermosphere-Ionosphere Electrodynamics General Circulation Model (NCAR-TIEGCM). Momentum forcing is statistically analyzed in magnetic coordinates, and its behavior with respect to the magnitude and orientation of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) is further examined. By subtracting the values with zero IMF from those with non-zero IMF, we obtained the difference winds and forces in the high-latitude 1ower thermosphere(<180 km). They show a simple structure over the polar cap and auroral regions for positive($B_y$ > 0.8|$\overline{B}_z$ |) or negative($B_y$ < -0.8|$\overline{B}_z$|) IMF-$\overline{B}_y$ conditions, with maximum values appearing around -80$^{\circ}$ magnetic latitude. Difference winds and difference forces for negative and positive $\overline{B}_y$ have an opposite sign and similar strength each other. For positive($B_z$ > 0.3125|$\overline{B}_y$|) or negative($B_z$ < -0.3125|$\overline{B}_y$|) IMF-$\overline{B}_z$ conditions the difference winds and difference forces are noted to subauroral latitudes. Difference winds and difference forces for negative $\overline{B}_z$ have an opposite sign to positive $\overline{B}_z$ condition. Those for negative $\overline{B}_z$ are stronger than those for positive indicating that negative $\overline{B}_z$ has a stronger effect on the winds and momentum forces than does positive $\overline{B}_z$ At higher altitudes(>125 km) the primary forces that determine the variations of tile neutral winds are the pressure gradient, Coriolis and rotational Pedersen ion drag forces; however, at various locations and times significant contributions can be made by the horizontal advection force. On the other hand, at lower altitudes(108-125 km) the pressure gradient, Coriolis and non-rotational Hall ion drag forces determine the variations of the neutral winds. At lower altitudes(<108 km) it tends to generate a geostrophic motion with the balance between the pressure gradient and Coriolis forces. The northward component of IMF By-dependent average momentum forces act more significantly on the neutral motion except for the ion drag. At lower altitudes(108-425 km) for negative IMF-$\overline{B}_y$ condition the ion drag force tends to generate a warm clockwise circulation with downward vertical motion associated with the adiabatic compress heating in the polar cap region. For positive IMF-$\overline{B}_y$ condition it tends to generate a cold anticlockwise circulation with upward vertical motion associated with the adiabatic expansion cooling in the polar cap region. For negative IMF-$\overline{B}_z$ the ion drag force tends to generate a cold anticlockwise circulation with upward vertical motion in the dawn sector. For positive IMF-$\overline{B}_z$ it tends to generate a warm clockwise circulation with downward vertical motion in the dawn sector.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.101-123
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• 2012

Currently, Social Media, it has widely a renown keyword and its related social trends and businesses have been fastly applied into various contexts. Social media has become an important research area for scholars interested in online technologies and cyber space and their social impacts. Social media is not only including web-based services but also mobile-based application services that allow people to share various style information and knowledge through online connection. Social media users have tendency to common identity- and bond-attachment through interactions such as 'thumbs up', 'reply note', 'forwarding', which may have driven from various factors and may result in delivering information, sharing knowledge, and specific experiences et al. Even further, almost of all social media sites provide and connect unknown strangers depending on shared interests, political views, or enjoyable activities, and other stuffs incorporating the creation of contents, which provides benefits to users. As fast developing digital devices including smartphone, tablet PC, internet based blogging, and photo and video clips, scholars desperately have began to study regarding diverse issues connecting human beings' motivations and the behavioral results which may be articulated by the format of antecedents as well as consequences related to contents that people create via social media. Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, or Cyworld users are more and more getting close each other and build up their relationships by a different style. In this sense, people use social media as tools for maintain pre-existing network, creating new people socially, and at the same time, explicitly find some business opportunities using personal and unlimited public networks. In terms of theory in explaining this phenomenon, social capital is a concept that describes the benefits one receives from one's relationship with others. Thereby, social media use is closely related to the form and connected of people, which is a bridge that can be able to achieve informational benefits of a heterogeneous network of people and common identity- and bonding-attachment which emphasizes emotional benefits from community members or friend group. Social capital would be resources accumulated through the relationships among people, which can be considered as an investment in social relations with expected returns and may achieve benefits from the greater access to and use of resources embedded in social networks. Social media using for their social capital has vastly been adopted in a cyber world, however, there has been little explaining the phenomenon theoretically how people may take advantages or opportunities through interaction among people, why people may interactively give willingness to help or their answers. The individual consciously express themselves in an online space, so called, common identity- or bonding-attachments. Common-identity attachment is the focus of the weak ties, which are loose connections between individuals who may provide useful information or new perspectives for one another but typically not emotional support, whereas common-bonding attachment is explained that between individuals in tightly-knit, emotionally close relationship such as family and close friends. The common identify- and bonding-attachment are mainly studying on-offline setting, which individual convey an impression to others that are expressed to own interest to others. Thus, individuals expect to meet other people and are trying to behave self-presentation engaging in opposite partners accordingly. As developing social media, individuals are motivated to disclose self-disclosures of open and honest using diverse cues such as verbal and nonverbal and pictorial and video files to their friends as well as passing strangers. Social media context, common identity- and bond-attachment for self-presentation seems different compared with face-to-face context. In the realm of social media, social users look for self-impression by posting text messages, pictures, video files. Under the digital environments, people interact to work, shop, learn, entertain, and be played. Social media provides increasingly the kinds of intention and behavior in online. Typically, identity and bond social capital through self-presentation is the intentional and tangible component of identity. At social media, people try to engage in others via a desired impression, which can maintain through performing coherent and complementary communications including displaying signs, symbols, brands made of digital stuffs(information, interest, pictures, etc,). In marketing area, consumers traditionally show common-identity as they select clothes, hairstyles, automobiles, logos, and so on, to impress others in any given context in a shopping mall or opera. To examine these social capital and attachment, we combined a social capital theory with an attachment theory into our research model. Our research model focuses on the common identity- and bond-attachment how they are formulated through social capitals: cognitive capital, structural capital, relational capital, and individual characteristics. Thus, we examined that individual online kindness, self-rated expertise, and social relation influence to build common identity- and bond-attachment, and the attachment effects make an impact on both the willingness to help, however, common bond seems not to show directly impact on information sharing. As a result, we discover that the social capital and attachment theories are mainly applicable to the context of social media and usage in the individual networks. We collected sample data of 256 who are using social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Cyworld and analyzed the suggested hypotheses through the Structural Equation Model by AMOS. This study analyzes the direct and indirect relationship between the social network service usage and outcomes. Antecedents of kindness, confidence of knowledge, social relations are significantly affected to the mediators common identity-and bond attachments, however, interestingly, network externality does not impact, which we assumed that a size of network was a negative because group members would not significantly contribute if the members do not intend to actively interact with each other. The mediating variables had a positive effect on toward willingness to help. Further, common identity attachment has stronger significant on shared information.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.823-834
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• 1998

Background: Chronic inhalation of silica induces the lung fiborsis. The alveolar macrophages ingest the inhaled silica; they liberate the pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-1$\beta$, IL-6, TNF-$\alpha$ and fibrogenic cytokines, TGF-$\beta$ and PDGF. Cytokines liberated from macrophage have pivotal role in pulmonary fibrosis. There is a complex cytokine network toward fibrosis. However, the exact roles and the interaction among the proinflammatory cytokines and TGF-$\beta$, a fibrogenic cytokine, have not been defined, yet. In this study, we investigated silica induced IL-1$\beta$, IL-6, TNF-$\alpha$ and TGF-$\beta$ production and the effect of IL-1$\beta$, IL-6, TNF-$\alpha$ on the production of TGF-$\beta$ from lung macrophages of Balb/C mice. Method: We extracted the lung of Balb/C mice and purified monocytes by Percoll gradient method. Macrphages were stimulated by silica ($SiO_2$) in the various concentration for 2, 4, 8, 12, and 24 hours. The supernatants were used for the measurement of protein levels by bioassay, and cells for the levels of mRNA by in situ hybridization. Results: The production of IL-6 was not observed till 4 hours, and reached the peak levels at 8 hours after stimulation of silica. The production of TNF-$\alpha$ increased from 2 hours and reached the peak levels at 4 hours after stimulation of silica. The spontaneous TGF-$\beta$ production reached the peak levels at 24 hours. TNF-$\alpha$ upregulated the silica induced TGF-$\beta$ production. Silica induced TGF-$\beta$ production was blocked by pretreated anti-TNF-$\alpha$ antibody. In situ hybridization revealed the increased positive signals at 4 hours in IL-6, at 4 hours TNF-$\alpha$ and 12 hours in TGF-$\beta$. Conclusion: The results above suggest that silica induced the sequential production of IL-6, 1NF-$\alpha$ and TGF-$\beta$ from macrophages and TNF-$\alpha$ upregultaes the production of TGF-$\beta$ from silica-induced macrophages.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.14 no.3 s.24
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• pp.97-109
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• 1975

In an attempt to develop an effective integrated system of controlling blast disease of rice caused by Pyricularia oryzae Cav., the possibility of minimizing the disease incidence by proper application of fertilizers has been investigated. Thus the effect of silicate, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilizers on the development of blast disease as well as the correlation between the rice varieties an4 strains of P. oryzae were studied. The experiments were made in 1971 and 1973 by artificial inoculation and under natural development of the blast disease on rice plants. The results obtained are summarized as follows. 1. Application of silicate fertilizer resulted in the increase of silicate as well as total sugar and potassium content but decrease of total nitrogen and phosphorus in tile leaf blades of rice plants. 2. The ratios of total C/total N. $ SiO_2/total$ N, and $K_2O/total$ N in leaf blades of rice plants increased by the application of silicate fertilizers. There was high level of negative correlation between the ratios mentioned above and the incidence of rice blast disease. 3. Application of silicate fertilizer reduced the incidence of rice blast disease. 4. The over dressing of nitrogen fertilizer resulted in the increase of total nitrogen and decrease of silicate and total sugar content in leaf blades, thus disposing the rice plants more susceptible to blast disease. 5. Over dressing of phosphorus fertilizer resulted in the increase of both total nitrogen and Phosphorus, and decrease of silicate content in the leaf blades inducing the rice plants to become more susceptible to blast disease. 6. Increased dressing of potash resulted in the increase of silicate content and $K_2O/total$ N ratio but decrease of total nitrogen content in leaf blades. When potassium content is low in the leaf blades of rice plants, the additional dressing of potash to rice plant contributed to the increase of resistance to blast disease. However, there was no significant correlation between additional potassium application and the resistance to blast disease when the potassium content is already high in the leaf blades. 7. When four rice varieties were artificially inoculated with three strains of P. oryzae, the incidence of blast disease was most severe on Pungok, least severe on Jinheung and moderate on Pungkwang and Paltal varieties. 8. Disease incidence was most severe on the second leaf from top and less sever on top and there leaf regardless of the fertilizer application when 5-6 leaf stage rice seedlings of four rice varieties were artificially inoculated with three strains of P. oryzae. 9. The pathogenicity of three strains of P. oryzae was in the order of $P_1,\;P_2,\;and\;P_3$ in their virulence when inoculated to Jinheung, Paltal, Pungkwang varieties but not with Pungok. The interaction between strains of P. oryzae and rice varieties was significant.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.53-68
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• 1969

The nutriophysiological response of rice plant to root environment was investigated with eye observation of root development and rhizosphere in situation. The results may be summarized as follows: 1) The quick decomposition of organic matter, added in low yield soil, caused that the origainal organic matter content was reached very quickly, in spite of it low value. In high yield soil the reverse was seen. 2) In low yield soil root development, root activity and T/R value were very low, whereas addition of organic matter lowered them still wore. This might be contributed to gas bubbles around the root by the decomposition of organic matter. 3) Varietal difference in the response to root environment was clear. Suwon 82 was more susceptible to growth-inhibitine conditions on low-yield soil than Norin 25. 4) Potassium uptake was mostly hindered by organic matter, while some factors in soil hindered mostly posphorus uptake. When the organic matter was added to such soil, the effect of them resulted in multiple interaction. 5) The root activity showed a correlation coeffieient of 0.839, 0.834 and 0.948 at 1% level with the number of root, yield of aerial part and root yield, respectively. At 5% level the root-activity showed correlation-coefficient of 0.751, 0.670 and 0.769 with the uptake of the aerial part of respectively. N, P and K and a correlation-coefficient of 0.729, 0.742 and 0.815 with the uptake of the root of respectively N.P. and K. So especially for K-uptake a high correlation with the root-activity was found. 6) The nitrogen content of the roots in low-yield soil was higher than in high-yield soil, while the content in the upper part showed the reverse. It may suggest ammonium toxicity in the root. In low-yield soil Potassium and Phosphorus content was low in both the root and aerial part, and in the latter particularly in the culm and leaf sheath. 7) The content of reducing sugar, non-recuding sugar, starh and eugar, total carbohydrates in the aerial part of plants in low yield soil was higher than in high yield soil. The content of them, especially of reducing sugar in the roots was lower. It may be caused by abnormal metabolic consumption of sugar in the root. 8) Sulfur content was very high in the aerial part, especially in leaf blade of plants on low yield soil and $P_2O_5/S$ value of the leaf blade was one fifth of that in high yield soil. It suggests a possible toxic effect of sulfate ion on photophosphorization. 9) The high value of $Fe/P_2O_5$ of the aerial part of plants in low yield soil suggests the possible formation of solid $Fe/PO_4$ as a mechanical hindrance for the translocation of nutrients. 10) Translocation of nutrients in the plant was very poor and most nutrients were accumulated in the root in low yield soil. That might contributed to the lack of energy sources and mechanical hindrance. 11) The amount of roots in high yield soil, was greater than that in low yield soil. The in high-yield soil was deep, distribution of the roots whereas in the low-yield soil the root-distribution was mainly in the top-layer. Without application of Nitrogen fertilizer the roots were mainly distributed in the upper 7cm. of topsoil. With 120 kg N/ha. root were more concentrated in the layer between 7cm. and 14cm. depth. The amount of roots increased with the amount of fertilizer applied.

• Korean small business review
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.103-120
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• 2009

As business incubation centers (BICs) have been operating for more than 10 years in Korea, many early stage startups tend to use the services provided by the incubating centers. BICs in Korea have accumulated the knowledge and experience in the past ten years and their services have been considerably improved. The business incubating service has three facets : (1) business infrastructure service, (2) direct service, and (3) indirect service. The mission of BICs is to provide the early stage entrepreneurs with the incubating service in a limited period time to help them grow strong enough to survive the fierce competition after graduating from the incubation. However, the incubating services sometimes fail to foster the independence of new startup companies, and raise the dependence of many companies on BICs. Thus, the dependence on BICs is a very important factor to understand the survival of the incubated startup companies after graduation from BICs. The purpose of this study is to identify the main factors that influence the firm's dependence on BICs and to characterize the relationships among the identified factors. The business incubating service is a core construct of this study. It includes various activities and resources, such as offering the physical facilities, legal service, and connecting them with outside organizations. These services are extensive and take various forms. They are provided by BICs directly or indirectly. Past studies have identified various incubating services and classify them in different ways. Based on the past studies, we classify the business incubating service into three categories as mentioned above : (1) business infrastructure support, (2) direct support, and (3) networking support. The business infrastructure support is to provide the essential resources to start the business, such as physical facilities. The direct support is to offer the business resources available in the BICs, such as human, technical, and administrational resources. Finally, the indirect service was to support the resource in the outside of business incubation center. Dependence is generally defined as the degree to which a client firm needs the resources provided by the service provider in order to achieve its goals. Dependence is generated when a firm recognizes the benefits of interacting with its counterpart. Hence, the more positive outcomes a firm derives from its relationship with the partner, the more dependent on the partner the firm must inevitably become. In business incubating, as a resident firm is incubated in longer period, we can predict that her dependence on BICs would be stronger. In order to foster the independence of the incubated firms, BICs have to be able to manipulate the provision of their services to control the firms' dependence on BICs. Based on the above discussion, the research model for relationships between dependence and its affecting factors was developed. We surveyed the companies residing in BICs to test our research model. The instrument of our study was modified, in part, on the basis of previous relevant studies. For the purposes of testing reliability and validity, preliminary testing was conducted with firms that were residing in BICs and incubated by the BICs in the region of Gwangju and Jeonnam. The questionnaire was modified in accordance with the pre-test feedback. We mailed to all of the firms that had been incubated by the BICs with the help of business incubating managers of each BIC. The survey was conducted over a three week period. Gifts (of approximately ₩10,000 value) were offered to all actively participating respondents. The incubating period was reported by the business incubating managers, and it was transformed using natural logarithms. A total of 180 firms participated in the survey. However, we excluded 4 cases due to a lack of consistency using reversed items in the answers of the companies, and 176 cases were used for the analysis. We acknowledge that 176 samples may not be sufficient to conduct regression analyses with 5 research variables in our study. Each variable was measured through multiple items. We conducted an exploratory factor analysis to assess their unidimensionality. In an effort to test the construct validity of the instruments, a principal component factor analysis was conducted with Varimax rotation. The items correspond well to each singular factor, demonstrating a high degree of convergent validity. As the factor loadings for a variable (or factor) are higher than the factor loadings for the other variables, the instrument's discriminant validity is shown to be clear. Each factor was extracted as expected, which explained 70.97, 66.321, and 52.97 percent, respectively, of the total variance each with eigen values greater than 1.000. The internal consistency reliability of the variables was evaluated by computing Cronbach's alphas. The Cronbach's alpha values of the variables, which ranged from 0.717 to 0.950, were all securely over 0.700, which is satisfactory. The reliability and validity of the research variables are all, therefore, considered acceptable. The effects of dependence were assessed using a regression analysis. The Pearson correlations were calculated for the variables, measured by interval or ratio scales. Potential multicollinearity among the antecedents was evaluated prior to the multiple regression analysis, as some of the variables were significantly correlated with others (e.g., direct service and indirect service). Although several variables show the evidence of significant correlations, their tolerance values range between 0.334 and 0.613, thereby demonstrating that multicollinearity is not a likely threat to the parameter estimates. Checking some basic assumptions for the regression analyses, we decided to conduct multiple regression analyses and moderated regression analyses to test the given hypotheses. The results of the regression analyses indicate that the regression model is significant at p < 0.001 (F = 44.260), and that the predictors of the research model explain 42.6 percent of the total variance. Hypotheses 1, 2, and 3 address the relationships between the dependence of the incubated firms and the business incubating services. Business infrastructure service, direct service, and indirect service are all significantly related with dependence (β = 0.300, p < 0.001; β = 0.230, p < 0.001; β = 0.226, p < 0.001), thus supporting Hypotheses 1, 2, and 3. When the incubating period is the moderator and dependence is the dependent variable, the addition of the interaction terms with the antecedents to the regression equation yielded a significant increase in R2 (F change = 2.789, p < 0.05). In particular, direct service and indirect service exert different effects on dependence. Hence, the results support Hypotheses 5 and 6. This study provides several strategies and specific calls to action for BICs, based on our empirical findings. Business infrastructure service has more effect on the firm's dependence than the other two services. The introduction of an additional high charge rate for a graduated but allowed to stay in the BIC is a basic and legitimate condition for the BIC to control the firm's dependence. We detected the differential effects of direct and indirect services on the firm's dependence. The firms with long incubating period are more sensitive to indirect service positively, and more sensitive to direct service negatively, when assessing their levels of dependence. This implies that BICs must develop a strategy on the basis of a firm's incubating period. Last but not least, it would be valuable to discover other important variables that influence the firm's dependence in the future studies. Moreover, future studies to explain the independence of startup companies in BICs would also be valuable.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.115-124
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• 1968

It was shown that the most desirable characters for kenaf are high-fiber weight and moderately early maturity. Therefore, the objectives of this research on this crop is to find varieties possessing these characteristics. The experiments covered in this report provided new information relative to segregation, mode of inheritance, estimate of the number of genes involved in fiber weight and their response to short day length of 10 hours and the qualitative characters, such as, color of stem, capsule, petiole and shape of leaves. The associations which exist among these characters are also indicated. Fiber weight per plant, days to flowering, Stem color, Petiole color, Capsule color, and shape of leaves were studied in parental, $F_1$.$F_2$and backcross populations of a cross between Dashkent, a low-fiber weight but early maturing kenaf variety, and G 38 F-1, a high-fiber weight but late maturing kenaf variety. Crosses were made using the varieties, Dashkent and G 38 F-1 as parents. The Dashkent parent had the following characteristics: green stems, capsules and petioles and lobed shaped leaves; 105.8234 mean-days to flowering in the field, and 106.9222 mean-days under 10 hours short day treatment. The other parent, G 38 F-1 had red stems yellow capsules and red petioles and unlobed shaped leaves; 149.8921 mean-days to flowering in the field, and 62.3684 mean-days under 10 hours short day treatment. Both of the parents, $F_1$, $F_2$, $BC_1$ ($F_1$ X Dashkent, ) and $BC_2$($F_1$ ${\times}$ G38F-1) of the kenaf cross were grown at the Crops Experiment Station, Suwon, Korea in 1965. Color of stems, petioles and capsules, and shape of leaves were noted to be simply inherited as a single factor. Red stem color was dominant over green stem color, red petiole color was dominant over green petiole, lobed shaped leaves were dominant over unlobed shaped leaves and yellow capsules were dominant over green capsule. It was, also, noted that the factor for color of petiole was linked with the factor for shape of leaf with a 11.9587 percent recombination value, however no interaction or linkage were found among the color of stem and capsule color. Using Powers partitioning method, theoretical means and frequency distributions for each population, the days to flowering were calculated with the assumption that two gene pairs were involved. The values obtained fitted the theoretical values. In general this would indicate that Dashkent and G 38 F -1 were differentiated by two gene pairs. Heritability values were calculated as the percent of additive genetic variance. Heritability value of days to flowering, 89.5% in the broad sense and 79.91% in the narrow sense, indicated that the selection for this character would be effective in relatively early generations. Particularly, high positive correlations were found between days to flowering and the color of petioles and shape of leaves. However, there was no relation between days to flowering and capsule color nor between these and stem color. On the basis of the results of this experiment there is evidence that the hereditary factor for shape of leaves and the color of petioles is linked with an effective factor or factors for the characters of days to flowering. The association was sufficiently close to offer a possible simple and efficient means of selection for moderately early mat. uring plants by leaf shape and petiole color selection. Again using Powers partitioning method the frequency distribution for each population to the fiber weight were calculated with the assumption that two gene pairs, AaBb, were involved. Both phenotypic and genotypic dominance were complete. The obtained value did not agree with the theoretical value for $F_2$ and $BC_1$ ($F_1$ ${\times}$ Dashkent.) It seems that Dashkent and G 38 F-1 were differentiated by two major gene pairs but some the other minor genes are necessary. It is certain that the hereditary factor for shape of leaves and color of petioles is linked with an effective factor or factors for fiber weight. Also, high. yielding plants with moderately early maturity were found in the $F_2$ population. Thus, simultaneous selection for high-fiber yield and moderately early maturing plants should be possible in these populations. Phenotypic and genotypic correlation coefficients between fiber weight per plant and days to flowering, stem height and stem diameter were calculated. In general, genotypic correlations are higher than the phenotypic correlation. The highest correlation is found between stem height and fiber weight per plant (0.7852 in genotypic and 0.4103 in phenotypic) and between days to flowering and fiber weight per plant (0.7398 in genotypic and 0.3983 in phenotypic.) It was also expected that the selection of high stem height and moderately early maturing plants were given the efficient means of selection for high fiber weight.