• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.49-81
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• 2007

Research in the IS (Information Systems) outsourcing has focused on the importance of legal contracts and partnerships between vendors and clients. Without detailed legal contracts, there is no guarantee that an outsourcing vendor would not indulge in self-serving behavior. In addition, partnerships can supplement legal contracts in managing the relationship between clients and vendors legal contracts by itself cannot deal with all the complexity and ambiguity involved with IS outsourcing relationships. In this paper, we introduce a psychological contract (between client and vendor) as an important variable for IS outsourcing success. A psychological contract refers to individual's mental beliefs about his or her mutual obligations in a contractual relationship (Rousseau, 1995). A psychological contract emerges when one party believes that a promise of future returns has been made, a contribution has been given, and thus, an obligation has been created to provide future benefits (Rousseau, 1989). An employmentpsychological contract, which is a widespread concept in psychology, refers to employer and employee expectations of the employment relationship, i.e. mutual obligations, values, expectations and aspirations that operate over and above the formal contract of employment (Smithson and Lewis, 2003). Similar to the psychological contract between an employer and employee, IS outsourcing involves a contract and a set of mutual obligations between client and vendor (Ho et al., 2003). Given the lack of prior research on psychological contracts in the IS outsourcing context, we extend such studies and give insights through investigating the role of psychological contracts between client and vendor. Psychological contract theory offers highly relevant and sound theoretical lens for studying IS outsourcing management because of its six distinctive principles: (1) it focuses on mutual (rather than one-sided) obligations between contractual parties, (2) it's more comprehensive than the concept of legal contract, (3) it's an individual-level construct, (4) it changes over time, (5) it affects organizational behaviors, and (6) it's susceptible to organizational factors (Koh et al., 2004; Rousseau, 1996; Coyle-Shapiro, 2000). The aim of this paper is to put the concept, psychological contract commitment (PCC), under the spotlight, by finding out its mediating effects between legal contracts/partnerships and IS outsourcing success. Our interest is in the psychological contract commitment (PCC) or commitment to psychological contracts, which is the extent to which a partner consistently and deeply concerns with what the counter-party believes as obligations during the IS project. The basic premise for the hypothesized relationship between PCC and success is that for outsourcing success, client and vendor should continually commit to mutual obligations in which both parties believe, rather than to only explicit obligations. The psychological contract commitment playsa pivotal role in evaluating a counter-party because it reflects what one party really expects from the other. If one party consistently shows high commitment to psychological contracts, the other party would evaluate it positively. This will increase positive reciprocation efforts of the other party, thus leading to successful outsourcing outcomes (McNeeley and Meglino, 1994). We have used matched sample data for this research. We have collected three responses from each set of a client and a vendor firm: a project manager of the client firm, a project member from the vendor firm with whom the project manager cooperated, and an end-user of the client company who actually used the outsourced information systems. Special caution was given to the data collection process to avoid any bias in responses. We first sent three types of questionnaires (A, Band C) to each project manager of the client firm, asking him/her to answer the first type of questionnaires (A).

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.97-115
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• 2008

Introduction The e-government is concerned with using Internet and Web technologies to exchange information and services with citizens, businesses and other related organizations, and it centers on three functions, namely informational, interactive, and transactional [UN, 2001]. Many developed countries like the U.S. have been actively involved in e-government projects, since they enable both more effective public services for citizens and more efficient internal operations. Korea is among these leading countries that are planning to leverage computer and communication technologies to provide for integration of work processes and information as well as convenient access to information and services. For this reason, evaluating e-government projects is becoming a crucial issue for both researchers and policy-makers. However, most research to date has primarily focused on a model of success of an e-government system designed for citizens, overlooking internal systems specifically created for employees working in a public organization. This paper is intended to propose a model to measure the success of a Web-based information system designed for use by internal users at Chungwadae, the executive branch of Korea's central government. The paper is also aimed at applying the model to the assessment of the present system being used at Chungwadae in comparison with the preceding system. Evaluating an e-Government System The most widely cited model of information systems success today is that of DeLone and McLean[1992, 2003, 2004]. The original model states that the success of an information system can be measured using six dimensions, including system quality, information quality, use, user satisfaction, individual impact, and organizational impact. Although the ultimate success of an information system may be reflected in the impact that the system has upon individuals as well as an organization, aspects of using the system such as system use and user satisfaction can play an important role in determining the system success, because the system would be a sheer failure if users don't like and use the system. As a response to criticisms given by numerous researchers, the authors adapted their model to fit the emerging Web-based environment. The revised model[DeLone and McLean, 2003] they offered included an additional quality dimension, namely service quality, and combined individual and organizational impacts into net benefits which can also influence user satisfaction. The e-government system success model can be built around this updated model. Our model incorporates information quality, system quality, and service quality as in the DeLone and McLean model. However, the 'system use' dimension has been replaced by perceived usefulness, as suggested by Seddon[1998]. In addition, because the e-government systems that this paper focuses on are internal public systems used in government agencies, the 'net benefits' dimension has been replaced by perceived work efficiency. Based on the proposed model, a total of nine hypotheses have been formulated which we tested using an empirical analysis. Methods A questionnaire form has been created with items that are designed to examine the relationships among the variables in the model. The questionnaire has been handed over, in person, to 65 members of Chungwadae staff who are now actively using the E-Support System, the present information system created to support internal work at Chungwadae. We made arrangements to meet with each individual who agreed to participate in our survey, and helped to fill out the survey form with explanations. Of the 65 copies that were delivered, only 33 were returned, and 30 responses of these have been adopted for our analysis, since three were not valid. The extremely small sample size was due to the limited number of staff members who had adequate experience required of this study. Results We gathered data from the questionnaire survey and analyzed them using a regression analysis to test the hypotheses. As shown in the table below, the results indicated that all three dimensions of an information system’s quality are positively related to user satisfaction. However, information quality and system quality were found to be positively related to perceived usefulness, while service quality was not. In addition, perceived usefulness is not positively related to user satisfaction, implying that a user may find a system useful, but may not be satisfied with it. Finally, user satisfaction and perceived usefulness both are positively related to perceived work efficiency. This suggests that workers' positive experience with the system is important to guarantee favorable work efficiency. Conclusions We conclude that the proposed model proved useful in measuring the success of an internal information system used by a government agency. To demonstrate the applicability and usefulness of the model in the paper, we applied the model to the assessment of the present internal system used at Chungwadae in comparison with the preceding system. The results showed that the present system outperforms the preceding one in a statistically significant way. Future research will have to focus on applying the model to Korea's governmental agencies other than Chungwadae and examine whether it proves applicable in different types of governmental organizations.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.45-62
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• 2011

The notion of information systems (IS) continuance has recently emerged as one of the most important research issues in the field of IS. A great deal of research has been conducted thus far on the basis of theories adapted from various disciplines including consumer behaviors and social psychology, in addition to theories regarding information technology (IT) acceptance. This previous body of knowledge provides a robust research framework that can already account for the determination of IS continuance; however, this research points to other, thus-far-unelucidated determinant factors such as habit, which were not included in traditional IT acceptance frameworks, and also re-emphasizes the importance of emotion-related constructs such as satisfaction in addition to conscious intention with rational beliefs such as usefulness. Experiences should also be considered one of the most important factors determining the characteristics of information system (IS) continuance and the features distinct from those determining IS acceptance, because more experienced users may have more opportunities for IS use, which would allow them more frequent use than would be available to less experienced or non-experienced users. Interestingly, experience has dual features that may contradictorily influence IS use. On one hand, attitudes predicated on direct experience have been shown to predict behavior better than attitudes from indirect experience or without experience; as more information is available, direct experience may render IS use a more salient behavior, and may also make IS use more accessible via memory. Therefore, experience may serve to intensify the relationship between IS use and conscious intention with evaluations, On the other hand, experience may culminate in the formation of habits: greater experience may also imply more frequent performance of the behavior, which may lead to the formation of habits, Hence, like experience, users' activation of an IS may be more dependent on habit-that is, unconscious automatic use without deliberation regarding the IS-and less dependent on conscious intentions, Furthermore, experiences can provide basic information necessary for satisfaction with the use of a specific IS, thus spurring the formation of both conscious intentions and unconscious habits, Whereas IT adoption Is a one-time decision, IS continuance may be a series of users' decisions and evaluations based on satisfaction with IS use. Moreover. habits also cannot be formed without satisfaction, even when a behavior is carried out repeatedly. Thus, experiences also play a critical role in satisfaction, as satisfaction is the consequence of direct experiences of actual behaviors. In particular, emotional experiences such as enjoyment can become as influential on IS use as are utilitarian experiences such as usefulness; this is especially true in light of the modern increase in membership-based hedonic systems - including online games, web-based social network services (SNS), blogs, and portals-all of which attempt to provide users with self-fulfilling value. Therefore, in order to understand more clearly the role of experiences in IS continuance, analysis must be conducted under a research framework that includes intentions, habits, and satisfaction, as experience may not only have duration-based moderating effects on the relationship between both intention and habit and the activation of IS use, but may also have content-based positive effects on satisfaction. This is consistent with the basic assumptions regarding the determining factors in IS continuance as suggested by Oritz de Guinea and Markus: consciousness, emotion, and habit. The principal objective of this study was to explore and assess the effects of experiences in IS continuance, with special consideration given to conscious intentions and unconscious habits, as well as satisfaction. IN service of this goal, along with a review of the relevant literature regarding the effects of experiences and habit on continuous IS use, this study suggested a research model that represents the roles of experience: its moderating role in the relationships of IS continuance with both conscious intention and unconscious habit, and its antecedent role in the development of satisfaction. For the validation of this research model. Korean university student users of 'Cyworld', one of the most influential social network services in South Korea, were surveyed, and the data were analyzed via partial least square (PLS) analysis to assess the implications of this study. In result most hypotheses in our research model were statistically supported with the exception of one. Although one hypothesis was not supported, the study's findings provide us with some important implications. First the role of experience in IS continuance differs from its role in IS acceptance. Second, the use of IS was explained by the dynamic balance between habit and intention. Third, the importance of satisfaction was confirmed from the perspective of IS continuance with experience.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.390-395
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• 2004

In order to characterize ion channels present in tomato roots, microsomes were incorporated into an artificial lipid bilayer arranged for electrophysiological analysis. Of the five different ion channels that could be found, a channel of 450 pS conductance was found most frequently. This channel displayed subconductance states of 450, 257 and 105 pS. All subconductance states showed linear current-voltage relationships. At positive holding potentials, high frequency of transient channel openings was observed; however, at negative potentials, the open times were long and open probability high. Po was 0.83 at -40 mV. When an additional 50 mM $K^+\;or\;Na^+$ was added to the cis side of bilayer, the reversal potentials shifted in the negative direction to near -10 mV. Thus, the 450 pS cation channel selects poorly between $K^+\;and\;Na^+$. In the presence of $100\;{\mu}M$ metal ions, the channel activity was severely inhibited by $La^{3+},\;Ba^{2+},\;and\;Zn^{2+}$, and Po was decreased to 0.2 or even less. However, $Al^{3+}\;and\;Cd^{2+}$ decreased the activity by only 20%. Interestingly, each metal ion showed different kinetics of channel inhibition. While $500\;{\mu}M\;La^{3+}$ inhibited the activities of all subconductance state, 1 mM $Zn^{2+}$ inhibited all except the 105 pS state. $Cd^{2+}$ changed the gating of the channel from a long-opening state to brief transient openings even at negative holding potentials. These data represent that the metal ions may have different binding sites on the channel protein and could be useful modulators and probes to investigate structural characteristics as well as the functional roles of the 450 pS channel on the root physiology.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.35-42
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• 1986

This study was carried out to investigate the distribution of arsenic (As) fractions in paddy soils in relation to some soil characteristics and to find out the relationship between As fractions in soil and As content in brown rice. Soils and rice samples were collected from paddy field adjacent to arsenic mining and refinery sites. Sequential extraction procedures were used to fractionate As in soils into the designated forms of water soluble-As, Al-As, Fe-As, Ca-As, and residual-As. The results obtained were as follows: 1. The percent distribution of As fractions in soil showed a wide difference depending on some soil properties. The relative abundance of the extractable inorganic As fractions was in the order of Fe-As>Al-As>Ca-As>Water soluble-As regardless of mining and refinery sites. Residual-As fraction was more abundant in mining site than in refinery site. 2. With increasing soil pH, the percent distribution of Fe-As and Al-As fractions were decreased, but that of Ca-As and Residual-As fractions increased. The percent distribution of Al-As fraction in soil was negatively correlated with soil CEC, but others showed positive relationships. 3. Active Al and Fe content, and exchangeable Ca content in soil were positively correlated with the percent distribution of Al-As, Fe-As, and Ca-As fractions in soil respectively, and higher correlation between them was shown in mining site than in refinery site. 4. Soil As fractions, except for water soluble-As, showed significant correlation with among each others and also with 1N HCl extration method using as the common soil As extractant in Korea. 5. Arsenic content in brown rice had highly significant correlation with Al-As fraction in soil and it also showed significant correlation with Fe-As and Ca-As fractions, Total-As, and 1N-HCl extractable As.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.679-688
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• 2003

The leptin receptor gene(LEPR) produces a high affinity receptor that mediates the regulation of the leptin gene. Leptin secreted from adipose tissue plays an important role in regulating feed intake and energy balance. In this study, a microsatellite marker within LEPR was selected and genotyped for the F2 population composed of 354 individuals from an intercross between Korean Native boars and Landrace sows. Totally, six alleles (255, 259, 261, 263, 265 and 267bp) and nineteen genotypes were detected in the population, of which the CE (261/265), CC (261/261) and EE (265/265) types were observed by 20.0%, 10.1% and 9.6%, respectively. Relationships between their genotypes and economic traits were analyzed. We found specific genotypes associated with economic traits such as body weight at 12 weeks of age/body fat including abdominal and trimmed fat/shear force (P〈0.001), body weight of 30 weeks of age (P〈0.01) and body weight of 3 weeks of age/back fat thickness (P〈0.05). The DD (263/263) and DF (263/267) types were associated with body weight at 3, 5, 12 and 30 weeks of age. The DF (263/267) type showed a highly significant effect on back fat thickness and body fat including abdominal and trimmed fat. The DF (263/267) type showed positive effect on shear force, whereas the BB (259/259) and DD (263/263) types negatively affected on tenderness.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.105-113
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• 2001

This study was conducted to reveal the effects of local climatic conditions on the vegetative growth in a mature stand of Korean white pine based on climatic estimates. For this, the annual increments of stand variables such as DBH, height, basal area and volume were measured and estimated for seven years from 1974 to 1980. The local climatic conditions in the study site were also estimated by both a topoclimatological method and a spatial statistical technique. The local climatic conditions were then correlated with and regressed on the growth factors to reveal the relationships between the climatic estimates and the growth. It is found that relatively high temperatures had positive effects on the diameter growth. The yearly diameter growth increased when each of mean, maximum, and minimum temperature during the growing season was high. Height growth showed positively significant correlation with three climatic variables. The most important variable influencing height growth was the average of maximum temperature for 10 months from January to October. It means that the higher the average of maximum temperature for 10 months from January to October is, the more height growth of Korean white pine increases. Other climatic variables related to height growth were average of minimum temperature for 3 months in the early growing season and mean relative humidity for the growing season. Six climatic variables related to temperature had effects on basal area increment and all of them were positively correlated with basal area increment. Especially, temperatures from January to March were important factors affecting the basal area increment. In volume increment, high correlation was also recognized with most of temperature variables. This tendency was the same as the results in diameter and hight increments. This means that the volume growth increases when temperatures during the growing season are relatively high.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.101-108
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• 2016

The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationships between the expression of Heat shock protein70 (HSP70), Raf-1 and Bcl-2-associated athanogene-1 (BAG1) protein in diffuse type gastric carcinoma and examine association of HSP70, Raf-1 and BAG1 expression with various clinic-pathological factors and survival. Heat shock protein70 is induced in the cells in response to various stress conditions, including carcinogens. Overexpression of heat shock protein 70 has been observed in many types of cancer. The proto-oncoprotein Raf is pivotal for mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling, and its aberrant activation has been implicated in multiple human cancers. Overexpression of BAG1 protein has been documented in some type of human cancer. BAG1 has been reported to interact with protein involved with a variety of signal pathway, and regulation of cell differentiation, survival and apoptosis. These interaction partners include HSP70 and Raf-1. The percentage of tumors exhibiting HSP70 positivity was significantly in cases of positive lymph node metastasis (64.9%) compared to cases without lymph node metastasis (35.1%, p=0.007). HS70 expression was correlated with pathological N-stage (p=0.006). Expression of BAG1 was detected in the majority of diffuse type gastric carcinoma tissues (71.7%), especially in younger patients (80% vs 52.6%, p=0.035). Furthermore BAG1 expression was correlated with tumor size (p=0.020). Raf-1 expression was found to be significantly associated with tumor size (p=0.005). The result indicate that HSP70 was significantly correlated the progression of diffuse type gastric cancer. Expression of BAG1 and Raf-1 may be used as diagnostic markers for gastric carcinoma.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.226-236
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• 2002

The purpose of this study was to get descriptive statistics of the contributing factors for early childhood caries and to predict the relationship of dietary, behavior factors and health status factors of the mother and child at pregnancy and after birth. 411 first caregivers of 5-year-old children in 12 kindergartens in Kangnung city were selected by stratified random cluster sampling. They were asked to fill out questionnaires and 364 of them responded. The obtained results were as follow: 1. Over the three-Fourth of children used nursing bottle or had breast feeding habit beyond the age of 1 year. 2. 8.7% of respondents didn't recognize the necessity of the preventive measures immediate after eruption of primary tooth, and only 35.1% replied that they had begun tooth cleaning. 3. Over 90% of children brush the teeth more than once per day. But over half (614%) of them brush their teeth without parents instruction. Sixty percent of children eat between the meals as often as 1-3 time(s) a day and the remainder at any times. 4. The first time of dental visit was for most children (87%) at over 3 years, recommending the earlier dental visit. Notwithstanding the rate of routine dental visit experience was relatively high(40.2%), implicating positive parents' attitude about oral health at Kangnung area. 5. The relationships between oral health state of the parents and the variables such as the timing of the first tooth cleaning, the frequency of brushing, the time of first dental visit, and the reason of first dental visit were not statistically significant. Together, there was no statistically significant difference between rural and urban area, private and public kindergarten, and boy and girl($x^2-test$, p>.05 or Fisher's exact test, p>.05).

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.841-856
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• 2015

This study sought to explore longitudinal changes in Korean fourth graders' career aspirations in science. The sample included those who had high interest, but low career aspirations in science, and the analysis focused on the concept of science identity. To achieve this study's objectives, we selected 14 participants and then conducted two in-depth interviews with them. Compared with the first interviews (4th grade), changes were observed in eight students' career aspirations in science in the second round (5th grade). While six students maintained "negative" career aspiration, six revealed "medium" and two revealed "positive" career aspiration in science. To explore the relationship between science identities and career aspirations in science, three students were selected from the sample for further study. According to the results, the aspects of science identity that students valued regarding potential careers varied individually. Depending on these aspects, each student showed different patterns in the interactions between different aspects of science identity, and between aspects of science identity and science-related career aspirations. Over time, participants' experiences and interactions with people around them produced changes in their science identity, which led to changes in their career aspirations resulting from the interactions between aspects of their science identity. Their career aspirations in science were also significantly influenced by each participant's perceptions of relationships with peers (i.e., recognition by peers and of peers) and of science-related careers. Therefore, the results suggest that students need to be provided with appropriate learning environments and guidance relating to science careers.