• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
• /
• v.45 no.2
• /
• pp.61-74
• /
• 2011

The author analyses the challenging activities of Japanese libraries in this decade by launching two keywords; "product-sharing" and "outcome generation." "Product-sharing" means that libraries share knowledge, skills, and records which are produced as the result of the services or in the process of activities. And "outcome generation" means that libraries generate any efficiency or effectiveness through their services to users. Using these concepts, reported are the current situation and aspects of Japanese libraries which try to make various contributions to the society; research and learning of the people, and education and training for professional librarians, and so on. In the analysis, the author shows some examples of "product-sharing" at first, including the records of reference transaction and the multi-functioned online public access catalogue. Especially, focused is on the various possibility and adoptability of the Collaborative Reference Database System of the National Diet Library of Japan. This system is one of digital reference service in Japan, and the database of reference transaction records is expected to be useful for research and academic studyies as knowledge-base of professional librarians. And the system is also expected to be a platform for LIS education and professional development in the e-learning environment. Secondly, as the examples of "outcome generation", explained are the problem-solving-type activities, and provision of the collection about books on struggling against disease and illness. A few examples of outcome in the problem-solving-type activities are these; increase of sales in the services for shop managers, business persons, and entrepreneurs, contribution to affluent daily life by providing the local information services to residents and neighbourhoods, and etc. And for both the patients with serious cases and their family or those who nurse them, books about other persons' notes or memorandum are the greatest support, and sometime healing. The author discuss the 'raison d'etre' of these activities focusing on public libraries in Japan.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
• /
• v.39 no.3
• /
• pp.366-375
• /
• 2009

Purpose: To evaluate the effects of case management using Resident Assessment Instrument-Home Care(RAI-HC) in home health service for older people. Methods: All elders were assessed at baseline and 3 months later using RAI-HC. The change of function in the intervention group was compared with that of a conventional intervention group. Function was measured with Activities of Daily Living(ADL), Instrumental Activities of Daily Living(IADL), Cognitive Performance Scale(CPS), Depression Rating Scale(DRS), Pain and the number of Clinical Assessment Protocols(CAP). Results: Among ninety two elders participated in the program, 59 were allocated to the case management group and 33 to the conventional group. The intervention, home health service by a nurse over a 3 month period, consisted of comprehensive assessment, case conference for care plan, direct care, education and referral, and outcome evaluation. The percent of elders whose function improved in the intervention group was greater than the conventional group for depression(odds ratio [OR]: 10.941, confidence interval [CI]: 2.338-51.206), IADL(OR: 4.423, CI: 1.151-16.999) and the number of CAP(OR: 11.443, CI: 3.805-34.410). Conclusion: Case management was effective for older people in the community. The effect might have resulted from individual, systematic intervention, however, standards of service including eligibility criteria for case management and collaboration of multi-disciplines is required for more effective home health service programs.

• Information Systems Review
• /
• v.14 no.3
• /
• pp.75-97
• /
• 2012

Fostering trusting belief in financial transactions is a challenging task in Internet banking services. Authenticated Certificate had been regarded as an effective method to guarantee the trusting belief for online transactions. However, previous research claimed that this method has some loopholes for such abusers as hackers, who intend to attack the financial accounts of innocent transactors in Internet. Two types of methods have been suggested as alternatives for securing user identification and activity in online financial services. Control transparency uses information over the transaction process to verify and to control the transactions. Outcome feedback, which refers to the specific information about exchange outcomes, provides information over final transaction results. By using these two methods, financial service providers can send signals to involved parties about the robustness of their security mechanisms. These two methods-control transparency and outcome feedback-have been widely used in the IS field to enhance the quality of IS services. In this research, we intend to verify that these two methods can also be used to reduce risks and to increase the security protections in online banking services. The purpose of this paper is to empirically test the effects of the control transparency and the outcome feedback on the risk perceptions in Internet banking services. Our assumption is that these two methods-control transparency and outcome feedback-can reduce perceived risks involved with online financial transactions, while increasing perceived trust over financial service providers. These changes in user attitudes can increase the level of user satisfactions, which may lead to the increased user loyalty as well as users' willingness to pay for the financial transactions. Previous research in IS suggested that the increased level of transparency on the process and the result of transactions can enhance the information quality and decision quality of IS users. Transparency helps IS users to acquire the information needed to control the transaction counterpart and thus to complete transaction successfully. It is also argued that transparency can reduce the perceived transaction risks in IS usage. Many IS researchers also argued that the trust can be generated by the institutional mechanisms. Trusting belief refers to the truster's belief for the trustee to have attributes for being beneficial to the truster. Institution-based trust plays an important role to enhance the probability of achieving a successful outcome. When a transactor regards the conditions crucial for the transaction success, he or she considers the condition providers as trustful, and thus eventually trust the others involved with such condition providers. In this process, transparency helps the transactor complete the transaction successfully. Through the investigation of these studies, we expect that the control transparency and outcome feedback can reduce the risk perception on transaction and enhance the trust with the service provider. Based on a theoretical framework of transparency and institution-based trust, we propose and test a research model by evaluating research hypotheses. We have conducted a laboratory experiment in order to validate our research model. Since the transparency artifact(control transparency and outcome feedback) is not yet adopted in online banking services, the general survey method could not be employed to verify our research model. We collected data from 138 experiment subjects who had experiences with online banking services. PLS is used to analyze the experiment data. The measurement model confirms that our data set has appropriate convergent and discriminant validity. The results of testing the structural model indicate that control transparency significantly enhances the trust and significantly reduces the risk perception of online banking users. The result also suggested that the outcome feedback significantly enhances the trust of users. We have found that the reduced risk and the increased trust level significantly improve the level of service satisfaction. The increased satisfaction finally leads to the increased loyalty and willingness to pay for the financial services.

• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.12 no.11
• /
• pp.101-111
• /
• 2014

Purpose - This study aims to verify the construct of the service quality suitable to the characteristics of the business center, to develop the scale that can measure the service quality objectively, compare the diverse business centers in Korea, and present desirable methods of business center management and operation. Research design, data, and methodology - In the first stage, literature research and focus group interviews with current users and actual business experts of business centers were conducted. In addition, 69 early stage scale items were derived. In the second stage, a Delphi survey was conducted on the experts of business and academic circles. The measurement items in the early stage were supplemented and revised. The content validity rate (CVR) of 69 measures was computed and then the experts' opinions were used. As a result, the business center service quality scale, made up of 9 organizing factors and 36 measurement items, was constructed. In the third stage, a survey was conducted on the occupants who were currently using the business center. It was to confirm if the developed business center service quality scale could be actually utilized. The data of 435 samples collected were used. To refine the scale items, the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted repeatedly. Results - The business center service quality scale, made up of 8 factors and 33 items, was developed again. The 8 factors are reliability, speed, kindness, specialty, responsibility, appearance, convenience, and public interest. The reliability coefficient (Cronbach's Alpha) of each factor is greater than .7. Thus, it was confirmed that there was reliability in the measurement items. Further, the model suitability was verified using the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and the convergent validity and the discriminant validity were verified. This proved the construct validity. Through this process, the Korea Business Center Service Quality Scale was developed. Based on factor analysis, the developed business center service quality (BCSQ) scale consists of 4 aspects, 8 factors, and 33 items, comprising the "process quality" aspect: reliability (3 items), speediness (4 items), kindness (3 items) factors, the outcome quality aspect: expertise (3 items), responsibility (5 items) factors, the environment quality aspect: appearance (5 items), convenience (3 items) factors, and the public interest aspect: public interest (7 items) factor. However, according to CFA, the BCSQ scale consists of a total of 4 aspects, 8 factors, and 33 items, comprising the "process quality" aspect: reliability (3 items), speediness (3 items), kindness (3 items) factors, the outcome quality aspect: expertise (2 items), responsibility (4 items) factors, the environment quality aspect: appearance (3 items), convenience (2 items) factors, and the public interest aspect: public interest (3 items) factor. Conclusions - The BCSQ scale could serve as a diagnostic tool that will allow business center managers to determine service areas that are weak and in need of attention, and to improve the service quality of the business center.

• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.43-52
• /
• 2012

As experiential education services are growing, the need for proper management is increasing. Considering that adequate measures are an essential factor for achieving success in managing something, it is important for managers to use a proper system of metrics to measure the performance of experiential education services. However, in spite of this need, little research has been done to develop a valid and reliable set of metrics for assessing the quality of experiential education services. The current study aims to develop a multi-item instrument for assessing the service quality of experiential education. The specific procedure is as follows. First, we generated a pool of possible metrics based on diverse literature on service quality. We elicited possiblemetric items not only from general service quality metrics such as SERVQUAL and SERVPERF but also from educational service quality metrics such as HEdPERF and PESPERF. Second, specialist teachers in the experiential education area screened the initial metrics to boost face validity. Third, we proceeded with multiple rounds of empirical validation of those metrics. Based on this processes, we refined the metrics to determine the final metrics to be used. Fourth, we examined predictive validity by checking the well-established positive relationship between each dimension of metrics and customer satisfaction. In sum, starting with the initial pool of scale items elicited from the previous literature and purifying them empirically through the surveying method, we developed a four-dimensional systemized scale to measure the superiority of experiential education and named it "Experiential Education PERFormance" (EEPERF). Our findings indicate that students (consumers) perceive the superiority of the experiential education (EE) service in the following four dimensions: EE-empathy, EE-reliability, EE-outcome, and EE-landscape. EE-empathy is a judgment in response to the question, "How empathetically does the experiential educational service provider interact with me?" Principal measures are "How well does the service provider understand my needs?," and "How well does the service provider listen to my voice?" Next, EE-reliability is a judgment in response to the question, "How reliably does the experiential educational service provider interact with me?" Major measures are "How reliable is the schedule here?," and "How credible is the service provider?" EE-outcome is a judgmentin response to the question, "What results could I get from this experiential educational service encounter?" Representative measures are "How good is the information that I will acquire form this service encounter?," and "How useful is this service encounter in helping me develop creativity?" Finally, EE-landscape is a judgment about the physical environment. Essential measures are "How convenient is the access to the service encounter?,"and "How well managed are the facilities?" We showed the reliability and validity of the system of metrics. All four dimensions influence customer satisfaction significantly. Practitioners may use the results in planning experiential educational service programs and evaluating each service encounter. The current study isexpected to act as a stepping-stone for future scale improvement. In this case, researchers may use the experience quality paradigm that has recently arisen.

• Journal of Information Technology Services
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.195-229
• /
• 2015

Service innovation is considered a new way to gain competitive advantage and enhance firm performance. However, service innovation does not always guarantee the desired outcome. The effective organization and management of well-planned service innovation practices, which are consistent with the firm's business environment, become a critical challenge for service innovation success. In addition, an increasing number of studies have focused on the role of information technology (IT) capability in service innovations. Most studies on service innovation have focused on the influences of the strategic alignment and IT capability separately. In contrast, the current study combines them by investigating the positive moderating effect of IT capability on the alignment between business strategy and service innovation strategy. Based on data collected from 183 service firms in Korea, we first explore the effect of service innovation strategies when coupled with different business strategies on better firm performance. We then investigate the moderating effect of IT capability on the relationship between strategic alignments and firm performance. Empirical evidence indicates that a synergistic effect between alignment and IT capability on firm performance exists. Firms that have aligned service innovation strategy with business strategy should consider improving their organizational IT capability to ensure substantial leverage.

• The Journal of Information Systems
• /
• v.19 no.3
• /
• pp.237-261
• /
• 2010

IT service is increasing becoming a critical resource firms have to utilize effectively and efficiently. As the importance of IT service increases, the knowledge sharing between IT service people and users becomes more and more important. In this study, the IT service quality is posited as a critical independent construct that influences knowledge sharing attitude of users which in turn change the knowledge sharing intention. Service satisfaction is placed as a mediator between the quality and attitude to compare direct and indirect effect in the model. Results show that (1) IT service quality influences the knowledge sharing attitude of users directly, and indirectly through service satisfaction, (2) at the same time, however, the direct path from quality to attitude is found to be stronger than the indirect path through satisfaction, and (3) interestingly, satisfaction seems to have no direct effect on intention, but only through the attitude change as can be inferred from the theory of reasoned action. Outcome of this study implies the importance of IT service quality in improving the knowledge sharing activities between users and developers, and interestingly the aim of quality would not be targeted on satisfaction but on attitudinal changes.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
• /
• v.6 no.2
• /
• pp.13-21
• /
• 2008

The e-Government in Korea has made such good results as improvement of official work productivity and citizen service quality. However, e-Government in Korea involves many problems and subjects to must solve, especially, at the side of citizen services. Every public organization as supplier provides each service of themselves to the civilians. Citizens feel inconvenience yet, because they must visit and are supplied various civil services to one public affair from several public institutions. When we consider the paradigm shift of the e-Government service, the status and problems of the e-Government in Korea required more better service model to the citizen. To realize the citizen oriented service, the integration and linkage of the system infrastructure and applications among governmental organizations are required. In this changed situation, when new one/non-stop service model of the digital government is developed and launched, the e-Government can supply better service to the citizens. In this study, the model that we suggest is among the new service models of the e-Government, named the Integrated Civil Service Model. The e-Government involving the Integrated Civil Service Model can make more outcome, such as better civil life convenience, cost-effective results by processing time and cost reduction for public affairs of citizens.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
• /
• v.48
• /
• pp.169-182
• /
• 1999

This study was aimed at comparing service quality measurements of apparel stores. It Also presented an outcome to a company which service measurement worked better and more efficient. Four measures were used in this research such as SERVQUAL, SERVPERF, weighted SERVQUAL and weigthe SERVPERF. In the empirical research statistical data were collected in June of 1998. The subjects in the study were 244 women in their 20s. The SPSS was used to analyze data, Frequency percentage points Factor Analysis Cronbach's a and regression were put into use in the study. From the result of it the SERVPERF was proven to have a good reliability and validity. It also well described an overall service quality of apparel stores. The SERVPERF is found out to be one of the best measurement in this study.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
• /
• v.6 no.2
• /
• pp.65-76
• /
• 2008

Recently, software distribution method, along with advent of era of Web 2.0, is rapidly evolving from ASP(Application Service Provider) method into SaaS(Soft as a Service) method due to development in concepts and technologies including SOA(Service Oriented Architecture) Web Service, On Demand and Component. Determining factor in market competitiveness of newly emerging SaaS business model will be analyzed by focusing on Group-Wares, POS(Point of Sale) System, CRM(Customer Relationship Management) and ERP(Enterprise Resource Planning), which are the most representative SaaS business models in Korea. It is anticipated that the outcome of analysis of determining factors for market competitiveness for each of the main SaaS Business Models acquired through questionnaire survey can be utilized as important benchmarking material in setting the direction of cultivating SaaS market by the government as well as new entries into SaaS market.