• Informatization Policy
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.26-42
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• 2016

Recently, with the rapid growth of the O2O market, Fintech combining the finance and ICT technology is drawing attention as innovation to lead "O2O of finance", along with Fintech-based payment, authentication, security technology and related services. For new technology industries such as Fintech, technical sources, related systems and regulations are important but previous studies on Fintech lack in-depth research about systems and technological trends of the domestic Fintech industry. Therefore, this study aims to analyze domestic Fintech trends and find the insights for the direction of technology and systems of the future domestic Fintech industry by comparing Kakao Pay and Samsung Pay, the two domestic representative mobile payment services. By conducting a complete enumeration survey about the tweets mentioning Fintech until June 2016, this study visualized topics extraction, sensitivity analysis and keyword analyses. According to the analysis results, it was found that various topics have been created in the technologies and systems between 2014 and 2016 and different keywords and reactions were extracted between topics of Samsung Pay based on "devices" such as Galaxy and Kakao Pay based on "service" such as KakaoTalk. This study contributes to analyzing the unstructured data of social media by period by using social media mining and quantifying the expectations and reactions of consumers to services through the sentiment analysis. It is expected to be the foundation of Fintech industry development by presenting a strategic direction to Fintech related practitioners.

• Journal of Information Management
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.67-83
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• 2012

Patents are the sources reflecting technology development by research and development(R&D) as well as the tools to secure economic benefits in the market, so using patent information is crucial for decision making processes in formulating technology development strategies. Intellectual property(IP) portfolios including a set of patents related to products and individual technologies are the basic unit that has the economic meaning in making national policies and technology strategies. Therefore, this research develops a total of 69 measures to identify the collective characteristics for IP portfolios("characteristics index"), by incorporating the patent indexes that have been widely used and the patent indexes that developed recently, and applying the concepts to patent analysis that have been used in interdisciplinary studies including economics and library and information science. The results of this research produced a characteristics index manual which helps experts to identify characteristics of technological innovation systems from various dimensions. We expect that the characteristics indexes can be used as a supportive tool for comparative analysis among IP portfolios in the technology policy making process.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.185-199
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• 2017

Methane, which is emitted from natural and anthropogenic sources, is a representative greenhouse gas for global warming. Methanotrophs are widespread in the environment and play an important role in the biological oxidation of methane via methane monooxygenases (MMOs), key enzymes for methane oxidation with broad substrate specificity. Methanotrophs have attracted attention as multifunctional bacteria with promising applications in biological methane mitigation technology and environmental bioremediation. In this review, we have summarized current knowledge regarding the biodiversity of methanotrophs, catalytic properties of MMOs, and high-cell density cultivation technology. In addition, we have reviewed the recent advances in biological methane mitigation technologies using methanotrophs in field-scale systems as well as in lab-scale bioreactors. We have also surveyed information on the dynamics of the methanotrophic community in biological systems and discussed the various challenges pertaining to methanotroph-related biotechnological innovation, such as identification of suitable methanotrophic strains with better and/or novel metabolic activity, development of high-cell density mass cultivation technology, and the microbial consortium (methanotrophs and non-methanotrophs consortium) design and control technology.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.10 no.7
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• pp.33-41
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to analyse the state of the energy industry and to determine the efficiency of its functioning on the basis of energy conservation principle and application of innovative technologies aimed at improving the ecological modernisation of agricultural sectors of Kazakhstan. The research methodology is based on an integrated approach of financial and economic evaluation of the effectiveness of the investment project, based on calculation of elasticity, total costs and profitability, as well as on comparative, graphical and system analysis. The current stage is characterised by widely spread restructuring processes of electric power industry in many countries through introduction of new technical installations of energy facilities and increased government regulation in order to enhance the competitive advantage of electricity market. Electric power industry features a considerable value of creating areas. For example, by providing scientific and technical progress, it crucially affects not only the development but also the territorial organisation of productive forces, first of all the industry. In modern life, more than 90% of electricity and heat is obtained by Kazakhstan's economy by consuming non-renewable energy resources: different types of coal, oil shale, oil, natural gas and peat. Therefore, it is significant to ensure energy security, as the country faces a rapid fall back to mono-gas structure of fuel and energy balance. However, energy resources in Kazakhstan are spread very unevenly. Its main supplies are concentrated in northern and central parts of the republic, and the majority of consumers of electrical power live in the southern and western areas of the country. However, energy plays an important role in the economy of industrial production and to a large extent determines the level of competitive advantage, which is a promising condition for implementation of energy-saving and environmentally friendly technologies. In these circumstances, issues of modernisation and reforms of this sector in Kazakhstan gain more and more importance, which can be seen in the example of economically sustainable solutions of a large local monopoly company, significant savings in capital investment and efficiency of implementation of an investment project. A major disadvantage of development of electricity distribution companies is the prevalence of very high moral and physical amortisation of equipment, reaching almost 70-80%, which significantly increases the operating costs. For example, while an investment of 12 billion tenge was planned in 2009 in this branch, in 2012 it is planned to invest more than 17 billion. Obviously, despite the absolute increase, the rate of investment is still quite low, as the total demand in this area is at least more than 250 billion tenge. In addition, industrial infrastructure, including the objects of Kazakhstan electric power industry, have a tangible adverse impact on the environment. Thus, since there is a large number of various power projects that are sources of electromagnetic radiation, the environment is deteriorated. Hence, there is a need to optimise the efficiency of the organisation and management of production activities of energy companies, to create and implement new technologies, to ensure safe production and provide solutions to various environmental aspects. These are key strategic factors to ensure success of the modern energy sector of Kazakhstan. The contribution of authors in developing the scope of this subject is explained by the fact that there was not enough research in the energy sector, especially in the view of ecological modernisation. This work differs from similar works in Kazakhstan in the way that the proposed method of investment project calculation takes into account the time factor, which compares the current and future value of profit from the implementation of innovative equipment that helps to bring it to actual practise. The feasibility of writing this article lies in the need of forming a public policy in the industrial sector, including optimising the structure of energy disbursing rate, which complies with the terms of future modernised development of the domestic energy sector.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.89-125
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• 2017

Complex product systems (CoPs) is a engineering-intensive products with high-ended design technology, which are closely linked with national economic growth and development of social infrastructures. Accordingly, in order to understand the technological evolution of CoPs, it is necessary to identify the macro-environmental drivers surrounding the CoPs and their impact on the technological evolution of the CoPS. Therefore, we investigate the effect of policy, economic and social drivers on the technological evolution of CoPS by implementing the longitudinal case study on nuclear power plant during the periods between 1950 and 2010s. Based on the analysis of various sources of secondary data and primary data through interviews, we found that the technological evolution of nuclear power plant is progressed as "Phase 1: Application research for peaceful utilization of nuclear energy" between 1950s and 1960s, "Phase 2: The first renaissance of nuclear energy" during 1970s, "Phase 3: Enhancement of safety and the catch-up of latecomers in nuclear energy" between 1990s and 2000s, and "Phase 4: Top prioritization of safety and the development of next generation reactors for the second renaissance of nuclear energy" since 2010s. We also found that various kinds of policy, economic and social drivers, such as energy policy, investment in technology development, economic growth and energy demand, social acceptability and environmental concern, have affected the technology evolution of nuclear power plant at each phase. We emphasize the role of macroenvironmental drivers in the technological evolution of CoPS. We also suggest that countries that endeavor to develop CoPs need to utilize those drivers for enhancing competitiveness and sustaining leadership.

• Archives of design research
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• v.19 no.4 s.66
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• pp.163-174
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• 2006

The purpose this study is to discuss effects of product design innovations on small and medium enterprises' business accomplishments and further on raising those enterprises' international competitiveness through reviewing previous studies that quantitatively analyzed economic and technological performance and ripple effects of products developed through design innovations. To determine how much design innovations are influential and contributing to small and medium enterprises' international competitiveness, then, the researcher took most advantage of statistical data from quantitative analyses of business accomplishments brought by design innovation development and investment, or economic effects like sales and exports increase. Results of the study can be summarized as follows. First, product design innovations by small and medium enterprises directly contribute to creating plenty of technological and economical achievements, for example, improved product quality, increased product profitability, the effect of product differentiation, improved price competitiveness and increased business sales and exports. Second, technological and economic achievements brought by product design innovations can directly lead to ripple effects like accumulating related knowledge and know-hows, strengthening the competitiveness of products, improving corporate image, increasing business sales and net profit, and meeting many different consumer requirements. Third, technological and economic achievements and ripple effects brought by product design innovations all become very important factors and sources on which small and medium enterprises strengthen their international competitiveness in world markets and maintain their sustainable competitive advantage. Fourth, business accomplishments or economic effects brought by design innovations can be quantitatively measured and analyzed with statistical data. Additional data from the moves can help understand and express the very value or nature of design in a quantitative way. This study is significant in that its results was made based on statistical data from empirical, objective measurements and quantification. The researcher hopes that the study contributes to promoting design innovations by small and medium enterprises and helps CEOs of those businesses better understand the very value and nature of design.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.21 no.9
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• pp.1214-1218
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• 2011

We investigated the fruits of Rubus crataegifolius Bge, a plant which has been traditionally used in Korea in phytotherapy, to describe antioxidant materials from plant sources. R. crataegifolius fruits were extracted with methanol and further fractionated into n-hexane, diethyl ether, and ethyl acetate. The antioxidant activity of each fraction and the residue was assessed using a 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), $H_2O_2$ radical scavenging method, and their cytotoxicity on human primary kerationcyte (HK) was determined by an MTS assay. The R. crataegifolius fruit methanol extract showed strong antioxidant activity (75.04%, 50%) compared with vitamin C (79.9%, 54.1%) by the DPPH, and $H_2O_2$ method, respectively. The measured activity from the subsequent extracts of the methanol extract were 20.3% for n-hexane fraction (HF), 68.8% for diethyl ether fraction (DF), 67.1% for ethyl acetate fraction (EF), and 67.1% for the residue fraction (RE) by DPPH and 2.2% for HF, 1.6% for DF, 10% for EF, and 50% for the RE by $H_2O_2$ assay. An oxidative stress model of HK was established under a suitable concentration (1 mM). The cell viability of the RE treated group increased and the percentage of apoptotic cells decreased at concentrations of 0.005-0.02% RE compared with the $H_2O_2$ treated group. Fruit extracts of the medicinal plant R. crataegifolius showed potent antioxidant activity and the ability to relieve cell damage from $H_2O_2$ induced injury to HK.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.287-316
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• 2023

As global energy crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic have emerged as social issues, there is a growing demand for companies to move away from profit-centric business models and embrace sustainable management that balances environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors. ESG activities of companies vary across industries, and industry-specific weights are applied in ESG evaluations. Therefore, it is important to develop strategic management approaches that reflect the characteristics of each industry and the importance of each ESG factor. Additionally, with the stance of strengthened focus on ESG disclosures, specific guidelines are needed to identify and report on sustainable management activities of domestic companies. To understand corporate sustainability strategies, analyzing ESG reports and news articles by industry can help identify strategic characteristics in specific industries. However, each company has its own unique strategies and report structures, making it difficult to grasp detailed trends or action items. In our study, we analyzed ESG reports (2019-2021) and news articles (2019-2022) of six companies in the 'Finance,' 'Manufacturing,' and 'IT' sectors to examine the sustainability strategies of leading domestic ESG companies. Text mining techniques such as keyword frequency analysis and topic modeling were applied to identify industry-specific, ESG element-specific management strategies and issues. The analysis revealed that in the 'Finance' sector, customer-centric management strategies and efforts to promote an inclusive culture within and outside the company were prominent. Strategies addressing climate change, such as carbon neutrality and expanding green finance, were also emphasized. In the 'Manufacturing' sector, the focus was on creating sustainable communities through occupational health and safety issues, sustainable supply chain management, low-carbon technology development, and eco-friendly investments to achieve carbon neutrality. In the 'IT' sector, there was a tendency to focus on technological innovation and digital responsibility to enhance social value through technology. Furthermore, the key issues identified in the ESG factors were as follows: under the 'Environmental' element, issues such as greenhouse gas and carbon emission management, industry-specific eco-friendly activities, and green partnerships were identified. Under the 'Social' element, key issues included social contribution activities through stakeholder engagement, supporting the growth and coexistence of members and partner companies, and enhancing customer value through stable service provision. Under the 'Governance' element, key issues were identified as strengthening board independence through the appointment of outside directors, risk management and communication for sustainable growth, and establishing transparent governance structures. The exploration of the relationship between ESG disclosures in reports and ESG issues in news articles revealed that the sustainability strategies disclosed in reports were aligned with the issues related to ESG disclosed in news articles. However, there was a tendency to strengthen ESG activities for prevention and improvement after negative media coverage that could have a negative impact on corporate image. Additionally, environmental issues were mentioned more frequently in news articles compared to ESG reports, with environmental-related keywords being emphasized in the 'Finance' sector in the reports. Thus, ESG reports and news articles shared some similarities in content due to the sharing of information sources. However, the impact of media coverage influenced the emphasis on specific sustainability strategies, and the extent of mentioning environmental issues varied across documents. Based on our study, the following contributions were derived. From a practical perspective, companies need to consider their characteristics and establish sustainability strategies that align with their capabilities and situations. From an academic perspective, unlike previous studies on ESG strategies, we present a subdivided methodology through analysis considering the industry-specific characteristics of companies.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.439-449
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• 2018

Many potential sources of bias are used in several steps of the radar-rainfall estimation process because the hydrological and meteorological radars measure the rainfall amount indirectly. Previous studies on radar-rainfall uncertainties were performed to reduce the uncertainty of each step by using bias correction methods in the quantitative radar-rainfall estimation process. However, these studies do not provide comprehensive uncertainty for the entire process and the relative ratios of uncertainty between each step. Consequently, in this study, a suitable approach is proposed that can quantify the uncertainties at each step of the quantitative radar-rainfall estimation process and show the uncertainty propagation through the entire process. First, it is proposed that, in the suitable approach, the new concept can present the initial and final uncertainties, variation of the uncertainty as well as the relative ratio of uncertainty at each step. Second, the Maximum Entropy Method (MEM) and Uncertainty Delta Method (UDM) were applied to quantify the uncertainty and analyze the uncertainty propagation for the entire process. Third, for the uncertainty quantification of radar-rainfall estimation at each step, two quality control algorithms, two radar-rainfall estimation relations, and two bias correction methods as post-processing through the radar-rainfall estimation process in 18 rainfall cases in 2012. For the proposed approach, in the MEM results, the final uncertainty (from post-processing bias correction method step: ME = 3.81) was smaller than the initial uncertainty (from quality control step: ME = 4.28) and, in the UDM results, the initial uncertainty (UDM = 5.33) was greater than the final uncertainty (UDM = 4.75). However uncertainty of the radar-rainfall estimation step was greater because of the use of an unsuitable relation. Furthermore, it was also determined in this study that selecting the appropriate method for each stage would gradually reduce the uncertainty at each step. Therefore, the results indicate that this new approach can significantly quantify uncertainty in the radar-rainfall estimation process and contribute to more accurate estimates of radar rainfall.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.65-88
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• 2008

Since the implementation of economic reforms in 1978, the Chinese economy grows rapidly at an average annul growth rate of 9% over the post two decades. Franchising has been widely recognized as an important source of entrepreneurial activity. Trust is important in that it facilitates relational exchanges by permits partners to transcend short-run inequities or risks to concentrate on long-term profits or gains. In the relationship between the franchisors and franchisees, trust has been described as an important source of competitive advantage. However, little research has been done on the factors affecting trust in Chinese franchisor-franchisee relationships. The purpose of this study is to investigate what factors affect the trust in the franchise system in China, and to provide guidelines and insights to franchisors which enter Chinese market. In this study, according to Morgan and Hunt (1994), trust is defined as the extending when one party has confidence in an exchange partner's reliability and integrity. We offered a conceptual model of the empirical study. The model shows that the factors affecting the trust include franchisor's supports, communication, satisfaction with previous outcome and conflict. We also suggested the franchisor's supports and communication like to enhance the franchisee's satisfaction with previous outcome, and the franchisor's supports, communication and he franchisee's satisfaction with previous outcome tend to decrease conflict. Before the formal study, a pretest involving exploratory interviews with owners from three franchisees was conducted to make sure the questionnaire was relevant and clear to the respondents. The data were collected using trained interviewers to carry out personal interviews with the aid of an unidentified, muti-page, structured questionnaire. The respondents comprised of owners, managers, and owner managers of franchisee-owned food service franchises located in Beijing, China. Even though a total of 256 potential franchises were initially contacted, the finally usable sample consisted of 125 respondents. As expected, the sampling method was successful in soliciting respondents with waried personal and firm characteristics. Self-administrated questionnaires were used for all measures. And established scales were used to measure the latent constructs in this study. The measures tapped the franchisees' perceptions of the relationship with the referent franchisor. Five-point Likert-type scales ranging from "strongly disagree" (=1) to "strongly agree" (=7) were used throughout the constructs (trust, eight items; support, five items; communication, four items; satisfaction, six items; conflict, three items). The reliability measurements traditionally employed, such as the Cronbach's alpha, were used. All the reliabilities were greater than.80. The proposed measurement model was estimated using SPSS 12.0 and AMOS 5.0 analysis package. We conducted A series of exploratory factor analyses and confirmatory factor analyses to assess the convergent validity, discriminant validity, and reliability. The results indicate reasonable overall fits between the model and the observed data. The overall fit of measurement model were $X^2$= 159.699, p=0.004, d.f. = 116, GFI =.879, NFI =.898, CFI =.969, IFI =.970, TLI =.959, RMR =.058. The results demonstrated that the data reasonably fitted the model. We also examined construct reliability and reliability and average variance extracted (AVE). The construct reliability of each construct was greater than.80 and the AVE of each construct was greater than.50. According to the analysis of Structure Equation Modeling (SEM), the results of path model indicated an adequate fit of the model: $X^2$= 142.126, p = 0.044, d.f. = 115, GFI =.892, NFI =.909, CFI =.981, IFI =.981, TLI =.974, RMR =.057. As hypothesized, the results showed that it is strategically important to establish trust in a franchise system, and the franchisor's supports, communication and satisfaction with previous outcome tend to reinforce franchisee's trust. The results also showed trust seems to decrease as the experience of conflict episodes increases. And we also noticed that franchisor's supports and communication tend to enhance the franchisee's satisfaction with previous outcome, and communication tend to decrease conflict. If the trust between the franchisor and franchisee can be established in a franchise system, franchising offers many benefits and reduces many costs. To manage a mutual trust of relationship with their franchisees, franchisor's should provide support effectively to their franchisees. Effective assistant services have direct effect on franchisees' satisfaction with previous outcome and trust in franchisor. Especially, franchise sales process, orientation, and training in the start-up period are key elements for success of the franchise system. Franchisor's support is an accumulated separate satisfaction evaluation with different kind of service provided by the franchisor. And providing support definitely can improve the trustworthy image of the franchisor. In the franchise system, conflicts of interests and exertions of different power sources are very common. The experience of conflict episodes seems to negatively relate to trust. Therefore, it is important to reduce the negative side of the relationship conflicts. Communication actually plays a broader role in reducing conflict and establish mutual trust in franchisor-franchisee relationship. And effective communication between franchisors and franchisees can improve franchisees' satisfaction toward the franchise system. As the diversification of Chinese markets, both franchisors and franchisees must keep the relevant, timely, and reliable communication. And it is very important to improve the quality of communication. Satisfaction with precious outcomes seems to positively relate to trust. Franchisors and franchisees that are highly satisfied with the previous outcomes that flow from their relationship will perceive their partner as advancing their goal achievement. Therefore, it is necessary for both franchisor and their franchisees to make the welfare of partner with effort. Little literature has focused on what factors affect the trust between franchisors and their franchisees in China. This study developed the hypotheses regarding the factors affecting trust in the transaction relationship. The results of data analysis supported the hypotheses strongly. There are certain limitations in this study. First, we may point out that some other factors missed in this study could be significantly important. Second, the context of this study, food service industry, limits its potential generalizability for all franchise systems. More studies in different categories of franchise system are needed to broaden its generalizability. Third, the model was tested empirically in a sample in Beijing, more empirical tests of the proposed model in other Chinese areas are needed. Finally, the analysis in this study was solely based on the perception of franchisees and the opinions of franchisors were not included.