• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.145-153
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• 2016

Cable TV with largest subscription base in pay TV market has difficulty in managing the task of digital switch over. This study analyzed the factors in delay of cable TV switch over and examined the impact of pay TV market structure and competition. The delaying factors turned out to be the lack of incentives and resources of cable TV operators, insufficient policy measures and acceptance tolerance issues of subscribers. Since cable TV operators with monopolistic status in pay TV market had continuous profit from analog service, they were not responsive to digital switch over which requires additional investment. Policy measures including support for the low income household and mandatory cut-off point for stopping analog broadcasting. Subscriber's willingness to accept digital broadcasting in terms of price sensitivity and preference for convenient operation also played a role. Introduction of IPTV in pay TV market influenced the speed of digital switch over of cable TV operators. MSOs with economies of scale showed higher digital switch over rate than independent SO.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.275-291
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• 1998

Food irradiation is an emerging technology which offers many advantages such as reduction of microorganisms, extension of shelf-life of foods, reduction in the use of post-harvest chemicals, and destruction of insects and parasites. The commercial utilization of food irradiation, however, has been restricted because of the uncertainty of consumers' responses to it. Because success of food irradiation in the marketplace will depend upon their acceptability by consumers, this study focused on the consumers' perception and acceptance toward food irradiation in order to get basic data for commercial utilization of food irradiation and give information to consumers to help rational consumption behavior. The survey with 411 respondents living in Youngnam area was conducted during the spring of 1997 by the questionnaires. The results and implications from this study are as follows. First, consumers' knowledge about food irradiation is scanty. Two-thirds of respondents in the survey had not heard of irradiated foods and many people confused irradiation with radioactivity. In the willingness to accept food irradiation, one-third of respondents showed a wait-and-see attitude. This result indicated consumers had insufficient information about the irradiation process and nationwide education of food irradiation technology should be undertaken. Second, although the purchase and use of food are very important consumption behaviors, consumer education by mass communication has been rarely done. For the successful commercialization of food irradiation, the information provision by mass communication for the consumers should be made. Third, consumers generally worried about residual pesticide and intended to purchase irradiated foods if radioactivity was not retained in the foods. Therefore, food irradiation could be an alternative method to the use of pesticide Fourth, consumers pointed out that they wanted to extend shelf-life of milk and dairy foods, fish and seafood and to irradiate these foods. Therefore, research for the safety of irradiated foods should be continually conducted. finally, labeling for irradiated foods is needed to provide the information and to further increase public understanding. Especially, the labeling should show the definite reason why irradiation is being used. In conclusion, recently, under the circumstances that the commercial utilization of food irradiation and irradiation for the import and export products have been increased in many countries, many efforts are needed to improve the quality of irradiated foods, and prove the safety of them in Korea. In addition, consumer education for food irradiation should be given to help consumers to make decision for food purchase and use.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.332-343
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• 2015

It would be the most effective way to have government take care of social problems and hazardous material danger due to odor. It is also well known that odor acceptance and their willingness to pay for resolving the odor problem vary person by person. This is why public sector's intervention is required to get ride of any possibility of market failure resulted from negative external effect of human. This paper has tried to do empirical research based on survey of residents who are currently living in the area of Ochang industrial complex in North Chong-chung province. According to the empirical research results, first of all, it was proven residents' perception of legal regulation has a negative effect on odor acceptance. That is, the more residents are aware of law and regulation, the less they tend to accept odor. In addition, resident's perception on need to improve odor regulation has a positive impact on their odor acceptance. Finally, residents' satisfaction on the legal complaints to local government has an interaction effect to causative relationship between the perception of improving odor regulation and odor acceptance.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.47-68
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• 2021

The purpose of this study was to provide information on adoptive families and obtain the basis data for adoption-related programs that are useful to adoptive families by examining their experiences in the adoption process, post-adoption adaptation, and adoption programs. For the study, in-depth interviews were conducted on six mothers who publicly adopted elementary school children and had expressed high satisfaction with adopted families and their willingness to participate in this research voluntarily. The main results exhibited parents' happiness post-adoption along with positive changes, such as internal growth, marital love growth, favorable response from others, and child's unexpected responses to adoption. However, open adoption mothers have coped with efforts to sympathize with and accept their children's feelings as they suffer from adoption, and with active support from their spouses, parents, and their own children. Open adoption mothers participated in various adoption-related programs, support, and voluntary self-help groups provided by adoption agencies or public organizations, and above all, their experience in self-help groups and peer groups of adopted children was found to be very useful. Based on these main results, we suggested strengthening welfare services for open adoption families, implementing education to better understand adoption, education for school teachers, students, and welfare staff, providing practical programs for adoptive families, and promoting self-help groups.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Traditional Landscape Architecture
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.50-57
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• 2015

A traditional garden in Korea has diverse cultural, historical values, such as the then phases of the times, life phase, culture and art, etc. because it was developed on the basis of the harmony between nature and artificial structures. However, in reality, it's urgent to do efficient, continuous maintenance of traditional gardens which are being damaged and lost due to the problems like an owner's aging, inheritance, and lack of management, etc., especially in case of private property which was designated as a cultural property among such traditional gardens under the Cultural Properties Protection Law. Accordingly, this study conducted this research in a bid to use these research results as basic evidentiary materials for suggesting directivity in introduction of park planning of traditional gardens in folk houses in the near future by implementing the case investigation of transformation into public parks from traditional private gardens in Japan, which is putting the newly introduced park planning to efficient use, together with its systematic management, and the survey on domestic traditional gardens in folk houses status, as well as the hearing-based survey on a traditional gardens in folk houses owner's level of willingness to accept the introduction of parking planning. As a result, this study could confirm that in case of traditional gardens in Japan, they are mobilizing the revenue from admission fees for traditional gardens maintenance by incorporating the main entity of possession, and Japan is promoting transformation of traditional gardens into parks on the basis of use and preservation through the connection with local governments and research institutes. In addition, as a result of surveying domestic traditional gardens in folk houses, it was found that most of the garden owners had hardships in its management, and they were positive about systematic maintenance of gardens through park planning.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.47-55
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• 2017

As preliminary work for the establishment of a harmonized ship hand signal standard, this paper explores the availability of hand signals as a means of shipboard work communication and considers the validity of standardization. Prior to the feasibility study, shipboard work activities that use hand signals were classified based only on ship safety managers' arbitrary decisions. This survey was carried out to measure shipboard workers' willingness to communicate with hand signals and their preferences regarding the institutional standardization of a hand signal framework if they engage in activities classified as relevant. The results of statistical analysis (a t-test and correlation analysis) showed that respondents are willing to accept harmonized hand signals regardless of both their work type (crew/safety supervisors) and work department (deck/engine room) under working situations where hand signals are an available means of communication. In addition, there was a significant difference in the extent of shipboard workers' frequency of hand signal usages between each type of work activity, indicating a significant positive (+) correlation between frequency of usage and preference for standardization. Finally, it was concluded that shipboard work communication would be effectively improved if a follow-up study is carried out to establish prioritized harmonized hand signal standards for port-related work activities, such as crane operation, windlass/winch operation, line movement/delivery and cargo hold operations.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.71-96
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• 2011

Within the traditional medical delivery system, patients residing in medically vulnerable areas, those with body movement difficulties, and nursing facility residents have had limited access to good healthcare services. However, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) provides us with a convenient and useful means of overcoming distance and time constraints. ICT is integrated with biomedical science and technology in a way that offers a new high-quality medical service. As a result, rapid technological advancement is expected to play a pivotal role bringing about innovation in a wide range of medical service areas, such as medical management, testing, diagnosis, and treatment; offering new and improved healthcare services; and effecting dramatic changes in current medical services. The increase in aging population and chronic diseases has caused an increase in medical expenses. In response to the increasing demand for efficient healthcare services, a telehealth service based on ICT is being emphasized on a global level. Telehealth services have been implemented especially in pilot projects and system development and technological research. With the service about to be implemented in earnest, it is necessary to study its overall acceptance by consumers, which is expected to contribute to the development and activation of a variety of services. In this sense, the study aims at positively examining the structural relationship among the acceptance factors for telehealth services based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Data were collected by showing audiovisual material on telehealth services to online panels and requesting them to respond to a structured questionnaire sheet, which is known as the information acceleration method. Among the 1,165 adult respondents, 608 valid samples were finally chosen, while the remaining were excluded because of incomplete answers or allotted time overrun. In order to test the reliability and validity of the assessment scale items, we carried out reliability and factor analyses, and in order to explore the causal relation among potential variables, we conducted a structural equation modeling analysis using AMOS 7.0 and SPSS 17.0. The research outcomes are as follows. First, service quality, innovativeness of medical technology, and social influence were shown to affect perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of the telehealth service, which was statistically significant, and the two factors had a positive impact on willingness to accept the telehealth service. In addition, social influence had a direct, significant effect on intention to use, which is paralleled by the TAM used in previous research on technology acceptance. This shows that the research model proposed in the study effectively explains the acceptance of the telehealth service. Second, the research model reveals that information privacy concerns had a insignificant impact on perceived ease of use of the telehealth service. From this, it can be gathered that the concerns over information protection and security are reduced further due to advancements in information technology compared to the initial period in the information technology industry, and thus the improvement in quality of medical services appeared to ensure that information privacy concerns did not act as a prohibiting factor in the acceptance of the telehealth service. Thus, if other factors have an enormous impact on ease of use and usefulness, concerns over these results in the initial period of technology acceptance may become irrelevant. However, it is clear that users' information privacy concerns, as other studies have revealed, is a major factor affecting technology acceptance. Thus, caution must be exercised while interpreting the result, and further study is required on the issue. Numerous information technologies with outstanding performance and innovativeness often attract few consumers. A revised bill for those urgently in need of telehealth services is about to be approved in the national assembly. As telemedicine is implemented between doctors and patients, a wide range of systems that will improve the quality of healthcare services will be designed. In this sense, the study on the consumer acceptance of telehealth services is meaningful and offers strong academic evidence. Based on the implications, it can be expected to contribute to the activation of telehealth services. Further study is needed to assess the acceptance factors for telehealth services, such as motivation to remain healthy, health care involvement, knowledge on health, and control of health-related behavior, in order to develop unique services according to the categorization of customers based on health factors. In addition, further study may focus on various theoretical cognitive behavior models other than the TAM, such as the health belief model.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.101-112
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• 2012

Business consulting which aims at advising overall management, comparative advantage in competitive environment, administration and so forth is deemed to be significant so that a credit union may flexibly respond to rapid and complicated financial environment. Accordingly, business consulting has been initiated and implemented in credit union since 2002, which seemingly leads to positive outcome to enhance its competitiveness. However, very few research exists which analyze the credit union's competitiveness and business performance after the business consulting. Thus, the research intends to verify how consulting influences on management performance by its various factors. With the above studies in mind, hypothesis is formed that the characteristics of a consulting comsumer and the characteristics of supplier will give a meaningful impact on management performance. The test shows the result as followings: Firstly, a primary credit union's trust and NACUFOK's expertise demonstrate that they are closely relevant to financial and non financial management performance. Secondly, support and willingness to apply states that they influences on non financial performance, while no direct impact is found to financial performance. Thirdly, NACUFOK's capability is rarely interrelated to financial and non financial performance. The present study implies that the credit union as a consulting beneficiary should participate in the consulting, accept the result, and make effort to solve the management problems. In addition, NACUFOK as a consulting supplier should initiate the organization in exclusive charge, perform the professional group, and foster the professional consultant for the development of consulting method, the improvement of consulting process, and the specialization of consultant including the enhancement of core competencies. When these perspectives are sufficient, it will be connected to the management outcomes, further, it will be boosted up the competitiveness of the Credit Union. Hopefully the present study helps to motivate the consulting of primary credit union, boost up the effectiveness of consulting, further, providing the perspective on consulting the credit union. And these may result in the indication of consulting development direction and the competitiveness of Credit Union.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.33-58
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• 2008

Previous research has presupposed that the evaluation of consumer who received any recovery after experiencing product failure should be better than the evaluation of consumer who did not receive any recovery. The major purposes of this article are to examine impacts of product defect failures rather than service failures, and to explore effects of recovery on postrecovery product attitudes. First, this article deals with the occurrence of severe and unsevere failure and corresponding service recovery toward tangible products rather than intangible services. Contrary to intangible services, purchase and usage are separable for tangible products. This difference makes it clear that executing an recovery strategy toward tangible products is not plausible right after consumers find out product failures. The consumers may think about backgrounds and causes for the unpleasant events during the time gap between product failure and recovery. The deliberation may dilutes positive effects of recovery efforts. The recovery strategies which are provided to consumers experiencing product failures can be classified into three types. A recovery strategy can be implemented to provide consumers with a new product replacing the old defective product, a complimentary product for free, a discount at the time of the failure incident, or a coupon that can be used on the next visit. This strategy is defined as "a rewarding effort." Meanwhile a product failure may arise in exchange for its benefit. Then the product provider can suggest a detail explanation that the defect is hard to escape since it relates highly to the specific advantage to the product. The strategy may be called as "a strengthening effort." Another possible strategy is to recover negative attitude toward own brand by giving prominence to the disadvantages of a competing brand rather than the advantages of its own brand. The strategy is reflected as "a weakening effort." This paper emphasizes that, in order to confirm its effectiveness, a recovery strategy should be compared to being nothing done in response to the product failure. So the three types of recovery efforts is discussed in comparison to the situation involving no recovery effort. The strengthening strategy is to claim high relatedness of the product failure with another advantage, and expects the two-sidedness to ease consumers' complaints. The weakening strategy is to emphasize non-aversiveness of product failure, even if consumers choose another competitive brand. The two strategies can be effective in restoring to the original state, by providing plausible motives to accept the condition of product failure or by informing consumers of non-responsibility in the failure case. However the two may be less effective strategies than the rewarding strategy, since it tries to take care of the rehabilitation needs of consumers. Especially, the relative effect between the strengthening effort and the weakening effort may differ in terms of the severity of the product failure. A consumer who realizes a highly severe failure is likely to attach importance to the property which caused the failure. This implies that the strengthening effort would be less effective under the condition of high product severity. Meanwhile, the failing property is not diagnostic information in the condition of low failure severity. Consumers would not pay attention to non-diagnostic information, and with which they are not likely to change their attitudes. This implies that the strengthening effort would be more effective under the condition of low product severity. A 2 (product failure severity: high or low) X 4 (recovery strategies: rewarding, strengthening, weakening, or doing nothing) between-subjects design was employed. The particular levels of product failure severity and the types of recovery strategies were determined after a series of expert interviews. The dependent variable was product attitude after the recovery effort was provided. Subjects were 284 consumers who had an experience of cosmetics. Subjects were first given a product failure scenario and were asked to rate the comprehensibility of the failure scenario, the probability of raising complaints against the failure, and the subjective severity of the failure. After a recovery scenario was presented, its comprehensibility and overall evaluation were measured. The subjects assigned to the condition of no recovery effort were exposed to a short news article on the cosmetic industry. Next, subjects answered filler questions: 42 items of the need for cognitive closure and 16 items of need-to-evaluate. In the succeeding page a subject's product attitude was measured on an five-item, six-point scale, and a subject's repurchase intention on an three-item, six-point scale. After demographic variables of age and sex were asked, ten items of the subject's objective knowledge was checked. The results showed that the subjects formed more favorable evaluations after receiving rewarding efforts than after receiving either strengthening or weakening efforts. This is consistent with Hoffman, Kelley, and Rotalsky (1995) in that a tangible service recovery could be more effective that intangible efforts. Strengthening and weakening efforts also were effective compared to no recovery effort. So we found that generally any recovery increased products attitudes. The results hint us that a recovery strategy such as strengthening or weakening efforts, although it does not contain a specific reward, may have an effect on consumers experiencing severe unsatisfaction and strong complaint. Meanwhile, strengthening and weakening efforts were not expected to increase product attitudes under the condition of low severity of product failure. We can conclude that only a physical recovery effort may be recognized favorably as a firm's willingness to recover its fault by consumers experiencing low involvements. Results of the present experiment are explained in terms of the attribution theory. This article has a limitation that it utilized fictitious scenarios. Future research deserves to test a realistic effect of recovery for actual consumers. Recovery involves a direct, firsthand experience of ex-users. Recovery does not apply to non-users. The experience of receiving recovery efforts can be relatively more salient and accessible for the ex-users than for non-users. A recovery effort might be more likely to improve product attitude for the ex-users than for non-users. Also the present experiment did not include consumers who did not have an experience of the products and who did not perceive the occurrence of product failure. For the non-users and the ignorant consumers, the recovery efforts might lead to decreased product attitude and purchase intention. This is because the recovery trials may give an opportunity for them to notice the product failure.