Brands play a critical role as a core asset and the primary driver for corporate growth because of their power of identity and influence on customers’ perceptions in restaurant industry. However, in spite of diverse and dynamically changing recent brand portfolio strategies of restaurants, a study on the effect of brand diversification on financial performance has been rarely conducted in the restaurant industry context. Considering competing viewpoints regarding diversification’s influence on financial performance, the purpose of this study is, therefore, to examine the effect of brand diversification on firm performance of restaurants. The results indicated that brand diversification is positive effect to profitability. Brand diversification seems to be attractive and might be a reasonable growth strategy to expand market power by satisfying diverse consumer needs. Therefore, restaurant managers should be consider in implementing brand diversification strategy especially in dynamically changing trend of brand diversification in the current restaurant industry.

Aging of the fire organizations, typical disaster response agencies also will be in serious problems with aging society. It is expected that the ratio of more than fifties will reach 31~40% after 10~15 years in Seoul fire organization. This Aging of firefighters can bring about a serious problem in disaster and safety management, since firefighters require robust fitness and healthy bodies in disaster situations. In this study, after the analysis of aging status and trend of firefighters in Seoul, I have an empirical analysis about the impact this aging has on organization effectiveness and QA. As a result, the increase of the elderly reduced organization effectiveness and QA. In addition, in the group consisting of less than 50, it is expected to increase the organization's effectiveness and QA activities through field activity to improve the professional skills with age, but could not be confirmed. In the group consisting of more than fifties, it was found that aging had a significant negative impact on organizational effectiveness and QA activities as factors, including physical deterioration by aging.

기후 변화의 영향으로 해수면의 상승이 가속화되고 있다 예측에 따라서는 세기 말까지 이상의 상승을 예고하고 있는데 태평양의 소도서국을 포함 하여 많은 도서 국가는 존립을 위협받고 저지대 연안국은 물에 잠길 수도 있을 것이다 해수면 상승은 또한 각 연안국이 채택하고 있는 기선이나 해양관할수역 및 그 수역에 대한 해양경계획정 등에 지대한 영향을 미칠 수 있다 유엔해양법협 약상 기점은 저조선에 정해지고 해양관할수역은 저조선으로부터 일정 거리에 정해지기 때문에 만약 저조선이 해수면 상승으로 후퇴한다면 연안국은 기선과 해양관할수역을 이동하여야 할 것이다 우리나라도 해수면 상승의 영향을 받고 있는 상황이다 이에 본 논문은 해수면 상승에 따른 기선 변화의 영향을 검토하고 기선의 이동이 해양경계획정에 미치는 영향을 파악하여 이러한 문제를 해결하기 위한 여러 대안을 검토하고 이를 우리나라의 해양경계획정에 적용하 여 우리 정부의 대응 방향에 대해 제시하고자 하였다

본 연구는 교수의 연구 활동과 성과를 바탕으로 교수의 역량이 대학의 기술이 전 성과에 미치는 영향력 분석을 목적으로 한다. 이를 위해서 기술이전 경험이 있는 이공계 분야 교수 80명의 개별 데이터를 수집하여 논문 질적 수준, 특허활동, 정부지원 연구비 규모, 민간 연구비 규모, 임용 전 산업체 경력, 임용 후 경력, 연구팀 규모가 기술이전 성과에 미치는 영향을 분석하였다. 주요 연구 결과로 대학에서 교수의 특허활동, 민간 연구비 규모, 교수 임용 후 경력이 기술이전에 영향을 주는 요인으로 분석되었다.

해안사구와 갯벌은 대표적인 연안생태계로 해양생태 계와 육상생태계의 교량적 기능과 추이대로서의 완충적 역할을 나타내고 있어 매우 높은 생태적 가치를 갖는다. 해안사구는 내륙생태계에 비해 작은 면적에도 불구하고, 높은 생물다양성을 보여주며, 내륙 생태계에 서식하는 종 들과 차별성을 보이는 동·식물상이 나타난다. 또한, 해빈 으로부터 내륙으로의 거리에 따라 염분농도, 모래입자의 크기 및 pH 등이 변화하며, 사구식생은 이러한 물리적·화 학적 요소들과 밀접하게 관련되어 있는 것으로 보고되고 있다. 해안사구에서 출현하는 곤충들도 식생과 물리·화학 적 요소들에 따라 출현 양상이 달라지며 대상분포 (zonation)를 보이는 것으로 알려져 있다. 이처럼 해안사 구에 서식하는 식생과 곤충은 유사한 환경요인들에 직·간 접적으로 영향을 받고 있으며, 서로 간에 밀접한 연관을 보이고 있다. 특히, 식생은 해안사구에서 출현하는 곤충 들의 풍부도를 조절하는 주요한 요소로 모래의 건조함과 높은 온도로부터 은신처를 제공하고, 포식자들로부터의 피난처가 되며, 모래지역을 선호하는 종들의 유충과 성충 단계에 먹이 자원이 되는 것으로 알려져 있다. 내륙 생태 계의 나비류 성충은 식물과 공진화 관계를 갖고, 먹이식 물의 특정한 생육환경과 성장패턴이 식물의 이용방법과 시기 등을 전략적으로 변화시켜 생활사 전반에 많은 영향 을 주고 있는 것으로 나타나 있으며, 육상 산림생태계 내 에서 나비목의 유충은 중요한 초식자로 알려져 있다. 과 거부터 내륙생태계에서는 국지적으로 대발생하는 산림 해충에 따른 피해가 보고되고 있으며, 재발 방지와 관리 를 위한 산림해충들의 발생양식과 천적자원 등에 대한 연구가 활발히 진행되고 있다. 특히, 나비목 유충들은 대 발생 시 기주식물군락에 큰 피해를 끼치고 있는 것으로 알려져 있다. 반면, 해안생태계의 나비목 연구는 곤충상 위주의 연구가 대부분으로 내륙생태계에 비해 알려진 정 보가 부족하다. 본 연구의 목적은 동해안 고래불 해안사구 지역에서 5년 간 실시한 모니터링 결과 중 2010년에 대발생을 보인 박각 시(Agrius convolvuli) 유충의 월별 출현 패턴과 조사지역의 식생 군락 변화에 따른 유충의 분포 패턴에 대하여 알아보 고 이를 통해 박각시 유충이 대발생했을 때 해안사구식생에 미치는 영향에 대해 고찰해 보고자 하였다. 연구지역인 고래불은 경상북도 영덕군의 병곡면과 영해 면에 위치하고 있으며(N: 36° 34′ 46″, E: 129° 24′ 53″, 4.6 ㎞), 동해안에서 규모가 가장 큰 해안사구로 알려져 있 다. 조사지점은 고래불 해안사구에서 식생조사를 위해 설치 된 고정방형구(5 x 5m)가 있는 중점 조사지역(55m x 70m) 내에서 3개의 라인으로 구분하였으며, 식생 패턴을 감안하 여 각 라인별로 6개 지점씩 총 18개 지점을 선정하였다. 선정된 각 지점에 함정 트랩(플라스틱 컵 - 깊이 9.5㎝, 입구직 경 9㎝, 바닥직경 5.3㎝)을 설치하였으며, 트랩 설치 시에 포 획률을 높이기 위해 지표면보다 1㎝ 가량 낮게 묻어 트랩의 입구까지 비스듬한 경사면을 만들었다. 조사기간은 2009년부 터 2013년까지 4월부터 10월동안 매월 15일을 기준으로 1박 2일간 실시하였다. 각각의 3개 라인별 식생구조를 분석한 결 과, P.1지점은 방풍림으로 조성된 곰솔(Pinus thunbergii) 군 락이었고, P.3지점은 순비기나무(Vitex rotundifolia) 군락, 그리고 P.6지점은 일부 식생이 산재하지만 대부분이 노출 된 해빈지역이었다. 나머지 P.2, P.4 및 P.5지점은 갯그령 (Elymus mollis), 갯메꽃(Calystegia soldanella) 및 갯방풍 (Glehnia littoralis) 등이 혼재한 초본군락으로 구성되어 있 었다. 우리나라의 박각시과(Sphingidae)는 박각시아과(Sphinginae) 와 꼬리박각시아과(Macroglossinae)에 58종이 기록되어 있 으며, 박각시과의 유충은 4쌍의 배다리와 배 끝에 긴 가시가 있어 다른 나방류의 유충과 구분되어진다. 조사지점에서 출현한 박각시 유충의 조사시기가 성충의 우화시기와 불일치 하여 성충의 우화 모습을 확인하지 못하였으나, 유충의 형 태적 특징이 박각시의 유충과 일치하였다. 2009년부터 2013년까지 고래불 해안사구에서 곤충 모니 터링을 진행한 결과, 박각시 유충은 2009년과 2013년에는 한 개체도 포획되지 않았고, 2010년에 277개체가 포획되었 으며, 2011년과 2012년에는 1개체씩만 포획되었다. 따라 서, 박각시 유충은 고래불 해안사구 지역에서 꾸준히 출현 하는 종이 아닌 특정 조건에서 갑작스러운 출현을 보이는 종으로 판단되어진다. 유충은 7월부터 10월까지 출현하였 으며, 7월(208개체)과 9월(66개체)에 가장 많은 개체수가 출현하였고, 다른 월에는 출현하지 않거나 극히 낮은 개체 수만 출현을 나타내어 연 2회 발생하는 것으로 보인다. 이는 내륙생태계의 박각시 발생양상과 유사한 것으로 나타났다. 박각시 유충이 대발생했던 2010년 7월과 9월의 출현 개 체수를 중점 조사지역의 면적에 고정방형구 조사에서 나타 난 밀도를 곱하여 추정 개체수를 산출하였다. 총 16개의 고정방형구(25㎡) 중에서 7월과 9월에 각각 207개체와 65 개체가 출현하여 25㎡당 12.9개체와 4.1개체가 서식한다고 가정하였을 때 중점 조사지역의 면적 3.85㎢에서 1,992개 체와 626개체가 서식하는 것으로 추정된다. 그러나 유충의 출현이 2010년에만 대발생하였고, 식생군락별로 차이를 보 이며, 초본류군락에서 높은 밀도가 나타나는 만큼 본 조사 의 결과만으로 밀도추정은 어렵다고 판단되어지며, 추가적 인 조사의 필요성이 요구된다. 조사지점의 식생 패턴을 우점식생을 기준으로 단순하게 구분하여 식생군락별 유충 출현 개체수를 분석한 결과, 유 충은 사구 전반에 걸쳐 나타났으며, 곰솔 군락(P.1), 초본류 군락(P.2, P.4, P.5), 순비기나무 군락(P.3) 및 해빈지점의 4가지 타입에서 출현 개체수에 차이를 나타내었다. 유충의 출현 개체수는 곰솔군락에서 5개체로 가장 낮게 나타났고, 초본류군락에서 146개체로 가장 높게 나타났으며, 순비기 나무군락과 해빈지점에서 각각 42개체와 86개체가 출현하 였다. 곰솔군락에서 가장 낮은 개체수가 나타난 것은 곰솔 군락 지점의 국지적 저온현상, 타감작용(Allelopathy)으로 인한 식생의 단순화와 그에 따른 먹이식물의 부재 및 살충 효과 등이 박각시 유충의 출현에 직·간접적인 영향을 끼친 것으로 판단되며, 식생이 없는 해빈지점에서 상대적으로 높 은 개체수가 출현한 것은 전사구 전면부의 경사각으로 인하 여 트랩에 포획되어지는 유충의 개체수가 높았던 것으로 판단되어 진다. 또한, 초본류 군락에서 가장 많은 개체수가 출현한 것은 초본류 군락의 범위가 넓고, 식생을 단순화하 여 구분하는 과정에서 상대적으로 초본류 군락의 트랩 개수 가 많은 원인이 있겠으나, 박각시 유충들이 선호하는 먹이 식물이 초본류 군락에 밀집하여 분포하기 때문으로 판단된 다. 조사지점에서 출현하는 식물은 총 12과 23속 23종으로 그 중 전체 출현종의 68.2%(10과 15속 15종)가 사구식물로 확인되었다. 또한, 식물구계학적 특정 식물종(환경부 지정) 은 총 10종이며, 1등급 7종(갯방풍, 갯메꽃, 갯실새삼, 순비 기나무, 갯씀바귀, 우산잔디 및 통보리사초)과 3등급 3종(솔 장다리, 해란초 및 갯그령)으로 나타났다. 고래불 해안사구 지역에서 육안관찰을 통해 가해가 확인된 식물은 갯메꽃, 순비기나무, 해란초 및 왕잔디 4종으로 이중 3종(1등급-갯 메꽃, 순비기나무, 2등급-해란초)이 식물구계학적 특정 식 물종으로 확인되었으며, 그 중 갯메꽃에서 가장 많은 개체 수가 관찰되어 갯메꽃에 대한 높은 선호도를 보였다. 2010년 고래불 해안사구 지역의 모니터링 중 대발생한 박각시의 유충은 다양한 식물을 가해하는 것으로 확인되었 으나, 이후 진행된 모니터링에서 식물상의 변화나 피해는 보고되지 않았다. 이는 박각시 유충의 가해가 확인된 갯메 꽃, 순비기나무 및 왕잔디가 지하경에서 분지한 개체가 지 상으로 올라와 생육하는 특성을 보이는 포복형 식물로, 지 상부의 손상에서 다른 식물에 비해 자유롭기 때문으로 판단 된다. 또한, 환경요인 분야에서 측정한 토양 총 질소함량이 2010년에 가장 높게 나타났으며, 이는 박각시 유충의 배설 물로 인한 영향이 있었을 것으로 판단된다. 해안사구는 사 질로 이루어진 특성상 낮은 토양 보수력과 빈영양, 높은 온 도 등의 환경변화가 빠르게 일어나는 지역이기 때문에 유충 의 배설물과 질소함량 및 식물체에 끼치는 영향 간의 관계 에 대해서는 향후 추가적인 연구가 필요 할 것으로 판단된 다. 5년간의 모니터링 기간 중 박각시 유충의 대발생이 비연 속적으로 나타났고, 발생 횟수도 2회로 비교적 적게 나타났기 때문에 해안사구 식물에 대한 피해정도나 영향이 경미하 였을 것으로 판단된다. 하지만 차후 박각시 유충의 대발생 이 연속적으로 발생하였을 시 해안사구 식생에 영향이 있을 것으로 생각되며, 향후 지속적인 모니터링이 필요 할 것으 로 판단되어 진다.

원전의 항공기 충돌 리스크 평가에 사용되는 대표매개변수를 선정하기 위한 방법론을 개발하였다. 대상 원전은 국내의 대표적인 경수로형 원전 중 하나로 선정하여 3차원 유한요소 해석 모델을 구축하였다. 콘크리트 재료모델에는 소성손상모델이 적용되었으며, 강재는 다중선형곡선거동을 가지는 것으로 모델링하였다. 운동에너지, 전체 충격량, 최대 충격량, 최대 하중 등 4종의 대표매개변수 후보군을 선정하였다. 각각의 매개변수 후보군은 모두 충돌 속도와 질량의 함수로 표현되므로, 충돌속도 50~200m/s, 항공유량 30~90%의 범위에 대하여 매개변수값을 도출하고 충돌 해석을 수행하여, 충돌 시의 구조 응답과의 상관관계를 분석하였다. 모든 해석에서 항공기의 기종은 보잉767 기종으로 선정하였다. 충돌해석에는 Riera의 하중-시간이력 함수를 이용한 해석기법을 적용하였다. 매개변수와 충돌 시 응답의 상관관계 적합성은 결정계수값을 이용하여 분석하였다. 4 종의 대표매개변수 후보군 중 최대 하중값이 가장 직관적일 뿐만 아니라 본 연구에서의 해석 케이스에서는 응답과의 상관성도 가장 뛰어난 것으로 나타남에 따라, 항공기충돌 리스크 평가를 위하여 가장 적합한 매개변수라 할 수 있을 것으로 판단되었다.

The automotive bumper has the functions of strength, rigidity and fine sight. It protects the driver, front and rear sides of car body through shock absorption at the traffic accident of car. This study investigates the impacts on front side and corner with the low speed of 4.5 km/h by using the model of SUV car body. The models are modelled by CATIA program with three dimensions and are analyzed by the finite element program of ANSYS Explicit STR. The maximum equivalent stresses at impacts of front side(case 1) and corner (case 2) at bumper are 261.72MPa and 365.02MPa respectively. As this stress at case 2 becomes 40% higher than at case 1, the impact of corner is happened easier than at the damage at the impact of front side. These stresses at case 1 and case 2 are shown above the yield stress at material property of steel, it is thought that there are the possibilities of plastic damages at two cases. The maximum deformation and equivalent stress at the support 2 of case 2 become 5 times and 3 times higher than at the support 1 respectively. The damage possibility due to impact at low speed is investigated by the basic analysis result of this study. And this result can be utilized at inspecting the result of impact test on bumper hereafter.

Bumblebees are important pollinators for wild flora and agricultural production. The introduction of bumblebees into greenhouses for pollination has become widespread in recent years and demand increases annually. Bumblebees give farmers the opportunity to decrease their pollination labor costs and offer a good crop yield, both in quantity and in quality. Colonies of the large bumblebee Bomus. terrestris have been imported into many countries. There has been some anxiety associated with the introduction of B. terrestris. Here, we investigated the distribution of founder bumblebee queens that were collected between 2000 and 2012 in Korea, and we show the interspecific hybridization between bumblebee species, B. terrestris and B. ignitus, under laboratory conditions. As results, a total of 13,130 overwintered bumblebee queens were collected at 63 locations from 8 provinces; the collected bumblebees consisted of five species of native bumblebees (Bombus ardens, B. ignitus, B. hypocrita spporoensis, B. ussurensis and B. consobrinus wittenburgi) and one species of exotic bumblebee (B. terrestris). The dominant species were Bombus ardens Smith and Bombus ignitus Smith, which accounted for 7,462 (56.8%) and 3,725 (28.4%) of the collected bumblebees, respectively. As a proportional distribution of the founder bumblebee queens that were collected, B. ignitus was the most common (9.8%-78.5%), followed by B. ardens (9.8%-66.1%), B. hypocrita spporoensis (0.9%-31.4%), B. ussurensis (0.8%-22.2%), B. consobrinus wittenburgi (0.1%-3.8%) and B. terrestris (0%-1.1%). In indoor conditions, interspecific, cross-mated queens of B. ignitus or B. terrestris produced offspring but did not create a colony, and when a hybrid male B. terrestris copulated with a virgin queen of B. terrestris, the queen oviposited but did not initiate a nest. Further study of interspecies hybridization and its development will ultimately provide important information on the ecological impact to native bumblebees.

본 연구는 유통서비스 업종에서의 작업장혁신과 관련하여 저원가 경쟁전략과 차별화 경쟁전략이 어떻게 나타나는지 살펴보고, 나아가 유통서비스 업체에서 고성과작업체계의 지향성을 갖는 작업장혁신 모델의 적용가능성을 탐색하고자 한다. 이를 위해 본 연구에서는 질적 사례분석과 양적 통계분석을 평행하는 통합적 연구(triangulation)를 시도하였다. 질적 사례분석에서는 미국의 대표적인 유통업체 중에서 저원가경쟁전략을 강조하는 월마트와 차별화 경쟁전략을 강조하는 웨그먼스를 추출하여 다수사례 연구방법(multi-case study)을 적용하였다. 양적 통계분석에서는 유통서비스 업종에 속한 100인 이상 한국 기업체를 모집단으로 하여 245개의 기업을 표본추출하여 고성과작업체계의 실태에 대한 설문조사와 통계분석을 하였다. 연구결과, 질적 분석의 경우 월마트는 저원가 경쟁전략을, 웨그먼스는 차별화 경쟁전략을 중심으로 하고 있었으며 이로 인해 서로 상이한 작업장체계를 구축하고 있었다. 월마트는 저비용-저가격 전략과 프로세스 주도적 혁신을 통해 엄청난 성장을 거두었지만, 그 성공 뒤에는 저임금, 저숙련, 단순노동, 높은 이직률로 얼룩진 열악한 일자리가 지배적이었다. 반면 웨그먼스는 차별화 경쟁전략과 고성과작업체계를 통해 양호한 경영성과와 양질의 일자리라는 두 마리 토끼를 함께 잡고 있었다. 한편 양적 분석의 경우, 한국의 유통서비스업체에서도 차별화 경쟁전략과 고성과작업체계의 구성요소간의 외적 적합성이 나타나 고 있었으며 나아가 고성과작업체계는 이직율을 부분적으로 매개하여 인당 매출액에 정(+)의 영향을 미치고 있었다.

본 연구는 임금피크제(wage peak system) 도입에 관한 구성원 인식과 직무태도 간의 관계를 실증적으로 분석한 논문이다. 임금피크제는 최근 들어 학계와 실무현장에서 중요하게 대두되고 있는 인사제도로서, 본 논문에서 임금피크제의 중요성과 이론적 배경을 설명하고 임금피크제 도입에 대한 조직 구성원들의 인식이 직무몰입에 미치는 영향을 실증하였다. 추가적으로, 이 둘 사이의 관계를 조절하는 상황요인으로 작용하는 조직시민행동의 상호작용 효과를 검정하였다. 편의표본추출 방식을 통하여 국내 19개 기업의 구성원 200명을 설문조사하고, 응답결과를 분석하였다. 다중회귀분석 결과, 첫째 임금피크제 도입에 대한 구성원의 긍정적인 인식은 직무몰입에 유의하게 정(+)적인 영향을 미치고 있었다. 둘째, 임금피크제 긍정적 인식이 직무몰입에 미치는 정(+)적인 영향은 조직시민행동이 높은 구성원일수록 더 강하게 나타났다. 이상의 실증결과들을 기초로 이론적, 실무적 함의를 제시하고 연구의 한계와 향후 연구의 방향을 토론하였다.

지난 20년 동안 국제화와 기업성과 간의 관계연구는 국제경영과 기업전략분야에서 많이 이루어져왔다. 하지만 대부분의 선행연구들은 선진국의 제조업에 종사하는 다국적기업들을 대상으로 이루어졌으며, 국제화와 기업성과 간의 관계를 규명하는데 집중이 되어 왔다. 본 연구에서는 서비스 산업을 주목하여 서비스 기업의 국제화와 기업성과 간의 관계를 규명하고 더 나아가 서비스 기업의 내부역량이 국제화가 낮은 단계에서 국제화 수준과 성과와 의 부(-)의 관계를 어떻게 조절하는지에 대해 살펴보았다. 300개의 서비스 기업을 대상으로 2000년부터 2012년까지의 해외매출비중을 이용하여 기업의 국제화와 기업성과 간의 관계를 분석한 결과, 서비스 기업에서의 국제화와 기업성과 간의 관계는 ‘U’자 형태임을 확인되었다. 그리고 본 연구는 서비스 기업의 내부역량의 중요성을 살펴보기 위하여 기술개발역량과 마케팅역량 그리고 기업집단의 네트워크의 조절효과를 확인한 결과, 기술개발역량이 높은 기업 또는 기업집단 내 기업에서 국제화가 성과에 미치는 부정적인 영향이 감소하는 것으로 나타났다. 이는 기업의 역량이 높을수록 국제화로 인해 발생하는 어려움을 극복하고 기업성과를 증가하는데 효과적일 수 있음을 시사한다. 본 연구는 선진국 내 서비스 기업들의 국제화와 기업성과 간 관계를 연구한 이론과 결과들을 토대로 국내 서비스 기업을 대상으로 한 실증분석을 통해 유사한 결과를 확인함으로써 이론의 타당성을 한 번 더 확인하였다는데 의미가 있다. 더 나아가 기업의 기술개발역량과 기업집단 네트워크의 조절효과를 살펴봄으로써 서비스 기업의 내부역량이 국제화와 기업성과 간에 미치는 영향에 대해 이론적, 실무적 시사점을 제공할 수 있을 것으로 기대된다.

The interaction between brand managers and his/her social networks in any firms constitute a complex social system. This study posited that the quality of the relationship between a brand manager and his/her networks is imperative in fostering the quality of internal brand management which in turns increase the employee based brand equity. The participants for the study were 124 brand managers from Dubai firms specializing in consumer goods. The quantitative data was analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). Network size and cost was found to affect information generation and knowledge dissemination.

Informative messages on product packages—especially on packages of food products—should be credible. Otherwise, the firm might experience a serious fall in brand equity. However, because nutrition intake and health promotion are “credence attributes”, it isdifficult for consumers to evaluate them. Moreover, if nutrition message or health claims were false or puffery, consumers might suffer a serious health damage. Regarding the problems, in 1991, Japanese Government took the initiative in the world by introducing the FoSHU (Foods for Specified Health Uses) system—a license system in which the government tries to control all health claims on packages of food products launched in the country. It should be noted that there are two factors which can be appeared on packages only with the permission of Japanese Government. One is health claims, of course, and the other is the “FoSHU seal”—a symbolic mark designed for FoSHU foods. Interestingly, these two licensed factors may have different effects on perceived product value in health. In this research, we conducted two studies to examine the difference of the effects on product value in health. The results showed that consumer evaluations of food products are affected by the FoSHU seal. The FoSHU seal has a strong signaling effects on evaluations of the particular food products for specified health uses. On the other hand, unlike the FoSHU seal, approved health claims themselves have no main effects on evaluations of the FoSHU products. This implies that health claims have positive external effects on evaluations of non-FoSHU products in the same category. The results showed that the external effects can be inhabited by product differentiation through the FoSHU seal and./or packaging.

Negative publicity can be defined as negative information about a product, a service, a brand, an organization or an individual that is circulated through mass media such as print media and broadcast media (Dean, 2004; O'Guinn, Allen, & Semenik, 2011). Indeed, there has been a growing interest in the marketing literature concerning the effects of negative brand publicity on consumer perceptions and evaluations (Cleeren, van Heerde, & Dekimpe, 2013; Dills & Hernández Julián, 2012; Pullig, Netemeyer & Biswas, 2006; Thirumalai & Sinha, 2011). Negatively publicized instances such as defective products/services or unethical business practices are likely to impair a brand’s image and its equity. However, previous literature has mainly focused on the effect of performance-related negative publicity on consumer responses and there are limited studies about the effect of value- or ethics-related negative publicity. Owing to the inherent characteristics of inseparability and intangibility, hospitality managers need to pay particular attention to ethical issues and the detrimental impact of value-related negative publicity. This study aims to examine the impact of negative brand publicity on hotel consumers for two types of negative publicity (namely, performance-related and value-related). A content analysis and a consumer survey were conducted in China so as to investigate the hotel recovery strategy and consumer responses toward negative publicity. The content analysis was performed on two largest local daily newspapers in China. It showed that the occurrence of value-related negative publicity (e.g., not keeping promises, or dishonesty) was much greater than performance-related negative publicity (e.g., untidy room, or equipment malfunction) in China’s hotel industry. Compensations appeared to be the most common method for hotel responses toward the two types of negative publicity. The consumer survey showed that consumer responses such as hotel evaluations and patronage intentions were negatively affected by negative brand publicity. Female consumers were found to be more sensitive to unethical issues than male consumers. In other words, females were more negatively affected by value-related publicity than performance-related publicity. Managerial implications for hospitality managers are discussed.

This study aims to investigate the antecedents to customer retention and brand loyalty of Internet Service Providers in Thailand. The findings reveal that customers’ commitment and value are influenced by information support, privacy and security. Additionally, the positive relationships between information quality and privacy and behavioural loyalty were revealed. Customers’ commitment and value were positively associated with behavioural loyalty. However, surprisingly, there was no support for the hypothesised positive association between customers’ value with behavioural loyalty. Practical implications that can be drawn from this research will form a foundation for service providers in the residential internet market to develop new retention strategies. These providers would l be able to reduce the current issues relating to the high customer churn rate. By making customers more central in company operations, these strategies can potentially reduce the expenses associated with acquiring new customers.

The manuscript examines Guanxi’s direct influence on reducing opportunism and conflicts, and its indirect influence on increasing buyers’ satisfaction, relationship performance and long-term orientation. The findings based on data collected from 273 Chinese firms reveal that Chinese buyers’ guanxi with US suppliers could significantly reduce buyers’ perception in suppliers’ opportunistic behaviour and the perceived levels of conflicts in Sino-US relationships, hence increasing their satisfaction, relationship performance and long-term orientation. The results broaden existing understanding of guanxi literature by empirically examining Guanxi’s influence on supplier opportunism and conflicts. The research implications suggest guanxi could be employed as a management mechanism in reducing supplier opportunism and conflicts, hence positively increasing satisfaction, performance and long-term orientation.

Social media, Web 2.0 based social activity and powerful marketing tool, brought about a new paradigm for the 21st century culture and society. In line with the trend, the fashion industry is vigorously undertaking marketing activities on social media, seeking to build and maintain relationships with their customers through the Internet and mobile devices. The one-way provision of information by firms to customers has evolved to a symmetrical form of customers, whereby the customers also supply information to the firms share information with other customers. Through social media services, customers not only share their thoughts and experiences but also exchange tangible products and publicize the products, thereby directly participating in production and marketing activities of brands. Such participation of consumers offers inspirations for differentiated service on the part of the brands, for which proactive and long-term participatory activities of customers are required. Customer participation is of primary importance in current service marketing industry. Until now, related literature on customer participation has mostly centered on offline service situations. However, the advent of social media has simplified the process of participation for customers, and invoking voluntary customer participation has become the greatest challenge facing service industries, and, at the same time, the path to success. Those of us who live in the age of information technology are offered the opportunity to engage in two-way communication with other customers, the brand, and the media. Thus, customer participation is just as, if not, more important in an online environment. More and more customers are becoming directly involved in brand activities, which affect the brands as well as the customers themselves. Nonetheless, extant customer participation research focuses on developing constructs that are largely based on offline situations. Although such constructs correspond in part to the online setting, they fall short of meeting the unique characteristics of customer participation in social media. Therefore, in order to establish constructs for customer participation in social media, revision and supplementation of the offline-based constructs were found to be necessary. Based on interaction theory, this study explored the notion of customer participation in fashion brands’ social networking site (SNS) service by categorizing it into three types: customer-customer, customer-brand, and customer-media participation. In addition, it examined the external factors that influence customer social participation and how active social participation of customers in SNS affects trust and customer equity. The association between measurement variables according to the brand type was also closely examined. This study underwent two pre-tests to revise and supplement the survey items on customer social participation. A preliminary investigation was conducted on 516 respondents, and a total of 582 respondents participated in the main investigation. The respondents who were invited to participate lived in Korea, were in their 20s or 30s, and had previous experience in using fashion brands’ SNS service, SPSS 18.0 was used to conduct frequency analysis, exploratory factor analysis, reliability analysis, and t-test. Based on the results, AMOS 18.0 was used to undergo confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The results of the study are summarized as follows. Based on the brand type (SPA and luxury) and the rate of sales, Uniqlo, a global SPA brand that boasts the largest number of SNS fans, and Louis Vuitton, a global luxury brand, were chosen for the study. The respondents consisted of consumers in their 20s and the 30s who, within the last six months, had previous experience in using the SNS service of the brands. The sample consisted of 40.7% male and 59.6% female, and 72.5% were in their 20s and 27.5% in 30s. A large percentage of the respondents were students (64.9%). The large proportion of university students reflects the trend of most active users of SNS being university students. Second, SNS service shopping context found positive association with customer-customer participation and customer-brand participation, but customer-media participation was insignificant. The results show that as the SNS is characterized by its linkage to different websites and platforms, customers are exposed to constant opportunities for participation. On the other hand, customer-media participation was found to be insignificant, which can be interpreted as indiscriminate constant supply of information that seeks to spur impulsive buying leading to antagonism of the customers. Such negative situations can be avoided by departing from indiscriminate provision of information to offering information that is customized to the needs and demands of each customer and invoking the customer to participate in information delivery. Third, SNS participation motivation and customer social participation were all positively associated. In particular, customer-media participation demonstrated the strongest influence, followed by customer-customer and customer-brand participation. As such, active participation of the customer with the brand is the most effective way to create collaborative, synergy effect or co-creation. Fourth, all routes from SNS user orientation to customer social participation were significant. SNS users in general possessed high levels of self-efficacy and tended to feel elevated as well as find altruistic pleasure in providing information that would help others. Such users participate through numerous ways such as customer-brand and customer-media participation but were the most active in customer-customer participation. Fifth, it was found that customer-customer and customer-brand participation builds trust of the customers toward the SNS service and the information or the information provider. However, customer-media participation did not indicate the same results. In order to build trust through participation, brands need to provide an inviting environment for customers to post comments and share information. Furthermore, marketing strategies, such as offering events and coupons to stimulate E-WOM activities of customers as well as creating a space for open communication are vital to building trust. Sixth, customer-media participation was positively associated with customer equity. Unlike customer-customer and customer-brand participation which requires constant physical effort of the customer, customer-media participation demands considerably less time and effort apart from the initial stages during which customization process is undergone to receive tailored information with just one click. Therefore, establishing convenient and practical system that targets the Y-generation in their 20s and 30s is emphasized in order to maintain a long-term relationship. Seventh, trust is positively associated with customer equity. Building trust is based on interactivity among people. This study found that customer-customer participation and customer-brand participation influence customer equity through trust, while customer-media participation leads to customer equity without being mediated by trust. Therefore, all three types of participation are equally important to customer equity. Eighth, brand type was a meaningful moderator to the relationship between SNS service shopping context, SNS service user orientation, participation motivation, customer social participation, trust, and customer equity. To summarize, the type of participation to encourage is based on the brand type, and as customers may have different expectations according to the brand, it is important to understand their orientations and provide customized information or an open space for communication. In addition, participation behavior has a strong potential to influence customer equity, but depending on the type of participation, trust may not necessarily positively influence customer equity. Therefore, it is recommended that brands offer credible and sincere information that customers can trust and follow. The significance of this study is that it is one of the first studies to examine customer participation in a social media environment. At a point in time where customers’ value creation is attracting increased attention, this study empirically revealed that customer-media relationship, which enables customer-customer and customer-brand participation on SNS, is also within the bounds of participation. Furthermore, this study identified the importance of relational marketing approach to brand and customer through customer social participation. By applying the concept of customer equity, which is in its fledgling stage in the area of consumer fashion marketing, it offers a basis for future research on long-term relationship building with firms The limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are discussed below. The sample of the study consisted of Koreans between the ages of 20 to 30. The limitation in the sample is inadequate to generalize the findings, and therefore, a comparative study with broader sample across culture and age is necessary. Moreover, this study observed customer participation on SNS environment. However, as there was a lack of preceding literature in this area, the measurement scales were revised and supplemented to fit the purpose of this study. The measurement instrument, therefore, needs to be further applied with different antecedents and consequences in subsequent research. Finally, due to the lack of previous literature on customer participation in SNS environment, the theoretical basis of the relationship between the variables lacked solidity. This study adapted a part of a theoretical framework to fit the context of the study to come up with the hypothesized relationship between the variables. Therefore, it is suggested that future research works toward developing and strengthening the theoretical framework of customer social participation.

One of the longstanding goals of both managers and researchers has been to understand the characteristics of effective salespeople. Selling orientation (SO), one of the general approaches of salespeople, has also been referred to in several studies as selling behaviors (Saxe and Weitz 1982; Brown et al. 1992; Jaramillo et al. 2007). SO is the degree to which salespeople place their own needs and/or the needs of the firm before those of their customers by attempting to sell as much as possible to customers. This is exhibited when salespeople are primarily engaged in selling activities that emphasize “getting the sale” (Schultz and Good 2000; Boles et al. 2001). Few researchers focus their attention on SO as one of the sales approaches enhancing sales performance and previous studies generally discuss SO as a factor negatively correlated with customer orientation (CO) (Saxe and Weitz 1982; Brown et al. 1992). These studies suggest SO should be controlled to encourage CO. However, Schwepker (2003) shows in his overviews of recent research that there is not a general consensus on the relationship between SO and individual sales performance. In fact, some studies indicate that SO increases individual sales performance, while others find that it is not an influential factor (e.g. Goff et al. 1997; Boles et al. 2001; Wachnel et al. 2009). Salespeople are required to adopt long-term perspectives as well as short-term sales results simultaneously in a competitive market; thus, it is meaningful to explore whether SO, as an aggressive sales approach, improves individual sales performance and whether SO can be used as an effective organizational indicator. Some studies, on the other hand, argue that the relationship between SO and individual performance is affected by moderating factors, such as differences in performance measurement (subjective or objective) (Jaramillo et al. 2007) and the sales skill level salespeople possess (Wachner et al. 2009). For example, Wachner et al. (2009) tested the moderating impact of three selling skills: interpersonal skills, salesmanship skills, and technical skills. These studies show that various external and individual factors can affect the relationship between SO and performance. Unfortunately, the impact of internal factors, such as integration with other functional members of the organization, has largely ignored. However, integration between salespeople and a variety of functional members is crucial for exchanging information and activating organizational learning (Rouizes et al. 2005), which may affect sales strategy. Indeed, salespeople, as boundary spanners, cooperate with other functional members and provide the firm with external market information (Griffin and Hauser 1990; Singh 1998; Krohmer et al. 2002). On the other hand, salespeople also receive information and support regarding new products and product delivery from other functional members, which benefits individuals’ sales performance. Our study, therefore, aims to examine the performance impact of SO at the level of the individual salesperson. In addition, we test for the moderating effect of integration with other functional members. We use the term integration as proposed by Kahn (2001), in which levels of integration are gauged by the extent of information exchange and personal interaction, and argue that integration, as an option internally available to salespeople, will increase the effectiveness of a sales approach. The indices we use to judge individual sales performance are as follows: the sales figures achieved, the degree to which the salesperson commits to the target sales figure, the number of new customers found, and the level of task innovation displayed in comparison with other members of the same sales team. SO is usually seen as a short-term sales approach. While pure SO cannot have a positive effect on customer loyalty or satisfaction levels (Boles et al. 2001; Schwepker 2003), it is often the most effective short-term selling method. In fact, Wachner et al. (2009) report that SO directly increased individual sales performance in the B to B market settings. Moreover, Boles et al. (2001) reported that SO is not harmful to relationships with customers for in-store retail settings because customers expect salespeople to engage in selling-oriented behavior to some degree. Schwepker (2003) argues that salespeople are more likely to utilize SO in an effort to meet the demands and goals placed on them when managements use the outcome-based measurements (e.g. financial performance) to evaluate their performance. This may mean that when salespeople take a more strongly selling-oriented approach, they increase their attention on selling itself and find effective methods for increasing performance. These discussions show that SO is influential in increasing sales performance. Our first hypothesis, therefore, is: H1. SO positively affects individual sales performance. Meunier-FitzHugh and Piercy (2007) emphasize that the selling of products and services is not exclusive to marketing or sales. Integration between different functional members is vital to improved customer satisfaction and product development performance (Kahn 2001). In addition, Kahn and Mentzer (1998) show that integration between different functional members has a positive influence on performance in terms of department success, overall firm performance and new product development. The authors explain that the information exchange intrinsic to integration allows members to reduce uncertainty, thereby facilitating different types of performance. By transmitting information and interacting with members who work in complementary functions, salespeople are more likely to increase their product knowledge and control time schedules. Accordingly, we expect integration with other functional members to positively impact individual performance. According to Storbacka et al. (2009), sales can play an important role in new product development, which also increases opportunities to broaden customer relationships and modify sales strategies. We argue that when integration is coupled with SO, individual performance improves because integration modifies SO’s aggressive behaviors into an adaptive selling style. Adaptive selling is considered “the altering of sales behaviors during a customer interaction or across customer interactions based on perceived information about the nature of the selling situation” (Weitz et al. 1986, p. 175). Franke and Park (2006) argue that the benefits of adaptive selling behaviors are likely to outweigh the costs of gathering and applying information to specific situations, thereby improving overall individual sales performance. Thus, if salespeople integrate with other functional members in the process of selling products and providing customized service according to customer needs, we expect that the relationship between SO and individual performance will be stronger. On the other hand, role ambiguity of salespeople may be reduced by high SO, which stimulate salespeople to put higher priorities on selling and short-term purpose (Tubre and Collins, 2000; Wachner et al. 2009). Low role ambiguity will make functional integration efficient and effective since allocation and coordination regarding functional roles cost less compared with the situation where the roles are ambiguous. Therefore, when salespeople have higher SO, integration produces more results in shorter time. Hence, on the basis of this reasoning, we hypothesize that: H2. Integration positively affects individual sales performance. H3. The positive relationship between SO and individual sales performance is stronger when salespeople are more integrated with other functional members. 382 questionnaires were handed out to a firm and 186 salespeople including the sales managers filled in the questionnaires. This company’s services and products are related to real estate, car insurance and financial insurance. We chose this particular company because the salespeople are encouraged to use SO approaches and generally integrate with other functional members. Based on Wachner et al. (2009), SO was measured with a three-item indicator that included the following items: “high sales performance is more important than how to accomplish it,” “I try to focus attention on the degree of sales performance compared with others,” and “when a company appraises salespeople, only financial performance has to be considered.” These measures were modified from those used in Wachner et al. (2009) to reflect SO’s short-term transactional manner and emphasis on high financial performance. In addition, the integration with other functional members referred to in Kahn and Mentzer (1998) was also measured using an indicator with the following items: “I frequently exchanges information with other functional members,” “I am actively gathering information from colleagues with different functions,” “critical information is shared between colleagues with different functions,” and “the integration between sales and other functions is possible.” We assessed the validity and dimensionality of our reflective constructs by performing a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Our CFA model contains SO (three items, α= .730), integration (four items, α= .839), and performance (four items, α = .826). The model shows an acceptable fit with the data with a χ2 of 153.481 (df = 41, p< .001), a comparative fit index (CFI) of .926, AGFI of 0.846 and a root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) of .10. We conducted a moderated hierarchical regression analysis to test our hypotheses. Regression results have been provided in Table 1. After mean-centering the interaction variables, multicollinearity was irrelevant because the VIF of the multicollinearity statistic was low level. Model 1 includes control variables and the effects of SO and integration. Model 1 reveals a positive effect of selling orientation (β= .201, p< .01) and integration (β= .358, p< .001) on performance. In Model 2, interaction terms were added. The Model 2 results indicate that the interaction effect between SO and integration on performance is positive and significant (β= .142, p< .05) supporting H3. Post hoc analysis also confirms that integration moderates SO to increase performance. Specifically, examination of the simple regression lines show that there is only an effect of the SO on performance when the salesperson’s integration level is high (t= 3.60, p< .00), but is not significant when integration level is low (t= 1.085, ns). Overall, our results indicate that SO and integration have an important impact on individual sales performance. In addition, as shown by Fig. 1, SO affects individual performance more positively when salespeople integrate more fully with other functional members. These results highlight the tact that, when they co-exist, SO and integration between different functional members contributes to increased individual sales performance. As one of the components of market orientation, integration with other functional members prompts salespeople to consider customer satisfaction. By exchanging knowledge and contributing to internal information flow, integration allows salespeople to develop SO into an adaptive selling approach, thereby increasing sales performance. On the other hand, because high SO results in salespeople using their time and efforts more effectively for performance with integration than low SO, sales performance increases. From a theoretical perspective, the findings we report here taking into account the moderating effects of integration, present a new understanding of the relationship between SO and individual performance. Moreover, our findings have managerial implications. Although SO has a positive effect on individual performance, SO also presents considerable challenges, such as decreasing customer loyalty and endangering salespeople’s job satisfaction (Boles et al. 2001; Schwepker 2003). As a result, the relationship between SO and salespeople’s individual performance requires more discussion and should be considered carefully. Our study shows that sales management could potentially increase sales performance by using cross function teams and setting financial goals, which would simultaneously encourage integration as well as SO (Rouziès et al. 2005).

Although the relationship marketing literature acknowledges the importance of switching costs for increasing customer retention in general, little is known about its relevance in industrial markets. In particular, it is unclear whether switching costs and its dimensions impact relevant behavioral outcomes of buyer-seller relationships in business-to-business (B2B) markets. Against this background, our research intends to make two main contributions: Since we assume differential effects for different types of switching costs, our research first explores the dimensions of switching costs for the B2B domain. Second, it tests the relative impact of the dimensions of switching costs on business customers’ actual purchase behavior. Results suggest that switching costs in B2B settings are a multi-faceted construct, including (i) procedural, (ii) financial, and (iii) relational switching costs. Moreover, we find relational switching costs to be most important for securing B2B buyer-seller relationships since they impact a customer’s (a) share-of-wallet, (b) cross buying behavior, and (c) actual switching behavior. While procedural switching costs only influence share-of-wallet, financial switching costs solely impact customer’s cross-buying behavior across a firm’s product and services categories. These findings contribute to a better understanding about how to secure B2B buyer-seller relationships.

This study builds upon the scant brand personality (BP) literature in services and highlights its applicability to services marketing, which is critical given increasing interest in building favourable service brands. This study examines the impact of Geuens, Weijters and De Wulf’s, (2009) BP measure, an arguably theoretically superior measure of BP to Aaker’s (1997), into an accepted nomological net by Chaudhuri and Holbrook (2001), and tests the extent to which BP dimensions determine behavioural outcomes in services (Geuens et al., 2009).