Introduction Service quality is becoming an important business factor even in the business-to-business markets. Actually, the various service factors such as technical level, lead time and after-sales service play the role as the important factors regarding decision making on purchasing other than price in the trade of B2B market. Most researches that measure the service quality in service field have focused on B2C consumer goods and the limited number of researches are only being carried out regarding the service quality in B2B area. Initial studies in B2B borrowed the service quality scale that was made mainly based on consumer goods (Gounaris 2005) by partially using the measure of SERVQUAL that was developed and collected by Parasuraman et al. (1988). In this study, we tried to investigate two main objectives: (1) develop the measurement scale to facilitate assessments of B-to-B service quality and (2) investigate the structural model which deals with the relation between the service quality and B2B relationship performance. Considering that most previous researches about service quality were conducted in the business-to-consumer area, this study conceptualizes the various quality aspects of service that are considered in B2B market and proposes our research model which is the detailed quality measurement scale of B2B service. We developed a measurement scale called B-SERVQUAL for B2B service quality and tested research hypotheses and structural model. Conceptual background This study carried out the comparative analysis against the measured items of previous researches and the contents acquired from the qualitative research. Various different measuring items and aspects related with service quality evaluation can be drawn out through the in-depth interview with companies’ purchasing staffs. To develop items for B2B service quality scale, we followed the procedure proposed by Churchill(1979), and Gerbing and Anderson(1988). First, in-depth interview with purchasing staffs was performed regarding transaction experience with B2B service providers. As proposed by Homburg and Garbe(1999), B2B service was classified into professional service that is provided by service expert company and industrial service that is provided by manufacturer of machine equipment. The responders were instructed to answer some important factors required to evaluate service providing company and items for current service provider to improve. After performing the pre-test with the filtered measuring items, the scale of service quality specialized for B2B service was developed after checking reliability and validity of measurement items. Based on such results of pre-test, we finally carried out the survey of respondents of B2B companies. Our final scales to measure the service quality were composed of 5 factors with 19 items such as economic quality, technical quality, process quality, empathy quality and convenience quality. We determined to call this scale ‘B-SERVQUAL’. Research design We developed research hypotheses and proposed our research model to analyze the effects of service quality on relationship performance in B-to-B market. To verify the sets of hypotheses and study model, we conducted questionnaire survey, targeting the personnel in purchase departments of public corporation and in the field of distribution/logistics, financial services, construction, manufacturing (electricity / machine, textile leather, food). A total of 250 questionnaires were distributed directly or through mail and 230 responses were used for the final analysis. Result and conclusion Through the confirmatory factor analysis, reliability and validity of the study constructs were verified. By using the structural equation model, research hypotheses were tested and most research hypotheses were statistically significant and accepted. The final research model also showed the statistical significance with the goodness-of-fit indices. We found that service quality has a positive effect on relationship bonding, indicating that the superior service quality of service providers leads relationship bonding with buyers. Five dimensions considered in this study bring not only structural bond but also the social bond that refers to the emotional bonding. Relationship bonding has a positive effect on commitment. Relationship commitment appeared to be an important factor that has a positive effect on relationship performance, which demonstrates the reduction of management cost through commitment. This study reflected the economic and convenience aspects of services that haven’t been highlighted in the previous studies in the business marketing area. This study has academic implications in that it reflected the economic aspects of services, which have been dealt with conceptually by some scholars such as profitability, productivity, and cost. From the viewpoint of B2B service providers, the B-SERVQUAL proposed in this study will be helpful guide for B2B marketers to specifically identify the customers’ needs and manage their service quality in the business market.

The rise of the sharing economy is transforming the tourism and hospitality industry (So, Oh, and Min, 2018; Zhu, So, and Hudson, 2017). The growing popularity of Airbnb has led a number of recent studies to investigate consumer value derived from such innovative consumption model. In the context of Airbnb, research shows that perceived value motivated travelers to choose Airbnb (Mao & Lyu, 2017). However, the theoretical construct of consumer value includes multiple dimensions, such as emotional value, social value, price value, and quality value, and how each dimension contributes to consumer attitudes and behavioral intentions toward Airbnb is unexplored. Therefore, this study sets forth a national field investigation to provide a holistic understanding of consumer evaluation of various value dimensions with respect to Airbnb experiences. To empirically test the proposed model, a quantitative, national online survey was conducted using Qualtrics Online Sample. After checking the performance of the measurement model, we evaluated the results of the structural model. The results show that emotional value and quality value significantly explain overall attitude toward Airbnb, whereas, price value and social value were not significant in predicting attitude. However, price value and social value, together with overall attitude, significantly explain consumer’s purchase intention. The results show that the t values from bootstrapping were greater than 1.96, and the R2 values for endogenous variables well exceeded .26. All exogenous constructs producing effect sizes ranging from small to large. In addition, the Q2 for the endogenous latent constructs were well above the threshold, with .421 for overall attitude and .472 for behavioral intentions, thereby substantiating the structural soundness of the proposed model.

Introduction Celebrities are actively capitalizing on their fame and credibility by launching their own brand extensions which are heavily promoted on Instagram. This situation is especially prevalent in Malaysia among many local Malay ‘celepreneurs’. While consumers’ constant involvement with a celebrity on Instagram is believed to result in the purchase of celebrity branded products, the central question of how a causal variable such as Instagram involvement has an effect on the outcome of purchase has been less explored in contemporary studies. The role of celebrity adulation and style conformity in the context of celebrity branding-cum-entrepreneurship deserves much attention given the strong influence celebrities exert on young consumers in this digital era of accessible information. Research framework Given the admiration that young consumers have towards the celebrities they follow on Instagram, celebrity worship, in both pathological and non-pathological form, is believed to be a crucial link between their involvement with the social media and their desire to imitate their favourite celebrity’s style. Eventually this paves the way for the purchase of celebrity brand products given that getting the products is an avenue for the young consumers to attain their celebrities’ style. Therefore in this study, four variables that mediate the relationship between Instagram involvement and purchase of celebrity branded products are examined: celebrity worship as manifested across three varying levels particularly entertainment-social (lowest form of worship); intense-personal (mid-level); borderline pathological (highest level); and style conformity. Method Data was collected from 226 Malaysian women of Malay ethnicity who are active Instagram users and fall under the technology-savvy Millennial segment using a self-administered questionnaire. This segment of consumers is technology savvy and has personalities and lifestyles (Gurau, 2012). They also tend to imitate their favourite celebrity in contrast to their male counterparts (Djafarova & Rushworth, 2017). Measures for the mediating variables were derived from McCutcheon et al.’s (2002) Celebrity Worship Scale and Park and Yang’s (2010) items on celebrity style conformity. A five-point scale (1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree) was utilized to capture the responses to the variables measured. Analysis and results Serial multiple mediation testing was applied on the data using variance-based structural equation modelling. The multiple mediation analysis showed that of all the three levels of celebrity worship which mediate the link between Instagram involvement and style conformity, only celebrity worship (entertainment-social) was found to be a significant mediator between Instagram involvement and style conformity (Indirect effect=0.127; t-value= 3.285, 95% Boot CI: LL=0.059, UL=0.216). In addition, the presence of a serial mediation was detected for the link between Instagram involvement-celebrity worship (entertainment-social)-style conformity-purchase of celebrity brand products (Indirect effect=0.04; t-value=2.954, 95% Boot CI: LL=0.02, UL=0.08). Conclusion The serial mediation testing in this study has demonstrated that celebrity worship and style conformity serve as the missing link between the involvement-purchase relationship. Furthermore, the multiple mediation testing has shown that only celebrity worship at the basic level functions as a mediator. The findings of this study imply that the use of Instagram is indeed a compelling marketing communication tool that fosters the purchase of celebrity brand extensions. Constant involvement in Instagram by following the celebrity, liking, reposting, commenting or hashtagging on the celebrity’s account builds a keen sense of devotion for the celebrity whereby the individual will constantly watch, read and learn about the celebrity. This then heightens the user’s desire to emulate the style of the celebrity which may well lead them to purchase the celebrity’s products in an effort to imitate the celebrity’s look and demeanour. strong desire for and high willingness to spend on branded products that match their

During the last decade, customer complaint management received considerable attention in marketing literature, e.g., researchers examined the consequences of a negative incident on customer attitudes towards the provider and the associated behavioral intention such as self-reported repurchase intentions ( e.g. Evanschitzky, Brock, and Blut, 2011; Smith and Bolton, 2002; van Doorn and Verhoef, 2008). However, this stream of research has not examined actual purchase behavior after the complaint (e.g., de Matos, Henrique, and Rossi, 2007). Hence, it is unclear whether service recovery only affects self-reported outcomes (i.e., purchase intention) or actual purchase behavior. Moreover, recent research has indicated that customer inertia explains a large proportion of the variance of a customer’s repurchase behavior (e.g. van Doorn and Verhoef, 2008). So far, no research has assessed the impact of inertia in the service recovery context. It is indicated that the relationship between the provider and the customer is strongly affected by the service failure (van Doorn and Verhoef, 2008), but as of now, the role of past behavior has not been investigated. This study contributes to the complaint management literature by (1) analyzing the effects of service recovery on actual purchase behavior after recovery and (2) by assessing the role of inertia in situations of service recovery. Results indicate that complaint satisfaction has a significant positive impact on post complaining purchase behavior while overall satisfaction has no such effect. Furthermore, past purchase behavior has the strongest impact; thus, inertia plays a substantial role in complaint management.

This presentation introduces a methodological framework that analyzes a model of destination image formation (Baloglu & McCleary 1999; Beerli & Martin 2004). Specifically, the main aims of this study are to investigate what type of stimulus factors (information sources) are connected to the formation of destination image, and to explore if there is a connection between their strength of willingness to visit a destination and their patterns to associate with the destination. The study employs an advanced nonparametric Bayesian relational model (Glückstad, Herlau, Schmidt, Rzepka, Araki and Mørup 2013; Mørup, Glückstad, Herlau & Schmidt, 2014) for a two-steps analysis . The first step attempts to segment consumers according to patterns of attributes consumers associate with three arbitrary selected destinations. The second step statistically analyzes latent structural patterns per segment by contrasting two independent datasets, one consisting of information sources and members of a segment and another consisting of destination attributes and the members of the segment. The results of two-steps analysis demonstrated that patterns of attributes respondents associate with the three selected destinations differ across individuals and the applied method enabled to segment respondents according to the differences, and consumers’ associations, their willingness to visit the destinations and types of information sources they have accessed to learn about the destinations are connected to each other.

Composite pavements are constructed by placing a high functional asphalt surface layer on a high performance concrete rigid base layer and provide a more durable, high functional surface to road users. Service life of composite pavements is dependent on the bonding performance of the lower rigid base and the flexible surface layer. Accordingly, it is necessary to place an impermeability layer between the functional surface layer and the rigid base to enhance bonding performance and to prevent moisture penetration into the rigid base and deterioration of pavement. In order to use optimal composite pavement sections, two types were applied to impermeability layer: highly impermeable water-tight SMA and mastic asphalt currently in use. APT (Accelerated Pavement Testing) and experimental construction were carried out to evaluate bond strengths between the rigid base and the impermeability layer depending on the type of impermeability layers. Composite pavement sections for the APT had a 22 cm concrete rigid base layer and a 5cm functional surface, as well as either 5cm of SMA impermeability layer and 5cm of mastic layer. After applying around 8,574,000 ESALs, pull-off test was conducted, which showed that the mastic section outperformed the SMA section. In the experimental construction, three types of rigid base layers, JCP (Jointed Concrete Pavement), CRCP (Continuously Reinforced Concrete Pavement), and RCCP (Roller Compacted Concrete Pavement), were used for composite pavement sections, and as in the APT, two types of impermeability layers, SMA and mastic, were used per rigid base layer of new and deteriorated concrete pavement. Therefore, seven composite pavement sections in total were constructed. We measured the bond strength over one year or so following the construction of these composite pavement sections and found that regardless of the type of rigid base layer and whether it was new or not, those sections with a mastic impermeability layer had high bond strengths.

2016년 기준 국내 자동차 등록대수는 약 2,200만대를 육박하고 있으나[1], 국내 자동차용 표준 연료에 대한 기준은 부재한 상황이다. 자동차용 표준연료(Reference Fuel)는 차량의 연비와 배출가스를 인증하거나 새로운 자동차를 개발할 때 차량의 성능 등을 평가하기 위해 사용하는 연료를 의미한다. 현재 국내에는 차량의 배출가스, 성능, 연비시험 등을 위해 유통연료를 사용하고 있으며, 유통연료는 석유 및 석유대체연료사업법과 대기환경보전법상의 품질기준을 만족하지만 각 제조사의 원료와 공정 등에 따라 연료의 물성 차이가 있어 차량 시험 시 편차가 발생할 수 있다. 본 연구에서는 국내 유통되는 자동차용 경유 품질모니터링 분석결과를 바탕으로 자동차용 경유의 시험용 표준연료 기준(안)을 설정하고, CRDI 방식의 차량에 적용하여 표준연료 기준(안)을 평가하였다.

PURPOSES : So far, aged cement concrete pavement on express highways has been rehabilitated mainly with asphalt concrete inlay. However, potholes were the major problem, and they shortened the life of the inlay mainly owing to the poor drainage of water once it infiltrated the interface of the concrete and asphalt. The purpose of this study is to compare the performance and economic efficiency of asphalt overlay and inlayMETHODS: Overlay and inlay were compared through accelerated pavement testing, and a life-cycle cost analysis was conducted in this study using the CA4PRS program.RESULTS and CONCLUSIONS : It was found from accelerated pavement testing that the overlay exhibited reflective crack resistance that was more than twice as effective as that of inlay. The total cost (construction cost + user cost) within the analysis period (20 years) of the overlay was 37% lower than that of the inlay.

In this study, the homogeneity and stability of standard samples for proficiency testing in indoor air quality within the country (formaldehyde, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, p-xylene, styrene, TVOC) were evaluated. The procedures and statistical analysis methods applied in ISO/IEC 13528 (2009) and KS A ISO Guide 35 (2005) were applied as evaluation methods. The homogeneity evaluation was a statistical analysis of repeated measurements of each of the 11 ports and between the 11 ports concentration data. As a result, the coefficient of variation (CV) was within the range of 1.9%~5.9%. The difference between the ports was found to be insignificant and met the statistical standard specified in KS Q ISO 13528. The stability evaluation was assessed by the change in concentration over the long-term stability of the standard samples stored for 90 days. The coefficient of variation (CV), which was within the range of 2.6%~9.0%, exhibited changes in the concentration of the long-term stored standard samples. However, the results satisfy the statistical standard specified in KS A ISO Guide 35. Overall, there is no significant difference between the homogeneity of the standard samples by the port and the stability of the long-term stored samples. Therefore, it is considered to be an appropriate method to supply standard samples in an indoor air quality proficiency test.

An objective classification of commercial thickened foods was studied for Korean elderly people with swallowing difficulty as based on rheological properties. A total of 16 commercial products (grain porridges, vegetable porridges, meat porridges, fish and shellfishes porridges, nut porridges) were measured using a stress-controlled rheometer with stainless steel plate-plate geometry and building material cell. Joint consideration has been made of viscous behavior (flow and thixotropy) and viscoelastic behavior (oscillatory testing). Rheological measurements were fitted to different rheological and empirical mathematical models, and a total of 11 parameters were generated. Based on these parameters and the use of fuzzy clustering and the c-means method, an objective classification of all the products was obtained. 16 commercial products were divided to 3 clusters. Each class has been defined from the parameters of the centroids generated by the classification method used - thus allowing us to know the common rheological characteristics of any of the products belonging to a given class. The results of this classification encourage further to develop of the new products for Korean elderly people.

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) are reportedly detected in public drinking water supplies. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers these compounds emerging contaminants and PFOA and PFOS were placed on EPA’s Contaminant Candidate List and health advisory levels for them in drinking water were established at 70 ppt. NSF created protocol NSF P473, which established minimum requirements for materials, design, construction and performance of drinking water treatment systems to remove PFOA and PFOS. The basic test protocol methodologies for NSF P473 are based on organic contaminant reduction protocols under NSF/ANSI Standard 53 for activated carbon systems, and on health effects contaminant reduction protocols under NSF/ANSI Standard 58 for reverse osmosis (RO) systems.

The present paper proposes an categorization of commercial fluid products. A total of 21 commercial fluid products were analyzed(porridges, universal design foods, foods for special medical purposes) corresponding to 11 different commercial brands. Joint consideration has been made of viscous behavior (flow and thixotropy) and viscoelastic behavior (oscillatory testing). Rheological measurements were fitted to different rheological mathematical models, and a total of 4 parameters were generated. Our results correspond to three different classes. The three defined classes have been named in a way similar those most commonly used in the literature. Each class has been defined from the parameters allows us to know the common rheological characteristics of any of the products belonging to a given class.

For future space IR missions, such as SPICA, it is crucial to establish an experimental method for eval- uating the performance of mid-IR detectors. In particular, the wavelength dependence of the sensitivity is important but difficult to be measured properly. We are now preparing a testing system for mid-IR Si:As/Si:Sb detectors on SPICA. We have designed a cryogenic optical system in which IR signal light from a pinhole is collimated, passed through an optical filter, and focused onto a detector. With this system, we can measure the photoresponse of the detector for various IR light using optical lters with different wavelength properties. We have fabricated aluminum mirrors which are adopted to minimize thermal distortion effects and evaluated the surface figure errors. The total wavefront error of the optical system is 1.3 μm RMS, which is small enough for the target wavelengths (20-37 μm) of SPICA. The point spread function measured at a room temperature is consistent with that predicted by the simulation. We report the optical performance of the system at cryogenic temperatures.

2015년 기준 자동차 등록대수는 약 2,100만대를 넘어 1가구당 1.07대를 보유하고 있는 실정이 나[1], 국내 자동차용 표준연료에 대한 기준은 부재한 상황이다. 자동차용 표준연료(reference fuel)는 차 량의 연비와 배출가스를 인증하거나 새로운 자동차를 개발할 때 차량의 성능 등을 평가하기 위해 사용 하는 연료를 의미한다. 현재 국내에는 차량의 배출가스, 성능, 연비시험 등을 위해 유통연료를 사용하고 있으며, 유통연료는 석유 및 석유대체연료사업법과 대기환경보전법 상의 품질기준을 만족하지만 각 제조 사의 원료와 공정 등에 따라 연료의 물성차이가 있어 차량 시험 시 편차가 발생할 수 있다. 본 연구에서 는 국내 유통되는 휘발유 품질모니터링 분석결과를 바탕으로 표준연료 기준(안)을 설정하고, GDI와 MPI 연료 분사 방식의 차량에 적용하여 비교 평가한 결과, 실제 유통연료를 사용했을 때 최대 3.8%까지 발생 하는 연비차이가 1.1%까지 감소함을 확인할 수 있었다.

This study was conducted to test the green-tide mitigation technique in the lower part of the Sook Stream (Chusori) of Daecheong Reservoir from June 27 to August 24, 2014. And the effects were compared with weekly monitoring result of the watching station of the algae alert system (AAS) as well as test beds reach. The green-tide in a test bed was begun from the upstream, and it was gradually transferred and spread toward the downstream by the hydrological factors. The total amount of algae removed by algae removal device during the test period was 33,920 kg, and solids dewatered by natural gravity was 8,480 kg. Also chlorophyll-a content was 2.83 kg, the number of blue-green algae cells was equivalent to 78.6×1014 cells. Compared with the results of the watching station of AAS, the pre-concentrate removal work in the outbreak waters was able to suggest the possibility of green-tide mitigation. In addition, an effective management of the green-tide was required spatial and temporal occurrence information and practical device technology. Particularly, the optimal timing of algae removal in the river-reservoir hybrid system was recommended at times before the monsoon rainy season and reached the lowest water level.

OBJECTIVES : The objective of this study is to analyze the nonlinear behavior of block pavements using multi-load level falling weight deflectometer (FWD) deflections. METHODS: Recently, block pavements are employed not only in sidewalks, but also in roadways. For the application of block pavements in roadways, the structural capacities of subbase and subgrade are important factors that support the carry traffic load. Multi-load level FWD testing was conducted on block pavements to analyze their nonlinear behavior. The deflection ratio due to the increase in load was analyzed to estimate the nonlinearity of block pavements. Finite element method with nonlinear soil model was applied to simulate the actual nonlinear behavior of the block pavement under different levels of load. RESULTS: The results of the FWD testing show that the center deflections in block pavements are approximately ten times greater than that in asphalt pavements. The deflection ratios of the block pavement due to the increase in the load range from 1.2 to 1.5, indicating that the deflection increased by 20~50%. The material coefficients of the nonlinear soil model were determined by comparing the measured deflections with the predicted deflections using the finite element method. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, the nonlinear behavior of block pavements was reviewed using multi-load level FWD testing. The deflection ratio proposed in this study can estimate the nonlinearity of block pavements. The use of nonlinear soil model in subbase and subgrade increases the accuracy of predicting deflections in finite element method.