A systematic approach for identifying technology opportunities: Keyword-based morphology analysis

Morphology analysis (MA), a representative qualitative technique in technology forecasting (TF), has been utilized to identify technology opportunities. However, conventional MA is subject to limitations in that there is no scientific or systematic way in establishing the morphology of technology, and it is difficult to prioritize the alternatives. As a remedy, we propose a keyword-based MA that is supported by a systematic procedure and quantitative data for concluding the morphology of technology. To this end, a technology dictionary is developed by factor analysis for keywords that are extracted from patent documents through text mining. Then, the morphology of patents is identified based on the technology dictionary. By listing the occupied configurations of collected patents, the unoccupied territory of configurations are suggested as technology opportunities. Moreover, the priority of alternatives is concluded, and similar and substitutive technologies can be analyzed for the purpose of extending morphology structure. Technical and managerial strategy for in-house R&D or cross-licensing can also be supported by examining the morphology portfolio of technologies. A thin film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) case is exemplified to illustrate the detailed procedure of this brand-new MA.     

Price stability through price-level targeting or inflation targeting? A tale of two experiments

Price stability can be attained through price-level or inflation targeting. This paper compares the two monetary policy strategies from both a historical and a theoretical perspective. The Swedish experiment with price-level targeting in the 1930 occurred within a framework that lacked the accountability characteristic of New Zealand's current policy framework for inflation-targeting. Using a simple forward-looking rational expectations framework, we show that price-level targeting offers a better output-inflation variability tradeoff than inflation targeting in the forward-looking New Keynesian framework.     

Counting Care Work in Social Policy: Valuing Unpaid Child- and Eldercare in Korea

This study demonstrates the usefulness of quantifying and valuing time spent on unpaid care work and explores the links between social policies, unpaid care work, and gender equality in the context of recent social care reforms in the Republic of Korea. Using information provided by two nationally representative surveys, this article elaborates on the gendered organization of care provision and the total costs of care services for children and the elderly, including unpaid family care, family expenditures on care services, and state support in the form of public expenditures. The study finds that omitting the role of family care services overestimates the state's role in caring for children and elderly adults. A closer look at the impact of long-term care insurance reveals the need for integrated analyses of the qualitative and quantitative aspects of the social organization of care, especially in regard to gender equality.     

Understanding schema incongruity as a process in advertising: Review and future recommendations

Information incongruent to schema has the potential to increase interest, memorability, and persuasiveness in consumers. For this reason, strategies evoking schema incongruity have often been used in advertising. Despite its presence in practice, our knowledge of how and why incongruity works in advertising is limited. The current paper proposes a four-stage process model by integrating Mandler's Schema Incongruity theory and Optimal stimulation level theory to increase our understanding of incongruity in advertising. Each stage will be discussed in detail with a focus on the impact factors that need to be addressed for using a successful incongruity strategy. Implications for marketers and advertisers as well as future research suggestions are provided.     

The role of U.S. naval power in the Asia‐pacific region: From regional protector to regional balancer

For more than four decades, U.S. engagement in the Asia‐Pacific was centered on two premises: a Cold War commitment to Asian security and the remarkable economic power of the U.S. The U.S. Navy provided a symbol of the United States’ commitment to protect its interests and those of its major Asian‐pacific allies. Despite the end of the Cold War, the security environment of the Asia‐Pacific region is still less changed and even a new threat of a regional naval arms race emerged in the 1990s. In this context, although forward deployments of U.S. military power in the Western Pacific have been scaled down, it is certain that the U.S. naval force will continue to play an important role as a key “regional balancer.” Amid the collapse of the Soviet Union and in the post‐Cold War era, the U.S. has still emphasized the maintenance of a U.S. forward‐deployed presence and strong defense alliances with U.S. allies in order to prevent the emergence of regional hegemonic powers and to contribute to regional stability as well as improve U.S. economic interests. Moreover, in the face of a multitude of threats from state and non‐state actors, the U.S. Navy is increasingly focused on and driven by the demands of peacetime and crisis forward presence.     

Thanatourism or peace tourism: perceived value at a North Korean resort from an indigenous perspective

This paper examines the underlying factors that affected perceived value among South Korean tourists who visited the North Korean Mt Kumgang resort. Results identified emotional, functional and economic values as core elements that directly affected guest satisfaction, which influenced intentions to recommend and revisit. Seen as a peace tourism site when the Sunshine Policy of rapprochement guided inter‐Korean strategy, we argue that the resort project is a heterotopia of comparison combining idealized cultural and contradictory political spaces in one place. Understanding this needs Korean ideas that lead to a thanatourism with an indigenous perspective, which is applicable to other non‐Western thanatourism‐like sites. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The work–family interface in Korea: can family life enrich work life?

Using data obtained from 363 Korean civil servants, we examine the mechanism of family-to-work enrichment. Although individualistic Western work–family literature predicts that resources from the family role, both instrumental and affective, will improve the work role by mitigating the negative job stress–job satisfaction relationship, data from collectivistic Korean society show an unexpected opposite effect – an accentuating, not a mitigating moderating effect. Family resources – especially affective resources – may function as an additional work stressor rather than enrich the work role under collectivists' weak identity separation between work and family roles. This study thus reveals the cultural biases in the extant Western work–family literature by showing that the cultural variance in role identity separation/integration may underlie the mechanism of family-to-work enrichment.     

Training investment and organizational outcomes: a moderated mediation model of employee outcomes and strategic orientation of the HR function

Using a predictive research design with data collected at three different time points over a four-year period from 277 firms in South Korea, we investigated how and when investment in employee training leads to improved organizational outcomes. The results showed that employee commitment and competence mediated the relationship between training investment and organizational outcomes. The moderated mediation analyses further revealed that the mediated relationship between training investment and organizational outcomes via employee commitment and competence was stronger when the human resources (HR) function within an organization was highly strategically oriented. Based on the results, implications for strategic HR research and practice were provided.     

Advancing consumer neuroscience

In the first decade of consumer neuroscience, strong progress has been made in understanding how neuroscience can inform consumer decision making. Here, we sketch the development of this discipline and compare it to that of the adjacent field of neuroeconomics. We describe three new frontiers for ongoing progress at both theoretical and applied levels. First, the field will broaden its boundaries to include genetics and molecular neuroscience, each of which will provide important new insights into individual differences in decision making. Second, recent advances in computational methods will improve the accuracy and out-of-sample generalizability of predicting decisions from brain activity. Third, sophisticated meta-analyses will help consumer neuroscientists to synthesize the growing body of knowledge, providing evidence for consistency and specificity of brain activations and their reliability as measurements of consumer behavior.     

The effect of attribute-based and alternative-based processing on consumer choice in context

The current research proposes that the extent to which consumer choices are affected by the decision process depends on the underlying nature of the choice problem. Specifically, choices resulting from substantial inter-brand comparisons and tradeoff analyses are vulnerable to whether product information is evaluated by attribute- or alternative-based processing. By contrast, choices resulting from a minimal cognitive processing are less sensitive to variations in the decision strategy employed. We test our theory in the well-known domain of choice context effects. Across three studies using multiple operationalizations of the decision process (i.e., information display format, product presentation mode, and processing goal), we find converging evidence that the more cognitively involving compromise choice increases when the environment facilitates attribute- versus alternative-based processing. Conversely, the choice of asymmetrically dominating option, which is characterized by relatively little analytical processing, does not depend on the type of decision strategy highlighted by the task.