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This paper describes the development process of a mobile Voice User Interface (VUI) for Korean users with dysarthria with currently available speech recognition technology by conducting systematic user needs analysis and applying usability testing feedback to prototype system designs.

Four usability surveys are conducted for the development of the prototype system. According to the two surveys on user needs and user experiences with existing VUI systems at the stage of the prototype design, the target platforms, and target applications are determined. Furthermore, a set of basic words is selected by the prospective users, which enables the system to be not only custom designed for dysarthric speakers but also individualized for each user. Reflecting the requests relating to general usage of the VUI and the UI design preference of users through evaluation of the initial prototype, we develop the final prototype, which is an individualized voice keyboard for mobile devices based on an isolated word recognition engine with word prediction.

The results of this paper show that target user participation in system development is effective for improving usability and satisfaction of the system, as the system is developed considering various ideas and feedback obtained in each development stage from different prospective users.

We have developed an automatic speech recognition-based mobile VUI system not only custom designed for dysarthric speakers but also individualized for each user, focussing on the usability aspect through four usability surveys. This voice keyboard system has the potential to be an assistive and alternative input method for people with speech impairment, including mild to moderate dysarthria, and people with physical disabilities.

The purpose of this study is to investigate dimensional accuracy (Δd), surface roughness (Ra) and micro hardness (HV) of partial dentures (PD) prepared with synergic combination of fused deposition modelling (FDM) assisted chemical vapour smoothing (CVS) patterns and conventional dental casting (DC) from multi-factor optimization view point.

The master pattern for PD was prepared with acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) thermoplastic on FDM set-up (one of the low cost additive manufacturing process) followed by CVS process. The final PD as functional prototypes was casted with nickel–chromium-based (Ni-Cr) alloy by varying Ni% (Z). The other input parameters were powder to water ratio P/W (X) and pH value (Y) of water used.

The results of this study suggest that for controlling the Δd and R_a of the PD, most important factor is X, followed by Z. For hardness of PD, the most important factor is Z. But from overall optimization viewpoint, the best settings are X-100/12, Y-10 and Z-61% (in Ni-Cr alloy). Further, based upon X-bar chart (for HV), the FDM-assisted DC process used for preparation of PD is statistically controlled.

This study highlights that PD prepared with X-100/12, Y-10 and Z-61% gives overall better results from multi-factor optimization view point. Finally, X-bar chart has been plotted to understand the statistical nature of the synergic combination of FDM, CVS and DC.

Purpose – This chapter aims to identify and address methodological issues inherent in business group studies, especially within the context of South Korean chaebols, many of which have been exalted as most remarkable cases of business groups.

Design/Methodology/Approach – After reviewing the theoretical background and the evolution of chaebols, the authors identify methodological issues focusing on the constructs of major interest to researchers, which need careful treatment for enhancing the internal and external validity of studies on business groups in general and chaebols in particular.

Findings – Any sample of business groups must be composed based on accurate definitions rather than conventional lists readily available, in accordance with the research purpose. Identifying and quantifying the strategic and structural characteristics of business groups should be accompanied by an understanding of the various types of economic organizations. The uniqueness of business groups in each country should also be considered, especially in conducting comparative analyses and generalizing research findings. Measuring performance needs more careful attention given the increasing complexity in many business groups. The embeddedness of business groups in a specific society as well as their coevolution with the institutional context urges researchers to employ more qualitative or ethnographic methods.

Originality/Value – The authors suggest alternatives through which we can cope with the methodological issues, and make suggestions for future research. As business groups continue to play a significant role in many emerging economies, continuing efforts to elaborate methods will contribute to improving the value of our scholarly work in both academic and practical dimensions.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the Korea tourism brand image in a popular tour guidebook, Lonely Planet Korea and to provide an objective insight for examining destination image.

To achieve this goal, this study used content analysis to analyze the Korea tourism brand image.

Overall, 200,435 words were selected. The frequency of words was highly related to transportation and famous attractions. Moreover, to evaluate the value of the Korea tourism brand image, only adjectives in context were extracted. In total, 2,716 adjectives in each category were examined. The Korea tourism brand image was positive in that “good” adjectives were the most frequently selected. Furthermore, value properties based on The Lasswell Value Dictionary were examined. The value of words also supported the results of the content analysis of adjectives. The results of correspondence analysis found that the “outdoor” category was separately positioned with “old” adjectives.

Based on the results of content analysis by category, selected adjectives reflected current Korean tourism and hospitality problems.

The paper suggests implications that can be used to improve the Korea tourism brand image.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of domestic ownership on the stock return volatility. The authors use a detailed panel data set of 89 French companies listed on the SBF 120 over the period 2006-2013. The empirical results show that the domestic institutional investors have low stock price volatility in the French stock market. This result implies the stabilizing factor of domestic investors in France stock markets, which can be considered as one of the potential favor of growing the exhibition of domestic stock markets to institutional investors. This study employs a variety of econometric models, including feedbacks, to test the robustness of our empirical results.

To explain the relation between stock return volatility and domestic institutional investors (DIIs), the authors used two complementary methods: two-step generalized method of moments analysis as well as panel vector autoregressive framework and two-stage least squares (2SLS) method.

The authors’ empirical results show that the proportion of DIIs with advanced local degrees stabilizes the stock price volatility. However, firm’s size and the turnover have a positive effect on the volatility of the stock returns. This result is consistent with the hypothesis that the firm’s size and the turnover will increase price volatility during a financial crisis as a result of the deterioration of the monitoring mechanism and the reduction of the investors’ confidence in firms.

This result also indicates that the variables (the firm’s size, total sales and debt ratio) are poor corporate governance and have a role in the increased the stock return volatility.