Semantic context effects in forward and backward word translation by Korean learners of English

The preceding review indicates that the results of previous research on the issues of the RHM are not consistent. The present study was designed to investigate this topic further with Korean learners of English. Most of the previous research on semantic context effects in lexical processing has been conducted with participants whose first and second language derive from the same Indo-European family such as Dutch learners of English. The use of Korean learners of English would provide distinct information, since the two languages differ considerably. In addition, this study sought to clarify the possible interaction of semantic context effects and L2 proficiency level. According to Chen (1990), research results have demonstrated that proficiency plays a main role for patterns of lexical processing. In spite of the acknowledged importance of this, there are very few empirical studies of different groups of participants with varying degrees of proficiency in the L2. This study sought to answer the following research questions: 1. Is forward translation conceptually mediated? Is backward translation based on word-word association? 2. Are both or either translation directions facilitated by the presence of a semantically related context? 3. Does L2 proficiency mediate semantic effects in both or either translation directions

Competitive Evolutionary Dynamics of Cloud Service Offerings in Korea: A Path-Dependency Perspective

Cloud service for personal users has become more popular world-wide since Apple Inc. launched iCloud storage service in October, 2011. However, such cloud storage service was not new because many global telecom companies, usually called telcos, as well as many portals had already offered similar Internet-based online storage services at that time. As of now, there can be seen hundreds of diverse cloud storage and computing services for both personal and enterprise users in the global market. During last several years, Korean cloud service market has been led by three major telcos, who have launched more advanced and more diversified services competing with each other. Some questions may arise: What makes that happen and what kind of market dynamics affects on the evolution of cloud service offerings? This paper tries to answer these questions by categorizing and analysing 84 cloud services offered by three major telcos in Korea during last three years. As a research framework, Pessemier’s new product classification scheme was employed and precedence relationships among differently positioned service categories were analyzed to figure out the competitive evolutionary dynamics of the market. From the empirical study, path dependency was observed and resource-based view of the market competition was validated. Also, it was found that a player’s next move in service offering to a better position in Pessemier’s product space is quite closely related with the competitive position as well as the company-owned competitive resources like technology competency and company-wide service scope

Correlating Integrative Complexity With System Modularity

Modularity is the degree to which a system is made up of relatively independent but interacting elements. Modularization is not necessarily a means of reducing intrinsic complexity of the system, but it is a means of effectively redistributing the total complexity across the system. High degree of modularization enable reductionist strategies of system development and is an effective mechanism for complexity redistribution that can be better managed by system developers by enabling design encapsulation. In this paper, we introduce a complexity attribution framework to enable consistent complexity accounting and management procedure and show that integrative complexity has a strong inverse relationship with system modularity and its implication on complexity management for engineered system design and development.Korea (South). Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) (National Research Foundation of Korea. NRF-2016R1D1A1A09916273

The Dynamics of Employees' Identities in the Organization: Evidence from a Korean Company by Eun-Suk Lee.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2011.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 184-200).This dissertation is about identity and identification in organizations. I analyze the dynamic processes by which individual employees' identities are constructed in a large global Korean company (K-Co) that actively pursues a strong organizational culture and an espoused employee identity called "K-C man." First, I examine selection as the first stage of employees' identity dynamics-how the organization embodies the K-Co man identity through selection process. Data analysis showed that K-Co's selection process is organized to seek a good identity fit between an applicant and the organizationally espoused prototypical K-Co man. I compared the K-Co man identity that the organization pursues at selection with the attributes of the K-Co man identity perceived by the current individual K-Co employees. I found substantial consistency between them, which reveals the significance of selection as an initial reification of the organizationally espoused employee identity. Second, I unpack K-Co's 4-week newcomer training program as the second stage of employees' identity dynamics-how organizational identification is ignited through this early socialization process. Interviews with trainers showed that the organization uses institutionalized socialization tactics intending to impose the K-Co man identity on newcomers, thereby imbuing trainees' organizational identification, and mentor and team are two important socialization agents in this process. However, empirical evidence also revealed that individual trainees do not always react to socialization agents as the organization expected: trainees' organizational identification is achieved mainly through mentor identification, but, contrary to the organization's intention, team identification does not converge into organizational identification. Third, I analyze the employees' identity dynamics at the workplace as the third stage-how organizational identification varies among three occupational groups within K-Co (HR, Engineering, and Marketing). Even within the strong cultural context of K-Co, where the organization intends to control employees' identity work, I found the occupation each individual employee holds induces a significant variation in employees' organizational identification. Data analysis showed that how transparently K-Co's organizational identity is projected on the identities of three different occupations significantly affects each occupation incumbents' organizational identification. I also discuss how organizational tenure blurs this occupational variation in organizational identification, making all employees' identity work organization-focused.Ph.D

Design and optimisation of a user-engaged system for sustainable fashion

There is increasing pressure to consider sustainability in fashion design from consumers, industry and educators. Although awareness has grown significantly in the last decade, there are various challenges for linking sustainable production and consumption. Tools to support sustainable design practices exist in some disciplines; however, only a few tools exist to support fashion design. Furthermore, there is a lack of enabling tools which support designers to engage with diverse social actors to encourage sustainable fashion as a process of co-design. The purpose of this study was to investigate and develop an effective enabling design system and tool to support fashion designers and other users in considering production and consumption. In order to achieve this, Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) was selected. When initially approaching the problem, the results of two online surveys identified designers’ and general public groups’ previous attitudes, experiences and challenges towards sustainable fashion. The key lessons from this study were that although both these groups considered sustainability an important issue, this was not actualised in their daily activities. Secondly, fashion design groups were not aware of existing sustainable design tools and had not actively used them. There is demand for useful design tools for sustainable fashion design. After identifying the problems, a toolkit and co-design process was proposed to aid fashion designers and other users, to generate sustainable fashion designs during idea generation. The toolkit was iteratively refined through participatory research and its effectiveness was evaluated through a series of workshops and interviews. There emerged key considerations for the development of the tool and that a systematic level of change, triggering continuous actions, is essential for sustainable design practices rather than one-off events. Additional findings are discussed along with the feasibility and effectiveness of the toolkit, opportunities and challenges of co-designing in the sustainable fashion design system