In recent decades, health care costs have dramatically increased, while health care organisations have been under severe pressure to provide improved quality health care for their patients. Several health care administrators have used discreteevent simulation as an effective tool for allocating scarce resources to improve patient¯ow, while minimising health care delivery costs and increasing patient satisfaction. The rapid growth in simulation software technology has created numerous new application opportunities, including more sophisticated implementations, as well as combining optimisation and simulation for complex integrated facilities. This paper surveys the application of discrete-event simulation modeling to health care clinics and systems of clinics (for example, hospitals, outpatient clinics, emergency departments, and pharmacies). Future directions of research and applications are also discussed.

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Purpose -This study examined the antecedents and consequences of intensity of SNS use in a crosscultural context. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impacts of three IT-related consumer characteristicsprivacy concern, consumer innovativeness and propensity to share informationon the use of social networking sites (SNS) and examine if there are cross-national differences in the relationships between consumer characteristics and SNS use. Design/methodology/approach -The authors developed and tested a structural equation model including consumer characteristics related to SNS usage, by using survey data of 977 SNS users in Korea and the US. Findings -Consumer innovativeness, propensity to share information and privacy concern affected intensity of SNS use and the usage of SNS enabled social capital. In addition, the effects of innovativeness and privacy concern on the intensity of SNS use were greater in the US sample than in the Korean sample. People in the culture of high peer pressure and herding behavior tend to expect more reciprocity in social surveillance, especially among in-group members because they are interested in tracking others in the group. This tendency might alleviate the negative impact of privacy concern on the intensity of SNS use. The positive impact of innovativeness on the intensity of SNS use was alleviated in the collectivism culture. This is maybe because the imitation factor predicts the adoption behavior better than the innovation factor in the collectivism culture. Research limitations/implications -Despite several notable contributions, this study has a few limitations, which may be overcome by further research. First, this study did not considered many other personality variables. Second, most measurements were retrospective, depending on the respondents' memory of past shopping behavior. Third, an experimental study will be needed to obtain more accurate effects of the antecedents on the intensity of SNS use in the next stage. Fourth, there are sample limitations in the study. Although this study has some limitations, it also provides very meaningful implications. For example, both the positive impact of innovativeness and the negative impact of privacy concerns on the intensity of SNS use were alleviated in the collectivistic culture. Practical implications -This finding implies that SNS in the collective culture should focus more on group behavior than individual behavior in order to promote SNS use. In addition, it is an effective strategy to emphasize the innovative function of SNS in individualism culture. As privacy concern is not big problem of SNS usage in collectivism culture, it is an effective strategy to stimulate the needs of in-group surveillance.

This research attempted to examine differences in Internet usage, Internet innovativeness, perceived risks of Internet buying, and Internet buying behaviors between Korea and America, and to identify a model for factors influencing Internet buying behavior, explained by Internet usage, perceived risks, and innovativeness on a cross-cultural basis. Results showed that there were significant differences in Internet usage and the perceived risks of Internet shopping, but no significant differences in Internet buying intentions or online buying experience between Korean and American consumers. Nonetheless, analyzing a regression model of factors influencing Internet buying behavior, and cultural differences in effects of Internet usage and perceived risks on Internet buying behavior were found. While there were main effects of Internet usage and perceived risk on Internet buying behavior, these effects were weaker or even opposite to those related to Korean samples. The implications of the study are discussed and further research was suggested.

Purpose This study aims to examine several antecedents of employee satisfaction (ES) and turnover intention (TI), including customer orientation (CO) and employee orientation (EO). The purposes are to investigate the effect of EO and CO and their interaction on employee performance, and to verify the moderating effect of firm size. Design/methodology/approach A mixed model with firm size as a potential moderator was constructed through a hierarchical linear modeling approach with data collected from 1,006 employees at 127 firms. Findings The results indicate that customer and EO and their interaction affected ES, CO and its interaction with EO significantly affected TI and the effects differed according to firm size. These results suggest that the influence of customer and EO depends on firm size. Originality/value This study contributes to verifying the effect of EO and CO and the interaction effects on employee performance, an area that has remained unexamined in the literature. It also investigates the moderating effect of firm size on EO and CO, which affects employee performance. It is suggested that companies determine whether EO or CO matters more according to the size of company.