With data collected from 632 manufacturing firms in South Korea, we investigated (1) the relationship between high-performance work systems (HPWSs) and firm performance, and (2) the moderating effect of the human resource (HR) function’s influence on the relationship between HPWSs and firm performance. Our findings showed the existence of both the main effect of HPWSs, supporting the universalistic perspective, and the moderating effect of the HR function’s influence, supporting the contingency perspective. Based on the findings, we concluded that HPWSs can be regarded as universal or best practices; at the same time, the presence of an influential HR function may intensify the effect of HPWSs on firm performance. This study contributes to the debate over the respective merits of the universalistic and contingency perspectives by showing that the two perspectives are not necessarily incompatible; rather, they can be complementary.

The effects of polymer substrates on the interfacial structure and the thermal stability of Ga-doped ZnO (GZO) thin films were investigated. The GZO thin films were deposited on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) substrates by rf-magnetron sputtering at room temperature, and thermal stability tests of the GZO thin films on the polymer substrates were performed at 150°C up to 8 h in air. Electrical and structural characterizations of the GZO thin films on the PET and the PEN substrates were carried out, and the origins of the stable interfacial structure and the improved thermal stability of the GZO thin film on the PEN substrate were discussed.

The structural properties of GaN epitaxial layers grown on patterned sapphire substrates by MOCVD have been investigated using HRXRD(high-resolution X-ray diffraction), GIXRD(grazing incidence X-ray diffraction) and PL(photoluminescence). For X-ray characterizations rocking curves for GaN (10·5), (00·2), (11·4) and (11·0) reflections for which incidence angles of X-rays are 32.0°, 17.3°, 11.0° and 0.34°, respectively, were measured. For (10·5), (00·2) and (11·4) reflections FWHMs of the rocking curves for a patterned substrate were broader than those for a unpatterned substrate, for (11·0) reflection, however, FWHM for a patterned substrate was much narrower than that for a unpatterned substrate. The normalized FWHM for all reflections decreases as the incidence angle of X-ray decreases. The results indicate that the crystalline quality in the surface region of the epilayer on a patterned substrate was especially improved because the penetration depth of X-ray depends on the incidence angle. The intensity of PL peak of the epilayer for a patterned substrate increased compared to that for a unpatterned substrate, and the increase in PL intensity is attributed to the reduction in dislocation density at the surface region revealed the by X-ray results.

Fluorescent dyes including Nile Red (NR), fluorescein, rhodamine and 4- (dicyanomethylene)-2-methyl-6-(p-dimethylaminostyryl)-4H-pyran (DCM) derivatives were investigated to find an application for the organic light emitting device (OLED). Relationship between the molecular structure and optical property was calculated by ab initio (HF and DFT/6-31G*) and semiempirical (AM1/PM3 and INDO/S) calculation methods for the geometry optimization and for the information of electronic transition, respectively. The absorption maximum and the oscillator strength of molecules strongly depended on the molecular dipole moment, especially for the molecules having both strong electron donor and acceptor group. Since the calculated results were comparable with several experimental results, these semiempirical molecular orbital calculation methods could be used as a powerful prediction tool for optical properties of the luminescent molecules.