• Information Systems Review
• /
• v.19 no.4
• /
• pp.1-25
• /
• 2017

Despite high uncertainty on financial return, firms have continuously increased their investment on technologies because they recognize the potential value of technology investment in terms of enhancing operational efficiency and sustaining competitive advantage. Notably, an individual technology investment pattern or strategy within an industry may ultimately lead to significant differences in business performance. Hence, we first categorized technology investment into traditional research and development investment and information technology investment. Afterward, we examined the effects of each pattern with combination of the two types of technology investment on business performance according to firm size and position in the supply chain through fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. Data collected from 562 manufacturing firms in Korea were used in the analysis. Results showed that large-sized firms were slightly affected with microscopic patterns in their technology investments, whereas small firms were highly affected with their technology investment patterns and their positions in the supply chain. The findings implied that a small enterprise requires an appropriate technology investment strategy to achieve successful business outcomes.

• Journal of Adhesion and Interface
• /
• v.25 no.2
• /
• pp.69-74
• /
• 2024

Soft actuators can be applied to various fields such as the medical industry and manufacturing industry due to the flexibility and smooth movement resulted from their constituent materials. Stimuli-responsive hydrogels are a class of materials that can show large volume changes due to various surrounding stimuli and thus is suitable as a soft actuator material. However, because the change in volume of the stimuli-responsive hydrogel depends on the rate of temperature change and the rate at which the solvent diffuses into the polymer network, in most typical operating conditions, the response time of the actuator is slow due to inefficient heat transfer and diffusion process. In this study, a conjugated polymer was introduced into polydiethylacrylamide, a thermoresponsive hydrogel, to implement a soft actuator driven by light, and the improvement in response time by the photothermal effect of the conjugated polymer was investigated. It was confirmed that the response time was improved by 41% by the introduction of the conjugated polymer, due to the improvement in heat transfer efficiency. Finally, a soft gripper using the hydrogel with improved response time was fabricated and the response time of the gripper was investigated.

• Journal of the Korean Regional Science Association
• /
• v.40 no.3
• /
• pp.95-108
• /
• 2024

This study analyzes the location determinants of newly established and relocated manufacturing firms in South Korea using the National Business Survey data from 2016 to 2019. Both new establishments and relocations are concentrated in the Seoul metropolitan area, Chungcheong, Yeongnam, and Daegyeong regions, with relocated firms showing a higher degree of spatial concentration. Employing a negative binomial regression model, we find that manufacturing concentration, population density, industrial diversity, and lower wage levels positively influence both new establishments and relocations. The proportion of highly educated workers, accessibility to producer services, and average land prices only positively affect the frequency of new establishments, suggesting that firms in the early stages of their life cycle, which are more dependent on human capital and producer services, demonstrate a higher willingness to pay for land use. Conversely, increased travel time to Seoul and improved transportation accessibility enhance the probability of attracting relocated firms. This implies that cost reduction incentives associated with distance from Seoul may outweigh the benefits of proximity to the capital in relocation decisions. Our findings suggest that strengthening agglomeration economies and improving transportation infrastructure efficiency could increase the likelihood of attracting relocated manufacturing firms to non-capital regions.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
• /
• s.43
• /
• pp.47-75
• /
• 2016

This study has analyzed the history of the subcontract animation in Korea that began with Golden Bat of TBC Animation Division in 1966 to 1980s and shed the light on the history of subcontract animation that has been processed over 30 years in Korean animation. For this purpose, through the outlined status of subcontract animation, such as, production company, production status, scale of industry and so forth, the status of the OEM industry then has been checked and it links the solidified background of animation into subcontract production industry with the situation in time for analysis. In addition, on the basis of the foregoing, it is intended to broaden the horizon of the history of animation through the analysis on new search for facilitating the creative animation by overcoming the issues and limits generated by the subcontract animation industry. 1970s was the time that the national objective is to advance heavy-chemical industry and export-led economic growth. From the late 1970s, the animation has been spot lighted as the main-stream export industry through the overseas subcontract orders for animation. Expansion of the subcontract animation production has been influenced from the national policies on public culture, dispersion of color TV, facilitation of video production market and other media changes of the time that led the decline of animation audiences in theaters, and another cause would be in lack of platform of broadcasting companies that avoided the independent animation production for its economic theory. The subcontract animation industry may have the positive evaluation in the aspect of expanding the animation environment, such as, structuring of animation infra, development of new human resources and etc. However, the technology-incentive 'production'-oriented advancement has created distorted structure in advancing the professional human resources due to the absence of 'pre-production' of planning and others as well as the insufficient perception on 'post production (post work)', and it was unable to formulate domestic market by re-investing the capital accumulated for OEM industry into the production of creative animation and it has been assessed as negative aspect. Animation is a cultural and spiritual product of a country. Therefore, the systematic support policy for the facilitation of the creative animation, such as, development of professional human resources, creation of outstanding work, formation of market to make the pre-circulation structure and so forth has to be sought. However, animation is an industry, but there is no perception that it is a cultural industry based on the creativeness, not hardware-oriented manufacturing business. Such a lack of recognition, there was no policies to make the market and facilitate the creative animation by the animation of Korea for this period through the long-term plan and investment for independent work production. Such an attempt is newly begun through diverse searches for protection and advancement of creative animation in Korea after 1990s.

• Korean Journal of Labor Studies
• /
• v.24 no.3
• /
• pp.143-178
• /
• 2018

This study is aimed at empirically examining the Korean unionists' solidarity using the survey of 476 full-time workers employed at the unionized workplace. It also questions the determinants affecting the unionist' willingness to be united with the contingent workers. The Korean unionism has faced the biggest challenge, that is, the crisis-in-worker solidarity. Although prior literature has noted the crisis in Korean unionism, it lacks a solid investigation of individual workers' perception of solidarity which may play a key role in building up worker-solidarity in the union movement. This study first examines the three sources of solidarity allowing for the historical and theoretical approach to the modern solidarity; economic interests, worker-identification and empathy, which provide an emprical framework for this study. The empirical evidences shows dynamic aspects as of how the full-timers perceive solidarity with the non-regular workers in the three terms of solidarity. First, full-time unionists share rare willingness to be united with contingent workers in terms of economic solidarity. In addition, the KCTU (Korean Confederation of Trade Unions) with social reformative orientation has little influence on increasing their member's orientation towards solidarity. Second, it is found that full-time unionists have more willingness to identify themselves with the non-regular workers as a member of the labor class. The KTCU is also positively associated with their member's will of identification with contingent workers. Third, the unionists, however, show little empathy toward non-regular workers, which is contrast to the willingness to worker identification. No causality is also found between the KTCU and their members' empathy for the others.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.177-192
• /
• 2021

The Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development discusses the reorganization of the five evaluation criteria of the Public Development Assistance Committee, which are used internationally, and the five evaluation criteria including adequacy, efficiency, effectiveness, impact, and sustainability when assessing public development assistance in 1991. This study is to derive alternatives by applying the evaluation criteria of the Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in the evaluation of the inclusive business program being implemented in Nepal since 2019. As a result of the study, the adequacy of Nepal's inclusive business program was consistent with continuous employment and job creation for vulnerable groups such as disabled and orphan women. Efficiency can be said to be efficient in that processes such as work order and work confirmation are made with an electronic management tool, and delivery of the result is transmitted online, saving time and cost compared to other industries. The effectiveness of this project can be said to be an effective program in that it provides high-quality jobs such as providing specialized computer graphics education for the vulnerable, such as disabled and orphan women in Nepal, and hiring graduates as employees. Sustainability is the point that KOICA's inclusive business program has enabled vulnerable groups in the existing fields of agriculture and manufacturing to engage in the computer graphics industry, and the scalability of movies, characters, education businesses, and role models in other countries.However, considering that the scale of public development assistance will continue to increase in the future, it is necessary to establish a systematic monitoring system and a recirculation system so that the project between the donor and recipient countries can continue.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
• /
• v.43 no.1
• /
• pp.41-59
• /
• 2022

In accordance with the enactment of 'the Paris Agreement' in 2015 and 'the Framework Act on Carbon Neutrality and Green Growth for Response to the Climate Crisis' in 2021, each local government has set appropriate reduction target of greenhouse gas to achieve the nationally determined contribution (NDC, the reduction target of 40% compared to 2018) of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2030. In this study, the current distribution of GHG emissions was analyzed in a time series centered on the Chungbuk region for the period from 1990 to 2018, with the aim of reducing GHG emissions in Chungbuk by 2030 based on the 2030 NDC and scenario. In addition, the prospected reduction by 2030 was estimated considering the projected emissions according to Busines As Usual in order to achieve the target reduction of GHG emissions. Our results showed that GHG emissions in Chungbuk and Korea have been increasing since 1990 owing to population and economic growth. GHG emissions in 2018 in Chungbuk were very low (3.9 %) relative to the national value. Moreover, emissions from fuel combustion, such as cement and lime production, manufacturing and construction industries, and transportation industries, were the main sources. Furthermore, the 2030 target of GHG emission reduction in Chungbuk was set at 40.2% relative to the 2018 value, in accordance with the 2030 NDC and 2050 carbon-zero national scenario. Therefore, when projected emissions were considered, the prospected reduction to achieve the target reduction of GHG emissions was estimated to be 46.8% relative to 2018. The above results highlight the importance of meeting the prospected reduction of GHG emissions through reduction means in each sector to achieve the national and local GHG reduction target. In addition, to achieve the 2030 NDC and 2050 carbon zero, the country and each local government, including Chungbuk, need to estimate projected emissions by year, determine reduction targets and prospect reductions every year, and prepare specific means to reduce GHG emissions.

• The Journal of Small Business Innovation
• /
• v.19 no.4
• /
• pp.1-17
• /
• 2016

The purpose of this study is to suggest an efficient way for ventures to achieve innovation performance through R&D cooperative arrangements. Achieving innovation is one of the critical factors for the survival of ventures. Unlike established firms, ventures often do not have the specialized assets necessary to take technological developments to the product and market stages. Young and resource-constrained firms can achieve innovation by finding and accessing to the complementary resources from R&D cooperation. In the current business environment, many firms are likely to engage in multiple simultaneous R&D cooperations with different partners. Recent research stream addresses the importance of efficient cooperation management from the holistic portfolio perspective. Since maintaining the multiple cooperative relations require substantial amount of time and effort, managing cooperative relationships play a more important role to resource-constrained firms. In order to find an efficient composition of R&D cooperative partners, we mainly focus on the diversity of partner type and dependence level in partnership. We analyze the data on Korean manufacturing ventures collected in the Korean Innovation Survey (KIS) which was conducted by the Science and Technology Policy Institute (STEPI). The KIS questionnaire assesses the existence of cooperative relationships with different types of partners respectively. The types of cooperating partners are affiliated companies, suppliers, clients & customers, competitors or other firms in the same industry, consulting firms, universities, and research institutes. We confirm that ventures obtain relatively higher benefits from R&D cooperation compared with established firms in terms of innovation performance. The results show that a moderate level of diversity in cooperative partner type composition increases innovation. Moreover, diversity of cooperation dependency among the partners enhances innovation performance. Likewise, concentrating on the quality aspects of cooperative composition, such as diversity of partners and degree of dependencies, this study offers some implications for ventures in managing partners from an integrative perspective.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
• /
• v.4 no.1
• /
• pp.77-98
• /
• 1998

In general, spatial imbalance in regional growth is a major cause of social and political conflicts within a state. In Korea, this inequality has functioned as a threat to the state's integration. With the economic development policies by regional industrialization over the past three decades, most of the industrial activities have been concentrated in Seoul and Pusan metropolitan areas, which are surrounded by Kyonggi, Kyongnam provinces respectively. Compared to these areas, Chonnam and Chonbuk provinces have lagged behind in economic development. Therefore, in order to increase the regional economic development of the southwestern region in Korea, the central government has been enforcing several policies aimed at regional industrialization since the 1980s. The purpose of this study focuses on the regional economic impacts of a newly established industrial estate-Yulchon industrial complex- which would act as a regional growth center in the Kwangyang bay area. The Kwangyang bay area consists of several industrial estates such as Kwangyang Iron and Steel Co. and its related industrial complex, Chuam rural industrial estate, Yeochon industrial complex, and so on. In addition, the Kwangyang container port was constructed in 1997. The Kwangyang bay area has been changing to a new industrial district in the southwestern part of Korea as a result of industrialization policies which were activated by central government. The Yulchon industrial complex, which is expected to be completed in 2001, would draw many manufacturing plants. For example, Hyundai Motors Co. has a plan to locate a new automobile assembly plant within the estate. As the plan has high probability to be realized, it will be interesting to study the effects a new automobile assembly plant and its related production linkages have on the region. This study is to estimate the expected structural characteristics of automobile production activities in Yulchon. The following details will be discussed: the regional economic impacts of a new automobile industry in Yulchon industrial complex, the production linkage formation via hierarchical subcontracting systems, the alternative strategies to promote the growth of regional economies, and the scheme to improve the auto-parts and components industry in Kwangju and Chonnam provinces by establishing auto-mobile production function. Automoblie industry generally gives great influences on not only regional economies but the related industries, for example, the firms producing automotive components. If a new plant producing automobiles and its related firms producing components are to be established in Yulchon, they will affect on the regional development directions and change the regional characteristics of industrial structure. In order to increase the spread effects of the new industry in Yulchon industrial complex, almost all of the automobile production processes must be organized concurrently within a limited range of distance. There is an imperative that the co-operation system should be structured between the assembly firm and many firms producing its components. In addition to those, it would be required such as the effective division of labors between the firms, much more capabilities in the technical innovations, and the reconstruction of interrelationship between the labor unions and the firms' managers.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.125-148
• /
• 2014

This paper performs a historical analysis on the various factors contributing to the current carbon lock-in of Korean electricity industry by using techo-institutional complex. The possibilities of the industry's carbon lock-out toward more sustainable development are also investigated. It turns out that market, firm, consumer, and government factors are all responsible for the development of the carbon lock-in of Korean power industry; the Korean government consistently favoring large power plants based on the economy of scale; below-cost electricity tariff; inflation policy to suppress increases in power price; rapid demand growth in summer and winter seasons; rigidities of electricity tariff; and expansion of gas-fired and imported coal-fired large power plants. On the other hand, except for nuclear power generation and smart grid, environment laws and new and renewable energy laws are the other remaining factors contributing to the carbon lock-out. Considering three key points that Korea is an export-oriented economy, the generation mix is the most critical factor to decide the amounts of carbon emission in the power industry, and the share of industry and commercial power consumption is over 85%, it is unlikely that Korea will achieve the carbon lock-out of power industry in the near future. Therefore, there are needs for more integrated approaches from market, firm, consumer, and government all together in order to achieve the carbon lock-out in the electricity industry. Firstly, from the market perspective, it is necessary to persue more active new and renewable energy penetration and to guarantee consumer choices by mitigating the incumbent's monopoly power as in the OECD countries. Secondly, from the firm perspective, the promotion of distributed energy system is urgent, which includes new and renewable resources and demand resources. Thirdly, from the consumer perspective, more green choices in the power tariff and customer awareness on the carbon lock-out are needed. Lastly, the government shall urgently improve power planning frameworks to include the various externalities that were not properly reflected in the past such as environmental and social conflict costs.