• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.281-292
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• 2024

North Korea relies heavily on coal as the primary energy source, playing an important role in all energy demand sectors except for the transportation sector. Approximately half of the total electricity is generated through coal-fired power plants, and coal is used to produce heat and power for all industrial facilities. Furthermore, coal has been a significant contributor to earning foreign currency through long-term exports to China. Nevertheless, since the 1980s, indiscriminate mining activities have led to rapid depletion of coal production in most coal mines. Aging mine facilities, lack of investment in new equipment, shortages of fuel and electricity, difficulties in material supply, and frequent damage from flooding have collectively contributed to a noticeable decline in coal production since the late 1980s. North Korea's coal deposits are distributed in various geological formations from the Proterozoic to the Cenozoic, but the most critical coal-bearing formations are Ripsok and Sadong formations distributed in the Pyeongnam Basin of the Late Paleozoic from Carboniferous to Permian, which are called as Pyeongnam North and South Coal Fields. Over 90% of North Korea's coal is produced in these coal fields. The classification of coal in North Korea differs from the international classification based on coalification (peat, lignite, sub-bituminous coal, bituminous coal, and anthracite). North Korean classification based on industrial aspect is classified into bituminous coal, anthracite, and low-grade coal (Chomuyeontan). Based on the energy factor, it is classified into high-calorie coal, medium calorie coal, and low-calorie coal. In North Korea, the term "Chomuyeontan" refers to a type of coal that is not classified globally and is unique to North Korea. It is a low-grade coal exclusively used in North Korea and is not found or used in any other country worldwide. This article compares North Korea's coal classification and the international coal classification of coal and provides insights into the geological characteristics, reserves, utilization, and research trends of North Korean coal resources. This study could serve as a guide for preparing scientific and industrial agendas related to coal collaboration between North Korea and South Korea.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.1-19
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• 2017

Original scripts of e-learning lectures for the CEOs of corporation S were analyzed using topic analysis, which is a text mining method. Twenty-two topics were extracted based on the keywords chosen from five-year records that ranged from 2011 to 2015. Research analysis was then conducted on various issues. Promising topics were selected through evaluation and element analysis of the members of each topic. In management and economics, members demonstrated high satisfaction and interest toward topics in marketing strategy, human resource management, and communication. Philosophy, history of war, and history demonstrated high interest and satisfaction in the field of humanities, whereas mind health showed high interest and satisfaction in the field of in lifestyle. Studies were also conducted to identify topics on the proportion of content, but these studies failed to increase member satisfaction. In the field of IT, educational content responds sensitively to change of the times, but it may not increase the interest and satisfaction of members. The present study found that content production for CEOs should draw out deep implications for value innovation through technology application instead of simply ending the technical aspect of information delivery. Previous studies classified contents superficially based on the name of content program when analyzing the status of content operation. However, text mining can derive deep content and subject classification based on the contents of unstructured data script. This approach can examine current shortages and necessary fields if the service contents of the themes are displayed by year. This study was based on data obtained from influential e-learning companies in Korea. Obtaining practical results was difficult because data were not acquired from portal sites or social networking service. The content of e-learning trends of CEOs were analyzed. Data analysis was also conducted on the intellectual interests of CEOs in each field.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.68 no.4
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• pp.422-430
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• 2023

The nutrient-rich and climate-resilient finger millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.) is a relatively new crop on the agricultural landscape. The present study explores the agronomic characteristics and antioxidant activities of grains and cookies produced from 'Finger1ho,' which was the first finger millet variety developed in South Korea. With heightened calcium content (314 mg/100 g) and polyphenol levels, 'Finger1ho' exhibited superior radical scavenging activities compared to other millets. The investigation assessed the impact of whole finger millet flour at varying concentrations (0, 10, 30, 50, and 100%) on cookie properties. Increasing the substitution of finger millet flour in the cookie formulation resulted in a notable rise in calcium content, ranging from 1.8 times at 10% to an impressive 10.8 times at 100%, surpassing the levels found in conventional wheat cookies. Conversely, the sodium (Na) levels in finger millet cookies demonstrated minimal variations, presenting a potentially favorable aspect in addressing the high Na intake prevalent in the South Korean diet. Notably, the antioxidant activity, assessed through ABTS and DPPH radical scavenging assays, exhibited a significant elevation compared to the control. This increase in antioxidant activity was directly proportional to the quantity of finger millet incorporated (p<0.001), indicating the potential health benefits associated with higher levels of finger millet in the cookie formulation. This study highlights finger millet's potential as a beneficial ingredient, enhancing both consumer acceptability and the functional attributes of cookies. Notably, cookies with 10% to 50% added finger millet exhibited significantly superior quality characteristics compared to controls, suggesting promising avenues for health-functional cookie development.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.89-102
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• 2024

Land Surface Phenology (LSP) plays a crucial role in understanding vegetation dynamics. The near-infrared reflectance of vegetation (NIRv) has been increasingly adopted in LSP studies, being recognized as a robust proxy for gross primary production (GPP). However, NIR v is sensitive to the terrain effects in mountainous areas due to artifacts in NIR reflectance cannot be canceled out. Because of this, estimating phenological metrics in mountainous regions have a substantial uncertainty, especially in the end of season (EOS). The topographically corrected NIRv (TCNIRv) employs the path length correction (PLC) method, which was deduced from the simplification of the radiative transfer equation, to alleviate limitations related to the terrain effects. TCNIRv has been demonstrated to estimate phenology metrics more accurately than NIRv, especially exhibiting improved estimation of EOS. As the topographic effect is significantly influenced by terrain properties such as slope and aspect, our study compared phenology metrics estimations between south-facing slopes (SFS) and north-facing slopes (NFS) using NIRv and TCNIRv in two distinct mountainous regions: Gwangneung Forest (GF) and Odaesan National Park (ONP), representing relatively flat and rugged areas, respectively. The results indicated that TCNIR v-derived EOS at NFS occurred later than that at SFS for both study sites (GF : DOY 266.8/268.3 at SFS/NFS; ONP : DOY 262.0/264.8 at SFS/NFS), in contrast to the results obtained with NIRv (GF : DOY 270.3/265.5 at SFS/NFS; ONP : DOY 265.0/261.8 at SFS/NFS). Additionally, the gap between SFS and NFS diminished after topographic correction (GF : DOY 270.3/265.5 at SFS/NFS; ONP : DOY 265.0/261.8 at SFS/NFS). We conclude that TCNIRv exhibits discrepancy with NIR v in EOS detection considering slope orientation. Our findings underscore the necessity of topographic correction in estimating photosynthetic phenology, considering slope orientation, especially in diverse terrain conditions.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.86-101
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• 2024

The purpose of this study is to provide basic data on the importance of accurate scientific communication and the current status of popular astronomy based on science articles that occurred during the so-called Super Blue Moon astronomical phenomenon in August 2023. To this end, the subjects were divided into non-experts, quasi-experts, and experts based on the degree of knowledge of the astronomical universe to investigate the data interpretation ability of astronomical science information and to analyze the causes of errors in the interpretation process through in-depth interviews. We also investigated the favorability and reliability of research institutes that strive to provide scientific information and the media that strive to spread it and also investigated the changes in existing favorability and reliability when incorrect scientific information spreads, as in this case. Although there were differences in the interpretation of scientific information about the astronomical universe depending on the cognitive aspect, the influence of linguistic elements or literacy, which could be called communication, could not be ignored. In particular, it was confirmed that misconceptions inherent in the existing research subjects could be expressed, leading to errors in accurate information interpretation. In addition, after recognizing that errors were included in the spread of scientific information, the subjects' favorability toward research institutes and the media fell 12.30% and 17.58%, respectively, while reliability fell 19.40% for research institutes and 24.49% for media outlets. Regardless of the cause of the error, the importance of providing accurate scientific information is further emphasized, considering that the overall favorability and reliability of both research institutes and the media decline. In order for research institutes and media outlets to spread accurate scientific information about the astronomical universe based on the public's trust, it is necessary to establish a system that can accurately deliver error-free information generated by research institutes related to astronomical space to media or science communicators and to develop a system that quickly retrieves and corrects incorrect scientific information through continuous monitoring.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.141-173
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• 2007

The study examines how the environmental factors of store influence service brand personality and repurchase intention in the service environment. The service industry has been experiencing the intensified competition with the industry's continuous growth and the influence from rapid technological advancement. Under the circumstances, it has become ever more important for the brand competitiveness to be distinctively recognized against competition. A brand needs to be distinguished and differentiated from competing companies because they are all engaged in the similar environment of the service industry. The differentiation of brand achievement has become increasingly important to highlight certain brand functions to include emotional, self-expressive, and symbolic functions since the importance of such functions has been further emphasized in promoting consumption activities. That is the recent role of brand personality that has been emphasized in the service industry. In other words, customers now freely and actively express their personalities or egos in consumption activities, taking an important role in construction of a brand asset. Hence, the study suggests that it is necessary to disperse the recognition and acknowledgement that the maintenance of the existing customers contributes more to boost repurchase intention when it is compared to the efforts to create new customers, particularly in the service industry. Meanwhile, the store itself can offer a unique environment that may influence the consumer's purchase decision. Consumers interact with store environments in the process of,virtually, all household purchase they make (Sarel 1981). Thus, store environments may encourage customers to purchase. The roles that store environments play are to provide informational cues to customers about the store and goods and communicate messages to stimulate consumers' emotions. The store environments differentiate the store from competing stores and build a unique service brand personality. However, the existing studies related to brand in the service industry mostly concentrated on the relationship between the quality of service and customer satisfaction, and they are mostly generalized while the connective studies focused on brand personality. Such approaches show limitations and are insufficient to investigate on the relationship between store environment and brand personality in the service industry. Accordingly, the study intends to identify the level of contribution to the establishment of brand personality made by the store's physical environments that influence on the specific brand characteristics depending on the type of service. The study also intends to identify what kind of relationships with brand personality exists with brand personality while being influenced by store environments. In addition, the study intends to make meaningful suggestions to better direct marketing efforts by identifying whether a brand personality makes a positive influence to induce an intention for repurchase. For this study, the service industry is classified into four categories based on to the characteristics of service: experimental-emotional service, emotional -credible service, credible-functional service, and functional-experimental service. The type of business with the most frequent customer contact is determined for each service type and the enterprise with the highest brand value in each service sector based on the report made by the Korea Management Association. They are designated as the representative of each category. The selected representatives are a fast-food store (experimental-emotional service), a cinema house (emotional-credible service), a bank (credible-functional service), and discount store (functional-experimental service). The survey was conducted for the four selected brands to represent each service category among consumers who are experienced users of the designated stores in Seoul Metropolitan City and Gyeonggi province via written questionnaires in order to verify the suggested assumptions in the study. In particular, the survey adopted 15 scales, which represent each characteristic factor, among the 42 unique characteristics developed by Jennifer Aaker(1997) to assess the brand personality of each service brand. SPSS for Windows Release 12.0 and LISREL were used in the analysis of data verification. The methodology of the structural equation model was used for the study and the pivotal findings are as follows. 1) The environmental factors ware classified as design factors, ambient factors, and social factors. Therefore, the validity of measurement scale of Baker et al. (1994) was proved. 2) The service brand personalities were subdivided as sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness, which makes the use of the brand personality scales by Jennifer Aaker(1997) appropriate in the service industry as well. 3) One-way ANOVA analysis on the scales of store environment and service brand personality showed that there exist statistically significant differences in each service category. For example, the social factors were highest in discount stores, while the ambient factors and design factors were highest in fast-food stores. The discount stores were highest in the sincerity and excitement, while the highest point for banks was in the competence and ruggedness, and the highest point for fast-food stores was in the sophistication, The consumers will make a different respond to the physical environment of stores and service brand personality that are inherent to the corresponding service interface. Hence, the customers will make a different decision-making when dealing with different service categories. In this aspect, the relationships of variables in the proposed hypothesis appear to work in a different way depending on the exposed service category. 4) The store environment factors influenced on service brand personalities differently by category of service. The factors of store's physical environment are transferred to a brand and were verified to strengthen service brand personalities. In particular, the level of influence on the service brand personality by physical environment differs depending on service category or dimension, which indicates that there is a need to apply a different style of management to a different service category or dimension. It signifies that there needs to be a brand strategy established in order to positively influence the relationship with consumers by utilizing an appropriate brand personality factor depending on different characteristics by service category or dimension. 5) The service brand personalities influenced on the repurchase intention. Especially, the largest influence was made in the sophistication dimension of service brand personality scale; the unique and characteristically appropriate arrangement of physical environment will make customers stay in the service environment for a long time and will lead to give a positive influence on the repurchase intention. 6) The store environment factors influenced on the repurchase intention. Particularly, the largest influence was made on the social factors of store environment. The most intriguing finding is that the service factor among all other environment factors gives the biggest influence to the repurchase intention in most of all service types except fast-food stores. Such result indicates that the customers pay attention to how much the employees try to provide a quality service when they make an evaluation on the service brand. At the same time, it also indicates that the personal factor is directly transmitted to the construction of brand personality. The employees' attitude and behavior are the determinants to establish a service brand personality in the process of enhancing service interface. Hence, there should be a reinforced search for a method to efficiently manage the service staff who has a direct contact with customers in order to make an affirmative improvement of the customers' brand evaluation at the service interface. The findings suggest several managerial implications. 1) Results from the empirical study indicated that store environment factors have a strong positive impact on a service brand personality. To increase customers' repurchase intention of a service brand, the management is required to effectively manage store environment factors and create a friendly brand personality based on the corresponding service environment. 2) Mangers and researchers must understand and recognize that the store environment elements are important marketing tools, and that brand personality influences on consumers' repurchase intention. Based on such result of the study, a service brand could be utilized as an efficient measure to achieve a differentiation by enforcing the elements that are most influential among all other store environments for each service category. Therefore, brand personality established involving various store environments will further reinforce the relationship with customers through the elevated brand identification of which utilization to induce repurchase decision can be used as an entry barrier. 3) The study identified the store environment as a component of service brand personality for the store's effective communication with consumers. For this, all communication channels should be maintained with consistency and an integrated marketing communication should be executed to efficiently approach to a larger number of customers. Mangers and researchers must find strategies for aligning decisions about store environment elements with the retailers' marketing and store personality objectives. All ambient, design, and social factors need to be orchestrated so that consumers can take an appropriate store personality. In this study, the induced results from the previous studies were extended to the service industry so as to identify the customers' decision making process that leads to repurchase intention and a result similar to those of the previous studies. The findings suggested several theoretical and managerial implications. However, the situation that only one service brand served as the subject of analysis for each service category, and the situation that correlations among store environment elements were not identified, as well as the problem of representation in selection of samples should be considered and supplemented in the future when further studies are conducted. In addition, various antecedents and consequences of brand personality must be looked at in the aspect of the service environment for further research.

• Journal of Aquaculture
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.203-212
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• 2008

A nutritional demand of oyster, Crassostrea gigas larva as part of research for improving of utilization of microalgae being used for the artificial oyster seed production. The change of body growth and biochemical compositions of larvae were investigated during larvae rearing in hatchery. The larvae were cultured in 60 M/T tank and fed mixture 6 different phytoplankton species, Isochrysis galbana (30%), Cheatoceros gracilis (20%), Pavlova lutheri (20%), Phaeodactylum triconutum (10%), Nannochryis oculata (10%) and Tetraselmis tetrathele (10%). The initial feeding amount was $0.3{\times}10^4cells/mL$ at three times a day to D-shaped larva and the feeding amount had been increased 30% gradually every two day since the larvae were raising. The larvae were developed from D shape to pediveliger stage for 12 days. The daily growth of shell length and hight were $5.8{\sim}30.8\;{\mu}m$ and $8.7{\sim}31.4\;{\mu}m$, respectively and weight gains were changed from D shape to pediveliger as follow: wet weight was $0.52{\sim}15.0\;{\mu}g/larva$, dry weight was $0.2{\sim}6.5\;{\mu}g/larva$, and ash free dry weight was $0.1{\sim}8.5\;{\mu}g/larva$. The larvae growth pattern shown a logarithmic phase from D shape to umbone stage but after that stage shown a exponential growth aspect. The crude protein, crude lipid and nitrogen free extract (NFE) of larvae during rearing periods were analyzed as $6.1{\sim}10.6%$, $0.6{\sim}1.1%$ and 1.0-2.7%, respectively. And the total amino acid contents of the larvae during rearing periods were in order as glutamic acid $1.26{\sim}2.24%$, aspartic acid $0.97{\sim}1.70%$, and methionine $0.12{\sim}0.33%$. Of the total fatty acid in the analyzed larvae, the saturated fatty acid (SSAFA) was decreased from 54.3% (D shaped larvae) to 17.1 % (pediveliger) as larvae development but the total mono-unsaturated fatty acid (${\Sigma}MOFA$) and Poly-unsaturated fatty acid (${\Sigma}PUFA$) were increased from 29.9% and 7.8% to 40.6% and 45.6%, respectively. By the way the each fatty acid of the larvae were composed of palmitic acid $9.89{\sim}36.95%$, oleic acid $12.17{\sim}32.29%$, linoleic acid $1.96{\sim}33.55%$, EPA $2.17{\sim}11.58%$ and DHA $1.95{\sim}4.51%$. As a result of this study, the larvae of oyster were demanded a various nutrients for healthy growth and the feeding control, expecially after umbone stage larvae are a rapidly growing time, is very important for success of artificial seed production.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.37-46
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• 2009

The Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce announced in May 2008 that U.S. retail e-commerce sales for 2006 reached $ 107 billion, up from $ 87 billion in 2005 - an increase of 22 percent. From 2001 to 2006, retail e-sales increased at an average annual growth rate of 25.4 percent. The explosive growth of E-Commerce has caused profound changes in marketing channel relationships and structures in many industries. Despite the great potential implications for both academicians and practitioners, there still exists a great deal of uncertainty about the impact of the Internet channel introduction on distribution channel management. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the ownership of the new Internet channel affects the existing channel members and consumers. To explore the above research questions, this study conducts well-controlled mathematical experiments to isolate the impact of the Internet channel by comparing before and after the Internet channel entry. The model consists of a monopolist manufacturer selling its product through a channel system including one independent physical store before the entry of an Internet store. The addition of the Internet store to this channel system results in a mixed channel comprised of two different types of channels. The new Internet store can be launched by the independent physical store such as Bestbuy. In this case, the physical retailer coordinates the two types of stores to maximize the joint profits from the two stores. The Internet store also can be introduced by an independent Internet retailer such as Amazon. In this case, a retail level competition occurs between the two types of stores. Although the manufacturer sells only one product, consumers view each product-outlet pair as a unique offering. Thus, the introduction of the Internet channel provides two product offerings for consumers. The channel structures analyzed in this study are illustrated in Fig.1. It is assumed that the manufacturer plays as a Stackelberg leader maximizing its own profits with the foresight of the independent retailer's optimal responses as typically assumed in previous analytical channel studies. As a Stackelberg follower, the independent physical retailer or independent Internet retailer maximizes its own profits, conditional on the manufacturer's wholesale price. The price competition between two the independent retailers is assumed to be a Bertrand Nash game. For simplicity, the marginal cost is set at zero, as typically assumed in this type of study. In order to explore the research questions above, this study develops a game theoretic model that possesses the following three key characteristics. First, the model explicitly captures the fact that an Internet channel and a physical store exist in two independent dimensions (one in physical space and the other in cyber space). This enables this model to demonstrate that the effect of adding an Internet store is different from that of adding another physical store. Second, the model reflects the fact that consumers are heterogeneous in their preferences for using a physical store and for using an Internet channel. Third, the model captures the vertical strategic interactions between an upstream manufacturer and a downstream retailer, making it possible to analyze the channel structure issues discussed in this paper. Although numerous previous models capture this vertical dimension of marketing channels, none simultaneously incorporates the three characteristics reflected in this model. The analysis results are summarized in Table 1. When the new Internet channel is introduced by the existing physical retailer and the retailer coordinates both types of stores to maximize the joint profits from the both stores, retail prices increase due to a combination of the coordination of the retail prices and the wider market coverage. The quantity sold does not significantly increase despite the wider market coverage, because the excessively high retail prices alleviate the market coverage effect to a degree. Interestingly, the coordinated total retail profits are lower than the combined retail profits of two competing independent retailers. This implies that when a physical retailer opens an Internet channel, the retailers could be better off managing the two channels separately rather than coordinating them, unless they have the foresight of the manufacturer's pricing behavior. It is also found that the introduction of an Internet channel affects the power balance of the channel. The retail competition is strong when an independent Internet store joins a channel with an independent physical retailer. This implies that each retailer in this structure has weak channel power. Due to intense retail competition, the manufacturer uses its channel power to increase its wholesale price to extract more profits from the total channel profit. However, the retailers cannot increase retail prices accordingly because of the intense retail level competition, leading to lower channel power. In this case, consumer welfare increases due to the wider market coverage and lower retail prices caused by the retail competition. The model employed for this study is not designed to capture all the characteristics of the Internet channel. The theoretical model in this study can also be applied for any stores that are not geographically constrained such as TV home shopping or catalog sales via mail. The reasons the model in this study is names as "Internet" are as follows: first, the most representative example of the stores that are not geographically constrained is the Internet. Second, catalog sales usually determine the target markets using the pre-specified mailing lists. In this aspect, the model used in this study is closer to the Internet than catalog sales. However, it would be a desirable future research direction to mathematically and theoretically distinguish the core differences among the stores that are not geographically constrained. The model is simplified by a set of assumptions to obtain mathematical traceability. First, this study assumes the price is the only strategic tool for competition. In the real world, however, various marketing variables can be used for competition. Therefore, a more realistic model can be designed if a model incorporates other various marketing variables such as service levels or operation costs. Second, this study assumes the market with one monopoly manufacturer. Therefore, the results from this study should be carefully interpreted considering this limitation. Future research could extend this limitation by introducing manufacturer level competition. Finally, some of the results are drawn from the assumption that the monopoly manufacturer is the Stackelberg leader. Although this is a standard assumption among game theoretic studies of this kind, we could gain deeper understanding and generalize our findings beyond this assumption if the model is analyzed by different game rules.

• Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.99-107
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• 1979

In order to investigate the utilization of industrial waste and briquette ash for concrete production, briquette ash was used as fine aggregate for mortar production and three different kinds mortars were produced by mixing carbide and bottom aches with cement. These products were compared with mortar, produced by standard sand, in the respects of compressive, tensil and bending strengths. Further study on the economic aspect of utilization of briquette ash is needed but the results obtained from our preliminary study are summarized as follows : 1. The compressive strengths at the age of seven days of mortars, made of one to two ratios of cement to briquette ash, (cement+carbide ash) to briquette ash and(cement+bottom ash) to briquette ash were 70%, 61% and 58%, respectively, of the mortar made of standard sand. The compressive strengths of those mortars at the age of 28 days were 56%, 49% and 48% of the mortar made standard sand. 2. The compressive strengths at the age of seven days of the mortar made of one to two ratios of cement to briquette ash, (cement+carbide ash) to briquette ash and (cement+bottom ash) to briquette ash were 84%, 73%, and 70% of the mortar which was produced according to Korean Standard Value. The compressive strengths of those mortars at the age of 28 days were 85%, 73% and 73% of the mortar of the Korean Standard value. 3. The tensil strengths at the age of seven days of the mortars made of one to two ratios of cement to briquette ash, (cement+carbide ash) to briquette ash, and (cement+bottom ash) to briquette ash were 64%, 36%, and 36%, respectively, of the mortar of standard sand. The tensil strengths of those mortars at the age of 28 days were 70%, 47%, and 39%, respectively, of the standard mortar. The mortars made of one to two ratios of cement to briquette ash at the age of seven and 28 days were higher than the mortars of Korean Standard. The other mortars were 61 to 62% at the age of seven days and 75 to 90% at the age of 28 days of the Korean Standard mortar, respectively. 4. The bending strengths at the age of seven days of mortar made of one to two ratios of cement to briquette ash, (cement+carbide ash) to briquette ash, and (cement+bottom ash) to briquette ash were 46%, 53% and 50% of the mortar of standard sand. The bending strengths of those mortars at the age of 28 days were 90%, 77% and 69%, respectively of the mortar of standard sand. 5. The mortar of briquette ash which was lower in strengths compared with the mortar of cement have shown possibility of its secondary products of cement and concrete. The uses of briquette ash and industrial waste as construction materials would contribute toward solving various pollution problems caused by industrial wastes and saving labor costs needed to cleaning up. Furthermore, the effective use of briquette ash would greatly save the aggregate resources.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.39-59
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• 2007

The international involvement of a firm has been described as a gradual development process "a process in which the enterprise gradually increases its international involvement in many studies. This process evolves in the interplay between the development of knowledge about foreign markets and operations on one hand and increasing commitment of resources to foreign markets on the other." On the basis of Uppsala internationalization model, many studies strengthen strong theoretical and empirical support. According to the predictions of the classic stages theory, the internationalization process of firms have been recognized and characterized gradual evolution to foreign markets, so called stage theory: indirect & direct export, strategic alliance and foreign direct investment. However, termed "international new ventures" (McDougall, Shane, and Oviatt 1994), "born globals" (Knight 1997; Knight and Cavusgil 1996; Madsen and Servais 1997), "instant internationals" (Preece, Miles, and Baetz 1999), or "global startups" (Oviatt and McDougall 1994) have been used and come into spotlight in internationalization study of technology intensity venture companies. Recent researches focused on venture company have suggested the phenomenons of 'born global' firms as a contradiction to the stages theory. Especially the article by Oviatt and McDougall threw the spotlight on international entrepreneurs, on international new ventures, and on their importance in the globalising world economy. Since venture companies have, by definition. lack of economies of scale, lack of resources (financial and knowledge), and aversion to risk taking, they have a difficulty in expanding their market to abroad and pursue internalization gradually and step by step. However many venture companies have pursued 'Born Global Strategy', which is different from process strategy, because corporate's environment has been rapidly changing to globalization. The existing studies investigate that (1) why the ventures enter into overseas market in those early stage, even in infancy, (2) what make the different international strategy among ventures and the born global strategy is better to the infant ventures. However, as for venture's performance(growth and profitability), the existing results do not correspond each other. They also, don't include marketing strategy (differentiation, low price, market breadth and market pioneer) that is important factors in studying of BGV's performance. In this paper I aim to delineate the appearance of international new ventures and the phenomenons of venture companies' internationalization strategy. In order to verify research problems, I develop a resource-based model and marketing strategies for analyzing the effects of the born global venture firms. In this paper, I suggested 3 research problems. First, do the korean venture companies take some advantages in the aspects of corporate's performances (growth, profitability and overall market performances) when they pursue internationalization from inception? Second, do the korean BGV have firm specific assets (foreign experiences, foreign orientation, organizational absorptive capacity)? Third, What are the marketing strategies of korean BGV and is it different from others? Under these problems, I test then (1) whether the BGV that a firm started its internationalization activity almost from inception, has more intangible resources(foreign experience of corporate members, foreign orientation, technological competences and absorptive capacity) than any other venture firms(Non_BGV) and (2) also whether the BGV's marketing strategies-differentiation, low price, market diversification and preemption strategy are different from Non_BGV. Above all, the main purpose of this research is that results achieved by BGV are indeed better than those obtained by Non_BGV firms with respect to firm's growth rate and efficiency. To do this research, I surveyed venture companies located in Seoul and Deajeon in Korea during November to December, 2005. I gather the data from 200 venture companies and then selected 84 samples, which have been founded during 1999${\sim}$2000. To compare BGV's characteristics with those of Non_BGV, I also had to classify BGV by export intensity over 50% among five or six aged venture firms. Many other researches tried to classify BGV and Non_BGV, but there were various criterion as many as researchers studied on this topic. Some of them use time gap, which is time difference of establishment and it's first internationalization experience and others use export intensity, ration of export sales amount divided by total sales amount. Although using a mixed criterion of prior research in my case, I do think this kinds of criterion is subjective and arbitrary rather than objective, so I do mention my research has some critical limitation in the classification of BGV and Non_BGV. The first purpose of research is the test of difference of performance between BGV and Non_BGV. As a result of t-test, the research show that there are statistically efficient difference not only in the growth rate (sales growth rate compared to competitors and 3 years averaged sales growth rate) but also in general market performance of BGV. But in case of profitability performance, the hypothesis that is BGV is more profit (return on investment(ROI) compared to competitors and 3 years averaged ROI) than Non-BGV was not supported. From these results, this paper concludes that BGV grows rapidly and gets a high market performance (in aspect of market share and customer loyalty) but there is no profitability difference between BGV and Non_BGV. The second result is that BGV have more absorptive capacity especially, knowledge competence, and entrepreneur's international experience than Non_BGV. And this paper also found BGV search for product differentiation, exemption strategy and market diversification strategy while Non_BGV search for low price strategy. These results have never been dealt with other existing studies. This research has some limitations. First limitation is concerned about the definition of BGV, as I mentioned above. Conceptually speaking, BGV is defined as company pursue internationalization from inception, but in empirical study, it's very difficult to classify between BGV and Non_BGV. I tried to classify on the basis of time difference and export intensity, this criterions are so subjective and arbitrary that the results are not robust if the criterion were changed. Second limitation is concerned about sample used in this research. I surveyed venture companies just located in Seoul and Daejeon and also use only 84 samples which more or less provoke sample bias problem and generalization of results. I think the more following studies that focus on ventures located in other region, the better to verify the results of this paper.