• Archives of design research
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• v.20 no.3 s.71
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• pp.325-334
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• 2007

This study examines the perception of professionalism of the design practitioners working in the architectural design firms. Data from the survey questionnaire were collected from 271 participants. Major findings were as follows: 1) Professional ethics and research were the two most important components of the profession. 2) Experience was the most important factor determining pay, promotion, and competency. 3) Job-related educational program was most highly supported by the company. 4) Participants' perceptions toward licensing and professional association were negative. 5) Self-accomplishment and aptitude were the main reasons to choose the profession. 6) Independent attitudes were found toward intellectual property. 7) Participants felt proud of their job but thought their social status was below medium.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.84-91
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• 2015

Project Financing (PF) is a financing method, executed based upon the projected profitability from a project itself instead of relying on the credit rating of project sponsors or any type of collateral. However, most financial institutions of Korea lacks the long term profitability assessment capability, and they prefer to acquire credit reinforcement from the construction companies in the form of the guarantor or debt argument commitments. As a result, PF contingent liabilities as an indirect debt, are burdened to the construction companies. Even though the PF contingent liabilities are not supposed to be part of the financial statements, they became a mandatory disclosure items since 2009. In this study, PF contingent liabilities were studied to indicate how they were correlated with construction firms' financial ratios. Construction firms were grouped by their credit rating and each group was compared in order to analyze PF contingent liabilities' impact on the financial condition of the company in terms of liquidity, liability, and stability.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2015.05a
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• pp.115-116
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• 2015

Recently, most of the construction companies is being degraded due to the overall construction recession profitability. Among them, order quantity of the architectural and engineering firms are trend to decrease except for large companies over a certain size. In particular, small companies are facing more difficulties. This study was conducted expert interview method to extract the main cause of profitability degradation of a small-sized design engineering companies. And, we are proposes a critical influence factors through survey about extracted factors. The results of this study are expect to help the competitiveness of architectural design firm.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.6 no.2 s.24
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• pp.120-128
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• 2005

ISO 9001, the quality management system issued by the International Organization for Standardization, is being used by architectural design and engineering firms in order to strengthen the capability of business activities through the implementation of the international and advanced quality management systems. However, there have been significant problems in stable implementation and settlement of ISO 9001 in construction industry, which seem to be caused by key employees' lack of proper recognition and comprehension. The purpose of this research, accordingly, is to find and analyze nonconformity results which were found when the third party registrars audited the conformity of companies' quality management systems for ISO 9001 certification especially in architectural design and engineering firms. For this purpose this research was conducted by a cluster analysis of 647 audit reports out of representative 15 architectural design and engineering firms that have been audited periodically from 1997 to 2003 by the third party registrars. The analysis showed that the most frequent problems were generated in the areas of $\ulcorner$Design and Development$\lrcorner$ , $\ulcorner$production and Service Provision$\lrcorner$ , and $\ulcorner$General requirements$\lrcorner$ of the quality management system. The following, the areas of $\ulcorner$Monitoring and Measurement$\lrcorner$ and $\ulcorner$purchasing$\lrcorner$ were also analyzed as main factors which caused frequent nonconformity results. This research also shows that the corrective actions for nonconformity results are closely connected with the whole management activities in architectural design and engineering firms. Consequently, corrective actions for disposition of nonconformities should be implemented more specifically in order to settle and activate the quality management systems in architectural design and engineering firms.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2015.10a
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• pp.210-212
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• 2015

The growth-share matrix is a portfolio planning tool developed by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to assist competitive positioning in the international market including those in the construction industry. This matrix is helpful in balancing the firm's cash-flow, and it can suggest strategic directions for each business unit. However, its effectiveness and applicability have long been debated in the academic field due to the complex and unique industrial context of construction. To solve the dispute, this research clarifies the applicability of theories underlying the growth-share matrix to the construction industry. Empirical research based on actual financial data of Korean construction firms is adopted for the statistical analysis including one-way analysis of variance and correlation analysis. The results of this research show that empirical findings on the relationship between performance variables. In this context, this research can provide important insights on the concept of portfolio management in the construction industry.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.35-44
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• 2011

Business performance measurement is used as an important tool to evaluate management performance, control human resources, and implement strategies. It can be measured simply in terms of finance including net profit, return on investment, and return on equity, but this is not sufficient because the performance outside of finance such as internal business process and informatization cannot be examined. Therefore this study defined a KPI(Key Performance Indicators) applicable to local construction companies ranked in the top 30 in construction capability, and also introduced differentiated results from the earlier studies by reflecting more realistic corporate management based on the existing studies and interviews with business experts.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.2 no.2 s.6
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• pp.37-46
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• 2001

Business boundaries of firms in the construction industry are strictly regulated in Korea. Under the current law, firms involved in construction processes are classified into five categories; general contractors, specialty contractors, architects' offices, engineering firms, and specialized in inspection. Among these types of firms, general contractors are prohibited to enter into specialty contractor's market and vice versa by the basic law in the construction industry. Also general contractors are not allowed to provide architectural services. The purpose of the law is to prohibit unlicensed companies from entering the construction market and to protect customers. However, the law causes critical problems e.g. low efficiency of production and rent creation. Therefore, we identify problems concerning business boundaries of firms in the construction industry and predict structural changes in the them when they are liberalized. So we surveyed general contractors and specialty contractors in Korea to estimate the effects of the liberalization on the construction industry. Most of contractors point to the enhancement of production efficiency as the motivation to integrate other construction process. If current regulations, which limit firms' decisions on business boundaries, are eliminated, firms will choose optimal business scopes taking into account types of contracts adopted by the Government for public works. Based on the cost/benifit analyses, they will decide whether to intergrate other production processes or not.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2013.01a
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• pp.640-647
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• 2013

Building Information Modelling (BIM) has become the new international benchmark for efficiency in design, construction and maintenance of buildings. It is the platform that brings about collaboration between project stakeholders and improvement of project outcomes. With all its potentials, not much of the impact of BIM technologies has been felt in the Nigerian construction industry. This research aimed at assessing the readiness of the Nigerian building design firms to adopt BIM technologies. The research was exploratory in nature. A field survey was conducted with the use of structured questionnaire, self administered to a sample of building design consultancy firms (architectural, structural, M&E, quantity surveying, and multi-disciplinary design firms) within Abuja and Kaduna. The questionnaire sought the perception of the responding firms on the factors affecting BIM adoption in the Nigerian construction industry, and their level of readiness to adopt BIM technologies in their practices based on the four categories of readiness-management, people, process and technology. 42.26% response rate was achieved and used for analysis. ANOVA and DUNCAN post-hoc tests were used to establish the differences between the responses of the groups of firms, while means and standard deviations were obtained to establish the important factors affecting BIM adoption in Nigeria. The survey revealed that all the groups of Nigerian design firms are appreciably ready for the adoption of BIM technologies in their practice, with slight variations in their respective levels of readiness. 'Lack of awareness of BIM technology among professionals' and clients and 'lack of knowledgeable and experienced partners' were identified as the most important barriers of BIM adoption in Nigeria; while the most significant drivers are 'availability of well trained professionals' and 'cooperation and commitment of professional bodies to the adoption'. Education and training of building design professionals and cooperation of all stakeholders in the design and construction supply chain were recommended as part of measures to ensure successful adoption of BIM in the Nigerian construction industry.

• Journal of Science and Technology Studies
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• v.6 no.2 s.12
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• pp.1-44
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• 2006

This paper aims to analyse post catch-up innovation activities of Korean firms. Traditional approach focused on incremental innovation through fast catch-up process. Recently, Korean firms present new patterns of innovation activities. It includes the development of state-of-the-art frontier products in capital intensive manufacturing sector, the achievement of architectural innovation through adopting newly developed components and the creation of new market based on the basic technological capabilities. This paper attempts to formulate conceptual framework for analysing post catch-up innovation activities and to analyse stylized facts of post catch-up activities based on the case studies on technology based small and medium Korean firms.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.435-450
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• 2006

As technological capabilities have enhanced, the patterns of innovation activities of latecomer firms changed to post catch-up mode. The purpose of this research is to provide conceptual frameworks for post catch-up mode of innovation activities, based on the case study on Korean mobile phone industry. It presents the possibilities of architectural innovation of latecomer firms, which is stimulated by the co-operative innovation activities between component suppliers and users from the initial stage of final product development.