• Management & Information Systems Review
• /
• v.22
• /
• pp.137-165
• /
• 2007

It seems high time to increase productivity by adopting e-business to overcome challenges posed by both external factors including the appreciation of Korean won, oil hikes and fierce global competition and domestic issues represented by disparities between large corporations and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), Seoul metropolitan and local cities, and export and domestic demand all of which weaken future growth engines in the Korean economy. The demands of the globalization era are for innovative changes in businessprocess and industrial structure aiming for creating new values. To this end, e-business is expected to play a core role in the sophistication of the Korean economy through new values and innovation. In order to examine business performance in e-business-adopting industries, this study analyzed the home shopping industry by closely looking into the financial ratios including the ratio of net profit to sales, the ratio of operation income to sales, the ratio of gross cost to sales cost, the ratio of gross cost to selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expense, and return of investment (ROI). This study, for best outcome, referred to corporate financial statements as a main resource to calculate financial ratios by utilizing Data Analysis, Retrieval and Transfer System (DART) of the Financial Supervisory Service, one of the Korea's financial supervisory authorities. First of all, the result of the trend analysis on the ratio of net profit to sales is as following. CJ Home Shopping has registered a remarkable increase in its ratio of net profit rate to sales since 2002 while its competitors find it hard to catch up with CJ's stunning performances. This is partly due to the efficient management compared to CJ's value of capital. Such significance, if the current trend continues, will make the front-runner assume the largest market share. On the other hand, GS Home Shopping, despite its best organized system and largest value of capital among others, lacks efficiency in management. Second of all, the result of the trend analysis on the ratio of operation income to sales is as following. Both CJ Home Shopping and GS Home Shopping have, until 2004, recorded similar growth trend. However, while CJ Home Shopping's operating income continued to increase in 2005, GS Home Shopping observed its operating income declining which resulted in the increasing income gap with CJ Home Shopping. While CJ Home Shopping with the largest market share in home shopping industryis engaged in aggressive marketing, GS Home Shopping due to its stability-driven management strategies falls behind CJ again in the ratio of operation income to sales in spite of its favorable management environment including its large capital. Companies in the Group B were established in the same year of 2001. NS Home Shopping was the first in the Group B to shift its loss to profit. Woori Home Shopping has continued to post operating loss for three consecutive years and finally was sold to Lotte Group in 2007, but since then, has registered a continuing increase in net income on sales. Third of all, the result of the trend analysis on the ratio of gross cost to sales cost is as following. Since home shopping falls into sales business, its cost of sales is much lower than that of other types of business such as manufacturing industry. Since 2002 in gross costs including cost of sales, SG&A expense, and non-operating expense, cost of sales turned out to have remarkably decreased. Group B has also posted a notable decline in the same sector since 2002. Fourth of all, the result of the trend analysis on the ratio of gross cost to SG&A expense is as following. Due to its unique characteristics, the home shopping industry usually posts ahigh ratio of SG&A expense. However, more than 80% of SG&A expense means the result of lax management and at the same time, a sharp lower net income on sales than other industries. Last but not least, the result of the trend analysis on ROI is as following. As for CJ Home Shopping, the curve of ROI looks similar to that of its investment on fixed assets. As it turned out, the company's ratio of fixed assets to operating income skyrocketed in 2004 and 2005. As far as GS Home Shopping is concerned, its fixed assets are not as much as that of CJ Home Shopping. Consequently, competition in the home shopping industry, at the moment, is among CJ, GS, Hyundai, NS and Woori Home Shoppings, and all of them need to more thoroughly manage their costs. In order for the late-comers of Group B and other home shopping companies to advance further, the current lax management should be reformed particularly on their SG&A expense sector. Provided that the total sales volume in the Internet shopping sector is projected to grow over 20 trillion won by the year 2010, it is concluded that all the participants in the home shopping industry should put strategies on efficient management on costs and expenses as their top priority rather than increase revenues, if they hope to grow even further after 2007.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
• /
• v.6 no.1
• /
• pp.61-70
• /
• 2004

In this paper, a group replacement policy based on a failure count is analysed. For a group of identical repairable units, a maintenance policy is performed with two phase considerations: a repair interval phase and a waiting interval phase. Each unit undergoes minimal repair at failure during the repair interval. Beyond the interval, no repair is made until a number of failures. The expected cost rate expressions under the policy is derived. A method to obtain the optimal values of decision variables are explored. Numerical examples are given to demonstrate the results.

• Proceedings of the Korea Association of Information Systems Conference
• /
• 2003.05a
• /
• pp.241-251
• /
• 2003

The rapidly changing environment have forced organizations to improve systems thinking capability to coordinate diverse activities across cross-functional business areas necessarily involving group decision-making processes. Although many approaches have been introduced to enable the collaborative processes of group decision-making, they often lack features supporting the dynamic complexity issues. The study proposes system dynamics modeling based on simulation techniques to improve systems thinking capability in group decision-making context.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
• /
• v.39 no.1
• /
• pp.143-149
• /
• 2012

It is necessary to construct the supply system which is stable and quality assured for professional performance of agro-food export. The purpose of this study is to present the basic information about the improvement directions on the Leading Group of Agro-food Export. The result of analysis is presented by the achievement of business objective, farm-organization and large scale-up, marketing achievement, and the fidelity of group operations etc.

• Korean System Dynamics Review
• /
• v.6 no.2
• /
• pp.37-52
• /
• 2005

Conflict resolution in decision-making groups is studied using a System Dynamics model. The model is developed using a grounded-theory approach. Some preliminary results are shown. The results seem to be in line with much empirical research done in the management literature about conflict and conflict resolution at the group level of analysis. Ideas for further research are discussed.

• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
• /
• v.37 no.3
• /
• pp.191-197
• /
• 2011

The group Steiner tree problem is a generalization of the Steiner tree problem that is defined as follows. Given a weighted graph with a family of subsets of nodes, called groups, the problem is to find a minimum weighted tree that contains at least one node in each group. We present some existing and some new formulations for the problem and compare the relaxations of such formulations.

• The Journal of Society for e-Business Studies
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.165-189
• /
• 2013

Conceptual modeling is a critical activity for developing successful business information systems. The objective of this study is to evaluate the possibility of applying the constant comparison method from the grounded theory to conceptual modeling. To achieve the objective, we trained novice modelers and split them into two groups for evaluation. The experimental results show that applying the constant comparison method could increase acceptability from more experienced conceptual modelers. Moreover, while the control group was experienced difficulties when domain knowledge is unfamiliar, the experimental group could handle difficulties more effectively. In addition, applying the constant comparison method also decreased the time to complete analysis for conceptual modeling.

• Asia Marketing Journal
• /
• v.14 no.4
• /
• pp.23-33
• /
• 2013

This case focuses on WE CAN Cookies, a social enterprise in South Korea that was founded in 2001 with the support of the Korean Roman Catholic Church. WE CAN Cookies specializes in the making of high quality organic cookies. As a nonprofit organization that uses a labor force of mostly mentally disabled workers, the company faces many challenges that normal companies do not experience. The company had to initially overcome the social prejudice that the handicapped cannot make good cookies. Despite the religious background and social agenda of the company, it started making inroads as a cookie-making business only after its managers, including the nuns who run it began adopting modern management philosophies and practices. The WE CAN Cookies case illustrates three main marketing-related concepts: One, WE CAN Cookies is a good example of how social enterprises face a broader spectrum of challenges when compared to conventional profit-seeking enterprises. Two, WE CAN Cookies demonstrates that social enterprises need flexibility in formulating their business strategies. Even though WE CAN Cookies is subject to many constraints, as a social enterprise it can also take advantage of new opportunities for obtaining support from the government and from the private sector. Three, WE CAN Cookies shows that these types of operations need to create greater balance in their social and business competencies to ensure the long term viability. Social enterprises are certified by governments with the stated goal of improving the lives and the wellbeing of special interest group. As important as achieving these objectives are, social enterprises also must additionally be able to build their operational capabilities not only in manufacturing but also in functions such as marketing.

• Mood & Emotion
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.128-136
• /
• 2014

Objectives : This study was undertaken to investigate the prevalence of depressive symptoms and their related factors among a group of medical students. Method : A total of 874 (529 male and 345 female) medical students were randomly selected to participate in a survey. Depressive symptoms, satisfaction with life, health behavior including alcohol use, stress, sleep disturbance and happiness were collected using self-reported questionnaires. Results : The prevalence of depressive symptoms was 10.8%. In stepwise multiple regression analysis, lower satisfaction of life, daytime dysfunction due to sleepiness, history of suicidal attempt, stress, sleep disturbance were found to be significant relating factors of depressive symptoms. In moderated regression analysis, the result showed that the impact of life stress were moderated by satisfaction of life on depressive symptoms, but the moderating effect of happiness was not significant. Conclusion : This study showed considerably high prevalence of depressive symptoms and BDI score in medical students. The findings suggest that early detection of depressive symptoms and intensive mental health promotion program is needed in order to improve medical student's mental health status.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.20 no.7
• /
• pp.560-575
• /
• 2020

This study analyzed the actual impact of central and local governments' startup mentoring programs on the entrepreneurship and early startup business performances of company owners and prospective owners. To analyze the participants' hidden intentions, literature review, in-depth interview, and focus group interview research methodologies were used consecutively. The following results were obtained. First, participants with higher expectations toward the mentoring programs tended to evaluate the programs more negatively, with a substantial number of interviewees responding that the quality of the programs was subpar. Second, startup mentoring programs seem to have had positive effects on building entrepreneurship. The effect was especially significant in areas such as creativeness and innovation. Third, the mentoring programs did not have a significant impact on business performance, suggesting the need for institutions' active participation in mentor-mentee relations and programs. Fourth, most participants evaluated mentoring programs as unsatisfactory, meaning that the programs do not meet the intention and purpose of the institutions providing them. Based on these analyses, the academic importance of this study was highlighted and ways startup mentoring programs can improve in the future were suggested.