• Title/Summary/Keyword: Collaboration partners

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Environmental Auditing-Analysis of Enterprises (환경감사 - 기업분석)

  • Wotte, Joris
    • Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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    • v.4 no.3
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    • pp.9-13
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    • 1995
  • In July 1993 a new prescription of the EC was finished, concerning the voluntary participation of enterprises in a common auditing system. By this in the EC-member countries there must be founded centers of environmental auditing where experienced experts of environmental auditing should be accredited. These accredited experts are controllers for evaluating and certification of carried out environmental-auditings. An environmental-auditing practically represents an environmental assessment for an already existing enterprise with establishing corresponding programmes and strategies for the internal management to improve the environmental relations. Much experiences, which could be collected in the field of EIA during the last years may be transfered to this new task immediately. Only an essential difference there should not be overseen because of national legislation EIA in the defined cases must be carried out. By the EC-prescription carrying out an environmental-auditing for an enterprise is optional, it is recommended only. It was not introduced as a must. In spite of this fact because of the hard competition on the market there will be developed a pressure for the enterprises, to carry out such environmental-auditings. At present already a number of first projects in this direction can be seen, in the first line above all enterprises with the necessary economic power want to use this possibility, to gain better positions on the market. We have already gathered the first experiences in this field. We arranged corresponding contacts to several enterprises within the surroundings of Dresden. Within an opening discussion, where the project is explained and discussed with the management of the enterprise very detailed, the understanding, the readiness and the cooperation for the project are generated necessary prerequesits for the success of the whole work. By means of careful detail-work in collaboration with all departments and on all levels of the enterprise the total mass and energy-balances of the factory established and analysed. There are included also such ranges like material delivery, personal policy, public relations and sale as well as waste management. It is important that all people working in the factory have the feeling to be our partners, and not to have the impression to be checked or controled by an outside organization. This one of the most important factors of environmental auditing, in order to wake up and to develop a common interest on all sides. At the end of the environmental auditing there will be according to the prescription of the EC a catalogue of measures to do immediately, short time, mean time and long time for improvement of the environmental situation of the enterprise. All proposals are made in connection with a corresponding economic evaluation. These measures and programmes are declared as the environmental manual and are the basis for the work of the environmental management of the enterprise for the next three years. According to the EC-prescription, the enterprise with this environmental manual can get a corresponding certificate, which may be used for public relation purposes.

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An Exploratory Study on Framework for Partner Relationships and Open Innovation Processes (파트너십 관계-개방형 혁신 프로세스 프레임워크에 대한 탐색적 연구)

  • Cho, Boo-Yun;Shin, Ki-Jeong;Park, Kwang-Tae
    • Journal of Information Management
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    • v.41 no.2
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    • pp.47-69
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    • 2010
  • Open innovation is a phenomenon that has been widely accepted by both practice and theory over the last few years. On the contrary, partner relationships have attracted little attention while the open innovation could not be emerged without the link to partners. This paper identifies and evaluates a framework for the partner relationships and open innovation processes. Based on the literatures regarding open innovation and partner relationships, we propose the framework of matrix type. We present results based on 352 open innovation cases reported during 2002-2009, and each case is classified into 5 different categories of the framework. JV-C(Joint Venture relationship & Coupled process) archetype has dominated the cases with 178 cases(50.6%) where JV-O(Joint Venture relationship & Outside-In process) follows JV-C with 124 cases(35.2%). No significant change has been found in the number of cases after 2003 when open innovation firstly suggested. However, the number sharply increases in 2009 by boom in JV-C and JV-O. These results show the importance of partner relationships and preference toward Joint Venture relationship in open innovation, while the conventional approaches has just focused on value-chain partnership. We find remarkable collaboration cases contributed by universities and government invested research centers, so the role of non-profit R&D organizations has also been discussed.

A Study on University-Industry Cooperation: Focused on Employer Engagement in Training: (대학과 기업 간의 산학협력에 관한 연구: 고용주의 교육훈련 참여를 중심으로)

  • Park, Yoon-Hee;Oh, Kye-Taik
    • Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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    • v.20 no.11
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    • pp.197-207
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    • 2019
  • The purpose of this study was to suggest measures for improving training cooperation between industries and universities through employer engagement by analyzing the state of employer engagement in training. The current study investigated the state of employer engagement in training and factors that facilitate employer engagement in training. A survey was conducted with 230 human resource managers who worked for companies with more than 300 employees. The study results showed that employers perceived their engagement in training for their employees are consumers rather than strategic partners to plan educational service and make decisions in their communities. However, employers perceived that their engagement in training would be effective because their training engagement can result in positive direct and indirect business outcomes. Moreover, the implementation of training programs based on industry needs was revealed as a critical factor for promoting collaboration between industries and universities and leading to employer engagement. Based on the study results, several suggestions are presented for improving training cooperation between industries and universities through employer engagement.

Research for Network on Medical Association and International Medical Tourism - Based on Centum Medical Partners - (의료협력과 국제 의료관광 네트워크에 관한 연구 - 센텀 메디컬 파트너스를 중심으로 -)

  • Park, Ki-Soo;Bae, Jong-Cheol;Choi, Bong-Joon
    • Journal of Korean Clinical Health Science
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    • v.2 no.1
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    • pp.59-71
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    • 2014
  • Purpose. Medical tourism is recently becoming a new industry with great growth potential. The South Korean government is shifting medical tourism from simple cultural tourism to a high value-added industry with a new paradigm. Methods. The government has been providing positive support and marketing policies since the introduction of the article concerning foreign patient attraction to the medical law in 2009, and various types of medical institutions around the country has participated actively in medical tourism by themselves or in cooperation of government bodies and made increasingly greater performance. Results. This study obtained the following results. The medical institutions in Korea have been making efforts to see more development and profitability in diverse ways, including medical tourism for foreign patients and the advance of the Korean medical institutions into foreign markets. However, many local governing bodies and medical institutions participating in medical tourism around the country have primarily focused on examination and treatment on the basis of foreign patients' visit to South Korea and rarely built a medical network with other countries directly for medical tourism. This study presents a case of building a local medical network and a network for international medical tourism successfully on the basis of the local medical association, CMP, which has been formed naturally in Busan. The success factors for CMP included 1) enthusiasm of the official in charge; 2) the medical level, the service level, and open-mindedness of participant medical institutions; 3) cost efficiency due to executive office management with no costs, no conflicts, and constant partnership; 4) security of non-competitive expertise for participants; 5) local factors of CMP; 6) participation of good agencies; 7) reinforcement of participation networks; and 8) post facto management and local doctor management. Conclusions. Its positive effects included patient introduction and greater profitability on an internal basis as well as construction of the collaboration system with the institutions related to medical tourism and confidence. However, there are some limitations: it is still difficult to predict performance due to the short period of their activities, and it is necessary to continue to observe their constant activities since a single medical association was involved.

A Study on Investment Determinants by the Types of Start-up Accelerators (스타트업 액셀러레이터의 민간·공공 유형별 투자결정요인에 대한 연구)

  • Heo, Ga El;Chung, Seung Wha;Kim, Ji Yeon
    • Korean small business review
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    • v.43 no.4
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    • pp.173-209
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    • 2021
  • Start-up accelerators are a new type of investor that provide mentoring, education and seed capital to start-ups for a fixed duration and receive a certain stake in them in return. They help start-ups achieve successful commercialization. With increase in performance visibility, the number of private and public sector accelerators rose across domestic and international markets. Private sector accelerators are established and operated by private entities while public sector accelerators are established and operated by the government. Both play complementary roles that are becoming increasingly important to start-ups. Therefore, this study aims to examine the differences in major operational goals and investment determinants between private and public sectors and to understand their implications. The results show that the private sector prioritizes profit generation through the investment, while the public sector aims to contribute to the development of high-growth start-ups, and create region-specific and technology-specific start-up ecosystems. Additionally, both groups consider customer needs the most important determinant. Public groups are more conservative in investments and tend to place importance on objective indicators such as patents, partners, mentors, and co-founders. Conversely, private groups value the capabilities of founders and their ease of collaboration with accelerators. These findings can help start-ups get support from public or private accelerators more easily. It will also help public and private accelerators refine the criteria for selecting start-ups.

Effects in Response to on the Innovation Activities of SMEs to Dynamic Core Competencies and Business Performance (중소기업의 혁신활동이 핵심역량과 기업성과에 미치는 영향)

  • Ahn, Jung-Ki;Kim, beom-seok
    • Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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    • v.13 no.2
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    • pp.63-77
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    • 2018
  • In the rapidly to change global market in recent years, as the era of merging and integrating industries and the evolution of technology have come to an era in which everything can not be solved as a single company, it is evolving into competition for the enterprise network rather than the competition for the enterprise unit. In a competitive business environment, it is necessary to provide not only for the efforts as an individual companies but also the mutual development efforts to enhance output through the innovation activities based on the interrelationship with the business partners. In spite of the recent efforts and research through core competencies and innovation activities, some of business activities were unable to achieve enough progress in business performance and this study mainly focused to improve business performance for those companies. This study targeted CEOs and Directors who participates in "manufacturing performance innovation partnership project" carried by The foundation of Large, SMEs, Agriculture, Fisheries cooperation Korea and studied the influences of innovation activities to the core competencies and business performance. Detailed variables in this study were extracted from the previous research and used for verification. The study is designed to determine the influence of individual innovation activities to the core competencies and business performance. Innovation activities as a parameter, the relationship between core competencies and business performance was examined. In the examination of the innovation activities as a meditated effect, those activities carried by SMEs (Collaboration in Technology, Manufacturing, and Management innovations with Large Scale Business) through partnership in manufacturing innovation is significantly related business performance. Therefore, the result reveals that the individual SMEs are having own limitation in the achievement of significant progress in business performance with their own capabilities, and using the innovation activities act as catalyst through the collaboration with large scale businesses would result significant progress in business performance. Mutual effort in collaborative innovation activities between large scale businesses and SMEs is one of the most critical issues in recent years in Korea and the main focus of this study is to provide analysis which demonstrates where the SMEs are required to focus in their innovation activities.

The Effect of Mutual Trust on Relational Performance in Supplier-Buyer Relationships for Business Services Transactions (재상업복무교역중적매매관계중상호신임대관계적효적영향(在商业服务交易中的买卖关系中相互信任对关系绩效的影响))

  • Noh, Jeon-Pyo
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.19 no.4
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    • pp.32-43
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    • 2009
  • Trust has been studied extensively in psychology, economics, and sociology, and its importance has been emphasized not only in marketing, but also in business disciplines in general. Unlike past relationships between suppliers and buyers, which take considerable advantage of private networks and may involve unethical business practices, partnerships between suppliers and buyers are at the core of success for industrial marketing amid intense global competition in the 21st century. A high level of mutual cooperation occurs through an exchange relationship based on trust, which brings long-term benefits, competitive enhancements, and transaction cost reductions, among other benefits, for both buyers and suppliers. In spite of the important role of trust, existing studies in buy-supply situations overlook the role of trust and do not systematically analyze the effect of trust on relational performance. Consequently, an in-depth study that determines the relation of trust to the relational performance between buyers and suppliers of business services is absolutely needed. Business services in this study, which include those supporting the manufacturing industry, are drawing attention as the economic growth engine for the next generation. The Korean government has selected business services as a strategic area for the development of manufacturing sectors. Since the demands for opening business services markets are becoming fiercer, the competitiveness of the business service industry must be promoted now more than ever. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the mutual trust between buyers and suppliers on relational performance. Specifically, this study proposed a theoretical model of trust-relational performance in the transactions of business services and empirically tested the hypotheses delineated from the framework. The study suggests strategic implications based on research findings. Empirical data were collected via multiple methods, including via telephone, mail, and in-person interviews. Sample companies were knowledge-based companies supplying and purchasing business services in Korea. The present study collected data on a dyadic basis. Each pair of sample companies includes a buying company and its corresponding supplying company. Mutual trust was traced for each pair of companies. This study proposes a model of trust-relational performance of buying-supplying for business services. The model consists of trust and its antecedents and consequences. The trust of buyers is classified into trust toward the supplying company and trust toward salespersons. Viewing trust both at the individual level and the organizational level is based on the research of Doney and Cannon (1997). Normally, buyers are the subject of trust, but this study supposes that suppliers are the subjects. Hence, it uniquely focused on the bilateral perspective of perceived risk. In other words, suppliers, like buyers, are the subject of trust since transactions are normally bilateral. From this point of view, suppliers' trust in buyers is as important as buyers' trust in suppliers. The suppliers' trust is influenced by the extent to which it trusts the buying companies and the buyers. This classification of trust using an individual level and an organization level is based on the suggestion of Doney and Cannon (1997). Trust affects the process of supplier selection, which works in a bilateral manner. Suppliers are actively involved in the supplier selection process, working very closely with buyers. In addition, the process is affected by the extent to which each party trusts its partners. The selection process consists of certain steps: recognition, information search, supplier selection, and performance evaluation. As a result of the process, both buyers and suppliers evaluate the performance and take corrective actions on the basis of such outcomes as tangible, intangible, and/or side effects. The measurement of trust used for the present study was developed on the basis of the studies of Mayer, Davis and Schoorman (1995) and Mayer and Davis (1999). Based on their recommendations, the three dimensions of trust used for the study include ability, benevolence, and integrity. The original questions were adjusted to the context of the transactions of business services. For example, a question such as "He/she has professional capabilities" has been changed to "The salesperson showed professional capabilities while we talked about our products." The measurement used for this study differs from those used in previous studies (Rotter 1967; Sullivan and Peterson 1982; Dwyer and Oh 1987). The measurements of the antecedents and consequences of trust used for this study were developed on the basis of Doney and Cannon (1997). The original questions were adjusted to the context of transactions in business services. In particular, questions were developed for both buyers and suppliers to address the following factors: reputation (integrity, customer care, good-will), market standing (company size, market share, positioning in the industry), willingness to customize (product, process, delivery), information sharing (proprietary information, private information), willingness to maintain relationships, perceived professionalism, authority empowerment, buyer-seller similarity, and contact frequency. As a consequential variable of trust, relational performance was measured. Relational performance is classified into tangible effects, intangible effects, and side effects. Tangible effects include financial performance; intangible effects include improvements in relations, network developing, and internal employee satisfaction; side effects include those not included either in the tangible or intangible effects. Three hundred fifty pairs of companies were contacted, and one hundred five pairs of companies responded. After deleting five company pairs because of incomplete responses, one hundred five pairs of companies were used for data analysis. The response ratio of the companies used for data analysis is 30% (105/350), which is above the average response ratio in industrial marketing research. As for the characteristics of the respondent companies, the majority of the companies operate service businesses for both buyers (85.4%) and suppliers (81.8%). The majority of buyers (76%) deal with consumer goods, while the majority of suppliers (70%) deal with industrial goods. This may imply that buyers process the incoming material, parts, and components to produce the finished consumer goods. As indicated by their report of the length of acquaintance with their partners, suppliers appear to have longer business relationships than do buyers. Hypothesis 1 tested the effects of buyer-supplier characteristics on trust. The salesperson's professionalism (t=2.070, p<0.05) and authority empowerment (t=2.328, p<0.05) positively affected buyers' trust toward suppliers. On the other hand, authority empowerment (t=2.192, p<0.05) positively affected supplier trust toward buyers. For both buyers and suppliers, the degree of authority empowerment plays a crucial role in the maintenance of their trust in each other. Hypothesis 2 tested the effects of buyerseller relational characteristics on trust. Buyers tend to trust suppliers, as suppliers make every effort to contact buyers (t=2.212, p<0.05). This tendency has also been shown to be much stronger for suppliers (t=2.591, p<0.01). On the other hand suppliers trust buyers because suppliers perceive buyers as being similar to themselves (t=2.702, p<0.01). This finding confirmed the results of Crosby, Evans, and Cowles (1990), which reported that suppliers and buyers build relationships through regular meetings, either for business or personal matters. Hypothesis 3 tested the effects of trust on perceived risk. It has been found that for both suppliers and buyers the lower is the trust, the higher is the perceived risk (t=-6.621, p<0.01 for buyers; t=-2.437, p<0.05). Interestingly, this tendency has been shown to be much stronger for buyers than for suppliers. One possible explanation for this higher level of perceived risk is that buyers normally perceive higher risks than do suppliers in transactions involving business services. For this reason, it is necessary for suppliers to implement risk reduction strategies for buyers. Hypothesis 4 tested the effects of trust on information searching. It has been found that for both suppliers and buyers, contrary to expectation, trust depends on their partner's reputation (t=2.929, p<0.01 for buyers; t=2.711, p<0.05 for suppliers). This finding shows that suppliers with good reputations tend to be trusted. Prior experience did not show any significant relationship with trust for either buyers or suppliers. Hypothesis 5 tested the effects of trust on supplier/buyer selection. Unlike buyers, suppliers tend to trust buyers when they think that previous transactions with buyers were important (t=2.913 p<0.01). However, this study did not show any significant relationship between source loyalty and the trust of buyers in suppliers. Hypothesis 6 tested the effects of trust on relational performances. For buyers and suppliers, financial performance reportedly improved when they trusted their partners (t=2.301, p<0.05 for buyers; t=3.692, p<0.01 for suppliers). It is interesting that this tendency was much stronger for suppliers than it was for buyers. Similarly, competitiveness was reported to improve when buyers and suppliers trusted their partners (t=3.563, p<0.01 for buyers; t=3.042, p<0.01 for suppliers). For suppliers, efficiency and productivity were reportedly improved when they trusted buyers (t=2.673, p<0.01). Other performance indices showed insignificant relationships with trust. The findings of this study have some strategic implications. First and most importantly, trust-based transactions are beneficial for both suppliers and buyers. As verified in the study, financial performance can be improved through efforts to build and maintain mutual trust. Similarly, competitiveness can be increased through the same kinds of effort. Second, trust-based transactions can facilitate the reduction of perceived risks inherent in the purchasing situation. This finding has implications for both suppliers and buyers. It is generally believed that buyers perceive higher risks in a highly involved purchasing situation. To reduce risks, previous studies have recommended that suppliers devise risk-reducing tactics. Moving beyond these recommendations, the present study uniquely focused on the bilateral perspective of perceived risk. In other words, suppliers are also susceptible to perceived risks, especially when they supply services that require very technical and sophisticated manipulations and maintenance. Consequently, buyers and suppliers must solve problems together in close collaboration. Hence, mutual trust plays a crucial role in the problem-solving process. Third, as found in this study, the more authority a salesperson has, the more he or she can be trusted. This finding is very important with regard to tactics. Building trust is a long-term assignment; however, when mutual trust has not been developed, suppliers can overcome the problems they encounter by empowering a salesperson with the authority to make certain decisions. This finding applies to suppliers as well.

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Foreign Entry Strategies for Korean Fishery Firms (한국수산업의 해외진출전략에 관한 연구)

  • 김회천
    • The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
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    • v.15 no.1
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    • pp.131-153
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    • 1984
  • Fishery resources are still abundant compared with other resources and the possibility of exploitation is probably great. The Korean fishery industry has grown remarkably since 1957, and Korea is ranked as one of the major fishery countries. Its of fishery products reached the 9th in the world and the value of exports was 5th in 1982. But recently a growth rate has slowed down, due to the enlargement of territorial seas by the declaration of the 200 mile, Exclusive Economic Zone, the tendency to develop fishery resources strate-gically in international bargaining, the change in function of the international organizations, the expansion of regulated waters, the illegal arrest of our fishing boats, the rapid rise in oil prices, and the fall in fish prices, the development of fishery resources as a symbol of nationalism, the fishing boats decreptitude, the rise of crew wages, regulations on fishing methods, fish species, fishing season, size of fish, and mesh size, fishing quotas and the demand of excessive fishing royalties. Besides the the obligation of coastal countries, employing crews of their host countries is also an example of the change in the international environment which causes the aggravation of foreign profit of fishing firms. To ameliorate the situation, our Korean fishery firms must prepare efficient plans and study systematically to internationalize themselves because such existing methods as conventional fishing entry and licence fishing entry are likely to be unable to cope with international environmental change. Thus, after the systematic analysis of the problem, some new combined alternatives might be proposed. These are some of the new schemes to support this plan showing the orientation of our national policy: 1. Most of the coastal states, to cope with rapid international environmental change and to survive in the new era of ocean order, have rationalized their higher governmental structure concerning the fishery industries. And the coastal countries which are the objectives of our expecting entry, demand excessive economic and technical aid, limit the number of fishing boats’entry and the use of our foreign fishing bases, and regulate the membership of the international fishery commissions. Especially, most of the coastal or island countries are recently independent states, which are poorer in national budget, depend largely on fishing royalties and licence entry fees as their main resources of national finance. 2. Alternatives to our entry to deep sea fishing, as internationalization strategies, are by direct foreign investment method. About 30 firms have already invested approximately US $ 8 million in 9 coastal countries. Areas of investment comprise the southern part of the Atlantic Ocean, the Moroccan sea and five other sea areas. Trawling, tuna purse seining and five other fields are covered by the investment. Joint-venture is the most prominent method of this direct investment. If we consider the number of entry firms, the host countries, the number of seas available and the size of investment, this method of cooperation is perhaps insufficient so far. Our fishery firms suffer from a weakness in international competitive ability, an insufficiency of information, of short funds, incompetency in the market, the unfriendliness of host coastal countries, the incapability of partners in joint-ventures and the political instability of the host countries. To enlarge our foreign fishing grounds, we are to actively adopt the direct investment entry method and to diversity our collaboraboration with partner countries. Consequently, besides proper fishing, we might utilize forward integration strategies, including the processing fied. a. The enterprise emigration method is likely to be successful in Argentina. It includes the development of Argentinian fishing grounds which are still not exploited in spite of abundant resources. Besides, Arentina could also be developed as a base for the exploitation of the krill resources and for further entries into collaboration with other Latin American countries. b. The co-business contract fishing method works in American territorial seas where American fishermen sell their fishery products to our factory ships at sea. This method contributes greatly to obtaining more fishing quotas and in innovation bottom fishing operation. Therefore we may apply this method to other countres to diffuse our foreign fishing entry. c. The new fishing ground development method was begun in 1957 by tuna long-line experimental fishing in the Indian Ocean. It has five fields, trawling, skipjack pole fishing and shrimp trawling, and so on. Recently, Korean fisheries were successful in the development of the Antarctic Ocean krill and tuna purse seining. 3. The acceleration of the internationalization of deep sea fishing; a. Intense information exchange activities and commission participation are likely to be continues as our contributions to the international fishery organizations. We should try to enter international fishery commissions in which we are not so far participating. And we have to reform adequately to meet the changes of the function of the international commissions. With our partner countries, we ought to conclude bilateral fishery agreements, thus enlarging our collaboration. b. Our government should offer economic and technical aids to host countries to facilitate our firms’fishery entry and activities. c. To accelerate technical innovation, our fishery firms must invest greater amount in technical innovation, at the same time be more discriminatory in importing exogeneous fishery technologies. As for fishing methods; expanded use of multi-purpose fishing boats and introduction of automation should be encuraged to prevent seasonal fluctuations in fishery outputs. d. The government should increases financial and tax aid to Korean firms in order to elevate already weak financial structure of Korean fishery firms. e. Finally, the government ought to revise foreign exchange regulations being applied to deep sea fishery firms. Furthermore, dutes levied on foreign purchaed equipments and supplies used by our deep sea fishing boats thould be reduced or exempted. when the fish caught by Korean partner of joint-venture firms is sold at the home port, pusan, import duty should be exempted.

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Enhancing Technology Learning Capabilities for Catch-up and Post Catch-up Innovations (기술학습역량 강화를 통한 추격 및 탈추격 혁신 촉진)

  • Bae, Zong-Tae;Lee, Jong-Seon;Koo, Bonjin
    • The Journal of Small Business Innovation
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    • v.19 no.2
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    • pp.53-68
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    • 2016
  • Motivation and activities for technological learning, entrepreneurship, innovation, and creativity are driving forces of economic development in Asian countries. In the early stages of technological development, technological learning and entrepreneurship are efficient ways in which to catch up with advanced countries because firms can accumulate skills and knowledge quickly at relatively low risk. In the later stages of technological development, however, innovation and creativity become more important. This study aims to identify a) the factors (learning capabilities) that influence technological learning performance and b) barriers to enhancing innovation capabilities for the creative economy and organizations. The major part of this study is related to learning capabilities in the post-catch-up era. Based on a literature review and observations from Korean experiences, this study proposes a technological learning model composed of various influencing factors on technological learning. Three hypotheses are derived, and data are collected from Korean machine tool manufacturers. Intense interviews with CEOs and R&D directors are conducted using structured questionnaires. Statistical analysis, such as correlation and ANOVA are then carried out. Furthermore, this study addresses how to enhance innovation capabilities to move forward. Innovation enablers and barriers are identified by case studies and policy analysis. The results of the empirical study identify several levels of firms' learning capabilities and activities such as a) stock of technology, b) potential of technical labor, c) explicit technological efforts, d) readiness to learn, e) top management support, f) a formal technological learning system, g) high learning motivation, h) appropriate technology choice, and i) specific goal setting. These learning capabilities determine firms' learning performance, especially in the early stages of development. Furthermore, it is found that the critical factors for successful technological learning vary along the stages of technology development. Throughout the statistical and policy analyses, this study confirms that technological learning can be understood as an intrinsic principle of the technology development process. Firms perform proactive and creative learning in the late stages, while reactive and imitative learning prevails in the early stages. In addition, this study identifies the driving forces or facilitating factors enhancing innovation performance in the post catch-up era. The results of the preliminary case studies and policy analysis show some facilitating factors such as a) the strategic intent of the CEO and corporate culture, b) leadership and change agents, c) design principles and routines, d) ecosystem and collaboration with partners, and e) intensive R&D investment.

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A Case Study of National Food Safety Control System Assessment in the U.S. (미국의 국가식품안전관리체계 평가 사례연구)

  • Lee, Heejung
    • Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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    • v.32 no.3
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    • pp.179-186
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    • 2017
  • For more efficient and proactive safety control of imported food, new trend in U.S. is emerging, which assesses the food safety control systems of exporting countries using Systems Recognition Assessment Tool and helps ensure safety of imported foods. This study examines trends in development and application of assessmemnt tool and country assessment reports in U.S. where an active discussion on this issue is in progress. The expert interviews were also conducted. U.S. Systems Recognition Assessment Tool was developed by FDA to recognize the potential value in leveraging the expertise of foreign food safety systems and help ensure safety of imported food. The tool is comprised of ten standards and provides an objective framework for determining the robustness of trading partners' overall food safety systems. Using its own tool, the U.S. FDA conducted a preliminary assessment of the food safety control systems of New Zealand and Canada. According to the U.S.-New Zealand and the U.S.-Canada assessment reports, the overall structure of the systems was similar between the countries. In summarizing the opinions of experts, such a trend in National Food Safety Control System Assessment may be utilized in the sanitary assessment and the control of imported food border inspection frequency before importing food. It would contribute to more effective distribution of national budget and increased public trust. Additionally, international collaboration as well as securing of qualified experts and sufficient budget appear to be crucial to further increase the utility of National Food Safety Control Systems Assessment. In conclusion, firstly, it is critically important for the competent authority of South Korea to proactively respond to international trend in National Food Safety Control System Assessment by identifying the details of its background, assessment purpose, core assessment elements, and assessment procedures. Secondly, it is necessary to identify and complement the weaknesses of Korea's food safety control system by reviewing it with U.S. Systems Recognition Assessment Tool. Thirdly, by adapting the assessment results from imported countries' food safety control systems to the imported food inspection intensity, the resources previously used in inspecting the imported food from accredited countries can be redistributed to inspecting the imported food from unaccredited countries, and it would contribute to more efficient imported food safety control. Fourthly, the competent authority of South Korea should also consider developing its own assessment tool designed to reflect the unique characteristics of its food safety control system and international guidelines.