• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.173-178
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• 2010

A privately held, third generation family owned company, Boom Technologies, Inc. (BTI), a provider of products and services to the electric utility, telecommunications and contractor markets, continues to make progress in exporting. Although export sales only equaled 5% of total revenue in 2008, BTI has an entire export division. Their export division's Managing Director reveals the trial and errors of a privately held company and their quest for success overseas. From its inception, BTI has always believed its greatest asset is its employees. When export sales struggled due to lack of strategy and direction, BTI hired a Managing Director for its export division. With leadership and guidance from BTI's president and from the Managing Director, they utilized the department's skills and knowledge. Structural changes were made to expand their market presence abroad and increase export sales. As a result, export sales increased four-fold, area managers in new countries were added and distribution networks were successfully cultivated. At times, revenue generation was difficult to determine due to the structure of the company. Therefore, in 1996, the export division was restructured as a limited liability company. This allowed the company to improve the tracking of revenue and expenses. Originally, 80% of BTI's export sales came from two countries; therefore, the initial approach to selling overseas was not reaching their anticipated goals of expanding their foreign market presence. However, changes were made and now the company manages the details of selling to over 80 countries. There were three major export expansion challenges noted by the Managing Director: 1. Product and Shipping - The major obstacle for BTI was product assembly. Originally, the majority of the product was assembled in the United States, which increased shipping and packaging costs. With so many parts specified in the order, many times the order would arrive with parts missing. The missing parts could equate to tens of thousands of dollars. Shipping these missing parts separately in another shipment also cost tens of thousands of dollar, plus a delivery delay time of six to eight weeks; all of which came out of the BTI's pockets. 2. Product Adaptation - Safety and product standards varied widely for each of the 80 countries to which BTI exported. Weights, special licenses, product specification requirements, measurement systems, and truck stability can all differ from country to country and can serve as a type of barrier to entry, making it difficult to adapt products accordingly. Technical and safety standards are barriers that serve as a type of protection for the local industry and can stand in the way of successfully pursuing foreign markets. 3. Marketing Challenges - The importance of distribution creates many challenges for BTI as they attempt to determine how each country prefers to operate with regard to their distribution systems. Some countries have competition from a small competitor that only produces one competing product; whereas BTI manufactures over 100 products. Marketing material is another concern for BTI as they attempt to push marketing costs to the distributors. Adapting the marketing material can be costly in terms of translation and cultural differences. In addition, the size of paper in the United States differs from those in some countries, causing many problems when attempting to copy the same layout and With distribution being one of several challenges for BTI, the company claims their distribution network is one of their competitive advantages, as the location and names of their distributors are not revealed. In addition, BTI rotates two offerings yearly: training to their distributors one year and then the next is a distributor's meeting. With a focus on product and shipping, product adaptation, and marketing challenges, the intricacies of selling overseas takes time and patience. Another competitive advantage noted is BTI's cradle to grave strategy, where they follow the product from sale to its final resting place, whether the truck is leased or purchased new or used. They also offer service and maintenance plans with a detailed cost analysis provided to the company prior to purchasing or leasing the product. Expanding abroad will always create challenges for a company. As the Managing Director stated, "If you don't have patience (in the export business), you better do something else." Knowing how to adapt quickly provides BTI with the skills necessary to adjust to the changing needs of each country and its own unique challenges, allowing them to remain competitive.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.1-13
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• 2015

There are various performance factors for SMEs in order to survive in the rapid changing market and it is discussing the importance of entrepreneurs' entrepreneurial orientation based on many researches. Thus, it is worth to analyze factors of seize new opportunity and firm's performance to build sustainable competitive advantages, which provide the directions to SMEs. This study investigates through exploratory research that the important factors of entrepreneurial orientation and the influence factors on firm's performance confirmed by empirical study. This study was conducted to explore the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation of SME CEO, learning orientation and corporate performance was verified following section. First, entrepreneurial orientation (pro-activeness, competitive aggressiveness, risk taking, innovativeness) was to examine the effect of learning orientation; Second, entrepreneurial orientation was to examine the impact on firm's performance; and in the last, validated learning orientation affect factors that are mediated between entrepreneurship orientation and firm's performance through empirical research. The results of this study, each SME have shown that they have a different impact on firm's performance based on a variety of entrepreneurial orientation. This result shows that the need for a separate independent study on entrepreneurial orientation of SMEs. In conclusion, this study implicates that entrepreneurial orientation is important role for firm's performance, entrepreneurs of SMEs are innovative rather than competitive aggressive, and risk taking activities positively affect firm's activity. The conclusions of this study would be utilized to develop the entrepreneurial orientation when necessary for entrepreneurs of SMEs.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.265-279
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• 1993

The channel of distribution exists for the purpose of moving product from the manufactuerer to the final consumer. In order to satisfy consumer needs, channels provide for the those products to arrive at the right place, at the right time and in the quantity, quality and price desired. Currently, there has been an emerging interest in the improvement of distribution system in many areas of industries and Korean government because of a market liberalizatiion begun at 1989 and still has processed step by step. In the wave of market liberalization, an understanding of the channel of distribution and structure would be very crucial when developing the opportunities of competitive advantages in Korean apparel industry. The purposes of this study were to investigate the determinants of the distribution channel and to identify how to respond to the market liberalization for developing the possible future strategies in the apparel industry. Data for this study were obtained from interviews with managers in apparel company in addition to a questionnaire mailed to over 106 middle management position of apparel company. Data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics. The results of this study were summarized as follows. 1. In the distribution channel of the apparel industry, a vertical marketing system, comprising producer, apparel company, retailer, prevailed without intermediaries such as wholesalers or vendors. Especially, the apparel company controlled marketing channel members. This type of system may reflect added product cost and may be not advantageous to retailers and consumers because most apparel companies are responsible for its own transfortation, storage and stocks after season. 2. In the view of market liberalization, most apparrel companies showed double-edged viewpoints. In terms of positive aspect, it would give stimulus to broaden variety of fashion merchandise and to improve product quality of fashion merchanise which were the most disadvantageous factors in competing with oversea's brands. In terms of negative aspect, it would bring the bankruptcy of small or medium sized apparel firms and the foreign products' penetration in domestic market. From this study, severel recommedations were suggested forward to improve the present condition in apparel industry. They included eliminating the power of apparel company and reinforcing middlemen for more efficient distribution system and for satisfying consumer needs in rapidly changing environment. Also it included government supports, reinforcement of information system, improvement in channel structure, and career development program in conjunction with apparel companies and academic society for improving scientific management and future potential strategies in Korean apparal industry.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.75-86
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• 2017

Purpose - The online-to-offline (O2O) business model has brought considerable changes to the traditional Chinese business model. The main difference between O2O and pure online consumption is that O2O offers a richer experience and word-of-mouth. it is easier to trigger online word-of-mouth. However, few scholars have been concerned about the impact of experiential value on customer satisfaction and online word-of-mouth (e-WOM) in the study of O2O. This study takes the O2O business model in China's catering industry as its research object and uses structural equation modelling to analyze the impact of online and offline experiential values on customer satisfaction and e-WOM. Research design, data, and methodology - According to previous researches, consumer experiential value is mainly divided into return on investment (economy and efficiency), service excellence, playfulness and aesthetics. According to the characteristics of O2O in China's catering industry, this study divides the online experience value into efficiency and economy (return on investment). The offline part is divided into return on investment (economy and efficiency), service excellence, playfulness and aesthetics. Using a web-based survey, we collected 303 valid samples. Structural equation modelling was used to create the research model. Results - The results show that efficiency (online) and service excellence (offline) have a significant effect on customer satisfaction. Economics (online) and playfulness (offline) have a positive impact on customers' e-WOM. In addition, the higher the customer satisfaction, the greater the positive impact on the spread by word of mouth. However, aesthetic(offline) and return on investment(offline) have no significant impact to customer satisfaction and e-WOM. Conclusions - The study findings show that the key to boost customer satisfaction in the catering industry is to improve product quality and service. Although traditional competitive strategies such as online discount have been questioned by many scholars about their decreasing effectiveness, they are indispensable means to attract online traffic and trigger e-WOM. The traditional enterprises can reconstruct traditional business processes through the O2O model to effectively improve customer satisfaction and word of mouth by improving the experiential value of economy and efficiency. Additionally, it can be used as the natural advantages of online communication to induce customers to engage in word of mouth and attract more potential customers.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.47-54
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• 2014

Purpose - The postponement strategy, which delays the form, place, and production of products as late as possible, has been widely considered as a competitive supply chain management scheme in an era of mass customization and modular manufacturing. An interesting business phenomenon is that not all manufacturing/logistics firms choose the postponement strategy. Given that postponement is a counter-measure to speculation, which has some advantages under certain environments, the current imprudent inclination toward the postponement strategy may cause firms to lose the potential of the speculation strategy, an alternative strategy in supply chain management. Building on the logistics and manufacturing literature, this study examines characteristics of two contrasting strategies, postponement and speculation, and major factors favoring each strategy. Research design, data, and methodology - We apply the profiling approach to two business cases, HP printer and LG mobile phone. The profiling approach is a method of choosing a particular strategy aligned with environmental factors. While various approaches have been used to check the fit between a business strategy and environmental factors, the literature on manufacturing strategy and logistics has commonly adopted the profiling approach. Major factors used in profiling variables are derived from the literature. Two samples, HP printer and LG mobile phone, are selected, because they represent major characteristics appropriate for each strategy. The profiling is based on data from semi-organized interviews with managers. Results - The profiling approach shows that the postponement strategy is a suitable one for HP printers. Most factors, such as product life cycle, large production volume, low-price, product value, and monetary density, support delaying end products until as late as possible. Despite some exceptions, such as delivery time and economy of scale, our analysis states that the overall profile of HP printer is favorable for the postponement strategy. On the other hand, LG mobile phone may adapt the speculation strategy. Although it has large production volume and low delivery frequency, most characteristics support the speculation strategy for this product. An interesting finding is that, despite common perception that advanced technology products such as mobile telephones favor the postponement strategy, profiling proposes the speculation strategy for this product. Conclusions - Our analysis shows that speculation is not the universal option for supply chain management, and that, when choosing a specific strategy, one should consider many factors simultaneously. A major implication of our work is to emphasize the role of environmental factors such as supply chain variables in choosing an inventory strategy, and the importance of fit rather than solely strategic orientation. A theoretical contribution is to demonstrate the benefit of the simultaneous consideration of business variables in choosing specific strategies. For practitioners, our work leads us to consider the existence and the potential of speculation as a counter-measure to postponement. In addition, the comprehensive framework in this research may be instantly used in examining a practical strategy.

• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.159-188
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• 2008

This study suggests strategies which can enable to creation of new opportunities of competitive advantages while operating a long lasting and consistent business with major trading partners, based on interorganizational information systems (IOISs) specially established and installed for interorganizational transactions. Nowadays, IOISs based mechanism having been widely expanded as a conventional business infrastructure for the interorganizational transactions and/or exchanges, it is customary difficult to obtain any strongly sound advantage over the competitors who have adopted even the simplest deployment of the IOIS mechanisms. In this connection, this study intends to investigate the interorganizational collaborative activities conducted by under the auspicious of IOISs, focused on the prospect of the exploitation of IOISs rather than the implementation of the IOISs. In this study, we, firstly, suggest the concept of Electronic Collaboration which can be defined by the collaborative activities conducted by IOISs, compared to the ones conducted on off-line. In addition, we suggest the Electronic Collaboration as a multi-dimensional concept, constituted by three sub-constructs, the Electronic Information Sharing (EIS), the Electronic Joint Activity (EJA), and the construction of the Electronic Relational Knowledge Store (ERKS). Secondly, we empirically verify the effects of relational and environmental determinants on the Electronic Collaboration. In this study, the relational determinants relate to the variables created in interorganizational relationship like Trust, Influence, Relational Specific Asset-asset invested for the transaction-, and Continuity of the relationship. On the other hand, the environmental determinants relate to the variables surrounding the relationship which are difficult to control. We consider Product Complexity, Technological Uncertainty, and Market Variability as the domain of the environmental determinants. To test our hypotheses, we conducted both paper-based survey and online-based survey. After refining the data with missing responses, a total of 150 data was used for analysis. The results were as follows : Firstly, it is statistically significant that the Electronic Collaboration is composed of EIS, EJA, and ERKS. In particular, the results imply that the firms are able to accumulate relational knowledge base as well as to exchange information or knowledge, and to conduct joint activities through effort to further expand the Electronic Collaboration. Secondly, we have verified the individual effects of the relational and the environmental determinants on the Electronic Collaboration. Product Complexity has been revealed as the most influential variable affecting the Electronic Collaboration. Next, Interorganizational Trust and Technological Uncertainty, in that order, have been seen to have significant effects on the Electronic Collaboration. In other words, when products or services seem to be difficult to standardize, and the core technologies seem to rapidly change, the need for the Electronic Collaboration increase. In addition, the observation dictates that the interorganizational trust turns out to be a critical variable in building a relationship and in seeking further collaboration. The results, further, illustrate that the environmental determinants are relatively more effective than the relational determinants, which is not consistent with a few prior researches relational determinants emphasized. It is because this study doesn't consider the size of the firm. A few researchers have given an emphasis on the relational determinants like trust and influence, especially from the perspective of small firms in interorganizational relationship. However, in our study, where all the sizes of the firms are contained, electronic collaboration is considerably affected by the environmental determinants.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.11 no.10
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• pp.3761-3771
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• 2010

This study, based on social capital theory, aims to explore how social network characteristics among organization members affect the absorptive capacity which is the ability to recognize the value of new information, assimilate it, and apply it to commercial ends. This paper also empirically investigates how the absorptive capacity will have an effect on organizational innovation performances toward achieving competitive advantages in the knowledge society. According to the degree of relationship intensity, social network shows two different characteristics: strong tied network and weak tied network. As strong tied network and weak tied network have relatively different network characteristics, this study assumes that each network affects the absorptive capacity with different aspects. Furthermore, we consider the moderation effect of a social network manager's ability in the relationship between social network and absorptive capacity. We surveyed innovative project performers who are engaged in the knowledge based industries. The empirical analysis results show that both strong tied and weak tied network positively affect the absorptive capacity. Successively, the absorptive capacity also has a positive impact on innovation performances.

• Journal of Information Technology and Architecture
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.427-439
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• 2014

Introduction of new information systems due to continuous progress of ICT has made the enterprise IT environment into a mixed pot of various IT resources. Rapidly changing business situation has emphasized the integration of organizational IT resources as one of key competitive advantages. Those distributed IT resources are now demanding to solve the problems not only on their own effective management but also on security and control issues against unauthorized infiltration and information leakages. Under the situation that the number of IT resources is constantly increasing, it is needed to study a management model and its implementation that integrally solves above all problems. In this paper, it is revealed that a directory service can be used to integrally manage distributed IT resources and a directory service based system model for distributed IT resource management is suggested. By implementing an HR solution over active directory service, it is demonstrated that our integrated management model for distributed resources is applicable to real business cases. It is expected that for small and medium sized enterprises with limited IT investments, directory service based IT resource management system can be a cost-effective solution for increasing security threats and lack of governance.

• Journal of Advanced Navigation Technology
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.37-43
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• 2002

This paper describes the performance evaluation and analysis of Wireless Local Area Network (W-LAN) in the 5 GHz ISM-band in compliance with IEEE 802.11a. At present, most W-LAN products are based on 2.4 GHz band, but low speed (11Mbps) has the limitation to serve systems demanding high-speed data transmission. To solve this problem, it is necessary to design next generation W-LAN system with 54Mbps in the 5GHz. It is sure that implementation of next generation W-LAN will bring competitive advantages. In particular, it will support telecommunications for high-speed mobile environments as well as for fixed places such as a school zone, a lecture room, a hospital and other premises. A few simulation methods are applied to more accurate and reliable performance analysis of next generation W-LAN. To verify if continuous data service is supported for a high-speed mobile notebook, multi-path fading channels between wireless Access Point (AP) and wireless Network Interface Card (NIC) are modeled. In addition, low interference is analyzed via convolutional codes and Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM). Also, to obtain reliable Bit Error Rate (BER), a single tap Least Mean Square (LMS) equalizer is applied. Given the above simulation, next generation W-LAN is an ideal solution for continuous data transmission in high-speed mobile environments.

• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.363-376
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• 2017

The insurance market is saturated and its growth engine is exhausted; consequently, the insurance industry is now in a low growth period with insurance companies that face a fierce competitive environment. In such a situation, it will be an important issue to find the probability distributions that can explain the flow of insurance claims, which are the basis of the actuarial calculation of the insurance product. Insurance claims are generally known to be well fitted by lognormal distributions or Pareto distributions biased to the left with a thick tail. In recent years, skew normal distributions or skew t distributions have been considered reasonable distributions for describing insurance claims. Cooray and Ananda (2005) proposed a composite lognormal-Pareto distribution that has the advantages of both lognormal and Pareto distributions and they also showed the composite distribution has a higher fitness than single distributions. In this paper, we introduce new composite distributions based on skew normal distributions or skew t distributions and apply them to Danish fire insurance claim data and US indemnity loss data to compare their performance with the other composite distributions and single distributions.