• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.1-20
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• 2021

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the welfare effects of standards harmonization between technologically asymmetric countries, and to determine optimal harmonization strategies for a country with mid-level technological advancement. Design/methodology - Following Salop's circular city model (Salop, 1979), this study constructs a simple, horizontally-differentiated oligopoly model in which three firms and three countries exist. Each country adopts different compatibility standards and each firm incurs conversion costs for foreign market access due to differences in standards. The conversion costs are related to technology; standards harmonization removes these costs between participating countries. The paper considers three cases: i) no harmonization; ii) harmonization with the more technologically-advanced country and iii) harmonization with the less technologically-advanced country. Findings - The paper first considers a scenario in which all three firms occupy some share of the market in each country. It shows that standards harmonization with both the technologically moreor less-advanced country always increases consumer surplus and social welfare. In addition, the producer surplus will increase if the harmonization partner has a higher technology level, whereas it may decrease if the partner has a lower technology level. It also shows that if most domestic export goods are in sectors with conversion costs above a certain level, harmonizing standards with a technologically more-advanced country should be prioritized. Such strategies, moreover, should be emphasized when there exists a large technology gap among countries. Lastly, the paper considers another scenario, in which harmonization leads to the foreclosure of the non-member firm from the member countries' markets. It shows that harmonization improves the social welfare of a mid-level technology country regardless of its partner's technology. It also shows that the country should prioritize harmonization with the technologically less-advanced country. Originality/value - Though some of the existing studies consider the welfare effects of harmonization, their main assumption is that firms have the same conversion technology. Since complying with standards often requires substantial technological advancement and technical expertise, harmonization of compatibility standards between countries with gaps in technological ability carries different implications. This paper investigates the welfare effects of this harmonization and determines an optimal harmonization strategy while considering technological asymmetry among countries in standards compliance.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.231-254
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• 2006

This article is intended to investigate how the Japanese consumers have changed the country image on Korea, the evaluation toward products manufactured by Korea and the willingness to buy Korean products through the experience of Korean Wave. So the country image, the evaluation and the willingness were compared between the before and after experiencing Korean Wave The empirical result said that during the span of Korean Wave the country image and the evaluation have improved, but the intentions to purchase Korean products are still not positive in Japan. So an additional analysis was made to find the reason of the unwillingness to buy Korean products. Although they regard Korean products as qualitatively good against price, they seldom know Korean brand, hardly watch korean product's advertisement. Especially the intentions to purchase Korean products in durable goods was lower than in consuming goods.

• Proceedings of the Safety Management and Science Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.493-502
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• 2007

The oil consuming country, Korea is spending amount to 220bn barrel per day. It is higher-ranked as 8th country among oil consuming country. France, Brazil, Italia, Spain have recorded GDP than it of Korea. But, the oil consuming of Korea is more than it of them. The GDP of Korea is ranked 11th country, based on 2005. But Korea is higher-ranked as 8th country among oil consuming country. The new and renewable energy as alternative of oil is first measurement. But, the supply of new and renewable energy is inactive 2.13% among total energies. The economist prospects about 1bn job creation during the ten years through new and renewable energy. The merit of new and renewable energy is capital intensive and higher valuable industry.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.28
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• pp.119-142
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• 2005

This paper shows the method and result of calculating and comparing the country brand value. We define country brand value as one that is built by national competitiveness which contains material and human resources, psychological proximity which is createdfrom direct and indirect indices, and national brand strategy which means strategic efforts intended to enhance country brand value. By applying the model to 16 countries, rank and value of country brands were examined and implications for Korea were derived.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.1-21
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• 2010

A good brand name is very important for the success of a product. A thoughtful brand name can convey information that can influence potential customers in a positive way. Thus marketers often formulate brand names intended to explicitly or implicitly play a role in influencing customer perceptions. One way of doing this is to have a brand name bearing connotations to a foreign country. In general, prior research on country-of-origin effects has not adequately focused on exploring brand name connotation and its effect on product evaluation. This research presents a conceptual framework for determining if/how brand name connotation to a foreign country affects product evaluation. Specifically, this paper reviews relevant literature pertaining to country-of-origin and brand name connotation, discusses a conceptualization, proposes research hypotheses, and outlines procedures for collecting data to evaluate the proposed hypotheses.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.88-109
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• 2019

Purpose - This paper examines the effects of host country's non-economic factors on foreign affiliate's financial and operational performance. Design/Methodology - Using Korean-owned foreign affiliate-level data, we employ various measures that represent host country's non-economic factors and examine their effects on foreign affiliate's performance. We further investigate the effects of local top managers and local middle managers on the impact of country's non-economic factors on foreign affiliate's performance. Findings - We find that local top managers are effective in increasing foreign affiliate's financial performance by dealing with institutional and cultural factors, particularly in high-income countries, while local middle managers are effective in increasing affiliate's operational performance by responding to the changes in doing business factors, particularly in low-income countries. Originality/value - Considering that most of previous FDI studies focus on examining host country's economic factors on firm's FDI decision, our findings suggest that country's non-economic factors are strongly associated with actual business performance of foreign affiliates.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.59-69
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• 2016

An extensive body of research on the effects of country-of-origin has emerged in the international marketing and business literature streams. Nonetheless, extant studies do not satisfactorily demonstrate whether and how a foreign firm's choice of market entry mode influences consumers' purchase intentions of its product in country-related affect contexts. Using a survey and an experimental design, we aimed to provide evidence of the effects of the choice on consumers' evaluation and attitude of its product in an animosity context and in a national image context. Through the survey, we collected data regarding consumer animosity, national image, product evaluation, and product attitude from 185 university students and tested the hypotheses that consumer animosity and national image have effects on foreign product evaluation and attitude. The results of the survey research show that personal animosity has a negative effect on consumers' evaluation of foreign products and that a country's image regarding economics has positive effects on consumers' attitude toward foreign products as well as consumers' evaluation of foreign products. In the experimental design, we divided subjects into four groups and exposed them to several descriptions of hypothetical purchase situations. Conducting a 2 (market entry modes)${\times}2$ (country-of-origin) ANOVA, we tested the hypothesis that a market entry mode influences foreign product evaluation and attitude. The results of the experimental study reveal that in a high country-related product association (Germany), market entry modes have insignificant effects on foreign product evaluation and attitude. In addition, in a low country-related product association (China), international partnership has more positive effects on foreign product evaluation and attitude than does exporting.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.45-67
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• 2007

This study is focused on the medical services market in china which would be the largest one in the world sooner or later. An empirical research has been performed on the country images and related buying attitudes of the Chinese potential consumers for foreign medical services of more higher level. Upon the basis of this research results, the components of a country image has been restructured and the country image effects on the process of a purchasing decision of the advanced foreign medical services in China has been investigated and analyzed. This research shows that the forming process and the dimensions of a country image in Chinese consumers are rather simplified than the former researches of the same kind in any other countries. In China the expectation and buying intension for foreign medical services is found to be affected directly by a country image. Furthermore among various components of a country image the expected service quality level of the Chinese is found to be mostly dependent on the social stability and safety rather than on the degree of economic developments. Recently breaking through the domestic medical market crisis, more and more hospitals consider to advance into Chinese medical market. This research shows that the reexamination and political concerns on the country image of Korea are needed in the level of government's public relations. Especially the proactive policy making and propaganda of political, social and economic stability and safety in Korea are thought to be more important for successful entry in Chinese medical services market.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.153-166
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• 2017

This study examined the effects of the cognitive and affective country image of Korea on product evaluation and purchase intention for Korean products. The research model was developed from relevant literature based on the halo effect model and data was collected using a self-administered online survey of 772 Southeast Asian consumers from Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia. The major findings are as follows. First, analysis of variance revealed that Vietnam consumers have a significantly positive perception compared to Indonesia and Malaysia, regarding the affective country image and purchase intention towards Korean products. Second, results from structural equation model showed that the affective country image has significantly positive effects on product evaluation and purchase intention, which means the affective country image is directly and indirectly connected to purchase intention towards Korean products. However, cognitive country image only has an indirect effect on purchase intention. Third, the results of comparing path coefficient among three countries showed that the direct effect is more effective for consumers in Indonesia and Malaysia, whereas indirect effect has a stronger effect on consumers in Vietnam. Academically, this study contributes to an expansion of understanding the effects of country image by empirically proving the different roles of cognitive and affective dimensions for country image. This study provides practical implications for developing marketing communication strategies for businesses that hope to penetrate Southeast Asian countries.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.43-52
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• 2010

Country images of Korea and Japan based on economic development, education level, goods' quality, R&D, political democratization and quality of life, perceived by Chinese university students in Beijing, Shanghai and Shandong province of chinese emerging markets as the representative of a potential buying power group, are surveyed, which, then are used to study how the perceived country images effect on their purchasing intention for Korean and Japanese products, such as, foods, cars, fashions, music CDs, electronic products and living goods. The study shows that, in chinese emerging markets, country image affects on the purchase intention of each products differently. The country image of Korea was less influential than that of Japan on the Chines students' purchasing intention for the goods other than the electronic goods. Despite the small number of the sample, this study showed the importance of country image in the in chinese emerging markets and suggested the need for both the government and private sector to take a strategy to enhance the country image by finding the relation between the elements of country image and the intention to purchase certain product.