• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.123-138
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• 2016

This study investigates intents of acquisitions in information technology industries. Mergers and acquisitions are a strategic decision at corporate-level and have been an important tool for a firm to grow. Plenty of firms in information technology industries have acquired startups to increase production efficiency, expand customer base, or improve quality over the last decades. For example, Google has made about 200 acquisitions since 2001, Cisco has acquired about 210 firms since 1993, Oracle has made about 125 acquisitions since 1994, and Microsoft has acquired about 200 firms since 1987. Although there have been many existing papers that theoretically study intents or motivations of acquisitions, there are limited papers that empirically investigate them mainly because it is challenging to measure and quantify intents of M&As. This study examines the intent of acquisitions by measuring specific intents for M&A transactions. Using our measures of acquisition intents, we compare the intents by four acquisition types: (1) the acquisition where a hardware firm acquires a hardware firm, (2) the acquisition where a hardware firm acquires a software/IT service firm, (3) the acquisition where a software/IT service firm acquires a hardware firm, and (4) the acquisition where a software /IT service firm acquires a software/IT service firm. We presume that there are difference in reasons why a hardware firm acquires another hardware firm, why a hardware firm acquires a software firm, why a software/IT service firm acquires a hardware firm, and why a software/IT service firm acquires another software/IT service firm. Using data of the M&As in US IT industries, we identified major intents of the M&As. The acquisition intents are identified based on the press release of M&A announcements and measured with four categories. First, an acquirer may have intents of cost saving in operations by sharing common resources between the acquirer and the target. The cost saving can accrue from economies of scope and scale. Second, an acquirer may have intents of product enhancement/development. Knowledge and skills transferred from the target may enable the acquirer to enhance the product quality or to expand product lines. Third, an acquirer may have intents of gain additional customer base to expand the market, to penetrate the market, or to enter a foreign market. Fourth, a firm may acquire a target with intents of expanding customer channels. By complementing existing channel to the customer, the firm can increase its revenue. Our results show that acquirers have had intents of cost saving more in acquisitions between hardware companies than in acquisitions between software companies. Hardware firms are more likely to acquire with intents of product enhancement or development than software firms. Overall, the intent of product enhancement/development is the most frequent intent in all of the four acquisition types, and the intent of customer base expansion is the second. We also analyze our data with the classification of production-side intents and customer-side intents, which is based on activities of the value chain of a firm. Intents of cost saving operations and those of product enhancement/development can be viewed as production-side intents and intents of customer base expansion and those of expanding customer channels can be viewed as customer-side intents. Our analysis shows that the ratio between the number of customer-side intents and that of production-side intents is higher in acquisitions where a software firm is an acquirer than in the acquisitions where a hardware firm is an acquirer. This study can contribute to IS literature. First, this study provides insights in understanding M&As in IT industries by answering for question of why an IT firm intends to another IT firm. Second, this study also provides distribution of acquisition intents for acquisition types.

• Korean Management Science Review
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.57-71
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• 2008

We study factors that affect consumers' switching behaviors among service providers in Korean mobile telecommunications service market. For empirical analysis, quarterly time series data from the first quarter of 2004 through the second quarter of 2007 were used. We chose the number of switchers to each mobile service provider in each quarter as dependent variables. Independent variables include acquisition costs per subscriber, which play the role of subsidy to mobile handset, switching costs, time trend, structural change effect, and waiting demand effects. Through the empirical analysis, we found that each provider's churn-in customers are affected by different factors. Specifically, the number of churn-in customers into SK Telecom is explained mainly by SK Telecom's customer acquisition costs and waiting demand from KTF, while the number of customers switching into KTF is better explained by switching costs from the previous service provider and waiting demand from SK Telecom. Those who chose LG Telecom as their new provider, on the other hand, were mainly attracted by LG Telecom's high subscriber acquisition cost.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.52-72
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• 2012

In this study, we examined the effect of customer satisfaction and switching cost on continuous use intention to suggest how organizations can retain their customers when market growth slows down and competition becomes stronger. We carefully developed and modified survey instruments through a pre-test, and subsequently surveyed 432 dental care users in Seoul and Busan areas. As a result of regression analysis, higher procedural learning switching cost, relational switching cost, and customer satisfaction were manifested in the increased continuous use intention. In contrast, higher financial switching cost and customer satisfaction with insufficient effort for information acquisition led to decreased switching intention. In addition, procedural initial switching cost and residents in Seoul led to increased switching intention. Understanding continuous use intention and switching intention is important for healthcare institutions striving to maintain market position. The findings of this study suggest a paradigm shift from conventional transactional marketing to strategic relational marketing to be effective in the healthcare environment today.

• Proceedings of the Korean Operations and Management Science Society Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.341-356
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• 2007

We study factors that affect consumers' switching behaviors among service providers in Korean mobile telecommunications service market. For empirical analysis, quarterly time series data from the first quarter of 2004 through the second quarter of 2007 were used. We chose the number of switchers to each mobile service provider in each quarter as dependent variables. Independent variables include acquisition costs per subscriber, which play the role of subsidy to mobile handset, switching costs, time trend, structural change effect, and standby demand effects. Through the empirical analysis, we found that different providers' churn-in customers are affected by different factors. Specifically, the number of chum-in customers into SK Telecom is explained mainly by SK Telecom's customer acquisition costs and standby demand from KTF, while the number of customers switching into KTF is better explained by switching costs from the previous service provider and standby demand from SK Telecom. Those who chose LG Telecom as their new provider, on the other hand, were mainly attracted by LG Telecom's high subscriber acquisition cost.

• Journal of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.185-199
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• 2005

With the growth of internet shopping malls, there is increasing interest in comparison shopping mall. However most comparison sites compare only book prices by collecting simple XML data and do not provide .the exact comparison Including precise shipping costs. Shipping costs vary depending on each customer's address, the delivery method, and the category of selected goods, so rule based system is required in order to calculate exact shipping costs. Therefore, we designed and implemented comparison shopping mall which compares not only book prices but also shipping costs using rule based inference. By adopting the extensible Rule Markup language (XRML) approach, we proposed the methodology of extracting delivery rules from Web pages of each shopping mall. The XRML approach can facilitate nearly automatic rule extraction from Web pages and consistency maintenance between Web pages and rule base. We developed a ConsiderD system which applies our rule acquisition methodology based on XRML. The objective of the ConsiderD system is to compare the exact total cost of books including the delivery cost over Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and Powells.com. With this prototype, we conducted an experiment to show the potential of automatic rule acquisition from Web pages and illustrate the effect of delivery cost.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.151-171
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• 2014

Firms today have sought management effectiveness and efficiency utilizing information technologies (IT). Numerous firms are outsourcing specific information systems functions to cope with their short of information resources or IT experts, or to reduce their capital cost. Recently, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) as a new type of information system has become one of the powerful outsourcing alternatives. SaaS is software deployed as a hosted and accessed over the internet. It is regarded as the idea of on-demand, pay-per-use, and utility computing and is now being applied to support the core competencies of clients in areas ranging from the individual productivity area to the vertical industry and e-commerce area. In this study, therefore, we seek to quantify the value that SaaS has on business performance by examining the relationships among firm strategies, SaaS technology maturity, and business performance of SaaS providers. We begin by drawing from prior literature on SaaS, technology maturity and firm strategy. SaaS technology maturity is classified into three different phases such as application service providing (ASP), Web-native application, and Web-service application. Firm strategies are manipulated by the low-cost strategy and differentiation strategy. Finally, we considered customer acquisition as a business performance. In this sense, specific objectives of this study are as follows. First, we examine the relationships between customer acquisition performance and both low-cost strategy and differentiation strategy of SaaS providers. Secondly, we investigate the mediating and moderating effects of SaaS technology maturity on those relationships. For this purpose, study collects data from the SaaS providers, and their line of applications registered in the database in CNK (Commerce net Korea) in Korea using a questionnaire method by the professional research institution. The unit of analysis in this study is the SBUs (strategic business unit) in the software provider. A total of 199 SBUs is used for analyzing and testing our hypotheses. With regards to the measurement of firm strategy, we take three measurement items for differentiation strategy such as the application uniqueness (referring an application aims to differentiate within just one or a small number of target industry), supply channel diversification (regarding whether SaaS vendor had diversified supply chain) as well as the number of specialized expertise and take two items for low cost strategy like subscription fee and initial set-up fee. We employ a hierarchical regression analysis technique for testing moderation effects of SaaS technology maturity and follow the Baron and Kenny's procedure for determining if firm strategies affect customer acquisition through technology maturity. Empirical results revealed that, firstly, when differentiation strategy is applied to attain business performance like customer acquisition, the effects of the strategy is moderated by the technology maturity level of SaaS providers. In other words, securing higher level of SaaS technology maturity is essential for higher business performance. For instance, given that firms implement application uniqueness or a distribution channel diversification as a differentiation strategy, they can acquire more customers when their level of SaaS technology maturity is higher rather than lower. Secondly, results indicate that pursuing differentiation strategy or low cost strategy effectively works for SaaS providers' obtaining customer, which means that continuously differentiating their service from others or making their service fee (subscription fee or initial set-up fee) lower are helpful for their business success in terms of acquiring their customers. Lastly, results show that the level of SaaS technology maturity mediates the relationships between low cost strategy and customer acquisition. That is, based on our research design, customers usually perceive the real value of the low subscription fee or initial set-up fee only through the SaaS service provide by vender and, in turn, this will affect their decision making whether subscribe or not.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Systems Engineering
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.35-43
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• 2008

Application of system engineering should be realized on necessary condition being to propel National Defense R&D Program. But, these necessity is yet not realized easily to many project managers of Defense Acquisition Program Administration(DAPA). As one person of DAPA project manager, system engineering hard to approaches easily by the word itself. There are a lot of difficult sections where should apply how. This paper established DAPA Project Manager and Acquisition Point of Contact of demand Military by main customer (reader), and wished to make understood more easily and approach system engineering application to these. Also, this paper studied project management example that scientific project management techniques of Earned Value Management(EVM) and Cost As an Independent Variable(CAIV) etc. is taken abuzz in DAPA inside by Project management technique that become reform, arc Integrated in system engineering.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.831-840
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• 2010

The management systems of defense projects need to be well-maintained because of huge cost and long-terms of acquisition & operation in conducting defense acquisition. In this paper, we use a structural equation model(SEM) to develop an project management index(PMI) for effective defense project. The concept of a customer satisfaction index is used to assess the PMI for strategic improvement plans for various characteristics of project management. It is expected that our model can be used to evaluate and improve the project management capability of defense acquisition.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Systems Engineering
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.33-40
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• 2007

The requirement verification is the integral part of the weapon system R&D to reduce cost and schedule. And, a systems engineering is an interdisciplinary engineering management process that evolves and verifies an integrated, life-cycle balanced set of system solutions that satisfy customer needs. Therefore, this study analyzes the national defense need and acquisition management process, investigates the systems engineering verification activity. Through the requirement verification example in terms of technical evaluation this study presented the requirement verification approach in the weapon system R&D.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Systems Engineering
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.106-113
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• 2021

Today, the market and customer requirements for safety-related products in the Railway industry are continuously increasing, and companies that supply these products continue to make related efforts. However, the international standard requirements for making safety-related products are high, so small and medium-sized business companies are having difficulty developing them due to problems in time and cost to achieve them. This study examined government-centered international certificate policies and cases and suggested improvement measures based on the research results. In addition to supporting international certification costs, the government needs to expand technical consulting and expert training for them to solve problems in obtaining an international certificate.