• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.1-40
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• 2017

This study aims to examine the electricity/energy regime of Thailand, the largest energy-hungry country in the Mekong region. This study examined how the electricity/energy regime of Thailand has been shaped and changed up to the present, not only at the national level but also at the sub-regional level covering the Mekong region. Meanwhile, according to the Paris Agreement in 2015, which will get in to effect from 2020, developing countries as well as developed countries have been given voluntary responsibilities and reduction obligations in response to global climate change. Under the post 2020 Climate Change Regime, Thailand also needs to revise its existing electricity/energy policy. We reviewed the recent energy policy of Thailand and evaluated the possibility of transition to a sustainable energy system based on Energy Trilemma's analysis framework. And we examined the roles and impacts of the Thai civil society on the national power and energy planning as well as in the future climate change policy. As a result of the analysis, it can be seen that Thailand's electricity/energy regime has grown rapidly through the support of the West countries under the Cold War era. In particular, Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand(EGAT) played the key role in Thailand's energy policy. In addition, Thailand's geopolitical location and relatively high economic level compared to neighboring countries will continue to be of importance in the future construction of power grids in the region. Meanwhile, in the frame of Energy Trilemma, Thailand has still been vulnerable to environmental sustainability. Thai NGOs have resisted to as well as collaborated with the government to influence the existing electricity/energy policy in the various dimensions but their influence has weakened considerably since the coup in 2014. In conclusion, this study suggests to cooperate with government as well as civil society for sustainable energy transformation of Thailand and Mekong region.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.31-42
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• 2021

The importance of startups and ventures in the Korean economy is growing. This study measured whether the start-up and venture ecosystem is growing, including the growth of startups and ventures. The startup and venture ecosystem consists of startups and ventures, investors, and government, which are the main actors of the 'ecosystem', and their movements were measured with 25 quantitative indicators. Based on the original data of the time series from 2010 to 2020, the startup and venture ecosystem index was calculated by applying weights through the comprehensive stock index method and AHP. In 2020, the startup and venture ecosystem grew 2.9 times compared to 2010, and the increase in the government index had a significant impact on growth. Also, the individual indicators that make up each index in 2020, the corporate index had the greatest impact on the growth of the number of 100-billion ventures, while the investment index had a recovery amount and the government index had a significant impact. Based on the original data, the startup and venture ecosystem index was analyzed by dividing it into ecosystems (startup ecosystem and venture ecosystem), industry by industry (all industries and manufacturing industry), and region (Korea and Busan). As a result, the growth of the startup ecosystem over the past decade has been slightly larger than that of the venture ecosystem. The manufacturing was lower than that of all industries, and Busan was lower than that of the nation. This study was intended to use it for the establishment and implementation of support policies by developing, measuring, and monitoring the startup and venture ecosystem index. This index has the advantage of being able to research the interrelationships between major actors, and anyone can calculate the index using the results of official statistical surveys. In the future, it is necessary to continuously update this content to understand how economic and social events or policy support have affected the startup and venture ecosystem.

• Journal of Appropriate Technology
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.21-27
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• 2020

The ASF, which originated in Africa and threatens the world, landed in Asia in 2018 in China, and became a stern threat to the security of the Korean Peninsula when North Korea officially reported the ASF to the OIE in May 2019. In 1921, Montgomery, a British veterinary pathologist, made headlines by naming the African swine fever "African Swine Fever," or ASF, a disease caused by a high fatality virus that existed in East Africa. The ASF, which was a pandemic of endemic diseases in Africa, landed in Portgal around 1957 and swept through farms in Lisbon, Portugal. The ASF continued to settle in Spain and Portugal, causing 40 years of damage until the end of the 1990s, and is now in progress after landing on the Italian island of Sardinia in 1978. The virus, which landed in Portiport of Georgia on the Black Sea coast of the Black Sea in 2007, spread to Russia and caused massive damage to China in 2018, then rapidly spread to Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar in May 2019 and spread across the country, causing massive damage to the pork industry and is now in progress. Just three months after confirming the outbreak in North Korea, the outbreak at farms in Paju and Yeoncheon was confirmed on Sept. 16, 2019, leaving South Korea with the stigma of ASF-causing countries, and although the ASF's nationwide expansion has been blocked, it is currently underway in wild boars. If the ongoing ASF in the two Koreas becomes indigenous, it would be a major disaster not only for the pork industry but also for the Korean Peninsula economy. Under the current circumstances, it is impossible to focus only on veterinary areas limited to South Korea, ruling out risk factors from the ASF outbreak. Currently, it is difficult to prevent damage to the pork industry due to the ASF outbreak due to the poor water defense reality in North Korea, and as it is adjacent to China, which has a high risk of developing various epidemic diseases, there is a need for the two Koreas to jointly conduct quarantine and quarantine on the border areas. First of all, I think rapid exchange of information and education on ASF and other diseases is necessary before establishing a joint defense system on the Korean Peninsula. It is important to conduct thorough quarantine and disinfection of ASF-generated areas in North Korea, and areas bordering China and Russia, and jointly conduct thorough quarantine and control of livestock and livestock products in circulation. Cooperation by the South and North Korean water defense industries to prevent the protracted ASF on the Korean Peninsula by all means and methods is essential.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.95-110
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• 2011

As global economic conditions are getting uneasy and polarization of our economy is intensified, the economic sentiment of small businesses is still low and unstable. The collapse of worldwide banking systems due to sub prime crisis in 2007 became the catalyst that shakes financial industries in each country in the world; the most sentiment people, small businesspersons, also have hard time facing survival way out, facing a great crisis. All organizing powers including manufactures, wholesales and retails are being gradually greater in mutual relations and dependence, and unstable factors about risks are also increasing. For exterior environmental and physical risk factors which cannot make small businesses survive themselves by developing ways out are eventually increasing, those who cannot cope with these factors face a great crisis. Although the government tries hard to overcome this situation conducting many ways, the effect does not continue. It is the real state that independent business markets including overall employment and establishing business have vicious cycle that they cannot be improved, due to increase of employment centered on short-term labors which lack durability in creation of employment and decline of household income. Recently, growth shows indication of slowdown because of multinational risk factors including financial crisis in each country in Europe, the death of Kim Jung-il, relationship with North Korea, and unstability of war situation in the Middle East Asia. Experts expect that growth rate will be about 4%, and independent business that ordinary people feel is still gloomy. It's reality that there is no adequate alternative for lack of jobs, unstable employment and a means of living after retirement. Also, the fact that large companies enter the market which is narrow and in the excessive competition should be an environmental factor that makes the situation worse. The business concept, a franchise, is the part we should think about whether it is the institutional solution that can guarantee independent businessmen stable life. Major companies are frightfully entering the market today, breaking the barrier to entry and shouting of a win-win with independent businesses. It's the small businesspersons who go through painful domestic recession, cannot predict the future and manage confusing and unstable independent business. It's very important to restore the domestic economy through wisely boosting consumption as soon as possible. It's also important to lead the situation by gathering powers of the government and related organizations, agonizing, suggesting solutions, and establishing accurate directions. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to suggest ways to strengthen competitiveness of small businesspersons by examining small business support policies which are currently implemented.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.1-22
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• 2013

This case focuses on Shanghai Tang, the first truly Chinese luxury brand that appeals to both Westerners and, more recently, to Chinese consumers worldwide. A visionary and wealthy businessman Sir David Tang created this company from scratch in 1994 in Hong Kong. Its story, spanned over almost two decades, has been fascinating. It went from what best a Chinese brand could be in the eyes of Westerners who love the Chinese culture, to a nearly-bankrupted company in 1998, before being acquired by Richemont, the second largest luxury group in the world. Since then, its turnaround has been spectacular with a growing appeal among Chinese luxury consumers who represent the core segment of the luxury industry today. The main objective of this case study is to formally examine how Shanghai Tang overcame its downfall and re-emerged as one the very few well- known Chinese luxury brands. More specifically, this case highlights the ways with which Shanghai Tang made a transitional change from a brand for Westerners who love the Chinese culture, to a brand for both, Westerners who love the Chinese culture and Chinese who love luxury. A close examination reveals that Shanghai Tang has followed the brand identity concept that consists of two major components: functional and emotional. The functional component for developing a luxury brand concerns all product characteristics that will make a product 'luxurious' in the eyes of the consumer, such as premium quality of cachemire from Mongolia, Chinese silk, lacquer, finest leather, porcelain, and jade in the case of Shanghai Tang. The emotional component consists of non-functional symbolic meanings of a brand. The symbolic meaning marks the major difference between a premium and a luxury brand. In the case of Shanghai Tang, its symbolic meaning refers to the Chinese culture and the brand aims to represent the best of Chinese traditions and establish itself as "the ambassador of modern Chinese style". It touches the Chinese heritage and emotions. Shanghai Tang has reinvented the modern Chinese chic by drawing back to the stylish decadence of Shanghai in the 1930s, which was then called the "Paris of the East", and this is where the brand finds inspiration to create its own myth. Once the functional and emotional components assured, Shanghai Tang has gone through a four-stage development to become the first global Chinese luxury brand: introduction, deepening, expansion, and revitalization. Introduction: David Tang discovered a market gap and had a vision to launch the first Chinese luxury brand to the world. The key success drivers for the introduction and management of a Chinese luxury brand are a solid brand identity and, above all, a creative mind, an inspired person. This was David Tang then, and this is now Raphael Le Masne de Chermont, the current Executive Chairman. Shanghai Tang combines Chinese and Western elements, which it finds to be the most sustainable platform for drawing consumers. Deepening: A major objective of the next phase is to become recognized as a luxury brand and a fashion or design authority. For this purpose, Shanghai Tang has cooperated with other well-regarded luxury and lifestyle brands such as Puma and Swarovski. It also expanded its product lines from high-end custom-made garments to music CDs and restaurant. Expansion: After the opening of his first store in Hong Kong in 1994, David Tang went on to open his second store in New York City three years later. However this New York retail operation was a financial disaster. Barely nineteen months after the opening, the store was shut down and quietly relocated to a cheaper location of Madison Avenue. Despite this failure, Shanghai Tang products found numerous followers especially among Western tourists and became "souvenir-like" must-haves. However, despite its strong brand DNA, the brand did not generate enough repeated sales and over the years the company cumulated heavy debts and became unprofitable. Revitalizing: After its purchase by Richemont in 1998, Le Masne de Chermont was appointed to lead the company, reposition the brand and undertake some major strategic changes such as revising the "Shanghai Tang" designs to appeal not only to Westerners but also to Chinese consumers, and to open new stores around the world. Since then, Shanghai Tang has become synonymous to a modern Chinese luxury lifestyle brand.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.117-139
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• 2013

Research on purchase intention had showed remarkable progress in contributing to the theory of consumer behavior. Despite the popularity of academic discussions on various issues influencing purchase intention, the mediating role of brand recall and brand attitude on purchase intention, in particular advergames, has not yet been well explored, especially in developing economies such as Malaysia. Furthermore, the influence of self-brand congruity, entertainment and brand placement acceptance as antecedents to brand recall and brand attitude are expected to add value to the brand recall, brand attitude and purchase intention relationships. This paper aims to investigate the impact of the mediating role of brand recall and brand attitude on purchase intention in advergames among Malaysian gamers. The antecedents towards brand recall and brand attitude are also examined to measure their influence on purchase intention. A total of 350 Malaysian gamers were interviewed through online survey in this study. The results showed that brand recall and brand attitude mediate the relationship between self-brand congruity, entertainment and brand placement acceptance with purchase intention. Also, entertainment and brand placement acceptance were found to have a significant relationship with brand recall. As expected, brand recall and brand attitude showed a positive relationship with consumer purchase intention in advergames. It was found that self-brand congruity has a significant influence on brand attitude and purchase intention. When users see the brand which matches with them, they tend to act positively toward the brand exposed in the game. This is consistent with Escalas and Bettman (2005) who suggested that the greater the congruity, the more positive the consumer's attitude toward the brand in question. This leads to game usage and purchase (Davis and Lang, 2013). In the advergaming context, the entertainment value in advergames is very important to determine the level of enjoyment and pleasure experienced by gamers during game-playing. Therefore, the more entertaining the ads, the more it will be remembered and the greater the positive behavior of the consumer towards the advergames - this ultimately stimulates their intention to purchase the brand. This study shows the effect of brand placement on brand recall and brand attitude and also purchase intention. Brand placements might not work in games due to the interactivity involved in game-playing as people could be distracted from noticing the brand placements (Yang et al., 2006). However, the significant influence of brand placements found in this study may provide major promise for advertisers. Game players may or may not explicitly remember the brands they see in the games, but these placements may influence their brand recall and brand attitude and could therefore influence later decisions (Yang et al., 2006). In this study, it was found that self-brand congruity was not significantly related with brand recall. The reason for this could be attributed to the fact that this study examined gamers who are highly involved in the interactive medium of games which force them to focus on game play rather than advertisements; the level of recognition to remember the brand exposed in the game is low and contributes to the "mismatch" between the gamers and the said brand. The present study contributes to the existing literature of the antecedents of brand recall and brand attitude in advergames. This study contributes to the role of brand recall and brand attitude as mediators in purchase behavior theory. Academically, the relationship between brand recall and brand attitude is well known in advergaming research, but their impact as important mediators on purchase intention add new understanding in the interactive communication literature. Their mediating role may provide new insights on how they facilitate the effects of self-brand congruity, entertainment and brand placement on purchase intention. Besides that, the studies on the influence of self-brand congruity on brand recall and brand attitude and also consumer intention to purchase had not well-investigated in advergames. This study contributes to fill those gaps in advergames literature. For practitioners, this study could suggest the use of illustrative or demonstrative placements of new products to help customers remember new brands, and the use of associative placements for existing products to increase consumers' purchase intention (Ho et al., 2011). To advertisers, this study may provide useful information to improve their current advertising strategies in games, for instance, by considering game players' congruity, entertainment value and brand placement factors.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.53-76
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• 2005

With rapid technological and market change, new product development (NPD) complexity is a significant issue that organizations continually face in their development projects. There are numerous factors, which cause development projects to become increasingly costly & complex. A product is more likely to be successfully developed and marketed when the complexity inherent in NPD projects is clearly understood and carefully managed. Based upon the previous studies, this study examines the nature and importance of complexity in developing new products and then identifies several issues in managing complexity. Issues considered include: definition of complexity : consequences of complexity; and methods for managing complexity in NPD projects. To achieve high performance in managing complexity in development projects, these issues need to be addressed, for example: A. Complexity inherent in NPD projects is multi-faceted and multidimensional. What factors need to be considered in defining and/or measuring complexity in a development project? For example, is it sufficient if complexity is defined only from a technological perspective, or is it more desirable to consider the entire array of complexity sources which NPD teams with different functions (e.g., marketing, R&D, manufacturing, etc.) face in the development process? Moreover, is it sufficient if complexity is measured only once during a development project, or is it more effective and useful to trace complexity changes over the entire development life cycle? B. Complexity inherent in a project can have negative as well as positive influences on NPD performance. Thus, which complexity impacts are usually considered negative and which are positive? Project complexity also can affect the entire organization. Any complexity could be better assessed in broader and longer perspective. What are some ways in which the long-term impact of complexity on an organization can be assessed and managed? C. Based upon previous studies, several approaches for managing complexity are derived. What are the weaknesses & strengths of each approach? Is there a desirable hierarchy or order among these approaches when more than one approach is used? Are there differences in the outcomes according to industry and product types (incremental or radical)? Answers to these and other questions can help organizations effectively manage the complexity inherent in most development projects. Complexity is worthy of additional attention from researchers and practitioners alike. Large-scale empirical investigations, jointly conducted by researchers and practitioners, will help gain useful insights into understanding and managing complexity. Those organizations that can accurately identify, assess, and manage the complexity inherent in projects are likely to gain important competitive advantages.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.51-84
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• 2011

It seems essential to examine the factors that may affect relationship commitment of subcontractors to parent companies in the industrial market in Korea in an effort to construct a win-win-type cooperative network among them. Lots of studies have been focusing on the consumer goods market. Relatively few studies have been focused on industrial market. In the industrial goods market subcontractors used to sell their parts or services only to a small number of parent companies in a large quantity, resulting in decisive control of subcontractors over the quality of parent companies' finished goods. This is why relationship between subcontractors and parent companies is extremely important. From this viewpoint, this study aims to survey and analyze empirically the paths leading to relationship commitment of subcontractors toward the parent companies which are required to incite them to build up a collaborative network by means of subcontractors' entrepreneurship. For this aim, market orientation effects of entrepreneurship as well as factors of performance and trust are particularly set forth as the bases of developing hypotheses in this study in order to explore the paths from entrepreneurship to relationship commitment as follows. First, the path of entrepreneurship-market orientation-communication-trust- relationship commitment; second, the path of entrepreneurship-market orientation-performance-relationship commitment; third, the path of entrepreneurship-market orientation-transaction specific asset investment -trust-relationship commitment; and fourth, the path in which the entrepreneurship is expected to promote direct transaction specific asset investment by parent companies to induce their trust and, eventually, relationship commitment of subcontractors. The outcomes of the empirical analysis in this study may be summed up as follows: First, the conclusions of preceding studies are also supported here by the fact that the entrepreneurship of subcontractors promotes their market orientation (hypothesis 9), indicating that the entrepreneurship can facilitate collection, proliferation of and response to market informations. On the contrary, however, the assumption that the entrepreneurship of subcontractors might directly accelerate transaction specific asset investment by parent companies (hypothesis 8) is rejected. Second, although the influence of subcontractors' entrepreneurship on parent companies' investment of assets peculiar to their transactions is not affirmed, the assumption is found to be supported that subcontractors' market orientation would expedite the parent companies' investment of assets peculiar to their transactions. Moreover, it is also confirmed that parent companies' investment of assets peculiar to transactions would promote subcontractors' trust toward the parent companies (hypothesis 6), signifying that parent companies may level up their trust in subcontractors when they make great amount of efforts to invest in the assets peculiar to transactions, not behaving opportunistically, Third, the hypotheses 4 and 5 also turn out to be supported by the analysis as the former assumes that market orientation could promote communication and the latter relates that the communication between subcontractors and parent companies would prompt trust, both results in affirming that market orientation could introduce open communication to speed up sharing of information and that sharing of information by way of communication might give an impetus to trust. Fourth, the assumption that subcontractors' market orientation would expedite performance (hypothesis 3) is also proved favorably to the significant level equivalent to that of preceding studies. Fifth, same as preceding studies, it is also verified in this study that the benefit (outcomes) awarded by parent companies to subcontractors will be a direct cause exercising a positive impact upon relationship commitment(hypothesis 2) and that the trust of subcontractors toward parent companies may have affirmative influence on the relationship commitment(hypothesis 1). Overall, the first, second and third paths are identified as being supported by the hypotheses among constituent factors, while the fourth path is deemed meaningless since it is shown that the entrepreneurship exercises no effects on parent companies' investment in the assets peculiar to transactions.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.107-124
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• 2023

As getting in 4th Industrial Revolution Times, Continuing Education Enrolled Students(CEES) trying to find loophole for jepordized current life and need job transfer have surged their interest significantly on starting new business to bring up their post career after retirement through self-improvement. Government and university have actively initiated diverse policies of promoting startup for CEES in kicking off entrepreneurship courses and programs. However, relevant main policy, 'The 2nd University Startup Education Five-Year Plan (draft)' have too chiefly focused on theoretical start-up education rather than practical courses, causing the problem of inappropriate support for implementing real startup and business (Ministry of Education, 2018). This study is brought to empirically investigate the effect of self-efficacy as perspective of the impact of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial intention and behavior to come up with problem of poor entrepreneurial environment and entrepreneurship education to CEES. As to empirical research, this paper deliver on-line survey to CEES from September to October 2022, collect 207 effective feedbacks, In order to verify the reliability of the scale, the Cronbach's Alpha Coefficient (Cronbach's α) was calculated, analyzed, and measured. For hypothesis test, this paper utilize the multiple regression analysis statistical analysis method and use the SPSS 22.0 statistical processing program. Empirical results show, first, it was found that self-efficacy had a significant effect on start-up education. Second, start-up education had a significant effect on the intention to start a business of adult learners. Third, start-up education had a significant effect on the start-up behavior of adult learners. Fourth, self-efficacy had a significant effect on the intention of adult learners to start a business. Fifth, self-efficacy had a significant effect on the start-up behavior of adult learners. Sixth, self-efficacy had a mediating effect in the relationship between entrepreneurship education and adult learners' intention to start a business. Seventh, self-efficacy had a complete mediating effect in the relationship between start-up education and adult learners' start-up behavior. This paper is brought three significant implications. First, main consideration developing entrepreneurship education tools for CEES need to falls on defining potential needs of CEES as segmenting as to coming up with diversity of CEES's characteristics such as gender, age, experience, education, and occupation. Second, as to design specific entrepreneurship education program, both practical training program of utilizing CEES's career field experience benchmarking best practice startup and venture cases from domestic and global, and professional startup program of CEES initiating directly startup from ideation to develop business plan with pitching and discussing. Third, entrepreneurship education for CEES should be designed to incubate self-efficacy to enhance entrepreneurial intention of implementing entrepreneurial behavior as a real, eventually leading solid support system of self-improvement for CEES' Retirement life planning.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.253-270
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• 2023

Research on investment determinants of accelerators, which are attracting attention by greatly improving the survival rate of startups by providing professional incubation and investment to startups at the same time, is gradually expanding. However, previous studies do not have a theoretical basis in developing investment determinants in the early stages, and they use factors of angel investors or venture capital, which are similar investors, and are still in the stage of analyzing importance and priority through empirical research. Therefore, this study verified for the first time in Korea the discrimination and effectiveness of investment determinants using accelerator investment determinants developed based on the business model innovation framework in previous studies. To this end, we first set the criteria for success and failure of startup investment based on scale-up theory and conducted a survey of 22 investment experts from 14 accelerators in Korea, and secured valid data on a total of 97 startups, including 52 successful scale-up startups and 45 failed scale-up startups, were obtained and an independent sample t-test was conducted to verify the mean difference between these two groups by accelerator investment determinants. As a result of the analysis, it was confirmed that the investment determinants of accelerators based on business model innovation framework have considerable discrimination in finding successful startups and making investment decisions. In addition, as a result of analyzing manufacturing-related startups and service-related startups considering the characteristics of innovation by industry, manufacturing-related startups differed in business model, strategy, and dynamic capability factors, while service-related startups differed in dynamic capabilities. This study has great academic implications in that it verified the practical effectiveness of accelerator investment determinants derived based on business model innovation framework for the first time in Korea, and it has high practical value in that it can make effective investments by providing theoretical grounds and detailed information for investment decisions.