• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.67-74
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• 2016

Purpose - In this paper, the degree of similarity and dissimilarity between pairs of 50 major cities in China can be shown on the basis of three evaluation variables(internet businessman index, internet shopping index and e-commerce development index). Dissimilarity distance matrix is used to analyze both similarity and dissimilarity between each fifty city in China by calculating dissimilarity as distance. Higher value signifies higher degree of dissimilarity between two cities. Cluster analysis is exploited to classify 50 cities into a number of different groups such that similar cities are placed in the same group. In addition, multidimensional scaling(MDS) technique can obtain visual representation for exploring the pattern of proximities among 50 major cities in China based on three development performance attributes. Research design, data, and methodology - This research is performed by the 2013 report provided with AliResearch in China(1/1/2013~11/30/2013) and utilized multivariate methods such as dissimilarity distance matrix, cluster analysis and MDS by using CLUSTER, KMEANS, PROXIMITIES and ALSCAL procedures in SPSS 21.0. Results - This research applies two types of cluster analysis and MDS on three development performances based on the 2013 report of Aliresearch. As a result, it is confirmed that grouping is possible by categorizing the types into four clusters which share similar characteristics. MDS is exploited to carry out positioning of both grouped locations of cluster and 50 major cities belonging to each cluster. Since all the values corresponding to Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Hangzhou(which belong to cluster 1 among 50 major cities) are very large, these cities are superior to other cities in all three evaluation attributes. Twelve cities(Beijing, ShangHai, Jinghua, ZhuHai, XiaMen, SuZhou, NanJing, DongWan, ZhangShan, JiaXing, NingBo and FoShan), which belong to cluster 3, are inferior to those of cluster 1 in terms of all three attributes, but they can be expected to be the next e-commerce revolution. The rest of major cities, in particular, which belong to cluster 4 are relatively inferior in all three attributes, so that this automatically evokes creative innovation, which leads to e-commerce development as a whole in China. In terms of internet businessman index, on the other hand, Tainan, Taizhong, and Gaoxiong(which belong to cluster 2) are situated superior to others. However, these three cities are inferior to others in an internet shopping index sense. The rest of major cities, in particular, which belong to cluster 4 are relatively inferior in all three evaluation attributes, so that this automatically evokes innovation and entrepreneurship, which leads to e-commerce development as a whole in China. Conclusions - This study suggests the implications to help e-governmental officers and companies make strategies in both Korea and China. This is expected to give some useful information in understanding the recent situation of e-commerce in China, by looking over development performances of 50 major cities. Therefore, we should develop marketing, branding and communication relevant to online Chinese consumers. One of these efforts will be incentives like loyalty points and coupons that can encourage consumers and building in-house logistics networks.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.7
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• pp.71-81
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• 2016

Purpose - Because creativity, which is an intangible resource embedded within the company, can offer a competitive advantage, most companies have an interest in promoting creativity among their employees and division(e.g., marketing organization). Creativity renders a sustainable competitive advantage to a firm because it is a strategic resource that is valuable, flexible, rare, and imperfectly imitable or substitutable. Although most companies broadly recognize the importance of creativity, the methods for developing creativity remain elusive. Therefore, the present study investigates how to structure incentives to motivate employees to be more creative and how to develop tools to facilitate creativity. In detail, the present study aimed to examine the relationship between the regulatory focus of marketing organizations(e.g., promotion focus vs prevention focus) and creativity of marketing organizations. In addition, the present study set out to examine the moderating role of interaction of financial reward and creative training in addition to investigating the direct relationship between creativity and regulatory focus in New Product Development(NPD) context. Research design, data, and methodology - The data used to test the hypotheses are drawn from a survey of full time NPD project members(including project manager, designer, engineer, and marketer). The present study utilized data obtained mainly from a database compiled by the Korea Investors Service-Financial Analysis System which provides comprehensive corporate and financial information on firms listed on the Korea Stock Exchange. A study population comprising 1,000 South Korean firms was obtained from this database. We selected 864 firms from the database, and the firms have experiences of new product development project. We collected a total of 162 responses, for a 18.8% response rate. After we excluded 14 questionnaire because of incomplete responses, a total of 148 questionnaire remained(final response rate: 17.1%). Working with a sample of 148 responses in South Korea, hierarchical moderated regression is employed to test research hypotheses(

The relationship between promotion focus and creativity of marketing organization,

The relationship between prevention focus and creativity of marketing organization,

The moderating effect of joint influences(interaction between financial rewards and creativity training) on the relationship between promotion focus creativity of marketing organization,

The moderating effect of joint influences(interaction between financial rewards and creativity training) on the relationship between prevention focus creativity of marketing organization). SPSS 18.0 and AMOS software were used in the data analysis. Results - The empirical study confirmed that promotion focus of marketing organization is positively related to creativity of marketing organization. Also, prevention focus of marketing organization is positively affected to creativity of marketing organization. In addition, the interaction between financial rewards and creativity training moderated the relationship between regularity focus(e.g.), promotion focus vs prevention focus) and creativity of marketing organization. These results suggest that managers can improve the performances of their creative efforts by providing the use of financial rewards and creativity training in combination. Conclusion - Based on results of this study that examine the effects of regulatory focused creative efforts on creativity of marketing organization, promotion focus is helpful with marketing organizations to enhance their service innovation and performance. Prevention focused organization should allow monetary rewards and creativity training to increase their creativity for innovation of new products.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.53-63
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• 2015

Purpose - Recently, creating shared value (CSV) has attracted attention through plan sustainability and the growth of corporate management. Porter and Kramer (2011) defined the core concept of CSV as social value, economic profits, improvements in the economic social condition, and reinforcing competitiveness. The purpose of CSV, which is to pursue economic profits through a social solution to the problem, agrees with managing the objective of a social enterprise that prioritizes the pursuit of profits through the realization of a social purpose. Today, CSV studies focus on CSR and sustainability and reinforce competitiveness. However, few studies focused on the social economy. Precedent studies examined CSV using a company example, and few studies exist from the perspective of consumers and the point of view of a market society. Research design, data, and methodology - Therefore, this study examines CSV in comparison to a background of the social economy. This study also investigates and analyzes the concept of social value from the point of view of consumers, social problems, consumption value, corporate value, and the influence of consumers. This article develops three hypotheses. Hypothesis 1 investigates the correlation with social innovation that consumers thought as being necessary for social innovation by a company. Hypothesis 2 is used to confirm the influence of consumers in CSV. Therefore, this article investigates the influence of consumers on consumption action for companies that are indifferent to social problems. Hypothesis 3 is used to verify the correlation between the value that consumers demand through consumption and the corporate value that companies pursue other than profits. The three hypotheses were adopted and met the standard for suitability. Results - The importance of the CSV study from the consumer perspective was confirmed using the influence of consumers on CSV. Because the objective of company activities is either the consumer or the market, the influence that extends to interactions between the company and consumers to ensure the success of a business is significant. Regarding the CSV study, because it was an initial study, various approaches are subsequently developed. However, conceptual and practical case studies on CSV currently exist that may be used to verify the factors that comprise CSV. Therefore, the company example may enable verification of the factors that influence the composition of CSV through identification from the consumer perspective. In addition, studying CSV as an action result (of consumer satisfaction, of a company's profits and competitiveness, and of society's cancellation of a social problem) may enable the realization of a practice paradigm as opposed to simply thought and faith. Conclusions - First, this study confirms the social value of a business through the feasible and common pursuit of consumers by corporations. Second, customer influence accounts for an important part of CSV. Third, shared value commonly provides a necessary advantage to consumers, corporates, and society, and contributes to the economy and healthy social development. Fourth, corporates can conduct a business, generate profits, and realize value through improvements in social problems and by addressing their competitive strengths and weaknesses.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.81-88
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• 2014

Purpose - Entrepreneurship promotion is emerging as an important economic growth agenda. However, in Korea, entrepreneurship has weakened because of the collapse of the venture bubbles of the 2000s and the global economic recession in 2008, which have induced the business community to choose stability over risk. The Korean government has been implementing several support projects to inspire and promote youth entrepreneurship through various means including financial assistance; however, the perpetuation rate of young entrepreneurship is still low as compared to advanced economies such as the US and EU. This case study focuses on the Youth Start-Up Business Support Program of the Small & Medium Business Corporation, and explores practical alternatives. Further, it aims to suggest managerial factors and a conceptual model for change management factors affecting the business performance creation of a startup company, based on the Small and medium Business Corporation's young venture startup fund. Research design, data, and methodology - Many studies examine the current progress and issues of startup firms, for example, a lack of systematic cultivation of entrepreneurship and startup business training, lack of commercialization funding for youth startup businesses, lack of mentoring, and inadequate infrastructure. From prior research, we address four factors, namely, personal managerial capabilities, innovative business model, sufficient cash flow, and social network, affecting startup companies' business performance. This study involved a sample survey of 200 young entrepreneurs to investigate casual relations between the four factors and business performance. A regression analysis was used to verify the hypotheses. Results - First, in relation to differences in the founder's personal characteristics, age, sales amount, and number of employees significantly impact business performance. Second, regarding the causal relation between the four factors for creating business performance, an innovative business model and social networking have supported the hypotheses, revealing that the more that a start-up founder has an innovative business model and social networking, the more the start-up firms are likely to have better performance (e.g., sales volume, employment, ROE, ROI, etc.). Although the founder's competency and sufficient cash flow have no significant relationship with business performance, the mean value was higher performance for high founder's competency and sufficient cash flow. Conclusions - This study provides basic data on policy support strategies of the Small and Medium Business Corporation, to help young entrepreneurs achieve their start-up business goals. It shows that young entrepreneurship startup firms should strive to explore ideas to satisfy customers' needs, and that changes in customer value and the continuous innovation of business model differentiation are required to actively respond to change management. Moreover, at the infant startup stage, they should activate social network programs to share information, thereby offsetting resource scarcity and managing business risk. Further, the establishment of a long-term vision and the implementation of training programs in related specific fields should be supported to strengthen founders' personal capabilities.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.215-221
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• 2011

The goal of this study was to evaluate the quality characteristics of various beans in distribution. The quality characteristics investigated were proximate composition, color, free sugars, organic acids, amino acids, and minerals. Bean samples analyzed were white soybeans (Glycine max. (L.) Merrill), kidney beans (Phaseolus vulgaris var. humilis), black soybeans (Glycine max (L.) Merr.), black small soybeans (Rhynchosia nulubilis), sword beans (Canavalia gladiata), and green beans (Phaseolus vulgaris). The highest contents of crude fat and crude protein were 17.60${\pm}$0.14% for white soybeans, and 42.38${\pm}$0.15% for black soybeans, respectively. Higher color values compared to the other samples were $L^*$ (64.07${\pm}$0.97) for sword beans, $a^*$ (15.64${\pm}$0.48) for kidney beans, and $b^*$ (22.92${\pm}$0.09) for white soybeans. The highest contents of sucrose, oxalic acid, and malic acid in black small soybeans were 54.23 mg/g, 23.26 mg/100 g and 18.24 mg/100 g, respectively. Xylose, galactose, lactose, malonic acid, succinic acid, and lactic acid were not detected in the soybeans studied, whereas the glutamic acid content of soybeans ranged from 2.68 to 6.18 g/100 g. Levels of K and Mg contents in soybean were higher than those of the other minerals.

• Journal of Venture Innovation
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.19-40
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to analyze and evaluate the role and merits and demerits of insurance agencies, which are the main sales channels of the domestic insurance market, from a neutral standpoint, and to present a roadmap by finding ways and tasks for the sustainable development of the insurance agency industry. Recently, criticisms and regulations on independent distribution channels have been strengthened due to deterioration in growth potential and profitability, and increase in civil complaints of insurance companies. In the 2000s, as the center of insurance sales channels shifted to GA and bancassurance, the supervisory authorities regarded the irrationality of project costs and recruitment fees as the root causes and announced a regulatory improvement plan. In view of these circumstance, the operating status, problems of domestic insurance agencies and their contribution to the insurance industry were reviewed. In addition, we tried to find a mid-to-long term development plan by analyzing the case of insurance agency operation in Japan. This study identified the operating status and contribution of insurance agencies in South Korea, and focused on the major status of the Japanese insurance agency industry, ways to improve management efficiency, and the status and role of self-regulatory organizations for insurance agencies. Based on this, it was proposed to improve the professionalism of the sales organization, introduce a company specializing in insurance sales, and to strengthen the status of the association of the insurance agency as for the development plan of the insurance agency industry in South Korea.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.786-819
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• 2014

Emphasizing the importance of R&D as a source of open innovation, Korean government is developing various programs focused on technology commercialization and is expanding investment on it. In spite of those efforts, technology commercialization is not vitalized yet due to the lack of demand for technology transfer, R&D planning scheme without considering market, immaturity of technology market, and so on. This study aims to suggest the business ecosystem model so that technology commercialization could be facilitated based on business ecosystem perspective. We set the framework for modeling a business ecosystem through reviewing the previous works, and draw several problems to be solved regarding public R&D commercialization in Korea from the perspective of ecosystem. Considering those, this research proposes the business ecosystem model for public R&D commercialization as a reference model for describing, discussing, and developing the technology commercialization strategy. The proposed model consists of 4 domains as follows: R&D, technology market, information distribution channels, and customers. The business ecosystem model shows that technology commercialization could be facilitated to create the market value through close relationship and organic cooperation among its members that form the ecosystem. Public research institutes as a keystone player could control the fate of the ecosystem. In this regard, this paper suggests roles of public research institutes for evolving the business ecosystem.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.277-284
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• 2014

Using the spray pyrolysis process, nano-sized cobalt oxide powder with average particle size below 50 nm was prepared from cobalt chloride solution. The influences of the raw material solution on the properties of the powder formed examined. When the concentration of Co was low(20 g/L), the average particle size of the powder formed was roughly 20 nm, and the cohesion between these particles was significantly strong. When the concentration of Co increased to 100 g/L, the droplets nearly failed to exist in circular form and reflected a severely divided form. Furthermore, the average size of the particles formed was roughly 40 nm, and the particles reflected a polygonal form. When the solution was increased to nearly saturation level (Co at 200 g/L), the particle size distribution reflected significant unevenness due to severe droplet division while the surface also reflected significant unevenness. Furthermore, the average size of the particles formed increased significantly to 70 nm. The results of XRD analysis showed that the strength of the peaks reflected very little change when the concentration of Co was increased from 20 g/L to 50 g/L. Alternatively, when the concentration was increased to 100 g/L, the strength of the peaks increased compared to when the concentration was 50 g/L. However, when the concentration was increased to 200 g/L, the strength of the peaks failed to reflect significant change compared to when the concentration was 100 g/L. The specific surface area dramatically decreased by 30 % when the concentration of Co was increased from 20 g/L to 50 g/L. Alternatively, when the concentration of Co the solution increased to 100 g/L, the specific surface area decreased by roughly 15 %. Furthermore, when the concentration of Co was increased to nearly saturation level(200 g/L), the specific surface area decreased by roughly 35%.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.165-198
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• 2014

The national R&D performance evaluation system in Korea has been influenced by 'New Public Management' since the 1980s. The 1997 IMF crisis in Korea has necessitated the overhaul of S&T policy strategies in Korea. Reflecting this, effective distribution and utilization of S&T investment and resources has emerged as a crucial policy agenda, while expansionary investment in S&T maintained. During the period of 1999-2005, the R&D evaluation has been more focused on the input side and execution processes than on the results of R&D. Evaluation results were to be reflected in the budgeting of national R&D, but there were some disputes over how to make use of evaluation results between the budgeting ministry and the evaluation agency partly because they were two separate entities. After the advent of the new government(1998-2003) which advocated 'science and technology-oriented society', the national R&D evaluation system has evolved through a new legislation, the Performance Assessment Act, and the establishment of Science & Technology Innovation Agency to build up the unique framework for national R&D evaluation differentiated from the assessment system for general government investment programs. Most recently, due to 'Comprehensive Improvement Plan' in 2013, various components of national R&D evaluation seem to move on a new evolutionary track. For example, different types of evaluation are being developed and tried in accordance with differing evaluation goals, and the individual ministries and the research councils has got more enhanced autonomy and responsibility regarding R&D evaluation. So-called 'tailored' evaluation methods, taking into consideration the characteristics of programs and institutes / organizations to be evaluated, are now being tried. Competences of evaluation experts and agencies has also to be improved and strengthened.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.411-418
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• 2017

Background: Recently, protein from ginseng was studied and used for the treatment of several kinds of diseases. However, the effect of ginseng total protein (GTP) on proliferation and wound healing in fibroblast cells remains unclear. Methods: In this study, cell viability was analyzed using the MTT [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide] assay. Cell cycle distribution was analyzed by flow cytometer. The levels of transforming growth factor ${\beta}1$, vascular endothelial growth factor, and collagens were analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and immunofluorescence staining. The expressions of cyclin A, phosphorylation of extracellular signal-related kinase (p-ERK1/2), and ERK1/2 were analyzed by Western blotting. Results: Our results showed that GTP promoted cell proliferation and increased the percentage of cells in S phase through the upregulation of cyclin A in NIH/3T3 cells. We also found that GTP induced the secretion of type I collagen, and promoted the expression of other factors that regulate the synthesis of collagen such as transforming growth factor ${\beta}1$ and vascular endothelial growth factor. In addition, the phosphorylation of ERK1/2 at Thr202/Tyr204 was also increased by GTP. Conclusion: Our studies suggest that GTP promoted proliferation and secretion of collagen in NIH/3T3 cells by activating the ERK signal pathway, which shed light on a potential function of GTP in promoting wound healing.