• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2007.03a
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• pp.459-468
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• 2007

The u-City construction project has become a hot topic in the construction market because it seems economic value-added field for construction firms. However, construction firms don't willingly participate in the u-City construction market because environments of the future business for the u-City are very uncertain. Scenario planning is a very powerful method in managing this uncertain planning situation and is based on scenarios that help each enterprise appropriately adapt itself to its own business environments. Therefore it is based on the main principles of systems thinking and multiple futures. For the purpose of dealing with such uncertainties, this paper attempts to develop the possible market scenarios of the u-City construction market in S.Korea through a scenario planning approach. From this perspective, we considered various aspects of the u-City construction such as market demands, technology development, policy level and management environment. After considering the relevant issues, we identified the main trends and key uncertainties. Finally, we developed three coherent u-City construction market scenarios. Construction firms can use these scenarios as a basic reference for market analysis and business strategy. Therefore, this paper is able to enhance the participation of construction firms in the u-City construction market.

• Korean Management Science Review
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.45-56
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• 2015

Partner relationship management (PRM) refers to processes and methodologies associated with managing the relationship between corporations and their partners. Recently, the importance of PRM has been increasingly emphasized, and it is considered as a core competitive factor for firms whose sales heavily rely on the intermediate distributor. In this paper, we identify key success factors for PRM system based on literature review on CRM system and interviews with domain experts, and prioritize them from two different perspectives, firms and partners, based on analytical hierarchy process. Partners responded that trust-building between firms and partners, quality of system, and satisfaction level for information system have high priorities, while firms responded that quality of system, information share, and trust building between firms and partners. Identified factors and evaluated priorities can provide a strategic guideline when planning the PRM system building.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.2 no.2 s.6
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• pp.37-46
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• 2001

Business boundaries of firms in the construction industry are strictly regulated in Korea. Under the current law, firms involved in construction processes are classified into five categories; general contractors, specialty contractors, architects' offices, engineering firms, and specialized in inspection. Among these types of firms, general contractors are prohibited to enter into specialty contractor's market and vice versa by the basic law in the construction industry. Also general contractors are not allowed to provide architectural services. The purpose of the law is to prohibit unlicensed companies from entering the construction market and to protect customers. However, the law causes critical problems e.g. low efficiency of production and rent creation. Therefore, we identify problems concerning business boundaries of firms in the construction industry and predict structural changes in the them when they are liberalized. So we surveyed general contractors and specialty contractors in Korea to estimate the effects of the liberalization on the construction industry. Most of contractors point to the enhancement of production efficiency as the motivation to integrate other construction process. If current regulations, which limit firms' decisions on business boundaries, are eliminated, firms will choose optimal business scopes taking into account types of contracts adopted by the Government for public works. Based on the cost/benifit analyses, they will decide whether to intergrate other production processes or not.

• Management Science and Financial Engineering
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.21-26
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• 2016

We analyze how firms' global production activities affect their inventory supply and financial performance in regards to its production location. For the analysis, we use information on global production quantities of 3,076 Korean multinational firms that operate business in Europe and Asia through foreign direct investment (FDI) from 2006 to 2013. Our estimation results show that an increase in global production ratio, measured by global production/total production, decreases inventory supply and financial performance of firms that produce in European countries, while it decreases financial performance of firms that produce in Asian countries. Although our results indicate that global production decreases financial performance of firms that produce in Europe and Asia, we find that its negative effects on financial performance are different based on the market demand uncertainty.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.5 no.6 s.22
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• pp.226-234
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• 2004

Dynamic nature of the A/E/C industry, rapidly changing global market environment, and lowest cost competitive bidding make it difficult to survive in global engineering markets. To understand of the global design&engineering market, a case study has been undertaken. The top 150 global design forms represented in the ENR(Engineering News Record) from 1995 to 2003 are classified three groups for the case study, First group is the firms that its rank is getting raised from 1995. Second group is the firms keep holding its rank from 1994 until 2003. Third group is the firms that its rank has gone down from 1995 until 2003. However, finding key factors and changing business strategies of successful top design fm are the fundamental goals in this paper, After examined case study, this paper concludes and suggests that professionalization, M&A strategies, patrons of government, and academic supporting are needed to be succeeding in the global design & engineering industry.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.389-396
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• 2005

Despite very good reputation that Korean construction industrial firms had enjoyed until early 1990's in overseas markets, their participation abroad drastically declined after the delivery of two(2) million unit-housing project in the early 1990's and the foreign currency crisis that took place in the late 1990's. The revival of booming construction industry in domestic market is far beyond the expectation due to the long recession of the construction economy and government's severe restriction against real estate development. Under such crucial circumstances, the construction industrial firms' strategy to survive is the more active business promotion in overseas markets. However, the Korean construction industrial firms have to abandon the labor intensive strategy, through that they have enjoyed until the early 1990's, and turn to management oriented strategy which may be a new prosperous horizon and a new challenge as well, because the labor cost of newly developing countries is much more competitive. The aim of this study is to suggest how to cope with current market situations through a chronological survey based on the cost data prevailed during four decades from the 1960's until the 1990's in overseas markets.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.158-170
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• 2009

This paper considers how the optimal export level is influenced by export risk, the degree of risk-averseness for exporting firms, and those firms' cost structure. In addition, export insurance is incorporated into some simple theoretical model to analyze the optimal export level. This paper applies genetic algorithm simulation to show that the exporting firms'risk-averseness do not affect the optimal export decision while export risk and cost function characteristic have relatively more significant effects on the optimal export level. Finally, our findings suggest that the most influential factor for the optimal export levels seems to be the monopoly power of exporting firms.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2015.10a
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• pp.746-747
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• 2015

Recently, Korea has achieved accumulated total value of orders of six hundred billion dollars in international construction market, and it is facing a new turning point by entering the overseas construction market. However, according to the statistics on the current internal construction market, the accumulated value of orders has been mainly obtained by plant projects in the Middle-East area. To improve international competitiveness of Korean construction industry, it is required to expand and diversify the target areas and construction business sectors. To expand markets, each construction firm should establish the expansion strategy and assess the capability which includes the strength and weakness of their firm. Therefore, this research aims to evaluate the capability of the Korean construction firms for overseas expansion. Through the research, Korean construction industry is expected to strengthen competitiveness toward the overseas markets. Furthermore, this research contributes to expanding and diversifying markets for domestic construction firms.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.40-40
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• 2009

Construction firms have long sought success in the global construction market through diversifying revenue sources and project portfolios. The volume of international contracts has contributed to firms' sustained growth by mitigating the impact of the domestic market's cyclical nature. In spite of the importance of international construction, the uncertainty and dynamic changes surrounding global construction pose serious threats to global contactors. Over the last decade, the international construction industry has changed drastically in many ways, particularly including financial resource diversity, competition rules for the selection of contractors, and the terms of delivery systems requiring more competent total service providers. This paper investigates the important changes for global contractors through various documentation analysis as well as in-depth interviews with industry experts. This paper then analyzes the common strategies and lessons obtained from the cases of leading global contractors that have sustained their growth in the competitive global construction during the last decade. In addition, the authors further analyzed the comparisons between those firms and Korean contractors to discern any difference in sustaining their growth in the competitive market. It was found that those leading firms were quite proactive and responsive to changing markets by diversifying their market revenues to stabilize their revenue structure and enhancing their competency through a wide range of 'business convergence'. In addition, they significantly increased their upstream/downstream functional capabilities; hence becoming more competent service providers, able to grow in these rapidly changing market conditions. Finally, this paper benchmarks the critical strategies that support growth, which in turn can provide a strategic guideline for expansion into the global construction market.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2013.01a
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• pp.308-314
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• 2013

Although global construction spending has experienced slow growth due to consecutive economic crises, global contractors have consistently attempted to expand their overseas market share, leading to more intense competition among contractors in the international construction market. In this market environment, owners, clients and financial institutions require reasonable and systematic criteria to effectively assess the business capabilities of international construction firms. However, the existing evaluation methods for construction firms rarely consider overseas-focused business capabilities. To address this problem, this study proposes a quantitative approach to assessing the overseas business capabilities of international construction firms. The limitations of existing approaches are reviewed, and the capabilities required to perform overseas businesses are analyzed through expert interviews. Finally, 18 evaluation indices are suggested in four categories: technology resources, project management, experience and performance, and sustainability. The relative weight of each index is determined according to the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method, and a preliminary investigation of 11 Korean construction firms is conducted. The proposed method is expected that it will provide the rational criteria for international owners, clients, and financial institutions for decision-making and for evaluating international contractors.