• Title/Summary/Keyword: Environmental industry

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Exposure Characteristics of 1,3-Butadiene Exposed Workers (1,3-부타디엔 제조 및 취급 근로자의 노출특성에 관한 연구)

  • Choi, Ho Chun;An, Sun Hee;Lee, Hyun Seok;Park, Young Wook;Kim, Kyung Soon
    • Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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    • v.19 no.4
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    • pp.321-327
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    • 2009
  • 1,3-butadiene is classified as suspected human carcinogen, group A2(American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists, ACGIH). In Korea, 1,3-butadiene has been used as a raw material; monomer, homopolymer, polybutadiene latex, acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene(ABS) and styrene-butadiene rubber(SBR), in the petrochemistry and precision chemistry industry. As petrochemistry industry in Korea has been developed, the potential exposure possibility of 1,3-butadiene to workers can be increased. Therefore the purpose of this study is to evaluate airborne 1,3-butadiene concentration and workers' exposure levels in the workplace using 1,3-butadiene. Air samples were collected with 4-tert-butyl catechol(TBC) charcoal tube(100 mg/50 mg) and were analyzed by gas chromatograph/flame ionization detector(GC/FID) according to the Choi's method(2002). Geometric mean (GM) and arithmetic mean (AM) of total 59 workers' exposure concentrations to airborne 1.3-butadiene were 0.042 ppm and 1.51 ppm, respectively. Although most samples were lower than 1ppm, 2 samples(21.5ppm and 33.1ppm as 8hr-TWA) were exceeded the Korean standard(2ppm) over 10 times at the repair process in synthetic rubber and resin manufacture industry. 14 samples(41%) of total 34 short-term air samples were exceeded the Korean standard(10ppm as STEL) of Ministry Labor. 1,3-butadiene concentration(GM) in the synthetic rubber and resin manufacture industry(7.87ppm) was significantly higher than that in the monomer manufacure industry (0.35ppm)(p<0.05). Also in the sampling and repair process, each GM(range) was 1.39ppm(N.D.-469.6ppm) and 7.85ppm(N.D.-410.2ppm). In conclusion, it depends on the industry and process, 1,3-butadiene can be exposed to workers as high concentration for short-term.

The Effects of Environmental Dynamism on Supply Chain Commitment in the High-tech Industry: The Roles of Flexibility and Dependence (첨단산업의 환경동태성이 공급체인의 결속에 미치는 영향: 유연성과 의존성의 역할)

  • Kim, Sang-Deok;Ji, Seong-Goo
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.17 no.2
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    • pp.31-54
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    • 2007
  • The exchange between buyers and sellers in the industrial market is changing from short-term to long-term relationships. Long-term relationships are governed mainly by formal contracts or informal agreements, but many scholars are now asserting that controlling relationship by using formal contracts under environmental dynamism is inappropriate. In this case, partners will depend on each other's flexibility or interdependence. The former, flexibility, provides a general frame of reference, order, and standards against which to guide and assess appropriate behavior in dynamic and ambiguous situations, thus motivating the value-oriented performance goals shared between partners. It is based on social sacrifices, which can potentially minimize any opportunistic behaviors. The later, interdependence, means that each firm possesses a high level of dependence in an dynamic channel relationship. When interdependence is high in magnitude and symmetric, each firm enjoys a high level of power and the bonds between the firms should be reasonably strong. Strong shared power is likely to promote commitment because of the common interests, attention, and support found in such channel relationships. This study deals with environmental dynamism in high-tech industry. Firms in the high-tech industry regard it as a key success factor to successfully cope with environmental changes. However, due to the lack of studies dealing with environmental dynamism and supply chain commitment in the high-tech industry, it is very difficult to find effective strategies to cope with them. This paper presents the results of an empirical study on the relationship between environmental dynamism and supply chain commitment in the high-tech industry. We examined the effects of consumer, competitor, and technological dynamism on supply chain commitment. Additionally, we examined the moderating effects of flexibility and dependence of supply chains. This study was confined to the type of high-tech industry which has the characteristics of rapid technology change and short product lifecycle. Flexibility among the firms of this industry, having the characteristic of hard and fast growth, is more important here than among any other industry. Thus, a variety of environmental dynamism can affect a supply chain relationship. The industries targeted industries were electronic parts, metal product, computer, electric machine, automobile, and medical precision manufacturing industries. Data was collected as follows. During the survey, the researchers managed to obtain the list of parts suppliers of 2 companies, N and L, with an international competitiveness in the mobile phone manufacturing industry; and of the suppliers in a business relationship with S company, a semiconductor manufacturing company. They were asked to respond to the survey via telephone and e-mail. During the two month period of February-April 2006, we were able to collect data from 44 companies. The respondents were restricted to direct dealing authorities and subcontractor company (the supplier) staff with at least three months of dealing experience with a manufacture (an industrial material buyer). The measurement validation procedures included scale reliability; discriminant and convergent validity were used to validate measures. Also, the reliability measurements traditionally employed, such as the Cronbach's alpha, were used. All the reliabilities were greater than.70. A series of exploratory factor analyses was conducted. We conducted confirmatory factor analyses to assess the validity of our measurements. A series of chi-square difference tests were conducted so that the discriminant validity could be ensured. For each pair, we estimated two models-an unconstrained model and a constrained model-and compared the two model fits. All these tests supported discriminant validity. Also, all items loaded significantly on their respective constructs, providing support for convergent validity. We then examined composite reliability and average variance extracted (AVE). The composite reliability of each construct was greater than.70. The AVE of each construct was greater than.50. According to the multiple regression analysis, customer dynamism had a negative effect and competitor dynamism had a positive effect on a supplier's commitment. In addition, flexibility and dependence had significant moderating effects on customer and competitor dynamism. On the other hand, all hypotheses about technological dynamism had no significant effects on commitment. In other words, technological dynamism had no direct effect on supplier's commitment and was not moderated by the flexibility and dependence of the supply chain. This study makes its contribution in the point of view that this is a rare study on environmental dynamism and supply chain commitment in the field of high-tech industry. Especially, this study verified the effects of three sectors of environmental dynamism on supplier's commitment. Also, it empirically tested how the effects were moderated by flexibility and dependence. The results showed that flexibility and interdependence had a role to strengthen supplier's commitment under environmental dynamism in high-tech industry. Thus relationship managers in high-tech industry should make supply chain relationship flexible and interdependent. The limitations of the study are as follows; First, about the research setting, the study was conducted with high-tech industry, in which the direction of the change in the power balance of supply chain dyads is usually determined by manufacturers. So we have a difficulty with generalization. We need to control the power structure between partners in a future study. Secondly, about flexibility, we treated it throughout the paper as positive, but it can also be negative, i.e. violating an agreement or moving, but in the wrong direction, etc. Therefore we need to investigate the multi-dimensionality of flexibility in future research.

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Economical Assessment of Wastewater Treatment Facilities in Leather Tanning and Finishing Industry (가죽, 모피 가공 및 제조업 폐수처리시설의 경제성 평가)

  • Kim, Jaehoon;Yang, Hyung jae;Kwon, Oh sang;Lee, Sung jong
    • Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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    • v.23 no.1
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    • pp.131-137
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    • 2007
  • Industrial wastewater management guideline and evaluation model of Best Available Technologies for the leather tanning and finishing industry was developed as an economical evaluation model using evaluation of BAT including economical evaluation combined with cost analysis model and cost annualization model in considering of economical factors and non-water environmental factors. It was verified that approximately 10% will be increased annually to modify conventional treatment process ($3,700m^3/d$) of J leather wastewater treatment plant to advanced process of K leather wastewater treatment plant.

Effects of Green Operations and Green Innovation on Firm's Environmental Performance

  • Chen, Rong-Huei
    • Industrial Engineering and Management Systems
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    • v.13 no.2
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    • pp.118-128
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    • 2014
  • This study examines how green operations affect firm's environmental performance with green innovation as a mediator in the context of electronic industry. We carry out an empirical study with 141 valid questionnaires collected from high-tech manaufactures in Taiwan. The results show that positive relationships exist among green operations, green innovation and environmental performance (in both operational performance and managerial performance). However, an integration of green operations with green innovation would influence firm's environmental performance more positively than the sole effects of green operations. It suggests that high-tech manufacturers should pay greater attention to green innovative strategies in order to cope with customer demand and, thereby, enhancing customer satisfaction and sustainable operations. This study has contributed to the extant literature by providing valuable academic references and pragmatic guidelines for firms to gain competitive advantages through green operations and green innovation.