• Smart Media Journal
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.52-61
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• 2024

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated social transformations across various nations. These changes, particularly prominent in the corporate and industrial sectors, have necessitated a shift towards increased remote activities, fundamentally altering societal structures. Within this context, the concept of the Metaverse, a virtual world existing since the early 2000s but previously underrecognized, began to gain widespread recognition. In South Korea, major tech companies such as Naver, Kakao, and Coupang have long normalized remote working, with new employee orientations also taking place on Metaverse platforms. Beyond the IT sector, institutions requiring large gatherings, such as schools, have adopted the Metaverse for hosting major events like welcome ceremonies and informational sessions. This phenomenon suggests that the Metaverse is not merely a transient social trend but is gradually integrating into the daily lives of the general populace, serving as a significant social connector. This study explores the potential of Metaverse-enabled design thinking and methodologies to address the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) challenges faced by Korean society. Specifically, the research focuses on developing solutions for social issues related to pets in Korea.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.37-46
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• 2022

Recently, our society and environment has changed rapidly due to the pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus. In this rapidly changing environment, companies fulfill their social responsibilities and require non-financial elements of transparent management activities. ESG has become one of the non-financial factors, and interest of ESG management is increasing worldwide. In this paper, we examine the importance of ESG concept and ESG management performance and the correlation with companies, and examine the necessity of ESG management for companies in the future. The literature reviews are conducted on CU which is currently best practicing ESG management through various secondary data. Also, we used interview articles so that reflect the rich voice of the distribution industry. In addition, after examining ESG characteristics through examples of global companies, we looked at BGF Retail's CU convenience store ESG activities, which is a leader in ESG management, in distribution industry. CU was divided into all sectors of E, S, and G, and all sectors were actively engaged in activities and flexibly coping with changing environments and social needs. In particular, it was confirmed that CU's environmental management, which focuses the most, achieved successful results due to the increase in actual consumption of customers. ESG management activities at CU convenience stores are currently ongoing and future tasks. As a leading company in ESG management in the current industry, it is meaningful to understand the process of growing into a company that shares concerns, efforts, and practical activities and fulfills social responsibility. Through this study, the changes and growth of CU and domestic companies to ESG and sustainable management are expected in the futures.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.43-55
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• 2024

The purpose of this study is to examine residents' perspectives on factors contributing to rural decline, including population decrease and landscape degradation, with the goal of proposing strategies to revitalize rural spaces in response to these challenges. After exploring rural decline issues in Jinan, a questionnaire was developed based on a review of existing research. Following this, participants were selected, and Focus Group Interviews(FGI) were conducted. Through the analysis of the findings, strategies for local revitalization were suggested in four sectors. Based on the research findings, there is a need to reassess public transportation and vacant property projects. On the social front, preventing the misuse of rural relocation policies and enhancing residential environments through spatial clarity are essential. Environmentally, clustering renewable energy and livestock facilities and attracting educational facilities are necessary to minimize disruption to rural landscapes. From a governance perspective, fostering entrepreneurship in rural tourism and business models utilizing the local landscape is crucial for an increase in regional visits. This study holds significance by emphasizing the practical situation of rural decline, steering away from resource-centric or business-focused policies. It underscores the potential usefulness of integrating this understanding into detailed planning within policies aimed at tackling rural decline.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.559-564
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• 2024

Since the era of industrial revolution, the waste volume has continued to grow; waste management has thus become one of the major global environmental challenges facing humanities today. Waste treatment and management issues trigger NIMBY movements, and disputes among states, governments, and social actors over the issues have been accelrating. At the level of states and sub-states, various measures including institutions, laws, regulations, market-oriented methods, consensus and collaborative governance have been introduced to address various problems associated with waste. More recently, science and technology has been applied to the waste treatment and management under the notion of circular economy. However, societal support for addressing waste problems still remains inadequate, calling for new approaches and alternative pathways. In this context, this study examines two cases of urban incineration plants designed by Hudertwasser, Austria-born artist and architect: Spittelau, Austria, and Osaka, Japan. Through these case studies, I demonstrate how creative and innovative culture-technology convergence can shed new light on challenging environmental issues such as an urban waste problem.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.15-23
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• 2023

In a situation where the necessity and importance of ESG management is increasing recently, it is judged that selecting important ESG-related variables for container terminals, which are the bases of export and import logistics, among various variables of ESG evaluation agencies will help to establish ESG management strategies for container terminals which led us to proceed with this study. The results of word network analysis are summarized as follows. The weighed degree, that is, the AWD of Environmental management(E) variables, is obtained in the order of Environmental Protection Investment(54), Environmental Awareness Education(45), Work Team Structure(31), Environmental certification(32). Page Ranks, the order of centrality and connectivity index is Environmental Awareness Education(0.0765), Employee Engagement(0.0765), Environmental Protection Investment(0.0761), Work Team Composition(0.0761), and Environmental certification(0.0761). The AWD(Average Weighed Degree) of the Social Responsibility Management(S) variables, followed by Protecting workers' human rights and contributing to local communities(68), Safety Education(63), Safety certification(59), and Responding to infectious diseases(40). Orders by Page Ranks, centrality and connectivity Index, are Protecting workers' human rights and contributing to local communities(0.165), Safety Education(0.153), Safety Certification(0.144) and Responding to infectious diseases(0.102). The AWD of Governance and Ethical management(G) variables, followed by Anti-corruption(27), Transparent management(24), Mutual cooperation between stakeholders(19), and Sustainability reporting(9). Page Ranks, the order of centrality and connectivity index is the Anti Corruption(0.241), Transparent management(0.216), Mutual cooperation between stakeholders(0.174), Directors' roles and responsibilities(0.105), Shareholder protection(0.097) and Sustainability Report(0.096).

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.662-686
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• 2009

Lately innovation is perceived as a systemic, horizontal phenomenon and requires a new governance for innovation. Subsequently, broader societal questions enter the domain of innovation policy and coordination and integration between innovation policy and various other policy domains, such as economic, educational, social, regional and environmental policies become crucial. Definitions of policy integration include terms such as coherence, cooperation, coordination and put great emphasis on joint working to promote synergies among policies and reduce duplication and the use of the same goals to formulate policy. As innovation capabilities of the private sector have improved and it has become unclear who to catch up with, the Korean government, a leading player in the process of "catch-up," is likely to have more difficulties in maintaining the old way of planning and executing policies. The Korean government is now under the pressure of planning technologies and policies that do not allow any easy imitation or copy of other advanced countries longer, which in turn reveals various limits of the existing policy framework. Policy integration involves a continual process demanding changes in political, organizational and procedural activities. To ensure long term and cross sectoral innovation policy, overall change and improvement in policy and its implementation needed in terms of political commitments, governance systems, policy instruments and monitoring, and evaluation systems.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.114-128
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• 2013

Rapid industrialization and economic growth have led to serious problems including reduced open space, environmental degradation, traffic congestion, and urban sprawl. These problems have been exacerbated by the absence of effective conservation and governance, and have resulted in various social conflicts. In response to these challenges, many scholar and government hope to achieve sustainable development through the establishment and management of environment-friendly planning. For this purpose, we would like to analyze functional change for ecosystem by future land-use/cover changes in South Korea. Toward this goal, we predicted land-use/cover changes from 2010 to 2060 using the future population of Statistics Korea and urban growth probability map created by logistic regression analysis and analyzed ecosystem service value using costanza's coefficient. In the case of scenario 1, ecosystem service value represented 6,783~7,092 million USD. In the case of scenario 2, ecosystem represented 6,775~7,089 million USD, 2.9~7.6 million USD decreased compared by scenario 1. This was the result of area reduction for farmland and wetland which have high environmental value relatively according to urban growth by development point of view. The results of this analysis indicate that environmentally sustainable systems and urban development must be applied to achieve sustainable development and environmental protection. Quantitative analysis of environmental values in accordance with environmental policy can help inform the decisions of policy makers and urban developers. Furthermore, forecasting urban growth based on future demand will provide more precise predictive analysis.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.461-480
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• 2003

This paper is to consider the new urbanization process of Daegu in the 1990s, especially with its economy, politics, social culture, environment and space. In the economic aspect, the industrial structure of Daegu has shifted from the manufacturing- centered economy to the service economy. But it has not yet overcome the linear frame of industrial structure still relying on the textile industry, though the degree of industrial specialization has increased in the part of the fabricated metal products and the precision and optical instrument. In the political situation that the implementation of the local self-government has made the relation between localities more competitive, the local government of Daegu has led a boom for boosting the regional economic growth, organizing private-public-research relations to improve the weakening regional investment and production function. In the social and cultural aspect of the new urbanization, the investment into the soft-ware facilities has been increased, and the urban festivals have been changed so as to revitalize the regional economy. In the environmental aspect, as the self-government system has launched, conflicts around values and interests of local governments have revealed frequently due to locations of infra-structures and of abhorrence facilities. Finally, seen from the spatial dimension of the city, the extension of residential areas and unregulated use of urban space have a result of inefficience of land-use, and this kind of unplanned outer expansion of the city has brought about with further separation of house and working place, and increasing distance of movements and the an urban spatial structure which requires more energy consumption.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.28 no.7
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• pp.155-164
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• 2023

In this paper, we examine the influence of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)-related content on the success of online crowdfunding proposals. Along with the increasing significance of ESG standards in business, investment proposals incorporating ESG concepts are now commonplace. Due to the ESG trend, conventional wisdom holds that the majority of proposals with ESG concepts will have a higher rate of success. We investigate by analyzing over 9000 online business presentations found in a Kickstarter dataset to determine which characteristics of these proposals led to increased investment. We first utilized lexicon-based measurement and Feature Engineering to determine the relationship between environment and society scores and financial indicators. Next, Logistic Regression is utilized to determine the effect of including environmental and social terms in a project's description on its ability to obtain funding. Contrary to popular belief, our research found that microentrepreneurs were less likely to succeed with proposals that focused on ESG issues. Our research will generate new opportunities for research in the disciplines of information science and crowdfunding by shedding new light on the environment of online micro-entrepreneurship.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.49-91
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• 2022

Recent years have witnessed renewed interest in Africa and public diplomacy has emerged as the vital tool being used to cultivate these relations. China has been leading in pursuing stronger economic partnership with Africa while middle powers such as Korea are also intensifying engagement with the continent. While previous studies have analyzed the implications of China's activities in Africa on advanced powers, none has examined them from the paradigm of middle powers. This study fills this gap by assessing China's activities in Africa, their economic engagement and implications for Korea's interest in Africa. The analysis is qualitative based on secondary data from various sources and literature. The study shows that China's public diplomacy strategy involves a high degree of innovation and has evolved to encompass new tools and audiences. China has institutionalized a cooperative model that permeates many aspects of governance institutions in Africa, enabling it to strengthen their relations. This could also be helping China to adjust faster leadership transitions in Africa. Whereas the US is still the most influential country in Africa, China is influential in economic policies and has outstripped the US in infrastructure diplomacy. This could be because African policy makers align more with China's economic model than the US' mainstream economics. Chinese aid to Africa has been diversified to social sectors that are more responsive to the needs of Africa. Trade and investment relations between China and Africa have deepened, but so does trade imbalance since 2010. China mainly imports natural resources and raw materials from Africa. But this product portfolio is not different from Korea and the US. China's energetic insertion in Africa using various strategies has significant implications for countries with ambitions in Africa. Korea can achieve its ambitions in Africa by focusing resources in areas it can leverage its core strengths-such as education and vocational training, environmental policy and development cooperation.