• Journal of the Korea Fashion and Costume Design Association
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.99-109
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• 2024

This study focused on analyzing the difference in the impact of non-financial performance, specifically ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) activity grade level, on management performance and corporate value among the 25 fashion companies listed on the Korea Exchange that completed their ESG evaluation in 2022. The companies were categorized into three levels based on their ESG evaluations: ESG Integrated Grade (ESG-T), ESG-E (Environmental), ESG-S (Social), and ESG-G (Governance). The study then empirically analyzed how these levels affected management performance and corporate value. The empirical analysis revealed significant differences in the impact on management performance and corporate value depending on the ESG activity grade level. Companies with higher ESG grades exhibited better management performance and higher corporate values across all ESG sub-variables (ESG-T, ESG-E, ESG-S, ESG-G) compared to those with lower grades. This finding demonstrates the influence of ESG activity grade levels on improving management performance and enhancing corporate value in fashion companies. The results of this research provide meaningful insights into the direction of sustainable management through ESG activities in fashion companies.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.67-79
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• 2024

Purpose - A brand's country-of-origin (COO) could influence a behavior of consumers in a country. Nevertheless, there have been few studies of how exporters overcome the barrier of a negative COO effect and what can be a useful strategy for an exporter to alleviate the effect on consumer behavior. Against this background, it is essential to present a factor moderating the effect on consumers' brand awareness. Therefore, suggesting that environmental, social, and governance (ESG) management would be such a factor, we attempted to develop a model showing that the management could moderate the relationship between the COO effects and consumers' recall and evaluation toward a foreign brand. Design/methodology/approach - Using the stakeholder theory, the categorization, and the attribution theory as underlying theories, our study developed an empirically testable model that explains and predicts consumers' behaviors. Findings - We posited that positive ESG information influences consumers' brand recall and evaluation. In addition, we posited that positive ESG information moderates the COO effects on consumers' brand recall. Finally, we posited that positive ESG information moderates the COO effects on consumers' brand evaluation. Research implications or Originality - This manuscript filled a knowledge gap of none of alternative strategy toward COO effects in export marketing and provided implications regarding exporters' branding strategy in a foreign country.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.883-899
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• 2024

The aim of this study was to investigate fashion firms' environmental, social, and governance (ESG) information disclosure. A total of 25 fashion firms (e.g., Adidas, Burberry Group, Nike, Ralph Lauren Corp.) were selected, including eight luxury brands and eight athleisure brands. Thus, three groups were formed for analysis: the entire group (N = 25), luxury brands (N = 8), and athleisure brands (N = 8). Based on the ESG information disclosed on the firms' official web pages, 1128 valid words were extracted. The top keywords for each brand group were identified based on the frequency and term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF), and semantic network analysis and convergence of iterated correlations (CONCOR) analysis were performed. The results revealed that several keywords and clusters emerged with respect to unique attributes of the fashion industry, and they also revealed inconsistent ESG clusters according to brand type. The findings have significant academic and managerial implications.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.143-163
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• 2023

This study aims to analyze the impact of ESG activities on the corporate performance of logistics companies in Korea. To achieve this, the study examines the factors influencing the adoption and implementation of ESG activities, assesses the extent to which ESG activities enhance corporate trust and image, and empirically analyzes the effect of ESG implementation on the corporate performance of logistics companies. An online survey was conducted using Google Forms for Korean logistics companies, and a total of 463 data sets were utilized for PLS structural equation analysis using the SmartPLS 4.0 software tools. The findings of the study are as follows: Firstly, external pressure, specifically government pressure, significantly influences environmental responsibility activities, while investor pressure significantly affects social responsibility activities and governance responsibility activities. Additionally, internal management pressures significantly impact environmental responsibility activities, and employees have a significant influence on all ESG responsibility activities. Secondly, environmental responsibility activities positively affect corporate image, whereas social and governance responsibility activities influence trust and corporate image. Thirdly, trust and corporate image demonstrate significant effects on both financial and non-financial performance. Fourthly, trust significantly mediates the relationship between social responsibility, governance responsibility, and non-financial performance, while image mediates the connection between ESG responsibility and both financial and non-financial performance. The contribution of this study lies in providing practical insights for logistics companies to actively promote ESG activities, thereby establishing a reputation for being environmentally, socially, and governance responsible and gaining customer trust. By doing so, this study aims to raise awareness of the importance of ESG activities in the logistics industry and help companies recognize their significance for sustainable management

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Navigation and Port Research Conference
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• 2022.11a
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• pp.296-297
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• 2022

A smart port refers to a port built based on digital technologies such as IoT, big data, AI, and block chain, and refers to a port that minimizes waste of time, space and resources as the only means of survival of the port. Sustainability refers to 'environmental, economic, and social characteristics that enable people to continue to use the environment, ecosystem, or publicly used resources'. It contains the meaning of 'future sustainability' that can be maintained in the future. In the face of the 4th industrial revolution, interest and realization of smart port construction and sustainability are actively progressing around the world. In this study, core indicators of the ESG (Enviornment, Social, Governance) area, which are key elements of sustainable smart ports, were developed,

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.5-11
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• 2019

Purpose - This paper examines how corporate social responsibility of the Korean retail industry affects the degree of asymmetric information. Recent theories predict that a firm's active engagement in socially responsible activities lowers the degree of asymmetric information of the firm. Research design, data, and methodology - This paper uses the sum of environmental and social scores (ES), published by the Korean Corporate Governance Service in order to proxy the degree of socially responsible management practices of Korean retail firms. This paper uses the ordinary least square method to investigate the above predictions. The publicly traded Korea retail firms listed in the Korean Exchange are analyzed from 2011 to 2016. To measure the degree of asymmetric information, this paper adopts the analyst dispersion and price impact measures. Results - This paper shows that the ES score has significantly positive relationships with these two measures of information asymmetry. The environmental score seems to increase the analyst dispersion measure and the social score appears to raise the price impact measure mores significantly. Conclusions - The results do not support the prior theory expecting a negative relationship between corporate social responsibility and the degree of asymmetric information. Environmental and social scores are found to affect the measures of information asymmetry differently.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.12
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• pp.317-328
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• 2020

The board of directors play an important role in corporate climate strategy-making and decisions but might also compromise environmental policies to minimize agency cost. This study critically investigates the relationship between the attributes of the board of directors and the degree of sustainability performance for the energy sector as discussed in the literature. Our study cumulates existing knowledge offering important characteristics for a balanced board structure to increase the board's effectiveness in adopting sustainable initiatives that could reduce the adverse impact of an energy corporation's operation on the environment. Crucial attributes of the board of directors deemed to be positively associated with the commitment to reduce carbon footprint in the environment have been identified. Based on our extensive analysis of the literature we propose a conceptual framework that measures the influence of the board of directors' attributes on corporate environmental and social sustainability performance. The proposed framework will be useful as an initial step for top management and regulators to gain a better understanding of the balanced board structure required to achieve the social and environmental sustainability performance of corporations. Further, this paper contributes to a body of knowledge about how the board of directors could play a crucial role in monitoring social and environmental threats.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.55-63
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• 2019

Purpose - This paper examines the value relevance of socially responsible activities in the Korean retail firms. Recent studies predict positive relationships between socially responsible activities and the value of corporation. Research design, data, and methodology - We use the environmental score, social score, governance score and the sum of these three scores to represent a fim's effectiveness of socially responsible activities. These scores are published by the Korean Corporate Governance Service. This paper adopts a share price valuation model to evaluate the effect of socially responsible activities on a firm's share price, which controls for the book value of assets and current earnings. The ordinary least square method is employed to examine the relationship. The sample of Korea retail firms is examined from 2011 to 2016. We also conduct sub-sample analysis based on the categorization of chaebol affiliates and non-chaebol affiliates. Results - The entire sample analysis finds neither negatively nor positively significant relationship between socially responsible activities and the value of a corporation. In contrast, our examinations find a significantly positive valuation effect of social score within non-chaebol retail firms. Conclusions - The results weakly support the positive valuation effect of socially responsible activities. The results are consistent with recent studies that highlight heterogeneous effects of socially responsible activities on corporate policies and valuation.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.57 no.1
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• pp.309-338
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• 2023

As awareness of social and environmental issues increases due to the gust of ESG management, interest in ESG management is increasing, and the influence of ESG evaluation is getting stronger, and libraries need to participate in ESG management evaluation. In order to apply ESG management to libraries, library ESG evaluation indicators must be developed. Therefore, this study attempted to comprehensively examine ESG management evaluation indicators of public institutions, including companies, and propose ESG management evaluation indicators applicable to libraries. To this end, it went through the process of investigating and analyzing ESG-related prior research, deriving preliminary evaluation indicators for libraries, collecting expert FGI opinions, developing primary library ESG evaluation indicators based on expert FGI opinions, and) examining the suitability of primary library ESG evaluation indicators. Finally, a total of 25 items were selected in the environmental area, a total of 56 items in the social area, and a total of 32 items in the governance area. In future studies, it is necessary to conduct ESG management evaluation for libraries based on this indicator.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.287-316
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• 2023

As global energy crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic have emerged as social issues, there is a growing demand for companies to move away from profit-centric business models and embrace sustainable management that balances environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors. ESG activities of companies vary across industries, and industry-specific weights are applied in ESG evaluations. Therefore, it is important to develop strategic management approaches that reflect the characteristics of each industry and the importance of each ESG factor. Additionally, with the stance of strengthened focus on ESG disclosures, specific guidelines are needed to identify and report on sustainable management activities of domestic companies. To understand corporate sustainability strategies, analyzing ESG reports and news articles by industry can help identify strategic characteristics in specific industries. However, each company has its own unique strategies and report structures, making it difficult to grasp detailed trends or action items. In our study, we analyzed ESG reports (2019-2021) and news articles (2019-2022) of six companies in the 'Finance,' 'Manufacturing,' and 'IT' sectors to examine the sustainability strategies of leading domestic ESG companies. Text mining techniques such as keyword frequency analysis and topic modeling were applied to identify industry-specific, ESG element-specific management strategies and issues. The analysis revealed that in the 'Finance' sector, customer-centric management strategies and efforts to promote an inclusive culture within and outside the company were prominent. Strategies addressing climate change, such as carbon neutrality and expanding green finance, were also emphasized. In the 'Manufacturing' sector, the focus was on creating sustainable communities through occupational health and safety issues, sustainable supply chain management, low-carbon technology development, and eco-friendly investments to achieve carbon neutrality. In the 'IT' sector, there was a tendency to focus on technological innovation and digital responsibility to enhance social value through technology. Furthermore, the key issues identified in the ESG factors were as follows: under the 'Environmental' element, issues such as greenhouse gas and carbon emission management, industry-specific eco-friendly activities, and green partnerships were identified. Under the 'Social' element, key issues included social contribution activities through stakeholder engagement, supporting the growth and coexistence of members and partner companies, and enhancing customer value through stable service provision. Under the 'Governance' element, key issues were identified as strengthening board independence through the appointment of outside directors, risk management and communication for sustainable growth, and establishing transparent governance structures. The exploration of the relationship between ESG disclosures in reports and ESG issues in news articles revealed that the sustainability strategies disclosed in reports were aligned with the issues related to ESG disclosed in news articles. However, there was a tendency to strengthen ESG activities for prevention and improvement after negative media coverage that could have a negative impact on corporate image. Additionally, environmental issues were mentioned more frequently in news articles compared to ESG reports, with environmental-related keywords being emphasized in the 'Finance' sector in the reports. Thus, ESG reports and news articles shared some similarities in content due to the sharing of information sources. However, the impact of media coverage influenced the emphasis on specific sustainability strategies, and the extent of mentioning environmental issues varied across documents. Based on our study, the following contributions were derived. From a practical perspective, companies need to consider their characteristics and establish sustainability strategies that align with their capabilities and situations. From an academic perspective, unlike previous studies on ESG strategies, we present a subdivided methodology through analysis considering the industry-specific characteristics of companies.