• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.110-118
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• 2017

This study investigated empirically one of the controversial subjects in modern finance, in that there is an optimal level of capital structure for KOSPI-listed firms in the Korean capital market. Given the major theories on the capital structure, such as Myers' pecking order, trade-off, and agency cost ones, this study applied an analysis of covariance models in parametric and non-parametric statistical methods. In particular, two covariates to control for the possible effects of trade-off and agency cost, were employed separately in each corresponding model, while the other proxy for pecking order rationale was adopted in previous research [1] to conduct inter- and intra-industry analyses. Based on the outcomes obtained from the study, it was demonstrated empirically that there are optimal capital structures for firms in the sample industries at the inter-industry level, whereas statistical differences indicating non-existence of an optimal point, were revealed within the industry. Accordingly, these findings suggest a new vision to potential investors that firms in the domestic market may have financial opportunities to increase their value by gradually adjusting the leverage ratios in terms of the intra-industry perspective.

• Journal of Korean Society of Archives and Records Management
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.55-86
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• 2015

This paper aims to interrogate the layered and dependent structure of the modern and official document management in Korea and Japan from 1894 to 1910. The focus of its study is on documents related with the strategic infrastructure construction in Jeonbuk Province through an analysis from the perspective of historic archival studies. For this study, the chosen period was when Japanese imperialists were on their way to seize the Korean official archival system. As such, our objects are the documents connected with the institution of the Japanese resident-general system in Korea and its infrastructural constructions as part of Japan's war plans of invading the continent. Among others, we examined the documents of the strategic infrastructure construction around Jeonju in Jeonbuk Province by Imperial Japan, in order to wage the Sino-Japanese War and subdue the Donghak Peasant Revolution. More specifically, we illuminate the sources and organization of the approval of the original documents in a higher level that is relevant to the determination of political, financial, and personnel matters, which were designed for the Japanese governmental rule over Korea from the era of the Gabo Reform to the period of the Japanese resident-generals, as well as analyze the actual states of the official documents ina lower level, which were drawn up by Korean government and the resident-general. Consequently, this paper suggests that official Korean archival system at this time must be understood under the context of a layered and dependent structure within the vertical connections between Korea and Japan, and not from the point of view of a national history.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.13 no.8
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• pp.3417-3426
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• 2012

This study aims to determine how ownership structure (share-holding ratio of insiders, foreigners) affects agent costs (the portion of asset efficiency or non-operating expenses) through empirical analysis. However, as existing studies on correlations between ownership structure and agent costs adopted Pooled OLS Model, this study focused on additionally formulating Fixed Effect Model and Random Effect Model aimed to reflect the time of data formation and corporate effects as study models based on verification results on the suitability of Pooled-OLS Model before comparative analysis for the purpose of improvement of credibility and statistical validity of the results of empirical analysis based on the premise that the Pooled OLS Model is not reliable enough to verify massive panel data. The data has been accumulated over 10 years from 1998 to 2007 after the IMF crisis hit the nation, from a subject 331 companies except for financial institutions. As a result of the empirical analysis, verification of the suitability of model has determined that the Random Effect Model is appropriate in terms of asset efficiency among agent costs items. On the other hand, the Fixed Effect Model is appropriate in terms of non-operating costs. As a result of the empirical analysis according to the appropriate model, no hypothesis adopted in the Pooled OLS Model has been accepted. This suggests that developing an appropriate model is more important than other factors for the purpose of generating statistically significant empirical results by showing that different empirical results are produced according to the type of empirical analysis.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.12 no.8
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• pp.113-121
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• 2014

Purpose - Recently, the number of corporations that practice environmental and social responsibility, besides engaging in traditional profit-seeking activities, has been growing steadily, as interest in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is increasing. Recent research on CSR practices has identified the relationship between CSR activities and corporate value as one of the main issues in this respect. Considering that donations constitute a large proportion of a company's charitable activities, we considered the extent of donation expenses as a charitable activity in order to mitigate sample selection bias. Specifically, we analyzed the impact of donation expenses on firm value, while investigating if this impact varied in response to the level of corporate governance of firms. Research design, data, and methodology - We used non-financial firms listed on the Korean Stock Exchange, having their fiscal year end in December, and the sample period was 2006-2013. For the dependent variable, Tobin's q was used as the corporate value, and for the independent variable, donations were measured as the donation-expense-to-sales ratio. Corporate governance scores, as rated by the Korea Corporate Governance Service, were used to measure corporate governance levels because they consider the overall aspects of governance, including ownership structure, the board of directors, and the audit mechanism of individual companies. To examine the impact of donations on a company in relation to the level of corporate governance, we estimated regression models using the interaction terms of the governance dummy and donation variables. Then, we further estimated the regression models of two sub-samples that were classified according to the level of corporate governance. Similar to previous studies, the study uses variables that affect firm value, such as R&D expenditure, advertising expenses, EBITDA, debt-to-equity ratio, sales growth, company age, and company size as control variables. Results - The empirical results show that firm value significantly increased in response to an increase in donation expenses. Upon including the interaction terms of governance level dummy variables and donations, the coefficients of the interaction terms show significant positive values, while those of donation variables show significant negative values. In the strong governance sub-sample, the relationship between the donation expenses and corporate value was statistically positive (+) and significant. However, in the weak governance sub-sample, the relationship between the donation expenses and corporate value was statistically insignificant and negative (-). Conclusions - The empirical results suggest that donation expenses are significantly linked to an enhanced corporate value if firms have a good corporate governance structure. However, if the corporate governance structure is weak, the same relationship is not necessarily observed. The results of this study show that if a firm has high corporate governance, CSR practices enhance the company's reputation such that it has a positive (+) relationship with corporate value. If a firm has weak corporate governance, on the other hand, CSR practices are recognized as an agency cost and do not increase corporate value.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.276-283
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• 2021

The capital structure of the shipping business, which is characterized by its capital intensity and extreme market volatility, is closely related to long-term stability. Research in this area has been conducted mostly in the form of deriving the determinants of capital structure from company-wise financial ratios. This research, on the other hand, has a different approach to the topic. It identifies the relationship between actual cash profit and loss and other variables - i.e. actual vessel prices, interest rates and leverage ratio - by employing historical simulation. The result demonstrates that the P anamax cash profit shows 0 (break-even point) when the debt weight reaches 64.38% (debt ratio 180.74%) and the Cape, 73.04% (debt ratio 270.92%). Additionally, the ships of different types show a divided pattern for the pre- and post-'Super Boom'. It indicates that the business area and the market cycle should be considered when a leverage strategy is established. This research benefits shipping companies set a rational leverage strategy as well as delivers a reasonable guideline to government authorities for the development of a sound policy on shipping finance.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.108-119
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• 2015

Recently, the ways in which individual communities own and manage parks have been both discussed and realized in America and England. Some benefits of these asset transfers are that local governments can reduce the financial cost of management as well as improve the service of the parks. In addition, communities can develop these parks as unique assets. Ultimately, this is a new understanding of parks as community commons. This study examines the policy of park asset transfers to communities in England. These transfers, which involve reallocating land and building management and/or ownership from the public sector to a community group, are part of a policy agenda known as "Big Society", which aims to create a "small government" within a "big society". The agenda is pursued by both the English Conservative and Unionist Party governments. Eight case studies of community park asset transfers in England were examined in this study, under three categories-transfer process, partnership among stakeholders, and financial structure-and synthesized along three issues-financial contribution, level of public transparency, and closeness of the relationship between park and community. In some cases, new community groups were created specifically to receive park assets, while in other communities, existing groups became the park trustees. For most parks, community groups raise park maintenance funding through diverse methods; however, these groups are often not entirely financially independent from local government. Thus, many park trustees have already created, or are planning to create, other assets from which parks can benefit. Second, some efforts for public transparency include trusts that are registered as charities, of which their public nature is admitted officially. These trusts resolve important decisions through boards of trustees, in an effort to promote income-generating business while not excluding users. Ultimately, a close relationship between park and community empowers the community to participate in managing and maintaining the park; in turn, the park's capacities are improved. Current struggles include the many limits involved in communities accepting ownership and management of a park, and a lack of local government experience regarding public-private management and maintenance of a public asset. This study, however, details interesting policy implications for Korean community involvement as well as diverse financial methods to facilitate park management.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.9
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• pp.47-57
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• 2015

Purpose - The aim of this paper is to investigate the explanatory power of the Pecking-order theory (the cost of financing increases with asymmetric information) among Korean retail firms from the perspective of debt capacity. According to the Pecking-order theory, a firm's first preference is to use internal funds for its capital needs, its next preference is the issuance of debt, and its last preference is the issuance of equity; this is due to the information asymmetry problem between existing shareholders and investors. However, prior empirical studies, such as Lemmon and Zender (2010), argue that the entire sample test for the Pecking-order theory could be misleading due to the different levels of debt issuance capability of each of the individual firms; in fact, they confirm that the explanatory power of the Pecking-order theory improves after taking into account the differences in debt capacity of the U.S. firms they examined. This paper implements a case study approach among Korean retail firms to examine the relationship between debt capacity and the explanatory power of the Pecking-order theory in Korea. Research design, data, and methodology - This study uses the sample of public retail firms on the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) from the time period of 1990 to 2013. We gather related financial and accounting statements from the financial information firm WISEfn. Credit rating information is provided by the Korea Investor Service. We employ the models of Lemmon and Zender (2010) and Son and Kim (2013) to measure a firm's debt capacity. Their logit models use the rating dummy variable as a dependent variable and incorporate other firm characteristics as independent variables to estimate debt capacity. To test the Pecking-order theory, we adopt variants of the financing deficit model of Shyam-Sunder and Myers (1999). In the test of the Pecking-order theory, we consider all of the changes in total debt obligations, current debt obligations, and long-term debt obligations. Results - Our main contribution to the literature is our confirmation of the predicted relationship between debt capacity and the explanatory power of the Pecking-order theory among Korean retail firms. The coefficients on financing deficits become greater as a firm's debt capacity improves. This is consistent with the results of Lemmon and Zender (2010). The coefficients on the square of the financing deficits are also negative for the firms in the largest debt capacity group, which is also consistent with the predictions in prior literature. Conclusions - This study takes a case study approach by examining Korean retail firms. We confirm that the Pecking-order theory explains the capital structure of retail firms more appropriately, after taking into account the debt capacity of each firm. This result suggests the importance of debt capacity consideration in the testing of the Pecking-order theory. Our result also implies that there has been a potential underestimation of the explanatory power of the Pecking-order theory in existing studies.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.129-139
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• 2016

The purpose of this paper was to comparatively investigate the efficient building incentives in Korea and foreign countries and to seek strategies to enhance low energy building integrated design market infrastructure in Korea. The structure of incentive policies were composed of four main component: 1) types of financial aids and beneficiaries, 2) energy performance criteria and verification methods, 3) supports for low energy building integrated design, and 4) funding sources for incentive programs. Every overseas incentive program has adopted a design team incentive along with building owners incentive and the range of target buildings have been extended from new construction to remodeling projects. The main system of the program is the performance standard through which projects were investigated and the level of incentive are decided. Initially, the integrated performance has been investigated through simulation methods, but the construction performance evaluation and energy monitoring methods are emerging. In addition, the direct support and educational support for integrated design has been provided to enhance the foundation of relative markets. Financial funding is also a key component of the program and more aggressive funding strategies have been adopted.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.107-117
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• 2015

As the demand for urban business hotel has increased in the recent years due to the sharp rise in overseas tourists, the potential of business hotel development has gained in financial attention for the real estate investment. However, its concept and business domain has not been defined, and none of investment guidance for the development has not been clarified. Accordingly, this report intends to define the concept of urban business hotel in perspective of real estate investment through prior case studies and literature review, and provide the structure of determinants which control its investment decisions. Furthermore, this study develops the weight of determinants depending on the type of investment, and evaluate the two actual projects in urban area of Seoul, differed from investment type: direct and indirect, based on AHP and Fuzzy methodologies. Research finding indicate that the financial factors affecting the sales and tour business condition factors are critical determinants regardless of investment type. And it is notable that the direct investment perspective pays more attention on the finance and investment associated determinants while the indirect one more focuses on the regional and environmental ones. From the analysis of case evaluation, it is also noteworthy that the direct investors turn out to be more conservative than indirect investors due to the risk of equity capital investment.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.95-97
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• 2011

Purpose: We analyzed the medical costs for severely traumatized patients according to the severity and medical performance so that we could improve the financial balance of the trauma center. Methods: Retrospective analysis was performed on patients visiting SNUH Trauma Center from May 2011 to August 2011. Among a total of 55 severely traumatized patients, 31 patients whose medical bills were available and categorized were included in this study. The injury severity score (ISS) was calculated from the abbreviated injury score (AIS), which was updated in 2008,for each patient to assess the severity of injury. Major trauma was defined as an ISS above 15. Results:The 31 patients in this study included 20 males and 11 females. The average ISS was $33.23{\pm}16.65$ points. We categorize the patients into three groups according to ISS, 16-24: group 1, 25-40: group 2, and above 41: group 3. Total incomes, admission fees, surgery fees, and imaging test fees are shown in table 1. The costs seem to be higher costs in group 2, but this result has no statistical significance. Statistical significantly data are as follows: high radiologic test fees in group 1, short hospital stay in groups 1 and 2, and short ICU stay in group 1. The average hospital stay was 17 days, and the average emergency intensive care unit (EICU) stay was 7.5 days. Although the EICU stay was only 44% of the total hospital stay, the income from the EICU covers 79.4% of the total hospital income. Conclusion: From this study, we found several items that show relatively high medical income from severely traumatized patients visiting the SNUH Trauma Center. Most of the medical fees arise in the early phase of acute medicine usually in the ICU. Efforts to identify the items with high income and to minimize expenses will improve the financial structure of the Trauma Center,which is facing a budget crisis.