• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.1105-1127
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• 2022

This study investigated the role of fashion granfluencers as cultural intermediaries in the present digital era. The concept of fashion granfluencer as cultural intermediaries and their fashion style characteristics were defined and examined. The literature on cultural intermediaries, social media, and seniors in the context of fashion was reviewed. Primarily, three characteristics of cultural intermediaries-interactive communication, nonconformist attitude, and aesthetic disposition-were identified and used as analytical variables in this study. Through netnography, 1,452 Instagram posts from the renowned fashion granfluencer Iris Apfel (@iris.apfel) were examined. This study presented Iris as a fashion granfluencer and a senior professional, who uses fashion to express herself and define her identity. As a cultural mediator, she contributes to revitalizing the cultural economy and creating cultural products. Iris Apfel' fashion and style embody her digital persona. Her engagement in fashion activities-producing fashion content or attending fashion events-mediates the relationship between fashion producers and fashion consumers, thereby promoting the aesthetic value of fashion.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.1-16
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• 1999

There is a controversy over the necessity of information intermediaries in virtual market. This study tried to suggest several reasons why they would still flourish in virtual market. It also tried to find out their roles and to forecast their role changes in the future on the basis of Delphi analysis. Though an exploratory study, this can shed some lights on the future studies related to information intermediaries and virtual market.

• Proceedings of the Technology Innovation Conference
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• 2001.06a
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• pp.133-143
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• 2001

Technology transfer from universities and research institutes to industries is recognized as a critical issue to strengthen industrial competitiveness, and the roles of technology transfer intermediaries are becoming one of the most important factors for successful technology transfer In today's global and knowledge-based economies, technology transfer services are started shifting to Internet and vertical transfer of technology from R&D labs to industries is becoming more emphasized than horizontal company-to-company transfer of commercialized technology. And the need of comprehensive technology transfer services necessitates cooperation among technology transfer intermediaries and networks offering complementary services. In order to respond to these changes, it is required to construct a new type of technology transfer system. But there are few researches on technology transfer system configuration for design and realization of technology transfer intermediaries. This paper presents the configuration models of technology transfer from universities and research institutes to industries. The configuration models are classified and described from the viewpoint of flows of information, technology and knowledge.

• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.105-117
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• 2024

This study conducted in-depth interviews with 8 ICT companies experienced in technology transfer and collaboration with government-funded research institutions, employing Grounded Theory methodology. From these interviews, 139 episodes were extracted and categorized into 29 sub-categories across the companies. Validation by independent coders further classified these into 5 categories: potential absorptive capacity, realized absorptive capacity, technology collaboration activities, technology collaboration performance, and innovation intermediaries. The validation results suggest that companies with higher absorptive capacity are more actively involved in technology collaboration. Moreover, companies utilizing innovation intermediaries demonstrate increased collaboration frequencies. The study contributes to academia and industry by providing insights for companies to improve competitiveness and foster smooth technology collaboration, enhancing collaborative outcomes. Future research should focus on quantitatively validating these findings.

• Proceedings of the Korean Operations and Management Science Society Conference
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.464-486
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• 2008

Purpose. Electronic intermediaries (e-intermediaries) are gaining significance in international marketing with the rapid development of e-commerce. The goal of this study is to explain empirically what leads to a higher use of this relatively new exportation alternative. Relying on a resource-based view as our research foundation, we focus on information technology (IT) and non-IT factors as possible determinants. Further, this study brings arguments offered by transaction cost theorists to explain the other non-IT determinants. Methodology/Approach. Data are collected from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the electronic industry in Korea and the U.S to ensure generalizability. Ordinary least square (OLS) regression is utilized to analyze the data. Findings. This study raises new issues regarding a relatively new type of exporting channel, e-intermediary. Exporting is regarded as the most appropriate strategy for SMEs in international commerce. A number of SMEs stay away from exporting due to limited resources or lack of knowledge regarding foreign markets. The findings in this study should help SMEs use e-intermediaries more widely by developing appropriate IT-related resources (IT-related human and relationship assets) and dealing with non-IT factors (international competence, environmental uncertainty, and duration of relationship) effectively. Originality/Value/Contribution. This study illustrates the significant role of e-intermediaries, which may help SMEs to penetrate the global market effectively. Finding relevant sources in the global e-marketplace is a challenge for non-experienced users like SMEs. This study proposes e-intermediaries as an effective alternative for them. Another contribution of this study is to show how the use of indirect exporting channels, e-intermediaries, decrease costs in exporting transactions. This study suggests an e-intermediary as a hybrid exporting channel to balance risk and profit.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.313-340
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• 2017

This paper explores the interaction between innovation intermediaries and firms' absorptive capacities and performance from the perspectives of regional innovation system and innovation cluster. This paper is an empirical study for drawing two research questions by examining firms in Daedeok Innopolis. First, does the relationship between firms and innovation intermediaries have a significant effect on the absorptive capacity and performance of the firm? Second, does absorptive capacity mediate the relationship between innovation intermediaries and performance of the firm? According to our analysis, innovation intermediaries have a positive effect on firms' absorptive capacity, as well as innovation and business performance of firms. Also the absorptive capacity plays a significant mediator role in this intermediation process. This paper implies that the firms could expand opportunities and build competitive advantage by fully understanding the innovation process and the interaction between innovation intermediaries and firms in this innovation process.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.354-384
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• 2018

This paper aims at analyzing the effect of the relationship between innovation intermediaries and firms on firms' absorptive capacity from the perspectives of social capital. And it also analyzes how firms' innovation environment influences on their absorptive capacity in this process. For this purpose, we carry out an empirical analysis on 200 firms in the Daedeok Innopolis, which is the representative innovation cluster in Korea. According to this study, firm's absorptive capacity is positively affected by the reliability and frequency of firms' communication with innovation intermediaries. However, the geographic proximity does not have significant influence. Also, the innovation environmental factors play a positive moderating role in the absorptive capacity of firms, and the social factors have a distinct significant influence on it directly. Based on these findings, this paper would make a contribution to recognize the importance of innovation intermediaries in innovation process and their role as preceding factors to firms' absorptive capacity, as well as innovative environment in the innovation process.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.21 no.12
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• pp.384-399
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• 2021

This study aims to identify the characteristics and meanings that Korean musical enthusiasts take on as cultural intermediaries of musical content by analyzing the real-time conversations they have while watching musicals performed in online spaces. To this end, the 'Live TALK' chat during the 'ontact' (online contact) performance of the musical Marie Curie was observed in real-time and subsequently analyzed in terms of the characteristics of online cultural intermediaries: their owned capital, their mediating language, and their relationship with the consumers. As a result of the analysis, musical enthusiasts were found to possess a wealth of cultural capital based on practical experience and inquiry, and to be utilizing specific identifying expressions in their language use. In addition, they appeared to be interactive in their communication with the general audience, which could be seen in the flow of spontaneous conversations as well as questions and answers occurring in the live chat. This study is significant in confirming that musical enthusiasts are positioning themselves as new cultural intermediaries through their cultural practices: taking on the role of guides and mediators in the online space 'Live TALK.'

• The Journal of Society for e-Business Studies
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.119-137
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• 1999

The World Wide Web(WWW) has provided multi-media cyberspace for electronic markets where suppliers and demanders can do global electronic business with each other directly and conveniently. There are two contradictory views on the roles of intermediaries in electronic markets. One says we may not need intermediaries in doing business because suppliers and demanders can contact with each other directly in electronic markets. The other thinks that the intermediary function may be vertically decomposed from the company's internal value chain because it can be done more efficiently through networks by external intermediaries. Intelligent software agent is a new emerging technology in the field of computer science. An intelligent agent can support and do actions on behalf of users on computer networks. We think that this technology can be utilized to implement more efficient cybermediaries for electronic commerce. This paper proposes an XML-based framework for financial software agent, which selects financial products best fitted for the customer's needs in electronic market environment.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.7 no.8
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• pp.1661-1673
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• 2003

Web services are the core technology for changing from traditional web to SOA(Service Oriented Architecture) based Web. It is time to adapt the web services to Mobile Devices such as PDA, smart phone and so on. Specially Korea has an efficient mobile environments that is based on CDMA. That is suitable for evaluating the web services in mobile environments. This paper explains a framework of mobile web services based on intermediaries. Intermediaries support various enhanced functionality for mobile environments.