• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.399-406
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• 2011

Various construction bonds and warranties critically burden the general contractor. Also, sporadic or cumulative delays of progress payment by the owner can further trap the contractor in a financial quagmire. Facing the possibility of cash flow deficiency and callous response from the banks, most construction firms may become financially incapable of market competition, and attractive project tenders become a bidding game among few deep-pocket players. The downside of such market environment is that the depth of pocket, rather than that of professional competency dictates the choice of market winners. In Taiwan, this has been a potential crisis to the construction industry after the financial crisis which started out since 2008. To encounter this problem, this research will examine the means to better manage the construction industry. Essentially, a credit guarantee system (CGS) is the prime solution to strengthen a bank's confidence in any particular construction firm. Thus establishing a national platform which evaluates and rewards a construction firm's overall credibility is pivotal, and this third-party rated credit can help a bank to render a loan more wisely. Finally, this paper will propose the ideal operating schemes of construction-specific CGS in Taiwan and a credit scoring prototype model for construction industry, as reference for the government and banks, respectively.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.859-865
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• 2023

In a situation where service providers are increasingly focusing on content development due to the intense competition in the OTT market, interactive content that encourages active participation from viewers is garnering significant attention. In response to this trend, research on interactive content is being conducted more actively. This study aims to analyze interactive content through text mining techniques, with a specific focus on online unstructured data. The analysis includes deriving the characteristics of keywords according to their weight, examining the relationship between OTT platforms and interactive content, and tracking changes in the trends of interactive content based on objective data. To conduct this analysis, detailed techniques such as 'Word Cloud', 'Relationship Analysis', and 'Keyword Trend' are used, and the study also aims to derive meaningful implications from these analyses.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.33-56
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• 2024

This paper examines China's rapid shift from low-rise to high-rise urban development, focusing on Shanghai as a case study. It provides a detailed analysis of the rapid vertical developments over the past five decades, highlighting gradual and sudden tall building changes. The study also surveys tall building development in the ten "tallest cities" across China, including Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Wuhan, Chongqing, Chengdu, Shenyang, Hangzhou, and Nanning, while listing the tallest ten buildings in each city. The focus is on the drivers behind these towering structures: globalization, an economic powerhouse, and finance center, urbanization and population density, architectural innovation and ambition, competition and prestige, land availability and utilization, government support and planning, and tourism. The paper critically examines the sustainability of this trend in light of new Chinese policies restricting the construction of high-rise buildings exceeding 500m and 250m in smaller cities due to safety and security concerns. This prompts a reflection on the long-term viability and implications of the predominantly high-rise trajectory in urban development.

• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.1-12
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• 2022

In recent years, technological competition in the automobile sector is accelerating. This study analyzes the status of patents from a global perspective of three promising future items that Korea has selected as core technologies in the field of autonomous driving,. And the technological cooperation ecosystem was identified through network analysis centered on scientific metrology. As a result of the analysis, it was confirmed that the growth of individual technologies has been strengthened in recent years, and although key source technologies have been largely preempted in major global countries, a close cooperative ecosystem between institutions, companies, and universities in major countries has not yet been formed. Specifically, the US and Japan have the technological leadership, while China is rapidly rising, and Korea is chasing after it as a latecomer. Therefore, it is necessary to continuously strengthen technological cooperation such as R&D of core technology to overcome technological limitations and strengthening of infrastructure construction, attracting excellent foreign talents and international exchanges. This analysis is meaningful in that it explores the global status of Korea's technology and the possibility of technological cooperation from various perspectives in the future from the viewpoint of preoccupation of future technology, rather than grasping the trend of a specific technology.

• International journal of advanced smart convergence
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.162-179
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• 2024

With the acceleration of China's urbanization process, the economic development and market potential of small and medium-sized cities have been constantly enhanced, with the urbanization competition having been caught in the vortex of homogenization. However, small and medium-sized cities are exposed to limited resources and funds, and therefore need to be more flexible and innovative in the strategy implementation, while urban brand communication is one of the key factors to promote the competitiveness of cities. Taking the small and medium-sized cities in China as the research objects, this study, based on the domestic and foreign theories about the brand communication of small and medium-sized cities, as well as other city-related theories, analyzes textual materials about the current situation and new changes in brand communication of small and medium-sized cities with grounded theory, reflecting on the problems in brand communication in China's small and medium-sized cities. Combining the basic elements of urban brand communication, a model for constructing brand communication strategies for small and medium-sized cities is further proposed, so as to provide the differentiated and distinctive strategies for the construction and communication of urban brands in small and medium-sized cities in China, as well as provide a new perspective and strategy on how to enhance the competitiveness and contribute to the sustainable economic development of small and medium-sized.

• Journal of Korean Orthopaedic Sports Medicine
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.86-93
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• 2011

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze the characteristics of the injuries of the national elite Taekwondo players with the best performance in the international championship competition. Materials and Methods: Fifty-two athletes who got the injury in the 2011 Gyeongju World Taekwondo Championship competition were included in this sturdy. 950 members of national team of 146 countries participated in this game, 1,063 matches were performed. We analyzed the characteristics of the injuries such as injury rate by gender, age, weight class, injured region and injury type. Results: Fifty-two athletes of 950 athletes in 1,063 matches got injured and injury rate was 5.47 per 100 participants and 24.47/1,000 athlete-exposures. Injury rate of female athletes was higher than mail, but there was no significant statistical difference (p=0.512). Injury rate of over 30 years old was 17.39 per 100 participants, and injury rate of over 87 kg in male weight class and 68 to 73kg in female weight class were highest than other groups, but there was no significant statistical difference (p=0.838). Overall injury rate of the lower extremity was 13.17/1,000 A-E, higher than upper extremity or head and neck or trunk, but injury rate of the hand was 5.17/1,000 A-E, highest as a specific injured region, followed by the knee, 4.70/1,000 A-E (p=0.714). Injury rate of the sprain was 10.81/1,000 A-E, highest as an injury type, the second most common injury type was the fracture, 5.40/1,000 A-E in men, and was the contusion, 9.63/1,000 A-E in women (p=0.033). As one of the most serious injury, 4 of 8 fractures were occurred in hand. Conclusion: Overall injury rate of the elite Taekwondo players in 2011 Gyeongju World Taekwondo Championship was 5.47 per 100 participants and 24.46 per 1,000 athlete exposures. Although the most common type of injury was the sprain of the knee and ankle, the fractures were more commonly occurred in hand.

• Journal of the International Relations & Interdisciplinary Education
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.51-75
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• 2023

Relying on disciplinary competitions to enhance college students' innovation and entrepreneurship is one of the specific paths to explore the reform of innovation and entrepreneurship education in colleges and universities. This paper conducts an empirical study on the practice of disciplinary competitions among Chinese university students, the problems of innovation and entrepreneurship education in Chinese universities and the impact of disciplinary competitions on innovation and entrepreneurship among Chinese university students, using university students in Chinese universities as the respondents. The data collected online and offline were analysed using SPSS26 statistical software. The results of the analysis show that Chinese university students show a high level of interest in innovation and entrepreneurship competitions and that there are some differences in the level of interest in innovation and entrepreneurship competitions among university students of different academic levels. More than half of Chinese university students have participated in innovation and entrepreneurship competitions and the initiative of participating in innovation and entrepreneurship competitions varies by grade. The biggest problem facing innovation and entrepreneurship education in schools is the lack of professional innovation and entrepreneurship teachers, followed by the lack of guidance on innovation and entrepreneurship-related policies, and the unreasonable reward system, which makes teachers and students less motivated to innovate and entrepreneurship. Through one-dimensional linear regression analysis, it is found that the degree of attention to innovation and entrepreneurship among college students affects college students' entrepreneurial awareness and entrepreneurial practice; the degree of initiative of college students' innovation and entrepreneurship competition affects college students' entrepreneurial effect; and the degree of initiative of college students' innovation and entrepreneurship competition affects college students' entrepreneurial practice.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aviation and Aeronautics
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.38-53
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• 2007

In a seminal judgment of November 2002 (Case C-476/98) relating to the compatibility with Community laws of the 'nationality clause' in the 1996 amending protocol to the 1955 U.S.-German Air Services Agreement, the European Court of Justice(ECJ) decided that the provision constituted a measure of an intrinsically discriminatory nature and was thus contrary to the principle of national treatment established under Art. 52 of the EC Treaty. The Court, rejecting bluntly the German government' submissions relying on public policy grounds(Art. 56, EC Treaty), seemed content to declare and rule that the protocol provision requiring a contracting state party to ensure substantial ownership and effective control by its nationals of its designated airlines had violated the requirement of national treatment reserved for other Community Members under the salient Treaty provision. The German counterclaims against the Commission, although tantalizing not only from the perusal of the judgment but from the perspective of international air law, were nonetheless invariably correct and to the point. For such a clause has been justified to defend the 'fundamental interests of society from a serious threat' that may result from granting operating licenses or necessary technical authorizations to an airline company of a third country. Indeed, the nationality clause has been inserted in most of the liberal bilaterals to allow the parties to enforce their own national laws and regulations governing aviation safety and security. Such a clause is not targeted as a device for discriminating against the nationals of any third State. It simply acts as the minimum legal safeguards against aviation risk empowering a party to take legal control of the designated airlines. Unfortunately, the German call for the review of such a foremost objective and rationale underlying the nationality clause landed on the deaf ears of the Court which appeared quite happy not to take stock of the potential implications and consequences in its absence and of the legality under international law of the 'national treatment' requirement of Community laws. Again, while US law limits foreign shareholders to 24.9% of its airlines, the European Community limits non-EC ownership to 49%, precluding any ownership and effective control by foreign nationals of EC airlines, let alone any foreign takeover and merger. Given this, it appears inconsistent and unreasonable for the EC to demand, $vis-{\grave{a}}-vis$ a non-EC third State, national treatment for all of its Member States. The ECJ's decision was also wrongly premised on the precedence of Community laws over international law, and in particular, international air law. It simply is another form of asserting and enforcing de facto extraterritorial application of Community laws to a non-EC third country. Again, the ruling runs counter to an established rule of international law that a treaty does not, as a matter of principle, create either obligations or rights for a third State. Aside from the legal problems, the 'national treatment' may not be economically justified either, in light of the free-rider problem and resulting externalities or inefficiency. On the strength of international law and economics, therefore, airlines of Community Members other than the designated German and U.S. air carriers are neither eligible for traffic rights, nor entitled to operate between or 'free-ride' on the U.S. and German points. All in all and in all fairness, the European Court's ruling was nothing short of an outright condemnation of established rules and principles of international law and international air law. Nor is the national treatment requirement justified by the economic logic of deregulation or liberalization of aviation markets. Nor has the requirement much to do with fair competition and increased efficiency.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.61-118
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• 2008

The purpose of this research is to construct research framework for international franchising based on existing literature and to identify research components in the framework. Franchise can be defined as management styles that allow franchisee use various management assets of franchisor in order to make or sell product or service. It can be divided into product distribution franchise that is designed to sell products and business format franchise that is designed for running it as business whatever its form is. International franchising can be defined as a way of internationalization of franchisor to foreign country by providing its business format or package to franchisee of host country. International franchising is growing fast for last four decades but academic research on this is quite limited. Especially in Korea, research about international franchising is carried out on by case study format with single case or empirical study format with survey based on domestic franchise theory. Therefore, this paper tries to review existing literature on international franchising research, providing research framework, and then stimulating new research on this field. International franchising research components include motives and environmental factors for decision of expanding to international franchising, entrance modes and development plan for international franchising, contracts and management strategy of international franchising, and various performance measures from different perspectives. First, motives of international franchising are fee collection from franchisee. Also it provides easier way to expanding to foreign country. The other motives including increase total sales volume, occupying better strategic position, getting quality resources, and improving efficiency. Environmental factors that facilitating international franchising encompasses economic condition, trend, and legal or political factors in host and/or home countries. In addition, control power and risk management capability of franchisor plays critical role in successful franchising contract. Final decision to enter foreign country via franchising is determined by numerous factors like history, size, growth, competitiveness, management system, bonding capability, industry characteristics of franchisor. After deciding to enter into foreign country, franchisor needs to set entrance modes of international franchising. Within contractual mode, there are master franchising and area developing franchising, licensing, direct franchising, and joint venture. Theories about entrance mode selection contain concepts of efficiency, knowledge-based approach, competence-based approach, agent theory, and governance cost. The next step after entrance decision is operation strategy. Operation strategy starts with selecting a target city and a target country for franchising. In order to finding, screening targets, franchisor needs to collect information about candidates. Critical information includes brand patent, commercial laws, regulations, market conditions, country risk, and industry analysis. After selecting a target city in target country, franchisor needs to select franchisee, in other word, partner. The first important criteria for selecting partners are financial credibility and capability, possession of real estate. And cultural similarity and knowledge about franchisor and/or home country are also recognized as critical criteria. The most important element in operating strategy is legal document between franchisor and franchisee with home and host countries. Terms and conditions in legal documents give objective information about characteristics of franchising agreement for academic research. Legal documents have definitions of terminology, territory and exclusivity, agreement of term, initial fee, continuing fees, clearing currency, and rights about sub-franchising. Also, legal documents could have terms about softer elements like training program and operation manual. And harder elements like law competent court and terms of expiration. Next element in operating strategy is about product and service. Especially for business format franchising, product/service deliverable, benefit communicators, system identifiers (architectural features), and format facilitators are listed for product/service strategic elements. Another important decision on product/service is standardization vs. customization. The rationale behind standardization is cost reduction, efficiency, consistency, image congruence, brand awareness, and competitiveness on price. Also standardization enables large scale R&D and innovative change in management style. Another element in operating strategy is control management. The simple way to control franchise contract is relying on legal terms, contractual control system. There are other control systems, administrative control system and ethical control system. Contractual control system is a coercive source of power, but franchisor usually doesn't want to use legal power since it doesn't help to build up positive relationship. Instead, self-regulation is widely used. Administrative control system uses control mechanism from ordinary work relationship. Its main component is supporting activities to franchisee and communication method. For example, franchisor provides advertising, training, manual, and delivery, then franchisee follows franchisor's direction. Another component is building franchisor's brand power. The last research element is performance factor of international franchising. Performance elements can be divided into franchisor's performance and franchisee's performance. The conceptual performance measures of franchisor are simple but not easy to obtain objectively. They are profit, sale, cost, experience, and brand power. The performance measures of franchisee are mostly about benefits of host country. They contain small business development, promotion of employment, introduction of new business model, and level up technology status. There are indirect benefits, like increase of tax, refinement of corporate citizenship, regional economic clustering, and improvement of international balance. In addition to those, host country gets socio-cultural change other than economic effects. It includes demographic change, social trend, customer value change, social communication, and social globalization. Sometimes it is called as westernization or McDonaldization of society. In addition, the paper reviews on theories that have been frequently applied to international franchising research, such as agent theory, resource-based view, transaction cost theory, organizational learning theory, and international expansion theories. Resource based theory is used in strategic decision based on resources, like decision about entrance and cooperation depending on resources of franchisee and franchisor. Transaction cost theory can be applied in determination of mutual trust or satisfaction of franchising players. Agent theory tries to explain strategic decision for reducing problem caused by utilizing agent, for example research on control system in franchising agreements. Organizational Learning theory is relatively new in franchising research. It assumes organization tries to maximize performance and learning of organization. In addition, Internalization theory advocates strategic decision of direct investment for removing inefficiency of market transaction and is applied in research on terms of contract. And oligopolistic competition theory is used to explain various entry modes for international expansion. Competency theory support strategic decision of utilizing key competitive advantage. Furthermore, research methodologies including qualitative and quantitative methodologies are suggested for more rigorous international franchising research. Quantitative research needs more real data other than survey data which is usually respondent's judgment. In order to verify theory more rigorously, research based on real data is essential. However, real quantitative data is quite hard to get. The qualitative research other than single case study is also highly recommended. Since international franchising has limited number of applications, scientific research based on grounded theory and ethnography study can be used. Scientific case study is differentiated with single case study on its data collection method and analysis method. The key concept is triangulation in measurement, logical coding and comparison. Finally, it provides overall research direction for international franchising after summarizing research trend in Korea. International franchising research in Korea has two different types, one is for studying Korean franchisor going overseas and the other is for Korean franchisee of foreign franchisor. Among research on Korean franchisor, two common patterns are observed. First of all, they usually deal with success story of one franchisor. The other common pattern is that they focus on same industry and country. Therefore, international franchise research needs to extend their focus to broader subjects with scientific research methodology as well as development of new theory.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.11 no.8
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• pp.5-14
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• 2013

Purpose - We live in a world of constant change and competition. Many airports have specific competitiveness goals and strategies for achieving and maintaining them. The global economic recession, financial crises, and rising oil prices have resulted in an increasingly important role for facility investment and renewal and the implementation of appropriate policies in ensuring the competitive advantage for airports. It is thus important to analyze the factors that enhance efficiency and productivity for an airport. This study aims to determine the efficiency levels of 20 major airports in East Asia, Europe, and North America. Further, this study also suggests suitable policies and strategies for their development. Research design, data, and methodology - This paper employs the DEA-CCR, DEA-BCC, and DEA-Malmquist production index analysis models to determine airport efficiency. The study uses data on the efficiency and productivity of the world's leading airports between 2006 and 2010. The input variables include the airport size, the number of runways, the size of passenger terminals, and the size of cargo terminals. The output variables include the annual number of passengers and the annual cargo volume. The study uses basic data from the 2010 World Airport Traffic Report (ACI). The world's top 20 airports (as rated by the ACI report) are investigated. The study uses the expanded DEA Model and the Super Efficiency Model to identify the most effective airports among the top 20. The Malmquist productivity index analysis is used to measure airport effectiveness. Results - This study analyzes longitudinal and cross-sectional data on the world's top 20 airports covering 2006 to 2010. A CCR analysis shows that the most efficient airports in 2010 were Gatwick Airport (LGW), Zurich Airport (ZRH), Vienna Airport (VIE), Leonardo da Vinci Fiumicino Airport (FCO), Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Seattle-Tacoma Airport (SEA), San Francisco Airport (SFO), HongKong Airport (HKG), Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK), and Shanghai Pudong Airport (PVG). We find that changes in airport productivity are affected more by technical factors than by airport efficiency. Conclusions - Based on the study results, we offer four airport development proposals. First, a benchmark airport needs to be identified. Second, inefficiency must be reduced and high-cost factors need to be managed. Third, airport operations should be enhanced through technical innovation. Finally, scientific demand forecasting and facility preparation must become the focus of attention. This paper has some limitations. Because the Malmquist productivity index is based on the hypothesis of the, the identified production change could be over- or under-estimated. Further, as DEA estimates the relative efficiency. It also cannot generalize to include all airport conditions because the variables are limited. To measure airport productivity more accurately, other input variables and environmental variables such as financial and policy factors should be included.