• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.51-69
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• 2020

Now, it is a stylized fact that a small number of technology firms such as Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and a few others have become larger and dominant players in an industry. Coupled with the rise of these leading firms, we have also observed that a large number of young firms have become an acquisition target in their early IPO stages. This indeed results in a sharp decline in the number of new entries in public exchanges although a series of policy reforms have been promulgated to foster competition through an increase in new entries. Given the observed industry trend in recent decades, a number of studies have reported increased concentration in most developed countries. However, it is less understood as to what caused an increase in industry concentration. In this paper, we uncover the mechanisms by which industries have become concentrated over the last decades by tracing the changes in industry concentration associated with a firm's status change in its early IPO stages. To this end, we put emphasis on the case in which firms are acquired shortly after they went public. Especially, with the transition to digital-based economies, it is imperative for incumbent firms to adapt and keep pace with new ICT and related intelligent systems. For instance, after the acquisition of a young firm equipped with AI-based solutions, an incumbent firm may better respond to a change in customer taste and preference by integrating acquired AI solutions and analytics skills into multiple business processes. Accordingly, it is not unusual for young ICT firms become an attractive acquisition target. To examine the role of M&As involved with young firms in reshaping the level of industry concentration, we identify a firm's status in early post-IPO stages over the sample periods spanning from 1990 to 2016 as follows: i) being delisted, ii) being standalone firms and iii) being acquired. According to our analysis, firms that have conducted IPO since 2000s have been acquired by incumbent firms at a relatively quicker time than those that did IPO in previous generations. We also show a greater acquisition rate for IPO firms in the ICT sector compared with their counterparts in other sectors. Our results based on multinomial logit models suggest that a large number of IPO firms have been acquired in their early post-IPO lives despite their financial soundness. Specifically, we show that IPO firms are likely to be acquired rather than be delisted due to financial distress in early IPO stages when they are more profitable, more mature or less leveraged. For those IPO firms with venture capital backup have also become an acquisition target more frequently. As a larger number of firms are acquired shortly after their IPO, our results show increased concentration. While providing limited evidence on the impact of large incumbent firms in explaining the change in industry concentration, our results show that the large firms' effect on industry concentration are pronounced in the ICT sector. This result possibly captures the current trend that a few tech giants such as Alphabet, Apple and Facebook continue to increase their market share. In addition, compared with the acquisitions of non-ICT firms, the concentration impact of IPO firms in early stages becomes larger when ICT firms are acquired as a target. Our study makes new contributions. To our best knowledge, this is one of a few studies that link a firm's post-IPO status to associated changes in industry concentration. Although some studies have addressed concentration issues, their primary focus was on market power or proprietary software. Contrast to earlier studies, we are able to uncover the mechanism by which industries have become concentrated by placing emphasis on M&As involving young IPO firms. Interestingly, the concentration impact of IPO firm acquisitions are magnified when a large incumbent firms are involved as an acquirer. This leads us to infer the underlying reasons as to why industries have become more concentrated with a favor of large firms in recent decades. Overall, our study sheds new light on the literature by providing a plausible explanation as to why industries have become concentrated.

• Korean Journal of Labor Studies
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.47-83
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• 2017

The Swedish labor market secures flexibility in the use of labor force by means of non-regular workers such as temporary workers among others instead of regular workers' layoffs. Although the labor law reform in the late 2000s made it easier to use temporary workers and the outbreak of the economic crisis strengthened the power of user firms against labor unions, the size of temporary workers was scaled down. It is the aim of this study to analyze the change in the use of temporary workers, to examine the effect of the labor law reform and that of economic crisis in that regard, and to explain how, over the use of temporary workers, user firms' strategy to secure flexibility and labor unions' strategy to regulate flexibility interact with each other so as to establish a new equilibrium through conflicts and compromises. The labor law reform to enhance the flexibility in the use of temporary workers failed to entail amendments of collective contracts. Besides, out of the economic crisis, user firms adopted a new policy to use third party workers more, refraining from employing temporary workers. That's why the number of temporary workers has declined eventually. User firms prefer to use third party workers because they could avoid their own responsibility as an employer and they could rely on 'permanent temporary' workers without any time limit. Labor unions, however, responded with a strategy to lay more strict regulations on the use of third party workers, so that third party workers could be used only for limited cause for external numerical flexibility. As a result, the managed flexibility thesis comes to prevail to the usage of non-regular workers in general beyond the category of agency workers. Korea with severe abuse of third party workers should learn from Swedish labor unions' strategy to provide third party workers with stronger employment security and higher wages so as to prevent user firms from abusing third party workers.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.36
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• pp.227-266
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• 2020

The purpose of this paper is to review the representative Buddhist policies enforced during the reign of Gwanghaegun (光海君), the 15th king of the Joseon Dynasty, and the aspects of the Buddhist community affected by them. Through this, the influence and dynamism of Buddhism during the reign of Gwanghaegun will be revealed. Some of the findings will run contrary to what is popularly known about Joseon Buddhism and the policy of Sungyueokbul (崇儒抑佛), 'Revering Confucianism and Supressing Buddhism.' During the Joseon Dynasty, Neo-Confucianism was taken as an ideological background, and consequently, Buddhism was ostracized by the ruling class who advocated the exclusion of heretical views. This also characterized King Gwanghaegun's reign during the Mid-Joseon Dynasty. In reality though, the ruling class held mixed opinions about Buddhism, and this influenced the Buddhist community in the Gwanghaegun Period. The military might of Japan demonstrated during the Japanese Invasion of Korea in 1592, led the ruling class to recognize Buddhism, and as a result, the status of Buddhism rose to a certain extent. Based on its elevated status and the aftermath of the Japanese Invasion of Korea, the Buddhist community engaged in social welfare activities inspired by the notion of requiting favors, and the Buddhist community gained recognition for providing relief services. As a result, the number of monks increased, and the economic situation improved as land ownership was granted to temples and monks. This is the means by which the Japanese Invasion of Korea influenced the Buddhist policies of the Gwanghaegun Period and changed the religious topography of Buddhism. During the reign of King Gwanghaegun, the ruling class regarded Buddhism as heretical, but offered posthumous titles to monks who engaged in meritorious services during the Japanese invasions of 1592~1598. Favorable and/or preferential treatment was also granted to some Buddhist monks. In addition, monks began to perform labor projects that demanded organizational and physical strength, such as those which related to national defense and architecture. However, throughout the Gwanghaegun Period, the monks were paid a certain amount of compensation for their labor, and the monks' responsibility for labor increased. This can be understood as a partial reconciliation with Buddhism or an acceptance of Buddhism rather than the suppression of Buddhism often presented by historians. As for policies which affected Buddhism, the Buddhist community showed signs of cooperation with the ruling class, the creation and reconstruction of temples, and the production of Buddhist art. Through close ties with the ruling class, Buddhism during the Gwanghaegun Period saw the Buddhist community actively responded policies that impacted Buddhism, and this allowed their religious orders to be maintained. In this way, it was also confirmed that the monk, Buhyu Seonsu (浮休 善修) and his disciple Byeogam Gakseong (碧巖 覺性), took up leadership roles in their Buddhist community. The Buddhist-aimed policies of Gwanghaegun were implemented against the backdrop of the Buddhist community, wherein the ruling class held mixed opinions regarding Buddhism. As such, both improvements and set backs for Buddhism could be observed during that time period. The ruling class actively utilized the organizational power of Buddhism for national defense and civil engineering after the Japanese invasions of 1592~1598. Out of gratitude, they implemented appropriate compensation for the Buddhists involved. The Buddhist community also responded to policies that affected them through exchanges with the ruling class. They succeeded in securing funds and support to repair and produce Buddhist temples and artworks. A thoughtful inspection of the policies towards and responses to Buddhism during the Gwanghaegun Period, shows that Buddhism actually enjoyed considerable organizational power and influence. This flies in the face of the general description of Joseon Buddhism as "Sungyueokbul (revering Confucianism and supressing Buddhism)."

• Korean Security Journal
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• no.47
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• pp.7-36
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• 2016

The security providers industry, often referred to as an industry with unconfined growth ceiling, has entered a remarkable mass-growth phase since the 1980. In the modern era, private-sector security increasingly cover functions relating to general security awareness (including counter-terrorism) in partnership with State bodies, and the scale of operations continue to accelerate, relative to the expanding roles. In the era of pluralisation of policing, there has been widening efforts pursued to develop a range of regulatory strategies internationally in order to manage such growth and development. To date, in South Korea, a diverse set of industry review studies have been conducted. However, the analyses have been conventionally confined to North America, Britain, Germany and Japan, while developments in other world regions remain unassessed. This article is intended to inform the drivers and determinants of regulatory reforms in Australia, and examine the effectiveness of the main pillars of licensing innovations. Over the past decades, the Australian regime has undergone a wave of reforms in response to emerging issues, and in recognition of the industry as a 'public good' due to underpopulation density and the resulting security challenges. The focus of review in this study was on providing a detailed review of the regulatory approach taken by Australia that has expanded police-private security co-operation since the 1980s. The emphasis was on examining the core pillars of risk management strategies and oversight practices progressed to date and evaluating areas of possible improvement in regulation relative to South Korea. Overall, this study has identified three key features of Australian regime: (1) close checks on questionable close associates (including fingerprinting), (2) power of inspection and seizure without search warrant, (3) the 'three strikes' scheme. The rise of the private security presence in day-to-day policing operations means that industry warrant some intervening government-sponsored initiative. The overall lessons learnt from the Australian case was taken into account in determining the following checks and balances that would provide the ideal setting for the best-practice arrangement: (1) regulatory measure should be evaluated against a set of well-defined indicators, such as the merits of different enforcement tools for each given risk, (2) information about regulatory impacts should be analysed by a specialist research institute, (3) regulators should be innovative in applying a range of strategies available to them by employing a mixture of compliance promotional strategies, and adjust the mix as required.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.788-818
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• 2009

Renewable energy refers to solar energy, biomass energy, hydrogen energy, wind power, fuel cell, coal liquefaction and vaporization, marine energy, waste energy, and liquidity fuel made out of byproduct of geothermal heat, hydrogen and coal; it excludes energy based on coal, oil, nuclear energy and natural gas. Developed countries have recognized the importance of these energies and thus have set the mid to long term plans to develop and commercialize the technology and supported them with drastic political and financial measures. Considering the growing recognition to the field, it is necessary to analysis up-to-now achievement of the government's related projects, in the standards of type of renewable energy, management of sectional goals, and its commercialization. Korean government is chiefly following suit the USA and British policies of developing and distributing renewable energy. However, unlike Japan which is in the lead role in solar rays industry, it still lacks in state-directed support, participation of enterprises and social recognition. The research regarding renewable energy has mainly examinedthe state of supply of each technology and suitability of specific region for applying the technology. The evaluation shows that the research has been focused on supply and demand of renewable as well as general energy and solution for the enhancement of supply capacity in certain area. However, in-depth study for commercialization and the increase of capacity in industry followed by development of the technology is still inadequate. 'Cost-benefit model for each energy source' is used in analysis of technology development of renewable energy and quantitative and macro economical effects of its commercialization in order to foresee following expand in related industries and increase in added value. First, Investment on the renewable energy technology development is in direct proportion both to the product and growth, but product shows slightly higher index under the same amount of R&D investment than growth. It indicates that advance in technology greatly influences the final product, the energy growth. Moreover, while R&D investment on renewable energy product as well as the government funds included in the investment have proportionate influence on the renewable energy growth, private investment in the total amount invested has reciprocal influence. This statistic shows that research and development is mainly driven by government funds rather than private investment. Finally, while R&D investment on renewable energy growth affects proportionately, government funds and private investment shows no direct relations, which indicates that the effects of research and development on renewable energy do not affect government funds or private investment. All of the results signify that although it is important to have government policy in technology development and commercialization, private investment and active participation of enterprises are the key to the success in the industry.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.37
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• pp.393-411
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• 2014

The volume of world market for serious game in year 2015 is expected to be about 9.6 trillion, and the volume of educational serious game market is expected to surpass half of the whole serious game market. In Korea, the development of game for educational purpose has dominated around the education enterprises since late 90s. In 2008, 'Serious Game Forum' was founded led by the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism with experts from many fields in the society and there were progressing of making policies and plans for potential development of the serious game industry, but the effects were not successful than expected. In 2012, the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology announced commercialization policy of digital textbook by 2015 and the serious game for educational purpose got attention again. Then, the serious game market became more vigorous with the dispersion of smart devices.13) As a result, the serious games on the smart devices or interlocking between the online and smart devices became an important issue in development rather than the online only serious games. Math field has international competitive power through export in the educational serious game market which takes more than half of the serious game market. Therefore, developing serious game for math education is a good area to raise competitiveness in domestic and international game industries. Moreover, it has no received preferences from students and parents although it has high potential for positive change of individuals and society. The reason is that students recognize it as educational content rather than a game and they avoid it, while parents recognize it as game but not an education. This phenomenon happens because the game elements and educational elements are not properly mixed but focused only on education or emphasized only the fun factors of game when it was developed. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to suggest a direction of developing serious games effectively combining with elementary math for elementary students to get interested in math while playing games. The research will analyze the current elementary math textbooks and find contents which may be combined with the game genre that elementary students enjoy playing these days. This research received advice from serious game developers and math education expert group to reflect the inclination of elementary school students, and respond to the demands from parents and educational institutions, and suggested a direction of developing serious games for effective math education.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.51
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• pp.181-201
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• 2018

The cartoon industry in Korea has continued to decline due to the contraction of published comics market and decrease in the number of comic books rental stores until the 2000s when it rapidly started to experience qualitative changes and quantitative growth due to the emergence of webtoon. The market size of webtoon industry, valued at 420 billion won in 2015, is expected to grow to 880.5 billion won by 2018. Notably, most cartoonists who draw cartoon strips are using digital devices and producing scripts in data, thereby overcoming the geographical, spatial and physical limitation of contents. As a result, a favorable environment for the creation of local ecosystems is generated. While the infrastructures of human resources are steadily growing by region, cartoon industries that are supported by the government policy have shown good performance combined with factors of creative infrastructures in local areas such as webtoon experience centers, webtoon campuses and webtoon creation centers, etc. Nevertheless, it is true that cartoon infrastructures are substantially based on a capital area which leads to an imbalanced structure of cartoon industry. To see the statistics, companies of offline cartoon business in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province make up 87%, except for distribution industry. In addition, companies of online cartoon business which are situated outside of Seoul and Gyeonggi Province form merely 7.5%. Studies and research on local webtoon are inadequate. The existing studies on local webtoon usually focus on its industrial and economic values, mentioning the word "local" only sometimes. Therefore, this study looked into the current status of local webtoon of the present time for the current state of local cartoon ecosystem, middle and long-term support from the government, and an alternative in the future. Main challenges include the expansion of opportunities to enjoy cartoon cultures, the independence of cartoon infrastructure, and the settlement of regionally specialized cartoon cultures. It means that, in order to enable the cartoon ecosystem to settle down in local areas, it is vital to utilize and link basic infrastructures. Furthermore, it is necessary to consider independence and autonomy beyond the limited support by the government. Finally, webtoon should be designated as a culture, which can be a new direction of the development of local webtoon. Furthermore, desirable models should be continuously researched and studied, which are suitable for each region and connect them with regional tourism, culture and art industry. It will allow the webtoon industry to soft land in the industry. Local webtoon, which is a growth engine of regions and main contents of the fourth industrial revolution, is expected to be a momentum for the decentralization of power and reindustrialization of regions.

• (The) Research of the performance art and culture
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• no.33
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• pp.243-271
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• 2016

When an aggressive war reached at the climax in 1940, a commemorative event called celebration' was held on a large scale in Japan for 'beginning former 2,600 years. It was performed for the policy that was going to break off the fatigue that was tired for nation dissatisfaction and war for the politics. I considered Urayasu-no-mai Dance played as part of a celebration event in a Shinto shrine of the all over Japan how was created and spread by this article Urayasu-no-mai Dance was created newly and was played in Shinto shrines of the whole country. The Urayasu-no-mai Dance was created based on Gagaku and Miko Mai (shrine maiden's dance) that has been read aloud not to go out of the ancient times. It was created in the situation of the war and spread and was spread. It will be said that Urayasu Dance is a typical example of 'forged traditional'. Urayasu Dance is a tradition made at modern time and remains for an unfortunate inheritance used again by the advertising tool of the national ideology. The Urayasu-no-mai Dance is expanded more now, without enough consideration about the historic procession other words, It played under a strong-arm society atmosphere is placed as new folk performing arts all too soon. In the complicated world situation at the time, Urayasu-no-mai Dance that emphasized a Japanese tradition for the inside and outside were spread. Urayasu-no-mai Dance created in modern times substitutes a traditional shaman dance, and there is even the tendency that ritual performing arts peculiar to each local Shinto shrine is unified to Urayasu-no-mai Dance. Such a movement shows a new aspect of the culture power that social turning to the right in Japan is not unrelated to becoming it. It is a traditional reinvention, or do you forge the tradition? I examined a process of a process and the spread of traditional creation produced consistently.