• Archives of design research
• /
• v.19 no.3 s.65
• /
• pp.183-194
• /
• 2006

It is expected that the typical lifestyle of the future will be transformed into an opulent and comfortable existence as the quality of life improves due to the increase in household income and reduction in working hours. In the meantime, as the standard of living becomes increasingly more comfortable and plentiful, the toll on physical health becomes magnified as a result of obesity and insufficient exercise caused by super nutrition and change in labor conditions. This has instigated a deep awareness in fitness on the part of many people, forcing them to recognize the significance of daily exercise and physical activity. The Elliptical Cross Trainer(ECT), which has drawn wide attention recently, is a non-impact athletic apparatus that not only promotes exercise of the upper body parts in such sports as skiing but also the exercise of lower parts of the body on a treadmill. It is a type of cross training athletic gear that has been developed for aerobic exercise throughout the entire body. It has already formed a market as big as that of the treadmill in Europe, America, etc. Recently, its demand is growing sharply in the Korean markets as well as those in Northeast Asian countries. Despite such demand increase and expansion, since most of the expensive ECTs are exclusively supplied by suppliers in only a few advanced countries, localization of the ECT is urgently required in order to enhance competitiveness of Korean manufacturers and to expand the market. The ECT development project has been in full swing for approximately two year since 2004 in order to secure independent design, as well as engineering and manufacturing processes in efforts to develop a commercially viable ECT.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.31-38
• /
• 2020

Purpose: At a time when the distribution industry is dominated by capital and technology, win-win growth among businesses groups (BGs) in wholesale market is becoming a social issue. Therefore, through analysis of market growth, market concentration (MC) and market power (MP), we want to identify the structure of the wholesale market and the competitiveness of the BGs in terms of market share (MS), sales-profit ratio (SPR), and labor productivity (LP) to explore the possibility of win-win growth. Market situation: Wholesale and Retail sales ratio (W/S) continues to increase, which also means inefficiency in distribution channels or opportunities in wholesale markets. Wholesale sales have grown 8.3 percent annually over the past 15 years, while the number of companies and workers has declined since 2017, which is why some restructuring is believed to begin in the wholesale industry. In terms of MC and MP, the growth potential of SBG can be found in FCB, ARM, FBT and CME BTs. Methodology and data: Through ANOVA and Regression Analysis, the 2015 Economic Census Data of KOSTAT was analyzed. Results: The results of ANOVA show that statistically significant SBG has a larger MS than LBG. The SPR was not different among BGs. LP is higher for LBG than for other BGs. Regression results show that the employment weight (EW) and the company size (SC) have positive effects on the MS, but the company weight (CW) and employment size (SE) have negative effects. In the case of SPR, the CW is positive and the EW is negative. In addition, LP appears to be more positive as SC in the BGs is larger. Conclusions: Although there is sufficient potential for SBG in the wholesale market, there is a problem that needs to increase LP. Therefore, the SBG needs to restructure in terms of number of companies and SC to improve the efficiency of employment. In terms of MC and MP, the SBG looks for possibilities in FCB, ARM, FBT and CME BTs. In addition, SBG that seeks higher returns with human services rather than simple sales is found to be competitive in the HHG, MES and CME BTs.

• East Asian Economic Review
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.161-206
• /
• 2013

Since the global financial crisis in 2008, the world economy has been suffering from the Great Recession characterized by high and persistent unemployment as well as drastic fall in asset prices. Real business cycle theory or new-Keynesian economics which has been the dominant paradigm in macroeconomics for the last four decades is unable to explain the high and persistent unemployment during the Great Recession. This implies that the economics of Keynes should be taken seriously again as a tool to explain the Great Recession. Farmer (2012) proposes a new way of interpreting the economics of Keynes by providing it with a solid micro-foundation based on labor markets with search. According to Farmer (2012), aggregate economic activity independently depends on the long-term self-fulfilling expectations about the stock prices. As a consequence, the government or the central bank should implement a policy that influences the public's confidence about the stock market. For an open economy like the Korean economy, it is not only stock price but also the price of asset such as house that matters more for the aggregate economic activity. Households in the Korean economy hold more than 70 percent of their wealth in the form of real estate asset, especially housing asset. This makes the public's confidence about the future prices of houses even more important in explaining the business cycles of the Korean economy. Policymakers should implement policies to improve the confidence of households about the housing market to recover from the recession caused by a fall in house prices. Little theoretical work has been done in explaining fluctuations in the aggregate economic activity from the point of house prices. This paper develops a small open economy model with traded and non-traded capital based on Farmer (2012) and shows that the aggregate economic activity also independently depends on the households' self-fulfilling expectations about the future prices of non-traded asset such as houses.

• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.14 no.12
• /
• pp.89-97
• /
• 2016

Purpose - In the major global markets, such as US and China, consumer ethnocentrism has been strengtened and there is a growing need for related study. This research aims to investigate the effects of national pride and national attachment on consumer ethnocentrism, using a nationally representative dataset from 2013 Korean General Social Survey. Based on the reviews of literature in social and political sciences, two dimensions of national pride were considered: national society pride which is based on positive evaluations on the nation's democracy condition or social security system, and national achievement pride which is based on positive evaluations regarding the country's achievements in the areas of technology, art, sports, and so on. Research design, data, and methodology - The authors developed a structural model in which two types of national pride, national society and achievement pride, are proposed to affect national attachment, thus influencing consumer ethnocentrism. 1,294 surveys were used for empirical analysis. The hypotheses were tested by utilizing SPSS 22.0 and AMOS 21.0. The unidimensionality of each construct and the nomological validity were supported from the results of factor analyses and correlation analysis. Results - It was found that both national society pride and national achievement pride have significant and positive effects on national attachment. Consumers who show stronger pride on the social systems or the global achievements of Korea are more likely to remain being a citizen of the country and support the country even in wrong. Also, there was a significant and positive relationship between national attachment and consumer ethnocentrism. Korean consumers who have stronger attachment to Korea tend to express higher ethnocentrism to protect Korean labor market and to promote economic development of the country. Conclusions - The findings of this study showed that companies and government need to emphasize the country's advanced social environments or global competitiveness in technology, sports, art, and so on, to boost national attachment. With a deeper understanding on the relationships among national pride, national attachment, and consumer ethnocentrism, the authors expect that both local and foreign companies in Korea will be able to develop more effective marketing strategies and to achieve sustainable competitive advantage.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
• /
• v.43 no.3
• /
• pp.29-40
• /
• 2020

Korean firms have been vigorously searching and exploring overseas market opportunities through export and overseas investment. As of end of 2019, there were more than 80,000 Korean overseas subsidiaries all over the world. With Korean overseas direct investment increasing recently, it became one of the important issues for overseas investors to be successful in the global market. There are a lot of studies on factors influencing the performance of overseas subsidiaries such as 'firm' and 'country' factors. This study empirically examines subsidiary performance determinants with 'industry architectures' by using a sample of 292 overseas Korean firm subsidiaries. Industry architectures are the stable but evolving sets of rules and roles through which labor is divided within a sector. This article considers how industry architectures shape success in international expansion. Industry architectures differ between countries, are not necessarily technologically determined, shape firms' capabilities and their competitive environment, and constitute a distinct level of analysis. We extract antecedents of related theory and empirically test its impact with a survey of Korean firms expanding in emerging economies. We would say this is the first study which tries to focus on industry architectures with the performance of Korean overseas subsidiaries. We find that separability and similarity of industry architectures across countries and localization of subsidiaries are robust and important predictors of success in international expansion. Our results suggest that industry architectures should be added to firm and country as an intermediate level of analysis that helps explain success in international expansion. While we established a pattern, much more remains to be done. We focus on the success of foreign operations, but we do not consider the broader benefits of going abroad, such as the learning or network effects that accrue at the level of the entire firm. The next obvious question is whether the results would differ in the developed market context. These we leave for future research to consider.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.170-190
• /
• 1994

The importantce of a development of competitiveness in domestic construction industry is growing as some of domestic construction markets is scheduled to open to foreign competing firms with higher level of construction technology and management. A national level of competitiveness in domestic construction industry and firms are partially, but significantly, affected by a technology level and a characteristics of production pattern. The purpose of the study is mainly to analyze and identify a technology level, production pattern and a development stage of R&D activities of domestic construction industry and firms. Based on these findings the study draws on a concluding remarks and derives technology policy implications. Results of analysis in the study impliy that (1) competitiveness of domestic construction firms(industry) in terms of technology level is relatively weak as compare to that of advanced foreign competing firms, (2) degrees of substitution of capital for labor are seemed to be relatively high, (3) R&D (investment) activities of domestic construction firms are generally spread out in forms of import, adjustment and betterment, and (4) only a small number of big domestic construction firms are seemed to afford to R&D investment for research facilities and equipments, but not enough for higher level of R&D man-power. The study suggests that technology policy for construction industry should be based on a fundamental policy directions. For example the increase in size and heightened quality level of R&D man-power should be placed in a top priority in policy agenda. Sound and specific policy items should be developed for planning and design, and maintenace and inspection technology in order to lead domestic industry to compete with foreign firms with full strength.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
• /
• v.7 no.2
• /
• pp.1-16
• /
• 1999

In this study, questionnaire were made to environment-friendly producers of apples regarding farm management methods in low-input production method. utilizing organic materials, production and marketing of apples with lower agricultural chemical residues. Besides, five apples farms were visited to find out their management situation by employing the low-input production method in order to protect the environment as well as consumer's health. Those five low-input apple farms were scattered in Kyungbuk, Chungnam, and Chonnam Provinces, There were not many low-input apple farms across the nation from the beginning and, as a result, increasing the sample size was basically very difficult. Most of these farms were using 140hrs of labor per 10a, of which 30hrs in pre-season management, 25hrs in plowing and weed control, 15hrs in disease and pest control, 20hrs in harvest and marketing and 50hrs in miscellaneous activities. Relatively, pest control takes much time in that they would spray pesticides 7-10 times a season to control the apple disease, 9 times on the average. The average gross revenue of low-input apple farms was about \2,000,000/10a, and their average yield was 2,000kg/10a, which are 25% and 13% lower, respectively, than the ordinary apple production case. This means the low-input farmers are inefficient in marketing their products. On the other hand, their production costs were 20.4% higher than the ordinary apple farms on the average. Since the imported foreign fruits including apples must use various agricultural chemicals on their way to the export markets, the domestic low-input apples have competitive edge over them in therms of food safety. In order to improve the low-input apple industry, active cooperation is needed among the producers, government and researchers more than ever. Among other things, production cost reduction and quality improvement with lower chemical residues are part of the urgent matters to be done.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.11 no.11
• /
• pp.4151-4160
• /
• 2010

Recently the arts and cultural sector is drawing attention as a new growth engine of the Korean economy. The paper is empirically analyzed on the gender wage differentials in the arts and cultural sector and specially focused on decomposing the wage differentials between the manufacturing sector and the arts and cultural sector. Our results may be partly useful for explaining the existing phenomenon of the arts and cultural sector in Korean labor markets, for example, young, highly educated, part-time contracts, less gender discrimination, etc. The results might provide somehow the policy directions of reducing the gender wage differentials.

• Journal of Service Research and Studies
• /
• v.8 no.3
• /
• pp.1-23
• /
• 2018

This study suggests a way through Hong Kong as an alternative strategy for Korean companies to enter Chinese service market which is rapidly expanding due to China's recent policy switch toward service economy. Service market is generally more regulated, labor-intensive, and domestic demand-oriented than goods market, which makes opening of domestic markets to foreigners slow. In case of China, market control and regulations by the State is tighter than other economies. Therefore, it is important to find ways to avoid regulations from the Chinese government if possible. In this sense, this study investigates the China-Hong Kong CEPA and draws its strategic value for entering Chinese service market by comparing it with the Korea-China FTA service sector. In addition, utilizing the difference in tax agreements between Korea-China and China-Hong Kong, and the human network of Hong Kong entrepreneurs in China may play an important role in reducing the risk that might arise in China.

• Journal of Korea Trade
• /
• v.24 no.6
• /
• pp.115-134
• /
• 2020

Purpose - International trade leads to the international division of labor, improving the efficiency of the global economic system. Transport costs are a more serious barrier to international trade than customs tariffs. An increase in competition in the transport sector may thus lead to a reduction in transport costs. However, if a carrier's nationality significantly influences transport costs, simply adding more competing carriers of different nationalities would be ineffective. Therefore, it is necessary to establish national or regional carriers to influence competition and reduce transport costs. This study investigates this "nationality effect" by treating Hanjin Shipping's collapse as a natural experiment. Design/methodology - The theoretical basis of this study is the 3rd-degree price discrimination in container shipping market. By using the monthly data of container freight rates of Korea, China and Japan, this study shows the so-called Korea Premiums, which are the empirical counterparts of nationality effect in Korea container shipping market. For this empirical investigation, the structural model with state-space form is used and the dummy models are also estimated. In addition, because China has been also affected by the Hanjin's collapse, the China premiums are considered too. Findings - Compared with Japan's case, it is shown that there had been the so-called Korea premiums since the collapse of Hanjin Shipping. These results are robust from both the state-space model and dummy models. The time pattern of Korea premiums was consistent with the market evolution, especially the pattern of substitutability in container shipping markets. In addition, this paper shows the magnitude of Korea premiums. Originality/value - The argument of this study that the nationality effect can be interpreted as an extended concept of the home market effect is original, which is expected to evoke future research efforts. Further, the discussion on the shipping industrial policy from both horizontal and vertical aspects will provide the relevant policy makers with solid information, especially for the policy coordination in a global scale.