• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.125-145
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• 2008

The paper evaluates the Korean science, technology, and innovation policy(STIP) in terms of an individual firm. The firm is Viromed(Ltd), a new technology-based venture company in the field of biotechnology. The case is compared with the 'Hwang Project', which is known as a typical failure case in Korea. In order to evaluate the Korean STIP, we establish 6 areas, which are technological infrastructure, institutional infrastructure, human capital infrastructure, technology market, industrial base, and innovation networks. The study shows that the policy schemes relating with technological infrastructure, institutional infrastructure, human capital infrastructure, and industrial base play a positive role in the start-up, development and innovation of Viromed(Ltd). However, we can hardly find the role of Korean government in fostering the technology market, transferring the technological output to economic performance. Although the international networks with the British, American, and Japanese firms or investors were a key success factor of the growth of Viromed(Ltd), the role of the government in this policy area was not enough. As for the 'Hwang Project', we suggest that the government should consider the possibility of commercialization in choosing R&D projects and determining the size of financial aids. Since the evaluation of the Korean STIP is based on an individual firm, the results of the paper need to be confirmed by a systematic comparison with other cases or industries.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.195-214
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• 2007

The purpose of this study is to explore the applicability of AHP(Analytic Hierarchy Process) to select more productive projects among various proposed projects in a particular company. To achieve this research objective, the characteristics of project evaluation and selection are first reviewed with respect to when, where, and how the decision is made. Then the theoretical basis of the AHP is briefly reviewed along with its mathematical underpinnings to construct the framework of project evaluation and selection. To be more specific, the evaluation and selection criteria were reorganized in the AHP-based framework to make the process of project evaluation and selection more productive. Project evaluation and selection is one of the most important activities for the most companies to be more advantageous in the market. Despite the importance of decision making process of project selection, not many of how to choose the best project were suggested as the reliable project selection methods in the industries. It may be because it involves various activities related to conflict resolution among different evaluation criteria, high uncertainties of market, and the unclear tradeoff among various project objectives. Furthermore, the decision, once made at this point, tends to be irrevocable until the whole process turns out to be a complete success or failure. As the result, the AHP method showed better financial performance rather than the traditional method in a case study.

• Journal of Information Technology Services
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.153-174
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• 2016

On account of multiple causes, including prolonged global economic crisis, addressing environmental pollution and the advent of hyper-connected society, a new paradigm called 'sharing economy' has rapidly emerged. Many startups have attempted to build promising business model based on the sharing economy concept. Nevertheless, successful cases are still very rare in the global level, except for Uber and Airbnb cases. Therefore, this study analyzes necessary causes and sufficient causes for successful settlements in the market through a comparative case analysis on digital matching firms in the sharing economy businesses. For the case study, we compare five successful cases (Uber, Airbnb, Kickstarter, TaskRabbit and DogVacay), three failure cases (Homejoy, Ridejoy and Tuterspree) and a platform cooperativism case (Juno) in accordance with six value attributes of business model including value proposition, market segment, value chain, cost structure and profit potential, value network and competitive strategy. We apply Boolean method to support controlled comparison and eliminate unnecessary attributes. The Boolean analysis result shows that value proposition, cost structure and profit potential, value network and competitive strategy are the essential attributes. Furthermore, the result indicates that each attribute is a necessary condition, where all four conditions should be met simultaneously in order to be successful. With this result, we discuss essential consideration for those who are planning startup based on the sharing economy business model.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.197-216
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• 2019

The Korean government has been focusing on supporting technology startups to solve social and economic problems such as low growth, declining economic growth rate, rising youth unemployment rate and lack of new growth engine. Although the failure rate of young technology startups is very high, relevant researches are still scant. On the basis of previous researches, this study has identified four growth factors of technology startups: characteristics of entrepreneurs, technical superiority and originality of business items, focused marketing strategy, and follow-up government support projects. Five young technology startup cases were selected and analyzed in the cosmetics industry which were supported by the Six-month Challenge Platform project of Chungbuk Creation Economic Innovation Center. The main findings of the case study were as follows: First, product development through inhouse R&D rather than external contracted R&D was beneficial to acquiring follow-up government support projects and external investment. Second, choosing a small niche market and concentrating marketing efforts on the target market had a positive effect on firm performance. And, third, relevance of entrepreneurs' college major and technological originality of business items were confirmed to influence firm performance positively in the early stage. The results are expected to help young technology startups survive successfully and establish a foothold for growth in their early stage.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.157-180
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• 2018

This paper empirically analyzes how working conditions of employees and executives affect Korean companies' survival. To this end, a survival analysis based on the accelerated failure time model is conducted from the end of December 2012 to the end of September 2018 on the 2012 year-end financial data for corporations whose common stocks have ever been listed either in the KOSPI market or in the KOSDAQ market with fiscal year ending at the end of December. The analysis shows that the average wage level per employee and the number of executives relative to the number of employees threaten while the average duration of service for female employees prolongs firm survival. Here, the average wage level per employee has turned out to worsen firm survivability regardless of the gender of employees in question while the average duration of service improves firm survivability only in case the employees are female: the average duration of service for male employees or the entire employees has turned out not to have any statistically significant influence on firm survival. The average compensation per executive and the percentage of temporary employees have turned out not to have any statistically significant influence on firm survival while the percentage of female employees has shown statistically significant positive influence on firm survival in some, although not all, models employed in our study. These results are expected to be a good reference in the course of our reaching agreements regarding the improvement of working conditions either between firms and employees or among the members of the entire society.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.21 no.12
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• pp.113-125
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• 2023

Purpose: Support policies for small and medium-sized retailers (SMSRs) have been promoted in various ways over the past 20 years, but they are generally regarded as unsuccessful. The purpose of this study is to analyze the process and impact of policy changes, identify the reasons for the lack of success, and explore policy alternatives. Research design, data and methodology: This study explored major policies in various categories such as the retail industry, traditional markets, and Micro-Enterprises from the mid-1990s to the present. It also analyzed the short- and long-term impacts of major policies at the retail format level like SMSRs, using data from Statistics Korea's service industry survey. Results: This research found that sudden shifts in policy philosophy conflicted with the existing market structure and reduced the effectiveness of policies. It also found that policies aimed at improving competitiveness at the SMSRs-level had some effect, while polices aimed at supporting expenses at the individual store-level were difficult to achieve their intended purpose. Conclusions: The failure of the policy to support SMSRs is fundamentally due to the late response and conflicts between policies. It was also not successful due to the policy's focus on individual store-level expenses and maintaining employment rather than structural improvements of SMSRs format.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.101-114
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• 2022

Recently, various studies on the entrepreneurial ecosystem have been conducted. The entrepreneurial ecosystem is composed of various elements such as entrepreneurs, governments, and infrastructure, and these factors interact to contribute to economic development. The purpose of this study was to analyze differences in importance and performance of the entrepreneurial ecosystem for startups using the importance-performance analysis (IPA) method. Based on this, the importance and current level of the components of the entrepreneurial ecosystem were identified and policy implications were presented. The results of the study are as follows. The importance ranking was in the order of startup support program(4.43), startup funding (4.39), market accessibility(4.30). The ranking of performance was startup support program(3.81), ease of starting a business(3.76), support for startup support institutions(3.66), and startup funding(3.66). All elements of the entrepreneurial ecosystem showed higher importance than performance. This means that the components of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Korea are recognized as important, but do not play a significant role in terms of performance for startups. In addition, the factors with the highest improvement in the importance-performance matrix were 「safety nets for startup failure」, 「culture of acceptance of failure」, 「ease of market entry」, 「ease of startup survival」, and 「ease of exit」. This study suggested improvement measures such as establishing a social safety net, improving awareness of startup failure culture, matching successful startups, strengthening scale-up support by growth stage, easing regulations in new business fields, and diversifying investment recovery strategies.

• 한국사회정책
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.233-260
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• 2013

Despite various policies have been implemented to curb shadow education in Korea, it has continued to grow in recent two decades. This study investigates the expansion mechanism of shadow education focused on mobilization capabilities and market strategies of the suppliers. The success and failure of policy toward shadow education depends on how effectively it could block off the way by which the suppliers as the most important actors in politics of shadow education market mobilize consumers' anxieties. But shadow education policies have failed in two points. First, they have lacked honest intention to stop its proliferation. The Constitutional Court Decision Against Anti-Out-Of-School Classes Legislation of 2000 widened the windows of opportunity for the suppliers, and 5.31 educational reform of 1995 was neutral to their mobilization capabilities, though seemingly designed to control shadow education. This policy orientation, which reflected neoliberal Gesinnungsethik defective of Verantwortungsethik, stimulated shadow education to expand in that suppliers' mobilization capabilities were reinforced or remained intact. Second, shadow education suppliers have succeeded in mobilizing the desire and anxiety of potential consumers. To cope with government's policy including improving the qualities of public education, realignment of college entrance systems, and meeting the shadow education needs, they have developed various market strategies such as management of existing demands, creation of responsive demands, and squeezing out new demands. They have succeeded in nullifying policies by employing or mixing strategies with effect. Policy decisions in the future need to be made with reference to Verantwortungsethik, and be more cautious to socio-political contexts of Korea, to mobilization capabilities and market strategies of the suppliers in particular.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.19-29
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• 2020

As the AI speaker market is growing rapidly in recent years, the competition for the preoccupation of children who are the main users and the future prospective customers of the related companies is very intense. However, there is a lack of empirical research on how children interact with AI speakers. Therefore, this research examines the interactions between children and AI speakers, primarily through field studies, to extract what functions they use and what features they have. For this purpose, 799 conversations were collected and analyzed using the log data of the AI speaker recorded in real time. As a result, children were more likely to use children's songs, fairy tales, emotional conversations, and personification compared to adults. In addition, content analysis by specific types resulted in success/failure cases of interaction between children and AI speakers and proposed improvements by failure type. This study is meaningful in that it identifies children's AI speaker preferences, content, and major conversation patterns, and provides guidelines for developing services that meet children's eye level.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.121-144
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• 2010

Recently, ITSM(IT Service Management) is adopted very widely among private and public organizations. The successful implementation of ITSM requires continuous improvement, not just implementation of IT processes and/or ITSM solutions. One of the major tools for the continuous improvement is 6 Sigma technique. This study compares success and failure cases at the project level, and identifies factors affecting successful application of 6 Sigma technique in the improvement of ITSM. To achieve the research objective, this study first identifies and classifies success factors for 6 Sigma application through literature review. Then, factors to be used in the study are determined. Based on the factors, success and failure cases are compared. The research results show that all 5 factors (participation of management, participation of project team, project selection and verification, customer and market orientation, strategy and goal focus) are significantly different between success and failure cases.