• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.10
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• pp.109-114
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• 2015

Purpose - The movie market has the characteristics of being a perfectly competitive market as well as a pure monopolistic market at the same time. This is because there are competitors in the industry but prices, although not fixed, have not changed a lot. Price competition may not have spread, but the competition is focused on artistic value, and the degree of box office success is most important. The artistic value is determined in the course of the production process. However, the degree of box office success is dependent upon the marketing manager. The marketing strategy represents the difference in the standard or quality of the movie. Inherently, the marketing manager adopts the entertainment strategy based on the quality of the foundation of the completed movie. At this time, the marketing manager knows the pertinent information (high quality/low quality) regarding the movie. This research study tries to reveal what should be the reasonable movie marketing expense, dependent on the quality of the movie. Research design, data, and methodology - Using a game scenario with different market players, the goal of the research analysis is to find out the following. First, the marketing expense is determined to maximize the profits after film production. Second, after the production costs are already committed, the manufacturer gets to choose the marketing level. At this time, there will be a profit maximization point, considering the competition. The premise of the research is as follows: if it is a good movie of quality, positive word of mouth increasing the audience continuously slows down the speed of the demand curve. If the movie quality is bad, the negative word of mouth decreasing the audience gradually hastens the speed of the demand curve. On the marketing side, when the manufacturer invests heavily in the marketing expense of the movie, consumer expectations increase to drive up the audience numbers. On the other hand, it is difficult to improve the profits excessively. When the manufacturer invests in marketing a little bit, the marketing expense is only relatively committed, therefore a lot of demand cannot be gained. Results - If a fixed market share is in a competitive situation, a low quality manufacturer expends relatively more marketing expense. If the situation assumes two manufacturers spend the same for the cost of production, the high quality manufacturer takes more profit. If the manufacturer expends less marketing budget to save costs, the optimum profit cannot be achieved since the other party (opponent) grabs the initial market share. Conclusions - In conclusion, investment is essential for market share to increase. We must refrain from a zero-sum game and have models where the game participants pursue the creative profits together. In the current film industry, there is the dominating logic of winner and loser but we have to create a film industry environment where the participants can be altogether satisfied and live together.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.10
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• pp.65-72
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• 2015

Purpose - A rapidly changing business environment places great demands on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). These SMEs need to find strategic alternatives for continued growth and, ultimately, survival. Thus, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are deemed an acceptable solution. Research to date has dealt with M&A in major organizations and focused on post merger integration (PMI). Our study focuses on SMEs, as they are relatively new and unknown to the public. Therefore, this study highlights successful M&A and decision making for SMEs through a case study analysis. Research design, data, and methodology - For this study, we examined an M&A case between company S, which produces cell phone parts, and company P, which produces SSD cases. We reviewed theories and previous studies in M&A literature. We comprehensively examined the decision-making procedure at each M&A stage, describing the situation of the buying company and the selling company from the period of the M&A announcement through deal completion. In addition, we conducted interviews with both companies. The data regarding this case study were collected through interviews with managers of both companies who actively participated in the M&A process. When necessary, we asked them about additional relevant information during the interviews. Results - The result of the M&A between company S and company P was deemed acceptable with the exception of the long negotiation period. However, company S was not able to prepare for PMI after the acquisition due to a controversy over acquisition values. Moreover, the employees of the newly formed company, especially those who came from company P, complained about the M&A and attempted to leave. Thus, implications for successful M&As of SMEs are as follows: First, the procedural compliance of the M&A is needed. Second, support is needed from the CEO for the working group, rather than excessive intervention during due diligence. Third, the right, talented members of the organization should be part of the process of the M&A. Fourth, the use of various types of outside expert or business consultants is needed. Fifth, the strategic intervention by Human Resource managers is required. Last, sharing M&A information among employees is important as information dissemination will help employees be more receptive to such a change. However, this study has several limitations as a single case study; more varied SME M&A case studies are needed in order to generalize the results of the study. Conclusions - Most of the research dealing with M&As has focused on major companies and PMI and neglected SMEs. Thus, our study focuses on SMEs and the decision-making procedures for M&A. This study has significantly contributed to the literature in this area and has provided practical information around the implications of sound decision-making during M&As. Specifically, the results of the study contribute to the need for research on M&A among SMEs, which to date has often been neglected as a topic of choice.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.41-48
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• 2014

Purpose - This study aims to investigate a solution to reduce the negative reactions arising from the performance of duties or the job distress of workers in the service industry, because human resource statistics regarding workers in the service sector have been unreported, while concerns regarding exposure to emotional exertion and poor working conditions have been continuously increasing. Research design, data, and methodology - This study specifically focused on workers in highway service areas. It differs from previous studies because it involves the perspective of the person-organization fit and regards workers' cognition of leaders through the psychological distance toward the leader and the contact frequency between workers and leaders within the framework of the leader-individual fit. Moreover, this study highlights the role of the self-leadership of workers as an important factor that becomes manifested in the individual-level fit to the organization. Hence, this study investigates whether the positive role of the above factors, in turn, could reduce job distress. Workers from highway service areas in Gyeonggi-do province provided data; 141 valid questionnaires are collected. SPSS 19.0 and AMOS 19.0 were used to test the reliability and validity of constructs. Simple regression, multiple regression, and 3 step mediation tests were used to test the hypotheses after the correlation tests. Results - Results indicated that leader-member contact frequency and psychological distance have negative effects on job distress but positive effects on self-leadership. A mediation test revealed that self-leadership, in the relationships between contact frequency and job distress and between psychological distance and job distress, resulted in partial mediation and full mediation, respectively. Conclusions - The result can be understood through two different possible explanations. First, service area workers generally possess a positive perspective toward their leaders. This can be interpreted to mean that increased contact frequency and psychological distance would be considered as supports from the leader, rather than intrusive controls or management schemes. Therefore, the management in highway service areas should invest efforts in increasing contact frequency as well as maximizing psychological similarities by adopting the viewpoints of workers in terms of moral and ethical management, to reduce the workers' job distress. The results relating to self-leadership also indicate that increased contact frequency must be accompanied by intentions for the effective promotion of workers' self-leadership. It also signifies the necessity of a strategic approach by leaders to induce workers to perceive "in-group"ness as suggested both by the similarity-attraction theory and by the social identity theory. In addition, the results of the mediation test of self-leadership indicate that because workers' self-leadership activates upon increased contact frequency by the leader, it should not be a means of control and should not be utilized only from the perspective of management. It is also suggested that strategies such as transfer of authority could have a positive effect in promoting the expansion of self-influence from workers.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.35-44
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• 2013

Purpose - This study aims to (a) analyze local citizens' perception of a local company, the Gwangyang Steel and Iron Company (GSIC); (b) compare the perception toward the local company with that of national citizens' perceptions towards many other unspecified companies, which were surveyed biannually by The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI); and (c) analyze how such companies evaluate perceptions towards them, in relation to citizens' socioeconomic position, such as their education status. Research design, data, methodology - The data were collected using a questionnaire, which was given to a sample of local citizens in cities. To test the hypotheses, factor analyses, a t-test, and an ANOVA were conducted. The total number of respondents was 1798. The data gathered from the respondents of the sample were analyzed using SPSS Win 19.0 software. Perception towards the company was evaluated on the corporate favorite index (CFI). The CFI index shows how positive citizens feel towards a company. It is calculated using five leading factors, consisting of the following: contribution to the economy, productivity, international competitiveness, social contribution, and ethical management. The higher the level of positive feelings exhibited, the closer the index will come to 100. Results - As a result of the analysis, the CFI index towards the GSIC stood at 67.3. The CFI index towards the company is 16.5 points higher than that of the index towards the many other unspecified companies, which were surveyed by the bi-annual KCCI study in the first half of 2011. The other five indexes stood as follows: contribution to the economy, productivity, social contribution, and ethical management was 69.2, 71.2, 64.6, and 58.6, respectively. These indexes are 18.3, 4.6, 27.6, and 35.6, respectively, higher than those found by the KCCI study. However, international competitiveness is 73.0 (9.8 points lower than that of the KCCI study). This survey thus shows that the CFI of the local citizens towards the global company GSIC is very high when compared with the CFI index towards the many other unspecified companies that was determined by the KCCI survey. Conclusions - This survey shows that local citizens have high expectations of economic activity, increasing working opportunities, and regional cooperation projects from the local company, GSIC. In addition, the CFI index towards GSIC evaluates results depending on the respondent's relationship with the company, and their educational status. Respondents, whose family or relatives were working as employees of GSIC, have relatively positive perceptions of GSIC, and respondents with a relatively higher educational status also share positive perceptions. Local citizens expect the profit-making of the company to operate in accordance with management activities, and at the same time, they expect that the wealth generated by the company will return to wider society.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.417-422
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• 2002

Salting conditions on organoleptic properties and rheology of Chinese cabbage were optimized and monitored by four-dimensional response surface methodology. Experimental conditions were decided in the ranges of salt concentration 8∼12%, salting time 5∼25 hr and salting temperature 5∼15$^{\circ}C$. The salted Chinese cabbage with experiment design was measured on organoleptic and physical properties. The organoleptic form of the salted Chinese cabbage showed maximum score in 11.28% of salt concentration, 9.75 hr of salting time and 12.81$^{\circ}C$ of salting temperature. The organoleptic taste was maximized in 11.19% of salt concentration, 11.38 hr of salting time and 13.58$^{\circ}C$ of salting temperature. The organoleptic mouth-feel was maximized in 11.24% of salt concentration, 11.71 hr of salting time and 13.57$^{\circ}C$ of salting temperature. The organoleptic palatability was maximized in 11.52% of salt concentration, 12.86 hr of salting time and 13.07$^{\circ}C$ of salting temperature. In rheological properties of salted Chinese cabbage, hardness and chewiness decreased with the increase of salt concentration.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.25 no.8
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• pp.57-74
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• 2021

Purpose - This study aims to analyze the characteristics of network construction by Norwegian Air and AirAsia X, which are recognized as leading airlines in the long-haul LCC market. Based on this analysis, this study intends to provide implications for networking strategies for Korean LCCs that seek to enter the long-haul market when the aviation market stabilizes again upon the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology - To conduct the network analysis on long-haul low-cost airlines, the Official Airline Guide (OAG) Schedule Analyzer was used to extract long-haul data of Norwegian Air and AirAsia X. To analyze the trend of the long-haul route network, we obtained the data from 3 separate years between 2011 and 2019. The network was analyzed using UCINET 6.0 in order to examine the network structure of long-haul low-cost airlines and the growth trend of each stage. Findings - Analyzing the network of long-haul routes by visualizing the network structure of low-cost carriers showed the following results. In its early years, Norwegian Air's long-haul route network, centering on regional airports in Spain and Sweden, connected European regions, the Middle East, and Africa. As time passed, however, the network expanded and became steadily strong as the airline connected airports in other European countries to North America and Asia. In addition, in 2011, AirAsia X showed links to parts of Europe, such as London and Paris, the Middle East and India, and Australia and Northeast Asia, centering on the Kuala Lumpur Airport. Although the routes in Europe were suspended, the network continued to expand while concentrating on routes of less than approximately 7,000 km. It was found that instead of giving up on ultra-long-haul routes such as Europe, the network was further expanded in Northeast Asia, such as the routes in Korea and Japan centering on China. Originality/value - Until the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, Norwegian Air actively expanded long-haul routes, resulting in the number of long-haul routes quintupling since 2011. The unfortunate circumstance, wherein the world aviation market was rendered stagnant due to the outbreak of COVID-19, hit Norwegian Air harder than any other low-cost carriers. However, in the case of AirAsia X, it was found that it did not suffer as much damage as Norwegian Air because it initially withdrew from unprofitable routes over 7,000 km and grew by gradually increasing profitable destinations over shorter distances. When the COVID-19 pandemic ends and the aviation market stabilizes, low-cost carriers around the world, including Korea, that enter the long-haul route market will need to employ strategies to analyze the marketability of potential routes and to launch the routes that yield the highest profits without being bound by distance. For stable growth, it is necessary to take a conservative stance; first, by reviewing the business feasibility of the operating a small number of highly profitable routes, and second, by gradually expanding these routes.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.17-31
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• 2022

Purpose: With the development of the Internet, consumers can quickly access the electronic word-of-mouth. Consumers seek to reduce uncertainty by referring to the opinions of other consumers about products and services when making purchase decisions. In the food service industry, evaluating a restaurant before an actual visitation is difficult. Therefore, electronic word-of-mouth is important to interact with the customer in restaurants. as it can be used as an exchange of information in which consumers participate and interact with other customers. This study was conducted to verify how online word-of-mouth characteristics (Consensus, Vividness, Neutrality) on attitudes and visit intention from the perspective of social exchange theory. And it was performed to verify the structural relationship between short-term visit intention, mid-term visit and long-term visit intention. Research design, data, and methodology: A survey was conducted on customers who have visited restaurants. Of a total of 312 responses, 306 responses were used, excluding insincere responses and missing values for factors analysis. SPSS 25.0 and AMOS 25.0 were used for statistical analysis, and hypothesis testing was conducted after verifying the validity and reliability of the questionnaire items. Result: The result of the analysis showed that, consensus and neutrality have a positive effect on attitude but not much on vividness. In addition, consensus, vividness, and neutrality have no effect on the short-term visit intention. Finally, the short-term visit intention has a positive effect on mid-term visit intention, and mid-term visit intention has a positive effect on long-term visit intention. Conclusions: Based on the results, this study suggested that it is necessary to have practical implications for marketing and monitoring restaurant reviews in consideration of the characteristics of electronic word-of-mouth. When managing electronic-word-of-mouth, it is necessary to manage the consensus and neutrality is essential to provide sufficient information about the restaurant. The focus should not only be on vividness, such as photos and videos. In addition, restaurants should also provide a good experience for first-time visitors as the short-term visit intention positively affects mid-term and long-term visit intention.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.51-69
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• 2021

Purpose - Based on literature studies of movie reviews and movie ratings, this study raised two research questions on the contents of online word of mouth and the number of movie screens as mediator variables. Research question 1 wanted to figure out which topics of word groups had a positive or negative impact on movie ratings. Research question 2 tried to identify the role of the number of movie screens between movie ratings and box office outcomes. Design/methodology/approach - Through R program, this study collected about 82,000 movie reviews and movie ratings posted on Naver's movie website to examine the role of online word of mouths and movie screen counts in 10 movies that were considered commercially unsuccessful with fewer than 2 million viewers despite securing about 1,000 movie screens. To confirm research question 1, topic modeling, a text mining technique, was conducted on movie reviews. In addition, this study linked the movie ratings posted on Naver with information of KOBIS by date, to identify the research question 2. Findings - Through topic modeling, 5 topics were identified. Topics found in this study were largely organized into two groups, the content of the movie (topic 1, 2, 3) and the evaluation of the movie (topics 4, 5). When analyzing the relationship between movie reviews and movie ratings with 5 mediators identified in topic modeling to probe research question 1, the topic word groups related to topic 2, 3 and 5 appeared having a negative effect on the netizen's movie ratings. In addition, by connecting two secondary data by date, analysis for research question 2 was implemented. The outcomes showed that the causal relationship between movie ratings and audience numbers was mediated by the number of movie screens. Research implications or Originality - The results suggested that the information presented in text format was harder to quantify than the information provided in scores, but if content information could be digitalized through text mining techniques, it could become variable and be analyzed to identify causality with other variables. The outcomes in research question 2 showed that movie ratings had a direct impact on the number of viewers, but also had indirect effects through changes in the number of movie screens. An interesting point is that the direct effect of movie ratings on the number of viewers is found in most American films released in Korea.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.26 no.7
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• pp.145-166
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• 2022

Purpose - The field of online videos has seen rapid changes in information and communications technology (ICT) development. Despite active academic research on the use of online platforms, few studies have analyzed the relative importance among the factors determined. In this study, the relative importance of factors found in previous studies was identified for users of online video platforms in China and Korea. Through this, factors that should be considered first in research on online video use were derived. In addition, the quality level of online video platforms currently used in China and Korea was measured and used for analysis. The analysis results can provide information for companies to enter Chinese and Korean markets and also be useful to platform providers aiming to increase usage. Design/methodology - Among the factors of Online Video Usage identified in previous studies, 13 factors to be studied were selected through focus group interviews and hierarchized into 2 layers. For the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), each factor was designed as a pairwise comparison questionnaire. The survey included questions on the quality of online video platform currently in use. Data collection was conducted on 16 platforms in China and 11 platforms in Korea, and the relative importance of factors and user perspectives was compared and analyzed using importance performance analysis (IPA). In the analytical process, platforms were divided into over-the-top (OTT) group and Creator group according to the weight of user-generated content, and data analysis focused on these groups. Findings - As a result of AHP, China and Korea showed both "Fun" and "Interests" factors at the top, while the importance of the Entertainment factor "Vicarious satisfaction" was very different for China and Korea. "Relationship with content creators" was the most important factor in China, but it ranked the lowest in Korea. The IPA showed that the factors with high importance and performance were fun, interests, and easy accessibility for both China and Korea. In contrast, the factors that showed low performance compared to high importance in China were relationship with content creators, relationship with acquaintances/friends, and trustworthiness. As for Korea, vicarious satisfaction was observed; thus, this study has raised the need for academic and industrial interest in vicarious satisfaction. The results show that fun, interests, vicarious satisfaction, and easy accessibility of the platform are factors that must be included in further studies on online videos. Originality/value - Existing studies related to the use of online platforms have derived factors or focused on the influence relationship between factors and performance. However, few studies have analyzed the relative importance among the determined factors. This paper explores factors to be considered in future studies by deriving the relative importance between these factors from the perspective of users in China and Korea.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.29-37
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• 2017

Purpose - In recent years, research has been conducted on the conflict resolution strategies of the franchise headquarters and the franchisees, but there is a lack of research on the factors of conflict due to the intrinsic structure, such as interdependence or hierarchical relationship, and behavioral analysis to reduce the conflict. In this study, we analyze the relationship between satisfaction and trust formed in the process and result of the business, and the result of action to dissolution intention. Research design, data, methodology - For these purposes, the author developed the proposed model and several hypotheses. In this model, conflict resolution strategies consist of five dimensions such as avoiding, forcing, cooperating, obliging, and compromising strategy. And, this model proposed that onflict resolution strategies are antecedents of procedure quality, behaviour quality and dissolution intention are consequences of conflict resolution strategies. The data were collected from April 1 to April 15, 2013. Because this study examined franchise industries from the franchisee perspective, we contacted franchisee store owner and managers located in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province. Interviewers trained contacted a total of 483 franchisees, and 400 franchisees responded. Out of 400 respondents, 2 respondents were deleted due to missing information. Thus, a total of 398 franchisee were used for this study. he data were analyzed using frequency analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, correlation analysis, and structural equational modeling with SPSS 24.0 and Amos 23.0 statistical program. Results - The findings can be summarized as follows: First, franchisor conflict resolution activities have significant effects on procedure quality. Second, procedure quality has a significant effect on behavior quality. Finally, behavior quality has a significant effect on dissolution intention. Conclusions - In this study, we investigated the relationship between conflict resolution behavior, procedural quality, behavior quality and dissolution intention. As a result, the franchisers should strive to resolve conflicts not only in solving simple problems with franchisees, but also in a longer term perspective. We also found that the procedural aspects of resolving conflicts should not be ignored. If the trust and satisfaction of each other increase during the process of resolving the conflict, it will positively affect the satisfaction and trust in resolving the conflict. This is also because it serves to lower the intention of termination. However, there is a limitation that it is targeted only to the restaurant franchise, and it is necessary to study the conflict resolution behavior depending on the type of conflict.