• Title/Summary/Keyword: National Technological Competitiveness

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The study on the diagnosis and measurement of post-information society by ANP (ANP를 활용한 후기정보사회의 수준진단과 측정에 관한 연구)

  • Song, Young-Jo;Kwak, Jeong-Ho
    • Informatization Policy
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    • v.23 no.2
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    • pp.73-97
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    • 2016
  • Social changes due to ICT like Big Data, IoT, Cloud and Mobile is progressing rapidly. Now, we get out of the old-fashioned frame was measured at the level of the information society through the introduction of PC, Internet speed and Internet subscribers etc and there is a need for a new type of diagnostic information society framework. This study is the study for the framework established to diagnose and measure post-information society. The framework and indicators were chosen in accordance with the technological society coevolution theory and information society-related indicators presented from authoritative international organizations. Empirical results utilizing the indicators and framework developed in this study were as follows: First, the three sectors, six clusters (items), 25 nodes (indicators) that make up the information society showed that all strongly connected. Second, it was diagnosed as information society development (50.34%), technology-based expansion (25.03%) and ICT effect (24.63%) through a network analysis (ANP) for the measurement of importance of the information society. Third, the result of calculating the relative importance of the cluster and nodes showed us (1)social development potential (26.04%), (2)competitiveness (15.9%), (3)ICT literacy (15.5%) (4) (social)capital (24.3 %), (5)ICT acceptance(9.54%), (6)quality of life(8.7%). Consequently, We should take into account the effect of the economy and quality of life beyond ICT infrastructure-centric when we measure the post-information society. By applying the weighting we should performs a comparison between countries and we should diagnose the level of Korea and provide policy implications for the preparation of post-information society.

Life Satisfaction Depending on Digital Utilization Divide within People with Disabilities (스마트 도시(Smart City)의 데이터 경제 구현을 위한 개인정보보호 적용설계(PbD)의 도입 필요성 분석)

  • Jin, Sang-Ki
    • Informatization Policy
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    • v.26 no.3
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    • pp.69-89
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    • 2019
  • In order to implement smart cities that will become living spaces in the fourth industrial revolution era, detailed privacy information such as residents' living information, buildings and facilities information must be collected and processed in real time. While city functions and convenience for individuals are being facilitated, threats to personal information exposure and leakage are also likely to increase at the same time. Therefore, the design concept for personal information protection should be considered and accordingly reflected from the stages of smart city design, technology development and operation planning of intelligent information (AI) facilities. The results of the analysis show that for activation of smart cities and operation of data-driven cities, the concept of Privacy by Design (PbD) has already been introduced in the institutional, industrial and technological aspects, particularly in the cases of European countries and the US. In order to strengthen the local and global competitiveness of smart cities and the country, Korea also needs to actively deploy PbD as a strategy to secure a data-driven economy, which is the core strategy for smart cities. Therefore, the study suggests policy implications focused on approaches to legislative improvement and technology development support, which reflect the basic properties of PbD as defined in the study.

An Exploratory Research on the Effects for SMEs of the Technology Battle between the United States and China - A Focus on Information Security Issues of Huawei (미·중 기술 갈등에 따른 우리나라 중소기업의 파급효과에 관한 탐색적 연구 -화웨이 정보보안 이슈를 중심으로 -)

  • Park, Munsu;Son, Wonbae
    • Korean small business review
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    • v.42 no.1
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    • pp.43-56
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    • 2020
  • The technology conflict between the U.S. and China is deepening recently. The U.S.-China battle began as a national security issue but is comprehending as a U.S.'s check for China's rapid technological advancement. China is rapidly growing in several indexes including R&D expenditure, patent application, and publications, and is challenging the U.S. in 5G and Artificial Intelligence. In 2018, Huawei became the largest 5G network/equipment provider and second largest smart phone manufacturer in the world. Now, Huawei is outperforming at AI chipset manufacturing, Bigdata analysis and cloud, positioning to become a critical player in the 4th industrial revolution. The purpose of this research is to analyze the effect of recent Huawei issues to Korean SMEs focusing on the relation between Huawei and Korean companies; the cooperation status from the Global Value Chain (GVC) perpsective, and Korean government's policies related to Huawei's information security issues will be the three main frames for the analysis. Then, this research proposes policy implications such as increasing Korea's competitiveness in manufacturing and information security.

A Study on Methods to Train Experts in Robot and Artificial Intelligence-Based Data Signal Processing in Response to the Increased Use of Robots (로봇의 활용증가에 따른 로봇 및 인공지능 기반 데이터 신호처리 전문가 양성 방안에 관한 연구)

  • Chung-Ho Ju;Dae-Yeon Kim;Kyoung-Ho Kim;Tae-Woong Gwon;Dong-Seop Sohn
    • Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
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    • v.25 no.2
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    • pp.58-66
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    • 2024
  • Robotics is a convergence technology with significant ripple effects across various industries, including manufacturing and services. Its importance has been increasingly underscored by advancements in artificial intelligence. As a crucial industry for addressing the challenges posed by a declining and aging production workforce and for enhancing manufacturing competitiveness, the training of robotics experts is now critically important. This paper examines the case of the Robot Job Innovation Center in Gumi City and proposes a strategy for training robotics experts and specialists in robot/AI-based signal processing. A core curriculum was carefully selected and implemented in actual educational settings, with key components necessary for developing a comprehensive educational framework detailed. The convergence of AI-based data signal processing and robotics represents a significant technological advancement poised to impact a wide array of industries. By proposing the comprehensive educational framework outlined in this paper, it is anticipated that related organizations will be able to effectively utilize these foundational elements to train experts in the field.

The Effects of Environmental Dynamism on Supply Chain Commitment in the High-tech Industry: The Roles of Flexibility and Dependence (첨단산업의 환경동태성이 공급체인의 결속에 미치는 영향: 유연성과 의존성의 역할)

  • Kim, Sang-Deok;Ji, Seong-Goo
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.17 no.2
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    • pp.31-54
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    • 2007
  • The exchange between buyers and sellers in the industrial market is changing from short-term to long-term relationships. Long-term relationships are governed mainly by formal contracts or informal agreements, but many scholars are now asserting that controlling relationship by using formal contracts under environmental dynamism is inappropriate. In this case, partners will depend on each other's flexibility or interdependence. The former, flexibility, provides a general frame of reference, order, and standards against which to guide and assess appropriate behavior in dynamic and ambiguous situations, thus motivating the value-oriented performance goals shared between partners. It is based on social sacrifices, which can potentially minimize any opportunistic behaviors. The later, interdependence, means that each firm possesses a high level of dependence in an dynamic channel relationship. When interdependence is high in magnitude and symmetric, each firm enjoys a high level of power and the bonds between the firms should be reasonably strong. Strong shared power is likely to promote commitment because of the common interests, attention, and support found in such channel relationships. This study deals with environmental dynamism in high-tech industry. Firms in the high-tech industry regard it as a key success factor to successfully cope with environmental changes. However, due to the lack of studies dealing with environmental dynamism and supply chain commitment in the high-tech industry, it is very difficult to find effective strategies to cope with them. This paper presents the results of an empirical study on the relationship between environmental dynamism and supply chain commitment in the high-tech industry. We examined the effects of consumer, competitor, and technological dynamism on supply chain commitment. Additionally, we examined the moderating effects of flexibility and dependence of supply chains. This study was confined to the type of high-tech industry which has the characteristics of rapid technology change and short product lifecycle. Flexibility among the firms of this industry, having the characteristic of hard and fast growth, is more important here than among any other industry. Thus, a variety of environmental dynamism can affect a supply chain relationship. The industries targeted industries were electronic parts, metal product, computer, electric machine, automobile, and medical precision manufacturing industries. Data was collected as follows. During the survey, the researchers managed to obtain the list of parts suppliers of 2 companies, N and L, with an international competitiveness in the mobile phone manufacturing industry; and of the suppliers in a business relationship with S company, a semiconductor manufacturing company. They were asked to respond to the survey via telephone and e-mail. During the two month period of February-April 2006, we were able to collect data from 44 companies. The respondents were restricted to direct dealing authorities and subcontractor company (the supplier) staff with at least three months of dealing experience with a manufacture (an industrial material buyer). The measurement validation procedures included scale reliability; discriminant and convergent validity were used to validate measures. Also, the reliability measurements traditionally employed, such as the Cronbach's alpha, were used. All the reliabilities were greater than.70. A series of exploratory factor analyses was conducted. We conducted confirmatory factor analyses to assess the validity of our measurements. A series of chi-square difference tests were conducted so that the discriminant validity could be ensured. For each pair, we estimated two models-an unconstrained model and a constrained model-and compared the two model fits. All these tests supported discriminant validity. Also, all items loaded significantly on their respective constructs, providing support for convergent validity. We then examined composite reliability and average variance extracted (AVE). The composite reliability of each construct was greater than.70. The AVE of each construct was greater than.50. According to the multiple regression analysis, customer dynamism had a negative effect and competitor dynamism had a positive effect on a supplier's commitment. In addition, flexibility and dependence had significant moderating effects on customer and competitor dynamism. On the other hand, all hypotheses about technological dynamism had no significant effects on commitment. In other words, technological dynamism had no direct effect on supplier's commitment and was not moderated by the flexibility and dependence of the supply chain. This study makes its contribution in the point of view that this is a rare study on environmental dynamism and supply chain commitment in the field of high-tech industry. Especially, this study verified the effects of three sectors of environmental dynamism on supplier's commitment. Also, it empirically tested how the effects were moderated by flexibility and dependence. The results showed that flexibility and interdependence had a role to strengthen supplier's commitment under environmental dynamism in high-tech industry. Thus relationship managers in high-tech industry should make supply chain relationship flexible and interdependent. The limitations of the study are as follows; First, about the research setting, the study was conducted with high-tech industry, in which the direction of the change in the power balance of supply chain dyads is usually determined by manufacturers. So we have a difficulty with generalization. We need to control the power structure between partners in a future study. Secondly, about flexibility, we treated it throughout the paper as positive, but it can also be negative, i.e. violating an agreement or moving, but in the wrong direction, etc. Therefore we need to investigate the multi-dimensionality of flexibility in future research.

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The Policy of Win-Win Growth between Large and Small Enterprises : A South Korean Model (한국형 동반성장 정책의 방향과 과제)

  • Lee, Jang-Woo
    • Korean small business review
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    • v.33 no.4
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    • pp.77-93
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    • 2011
  • Since 2000, the employment rate of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) has dwindled while the creation of new jobs and the emergence of healthy SMEs have been stagnant. The fundamental reason for these symptoms is that the economic structure is disadvantageous to SMEs. In particular, the greater gap between SMEs and large enterprises has resulted in polarization, and the resulting imbalance has become the largest obstacle to improving SMEs' competitiveness. For example, the total productivity has continued to drop, and the average productivity of SMEs is now merely 30% of that of large enterprises, and the average wage of SMEs' employees is only 53% of that of large enterprises. Along with polarization, rapid industrialization has also caused anti-enterprise consensus, the collapse of the middle class, hostility towards establishments, and other aftereffects. The general consensus is that unless these problems are solved, South Korea will not become an advanced country. Especially, South Korea is now facing issues that need urgent measures, such as the decline of its economic growth, the worsening distribution of profits, and the increased external volatility. Recognizing such negative trends, the MB administration proposed a win-win growth policy and recently introduced a new national value called "ecosystemic development." As the terms in such policy agenda are similar, however, the conceptual differences among such terms must first be fully understood. Therefore, in this study, the concepts of win-win growth policy and ecosystemic development, and the need for them, were surveyed, and their differences from and similarities with other policy concepts like win-win cooperation and symbiotic development were examined. Based on the results of the survey and examination, the study introduced a South Korean model of win-win growth, targeting the promotion of a sound balance between large enterprises and SMEs and an innovative ecosystem, and finally, proposing future policy tasks. Win-win growth is not an academic term but a policy term. Thus, it is less advisable to give a theoretical definition of it than to understand its concept based on its objective and method as a policy. The core of the MB administration's win-win growth policy is the creation of a partnership between key economic subjects such as large enterprises and SMEs based on each subject's differentiated capacity, and such economic subjects' joint promotion of growth opportunities. Its objective is to contribute to the establishment of an advanced capitalistic system by securing the sustainability of the South Korean economy. Such win-win growth policy includes three core concepts. The first concept, ecosystem, is that win-win growth should be understood from the viewpoint of an industrial ecosystem and should be pursued by overcoming the issues of specific enterprises. An enterprise is not an independent entity but a social entity, meaning it exists in relationship with the society (Drucker, 2011). The second concept, balance, points to the fact that an effort should be made to establish a systemic and social infrastructure for a healthy balance in the industry. The social system and infrastructure should be established in such a way as to create a balance between short- term needs and long-term sustainability, between freedom and responsibility, and between profitability and social obligations. Finally, the third concept is the behavioral change of economic entities. The win-win growth policy is not merely about simple transactional relationships or determining reasonable prices but more about the need for a behavior change on the part of economic entities, without which the objectives of the policy cannot be achieved. Various advanced countries have developed different win-win growth models based on their respective cultures and economic-development stages. Japan, whose culture is characterized by a relatively high level of group-centered trust, has developed a productivity improvement model based on such culture, whereas the U.S., which has a highly developed system of market capitalism, has developed a system that instigates or promotes market-oriented technological innovation. Unlike Japan or the U.S., Europe, a late starter, has not fully developed a trust-based culture or market capitalism and thus often uses a policy-led model based on which the government leads the improvement of productivity and promotes technological innovation. By modeling successful cases from these advanced countries, South Korea can establish its unique win-win growth system. For this, it needs to determine the method and tasks that suit its circumstances by examining the prerequisites for its success as well as the strengths and weaknesses of each advanced country. This paper proposes a South Korean model of win-win growth, whose objective is to upgrade the country's low-trust-level-based industrial structure, in which large enterprises and SMEs depend only on independent survival strategies, to a high-trust-level-based social ecosystem, in which large enterprises and SMEs develop a cooperative relationship as partners. Based on this objective, the model proposes the establishment of a sound balance of systems and infrastructure between large enterprises and SMEs, and to form a crenovative social ecosystem. The South Korean model of win-win growth consists of three axes: utilization of the South Koreans' potential, which creates community-oriented energy; fusion-style improvement of various control and self-regulated systems for establishing a high-trust-level-oriented social infrastructure; and behavioral change on the part of enterprises in terms of putting an end to their unfair business activities and promoting future-oriented cooperative relationships. This system will establish a dynamic industrial ecosystem that will generate creative energy and will thus contribute to the realization of a sustainable economy in the 21st century. The South Korean model of win-win growth should pursue community-based self-regulation, which promotes the power of efficiency and competition that is fundamentally being pursued by capitalism while at the same time seeking the value of society and community. Already existing in Korea's traditional roots, such objectives have become the bases of the Shinbaram culture, characterized by the South Koreans' spontaneity, creativity, and optimism. In the process of a community's gradual improvement of its rules and procedures, the trust among the community members increases, and the "social capital" that guarantees the successful control of shared resources can be established (Ostrom, 2010). This basic ideal can help reduce the gap between large enterprises and SMEs, alleviating the South Koreans' victim mentality in the face of competition and the open-door policy, and creating crenovative corporate competitiveness. The win-win growth policy emerged for the purpose of addressing the polarization and imbalance structure resulting from the evolution of 21st-century capitalism. It simultaneously pursues efficiency and fairness on one hand and economic and community values on the other, and aims to foster efficient interaction between the market and the government. This policy, however, is also evolving. The win-win growth policy can be considered an extension of the win-win cooperation that the past 'Participatory Government' promoted at the enterprise management level to the level of systems and culture. Also, the ecosystemic development agendum that has recently emerged is a further extension that has been presented as a national ideal of "a new development model that promotes the co-advancement of environmental conservation, growth, economic development, social integration, and national and individual development."

A Proposal for Promotion of Research Activities by Analysis of KOSEF's Basic Research Supports in Agricultural Sciences (한국과학재단의 농수산분야 기초연구지원 추이분석을 통한 연구활동지원 활성화 제언)

  • Min, Tae-Sun;Choi, Hyung-Kyoon;Kim, Seong-Yong;Bai, Sung-Chul;Kim, Yoo-Yong;Yang, Moon-Sik;Chung, Bong-Hyun;Hwang, Joon-Young;Han, In-Kyu
    • Applied Biological Chemistry
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    • v.48 no.1
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    • pp.23-33
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    • 2005
  • Agricultural sciences field in South Korea has many strong points such as numerous researchers, establishment of research infra-structure, excellence in research competitiveness and high technological level. However, there are also many weaknesses including insufficient leadership at related societies and institutes, deficiency of the next generation research group, and insufficiency in research productivity. There are many opportunities including increasing the importance of the biotechnological industry, activating international cooperation researches, and exploring the multitude of possible research areas to be studied. However, some threats still exist, such as pressure from the government of developed countries to open the agricultural market, the decrease of specialized farms, and intensification for researches to gratify economic and social demands. To encourage research activities in the agricultural sciences field in Korea, the following actions and systems are required: 1) formulation of a mid- and a long-term research master plan, 2) development of a database on the man power in related fields, 3) activation of top-down research topics, and associated increase of individual research grants, 4) development of special national programs for basic researches in agricultural sciences, 5) organization of a committee for policy and planning within the related societies, and 6) system development for the fair evaluation of the research results.

The Effects of Internal Competence and Growth Stages on the Performance of Venture Business : the Moderating Effect in Connection with Government Funding Utilization (벤처기업의 내부역량과 성장단계가 경영성과에 미치는 영향 : 정부 지원자금 활용의 조절효과를 중심으로)

  • Kim, Yoonjung;Suh, Yoonkyo;Hong, Jungim
    • Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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    • v.21 no.2
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    • pp.636-662
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    • 2018
  • Recently, the Moon administration established the Ministry of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and Startups, as part of its national strategy for start-up and innovation growth led by small and medium-sized venture companies. In a slowing economy, as venture companies with excellent internal competencies are seen to be favorable to growth, the government funding for technology development is becoming increasingly important. Previous studies examine the internal competence factors that can strengthen competitiveness through self-efforts and the influence structure of growth stage, which is an important factor in industrial environment, on business performance. As the government support for venture firms has been strengthened, the effect of government funding on the management performance and technological innovation performance of venture firms have been recently discussed in various ways. However, there is a lack of precedent research on the moderating effect of the utilization of government funding on the existing influence structure in which firm's internal competence and growth stages affects business performance. Therefore, this study examined whether the internal competencies of the venture firms and the stage of growth have direct effects on business performance and analyzed the moderating effect in connection with government funding utilization under these influence structures. The results of the study are as follows. First, the utilization of government funding in the venture firms whose R&D personnel ratio is relatively low, not to have own brands and showed an increase of employees has a significantly positive influence on business performance. Second, the moderating effects of the government funding utilization at the high growth stage of the venture firms are shown significantly. These results suggest that the venture policy linked to the job creation of the present government requires not only the support considering R&D personnel but also the necessity of supporting human resources policy to a greater extent and further study on the effectiveness of venture firms in the high growth stage.

Flexible Specialization: A New Paradigm for Modern Industrial Society ? (柔軟的 專門化(Flexible Specialization) : 현대 産業社會의 새로운 패러다임 ?)

  • Lee, Deog-An
    • Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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    • v.28 no.2
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    • pp.148-162
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    • 1993
  • There is much speculation that modern capi-talist society is undergoing fundamental and qualitative chnge towards flexible specialization. The purpose of this study is to examine this hypothesis. This paper focusses on: the idea of flexible specialization; the significance of this transition; industrial district; and the implicati-ons of this new production system for Korean industrial space. Main arguments of this study are as follows: First, as all different groups of researchers apply the idea of flexible specialization according to their own specifications, the current debate on this topic is not much fruitful. Not surpri-singly, the concept of flexible specialization has overlapped with subocontracting. This intergration of subcontracting into flexible specialization systems, however, is inappropriate because the two concepts have different historical contexts. The other cause of this controversy is its inherent weekness, conceptual ambiguity. Thus, today's flexibility becomes tomorrow's rigidity. Secondly, transition towards flexible speciali-zation has only been partially achieved even in advanced capitalist countries. The application of dualistic explanatory framework, such as rigidity versus flexibiity, mass production versus small-lot multi-product production, and de-skilling versus re-skilling, has resulted in great exaggeration of the transformation, from Fordism to post-Fordism. There is no intermediary part between two places. Considering that the workers allocated to the Fordist mass production assembly line are not as large as one might imagine, the shift from mass to flexible production has only limited implications for the transformation of capitalist economy. Thirdly, 'industrial district' contorversy has contributed to highlighting the importance of small firms and areas as production space. The agglomeration of small firms in specific areas is common in Korea, but it is quite different from the industrial district based on flexible specialization. The Korean phenomenon stems from close interactions with its major parent firm rather than interactions between flexible, specialized, autonomous and technology-intensive smll firms. Most Korean subcontractors are still low-skilled, labour-intensive, and heavily dependent on their mojor parent firms. Thus, the assertion that the Seoul Metropolitan Area adopts flexible specialization has no base. Fourthly, the main concern of flexible speciali zation is small firms. However, the corporate organization that needs product diversification and technological specialization is oligopolistic large corporations typified by multinational corporations. It is because of this that most of these organizations are adoptiong Fordist mass production methods. The problem of product diversification will be resolved naturally if economic internationalization progresses further. What is more important for business success is the quality and price competitiveness of firms rather than product diversification. Lastly, in order to dispel further misunderst-anding on this issue, it is imparative that the conceptual ambiguity is resolved most urgently. This study recommends adoption of more speci-fied and direct terminology (such as, factory automation, computer design, out-sourcing, the exploitation of part-time labor, job redesign) rather than that of ideological ones (such as, Taylorism, Fordism, neo-Taylorism, neo-Fordism, post-fordism, flexible specialization, peripheral post-Fordism). As the debates on this topic just started, we still have long way to go until consensus is reached.

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The Influence of Store Environment on Service Brand Personality and Repurchase Intention (점포의 물리적 환경이 서비스 브랜드 개성과 재구매의도에 미치는 영향)

  • Kim, Hyoung-Gil;Kim, Jung-Hee;Kim, Youn-Jeong
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.17 no.4
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    • pp.141-173
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    • 2007
  • The study examines how the environmental factors of store influence service brand personality and repurchase intention in the service environment. The service industry has been experiencing the intensified competition with the industry's continuous growth and the influence from rapid technological advancement. Under the circumstances, it has become ever more important for the brand competitiveness to be distinctively recognized against competition. A brand needs to be distinguished and differentiated from competing companies because they are all engaged in the similar environment of the service industry. The differentiation of brand achievement has become increasingly important to highlight certain brand functions to include emotional, self-expressive, and symbolic functions since the importance of such functions has been further emphasized in promoting consumption activities. That is the recent role of brand personality that has been emphasized in the service industry. In other words, customers now freely and actively express their personalities or egos in consumption activities, taking an important role in construction of a brand asset. Hence, the study suggests that it is necessary to disperse the recognition and acknowledgement that the maintenance of the existing customers contributes more to boost repurchase intention when it is compared to the efforts to create new customers, particularly in the service industry. Meanwhile, the store itself can offer a unique environment that may influence the consumer's purchase decision. Consumers interact with store environments in the process of,virtually, all household purchase they make (Sarel 1981). Thus, store environments may encourage customers to purchase. The roles that store environments play are to provide informational cues to customers about the store and goods and communicate messages to stimulate consumers' emotions. The store environments differentiate the store from competing stores and build a unique service brand personality. However, the existing studies related to brand in the service industry mostly concentrated on the relationship between the quality of service and customer satisfaction, and they are mostly generalized while the connective studies focused on brand personality. Such approaches show limitations and are insufficient to investigate on the relationship between store environment and brand personality in the service industry. Accordingly, the study intends to identify the level of contribution to the establishment of brand personality made by the store's physical environments that influence on the specific brand characteristics depending on the type of service. The study also intends to identify what kind of relationships with brand personality exists with brand personality while being influenced by store environments. In addition, the study intends to make meaningful suggestions to better direct marketing efforts by identifying whether a brand personality makes a positive influence to induce an intention for repurchase. For this study, the service industry is classified into four categories based on to the characteristics of service: experimental-emotional service, emotional -credible service, credible-functional service, and functional-experimental service. The type of business with the most frequent customer contact is determined for each service type and the enterprise with the highest brand value in each service sector based on the report made by the Korea Management Association. They are designated as the representative of each category. The selected representatives are a fast-food store (experimental-emotional service), a cinema house (emotional-credible service), a bank (credible-functional service), and discount store (functional-experimental service). The survey was conducted for the four selected brands to represent each service category among consumers who are experienced users of the designated stores in Seoul Metropolitan City and Gyeonggi province via written questionnaires in order to verify the suggested assumptions in the study. In particular, the survey adopted 15 scales, which represent each characteristic factor, among the 42 unique characteristics developed by Jennifer Aaker(1997) to assess the brand personality of each service brand. SPSS for Windows Release 12.0 and LISREL were used in the analysis of data verification. The methodology of the structural equation model was used for the study and the pivotal findings are as follows. 1) The environmental factors ware classified as design factors, ambient factors, and social factors. Therefore, the validity of measurement scale of Baker et al. (1994) was proved. 2) The service brand personalities were subdivided as sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness, which makes the use of the brand personality scales by Jennifer Aaker(1997) appropriate in the service industry as well. 3) One-way ANOVA analysis on the scales of store environment and service brand personality showed that there exist statistically significant differences in each service category. For example, the social factors were highest in discount stores, while the ambient factors and design factors were highest in fast-food stores. The discount stores were highest in the sincerity and excitement, while the highest point for banks was in the competence and ruggedness, and the highest point for fast-food stores was in the sophistication, The consumers will make a different respond to the physical environment of stores and service brand personality that are inherent to the corresponding service interface. Hence, the customers will make a different decision-making when dealing with different service categories. In this aspect, the relationships of variables in the proposed hypothesis appear to work in a different way depending on the exposed service category. 4) The store environment factors influenced on service brand personalities differently by category of service. The factors of store's physical environment are transferred to a brand and were verified to strengthen service brand personalities. In particular, the level of influence on the service brand personality by physical environment differs depending on service category or dimension, which indicates that there is a need to apply a different style of management to a different service category or dimension. It signifies that there needs to be a brand strategy established in order to positively influence the relationship with consumers by utilizing an appropriate brand personality factor depending on different characteristics by service category or dimension. 5) The service brand personalities influenced on the repurchase intention. Especially, the largest influence was made in the sophistication dimension of service brand personality scale; the unique and characteristically appropriate arrangement of physical environment will make customers stay in the service environment for a long time and will lead to give a positive influence on the repurchase intention. 6) The store environment factors influenced on the repurchase intention. Particularly, the largest influence was made on the social factors of store environment. The most intriguing finding is that the service factor among all other environment factors gives the biggest influence to the repurchase intention in most of all service types except fast-food stores. Such result indicates that the customers pay attention to how much the employees try to provide a quality service when they make an evaluation on the service brand. At the same time, it also indicates that the personal factor is directly transmitted to the construction of brand personality. The employees' attitude and behavior are the determinants to establish a service brand personality in the process of enhancing service interface. Hence, there should be a reinforced search for a method to efficiently manage the service staff who has a direct contact with customers in order to make an affirmative improvement of the customers' brand evaluation at the service interface. The findings suggest several managerial implications. 1) Results from the empirical study indicated that store environment factors have a strong positive impact on a service brand personality. To increase customers' repurchase intention of a service brand, the management is required to effectively manage store environment factors and create a friendly brand personality based on the corresponding service environment. 2) Mangers and researchers must understand and recognize that the store environment elements are important marketing tools, and that brand personality influences on consumers' repurchase intention. Based on such result of the study, a service brand could be utilized as an efficient measure to achieve a differentiation by enforcing the elements that are most influential among all other store environments for each service category. Therefore, brand personality established involving various store environments will further reinforce the relationship with customers through the elevated brand identification of which utilization to induce repurchase decision can be used as an entry barrier. 3) The study identified the store environment as a component of service brand personality for the store's effective communication with consumers. For this, all communication channels should be maintained with consistency and an integrated marketing communication should be executed to efficiently approach to a larger number of customers. Mangers and researchers must find strategies for aligning decisions about store environment elements with the retailers' marketing and store personality objectives. All ambient, design, and social factors need to be orchestrated so that consumers can take an appropriate store personality. In this study, the induced results from the previous studies were extended to the service industry so as to identify the customers' decision making process that leads to repurchase intention and a result similar to those of the previous studies. The findings suggested several theoretical and managerial implications. However, the situation that only one service brand served as the subject of analysis for each service category, and the situation that correlations among store environment elements were not identified, as well as the problem of representation in selection of samples should be considered and supplemented in the future when further studies are conducted. In addition, various antecedents and consequences of brand personality must be looked at in the aspect of the service environment for further research.

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