• Knowledge Management Research
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.191-213
• /
• 2016

Since the smartphone era has spurred world-over, social network services have become a part of people's daily lives. However, this relatively new phenomenon of technology development raises several negative side effects such as cyberbullying. One of the representative cases of cyberbullying is posting malicious comments online. Multiple social issues arising from this have given impetus to the "benevolent comments campaign" in order to restrain the diffusion of malicious comments. Benevolent comments have advantages that generate positive externalities such as inspiring ethics for an appropriate internet culture, but there is a lack of theoretical research on the deeper understanding of posting benevolent comments. This study thus aims to extract the motivations behind posting benevolent comments through in-depth interviews and suggest alternatives for relative issues through the causal relationship diagram of the system dynamics methodology. This work contributes to our understanding of the factors that affect the increase and decrease in benevolent comments in distinct structural frameworks.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
• /
• v.20 no.1
• /
• pp.127-140
• /
• 2010

The benefit that a consumer derives from the use of a good often depends on the number of other consumers purchasing the same goods or other compatible items. This property, which is known as network externality, is significant in many IT related industries. Over the past few decades, network externalities have been recognized in the context of physical networks such as the telephone and railroad industries. Today, as many products are provided as a form of system that consists of compatible components, the appreciation of network externality is becoming increasingly important. Network externalities have been extensively studied among economists who have been seeking to explain new phenomena resulting from rapid advancements in ICT (Information and Communication Technology). As a result of these efforts, a new body of theories for 'New Economy' has been proposed. The theoretical bottom-line argument of such theories is that technologies subject to network effects exhibit multiple equilibriums and will finally lock into a monopoly with one standard cornering the entire market. They emphasize that such "tippiness" is a typical characteristic in such networked markets, describing that multiple incompatible technologies rarely coexist and that the switch to a single, leading standard occurs suddenly. Moreover, it is argued that this standardization process is path dependent, and the ultimate outcome is unpredictable. With incomplete information about other actors' preferences, there can be excess inertia, as consumers only moderately favor the change, and hence are themselves insufficiently motivated to start the bandwagon rolling, but would get on it once it did start to roll. This startup problem can prevent the adoption of any standard at all, even if it is preferred by everyone. Conversely, excess momentum is another possible outcome, for example, if a sponsoring firm uses low prices during early periods of diffusion. The aim of this paper is to analyze the dynamics of the adoption process in markets exhibiting network effects by focusing on two factors; switching and agent heterogeneity. Switching is an important factor that should be considered in analyzing the adoption process. An agent's switching invokes switching by other adopters, which brings about a positive feedback process that can significantly complicate the adoption process. Agent heterogeneity also plays a important role in shaping the early development of the adoption process, which has a significant impact on the later development of the process. The effects of these two factors are analyzed by developing an agent-based simulation model. ABM is a computer-based simulation methodology that can offer many advantages over traditional analytical approaches. The model is designed such that agents have diverse preferences regarding technology and are allowed to switch their previous choice. The simulation results showed that the adoption processes in a market exhibiting networks effects are significantly affected by the distribution of agents and the occurrence of switching. In particular, it is found that both weak heterogeneity and strong network effects cause agents to start to switch early and this plays a role of expediting the emergence of 'lock-in.' When network effects are strong, agents are easily affected by changes in early market shares. This causes agents to switch earlier and in turn speeds up the market's tipping. The same effect is found in the case of highly homogeneous agents. When agents are highly homogeneous, the market starts to tip toward one technology rapidly, and its choice is not always consistent with the populations' initial inclination. Increased volatility and faster lock-in increase the possibility that the market will reach an unexpected outcome. The primary contribution of this study is the elucidation of the role of parameters characterizing the market in the development of the lock-in process, and identification of conditions where such unexpected outcomes happen.

• Journal of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society
• /
• v.38 no.3
• /
• pp.51-70
• /
• 2013

This paper develops a model to predict the adoption and level of usage of network technology in a two-level supply chain with buyer-supplier relationships. A firm's adoption of a new technology depends not only on its own beliefs of the new technology's costs and benefits, but also on the adoption decisions of other firms in the supply chain. A model first analyzes an individual supplier's decision about a new technology adoption considering with multiple suppliers and buyers. Individual suppliers' decisions are aggregated with a population model to project how new technology diffuses across the supply chain and examine the pattern of diffusion process. This study found that as more firms adopt in initial periods, the total amount of information to the potential adopters in the population increases, and then the number of firms persuaded by the information increases as the process moves up the distribution of adoption process. We consider three factors influencing the diffusion speed of the new technology in a supply chain network : mean benefits, cost sharing, and information provision. This study examines how such factors affect the reduction of threshold levels, which implies that reductions in threshold levels have an aggregate effect by accelerating the rate of adoption. In particular, we explore relationship factors available in practice in a buyer-supplier relationship and numerically examines how these relationship factors contribute to increase the diffusion speed of the technology in a two-level supply chain.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
• /
• v.7 no.2
• /
• pp.93-102
• /
• 2006

Traditionally, diffusion of telecommunications services has been considerably affected by presence of critical mass and network externalities, and thus shown the so-called late take-off phenomenon. However, as telecommunications network evolves from circuit switching to packet switching, enabling diverse new services such as Internet access, Internet banking and web hosting, it seems this traditional diffusion patterns are changing. By comparing diffusion of the packet-based services with those of circuit-based services and durable goods, we have found the late take-off phenomenon is not involved in diffusion of newly introduced the packet-based services. Moreover, we concluded diffusion of the packet-based services is much faster than that of durable goods, thus showing early take-off phenomenon. Based on this empirical result, we suggest Telcos and ISPs should pay as much attention to the growth state as the introduction stage in order for their packet-based services to be successful in the markets.

• Convergence Security Journal
• /
• v.11 no.3
• /
• pp.55-66
• /
• 2011

This research focus on the value of smart phones for university students in Korea, considering on the correlations between the main causes influencing intrinsic value(price attributes, function attributes), network value(learning effects attributes, externalities attributes) user satisfaction, and intentions of repurchase of the smart phones market in Korea. Through the statistical analyses on the 8 hypotheses from a research model, we found that intrinsic value and network value gave an attentive influence on user satisfaction and repurchase intention. Call charge and Liquid crystal display and Design of smart phone have an influenced user satisfaction and repurchase intention.

• Management Science and Financial Engineering
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.73-91
• /
• 2007

We investigate factors that influence the choice of high-share brands(HSBs) vs. low-share brands(LSBs) among various product and consumer characteristics related to brand-share perceptions. Specifically, using 8 product categories varying in terms of purchase decision involvement, we show how the influencing factors vary across the categories. At the general level that cover all the 8 categories, our hierarchical Bayesian regressions analysis shows that factors that favor high-share brands are purchase decision involvement, search goods, experience goods, price-quality relationship, positive network externalities, and price-prestige beliefs. Conversely, consumers who value variety seeking and need for uniqueness favor low-share brands. The effects of these factors, however, vary across product categories. The identification of these characteristics can help brand managers establish a more effective brand-share strategy in such areas as setting an optimal market share goal, extending a brand, and developing ad copy. Furthermore, our consumer segmentation analysis demonstrates the general market has two distinct segments - (1) a segment composed of HSB buyers(86%) and (2) a segment composed of LSB buyers(14%). The two segments are also shown to have different significant factors that explain their brand choice. Our segmentation analysis can help marketers establish a marketing strategy that targets a specific segment of interest.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.5 no.4
• /
• pp.1-10
• /
• 2005

After Yahoo Korea opened up the Internet portal market in Korea in 1997, the Korean portal market has experienced fierce competition in the beginning of 2000s. After that period, however, Korean portal market looks relatively stable with top five rankers forming oligopoly and shows that Arthur's claim of network externalities can be applied to the portal industry. In this paper, based on case study of the Korean portals we empirically examined how portals have developed and evolved. In this course, we also investigated the sources of portal's competitiveness. The findings of the research suggest that portals develop and evolve through the reflexive four stages in which they compete over different goals: 1) service quality, 2) critical mass of customers, 3) interpersonal interactivity, and 4) innovative service. According to this framework of portal's evolution, we show that top ranking portals in the present have succeeded in accomplishing the goals of each stage.

• Journal of Labour Economics
• /
• v.30 no.2
• /
• pp.33-60
• /
• 2007

This study analyzes the trend of the gender wage gap and its sources in the Korean labor market for the years 1985-2004. Following Oaxaca and Ransom (1994), the gender wage gap is composed of the productivity-related gap and non-productivity-related gap (unobserved productivity gap and discrimination). Empirical findings indicate that both the productivity-related gap and non-productivity-related gap have dwindled, while the decline of the former far excelled that of the latter. The non-productivity-related gender wage gap is much larger for married women than for single women, possibly implying a lower unobserved productivity of married women because of their childcare responsibilities. The non-productivity-related gap is also very substantial in the male-dominated occupations as compared to the female=dominated occupations, supporting the existence of network externalities in employment.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
• /
• v.9 no.3
• /
• pp.273-296
• /
• 2006

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the formation and characteristics of Gwangju photonics agglomeration as a new agglomeration with a new industry. Data used in this study are locally investigatedfirm related data and the result of questionnaire surveys. Major findings are as follows. First, in the viewpoint of policy, national government suggested the whole policy frameworks and financial support for the strategic industrial development. Regional government picked up and fostered the strategic industry. The initial support of the national government and role of regional government triggered the initial development of the agglomeration. Second, in the spatial perspective, Gwangju photonics agglomeration is based on the externalities of knowledge and technology as well as the input-output network within value chains of production. There is a possibility that Gwangju photonics agglomeration will be developed as an innovation cluster of knowledge-based economy in the future beyond a mere production base of photonics.

• Information Systems Review
• /
• v.9 no.2
• /
• pp.85-108
• /
• 2007

Currently, most of big IT companies attempt to penetrate into Internet portal industry aggressively in order to expand their channels(sale, distribution, marketing, R&D, and so on) and to acquire competitive advantages. Existing Internet portals also have become larger and more complex with continuous developments. Therefore, it is necessary to acquire competitive contents to survive the extreme competition and to satisfy diverse needs of customers. In this paper, we have done qualitative analyses on the cases of domestic and foreign major Internet portals which have acquired contents through of M&A and strategic alliances. In our analyses, we identify five factors crucial to the successes and failures of Internet portals. From the analyses, we find that the acquisition of UCC based contents and subscribers over the critical mass point are the two most important factors that should be simultaneously satisfied for the successful M&As. Additional analyses suggest how to acquire synergy effects from successful M&As.