• KIPS Transactions on Computer and Communication Systems
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• 제11권9호
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• pp.317-322
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• 2022

The rapid development of information technology is also bringing about many changes in the medical environment. In particular, it is leading the rapid change of medical image information systems using big data and artificial intelligence (AI). The prescription delivery system (OCS), which consists of an electronic medical record (EMR) and a medical image storage and transmission system (PACS), has rapidly changed the medical environment from analog to digital. When combined with multiple solutions, PACS represents a new direction for advancement in security, interoperability, efficiency and automation. Among them, the combination with artificial intelligence (AI) using big data that can improve the quality of images is actively progressing. In particular, AI PACS, a system that can assist in reading medical images using deep learning technology, was developed in cooperation with universities and industries and is being used in hospitals. As such, in line with the rapid changes in the medical image information system in the medical environment, structural changes in the medical market and changes in medical policies to cope with them are also necessary. On the other hand, medical image information is based on a digital medical image transmission device (DICOM) format method, and is divided into a tomographic volume image, a volume image, and a cross-sectional image, a two-dimensional image, according to a generation method. In addition, recently, many medical institutions are rushing to introduce the next-generation integrated medical information system by promoting smart hospital services. The next-generation integrated medical information system is built as a solution that integrates EMR, electronic consent, big data, AI, precision medicine, and interworking with external institutions. It aims to realize research. Korea's medical image information system is at a world-class level thanks to advanced IT technology and government policies. In particular, the PACS solution is the only field exporting medical information technology to the world. In this study, along with the analysis of the medical image information system using big data, the current trend was grasped based on the historical background of the introduction of the medical image information system in Korea, and the future development direction was predicted. In the future, based on DICOM big data accumulated over 20 years, we plan to conduct research that can increase the image read rate by using AI and deep learning algorithms.

• Journal of fish pathology
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• 제35권1호
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• pp.1-25
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• 2022

The aquaculture industry has developed rapidly over the last three decades and is an important industry that supplies over 15% of humans' animal protein intake; therefore, there is a need to increase production to meet the continuous demand. The fish cage farms on the southern coast (Kyengsangnam-do and Jeollanam-do) of Korea are critical resources in aquaculture because they account for approximately 90% of the national total fish cage farms by water area ratio. However, the current aquaculture environment is being gradually affected by climate change, which is a global issue, and its effects are expected to intensify in the future. Therefore, it is urgently imperative to accurately evaluate the effects of climate change on South Korean aquaculture industries and to develop social and national strategies to minimize damage to the fishing industry. The damage to fish farmed in cage farms on the southern coast is increasing annually and the leading causes are high and low water temperature and red tides, which are directly or indirectly related to climate change. At present, global warming can provide opportunities for aquaculture industrialization of fish or other novel species, with economic implications. However, despite such opportunities, the influx of new species can also cause problems such as ecological disturbances, increase in the reproduction frequency of microalgae such as red tide, increase in disease incidence, and occurrence and periods of high water temperatures in summer. The scale of farmed fish mortality is increasing due to the complex effects of these factors. Increased damages due to fish mortality not only have severe economic impacts on the aquaculture industry, but the social costs of responding to the damage and follow-up measures also increase. various active responses can reduce the mortality damage in fish farms such as improving the management skills in aquaculture, improved species breeding, efficient food management, disease prevention, proactive responses, and system-wide improvements. This review article analyzes the large-scale mortality cases occurring in fish cage farms on the southern coast of Korea and proposes measures to mitigate mortality and enhance responses to such scenarios.

• Journal of International Area Studies (JIAS)
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• 제14권4호
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• pp.79-106
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• 2011

The cultural contents industries have moved closer to the centre of the economic action in many countries and across much of the world. For this reason, the concern with the development of glocal cultural contents has also been growing. According to Goldman Sock's BRICs report, Indian economy will be the engine of global economy with China. In addition, India will be a new blue chip country for large consumer market of cultual contents. The most important point for the development of glocal cultural contents is a systematic and in-depth analysis of other culture. India is a complex and multicultural country compared with Korea which is a nation-state. Therefore, this paper is intended as an understanding about India appropriately and suggestion for a strategy to enter cultural industry in India. As the purpose of this paper is concerned, we will take a close look at 9 Indian culture codes which can be classified into three main groups: 1) political, social and cultural codes 2) economic codes 3) cultural contents codes. Firstly, political, social and cultural codes are i) consistent democracy and saving common people, ii) authoritarianism which appears an innate respect for authority of India, iii) Collective-individualism which represents collectivist and individualistic tendency, iv) life-religion, v) carpe diem. Secondly, economic culture codes are vi) 1.2billion Indian people's God which represents money and vii) practical purchase which stands for a reasonable choice of buying products. Lastly, viii) Masala movie and ix) happy ending that is the most popular theme of Masala movies are explained in the context of cultural content codes. In conclusion, 3 interesting cases , , will be examined in detail. From what has been discussed above, we suggest oversea expansion strategy based on these case studies. Eventually, what is important is to understand what Indian society is, how Indian society works and what contents Indian prefers.

• Information Systems Review
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• 제25권4호
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• pp.131-159
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• 2023

Recently, amidst the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic shifting towards an endemic phase, there has been a rise in discussions and debates about the future of the metaverse. Simultaneously, major metaverse platforms like Roblox have been launching services integrated with generative AI, and Apple's mixed reality hardware, Vision Pro, has been announced, creating new expectations for the metaverse. In this situation where the outlook for the metaverse is divided, it is crucial to diagnose the metaverse from an ecosystem perspective, examine its key ecological features, driving forces for development, and future possibilities for advancement. This study utilized Wang's (2021) Information Ecology Theory (IET) framework, which is representative of ecosystem research in the field of Information Systems (IS), to derive the Metaverse Industrial Ecosystem (MIE). The analysis revealed that the MIE consists of four main domains: Tech Landscape, Category Ecosystem, Metaverse Platform, and Product/Service Ecosystem. It was found that the MIE exhibits characteristics such as digital connectivity, the integration of real and virtual worlds, value creation capabilities, and value sharing (Web 3.0). Furthermore, the interactions among the domains within the MIE and the four characteristics of the ecosystem were identified as driving forces for the development of the MIE at an ecosystem level. Additionally, the development of the MIE at an ecosystem level was categorized into three distinct stages: Narrow Ecosystem, Expanded Ecosystem, and Everywhere Ecosystem. It is anticipated that future advancements in related technologies and industries, such as robotics, AI, and 6G, will promote the transition from the current Expanded Ecosystem level of the MIE to an Everywhere Ecosystem level, where the connection between the real and virtual worlds is pervasive. This study provides several implications. Firstly, it offers a foundational theory and analytical framework for ecosystem research, addressing a gap in previous metaverse studies. It also presents various research topics within the metaverse domain. Additionally, it establishes an academic foundation that integrates concept definition research and impact studies, which are key areas in metaverse research. Lastly, referring to the developmental stages and conditions proposed in this study, businesses and governments can explore future metaverse markets and related technologies. They can also consider diverse metaverse business strategies. These implications are expected to guide the exploration of the emerging metaverse market and facilitate the evaluation of various metaverse business strategies.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• 제18권6호
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• pp.173-189
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• 2023

As supreme technologies continue to be developed, industries such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology, robots, aerospace, electric vehicles, and solar energy are created, and the macro business environment is rapidly changing. Due to these large-scale changes and increased complexity, it is necessary to pay attention to the effect of social capital, which can create new value by utilizing capital increasing the importance of relationships rather than technology or asset ownership itself at the level of start-up strategy. Social capital is a concept first proposed by Hanifan in 1916, and refers to the overall sum of capabilities or resources that are latent or available for use in mutual, continuous, organic relationships or accumulated human relationship networks between individuals or social members. In addition, the diversity of start-up teams with diverse backgrounds, characteristics, and capabilities, rather than one exceptional founder, has been emphasized. Founding team diversity refers to the diversity of in-depth factors such as demographic factors, beliefs, and values of the founding team. In addition, changes in the macro environment are emphasizing the importance of technology start-ups and laboratory start-ups that lead industrial innovation and create the nation's core growth engines. This study focused on the I-Corps' program. I-Corps, which means innovation corps, is a laboratory startup program launched by the National Research Foundation (NSF) in 2011 to encourage entrepreneurship and commercialization of research results. It focuses on forming a startup team involving professors, researchers and market discovery activities. Taking these characteristics into account, this study empirically verified the impact of social capital from a network perspective and founding team diversity on I-Corps start-up performance. As a result of the analysis, the educational diversity of the founding team had a negative (-) effect on the financial performance of the founding team. On the other side, the gender diversity and the cognitive dimension of social capital had a positive (+) effect on the financial performance of the founding team. This study is expected to provide more useful theoretical and practical implications regarding the diversity, social capital, and performance interpretation of the I-Corps Lab startup team.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• 제38권1호
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• pp.90-107
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• 2024

This study analyzed the status of urban agricultural regulation of metropolitan governments on supporting multi-dimensional values to suggest a direction for improving urban agriculture regulations. Moreover, a Delphi survey was conducted to derive ways to identify improvement opportunities for functions that showed relatively insufficient support for urban agricultural regulations. As a result of the study, 12 out of 17 metropolitan governments and 116 of 226 municipalities have enacted urban agricultural regulations. However, the enactment of urban agricultural regulations has generally declined since 2011. Analysis of the contents of the urban agricultural regulations showed that they focused on matters relating to the creation and expansion of the foundation of urban agriculture. Among the multi-dimensional values of urban agricultural regulations, the foundation for supporting the securing of green spaces and utilizing food production functions was most widely available. On the other hand, the foundation for support of resource recycling, healing and health, social welfare, economic imbalance mitigation, and job creation functions has been shown to be relatively insufficient. A Delphi survey conducted to determine potential measures to improve urban agricultural regulations to support these functions found that 17 of the 18 ordinance improvement measures were valid. Therefore, to revitalize the multi-dimensional values of urban agriculture, it is first necessary to enact new ordinances. Also, to revitalize the multi-dimensional values of urban agriculture evenly, it is necessary to revise the ordinances to include resource recycling, healing and health, social welfare, mitigation of economic imbalances, and job creation functions. In this process, the development of urban agriculture technology, legal review of various urban farming spaces, and fostering of industries related to urban agriculture are necessary. Above all, steady interest in the multi-dimensional values of urban agriculture and the efforts of local governments to foster urban agriculture must be supported.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• 제8권3호
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• pp.17-26
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• 2010

Recently concerns have been raised due to the unbalanced supply of crops: the price of crops has been unstable and at one point the price went up so high that the word Agflation(agriculture+ inflation) was coined. Korea, in particular, is a small-sized country and needs to secure the stable supply of crops by investing in the produce importation at a national level. Investment in foreign produce importation is becoming more important as a measure for sufficient supply of crops, limited supply of domestic crops, weakened farming conditions worldwide, as well as recent changes in the use of crops due to the development of bio-fuels, influence of carbon emission on crops, the price increase in crops, and influx of foreign hot money. However, there are many problems with investing in foreign produce importation: lack of support from the government; lack of farming information and technology; difficulty in securing the capital; no immediate pay-off from the investment and insufficient management. Although foreign produce is originally more price-competitive than domestic produce, it loses its competiveness in the process of importation (due to high tariffs) and poor distribution system, which makes it difficult to sell in Korea. Therefore, investment in foreign produce importation is being questioned for feasibility; to make it possible, foreign produce must maintain the price-competitiveness. Especially, harvest of agricultural products depends on natural and geographical conditions of each country and those products have indigenous properties, so distribution system according to import and export of agricultural products should be treated more carefully than that of other industries. Distribution costs are differentiated into each item and include cost of sorting and wrapping, cost of wrapping materials, cost of domestic transport, cost of international transport and cost of clearing customs for import and export. So transporting and storing agricultural products generates considerable costs compared with other products. Also, due to upgrade of dietary life, needs for stability, taste and visible quality toward food including agricultural products are being raised and wrong way of storage causes decomposition of food and loss of freshness, making the storage more difficult than that in room temperature, so storage and transport in distribution of agricultural products needs specialty. In addition, because lack of specialty in distribution and circulation such as storage and wrapping does not solve limit factors in distance, the distribution and circulation has been limited to a form of import and export within short-distant region. Therefore, need for distribution out-sourcing which can satisfy specialty in managing distribution and circulation and it is needed to establish more effective distribution system. However, existing distribution system of agricultural products is exposed to various problems including problems in distribution channel, making distribution and strategy for distribution and those problems are as follows. First, in case of investment in overseas agricultural industry, stable supply of the products is difficult because areas of production are dispersed widely and influenced by outer factors due to including overseas distribution channels. Also, at the aspect of quality, standardization of products is difficult, distribution system is quite complicated and unreasonable due to long distribution channels according to international trade and financial and institutional support is not enough. Especially, there are quite a lot of ineffective factors including multi level distribution process, dramatic gap between production cost and customer's cost, lack of physical distribution facilities and difficulties in storage and transport due to lack of wrapping containers. Besides, because import and export of agricultural products has been manages under the company's own distribution according to transaction contract between manufacturers and exporting company, efficiency is low due to excessive investment in fixed costs and lack of specialty in dealing with agricultural products causes fall of value of products, showing the limit to lose price-competitiveness. Especially, because lack of specialty in distribution and circulation such as storage and wrapping does not solve limit factors in distance, the distribution and circulation has been limited to a form of import and export within short-distant region. Therefore, need for distribution out-sourcing which can satisfy specialty in managing distribution and circulation and it is needed to establish more effective distribution system. Second, among tangible and intangible services which promote the efficiency of the whole distribution, a function building distribution environment which includes distribution information, system for standard and inspection, distribution finance, system for diversification of risks, education and training, distribution administration and tax system is wanted. In general, such a function building distribution environment is difficult to be changed and supplement innovatively because its effect compared with investment does not appear immediately despite of its necessity. Especially, in case of distribution of agricultural products, as a function of collecting and distributing is performed individually through various channels, the importance of distribution information and standardization is getting more focus due to the problem of repetition of work and lack of specialty. Also, efficient management of distribution is quite difficult due to lack of professionals in distribution, so support to professional education is needed. Third, though effort to keep self-sufficiency ratio of staple food, rice is regarded as important at the government level, level of dependency on overseas of others crops is high. Therefore, plan for stable securing food resources aside from staple food is also necessary. Especially, governmental organizations of agricultural products distribution in Korea are production-centered and have unreasonable structure whose function at the aspect of distribution and consumption is quite insufficient. And development of new distribution channels which can deal with changes in distribution environment and they do not achieve actual results of strategy for distribution due to non-positive strategy for price distribution. That is, it implies the possibility that base for supply will become vulnerable because it does not mediate appropriate interests on total distribution channels such as manufacturers, wholesale dealers and vendors by emphasizing consumer protection excessively in the distribution of agricultural products. Therefore, this study examined fundamental concept and actual situation for our investment to overseas agriculture, drew necessities, considerations, problems, etc. of overseas agricultural investment and suggested improvements at the level of distribution for price competitiveness of agricultural products cultivated in overseas under five aspects; government's indirect support, distribution's modernization and distribution information function's strengthening, government's political support for distribution facility, transportation route, load and unloading works' improvement, price competitiveness' securing, professional manpower's cultivation by education and training, etc. Here are some suggestions for foreign produce importation. First, the government should conduct a survey on the current distribution channels and analyze the situation to establish a measure for long-term development plans. By providing each agricultural area with a guideline for planning appropriate production of crops, the government can help farmers be ready for importation, and prevent them from producing same crops all at the same time. Government can sign an MOU with the foreign government and promote the importation so that the development of agricultural resources can be stable and steady. Second, the government can establish a strategy for an effective distribution system by providing farmers and agriculture-related workers with the distribution information such as price, production, demand, market structure and location, feature of each crop, and etc. In order for such distribution system to become feasible, the government needs to reconstruct the current distribution system, designate a public organization for providing distribution information and set the criteria for level of produce quality, trade units, and package units. Third, the government should provide financial support and a policy to seek an efficient distribution channel for foreign produce to be delivered fresh: the government should expand distribution facilities (for selecting, packaging, storing, and processing) and transportation vehicles while modernizing old facilities. There should be another policy to improve the efficiency of unloading, and to lower the cost of distribution. Fourth, it is necessary to enact a new law covering exceptional cases for importing produce in order to maintain the price competitiveness; currently the high tariffs is keeping the imported produce from being distributed domestically. However, the new adjustment should be made carefully within the WTO regulations since it can create a problem from giving preferential tariffs. The government can also simplify the distribution channels in order to reduce the cost in the distribution process. Fifth, the government should educate distributors to raise the efficiency and to modernize the distribution system. It is necessary to develop human resources by educating people regarding the foreign agricultural environment, the produce quality, management skills, and by introducing some successful cases in advanced countries.

• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• 제16권1호
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• pp.67-75
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• 1974

The studies are to know how much cocoon crops is damaged by the stained leaf with nicotine produced from the tobacco field cultivated in mulching system in spring season and by residual nicotine in autumn season. Furthermore, the new knowledges are to make both industries keep up with their development. In spring season mulberry Held is located higher on the West-North of tobacco held below 20 degrees of slope and with 36 per cent of East-South wind and 18 per cent of South wind blowing from tobacco fold to the mulberry fold. In addition, silkworm larvae are fed with the mulberry leaf produced in the different plots placing by the different distances, l0m, 25m, 50m, 80m, and loom far from the tobacco Held as a control and it is also considered that narcotic larvae including the dead larvae are not observed. On the other hand, it is noted that better leaf quality and abundant growth of mulberry tree is produced from the mulberry fold closer to the tobacco field and with a low slope. 1) Maximum weight of larval body at the 5th stage is damaged by the stained leaf with the nicotine up to 25m far from the tobacco held. 2) The larvae fed with the mulberry leaf in mulberry Held up to 25m far from the tobacco fold produce small number of the fresh cocoons per 1 liter. 3) Low single cocoon weight and low cocoon shell weight are produced by the poison damaged larvae fed with the mulberry. leaf up to 25m far from the tobacco field and weight of cocoon shell is damaged higher than the single cocoon weight. It is resulted in low percentage of cocoon shell. 4) Cocoon yield including the double cocoon from 10,000 larvae is decreased by the larvae fed with the stained leaf in the mulberry fold up to 25m far from the tobacco fold and 19 per cent of cocoon yield is decreased with 2.4kg of cocoon yield in l0m plot and with 2.5kg of cocoon yield in 25m plot at the first season and at the 2nd season with 1.8kg o( cocoon yield in l0m plot and with 11.5kg of cocoon yield in 25m plot, 11 per cent and 9 per cent of cocoon yield including double cocoon from 10,000 larvae is decreased, as compared with the control, respectively. With these results, it is observed that nicotine damage is occurred to the silkworm larvae if the larvae are fed with the leaf in the mulberry Held within 25m-50m far from the tobacco field.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• 제20권2호
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• pp.219-230
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• 2010

Digital content makes big changes to our daily lives while bringing opportunities and challenges for companies. Creative firms integrate pictures, texts, videos, audios, and data by digitalization to develop new products or services and create digital experiences to promote their brands. Most articles on digital content contribute to the basic concept or development of marketing it in literature. Actually, compared with traditional value chains for common products or services, the digital content industry seems to have more potential value. Because quite a bit of digital content is free to the consumer, price is not necessarily perceived as an indicator of the quality or value of information (Rowley 2008). It becomes evident that a current theme in digital content is the issue of "value," and research on customers' perceived value of digital content is a necessity. This article argues that experiential value has an advantage in customers' evaluations of digital content. Two different but related contributions to the understanding of "value" of digital content are made here. First, based on the comparison of digital content with products and services, the article proposes two key characteristics that make experiential strategy available for digital content: intangibility and near-zero reproduction cost. On top of that, based on the discussion of the gap between company's idealized value and customer's perceived value, this article emphasizes that digital content prices and pricing of digital content is different from products and services. As a result of intangibility, prices may not reflect customer value. Moreover, the cost of digital content in the development stage may be very high while reproduction costs shrink dramatically. Moreover, because of the value gap mentioned before, the pricing polices vary for different digital contents. For example, flat price policy is generally used for movies and music (Magiera 2001; Netherby 2002), while for continuous demand, digital content such as online games and anti-virus programs involves a more complicated matter of utility and competitive price levels. Digital content companies have to explore various kinds of strategies to overcome this gap. Rethinking marketing solutions such as advertisements, images, and word-of-mouth and their effect on customers' perceived value becomes essential. China's digital content industry is becoming more and more globalized and drawing special attention from different countries and regions that have respective competitive advantages. The 2008-2009 Annual Report on the Development of China's Digital Content Industry (CCIDConsulting 2009) indicates that, with the driven power of domestic demand and governmental policy support, the country's digital content industry maintained a fast growth of some 30 percent in 2008, obviously indicating the initial stage of industry expansion. In China, anti-virus programs and other software programs which need to be updated use a quarter-based pricing policy. Customers can download a trial version for free and use it for six months or a year. If they want to use it longer, continuous payment is needed. They examine the excellence of the digital content during this trial period and decide whether to pay for continued usage. For China’s music and movie industries, as a result of initial development, experiential strategy has not been much applied, even though firms in other countries find the trial experience and explore important strategies(such as customers listening to music for several seconds for free before downloading it). For the above reasons, anti-virus program may be a representative for digital content industry in China and an exploratory study of the advantage of experiential value in customer's perceived value of digital content is done in the anti-virus market of China. In order to enhance the reliability of the survey data, this study focused on people who were experienced users of anti-virus programs. The empirical results revealed that experiential value has a positive effect on customers' perceived value of digital content. In other words, because digital content is intangible and the reproduction costs are nearly zero, customers' evaluations are based heavily on their experience. Moreover, image and word-of-mouth do not have a positive effect on perceived value, only on experiential value. That is to say, a digital content value chain is different from that of a general product or service. Experiential value has a notable advantage and mediates the effect of image and word-of-mouth on perceived value. The results of this study help provide an understanding of why free digital content downloads exist in developing countries. Customers can perceive the value of digital content only by using and experiencing it. This is also why such governments support the development of digital content. Other developing countries whose digital content business is also in the beginning stage can make use of the suggestions here. Moreover, based on the advantage of experiential strategy, companies should make more of an effort to invest in customers' experience. As a result of the characteristics and value gap of digital content, customers perceive more value in the intangible digital content only by experiencing what they really want. Moreover, because of the near-zero reproduction costs, companies can perhaps use experiential strategy to enhance customer understanding of digital content.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• 제12권1호
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• pp.31-68
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• 1990

The concentration of economic power takes the form of one or a few firms controlling a substantial portion of the economic resources and means in a certain economic area. At the same time, to the extent that these firms are owned by a few individuals, resource allocation can be manipulated by them rather than by the impersonal market mechanism. This will impair allocative efficiency, run counter to a decentralized market system and hamper the equitable distribution of wealth. Viewed from the historical evolution of Western capitalism in general, the concentration of economic power is a paradox in that it is a product of the free market system itself. The economic principle of natural discrimination works so that a few big firms preempt scarce resources and market opportunities. Prominent historical examples include trusts in America, Konzern in Germany and Zaibatsu in Japan in the early twentieth century. In other words, the concentration of economic power is the outcome as well as the antithesis of free competition. As long as judgment of the economic system at large depends upon the value systems of individuals, therefore, the issue of how to evaluate the concentration of economic power will inevitably be tinged with ideology. We have witnessed several different approaches to this problem such as communism, fascism and revised capitalism, and the last one seems to be the only surviving alternative. The concentration of economic power in Korea can be summarily represented by the "jaebol," namely, the conglomerate business group, the majority of whose member firms are monopolistic or oligopolistic in their respective markets and are owned by particular individuals. The jaebol has many dimensions in its size, but to sketch its magnitude, the share of the jaebol in the manufacturing sector reached 37.3% in shipment and 17.6% in employment as of 1989. The concentration of economic power can be ascribed to a number of causes. In the early stages of economic development, when the market system is immature, entrepreneurship must fill the gap inherent in the market in addition to performing its customary managerial function. Entrepreneurship of this sort is a scarce resource and becomes even more valuable as the target rate of economic growth gets higher. Entrepreneurship can neither be readily obtained in the market nor exhausted despite repeated use. Because of these peculiarities, economic power is bound to be concentrated in the hands of a few entrepreneurs and their business groups. It goes without saying, however, that the issue of whether the full exercise of money-making entrepreneurship is compatible with social mores is a different matter entirely. The rapidity of the concentration of economic power can also be traced to the diversification of business groups. The transplantation of advanced technology oriented toward mass production tends to saturate the small domestic market quite early and allows a firm to expand into new markets by making use of excess capacity and of monopoly profits. One of the reasons why the jaebol issue has become so acute in Korea lies in the nature of the government-business relationship. The Korean government has set economic development as its foremost national goal and, since then, has intervened profoundly in the private sector. Since most strategic industries promoted by the government required a huge capacity in technology, capital and manpower, big firms were favored over smaller firms, and the benefits of industrial policy naturally accrued to large business groups. The concentration of economic power which occured along the way was, therefore, not necessarily a product of the market system. At the same time, the concentration of ownership in business groups has been left largely intact as they have customarily met capital requirements by means of debt. The real advantage enjoyed by large business groups lies in synergy due to multiplant and multiproduct production. Even these effects, however, cannot always be considered socially optimal, as they offer disadvantages to other independent firms-for example, by foreclosing their markets. Moreover their fictitious or artificial advantages only aggravate the popular perception that most business groups have accumulated their wealth at the expense of the general public and under the behest of the government. Since Korea stands now at the threshold of establishing a full-fledged market economy along with political democracy, the phenomenon called the concentration of economic power must be correctly understood and the roles of business groups must be accordingly redefined. In doing so, we would do better to take a closer look at Japan which has experienced a demise of family-controlled Zaibatsu and a success with business groups(Kigyoshudan) whose ownership is dispersed among many firms and ultimately among the general public. The Japanese case cannot be an ideal model, but at least it gives us a good point of departure in that the issue of ownership is at the heart of the matter. In setting the basic direction of public policy aimed at controlling the concentration of economic power, one must harmonize efficiency and equity. Firm size in itself is not a problem, if it is dictated by efficiency considerations and if the firm behaves competitively in the market. As long as entrepreneurship is required for continuous economic growth and there is a discrepancy in entrepreneurial capacity among individuals, a concentration of economic power is bound to take place to some degree. Hence, the most effective way of reducing the inefficiency of business groups may be to impose competitive pressure on their activities. Concurrently, unless the concentration of ownership in business groups is scaled down, the seed of social discontent will still remain. Nevertheless, the dispersion of ownership requires a number of preconditions and, consequently, we must make consistent, long-term efforts on many fronts. We can suggest a long list of policy measures specifically designed to control the concentration of economic power. Whatever the policy may be, however, its intended effects will not be fully realized unless business groups abide by the moral code expected of socially responsible entrepreneurs. This is especially true, since the root of the problem of the excessive concentration of economic power lies outside the issue of efficiency, in problems concerning distribution, equity, and social justice.