• Title/Summary/Keyword: Opportunity Cost

Search Result 377, Processing Time 0.027 seconds

A Review of Salvage Archaeology in Korea and a Joint Research and Excavation Plan for North Korean Cultural Heritage (남북 문화유산 조사 현황과 공동조사를 위한 제언)

  • Choi, Jongtaik;Seong, Chuntaek
    • Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
    • /
    • v.52 no.2
    • /
    • pp.20-37
    • /
    • 2019
  • Three Inter-Korea summits and a North Korea-USA summit that were previously unexpected provide a basis for an optimistic outlook for the future development of Korean archaeology. While Korean archaeology has witnessed a great advance since the mid-20th century, it also exhibits significant weaknesses in explaining cultural changes in prehistory and the early historical period in the Korean Peninsula due to the paucity of information on archaeological evidence of North Korea. Recent development of favorable conditions for research and excavations of North Korean cultural heritage could be a valuable opportunity for Korean archaeology to overcome the current adversity. Especially, given the expected large-scale SOC industrial project in North Korea, we need to prepare for the systematic research and excavation of archaeological materials. The present essay attempts to provide a suggestion for the joint archaeological expeditions to excavate and manage cultural resources in North Korea based on a critical review of previous salvage excavations in South Korea, such as those conducted before the construction of the Korean rapid transit railway system (KTX). We suggest that professional archaeologists should be included in the project and oversee the planning and design of road and railway constructions and other SOC projects in order to minimize the cost of trial and error processes that were well exemplified by the KTX salvage excavations. The Korean Archaeological Society and North Korean Archaeological Society may organize a common association that will supervise joint archaeological expeditions. Importantly, The Korean Archaeological Society and other related institutions should prepare to build an organization that conducts impending archaeological excavation in North Korea. While we likely face challenges and difficulties during the various stages of archaeological research and excavations in North Korea, only through thorough and systematic preparation can we avoid the destruction of valuable cultural heritage and find an opportunity for the further development of Korean archaeology.

Development Process for User Needs-based Chatbot: Focusing on Design Thinking Methodology (사용자 니즈 기반의 챗봇 개발 프로세스: 디자인 사고방법론을 중심으로)

  • Kim, Museong;Seo, Bong-Goon;Park, Do-Hyung
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
    • /
    • v.25 no.3
    • /
    • pp.221-238
    • /
    • 2019
  • Recently, companies and public institutions have been actively introducing chatbot services in the field of customer counseling and response. The introduction of the chatbot service not only brings labor cost savings to companies and organizations, but also enables rapid communication with customers. Advances in data analytics and artificial intelligence are driving the growth of these chatbot services. The current chatbot can understand users' questions and offer the most appropriate answers to questions through machine learning and deep learning. The advancement of chatbot core technologies such as NLP, NLU, and NLG has made it possible to understand words, understand paragraphs, understand meanings, and understand emotions. For this reason, the value of chatbots continues to rise. However, technology-oriented chatbots can be inconsistent with what users want inherently, so chatbots need to be addressed in the area of the user experience, not just in the area of technology. The Fourth Industrial Revolution represents the importance of the User Experience as well as the advancement of artificial intelligence, big data, cloud, and IoT technologies. The development of IT technology and the importance of user experience have provided people with a variety of environments and changed lifestyles. This means that experiences in interactions with people, services(products) and the environment become very important. Therefore, it is time to develop a user needs-based services(products) that can provide new experiences and values to people. This study proposes a chatbot development process based on user needs by applying the design thinking approach, a representative methodology in the field of user experience, to chatbot development. The process proposed in this study consists of four steps. The first step is 'setting up knowledge domain' to set up the chatbot's expertise. Accumulating the information corresponding to the configured domain and deriving the insight is the second step, 'Knowledge accumulation and Insight identification'. The third step is 'Opportunity Development and Prototyping'. It is going to start full-scale development at this stage. Finally, the 'User Feedback' step is to receive feedback from users on the developed prototype. This creates a "user needs-based service (product)" that meets the process's objectives. Beginning with the fact gathering through user observation, Perform the process of abstraction to derive insights and explore opportunities. Next, it is expected to develop a chatbot that meets the user's needs through the process of materializing to structure the desired information and providing the function that fits the user's mental model. In this study, we present the actual construction examples for the domestic cosmetics market to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed process. The reason why it chose the domestic cosmetics market as its case is because it shows strong characteristics of users' experiences, so it can quickly understand responses from users. This study has a theoretical implication in that it proposed a new chatbot development process by incorporating the design thinking methodology into the chatbot development process. This research is different from the existing chatbot development research in that it focuses on user experience, not technology. It also has practical implications in that companies or institutions propose realistic methods that can be applied immediately. In particular, the process proposed in this study can be accessed and utilized by anyone, since 'user needs-based chatbots' can be developed even if they are not experts. This study suggests that further studies are needed because only one field of study was conducted. In addition to the cosmetics market, additional research should be conducted in various fields in which the user experience appears, such as the smart phone and the automotive market. Through this, it will be able to be reborn as a general process necessary for 'development of chatbots centered on user experience, not technology centered'.

A Study on Profitability of the Allianced Discount Program with Credit Cards and Loyalty Cards in Food & Beverage Industry (제휴카드 할인프로그램이 외식업의 수익성에 미치는 영향)

  • Shin, Young Sik;Cha, Kyoung Cheon
    • Asia Marketing Journal
    • /
    • v.12 no.4
    • /
    • pp.55-78
    • /
    • 2011
  • Recently strategic alliance between business firms has become prevalent to overcome increasing competitive threats and to supplement resource limitation of individual firms. As one of allianced sales promotion activities, a new type of discount program, so called "Alliance Card Discount", is introduced with the partnership of credit cards and loyalty cards. The program mainly pursues short-term sales growth by larger discount scheme while spends less through cost share among alliance partners. Thus this program can be regarded as cost efficient discount promotion. But because there is no solid evidence that it can really deliver profitable sales growth, an empirical study for its effects on sales and profit should be conducted. This study has two basic research questions concerning the effects of allianced discount program ; 1)the possibility of sales increase 2) the profitability of the discount driven sales. In F&B industry, sales increase mainly comes from increased guest count. Especially in family restaurants, to increase the number of guests we need to enlarge the size of visitor group (number of visitors for one group) because customers visit by group in a special occasion. And because they pay the bill by group(table), the increase of sales per table is a key measure for sales improvement. The past researches for price & discount sensitivity and reference discount rate explain that price sensitive consumers have narrow reference discount zone and make rational purchase decision. Differently from all time discount scheme of regular sales promotions, the alliance card discount program only provides the right to get discount like discount coupon. And because it is usually once a month opportunity given by the past month usage level, customers tend to perceive alliance card discount as a rare chance to get. So that we can expect customers try to maximize the discount effect when they use the limited discount opportunity. Considering group visiting practice and low visit frequency of family restaurants, the way to maximize discount effect should be the increase the size of visit group. And their sensitivity to discount and rational consumption behavior defer the additional spending for ordering high price menu, even though they get considerable amount of savings from the discount. From the analysis of sales data paid by alliance discount cards for four months, we found the below. 1) The relation between discount rate and number of guest per table is positive : 25% discount results one additional guest 2) The relation between discount rate and the spending per guest is negative. 3) However, total profit amount per table is increased when discount rate is increased. 4) Reward point accumulation & redemption did not show any significant relationship with the increase of number of guests. These results suggest that the allianced discount program substantially contributes to sales increase and profit improvement by increasing the number of guests per table. Though the spending per guest is decreased by discount rate increase, the total amount of profit per table is improved. It seems the incremental profit by increased guest count offsets the profit decrease. Additional intriguing finding is the point reward system does not have any significant impact on the increase of number of guest, even if the point accumulation & redemption of loyalty program are usually regarded as another saving offers by customers. In sum, because it is proved that allianced discount program with credit cards and loyalty cards is effective to both sales drive and profit increase, the alliance card program could be recommended as strategically buyable program.

  • PDF

Freight Transport Demand and Economic Benefit Analysis for Automated Freight Transport System: Focused on GILC in Busan (인터모달 자동화물운송시스템 도입을 위한 화물운송수요 및 사업편익분석 - 부산 국제산업물류도시를 중심으로-)

  • SHIN, Seungjin;ROH, Hong-Seung;HUR, Sung Ho;KIM, Donghyun
    • Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
    • /
    • v.33 no.3
    • /
    • pp.17-34
    • /
    • 2017
  • This study aims to analyze the freight transport demand and benefit for the introduction of an automated freight transport system focusing on the Global Industry and Logistics City (GILC) in Busan. In pursuit of this aim, four alternatives were calculated - using the freight volume estimating methods and included, the number of businesses, the number of employees set up, future estimated cargo volume, and switched volume from other transport modes into the GILC. Economic benefits were analyzed against social benefits and costs accordingly. The result of the freight transport demand forecast found, the cargo volume of "Alternative 2-1" to be the most advantageous, applying the number of employee unit method and proportion of employees in Gangseo-gu, Busan. In addition to the conventional analysis of direct benefit items (reduction of transport time, traffic accidents and environmental costs), this study also considered additional benefit items (congestion costs savings, and road maintenance costs in terms of opportunity cost). It also considered advanced value for money research in guidance on rail appraisal of U.K, Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 2003 of Germany, and RailDec of the United States. The study aims to further contribute to estimating minimum cargo transport demands and assess the economic feasibility of the introduction of new intermodal automated freight transport systems in the future.

Characteristics and Economic Effects of Korean Firms' R&D Investment (우리나라 민간기업 연구개발투자의 특성 및 경제적 효과)

  • Suh, Joonghae
    • KDI Journal of Economic Policy
    • /
    • v.27 no.1
    • /
    • pp.81-122
    • /
    • 2005
  • The paper aims to establish the characteristics of the Korean firms' R&D investment and to estimate the private rate of return to R&D investment. For the empirical analysis, a balanced panel data is constructed with 695 firms on 8 year observations. The panel data enables to characterize R&D investment of the Korean firms, which is mostly conformed to the 'stylized facts' of R&D investment that found in the previous studies on foreign firms. Klette model was used to estimate the private rate of return on R&D investment and depreciation rate of R&D capital. The paper estimates that the rate of return on R&D investment is 10.5% on average or 16.4% on median for the whole industry whereas manufacturing firms show 10.4% on average or 16.4% on median. The depreciation rate was estimated about 32.9% for whole industry, where it ranges from the minimum 11.6% for metal industry and 49.5% for services. The median estimate of the rate of return for R&D investment of Korean firms is roughly two times higher than real interest rates for the same period, which implies that R&D investment allows sizable rent in addition to the opportunity cost of capital investment.

  • PDF

Estimating the Reliability of Commercial Products in a Military Operational Environment Utilizing Field Data (사용현장 데이터를 이용한 군 운용 환경에서의 상용품목 신뢰도 예측)

  • Lim, Tae-Jin;Park, Joon-Soo;Ko, Byoung-Sung;Sung, In-Chul;Cho, Moon-Soo;Kim, Sung-Chul
    • Journal of the military operations research society of Korea
    • /
    • v.36 no.1
    • /
    • pp.77-90
    • /
    • 2010
  • Adapting commercial equipments to military operations may provide the advantage of low cost, reduced acquisition time, and technology advancement. On the other hand, it may also offer the opportunity for a reliability and logistics risk because commercial products, standards, and practices may not meet military requirements. In addition to this, commercial vendors have little experience in providing the technical data required to support military deployment logistics. As more companies are equipped with data aquisition systems for their products, considerable amount of field warranty data has been accumulated. Typically, the field data for a given product comprise with the sales volume and the number of the claims for each period. Three types of product data are considered in this study: military designed equipment operating in a military environment, commercial equipment operating in a military environment, and commercial equipment operating in a commercial environment. We construct a estimation model for each type of data and propose an reliability transform method from a commercial environment to a military environment. Parametric methods for estimating the product reliability are proposed based on maximum likelihood criteria and least square criteria. Then a reliability transform procedure for handling different types of data is proposed in a consistent fashion. A case study is investigated to characterize our model based on a real field warranty data set.

Determinants of Capital Structure in KOSDAQ Firms (코스닥 기업의 자본구조 결정요인: 동태적 자본구조 모형을 중심으로)

  • Son, Seung-Tae;Lee, Yoon-Goo
    • The Korean Journal of Financial Management
    • /
    • v.24 no.1
    • /
    • pp.109-147
    • /
    • 2007
  • According to the perspective of capital structure theory, we analyzed the dynamism of the capital structure determinants by using panel data of 244 KOSDAQ firms based on two-step GMM system methodology suggested by Blundell Bond(1998). This dynamic methodology had not been used to analyse capital structure determinants in Korea. In the dynamic model of capital structure, profit had negative effect on the book leverage and market leverage, which meant supporting pecking order theory. Growth opportunity (MBR) affected negatively to the market leverage. For the determinants of leverage, earnings volatility had significantly positive effect on KOSDAQ 50 firms. KOSDAQ and KOSDAQ 50 firms had the target leverage. The adjustment speed in KOSDAQ firms was 0.4958 on the book leverage, it was faster than in KOSDAQ 50 firm's 0.2863 on the book leverage and the adjustment speeds for the market leverage were 0.7651 for KOSDAQ firms and 0.5643 for KOSDAQ 50 firms. There was difference in adjustment cost between KOSDAQ firms and KOSDAQ 50 firms.

  • PDF

DEVELOPMENT OF SAFETY-BASED LEVEL-OF-SERVICE PARAMETERS FOR TWO-WAY STOP-CONTROLLED INTERSECTIONS (무신호 교차로의 안전 -서비스 수준 측정에 관한 연구-)

  • 이수범
    • Proceedings of the KOR-KST Conference
    • /
    • 1996.02a
    • /
    • pp.59-86
    • /
    • 1996
  • Current methods for evaluating unsignalized intersections, and estimating level-of-service (LOS) is determined from efficiency-based criteria such as little or no delay to very long delays. At present, similar procedures to evaluate intersections using safety-based criteria do not exist. The improvement of sight distances at intersections is the most effective way of improving intersection safety. However, a set of procedures is necessary to account for the limitations in current methodology. Such an approach would build upon such methods, but also account for: deficiencies in the current deterministic solution for the determination of intersection sight distances; opportunity for an accident and severity of an accident; and cost-effectiveness of attaining various levels of sight distances. In this research, a model that estimates the degree of safety at two-way stop-controlled intersections is described. Only crossing maneuvers are considered in this study because accidents caused by the crossing maneuvers are the dominate type among intersection accidents. Monte Carlo methods are used to estimate the hazard at an intersection as a function of roadway features and traffic conditions. Driver`s minimum gap acceptance in the crossing vehicles and headway distribution on the major road are used in the crossing vehicles and headway distribution on the major road are used in the model to simulate the real intersectional maneuvers. Other random variables addressed in the model are: traffic speeds; preception-reaction times of both drivers in the crossing vehicles and drivers in oncoming vehicles on the major road; and vehicles on the major roads. The developed model produces the total number of conflicts per year per vehicle and total potential kinetic energy per year per vehicle dissipated during conflicts as measurements of safety at intersections. Based on the results from the developed simulation model, desirable sight distances for various speeds were determined as 350 feet, 450 feet and 550 feet for 40 mph, 50 mph and 60 mph prevailing speed on the major road, respectively. These values are seven to eight percent less than those values recommended by AASHTO. A safety based level-of-service (LOS) is also developed using the results of the simulation model. When the total number of conflicts per vehicle is less than 0.05 at an intersection, the LOS of the intersection is `A' and when the total number of conflicts per vehicle is larger than 0.25 at an intersection, the LOS is `F'. Similarly, when the total hazard per vehicle is less than 350, 000 1b-ft2/sec2, the LOS is `F'. Once evaluation of the current safety at the intersection is complete, a sensitivity analysis can be done by changing one or more input parameters. This will estimate the benefit in terms of time and budget of hazard reduction based upon improving geometric and traffic characteristics at the intersection. This method will also enable traffic engineers in local governments to generate a priority list of intersection improvement projects.

  • PDF

NIR-TECHNOLOGY FOR RATIONALE SOIL ANALYSIS WITH IMPLICATIONS FOR PRECISION AGRICULTURE

  • Stenberg, Bo
    • Proceedings of the Korean Society of Near Infrared Spectroscopy Conference
    • /
    • 2001.06a
    • /
    • pp.1061-1061
    • /
    • 2001
  • The scope of precision agriculture is to reach the put up cultivation goals by adjusting inputs as precise as possible after what is required by the soil and crop potentials, on a high spatial resolution. Consequently, precision agriculture is also often called site specific agriculture. Regulation of field inputs “on the run” has been made possible by the GPS (Geographical Position System)-technology, which gives the farmer his exact real time positioning in the field. The general goal with precision agriculture is to apply inputs where they best fill their purpose. Thus, resources could be saved, and nutrient losses as well as the impact on the environment could be minimized without lowering total yields or putting product quality at risk. As already indicated the technology exists to regulate the input based on beforehand decisions. However, the real challenge is to provide a reliable basis for decision-making. To support high spatial resolution, extensive sampling and analysis is required for many soil and plant characteristics. The potential of the NIR-technology to provide rapid, low cost analyses with a minimum of sample preparation for a multitude of characteristics therefore constitutes a far to irresistible opportunity to be un-scrutinized. In our work we have concentrated on soil-analysis. The instrument we have used is a Bran Lubbe InfraAlyzer 500 (1300-2500 nm). Clay- and organic matter-contents are soil constituents with major implications for most properties and processes in the soil system. For these constituents we had a 3000-sample material provided. High performance models for the agricultural areas in Sweden have been constructed for clay-content, but a rather large reference material is required, probably due to the large variability of Swedish soils. By subdividing Sweden into six areas the total performance was improved. Unfortunately organic matter was not as easy to get at. Reliable models for larger areas could not be constructed. However, through keeping the mineral fraction of the soil at minimal variation good performance could be achieved locally. The influence of a highly variable mineral fraction is probably one of the reasons for the contradictory results found in the literature regarding organic matter content. Tentative studies have also been performed to elucidate the potential performance in contexts with direct operational implications: lime requirement and prediction of plant uptake of soil nitrogen. In both cases there is no definite reference method, but there are numerous indirect, or indicator, methods suggested. In our study, field experiments where used as references and NIR was compared with methods normally used in Sweden. The NIR-models performed equally or slightly better as the standard methods in both situations. However, whether this is good enough is open for evaluation.

  • PDF

A Study on the Activation Scheme for the Korean Venture Capitals (한국 벤처캐피탈의 현황과 활성화 방안;중소기업창업투자회사를 중심으로)

  • Nam, In-Hyun;Kim, Yong-Shik
    • Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
    • /
    • v.1 no.2
    • /
    • pp.157-192
    • /
    • 2006
  • Since the late 1990s, the Korean Venture Capital Industry has been remarkably grown in the aspect of quality and quantity. Korean government expects that the Venture company and Venture Capital Industry would contribute to the recovery of depressed Korean economy and restructuring of the high cost and low efficiency economic structure. Korean government reinforces supporting policies for the Venture Capital and Venture Business. Venture Capital is defined as the form of high risk and high profit investment capital growing the small & medium enterprises to competitive ones through capital and management support and collecting the capital. According to the Gompers and Lerners the venture capital cycle consists of raising investment capital, screening the investment opportunity and invest the money. And later, sold the retained stock to the other investor or to the company. This stage called EXIT Consequently, the function of the venture capital, which supply the fund and the business consultation to venture business, have been emphasized and how to effectively run this capital have been recognized as the way to develop the venture business. In this regard, the problem in Korean Venture Capital Market is as follows. First, most of the sources of fund depends on the government support and this conflict with the nature of risk capital because the government capital emphasis the stability than profitability. And secondly, the efficiency of the venture capital system in Korea do not reach that of the advanced countries due to many kinds of restriction and the rack of support. Consequently, the Activation Schemes for Korean Venture Capital Firms are as follows. First, the sources of venture capital need to diversify from angels to institutional investors such as banks, pensions, fund of fund. And Lastly, the internal management and operational system of venture capital companies should be strengthened by quality to that of global Venture Capital Firms.

  • PDF