• Title/Summary/Keyword: Potential Markets

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Designing an Intelligent Advertising Business Model in Seoul's Metro Network (서울지하철의 지능형 광고 비즈니스모델 설계)

  • Musyoka, Kavoya Job;Lim, Gyoo Gun
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.23 no.4
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    • pp.1-31
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    • 2017
  • Modern businesses are adopting new technologies to serve their markets better as well as to improve efficiency and productivity. The advertising industry has continuously experienced disruptions from the traditional channels (radio, television and print media) to new complex ones including internet, social media and mobile-based advertising. This case study focuses on proposing intelligent advertising business model in Seoul's metro network. Seoul has one of the world's busiest metro network and transports a huge number of travelers on a daily basis. The high number of travelers coupled with a well-planned metro network creates a platform where marketers can initiate engagement and interact with both customers and potential customers. In the current advertising model, advertising is on illuminated and framed posters in the stations and in-car, non-illuminated posters, and digital screens that show scheduled arrivals and departures of metros. Some stations have digital screens that show adverts but they do not have location capability. Most of the current advertising media have one key limitation: space. For posters whether illuminated or not, one space can host only one advert at a time. Empirical literatures show that there is room for improving this advertising model and eliminate the space limitation by replacing the poster adverts with digital advertising platform. This new model will not only be digital, but will also provide intelligent advertising platform that is driven by data. The digital platform will incorporate location sensing, e-commerce, and mobile platform to create new value to all stakeholders. Travel cards used in the metro will be registered and the card scanners will have a capability to capture traveler's data when travelers tap their cards. This data once analyzed will make it possible to identify different customer groups. Advertisers and marketers will then be able to target specific customer groups, customize adverts based on the targeted consumer group, and offer a wide variety of advertising formats. Format includes video, cinemagraphs, moving pictures, and animation. Different advert formats create different emotions in the customer's mind and the goal should be to use format or combination of formats that arouse the expected emotion and lead to an engagement. Combination of different formats will be more effective and this can only work in a digital platform. Adverts will be location based, ensuring that adverts will show more frequently when the metro is near the premises of an advertiser. The advertising platform will automatically detect the next station and screens inside the metro will prioritize adverts in the station where the metro will be stopping. In the mobile platform, customers who opt to receive notifications will receive them when they approach the business premises of advertiser. The mobile platform will have indoor navigation for the underground shopping malls that will allow customers to search for facilities within the mall, products they may want to buy as well as deals going on in the underground mall. To create an end-to-end solution, the mobile solution will have a capability to allow customers purchase products through their phones, get coupons for deals, and review products and shops where they have bought a product. The indoor navigation will host intelligent mobile-based advertisement and a recommendation system. The indoor navigation will have adverts such that when a customer is searching for information, the recommendation system shows adverts that are near the place traveler is searching or in the direction that the traveler is moving. These adverts will be linked to the e-commerce platform such that if a customer clicks on an advert, it leads them to the product description page. The whole system will have multi-language as well as text-to-speech capability such that both locals and tourists have no language barrier. The implications of implementing this model are varied including support for small and medium businesses operating in the underground malls, improved customer experience, new job opportunities, additional revenue to business model operator, and flexibility in advertising. The new value created will benefit all the stakeholders.

Factors Influencing the Adoption of Location-Based Smartphone Applications: An Application of the Privacy Calculus Model (스마트폰 위치기반 어플리케이션의 이용의도에 영향을 미치는 요인: 프라이버시 계산 모형의 적용)

  • Cha, Hoon S.
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.22 no.4
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    • pp.7-29
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    • 2012
  • Smartphone and its applications (i.e. apps) are increasingly penetrating consumer markets. According to a recent report from Korea Communications Commission, nearly 50% of mobile subscribers in South Korea are smartphone users that accounts for over 25 million people. In particular, the importance of smartphone has risen as a geospatially-aware device that provides various location-based services (LBS) equipped with GPS capability. The popular LBS include map and navigation, traffic and transportation updates, shopping and coupon services, and location-sensitive social network services. Overall, the emerging location-based smartphone apps (LBA) offer significant value by providing greater connectivity, personalization, and information and entertainment in a location-specific context. Conversely, the rapid growth of LBA and their benefits have been accompanied by concerns over the collection and dissemination of individual users' personal information through ongoing tracking of their location, identity, preferences, and social behaviors. The majority of LBA users tend to agree and consent to the LBA provider's terms and privacy policy on use of location data to get the immediate services. This tendency further increases the potential risks of unprotected exposure of personal information and serious invasion and breaches of individual privacy. To address the complex issues surrounding LBA particularly from the user's behavioral perspective, this study applied the privacy calculus model (PCM) to explore the factors that influence the adoption of LBA. According to PCM, consumers are engaged in a dynamic adjustment process in which privacy risks are weighted against benefits of information disclosure. Consistent with the principal notion of PCM, we investigated how individual users make a risk-benefit assessment under which personalized service and locatability act as benefit-side factors and information privacy risks act as a risk-side factor accompanying LBA adoption. In addition, we consider the moderating role of trust on the service providers in the prohibiting effects of privacy risks on user intention to adopt LBA. Further we include perceived ease of use and usefulness as additional constructs to examine whether the technology acceptance model (TAM) can be applied in the context of LBA adoption. The research model with ten (10) hypotheses was tested using data gathered from 98 respondents through a quasi-experimental survey method. During the survey, each participant was asked to navigate the website where the experimental simulation of a LBA allows the participant to purchase time-and-location sensitive discounted tickets for nearby stores. Structural equations modeling using partial least square validated the instrument and the proposed model. The results showed that six (6) out of ten (10) hypotheses were supported. On the subject of the core PCM, H2 (locatability ${\rightarrow}$ intention to use LBA) and H3 (privacy risks ${\rightarrow}$ intention to use LBA) were supported, while H1 (personalization ${\rightarrow}$ intention to use LBA) was not supported. Further, we could not any interaction effects (personalization X privacy risks, H4 & locatability X privacy risks, H5) on the intention to use LBA. In terms of privacy risks and trust, as mentioned above we found the significant negative influence from privacy risks on intention to use (H3), but positive influence from trust, which supported H6 (trust ${\rightarrow}$ intention to use LBA). The moderating effect of trust on the negative relationship between privacy risks and intention to use LBA was tested and confirmed by supporting H7 (privacy risks X trust ${\rightarrow}$ intention to use LBA). The two hypotheses regarding to the TAM, including H8 (perceived ease of use ${\rightarrow}$ perceived usefulness) and H9 (perceived ease of use ${\rightarrow}$ intention to use LBA) were supported; however, H10 (perceived effectiveness ${\rightarrow}$ intention to use LBA) was not supported. Results of this study offer the following key findings and implications. First the application of PCM was found to be a good analysis framework in the context of LBA adoption. Many of the hypotheses in the model were confirmed and the high value of $R^2$ (i.,e., 51%) indicated a good fit of the model. In particular, locatability and privacy risks are found to be the appropriate PCM-based antecedent variables. Second, the existence of moderating effect of trust on service provider suggests that the same marginal change in the level of privacy risks may differentially influence the intention to use LBA. That is, while the privacy risks increasingly become important social issues and will negatively influence the intention to use LBA, it is critical for LBA providers to build consumer trust and confidence to successfully mitigate this negative impact. Lastly, we could not find sufficient evidence that the intention to use LBA is influenced by perceived usefulness, which has been very well supported in most previous TAM research. This may suggest that more future research should examine the validity of applying TAM and further extend or modify it in the context of LBA or other similar smartphone apps.

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Changes in Quality Characteristics of Wild Root Vegetables during Storage (전처리 근채류의 저장과정중의 품질평가)

  • Kwak, Soo-Jin;Park, Na-Yoon;Kim, Gi-Chang;Kim, Haeng-Ran;Yoon, Ki-Sun
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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    • v.41 no.8
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    • pp.1158-1167
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    • 2012
  • During the peeling, cutting, and shredding of wild root vegetables, the surface is exposed to air. This results in a rapid deterioration in quality and an increase in the potential of contamination by microorganisms, both of which reduce the shelf-life of wild root vegetables in retail markets. Thus, in this study, the effects of various washing treatments on the quality of wild root vegetables, including lotus root, burdock root, and bellflower root, were investigated at 10 and $24^{\circ}C$. Lotus root, burdock root and bellflower root were washed with 0.2% acetic acid (AA), 0.2% citric acid (CA), 500 ppm acidified sodium chlorite (ASC), and tap water (TW), which was used as a control, and stored at $10^{\circ}C$ and $24^{\circ}C$. The changes in total plate counts, coliform groups, polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity, color, pH, and exterior appearance of the samples were then evaluated. The pH and initial microbial contamination levels were reduced when the root vegetables were washed with AA, CA, and ASC. In particular, initial population levels of total plate counts and coliform groups were not detected in lotus root and burdock root that had been washed with ASC and their growth was significantly (p<0.05) inhibited during storage at 10 and $24^{\circ}C$ when compared to the control (TW). In addition, the polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activities of the root vegetables washed with AA, CA and ASC were lower than that of root vegetables washed with TW. ASC was determined to be the most effective treatment for preventing microbial growth, tissue softening, and the development of browning and an unpleasant smell. At $10^{\circ}C$, the overall qualities of the wild root vegetables were maintained longer when compared to $24^{\circ}C$.

Arsenic Speciation and Risk Assessment of Miscellaneous Cereals by HPLC-ICP-MS (HPLC-ICP-MS를 활용한 잡곡의 비소 화학종 및 위해 분석)

  • An, Jae-Min;Hong, Kyong-Suk;Kim, Sung-Youn;Kim, Dae-Jung;Lee, Ho-Jin;Shin, Hee-Chang
    • Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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    • v.36 no.2
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    • pp.119-128
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    • 2017
  • BACKGROUND: Miscellaneous cereal have been largely consumed in Korea as due to their physiological functions beneficial to human health. The cereals are currently a social concern because they have been found to contain heavy metals. Thus, monitoring heavy metals in the cereals is an important requirement for food safety analysis. In this study, we determined arsenic concentration in the cereals randomly harvested from different markets. METHODS AND RESULTS: Inorganic arsenic was determined by ICP-MS coupled with HPLC system. The HPLC-ICP-MS analysis was optimized based on the limit of detection and recover test to reach $0.13-1.24{\mu}g/kg$ and 94.3-102.1%, respectively. The concentrations of inorganic arsenic equivalent to daily exposure were levels of $19.91{\mu}g/day$ in mixed grain, $1.07{\mu}g/day$ in glutinous rice, $0.77{\mu}g/day$ in black brown rice, $0.13{\mu}g/day$ in barley and $0.11{\mu}g/day$ in soybeans. CONCLUSION: The levels of arsenic in miscellaneous cereals were found lower than the recommended The Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) levels, suggesting that the cereals marketed in Korea are not potential concern in risk assessment.

Natural Occurrence of Aflatoxigenic Aspergillus Species and Aflatoxins in Traditional Korean Fermentation Starters, Meju and Nuruk

  • Woo, So Young;Lee, Sang Yoo;Tian, Fei;Jeong, A-Yeong;Yoo, Cha Nee;Kang, Seung Yoon;Chun, Hyang Sook
    • Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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    • v.35 no.5
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    • pp.438-446
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    • 2020
  • Meju and nuruk (respectively soybean and malt) are traditional Korean fermentation starters that are vulnerable to contamination by harmful microorganisms such as aflatoxigenic fungi and their associated aflatoxins (AFs). In this study, Aspergillus spp. were isolated and identified from a total of 57 meju and 18 nuruk samples collected from Korean markets. Their potential aflatoxigenicity was investigated by examining the presence of three aflatoxin biosynthetic genes (aflO, aflP, and aflR) using multiplex polymerase chain reaction (mPCR) assays. Thereafter, aflatoxin production of isolates and the natural occurrence of AFs in meju and nuruk samples were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). A total of 177 Aspergillus isolates were identified and 130 isolates were obtained from meju samples. Of these, 25 isolates (19.2%) contained all three aflatoxin biosynthetic genes, and five (20%) of these isolates produced aflatoxins. Forty-seven of the Aspergillus isolates were obtained from nuruk samples, five of which (10.6%) expressed all three AF biosynthetic genes; however, none of these strains produced AFs. HPLC analysis showed that 88% (51/58) of the meju samples and 39% (7/18) of nuruk samples were not contaminated with AFs (below limit of detection). Among the isolates isolated from meju and nuruk, there were aflatoxigenic strains containing all three aflatoxin biosynthetic genes or producing aflatoxin in medium, but the frequency of aflatoxin contamination was low in the meju and nuruk samples.

An Investigation on Expanding Co-occurrence Criteria in Association Rule Mining (연관규칙 마이닝에서의 동시성 기준 확장에 대한 연구)

  • Kim, Mi-Sung;Kim, Nam-Gyu;Ahn, Jae-Hyeon
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.18 no.1
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    • pp.23-38
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    • 2012
  • There is a large difference between purchasing patterns in an online shopping mall and in an offline market. This difference may be caused mainly by the difference in accessibility of online and offline markets. It means that an interval between the initial purchasing decision and its realization appears to be relatively short in an online shopping mall, because a customer can make an order immediately. Because of the short interval between a purchasing decision and its realization, an online shopping mall transaction usually contains fewer items than that of an offline market. In an offline market, customers usually keep some items in mind and buy them all at once a few days after deciding to buy them, instead of buying each item individually and immediately. On the contrary, more than 70% of online shopping mall transactions contain only one item. This statistic implies that traditional data mining techniques cannot be directly applied to online market analysis, because hardly any association rules can survive with an acceptable level of Support because of too many Null Transactions. Most market basket analyses on online shopping mall transactions, therefore, have been performed by expanding the co-occurrence criteria of traditional association rule mining. While the traditional co-occurrence criteria defines items purchased in one transaction as concurrently purchased items, the expanded co-occurrence criteria regards items purchased by a customer during some predefined period (e.g., a day) as concurrently purchased items. In studies using expanded co-occurrence criteria, however, the criteria has been defined arbitrarily by researchers without any theoretical grounds or agreement. The lack of clear grounds of adopting a certain co-occurrence criteria degrades the reliability of the analytical results. Moreover, it is hard to derive new meaningful findings by combining the outcomes of previous individual studies. In this paper, we attempt to compare expanded co-occurrence criteria and propose a guideline for selecting an appropriate one. First of all, we compare the accuracy of association rules discovered according to various co-occurrence criteria. By doing this experiment we expect that we can provide a guideline for selecting appropriate co-occurrence criteria that corresponds to the purpose of the analysis. Additionally, we will perform similar experiments with several groups of customers that are segmented by each customer's average duration between orders. By this experiment, we attempt to discover the relationship between the optimal co-occurrence criteria and the customer's average duration between orders. Finally, by a series of experiments, we expect that we can provide basic guidelines for developing customized recommendation systems. Our experiments use a real dataset acquired from one of the largest internet shopping malls in Korea. We use 66,278 transactions of 3,847 customers conducted during the last two years. Overall results show that the accuracy of association rules of frequent shoppers (whose average duration between orders is relatively short) is higher than that of causal shoppers. In addition we discover that with frequent shoppers, the accuracy of association rules appears very high when the co-occurrence criteria of the training set corresponds to the validation set (i.e., target set). It implies that the co-occurrence criteria of frequent shoppers should be set according to the application purpose period. For example, an analyzer should use a day as a co-occurrence criterion if he/she wants to offer a coupon valid only for a day to potential customers who will use the coupon. On the contrary, an analyzer should use a month as a co-occurrence criterion if he/she wants to publish a coupon book that can be used for a month. In the case of causal shoppers, the accuracy of association rules appears to not be affected by the period of the application purposes. The accuracy of the causal shoppers' association rules becomes higher when the longer co-occurrence criterion has been adopted. It implies that an analyzer has to set the co-occurrence criterion for as long as possible, regardless of the application purpose period.

Introduction of the International Standardization of ISO in the Production and Quality of Herbal Medicines and a Review of Countermeasures (한약재 생산 및 품질부문의 ISO국제표준화 등재현황 소개 및 대응방안 고찰)

  • Kim, Yong Il;Kang, Young Min;Han, Sin-Hee;Hur, Mok;Kim, Young Guk;Chang, Jae Ki
    • Journal of the Korean Society of International Agriculture
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    • v.30 no.4
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    • pp.257-268
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    • 2018
  • Recently, the international standardization of ISO in the field of Oriental Herbal Medicine has been progressing rapidly under the direction of China's promotion. China's intention to promote international standardization is to extend its influence to the world and beyond the domestic market. The Oriental medicine system in East Asia has similar roots in academic terms, but the medicines that can be supplied and received in each country are different and have developed independently. The international standardization of medicinal herbs is expected to function in a direction that weakens such differentiation and independence. From a commercial point of view, international standardization is no different from creating evaluation criteria for oriental medicinal products, and it is expected that its potential impact on domestic and overseas markets and producers will be large. In particular, the international standardization centered on China can lead to favorable evaluation criteria for China, which may further negatively affect the market competitiveness of domestic raw materials, which have been pushed back by Chinese manufacturers. If the domestic production base is weakened, not only will the farmers suffer but the supply and demand of raw materials will also be manipulated, safety management control will be reduced, and the development of oriental herbal products using domestic raw materials will be hurt. Therefore, in the promotion of international standardization, it is necessary not only to reflect the value of Korean herbal medicine but also to provide strategic responses to protect the domestic production base. However, in the case of recent initiatives, there is no precedent in analyzing influence on the production partners and the related industries. In addition, there are few related papers and reports on the subject, so the publicity process has not been done sufficiently. In response to this, this study will examine the countermeasures against the international standardization of herbal medicines through reviewing its present status and evaluating the agenda of the Korean initiative.

The Exploration of New Business Areas in the Age of Economic Transformation : a Case of Korean 'Hidden Champions' (Small and Medium Niche Enterprises (경제구조 전환기에서 새로운 비즈니스 영역의 창출 : 강소기업의 성공함정과 신시장 개척)

  • Lee, Jangwoo
    • Korean small business review
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    • v.31 no.1
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    • pp.73-88
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    • 2009
  • This study examines the characteristics of 24 Korean hidden champions such as key success factors, core competences, strategic problems, and desirable future directions. The study categorized them into 8 types with Danny Miller's four trajectories and top manager's decision making style(rationality and passion). Danny Miller argued in his book, Icarus paradox, that outstanding firms will extend their orientations until they reach dangerous extremes and their momentum will result in common trajectories of decline. He suggested four very common success types: Craftsmen, Builders, Pioneers, Salesmen. He also suggested common trajectories of decline:Focusing(from Craftsmen to Tinkers), Venturing(from Builders to Imperialists), Inventing(from Pioneers to Escapists), Decoupling(from Salesmen to Drifts). In Korea, successful startups appear to possess three kinds of drive: Technology-drive, Vision-drive, Market-drive. Successful technology-driven firms tend to grow as craftsmen or pioneers. Successful vision-driven and market-driven ones tend to grow as builders and salesmen respectively. Korean top managers or founders seem to have two kinds of decision making style: Passion-based and Rationality-bases. Passion-based(passionate) entrepreneurs are biased towards action or proactiveness in competing and getting things done. Rationality- based ones tend to emphasis the effort devoted to scanning and analysing information to better understand a company's threats, opportunities and options. Consequently this study suggested 4*2 types of Korean hidden champions: (1) passionate craftsmen, (2) rational craftsmen, (3) passionate builders, (4) rational builders, (5) passionate pioneers, (6) rational pioneers, (7) passionate salesmen, (8) rational salesmen. These 8 type firms showed different success stories and appeared to possess different trajectories of decline. These hidden champions have acquired competitive advantage within domestic or globally niche markets in spite of the weak market power and lack of internal resources. They have maintained their sustainable competitiveness by utilizing three types of growth strategy; (1) penetrating into the global market, (2) exploring new service market, (3) occupying the domestic market. According to the types of growth strategy, these firms showed different financial outcomes and possessed different issues for maintaining their competitiveness. This study found that Korean hidden champions were facing serious challenges from the transforming economic structure these days and possessed the decline potential from their success momentum or self-complacence. It argues that they need to take a new growth engine not to decline in the turbulent environment. It also discusses how firms overcome the economic crisis and find a new business area in promising industries for the future. It summarized the recent policy of Korean government called as "Green Growth" and discussed how small firms utilize such benefits and supports from the government. Other implications for firm strategies and governmental policies were discussed.

Characteristics and Implications of Sports Content Business of Big Tech Platform Companies : Focusing on Amazon.com (빅테크 플랫폼 기업의 스포츠콘텐츠 사업의 특징과 시사점 : 아마존을 중심으로)

  • Shin, Jae-hyoo
    • Journal of Venture Innovation
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    • v.7 no.1
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    • pp.1-15
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    • 2024
  • This study aims to elucidate the characteristics of big tech platform companies' sports content business in an environment of rapid digital transformation. Specifically, this study examines the market structure of big tech platform companies with a focus on Amazon, revealing the role of sports content within this structure through an analysis of Amazon's sports marketing business and provides an outlook on the sports content business of big tech platform companies. Based on two-sided market platform business models, big tech platform companies incorporate sports content as a strategy to enhance the value of their platforms. Therefore, sports content is used as a tool to enhance the value of their platforms and to consolidate their monopoly position by maximizing profits by increasing the synergy of platform ecosystems such as infrastructure. Amazon acquires popular live sports broadcasting rights on a continental or national basis and supplies them to its platforms, which not only increases the number of new customers and purchasing effects, but also provides IT solution services to sports organizations and teams while planning and supplying various promotional contents, thus creates synergy across Amazon's platforms including its advertising business. Amazon also expands its business opportunities and increases its overall value by supplying live sports contents to Amazon Prime Video and Amazon Prime, providing technical services to various stakeholders through Amazon Web Services, and offering Amazon Marketing Cloud services for analyzing and predicting advertisers' advertising and marketing performance. This gives rise to a new paradigm in the sports marketing business in the digital era, stemming from the difference in market structure between big tech companies based on two-sided market platforms and legacy global companies based on one-sided markets. The core of this new model is a business through the development of various contents based on live sports streaming rights, and sports content marketing will become a major field of sports marketing along with traditional broadcasting rights and sponsorship. Big tech platform global companies such as Amazon, Apple, and Google have the potential to become new global sports marketing companies, and the current sports marketing and advertising companies, as well as teams and leagues, are facing both crises and opportunities.

The Impact of the Internet Channel Introduction Depending on the Ownership of the Internet Channel (도입주체에 따른 인터넷경로의 도입효과)

  • Yoo, Weon-Sang
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.19 no.1
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    • pp.37-46
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    • 2009
  • The Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce announced in May 2008 that U.S. retail e-commerce sales for 2006 reached $ 107 billion, up from $ 87 billion in 2005 - an increase of 22 percent. From 2001 to 2006, retail e-sales increased at an average annual growth rate of 25.4 percent. The explosive growth of E-Commerce has caused profound changes in marketing channel relationships and structures in many industries. Despite the great potential implications for both academicians and practitioners, there still exists a great deal of uncertainty about the impact of the Internet channel introduction on distribution channel management. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the ownership of the new Internet channel affects the existing channel members and consumers. To explore the above research questions, this study conducts well-controlled mathematical experiments to isolate the impact of the Internet channel by comparing before and after the Internet channel entry. The model consists of a monopolist manufacturer selling its product through a channel system including one independent physical store before the entry of an Internet store. The addition of the Internet store to this channel system results in a mixed channel comprised of two different types of channels. The new Internet store can be launched by the independent physical store such as Bestbuy. In this case, the physical retailer coordinates the two types of stores to maximize the joint profits from the two stores. The Internet store also can be introduced by an independent Internet retailer such as Amazon. In this case, a retail level competition occurs between the two types of stores. Although the manufacturer sells only one product, consumers view each product-outlet pair as a unique offering. Thus, the introduction of the Internet channel provides two product offerings for consumers. The channel structures analyzed in this study are illustrated in Fig.1. It is assumed that the manufacturer plays as a Stackelberg leader maximizing its own profits with the foresight of the independent retailer's optimal responses as typically assumed in previous analytical channel studies. As a Stackelberg follower, the independent physical retailer or independent Internet retailer maximizes its own profits, conditional on the manufacturer's wholesale price. The price competition between two the independent retailers is assumed to be a Bertrand Nash game. For simplicity, the marginal cost is set at zero, as typically assumed in this type of study. In order to explore the research questions above, this study develops a game theoretic model that possesses the following three key characteristics. First, the model explicitly captures the fact that an Internet channel and a physical store exist in two independent dimensions (one in physical space and the other in cyber space). This enables this model to demonstrate that the effect of adding an Internet store is different from that of adding another physical store. Second, the model reflects the fact that consumers are heterogeneous in their preferences for using a physical store and for using an Internet channel. Third, the model captures the vertical strategic interactions between an upstream manufacturer and a downstream retailer, making it possible to analyze the channel structure issues discussed in this paper. Although numerous previous models capture this vertical dimension of marketing channels, none simultaneously incorporates the three characteristics reflected in this model. The analysis results are summarized in Table 1. When the new Internet channel is introduced by the existing physical retailer and the retailer coordinates both types of stores to maximize the joint profits from the both stores, retail prices increase due to a combination of the coordination of the retail prices and the wider market coverage. The quantity sold does not significantly increase despite the wider market coverage, because the excessively high retail prices alleviate the market coverage effect to a degree. Interestingly, the coordinated total retail profits are lower than the combined retail profits of two competing independent retailers. This implies that when a physical retailer opens an Internet channel, the retailers could be better off managing the two channels separately rather than coordinating them, unless they have the foresight of the manufacturer's pricing behavior. It is also found that the introduction of an Internet channel affects the power balance of the channel. The retail competition is strong when an independent Internet store joins a channel with an independent physical retailer. This implies that each retailer in this structure has weak channel power. Due to intense retail competition, the manufacturer uses its channel power to increase its wholesale price to extract more profits from the total channel profit. However, the retailers cannot increase retail prices accordingly because of the intense retail level competition, leading to lower channel power. In this case, consumer welfare increases due to the wider market coverage and lower retail prices caused by the retail competition. The model employed for this study is not designed to capture all the characteristics of the Internet channel. The theoretical model in this study can also be applied for any stores that are not geographically constrained such as TV home shopping or catalog sales via mail. The reasons the model in this study is names as "Internet" are as follows: first, the most representative example of the stores that are not geographically constrained is the Internet. Second, catalog sales usually determine the target markets using the pre-specified mailing lists. In this aspect, the model used in this study is closer to the Internet than catalog sales. However, it would be a desirable future research direction to mathematically and theoretically distinguish the core differences among the stores that are not geographically constrained. The model is simplified by a set of assumptions to obtain mathematical traceability. First, this study assumes the price is the only strategic tool for competition. In the real world, however, various marketing variables can be used for competition. Therefore, a more realistic model can be designed if a model incorporates other various marketing variables such as service levels or operation costs. Second, this study assumes the market with one monopoly manufacturer. Therefore, the results from this study should be carefully interpreted considering this limitation. Future research could extend this limitation by introducing manufacturer level competition. Finally, some of the results are drawn from the assumption that the monopoly manufacturer is the Stackelberg leader. Although this is a standard assumption among game theoretic studies of this kind, we could gain deeper understanding and generalize our findings beyond this assumption if the model is analyzed by different game rules.

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