• Title/Summary/Keyword: Process Industry

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Effectiveness of Leading Light by Reflecting the Characteristics of Marine Traffic at Gamcheon Port (감천항 선박교통 특성을 반영한 도등 효용성 분석)

  • Shin-Young Ha;Seung-gi Gug
    • Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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    • v.48 no.3
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    • pp.232-238
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    • 2024
  • This study examines the effectiveness of Gamcheon Port's leading lights in reflecting the characteristics of ship traffic entering the port. The leading light of Gamcheon Port was proposed and installed in 1996 during the basic design process of supplementing the port's route signs for the entry and exit of 4,000 TEU container ships. Since then, it has been improved to accommodate the entry of 50,000 DWT general cargo ships and to reflect the crane height of Hanjin Pier, as a result of a review study conducted by the Busan Regional Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Administration to improve the still temperature of Gamcheon Port by relocating existing outer facilities. However, an analysis of the current characteristics of maritime traffic at Gamcheon Port reveals that maritime traffic congestion is smooth and the proportion of small and medium-sized ships under 10,000 tons is higher than that of large ships, resulting in decreased efficiency of the leading lights to respond to the entry of large ships. Nevertheless, considering the increasing CAGR of the entry ratio of ships of 30,000 tons or more by 8.45%, preparations for the anticipated increase in the proportion of large ships entering the port in the future are necessary, and it is preferable to maintain the function of the leading lights rather than demolishing the entrance to Gamcheon Port. The narrow nature of the Gamcheon Port route poses a higher risk of collision when ships entering and exiting encounter each other, which can burden the navigator. Therefore, instead of maintaining the function of the leading lights, it is possible to relocate the conduction light to reduce maintenance burden and install a direction light in its place. When installing the direction light, it is worth considering using Double Sector Lights instead of the currently installed Single Sector Lights at nearby Busan Bukhang Port, as the former can improve user satisfaction by providing a clearer middle line and reducing difficulties in distinguishing between points.

A Study on the Method for Quantifying CO2 Contents in Decarbonated Slag Materials by Differential Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (DTG 분석법을 활용한 슬래그류 비탄산염 재료의 CO2 정량 측정방법 연구)

  • Jae-Won Choi;Byoung-Know You;Yong-Sik Chu;Min-Cheol Han
    • Journal of the Korean Recycled Construction Resources Institute
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    • v.12 no.1
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    • pp.8-16
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    • 2024
  • Limestone (CaCO3, calcium carbonate), which is used as a raw material in the portland cement and steel industry, emits CO2 through decarbonation by high temperatures in the manufacturing process. To reduce CO2 emissions by the use of raw materials like limestone, it has been proposed to replace limestone with various industrial by-products that contain CaO but less or none of the carbonated minerals, that cause CO2 emissions. Loss of Ignition (LOI), Thermogravimetric analysis (TG), and Infrared Spectroscopy (IR) are used to quantitative the amount of CO2 emission by using these industrial by-products, but CO2 emissions can be either over or underestimated depending on the characteristics of by-product materials. In this study, we estimated CO2 contents by LOI, TG, IR and DTG(Differential Thermogravimetric analysis) of calcite(CaCO3) and samples that contain CO2 in the form of carbonate and whose weight increases by oxidation at high temperatures. The test results showed for CaCO3 samples, all test methods have a sufficient level of reliability. On the other hand, for the CO2 content of the sample whose weight increases at high temperature, LOI and TG did not properly estimate the CO2 content of the sample, and IR tended to overestimate compared to the predicted value, but the estimated result by DTG was close to the predicted valu e. From these resu lts, in the case of samples that contain less than a few percent of CO2 and whose weight increases during the temperature that carbonate minerals decompose, estimating the CO2 content using DTG is a more reasonable way than LOI, TG, and IR.

A Study on Medium-Sized Enterprises of Japan (일본의 중견기업에 관한 연구 : 현황과 특징, 정책을 중심으로)

  • Kang, Cheol Gu;Kim, Hyun Sung;Kim, Hyun Chul
    • Korean small business review
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    • v.32 no.2
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    • pp.209-223
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    • 2010
  • Korea's business is composed of a few large-sized enterprises (which can be abbreviated as LSE) and a majority of small-sized enterprises (SSE). Although there has been a growing recognition of the need for the development of medium-sized enterprises (MSE) which can serve as a link between SSE and LSE, as yet there has not yet been a consensus on the definition, characteristics and the function of the MSE in Korea. Nowadays, the world is being globalized, and Japan and China are in competition to ne a great economic power. While East Asia is experiencing rapid changes, promoting MSE which can secure flexibility and efficiency through covering up the limitation of LSE and SSE is needed in order to respond the global market which is being specialized. The features of MSE in Japan can be listed as follows. First, the MSE in Japan is developing the company through getting into niche markets which are hard for major companies to enter rather than developing markets in order to compete against major companies directly. While MSEs are endeavoring to build the business firmly in the domestic market, they can possess special and competitive technical skills through trials and errors; so that they can get a chance develop their business through independent business system rather than putting their effort to compete against major companies. Second, from the MSEs with competitive edge in the market, there are many contributions to the national exportation. Those MSEs produce in domestic and maintain the quality of high price products which need cutting-edge technology, while they relocate the low and middle priced goods to the country where manufacturing costs are low, so that they can maintain the price competitiveness. Third, the industrial structure in Japan is formed from dual structure between major companies and small sized companies. In other words, in Japan's industrial structure which are composed of subcontract structure, this dual structure has taken a major role of small sized companies' growth and manufacturing businesses' international competitive power. Forth, MSE in Japan adopt a strategy of putting their value on qualitative scale growth rather than quantitative scale growth. In this paper, the case of Japanese MSE is analyzed. Along with its long history of Industrialization, Japan has a corporate environment where the SSEs can develop as a MSE and later a LSE through a full-support system. Among its SSEs, there are a number of world class corporations equipped with a large domestic market, win-win cooperation with the LSEs and an independent technology development. It can also be observed that these SSEs develop into MSEs with sustainable growth potentials. This study will focus on the condition under which the MSEs of Japan have been developed, and how they have survived the competition between SSEs and LSEs. Through this study, this paper attempts to offer solutions to Korea's polarization between the SSE and LSE, while providing the basis for SSEs revitalization. In general, if both extremities phenomenon deepen between LSE and SSE, there are possible fears of occurring disutility in national economy by the monopolization of LSE. For that reason, enterprise group, which can make SSE or MSE compete LSE in some area and ease the monopoly and oligopoly problem, is needed. This awareness has been shared for ages long. Nevertheless, there is no legal definition for MSE in Japan, and there is no definition about the enterprise size or unified view of MSE between scholars, but it is defined differently by each of academical person or research institution and study meeting. For that reason, this paper will organize the definition of MSE in Japan, and then will propose the characteristics of the background which has made MSE secure competitiveness and sustainable growth in global market. This study focus on that because through this process, the positive change to the awareness of MSE can be proposed in Korea and to seek the policy direction for building institutional framework which can make SSE become MES. Through this way, the fundamentals for SSE to become MSE can be managed and some appropriate suggestions which will be able to make MSE enter the global market in the future can also be proposed. Due to these facts, this study is very important and well timed task. In a sense of this way, this study will examine the definition and role of MSE in Japan. after this examination, this study will deal with the status, special feature, and promotion policy for MSE. Through this analysis of MSE in Japan, the foundation which be able to set the desirable role model for MSE in Korea can be proposed. Also, the political implication which is needed to push ahead to contribute to creating employment and economic growth through sustainable growth of MSEs in economic system of Korea can be offered through this study. It has been found that Japan's MSE functions as an indispensable link among various industrial structures by holding a significant position in employment rate, production and value added. Although the MSEs took up less than 1% of the entire number of businesses with 2700 manufacturing firms and 7000 non-manufacturing firms, its employment ratios are about 15%, while taking about 25% of the manufacturing industry's exports. In industries such as machinery and electronics which is considered Japan's major industry, the MSEs showed a higher than average ratio of manufacturing exports and employment rate. It can be analyzed that behind Japan's advantageous industries, close and deeply knit MSEs exist. Although there are no clearly stated policies geared towards the MSEs by the Japanese government, various political measures exist such as the R&D Project and the inducement of cooperation between enterprises which gives room for MSEs to participate in the SSE policies. In relation to these findings, the following practical measures can be considered in order to revitalize Korea's MSEs: First, there is a need for a legal definition of MSE and the incentives to provide legal support for its growth. Second, if a law to support the MSEs is established, it could provide a powerful inducement for the SSE to grow as a MSE, rather than stay as a SSE. Third, there is a need for a strategy of MSEs to establish a stable base in the domestic market and then advance to the global market with the accumulated trial and error and competitiveness. Fourth, the SSE themselves need the spirit of entrepreneurship in order to make the leap to a MSE. Because if nothing is to be changed about the system on the firms that grew, and the parts of the past custom was left to be managed alone, confusion and absence of management can take place. No matter how much tax favors the government will give and no matter how much incentive there could be through the policies, there are limits for industries to higher the ability to propagate. And because of that it is a period where industries need their own innovative skills to reform their firms.

A Conceptual Review of the Transaction Costs within a Distribution Channel (유통경로내의 거래비용에 대한 개념적 고찰)

  • Kwon, Young-Sik;Mun, Jang-Sil
    • Journal of Distribution Science
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    • v.10 no.2
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    • pp.29-41
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    • 2012
  • This paper undertakes a conceptual review of transaction cost to broaden the understanding of the transaction cost analysis (TCA) approach. More than 40 years have passed since Coase's fundamental insight that transaction, coordination, and contracting costs must be considered explicitly in explaining the extent of vertical integration. Coase (1937) forced economists to identify previously neglected constraints on the trading process to foster efficient intrafirm, rather than interfirm, transactions. The transaction cost approach to economic organization study regards transactions as the basic units of analysis and holds that understanding transaction cost economy is central to organizational study. The approach applies to determining efficient boundaries, as between firms and markets, and to internal transaction organization, including employment relations design. TCA, developed principally by Oliver Williamson (1975,1979,1981a) blends institutional economics, organizational theory, and contract law. Further progress in transaction costs research awaits the identification of critical dimensions in which transaction costs differ and an examination of the economizing properties of alternative institutional modes for organizing transactions. The crucial investment distinction is: To what degree are transaction-specific (non-marketable) expenses incurred? Unspecialized items pose few hazards, since buyers can turn toalternative sources, and suppliers can sell output intended for one order to other buyers. Non-marketability problems arise when specific parties' identities have important cost-bearing consequences. Transactions of this kind are labeled idiosyncratic. The summarized results of the review are as follows. First, firms' distribution decisions often prompt examination of the make-or-buy question: Should a marketing activity be performed within the organization by company employees or contracted to an external agent? Second, manufacturers introducing an industrial product to a foreign market face a difficult decision. Should the product be marketed primarily by captive agents (the company sales force and distribution division) or independent intermediaries (outside sales agents and distribution)? Third, the authors develop a theoretical extension to the basic transaction cost model by combining insights from various theories with the TCA approach. Fourth, other such extensions are likely required for the general model to be applied to different channel situations. It is naive to assume the basic model appliesacross markedly different channel contexts without modifications and extensions. Although this study contributes to scholastic research, it is limited by several factors. First, the theoretical perspective of TCA has attracted considerable recent interest in the area of marketing channels. The analysis aims to match the properties of efficient governance structures with the attributes of the transaction. Second, empirical evidence about TCA's basic propositions is sketchy. Apart from Anderson's (1985) study of the vertical integration of the selling function and John's (1984) study of opportunism by franchised dealers, virtually no marketing studies involving the constructs implicated in the analysis have been reported. We hope, therefore, that further research will clarify distinctions between the different aspects of specific assets. Another important line of future research is the integration of efficiency-oriented TCA with organizational approaches that emphasize specific assets' conceptual definition and industry structure. Finally, research of transaction costs, uncertainty, opportunism, and switching costs is critical to future study.

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A Study on Risk Parity Asset Allocation Model with XGBoos (XGBoost를 활용한 리스크패리티 자산배분 모형에 관한 연구)

  • Kim, Younghoon;Choi, HeungSik;Kim, SunWoong
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.26 no.1
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    • pp.135-149
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    • 2020
  • Artificial intelligences are changing world. Financial market is also not an exception. Robo-Advisor is actively being developed, making up the weakness of traditional asset allocation methods and replacing the parts that are difficult for the traditional methods. It makes automated investment decisions with artificial intelligence algorithms and is used with various asset allocation models such as mean-variance model, Black-Litterman model and risk parity model. Risk parity model is a typical risk-based asset allocation model which is focused on the volatility of assets. It avoids investment risk structurally. So it has stability in the management of large size fund and it has been widely used in financial field. XGBoost model is a parallel tree-boosting method. It is an optimized gradient boosting model designed to be highly efficient and flexible. It not only makes billions of examples in limited memory environments but is also very fast to learn compared to traditional boosting methods. It is frequently used in various fields of data analysis and has a lot of advantages. So in this study, we propose a new asset allocation model that combines risk parity model and XGBoost machine learning model. This model uses XGBoost to predict the risk of assets and applies the predictive risk to the process of covariance estimation. There are estimated errors between the estimation period and the actual investment period because the optimized asset allocation model estimates the proportion of investments based on historical data. these estimated errors adversely affect the optimized portfolio performance. This study aims to improve the stability and portfolio performance of the model by predicting the volatility of the next investment period and reducing estimated errors of optimized asset allocation model. As a result, it narrows the gap between theory and practice and proposes a more advanced asset allocation model. In this study, we used the Korean stock market price data for a total of 17 years from 2003 to 2019 for the empirical test of the suggested model. The data sets are specifically composed of energy, finance, IT, industrial, material, telecommunication, utility, consumer, health care and staple sectors. We accumulated the value of prediction using moving-window method by 1,000 in-sample and 20 out-of-sample, so we produced a total of 154 rebalancing back-testing results. We analyzed portfolio performance in terms of cumulative rate of return and got a lot of sample data because of long period results. Comparing with traditional risk parity model, this experiment recorded improvements in both cumulative yield and reduction of estimated errors. The total cumulative return is 45.748%, about 5% higher than that of risk parity model and also the estimated errors are reduced in 9 out of 10 industry sectors. The reduction of estimated errors increases stability of the model and makes it easy to apply in practical investment. The results of the experiment showed improvement of portfolio performance by reducing the estimated errors of the optimized asset allocation model. Many financial models and asset allocation models are limited in practical investment because of the most fundamental question of whether the past characteristics of assets will continue into the future in the changing financial market. However, this study not only takes advantage of traditional asset allocation models, but also supplements the limitations of traditional methods and increases stability by predicting the risks of assets with the latest algorithm. There are various studies on parametric estimation methods to reduce the estimated errors in the portfolio optimization. We also suggested a new method to reduce estimated errors in optimized asset allocation model using machine learning. So this study is meaningful in that it proposes an advanced artificial intelligence asset allocation model for the fast-developing financial markets.

The Abolition Type and The Regional Characteristics of The Elementary Schools in Chungbuk Province (忠淸北道의 國民學校 廢校類型과 그 地域的 特性)

  • ;Chae, Son-Ha
    • Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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    • v.29 no.1
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    • pp.84-104
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    • 1994
  • The migration of population into the city has been on the increase according as Korea has been industrialized repidly since the 1960's. And there is a steady decrease in rural population. Thus lack of the number of the students forced many elementary Schools to be abolished. The aim of this study is to grasp the abolition types and the regional characteristics with the subject region of Chungbuk province. From the viewpoint of the increasing abolition of the elementary schools, I think it is very important to understand how the elementary schools have been abolished so far and predict how the subject region will have been changed in geography. Data for this study are based on Annual Establishment-Abolition Situation of the Schools published by Chungbuk office of Education in 1992, and many Kinds of the statistical reports, and the interview with the related. The results are as follows: 1. By examining the change of the number of the elementary schools and students in Chnugbuk, the numder of the students had also decreased since 1969 and was less than the half in 1990. As the number of the schools began to decrease ten years later than the students began to, the abolition of the elementary schools has started in reality from 1980's. 2. The 72 elementary schools were aboilshed between 1980 and 1992: the principal school is 9.7%, the branch school is 90.3%. The most fifteen schools are abolished in Yongdong-county and Chechon-county, and the least one school is abolished in Chechon-city and Okchon-county, and there is no abolition in Chongju-city and Chungju-city: According to the type of the abolition process, the least seven principal schools are abolished, and the principal school is reorganized as a branch school and twenty eight branch schools are abolished, and the most thirty seven branch schools are abolished. 3. When special change of the abolition is classified into the first perio (1980-1986) and the second period (1987-1992), in the first period the principal and branch schools were abolished and they are 13.9% of total abolition. The abolition out of them by building a dam is 60%. The principal schools in the submerged area though they have many students, were abolished. In the second period sixty two branch schools are abolished and they are 86.1% of total abolition. The most fifteen schools are abolished in Yongdong-county, thirteen in Chechon-county, seven in Tanyang-county, six in Chongwon-county, five in Chungwon-county and Koesan-county. Unlike the first period, the schools were abolished in this period because the number of students was so small. In this period sixty branch schools were abolished. All the students in the abolished schools except six schools transfered to the principal schools. The 58 school authorities help the students attend school by bus or support the expenses for attending school after that. 4. The abolition types of city, county and myon are classified into five types by the number of the abolished schools. The most forty nine abolished schools in type II are 68.1 of the total abolition. The least three abolished ones in type I are 12.5%. Considering the relation between the abolition type ane the number of schools and students, the number of the schools, increased in type I, II, III, V except IV from 1980 and then have decreased by abolition since 1980, while the more students decreased than they did in 1970 and the more the abolished school increases, the less the students decreases. The average students per school decreased in every abolition type and the most students decreased in type IV. 5. Considering the relation between the abolition type and the regional characteristics, most abolished schools were located between 100m and 300m above the sea level and it is 71% of the total abolition. The region without the abolition is high in the ratio of the cultivate land, ratio of rice field, and the part-time farmer, but the region with many abolition is low in the ratio of cultivated land. As for the manufacturing there are the most city, county and myon in the abolition type in Youngdong-county and Chechon-county where the manufacturing ratio of employing is low but Chongju-city without the abolition is a region where the manufacturing ratio is high. Consequently the development of the manufacturing causes the population to emigation out and the decrease of the population leads the transport is difficult of access, the facilities sold after being abolished are not being used in many ways. 7. Take an example of Youndong-county where the most schools were abolished, I have examined the school district and the population characteristics of the abolition. Though there were more villages, households, populations in the region that is higher than low above the sea level, the schools were abolished. Therefore we know that above the sea level had a great effect on the abolition. As a result of the regional analysis of the abolition, many schools were abolished by the artificial buildings such as a dam in the early 1980's but the schools in the late 1980's were abolished ten years later after the students decreased. More schools were abolished in the region where the manufacturing industry didn't develop. And the higher the school position was above the sea level, the sooner the school was abolished. It is also proved that both the beautiful natural scenery and accessibility are the important factor in using the abolished facilities practically.

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A Study on Commodity Asset Investment Model Based on Machine Learning Technique (기계학습을 활용한 상품자산 투자모델에 관한 연구)

  • Song, Jin Ho;Choi, Heung Sik;Kim, Sun Woong
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.23 no.4
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    • pp.127-146
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    • 2017
  • Services using artificial intelligence have begun to emerge in daily life. Artificial intelligence is applied to products in consumer electronics and communications such as artificial intelligence refrigerators and speakers. In the financial sector, using Kensho's artificial intelligence technology, the process of the stock trading system in Goldman Sachs was improved. For example, two stock traders could handle the work of 600 stock traders and the analytical work for 15 people for 4weeks could be processed in 5 minutes. Especially, big data analysis through machine learning among artificial intelligence fields is actively applied throughout the financial industry. The stock market analysis and investment modeling through machine learning theory are also actively studied. The limits of linearity problem existing in financial time series studies are overcome by using machine learning theory such as artificial intelligence prediction model. The study of quantitative financial data based on the past stock market-related numerical data is widely performed using artificial intelligence to forecast future movements of stock price or indices. Various other studies have been conducted to predict the future direction of the market or the stock price of companies by learning based on a large amount of text data such as various news and comments related to the stock market. Investing on commodity asset, one of alternative assets, is usually used for enhancing the stability and safety of traditional stock and bond asset portfolio. There are relatively few researches on the investment model about commodity asset than mainstream assets like equity and bond. Recently machine learning techniques are widely applied on financial world, especially on stock and bond investment model and it makes better trading model on this field and makes the change on the whole financial area. In this study we made investment model using Support Vector Machine among the machine learning models. There are some researches on commodity asset focusing on the price prediction of the specific commodity but it is hard to find the researches about investment model of commodity as asset allocation using machine learning model. We propose a method of forecasting four major commodity indices, portfolio made of commodity futures, and individual commodity futures, using SVM model. The four major commodity indices are Goldman Sachs Commodity Index(GSCI), Dow Jones UBS Commodity Index(DJUI), Thomson Reuters/Core Commodity CRB Index(TRCI), and Rogers International Commodity Index(RI). We selected each two individual futures among three sectors as energy, agriculture, and metals that are actively traded on CME market and have enough liquidity. They are Crude Oil, Natural Gas, Corn, Wheat, Gold and Silver Futures. We made the equally weighted portfolio with six commodity futures for comparing with other commodity indices. We set the 19 macroeconomic indicators including stock market indices, exports & imports trade data, labor market data, and composite leading indicators as the input data of the model because commodity asset is very closely related with the macroeconomic activities. They are 14 US economic indicators, two Chinese economic indicators and two Korean economic indicators. Data period is from January 1990 to May 2017. We set the former 195 monthly data as training data and the latter 125 monthly data as test data. In this study, we verified that the performance of the equally weighted commodity futures portfolio rebalanced by the SVM model is better than that of other commodity indices. The prediction accuracy of the model for the commodity indices does not exceed 50% regardless of the SVM kernel function. On the other hand, the prediction accuracy of equally weighted commodity futures portfolio is 53%. The prediction accuracy of the individual commodity futures model is better than that of commodity indices model especially in agriculture and metal sectors. The individual commodity futures portfolio excluding the energy sector has outperformed the three sectors covered by individual commodity futures portfolio. In order to verify the validity of the model, it is judged that the analysis results should be similar despite variations in data period. So we also examined the odd numbered year data as training data and the even numbered year data as test data and we confirmed that the analysis results are similar. As a result, when we allocate commodity assets to traditional portfolio composed of stock, bond, and cash, we can get more effective investment performance not by investing commodity indices but by investing commodity futures. Especially we can get better performance by rebalanced commodity futures portfolio designed by SVM model.

The Determination of Trust in Franchisor-Franchisee Relationships in China (중국 프랜차이즈 시스템에서의 본부와 가맹점간 신뢰의 영향요인)

  • Shin, Geon-Cheol;Ma, Yaokun
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.18 no.2
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    • pp.65-88
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    • 2008
  • Since the implementation of economic reforms in 1978, the Chinese economy grows rapidly at an average annul growth rate of 9% over the post two decades. Franchising has been widely recognized as an important source of entrepreneurial activity. Trust is important in that it facilitates relational exchanges by permits partners to transcend short-run inequities or risks to concentrate on long-term profits or gains. In the relationship between the franchisors and franchisees, trust has been described as an important source of competitive advantage. However, little research has been done on the factors affecting trust in Chinese franchisor-franchisee relationships. The purpose of this study is to investigate what factors affect the trust in the franchise system in China, and to provide guidelines and insights to franchisors which enter Chinese market. In this study, according to Morgan and Hunt (1994), trust is defined as the extending when one party has confidence in an exchange partner's reliability and integrity. We offered a conceptual model of the empirical study. The model shows that the factors affecting the trust include franchisor's supports, communication, satisfaction with previous outcome and conflict. We also suggested the franchisor's supports and communication like to enhance the franchisee's satisfaction with previous outcome, and the franchisor's supports, communication and he franchisee's satisfaction with previous outcome tend to decrease conflict. Before the formal study, a pretest involving exploratory interviews with owners from three franchisees was conducted to make sure the questionnaire was relevant and clear to the respondents. The data were collected using trained interviewers to carry out personal interviews with the aid of an unidentified, muti-page, structured questionnaire. The respondents comprised of owners, managers, and owner managers of franchisee-owned food service franchises located in Beijing, China. Even though a total of 256 potential franchises were initially contacted, the finally usable sample consisted of 125 respondents. As expected, the sampling method was successful in soliciting respondents with waried personal and firm characteristics. Self-administrated questionnaires were used for all measures. And established scales were used to measure the latent constructs in this study. The measures tapped the franchisees' perceptions of the relationship with the referent franchisor. Five-point Likert-type scales ranging from "strongly disagree" (=1) to "strongly agree" (=7) were used throughout the constructs (trust, eight items; support, five items; communication, four items; satisfaction, six items; conflict, three items). The reliability measurements traditionally employed, such as the Cronbach's alpha, were used. All the reliabilities were greater than.80. The proposed measurement model was estimated using SPSS 12.0 and AMOS 5.0 analysis package. We conducted A series of exploratory factor analyses and confirmatory factor analyses to assess the convergent validity, discriminant validity, and reliability. The results indicate reasonable overall fits between the model and the observed data. The overall fit of measurement model were $X^2$= 159.699, p=0.004, d.f. = 116, GFI =.879, NFI =.898, CFI =.969, IFI =.970, TLI =.959, RMR =.058. The results demonstrated that the data reasonably fitted the model. We also examined construct reliability and reliability and average variance extracted (AVE). The construct reliability of each construct was greater than.80 and the AVE of each construct was greater than.50. According to the analysis of Structure Equation Modeling (SEM), the results of path model indicated an adequate fit of the model: $X^2$= 142.126, p = 0.044, d.f. = 115, GFI =.892, NFI =.909, CFI =.981, IFI =.981, TLI =.974, RMR =.057. As hypothesized, the results showed that it is strategically important to establish trust in a franchise system, and the franchisor's supports, communication and satisfaction with previous outcome tend to reinforce franchisee's trust. The results also showed trust seems to decrease as the experience of conflict episodes increases. And we also noticed that franchisor's supports and communication tend to enhance the franchisee's satisfaction with previous outcome, and communication tend to decrease conflict. If the trust between the franchisor and franchisee can be established in a franchise system, franchising offers many benefits and reduces many costs. To manage a mutual trust of relationship with their franchisees, franchisor's should provide support effectively to their franchisees. Effective assistant services have direct effect on franchisees' satisfaction with previous outcome and trust in franchisor. Especially, franchise sales process, orientation, and training in the start-up period are key elements for success of the franchise system. Franchisor's support is an accumulated separate satisfaction evaluation with different kind of service provided by the franchisor. And providing support definitely can improve the trustworthy image of the franchisor. In the franchise system, conflicts of interests and exertions of different power sources are very common. The experience of conflict episodes seems to negatively relate to trust. Therefore, it is important to reduce the negative side of the relationship conflicts. Communication actually plays a broader role in reducing conflict and establish mutual trust in franchisor-franchisee relationship. And effective communication between franchisors and franchisees can improve franchisees' satisfaction toward the franchise system. As the diversification of Chinese markets, both franchisors and franchisees must keep the relevant, timely, and reliable communication. And it is very important to improve the quality of communication. Satisfaction with precious outcomes seems to positively relate to trust. Franchisors and franchisees that are highly satisfied with the previous outcomes that flow from their relationship will perceive their partner as advancing their goal achievement. Therefore, it is necessary for both franchisor and their franchisees to make the welfare of partner with effort. Little literature has focused on what factors affect the trust between franchisors and their franchisees in China. This study developed the hypotheses regarding the factors affecting trust in the transaction relationship. The results of data analysis supported the hypotheses strongly. There are certain limitations in this study. First, we may point out that some other factors missed in this study could be significantly important. Second, the context of this study, food service industry, limits its potential generalizability for all franchise systems. More studies in different categories of franchise system are needed to broaden its generalizability. Third, the model was tested empirically in a sample in Beijing, more empirical tests of the proposed model in other Chinese areas are needed. Finally, the analysis in this study was solely based on the perception of franchisees and the opinions of franchisors were not included.

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Study on 3D Printer Suitable for Character Merchandise Production Training (캐릭터 상품 제작 교육에 적합한 3D프린터 연구)

  • Kwon, Dong-Hyun
    • Cartoon and Animation Studies
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    • s.41
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    • pp.455-486
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    • 2015
  • The 3D printing technology, which started from the patent registration in 1986, was a technology that did not attract attention other than from some companies, due to the lack of awareness at the time. However, today, as expiring patents are appearing after the passage of 20 years, the price of 3D printers have decreased to the level of allowing purchase by individuals and the technology is attracting attention from industries, in addition to the general public, such as by naturally accepting 3D and to share 3D data, based on the generalization of online information exchange and improvement of computer performance. The production capability of 3D printers, which is based on digital data enabling digital transmission and revision and supplementation or production manufacturing not requiring molding, may provide a groundbreaking change to the process of manufacturing, and may attain the same effect in the character merchandise sector. Using a 3D printer is becoming a necessity in various figure merchandise productions which are in the forefront of the kidult culture that is recently gaining attention, and when predicting the demand by the industrial sites related to such character merchandise and when considering the more inexpensive price due to the expiration of patents and sharing of technology, expanding opportunities and sectors of employment and cultivating manpower that are able to engage in further creative work seems as a must, by introducing education courses cultivating manpower that can utilize 3D printers at the education field. However, there are limits in the information that can be obtained when seeking to introduce 3D printers in school education. Because the press or information media only mentions general information, such as the growth of the industrial size or prosperous future value of 3D printers, the research level of the academic world also remains at the level of organizing contents in an introductory level, such as by analyzing data on industrial size, analyzing the applicable scope in the industry, or introducing the printing technology. Such lack of information gives rise to problems at the education site. There would be no choice but to incur temporal and opportunity expenses, since the technology would only be able to be used after going through trials and errors, by first introducing the technology without examining the actual information, such as through comparing the strengths and weaknesses. In particular, if an expensive equipment introduced does not suit the features of school education, the loss costs would be significant. This research targeted general users without a technology-related basis, instead of specialists. By comparing the strengths and weaknesses and analyzing the problems and matters requiring notice upon use, pursuant to the representative technologies, instead of merely introducing the 3D printer technology as had been done previously, this research sought to explain the types of features that a 3D printer should have, in particular, when required in education relating to the development of figure merchandise as an optional cultural contents at cartoon-related departments, and sought to provide information that can be of practical help when seeking to provide education using 3D printers in the future. In the main body, the technologies were explained by making a classification based on a new perspective, such as the buttress method, types of materials, two-dimensional printing method, and three-dimensional printing method. The reason for selecting such different classification method was to easily allow mutual comparison of the practical problems upon use. In conclusion, the most suitable 3D printer was selected as the printer in the FDM method, which is comparatively cheap and requires low repair and maintenance cost and low materials expenses, although rather insufficient in the quality of outputs, and a recommendation was made, in addition, to select an entity that is supportive in providing technical support.

Improvement of Certification Criteria based on Analysis of On-site Investigation of Good Agricultural Practices(GAP) for Ginseng (인삼 GAP 인증기준의 현장실천평가결과 분석에 따른 인증기준 개선방안)

  • Yoon, Deok-Hoon;Nam, Ki-Woong;Oh, Soh-Young;Kim, Ga-Bin
    • Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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    • v.34 no.1
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    • pp.40-51
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    • 2019
  • Ginseng has a unique production system that is different from those used for other crops. It is subject to the Ginseng Industry Act., requires a long-term cultivation period of 4-6 years, involves complicated cultivation characteristics whereby ginseng is not produced in a single location, and many ginseng farmers engage in mixed-farming. Therefore, to bring the production of Ginseng in line with GAP standards, it is necessary to better understand the on-site practices of Ginseng farmers according to established control points, and to provide a proper action plan for improving efficiency. Among ginseng farmers in Korea who applied for GAP certification, 77.6% obtained it, which is lower than the 94.1% of farmers who obtained certification for other products. 13.7% of the applicants were judged to be unsuitable during document review due to their use of unregistered pesticides and soil heavy metals. Another 8.7% of applicants failed to obtain certification due to inadequate management results. This is a considerably higher rate of failure than the 5.3% incompatibility of document inspection and 0.6% incompatibility of on-site inspection, which suggests that it is relatively more difficult to obtain GAP certification for ginseng farming than for other crops. Ginseng farmers were given an average of 2.65 points out of 10 essential control points and a total 72 control points, which was slightly lower than the 2.81 points obtained for other crops. In particular, ginseng farmers were given an average of 1.96 points in the evaluation of compliance with the safe use standards for pesticides, which was much lower than the average of 2.95 points for other crops. Therefore, it is necessary to train ginseng farmers to comply with the safe use of pesticides. In the other essential control points, the ginseng farmers were rated at an average of 2.33 points, lower than the 2.58 points given for other crops. Several other areas of compliance in which the ginseng farmers also rated low in comparison to other crops were found. These inclued record keeping over 1 year, record of pesticide use, pesticide storages, posts harvest storage management, hand washing before and after work, hygiene related to work clothing, training of workers safety and hygiene, and written plan of hazard management. Also, among the total 72 control points, there are 12 control points (10 required, 2 recommended) that do not apply to ginseng. Therefore, it is considered inappropriate to conduct an effective evaluation of the ginseng production process based on the existing certification standards. In conclusion, differentiated certification standards are needed to expand GAP certification for ginseng farmers, and it is also necessary to develop programs that can be implemented in a more systematic and field-oriented manner to provide the farmers with proper GAP management education.