• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.559-592
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• 2012

In spite of the transitional changes in the shoe industry in Busan area, regular academic studies on the management plan to improve the practical competitiveness of footwear industry focused in the materials, bio-dynamics, components, and designs, etc. in the engineering viewpoint are very rare. Many reports of policies were published from late 190's to 2000's but they were limited to the identification of practical situations and the measures for strategic alternatives and were not developed to be the academic studies to improve the competitiveness in terms of management control. It is intended to seek for the measures to be reviewed as the alternatives to improve the self-competitiveness of footwear companies by approaching the problems limited to such specific area in the viewpoint of management control. The core of this study is to provide the alternative plans for expansion of the industrial foundation by seeking for the measures to improve competitiveness with application of knowledge management as an alternative for improvement of not transient but sustainable industrial competitiveness, in order to help the export of shoes from Busan area which has been rapidly increased since the Korea-USA FTA and Korea-EU FTA. In such viewpoint, in the study, a questionnaire survey was performed related with the issues of Busan's footwear industry and the plan to implement knowledge management was discussed for improvement of the competitiveness of footwear industry based on the result of such questionnaire survey. As most of studies and directions have been focused in functional shoes, designs, materials, and components, etc., which are related with the properties of human dynamics, as the alternatives for improvement of the footwear industry of Busan area and did not suggest the measures to make basic changes in the management of companies, the implementation of knowledge management was emphasized in order to seek for the direction of such plan. The purpose of this study is to suggest an alternative for construction of industrial eco-system for high added value by seeking for the probability of knowledge management for conversion of footwear industry into knowledge industry. In order to accomplish the effect of increased export as the result of FTA, current management method of footwear companies is limited and the effect of FTA should be maximized by improving the competitiveness with implementation of knowledge management methods. Settlement of such knowledge management will act as the momentum to improve the competitiveness of footwear companies and, in a long-term viewpoint, will be able to maximize the improvement of knowledge industry and creation of job opportunities.