• Journal of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.13-30
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• 2008

We explore the determinants of long-term relationship between the buyer and the supplier to help suppliers develope a strategy to build long-term relationship with their buyers. Based upon an extensive literature review, we propose three droops of independent variables which may affect long-term relationship, including (a) environmental factors (product complexity, product importance, source dependence, price sensitivity), (b) relational factors(trust, commitment, satisfaction, intention of expansion), (c) operational performance(quality, delivery, cost capability, technical knowhow). The buyer's actual period of relationship with its main supplier is used as a dependent variable. Using hierarchical multiple regression analysis, we empirically test hypotheses, analysing a sample of 290 manufacturing firms in the U.S. The statistical results indicate that the buyer's source dependence, price sensitivity and the supplier's commitment play a significant role in establishing long-term relationship between the buyer and the supplier. However, the supplier's cost capability and technical knowhow in operational performance negatively affect long-term relationship in contrast with our hypotheses. Due to this controversial result, we divide the sample group Into dual sourcing and multiple sourcing environments and reconduct regression analysis in a post hoc manner. The findings show that the supplier's cost capability and technical knowhow are negatively associated with the length of relationship only in the multiple sourcing environment. The results may confirm that both parties' opportunistic behavior is more salient in the multiple sourcing environment than in the single sourcing environment.

• Asian Journal of Innovation and Policy
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.274-293
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• 2021

Utilizing outside knowledge for innovation is an important task for companies in the competitive economy. Due to the rapid advance in the internet communication technology, the number and quality of innovation sourcing methods are increasing. We select co-creation, personalization and in-house R&D as the representative forms of innovation sourcing and suggest a game theory model that enables the comparative analysis between them. The decision and surplus outcome of the innovation mechanisms are compared under various settings of the input parameters of the model. The stakeholders voluntarily participate into all mechanisms when the product price is moderately high and the participation cost is low, while co-creation is the only feasible one when the product quality is niche. When the participation cost is relatively high, personalization outperforms co-creation.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.462-473
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• 2008

In recent years, Korea's apparel exports to the USA have faced a great threat, as the trade environment around the world has changed continually. The purpose of this study is to analyze the competitive position of Korean apparel exports to the USA, and to enhance export competitiveness by applying to offshore sourcing. The trade data of the Office of Textiles and Apparel(OTEXA) in the U.S. Department of Commerce were selected for inquiry about export competitiveness of apparel products made in Korea. In addition, we targeted members of the Korea Apparel Industry Association among the 500 exporters of clothing items in "The Import and Export Textile Product 2003." A total 70 sheets were analyzed. The results of this study were as follows: 1) Korean apparel exports to USA have decreased by 20-35 percent per year since 2005 under the Free Trade Area, showing that Korean apparel industries have not adapted to the new trade environment. Although Korean apparel exports to USA have indicated a trade surplus from now on, Korean apparel industries should find new ways to overcome this situation, diminishing exports and increasing imports. 2) Korean apparel companies selected more offshore sourcing than domestic sourcing. Also, as Korean apparel companies manufactured apparel products offshore, foreign subcontracting outranked manufacturing in their own foreign plants. When they chose foreign countries to source, they turned mainly to China and Vietnam. Also, they considered the target country's manufacturing price, labor stability, apparel products, quality, lead time, and so on. In order to increase apparel exports, Korean apparel industries should focus more on developing competitively new apparel products, improving the ability of sourcing management, and establishing on-the-spot agencies.

• The International Journal of Costume Culture
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.141-152
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• 2009

In this study, the business structure and characteristics of buying offices used by buyers for apparel productions through global sourcing were analyzed in specifics. Data were acquired through in-depth interviews of twelve merchandisers at representative apparel buying offices. The results of this study can be summarized as following. The business structure of a buying office varied depending on the functions, the item characteristics of products to be manufactured or the characteristics of the major buyers who were the customers. Overall, teams were formed by brands or organizations were formed by functions. Functional teams were divided within each brand team when business teams were divided by brands and personnel was divided by brands occasionally within each functional team when business teams were divided by functions. Business teams were composed of MR which managed the overall business about orders such as factory sourcing, price decision and production management and teams with various specialized skills. The teams with specialized skills were composed of Technical team, Fabric Development team, Colorist team, Quality Assurance (QA) or Quality Control (QC) team, Logistics team, Factory Audit team, and etc. For the future directions on the improvements, ways to increase international competitiveness of buying offices need to be researched and many expressed the opinion that it would be effective to move the offices to countries close to buyers or manufacturing locations as most buyers demand lower prices and shorter lead time than before and it is increasing trend for buyers and factories to do business directly without buying offices in the middle.

• Management Science and Financial Engineering
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.79-93
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• 2005

Despite the fact that the sourcing process in B2B e-Marketplaces is one of the most important tasks, the evaluation and selection process of suppliers have been ad-hoc based and mainly dependent on the experience of sourcing managers' subjective knowledge. To remedy the problem, we developed a decision support System (called Wise - I) that helps sourcing managers evaluate suppliers in a more systematic way. The system reflects company's strategy and know-how by adopting company enforced weighted scores for different factors and employing a more scientific method of considering factors other than price and on-time delivery rate, utilizing the AHP method. This paper reports the effectiveness of the system as well as the detailed description of the system. To investigate the effectiveness of the system, we collected information through interview and questionnaire survey. The information was also augmented through the firm key index system, which monitors average delivery lead time and on-time delivery rate. The result indicates that the system leads to the efficiency of purchasing section and the transparency of buying process, therefore reduces delivery time and cost.

• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.322-328
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• 2007

Highly standardized products are suitable for automated purchasing using electronic commerce technology, where the price becomes the most important factor. Suppliers can change the prices dynamically based on the inventory level and market situation in order to maximize the sales and profit. In the virtual marketplace where multiple customers purchase multiple standardized products from multiple suppliers repetitively, customers can purchase the required amount of each item as a dynamic bidding by allocating purchase orders to the suppliers based on the current price. Customers need a method to quickly determine the optimal allocation of orders to the suppliers using the dynamically changing data to minimize the total cost. We present a LP model which minimizes the sum of the total price plus transportation cost for this problem. Simulation results using random data show meaningful reduction of the total cost.

• Journal of the Korea Fashion and Costume Design Association
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.89-101
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• 2011

The economy blocking and price competitiveness caused by globalization has generated an on-going controversy of global sourcing among high-priced luxury brands. The consumers in the global market purchase luxury goods based on both craftsmanship and the reputation of luxury brands. Factors such as the origin, brand and pricing can affect the intention of consumers to buy luxury goods. This study analyzed the optimum brand combination using conjoint analysis. The analysis was based on the selection of origin, brand name and price as extrinsic factors among attributes of customer choice. These factors were subdivided into Italian and Chinese origins, Gucci, Prada, and Miu Miu in terms of brand names, and 450,000, 750,000, and 1,500,000 Won in terms of price levels. The result showed that origin was considered the most important factor followed by brand name and pricing. This tendency tells us that customers consider origin, brand name and price in that order when purchasing luxury brands. In regards to each factor, respondents preferred Italian to Chinese origins, the Gucci to Miu Miu brand name, and 750,000 to 450,000 won for price level. Generally, women in their 20s and 30s preferred products from advanced nations at a medium-level price.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.32
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• pp.283-292
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• 1997

The country-of-origin may be used as surro-gate indicator when the consumers do not have confidence on quality evaluation. Since the global sourcing is getting popular in inter-national textile and apparel production the ef-fect of country-of-origin should be examined. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of country-of-origin on product evaluation and its relation to the consumer characteristics. A questionnaire was distribu-ted to 524 respondents aged 18 through 35. The results indicated that the country-of-ori-gin had significant influence on quality evalu-ation. Furthermore product components such as design price fabric and workmanship were also influenced by the country-of-origin. Price was perceived as more affected variable by country-of-origin than design fabric and work-manship. The interest in country-of-origin was different according to the consumer charac-teristics. Among demographics age and in-come turned out to be significant variables to determine the interest in country-of-origin. Shopping habits of respondents such as pur-chasing price of polo-style knit shirt the place to purchase that shirt the number of shirts they have were significantly different accord-ing to the interest in country=-of-origin. The re-spondent had higher interest in country-of-ori-gin were more fashion-conscious more confi-dent on clothing purchase more brand loyal and more sensitive to price of clothin.

• Industrial Engineering and Management Systems
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.129-158
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• 2015

It is necessary for retailers to determine the optimal ordering policy of products considering supply disruptions due to a natural disaster and a production process failure as quality and machine breakdowns. Under the situation, a dualsourcing supply chain (DSSC) is one of effective SC for retailers to order products reliably. This paper proposes the optimal ordering policy of a product in a DSSC with a retailer and two manufacturers. Two manufacturers may face supply disruptions due to a natural disater and a production process failure after they received the retailer's order of products. Here, two scenarios of demand information of products are assumed: (i) the demand distribution is known (ii) mean and variance of the demand are known. Under above situations, two types of DSSC are discussed. Under a decentralized DSSC (DSC), a retailer determines the optimal ordering policy to maximize his/her total expected profit. Under the integrated DSSC (ISC), the optimal ordering policy is determined to maximize the whole system's total expected profit. Numerical analysis investigates how demand information and supply disruptions affect the optimal decisions under DSC and ISC. Besides, profitability of supply chain coordination adjusting the wholesale price is evaluated to encourage the optimal decision under ISC.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.24-30
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• 2018

In Botswana, mopane worms are widely harvested for household consumption. They are also traded for income generation. Urban based entrepreneurs' source mopane worms from rural areas to sell. The price of sourcing mopane worms from the harvesters has increased quite incredibly in villages. However, there is dearth of academic studies on the commercialisation of mopane worms in Botswana. This paper uses primary data collected from multiple sources to investigate the factors influencing the prices of mopane worms. Data collection involved administration of questionnaires to purposively selected harvesters in four campsites in the Central District, focus group discussions at each campsite and key informant interviews. The results show that there is declining population of mopane worms. The decline is attributable to such factors as over-harvesting and climate change which are the main factors influencing the price of mopane worms. In addition to physical scarcity of mopane worms, institutional weaknesses exist in the study area. The Agricultural Resources Conservation Act is ineffective and the majority of the harvesters are unaware of its existences. It is recommended that the regulations on the harvesting of mopane worms be reviewed. In order to benefit harvesters, mopane worms should be processed to add diversified economic value to rural communities.