• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.3-37
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• 2011

This paper investigates the existence of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) for carbon dioxide $CO_2$ emissions and its causal relationships with economic growth and openness by using time series data (1971-2006) from China (an emerging market), Korea (a newly industrialized country), and Japan (a developed country). The sample countries span a whole range of development stages from industrialized to newly industrialized and emerging market economies. The environmental consequences according to openness and economic growth do not show uniform results across the countries. Depending on the national characteristics, the estimated EKC show different temporal patterns. China shows an N-shaped curve while Japan has a U-shaped curve. Such dissimilarities are also found in the relationship between $CO_2$ emissions and openness. In the case of Korea, and Japan it represents an inverted U-shaped curve while China shows a U-shaped curve. We also analyze the dynamic relationships between the variables by adopting a vector auto regression or vector error correction model. These models through the impulse response functions allow for analysis of the causal variable's influence on the dynamic response of emission variables, and it adopts a variance decomposition to explain the magnitude of the forecast error variance determined by the shocks to each of the causal variables over time. Results show evidence of large heterogeneity among the countries and variables impacts.

• Korea and Global Affairs
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.71-96
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• 2017

This study speculates on responses to the nuclear threats of North Korea and mutual assistance and cooperation between South Korea, the U.S. and China for the unification of the Korean Peninsula. As for the North Koreas nuclear issue and unification of the Korean Peninsula, South Korea is the subject of national division, the U.S. is a responsible country in international issues and does not have diplomatic ties with North Korea. China is a traditional socialist nation and a supporter of North Korea. As North Korea's strategic weapons including nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles are international issues, to defend against Kim Jung-Eun's unexpected acts, the three countries should actively cooperate with each other and develop countermeasures. However, with respect to the road map of the North Koreas issue, there are subtle differences between the U.S. and China in recognition of and sanctions against North Korea as a resolution of the U..N. Security Council. The U.S. has continued a deterrence policy and sanctions against North Korea based on joint threats between South Korea and the U.S. while China has showed a negative position in the process of solving the North Korean nuclear issue because of the unstable security derived from the U.S. 's intervention in the Korean peninsula. North Korea should change its diplomatic policy in a more concrete way towards world peace although it has continued trade of strategic weapons with Middle Eastern countries to maintain its political system. For example, to restart the summit talks and open multilateral security channels. Although the issue of unification of the Korean peninsula should be resolved by South and North Korea themselves, it is strange that South and North Korea depend on the logic of powerful countries for the resolution of a national problem. As for North Koreas nuclear and the Unification issues, peaceful solutions presented by South Korea seem more persuasive than the solution presented by North Korea which did not secure any international support. However, South Korea, the U.S. and China need to develop uni-directional two-tract strategies for sanctions against North Korea and talks with North Korea for peace on the Korean peninsula, and should continue to support the economic independence of North Korea.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.111-132
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• 2018

As China continues to evolve as a major economic power and the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the Republic of Korea and China was ratified on June 1, 2015, market volume between the two countries is expected to grow more rapidly. This study aims on improving the efficiency of car-ferry lines. We conducted two surveys- for shippers and forwarders of car-ferry companies, and container liners. The study analyzes the decision factors for delivery companies and their importance for shippers and forwarders of car-ferry companies and container liners. Based on analysis of prior studies on the competition for car-ferry companies and liners, three primary variables are selected-promptness, economics, and safety. The promptness variable consists of shipping time, loading/unloading time, and customs clearing time. The economic variable consists of marine transportation cost from a domestic harbor to China, loading/unloading cost in the harbor, and overland transport cost from the harbor to shippers inland. Finally, the safety variable consists of cargo damage rates, safety facilities, such as lashing and shoring, and punctuality of transportation time. The survey and AHP results show that the promptness, safety, and economics factors are 0.549, 0.309, and 0.142 in the shipper groups of car-ferry companies' category, respectively. It indicates that there is considerable difference in the importance of each factor. In contrast, the factors are 0.350, 0.348, and 0.302 in the forwarders category, which suggests that there is little difference in each factor's importance. As for shippers and forwarders of liners, the importance of each factor is found to be in the following order: economics, safety, and promptness.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.25 no.8
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• pp.57-74
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• 2021

Purpose - This study aims to analyze the characteristics of network construction by Norwegian Air and AirAsia X, which are recognized as leading airlines in the long-haul LCC market. Based on this analysis, this study intends to provide implications for networking strategies for Korean LCCs that seek to enter the long-haul market when the aviation market stabilizes again upon the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology - To conduct the network analysis on long-haul low-cost airlines, the Official Airline Guide (OAG) Schedule Analyzer was used to extract long-haul data of Norwegian Air and AirAsia X. To analyze the trend of the long-haul route network, we obtained the data from 3 separate years between 2011 and 2019. The network was analyzed using UCINET 6.0 in order to examine the network structure of long-haul low-cost airlines and the growth trend of each stage. Findings - Analyzing the network of long-haul routes by visualizing the network structure of low-cost carriers showed the following results. In its early years, Norwegian Air's long-haul route network, centering on regional airports in Spain and Sweden, connected European regions, the Middle East, and Africa. As time passed, however, the network expanded and became steadily strong as the airline connected airports in other European countries to North America and Asia. In addition, in 2011, AirAsia X showed links to parts of Europe, such as London and Paris, the Middle East and India, and Australia and Northeast Asia, centering on the Kuala Lumpur Airport. Although the routes in Europe were suspended, the network continued to expand while concentrating on routes of less than approximately 7,000 km. It was found that instead of giving up on ultra-long-haul routes such as Europe, the network was further expanded in Northeast Asia, such as the routes in Korea and Japan centering on China. Originality/value - Until the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, Norwegian Air actively expanded long-haul routes, resulting in the number of long-haul routes quintupling since 2011. The unfortunate circumstance, wherein the world aviation market was rendered stagnant due to the outbreak of COVID-19, hit Norwegian Air harder than any other low-cost carriers. However, in the case of AirAsia X, it was found that it did not suffer as much damage as Norwegian Air because it initially withdrew from unprofitable routes over 7,000 km and grew by gradually increasing profitable destinations over shorter distances. When the COVID-19 pandemic ends and the aviation market stabilizes, low-cost carriers around the world, including Korea, that enter the long-haul route market will need to employ strategies to analyze the marketability of potential routes and to launch the routes that yield the highest profits without being bound by distance. For stable growth, it is necessary to take a conservative stance; first, by reviewing the business feasibility of the operating a small number of highly profitable routes, and second, by gradually expanding these routes.

• Strategy21
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• s.30
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• pp.31-62
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• 2012

It is a commons sense that the Republic of Korea is a maritime state that depends its survival on International Trade and International Economy. Korea was a peninsula and do it can be both maritime and continental state by its choice. However, after the national division in 1945, South Korea had became a virtual island and pursue a maritime way for national development in the past 60 plus years. Now, South Korea is becoming a world's 12 th largest major trading and maritime state. South Korea has far more ships per capita than any other nations in the world and its economy is heavily depend upon the imports and exports with other nations in the world that pass through the oceans. Therefore, the Koreans regard the security of the sea lanes of communication as vital to the survival of the nation. The SLOC is the life line for Republic of Korea. Since the early 1990s, immediately after the Cold War was over, South Koreans began to recognize the importance of Sea Routes and thus began to build a navy that can handle with the new problems of the post Cold War era. However, the maritime security environments of the Republic of Korea today is shaky and dangerous. Almost every water near the Korean peninsula, some kind of international confrontations are going on. Territorial disputes on Dok do, Senkaku, Scarbrough, Shisha, Nansha and Eodo between and among Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, Phillipines, Indonesia and Vietnam are the examples. In this essay, the author argues that the S. Korean efforts and capabilities to deal with these challenges are not enough and exhorts more efforts and more powerful navy for the Korean people.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.287-306
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• 2023

This study tries to explore that the relationship between social media company's coercive and involuntary marketing stimuli and the negative consequences that have not been intensively discussed in measuring the performance of social media companies. To reflect the influence of the socio-cultural environment of country, a comparative study was conducted on major social media market in Korea and China. As result of the verification, it was found that coercive marketing stimuli had influence on social media firm's negative consequences. And there are significant differences by country in the effect of company's coercive marketing stimulus on user attitudes and negative performance. The results of this study are expected to provide practical implications for the operation of social media firms and individuals who want to do business using social media.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.24 no.8
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• pp.63-80
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• 2020

Purpose - Recent empirical studies have shown that FDI is expected to be strongly associated with democratic governance, political stability, and sound macroeconomic conditions of the host country. We attempt to take it a step further to see if governments implement a major change in institutional characteristics, will the institutional reform toward better governance have a substantive effect in enhancing FDI inflows. This paper thus aims to analyze the importance of good governance as an important factor in the attractiveness of FDI inflows in ASEAN+3 (Korea, China, Japan) countries. Design/methodology - To determine the effects of good governance on FDI inflows across ASEAN+3 countries recorded between 1996-2018, the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) are used to investigate the impact of good governance on FDI inflows. The model has been estimated by using fixed effects to show the robustness of the results. Findings - Our main findings can be summarized as follows: Political Stability, Rule of Law, and Voice and Accountability have a statistically significant impact on the inflow of FDI in the ASEAN+3 Countries, especially for Korean economy. Moreover, GDP growth continue to exert their positive influence. However, Regulatory Quality, Government Effectiveness and Control of Corruption, though equally important, are insignificant to attract FDI inflows. The key finding is that good governance has a significant impact on inward FDI in the ASEAN+3 countries. Originality/value - Existing studies focus on the impact of political factors on FDI across countries. This paper instead attempts to investigate which type of good governance is the most important in promoting FDI inflows across ASEAN+3 countries, which is essential for multinationals to consider when choosing a foreign site as a possible FDI destination.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.369-390
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• 2017

The view of social responsibility activities from the pioneer studies found that most research is mainly limited to the corporate social responsibility activities. The related studies on the individual level are very few. Therefore, it is very necessary to make a clearer and more systematic empirical research for the global companies whose employees are directly involved in the companies' social responsibility activities. In order to find the relationship between variables, we collected data from chinese employee of Korean firms which located in China. The result of empirical test is as follows; First, the social responsibility activities of the individual level have a significant positive effect on the employees' job satisfaction and organization inputs. In other words, social responsibility activities could improve the employee's job satisfaction and organization inputs. Second, innovative organizational culture of South Korean companies has a significant positive effect on the individual level social responsibility activities. Third, transformational leadership of the CEO in South Korean have no effect on personal level social responsibility activities. Fourth, the CEO'S ethical values have great positive effect on personal level of social responsibility activities. Through the analysis we can see, in the process of global corporate implicating social responsibility activities, the CEO'S ethical values are more important than the transformational leadership of the CEO. Finally, in the relationship between the employees' personal ethical values and personal social responsibility activities, the employees' personal ethical values in South Korean companies have great positive effect on the personal level social responsibility activities.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.113-136
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• 2023

Purpose - Global production chains and their impacts on economic growth have drawn extensive attention from researchers. Close relationships among global production chains, export and economic growth have been illuminated, as evidenced by the fast and stable economic growth of East Asian economies. These economies perform various roles within global production chains using offshoring, in which the impact of import on domestic gross output is as strong as that of export. The impact of import on economic growth would depend on whether imported inputs substitute or complement domestic inputs production, which is likely to vary according to individual countries' functions within global production chains. The economic growth of concerned countries would also be diverse. However, little attention has been paid to the impact brought by imports compared to its significance. Design/methodology - The principal methodology used in this paper is structural decomposition analysis (SDA), widely chosen to elucidate the impact of various factors on domestic gross output using input-output tables. This paper extracts trade data of six Asian economies from the World Input-Output Database (WIOD) 2016 release that covers 43 countries for the period 2000-2014. The extracted data is then categorised into 37 sectors. First, this paper calculates the Feenstra-Hanson Offshoring Index (OSI) of each country. It then applies SDA to measure the changes in each economy's gross output, export, import input coefficients, and domestic input coefficients. Finally, after taking the first difference from pooled time-series data, it estimates the correlations between imported input coefficients and OSI using the ordinary least square (OLS) method. Findings - The main findings of this paper can be summarised as follows. Firstly, all six countries have increasingly engaged in global production chains, as evidenced by the growing size of OSI. Secondly, there are negative correlations in five countries except Japan, with sectoral differences. Thirdly, changes in import input coefficients are not negative in all six countries, indicating that offshoring does not necessarily substitute for domestic inputs production but does complement it and, therefore, fosters their economic growth. This is observed in China, Indonesia, Korea and Taiwan. Offshoring has led to an increase in the use of imported inputs, which has, in turn, stimulated domestic inputs production in these countries. Originality/value - While existing studies focus on the role of export in evaluating the impact of participating global production chains, this paper explicitly examines the unexplored impact of import on domestic gross output by considering both the substitution and the complementary effect, using the WIOD. The findings of this paper suggest that Asian economies have achieved fast and stable economic growth not only through successful export management but also through effective import management within global production chains. This paper recommends that the Korean government and enterprises carefully choose offshoring strategies to minimise disruption to domestic production chains or foster them.

• Asian Journal of Business Environment
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.19-28
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• 2020

Purpose: This research aims to investigate the impact of corporate integrity on stock price crash risk. Research design, data, and methodology: Taking 1419 firms listed in Shenzhen Stock Exchange in China as a sample, this paper empirically analyzed the relationship between corporate integrity and stock price crash risk. The main integrity data was hand-collected from Shenzhen Stock Exchange Website. Other financial data was collected from CSMAR Database. Results: Findings show that corporate integrity can significantly decrease stock price crash risk. After changing the selection of samples, model estimation methods and the proxy variable of stock price crash risk, the conclusion is still valid. Further research shows that the relationship between corporate integrity and stock price crash risk is only found in firms with weak internal control and firms in poor legal system areas. Conclusions: Results of the study suggest that corporate integrity has a significant influence on behaviors of managers. Business ethics reduces the likelihood of managers to overstate financial performance and hide bad news, which leads to the low likelihood of future stock price crashes. Meanwhile, corporate integrity can supplement internal control and legal system in decreasing stock price crash risks.