• Title/Summary/Keyword: Traditional Market in Korea

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The Study on Evaluation of Franchise Corporate Social Responsibility (국내 프랜차이즈 기업의 CSR 단계별 평가 및 제고 방안)

  • Park, Jin Yong;Chae, Danbi;Lim, Jiwon
    • The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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    • v.5 no.1
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    • pp.109-141
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    • 2014
  • Recently, the interests of consumers in firms that implement the social commitment activities have been consistently growing. Consumers' evaluation about the level of corporate social responsibility(CSR) can affect the overall image for product or service of corporation. This recent changes make a marketer to have to consider direct and indirect effects of CSR efforts on the market performance. This phenomena is also found in the franchise industry. The importance of CSR is more critical rather than other industries since each franchisor should care franchisees as well as end users. Franchisors' execution of CSR could increase satisfaction of end user through consonance of activities provided by franchisees. However most franchisor stay in focusing on the traditional CSR activities. Therefore, this study aims to enhance the understanding the CSR in franchise and provide the phase model of CSR development for general firms including franchise. After diagnosis the firms with the proposed model, the study found many franchisors have huge gap between current CSR activities and higher level of CSR policies that franchisor have to make facing. This study call franchisors to reduce this gap by implementing new CSR efforts. If they answer for this calling, franchise industry could leap for making the best practice of creating shared value with other stakeholders.

Impact of Net-Based Customer Service on Firm Profits and Consumer Welfare (기업의 온라인 고객 서비스가 기업의 수익 및 고객의 후생에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구)

  • Kim, Eun-Jin;Lee, Byung-Tae
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.17 no.2
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    • pp.123-137
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    • 2007
  • The advent of the Internet and related Web technologies has created an easily accessible link between a firm and its customers, and has provided opportunities to a firm to use information technology to support supplementary after-sale services associated with a product or service. It has been widely recognized that supplementary services are an important source of customer value and of competitive advantage as the characteristics of the product itself. Many of these supplementary services are information-based and need not be co-located with the product, so more and more companies are delivering these services electronically. Net-based customer service, which is defined as an Internet-based computerized information system that delivers services to a customer, therefore, is the core infrastructure for supplementary service provision. The importance of net-based customer service in delivering supplementary after-sale services associated with product has been well documented. The strategic advantages of well-implemented net-based customer service are enhanced customer loyalty and higher lock-in of customers, and a resulting reduction in competition and the consequent increase in profits. However, not all customers utilize such net-based customer service. The digital divide is the phenomenon in our society that captures the observation that not all customers have equal access to computers. Socioeconomic factors such as race, gender, and education level are strongly related to Internet accessibility and ability to use. This is due to the differences in the ability to bear the cost of a computer, and the differences in self-efficacy in the use of a technology, among other reasons. This concept, applied to e-commerce, has been called the "e-commerce divide." High Internet penetration is not eradicating the digital divide and e-commerce divide as one would hope. Besides, to accommodate personalized support, a customer must often provide personal information to the firm. This personal information includes not only name and address, but also preferences information and perhaps valuation information. However, many recent studies show that consumers may not be willing to share information about themselves due to concerns about privacy online. Due to the e-commerce divide, and due to privacy and security concerns of the customer for sharing personal information with firms, limited numbers of customers adopt net-based customer service. The limited level of customer adoption of net-based customer service affects the firm profits and the customers' welfare. We use a game-theoretic model in which we model the net-based customer service system as a mechanism to enhance customers' loyalty. We model a market entry scenario where a firm (the incumbent) uses the net-based customer service system in inducing loyalty in its customer base. The firm sells one product through the traditional retailing channels and at a price set for these channels. Another firm (the entrant) enters the market, and having observed the price of the incumbent firm (and after deducing the loyalty levels in the customer base), chooses its price. The profits of the firms and the surplus of the two customers segments (the segment that utilizes net-based customer service and the segment that does not) are analyzed in the Stackelberg leader-follower model of competition between the firms. We find that an increase in adoption of net-based customer service by the customer base is not always desirable for firms. With low effectiveness in enhancing customer loyalty, firms prefer a high level of customer adoption of net-based customer service, because an increase in adoption rate decreases competition and increases profits. A firm in an industry where net-based customer service is highly effective loyalty mechanism, on the other hand, prefers a low level of adoption by customers.

Appraisal of the Special Production Area Development Project in Rural Area and Countermeasures for Off-farm Income Increase (The Case of Chungnam Province) (농어촌(農漁村) 특산단지개발사업(特産團地開發事業)의 평가(評價)와 농외소득증대방안(農外所得增大方案) (충청남도(忠淸南道)를 중심(中心)으로))

  • Lim, Jae Hwan
    • Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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    • v.18 no.2
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    • pp.164-179
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    • 1991
  • Korean agriculture has encountered two problems. One is internal income disparity between rural and urbarn area and the other is external Uruguay Round trade problems as an abolition of direct and indirect import barriers, reduction in export subsidies and to reduce internal price supports. These problems will be brought severe farm problems such as decreasing farm household income and repressing agricultural growth in the near future. Considering the above inevitable facts Korean government has implemented several development projects such as rural industrial area development project, rural special production area development project, leisuresight seeing farm development project, traditional food development project, unskilled labor training project for off-farm employment and so on, to increase farm household income through off-farm income increase. This study was mainly concentrated on the identification of operational problems and post evaluation of the rural special production area development projects which aimed at increasing non-farm incomes and giving employment opportunity for rural farmers in small factories processing regional special farm products and mine products. The main findings and problems to be solved for the successful project implementation are as followed ; 1. Total number of the special production area development projects as of the end of 1991 was amount to 138, and total number of farm household participated were estimated at 2,079, and total amount of off-farm income per farm household was reached to 3,011 thousand won. 2. The total number of processed special products have increased from 21 items in 1981 to 56 items in 1991. On the other hand the total number of farm household participated in the projects have decreased from 2,518 to 2,079 during same period. 3. Total amount of investment for the projects has increased from 1,429 million won in 1981 to 24,760 million won in 1991 but the rate of G'T loan of the total investment has reduced from 24.5% to 5.2% during same period. 4. 138 special production area development project are classified into 6 kinds of commodity groups such as 19 of general industrial good production areas, 52 of folks-industrial art objects production areas, 39 of food processing areas, 9 of fiber and texstile processing areas, 18 of agricultural and fishery inputs processing areas and 1 of stone processing area. 5. The total production value in 1990 was estimated 20,169 million won of which export was amount to 2,627 million won. 6. The finacial rate of return of the UNGOK KUGIJA Tea processing Project operated by UNGOK coops and BAKSAN ginseng tea processing project were estimated at 45.4% (B/C Ratio=1.17, NPV=152.5 million won) and 17.7% (B/C Ratio=1.12, NPV=120.2 million won) respectively. 7. More favorite terms and condition of the loan including collateral problems have to be given to farmers participated. Heavy investment and G'T subsidy policies should be started for the successful project implementation anf farm household income increase. 8. To expand market demand of the rural special goods G'T have to provide special program of TV or other mass media for commodity propaganda and the total cost concerned must be supported by G'T subsidy. 9. The special farm products as GUGUJA,MOSI'Ramie', Ginseng. SOGOKJU,HEMP,Mushroom.DUGYUNJU and Chesnut processing projects have to be propelled and expanded for off-farm income increase in Chung Nam Province. 10. Direct operational pattern of the special production area by coops is more favorable to farmers and recommendable considering with off-farm income increase and market demand creation throughout Korea. 11. In rural area, special organizations for project appraisal are not exist. Accordingly special training program, project appraisal, formulation and preparation for civil servants concerned have to be prepared for project selection and sound implementation under limited budget and financial support.

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Brief Review of Silicon Solar Cells (실리콘 태양전지)

  • Yi, Jun-Sin
    • Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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    • v.16 no.3
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    • pp.161-166
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    • 2007
  • Photovoltaic (PV) technology permits the transformation of solar light directly into electricity. For the last five years, the photovoltaic sector has experienced one of the highest growth rates worldwide (over 30% in 2006) and for the next 20 years, the average production growth rate is estimated to be between 27% and 34% annually. Currently the cost of electricity produced using photovoltaic technology is above that for traditional energy sources, but this is expected to fall with technological progress and more efficient production processes. A large scale production of solar grade silicon material of high purity could supply the world demand at a reasonably lower cost. A shift from crystalline silicon to thin film is expected in the future. The technical limit for the conversion efficiency is about 30%. It is assumed that in 2030 thin films will have a major market share (90%) and the share of crystalline cells will have decreased to 10%. Our research at Sungkyunkwan University of South Korea is confined to crystalline silicon solar cell technology. We aim to develop a technology for low cost production of high efficiency silicon solar cell. We have successfully fabricated silicon solar cells of efficiency more than 16% starting with multicrystalline wafers and that of efficiency more than 17% on single crystalline wafers with screen printing metallization. The process of transformation from the first generation to second generation solar cell should be geared up with the entry of new approaches but still silicon seems to remain as the major material for solar cells for many years to come. Local barriers to the implementation of this technology may also keep continuing up to year 2010 and by that time the cost of the solar cell generated power is expected to be 60 cent per watt. Photovoltaic source could establish itself as a clean and sustainable energy alternate to the ever depleting and polluting non-renewable energy resource.

A Study on the ITSM and CSC working together for effective business process (효과적인 업무프로세스 증대를 위한 ITSM과 CSC 연동에 관한 연구)

  • Choi Byung-Hoon;Kim Sang-Geun
    • The KIPS Transactions:PartD
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    • v.13D no.3 s.106
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    • pp.405-414
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    • 2006
  • These days, business environments are rapidly change and companies are taking the pressure about a customer value enhance to the continuance from the market. Therefore companies propel various innovative and strategic initiatives for a customer value enhancement. Also Information Technology is rapidly becoming part of our everyday lives due to its fast development, the functions and responsibilities of CSC(Consolidated Service Center) are undergoing revolutionary change. The function of sales organization based on the manpower and human networks are gradually shrinking, and CSC is slowly establishing itself as the company's core parts as its function expands and its operations are in the spotlights. Among these, many organizations are currently introducing ITSM concept for primary processes as a means of achieving synergy in operational excellence, reducing costs and improving service quality. In this thesis, we propose an extended CSC, which is applied ITIL Process to traditional BMP. It also needs to manage more effectively business process model, to modeling rapidly changing business process, and to developing its business application programs whenever and whatever it is changed. The ITSM(IT Service Management), which is an ITIL tool, effectively managing for dynamically changing the business process.

Dynamic forecasts of bankruptcy with Recurrent Neural Network model (RNN(Recurrent Neural Network)을 이용한 기업부도예측모형에서 회계정보의 동적 변화 연구)

  • Kwon, Hyukkun;Lee, Dongkyu;Shin, Minsoo
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.23 no.3
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    • pp.139-153
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    • 2017
  • Corporate bankruptcy can cause great losses not only to stakeholders but also to many related sectors in society. Through the economic crises, bankruptcy have increased and bankruptcy prediction models have become more and more important. Therefore, corporate bankruptcy has been regarded as one of the major topics of research in business management. Also, many studies in the industry are in progress and important. Previous studies attempted to utilize various methodologies to improve the bankruptcy prediction accuracy and to resolve the overfitting problem, such as Multivariate Discriminant Analysis (MDA), Generalized Linear Model (GLM). These methods are based on statistics. Recently, researchers have used machine learning methodologies such as Support Vector Machine (SVM), Artificial Neural Network (ANN). Furthermore, fuzzy theory and genetic algorithms were used. Because of this change, many of bankruptcy models are developed. Also, performance has been improved. In general, the company's financial and accounting information will change over time. Likewise, the market situation also changes, so there are many difficulties in predicting bankruptcy only with information at a certain point in time. However, even though traditional research has problems that don't take into account the time effect, dynamic model has not been studied much. When we ignore the time effect, we get the biased results. So the static model may not be suitable for predicting bankruptcy. Thus, using the dynamic model, there is a possibility that bankruptcy prediction model is improved. In this paper, we propose RNN (Recurrent Neural Network) which is one of the deep learning methodologies. The RNN learns time series data and the performance is known to be good. Prior to experiment, we selected non-financial firms listed on the KOSPI, KOSDAQ and KONEX markets from 2010 to 2016 for the estimation of the bankruptcy prediction model and the comparison of forecasting performance. In order to prevent a mistake of predicting bankruptcy by using the financial information already reflected in the deterioration of the financial condition of the company, the financial information was collected with a lag of two years, and the default period was defined from January to December of the year. Then we defined the bankruptcy. The bankruptcy we defined is the abolition of the listing due to sluggish earnings. We confirmed abolition of the list at KIND that is corporate stock information website. Then we selected variables at previous papers. The first set of variables are Z-score variables. These variables have become traditional variables in predicting bankruptcy. The second set of variables are dynamic variable set. Finally we selected 240 normal companies and 226 bankrupt companies at the first variable set. Likewise, we selected 229 normal companies and 226 bankrupt companies at the second variable set. We created a model that reflects dynamic changes in time-series financial data and by comparing the suggested model with the analysis of existing bankruptcy predictive models, we found that the suggested model could help to improve the accuracy of bankruptcy predictions. We used financial data in KIS Value (Financial database) and selected Multivariate Discriminant Analysis (MDA), Generalized Linear Model called logistic regression (GLM), Support Vector Machine (SVM), Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model as benchmark. The result of the experiment proved that RNN's performance was better than comparative model. The accuracy of RNN was high in both sets of variables and the Area Under the Curve (AUC) value was also high. Also when we saw the hit-ratio table, the ratio of RNNs that predicted a poor company to be bankrupt was higher than that of other comparative models. However the limitation of this paper is that an overfitting problem occurs during RNN learning. But we expect to be able to solve the overfitting problem by selecting more learning data and appropriate variables. From these result, it is expected that this research will contribute to the development of a bankruptcy prediction by proposing a new dynamic model.

Analysis of Microbiological Contamination in Cultivation and Distribution Stage of Melon

  • Park, Kyeong-Hun;Yun, Hye-Jeong;Kim, Won-Il;Kang, Jun-Won;Millner, Patricia D.;Micallef, Shirley A.;Kim, Byeong-Seok
    • Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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    • v.46 no.6
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    • pp.615-622
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    • 2013
  • The purpose of this study was to evaluate microbial contamination of melons in Korea. A total of 123 samples including melon fruits, leaves, seeds, soils, and irrigation water were collected from farms and markets to detect total aerobic bacteria, coliform, Escherichia coli, and pathogenic bacteria such as Bacillus cereus, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella spp., and Staphylococcus aureus. Samples were collected from Iksan and Nonsan farms to monitor bacterial levels on pre-market melons. The total aerobic and coliform bacteria on melon cultivation were between 0.43 and 6.65 log CFU $g^{-1}$, and 0.67 and 2.91 log CFU $g^{-1}$, respectively. Bacillus cereus, a fecal coliform, was detected in soils and melon leaves from Iksan farm at 2.95, 0.73 log CFU $g^{-1}$, respectively, and in soils from Nonsan farm at 3.16 log CFU $g^{-1}$. Market melon samples were collected to assay bacterial load on melon being sold to consumers. The contamination levels of total aerobic bacteria in agricultural markets, big-box retailers, and traditional markets were 4.82, 3.94, 3.99 log CFU $g^{-1}$, respectively. The numbers of coliform in melon on the markets ranged from 0.09 to 0.49 log CFU $g^{-1}$. Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella spp., and Staphylococcus aureus were not detected in any samples. The count of total aerobic bacteria on melon seeds ranged from 0.33 to 3.34 log CFU $g^{-1}$. This study found that irrigation water, soil, manure and various farm work activities including post-harvest processes were latent sources of microbial contamination. These results suggest that hygienic management and monitoring of soil, water, and agricultural material should be performed to reduce microbial contamination in melon production.

A Geographically Weighted Regression on the Effect of Regulation of Space Use on the Residential Land Price - Evidence from Jangyu New Town - (공간사용 규제가 택지가격에 미치는 영향에 대한 공간가중회귀분석 - 장유 신도시지역을 대상으로-)

  • Kang, Sun-Duk;Park, Sae-Woon;Jeong, Tae-Yun
    • Management & Information Systems Review
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    • v.37 no.3
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    • pp.27-47
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    • 2018
  • In this study, we examine how land use zoning affects the land price controlling other variables such as road-facing condition of the land, land form, land age after its development and land size. We employ geographically weighted regression analysis which reflects spatial dependency as methodology with a data sample of land transaction price data of Jangyu, a new town, in Korea. The results of our empirical analysis show that the respective coefficients of traditional regression and geographically weighted regression are not significantly different. However, after calculating Moran's Index with residuals of both OLS and GWR models, we find that Moran's Index of GWR decreases around 26% compared to that of OLS model, thus improving the problem of spatial autoregression of residuals considerably. Unlike our expectation, though, in both traditional regression and geographically weighted regression where residential exclusive area is used as a reference variable, the dummy variable of the residential land for both housing and shops shows a negative sign. This may be because the residential land for both housing and shops is usually located in the level area while the residential exclusive area is located at the foot of a mountain or on a gentle hill where the residents can have good quality air and scenery. Although the utility of the residential land for both housing and shops is higher than its counterpart's since it has higher floor area ratio, amenity which can be explained as high quality of air and scenery in this study seems to have higher impact in purchase of land for housing. On the other hand, land for neighbourhood living facility seems to be valued higher than any other land zonings used in this research since it has much higher floor area ratio than the two land zonings above and can have a building with up to 5 stories constructed on it. With regard to road-facing condition, land buyers seem to prefer land which faces a medium-width road as expected. Land facing a wide-width road may have some disadvantage in that it can be exposed to noise and exhaust gas from cars and that entrance may not be easy due to the high speed traffic of the road. In contrast, land facing a narrow road can be free of noise or fume from cars and have privacy protected while it has some inconvenience in that entrance may be blocked by cars parked in both sides of the narrow road. Finally, land age variable shows a negative sign, which means that the price of land declines over time. This may be because decline of the land price of Jangyu was bigger than that of other regions in Gimhae where Jangyu, a new town, also belong, during the global financial crisis of 2008.

The Policy of Win-Win Growth between Large and Small Enterprises : A South Korean Model (한국형 동반성장 정책의 방향과 과제)

  • Lee, Jang-Woo
    • Korean small business review
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    • v.33 no.4
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    • pp.77-93
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    • 2011
  • Since 2000, the employment rate of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) has dwindled while the creation of new jobs and the emergence of healthy SMEs have been stagnant. The fundamental reason for these symptoms is that the economic structure is disadvantageous to SMEs. In particular, the greater gap between SMEs and large enterprises has resulted in polarization, and the resulting imbalance has become the largest obstacle to improving SMEs' competitiveness. For example, the total productivity has continued to drop, and the average productivity of SMEs is now merely 30% of that of large enterprises, and the average wage of SMEs' employees is only 53% of that of large enterprises. Along with polarization, rapid industrialization has also caused anti-enterprise consensus, the collapse of the middle class, hostility towards establishments, and other aftereffects. The general consensus is that unless these problems are solved, South Korea will not become an advanced country. Especially, South Korea is now facing issues that need urgent measures, such as the decline of its economic growth, the worsening distribution of profits, and the increased external volatility. Recognizing such negative trends, the MB administration proposed a win-win growth policy and recently introduced a new national value called "ecosystemic development." As the terms in such policy agenda are similar, however, the conceptual differences among such terms must first be fully understood. Therefore, in this study, the concepts of win-win growth policy and ecosystemic development, and the need for them, were surveyed, and their differences from and similarities with other policy concepts like win-win cooperation and symbiotic development were examined. Based on the results of the survey and examination, the study introduced a South Korean model of win-win growth, targeting the promotion of a sound balance between large enterprises and SMEs and an innovative ecosystem, and finally, proposing future policy tasks. Win-win growth is not an academic term but a policy term. Thus, it is less advisable to give a theoretical definition of it than to understand its concept based on its objective and method as a policy. The core of the MB administration's win-win growth policy is the creation of a partnership between key economic subjects such as large enterprises and SMEs based on each subject's differentiated capacity, and such economic subjects' joint promotion of growth opportunities. Its objective is to contribute to the establishment of an advanced capitalistic system by securing the sustainability of the South Korean economy. Such win-win growth policy includes three core concepts. The first concept, ecosystem, is that win-win growth should be understood from the viewpoint of an industrial ecosystem and should be pursued by overcoming the issues of specific enterprises. An enterprise is not an independent entity but a social entity, meaning it exists in relationship with the society (Drucker, 2011). The second concept, balance, points to the fact that an effort should be made to establish a systemic and social infrastructure for a healthy balance in the industry. The social system and infrastructure should be established in such a way as to create a balance between short- term needs and long-term sustainability, between freedom and responsibility, and between profitability and social obligations. Finally, the third concept is the behavioral change of economic entities. The win-win growth policy is not merely about simple transactional relationships or determining reasonable prices but more about the need for a behavior change on the part of economic entities, without which the objectives of the policy cannot be achieved. Various advanced countries have developed different win-win growth models based on their respective cultures and economic-development stages. Japan, whose culture is characterized by a relatively high level of group-centered trust, has developed a productivity improvement model based on such culture, whereas the U.S., which has a highly developed system of market capitalism, has developed a system that instigates or promotes market-oriented technological innovation. Unlike Japan or the U.S., Europe, a late starter, has not fully developed a trust-based culture or market capitalism and thus often uses a policy-led model based on which the government leads the improvement of productivity and promotes technological innovation. By modeling successful cases from these advanced countries, South Korea can establish its unique win-win growth system. For this, it needs to determine the method and tasks that suit its circumstances by examining the prerequisites for its success as well as the strengths and weaknesses of each advanced country. This paper proposes a South Korean model of win-win growth, whose objective is to upgrade the country's low-trust-level-based industrial structure, in which large enterprises and SMEs depend only on independent survival strategies, to a high-trust-level-based social ecosystem, in which large enterprises and SMEs develop a cooperative relationship as partners. Based on this objective, the model proposes the establishment of a sound balance of systems and infrastructure between large enterprises and SMEs, and to form a crenovative social ecosystem. The South Korean model of win-win growth consists of three axes: utilization of the South Koreans' potential, which creates community-oriented energy; fusion-style improvement of various control and self-regulated systems for establishing a high-trust-level-oriented social infrastructure; and behavioral change on the part of enterprises in terms of putting an end to their unfair business activities and promoting future-oriented cooperative relationships. This system will establish a dynamic industrial ecosystem that will generate creative energy and will thus contribute to the realization of a sustainable economy in the 21st century. The South Korean model of win-win growth should pursue community-based self-regulation, which promotes the power of efficiency and competition that is fundamentally being pursued by capitalism while at the same time seeking the value of society and community. Already existing in Korea's traditional roots, such objectives have become the bases of the Shinbaram culture, characterized by the South Koreans' spontaneity, creativity, and optimism. In the process of a community's gradual improvement of its rules and procedures, the trust among the community members increases, and the "social capital" that guarantees the successful control of shared resources can be established (Ostrom, 2010). This basic ideal can help reduce the gap between large enterprises and SMEs, alleviating the South Koreans' victim mentality in the face of competition and the open-door policy, and creating crenovative corporate competitiveness. The win-win growth policy emerged for the purpose of addressing the polarization and imbalance structure resulting from the evolution of 21st-century capitalism. It simultaneously pursues efficiency and fairness on one hand and economic and community values on the other, and aims to foster efficient interaction between the market and the government. This policy, however, is also evolving. The win-win growth policy can be considered an extension of the win-win cooperation that the past 'Participatory Government' promoted at the enterprise management level to the level of systems and culture. Also, the ecosystemic development agendum that has recently emerged is a further extension that has been presented as a national ideal of "a new development model that promotes the co-advancement of environmental conservation, growth, economic development, social integration, and national and individual development."

Production and Pricing of Digital News (디지털 뉴스의 생산 및 가격 전략에 관한 연구)

  • Kim, Eun-Jin;Lee, Byung-Tae
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.17 no.4
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    • pp.97-112
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    • 2007
  • Most traditional newspaper publishers provide online editions to counter the competition of online news providers. However, the relationship between the online and print editions of the same newspaper has not been clearly defined. Some see the online newspaper as a substitute, while others consider it a complement. A 2002 NAA online newspaper consumer survey indicated that one-third of its respondents said they were now using the print newspaper less. Others have argued that the online edition will not wipe out print consumption, and may even complement it. While the print edition offers particular advantages such as portability, less eye strain, and the tactile experience of a printed page, the online edition also offers specific advantages such as access to breaking news, continually updated information, access to old archives, etc. All these factors would tend to lower the degree of interchangeability between the products. However, recent empirical studies show that the online edition is a substitute for rather than a complement of the print edition. Still, to some print readers, the online edition provides additional value. In this paper, by capturing the two different aspects of online editions the substitute aspect and the additional value added aspect as well as other available online alternatives, we develop an analytical model to derive the optimal production and distribution strategies of both online and print editions. Confronting the "free versus fee" issue, we show that it is optimal to provide an online version of the print newspaper for free to non-print subscribers. However, the amount of free news content that the publishers need to put on the Web depends on the available alternatives on the online market. The "fee" and "free" options both have merits and demerits as well. If the publisher charges for the online version of the print newspaper, she can generate revenue from the fee charged to online readers. However, doing so will limit the size of the online audience and further reduce online advertising revenue. At the same time, by providing a high-quality online version and charging for it, the price of the print newspaper must stay low in order to lure high valued readers. On the contrary, if the publisher provides an online version of the print newspaper for free, she can obtain a larger audience for the online version. At the same time, by providing a low-quality online newspaper, the publisher can increase the print newspaper price to get more revenue from high valued offline readers, although no revenue is incoming from online version readers. Through systematic measuring of all the pros and cons, our analysis shows that the optimal option is not "fee" but "free."