• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.15-23
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• 2021

Purpose: This study aims to identify the role of technological progress in the distribution sector in Saudi Arabia. Research design, data, and methodology: The study applies the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach to estimate the Cobb Douglas production function of the wholesale and retail trade sector in Saudi Arabia, relied on annual data from the General Authority for Statistics from 2005 to 2019. Results: The results show that there is a long run relationship between the production of the wholesale and retail trade sector in KSA and the factors of production labour, capital and technology progress. The elasticity of the wholesale and retail trade production with respect to capital and labour are 0.26 and 0.78 respectively; the coefficients are positive and statistically significant. The wholesale and retail trade sector is operating under increasing returns to scale. The main result indicates that the elasticity of the wholesale and retail production with respect to the technology progress is 4.62%, which is positive and statistically significant. Conclusions: The study concluded that technological progress has a positive contribution to the growth of the distribution sector in KSA. Therefore, the technological progress can improve the productivity and efficiency of the resources allocated to the dis.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.59-67
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• 2020

Purpose: This study examines the relationship between formation of employment subcenters and regional industrial structures in Incheon. Research design, data, and methodology: We used the five-year panel data from 2012 to 2016 in 146 basic municipal units of Incheon to analyze panel regression models. Gross employment density and employment to population ratio were used as indicators of employment subcenters formation. The entropy index and Hachman index were used for analyzing the diversity and heterogeneity of industrial structures. Result: The analyses of two panel regression models showed that for the formation of employment subcenters, both the Entropy and Hachman index were significantly negative in most models. But tertiary industry was shown to have a significant positive relationship in all models. In the wholesale and retail sector, it was found that the average number of employees in the employment subcenters is significantly higher than that in the non-employment subcenters. Conclusions: The specialization of the industrial structure rather than the diversification contributes to the formation of the employment subcenters in Incheon. In particular, it can be considered that the wholesale and retail sector plays a very important role in forming the employment subcenters in many areas of Incheon.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.315-339
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• 2013

This study aims to suggest methods to estimate the agriculture related added value created in the agricultural production sector and the up/downstream agribusiness of Chungcheongnam-do by using the transaction table at producer's price, the domestic transaction table, the wholesale-retail profit table and the freight charge table in the input-output tables, and further aims to estimate regional and industrial agriculture related added values created in the agricultural production sector and the agribusiness of Chungcheongnam-do by using the input-output tables of the year 2005. This thesis suggests the consideration of overall and holistic policy regarding public welfare facilities in healthcare, commission sale market places for fishery products, fishery processing factories, processing factories for medicines, cosmetics, feedstuff, and tobacco leaves and the innovative distribution system with regard to wholesale/retail that Chungnam lacks in. It is also proposed to make comprehensive and cohesive policy to enhance growth and competitiveness of agricultural, forestry and fishery industry.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.39-58
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• 1999

This study examines whether expenditures in information technology (IT) are associated with increases in Tobin's q ratios, a measure of management performance, in the banking industry. The association between IT expenditures and Tobin's q ratios is different, depending upon the banks' size (national vs regional) and strategic orientation (wholesale vs retail), in the Korean commercial banks for the period studied 1990-1996, For national commercial banks which have more clients and electronic banking systems than regional banks, IT expenditures appear to increase Tobin's q ratios. This may indicate that IT is linked to the ability to achieve economies of scale or network effects when large banks use IT as a strategic tool. The association between IT expenditures and management performance measures is also positive and statistically significant for retail-oriented banks. This research makes two important practical contributions with respect to financial reform. First, the evidence suggested that Korean commercial banks need to apply IT strategy in conjunction with restructuring strategy to be a super-bank and, hence, reap substantial competitive advantage from IT applications. Second, since the government recently encouraged commercial banks to increase credit loans as a means of financial reform, most banks tend to focus on retail banking. IT used in the retail banking sector contributes to improve management performance as the evidence suggested.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.455-467
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• 2007

Recently, there has been a gradual growth of retired in-migrants in high-amenity, rural areas in Korea. However, little has known about that the retirement migration is a blessing or a blight for a local economy in Korea. Therefore, in this study, we intend to explore the relationship between retirement migration and economic development of rural communities in Korea. For this purpose, we used the 1995 and 2000 census data and annual regional statistics for 138 counties in Korea. Based on the previous empirical studies, economic development was measured by 3 indicators such as GRDP (Gross Regional Domestic Product), job creation in the wholesale and retail sector, and the increase of local tax. Also, cross-tab, scatter plot, and correlation were analyzed using the SPSS Windows Program. The finding are as follows: First, from 1995 to 2000, nearly 11 percent of rural counties showed 10 percent and over increase of in-migration rate among retirees. Second, correlation statistics showed a close relationship between retirement in-migrant flows and economic resurgence. In particular, retirement in-migration rates were significantly tied to the job creation of the wholesale and retail sector (r=.19, p<.05) as well as car ownership rate (r=.58, p<.001) resulting in the increase of local tax. However, there was non-significantly positive correlation between retirement in-migrant flows and GRDP change (r=.13). Knowledge of these relationships will be important to policy-makers and for understanding the role that retirement in-migration play in stimulating economic growth of rural communities in Korea.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.25-33
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• 2019

Purpose - The purpose of the study was to seek to find out what factors having differences between paid membership customers (Costco membership) and general customers in retail industry. Since Costco operates differently from other conventional retailers, which is expected to have a substantial impact on consumers' preference of retail stores. Research design, data, and methodology - The survey conducted covered 1,000 adults in their 30s~50s living in Goyang and Gwangmyeong where Costco runs stores to determine the effects of Costco's local market-entry from consumer perspectives. 500 respondents were surveyed in each region and those working in the retail sector were excluded to ensure the objectivity of the answers. Results - Costco members in Goyang considered the price, bulk purchasing, and membership benefits as important criteria when choosing their retail store. On the other hand, as for Gwangmyeong, the non-member group's prominent characteristic was that they considered accessibility including travel distance and location and in-store amenities including food court services as important criteria for decision-making. Conclusion - Unique business model of Costco shows a statistically significant difference in terms of consumer awareness. the feature of Costco served as an critical criteria for consumers in their purchasing decision. Moreover, Bulk packaging purchases at Costco results in a strong supplementary relationship with neighborhood supermarkets.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.241-266
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• 2011

This study examines the determinants of proportion of self-employed and their policy implications focusing hotel/restaurant and wholesale/retail sectors in Korea. In this study, we estimate the optimal size of self-employed in Korea using OECD data. Several hypothesis are tested by use of the regression analysis on the panel data of OECD economies during 2000-2007 period. Using the panel data of per capita GNI, unemployment level, income tax burden, we found that the excess supply level of self-employed was about 8.0%~9.5% overall. We also found that the excess supply level of self-employed was 13.7~14.1% for hotel and restaurant sector, and 10.4~11.1% for wholesale and retail sector. This results imply that strategically coordinated programs for noncompetitive sectors are more effectively implemented. Furthermore, more aggressive entry and exit policies are needed to solve the over-supply problem of self-employed in Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Regional Science Association
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-20
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• 1995

This paper studies the comparative advantage of competitive and specialized regional industries which are manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, servies in the metropolitan area-Seoul, Inchun, Kyunggi-do of Korea, For the analysis of industries, the coefficient of specialization, the indices of competitiveness of labor and value-added, the growth rate are simultaneously examined under the criteria of the number of workers, value of shipment, value-added, This comperative synthetic analysis is different from the traditional approaches. This paper shows that the perfectly competitive advantage of specialized industries satisfying all of three criteria are 'other business related activities', 'recreational, cultural and sporting activities' in Seoul, 'machinery and outfits, n.e.c', 'retail trade, except of motor vehicles and motorcycles, repair of personal and household goods' in Inchun. We conclude that each should strategically develop the region-oriented specialized industry which has the comparative advantage. It is the reason why the concentration of industry in necessary for the leading of regional industry under the weaken local public finance. Moreover, such an industy should provide the increase of employment and income from the viewpoint of the activation of regional economy. The potential-specialized competitive industry requires the advanced structure of production under the criteria of value-added. For the development of the metropolitan area's economy, the highly advanced technology industry including computer and electronics should be induced through the loosening of metropolitan regulation. Research center(science park) supported by th private-public sector should be built for the increase of technology sector should be built for the increase of technology power of the small and medium enterprises, Also it is necessary that the small and medium enterprises strategically make the cooperative-large group in order to avoid the disadvantage from the size.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.123-135
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to investigate industry-wise employment growth factors in rural areas. Regional economic vitalization is sensitive to internal and external interaction changes among various industrial and occupational sectors. Thus, rural regional economic vitalization requires a comprehensive approach in analyzing industry-dependent employment structures and growth factors in rural areas. However, research conducted thus far has mostly focused on agriculture and farmers. Considering the evidence that rural communities continue to be stagnant and 80% of the rural population is engaged in nonagricultural activities, it becomes necessary to review industry-specific employment change factors in rural areas. This study targeted 5 counties in Chungnam. The results revealed that agriculture, forestry, and fisheries occupied the foremost positions with regard to population employed and regional GRDP share. The influence of national growth on employment and business variation effects was as high as 98.1% and 78.6%, respectively, thus demonstrating the high likelihood of rural economy to be influenced by external factors. Growth in the public sector appeared to support employment structure. Moreover, wholesale and retail businesses, constituting 14.4% of employment in rural areas, showed a strong trend toward degeneration, to the extent that difficulties have been forecasted for the supply of goods and services essential for basic livelihood of the rural residents. The implications based on the above observations need to be considered for policy-making to ensure that industrial structure is modified on the basis of internal demand of the region, and support for small businesses is integrated in rural area development projects.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.201-208
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• 2023

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic poses disastrous effects on human lives and hinders global efforts to realize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. The study examined the effects of the pandemic on unemployment toward realizing the SDGs. The downsizing and collapse of businesses have forcibly left many unfortunate Malaysians jobless and without income. The situation may directly influence government efforts to achieve SDG 8 'Decent work and economic growth', which indirectly affects SDG 1 'No poverty', SDG 2 'Zero hunger', and SDG 3 'Good health and well-being'. Pre-and post-pandemic assessments on unemployment and retrenchment level by sector were performed by adopting observation and data comparison methods. Critical findings revealed that the unemployment rate has risen among males and females and the youth, as well as the number of retrenchments. The services sector, specifically the wholesale, retail, trade, and hotel industry showed the highest number of retrenchments. Some important unemployment issues were also covered in this study, including the demand for employment, the role of government and business, and the effect of the gig economy on the current employment landscape. The avenue for future studies can focus on additional societal effects that could prevent the country from attaining the SDGs by 2030.