• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.67-114
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• 2004

This study attempts to integrate causal model with competitiveness evaluation model, both of which have developed independently of each other, in connection with many studies on PMES (performance measurement and evaluation system) including the BSC (balanced scorecard) of Kaplan and Norton (1992, 1996). For this attempt, this study is composed of four analyses : First, this study develops a structural model for evaluating and diagnosing corporate ‘comprehensive’ competitiveness including quality competitiveness, derive CCI (comprehensive competitiveness index) and QCI (quality competitiveness index) ; Second, this study analyzes the determinants of quality competitiveness, the impacts of quality competitiveness, on product design and product reliability, and the impacts of product design and product reliability on quality competitiveness in the comprehensive competitiveness evaluation model of this study. Third, this study empirically identifies the positioning of product design in the quality competitiveness evaluation model of this study and the functional relationship between product design and other functions : product development, manufacturing, marketing, and marketing, and sales in the same comprehensive competitiveness evaluation model, estimate the determinants of product design and its impacts, thereby providing some empirical findings for the foundation of design management theory, and Fourth, this study identifies the positioning of product reliability in the same quality competitiveness evaluation model, estimate the reliability function and the functional relationship between product reliability and other dimensions of product quality, and tests the hypotheses on the causality of product reliability.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.20-37
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• 2019

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyze the trade structure and competitiveness of China's information technology (IT) industry in comparison to that of Korea and the United States, particularly in terms of quality. Design/methodology/approach - Indices such as trade specialization index (TSI), Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA), and Market Comparative Advantage (MCA) are used. Further, an Intra-industry Trade (IIT) index is used to analyze qualitative changes in horizontal intra-industry trade and intra-industry trade of high- and low-quality goods. Findings - China's IT industry has a comparative competitive advantage over that of Korea and the United States, and mainly exports goods of inferior quality and imports goods of superior quality. Further, China's horizontal intra-industry trade has been decreasing, while its vertical intra-industry trade has been increasing and vertical trade of inferior quality goods outweighs that of superior quality goods. This shows that China is rapidly catching up with Korea and the United States, even though its qualitative competitiveness has not significantly improved. Research limitations/implication - This study has academic and political implications, as it analyzes changes in China's IT trade competitiveness. However, it is somewhat limited as factors determining qualitative aspects has not been considered. Originality/value - Most studies aggregate analyses of export competitiveness using methodologies such as TSI, RCA, and market share. However, the focus of these methods is price competitiveness. Hence, an examination of the objective and qualitative trade competitiveness of China's IT industry is necessary. this study the trade structure and quantitative competitiveness of the industry by analyzing intra-industry trade focusing on the quality of competitiveness. Therefore, the changes in China's IT industry in the USA and Korea and in foreign trade competitiveness and quality competitiveness are clarified. The results show that the academic and policy implications of these changes in the IT industry will be a useful resource. This is the first study in Korea to attempt such an analysis. This is the first study in Korea to attempt such an analysis.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.37-61
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• 2003

The purpose of this study is to identify (1) the successful quality management activities of domestic enterprises contribute to enhancing both corporate and national competitiveness and that the corporate and national competitiveness are related each other; (2) and to have the government and the citizens as well as enterprises re-recognize the importance of quality management and encourage them to make aggressive investments on quality management. It was found in this study that the enterprises with quality management scheme showed better performance that those without quality management activities. It was also found that quality competitiveness is a key factor for the enhancement of the national competitiveness, and that although quality improvement is normally realized through efforts of private enterprises (a conventional paradigm), active government support and participation are absolutely necessary for the competitiveness of the nation and industries. Accordingly, the quality management should be recognized not only as part of business improvement activities, but as nationwide activities where public sectors including government enterprises, hospitals, schools, regional governments, media companies and citizens groups are involved. In order to build a high-quality nation in the 21st century, the quality improvement should be realized through concerted efforts of the people, enterprises and the government.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.170-178
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• 2004

As quality becomes a primary leading factor of organizational success, various management strategies have been introduced to improve quality competitiveness. Quality competitiveness, however, is difficult to measure and numerous organizations are struggling to set realistic improvement objectives. The primary purpose of this research is to propose a systematic approach to help the practitioners develop an improvement plan for their organizational quality competitiveness. This approach employs DEA(Data Envelopment Analysis) to evaluate relative efficiency among companies which make efforts to improve their quality competitiveness. It presents an integer programming model to elicit an optimal improvement plan for meeting a target level. A decision support system is also developed for the managers to plan a sequential improvement plan based on both DEA model and the integer programming model.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.166-188
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• 1998

The following study has been undertaken to build a model for evaluating the level of quality competitiveness of Korean companies in the area of information management. The objective of this paper is to compare the difference in quality-based competitiveness between the 100 advanced companies and other companies in IT management. This empirical study provides the questionnaire and the rating criteria for evaluation, so that any Korean company can easily evaluate their competitiveness. The model, the criteria and the results of this study can be used as a basis for benchmarking. The result indicates that the 100 advanced companies' quality competitiveness is significantly higher than that of most other companies that were surveyed in this study.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.1-27
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• 2017

The purpose of this paper is to examine how industry-level R&D investments increase exports in Korean manufacturing industries through the strengthening of product competitiveness and cost competitiveness. We developed a research model indicating that R&D investments positively affect product competitiveness and cost competitiveness, in which investments in R&D will finally lead to increases in exports in manufacturing industries. Product competitiveness is divided into new product innovation capability and product quality competitiveness, while cost competitive advantage is divided into labor productivity and capital productivity. We have collected data from 20 manufacturing industries between 2004 and 2014, and analyzed them through path analysis. Empirical results of this study are as follows. First, R&D investment in the manufacturing industry positively affects new product innovation capability, product quality competitiveness, labor productivity and capital productivity of the industries. Second, increased product quality competitiveness, labor productivity and capital productivity positively affects exports of Korean manufacturing industries. Thus, we can conclude that R&D investments in Korean manufacturing industries positively influence exports through increases in product quality competitiveness, labor productivity and capital productivity.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.67-94
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• 1999

TQM(total quality management) is accepted as the powerful and holistic management innovation tools in the worldwide corporations since "Malcom Baldrige National Quality Award" model is established by US government. But nowadays, TQM′s roles and positions for the competitiveness is challenged from other many management innovations tools. This paper identifies the TQM′s roles and positions as the sources of sustainable competitive advantages through the examples of Japanese manufacturing corporations which enjoy the strongest positions since 1980′s in world market.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.47-66
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• 2003

Economists have advocated that the privatization and market competitiveness improve the firm's productivity and eventually its service quality. However, the previous researches did not provide the empirical results enough to prove that the privatization and competitiveness do improve the service quality. In this paper, we conducted an empirical research to find whether the privatization and competition induces the quality of service. The mobile telecommunication industry was chosen since it went through bringing the privatization and increasing the competition along with a high attention. We found that the privatization and competition itself does not guarantee the quality of mobile telecommunication service. It is the intensity of competition that improves the mobile telecommunication service quality. The service quality depends mainly on the competitor's competence, i.e. the intensity of competition rather than the competition itself. In sum, when we want to improve the service quality as well as the productivity, we had better increase the intensity of competition by allowing many new strong entries.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.37-46
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• 2016

Quality has been a key issue to manufacturers. Many distinguished scholars have defined quality with profound insight. Korean firms struggle to make better products to fulfil requirements and satisfy customers. Korean industries have implemented quality management from Japan in early 70s. Statistical quality control, QCC (Quality Control Circle), and total quality management have also been introduced in succession. Chief executive officers, managers, and field employees have been aware of the importance of quality since then. This quality movement force workers to improve quality. They have to maintain the quality of products and compete with foreign products. Korean industries were able to compete with foreign industries in price. However, Korean firms now have to compete in quality as well as price. ISO (International Organization for Standardization) was established and industries around world have started to implement standardized systems depending on their need. ISO 9000 has continuously been revised and firms around world started to register a ISO 9000 certificate. Today's quality competitiveness gets more deeply involved. KSA (Korean Standard Association) have launched QCAS (Quality Competitiveness Assessment System) since 1997. Up until now recent status of QCAS have been reported but the characteristics of QCAS results have not been analyzed. In this article we examine the QCAS results of 41 firms in 2014. QCAS consisted of 13 subsections : strategy and management system, organization culture and development of human resource, information management, quality system, customer satisfaction, management achievement, TPM, logistics, product development and technology, PL, QCC, SQC/SPC, and reliability. We performed one way ANOVA to discover the difference among the levels of firm size, business type, and quality hall of fame using the total scores of 13 subsections resulted from QCAS. We also analyzed the scores of 13 individual subsections of QCAS to see if there is any differences based on firm size and business type. We interpret the results and implication of analysis and finally draw a conclusion.

• Journal of Applied Reliability
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.152-161
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• 2014

According to Korea Federation of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)' report, SMEs account for 99% and number of SMEs workers account for 87% in Korea. Thus, SMEs has an important role in the future Korean industry. This paper considers the improvement methods of SMEs' quality competitiveness. For this study, we developed the quality measurement model for identifying SMEs' quality level and investigated many companies by survey and interviews. We also performed the benchmarking study and the gap analysis between Korea and other countries. This paper suggests some policies for increasing the quality of SMEs.