• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.71-78
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• 2015

Purpose - This study attempts to analyze whether or not there are characteristics among the top management of companies that promote corporate performance at venture companies. It investigates the characteristics of the human and social capital that are inherent in top management at a venture company and conducts an empirical analysis of hypotheses examining if these characteristics will affect utilization of the governmental R&D support system as well as affect the firm's initial success. Research design, data, and methodology - This study conducted theoretical and empirical research together to accomplish the goal of the study. The pilot study researched human capital and social capital as the independent variables; the governmental R&D support system as the parameter; and, the initial success as the dependent variable. The empirical study carried out research on the model, establishment of hypotheses, and the statistical treatment. A survey was conducted targeting top management of high-tech venture companies in Daedeok Innopolis; 500 questionnaires were distributed; and, 222 were collected. Results - The human and social capital inherent in top management at venture companies in the early stages of their existence become good evaluation data for those who are invested in similar resources. If top management includes strong human and social capital, access to external resources will be easier; these will have a positive influence on the selection of overnmental support systems; and, this proper support will also have a positive influence on the initial success of the venture company. The results revealed the following. First, it was found that when the educational level and functional background, (the top management human capital), are the output function, top management human capital had a significant influence on selection of governmental R&D support funds. Second, it was found that the internal social capital and external social capital, (the top management social capital), had a significant influence on selection of governmental R&D support tasks. Third, it was found that selection of the governmental R&D support tasks at the start of the venture company had a positive influence on the corporate financial performance such as sales, business profits, and the increase in workers; and, had a significant influence on nonfinancial performance such as market share, competitive position, product competitiveness, and the future product development. Conclusions - Selection of the governmental R&D support system is not recognized as part of the direct sales of a venture company in its early stages, but as it can reduce costs for technical development and helps significantly in creating test products and mass production, it has a positive influence on the company's financial performance and nonfinancial performance as a result. Therefore, companies should take great efforts to frequently be selected as a candidate in the governmental R&D support system, as it can help facilitate R&D that requires extensive funds. As a result, companies can expect effects such as job creation and patent applications and they can advance future product sales.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.10
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• pp.109-114
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• 2015

Purpose - The movie market has the characteristics of being a perfectly competitive market as well as a pure monopolistic market at the same time. This is because there are competitors in the industry but prices, although not fixed, have not changed a lot. Price competition may not have spread, but the competition is focused on artistic value, and the degree of box office success is most important. The artistic value is determined in the course of the production process. However, the degree of box office success is dependent upon the marketing manager. The marketing strategy represents the difference in the standard or quality of the movie. Inherently, the marketing manager adopts the entertainment strategy based on the quality of the foundation of the completed movie. At this time, the marketing manager knows the pertinent information (high quality/low quality) regarding the movie. This research study tries to reveal what should be the reasonable movie marketing expense, dependent on the quality of the movie. Research design, data, and methodology - Using a game scenario with different market players, the goal of the research analysis is to find out the following. First, the marketing expense is determined to maximize the profits after film production. Second, after the production costs are already committed, the manufacturer gets to choose the marketing level. At this time, there will be a profit maximization point, considering the competition. The premise of the research is as follows: if it is a good movie of quality, positive word of mouth increasing the audience continuously slows down the speed of the demand curve. If the movie quality is bad, the negative word of mouth decreasing the audience gradually hastens the speed of the demand curve. On the marketing side, when the manufacturer invests heavily in the marketing expense of the movie, consumer expectations increase to drive up the audience numbers. On the other hand, it is difficult to improve the profits excessively. When the manufacturer invests in marketing a little bit, the marketing expense is only relatively committed, therefore a lot of demand cannot be gained. Results - If a fixed market share is in a competitive situation, a low quality manufacturer expends relatively more marketing expense. If the situation assumes two manufacturers spend the same for the cost of production, the high quality manufacturer takes more profit. If the manufacturer expends less marketing budget to save costs, the optimum profit cannot be achieved since the other party (opponent) grabs the initial market share. Conclusions - In conclusion, investment is essential for market share to increase. We must refrain from a zero-sum game and have models where the game participants pursue the creative profits together. In the current film industry, there is the dominating logic of winner and loser but we have to create a film industry environment where the participants can be altogether satisfied and live together.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.87-96
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• 2015

Purpose - Several domestic telecommunication companies have made a considerable effort to continuously grow and survive, and they have strived to thrive in the midst of mature market competition. To overcome this challenging situation and to grow continuously, while still meeting customer needs that are becoming more diverse and complicated with the passage of time, extensive support for internal marketing is essential. Without such internal support, companies face serious limitations and market roadblocks. The communication industry is a high-level service industry and a basic communications industry characteristic is its significant dependence on the employees delivering the services. Therefore, entrepreneurs in the information/communications industry, as well as existing competitors, should look to satisfy external customers through critical investment in internal customers (employees). Therefore, it is important for research to examine how internal factors influence technology innovation and service quality, which are the key drivers for companies that are seeking leading market positions. Research design, data, and methodology - The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship of technology innovation and perceived service quality with the internal marketing factors in the communication industry and to offer suitable and effective internal marketing suggestions. The independent variables of this study are internal communication, education and training, the support of the executives, reward systems, and empowerment. The dependent variables are technology innovation and perceived service quality. Utilizing these, this paper studies the influence of internal marketing factors on technology innovation and perceived service quality. Results - The study results revealed the following. First, the identified internal marketing factors have a positive effect on technology innovation. Among the five internal marketing factors, three had a significant effect on product innovation, empowerment, the support of executives, and education and training, in this order. Second, the internal marketing factors also had a positive effect on the process innovation of technology innovation. The marketing factors, the support of executives, empowerment, internal communication, and education and training, in this order, significantly affect process innovation. Third, technology innovation had a positive effect on perceived service quality. All of the five service quality factors, namely, tangibles, reliability, assurance, responsibility, and empathy, in this order, significantly affect product innovation. Additionally, tangibles, reliability, responsibility, empathy, and assurance, in this order, significantly affect process innovation. Fourth, product and process innovation significantly affect tangibles and reliability in technology innovation. To enhance tangibles and reliability, process innovation should first be enhanced. Fifth, product and process innovation significantly affect responsibility and empathy in technology innovation. To enhance the responsibility and empathy, process innovation should first be enhanced. Sixth, product and process innovation significantly affect assurance in technology innovation. To enhance the assurance, product innovation should first be enhanced. Conclusions - According to the results, a company's internal marketing factors have a positive and significant effect on technology innovation and, further, product and process innovation have a positive and significant effect on the perceived serviced quality.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.11 no.10
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• pp.27-36
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• 2013

Purpose - This paper empirically studies the effects of advanced design innovation strategy on business performance, to investigate manufacturing industries that can develop design-driven-innovation strategies. Many researchers now recognize the importance of design in a CEO's decision-making process. To analyze these effects, this study deduces the definition of advanced design strategy by reviewing existing studies. The advanced design is a strategy that is applied to improve business performance instead of the appearance of a product for increasing its sales. In terms of business processes, the advanced design strategy is defined as the incorporation of business activities prior to the development of the product, to offer new experiences and values to users, from those designs. Research design/data/methodology - This paper establishes a model for empirical analysis. In this study, we derived factors of the characteristics of advanced design based on previous studies. We tried to investigate whether advanced design innovation strategy and entrepreneur's characteristics could have any impact on business performance. At the same time, we tried to find out the moderating effect of entrepreneurs' characteristics. The advanced design is made up of three elements: precedence, integration, and immersion of design activities. These three elements are independent variables for the model. The dependent variables are: increased rate of sales, R & D performance, and public image of the company. Specifically, this study establishes a CEO's characteristics as a moderating variable between the independent and dependent variables. Results - We proved that the level of entrepreneurs' characteristics has a moderating effect on the business performance. The findings of this study offer the following theoretical implications. The precedence of design activities positively affects the increased rate of sales by offering new experiences to users and creating new values. The integration of design activities also has a positive effect on the R&D performance. In addition, the immersion of design activities positively influences all the elements comprising business performance. The analysis of moderating variables elucidates that CEO's characteristics have a moderating role between precedence, integration, and immersion of design activities, and business performance. Conclusions - The practical implications of the study are as follows. This study contributes to the progression of advance design theories by conducting an empirical study on the advanced design concept. More importantly, the empirical study on the CEO group seeking exploratory innovation supports Verganti's "design-driven innovation" concept, according to which design can make innovation successful by offering useful values to users, as evident in the case of many innovative companies, such as Nintendo and Apple. Future studies need to investigate the reliability of practical examples, including the various activities of business. We suppose that there may be real differences between the results of this study and the applicative situation in the presence of a CEO group.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.11 no.10
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• pp.81-92
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• 2013

Purpose - This study empirically analyzes the effect of improvements in the quality of service management performance of college education on traders' conscious change of business management innovation and diverse sales expertise for a year. The use of traders' conscious changes and sales expertise as variables for the verification of the effects of parameters related to the active trader's traditional education market is a desirable direction. The method of research reflects the quality of education service, management result, traders' conscious changes, and sales expertise to understand the precise essence and definition of teaching quality at merchant colleges through theoretical consideration. Moreover, its impact on traders' conscious changes and sales expertise in empirical analysis acts as an intermediary. Research design, data, methodology - The hypothesis of this study leverages the SPSS statistical program. To gather actual proof, sample survey for theoretical research examined 262 valid papers of the 300 papers written by 10 merchants who graduated from merchant's university. First, using the SERVQUAL model, Parasuraman et al. (1996) indicated that for quality of education service, the configuration of factors is the same as the sympathetic performance, that is, responsiveness and empathy, and traders are aware of these elements. However, our preliminary investigation revealed that traders' university education has been excluded as a component of quality of service in the earlier studies. Moreover, we found that certainty of knowledge, reliability, and sympathy are influenced by challenges and by the changing intentions of merchant consciousness. In addition, our study confirms that improvements in convincing abilities and sales technique have a positive impact. Second, merchants' and traders' expertise are proven to affect business performance. In other words, university education of traders and merchants affects the consciousness of consumers, and changes patterns of sales. Third, the quality of service management education and change in the consciousness has a considerable impact on the trader, thereby maximizing business performance and acting as an intermediary for verification. Fourth, the quality of service management education affects the trader's sales expertise to maximize business performance. Results - To summarize, the quality of college educational services relates to the improvement of business performance and the role of the resulting virtuous cycle. Consequently, we can look for suggestions in the traditional markets, where the Government pays attention to the exterior environmental factors as well as to the changing business environment. However, the most important aspect is the merchant awareness. That is, a merchant should understand the distribution environment. Several competitor and trend analyses should be conducted to meet customers' expectations positively and proactively cope with any challenges related to changes. Further, expertise in sales and marketing skills need to be acquired to improve customer convincing abilities and develop a customer-oriented mindset. Conclusions - According to the changes in consumption trends of business enterprises, new management techniques are required to survive competition by improving traditional markets, which will necessitate more competitive education programs in merchant universities.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.9 no.8
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• pp.41-50
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• 2018

Purpose - As an important participant in the financial markets, the commercial bank will be impacted by the interest rate marketization. Owing to the special condition of China, this paper tries to explore the impact of operating mechanisms between interest rate marketization and the profitability of the commercial Bank. Research design, data and methodology - This paper applies time series data from 2005 to 2016. Due to the short period of time series, autocorrelation often occurs. Therefore, the fully modified least squares(FMOLS) will be used to conduct an empirical analysis. The reason is that it can move off the autocorrelation between variables and disturbance term. And FMOLS also can make estimated cointegrating parameters closed to normal distribution. More importantly, in order to avoid spurious regressions, the Augmented Dickey-Fuller Test will be used to verify the stationarity of all variables. The total return of asset is treated as the profitability of commercial bank. The net interest spread is treated as a measurement of interest rate marketization. Both are regarded as dependent variables. The non-interest income or gross revenues and impaired loans or gross loans are treated as independent variables. The sixteen representative listed commercial banks are divided into three categories (state-owned, share-holding and city-owned) to conduct an estimation. Results - Via empirical analysis, the findings show that the net interest spread has a positive effect on the profitability of the commercial bank. More specifically, 1% increase in the net interest spread will lead 0.157% increase in the profitability of state-owned commercial bank, 0.269% increase in the profitability of share-holding commercial bank and 0.263% increase in the profitability of city-owned commercial bank. If regarding the sixteen listed commercial city as a whole, 1% increase in the net interest spread will lead 0.267% increase in the profitability of the commercial bank. Conclusions - As the interest rate marketization, the importance of interest rate on the profitability of commercial bank has become more and more significant. The empirical evidences also prove that the net interest spread can bring about the change of the commercial bank's profitability. Therefore, policy-makers of commercial banks should fully understand the operating mechanism between them.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.10 no.11
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• pp.79-88
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• 2012

Purpose - The objective of this paper is to suggest that a company's CRM activities have an effect on customer loyalty in the Korean retail industry. Typically, Korean customers use large local marts with convenience in the absence of any other choice. Therefore, this study aims to shed light on the fact that customers do not break away from their preferred retail stores, either owing to their stringent loyalty (the lie loyalty) or difficulty in turning to alternative choices. Research design, data, methodology - By surveying a sample of 200 hyper-markets through a questionnaire, and excluding dubious and missing responses, I obtained 181 samples to be included in the empirical analysis. The survey was conducted for two weeks during October 2011. AMOS and SPSS18 statistical packages were used for conducting statistical analysis for this study. This paper was developed using the concept of customer equity on CRM, which is known to have a positive impact on customer loyalty through the satisfaction and switching-barrier parameters. The hypothesis of this paper is that customer equity is composed of relationship equity, value equity and brand equity, and that the relationship equity variable has positive effects on the value equity and brand equity amongst other types of customer equity. Moreover, customer equity influences customer loyalty through parameters including customer satisfaction and switching costs in the Korean retail industry. Results - According to the results of the analysis, it was confirmed that relationship value had a positive effect (+) on all variables, including the perceived QoS (Quality of Service), store brand images, economic value, and store convenience. It was also confirmed that the assumption that the perceived QoS (Quality of Service), economic value, and store convenience had a positive effect on customer satisfaction was shown to be statistically significant, with a p-value below 0.05. Only the store brand value variable had an effect on the switching-cost variable with respect to the causal sequence of the variables, including the perceived QoS, store brand value, economic value, and store convenience. The remaining variables did not seem to influence the switching-cost variable. On the other hand, another effect showed that customer satisfaction had a statistically significant influence on the switching-costs variable. Moreover, the customer satisfaction and switching-cost variables also had a statistical influence on customer loyalty. Conclusions - The CRM activities had an influence on various variables (including perceived QoS, perceived economic value, store brand value, and store convenience) pertaining to customer values. Customer satisfaction and switching-cost had some effects on customer loyalty as a parameter. This confirms that stringent loyalty exists with respect to customer loyalty in the retail industry. The fact that the variable had such a statistically significant influence on the switching-cost and store brand equity variables means that consumers react to the reputation of a brand, confidence about the store, and quality confidence. The implications of this study in the retail industry should be further extended to devise strategies for customer retention.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Organic Agriculture Conference
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• 2009.12a
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• pp.281-281
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• 2009

Although national and regional environmentally friend agriculture (EFA) and food development programmes such as the Life-Food Development Plan (LFDP) have been established in Korea, some policy measures in these programmes seem to be unsuitable for Korean organic farming development. Policy measures tend to support external input purchases of organic fertilizers rather than market development actions such as providing consumer information, research, education, training and statistical data collection. The development of an organic action plan (OAP) for Korea is therefore considered essential for the sustainable future of organic farming in Korea. The purposes of OAP are 1) to define and set the clear goals/targets for the organic sector development, 2) to integrate various organic stakeholders and public institutions in partnership, 3)to focus on specific issues with tailored measures and 4) to integrate and develop different policy measures (Stolze, 2005). Most EU member state countries have developed their own OAPs and each reflects its own priorities with regard to organic sector development. This study compares and contrasts the Welsh, England and EU OAP with the Korean Jeonnam Life-Food Development Plan (LFDP) in order to facilitate the development of the organic food and farming sector in Korea. Early action plan, for example, the first Welsh OAP(1999) focused support on developing the supply of organic products whereas later action plans (e.g. England OAPs in 2002 and 2004 and the second Welsh OAP in 2005) focussed more on developing consumer demands for organic products. The EU OAP (2004) also aims at market support related to consumer demand and then organic farming production for its environmental and other social benefits. OAPs not only provide specific issue-solving tools but also perform a role as providing a focus for organic sector development as a whole. The Korean LFDP provides issue-solving tools but plays no regulatory role such as policy development, harmonizing various policy measures and conflicting factors and providing evaluation tools for further development. A national-level OAP could also facilitate international trade of organic products. To achieve better harmonized and sustainable approaches for the Korean organic industry, National- as well as regional- regulatory policy systems are urgently required in the form of an Organic Action Plan.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.295-304
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• 2006

Residual materials such as veterinary drugs, environmental contaminants, and pesticides are affecting food safety. High resolution techniques and quality controls are needed to analyze these materials from part per million to part per trillion quantities in food. In order to achieve quality results, standardized methods and techniques are required. Our laboratories were prepared to obtain a certificate of accreditation for ISO/IEC 17025 in the analytical criteria of animal drugs, dioxins, pesticides, and heavy metals. ISO together with IEC has built a strategic partnership with the World Trade Organization with the common goal of promoting a free and fair global trading system. ISO collaborates with the United Nations Organization and its specialized agencies and commissions, particularly those involved in the harmonization of regulations and public policies including the World Health Organization and CODEX Alimentarius for food safety measurement, management and traceability. Our goal was to have high quality analysts, proper analytical methods, good laboratory facilities, and safety systems within guidelines of ISO/IEC 17025. All staff members took requirement exams. We applied proficiency tests in the analysis of veterinary drugs (nitrofuran metabolites, sulfonamide and tetracyclines), dioxins, organophosphorus pesticides, and heavy metals (Cd, Pb, As) to the Food Analysis Performance Assessment Scheme (FAPAS) at Central Science Laboratory, Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), England. The results were very satisfactory. All documents were prepared, including system management, laboratory management, standard operational procedures for testing, reporting, and more. The criteria encompassed the requirements of ISO/IEC 17025:1999. Finally, the Korea Laboratory Accreditation Scheme (KOLAS) accredited our testing laboratories in accordance with the provisions of Article 23 of the National Standards Act. The accreditation will give us the benefit of becoming a regional reference laboratory in Asia.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.89-98
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to develop measures for establishing and enforcing legal nutrition labeling for Takju based on results from consumer awareness surveys, statistical model development, and evaluation of nutrients. The statistical model developed with consumer survey results showed that consumers would like to know the nutrients they intake from drinking Takju, as their awareness about Takju was low. Specifically, consumers would like to see information regarding alcohol content, calories, carbohydrates, and saccharides on the label. Structural equations from the research model showed that consumers who had some knowledge of Takju also had positive thoughts of the nutrition fact labels for Takju. Evaluation of nutrients in Takju showed that the starch sources and other ingredients used in Takju fermentation did not influence nutrient facts, and nutrient concentrations also varied among the different Takju. In addition, this research suggests methods for consumers to make reasonable selections and to inform them of the nutrition fact labeling for Takju. Benners and pop-up were manufactured to promote voluntary participation of companies and to provide nutrition facts from Takju. Eventually, a measure was suggested to establish and enforce nutrition labeling, using results from consumer and nutrient surveys of Takju.