• Journal of Environmental Policy
• /
• v.7 no.3
• /
• pp.41-61
• /
• 2008

Although the size of the organic food market in Korea has increased significantly, its further development is hampered by the information asymmetry between the producers and consumers of organic food. It isn't just about revitalizing the market; it's also about Korean farmers surviving an era of trade liberalization. In order to produce more value-added products, the information asymmetry issue has to be resolved regarding the organic food market and other agricultural credence goods such as Han-woo(Korean beef). Therefore, measuring information asymmetry has become a central issue. One way to measure asymmetry is to use Game Theory. However, in practice, estimating payoffs at the industry level is hard to accomplish, and even when it is possible, the reliability of the estimated payoffs is not guaranteed. As an alternative, the concept of Information Entropy(disorder level of information), developed by Shannon(1948), was used in this study. It is proposed that this measure should be used when assessing the level of information asymmetry in the Korean organic food market. Using recent data, it was found that information entropy in the Korean organic food market has been decreasing constantly since 2003. Therefore, it was proposed that measures should be adopted by the government to improve the certification system of organic food.

• Management & Information Systems Review
• /
• v.33 no.1
• /
• pp.45-63
• /
• 2014

A trading system is a computer trading program that automatically submits trades to an exchange. Mechanical a trading system to execute trade is spreading in the stock market. However, a trading system to trade a single asset might occur instability of the profit because payoff of this system is determined a asset movement. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a trading system that is trade two assets such as a pair trading that is to sell overvalued assets and buy the undervalued ones. The aim of this study is to propose a relative value based trading system designed to yield stable and profitable profits regardless of market conditions. In fact, we propose a procedure for building a trading system that is based on the rough set analysis of indicators derived from a price ratio between two assets. KOSPI 200 index futures and S&P 500 index futures are used as a data for evaluation of the proposed trading system. We intend to examine the usefulness of this model through an empirical study.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
• /
• v.8 no.4
• /
• pp.75-94
• /
• 2009

The process of obtaining third-party financing contacts was analyzed via a two-stage game model: a "signaling game" for the first stage,and a "principal-agent model" for the second stage. The two-stage game was solved by a process of backward induction. In the second stage game, the optimal effort level of the energy saving company (ESCO), the optimal compensation scheme of the energy user, and the optimal payoffs for both parties were derived for each subgame. The optimal solutions forthe different subgames were then compared with each other. Our main finding was that if there is some restriction on ESCO's revenue (e.g. a progressive sales tax) that causes ESCO's revenue toincrease at a decreasing rate, then the optimal sharing ratio is uniquely determined at a level of strictly less than one under a linear compensation scheme, i.e. a unique balance exists. Subgames have a unique equilibrium arrived at separately for each situation,. Within this equilibrium, energy users accept energy audit proposals from H-type ESCOs with high levels of technology, but reject proposals from L-type ESCOs with low levels of technology. While L-type ESCOs cannot attain profits in the third-party financing market, H-type ESCOS can pocket the price differential between L-type and H-type audit fees. Accordingly, revenues in an H-type ESCO equilibrium increase not only in line with the technology of the ESCO inquestion, but also faster than in an L-type equilibrium due to more advanced technology. At the same time, energy users receive some positive payoff by allowing ESCOs to perform third-party financing tasks within their existing energy system without incurring any extra costs.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
• /
• v.35 no.2
• /
• pp.103-110
• /
• 2009

The objective of this study is to analyze the influences of fatty alcohols and fatty acids on rheological properties of oil in water (O/W) emulsions using viscosity and rheograms. As the chain length of fatty alcohols and fatty acids lengthened, the viscosity of emulsions was increased. The influence of fatty alcohols on viscosity enhancement was stronger than that of fatty acids. Both stearyl alcohol and cetearyl alcohol, which have carbon chain length similar to lipophilic portion of surfactant used in emulsion preparation, had showed the best increase in viscosity of O/W emulsions. O/W emulsions prepared with fatty alcohols and fatty acids were pseudo-plastic fluid and they showed shear thinning behaviour like as the common cosmetic emulsions. O/W emulsions prepared with cetyl alcohol, cetearyl alcohol and stearyl alcohol were thixotropic fluids and thixotropy increased with an increase in the concentration of fatty alcohols and fatty acids. Also O/W emulsions prepared with fatty alcohols were more thixotropic than those prepared with fatty acids. For the sake of viscosity increase related to O/W emulsions stability and spreadability enhancement related to payoff, it is thought that fatty alcohols are more useful than fatty acids in the O/W emulsions as the emulsion stabilizer.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
• /
• v.24 no.2
• /
• pp.170-181
• /
• 1997

The number of modernized green houses have been increased to produce high quality and high-payoff farm products. The unit investment costs per pyeong($3.3058m^2$) for building a glass house was estimated at 449 thousand won. On the other hand, the unit prices for the PC house with iron frame and the vynil house with automatic control system were revealed 365 thousand won and 93 thousand won respectively. The main objective of the study was to identify the financial feasibility of the green house investment prevailed in rural area. At present, some farmers have selected the green house without any consideration of profitability of crops and accessiblity of their fanning practices and technology. For the soundness of green house cultivation and management, the indices of finacial efficiency for the modernized green houses were necessary. The decesion making criteria such as NPV(Net Present Value), IRR(Internal Rate of Return), B/C Ratio and Payback Period were analyzed for the individual high investment facilities considering the present farmer's technology and on-farm benefits and costs. The results of the feasibility analysis of green houses were as follows: 1. In case of 100% private burden of the investment costs, NPV revealed only positive value for the vinyl house with automatic system and IRR for the house was also estimated at more than 10% and B/C Ratio was amounted to more than 1.0. On the other hand, the other glass and PC houses showed negative NPV and unacceptable B/C ratio and IRR. 2. In case of the following terms and conditions as 50% Government subsidy, 20% loans and 30% farmers burden of the total investment cost, all the green houses showed acceptable IRR, B/C Ratio and NPV. 3. The financial feasibility of the glass house was acceptable in tomato cultivation rather than in cucumber cultivation. The payback periods of cucumber were represented as 8.9 years for glass house, 8.5 years for PC house and 4.1 years for vinyl house with automatic system respectively. In conclution, the glass and PC house cultivation of high value vegetables were only acceptable under the Goverment subsidy and loan systems from the view point of farmer's financial situations. On account of the unacceptable economic rate of return, the government subsidy and loan policy for glass house cultivation should be transfered to the vinyl and pc houses in the future.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
• /
• v.25 no.7
• /
• pp.936-944
• /
• 2019

Submarines, which have been called an invisible force, are strategic underwater weapon systems that perform missions such as anti-surface warfare, anti-submarine warfare, and high payoff target strikes with the advantage of underwater covertness. A submarine should be able to withstand the hydrostatic pressure of the deep sea. In this respect, the submarine pressure hull, as the main structural system to resist the external pressure corresponding to the submerged depth, should ensure the survivability from hazards and threats such as leakage, fires, shock, explosion, etc. To do this, the initial scantling of the submarine pressure hull must be calculated appropriately in the concept design phase. The shape of the aft transition ring varies according to its connection with the submarine aft end conical structure, pressure hull cylindrical part, and non-pressure hull of the submarine; the design of the aft transition ring should not only take into account stress flow and connectivity but also the cost increase due to the increased man-hours of its complex geometry. Therefore, trade-off studies based on the four different shapes of the aft transition ring are carried out considering both the review of the structural strength through nonlinear finite element analysis (FEA) and economic feasibility by reviewing the estimations of the manufacturing working days and material costs. Finally, the most rational structural aft transition ring shape for a submarine amongst four reviewed types was proposed.

• Review of Culture and Economy
• /
• v.20 no.2
• /
• pp.149-171
• /
• 2017

This paper presents empirical findings about the market inefficiency field in the korean horse track. We first use the place betting data instead of the win betting data inevitably depended on by past studies, and discuss the degree of the long shot anomaly and the bettor's risk attitude sequentially in the place betting market. The empirical result of betting simulations using the place winning function in this study reveals persistently higher returns than the expected payoff in korean racetrack betting market. The clear departures from perfect efficiency in horse-racing betting imply that much of the market information is insufficient and less accurate. This market asymmetry aggravates popular speculations exquisitely since people are attracted by the higher odds figures in the racetrack display although those are much uncertain in future. The findings suggest the more objective and credible information of winning possibilities such as the place winning function including the smart information of marginal odds needs to be available to the betting decision of the public, which contributes to reducing the speculative spirit in korean racetrack.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
• /
• v.26 no.1
• /
• pp.10-20
• /
• 2024

The conservation and restoration of wetlands are essential tasks for the sustainable development of human society and the environment, providing vital benefits such as biodiversity maintenance, natural disaster mitigation, and climate change alleviation. This study aims to analyze the strategic interactions and interests among various stakeholders using game theory and to provide significant grounds for policy decisions related to wetland restoration and development. In this study, hypothetical scenarios were set up for three types of cities: large, medium, and small. Stakeholders such as governments, development companies, environmental groups, and local residents were identified. Strategic options for each stakeholder were developed, and a payoff matrix was established through discussions among wetland ecology experts. Subsequently, non-cooperative game theory was applied to analyze Nash equilibria and Pareto efficiency. In large cities, strategies of 'Wetland Conservation' and 'Eco-Friendly Development' were found beneficial for all stakeholders. In medium cities, various strategies were identified, while in small cities, 'Eco-Friendly Development' emerged as the optimal solution for all parties involved. The Pareto efficiency analysis revealed how the optimal solutions for wetland management could vary across different city types. The study highlighted the importance of wetland conservation, eco-friendly development, and wetland restoration projects for each city type. Accordingly, policymakers should establish regulations and incentives that harmonize environmental protection and urban development and consider programs that promote community participation. Understanding the roles and strategies of stakeholders and the advantages and disadvantages of each strategy is crucial for making more effective policy decisions.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.57-81
• /
• 2008

Knowledge is an essential strategic weapon for sustaining competitive advantage and is the key determinant for organizational growth. When knowledge is shared and disseminated throughout the organization, it increases an organization's value by providing the ability to respond to new and unusual situations. The growing importance of knowledge as a critical resource has forced executives to pay attention to their organizational knowledge. Organizations are increasingly undertaking knowledge management initiatives and making significant investments. Knowledge sourcing is considered as the first important step in effective knowledge management. Most firms continue to make an effort to realize the benefits of knowledge management by using various knowledge sources effectively. Appropriate knowledge sourcing strategies enable organizations to create, acquire, and access knowledge in a timely manner by reducing search and transfer costs, which result in better firm performance. In response, the knowledge management literature has devoted substantial attention to the analysis of knowledge sourcing strategies. Many studies have categorized knowledge sourcing strategies into intemal- and external-oriented. Internal-oriented sourcing strategy attempts to increase firm performance by integrating knowledge within the boundary of the firm. On the contrary, external-oriented strategy attempts to bring knowledge in from outside sources via either acquisition or imitation, and then to transfer that knowledge across to the organization. However, the extant literature on knowledge sourcing strategies focuses primarily on large organizations. Although many studies have clearly highlighted major differences between large and small firms and the need to adopt different strategies for different firm sizes, scant attention has been given to analyzing how knowledge sourcing strategies affect firm performance in small firms and what are the differences between small and large firms in the patterns of knowledge sourcing strategies adoption. This study attempts to advance the current literature by examining the impact of knowledge sourcing strategies on small firm performance from a holistic perspective. By drawing on knowledge based theory from organization science and complementarity theory from the economics literature, this paper is motivated by the following questions: (1) what are the adoption patterns of different knowledge sourcing strategies in small firms (i,e., what sourcing strategies should be adopted and which sourcing strategies work well together in small firms)?; and (2) what are the performance implications of these adoption patterns? In order to answer the questions, this study developed three hypotheses. First hypothesis based on knowledge based theory is that internal-oriented knowledge sourcing is positively associated with small firm performance. Second hypothesis developed on the basis of knowledge based theory is that external-oriented knowledge sourcing is positively associated with small firm performance. The third one based on complementarity theory is that pursuing both internal- and external-oriented knowledge sourcing simultaneously is negatively or less positively associated with small firm performance. As a sampling frame, 700 firms were identified from the Annual Corporation Report in Korea. Survey questionnaires were mailed to owners or executives who were most erudite about the firm s knowledge sourcing strategies and performance. A total of 188 companies replied, yielding a response rate of 26.8%. Due to incomplete data, 12 responses were eliminated, leaving 176 responses for the final analysis. Since all independent variables were measured using continuous variables, supermodularity function was used to test the hypotheses based on the cross partial derivative of payoff function. The results indicated no significant impact of internal-oriented sourcing strategies while positive impact of external-oriented sourcing strategy on small firm performance. This intriguing result could be explained on the basis of various resource and capital constraints of small firms. Small firms typically have restricted financial and human resources. They do not have enough assets to always develop knowledge internally. Another possible explanation is competency traps or core rigidities. Building up a knowledge base based on internal knowledge creates core competences, but at the same time, excessive internal focused knowledge exploration leads to behaviors blind to other knowledge. Interestingly, this study found that Internal- and external-oriented knowledge sourcing strategies had a substitutive relationship, which was inconsistent with previous studies that suggested complementary relationship between them. This result might be explained using organizational identification theory. Internal organizational members may perceive external knowledge as a threat, and tend to ignore knowledge from external sources because they prefer to maintain their own knowledge, legitimacy, and homogeneous attitudes. Therefore, integrating knowledge from internal and external sources might not be effective, resulting in failure of improvements of firm performance. Another possible explanation is small firms resource and capital constraints and lack of management expertise and absorptive capacity. Although the integration of different knowledge sources is critical, high levels of knowledge sourcing in many areas are quite expensive and so are often unrealistic for small enterprises. This study provides several implications for research as well as practice. First this study extends the existing knowledge by examining the substitutability (and complementarity) of knowledge sourcing strategies. Most prior studies have tended to investigate the independent effects of these strategies on performance without considering their combined impacts. Furthermore, this study tests complementarity based on the productivity approach that has been considered as a definitive test method for complementarity. Second, this study sheds new light on knowledge management research by identifying the relationship between knowledge sourcing strategies and small firm performance. Most current literature has insisted complementary relationship between knowledge sourcing strategies on the basis of data from large firms. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, this study identifies substitutive relationship between knowledge sourcing strategies using data from small firms. Third, implications for practice highlight that managers of small firms should focus on knowledge sourcing from external-oriented strategies. Moreover, adoption of both sourcing strategies simultaneousiy impedes small firm performance.

• Journal of Distribution Research
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.29-53
• /
• 2012

As so many marketers get to use diverse sales promotion methods, manufacturer and retailer in a channel often use them too. In this context, diverse issues on sales promotion management arise. One of them is the issue of unplanned buying. Consumers' unplanned buying is clearly better off for the retailer but not for manufacturer. This asymmetric influence of unplanned buying should be dealt with prudently because of its possibility of provocation of channel conflict. However, there have been scarce studies on the sales promotion management strategy considering the unplanned buying and its asymmetric effect on retailer and manufacturer. In this paper, we try to find a better way for a manufacturer in a channel to promote performance through the retailer's sales promotion efforts when there is potential of unplanned buying effect. We investigate via game-theoretic modeling what is the optimal cost sharing level between the manufacturer and retailer when there is unplanned buying effect. We investigated following issues about the topic as follows: (1) What structure of cost sharing mechanism should the manufacturer and retailer in a channel choose when unplanned buying effect is strong (or weak)? (2) How much payoff could the manufacturer and retailer in a channel get when unplanned buying effect is strong (or weak)? We focus on the impact of unplanned buying effect on the optimal cost sharing mechanism for sales promotions between a manufacturer and a retailer in a same channel. So we consider two players in the game, a manufacturer and a retailer who are interacting in a same distribution channel. The model is of complete information game type. In the model, the manufacturer is the Stackelberg leader and the retailer is the follower. Variables in the model are as following table. Manufacturer's objective function in the basic game is as follows: ${\Pi}={\Pi}_1+{\Pi}_2$, where, ${\Pi}_1=w_1(1+L-p_1)-{\psi}^2$, ${\Pi}_2=w_2(1-{\epsilon}L-p_2)$. And retailer's is as follows: ${\pi}={\pi}_1+{\pi}_2$, where, ${\pi}_1=(p_1-w_1)(1+L-p_1)-L(L-{\psi})+p_u(b+L-p_u)$, ${\pi}_2=(p_2-w_2)(1-{\epsilon}L-p_2)$. The model is of four stages in two periods. Stages of the game are as follows. (Stage 1) Manufacturer sets wholesale price of the first period($w_1$) and cost sharing level of channel sales promotion(${\Psi}$). (Stage 2) Retailer sets retail price of the focal brand($p_1$), the unplanned buying item($p_u$), and sales promotion level(L). (Stage 3) Manufacturer sets wholesale price of the second period($w_2$). (Stage 4) Retailer sets retail price of the second period($p_2$). Since the model is a kind of dynamic games, we try to find a subgame perfect equilibrium to derive some theoretical and managerial implications. In order to obtain the subgame perfect equilibrium, we use the backward induction method. In using backward induction approach, we solve the problems backward from stage 4 to stage 1. By completely knowing follower's optimal reaction to the leader's potential actions, we can fold the game tree backward. Equilibrium of each variable in the basic game is as following table. We conducted more analysis of additional game about diverse cost level of manufacturer. Manufacturer's objective function in the additional game is same with that of the basic game as follows: ${\Pi}={\Pi}_1+{\Pi}_2$, where, ${\Pi}_1=w_1(1+L-p_1)-{\psi}^2$, ${\Pi}_2=w_2(1-{\epsilon}L-p_2)$. But retailer's objective function is different from that of the basic game as follows: ${\pi}={\pi}_1+{\pi}_2$, where, ${\pi}_1=(p_1-w_1)(1+L-p_1)-L(L-{\psi})+(p_u-c)(b+L-p_u)$, ${\pi}_2=(p_2-w_2)(1-{\epsilon}L-p_2)$. Equilibrium of each variable in this additional game is as following table. Major findings of the current study are as follows: (1) As the unplanned buying effect gets stronger, manufacturer and retailer had better increase the cost for sales promotion. (2) As the unplanned buying effect gets stronger, manufacturer had better decrease the cost sharing portion of total cost for sales promotion. (3) Manufacturer's profit is increasing function of the unplanned buying effect. (4) All results of (1),(2),(3) are alleviated by the increase of retailer's procurement cost to acquire unplanned buying items. The authors discuss the implications of those results for the marketers in manufacturers or retailers. The current study firstly suggests some managerial implications for the manufacturer how to share the sales promotion cost with the retailer in a channel to the high or low level of the consumers' unplanned buying potential.