In franchise industry, territorial restraint is a system that imposes exclusive right to franchisers in a certain business area. To the franchisers, this system guarantees monopoly profits in a local market and exclusive rights during the contract periods. In such a way, franchisee generates a big revenue at once on the basis of franchiser's initial investment such as interior cost and franchise fee, it must have supervised franchiser's moral hazard for the territorial restraint agreement. Rather than territorial restraint can be a system to give exclusive right to franchiser's so that they neglect their own sales and too much rely on headquarter's brand and marketing activities without their own efforts. This paper assesses the implication of territorial restraint by examining the effect on brand extension, degree of contract termination. Drawing on research in transaction cost agreement and opportunism, the authors suggest that franchisee is highly likely to launch similar brand which is not effected on previous contract when territorial restraint is set out in the contract system. Moreover, the authors find that the degree of contract termination will be high in the existence of territorial restraint due to the franchisee's opportunism. The results imply that territorial restraint induces franchisee's opportunistic strategy more aggressively so that the possibility of brand extension or new brand launching will be increased. At the same time, franchisee is aggressively seeking for the reason for contract termination due to the pursuit of its profit maximization. Based on some empirical findings, this paper concludes with policy implications and some necessary fields of future studies desirable.
Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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v.16
no.4
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pp.167-178
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2021
The purpose of this study is to analyze the direct investment decision factors in the Kaesong Industrial Complex and Vietnam, and to contribute to the creation of domestic jobs and the revitalization of the inter-Korean economy. According to the analysis, most of the Kaesong Industrial Complex and Vietnamese investment companies are entering the complex for the purpose of utilizing cheap labor, cheap factory locations, sales/development of local markets, and bypass export production bases in third countries. This can be divided into production-efficient investors using differences in production price such as labor costs and market-oriented investors to sell and expand the local market, which seems to be consistent with global direct investment patterns such as Nike, Apple, and Amazon. However, even if the North Korea-U.S. denuclearization talks ease or lift sanctions, Vietnamese investors' willingness to invest in the North Korea has been most burdened by the possibility of closing special economic zones due to political risks. Last but not least, it is important to note that those willing to invest in North Korea are mostly smaller enterprises in textiles, sewing, footwear and leather industries-those that benefit from low-cost labor. Since their size is small, they need policy support in financing, especially in the early stages of their business. Even after they grow past the early stages, those without collateral would still need state guarantee letters to get financing. Thus, it is worth considering to use the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund to compensate commercial banks for bad loan loss or for low-interest loans for smaller SMEs. The interviews with SMEs found that red-tape is one of the biggest difficulties they face. Thus, it is recommended that a one-stop service agency should be established to cover all processes and issues related to inter-Korean economic cooperation to eliminate redundancy and expediate government support for SMEs.
Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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v.25
no.1
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pp.91-112
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2021
This study aimed to explore the influence of family characteristics on the work-life balance of early adolescents. A series of data analyses was conducted on adolescents' use of time in daily life on the basis of 2018 Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey (KCYPS 2018). We found that the work-life balance of youth is related to their parents' health status, presence of older siblings, household income, parenting attitude, parent-child communication time, and mother's occupation. The work-life balance of the fifth graders is more likely to be influenced by family characteristics compared with that of the eighth graders. In particular, the fifth graders' sleep deprivation is affected by the mother's occupation, but there is no significant effect on the eighth graders' sleep deprivation. An important factor in skipping breakfast is household income, with adolescents from low-income families tending to skip breakfast more than five days a week. In addition, parents' health status and parenting attitude are significantly related to skipping of breakfast in early adolescents. Household income is related to the after-school private tutoring hours of both the fifth and eighth graders; however, parenting attitude and mother's occupation are also significant influencing factors of the fifth graders' after-school study. Mother's occupation is related to excessive cell phone use; specifically, the fifth graders whose mothers work white-collar jobs, sales and services or manufacturing are more likely to play with cell phones more than three hours a day than those whose mothers are full-time housewives. These results suggest that the work-life balance policies targeted at the family characteristics of adolescents can improve family environments in a manner that enhances adolescents' life balance, thus supporting the well-being of early adolescents and their families.
Objectives: This study was conducted to identify the awareness and practice of reducing sugar in school meals and the status of nutrition education regarding sugar reduction. Methods: An online survey was conducted on 101 nutrition teachers (dietitians) working at elementary, middle, and high schools in Daegu. Results: School nutrition teachers in Daegu recognized the need for efforts to reduce the sugar intake in the Korean diet, and it was found that elementary nutrition teachers were more aware of the implementation of the sugar reduction policy at the national level than middle and high school nutrition teachers (P = 0.002). Among the policies to reduce sugar intake at the national level, there was a high need for the promotion of self-control and limiting the sales of food with high sugar content in schools and their vicinity. The degree of practice for reducing sugar in school meals was found to be higher in the preparation, purchase, and cooking stage compared to the serving stage (P < 0.05). There was a high need for changing the preferences of the subjects for a sweet taste as a means of reducing the sugar in school meals. Thirty-six percent of nutrition teachers conducted sugar reduction education, and sending out school newsletters was the highest type of nutrition education at 80.6%. Conclusions: To effectively promote reduced sugar intake in school meals, it is necessary to change the preference of the subjects for sweetness and to conduct continuous education that can improve the awareness of people for reducing their sugar intake. For this, it is necessary to set aside time for nutrition education and to prepare an institutional framework for providing this education.
Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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v.51
no.5
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pp.13-29
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2023
Urban parks are social infrastructure supporting citizens' health, quality of life, and community formation. As the proportion of urban parks that have been established for more than 20 years is increasing, the need for refurbishment to improve the physical space environment and enhance the functions of aging urban parks is increasing. Since the government's refurbishment of aging urban parks has limitations in securing financial resources and promoting attractiveness, they must be promoted through public-private partnerships. Japan, which suffered from the problem of aging urban parks, has successfully promoted several park refurbishment projects by introducing the Park-PFI through the revision of the 「Urban Park Act」 in 2017. This study examines and analyzes the characteristics of the Japan Park-PFI as an alternative to improving the quality of aging domestic urban park services through public-private partnerships and the validity of the aging urban park refurbishment projects through Park-PFI. The main findings are as follows. First, it is necessary to start discussions on introducing Japan's Park-PFI according to the domestic conditions as a means of public-private partnership to improve the service quality and diversify the functions of aging urban parks. In order to introduce Park-PFI social discussions and follow-up studies on the deterioration of urban parks. Must be conducted. The installation of private capital and profit facilities and improvements of related regulations, such as the 「Parks and Green Spaces Act」 and the 「Public Property Act」, is required. Second, it is judged that the Park-PFI project is a policy alternative that can enhance the benefits to citizens, local governments, and private operators under the premise that the need to refurbish aging urban parks is high and the location is suitable for promoting the project. As a result of a pilot application of the Park-PFI project to Seyeong Park, an aging urban park located in Bupyeong-gu, Incheon, it was analyzed to be profitable in terms of the profitability index (PI), net present value (FNPV), and internal rate of return (FIRR). It is considered possible to participate in the business sector. At the local government level, private capital is used to improve the physical space environment of aging urban parks, as well as the refurbishment of the urban parks by utilizing financial resources generated by returning a portion of the facility usage fees and profits (0.5% of annual sales) of private operators. It was found that management budgets could be secured.
The purpose of this paper is to explore the relations between financial constraints and dividend smoothing of innovative small and medium sized enterprises(SMEs) listed on Korea Securities Market and Kosdaq Market of Korea Exchange. The innovative SMEs is defined as the firms with high level of R&D intensity which is measured by (R&D investment/total sales) ratio, according to Chauvin and Hirschey (1993). The R&D investment plays an important role as the innovative driver that can increase the future growth opportunity and profitability of the firms. Therefore, the R&D investment have large, positive, and consistent influences on the market value of the firm. In this point of view, we expect that the innovative SMEs can adjust dividend payment faster than the noninnovative SMEs, on the ground of their future growth opportunity and profitability. And also, we expect that the financial unconstrained firms can adjust dividend payment faster than the financial constrained firms, on the ground of their financing ability of investment funds through the market accessibility. Aivazian et al.(2006) exert that the financial unconstrained firms with the high accessibility to capital market can adjust dividend payment faster than the financial constrained firms. We collect the sample firms among the total SMEs listed on Korea Securities Market and Kosdaq Market of Korea Exchange during the periods from January 1999 to December 2007 from the KIS Value Library database. The total number of firm-year observations of the total sample firms throughout the entire period is 5,544, the number of firm-year observations of the dividend firms is 2,919, and the number of firm-year observations of the non-dividend firms is 2,625. About 53%(or 2,919) of these total 5,544 observations involve firms that make a dividend payment. The dividend firms are divided into two groups according to the R&D intensity, such as the innovative SMEs with larger than median of R&D intensity and the noninnovative SMEs with smaller than median of R&D intensity. The number of firm-year observations of the innovative SMEs is 1,506, and the number of firm-year observations of the noninnovative SMEs is 1,413. Furthermore, the innovative SMEs are divided into two groups according to level of financial constraints, such as the financial unconstrained firms and the financial constrained firms. The number of firm-year observations of the former is 894, and the number of firm-year observations of the latter is 612. Although all available firm-year observations of the dividend firms are collected, deletions are made in the case of financial industries such as banks, securities company, insurance company, and other financial services company, because their capital structure and business style are widely different from the general manufacturing firms. The stock repurchase was involved in dividend payment because Grullon and Michaely (2002) examined the substitution hypothesis between dividends and stock repurchases. However, our data structure is an unbalanced panel data since there is no requirement that the firm-year observations data are all available for each firms during the entire periods from January 1999 to December 2007 from the KIS Value Library database. We firstly estimate the classic Lintner(1956) dividend adjustment model, where the decision to smooth dividend or to adopt a residual dividend policy depends on financial constraints measured by market accessibility. Lintner model indicates that firms maintain stable and long run target payout ratio, and that firms adjust partially the gap between current payout rato and target payout ratio each year. In the Lintner model, dependent variable is the current dividend per share(DPSt), and independent variables are the past dividend per share(DPSt-1) and the current earnings per share(EPSt). We hypothesized that firms adjust partially the gap between the current dividend per share(DPSt) and the target payout ratio(Ω) each year, when the past dividend per share(DPSt-1) deviate from the target payout ratio(Ω). We secondly estimate the expansion model that extend the Lintner model by including the determinants suggested by the major theories of dividend, namely, residual dividend theory, dividend signaling theory, agency theory, catering theory, and transactions cost theory. In the expansion model, dependent variable is the current dividend per share(DPSt), explanatory variables are the past dividend per share(DPSt-1) and the current earnings per share(EPSt), and control variables are the current capital expenditure ratio(CEAt), the current leverage ratio(LEVt), the current operating return on assets(ROAt), the current business risk(RISKt), the current trading volume turnover ratio(TURNt), and the current dividend premium(DPREMt). In these control variables, CEAt, LEVt, and ROAt are the determinants suggested by the residual dividend theory and the agency theory, ROAt and RISKt are the determinants suggested by the dividend signaling theory, TURNt is the determinant suggested by the transactions cost theory, and DPREMt is the determinant suggested by the catering theory. Furthermore, we thirdly estimate the Lintner model and the expansion model by using the panel data of the financial unconstrained firms and the financial constrained firms, that are divided into two groups according to level of financial constraints. We expect that the financial unconstrained firms can adjust dividend payment faster than the financial constrained firms, because the former can finance more easily the investment funds through the market accessibility than the latter. We analyzed descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation, and median to delete the outliers from the panel data, conducted one way analysis of variance to check up the industry-specfic effects, and conducted difference test of firms characteristic variables between innovative SMEs and noninnovative SMEs as well as difference test of firms characteristic variables between financial unconstrained firms and financial constrained firms. We also conducted the correlation analysis and the variance inflation factors analysis to detect any multicollinearity among the independent variables. Both of the correlation coefficients and the variance inflation factors are roughly low to the extent that may be ignored the multicollinearity among the independent variables. Furthermore, we estimate both of the Lintner model and the expansion model using the panel regression analysis. We firstly test the time-specific effects and the firm-specific effects may be involved in our panel data through the Lagrange multiplier test that was proposed by Breusch and Pagan(1980), and secondly conduct Hausman test to prove that fixed effect model is fitter with our panel data than the random effect model. The main results of this study can be summarized as follows. The determinants suggested by the major theories of dividend, namely, residual dividend theory, dividend signaling theory, agency theory, catering theory, and transactions cost theory explain significantly the dividend policy of the innovative SMEs. Lintner model indicates that firms maintain stable and long run target payout ratio, and that firms adjust partially the gap between the current payout ratio and the target payout ratio each year. In the core variables of Lintner model, the past dividend per share has more effects to dividend smoothing than the current earnings per share. These results suggest that the innovative SMEs maintain stable and long run dividend policy which sustains the past dividend per share level without corporate special reasons. The main results show that dividend adjustment speed of the innovative SMEs is faster than that of the noninnovative SMEs. This means that the innovative SMEs with high level of R&D intensity can adjust dividend payment faster than the noninnovative SMEs, on the ground of their future growth opportunity and profitability. The other main results show that dividend adjustment speed of the financial unconstrained SMEs is faster than that of the financial constrained SMEs. This means that the financial unconstrained firms with high accessibility to capital market can adjust dividend payment faster than the financial constrained firms, on the ground of their financing ability of investment funds through the market accessibility. Futhermore, the other additional results show that dividend adjustment speed of the innovative SMEs classified by the Small and Medium Business Administration is faster than that of the unclassified SMEs. They are linked with various financial policies and services such as credit guaranteed service, policy fund for SMEs, venture investment fund, insurance program, and so on. In conclusion, the past dividend per share and the current earnings per share suggested by the Lintner model explain mainly dividend adjustment speed of the innovative SMEs, and also the financial constraints explain partially. Therefore, if managers can properly understand of the relations between financial constraints and dividend smoothing of innovative SMEs, they can maintain stable and long run dividend policy of the innovative SMEs through dividend smoothing. These are encouraging results for Korea government, that is, the Small and Medium Business Administration as it has implemented many policies to commit to the innovative SMEs. This paper may have a few limitations because it may be only early study about the relations between financial constraints and dividend smoothing of the innovative SMEs. Specifically, this paper may not adequately capture all of the subtle features of the innovative SMEs and the financial unconstrained SMEs. Therefore, we think that it is necessary to expand sample firms and control variables, and use more elaborate analysis methods in the future studies.
Internet commerce has been growing at a rapid pace for the last decade. Many firms try to reach wider consumer markets by adding the Internet channel to the existing traditional channels. Despite the various benefits of the Internet channel, a significant number of firms failed in managing the new type of channel. Previous studies could not cleary explain these conflicting results associated with the Internet channel. One of the major reasons is most of the previous studies conducted analyses under a specific market condition and claimed that as the impact of Internet channel introduction. Therefore, their results are strongly influenced by the specific market settings. However, firms face various market conditions in the real worlddensity and disutility of using the Internet. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of various market environments on a firm's optimal channel strategy by employing a flexible game theory model. We capture various market conditions with consumer density and disutility of using the Internet.
shows the channel structures analyzed in this study. Before the Internet channel is introduced, a monopoly manufacturer sells its products through an independent physical store. From this structure, the manufacturer could introduce its own Internet channel (MI). The independent physical store could also introduce its own Internet channel and coordinate it with the existing physical store (RI). An independent Internet retailer such as Amazon could enter this market (II). In this case, two types of independent retailers compete with each other. In this model, consumers are uniformly distributed on the two dimensional space. Consumer heterogeneity is captured by a consumer's geographical location (ci) and his disutility of using the Internet channel (${\delta}_{N_i}$).
shows various market conditions captured by the two consumer heterogeneities.
(a) illustrates a market with symmetric consumer distributions. The model captures explicitly the asymmetric distributions of consumer disutility in a market as well. In a market like that is represented in
(c), the average consumer disutility of using an Internet store is relatively smaller than that of using a physical store. For example, this case represents the market in which 1) the product is suitable for Internet transactions (e.g., books) or 2) the level of E-Commerce readiness is high such as in Denmark or Finland. On the other hand, the average consumer disutility when using an Internet store is relatively greater than that of using a physical store in a market like (b). Countries like Ukraine and Bulgaria, or the market for "experience goods" such as shoes, could be examples of this market condition.
summarizes the various scenarios of consumer distributions analyzed in this study. The range for disutility of using the Internet (${\delta}_{N_i}$) is held constant, while the range of consumer distribution (${\chi}_i$) varies from -25 to 25, from -50 to 50, from -100 to 100, from -150 to 150, and from -200 to 200.
summarizes the analysis results. As the average travel cost in a market decreases while the average disutility of Internet use remains the same, average retail price, total quantity sold, physical store profit, monopoly manufacturer profit, and thus, total channel profit increase. On the other hand, the quantity sold through the Internet and the profit of the Internet store decrease with a decreasing average travel cost relative to the average disutility of Internet use. We find that a channel that has an advantage over the other kind of channel serves a larger portion of the market. In a market with a high average travel cost, in which the Internet store has a relative advantage over the physical store, for example, the Internet store becomes a mass-retailer serving a larger portion of the market. This result implies that the Internet becomes a more significant distribution channel in those markets characterized by greater geographical dispersion of buyers, or as consumers become more proficient in Internet usage. The results indicate that the degree of price discrimination also varies depending on the distribution of consumer disutility in a market. The manufacturer in a market in which the average travel cost is higher than the average disutility of using the Internet has a stronger incentive for price discrimination than the manufacturer in a market where the average travel cost is relatively lower. We also find that the manufacturer has a stronger incentive to maintain a high price level when the average travel cost in a market is relatively low. Additionally, the retail competition effect due to Internet channel introduction strengthens as average travel cost in a market decreases. This result indicates that a manufacturer's channel power relative to that of the independent physical retailer becomes stronger with a decreasing average travel cost. This implication is counter-intuitive, because it is widely believed that the negative impact of Internet channel introduction on a competing physical retailer is more significant in a market like Russia, where consumers are more geographically dispersed, than in a market like Hong Kong, that has a condensed geographic distribution of consumers.