• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.211-231
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• 2002

This paper summarizes the results of a study that assess how a demand side management (DSM) system addresses key economic and environmental challenges facing in the Korean natural gas sector considering; ${\bullet}$ high discrepancies of seasonal consumption volume and of load factor in unmatured domestic LNG market, ${\bullet}$ unfavorable and volatile international LNG market, imposing with the contestable "take-or-pay" contract terms, ${\bullet}$ low profile of LNG and existence of market barriers against an optimal fuel mix status in the industrial energy sector. A particular focus of this study is to establish an 'extended' DSM system in the unmatured gas market, especially in industry sector, that could play a key role to assure an optimum fuel mix scheme. Under the concept of 'extended' DSM, a system dynamics modeling approach has been introduced to explore the option to maximize economic benefits in terms of the national energy system optimization, entailing different ways of commitments accounting for different DSM measures and time delay scenarios. The study concludes that policy options exist that can reduce inefficiencies in gas industry and end-use system at no net costs to national economy. The most scenarios find that, by the year 2015, it is possible to develop a substantial potential of increased industrial gas end-uses under more reliable and stable load patterns. Assessment of sensitivity analysis suggests that time delay factor, in formulating DSM scenarios, plays a key role to overcome various market barriers in domestic LNG market and provides a strong justification for the policy portfolios 'just in time' (time accurateness), which eventually contribute to establish an optimum fuel mix strategy. The study indicates also the needs of advanced studies based on SD approach to articulate uncertainty in unmatured energy market analysis, including gas.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.149-156
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• 2021

This study empirically verified whether aggressive order intake affect occurrence of defects of Korean construction companies. In order to compensate for the shortage of construction costs due to aggressive low-cost orders of contractors, self-response measures such as design changes are followed, and construction defects may be induced in this process. It aims to verify relevance between aggressive order intake and defect in construction empirically using financial accounting data. As a result, it was confirmed that an abnormal increase in order volume and a deterioration in profitability such as operating margin due to aggressive order taking behavior leads to a decrease in construction quality and occurrence of defects. In addition, it was also confirmed that low construction ability and intentional changes in construction design or contract conditions after construction commences were a direct causes of defects. The results of this study can serve as an opportunity to come up with measures to prevent defects by confirming the relationship between defects in construction and deterioration of profitability due to aggressive low-cost order takings.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.152-168
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• 2021

Purpose - This paper has an objective to suggest reasonable criteria in choosing Incoterms 2020 rules for efficient and effective logistics management in that the Incoterms rules affect not only the rights and obligations of the parties to the sales contract but also the control and management of logistics system and transaction costs in the transaction. Design/methodology - An analysis of the various factors is needed to assess the positive or negative impact on global value chain in choosing Incoterms rules from a total logistics view. This study analyzes the impact of which the content of individual incoterms rules can have on the operation of international logistics systems under the global value chain from a strategic perspective to suggest reasonable criteria for selection of Incoterms rules depending on the transaction situation. Findings - Results of this study shows that consideration of various aspects which includes the characteristics of the products, logistics capabilities, infrastructure, transaction volume, operational cost, customs regulations, tax and accounting should be reflected in choosing the appropriate Incoterms rules. Therefore, in order to minimize the total cost and improve logistics performance, it may be helpful to develop a decision support model which allows users to select appropriate Incoterms rules based on various influencing factors. Originality/value - This Study is different from previous research which has mainly focused on the rights and obligations of the parties to the transaction regarding the transfer of risks and costs under the Incoterms. In addition, this study has significance in that it provides implications for export and import companies that can be able to use Incoterms as a strategic tool to efficiently manage the global value chain and improve supply chain performance.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.19-38
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• 2021

This study aims to analyze the foreign asset leverage effect on Korean oil & gas companies' foreign profits and to maintain the appropriate foreign asset volume for reducing exchange risk. For a long time, large Korean companies, including oil companies, overheld foreign currency liabilities. For this reason, most large companies have been burdened to hedge exchange risk and this excess limit holding deteriorated total profit and reduced foreign currency asset management efficiency. Our paper proceeds in presenting a three-stage analysis considering diversified exchange risk factors through estimation on transformation of foreign transactions a/c including annual trends of foreign asset and industry specifics. We also supplement incomplete the estimation method through a practical hedging case investigation. Our research parts are differentiated on the analyzing four periods considering period-specifics The FER value of the oil firms ranged from -0.3 to +2.3 over the entire period. The results of the FER Value are volatile and irregular; those results do not represent the industry standard comparative index. The Korean oil firms are over the credit limit without accurate prediction and finance high interest rate funds from foreign-owned banks on the basis on a biased relationship. Since the IMF crisis, liabilities of global firms have decreased. Above all, oil firms need to finance a minimum limit without opportunity losses on the demand forecast and prepare for uncertainty in the market. To reduce exchange risk from the over-the-limit position, we must consider factors that affect the corporate exchange risk on the entire business process, including the contract phase.

• The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.115-133
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• 2000

The policy of suppling tax-exempt fishery oil in Korea has a history of almost 40 years, which was initiated by the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives in 1965. In 1999 the volume of fishery oil supplied to the earning fishermen and fishing entrepreneurs amounted to 8,390 thousand DM, 500 billion won in total. This paper analyzes the oil supplying system to fishermen in Korea and shows that the structural obstacles to the stable provision of fishery oil lies in the ineffective bargaining power (fixing price). Provided that the NFFC as a buyer, which is not equipped with the storage facilities for oil bids for a unit-price contract of fishery oil, there exists a possibility of collusion among 5 local oil refineries corporations to influence the oil price, making it difficult to reach a resonable price of oil. Though the international bids and direct imports following the liberalization of oil imports would help lower the unit price, purchasing and importing the oil out of season at a lower price would not be guaranteed without the oil storage facilities. Furthermore, the current supply system of oil is quite vulnerable to the extraneous factors and, say when the oil price soars unpredictably, it is almost impossible to supply low - priced fishery oil to fishermen. The National Federation of Fisheries Association of Japan(Zengyoren), for instance, possesses 10 oil storage facilities, which had been built across the country during the last 20 years (1964-1984). The storage capacity of these facilities reaches 0.6million DM(by kind, 0.56million DM for A heavy oil, 38thousand D/M kerosene, 5thousand D/M for diesel fuel oil). Allowing no intermediary of production associations(fisheries cooperatives) the NFFA's capacity for keeping oil in reserve rises much higher. As these storage facilities can keep the oil amounting to as much as of 70 days demand in reserve, a stable supply of fishery oil on favorable terms is secured. In contrast with Japan case, unequipped with the storage facilities for fishery oil, Korea does not have much bargaining power for bringing down the price of fishery oil. To make matters worse, the oil storing capacity of the member cooperatives is the volume of only 8 days demand. In case the oil price rises, it is almost impossible to supply the oil to the fishermen at a price lower than the price risen.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.61-72
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• 2019

In order to enhance the competitiveness of the container shipping industry and promote its development, based on the empirical analyses using multivariate time series models, this study aims to suggest a few strategies related to the dynamics of the container shipping market. It uses the vector autoregressive (VAR) and vector error correction (VEC) models as analytical methodologies. Additionally, it uses the annual trade volumes, fleets, and freight rates as the dataset. According to the empirical results, we can infer that the most exogenous variable, the trade volume, exerted the highest influence on the total dynamics of the container shipping market. Based on these empirical results, this study suggests some implications for ship investment, freight rate forecasting, and the strategies of shipping firms. Concerning ship investment, since the exogenous trade volume variable contributes most to the uncertainty of freight rates, corporate finance can be considered more appropriate for container ship investment than project finance. Concerning the freight rate forecasting, the VAR and VEC models use the past information and the cointegrating regression model assumes future information, and hence the former models are found better than the latter model. Finally, concerning the strategies of shipping firms, this study recommends the use of cycle-linked repayment scheme and services contract.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.97-104
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• 2015

Purpose - The distribution of agricultural products is changing due to recent shifts in environmental free trade. Specifically, the competitiveness of domestic agricultural products has weakened as a result of the Korea-China Financial Trade Agreement. Agricultural producers are faced with increasing difficulties and organized production centers are growing in importance daily. To overcome this crisis, agricultural producer organizations are vying for environment-friendly agricultural certifications, Good Agriculture Practices (GAP) and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP). In particular, as consumer demand for higher safety grows, farmers are increasing their certification rates. Therefore, this certification system is expected to help strengthen the competitiveness of agricultural producer organizations. Research design/data/methodology - Organized production centers are classified by certification. A survey was conducted with 91 organizations using factor analysis and logistic regression analysis for the examination. The factor analysis results are as follows. Raw material procurement, education·specialization, marketing, joint business, organizing ability, business management, effectiveness, certification, and larger organizations were classified as the nine types of factors. These factors affect the organized production centers and are used in the logistic regression analysis. The purpose of such research and analysis is to suggest a direction for future production center policies. Results - The basic statistical results are as follows: analysis of the producer organizations of 91 sites, average number of members per site of 1,624, and average sales of 25,961 million won. Additionally, the average income per farmer is 175 million won, and the pooling system rate is 53.5%. The factor analysis results are as follows. Factor 1 consists of contract cultivation, ongoing shipment, selection subdivision, traceability, and major retailer management. Factor 2 consists of manual cultivation, specialty selection, education program, and R&D. Factor 3 consists of advertising, various dealers, various sales strategies, and a unified sales counter. Factor 4 consists of agricultural materials co-purchase, policy support, co-shipment, and incentives. Factor 5 consists of the co-selection and pooling system. Factor 6 consists of co-branding and operating by the organization's article. Factor 7 consists of the buy-sell ratio and rate of operation of the agriculture promotion center. Factor 8 consists of bargaining power in volume and participation rate of farmer certification. Factor 9 consists of increasing new subscribers. The logistic regression analysis results are as follows. Considering the results by type of certification, the environment-friendly agricultural certification type and the GAP certification type have a (+) influence. GAP and HACCP certification types affecting the education·specialization factor have a (+) influence. Considering the results for each type of certification, the environment-friendly agricultural certification types on the effectiveness factor have (-) influence; the HACCP certification types on the organizing ability and effectiveness factor have a (-) influence. Conclusions - Agricultural producer organizations should develop plans as follows: The organizations need to secure education for agricultural production; increase the pooling system ratio for sustainable organizational development; and, finally, expand the number of agricultural producer organizations.

• Journal of Korean Society of Archives and Records Management
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.147-172
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• 2019

With the provision of the original text information disclosure service, the time spent on determining the disclosure of the original text information decreased, and the number of original text information disclosure significantly increased. In public institutions, the risk of the exposure of personal information also increased. In this study, the status of personal information protection in the original text information disclosure service was investigated. Moreover, the causes of the exposure of personal information were analyzed, and improvements were proposed. The survey presented the following results. First, 13% of the original text information collected contains personal information, which is the nondisclosure information. Second, among the original text information that includes personal information, the original text information, including the personal information of the public official, was the most important. In particular, many records about vacation and medical leaves were found. Third, there were many cases in which information about the individual of the representative was exposed in the agency that deals mainly with the contract work. Fourth, a large volume of personal information was not detected by filtering personal information. Upon analyzing the cause of the exposure of personal information, the following improvements are suggested. First, privacy guidelines should be redesigned. Second, the person in charge of the task of deciding whether or not to disclose original text information should be trained further. Third, the excessive disclosure of information based on the government's quantitative performance should be eased. Fourth, the filtering function of the personal information of the original text information disclosure system should be improved.

• KIPS Transactions on Software and Data Engineering
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• v.12 no.9
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• pp.419-430
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• 2023

Currently, NFTs have no dominant application except for the proof of ownership for digital content, and it also have small liquidity problem, which makes their price difficult to predict. Real estate usually has very high barriers to investment due to its high pricing. Real estate can be converted into NFTs and also divided into small value fungible tokens (FTs), and it can increase the the volume of the investor community due to more liquidity and better accessibility. In this document, we implement and design a system that allows ordinary users can invest on high priced real estate utilizing Black Litterman (BL) model-based Portfolio investment interface. To this end, we target a set of real estates pegged as collateral and issue NFT for the collateral using blockchain. We use oracle to get the current real estate information and to monitor varying real estate prices. After tokenizing real estate into NFTs, we divide the NFTs into easily accessible price FTs, thereby, we can lower prices and provide large liquidity with price volatility limited. In addition, we also implemented BL based asset portfolio interface for effective portfolio composition for investing in multiple of real estates with small investments. Using BL model, investors can fix the asset portfolio. We implemented the whole system using Solidity smart contracts on Flask web framework with public data portals as oracle interfaces.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.61-118
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• 2008

The purpose of this research is to construct research framework for international franchising based on existing literature and to identify research components in the framework. Franchise can be defined as management styles that allow franchisee use various management assets of franchisor in order to make or sell product or service. It can be divided into product distribution franchise that is designed to sell products and business format franchise that is designed for running it as business whatever its form is. International franchising can be defined as a way of internationalization of franchisor to foreign country by providing its business format or package to franchisee of host country. International franchising is growing fast for last four decades but academic research on this is quite limited. Especially in Korea, research about international franchising is carried out on by case study format with single case or empirical study format with survey based on domestic franchise theory. Therefore, this paper tries to review existing literature on international franchising research, providing research framework, and then stimulating new research on this field. International franchising research components include motives and environmental factors for decision of expanding to international franchising, entrance modes and development plan for international franchising, contracts and management strategy of international franchising, and various performance measures from different perspectives. First, motives of international franchising are fee collection from franchisee. Also it provides easier way to expanding to foreign country. The other motives including increase total sales volume, occupying better strategic position, getting quality resources, and improving efficiency. Environmental factors that facilitating international franchising encompasses economic condition, trend, and legal or political factors in host and/or home countries. In addition, control power and risk management capability of franchisor plays critical role in successful franchising contract. Final decision to enter foreign country via franchising is determined by numerous factors like history, size, growth, competitiveness, management system, bonding capability, industry characteristics of franchisor. After deciding to enter into foreign country, franchisor needs to set entrance modes of international franchising. Within contractual mode, there are master franchising and area developing franchising, licensing, direct franchising, and joint venture. Theories about entrance mode selection contain concepts of efficiency, knowledge-based approach, competence-based approach, agent theory, and governance cost. The next step after entrance decision is operation strategy. Operation strategy starts with selecting a target city and a target country for franchising. In order to finding, screening targets, franchisor needs to collect information about candidates. Critical information includes brand patent, commercial laws, regulations, market conditions, country risk, and industry analysis. After selecting a target city in target country, franchisor needs to select franchisee, in other word, partner. The first important criteria for selecting partners are financial credibility and capability, possession of real estate. And cultural similarity and knowledge about franchisor and/or home country are also recognized as critical criteria. The most important element in operating strategy is legal document between franchisor and franchisee with home and host countries. Terms and conditions in legal documents give objective information about characteristics of franchising agreement for academic research. Legal documents have definitions of terminology, territory and exclusivity, agreement of term, initial fee, continuing fees, clearing currency, and rights about sub-franchising. Also, legal documents could have terms about softer elements like training program and operation manual. And harder elements like law competent court and terms of expiration. Next element in operating strategy is about product and service. Especially for business format franchising, product/service deliverable, benefit communicators, system identifiers (architectural features), and format facilitators are listed for product/service strategic elements. Another important decision on product/service is standardization vs. customization. The rationale behind standardization is cost reduction, efficiency, consistency, image congruence, brand awareness, and competitiveness on price. Also standardization enables large scale R&D and innovative change in management style. Another element in operating strategy is control management. The simple way to control franchise contract is relying on legal terms, contractual control system. There are other control systems, administrative control system and ethical control system. Contractual control system is a coercive source of power, but franchisor usually doesn't want to use legal power since it doesn't help to build up positive relationship. Instead, self-regulation is widely used. Administrative control system uses control mechanism from ordinary work relationship. Its main component is supporting activities to franchisee and communication method. For example, franchisor provides advertising, training, manual, and delivery, then franchisee follows franchisor's direction. Another component is building franchisor's brand power. The last research element is performance factor of international franchising. Performance elements can be divided into franchisor's performance and franchisee's performance. The conceptual performance measures of franchisor are simple but not easy to obtain objectively. They are profit, sale, cost, experience, and brand power. The performance measures of franchisee are mostly about benefits of host country. They contain small business development, promotion of employment, introduction of new business model, and level up technology status. There are indirect benefits, like increase of tax, refinement of corporate citizenship, regional economic clustering, and improvement of international balance. In addition to those, host country gets socio-cultural change other than economic effects. It includes demographic change, social trend, customer value change, social communication, and social globalization. Sometimes it is called as westernization or McDonaldization of society. In addition, the paper reviews on theories that have been frequently applied to international franchising research, such as agent theory, resource-based view, transaction cost theory, organizational learning theory, and international expansion theories. Resource based theory is used in strategic decision based on resources, like decision about entrance and cooperation depending on resources of franchisee and franchisor. Transaction cost theory can be applied in determination of mutual trust or satisfaction of franchising players. Agent theory tries to explain strategic decision for reducing problem caused by utilizing agent, for example research on control system in franchising agreements. Organizational Learning theory is relatively new in franchising research. It assumes organization tries to maximize performance and learning of organization. In addition, Internalization theory advocates strategic decision of direct investment for removing inefficiency of market transaction and is applied in research on terms of contract. And oligopolistic competition theory is used to explain various entry modes for international expansion. Competency theory support strategic decision of utilizing key competitive advantage. Furthermore, research methodologies including qualitative and quantitative methodologies are suggested for more rigorous international franchising research. Quantitative research needs more real data other than survey data which is usually respondent's judgment. In order to verify theory more rigorously, research based on real data is essential. However, real quantitative data is quite hard to get. The qualitative research other than single case study is also highly recommended. Since international franchising has limited number of applications, scientific research based on grounded theory and ethnography study can be used. Scientific case study is differentiated with single case study on its data collection method and analysis method. The key concept is triangulation in measurement, logical coding and comparison. Finally, it provides overall research direction for international franchising after summarizing research trend in Korea. International franchising research in Korea has two different types, one is for studying Korean franchisor going overseas and the other is for Korean franchisee of foreign franchisor. Among research on Korean franchisor, two common patterns are observed. First of all, they usually deal with success story of one franchisor. The other common pattern is that they focus on same industry and country. Therefore, international franchise research needs to extend their focus to broader subjects with scientific research methodology as well as development of new theory.