Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to look into some alternative for Korean shipping to overcome difficult situations in shipping, since then it is economic crisis at the end of 2000s. Research design, data, and methodology - The research method to be adopted is first to review theoretical overview about shipping cycle, and then examine difficult shipping situations and studies management aspect, which is to related to establishment of Korea Shipping Council. Results - The boom and bust situations in shipping market have been identified as result of economic crisis at the end of 2000s. Trade volumes have fallen and shipping tonnage has risen respectively. In practical terms, shipping industry has suffered from difficult situations, following to supply and demand of shipping market, and Korean shipping had to face hard time as well, according to lack of management ability of shipping company. Alternatively, it should be asked shipping forum like Korea Shipping Council. Conclusions - From situations of shipping markets since the end of 2000s, it is strongly asked that every parties got involved in shipping business should understand and share more expertise and knowledge of shipping market, which is finally related to decision- making process in shipping.

Purpose - This paper aims to explore the distribution and application of community-based disaster risk information and employ a case study as a qualitative research method to make some implications and suggestions for disaster management in the future. Research design, data, and methodology - This research has basically adopted an idiographic approaches to examine the basic policy of integrated flood risk management of Shiga prefecture in Japan. The methodology is based on a retrospective analysis, which starts from critical events and traces backwards processes to find out what goes well or wrong. Results - The results of this paper support that the multiple stakeholders in a community have to share and distribute disaster risk information in the proper time. The distribution and application of community-based disaster risk information cannot be overemphasized in that the local communities are culturally rich in traditional flood management knowledge, have voluntary organizations and have enjoyed mutual support and human network to cope with floods. Conclusions - The study results also imply that local residents of the community will be abe to have an important role in coping with natural disasters, which involves more proactive actions than passive actions for the enhancement of disaster management.

Purpose - Although marketing networks are crucial competitive advantage in terms of firm's new information and resource acquisition ability, their impact on new product development performance remains vague, especially under environmental uncertainty. The principal objective of this research is to provide a better understanding of effects of technological uncertainty and volume uncertainty on first tier supplier's perceived performance of new product development under conditions reflecting varying levels of structural holes. Specifically, this research examines the moderating effect of structural holes on the relationship between environmental uncertainty and new product development performance. Research design, data, and methodology - To test the hypotheses, a questionnaire survey was conducted with a Korean engineering firm's major first-tier suppliers in the context of internal network entities, manufacturer-supplier-subsupplier relationships, and to verify the proposed hypotheses, structural equation modeling was established. Construct measures were based on existing measures and previous research. Results - The survey results indicate that technological uncertainty and volume uncertainty differentially affect NPD performance under conditions of high and low structural holes. Conclusions - This study offer some theoretical and practical implications among distribution channel members, especially, this study suggests that interfirm networks have critical competitive advantage in uncertain environments. The distinctiveness of engineering industry might limit the generalizability of the results. Thus, future research should consider a wider range of industries.

Purpose - There have been not enough studies on the ways customer Moment of Truth(MOT) activities are structured along with consumption chain and their influences as well as the relative influences of service quality at Moment of Truth on customer performance. Therefore, customer service needs needed at Moment of Truth may differ depending on whether these distribution services are at introduction-growth stages or maturity-decline stage already, but there is no study which illustrates this. Research design, data, and methodology - This study selects VoIP and IPTV as the household telecommunication and distribution services at introduction-growth stages as well as high speed internet and wire telephone as those at maturity-decline stages. Then it identifies which experiences that customers have at Moment of Truth by each service as well as the influences related to what the customers consider as important. Results - As the result of demonstration with the target of 858 respondents, customers' experiences and requests differ at Moment of Truth. For service quality, what takes the positive roles in customer performance includes corporeality and certainty for the services at introduction-growth stages as well as reliability, sympathy, and mutuality for those at maturity-decline stages. Conclusions - Implications of these results as well as further directions for study are suggested.

Purpose - Our Research is a study on the competition structure between retailers in traditional markets. Specifically, this study examined the effects of SSM, commodity supply store, Hanaro mart, food mart and other mart in traditional markets on retail stores of small businesses. The purpose of this study is to provide a solution to the market encroachment of large retailers in traditional markets. Research design, data, and methodology - This study is based on the data of 'Market Survey of Traditional Market·Shopping Mall and Store Management in 2016' and 'Current status of SSM(Super SuperMarket), commodity supply store, Hanaro mart, food mart and other mart in the traditional market in 2017' conducted by Small Enterprise and Market Service. In this study, a multiple regression equation was constructed using the number of SSM, commodity supply store, Hanaro mart, food mart and other mart as an independent variable and sales, number of customers as a dependent variable for analysis. Results - The increase of SSM and commodity supply stores in the traditional market affects the sales decrease of the surrounding small merchants in the traditional market. This means that the SSM and commodity supply stores can lead to the decline of the traditional market. However, it has been found that the penetration of these companies in traditional markets does not affect the number of visitors. Second, Hanaro mart's entry into the traditional market has a negative impact on the sales and visitor numbers of the surrounding small-scale merchants. The increase in the number of food mart has a significant effect on the sales and the number of visitors to the small stores. The results of this study indicate that the food mart can contribute to the revitalization of traditional markets. Lastly, other mart with more than medium size were found to affect the sales of small stores, the number of visitors. Conclusions - We examines the competitive structure among retailers in traditional markets. The penetration of large retailers in traditional markets has a negative impact on traditional markets, particularly Hanaro mart has a greater impact than SSM. We provide practical and theoretical implications for the retail competition structure in traditional markets.

Purpose - The exhibition is one of the critical distribution channels that leads to mass sales of products. Servicescape is considered as an effective means facilitating consumers' purchasing behavior. The objective of this research is to examine the effects of servicescape of the exhibition on consumer's purchasing behavior measured by time spent, the number of consultations, the number of items purchased, and amount of money spent. Research design, data, and methodology - Servicescape was divided into four main components: 'spatial layout/functionality', 'ambient condition', 'design/artifacts', and 'human factor'. Based on previous studies, this study hypothesized that servicescape dimensions first influence consumer's shopping duration and the number of consultations which in turn, affects consumer's actual purchase. A total of 407 samples were collected from attendees in Baby Expo taken place in Kyunggido, South Korea. The data were used to assess overall fit of the proposed model and test hypotheses using structural equation modeling. All the constructs had acceptable levels of composite reliability and convergent and discriminant validity. Results - The results showed that except for 'spatial layout/functionality', all components of servicescape had a significant influence on consumer's shopping duration in the exhibition. Except for 'design/artifacts', other factors of servicescape did not show a significant effect on 'the number of consultations'. Interestingly, 'design/artifacts' exerted a significant negative effect on 'the number of consultations'. As expected, 'time spent' and 'number of consultations' showed significant effects on both 'the number of items purchased' and 'amount of money spent'. Conclusions - The results offer some insights into the effect of servicescape on facilitating consumers' purchasing behavior in the context of the exhibition. Theoretically, this study provides a new type of conceptual framework that verifies the relationships between not only servicescape and purchasing behavior, but also purchasing behavior-related variables. In addition, this study supports the concept of a dark side of servicescape. With regards to practical implications, this study suggests that exhibition organizers should put more efforts in facilitating consumer's desire to stay. More importantly, organizers need to keep in mind that excessive emphasis on 'design/artifacts' to increase consumers' shopping duration can cause a side effect that reduces opportunities for interactions with customers.

Purpose - The aim of this study was to analyze the educational needs of distribution company salespeople in core competencies for convergence and their general perception of convergence education. Furthermore, this study provides basic data on core competencies for convergence needed by them. Research design, data, and methodology - A survey was conducted on 104 distribution company salespeople who worked near Seoul, Korea to analyze the perceptions of their educational needs in core competencies for convergence education, according to their socio-demographic characteristics. The socio-demographic characteristics were gender, age, workplace size, education background, work experience and business category. The questionnaire consisted of demographic factors (7 questions), general perception of convergence education (5 questions), perception of importance of core competency for distribution company salespeople (9 questions), and current perception of distribution company salespeople on core competency of convergence workers (9 questions). Park et al.(2014)'s categorization of convergence core competencies was used: Cognitive convergence (creative thinking, critical thinking and understanding of convergence knowledge), convergence performance (problem solving, communications, collaboration and application of convergence tools) and attitude toward convergence (empathy and responsibility). Data was collected through an independent sample of t-tests and a one-way analysis of variance and the Borich Needs Assessment Model was used to identify the educational needs of distribution company salespeople in the core competencies of convergence education. Results- The results show that the subjects recognized the need for convergence education to be high among the general perceptions. The perception scores for workers of different backgrounds only varied according to the size of the business. Moreover, the results of the educational needs analysis and the ranks of the required core competencies of convergence workers by the subjects were as follows: 1. convergence knowledge understanding competency, 2. creative thinking competency, 3. convergence tool application competency, 3. communications competency, 4. problem solving competency, 5. collaboration competency, 6. critical thinking competency, 7. empathy competency, 8. responsibility competency. Conclusions - This study highlights the necessity of developing university curriculum that can nurture the core competencies of conversion education reflecting distribution company salespeople's requests as well as cultivating qualified convergence workers required by distribution company workers.

Purpose - There are many antecedences and consequences of the positive emotions of customers. The purpose of this research is to examine how Chinese service companies improve not only the positive emotions of customers but also the quality of life through effective verbal and nonverbal communication. Furthermore, we tried to analyze the moderating role of negative expectancy disconfirmation perceived by customers in those causal relationships among the variables. Research design, data, and methodology - The eight hypotheses were proposed and we tested them empirically in this research. Four hypotheses were about the relationship among communication, positive emotion, trust and quality of life. The other four hypotheses were about the moderating effect of negative expectancy disconfirmation in the causal relationships among four variables such as communication, positive emotion, trust and quality of life. A total of 356 samples who had visited the service companies in China were surveyed and 8 hypotheses were tested by empirical analysis using SPSS and AMOS. Results - The results of this research are as follows. First, positive verbal communication and nonverbal communication of employees in the service company have a positive effects on the positive emotions of customers. Second, positive emotion has a positive effect on the overall quality of life on the customer side as well as the trust on the corporate side. Third, negative expectancy disconfirmation perceived by customers has negative moderating effect in the causal relationship between employees' positive verbal communication and customers' positive emotion, and it also has a negative moderating role in the causal relationship between customers' positive emotion and overall quality of life. Conclusions - Based on these results, there can be such implications as follows. First, managers and employees of service companies can induce positive emotion of customers through effective communication. Second, service companies should try to improve not only the corporate-side performance like trust but also the customer-side performance like quality of life. Third, it will be significant for them to lower the level of negative expectancy disconfirmation for the purpose of improving not only the positive emotions of customers but also the quality of customers' life.