• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.108 no.3
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• pp.429-439
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• 2019

The objectives of this study were to gauge the extent of the forestry business through establishing the definition of forestry industry from the perspective of economic convergence and to analyze key components that affect each growth phase of a forestry business entity by classifying them. A total of 1,397 "sixth-sector industry" management entities were certified by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs in South Korea from 2012-2017. Of these, 259 (18.5%) were in the forestry sector. In this study, the 259 forestry management entities were further classified into three phases based on sales distribution: entrance, development, and maturity. The entrance phase (<100 million KRW), development phase (>100 million and <1 billion KRW), and maturity phase (>1 billion KRW) constituted 33.2%, 55.4%, and 12.4% of the total 259 entities, respectively. The results showed that most of the management entities were either in the entrance or development phases, and only a small portion was in the maturity phase. To identify the key variables that affect each of the phases, chi-square analysis was used. We designed the "sixth-sector industry" type as an independent variable, whereas selected region, business organization, manager age group, forest product, processing type, and service type were designated as dependent variables. The results of the analysis showed that the processing and service types influenced all three developmental phases. Moreover, as the phase advanced, processing type showed a higher proportion of health-functional ingredients, such as powder or extract from forest products, which enable to develop and produce a variety of products. Service type also changed from simple experience to integrated experience tourism and finally to tourism education. Distribution and sales channel also turned out to be a significant factor during the development phase. This study provides the basic information needed to guide government support in the implementation of a formal forestry business through convergence as well as to increase the efficiency of business management.