• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.154-171
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• 2006

By comparing to Chinese American banks, this research shows the uniqueness of Korean American banks. This article argues that instead of the cultural attributes and/or informal financial institutions, formal financial institutions, such as the ethnic banks studied here, are responsible for the business success of Asians abroad. However, ethnic banks have different development trajectories depending on their respective ethnic communities. Korean American banks are notably different from Chinese American banks in terms of growth, profitability, and banking strategies. Although both ethnic banks exercise relationship banking strategies in their loan portfolios, their deposit compositions are very different and cause significant differences in financial performance. The focus on business loans and high rates of non-interest deposits allow for higher growth rates in Korean American banks. Therefore, relationship banking does not adequately explain the differences of ethnic banks. This research attempts to understand the underlying factors in choosing banking strategies by mainly focusing on the unique examples found in Korean and Chinese immigrant societies. For Chinese Americans, the heterogeneity of their population composition and foreign influence dominate their bank structures. On the other hand, Korean American homogeneity and business orientation are distinctly different. The influence of Korean capital is not significant when compared to overseas Chinese capital.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.461-480
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• 2007

The purpose of this study is to investigated and differences per lifestyle type according to characteristics of participation in eco-tourism by classifying lifestyle types of university student consumers. Also, the influences exerted on characteristics of participation in eco-tourism by the variables of demographical characteristics, lifestyle types and characteristics of eco-tourism were analyzed. The results indicated by the research can be summarized as follows. First, significant differences were found in terms of sociability inclination factors and leisure inclination factors. In other words, the group of people who had participated in eco-tourism were more of sociability-inclined and leisure-inclined lifestyle types than the group of people who had not participated in eco-tourism. Second, logistic analysis on the types of influences exerted on participation in eco-tourism by demographical characteristics, characteristics of eco-tourism and lifestyle types, it was found that significant influences were exerted by such variables of propensity of learning in eco-tourism, leisure inclination factors and school year. Third, regression analysis on the types of influences exerted on intention to participate in eco-tourism by demographical characteristics, characteristics of eco-tourism and lifestyle types, propensity of awareness on eco-tourism, tendency of preferring eco-tourism, sociability inclination factors and progress inclination factors were selected as significant variables.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.355-373
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• 2015

In this study the factors of fire damage are analyzed through previous research reviews. Local environmental factors as well as those factors attributed to fire damage (number of fire events, number of injured, number of death, economic loss) were selected to compose mutual relationship model. In order to verify this relationship model, official statistics concerning fire damage were collected from 228 local governments and compared with results from previous research. As a result of this comparison four dependent variables and 22 independent variables that affect fire damage were analyzed. Independent variables are divided into human vulnerability factors, physical vulnerability factors, economic vulnerability factors, mitigating factors and local characteristics. To analyze a relationship between selected dependent variables and independent variables, we applied a semi-logarithm model and performed regression analysis. Among the 22 independent variables, the number of the weak to disaster, social welfare service workers, workers in manufacturing industry, and the number of workers in restaurants and bars per 10,000 people show the significant correlation with the number of fire incidence. The number of death from fire is significantly related to two variables which are the number of social welfare service workers per 10,000 and the ratio of commercial area. Damage cost is significantly dependent on the property taxes per 10,000 people. These factors were included in the research model as vulnerability factors (human, physical, economic) and mitigating factors and local characteristics, and the validity of research model was verified. The result could contribute to fire-fighting resource allocation in Korea or they can be utilized in establishing fire prevention policy, which will enhance the national level of fire safety.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.356-381
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• 2001

This study has three objectives. One of them is to debate on the incompatible Neo-Malthusianism and Comucopianism, which give us a comparative gauge for analysis of the population elements in Korea and Japan. The other is to investigate how a variety of population elements are related to specific regions, Korea and Japan. And the last is to compare and analyze the residential preference pattems and the degree of care for the future life for the aged over 50 ages. Various elements in population show that Japan is of type superior to Korea, and that the gap between two countries is getting narrow every year. Wiber's migration expectancy is much higher in Kwangiu-si and Chollanam-do than in Hiroshima-ken. Burial customs in funeral ceremony has been vanished in Japan, but only 30 percents in Korea is crematory. This burial customs being much stiff existent in Korea, the effect of the population decrease caused by the death is reduced. A case study through questionnaire on the residential preference patterns for the aged over 50 years old shows that Japanese than Korean are more dependent on their sons and daughters, and ‘loneliness of solitary life’is the first reason in both countries. The degree of care for the future life is also remarkably higher in Japanese than in Korean. These are related in various ways to their ages, scholarships and local areas(si or gun). A general cognition in which the shortage of labour forces comes into existence in aged society is of misconception, because it comes from taking labour forces away from the aged, not from being old society. Even a minute population change is worth notice since the inertia law is also applied to the population phenomenon. Malthusinism hold fairly good even now, and the notion is very important in which population, resources and environmental problems are no longer personal or a regional matters, but the global family's issues.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.307-326
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• 2003

In Korea, as the state has played a vital role for industrial development, the location and development of industrial complexes have not been merely decided by economic factors but political and social factors as well. The location of industrial complexes in Chonbuk province has not been decided by industrial enterprises to be located there, but by investment strategies of the state. In the early stage of industrialization, Chonbuk could not attract a large-scale major complex because it had relatively inferior infrastructure for industry and uneasy access to overseas export markets, as compared to the capital region or the Southeast region of the country, and it has been left behind as a periphery in the national industrial system. Since 1980, the spatial policies for lessening regional disparities had much contributed to the development of industrial complexes in this province. The industrial complexes leading to the development of manufacturing activities in this region have also great influenced on structural changes of manufacturing as well as changes in the structure of the regional economy. Especially, capital goods manufacturing tends to increase in this region as the development of sectors required relative higher skill and technology mainly occurs in these complexes. And where the large-scale industrial complexes are located greatly influences the locational patterns of manufacturing in this province. The patterns of the industrial complexes in this region have concentrated in Chonju, Iksan, and Kusan, which are the largest cities in this province. Given these three cities to be very closely proximate, it seems to be easy to build network between them to develop the manufacturing activities in the near future.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.447-465
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• 2004

This paper is to analyze citizens' consciousness on urban changes, especially focusing on changes in urban environment, spatial structure, and urban planning, of large cities in S. Korea, that is, Seoul, Daejeon, Daegu, and Kwangju in the 1990s. Some significant points can be described as follows. First. The most important factor influencing on the change of urban spatial structure was the expansion of residential area inner and outside of cities promoted by the traditional construction industry, and not development of high-tech industries and their complex or location of multi-national firms which can be emphasized as major factors of new urbanization process of global cities. Secondly, citizens seem to have experienced improvement and deterioration of urban environment simultaneously, emphasizing regulatory environmental policy on the one hand, and recognize the necessity of sustainable urban development within given environmental capacity and restoration of destructed and polluted environment of cities. Thirdly, the building boom of new apartment complex was a major driving force of changing urban spatial structure, but it could neither alleviate a residential gap between the poor and the rich areas nor a relief of traffic congestion. Finally, the urban policy in general was felt somewhat improved by citizens, but not in sectoral details.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.83-100
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• 2005

The Seoul Metropolitan Area's economy has undergone structural changes since the 1990s. With recent structural changes in the Korean economy in mind, this paper employs a decomposition analysis of Gross Regional Domestic Product per head and labor productivity to examine how the region's economic performance has changed relative to that of Korea since the 1900s. There are some findings. First, a strong cumulative causation process, derived from industrial linkages and agglomeration effects, has oocurred in the Seoul Metropolitan Area, widening economic disparities between the Seoul Metropolitan Area and the other regions especially since the Korean financial crisis in 1997 mainly due to Gyeonggi province's overwhelming cumulative GRDP growth relative to the national average. Second, the Seoul Metropolitan Area has begun w display good economic performance in terms of labour productivity relative w the national average since the late 1990s, with the region's industrial upgrading being implemented. Finally, manufacturing, financial intermediation and communications have made sensitive contributions to relative Seoul Metropolitan Area's labor productivity growth.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.534-549
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• 2012

This study analyzed the effects of housing wealth on the balance accounts of elderly households with an age of over 60 facing the asset decumulation period, capitalizing upon an ordered logit model for the 2011 household finance survey data. Out of some variables representing personal and social characteristics, the age and waged worker variables had a positive effect, but the number of household, low education level, living in the apartment and capital region variables negatively affected the balance accounts of elderly households. Some variables reflecting economic wealth and financial strategies such as the attitude of risk-taking, ordinary income and the ratio of financial assets had a positive impact, but other variables such as DSR did a negative one on the balance accounts of the elderly households. The ownership of housing wealth variable positively, but the ratio of housing assets variable negatively affected the balance accounts of the elderly households, which could be derived from the duality of housing as both consumption goods and assets. However, the ownership of other real estates and the ratio of them in the total assets variables had a negative impact on the balance accounts of the elderly households. Furthermore, since the financial asset-debt ratio worsened the balance accounts of the elderly households with both housing and other real estates, it is implied that the purchase of real estates with excessive bank loans could make them dangerous.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.297-309
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• 2012

This study examines how East Asia is represented in US World Geography textbooks and what kind of cultural and political epistemological frameworks are embedded in those representation focused on China and Japan. For this, four World Geography textbooks that widely used in public middle school throughout the State of Connecticut are selected as the major units of analysis and analyzed using content analysis. The results are as follows. First, The textbooks have the cultural epistemological framework that East Asia are portrayed not only as homegenous and static world but also as exotic world whose mode of life is quite different from that the West. Second, China are represented as having more traditional and negative images, whereas Japan are portrayed as receiving more modern and positive images in the textbooks. This difference is caused by the relationship between the U.S. and them and imply that the epistemological framework on East Asia of American can change according to the relationship between the U.S. and East Asia. Third, the textbooks seem to be dominated by colonialism epistemological framework that emphasize hierarchical order between the U.S. and East Asia and omit East Asian countries' contribution to global cultures and economies as political epistemological framework. These findings suggest the need to investigate the epistemological frameworks underlying World Geography textbooks used Korean classroom about neighbor Asia or non-Western societies.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.43-70
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• 1998

The purpose of this study is to analyze the locational characteristics and viabilities of township enterprises in Yan bian korean ethnic autonomous district. From the late of 1970s, Chinese township enterprises have heavily contributed to the rapid economic development in China, to alleviating the rural, surplus labor, and to reducing the dispa rity between urban and rural in term of socio-economic condition. From the late 1980s Chinese township enterprises in Yan bian korean ethnic autonomous district have rapidly developed in urban areas and also in the places that were easily accessed into main cities. The locational characteristics implied the management characteristics that attempted to solve the lack of capital and technique, and marketing difficulties through the existed firms in urban areas rather than the accessibility of the market. Chinese township enterprises in Yan bian korean ethnic autonomous district utilized locally available low wage labors of legal agrarian(nung-min-gung) to compete the large firms in urban areas. Township governments positively affected the development of the enterprise in the early stage: while, in the latter stage, they limited the autonomous management. If the economic ,system in China would be changed into the capital in the future, the institution should at low to the maximum autonomous management of township enterprises.