• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.233-240
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• 1998

The main objective of this study was to develop a basic information base on Chinese consumers related to clothing purchases. Previous studies on Chinese consumers were extensively reviewed and in-depth interviews were conducted with 12 middle-level managers at Korean apparel companies which market their merchandises in China. Combined results from the reviews on previous studies and interviews indicated that traditional values, communism and industrialization are the major forces which shape contemporary Chinese consumers. Industrialization, in particular, accompanied by influx of western culture and economic development, has resulted in wide-spread phenomenon of conspicuous consumption. Thus, brand and brand images appeared to be the most important considerations for purchasing imported apparels. In addition, diversity of Chinese consumers and geographical differences were emphasized, which indicated need for market segmentation. Other characteristics including body measurements also provided implications for fashion marketing in China.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.158-175
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• 2001

The purpose of this study was to understand and improve the clothing habits and the apparel industry of North Korea in preparation for the reunification of South and North Korea. For this study, literary data, reports, periodicals, interviews and internet data of the two Koreas were reviewed. North Korean clothing habits used to be monotonous and uniform but nowadays people's clothes have become somewhat brighter in color and more diverse in design than before. In particular, liberal and individual dressing habits appeared among the privileged classes. When taking part in national events, women have to wear the traditional Korean costume, Hanbok, while men wear business suits for formal wear. In general, men don't wear Hanbok. Students have to be in uniforms but blue jeans, T-shirts with English logos were popular among them reflecting their sensitivity and openness towards western cultures. The brides usually wear pink Hanboks and the bridegrooms wear black business suits for their wedding. North Koreans also wear Hanbok on national holidays like South Koreans. Clothing is the most important item in the trade of process commission between North and South Korea. Trading items are mid to low end men's clothing for the most part due to less emphasis on fashion in the North. The processing is indirect trade and composed of sample making and contracting, sending out materials and production, carrying in goods and setting accounts. To activate South-North trade, establishment of infrastructure, stabilization of shipping, reducing high costs of distribution, building direct communication system by setting up office in a neutral zone and simplifying procedures in applying for the South and North Korea Economic Cooperation Fund. On the other hand, clothing and textiles education is carried on at art colleges, light industries colleges and commercial colleges in Pyongyang. Clothing institutes which study Hanbok and Western clothes, are installed in each city and province. Graduates who majored in clothing and textiles are posted in institutes or apparel factories. Their job is designing, patternmaking and sewing for their customers. Most of them are women and in good state of economic conditions. The North Korean clothing industry has been the core national industry that has developed based on overseas demand form the mid 1980s. The standard is that of South Korea in the early 1980s. In 1999, trade of North Korean textile products with trade counterparts such as Japan and China was $1.3 million in exports and $1.27 in imports. Of this amount the export takes up 25.4% of the total exports in North Korea. However, fundamentally even in sectors that are irrelevant to politics such as the fashion clothing industry, trust between the South and North should be a prerequisite. Only through this can exchange between North and South and economic cooperation contribute towards the reunification.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.141-153
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• 1999

To be successful, Korean exporters must understand how importers identify and select suppliers. This empirically based study investigate Korean exporter\`s perceptions of the supply selection criteria and information sources in US importers use. The specific purposes of this study were to identify the importance of the supply selection criteria and information sources and to examine the effects of the amount of export on the supply selection criteria and information sources in US importer use. For this study, data were obtained from Korean exporters by means of self-administered questionnaires. The questionnaires consisted of a series of statements covering a broad of specific selection criteria and information sources and exports\` characteristics including average annual amount of export. Using a base of 312 exporters, data were analysed by using mean, one-way ANOVA, and Ducan test. Major findings if this study summarized as follows; 1) Korean exporters perceived that US importers would place importances on product price, deliverly reliability, product wordsmanship-quality, and length of deliverly lead-time, in orders. Also, the more amount of export was, the higher product wordsmanship-quality, availability of piece goods and trims, and communication channel were importantly rate. 2) Korean exporters considered the third party sources, such as recommendation from trade association and buying office and import agency, as the most important information source in US importer use. Also, There was tendency that the more amount of export was, the more information sources on suppliers was importantly evaluated. From this study, several recommendation were suggested forward to encourage export in international apparel market.

• Analyses & Alternatives
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.5-29
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• 2018

Models of South-North Korean economic integration have the problem of circular reasoning. While many studies argue that South-North Korean economic integration would contribute to alleviate security risks in the Korean peninsular, they emphasize the success of any economic model of inter-Korean economic integration is subject to favorable geo-political and security environment. It is a failure in distinguishing between goals and constraints. After identifying three major goals of South-North Korean economic cooperation, this study shows the trilemma among the goals; they are 1) formation of a complete economic community, 2) maintaining independent sovereignty of the two Koreas, 3) promotion of mutual economic interests. The trilemma suggests that it is theoretically impossible to achieve the above three goals at the same time. Only two goals are achievable simultaneously. This study argues that the most practical option is to pursue the combination of goals 2) and 3) considering the complex political and security environment around the Korean peninsular. Recognizing that North Korea is the least developed country in the Northeast Asia region, South Korea's initiatives for inter-Korean economic cooperation should focus on assisting industrialization and integration of the North Korea economy into the Northeast Asian regional production sharing structure. In view of the 'flying geese model' of the sequential industrialization in the region, the least developed economic status of North Korea can partially be explained by its failure to participate in the production network in the region as well as lack of effective implementation of appropriate industrial policy. Therefore, promotion of industrialization of North Korea should be the immediate goal of economic cooperation between North and South Korea. It is an interesting fact that North Korea has rapidly expanded its apparel exports in recent years. It could mean that the North Korean economy is actively responding to the dynamics of international comparative advantage structure, although the production activities are limited to exports to China since the closure of the Gaesung Industrial Complex. The recent increase in apparel export is a starting point for incorporating the Easy Import Substitution fulfilling both domestic and neighboring regional demand of North Korea. It could help integrate North Korea's industry into the production network of Northeast Asia. An immediate policy implication is that the economic cooperation between the two Koreas should focus on facilitating this process and supporting North Korea's industrial policy through South Korea's contribution of capital, technology, and service intermediary inputs.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.28 no.910
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• pp.1341-1350
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• 2004

With the advent of the globalization trend of the industry, the enterprises in the fashion industry around the world have witnessed a surge in exports and foreign direct investment (FDI). Many fashion enterprises in each country, along with the multi-national enterprises, have engaged in global outsourcing of the production process in order to increase their global competitiveness, and have attempted to expand their commercial presence in the world market by entering into other foreign markets. Such market entry attempts have lead to the increase of FDI and trade by the fashion enterprises. This study attempts to examine the interactive relation between FDI and export/import of fashion products in different fashion industries both worldwide and in Korea. First, we will look into the relation between export/imports and FDI of each regional fashion industry, then expand the study to the relation between those two factors found in the fashion industry of Korea in general, and finally, to the relation between the two factors in the fashion industry of countries that are the major export nations of fashion goods into Korea. The data which this study is based on were collected from the International Trade Statistics Yearbook Vol. II (UN, 1991-2002, New York: UN), UNCTAD Handbook of Statistics (UN, 1996-2001, Vienna: UN), UNCTAD database, the archives of the Korea Federation of Textile Industry and the archives of the Export-Import Bank of Korea. The methods of analysis used in this study were correlation, regression, and descriptive statistics of the data. The result of this study showed that each fashion industry of different regions was subject to a diversity of effects. For one, the fashion industry in Korea showed a significant correlation between outbound investment and both export and import. On the other hand, the apparel industry in Korea showed a significant correlation between outbound investment and imports, but no such correlation between outbound investment and exports.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.313-336
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• 2020

In this paper, I review evidence on changing global specialization in labor-intensive exporting. Production of apparel, footwear, furniture, and related products are how many low-income countries first enter export manufacturing. Just as China's rise as a powerhouse in these goods supplanted a role previously occupied by the East Asian Tigers, the world may again be on the cusp of significant change in where labor-intensive goods are produced. China's prowess in these sectors peaked in the early 2010s; its share in their global exports, while still substantial, is now in decline. Mechanisms through which the global economy may adjust to China's graduation into more technologically sophisticated activities include expanded labor-intensive export production in other emerging economies and labor-saving technological change in products currently heavily reliant on less-educated labor. Available evidence suggests that the first mechanism is operating slowly and the second hardly at all. As a third mechanism, China may in part replace itself by moving labor-heavy factories out of densely populated and expensive coastal cities and into the country's interior. Such a transition, though still in its infancy, would mirror the decentralization of manufacturing production in the U.S. and Europe, which occurred after World War II.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.169-190
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• 2023

Uzbekistan, one of the top five cotton-producing countries in the world, primarily focuses its textile and fashion industry on raw cotton exports and the sewing industry. For Uzbekistan to achieve high added value, it is essential for the textile and fashion industry, which is currently at the CMT(cut, make, and trim) stage, to upgrade to OEM (original equipment manufacturing), ODM (original design manufacturing), and OBM (original brand manufacturing). South Korea recognizes Uzbekistan as a potential manufacturing base and trading partner and has invested Official Development Assistance (ODA) funds for the development of Uzbekistan's textiles and apparel sector. This study aims to evaluate Uzbekistan's fashion higher education in the context of global competitiveness and measure the need and prospects for education ODA from the Korean government in this field. Comprehensive investigations, including surveys of academics, industry experts, and government officials, in-depth interviews, and focus group interviews, were conducted to understand Uzbekistan's current fashion education environment. According to the research results, despite the textile and fashion sectors playing a pivotal role in the Uzbek economy, there is room for improvement in the curricula and teaching and learning methods of the fashion higher education programs. This study holds significance as foundational data for establishing education ODA strategies.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.347-353
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• 2014

The purpose of this research was to present the possibility of an alternative production base for clothing business of South Korea through the analysis about textile/clothing industry production activities in the Gaeseong industrial complex. It is necessary for the Gaeseong industrial complex to cope with the issue about FTA and country of origin, manpower supply and demand, paying wages and labor productivity, the exclusive industrial complex of clothing. The Country of Origin on imports and exports tells the country of manufacture or production, where the product comes from. Rules of Origin are the special regulations to determine the country of origin of a product and exist in the forms of international law, legislation, precedent and administrative decisions. But the economy in the North and the Gaeseong industrial complex is a comparative advantage combined with elements of North-South interdependence as a South-North economic cooperation business and can contribute significantly to the stabilization of the North-South relations. Among the models using criteria of the determination of origin, it has directly provided the models of general regulation for offshore products, of limited offshore products. These models are to help Korean exporters in understanding and utilizing the Rules of Origin for their manufacturing. In addition, the development of the Gaeseong industrial complex will contribute to establish peace on the Korean peninsula as well as in Northeast Asia. Also economic cooperation between South and North Koreas is essential for peace and prosperity of the Korean people.