• Korea Trade Review
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.95-112
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• 2021

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) signed by the 15 Asian countries in 2020 forms the world's largest free trading bloc. Using data for the period 2001 - 2019, this study evaluates global value chains (GVCs) among the RCEP members, with a primary focus on GVC backward participation which involves imports intermediates embodied in exports. This study finds that the RCEP's intra-regional linkages, particularly with the ASEAN members, are significantly higher than its extra-regional linkages in trade and GVC backward participation. Among the individual RCEP member countries, Korea is found to have a particularly strong intra-regional linkages with the ASEAN members in both trade and GVC participation.

• Asian Journal of Innovation and Policy
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.332-353
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• 2017

This paper highlights how Thailand upgrades its positions in global value chains in high-tech, mid-tech and low-tech industries represented by electronics, automotive and frozen seafood, respectively. In the electronics industry, there are not many capable firms in the upstream segment like semiconductors. Nevertheless, transnational corporations in segment like hard disk drive began to invest in process R&D and collaborate more with local suppliers, universities and public research institutes in human resource and technological development. In the automotive industry, several Japanese car manufacturers such as Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and Isuzu set up R&D/Technical centres in Thailand since 2000s. This prompted Japanese and local part suppliers to also invest more in engineering, design and development activities. Some local universities offer as well engineering programmes specifically targeting the automotive industry. In the frozen seafood industry, several Thai firms have developed new ready-to-eat products, own brands and international distribution networks. They started to become transnational corporations investing in both developing and developed countries.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.103-114
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• 2019

Purpose - This paper investigates the structure of exports across countries in terms of value added. Exports value added is examined under two categories, domestic and overseas. Using a statistical classification method by distance based on these two value added categories, this paper estimates the similarity of exports value added across countries including Korea. Design/methodology - The model of study is to employ a generalized distance function and then derive the Manhattan and Euclidean distances. The paper also performs cluster analysis using the Partitioning Around Medoids (PAM) and hierarchical methods to classify the 44 sample countries considered in this study. Findings - Our main findings are as follows. The 44 countries can be classified under 5 groups by their domestic and overseas value added in exports. Korea has a sandwich global value chains (GVCs) position between Japan, China, and Taiwan in the East Asian region. Originality/value - Existing papers point out the double counting problem of trade statistics as the intermediate goods trade across borders increases. This paper addresses the double counting problem by using the World Input-Output Table. The paper shows the need to explore the similarity of value added in exports structure across countries and investigate the GVCs position and role of each country.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.113-136
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• 2023

Purpose - Global production chains and their impacts on economic growth have drawn extensive attention from researchers. Close relationships among global production chains, export and economic growth have been illuminated, as evidenced by the fast and stable economic growth of East Asian economies. These economies perform various roles within global production chains using offshoring, in which the impact of import on domestic gross output is as strong as that of export. The impact of import on economic growth would depend on whether imported inputs substitute or complement domestic inputs production, which is likely to vary according to individual countries' functions within global production chains. The economic growth of concerned countries would also be diverse. However, little attention has been paid to the impact brought by imports compared to its significance. Design/methodology - The principal methodology used in this paper is structural decomposition analysis (SDA), widely chosen to elucidate the impact of various factors on domestic gross output using input-output tables. This paper extracts trade data of six Asian economies from the World Input-Output Database (WIOD) 2016 release that covers 43 countries for the period 2000-2014. The extracted data is then categorised into 37 sectors. First, this paper calculates the Feenstra-Hanson Offshoring Index (OSI) of each country. It then applies SDA to measure the changes in each economy's gross output, export, import input coefficients, and domestic input coefficients. Finally, after taking the first difference from pooled time-series data, it estimates the correlations between imported input coefficients and OSI using the ordinary least square (OLS) method. Findings - The main findings of this paper can be summarised as follows. Firstly, all six countries have increasingly engaged in global production chains, as evidenced by the growing size of OSI. Secondly, there are negative correlations in five countries except Japan, with sectoral differences. Thirdly, changes in import input coefficients are not negative in all six countries, indicating that offshoring does not necessarily substitute for domestic inputs production but does complement it and, therefore, fosters their economic growth. This is observed in China, Indonesia, Korea and Taiwan. Offshoring has led to an increase in the use of imported inputs, which has, in turn, stimulated domestic inputs production in these countries. Originality/value - While existing studies focus on the role of export in evaluating the impact of participating global production chains, this paper explicitly examines the unexplored impact of import on domestic gross output by considering both the substitution and the complementary effect, using the WIOD. The findings of this paper suggest that Asian economies have achieved fast and stable economic growth not only through successful export management but also through effective import management within global production chains. This paper recommends that the Korean government and enterprises carefully choose offshoring strategies to minimise disruption to domestic production chains or foster them.

• The Journal of Society for e-Business Studies
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.147-162
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• 2010

East Asian region, specifically China, Japan, and Korea, is considered as an area of advanced mobile handsets and mobile services. The well-established infrastructure of this region is well known due to rapid introduction of diverse feature-equipped handsets and advanced capabilities of mobile network operators. However, the status of mobile business has rarely been dealt with in previous studies. In this paper, we compare mobile value chains among these three countries. China has adopted open platform for mobile data services while Korea and Japan's mobile network operators control mobile portals for accessing diverse contents and services. We also discuss some possible reasons for the differences among the three countries in terms of value chain structures.

• Asian Journal of Innovation and Policy
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.116-128
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• 2016

Value chain analysis has been applied in various fields, from the time the concept of “value chain” was introduced by Porter in 1985. Several frameworks have emerged and have been used to study individual firms, entire industries, industry clusters, as well as global production networks. The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief review of these frameworks, identify factors that influence the performance of value chains, and suggest areas for future research. Since there is a wide range of value chain literature, this paper focuses on a selective set of earlier works within the value chain model as conceptualized by Porter. The study takes note of the many dimensions and applications of value chain analysis, and shows that value chain analysis is an effective way to examine the interaction among different players in a given industry. The study further points out the shortcomings of the traditional or Porter view of value chain analysis.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.381-408
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• 2015

This paper investigates a link between the significant decline in the growth of domestic demand and the dampened ripple effects from the export sector in Korea since the East Asian financial crisis. The dampened ripple effects are closely linked to the changed investment behaviors of the Korean large-sized exporting firms since the crisis: they do not invest in their export earnings any more to create new industries; they tend to use more foreign value added contents for their exports and to increase outward direct investment by actively participating in global value chains. The paper also examines a link between the growth of domestic demand and the growth of household disposable income and presents reasons for the decline in the growth of household disposable income since the East Asian financial crisis.

• Asian Journal of Innovation and Policy
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.133-144
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• 2020

Korean economy has experienced a very rapid growth largely due to the change of the innovation system since the last half century. The recent outbreak of COVID-19 impacts the global economy as well as Korea's innovation system. In order to understand the influence of the shock to the Korean technological system, we have forecast the future of the system combining qualitative and quantitative techniques such as expert panel, cross impact analysis, and scenario planning. According to the results, we have identified 39 driving forces influencing the change of Korea's technological innovation system. Four scenarios have been suggested based on the predetermined factors and core uncertainties. In other words, uncertainties of emergence of the regions and global value chains generate four scenarios: regional growth, unstable hope, returning to the past, and regional conflicts. The 'regional growth' scenario is regarded as the most preferable, whereas the 'regional conflicts' scenario is unavoidable. In conclusion, we put forward some policy implications to boost the regional innovation system by exploiting the weakened global value chains in order to move on to the most preferable scenario away from the return to the past regime.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.427-465
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• 2018

East Asia, for long the epitome of successful engagement in trade, faces serious challenges: technological change that may threaten the very model of labor intensive industrialization and a backlash against globalization that may reduce access to important markets. The analysis in this article suggests that how East Asia copes with these global challenges will depend on how it addresses three more proximate national and regional challenges. The first is the emergence of China as a global trade giant, which is fundamentally altering the trading patterns and opportunities of its neighbors. The second is the asymmetric implementation of national reform - in goods trade and investment versus services - which is affecting the evolution of comparative advantage and productivity in each country. The third is the divergence between the relatively shallow and fragmented agreements that regulate the region's trade and investment and the growing importance of regional and global value chains as crucial drivers of productivity growth.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.389-416
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• 2020

This paper provides empirical evidence on the reorganization of GVCs in East Asia, highlighting that structural trends explain a decrease in the fragmentation of production after 2011 but that it is not the result of rising trade costs along the value chain. Using harmonized inter-country input-output tables, the paper first analyzes the global import intensity of production to document changes in the structure of GVCs. It then calculates theory-consistent bilateral trade costs for intermediate and final products using an approach derived from the gravity literature and introduces a new index of cumulative trade costs along the value chain. These data are used to discuss whether the decrease in global imports is the consequence of shifts in demand, efficiency-enhancing strategies of firms or rising trade costs. Between 2011 and 2016, cumulative trade costs have decreased in East Asian GVCs. However, as COVID-19 is likely to intensify trade and investment uncertainties, trade costs could increase in the future. Policies aimed at reducing uncertainties and preserving the gains from trade and investment liberalization will be key in this new environment.