• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.39-57
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• 2012

The unabated influx of micro businesses has turned the Korean retailing market to a rat race, which causes severe financial distress for micro business owners due to heavy competition. The woes of these micro business owner's are exacerbated by the presence of large scale distributors such as Super Supermarket(SSM) and large discount stores. In summary, the Korean retail market is overburdened an uneconomically viable. Retailing has low barriers to entry which attracts unskilled labor or those with little capital. These start-ups have low opportunity costs since they would make low wages elsewhere in the economy. Thus, these owners are content with relatively low returns on their investment. These 'subsistence ventures' are maintained for economical viability rather than economic growth. These 'subsistence ventures' intensifies competition among small-scale businesses. The presence of large retail corporations also aggravates the situation. The recent stagnation of the economy has worsened the retail market in Korea. The overwhelming competition solidifies the coarse structural system and the prolonged economic sluggishness has increased the risk of insolvency for micro business owners. As the economy continues to stagnate, the imminent risk in retailing market will rise up to surface threatening economic stability. More systematic inflows and outflows of retailers are required in order to redress this structural problem. It has been empirically shown that the self-employment rate is high in Korea compared to other OECD countries. To draw the comparison of self-employment rate by industry, Korea shows high rates among transportation, whole sale, retail, education, lodging, and restaurants. In the case of the transportation and education service sectors, this high rate can be explained by the idiosyncratic nature of Korean culture. In the transportation sector, political policies favor private cap service and private freight carriers. In the education service sector, Koreans put particular emphasis on education that leads to many private institutions that outnumber other OECD countries. For these singular reasons, Korea maintains high micro business, self-employed rates particularly in retailing. A comparable nation is Japan, with its similar social, economic, cultural environment among OECD countries. Unlike Korea, Japan has much lower rates of micro business which continues to decrease. Also Korean retailers are much more destitute than Japanese. The fundamental problem of Korean retailing is the involuntary exit of these 'subsistence ventures,' micro businesses with low margins, in which a small drop in demand can lead to financial difficulties for the owner. This problem will be exacerbated when Korean babyboomers retire and join the micro business ventures. The first priority in order to cope with the severity of oversupply in retailing is to provide better opportunities for the potential self-employers. There should be viable alternatives to subsistent ventures. Strengthening the retirement program, scrutiny of exit process, reconfiguration of policy funds are the recommendations.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.210-223
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• 2023

This study developed elementary and middle school career education programs linked to science subjects and local natural resources, and explored learning effects and implications for developing and operating career programs. In order to achieve the research purpose, a 10-hour career education program using local natural and social resources was developed and applied to 25 elementary and middle school students in rural areas. As a result of the study, most of the elementary and middle school students who participated in this study were not well aware of the natural and social resource value of the area where they lived. Therefore, when developing and operating a regional-based career education program for elementary and middle school students in rural areas, it is necessary to operate a separate teaching/learning activity time so that students can fully know the natural and social information and resource values of the region. In addition, in order to enhance students' participation and interest in career education programs, it is necessary to organize the operation of the program in groups, not individuals, and to guide students in detail by dividing the program's performance process into several sub-steps. Finally, the core material of regional-linked career education-related programs focused more on their own content, that is, agricultural products grown by parents, and future job settings were higher in start-ups that directly operate companies such as travel agencies and manufacturing companies. Given the recent emphasis on career education in the curriculum, it is suggested that local students should pay more attention to finding materials with local resource value in the field of geoscience, which is closely related to natural resources, and developing and operating them as career education programs linked to local resources.