• Journal of Korea Trade
• /
• v.26 no.3
• /
• pp.23-44
• /
• 2022

Purpose - Recent issues such as vessel enlargement, strengthening of environmental regulations, and port smartization are expected to increase costs and intensify competition in the port industry. In the new normal era, when external growth has reached its limit, the efficient operation of ports is becoming indispensable for achieving sustainable growth. This study aims to identify the determinants of inefficiency by examining the cost structure and efficiency of container terminals in Korea and furthermore propose the political implications to derive the maximization of efficiency. Design/methodology - This study estimates the cost function of container terminal operators and identifies the efficiency of container terminals using stochastic cost frontier (SCF) in the first stage. In the second step, the SCF results are compared with the data envelopment analysis (DEA). Last, this paper proposes efficiency determinants on container terminal operation to establish appropriate strategies. Out of the 29 container terminal operators in South Korea, 13 operators participated in the survey. The translog cost function was estimated utilizing a total of 116 observations collected over the 2007-2017 period. Findings - Empirical analysis shows that economies of scale exist in Korea's container ports, which provides a rationale for the government's policy to establish the global terminal operator by integrating small terminal operators to enhance competitiveness. In addition, as a result of the determinants analysis, container throughput, weight of direct employment costs, and labour cost share have positive effects on improving cost efficiency, while inefficiency increases as the length of quay increases. More specifically, cost efficiency improves as the proportion of direct employment costs to outsourcing service costs increases. Originality/value - This study contributes to analyzing the inefficiency factors of container terminals through efficiency analysis with respect to a cost function. In addition, this study proposes the practical and political implications, such as establishing a long-term manpower pool, the application of the hybrid liner terminal system, and the construction of a statistical data system, to improve the cost inefficiency of terminal operators.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
• /
• 2004.05a
• /
• pp.720-723
• /
• 2004

This study is intended to propose a systematic approach for determining optimum Life-Cycle Cost (LCC)-effective seismic design for continuous PSC bridges considering lifetime expected seismic risks. In the paper, a set of cost function for LCC analysis of bridges is proposed. The total LCC functions consist of initial cost and direct/indirect damage costs considering repair/replacement costs, human losses and property damage costs, road user costs, and indirect socio-economic losses. The damage costs are expressed in terms of Park-Ang median global damage indices (Park and Ang, 1985) and lifetime damage probabilities. The proposed approach is applied to model bridges of both moderate seismicity regions like Korea and high seismicity regions like Japan. Since, in case of bridges, a number of parameters may have an influence on optimal target reliability, various sensitivity analyses are performed in this study. It may be expected that the proposed approach can be effectively utilized for the development of cost-effective performance criteria for design and upgrading of various types of bridges as well as continuous PC bridges.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
• /
• v.51 no.9
• /
• pp.977-986
• /
• 2008

Purpose : This study aims to estimate the financial cost of rotavirus infection in Korea in the year of 2005. Methods : The incidence rates used were from the epidemiological profile at Jeoungeub District (5.8 cases/1,000 children <5 years old for inpatients, and 22.65 cases/1,000 children <5 years old for outpatients, per year). The health care cost per capita of rotavirus infection (ICD code: A08.0) was extracted from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service database in Korea. The patient survey was conducted to capture information about non-medical costs and associated productivity loss incurred by adult caregivers. Results : The number of annual national cases among children <5 years old with rotavirus infection was estimated to be 69,122 (i.e., 55,030 outpatients and 14,092 inpatients). The total cost of rotavirus infection was estimated at 13.3 billion Korean won, comprising 11 billion Korean won (82.7%) of direct medical costs, 1.6 billion Korean won (12.0%) of direct non-medical costs (e.g., transportation and supplies), and 0.68 billion Korean won (5.1%) of productivity lost by adult caregivers. Conclusion : Rotavirus infection carries not only medical costs but also non-medical and indirect costs; together, these costs incur a significant burden on South Korean society. The impact of rotavirus on quality of life and health among patient caregivers was not considered in this study, but it does merit further research.

• Journal of Distribution Research
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.179-222
• /
• 2011

This research investigates the influence of relational characteristics on 'co-defection', customer defection following salesperson turnover, in the context of salesperson-customer relationship. Based on the social exchange theory, it was hypothesized that perceived relational benefits and switching costs affect directly the customer's intentions to defect. Key constructs in relationship marketing such as customer satisfaction, trust, and loyalty were hypothesized to affect the customer's intention to defect as well as perceived relational benefits and switching costs. The results of structural equation modeling using a survey sample of 503 insurance customers who purchased life insurance policies through salespersons unveiled that the customer satisfaction with salesperson and the customer trust in salesperson strongly influence the salesperson-owned customer loyalty. However, they did not have significant direct effects on co-defection intentions. All paths from salesperson-owned customer loyalty to perceived relational benefits and perceived switching costs were also significant. Salesperson-owned customer loyalty did not have significant direct effects on co-defection intentions, but it had significant indirect effects on co-defection intentions through relational benefits and switching costs. Three sub-dimensions of perceived relational benefits had significant positive effects on co-defection intentions while the perceived switching costs had significant negative effects on co-defection intentions. The significance of our research findings were verified by comparing the hypothesized model and the rival model in the past studies.

• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.10 no.5
• /
• pp.19-28
• /
• 2012

The study examines the performance and its relationship with capital structure and agency cost with respect to the industrial configurations and economic groups of Pakistan Economy. The study employs data set of 334 listed joint stock companies from the nonfinancial sectors for the period of 1999-2009 from cotton and textile, engineering, chemical, sugar, cement, fuel and energy, paper and board, transport and communication, and miscellaneous economic groups. Pooled data from the Panel data methodology has been applied to observe the significance of different performance measures through determinant of capital structure and agency costs with special focus on the leverage and cash flows as the direct determinant and interactive variables. The empirical test results using redundant variable tests demonstrate support for agency theory in the context of Pakistan's industrial configurations. The implications of the study point towards more investigations on the subject using industrial configurations as control and moderating variables.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.145-157
• /
• 2024

Purpose - In this study, we propose an empirical model for predicting seasoned equity offering (SEO here after) using machine learning methods. Design/methodology/approach - The models utilize the random forest method based on decision trees that considers non-linear relationships, as well as the gradient boosting tree model. SEOs incur significant direct and indirect costs. Therefore, CEOs' decisions of seasoned equity issuances are made only when the benefits outweigh the costs, which leads to a non-linear relationship between SEOs and a determinant of them. Particularly, a variable related to market timing effectively exhibit such non-linear relations. Findings - To account for these non-linear relationships, we hypothesize that decision tree-based random forest and gradient boosting tree models are more suitable than the linear methodologies due to the non-linear relations. The results of this study support this hypothesis. Research implications or Originality - We expect that our findings can provide meaningful information to investors and policy makers by classifying companies to undergo SEOs.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.235-257
• /
• 2001

As in other Asian countries, the Korean government provides direct subsidies to endeavors that are potentially harmful to the environment. The water sector is one of the main recipients of these subsidies. The total amount of estimated direct fiscal subsidies equals 2.200 trillion won; however, the comprehensive cost of the subsidies is estimated to be much greater because environmental and social costs were not considered in the initial calculation. Most of the fiscal direct subsidies in the water sector are subsidized to urban water areas. The percentage of fiscal direct subsidies in the urban water sector to the total fiscal direct subsidies is 79.68%, while the percentage of fiscal direct subsidies in the industrial water sector is only 4.92%. Since the ratio of fiscal direct subsidies in the industrial water sector is quite small, the negative impact of removing fiscal direct subsidies for the industrial sector may be trivial. If the Korean government cuts dowm the VAT or income tax rate while reducing several types of subsidies, it will be able to achieve a double dividend effect both on the economy and the environment.

• International Commerce and Information Review
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.411-432
• /
• 2008

This study presents the pattern and determinants of intra-industry trade in Korea's machinery and transport equipment industry focusing the influence of foreign direct investment on intra-industry trade. Using an OLS regression model the determinants of intra-industry trade are investigated. Results indicate that a statistically significant negative relationship is found between intra-industry trade and foreign direct investment, and show that intra-industry trade is positively affected by the degree of product differentiation and export structure similarity. Intra-industry trade is also positively associated with the economies of scale, the level of trade barrier, and transportation costs, although this is not statistically significant. The study found strong evidence that the propensity of foreign direct investment toward export specialized industry makes the negative relationship between intra-industry trade and foreign direct investment.

• International journal of advanced smart convergence
• /
• v.4 no.2
• /
• pp.103-108
• /
• 2015

The electric utility has the responsibility of reducing the impact of peaks on electricity demand and related costs. Therefore, they have introduced Direct Load Control System (DLCS) to automate the external control of shedding customer load that it controls. Since the number of customer load participating in the DLC program are keep increasing, DLCS operators a re facing difficulty in monitoring and controlling customer load. The existing DLCS needs constant operator intervention, e.g., whenever the load is about to exceed a predefined amount, it needs operator's intervention to control the on/off status of the load. Therefore, DLCS operators need the state-of-the-art DLCS, which can control automatically the on/off status of the customer load without intervention as much as possible. This paper presents an intelligent DLCS using the active database. The proposed DLCS is applying the active database to DLCS which can avoid operator's intervention as much as possible. To demonstrate the validity of the proposed system, variable production rules and intelligent demand controller are presented.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.44 no.3
• /
• pp.259-264
• /
• 2006

The separation and purification of $TaCl_5$is indispensable in the synthetic process of $TaCl_5$by chlorination of tantalum oxide. The reaction products are mainly $TaCl_5$, $NbCl_5$, $TiCl_4$ and $FeCl_2$. However, we need to separate $TaCl_5/NbCl_5$ mixture from the reaction product, because $TaCl_5$ and $NbCl_5$ are easily separated each other by distillation or hydrogen reduction process. In this work, a comparison study was carried out between direct sequence and indirect sequence to obtain $TaCl_5/NbCl_5$ mixture from the reaction product by removing light component, $TiCl_4$ and heavy component, $FeCl_2$ using two distillation columns. It was concluded that the direct sequence gave better results than indirect sequence in the aspect of initial capital costs and the associative operating costs.