• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.7-17
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• 2012

The aim of this study is to empirically explore micro and macroeconomic factors affecting the Pakistani sugar industries and searching the energy potential of this industry, through the survey of literature. The empirical part has been explored by employing Vector Autoregression (VAR), Granger Causality tests and simultaneous equation models through quarterly data for the period of 1991q2-2008q4. The study also aims to devise policies for the development of sugar industries and identify its growing importance for the energy sector of Pakistan. Empirical tests applied on the domestic prices of sugar, domestic interest rates, and exchange rate, productive capacities of sugar mills, per capita income, world sugar prices on cultivable area and sugar production reveal very useful results. Results reveal an improvement of productive capacity of the sugar mills of Pakistan on account of increasing crushing capacity of this sector. Negative effect of rising wholesale prices on the harvesting area was also observed. Profit earnings of the sugar mills significantly increase with the rise of sugar prices but the system does not exist for the farming community to share the rising prices of sugar. The models indicate positive and significant effect of local prices of sugar on its volume of import. Another of the findings of this study positively relates the local sugar markets with the international prices of sugar. Additionally, the causality tests results reveal exchange rate, harvesting area and overall output of sugarcane to have significant effects on the local prices of sugar. Similarly, import of sugar, interest rate, per capita consumption of sugar, per capita national income and the international prices of sugar also significantly affect currency exchange rate of Pakistani rupee in terms of US$. The study also finds sugar as an essential and basic necessity of the Pakistani consumers. That is why there are no significant income and price effects on the per capita consumption of sugar in Pakistan. All the empirical methods reiterate the relationship of variables. Economic policy makers are recommended to improve governance and management in the production, stock taking, internal and external trading and distribution of sugar in Pakistan using bumper crop policies. Macroeconomic variables such as interest rate, exchange rate per capita income and consumption are closely connected with the production and distribution of sugar in Pakistan. The cartelized role of the sugar industries should also be examined by further studies. There is need to further explore sugar sector of Pakistan with the perspective of energy generation through this sector; cartelized sugar markets in Pakistan and many more other dimensions of this sector. Exact appraisal of sugar industries for energy generation can be done appropriately by the experts from applied sciences.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.11
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• pp.47-58
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• 2015

Purpose - This study aims to seek determinants of department store sales commission rates under consignment contracts based on transaction cost theory, the power-dependence view, and the resource-based view. A consignment contract is a unique contract where the retailer, over a given period, takes possession of goods owned by a supplier, promotes the sales of these goods, and receives a profit share from their sales. Under this contract, the supplier owns the goods until they are sold. In department stores in South Korea, over 70% of overall sales comes through consignment contracts. In other words, this is the most popular contract agreement between large retailers and vendors in South Korea. Consignment contracts yield high profits to department stores with minimal sales uncertainty, stock cost, and marketing investment. Many suppliers believe the consignment contract commission rates are too high. However, department stores disagree. They state that the commissions are not high as they generate new value for the suppliers by accumulating up-to-date merchandise and supporting various marketing programs on their behalf. Recently, consignment contracts have been critically examined and scrutinized by politicians, mass media, and the public of Korea. This study further intends to derive implications reflecting both buyer and seller perspectives as well as offer insights to policy makers in making appropriate decisions. Research design, data, and methodology - To verify the proposed research model and test hypotheses, the authors selected 164 suppliers, which currently have relationships with department stores. This study carefully investigated the reliability, content validity, convergent validity, and discriminant validity of the proposed model. The data were analyzed using SPSS 18.0 and AMOS structural equation modeling program Results - For the transaction cost theory and the power-dependence view, the results indicated that product diversity and demand volatility had a positive impact on the sales dependence on a department store. Dependence in turn had a positive effect on the sales commission under the consignment contract. Based on the resource-based view, the department store's marketing capability, the supplier's perception toward merchandising, and supporting activities could enhance the department store's channel leadership in the buyer-seller relationship. Subsequently, the channel leadership had a positive effect on the sales commission. However, product complexity had no relationship with department store dependence. Conclusions - This is the first empirical research that investigates the determinants of sales commissions under consignment contracts in the domestic retail industry. This study reveals several theoretical and practical implications for both marketing scholars and marketers. In terms of theoretical implication, this study integrated and enlarged certain theoretical background, such as transaction cost theory, the power-dependence view, and the resource-based view, to explain the determinants of sales commissions under consignment contracts that include sales revenue. From a business management viewpoint, this research offers useful insights for policy makers by applying two different perspectives, both the manufacturer and the retailer, in terms of the sales commission issue under a consignment contract.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartB
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• v.13B no.5 s.108
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• pp.507-514
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• 2006

Various application systems are developed using RFID as a part of ubiquitous computing, and it is expected that RFID chip will become wide-spread for the distribution industry especially. Efficient and efact intelligent-type of warehouse management system is essential for small-to-medium-sized enterprises in the situation having a trouble in the viewpoint of expense and manpower. In this paper, we implement small-scale warehouse management system using log-based context awareness technology. This system is implemented to be controlled on web, configuring clients to control RFID readers and building up DBMS system in a server. Especially, it grasps user's intention of storing or delivering based on toE data for the history of user's access to the system and it reports user's irregular pattern of warehouse use and serves predictive information of the control of goods in stock. As a result, the proposed system can contribute to enhance efficiency and correctness of small-scale warehouse management.

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.57-72
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• 2003

The purpose of this paper is to propose the modeling of multiagent based SCM and implement the prototype in the Internet environment. SCM process follows the supply chain operations reference (SCOR) model which has been suggested by Supply Chain Counsil. SCOR model has been positioned to become the industry standard for describing and improving operational process in SCM. Five basic processes, plan, source, matte, deliver and return are defined in the SCOR model, through which a company establishes its supply chain competitive objectives. A supply chain is a world wide network of suppliers, factories, warehouses, distribution centers and retailers through which raw materials are acquired, transformed or manufactured and delivered to customers by autonomous or semiautonomous process. With the pressure from the higher standard of customer compliance, a frequent model change, product complexity and globalization, the combination of supply chain process with an advanced infrastructure in terms of multiagent systems have been highly required. Since SCM is fundamentally concerned with coherence among multiple decision makers, a multiagent framework based on explicit communication between constituent agents such as suppliers, manufacturers, and distributors is a natural choice. Multiagent framework is defined to perform different activities within a supply chain. Dynamic and changing functions of supply chain can be dealt with multi-agent by cooperating with other agents. In the areas of inventory management, remote diagnostics, communications with field workers, order fulfillment including tracking and monitoring, stock visibility, real-time shop floor data collection, asset tracking and warehousing, customer-centric supply chain can be applied and implemented utilizing multiagent. In this paper, for the order processing event between the buyer and seller relationship, multiagent were defined corresponding to the SCOR process. A prototype system was developed and implemented on the actual TCP/IP environment for the purchase order processing event. The implementation result assures that multiagent based SCM enhances the speed, visibility, proactiveness and responsiveness of activities in the supply chain.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.61-72
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to investigate the determinants of the capital structure of firms operating in a developing economy, Pakistan. The quantile regression method is applied on a sample of 183 non-financial companies listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange during the period of 2008-2017. Specifically, the empirical analysis focuses on changes in the coefficients of the determinants according to the leverage ratio quantiles of the examined listed firms. The findings show that the capital structure of Pakistan listed firms differs between firms in different quantiles of leverage. These differences are significant with the sign of explanatory variables changes with the level of leverage. The research result found tangibility, profitability and age to be positively related to leverage among listed firms in Pakistan. However, size, liquidity and non-debt tax shield (NDTS) are negatively related to leverage. A firm's growth and risk are found to be insignificant predictors of capital structure in Pakistan listed firms. Moreover, the study also found a significant impact of industry characteristic on leverage. The findings of this study indicate that an individual firm's finance policy needs to be responsive to the firm's characteristics and should match with the different borrowing requirements of listed firms.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.457-470
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• 2021

The banking system provides a number of important functions for the economy and is also the lifeblood and financier of the economy in each country. Large amounts of idle money have not been exploited by banks; however, banks still depend on loans, including loans from foreign banks, to meet the growing demand, as such, for banks, the cost of capital is high, the stability and business efficiency are low and banks have not promoted their internal resources to grow steadily. To achieve the goal, this research analyzes the factors affecting the choice of bank for the deposit decisions of customers in Vietnam. The study used a sample data of 250 individuals and SPSS software was used to analyze the data. The results showed that customer policy has a positive effect on customers' deposit decisions in a bank, and this is new evidence regarding behavioral theory in the case of Vietnam. Results further demonstrated that other factors such as employee image, brand, interest rate, relative influencing, and transaction time positively impact the choice of bank for the deposit decisions of customers. However, the bank's promotion strategies had no impact on the choice of bank for the deposit decisions of customers. Besides, employee image is the most influential factor in the deposit decisions, followed by the bank's brand and interest rate.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.9
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• pp.47-57
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• 2015

Purpose - The aim of this paper is to investigate the explanatory power of the Pecking-order theory (the cost of financing increases with asymmetric information) among Korean retail firms from the perspective of debt capacity. According to the Pecking-order theory, a firm's first preference is to use internal funds for its capital needs, its next preference is the issuance of debt, and its last preference is the issuance of equity; this is due to the information asymmetry problem between existing shareholders and investors. However, prior empirical studies, such as Lemmon and Zender (2010), argue that the entire sample test for the Pecking-order theory could be misleading due to the different levels of debt issuance capability of each of the individual firms; in fact, they confirm that the explanatory power of the Pecking-order theory improves after taking into account the differences in debt capacity of the U.S. firms they examined. This paper implements a case study approach among Korean retail firms to examine the relationship between debt capacity and the explanatory power of the Pecking-order theory in Korea. Research design, data, and methodology - This study uses the sample of public retail firms on the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) from the time period of 1990 to 2013. We gather related financial and accounting statements from the financial information firm WISEfn. Credit rating information is provided by the Korea Investor Service. We employ the models of Lemmon and Zender (2010) and Son and Kim (2013) to measure a firm's debt capacity. Their logit models use the rating dummy variable as a dependent variable and incorporate other firm characteristics as independent variables to estimate debt capacity. To test the Pecking-order theory, we adopt variants of the financing deficit model of Shyam-Sunder and Myers (1999). In the test of the Pecking-order theory, we consider all of the changes in total debt obligations, current debt obligations, and long-term debt obligations. Results - Our main contribution to the literature is our confirmation of the predicted relationship between debt capacity and the explanatory power of the Pecking-order theory among Korean retail firms. The coefficients on financing deficits become greater as a firm's debt capacity improves. This is consistent with the results of Lemmon and Zender (2010). The coefficients on the square of the financing deficits are also negative for the firms in the largest debt capacity group, which is also consistent with the predictions in prior literature. Conclusions - This study takes a case study approach by examining Korean retail firms. We confirm that the Pecking-order theory explains the capital structure of retail firms more appropriately, after taking into account the debt capacity of each firm. This result suggests the importance of debt capacity consideration in the testing of the Pecking-order theory. Our result also implies that there has been a potential underestimation of the explanatory power of the Pecking-order theory in existing studies.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.104 no.3
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• pp.421-426
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• 2015

The objective of this paper is to look into the growth of Cryptomeria japonica stand in South Korea along with the evaluation on their yields, followed by their carbon stocks and removals. A total of 106 sample plots were selected from Jeonnam, Gyeongnam, and Jeju, where the groups of standard are grown. We only used 92 plots data except outlier. As part of the analysis, the Weibull diameter distribution was applied. In order to estimate the diameter distribution, the growth estimation equation for each of the growth factors including the height, the diameter at breast height, and the basal area was drafted out and the verification for each equation was examined. The site index for figuring out the forest productivity of Cryptomeria japonica stand for each district was also developed as a Schumacher model and 30yr was used as a reference age for the estimation of the site index. It was found that the site index for Cryptomeria japonica stand in South Korea ranges from 10 to 16 and this result was used as a standard for developing the stand yield table. According to the site 14 in the stand yield table, the mean annual increment (MAI) of the Cryptomeria japonica reaches $7.6m^3/ha$ on its 25yr and its growing stock is estimated to be at $190.1m^3/ha$. This volume is about $20m^3$ as high as that of the Chamaesyparis obtusa. Furthermore, the annual carbon absorptions for a Cryptomeria japonica stand reached the peak at 25yr, which is 2.14 tC/ha/yr, $7.83tCO_2/ha/yr$. When compared to the other conifers, this rate is slightly higher than that of a Chamaecyparis obtusa ($7.5tCO_2/ha/yr$) but lower than that of the Pinus koraiensis ($10.4tCO_2/ha/yr$) and Larix kaempferi ($11.2tCO_2/ha/yr$). With such research result as a base, it is necessary to come up with the ways to enhance the utilization of Cryptomeria japonica as timbers, besides making use of their growth data.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.85 no.4
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• pp.656-666
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• 1996

Aspen demand has increased recently in the Great Lakes region in the United States. Since aspen has moved into the region in late 1800's, its growing stock has increased so as to change forestry industry of the Lake States. Intensive timber harvesting and biomass removal may cause nutrient depletion, especially on nutrient-poor sites. Forest nutrients and nutrient cycling were investigated in aspen stands of 7-10, 27-33, and 41-42 year-old growing on sandy soils in Minnesota. Nutrients added to the aspen stands by atmospheric deposition and soil weathering were efficiently absorbed and stored in the tree biomass. Aboveground biomass increased from $24.4t{\cdot}ha^{-1}$ at young stands to $139.2t{\cdot}ha^{-1}$ at mature stands. Nutrients accumulated in the tree biomass showed same magnitude of difference. Nutrients added to the site through atmospheric deposition were in the order of Ca, N, K, Mg, and P. Annual litterfall was greater in older stands. However, the amount of nutrients returned by litterfall was not significantly different among stand ages due to the greater nutrient contents in the litterfall of young stands. Litter decomposition and nutrient release rates were greater at young stands than at older stands. Likewise, nutrient availability was higher in young aspen stands and became lower as the stands grew older. Nutrient leaching loss was minimal at all stand ages. Soil N mineralization was greater at young stands than at older stands. Nutrient cycling process was facilitated in young aspen stands with an increased level of available nutrients, Based on the estimations of nutrient balance and nutrient removal by harvesting, Ca was the most critical element which was likely to be depleted if aspen stands are intensively harvested with short rotations.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.1577-1605
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• 2018

This study analyzes China's technology billionaires. However, this study does not show the accumulating process of wealth in each of the Chinese billionaires, because there are many technology billionaires, but only deals with the macro analysis of the technology billionaire; the pattern of existence, comparison with other industries, the process of wealth creation reflecting China's particularity, and comparison with the world's technology billionaires. The findings of this study are as follows. First, more than 10 billion yuan of Chinese billionaires will emerge from 2004. Second, in the early days, illegal and corruption made rich, but the wealth of own efforts has gradually increased. Third, the real estate and manufacturing billionaires are still strong overall, but the growth of billionaires in technology, medicine and finance industry is remarkable. Fourth, in the case of the top 10 richest, four are from real estate, four from technology, and two from manufacturing and distribution. Most technology billionaires are in Guangdong, Zhejiang, Beijing and Shanghai. The determinants of the number of billionaires are GDP, exchange rate to US Dollar and Shenzen Stock Index, and those of technology billionaire are GDP and exchange rate. Given the relationship with existing theories, this study can be called the fifth type of billionaire research. Conceptually, the main reason for accumulating wealth is the search for policy opportunities, market opportunities and technology opportunities.