• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.10 no.10
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• pp.25-33
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• 2012

Purpose - The Garak agricultural wholesale market ('Garak Market') plays a central role in the distribution of agricultural products in Korea and is important in connecting consumers with producers. However, problems regarding inefficiencies and the high-cost structure of the wholesale market's distribution/logistical system are being raised in relation to severe competition among retailers. Furthermore, the service needs of retailers and market users are not being fulfilled due to the inconsistency of the wholesale market's functions and facilities, thus reducing the competitiveness of the market. In this regard, innovative changes are being requested of the agricultural wholesale market according to changes in the agricultural product distribution environment. In particular, the lack of unloading facilities and the outdated unloading system of the wholesale market must be improved to enhance system efficiency. Research design, data, and methodology - This study observed the problems of the unloading system of the agricultural wholesale market in order to present relevant measures for improvement. The need for unloading auctions was also researched in this study. The survey of 70 forwarders belonging to the producing district distributor association of the Garak market was conducted by post. Additionally, 20 auction dealers and 59 shippers and transporters were individually interviewed. The survey on the need for unloading auctions used five-point Likert Scales. The statistical analysis was conducted with SPSS WIN 12.0 software. Results - First, the wholesale market must employ members of the unloading labor union to allow these employees to directly manage the unloading process. Second, it is crucial to revise regulations to ensure that the principal agent pays the unloading cost according to the standard unloading cost system. Third, the vehicle auction carried out for certain vegetable products must be converted to the unloaded auction system. According to the related interviews with the wholesale market's distribution agents, whereas shippers and transporters recognized the need for unloaded auctions, auction dealers tend to have a negative view of this system. Furthermore, the stated reasons in favor of unloaded cabbage, radish, and other vegetable auctions were prevention of constraint, creation of transparent trade conditions, and reduction of corrected seller tickets. Many of the respondents answered that the transport cost reduction rate in unloaded auctions must be below 20%. Fourth, the unloading system must be mechanized and a detailed, reasonable plan must be provided to settle the existing conflict with the unloading labor union. Conclusions - The proposals in this study are expected to play an important role in improving the cargo handling system of the wholesale agricultural product market in the future. Improving the system is expected to help shore up the competitiveness of the industry. If all the related bodies closely cooperate with each other and work harder, taking advantage of the synergies created by the facility modernization project, the Garak market will play a pivotal role in the distribution of agricultural products.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.49-69
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• 2007

The purpose of this study is to analyze contribution factors of economic growth through growth accounting analysis in Korean port-logistics industry. Comparing with the average level of entire industry for 1990-2003, the contributions of total factor productivity and labor in port-logistics industry were high, but that of capital stock was very low. The pattern of growth in Korean port-logistics industry has greatly changed before and after Korean financial crisis. Before the 1997 financial crisis, the economic growth rate of port-logistics industry was 14.1%, which is higher than that of the whole industries, 7.7% for 1990-1998. Main contribution factors of the economic growth rate were the growth of capital stock and productivity, but ratios of their contributions were relatively low and did not come up to that for the whole industry. After the financial crisis, annualized growth rate of GDP in port-logistics industry had rapidly declined at 5.4% for 1998-2003, which did not get to that of the entire industry (10.1%). The main contribution factors of the economic growth rate over the 1998-2003 period were capital stock 13.1%, labor 57.0 %, and total factor productivity 29.9 %, Such growth pattern as excess dependence on growth of labor brought reduction of the rate of economic growth with degradation of productivity growth in the Korean port-logistics industry.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.454-462
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• 2014

This study was carried out to determine the effect of tree height on light transmission, spray penetration, tree growth performance, fruit quality attributes, and labor productivity in the slender-spindle system of 'Hongro'/M.9 apple trees. With increasing tree height, the light penetration into the internal parts of the canopy decreased, especially in the lower canopy. Leaf area index (LAI) increased with increasing tree height, thereby leading to a reduction in the extent of spray penetration into the interior of the canopy. With increasing tree height, shoot growth was more vigorous but produced slender shoots in the upper canopy compared to the lower canopy. Although the soluble solid content and coloration of fruit decreased, there was no difference in fruit firmness and acidity. In addition, the number of final fruit set increased, although the production of large fruit (> 305 g) decreased. The increase in tree height also significantly increased the labor required for practices such as thinning of flowers and fruits, pruning, and harvesting. Nevertheless, this problem of increased in labor input in taller trees would was eased by use of a mechanical lift. Utilizing a lift for thinning the flowers of trees 4.5 m in height saved 14.6 min per tree, compared to the use of ladder. Therefore, it is highly considerable that in order to enhance light transmission and fruit coloration, light conditions should be improved in the internal tree canopy of slender-spindle systems.

• The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.37-52
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• 2020

The production of abalone seed has grown and been specialized since the 2000s with the growth of the abalone farming industry. Despite the increase in the production of abalone seeds, the sales volume of abalone seeds remained flat and competition among producers increased. This paper will analyze the management efficiency of abalone seed production fishery to diagnose the management status and improve the abalone seed production efficiency. In addition, this study is the result of the basic research on the abalone seed industry and it is meaningful to prepare a platform for further research since the management status survey and the management efficiency survey of abalone seed production fishery have not been conducted until now. The data on the farmed fish prices of abalone seeds were collected from surveys of sample fish as part of the fish seed observation project conducted by the Fisheries Outlook Center (FOC) of Korea Maritime and Fisheries Development Institute (KMI). Management efficiency analysis utilizes DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) model. The DEA model was analyzed by classifying into CCR (Super-CCR), BCC, and SBM (Super-SBM) models according to the assumptions taking into account the characteristics of the industry. The slack considered in the SBM model was judged as possible decreases in input variables and increase in output variables. The average efficiency from the CCR model was analyzed to be 69%. The BCC model was classified into input and output orientations, and the average efficiency was 79% and 75%, respectively. There were seven production fisheries with an SE value of 1 or more, which remained unchanged in terms of size and could be benchmarked. The average efficiency of the SBM model was 59% for CRS and 66% for VRS. Under the VRS assumptions, the variable increase/decrease efficiency analysis shows that labor costs can be reduced by 37.3%, facility capacity by 18.8%, and operating costs by 8.5%. In order to improve management efficiency, Wando needs to reduce labor and management costs. In Jindo region, sales increase as well as labor cost reduction is urgent. In other regions, reduced facilities and increased sales are recommended.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.68 no.3
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• pp.51-71
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to clarify macro causes influencing on the diversity of single-mother households poverty among OECD Countries including Korea. This study carried out pooled time series cross-section analysis applying unbalanced panel design on the period from 1981 to 2012. There is marked diversity on single-mother households poverty. GDP per capita does not contributes to reduce poverty, and female employment rate and % population 0-14 exacerbate poverty. Several factors contribute on poverty reduction including social spending, child cash spending, union density, employment protection on regular workers, proportional representation system, cumulative left cabinet, cumulative women seat. In Korea, it needs to overcome the limit of anti-poverty strategy mainly based on economic growth and labor market flexibility. And it needs to enlarge universal welfare institutions, child benefits, work-family reconciliation policy, and to design adjusted labor market institutions including union density and employment protection, to introduce consensus political model including proportional representation system to enhance left power and women's representation.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.73-79
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• 2014

Purpose - The Korean government has revised the distribution industry development law to regulate large-scale retailer operations to protecting medium- and small-scale retailers and traditional markets. According to the revised law, large-scale retailers must follow regulations on operating hours and compulsory store closures two days per month. Based on the revised distribution industry development law, most local governments regulate operation hours and they have adopted compulsory closure programs for large-scale retail stores. However, it is argued that fresh food producers suffer from a decrease in sales based on the compulsory closure of stores operated by large-scale retailers. Large-scale retailers reduce their fresh food orders from agricultural and fishery producers because of the compulsory store closures. Fresh food producers also suffer from a decrease in prices because reduced orders lead to a decrease in auction prices based on the availability of excess goods in wholesale markets. This paper investigates the effects of operation regulations for large-scale retailers on agricultural producers by surveying agricultural and fishery producer organizations. Research design, data, methodology - A survey was conducted on 117 producer organizations of fruits and vegetables, cereals, fisheries, and livestock products from September 10 to October 4, 2012. Survey items are annual sales, shares of sales accounted for by large-scale retailers, reduction of orders and prices from large-scale retailers, methods to deal with the sales reduction, unfair trade practices of large-scale retailers, opinion of the large-scale retailer regulations, and so on. The average sales of the sampled producer organizations are 13.7 billion won and the average share of sales accounted for by large-scale retailers is 35.4%. Results - Survey results show that the sample producer organizations' sales decreased 10.1% because of the compulsory closures of stores operated by large-scale retailers. It is estimated that the total sales of producer organizations decreased 371.2 billion won because of the regulations on the operation of large-scale retailers. In addition to the direct effect of a sales decrease due to order reduction, agricultural and fishery producer organizations suffered from the secondary effect of price reduction in wholesale markets. When orders from large-scale retailers decreased, most agricultural and fishery producer organizations shipped redundant products to wholesale markets, decreasing auction prices. It was estimated that the price received decreased 21.9% when sold in other marketing channels. As producer organization sales decreased, it was reported that the labor force employed by producer organizations also decreased by 15.1%. Therefore, we can conclude that the regulations for large-scale retailer operations resulted in negative impacts on agricultural producers. Conclusions - Although the sales reduction due to the regulations for large-scale retailer operations are not great, the cumulative effects due to the continued compulsory closure of stores operated by large-scale retailers could be great. This paper suggests governmental programs that could help agricultural producer organizations to find new and effective marketing channels such as direct marketing, farmers' markets, exports, Internet shopping, and so on.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.28 no.7
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• pp.1216-1221
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• 2022

Ships tend to be larger to increase the efficiency of cargo transportation. Larger ships lead to increased travel time for ship workers, increased work intensity, and reduced work efficiency. Problems such as increased work intensity are reducing the influx of young people into labor, along with the phenomenon of avoidance of high intensity labor by the younger generation. In addition, the rapid aging of the population and decrease in the young labor force aggravate the labor shortage problem in the maritime industry. To overcome this, the maritime industry has recently introduced technologies such as an intelligent production design platform and a smart production operation management system, and a smart autonomous logistics system in one of these technologies. The smart autonomous logistics system is a technology that delivers various goods using intelligent mobile robots, and enables the robot to drive itself by using sensors such as lidar and camera. Therefore, in this paper, it was checked whether the mobile robot could autonomously drive to the stop sign by detecting the passage way of the ship deck. The autonomous driving was performed by detecting the passage way of the ship deck through the camera mounted on the mobile robot based on the data learned through Nvidia's End-to-end learning. The mobile robot was stopped by checking the stop sign using SSD MobileNetV2. The experiment was repeated five times in which the mobile robot autonomously drives to the stop sign without deviation from the ship deck passage way at a distance of about 70m. As a result of the experiment, it was confirmed that the mobile robot was driven without deviation from passage way. If the smart autonomous logistics system to which this result is applied is used in the marine industry, it is thought that the stability, reduction of labor force, and work efficiency will be improved when workers work.

• Journal of Venture Innovation
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.97-108
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• 2021

Labor contracts appear in form as an exchange relationship between labor products and wages, but since they transcend the level of simple barter, they can be economically identified as "trading" and can be identified as "rental." From a legal point of view, a legal device that legally supports and imposes binding force on commodity exchange relations is a contract. Such a labor contract led to a relationship in which wages were received and a certain amount of time was placed under the direction and supervision of the employer as a counter benefit to the receipt of wages. Since working hours are subordinate hours with one's labor under the disposition authority of the employer, long hours of work can be done for the health and safety of workers and furthermore, it can be an act that violates the value to enjoy as a human being. The reduction of working hours needs to be shortened in terms of productivity and enjoyment of workers' culture so that they can expand and reproduce, but users' corporate management labor and production activities should also be compatible compared to those pursued by capitalist countries. Working hours can be seen as individual time and time in society as a whole, and long hours of work at the individual level are reduced, which is undesirable at the individual level, but an increase in products due to an increase in production time at the social level can help social development. It is necessary to consider working hours in terms of finding the balance between these individual and social levels. If the regulation method of working hours was to regulate the total amount of working hours, flexibility and elasticity of working hours are a qualitative regulation method that allows companies to flexibly allocate and organize working hours within a certain range of up to 52 hours per week. Accordingly, it is necessary to shorten working hours, but expand and implement the flexible working hours system according to the situation of the company. To this end, it is necessary to flexibly operate the flexible working hours system, which is currently limited to six months, handle the selective working hours by agreement between employers and workers, and expand the target work of discretionary working hours according to the development of information and communication technology and new types based on the 4th industrial revolution.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.691-726
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• 2013

We develop a hybrid model which allows the change in electricity generation mix by adding the electricity-sector components of bottom-up model to the conventional CGE model. The electricity sector is represented as a sum of separate generation technologies, each of which has the form of DRTS (Decreasing Returns to Scale) production function, unlike the conventional CGE model. We compare the effects of the 30% emission reduction target using the hybrid model with those using the conventional CGE model. The cost of meeting the target is lower with the hybrid model than the conventional CGE. It is consistent with previous studies in that adding the bottom-up components to the top-down model reduces the cost of emission reduction. In an extra analysis we find that an additional regulation like RPS (Renewable Portfolio Standard) increases the cost.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.703-714
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• 2010

This study assumes that Korea's offshore outsourcing is used for diverse purposes such as designing, the supply of raw and subsidiary materials, production, and manufacturing. The purpose for production exists in the beginning stages of development, because it would have grown in scope since the 1990s when offshore outsourcing began in earnest. In this study, in-depth interviews were conducted with 24 firms with an annual production capacity of more than 200,000 pieces among clothing brands for the domestic market, clothing exporters, and promotion agencies. The interviews took place from December 18, 2008 to January 30, 2009. The interviewees were limited to the officers who had the authority to select manufacturers and decide on production volumes. Responses from the in-depth interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed. The study results are summarized as follows: First, Korean clothing companies were found to rely on offshore outsourcing (China, North Korea, Vietnam, and Indonesia). Second, offshore outsourcing focused on the purposes for production; however, even fabrics were often outsourced in the case of production in China. Third, the interviewed firms mentioned cost savings, production cost reduction, and labor cost reduction most frequently as the main reasons for offshore outsourcing. Fourth, customs duties were considered most important in offshore outsourcing. Finally, when deciding on foreign manufacturers for offshore outsourcing, the surveyed clothing companies were found to: select manufacturers after market research in their outsourced countries, maintain existing contracts, or consider design capabilities and price quotations of candidate manufacturers.