• Health Policy and Management
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.319-333
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• 2024

Background: This study aims to identify the factors that influence the incidence of catastrophic health expenditure (CHE) for the elderly living alone and to discuss how to manage CHE for the elderly living alone. Methods: This study utilizes 6th (2016), 7th (2018), and 8th (2020) data from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging to identify the incidence rate of CHE among the elderly living alone and conducts a panel logit analysis. The dependent variable is the incidence of CHE (thresholds: 10%, 20%, 30%), and the independent variables include demographic factors (gender, age group, region), socioeconomic factors (education level, economic activity status, income quintile, financial support rate from children), health-related factors (subjective health status, regular exercise, smoking, drinking, number of chronic diseases), and healthcare coverage factors (type of health insurance, private health insurance). Results: Descriptive statistics classified by gender show that female elderly living alone are more vulnerable than male elderly living alone in terms of disease prevalence and socioeconomic status. In addition, the incidence of CHE is higher for elderly women living alone than for elderly men living alone across all thresholds. The main results of the panel logit analysis show that higher education, income quintile, and financial support rate from children are associated with lower odds of CHE, while poorer subjective health and a higher number of chronic diseases are associated with higher odds of CHE. Medical aid recipients are less likely to incur CHE than those covered by national health insurance. Conclusion: The implications of this study are as follows. First, vulnerable elderly living alone with multiple chronic diseases and low income and education levels are more likely to incur CHE. Second, it is necessary to review policies such as a CHE support program and chronic disease management programs focused on vulnerable elderly individuals living alone. Third, the CHE support program should be operated in a patient-centered manner, with consideration given to a customized system for selecting and supporting elderly individuals living alone who are in need.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.54 no.12
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• pp.1339-1348
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• 2021

In accordance with the River Law, the basic river maintenance plan is established every 5-10 years with a considerable national budget for domestic rivers, and various river surveys such as the river section required for HEC-RAS simulation for flood level calculation are being conducted. However, river survey data are provided only in the form of a pdf report to the River Management Geographic Information System (RIMGIS), and the original data are distributedly owned by designers who performed the river maintenance plan in CAD format. It is a situation that the usability for other purposes is considerably lowered. In addition, when using surveyed CAD-type cross-sectional data for HEC-RAS, tools such as 'Dream' are used, but the reality is that time and cost are almost as close as manual work. In this study, RAUT (River Information Auto Upload Tool), a tool that can solve these problems, was developed. First, the RAUT tool attempted to automate the complicated steps of manually inputting CAD survey data and simulating the input data of the HEC-RAS one-dimensional model used in establishing the basic river plan in practice. Second, it is possible to directly read CAD survey data, which is river spatial information, and automatically upload it to the river spatial information DB based on the standard data model (ArcRiver), enabling the management of river survey data in the river maintenance plan at the national level. In other words, if RIMGIS uses a tool such as RAUT, it will be able to systematically manage national river survey data such as river section. The developed RAUT reads the river spatial information CAD data of the river maintenance master plan targeting the Jeju-do agar basin, builds it into a mySQL-based spatial DB, and automatically generates topographic data for HEC-RAS one-dimensional simulation from the built DB. A pilot process was implemented.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.307-319
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• 2016

A Land-Atmosphere Modeling Package (LAMP) for supporting agricultural and forest management was developed at the National Center for AgroMeteorology (NCAM). The package is comprised of two components; one is the Weather Research and Forecasting modeling system (WRF) coupled with Noah-Multiparameterization options (Noah-MP) Land Surface Model (LSM) and the other is an offline one-dimensional LSM. The objective of this paper is to briefly describe the two components of the NCAM-LAMP and to evaluate their initial performance. The coupled WRF/Noah-MP system is configured with a parent domain over East Asia and three nested domains with a finest horizontal grid size of 810 m. The innermost domain covers two Gwangneung deciduous and coniferous KoFlux sites (GDK and GCK). The model is integrated for about 8 days with the initial and boundary conditions taken from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Final Analysis (FNL) data. The verification variables are 2-m air temperature, 10-m wind, 2-m humidity, and surface precipitation for the WRF/Noah-MP coupled system. Skill scores are calculated for each domain and two dynamic vegetation options using the difference between the observed data from the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) and the simulated data from the WRF/Noah-MP coupled system. The accuracy of precipitation simulation is examined using a contingency table that is made up of the Probability of Detection (POD) and the Equitable Threat Score (ETS). The standalone LSM simulation is conducted for one year with the original settings and is compared with the KoFlux site observation for net radiation, sensible heat flux, latent heat flux, and soil moisture variables. According to results, the innermost domain (810 m resolution) among all domains showed the minimum root mean square error for 2-m air temperature, 10-m wind, and 2-m humidity. Turning on the dynamic vegetation had a tendency of reducing 10-m wind simulation errors in all domains. The first nested domain (7,290 m resolution) showed the highest precipitation score, but showed little advantage compared with using the dynamic vegetation. On the other hand, the offline one-dimensional Noah-MP LSM simulation captured the site observed pattern and magnitude of radiative fluxes and soil moisture, and it left room for further improvement through supplementing the model input of leaf area index and finding a proper combination of model physics.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.163-178
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• 2014

Following research proposes "Virtualization of Smart Cards (ViSCa)" which is a security system that aims to provide a multi-device platform for the deployment of services that require a strong security protocol, both for the access & authentication and execution of its applications and focuses on analyzing Virtualization of Smart Cards (ViSCa) platform-based mobile payment service by comparing with other similar cases. At the present day, the appearance of new ICT, the diffusion of new user devices (such as smartphones, tablet PC, and so on) and the growth of internet penetration rate are creating many world-shaking services yet in the most of these applications' private information has to be shared, which means that security breaches and illegal access to that information are real threats that have to be solved. Also mobile payment service is, one of the innovative services, has same issues which are real threats for users because mobile payment service sometimes requires user identification, an authentication procedure and confidential data sharing. Thus, an extra layer of security is needed in their communication and execution protocols. The Virtualization of Smart Cards (ViSCa), concept is a holistic approach and centralized management for a security system that pursues to provide a ubiquitous multi-device platform for the arrangement of mobile payment services that demand a powerful security protocol, both for the access & authentication and execution of its applications. In this sense, Virtualization of Smart Cards (ViSCa) offers full interoperability and full access from any user device without any loss of security. The concept prevents possible attacks by third parties, guaranteeing the confidentiality of personal data, bank accounts or private financial information. The Virtualization of Smart Cards (ViSCa) concept is split in two different phases: the execution of the user authentication protocol on the user device and the cloud architecture that executes the secure application. Thus, the secure service access is guaranteed at anytime, anywhere and through any device supporting previously required security mechanisms. The security level is improved by using virtualization technology in the cloud. This virtualization technology is used terminal virtualization to virtualize smart card hardware and thrive to manage virtualized smart cards as a whole, through mobile cloud technology in Virtualization of Smart Cards (ViSCa) platform-based mobile payment service. This entire process is referred to as Smart Card as a Service (SCaaS). Virtualization of Smart Cards (ViSCa) platform-based mobile payment service virtualizes smart card, which is used as payment mean, and loads it in to the mobile cloud. Authentication takes place through application and helps log on to mobile cloud and chooses one of virtualized smart card as a payment method. To decide the scope of the research, which is comparing Virtualization of Smart Cards (ViSCa) platform-based mobile payment service with other similar cases, we categorized the prior researches' mobile payment service groups into distinct feature and service type. Both groups store credit card's data in the mobile device and settle the payment process at the offline market. By the location where the electronic financial transaction information (data) is stored, the groups can be categorized into two main service types. First is "App Method" which loads the data in the server connected to the application. Second "Mobile Card Method" stores its data in the Integrated Circuit (IC) chip, which holds financial transaction data, which is inbuilt in the mobile device secure element (SE). Through prior researches on accept factors of mobile payment service and its market environment, we came up with six key factors of comparative analysis which are economic, generality, security, convenience(ease of use), applicability and efficiency. Within the chosen group, we compared and analyzed the selected cases and Virtualization of Smart Cards (ViSCa) platform-based mobile payment service.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.195-221
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• 2009

According to an industry report, a large number of organizations have invested in Organizational Information System(OIS) in the past few years. Several research results indicate that successful investments in OIS lead to productivity enhancement, while failed ones result in undesirable consequences such as financial losses and dissatisfaction among employees. In spite of huge investments, however, many organizations have failed in achieving the hoped-for returns from OIS. Thus, understanding user acceptance, adoption, and usage of new IS(Information Systems) is an important issue for IS practitioners. Indeed, study of the user acceptance of new information system has been one of the most important research topics in the contemporary IS literature. Several theoretical models are tested to examine 'user acceptance' and 'usage behavior' in IS context. While many research models incorporate 'ease of use' or 'usefulness' as important factors in explaining user acceptance, Technology Acceptance Model(TAM) has been one of the most widely applied models in user acceptance and usage behavior. Even in recent IS studies that employ theories of innovation diffusion in the area of IS implementation, a major focus has been on the user's perception of information technologies. In this research, we study 'voluntariness' as an important factor in IS acceptance by users. Voluntariness is defined as "the degree to which the use of the innovation is perceived as being voluntary, or of free will" When examining the diffusion of accepting OIS, a thoughtful consideration should be given to 'perceived voluntariness.' Current article has following research questions: 1) What models are appropriate to explain the success of OIS? and 2) How does the 'voluntariness' affect the success of OIS? In order to answer these questions, a research model is proposed to describe the detailed nature of association among three independent variables (IT usage level, task interdependency, and organizational support), a mediating variable (IS usage), a dependent variable (perceived performance), and a moderating variable(perceived voluntariness). The central claim of this article is that organizations hardly realize expected returns from OIS investments unless perceived voluntariness is effectively managed after operating OIS. As an example of OIS in this study we have selected the Intranet of Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF). ROKAF has implemented the Intranet in an attempt to improve communication and coordination within the organization. To test our research model and hypotheses, survey questionnaires were first sent out to 400 Intranet users. With the assistance of ROKAF, Intranet users were initially identified among its members, and subjects were randomly drawn from the pool. 377 survey responses were finally returned. The unit of measurement and analysis in this research is a personal level. Path analysis based on structural equation modeling was used to test research hypotheses. Construct validity represents accordance between the theoretical base concept of constructs and its measurement items. Tests for the reliability and discriminant validity are accepted, thus verifying our survey instrument. In this research, we have proposed a conceptual framework to highlight the importance of perceived voluntariness after organization deploys OIS. The results of our analysis present several key finding. First, all three independent variables (IT usage level, task interdependency, and organizational support) have significant effects on IS usage, which will eventually improve performance. Thus, IS usage plays a mediating role between antecedent variables (IT usage level. task interdependency, and organizational support) and performance improvement. Second, the effect of the task dependency was the highest for IS usage among the three antecedent variables. This is highly plausible since one of the Intranet's major capabilities is to facilitate communication among members within an organization. Accordingly, we conclude that the higher the task dependency, the higher Intranet usage. The effect of user's IT usage level was the second, while the effect of the organizational support was the third. Finally, the perceived voluntariness plays a pivotal role in enhancing perceived performance in personal level after launching the Intranet. Relationships among investigated variables were significantly different between groups with a high level and a low level of voluntariness. The impact of the Intranet usage on the performance was greater in the higher level voluntariness group than in the lower one. For the lower level voluntariness group, the user's IT usage had the highest effect on the Intranet usage among the three antecedent variables. In short, our study suggests that the higher the perceived voluntariness is the more IS usage will be. Perceived voluntariness was found to have a moderating effect on the relationships among user IT usage level, task interdependency, IS usage, and perceived performance, supporting all the hypotheses on the moderating effect. Most of all, user IT usage level has the strongest influence on IS usage, indicating that users with superior IT usage are more likely to enjoy a high level of perceived performance.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.15-24
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• 2011

Modern enterprises should concentrate their efforts on continuous improvements in focusing their development in the core areas of business and to reduce their expenses and to enhance the quality of service for customers. The enterprises should focus on their core business while outsourcing the non-core areas of business to external specialists for the purpose of reducing cost. In South Korea, the enterprises are becoming increasingly interested in outsourcing their logistics function, especially in using IT technologies to the 3PL. The underlying reason for this trend is because the logistics costs of Korean businesses are much higher than that of other advanced countries. This higher logistic costs weakens the price competitiveness of Korean companies in the overseas export markets and even dampening the balance of international trade. Domestically, the higher logistics costs have the effect of raising prices in the local markets and thus affecting the local economy. Therefore a solution is urgently needed to save the logistics costs for the Korean companies in the interest of increasing national competitiveness. Outsourcing to the 3PL is becoming an attraction solution to this problem. Thanks to the increasing supply of professional logistics companies, many of the enterprises are switching to the Third Party Logistics. Nevertheless the enterprises do not yet utilize the integrated third-party logistics services on a full scale. This study analyzes present conditions and problems of the domestic third-party logistics market and suggests directions for future development. To solve the problems in the domestic third-party logistics market, four actions are recommended. First there should be new supporting policies in the laws and regulations and a system for small and medium sized companies to grow. Solutions to structural problems such as abnormal multilevel merchandising, illegal operation of private cars, and freight dumping should be implemented concurrently. Furthermore, standards for new companies entry into the market should be enhanced to allow only the competitive distribution companies to enter the market. Second, development of variety of educational programs is needed through establishing human-resource development system and specialized formal educational institution focused on this market. Third, the third party distribution companies, which seek long-term relationships with the owners of goods, should endeavor to strengthen their communications capability. Fourth, adoption of high-tech distribution system and the advent of U-Logistics, making use of RFID is urgent. This study has the limitation of objectivity because it does not include various comparative case studies about companies relating to the Third Party Logistics and domestic franchise companies. However, this study is significant to the extent that it analyzes the general present conditions and the problems of domestic Third Party Logistics and suggests recommendations for revitalization of Third Party Logistics. For future studies, analyzing the successful cases of international third party logistics companies' empirical data and studying the application into domestic franchise companies would improve the objectivity of the results. This would assist the domestic third party logistics companies not only to perform excellent domestic logistics function but also to enter into the global market for international logistics.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.51-56
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• 2009

Purpose: Recently, most hospitals are introducing the PACS system and use of the system continues to expand. But small-scaled PACS called MicroPACS has already been in use through open source programs. The aim of this study is to prove utility of operating a MicroPACS, as a substitute back-up device for conventional storage media like CDs and DVDs, in addition to the full-PACS already in use. This study contains the way of setting up a MicroPACS with open source programs and assessment of its storage capability, stability, compatibility and performance of operations such as "retrieve", "query". Materials and Methods: 1. To start with, we searched open source software to correspond with the following standards to establish MicroPACS, (1) It must be available in Windows Operating System. (2) It must be free ware. (3) It must be compatible with PET/CT scanner. (4) It must be easy to use. (5) It must not be limited of storage capacity. (6) It must have DICOM supporting. 2. (1) To evaluate availability of data storage, we compared the time spent to back up data in the open source software with the optical discs (CDs and DVD-RAMs), and we also compared the time needed to retrieve data with the system and with optical discs respectively. (2) To estimate work efficiency, we measured the time spent to find data in CDs, DVD-RAMs and MicroPACS. 7 technologists participated in this study. 3. In order to evaluate stability of the software, we examined whether there is a data loss during the system is maintained for a year. Comparison object; How many errors occurred in randomly selected data of 500 CDs. Result: 1. We chose the Conquest DICOM Server among 11 open source software used MySQL as a database management system. 2. (1) Comparison of back up and retrieval time (min) showed the result of the following: DVD-RAM (5.13,2.26)/Conquest DICOM Server (1.49,1.19) by GE DSTE (p<0.001), CD (6.12,3.61)/Conquest (0.82,2.23) by GE DLS (p<0.001), CD (5.88,3.25)/Conquest (1.05,2.06) by SIEMENS. (2) The wasted time (sec) to find some data is as follows: CD ($156{\pm}46$), DVD-RAM ($115{\pm}21$) and Conquest DICOM Server ($13{\pm}6$). 3. There was no data loss (0%) for a year and it was stored 12741 PET/CT studies in 1.81 TB memory. In case of CDs, On the other hand, 14 errors among 500 CDs (2.8%) is generated. Conclusions: We found that MicroPACS could be set up with the open source software and its performance was excellent. The system built with open source proved more efficient and more robust than back-up process using CDs or DVD-RAMs. We believe that the operation of the MicroPACS would be effective data storage device as long as its operators develop and systematize it.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.215-235
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• 2024

As artificial intelligence (AI) technology is recognized as a key technology that will determine future national competitiveness, competition for AI technology and industry promotion policies in major countries is intensifying. This study aims to present implications for domestic policy making by analyzing the policies of major countries on the start-up of AI companies, which are the basis of the AI industry ecosystem. The top four countries and the EU for the number of new investment attraction companies in the 2023 AI Index announced by the HAI Research Institute at Stanford University in the United States were selected, The United States enacted the National AI Initiative Act (NAIIA) in 2021. Through this law, The US Government is promoting continued leadership in the United States in AI R&D, developing reliable AI systems in the public and private sectors, building an AI system ecosystem across society, and strengthening DB management and access to AI policies conducted by all federal agencies. In the 14th Five-Year (2021-2025) Plan and 2035 Long-term Goals held in 2021, China has specified AI as the first of the seven strategic high-tech technologies, and is developing policies aimed at becoming the No. 1 AI global powerhouse by 2030. The UK is investing in innovative R&D companies through the 'Future Fund Breakthrough' in 2021, and is expanding related investments by preparing national strategies to leap forward as AI leaders, such as the implementation plan of the national AI strategy in 2022. Israel is supporting technology investment in start-up companies centered on the Innovation Agency, and the Innovation Agency is leading mid- to long-term investments of 2 to 15 years and regulatory reforms for new technologies. The EU is strengthening its digital innovation hub network and creating the InvestEU (European Strategic Investment Fund) and AI investment fund to support the use of AI by SMEs. This study aims to contribute to analyzing the policies of major foreign countries in making AI company start-up policies and providing a basis for Korea's strategy search. The limitations of the study are the limitations of the countries to be analyzed and the failure to attempt comparative analysis of the policy environments of the countries under the same conditions.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.145-168
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• 2007

Current researches have been proceed on CEO's Characteristics of venture business because the CEO has considered as one of the important factors for the success of venture business. But prior research on the performance of venture business has produced inconsistently in terms of CEO's characteristics. The purpose of this study is to develop a comprehensive model for the relation between the performance and a type of CEO's characteristics by a growth process of venture business, which is the main subject of analysis in venture business. Also, this study analyzes various CEO's characteristics and the effects for performance of venture business which are in the Daedeok valley. To achieve the purpose of this research, an empirical study by using research model and hypotheses including the general characteristics of venture business and CEO's demographic characteristics has been presented as a research method for relation analysis. The principal findings of the research and its significance are summarized as follows: First, it was found that there is a significant different in the performance of CEO's behavioral characteristics by the scale, type and growing step of organization for venture business. Second, it was found that there is not a significant between an academic career, management experience, foundation experience for business and related working experience of venture CEO and the performance, but there os a partially significant difference in CEO's behavioral characteristics. Third, it was found that there is a partially significant difference between CEO's behavioral characteristics of venture business and the performance by the general characteristics of organization for venture business and demographic characteristics. In conclusion, in spite of the insufficient research for venture business in Daedeok, the implications of theses findings and contributions made by this research is to confirm the characteristics factor of CEO for venture business and general characteristics of organization for venture business by multidisciplinary side. In addition, the findings provide the basis for the analyzing of managerial strong point and weak point referred to supporting system for venture business. Finally, the findings of this study suggest that the results should be a useful data for groping a solution for upbringing plans in terms of a long-term point of view.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.91-116
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• 1991

Market liberalization progressing simultaneously with high and rapidly rising domestic wages has created an adverse business environment for domestic firms. Korean firms are losing their international competitiveness in comparison to firms from LDC(Less Developed Countries) in low-tech industries. In high-tech industries, domestic firms without government protection (which is impossible due to the liberalization policy and the current international status of the Korean economy) are in a disadvantaged position relative to firms from advanced countries. This paper examines the division of roles between the private sector and the government in order to achieve a successful structural adjustment, which has become the impending industrial policy issue caused by high domestic wages, on the one hand, and the opening of domestic markets, on the other. The micro foundation of the economy-wide structural adjustment is actually the restructuring of business portfolios at the firm level. The firm-level business restructuring means that firms in low-value-added businesses or with declining market niches establish new major businesses in higher value-added segments or growing market niches. The adjustment of the business structure at the firm level can only be accomplished by accumulating firm-specific managerial assets necessary to establish a new business structure. This can be done through learning-by-doing in the whole system of management, including research and development, manufacturing, and marketing. Therefore, the voluntary cooperation among the people in the company is essential for making the cost of the learning process lower than that at the competing companies. Hence, firms that attempt to restructure their major businesses need to induce corporate-wide participation through innovations in organization and management, encourage innovative corporate culture, and maintain cooperative labor unions. Policy discussions on structural adjustments usually regard firms as a black box behind a few macro variables. But in reality, firm activities are not flows of materials but relationships among human resources. The growth potential of companies are embodied in the human resources of the firm; the balance of interest among stockholders, managers, and workers of the company' brings the accumulation of the company's core competencies. Therefore, policymakers and economists shoud change their old concept of the firm as a technological black box which produces a marketable commodities. Firms should be regarded as coalitions of interest groups such as stockholders, managers, and workers. Consequently the discussion on the structural adjustment both at the macroeconomic level and the firm level should be based on this new paradigm of understanding firms. The government's role in reducing the cost of structural adjustment and supporting should the creation of new industries emphasize the following: First, government must promote the competition in domestic markets by revising laws related to antitrust policy, bankruptcy, and the promotion of small and medium-sized companies. General consensus on the limitations of government intervention and the merit of deregulation should be sought among policymakers and people in the business world. In the age of internationalization, nation-specific competitive advantages cannot be exclusively in favor of domestic firms. The international competitiveness of a domestic firm derives from the firm-specific core competencies which can be accumulated by internal investment and organization of the firm. Second, government must build up a solid infrastructure of production factors including capital, technology, manpower, and information. Structural adjustment often entails bankruptcies and partial waste of resources. However, it is desirable for the government not to try to sustain marginal businesses, but to support the diversification or restructuring of businesses by assisting in factor creation. Institutional support for venture businesses needs to be improved, especially in the financing system since many investment projects in venture businesses are highly risky, even though they are very promising. The proportion of low-value added production processes and declining industries should be reduced by promoting foreign direct investment and factory automation. Moreover, one cannot over-emphasize the importance of future-oriented labor policies to be based on the new paradigm of understanding firm activities. The old laws and instititutions related to labor unions need to be reformed. Third, government must improve the regimes related to money, banking, and the tax system to change business practices dependent on government protection or undesirable in view of the evolution of the Korean economy as a whole. To prevent rational business decisions from contradicting to the interest of the economy as a whole, government should influence the business environment, not the business itself.