• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.17-34
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• 2001

This paper is to analyze how firms in a large firm-led industrial city have carried out the restructuring in the face of radical shifts, with focus on the strategy and the restructuring of firms in Ulsan, a typical industrial district in Korea that is specialized in heavy & chemical industry. It has been well known that the local economy has been led by a small number of large firms, including affiliates of chaebol, and its industrial structure has also been characterised as a clear dichotomy between large firms as a customer and small and medium-size firms as a supplier, which can be called not horizontal but vertical relations. It can identify some tendencies, however, that local companies have been rather dynamically changing in response to increasingly turbulent environment since the Asian crisis. Some are radical, but some incremental. These can be summarized in four distinctive but interlinked ways. First, more than half of local companies surveyed have attempted to change their production systems, mainly from the fordist mass production towards the flexible mass production, seeking both economies of scale and scope. Second, local firms have vigorously continued to reorganize the boundary of the production and the organization, by specializing products and focusing on the core competence in order to save costs and cope with radically changing customer demands in a flexible way. Third, there have been various strategies for the organizational innovation such as the introduction of team organization, the boundary blurring between the managerial and production workers and the intra-firm spin-offs, so as to improve managerial efficiency and competence in the use of internal labour market. Finally, they have tried to be more sensitive to the market and customers. These tendencies seem to be increasingly critical to sustain their competitiveness. To do so, they tend to focus increasingly not only on the competing via the product quality rather than through price, but also to seek to diversify the market and customer firms beyond national boundary.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.57-92
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• 2016

The Correlations Between the Labour Market Structure and Poverty of the Regions The main objectives of this study are to make an investigation into the spatial characteristics of poverty and to analyze the effects of regional labour market structure. Most previous studies on poverty were more likely to examine internal factors like the characteristics of poor households or family structures than external factors in terms of the regional environments. In order to achieve these goals, this study used the Small Area Estimation designed to estimate the income of each household and then calculate the poverty rate of each local area in order to examine the spatial characteristics of poverty. The poverty distribution in Korea showed the local labour market structures effect on the region poverty rate. The Korean economy now exhibits a big gap between the haves and the have-nots and between urban areas and rural areas. The poverty rate of particular regions will increase and those in the areas will face deteriorated circumstances falling into poverty traps. This study reflects this stern reality and empirically proved the strong need for consideration of regional characteristics in conducting studies on poverty and related policy amendments.

• Review of Culture and Economy
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.59-88
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• 2018

This study examines demand of the Korean TV VOD using monthly aggregate data and time series analysis models. In particular, the impact of box office attendance, number of IPTV subscribers, income and price of substitutes on TV VOD market is analyzed. Data on TV VOD download during the period 2013 January to 2018 June are used for the empirical analysis. TV VOD demand shows lower level of seasonality than box office attendance and the share of monthly top1 movie in TV VOD platform is also lower than that of box office attendance. The relationship between a movie's holdback and box office performance does not seem consistent. The empirical result of ARDL model reveals that in the short-run box office attendance, number of IPTV subscribers and price of substitutes have significant impact on TV VOD demand. The result on the long-term relation shows that income is the only determinant of TV VOD demand. The impact of box office attendance on TV VOD is not shown to be robust both for the short-term and long-term.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.44
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• pp.123-145
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• 2016

A flow of generative change has existed in the Chinese media following political, economic, and institutional changes. Since a market system was introduced to the field of drama production, people called 'zhipianren' who act as government agents as well as market administrators have spontaneously emerged. The government, by granting legal qualifications and authority to these 'zhipianren', have institutionalized and absorbed them within the system. Through this process, the 'drama zhipianren system', under the unique environment of a socialist market economy, demonstrates a Chinese administrative model that effectively reveals the changing process from a direct administration by the government to indirect administration and self-censorship. Furthermore, with the widespread adoption of the internet, various types of media including grassroots media have emerged, and the participation and production activities of netizens has enabled the development of a new genre of literature called internet literature. Furthermore, some websites that functioned as platforms for video and grassroots media came to self-produce contents so as to function as media in and of themselves. Originally, the internet was cultivated as a portion of the IT industry, but when it began to function as media, forming a new media landscape, regulations and institutions were gradually established and subsequently advanced in the direction of supervision and regulation over all internet media contents. A flow of generative change in the field of media has emerged, and the pattern of generation-convergence repeats itself as the official media policies converge.

• 한국사회정책
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.137-161
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• 2012

Traditionally, caring for young children and the elderly has been largely assumed and practiced intensively within the family in Korea. The Korean government established residual protection systems for the elderly as well as children whose needs could not be met by their family members alone. However, in the 21st century, a number of social forces have made it necessary to expand the state's intervention in the care provisions. The primary forces include the ageing process, low fertility, change in the women's labour market participation, changes in the family formation and dissolution, and changes in the people's perceptions of familial responsibilities regarding caring for other family members. This paper employs and further develops the idea of the care diamond conceived by the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development Project in relation to the political and social economy of care and applies it to Korea's social care expansions. The analysis demonstrates that the roles of the public and the market sector, in case of child care, increased while those of the third sector decreased. Apropos of the elderly care, the role of the market expanded dramatically, followed by that of and the state and the third sector. Nonetheless, it is important to note that the fundamental characteristics of Korea's care provision for children and the elderly have remained unchanged and even strengthened where the elderly care is concerned. The bulk of personal care demand is still met within the family, particularly by female members of the household.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.368-377
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• 2021

Plum is a typical fruit that is consumed processed rather than raw. In this study, we manufactured one of the processed foods, viz., plum Jangachi. In this process, the manpower-dependent seed separation and flesh cutting operations were automated by mechanizing, thereby altering the manufacturing process. Quality and Safety were assessed through microbial evaluation, analysis of color, and detection of preservatives in the plum Jangachi. Preference factors were identified through sensual evaluation. When compared with other plum Jangachi currently available in the market, our product was determined to contain 2.7±0.1 Log CFU/g total aerobic bacteria, which is slightly higher than the average of other products. This was not surprising, as the figures are due to the inherent characteristics, which were determined to be lower as compared to other commercial plum Jangachi. Other coliforms, tar dyes, and preservatives were undetected, thereby conferring satisfactory Quality and Safety. In general, there was no statistical difference in the sensual evaluation and appearance; overall, our product received better feedbacks than products on the market. Taken together, our results provide a foundation for applying the mechanization of plum-processed foods, thereby promoting the local economy in the main production area, and overall characteristics obtained are regarded sufficient in terms of market competitiveness.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.135-149
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• 2021

Purpose - I analyzes risk-to-performance evaluated in the market using data from sale and lease back. Specifically, I analyze from the perspective of financial institutions that purchase sale and lease back based on the cases of investment by ship investment companies and acquisition of ships. Design/methodology/approach - I use 49 sale and lease back data from 2017 to 2019 for empirical analysis. Findings - The main results of this paper are as follows. First, after sale and lease back of domestic ships, the average amount of sales by the leased shipping company is 25.1 billion won, the average amount of investment by the purchased financial institution is 14.6 billion won (60%) and the average length of the ship is nine years. In ship finance, sale and lease back is deemed to be appropriately used as a means of restructuring for a large amount of money. Second, the main risk factor for sale and lease back of domestic ships is credit risk and can be measured in VaR in practice. As a result of the empirical analysis, the average credit risk burden ratio is 9%. As a major risk factor, low creditworthiness of restructuring companies is the key. Third, as a result of measuring the profitability of financial institutions that purchase sale and lease back of domestic ships at a net current price, it has an average value of 300 million won, but the deviation by case is very large. Fourth, the risk adjusted performance of sale and lease back of domestic ships is 0.54 on average compared to the total risk capital, and 0.52 compared to the stock-risk capital, and as with profitability earlier, the deviation of each case is very large and misaligned. In order to boost the sale and lease back market for large and long-term assets, in order to overcome low profitability as a prerequisite for future participation of commercial purchased financial institutions, it is expected that purchase decisions based on expectations versus risk will be necessary. Research implications or Originality - The results of this paper are expected to broaden the understanding of sale and lease back and foster the ability to assess long-term risk and performance. Based on this, it is believed that rapid restructuring of companies through sale and lease back of large amounts of long-term assets will greatly increase the utility of the domestic financial market.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.1-21
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• 2024

Recently, venture capital investment has been shrinking globally due to high interest rates and economic slowdown. Korea is no exception. Due to the downturn in the M&A and public markets, increasing economic uncertainty, and the aftermath of corporate bankruptcies, venture capitalists are facing many difficulties in raising funds. In the changed economic environment, the investment decision factors of venture capitalists have also changed. However, studies on VCs' investment decisions have focused on the general economic environment. This study examines how VCs' investment decision-making factors change during economic recessions and booms. To this end, we interviewed active investors who have experienced both economic recessions and booms to compare how VCs' investment decision factors change: 1) personal characteristics of founders, 2) experience of founders, 3) product/service, 4) market, 5) financial situation, 6) contract terms and 7) venture capital co-investment. The results showed that founder's personal characteristics, experience, and product/service were more important during the economic recession. Market is slightly more important during economic booms. The importance of financial situation and investment conditions increased sharply during the recession compared to the boom. Finally, venture capital co-investment did not differ significantly between recessions and booms. By understanding the investment decision-making factors of venture capitalists in the recent difficult venture investment environment, this study aims to help startups raise funds and survive in a difficult market.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.93-105
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• 2024

Car-sharing is a representative model of the sharing economy, and it is a service that rents or uses a car for the necessary time without owning a car. This industry is growing due to various factors such as technological advances, increasing awareness of environmental protection, and increasing demand for solving traffic congestion problems in cities. Accordingly, there is a need for a strategic approach for companies providing car-sharing services to respond quickly to market changes in order to expand market share and differentiate services. Accordingly, this study conducted a case study on open innovation activities between Gongcar and existing rental car companies, focusing on the research question "What effects do open innovation activities between car-sharing companies and existing rental car companies cause?" As a result of the study, it was confirmed that Gongcar have (1) the ability to actively respond to market fluctuations by establishing a flexible vehicle supply chain based on demand, (2) have significantly reduced growth capital expenditure (Growth Capex), and both cafe and rental car companies have (3) performed successful open innovation by improving key KPI indicators and recording financial performance. This study reveals how open innovation acts as a key business growth engine in the car-sharing industry, and its significance is found in that it empirically confirmed the successful implementation conditions of open innovation based on resource dependence theory.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.39-59
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• 2007

The international involvement of a firm has been described as a gradual development process "a process in which the enterprise gradually increases its international involvement in many studies. This process evolves in the interplay between the development of knowledge about foreign markets and operations on one hand and increasing commitment of resources to foreign markets on the other." On the basis of Uppsala internationalization model, many studies strengthen strong theoretical and empirical support. According to the predictions of the classic stages theory, the internationalization process of firms have been recognized and characterized gradual evolution to foreign markets, so called stage theory: indirect & direct export, strategic alliance and foreign direct investment. However, termed "international new ventures" (McDougall, Shane, and Oviatt 1994), "born globals" (Knight 1997; Knight and Cavusgil 1996; Madsen and Servais 1997), "instant internationals" (Preece, Miles, and Baetz 1999), or "global startups" (Oviatt and McDougall 1994) have been used and come into spotlight in internationalization study of technology intensity venture companies. Recent researches focused on venture company have suggested the phenomenons of 'born global' firms as a contradiction to the stages theory. Especially the article by Oviatt and McDougall threw the spotlight on international entrepreneurs, on international new ventures, and on their importance in the globalising world economy. Since venture companies have, by definition. lack of economies of scale, lack of resources (financial and knowledge), and aversion to risk taking, they have a difficulty in expanding their market to abroad and pursue internalization gradually and step by step. However many venture companies have pursued 'Born Global Strategy', which is different from process strategy, because corporate's environment has been rapidly changing to globalization. The existing studies investigate that (1) why the ventures enter into overseas market in those early stage, even in infancy, (2) what make the different international strategy among ventures and the born global strategy is better to the infant ventures. However, as for venture's performance(growth and profitability), the existing results do not correspond each other. They also, don't include marketing strategy (differentiation, low price, market breadth and market pioneer) that is important factors in studying of BGV's performance. In this paper I aim to delineate the appearance of international new ventures and the phenomenons of venture companies' internationalization strategy. In order to verify research problems, I develop a resource-based model and marketing strategies for analyzing the effects of the born global venture firms. In this paper, I suggested 3 research problems. First, do the korean venture companies take some advantages in the aspects of corporate's performances (growth, profitability and overall market performances) when they pursue internationalization from inception? Second, do the korean BGV have firm specific assets (foreign experiences, foreign orientation, organizational absorptive capacity)? Third, What are the marketing strategies of korean BGV and is it different from others? Under these problems, I test then (1) whether the BGV that a firm started its internationalization activity almost from inception, has more intangible resources(foreign experience of corporate members, foreign orientation, technological competences and absorptive capacity) than any other venture firms(Non_BGV) and (2) also whether the BGV's marketing strategies-differentiation, low price, market diversification and preemption strategy are different from Non_BGV. Above all, the main purpose of this research is that results achieved by BGV are indeed better than those obtained by Non_BGV firms with respect to firm's growth rate and efficiency. To do this research, I surveyed venture companies located in Seoul and Deajeon in Korea during November to December, 2005. I gather the data from 200 venture companies and then selected 84 samples, which have been founded during 1999${\sim}$2000. To compare BGV's characteristics with those of Non_BGV, I also had to classify BGV by export intensity over 50% among five or six aged venture firms. Many other researches tried to classify BGV and Non_BGV, but there were various criterion as many as researchers studied on this topic. Some of them use time gap, which is time difference of establishment and it's first internationalization experience and others use export intensity, ration of export sales amount divided by total sales amount. Although using a mixed criterion of prior research in my case, I do think this kinds of criterion is subjective and arbitrary rather than objective, so I do mention my research has some critical limitation in the classification of BGV and Non_BGV. The first purpose of research is the test of difference of performance between BGV and Non_BGV. As a result of t-test, the research show that there are statistically efficient difference not only in the growth rate (sales growth rate compared to competitors and 3 years averaged sales growth rate) but also in general market performance of BGV. But in case of profitability performance, the hypothesis that is BGV is more profit (return on investment(ROI) compared to competitors and 3 years averaged ROI) than Non-BGV was not supported. From these results, this paper concludes that BGV grows rapidly and gets a high market performance (in aspect of market share and customer loyalty) but there is no profitability difference between BGV and Non_BGV. The second result is that BGV have more absorptive capacity especially, knowledge competence, and entrepreneur's international experience than Non_BGV. And this paper also found BGV search for product differentiation, exemption strategy and market diversification strategy while Non_BGV search for low price strategy. These results have never been dealt with other existing studies. This research has some limitations. First limitation is concerned about the definition of BGV, as I mentioned above. Conceptually speaking, BGV is defined as company pursue internationalization from inception, but in empirical study, it's very difficult to classify between BGV and Non_BGV. I tried to classify on the basis of time difference and export intensity, this criterions are so subjective and arbitrary that the results are not robust if the criterion were changed. Second limitation is concerned about sample used in this research. I surveyed venture companies just located in Seoul and Daejeon and also use only 84 samples which more or less provoke sample bias problem and generalization of results. I think the more following studies that focus on ventures located in other region, the better to verify the results of this paper.