Organic production practices varied among producers. Generally, organic producers were relying on imported input materials such as organic compost and liquid fertilizer even more than conventional producers. Very few organic farmers had composting facilities or sites for the own supply of compost in need. The productivity of organic kiwifruit orchard (92%) was not as low as that of conventional while the net income (243%) was more than double that of conventional. This was mainly attributed to high farm gate price of organic fruits, low paid labour use and electricity. As a consequence, organic kiwifruit production seems to become a feasible option in Korea. However, high dependence on imported farming material, fuel and labour for too frequent liquid fertilizer spray should be addressed to achieve long term sustainability of organic kiwifruit production.
Purpose - It is widely accepted that the process of developing marketing strategy is composed of three steps: market segmentation, target market selection and positioning. However, mass marketing strategy based on cost reduction through economies of scale and standardized products, can be also an effective strategic option. Many marketing scholars including Theodore Levitt emphasize the importance of applying the mass production concept to various industries including service industries. Especially, in times of economic downturn, the capability of providing consumers with low-priced, value products can be an important source of competitive advantage, as well as the ability of providing high-priced premium products. Marketers should decide whether they will implement mass marketing strategy or target marketing strategy. The present study theoretically shows that firms should understand the target customers' price elasticity as well as the firm's cost structure in order to make such a strategic decision. Research design, data, and methodology - Instead of implementing an empirical study, this study provides a theoretical(mathematical) investigation on the effect of consumers' price elasticity on a firm's optimal price level, profit, sales volume, revenue, and cost. The results are mostly deduced from derivative calculations and several graphs are utilized to represent the results on the relationships between the variables under study. Results - The analytical results suggest that it is more profitable for a firm to adopt the segment/target marketing strategy (more specifically the differentiation strategy) when the degree of consumers' heterogeneity is high and the proportion of the fixed cost in the total cost is low. On the other hand, if the degree of consumers' heterogeneity is low and the fixed cost is high, it is better to adopt the mass marketing strategy or the cost leadership strategy. The strategy of concentrating on a single target market will be effective when consumers' needs are highly heterogeneous but the fixed cost is high. Any of the three types of generic strategies proposed my Porter(1980, 1985) can be applied when both the consumers' heterogeneity and the fixed cost are low. This study also proposes the contribution-margin-based method for developing the optimal pricing strategy. Conclusions - One of the primary roles of marketers is to find a proper compromise between the two conflicting goals of maximizing customer satisfaction and minimizing cost. In order to do so, he or she should understand the characteristics of the target customers as well as the cost structure of the firm. In addition to the theoretical analyses, this study discusses several business cases and explains how superior companies find the optimal compromise position between these two goals and dominate the market. One of the radical changes recently taking place in business arena is the reduction of production and distribution costs of both physical goods and information due to the advancement and the wide diffusion of information technology. The cost reduction combined with lowered priced elasticity incurred by customized products and services, will enable many firms to adopt the mass customization strategy.
Saemangeum Development is the largest national project in South Korea, which has been developed for an agricultural, economic and tourist area for 30 years from 1987. In order to convert power sources that used to depend on nuclear and thermal power to eco-friendly for carbon reduction, the government plans to construct a 2.1GW floating photovoltaic project by investing 4.6 trillion won, as a public-private project. For success of the Saemangeum floating photovoltaic project, economic feasibility should be checked. This study defined the factors (construction cost, electricity selling price, power generation and maintenance cost) that give a effect to the volatility of the floating photovoltaic payoffs, and analyzed the volatility of payoffs during 20 years operation period. NPV and option value of the project were calculated by applying an option to abandon. According to NPV analysis, it is determined that projects are difficult to invest. But this project has economic feasibility through real options analysis. This study is expected to help decision-makers in the economic analysis of floating photovoltaic projects by using the real options analysis.
The deviation from put-call parity condition may affect market prices since it provides an opportunity of arbitrage to many participants. This study uses the KOSPI200 index data and examines the interdependence among spot, futures, and options contracts by examining whether the deviations from the parity have significant roles in price formation. Whenever the parity condition is violated, the deviation tends to affect the prices significantly in most markets. The results show that positive values of deviation are associated with the fall of the prices in the spot and put option contracts and the rise of the call option premiums, thus decreasing the deviations. Also, the decreasing impact of deviations lasts for at Beast an hour in most markets. Futures prices, however, do not show clear relations with the deviations, which suggests the possibility that futures markets lead other markets.
Agriculture is a primary industry that influenced by the weather or meterological factors more than other industry. Global warming and worldwide climate changes, and unusual weather phenomena are fatal in agricultural industry and human life. Therefore, many previous studies have been made to find the relationship between weather and the productivity of agriculture. Meterological factors also influence on the distribution of agricultural product. For example, price of agricultural product is determined in the market, and also influenced by the weather of the market. However, there is only a few study was made to find this link. The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of meterological factors on the distribution of agricultural products, focusing on the distribution of chinese cabbages. Chinese cabbage is a main ingredient of Kimchi, and basic essential vegetable in Korean dinner table. However, the production of chinese cabbages is influenced by weather and very fluctuating so that the variation of its price is so unstable. Therefore, both consumers and farmers do not feel comfortable at the unstable price of chinese cabbages. In this study, we analyze the real transaction data of chinese cabbage in wholesale markets and meterological factors depending on the variety and geography. We collect and analyze data of meterological factors such as temperatures, humidity, cloudiness, rainfall, snowfall, wind speed, insolation, sunshine duration in producing and consuming region of chinese cabbages. The result of this study shows that the meterological factors such as temperature and humidity significantly influence on the volume and price of chinese cabbage transaction in wholesale market. Especially, the weather of consuming region has greater correlation effects on transaction than that of producing region in all types of chinese cabbages. Among the whole agricultural lifecycle of chinese cabbages, 'seeding - harvest - shipment - wholesale', meterological factors such as temperature and rainfall in shipment and wholesale period are significantly correlated with transaction volume and price of crops. Based on the result of correlation analysis, we make a regression analysis to verify the meterological factors' effects on the volume and price of chines cabbage transaction in wholesale market. The results of stepwise regression analysis are shown in