• Title/Summary/Keyword: Package Structure

Search Result 500, Processing Time 0.024 seconds

Studying the Comparative Analysis of Highway Traffic Accident Severity Using the Random Forest Method. (Random Forest를 활용한 고속도로 교통사고 심각도 비교분석에 관한 연구)

  • Sun-min Lee;Byoung-Jo Yoon;WutYeeLwin
    • Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
    • /
    • v.20 no.1
    • /
    • pp.156-168
    • /
    • 2024
  • Purpose: The trend of highway traffic accidents shows a repeating pattern of increase and decrease, with the fatality rate being highest on highways among all road types. Therefore, there is a need to establish improvement measures that reflect the situation within the country. Method: We conducted accident severity analysis using Random Forest on data from accidents occurring on 10 specific routes with high accident rates among national highways from 2019 to 2021. Factors influencing accident severity were identified. Result: The analysis, conducted using the SHAP package to determine the top 10 variable importance, revealed that among highway traffic accidents, the variables with a significant impact on accident severity are the age of the perpetrator being between 20 and less than 39 years, the time period being daytime (06:00-18:00), occurrence on weekends (Sat-Sun), seasons being summer and winter, violation of traffic regulations (failure to comply with safe driving), road type being a tunnel, geometric structure having a high number of lanes and a high speed limit. We identified a total of 10 independent variables that showed a positive correlation with highway traffic accident severity. Conclusion: As accidents on highways occur due to the complex interaction of various factors, predicting accidents poses significant challenges. However, utilizing the results obtained from this study, there is a need for in-depth analysis of the factors influencing the severity of highway traffic accidents. Efforts should be made to establish efficient and rational response measures based on the findings of this research.

International Research Trends in Science-Related Risk Education: A Bibliometric Analysis (상세 서지분석을 통한 과학과 관련된 위험 교육의 국제 연구 동향 분석)

  • Wonbin Jang;Minchul Kim
    • Journal of Science Education
    • /
    • v.48 no.2
    • /
    • pp.75-90
    • /
    • 2024
  • Contemporary society faces increasingly diverse risks with expanding impacts. In response, the importance of science education has become more prominent. This study aims to analyze the characteristics of existing research on science-related risk education and derives implications for such education. Using detailed bibliometric analysis, we collected citation data from 83 international scholarly journals (SSCI) in the field of education indexed in the Web of Science with the keywords 'Scientific Risk.' Subsequently, using the bibliometrix package in R-Studio, we conducted a bibliometric analysis. The findings are as follows. Firstly, research on risk education covers topics such as risk literacy, the structure of risks addressed in science education, and the application and effectiveness of incorporating risk cases into educational practices. Secondly, a significant portion of research on risks related to science education has been conducted within the framework of socioscientific issues (SSI) education. Thirdly, it was observed that research on risks related to science education primarily focuses on the transmission of scientific knowledge, with many studies examining formal education settings such as curricula and school learning environments. These findings imply several key points. Firstly, to effectively address risks in contemporary society, the scope of risk education should extend beyond topics such as nuclear energy and climate change to encompass broader issues like environmental pollution, AI, and various aspects of daily life. Secondly, there is a need to reexamine and further research topics explored in the context of SSI education within the framework of risk education. Thirdly, it is necessary to analyze not only risk perception but also risk assessment and risk management. Lastly, there is a need for research on implementing risk education practices in informal educational settings, such as science museums and media.

The Polymer Bonding for Low-temperature Cu Hybrid Bonding (저온 Cu 하이브리드 본딩을 위한 폴리머 본딩)

  • Ji Hun Kim;Jong Kyung Park
    • Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
    • /
    • v.31 no.3
    • /
    • pp.1-9
    • /
    • 2024
  • This paper addresses the significance of Cu/Polymer Hybrid Bonding technology in the advancement of semiconductor packaging. As the demands of the AI era increase, the semiconductor industry is exploring heterogeneous integration packaging technologies to achieve high I/O counts, low power consumption, efficient heat dissipation, multifunctionality, and miniaturization. The conventional Cu/SiO2 Hybrid Bonding structure faces limitations such as achieving compatibility with CMP processes to attain surface roughness below 1nm and the occurrence of bonding defects due to particles. However, Cu/Polymer Hybrid Bonding technology, utilizing polymers, is gaining attention as a promising alternative to overcome these challenges. This study focuses on the deposition, patterning, and material properties of polymers essential for Cu/Polymer Hybrid Bonding, highlighting the advantages and potential applications of this technology compared to existing methods. Specifically, the use of polymers with low glass transition temperatures (Tg) is discussed for their benefits in low-temperature bonding processes and improved mechanical properties due to their high coefficients of thermal expansion. Furthermore, the study explores surface property modifications of polymers and the enhancement of bonding mechanisms through plasma treatment. This research emphasizes that Cu/Polymer Hybrid Bonding technology can serve as a critical breakthrough in developing high-performance, low-power semiconductor devices within the industry.

Performance Optimization of Numerical Ocean Modeling on Cloud Systems (클라우드 시스템에서 해양수치모델 성능 최적화)

  • JUNG, KWANGWOOG;CHO, YANG-KI;TAK, YONG-JIN
    • The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
    • /
    • v.27 no.3
    • /
    • pp.127-143
    • /
    • 2022
  • Recently, many attempts to run numerical ocean models in cloud computing environments have been tried actively. A cloud computing environment can be an effective means to implement numerical ocean models requiring a large-scale resource or quickly preparing modeling environment for global or large-scale grids. Many commercial and private cloud computing systems provide technologies such as virtualization, high-performance CPUs and instances, ether-net based high-performance-networking, and remote direct memory access for High Performance Computing (HPC). These new features facilitate ocean modeling experimentation on commercial cloud computing systems. Many scientists and engineers expect cloud computing to become mainstream in the near future. Analysis of the performance and features of commercial cloud services for numerical modeling is essential in order to select appropriate systems as this can help to minimize execution time and the amount of resources utilized. The effect of cache memory is large in the processing structure of the ocean numerical model, which processes input/output of data in a multidimensional array structure, and the speed of the network is important due to the communication characteristics through which a large amount of data moves. In this study, the performance of the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS), the High Performance Linpack (HPL) benchmarking software package, and STREAM, the memory benchmark were evaluated and compared on commercial cloud systems to provide information for the transition of other ocean models into cloud computing. Through analysis of actual performance data and configuration settings obtained from virtualization-based commercial clouds, we evaluated the efficiency of the computer resources for the various model grid sizes in the virtualization-based cloud systems. We found that cache hierarchy and capacity are crucial in the performance of ROMS using huge memory. The memory latency time is also important in the performance. Increasing the number of cores to reduce the running time for numerical modeling is more effective with large grid sizes than with small grid sizes. Our analysis results will be helpful as a reference for constructing the best computing system in the cloud to minimize time and cost for numerical ocean modeling.

Development of Korean Green Business/IT Strategies Based on Priority Analysis (한국의 그린 비즈니스/IT 실태분석을 통한 추진전략 우선순위 도출에 관한 연구)

  • Kim, Jae-Kyeong;Choi, Ju-Choel;Choi, Il-Young
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
    • /
    • v.20 no.3
    • /
    • pp.191-204
    • /
    • 2010
  • Recently, the CO2 emission and energy consumption have become critical global issues to decide the future of nations. Especially, the spread of IT products and the increased use of internet and web applications result in the energy consumption and CO2 emission of IT industry though information technologies drive global economic growth. EU, the United States, Japan and other developed countries are using IT related environmental regulations such as WEEE(Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment), RoHS(Restriction of the use of Certain Hazardous Substance), REACH(Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of CHemicals) and EuP(Energy using Product), and have established systematic green business/IT strategies to enhance the competitiveness of IT industry. For example, the Japan government proposed the "Green IT initiative" for being compatible with economic growth and environmental protection. Not only energy saving technologies but energy saving systems have been developed for accomplishing sustainable development. Korea's CO2 emission and energy consumption continuously have grown at comparatively high rates. They are related to its industrial structure depending on high energy-consuming industries such as iron and steel Industry, automotive industry, shipbuilding industry, semiconductor industry, and so on. In particular, export proportion of IT manufacturing is quite high in Korea. For example, the global market share of the semiconductor such as DRAM was about 80% in 2008. Accordingly, Korea needs to establish a systematic strategy to respond to the global environmental regulations and to maintain competitiveness in the IT industry. However, green competitiveness of Korea ranked 11th among 15 major countries and R&D budget for green technology is not large enough to develop energy-saving technologies for infrastructure and value chain of low-carbon society though that grows at high rates. Moreover, there are no concrete action plans in Korea. This research aims to deduce the priorities of the Korean green business/IT strategies to use multi attribute weighted average method. We selected a panel of 19 experts who work at the green business related firms such as HP, IBM, Fujitsu and so on, and selected six assessment indices such as the urgency of the technology development, the technology gap between Korea and the developed countries, the effect of import substitution, the spillover effect of technology, the market growth, and the export potential of the package or stand-alone products by existing literature review. We submitted questionnaires at approximately weekly intervals to them for priorities of the green business/IT strategies. The strategies broadly classify as follows. The first strategy which consists of the green business/IT policy and standardization, process and performance management and IT industry and legislative alignment relates to government's role in the green economy. The second strategy relates to IT to support environment sustainability such as the travel and ways of working management, printer output and recycling, intelligent building, printer rationalization and collaboration and connectivity. The last strategy relates to green IT systems, services and usage such as the data center consolidation and energy management, hardware recycle decommission, server and storage virtualization, device power management, and service supplier management. All the questionnaires were assessed via a five-point Likert scale ranging from "very little" to "very large." Our findings show that the IT to support environment sustainability is prior to the other strategies. In detail, the green business /IT policy and standardization is the most important in the government's role. The strategies of intelligent building and the travel and ways of working management are prior to the others for supporting environment sustainability. Finally, the strategies for the data center consolidation and energy management and server and storage virtualization have the huge influence for green IT systems, services and usage This research results the following implications. The amount of energy consumption and CO2 emissions of IT equipment including electrical business equipment will need to be clearly indicated in order to manage the effect of green business/IT strategy. And it is necessary to develop tools that measure the performance of green business/IT by each step. Additionally, intelligent building could grow up in energy-saving, growth of low carbon and related industries together. It is necessary to expand the affect of virtualization though adjusting and controlling the relationship between the management teams.

A Study on the Application Direction of Finite Element Analysis in the Field of Packaging through Research Trend Analysis in Korea (국내 연구 동향 분석을 통한 포장분야에서 유한요소해석의 적용 방향에 관한 고찰)

  • Lee, Hakrae;Jeon, Kyubae;Ko, Euisuk;Shim, Woncheol;Kang, Wookgun;Kim, Jaineung
    • KOREAN JOURNAL OF PACKAGING SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
    • /
    • v.23 no.3
    • /
    • pp.191-200
    • /
    • 2017
  • Proper packaging design can meet both the environmental and economic aspects of packaging materials by reducing the use of packaging materials, waste generation, material costs, and logistics costs. Finite element analysis(FEM) is used as a useful tool in various fields such as structural analysis, heat transfer, fluid motion, and electromagnetic field, but its application in the field of packaging is still insufficient. Therefore, the application of FEM to the field of packaging can save the cost and time in the future research because it is possible to design the package by computer simulation, and it is possible to reduce the packaging waste and logistics cost through proper packaging design. Therefore, this study investigated the FEM papers published in Korea for the purpose of helping research design using FEM program in the field of packaging in the future. In this paper, we analyzed the 29 papers that were directly related to the analysis of FEM papers published in domestic journals from 1991 to 2017. As a result, we analyzed the research topic, FEM program, and analysis method using each paper, and presented the direction that can be applied in future packaging field. When the FEM is applied to the packaging field, it is possible to change the structure and reduce the thickness through the stress and vibration analysis applied to the packaging material, thereby reducing the cost by improving the mechanical strength and reducing the amount of the packaging material. Therefore, in the field of packaging research in the future, if the FEM is performed together, economical and reasonable packaging design will be possible.

A study on the Logical Reclassification of Parcel Service Tariffs (택배요금기준의 합리적 재설정에 관한 연구)

  • Cho, Yoon-Sung;Lee, Tae-Hwee
    • Journal of Distribution Science
    • /
    • v.10 no.5
    • /
    • pp.45-55
    • /
    • 2012
  • In Korea, the parcel delivery service was launched officially in 1992, and the market has grown to 13.2 billion units, or 3.5 trillion won, as of 2011. The service companies accept small packages under 30 kg and deliver them on the next day in most domestic areas. This service plays an important role in business and personal activities. The parcel service companies have themselves designed the tariff for the delivery service based on two criteria: weight and the sum of three side lengths. Further, the tariff is graded in steps of three or four rate structures based on size (small, medium, large, and extra-small). However, the basic freight rate is generally decided according to the cargo's weight or measurement size, and an extra rate is added according to some factors (handling, stowability, liability, and so on). The parcel service tariff adopted by the companies is illogically designed, and this study was carried out to assess the need for redesigning the tariff structure. The cargo volume cannot be logically reflected by three side lengths. For example, two parcels measuring 160 cm based on three side lengths may have different volumes, one measuring 0.152 cbm (53.33 cm × 53.33 cm × 53.34 cm) and the other 0.05 cbm (100 cm × 50 cm × 10 cm). A small package of less than120 cm (sum of three side lengths) may have a volume of as much as 0.064 cbm (40 cm × 40 cm × 40 cm). Sample comparison showed that 17% of medium-size parcels (based on the sum of three side lengths) are small-volume packages, 24% of large-size parcels are small- or medium-volume packages, and 40% of extra-big-size parcels are big- or under-size packages. Therefore, if parcel service companies rate their services for volume cargo based on the three side lengths standard, users may have to pay higher than normal rates, particularly because a large percentage of parcels are volume cargo. According to this study, the average weight per 1 cbm is less than 300 kg. Therefore, users face an increasing risk of paying higher than logical freight charges. Generally, transportation companies are called "public interest enterprises," and parcel service companies operate as postal services. Public interest enterprises must provide the delivery service to all customers without discrimination at a reasonable service level and logical service charges. Therefore, parcels service tariffs must be designed and adopted logically. In this study, freight theories and prior research findings were used to consider the importance of freight rates, and distortion of parcel service rates based on the three side lengths system was verified through regression analysis of a parcel sample and sample comparison. In conclusion, volume sizes based on three side lengths have a higher correlation to the rate level than does the sum of three side lengths. Further, compared to the sum of three side lengths, volume size has a higher correlation to cargo weight, which is the most basic factor determining transportation cost. Therefore, the existing parcel service tariff should be changed to weight- and volume-based rates, and the tariff must be graded in steps of 8 to 10 higher rate structures for a logical freight schedule based on service cost.

  • PDF

Mediation analysis of dietary habits, nutrient intakes, daily life in the relationship between working hours of Korean shift workers and metabolic syndrome : the sixth (2013 ~ 2015) Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (교대근무자의 근무시간과 대사증후군의 관계에서 식습관, 영양섭취상태, 일상생활의 매개효과 분석 : 6기 국민건강영양조사 (2013 ~ 2015) 데이터 이용)

  • Kim, Yoona;Kim, Hyeon Hee;Lim, Dong Hoon
    • Journal of Nutrition and Health
    • /
    • v.51 no.6
    • /
    • pp.567-579
    • /
    • 2018
  • Purpose: This study examined the mediation effects of dietary habits, nutrient intake, daily life in the relationship between the working hours of Korean shift workers and metabolic syndrome. Methods: Data were collected from the sixth (2013-2015) Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES). The stochastic regression imputation was used to fill missing data. Statistical analysis was performed in Korean shift workers with metabolic syndrome using the SPSS 24 program for Windows and a structural equation model (SEM) using an analysis of moment structure (AMOS) 21.0 package. Results: The model fitted the data well in terms of the goodness of fit index (GFI) = 0.939, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.025, normed fit index (NFI) = 0.917, Tucker-Lewis index (TLI) = 0.984, comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.987, and adjusted goodness of fit index (AGFI) = 0.915. Specific mediation effect of dietary habits (p = 0.023) was statistically significant in the impact of the working hours of shift workers on nutrient intake, and specific mediation effect of daily life (p = 0.019) was statistically significant in the impact of the working hours of shift workers on metabolic syndrome. On the other hand, the dietary habits, nutrient intake and daily life had no significant multiple mediator effects on the working hours of shift workers with metabolic syndrome. Conclusion: The appropriate model suggests that working hours have direct effect on the daily life, which has the mediation effect on the risk of metabolic syndrome in shift workers.

The Determination of Trust in Franchisor-Franchisee Relationships in China (중국 프랜차이즈 시스템에서의 본부와 가맹점간 신뢰의 영향요인)

  • Shin, Geon-Cheol;Ma, Yaokun
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
    • /
    • v.18 no.2
    • /
    • pp.65-88
    • /
    • 2008
  • Since the implementation of economic reforms in 1978, the Chinese economy grows rapidly at an average annul growth rate of 9% over the post two decades. Franchising has been widely recognized as an important source of entrepreneurial activity. Trust is important in that it facilitates relational exchanges by permits partners to transcend short-run inequities or risks to concentrate on long-term profits or gains. In the relationship between the franchisors and franchisees, trust has been described as an important source of competitive advantage. However, little research has been done on the factors affecting trust in Chinese franchisor-franchisee relationships. The purpose of this study is to investigate what factors affect the trust in the franchise system in China, and to provide guidelines and insights to franchisors which enter Chinese market. In this study, according to Morgan and Hunt (1994), trust is defined as the extending when one party has confidence in an exchange partner's reliability and integrity. We offered a conceptual model of the empirical study. The model shows that the factors affecting the trust include franchisor's supports, communication, satisfaction with previous outcome and conflict. We also suggested the franchisor's supports and communication like to enhance the franchisee's satisfaction with previous outcome, and the franchisor's supports, communication and he franchisee's satisfaction with previous outcome tend to decrease conflict. Before the formal study, a pretest involving exploratory interviews with owners from three franchisees was conducted to make sure the questionnaire was relevant and clear to the respondents. The data were collected using trained interviewers to carry out personal interviews with the aid of an unidentified, muti-page, structured questionnaire. The respondents comprised of owners, managers, and owner managers of franchisee-owned food service franchises located in Beijing, China. Even though a total of 256 potential franchises were initially contacted, the finally usable sample consisted of 125 respondents. As expected, the sampling method was successful in soliciting respondents with waried personal and firm characteristics. Self-administrated questionnaires were used for all measures. And established scales were used to measure the latent constructs in this study. The measures tapped the franchisees' perceptions of the relationship with the referent franchisor. Five-point Likert-type scales ranging from "strongly disagree" (=1) to "strongly agree" (=7) were used throughout the constructs (trust, eight items; support, five items; communication, four items; satisfaction, six items; conflict, three items). The reliability measurements traditionally employed, such as the Cronbach's alpha, were used. All the reliabilities were greater than.80. The proposed measurement model was estimated using SPSS 12.0 and AMOS 5.0 analysis package. We conducted A series of exploratory factor analyses and confirmatory factor analyses to assess the convergent validity, discriminant validity, and reliability. The results indicate reasonable overall fits between the model and the observed data. The overall fit of measurement model were $X^2$= 159.699, p=0.004, d.f. = 116, GFI =.879, NFI =.898, CFI =.969, IFI =.970, TLI =.959, RMR =.058. The results demonstrated that the data reasonably fitted the model. We also examined construct reliability and reliability and average variance extracted (AVE). The construct reliability of each construct was greater than.80 and the AVE of each construct was greater than.50. According to the analysis of Structure Equation Modeling (SEM), the results of path model indicated an adequate fit of the model: $X^2$= 142.126, p = 0.044, d.f. = 115, GFI =.892, NFI =.909, CFI =.981, IFI =.981, TLI =.974, RMR =.057. As hypothesized, the results showed that it is strategically important to establish trust in a franchise system, and the franchisor's supports, communication and satisfaction with previous outcome tend to reinforce franchisee's trust. The results also showed trust seems to decrease as the experience of conflict episodes increases. And we also noticed that franchisor's supports and communication tend to enhance the franchisee's satisfaction with previous outcome, and communication tend to decrease conflict. If the trust between the franchisor and franchisee can be established in a franchise system, franchising offers many benefits and reduces many costs. To manage a mutual trust of relationship with their franchisees, franchisor's should provide support effectively to their franchisees. Effective assistant services have direct effect on franchisees' satisfaction with previous outcome and trust in franchisor. Especially, franchise sales process, orientation, and training in the start-up period are key elements for success of the franchise system. Franchisor's support is an accumulated separate satisfaction evaluation with different kind of service provided by the franchisor. And providing support definitely can improve the trustworthy image of the franchisor. In the franchise system, conflicts of interests and exertions of different power sources are very common. The experience of conflict episodes seems to negatively relate to trust. Therefore, it is important to reduce the negative side of the relationship conflicts. Communication actually plays a broader role in reducing conflict and establish mutual trust in franchisor-franchisee relationship. And effective communication between franchisors and franchisees can improve franchisees' satisfaction toward the franchise system. As the diversification of Chinese markets, both franchisors and franchisees must keep the relevant, timely, and reliable communication. And it is very important to improve the quality of communication. Satisfaction with precious outcomes seems to positively relate to trust. Franchisors and franchisees that are highly satisfied with the previous outcomes that flow from their relationship will perceive their partner as advancing their goal achievement. Therefore, it is necessary for both franchisor and their franchisees to make the welfare of partner with effort. Little literature has focused on what factors affect the trust between franchisors and their franchisees in China. This study developed the hypotheses regarding the factors affecting trust in the transaction relationship. The results of data analysis supported the hypotheses strongly. There are certain limitations in this study. First, we may point out that some other factors missed in this study could be significantly important. Second, the context of this study, food service industry, limits its potential generalizability for all franchise systems. More studies in different categories of franchise system are needed to broaden its generalizability. Third, the model was tested empirically in a sample in Beijing, more empirical tests of the proposed model in other Chinese areas are needed. Finally, the analysis in this study was solely based on the perception of franchisees and the opinions of franchisors were not included.

  • PDF

A study on the improvement of distribution system by overseas agricultural investment (해외농업투자에 따른 유통체계 개선방안에 관한 연구)

  • Sun, Il-Suck;Lee, Dong-Ok
    • Journal of Distribution Science
    • /
    • v.8 no.3
    • /
    • pp.17-26
    • /
    • 2010
  • Recently concerns have been raised due to the unbalanced supply of crops: the price of crops has been unstable and at one point the price went up so high that the word Agflation(agriculture+ inflation) was coined. Korea, in particular, is a small-sized country and needs to secure the stable supply of crops by investing in the produce importation at a national level. Investment in foreign produce importation is becoming more important as a measure for sufficient supply of crops, limited supply of domestic crops, weakened farming conditions worldwide, as well as recent changes in the use of crops due to the development of bio-fuels, influence of carbon emission on crops, the price increase in crops, and influx of foreign hot money. However, there are many problems with investing in foreign produce importation: lack of support from the government; lack of farming information and technology; difficulty in securing the capital; no immediate pay-off from the investment and insufficient management. Although foreign produce is originally more price-competitive than domestic produce, it loses its competiveness in the process of importation (due to high tariffs) and poor distribution system, which makes it difficult to sell in Korea. Therefore, investment in foreign produce importation is being questioned for feasibility; to make it possible, foreign produce must maintain the price-competitiveness. Especially, harvest of agricultural products depends on natural and geographical conditions of each country and those products have indigenous properties, so distribution system according to import and export of agricultural products should be treated more carefully than that of other industries. Distribution costs are differentiated into each item and include cost of sorting and wrapping, cost of wrapping materials, cost of domestic transport, cost of international transport and cost of clearing customs for import and export. So transporting and storing agricultural products generates considerable costs compared with other products. Also, due to upgrade of dietary life, needs for stability, taste and visible quality toward food including agricultural products are being raised and wrong way of storage causes decomposition of food and loss of freshness, making the storage more difficult than that in room temperature, so storage and transport in distribution of agricultural products needs specialty. In addition, because lack of specialty in distribution and circulation such as storage and wrapping does not solve limit factors in distance, the distribution and circulation has been limited to a form of import and export within short-distant region. Therefore, need for distribution out-sourcing which can satisfy specialty in managing distribution and circulation and it is needed to establish more effective distribution system. However, existing distribution system of agricultural products is exposed to various problems including problems in distribution channel, making distribution and strategy for distribution and those problems are as follows. First, in case of investment in overseas agricultural industry, stable supply of the products is difficult because areas of production are dispersed widely and influenced by outer factors due to including overseas distribution channels. Also, at the aspect of quality, standardization of products is difficult, distribution system is quite complicated and unreasonable due to long distribution channels according to international trade and financial and institutional support is not enough. Especially, there are quite a lot of ineffective factors including multi level distribution process, dramatic gap between production cost and customer's cost, lack of physical distribution facilities and difficulties in storage and transport due to lack of wrapping containers. Besides, because import and export of agricultural products has been manages under the company's own distribution according to transaction contract between manufacturers and exporting company, efficiency is low due to excessive investment in fixed costs and lack of specialty in dealing with agricultural products causes fall of value of products, showing the limit to lose price-competitiveness. Especially, because lack of specialty in distribution and circulation such as storage and wrapping does not solve limit factors in distance, the distribution and circulation has been limited to a form of import and export within short-distant region. Therefore, need for distribution out-sourcing which can satisfy specialty in managing distribution and circulation and it is needed to establish more effective distribution system. Second, among tangible and intangible services which promote the efficiency of the whole distribution, a function building distribution environment which includes distribution information, system for standard and inspection, distribution finance, system for diversification of risks, education and training, distribution administration and tax system is wanted. In general, such a function building distribution environment is difficult to be changed and supplement innovatively because its effect compared with investment does not appear immediately despite of its necessity. Especially, in case of distribution of agricultural products, as a function of collecting and distributing is performed individually through various channels, the importance of distribution information and standardization is getting more focus due to the problem of repetition of work and lack of specialty. Also, efficient management of distribution is quite difficult due to lack of professionals in distribution, so support to professional education is needed. Third, though effort to keep self-sufficiency ratio of staple food, rice is regarded as important at the government level, level of dependency on overseas of others crops is high. Therefore, plan for stable securing food resources aside from staple food is also necessary. Especially, governmental organizations of agricultural products distribution in Korea are production-centered and have unreasonable structure whose function at the aspect of distribution and consumption is quite insufficient. And development of new distribution channels which can deal with changes in distribution environment and they do not achieve actual results of strategy for distribution due to non-positive strategy for price distribution. That is, it implies the possibility that base for supply will become vulnerable because it does not mediate appropriate interests on total distribution channels such as manufacturers, wholesale dealers and vendors by emphasizing consumer protection excessively in the distribution of agricultural products. Therefore, this study examined fundamental concept and actual situation for our investment to overseas agriculture, drew necessities, considerations, problems, etc. of overseas agricultural investment and suggested improvements at the level of distribution for price competitiveness of agricultural products cultivated in overseas under five aspects; government's indirect support, distribution's modernization and distribution information function's strengthening, government's political support for distribution facility, transportation route, load and unloading works' improvement, price competitiveness' securing, professional manpower's cultivation by education and training, etc. Here are some suggestions for foreign produce importation. First, the government should conduct a survey on the current distribution channels and analyze the situation to establish a measure for long-term development plans. By providing each agricultural area with a guideline for planning appropriate production of crops, the government can help farmers be ready for importation, and prevent them from producing same crops all at the same time. Government can sign an MOU with the foreign government and promote the importation so that the development of agricultural resources can be stable and steady. Second, the government can establish a strategy for an effective distribution system by providing farmers and agriculture-related workers with the distribution information such as price, production, demand, market structure and location, feature of each crop, and etc. In order for such distribution system to become feasible, the government needs to reconstruct the current distribution system, designate a public organization for providing distribution information and set the criteria for level of produce quality, trade units, and package units. Third, the government should provide financial support and a policy to seek an efficient distribution channel for foreign produce to be delivered fresh: the government should expand distribution facilities (for selecting, packaging, storing, and processing) and transportation vehicles while modernizing old facilities. There should be another policy to improve the efficiency of unloading, and to lower the cost of distribution. Fourth, it is necessary to enact a new law covering exceptional cases for importing produce in order to maintain the price competitiveness; currently the high tariffs is keeping the imported produce from being distributed domestically. However, the new adjustment should be made carefully within the WTO regulations since it can create a problem from giving preferential tariffs. The government can also simplify the distribution channels in order to reduce the cost in the distribution process. Fifth, the government should educate distributors to raise the efficiency and to modernize the distribution system. It is necessary to develop human resources by educating people regarding the foreign agricultural environment, the produce quality, management skills, and by introducing some successful cases in advanced countries.

  • PDF