• International Commerce and Information Review
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.187-210
• /
• 2006

China continues to experience an expansion of its e-Commerce industry. This is true both for B2C and for B2B sectors. B2C websites are created by various players. B2C E-commerce is divided into three categories in China: online direct sale, online retail, and online booking services. Online retail remains the major form of B2C business, and online booking services and online direct sale also maintained rapid growth. The rapid growth of B2C E-commerce in China was due to three factors. Firstly, the number of Internet users is increasing, which expands E-commerce user base. Secondly, users' acceptance and recognition of E-commerce are gradually increasing. Lastly, improvement on payment, logistics and credit also provides a better and better industrial environment for B2C e-commerce. The B2C sector has seen a low transaction volume in spite of its large number of websites. The B2B sectors has seen a higher transaction volume and more stable growth than the B2C sector. There is a wide range of the total market size estimated by different sources. China's C2C market witnessed rapid growth in 2005, the market growth may slow down in 2006 and 2007, due to heavy market competition, challenges to the business model and slow corporate user growth. But there is the bottlenecks in E-commerce in China. The purpose of this paper is contribute to development E-commerce in China by finding the solutions of the bottlenecks in E-commerce in China.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.455-467
• /
• 2007

Recently, there has been a gradual growth of retired in-migrants in high-amenity, rural areas in Korea. However, little has known about that the retirement migration is a blessing or a blight for a local economy in Korea. Therefore, in this study, we intend to explore the relationship between retirement migration and economic development of rural communities in Korea. For this purpose, we used the 1995 and 2000 census data and annual regional statistics for 138 counties in Korea. Based on the previous empirical studies, economic development was measured by 3 indicators such as GRDP (Gross Regional Domestic Product), job creation in the wholesale and retail sector, and the increase of local tax. Also, cross-tab, scatter plot, and correlation were analyzed using the SPSS Windows Program. The finding are as follows: First, from 1995 to 2000, nearly 11 percent of rural counties showed 10 percent and over increase of in-migration rate among retirees. Second, correlation statistics showed a close relationship between retirement in-migrant flows and economic resurgence. In particular, retirement in-migration rates were significantly tied to the job creation of the wholesale and retail sector (r=.19, p<.05) as well as car ownership rate (r=.58, p<.001) resulting in the increase of local tax. However, there was non-significantly positive correlation between retirement in-migrant flows and GRDP change (r=.13). Knowledge of these relationships will be important to policy-makers and for understanding the role that retirement in-migration play in stimulating economic growth of rural communities in Korea.

• The Journal of Economics, Marketing and Management
• /
• v.9 no.6
• /
• pp.25-38
• /
• 2021

Purpose: This study is aiming at providing researchers and practitioners with new insights to analyse how retailers have made a contribution to the growth of HMR market in Japan and UK. Research design: The second section will look at the definition of HMR, and then, introduce each county's case, while analysing how retailers have developed the HMR market and illustrating some implications. Finally, the authors will draw a conclusion. Results: Retailers have established the retailer brand development department with the sophisticated retail information system which has made a considerable contribution to the growth of the HMR market. Also, it enables retailers to accumulate retail knowledge associated with ready-to-eat meals and train top-level experts, whilst helping them to build the trustworthy supply chain relationships by sharing the POS data with food manufacturers. Consequently, the cooperation with food manufacturers has enhanced in the HMR market in both Japan and UK, on the basis of sophisticated delivery system as well as the concept of innovation into the HMR sector. Conclusions: Retailers have to benchmark Japanese and British retailers' Knowledge to grow ready meal market in Korea and invest their marketing resources in developing various HMR foods, on the basis of innovative thinking.

• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.19 no.9
• /
• pp.101-111
• /
• 2021

Purpose: This study discusses and discovers the important role of fashion product coolness in affecting consumers' perceived value and consumers' value creation behavior. Accordingly, fashion product coolness exerts a direct effect on perceived value while perceived value has a direct impact on value creation. Besides, fashion product coolness has an indirect effect on value creation through perceived value. Research design, data, and methodology: This study adopts the quantitative research approach by cross-sectional technical on a sample of 319 respondents in Vietnam. PLS-SEM has been used to analyze the survey data. Results: The result indicates that the proposed direct and indirect effects are significant. Specifically, utilitarian "coolness" and hedonic "coolness" have positive impacts on perceived value. The perceived value poses an impact on consumers' value creation behavior, including customer lifetime value and influencer value. Finally, the perceived value links utilitarian "coolness", hedonic "coolness" with customer lifetime value and influencer value. Conclusions: Fashion distribution is playing an increasingly important role in the retail sector of the economy. Fashion distribution activities are greatly influenced by the perceived value of consumers. The findings are supposed to strengthen the beliefs of fashion brands and retailers in the promotion of value creation and consumers' perceived value in the field of fashion distribution.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
• /
• v.39 no.3
• /
• pp.36-49
• /
• 2024

Article 79 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act mandates franchise headquarters with over 200 franchises to implement industrial accident prevention measures. Notably, the franchise business information provision system designates restaurants and wholesale/retail as the primary categories for information disclosure, with convenience stores classified as secondary. This study aims to identify law-regulated franchise headquarters and franchises and analyze industrial accidents within these sectors. Furthermore, it seeks to investigate adverse risk factors for individual processes across major industries. Pertinent franchise headquarters and franchises were discerned using the Fair Trade Commission's business information system. Data regarding the status of industrial accidents, as published by the Ministry of Employment and Labor, was leveraged in the analysis of industrial accidents. Additionally, a survey was conducted to derive detrimental factors for each process in major industries. The inquiry revealed a total of 7 wholesale and retail franchise headquarters subject to the law, along with 126 within the restaurant industry. Overall, there were 50,488 franchises in the wholesale and retail sector, and 71,283 in the restaurant business. Risk factors and improvement measures for industrial processes were determined for five industries: convenience stores, Korean food restaurants, coffee places, pizza eateries, and chicken vendors. Locating the currently developed safety and health program establishment guide proves to be challenging. Moreover, utilizing it can be difficult due to the industry-specific content, further complicated by the prevalence of franchise stores featuring numerous small businesses. Therefore, this study highlights the imperative need to develop guidelines that incorporate preventive measures tailored to each industry.

• International Area Studies Review
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.241-266
• /
• 2011

This study examines the determinants of proportion of self-employed and their policy implications focusing hotel/restaurant and wholesale/retail sectors in Korea. In this study, we estimate the optimal size of self-employed in Korea using OECD data. Several hypothesis are tested by use of the regression analysis on the panel data of OECD economies during 2000-2007 period. Using the panel data of per capita GNI, unemployment level, income tax burden, we found that the excess supply level of self-employed was about 8.0%~9.5% overall. We also found that the excess supply level of self-employed was 13.7~14.1% for hotel and restaurant sector, and 10.4~11.1% for wholesale and retail sector. This results imply that strategically coordinated programs for noncompetitive sectors are more effectively implemented. Furthermore, more aggressive entry and exit policies are needed to solve the over-supply problem of self-employed in Korea.

• The Journal of Korea Institute of Information, Electronics, and Communication Technology
• /
• v.14 no.1
• /
• pp.70-77
• /
• 2021

This paper was reclassified industries related to the 4th industrial revolution into manufacturing, information and communication services, finance and insurance services, and science and technology services by comparing the industry association table with the Korean standard industry classification. And the economic ripple effect was analyzed by exogenizing the four sectors of the industry using a demand-driven model. The wholesale and retail and product brokerage services were measured to be large in the manufacturing, information communication services, and science technology service sector according as a result of analysis of the production inducement effect, added value inducement effect, and employment inducement effect. And the financial and insurance services were analyzed to be large in the financial and insurance services sector. The import inducement effect was analyzed to be the largest in all sectors of the fourth industry. As a result of the forward and backward linkage effect, it was confirmed that the manufacturing and the information communication services sector were the intermediate primary production type sensitive to economic fluctuations. Also it was confirmed that the financial and insurance services and the science technology services sector were the final primary production type.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
• /
• v.10 no.1
• /
• pp.201-208
• /
• 2023

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic poses disastrous effects on human lives and hinders global efforts to realize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. The study examined the effects of the pandemic on unemployment toward realizing the SDGs. The downsizing and collapse of businesses have forcibly left many unfortunate Malaysians jobless and without income. The situation may directly influence government efforts to achieve SDG 8 'Decent work and economic growth', which indirectly affects SDG 1 'No poverty', SDG 2 'Zero hunger', and SDG 3 'Good health and well-being'. Pre-and post-pandemic assessments on unemployment and retrenchment level by sector were performed by adopting observation and data comparison methods. Critical findings revealed that the unemployment rate has risen among males and females and the youth, as well as the number of retrenchments. The services sector, specifically the wholesale, retail, trade, and hotel industry showed the highest number of retrenchments. Some important unemployment issues were also covered in this study, including the demand for employment, the role of government and business, and the effect of the gig economy on the current employment landscape. The avenue for future studies can focus on additional societal effects that could prevent the country from attaining the SDGs by 2030.

• Journal of Distribution Research
• /
• v.17 no.5
• /
• pp.39-57
• /
• 2012

The unabated influx of micro businesses has turned the Korean retailing market to a rat race, which causes severe financial distress for micro business owners due to heavy competition. The woes of these micro business owner's are exacerbated by the presence of large scale distributors such as Super Supermarket(SSM) and large discount stores. In summary, the Korean retail market is overburdened an uneconomically viable. Retailing has low barriers to entry which attracts unskilled labor or those with little capital. These start-ups have low opportunity costs since they would make low wages elsewhere in the economy. Thus, these owners are content with relatively low returns on their investment. These 'subsistence ventures' are maintained for economical viability rather than economic growth. These 'subsistence ventures' intensifies competition among small-scale businesses. The presence of large retail corporations also aggravates the situation. The recent stagnation of the economy has worsened the retail market in Korea. The overwhelming competition solidifies the coarse structural system and the prolonged economic sluggishness has increased the risk of insolvency for micro business owners. As the economy continues to stagnate, the imminent risk in retailing market will rise up to surface threatening economic stability. More systematic inflows and outflows of retailers are required in order to redress this structural problem. It has been empirically shown that the self-employment rate is high in Korea compared to other OECD countries. To draw the comparison of self-employment rate by industry, Korea shows high rates among transportation, whole sale, retail, education, lodging, and restaurants. In the case of the transportation and education service sectors, this high rate can be explained by the idiosyncratic nature of Korean culture. In the transportation sector, political policies favor private cap service and private freight carriers. In the education service sector, Koreans put particular emphasis on education that leads to many private institutions that outnumber other OECD countries. For these singular reasons, Korea maintains high micro business, self-employed rates particularly in retailing. A comparable nation is Japan, with its similar social, economic, cultural environment among OECD countries. Unlike Korea, Japan has much lower rates of micro business which continues to decrease. Also Korean retailers are much more destitute than Japanese. The fundamental problem of Korean retailing is the involuntary exit of these 'subsistence ventures,' micro businesses with low margins, in which a small drop in demand can lead to financial difficulties for the owner. This problem will be exacerbated when Korean babyboomers retire and join the micro business ventures. The first priority in order to cope with the severity of oversupply in retailing is to provide better opportunities for the potential self-employers. There should be viable alternatives to subsistent ventures. Strengthening the retirement program, scrutiny of exit process, reconfiguration of policy funds are the recommendations.

• Journal of Dairy Science and Biotechnology
• /
• v.22 no.1
• /
• pp.53-60
• /
• 2004

During the past decade, functional foods and nutraceuticals have emerged as a major consumer-driven trend, serving the desire of aging populations to exercise greater control over health, delaying aging, prevent disease and enhance well-being and performance. On a global basis, retail sales of functional food were worth an estimated USD 1,501 billion in 2001. The market for functional food in Korea has increased in the last three years above 10%. Especially value sales rose by over 30% between 1999 and 2001, and are worth around 12,000 billion won in 2001. To regulate functional food represented a rapidly growing market in Korea a new act 'Functional Health Food Act' was announced officially in 2002. The type of functional milk product in Korea market is conventional food containing various functional ingredient. To promote functional food market in milk product sector the introduction of functional and health claim should be taken into account in the future in Korea.