• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.279-304
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• 2022

This paper quantitatively analyzes the current status of North Korean consumer payment instruments through a questionnaire survey of 292 North Korean defectors. In the 2010s, it was found that the payment experience ratio of domestic currency cash and grain decreased, while the payment experience ratio of foreign currency cash increased. The use of foreign currency reached a stage where it was spread not only as a store of value but also as a medium of exchange. However, the most frequently used payment instrument by North Korean consumers was still domestic currency cash. By region, in inland urban areas both domestic currency cash and U.S. dollars are used and in the North Korea-China border region both domestic currency cash and Chinese yuan are used, while in inland rural areas dollarization does not occur because both domestic currency cash and grain are used. Meanwhile, despite the stable price trend during 2013-2019, the dollarization hysteresis effect is appearing, and both the purchasing power risk theory and the network externality theory are considered to have explanatory power for the cause. The results of this paper suggest that as dollarization is intensifying, it is expected that more costs such as shortages of commodities will be incurred than in the past if North Korea's de-dollarization policy is reimplemented. Also, in the case of domestic currency cards, which the North Korean authorities introduced in 2015 as part of a means of financial reform, this paper suggests that it may continue to be difficult for domestic currency cards to normalize official finance under the dollarization hysteresis.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2022.06a
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• pp.1254-1254
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• 2022

The Multi-family Residential is one of the most famous building types for a rental property in the US. Often times it includes multiple residential buildings and some amenity facilities, including a clubhouse or leasing office, swimming pool, dog park, and garages. Since the building type is built for rental purposes, the construction planning is phased and it makes the project complicated. Detailed planning and execution are important for successful construction management. This paper provides some management practices that are applied to one of the multi-family residential construction projects in Phoenix, AZ. The Front End Planning (FEP) process performed by both owner and contractor is the first key to a successful construction project. Specifically, the early review of phased turnover strategy, grading, fire/Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance, and Mechanical/ Electricity/Plumbing/Technology (MEPT) will provide absolute benefit to the project. Second, using a scheduling method to control short-term schedules and long-term can provide the ability to manage the issues with agility. Third, material delivery and procurement dominate the both project schedule and cost. With this COVID-19 circumstance, it is hard to expect the material, equipment, and labor forces to be delivered on time with the contracted price. Managing floats are more than important to managing construction productivity. Risk management should work to share the risks fairly. Lastly, turnover is directly linked with the profit of the project for both owner and contractor. The communication between the owner and contractor to re-schedule the proper turnover schedule is important for the phased construction project.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.231-246
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• 2023

Purpose - This study attempts to provide a new theoretical perspective on the quality signaling and its impact on a market under information asymmetry, focusing on how the accuracy and the cost of quality signaling affect sellers' and buyers' profit, suggesting appropriate designs of quality signaling methods which mitigates information asymmetry. Design/methodology/approach - In order to examine the effect of quality signaling on strategic interactions within the market, we establish an analytic model where market outcomes are determined by seller's quality claim and price, and buyers are risk-neutral. By investigating this analytic model through relevant game trees, we find the subgame perfect Nash equilibria of the market and predict related market outcomes based on sellers' quality signaling strategy. Findings - Our analytic model shows counterintuitive results that seller profit will be the lowest with inaccurate quality signaling and the highest with no quality signaling, mostly due to the certification cost. Consequently, sellers should proceed with caution if the quality signaling is less than accurate, as it may backfire. We believe that this is due to the fact that the inaccuracy of quality signaling causes some confusion and uncertainty in both sellers and buyers' decision to maximize profit, making it hard for sellers to predict buyers' behavior. Research implications or Originality - Although the sources and types of quality signaling errors have been investigated in the literature, there has not been satisfactory understanding regarding how inaccuracy of quality certification affects specific market outcomes. We expect that our theoretical model would provide important implications on how to utilize quality signaling to solve adverse selection issues in markets under information asymmetry.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.79-89
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• 2022

Purpose - The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of ESG rating changes of companies listed in Korean Stock Exchange on stock returns. Design/methodology/approach - This study collected prices and ESG ratings of all the companies listed on the Korea Composite Stock Price Index. Based on yearly change of ESG ratings we grouped companies as 2 portfolios(upgrade and downgrade) and calculated portfolios' return. Findings - First, the difference in returns between upgraded and downgraded portfolios is small and statistically insignificant. Second, however, in the COVID-19 period (2020 ~ 2021), the upgraded portfolio outperforms the downgraded portfolio by 0.7 percentage points per month. The difference in returns between upgraded and downgraded portfolios is statistically significant after controlling for the Carhart four factors. Lastly, there are much higher volatility when the ESG rating changes are made of companies with low levels of ESG ratings. Research implications or Originality - This study is the first to examine the impact of ESG rating changes on stock returns in Korea. Furthermore, the findings can serve as a reference for managers who want to control a firm's risk by ESG rating changes. Practically, asset managers can use the findings to construct portfolios that are less risky or more profitable than the market portfolio.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.133-154
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• 2022

The Baltic Capesize Index (BCI), which is used as an indicator for marine transportation of steel raw materials, is one of the key economic indexes for managing the risk of loss due to rapid market fluctuations when steel companies establish business strategies and procuring plans for raw materials. Still, the conditions of supply and demand of steel raw materials has been extremely affected by volatility shocks from drastic events like the financial crisis such as the Lehman Brothers incident and changes in the external environment such as COVID-19. And, especially since the 2008 financial crisis, endeavors to predict the market conditions of the steel raw material is becoming more and more arduous for the deepening uncertainty and increased volatility of BCI, which has been used as a leading indicator of the real economy. This study investigates the correlation between the steel raw material market and the marine transportation market by estimating the spillover effect of information between markets. The vector error correction model (VECM) was used to analyze information transfer based on the correlation between the BCI and crude steel production, capesize fleet supply, raw material price, and cargo volume.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.199-211
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• 2024

Objectives: Online grocery shopping has gained traction with the digital transformation of retail. This study constructs a behavioral model combining values, attitudes, and reasons for behavior-specifically, facilitators and resistance-to provide a more novel discussion and further understand the relative influences of the various factors affecting continuance intention in online grocery shopping. Methods: Data were collected through an online questionnaire from consumers who had engaged in online grocery shopping during the past month in Seoul, Korea. All collected data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, and model validation was performed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. Results: Continuance intention is primarily driven by facilitative factors (compatibility, relative advantage, and ubiquity). Attitude can also positively influence continuance intention. Although resistance factors (price, tradition, and risk) do not significantly affect continuance intention, they negatively affect attitude. Values significantly influence consumers' reasoning processes but not their attitude. Conclusions: These findings explain the key influences on consumers' online grocery shopping behavior in Seoul and provide additional discussion and literature on consumer behavior and market management. To expand the online grocery market, consumers should be made aware of the potential benefits of the online channel; the barriers they encounter should be reduced. This will help sustain online grocery shopping behavior. Furthermore, its positive impact on attitude will further strengthen consumers' continuance intention.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.427-435
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• 2017

Korea's overseas construction awards reached US $750 bn for more than 50 years since it first entered the market in 1966. In particular, the company won US $540 bn over 10 years from 2007, achieving 72% of the total contracts. However, in recent two years, awarded amounts have decreased by 40% each year. The most significant decline is due to the impact of international oil prices, which have plummeted since end of 2014, as oil-producing nations, which are Korea's major target countries, are struggling to cancel or postpone infrastructure orders. In order to lessen the impact of raw material price fluctuations, the recent trend is that even countries with relatively loose government financing conditions are rapidly changing their ordering methods to investment development forms such as PPP. The Korean government and companies have been already preparing for this for several years, but they are still not doing so well. The main reason is the lack of understanding about the investment development type project, especially financing methods and the aggravated fear of exposing it to various risks due to the characteristics of the development project, which takes a long time to collect the investment. In this paper, I propose a more systematic solution to financial process and risk management, which is recognized as a obstructive factor for Korean companies, in line with the recent government-led establishment of overseas infrastructure development support organizations. I would like to serve as a investment guide.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.77-95
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• 2011

This paper investigates the relationship between export and economic variables such as trade insurance, world economy activity, relative price, unemployment rate, exchange rate volatility, using monthly data. I employ Johansen cointegration methodology since the model must be stationary to avoid the spurious results. The results indicate that there is a long-run relationship between export and variables. Also, the empirical analysis of cointegrating vector using the CCR, DOLS, FMOLS reveals that the increases of trade insurance has positive relations and the increases of exchange rate volatility have negative relations with export. Especially, DOLS based on Monte Carlo simulations, of this estimator being superior in small samples compared to a number of alternative estimators, as well as being able not only to accommodate higher orders of integration but also to account for possible simultaneity within regressors of a potential system. This paper also applies impulse-response functions to get the additional information regarding the responses of the export to the shocks of the variables. The result indicates that export positively to trade insurance and then decay fast compare with exchange rate volatility. Consequently, trade insurance plays the role of trade policy for export promotion in Korea. Whereas, increase of exchange risk result in reduction of export. Therefore, the support of trade insurance should be expanded and the stabilization of the foreign exchange market must be done for the export promotion.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.918-940
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• 2021

In this study, the concept of eXtended Reality Devices(XR) is defined, how it is applied by industry and how it will develop in the future, and based on the expanded integrated technology acceptance theory and innovation resistance, We tried to confirm through empirical analysis how the influencing variables affect. We carry out the analysis of the hypotheses using PLS Structural Equation Modeling. According to the empirical analysis results, this study confirms that innovativeness has a significant effect on UTAUT2's acceptance variables(performance expectation, effort expectation, hedonic motivation, price value) for XR devices, and these variables affect attitudes and acceptance of XR. and the pace of change of XR has a significant effect on perceived risk, and the perceived risk perceived by consumers mediates the pace of change and innovation resistance, and has a significant effect on innovation resistance. and innovation resistance to XR devices had a significant negative effect on acceptance. This study has its meaning because it found out that it deals expansively and comprehensively with personal innovation, the UTAUT2's acceptance variables, and the effects of perceived risk factors mediating the pace of change and resistance to innovation. In addition, it suggests that in order for innovative technologies such as XR to advance to the stage of market expansion, it is important to present strategies to reduce resistance to new technologies as much as the value to be provided to consumers.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.5B
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• pp.489-499
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• 2006

The Potential Flood Damage (PFD) is widely used for representing the degree of potential of flood damage. However, this cannot be related with the design frequency of river basin and so we have difficulty in the use of water resources field. Therefore, in this study, the concept of Potential Risk for Flood Damage Occurrence (PRFD) was introduced and estimated, which can be related to the design frequency. The PRFD has three important elements of hazard, exposure, and vulnerability. The hazard means a probability of occurrence of flood event, the exposure represents the degree that the property is exposed in the flood hazard, and the vulnerability represents the degree of weakness of the measures for flood prevention. Those elements were devided into some sub-elements. The hazard is explained by the frequency based rainfall, the exposure has two sub-elements which are population density and official land price, and the vulnerability has two sub-elements which are undevelopedness index and ability of flood defence. Each sub-elements are estimated and the estimated values are rearranged in the range of 0 to 100. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is also applied to determine weighting coefficients in the equation of PRFD. The PRFD for the Anyang river basin and the design frequency are estimated by using the maximum rainfall. The existing design frequency for Anyang river basin is in the range of 50 to 200. And the design frequency estimation result of PRFD of this study is in the range of 110 to 130. Therefore, the developed method for the estimation of PRFD and the design frequency for the administrative districts are used and the method for the watershed and the river channel are to be applied in the future study.