• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.12
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• pp.909-917
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• 2020

The research aims to analyze the firm-specific and macroeconomic factors that affect insurance company's financial performance. The research explores the variables that influence the financial performance of the United Arab Emirates (UAE)' insurance companies. The analysis for determining financial performance considers the following variables: the firm's age, retention ratio, capital adequacy, underwriting risk/loss ratio, financial-leverage, reinsurance dependency, and macro-economic factors such as GDP per capita, inflation rate considered as independent factors. The return-on-asset (ROA) is the key measuring indicator; it is regarded as the dependent variable for financial performance measures. The research focuses on secondary information obtained from insurance companies' financial statements. The researcher targeted 18 insurance companies listed on the UAE stock exchanges for study purposes. The research examines the overall factors that influence the financial performance of an insurance company. For analysis of data, software package of social sciences (SPSS version 20) is used. The studies used correlation and multiple linear regression analysis to determine financial performance and their effects. The analysis suggests that there are important and constructive relationships between the size, capital adequacy, and reinsurance dependency, while loss ratio, retention ratio, and financial leverage indicate a major negative relationship. And there's no link between GDP per capita and inflation.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.116-129
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• 2013

Objectives: This study was performed to identify the associations of social capital with suicidal thoughts and attempts in Korean communities with poor health. Methods: We used the data from community health interviews conducted at 40 administrative sections (dong, eup, or myeon) with high mortality from August to October in 2010, 2011, and 2012 as part of the Health Plus Happiness Plus Projects in Gyeongsangnam-do Province. The 8,800 study subjects composed of 220 adults systematically sampled from each administrative section were asked if they had thought about suicide or had attempted suicide within 1 year. The social participation was measured with 'participation in formal and/or informal group' and trust using responses to three questions about trust of others. Results: The prevalence of suicidal ideation and attempt within 1 year were 10.4% and 0.8%, respectively. The logistic regression analysis revealed that those who participated in only informal groups, or had highest trust level reported less suicidal ideation, or attempt after adjusting for socio-demographic factors (sex, age, marital status, occupation, and food affordability), self-rated health, and health behaviors (smoking, alcohol drinking, and exercise). Conclusions: This study suggested social capital such as social participation and trust was associated with less suicide ideation and attempt. More studies are warranted for the association of social capital with suicidal behavior.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.171-194
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• 2023

Purpose - This study starts with the question of whether the capital market is likely to give positive valuations to companies that pursue diversity in their management and corporate governance structure. In this study, minority gender identity is considered as a diversity issue in management that has a socially negative perception. Design/methodology/approach - This study analyzed the relationship between corporate value in the capital market and the policies of companies that advocated minority gender identities, based on listed U.S. company data. Findings - This study finds that companies that support minority gender identities had a lower Tobin's q value than companies that did not. However, in the case of authenticity in terms of corporate governance diversity, the study finds that companies that advocate minority gender identities rather receive high firm valuation. In particular, companies with a high percentage of female directors show high corporate value even when implementing policies that support minority gender identities. Research implications or Originality - This study explores the capital market's response to diversity using past data in the U.S., but provides more practical implications for how companies should respond to a situation where an advocacy policy, based on more social recognition, for LGBT groups is established in Korea.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.275-301
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• 2011

This study examines antecedent factors that influence subsidiaries' MNC (multinational corporation) knowledge adoption. I argue that subsidiary local environmental factors(local embeddedness, level of local competition), subsidiary organizational factors(parent investment, subsidiary CEO expatriation, scope of subsidiary value chain), and subsidiary relational factors(subsidiary autonomy, the strength of subsidiary in MNC, social capital) are the important enablers for subsidiaries to adopt knowledge from other MNC units. Especially, I use two data set (knowledge from (1) peer subsidiaries, (2) parent company) to estimate the effect of the factors. The results indicate that subsidiary local embeddedness and scope of subsidiary value chain negatively influence on subsidiary knowledge adoption from peer subsidiaries. Conversely, the strength of subsidiary in MNC and social capital positively influence on that. Subsidiary knowledge adoption from parent company is positively influenced by parent investment and social capital.

• Journal of Venture Innovation
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.131-149
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• 2024

This study was important considering the prevalence of small business owners in the Korean economy and the challenges they faced amidst an economic downturn. The business performance of these owners was crucial for their survival. Thus, an empirical analysis was conducted to identify factors influencing their management performance. The analysis included personal characteristics of small business owners such as innovativeness, management capability, need for achievement, and technical capability as independent variables, along with product differentiation factors. Additionally, the moderating effect of social capital on these variables and their impact on management performance was tested. To achieve this, a survey targeting small business owners across Korea was conducted, and data from 250 respondents were utilized. Hierarchical regression analysis using SPSS 24.0 was employed for the empirical analysis. The results indicated that management capability, need for achievement, and product differentiation significantly positively impacted business performance. However, the impact of innovativeness and technical capability was not tested. The influence of the variables on business performance ranked as follows: product differentiation, management capability, and need for achievement. The moderating effect of social capital was significant in the relationship between management capability, need for achievement, and management performance, enhancing these relationships. However, the moderating effect of social capital on the relationship between innovativeness, technical capability, product differentiation, and management performance was not tested. These findings underscored the importance of management capability, need for achievement, and product differentiation as key factors affecting the management performance of Korean small businesses. This study was significant as it provided insights into improving the management performance of small business owners in challenging economic conditions by highlighting how the influence of these factors varied depending on the social capital possessed by the owners.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.281-297
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• 2014

This study aims at empirically analyzing the relation between employees' personality and their knowledge sharing intentions, on which enough light has not yet been shed in spite of its importance. By integrating the big five model of personality with social capital theory and social cognitive theory, this study develops six hypotheses concerning the relation and empirically tests them by using 724 samples collected from employees in practice. The empirical analysis results from this study reveal that employees' extroversion and agreeableness are positively associated with their social relations and that their openness to experience and conscientiousness are positively associated with their knowledge self-efficacy, which are positively related to their knowledge sharing intentions. Based on the new findings, theoretical and practical implications are provided for knowledge management researchers and managers in practice.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.10
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• pp.183-192
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• 2020

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of the Operational Self-Sustainability (OSS) of Vietnamese microfinance institutions (MFIs). This research uses both qualitative and quantitative research methods: (i) qualitative research was via in-depth interviews with ten microfinance practitioners, policymakers and researchers; (ii) quantitative research was conducted by using panel data of 34 MFIs in the period 2011-2015 with binary logistics and OLS regressions. Results are as follows: (i) MFIs' OSS in Vietnam are mainly determined by five key factors: portfolio at risk (PAR>30), capital structure, gross loan portfolio, scope of activities and legal form; (ii) OSS are most affected by legal status (social organizations have better OSS than formal MFIs or programs/projects), location (MFIs focus in one province have higher OSS than working nationwide or just in one district), capital structure (MFIs with more equity proportion have higher OSS); (iii) surprisingly, average loan size per borrower and age of MFIs do not have statistically significant correlation with OSS. The key recommendations are: (i) MFIs should focus on its professionality and increase its equity; (ii) related stakeholders such as State Bank of Vietnam should promote the enabling ecosystem for microfinance development to enhance poverty reduction and economic development.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.46
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• pp.178-209
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• 2001

This paper aims to provide a critical assesment of Conservatives's and new Labour's social assistance reforms in the U.K. and their differential impacts on low income groups. During the period of 18 years in power, the Conservative governments enforced benefit recipients being capable of work to be out of benefits and to get into work. They employed not only 'carrots' to encourage beneficiaries being capable of work to have full-time work, but also 'sticks' to discourage them to depend on benefits. The reforms under the Conservative governments were closer to the workfare model. The new Labour government has continued to emphasize work regarding social security reform. It has raised 'from welfare to work' as the main reform objective. However, it has not necessarily focused on 'carrots and sticks' in order to get beneficiaries into work. Instead, the new Labour government has put its priority regarding social assistance reform on human capital development in order to develop the capability of beneficiaries for work. Britain under the new Labour government seems to be moving from workfare to activation model. These differentials between the Conservative governments and the new Labour government regarding social assistance reforms bring about the different policy outcomes. Under the Conservative government, social assistance programmes were prone to strengthen the state's control over benefit recipients and to increase stigma to them. Punitive, demeaning, stigmatising programmes of work and unending job search activities harm the bases of self-respect. On the contrary, the activation programmes under the new Labour government has contributed positively to both socially significant participation and autonomy of beneficiaries.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.63-73
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• 2011

Objectives: This study was conducted to investigate the relationships between trust and participation in cancer screening. Methods: Data from 2004 Busan Health Survey were analysed for the study. Multiple logistic regression was performed on participation in cancer screening by trust level with potential confounders(sex, age, education, monthly mean household income, subjective health status, smoking, alcohol intake, exercise, and daily eating habits). Results: In a total of 7,423 participants, 2,078(28.0%) were classified as cancer screening participants. High horizontal trust was associated with increased likelihood of cancer screening participation(OR(men) = 1.20, 95% CI 1.00-1.45) and (OR(women) = 1.19, 95% CI 1.02-1.39), after multiple adjustments. Respondents with high trust in health care system had significantly higher odds ratios for participation in cancer screening: 1.60(95% CI 1.27-2.02) among men and 1.18(95% CI 0.97-1.44) among women, after multiple adjustments. Conclusions: Trust was significantly associated with higher odds of cancer screening participation and could be a potent arena for increasing cancer screening participation.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.230-237
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• 2021

Objectives: This study explored changes in individuals' behavior in response to social distancing (SD) levels and the "no gatherings of more than 5 people" (NGM5) rule in Korea during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Methods: Using survey data from the COVID-19 Behavior Tracker, exploratory factor analysis extracted 3 preventive factors: maintenance of personal hygiene, avoiding going out, and avoiding meeting people. Each factor was used as a dependent variable. The chisquare test was used to compare differences in distributions between categorical variables, while binary logistic regression was performed to identify factors associated with high compliance with measures to prevent transmission. Results: In men, all 3 factors were significantly associated with lower compliance. Younger age groups were associated with lower compliance with maintenance of personal hygiene and avoiding meeting people. Employment status was significantly associated with avoiding going out and avoiding meeting people. Residence in the capital area was significantly associated with higher compliance with personal hygiene and avoiding venturing out. Increasing SD levels were associated with personal hygiene, avoiding going out, and avoiding meeting people. The NGM5 policy was not significantly associated with compliance. Conclusions: SD levels, gender, age, employment status, and region had explanatory power for compliance with non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs). Strengthening social campaigns to inspire voluntary compliance with NPIs, especially focused on men, younger people, full-time workers, and residents of the capital area is recommended. Simultaneously, efforts need to be made to segment SD measures into substrategies with detailed guidance at each level.