• International Commerce and Information Review
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.77-109
• /
• 2009

The purpose of this study is to review the current trend of FDIs by Korean companies into EU, and to present the optimal strategies for them to combine their firm-specific factors and FDI attractiveness of the regions in EU. The companies are divided into two categories, SMEs and large enterprises. The regions of EU are composed of 15 incumbent members before the fifth enlargement in 2004 and 12 new members. Large Korean companies tend to make large investments in 15 incumbent members with stable and mature markets. Korean SMEs, by contrast, mainly invest on small scales in the new members due to the lack of their available inner resources and knowledge for the markets. The main objects of the investments in EU by the large Korean companies are to gain more market share and to acquire the advanced technologies. Although such goals are also important for the SMEs, the most important objects for the investments by Korean SMEs in EU are usually to enter EU markets and to take advantage of the relatively cheap labor forces for the efficient operations. The effects of such passive strategies by the SMEs, however, are expected to extinct because the cost advantages in regions of the new EU members will not last in the long term, so the SMEs must take longer views for the choice of locations. Many empirical results suggest that the optimal FDI strategies for the Korean companies in EU could be worked mainly by more aggressive localization policy of companies and by the cooperations of SMEs and large enterprises for the reduction in costs of foreignness.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
• /
• v.73
• /
• pp.111-128
• /
• 2017

The main objective of this study is to examine the required aptitudes for undergraduate students who want to join export-oriented Small & Medium Enterprises(SMEs). 178 Dataset from a survey of exporting firms in Gwangju, Korea, were used to analyze the study. The results of the study are as follows ; First, the most required aptitude is 'the capability related to build up human relationship'. So students should learn negotiation skills in the college. In addition to this, student also try to join informal club and cultivate teamwork capabilities. Second, finding out a job in export-oriented SMEs is needed to equip with problem-solving capabilities. To do it, students should learn various subjects related to trade theory. Additionally, having some certificates like 'international trade master' can be better. Third, communication capabilities including foreign language and international business skills will be also required for students who are preparing for joining export-oriented SMEs. However, capabilities related to information technology and basic statistic skills does not have statistically significant correlation to recruitment intention. As a result, students who have such above-mentioned four aptitudes may have better position to find out jobs in export-oriented SMEs.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
• /
• v.9 no.3
• /
• pp.843-871
• /
• 2015

Cloud computing evolve as a cost effective business model for IT companies to focus on their core business without perturbing on infrastructure related issues. Hence, major IT firms and Small & Medium Enterprises (SME) are adopting cloud services on rental basis from cloud providers. Cloud Service level agreements (SLA) act as a key liaison between consumers and providers on renting Anything as a Service (AaaS). Design of such an agreement must aim for greater profit to providers as well as assured availability of services to consumers. However in reality, cloud SLA is not satisfying the parties involved because of its inherent complex nature and issues. Also currently most of the agreements are unilateral to favour the provider. This study focuses on comprehensive, 360-degree survey on different aspects of the cloud service agreements. We detailed the life cycle of SLA based on negotiation, different types of SLA, current standards, languages & characteristics, metrics and issues involved in it. This study will help the cloud actors to understand and evaluate the agreements and to make firm decision on negotiation. The need for standardized, bilateral, semantic SLA has also been proposed.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
• /
• v.18 no.9
• /
• pp.1105-1117
• /
• 2015

During the last decade, the business infrastructure has become digital with increased interconnections among products, processes, and services. Across many firms spanning different industries and sectors, digital technologies are fundanmentally transforming business stratiges, business processes, firm capabilities, productes and services, and key interfirm relationships in extended business networks. With the emergence of smartphones, the paradigm of the ICT industry is rapidly changing as the line between global and local markets are being blurred. In the changing global environment, although some game companies are accelerating the improvement of their global competitiveness and cases of successes of venture enterprises by developing biosimilar technology are being discovered, majority of ICT companies are focusing on limited marketing activities to get subcontracts or projects from large companies. Thus the aim of this study is to find out how digital ecosystems evolve and how business models and strategies have changed of individual companies according to the evolution of the digital ecosystems.

• IE interfaces
• /
• v.24 no.4
• /
• pp.281-294
• /
• 2011

This paper considers the rail crane scheduling problem which is defined as determining the sequence of loading/unloading container on/from a freight train. The objective is to minimize the weighted sum of the range of order completion time and makespan. The range of order completion time implies the difference between the maximum of completion time and minimum of start time of each customer order consisting of jobs. Makespan refers to the time when all the jobs are completed. In a rail freight terminal, logistics firms as a customer wish to reduce the range of their order completion time. To develop a methodology for the crane scheduling, we formulate the problem as a mixed integer program and develop three metaheuristics, namely, genetic algorithm, simulated annealing, and tabu search. To validate the effectiveness of heuristic algorithms, computational experiments are done based on a set of real life data. Results of the experiments show that heuristic algorithms give good solutions for small-size and large-size problems in terms of solution quality and computation time.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
• /
• v.55
• /
• pp.185-208
• /
• 2012

Before and after the Capital Market Integration Act in 2007 is implemented in South Korea, many of small-and mid sized exporting companies in South Korea has been bankrupted or filed for lawsuit claiming mis-selling(KIKO) by the banks. The basic economic structure of KIKO in Korea are part of a business model based on the use or misuse of exotic derivatives whose results are anything but imaginary. 571 mid sized exporting companies have been damaged about $28 billion. KIKO is a currency option product that sells foreign currencies at higher foreign exchange rate when the rate moves within a certain range, but sells foreign currencies at two or three times lower rate than the market price when the rate exceeds the designated upper limit. KIKO, Therefore, is hard to know whether the non financial firms intended to hedge against further strengthening of their currency or merely to speculate. It is also hard to know how thoroughly they understood the risk-return profile of these transactions. It is similarly hard to ascertain whether the derivatives dealers offering these transactions were meeting the demands of their clients or taking advantage of them. These exotic derivatives were inappropriate for either hedging or speculating, and no knowledgeable investor would be likely to enter into these contracts intentionally.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.7 no.7
• /
• pp.124-132
• /
• 2007

In hospitality industry many firms choose the franchise system in order to enlarge their market share and to decrease risks. Small businessmen also accept the franchise contract as a good way of starting their business. With the contract franchisees take advantages of marketing, fiance, and operations from franchisers by paying several related fees or royalties. In this study factors influencing franchisees' satisfaction for the contract were identified. And the study also found that there was a significant difference in the degree of influencing among the factors.

• The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.133-146
• /
• 1995

WTO system has just begun and the development for fishing industry is being carried out. The task of National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives(NFFC ) is not only to support producers' competitive edge, but also to realize the efficiency embodied in the businesses of NFFC itself. Then it can continue to compete other firms and offer the comprehensive services only when it achieves its efficiency. The efficiency of NFFC is the economies of scale and scope. NFFC should achieve its scale and scope economies to be efficient. NFFC needs to expand its size in fish distribution and banking business to have scale economies. Also, the communication and coordination systems among member-supporting, fish distribution, and banking business need to be strengthened to get its scope economies. It is interesting theoretically and in policy making to test the hypotheses that cooperatives are capable of offering the comprehensive services such as distribution, credit, and insurance to the members. It is meaningful to their development for agricultural and small businesses cooperatives as well as fisheries cooperatives to survive the fierce competition under WTO system. National Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives(NFAC) is much greater in business size than NFFC. The estimation and test in the multiproduct cost function of NFAC will show interesting results.

• International Commerce and Information Review
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.25-48
• /
• 2009

With the rapid growth of e-logistics in the global logistics industry, it is important to gain further insight into this growing segment of Chinese logistics industry. The current situation in China consists of many small and medium-sized logistics firms. Furthermore, e-logistics is still relatively undeveloped in the majority of the Chinese logistics companies and presently there are still many problems unresolved. This paper attempted to review the concepts and theoretical background of e-logistics systems from previous studies. After acknowledging the essential issues related to e-logistics systems, a research model based on the theory acceptance model was designed and tested. The key factors to the e-logistics system (reliability, maintainability, software, facility and transportation) were validated through the modeling and testing process. Included in the modelling and testing process are other related factors of e-logistics process, logistics information system and added value as dependent variables in this model. The results of this study confirm that the e-logistics Process is affected by transportation, while maintainability and software factors influence logistics information system. reliability, maintainability, facility and transportation are significant factors associated with added value. This research aimed to provide theoretical and practical contribution to Chinese logistics companies and to give some insights into e-logistics system as a whole. The paper also provided some useful theoretical implication and practical guidelines for the development of e-logistics system in the chinese logistics industry.

• International Commerce and Information Review
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.3-26
• /
• 2009

With the rapid growth of e-logistics in the global logistics industry, it is important to gain further insight into this growing segment of Chinese logistics industry. The current situation in China consists of many small and medium-sized logistics firms. Furthermore, e-logistics is still relatively undeveloped in the majority of the Chinese logistics companies and presently there are still many problems unresolved. This paper attempted to review the concepts and theoretical background of e-logistics systems from previous studies. After acknowledging the essential issues related to e-logistics systems, a research model based on the theory acceptance model was designed and tested. The key factors to the e-logistics system (reliability, maintainability, software, facility and transportation) were validated through the modeling and testing process. Included in the modelling and testing process are other related factors of e-logistics process, logistics information system and added value as dependent variables in this model. The results of this study confirm that the e-logistics Process is affected by transportation, while maintainability and software factors influence logistics information system. reliability, maintainability, facility and transportation are significant factors associated with added value. This research aimed to provide theoretical and practical contribution to Chinese logistics companies and to give some insights into e-logistics system as a whole. The paper also provided some useful theoretical implication and practical guidelines for the development of e-logistics system in the chinese logistics industry.