• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.85-97
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• 2010

Internet communities are a typical space for knowledge creation and use on the Internet as people discuss their common interests within the internet communities. When we define 'Knowledge Communities' as internet communities that are related to knowledge creation and use, they are categorized into 4 different types such as 'Search Engine,' 'Open Communities,' 'Specialty Communities,' and 'Activity Communities.' Each type of knowledge community does not remain the same, for example. Rather, it changes with time and is also affected by the external business environment. Therefore, it is critical to develop processes for practical use of such changeable knowledge communities. Yet there is little research regarding a strategic framework for knowledge communities as a source of knowledge creation and use. The purposes of this study are (1) to find factors that can affect knowledge creation and use for each type of knowledge community and (2) to develop a strategic framework for practical use of the knowledge communities. Based on previous research, we found 7 factors that have considerable impacts on knowledge creation and use. They were 'Fitness,' 'Reliability,' 'Systemicity,' 'Richness,' 'Similarity,' 'Feedback,' and 'Understanding.' We created 30 different questions from each type of knowledge community. The questions included common sense, IT, business and hobbies, and were uniformly selected from various knowledge communities. Instead of using survey, we used these questions to ask users of the 4 representative web sites such as Google from Search Engine, NAVER Knowledge iN from Open Communities, SLRClub from Specialty Communities, and Wikipedia from Activity Communities. These 4 representative web sites were selected based on popularity (i.e., the 4 most popular sites in Korea). They were also among the 4 most frequently mentioned sitesin previous research. The answers of the 30 knowledge questions were collected and evaluated by the 11 IT experts who have been working for IT companies more than 3 years. When evaluating, the 11 experts used the above 7 knowledge factors as criteria. Using a stepwise linear regression for the evaluation of the 7 knowledge factors, we found that each factors affects differently knowledge creation and use for each type of knowledge community. The results of the stepwise linear regression analysis showed the relationship between 'Understanding' and other knowledge factors. The relationship was different regarding the type of knowledge community. The results indicated that 'Understanding' was significantly related to 'Reliability' at 'Search Engine type', to 'Fitness' at 'Open Community type', to 'Reliability' and 'Similarity' at 'Specialty Community type', and to 'Richness' and 'Similarity' at 'Activity Community type'. A strategic framework was created from the results of this study and such framework can be useful for knowledge communities that are not stable with time. For the success of knowledge community, the results of this study suggest that it is essential to ensure there are factors that can influence knowledge communities. It is also vital to reinforce each factor has its unique influence on related knowledge community. Thus, these changeable knowledge communities should be transformed into an adequate type with proper business strategies and objectives. They also should be progressed into a type that covers varioustypes of knowledge communities. For example, DCInside started from a small specialty community focusing on digital camera hardware and camerawork and then was transformed to an open community focusing on social issues through well-known photo galleries. NAVER started from a typical search engine and now covers an open community and a special community through additional web services such as NAVER knowledge iN, NAVER Cafe, and NAVER Blog. NAVER is currently competing withan activity community such as Wikipedia through the NAVER encyclopedia that provides similar services with NAVER encyclopedia's users as Wikipedia does. Finally, the results of this study provide meaningfully practical guidance for practitioners in that which type of knowledge community is most appropriate to the fluctuated business environment as knowledge community itself evolves with time.

• Journal of Venture Innovation
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.45-63
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• 2024

The success of a company in the market is linked to the value it delivers to its customers. However, that value is not always constant. As the environment changes, so do customer experiences and requirements, and eventually the value they seek also evolves. Thus, a timely, clear, and effective value proposition, along with the associated benefits, becomes the functional, psychological, and economic foundation of a business. Therefore, the customer value proposition is crucial in terms of Product-Market Fit (PMF), establishing competitive differentiation, and delivering consistent messaging. Despite this, the most widely known and utilized model related to the Customer Value Proposition (CVP) in general businesses is the Value Proposition Canvas (VPC) by Osterwalder and Pigneur. Apart from that, there are only a few other models used by scholars and experts. In this paper, I selected the VPC model, which is widely used by business practitioners globally, and two other major CVP models well-known to experts. I conducted a detailed analysis of these models and derived the essential elements and key features of a customer value proposition. These were then combined with the Lean Startup methodology, which is frequently used for innovation today, to design an integrated CVP model that startups can easily utilize. The framework proposed in this study is a comprehensive CVP model that incorporates the strengths, weaknesses, characteristics, and commonalities of the three existing CVP models. It is designed to flexibly adapt depending on the business direction or strategic characteristics of the company by comprehensively considering all circumstances of the entire company or a specific product/service. Additionally, it systematically manages the contents of customers' wants & needs, strategic focus, and growth horizons, even after application. The Integrative-Lean CVP Model, designed for easy use by startups, is expected to help them with limited funding and marketing capabilities identify value proposition elements for timely PMF, fostering the creation of a new startup ecosystem.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.83-90
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• 2018

Purpose - Journals of Korea Distribution Science Association (KODISA) made great efforts in responding to the constant shifts in academic paradigms and in producing synergetic effects among KODISA journals to achieve the goal of maintaining their status in the world's reputable scholarly journals. The aim of this study is to analyze the current practice and performance of KODISA journals and develop strategies that will continuously meet and respond to the changes and success in the future. Research design, data, and methodology - This is a case study, an analytical approach, which focuses on analyzing current and previous strategies, practices, and performances of the four major journals of KODISA and the association. The organizational structure, including election and terms of KODISA officers, new membership, and members of editorial board, is discussed and analyzed. The citation, submission, publication, and rejection rates of all four journals are examined, and the progress, including the status of indexing of each journal, is discussed. Results - The analysis indicates that KODISA has significantly invested its resources into improving its journals and attracting new members. The analysis also shows the strategy of the organizational structure, which includes election and terms of officers and editorial board members that implemented over the years, was successful. Both Journal of Distribution Science (JDS) and Journal of Finance, Economics, and Business (JAFEB) are indexed in SCOPUS, with East Asian Journal of Business Management (EAJBM) in the final stage of the SCOPUS indexing evaluation, and International Journal of Industrial Distribution and Business (IJIDB) will complete and submit their indexing evaluation materials to SCOPUS this summer. Conclusions - The success and progress of KODISA and its journals clearly support the need for continuous development, analysis, revision, and implementation of strategies. Based on the analysis, conducting the annual performance reviews of the association and its journals and planning and strategizing based on the reviews since 2011 have greatly contributed to the overall success. In terms of meeting the short term strategy, KODISA has to continue developing relationships with relevant and appropriate scholarly/academic associations to expand the scope of its business, establishing independence of each journal and its respective procedures and practices and improving the quality of the journals and their publications through KODISA's international conferences.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.611-635
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• 2014

Information systems (IS) have become ubiquitous and changed every aspect of how people live their lives. While some IS have been successfully adopted and widely used, others have failed to be adopted and crowded out in spite of remarkable progress in technologies. Both the technology acceptance model (TAM) and the IS Success Model (ISSM), among many others, have contributed to explain the reasons of success as well as failure in IS adoption and usage. While the TAM suggests that intention to use and perceived usefulness lead to actual IS usage, the ISSM indicates that information quality, system quality, and service quality affect IS usage and user satisfaction. Upon literature review, however, we found a significant void in theoretical development and its applications that employ either of the two models, and we raise research questions. First of all, in spite of the causal relationship between intention to use and actual usage, in most previous studies, only intention to use was employed as a dependent variable without overt explaining its relationship with actual usage. Moreover, even in a few studies that employed actual IS usage as a dependent variable, the degree of actual usage was measured based on users' perceptual responses to survey questionnaires. However, the measurement of actual usage based on survey responses might not be 'actual' usage in a strict sense that responders' perception may be distorted due to their selective perceptions or stereotypes. By the same token, the degree of system quality that IS users perceive might not be 'real' quality as well. This study seeks to fill this void by measuring the variables of actual usage and system quality using 'fact' data such as system logs and specifications of users' information and communications technology (ICT) devices. More specifically, we propose an integrated research model that bring together the TAM and the ISSM. The integrated model is composed of both the variables that are to be measured using fact as well as survey data. By employing the integrated model, we expect to reveal the difference between real and perceived degree of system quality, and to investigate the relationship between the perception-based measure of intention to use and the fact-based measure of actual usage. Furthermore, we also aim to add empirical findings on the general research question: what factors influence actual IS usage and how? In order to address the research question and to examine the research model, we selected a mobile campus application (MCA). We collected both fact data and survey data. For fact data, we retrieved them from the system logs such information as menu usage counts, user's device performance, display size, and operating system revision version number. At the same time, we conducted a survey among university students who use an MCA, and collected 180 valid responses. A partial least square (PLS) method was employed to validate our research model. Among nine hypotheses developed, we found five were supported while four were not. In detail, the relationships between (1) perceived system quality and perceived usefulness, (2) perceived system quality and perceived intention to use, (3) perceived usefulness and perceived intention to use, (4) quality of device platform and actual IS usage, and (5) perceived intention to use and actual IS usage were found to be significant. In comparison, the relationships between (1) quality of device platform and perceived system quality, (2) quality of device platform and perceived usefulness, (3) quality of device platform and perceived intention to use, and (4) perceived system quality and actual IS usage were not significant. The results of the study reveal notable differences from those of previous studies. First, although perceived intention to use shows a positive effect on actual IS usage, its explanatory power is very weak ($R^2$=0.064). Second, fact-based system quality (quality of user's device platform) shows a direct impact on actual IS usage without the mediating role of intention to use. Lastly, the relationships between perceived system quality (perception-based system quality) and other constructs show completely different results from those between quality of device platform (fact-based system quality) and other constructs. In the post-hoc analysis, IS users' past behavior was additionally included in the research model to further investigate the cause of such a low explanatory power of actual IS usage. The results show that past IS usage has a strong positive effect on current IS usage while intention to use does not have, implying that IS usage has already become a habitual behavior. This study provides the following several implications. First, we verify that fact-based data (i.e., system logs of real usage records) are more likely to reflect IS users' actual usage than perception-based data. In addition, by identifying the direct impact of quality of device platform on actual IS usage (without any mediating roles of attitude or intention), this study triggers further research on other potential factors that may directly influence actual IS usage. Furthermore, the results of the study provide practical strategic implications that organizations equipped with high-quality systems may directly expect high level of system usage.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.61-118
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• 2008

The purpose of this research is to construct research framework for international franchising based on existing literature and to identify research components in the framework. Franchise can be defined as management styles that allow franchisee use various management assets of franchisor in order to make or sell product or service. It can be divided into product distribution franchise that is designed to sell products and business format franchise that is designed for running it as business whatever its form is. International franchising can be defined as a way of internationalization of franchisor to foreign country by providing its business format or package to franchisee of host country. International franchising is growing fast for last four decades but academic research on this is quite limited. Especially in Korea, research about international franchising is carried out on by case study format with single case or empirical study format with survey based on domestic franchise theory. Therefore, this paper tries to review existing literature on international franchising research, providing research framework, and then stimulating new research on this field. International franchising research components include motives and environmental factors for decision of expanding to international franchising, entrance modes and development plan for international franchising, contracts and management strategy of international franchising, and various performance measures from different perspectives. First, motives of international franchising are fee collection from franchisee. Also it provides easier way to expanding to foreign country. The other motives including increase total sales volume, occupying better strategic position, getting quality resources, and improving efficiency. Environmental factors that facilitating international franchising encompasses economic condition, trend, and legal or political factors in host and/or home countries. In addition, control power and risk management capability of franchisor plays critical role in successful franchising contract. Final decision to enter foreign country via franchising is determined by numerous factors like history, size, growth, competitiveness, management system, bonding capability, industry characteristics of franchisor. After deciding to enter into foreign country, franchisor needs to set entrance modes of international franchising. Within contractual mode, there are master franchising and area developing franchising, licensing, direct franchising, and joint venture. Theories about entrance mode selection contain concepts of efficiency, knowledge-based approach, competence-based approach, agent theory, and governance cost. The next step after entrance decision is operation strategy. Operation strategy starts with selecting a target city and a target country for franchising. In order to finding, screening targets, franchisor needs to collect information about candidates. Critical information includes brand patent, commercial laws, regulations, market conditions, country risk, and industry analysis. After selecting a target city in target country, franchisor needs to select franchisee, in other word, partner. The first important criteria for selecting partners are financial credibility and capability, possession of real estate. And cultural similarity and knowledge about franchisor and/or home country are also recognized as critical criteria. The most important element in operating strategy is legal document between franchisor and franchisee with home and host countries. Terms and conditions in legal documents give objective information about characteristics of franchising agreement for academic research. Legal documents have definitions of terminology, territory and exclusivity, agreement of term, initial fee, continuing fees, clearing currency, and rights about sub-franchising. Also, legal documents could have terms about softer elements like training program and operation manual. And harder elements like law competent court and terms of expiration. Next element in operating strategy is about product and service. Especially for business format franchising, product/service deliverable, benefit communicators, system identifiers (architectural features), and format facilitators are listed for product/service strategic elements. Another important decision on product/service is standardization vs. customization. The rationale behind standardization is cost reduction, efficiency, consistency, image congruence, brand awareness, and competitiveness on price. Also standardization enables large scale R&D and innovative change in management style. Another element in operating strategy is control management. The simple way to control franchise contract is relying on legal terms, contractual control system. There are other control systems, administrative control system and ethical control system. Contractual control system is a coercive source of power, but franchisor usually doesn't want to use legal power since it doesn't help to build up positive relationship. Instead, self-regulation is widely used. Administrative control system uses control mechanism from ordinary work relationship. Its main component is supporting activities to franchisee and communication method. For example, franchisor provides advertising, training, manual, and delivery, then franchisee follows franchisor's direction. Another component is building franchisor's brand power. The last research element is performance factor of international franchising. Performance elements can be divided into franchisor's performance and franchisee's performance. The conceptual performance measures of franchisor are simple but not easy to obtain objectively. They are profit, sale, cost, experience, and brand power. The performance measures of franchisee are mostly about benefits of host country. They contain small business development, promotion of employment, introduction of new business model, and level up technology status. There are indirect benefits, like increase of tax, refinement of corporate citizenship, regional economic clustering, and improvement of international balance. In addition to those, host country gets socio-cultural change other than economic effects. It includes demographic change, social trend, customer value change, social communication, and social globalization. Sometimes it is called as westernization or McDonaldization of society. In addition, the paper reviews on theories that have been frequently applied to international franchising research, such as agent theory, resource-based view, transaction cost theory, organizational learning theory, and international expansion theories. Resource based theory is used in strategic decision based on resources, like decision about entrance and cooperation depending on resources of franchisee and franchisor. Transaction cost theory can be applied in determination of mutual trust or satisfaction of franchising players. Agent theory tries to explain strategic decision for reducing problem caused by utilizing agent, for example research on control system in franchising agreements. Organizational Learning theory is relatively new in franchising research. It assumes organization tries to maximize performance and learning of organization. In addition, Internalization theory advocates strategic decision of direct investment for removing inefficiency of market transaction and is applied in research on terms of contract. And oligopolistic competition theory is used to explain various entry modes for international expansion. Competency theory support strategic decision of utilizing key competitive advantage. Furthermore, research methodologies including qualitative and quantitative methodologies are suggested for more rigorous international franchising research. Quantitative research needs more real data other than survey data which is usually respondent's judgment. In order to verify theory more rigorously, research based on real data is essential. However, real quantitative data is quite hard to get. The qualitative research other than single case study is also highly recommended. Since international franchising has limited number of applications, scientific research based on grounded theory and ethnography study can be used. Scientific case study is differentiated with single case study on its data collection method and analysis method. The key concept is triangulation in measurement, logical coding and comparison. Finally, it provides overall research direction for international franchising after summarizing research trend in Korea. International franchising research in Korea has two different types, one is for studying Korean franchisor going overseas and the other is for Korean franchisee of foreign franchisor. Among research on Korean franchisor, two common patterns are observed. First of all, they usually deal with success story of one franchisor. The other common pattern is that they focus on same industry and country. Therefore, international franchise research needs to extend their focus to broader subjects with scientific research methodology as well as development of new theory.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.11-20
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• 2014

Recently K-POP's popularity and the success story of 'Psy' suggests that Korean Culture can get the possibility of entry into the global major market. Increasing the purchasing power of global contents distribution also shows that the delivery of cultural content can be a big business model to create economic benefits. However, for sustainable diffusion of Korean culture, we need efforts to expand the business scope to the global market like the establishment of global distribution platform. In this study, we investigated key factors for activating the global content distribution and then analyzed priority of importance of the factors to be utilized the strategic alternatives using AHP method. To ensure the reliability of the study, experts (30patients) who worked more than 10 years of relevant work were included as population of the questionnaire. The results of analysis, the relative importance of content aspects were higher than technical aspects and policy aspects. In the analysis of the importance of the second layer factors, the business models of policy aspects were analyzed as a factor of top priority, then high-quality content production was selected as an important factor of the next higher ranks.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.223-255
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• 2008

This study explores the determinants and processes of IT consolidation of Korean conglomerates. Through an extensive analysis of cases, this study identifies the drivers, benefits and critical success factors of IT consolidation, and observes the transition of vision for the IT service subsidiaries in the conglomerates. The results show that most firms in this analysis have completed the organizational, physical, and logical consolidation of their IT resources, and currently some of them are preparing for the next stage of IT consolidation such as rational consolidation and virtualization. It is also found that the strategic factor was one of the most significant determinants in consolidating IT resources which leaded the transition of vision of the IT service firms in the conglomerates from "cost center" to "profit center". The results of this study can provide a fundamental and empirical basis for building a theory of IT consolidation, and be used as a valuable benchmarking model for the organizations which consider starting a project of IT consolidation.

• Industry Promotion Research
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.81-88
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• 2020

This study aims to emphasize the importance of organizational culture through case studies on the activation of Atomy corporate culture, which is a key factor in corporate sustain-ability. A company is a purely Korean network marketing company that is advantageous to consumers, and further enhances the sustainable growth system by realizing the value of A company that realizes customer's success beyond customers' with better quality and more reasonable prices. In particular, A company has the following three characteristics of organizational culture to realize its founding philosophy, motto, management goals and management policy. First, it is a culture of Observing Principles. Second, it is a culture of glowing together. Third, it is a sharing culture. In addition, A company established and practiced, a unique thinking and organizational culture characteristic of work, to realize growth and development of a top-notch company beyond a global Korean network marketing company. On the other hand, A company is realizing the re-establishment and implementation of the human resource management system that strategically reflects the value of industry according to the changes and characteristics of the times. In other words, the most important factor for revitalizing the organizational culture is the aspect of changes in the personnel system. We are further improving our sustain-ability management system through system innovation to provide continuous value to our partners, members, and consumers along with a strategic HR system differentiated from existing network marketing companies.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.97-105
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• 2015

This study aims to investigate the impacts of small venture firms' capabilities on their international performance and the role of environmental dynamics in these relationships. Specifically, the study examines how international marketing, technology, and network capabilities of small venture firms influence their international performance and how market and technology turbulences moderates these relationships. Employing 162 small venture firms in Korea, the result of multiple regression analysis found that marketing capability did not affect international performance while technology and network capabilities had positive, significant impacts on international performance. Market turbulence was found to have a negative moderation effect on the relationship of network capability and international performance. Technology turbulence had a negative moderation effect on the relationship of technology capability and international performance and a positive moderation effect on the relationship of network capability and international performance. The findings confirm the importance of capabilities in improving the international performance of small venture firms and generate strategic implications for their international success by emphasizing the effect of environmental dynamics.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.249-273
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• 2016

Recently companies consider the patent activity as one of the critical factor for success in global economy even though one of the enterprise's competitiveness factor was productivity in past industry economy. Since there are so many patent dispute globally in IT industry, it is very important for companies to register and manage patents strategically. Therefore, this research analyze relationship between Financial result and 3 patent activity factors like productivity, effectiveness, and high-quality by investigating patent and financial data of 217 Korean IT enterprises. This paper get the following results after building research model and hypothesis based on resource-based theory and analysing the data sets using multiple regression model. First, effectiveness and high-quality of patents showed positive(+) effect on growth of total assets of IT enterprises. Second, three factors of patent activities do not have significant results with average increase rate of sales. Third, only high-quality of patents have positive(+) effect on average increase rate of net income. The differentiation factor of this research is that this paper categorized patent activity factors as quantitative and qualitative factors, and practically suggested strategic direction of patent activities of IT companies which face serious patent distribute globally.