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Primiparas만 Perceptions of Their Delivery Experience and Their Maternal-Infant Interaction : Compared According to Delivery Method (초산모의 분만유형별 분만경험에 대한 지각과 모아상호작용 과정에 관한 연구)

  • 조미영
    • Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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    • v.20 no.2
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    • pp.153-173
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    • 1990
  • One of the important tasks for new parents. especially mothers, is to establish warm, mutually affirming interpersonal relationships with the new baby in the family, with the purpose of promoting the healthy development of the child and the wellbeing of the whole family. Nurses assess the quality of the behavioral characteristics of the maternal-infant interaction. This study examined the relationships between primiparas pereptions of their delivery experience and their maternal infant interaction. It compared to delivery experience of mothers having a normal vaginal delivery with those having a casearean section. The purpose was to explore the relationships between the mother's perceptions of her delivery experience with her maternal infant interaction. The aim was to contribute to the development of theoretical understanding on which to base care toward promoting the quality of maternal-infant interaction. Data were collected directly by the investigator and a trained associate from Dec. 1, 1987 to March 8, 1988. Subjects were 3 random sample of 62 mothers, 32 who had a normal vaginal delivery and 30 who had a non-elective cesarean section (but without other perinatal complications) at three general hospitals in Seoul. Instruments used were the Stainton Parent -infant Interaction Scale(1981) and the Marut and Mercer Perception of Birth Scale(1979). The first observations were made in the delivery room (for vaginally delivered mothers only), followed by day 1, day 2, day 3, and 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 6 weeks and 8 weeks after birth, for a total of 7-8 contacts(Cesarean section mothers were observed on days 4 and 5 but the data not used for analysis). Observations in the hospital were made during the hour prior to scheduled feedings. The infant was placed beside the mother. Later contacts were made at home. Data analysis was done by computer using as SPSS program and indulded X² test, paired t-test, t-test, and Pearson Correlation coefficient ; the results were as follows. 1. Mothers who had a normal vaginal delivery tended to perceive the delivery experience more positively than cesarean section mothers(p=0.002). The finding supported the hypothesis I that perception of delivery would vary according to the method of delivery. Mothers' perceptions of birth were classified into three dimensions, labor, delivery and the bady. There was a significantly different and positive perception by the vaginally delivered mothers to the delivery experience(p=0.000) but no differences for labor or the bady according to the delivery method(p=0.096, p=0.389), 2. Mothers who had a normal vaginal delivery had higher average maternal-infant interaction scores(p=0.029) than mothers who had a cesarean section. There were similar higher scores for the 1st day(p=0.042), 2nd day (p=0.009), and the 3rd day(p=0.006) after delivery but not for later times. The findings supported the hypothesis Ⅱ that there would be differences in maternal-infant interaction for mothers having vaginal and cesarean section deliveries. However these differences deccreased section deliveries. However these differences decreased over time . by eight weeks the scores for vaginal delivery mothers averaged 8.1 and for cesarean section mothers, 7.9. 3. The more highly positive the pereption of the delivery experience, the higher the maternal-infant interaction score for all subjects(F=.3206, p=.006). The findings supported the hypothesis Ⅲ that there would be correlations between perceptions of delivery and maternal-infant interaction. The maternal infant interaction was highest when the perception of the bady and deliery was positive(r=.4363, p=.000, r=.2881, p=.012). No correlations between perceptions of labor and maternal-infant interaction were found(p=0.062). 4. The daily maternal-infant interaction score for the initial contact after birth to 8 weeks postpartum had the lowest average score 5.20 and the highest 7.98(in a range of 0-10). This subjects group of mothers needed nursing intervention to promote their maternal- infant interaction. The daily scores for the maternal-infant over the period of eight weeks. However, there were significantly different increases in maternal-infant interaction only from the first to second day(p=0.000) and from the fourth to sixth weeks after birth(P=0.000). 5. When the eight items of maternal-infant interaction were evaluated separately, “Expresses feelings about her role as mother” had the highest average score, 1.64(ina range of 0-3)and “Speaks to baby” the lowest, 0.9. All items, with the possible exception of “Expresses feelings about her role as mother”, suggested the subjects' need of nursing intervention to promote maternal-infant interaction. 6. There were positive correlations between certain general charateristis, namely, both a higher economic status(p=0.002) and breast feeding(p=0.202) and maternal - infant interaction. There were positive correlations between a mother's confidence in her role as a mother and the perception of the birth experience(p=0.004). For mothers who had a cesarean section, a positive perception of the birth experience was related to the duration of her marriage(p=0.010), a wanted pregnancy (P=0.030) and her confidence in her role as a mother(p=0.000). Pereptions of birth for mothers who had a normal vaginal delivery were positive than those for mothers who had a cesarean section. The level of maternalinfant interaction for mothers delivered vaginally was higher than for cesarean section mothers. The relationship between perception of birth and materanalinfant interaction was confirmed. Cesarean section has an impact on the mother's perceived experience of birth which, in turn, is positively related to maternal-infant in turn, is positively related to maternal-infant interaction. Nursing intervention to enhance maternal-infant interaction should begin in prenatal classes with an exploration of the potential impact of cesarean section on the perceptions of the birth experience and continue throughout the perinatal and post-natal periods to promote the mother's ability to control with this crisis experience and to mobilize social support. Nursing should help transform a relatively negatively perceived experience into an accepted, positively perceived and self affirming experience which enhances the maternal-infant relationship.

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An Overview of the Rationale of Monetary and Banking Intervention: The Role of the Central Bank in Money and Banking Revisited (화폐(貨幣)·금융개입(金融介入)의 이론적(理論的) 근거(根據)에 대한 고찰(考察) : 중앙은행(中央銀行)의 존립근거(存立根據)에 대한 개관(槪觀))

  • Jwa, Sung-hee
    • KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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    • v.12 no.3
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    • pp.71-94
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    • 1990
  • This paper reviews the rationale of monetary and banking intervention by an outside authority, either the government or the central bank, and seeks to delineate clearly the optimal limits to the monetary and banking deregulation currently underway in Korea as well as on a global scale. Furthermore, this paper seeks to establish an objective and balanced view on the role of the central bank, especially in light of the current discussion on the restructuring of Korea's central bank, which has been severely contaminated by interest-group politics. The discussion begins with the recognition that the modern free banking school and the new monetary economics are becoming formidable challenges to the traditional role of the government or the central bank in the monetary and banking sector. The paper reviews six arguments that have traditionally been presented to support intervention: (1) the possibility of an over-issue of bank notes under free banking instead of central banking; (2) externalities in and the public good nature of the use of money; (3) economies of scale and natural monopoly in producing money; (4) the need for macro stabilization policy due to the instability of the real sector; (5) the external effects of bank failure due to the inherent instability of the existing banking system; and (6) protection for small banknote users and depositors. Based on an analysis of the above arguments, the paper speculates on the optimal role of the government or central bank in the monetary and banking system and the optimal degree of monetary and banking deregulation. By contrast to the arguments for free banking or laissez-faire monetary systems, which become fashionable in recent years, monopoly and intervention by the government or central bank in the outside money system can be both necessary and optimal. In this case, of course, an over-issue of fiat money may be possible due to political considerations, but this issue is beyond the scope of this paper. On the other hand, the issue of inside monies based on outside money could indeed be provided for optimally under market competition by private institutions. A competitive system in issuing inside monies would help realize, to the maxim urn extent possible, external economies generated by using a single outside money. According to this reasoning, free banking activities will prevail in the inside money system, while a government monopoly will prevail in the outside money system. This speculation, then, also implies that the monetary and banking deregulation currently underway should and most likely will be limited to the inside money system, which could be liberalized to the fullest degree. It is also implied that it will be impractical to deregulate the outside money system and to allow market competition to provide outside money, in accordance with the arguments of the free banking school and the new monetary economics. Furthermore, the role of the government or central bank in this new environment will not be significantly different from their current roles. As far as the supply of fiat money continues to be monopolized by the government, the control of the supply of base money and such related responsibilities as monetary policy (argument(4)) and the lender of the last resort (argument (5)) will naturally be assigned to the outside money supplier. However, a mechanism for controlling an over-issue of fiat money by a monopolistic supplier will definitely be called for (argument(1)). A monetary policy based on a certain policy rule could be one possibility. More importantly, the deregulation of the inside money system would further increase the systemic risk inherent in the current fractional banking system, while enhancing the efficiency of the system (argument (5)). In this context, the role of the lender of the last resort would again become an instrument of paramount importance in alleviating liquidity crises in the early stages, thereby disallowing the possibility of a widespread bank run. Similarly, prudential banking supervision would also help maintain the safety and soundness of the fully deregulated banking system. These functions would also help protect depositors from losses due to bank failures (argument (6)). Finally, these speculations suggest that government or central bank authorities have probably been too conservative on the issue of the deregulation of the financial system, beyond the caution necessary to preserve system safety. Rather, only the fullest deregulation of the inside money system seems to guarantee the maximum enjoyment of external economies in the single outside money system.

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Comparison of Nutrient Intakes of Korean Elderly People Living in Rural Area Between 24-hour Recall and Food Frequency Method (24시간회상법과 식품섭취빈도조사법을 이용한 농촌지역 노인의 영양소 섭취수준 비교)

  • Cho, Young-Eun;Lee, Soo-Lim;Cho, Eun-Hyun;Lomeda, Ria-Ann L;Kwak, Eun-Hee;Kim, Yang-Ha;Kwun, In-Sook
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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    • v.35 no.6
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    • pp.698-707
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    • 2006
  • Precise and correct assessment of nutrient intake using appropriate dietary intake method is necessary to improve the nutritional status of the target people group. It is more likely so in elderly people since their dietary habits and inadequate nutrient intakes are of special concern even worse in rural areas. Two popular methods of gathering dietary intake are 24-hour recall and food frequency method (or food frequency questionnaire). In the present study, we conducted both 24-hour recall and food frequency method on 120 rural elderly people $(aged\;65{\sim}74\;years)$, 62 male and 58 female. The dietary intakes were analyzed and the correlation of the dietary intake between 24-hour recall and food frequency method to determine the reliability between two methods. Also each nutrient intake was compared to recommended dietary allowance (RDA) or nutrient reference value (NRV) as appropriate. Even correlation did not show significance between the two methods except for dietary fiber intake (0.65 at p<0.01) and energy-yielding nutrients which mostly showed similar results with nutrient intake level. These support the possible reliability between 24-hours record and food frequency method that is also shown on the cases of most mineral and vitamin intakes. Thus, the food frequency method used in this study for the assessment of nutrient intakes of the elderly people would be reliable for the assessment of the nutrient intake along with the 24-hour recall. Also, the present study results suggested that rural female elderly people would be under optimal nutriture status due to the lower food intake measured by 24-hour recall. The optimal food frequency method would be considered to be developed for the precise nutrient assessment.

A Deep Learning Based Approach to Recognizing Accompanying Status of Smartphone Users Using Multimodal Data (스마트폰 다종 데이터를 활용한 딥러닝 기반의 사용자 동행 상태 인식)

  • Kim, Kilho;Choi, Sangwoo;Chae, Moon-jung;Park, Heewoong;Lee, Jaehong;Park, Jonghun
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.25 no.1
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    • pp.163-177
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    • 2019
  • As smartphones are getting widely used, human activity recognition (HAR) tasks for recognizing personal activities of smartphone users with multimodal data have been actively studied recently. The research area is expanding from the recognition of the simple body movement of an individual user to the recognition of low-level behavior and high-level behavior. However, HAR tasks for recognizing interaction behavior with other people, such as whether the user is accompanying or communicating with someone else, have gotten less attention so far. And previous research for recognizing interaction behavior has usually depended on audio, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi sensors, which are vulnerable to privacy issues and require much time to collect enough data. Whereas physical sensors including accelerometer, magnetic field and gyroscope sensors are less vulnerable to privacy issues and can collect a large amount of data within a short time. In this paper, a method for detecting accompanying status based on deep learning model by only using multimodal physical sensor data, such as an accelerometer, magnetic field and gyroscope, was proposed. The accompanying status was defined as a redefinition of a part of the user interaction behavior, including whether the user is accompanying with an acquaintance at a close distance and the user is actively communicating with the acquaintance. A framework based on convolutional neural networks (CNN) and long short-term memory (LSTM) recurrent networks for classifying accompanying and conversation was proposed. First, a data preprocessing method which consists of time synchronization of multimodal data from different physical sensors, data normalization and sequence data generation was introduced. We applied the nearest interpolation to synchronize the time of collected data from different sensors. Normalization was performed for each x, y, z axis value of the sensor data, and the sequence data was generated according to the sliding window method. Then, the sequence data became the input for CNN, where feature maps representing local dependencies of the original sequence are extracted. The CNN consisted of 3 convolutional layers and did not have a pooling layer to maintain the temporal information of the sequence data. Next, LSTM recurrent networks received the feature maps, learned long-term dependencies from them and extracted features. The LSTM recurrent networks consisted of two layers, each with 128 cells. Finally, the extracted features were used for classification by softmax classifier. The loss function of the model was cross entropy function and the weights of the model were randomly initialized on a normal distribution with an average of 0 and a standard deviation of 0.1. The model was trained using adaptive moment estimation (ADAM) optimization algorithm and the mini batch size was set to 128. We applied dropout to input values of the LSTM recurrent networks to prevent overfitting. The initial learning rate was set to 0.001, and it decreased exponentially by 0.99 at the end of each epoch training. An Android smartphone application was developed and released to collect data. We collected smartphone data for a total of 18 subjects. Using the data, the model classified accompanying and conversation by 98.74% and 98.83% accuracy each. Both the F1 score and accuracy of the model were higher than the F1 score and accuracy of the majority vote classifier, support vector machine, and deep recurrent neural network. In the future research, we will focus on more rigorous multimodal sensor data synchronization methods that minimize the time stamp differences. In addition, we will further study transfer learning method that enables transfer of trained models tailored to the training data to the evaluation data that follows a different distribution. It is expected that a model capable of exhibiting robust recognition performance against changes in data that is not considered in the model learning stage will be obtained.

A Study on Practical Curriculum Development of the Education for Love based on the Understanding of Psychoanalytic 'Desire of Subject' (정신분석학적 '욕망의 주체' 이해에 기초한 사랑의 교육 교육과정 개발)

  • Kim, Sun Ah
    • Journal of Christian Education in Korea
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    • v.68
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    • pp.77-112
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    • 2021
  • This study is based on the research of the first year, which is the National Research Foundation of Korea's R&D subject for middle-grade researchers. In this study, the practical curriculum development of the education for love - an according to the psychoanalytic perspectives of F. Dolto(1908-1988) - is suggested as follows. The first is 'the reconstruction of the directions of curriculum and its specific aims in accordance with such directions.' The reconstruction of the directions of curriculum aims at leading our future generation to live as a subject of desire through the mutual-communication of love. The second is 'the reconstruction of the tasks of curriculum and its specific contents in accordance with such tasks.' The reconstruction of the tasks of curriculum pursuit to help our future generation through the converting the education for love into the paradigm of desire of Agape to live as a subject of desire forming a whole personality and practicing the desire of Agape in daily life. as a source of desire. According to these aims, the reconstruction of directions of curriculum are presented as following: firstly, 'curriculum for the mutual-communication between subjects of love' and secondly, 'curriculum for the subject of desire'. The reconstruction of tasks of curriculum are like these: firstly, 'converting the education for love into the paradigm of desire of Agape', and secondly, 'forming a whole personality through the education for love'. Thus, with respect to two specific aims in accordance with the reconstruction of directions are suggested like these: Firstly, 'constructing a subject as a speaking existence' and secondly, 'realizing the subject as the autonomous source of desire'. In the two specific contents in accordance with the reconstruction of tasks are presented as following: Firstly, 'realizing the truth of the desire of Agape'.' Secondly, 'practicing the desire of Agape in daily life.' The third is 'the reconstruction of curriculum by life cycle' are suggested. They include the fetal life, infants and preschool children life, and childhood life. In further study, it is required to contain adolescent period. It will be useful to help them to recover their self-esteem with the experience of true love, especially, out-of-school young generation overcome negative perspectives and prejudice in the society, and challenges to their dreams and future through proper utilization of the study outcome. The outcome of this study, which presented practical curriculum development of the education for love based on the understanding of psychoanalytic 'desire of subject' can be used as basic teaching materials for our future generations. Furthermore, the results can be used as a resource for educating ministers and lay leaders in the religious world to build capabilities to heal their inner side as well as the society that is tainted with various forms of conflict. These include general conflicts, anger, pleasure and addiction, depression and suicide, violence and murder, etc. The study outcome can contribute to the prevention of antisocial incidents against humanity that have recently been occurring in our free-semester system implemented in all middle schools across the country to be operated effectively. For example, it is possible to provide the study results as lecture and teaching materials for 'character camp' (self-examination and self-esteem improvement training) and 'family healing camp' (solution of a communication gap between family members and love communication training), which help students participate in field trip activities and career exploration activities voluntarily, independently, and creatively. Ultimately, it can visibly present the convergent research performance by providing the study outcome as preliminary data for the development of lecture videos and materials including infant care and preschool education, parental education, family consultation education, and holistic healing education. Support from the religious world, including the central government and local governments, are urgently required in order for such educational possibilities to be fulfilled both in the society and the fields of church education and to be actively linked to follow-up studies.

Environmental Interpretation on soil mass movement spot and disaster dangerous site for precautionary measures -in Peong Chang Area- (산사태발생지(山沙汰發生地)와 피해위험지(被害危險地)의 환경학적(環境學的) 해석(解析)과 예방대책(豫防對策) -평창지구(平昌地區)를 중심(中心)으로-)

  • Ma, Sang Kyu
    • Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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    • v.45 no.1
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    • pp.11-25
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    • 1979
  • There was much mass movement at many different mountain side of Peong Chang area in Kwangwon province by the influence of heavy rainfall through August/4 5, 1979. This study have done with the fact observed through the field survey and the information of the former researchers. The results are as follows; 1. Heavy rainfall area with more than 200mm per day and more than 60mm per hour as maximum rainfall during past 6 years, are distributed in the western side of the connecting line through Hoeng Seong, Weonju, Yeongdong, Muju, Namweon and Suncheon, and of the southern sea side of KeongsangNam-do. The heavy rain fan reason in the above area seems to be influenced by the mouktam range and moving direction of depression. 2. Peak point of heavy rainfall distribution always happen during the night time and seems to cause directly mass movement and serious damage. 3. Soil mass movement in Peongchang break out from the course sandy loam soil of granite group and the clay soil of lime stone and shale. Earth have moved along the surface of both bedrock or also the hardpan in case of the lime stone area. 4. Infiltration seems to be rapid on the both bedrock soil, the former is by the soil texture and the latter is by the crumb structure, high humus content and dense root system in surface soil. 5. Topographic pattern of mass movement spot is mostly the concave slope at the valley head or at the upper part of middle slope which run-off can easily come together from the surrounding slope. Soil profile of mass movement spot has wet soil in the lime stone area and loose or deep soil in the granite area. 6. Dominant slope degree of the soil mass movement site has steep slope, mostly, more than 25 degree and slope position that start mass movement is mostly in the range of the middle slope line to ridge line. 7. Vegetation status of soil mass movement area are mostly fire field agriculture area, it's abandoned grass land, young plantation made on the fire field poor forest of the erosion control site and non forest land composed mainly grass and shrubs. Very rare earth sliding can be found in the big tree stands but mostly from the thin soil site on the un-weatherd bed rock. 8. Dangerous condition of soil mass movement and land sliding seems to be estimated by the several environmental factors, namely, vegetation cover, slope degree, slope shape and position, bed rock and soil profile characteristics etc. 9. House break down are mostly happen on the following site, namely, colluvial cone and fan, talus, foot area of concave slope and small terrace or colluvial soil between valley and at the small river side Dangerous house from mass movement could be interpreted by the aerial photo with reference of the surrounding site condition of house and village in the mountain area 10. As a counter plan for the prevention of mass movement damage the technics of it's risk diagnosis and the field survey should be done, and the mass movement control of prevention should be started with the goverment support as soon as possible. The precautionary measures of house and village protection from mass movement damage should be made and executed and considered the protecting forest making around the house and village. 11. Dangerous or safety of house and village from mass movement and flood damage will be indentified and informed to the village people of mountain area through the forest extension work. 12. Clear cutting activity on the steep granite site, fire field making on the steep slope, house or village construction on the dangerous site and fuel collection in the eroded forest or the steep forest land should be surely prohibited When making the management plan the mass movement, soil erosion and flood problem will be concidered and also included the prevention method of disaster.

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Study on the effect of small and medium-sized businesses being selected as suitable business types, on the franchise industry (중소기업적합업종선정이 프랜차이즈산업에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구)

  • Kang, Chang-Dong;Shin, Geon-Chel;Jang, Jae Nam
    • Journal of Distribution Research
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    • v.17 no.5
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    • pp.1-23
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    • 2012
  • The conflict between major corporations and small and medium-sized businesses is being aggravated, the trickle down effect is not working properly, and, as the controversy surrounding the effectiveness of the business limiting system continues to swirl, the plan proposed to protect the business domain of small and medium-sized businesses, resolve polarization between these businesses and large corporations, and protect small family run stores is the suitable business type designation system for small and medium-sized businesses. The current status of carrying out this system of selecting suitable business types among small and medium-sized businesses involves receiving applications for 234 items among the suitable business types and items from small and medium-sized businesses in manufacturing, and then selecting the items of the consultative group by analyzing and investigating the actual conditions. Suitable business type designation in the service industry will involve designation with priority on business types that are experiencing social conflict. Three major classifications of the service industry, related to the livelihood of small and medium-sized businesses, will be first designated, and subsequently this will be expanded sequentially. However, there is the concern that when designated as a suitable business type or item, this will hinder the growth motive for small to medium-sized businesses, and designation all cause decrease in consumer welfare. Also it is highly likely that it will operate as a prior regulation, cause side-effects by limiting competition systematically, and also be in violation against the main regulations of the FTA system. Moreover, it is pointed out that the system does not sufficiently reflect reverse discrimination factor against large corporations. Because conflict between small to medium sized businesses and large corporations results from the expansion of corporations to the service industry, which is unrelated to their key industry, it is necessary to introduce an advanced contract method like a master franchise or local franchise system and to develop local small to medium sized businesses through a franchise system to protect these businesses and dealers. However, this method may have an effect that contributes to stronger competitiveness of small to medium sized franchise businesses by advancing their competitiveness and operational methods a step further, but also has many negative aspects. First, as revealed by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, the franchise industry is contributing to the strengthening of competitiveness through the economy of scale by organizing existing individual proprietors and increasing the success rate of new businesses. It is also revealed to be a response measure by the government to stabilize the economy of ordinary people and is emphasized as a 'useful way' to revitalize the service industry and improve the competitiveness of individual proprietors, and has been involved in contributions to creating jobs and expanding the domestic market by providing various services to consumers. From this viewpoint, franchises fit the purpose of the suitable business type system and is not something that is against it. Second, designation as a suitable business type may decrease investment for overseas expansion, R&D, and food safety, as well negatively affect the expansion of overseas corporations that have entered the domestic market, due to the contraction and low morale of large domestic franchise corporations that have competitiveness internationally. Also because domestic franchise businesses are hard pressed to secure competitiveness with multinational overseas franchise corporations that are operating in Korea, the system may cause difficulty for domestic franchise businesses in securing international competitiveness and also may result in reverse discrimination against these overseas franchise corporations. Third, the designation of suitable business type and item can limit the opportunity of selection for consumers who have up to now used those products and can cause a negative effect that reduces consumer welfare. Also, because there is the possibility that the range of consumer selection may be reduced when a few small to medium size businesses monopolize the market, by causing reverse discrimination between these businesses, the role of determining the utility of products must be left ot the consumer not the government. Lastly, it is desirable that this is carried out with the supplementation of deficient parts in the future, because fair trade is already secured with the enforcement of the franchise trade law and the best trade standard of the Fair Trade Commission. Overlapping regulations by the suitable business type designation is an excessive restriction in the franchise industry. Now, it is necessary to establish in the domestic franchise industry an environment where a global franchise corporation, which spreads Korean culture around the world, is capable of growing, and the active support by the government is needed. Therefore, systems that do not consider the process or background of the growth of franchise businesses and harm these businesses for the sole reason of them being large corporations must be removed. The inhibition of growth to franchise enterprises may decrease the sales of franchise stores, in some cases even bankrupt them, as well as cause other problems. Therefore the suitable business type system should not hinder large corporations, and as both small dealers and small to medium size businesses both aim at improving competitiveness and combined growth, large corporations, small dealers and small to medium sized businesses, based on their mutual cooperation, should not include franchise corporations that continue business relations with them in this system.

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Factors Affecting International Transfer Pricing of Multinational Enterprises in Korea (외국인투자기업의 국제이전가격 결정에 영향을 미치는 환경 및 기업요인)

  • Jun, Tae-Young;Byun, Yong-Hwan
    • Korean small business review
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    • v.31 no.2
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    • pp.85-102
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    • 2009
  • With the continued globalization of world markets, transfer pricing has become one of the dominant sources of controversy in international taxation. Transfer pricing is the process by which a multinational corporation calculates a price for goods and services that are transferred to affiliated entities. Consider a Korean electronic enterprise that buys supplies from its own subsidiary located in China. How much the Korean parent company pays its subsidiary will determine how much profit the Chinese unit reports in local taxes. If the parent company pays above normal market prices, it may appear to have a poor profit, even if the group as a whole shows a respectable profit margin. In this way, transfer prices impact the taxable income reported in each country in which the multinational enterprise operates. It's importance lies in that around 60% of international trade involves transactions between two related parts of multinationals, according to the OECD. Multinational enterprises (hereafter MEs) exert much effort into utilizing organizational advantages to make global investments. MEs wish to minimize their tax burden. So MEs spend a fortune on economists and accountants to justify transfer prices that suit their tax needs. On the contrary, local governments are not prepared to cope with MEs' powerful financial instruments. Tax authorities in each country wish to ensure that the tax base of any ME is divided fairly. Thus, both tax authorities and MEs have a vested interest in the way in which a transfer price is determined, and this is why MEs' international transfer prices are at the center of disputes concerned with taxation. Transfer pricing issues and practices are sometimes difficult to control for regulators because the tax administration does not have enough staffs with the knowledge and resources necessary to understand them. The authors examine transfer pricing practices to provide relevant resources useful in designing tax incentives and regulation schemes for policy makers. This study focuses on identifying the relevant business and environmental factors that could influence the international transfer pricing of MEs. In this perspective, we empirically investigate how the management perception of related variables influences their choice of international transfer pricing methods. We believe that this research is particularly useful in the design of tax policy. Because it can concentrate on a few selected factors in consideration of the limited budget of the tax administration with assistance of this research. Data is composed of questionnaire responses from foreign firms in Korea with investment balances exceeding one million dollars in the end of 2004. We mailed questionnaires to 861 managers in charge of the accounting departments of each company, resulting in 121 valid responses. Seventy six percent of the sample firms are classified as small and medium sized enterprises with assets below 100 billion Korean won. Reviewing transfer pricing methods, cost-based transfer pricing is most popular showing that 60 firms have adopted it. The market-based method is used by 31 firms, and 13 firms have reported the resale-pricing method. Regarding the nationalities of foreign investors, the Japanese and the Americans constitute most of the sample. Logistic regressions have been performed for statistical analysis. The dependent variable is binary in that whether the method of international transfer pricing is a market-based method or a cost-based method. This type of binary classification is founded on the belief that the market-based method is evaluated as the relatively objective way of pricing compared with the cost-based methods. Cost-based pricing is assumed to give mangers flexibility in transfer pricing decisions. Therefore, local regulatory agencies are thought to prefer market-based pricing over cost-based pricing. Independent variables are composed of eight factors such as corporate tax rate, tariffs, relations with local tax authorities, tax audit, equity ratios of local investors, volume of internal trade, sales volume, and product life cycle. The first four variables are included in the model because taxation lies in the center of transfer pricing disputes. So identifying the impact of these variables in Korean business environments is much needed. Equity ratio is included to represent the interest of local partners. Volume of internal trade was sometimes employed in previous research to check the pricing behavior of managers, so we have followed these footsteps in this paper. Product life cycle is used as a surrogate of competition in local markets. Control variables are firm size and nationality of foreign investors. Firm size is controlled using dummy variables in that whether or not the specific firm is small and medium sized. This is because some researchers report that big firms show different behaviors compared with small and medium sized firms in transfer pricing. The other control variable is also expressed in dummy variable showing if the entrepreneur is the American or not. That's because some prior studies conclude that the American management style is different in that they limit branch manger's freedom of decision. Reviewing the statistical results, we have found that managers prefer the cost-based method over the market-based method as the importance of corporate taxes and tariffs increase. This result means that managers need flexibility to lessen the tax burden when they feel taxes are important. They also prefer the cost-based method as the product life cycle matures, which means that they support subsidiaries in local market competition using cost-based transfer pricing. On the contrary, as the relationship with local tax authorities becomes more important, managers prefer the market-based method. That is because market-based pricing is a better way to maintain good relations with the tax officials. Other variables like tax audit, volume of internal transactions, sales volume, and local equity ratio have shown only insignificant influence. Additionally, we have replaced two tax variables(corporate taxes and tariffs) with the data showing top marginal tax rate and mean tariff rates of each country, and have performed another regression to find if we could get different results compared with the former one. As a consequence, we have found something different on the part of mean tariffs, that shows only an insignificant influence on the dependent variable. We guess that each company in the sample pays tariffs with a specific rate applied only for one's own company, which could be located far from mean tariff rates. Therefore we have concluded we need a more detailed data that shows the tariffs of each company if we want to check the role of this variable. Considering that the present paper has heavily relied on questionnaires, an effort to build a reliable data base is needed for enhancing the research reliability.