• Korean Business Review
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• v.17
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• pp.153-183
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• 2004

The Gaisong Merchants can be regarded to playa pioneering role to activate the Korea's trade with foreign countries. In the early period of Yi-Dynasty, the Gaisong Merchants focused on personal trade, but in the middle period of Yi-Dynasty, they entered to the realm of governmental trade. Furthermore, their business activities widened to various forms of trades, for example, smuggling. Utilizing accumulated capital, Gaisong merchants expanded their trading activities to their neighboring countries such as Japan and China. In recent times, it is necessary for modem Korean companies to diversify risks through the establishment of corporations for production, marketing and R&D abroad or through joint venture, M&A and strategic alliance with foreign companies in order to reduce the risks originated from volatile economic and political situations. In this study, we utilize tools of comparative study to compare Gaisong Merchants' foreign trade strategies with those of modem companies such as AMOREPACIFIC, HANILCEMENT and SHINDORICO. The purpose of the paper is to test the hypothesis that modem Korean companies grew up by following the cases of Gaisong Merchants' business activities. We summarize our main findings as follows. First, both Gaisong Merchants and modem Korean companies have common functional core capability in the field of marketing, manufacturing technology, R&D, and human resources development. Second, both Gaisong Merchants and modem Korean companies have common organizational core capability. Third, both Gaisong Merchants and modem Korean companies have common infrastructures such as planning, finance, accounting and MIS. It constitutes the infrastructure of Korea's foreign trade sector. Fourth, both Gaisong Merchants and modem companies have common organizational culture in the field of management policy and philosophy. Actually, those factors are evaluated to be driving forces of Koera's success in foreign trade. In conclusion, the business activities of Gaisong Merchants who represented the peculiarity of Korean business spirit are partially inherited to current Korean business management. The value system and behavior pattern of modern Korean companies is succeeded from the spirit of Gaisong Merchants and it playa major role to specify the identity of Korean business administration.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.83-95
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• 2011

Conventional markets in Korea have played a pivotal role in the vitalization of local communities and economies along with the distribution of products. Although many people believe the markets to be disorderly, they are lively and provide local people with things to enjoy, watch and buy. However, superstores have undergone a mushrooming proliferation since Korea opened its gates to multinational superstores in 1996. This phenomenon has caused a crisis for Korea's conventional markets. They have lost their competitiveness because of this environmental change, inefficient management, and their outmoded facilities. Government efforts to revitalize the markets have centered on redevelopment of the facilities, a perspective that has caused not only the fall of the old business districts but also the decline of the distribution function. Under these conditions, the traditional market has re-entered into competition. The Korean government enacted a special law to revitalize the conventional markets and has been implementing many policies to support them since 2003. In 2009, the government amended the law and adopted the Business Improvement District System. The government also changed the official term from 'old markets' to 'Conventional markets'. Despite this legal amendment, though, we still need to re-establish the concept of the Conventional market. Historically, markets grew up spontaneously to dispose of surplus products. Some manmade markets were established through urban planning or as public facilities. Their businesses transactions have always been based on mutual trust between consumers and trades people, the traditional way of commercial dealing. Conventional markets can be defined, then, as creatures of societal necessity where transactions for services and products are based on mutual trust. Problematically, unlisted markets are left out of government support. Although unlisted markets have performed almost the same functions as listed markets, they exist only as a statistic as far as the special law is concerned. In some areas, there are more unlisted markets than unlisted ones. Therefore, it is necessary to establish systematic management methods for the unlisted markets. Some unlisted markets received support in the form of facility improvement from local governments' budgets in the early stage of the special law's enforcement. The current government also assists with safety issues involving unlisted markets; however, the current special law provides no legal framework for unlisted markets. Moreover, consumers cannot tell the difference between unlisted markets and listed ones. Finding a solution to this problemrequires new standards and a wider scope of support by which the efficiency of the market improvement support system might be enhanced.

• Korean Security Journal
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• no.22
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• pp.91-111
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• 2010

Around the middle of the ninth century the strict bone-rank system of Silla frustrated many people who had political ambition but lacked nobility. They had to seek other ways, including maritime trade. Such an undertaking reflected and also increased their economic and military power. Trade prospered with T'ang China and with Japan as well. The threat of piracy to Silla's thriving maritime trade caused to create a succession of garrisons at important coastal points. Chonghae Jin (Chonghae garrison) was regarded as the most important of these. It was established in 828 by Chang Pogo. Chonghae Jin was on Wando, an island just east of the southwestern tip of Korea and a key place at this time in the trade between China, Korea, and Japan. From this vantage point Chang Pogo became a merchant-prince with extensive holdings and commercial interests in China and with trade contacts with Japan. Although piracy was rampant in East Asia at that time, either the Chinese or Silla government was not able to control it due to inner political strife and lack of policing resources. Infuriated by the piracy and the government's inability to control it, Chang Pogo came back to Silla to fight against the pirates and to protect maritime trade. He persuaded the king of Silla and was permitted to control the private armed forces to sweep away the pirates. In 829 he was appointed Commissioner of Chonghae-Jin with the mission of curbing piracy in that region. Chang's forces were created to protect people from pirates, but also developed into traders among Silla Korea, T'ang China, and Japan in the 9th century. This was geographically possible because the Chonghae Garrison was situated at the midpoint of Korea, China, and Japan, and also because Chang's naval forces actually dominated the East Asia Sea while patrolling sea-lanes. Based on these advantages, Chang Pogo made a great fortune, which might be collected from a charge for protecting people from pirates and the trades with China and Japan. Chang's forces could be termed the first private security company in the Korean history, at least in terms of historical documents. Based on historical documents, the numbers of private soldiers might be estimated to exceed tens of thousands at least, since Chang's forces alone were recorded to be more than ten thousand. Because local powers and aristocratic elites were said to have thousands of armed forces respectively, the extent of private forces was assumed to be vast, although they were available only to the privileged class. In short, the domination of Chang's forces was attributable to the decline of central government and its losing control over local powers. In addition it was not possible without advanced technologies in shipbuilding and navigation.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.167-184
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• 2008

The economic cooperation between the South and North Koreas is a very important issue for the unification and economic development of both Koreas. In order to reach a successful economic cooperation, there is a need to coordinate the differences of the two countries before unification. The economic cooperation and the cooperation in other sectors will be followed by the entire unification. It is necessary to prepare a mechanism that could peacefully solve the conflicts and disputes that could arise during the actual process of cooperation, which will secure stable investments and trades. The study on the possibility of introducing the arbitration system as a conflict solving mechanism between the two Koreas is a very important subject, and the basis of this study is on the examination of the arbitration laws of North Korea. Therefore, the study on the efficiency of the North Korean arbitration laws on foreign economy is studying the possibility of a systematical solution to economic conflicts between the South and North Koreas. The problems and possible solutions of the North Korean foreign economy arbitration laws are summarized as follows. First, juridical cooperation system for both South and North courts of justice needs to be set up to smoothly carry out the main procedures. Mutual correspondence and telecommunication needs to be guaranteed, also remittance and the movement of goods shall precede. Second, the free liquidation of businesses by unit and the individual and independent management of wealth of the North Korean economic bodies, organizations and businesses shall precede to independently liquidate wealth and thus make arbitration possible. Third, amendments in the North Korea's foreign economy arbitration law shall be made to some parts of regulations on arbitration agreements and specific contents of written arbitration agreements to avoid conflicts regarding arbitration agreement. Fourth, the members of the North Korean arbitration committee shall impartially manage the committee only without taking the role of arbitrator, and the clause that allows the North Korean committee to nominate the arbitrator shall be erased. In case an agreement regarding the number of arbitrators is not reached, the three arbitrators general rule shall be applied. In case of requests from any of the parties, a third country arbitrator nomination shall be guaranteed. Also, the requested arbitrator by the party shall be nominated with the cooperation of the court. Fifth, the trial in case of non-appearance or written trial shall be added to the North Korean law in to prevent intended negligence or evasion. Sixth, regulations regarding the court's investigation of evidence shall be added to the North Korean law to make fair arbitration possible in case that government power is needed in order to investigate evidence. Seventh, provisions regarding majority decision shall be added in the North Korean law in the impossibility of unanimous decisions, and the certified system in the arbitration committee official text shall be erased to prevent arrogation and assure the power of the decision made by the arbitration government. Eighth, as "the wrong decision approved" reason for cancellation of arbitration in the North Korean law includes the content of the decision made by the arbitrator could lead to uselessness of arbitration, amendment will be necessary to limit it to legitimacy of the arbitration agreement and wrong procedures. It is hoped that this thesis will be of important use in understanding the issues on the workability and the solutions to the South and North Koreas' arbitration that could be presented during the negotiations for the countries' economic cooperation.

• Korean Business Review
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.63-87
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• 2004

To create and maintain comparative supremacy as a strategic tool of business, many organizations have introduced informational technology and system. By using this system, Some companies got a beneficial value for achieving organizational goals but others could not obtain their effectiveness and efficiency. In particular, a lot of organizations that tried to make strategic supremacy with e-commercial trade are under hard condition because of poor profit. It implies that it is essential to identify and analyse the consumer who uses e-commercial trade. This paper, therefore, focusing on internet shopping malls between business and consumer as one of areas of e-commercial trades, shows the difference between consumer expectation and performance. The results of this study are as follows: First, as for the significant difference of influencing factors to consumer satisfactions according to the types of internet shopping malls, there is a meaningful difference in consumer anxiety and internet usefulness, but not in consumer service. Prior to verify the differences in detail on consumer's anxiety and internet usefulness, we examined that there is any difference between expectation and performance. T-test was used for the variants of consumer anxiety and internet usefulness, and its meaningful probability was 0.000, which means that both showed statistically significant difference. Based on the results, we also found that regardless of the types of internet shopping malls, consumer expectation was greater than performance. although the difference between expectation and performance was not equal according to the internet shopping malls. Second, a regression analysis was performed to understand the relation between consumer service, internet usefulness, consumer anxiety, and consumer satisfaction, it was found that consumer service, internet usefulness, consumer anxiety had significantly effected on consumer satisfaction. Third, To verify the relation between consumer satisfaction and repurchase-intentions, intentions to spread out, Pearson correlation analysis was used. it was found that consumer satisfaction had positive effect on both intentions. This study has some limitations because of the shorts of money and time. since the sample of this study was consumers who have ever bought one or more products via internet shopping mall, this sample was appropriate. but the major parts of sample were college students, and the sample size was so small. therefore this results should carefully be generalized. For further study, it is required to select more precise samples and to include more variables.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.21-40
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• 2000

The retail trades in many countries have changed recently according to the high quality, diversification, and marked individuality of consumer needs. Under the continually competing system of the WTO agreement, corporations based in the USA and the EU try to raise their market share in other countries so it is inevitable for Korean retail enterprises to compete with them. This paper is aimed at contributing to the efficient growth for Korean retail trade from the analysis of the development process in retail trade and its changing locations comparing Korea and the USA. Retailers in the USA have practiced diversified marketing strategies considerably in order to survive in a rapidly changing retailing environment. American retailing, which has the most advanced marketing system in the world, has been of growing concern to marketing strategies in Korea. The following is a brief summary of this study. 1. Speedy and higher quality consumption is needed in accordance with the great increase in the single-family household and the female labor force participation both in Korea and in the USA. Senior citizens have become a new consumer group due to the aging population. In the future the retail trade will switch over to diversified retail formats and internet shopping as countries are transformed into information and communication societies. 2. In Korea, the former retail system characterized by markets and department stores has been greatly changed since the late 1980s with emphasis on high quality and convenience in consumption behaviors, with large domestic enterprises and foreign distribution corporations participating in Korean retailing. In the USA, retailing mergers and takeovers by major retails, bankruptcies, and extra-large shopping centers have emerged since the late 1980s. Recently, the USA retailing formats have been changed from the lower price-oriented discount types to the large scale theme parks. Much emphasis was put on entertainment, resorts, and convention centers. On the other hand, non-store types, such as the internet shopping, the CATV shopping, as well as catalog and mail-order sales are drastically increasing, although the proportion of their sales is low up to now. 3. In Korea, most of the retail facilities are concentrated in Seoul and the Metropolitan Region, and the distribution ratio of facilities came to 52% in 1997. The periodic markets, traditional markets which open on a periodic basis, are located mainly in Chollanam-do and Kyungsangbuk-do. The large-sized discount stores have expanded their locations to the over-crowded apartment complexes in new towns, located in the Metropolitan Region, and the large provincial cities, unlike the suburban locations in the USA. Therefore we needed to give attention to the locational relations in retail facilities between Seoul & the Metropolitan Region and rural settlement areas. In the USA, urban areas grew quickly with the development of the automobile in the 1920s, and the location of stores changed from a dispersed style centering around rural areas to a centralized one in urban areas. There is an accelerated growth for suburban areas, which have grown rapidly since 1950. As the membership warehouse clubs were introduced in the 1970s, the decentralization of location was more intensified. On the other hand, inner cities were revitalized by rearranging existing facilities to cope with suburban areas. And the location-free virtual retailing & TV shopping are also growing every year. 4. In view of the above, the continuous and desirable development devices in Korean retail trade are summarized as follows: First, the countermeasures against economies of scale, increase in retailing sales, and rise of a employment percentage in retailing are in need. Second, a scheme of lowering the proportion of food retail sales, and increasing a ratio of durable goods sales need to be worked out. Third, the original ideas are needed to apply positively information, communication and technology to retailing, to graft the traditional types on modem ones based on the social culture. Fourth, strategies are needed to strengthen the competitiveness of our retail trade through cooperation and chains of smaller retailers, the large enterprises participating in the distribution industry. Fifth, in order to realize the above, the retail industry, the administration, and the academic world should support the retail segment with concern and a practical strategy plan.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.81-96
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• 2016

As the internet has become widespread and easy to access everywhere, it is common for people to search information via online search engines such as Google and Naver in everyday life. Recent studies have used online search volume of specific keyword as a measure of the internet users' attention in order to predict disease outbreaks such as flu and cancer, an unemployment rate, and an index of a nation's economic condition, and etc. For stock traders, web search is also one of major information resources to obtain data about individual stock items. Therefore, search volume of a stock item can reflect the amount of investors' attention on it. The investor attention has been regarded as a crucial factor influencing on stock price but it has been measured by indirect proxies such as market capitalization, trading volume, advertising expense, and etc. It has been theoretically and empirically proved that an increase of investors' attention on a stock item brings temporary increase of the stock price and the price recovers in the long run. Recent development of internet environment enables to measure the investor attention directly by the internet search volume of individual stock item, which has been used to show the attention-induced price pressure. Previous studies focus mainly on Dow Jones and NASDAQ market in the United States. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between the individual investors' attention measured by the internet search volumes and stock price changes of individual stock items in the KOSDAQ market in Korea, where the proportion of the trades by individual investors are about 90% of the total. In addition, we examine the difference between industries in the influence of investors' attention on stock return. The internet search volume of stocks were gathered from "Naver Trend" service weekly between January 2007 and June 2015. The regression model with the error term with AR(1) covariance structure is used to analyze the data since the weekly prices in a stock item are systematically correlated. The market capitalization, trading volume, the increment of trading volume, and the month in which each trade occurs are included in the model as control variables. The fitted model shows that an abnormal increase of search volume of a stock item has a positive influence on the stock return and the amount of the influence varies among the industry. The stock items in IT software, construction, and distribution industries have shown to be more influenced by the abnormally large internet search volume than the average across the industries. On the other hand, the stock items in IT hardware, manufacturing, entertainment, finance, and communication industries are less influenced by the abnormal search volume than the average. In order to verify price pressure caused by investors' attention in KOSDAQ, the stock return of the current week is modelled using the abnormal search volume observed one to four weeks ahead. On average, the abnormally large increment of the search volume increased the stock return of the current week and one week later, and it decreased the stock return in two and three weeks later. There is no significant relationship with the stock return after 4 weeks. This relationship differs among the industries. An abnormal search volume brings particularly severe price reversal on the stocks in the IT software industry, which are often to be targets of irrational investments by individual investors. An abnormal search volume caused less severe price reversal on the stocks in the manufacturing and IT hardware industries than on average across the industries. The price reversal was not observed in the communication, finance, entertainment, and transportation industries, which are known to be influenced largely by macro-economic factors such as oil price and currency exchange rate. The result of this study can be utilized to construct an intelligent trading system based on the big data gathered from web search engines, social network services, and internet communities. Particularly, the difference of price reversal effect between industries may provide useful information to make a portfolio and build an investment strategy.

• The Korean Journal of Archival Studies
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• no.33
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• pp.155-206
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• 2012

Interests in archives management are getting expanded from the public sector into the cultural and artistic field for the ten years after legislation of "Act on the Management of Public Archives" in 1999. However, due to lack of recognition on the importance of archives in the cultural and artistic field, it is rather frequent that information is kept scattered or archives are lost. As an example, absence of precise contract documents or notes of bestowal keeps people from locating great amount of cultural properties, and because of it these creative properties are in the risk of thefts, the closed-door auctioning, or trades in unofficial channels. As how a nation manages cultural and artistic creation inside the nation reflects its cultural level, it can be said that one of the indexes to notice the extent of a nation's cultural level is to take a look at how they are circulated. This study started from this point. Growing economy and rising interests in culture and art made the society more cognizant of the importance and value that visual artworks have, but the archives and information which are showing the context of these artworks and are produced in the course of social interaction are relatively disregarded because too much emphasis lies on the work itself. It is harder to find archives or documentations in Korea than in other advanced countries about the artists themselves or philosophical discourse on the background of the artworks. There is not so much interest to preserve the archives and information produced after the exhibition also, and they are used for no more than promotion or reference. Hereupon, the researcher recognized the importance of visual arts archives and believed that systemic management on them are high in need. And metadata is an essential way for the systemic management, as recently management on artworks or their archives are conducted using the system of the agencies even though they are not produced electronically. The objective of this study is to manage visual arts archives systematically by designing a data model reflecting traits of visual arts archives. Metadata are needed in the every course of archives from acquisition to management, preservation and application. Visual arts archives find its rich value only when a systemic relationship is established among information on artist, artwork and events including exhibition. By establishing a Multiple Entity Data Model, in which artworks, artists and events (exhibitions) make relationship all together, metadata for management on visual arts archive gets more efficiency and at the same time explanatory trait of the archive gets higher. For this reason we, in the study, tried to design a data model by setting each as an independent entities and designating relations between them, in order to find a way to manage visual arts archives more systematically.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.100 no.3
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• pp.423-431
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• 2011

The changes of forest degradation in North Korea have closely been related to political, economic and social conditions at all different times. The deforestation by local people for their livelihood has been accelerated when the recession has been worsened due to the 1990's collapse of socialism and the years of natural disasters, and the fall of the centralized and planned economy system. The serious recession in the 1990's has brought many changes in the North Korean society since the 2000's. Not only the underground economy, but also the market in which personal trades are occurred have been expanded as the distribution system of the planned economy system had fallen. In addition, even many state institutions have also increased timber harvest for export to acquire insufficient foreign currency. Eventually, North Korea felt the limits of utilization of forest resources under socialism then started to seek measures to restore devastated forest, while realizing the need of support from the international society. Therefore, some NGOs of South Korea started to give financial support on building tree nurseries in which seedlings for planting are produced to help the rehabilitation of the degraded forests in North Korea. Therefore, Planning of the basic directions for forest rehabilitation programs considering to economic and social conditions of North Korea are needed based on the successful rehabilitation experience of South Korea in the 1970's. First of all, relationships which was built after collapse of centrally planned economy between districts, businesses and workers must be consider to rehabilitate forests in North Korea. Secondly, due to the nature of forest rehabilitation projects this is very needs voluntary participation of resident for a long time, and then forest rehabilitation projects can create jobs for local resident, they can obtain continuous income on the forest rehabilitation projects field in order to promote resident's work in forest rehabilitation projects. Thirdly, the rate dependence on forests of the residents living must keep the level down by rural development projects going side by side with forest rehabilitation projects. Fourthly, use of exsisting forest management system in North Korea is also needed to ensure administrative power and labor for grand scale plantations in a short period of time. Meanwhile after the success of Forest Rehabilitation, it is very important to improve exsisting forest management system.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.17-27
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• 2011

As the world becomes more globalized, business competition becomes fiercer, while consumers' needs for less expensive quality products are on the increase. Business operations make an effort to secure a competitive edge in costs and services, and the logistics industry, that is, the industry operating the storing and transporting of goods, once thought to be an expense, begins to be considered as the third cash cow, a source of new income. Logistics centers are central to storage, loading and unloading of deliveries, packaging operations, and dispensing goods' information. As hubs for various deliveries, they also serve as a core infrastructure to smoothly coordinate manufacturing and selling, using varied information and operation systems. Logistics centers are increasingly on the rise as centers of business supply activities, growing beyond their previous role of primarily storing goods. They are no longer just facilities; they have become logistics strongholds that encompass various features from demand forecast to the regulation of supply, manufacturing, and sales by realizing SCM, taking into account marketability and the operation of service and products. However, despite these changes in logistics operations, some centers have been unable to shed their past roles as warehouses. For the continuous development of logistics centers, various measures would be needed, including a revision of current supporting policies, formulating effective management plans, and establishing systematic standards for founding, managing, and controlling logistics centers. To this end, the research explored previous studies on the use and effectiveness of logistics centers. From a theoretical perspective, an evaluation of the overall introduction, purposes, and transitions in the use of logistics centers found issues to ponder and suggested measures to promote and further advance logistics centers. First, a fact-finding survey to establish demand forecast and standardization is needed. As logistics newspapers predicted that after 2012 supply would exceed demand, causing rents to fall, the business environment for logistics centers has faltered. However, since there is a shortage of fact-finding surveys regarding actual demand for domestic logistic centers, it is hard to predict what the future holds for this industry. Accordingly, the first priority should be to get to the essence of the current market situation by conducting accurate domestic and international fact-finding surveys. Based on those, management and evaluation indicators should be developed to build the foundation for the consistent advancement of logistics centers. Second, many policies for logistics centers should be revised or developed. Above all, a guideline for fair trade between a shipper and a commercial logistics center should be enacted. Since there are no standards for fair trade between them, rampant unfair trades according to market practices have brought chaos to market orders, and now the logistics industry is confronting its own difficulties. Therefore, unfair trade cases that currently plague logistics centers should be gathered by the industry and fair trade guidelines should be established and implemented. In addition, restrictive employment regulations for foreign workers should be eased, and logistics centers should be charged industry rates for the use of electricity. Third, various measures should be taken to improve the management environment. First, we need to find out how to activate value-added logistics. Because the traditional purpose of logistics centers was storage and loading/unloading of goods, their profitability had a limit, and the need arose to find a new angle to create a value added service. Logistic centers have been perceived as support for a company's storage, manufacturing, and sales needs, not as creators of profits. The center's role in the company's economics has been lowering costs. However, as the logistics' management environment spiraled, along with its storage purpose, developing a new feature of profit creation should be a desirable goal, and to achieve that, value added logistics should be promoted. Logistics centers can also be improved through cost estimation. In the meantime, they have achieved some strides in facility development but have still fallen behind in others, particularly in management functioning. Lax management has been rampant because the industry has not developed a concept of cost estimation. The centers have since made an effort toward unification, standardization, and informatization while realizing cost reductions by establishing systems for effective management, but it has been hard to produce profits. Thus, there is an urgent need to estimate costs by determining a basic cost range for each division of work at logistics centers. This undertaking can be the first step to improving the ineffective aspects of how they operate. Ongoing research and constant efforts have been made to improve the level of effectiveness in the manufacturing industry, but studies on resource management in logistics centers are hardly enough. Thus, a plan to calculate the optimal level of resources necessary to operate a logistics center should be developed and implemented in management behavior, for example, by standardizing the hours of operation. If logistics centers, shippers, related trade groups, academic figures, and other experts could launch a committee to work with the government and maintain an ongoing relationship, the constraint and cooperation among members would help lead to coherent development plans for logistics centers. If the government continues its efforts to provide financial support, nurture professional workers, and maintain safety management, we can anticipate the continuous advancement of logistics centers.