• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.139-155
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• 2009

This study investigates empirically the export competitiveness of Korea and Japan in America by calculating 4 indexes such as market share index(MSI), export similarity index(ESI), market comparative adventage index(MCAI) and market share expansion ratio(MSER)-export similarity deepening ratio(ESDR). The empirical finding of this analysis shows that Korea is competitive in the labor-intensive products and Japan in the technology-intensive products. This result also meets the general understandings that Japan is superior to Korea in the export competitiveness such as value added of goods, etc. Therefore, in order to strengthen the export competitiveness of Korea in the US market, it's desirable for our firms and government to improve the quality of product ranges by developing technologies focused on the higher value-added products.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.55-66
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• 1996

Agricultural products are inferior in their competitiveness in the world market mainly due to die high production cost which could be attributed to the rising land and labor cost in Korea. The small scale farming system with the lower production infra structure requires relatively intensive input labor for the reduction of production cost of agricultural products and impediment in the mechanization of farming systems. There are limitations in the cultivation techniques that seek out other directions for the raising competitiveness in the world market of basic food crops. Future goals to raise competitiveness of basic food crops in Korea should include the following: 1. Fostering of the farmers organization by crop items. 2. Agribusiness should integrate management with priority given to farmers. 3. Raise competitiveness to find out the system of obtaining on from the consumers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.34
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• pp.37-56
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• 1997

The Korean Apparel industry has played an significant role for the econom-ic development in Korea which is mainaly due to the apparel exports to the world market. However the Koran apparel industry has confronted drastic changes in domestic and also in international market for the last several years. Korean apparel products have lost price competitiveness in international market because domestic labor costs have increased so fast and al-so newcomers such as China or other Asian countries have emerged as compet-itive producers. Furthermore domestic market has been saturated with the Korean apparel manufacturers and also with the foreign retailers. Therefore the Korean apparel industry should establish market-ing strategies in order to regain competitiveness. This study aims to analyze the factors for non-price competitiveness of Korean apparel industry and propose the way to regain competitiveness form the buyers' point of view. The present study utilize the survey data for the internet database which is established by the Cotton Incorporated. The results show that the Korean apparel industry is not competitive in terms of non-price factors such as minimum orders terms of payment preproduction stage use of new technolo-gy and lead times. These factors are not directly related to the price of product which is suggested to the buyers. However these are flexibility factors which play important roles in decision making process of buyers because they can reduce risks in uncertain business environment. Therefore the Korean apparel industry should establish global marketing strate-gies which can enhance non-price competitiveness as well as price competitiveness.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.135-159
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• 2020

This paper analyzes and compares the effects of various government subsidies to improve labor productivity. Laborers are differentiated in learning ability, and duopsonists in the labor market sequentially determine the quality levels and wages of employed laborers in a two-stage noncooperative game under perfect information. If a subsidy is given to the advanced firm in quality and productivity of labor, that firm will prefer to intensify wage competition due to strengthening its competitiveness in the labor market, and attempt to lower its quality in order to reduce the degree of differentiation in quality. At that time, the other firm wants to avoid competition because of its weakened competitiveness, and may have an incentive to lower the quality level to expand the differentiation. If the government subsidizes low-quality and low-productivity firm, it is motivated to increase its quality level to reduce differentiation due to the strengthening of competitiveness, and its competitor has an incentive to improve the quality to expand the differentiation. And there is no significant difference in whether payments are made to laborers or firms.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.141-160
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• 2021

The scale of global FDI has been decreasing since 2016 due to the ongoing US-China trade dispute, the strengthening of FDI inflow screening regulations with concern over strategic technology leaks, and the spread of reshoring trends due to the reinforcement of national preferences. Eventually, the competition to attract FDI between countries is expected to become more intense. Therefore, in order to attract high-quality FDI for Korea that will contribute to the development of the national economy, it is pressing to evaluate and improve the domestic FDI attraction environment. This study aims to analyze which areas of Korea's economic and non-economic environments need improvement for gaining advantage amid the fierce competition to attract FDI between countries, by the relative comparison between Korea and the U.S., and based on the ranking indicated in key FDI attractiveness indices. As a result, improvement is needed in the following areas. First, according to IMD's "World Competitiveness Ranking 2020," Korea was inferior to the US in terms of business efficiency, productivity, finance and business legislation in terms of government efficiency. Second, according to INSEAD's "Global Talent Competitiveness Index 2020," Korea was inferior to the US in terms of internal openness, external openness, employability, lifelong learning, access to growth opportunity, and business and labor landscapes. Third, according to WEF's "Global Competitiveness Index 2019", Korea was inferior to the US in terms of product market, labor market, business dynamism and workforce skills.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.1-16
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• 2019

Purpose - This research empirically proves that global shipbuilding industry leadership has moved to China from Korea. Design/Methodology - Competitiveness is measured by AHP for the weights of comprehensive competitiveness, which is the output mixture of three attributive factors: shipbuilding technology, shipbuilding contract price, and export credit. Findings - China is far ahead of Korea for standard vessels such as bulkers and containerships with competitiveness weights of 0.762 and 0.612, respectively, against 0.238 and 0.388 of Korea. Korea is maintaining its competitiveness only in LNG carriers (174k CBM) with a competitiveness weight 0.621. China and Korea have similar competitiveness for chemical carriers, complex vessels with a small hull size. The sources of Chinese competitiveness are shipbuilding contract price and export credit. With the majority share of standard vessel types in the world fleet, China will hold a bigger market share than Korea in the global shipbuilding industry in the forthcoming years. Implications - The swing factors of market power are shipbuilding technology and contract price. If China fails to further develop shipbuilding technology for shipowners worried about the reliability of the Chinese-built vessels, shipowners may swing back to Korea. The rising Chinese labor cost will expedite this swing in the forthcoming competition. Originality/value - To the best of the author's knowledge, this is the first paper that quantitatively examines the competitiveness of shipbuilding between China and Korea by comparing attributive factors for competitiveness.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.12
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• pp.345-352
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• 2021

Guided by a resource-based theory, this study is the first one that takes a quantitative approach to identify determinants of competitiveness of women-owned small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam. The study employs time series data of Vietnamese SMEs extracted from the Vietnam Small and Medium Enterprises Survey conducted biennially from 2005 to 2015 in ten Vietnamese provinces. Firm competitiveness hereby is indicated by revenue, market share, profitability, and export volume. The research reveals a number of determining factors, of all, research and development, labor skills, business environment, technology investment are the most important factors, followed by capital and headcount. It is indicated that the determining factors have different influences on competitiveness obtained by different measurements. Therefore, it is based on specific targets and situations to make wise business decisions. The authors also make comparisons among groups of women-owned enterprises divided by their firm age, location, ownership, export, age, and educational background of business owners. The findings serve as critical empirical evidence and provide policy recommendations for improving the competitiveness of women-owned SMEs in Vietnam. The recommendations range from technology support, education and professional support for female entrepreneurs, access to capital and human resources to business environment improvement.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.43-66
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• 1997

This work examines reemployment processes through the use of event history unemployment data in the United States. Two aspects of these processes, the duration of unemployment and changes in the reemployment rate, are modelled and analyzed in terms of individual characteristics and their structural positions in the labor market. The secondary labor market is a competitive market in which unemployment occurs because people quit their jobs to devote more time in search for better jobs. Using search theory, the rate of reemployment has a positive time dependence as the searcher lower her reservation wage with the passage of time. By contrast, the primary market is characterized by long-term employment relations which reduce voluntary turnovers but generate layoffs temporarily. Relying on contract theory, because workers on temporary layoffs wait for recall, reemployment rates have a constant time dependence. Empirical results of unemployment durations indicate that reemployment processes are influenced by individual's positions in dual labor market structures. While the analysis suggests that the amount of search reemployment seems to be positively related to the degree of competitiveness of a market, somewhat weaker results are noted in the search reemployment processes in competitive markets.

• Design & Manufacturing
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.39-44
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• 2017

The domestic mold industry is composed of 6,560 small and medium sized mold companies as of 2015. The structure of mold industry centered on less than 10 people in the past has been improved in the direction of increasing number of medium and large scale companies with more than 20 competitors with global competitiveness and has maintained its position as the world's second largest mold exporter with global competitiveness. Nevertheless, the manpower structure and corporate competitiveness structure of the mold industry is very high, with the proportion of production manpower reaching 70% and shortage rate of 10% or more in order to respond to the orders of customers. However, the development base for new employees with technological skills required by the industrial field is poor, and the inflow of young people is very limited due to factors such as the avoidance of small and medium enterprises and production jobs. It is expected that the labor shortage of mold enterprises will be further increased in the future. In the mold industry, due to the characteristics of small quantity multi-product production corresponding to the demand of the consumer, many production processes are individually and independently carried out, resulting in low labor productivity, and the structural time required for the worker to increase the working time Due to limitations, the working hours per week of the employees are about 50 hours. The implementation of the working time reduction bill, which is recently promoted by the government, is a crisis factor. In order to cultivate the mold industry, it is necessary to expand the base of molds to meet the intensification of global competition, the convergence of technologies to actively respond to the restructuring of the industrial structure, and the response to the new industry, It is necessary to improve labor productivity through policies such as development and dissemination of system, and to secure price, delivery and quality competitiveness in global market.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.43-52
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• 2018

This research aims to evaluate the current state of technology of enterprises in Vietnam in comparison with several countries in the AEC economic community, thereby to propose several recommendations to Vietnamese enterprises in order able to promote technology innovation activities, create competitiveness with enterprises in the region. Qualitative research methods are used through statistics and comparative descriptions from data collected from various sources: WEF, World Bank, CIEM, General Statistic Office. The study results show that Vietnamese enterprises still have many limitations in technology, originated from their small business scale (capital and labor), the current research capacity is still low, the funding for this activity is not high and the accessibility of the capital is still difficult. According to the Global Competitiveness Index, Vietnam's science and technology indexes are low compared to other AEC-developed countries including the availability of the latest technology; the acquisition of technology at the enterprise level; the capacity of improvement; quality of scientific research organizations..., which shall be a major barrier for Vietnamese enterprises to have to overcome to be able to create the competitiveness when entering the global market. From then on, the authors proposed solutions for two subjects, enterprises and government, to help Vietnamese enterprises to overcome this barrier.