• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.533-544
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• 2015

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze the cost efficiency of food industry in JeollaNamdo. And this study is focused on the correlation between the economic efficiency of food industry and its cost efficiency, based on the analysis of 372 food companies' data in JeollaNamdo in 2012. Methods: DEA cost minimization is the measurement of the cost efficiency of JeollaNamdo food industry in 2012. In this study, the CCR and BBC models have been employed to analyze the decomposing cost efficiency-technical efficiency, allocative efficiency, and scale efficiency respectively. And the Spearman rank correlation and Wilcoxon signed rank test also have been employed to check the correlation and difference between the ranking orders based on the efficiency scores respectively. Results: For the CCR model, mean cost efficiency was found to be 0.084(0.54 for allocative efficiency and 0.19 for technical efficiency). For the BCC model, mean cost efficiency was found to be 0.252(0.453 for allocative efficiency and 0.564 for technical efficiency). Average scale efficiency was found to be 0.38. In analyzing the results, this study argues that the optimal way to improve cost efficiency is by reducing inputs proportionally and changing their combination. Conclusion: The efficiency scores of the two models show high correlation, whereas, the differences between them are also found to be significant. Hence, it should be cautious to select a suitable model when we do the research.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.11-21
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• 2022

Purpose: This study predicted cost asymmetry as a determinant of investment efficiency, and empirically analyzed the relationship between cost stickiness and investment efficiency. Research design, data and methodology: Using a sample of 4,382 Korean firm-year observations over 2011-2017 period, I examined the relationship between cost stickiness and investment efficiency. Asymmetrical cost behavior is measured as model of Homburg and Nasev (2008) and model of Park, Koo, and Pae (2012). Investment efficiency is measured as Chen, Hope, Li, and Wang (2011)'s model. Results: Firms with cost stickiness are less efficient in their investment than firms with non-cost stickiness. In other words, cost stickiness is an empirical result that supports the previous research on cost decision-making from perspective of managers pursuing private benefits due to information asymmetry. Conclusions: By showing that the manager's decision-making on the cost behavior affects the investment efficiency corresponding to capital management, the implications for the mechanism for efficient capital management are provided. Through the empirical results, it was shown that the cost stickiness is a product of opportunistic cost decision-making due to information asymmetry, and it is to present evidence that expands the meaning of the causes of asymmetric cost behavior.

• Asian Journal of Business Environment
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2022

Purpose: This study measures the effect of Information Technology (IT) on both cost and profit efficiency of State-owned Commercial Banks (SOCBs) in Bangladesh. Research design, data and methodology: Yearly Non-IT and IT data are collected from the annual report of SOCBs of Bangladesh from 2008 to 2017. Variable Return to Scale (VRS) cost Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Profit DEA are employed to measure the efficiency of SOCBs and Ordinary Least Square (OLS) is used to investigate the impacts of ICT components on operating cost and profit efficiency for SOCBs. Results: The average cost efficiency (74.4%) was noticed higher than the average profit efficiency (20.6%) for SOCBs. SOCBs were more affordable and less profitable for both cost and profit efficiency. Rupali bank was the most cost efficient while Sonali bank was the most profit efficient. IT Investment and IT personnel expenses were positively significant for cost efficiency. IT income, IT personnel, IT personnel expenses, ATM expenses, and Credit card expenses were negatively significant for profit efficiency. Conclusion: The further studies can combine DEA with machine learning algorithms to study the impact of IT on banks' performances. The results could aid government to remove the hindrance of progress in Bangladesh.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.1-17
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• 2015

This study compares the most widely used parametric and non-parametric techniques to measure cost and profit efficiency of banks, namely the Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). We formulate the specification form of both stochastic cost and profit frontier models and constant return to scale Cost DEA and Profit DEA models and provide an empirical assessment of the cost and profit frontiers based on a panel dataset of National Commercial Banks (NCBs) and Private Banks (PBs) in Bangladesh over the 2001-2010 period. The cost inefficiency and profit efficiency are slightly higher for PBs than NCBs in case of both SFA and DEA. The coefficients of advance and off-balance sheet items are significant that positively influence the banks in stochastic cost frontier model while the advance, other earning assets, price of borrowed fund are significant and negative effects on the banks in stochastic profit frontier model. The average cost inefficiency and average profit efficiency are recorded with 16.3% and 91% respectively. The highest and lowest cost inefficiency are observed for Janata Bank and United Commercial Bank Limited whilst the highest and lowest profit efficiency are recorded for Eastern Bank Limited and Janata Bank respectively. The average technical and allocative efficiency are 68.8% and 35.9%, respectively in case of CRS cost-DEA model whereas they are 70.3% and 31.8% in case of CRS profit-DEA model. The average cost inefficiency is recorded 6.3% by SFA whereas it is 24.5% by DEA. The average profit efficiency is found 91% by SFA while it is 22.1% by DEA, and SFA method shows better bank efficiency than DEA.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.23-44
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• 2022

Purpose - Recent issues such as vessel enlargement, strengthening of environmental regulations, and port smartization are expected to increase costs and intensify competition in the port industry. In the new normal era, when external growth has reached its limit, the efficient operation of ports is becoming indispensable for achieving sustainable growth. This study aims to identify the determinants of inefficiency by examining the cost structure and efficiency of container terminals in Korea and furthermore propose the political implications to derive the maximization of efficiency. Design/methodology - This study estimates the cost function of container terminal operators and identifies the efficiency of container terminals using stochastic cost frontier (SCF) in the first stage. In the second step, the SCF results are compared with the data envelopment analysis (DEA). Last, this paper proposes efficiency determinants on container terminal operation to establish appropriate strategies. Out of the 29 container terminal operators in South Korea, 13 operators participated in the survey. The translog cost function was estimated utilizing a total of 116 observations collected over the 2007-2017 period. Findings - Empirical analysis shows that economies of scale exist in Korea's container ports, which provides a rationale for the government's policy to establish the global terminal operator by integrating small terminal operators to enhance competitiveness. In addition, as a result of the determinants analysis, container throughput, weight of direct employment costs, and labour cost share have positive effects on improving cost efficiency, while inefficiency increases as the length of quay increases. More specifically, cost efficiency improves as the proportion of direct employment costs to outsourcing service costs increases. Originality/value - This study contributes to analyzing the inefficiency factors of container terminals through efficiency analysis with respect to a cost function. In addition, this study proposes the practical and political implications, such as establishing a long-term manpower pool, the application of the hybrid liner terminal system, and the construction of a statistical data system, to improve the cost inefficiency of terminal operators.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.45-57
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• 2010

Background : If different cost efficiency indexes were informed to the same clinic depending on the inclusion or exclusion of pharmacy cost, it may impair the reliability of provider-profiling system. This study aimed to investigate whether the omission of pharmacy cost affects cost-efficiency rankings in medical clinics. Methods : Data for ambulatory care cost at 23,112 medical clinics were collected from the claims database, which was constructed after review by the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) of Korea in April 2007. We calculated two types of cost efficiency indexes by inclusion or exclusion of pharmacy cost for a medical clinic. The agreement between the decile rankings of the two indexes was also assessed using the weighted kappa statistic of Landis and Koch. Results : When the cost efficiency index for total cost including pharmacy cost was compared with the index for total cost excluding it, the agreement between the two indexes was only 55%. The agreements between the two indexes were relatively low within specialties which have larger pharmacy volume of total cost and lower correlation between total cost with or without pharmacy cost included than the average level of all the specialties. Conclusion : These results suggest that the omission of pharmacy cost may result in contradictory outcomes that may be confusing to a medical institution and may impair the reliability of provider-profiling systems. It is very important to standardize profiling criteria for the reliability of provider profiling system.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2023.05a
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• pp.389-390
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• 2023

To improve the cost performance of construction sites, various systems and standards are constantly being developed and implemented. Although legal requirements for these system and standard improvements have been increasing, the cost efficiency performance of construction sites remains stagnant. We have digitized documents generated through construction supervision work at 39 building construction sites and proposed a model that can support decision-making in cost efficiency evaluation. This model selects key keywords that are considered to be highly related to cost efficiency by identifying the patterns and relationships of keywords through associated rule analysis and social network analysis using keywords derived from documents. In addition, it is expected to be used as a decision-making aid to determine the cost efficiency of a specific building construction site by establishing a logistic regression model using core keywords. As a systematic database of construction supervision documents and an integrated system of massive data generated by digital technology are established in the future, the accuracy and reliability of the cost efficiency evaluation model are expected to be reinforced.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.213-231
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• 2021

Purpose: This study intends to provide decision-making information to improve efficiency by analyzing the management efficiency of smart greenhouse business entities and identifying factors that affect the efficiency based on input and output. Methods: The subjects of analysis were business entities for cultivating strawberries in smart greenhouses in Jeolla region (northern and southern Jeolla provinces), and the analysis focused on the management performance of the 2019-2020 crop period (year). Data Envelopment Analysis(DEA) was applied as an analysis method for efficiency analysis, Quantile Regression(QR) analysis was applied as a factor affecting the efficiency. Results: The reason for the efficiency gap between business entities was that there were many business entities that did not minimize the input cost at the current level of output, and the area where the variance among business entities was large was the fixed cost per 10a. In the results of the affecting factor analysis, it was found that the seed-seedlings cost, fertilizer cost, other material cost, and employment and labor cost had a negative (-) effect on the efficiency, and that the repair and maintenance cost had a positive (+) effect. Conclusion: Therefore, to achieve the efficiency of scale, it is necessary to reduce the input scale to an appropriate level. In the case of business entities with low efficiency by quartile, the seed-seedlings, fertilizer, and other material costs reduce expenditures, and repair maintenance costs can improve efficiency by increasing expenditures.

• KIEAE Journal
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.29-38
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• 2012

The current building energy efficiency rating certification regulation on apartment houses evaluates only the saving rate of energy consumed during operation, i.e. use, of a building, but doesn't consider the energy consumptions and environmental load($CO_2$) emissions occurring during the whole lifetime of a building. So this study calculated the energy consumptions and environmental load emissions occurring during the whole lifetime of a building, selected reference schemes and alternative items by design variables to present a design draft considering energy efficiency and environmental performance, and evaluated the total cost by combining and calculating its direct cost(material and heating cost) and indirect cost(environmental cost), for an existing apartment house as an evaluation object. As a result of analysis, the change of heating cost by alternative items of design variables showed a 4~8% change rate compared to the reference scheme, and the material cost of design variable 7 showed a maximum 4.4 times change rate in the alternative plan 6 compared to the reference scheme. The environmental cost showed a similar change rate to the material cost change rate in general, but showed a similar environmental cost change rate to the heating cost change rate in case of design variables 4-1, 4-2, 7.

• Land and Housing Review
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.95-101
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• 2020

In the past few decades, the global population growth and rapid economic development have resulted in significant increases in building energy consumption. To reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and building energy consumption, building materials and energy technologies must be optimized. Building retrofitting is a more efficient method than reconstruction to improve the building energy performance. In order to improve the energy performance of existing buildings, this study proposed energy-efficiency retrofit plans and derived cost-effective retrofit plan. The energy efficient retrofit method is achieved through the packaging of energy technology and the energy and cost reduction effect of the energy efficiency retrofit package are analyzed. As a result of the study, the energy-efficiency retrofit package showed an energy reduction effect of up to 60% or more and a construction cost reduction of about 30%. This study argues that optimal energy and construction cost reduction of existing buildings are possible through the packaging of energy efficiency technology.