• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.54-90
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• 2006

Medical clinics are core institutes that cover the primary medical care in Korea. Financial viability of the clinics is essential for them to conduct their roles and functions, and can be improved by increasing their operating profitability. On this ground, this study aimed at finding important factors that affect the operating profitability, and thereby at suggesting strategic alternatives that can contribute to the improvement of the profitability. Operating margin was set as a dependent variable, and such factors as general management conditions, number of visits, medical revenue, marketing activities, input resources, medical cost as independent variables. Nineteen hypotheses related to the variables were established and tested using data collected from 138 sample clinics for the year 2003. The results of the study are as follows : Firstly, such variables as percent ratio of the depreciation plus rent costs to total administration costs, type of clinical department manifested whether medical, surgical, or quasi-surgical, percent ratio of the interior facility investment to total fixed assets, and total number of outpatient visit are important factors that affect, positively or negatively, the medical profitability of the clinics. Secondly, following measures are needed to be established and implemented to improve the medical profitability. (1) Administration costs share 53.2% of the total medical costs, and depreciation plus rent costs 16.3% of the total administration costs. This implies that such measures as reinforcement of marketing activities, establishment of the cooperative utilizing system of the facility and equipment, or group practice are needed to increase cost-effectiveness. (2) Occupancy rate of the clinics with inpatient bed is as low as 45.5%, causing high fixed costs and low medical profitability. For its improvement, the resource input structure should be reorganized. Thirdly, in the future, a study that can increase sample representativeness of the study and explanation power of the variables should be performed for each type of clinical department to find more specific determinant factors and to contribute to the improvement of the medical profitability of the clinics.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.4 no.4 s.16
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• pp.69-79
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• 2003

About 93$\%$ of domestic teal estate construction firms registered as the end of 2001 recorded net profits of only less than 500 million won(including firms in the red) for the term. As a result of having analyzed the ratios of sales costs and the structural ratios of sales costs for the past 10 years, it was found that there have been great changes in structural ratios of sales costs. Material costs and labor costs have gradually decreased, but outsourcing costs of processing have greatly increased. In order to find activity points which are fundamental to cost control, the methods of new activity based cost management have been pursued. The characteristics of real estate construction industry lie in the fact that contract prices (sales in) are fixed and amounts of profits differ depending on the use of costs. In order to create maximum profits from fixed contract prices, the new activity based cost management has been proposed. The control of operation budgets and management costs is designed to control their schedules and expenses in different respects. Operation budgets ate executed with specific activities and management costs are controlled as a form of material costs, labor costs, out sourcing costs and expenses which are details of expenditure. In order to execute them by using the methods of new activity based cost management, first of all, we have to analyze what activity drivers ale and how much added values such activities can create. It is considered as a method of cost management which is necessary far the survival management of real estate construction industry.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.198-205
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• 2021

For twenty years, in the EU there has been a trend of a lack of maritime infrastructure and a redundance of the road one, which has a negative impact on the economy. The intermodal transport market structure in the EU has not changed over the past ten years. The stability of transport systems due to the lack of changes in the transport market remains under threat, affecting supply chains and networks through the optimization of warehousing and transportation costs. The research methodology is based on a quantitative assessment of cause-and-effect relations between economic growth and transport and logistics in the EU. A statistical analysis of security indicators, intermodal and modal transport, international trade in goods within the EU and in the world trade in goods, the dynamics of GDP of the EU countries, the level of openness of the EU economy, investment and maintenance costs of different modes of transport and infrastructure has been carried out. The results show that in 2000- 2010 there were positive changes in the transport and logistics infrastructure of the EU, which had a positive effect on trade, openness of the economy of the EU, GDP growth. However, at that time, negative effects of environmental impact and the load on road and rail transport were accumulating. Investment in different modes of transport is limited, and technical maintenance and infrastructure maintenance costs form a significant part of GDP of the EU. A slowdown in economic growth leads to budget constraints and infrastructure financing gap. As a result, the freight and passenger intermodal and modal transport market structure remains virtually unchanged. The load on rail and road transport remains stable, despite the reduced level of transport hazards. Transport productivity has declined over the past ten years. Herewith, the intensification of trade and the openness of the EU economies require constant modernization and innovative renewal. The EU policy in this direction remains normative, uncontrolled, which is reflected in investment differences within the EU and maintenance costs.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.315-324
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• 2022

The goal of this study is to understand better the relationship between hospital bed occupancy rate and cost rigidity as a proxy for the degree of hospital bed congestion, as well as the relationship between the risk of changes in hospital bed occupancy rate and congestion cost, targeting public hospitals. As public hospitals for analysis, we selected hospital projects from the Public Enterprises Survey Reports published by the Department of Public Enterprises, Ministry of Finance, and obtained unbalanced panel data consisting of 1,505 hospitals and 15 years, totaling 12,595 hospitals and years. The analysis revealed that the risk of changes in the bed occupancy rate increases the degree of cost rigidity and leads to a decrease in the variable cost ratio; furthermore, an increase in the bed occupancy rate decreases the degree of cost rigidity and leads to an increase in the variable cost ratio. These findings suggest that although public hospitals are taking managerial actions to avoid congestion costs, congestion costs resulting from higher bed occupancy rates have not been eliminated. The regression analysis results show that even if congestion costs arise as the occupancy rate increases, they are covered by the increase in revenue associated with the increase in the occupancy rate.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.1115-1124
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• 2005

The usual distinction made in the literature is between decision facilitating and decision influencing. Because time only runs one way, both uses of cost information are problematic. In the first instance, a cost description (measurement or estimate) is provided to decision makers before a decision is made. Unfortunately, costs can only be measured after the fact. This means that cost analysts must estimate the costs of the alternatives under consideration. In some cases, measured cost is a reliable predictor of future costs; in other cases it is not. Regardless of its reliability, however, it is all we have or can have. Consequently, managers must be informed as to how their performance will be measured and how measured performance will affect outcomes they care about -- promotion, pay, esteem, etc. I will outline the basic approaches to cost measurement and then show how cost measures can be used to facilitate and to influence decisions of the railway industry.

• Journal of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.67-84
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• 2000

In this paper, we address a network design problem including the decision of hub facility locatiions which is typically found in a communicatio and a transportation network design studies. Due to the administrative and the geographical restrictions, it is common to assume that each user should be assigned to only one hub facility. To construct such a network, three types of network costs should be considered: the fixed costs of establishing the hubs and the arcs in the network, and the variable costs associated with transversing the network. The complex problem is formulated as a mixed IP embedding a multicommodity flow problem. Exploiting its special structure, a dual-based heuristic is then developed, which yields near-optimal design plans. The test results indicate that the heuristic is an effective way to solve this computationally complex problem.

• Journal of architectural history
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• v.15 no.1 s.45
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• pp.7-27
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• 2006

This study aims to identify and analyze the factors that influenced the construction of London Eye which was led by private groups, including characteristics in progress, differentiated value in design, the combination of technology and design, and construction costs. The results of this study were the followings. 1) London Eye provides a new construction method for a landmark in the downtown in that the architects became the clients of the project which might have been hoarded, procuring the construction costs and completing it by themselves. 2) London Eye presents a space utilization method where undeveloped spaces in the downtown are used in three-dimensions by erecting a structure on the river with a minimum land. 3) The process of design, production and erection is propelled the realization of technical intention design with one system and from at the initial stage, the participation of the engineer where the designer is equal with you must accompany. 4) London Eye is endowed with strong shape by a circle in design concept, which is the simplest geometrical figure, and it provides organic relationship between the past and the present by utilizing historical elements in various ways. 5) The construction was completed through four phases including idea phase, promotion phase, turn-key contract phase, and design-build phase. The most critical factor to the success is derived from the direct contact with Involved companies from the production phase. 6) In a project facing many challenges in terms of technology, the design-build method proves to be a more effective method than turn-key contract in that it may more allocate risks and enable coherent implementation of the core concept in design. The organization for the design-build method was composed of three phases including general affairs, responsible contracting by sector, and cooperative system by sector. Since that was a new concept structure, high-level contractors who hadn't had existing cooperative relationships with one another formed new cooperative relationship, while collaborating companies who had long cooperated led the responsible contracting and sub-cooperative system, which resulted in reduction of risks and time. 7) The major factors to change design were the design characteristics, derived from a technically great combination, and the opening time. 8) A new erection method was applied to London Eye, a structure that overcame the limitation in land and period, and the process of installation demonstrated that it is an important value for the construction of a landmark in the city. 9) In spite of many visitors and tremendous operational income, the factors that London Eye fails to free itself from debts include the construction costs expended double than expected, and interest burden to the investments, which occurred in the course of procuring the costs. Absolute limit in time increased the construction costs, resulting in being a great obstacle in the course of operation.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.143-150
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• 2015

PURPOSES : The authors set out to estimate the related carbon emissions, energy use, and costs of the national freeways and highways in Korea. To achieve this goal, a macro-level methodology for estimating those amounts by road type, road structure type, and road life cycle was developed. METHODS : The carbon emissions, energy use, and costs associated with roads vary according to the road type, road structure type, and road life cycle. Therefore, in this study, the road type, road structure type, and road life cycle were classified into two or three categories based on criteria determined by the authors. The unit amounts of carbon emissions and energy use per unit road length by classification were estimated using data gathered from actual road samples. The unit amounts of cost per unit road length by classification were acquired from the standard cost values provided in the 2013 road business manual. The total carbon emissions, energy use, and cost of the national freeways and highways were calculated by multiplying the road length by the corresponding unit amounts. RESULTS: The total carbon emissions, energy use, and costs associated with the national freeways and highways in Korea were estimated by applying the estimated unit amounts and the developed method. CONCLUSIONS: The developed method can be employed in the road planning and design stage when decision makers need to consider the impact of road construction from an environmental and economic point of view.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.153-179
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• 2017

Korean government has granted fixed indirect cost rates to several exceptional R&D programs which is lower than the predetermined rate by the government. It has been needed to evaluate the validity of exceptional R&D programs and determine the optimal indirect costs rate of the programs. This study analyzes the cost structure and explores drivers of indirect costs of exceptional R&D programs and evaluates the validity of current indirect costs rates. Finally, we propose the formulas for indirect costs rates of exceptional R&D programs. We analyze the cost structure of the exceptional R&D programs. Equipments and material costs are 50% in infra building program. Scholarship to students is 43% in HRD program. Equipments and material costs are 50% and R&D activity costs are 31% in international R&D program. Main cost components of evaluation program are salary(37%), R&D execution costs(21%) and R&D activity costs(19%). We propose three formulas of indirect costs for exceptional programs. 1) The cost items with exceptionally large amount are excluded in the base of formula for indirect costs. 2) Fixed indirect cost rate is applied for specific R&D programs. 3) Upper bound is set for the cost items with exceptionally large amount in the calculation of indirect costs rate. Our proposal is expected to contribute to the improvement of the efficiency of national R&D programs.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.12
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• pp.1053-1064
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• 2020

This study aims to determine the perceptions of Islamic Financial Cooperative (BMT) managers in the Indonesian BMT Association on the acceptance of core banking technology. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is used because it has simple theoretical characteristics (parsimony) and is supported by data (verifiability). This study develops the TAM model by integrating new variables -perceptions of maqashid sharia, perceptions of economies of scale, perceptions of market structure, and perceptions of technology procurement costs. These new variables are used to measure intention in using technology and actual usage in BMT operations. This study used PLS-SEM with smartPLS 3. The study was conducted in Central Java in six ex-Residency at 35 BMT with 300 respondents consisting of six levels of position level. The research found that maqashid sharia and market structure directly influenced the intention of BMT managers in using core banking technology. This new finding strengthens a theoretical model regarding the role of maqashid sharia in the acceptance of information technology in BMT. In addition, the perception of economies of scale has no significant effect on intention in using technology or its actual usage. The perception variable of technology procurement costs was found to have no significant effect on intention in using technology.