• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.31-57
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• 1991

Korean firms of all sizes, from virtually every industry, have used and are using the term "excessive competition" to describe the state of their industry and to call for government interventions. Moreover, the Korean government has frequently responded to such calls in various ways favorable to the firms, such as controlling entry, curbing capacity investments, or allowing collusion. Despite such interventions' impact on the overall efficiency on the Korean economy as well as on the wealth distribution among diverse groups of economic agents, the term "excessive competition", the basis for the interventions, has so far escaped rigorous scrutiny. The objective of this paper is to clarify the notion of "excessive competition" and "over-investment" which usually accompanies "excessive competition", and to examine the circumstances under which they might occur. We first survey the cases where the terms are most widely used and proceed to examine those cases to determine if competition is indeed excessive, and if so, what causes "excessive competition". Our main concern deals with the case in which the firms must make investment decisions that involve large sunk costs while facing uncertain demand. In order to analyze this case, we developed a two period model of capacity precommitment and the ensuing competition. In the first period, oligopolistic firms make capacity investments that are irreversible. Demand is uncertain in period 1 and only the distribution is known. Thus, firms must make investment decisions under uncertainty. In the second period, demand is realized, and the firms compete with quantity under realized demand and capacity constraints. In the above setting, we find that there is "no over-investment," en ante, and there is "no excessive competition," ex post. As measured by the information available in period 1, expected return from investment of a firm is non-negative, overall industry capacity does not exceed the socially optimal level, and competition in the second period yields an outcome that gives each operating firm a non-negative second period profit. Thus, neither "excessive competition" nor "over-investment" is possible. This result will generally hold true if there is no externality and if the industry is not a natural monopoly. We also extend this result by examining a model in which the government is an active participant in the game with a well defined preference. Analysis of this model shows that over-investment arises if the government cannot credibly precommit itself to non-intervention when ex post idle capacity occurs, due to socio-political reasons. Firms invest in capacities that exceed socially optimal levels in this case because they correctly expect that the government will find it optimal for itself to intervene once over-investment and ensuing financial problems for the firms occur. Such planned over-investment and ensuing government intervention are the generic problems under the current system. These problems are expected to be repeated in many industries in years to come, causing a significant loss of welfare in the long run. As a remedy to this problem, we recommend a non-intervention policy by the government which creates and utilizes uncertainty. Based upon an argument which is essentially the same as that of Kreps and Wilson in the context of a chain-store game, we show that maintaining a consistent non-intervention policy will deter a planned over-investment by firms in the long run. We believe that the results obtained in this paper has a direct bearing on the public policies relating to many industries including the petrochemical industry that is currently in the center of heated debates.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.78
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• pp.93-117
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• 2018

In all countries of the world, the development of trade is an important factor for the survival of the national economy. Increased export will lead to national economic growth. Export is directly linked to employment, and the industrial structure will be developed in the direction to produce products of comparative advantages. Therefore, every country around the world is trying to promote export regardless of the size of its economy. Accordingly, this paper focused on the promotion of export of domestic companies. It proposed to cultivate trade experts to promote export of domestic companies. The following five methods were proposed to materialize the proposal. First, it is important to foster trade experts to expand and foster the one-person creative companies. In particular, it is important to develop a professional education curriculum. It is necessary to design and conduct a systematic curriculum throughout the process including follow-up after education such as teaching detailed procedures for establishing a trade business, identification of relevant regulations and related organizations, understanding of special features of each exporting country, and details of exporting procedures through specialist training for the individual industries, helping themto keep their network steady so that they can easily get help from consultants. Second, it is necessary to educate traders working in the field to make them trade experts and utilize themin on-the-job training and consulting. To do this, it is necessary to introduce systematic consultant selection process, and to introduce a systemto educate and manage them. It is because, we must select the most appropriate candidates, educate themto be lecturers and consultants, and dispatch themto the field, in order to make the best achievement in export. Nurturing trading professionals utilizing the current trading workers to activate export of domestic companies can be more efficient through cooperation of trading education agencies and related agencies in various industries. Third, it is also proposed to cultivate female trade experts by educating female trade workers whose career has been disrupted. It is to provide career disrupted women with opportunities to work after training them as trade professionals and to give manpower pool to domestic companies that are preparing for export. Fourth, it is also proposed to educate foreign students living in Korea to be trading experts and to utilize them as trading infra. They can be trading professionals who will contribute to the promotion of export. In the short term, they will be provided with opportunities for employment and start-upin the field of trade, and in the mid- to long-term, they may develop a business network between Korea and their own countries. To this end, we need to improve the visa system, expand free trade education opportunities, and support them so that they can establish small but strong enterprises. Fifth, it is proposed to proactively expand trade education to specialized high school students. Considering that most of domestic companies pursuing activation of export are small but strong companies or small and mediumsized companies, they may prefer high school graduates rather than university graduates because of financial limitations. Besides, the specialized high school students may occupy better position in the job market if they are equipped with expertise in trading. This study can be meaningful, in that it is the first research that focuses on cultivating trading experts to contribute to the export activation of domestic companies. However, it also has a limitation that it has failed to reflect the more specific field voices. It is hoped that detailed plans will be derived from the opinions of the employees of domestic companies making efforts to become an export company in the related researches in the future.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.55-75
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• 1992

At the outset of import liberalization, most economists expected a significant drop in the prices of domestic goods that faced foreign competition. However, it is now generally acknowledge that a significant drop in prices of those goods has not occurred. A common claim is that the prices did not drop significantly because the major importers of many imported goods were also the domestic producers of competing goods. The objective of this paper is to analyze the welfare effect of importation by domestic firms that produce competing goods, to identify the factors that facilitate such business practices, and to formulate a policy that could improve the welfare. We proved that importation by competing domestic firms definitely raises the prices of both imported and domestic goods compared to the situation where foreign goods are imported by non-producers, ceteris paribus. The intuition behind this result is that since a producer-importer is essentially a cartel, its overall profit maximization requires reduced competition between the products that it sells. On the other hand, if a producer-importer is more efficient at distrinbution than a simple importer, the comparison between the two cases is a priori indeterminate. We also find that the industries in which domestic producers are actively involved in importing competing goods are the ones in which the distribution channels are tightly controlled by importer-producers. This finding suggests that exclusive dealing contracts, which work as an entry barrier, may be the source of importing by domestic producers. We argue that in a country such as Korea, where financial market is highly incomplete, tight control of the distribution channels by oligopolistic manufacturers is likely to be an effective entry barrier that leads to importing by domestic producers of similar goods. We further argue that seemingly superior distribution costs of importer-producers is likely to be a result of market foreclosure which would disappear once the entry barrier of exclusive dealing contracts is removed. Above findings suggest that market imperfections are the source of importation by domestic competitors, which in turn constitutes a market imperfection in itself and reduces consumer welfare. As potential remedies, we considered three alternatives; direct price control by the government over the imported goods sold by major domestic producers, regulation of trade itself between major producers, and regulation of exclusive dealing contracts. For reasons both theoretical and pratical, we find that the last alternative is the most attrative. Prohibiting exclusive contracts between manufacturers and dealers in industries where exclusive dealing contracts are a significant entry barrier is expected to break up the importer-producer cartel and improve the welfare.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.12 no.7
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• pp.3062-3071
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• 2011

This study proposed to compare the performance differences between a manufacturing company and a construction company in accordance with the mutual relations and ownership structures with the management performance based on the increase or decrease of the large shareholders' share-holding ratio (insider ownership, foreign share-holding, institutional investors' share-holding) of a KOSPI listed company in Korea during 10 years(1998-2007). To sum up the research work, first, the increase of foreign share-holding supported the results of previous studies which foreign share-holding has a positive effect on the long term performance by having a positive(+) effect on MTB, and the increase of an insider ownership supported the management entrenchment hypothesis of previous studies by having a negative(-) effect on MTB. However, relations between institutional investors's share-holding and MTB could not find out linkages in spite of the results of previous studies where dealt with the active monitoring hypothesis. Also, to examine the linkages of ROA and the ownership structure, though the increases of foreign share-holding and insider ownership had a positive(+) effect on ROA, the increases of institutional investors' share-holding had a negative(-) effect on it. It showed different analysis results from the active monitoring hypothesis of institutional investors. As a result of verifying whether there is "any difference in the management performances between the construction industry and the manufacturing industry according to the equity structure" which is the second hypothesis, nothing of the insider ownership and whether or not there is the construction industry, foreign share-holding and whether or not there is the construction, and the institutional ownership and whether or not there is the construction industry gave a statistical difference to MTB and ROA. Accordingly, it was possible to find out there is no difference in the management performance between the construction industry and the manufacturing industry based on the ownership structure in spite of different characteristics from the manufacturing industry such as the revenue recognition in ordering, production and accounting.

• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.163-191
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• 2017

This article aims to review the recent, especially focusing on the year of 2016, situations and prospects of the Vietnamese politics, economy, and international relations. Politically, Vietnam completed the election of members for the National Assembly and organized new leadership at the 12th National Congress of the Vietnamese Communist Party in 2016. One characteristic of the new leadership is that the politicians, especially the members of politburo, from the North continue to occupy the position of majority. The other one is that the new leadership promised to carry out the restructuring of economy toward industries producing higher value-added commodities even though Vietnam industries admittedly need to accelerate present industrialization and modernization as a developing country under the seemingly contradictory slogan of "the development of market economy for socialism." The declared goals of the new leadership in Vietnam are inevitable in a sense since the development of Vietnamese economy has been heavily dependent upon Foreign Direct Investment(FDI) taking advantage of Vietnamese cheap labor and simultaneously it is evident that its future is unsecure if it maintains status quo. In fact, the Vietnamese economy has impressively showed high growth rate by the help of foreign capitals since 1990s despite the repetitive recessions of global economy but its growth is not likely to be sustainable anymore if it will not reduce foreign dependency and social economic inequality in a long term. In a short run, global economic recession, the financial and monetary policies of global powers, and recent protectionism and uncertainty of trade agreements will be three crucial variables to affect Vietnamese economy. In terms of international relations, Vietnam is continuously expected to practise the policy of checks and balances among the powerful countries. Vietnam has seriously disputed with China on islands sovereignty in the South China Sea and attempted to maintain close relationship with other powerful countries including especially America. However, mainly due to the new protectionism by the regime of American president Donald Trump, the Vietnamese government also need to keep close relationship with China increasingly for both economic and diplomatic security. Under the circumstances, Vietnam is expected to maintain more practical and balanced international relations.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.177-188
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• 2021

On December 2015, Financial Supervisory Service(FSS) announced the four key thematic audit review areas, one of them is an appropriation of unbilled revenue. Accounting of unbilled revenue is intertwined with a percentage of completion, that is concerned about discretionary decision by manager. Therefore, if manager motivated by income-increasing manipulation is exaggerating percentage of completion, unbilled revenue is excessively recognized. This problem is caused the serious accounting issues(e.g., shock at a loss for 2013 fiscal year by some construction firms, malpractice of accounting in order-made production industry). Distrust of accounting was grown because the shipbuilding and construction industries successively went poor management and bad accounting of them is revealed. Those accounting issues were the trigger for problem recognition of unbilled revenue, they were background for the designation of appropriation unbilled revenue as thematic audit review areas by FSS. Therefore, this study verified effectiveness of thematic audit review by empirically analyzing whether designation of thematic audit review makes the firm increases conservative behavior. Conservative accounting is estimated by using Basu(1997) model. We analyzed the effect of the thematic audit review on conservative accounting of unbilled revenue by comparing with reflecting unbilled revenue or not. The sample for test consists of firm-years the manufacturing and construction industries from 2012 to 2017. The test results of this study suggested that the conservative accounting of unbilled revenue after designation of the thematic audit review was significantly increased. We also tested again by classifying whether or not it is construction industry. We found that construction industry is more conservative than the other industry only for the designated year of the thematic audit review, otherwise there was not any evidence for significantly increasing conservatism. This study contributes to the literature by empirically analysing relationship of the unbilled revenue to the thematic audit review from the perspective of the conservatism and verifying effectiveness of the thematic audit review.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.191-204
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• 2015

According to the '2013 Performance Assessment Report on the Financial Program' from the National Assembly Budget Office, the unfilled recruitment ratio of Software(SW) Developers in South Korea was 25% in the 2012 fiscal year. Moreover, the unfilled recruitment ratio of highly-qualified SW developers reaches almost 80%. This phenomenon is intensified in small and medium enterprises consisting of less than 300 employees. Young job-seekers in South Korea are increasingly avoiding becoming a SW developer and even the current SW developers want to change careers, which hinders the national development of IT industries. The Korean government has recently realized the problem and implemented policies to foster young SW developers. Due to this effort, it has become easier to find young SW developers at the beginning-level. However, it is still hard to recruit highly-qualified SW developers for many IT companies. This is because in order to become a SW developing expert, having a long term experiences are important. Thus, improving job continuity intentions of current SW developers is more important than fostering new SW developers. Therefore, this study surveyed the job continuity intentions of SW developers and analyzed the factors associated with them. As a method, we carried out a survey from September 2014 to October 2014, which was targeted on 130 SW developers who were working in IT industries in South Korea. We gathered the demographic information and characteristics of the respondents, work environments of a SW industry, and social positions for SW developers. Afterward, a regression analysis and a decision tree method were performed to analyze the data. These two methods are widely used data mining techniques, which have explanation ability and are mutually complementary. We first performed a linear regression method to find the important factors assaociated with a job continuity intension of SW developers. The result showed that an 'expected age' to work as a SW developer were the most significant factor associated with the job continuity intention. We supposed that the major cause of this phenomenon is the structural problem of IT industries in South Korea, which requires SW developers to change the work field from developing area to management as they are promoted. Also, a 'motivation' to become a SW developer and a 'personality (introverted tendency)' of a SW developer are highly importantly factors associated with the job continuity intention. Next, the decision tree method was performed to extract the characteristics of highly motivated developers and the low motivated ones. We used well-known C4.5 algorithm for decision tree analysis. The results showed that 'motivation', 'personality', and 'expected age' were also important factors influencing the job continuity intentions, which was similar to the results of the regression analysis. In addition to that, the 'ability to learn' new technology was a crucial factor for the decision rules of job continuity. In other words, a person with high ability to learn new technology tends to work as a SW developer for a longer period of time. The decision rule also showed that a 'social position' of SW developers and a 'prospect' of SW industry were minor factors influencing job continuity intensions. On the other hand, 'type of an employment (regular position/ non-regular position)' and 'type of company (ordering company/ service providing company)' did not affect the job continuity intension in both methods. In this research, we demonstrated the job continuity intentions of SW developers, who were actually working at IT companies in South Korea, and we analyzed the factors associated with them. These results can be used for human resource management in many IT companies when recruiting or fostering highly-qualified SW experts. It can also help to build SW developer fostering policy and to solve the problem of unfilled recruitment of SW Developers in South Korea.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.71-90
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• 2020

Recently, the global insurance industry is rapidly developing digital transformation through the use of artificial intelligence technologies such as machine learning, natural language processing, and deep learning. As a result, more and more foreign insurers have achieved the success of artificial intelligence technology-based InsurTech and platform business, and Ping An Insurance Group Ltd., China's largest private company, is leading China's global fourth industrial revolution with remarkable achievements in InsurTech and Digital Platform as a result of its constant innovation, using 'finance and technology' and 'finance and ecosystem' as keywords for companies. In response, this study analyzed the InsurTech and platform business activities of Ping An Insurance Group Ltd. through the ser-M analysis model to provide strategic implications for revitalizing AI technology-based businesses of domestic insurers. The ser-M analysis model has been studied so that the vision and leadership of the CEO, the historical environment of the enterprise, the utilization of various resources, and the unique mechanism relationships can be interpreted in an integrated manner as a frame that can be interpreted in terms of the subject, environment, resource and mechanism. As a result of the case analysis, Ping An Insurance Group Ltd. has achieved cost reduction and customer service development by digitally innovating its entire business area such as sales, underwriting, claims, and loan service by utilizing core artificial intelligence technologies such as facial, voice, and facial expression recognition. In addition, "online data in China" and "the vast offline data and insights accumulated by the company" were combined with new technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data analysis to build a digital platform that integrates financial services and digital service businesses. Ping An Insurance Group Ltd. challenged constant innovation, and as of 2019, sales reached $155 billion, ranking seventh among all companies in the Global 2000 rankings selected by Forbes Magazine. Analyzing the background of the success of Ping An Insurance Group Ltd. from the perspective of ser-M, founder Mammingz quickly captured the development of digital technology, market competition and changes in population structure in the era of the fourth industrial revolution, and established a new vision and displayed an agile leadership of digital technology-focused. Based on the strong leadership led by the founder in response to environmental changes, the company has successfully led InsurTech and Platform Business through innovation of internal resources such as investment in artificial intelligence technology, securing excellent professionals, and strengthening big data capabilities, combining external absorption capabilities, and strategic alliances among various industries. Through this success story analysis of Ping An Insurance Group Ltd., the following implications can be given to domestic insurance companies that are preparing for digital transformation. First, CEOs of domestic companies also need to recognize the paradigm shift in industry due to the change in digital technology and quickly arm themselves with digital technology-oriented leadership to spearhead the digital transformation of enterprises. Second, the Korean government should urgently overhaul related laws and systems to further promote the use of data between different industries and provide drastic support such as deregulation, tax benefits and platform provision to help the domestic insurance industry secure global competitiveness. Third, Korean companies also need to make bolder investments in the development of artificial intelligence technology so that systematic securing of internal and external data, training of technical personnel, and patent applications can be expanded, and digital platforms should be quickly established so that diverse customer experiences can be integrated through learned artificial intelligence technology. Finally, since there may be limitations to generalization through a single case of an overseas insurance company, I hope that in the future, more extensive research will be conducted on various management strategies related to artificial intelligence technology by analyzing cases of multiple industries or multiple companies or conducting empirical research.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.269-295
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• 1995

This research is concerned with the social division of labor within the traditional industry district: Damyang bamboo ware industry district and Yeoju pottery industry district in South Korea, Damyang bamboo ware and Yeoju pottery are well known of the Korean traditional industry. The social division of labor in an industry district is considered as an important factor. The social division of labor helps the traditional industry to survive today. This summary shows five significant points from the major findings. First, Damyang bamoo ware industry and Yoeju pottery industry have experienced the growth stages until 1945, the stagnation in the 1960s, and the business recovery in the 1980s. Most Korean traditional industries had been radically declined under the Japanese colonization; while, Damyang bamboo ware industry and Yeoju pottery industry district have been developed during above all stages. The extended market to Japan helped the local government to establish a training center, and to provide financial aids and technical aids to crafts men. During the 1960s and 1970s, mass production of substitute goods on factory system resulted in the decrease of demand of bamboo ware and pettery. During the 1980s, these industries have slowly recovered as a result of the increased income per capita. The high rate of economic growth in the 1960s and 1970s was playing an important role in the emerging the incleased demand of the bamboo ware and pottery. Second the production-and-marketing system in a traditional industry district became diversified to adjust the demand of products. In Damyang bamboo ware industry district, the level of social division of labor was low until the high economic development period. Bamboo ware were made by a farmer in a small domestic system, The bamboo goods were mainly sold in the periodic market of bamboo ware in Damyang. In the recession period in the 1960s and 1970s, the production-and-marketing system were diversified; a manufacturing-wholesale type business and small-factory type business became established; and the wholesale business and the export traders in the district appeared. In the recovery period in the 1980s, the production-and-marketing systems were more diversified; a small-factory type business started to depend On subcontractors for a part of process of production; and a wholesale business in the district engaged in production of bamboo ware. In Yeoju pottery industry district, the social division of labor was limited until the early 1970s. A pottery was made by a crafts man in a small-business of domestic system and sold by a middle man out of Yeoju. Since the late 1970s, production-and-marketing system become being diversified as a result of the increased demand in Japan and South Korea. In the 1970s, Korean traditional craft pottery was highiy demanded in Japan. The demand encouraged people in Yoeju to become craftsmen and/or to work in the pottery related occupation. In South Korea, the rapid economic growth resulted in incline to pottery due to the development of stainless and plastic bowls and dishes. The production facilities were modernized to provide pottery at the reasonable price. A small-busineas of domestic system was transformed into a small-factory type business. The social division of labor was intensified in the pottery production-and-maketing system. The manufacturing kaoline began to be seperated from the production process of pottery. Within the district, a pottery wholesale business and a retail business started to be established in the 1980s. Third the traditional industry district was divided into "completed one" and "not-completed one" according to whether or not the district firms led the function of the social division of labor. The Damyang bamboo ware industry district is "completed one": the firm within the district is in charge of the supply of raw material, the production and the marketing. In the Damyang bamboo ware district, the social division of labor w and reorganized labor system to improve the external economics effect through intensifying the social division of labor. Lastly, the social division of labor was playing an important role in the development of traditional industry districts. The subdivision of production process and the diversification of business reduced the production cost and overcame the labor shortage through hiring low-waged workers such as family members, the old people and housewives. An enterpriser with small amount of capital easily joined into the business. The risk from business recession were dispersed. The accumulated know-how in the production and maketing provided flexiblility to produce various goods and to extend the life-cycly of a product.d the life-cycly of a product.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.199-207
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• 2010

For us, there is virtually no distinction between being a responsible citizen and a successful business... they are one and the same for Wal-Mart today." ~ Lee Scott, al-Mart CEO after the 2005 Katrina disaster; cited in Green to Gold (Esty and Winston 2006). Lee Scott's statement signaled a new era in sustainability as manufacturers and retailers around the globe watched the world's largest mass merchandiser confirm its intentions with respect to sustainability. For decades, the environmental movement has grown, slowly bleeding over into the corporate world. Companies have been born, products have been created, academic journals have been launched, and government initiatives have been undertaken - all in the pursuit of sustainability (Peattie and Crane 2005). While progress has been admittedly slower than some may desire, the emergence and entrance of environmentally concerned mass merchandisers has done much to help with sustainable efforts. To better understand this movement, we incorporate the perspectives of both executives and consumers involved in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry. This research relies on three underlying themes: (1) Conceptual and anecdotal evidence suggests that companies undertake sustainability initiatives for a plethora of reasons, (2) The number of sustainability initiatives continues to increase in the consumer packaged goods industries, and (3) That it is, therefore, necessary to explore the role that sustainability plays in the minds of consumers. In light of these themes, surveys were administered to and completed by 143 college students and 101 business executives to assess a number of variables in regards to sustainability including willingness-to-pay, behavioral intentions, attitudes, willingness-to-pay, and preferences. Survey results indicate that the top three reasons why executives believe sustainability to be important include (1) the opportunity for profitability, (2) the fulfillment of an obligation to the environment, and (3) a responsibility to customers and shareholders. College students identified the top three reasons as (1) a responsibility to the environment, (2) an indebtedness to future generations, and (3) an effective management of resources. While the rationale for supporting sustainability efforts differed between college students and executives, the executives and consumers reported similar responses for the majority of the remaining sustainability issues. Furthermore, when we asked consumers to assess the importance of six key issues (healthcare, economy, education, crime, government spending, and environment) previously identified as important to consumers by Gallup Poll, protecting the environment only ranked fourth out of the six (Carlson 2005). While all six of these issues were identified as important, the top three that emerged as most important were (1) improvements in education, (2) the economy, and (3) health care. As the pursuit and incorporation of sustainability continues to evolve, so too will the expected outcomes. New definitions of performance that reflect the social/business benefits as well as the lengthened implementation period are relevant and warranted (Ehrenfeld 2005; Hitchcock and Willard 2006). We identified three primary categories of outcomes based on a literature review of both anecdotal and conceptual expectations of sustainability: (1) improvements in constituent satisfaction, (2) differentiation opportunities, and (3) financial rewards. Within each of these categories, several specific outcomes were identified resulting in eleven different outcomes arising from sustainability initiatives. Our survey results indicate that the top five most likely outcomes for companies that pursue sustainability are: (1) green consumers will be more satisfied, (2) company image will be better, (3) corporate responsibility will be enhanced, (4) energy costs will be reduced, and (5) products will be more innovative. Additionally, to better understand the interesting intersection between the environmental "identity" of a consumer and the willingness to manifest that identity with marketplace purchases, we extended prior research developed by Experian Research (2008). Accordingly, respondents were categorized as one of four types of green consumers (Behavioral Greens, Think Greens, Potential Greens, or True Browns) to garner a better understanding of the green consumer in addition to assisting with a more effective interpretation of results. We assessed these consumers' willingness to engage in eco-friendly behavior by evaluating three options: (1) shopping at retailers that support environmental initiatives, (2) paying more for products that protect the environment, and (3) paying higher taxes so the government can support environmental initiatives. Think Greens expressed the greatest willingness to change, followed by Behavioral Greens, Potential Greens, and True Browns. These differences were all significant at p<.01. Further Conclusions and Implications We have undertaken a descriptive study which seeks to enhance our understanding of the strategic domain of sustainability. Specifically, this research fills a gap in the literature by comparing and contrasting the sustainability views of business executives and consumers with specific regard to preferences, intentions, willingness-to-pay, behavior, and attitudes. For practitioners, much can be gained from a strategic standpoint. In addition to the many results already reported, respondents also reported than willing to pay more for products that protect the environment. Other specific results indicate that female respondents consistently communicate a stronger willingness than males to pay more for these products and to shop at eco-friendly retailers. Knowing this additional information, practitioners can now have a more specific market in which to target and communicate their sustainability efforts. While this research is only an initial step towards understanding similarities and differences among practitioners and consumers regarding sustainability, it presents original findings that contribute to both practice and research. Future research should be directed toward examining other variables affecting this relationship, as well as other specific industries.