• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.35-70
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• 2010

In this study, we examined distribution channel relationship by using the idea of Cheong, which is a unique feeling an positive role in Korean society. Companies make great efforts to maintain long-term relationship with buyers. Understanding distinctive relationship system of each culture should precede these efforts to bring effective results. So we considered how Cheong, a meaningful factor in Korean distribution channel, affects relationship quality and performance. As a result of research analysis from 272 survey questionnaires of retailers, engaging in Crops Protected Material industry in Korea, supplier's idiosyncratic investment, retailer's Cheong, and dependence of retailers on suppliers have positive effects on relationship quality. Supplier's idiosyncratic investment and cognitive factors have the highest influence and Cheong, an emotional factor, follows. Dependence, a motivational factor has the least influence. We confirmed that retailer's cooperation and long-term orientation are directly influenced by retailer's commitment. Active cooperation of the retailer, a partner of a distribution channel, is regarded as an essential factor for supplier's effective business. Retailer's commitment increased that cooperation. Retailer's trust and commitment also decreased relationship conflicts. The results of this study imply that companies should increase idiosyncratic investment to improve relationship quality. But increasing idiosyncratic investment is limited because it requires monetary investment. Therefore companies need to recognize the importance of Cheong, revealed as a new factor, improving relationship quality and to make the best use of it. In this study, we contributed theoretically by examining the role of Cheong, and introducing its distribution discipline. We also make practical suggestions about supplier's relationship management.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.12
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• pp.611-620
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• 2016

Firms grow in a competitive environment and competition can be a source of corporate growth. In an increasingly global market, companies face increased competition. As such, it is natural that all firms face some degree of risk due to competition. While firms compete for market share, they also imitate competitors in order to minimize risk that accompanies competition. This research attempts to demonstrate the effects of inter-firm competition on investment decisions. Using idiosyncratic equity returns as the instrument variable, this paper uses a two-stage least squares regression, as well as an ordinary least squares (OLS), to identify the influence of peer firms' investment decisions on a firm's own investment strategy. The results confirm that firms show stronger imitative behavior with more intense competition. Also, firms with higher debt ratios show higher peer group influence. This imitative factor provides clues to measure the risk-averseness in investment decisions.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.65-93
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• 2011

This paper aims to explore how relational constructs(supplier's idiosyncratic investment, retailer's dependence, and dyadic communication) impact the buyer's trust across the relationship lifecycle. Companies make great efforts to create trust and maintain long-term relationship with buyers. Buyer and supplier relationships evolve through distinct lifecycles. In each phase, buyers and suppliers exhibit different patterns of behaviour. Also, they have different attitudes toward, and expectation of, one another. In this study, the final outcome investigated is long-term orientation from the buyer's perspective. Data were collected from 296 survey questionnaires of retailers engaging in Crops Protected Material industry in Korea. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were used to purify the measurement scales. And structural equation analysis and Chow test were used to test the hypotheses. The result indicates that the effect of retailer's dependence on the trust is greatest. Especially, the effect of dependence is growing as the relationship has developed. Supplier's idiosyncratic investment increases trust in the early phase, while it is not found to affect trust in the maturity phase. In the early phase, the determination of trust begins to be increasingly influenced by partner's relationship investment only because other clues are not observed yet. Reciprocal communication has a positive effect on trust, and long-term orientation is directly influenced by retailer's trust. Communication's effect is greater in the build-up phase than in the maturity phase. A limitation of this study is the unequal sample size in each of the relationship phases. Literature has suggested that the effects of relational constructs on outcomes are different across relationship phases. This study shows that different relational constructs have different effects on trust depending upon the relationship phase.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.39-70
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• 2015

This paper examines the effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) on South Asian economies' output growth, utilizing recent panel cointegration testing and estimation techniques. Annual panel data on eight SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) member countries' macroeconomic variables over the period 1960- 2013 are employed in empirical analysis. Using various heterogeneous panel cointegration and panel causality tests, a bi-directional relationship between FDI and growth is found. We find evidence for both FDI-led growth and growth-induced FDI hypotheses for the South Asian economies over the sample period. Individual member countries exhibit heterogeneity in terms of the direction or existence of causality subject to their idiosyncratic economic conditions. Among various regressors, FDI, financial development, human capital, and government consumption show the most significant positive effects on output growth. As determinants of FDI, GDP, financial development, human capital, and government consumption are found significant in the region. The bi-directional causality between FDI and growth is found robust to the inclusion of other control variables and using different estimation techniques.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.249-260
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• 2014

This paper explores the relationship between firm-specific volatility and some firm characteristics such as size, the market-to-book ratio of equity, PER, PBR, PCR, PSR and turnover in KOSDAQ market. In addition, I investigate whether portfolios with difference to realized range-based volatility and firm-specific volatility have different investment performance using CAPM and FF-3 factor model. The main findings of this study can be summarized as follows. First, firm-specific volatility have mostly positive relationship between firm-specific volatility and some firm characteristics. Second, this study found that realized range-based volatility and firm-specific volatility are positively related to expected return. It means that portfolios with high idiosyncratic volatility have significantly higher expected return than portfolios with low firm-specific volatility.

• Journal of the military operations research society of Korea
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2006

This study investigates key factors affecting the activity of defense technology transfer through the questionnaire survey in Korea. Defense R&D investment has played an important role in promoting the commercial technology development as well as the targeted defense sector through the spin-off mechanism as shown in many countries. Recognizing the importance of effective and efficient investment in defense technology development, the advanced countries in defense technology are trying to establish optimal technology transfer mechanism to maximize the effect of the invested R&D at the national level considering the idiosyncratic features of their own countries. Because the technology transfer mechanisms are very distinct from country to country, it is natural to question "what are the determinants of the effective and efficient technology transfer in Korea?" We tested 19 potential factors and identified 11 factors that are significantly important as the determinants of technology transfer. From the empirical findings, we discuss some policy implications to promote the technology transfer.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.117-137
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• 2012

The objective of this article is to examine the characteristic features of contemporary policy-led regionalism in Asia. It identifies the positive and negative features associated with the free trade agreements that have proliferated in Asia during the first decade of the $21^{st}$ century. There has been a marked transformation in Asia's regional architecture in a short span of a decade-and-a-half. The mode and conduct of multilateral trade has been significantly transformed during recent years and Asia could not possibly remain immune to this transformation. The importance of regionalism in multilateral trade has increased steadily. In addition, the trade-investment-services nexus has developed and grown increasingly important. As business firms now manufacture parts of their products across the border, bilateral trade agreements (BTAs), regional trade agreements (RTAs) and free trade agreements (FTAs) of the contemporary period need to take into account the new kind of trade barriers that have been created due to the changing mode of trade. The contemporary regional agreements need to be designed to facilitate the new modes of conducting business and trade. It was understood rather late in Asia that the 'WTO-Plus' FTAs are more functional and result-oriented than their predecessors.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.323-334
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• 2015

he current VaR model based on the J.P. Morgan's RiskMetrics structurally can not reflect the future economic situation. In this study, we propose a One-factor model resulting from the Wiener stochastic process decomposed into a systematic risk factor and an idiosyncratic risk factor. Therefore, we are able to perform a preemptive risk management by means of reflecting the predicted common risk factors in the model. Stocks in the portfolio are satisfied with the independence to each other because the common factors are fixed by the predicted value. Therefore, we can easily determine the investment in each stock to minimize the variance of the portfolio. In addition, the portfolio VaR is decomposed into the sum of the individual VaR. So we can effectively implement the constitution of the portfolio to meet the target maximum losses.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.29-41
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• 2012

This paper undertakes a conceptual review of transaction cost to broaden the understanding of the transaction cost analysis (TCA) approach. More than 40 years have passed since Coase's fundamental insight that transaction, coordination, and contracting costs must be considered explicitly in explaining the extent of vertical integration. Coase (1937) forced economists to identify previously neglected constraints on the trading process to foster efficient intrafirm, rather than interfirm, transactions. The transaction cost approach to economic organization study regards transactions as the basic units of analysis and holds that understanding transaction cost economy is central to organizational study. The approach applies to determining efficient boundaries, as between firms and markets, and to internal transaction organization, including employment relations design. TCA, developed principally by Oliver Williamson (1975,1979,1981a) blends institutional economics, organizational theory, and contract law. Further progress in transaction costs research awaits the identification of critical dimensions in which transaction costs differ and an examination of the economizing properties of alternative institutional modes for organizing transactions. The crucial investment distinction is: To what degree are transaction-specific (non-marketable) expenses incurred? Unspecialized items pose few hazards, since buyers can turn toalternative sources, and suppliers can sell output intended for one order to other buyers. Non-marketability problems arise when specific parties' identities have important cost-bearing consequences. Transactions of this kind are labeled idiosyncratic. The summarized results of the review are as follows. First, firms' distribution decisions often prompt examination of the make-or-buy question: Should a marketing activity be performed within the organization by company employees or contracted to an external agent? Second, manufacturers introducing an industrial product to a foreign market face a difficult decision. Should the product be marketed primarily by captive agents (the company sales force and distribution division) or independent intermediaries (outside sales agents and distribution)? Third, the authors develop a theoretical extension to the basic transaction cost model by combining insights from various theories with the TCA approach. Fourth, other such extensions are likely required for the general model to be applied to different channel situations. It is naive to assume the basic model appliesacross markedly different channel contexts without modifications and extensions. Although this study contributes to scholastic research, it is limited by several factors. First, the theoretical perspective of TCA has attracted considerable recent interest in the area of marketing channels. The analysis aims to match the properties of efficient governance structures with the attributes of the transaction. Second, empirical evidence about TCA's basic propositions is sketchy. Apart from Anderson's (1985) study of the vertical integration of the selling function and John's (1984) study of opportunism by franchised dealers, virtually no marketing studies involving the constructs implicated in the analysis have been reported. We hope, therefore, that further research will clarify distinctions between the different aspects of specific assets. Another important line of future research is the integration of efficiency-oriented TCA with organizational approaches that emphasize specific assets' conceptual definition and industry structure. Finally, research of transaction costs, uncertainty, opportunism, and switching costs is critical to future study.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.39-57
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• 2012

The unabated influx of micro businesses has turned the Korean retailing market to a rat race, which causes severe financial distress for micro business owners due to heavy competition. The woes of these micro business owner's are exacerbated by the presence of large scale distributors such as Super Supermarket(SSM) and large discount stores. In summary, the Korean retail market is overburdened an uneconomically viable. Retailing has low barriers to entry which attracts unskilled labor or those with little capital. These start-ups have low opportunity costs since they would make low wages elsewhere in the economy. Thus, these owners are content with relatively low returns on their investment. These 'subsistence ventures' are maintained for economical viability rather than economic growth. These 'subsistence ventures' intensifies competition among small-scale businesses. The presence of large retail corporations also aggravates the situation. The recent stagnation of the economy has worsened the retail market in Korea. The overwhelming competition solidifies the coarse structural system and the prolonged economic sluggishness has increased the risk of insolvency for micro business owners. As the economy continues to stagnate, the imminent risk in retailing market will rise up to surface threatening economic stability. More systematic inflows and outflows of retailers are required in order to redress this structural problem. It has been empirically shown that the self-employment rate is high in Korea compared to other OECD countries. To draw the comparison of self-employment rate by industry, Korea shows high rates among transportation, whole sale, retail, education, lodging, and restaurants. In the case of the transportation and education service sectors, this high rate can be explained by the idiosyncratic nature of Korean culture. In the transportation sector, political policies favor private cap service and private freight carriers. In the education service sector, Koreans put particular emphasis on education that leads to many private institutions that outnumber other OECD countries. For these singular reasons, Korea maintains high micro business, self-employed rates particularly in retailing. A comparable nation is Japan, with its similar social, economic, cultural environment among OECD countries. Unlike Korea, Japan has much lower rates of micro business which continues to decrease. Also Korean retailers are much more destitute than Japanese. The fundamental problem of Korean retailing is the involuntary exit of these 'subsistence ventures,' micro businesses with low margins, in which a small drop in demand can lead to financial difficulties for the owner. This problem will be exacerbated when Korean babyboomers retire and join the micro business ventures. The first priority in order to cope with the severity of oversupply in retailing is to provide better opportunities for the potential self-employers. There should be viable alternatives to subsistent ventures. Strengthening the retirement program, scrutiny of exit process, reconfiguration of policy funds are the recommendations.