• Title/Summary/Keyword: knowledge resources

Search Result 1,588, Processing Time 0.029 seconds

Factors Affecting International Transfer Pricing of Multinational Enterprises in Korea (외국인투자기업의 국제이전가격 결정에 영향을 미치는 환경 및 기업요인)

  • Jun, Tae-Young;Byun, Yong-Hwan
    • Korean small business review
    • /
    • v.31 no.2
    • /
    • pp.85-102
    • /
    • 2009
  • With the continued globalization of world markets, transfer pricing has become one of the dominant sources of controversy in international taxation. Transfer pricing is the process by which a multinational corporation calculates a price for goods and services that are transferred to affiliated entities. Consider a Korean electronic enterprise that buys supplies from its own subsidiary located in China. How much the Korean parent company pays its subsidiary will determine how much profit the Chinese unit reports in local taxes. If the parent company pays above normal market prices, it may appear to have a poor profit, even if the group as a whole shows a respectable profit margin. In this way, transfer prices impact the taxable income reported in each country in which the multinational enterprise operates. It's importance lies in that around 60% of international trade involves transactions between two related parts of multinationals, according to the OECD. Multinational enterprises (hereafter MEs) exert much effort into utilizing organizational advantages to make global investments. MEs wish to minimize their tax burden. So MEs spend a fortune on economists and accountants to justify transfer prices that suit their tax needs. On the contrary, local governments are not prepared to cope with MEs' powerful financial instruments. Tax authorities in each country wish to ensure that the tax base of any ME is divided fairly. Thus, both tax authorities and MEs have a vested interest in the way in which a transfer price is determined, and this is why MEs' international transfer prices are at the center of disputes concerned with taxation. Transfer pricing issues and practices are sometimes difficult to control for regulators because the tax administration does not have enough staffs with the knowledge and resources necessary to understand them. The authors examine transfer pricing practices to provide relevant resources useful in designing tax incentives and regulation schemes for policy makers. This study focuses on identifying the relevant business and environmental factors that could influence the international transfer pricing of MEs. In this perspective, we empirically investigate how the management perception of related variables influences their choice of international transfer pricing methods. We believe that this research is particularly useful in the design of tax policy. Because it can concentrate on a few selected factors in consideration of the limited budget of the tax administration with assistance of this research. Data is composed of questionnaire responses from foreign firms in Korea with investment balances exceeding one million dollars in the end of 2004. We mailed questionnaires to 861 managers in charge of the accounting departments of each company, resulting in 121 valid responses. Seventy six percent of the sample firms are classified as small and medium sized enterprises with assets below 100 billion Korean won. Reviewing transfer pricing methods, cost-based transfer pricing is most popular showing that 60 firms have adopted it. The market-based method is used by 31 firms, and 13 firms have reported the resale-pricing method. Regarding the nationalities of foreign investors, the Japanese and the Americans constitute most of the sample. Logistic regressions have been performed for statistical analysis. The dependent variable is binary in that whether the method of international transfer pricing is a market-based method or a cost-based method. This type of binary classification is founded on the belief that the market-based method is evaluated as the relatively objective way of pricing compared with the cost-based methods. Cost-based pricing is assumed to give mangers flexibility in transfer pricing decisions. Therefore, local regulatory agencies are thought to prefer market-based pricing over cost-based pricing. Independent variables are composed of eight factors such as corporate tax rate, tariffs, relations with local tax authorities, tax audit, equity ratios of local investors, volume of internal trade, sales volume, and product life cycle. The first four variables are included in the model because taxation lies in the center of transfer pricing disputes. So identifying the impact of these variables in Korean business environments is much needed. Equity ratio is included to represent the interest of local partners. Volume of internal trade was sometimes employed in previous research to check the pricing behavior of managers, so we have followed these footsteps in this paper. Product life cycle is used as a surrogate of competition in local markets. Control variables are firm size and nationality of foreign investors. Firm size is controlled using dummy variables in that whether or not the specific firm is small and medium sized. This is because some researchers report that big firms show different behaviors compared with small and medium sized firms in transfer pricing. The other control variable is also expressed in dummy variable showing if the entrepreneur is the American or not. That's because some prior studies conclude that the American management style is different in that they limit branch manger's freedom of decision. Reviewing the statistical results, we have found that managers prefer the cost-based method over the market-based method as the importance of corporate taxes and tariffs increase. This result means that managers need flexibility to lessen the tax burden when they feel taxes are important. They also prefer the cost-based method as the product life cycle matures, which means that they support subsidiaries in local market competition using cost-based transfer pricing. On the contrary, as the relationship with local tax authorities becomes more important, managers prefer the market-based method. That is because market-based pricing is a better way to maintain good relations with the tax officials. Other variables like tax audit, volume of internal transactions, sales volume, and local equity ratio have shown only insignificant influence. Additionally, we have replaced two tax variables(corporate taxes and tariffs) with the data showing top marginal tax rate and mean tariff rates of each country, and have performed another regression to find if we could get different results compared with the former one. As a consequence, we have found something different on the part of mean tariffs, that shows only an insignificant influence on the dependent variable. We guess that each company in the sample pays tariffs with a specific rate applied only for one's own company, which could be located far from mean tariff rates. Therefore we have concluded we need a more detailed data that shows the tariffs of each company if we want to check the role of this variable. Considering that the present paper has heavily relied on questionnaires, an effort to build a reliable data base is needed for enhancing the research reliability.

A Study on the Effect of Technological Innovation Capability and Technology Commercialization Capability on Business Performance in SMEs of Korea (우리나라 중소기업의 기술혁신능력과 기술사업화능력이 경영성과에 미치는 영향연구)

  • Lee, Dongsuk;Chung, Lakchae
    • Korean small business review
    • /
    • v.32 no.1
    • /
    • pp.65-87
    • /
    • 2010
  • With the advent of knowledge-based society, the revitalization of technological innovation type SMEs, termed "inno-biz" hereafter, has been globally recognized as a government policymakers' primary concern in strengthening national competitiveness, and much effort is being put into establishing polices of boosting the start-ups and innovation capability of SMEs. Especially, in that the inno-biz enables national economy to get vitalized by widening world markets with its superior technology, and thus, taking the initiative of extremely competitive world markets, its growth and development has greater significance. In the case of Korea, the government has been maintaining the policies since the late 1990s of stimulating the growth of SMEs as well as building various infrastructures to foster the start-ups of the SMEs such as venture businesses with high technology. In addition, since the enactment of "Innovation Promotion Law for SMEs" in 2001, the government has been accelerating the policies of prioritizing the growth and development of inno-biz. So, for the sound growth and development of Korean inno-biz, this paper intends to offer effective management strategies for SMEs and suggest proper policies for the government, by researching into the effect of technological innovation capability and technology commercialization capability as the primary business resources on business performance in Korean SMEs in the light of market information orientation. The research is carried out on Korean companies characterized as inno-biz. On the basis of OSLO manual and prior studies, the research categorizes their status. R&D capability, technology accumulation capability and technological innovation system are categorized into technological innovation capability; product development capability, manufacturing capability and marketing capability into technology commercialization capability; and increase in product competitiveness and merits for new technology and/or product development into business performance. Then the effect of each component on business performance is substantially analyzed. In addition, the mediation effect of technological innovation and technology commercialization capability on business performance is observed by the use of the market information orientation as a parameter. The following hypotheses are proposed. H1 : Technology innovation capability will positively influence business performance. H1-1 : R&D capability will positively influence product competitiveness. H1-2 : R&D capability will positively influence merits for new technology and/or product development into business performance. H1-3 : Technology accumulation capability will positively influence product competitiveness. H1-4 : Technology accumulation capability will positively influence merits for new technology and/or product development into business performance. H1-5 : Technological innovation system will positively influence product competitiveness. H1-6 : Technological innovation system will positively influence merits for new technology and/or product development into business performance. H2 : Technology commercializing capability will positively influence business performance. H2-1 : Product development capability will positively influence product competitiveness. H2-2 : Product development capability will positively influence merits for new technology and/or product development into business performance. H2-3 : Manufacturing capability will positively influence product competitiveness. H2-4 : Manufacturing capability will positively influence merits for new technology and/or product development into business performance. H2-5 : Marketing capability will positively influence product competitiveness. H2-6 : Marketing capability will positively influence merits for new technology and/or product development into business performance. H3 : Technology innovation capability will positively influence market information orientation. H3-1 : R&D capability will positively influence information generation. H3-2 : R&D capability will positively influence information diffusion. H3-3 : R&D capability will positively influence information response. H3-4 : Technology accumulation capability will positively influence information generation. H3-5 : Technology accumulation capability will positively influence information diffusion. H3-6 : Technology accumulation capability will positively influence information response. H3-7 : Technological innovation system will positively influence information generation. H3-8 : Technological innovation system will positively influence information diffusion. H3-9 : Technological innovation system will positively influence information response. H4 : Technology commercialization capability will positively influence market information orientation. H4-1 : Product development capability will positively influence information generation. H4-2 : Product development capability will positively influence information diffusion. H4-3 : Product development capability will positively influence information response. H4-4 : Manufacturing capability will positively influence information generation. H4-5 : Manufacturing capability will positively influence information diffusion. H4-6 : Manufacturing capability will positively influence information response. H4-7 : Marketing capability will positively influence information generation. H4-8 : Marketing capability will positively influence information diffusion. H4-9 : Marketing capability will positively influence information response. H5 : Market information orientation will positively influence business performance. H5-1 : Information generation will positively influence product competitiveness. H5-2 : Information generation will positively influence merits for new technology and/or product development into business performance. H5-3 : Information diffusion will positively influence product competitiveness. H5-4 : Information diffusion will positively influence merits for new technology and/or product development into business performance. H5-5 : Information response will positively influence product competitiveness. H5-6 : Information response will positively influence merits for new technology and/or product development into business performance. H6 : Market information orientation will mediate the relationship between technology innovation capability and business performance. H7 : Market information orientation will mediate the relationship between technology commercializing capability and business performance. The followings are the research results : First, as for the effect of technological innovation on business performance, the technology accumulation capability and technological innovating system have a positive effect on increase in product competitiveness and merits for new technology and/or product development, while R&D capability has little effect on business performance. Second, as for the effect of technology commercialization capability on business performance, the effect of manufacturing capability is relatively greater than that of merits for new technology and/or product development. Third, the mediation effect of market information orientation is identified to exist partially in information generation, information diffusion and information response. Judging from these results, the following analysis can be made : On Increase in product competitiveness, directly related to successful technology commercialization of technology, management capability including technological innovation system, manufacturing capability and marketing capability has a relatively strong effect. On merits for new technology and/or product development, on the other hand, capability in technological aspect including R&D capability, technology accumulation capability and product development capability has relatively strong effect. Besides, in the cast of market information orientation, the level of information diffusion within an organization plays and important role in new technology and/or product development. Also, for commercial success like increase in product competitiveness, the level of information response is primarily required. Accordingly, the following policies are suggested : First, as the effect of technological innovation capability and technology commercialization capability on business performance differs among SMEs; in order for SMEs to secure competitiveness, the government has to establish microscopic policies for SMEs which meet their needs and characteristics. Especially, the SMEs lacking in capital and labor are required to map out management strategies of focusing their resources primarily on their strengths. And the government needs to set up policies for SMEs, not from its macro-scaled standpoint, but from the selective and concentrative one that meets the needs and characteristics of respective SMEs. Second, systematic infrastructures are urgently required which lead technological success to commercial success. Namely, as technological merits at respective SME levels do not always guarantee commercial success, the government should make and effort to build systematic infrastructures including encouragement of M&A or technology trade, systematic support for protecting intellectual property, furtherance of business incubating and industrial clusters for strengthening academic-industrial network, and revitalization of technology financing, in order to make successful commercialization from technological success. Finally, the effort to innovate technology, R&D, for example, is essential to future national competitiveness, but its result is often prolonged. So the government needs continuous concern and funding for basic science, in order to maximize technological innovation capability. Indeed the government needs to examine continuously whether technological innovation capability or technological success leads satisfactorily to commercial success in market economic system. It is because, when the transition fails, it should be left to the government.

Herbicidal Phytotoxicity under Adverse Environments and Countermeasures (불량환경하(不良環境下)에서의 제초제(除草劑) 약해(藥害)와 경감기술(輕減技術))

  • Kwon, Y.W.;Hwang, H.S.;Kang, B.H.
    • Korean Journal of Weed Science
    • /
    • v.13 no.4
    • /
    • pp.210-233
    • /
    • 1993
  • The herbicide has become indispensable as much as nitrogen fertilizer in Korean agriculture from 1970 onwards. It is estimated that in 1991 more than 40 herbicides were registered for rice crop and treated to an area 1.41 times the rice acreage ; more than 30 herbicides were registered for field crops and treated to 89% of the crop area ; the treatment acreage of 3 non-selective foliar-applied herbicides reached 2,555 thousand hectares. During the last 25 years herbicides have benefited the Korean farmers substantially in labor, cost and time of farming. Any herbicide which causes crop injury in ordinary uses is not allowed to register in most country. Herbicides, however, can cause crop injury more or less when they are misused, abused or used under adverse environments. The herbicide use more than 100% of crop acreage means an increased probability of which herbicides are used wrong or under adverse situation. This is true as evidenced by that about 25% of farmers have experienced the herbicide caused crop injury more than once during last 10 years on authors' nationwide surveys in 1992 and 1993 ; one-half of the injury incidences were with crop yield loss greater than 10%. Crop injury caused by herbicide had not occurred to a serious extent in the 1960s when the herbicides fewer than 5 were used by farmers to the field less than 12% of total acreage. Farmers ascribed about 53% of the herbicidal injury incidences at their fields to their misuses such as overdose, careless or improper application, off-time application or wrong choice of the herbicide, etc. While 47% of the incidences were mainly due to adverse natural conditions. Such misuses can be reduced to a minimum through enhanced education/extension services for right uses and, although undesirable, increased farmers' experiences of phytotoxicity. The most difficult primary problem arises from lack of countermeasures for farmers to cope with various adverse environmental conditions. At present almost all the herbicides have"Do not use!" instructions on label to avoid crop injury under adverse environments. These "Do not use!" situations Include sandy, highly percolating, or infertile soils, cool water gushing paddy, poorly draining paddy, terraced paddy, too wet or dry soils, days of abnormally cool or high air temperature, etc. Meanwhile, the cultivated lands are under poor conditions : the average organic matter content ranges 2.5 to 2.8% in paddy soil and 2.0 to 2.6% in upland soil ; the canon exchange capacity ranges 8 to 12 m.e. ; approximately 43% of paddy and 56% of upland are of sandy to sandy gravel soil ; only 42% of paddy and 16% of upland fields are on flat land. The present situation would mean that about 40 to 50% of soil applied herbicides are used on the field where the label instructs "Do not use!". Yet no positive effort has been made for 25 years long by government or companies to develop countermeasures. It is a really sophisticated social problem. In the 1960s and 1970s a subside program to incoporate hillside red clayish soil into sandy paddy as well as campaign for increased application of compost to the field had been operating. Yet majority of the sandy soils remains sandy and the program and campaign had been stopped. With regard to this sandy soil problem the authors have developed a method of "split application of a herbicide onto sandy soil field". A model case study has been carried out with success and is introduced with key procedure in this paper. Climate is variable in its nature. Among the climatic components sudden fall or rise in temperature is hardly avoidable for a crop plant. Our spring air temperature fluctuates so much ; for example, the daily mean air temperature of Inchon city varied from 6.31 to $16.81^{\circ}C$ on April 20, early seeding time of crops, within${\times}$2Sd range of 30 year records. Seeding early in season means an increased liability to phytotoxicity, and this will be more evident in direct water-seeding of rice. About 20% of farmers depend on the cold underground-water pumped for rice irrigation. If the well is deep over 70m, the fresh water may be about $10^{\circ}C$ cold. The water should be warmed to about $20^{\circ}C$ before irrigation. This is not so practiced well by farmers. In addition to the forementioned adverse conditions there exist many other aspects to be amended. Among them the worst for liquid spray type herbicides is almost total lacking in proper knowledge of nozzle types and concern with even spray by the administrative, rural extension officers, company and farmers. Even not available in the market are the nozzles and sprayers appropriate for herbicides spray. Most people perceive all the pesticide sprayers same and concern much with the speed and easiness of spray, not with correct spray. There exist many points to be improved to minimize herbicidal phytotoxicity in Korea and many ways to achieve the goal. First of all it is suggested that 1) the present evaluation of a new herbicide at standard and double doses in registration trials is to be an evaluation for standard, double and triple doses to exploit the response slope in making decision for approval and recommendation of different dose for different situation on label, 2) the government is to recognize the facts and nature of the present problem to correct the present misperceptions and to develop an appropriate national program for improvement of soil conditions, spray equipment, extention manpower and services, 3) the researchers are to enhance researches on the countermeasures and 4) the herbicide makers/dealers are to correct their misperceptions and policy for sales, to develop database on the detailed use conditions of consumer one by one and to serve the consumers with direct counsel based on the database.

  • PDF

Effects of On-farm Management System on the Carcass Quality of Market Pigs (양돈장 관리시스템이 출하돈의 도체품질에 미치는 영향)

  • Kim, D.H.;Seo, J.T.
    • Journal of Animal Environmental Science
    • /
    • v.15 no.1
    • /
    • pp.37-50
    • /
    • 2009
  • The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of on-farm management systems(including the farm size, stocking density of growing-finishing phase, proportion of finisher diet and type of growing-finishing building) and pre-slaughter handling(including the transportation time and loading time) on carcass grade, the incidence of PSE pork, the meat quality score for intra-muscle fat, inter-muscle fat, subcutaneous fat and score for elasticity of market pigs. For this study, 248,787 pigs of 53 different farms were used to establish the pork quality assurance program and to meet the comsumer's need. The results are summarized as follows. 1. The farm size had significant influence on carcass grade, in which showing the higher grade by increasing the farm size. However, the incidence of PSE pork were not significantly differences among the farm size. The meat quality score for intra-muscle fat, inter-muscle fat, subcutaneous fat and score for elasticity of market pigs were not significant influenced by farm size. 2. The stocking density of growing-finishing phase was statistically significant for carcass grade, in which showing the higher grade in mid density group. However, the incidence of PSE pork was higher in high density group. The meat quality score for intra-muscle fat, inter-muscle fat and elasticity of market pigs were greater in mid density groups, but not influenced by stocking density for subcutaneous fat score. 3. The carcass grade and the incidence of PSE pork were not significantly influenced by transportation time. However, transportation time significantly affected the meat quality score, the meat quality score for intra-muscle fat, inter-muscle fat, subcutaneous fat and elasticity of the carcasses were superior in more than 1 hour transportation groups. 4. At any time loading, the carcass grade and PSE incidence were not significantly differences. However, the meat quality score for intra-muscle fat, inter-muscle fat and elasticity of market pigs were superior in before 10 AM groups, but not influenced by loading time for subcutaneous fat score. 5. The proportion of finisher diet had not significant influence on carcass grade, but PSE incidence affected by proportion of finisher diet, 21 percent or more group was higher PSE incidence. The meat quality score for intra-muscle fat and inter-muscle fat of the carcasses were superior in 21 percent or more fed finisher diet groups, but elasticity score of carcass had not influenced by the proportion of finisher diet. 6. The type of growing-finishing building was affected the carcass grade and PSE incidence of the market pigs, carcass grade and PSE incidence were superior in enclosed mechanical ventilation building groups. The meat quality score for intra-muscle fat and inter-muscle fat of the carcasses were not significantly differences by the type of finishing building, but the score of subcutaneous fat and elasticity of carcass were superior in opened natural ventilation building groups. In conclusion, the results of this study suggest that we have more precise on-farm management practice and the knowledge related to pre-slaughter handling skills to reduce the stress and improve the status of welfare of market pigs.

  • PDF

A study on the factors to affect the career success among workers with disabilities (지체장애근로자의 직업성공 요인에 관한 연구)

  • Lee, Dal-Yob
    • 한국사회복지학회:학술대회논문집
    • /
    • 2003.10a
    • /
    • pp.185-216
    • /
    • 2003
  • This study was aimed at investigating important factors influencing career success among regular workers. The current researcher scrutinized the degree to which variables and factors affect the career success and occupational turnover rates of the research participants. At the same tune, two hypothetical path models established by the researcher were examined using linear multiple regression methods and the LISREL. After examining the differences among the factors of career success, a comparison was made between the disabled worker group and the non-disabled worker group. A questionnaire using the 5-point Likert scale was distributed to a group of 374 workers with disabilities and 463 workers without disabilities. For the data analysis purpose, the structural equation model, factor analysis, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis were carried out. The results of this study ran be summarized as follows. First, the results of factor analysis showed important categories of conceptual themes of career success. The initial conceptual factor model did not accord with the empirical one. A three-factorial model revealed categories of personal, family, and organizational factor respectively. The personal factor was composed of the self-esteem and self-efficiency. The family factor was consisted of the multi-roles stress and the number of children. Finally, the organizational factor was composed of the capacity for utilizing resources, networking, and the frequency of mentoring. In addition, the total 10 sub areas of career success were divided by two important aspects; the subjective career success and the objective career success. Second, both research participant groups seemed to be influenced by their occupational types. However, all predictive variables excluding the wage rate and the average length of work years had significant impact on job success for the disabled work group, while all the variables excluding the frequency of advice and length of working years had significant impact on job success for the non-disabled worker group. Third, the turnover rate was significantly influenced by the age and the experience of turnover of the research participants. However, the number of co-workers was the strongest predictive variable for the worker group with disabilities, but the occupation choice variable for the worker group without disabilities. For the disabled worker group, the turnover rate was differently influenced by the type of occupation, the length of working years, while multi-role stress and the average working years at the time of turnover for the worker group without disabilities. Fifth, as a result of verifying the hypothetical path model, it showed that the first model was somewhat proper and could predict the career success on both research participant groups. In the second model, the Chi-square, the degree of freedom (($x^2=64.950$, df=61, P=0.341), and the adjusted Goodness of Fit Index (AGFI) were .964, and the Comparative Fit Index (CFI) were .997, and the Root Mean Squared Residual (RMR) was respectively. .038. The model was best fitted and could predict the career success more highly because the goodness of fit index in the whole models was within the allowed range. In conclusion, the following research implications can be suggested. First, the occupational type of research participants was one of the most important variables to predict the career success for both research participant groups. It means that people with disabilities require human development services including education. They need to improve themselves in this knowledge-based society. Furthermore, for maintaining the career success, people with disabilities should be approached by considering the subjective career success aspects including wages and the promotion opportunities than the objective career success aspects.

  • PDF

A Study on the Archives and Records Management in Korea - Overview and Future Direction - (한국의 기록관리 현황 및 발전방향에 관한 연구)

  • Han, Sang-Wan;Kim, Sung-Soo
    • Journal of Korean Society of Archives and Records Management
    • /
    • v.2 no.2
    • /
    • pp.1-38
    • /
    • 2002
  • This study examines the status quo of Korean archives and records management from the Governmental as well as professional activities for the development of the field in relation to the new legislation on records management. Among many concerns, this study primarily explores the following four perspectives: 1) the Government Archives and Records Services; 2) the Korean Association of Archives; 3) the Korean Society of Archives and Records Management; 4) the Journal of Korean Society of Archives and Records Management. One of the primary tasks of the is to build the special depository within which the Presidential Library should be located. As a result, the position of the GARS can be elevated and directed by an official at the level of vice-minister right under a president as a governmental representative of managing the public records. In this manner, GARS can sustain its independency and take custody of public records across government agencies. made efforts in regard to the preservation of paper records, the preservation of digital resources in new media formats, facilities and equipments, education of archivists and continuing, training of practitioners, and policy-making of records preservation. For further development, academia and corporate should cooperate continuously to face with the current problems. has held three international conferences to date. The topics of conferences include respectively: 1) records management and archival education of Korea, Japan, and China; 2) knowledge management and metadata for the fulfillment of archives and information science; and 3) electronic records management and preservation with the understanding of ongoing archival research in the States, Europe, and Asia. The Society continues to play a leading role in both of theory and practice for the development of archival science in Korea. It should also suggest an educational model of archival curricula that fits into the Korean context. The Journals of Records Management & Archives Society of Korea have been published on the six major topics to date. Findings suggest that "Special Archives" on regional or topical collections are desirable because it can house subject holdings on specialty or particular figures in that region. In addition, archival education at the undergraduate level is more desirable for Korean situations where practitioners are strongly needed and professionals with master degrees go to manager positions. Departments of Library and Information Science in universities, therefore, are needed to open archival science major or track at the undergraduate level in order to meet current market demands. The qualification of professional archivists should be moderate as well.

A Study of Intangible Cultural Heritage Communities through a Social Network Analysis - Focused on the Item of Jeongseon Arirang - (소셜 네트워크 분석을 통한 무형문화유산 공동체 지식연결망 연구 - 정선아리랑을 중심으로 -)

  • Oh, Jung-shim
    • Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
    • /
    • v.52 no.3
    • /
    • pp.172-187
    • /
    • 2019
  • Knowledge of intangible cultural heritage is usually disseminated through word-of-mouth and actions rather than written records. Thus, people assemble to teach others about it and form communities. Accordingly, to understand and spread information about intangible cultural heritage properly, it is necessary to understand not only their attributes but also a community's relational characteristics. Community members include specialized transmitters who work under the auspices of institutions, and general transmitters who enjoy intangible cultural heritage in their daily lives. They converse about intangible cultural heritage in close relationships. However, to date, research has focused only on professionals. Thus, this study focused on the roles of general transmitters of intangible cultural heritage information by investigating intangible cultural heritage communities centering around Jeongseon Arirang; a social network analysis was performed. Regarding the research objectives presented in the introduction, the main findings of the study are summarized as follows. First, there were 197 links between 74 members of the Jeongseon Arirang Transmission Community. One individual had connections with 2.7 persons on average, and all were connected through two steps in the community. However, the density and the clustering coefficient were low, 0.036 and 0.32, respectively; therefore, the cohesiveness of this community was low, and the relationships between the members were not strong. Second, 'Young-ran Yu', 'Nam-gi Kim' and 'Gil-ja Kim' were found to be the prominent figures of the Jeongseon Arirang Transmission Community, and the central structure of the network was concentrated around these three individuals. Being located in the central structure of the network indicates that a person is popular and ranked high. Also, it means that a person has an advantage in terms of the speed and quantity of the acquisition of information and resources, and is in a relatively superior position in terms of bargaining power. Third, to understand the replaceability of the roles of Young-ran Yu, Nam-gi Kim, and Gil-ja Kim, who were found to be the major figures through an analysis of the central structure, structural equivalence was profiled. The results of the analysis showed that the positions and roles of Young-ran Yu, Nam-gi Kim, and Gil-ja Kim were unrivaled and irreplaceable in the Jeongseon Arirang Transmission Community. However, considering that these three members were in their 60s and 70s, it seemed that it would be necessary to prepare measures for the smooth maintenance and operation of the community. Fourth, to examine the subgroup hidden in the network of the Jeongseon Arirang Transmission Community, an analysis of communities was conducted. A community refers to a subgroup clearly differentiated based on modularity. The results of the analysis identified the existence of four communities. Furthermore, the results of an analysis of the central structure showed that the communities were formed and centered around Young-ran Yu, Hyung-jo Kim, Nam-gi Kim, and Gil-ja Kim. Most of the transmission TAs recommended by those members, students who completed a course, transmission scholarship holders, and the general members taught in the transmission classes of the Jeongseon Arirang Preservation Society were included as members of the communities. Through these findings, it was discovered that it is possible to maintain the transmission genealogy, making an exchange with the general members by employing the present method for the transmission of Jeongseon Arirang, the joint transmission method. It is worth paying attention to the joint transmission method as it overcomes the demerits of the existing closed one-on-one apprentice method and provides members with an opportunity to learn their masters' various singing styles. This study is significant for the following reasons: First, by collecting and examining data using a social network analysis method, this study analyzed phenomena that had been difficult to investigate using existing statistical analyses. Second, by adopting a different approach to the previous method in which the genealogy was understood, looking at oral data, this study analyzed the structures of the transmitters' relationships with objective and quantitative data. Third, this study visualized and presented the abstract structures of the relationships among the transmitters of intangible cultural heritage information on a 2D spring map. The results of this study can be utilized as a baseline for the development of community-centered policies for the protection of intangible cultural heritage specified in the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. To achieve this, it would be necessary to supplement this study through case studies and follow-up studies on more aspects in the future.

An Intervention Study on Integration of Family Planning and Maternal/Infant Care Services in Rural Korea (가족계획과 모자보건 통합을 위한 조산원의 투입효과 분석 -서산지역의 개입연구 평가보고-)

  • Bang, Sook;Han, Seung-Hyun;Lee, Chung-Ja;Ahn, Moon-Young;Lee, In-Sook;Kim, Eun-Shil;Kim, Chong-Ho
    • Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
    • /
    • v.20 no.1 s.21
    • /
    • pp.165-203
    • /
    • 1987
  • This project was a service-cum-research effort with a quasi-experimental study design to examine the health benefits of an integrated Family Planning (FP)/Maternal & Child health (MCH) Service approach that provides crucial factors missing in the present on-going programs. The specific objectives were: 1) To test the effectiveness of trained nurse/midwives (MW) assigned as change agents in the Health Sub-Center (HSC) to bring about the changes in the eight FP/MCH indicators, namely; (i)FP/MCH contacts between field workers and their clients (ii) the use of effective FP methods, (iii) the inter-birth interval and/or open interval, (iv) prenatal care by medically qualified personnel, (v) medically supervised deliveries, (vi) the rate of induced abortion, (vii) maternal and infant morbidity, and (viii) preinatal & infant mortality. 2) To measure the integrative linkage (contacts) between MW & HSC workers and between HSC and clients. 3) To examine the organizational or administrative factors influencing integrative linkage between health workers. Study design; The above objectives called for quasi-experimental design setting up a study and control area with and without a midwife. An active intervention program (FP/MCH minimum 'package' program) was conducted for a 2 year period from June 1982-July 1984 in Seosan County and 'before and after' surveys were conducted to measure the change. Service input; This study was undertaken by the Soonchunhyang University in collaboration with WHO. After a baseline survery in 1981, trained nurses/midwives were introduced into two health sub-centers in a rural setting (Seosan county) for a 2 year period from 1982 to 1984. A major service input was the establishment of midwifery services in the existing health delivery system with emphasis on nurse/midwife's role as the link between health workers (nurse aids) and village health workers, and the referral of risk patients to the private physician (OBGY specialist). An evaluation survey was made in August 1984 to assess the effectiveness of this alternative integrated approach in the study areas in comparison with the control area which had normal government services. Method of evaluation; a. In this study, the primary objective was first to examine to what extent the FP/MCH package program brought about changes in the pre-determined eight indicators (outcome and impact measures) and the following relationship was first analyzed; b. Nevertheless, this project did not automatically accept the assumption that if two or more activities were integrated, the results would automatically be better than a non-integrated or categorical program. There is a need to assess the 'integration process' itself within the package program. The process of integration was measured in terms of interactive linkages, or the quantity & quality of contacts between workers & clients and among workers. Intergrative linkages were hypothesized to be influenced by organizational factors at the HSC clinic level including HSC goals, sltrurture, authority, leadership style, resources, and personal characteristics of HSC staff. The extent or degree of integration, as measured by the intensity of integrative linkages, was in turn presumed to influence programme performance. Thus as indicated diagrammatically below, organizational factors constituted the independent variables, integration as the intervening variable and programme performance with respect to family planning and health services as the dependent variable: Concerning organizational factors, however, due to the limited number of HSCs (2 in the study area and 3 in the control area), they were studied by participatory observation of an anthropologist who was independent of the project. In this observation, we examined whether the assumed integration process actually occurred or not. If not, what were the constraints in producing an effective integration process. Summary of Findings; A) Program effects and impact 1. Effects on FP use: During this 2 year action period, FP acceptance increased from 58% in 1981 to 78% in 1984 in both the study and control areas. This increase in both areas was mainly due to the new family planning campaign driven by the Government for the same study period. Therefore, there was no increment of FP acceptance rate due to additional input of MW to the on-going FP program. But in the study area, quality aspects of FP were somewhat improved, having a better continuation rate of IUDs & pills and more use of effective Contraceptive methods in comparison with the control area. 2. Effects of use of MCH services: Between the study and control areas, however, there was a significant difference in maternal and child health care. For example, the coverage of prenatal care was increased from 53% for 1981 birth cohort to 75% for 1984 birth cohort in the study area. In the control area, the same increased from 41% (1981) to 65% (1984). It is noteworthy that almost two thirds of the recent birth cohort received prenatal care even in the control area, indicating that there is a growing demand of MCH care as the size of family norm becomes smaller 3. There has been a substantive increase in delivery care by medical professions in the study area, with an annual increase rate of 10% due to midwives input in the study areas. The project had about two times greater effect on postnatal care (68% vs. 33%) at delivery care(45.2% vs. 26.1%). 4. The study area had better reproductive efficiency (wanted pregancies with FP practice & healthy live births survived by one year old) than the control area, especially among women under 30 (14.1% vs. 9.6%). The proportion of women who preferred the 1st trimester for their first prenatal care rose significantly in the study area as compared to the control area (24% vs 13%). B) Effects on Interactive Linkage 1. This project made a contribution in making several useful steps in the direction of service integration, namely; i) The health workers have become familiar with procedures on how to work together with each other (especially with a midwife) in carrying out their work in FP/MCH and, ii) The health workers have gotten a feeling of the usefulness of family health records (statistical integration) in identifying targets in their own work and their usefulness in caring for family health. 2. On the other hand, because of a lack of required organizational factors, complete linkage was not obtained as the project intended. i) In regards to the government health worker's activities in terms of home visiting there was not much difference between the study & control areas though the MW did more home visiting than Government health workers. ii) In assessing the service performance of MW & health workers, the midwives balanced their workload between 40% FP, 40% MCH & 20% other activities (mainly immunization). However, $85{\sim}90%$ of the services provided by the health workers were other than FP/MCH, mainly for immunizations such as the encephalitis campaign. In the control area, a similar pattern was observed. Over 75% of their service was other than FP/MCH. Therefore, the pattern shows the health workers are a long way from becoming multipurpose workers even though the government is pushing in this direction. 3. Villagers were much more likely to visit the health sub-center clinic in the study area than in the control area (58% vs.31%) and for more combined care (45% vs.23%). C) Organization factors (admistrative integrative issues) 1. When MW (new workers with higher qualification) were introduced to HSC, it was noted that there were conflicts between the existing HSC workers (Nurse aids with less qualification than MW) and the MW for the beginning period of the project. The cause of the conflict was studied by an anthropologist and it was pointed out that these functional integration problems stemmed from the structural inadequacies of the health subcenter organization as indicated below; i) There is still no general consensus about the objectives and goals of the project between the project staff and the existing health workers. ii) There is no formal linkage between the responsibility of each member's job in the health sub-center. iii) There is still little chance for midwives to play a catalytic role or to establish communicative networks between workers in order to link various knowledge and skills to provide better FP/MCH services in the health sub-center. 2. Based on the above findings the project recommended to the County Chief (who has power to control the administrative staff and the technical staff in his county) the following ; i) In order to solve the conflicts between the individual roles and functions in performing health care activities, there must be goals agreed upon by both. ii) The health sub·center must function as an autonomous organization to undertake the integration health project. In order to do that, it is necessary to support administrative considerations, and to establish a communication system for supervision and to control of the health sub-centers. iii) The administrative organization, tentatively, must be organized to bind the health worker's midwive's and director's jobs by an organic relationship in order to achieve the integrative system under the leadership of health sub-center director. After submitting this observation report, there has been better understanding from frequent meetings & communication between HW/MW in FP/MCH work as the program developed. Lessons learned from the Seosan Project (on issues of FP/MCH integration in Korea); 1) A majority or about 80% of the couples are now practicing FP. As indicated by the study, there is a growing demand from clients for the health system to provide more MCH services than FP in order to maintain the achieved small size of family through FP practice. It is fortunate to see that the government is now formulating a MCH policy for the year 2,000 and revising MCH laws and regulations to emphasize more MCH care for achieving a small size family through family planning practice. 2) Goal consensus in FP/MCH shouBd be made among the health workers It administrators, especially to emphasize the need of care of 'wanted' child. But there is a long way to go to realize the 'real' integration of FP into MCH in Korea, unless there is a structural integration FP/MCH because a categorical FP is still first priority to reduce the rate of population growth for economic reasons but not yet for health/welfare reasons in practice. 3) There should be more financial allocation: (i) a midwife should be made available to help to promote the MCH program and coordinate services, (in) there should be a health sub·center director who can provide leadership training for managing the integrated program. There is a need for 'organizational support', if the decision of integration is made to obtain benefit from both FP & MCH. In other words, costs should be paid equally to both FP/MCH. The integration slogan itself, without the commitment of paying such costs, is powerless to advocate it. 4) Need of management training for middle level health personnel is more acute as the Government has already constructed 90 MCH centers attached to the County Health Center but without adequate manpower, facilities, and guidelines for integrating the work of both FP and MCH. 5) The local government still considers these MCH centers only as delivery centers to take care only of those visiting maternity cases. The MCH center should be a center for the managment of all pregnancies occurring in the community and the promotion of FP with a systematic and effective linkage of resources available in the county such as i.e. Village Health Worker, Community Health Practitioner, Health Sub-center Physicians & Health workers, Doctors and Midwives in MCH center, OBGY Specialists in clinics & hospitals as practiced by the Seosan project at primary health care level.

  • PDF