• Journal of the Korea Fashion and Costume Design Association
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.165-176
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• 2021

To solve environmental problems, research and efforts are required to reduce leather waste that is generated in large quantities during the leather manufacturing process. Leatherboard is a plate-like material that is made by crushing leather waste, such as trimming or shaving scraps and mixing fibers, pulp, rubber, and adhesives. The aim of this study is to provide basic data on the localization of leatherboard manufacturing technology for outsoles, which are increasingly in demand due to their excellent performance and price competitiveness. Interviews with experts and related organizations were conducted to investigate the related global technology trends. Also, the performance of three products that can be used as reference materials were evaluated and compared. As part of the research and efforts to reduce the amount of leather waste generated, high-performance materials using leather waste were developed and commercialized by major western companies. In Korea, various efforts have been made since 2000, and some companies have produced leatherboard for interior uses. However, the amount of waste recycled relative to that generated is not large due to the limited demand. Natural leather soles perform better than leatherboard soles in all evaluation aspects. In the case of leatherboard, performance varied by manufacturer. German products showed flexibility resistance and dimensional stability, thereby meeting performance requirements. However, abrasion resistance and cleavage resistance were slightly below the required performance standards, and research and development is needed to improve performance in those areas. Currently, it is impossible to evaluate the performance of domestic products due to underdevelopment. However, if the development of process technology continues based on the performance evaluation results of the best leatherboard in the shoe industry, materials for outsoles will be able to be produced domestically with prices competitiveness while realizing natural leather materials performance to some extent.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.87-101
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• 2019

Purpose - This paper examines the effectiveness of the foreign exchange risk insurance system in the promotion of SME exports in Korea. The purpose of this study is to analyze the short-term and long-term responses of SME exports to foreign exchange risk insurance support policies. Based on these empirical studies, we would like to present some operational improvements to the operation of the foreign exchange risk insurance system. Design/methodology - In order to analyze the effect of exchange risk insurance on the exports of SMEs, a VAR model consisting of foreign exchange risk insurance underwriting values, export relative price, and domestic demand pressure, including export volume, was established. The study began with tests of the stationarity of time series data. The unit root tests showed that all concerned variables were non-stationary. Accordingly, the results of the cointegration test showed that the tested variables are not cointegrated. Finally, an impulse response function and variance decomposition analysis were conducted to analyze the impulse of foreign exchange risk insurance on exports of SMEs. Findings - As a result of estimating the VAR (1) model, foreign exchange risk insurance was found to be significant at a 1% significance level for SME' export promotion. In the impulse response analysis, SMEs' export response to the impulse of foreign exchange risk insurance showed that exports gradually increased until the third quarter, and then slowed down. However, the impulse did not disappear, and appeared continuously. Originality/value - This study analyzed the effect of foreign exchange insurance on exports of SMEs by applying the VAR model. In particular, this study is the first to analyze the short-term and long-term effects of foreign exchange risk insurance on exports of SMEs. The empirical evidence in the current study have a policy implication for the policy authority to support and promote the foreign exchange risk insurance in the effect of exchange rate volatility on Korea' export SMEs.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.1-36
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• 2021

Purpose - This empirical study, aims to identify the determinants of adoption and acceptance of mobile payment as to understand why it is successful in some countries in Sub-Saharan Africa but failing in others. A comparative study of a successful mobile payment service and a purported failed one was done as to have some insights to the factors affecting acceptance of the technology. Design/methodology/approach - The strength of three notable theories: theory of diffusion of innovation (DOI), the extended unified theory of user acceptance of information technology (UTAUT2) and self-efficacy theory were use. The self-efficacy of government support inclusion as, a moderating variable in the form of infrastructure, securing transaction and price value revealed the relevance of government in the success of mobile payment service. By means of a field survey of 705 subjects in two separate regions of Africa (East and West), the data was collected and use to test the research model. Findings - The study result shows the importance of the moderating factor of government support to the success of mobile payment of any nation. The result also shows the importance of the perception of relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, social influence as already revealed by other studies. Research implications or Originality - Mobile payment success in some part of Sub-Saharan Africa is well known but also suggested to fail in some Sub-Saharan African countries. Buttressing the need for understanding of the factors affecting mobile payment acceptance. This article empirically examined the factors influencing the success of mobile payment, and we implicated that if the implementation of mobile payment is to be successful for mobile commerce in any nation, adoption, acceptance and use by its citizen is imperative.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.37-51
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• 2023

Purposes: There exist many non-covered services that the National Health Insurance does not cover, and thus, their prices are set by individual health care providers. However, little study has been done to investigate how hospitals set prices for those services. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between ownership, profitability, and prices of those services for a sample of general hospitals. Methodology/Approach: Data regarding the prices of major non-covered services (e.g., upper-level hospital room fees, MRI, Da 7inci robot surgery, and LASIK) were obtained from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service and the financial information, as well as other characteristics, were derived from the financial reports from the Korea Health Industry Development Institute. Descriptive statistics, t-tests, and multiple linear regression analyses were used to test the relationship between the independent variables and the dependent variables. Findings: Hospitals owned by private universities appeared to have higher prices for non-covered services while regional public hospitals tend to have lower prices. Profitability, measured by operating margin, was not significantly related to the prices. Hospitals that charge higher prices were more likely to be located in the capital area (Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi), and to employ larger number of personnel. Practical Implications: Public hospitals tend to charge lower prices for non-covered services. Relative market power appears to be related to pricing. Further research is needed to investigate whether such a relationship varies over time and its effects on the quality and access.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.31-58
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• 2011

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects of real and monetary disturbances and economic interactions between two large countries, and to examine how wage indexation affects the transmission of real and monetary disturbances and affects the fiscal and monetary policies of a large country. A two large country model is built, and is theoretically analyzed. We conducted an empirical investigation to apply theoretical findings to the Japanese and US economic interactions in response to real and monetary disturbances originating in one or the other country. Empirical evidence on Japan-USA economic interactions shows that Japan is much more affected by the US economic policy than the USA is affected by the Japanese economic policy. The economic impacts of real and monetary disturbances on the Japanese and US economies are smaller when the Japanese and US wage indexing parameters are lower.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.73-92
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• 2021

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) account for a large proportion of the total number of enterprises in many countries. The development of SMEs has contributed to job creation and economic benefits. Every government has formulated active diversification strategies to promote the export market of SMEs, but the performance of export capabilities remains insufficient. The primary purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of export credit insurance in promoting SME export performance in Canada. Using data from 2008-2017, the augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) model to test the stationarity of the concerned variables and the error correction model (ECM) and autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) cointegration test to empirically investigate the cointegration relationship between the research targets. The results represent the positive and critical impact of export relative price and domestic demand pressure on Canada's export performance, and the negative impact of the export volume index at a significant level. Regrettably, the impact of export credit insurance on the export performance of Canadian SMEs is considered exaggerated overall. In view of this result, it is necessary for the Canadian government to enact policies based on the current market status. And enhance confidence among SMEs to begin exports and diversify their markets rather than focusing only on the domestic or US market, especially given the impact of COVID-19. From the case of Canada, Korean government can attempt to learn from them to conduct more efficient strategies for SMEs.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.111-125
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• 1990

For the last several years, considerable criticism has been leveled against Korea's exchange rate management. While Korea was designated a currency manipulator by the U.S., domestically it is often complained that the won/dollar rate did not adequately reflect changes in Korea's export competitiveness and fluctuations in the exchange rates of major currencies. In view of this situation, Korea changed its exchange regime at the beginning of March this year from the dual currency basket system to a more flexible one, called a "market average rate regime". Under this new regime, the won rate is determined in the exchange market based upon the supply of and demand for foreign exchange and is allowed to freely fluctuate each day within a + 0.4 % range. This paper, first, seeks to evaluate Korea's exchange rate management under the dual basket regime of the 1980s, and then to construct an optimal currency basket for the won which could provide a proper indicator for exchange market intervention under the new market average rate regime. The analysis of fluctuations in the real effective exchange rate (REER) of the won indicates that the won rates in the 1980s failed not only to offset changes in relative prices between home and trading partner countries, but also to properly respond to variations in major exchange rates as further evidenced by sizable fluctuations in the nominal effective rates of the won. In other words, the currency basket regime which was adopted in 1980 for the stabilization of the REER of the won has not been operated properly, mainly because authorities often resorted to policy considerations in determining the won's rate. In the second part of the paper, an optimal currency basket for Korea is constructed, designed to minimize the fluctuations in the REER of the won without including policy considerations as a factor. It is recognized, however, that both domestic and foreign price data are not available immediately for the calculation of the REER. For this problem, the approach suggested by Lipschitz (1980) is followed, in which optimal weights for currencies in the basket are determined based upon the past correlation between price and exchange rates. When the optimal basket is applied to Korea since the mid-80s, it is found that the REER of the won could have been much more stable than it actually was. We also argue for the use of variable weights rather than fixed ones, which would be determined by the changing relationship between exchange rates and relative prices. The optimal basket, and the optimal basket exchange rate based on that basket, could provide an important medium- or long-term reference for proper exchange market intervention under the market average rate regime, together with other factors, such as developments in the current account balance and changes in productivity.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.101-120
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• 1999

The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of agricultural polices on the change of regional structure based on the specialization during the productivism period. Analysis are carried on through the comparison of distribution in 1950s and 1997. Since the 1950s, governmental policy has played a leading role in shaping the pattern of farming in Great Britain. The range of British measures have also been employed in an attempt to improve the efficiency of agriculture and raise farm income. Three fairly distinct phase can be identified in the developing relationship between government policies and British agriculture in the postwar period. In the 1st phase, The Agricultural Act of 1947 laid the foundations for agricultural productivism in Great Britain until membership of the EC. This was to be achieved through the system of price support and guaranteed prices and the means of a series of grants and subsidies. Guaranteed prices encouraged farmenrs to intensify production and specialize in either cereal farming or milk-beef enterprise. The former favoured eastern areas, whereas the latter favoured western areas. Various grants and subsidies were made available to farmers during this period, again as a way of increasing efficiency and farm incomes. Many policies, such as Calf Subsidy and the Ploughing Grant, Hill cow and Hill Sheep Schemes and the Hill Farming and Livestock Rearing Grant was provided. Some of these policies favoured western uplands, whilst the others was biased towards the Lake District. Concentration of farms occured especially in near the London Metropolitan Area and south part of Scotland. In the 2nd stage after the membership of EC, very high guaranteed price created a relatively risk-free environment, so farmers intensified production and levels of self-sufficiency for most agriculture risen considerably. As farmers were being paid high prices for as much as they could produce, the policy favoured areas of larger-scale farming in eastern Britain. As a result of increasing regional disparities in agriculture, the CAP became more geographically sensitive in 1975 with the setting up of the Less Favoured Areas(LFAs). But they are biased towards the larger farms, because such farms have more crops and/or livestock, but small farms with low incomes are in most need of support. Specialization of cereals such wheat and barely was occured, but these two cereal crops have experienced rather different trend since 1950s. Under the CAP, farmers have been paid higher guaranteed prices for wheat than for barely because of the relative shortage of wheat in the EC. And more barely were cultivated as feedstuffs for livestock by home-grown cereals. In the 1950s dairying was already declining in what was to become the arable areas of southern and eastern England. By the mid-1980s, the pastral core had maintained its dominance, but the pastoral periphery had easily surpassed arable England as the second most important dairying district. Pig farming had become increasingly concentrated in intensive units in the main cereal areas of eastern England. These results show that the measure of agricultural policy induced the concentration and specialization implicitly. Measures for increasing demand, reducing supply or raising farm incomes are favoured by large scale farming. And price support induced specialization of farming. And technology for specialization are diffused and induced geographical specialization. This is the process of change of regional structure through the specialization.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.1-48
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• 2009

Recently we have found some symptoms that R&D fiscal incentives might not work well what it has intended through the analysis of current statistics of firm's R&D data. Firstly, we found that the growth rate of R&D investment in private sector during the recent decade has been slowdown. The average of growth rate (real value) of R&D investment is 7.1% from 1998 to 2005, while it was 13.9% from 1980 to 1997. Secondly, the relative share of R&D investment of SME has been decreased to 21%('05) from 29%('01), even though the tax credit for SME has been more beneficial than large size firm, Thirdly, The R&D expenditure of large size firms (besides 3 leading firms) has not been increased since late of 1990s. We need to find some evidence whether fiscal incentives are effective in increasing firm's R&D investment. To analyse econometric model we use firm level unbalanced panel data for 4 years (from 2002 to 2005) derived from MOST database compiled from the annual survey, "Report on the Survey of Research and Development in Science and Technology". Also we use fixed effect model (Hausman test results accept fixed effect model with 1% of significant level) and estimate the model for all firms, large firms and SME respectively. We have following results from the analysis of econometric model. For large firm: i ) R&D investment responds elastically (1.20) to sales volume. ii) government R&D subsidy induces R&D investment (0.03) not so effectively. iii) Tax price elasticity is almost unity (-0.99). iv) For large firm tax incentive is more effective than R&D subsidy For SME: i ) Sales volume increase R&D investment of SME (0.043) not so effectively. ii ) government R&D subsidy is crowding out R&D investment of SME not seriously (-0.0079) iii) Tax price elasticity is very inelastic (-0.054) To compare with other studies, Koga(2003) has a similar result of tax price elasticity for Japanese firm (-1.0036), Hall((l992) has a unit tax price elasticity, Bloom et al. (2002) has $-0.354{\sim}-0.124$ in the short run. From the results of our analysis we recommend that government R&D subsidy has to focus on such an areas like basic research and public sector (defense, energy, health etc.) not overlapped private R&D sector. For SME government has to focus on establishing R&D infrastructure. To promote tax incentive policy, we need to strengthen the tax incentive scheme for large size firm's R&D investment. We recommend tax credit for large size film be extended to total volume of R&D investment.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.89-111
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• 2008

Due to the development of digital technology, studies regarding smart wear integrating daily life have rapidly increased. However, consumer research about perception and attitude toward smart clothing hardly could find. The purpose of this study was to identify innovative characteristics and perceived risk of smart clothing and to analyze the influences of theses factors on product attitudes and intention to adopt. Specifically, five hypotheses were established. H1: Perceived attributes of smart clothing except for complexity would have positive relations to product attitude or purchase intention, while complexity would be opposite. H2: Product attitude would have positive relation to purchase intention. H3: Product attitude would have a mediating effect between perceived attributes and purchase intention. H4: Perceived risks of smart clothing would have negative relations to perceived attributes except for complexity, and positive relations to complexity. H5: Product attitude would have a mediating effect between perceived risks and purchase intention. A self-administered questionnaire was developed based on previous studies. After pretest, the data were collected during September, 2006, from university students in Korea who were relatively sensitive to innovative products. A total of 300 final useful questionnaire were analyzed by SPSS 13.0 program. About 60.3% were male with the mean age of 21.3 years old. About 59.3% reported that they were aware of smart clothing, but only 9 respondents purchased it. The mean of attitudes toward smart clothing and purchase intention was 2.96 (SD=.56) and 2.63 (SD=.65) respectively. Factor analysis using principal components with varimax rotation was conducted to identify perceived attribute and perceived risk dimensions. Perceived attributes of smart wear were categorized into relative advantage (including compatibility), observability (including triability), and complexity. Perceived risks were identified into physical/performance risk, social psychological risk, time loss risk, and economic risk. Regression analysis was conducted to test five hypotheses. Relative advantage and observability were significant predictors of product attitude (adj $R^2$=.223) and purchase intention (adj $R^2$=.221). Complexity showed negative influence on product attitude. Product attitude presented significant relation to purchase intention (adj $R^2$=.692) and partial mediating effect between perceived attributes and purchase intention (adj $R^2$=.698). Therefore hypothesis one to three were accepted. In order to test hypothesis four, four dimensions of perceived risk and demographic variables (age, gender, monthly household income, awareness of smart clothing, and purchase experience) were entered as independent variables in the regression models. Social psychological risk, economic risk, and gender (female) were significant to predict relative advantage (adj $R^2$=.276). When perceived observability was a dependent variable, social psychological risk, time loss risk, physical/performance risk, and age (younger) were significant in order (adj $R^2$=.144). However, physical/performance risk was positively related to observability. The more Koreans seemed to be observable of smart clothing, the more increased the probability of physical harm or performance problems received. Complexity was predicted by product awareness, social psychological risk, economic risk, and purchase experience in order (adj $R^2$=.114). Product awareness was negatively related to complexity, meaning high level of product awareness would reduce complexity of smart clothing. However, purchase experience presented positive relation with complexity. It appears that consumers can perceive high level of complexity when they are actually consuming smart clothing in real life. Risk variables were positively related with complexity. That is, in order to decrease complexity, it is also necessary to consider minimizing anxiety factors about social psychological wound or loss of money. Thus, hypothesis 4 was partially accepted. Finally, in testing hypothesis 5, social psychological risk and economic risk were significant predictors for product attitude (adj $R^2$=.122) and purchase intention (adj $R^2$=.099) respectively. When attitude variable was included with risk variables as independent variables in the regression model to predict purchase intention, only attitude variable was significant (adj $R^2$=.691). Thus attitude variable presented full mediating effect between perceived risks and purchase intention, and hypothesis 5 was accepted. Findings would provide guidelines for fashion and electronic businesses who aim to create and strengthen positive attitude toward smart clothing. Marketers need to consider not only functional feature of smart clothing, but also practical and aesthetic attributes, since appropriateness for social norm or self image would reduce uncertainty of psychological or social risk, which increase relative advantage of smart clothing. Actually social psychological risk was significantly associated to relative advantage. Economic risk is negatively associated with product attitudes as well as purchase intention, suggesting that smart-wear developers have to reflect on price ranges of potential adopters. It will be effective to utilize the findings associated with complexity when marketers in US plan communication strategy.