• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.1682-1694
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• 2007

There are a lot of factors working to facilitate the decline of Korea's traditional markets including large-scale discount stores, convenience stores, businesses of new types such as non-store retailing, and fiercer competitions among retail shops. The changes to the business environment are never favorable to them, either; the consumers have developed more diverse tastes and altered their purchasing styles; and the trading areas around traditional markets have withdrawn in size and power as new towns attract more businesses. In a word, every factor and situation seems to push traditional markets down the slope. Reacting to the problems, the Korean government enacted and enforced the "Special Law for the Promotion of Traditional Markets and Shopping Streets" to provide proper financial and management support. The shop owners of traditional markets formed merchants and prosperity associations and took various initiatives to increase the competitive edge of their traditional markets. All those efforts on the part of the government and the merchants, however, do not seem to be enough to revive traditional markets. This study set out to compare and analyze the management of shop owners of traditional markets based on the support projects by the government, to conduct an empirical research and analysis of their management conditions, and to suggest a better policy model by making improvements for the government's support system and making revisions to the current directions.