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- P-ISSN1738-3110
- E-ISSN2093-7717
- SCOPUS, ESCI
ISSN : 1738-3110
Vol.12 No.6
Abstract
Purpose - The purposes of this editorial review are twofold: firstly, to introduce the four flagship international journals of the Korea Distribution Science Association(KODISA): the Journal of Distribution Science(JDS), the Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business(JIDB), the East Asian Journal of Business Management(EAJBM), and the Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business(JAFEB), and secondly, to identify the direction of the KODISA journals and the roles and responsibilities of the editors of the KODISA journals. Research design, data, and methodology - To achieve the goals, firstly, this review paper addresses the current progress of the four KODISA journals: JDS, JIDB, EAJBM, and JAFEB. Secondly, this paper defines the aims and missions of the four KODISA journals. JDS publishes the articles of examining past, current, and emerging trends and concerns in the area of distribution science and economics, logistics and SCM, transportation, distribution channel management, distribution innovation and information technology, merchandising and procurement, distribution and marketing, consumer behavior, and manufacturing, wholesaling, and retailing. JDS publishes both quantitative and qualitative research as well as scholarly commentaries, case studies, book reviews and other types of reports relating to all aspects of distribution. JIDB publishes the articles of examining past, current, and emerging trends and concerns in the areas of industry and corporate behavior, industry policy making, industrial distribution and business, e-commerce, and service industry. EAJBM publishes empirical and theoretical research papers as well as scholarly commentaries, case studies, book reviews, and other types of reports relating to all aspects of East Asian business and economy. JAFEB publishes original research analysis and inquiry into the contemporary issues of finance, economics and business management in Asia, including Central Asia, East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Middle East. The mission of JAFEB is to bring together the latest theoretical and empirical finance, economics and business management research in Asian markets. The audiences of the KODISA journals include higher education institutions, scholars, industry researchers and practitioners, scientists, economists, and policy makers throughout the world. The main mission of the KODISA journals is to provide an intellectual platform for international scholars, promote interdisciplinary studies in social sciences and economics, and become leading journals in the social science and economics category in the world. Thirdly, this paper addresses the current status of indexing in major databases of the KODISA journals, namely: Cabell's Directories, EBSCO, SCOPUS (Elsevier), and Social Sciences Citation Index<sup>®</sup> (SSCI, Thomson Reuters). Fourthly, this paper identifies the roles and responsibilities of the editors of the KODISA journals as the following: (1) Make sure that the journal be published in a timely manner and in international standards both in print and online versions. (2) Maintain the online homepage of the journal is always accessible to, and (3) Make sure that every article should go through a peer review process that meets international standards. Findings and conclusion - To accomplish the goals and missions of the KODISA journals, the editors of the KODISA journals must work together to publish high scholarly journals that meet international standards of journal publications.
Abstract
Purpose - In general, researchers try to abide by the code of research ethics, but many of them are not fully aware of plagiarism, unintentionally committing the research misconduct when they write a research paper. This research aims to introduce researchers a clear and easy guideline at a conference, which helps researchers avoid accidental plagiarism by addressing the issue. This research is expected to contribute building a climate and encouraging creative research among scholars. Research design, data, methodology & Results - Plagiarism is considered a sort of research misconduct along with fabrication and falsification. It is defined as an improper usage of another author's ideas, language, process, or results without giving appropriate credit. Plagiarism has nothing to do with examining the truth or accessing value of research data, process, or results. Plagiarism is determined based on whether a research corresponds to widely-used research ethics, containing proper citations. Within academia, plagiarism goes beyond the legal boundary, encompassing any kind of intentional wrongful appropriation of a research, which was created by another researchers. In summary, the definition of plagiarism is to steal other people's creative idea, research model, hypotheses, methods, definition, variables, images, tables and graphs, and use them without reasonable attribution to their true sources. There are various types of plagiarism. Some people assort plagiarism into idea plagiarism, text plagiarism, mosaic plagiarism, and idea distortion. Others view that plagiarism includes uncredited usage of another person's work without appropriate citations, self-plagiarism (using a part of a researcher's own previous research without proper citations), duplicate publication (publishing a researcher's own previous work with a different title), unethical citation (using quoted parts of another person's research without proper citations as if the parts are being cited by the current author). When an author wants to cite a part that was previously drawn from another source the author is supposed to reveal that the part is re-cited. If it is hard to state all the sources the author is allowed to mention the original source only. Today, various disciplines are developing their own measures to address these plagiarism issues, especially duplicate publications, by requiring researchers to clearly reveal true sources when they refer to any other research. Conclusions - Research misconducts including plagiarism have broad and unclear boundaries which allow ambiguous definitions and diverse interpretations. It seems difficult for researchers to have clear understandings of ways to avoid plagiarism and how to cite other's works properly. However, if guidelines are developed to detect and avoid plagiarism considering characteristics of each discipline (For example, social science and natural sciences might be able to have different standards on plagiarism.) and shared among researchers they will likely have a consensus and understanding regarding the issue. Particularly, since duplicate publications has frequently appeared more than plagiarism, academic institutions will need to provide pre-warning and screening in evaluation processes in order to reduce mistakes of researchers and to prevent duplicate publications. What is critical for researchers is to clearly reveal the true sources based on the common citation rules and to only borrow necessary amounts of others' research.
Abstract
Purpose - This research undertakes to understand the competitiveness of the steel distribution industry of both Korea and China to strengthen Korea-Sino economic cooperation, examines impediments to trade between the two countries to analyze causes which affect trade, and examines improvements in these areas to identify means of trade expansion. Through this survey of a defined period, we can identify the structural factors of trade dependence in the relationship between Korea and China. Research design, data, and methodology - The data were collected from the Korea Traders Association, the Korea Customs Office, and UN Comtrade, from which whole table indexes are calculated. The research methodology uses trade-related indexes to focus on analyzing comparative advantages based on time-series analysis statistics data (2000-2012) by using the analysis index of trade intensity index (TII), the revealed comparative advantage index (RCA), and the trade specialization index (TSI). Results - The export ratio for Korea to China was slightly higher in 2000 at 2.867, and the export ratio for Korea to China was sustained in 2005. However, it diminished gradually, reaching 1.263 in 2012. During the period 2000-2012, the indexes were maintained without any significant change. However, they still remain close to -1. In particular, in 2012 it is the closest it has ever been to -1. Therefore, China has a comparative advantage in export specialization. On the other hand, Korea has a comparative advantage in import specialization. For the research period, all indexes were much lower than 1, which means that Korea has consistently had a comparative disadvantage against China for the past 10 years when compared to other industries, even though it experienced improvement in 2000. Conclusions - The summary of conclusions based on empirical analysis research are as follows: First, per the trade intensity index of industries between the two countries, we conclude that the export ratio index in 2000 is 2.867, which means the export ratio of Korea to China is slightly higher. Furthermore, the ratios of 2.259 and 1.263 held in 2005 and 2012, respectively, meaning that the export ratio of Korea to China was maintained in 2005, but was diminishing gradually as the index in 2012 was 1.263. Second, per the trade specialization index of the steel distribution industry between Korea and China, the value was -0.379 in 2000, -0.368 in 2005 and -0.568 in 2012. Looking at the whole period of 2000-2012, the indexes remained without any significant change. However, they are still moving closer to -1. In particular, in 2012 it is the closest it has ever been to -1. Third, regarding the revealed comparative advantage index of the steel distribution industry between Korea and China, the RCA indexes in 2005 and 2012 are 0.246 and 0.306, respectively, which are still far from 1, even though the index has improved compared to the 2000's value of 0.0001. Therefore, the Korean steel distribution industry is at a significant comparative disadvantage to that of the Chinese steel distribution industry.
Abstract
Purpose - Environmental issues, climatic changes, and greenhouse gases are problems to be solved at a global level. With an increased emphasis on the environmental and social responsibility of the management of companies, the manner in which companies approach quality-oriented culture and their individual sustainability management are being discussed as truly important issues to help them secure their competitiveness and growth strategies. This study proposes strategic directions to help manufacturers not only in expanding their competitive quality-oriented company culture but also in strengthening their sustainability management abilities. This study conducts a literature review and empirical research to examine how significantly the variables of a quality-oriented company culture, customer-centered management, and process-centered and supply chain management-centered cooperation affect sustainability management performance in relation to economic profitability, environmental integrity, and social responsibility. Research design, data, and methodology - To verify research models and hypotheses, the study examined 170 companies using a questionnaire survey conducted over six weeks, and involved the performance of data analysis on 146 samples. Questionnaire responses were calibrated based on a Likert scale. The study used the Smart PLS 2.0 program designed for PLS (partial least squares), an analysis instrument of SEM (structural equation modeling). The study then verified empirical research hypotheses working on reliability analysis, validity analysis, factorial analysis, and path analysis. Results - Among the nine hypotheses, four are accepted and the rest are rejected. A quality-oriented company culture focusing on customer-centered management significantly influenced the maintainability management performance of environmental integrity and social responsibility, while economic profitability was dismissed. A process-focused quality-oriented company culture was significantly concerned with economic profitability but not with environmental integrity or social responsibility. A supply-chain cooperative company culture had a significant effect on economic profitability but not on environmental integrity or social responsibility. Conclusion - This study proposes strategic directions to help manufacturers expand their competitive quality-oriented company culture as well as strengthen abilities with sustainability management. It conducts a literature review and empirical research to examine how significantly the variables of quality-oriented company culture, customer-centered management, and process-centered and supply chain management-centered cooperation affect sustainability management performance in relation to economic profitability, environmental integrity, and social responsibility. There are two main conclusions. First, companies should consider the need for social responsibility management and environmental transparent management-focused maintainability management as avenues to create new markets and business, thereby helping the companies secure a reputation for having a customer and process-centered quality-oriented company culture by creating shared values between supply chains and enabling win-win situations through cooperation. Second, we are marching towards a creative win-win era from a society of conflicts and ruptures. Companies should understand that social responsibility management and supply chain management (SCM)-focused cooperation are the foundations of sustainable development, as they try to improve their culture while pursuing both win-win relationships with interested parties and equity in various conflictive relations.
Abstract
Purpose - This study aims to investigate a solution to reduce the negative reactions arising from the performance of duties or the job distress of workers in the service industry, because human resource statistics regarding workers in the service sector have been unreported, while concerns regarding exposure to emotional exertion and poor working conditions have been continuously increasing. Research design, data, and methodology - This study specifically focused on workers in highway service areas. It differs from previous studies because it involves the perspective of the person-organization fit and regards workers' cognition of leaders through the psychological distance toward the leader and the contact frequency between workers and leaders within the framework of the leader-individual fit. Moreover, this study highlights the role of the self-leadership of workers as an important factor that becomes manifested in the individual-level fit to the organization. Hence, this study investigates whether the positive role of the above factors, in turn, could reduce job distress. Workers from highway service areas in Gyeonggi-do province provided data; 141 valid questionnaires are collected. SPSS 19.0 and AMOS 19.0 were used to test the reliability and validity of constructs. Simple regression, multiple regression, and 3 step mediation tests were used to test the hypotheses after the correlation tests. Results - Results indicated that leader-member contact frequency and psychological distance have negative effects on job distress but positive effects on self-leadership. A mediation test revealed that self-leadership, in the relationships between contact frequency and job distress and between psychological distance and job distress, resulted in partial mediation and full mediation, respectively. Conclusions - The result can be understood through two different possible explanations. First, service area workers generally possess a positive perspective toward their leaders. This can be interpreted to mean that increased contact frequency and psychological distance would be considered as supports from the leader, rather than intrusive controls or management schemes. Therefore, the management in highway service areas should invest efforts in increasing contact frequency as well as maximizing psychological similarities by adopting the viewpoints of workers in terms of moral and ethical management, to reduce the workers' job distress. The results relating to self-leadership also indicate that increased contact frequency must be accompanied by intentions for the effective promotion of workers' self-leadership. It also signifies the necessity of a strategic approach by leaders to induce workers to perceive "in-group"ness as suggested both by the similarity-attraction theory and by the social identity theory. In addition, the results of the mediation test of self-leadership indicate that because workers' self-leadership activates upon increased contact frequency by the leader, it should not be a means of control and should not be utilized only from the perspective of management. It is also suggested that strategies such as transfer of authority could have a positive effect in promoting the expansion of self-influence from workers.
Abstract
Purpose - The world now recognizes environmental disruption as a serious issue when regarding growth-oriented strategies; therefore, environmental preservation issues become pertinent. Consequently, green distribution is continuously emphasized. However, studying the prediction and association of distribution and the environment is insufficient. Most existing studies about green distribution are about its necessity, detailed operation methods, and political suggestions; it is necessary to study the distribution service industry and environmental service industry together, for green distribution. Research design, data, and methodology - ARIMA (auto-regressive moving average model) was used to predict the environmental service and distribution service industries, and the Granger Causality Test based on VAR (vector auto regressive) was used to analyze the causal relationship. This study used 48 quarters of time-series data, from the 4th quarter in 2001 to the 3rd quarter in 2013, about each business type's production index, and used an unchangeable index. The production index about the business type is classified into the current index and the unchangeable index. The unchangeable index divides the current index into deflators to remove fluctuation. Therefore, it is easy to analyze the actual production index. This study used the unchangeable index. Results - The production index of the distribution service industry and the production index of the environmental service industry consider the autocorrelation coefficient and partial autocorrelation coefficient; therefore, ARIMA(0,0,2)(0,1,1)4 and ARIMA(3,1,0)(0,1,1)4 were established as final prediction models, resulting in the gradual improvement in every production index of both types of business. Regarding the distribution service industry's production index, it is predicted that the 4th quarter in 2014 is 114.35, and the 4th quarter in 2015 is 123.48. Moreover, regarding the environmental service industry's production index, it is predicted that the 4th quarter in 2014 is 110.95, and the 4th quarter in 2015 is 111.67. In a causal relationship analysis, the environmental service industry impacts the distribution service industry, but the distribution service industry does not impact the environmental service industry. Conclusions - This study predicted the distribution service industry and environmental service industry with the ARIMA model, and examined the causal relationship between them through the Granger causality test based on the VAR Model. Prediction reveals the seasonality and gradual increase in the two industries. Moreover, the environmental service industry impacts the distribution service industry, but the distribution service industry does not impact the environmental service industry. This study contributed academically by offering base line data needed in the establishment of a future style of management and policy directions for the two industries through the prediction of the distribution service industry and the environmental service industry, and tested a causal relationship between them, which is insufficient in existing studies. The limitations of this study are that deeper considerations of advanced studies are deficient, and the effect of causality between the two types of industries on the actual industry was not established.
Abstract
Purpose - The competitiveness of logistics in the 21st century rests on ensuring the efficiency and effectiveness of its local hub. While considering entry into a niche market in local logistics, it is pertinent to note that Budapest is emerging as a hub in EU enlargement in Eastern Europe. Big, small, and medium-sized businesses in Korea entered Hungary in the early 1990s since then, there has been a significant increase in Korean presence, of approximately 130 times. This study aimed to identify the key distribution issues that have emerged in relation to Eastern Europe. Research design, data, and methodology - This study indicates that 33 major Korean companies were located in Hungary, which serves as an out post to enter the European marketplace. However, Korea's exports to Hungary have declined (-32.0% in 2012) because of a loss of competitiveness against multinational corporations, due to factors such as the rise in current local distribution costs and wages. Hungary, on the other hand, through diversification and expansion of foreign trade with the non-EU markets, including Korea, is increasing its exports. Strategies of emerging countries are compared and reviewed in this study, by examining the vicissitudes of Hungary's distribution methods. Results - There are issues regarding Hungary's innovative ability. Hungary has a history of low wages and high skilled labor. However, the outflow of high-quality human resources for high-wages has become more extensive, and this underlines concerns that the CEE's trade hub is moving to neighboring countries. After the European financial crisis in 2010, the Hungarian economy is now developing, because of the IMF's measures, and it is being transformed into a trade surplus nation, while regaining distribution volumes rapidly. However, if there is continued lack of investment, the supply chain is weakened and exports decline amidst competition with TNCs or with China's distribution networks. Conclusions - It is necessary to create a new logistics approach for increasing trade between Korea and Hungary. First, Korean small and medium enterprises (SMEs) should build trust by working with advanced Hungarian talent, and they should expand into state-of-the-art fields instead of being confined to traditional sectors. Second, this study focuses on limiting and lowering their high expectations for success according to foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows and the role in the CEE distribution hub Korea should try to strengthen the distribution hub with its centralized population, using better, more highly educated human resources, thereby sustaining more innovative ability. Further, the positive effects of these measures are manifested in enhanced business on both sides of Hungary, namely, the EU and non-EU nations such as Turkey and emerging markets around Europe, and a better engagement in the core placement of culture and industry. For this, Korea can contribute to, and benefit from, a Hungarian logistics center, for adopting the high-tech cluster systems and commercializing distribution technology such as RFID·USN.
Abstract
Purpose - This study aims to accomplish three major research goals. First, it strives to change consumers' focus from peripheral routes to a central route of public service advertising related to the good health policy, without problematic effects, by influencing consumers' knowledge or involvement. Second, this study examines the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) and construal level theory (CLT). Specifically, we consider that the central route of ELM might correspond with the focal goal of CLT. Third, this study analyzes ELM through CLT. That is, ELM predicted that low involvement would take the peripheral route, and high involvement would take the central route. Research design, data, and methodology - This study consisted of three experiments. The first experiment had a 2×2 between-subject design. The subjects were university students and the research period was approximately one year. The first independent variable was the involvement of the overweight issue; this variable was measured and split by the median. The second independent variable was the temporal distance (near vs. distant future); this variable was manipulated. The second experiment also had a 2×2 between-subject design. The first variable was the involvement of cervical adenocarcinoma prevention, and was considered already manipulated by sex. Specifically, males had a low involvement of the disease, but females had high involvement. The second independent variable was priming (power vs. submissive). Power priming would induce abstract thinking, but submissive priming would take concrete processing. The third experiment had a 2×2×2 between-subject design. The first variable was cognitive depletion, and was manipulated by memorizing 9-digit numbers. The second and third independent variables were involvement and abstract thinking induction, such as prior experiments. Data were collected through questionnaires, and were analyzed by an SPSS program. Major hypotheses were tested by examining the interaction effects through ANOVA. Results - Major findings are as follows. First, even for low-involved consumers in the overweight category, distant future manipulation induced them to focus not on the peripheral route but on the central route of the public service advertisement. This result does not correspond to the typical ELM prediction. Second, under power priming, low-involved males of the cervical adenocarcinoma category focused on the peripheral route because of the induction to abstract thinking. This result replicated the first experiment, and confirmed the theoretical robustness. Third, high-involved females focused not on the central but on the peripheral route under the mixed condition of cognitive depletion and near future manipulation. Depletion consumed cognitive resources, and the processing mode of consumers changed from systematic to heuristic. Conclusions - ELM needs to be complemented through CLT in context of public service good health advertising. Specifically, the involvement of ELM may impact consumers' thinking mode (abstract vs. concrete), and the interaction effects may influence consumers' focus on advertising (central vs. peripheral route). This study's limitations were bounded subjects, limited stimuli, and somewhat weak external validity.
Abstract
Purpose - Entrepreneurship promotion is emerging as an important economic growth agenda. However, in Korea, entrepreneurship has weakened because of the collapse of the venture bubbles of the 2000s and the global economic recession in 2008, which have induced the business community to choose stability over risk. The Korean government has been implementing several support projects to inspire and promote youth entrepreneurship through various means including financial assistance; however, the perpetuation rate of young entrepreneurship is still low as compared to advanced economies such as the US and EU. This case study focuses on the Youth Start-Up Business Support Program of the Small & Medium Business Corporation, and explores practical alternatives. Further, it aims to suggest managerial factors and a conceptual model for change management factors affecting the business performance creation of a startup company, based on the Small and medium Business Corporation's young venture startup fund. Research design, data, and methodology - Many studies examine the current progress and issues of startup firms, for example, a lack of systematic cultivation of entrepreneurship and startup business training, lack of commercialization funding for youth startup businesses, lack of mentoring, and inadequate infrastructure. From prior research, we address four factors, namely, personal managerial capabilities, innovative business model, sufficient cash flow, and social network, affecting startup companies' business performance. This study involved a sample survey of 200 young entrepreneurs to investigate casual relations between the four factors and business performance. A regression analysis was used to verify the hypotheses. Results - First, in relation to differences in the founder's personal characteristics, age, sales amount, and number of employees significantly impact business performance. Second, regarding the causal relation between the four factors for creating business performance, an innovative business model and social networking have supported the hypotheses, revealing that the more that a start-up founder has an innovative business model and social networking, the more the start-up firms are likely to have better performance (e.g., sales volume, employment, ROE, ROI, etc.). Although the founder's competency and sufficient cash flow have no significant relationship with business performance, the mean value was higher performance for high founder's competency and sufficient cash flow. Conclusions - This study provides basic data on policy support strategies of the Small and Medium Business Corporation, to help young entrepreneurs achieve their start-up business goals. It shows that young entrepreneurship startup firms should strive to explore ideas to satisfy customers' needs, and that changes in customer value and the continuous innovation of business model differentiation are required to actively respond to change management. Moreover, at the infant startup stage, they should activate social network programs to share information, thereby offsetting resource scarcity and managing business risk. Further, the establishment of a long-term vision and the implementation of training programs in related specific fields should be supported to strengthen founders' personal capabilities.