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- P-ISSN1738-3110
- E-ISSN2093-7717
- SCOPUS, ESCI
ISSN : 1738-3110
Vol.13 No.8
Abstract
Purpose - This study undertakes to examine the automotive trade structure between Korea and Russia to accelerate economic cooperation and pinpoint trade discrepancies to increase trade volume through improved policies, eventually finding ways for trade expansion. Research design, data, and methodology - To analyze trade decision factors for both countries, the Index of trade specialization invented by trade specialization theory, is used. Although specific factors should materialize in the trade decision analysis, realistically, concrete explanations are difficult as many unsolved factors are involved as well as their complexities Results - First, to assess comparative market competitiveness, the Index describes A value/B value, representing the Korean versus the Russia market share and the Korean market share versus the world. Second, the index shows that Korea is taking comparative advantage of its export specialization. Third, the RCA indices show considerable improvement compared to 2000. Conclusions - This research used a quantitative approach to examine trade specialization and examined a comparative advantage index of market share to see how inter-trade relations have changed over the past 10 years.
Abstract
Purpose - There is a lack of research on how much corporate control is sufficient for effective subsidiary business-related decision making. To address this research gap, this study analyzes the impact of the level of control of a Korean corporation's headquarters on its overseas subsidiary performance. Research design, data, methodology - The study's sample comes from the Overseas Korean Business Directory of KOTRA. A multiple regression analysis empirically confirmed the relationship between the headquarters level of control over the subsidiaries and their performance. Results - The results show that the greater an organization's headquarters control over strategic issues, the greater the subsidiary's non-financial performance. However, quick decision-making through decentralization promotes the rapid selection of successful new products that can provide a competitive advantage. Conclusion - This study shows that the impact of control levels on subsidiary performance depends on the type of control involved. Specifically, while low levels of control over operational issues had a positive (+) influence on subsidiary non-financial performance, high control levels led to improved non-financial performance with regard to strategic issues among the subsidiaries.
Abstract
Purpose - Total Quality Management (TQM) has received significant attention and interest from a large number of organizations around the world in various industries. These organizations have tried to embody TQM concepts in areas such as engineering and product design, marketing, R&D, procurement, production, personnel, and product inspection. Research design, data, and methodology - This study presents an overview of the fundamentals of TQM and an in depth review of the obstacles to the successful implementation of TQM. Results - In order to control the cost of manufacturing, the tracking of the cost of quality (COQ) allows companies to capture the actual overall cost incurred in producing a unit of product or service. The study explores the reasons why companies track the COQ and ways to address it. Conclusions - Based on the results, COQ is one of the key performance indicators for making more accurate strategic decisions as well as a critical aspect of TQM. The study also presents a few popular quality improvement tools that have been widely used in organizations successfully implementing TQM.
Abstract
Purpose - This study's objective is to confirm the effects of the perceived relationship value, alternative attractiveness, and investment size on Korean food service franchisees' commitment, using an investment model. Among the three factors, the study examines which factors enhance or weaken the commitment in the franchising investment model. Research design, data, methodology - The data were collected from 495 franchisees and analyzed by a SEM (Structure Equation Model) using path analysis by SPSS 18.0 and AMOS 18.0. Results - 1) The perceived relationship value has a positive effect on franchisee commitment. 2) The alternative attractiveness has a negative effect on franchisee commitment. 3) The investment size has a positive effect on franchisee commitment. Conclusions - The findings show that the investment model can be adapted to franchising and confirms previous investment model study results. We can assume that the higher the perceived relationship value and the bigger the investment, the stronger the commitment, and the greater the alternative attractiveness, the weaker the commitment. These results offer managerial implications for a franchisor wanting to strengthen franchisee commitment.
Abstract
Purpose - This purpose of this research is to verify the influence of the care workers' environment on their job satisfaction and on their voluntary behavior. Research design, data, and methodology - Data were collected from care workers at elderly medical and home care facilities in Korea in Seoul and Kyung-ki. Of 367 total respondents, 285 responses were used. This study performed exploratory factor analysis in order to verify the validity and credibility of the data. Regression analysis was conducted to verify the influence of the working environment, which encompasses the worker's relationship with the agency and with the elderly, on job satisfaction. Results - The hypothesis results were: First, from analyzing the influence of the working environment on the worker's job satisfaction, both relationship with the agency (p<.001) and relationship with the elderly (p<.05) positively affect job satisfaction; second, the exploratory analysis verifies the influence or the working environment on job satisfaction. Conclusions - The results indicate that the relationship with the agency (p<.001) and relationship with the elderly (p<.001) both positively affect the voluntary behavior of the workers.
Abstract
Purpose - Before the year 2000, the housing prices in Korea were increasing every decade. After 2000, for the first time, Korea experienced a decrease in housing prices, and the repetitive cycle of price fluctuation started. Such a "boom and bust cycle" is a worldwide phenomenon. The current study proposes a mathematical model to explain price fluctuation cycles based on the theory of consumer psychology. Specifically, the model incorporates the effects of buyer expectations of future prices on actual price changes. Based on the model, this study investigates various independent variables affecting the amplitude of price fluctuations in housing markets. Research design, data, and methodology - The study provides theoretical analyses based on a mathematical model. The proposed model uses the following assumptions of the pricing mechanism in housing markets. First, the price of a house at a certain time is affected not only by its current price but also by its expected future price. Second, house investors or buyers cannot predict the exact future price but make a subjective prediction based on observed price changes up to the present. Third, the price is determined by demand changes made in previous time periods. The current study tries to explain the boom-bust cycle in housing markets with a mathematical model and several numerical examples. The model illustrates the effects of consumer price elasticity, consumer sensitivity to price changes, and the sensitivity of prices to demand changes on price fluctuation. Results - The analytical results imply that even without external effects, the boom-bust cycle can occur endogenously due to buyer psychological factors. The model supports the expectation of future price direction as the most important variable causing price fluctuation in housing market. Consumer tendency for making choices based on both the current and expected future price causes repetitive boom-bust cycles in housing markets. Such consumers who respond more sensitively to price changes are shown to make the market more volatile. Consumer price elasticity is shown to be irrelevant to price fluctuations. Conclusions - The mechanism of price fluctuation in the proposed model can be summarized as follows. If a certain external shock causes an initial price increase, consumers perceive it as an ongoing increasing price trend. If the demand increases due to the higher expected price, the price goes up further. However, too high a price cannot be sustained for long, thus the increasing price trend ceases at some point. Once the market loses the momentum of a price increase, the price starts to drop. A price decrease signals a further decrease in a future price, thus the demand decreases further. When the price is perceived as low enough, the direction of the price change is reversed again. Policy makers should be cognizant that the current increase in housing prices due to increased liquidity can pose a serious threat of a sudden price decrease in housing markets.
Abstract
Purpose - This study's objective is to analyze the content of the communications between users and producers based on the construal level theory. User generated content refers to content created in an online-based service where users and producers communicate interactively with each other. In a user generated content platform, the messages sent and received between the many players, the users and producers who use the content, may be analyzed at the psychological level based on construal level theory. Research design, data, and methodology - This study gathered user and producer participation through a snow-bowling sampling method. The data analyzed includes 125 video clips and 2,912 comments. The period of the data collection was from September 2014 to December 2014. The collected data was analyzed using a t-test and two-way ANOVA. Results - This study obtained the following research results. First, users who were a short social distance from producers responded to user participatory activities stated in concrete language rather than abstract language. In contrast, users who were at a longer social distance from producers tended to respond to the content requesting user participation through abstract language. Second, if users and producers were at a short social distance from each other, user preference increased more when a producer response to user participation was expressed concretely rather than when it was expressed abstractly. In contrast, if the users were at a longer social distance, users' preferences increased more when producer response was expressed abstractly rather than when it was expressed concretely. Conclusion - This study found that the effect of suitability, in which the social distance and the content were in congruence at the construal level, could be observed. Therefore, based on this, academic and practical implications were drawn. The three main insights of the study are as follows. First, firms can use psychological factors to analyze the message content of users in their distribution platforms. This study reveals managerial implications for marketing managers who want to take make use of this analysis of user and producer communications. This study indicates that the main factors include the concrete and abstract scores and social distance between users and producers. Second, we also provide the strategic guidelines to maximizing user preferences and other outcomes. The main dependent variable in this study is the user preference shift; the variable increases through the congruence effect; and the construal level is determined by the social distance between the users and producers and the type of producer response. The outcomes here from users can be utilized to develop several systemic strategies. One process to use the outcomes could be: (1) firms could measure the users and producers social distance; (2) calculate the concreteness or abstractness of the messages; and, (3) predict the user preference outcomes by the congruence between user and producer social distance and the abstractness or concreteness of the message content.
Abstract
Purpose - To vitalize a market or develop a new one, companies frequently release new products into the market, often by shortening the time to market, called the release period. This research aims to investigate the purchase intention behavior of consumers in terms of buying new products at the time of product release based on the release speed. Research Design, Data, and Methodology - The research reviews the influence of relative advantage, complexity, and compatibility among innovative attributes of new products, as proposed by Rogers. Moreover, it examines the moderating effect of the innovative new product attributes in terms of speed of obsolescence of old products and how that influences consumer purchase behavior. Additionally, this study tests the research hypotheses using empirical analysis. Results - The analysis demonstrated that the relative predominance (H1) and suitability (H3) of new products had a statistically significant positive influence on new product purchase intention. However, the complexity (H2) of new products had a statistically significant positive influence on new product purchase intention in contrast to its predicted sign (-). The results of the moderating effect of the old product use period were as follows. H4-1 was not supported since the difference between the path coefficients of the group with the low level old product use period and the group with the high level, represented by the relationship of relative predominance and new product purchase intention, was not statistically significant. H5-1 was also not supported since the difference between the path coefficients of the group with the low level of old product use period and the group with the high level, represented by the relationship of complexity and new product purchase intention, was not statistically significant. However, H4-2 was supported since the difference between the path coefficients of the group with the low level of old product use frequency and the group with the high level, represented by the relationship of relative advantage and new product purchase intention was statistically significant. H5-2 was not supported since the difference between the path coefficients of the group with the low level of old product use frequency and the group with the high level, represented by the relationship of complexity and new product purchase intention, was not statistically significant. H6-2 was also not supported since the difference between the path coefficients of the group with the low level of old product use frequency and the group with the high level, represented by the relationship of compatibility and new product purchase intention, was not statistically significant. Conclusion - According to the results, only H4-2 among the hypotheses on the moderating effect of the old product use period and use frequency was statistically significant. Future research should focus on carrying out a detailed review of the hypothesis on the moderating effect of the old product usage period and frequency, find the cause, and connect this to potential new research.
Abstract
Purpose - This study reviews the delivery of child welfare service quality and examines how the dimensions of the variables of customer satisfaction impact the results from a service distribution perspective. This study differs from existing research since it proposes that a recognized level of child welfare service quality is necessary to achieve customer satisfaction from the perspective of service distribution. Research design, data, and methodology - This study explores child welfare service quality factors that affect customer satisfaction. The study examines and analyzes demographic variables, service quality dimensions, and the causal relationships between child welfare service quality and customer satisfaction. Data from 300 child welfare cases were collected from organizations in Korea in the areas of Busan and Gyeongsangnamdo. The methods of analysis are as follow. First, using descriptive analysis frequency, the percentages were evaluated to assess the demographic variables. Second, Cronbach's α was used to test reliability and to evaluate the internal consistency of the measuring of items. Third, multiple regression analysis was conducted to find out how much the independent variable can affect customer satisfaction. Results - Five factors of child welfare service quality were identified in three categories: process quality (assurance, empathy), results quality (reliability, caring), and physical environment quality (tangibles). There were significant differences among the effects of the child welfare service quality factors on customer satisfaction. A multiple regression analysis was done with process quality (assurance, empathy), results quality (reliability, caring) and physical environment quality (tangibles) to test the hypothesis: assurance (t=2.434, p<0.05), empathy (t=3.677, p<0.001), reliability (t=3.271, p<0.05), caring (t=4.380, p<0.000), and tangibles (t=3.654, p<0.01) had a positive influence on child welfare service quality from a service distribution perspective. Therefore, hypotheses 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 were supported. In addition, multiple regression analysis on the effects of the variables showed that caring (β=0.273), empathy (β=0.246), tangibles (β=0.265), reliability (β=0.152), and assurance (β=0.131) all had a positive and strong influence on child welfare service quality from a service distribution perspective. Therefore, all child welfare service quality categories (process, results and physical environment quality) were positively statistically significant. Conclusion - In this study, the main findings can be summarized as follows. First, the quality of service of child welfare consists of three dimensions of quality: process quality, results quality, and physical environment quality. The results of the multiple regression analysis also showed that caring and reliability were confirmed as more meaningful variables by the increasing loading factors. Second, the family members involved in child welfare proposed caring as the most important variable among the dimensions of service quality. Third, the results of the hypothesis testing using regression showed that all child welfare service quality factors had a positive impact on customer satisfaction. The results of the study could provide useful information to help increase the effectiveness of delivery strategies for child welfare service quality from a service distribution perspective.
Abstract
Purpose - This study examines the positive impact of the social distance between producers and users of online content, investigating and analyzing the most popular Web content. In addition, it tries to elicit the matching effect that appears when the individuals'cultural background is consistent with social distance. Research design, data, and methodology - We collected and analyzed actual data about 4,981 videos clips on YouTube, looking at six countries in order to verify the content of this study. Based on the results of the data analysis, the study conducted behavioral measurements on popularity, social distance, culture, and user engagement. The unit of analysis was the content and we collected information about the content producers and the content records. We controlled the views, comments, likes, calendar dates, and ages in the empirical models. The data was collected in 2011, with the records coming from South Korea, Japan, China, U.S., German, and France. A total of 4,980 elements were analyzed in the model. The empirical model estimated is the bivariate negative binomial distribution (NBD) model. Results - It turns out that there is a possibility that the matching effect can be diminished by variables that reflect the psychological involvement of user engagement. This study proposes academic and practical implications based on these research results. This research shows the positive effect of social distance between users and producers on the increased performance of the online content. We find the effect of social distance to be a stronger tendency in collectivism. The collectivists follow their sense of friendship and intimacy in their culture and, the social congruence effect can be found there as well. The effect, however, could erode in a social case where users are motivated by strong intrinsic and psychological factors. In addition, user engagement complicates the process of user decision making regarding the information. Conclusions - This study examines how the differential effects of social distance caused by culture could disappear through user commitment as a complicated user motivation. Some potential implications are as follows. First, a firm in the collectivism culture has to communicate based on the social distance. In fact, most online channels do not have a function that indicates the social distance as measured by favorites or subscribers. This function could help increase the performance of the content in online channels, but this increasing effect can only be found in a collectivist culture. Based on this, the firms have to communicate and announce to users the actual social distance between users and producers. Second, firms should develop a system that discovers the social distance and culture and shows these measures to users and producers, since the congruence effect between social distance and culture is found only for low user engagement. The firms can take the advantage of the congruence effect only for the development of the social distance and culture visualized system.