Korean Economic Developments and Prospects

South Korea's economic success is well-documented. It shows that a country can leap from being one of the poorest in the world to one of the richest (an OECD member) in just one generation. This paper first reviews the broad literature, both in English and Korean, on Korean economic developments and the major contributing factors over the last 33 years (1963–95). It then attempts to shed some light on the prospects for the Korean economy. Major contributing factors for Korea's rapid economic development include a high accumulation of physical and human capital, a high saving rate, an export-led development strategy, state intervention in the economy, efficient management and conducive culture. The prospects of the Korean economy appear bright but it would be difficult for other developing countries to emulate the Korean model.     

Software to support business teams

Organizations are increasingly using the business team concept to gain competitive advantage. Collaboration support software is gaining acceptance as a viable tool among both researchers and practitioners, and an opportunity exists to investigate the specific needs of teams: users working in longitudinal time frames on a variety of tasks. In this article, team software requirements are first derived from a theoretical perspective: office automation and task literature are used to identify a set of domain-independent individual tasks. Group process literature is then used to develop a set of collaborative tasks composed of these individual task components. These individual and collaborative tasks are aggregated with team task and communication support requirements to develop requirements for an integrated software environment that effectively supports business teams. Design considerations for a comprehensive team support system are outlined, a prototype implementation is described, and project contributions and key future research considerations are summarized.     

Economic and policy implications of spectrum license fee payment methods

This paper argues that “Do auctions raise consumer prices?” is a misleading question. License fee payment methods, rather than spectrum assignment methods, are key factors that bring forth different market outcomes in the wireless telecommunication industry. This paper analyzes and discusses the effects of three spectrum license fee payment methods—upfront lump-sum fees, royalties, and profit sharing—on economic efficiency, spectrum supply, and government revenue. Royalties create distortions in product and factor markets but can induce the government to increase spectrum supply and encourage firms’ investments. A caveat is that the analyses are based on the model assuming monopoly market and information certainty.     

Effects of demotion in loyalty programs on brand-switching intentions

This study explores the effects of demotion in loyalty programs on intentions to switch to competitors. In a survey of 650 individuals, demotion evoked negative emotions, and its effect weakened when the demoted respondents’ internal locus of control was high and strengthened when their program involvement was high. Negative emotions had an indirect effect on intentions to switch to competitors; its effect was thus mediated by the demoted respondent’s attitudes toward the company. Finally, negative emotions had a direct effect on switching intentions, an effect moderated by prior satisfaction with the company.     

Effective Luxury-Brand Advertising: The ES–IF Matching (Entity–Symbolic Versus Incremental–Functional) Model

This study draws on the psychological tenets of implicit self-theories, which differentiate between individuals with entity versus incremental orientations, to deepen our understanding about how consumers evaluate luxury-brand advertising appeals. Our findings show that entity theorist consumers are more attracted to the symbolic value appeals of luxury brands, whereas incremental theorists are more attracted to functional value appeals. Furthermore, we show how consumers' implicit self-theories can be purposively primed by managers with the textual elements of a luxury-brand advertising message to increase its effectiveness, which provides useful implications for designing and executing effective luxury advertising.     

Price bundling presentation and consumer's bundle choice: The role of quality certainty

As bundling has become a prevalent marketing strategy, the existing literature has focused on how to present price discount information for bundled products. To further understand bundling in restaurant operations, this study examined the moderating role of consumer quality certainty on the relationship between the effects of price bundling and consumers’ bundle choices. This study analyzed different bundling phenomena from an acquisition–transaction utility theory perspective in order to investigate the effects of price presentation and quality certainty manipulation on consumers’ bundle choices. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that quality certainty had a significant moderating effect. The less confident a consumer is about the quality of the bundled food products, the more likely it is that price presentation strategies will affect his or her willingness to order a bundle menu. The results also showed that transaction utility becomes significant as price discount information is segregated and as consumers are more certain of the quality of the bundled products. Managerial implications for restaurant operations are also discussed.     

Employer Strategies and Wages in New Service Activities: A Comparison of Co‐ordinated and Liberal Market Economies

Using survey data for call centre establishments in eight countries, we examine the relationship between wages and human resource practices. High‐involvement work design and the use of performance‐based pay are significantly positively related to wages, whereas intensive use of performance monitoring is negatively associated with wages. These relationships are larger among liberal economies compared with co‐ordinated ones, but individual country differences are large and, in many cases, do not conform to expectations regarding institutional differences between liberal and co‐ordinated market economies. The exception is Denmark.     

KOREAN MULTINATIONALS' FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT PROJECTS: Variability in the Micro- and Macro-Level Determinants

Both theory and policy should be more sensitive to projectlevel features in analyses of foreign direct investment (FDI). This study tests hypotheses about the relative importance of the determinants of Korean multinationals' FDI. The study attempts to explain the often inconclusive and conflicting results of many previous empirical studies of the determinants of FDI; these studies have failed to take into account the variability in the determinants across types of FDI projects based on their strategic objectives and production functions. On the basis of empirical results, the present study offers a framework for the analysis of the determinants of FDI that incorporates project variables at the micro level and country variables at the macro level. These variables include host country policies, such as investment incentives and trade barriers.