Managing supplier-retailer relationships: From institutional and task environment perspectives

This study develops an integrated model of managing channel relationships that involves task and institutional environment perspectives. Using survey data from automobile dealers in China, the authors provide empirical evidence to demonstrate the utility of the legitimacy-based institutional environment perspective in clarifying channel relationship issues, which have been considered mostly only from an economic efficiency-based task environment approach. As the institutional environment perspective's factors, imposition asymmetry and bypassing have indirect impacts on trust in supplier and the level of conflict in a channel relationship. As the task environment standpoint's factors, explicit contracts and supplier's transaction-specific investments (TSIs) are posited to have direct effects on trust in supplier and the level of conflict, however, the hypothesized relationship between supplier's TSIs and the level of conflict is not supported. The results also indicate both building a retailer's trust in its supplier and lowering the level of conflict lead to improved relationship performance.     

Adoption of digital repositories for CO2 emissions reduction: the case of Korea

This study aims to estimate the potential economic benefits, energy and CO₂ emissions reductions when using trusted third-party digital repository (TTPR) services in one individual bank, and within the banking industry in Korea. First, the cost, benefit and net benefit of using TTPR services in the banking industry are estimated. Second, the net induced output effect is estimated. Third, based on an environmentally extended input–output analysis, CO₂ emissions reduction was estimated as 1924.32 tons in 2009 and the energy consumption reduction as 640.70 TOE. Fourth, the total economic benefit, which is the sum of the net induced output effect and economic value of CO₂ emissions reductions, is approximately $11.04 million. The findings demonstrate that energy consumption and CO₂ emissions reductions are meaningful enough to result in significant economic benefits. Therefore, the Korean government should promote the use of TTPR services in the entire industry.     

An alternative approach to evaluating the agreement between financial markets

This research investigates that the price relationship between a stock index and its associated nearby futures markets can be explained by the cost-of-carry model using the concordance correlation (CC) coefficient in the US financial markets. The main purpose of this research is to confirm that the CC coefficient is an appropriate methodology to determine ex post arbitrage opportunities and to maximize ex ante arbitrage profits through the analysis of the price relationship derived from the cost-of-carry model. To increase the robustness of the results and to enable us to generalize our conclusions, this analysis is carried out in consideration of external uncertainty, including the marking-to-market procedure of futures contracts and the transaction cost on the stock index and its futures markets, under several assumptions related to the conditions of transactions. Examining transaction price data on the S&P 500 stock index and its futures markets shows that the CC coefficient gives a good result for ex ante arbitrage profits and is appropriate for analyzing the relationship between the observed stock index futures market price and its theoretical price derived from the cost-of-carry model.     

The Role of NSOs in Assuring National Prosperity: A Case Study of Korea

As changes in the socio-economic environment become more rapid, so the role of statistics in society becomes more important. At the same time, the role of a national statistical office (hereafter NSO) as a provider of official statistics attracts increasing interest because the function of an NSO in a country assuredly depends on changes in the economic and social surroundings in pursuit of national prosperity.
In this paper, the strong relationship between the social and economic development of a country and the development of a national statistical office will be explicated using the example of Korea, which has experienced dynamic take-off in both economic and social sectors during the last 40 years. The progress of the Korean NSO will be studied in three time periods by looking at the socio-economic changes in each period, and how the NSO responded. In addition, as the Global Age emerged in the late 1990s, the Korean NSO started to encounter new demands at a time of limited resources and a worsening statistical environment. In light of this, several current issues and corresponding strategies for NSOs will be suggested.     

Infrastructure Bond Markets Development in Asia: Challenges and Solutions

To sustain economic growth momentum, Asia needs to continue investing heavily in infrastructure such as roads, ports, and power plants. Financing the region’s huge demand for infrastructure investments is an essential issue for policy-makers across the region. Against the backdrop of expanding fiscal burdens of Asian governments and more stringent capital requirements on bank lending, local currency bonds can serve as an alternative for infrastructure financing in Asia. In this paper, we use empirical analysis to identify the major determinants of infrastructure bond market development. Evidence indicates that an economy’s size is positively related to infrastructure bond market development. Furthermore, we find that Project Bond Initiative, a European Union initiative, contributed significantly to infrastructure development in Europe. The implication for Asian policy-makers is that deepening regional integration of Asian bond markets would help Asian economies to reach an efficient economic scale to foster infrastructure bond market and policy measures in the forms of credit enhancement would facilitate issuance of infrastructure bonds.     

Trade Effects of US Antidumping Actions against China*

Using data on US imports, classified at the 10‐digit Harmonized System commodity level, we study the effects of all antidumping investigations initiated by the USA against China between 1998 and 2006. We find that antidumping actions cause a reduction in the volume and value of imports from China as well as an increase in the price of those goods in the US market. Critically, however, we find that these effects are short‐lived and dissipate approximately 2 years after the antidumping decision. Furthermore, antidumping actions against China prompt a substitution effect as they increase US imports from other countries. In general, our results cast doubt on the effectiveness of antidumping actions against China as mechanisms for protecting US producers.     

Effects of China's Structural Change on the Exports of East Asian Economies

The Chinese economy is slowing down and is in the midst of a structural transformation from export‐led and investment‐led growth to domestic demand‐led and consumption‐led growth. While there are widespread concerns among China's trading partners about the effect of the slowdown in China's growth on their exports, China's structural changes are also likely to have a significant impact: for example, China will import fewer machines and more cosmetics. The central objective of the present paper is to empirically examine the effect of China's structural transformation on the exports of East Asian economies, which have close trade linkages with China. We find that economies that have failed to increase the share of consumption goods in their exports to China have suffered larger declines in their quantities of exports to China. In addition, economies that have suffered losses in their shares of China's parts and components imports have faced reductions in their shares in China's total imports.     

Productivity improvement in Korean rice farming: parametric and non‐parametric analysis†

The published empirical literature on frontier production functions is dominated by two broadly defined estimation approaches – parametric and non‐parametric. Using panel data on Korean rice production, parametric and non‐parametric production frontiers are estimated and compared with estimated productivity. The non‐parametric approach employs two alternative measures based on the Malmquist index and the Luenberger indicator, while the parametric approach is closely related to the time‐variant efficiency model. Productivity measures differ considerably between these approaches. It is discovered that measures of efficiency change are more sensitive to the choice of the model than are measures of technical change. Both approaches reveal that the main sources of growth in Korean rice farming have been technical change and productivity improvements in regions of the country that have been associated with low efficiency.     

The Effect of Dissolution Intention on Buyer–Seller Relationships

While relationships dissolve for a variety of reasons, many dissolve due to issues with the relationship itself. However, much of the research in marketing focuses on the bright side of relationships and neglects its dark side. In this article we focus on one aspect of the dark side—the effects of the intent of a party to exit from a relationship. Research on dissolution has primarily examined it as an outcome variable. Thus, the question of how dissolution intent, once formed, affects subsequent behavior has not been given much attention. We investigate the consequences of dissolution intention, such as increasing opportunism and decreasing cooperation and the mediating effects of transaction-specific investments. The model is tested using a sample survey of newspaper agents in Korea. Results indicate that dissolution intention increases opportunism and negatively affects cooperation. Transaction-specific investments diminish the effect of dissolution intention on opportunism and cooperation.