Exploring sustainability management for telecommunications services: A case study of two Korean companies

The concept of corporate sustainability management (CSM) has been widely addressed in academic and business fields. Many companies now implement CSM, and CSM performance can be a good reference for investors to assess a company. In spite of its importance and prevailing presence, few studies have been done on the sustainability management of telecommunications companies. In this paper, we explore the sustainability of two Korean telecommunications companies (telcos) by developing and applying a new integrated sustainability management index. We expect that our findings can be a good start for further practices and research in sustainability management for telecommunications services.     

Climate impacts on geographical changes in the energy industry

Owing to global warming, ice in the Arctic Ocean has shrunk by 2.7% every 10 years since 1978, resulting in tremendous damage. This study uses the Cobb–Douglas production function to analyze the impact of abnormal weather on energy industry production using temperature and precipitation indicators. In particular, the government identified the impact of abnormal weather conditions on manufacturing and public works related to the Korean energy industry. The results showed that the numbers of freezing days and heavy rain days adversely affect public works, whereas hot and cold days and heavy rain days all positively affect the production of coal, petroleum, and chemical products. These results also led to regional risk assessments of the energy industry. This study can help in developing the 2030 industry climate change adaptation plan.     

Informed trading in the index option market: The case of KOSPI 200 options

This study examines if informed trading is present in the index option market by analyzing the KOSPI 200 options, the most actively traded derivative product in the world. The spread decomposition model developed by Madhavan, Richardson, and Roomans (1997) is utilized and the adverse‐selection cost component of the spread estimated by the model is then used as a proxy for the degree of informed trading. We find that adverse‐selection costs constitute a nontrivial portion of the transaction costs in index options trading. Approximately one‐third of the spread can be accounted for by information asymmetry costs. A further analysis indicates that adverse‐selection costs are positively related with option delta. Our regression analysis shows that option‐related variables are significantly associated with estimated information asymmetry costs, even when controlling for proxies for informed trading in the index futures market. Finally, we find the evidence that foreign investors are better informed compared to domestic investors and that domestic institutions have an edge in terms of information over domestic individuals. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 28:1118–1146, 2008     

Family characteristics and convenience food expenditure in urban Korea

This study uses a sample of 39 025 urban families from the 1996 Korean Family Income and Expenditures Survey to examine the relationship between family characteristics and expenditure on convenience foods. Results indicate that age and education of the family's head, number of children, presence of children under the age of six, the wife's labour force participation, and area of residence were significant in predicting the level of expenditure on convenience foods. The present study points to and gives a rationale to differences in some of the effects as compared with those found in Western countries.     

GROWTH,STAGNATION AND STATUS PREFERENCE

We show that an economy grows or stagnates depending on which of three objects people most esteem as tokens of status. If the main object of status preference is consumption, then a steady state with full employment is reached. If it is physical capital (which is a producible asset), then permanent growth with full employment occurs. However, if it is money (which is not a producible asset), stagnation with persistent unemployment arises.     

Innovation patterns and their effects on firm performance

This study aims to identify various innovation patterns and understand their effects on firm performance across business service sectors. By collecting empirical data from 198 Korean business services firms, we explore these firms’ major innovation patterns, conceptualized as combinations of different service innovation dimensions: service concept, service delivery, customer interaction, and technology. Then, in accordance with the innovation patterns they display, we group these firms into four clusters: ‘service delivery-based high-technology', ‘service delivery and customer interaction-integrated', ‘customer interaction-based high-technology', and ‘strongly balanced’ innovators. Last, we investigate whether these patterns influence firm performance. Our findings are three-fold: (1) the innovation patterns in business service firms result from the creation of new combinations of major service innovation dimensions, (2) four independent innovation patterns emerge in business service firms, and (3) these patterns lead to different levels of firm performance. Practically, our findings highlight the importance of highly qualified employees, customer interaction, and technology in improving financial performance.     

The environment and its impact on satisfaction with supplier performance: An investigation of the mediating effects of control mechanisms from the perspective of the manufacturer in the U.S.A.

An important question for manufacturers relates to how to conduct exchanges with suppliers when the interaction is done in an uncertain environment. Existing literature suggests the use of unilateral control (i.e., vertical control over the supplier) to reduce the negative effects of environmental uncertainty, whereas recent research on relational norms suggests bilateral control mechanisms (i.e., the norm of information sharing) as an alternative. We propose that in order to secure satisfactory performance from suppliers, manufacturers rely on different control mechanisms depending upon the level of environmental uncertainty on one hand, and the nature of interdependence in the manufacturer-supplier relationship on the other. Our empirical results based on 162 manufacturers indicate the following: 1) manufacturers' reliance on vertical control increases as environmental uncertainty and power asymmetry increase; 2) by contrast, reliance on the bilateral information sharing increases as interdependence magnitude increases and as environmental uncertainty decreases; 3) suppliers' performance, as perceived by manufacturers, increases with the use of bilateral information sharing.     

Return and Volatility Spillovers and Cojump Behavior Between the U.S. and Korean Stock Markets

ABSTRACT

In this study, we examine return spillover, volatility transmission, and cojump behavior between the U.S. and Korean stock markets. In particular, we focus on cojump behavior between the two markets in order to explain the transmission of unexpected shocks. We find that the U.S. stock market causes return spillover effects in the Korean stock market, and there is significant volatility transmission between the two markets. Importantly, we find a stronger association in size, as compared with intensity, of cojumps between the U.S. and Korean stock markets, particularly during the recent financial crisis.     

Analyzing perceived hunger across states in the US

This paper focuses on the problem of analyzing how factors impact hunger across states when hunger is ill-defined. Hunger (which is a latent variable) is presumed to depend on macroeconomic, legislation, policy, and demographic variables. Based on the Bayesian method of a posterior odds ratios, we find that the high school graduation rate appears to be the single most important factor we identify which affects the perceived hunger measure. First version received: December 1996/final version received: September 1998