Management of paradox: a comparative study of managerial practices in Korean and Japanese firms

Numerous scholars are recognizing that paradoxes are indigenous to organizational functioning. Managers too are being challenged to do more and spend less, and delegate and know the details. As a corporate objective, neither efficiency nor innovation can be sacrificed. In this paper, we have attempted to capture this emerging trend empirically. Defining management of paradox as ‘managerial practices that realize the simultaneous accomplishment of multiple strategic objectives that are seemingly or actually incompatible,’ this paper explores how organizational capabilities of effectively dealing with paradox can be acquired. Specifically, the paper attempts to address two organizational mechanisms: decision-making structure and human resource practices (HRPs). Propositions deduced from the existing literature were tested with the data collected from 103 Korean firms and 136 Japanese firms. The data indicated that firms have to be multi-talented. It was found that firms that successfully accomplished innovation and efficiency objectives simultaneously were those that were able to mix paradoxical organizational practices: decentralization and control on the one hand and the three HRPs on the other. It was also found that the Japanese corporations were more apt in deploying paradoxical managerial practices than the Korean counterparts. The paper concludes by discussing a few theoretical implications.     

The Productivity Commission Inquiry Report into Mental Health—A Commentary from a Health Economics Perspective

The Productivity Commission's Inquiry Report into Mental Health makes extensive recommendations to improve population mental health as a means of further enhancing productivity and economic growth. While providing an invaluable high‐level vision for reforming current mental health and social systems at a programmatic level, it lacks supporting evidence that would guide implementation of specific recommendations. We discuss important methodological considerations used to measure the output of the mental health sector and present clinical and cost‐effectiveness evidence, supporting selected recommendations. We suggest the development of a broad‐based health technology assessment process to facilitate consistent decision making across health and other government sectors.     

Protecting cultural heritage tourism sites with the ubiquitous sensor network

Cultural heritage tourism resources are vulnerable to natural and human disasters: once damaged or destroyed, it is hard to restore them to their original condition. This study examines an online and real-time early fire detection system, using advanced information technology and a ubiquitous sensor network to protect cultural heritage tourism resources. It notes the danger of accidental and deliberate fires being started by cultural site visitors, as well as natural fires from lightning strike or nearby forest fires. The system architecture, sensor and network design, and software design of the fire detection system are presented, based on experimental work at the Bulguksa temple in South Korea, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Lessons learned from building and operating the Ubiquitous(U)-Bulguksa system are presented to provide guidelines for applying ubiquitous sensor networks to protect other cultural heritage tourism resources.     

Effects of the preference for environmental quality on the export competition between China and OECD countries

This study examines how importers’ preferences for environmentally friendly products influence the effect of China’s export growth on the exports of OECD countries to third markets. The effect of China’s export growth is systematically investigated using the theoretical gravity model, which assumes that importers’ environmental preferences are heterogeneous among countries. A new measure is also proposed to represent importers’ revealed preferences for environmental quality across countries. Panel data consisting of observations for 30 OECD exporting countries and 60 importing countries over the 2000–10 period confirm that the crowding‐out effect of China’s export growth on the exports of OECD countries observed in markets for consumption goods and the dampening effect observed in markets for intermediate goods are becoming weaker as the importer preference for environmental quality becomes stronger.     

Multi-period heterogeneous vehicle routing considering carbon emission trading

This study considers the problem of determining heterogeneous vehicle routes in each period of a given planning horizon while satisfying service combinations, customer demands and vehicle capacities. The objective is to minimize the sum of vehicle operation costs and carbon emission trading cost/benefit, where the trading cost is incurred to purchase the carbon emission right if the total emission exceeds an upper limit in each period, while the trading benefit can be obtained by selling the right in each period, otherwise. A mixed integer programming model is developed to formulate the problem mathematically. Then, a tabu search algorithm is proposed that incorporates the characteristics of the heterogeneous and the period vehicle routing problems while considering the amount of carbon emission in each period. Computational experiments were done on modified benchmark instances and additional random instances, and the results show that the multi-period approach outperforms the existing single-period one in overall average. In particular, the test results show that the multi-period approach can reduce carbon emission more significantly than the single-period one without sacrificing the total cost.     

The complementary effect of intellectual property protection mechanisms on product innovation performance

This study assessed the effect of simultaneous implementations of different intellectual property (IP) protection mechanisms on a firm's product innovation performance (PIP). The study categorized seven widely-used IP protection mechanisms (IPPMs) into two groups: formal and informal. Complementarity was then tested within and between the formal and informal groups of IPPMs. The result showed that there existed complementarity when multiple IPPMs were implemented from the same groups. Throughout an additional analysis on the moderating effect of the industrial complexity in technology, it was found that the ‘between groups' combination effect was also existed but varied from even negative to positive concluding that industrial complexity of technology moderates the effects of combinations of IPPMs on a firm's PIP. These results imply that the use of multiple IPPMs is effective but the effect varies by the technological complexity of industry.     

Tourists' perceived value and behavioral intentions based on the choice attributes of wellness tourism

This study was carried out to examine the wellness that tourists wanted to fulfill through wellness tourism and identify the relationship between tourists' perceived value and their future behavioral intentions. To perform this study, residents aged 20 or older living in Seoul who are interested in wellness tourism were surveyed, and a total of 401 valid responses were used for analyses. The findings suggest that particular attributes of wellness tourism had a positive relationship with ‘emotional value’ except ‘physical wellness’. Also, a positive relationship was observed between utilitarian value, epistemic value, and all particular attributes of wellness tourism.     

Bidding Strategies and Consumer Savings in NYOP Auctions

We investigate how bidding strategies of successful bidders influence the savings they derive from a Name Your Own Price (NYOP) retailer relative to buying the same product from a retailer who posts prices. Utilizing bidding data for hotel room purchases we demonstrate that consumer savings rate depends positively on consumer decision to haggle (# bids ≥3) and on the shape of the bid function. Relative to non-hagglers (# bids ≤2), hagglers who employ a constant bid increment (i.e., a linear) strategy and a decreasing bid increment (i.e., concave) strategy save more, while those who employ an increasing bid increment strategy (i.e., convex) fare no better. A post hoc analysis also shows that hagglers place many bids in the pursuit of higher quality products, while non-hagglers save friction costs by sacrificing quality (e.g., targeting lower star hotels and adjusting the days of travel).