• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.313-336
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• 2020

In this paper, I review evidence on changing global specialization in labor-intensive exporting. Production of apparel, footwear, furniture, and related products are how many low-income countries first enter export manufacturing. Just as China's rise as a powerhouse in these goods supplanted a role previously occupied by the East Asian Tigers, the world may again be on the cusp of significant change in where labor-intensive goods are produced. China's prowess in these sectors peaked in the early 2010s; its share in their global exports, while still substantial, is now in decline. Mechanisms through which the global economy may adjust to China's graduation into more technologically sophisticated activities include expanded labor-intensive export production in other emerging economies and labor-saving technological change in products currently heavily reliant on less-educated labor. Available evidence suggests that the first mechanism is operating slowly and the second hardly at all. As a third mechanism, China may in part replace itself by moving labor-heavy factories out of densely populated and expensive coastal cities and into the country's interior. Such a transition, though still in its infancy, would mirror the decentralization of manufacturing production in the U.S. and Europe, which occurred after World War II.

• Anayses & Alternatives
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.5-29
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• 2018

Models of South-North Korean economic integration have the problem of circular reasoning. While many studies argue that South-North Korean economic integration would contribute to alleviate security risks in the Korean peninsular, they emphasize the success of any economic model of inter-Korean economic integration is subject to favorable geo-political and security environment. It is a failure in distinguishing between goals and constraints. After identifying three major goals of South-North Korean economic cooperation, this study shows the trilemma among the goals; they are 1) formation of a complete economic community, 2) maintaining independent sovereignty of the two Koreas, 3) promotion of mutual economic interests. The trilemma suggests that it is theoretically impossible to achieve the above three goals at the same time. Only two goals are achievable simultaneously. This study argues that the most practical option is to pursue the combination of goals 2) and 3) considering the complex political and security environment around the Korean peninsular. Recognizing that North Korea is the least developed country in the Northeast Asia region, South Korea's initiatives for inter-Korean economic cooperation should focus on assisting industrialization and integration of the North Korea economy into the Northeast Asian regional production sharing structure. In view of the 'flying geese model' of the sequential industrialization in the region, the least developed economic status of North Korea can partially be explained by its failure to participate in the production network in the region as well as lack of effective implementation of appropriate industrial policy. Therefore, promotion of industrialization of North Korea should be the immediate goal of economic cooperation between North and South Korea. It is an interesting fact that North Korea has rapidly expanded its apparel exports in recent years. It could mean that the North Korean economy is actively responding to the dynamics of international comparative advantage structure, although the production activities are limited to exports to China since the closure of the Gaesung Industrial Complex. The recent increase in apparel export is a starting point for incorporating the Easy Import Substitution fulfilling both domestic and neighboring regional demand of North Korea. It could help integrate North Korea's industry into the production network of Northeast Asia. An immediate policy implication is that the economic cooperation between the two Koreas should focus on facilitating this process and supporting North Korea's industrial policy through South Korea's contribution of capital, technology, and service intermediary inputs.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.21-42
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• 1998

This paper aims at examining the regional comparison of the business organization of retailing in the Seoul and Taegu metropolitan areas, as an attempt to understand regional structure of retailing within metropolitan areas which represents the suburbanization. On the national level, retail sales have concentrated on larger metropolitan area, the Seoul metroplitan area, the first largest metropolitan area, having higher sales for population scale. While the Taegu metropolitan area, the third largest metropolitan area, appears to lower retail sales for population scale. In order to confirm such phenomenon, this paper is to analyze and to compare the industrial composition of retailing by industry in 1991 of Seoul with that of Taegu. And this paper is to analyze the regional comparison of business organization of retailing: the percents of establishments under four employees, of juridical establishments, of employees of ordinary times, the annual sales per establishment of retailing. And the characteristics of business organization of retailing by industry are analyzed by principal components analysis, and the explanation of the types with component in each district(city, county, ward) is analyzed by cluster analysis(Ward method). The data of 1991 were obtained from the statistics in the Report on Establishment Census(Vol.3 Wholesale and Retail Trade) published by the National Statistics Office. The results are as follows: 1. The composition of retailing by industry in Seoul metropolitan area by annual sales in 1991 is characterized as appeared very higher composition rates of retailing of textiles, clothing, footwear and apparel accessaries', ‘retailing of furniture, home furnishings and equipment’, retailing of jewellery and watches’, ‘retailing of printed matter and stationery’, ‘retailing of personal transport equipment and gasoline service stations’, and ‘general merchandise stores’. But in Taegu metropolitan area, ‘retailing of food, beverages and tobacco’, ‘retailing of drugs, cosmetics and other chemical goods’, 'retailing household fuel’, and ‘genernal retail trade, n.e.c.’appears very high. Therefore Seoul metropolitan area has larger business scale and retailing of shopping goods has developed than Taegu metropolitan area.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.391-400
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• 2011

Internet shopping malls for fashion products(e.g., apparel, cosmetics and accessory) may become a major player with a promising future because of its tremendous growth in e-commerce. In addition, the fashion market has been segmented by various types of shopping malls on the internet. For many types of internet shopping malls, literatures give us numerous types, such as general mall, specialty mall, open-market, mall-in-mall, department-mall, brand-mall, and a specialized category mall, etc. Although each mall specializes in different activities, a unified categorization with managerially meaningful implications has not been made. This paper aims to explore criteria of internet shopping malls based on previous research related to shopping mall types for fashion products. The results found that internet shopping malls for fashion products were classified based on physical space, openness of the mall, number of companies, method of profit, specialization of products, number of product categories, and brand products dealt with. Internet shopping mall for fashion products was classified into online malls versus online malls versus offline mall, open mall versus closed mall, single mall versus multi mall, retail-trade mall versus syndicated mall, general mall vs specialize mall, one-product category mall versus multi-product category mall, and brand mall versus non-brand mall. These findings could offer an important contribution in research and practice, and an insight into developing appropriate strategies for effective fashion shopping mall management related products.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.216-230
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• 2014

The importance of the Chinese fashion market is increasing; therefore, this study investigates the possibility of implementing a Word-of-Mouth (WOM) marketing strategy among Chinese students in Korea. This study examines the effects of consumer characteristics (similarity, opinion leadership, and fashion innovativeness), awareness of Korean fashion brands, satisfaction with Korean fashion products on WOM experiences and WOM behavior (off-line as well as on-line). A total of 161 responses from Chinese students in Korea were gathered and analyzed using SPSS 20.0 for descriptive statistics, factor analysis, and regression analysis. The results show that consumer characteristics (except similarity) significantly influence WOM experiences, opinion leadership influence off-line WOM behavior, and fashion innovativeness influence online WOM behavior. However, similarity has no influence on WOM experiences and WOM behavior. Second, Korean brand awareness affect both WOM experiences and behavior; however, satisfaction with Korean fashion products only affected WOM experiences. This study showed the feasibility of conducting a WOM marketing strategy using the WOM effects of Chinese students in Korea. The study may help the Korean apparel industries establish an entry strategy for the Chinese market.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.32 no.12
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• pp.1915-1926
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• 2008

Although we know that images of a country or an industry are influential factors in product evaluation, there has been little discussion about the channels through which consumers form a country or an industry image. Guided by the assumption that the image of the Korean fashion industry conveyed through U.S. media will likely affect the evaluation of Korean fashion products, we decided to examine articles published between January 1998 and June 2008 in Woman's Wear Daily(WWD), a prestigious U.S. daily trade newspaper covering all aspects of the national and international fashion business. By using the "Korean", we found 329 relevant articles. Through content analysis, we identified the aspects of the Korean fashion industry that have been considered salient to U.S. fashion media professionals. We set up categories based on the contents of the articles that discussed segments of the supply chain of the fashion industry. We found more comments on the Korean fashion industry as fiber and fabrics supplier or apparel manufacturer than in any other categories, which reflects that South Korea has been traditionally one of the most attractive sourcing countries for the U.S. fashion business. We identified significantly less coverage on the designing, branding, marketing, and retailing aspects of the Korean fashion industry. Due to economic boom in Korea, the country's fashion industry is recognized as having a highly fashion-conscious market that can afford the world's premium brands. However, the industry is viewed as being rather vulnerable to changes in the macro economic environment.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.27 no.12
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• pp.239-249
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• 2022

This study attempted to categorize the motivation for participation in leisure sports and analyze the difference in consumer demand for leisure sports wear according to the type. As a result of the analysis, the functionality of the preferred material consisted of movement, comfort, and body temperature maintenance. When purchasing, the factors to consider were extracted such as basic emphasis, emphasis on flaunting, and emphasis on practicality. The improvement requirement was composed of basic function improvement and various function additional factors, and the purchase satisfaction factor was composed of three factors: brand, practicality, design, and functionality. Motives for participation in marine leisure sports were grouped into mania, leisure, and health types. As for the functionality of the preferred material, the mania type and leisure type preferred movement, comfort, and body temperature maintenance functionality over the health type. As for the factors to consider when purchasing, the mania type and leisure type had higher consideration for the factors of basic emphasis, ostentation, and practicality than the health type. In the improvement requirements, both basic function improvement and various function additions had the highest mania type and the lowest health type. In terms of purchase satisfaction factors, practicality and brand were found to have a high leisure type, and functional factors were found to have a high mania type. For the enthusiastic group, it is thought that product development should focus on functionality and additional functions, and health types should be focused on design and utilization.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.15-26
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• 2010

Due to the globalization across various industries and cultural trade among many countries, oriental concepts have been attracting world’s attentions. In fashion industry, one's traditional culture is often developed as fashion theme for designers' creation and became strong strategies to stand out among competitors. Because of the increase of preferences for oriental images, opportunities abound to introduce traditional fashion goods and expand culture based business to global fashion markets. However, global fashion brands that include Korean traditional culture are yet to be developed. In order to develop a global fashion brand with Korean taste, it is very important for native citizen to accept their own culture in domestic apparel market prior to expansion into foreign market. Loungewear is evaluated to be appropriate for adopting Korean traditional details into clothing since this wardrobe category embraces various purposes which will easily lead to natural adaptation and wide spread use. Also, this market is seeing an increased demand for multipurpose wardrobes and fashionable underwear (Park et al. 2009). Despite rapid growth in the loungewear market, specific studies of loungewear is rare; and among research on developing modernized-traditional clothing, fashion items and brands do not always include the loungewear category. Therefore, this study investigated the Korean loungewear market and studied consumer evaluation toward loungewear with Korean traditional fashion design elements. Relationship among antecedents of purchase intention for Korean traditional fashion design elements were analyzed and compared between lifestyle groups for consumer targeting purposes. Product quality, retail service quality, perceived value, and preference on loungewear with Korean traditional design elements were chosen as antecedents of purchase intention and a structural equation model was designed to examine their relationship as well as their influence on purchase intention. Product quality and retail service quality among marketing mixes were employed as factors affecting preference and perceived value of loungewear with Korean traditional fashion design elements. Also effects of preference and perceived value on purchase intention were examined through the same model. A total of 357 self-administered questionnaires were completed by female consumers via web survey system. A questionnaire was developed to measure samples' lifestyle, product and retail service quality as purchasing criteria, perceived value, preference and purchase intention of loungewear with Korean traditional fashion design elements. Also, loungewear purchasing and usage behavior were asked as well in order to examine Korean loungewear market status. Data was analyzed through descriptive analysis, factor analysis, cluster analysis, ANOVA and structural equation model was tested via AMOS 7.0. As for the result of Korean loungewear market status investigation, loungewear was purchased by most of the consumers in our sample. Loungewear is currently recognized as clothes that are worn at home and consumers are showing comparably low involvement toward loungewear. Most of consumers in this study purchase loungewear only two to three times a year and they spend less than US$10. A total of 12 items and four factors of loungewear consumer lifestyle were found: traditional value oriented lifestyle, brand-affected lifestyle, pursuit of leisure lifestyle, and health oriented lifestyle. Drawing on lifestyle factors, loungewear consumers were classified into two groups; Well-being and Conservative. Relationships among constructs of purchasing behavior related to loungewear with Korean traditional fashion design elements were estimated. Preference and perceived value of loungewear were affected by both product quality and retail service quality. This study proved that high qualities in product and retail service develop positive preference toward loungewear. Perceived value and preference of loungewear positively influenced purchase intention. The results indicated that high preference and perceived value of loungewear with Korean traditional fashion design elements strengthen purchase intention and proved importance of developing preference and elevate perceived value in order to make sales. In a model comparison between two lifestyle groups: Well-being and Conservative lifestyle groups, results showed that product quality and retail service quality had positive influences on both preference and perceived value in case of Well-being group. However, for Conservative group, only retail service quality had a positive effect on preference and its influence to purchase intention. Since Well-being group showed more significant influence on purchase intention, loungewear brands with Korean traditional fashion design elements may want to focus on characteristics of Well-being group. However, Conservative group's relationship between preference and purchase intention of loungewear with Korean traditional fashion design elements was stronger, so that loungewear brands with Korean traditional fashion design elements should focus on creating conservative consumers' positive preference toward loungewear. The results offered information on Korean loungewear consumers' lifestyle and provided useful information for fashion brands that are planning to enter Korean loungewear market, particularly targeting female consumers similar to the sample of the present study. This study offers strategic and marketing insight for loungewear brands and also for fashion brands that are planning to create highly value-added fashion brands with Korean traditional fashion design elements. Considering different types of lifestyle groups that are associated with loungewear or traditional fashion goods, brand managers and marketers can use the results of this paper as a reference to positioning, targeting and marketing strategy buildings.