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COVID-19 case management by South Korea shows that citizenship and evolutionary mechanisms of social and institutional learning have helped curb the spread of COVID-19. The painful experience of the MERS virus in 2015 pushed Korean society to improve the capacity of both health and quarantine systems. Korea’s initial response to COVID-19 stems from learning in both the civil society and government sectors. The experience of MERS created a social learning space for Korean society at large and an opportunity for institutional learning for the government. Social learning encourages good citizenship, the development of social capital, and community innovation, all of which help people respond nimbly to a viral epidemic. Institutional learning entails government reform and feedback, active administration, effective distribution of tests, effective tracing, and effective treatments.

There has been a debate on how the state-driven anticorruption movement during the Xi Jinping administration has influenced state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Research has examined the relationship between corruption and economic development at the country level in Asia and has found paradoxically that economic growth and high corruption levels can coexist. However, the “Asian paradox” that appears at the country level may be a transitional phenomenon of the short term. Not many researchers have empirically compared individual firm-level performance before and after a strong anticorruption drive, drawing on relevant comparison groups. This study tests whether Xi’s 2012 anticorruption campaign improved SOEs’ performance. With a difference-in-differences method, it explores whether the anticorruption campaign had different effects on the financial performance of SOEs and non-SOEs (private companies). We find that the anticorruption initiative improved SOEs’ financial performance and benefited SOEs more than non-SOEs.

The 2018 regional election in South Korea brought a tremendous political victory for the liberal Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) and a dramatic loss for the conservative Liberty Party Korea (LPK). ...

China’s political system has continued to maintain a highly centralized regime despite embracing a decentralized development strategy after the 1979 economic reform. The central government frequently makes changes in political leadership to control regional governments. Such political turnover in the regional governments can generate substantial political uncertainty, which affects the overall management direction and environment of Chinese public enterprises. This study analyzes the impact of replacing city-level party secretaries (CPS) on corporate investment in 228 municipal cities in China. Political appointees can replace city-level party secretaries from within and outside the city or from higher levels of the government. Our empirical results show that these kinds of replacements more significantly dampened investment activities in listed private companies than in companies in which the city-level party secretaries have retained their positions. Corporate investment activities decreased more when a city-level party secretary was replaced with a person outside the city or parachuted from central government than when replaced within the city. Moreover, replacement effects were more negative for privatized state-owned enterprises (SOEs) than for the original privately owned companies.

This study explores those factors that induce policy innovation among Korean local governments after democratization. While centralism in South Korea prevailed over community democracy after democratization in 1987, since the first local elections in 1995, Korean local governments have experienced a smooth democratic transition and the consolidation of democracy. We attempt to introduce a synthetic application of fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) and event history analysis (EHA) to the actual process for policy decision in policy innovation of police system in Korean local government. This paper collects massive descriptive data derived from police related ordinance diffusion across Korean local governments 2002 to 2012 in order to identify various causal conditions of policy innovation and illustrate synthesis of qualitative and quantitative findings. Our empirical results show that top-down policymaking in the central government still influences the adoption of innovation by Korean local governments and that the emergence of innovation in local governments involving policy competition and bandwagon effects has a significant impact on neighboring local governments.

In this study, we analyze the impact of innovative EBT (electronic benefit transfer) system that adopted in SNAP service delivery on SNAP payment error rate. As Clinton administration pursued public service innovation as part of New Public Management reform, the way of delivering SNAP was changed from paper coupon to EBT. To examine this impact, we have set three different types of dependent variables. The first dependent variable is combined payment error rate which is a sum of overpayment error rate and underpayment error rate. The second and third dependent variable that used in this study is overpayment error rate and underpayment error rate. In panel fixed effect model, EBT variable is significant when underpayment error rate is a dependent variable. In other words, according to empirical results from panel fixed effect model, the EBT system is significant in reducing official errors and mistakes. Contrary to this result, electronic system does not show any significant effect on overpayment error rate that closely related to the level of transparency. We did additional hierarchical regression analysis to draw determinants of overpayment error rate. Among the variables we include in hierarchical model, SR variable turned out to be the most important factor that affect overpayment error rate. According to third stage of hierarchical model, in the case of transparency, the back-up systems and social actor's attitude toward transparency are more important.

This study, relying on seemingly unrelated regression(SUR) model, tests whether or how public service motivation(PSM) is related to creativity. Creativity may be related to public motivatio...

This study explores why Chinese consumers use pirated software programs and how they think about their illegal use, relying on Q methodology. We developed 32 Q statements that outline reasons for using pirated software and surveyed 30 respondents from public officials, and software companies employees to students, professors, researchers, and the public. We developed four Q factors to describe four types of response to the use of pirated software. One group addresses a normative legal response, the second makes an economic utility argument, the third calls for punishing violators, and the fourth claims that they find themselves facing an uncomfortable dilemma in having to choose between the cheapness of illegal software and its illegality. Chinese respondents believe that government intervention can reduce the extent of illegal use (normative legal) and that intellectual property should be protected (economic utility). Furthermore, they acknowledged that the illegal use of software is a socio-structural problem across all social groups rather than a problem of a specific demographic group, such as a group of teenagers. Future research is required to explore not only whether or not perceptions regarding the use of illegal software vary from country to country but also how Confucian culture and norms are related to attitudes about the widespread use of counterfeit products in Asian countries.

Recently the large discount retailers (LDRs) including large discount chains (e.g., Emart, Homeplus, and Lotte Mart) and super supermarkets (SSMs) have been at the center of disputes in the retail industries in Korea. The 2012 Distribution Industry Development Act has allowed the head of a city or county to regulate the business hours between large mega-retailers and small and family-run stores in the neighborhood. The regulation of the business hours of the large discount retailers may have heterogeneous effects on their sales depending on various contexts of the market situation. The reduction of the business hours assumes a significant negative effect on the amount of sales of LDRs. However, the degree of reduction may significantly differ from how the LDRs respond to the regulation. The reduction of sales of LDRs is natural if LDRs affected by the regulation do not make any effort to promote sales. On the other hand, if LDRs try to maintain their sales with various marketing strategies and resources, their sales may not decrease and even relatively increase compared to the size of the sales for LDRs that are not affected by the regulation. In addition, although the regulation of the business hours for LDRs can reduce operating hours, their sales may increase due to an increase of market demand in some growing places. For instance, the sales in LDRs located at the market place where new large housings and apartments have been growing may increase. The increasing demand derived from the new population growth can cancel out the decrease of the sales from the regulation of the business hours. Our findings, relying on using DID method before and after the regulation, show three different types of the impact of the regulation change on the sale of LDRs across five regions including decreasing, constant, and increasing patterns.

Recent research suggests competing aspects of how to promote an entrepreneurial ecosystem for sustainable economic growth from a linear entrepreneurial ecosystem to non-linear ones involving diverse stakeholders beyond the dichotomy between state and market. Competing views and interests embedded in these multiple stakeholders can contribute to understanding how an entrepreneurial ecosystem can emerge, flourish and vanish. However, little systematic research has explored what aspects multiple stakeholders have for a new rising entrepreneurial ecosystem. This paper, relying on Q-methodology, explores different perspectives of stakeholders surrounding the Centres for a Creative Economy and Innovation (CCEIs) in South Korea. Application of Q-methodology with a qualitative and statistical approach allows us to clarify various competing stakeholder perspectives on entrepreneurial ecosystems embodied by the 17 government driven CCEIs. We found six different views on how to evaluate the role and function...

Purpose This paper aims to explore various factors associated with radio frequency identification (RFID) adoption with quantitative meta-analysis. More specifically, this paper attempts to measure key variables of RFID adoption derived from Rogers’ innovation theory and further examines how state intervention influences the process of RFID adoption. First, this paper compares, relying on a meta-analysis, various mean effect sizes among technological, organizational and environmental factors (i.e. government-driven policies) that Rogers suggested in his innovation model. Design/methodology/approach In mean effect size analysis, this paper finds that the technological factor is the most powerful factor that affects the RFID adoption. The technological factor is statistically significant across all regions, including North America, Europe and Asia. The organizational factor is significant only in developing countries like Southeast Asian countries and East Asian countries. Environmental factors like government intervention for facilitating RFID adoption are strong enough only in Southeast Asia and Europe. Findings This paper finds that government’s supportive policy is more effective in Europe but not in America, while external pressure is still more effective in Southeast Asia. These results implicate that developmentalism or government-driven policy can be effective not only in developing countries but also in the case of developed countries. In addition, this paper conducts a seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) analysis based on Fisher’s standardized score. Originality/value In SUR analysis, this paper finds that the correlations between RFID adoption intention and three innovation factors vary across industrial areas. More specifically, the manufacturing area shows negative moderating effect on all three equations where correlations between Rogers’ innovation factors and RFID adoption intention are meta-dependent variables. Also, RFID adoption is accelerated when the size of the firm is large or the location of the firm is in Southeast Asia. This result implicates that the aspect of technology adoption can be changed by region and type of industry.

The purposes of this study were to examine how need for touch is related to gender and Internet shopping attitudes among a sample of adult Korean consumers (160 men; 160 women; mean age = 43.7) and to confirm if Peck and Childers’ Need For Touch (NFT) scale can be validated with adult Korean consumers. Out of nine hypotheses, seven hypotheses were fully or partially supported. Women had higher NFT than men, respectively the (a) total NFT, (b) autotelic NFT, and (c) instrumental NFT. Men had a higher instrumental NFT than autotelic NFT. Women did not differ from men in Internet shopping attitudes. Finally, Korean consumers higher (vs. lower) in total NFT and instrumental NFT (but not autotelic NFT) differed in Internet shopping attitudes related to security. Results supported propositions of consumer motivation theory and provided both academic and practical implications.

The traditional innovation function, focusing on extrinsic motivations such as economic benefits and returns, has neglected the side of intrinsic values and public motivations for innovation function. Recent innovation examples in an era of mobile network and web-based information environment pursue open connected innovations such as open source movement and crowding source. Such open, collective and social innovations result from strong public motivation and trust network. Although previous studies argue the potential effects of intrinsic values on innovative attitude, research has not yet provided a comprehensive empirical evidence on how innovative attitude is associated with intrinsic and public motivations. Little empirical research remains for the impact of public motivations and intrinsic values on innovative attitudes. This study, relying on nationally represented survey (n = 3,188) in South Korea, explores an empirical link between public motivations and innovative attitudes to explore and allow new ideas. We found that public interest, empathy, altruism and job involvement facilitate innovative attitude to pursue and accept new ideas and suggestions. This implies that both intrinsic values (job enjoyment and satisfaction) and public motivations (public interests, empathy and altruism) are crucial factors to promote innovative attitudes. We also found strong non-linear relationships between satisfaction, trust and innovative attitude. We discuss implications for future innovation function of intrinsic and public motivations in terms of the process of social construction.

Current Chinese college students will become future consumers and fashion leaders. We examined, relying on a survey of 572 Chinese college students, which college students are trendsetters and followers. MANOVA results found four different innovation groups from trendsetters, to early adopters, to late adopters, and to reluctant adopters. ANOVA and regression results also found significant differences in cultural receptivity, cultural awareness, and future orientation between trendsetters and followers. The regression with the quadratic forms illustrated that the impact of trendsetting is not linear and becomes much larger for trendsetters but is almost none for the three follower groups. The piecewise regression revealed that the slope of the followers is flat, implying no relationship between the followers and cultural receptivity, awareness, and future orientation. However, the slope of the trendsetters is steep, implying a strong positive relationship between trendsetters and cultural attitudes such as cultural receptivity, cultural awareness, and future orientation.

Previous studies are limited in identifying the effectiveness of each country to seek sectoral support rather than integrated aid. However, it is hypothesized that sector-specific aid by Official Development Assistance (ODA) may be more effective than total aid. This study aims to identify the determinants of economic growth and the living standard levels in 15 Asian countries, focusing particularly on the effects of Official Development Assistance (ODA). In order to explore this research question, we have used two indexes: (1) the annual ODA grants to Korea, with aid type as the key independent variable, and (2) the human development index (HDI), to measure dependent variables from 2006 to 2016, across the 15 Asian countries. Special attention has been paid to understand which is more significant on human development, the effects of each type of aid program individually, and the whole amount of ODA assistance. We have constructed a panel model and a fuzzy set ideal type model to account in the data for qualitative attributes by recipient countries. We have found that the economic and social impacts of ODA on the basis of panel data are significant and that our instrumental variable (IV) method illustrates a statistically significant impact of the total ODA on the HDI of the recipient countries. By separating the total amount of ODA into economic and social sectors, we have found that specific programs of public service, medical care, and welfare are more likely to directly affect HDI. While the total amount of ODA still has a positive impact on HDI, education, health, and the public service field, aids also have significant effects on HDI. Although the effect of sector-specific aid in the water and sanitation field grant-aid is not significant in panel regression results, our fuzzy set method shows that, even if education aid is low, HDI is estimated to increase if the level of health and public service aid is high. Our empirical findings suggest that (1) sector-specific aid may be more effective than total aid with ineffective sub-aid programs and that (2) an optimally specific combination of various sub-programs in ODA may exist for each developing country.

This study examines the determinants of emotional laborers'--social workers in health care organizations--job satisfaction and their public service motivation in using a structural equation model and provides empirical evidence regarding what contributes to job satisfaction or burnout in these workers. Among several latent variables, this study confirmed that false face significantly decreases the job satisfaction of social worker and is positively associated with burnout. In addition, commitment to public interest increases social workers' job satisfaction significantly. This study has implications for the management of emotional labor. By educating emotional laborers to reappraise situations to increase their job satisfaction and avoid burnout, reappraisal training and education are expected to result in increases in positive emotions and decreases in negative emotions, and to improve employees' performance in their organizations.

Culture, in its various forms, has always been a critical driver of innovation. This paper focuses on generating some insights into the role of “culture for open innovation dynamics”. First, because the requirement to understand culture, which can control open innovation complexity, has been augmented, we want to answer the following research question in this study: How can we define or organize “culture for open innovation dynamics”, which can motivate open innovation dynamics, and control open innovation complexity? Second, we propose a concept model of culture for open innovation dynamics by reviewing the literature on the culture of firms in terms of their traits, organization, static innovation, and dynamic aspects regarding their innovation in entrepreneurship, and we validate said model through an indirect social experiment using the research results of 23 Special Issue papers. Third, the concept model of culture for open innovation dynamics is explained as the interaction between three different entrepreneurship dimensions: Entrepreneurship of novice entrepreneurs, intrapreneurship of employees of an existing firm, and organizational entrepreneurship by the firm itself. According to the balance of three sub-entrepreneurship types, culture for open innovation dynamics can have different aspects, namely, entrepreneurship leading culture for open innovation dynamics, intrapreneurship leading culture for open innovation dynamics, or organizational entrepreneurship leading culture for open innovation dynamics. This paper helps organizations and entrepreneurs to better understand the role that culture plays in boosting open innovation dynamics.

This paper examined the important organizational and managerial factors of publicness for the equity of health care. The extent of organizational publicness was measured with key independent variables such as ownership, evaluation, and accreditation. The dependent variable was measured by three equity indicators for patients under medical care and veterans care: financial inequity, social equity, and overall equity. We analyzed unbalanced panel data with 328 general hospitals between 2008 and 2012. We performed panel analysis with fixed and random effects. Our findings illustrate that government ownership is significantly associated with differences in equity indicators. Government owned hospitals show the better performance for equity than nonprofit and individually owned hospitals do. Compared to nonprofit and individually owned hospitals, government owned hospitals have a higher share of medical payment bills and health care spending for the disadvantaged but a lower proportion of out-of-pocket payment. Government evaluation is also significantly related to better equity performance. There are, however, significantly negative interactions between hospital government ownership and the size of medical payment bills. We found a significant tendency that the more medical payments, the less responsiveness to the equity of health care in government owned hospitals. Future research in hospital performance is required to consider not only sectoral differences but also the negative proclivity of public hospitals that shrink health care services for the poor. Further research is also expected to explore what sectoral identities and behaviors across public, nonprofit, and private hospitals influence the level of equity or inequity in health care.

This study explores the role of community-led governance in innovation adoption by drawing determinants of RFID waste pricing system adoption. The Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Korea adopted an individual-incentive based RFID waste pricing system for apartment complexes in 2013 in an effort to reduce food waste. After invention and wide usage during World War Two, RFID has received lots of intention especially in public policy field. This innovative system using RFID machines and RFID tag-embedded cards showed effectiveness in waste reduction. Residents of each apartment complex decide whether and when to adopt the RFID system. Based on innovation diffusion theory, we would like to draw which determinant factors most affect RFID pricing system adoption. Although innovation diffusion is dependent on community level, many previous studies surveyed individuals and asked them about organizational adoption. We use non-perceptional data representing the characteristics of the level of apartment complex. This study, relying on ecological variables collected from 2018 apartment complexes across 25 autonomous districts located in Seoul City, explores significant factors related to the process of the RFID adoption. According to the empirical results, there were two important determinants: how much information the government provided, and how the apartment complex residents have opportunity to gather opinion and decide the RFID pricing system adoption. We emphasize the importance of community-led governance in adopting an innovative environmental system and how community-led governance contributes to sustainable innovation adoption.

This research explores the impact of the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Household-Based Food Waste Charging System (RHWC) on the reduction of food waste in Mapo-Gu district located in Seoul city from June 2013 to July 2016. Through comparing the amount of food waste disposal between 12 apartment complexes with the RHWC policy (treatment group) and 61 apartment complexes (control group) without the policy, we attempt to identify whether the RHWC can contribute in reducing food waste. In June 2013, all these apartment complexes adopted an apartment complex unit-based food-waste system (i.e., Community-Based Waste Charging system-CWC), but, in January 2016, the 12 apartment complexes introduced the RHWC policy, while the other 61 apartment complexes kept the CWC policy. This natural experiment setting allows us to compare the difference in the quantity of food waste disposal between these two payment policies. The RHWC uses a weight based payment design, through which each household is electronically charged for the weight of food waste they disposes, while the CWC uses a group incentive system where residents pay the same price by dividing total amount of waste charge by total number of household in apartment complex. We, relying on propensity score matching and Difference-In-Difference (PSM-DID) methodology, found a significant difference in the amount of food waste disposal between these two payment systems. Our empirical finding shows that the RHWC deign can reduce more food waste than the CWC design. This study suggests that municipalities can reduce food waste through redesigning incentive mechanism in which it is able to reduce free riding by electronically identifying and monitoring how much residents throw out thanks to RFID technology.

This chapter reviews bureaucratic corruption and administrative ethics in South Korea. It discusses changes and causes of corruption in South Korea over time, compares it with other Asian countries, and examines competing theories for the cause of corruption. The chapter presents a review on anticorruption initiatives under different Korean administrations from Park Chung-hee to Roh Moo-hyun. It provides an overview of major anticorruption policies and legislation and shows that perception of corruption is slowly improving in South Korea. Public service has long been revered as a prestigious occupation in Korea. Authoritarian administrations in Korea often attempted to use anticorruption programs as means to appease public outrage over corruption in public service. Globalization of the Korean economy put international pressure on the government to become more transparent and meet international standards in terms of anticorruption initiatives. The administration strengthened the institutional aspect of anticorruption policy.

The purpose of this study was to examine differences among fashion trendsetting groups in money attitudes and tendency to regret.

The purpose of this study was two-fold: (a) to compare four scales for measuring fashion innovativeness and/or fashion opinion leadership that have been used to segment consumers into groups for research purposes and (b) to examine the scales for construct validity using the dependent variables fashion involvement and materialism.

The study of the length of ministerial tenure has received some attention by scholars of public management in Western countries. Responding to the lack of empirical research on ministerial duration in non-Western countries, this article empirically examines the determinants of ministerial duration based on the Korean Ministerial Database from 1980 to 2008. The empirical findings are as follows. First, being a female minister decreases the probability of stepping down by 1.78 times compared to a male minister. Second, political democratization after 1987 drastically increases the probability of ministerial stepping down by 3.46 times. Third, confirmation hearings after 2005 decrease the probability of ministerial stepping down by 0.53 times. Based on these empirical findings of the analysis, we can identify distinctive characteristics of ministerial duration in Korea. We argue that as the Korean political system shifts from military or authoritarian rule to democratic rule after 1987, a single fiv...

This study explores how earlier (vs. later) adopters of innovation differ in time perception and creative attitudes, comparing Chinese and US college students. Research on the perception of time and creative attitudes is useful to understand how sustainability and creative collaboration might work together. Various relationships exist between different levels of innovation adoption groups and creative attitudes or perceptions of time. We found that earlier adopters scored higher on economic time and future time orientation. This may indicate that earlier adopters are sensitive about their planned schedule. Also, earlier adopters with a future time orientation are forward-thinking and anticipate the introduction of new styles, items, or events in the future. We also find that Chinese (vs. US) participants scored higher on creative capacity and creative collaboration but did not differ in general creative attitudes or creative risk-taking. For all participants from these two countries, earlier adopters (vs. later) scored higher on all aspects of creative attitudes. This study suggests academic and practical implications regarding sustainability issues. From an academic perspective, this study adds a new perspective to the literature about the relationships among time of adoption, time perception, creative attitudes, and cultural values, and is especially useful for how these four variables influence sustainability. From a practitioner perspective, this study provides information of how consumer values and attitudes in a developing economy (China) and a developed economy (US) might facilitate open innovation and induce sustainability.

The purpose of this study was to examine how consumers&rsquo, public service motivation (PSM) is related to ethical consumption behaviors and how past experience of unethical behavior can reduce the impact of PSM on ethical consumer behaviors. A nationally representative sample from South Korea was used to explore how PSM influences willingness to purchase fashion counterfeits and how the impact of PSM differs for those with and without past experience buying fashion counterfeits. Higher PSM was associated with less willingness to buy counterfeits. Past experience buying counterfeits was associated with greater willingness to buy counterfeits. Past experience buying counterfeits intervened between the impact of PSM and willingness to buy counterfeits such that the impact of PSM was weakened.

This article sheds light on the positive role of power transfers or leadership successions in the democratic consolidation process in South Korea. In this study, we argue that democratic consolidation in South Korea is slowly taking place, and it is best measured by institutional rather than an individual president’s accomplishment. Therefore, democratic consolidation is not directly related to the success or failure of presidents since the transition to democracy occurred in 1987. Regardless of each president’s performance, repeated power shifts and successions through fair elections are likely to lead to the creation of a favorable political environment for democratic institutions to mature, which will support continued democratic consolidation in South Korea.

This article explores how public corporation leadership copes with a turbulent environment using political, managerial, and individual leadership elements. It is an in-depth case study of Lee Ji-Song, who effectively managed the politically and managerially challenging environment that resulted from the merger of two large public corporations into the Korea Land and Housing Corporation. Lee, an engineer, manager, and chief executive of a major construction company, took advantage of his political, managerial, and individual leadership capital to cope with political challenges from lawmakers and with managerial challenges such as postmerger integration management, organizational stabilization, and financial improvement. The authors suggest that an effective public corporation leader must be a skillful politician and businessperson, as public corporations often operate in an environment in which public and private values interact.

The entry and exit of ministers has been of primary interest to students of political science and public management in Western countries. Responding to the lack of research on the entry and exit of ministers in non-Western countries, this article examined determinants of both the entrance and exit of ministers in Korea from the life cycle point of view based on the Korean Ministerial Database from 1980 to 2008. We argued that as the Korean presidency shifts from an imperialistic to a democratic presidency, ministerial appointments in Korea also seem to shift from an expertise-focused to a politics-focused approach. Likewise, the primary resignation reason also shifts from policy failure to political reasons. We also argued that Korean presidents use their power to reshuffle cabinet ministers too often for their political interests. As a result, Korean ministers spend too little time in post; average tenure is now down to about one year. These short terms in office dilute a minister's ability to dictate departmental policy.

Few empirical studies have explored Selznick`s ideas on institutional leadership`s role in creating, nourishing, and maintaining public institutions. Reconsidering and expanding Selznick`s perspective, this study explores how perceived ministerial performance is associated with institutional leadership styles. Using data from the 2007 Korean Minister Survey, this study develops five types of institutional leadership (visionary, persuasive, resilient, coalition network, and maintaining) derived from an exploratory factor analysis and tests their association with ministers` performance. It suggests that visionary leadership and persuasive leadership are the primary determinants of Korean ministers` performance, and their effects are greater for ministers without presidential support. Resilient leadership and coalition network leadership are also significantly associated with ministers` performance, but maintaining leadership has little effect on it. Moderating effects on the relationship between leadership type and performance include presidential support and the presence of a performance crisis. Further research is needed to develop different measures for ministerial performance from different sources in order to avoid the common method bias.