How Design Plays Strategic Roles in Internet Service Innovation: Lessons from Korean Companies

In order to survive in the highly competitive internet business, companies have to provide differentiated services that can satisfy the rapidly changing users’ tastes and needs. Designers have been increasingly committed to achieving user satisfaction by generating and visualizing innovative solutions in new internet service development. The roles of internet service design have expanded from a narrow focus on aesthetics into a more strategic aspect. This paper investigates the methods of managing design in order to enhance companies’ competitiveness in internet business. The main research processes are to: (1) explore the current state of internet service design in Korea through in-depth interviews with professional designers and survey questionnaires to 30 digital design agencies and 60 clients; (2) compare how design is managed between in-house design groups and digital design agencies though the case studies of five Korean companies; and (3) develop a taxonomy characterizing four roles of designers in conjunction with the levels of their strategic contributions to internet service innovation: visualist, solution provider, concept generator, and service initiator. In addition, we demonstrate the growing contributions of the strategic use of design for innovating internet services, building robust brand equity, and increasing business performance. Keywords: Design Management; Internet Business; Internet Service Design; Digital Design; Digital Design Agency; In-House Design Group, Case Study</p

ANALYSIS OF U.S. WHEAT MARKET SHARES IN EAST ASIA

The effects of U.S. wheat prices, dollar values, and their volatilities on U.S. wheat market shares in 10 Asian countries are analyzed. The variables are converted to a relative form comparing the U.S. against Australian and Canadian variables in order to incorporate the effects of competition among these countries. The effects of the increased loan rates and target prices in the early 1980s and the U.S. export enhancement program (EEP) are also analyzed. Estimation results show that higher U.S. wheat prices and U.S. dollar appreciation have detrimental effects, while increases in competitors? wheat prices and currency values have cross positive effects on U.S. market shares. The importers are not sensitive to volatility in annual price and exchange rate changes. Dummy variables representing the domestic farm and trade policies are not statistically significant, implying that the two variables do not have a substantial effect on U.S. wheat export performance in the markets.international wheat trade, market share, panel unit-root test, panel estimation, Crop Production/Industries, International Relations/Trade,

U.S. MEAT EXPORTS AND FOOD SAFETY INFORMATION

New information about food safety can stimulate a sudden, significant concern by the public, resulting in a pronounced change in consumer demand. One such example is the declining level of beef consumption in Europe and Japan, stemming from the outbreak of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), known as mad-cow disease. This study evaluates the impacts of the BSE outbreak in Japan in September 2001 on the import demands for U.S. meat in Japan and South Korea, using a nonparametric revealed preference approach. Empirical results show that there are excess violations in the Japanese data after the timing of the outbreak, but not in the South Korean data, implying that the event has influenced Japanese meat import demand, but not South Korean meat import demand.Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, meat import demand, revealed preference, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, International Relations/Trade,

THE EFFECT OF FOOD-SAFETY RELATED INFORMATION ON CONSUMERS' PREFERENCE: THE CASE OF BSE OUTBREAK IN JAPAN

This study analyzes consumers' responses to food-safety related information by evaluating if Japanese consumers have undergone a structural change in their preferences for meat due to the BSE outbreak in the country. The axiom of revealed preference is utilized to test the stability of preference in Japanese meat consumption. The matrix of weak form of revealed preference (WARP) is partitioned and Kruskal-Wallis statistics are derived to evaluate whether the switches of preference are transitory or due to a structural change. Empirical results show that Japanese meat demand has undergone a structural change, synchronized with the BSE outbreak in Japan in mid-September 2001.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,