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The purpose of this study was to examine racial/ethnic differences in AFS use and their contributing factors using a decomposition analysis.

The 2018 National Financial Capability Study dataset was used to analyze the four major types of AFS—title loans, payday loans, pawnshops, and rent-to-own (RTO) stores—as proxies for AFS use. The study conducted both logistic regression analysis and decomposition analysis to examine the contributing factors.

The results of the logistic regression analysis demonstrated significant disparities in the use of alternative financial services (AFS) among racial and ethnic groups. Specifically, it was found that Blacks were more likely to utilize title and payday loans, pawnshops, and rent-to-own (RTO) stores compared to Whites. In contrast, Hispanics and Asians/individuals of other ethnicities were less likely to use title loans, but Hispanics were more likely to opt for payday loans over Whites. Furthermore, objective financial literacy exhibited a negative association with the likelihood of using these four types of AFS, whereas subjective financial literacy consistently showed a positive association. When examining the decomposition analyses, it became evident that both objective and subjective financial literacy played significant roles in explaining the racial and ethnic disparities in AFS usage. However, the patterns varied in three specific pairwise comparisons.

This study revealed the relative contributions of each factor to the racial/ethnic disparities through decomposition analysis. Our Fairlie decomposition approach addressed non-linearities within the decomposition framework, particularly in estimating the probabilities of AFS utilization, given its binary outcomes. This extension builds upon the Oaxaca decomposition. The study offers valuable insights into the variations in AFS use among different racial and ethnic groups.

The purpose of this study is to construct composite index variables of credit attitude using six attitudinal variables. This study also examines the relationship between consumer credit attitude and credit card debt behaviors.

This study used the pooled dataset of the 2010 and 2013 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) released by the Federal Reserve Board. A total of 8,417 households were used as our analytic sample. The credit card indices were constructed using factor analysis with polychoric correlations. Factors of the credit card debt behaviors were estimated using hierarchical logistic regression models.

The results of factor analysis identified two credit attitude indices (wants and needs). The results of hierarchical logistic regression analyses show that the credit attitude indices have a positive influence on payment behaviors; households with more favorable attitudes about credit use for non-necessities (wants) were more likely to hold an outstanding credit card balance, have irregular payment practice and pay a revolving charge.

Although there is ample documentation in the literature of credit behavior, the current literature is deficient in some areas for not addressing unobserved consumer attitudinal dispositions. Further, the separate treatment of selected survey items or an additive scale of survey items has been widely used; however, this approach cannot capture multidimensional characteristics among attitudinal items if credit attitude is not necessarily unidimensional. In response to the shortfall in the extant literature on credit card behavior, this study examined multidimensional aspects of credit attitude as a determinant of credit card debt behavior through methodological justification. Implications for future research and practitioners are provided.

The restructuring of shipping and shipbuilding companies in the midst of rapidly shrinking global shipping demand has become a prominent issue in Korea. In shipping finance, loan syndication featuring many creditors surges as the preferred option. However, increasing the numbers of creditors in the syndicate results in two opposite effects. First is the beneficial effect from their enhanced monitoring power. On the other hand, there is the adverse effect resulting from increased difficulty in coordination when syndicate members increase, particularly in bankruptcy. Our aim of this paper is to analyze the role of finance in the shipping and shipbuilder markets, and determine the theoretical optimal number of creditors for the shipping finance syndicate based on Bolton and Scharfstein (1996). The two issues above result from moral hazard and non-verifiability: coordination among many creditors for collection of bonds in case of default, and the enhancement of monitoring private benefit exploitation by the ship-owner during default. Considering the two conflicting forces result from an increase in creditor membership, we draw conclusions on determining the optimal number of creditors by considering trade-offs between these two factors: More creditors are preferred when the monitoring effect dominates. Otherwise, less creditors are preferred.

This study examines the relationship between changes in retirement status and social support and their associations with the life satisfaction of older adults, with a focus on potential differences across income levels.

We analyzed various work-retirement pathways using retirement status data from two waves (2016 and 2018) of the biennial Health and Retirement Study. We examined the relationship between these pathways and life satisfaction, incorporating social support from close relationships, including those with a spouse or partner, children, immediate family members and friends. A subgroup analysis was performed based on household income levels.

The study found that completely or partially retired individuals reported higher life satisfaction than those who continued working. Those who had returned to work also experienced higher life satisfaction, particularly among the low-income group. Among the middle-income group, individuals transitioning toward retirement reported greater life satisfaction than those still working. Across all subgroups, closeness with a spouse or partner and having close friends were positively related to life satisfaction. However, a lack of close relationships with immediate family members was linked to lower life satisfaction in the low- and middle-income groups, though this was not found in the high-income group.

These findings have theoretical, policy, and practical implications for older populations, mainly retirees or those nearing retirement. The study suggests strategies to assist older adults in navigating diverse retirement pathways, such as fostering strong social connections and offering flexible or phased retirement programs to ease the transition.

Studies concentrating on digitalization and interconnected capabilities have increased over the past several decades. Digitalization capability and open innovation are perceived as sources of sustained competitiveness across disciplines. This study investigated how digitalization capability and coopetition strategy affect the sustainable performance of firms by exploring the role of internal and external factors in influencing the adoption and success of open innovation in emerging markets.

To test the hypothesis, the authors conducted a structural equation model analysis on 509 firm datasets from the hub cities in China, an innovative battlefield where multilateral cooperation and competition are interwoven for globalization, clean development and the enhancement of economic growth.

The authors found that a firm's digitalization capability positively impacts outbound/inbound open innovation, coopetition strategy and sustainable performance. This study’s results support a series of mediating effects through outbound/inbound open innovation and coopetition strategy. Also, it provides a nuanced understanding of how digitalization capability and open innovation can affect sustainable performance in emerging markets.

The present study provides a nuanced understanding of how digitalization capability and in/out-bound open innovation can affect sustainable performance in emerging markets. The authors believe this model contributes to current knowledge by filling several research gaps, and this study’s findings offer valuable and practical implications for achieving open innovation and creating sustainable performance.

This study aims to empirically examine the conditions for latecomers to successfully pursue path-creating catch-up strategies. In particular, the company is divided into two conditions: the external environment, which refers to the gap in the market share between the leaders and latecomers, and the internal capacities of the company, such as the company’s absorptive capacity, re-combinative capabilities and technological innovation leadership.

Because firms supported by the government tend to be conservative in their decision-making and technology development strategies, governmental assistance is likely to negatively affect path-creating catch-up strategies. This study surveyed small to medium enterprises in the Korea IT industry and analyzed the latecomers’ catch-up strategies from internal and external environment perspectives.

After ensuring its innovation capacity by developing of internal capacity, it turned out to lead to path-creative catch-up strategy and market disparity and government dependence moderates this relation. While market disparity has a positive moderation effect, government dependence showed a negative moderation effect.

The authors proposed and tested hypotheses of how a firm’s path-creative catch-up strategy is adopted and succeeds. Regarding the internal conditions, the authors statistically proved that absorptive capabilities, re-combinative capabilities and technology innovation leadership are important factors for a firm’s technology innovation capacity.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the asset size regarding how the level of a bank’s premium asset management service interaction quality influences the referral intention using performance expectation and customer satisfaction as mediators.

The study employs data collected from an anonymous survey on 185 customers who visited the PB centers. The study employs confirmatory factor analysis methods following a path analysis and structural equation modeling for testing research hypotheses with stepwise moderating effect test.

The results indicate that superiority in interaction quality of premium asset management services has a positive influence on customer satisfaction and performance expectations, and these quality factors also show a positive influence on the intent to maintain relationships and even referral intentions. The results also show that customers with larger asset sizes only have mediocre intentions to refer bank services to people around them.

Marketing positions, which remain faithful to the asset management obligation to fulfill a stable profit rate through constant interactive processes based on a trusting relationship between the customer and dedicated staff member that forms over time, can be a basis for service quality that can secure mid-to-long-term competition superiority in financial firms that offer asset management services.

This study focuses on whether interaction factors that form the quality of services for customized premium asset management through the bank’s dedicated staff member have a positive influence on customer satisfaction and referral intentions. Based on this analysis, the authors presented strategic implications on conditions that financial firms must focus on in order to secure competitiveness.

The purpose of this paper is to examine regional voting patterns in South Korea using the results from six presidential elections since the 1990s.

A χ² test was used to determine the municipalities where a regional voting pattern emerged, and λ correlation coefficients were calculated to examine changes in the regional voting patterns.

The analyses lead to three key findings. First, voting patterns differ in Yeongnam and Honam: regional voting in Yeongnam is getting weaker, it remains strong in Honam. Second, the tendency to vote along regional lines decreased significantly in the election in which the Honam party fielded a candidate with a Yeongnam appeared identity. Third, regional voting patterns declined but then stabilized at a constant level, regardless of the candidates’ local identity, which was confirmed in “Bu-Ul-Gyeong.”

This paper can empirically verify the manifestation of regional voting pattern and confirm the trend. It is possible to derive a condition for suppressing the regional voting pattern.

As the global economy continues to boom, there remains a significant need for more efficient transportation and effective management in corporate logistics. In this regard, railways have been considered one of the most efficient modes for long distance transportation. In Asia, there are several extensive and direct railroads such as the TSR (Trans-Siberian-Railroad), the TCR (Trans-Chinese-Railroad) and the TMR (Trans-Mongolian-Railroad) which could connect Asia to Europe. If these railroad networks such as the TKR (Trans-Korean-Railroad) were fully operational, it is expected that they would replace a major portion of the current global trade transportation with is sent through other shipping methods. Therefore, the development of railroad networks is one of the most important steps toward an integrated international transportation system. However, in reality, it is difficult to achieve this vision because of the political and economic problems surrounding multiple countries that this network must cut across. Moreover, it is difficult to ensure the railways’ economic competitiveness when it is compared with other logistics options. In this study, we aim to discover the status quo about railway networks by focusing on the TCR and TSR. Through in-depth interviews and surveys with actual users of these networks, current issues and problems are analysed in order to make suggestions for improvements. This research also provides meaningful insights which the TKR-TSR and TKR-TCR railway networks should consider if they want to continue to be successful in the future.