Sang-Gun Lee

Effects of telecom service providers’ strategic investments on business performance: A comparative study of US-Korea

– The purpose of this paper is to identify the structure of strategic investments and the effect of each investment category on business performance in two leading information and communication technology (ICT) countries, the USA and South Korea. , – This is a longitudinal comparative study of the relationship between strategic investments and organizational performance of major telecommunication service providers (TSPs) in the two leading ICT countries, the USA and South Korea. , – The study found that a sufficient amount of strategic investments in technological innovations is the driving force for TSPs’ business performance. However, strategic investment structures differ among TSPs, depending on their market position, whether the first mover in the market or a follower, and on their country’s market characteristics. Moreover, even though both countries’ TSP markets are oligopolistic in nature, the market is more saturated in Korea and thus competition appears to be fiercer there than in the USA. The stronger oligopolistic market in Korea has lead TSPs to compete primarily on their marketing strategies, while TSPs in the USA do so based on technological innovation. , – The findings of the study shed new insights that can help both TSPs in developing their competitive strategies and government policy makers in assuring healthy competitive telecommunication markets in their countries.

ICT service providers strategies and customer migration

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how ICT service providers’ strategies affect customer migration. Design/methodology/approach – Using a simulation approach and the agent-based model, this research explores how an incremental technology affects customer migration and changes the market structure. Findings – The authors found that a strategy of disruptive technology innovation not only helps a follower company increase its market share, but it also completely disrupts the market. Originality/value – This study investigates customer migration patterns in the saturated mobile telecommunication market based on service providers’ strategies.

ICT product diffusion in US and Korean markets

– The purpose of this paper is to identify how adoption drivers change before and after key milestones of ICT product adoption (i.e. critical mass point (CMP) (adoption rate 16 percent), market saturation point (MSP) (50 percent) and new generation release point (NGRP)) based on actual subscriber data of the mobile communications industry that represents the ICT market, so that it has implications for the rejuvenation of ICT product adoption that has rarely been addressed in earlier studies. , – This study examined the overall characteristics of ICT product diffusion by tracking the actual patterns of US and Korean mobile market subscribers using the Bass diffusion model. , – This study found that innovation effects gain influences on ICT product diffusion after CMP, MSP and NGRP; imitators are becoming innovators by repeated rejuvenation experiences; and cultural differences have significant influences on imitators’ ICT product adoption, but not on innovators. , – These findings imply that rejuvenation enabled by technology innovation is a key success strategy to dominate the ICT market where the number of innovators, who have strong desires for new generation products, is constantly growing.

A Survival Analysis of Business Insolvency in ICT and Automobile Industries

This study examines the differences in business insolvency between the information and communication technology (ICT) industry and the automobile industry, as well as their sub-categories of manufacturers and service providers, based on survival analysis. The results indicate that, unlike the technology diffusion model, the survival analysis provided clearer explanations on the differences in business solvency among ICT, automobile, manufacturing, and service firms. We found that insolvency of ICT firms is influenced by the short life cycle of the products/services that these firms provide to their customers, as compared to a much longer life cycle of the products of manufacturers. We also identified that ICT service providers’ business depends heavily on ICT manufacturers, but to strengthen their survival ability they must continuously introduce technological innovations. In addition, the study examined the causes of business insolvency of ICT firms based on the characteristics of the ICT industry, including the swing effect, the bandwagon effect, and winner-take-all outcomes. The study results provide valuable insights in developing survival strategies for ICT and automobile firms. The study also makes contributions to the literature in that the business insolvency phenomenon can be better explained through statistical significance analysis.

Marketing Strategy on S-Commerce Based upon Marketing Mix

This study investigates the factors of the marketing mix in the context of social commerce for building marketing strategies. For this purpose, the authors built the research model, collected actual data, and analyzed the results. The results indicate that (1) experience goods, which were very difficult to sell through e-commerce, are most likely to be sold through social commerce, (2) social commerce users prefer to buy products at low prices through coupons based on smart devices, and (3) the reliability of product/service information provided through social networking sites can directly influence social commerce sales through brand equity and collectivism.This study suggests that social commercefirms can expand their market share by implementing a marketing strategy that allows consumers to obtain sufficient information on discounted goods, focuses on brand differentiation to increase product reliability, and makes social commerce use through offline stores more convenient.