Seong-gin Moon

State-Level Institutional Pressure, Firms' Organizational Attributes, and Corporate Voluntary Environmental Behavior

Using a neoinstitutional theory, this study examines how state-level institutional pressure influences firms’ decisions to participate in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Energy Star for Buildings (ESBs) program. In this program, firms voluntarily commit to optimizing energy use in their buildings. We also investigate how participation is influenced by organizational attributes of firms that influence potential economic returns from ESBs participation. Our binary probit analysis shows that the influence of state-level institutional pressure on participation in the ESBs program is weak relative to that of firms’ organizational attributes. Our empirical findings suggest that a firms decision to participate in the ESBs program is more likely to be driven by economic calculations, such as potential return on investment, than by an effort to relieve institutional pressure exerted by state institutional actors.

Ethnic Identity, Acculturative Stress, News Uses, and Two Domains of Civic Engagement: A Case of Korean Immigrants in the United States

This study examines the roles of ethnic identity, acculturative stress, and news media use in explaining Korean immigrants’ civic engagement. An online survey of 1,135 Korean immigrants revealed that a strong Korean identity facilitated their engagement in the U.S. Korean community. However, this coethnic civic engagement was not mirrored by a corresponding civic engagement in their host society. Acculturative stress influenced a particular pattern of news media use: Immigrant Koreans who felt acculturative stress tended to consume more ethnic news media and less U.S. news media than those who did not suffer from acculturative stress. This particular media use pattern held them back from engaging in the civic activities related to mainstream U.S. society.

The relationship between religion and corruption: are the proposed causal links empirically valid?

There is a growing interest in understanding how religion affects corruption. Many empirical studies have suggested that countries with strong hierarchical religions (such as Islam, Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity) are more likely to suffer from corruption. These results are, however, controversial, largely due to the lack of empirical validity of the causal (or theoretical) links that explain such a relationship: obedience to authority, negative culture reinforcement, amoral familism and trust intermediation. Using the fourth wave World Values Survey (n = 87,988) of 64 countries, this study constructed a general estimation equation model to evaluate these four causal links after controlling for heterogeneity of individuals’ religious beliefs among the 64 countries. We did not find strong evidentiary support for the causal explanations.

Ethnic Giving Versus Mainstream Giving by Foreign-Born Korean Immigrants in California

Based on a large-scale philanthropic survey conducted in California, this paper empirically examines the determinants of ethnic giving versus mainstream giving practices and the interactive relationships between the two observed among foreign-born Korean immigrants. The results of our bivariate probit regression analysis suggest several interesting findings. First, acculturation serves significant functions in immigrants’ decisions to give to mainstream organizations, but does not appear to affect ethnic giving decisions as profoundly. Second, U.S. educational experiences and gender are strong predictors of mainstream giving practices, whereas household incomes and religiosity figure significantly in terms of explaining ethnic giving practices. Additionally, citizenship is related weakly to ethnic giving practices. Finally, two distinctive giving practices are negatively interrelated, meaning that immigrants who donate to ethnic organizations are less likely to give to mainstream organizations, and vice versa.

The influence of personal values, social trust, and political trust on multicultural acceptance

Abstract This study examined the influence of personal values, social trust, and political trust on multicultural acceptance among 1243 Korean people. Multicultural acceptance was divided into two factors: prejudice and hospitality. The main findings of the study are as follows: first, an individual with a strong materialist value has a high level of prejudice against foreigners and a low level of hospitality. Second, when the level of social trust is high, the level of prejudice is low and the level of hospitality is high. Third, social trust and the meritocratic view interact to lower the level of prejudice. Based on these findings, future research directions were suggested.

A Comparative Study of the Effects of Institutional Arrangements in Municipal Solid Waste Services in Korea

Abstract In Korea, local governments are primarily responsible for providing municipal solid waste services to citizens. This paper examines the effects of different institutional arrangements and characteristics on cost savings, efficiency gains and productivity in the delivery of municipal solid waste services to citizens. In order to carry out this research, a hybrid cost function approach was employed, and cross-sectional time-series data from local governments of Korea covering a ten-year period (2000–2009) were used for empirical analysis. Empirical findings indicated that there were no effects of contracting-out on cost savings, efficiency and productivity gains in Korea. Specifically, the solid waste service costs were not significantly lower under contracting-out than under direct public delivery. In addition, contrary to the arguments of the proponents of privatization or contracting-out, efficiency and productivity gains were actually higher under direct public delivery than when contracted out.

The influence of trust on environmental behavior: evidence from South Korea

Abstract Although pro-environmental behavior, if produced collectively, can provide significant and positive public consequences for the environment, it is not always easy to facilitate since it has public good characteristics and collective action problems associated with environmental behavior. This study empirically evaluates the influence of trust on environmental behavior using the National Survey data on Koreans’ Environmental Behavior. The empirical results suggested that individuals with higher stocks of trust will have a greater tendency to act in a collective manner for the environment. Specifically, trust capital was effective to facilitating such environmental behavior as consuming less water, using energy-efficient bulbs. In addition, pro-social behavior was an important determinant of pro-environmental behavior.