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With the accelerating advent of digital economy worldwide, and the very unfortunate drift of the WTO, countries are seeking for establishing their own rule-based systems for digital trade. Korea is one of the most active parties in this area, having completed the negotiations of KSDPA and DEPA. Today, Korea is negotiating its third digital trade agreement with the EU and the European has publicized its proposal text. This paper analyzes the digital trade environment between Korea and the EU based upon the already-ratified Korea-EU FTA of 2011 and the aforementioned draft text, assuming no major modification is made until the completion of the ongoing negotiations. As a result, the newly negotiating Korea-EU DTA is likely to take a major role in expanding and managing the digital trade between the two parties than the FTA. The moratorium is doubly confirmed by the two agreements, but provision for fair treatment for foreign and domestic suppliers requires more attention. The DTA will then provide freer exchange of data, while ensuring more secure stages for personal data, consumer and source code protection. Korea is seemingly at the juncture of making another significant step forward by negotiating digital trade rules with the EU, where holds both the great economic power and digital presence.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between organizational staffing policies and the organizational identification of host country nationals (HCNs) working at multinational corporation (MNC) subsidiaries in Korea. Based on the existing literature and the theories of social identity and self-categorization, we hypothesized that the organizational identification of HCNs is higher under a polycentric staffing policy than under an ethnocentric staffing policy. To test this hypothesis, a two-independent samples t-test was conducted on data collected from 483 HCNs employed by 53 MNC subsidiaries across 24 countries. The results showed that HCNs exhibited higher organizational identification under a polycentric staffing policy compared to an ethnocentric policy. This paper discusses the theoretical and managerial implications of these findings and suggests directions for future research.

This study took two steps to test the Porter Hypothesis in the maritime and port sectors. First, the total factor productivity of maritime and port companies was estimated for the period 2001-2023. Second, using a panel fixed effects model, the impact of environmental policy stringency on the TFP growth of these companies was analyzed for the period 2001-2020. The environmental policy stringency index was obtained from the OECD, and firm-specific data were obtained from ValueSearch by NICE Information Service. The results are as follows. It was found that the TFP growth rate of maritime and port companies significantly slowed down after the global financial crisis. The test of the Porter Hypothesis showed that it was not supported in both the short and long term for maritime and port companies. Additionally, these companies were more responsive to the relative environmental policy stringency than to Korea's environmental policy stringency.

This study focuses on investigating the relationships among transaction characteristics, store image, customer satisfaction, trust, commitment, and customer loyalty for the survival and growth of youth malls in traditional markets of Korea and on presenting theoretical and practical implications of the study based on the analysis results. The results of testing the research hypothesis are as follows. Transaction characteristics factors are evaluated as secondary factors in the following order: customer service (0.851), taste (0.766), price (0.570), store atmosphere (0.542), and location (0.268). Transaction characteristic factors such as location, taste, customer service, store atmosphere, and price play a significant role in store image and customer satisfaction. Store image does not affect customer satisfaction. Store image positively affects trust and commitment. Customer satisfaction positively affects trust and commitment. Trust positively affects commitment and customer loyalty. Commitment positively affects customer loyalty.

This study examines the disproportionate severity of current customs punishment regulations in comparison to penalties for foreign customs offenders, domestic tax offenders, and property evasion offenders. The analysis, grounded in the principles of responsibility, proportionality, and complementarity to criminal punishment, reveals significant issues within existing customs penalty regulations. The research concludes that reforms should aim to mitigate the current aggravated punishment approach. Key recommendations include: (1) elevating the monetary threshold for punishment under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Special Crimes and revising the calculation basis to ‘amount of customs tax evaded’ rather than ‘cost of goods’; (2) modifying regulations to adhere to the principle of punishment based on accomplice dependency; (3) amending the treatment of preliminary offenses to align with precedents in the Criminal Code and foreign customs penalties; and (4) harmonizing the punitive measures for customs offenders with those for tax offenders.

The growth of global e-commerce platforms has expanded consumers' opportunities to choose products with superior quality and cost-effectiveness, and has also helped to activate the global market through competition between companies. However, negative outcomes such as customs evasion, smuggling, unfair profits by purchasing agents, and imports of hazardous goods have also occurred, and it is urgent to find solutions to these. Accordingly, this study aims to identify cases of increased illegal imports due to the increase in global B2C and to suggest the need to establish a sound customs clearance order and an advanced customs clearance administrative system for e-commerce. This study is different from previous studies in that it presents opinions on the blockchain distribution history system. However, it has limitations in that it does not cover the engineering content regarding the design and technical characteristics of the blockchain distribution history system.

Digital trade refers to cross-border transactions based on data flows. These digital trade requires large amounts of data because trade transactions are conducted based on data, and cross-border data transfer plays a very important role in digital trade. Nevertheless, many countries are enforcing restrictions on cross-border data transfers for reasons such as privacy protection, cybersecurity, intellectual property infringement, and national security. These regulations on data transfer act as a significant obstacle to the development of digital trade. At present, not only does there not exist a unified international norm for cross-border data transfer, but even major countries have different regulations on it. Therefore, in order to facilitate digital trade, it is necessary to prepare measures to minimize regulations on cross-border data transfers and secure the interoperability of different data protection frameworks between major countries. Additionally, we will need to establish a global data privacy framework and conclude a global digital free trade agreement in the long term.