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The purpose of this paper is to examine the diffusion of a popular Korean music video on the video-sharing web site YouTube. It applies a webometric approach in the diffusion of innovations framework to study three elements of diffusion in a Web 2.0 environment: users, user-to-user relationship and user-generated comment.

The webometric approach combines profile analyses, social network analyses, semantic and sentiment analyses.

The results show that male users in the US played a dominant role in the early-stage diffusion. The dominant users represented the innovators and early adopters in the evaluation stage of the diffusion, and they engaged in continuous discussions about the cultural origin of the video and expressed criticisms. Overall, the discussion between users varied according to their gender, age, and cultural background. Specifically, male users were more interactive than female users, and users in countries culturally similar to Korea were more likely to express favourable attitudes toward the video.

The study provides a webometric approach to examine the Web 2.0-based social system in the early-stage global diffusion of cultural offerings. This approach connects the diffusion of innovations framework to the new context of Web 2.0-based diffusion.

South Korea imposes more stringent restrictions on political speeches during elections than many other democratic countries. The purpose of this paper is to examine the long‐standing conflict between citizens and institutions in the Korean electoral environment and the effects of the internet on this conflict.

The paper provides a case study of the 2007 presidential election in Korea. During the campaign period, two video clips (one on YouTube and the other on Daum, a major domestic web portal) emerged and implicated the then‐leading candidate in a financial scandal. The paper investigates how these video clips were shared and discussed among Korean voters, even though the country's election laws restricted the sharing of such information in cyberspace. The paper employs a combination of network analysis techniques, including hyperlink analysis, interaction network analysis, and semantic network analysis.

YouTube served as a medium for Korean voters to circumvent local electoral regulations, thus implying the neologism “cyber‐exile”. However, unlike Daum, YouTube failed to facilitate discussions on the posted video clip. The discussion through its comment feature was often derailed by irrelevant comments from seemingly uninterested parties. The address of the video clip was shared through personal blogs and online bulletin boards in Korean cyberspace, but these efforts led only to a fragmented sphere.

Any comparison between YouTube and Daum should be made with caution because of inherent differences between the two platforms.

The results have important practical implications for those interested in designing e‐deliberation environments. For example, they should have a clearer understanding of the composition of users and the undesirable consequences of a fragmented public sphere.

This paper highlights how pre‐internet institutions shape its members’ political activity on the internet. In addition, the results clearly demonstrate that an innovative effort to circumvent barriers on the part of internet users is not enough to harness the potential of online discussions for a measured and sustained discourse on the issue at hand.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a network analysis of Twitter discussions about Myung-Bak Lee, a former president of South Korea, to gain a better understanding of the dynamics of the public opinion exchange on Twitter.

Opinion leaders in the discussion network were identified by considering the longitudinal distribution of tweets containing the former president’s name, and three types of messages (“followings,” “mentions,” and “retweets”) were analyzed using data collected from November 1, 2011, to April 20, 2012. The sample included 26,150 Twitter users and 892,034 relationships reflecting three types of messages.

The results indicate that the discussion about President Myung-Bak Lee was dominated by liberal Twitter users who already had considerable influence both online and offline. In addition, Twitter users were unlikely to interact with other users with opposing political views.

Almost all of the opinion leaders identified in the study held liberal political views, and liberal Twitter users dominated the discussion network. In addition, the Korean Twitter network showed the presence of the homophily phenomenon, implying that opinion leaders’ influence within the Twitter network was limited to other users sharing the same political views. Further, political views of opinion leaders were skewed toward a particular political stance without necessarily representing the opinion of the general public, possibly hindering the democratic process.

This study tests the homophily thesis in the context of Twitter users in Korea and contributes to the literature on Twitter-based political discourse by identifying opinion leaders in Korean Twitter networks and examining the phenomenon of homophily within those networks.

This study aims to explore Twitter use by Korea's central government by classifying the government's Twitter-based networking strategies into government-to-citizen (G2C) and government-to-government (G2G) strategies.

The study investigates the nature of social media interactions and networking strategies in the Korean government by extracting tweets, follower/following relationships, and hyperlinks for 32 ministries. Network patterns and networking strategies are reviewed through descriptive statistical analysis and social network analysis to map the government's Twitter activity.

The results indicate that the government's direct networking strategy targeting citizens does not necessarily motivate their participation in the government's social media activities but that it plays an instrumental role in reinforcing G2G relationships.

This study investigates the social media use patterns (e.g. network properties and co-link analyses) and strategies (e.g. the reciprocity of relationships and content-push strategies) in the context of G2C and G2G relationships in Korea's public sector.

This study aims to introduce and define the concept of phygital brand community (PBC). It discusses the potential conflicts that can arise from engaging in multiple PBCs and propose an enriched netnographic methodological approach to explore the role of PBC engagement overlap and its influence on the phygital experience.

Following a critical analysis of the inherent limitations of netnographic methodological approaches in the context of PBCs, this study develops an enriched netnographic research protocol that accounts for the challenges of engagement overlap among PBCs.

This study proposes two methods of analysis, namely, “participatory netnography” and “witness netnography,” which are derived from a mixed-methodology approach that integrates elements of netnography.

The findings of this study underscore the requisite methodological refinements imperative for enhancing netnographic analysis, particularly in its application for a better comprehension of individual behaviors within the realm of PBCs. In pursuit of this objective, the identified adjustments encompass ethical considerations, evaluation methods and their application in a digital milieu, where intricate mechanics and technologies frequently elude conventional methodologies.

In this study, the authors present a novel conceptualization of PBCs, highlighting their role and development, as well as the challenges they pose. To adequately capture the impact of PBC engagement overlap, the authors propose the need for an enriched mixed-methodological approach.

After the Korean War, South Korean politics was dominated by national security concerns. Reversing Carl von Clausewitz's well-known dictum, in South Korea, “politics is the continuation of war by other means.” Until the late 1980s, politics in South Korea was far from democratic. South Korea had five direct presidential elections (1987, 1992, 1997, 2002, and 2007) and six national assembly elections (1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, and 2008) after the democratic transition of 1987. In 1992, a civilian candidate, Young Sam Kim, was elected president. Young Sam Kim (1993–1998) prosecuted and punished former generals turned presidents Doo Hwan Chun (1980–1988) and Tae Woo Roh (1988–1993) for corruption, mutiny and treason in 1995. Dae Jung Kim (1998–2003) was elected president in 1997. For the first time in South Korean political history, regime change occurred between a ruling party and an opposition party.

In this chapter, the change and continuity of civil–military relations through the fluctuating dynamics of the democratic transition and consolidation in South Korea is examined. A positive consolidation of democratic reform is one that, while securing indisputable civilian supremacy, grants the military enough institutional autonomy for the efficient pursuit of its mission. Civilian supremacy should be institutionalized not only by preventing military intervention in civilian politics but also by ensuring civilian control over the formation and implementation of national defense policy.

In sum, despite three terms of civilian presidency, civilian supremacy has not yet fully institutionalized. Although significant changes in civil-military relations did occur after the democratic transition, they were not initiated by elected leaders with the intention of establishing a firm institutional footing for civilian supremacy. South Korea's political leaders have not crafted durable regulations and institutions that will sustain civilian control over the military.

More than six decades, Korea is still divided. The most highly militarized zone in the world lies along the demilitarized zone. How to draw the line prudently between seeking national security and promoting democracy shall be the most delicate task facing all the civilian regimes to come in South Korea. That mission will remain challenging not only for civilian politicians but also for military leaders.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of brand and message framing on consumers’ evaluations and purchase intentions of smart health-care clothing. The study also examines the mediating effect of consumers’ evaluations on the effects of the brand and message framing on purchase intentions.

Through an experimental approach, a total of 240 US consumers’ evaluation of smart health-care clothing is compared according to the existence of a well-known brand (vs. none) and message framing (technology-focused vs. fashion-focused).

The results show that consumer evaluation of smart health-care clothing is higher when the product is from a well-known brand, where consumers’ fashion consciousness and health consciousness positively influence such an evaluation as covariates. Message framing, however, did not have an influence that revealed any significant difference between technology-focused and fashion-focused messages. The consumer’s evaluation of smart health-care clothing eventually increased their purchase intentions and mediated the effects of brand on purchase intentions.

Smart health-care clothing refers to clothing that measures, records and manages the user’s activity and health status through conductive fibers or sensors that are woven in the clothes. Despite its benefits, smart health-care clothing is still not widely adopted among consumers, except for a few successful examples. Closing this gap, the results of this study provide implications regarding whether and how brand and message framing maximize consumers’ evaluations toward smart health-care clothing, which the developers and marketers of such products can use to increase the product’s market penetration.

Man has been seeking an ideal existence for a very long time. In this existence, justice, love, and peace are no longer words, but actual experiences. How ever, with the American preemptive invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and the subsequent prisoner abuse, such an existence seems to be farther and farther away from reality. The purpose of this work is to stop this dangerous trend by promoting justice, love, and peace through a change of the paradigm that is inconsistent with justice, love, and peace. The strong paradigm that created the strong nation like the U.S. and the strong man like George W. Bush have been the culprit, rather than the contributor, of the above three universal ideals. Thus, rather than justice, love, and peace, the strong paradigm resulted in in justice, hatred, and violence. In order to remove these three and related evils, what the world needs in the beginning of the third millenium is the weak paradigm. Through the acceptance of the latter paradigm, the golden mean or middle paradigm can be formulated, which is a synergy of the weak and the strong paradigm. In order to understand properly the meaning of these paradigms, however, some digression appears necessary.

Short-sea shipping (SSS) plays an important role in regional transportation networks by supporting regional trade and improving inter-modality. In particular, countries in north-east Asia, such as China, South Korea and Japan have been served well by local SSS services. While SSS markets in Northeast Asia (NEA) have been developed by bilateral routes with sub-markets, the market structure of each sub-markets varies depending on concentration and competition levels as well as government intervention. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the market structure of SSS markets in the Northeast Asia.

Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (HHI) and concentration ratio are adopted to measure the market concentration from 2013 to 2017 for SSS markets in NEA. Additionally, the balance between supply and demand is investigated by measuring the capacity utilisation factor (CUF) based on slot capacity.

The market structure in the NEA SSS markets is influenced by firms’ behaviour under different levels of governmental intervention. Shipping firms in a market with more governmental intervention in market entry tend to focus on balancing supply and demand rather than increasing market share, whereas firms in a market with less intervention (and more competition) tend to increase their market share by pursuing efficient capacity management.

The period of data set is limited to 2013–2017. Furthermore, prices or revenue for specific routes are not available.

This paper sheds light on the market structure and behaviour of players in SSS market. In addition, the work has value to measure capacity utilisation based on slot capacity.