KJC Korea
Journal Central

This study analyzes the mechanism by which policy narratives of the advocacy coalitions work on policy changes on protection and utilization of personal information. A case study using NPF(Narrative Policy Framework) was conducted, combining literature analysis, big data analysis on news articles, which empirically verifies the policy narrative elements and strategies and in-depth interview of experts such as government officials, lawyers, and citizen activists to enhance analytical and contextual understanding. The major findings are as follows. The pro-protection and pro-utilization coalitions competed to convert their policy beliefs into policies using narrative components and strategies of NPF under the core belief of protecting basic rights and economic values, respectively. However, the various policy narrative strategies by pro-utilization coalition, such as positive encouragement for Fintech companies, use of symbolic words called "Three Laws of Data Protection and Utilization," framing strategy to replace personal information with national economic development were effective in getting approval from the public. More diverse narratives such as linkage of the use of personal information to positive words like safety, fairness and inclusive growth, and melodramatic story-telling helped to persuade the public. As public support and social deliberation become important in policy formation and change, advocacy coalitions competing for policy alternatives need to strategically organize and utilize policy narratives. Especially in policy areas related to economic interests, to use narratives that form a positive images such as benefits is suggested to form a favorable public opinion.

This study aims to examine whether regulations have different effects on product innovation depending on the firms size. In addition, it was intended to check whether the technology intensity had an interaction effect. According to the analysis results, it was confirmed that Korean manufacturing companies had different results on product innovation depending on firms size, regulatory type, and technology intensity. These results verify that the effect of regulation on each firms size in radical and gradual product innovation is different, and the impact of regulation on product innovation performance varies depending on the degree of technology intensity.

With the recent rapid growth in online intermediation services, the South Korean Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) proposed a bill in 2020 aiming to prevent unfair trade practices and promote innovation. Legislation of the bill has been proactively driven by the KFTC and is scheduled to be deliberated at the Parliament after being approved at the Cabinet meeting. The key ideas of the bill have been adopted from regulatory framework of the EU, who had long been a world leader in regulating the tech sector. This study explores how the Korean regulators made their regulatory choices and why they made such decision, from the perspective of cross-national policy transfer. In doing so, this paper analyzes the distinguished regulatory frameworks of the South Korean and EU regimes, as well as the different business landscapes of the two jurisdictions. Through the analysis, this study finds that policy transfer is seemingly an ‘easy’ tool but how it operates is much more complex, because every jurisdiction has a distinguishably unique environment –both in business and regulatory terms. The South Korean government’s attempt to adopt a new regulation from the EU framework misses numerous points as it decided to accelerate the legislation process instead of tailoring the law to the Korea-specific situation with more delicacy. The unclarity of the legislation also leaves burden to the business sector, but a significant learning is learned of policy transfer - that policy transfer can be used as an effective and convenient tool only if the ‘adopter’ takes a thorough and robust approach in preparing a policy strategy that is delicately tailored to the domestic business and regulatory environment.

This study aims to analyze how ESG ratings can contribute to carbon neutral in the industrial sector, that is, companies, which are the largest consumer of energy consumption accompanied by green gas emissions, as the global warming has been emerged as a global issue. Especially, this study is focusing on the possibility of ESG as an effective solution to environmental problems because ESG has the characteristics of self regulation, unlike general regulation directly involved by the government. Self regulation is easier for companies to secure compliance with regulations than government regulation, and it is possible to acquire regulatory expertise and efficiency in general. As a result of the analysis, it was found that ESG performance related to environmental factors among ESG ratings had a negative effect on energy consumption. In Detail, it was found that a one grade rise in ESG performance has the effect of reducing energy consumption by at least 5.5%. In Korean case, considering that the total energy consumption of the industrial sector as of 2020 is 138 million toe, a share of 5.5% accounts for 7.59 million toe, that is 1.4 times higher than the 5.3 million toe used by the public and other sectors. Furthermore, comparing with the energy efficiency improvement system (EERS) implemented by the government, an annual saving effect of 6 trillion Korean won (equivalent to approx. 4.82 billion US dollars) can be estimated. In short, as ESG, one of the forms of self regulation, has the potential to be an adaptation mechanism that induces eco-friendly behavioral changes in companies, we can found policy implications and lessons in establishing environmental policies for effective energy consumption responding to global climate change.

RegTech is an abbreviation of regulatory technology and refers to streamlining regulations using innovative new technologies. Regtech, which emerged to help firms efficiently comply with complex financial regulations after the Global Financial Crisis, has since expanded to various business areas, and recently, cases have been observed in the public sector. However, it is true that the use of RegTech is still heavily concentrated in the private sector. The purpose of this paper is to explore the possibility and direction of using RegTech in the public sector through a comprehensive review of RegTech cases in the private sector. First, after confirming the trend of using RegTech abroad through keyword network analysis on RegTech-related English literature, the paper analyzes cases in which RegTech is harnessed specifically. We found that the application of RegTech has been gradually expanding, and it is mainly used in two areas: regulatory compliance and risk management. In public sectdor, RegTech can contribute to efficient and effective regulatory compliance and regulatory management by solving problems of information deficits and regulatory resource shortages experienced by both regulators and regulatees.

This study examined the problems of a twin-peaks model experienced in Australia and Netherlands in order to reduce problems following the possible introduction of the model in South Korea. Their experience revealed several problems including those in the relationships between prudential regulator and business-conduct regulator, the independence of regulators, scope of regulatory authorities, regulatory styles, intra-organizational design, and internal integration of regulators. Among these, the problem specific to a twin-peaks model is the relationship between prudential regulator and business-conduct regulator, which requires particular attention in South Korea. In this respect, it is desirable that discussions on the introduction of the model pay special attention to clarifying jurisdiction, facilitating information sharing, and avoiding conflicts between the two regulatory agencies. However, it is worth considering that jurisdictional overlap and conflicts between the regulators, which are merely treated as harm, may be conducive to effective financial supervisory system.