The Costs and Benefits of Korean Conglomerate to the Korean Economy

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The Costs and Benefits of Korean Conglomerates to the Korean Economy
It is believed that South Korea’s economy was agricultural by the mid-20th century. However, nowadays South Korea is the one of the Four Asian Tigers. What helped Korean economy to develop so fast and so effectively? A key role of developing Korean market has chaebol. This term was first used in the 1984. “Chaebol” means “monopoly” in Korean and it is a business conglomerated structure controlled by one family who has power in all operations. The chaebol is usually a large company, consisting of a group of small companies. The chaebol are often compared with Japanese keiretsu but they have fundamental differences. Firstly, keiretsu are usually run by professional managers while chaebol are controlled by their founding families. Secondly, chaebol’s ownership is always centralized by contrast with keiretsu. The Korean chaebol such as Samsung and LG Group are known worldwide and their products are used everywhere. The Korean conglomerates are expanding their influence taking more and more fields of manufacture. Besides, some countries (for example, Russia) are thinking over the inheritance of Korean chaebol experience to modernize their economies. This phenomenon was called “chaebolization”.
Even though chaebol helped South Korea to become a developed country, some economists criticize the system for its negative impact on the Korean economy. Some specialists say, “The chaebols ate Korea”. My goal is to investigate all the advantages and disadvantages of Korean chaebol system for the Korean economy and to make a conclusion about conglomerates’ influence on the Korean economy.
To achieve this goal, I organized my work into three main sections, one of which has two ...

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...omy. It must be very difficult but some measures are required in order to reduce diversification of production and corruption inside the business, and to let small and medium businesses grow.

Works Cited

“The Origins and Development of Chaebol.” Library of Congress Encyclopedia, June 1990. Web. 29 Nov. 2013
“The Chaebol that Ate Korea.” The Economist. The Economist, 12 Nov. 1998. Web. 29 Nov. 2013
“South Korea Conglomerates.” The Economist. The Economist, 11 Dec. 1997. Web. 29 Nov. 2013
Moon, Ilhwan. “Do the Chaebol Choke Off Innovation?” Bloomberg Businessweek. Bloomberg Businessweek Mag., 3 Dec. 2009. Web. 29 Nov. 2013
Kim, Soo-yeon. “S. Korea Raising Alertness against Influx of Foreign Capital.” Yonhap News. Yonhap News Agency, 24 Sept. 2013. Web. 30 Nov. 2011
Jackson, Van. “Goodbye Chaebol, Hello Small Business.” The Asian Times Online. 5 Jan. 2008

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