Analysis Of Korea Customer Perceptions Regarding China-Korea Train Ferry In The Context Of China-Korea FTA

In 2015,China and Korea agreed to conduct a joint study on combining China's 'One Belt One Road(OBOR)' vision and Korea's 'Eurasia Initiative',which was soon followed by Korea's announcement to actively relaunch China-Korea train ferry project in 2016 as a means to bring radical advancements in bilateral logistics infrastructure.By directly linking rail cars to ships,a train ferry system allows direct roll on/roll off of cargoes,forgoing the need for loading and unloading from rail cars during transitions between land and sea.As a transport system that consolidates land and sea,train ferries effectively links two land masses by railway,thus establishing an "ocean railway."As the ocean railway over the Yellow Sea,China-Korea train ferry is also called 'the silk road of the Yellow Sea.' As presently proposed,China-Korea train ferry will cover 460km linking China's Shandong Province and Korea's Pyeongtaek Port.Bilateral discussions on the China-Korea train ferry has been going on for some time.Begun in earnest in 1998,China has taken an active position on the China-Korea train ferry proposal by continuing to expand technical research and building on its experiences with three existing train ferry systems.In contrast,despite some enthusiastic internal discussions and activities between 1998 and 2004,due to a number of political complications involving North Korea,among other things,Korea had all but abandoned the train ferry project in 2004,citing lack of financial feasibility.Discussion on the need for the ferry continued,however,and in 2015,the Korean government decided to seriously reevaluate the project.Renewed interest in the proposed China-Korea train ferry requires a broader and more diverse academic perspective,and in this spirit,this study aims to examine some of the previously neglected issues in the proposed train ferry.To be sure,most existing studies had been led by government research institutions and focused mostly on specific business issues,such as volume projections,cost-benefit analysis,and price elasticity analysis;in both China and Korea,very few purely academic studies on broader issues exist.In this light,this study approaches the China-Korea train ferry proposal from a different perspective,namely an detailed empirical examination from the demand side,or the potential customer of the proposed train ferry.This study has three main goals.First,by looking beyond financial viability,it aims to reassess and offer a broader rationale for the China-Korea train ferry as a promising mode of cross-national transport.Second,the study will conduct a survey of main customers,i.e.the shippers,and statistically identify structural relations among key variables.Third,based on these empirical results,the study will offer policy prescriptions regarding effective operation of the ferry and types of government support.To accomplish these goals,this study undertook a comprehensive review of existing literature and online materials relating to train ferries in general and the proposed China-Korea train ferry in particular.In particular,this study identified the various variables that influenced the choice of transport mode,and proposed a number of hypotheses to test the structural relationship among the observed variables and latent variables.Applying TRA(Theory of Reasoned Action)and TPB(Theory of Planned Behavior),the study developed and analyzed a research model using SEM(structural equation modeling)technique.Two different statistical programs have been used.SPSS 23.0 was used first for factor analysis as well as to conduct tests of validity and confidence.On the basis of these results,measurement model and structural model was analyzed using AMOS 23.0 in testing the hypotheses and providing results.As an alternative mode of cross-national transport,the success of China-Korea train ferry depends ultimately and critically on the perspectives of the main user of the transport,the shippers.By statistically analyzing their views regarding the proposed train ferry,this study has produced some meaningful empirical results.These results should hold some important implications for the establishment and operation of the train ferry in terms of business strategy as well as government policy and support.Moreover,this study contributes to the field of management by being the very first empirical examination of the China-Korea train ferry from the user perspective.