2020 Fall Semester Social Value Forum and Research Competition Awards Ceremony

‘2020 Fall Semester Social Value Forum’ and ‘Social Value Research Competition Awards Ceremony’ was held at Supex Hall, LG-POSCO Building on November 6^th(Fri).

The ‘2020 Fall Semester Social Value Forum’ and ‘Social Value Research Competition Awards Ceremony’ was held at Supex Hall, LG-POSCO Building on November 6^th(Fri). The ceremonies were hosted by KUBS(Dean=Johngseok Bae) and KUBS Institute for Business Research and Education(IBRE) (Director=Jaehwan Kim), and sponsored by SV committee of SK SUPEX Pursuit Council and Happynarae Co.,Ltd.

The Social Value Forum is an event to enhance exchange of knowledge related to the pursuit of social value and its specific methods. Around 50 people including △KUBS Dean Johngseok Bae △IBRE Director Jaehwan Kim and guest speaker, Prof. JaeGu Kim (Myongji University), and preregistered students attended the event. All participants wore masks and sat while keeping social distancing policies to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Dean Johngseok Bae giving an opening speech

The ceremony began with the opening speech of Dean Johngseok Bae. “Sustainable business management and social value are important values,” he began. “We must take action, not simply be content with knowing.” He encouraged the teams that participated in the research competition by saying “Thank you for your efforts in research and preparation. I hope this opportunity was a valuable learning experience.”

IBRE Director Jaehwan Kim giving a congratulatory message

Next, IBRE Director Jaehwan Kim gave his congratulatory message and said “contemplating about social value as ends, not simply means, is valuable work that must be a part of KUBS history.”

Professor JaeGu Kim (Myongji University) giving a lecture

Next, Professor JaeGu Kim (Myongji University) gave a lecture on ‘Sustainable business management and impact investing.’ “Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, fundamental change in society has begun,” he said. “We must work together to build a more sustainable society.” Professor Kim introduced companies such as Enuma, Super Bean, and Donggubat that are fulfilling social values. “Stability-oriented Korean companies need risk-taking entrepreneur spirit, and social value is at the heart of this entrepreneurship,” Professor Kim said.

He explained impact investing is “investment that focuses on social value, but also considers financial returns.” Professor Kim told students who participated in the Social Value Research Competition that “you all may take pride in the fact that you are individuals with entrepreneur spirits.” He finished the lecture with an encouragement to students by saying, “with a profitable business model and sincerity, you will be able to receive huge investments.”

2020 Social Value Research Competition Awards Ceremony was held

The ‘2020 Social Value Research Competition Awards Ceremony’ was held after the lecture. Twelve teams that passed strict evaluation chose among categories of Research, Case Study, and Start-up, selected a topic, and presented outcomes of their research they conducted since May. The judges were Professor Jungbin Moon, DaeSoo Kim and Soongsoo Han.

The evaluation process was delayed due to the participating teams’ fervor and superb work. Judges contemplated and had heated discussions. △Participation Awards for two teams △Honor Awards for two teams △Excellence Award for one team △Grand Prize for one team were awarded. The grand prize winning team receives the right to participate in an international case competition.

Judge and Professor Soongsoo Han(center), and Participation Award winners YooJin Lee(Business ’18), EunJi Lee(Business ’18), YeonSu Cho(Business ’18), and Hae Min Cho(Business ’19)  (in Korean alphabetical order)

Judge and Professor Soongsoo Han(center), and Participation Award winners JiHyun Ryu(Business ’18), SeoYoung Park(Business ’18), HaeJu Bang(Business ’17), and JungHyun Seok(English Language and Literature’17, Business double major)  (in Korean alphabetical order)

Participation awards went to △YooJin Lee(Business ’18) △EunJi Lee(Business ’18) △YeonSu Cho(Business ’18) △Hae Min Cho(Business ’19) who presented on the topic of ‘Enhancing Communication with Consumers through Social Value Measurement - Stakeholders Perspective Assessment System’(Research) and △JiHyun Ryu(Business ’18) △SeoYoung Park(Business ’18) △HaeJu Bang(Business ’17) △JungHyun Seok(English Language and Literature’17, Business double major) who presented about ‘Correlation between Social Value Pursuit and Foundation Motives – focusing on Young Social Venture Founders’(Research).

Judge and Professor Soongsoo Han(center), and Honor Award winners JiYoung Park(Business ’17), YooJin Shin(Business ’17), IlGyu Shin(Business ’15), and JuYoung Lee(Business ’17)  (in Korean alphabetical order)

Judge and Professor Soongsoo Han(center), and Honor Award winners EunJung Shin(Business ’18), Hanna Yoo(Business ’18), SangYeon Lee(Business ’18), and HyunJi Lee(Business ’18)  (in Korean alphabetical order)

Honor awards went to △JiYoung Park(Business ’17) △YooJin Shin(Business ’17) △IlGyu Shin(Business ’15) △JuYoung Lee(Business ’17) who presented on the topic of ‘An Analysis on the Socio-Economic Effect of Financial Inclusion - How did FinTech Secure the Social Value of Financial Inclusion in Kenya?’(Case Study) and △EunJung Shin(Business ’18) △Hanna Yoo(Business ’18) △SangYeon Lee(Business ’18) △ HyunJi Lee(Business ’18) who presented on the topic of ‘Proposal of Subleasing Contract Intermediating Platform to Fulfill Social Value’(Start-up)

Judge and Professor DaeSoo Kim (center), and Excellence Award winners SeonHo Kim(Chinese Language and Literature’18, Business double major), JuYeon Oh(Chinese Language and Literature’18, Business double major), JiWon Yoo(Business ’18), and YeonJu Choi(Business ’19)  (in Korean alphabetical order)

The Excellence Award went to △SeonHo Kim(Chinese Language and Literature’18, Business double major) △JuYeon Oh(Chinese Language and Literature’18, Business double major) △JiWon Yoo(Business ’18) △YeonJu Choi(Business ’19) who presented on the topic of ‘How to Measure Social Value – an Actual Case of Applying IMM on Domestic Social Ventures’(Research).

Judge and Professor DaeSoo Kim (center), and Grand Prize winners MinKyeong Kim(Business’19), SangYoon Kim(Business ’19), HyunSong Kim(Business ’19), and SeongHyun Baek(Business ’19)  (in Korean alphabetical order)

Lastly, △MinKyeong Kim(Business’19) △SangYoon Kim(Business ’19) △HyunSong Kim(Business ’19)△SeongHyun Baek(Business ’19) who presented on the topic of ‘D&A Recycling art supplies for the Enjoyment of the Arts among the Disadvantaged’(Start-up) received the honor of the Grand Prize.

Interview of the Social Value Research Competition Best Award Winner

1. Please tell us about how you decided to participate in this Social Value Research Competition.
Hello, I'm Kim Sang-yoon (Business School ’19), representative of the team D&A who won the best award of the 2020 Social Value Research Competition. All of our team members graduated from the same high school and entered Korea University Business School as a freshman in 2019. When we were in high school, we had a lot of interest in people as well as our society, and we believe this has led us to the interest towards social values even after entering our university. In 2019, we were selected for the Social Value Research Competition and conducted our research, but it was regrettable that we failed to create the actual social value by putting our research into practice. In 2020, we wanted to carry out in-depth research with a new theme to produce results that lead to creating actual social values. I'm very happy to achieve this excellent result through our effort. I would like to thank Professor Soongsoo Han for giving us great motivation and also for providing appropriate advice and support to us.

2. Please introduce your project <예술 교구의 재활용과 소외계층의 예술 향유> which won the Best Award.

D&A focused on small instruments (recorder, Danso, ocarina, etc.) and art supplies (color pencils, markers, paints, crayons, etc.) that most people haven't used since high school. By linking these abandoned and neglected resources to children in underdeveloped countries under poor educational conditions, we have set up missions and looked for solutions to ensure that children have hope as well as the right to feel the beauty of art. The key to the solution was to procure sterilization and transportation costs that would occur if the uncontrolled or discarded art instruments were to be delivered to children on the other side of the globe. Thus, D&A has created a system to pay for the costs of reprocessing and delivering art instruments by acting on behalf of the client’s CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and winning projects to promote the company in various methods in the art education process. Our goal is to cast local music teachers to carry out systematic music education, hold community recorder contests using our client’s display, and operate a touring music education volunteer group using buses produced by the client to realize sustainable virtuous cycle of art education through various activities related to the client. It promotes CSR projects of the clients by recording and transparently disclosing these education content through text and video sources. This will ensure the joy of sharing to donators, the beauty of art to children in underdeveloped countries, and effective CSR activities and corporate promotion to partner companies.

3. What is the social value which D&A tries to pursue through this project.
D&A offers new opportunities for children in underdeveloped countries who lack artistic experience due to social conditions. It is already self-evident in pedagogics that children with experience in culture and arts education are less aggressive and hostile than those without experience in culture and arts education. According to a survey of children who received art education through our project, most of the respondents showed positive emotional response, such as strengthened ties with their friends through playing musical instruments. In addition, the goal of saving and recycling resources is achieved by delivering the unused and neglected art tools which has the value of the remaining lifespan to those who need them. The last thing we had in mind was the continuous creation of social values. We wanted to create a business model that could draw voluntary and continuous participation from all members across the whole process; a sustainable social value-creating business model rather than a one-time event. Children not only receive education, but also deliver the beauty of music that they experienced to other students as educational services, enabling them to create a series of continuous social values.

4. Are there any memorable episodes which happened during your research.
The preparation process was hard, but I was able to overcome it delightfully because I participated as a team with my close friends. Among several methods of collecting recorders, I remember selecting one apartment near the university and collecting them around 782 households to verify the collection of home visits with my team members. Also, there were many unexpected situations because all institutions and daily life were almost paralyzed by the COVID-19 incident. Particularly, only the most expensive EMS premium delivery service was available due to the paralysis of logistics. I was glad to be able to carry out the research at the expense of high shipping charges since I thought that the worst-case scenario would be the cancel of delivery. Although there were times during the preparation process when we couldn't find the solution and didn't know how to solve it, but we always had meetings pleasantly with a creed of one team member's words, "It's not that there's no hope at all”. It was an experience that will be very helpful in the future.

5. What can be some aspects that we could do together to create a culture that emphasizes social values.
I think the starting point for creating social values is the interest towards people and our society. Social values are ultimately created by solving social problems, and we need to be able to see social discomfort in order to create such values. The theme of this research is the idea which I came up with while organizing my desk. If I had thrown away the recorder rolling around the drawer without thinking, it would have been impossible to create such values. Also, I believe the starting point of this study is that we've always been interested in the poor educational environment of children in other countries and constantly thinking about what we can do. I think this competition is very meaningful in that sense because everyone has different ideas, experiences, and interests; therefore, they can share their ideas and perspectives on social issues and solutions through competitions and forums. I would like to thank the Business School and SK for supporting us and providing this great opportunity to participate in the competition.