Dean`s Greetings

2022.09.29 Views 465

Greetings from Seoul.   For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic, Korea University Business School held a  faculty retreat with more than 50 professors on Jeju Island. The event provided a good opportunity for professors to not only discuss about school matters but also socialize with one another. In addition, we had a staff workshop, where all the staff members, dean, and associate deans gathered in Nami Island for discussions and, socializing events.   Korea University Business School held a big event called “Installation of Artwork” last May. A sculpture by Ufan Lee, the world-renowned Korean artist, was placed on the lawn in front of the Business Hall. The title of the work is [Relatum - The Location]. This work is a made of stainless steel plate (3x4m) polished like a mirror and placed on the lawn, and a natural stone was erected on it. This work is composed in the form of a dialogue about the mutual ontological relation where a stone made by nature and a man-made iron plate meet through the mediation of the artist. This work will serve as a door to our hearts to move forward into the future in pursuit of educational perfection in KUBS. The mission of our business school is to enable humankind to enjoy a good life together by creating new ideas and knowledge with social influence and fostering social leaders who will change the world. This work will help students to imagine the good life of humanity.   The first term of the ESG-AMP course, which began in the first half of this year, has been finally completed. Although the program size was small when it started, it turned out to be a meaningful curriculum. Executives, who would be the main players to practice ESG in many Korean companies in the future learned and discussed about issues in ESG and tried to find a new direction in establishing ESG in Korean companies and forming a new ecosystem in the field.   It is a time that the university education environment changes rapidly, and both degree and non-degree programs seem to have great challenges. Business Schools need to share the necessary information in this fast changing environment and to use the information wisely so that we can benefit the society.     Sincerely, Johngseok Bae Dean, KUBS

Digital Transformation in Business Implementation of Colloquium

2022.09.29 Views 341

To implement innovative education suitable in the era of Digital Transformation (hereinafter referred to as ‘DT’), the business school has been implementing the Digital Transformation in Business Colloquium as part of a plan to foster the convergence of talents who can solve problems in the business field and establish a long-term industry-academic cooperation.   DT experts and academics give lectures at the Colloquium event, which delivers knowledge on DT not only to the students and professors in the business school but also to the corporate sectors and helps them restructure towards DT. Korea University members and anyone interested in DT can attend the lectures.     Last May, Sooil Kim, a group leader of LG CNS Entrue, explained about metaverse, meta-commerce, customer data, and cases of using LG CNS's meta-commerce in a lecture entitled ‘Virtual World, the Beginning of New Commerce, MetaCommerce.’ In July, Phil K. Yoon, CEO of Big Basin Capital, explained the symbiotic relationship between venture capital and startups and the successful strategies of startups invested by Big Basin under the theme of ‘The Digital World Created by Startups and the Role of Venture Capital (VC).’ In a lecture on the topic of ‘How should AI, Machine Learning be used in business operations?’ Dongkyoo Park, a partner of PwC Consulting, emphasized that data analysis should be done by both left-brain and right-brain and that each part of the brain has its role in successfully processing the data.     Students who participated in the Colloquium expressed their satisfaction, saying, "I was able to vividly learn about the company’s new business strategy.," and "It was a good opportunity to study the theme that has recently been talked much about in the field of business administration."      

Reorganization of the Undergraduate Curriculum to Strengthen the Capacity in Preparation for the 4th Industrial Revolution

2022.09.29 Views 344

In the era of digital transformation, KUBS has reorganized its curriculum so that talents who will lead the future society can develop both technological capabilities and humanities literacy beyond their major. All KUBS students are required to take at least one core liberal arts course in the areas of △ Artificial Intelligence Society and Ethics △ Artificial Intelligence and Humanity △ IT and Social Norms △ Virtual Reality and Culture △ Understanding Algorithms and Problem Solving △ Data Governance, which represent interdisciplinary integration of cutting-edge fields with humanities.   The core liberal arts subjects are courses that must be completed in addition to major courses, and these courses focus on ensuring that Korea University students are equipped with fundamental skills.   Through this, the business school aims to foster creative and convergent future talents in line with the rapidly changing social trends. Johngseok Bae, Dean of KUBS, emphasized the need for this curriculum reform, saying, "In the future society, we need talents who are equipped with both humanities and the ability to analyze and utilize data irrespective of their major."  

E-MBA and E-MBA CARE programs that you can join after graduation

2022.09.29 Views 324

In the representative program of Korea University Graduate School of Business, Executive MBA (hereinafter referred to as ‘E-MBA’), the “E-MBA CARE (Continuing Alumni Reaching-out & Education, hereinafter referred to as ‘CARE’) program” is being conducted for graduates. The CARE program invites prominent experts from various fields to give lectures every year to create an environment where alumni can continue to learn even after graduation and to promote a place where alumni and can network. Students will broaden their horizon of knowledge not only through lectures on business administration related to social issues such as “response strategies in an era of low growth and uncertainty” and ‘real estate market trends and policy tasks’, but also through lectures on various political and economic issues such as ‘North Korean nuclear crisis and U.S.-China relations.’     The E-MBA of Korea University Graduate School of Business ranked 20th in the world in the ‘2021 World Top 100 E-MBA Rankings (The Top 100 EMBA Programs) selected by the Financial Times in the UK in 2021. 1st in Korea for 11 consecutive years and to maintain the top 20 positions for two consecutive years.

Collective Attention and Collective Intelligence: The Role of Hierarchy and Team Gender Composition

2022.09.29 Views 359

Collective Attention and Collective Intelligence: The Role of Hierarchy and Team Gender Composition   Organization Science, June 2022 Anita Williams Woolley , Rosalind M. Chow , Anna T. Mayo , Christoph Riedl , Jin Wook Chang   Collective intelligence (CI) captures a team’s ability to work together across a wide range of tasks and can vary significantly between teams. Extant work demonstrates that the level of collective attention a team develops has an important influence on its level of CI. In this study, we examine the influence of team hierarchy and its interaction with team gender composition. To do so, we conduct an experiment with 584 individuals working in 146 teams in which we randomly assign each team to work in a stable, unstable, or unspecified hierarchical team structure and vary team gender composition. We examine how team structure leads to different behavioral manifestations of collective attention as evidenced in team speaking patterns. We find that a stable hierarchical structure increases more cooperative, synchronous speaking patterns but that unstable hierarchical structure and a lack of specified hierarchical structure both increase competitive, interruptive speaking patterns. Moreover, the effect of cooperative versus competitive speaking patterns on collective intelligence is moderated by the teams’ gender composition; majority female teams exhibit higher CI when their speaking patterns are more cooperative and synchronous, whereas all male teams exhibit higher CI when their speaking involves more competitive interruptions.   (Click the title to view the research paper)

Installation of the work by the world-renowned Korean art maestro, Ufan Lee

2022.09.29 Views 409

On May 17 (Tue), KUBS held an event to install the work “Relatum - The Location” (hereinafter referred to as “Relatum - The Location”) by the world-renowned art maestro, Ufan Lee (86). The artist, Ufan Lee, who has greatly influenced Korean and Japanese contemporary art with his philosophical paintings containing dots and lines and rose to the rank of a master in the world's art world, installed a new “Relatum - The Location” consisting of a 1.4m-high natural stone and a 4m x 3m mirror stainless steel plate on the business school campus. Artist Ufan Lee's work this time, ‘Relatum - The Location’, is made up of a conversational form where a human-made iron plate and a natural stone meet through an artist’s mediation to talk about their mutual ontological relatum. The artist, Ufan Lee, is said to have decided on the concept of the work after four to five months of planning after visiting and exploring the school campus in the second half of last year to produce the work. It is a rare case that a Korean university has proposed and placed a new work of art by a world-renowned art master instead of a commemorative sculpture such as a statue.     The academic event was completed by presenting the goal of KUBS of adding artistic sensibility to the academic field through lectures and talks on “Ufan Lee’s Life and Art” held before the artwork unveiling ceremony. After watching the video message sent by the artist, Ufan Lee, the unveiling event of artworks was held.   Through a non-face-to-face video, the artist, Ufan Lee, conveyed the meaning of his work, mentioning, "My work this time is simply that it is even so bland. I only used a large natural stone, grated a stainless steel plate like a mirror, placed it on the lawn, and then put a stone on it. However, by this simple encounter and combination, a lasting and universalized field is opened by a single, sparkling cosmic moment that we cannot feel in our daily lives. I think this is the work I presented this time.”   The business school expects to raise the social and artistic imagination of students through the installation of this work, create new ideas and knowledge with social influence, and foster social leaders who change the world.

When Do Group Incentives for Retail Store Managers Work?

2022.09.29 Views 325

When Do Group Incentives for Retail Store Managers Work?   Production and Operations Management, May 2022 Hyun Seok (Huck) Lee,Saravanan Kesavan,Camelia Kuhnen   As retail stores are geographically dispersed, store managers play an important role in driving store performance. To motivate them to exert effort, retailers have provided group incentives for store managers. Using data from 75 stores of a U.S.-based retail chain that changed its incentive plan for store managers from being purely dependent on store performance to being dependent upon both store and corporate performance, we investigate the effect of this change on store performance. Using a difference-in-differences analysis, we find that making managers’ bonus dependent on corporate goals has resulted in overall worsening of store performance. However, such an effect is positively moderated by the increase in stores within close geographical proximity, while it is negatively moderated by the past performance of the focal store. This paper documents how firms can design more effective incentive schemes for managers by considering stores’ geographical networks and their past performance.   (Click the title to view the research paper)

Social Value Project Course

2022.09.29 Views 295

The business school has been constantly establishing new courses as a plan to foster creative talents who respond to the changes of the era and lead the future society. Among them, the “Social Value Project” course is a subject in which students design and research a business model that originates from social value.    This course, which is conducted for students singled out from the ‘Social Value Research Contest,’ helps students apply their business knowledge and materialize ideas based on social values in the process of a project. In addition, during the project, students will contemplate the social responsibilities of future managers and experience ethical leadership through mutual respect and cooperation among team members.     In addition to this course, the business school also has newly established “Social Value and Sustainable Management” since 2021 and has been offering ESG-related courses, such as analyzing the theory and practic cases of ESG management, and discussing critical analysis and practical implications for socially responsible corporate activities.    

Education for the Next Generation of Business Leaders, Entrepreneurship Academy

2022.09.29 Views 308

As a plan to foster the next generation of business leaders, the KUBS Startup Station conducts the “Entrepreneurship Academy” every semester, where entrepreneur mentors actively working in the field deliver lectures in person. The Entrepreneurship Academy is a lecture that anyone interested in starting a business can take. In addition, it comprises of a monthly special lecture series that enhances the interest and understanding of startups by prospective entrepreneurs and a special lecture on demand that provides practical knowledge essential for business startups according to the demand of startup companies that have moved into the KUBS Startup Station.   This special lecture, which aims to promote entrepreneurship through special lectures by mentors who launched start-ups and to enhance core competencies essential for start-ups using internal and external start-up experts, is drawing keen attention from students. It does so by improving the competencies of start-ups and the practical knowledge of early founders, establishing networks among founders, and inducing the formation of organic relationships.

Dean`s Greetings

2022.04.29 Views 453

  The most picturesque season in a year has arrived in Korea University. Many trees boast luscious green leaves and royal azalea blossoms have come into full bloom along with forsythias and azaleas. They have covered the campus with a crimson-like color, the color of the university. Speaking of trees, one thing I would like to talk about is that the 5th of April is Arbor Day in Korea. In the past, Arbor Day was designated as a national holiday and many organizations held tree-planting ceremonies around the country on that day. The purpose of Arbor Day was to create a good natural environment in the ruins of the Korean War as there were not many trees on mountains after the Korean War. Nowadays, there is no need for planting trees because there are many trees planted throughout Korea, and Arbor Day is no longer observed as a national holiday.   KUBS held a tree-planting ceremony on Arbor Day (Apr 5) this year, during which three trees were planted: a plum tree, a scholar tree, and a pine nut tree. The history of Korea University began when it first started teaching Commercial Science in 1905 and plum flowers were used in the emblem of the school. Next, the scholar tree planted in the ceremony has grown from the seed of a scholar tree which was planted in front of the old building site of Bosung College, Korea University’s predecessor. Finally, the pine nut tree is the University Tree of Korea University. These trees were planted around the Business Administration building, and storyboards describing the history of each tree and their special connection to Korea University were installed to help the members of the university share stories related to the university’s history.   When the spring semester began in the first week of March, COVID-19 was still prevalent and there were many concerns about face-to-face classes. Therefore, the semester began with two weeks of online instruction, followed by lectures as they were planned in the initial lecture plans. Now, the situation has been much stabilized after just one and a half months and most of the confusion has been resolved. We believe that we are almost back to “normal” as the number of foreign exchange students which had dropped significantly due to COVID-19 is rising again. Regarding education, we are developing a Debate class at the undergraduate level to train social leaders equipped with characters and competence who will change the world, aimed at fostering critical thinking, cooperation, and integral thinking as well as social imagination. This course is expected to help us foster talented young leaders who have practical abilities for grasping the essence of problems in addition to functional and analytical knowledge, communicating with their own language, and drawing integral solutions. In the case of MBA, approximately 20 percent of existing courses have been newly developed. Mainly, content regarding ESG, business analytics, and entrepreneurship & innovation has been added to a great extent.   In addition, KUBS inaugurated the ESG-AMP program in March for the first time in the Executive Education Center which is the main center for non-degree programs. ESG-AMP has been newly added while the existing AMP program is still ongoing. Even though the enrollment number had dropped by about one third due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the past two years, the number is almost recovering to the pre-pandemic level starting from this semester. In the new ESG-APM program, people related to ESG from large corporations such as Samsung, SK, Kia and LG are enrolled and having active discussions. We plan to continue the ESG-APM program in the future.   Now, it is time to prepare for our next step while observing what the ‘new normal’ would be in the Post-COVID-19 era. As the direction, content and methods of education are fast-changing; we are tasked to keep a close watch on how the situation develops from various perspectives and search for solutions. I hope that everyone will wrap up the semester peacefully and happily.     Sincerely, Johngseok Bae Dean, KUBS

Korea University Tree Planting Events Ends in Success

2022.04.22 Views 410

KUBS held an event to plant trees symbolizing KUBS at 5 pm on April 5 (Tues). KUBS had led business management education in Korea since it started teaching Commercial Science in the Department of Plutology in 1905. It has striven to create new ideas and knowledge which can have an impact on the society and foster social leaders who can change the world, by cultivating historical and artistic values. To this end, the Business School has set the “establishment of historicity” including tree planting as a core task, and took this event as an opportunity to promote the historical awareness and improve pride and a sense of belonging among the members of KU by planting symbolic trees, which is a measure to shift the school’s focus away from external growth to qualitative improvement. The plum tree planted in this event is a symbol of Bosung College, Korea University’s predecessor, and produces plum flowers which were the royal pattern of the Korean Empire. This is closely related to the history of Korea University. Also, another tree symbolizing the university, the Pagoda Tree, is commonly known as the Scholar Tree. Yet, the reason that this year’s tree-planting event is more special is that the seeds of this tree were extracted from the pagoda tree planted in front of the main temple of the Jogyesa Temple (Nurse Tree #78 designated by Seoul), the old site of Bosung College, and then sprouted and grown into a sapling in the Deokso Farm. The final tree symbolizing the university is a nut pine tree, which is the university tree, selected by the Board of Directors of the University Foundation and the Academic Affairs Committee in 1968. Dean Johngseok Bae said, “I hope that this tree-planting event will serve as a means to share identity and develop stories among the member of KU and ultimately to foster communication across all generations.

KUBS`s social contribution activities, Mentoring Day for the youth

2022.04.22 Views 388

KUBS hosts a Mentoring Day for the youth during the summer and winter vacations each year. This event has been offered since 2015 as part of KUBS’s social contribution activities, providing high school students wishing to study at KUBS or interested in the field with an opportunity to experience the faculty of business management. Although this year’s Mentoring Day was held online due to COVID-19, over 100 high school students participated in the event, showing their fervent interest. In particular, the online event was especially well-received by students from rural and remote areas because it was difficult for them to participate in a face-to-face event. The event consisted of a variety of programs, including △ Introduction of KUBS, △ Introduction of 7 majors and 3 tracks, △ a business negotiation lecture by Professor Sungwoo Kwon, △ business management exercise based on the lecture, △ online campus tour, △ a lecture by KUBS student mentors, and △ a Q&A session. “Until now I just wanted to attend KUBS because of its name value, but through this experience, I learned what they actually teach in the field of business management,” said a student who participated in the Mentoring Day. “I am really motivated now because I know what I want to do in the future.”

Final Presentation of the Capstone Project

2022.04.22 Views 402

KUBS runs the Capstone Project to discover a problem solving-type Digital Transformation (DT) in Business model to examine the tasks and course of direction of companies facing digital DT and to focus on developing a business model. Through this project, KUBS sought to improve the problem discovery skills of students suitable for the DT era and to secure collaboration with relevant industries and DT-related external organizations. From June 2021 to January 2022, the project partnered with various affiliated organizations such as Deloitte Consulting, Korea Credit Information Service, Lotte Members, and GS Retail to identify the DT issues of each organization and conduct data analysis. In this Capstone Project, many deliverables that could be used immediately in business sites were presented, including customer management using VOC text mining, and customer purchase behavior analysis and service improvement recommendation using image data cluster analysis.

KUBS Challenge Business Case Competition

2022.04.22 Views 449

KUBS hosts the annual KUBS Challenge Business Case Competition (hereinafter referred to as “KUBS Challenge”), where teams of four KUBS undergraduate students analyze specific business cases within a given time frame and prepare presentations. Students analyze real-life business cases and find solutions for better competitiveness, etc. for 24 hours and offer a presentation for 10 minutes, thereby offering students with the opportunity to apply their business knowledge acquired in school to real-life business cases. In the 2021 KUBS Challenge, participants were asked to analyze the business case of Australian buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) firm, Zip, to examine why the stakeholders find the BNPL industry attractive, and to find solutions for the Zip Corporation to gain the upper hand in competition with major and emerging competitors in the BNPL industry as well as the credit card industry. KUBS awards the winning team of the KUBS Challenge an opportunity to participate in an international business case competition and full financial support for related expenses such as return flights, accommodation and registration fees. In addition, extensive support is offered to enhance students’ capabilities by assigning a dedicated academic adviser to provide special training for the competition.

“Business and Society” – An introductory class for business management for incoming freshmen.

2022.04.22 Views 383

 KUBS has established a new course, Business and Society, in 2019 to introduce basic theories and various fields of business management to first-year students, to help them grow to be business leaders meeting the educational goals of KUBS, “Business for Society – Inspiring Next Leaders.” This course was designed based on Joseph Wharton’s education philosophy expressed at the start point of modern business management education, “Business education should find solutions to the social problems inherent in our civilization, and its leaders should be community builders and leaders who are responsible for society’s shared needs.” The first half of the course examines the relationship between business and society based on topics such as the philosophical perspective of business, contemplation of leadership, understanding of business ethics, and arguments regarding the reason for the existence of businesses, and seeks to explore why it is important for corporate management to seek not only profits but also social values, and how this can be realized. The second half of the course covers the introduction of 7 sub-majors in business management offered at KUBS based on functional classification (Business Management, Accounting, Finance, MIS, Marketing, LSOM, and International Business) and asks how corporate values and social values can be pursued together within the scope of each sub-major. This course aims to help students understand the importance of pursuing social values in business activities and foster leadership in harmony with the society. In addition, it is expected that the ultimate goal of business management, which is to help humans enjoy common good lives, will be internalized through the understanding of the relationship between each major in business management and the pursuit of social values.

Creation of the ESG-AMP (ESG-Advanced Management Program) Program

2022.04.22 Views 412

As ESG (Environment, Society, Governance) becomes an emerging hot topic recently, major stakeholders of corporations, including customers, investors, credit rating agencies, and governments are demanding a high level of ESG management system from corporations. In consideration of the increasing importance of ESG management and the demand for ESG management education, KUBS has newly established the ESG-Advanced Management Program (ESG-AMP) as of March. Dean Johngseok Bae said, “Relative to a great interest in ESG management, an ESG management education program for CEOs does not actually exist,” and explained, “Our goal is to promote ESG management throughout the Korean society and thereby contribute to the sustainable development of companies, society and the mankind.”     The ESG-AMP course at KUBS is a high-quality 16-week education program offering an original curriculum covering the basic concept of ESG management, latest trends in environment issues, social values, corporate governance, and corporate response measures. In addition, the ESG management status of companies or organizations where students work is analyzed and possible solutions for improvement are examined. Further, KUBS seeks to foster CEOs with practical ESG management capacity through the ESG-AMP program by offering domestic or overseas training opportunities where students visit excellent domestic and abroad ESG management companies and acquire hands-on experience in ESG management.

Reorganization of MBA curriculum to realize the vision of “C³ talents

2022.04.22 Views 406

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic a rapid transition to the contactless economy is taking place and resolving social and environmental issues has become corporations’ top priority. Further, the development of state-of-the-art startups to create new values is being emphasized. To respond to such rapid changes in the economic and business environments, KUBS has re-established the concept of talents applicable to all MBA programs and implemented large-scale reforms to the MBA curricula to reflect the latest trends. First, KUBS has set a new education goal for its MBA program as “C3 Global Leadership Development” and is planning to realize the image of global talents summarized as △Co-Creator for the Value △Contributor for the Society and △Challenger for the Future through more innovative curricula. As the first project in achieving this vision, KUBS developed 14 new courses and included 23 new lectures in five programs (Korea MBA, Finance MBA, Executive MBA, Global MBA, Global MIM) starting from 2022. Specifically, the new subjects have been established on △ESG △Digital Transformation and △Entrepreneurship, which are the recent emerging hot topics in the business and economic world.

The Role of Attribution in Learning from Performance Feedback: Behavioral Perspective on the Choice

2022.04.21 Views 506

The Role of Attribution in Learning from Performance Feedback: Behavioral Perspective on the Choice between Alliances and Acquisitions   Academy of Management, November 2021  Jaemin Lee, Joon Mahn Lee and Ji-Yub (Jay) Kim   The causal attribution of performance has not been explicitly considered in the performance feedback literature, despite its potential value in learning from prior performance. In this study, we develop a theory concerning the attribution in learning from performance feedback and explore how the attribution of past alliance performance can influence a firm’s choice between future acquisitions and alliances. We also examine the mechanisms by which attribution manifests by exploring how three theoretical factors, known to influence attribution, can moderate the relationship - the diffusion of responsibility, the perceived capability of partners, and the ambiguity of performance information. We find strong evidence supporting our predictions. This study contributes to the performance feedback literature by integrating attribution with performance feedback theory. It also extends research on corporate strategy by providing a behavioral account of the choice between acquisitions and alliances.       (Click the title to view the research paper)

Managing the Impact of Fitting Room Traffic on Retail Sales: Using Labor to Reduce Phantom Stockouts

2022.04.21 Views 536

Managing the Impact of Fitting Room Traffic on Retail Sales: Using Labor to Reduce Phantom Stockouts   Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Volume 23, Issue 6, November-December 2021 Hyun Seok (Huck) Lee , Saravanan Kesavan , Vinayak Deshpande    Brick-and-mortar (B&M) retailers must enhance the customer in-store experience to better compete with online retailers. Fitting rooms in B&M stores play a critical role in the customer experience as a venue to experience products and examine alternatives. High traffic in fitting rooms, however, obstructs the customer’s ability to choose a product. In this paper, we (1) examine the impact of fitting room traffic on store performance, (2) identify phantom stockouts as a plausible mechanism for this impact and (3) provide a potential solution and quantify the magnitude of its impact. Specifically, we demonstrate an inverted-U relationship between fitting room traffic and sales using archival data analysis. Our field study reveals that high traffic in fitting rooms exacerbates phantom stockouts, which could contribute to the decline in sales. Finally, through field experiments at two retailers, we show that a timely backend recovery operation through a dedicated fitting room associate reduces phantom stockouts and increases sales by 22.4%–22.7%. Our findings provide the following managerial implications. First, contrary to conventional wisdom that traffic drives sales, we identify that fitting room traffic beyond a certain point can hurt store sales. Second, we find a large magnitude of phantom stockouts in fitting rooms. Finally, we show that dedicated fitting room labor can significantly boost store sales by alleviating phantom stockouts. Our proposed solution was adopted by both retail organizations that we worked with.         (Click the title to view the research paper)  

Equilibrium supply chain structures in the presence of asymmetric manufacturer capabilities in servi

2022.04.14 Views 474

Equilibrium supply chain structures in the presence of asymmetric manufacturer capabilities in service efficacy and provision   JOURNAL OF THE OPERATIONAL RESEARCH SOCIETY, 73(2), 394-416, 2022   Hwan Chung, Dae-Yong Ahn, and Weon Sang Yoo   This study examines the role of service in shaping an equilibrium supply chain structure to show if and when a mixed supply chain structure of one integrated supply chain and one decentralized supply chain becomes an equilibrium outcome. Our game theoretic model incorporates asymmetric manufacturer capabilities in service efficacy and provision, where service efficacy refers to the effectiveness of generating a higher demand for a given service level and service provision the cost-efficiency in producing service. The results show that a mixed supply chain structure emerges as a Nash equilibrium outcome only if two products are moderately substitutable and one manufacturer is superior to the other in service provision with the former downward integrating and the latter decentralizing. Under this scenario, the superior manufacturer raises its profits by investing in service provision capabilities, widening the gap with its opponent, and furthermore, the superior manufacturer compensates for a less differentiated product if it is capable of providing service far more cheaply than its opponent.       (Click the title to view the research paper)