한·중·일 석유화학 산업의 국제경쟁력 분석: 마이클 포터의 다이아몬드 모델을 중심으로

Abstract

Purpose: The petrochemical industry is an essential backbone industry of a nation that has substantive implications on a nation’s economy and other relevant industries. Korea’s petrochemical industry is faced with many challenges. This study is aiming to explore measures to enhance the competitiveness of Korea’s petrochemical industry by comparing China and Japan. Research design, data, and methodology: This paper applied the Diamond Model to the petrochemical industry to identify the industry’s global competitiveness model and conducted empirical analysis based on the evaluation indices per competitive factors. Results: The empirical analysis results show that Korea has the upper hand in factors such as Factor conditions and Firm strategy, structure, and rivalry whereas China is ahead of the competition in terms of Demand conditions and Related & supporting industries. Japan, on the other hand, failed to display competitive edge in all factors and in fact, proved to have the least competitiveness in all elements excluding the factor on Related & supporting industries. Conclusions: First, Korea’s petrochemical businesses need to enhance competitive edge through restructuring in response to dwindling domestic demand and weakening cost competitiveness. Second, Korea’s petrochemical companies need to diversify export markets and expand overseas investments. Third, Korean businesses need to seek differentiation by investing in developing high value added products. Lastly, the Korean government and petrochemical businesses need to join hands to promote investment in the petrochemical related industries and to enhance the level of relevant technologies to ensure organic development of the four competitiveness factors. By doing so, Korea needs to build an overall industrial structure with heightened competitiveness.