A Comparative Study on the Business Philosophy of Representative Merchant Organization in Korea, China and Japan
Authors:   Asia-Europe Perspective Association, Lim Oeseuk 
Published: June 2018

The famous merchants performed a brilliant exploit in the transportation of goods and the function of sales over the world before advancing in the means of transportation. Superior merchants existed in Korea, China, and Japan, such as Venetian merchant, Arabian merchant, and Jewish merchant in europe and Central Asia. Representative merchants are the Gaeseong merchant and Byongyoung merchant in Korea, ten big merchants of the Wenzhou merchant and Sinan merchant, etc. in China, and three big merchants of the Oumi merchant and Ise merchant, and Osaka merchant in Japan.
The purpose of this study is to present implications after finding similarity and something in commons, and differences through comparative analysis on the business philosophies between Korean Gaeseong merchant and Chinese Wenzhou merchant, and Japanese Oumi merchants as the representative merchants of their countries.
For satisfying of the purpose of study, first looked at preceding research related to merchant organization and business philosophy, as a keyword in the subject of study. The terms related to merchant organization are ‘merchant’, ‘organization’. The terms related to business philosophy are ‘business philosophy’, ‘management ideology’, ‘corporate philosophy’, ‘business ethics’, ‘merchant spirit’, ‘commercial spirit’, ‘entrepreneurship’, etc.
As a result of looking at preceding research, merchant organization was restrictively defined as the group of persons doing commercial activity by organizing members of more than two persons in principle, and business philosophy was defined as the belief and idea of management in merchant organization for all activity related to commerce. To get logical briefness, this business philosophy include similar terms such as management ideology, corporate philosophy, business ethics, merchant spirit, commercial spirit, entrepreneurship, etc.
Next, three premises of study was presented to get logical briefness and validity on the design of framework and progress of this study. The framework of study was designed to clarify the range and logical direction of this study. Merchant organization appear on the basis of geographical, sociopolitical, and human factors in their country and local community. They systematize an organization for the purpose of the expansion of commercial power and the securement of efficiency in management to survival and growth with commercial activity. They find out commerce principles through experience and learning with various trial and error in the course of commerce activity. This study suggest historical implication after finding similarity and something in commons, and differences through comparative analysis for business philosophies of merchant organization from such commerce principles. This is the framework of this study.
On the basis of this framework, business philosophy was analyzed from commerce principles of each merchant organization after looking at various commerce principles on the basis of the research for appearance background and activity situation of each merchant organization. As a result, Gaeseong merchant has the business philosophy of communitarianism, creditism, utilitarianism, and activism. Wenzhou merchant has the business philosophy of utilitarianism, dialogism, empiricism, and pragmatism. Oumi merchant has communitarianism, utilitarianism, pragmatism, and creditism.
Three merchant organizations has the business philosophy of utilitarianism in common. Two merchant organizations has the business philosophy of communitarianism, creditism, and pragmatism in common. The business philosophy of activism appear only in Gaeseong merchant of Korea. The business philosophy of dialogism and empiricism appear only in Wenzhou merchant of China.