No abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine economic debates over the conception of barriers to entry and speculates which definitions can be applicable to the telecommunications industry, more specifically, the residential broadband market. Also, it seeks to clarify the various industrial factors that could prevent or mar the success of entry into the residential telecommunications market and it also seeks to introduce an analytical framework that can be adopted for evaluating the barriers to entry.Design/methodology/approachThe approach takes the form of a literature review.FindingsIt clarifies the various industrial factors that could prevent or mar the success of entry into the residential telecommunications market and introduces an analytical framework that can be adopted for evaluating the barriers to entry.Originality/valueAlthough market entry barriers are crucial industrial factors that influence the market share and profit of firms already in the market, very little research has specifically examined barriers in the telecommunications and broadband industry.

Although refugees often face competition in their efforts to survive and achieve upward mobility, little is understood about their psychological processes concerning competition. In this regard, we attempted to assess the extent to which North Korean refugees (NKRs) engage in social comparisons and exhibit competitive attitudes compared to their South Korean (SK) host citizens. We targeted NKRs and SKs, as we could control for the shared cultural heritage. First, we tested measurement invariance to determine whether there was a psychometric equivalence in the two latent constructs of social comparison concerns (SCCs) and competitive attitudes (CAs) between NKRs (n1 = 214) and SKs (n2 = 472). Partial scalar invariance was established to demonstrate the association between SCC and CA, suggesting that only certain aspects of the two latent constructs were comparable between NKRs and SKs. Compared to SKs, NKRs exhibit a significantly higher level of SCC for self‐evaluating abilities and opinions of individuals and their significant others, and CA about interpersonal and goal competitiveness with a medium effect size.