About

Bogang Jun is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Data Science at Inha University. She serves as the Director of the Research Center for Small Businesses Ecosystem, funded by the National Research Foundation of Korea. Currently, she is a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Her research spans economic complexity, economic geography, economic development, and urban studies, with a strong emphasis on big data analytics. In recent years, her work has increasingly focused on data-driven analyses of urban small-business ecosystems, building multi-layered big-data platforms to understand how cities evolve through the interactions of firms, people, and places. She conducts integrative, interdisciplinary research that bridges complexity economics, spatial analysis, and data science to uncover the structural dynamics that shape local economies and regional resilience. Dr. Jun holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and earned her Ph.D. in Economics from Seoul National University. She previously held research positions at the Chair of Innovation Economics at the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart, Germany, and served as a Postdoctoral Associate in the Macro Connections/Collective Learning Group at the MIT Media Lab from 2016 to 2019.

Research topics

• Business
• Economic geography
• Political Science
• Computer Science
• Economics
• Artificial Intelligence
• Regional science
• Internet privacy
• Economy
• Geography
• Industrial organization
• Market economy
• Economic system
• Advertising
• World Wide Web
• Macroeconomics

Selected publications

• Seoul street-view database for urban environment research

  Computational Urban Science · 2026-02-05

  articleOpen access

  Street-view imagery provides valuable insights into the physical and social dimensions of urban environments. Seoul, South Korea, known for its rapid urban transformation, presents a distinctive blend of traditional urban centers and newly developed districts. To gain a comprehensive understanding of Seoul’s urban development, we constructed a street-view database spanning 14 years (2010–2023), comprising 423,353 images. To enhance data quality, noise components within the images were removed using advanced object detection and image inpainting techniques. We then segmented objects relevant to the commercial ecosystem and extracted features related to the intensity, shape, and texture for each object. The dataset includes street-view images, object masks, and their associated feature sets, all of which are publicly accessible to the research community. This resource offers a robust foundation for examining dynamic changes in Seoul’s urban environment. By leveraging this dataset, researchers can investigate the unique characteristics of Seoul’s evolving urban landscape and explore their implications for the commercial area.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Close to home: bundled consumption, relatedness, and urban resilience in Seoul

  Journal of Economic Geography · 2026-03-17

  articleSenior author

  Abstract This study examines how bundled consumption, defined as repeated co-use of amenities within clusters, shapes urban resilience based on empirical evidence from Seoul between 2019 and 2023. Using credit card transactions and shop locations, we extend economic complexity methods to the demand side by constructing a relatedness-based measure of co-consumption. Results show that bundled use is concentrated near residences, especially within 0–2 km but weakened during COVID-19 before partially recovering in 2023. These patterns highlight how crises disrupt the infrastructural routines of everyday consumption. The findings provide a behavioural lens on urban resilience and inform planning for sustainable, proximity-based cities.

  PublisherDOI

• Technology Adoption in Tourism to Deal with Global Health Crisis: A Narrative Review

  Iranian Journal of Public Health · 2025-11-09

  reviewOpen access

  Reviewing the research trends of technology adoption in tourism in reaction to the recent global health crisis provides insights into the evolution of the academic discourse of this topic and the role of technology adoption, especially in terms of attaining sustainability. This narrative review was conducted to explore the patterns of technology adoption in tourism in response to the health crisis. The findings reveal a growing scholarly focus on this topic, as well as geographical, methodological, and theoretical concentrations. Technology adoption was seen as the immediate reaction to the crisis and a tool to ensure sustainability by facilitating resilience and recovery after the pandemic. The review highlights the dual role of technology in emergency response and long-term sectoral resilience. However, ethical and structural challenges remain, necessitating better governance of tech integration in tourism.

  PublisherDOI

• Population concentration in high-complexity regions within city during the heat wave

  Cambridge Journal of Regions Economy and Society · 2025-01-24 · 3 citations

  articleSenior author

  Abstract This study investigates the impact of the 2018 summer heat wave on urban mobility in Seoul and the role of economic complexity in the region’s resilience. Analysis of subway and mobile phone data reveals a significant decrease in the floating population during the extreme heat wave, underscoring the thermal vulnerability of urban areas. However, urban regions with higher complexity demonstrate resilience, attracting more visitors despite high temperatures. Our results suggest the centrality of economic complexity in urban resilience against climate-induced stressors. Additionally, high-complexity small business clusters appear to serve as focal points for sustaining urban vitality in the face of thermal shocks within the city. From a long-term perspective, our results imply that people might become more concentrated in highly complex regions in the era of global warming.

  PublisherDOI

• Redefining Urban Centrality: Integrating Economic Complexity Indices into Central Place Theory

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2024-07-29

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  This study introduces a metric designed to measure urban structures through the economic complexity lens, building on the foundational theories of urban spatial structure, the Central Place Theory (CPT) (Christaller, 1933). Despite the significant contribution in the field of urban studies and geography, CPT has limited in suggesting an index that captures its key ideas. By analyzing various urban big data of Seoul, we demonstrate that PCI and ECI effectively identify the key ideas of CPT, capturing the spatial structure of a city that associated with the distribution of economic activities, infrastructure, and market orientation in line with the CPT. These metrics for urban centrality offer a modern approach to understanding the Central Place Theory and tool for urban planning and regional economic strategies without privacy issues.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Public procurement and the market value of a firm

  Innovation studies · 2024-02-29

  articleSenior author

  공공조달은 정부가 세금을 재원으로 하여 공적활동에 필요한 자원을 민간시장으로부터 획득하는 과정이다. 공공조달이 국가경제에서 차지하는 비중이 매우 높지만 공공조달이 기업에 미치는 영향에 대한 학문적 논의는 비교적 최근에 이르러서야 이루어지고 있다. 공공조달은 민간시장에서의 거래에 비하여 안정적인 거래로 수혜기업에 유리한 조건을 제공하여 중소기업 등 취약기업을 지원하는 정책도구로 널리 사용되어 왔다. 그러나 공공조달은 보호된 시장을 형성하여 시장 효율성을 저해할 우려가 있고, 그로 인해 근본적인 기업 경쟁력을 제고할 수 있는지에 대한 의문이 제기될 수 있다. 본 연구는 상장기업의 공공조달 참여여부가 기업가치에 어떠한 영향을 미치는지 살펴보았다. 분석결과 소속시장에 따라 그 효과가 달랐다. 코스피 시장에서는 공공조달 참여기업의 시장가치가 낮게 평가되었다. 반면, 코스닥 시장에서는 공공조달 참여에 따른 기업가치의 차이는 없었지만, 낙찰실적이 높을수록 기업가치가 더 높게 평가되는 것으로 나타났다.

  PublisherDOI

• Population Concentration in High-Complexity Regions within City during the heat wave

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2024-07-13

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  This study investigates the impact of the 2018 summer heat wave on urban mobility in Seoul and the role of economic complexity in the region's resilience. Findings from subway and mobile phone data indicate a significant decrease in the floating population during extreme heat wave, underscoring the thermal vulnerability of urban areas. However, urban regions with higher complexity demonstrate resilience, attracting more visitors despite high temperatures. Our results suggest the centrality of economic complexity in urban resilience against climate-induced stressors. Additionally, it implies that high-complexity small businesses' clusters can serve as focal points for sustaining urban vitality in the face of thermal shocks within city. In the long run perspective, our results imply the possibility that people are more concentrated in high complexity region in the era of global warming.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Close to Home: Analyzing Urban Consumer Behavior and Consumption Space in Seoul

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2024-07-30

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  This study explores how the relatedness density of amenities influences consumer buying patterns, focusing on multi-purpose shopping preferences. Using Seoul's credit card data from 2018 to 2023, we find a clear preference for shopping at amenities close to consumers' residences, particularly for trips within a 2 km radius, where relatedness density significantly influences purchasing decisions. The COVID-19 pandemic initially reduced this effect at shorter distances but rebounded in 2023, suggesting a resilient return to pre-pandemic patterns, which vary over regions. Our findings highlight the resilience of local shopping preferences despite economic disruptions, underscoring the importance of amenity-relatedness in urban consumer behavior.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Technological Leadership in Industry 4.0: A Comparison Between Manufacturing and ICT Sectors Among Korean Firms

  IEEE Access · 2023-01-01 · 9 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  This paper examines the technological structures of the manufacturing and the ICT sectors in Korea to examine the potential shift of dominant technological sectors in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). By using patent data of Korean firms from 1990 to 2021, we find that the manufacturing sector has been the dominant technological leader in Korea in terms of both the number of patents and the diversity of technologies, even in the era of 4IR. Although the ICT sector has shown an increasing focus on Industry 4.0 (I4) technologies after the 2000s, indicating the potential for a shift in dominance in the future, the gap between the two sectors is still significant. The study also reveals that the manufacturing sector tends to diversify technologies, while the ICT sector specializes in several target technologies. Our analysis also suggests that both sectors exhibit path-dependency, with the ICT sector exhibiting stronger characteristics, and firms in both sectors exhibit the tendency of intensive and extensive margin in their patenting activities, but this tendency is stronger for firms in the manufacturing sector.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Ports as catalysts: spillover effects of neighbouring ports on regional industrial diversification and economic resilience

  Regional Studies · 2023-11-13 · 10 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Recognising the intricate link between ports and regional economies, this study investigates the spillover effects of neighbouring ports on regional industrial diversification and economic resilience. Analysing South Korea’s 2006–20 export data from port and neighbouring port regions, it uncovers the unique feature of ports as a distinctive knowledge source within their port regions, mainly attributable to the respective logistic and trade systems governing similar product groups. The paper confirms that ports facilitate industrial diversification through spillover effects when it is related with the regional industries. Emphasising ports’ role in strengthening economic resilience, it highlights their significance in nurturing emerging industries post-crisis.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• César A. Hidalgo

  Université Toulouse-I-Capitole

  20 shared

• Jian Gao

  Jiangsu Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention

  7 shared

• Seung Hwan Kim

  Seoul National University

  6 shared

• Cristian Jara-Figueroa

  6 shared

• Tao Zhou

  Wuxi People's Hospital

  5 shared

• Jeong hwan Jeon

  Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology

  5 shared

• Hyoji Choi

  5 shared

• Aamena Alshamsi

  American University of Sharjah

  4 shared