Samsung is the biggest among the chaebol, a handful of family-run conglomerates that have dominated the South Korean economy for decades. The country’s top 10 chaebol generate the equivalent of more than 80 percent of the country’s G.D.P. Samsung’s flagship company, Samsung Electronics, alone is responsible for 20 percent of the country’s exports.

One can’t talk about how well or badly South Korea’s economy is doing without talking about Samsung. Samsung has a pervasive presence in the country. It produces best-selling smartphones, TV sets and refrigerators. It runs insurance, shipbuilding and construction companies, to just name a few of its dozens of affiliates. If she likes, a South Korean can live in a “Republic of Samsung”: She can get married and honeymoon in Samsung hotels; have her baby delivered in a Samsung hospital; take him to a Samsung amusement park; send him to a Samsung university; and stock her Samsung apartment with Samsung home appliances bought with a Samsung credit card.

But the name Samsung also has a darker side among Koreans. Six of the 10 top chaebol leaders, including Samsung’s chairman, Lee Kun-hee, have been convicted of white-collar crimes, including bribery, although they have never spent much time in jail. If Samsung symbolizes wealth and technological savvy, many Koreans also accuse the corporate behemoth of corruption and excessive power.

Mr. Lee’s son, Samsung’s vice chairman, Lee Jae-yong, who has been running the conglomerate while his father remains bedridden after a stroke, is now under arrest and on trial on charges of bribing Park Geun-hye, the impeached and ousted former president of South Korea.

How does Samsung affect the way you live and work?

I use only three Samsung products in my office — a Samsung TV set, a Samsung fax/printer and the Samsung monitor for my Dell desktop — though many of the tech products around me at home and in my office may contain Samsung components, like computer chips.

I used to use a Samsung Galaxy Note smartphone until I switched to an iPhone three years ago. I like my iPhone, but I have a major complaint about it: It doesn’t allow you to record your phone conversations. What if a spokesman calls you back and dictates a statement while you are driving a car or standing in a crowded subway car? With my old Samsung phone, I could just tap the screen a couple times to record the conversation. You can’t do that with an iPhone.