FUTURE STRATEGY FOR KOREAN FIRMS INVOLVED IN OVERSEAS MARKETS

Despite very good reputation that Korean construction industrial firms had enjoyed until early 1990's in overseas markets, their participation abroad drastically declined after the delivery of two(2) million unit-housing project in the early 1990's and the foreign currency crisis that took place in the late 1990's. The revival of booming construction industry in domestic market is far beyond the expectation due to the long recession of the construction economy and government's severe restriction against real estate development. Under such crucial circumstances, the construction industrial firms' strategy to survive is the more active business promotion in overseas markets. However, the Korean construction industrial firms have to abandon the labor intensive strategy, through that they have enjoyed until the early 1990's, and turn to management oriented strategy which may be a new prosperous horizon and a new challenge as well, because the labor cost of newly developing countries is much more competitive. The aim of this study is to suggest how to cope with current market situations through a chronological survey based on the cost data prevailed during four decades from the 1960's until the 1990's in overseas markets.