Internationalization Strategy of the Fisheries - Processing Firms of Korea

우리나라 수산물가공기업의 국제화전략

The objectives of the study are to look into the fisheries processing industry, analyze problems the industry has, and develop strategies for the industry to take care of the problems. The study was performed in two different dimensions : industry level and firm level. Nevertheless, the study focused on the following main problem areas raw material, production, technology development, internationalization, and managerial performance. The secondary data were utilized to analyze problems at the industry level, For analyzing the firm level situation, an empirical study by using a mail survey with a questionnaire was accomplished. The main problems found were as follows : First, difficulty in procuring raw material was the most serious and main problem. It was caused, externally, by the announcement of 200 nautical miles by most of fishery abundant countries and, internally, by drying fishery resources in the nation's coastal areas ; Second, the rate of fishery processing has been continuously increased and the degree of the processing has also been sophisticated, which implies the pattern of demand for the fishery has been changing widely and deeply. The industry, however, seemed to be unable to meet the consumers' satisfaction ; Third, with the importance of technology for ensuring the changing demands in the fishery processing industry, there has been little effort in research and development both at industry level and at the firm level ; Next, the industry has mainly involved in exporting in association with internationalization. Not to mention about foreign direct investment, technology transfer was not active ; Finaliy, most of firms were densely located in a few areas. The managerical performance in terms of main financial ratios still needs to be improved. Thus, strategies, which would take care of the repective problems, were developed. At industry level, the strategies were developed by reasoning mostly based on the findings from the literature survey. A scheme for internationalization of the firms was suggested. This was made by extracting the factors which would differentiate the firms' internationalization stages. In order to achieve this analysis, discriminant approach was employed. Despite the utility of the findings, it was mostly emphasized that harmonious efforts among government, the industry supporting institutions such as banks, and firms are needed for the successful operation of the strategies. Also, a list of areas for further study was provided especially in relation to the validity threatening parts of the study.