An Empirical Analysis on the Determinants of Entry into Foreign Markets of Small- and Medium- sized Service Firms : Focused on Korean Beauty Industry

중소 서비스기업의 해외시장진출 결정요인에 관한 실증분석 : 대구.경북지역 미용서비스업 중심으로

Service industries nowadays have become the subject of a scientific research. However, unlike research on manufacturing, there has not yet been a broader presentation of important aspects theoretically and methodologically. The importance of service sector in both national and global economies has grown significantly. An active participation of service industries in the internationalization process, notably by licensing and FDI, has occurred over time. But a few sub-sectors still dominate on this process, for example, financial institutions such as banks, securities, and insurance as well as producer services in advertising and accounting. On the other hand, personal services that are owned by small- and medium- sized firm have limited capabilities in their transnational transfer. This paper attempts to examine various factors influencing decisions for these small- and medium- sized Korean beauty firms in entering to the foreign markets. Determining factors for these firms in the engagement of internationalization depends largely on competitive advantages in both domestic and host countries, and they may be different from those in the sub-sectors mentioned above. Based on previous researches, i identified three categories of independent variables(characteristics of firms, managers, and competition) that can influence decisions to enter to the foreign markets. Seven hypotheses have been tested by using a sample of beauty firms in Daegu city and Kyungbuk province. The results show that the intention of these firms to enter to the foreign markets is significantly influenced by the factors of the innovative character of CEO's, the competitiveness of firms, and size of firms.