We compared and analyzed the effects of establishing multilateral FTA and bilateral FTA on the R&D investment of exporting firms when they compete in Cournot fashion and when the government of the importing country acts strategically. In the short run, we found that the importing country prefers to enter into a bilateral FTA with each exporting country separately for maximizing its welfare. However, we also found that, in the long run, it is more welfare-enhancing policy for importing country that entering into a multilateral FTA with all of the exporting countries simultaneously because it helps facilitate the R&D investment of exporting firms. But once entering into a multilateral FTA, the exporting firms would be faced with more intensive R&D investment competition and hence they would suffer severe welfare loss.

The study conducted an empirical analysis of the impact of FDI on economic growth in four Asian countries: China, India, Vietnam and Korea. With panel data for the 1990-2017 period, the research model was developed for foreign direct investment (FDI), export amount (EX), government expenditure (G), exchange rate (EXR), and labourable population (L). The panel analysis results show that the increase in FDI, exports, government expenditure, labourable population significantly increased economic growth. The comparison analysis for each country revealed that FDI, exports and government expenditure significantly affect economic growth in China, that exports and government expenditure significantly affect economic growth in Korea, that FDI significantly affected economic growth in Vietnam, and that the increase in the workforce contributed to economic development in India. This paper characterized the different factors of economic growth in the four Asian countries. These results suggest that setting economic priorities to suit the specific economic conditions of each country is a shortcut to more efficient economic growth.

This research examined the mediation effect of Workforce Agility (WA) on the relationship between environmental uncertainty and operational performance. We manipulated the control variables that are known to be affected by employment flexibility. Employment flexibility is caused by idiosyncratic characteristics of Korean port system. The analysis was tested by Baron & Kenny's method. The result indicates that each path of the proposed model is significant. Furthermore, the mediation effect was checked with the Sobel Test. The research revealed that environment uncertainty poses an indirect effect on operational performance. Both supply/demand uncertainty and technological uncertainty affected operational performance through the mediation effect of WA. Most of the distribution centers located in Busan Newport Distripark are operated in a bimodal labor (human resource) system which includes both permanent employees (workers) and temporary employees (workers). This empirical research provides theoretical and managerial implications by suggesting ways to increase efficiency in distribution center operation through WA enhancement, and to improve the unloading labor system.

This study examines the trends, current situation and implications of non-tariff measures (NTM) and specific trade concerns (STC) on the protection trade measures of ASEAN. ASEAN's non-tariff measures and the share of specific trade concerns are very significant as they are the second and third largest, respectively, of the major countries. This means that protection measures using non-tariff measures are a strong feature of ASEAN's trade policy. Also, in the future, ASEAN should try to prevent unnecessary disputes caused by exporting countries' specific trade concerns in the implementation of non-tariff measures. Activating trade policy cooperation is likely to reduce conflicts and costs caused by these trade disputes.

This study focuses on previous research that explored the external knowledge reflecting the characteristics of SMEs and that should be considered because of the limited capacity of SMEs. This study examines the effects of open innovation and SMEs on export performance, focuses on government support as a way to supplement the limited capacity of SMEs, and analyzes the moderating effects of government support. An examination of 1,358 samples revealed that the breadth of external knowledge, depth of external knowledge, and government support had a significant impact on the export performance of SMEs. The effect of exploration of external knowledge (breadth and depth) of SMEs on the export performance of SMEs is significant both in breadth and depth when government support is provided, but only depth is significant when there is no government support.

As exporting countries are limited compared to the export market of civilian industries, an approach should be preceded by a comprehensive evaluation of the purchasing availability of exportable markets and the status of potential competitive markets, as well as an analysis of the technology related to weapons systems. Based on the case of K9 self-propelled howitzers, a leading overseas export weapons system, this research was conducted to clarify the process of selecting the export market for Korean defense products and to verify it using a survey of weapons systems experts. In particular, this study specifically suggested the methodology needed to select the final exportable market through the analysis procedures such as competition and similar weapons systems, key performance identification, and identification of export-oriented markets, while considering the characteristics of the Defense Industrial Products. Based on these analysis results, the government proposed a method of selecting a major export market to enhance the possibility of weapons exports by domestic defense companies. Therefore, the study results can be used as a basis for objectively assessing the priorities for exportable markets, considering the possibility of exporting weapons systems that are under research and development or will be improved in the future.

This study applies diverse game theories to the US-China Trade War. The US-China Trade War can be analyzed as a game situation because the strategic decision-making process to maximize one's profit while considering the reaction of the other party is a game situation. However, related research suffered from some mistakes in applying the US-China Trade War as it is to classic game theory, because while the prisoners dilemma is based on the situation of No Communication, No Trust, No Cooperation, the US-China Trade War has a precondition different from that of prisoners dilemma, since it mutually communicates information and negotiation is repeated several times in a cooperative situation. The result of the trade negotiation will likely end as 'cooperate-cooperate'. Further, considering trade volume, trade interdependence, bargaining power based on economy, and the scale of damage caused by the Trade War, the US-China Trade War is progressing with the bargaining power of the US being higher than that of China. Since the current US-China Trade War is in an asymmetrical situation under the dominant bargaining power of the US, it is likely to reach 'US defect-China cooperative' in the long run.

This study investigates the facilitating factors of FDI (foreign direct investment) inflows in 15 developing countries of three continents (Asia, Latin America, and Africa) using fixed-effect panel regression analysis with 30-year macro socio-economic data. The facilitating factors of FDI inflows in each continent differed. In Asia, labor compensation, GDP, consumer expenditure, human capital, and export facilitated FDI inflows in decreasing order, as did export, total factor productivity, GDP, and human capital in Latin America, and investment expenditure, human capital, government expenditure, and export in Africa. Most importantly, the character of cost saving efficiency-seeking investment was very strong in Asia. Also, third-party export-oriented investment and economic growth-oriented investment were shown in Latin America and Africa, respectively.

This study analyzes the major provisions of the UK Insurance Act 2015 and Marine Insurance Act 1906 on the duty of disclosure under the doctrine of utmost good faith. Marine insurance contracts are based on "utmost good faith" and one aspect of this is that MIA 1906 imposes a duty on prospective policy holders to disclose all material facts. In the Insurance Act 2015 of the United Kingdom, the contents of the precedent were enacted such that we have borrowed the legal principles of common law until now. The insurer is required to more actively communicate with the insurer rather than passively underwriting and asking questions of the insured. The Act details the insured's constructive knowledge of the material circumstance by reviewing the current case law and introduces a new system for the insurer's proportionate remedy against the insured's breach of the duty of fair presentation of risk. This is a default regime, which may be altered by agreement between the parties.

This study examines the model of perceived risk, trust, and continuous transaction intentions presented in a study of the buying behavior in International Transaction. Although most of the trade transactions have been studied as a legal supplement, trade transactions are also purchasing behavior aimed at maintaining continuous transaction intentions between the parties. The study results confirmed that perceived risk could be separated into risk neutrality, risk - taking and risk aversion, and perceived risk had an effect on trust. In addition, the trust affected by perceived risk in the trade transaction model has a statistically significant effect on continuous transaction intentions. The study results confirm that the theoretical background used in previous studies of purchase behavior models is also effective in trade transaction.

As many studies have contributed to various aspects of the market by utilizing market orientation, however, this study has tried to overcome limitations of existing studies and suggest more concrete and extended implications. In this study, the relationship between market orientation, responsiveness to market change, and organizational performance of SMEs was examined and compared with characteristics of SMEs (manufacturing and service firms). As a result of the verification, interfunctional coordination has a strong influence on the ability of the organization to respond to market changes as well as customer orientation and competitor orientation. And responsiveness to market change, organizational flexibility has a strong impact on both personal performance and overall team performance. As a result of the comparative study, it can be concluded that manufacturing firms emphasize competitor orientation and organizational agility while service firms emphasize customer orientation and organizational flexibility.

Despite innovative efforts to accommodate changes in the payment environment, the new types of settlement risks that are emerging require preemptive and proactive responses. Therefore, Korea should complement and develop large-value funds payment system operation and risk management policies by introducing international standards and linking with advanced financial institutions. This study examines the major issues such as the development process and characteristics of the large-value funds payment system of the two countries, the operation policy of the central bank, and the risk management policy by comparing the US Fedwire with the Korea Bok-Wire+. In addition, policy implications are suggested for efficient operation and development of Bok-Wire+.

This study incorporates the structural relationships between leadership styles (LS), affect climate (AC), and organizational performance (OP) in Korean export manufacturing companies with three or more overseas subsidiaries. A theoretical model is suggested with the following empirical results. First, the positive effect of engaging leadership (EL) on organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), as well as of engaging leadership, involving leadership (IL), and goal-oriented leadership (GL) on team performance (TP), proved to be significant. Second, both engaging leadership and goal-oriented leadership have significant positive effects on optimism, while involving leadership has significant negative effects on pessimism. Third, only optimism has a positive (+) effect on OCB and TP. The mediating effects were proved to be significant in two paths: one in EL->optimism->OCB and the other in EL->optimism->TP. Finally, in responding to rapid changes in the external environment of exporting companies, the engaging leadership is a key source of organizational performance by forming a favorable affect climate. Therefore, top management should recognize the role of team leaders and strengthen their leadership training. In addition, it was confirmed that leaders with emotional intelligence that can respond to the affects of members play a more important role in forming an optimistic climate in Korea export manufacturing enterprises with foreign subsidiaries.

This study explores the effects of exports on the innovation of Korean firms listed on two Korean stock markets, the Korean Stock Exchange and the Korean Securities Dealers Quotations, between 1999 and 2016. By matching exporting firms to non-exporting ones with propensity score matching, this study accounts for a problem from sample selection bias that may arise from differences in firm-characteristics between the two groups. From the study results, first, both export participation and export volume significantly increase subsequent innovation performance, as measured by the number of patent applications. This result seems to support the "learning by exporting" hypothesis for Korean listed firms. Second, both export participation and export volume narrow innovation scope, proxied as the number of unique International Patent Classification (IPC) codes of the patent applied, the degree to which patents are concentrated in a particular class, and the degree of proximity in the patents. The findings of innovation scope suggest a possible explanation that the learning effect appears in familiar technology fields that firms have previously held, rather than in unfamiliar ones. Third, these results are robust using alternative proxies in the innovation scope, Tobit regressions to consider the non-trivial portion of sample firms with patent applications equal to zeros, and generalized method of moments (GMM) to control for the persistence of innovation measures hearing over years. Finally, the two main results are more pronounced in large firms than in small and medium-sized ones. As for Chaebol firms, however, these results do not appear.

This study examines the utilization effect of FTA on the sales and profit of the secondary auto-part suppliers in two aspects: 1) firm-level survey on the utilization of FTA and 2) statistical inference on the FTA effects on their sales and profit. We use the GLS statistical technique, panel and survey data of 130 secondary auto-part suppliers in the Daegu and Kyungpook area in 2007-2016. The evidence shows that the secondary auto-part suppliers struggle to prepare documents for the FTA certificates of origin due to their small firm size, although they utilize the FTA at the relatively high rate of 92 percent. Statistical evidence shows that an increase in the export of the first vender significantly affects the sale of the secondary auto-part vendors, but not their profit. The low profit and high managing cost of utilizing the FTA deteriorate the utilization effect of the FTA of the secondary auto-part vendors, which is a key factor in a global supply chain and for the competitiveness of the automobile industry. Government policies are required for the secondary auto-part suppliers to utilize the FTA more effectively and share the benefits of tariff reduction with first auto-part vendors under FTA transaction.

This paper reviews and analyzes the ethical issues of multinational corporations (MNCs) in Africa. First, we find that the transparency and institutions of a host country have a negative relationship with the number of ethical violations of the MNCs. Second, this covers the effects of industry characteristics on each category of ethical issues such as the human rights and the environment. Based on the database of "Ethical Consumer", we show that the Auto, Chemical, Finance, and Telecommunication industries are more likely to violate human rights issues, and that Mining, Oil, Cosmetics, and Chemical industries are more likely to pollute the environments. Further, the country of origin does matter: the US and Asian companies are more likely to be involved with the business ethics violations than are their European counterparts.

Recently, each country has been using non-tariff barriers (Non-Tariff Barriers, NTB) as a new protection trade policy. In particular, TBT lies at the center of NTB. In this context, we examine the impact of Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) on Korea's exports to ASEAN. Using 10-year statistics from 2007 to 2016 that came into effect with the ASEAN FTA, we analyze the impact of TBT on the Korean exports in the electrical machinery industry (HS85), which accounts for more than 30 percent of Korea's total exports to ASEAN. The results of the empirical analysis using a gravity model showed significant and positive effects in the variables of GDP and real effective exchange rate in each ASEAN country on Korea's exports to ASEAN. As expected, the tariff rate has a negative effect. As for TBT, the key variable of this study, the results are as follows. Although many previous studies reported that TBT has negative impacts on exports, this study could not find any significant impact of TBT and found that Korea's exports of electrical machinery to ASEAN countries are not affected by TBT. Various implications of these results are suggested.