This study examines the effect of financial reporting opacity and audit quality on stock price crash risk using listed firms in Japan. This study is the first research to examine the effect of financial reporting opacity on crash risk using a Japanese listed company. Furthermore, the effect of audit quality on crash risk is verified. High level auditors can mitigate crash risk by playing a role as a corporate governance device mechanism to reduce agency costs. We use a logistic regression and linear regression model to test whether financial reporting opacity and audit quality affect crash risk using listed firms in the Japanese stock exchange market during the fiscal years 2015 January through 2017 February. The results of this study suggest that the financial reporting opacity variable shows a positive relationship with CRASH, which states that a firm with more opaque financial reporting increases crash risk. The results suggest also that the firms audited by Big4 auditors experience less crash risk, implying that the audit quality in Japan can be one of the factors mitigating firm's crash risk. This study provides implications for financial reporting and audit quality to external stakeholders who wants to avoid losses.

This paper aims to empirically study the determinants of liquidity of Indian listed firms. To account for profit persistence, we apply a (pooled, fixed and random) effect models to a panel of Indian listed firms that covers the time period from 2010 to 2016. This study consists of 2154 firms operating in Indian market. Liquidity (LQD) of Indian firms is measured by liquid assets to total assets, whereas bank size, capital adequacy, profitability, leverage, and firm age are used as internal determinants. Further, economic activity, inflation rate, exchange rate, and interest rate are the external factors considered. The findings reveal that leverage, return on assets, and firm age are the essential internal determinants that impact the liquidity of Indian listed firms. Furthermore, among the internal determinants, the results indicate that firm size, leverage ratio, return on assets ratio, and firm age are found to have a significant positive association with firms' LQD, except leverage ratio and firm age has a negative relationship with firms' LQD. From this result, this article has provides helpful ideas and empirical evidence on the inner and external determinants of the companies mentioned in India is very useful to bankers, analysts, regulators, investors and other stakeholders.

Stock price multiple is one of the most well-known equity valuation technique used to forecast equity price. It measures by multiplying "the ratio of stock price to a value driver" by a value driver. The value driver can be earning per share (EPS), sales or other financial measurements. The objective of price multiple technique is to evaluate the value of assets and compare how similar assets are priced in the market. Although stock price multiple technique is common in financial filed, studies on the application of the technique in Thailand is still limited. The present study is conducted to serve three major objectives. The first objective is to apply the technique to measure value of firms in banking sector in the Stock Exchange of Thailand. The second objective is to develop composite price multiple index to forecast equity prices. The third objective is to compare valuation accuracy of different value drivers of price multiple (i.e. EPS, Earnings Growth, Earnings Before Interest Taxes Depreciation and Amortization, Sales, Book Value and Composite Index) in forecasting equity prices. Results indicated that EPS is the most accurate value drivers of price multiple used to forecast equity price of firms in baking sector.

The paper examines the dynamic relationship of domestic credit and stock market liquidity on the economic growth of the Philippines from 1995 to 2018 applying the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to cointegration, together with Granger causality test based on vector error correction model (VECM). The ARDL model indicated a long-run relationship of domestic credit and stock market liquidity on GDP growth. When the GDP per capita is the dependent variable there is weak cointegration. Also, the Johansen cointegration test confirmed the existence of long-run relationship of domestic credit and stock market liquidity both on GDP growth and GDP per capita. The VECM concludes a long-run causality running from domestic credit and stock market liquidity to GDP growth. At levels, domestic credit has significant short-run causal relationship with GDP growth. As for stock market liquidity at first lag, has significant short-run causal relationship with GDP growth. With regards to VECM for GDP per capita, domestic credit and stock market liquidity indicates no significant dynamic adjustment to a new equilibrium if a disturbance occurs in the whole system. At levels, the results indicated the presence of short-run causality from stock market liquidity and GDP per capita. The CUSUMSQ plot complements the findings of the CUSUM plot that the estimated models for GDP growth and GDP per capita were stable.

The research aims to investigate the determinants of the financial performance of 1343 Vietnamese companies categorized into six different industries listed on the Vietnamese Stock Exchange over a four-year period from 2014 to 2017 using STATA software. Those determinants include firm size, liquidity, solvency, financial leverage, and financial adequacy while the financial performance is evaluated by three different ratios: return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE), and return on sales (ROS). The research results from these companies during the given period indicate that: (1) Firm size has a positive impact on both ROA and ROS, especially ROA but it has the opposite effect on ROE, (2) Adequacy ratio impacts positively on ROA and ROS but negatively on ROE, (3) Financial leverage considerably negative influences on ROE and ROS but positively impacts on ROA, (4) Liquidity has a positive effect on both ROA and ROE but a negative one on ROS and (5) Solvency has a positive impact on ROA and ROS but the negative impact on ROE. Furthermore, agriculture accounted for the highest percentage of profitability at the beginning, which was replaced by service for ROA but manufacture for ROE from 2016 to 2017 as opposed to the least in transportation.

This study investigates the influence of individual blockholder on accounting quality. Prior studies investigating Korean blockholders' influence focus on the influence of controlling shareholders or institutional investors; however, they rarely examine individual blockholders' influence. This paper investigates how individual blockholders in Korean stock markets affect accounting quality of firms listed in Korean Stock Exchange. I analyze individual blockholders' influence on proxies of accounting quality using multivariate regression with hand-collected individual blockholder data. Korean law requires public firms to disclose the list of shareholders having no less than 5% of ownership. From the list of blockholders, individuals who have no explicit personal relation with controlling shareholders were classified as individual blockholders. My empirical results show that firms having individual blockholder(s) use more income-decreasing accruals than those having no individual blockholder. Furthermore, accounting information of firms having individual blockholders(s) is more conservative than that of firms having no individual blockholders. However, the presence of individual blockholder increases the tendency of loss avoidance and earnings management using overproduction and reduction of discretionary expenditure. This paper contributes to the literature by presenting the first evidence of the monitoring role of an individual blockholder on financial reporting of firms listed in the Korean stock markets.

Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is one of basic contents of managerial accounting. Balanced Scorecard (BSC) will help the manager to measure and evaluate the operating performance in enterprises. Therefore, providing the theory base as well as in fact with regards to apply with Balanced Scorecard, impact of applying with Balanced Scorecard on the performance of company, from then providing for the managers with the base to promote on applying the Balanced Scorecard in Vietnamese Enterprises aimed to improve the operating performance of enterprises meaningfully and neccessary. However, balanced scorecard in general is a very new content in both theoretical and practice in Viet Nam. The study aims to explore the application with Balanced Scorecard in enterprises according to 4 perspective of Balanced Scorecard in Vietnamese commercial banks. In the dimension of this paper, SPSS 22 was used to collect and analysis data, basing on the results of 109 questionnaires of managers and head of department from Vietnamese commercial banks. Research have shown impact of Balanced Scorecard on the performance of Vietnamese commercial banks. This is the scientific basis for enterprises of Vietnam in general and Vietnamese commercial banks firms in particular have a successful application of balanced scorecard to improve the business performance.

We examine the effects of the complexity of tax-related information on the issuance of analyst's pre-tax income forecast and its value relevance. If analysts respond adequately to the needs of investors, they are more likely to provide a pre-tax income forecast. The provision of a pre-tax income forecast may indicate analysts' confidence in assessing the quality of earnings. Thus, investors, in turn, would be more confident in the analysts' pre-tax income forecasts if analysts provide both pre-tax and earnings forecasts than only the latter. Using a sample of Korean listed companies for 2005-2014, we find that analysts are likely to provide an implicit tax forecast when the volatility of the effective tax rate is low and the book-tax differences are small. We also find that when analysts provide pre-tax and after tax income forecasts, the value relevance for unexpected earnings increases. These results indicate that analysts are likely to be interested in corporate tax information and the complexity of tax-related information affects the availability of implicit tax forecasts. Furthermore, this study provides empirical evidence that when analysts provide both pre-tax and after tax income forecasts, investors have more confidence in analysts' earnings forecasts, which results in greater investors' responses.

This study aims to find out the legalization status of a central Shariah regulatory authority for the Islamic banks in Bangladesh. In this regard, the central bank can legalize the existing Centralized Shariah Board for Islamic Banks of Bangladesh (CSBIB) or form a new Centralized Shariah Supervisory Board (CSBB) under the management of the central bank in Bangladesh. Based on the data obtained by the semi-structured interviews, this research finds diversified opinions regarding the legalization of CSBIB or the formation of a new CSBB. Initially, without the law, it would be difficult to form CSSB under the central bank as the Islamic banks and banking environment are still not ready. In addition, it is difficult to legalize the existing CSBIB because the format of its structure is different from the CSSB structure in Malaysia and Bahrain. The existing banking company act authorizes the central bank to provide circulars regarding banking issues and it will be considered as an act. The central bank can legalize the existing CSBIB or form a new CSSB through a circular which will be helpful to monitor the overall Shariah issues. The presence of a CSSB will fulfill the expectations of all Islamic banks, and the concerned stakeholders.

Energy and energy consumption play an important role in strategies for socio-economic development of the country. In 1995, Vietnam officially entered the 500 kV North-South transmission power line exploits, with a full length of 1,487 km. The purpose of this study is to investigate the breakpoint and the transition effect of energy consumption to economic growth in Vietnam during the period of 1980-1994, and 1995-2016. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach and the Bounds test are used to test for the presence of cointegration, whereas the Toda and Yamamoto procedure Granger causality test is used for the direction of causality. The result of the Bounds test validates the existence of cointegration among the included variables. The empirical results provide evidence that energy consumption has a positive impact on the economic growth of Vietnam in the long run. The causality test shows that there is bi-directional causality between energy consumption and economic growth, supported feedback hypothesis. There is a breakpoint in 1995 and the contribution of energy consumption in economic growth in the period of 1995-2016 is lower than the stage 1980-1994. This study suggests Government authorities explore new sources of energy to achieve sustainable economic development in the long run.

The study measures the resource use efficiency of diesel based power generation in the Maldives and analyses factors which influence efficiency levels. Stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) technique is applied to data on 30 plants over two year period from 2016 to 2017. The study finds that technical efficiency scores varies from 0.44 to 0.98 across power plants. About 33 percent of the plants have scores below the mean technical efficiency score of 0.87. Empirical results indicate ownership and use of solar photovoltaic (PV) have an influence on improving efficiency levels. Privately owned power plants in resort islands obtained higher technical efficiency scores compared to public and community owned power plants. This is a significant finding as the first study that used power plants in tourist sector in a comparative study. Size of the power plants was not found significant, but relatively small installed capacities can also be efficient. This finding is important because in many inhabited islands installed capacities remain oversized compared to the load. The benchmarking exercise offers model power plants that are relatively efficient, for other power plants and policy makers in small islands to learn from.

Intra-industry trade (IIT) has played an important role in international trade of Vietnam as a result of rapid growth of the country. This article investigates the level of IIT between Vietnam and 11 trading partners in Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) over the period 2000-2014. Although there have been a large number of empirical researches contributed to the determinants of IIT, most of them only pay attention on developed countries where the trade flows are similar due to similar demand structure and production technology. Until now, there is no study on intra-industry trade between Vietnam and countries in TPP that Vietnam recently signed a trade agreement in early 2016. IIT is measured by the Grubel-Lloyd index. The index shows that the extent of intra-industry trade between Vietnam and the trading countries is not high due to the level of economic development and the market size. The determinants of IIT are examined using a panel regression model. In the empirical analysis, the results indicate that Vietnam's intra-industry trade is positively correlated with country size, while it is negatively correlated with income dissimilarity, the trade openness, and geographical distance. This study contributes to the new theoretical trade theory on the evidence of developing country's IIT.

The purpose of this study is to derive various clues for the establishment of marketing strategies for companies that produce and sell high-involvement products for Millennials who are not the subject of current consumption but who will lead future consumption. For this purpose, this study aimed to derive 17 factors of high-involvement product selection attributes through FGI, and its relationship on repurchase intention after make a variable through PCA. A total of 158 valid questionnaires were used, and IPA, independent sample t-test, regression analysis, and hierarchical controlled regression analysis were performed. The results showed that overall, external and internal selection factors had a positive influence on repurchase intentions, and in particular, appealing to internal and external selection factors in order to promote repurchase intention. Meanwhile, the Millennials were found to have no gender difference. Therefore, the company producing and selling high-involvement products suggests that it is necessary to make a priority effort to secure brand awareness, trust in product producers, store trust, and product self-reputation as components of internal selection factors. It was also concluded that more strategic efforts were needed to focus on and appeal to the characteristics of the Millennial itself rather than to consider gender differences.

This research aimed at studying the role of self-enhancing imagery and self goal-achievement emotion in the effect of characteristics perceived at advertisements using multisensory cues on purchase intention. Sports shoes advertisement was selected as an empirical research object. Questionnaire survey method was used to collect data. 'WenJuanXing' site was used to make the questionnaire in Chinese, and it was loaded on WeChat and QQ. 260 participants from different regions of China participated in online questionnaire survey. The results of testing the hypotheses by structural equation model in Amos 21.0 program are summarized as followings. The congruency between multisensory cues and self-discrepancy awareness positively evoked the self-enhancing imagery and the self goal-achievement emotion. The object relevance between the consumer and the product advertised did not induce the emotion, but evoked the self-enhancing imagery. Both of the self-enhancing imagery and the self goal-achievement emotion had positive effects on the product purchase intention. When developing advertisement, marketers should focus on multisensory cues' characteristics to enhance the self-enhancing imageries as well as to help feel the goal-achievement emotion. They should pay attention to the ways by which the multisensory cues' characteristics used to develop advertisement can be perceived to be congruent with each other by consumers.

The study aims to identify the factors affecting employee loyalty in the case of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Tra Vinh province, Viet Nam and to find out critical factors affecting the loyalty of employees in SMEs. This is implemented with the method of collecting primary data of 320 employees working at SMEs in 5 districts including: Cau Ngang, Tra Cu, Chau Thanh, Cang Long, Tieu Can) and Tra Vinh City, Viet Nam. Using the multivariate regression method, the researchers have found 6 factors affecting employee loyalty: colleagues, leaders, job characteristics, remuneration policies, organizational culture, and working environment. Particularly, learning opportunities may not be not statistically significant for employees' loyalty towards small and medium-sized enterprises in Tra Vinh province. From the above research results, the authors have proposed implicational piolicies such as: focusing on colleague relationships, improving leadership of business owners, attaching importance to appropriate work arrangement, having appropriate remuneration policies for laborers, building effective organizational culture and working environment to improve employee loyalty at SMEs. From the above policy implications, helping business owners realize the aspirations of workers in small and medium-sized enterprises more closely in the future, in order to sustainably develop the business system in Vietnam.

The study attempts to examine the effect of the capabilities of banking companies, namely the dynamic and unique capabilities, on the implementation of GCG in Indonesia. The effect of organization capabilities on the implementation of GCG is essential since both of them can demonstrate the quality of the company's ability to compete and innovate. This study will also examine the influence of moderating variables, namely the fit and proper test. The methodology used in this study is the structural equation methods and using primary data with board of directors of commercial bank in Indonesia. The test results suggest the positive direct effect of unique capabilities on GCG. The findings show that the capabilities of the top management, both unique and dynamic capabilities, influence the implementation of GCG. Then, the variable of fit and proper test can also strengthen the relationship between them. Both unique capabilities and fit and proper test have a strong and positive impact on GCG. Meanwhile, dynamic capabilities have a negative impact on GCG even though it's not significant and contradictive with earlier studies. In the context of the banking industry growth and sustainability, this matter is important to examine. Top management behavior in operating their organization is important to be investigated.

The relationship between corporate board attributes and dividend payout is already established yet mediating role of leverage in not been examined in Malaysian market. Therefore, this study aims to examine the mediating effect of financial leverage on the relationship between corporate board attributes and the dividend pay-out policy. A sample of 203 non-financial firms listed on the BURSA Malaysia between 2005 and 2018 were analysed using SmartPLS 3.0. The findings show that there is a partial mediating effect of financial leverage on the relationship between board members age, board diversity and dividend pay-out policy. Financial leverage also mediates the relationship between number of women on board, CEO-duality and dividend pay-out policy. However, financial leverage doesn't mediate the relationship between board size and dividend pay-out policy. This study offers insights to policy-makers to develop a better corporate governance as well as a guidance to firms in the construction and implementation of their corporate governance policies in relation to financial leverage. This study also shed light on the influence of efficient corporate board attributes on dividend pay-out policy and financial leverage for firm growth. This study concludes that corporate board attributes impact capital structure and thus, firms may change its payout policy.

This study presents a more comprehensive approach to investigate how Emotional Intelligence (EI) is associated with performance. Previous research has revealed that EI is related to positive outcomes such as better performance, life satisfaction and career success. However, in most research of EI, this factor has been investigated independently from the effect of contextual factors and other individual characteristics. This study extended the research on the impact of EI on student performance by simultaneously examining the impact of EI, individual factors - (1) Perseverance of Effort, (2) Goal Consistency and (3) Goal Clarity and learning environment factors - Program Fit in one study. The results based on the data collected from 1,117 students in Vietnam largely support the hypothesis that that EI was an important but not the only factor affecting the student performance. MANOVA and post-hoc analysis indicated that both individual and environmental factors better predicted performance than EI could. These results suggest that the impact of EI on individual performance is more complicated than what we have already known. Future study is encouraged to investigate both the mechanism through which EI impact individual performance and the interaction between EI and other factors that moderate the EI - performance relationship.

Substantial growth in the economy and extensive use of natural resources has become a major issue in the modern world. Organizations have started to worry about the environment and are beginning to invest in and practice green strategies. Companies should be responsible for the environment and use sustainable methods to run their businesses. The main purpose of this study is to explore the conceptual approach to Green Human Resource Management (GHRM) practices and Corporate Environmental Responsibility (CER) in the hospitality industry. The theoretical framework of GHRM practices such as green recruitment, green selection, green training and development, green performance appraisal, green reward and compensation, and corporate environmental responsibility have been comprehensively studied for this purpose. Green Human Resource Management in the hospitality sector is a less studied and rarely implemented phenomenon. The integration of GHRM and CER along with green competitive advantage and green supply chain management in hospitality is new concept in hospitality industry. Study suggests that Corporate environmental responsibility (CER) and Green Human Resource Management (GHRM) have a significant role in the hospitality industry. However, for sustainable development of tourism and hospitality, this concept should be capitalized with necessary research and development.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically analyze the determinants of foreign subsidiary's local embeddedness because it is critically important for the subsidiary to build a variegated local network. This paper suggests that a MNC's global capability, the degree of autonomy granted by the headquarters of the multinational corporation to its foreign subsidiary, the foreign subsidiary's absorptive capacity based on local environment, and its level of localization will affect the subsidiary's local network embeddedness. The empirical analysis confirmed that when the headquarters gives the foreign subsidiary more autonomy, this has a positive effect on the local embeddedness of the foreign subsidiary and when the foreign subsidiary has a strong absorptive capacity, this has a positive correlation with the local embeddedness of the foreign subsidiary. And this paper found that when the foreign subsidiary has achieved a high level of staff localization, this foreign subsidiary will have a higher level of local embeddedness. This study identified the preceding conditions necessary for a foreign subsidiary of a multinational corporation to effectively embed itself in the local network by analyzing factors related to the multinational corporation's headquarters and subsidiaries, and thus contributes significantly to continued research on the local embeddedness of subsidiaries.

The selection factors of service companies have changed in accordance with intensifying competition in the marine transportation service market and environment changes of transportation services. To explore the important factors of customer choice to marine transportation service, this study empirically examines the influence of these selection factors; service provision area, price competitiveness, corporate image, service expertise, and sales support, on transaction continuity through customers' perceived service value and satisfaction. Based on an online survey with those in the Korean marine transportation industry, this study conducted statistical analyses using structural equation modeling. Based on relevant previous studies, the current study constructed a total of 55 survey questions. Finally, 213 questionnaires were collected. Among the five selection factors, corporate image did not affect perceived service value, and price competitiveness was still the most important factor. However, service expertise and sales support were found to be more important factors than regional factors. In order to maintain transaction continuity, shipping companies should also strive to improve their service quality to their customers. In particular, service quality strategies focused on time and regional factors should develop to strategies with the key factors for the changed business environment.

A model is presented in this paper to provide understanding of the supply chain integration and supply chain information practices' impact on the manufacturing industries. The supply chain information practices play a crucial role in sharing information between the members of SC network. Thus, it is important to develop a comprehensive understanding of the differences and similarities among ISI and information management. It will allow firms to systematically evaluate and carefully choose the information strategy. The empirical findings of this research offer essential and interesting insights about what role SCI, supply chain information and Supply chain ISI play in determining Malaysia's financial performance. The theoretical gaps addressed in this study are of significant importance, since a little empirical evidence is available regarding system infrastructure and supply chain information management's effectiveness. This research provides further paths of exploring system infrastructure and information management, thereby defining the manufacturing industries' next step in SCM struggle i.e. modifying total integrated SC principle in other manufacturing firms. The Resource-based theory discovered organizational resources as an essential organizational success ingredient. Therefore, in order to recognize its potential value, internal resources, for instance, information system and management must be fully utilized.

Technological convergence is yielding new values and affecting various fields not by single technology but by convergence between technologies. This study aims to analyze the IT -BT-NT convergence and differences between technologies in respect of collaboration within (inventor) and between (assignee) organizations. Among the main technologies leading the technological convergence, IT is the most active of converging with other fields. BT is knowledge-intensive and strong cooperative networks are important in this area. NT is applied in various industrial fields upon the basic technology. Using the data on applied and granted patents by Korean applicants in the U.S., this study conducted quantitative analysis and ANOVA to gain the following results. First, the degree of convergence in between IT-BT-NT is continuously increasing since 2002. Second, BT is where the collaboration within and between organizations is the most active among IT-BT-NT. Third, there were certain differences in the degree of convergence according to the years and the fields of technologies in all the IT-BT-NT. Organizations cooperate with other institutions to sustain their competitiveness with limited internal resources. Companies in these fields are recommended to perform diverse strategies to pursue further collaboration with the outside.

This paper focused on the level of managerial centralization on chief executive officer (CEO) as a factor to affect the shared growth activities of corporate. As service corporations are becoming active in shared growth activities recently, this paper thus used CEO. Pay Slice (CPS) information to measure the level of managerial centralization on CEO of service corporation and tested the influence of the level of managerial centralization on whether shared growth activities are executed and the level of such activities respectively. The result of test shows that companies with high managerial centralization on CEO are more passive toward shared growth activities than those without such centralization. This can be interpreted that a CEO with more powerful influence may consider shared growth activities as to be negative and take a passive attitude to them. On the other hand, such result was supported by additional analysis with companies committing shared growth activities as well. This paper is expected to contribute to bring about interest on shared growth activities as the gap between major companies and small and medium sized companies is currently expanding in terms of operating profit ratio and even salary of employees.

The purpose of this study is to examine the predictive effects of intuition, business analytic, networking capabilities on innovation performance. The data was collected using a cross-sectional quantitative survey. A total of 292 useable responses were collected from Thai Processed Food Exporters (TPFE). The findings also indicated that the hypothesized relationships between the independent and dependent variables fit the empirical data. Specifically, it is revealed that strategic intuition, business analytic capabilities, network-based capabilities and dynamic capabilities had a direct effect on dynamic strategy. They also had statistically significant direct and indirect effects on dynamic performance. Based on the results of the correlation test, the researchers developed a dynamic capability model for the development of the dynamic performance of the operators, which included concepts, principles, methods, tools and guidelines. Furthermore, the impacts of intuition, business analytic, networking capabilities on dynamic strategy are also examined in this study. It makes a considerable contribution to the existing literature on dynamic strategy of TPFE, particularly in regards to explaining the performance.

The study aims to verify the relationship between leaders' personality traits in leader - member exchange (LMX), and job performance. Hierarchical Regression Analysis was used to examines (a) how leaders' personality traits and LMX affect the influence of social capital on job performance and organizational citizenship behavior; (b) how perceived organization support (POS) can moderate the influences of LMX on social capital, in turn impacting job performance and OCB. Responses are employees in the service industry in Thailand, which consisted of 236 independent samples in 77 groups. Each group included at least one leader and 1-5 followers. The results show that there is a significant relationship between leader's personality traits, LMX and social capital. Leader with the higher level of conscientious, and agreeableness can always create good relations with their followers. The level of LMX are also related to social capital and both of these influence OCB and job performance. The moderating effect of perceived organizational support is also significant that POS can amplify the influence of LMX on social capital. Finally, the research findings show that perceived organizational support is one of the moderating factors in LMX exchanges. Followers perceived organizational support can amplify the influence of LMX on social capital.

Informal networks between individuals are widely seen as important in East Asian business systems. However, while the performance implications of guanxi in China have been extensively studied, much less is known on how informal networks may influence business outcomes in other East Asian countries. We examine informal networks in inter-organizational research collaborations in South Korea by studying the role of pre-existing social ties and relational orientation in new product development (NPD) collaborations and university-industry research (UIR) collaborations. We conduct an interview-based, in-depth case analysis of five NPD collaborations and five UIR collaborations. Pre-existing social ties and relational orientation are prevalent in both types of research collaborations. However, they have different consequences for collaboration outcomes. Pre-existing social ties strongly vary in their types and strength, and negatively affect collaboration outcomes unless they result in the selection of competent and motivated partners. Relational orientation manifests itself in a task-related and social exchange between collaboration partners, which contributes to outcomes such as knowledge acquisition and business performance. Korean collaboration managers should rely only on pre-existing social ties that are well-aligned with task-related requirements when initiating and conducting research collaborations. However, the creation of strong relationships between collaboration team members of partnering organizations should be encouraged.

The purpose of this study focuses on finding the influences of social capital on personal happiness by studying service industry employees. This current study utilized a questionnaire survey method which was used to collect the analysis data, from July 20 to August 10 in 2019. 281 questionnaires were gathered in Korea and the statistical analysis was conducted. This study recognized social capital as 3 independent variables and personal happiness as a dependent variable. Social capital is composed of the social network, social trust and social norms. First, the social network consisted of the satisfaction degree in one's social relations and the social interaction degree. Second, social trust is composed of the trust degree with ones neighbors in the same local area. Last, social norms are consisted of reciprocity, participation and a sense of belonging one feels in the same society. The findings of this study were as follows: first, it was found that social network, social trust, and social norms made affirmative influences on personal happiness of the employees. Second, the social network and social norms made statistically significant influences with personal happiness, but social trust was shown to not have similar influence.

With the recent global urban issues such as climate change, urbanization, and energy problems, the smart city was proposed as one of the solutions in urban planning. This study introduces the smart city initiatives of South Korea by examining the recent history of smart city policies and their limitations. This case study reflects the experience of one of the countries which thrived to building smart cities as their national key industries to drive economic growth. It also analyzes the trends of the smart city using big data analysis techniques. Although there are obstacles such as economic recession, failing to differentiate from the U-city, low service level than expected smart functionality, We could recognize the current status of the smart city policies in South Korea such as 1) Korean smart city development projects are actively implemented, 2) public consensus suggests that applying advanced technology and the active role of government need, 3) a comprehensive and strategic approach with the integration and application of advanced technologies is required as well, 4) investment by both private and public sectors need to deliver social improvements. This study suggests future direction of smart city polity in South Korea in the conclusion.

This study aims to analyze the household economic behavior of salt farmers participants in Salt Business Empowerment Program (Pugar) including of salt production, work flow, household revenue, the behavior of consumption of food and non-food items and the welfare level. This research followed a survey method by engaging 32 household farmers as participants. The findings revealed that the empowerment program was carried out through the technical assistance of salting production and the assistance of equipment and technology from Thread of Screw Filter and geoisolators to improve the quality of salt. The problems come when the marketing of salt is still limited to the collectors of salt which led to the price of salt level, manufacturers have not remained stable. Household revenue sources for some salt farmers also come from non-salt pond business activities. Farmer household revenue can be used to meet staple food consumption and non-food staple consumption. Based on the indicators of family welfare, households participating in the empowerment program were group into the category of prosperous families. In order to stabilize the price of salt at the producer level, government intervention in the people's salt trading system is needed.