• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.51-69
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• 2020

Now, it is a stylized fact that a small number of technology firms such as Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and a few others have become larger and dominant players in an industry. Coupled with the rise of these leading firms, we have also observed that a large number of young firms have become an acquisition target in their early IPO stages. This indeed results in a sharp decline in the number of new entries in public exchanges although a series of policy reforms have been promulgated to foster competition through an increase in new entries. Given the observed industry trend in recent decades, a number of studies have reported increased concentration in most developed countries. However, it is less understood as to what caused an increase in industry concentration. In this paper, we uncover the mechanisms by which industries have become concentrated over the last decades by tracing the changes in industry concentration associated with a firm's status change in its early IPO stages. To this end, we put emphasis on the case in which firms are acquired shortly after they went public. Especially, with the transition to digital-based economies, it is imperative for incumbent firms to adapt and keep pace with new ICT and related intelligent systems. For instance, after the acquisition of a young firm equipped with AI-based solutions, an incumbent firm may better respond to a change in customer taste and preference by integrating acquired AI solutions and analytics skills into multiple business processes. Accordingly, it is not unusual for young ICT firms become an attractive acquisition target. To examine the role of M&As involved with young firms in reshaping the level of industry concentration, we identify a firm's status in early post-IPO stages over the sample periods spanning from 1990 to 2016 as follows: i) being delisted, ii) being standalone firms and iii) being acquired. According to our analysis, firms that have conducted IPO since 2000s have been acquired by incumbent firms at a relatively quicker time than those that did IPO in previous generations. We also show a greater acquisition rate for IPO firms in the ICT sector compared with their counterparts in other sectors. Our results based on multinomial logit models suggest that a large number of IPO firms have been acquired in their early post-IPO lives despite their financial soundness. Specifically, we show that IPO firms are likely to be acquired rather than be delisted due to financial distress in early IPO stages when they are more profitable, more mature or less leveraged. For those IPO firms with venture capital backup have also become an acquisition target more frequently. As a larger number of firms are acquired shortly after their IPO, our results show increased concentration. While providing limited evidence on the impact of large incumbent firms in explaining the change in industry concentration, our results show that the large firms' effect on industry concentration are pronounced in the ICT sector. This result possibly captures the current trend that a few tech giants such as Alphabet, Apple and Facebook continue to increase their market share. In addition, compared with the acquisitions of non-ICT firms, the concentration impact of IPO firms in early stages becomes larger when ICT firms are acquired as a target. Our study makes new contributions. To our best knowledge, this is one of a few studies that link a firm's post-IPO status to associated changes in industry concentration. Although some studies have addressed concentration issues, their primary focus was on market power or proprietary software. Contrast to earlier studies, we are able to uncover the mechanism by which industries have become concentrated by placing emphasis on M&As involving young IPO firms. Interestingly, the concentration impact of IPO firm acquisitions are magnified when a large incumbent firms are involved as an acquirer. This leads us to infer the underlying reasons as to why industries have become more concentrated with a favor of large firms in recent decades. Overall, our study sheds new light on the literature by providing a plausible explanation as to why industries have become concentrated.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.53-64
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• 2024

ESG management has garnered significant recognition as a crucial concern across all global industries. Within the logistics sector, there is a growing awareness of the importance of ESG management. However, active engagement in ESG practices remains predominantly confined to large corporations, leaving small and medium-sized logistics companies lagging in their comprehension and implementation of ESG principles. Previous studies have consistently underscored the necessity of establishing ESG management guidelines. Furthermore, there has been a call to determine the relative weights assigned to various ESG implementation evaluation criteria, taking into account the distinctive attributes of each category of logistics company. This study endeavors to ascertain the weightings of ESG implementation evaluation items for different types of logistics companies by employing the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) methodology. The framework of evaluation is based on the evaluation items outlined in prior research, particularly focusing on ESG management guidelines tailored for small and medium-sized logistics companies. The findings of the analysis reveal distinct prioritizations across different sectors within the logistics industry. For maritime logistics companies, the environment emerges as the foremost concern, followed by society, information disclosure, and governance. Conversely, land transportation companies prioritize society, followed by governance, environment, and information disclosure. In the warehousing sector, environment takes precedence, followed by society, information disclosure, and governance. Comprehensive logistics firms, on the other hand, prioritize the environment, followed by information disclosure, society, and governance. Such guidelines are pertinent for regulatory bodies and industry stakeholders seeking to assess ESG practices within these enterprises. Moreover, this research contributes to the body of knowledge available to domestic small and medium-sized logistics companies, aiding them in effectively navigating and implementing ESG management principles.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.500-532
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• 2012

This study analyzed the technology innovation strategies of knowledge-based companies in the semiconductor IP industry. The theoretical approaches of this study are to i) the creation, protection and utilization of knowledge and innovation, ii) value creation from innovation, iii) modularity, timing of market entry, and the emergence and competition of standard (dominant design). Based on the theoretical analysis, I presented exploratory research hypotheses. Ultimately, this study examined the proposed hypotheses by conducting case studies on the technology innovation strategy of two leading knowledge-based companies in the semiconductor IP industry: ARM and INTEL. First, knowledge-based companies entering in the early stage of the technology cycle select the vertically-integrated technology strategy because of lower access to complementary knowledge assets, and maintain the vertically-integrated technology strategy despite the environmental change-driven differentiation of industry's value chain. Second, knowledge-based companies entering in the later stage of the technology cycle prefer the contract-based technology strategy because of its increased accessibility to complementary knowledge assets, and choose a different path of innovation strategies depending on whether their asset has the feature of discontinuity or not.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.277-293
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• 2015

Mutual Savings Banks generally have weaker governance structure than other financial institutions, so the possibility of earnings management by owner-largest or managements of mutual savings banks is higher than other financial institutions. This study examines the relationship between corporate governance and quality of internal control of financial reporting. If the expropriation of minority shareholder hypothesis holds, we predict that the larger block shareholder in mutual savings banks, the weaker the internal control system by more likely the opportunistic earnings management by bank managers. On the other hand, under the convergence of interest hypothesis, we predict that the larger block shareholder in mutual savings banks, the stronger the internal control system by reduction in agency costs as owner-manager's holdings increases, and there a negative relationship is expected between internal control weakness and the holdings of the owner-largest shareholder. We find that mutual savings banks with higher owner-largest shareholder equity has significant positive relations with their internal control of financial reporting material weakness. This result suggests that the greater owner-largest shareholder equity, the more likely the opportunistic earnings management, so that decrease quality of internal control. This paper extends the literature on financial institutions corporate governance to verify whether governance system, especially, owner-largest and quality of internal control has significant positive relations.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Navigation and Port Research Conference
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• 2022.06a
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• pp.239-241
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• 2022

세계 물류시장은 지속적으로 성장하고 있으며, 글로벌 해운·물류기업은 M&A를 통해 시장지배력 및 글로벌 네트워크를 확장하고 있다. 한편 우리나라는 물류산업에서의 글로벌 선도기업 부재, 물류 네트워크 열악 등으로 인해 고품질 SCM 서비스 지원이 불가능한 상황이다. 따라서 해운·물류기업의 해외진출 확대 및 국제 경쟁력 강화를 위해 M&A 관련 연구가 활발하게 진행되어야 한다. 이에 본 연구는 M&A 성공 및 확대를 위한 M&A 효과분석 연구를 실시하고자 한다.

• Korean Business Review
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.183-206
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• 2006

Recently, the notion of "increasing returns" has been popular not only in academia but also in industries. This notion has been drawn from prior research on network effects, which showed that the market evolution would lock in to a dominant technology. However, the long history of technological change has rarely shown the possibility of lock-in to an inferior technology. How could the market with network effects make transition between incompatible technologies regimes by escaping the lock-in? This paper analyzes the effectiveness of R&D and technological choice to investigate the sources of the dynamic capabilities in the presence of network effects and uncertain technological progress. Why does the market sometimes work against a radical technology, and why, at other times, does the market operate in favor of it? This study is to address this question by modeling the situation of two competing technologies in the presence of network effects. The numerical analysis indicates that the evolution strategy of compatibility is more likely to increase the chance of firm growth when a majority of customers are not power users or when demand for an old technology has been escalated. But when there are a substantial number of power users or when a new technology emerges before such an escalation of demand, the revolution strategy of compelling performance is more likely to be effective. The result suggests a potential mechanism for overcoming the lock-in problem. When the market exhibits some inertia to an obsolete technology, which is reinforced by the increasing customer value with respect to backward compatibility, the survival of a new technology depends on power users. When many power users are cultivated by firms' technological efforts regarding the new technology, the market is less likely to lock into an obsolete technology. Indeed, in the workstation market, where power users characterize much of the demand, innovators like Sun successfully switched to the RISC architecture.

• Journal of Korea Fair Competition Federation
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• no.110
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• pp.45-59
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• 2004

• Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.213-221
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• 2018

South Korea has been reluctant to open its geospatial information overseas to ensure security as a divided country. However, this cannot continue as the domestic and international environments related to geospatial information and the industrial ecosystem of information and communication technologies have been changing dramatically. Within this context, this study aims to analyze the causal relations among relevant variables and how they change and interact with time using a systems thinking process. First, causal maps were created for the domains of national security, map-based convergence service, and corporate competition. Then, the causal maps for each domain were integrated, based on which the points for policy intervention and dominant feedback loops were identified. The analysis results showed that securing the self-sufficiency of domestic geospatial businesses is a key element to determine the whole causal map, and the variable that changes the dominant feedback loop from a vicious circle to a virtuous one is the decision to open geospatial information overseas. In this study, I found the policy leverage that is a policy intervention point that can produce a great effect with little input by building a causal map of the interactions between major variables. This study is significant in that it identified and analyzed the dominant feedback loop as to which causal structure would dominate the system in the long term. The results of this study can be used to discuss not only the impacts of map data overseas opening on the national security and geospatial information industry, but also the interactions in the future when Google or other global companies request to release the geospatial information.

• Journal of Korea Fair Competition Federation
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• no.95
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• pp.2-13
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• 2003

WTO는 그간에 계속적으로 진행된 관세장벽인하 등 무역장벽 제거조치로 인하여 국가 간 무역자유화가 상당한 성과를 가져오리라고 기대하였으나 현실적으로는 그러한 결과가 실현되지 않았다. 그 이유로 분석된 것은 민간 분야에서 시장접근을 제한하는 행위들이 아직 남아 있기 때문이라는 것이다. 그 중 대표적인 것이 기업 간 담합행위와 시장 지배적 사업자의 남용행위라고 보고 있다. 시장접근을 제한하는 이러한 반경쟁적인 기업행위들이 상존하는 이유를 WTO에서는 아직도 많은 국가들이 경쟁법을 도입하고 있지 않거나, 각 국 간의 경쟁법이 상이하기 때문이라고 보고 있다. 그러므로 무역자유화 조치의 효과를 제대로 실현시키기 위하여 각 국 간에 공통적으로 적용이 가능하거나 수용할 수 있는 경쟁법 수단을 만들어보자는 것이 WTO 차원의 다자간 경쟁규범 추진의 배경이다.

• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.89-105
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• 2024

The purpose of the study is to examine the impact of ESG activities on brand value by linking the effectiveness of ESG activities to marketing, the most core part of a company. This study conducted an empirical analysis targeting companies listed on KOSPI and KOSDAQ from 2016 to 2022. Looking at the empirical analysis results of this study, first, in the individual analysis of ESG activities, it was confirmed that E (Environment) and G (Governance) have a significant positive influence on brand value. Second, in the environmental field, stakeholder response had a significant positive relationship with brand value, and in the governance field, the board of directors had a significant positive relationship with brand value. Through this study, we can provide logical evidence proving that ESG activities are important activities that must be carried out in advance to increase brand value. Among ESG activities, it was found that stakeholder response activities in the environmental field and board-related matters in the governance field play an important role in increasing brand value. It is also expected that it will serve as a catalyst for research on the importance of ESG activities in the marketing field.