• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.395-423
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• 2014

This study examines the role of trade finance in the trade collapse of 2008-09 from the perspective of the Korean economy. We use two approaches. Firstly, as background to a more formal analysis, we make a casual observation on the behavior of aggregate data on trade finance, on which Korea has relatively abundant data. Aggregate data do not convincingly support the view that trade finance played an active role in causing the trade collapse. The measures of trade finance and the value of trade both dropped sharply, but the ratio of trade finance over trade was stable and in some cases increased during the crisis period. Secondly, using quarterly data on listed firms in Korea, we conduct panel estimations to test whether firms that are more dependent on external finance experienced greater export contraction during the crisis. Our regression analysis suggests that the financial vulnerability of firms, measured by various financial ratios, did not contribute to export contraction during the financial crisis. This observation largely applies even to smaller firms, who are usually thought of as being more vulnerable financially. However, we find that small exporters that relied heavily on cross-border trade payables or receivables suffered larger drops in export growth during the crisis.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.17-29
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• 2018

Purpose - This study analyzed the success strategy of Korean small & medium cosmetics exporting companies to enter the Southeast Asian market. Research design, data, and methodology - The independent factors are classified into firm capacity, financial factor, institutional factor, and operational factor. The results of the selection of distributor partners of cosmetics related export companies as a were classified as financial performance and non - financial performance. In order to analyze this, 65 Korean small and medium export companies were recruited through structured online questionnaire for 44 days from September 18, 2017 to October 31, 2017. These data were analyzed by frequency analysis, correlation analysis, factor analysis and regression analysis using SPSS. Results - The Cronbach's alpha coefficient was found to be 0.846. Factor analysis between variables revealed that the eigen value exceeded 1 and was considered valid. As a result of the correlation analysis between the variables, the financial factor and the corporate's competence showed the highest correlation with 0.774. Conclusions - Among the factors influencing the financial performance of the exporting firms, the factors influencing the financial performance of the exporting companies are the factors that influence the non - financial performance rather than the financial performance.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.195-211
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship among innovation activities, innovation performance, and management performance of export firms. I first undertake a review of previous studies related to innovation activity, innovation performance, and export firms' innovation. Based on this, I set up a research model and hypotheses. First, The innovation activity is classified into product innovation activity, process innovation activity, and administrative innovation activity. Innovation performance is divided into product quality improvement and cost reduction. And the business performance is regarded as financial performance of export's firms. This study examined whether innovation activity affect innovation performance such as product quality improvement and cost reduction. In addition, I examined whether these innovation performance affects business performance (financial performance). To achieve this, a total of 368 questionnaires are used in this study and PLS (Partial Least Square) was used to analyze structural equation. As a result, this study shows that product innovation activity have a positive effect on product quality improvement, and process innovation activity also have a positive effect on product quality improvement. However, it was found that neither product innovation activity nor process innovation activity had an effect on cost reduction. And it was found that administrative innovation did not affect product quality improvement, but had a positive effect on cost reduction. Also, it was found that quality improvement, which is an innovation performance, did not affect the financial performance of export's firms, and cost reduction, which is an innovation performance, had a positive effect on the financial performance of the export's firms.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.131-152
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• 2021

Political connections may facilitate firms' exporting activities, particularly in developing countries, because politically connected firms may be more likely to receive informational and financial support, allowing them to overcome barriers to export. We test this hypothesis using a unique, firm-level dataset from traditional apparel and textile clusters in the Red River Delta Region in Northern Vietnam. We find that political connection of certain types increases the chance of receiving valuable information or financial support from the government. Moreover, those firms that have access to government information have higher chances of being direct exporters. However, firms that receive financial support from the government are not necessarily engaged in exporting activities. Although politically connected firms are more willing to export, they do not necessarily engage in more exporting activities than firms without such connections. These results suggest that the misallocation of information and financial resources to politically connected but insufficiently productive firms leads to a failure to promote exporting activities. In contrast, political connection increases the chance of importing materials and parts, possibly because high productivity is necessary for exporting, but not for importing.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.153-169
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• 2020

This study compares and analyzes the effects of GVC participation on export competitiveness in manufacturing and service industry in 36 OECD countries and 28 non-OECD countries. According to the statistical analysis result, the GVC participation had a negative impact on export competitiveness in manufacturing industry, while it had a positive impact in the service industry. In the case of the manufacturing industry, participation toward the backward GVC had a positive impact on export competitiveness before the financial crisis, besides, participation toward the forward GVC had a positive impact on export competitiveness. In the case of the service industry, export competitiveness through forward GVC participation has increased since the financial crisis has occurred, and backward GVC participation was estimated to have a negative impact on export competitiveness. The results of this study implies that, to secure export competitiveness, a converged approach of the manufacturing and service industries to upgrade the global value chain is needed.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.20-32
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• 2022

Purpose - This paper intends to make theoretical analysis and empirical test on the factors influencing China's export to South Korea, and draw conclusions about China's export efficiency and trade potential. Based on the conclusions, the reasons for China's trade deficit with South Korea are found, and a solution is put forward for solving the problem of China's trade deficit with South Korea. Design/methodology - Based on the data of 2004-2017 years in China, this paper uses the stochastic frontier gravity model to analyze the influencing factors of China's export to South Korea, as well as the export efficiency of each province and the export potential that can be explored. Findings - First, in terms of the factors affecting China's export trade to South Korea, the GDP of the provinces and cities in China, the FDI of South Korea to the provinces and cities in China, the GDP of South Korea, the population and education level of provinces and cities in China can significantly promote the export scale of Chinese provinces and cities to South Korea. The distance between Chinese provincial capitals and the South Korean capital significantly hinders Chinese exports to South Korea; Second, in terms of export trade efficiency, the trade exchange rate of the economically developed cities along the eastern coast of China and several provinces that are close to South Korea is higher than that of the cities in the central and western regions; Third, economic globalization makes trade more convenient, the average export trade efficiency of China's exports to South Korea showed an upward trend. However, under the influence of the 2008 global financial crisis, the export trade efficiency declined from 2008 to 2009, indicating that the impact of the financial crisis on the trade efficiency cannot be ignored. Originality/value - This paper finds out the influencing factors of China's export to South Korea, analyzes the export efficiency of different provinces and cities, excavates the export potential, and puts forward some suggestions for the balanced development of China and South Korea trade in the next step.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.367-387
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• 2013

19) This research investigates the satisfaction level of both countries' export companies about the export insurance system which can cause problems in Korean-Chinese FTA in this age of spreading FTA. Through this research, it surveys of the system user satisfaction of two nations based on the characteristics of export insurance systems in South Korea and China. The satisfaction level of export credit insurance system is as follows: Awareness of credibility (3.53), awareness of exporting area (3.38), awareness of risk management (3.29), awareness of market change (3.14), awareness of insured accident (3.24), and awareness of regulations (3.03) present positive responses to the export insurance system but awareness of defective product (2.97) was relatively unsatisfied. Though it is hard to compare directly due to the differences between the exporting systems of Korean and China, this research shows the need of various export insurance products, and that most export companies in Korea and China are generally satisfying with export insurance products at present.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.205-221
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• 2019

The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of cash holdings on firm value in export companies. To investigate this effect, we analyzed 5,386 samples drawn from export companies listed in the KOSDAQ from 2011 to 2018. During this period, the International Financial reporting Standards have been employed. The research results are as follows. First, the results of a T-test showed that the level of the firm value of export companies with high levels of cash holdings is significantly higher than that of those with low levels of cash holdings. In addition, the level of the firm value of export companies with higher levels of cash holdings than in the previous year is higher than the level might otherwise be. Furthermore, the effects of cash holdings on firm value are similar to those on return on asset. These results suggested that export companies have little used a way of increasing their debt levels in order to increase cash holdings. Second, the results of a multivariate regression analysis presented that the cash holdings of export companies in listed the KOSDAQ significantly influence their firm value. Moreover, a higher level of cash holdings than in the previous year significantly affect firm value. These results proposed that making higher cash holdings than in the previous year might be useful in enhancing firm value. We found that export companies efforts to increase cash holdings positively influence changes in firm value. We also found that Korean export companies maintain their financial stability by obtaining sufficient liquidity specifically in a high uncertainty era like the recent time. We finally firmed an effort to maintain cash holdings as a reasonable choice for export companies.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.24 no.8
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• pp.121-132
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• 2020

Purpose - The principle aim of this study is to further investigate the relationship between market diversity and export performance. We examine the benefits and costs of geographic market diversity regarding the number of countries exported to by firms on their export performance. Based on the financial risk reduction model and the entry costs model, we propose a way to incorporate the costs and benefits aspects of market diversity. Design/methodology - To empirically investigate our research question, the curvilinear relationship between market diversity and export performance, we built a secondary panel data set between 2015 and 2019, containing 17,863 observations of Korean exporting companies. A generalized least squares panel estimator with fixed effects was employed to test the hypothesis, and the statistical package, Stata 14, was used. Findings - Our main findings are as follows: As market diversity increases, export performance increases because exporters can diversify and reduce financial risks in export markets. However, the relationship between the two does not grow. As it peaks, the entry costs increase due to the high market diversity, thereby outweighing the benefits, leading, eventually to decrease in the export performance. Consequently, there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between market diversity and export performance. Originality/value - In the export and trade literature, the impact of market diversity on export performance has not been addressed yet, despite the importance of this subject. Many scholars have assumed a positive linear relationship between the two, considering only the decrease in market risks as the number of overseas markets increases, without examining the increase in the entry and management costs. Therefore, our study contributes by providing a new perspective for analyzing the characteristics and outcomes of market diversity.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.75
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• pp.95-116
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• 2017

The global financial crisis has slowed overall growth in the global economy. In addition, uncertainty is increasing in the world economy due to the Trade protectionism, sluggish world trade, and a rise in the rate of interest caused by expansion of fiscal spending by major countries. In this study, we analyzed various factors affecting the container import and export volume, which has a high correlation with export and import of commodities in international trade. In particular, we will examine how exchange rate fluctuations and domestic and overseas economic conditions affect container imports and exports. For the empirical analysis, monthly time series data were used from January 2000 to January 2017. We use the Error Correction Model (VECM) for the empirical analysis and the GARCH model for the exchange rate fluctuation. As a result, container export and import volume had a negative relationship with exchange rate and exchange rate volatility, which had a positive effect on domestic and international economic conditions. However, the effects are different before and after the financial crisis.