• Title/Summary/Keyword: External Networking of SMEs

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A Study on the Effect of External Networking of SMEs on Production Facility Management, New Product Development Strategy and Financial Performance; Focused on the Partnerships SMEs in the Chungcheong Province of S&T Government Funded Research Institutes (중소기업의 외부 네트워킹이 생산설비 관리, 신제품개발 전략 및 재무성과에 미치는 영향; 과학기술분야 출연(연) 충청권 파트너쉽 기업을 중심으로)

  • Ha Young-Im
    • Journal of Korea Society of Digital Industry and Information Management
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    • v.19 no.2
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    • pp.103-120
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    • 2023
  • This study is to confirm whether SMEs can manage production facilities well and receive help in establishing new product development strategies if they actively engage in external networks. And under this influence, it is to check whether sales growth and financial performance improve. After reviewing the literature and theory, an empirical analysis using the questionnaire method was conducted to verify the research model. To verify statistical significance, programs 'SPSS 20.0' and 'Smart PLS 2.0' were used. The results of the study are summarized as follows. First, the higher the level of technical cooperation external networking of SMEs, the higher the level of management of their production facilities and new product development strategy was confirmed. Second, it was confirmed that the higher the level of production facility management and new product development strategy of SMEs, the higher their financial performance. Third, among the external networking levels of SMEs, the factor that has the greatest influence on management level of production facilities was identified as degree of participation in human network activities to secure technology. And the factor that had the greatest influence on level of new product development strategy was identified as participation in joint research and commissioned research.

Analyzing the Characteristics of Open Innovation Activity and the External Collaboration Network in SMEs (중소기업의 개방형 혁신활동 특성과 외부 협력 네트워크 분석)

  • Lee, Hee-Yeon;Lee, Se-Won
    • Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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    • v.15 no.2
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    • pp.147-165
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    • 2012
  • Recently, the theory of open innovation emerges as a new innovation paradigm. This paper aims to examine open innovation activities of SMEs. Many firms tend to search new knowledge from various external sources and to pursue to achieve innovation resources or knowledge of external innovators. Particularly, this paper focus on the process of external knowledge networking and open innovation occurred in the process of technology innovation. The data used in this study were those that had been collected for total 3,400 sample SMEs that had conducted R&D. and in-depth interviews were conducted with 14 SMEs located at Chungbuk-Technopark. Empirical findings can be summarized as follows; SMEs tend to search new knowledge from various external sources and to pursue to achieve innovation resources or knowledge of external innovators, because they have lack of innovation resources. therefore, the conducting of open innovation affected positively the innovation performance of SMEs. In addition, empirical findings also indicated that expanding flexibility of labor market enhances open innovation activities of SMEs.

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The Characteristics and Performances of Manufacturing SMEs that Utilize Public Information Support Infrastructure (공공 정보지원 인프라 활용한 제조 중소기업의 특징과 성과에 관한 연구)

  • Kim, Keun-Hwan;Kwon, Taehoon;Jun, Seung-pyo
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.25 no.4
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    • pp.1-33
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    • 2019
  • The small and medium sized enterprises (hereinafter SMEs) are already at a competitive disadvantaged when compared to large companies with more abundant resources. Manufacturing SMEs not only need a lot of information needed for new product development for sustainable growth and survival, but also seek networking to overcome the limitations of resources, but they are faced with limitations due to their size limitations. In a new era in which connectivity increases the complexity and uncertainty of the business environment, SMEs are increasingly urged to find information and solve networking problems. In order to solve these problems, the government funded research institutes plays an important role and duty to solve the information asymmetry problem of SMEs. The purpose of this study is to identify the differentiating characteristics of SMEs that utilize the public information support infrastructure provided by SMEs to enhance the innovation capacity of SMEs, and how they contribute to corporate performance. We argue that we need an infrastructure for providing information support to SMEs as part of this effort to strengthen of the role of government funded institutions; in this study, we specifically identify the target of such a policy and furthermore empirically demonstrate the effects of such policy-based efforts. Our goal is to help establish the strategies for building the information supporting infrastructure. To achieve this purpose, we first classified the characteristics of SMEs that have been found to utilize the information supporting infrastructure provided by government funded institutions. This allows us to verify whether selection bias appears in the analyzed group, which helps us clarify the interpretative limits of our study results. Next, we performed mediator and moderator effect analysis for multiple variables to analyze the process through which the use of information supporting infrastructure led to an improvement in external networking capabilities and resulted in enhancing product competitiveness. This analysis helps identify the key factors we should focus on when offering indirect support to SMEs through the information supporting infrastructure, which in turn helps us more efficiently manage research related to SME supporting policies implemented by government funded institutions. The results of this study showed the following. First, SMEs that used the information supporting infrastructure were found to have a significant difference in size in comparison to domestic R&D SMEs, but on the other hand, there was no significant difference in the cluster analysis that considered various variables. Based on these findings, we confirmed that SMEs that use the information supporting infrastructure are superior in size, and had a relatively higher distribution of companies that transact to a greater degree with large companies, when compared to the SMEs composing the general group of SMEs. Also, we found that companies that already receive support from the information infrastructure have a high concentration of companies that need collaboration with government funded institution. Secondly, among the SMEs that use the information supporting infrastructure, we found that increasing external networking capabilities contributed to enhancing product competitiveness, and while this was no the effect of direct assistance, we also found that indirect contributions were made by increasing the open marketing capabilities: in other words, this was the result of an indirect-only mediator effect. Also, the number of times the company received additional support in this process through mentoring related to information utilization was found to have a mediated moderator effect on improving external networking capabilities and in turn strengthening product competitiveness. The results of this study provide several insights that will help establish policies. KISTI's information support infrastructure may lead to the conclusion that marketing is already well underway, but it intentionally supports groups that enable to achieve good performance. As a result, the government should provide clear priorities whether to support the companies in the underdevelopment or to aid better performance. Through our research, we have identified how public information infrastructure contributes to product competitiveness. Here, we can draw some policy implications. First, the public information support infrastructure should have the capability to enhance the ability to interact with or to find the expert that provides required information. Second, if the utilization of public information support (online) infrastructure is effective, it is not necessary to continuously provide informational mentoring, which is a parallel offline support. Rather, offline support such as mentoring should be used as an appropriate device for abnormal symptom monitoring. Third, it is required that SMEs should improve their ability to utilize, because the effect of enhancing networking capacity through public information support infrastructure and enhancing product competitiveness through such infrastructure appears in most types of companies rather than in specific SMEs.

Impacts of Competencies of Small Business CEOs on Business Performance: Focusing on the Mediating Effect of Network Activities (소기업 경영자의 역량이 경영성과에 미치는 영향)

  • Kim, Jong-hwan
    • Journal of Venture Innovation
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    • v.1 no.2
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    • pp.89-107
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    • 2018
  • This study examined the success factor of small business CEOs for continuous growth and development of business, and found it competencies of CEOs, and empirically studied the relationship between this factor and business performance. This study also focused on mediating effect of networking activity between competencies of small business CEOs and business performance. As a result of the study, it turned out that leadership competence, external cooperation competence and marketing competence have a significant effects on business performance. Small business CEOs' own efforts for increasing leadership, cooperation and marketing capability are needed as well as government policy and assistance in order to improve business performance. It also tested the mediating effect of networking activity to get information and resources, and proved it plays a role in enhancing business performance, so that it is necessary to promote small business CEOs' access to information and resources. Based on these empirical tests, government and supporting organizations need to refer to that factors affecting business performance are in priority supported in small business policy.