• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.454-490
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• 2018

This paper examined the nonlinear relationships between external knowledge sources and the innovation performance of SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises). Using 3,218 firm-year panel data in South Korea, this study found that increasing the number of external knowledge channels out of the value chain increases radical innovation. Meanwhile, increasing the number of external knowledge channels within the value chain increases the incremental innovation. Further, the external sources of knowledge both out of and in the value chain had inverted U-shaped relationships on radical and incremental innovation respectively. This finding implies that a mechanism of diminishing returns works in the relationship between the external sources of knowledge and innovation. The study also identified the synergistic effects between the external sources of knowledge out of the value chain and within the value chain, and confirmed that the synergistic effects strengthen the linear mechanism between the external sources of knowledge and innovation. In addition, this study found that the sources of knowledge both out of and within the value chain positively moderate the relationships between R&D investment and radical innovation of SMEs.

• 한국벤처창업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.04a
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• pp.35-64
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• 2007

Despite the tremendous efforts to boost them, domestic SMEs lack competitive power and it intensifies bipolarization between the conglomerates and SMEs. Furthermore, degree of industry-academy collaboration still falls far behind of that of developed countries even with government' s various policies and continuous increase in investment to strengthen the SMEs' technology innovation capability. Although many internal factors are suggested to affect technological performance, focus of existing studies has been restricted to immediate impact of industry-academy collaboration on technology innovation and it is not known how internal factors are related. This research conducts empirical analysis on the impact of industry-academy collaborations and absorptive capacity on technological performance in Korean SMEs. Sample frame is SMEs with more than five employees located in the nation wide industrial complex and 1,077 questionnaires are collected with the help of Korea Industrial Complex Corporations. 940 sample data excluding those with insufficient response are used in analysis. Multiple regression analysis revealed that the industry-academy collaborations and innovative HRM system, on important dimension of absorptive capacity, are positively correlated to technological performance. Furthermore, there exists a positive interaction effect between industry-academy collaborations and innovative HRM system. These findings make contributions to the formation of SME innovation policy and management. When funding industry-academy collaborations, government should consider SMEs' internal effort for innovation, that is, the possession of innovative HRM system, as well as firm's technology capability. Also, as technological performance cannot be achieved simply with R&D investment, both quantitative and qualitative assessment of SMEs' technological capability should be done to evaluate the candidate SMEs. As for management, it is important for SMEs with limited internal resources and capabilities to fully employ external resources to achieve higher technological performance. The development of innovative HRM system will be particularly helpful not only for internal R&D, but also for adoption of technology and knowledge from outside.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.55-80
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• 2009

Technology innovation activity plays a pivotal role in constructing the entrance barrier for other firms and making process improvement and new product. and these activities give a profit increase and growth to firms. Thus, technology innovation activity can reduce the default risk of firms. However, technology innovation activity can also increase the firm's default risk because technology innovation activity requires too much investment of the firm's resources and has the uncertainty on success. The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of technology innovation activity on the default risk of firms. This study's sample consists of manufacturing firms listed on the Korea Securities Market and The Kosdaq Market from January 1,2000 to December 31, 2008. This study makes use of R&D intensity as an proxy variable of technology innovation activity. The default probability which proxies the default risk of firms is measured by the Merton's(l974) debt pricing model. The main empirical results are as follows. First, from the empirical results, it is found that technology innovation activity has a negative and significant effect on the default risk of firms independent of the Korea Securities Market and Kosdaq Market. In other words, technology innovation activity reduces the default risk of firms. Second, technology innovation activity reduces the default risk of firms independent of firm size, firm age, and credit score. Third, the results of robust analysis also show that technology innovation activity is the important factor which decreases the default risk of firms. These results imply that a manager must show continuous interest and investment in technology innovation activity of one's firm. And a policymaker also need design an economic policy to promote the technology innovation activity of firms.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.149-175
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• 2014

This study analyzed the effect of corporate innovation strategies on patent production and ultimately on technological change and new product development of firms in South Korea. The intent was to derive efficient strategies for enhancing technological performance of the firms. For the empirical analysis, three sources of data were combined: four waves of the Human Capital Corporate Panel Survey (HCCP) data collected by the Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training (KRIVET), corporate financial data obtained from the Korea Information Service (KIS), and corporate patent data provided by the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO). The patent production function was estimated by zero-inflated negative binomial (ZINB) regression. The technological performance function was estimated by two-stage regression, taking into account the endogeneity of patent production. An ordered logit model was applied for the second stage regression. Empirical results confirmed the critical role of corporate innovation strategies in patent production and in facilitating technological change and new product development of the firms. In patent production, the firms' R&D investment and human resources were key determinants. Higher R&D intensity led to more patents, yet with decreasing marginal productivity. A larger stock of registered patents also led to a larger flow of new patent production. Firms were more prolific in patent production when they had high-quality personnel, intensely investing in human resource development, and adopting market-leading or fast-follower strategy as compared to stability strategy. In technological performance, the firms' human resources played a key role in accelerating technological change and new product development. R&D intensity expedited new product development of the firm. Firms adopting market-leading or fast-follower strategy were at an advantage than those with stability strategy in technological performance. Firms prolific in patent production were also advanced in terms of technological change and new product development. However, the nexus between patent production and technological performance measures was substantially reduced when controlling for the endogeneity of patent production. These results suggest that firms need to strengthen the linkage between patent production and technological performance, and take strategies that address each firm's capacities and needs.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.93-115
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• 2007

As strategies for creating profits are differentiated by the national economic system and development strategies related to firms' geographical scope, they depend on the spatial contexts and product characteristics. In this perspective, strategies for the profit creation of Korean textile and clothing FDI firms invested in Vietnam has involved in the geographical differentiations in accordance with the development path of transitional economies, changes in institutional environments and the characteristics of products. Therefore. the main purpose of this research is to identify the way in which they have their own identity in transitional economies by investigating business pattern, commodity chain and extra-firm relations, which are related to institutional dynamics in Vietnam. There are two main characteristics of Korean textile and clothing FDI firms in Vietnam. The first is that all business activities involved in the commodity chain of them from R&D to production is controlled by global retailer and distributors, which is the buyer-driven commodity chain and the typical commodity chain of the textile and clothing industry. The second could be defined as over- or unforced embeddedness into the institutional legacy of the Soviet system, because they have been incorporated into pre-existing networks based on reciprocal relations in Vietnam.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.139-169
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• 2023

This study analyzes the effects of firms' technology innovation(patent applications) on employment(number of workers and proportion of high-skilled workers) and corporate performance(sales per worker), while considering the two-way causal relationships between these variables. We used the three-stage least squares(3SLS) estimation to examine system of equations in which the dependent variables affect each other with a two-year lag wherever relevant, and applied it to firm-level panel data of Korean manufacturers with 100 or more workers. Our data covered the period of 2005-2017. Exogenous variables, such as firms' managerial and other characteristics, were controlled as explanatory variables. The identification variables for each equation included firms' R&D intensity, labor cost per worker(or operation of firms' own R&D center), and investment on worker training. We find that firms' patent applications increased number of workers, proportion of high-skilled workers, and sales per worker; the causal relationships in the opposite direction were also significant. Evidently, firms' technology innovation is critical to the growth and quality improvement of employment as well as sustainable corporate growth.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.123-156
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• 2005

Strengthening the competitive edge of SMEs has become one of the most important economic issues in Korea as the bipolarization between large firms and SMEs has deepened. Accordingly, small innovative firms (referred as 'venture firms' in Korea) attract keen attention both from policy makers and academia. Also, we can sufficiently observe how the growth environment for venture firms has evolved, since it has been almost ten years after the Korean government started its support policy for venture firms. Considering this, now is the appropriate time to carry out an analysis of venture firms. From this point of view, this study looks at growth factors for venture firms to draw out policy implications. The empirical analysis shows interesting results. Firms with the following features all showed higher growth rates: firms with high R&D intensity, younger firms, bigger firms, firms using more policy loans, and firms located within and around the Seoul region. However, the empirical analysis has some limitations. The data used in the study is limited in terms of firm information and so there are some insufficiencies. Thus it is of great importance to compile the required data on firms to enable further in-depth studies.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.73-89
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• 2020

This study started to identify the "Forward-looking" of the technology appraisal model introduced to diversify financing methods of SMEs and improve financial accessibility. The multivariate regression analysis was performed by setting the business performance(growth, profitability, and stability) of technology financing companies as dependent variables, technology appraisal items as independent variables, number of employees, age of the company, asset and the Korea Standard of Industry Classification related to firm size and industry characteristics as control variables. As a result of the analysis, the technology appraisal items did not explain the profitability of the company significantly and had a limited explanatory power on growth potential. However, in terms of stability, we confirmed that R&D capacity is a significant variable explaining the debt ratio of technology financing companies. Therefore, it is concluded that the 'Forward-looking' reflection on the growth and profitability of the company should be strengthened in the future adjustment of the technology appraisal model and the development of the technology appraisal model for investment.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.53-80
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to examine the determinants of the number of bank relationships in Korea. Firm-specific determinants considered here include leverage, size, age, return on asset, investment grade, tangibility, liquidity, R&D expenditure. We estimate the effects of these variables, and compare the results with those from previous studies performed for other economies. Concerning the effects of business cycle, we find that the business cycle is an important factor in determining the number of bank relationships. The number of bank relationships varies over the business cycle, and we notice a counter-cyclical behavior, which means the number decreases during economic expansions and increases during contractions. This result can be interpreted as a result of firms' diversification of borrowings into multiple banks in order to reduce the liquidity risk during the recession. In the subsets, however, the number of bank relationships for large firms is stable regardless of the business cycle. Unlisted firms, non-chaebol, and low credit quality firms which have relatively limited access to alternative sources of financing show counter-cyclical behavior. Finally, such phenomena is not observed in the non-competitive credit market, while they show a counter-cyclical behavior in the competitive credit market.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.752-762
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• 2009

This paper aims to investigate the characteristics of location and business-services networks of venture firms in Daegu region. The regional venture firms are small scale and consist of mainly R&D investment and license new-technology in the category of soft-ware. Since the mid-1990's the firms that were founded by people with higher education and career experience seek diverse growth strategies. those firms concentrate in some regions of dalseo-gu and buk-gu. There are a few difference by types of firm-business, but, on the whole, the princepal location factors of venture firms are accessibility of research institute and university, easy information availability, and use of moderate land. In regard to networks with client firms, the venture firms determine whether to transfer. The result of the characteristics of networks between regional venture firms and business-service enterprises is as follows; the regional venture firms utilize small number of business-service enterprises and use mainly information processing and other computer operation related services and professional, scientific and technical services. In business-service be used by regional venture firms, the frequency of information processing and other computer operation related services, research and development, business support services is much, while the frequency of professional, scientific and technical services is little. Business-service enterprises are distributed mostly in Daegu region and are used owing to lack of technology and knowledge.