• Economic Analysis
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.1-33
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• 2020

Recent discussions about a minimum wage increase (MWI) and its influence on the economy have mainly focused on the quantitative aspects, such as labor costs and employment. However, concerning the qualitative aspects, an MWI could have positive effects by enhancing firm productivity and crowding out marginal firms from the market. These positive effects of an MWI can offset, to some extent, its potential negative effects - increasing labor costs and decreasing employment, among others. In this regard we empirically examine the impact of an MWI on firm productivity (total factor productivity). Using firm level panel data from the manufacturing industry in Korea, we calculate the influence rates of a minimum wage by sector and by firm size (number of workers), and analyze its effects on firm productivity. In particular, the production functions of the firms are estimated by taking into account endogeneity among the input factors, in order to resolve the drawbacks of existing studies - underestimating the capital factor coefficient and overestimating the labor factor coefficient. This study finds that the influences of an MWI on wages, employment, and productivity are substantially different across sectors and firm sizes. While an MWI has shown to have positive influences on productivity growth in the manufacturing industry as a whole, each sector demonstrates a different direction of effect, and the degree of productivity change also varies by sector. The impacts of an MWI on firm productivity are generally estimated to be more negative for smaller firms, but in some sectors the effects are found to be positive. In addition, the wage increases resulting from an MWI seem to cause a productivity enhancement across all sectors in the manufacturing industry. The policy implications of this study are as follows. Considering the empirical findings that an MWI causes an increase in productivity in many sectors of the manufacturing industry, it would be desirable to take into consideration not only the negative side effects but also the positive effects of an MWI when designing any future minimum wage policy. Moreover, in spite of there being a uniform minimum wage, this study finds that the diverse influence rates of a minimum wage across firms have different impacts on wages, employment, and productivity across sectors or firm size. This finding could be conducive to discussions about differentiation among minimum wage schemes by sector or firm size.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.754-763
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• 2001

The purpose of this study was to examine: 1) the differences in the automation level by company characteristics(i.e., product category, product type, firm size); 2) the effects of company context(i.e., environmental uncertainty, task uncertainty) on the automation level; and 3) the effect of the automation level on manufacturing performance(i.e., quality, flexibility, time, cost). Data were collected from a mail survey. Four hundred eighty two questionaries were mailed to apparel manufacturers nationwide, and 60 responses were analyzed. The results revealed that: 1) mens and womens wear manufacturers and large manufacturers(i.e., the number of employees, sales volume) showed higher automation level; 2) environmental complexity positively affected the automation level; and 3) the automation level had a positive effect only on quality performance.

• 한국산학경영학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.73-94
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• 2005

This paper investigates the performance consequence of strategic changes when firms move closer to or further away from other firms in the industry. The study suggests a theoretical framework and hypotheses on the effect of strategic convergence and divergence on performance, and tests hypotheses with firm-level longitudinal data on the U.S. food processing industry during the period of 1985-2000. The study shows that strategic divergence is negatively related to performance, and that organizational size and firm-specific uncertainty significantly influence the effect of strategic convergence and divergence on financial performance. Particularly, high uncertainty seems to be conducive to financial performance improvement for organizations undergoing significant strategic changes converging toward other competitors. On the other hand, big organizational size seems to be beneficial for finns implementing strategic changesdiverging from other competitors.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.23-46
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• 2008

The purpose of this research is to analyze the impact of business scope and technological capability on firm performance in SMEs. Existing studies on business scopes and technological capabilities have focused on the unilateral relationships with financial performances. This study examines the independent and interaction effects of business scopes and technological capabilities on financial performances of SMEs in capital industries. Based on 228 firm-level data, technological capabilities have positively significant impacts on performance. Business scope measured by product variety and number of buyers have been significantly positive relationships to financial performances. Also SMEs with technological capabilities can moderate the effects of business scope on their performances. However, the results show different relationships depending on measurements on business scope, technological capabilities and performance. The results provide interesting findings on strategic behaviors of SMEs when they pursue growth strategy through expanding business scopes and building technological capabilities.

• Proceedings of the Technology Innovation Conference
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• 2004.02a
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• pp.202-221
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• 2004

Technology is the most important determination factor on firm`s competitiveness. It helps firms to secure sustainable competitive advantages. Therefore Korean electronics part firms have increased their R&D investment since the 1990s. But their R&D management capabilities seem to be low level. Empirical study was undertook to verify factors that effect on R&D performance with enhancing R&D management capabilities. To accomplish the purpose, data collected valid samples in Seoul and Kyunggi Province. Using SPSSWIN 10.0package, regression analysis was used to verify hypotheses. This study verify that important factors of 4th R&D generation effect on improving R&D performance. Therefore Korean electronics firms must learn advanced firms in developed countries. Based on learning and accumulating R&D management capabilities, Korean electronics part firms should establish their firm-specific R&D management model.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.253-276
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• 2014

We examine which traditional asset pricing variables together with bank-specific accounting variables explain the cross-sectional variation of future bank stock returns, using a firm-level data of eight Asian countries. Our empirical evidence shows that exchange rate risk, firm size, the book-to-market ratio, and the net income ratio are important in explaining future bank stock returns during normal times. However, during the Global Financial Crisis period, different variables such as local market beta, illiquidity risk, equity ratio, and off-balance sheets ratio were statistically significant. Thus, researchers and policy practitioners should monitor these variables during normal times as well as during times of crisis.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.1-26
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• 2020

Firms employing hierarchical loyalty programs (HLPs) periodically demote customers from higher to lower status level to divest from unprofitable customers and boost profitability. However, existing literature lacks objective evidence on how customer demotion affects demoted customers' future purchase behaviors and ultimately profitability for the firm. Moreover, customers in the HLP's higher position may respond to customer demotion differently from those in the HLP's lower position. Drawing upon emotions and equity theories, this study quantifies how the profits that customers contribute to the firm change after customer demotion, and compares demoted customers' behavioral reactions from top-tier with those from bottom-tier based on customers' actual behavior data from a major retail bank in South Korea. The findings show that withdrawing customer status actually deteriorates customer profitability, and customers with top-tier status decrease their profitability more dramatically than those with bottom-tier status after demotion. The results contribute to previous literature on customer demotion and relationship marketing, and provide specific guidelines into how firms should design and implement customer demotion in HLPs.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.25-44
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• 2021

This paper analyzes the impact of the recent change in global value chain on the productivity of manufacturing sectors and firms in Chungnam area using ADB MRIO. Forward participation significantly increases sector productivity in Chungnam area and backward participation affects the sector productivity after 2015. In the analysis for firm productivity in Chungnam area, GVC participation does not enhance the productivity of firms in Chungnam area. However, firms in the top 25% of productivity in 2007 improved their productivity with higher GVC participation and the productivity of firms in the top 25% of asset in 2007 was positively affected by forward pariticipation and negatively affected by backward participation. The productivity of firms that were in international market in 2007 was significantly worsened by GVC participation.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.1-42
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• 2014

This study analyzes how heterogeneous across firms' productivity level the effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) on the productivity of firms in a host country are. The study uses firm level data over 2000~2009 in South Korea and takes a quantile regression approach to estimate FDI's heterogeneous effects on the invested firm ('direct effects') and other domestic firms in the industry to which the invested firm belongs ('intra-industry spillover effects'). Major empirical results are as follows. In manufacturing sector, FDI has positive and statistically significant direct effects on the invested firm. In addition, the higher the quantiles of firms' productivity level are, the larger the positive productivity effects are. FDI also has positive and statistically significant intra-industry spillover effects on domestic firms in low quantiles of productivity while it has negative and statistically significant or insignificant spillover effects on those in high productivity quantiles. In service sector, on the other hand, Sufficient evidence is not found that FDI has statistically significant direct effects or intra-industry spillover effects. Taken together, the study suggests that FDI has heterogeneous effects on the productivity of firms in host country, depending on the firms' productivity level and sector.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.847-859
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• 2019

Purpose: The companies must be located in the area, scale up, create jobs, and return to the local economy. This paper attempted to analyze empirically the relationship between regional context and entrepreneurial orientation(EO) in the region of Korea. Methods: This paper analyzed survey data and regional statistics. We measured EO by region and then examined which regional context affect EO. Regional contexts were measured by population, economic size, budget size, firm size, innovation capacity, and education level. EO was measured by innovativeness, risk taking, proactiveness, autonomy, competitive aggressiveness, and need for achievement. Results: EO was high in the region where the budget size per thousand population, the number of manufacturers per thousand population, the number of new corporations per thousand population, the number of R&D personnel per thousand population, and the number of students of higher education institutions per thousand population were high. Conclusion: The implications of this paper are that regional context affect EO, and there are differences in budget scale, firm size, innovation capacity, and education level. In regions with many investment resources for innovation and startups and manufacturers, the number of R&D personnel and students of higher education institutions (future R&D personnel), in particular, determines EO.