• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.12 no.12
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• pp.385-394
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• 2012

This study investigates whether earnings management behavior of chaebol firms differ from that of non-chaebol firms. The ownership structure of chaebol firms is characterized by the dominance of one largest shareholder and his family members who typically participate in the management of the firm directly or indirectly and influence most of the important management decision. This study adopts the random effect model and the hausman and talyor model, using a panel of 5092 firm-year over a period from 1991 to 2010 to control for potential heterogeneity and endogeneity that may cause sever bias. This study finds that there is no difference in accrual based earnings management level between chaebol firms and non-chaebol firms. However, chaebol firms appeared to engage less real earnings management that is known to negatively affect future earnings and share prices. The results are consistent when controlling for potential heterogeneity and endogeneity in the hausman and taylor model. The results may be of interest to various stakeholders, policy makers, standard setters and academic researchers.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.129-139
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• 2016

Purpose - This paper examines the explanatory power of the agency theory in the determination of cash holdings for Korean retail firms. If the agency theory holds, a firm with strong corporate governance structure tends to have low cash holdings. A strong governance structure makes the CEO of this firm to behave in the interests of shareholders and thus the CEO has low incentive to stockpile cash holdings, which can be easily diverted for the CEO's own managerial purposes. We investigate this relationship between corporate governance structure and cash holdings, by using corporate governance scores as a proxy variable that captures the effectiveness of corporate governance mechanism. Research design, data, and methodology - We adopt the sample of publicly listed retail firms in KOSPI market from 2005 to 2013. Financial and accounting statements are gathered from the WISEfn database. We also use the corporate governance scores published by Korean Corporate Governance Service. The relationship between the corporate governance scores and cash holdings is cross-sectionally estimated based on the ordinary least square method. This estimation method is widely accepted in the existing literature. The sample of large conglomerates, Chebol, and the remainder firms are separately examined as well, to account for the distinctive internal financing environment in these large conglomerates. Results - We mainly contribute to the extant literature by providing empirical evidence against the agency theory of cash policy. Unlike the prediction of agency theory, we confirm statistically insignificant or even positive correlations between the set of corporate governance scores and cash-asset ratios. Almost all the major corporate governance attributes including total score, shareholder rights, board structure, and the quality of information disclosure do not show negative correlations with cash holdings, which poses a strong challenge to the validity of the agency theory in the determination of retail firms' cash holdings. Conclusions - This study presents interesting empirical results with respect to the cash policy in Korean retail firms. Consistent to prior studies, I verify that the agency theory only limitedly explains the level of cash holdings. Future studies may obtain more robust results by examining a longer sample period.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.14 no.spc
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• pp.1187-1208
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• 2011

This research aims to propose a systematic approach to identify emerging technology-product portfolio for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Firstly, operational definition of emerging technology for SMEs is presented. Secondly, research framework is suggested and case study to show usefulness of the newly proposed framwork is analyzed. In detail, reference patent set which represent company's capabilities and business area are constructed. The research constructs patent data set for bibliometric analysis using reference patent set and citing patents to 2nd level. Clustering (expert judgement) and keyword based bibliometric approach are used. Then, cluster activity index (AI) and relevance index (RI) comparing with reference patent set are estimated. With emerging technology-product portfolio using AI and RI, a firm can identify emerging technology-product area and monitoring area.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.523-549
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• 2015

This paper investigates an oil refiner's asymmetric behavior in the adjustments of gasoline and diesel prices to changes in his own price and his rivals' prices as well as input costs. An asymmetric error correction model which allows a firm's pricing behavior to the deviation of other firms' prices from their long-run equilibrium level is employed for estimation using weekly data for the period April 2009 to January 2015. Evidence is found that there is a significant degree of asymmetry in the adjustment of wholesale prices to changes in crude oil price. A similar result in regard to the exchange rate is also found by the data. The estimation results for firm's response to changes in other firms' prices indicates that implicit collusion could be more easily exploited in the wholesale petroleum market as results of firms' interaction with each other and anticipation of rivals' pricing behavior. A few refiners show competitive price adjustment in response to the upward deviation of the others' prices from their equilibrium level.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.352-362
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• 2019

The study investigates one of the long-standing, but still controversial issues in modern finance from the international and domestic perspectives. That is, financial components and differences on corporate profitability are identified and compared under the primary hypotheses. Empirical research settings include the sample data as KOSPI-listed chaebol firms, time reference covering the post-era of the global financial turmoil and two differently defined profitability indices measured by the market- and the book-value bases. A majority of total 7 explanatory variables except firm size and leverage ratio reveal their statistically significant power to explain profitability indices for the chaebol firms in the first hypothesis. The results are generally compatible with those obtained from their counterparts of non-chaebol firms. In the second hypothesis applying multinomial logistic model, the chaebol firms are classified into three groups according to the level of profitability. It is then confirmed that variables to represent the market-valued debt ratio, business risk and growth potential are financially discriminating factors among the three groups. The study may provide a new vision to identify financial factors of corporate profitability for Korean chaebol firms after the global financial crisis, which can enhance the benefits of interested parties at the government or corporate level in a virtuous cycle.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.5-15
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• 2018

Purpose - Nowadays customers have become empowered by information communication technologies. This state of customers has brought enormous pressure to bear on organizations, thus, organizations have to stay relevant, market-oriented and profitable. The insurance sector is one that is constantly challenged by its exposure to ICT and the associated need for e-services by myriad customers. With increasing competition in the health insurance environment, it is necessary for the sector to understand customer expectations and how they perceive the services offered. This study seeks to determine the role played by e-services in relation to customer satisfaction in health insurance industry in Botswana where a substantial investment has been made in the sector. Research design, data, and methodology - This study is conducted using two prominent medical aid schemes in Botswana namely BPOMAS and PULA. Subscribers of these medical schemes were the respondents whose views were sourced using both closed and open ended questionnaires. Systemic sampling technique was used to select the participants, while descriptive statistical techniques were mainly used to analyze socio-demographic data of the samples. Results - The results reveal that the level of usage of the medical insurance firm's website and email service is higher for PULA participants than for BPOMAS participants. Conclusions - The findings of this study have practical implications for managers who should understand customers' value perceptions regarding e-service quality in Botswana.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.16 no.10
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• pp.55-64
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• 2018

Purpose - The most important goal of corporate management is the maximization of firm value in the market. Executives of companies are making effort to increase corporate value and initiate various management strategies, which is to develop the products or service with value. Through these efforts, consumer satisfaction grows and loyalty increases, which leads to the positive change of customer satisfaction index. The purpose of this research is to find out the abnormal return after the KCSI(Korean Customer Satisfaction Index) is announced. Research design, data, and methodology - This research data is collected from 11 years' stock price in KOSPI market and KCSI. The authors analyze the abnormal return triggered by the announcement of KCSI through the event study. Results - First, newly enlisted companies in the KCSI show statistically significant short-term abnormal rate of return. Second, the value of the customer satisfaction index is not the level of customer satisfaction but the direction of the change in the CSI. Conclusion - Customer satisfaction has the important intangible asset in the marketing area. However, firms' investment for CS is not an easy decision, because of the difficulty to measure the effect on corporate market value. This research investigates the change of the market value after the announcement of KCSI. Based on the results, firms have to keep trying to increase KCSI relative to the previous year. And the small company has to struggle for being newly listed in the KCSI.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.207-222
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• 2005

A prerequisite for making R&D more productive is to able to measure its productivity. Most of the previous studies on this topic have attempted to measure R&D productivity at the firm or industry levels. In this study, however, R&D productivity is measured at the national level to provide R&D policy implications, particularly for Asian countries. Contrary to the previous studies where total factor productivity was adopted, this study employs the data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach to measure R&D productivity. DEA is a multi-factor productivity analysis model for measuring the relative efficiency of each Decision Making Unit (DMU). In addition to the basic DEA model that includes all inputs and outputs, five additional models are constructed by combining single input with all outputs and single output with all inputs in order to measure specialized R&D efficiency. In this study, the twenty-seven countries are classified into four clusters based on the output-specialized R&D efficiency: inventors, merchandisers, academicians, and duds. Then, the characteristics of the Asian countries with respect to R&D efficiency are identified. It is found that Singapore ranks high in total efficiency, and Japan in patent-oriented efficiency. Meanwhile, China, Korea, and Taiwan are found to be relatively inefficient in R&D. We expect that the findings from this study will be able to provide directions for R&D policy-making of the Asian countries.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.97-106
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• 2015

Background & Methods: The purpose of this research is to estimate the efficiency of the pharmaceutical firms and the determinants of their efficiency. Stochastic frontier analysis(SFA) and panel study are applied to the data of 60 domestic pharmaceutical firms from 2006 to 2012. Results & Conclusion: First, the result of the stochastic frontier analysis shows that overall efficiency of the pharmaceutical firms is increasing as time goes by. However, if firms are classified by the scale, the larger firms show more efficiency and if classified by the degree of innovativeness, the innovative firms show more efficiency compared to the non-innovative firms. This evidences show that the scale and R&D investment have significant relationships with the efficiency of the pharmaceutical firms. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the national level of investment for the fundamental researches to vitalize R&D of the new drugs. Second, the result of estimation of the determinants of efficiency shows that the firms with larger sales promotion expenses and entertainment expenses have less efficiency compared to the other firms. This can be explained by the structural characteristics of the small generic pharmaceutical firms. Therefore, the government had better make the pharmaceutical firms to reduce sales promotion and entertainment expenses and increase R&D expenses by introducing systems such as global budgeting system on medicine or reference pricing system.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.179-188
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to examine the level of aggressive tax planning (ATP) among companies listed in the Access, Certainty, Efficiency (ACE) Market of Bursa Malaysia. On top of that, this study also investigates the relationship between company characteristics, ethnicity, and ATP. This study uses a balanced pooled sample of 105 firm years-observations for the period from 2014 to 2018. These samples were selected to provide new insight into this market and to explore the attitude of small firms toward ATP in Malaysia. The data was retrieved from DataStream and the downloaded annual reports. The finding shows that profitability and financial distress have a significant relationship with ATP. Other variables including size, capital intensity, inventory intensity, leverage, and ethnicity, were not determinants of ATP. The result in this study may assist the reader in understanding the nature of companies in the ACE market, particularly on its behavior toward tax planning. A strict requirement is needed to be adopted in the sample selection process, thus limiting the sample size. Further, since the previous study focused on large companies, the discussion of this paper will provide new insight into the nature of tax planning within the small- and medium-sized companies in Malaysia.