• Korea Trade Review
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.21-35
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• 2019

This study analyzes factors that affect the corporate value of Korean companies operating in Latin American countries. Primary factors are associated with characteristics of the host country, the parent company, and subsidiaries. Empirical results show that asset specificity is the main factor influencing firm value. This region is geographically far from Korea and culturally different. Therefore, the source of competitive advantage such as asset specificity should be large enough to offset liability of foreignness for successful entry into the region. This paper also found that joint ventures are more advantageous than direct investments. Joint ventures in Latin American can minimize risk, complement technology and information, and reduce trade barriers.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2022.10a
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• pp.8-8
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• 2022

Unstable crop production and distribution affected by climate change and COVID-19 pandemic has raised the food security concerns worldwide. In particular, Russia's invasion to Ukraine has blocked the grain trade such as wheat and com to importing countries, which has aggravated the situation. Korea has relied on foreign imports for about 80% of domestic grain demand, raising great concerns on food security. Considering situations related to Korea's food security, some points in view of a crop scientist are suggested and discussed as follows; 1) Domestic production of major grain crops should be increased through encouraging farmers by appropriate governmental subsidy programs 2) International corporation should be strengthened and diversified for sustainable overseas agricultural development and for stable import even in case of food crisis and emergency. 3) Self-sufficiency target should be specified by law so that more budget investments could be put to alleviate the food security concerns. 4) Technologies for climate smart agriculture and for competitive agricultural products should be developed aided by social and governmental support.

• Journal of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.1-17
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• 2015

In this paper, we propose a portfolio selection model utilizing a Markov chain for investing in the foreign exchange market based on market forecasts and exchange rate movement predictions. The proposed model is utilized to compute optimum investment portfolio weights for investing in margin-based markets such as the FX margin market. We further present an objective investment algorithm for applying the proposed model in real-life investments. Empirical performance of the proposed model and investment algorithm is evaluated by conducting an experiment in the FX market consisting of the 7 most traded currency pairs, for a period of 9 years, from the beginning of 2005 to the end of 2013. We compare performance with 1) the Dollar Index, 2) a 1/N Portfolio that invests the equal amount in the N target assets, and 3) the Barclay BTOP FX Index. Performance is compared in terms of cumulated returns and Sharpe ratios. The results suggest that the proposed model outperforms all benchmarks during the period of our experiment, for both performance measures. Even when compared in terms of pre- and post-financial crisis, the proposed model outperformed all other benchmarks, showing that the model based on objective data and mathematical optimization achieves superior performance empirically.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.461-469
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• 2006

This paper deals with the national competitiveness of hydrogen energy. The effectiveness of investments for hydrogen energy R&D and constructions of hydrogen energy infrastructures can be evaluated by the national competitiveness of hydrogen energy, and it is evaluated by an AHP(analytic hierarchy process) method. The evaluation indices of the national competitiveness are selected as the technical level, the number of researchers, the investments for R&D, and the infrastructure of hydrogen energy. Similarly, the technical level is divided into the number of published papers, the number of foreign patents, and the number of published proceeding papers. The evaluation indices of the technical level and the number of researchers were investigated by database searches. It appears that South Korea locates the sixth position in the world. The results of our study suggest that South Korea is relatively competitive in the technical level and the number of researchers. However, our country needs the long-term and well-focused R&D, and the expansion of infrastructures to enhance the national competitiveness of hydrogen energy in the future.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.1-23
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• 2006

This study investigates the effects of inward foreign direct investment on local workers' wages by focusing on U.S. manufacturing industries for the period from 1987 to 1992. Contrary to public perception that foreign ownership is positively associated with higher wages, previous studies show mixed results. Since most of the previous studies used industry or firm level average wages, they can not control for the impact of individual characteristics on wages. I use two different approaches to control individual characteristics and to implement estimation in this study: (1) One-step estimation with industry-state level of inward foreign direct investments by using individual level data, and (2) Two-step industry characteristic regression approach. The higher presence of foreign firms is associated with higher local wages after workers' observable characteristics are controlled for in the first approach. This effect, however, disappears once workers' industry affiliations and regions are controlled for in cross-section analysis. In a panel data analysis, I did not find any statistically significant positive association between inward FDI activities and industry wage premiums within industry. Further, inward FDI activities appeared to be negatively associated with worker's industry wage premium for workers with more than high school education.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.121-148
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• 2011

Korean small and medium sized firms are dramatically expanding during the past two decades. Since small and medium sized firms begun to invest overseas to cope with the external and internal business environment. the influencing factors should defined for the successful foreign investment. This paper presents the research model explaining successful knowledge transfer between Korean small and medium sized firms and partners for foreign investment. This model examines investing companies' organizational characteristics, partners' learning capability and relational characteristics between two partners. Detail variables include the learning culture and codifiability of investing companies, and absorptive capability of partners, and communication and trust as a relational factors between investing companies and partners. The result of empirical analysis of sample companies shows that knowledge culture and codifiability of investing companies, and communication from the relational factors are important for knowledge transfer. These results provide some implications for the successful foreign investment of small and medium sized firms. Firstly the investing company should develop its own learning culture and internal procedure for the successful foreign investment. And frequent communication channel is necessary for knowledge transfer and the trustful relationship between investors and partner.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.291-314
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• 2011

We examine the motives of foreigner's investments in the Korean bonds by maturity and try to prove that market impacts are different by their investment maturity. Foreign investors initially focused on short-term bonds, but have expanded to mid- to long-term bonds since 2010. The previous studies found that covered interest arbitrage was the main reason for foreign investment. However, there should be some other reasons as their investment in mid- to long-term bonds might have nothing to do with arbitrage. In the empirical analysis, we found that foreign investment in bonds with less than 2 year maturity is driven by arbitrage as previous studies. However, investment in bonds with 2-5 year maturity is sensitive to the FX volatility and the stock market performance compared with the U.S. and investment in bonds with more than 5 year maturity is driven by the CDS premium differential between Korea and PIIGS countries. The more foreigners have invested mid- to long-term bonds, the stronger downward pressure has been on the bond yields. In addition, foreign investors indirectly affected the spreads. Meanwhile, the government should prepare some policy measures since concerns over side effects such as the Korean won appreciation and an abrupt capital outflow are arising.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.387-407
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• 2005

This paper is to study globalization motives and strategies of Japanese and Korean industries by analyzing the causes and patterns of foreign direct investment (FDI) of the firms of the two countries during the 1980s and 1990s. First we develop a FDI function from the profit maximizing model of firms. Then we use regression analysis to determine internally driving-out factors and externally-inducing factors. Japanese FDI strategy has gone through three different stages; from natural resource-seeking investment in the 1950s and 1960s to market-expansion investment in the 1970s and 1980s and to a combination of cost-reducing (low-cost labor-seeking) investment and market-penetrating investment in the 1990s. On the other hand, Korean FDI behavior has gone through four different stages; from the learning stage with small investments in the 1970s, to natural resource-seeking investment in the early and mid 1980s, to the growth stage in the late 1980s and the early 1990s, to the maturity stage of the mid and late 1990s. The last two stages were characterized by a combination of cost-reducing investment and market-seeking investment. As a late comer, Korea began its FDI two decades later than Japan, but caught up the patterns of Japanese FDI by the mid 1990s and is in a competing position with Japan. Our findings show that both Japanese FDI and Korean FDI in Asia and other developing countries tendto be in labor-intensive sectors where their firms are losing their comparative advantages at home. The main motive for FDI into these regions is low-cost resource seeking. On the other hand, both Japanese FDI and Korean FDI in the U.S. and Europe tend to be knowledge-intensive sectors where Japanese and Korean firms attempt to internalize transaction and information costs by globalizing its production. The main motive for FDI into these regions is market-seeking. Firms in both countries have increased their investments in Mexico and Western and Eastern Europe in order to penetrate large economic blocs such as the EU and NAFTA area. Korean firms are more aggressive in expanding into new and untested markets than are their counterpart in Japan. Evidence of this can be seen in the scarcity of Japanese FDI and abundance of Korean FDI in Eastern Europe and China.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.12 no.9
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• pp.113-123
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• 2014

Purpose - After Korea's Free Economic Zone (FEZ) system was launched in 2003, there have been many debates about upgrading it and its support systems. However, as of 2013, there were insufficient results. Further, upon the designation of the East Coast and Chungbuk as official FEZs from February 4, 2013 by the 56th the Commission, there is a concern that many people are in the area designated as FEZ 8. This study investigates Korea's new FEZ system as part of Korea's primary new economic development policy in the 21st century. Therefore, this study examines views on the weaknesses of the past ten years of FEZs so that Korea can expand its FEZ system. Research design, data, and methodology -Many countries have considered the FEZ as an economic special zone. By reviewing previous research models, this study provides an update using recent data and materials, until 2013, from the Center of Free Economic Zones. In previous studies, the lack of support systems was attributed to proposals to ensure operational autonomy and differentiation of each FEZ; however, the main cause cannot be solved through regulatory issues, as difficulties caused by the operational system are responsible for the problems. We wish to analyze the FEZ, specifically the operational system; this is the main issue of this study. Results - After the first FEZs were established, it became necessary to have basic plans, as investment results in 2013 compared to the same period this year led to lower earnings in the first half of 2014. We propose an improvement of the operational system because in the free economic zones, the operational system is the root cause of the underlying problem. The results of this research are as follows. The weak management of the FEZ system is influenced by weak investment, delayed development, foreigners' living facilities, benefits of foreign investments, the control tower's policy making decision process, quickness of the process of satisfying legal requirements, and support For the independence of FEZs. Conclusion - Local governments do not have legal rights over FEZ deregulation and investment industries. This study suggests that the local government should have more independence from the central government. Moreover, independent management committees are more effective for ensuring public rights, better employee responsibilities, and better-qualified personnel. The FEZ committee struggles to effectively manage the locations of FEZs, foreign investments, and related facilities under the control of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. Thus, the FEZ committee should be under either the Prime Minister's office or the Presidential committee, to control and effectively coordinate between the local and central governments. If the problem clearly applies to the operational system in 2013, it is necessary to provide materials and methods so that the results of the first half of 2014 can be computed despite the data limits and lack of resources, and the data can be analyzed in a more diachronic thesis.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.173-188
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• 2016

This paper argues that the establishment of the Kaohsiung Export Processing Zone (KEPZ), the first EPZ in East Asia, is a compromise of cold-war geopolitical economy in the 1960s. The KEPZ is part of the liberalization policy advise of the US Aid agency which intended to push the KMT (Kuomintang) government to downsize the nationalized sectors and foster private enterprises and encourage foreign investments. However, the KMT state hesitated to embrace the advice wholeheartedly but was forced to implement selectively the policies. To meet the compromise between liberalization and control, the KMT government takes advantage of the KEPZ to grab the geoeconomic opportunities emerging from the new international division of labor in the 1960s without losing the geopolitical support from the US. The idea that zoning as a space of compromise would provide a subtle re-examination of the rise of the KEPZ which is conventionally explained by the functionalist arguments such as increase of employment opportunities, foreign investments and export by the far-sighted developmental state.