• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.1225-1249
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• 2005

This study aims at investigating whether foreign direct investment plays a role as a channel of international technology diffusion. We used the annual panel data from 1980 to 2002. The nonstationary panel techniques, in particular group mean panel FMOLS(fully modified OLS) was exploited as an empirical methodology in order to tackle the heterogeneity between members and low frequency. The empirical results show that inflow direct investments lead to an increase in total factor productivity and economic growth. Also outflow direct investments contribute to an higher total factor productivity and economic growth. These results confirms that both inflow and outflow direct investments are important channels for international technology diffusion or spillover.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.29-54
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• 2014

The purpose of this research is to identify the relation between OFDI (Outward Foreign Direct Investment) and wage inequality. In order to analyze various effects of OFDI on wages depending on the types of workers, the research classified laborers into four categories: permanent/skilled worker, permanent/unskilled worker, temporary/skilled worker, and temporary/unskilled worker. With controlling wage-determining factors such as education, labor union, individual fixed-effect, and industry-level effect, this paper examines whether OFDI attributes to the wage inequality among each type of workers. Moreover, this study also analyzes possible effects on wages that could vary according to the different characteristics of investments by classifying OFDI into two groups: OECD and non-OECD. The results reveal that OFDI makes certain differences according to skill-intensity and contract type in terms of influences on wages. It also shows that the effect of OFDI on wages is more subject to contract type than to skill-intensity. The classification of OFDI into OECD and non-OECD proves that effects on wages can vary by characteristics of the subject of investment.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.35-43
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• 2015

Purpose - This study aims to seek various plans to maintain the advancement of the overseas and domestic employment scenario through a case analysis of the Japanese industry, which maintains domestic employment while promoting the overseas advancement of companies despite having a similar industrial structure as Korea. The study further intends to derive insightful implications for Japanese manufacturing companies and government policies. Research design, data, and methodology - We selected four companies from the Japanese manufacturing industry. Being companies that were successful in increasing the domestic employment scenario while advancing in overseas markets. We utilized several secondary data sources including Japanese newspapers and report literature. Results - Previous studies have shown a negative relationship between Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) or offshoring and domestic employment. However, our results showed this relationship with respect to the Japanese manufacturing industry as follows: 1. FDI for developing overseas markets does not decrease domestic production. If Japanese companies change their strategy from exports to overseas production, there will be a consequent decrease in domestic employment of Multinational Enterprises (MNEs). However, the local production that plans the sales expansion of a foreign market does not substitute domestic production. 2. Several case studies illustrate that, as the production of final goods is expanded in foreign countries, there is a corresponding increase in the export of intermediary goods from Japan. In this case, if the production process of Japanese companies is promoted in foreign markets, the amount of exported material and parts from Japan will consequently increase. 3. It is difficult to consider that the establishment of subsidiary companies in foreign countries by manufacturing companies for wholesale, retail, and services decreases domestic employment. This is because the international development of these industries needs expatriates, expatriate training organizations, and research and development (R&D) activities. 4. When there is overseas demand, the growth of local management activities is expected to increase the work of the overseas business department in the head office in Japan, if competitiveness can be secured for better localization and management speed. 5. The conversion of the domestic manufacturing industry into high value-added production is necessary. The relocation of domestic production to foreign markets decreases domestic employment. To prevent this, the upgradation of domestic production bases, including high value-added production, and R&D capability need to be strengthened. Technology-based companies must develop new technology, patents, processes, and so forth, which require extensive human resources for R&D. Conclusions - Domestic medium-sized companies that are capable of consistently supplying high value-added products should be actively encouraged to deploy into and develop overseas markets. Further, this paper considers the necessity of a guidance policy that provides suggestions for overseas deployment, by the initiation of the government, to companies that cannot do so due to the lack of foreign experience or decisions by the CEO, despite having the relevant capability and technologies to supply high value-added products.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.519-542
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• 2012

In this paper, we empirically analyzed whether carbon leakage really happened in EU by comparing before and after the period of EU ETS. We regarded foreign direct investment outflows as indicator of carbon leakage and analyzed panel regression between production cost including environment cost and this FDI variable. Also we consider foreign market potential to analyze market oriented FDI. According to this analysis, carbon leakage was observed in some models for manufacturing industry. However carbon leakage did not prove consistently in a variety of models and it is hard to speak carbon leakage was happened in EU ETS. Notwithstanding relatively short time series of data, in the view of the fact that carbon leakage was tested in some models, Korea also should keep in mind the possibility of carbon leakage and design emission trading scheme.

• 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.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.71-97
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• 2015

This study examines the effects of several factors indicating economic openness-imported intermediate goods, total imports, IFDI (inward foreign direct investment), and foreign ownership-on regular, irregular jobs and the ratio of irregular employment to regular employment. Findings revealed that imported intermediate inputs and IFDI affected neither regular nor irregular job figures. However, an increase in total imports led to a decrease in the number of irregular jobs without affecting regular full time jobs, leading to a decrease in the ratio of irregular jobs to regular jobs. On the other hand, changes in foreign ownership structure had a contrary effect, that is, a decrease in the number of regular jobs and an increase in irregular ones, and, thus, an increase in the ratio of irregular jobs to regular jobs. Overall results showed that a rise in imports results in depressed overall employment, irregular employment in particular, while more IFDI results in more irregular jobs replacing regular ones, effectively exacerbating job insecurity. The implication of this analysis is that greater economic openness may have a negative impact on the South Korean labor market overall.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.303-343
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• 2024

Globalization and the flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the post-pandemic context continue to play a critical role in shaping the workforce of emerging countries. In Vietnam, evidence obtained during the pandemic revealed that the well-being of employees, especially migrant workers, was extremely poor due to both work and non-work factors. This paper examines the most significant factors that impact the well-being of workers employed by various FDI companies in two Vietnamese industrial parks. The survey evidence (n=200) shows that worker well-being is influenced by seven key factors categorized in three dimensions, namely material stressors, social stressors, and human stressors. A further qualitative analysis of 60 participants provides an understanding of the ways in which each factor affects workers' well-being and how elements of well-being in the Vietnamese context are different compared with other countries. Low salaries, lack of social support, work-life imbalance due to job demands, and the interplay between these three determinants significantly affect the overall well-being of workers. In the current business climate, it is important to have well-targeted policies that encourage high-tech investments as well as persuade domestic firms to address low salaries and economic migration. To manage valuable human resources and keep competitive advantages, foreign firms need to authentically implement corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives focusing on workers' benefits, especially providing workforce housing. This will bring about win-win outcomes of improved employee well-being and business sustainability.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.77-109
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• 2009

The purpose of this study is to review the current trend of FDIs by Korean companies into EU, and to present the optimal strategies for them to combine their firm-specific factors and FDI attractiveness of the regions in EU. The companies are divided into two categories, SMEs and large enterprises. The regions of EU are composed of 15 incumbent members before the fifth enlargement in 2004 and 12 new members. Large Korean companies tend to make large investments in 15 incumbent members with stable and mature markets. Korean SMEs, by contrast, mainly invest on small scales in the new members due to the lack of their available inner resources and knowledge for the markets. The main objects of the investments in EU by the large Korean companies are to gain more market share and to acquire the advanced technologies. Although such goals are also important for the SMEs, the most important objects for the investments by Korean SMEs in EU are usually to enter EU markets and to take advantage of the relatively cheap labor forces for the efficient operations. The effects of such passive strategies by the SMEs, however, are expected to extinct because the cost advantages in regions of the new EU members will not last in the long term, so the SMEs must take longer views for the choice of locations. Many empirical results suggest that the optimal FDI strategies for the Korean companies in EU could be worked mainly by more aggressive localization policy of companies and by the cooperations of SMEs and large enterprises for the reduction in costs of foreignness.

• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.115-159
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• 2018

This paper situates 63 provinces of Vietnam on a two-dimensional governance space, according to their levels of both economic and political governance, and systematically explains the two-dimensional distribution of provincial governance. It presents three sets of explanatory factors: the amount of foreign direct investment (FDI) that each province has attracted, the combination of provincial urbanization and population density, and the North Central Coast region factor. Provinces that score high in both economic and political governance tend to have received a good amount of FDI and to be highly urbanized and densely populated whereas provinces that score low in both governance dimensions tend to have the opposite characteristics. Provinces that are high in economic governance but low in political governance are those that have received the greatest amount of FDI and tend to be highly urbanized yet relatively sparsely populated. Provinces that are high in political governance but low in economic governance are characterized by a relatively small amount of FDI, low urbanization, and high population density. Finally, provinces in the North Central Coast region tend to score very high in political governance.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.2 no.1_2
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• pp.145-167
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• 1999

The aim the this paper is to explore the processes of three Korean consumer electronics chaebols'entries into, and exits from tile EU in the context of European integration and enlargement and at the global, regional(EU), national and local level. Korean FDI in the EU has increased sharply since the late 1980s, while interacting with the processes of European integration and enlargement. In particular, the chaebols'FDI was caused by reactions against the intensification of Euro-trade regulations. As a result, these defensive entries have led such chaebols to create a strategy of ‘defensive Europeanisation’through the formation of forward and backward linkages between chaebols’affiliates and Korean suppliers within the EU. Nonetheless, defensive FDI has given rise to exits through active relocation within and outside the EU, since the ‘late 1980s’due in the main to (1) sensitive reactions against changing EU trade regulations and (2) failures to maintain cost-competitiveness in particular host regions. Along with these trends, chaebols’entries and exits are placed in contingent and paradoxical structures of the global -regional - national-local nexus, which has resulted from the mismatch of different EU policies such as trade, inward investment and regional policies.