• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.19 no.3
• /
• pp.155-172
• /
• 2024

The COVID-19 pandemic not only posed an enormous human crisis, but also had a profound impact on firms' survival. Social distancing and global lockdown measures designed to protect human lives have paradoxically impaired the business environment. As a result, firms that sought to gain competitive advantage by leveraging external resources were cut off from the external world and faced unexpected challenges. Under these circumstances, researches were conducted in the early stage of the pandemic to explore how certain firms survived while others fell, but they were limited to re-examining business performance using traditional financial factors. However, this study aims to investigate the role of entrepreneurs' competency in crisis situations from the Resource-Based View (RBV), as such competency plays an important role in improving business performance and subsequently the probability of startups' survival. Specifically, we evaluated the performance as of end of 2019 of 1,127 startups evaluated by the Korea Technology Finance Corporation (KOTEC), which provides policy financing based on technology assessment, in 2016. We then conducted an empirical study to determine the mediating role of business performance in the relationship between entrepreneurial competencies and firm survival by verifying how many of the sample firms were still in operation at the end of June 2023, when the Korean government declared COVID-19 as an endemic. For this purpose, we defined technological, financial, and marketing competencies as the sub-factors of entrepreneurial competency, and sales growth rate and employment growth rate as the sub-factors of business performance. The results of the empirical analysis showed that technological and financial competencies of the entrepreneur had a positive impact on both business performance and firm survival, and that sales growth rate and employment growth rate mediated the relationship between technological competence and firm survival. However, the positive influence of entrepreneurs' financial competence of the survival of startups was only evident through the growth of employment. This study is the first study in South Korea to define the survival factors of startups in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, and is expected to contribute to the theoretical and practical discussions on the importance of entrepreneurs' competency as a firms' survival factor based on RVB.

• 대한공업교육학회지
• /
• v.38 no.2
• /
• pp.267-286
• /
• 2013

Recently, the advanced company has been sparing no efforts in improving necessary core knowledge and technology to achieve outstanding work performance. In this rapidly changing knowledge-based society, the company has confronted the task of creating a high value-added knowledge. The role of R&D workforce that corresponds to the characteristic and role of knowledge worker is getting more significant. As the life cycle of technical knowledge and skill shortens, in every industry, the technical knowledge and skill have become essential elements for successful business. It is difficult to improve competitiveness of the company without enhancing the competency of individual and organization. As the competency development which is a part of human resource management in the company is being spread now, it is required to focus on the research of determining necessary competency and to analyze the competency of a core organization in the research institute. 'H' is the semiconductor manufacturing company which has a affiliated research institute with its own R&D engineers. Based on focus group interview and job analysis data, vision and necessary competency were confirmed. And to confirm whether the required competency by job is different or not, analysis was performed by dividing members into workers who are in charge of circuit design and design before process development and who are in the process actualization and process development. Also, this research included members' importance awareness of the determined competency. The interview and job analysis were integrated and analyzed after arranging by groups and contents and the analyzed results were resorted after comparative analysis with a competency dictionary of Spencer & Spencer and competency models which are developed from the advanced research. Derived main competencies are: challenge, responsibility, and prediction/responsiveness, planning a new business, achievement -oriented, training, cooperation, self-development, analytic thinking, scheduling, motivation, communication, commercialization of technology, information gathering, professionalism on the job, and professionalism outside of work. The highly required competency for both jobs was 'Professionalism'. 'Attitude', 'Performance Management', 'Teamwork' for workers in charge of circuit design and 'Challenge', 'Training', 'Professionalism on the job' and 'Communication' were recognized to be required competency for those who are in charge of process actualization and process development. With above results, this research has determined the necessary competency that the 'H' company's affiliated research institute needs and found the difference of required competency by job. Also, it has suggested more enthusiastic education methods or various kinds of education by confirming the importance awareness of competency and individual's level of awareness about the competency.

• 대한공업교육학회지
• /
• v.33 no.2
• /
• pp.192-217
• /
• 2008

This paper investigated the perceived criticalities and patterns of Korean Professional Engineer's competency regarding the working activities of automative product development, manufacturing, etc by using questionnaires responded to the survey which were applied to the automotive professors, experts and professional engineers (vocational parties) by e/mail, etc. This research investigated the following questions: First, what are the characteristic patterns, relevancy and perceived criticalities of Korean Professional Engineer's competencies? Second, What are the ranked priority of the Korean Professional Engineers' competencies? Are there any differency for each item, sub group of job, intelectual criterior of the competencies between relevancy and perceived criticalities according to the types of vocational parties, etc.? Accoring to the results; first, Professor group showed highest points among 3 groups per each item of the competencies by vocational parties Second, Chassis design group ranked top position among the 8 sub groups by vocational parties and, third, Problem Solving Knowledge ranked highest points than any others. Korean Professional Engineers are found to be positioned as key members, leaders and managers on surveying market, product planning, designing product & components, developing component parts, establishing shop with production equipment, managing quality control & material handling, organizing relevant meetings, developing human resources by training and learning, to back up finance with law matters, cooperating with concerned parties to achieve organizational goals, and to coordinate projects. etc, identifying ethical issues and business skills in order to survive and win to be competitive in various kinds of the automotive industry battle fields.

• Information Systems Review
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.1-19
• /
• 2017

Original scripts of e-learning lectures for the CEOs of corporation S were analyzed using topic analysis, which is a text mining method. Twenty-two topics were extracted based on the keywords chosen from five-year records that ranged from 2011 to 2015. Research analysis was then conducted on various issues. Promising topics were selected through evaluation and element analysis of the members of each topic. In management and economics, members demonstrated high satisfaction and interest toward topics in marketing strategy, human resource management, and communication. Philosophy, history of war, and history demonstrated high interest and satisfaction in the field of humanities, whereas mind health showed high interest and satisfaction in the field of in lifestyle. Studies were also conducted to identify topics on the proportion of content, but these studies failed to increase member satisfaction. In the field of IT, educational content responds sensitively to change of the times, but it may not increase the interest and satisfaction of members. The present study found that content production for CEOs should draw out deep implications for value innovation through technology application instead of simply ending the technical aspect of information delivery. Previous studies classified contents superficially based on the name of content program when analyzing the status of content operation. However, text mining can derive deep content and subject classification based on the contents of unstructured data script. This approach can examine current shortages and necessary fields if the service contents of the themes are displayed by year. This study was based on data obtained from influential e-learning companies in Korea. Obtaining practical results was difficult because data were not acquired from portal sites or social networking service. The content of e-learning trends of CEOs were analyzed. Data analysis was also conducted on the intellectual interests of CEOs in each field.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
• /
• v.25 no.2
• /
• pp.153-179
• /
• 2017

Korean government has granted fixed indirect cost rates to several exceptional R&D programs which is lower than the predetermined rate by the government. It has been needed to evaluate the validity of exceptional R&D programs and determine the optimal indirect costs rate of the programs. This study analyzes the cost structure and explores drivers of indirect costs of exceptional R&D programs and evaluates the validity of current indirect costs rates. Finally, we propose the formulas for indirect costs rates of exceptional R&D programs. We analyze the cost structure of the exceptional R&D programs. Equipments and material costs are 50% in infra building program. Scholarship to students is 43% in HRD program. Equipments and material costs are 50% and R&D activity costs are 31% in international R&D program. Main cost components of evaluation program are salary(37%), R&D execution costs(21%) and R&D activity costs(19%). We propose three formulas of indirect costs for exceptional programs. 1) The cost items with exceptionally large amount are excluded in the base of formula for indirect costs. 2) Fixed indirect cost rate is applied for specific R&D programs. 3) Upper bound is set for the cost items with exceptionally large amount in the calculation of indirect costs rate. Our proposal is expected to contribute to the improvement of the efficiency of national R&D programs.

• Information Systems Review
• /
• v.20 no.2
• /
• pp.39-62
• /
• 2018

Thanks to the growth of computing power and the recent development of data analytics, researchers have started to work on the data produced by users through the Internet or social media. This study is in line with these recent research trends and attempts to adopt data analytical techniques. We focus on the impact of "internal marketing" factors on firm performance, which is typically studied through survey methodologies. We looked into the job review platform Jobplanet (www.jobplanet.co.kr), which is a website where employees and former employees anonymously review companies and their management. With web crawling processes, we collected over 40K data points and performed morphological analysis to classify employees' reviews for internal marketing data. We then implemented econometric analysis to see the relationship between internal marketing and market capitalization. Contrary to the findings of extant survey studies, internal marketing is positively related to a firm's market capitalization only within a limited area. In most of the areas, the relationships are negative. Particularly, female-friendly environment and human resource development (HRD) are the areas exhibiting positive relations with market capitalization in the manufacturing industry. In the service industry, most of the areas, such as employ welfare and work-life balance, are negatively related with market capitalization. When firm size is small (or the history is short), female-friendly environment positively affect firm performance. On the contrary, when firm size is big (or the history is long), most of the internal marketing factors are either negative or insignificant. We explain the theoretical contributions and managerial implications with these results.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
• /
• v.23 no.3
• /
• pp.25-53
• /
• 2013

This study analyzes the effect of Computer Aided Innovation (CAI) to improve R&D Capabilities empirically. Survey was distributed by e-mail and Google Docs, targeting CTO of 235 SMEs. 142 surveys were returned back (rate of return 60.4%) from companies. Survey results from 119 companies (83.8%) which are effective samples except no-response, insincere response, estimated value, etc. were used for statistics analysis. Companies with less than 50billion KRW sales of entire researched companies occupy 76.5% in terms of sample traits. Companies with less than 300 employees occupy 83.2%. In terms of the type of company business Partners (called 'partners with big companies' hereunder) who work with big companies for business occupy 68.1%. SMEs based on their own business (called 'independent small companies') appear to occupy 31.9%. The present status of holding IT system according to traits of company business was classified into partners with big companies versus independent SMEs. The present status of ERP is 18.5% to 34.5%. QMS is 11.8% to 9.2%. And PLM (Product Life-cycle Management) is 6.7% to 2.5%. The holding of 3D CAD is 47.1% to 21%. IT system-holding and its application of independent SMEs seemed very vulnerable, compared with partner companies of big companies. This study is comprised of IT infra and IT Utilization as CAI capacity factors which are independent variables. factors of R&D capabilities which are independent variables are organization capability, process capability, HR capability, technology-accumulating capability, and internal/external collaboration capability. The highest average value of variables was 4.24 in organization capability 2. The lowest average value was 3.01 in IT infra which makes users access to data and information in other areas and use them with ease when required during new product development. It seems that the inferior environment of IT infra of general SMEs is reflected in CAI itself. In order to review the validity used to measure variables, Factors have been analyzed. 7 factors which have over 1.0 pure value of their dependent and independent variables were extracted. These factors appear to explain 71.167% in total of total variances. From the result of factor analysis about measurable variables in this study, reliability of each item was checked by Cronbach's Alpha coefficient. All measurable factors at least over 0.611 seemed to acquire reliability. Next, correlation has been done to explain certain phenomenon by correlation analysis between variables. As R&D capabilities factors which are arranged as dependent variables, organization capability, process capability, HR capability, technology-accumulating capability, and internal/external collaboration capability turned out that they acquire significant correlation at 99% reliability level in all variables of IT infra and IT Utilization which are independent variables. In addition, correlation coefficient between each factor is less than 0.8, which proves that the validity of this study judgement has been acquired. The pair with the highest coefficient had 0.628 for IT utilization and technology-accumulating capability. Regression model which can estimate independent variables was used in this study under the hypothesis that there is linear relation between independent variables and dependent variables so as to identify CAI capability's impact factors on R&D. The total explanations of IT infra among CAI capability for independent variables such as organization capability, process capability, human resources capability, technology-accumulating capability, and collaboration capability are 10.3%, 7%, 11.9%, 30.9%, and 10.5% respectively. IT Utilization exposes comprehensively low explanatory capability with 12.4%, 5.9%, 11.1%, 38.9%, and 13.4% for organization capability, process capability, human resources capability, technology-accumulating capability, and collaboration capability respectively. However, both factors of independent variables expose very high explanatory capability relatively for technology-accumulating capability among independent variable. Regression formula which is comprised of independent variables and dependent variables are all significant (P<0.005). The suitability of regression model seems high. When the results of test for dependent variables and independent variables are estimated, the hypothesis of 10 different factors appeared all significant in regression analysis model coefficient (P<0.01) which is estimated to affect in the hypothesis. As a result of liner regression analysis between two independent variables drawn by influence factor analysis for R&D capability and R&D capability. IT infra and IT Utilization which are CAI capability factors has positive correlation to organization capability, process capability, human resources capability, technology-accumulating capability, and collaboration capability with inside and outside which are dependent variables, R&D capability factors. It was identified as a significant factor which affects R&D capability. However, considering adjustable variables, a big gap is found, compared to entire company. First of all, in case of partner companies with big companies, in IT infra as CAI capability, organization capability, process capability, human resources capability, and technology capability out of R&D capacities seems to have positive correlation. However, collaboration capability appeared insignificance. IT utilization which is a CAI capability factor seemed to have positive relation to organization capability, process capability, human resources capability, and internal/external collaboration capability just as those of entire companies. Next, by analyzing independent types of SMEs as an adjustable variable, very different results were found from those of entire companies or partner companies with big companies. First of all, all factors in IT infra except technology-accumulating capability were rejected. IT utilization was rejected except technology-accumulating capability and collaboration capability. Comprehending the above adjustable variables, the following results were drawn in this study. First, in case of big companies or partner companies with big companies, IT infra and IT utilization affect improving R&D Capabilities positively. It was because most of big companies encourage innovation by using IT utilization and IT infra building over certain level to their partner companies. Second, in all companies, IT infra and IT utilization as CAI capability affect improving technology-accumulating capability positively at least as R&D capability factor. The most of factor explanation is low at around 10%. However, technology-accumulating capability is rather high around 25.6% to 38.4%. It was found that CAI capability contributes to technology-accumulating capability highly. Companies shouldn't consider IT infra and IT utilization as a simple product developing tool in R&D section. However, they have to consider to use them as a management innovating strategy tool which proceeds entire-company management innovation centered in new product development. Not only the improvement of technology-accumulating capability in department of R&D. Centered in new product development, it has to be used as original management innovative strategy which proceeds entire company management innovation. It suggests that it can be a method to improve technology-accumulating capability in R&D section and Dynamic capability to acquire sustainable competitive advantage.