• Information Systems Review
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.41-54
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• 2022

Despite the recent rapid advancement of science and technology, we have been experiencing the decline in productivity since the 2000s. This study aims to investigate the decline at both industry and firm levels, by looking at the emergence and growth of large firms such as Amazon, Alphabet, and Apple and M&A trends. Following the results of previous studies, our results show that productivity at industry level has decreased since the 2000s. Particularly, in the period after 2011, the deterioration of allocative efficiency due to the large firms and the decline in the growth rate of surviving firms in the industry with low ratio of large firms contributed to the productivity decline. On the other hand, our analysis at firm level demonstrates that the productivity of firms that acquired IT firms improved over the entire period. While M&As have a positive impact on productivity, M&As with a demand-side motive such as market penetration and expansion of channels have a relatively larger impact than the ones for production or operation efficiency. Our results also suggest that the higher the proportion of large firms in a specific industry, the lower the productivity of individual firms in the same industry. Overall, given that the industry's structural changes for digital transformation tends to strengthen the growth of large firms, our findings have significant implications by empirically identifying the relationships of the emergence of large firms, the acquisition of IT/Non-IT firms, and motivations for M&As to firm/industry productivity.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.173-181
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• 2019

The paper aims to evaluate the combination of strategies that influence the success of New Technology Based Firms (NTBFs) located in isolated areas with resource constraints. We utilize the Kauffman Firm Survey to construct a subset of 224 firms operating in primary metal manufacturing industries and who are located in non-thriving areas. We focus on the impact of technological strategy, in the form of Inward Technology Licensing (ITL), combined with financial strategy, in the form of increased financial slack. Using a negative binomial-specification technique to model these relations, we find that ITL positively impacts internal innovation in the firm and this relation is strengthened by the presence of greater financial slack. This positive impact of financial slack supports the behavioral theory of the firm rather than agency theory in that financial slack enables further innovation rather than stifling it. This research confirms the importance of resource acquisition, suggesting that entrepreneurs may utilize external sources of knowledge in an effort to build a favorable situation when facing the challenges of location. Finally, by presenting evidence showing the compatibility of a financial strategy with a knowledge strategy (ITL), this study emphasizes the importance to entrepreneurs of choosing the proper combination of varying strategies.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.111-130
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• 2002

Major purposes of this stud? are to analyze Korean firms'innovation networks and sources of knowledge for innovation and to understand their spatial dimensions. In the innovation networks, parent firms are most important for subcontracting firms, while suppliers, customers and competitors are relatively important for independent firms. However, in the future innovation networks, it is expected that government-sponsored research institutions and university wilt become more important on the one hand, networks with foreign firms will become more important on the other hand. Regarding the process of innovation, distance does not matter for the acquisition of codified knowledge. Spatial proximity is, however, critical for the acquisition of tacit knowledge because discussions and researches in a research division within a firm, personal networks of CEO and workers who are responsible for innovation activity, and inter-firm relations with suppliers and customer in a region are regarded important as sources of tacit knowledge. Overall, the innovation networks are different between the Capital Region and non-Capital Region as well as between the industrial complex and non-industrial complex, suggesting that different regional innovation strategies and policies should be established and implemented by considering such regional specificities. Finally, based on the results of this study several policy implications are suggested.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.51-69
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• 2020

Now, it is a stylized fact that a small number of technology firms such as Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and a few others have become larger and dominant players in an industry. Coupled with the rise of these leading firms, we have also observed that a large number of young firms have become an acquisition target in their early IPO stages. This indeed results in a sharp decline in the number of new entries in public exchanges although a series of policy reforms have been promulgated to foster competition through an increase in new entries. Given the observed industry trend in recent decades, a number of studies have reported increased concentration in most developed countries. However, it is less understood as to what caused an increase in industry concentration. In this paper, we uncover the mechanisms by which industries have become concentrated over the last decades by tracing the changes in industry concentration associated with a firm's status change in its early IPO stages. To this end, we put emphasis on the case in which firms are acquired shortly after they went public. Especially, with the transition to digital-based economies, it is imperative for incumbent firms to adapt and keep pace with new ICT and related intelligent systems. For instance, after the acquisition of a young firm equipped with AI-based solutions, an incumbent firm may better respond to a change in customer taste and preference by integrating acquired AI solutions and analytics skills into multiple business processes. Accordingly, it is not unusual for young ICT firms become an attractive acquisition target. To examine the role of M&As involved with young firms in reshaping the level of industry concentration, we identify a firm's status in early post-IPO stages over the sample periods spanning from 1990 to 2016 as follows: i) being delisted, ii) being standalone firms and iii) being acquired. According to our analysis, firms that have conducted IPO since 2000s have been acquired by incumbent firms at a relatively quicker time than those that did IPO in previous generations. We also show a greater acquisition rate for IPO firms in the ICT sector compared with their counterparts in other sectors. Our results based on multinomial logit models suggest that a large number of IPO firms have been acquired in their early post-IPO lives despite their financial soundness. Specifically, we show that IPO firms are likely to be acquired rather than be delisted due to financial distress in early IPO stages when they are more profitable, more mature or less leveraged. For those IPO firms with venture capital backup have also become an acquisition target more frequently. As a larger number of firms are acquired shortly after their IPO, our results show increased concentration. While providing limited evidence on the impact of large incumbent firms in explaining the change in industry concentration, our results show that the large firms' effect on industry concentration are pronounced in the ICT sector. This result possibly captures the current trend that a few tech giants such as Alphabet, Apple and Facebook continue to increase their market share. In addition, compared with the acquisitions of non-ICT firms, the concentration impact of IPO firms in early stages becomes larger when ICT firms are acquired as a target. Our study makes new contributions. To our best knowledge, this is one of a few studies that link a firm's post-IPO status to associated changes in industry concentration. Although some studies have addressed concentration issues, their primary focus was on market power or proprietary software. Contrast to earlier studies, we are able to uncover the mechanism by which industries have become concentrated by placing emphasis on M&As involving young IPO firms. Interestingly, the concentration impact of IPO firm acquisitions are magnified when a large incumbent firms are involved as an acquirer. This leads us to infer the underlying reasons as to why industries have become more concentrated with a favor of large firms in recent decades. Overall, our study sheds new light on the literature by providing a plausible explanation as to why industries have become concentrated.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.79-98
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• 2009

Web traffic is becoming an important indicator to make inferences about internet companies' future prospects so that traditional firm valuation methods need to be modified to integrate the ideas of web traffic information as a major asset of internet companies. It is because web traffic is a measure of attracting visitors to firm's web site and is the basis for internet companies' marketing expenditure and customer acquisition and retention. Also the web traffic represents the internet companies' technological advances and marketability. The major purpose of this study is to show the relevance of web traffic for valuation of internet companies. For this, we test hypothesis with the firm's web traffic and financial data using the analysis model of Hand(2000a) derived from the log-linear model introduced by Ye and Finn(1999). Test results show that the web traffic, more specifically the number of unique visitors, visits, and page views are all positively related to the firm's value. This implies that the web traffic information should be considered as one of the important non-financial indicator for the internet firm valuation.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.183-204
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• 2023

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, lots of occasions need to be held in online environment. This is the reason why "Metaverse" gets lots of attention in 2021. A number of companies made announcements on Metaverse, and this situation also boomed stock market. This paper investigates the relationship between Metaverse initiatives and business value of the firm (i.e., stock prices). We examine this relationship by using event study method with Lexis-Nexis News data from 2019 to 2021. The results indicate that Metaverse initiatives significantly impact positive influence on firm's value. In the technological perspective, technical factors affect more positive market returns, including Metaverse enablers (e.g., NFT, VR devices, digital twin) and common infrastructure (e.g., semiconductor, AI, cloud), and especially virtual environment was emphasized. Additionally, in the strategical perspective, radical innovation (e.g., pivoting, acquisition) impact more positive market return rather than incremental innovation (e.g., partnership, investment). Also, firms from non-service industries can achieve benefits from Metaverse initiatives rather than service industry in some degree.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.127-139
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• 2023

During the process of preparing for and initiating a startup, startup entrepreneurs allocate a significant amount of time to developing a business plan. Within this process, the documented business plan serves not only as a roadmap for the venture but also as a communication tool for capital acquisition and internal team collaboration. However, is the business plan, meticulously crafted by entrepreneurs, actually effective in generating startup performance? To answer this question, this study empirically analyzed the impact of a business plan on startup performance. Additionally, it examined how the relationship between the business plan and performance changes based on the satisfaction levels of entrepreneurs regarding the business plan. Through the analysis, the study validated the influence of the completeness of the business plan and entrepreneurial satisfaction on startup performance, and derived implications. To conduct the empirical analysis, a survey was conducted among 150 entrepreneurs. Regression analysis was performed to examine the relationship between the completeness of the business plan and performance, and the sample was further divided into two groups: startups with less than three years of operation and startups with three or more years of operation, for secondary analysis. The analysis results revealed that the completeness of the startup's business plan has a positive impact on both financial and non-financial performance. Furthermore, it is observed that the entrepreneur's satisfaction with the business plan had a moderating effect on the relationship between the business plan and financial performance. Moreover, for startups that are less than three years old, the entrepreneur's satisfaction with the business plan exhibits a moderating effect on the relationship between the completeness of the business plan and non-financial performance. This study holds significance as it reaffirms the importance of business plan development as a means to achieve sustainable growth for early-stage startups and empirically validates its significance. It is expected that this study will provide valuable insights for future startup entrepreneurs to better understand the importance of business planning and contribute to reducing the failure rate of early-stage startups.