• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.11
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• pp.905-913
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• 2020

Internationalization of multinational companies in the globalized context is a popular topic in the academic world and it is also a strong concern of CEO/managers. However, this topic has not been well discussed in the academic community in Vietnam that can be contextualized in the typical transition economy. This paper is designed to explore critical success factors (CSF) of internationalization of large Vietnamese companies that have contributed major revenue from the international market. Through interviews with CEO/managers of successful companies geared toward world markets, the CSFs of internationalization have been identified and categorized into groups in which each CSF has interaction with each other, and together have combined impacts on the success of internationalization. The research results provide a conceptual framework to analyze factors affecting internationalization of large Vietnamese companies. Thank to this conceptual framework, further exploratory and/or confirmatory research can be developed to locate more success factors of internationalization. In addition, some particularly critical factors of internationalization success of Vietnamese companies are found to be useful to both CEO/managers and policymakers. CEO/managers can benefit from the research results by concentrate their limited efforts/resources in managing these CSFs, and policymaker may design CSF-based policies to boost the internationalization of domestic companies.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.321-336
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• 2019

The purpose of this research is to identify the global capability of international entrepreneurship, categorize internationalization opportunities into different types, and propose international entrepreneurship and the fit of opportunities. To do so, this study reviewed seven prominent business journals between 1996 and 2015 reflected the international business activities of entrepreneur and identified 6 attributes of international entrepreneurship. Second, this study analyzed researches using internationalization motivation as a keyword, categorized the researches into 4 types of internationalization opportunity according to the exploration and exploitation of resources. Third, this study developed conceptual models based on them to identify international entrepreneurship and fit of opportunities and gave a hypothesis on the relationship between international entrepreneurship, internationalization opportunity, and internationalization performance. By clarifying which capability of an international entrepreneur is needed in an internationalization opportunity, this study is expected to provide theoretical and practical implications to the internationalization performance of firms.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.135-156
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• 2020

Purpose - This study investigates whether the internationalization process of traditional industry firms can be categorized as born global, early internationalization, or gradual internationalization, and examines what factors promote internationalization in traditional industries using a case study of two firms, one each in China and Korea. Design/methodology - This study elects to use case study methodology to determine the "how" and "why" of internationalization process of traditional industry firms. Taking into consideration that factors that impact the internationalization process of firms are diverse and unclear in terms of causality, this study utilizes exploratory case study methodology. This research performs a comparative two-case study of two firms in traditional industries, one each in China and Korea, to examine similarities and differences of study subjects in order to improve the validity and suitability of research results. Findings - The findings of this research are as follows: First, traditional industries are more likely go through early and rapid internationalization rather than being born global; born globals are far more likely to appear in high tech industries. Second, the internationalization process of companies that go through early and rapid internationalization differs from what is indicated by traditional internationalization theories, and are not limited by factors like psychological distance and lack of experiential knowledge. Third, international entrepreneurship, international market orientation, and imitation and learning are important internal driving factors for early and rapid internationalization. Fourth, conditions within the domestic market, policy support from the government, and pilot effect from industry leaders are external driving factors for early and rapid internationalization. Originality/value - This study shows that the internationalization process of traditional industry firms is more likely to be early and rapid internationalization rather than being born global and suggests answers to why this may be the case. In addition, through an examination of case studies, it reveals that the internationalization process of traditional industry firms that undergo early and rapid internationalization is different from traditional internationalization theory, in that they are not limited by the lack of psychological proximity and empirical knowledge, and are driven by international entrepreneurship, international market orientation, imitation and learning, competitive pressure within the domestic market, government's policy support, and the pilot effect of industry leaders. Therefore, this study contributes to literature by expanding the scope of application of born global theory to traditional industries, making born global theory more generalizable and identifying driving factors to internationalization of traditional industry firms.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.11
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• pp.357-366
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of internationalization on the business performance of firms in Laos as a transition economy. Using a panel dataset collected by the World Bank for 285 firms during the period 2009, 2012, and 2016 in the service and manufacturing industries, the two-steps Heckman regression results found robust evidence for the fact that the S-curve tie exists between the degree of internationalization and business performance of firms in Laos while controlling other factors. Specifically, if firms have a degree of internationalization lower than 0.4374, they will suffer losses due to the high cost of preparing for phase 1 which is market penetration. Then, when the degree of internationalization continues to increase from 0.4374 to 0.9131, firms will gain benefits from internationalization (phase 2), however, these benefits will deteriorate when the degree of internationalization is greater than 0.9131 (phase 3), meaning that firms will no longer be able to exploit economies of scale or advantages in target markets, or product cycles will fall into a state of decline. Interestingly, we also found that firms with a high concentration level of ownership and internationalization activities may achieve better performance than those with a low concentration of ownership and one which carried out internationalization activities.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.8
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• pp.473-483
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• 2020

Internationalization of SMEs has gathered pace in recent times with falling trade barriers and rising world trade encouraging small firms to seek profits and growth in foreign markets. This has attracted the attention of researchers, and several studies have been conducted in Western nations on the factors influencing the process of SME internationalization. However, hardly any study has been done on SME internationalization in the Gulf Cooperative Council (GCC) region, thus leaving a gap in the literature. This study investigates the influence of four factors, namely, human capital, network competency, entrepreneurial orientation, and market volatility on the degree of internationalization of SMEs in Oman. The study employs survey data collected from 150 SME owners and managers using a structured questionnaire having 27 items, and has been analyzed using correlation and logistic regression, as the dependent variable is binary in nature. The results reveal the impact of the chosen variables on the degree of internationalization of SMEs. The findings of the study suggest that network competency has the highest impact on degree of internationalization of Omani SMEs, followed by human capital and entrepreneurial orientation, while market volatility, though insignificant, moderated the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and degree of internationalization of Omani SMEs.

• Korean Journal of Comparative Education
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.83-111
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• 2008

This study examines internationalization index of higher education to draw implications for South Korea. To this end, this study first introduces the concept of internationalization of higher education, followed by the background of the development of internationalization index. Then examined are two internationalization index of higher education: one developed by American Council Education (ACE) and the other developed by OECD, which is known as IQRP (International Quality Review Process). ACE's international index of higher education is useful to governments when they assess the process of internationalization of universities. IQRP, on the other hand, is useful to universities and colleges when they evaluate their status of internationalization. Drawn implications are (1) it is important for universities to build a clear goal and implement appropriate strategies of internationalization, (2) policies on internationalization of higher education should concentrate on contents rather than forms, and (3) the efforts for internationalizing higher education should be made along with the efforts for improving the quality of education.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.9
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• pp.287-300
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• 2021

The study is conducted to find out the impact of the country- and corporate-level governance and firm internationalization on stock liquidity of 120 listed firms in Japan, Hong Kong, Pakistan, and India. Panel data is used in the current study. The annual time span covered in the current study is 10 years. The current study explores results based on secondary data. The findings of the 'robust panel corrected standard error' estimator shows that the internationalization strategy of firms positively influences the stock liquidity. The internationalization strategy of multinational corporations proves to be an effective methodology for improving stock liquidity in the home market as well as abroad. The study also shows that a stronger relationship exists between stock liquidity and internationalization in those countries where the regulatory settings are effective, the judiciary system is efficient and shareholders' rights are protected. Corporate governance and stock liquidity are negatively associated. The study also finds a negative relationship between country-level governance mechanisms and stock liquidity. Whereas the 'robust panel corrected error' estimator shows a positive association between corporate governance mechanisms and firm internationalization. The study depicts that effective corporate governance motivates multinational companies to expand their business abroad.

• East Asian Journal of Business Economics (EAJBE)
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.49-57
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• 2018

Purpose - to examine the theories related to the internationalization of multinational corporations as well as theories related to internationalization of small and medium-sized enterprises. Research design, data, and methodology - traditional theories, e.g. eclectic paradigm and behavioral theory and product life cycle etc. were examined and recent advances theories - network theory, entrepreneurship - were also examined to outline the theory of internationalization of firm. Results - the main schools of international researches are divided into two; one is the economics school, the other is the behavioral school. The economics school has considered internationalization as a pattern of investment in foreign markets explained by rational economic analysis of internalization, ownership, and location advantages. Apart from the economics approach, a theory relevant to smaller firms highlights slow and incremental overseas market commitment. Recent research on the network perspective is fast emerging and it can be applied and well explained on the internationalization of smaller firms, focusing on firm behavior in the context of a network of interorganizational and inter-personal relationships Conclusions - Small medium-sized enterprises have been recently rising, however, there has still been little consolidation of literature in internationalization and most of the relevant theories have been still focusing on explaining the globalization of multinational corporations. Little studied on the internationalization in the context of smaller firms which are distinctly differentiated from larger firms including international new ventures, which the motivation to study strongly calls for more information and studied on small medium-sized enterprises.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.30-57
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• 2019

Purpose - This study analyzes the effect of internationalization represented as exporting on firm performance on the subject of SMEs operating in Masan Free Trade Zone which has shown poor performance recently despite its status as the oldest and largest free trade zone in Korea. We also analyze the effect of firm size on firm performance, and the moderating role of firm size in relation to internationalization and firm performance. Design/methodology - This study uses multiple regression models for unbalanced panel data as the empirical tools for the estimation of the effect that internationalization has on firm performance (ROA or ROS). Our sample consists of 91 manufacturing SMEs among all 110 companies located in Masan Free Trade Zone as of 2017. Findings - The degree of internationalization has a negative impact on firm performance. However, firm size turns out to have a positive effect and play a positive moderating role in the relation to internationalization and firm performance. This seems to be because most tenant companies operating in Masan Free Trade Zone are small firms whose costs of internationalization may exceed the benefits. Empirical results also show that longer CEO tenure has a greater negative effect on firm performance. Originality/value - The originality/value of this paper can be found in 3 aspects. First, we conducted an empirical analysis on the relationship between the internationalization and firm performance of SMEs in a specific region, namely, Masan Free Trade Zone. Second, while most previous studies focused on listed medium companies, most of the sample of this study are small and medium non-listed enterprises. Third, it is witnessed that firm size has a positive moderating effect on the relation between internationalization and firm performance.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.12 no.7
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• pp.5-12
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• 2014

Purpose - This study identified internationalization factors forKorean SMEs and explored factor differences between AEO and non-AEO authorized companies. Research design, data, and methodology - The study was designed to assess internationalization factors for AEO authorization in Korea through a questionnaire survey and an empirical analysis. The questionnaires were conducted for AEO and Non-AEO authorized companies that were undergoing AEO authorization. The study was conducted through e-mail and AEO manager education classes. Ninety-five questionnaires were collected. We employed the exploratory factor analysis methodology to derive internationalization factors for KoreanSMEs, and explored the factor differences between AEO and Non-AEO authorized companies. Results - AEO authorized companies outperformed Non-AEO authorized companies in R&D and technology. This indicated that AEO authorized companies were recognized as reliable and safe companies by the Korea Customs Service and other Customs services in trade facilitation and customs clearance processes. Conclusions - This study has some implications for AEO authorization and internationalization processes, and involved the empirical analysis of SMEs and the exploratory factor analysis in the internationalization process.