• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.255-263
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• 2016

This study conducted empirical tests on contemporary finance theories for corporate cash holdings, such as trade-off, pecking order, and agency theory. There is ongoing debate on the possibility of excess cash savings by domestic firms, including chaebols in the Korean capital markets. Thus, it may be worthy to identify any financial characteristics based on each aforementioned theory as an extension of previous studies on similar subjects. Two primary hypotheses were postulated and tested, and the following empirical results were obtained. First, principal component analysis (PCA) provides evidence that nine out of the twenty explanatory variables showed a significant influence on the level of corporate cash holdings, such as cash conversion cycle in trade-off theory and leverage in pecking order theory. Second, the chaebol firms that decreased cash holdings after global financial turmoil may be affected by financial factors that include investment opportunities and foreign ownership according to the PCA. The results may reinforce the outcomes derived from previous research on corporate cash holdings. Based on the robust results, large firms in advanced or emerging capital markets could approach the optimal level of the cash reserves.

• The Korean Journal of Financial Management
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.41-72
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• 2003

The purposes of this paper are to build theoretical and empirically testable model to identify determining factors of ownership structure, and to analyze this model empirically using th Korea Stock Exchange panel data, and to test the impact of opening the stock market on the determinants of ownership structure. The determining factors of ownership structure identified in this paper include debt ratio, dividend, asset characteristics, profitability, growth business risk, size, institutional investors and chaebol-non chaebol dummy variable. Empirical panel estimation test reveals that this model can explain about $9\sim11%$ of the cross sectional variance in the equity ratio of large shareholders. The reasons that this model has too explanatory power are that some variables were measured with errors, and that there were some omitted variables in tested model. The regression results on the model variables ar generally in line with predictions. But the coefficient estimates on size is never significant. And it appears that the exogenous variable which explains opening the stock market has positive effect on the determinants of ownership structure.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.15 no.12
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• pp.7134-7147
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• 2014

This study examined one of the contemporary issues that may be interesting to academics and practitioners regarding the driving force of the growth rate for the firms belonging to the chaebols in the Korean capital markets. With respect to the empirical results obtained from two hypothesis tests, the first hypothesis was to identify any financial determinants on the growth rate by applying both dynamic panel data and static panel data models. The debt ratios relevant to the book- and market-value showed their positive relationships with the DV of GROWTH1, along with other significant IDVs such as one-period lagged DV of GROWTH_1, SIZE1 and FOS with statistical significance. Second, by employing conditional quantile regression (CQR) analysis, the control variables, such as ROA, SMARKET, time dummy variable of F2010 and F2011, and the industry dummies of IND3 and IND10, provided evidence of their significant influences on DV of GROWTH1.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.227-252
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• 2019

This study explores the effects of exports on the innovation of Korean firms listed on two Korean stock markets, the Korean Stock Exchange and the Korean Securities Dealers Quotations, between 1999 and 2016. By matching exporting firms to non-exporting ones with propensity score matching, this study accounts for a problem from sample selection bias that may arise from differences in firm-characteristics between the two groups. From the study results, first, both export participation and export volume significantly increase subsequent innovation performance, as measured by the number of patent applications. This result seems to support the "learning by exporting" hypothesis for Korean listed firms. Second, both export participation and export volume narrow innovation scope, proxied as the number of unique International Patent Classification (IPC) codes of the patent applied, the degree to which patents are concentrated in a particular class, and the degree of proximity in the patents. The findings of innovation scope suggest a possible explanation that the learning effect appears in familiar technology fields that firms have previously held, rather than in unfamiliar ones. Third, these results are robust using alternative proxies in the innovation scope, Tobit regressions to consider the non-trivial portion of sample firms with patent applications equal to zeros, and generalized method of moments (GMM) to control for the persistence of innovation measures hearing over years. Finally, the two main results are more pronounced in large firms than in small and medium-sized ones. As for Chaebol firms, however, these results do not appear.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.215-229
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• 2023

Purpose - Based on the funding-horizon theory, this study aims to test the effects of cash needs and the persistence of external funding needs on firms' external financing. Design/methodology/approach - Financial data of Korean listed companies were collected from DataGuide. Immediate and near-term cash shortfalls are defined using the methodology of Haung and Ritter (2021). We estimate multinomial logit regressions for the financing choice. Findings - First, all three cash depletion variables used in our study increase the likelihood of external financing. Second, firms prefer to issue debt to meet immediate spending and equity to meet long-lived cash needs. Third, this effect is more pronounced for high R&D firms. Fourth, chaebol firms with internal capital markets defer raising external capital for immediate and near-term cash needs. Research implications or Originality - This paper provide empirical evidence that immediate and near-term cash needs induce external financing, and the persistence of cash needs affects the choice between debt and equity, the finding which is consistent with the funding-horizon theory of financing decisions. Being the first paper to test the funding-horizon theory using Korean data, this paper contributes to the literature on the capital structure of Korean firms.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.353-379
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• 2019

This paper aims to determine factors causing the stagnation of Korean firms' fixed investment after the global financial crisis, using panel data for the period of 1999-2016. Fixed investment remained sensitive to cash flow and Tobin's q although their effects decreased after the global financial crisis. A decreasing trend of cash flow and an increase in Tobin's q since the early 2000's imply that the worsening cash flow was a major factor behind the sluggish investment after the crisis. Meanwhile, debt-equity ratio remained significant for non-chaebol affiliated firms, reflecting disparity in access to external financing. Volatility of stock returns also became insignificant after the crisis, casting doubt on the argument that uncertainty was a major factor contributing to the decline of fixed investment. Analysis of financial investment confirmed the significant effect of cash flow, larger than that on financial investment than on fixed investment. In particular, debt repayment and other financial investment, except share repurchase, were sensitive to cash flow. However, the substitution of fixed investment by financial investment is a consequence, rather than a cause of declining fixed investment.

• The Journal of Small Business Innovation
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.27-42
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• 2018

As global competition has become more intense in recent years, collaborative cooperation and shared growth between large and small enterprises for enhancing competitiveness of enterprises have become an important social concern. In the long run, collaborative cooperation between large and small enterprises is becoming more important not only in terms of enhancing corporate competitiveness but also in terms of CSR and CSV. In fact, many large companies are strengthening collaborative cooperation. This study compares and analyzes collaborative cooperation cases of major Chaebol companies including Samsung Electronics, and derive implications for collaborative cooperation plan of large companies.

• Asia Pacific Journal of Business Review
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.17-35
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• 2017

This research is a case study that focuses on how conglomerate illegality and corresponding penalty affects corporate performance and strategy. The research aims to provide base information for policy-makers as well as the general public about the corporate environment. The analysis results can be summarized as follows. First, profitability is represented as an M-curve. Profitability falls from indictment to the final pronouncement of the corporate head and increases upon his or her return. The result suggests that the absence of a corporate head could result in low profitability as the firm is exposed to owner risk. Secondly, significant effects on investment were not found. Investment showed a continuous increase from indictment to final judgment. This could have resulted from investment decisions made prior to the indictment, which are generally long-term. Meanwhile, the rate at which investments rose for core subsidiaries were lower, which makes it reasonable to suspect dwindling executive capacity due to the absence of a corporate head. Thirdly, employment showed a slight increase, but the rate was found to be greater during the periods following the final judgment. From a political perspective, this increase can be inferred from a give-and-take tradeoff between corporate employment and the pardon of the corporate head.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.23-42
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• 2013

This paper examines the effects of corporate governance on internationalization in Korean firms. Using the data from 454 Korean manufacturing firms listed in the Korean Stock ExchanFge (KSE) from 1999-2006, we analyzed the role of corporate governance on internationalization in Korean firms, including Chaebols (Korean business groups) and family firms. In addition, we investigated the moderating effect of concentration of ownership on internationalization. The results of the analysis showed a positive association between corporate governance in Chaebols and family firms and internationalization. Interestingly, the influence of ownership concentration overpowered the ambivalent behaviors of Chaebols, leading to less internationalization. We conclude that corporate governance in Chaebols and family firms is important to internationalization strategy.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.41-60
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• 2015

This paper investigates whether managerial ownership and foreign ownership have impacts on firm value, using a sample of logistics firms listed on the Korea Stock Exchange between 2008 and 2014. In the Korean economy, family-controlled business groups, known as chaebol, constitute a unique governance system. To acquire investments from controlling shareholders, a logistics firm is likely to be included in family-controlled business groups. Since reform of the governance structure of logistics firms in the South Korea enables shareholder value to be maximized, we analyzed ownership effects on firm value using pooled ordinary least squares. Empirical results showed that there was a significant positive relation between managerial ownership and firm value. This study also found that there was a significant positive relation between foreign ownership and firm value. We thus show that both managerial ownership and foreign ownership can protect shareholders by positively affecting firm values.