• Asian Journal of Business Environment
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.67-72
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• 2015

Purpose - This aim of this study is to examine how conglomerates in Korea have evolved from the perspective of institutional economics. The growth of the economy, dominated by large conglomerates, is projected in light of the dynamic equilibrium between government and capitalists. Research design, data, and methodology - The historical formation of big business groups is examined in chronological order. For the analysis, we divide the assessment into three different eras: Japanese colonial rule, liberation up to the civil war, and the fast growing period since the military coup. Each period is viewed as a dynamic equilibrium that is shaped by economic agents. Results and Conclusion - Despite the rise of modern commerce during the colonial era, contemporary conglomerates came into being with the "enemy property" allotted by the government. Around the civil war, the government coexisted with prototype conglomerates through foreign aid. As the external aid decreased, the system could not be sustained anymore, thus the military coup took place. The reinstated strong bond between government and the conglomerates has shaped the forms of the modern conglomerates thereafter.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.129-139
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• 2016

Purpose - This paper examines the explanatory power of the agency theory in the determination of cash holdings for Korean retail firms. If the agency theory holds, a firm with strong corporate governance structure tends to have low cash holdings. A strong governance structure makes the CEO of this firm to behave in the interests of shareholders and thus the CEO has low incentive to stockpile cash holdings, which can be easily diverted for the CEO's own managerial purposes. We investigate this relationship between corporate governance structure and cash holdings, by using corporate governance scores as a proxy variable that captures the effectiveness of corporate governance mechanism. Research design, data, and methodology - We adopt the sample of publicly listed retail firms in KOSPI market from 2005 to 2013. Financial and accounting statements are gathered from the WISEfn database. We also use the corporate governance scores published by Korean Corporate Governance Service. The relationship between the corporate governance scores and cash holdings is cross-sectionally estimated based on the ordinary least square method. This estimation method is widely accepted in the existing literature. The sample of large conglomerates, Chebol, and the remainder firms are separately examined as well, to account for the distinctive internal financing environment in these large conglomerates. Results - We mainly contribute to the extant literature by providing empirical evidence against the agency theory of cash policy. Unlike the prediction of agency theory, we confirm statistically insignificant or even positive correlations between the set of corporate governance scores and cash-asset ratios. Almost all the major corporate governance attributes including total score, shareholder rights, board structure, and the quality of information disclosure do not show negative correlations with cash holdings, which poses a strong challenge to the validity of the agency theory in the determination of retail firms' cash holdings. Conclusions - This study presents interesting empirical results with respect to the cash policy in Korean retail firms. Consistent to prior studies, I verify that the agency theory only limitedly explains the level of cash holdings. Future studies may obtain more robust results by examining a longer sample period.

• Journal of Venture Innovation
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.167-182
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• 2024

The aim of this study is to empirically explore the operational spillover effect among companies within chaebol groups, prominent corporate conglomerates in South Korea. Chaebols are known for their horizontal and vertical integration, fostering close collaboration among their constituent companies from a supply chain standpoint. Existing literature highlights the sharing of tangible and intangible resources within chaebol structures, leading to increased efficiency by minimizing transaction costs through resource sharing. This research investigates whether operational management performance within chaebol structures can be transmitted through cooperative resource utilization. To achieve this objective, we categorize leading companies and affiliate companies within chaebols and examine whether the operational management performance of leading companies significantly influences that of affiliate companies. Data on conglomerates, as defined by the Korea Fair Trade Commission, were collected, along with information on companies within these groups. Subsequently, the company with the highest revenue within each group was identified as the leading company, while the remaining companies were designated as affiliate companies. Our analysis reveals a significant positive relationship between the performance of inventory and facility resource management of leading companies and that of affiliate companies. This study sheds light on the transfer of operational management performance within conglomerates from a managerial perspective, underscoring the importance of reinforcing cooperation systems within the chaebol group. Furthermore, this research contributes to the academic discourse by delineating conglomerates from an operational management perspective and empirically demonstrating the transfer effect of operational management performance.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.12
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• pp.552-560
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• 2018

Since 1960's, the large conglomerates of South Korea have grown due to the corporate-centered, fast-paced growth drive, while the small and medium-sized businesses supported the country's economy as the subordinate structure of these conglomerates. Due to the globalization of the business environments, the focus of competition shifted from competitions between individual companies to one between networks of companies. Therefore, more emphasis is now put on the capabilities of the cooperation networks between companies rather than the capabilities of individual companies. Therefore, in this study, the author examined the influence of the win-win growth strategy elements through cooperation with small and medium-sized businesses upon corporate performance. This study was conducted with the workers of small and medium-sized businesses that have previous cooperation experiences with South Korean conglomerates over the period from March 2 to May 17, 2018. For this, a total of 515 questionnaires were retrieves to obtain the data for analysis. The analysis was conducted using SPSS 22.0 and AMOS 18.0. The analytical processes that were taken included exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, confidence analysis, correlation analysis, and structural equation analysis model. The results of the analysis showed that, first of all, the win-win growth strategy factors that affected the strategic performance, which is a part of cooperate performance were, respectively, harmonization with the goals, production technical support, and quality system. Second, the win-win growth strategy factors that affected the financial performance, which is a part of corporate performance, turned out to be harmonization with the goals, quality system, and incentive. With the results of this study, it was shown that the elements such as harmonization with the goals, production technical support, quality systems, and incentives were key infrastructural factors that affected the corporate performance directly. On the other hand, its implication is that informative or knowledge-related factors, such as joint knowledge creation, do not have their own added values, while they are not too much likely to affect corporate performances for the moment.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.121-130
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• 2016

Amidst a competitive environment, success and innovation of a company hinge on establishment of competitive strategies through CEO's capabilities for discovering new businesses. In other words, several alternatives that are being considered as new businesses and the ensuing selection that a top management makes lead to a company's success and innovation. Examples of this are numerous among global corporations as well as Korean small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This research has analyzed the role of a CEO to be a condition for success in the growth and innovation of a company. Starting from the topic of entrepreneurship, the research on the role of a CEO has been actively conducted in context with the latest innovations. A prime example involves research related to the innovativeness of a CEO. In this regard, this research was an empirical analysis on the impact that a CEO's ability to discover new business opportunities and competitive strategies has on the performance of a firm. This analysis was conducted based on nationwide data of 286 large conglomerates and smaller-sized companies alike. Based on the analysis, "experimenting" and "association", among abilities of discovery, have been found to strengthen competitive strategies. Also in the context of abilities needed for discovery, differentiation strategy has a greater effect on a firm's performance than the cost leadership strategy. Furthermore, the mediating effect of competitive strategies was prominently displayed in experimenting and corporate performance.

• The Journal of Small Business Innovation
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.19-39
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• 2016

With increasing adoption of smart products and complexity, companies have shifted their strategies from stand alone and competitive strategies to business ecosystem oriented and cooperative strategies. The win-win growth of business refers to corporate efforts undertaken by companies to pursue the healthiness of business between conglomerates and partnering companies such as suppliers for mutual prosperity and a long-term corporate soundness based on their business ecosystem and cooperative strategies. This study is designed to validate a theoretical proposition that the win-win growth strategy of Samsung Electronics and cooperative efforts among companies can create a healthy business ecosystem, based on results of case studies and surveys. In this study, a level of global market access of small and mid-sized companies is adopted as the key achievement index. The foreign market entry is considered as one of vulnerabilities in the ecosystem of small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs). For SMEs, the global market access based on the research and development (R&D) has become the critical component in the process of transforming them into global small giants. The results of case studies and surveys are analyzed mainly based on a model of a virtuous cycle of Creativity, Opportunity, Productivity, and Proactivity (the COPP model) that features the characteristics of the healthiness of a business ecosystem. In the COPP model, a virtuous circle of profits made by the first three factors and Proactivity, which is the manifestation of entrepreneurship that proactively invests and reacts to the changing business environment of the future, enhances the healthiness of a given business ecosystem. With the application of the COPP model, this study finds major achievements of the win-win growth of Samsung Electronics as follows. First, Opportunity plays a role as a parameter in the relations of Creativity, Productivity, and creating profits. Namely, as companies export more (with more Opportunity), they are more likely to link their R&D efforts to Productivity and profitability. However, companies that do not export tend to fail to link their R&D investment to profitability. Second, this study finds that companies with huge investment on R&D for the future, which is the result of Proactivity, tend to hold a large number of patents (Creativity). And companies with significant numbers of patents tend to be large exporters as well (Opportunity), and companies with a large amount of exports tend to record high profitability (Productivity and profitability), and thus forms the virtuous cycle of the COPP model. In addition, to access global markets for sustainable growth, SMEs need to build and strengthen their competitiveness. This study concludes that companies with a high level of proactivity to invest for the future can create a virtuous circle of Creativity, Opportunity, Productivity, and Proactivity, thereby providing a strategic implication that SMEs should invest time and resources in forming such a virtuous cycle which is a sure way for the SMEs to grow into global small giants.