• Journal of Information Technology and Architecture
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.463-470
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• 2014

Recently, government supporting policies on the revival of manufacturing industries are building up in the advanced economies like US and so on. Root manufacturing industry as the base of all manufacturing industries is accounting for SMEs by an absolute majority and Korean policies for SMEs are apt to increase in numbers. Nevertheless, there is no much concern in the area of root manufacturing industry SMEs. Especially, the effectiveness of R&D in root manufacturing industry is on the verge of controversy. As the results of root manufacturing industry SME's analysis, there are lots of various characteristics by fields in root manufacturing industry and the R&D results are not well carried over to business commercialization. In this paper, five policy proposals for root manufacturing industry SMEs are suggested based on the current situations of domestic and overseas countries.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.39 no.7
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• pp.653-667
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• 1990

Superconductor is consolidated, for required current capacity, with proper numbers of basic strands which are multifilamentary composites. Althouth superconductors are perfectly loss-free under DC conditions of current and field, AC losses occur under time-varying condition of the current and field. The AC losses are a controllable inherent characteristics of supercondectors. The AC losses dependent on the changing rate of current and field can be reduced by reducing the filament diameter. On the other hand, finer filament results in manufacturing cost increase. Therefore, in this paper optimization technique of superconductor for SMES is proposed from the viewpoint of AC loss reduction and manufacturing cost increase. The case study shows that the technique can be effectively used for the design of superconductor for SMES, appreciating the influence of various parameters related to superconductor itself and operating condition of SMES. As a result of the case study, it is confirmed that the technique is more effective for the design of superconductor for SMES for electric power power system stabilization rather then SMES for energy storage.

• Industrial Engineering and Management Systems
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.109-114
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• 2011

The number of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), especially those involved with research and development (R&D) programs and employed virtual teams to create the greatest competitive advantage from limited labor are increasing. Global and localized virtual R&D teams are believed to have high potential for the growth of SMEs. Due to the fast-growing complexity of new products coupled with new emerging opportunities of virtual teams, a collaborative approach is believed to be the future trend. This research explores the effectiveness of virtuality in SMEs' virtual R&D teams. Online questionnaires were emailed to Malaysian manufacturing SMEs and 74 usable questionnaires were received, representing a 20.8 percent return rate. In order to avoid biases which may result from pre-suggested answers, a series of open-ended questions were retrieved from the experts. This study was focused on analyzing an open-ended question, whereby four main themes were extracted from the experts' recommendations regarding the effectiveness of virtual teams for the growth and performance of SMEs. The findings of this study would be useful to product design managers of SMEs in order to realize the key advantages and significance of virtual R&D teams during the new product development (NPD) process. This is turn, leads to increased effectiveness in new product development's procedure.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.49-61
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• 2019

As the technological gap amongst manufacturers decreases, the life cycle of products has shortened, and competition accelerates due to the development of technology, incumbent manufacturing companies face growth limitations. In order to overcome such business issues, manufacturing companies are increasingly interested in changes in business models and innovations, especially in the direction of providing services where they can maintain the competitive advantage of their products. In such context, this empirical study examines managerial leadership, differentiation strategies, and products and services pricing as 'servitization factors', which can be driving forces for moving into a new era of growth for Korean SMEs, focusing on the mediating effects of servitization competency. The results are as follows : First, it was confirmed that executive leadership, differentiation strategy, and information & communication technology capability have a direct effect on service sales. Second, the process competency, partnership competency, and ICT competency, which are presented as the service competence of SMEs, were found to play an important role in inducing service sales in managerial leadership, differentiation strategy, product and services pricing. It also emphasized the role of the public policy such as helping to foster SMEs as key partners in the expansion of social facilities and establishing platforms through ICT and data utilization for the convergence of manufacturing services.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.43-57
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• 2022

Purpose: This study discusses the phenomenon of the uncertain sustainability of SMEs in developing countries. SMEs face various challenges in the dynamics of a competitive environment, which threaten their growth and sustainability. This study aims to address a research gap between company's internal resources, in the form of absorptive capacity, and its business performance. By using product quality as a mediator, which has never been studied before, this research presents a novelty to answer the existing research gap using the Resource Based Theory (RBT) perspective. Research design, data and methodology: Using quantitative method, data are collected from 164 respondents, who are owners or managers of furniture manufacturing SMEs in Gerbangkertosusila Area, East Java, Indonesia. The data are analyzed using Partial Least Square (PLS) - Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Results: The findings show that absorptive capacity has a direct and significant effect on business performance and indirectly through product quality. Conclusion: Furniture manufacturing SMEs are advised to focus on developing absorptive capacity reflected in good product quality, in order to improve their business performance. This is especially important to survive the crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Thus, the results of this study contribute to the development of RBT, and there are several suggestions for further research.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.89-100
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• 2023

Recently, as ESG management has become an important issue, major companies in the automotive parts manufacturing industry are conducting ESG evaluations of their suppliers for the purpose of supply chain management. The results of these evaluations are being incorporated into contractual agreements. However, many small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs) are lacking in their capacity and resources to effectively respond to ESG evaluations. Furthermore, existing ESG management guidelines do not provide an industry-specific guidance, making it necessary to establish industry-specific guidelines that SMEs can refer to. Therefore, in this study, the evaluation Indicators of ESG supply chain assessments are surveyed, which is conducted by domestic major automotive parts companies and global automobile manufacturers. Then 56 supply chain ESG evaluation Indicators are derived. Also, ESG management indicators for SMEs is analyzed through the Importance-Performance Analysis(IPA), based on an interview of expert groups. Therefore, this study could propose industry-specific ESG guidelines, based on the results of the derived indicators, which reflects the need for SMEs to practice ESG management within certain boundaries.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.25 no.7
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• pp.1-18
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• 2021

Purpose - In this study, we explore the relationship between the degree of internationalization (DOI) and firm performance (DOI-P) of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing sector. Specifically, we investigate whether the costs and benefits dynamics concerning the internationalization of SMEs differ between high-tech and non-high-tech industries. Design/methodology - We extend the prior literature on this relationship by employing 5-year data on 589 Korean SMEs in the manufacturing sector and examining the moderating impact of the industry characteristics. Our findings reveal a U-shaped relationship between the DOI and SME performance. High-tech SMEs demonstrate an inverted U-shaped relationship, whereas non-hightech SMEs exhibit a U-shaped relationship. Findings - Our findings illustrate the importance of the industry factor in testing the performance impact of the internationalization of Korean SMEs. By incorporating industry dynamics, our results indicate that the DOI-P relationship depends on the context of the industry in which an SME operates. High-tech SMEs also display a higher DOI but are outperformed by non-high-tech SMEs for the entire internationalization path, which implies that high-tech SMEs face more challenges than non-high-tech SMEs while seeking internationalization. Originality/value - The findings strongly validate that significant benefits exist for SMEs undertaking internationalization. We also employ the contextual framework contributing to increasing the understanding of the intrinsic value of internationalization and resolving the mixed results issue on the DOI-P relationship, by illustrating that the industry factor leads to different dynamics of costs and benefits of SME internationalization; it also determines the shape and direction of the relationship.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.79-94
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• 2022

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to examine firm-level attributes related to Korean manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises' (SMEs') decisions to implement smart factories. Design/methodology/approach - This study uses the provided by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups of Korea and the Korea Federation of SMEs. Manufacturing SMEs' decisions to implement smart factories in 2018-2019 were analyzed using multinomial logit and ordered logit models. Findings - The findings of this study suggest that firms' decisions to implement smart factories were positively related to firm size, R&D intensity, international market scope, and transactional relationships with customers. However, smart factory implementation decisions were not related to firm age and CEO gender. Research implications or Originality - This study illuminates firm-level attributes that may drive organizational innovation in the era of Industry 4.0 and thus contributes to the innovation adoption literature. This study also contributes to growing research on smart factories by analyzing the actual, progressive decisions to implement smart factories, as opposed to perceived intentions to implement them.

• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.201-210
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• 2007

The purpose of this study is to investigate the status of manufacturing information system (MIS) which has been introduced to enhance the manufacturing competitiveness in Korea and to enable statistical comparison of whether there are significant differences in implementing manufacturing information system between large companies and small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The result of the empirical test of 105 manufacturing companies in Korea showed that the utilization and satisfaction of MIS in large companies are significantly greater than those in SMEs.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.171-189
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• 2019

As many studies have contributed to various aspects of the market by utilizing market orientation, however, this study has tried to overcome limitations of existing studies and suggest more concrete and extended implications. In this study, the relationship between market orientation, responsiveness to market change, and organizational performance of SMEs was examined and compared with characteristics of SMEs (manufacturing and service firms). As a result of the verification, interfunctional coordination has a strong influence on the ability of the organization to respond to market changes as well as customer orientation and competitor orientation. And responsiveness to market change, organizational flexibility has a strong impact on both personal performance and overall team performance. As a result of the comparative study, it can be concluded that manufacturing firms emphasize competitor orientation and organizational agility while service firms emphasize customer orientation and organizational flexibility.