• Korean small business review
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.209-223
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• 2010

Korea's business is composed of a few large-sized enterprises (which can be abbreviated as LSE) and a majority of small-sized enterprises (SSE). Although there has been a growing recognition of the need for the development of medium-sized enterprises (MSE) which can serve as a link between SSE and LSE, as yet there has not yet been a consensus on the definition, characteristics and the function of the MSE in Korea. Nowadays, the world is being globalized, and Japan and China are in competition to ne a great economic power. While East Asia is experiencing rapid changes, promoting MSE which can secure flexibility and efficiency through covering up the limitation of LSE and SSE is needed in order to respond the global market which is being specialized. The features of MSE in Japan can be listed as follows. First, the MSE in Japan is developing the company through getting into niche markets which are hard for major companies to enter rather than developing markets in order to compete against major companies directly. While MSEs are endeavoring to build the business firmly in the domestic market, they can possess special and competitive technical skills through trials and errors; so that they can get a chance develop their business through independent business system rather than putting their effort to compete against major companies. Second, from the MSEs with competitive edge in the market, there are many contributions to the national exportation. Those MSEs produce in domestic and maintain the quality of high price products which need cutting-edge technology, while they relocate the low and middle priced goods to the country where manufacturing costs are low, so that they can maintain the price competitiveness. Third, the industrial structure in Japan is formed from dual structure between major companies and small sized companies. In other words, in Japan's industrial structure which are composed of subcontract structure, this dual structure has taken a major role of small sized companies' growth and manufacturing businesses' international competitive power. Forth, MSE in Japan adopt a strategy of putting their value on qualitative scale growth rather than quantitative scale growth. In this paper, the case of Japanese MSE is analyzed. Along with its long history of Industrialization, Japan has a corporate environment where the SSEs can develop as a MSE and later a LSE through a full-support system. Among its SSEs, there are a number of world class corporations equipped with a large domestic market, win-win cooperation with the LSEs and an independent technology development. It can also be observed that these SSEs develop into MSEs with sustainable growth potentials. This study will focus on the condition under which the MSEs of Japan have been developed, and how they have survived the competition between SSEs and LSEs. Through this study, this paper attempts to offer solutions to Korea's polarization between the SSE and LSE, while providing the basis for SSEs revitalization. In general, if both extremities phenomenon deepen between LSE and SSE, there are possible fears of occurring disutility in national economy by the monopolization of LSE. For that reason, enterprise group, which can make SSE or MSE compete LSE in some area and ease the monopoly and oligopoly problem, is needed. This awareness has been shared for ages long. Nevertheless, there is no legal definition for MSE in Japan, and there is no definition about the enterprise size or unified view of MSE between scholars, but it is defined differently by each of academical person or research institution and study meeting. For that reason, this paper will organize the definition of MSE in Japan, and then will propose the characteristics of the background which has made MSE secure competitiveness and sustainable growth in global market. This study focus on that because through this process, the positive change to the awareness of MSE can be proposed in Korea and to seek the policy direction for building institutional framework which can make SSE become MES. Through this way, the fundamentals for SSE to become MSE can be managed and some appropriate suggestions which will be able to make MSE enter the global market in the future can also be proposed. Due to these facts, this study is very important and well timed task. In a sense of this way, this study will examine the definition and role of MSE in Japan. after this examination, this study will deal with the status, special feature, and promotion policy for MSE. Through this analysis of MSE in Japan, the foundation which be able to set the desirable role model for MSE in Korea can be proposed. Also, the political implication which is needed to push ahead to contribute to creating employment and economic growth through sustainable growth of MSEs in economic system of Korea can be offered through this study. It has been found that Japan's MSE functions as an indispensable link among various industrial structures by holding a significant position in employment rate, production and value added. Although the MSEs took up less than 1% of the entire number of businesses with 2700 manufacturing firms and 7000 non-manufacturing firms, its employment ratios are about 15%, while taking about 25% of the manufacturing industry's exports. In industries such as machinery and electronics which is considered Japan's major industry, the MSEs showed a higher than average ratio of manufacturing exports and employment rate. It can be analyzed that behind Japan's advantageous industries, close and deeply knit MSEs exist. Although there are no clearly stated policies geared towards the MSEs by the Japanese government, various political measures exist such as the R&D Project and the inducement of cooperation between enterprises which gives room for MSEs to participate in the SSE policies. In relation to these findings, the following practical measures can be considered in order to revitalize Korea's MSEs: First, there is a need for a legal definition of MSE and the incentives to provide legal support for its growth. Second, if a law to support the MSEs is established, it could provide a powerful inducement for the SSE to grow as a MSE, rather than stay as a SSE. Third, there is a need for a strategy of MSEs to establish a stable base in the domestic market and then advance to the global market with the accumulated trial and error and competitiveness. Fourth, the SSE themselves need the spirit of entrepreneurship in order to make the leap to a MSE. Because if nothing is to be changed about the system on the firms that grew, and the parts of the past custom was left to be managed alone, confusion and absence of management can take place. No matter how much tax favors the government will give and no matter how much incentive there could be through the policies, there are limits for industries to higher the ability to propagate. And because of that it is a period where industries need their own innovative skills to reform their firms.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.193-216
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• 2020

Due to the recent mid- to long-term slump and falling growth rates in the global economy, interest in organizational structures that create new products or services as a new alternative to survive and develop in an opaque environment both internally and externally, and enhance organizational sustainability through changes in production methods and business innovation is increasing day by day. In this atmosphere, we agree that the growth of small and medium-sized venture companies has a significant impact on the national economy, and various efforts are being made to enhance the technological innovation capabilities of the members so that these small and medium-sized venture companies can enhance and sustain their performance. The purpose of this study is also to investigate how the technological innovation capabilities of small and medium-sized venture companies correlate with the performance of knowledge management and to analyze the role of network capabilities to organize the strategic activities of enterprise to obtain the resources and organizational capabilities to be used for value creation from external networks. In other words, research was conducted on the impact of technological innovation capabilities of small and medium venture companies on knowledge management performance by using network capabilities as parameters. Therefore, in this study, we would like to verify the hypothesis that innovation capabilities will have a positive impact on knowledge management performance by using network capabilities of small and medium venture companies. Economic activities based on technological innovation capabilities should respond quickly to new changes in an environment where uncertainty has increased, and lead to macro-economic growth and development as well as overcoming long-term economic downturns so that they can become the nation's new growth engine as well as sustainable growth and survival of the organization. In addition, this study was conducted by setting the most important knowledge management performance within the organization as a dependent variable. As a result, R&D and learning capabilities among technological innovation capabilities have no impact on financial performance. In contrast, it was shown that corporate innovation activities have a positive impact on both financial and non-financial performance. The fact that non-financial factors such as quality and productivity improvement are identified in the management of small and medium-sized venture companies utilizing their technological innovation capabilities is contrary to a number of studies by those corporate innovation activities affect financial performance during prior research. The reason for this result is that research companies have been out of start-up companies for more than seven years, but sales are less than 10 billion won, and unlike start-up companies, R&D and learning capabilities have more positive effects on intangible non-financial performance than financial performance. Corporate innovation activities have been shown to have a positive (+) impact on both financial and non-financial performance, while R&D and learning capabilities have a positive (+) impact on financial performance by parameters of network capability. Corporate innovation activities have been shown to have no impact on both financial and non-financial performance, and R&D and learning capabilities have no impact on non-financial performance. It could be seen that the parameter effects of network competency are limited to when R&D and learning competencies are derived from quantitative financial performance. It could be seen that the parameter effects of network competency are limited to when R&D and learning competencies are derived from quantitative financial performance.

• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.191-203
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• 2018

Identify the effects of ISO quality management system on the durability of the enterprise by applying it to early startups and small - and medium-sized enterprises. In particular, the quality management system of a technology start-up small and medium sized companies is important in applying the management system to the financial, management and quality control services rather than to research and development. The quality management system is applied to the medical equipment manufacturers, mobile phone brokers, foreign Chinese companies, and components manufacturers for diesel engines.Try it. Check the case where the quality management system has been applied to the company concerned and the nonconformities have been improved. In addition, the success of the project was determined by applying the quality control system to maintain the stability and perpetuation of the company through the case of the failed selection. The company explains that recently, it must appoint internal auditors to carry out continuous improvement activities and that those who want the development and continuity of the company must reflect the quality management system.

• Journal of Industrial Convergence
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• v.20 no.9
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• pp.11-24
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• 2022

The average age of CEOs of the small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs) in Korea is 58.8, and discussions are actively underway regarding the support towards the succession companies. Government authorities are also operating a system to support the succession companies, and recently global support is also being demanded. In order to have justification over the support for succession companies, the fact that it greatly contributes to the revitalization of the national economy and the regional economy must be acknowledged in advance. This study analyzed the degree of corporate succession revitalization of the national and regional economy through statistical and empirical analysis. With the purpose to secure the reliability of the analysis, the study has referred to the database of the "Integrated Management System for Small Business Recruitment Project" and the Korea Enterprise Data (KED), which can be the most differentiated aspect compared to the existing research of the past. According to the analysis, it shows that the old companies' performance is significantly higher than the general companies in terms of sales, number of employees, assets, and operating profits⋯etc. The management performance of the old companies (which lasted over 30 years) more than doubles the performance of the start-ups (with less than 10 years of experience) in sales, triples the number of employees, doubles the assets, and more than doubles the operating profit. Thus, it is seen that the contribution to the overall economy is significant. Additionally, as a result of the empirical analysis of the relationship between the regional old companies and the regional economic revitalization, the non-metropolitan area shows better performance than the metropolitan area in terms of the number of employees, assets, borrowings, and rent, which entails policy implications of the polarization between the metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas. In other words, it is found that old companies make a significant contribution to revitalizing the local economy, suggesting that further policies regarding corporate succession are required to support the old companies in the future.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.90-97
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• 2016

Since Korean construction firms have steadily advanced into the international market, small and medium construction companies (SMCCs) have also advanced in such market. SMCCs's recent trend have clearly shown the changes of contract types from single subcontractor projects to multiple general contracting projects. However, among those multiple projects performed by SMCCs, 1 out of 3 projects were deficit projects that impact the overall pe rformance of the firm. To increase such performance, risk management for in international construction must be managed at the enterprise level for SMCCs. This research aims to create a multiple project management model for SMCCS that employs the concept of acceptable risk to assess the limit risk level for corporation to acceptable. Using the accumulated data from previous survey and International Construction Association of Korea (ICAK), integrated risk of each firm and their profitability of each project are analyzed. Through the analysis, each firm's acceptable risk level is derived. Through the two research steps, acceptable risk algorithm was developed based on corporate integrated risk and profit correlation. To prove the acceptable algorithm relevance, financial statement analysis of 3 corporation was derived that level of acceptable risk and financial statement were available. Through the approach, this research allows the firms to analyze the firm's capability and find projects that suits the firm's situation and capability.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.607-641
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• 2017

Recently, there has been an increase in government-wide demand for technological cooperation between government funded research institutes (GFRIs) and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), while there remain a tension between positive and negative views regarding the support given by GFRIs to encourage the technological innovation of SMEs. Although preceding studies have found that the support given by GFRIs to SMEs tends to have the effect of enhancing the technological innovation outcomes of SMEs, this study examines the question of why the agent that provides technological cooperation to SMEs should be limited to GFRIs. To answer this question, in this study, we first examined the qualitative changes in the external technological cooperation behavior of SMEs over time, from 2007 to 2014. Next, we performed cluster analysis to examine whether there were distinctive characteristics of SMEs that engage in technological cooperation with GFRIs, compared to the various other alternatives available as technological cooperation partners for SMEs. Lastly, to help us identify the characteristics of the companies that technologically cooperate with GFRIs and to facilitate the administrative or practical effort to find companies that would be strong candidates for technological cooperation with GFRIs, we used discriminant analysis to define a discriminant formula for such companies likely to engage in technological cooperation. The results of this study were as follows. First, GFRIs were the most competitive -- as demonstrated by the highest level of satisfaction, etc. - compared to the other alternatives for external technological cooperation available to SMEs. This confirmed the necessity for GFRIs to provide technological cooperation to SMEs. Secondly, the issue of whether the small and medium-sized enterprise had engaged in technological cooperation specifically with GFRIs was found not to be a very significant factor in distinguishing these companies. It was found, however, that SMEs engaged in technological cooperation were distinctive, regardless of the type of institution involved in the technological cooperation. Thirdly, SMEs that were in technological cooperation with GFRIs had the characteristics of being already active in joint research and already familiar with utilizing the systems available for governmental support. The findings of this study offers various insights relevant to establishing national R&D strategies using GFRIs and improving the efficiency of policies and administrative practices intended to help GFRIs assist SMEs.

• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.786-794
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• 2011

To investigate the sanitary-quality level of commercial kimchi in South Korea, the pH, acidity, and microbial-flora changes in the kimchi were determined. Samples of kimchi produced by three different manufacturers (a small grocery store, a small/medium-sized enterprise, and a large food company) were collected. Freshly made kimchi was purchased and fermented at $10^{\circ}C$ for 10 days. The pH of the commercial kimchi on the purchased day was approximately pH 5.8, and that on the $10^{th}$ day of fermentation was ${\simeq}pH$ 4.1. The kimchi purchased from a large company showed a more rapid decline in pH level during fermentation. The saltiness of the kimchi purchased from a medium-sized company was slightly higher than those of the other commercial kimchi samples. The saccharinity index of the kimchi produced by a small grocery store was higher than those of the other samples, and its value deviation was also higher than those of the other commercial kimchi samples. A higher total viable-cell count and a higher lactic-acid bacteria (LAB) count were detected in the kimchi from the large food company at the beginning of fermentation compared to the samples of the two other kimchi manufacturers. The highest cell numbers of gram-positive bacteria (except LAB) and coliform bacteria were detected from the small-grocery-store kimchi, but the coliform bacteria count gradually decreased during fermentation although such bacteria were still detected until the $10^{th}$ day of fermentation. In contrast, coliform bacteria were not detected in the samples from the medium-sized and large food companies. Yeast, which is detected in over-ripened kimchi, was detected in the unfermented kimchi from the small grocery store, which had a below-0.36% acidity level. The gram-positive bacteria (except LAB) that were detected in all the tested commercial kimchi samples were determined to be Bacillus spp., and the gram-negative bacteria were determined to be Escherichia coli, Enterobacter spp., Sphingomonase spp., and Strenophomonas spp. The proportions of all the aforementioned bacteria in the kimchi samples, however, were different depending on the samples that were taken. These results indicate that a more sanitary kimchi production process and a more systematic kimchi production manual should be developed to industrialize and globalize kimchi.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.313-323
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• 1998

This study is to develop the model on the joint employment system of occupational health nurse practitioners for medium or small sized enterprises in Korea based on the comparison opinions between employers and occupational health nurses (OHN). The data were collected by questionnaires from Oct. to Nov. in 1997. The number of subjects was 210 OHNs and 176 employers, response rate was 47.1% for OHNs and 23.2% for employers. The SAS PC program was used for the descriptive statistics. The results were as follow: 1. More than three years career was preferred for qualification of OHN by employers and OHNs. OHNs preferred that all instruments and materials should be equipped in each industry, but employers preferred that they should be equipped by OHN. 2. For the limit number of industries and employees per one OHN, employers preferred average 2.25 industries and 307 employees, OHNs preferred average 3.0 industries and 448 employees. Both of them preferred two times visit per week for all day long. 3. OHNs wanted that the local office of Ministry of Labor could act as mediator, but employers preferred direct contact individually. For the average wage, employers preferred 887,000 won per month, but OHNs preferred 1,960,000 won per month. 4. OHNs preferred the Korean Association of Occupational Health Nurse as the recruit agency. Finally, employers and OHNs have the opinions that they can choose this system depending on the condition. There is in need of development of effective strategy for this new system such as manpower development, cost-benefit analysis, establishment of occupational health service standard, advertisement for employers, and government supported project.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.287-292
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• 2015

The aim of this study was to provide a method to assume the value of the continuous and possible management part to investigate the relationship between component of evaluation of Disaster Management and Sustainability Management in enterprise by obtaining Fuzzy Relation Matrix in view of necessity and possibility when there are new data. The index of Disaster Management was yielded from 100 small and medium-sized enterprises for 4 component of evaluations of based on ISO standard, and that of Sustainability Management was obtained from same enterprises for 6 component of evaluations in GRI G4 version of Sustainability Management guideline. The above results suggest that this model is significant by using 80 data as a training data and 20 data as a checking data from the 100 data obtained in this study.

• Journal of Digital Contents Society
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• v.18 no.7
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• pp.1347-1356
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• 2017

In order to strengthen the competitiveness of small business startups with insufficient internal and external resources, the government has implemented SMEs consulting support projects. However, as an intangible knowledge service, consulting services also have their own shortcomings such as the risk of time, effort and quality uncertainty. And all kinds of risks will be borne by the companies which receive consulting services. Therefore, many companies which receive consulting services in Korea are questioning the reliability of the consulting results and have a negative attitude on this industry. In addition, they consider the cost-effectiveness of consulting is relatively low. Finally, this study performed an empirical study on recommendation intention of small business startups which received consulting and also focused on the comparison between Korean and Chinese startups.