• Korea Trade Review
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.203-229
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• 2016

Korean general trading companies had started their business to benchmark and to adopt the successful new business models of the Japanese ones. Nevertheless, the strategic gaps between Korean and Japanese GTCs, Sogo-Shosha, still exist, including financial profitability and managerial competencies. In this regard, it is academically and practically required to find out the differences between Korean and Japanese GTCs. This study overviews the previous researches and the business cases to understand the features of GTCs and to get recent and meaningful factors which are related with the rebirth of Sogo-Shosha. Thereafter, in-depth interviews with industry experts and scholars and subsequent investigations were also conducted to suggest meaningful implications for both academicians and practitioners with the found factors. This study suggests four fundamental differences between the Korean and Japanese GTCs: ① the origin and growth path, ② business ownership, governance strategies and contracts management, ③ availabilities of investment portfolio and risk management, ④ business operation system and organizational culture. This study suggests meaningful implications for Korean GTCs to apply the experiences and lessons learned from Japanese Sogo-Shosha into their own business.