• 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.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.101-114
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• 2019

E-business enables SMEs to reduce transaction costs and maintain export competitiveness in rapidly changing overseas markets. It is required to raise the entrepreneurial awareness of e-business of exporting SMEs. This study examines the characteristics of enterprises that play an important role in the introduction and utilization of e-business by domestic export SMEs. It explores the mechanisms that search and exploit these opportunities in an entrepreneurial way, and examines the process leading to export performance. We conducted a survey for empirical analysis and analyzed the data from 316 companies using e-business in Korea. As a result, both the international entrepreneurial orientation and the IT competence tended to be significant for the perception of e-business entrepreneurs and showed a different pattern in terms of size of influence. In addition, cooperation and operation among e-business entrepreneurs' perceptions have a direct impact on the export performance of SMEs.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.73-79
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to explore how small and medium enterprises in India has identified the opportunities and challenges in adopting the Web 3.0 technologies to improve their productivity and efficiency. After an in-depth literature review, researchers framed a semi-structured questionnaire with open-ended questions for collecting responses from managers working in 40 Indian SME's representing five key economic sectors. The collected data was analyzed, and themes were encoded using the NVivo 11 computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software. Content analysis was used to analyze the data collected with the semi-structured interviews. This study identified five key themes and 12 subthemes illustrating the key advantages and challenges as perceived by the managerial leadership of SMEs. The five key themes identified in this study include integration of data and services, the creation of new functionalities, privacy and security, financial and technological challenges, and organizational challenges. The results of this study will benefit the organizational leadership of SMEs in planning and developing their short-term and long-term information systems strategies and will enable SME leaders to make optimal use of their information technology assets, improving the productivity and competitiveness of the firms. Web 3.0 technologies are considered as emerging technologies, so the advantages and challenges of using these technologies for SMEs have not been explored in the context of emerging economies, such as India.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.851-861
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• 2021

This study aims to explore the specific risks in family small-medium enterprises (SMEs) and explain how they manage these risks to sustain and expand. In Indonesia, family business composes around 95 percent of all businesses and contributes about 80 percent to the country's economy. SMEs contribute approximately 57.8 percent to the nation's gross domestic product. Risk management poses challenges to the family business's survival, as family members do not take actions on risk. The assessment of risk is difficult and family businesses lack the ability to determine risk management priorities, including risk management review processes to evaluate risk, thus leading to family business failures. Applying the case study approach, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted in seven family SMEs comprising fifteen informants. Additionally, a focus group discussion consisting of three experts is conducted to reaffirm the findings from the interviews, observations, and field notes. The research identified the specific risks and how the family owners strategize to safeguard against these risks such as cash flow deficiency, operations dysfunction, cultural frailty, disharmony, transgenerational entrepreneurship failure, political uncertainty, and unprofessionalism. Comprehending these risks and their strategic decisions elucidated in this research could enable the family owners and key non-family professionals to work hand-in-hand to thrive over the family business risks together. Further avenues of research regarding family business risk management are also suggested in this study.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.329-338
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• 2021

The mobile payment system has not only changed the payment pattern but also has improved the performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and individuals' quality of life by saving their energy, reducing the risk of taking cash, and enabling them to give more time to businesses and do international business. Besides, with the current advancement in the Internet as well as the digital transformation, SMEs are being forced to adopt mobile payment systems (MPS). The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of technological-organizational-environmental (TOE) determinants on the adoption of MPS and its impact on SMEs' firm performance operating in Ghana. This research employed a closed-ended questionnaire to collect data from January 2020 - April 2020. This study used a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach using SmartPLS 3.0 for path analysis of 145 responses. The findings of the study include the statistically significant effects of technological (relative advantage and compatibility), organizational (top management support and employees' readiness), and environmental (social influence and competitive pressure) factors on the adoption of MPS. Furthermore, this study also proved the positive and statistically significant effect of MPS on SMEs' performance. This study demonstrated that the TOE factor explains 70% variations in the adoption of MPS.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.229-235
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• 2021

The ability of entrepreneurs to arrange working capital is the key to maximizing the profitability of small- and medium-sized enterprises and the wealth of entrepreneurs. The study investigates the correlation between entrepreneurs' working capital management and the profitability of SMEs listed on six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) stock exchanges between 2019 and 2020. The secondary data is collected from the financial statements of SMEs listed on the six GCC stock exchanges. Actual sample for the research study was a total of 136 small- and medium-sized enterprises selected using purposive sampling methods. Four research models were considered in this analysis, all ending up affecting gross profits. The selected entrepreneurial SMEs were listed on six different Gulf Cooperation Council stock exchanges during 2019-2020. The fixed financial assets ratio, financial debt ratio, and company size are used as control variables and data were analyzed using multiple regression. The research results demonstrate that there is a statistically significant negative correlation between profitability measured by gross profit and cash cycle and the components of the cash cycle (including days of accounts receivable and days of inventory). The study further reveals that there is no significant correlation between gross profit and days of accounts payable.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.927-938
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• 2021

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) is one of several activators that drives the economy of Indonesia because SMEs provide jobs, increase Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and assure the delivery of products and services. However, Indonesian SMEs are not very competitive in the industrial world, and one of the causes is the low quality of products that undermine customer satisfaction. There are several factors presumed as influencing customer satisfaction, which among others include product knowledge, service quality, and competitive advantage. The objective of this research is to reveal the contribution of product knowledge and service quality to customer satisfaction with competitive advantage as the mediation variable. This research used a quantitative approach. The causal relationship across variables was examined with Structural Equation Modeling-Partial Least Squares (SEM-PLS). The sample of this research involved 140 respondents. Data was collected through a questionnaire and the items in the questionnaire were processed with a software called SmartPLS version 3.3.2. Results of this research indicate (1) product knowledge and service quality can increase competitive advantage and customer satisfaction in East Java SMEs; (2) competitive advantage can act as a mediator in the effect of service quality on customer satisfaction (3) product knowledge can increase customer satisfaction but the increase is not significant statistically.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.1217-1230
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• 2021

Using a multinomial logit model with the panel-data set of Vietnam manufacturing firms, this paper investigates the impacts of foreign direct investment (FDI) - small and medium enterprises (SMEs) linkages and other factors on SMEs' participation in the global value chain (GVC). We consider GVC firms are those engaging in any of the three modes including (i) using domestic inputs to export (D2E), (ii) using imported inputs to produce for the domestic market (I2P), (iii) using imported inputs to export (I2E). We discover that FDI-SME linkages statistically encourage Vietnamese SMEs to integrate into the GVC via I2P and I2E, while no statistical association between FDI-SME linkage and D2E participation is found. GVCs participation likelihood is also positively correlated with the introduction of new product introduction. The establishment of firms' production facilities in industrial zones and foreign ownership are both reported to be significantly decisive factors to SMEs' decisions on GVC participation. Besides, there is a strong association between firms' attributes, i.e. employment, capital intensity as well as financial access, and their participation in the GVC. Local governance quality (proxied by the Provincial Competitiveness Index) and the share of skilled labor at the province-level can facilitate firms' integration into GVCs, while greater market concentration may be a hurdle to such potential.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.135-142
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• 2022

The smart factory is an important system that can reduce defects, maximize productivity, and respond to customer needs, from the labor-intensive era of traditional small and medium-sized manufacturing companies through the automation era to CPS using ICT. However, small and medium-sized manufacturers often fall short of the basic stage due to economic and environmental constraints, and there are many companies that do not even recognize the concept of a smart factory. In this situation, to expand the smart factory of small and medium-sized enterprises, the project to support the establishment of a smart factory for the win-win between large and small enterprises. The win-win smart factory construction support project provides a customized differentiation program support project according to the size and level of the company for all domestic manufacturing SMEs regardless of whether or not they are dealing with Samsung. In this study, we analyze the construction status and introduction performance of companies participating in the win-win smart factory support project to find out whether they have been helpful in management and to find efficient ways to improve support policies, and to suggest the direction of continuous support projects to improve the manufacturing competitiveness of SMEs in the future.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.77-92
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of CEO's entrepreneurial orientation on innovation performance and business performance, and the mediating effect of innovation performance on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and business performance in small and medium-sized venture-enterprises (SMEs). To test the hypothesized relationships, we have conducted a survey of Korean SMEs. After excluding unanswered and untrustful item questionnaires, the final sample size for this study is 110 SMEs. The major findings of the empirical research are as follows. First, CEO's entrepreneurial orientation had apositive influence on innovation performance of a firm. Second, CEO's entrepreneurial orientation was positively related to business performance of a firm. Third, innovation performance had the partial mediating effect on the relationship between CEO's entrepreneurial orientation and business performance of a firm. That is, this result indicates that CEO's entrepreneurial orientation indirectly effects on business performance through innovation performance. Based on these findings, implications of the research findings are discussed, and recommendation for future research are provided.