• The Journal of Small Business Innovation
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.57-74
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• 2016

This paper analyzes the role of strategic fit, cooperation, and performance in small-sized subpart suppliers' interactions with large businesses. For this purpose, this paper analyzes survey data from 90 first-tier suppliers of Samsung Electronics and evaluates how strategic fit and cooperative relationships affect their performance. Empirical analysis suggests that strategic fit positively affects small companies' business and innovation performance. This finding aligns with theories arguing for strategies that accommodate specific business environments. In addition, strategic fit is crucial for innovativeness of SMEs (Small and Medium-sized Enterprises). With regard to forming relationships with large companies, findings also show that high quality technological and personnel cooperation boosts subpart suppliers' productivity and efficiency as notably reflected in SMEs' business performance. Moreover, such cooperation between small and large companies reinforces the benefits associated with strategic fit and innovation. This means that if the business environment of small-sized subpart suppliers is uncertain, harnessing differentiated strategies and pursuing collaborations with prime companies will produce innovative outcomes (e.g., increased patent publications). On the other hand, when degree of uncertainty is small, pursuing cost leadership strategies and collaborating with prime companies in areas, such as technology and personnel, will help small-sized subpart suppliers produce innovative outcomes. Based on these findings, this paper argues that choosing the right competitive strategy for a specific business context is intrinsically tied to (1) augmenting technological and human collaborations with prime companies, (2) improving the quality of these interactions, and (3) generating competitiveness among small subpart suppliers. Both competition and cooperation are necessary for strengthening the competitiveness of small companies.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.105-118
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• 2015

Purpose - Currently, strengthening small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in terms of competitiveness is a key economic issue. However, the problem is that many SMEs lack the internal competence required to cope with a rapidly changing market structure. Such problems can act as an obstacle to economic development, yet most SMEs in Korea are dealing with this problem today. A company's source of competitive advantage is changing from quantity to quality, facility to knowledge, and hardwork to creativity. Under such circumstances, a company should place learning and sharing of knowledge and continuously creating new knowledge as its priority. This study aims to identify the effect of a chief executive officer's (CEO) compassion and forgiveness - positive factors in organizational emotion - on learning organization activities and organizational performance, through a theoretical comparison. Research design, data, and methodology - For this study, SMEs based in Daejeon and Chungcheong area were selected. To secure credibility of the data, the subjects were selected among those who have been working at the business for six months or longer. The survey was conducted for 30 days from March 5, 2015 to April 5, 2015. Both offline and online surveys were conducted. Fifty companies were chosen and 700 questionnaires were distributed, with 506 used for analysis. Fifty subject companies (25 from Daejeon, 10 from Chungnam, 10 from Chungbuk, and five from Sejong) were selected and the objective, target, and survey content were explained to a manager at each company either face-to-face or on the phone. Of the total of 700 questionnaires distributed via mail or e-mail, 78.6% or 550 copies were returned. Excluding 44 insufficient questionnaires, the remainder, 506 questionnaires, were used for analysis. Results - This study analyzed how the CEO's compassion and forgiveness affects learning organization activities and organizational performance. First, compassion of the CEO at the SMEs directly affected the learning organization activities and indirectly affected the organizational performance. Second, forgiveness of the CEO at the SMEs did not affect the learning organization activities and organizational performance directly or indirectly. Conclusions - The study conclusions are as follows. First, CEO compassionate behavior at the SMEs was a significant variable that directly and indirectly affected learning organization activities and organizational performance. Therefore, the CEO of an SME can create a positive organizational atmosphere through compassionate behaviors in the organization. Second, the forgiving behavior of the CEO did not have direct or indirect effects on learning organization activities and organizational performance. However, the reason for a CEO to continue his or her forgiving behavior is because it strengthens employee resilience, commitment, and self-efficacy to protect the organization from negative influences such as layoffs, risks, and wrongdoings. The action of forgiveness does not have direct or indirect effects. However, the CEO shall continue such behavior to strengthen members' physiological resilience, commitment, and self - effectiveness, and to protect the organization from risks including layoff and external negative factors.

• Journal of Venture Innovation
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.67-82
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• 2018

Lately, recognition of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been changing. CSR turned out to be a powerful tool which a company incorporates to improve its image. Nowadays, it is no longer an option, but a shared sense which is a source of corporate growth and competitiveness. CSR has changed with times and the economic environment, especially as the global value chain (GVC) came to be more vital, it became accepted as an effective means of growth strategy for small and medium exporters. For SMEs exporters, participating in GVC requires that they meet international standards for CSR demanded by global enterprises. Reflecting this trend, exporters should strive to achieve both goals of social responsibility fulfillment and efficient growth through CSR activities. As one of the key measures for a sustainable growth of an organization, the following are the policy implications. First, it is necessary to establish a national organization dedicated to CSR for small businesses. The central government should establish an organization which is exclusively responsible for CSR of SMEs and oversee the task of CSR of small businesses. Second, the development and verification of the CSV evaluation model should be promoted. The international trend of CSR should be promptly spread out to individual firms and supported to maximize economic effects through consultancy. Third, it should be linked to global advancement. CSR reports by small and mid-size businesses will have to be written to ensure that they have a real effect on the global value chain.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.3-30
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• 2012

In the development process, small and medium-sized enterprises in China have shown their unique features and regularities which are closely related to China's national condition and economic characteristics. But in 2008, because of the global financial crisis which started in the USA, the rate of Chinese export and the rate of economic growth has evidently slowed. Due to shortage of funds, foreign orders fell, increase the value of RMB, lack of talented factors, Chinese SMEs are facing bankruptcy. In this context, the purpose of this study is to examine the effects of domestic and international market environment, the government assistance for entering overseas market, entrepreneur characteristics, etc. on the global performance. Based on these, a research model and some hypotheses were set up and tested by the multiple regression analysis with total 317 effective survey data. The results of this paper are as follows. First, a positive effect relation on the financial performance was shown for the companies with high domestic and international market environment in the aspect of market environment. According to such analysis result, it was found that the market environment in which SMEs belong to is a very important factor. Second, in the aspect of government export assistance related to overseas, market development showed a positive effect relation on the both financial and non-financial performance. However, the direct financial assistance showed a positive effect relation only on the non-financial performance. Overall, it was found that the government assistance program on entering overseas market is having significant effects on SMEs, but direct financial assistance have not achieved the desired results. Third, the innovative-ness and progressiveness of entrepreneur showed a positive effect relation on the global market performance. However, the risk-taking of entrepreneur only showed a negative effect relation on the non-financial performance. Overall, it was found that the entrepreneurship of SMEs is an important and influential factor. This is a result implying that the propensity of taking too much risk is not desirable based on the uncertainty of the global environment market. To sum up, this study confirmed that the market environment, the government assistance and entrepreneur characteristics, which are the major prerequisites of global performance, have effects on global performance.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.204-214
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• 2017

This study aim to analyze the effect of the technology support program satisfaction on below ICT Small and Medium-sized Enterprises(below SMEs)'s technological performance. For the empirical analysis, we used the data collected from ICT SMEs technology support program conducted by ETRI - a government funded research institute. Among 153 beneficiaries, 141 companies participated in the survey and we used 102 of them for our analysis. Then, we used the mediation regression analysis. In our research model, we set the program satisfaction as a independent variable, the amount of technology support as a mediator variable and the technological performance as a dependent variable. Results show that program satisfaction has positive and significant impact on both amount of technology support and technological performance and amount of technology support has complete mediation effect on product innovation while has partial mediation effect on technological innovation. Our findings imply that more ICT SMEs technology support programs that satisfying the beneficiaries should be developed until the rest of ICT SMEs could become the hidden champions.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.26 no.7
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• pp.787-797
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• 2020

The marine officer plays a pivotal role in the shipping organization as a professional who performs a complex and diverse function. On the sea, unlike land duty, the possibility of turnover increases due to characteristics such as living in isolated spaces, continuous shift work during a set sailing period, high intensity work tension, stress, and social isolation. In this study, the impact of the organization's civic actions on the intention of turnover as a mediator of organizational immersion was divided into three groups of large companies, small and medium-sized enterprises, and public enterprises to check the differences between each category in a structural manner. Analysis showed that there were statistically significant differences between the groups in loyalty and turnover intention when the sub-factors of organizational commitment and organizational citizen behavior of the marine officer, and the size of turnover intention were included. Organization citizen behavior did not directly affect turnover intention, but when indirect effects were included, there was an effect through loyalty, and relationship-oriented organizational citizen behavior negatively affected turnover intention through loyalty. Excluding public enterprises, the non-standardization path coefficients were -0.229±0.117 and -0.319±0.068, respectively, showing a statistically significant effect in large companies and SMEs. These results indicate that in order to lower the employee turnover intention in large corporations and small and medium-sized shipping companies, it is necessary to consider not only organizational citizen behavior but also measures to increase organizational commitment.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.27-48
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• 2023

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of firm resilience, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This study aimed to investigate the concept of SME resilience, the role of entrepreneurial orientation in enhancing firm resilience, and the impact of top management networking capability on this relationship. The study defined firm resilience as consisting of adaptation capacity and recovery capacity and conducted a survey of 187 domestic SMEs for empirical verification. The findings indicate that entrepreneurial orientation is a critical factor in enhancing firm resilience. Furthermore, the networking capability of top management may also contribute to firm resilience, but it weakens the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and firm resilience as a moderating variable. In crisis situations, SMEs tend to rely more strongly on existing networks, rather than engaging in new network to acquire new resources, information, and knowledge, which can hinder their ability to adapt and recover. This study contributes to the further development and understanding of SME resilience, which is essential for enterprises to overcome crises and return to pre-shock levels.

• Korean small business review
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.151-172
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• 2019

The changes in the 4th industrial revolution era are not limited to specific sectors, but affect all sectors of industry. Thus all companies are required to respond effectively to changes. Some companies response by adopting cutting-edge ICT and some companies improve the organizational structure, or enhance the competence of individual employees. This study is based on the assumption that the responses to the change in the 4th industrial revolution era should not be uniform, and that the response strategies and priorities should vary according to the characteristics of the companies. The purpose of this study is to suggest both different response strategies and the priority of the responding factors(areas) to small and medium-sized enterprises. Data were collected through the semi-Delphi method. As a result of data analysis, the priorities of the medium-sized enterprises were as follows: introduction of IT-strengthening the competence of the individuals - establishing technology infrastructure-improving organizational structure - efficiency of work - improving organizational culture. While the priorities of the response factors(area) of the small-sized companies were as follows: strengthening the competence of the individuals - efficiency of work - introduction of IT - establishing technology infrastructure - improving organizational structure - improving organizational culture.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.81-93
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• 2018

Purpose - The purpose of this study was to propose a specific and empirical continuous transaction strategy through service quality of improvement to small and medium Korean companies whose main business is B2B distribution and sale of general-purpose SW. Research design, data, and methodology - The research procedure is largely divided into two phases. In the first phase, the service quality, the customer satisfaction, and the continuous transaction research hypothesis and the verification are carried out. Experimental data were collected from 450 companies, CEO companies of SMEs innovation institutes, and 510 companies from medium and large enterprises. From September 15 to October 5, 2015, 215 questionnaires were used. And research hypothesis and test were conducted by SPSS SW Ver. 20. Results - The results of the study confirm that service quality has a positive effect on customer satisfaction and continuous transaction: as the detailed items for improving the service quality, 'responsiveness', 'assurance' and 'empathy' have been adopted. Therefore, there are critical factors of a company's survival through continuous transaction. Conclusions - Through this study, we confirmed that the survival of small businesses require continuous improvement in service quality. Among the factors improving service quality, empathy means service satisfaction of customers; so, it is necessary to continuously improve it by evaluating customer satisfaction. Responsiveness means rapid response to customer needs and reliability; it is necessary to enhance customer responsiveness by continuous job training and service training. Finally, assurance is the same as sales product or after service. This means that it is necessary to not only issue the "supply contract," but also improve the reliability of the sales product by securing the competence of the consulting professional. However, because the service quality measurement factors selected in this study are the measurement factors that are mainly applied to large companies or those in the service industries, it is important to consider the type of sales of software distribution companies.

• Fourth Industrial Review
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2021

Purpose - This case study analyzes the internationalization strategy and innovation strategy as key factors contributing to the business success of CAP, a small and medium-sized manufacturing company in Korea producing auto parts such as wipers. This study describes the diversification strategies conducted by CAP Corporation and highlights the company's core competencies that have largely contributed to their global competitive success. Research design, data, and methodology - This paper provides in-depth case study on how CAP was able to grow into a hidden champion company, focusing on their strategies since its establishment. In particular, by analyzing the success factors centering on CAP's aggressive innovation strategy and internationalization strategy, it presents guidelines for small and medium-sized enterprises in Asian countries to become a Hidden Champion company. Result - CAP's product technology has successfully established innovative system on their product called 'vertebra spring' to distribute uniform pressure to the rubber to ensure performance as well as durability of their products. In order to continue benefiting from utilizing core competence and to continue pursuing technological advancement in the wiper industry, CAP has launched a wide range of products (flat blade, conventional blade, hybrid blade) applicable to 95% of the vehicle in the market. Conclusion - Taken together, CAP has many aspects of a hidden champion company by investing in R&D up to 8% of its annual sales to R&D investment even during the crises situation. This number is about 3.36 times higher than the average ratio of listed companies in Korea. Furthermore, the leadership of the management team as well as their vision toward the global market and strong commitment to innovation enabled CAP to become the world's fifth-largest wiper and Asia's No. 1 wiper manufacturer.