• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.18 no.12
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• pp.15-29
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• 2020

Purpose: Due to an ever more interconnected global commercial environment, the role of SMEs from emerging markets has attracted considerable attention in business literature of late. Reinforced by strategic management theory, this study builds on aspects such as entrepreneurial orientation and dynamic capabilities to construct and test a framework that focuses on exploring their associations with export performance. Research design, data and methodology: To contribute further towards a deeper understanding of these markets, the current study empirically tests a model using data collected from 225 exporting firms located throughout South Africa. Results: The results from the data analysis show that entrepreneurial orientation contributes significantly towards improving the performance of South African SMEs. Additionally, this study integrates three dynamic capabilities in the strategy-performance relationship to test their interacting effects on the correlation between entrepreneurial orientation and export performance. Further findings advocate support for relationship-based capabilities playing a moderating role between entrepreneurial orientation and the exporting performance of small and medium firms emanating from emerging markets. Conclusions: Findings provide substance to the argument that entrepreneurship, as a strategy-making process, leads to export performance in emerging nations. Especially, this study provides several suggestions as to how small and medium-sized organizations can develop their exporting performance based on the research findings.

• The Journal of Economics, Marketing and Management
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.36-49
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• 2020

Purpose - This study investigates factors that affected the utilization of trade support policies and further analyzed how the utilization of trade support policies affected export performance. Research design, data, and methodology - With a sample of 223 small and medium-sized export firms from South Korea, this study examines the determinants of the utilization level of trade support system such as export market orientation, learning orientation, network capability and environmental uncertainty by regression analysis. Results - Export market orientation have a positive effect on the utilization of the trade support system and there is positive relationship between learning orientation and the utilization of trade support system. And network capabilities have had a positive impact on the utilization of the trade support system but there is no relationship between environmental uncertainty and the utilization of trade support system. The utilization of the trade support system had a positive effect on export performance. Conclusions - The internal and external factors of the organization have affected small and medium-sized export firms use of trade support systems. The utilization of trade support system can enhance positive export performance by providing valuable information and resource to external knowledge and also to complementary resources from the external partners.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.207-233
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• 2020

Purpose - The purpose of this paper analyzes the relationship between the Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR) and Corporate Value to estimate whether the characteristics of Firm can change this relationship. Design/methodology/approach - This paper utilizes the total 776 firms' data over the period 2014-2018, and develops a new ESG index which was estimated by PCA. Findings - First, the estimated ESG index implies that Large company has the highest value of CSR, while Medium sized and Small company have the relatively low one. And comparing to the case of 2014, the trend of ESG index in Large company does not decrease in 2018. Second, there is a clear and significant non linear relationship between CSR and corporate value, it implies that the U-shaped exists in the Korean Firms. Such a tendency is mush stronger in the Large company. Third, the new ESG index indicates that it takes more time to increase Firm value in the Medium sized and Small company while there is a high possibility of increasing value in Large company from the little gab between the threshold points and mean value of ESG. Research implications or Originality - The non linear tendency between the Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Value is strongly affected by Firm size and the relative high quintile of ESG, but it is less affected by Firm history.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.227-253
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• 2022

Despite the proliferation of free trade agreements (FTAs), many exporting firms are still confronted with several challenges in utilizing the FTA preferential tariffs. Based on the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework, this study empirically examines the factors affecting the utilization of FTA schemes by exporting firms. To clarify the key factors influencing FTA utilization, this study develops a conceptual model from the perspective of the adoption of information technology innovations. Eight factors derived from the TOE framework are proposed to explore the determinants of FTA utilization in export. Partial least squares structural equation modeling is employed to analyze the data collected from 162 exporting small- and medium-sized enterprises in the South Korean textile industry. The findings reveal that compatibility and trading partner influence are positively associated with FTA utilization, while complexity is negatively related. Factors of organizational context do not show any relationship with FTA utilization. This study is the first to theoretically analyze and empirically test the determinants of FTA utilization from the perspective of technological innovation adoptions. By examining the relative importance of TOE factors in the utilization of FTA schemes, this study expects to advance a holistic understanding on the perceived factors that could potentially affect the utilization of FTA schemes.

• Korean small business review
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.67-83
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• 2018

This study investigates the effects of the dynamics of the firm's reputation on performance. Particularly, we argued that not only the level of reputation but also the trend and volatility of reputation plays an important role in formulating the stakeholders' perception about the firm. From our empirical analysis of the U.S. venture capital firms between 1990 and 2010, we found that the level and trend of reputation are positively related to performance and that these relationships are weakened when the volatility of reputation increases. This paper discusses the theoretical contributions and practical implications of these findings.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.231-240
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• 2023

This empirical analysis investigates the impact of consultant competency and project manager (PM) competency on business performance. Two hundred and twenty four chief executive officers and executive members at small and medium sized firms in the manufacturing sector were surveyed, yielding several outcomes. First, consultant competency positively affects consulting performance. Second, consultant competency positively affects business performance. Third, PM competency does not have a significant influence on consulting performance. Fourth, PM competency does not have a significant impact on business performance. Fifth, consulting performance does not have a significant effect on business performance. Finally, regarding the mediation effect of consulting performance on the influence of consultant competency and PM competency on business performance, consulting performance had no significant impact. Thus, expertise and insight are crucial for a consulting business to enable the growth of professional consultants. Furthermore, this study is expected to enhance the consulting performance of small and medium sized manufacturing firms by providing useful data to consultants and project managers when carrying out consulting projects.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.103-124
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• 2022

For venturing into international markets, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have not only emphasized internal resources but entrepreneurial orientation has also become the need of the day due to its significant role in increasing firm's competitive capabilities. Although research indicates that the competitive strategies can significantly impact export performance, minor attention is given to the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation, business competitive strategy and export performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This study scrutinizes the effect of each dimension of entrepreneurial orientation (i.e., innovativeness, risk-taking, and proactiveness) and each of generic competitive strategies (i.e., cost leadership and differentiation) on the export performance of Chinese SMEs. And we investigated the moderating effect of entrepreneurial orientation on the relationship between the competitive strategies and export performance. We surveyed 217 Chinese SMEs through a structured questionnaire. For the data analysis and hypotheses testing, we used AMOS. 27. The findings display that differentiation and cost leadership strategies significantly improve export performance. The innovativeness, risk-taking and proactiveness also spur Chinese SME's export performance. Further we find that adding entrepreneurial orientation significantly improves our model of the relationship between the competitive strategies and export performance. Thus, our study extends the entrepreneurial orientation literature and provides interesting new insights into how entrepreneurial orientation helps firms create more successful export operations.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.25-34
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• 2012

It is expected reasonably that firms are likely to be motivated to engage in cooperate social responsibility(CSR) more effectively and efficiently in order for sustainable growth when partnerships on supply chain are willing to embrace the initiative for CSR actively rather than a firm's effort. Given that this is a SCM(Supply Chain Management) approach to CSR, the SC-CSR(Cooperate Social Responsibility in Supply Chain), which encourage all partners on supply chain to apply it, can provide larger social impact. This study is to verify the effect of SC-SCR on the willingness to initiate CSR in small and medium-sized enterprises. As a result of empirical analysis, the application of SC-SCR has positive effect on the willingness of small and medium-sized enterprises to initiate social responsibility by promoting the situational needs. This results indicates that helping firms observe ISO 26000, the recognized international standard for CSR, the motivation for SCR can be reinforced by making partners on supply chain respect CSR.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.102-112
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• 2001

The purpose of this study is to suggest a direction of a investment policy to increase a competitive power for small firms. For this purpose, several hypothesis are established and tested (1) Whether the small firm's management resources and performance are different among industries\ulcorner (2) What resurces affect on the business performance\ulcorner (3) Whether the firm's management resources which affect the performance are different among industries\ulcorner (4) Whether the firm's resources level are different between high performance group and low performance group in same industry\ulcorner For the empirical study, the data is obtained from 1,338 small firms in Korea manufacturing industries. The results of this study are (1) the level of firm's management resources and performance are different among industries and (2) the management resources which affect the performance are different according the industry. And (3) the management resources level are different according to the firm's performance level in some industry.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.23-58
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• 2014

This study investigates the effects of product strategies and CEO characteristics on the growth of venture firms. These factors are related with strategic behaviors and managerial capabilities of small and dynamic firms. According to empirical results of FGLS regression with the data of the Korean venture firms, both product strategies and CEO characteristics have significant effects on firm growth and additionally explanatory powers. In general, the growth rates of venture firms tend to increase with the level of product's diversity and marketing-enhancing strategy, but decrease with the degree of product's innovation-enhancing strategy. The growth rates are higher when CEO is non-founder and has sufficient experience related to current business, and CEO's career development is focused on general management area. The effects of product strategies and CEO characteristics are moderated by the firm-internal factor such as organizational growth stage. The positive effects of some product strategies (e.g. marketing-enhancing strategy) and CEO characteristics(e.g. career focused on general management) become stronger for firms operating in the stage of start-up or initial growth, while their effects become negative or insignificant for firms operating in the mature or declining stage in which the negative effect of innovation-enhancing strategy does not exist.