• The International Journal of Costume Culture
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.28-39
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• 2004

The Korean textile industry the driving force of Korea's economic development, is faced with difficulties due to domestic and foreign influences. The purpose of this paper is to examine what measures are necessary for overcoming such difficulties. As the first step, We conducted a month-long survey, in August 2003, of 157 small-medium firms operating in the Korean textile industry to collect information about difficulties that they face in carrying out their business. According to the result, small firms performed badly in sales and facility investment efforts for 2003 due to worldwide economic depression. They, however, actively pursued new technology development in order to improve their competitiveness. Profits and productivity decreased with reduced sales, and their view on the next year’s perspective is also very unfavorable. Especially many firms intend to maintain or even lower the level of sales goal for 2004, reflecting the sluggish market environment. According to the survey, under such circumstances, as many as 74% of firms wanted to turn the tables through the development of highly sensuous material and improved marketing efforts. One of potential answers to this problem, which is suggested by the survey, is to establish a consulting service institution to provide promptly marketing data and information on textile and fashion market and trend in Italy. Especially, firms surveyed have shown a great deal of interest in Italian consulting service for new textile material developments. While they want the service for high value-added product development, they are reluctant to do so because of the uncertainty of its future effects and high consulting fees.

• World Technopolis Review
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.21-42
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• 2019

The purpose of this research was to investigate the factors influencing global expansion/scalability of Kenyan Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Factor analysis and multiple/multivariate regression analysis to determine the functional relationship between independent variables (factors) and the dependent variable was used. The independent variables were: innovation & technology, fitness/appropriateness of management, global marketing strategy; and support environment and the dependent variable, global expansion/scalability. Data was collected from a survey of randomly selected firms of 205, drawn from a population of 440 firms from Kenya Manufacturers Directory, with 175 firms responding. The key findings from the research in relation to Kenyan SMEs were that: there is a functional relationship between global market strategy and global expansion; there is a functional relationship between innovation and technology orientation and global expansion, there is no significant functional relationship between supportive environment of firms and their global expansion; and there is no significant functional relationship between fitness/appropriateness of management and global expansion/scalability. The implications for practice is that the ranking of the factors in order of priority supports focusing concern on the orientation of business strategy toward global market strategy, market research geared at obtaining foreign market intelligence, innovation and technology, product adaptation, service orientation, collaborative ventures, and long-range vision as key factors in making Kenyan firms successful in the international market. The implication for policy and practice is that there is need for collaboration between industry and government in pursuing policies for global expansion/scalability and among SMEs and large enterprises particularly in areas of rapid technological change.

• 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.

• Korean small business review
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.19-35
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• 2017

It is very important for entrepreneurial firms to acquire and exploit the resources necessary for growth. This study examines how venture capital financing affect these entrepreneurial firms' ability to acquire and exploit the resources. Particularly, based on the resource based view, the authors explain the relationship between venture capital financing and entrepreneurial firm's market performance. Empirical results illustrate that venture capital financing positively and significantly affects the market performance of entrepreneurial firms. It is concluded that entrepreneurial firms need to increase the number of alliances with venture capital, which supports various activities after the investment to achieve growth with resource limitation.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.47-55
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• 2020

Purpose: The issue of access to credit for private enterprises has been given an increased amount of attention given their crucial role in fueling economic growth. Vietnamese small and medium-sized businesses, however, face many obstacles in accessing financing for profitable investment opportunities, with up to 70% unable to access or obtain bank loans. This paper aims to address the factors affecting the credit accessibility of Vietnamese enterprises, and provide further insights of this issue under the new context of Basel II. Research design, data and methodology: We adopt a pooled sections approach to construct a sample of 155 firm observations before and after the implementation of Basel II accord in Vietnam and employing binary logistic regression and interaction terms for data analysis. Results: We find that firm characteristics (export participation, female ownership) and proxies for bank-borrower relationship (deposit, overdraft facility) have significant and positive effects on firm's access to credit. Notably, the sign of interaction coefficient shows that the implementation of Basel II tends to benefit small-sized firms in terms of credit accessibility. Conclusions: The finding further emphasizes the important role of relationship lending in Vietnam's credit market, which is even more critical for small firms when Basel II is universally applied as the new banking standards in the coming years.

• Korean Management Science Review
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.169-183
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• 1994

Government provides for special considerations to technology transfer and cooperative R&D between Government-Supported Research Institutes(GSRI) and Private sector. Nevertheless, the results of many cooperative R&D stagnates in the innovation. This paper examines the reasons for the current low level of the effectiveness of cooperative R&D between GSRIs and small & medium firms. Recommendation are made to enhance the effectiveness of cooperative R & D.

• Proceedings of the Korean Operations and Management Science Society Conference
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.251-254
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• 2000

In the knowledge-based economy, technological capability is critical for the survival and growth of firms. Technological capability differs across firms depending on the structural and environmental conditions. In nature, the evaluation of technological capability is an intractable task and thus previous studies often employ such proxy measures as patent, productivity, or profitability. In this research, we define technological capability as a combination of the above three measures and investigate, by using the multi-variate statistical analysis, the characteristics of technological capability of electronics/IT firms of Korea. We first propose a taxonomy in which firms are classified into four clusters based on the differences in the nature of technological capability. Then, across clusters, we comparatively analyze the relationship between technological capability and structural/environmental factors of firms. Finally, the implications of empirical findings will be discussed. This study is a small-scale, descriptive one but will be extended and elaborated by augmenting the database and/or incorporating more variables.

• Proceedings of the Korean Operations and Management Science Society Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.173-176
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• 2004

Understanding the fact that more spending for R&D is merely a necessity, not a factor of success, managing technological development efforts effectively and efficiently for higher R&D productivity and sustainable growth has become an important issue for contemporary firms. Based on a survey on small- and medium-sized manufacturing firms, this paper explores the relationships of leadership positions, technological contents and acquisition methods of korean firms. This paper has identified several findings from Korean manufacturing firms: (1) five different patterns are identified in the technology strategy of medium-sized companies; (2) a significantly positive relationship exists between a firm's leadership position and the aggressiveness in technological contents of their acquisition methods; (3) a significantly positive relationship of some technology acquisition methods to the firms' leadership position exists,

• International Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2009

The effect of learning orientation on company innovation and innovation capability are explored based on survey data collected from 154 small and medium-sized manufacturing firms. The theoretical links between learning orientation and company innovation as well as innovation capability are investigated in four research models that compare textile and non-textile manufacturing firms. Learning orientation has a significant effect on company innovation and innovation capability in the model test. However, some of the three segmented factors (commitment to learning, shared vision, and open-mindedness) of learning orientation had no significant effect on company innovation and innovation capability. Company innovation and innovation capability of textile manufacturing firms are predicted by the commitment to learning and shared vision, whereas those of non-textile firms were determined by shared vision and open-mindedness. Differences show that firms may need to put weight on some distinctive aspects of learning orientation according to the business categories in order to enhance company innovation.

• Asian Journal of Innovation and Policy
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.257-280
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• 2020

The study analyzed the effectiveness of a technology transfer and commercialization support program to Korean technology transfer offices and firms. The study created a logic model to design a questionnaire to analyze how the support program, directly and indirectly, affected the technology transfer offices and the firms' performances. The study found that technology transfer offices are focused not only on potential firms' excavation activity to process the technology transfer but also on providing strategic support to provide practical assistance to the firms' needs. Not only has the number of technology transfer cases increased during the two-year program duration, but other activities, such as technical guidance and various strategic consulting for commercialization of the transferred technology, have also appeared to have increased considerably. Support program has helped strengthen the firms' internal capabilities, expand new market capabilities, and increase the firms' indirect performances.