• Asian Journal of Innovation and Policy
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.383-400
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• 2023

This research focuses on examining the mobilization of Public Procurement for Innovation (PPI) in South Korea as a case study in technology innovation. By using the lens of policy mobility and qualitative research methodologies, it emphasizes the circulation of PPI is an outcome of an assemblage of multiple actors who are responsible for the introduction of PPI. The Public Procurement Service in South Korea has actively sought to understand and adopt the concept of PPI from developed countries. This initiative has been localized under the umbrella of 'innovative technology and product.' Throughout the mobilization, a cadre of technocrats, the Innovation Procurement Competence Center plays a pivotal role, and particularly encourages Small and Medium Enterprises to bolster their export capabilities, resulting in a reciprocal circulation of policies and programs from South Korea to foreign countries as well as within intra-urban area. Consequently, the above findings, revealing the nuanced evolution of policy mobility in local contexts, hold practical significance as they provide valuable insights and lessons for urban studies.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.444-467
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• 2023

Micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) have been acknowledged to play a key role in promoting innovation and economic development. In Peru, 99.5% of formal firms are MSMEs, thus promoting innovation in these firms could have a significant impact on the Peruvian economy. In spite of Innovate Peru's efforts, Peru is still one of the countries that invests the least in innovation, with MSMEs offering low value added. Innovate Peru has launched programs (technological missions) to improve MSMEs' innovation through technology-transfer-oriented subsidies, which may strengthen companies' absorptive capacity (AC) and thus their capabilities to identify and integrate internal and external knowledge. This study assesses the impact of these programs on MSMEs. Data were collected from 85 MSMEs that participated in Innovate Peru's technological missions between 2014 and 2016. Findings show that all the dimensions of AC have a positive impact on innovation; however, the impact of economic subsidy was found to be non-significant. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

• International Journal of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.274-280
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• 2024

The smart factory promotion project is a project that improves the entire management environment system, including the production process, using ICT technology. According to the 2019 Smart Factory Survey and Analysis Research Report of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, small and medium-sized enterprises that introduced smart factories reported positive effects such as increased productivity, improved quality, and reduced costs on average. On the other hand, the survey results of companies that promoted the project despite positive results showed that there was room for improvement. This study dealt with the contents of the survey conducted on companies by the smart factory promotion agency in 2020 regarding the infrastructure configuration for promoting smart factories. We examined the meaningful contents implied by the data related to the infrastructure configuration. These meaningful survey results can lead to more efficient business promotion in the future when promoting smart factory projects.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.1-23
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• 2012

The conflict between major corporations and small and medium-sized businesses is being aggravated, the trickle down effect is not working properly, and, as the controversy surrounding the effectiveness of the business limiting system continues to swirl, the plan proposed to protect the business domain of small and medium-sized businesses, resolve polarization between these businesses and large corporations, and protect small family run stores is the suitable business type designation system for small and medium-sized businesses. The current status of carrying out this system of selecting suitable business types among small and medium-sized businesses involves receiving applications for 234 items among the suitable business types and items from small and medium-sized businesses in manufacturing, and then selecting the items of the consultative group by analyzing and investigating the actual conditions. Suitable business type designation in the service industry will involve designation with priority on business types that are experiencing social conflict. Three major classifications of the service industry, related to the livelihood of small and medium-sized businesses, will be first designated, and subsequently this will be expanded sequentially. However, there is the concern that when designated as a suitable business type or item, this will hinder the growth motive for small to medium-sized businesses, and designation all cause decrease in consumer welfare. Also it is highly likely that it will operate as a prior regulation, cause side-effects by limiting competition systematically, and also be in violation against the main regulations of the FTA system. Moreover, it is pointed out that the system does not sufficiently reflect reverse discrimination factor against large corporations. Because conflict between small to medium sized businesses and large corporations results from the expansion of corporations to the service industry, which is unrelated to their key industry, it is necessary to introduce an advanced contract method like a master franchise or local franchise system and to develop local small to medium sized businesses through a franchise system to protect these businesses and dealers. However, this method may have an effect that contributes to stronger competitiveness of small to medium sized franchise businesses by advancing their competitiveness and operational methods a step further, but also has many negative aspects. First, as revealed by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, the franchise industry is contributing to the strengthening of competitiveness through the economy of scale by organizing existing individual proprietors and increasing the success rate of new businesses. It is also revealed to be a response measure by the government to stabilize the economy of ordinary people and is emphasized as a 'useful way' to revitalize the service industry and improve the competitiveness of individual proprietors, and has been involved in contributions to creating jobs and expanding the domestic market by providing various services to consumers. From this viewpoint, franchises fit the purpose of the suitable business type system and is not something that is against it. Second, designation as a suitable business type may decrease investment for overseas expansion, R&D, and food safety, as well negatively affect the expansion of overseas corporations that have entered the domestic market, due to the contraction and low morale of large domestic franchise corporations that have competitiveness internationally. Also because domestic franchise businesses are hard pressed to secure competitiveness with multinational overseas franchise corporations that are operating in Korea, the system may cause difficulty for domestic franchise businesses in securing international competitiveness and also may result in reverse discrimination against these overseas franchise corporations. Third, the designation of suitable business type and item can limit the opportunity of selection for consumers who have up to now used those products and can cause a negative effect that reduces consumer welfare. Also, because there is the possibility that the range of consumer selection may be reduced when a few small to medium size businesses monopolize the market, by causing reverse discrimination between these businesses, the role of determining the utility of products must be left ot the consumer not the government. Lastly, it is desirable that this is carried out with the supplementation of deficient parts in the future, because fair trade is already secured with the enforcement of the franchise trade law and the best trade standard of the Fair Trade Commission. Overlapping regulations by the suitable business type designation is an excessive restriction in the franchise industry. Now, it is necessary to establish in the domestic franchise industry an environment where a global franchise corporation, which spreads Korean culture around the world, is capable of growing, and the active support by the government is needed. Therefore, systems that do not consider the process or background of the growth of franchise businesses and harm these businesses for the sole reason of them being large corporations must be removed. The inhibition of growth to franchise enterprises may decrease the sales of franchise stores, in some cases even bankrupt them, as well as cause other problems. Therefore the suitable business type system should not hinder large corporations, and as both small dealers and small to medium size businesses both aim at improving competitiveness and combined growth, large corporations, small dealers and small to medium sized businesses, based on their mutual cooperation, should not include franchise corporations that continue business relations with them in this system.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.103-117
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• 2019

Under the uncertainties and the consequent turmoils of the IMF financial crisis in Korea, Hyunsung Techno was founded in 1997 on the basis of automobile press molding which is critical for the quality of automobile. Ever since, Hyunsung Techno has grown rapidly based on the domestic market; however, gradually, it had faced a stalemate in terms of the saturation, on the supply side and the growth limit, on the demand side, of the domestic molding market. Accordingly, Hyunsung pushed for a strategy to localize overseas markets and a new acquisition strategy instead of resting on the domestic mold industry's growth, and the success of these strategies enabled it to leap forward into a global company with five companies including affiliates and 70 billion won in sales. The main reason why Hyunsung Techno evolved from a small and medium-sized manufacturing company into a global businesses is due to the success of Boa Constrictor M&A strategy. Its acquisition strategy is not just a successful case of any acquisition, but a rare, maybe the first domestic case of a successful acquisition of a primary supplier by a secondary supplier. Through the success of this strategy, Hyunsung Techno has achieved a continuous growth of businesses, an increase in sales volume, and expansion into new businesses. And on top of that, this achievements is leading it to be a global conglomerate In this study, Hyunsung Techno's success strategy, which is transformed from a small domestic manufacturing company into a global enterprise, was analyzed in detail with its development stages divided into start-up, overseas expansion, acquisitions, and business diversification. Eventually, this case study is meant to offer strategic implications for other small and medium-sized businesses under the current, gloomy economy of low or zero growth of today.

• Korean Management Science Review
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.1-16
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• 2006

With the diffusion of the Internet, firms try to electronically collaborate with their partners in order to cut costs and gain profits. This, electronic Partnership, called 'Collaborative IT' is quite popular between large purchase enterprises and small-to-medium sized sub-contractors. This study investigates such relations. This study proposes three groups of research variables-interorganizational relationship, collaborative IT activity, and firm performance. the interorganizational relationship consists of trust, commitment, and asymmetry of commitment. Collaborative IT activity is composed of information sharing and workflow integration. The ultimate dependent variable is firm performance. It is hypothesized that the relationship factors influence the level of collaborative IT activity, while the latter in turn affects the firm performance. The relationship factors nay also directly affect the dependent variable. In addition, collaborative IT motive, as a moderating variable, may influence the causal relationship. By means of survey, ore hundred and eighty-two responses were obtained. Most sample companies are small-sized, in the manufacturing sector. The analysis of data reveals that both trust and commitment positively affects the level of collaborative IT activity, while asymmetry of commitment has negative effects. The workflow integration is significantly related with firm performance. Information sharing, however, has no signific3nt effects. Furthermore, asymmetry of commitment shows reverse relationship with firm performance. Collaborative IT motive works as a moderating variable between information sharing and firm performance. Finally, workflow integration is believed to mediate between relationship factors and firm performance.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.9
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• pp.747-753
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• 2020

This study aims to interpret the meaning of a successful entrepreneur from the perspective of women entrepreneurs in Malang, Indonesia. This research offers a phenomenological approach using purposive sampling. Data was collected by in-depth interviews using structured questionnaire with registered women entrepreneurs in Malang obtained from MSMEs (micro small and medium-sized enterprises) entrepreneurs. The 'continually developing' is one of the meanings of a successful entrepreneur. This study also found that success is when what women do can be useful to others. Besides, the meaning of success has two criteria, i.e., when they can meet their needs (individual satisfaction) and social performance as a goal to be achieved by entrepreneurs. The motivation of women entrepreneurs to establish their venture was not only financial returns, but also personal satisfaction, which was also the indicator of entrepreneurial success for women. This study has several limitations. First, our sample size is too small and consists of entrepreneurs that have an average age above 40 years. Hopefully, further research will be able to generalize our findings to a broader sample in various industries outside the city of Malang. As our research shows, the criteria and meaning of success may be different for a larger sample of entrepreneurs.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.96-104
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• 2013

Study of human-robot Interaction gets more and more attention to expand the robot application for tasks difficult by robot alone. Developed countries are preparing for a new market by introducing the concept of 'Co-Robot' model of human-robot Interaction. Our research of direct teaching is a way to instruct robot's trajectory by human's handling of its end device. This method is more intuitive than other existing methods. The benefit of this approach includes easy and fast teaching even by non-professional workers. And it can enhance utilization of robots in small and medium-sized enterprises for small quantity batch production. In this study, we developed the algorithms for creating accurate trajectory from repeated inaccurate direct teaching and GUI for the direct teaching. We also propose the basic framework for direct teaching.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.252-261
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• 2019

In this study, we analyzed the factors affecting the introduction of Smart Factory by domestic SMEs through AHP analysis and tried to provide implications for the introduction of Smart Factory. It was confirmed that the manufacturing and introduction group, the non-manufacturing introduction group, and the already introduced group had the highest weight in the cost reduction in the first hierarchy standard. At this time, it can be seen that the weight for cost reduction is relatively high in the manufacturing introduction group and the introduction group, and the weight for the productivity improvement is relatively high in the non-manufacturing introduction group. It can also be seen that the portion of marketing enhancement does not have a significant impact on smart factory choices. It was confirmed that image enhancement is the highest in the manufacturing introduction group and the non-manufacturing introduction group in the first hierarchy standard, and the marketing has the highest weight in the introduction group. In the two - tiered standard, customer - friendly and proper inventory maintenance weights were relatively high in all the introduced groups, except for the high rankings.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.9 no.10
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• pp.129-135
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• 2022

This study aims to identify the factors supporting and inhibiting the digitalization of blue economy MSMEs in Bitung, Indonesia. The literature shows little research on digitalization related to the blue economy in Southeast Asia, especially in Indonesia. This indicates that there is a large research gap related to digitalization and the blue economy in the Indonesian context. Data was collected through the distribution of questionnaires with open-ended questions to blue economy MSMEs. Data was also obtained from in-depth interviews with representatives of Aruna, an Indonesian company that focuses on simplifying the supply chain of fishery products by connecting small-scale fishers to the global market through technology. According to the study's findings, two primary factors-motivation to develop their business and efforts to maintain seller-buyer interaction-support SMEs' use of technology in the blue economy. However, digital literacy and technological infrastructure, such as the internet network, are the two main factors that become obstacles in the effort to digitize MSMEs in the blue economy. The role of the government is also a contingent factor that can strengthen the relationship between factors that support digitization and weaken the relationship between factors that hinder digitalization.