• Journal of Venture Innovation
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.49-65
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• 2018

For a long time the German economy was primarily defined by large corporations and thriving small and medium-sized enterprises. Since about 2005 a second strand has started to emerge and it is one which is becoming increasingly important and is creating jobs - start-ups in the digital sector. This start-up activity is taking an important role in Germany's economic development: Start-up companies spawn innovations and create jobs, thus promoting the concept of competition. In general "start-up" refers to digitally-driven companies that are not more than five years old. Germany's start-up policy consists of three main parts. First of all, Germany has the characteristics of technology-based start-ups. The Hartz reform since 2002 has shown its focus on technology-based start-ups. In particular, it is the most appropriate for a start-up company to take the role of a new technology company to respond to changes in the global industrial structure. Second, it is approaching from a long-term perspective. In this regard, the small business policy, including Germany's new business policy, is seen as a tradition that can be consistent and can make policy decisions based on the basics rather than following the times. Third, the government is implementing policies centered on demand. Germany's start-up policy is summarized as a technology-based policy and new job creation. The policy response is that the government seeks the best combination of policies by adapting them to the times from the broad trend of employment market policies. What is important here is that policies are made based on consumers, not suppliers, in the process of policy making and implementation. With the Digital Agenda 2020 the Federal government has likewise committed itself to preparing the digital economy for international competition and making Germany the "No. 1 digital growth country in Europe". Ever since 1998 the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) has awarded the "EXIST" start-up scholarship to students and graduates. The Ministry also invests in the High Tech start-up fund. Together with Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) and 18 other investors from the world of business the seed investor promotes young technology companies. Germany offers start-ups a good infrastructure and lots of funding opportunities. Berlin is regarded as Europe's start-up capital and also attracts lots of international young entrepreneurs.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.51-61
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• 2018

As Korean society becomes more matured, more people consider trust valuable, as a social capital. Researchers introduced trust literatures focusing on public policy, sociology than business. In this paper, it is empirically analyzed how Organizational Justice, Shared Values, Organizational Trust, 3 dimensions of social capital explained by Nahapiet & Ghoshall, together with Job Satisfaction and Innovative Behavior, as a proxy of performance at the organizational level. The results of this study are as below. Firstly Organizational Justice, consisted of 4 sub-variables of Distributional Justice, Procedural Justice, Interpersonal Justice and Informational Justice, classified by Colquitt, affects Job Satisfaction positively. Secondly Shared Values, consisted of 2 sub-variables of CEO's Core Value and Organizational Culture, availing Competing Value Model of Cameron & Quinn, affect Job Satisfaction positively. Thirdly Job Satisfaction, consisted of 2 sub-variables of economical satisfaction and self-efficacy, affects Innovative Behavior positively. Lastly Organizational Trust has mediating effect on the relationship between Job Satisfaction and Innovative Behavior. However, while the direct effect of Job Satisfaction on Innovative Behavior shows 69%, the indirect effect of Organizational Trust on Innovative Behavior shows 31%, which may not be ignorable. Furthermore in case of smaller organization with less than 30 members, the indirect effect of Organizational Trust shows 64%, comparing to 36% of direct effect of Job Satisfaction. This study was able to confirm that organizations need to maintain Organizational Trust as much as they strive to increase Job Satisfaction through securing Organizational Justice and Shared Values in order to effectively increase Innovative Behavior. For small organizations with less than 30 members, they can never achieve Innovative Behavior without Organizational Trust. Conclusively it is acknowledged that Organizational Trust is the most important prior condition for innovation and long-term survival of SME ventures.

• Archives of design research
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.425-436
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• 2004

A new design field called eDesign appears as if eBiz is an online related business in which an industrialized design creates the individual value added facing a digital revolution. The field of eDesign requires a special design process and management methodology regardless of the fact that human sensitivity will be satisfied through a dehumanized computer technique. However, it is the reality of eDesign that has been dependent upon a simple process or project management tool of general design. In this study, we develop an eDesign platform based on an eDesign process and template mainly focused on eBusiness in order to overcome the wrong situation. The template is a kind of document that has a standardization form. We aim to establish a general process through various case projects, store information using a necessary template, and use for the way of visual communication. We propose a standard of eDesign platform that can be widely applied to the field of design, medium and small enterprises focused on IT businesses or design-team through this project performed as an educational-industrial study. It makes it possible to get a detailed process methodology, which can be applied to many small design related companies that don't have their own process yet, and will be a scale for comparing their own process in which the company has a process of opened standard eDesign with it. In addition, it makes possible a systematic control of the own projects within and outside the firm, accumulating information for the firm through the database, and easy communication. Furthermore, it can be applied to check the process of the project as a checklist, and then it will reduce trial and error repeated for every project that has been done.

• Korean Security Journal
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• no.24
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• pp.147-170
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• 2010

This study is to present a improvement directions for the protection of industrial key technology. For the purpose of the study, the survey was carried out on the administrative security activity of 68 enterprises including Large companies, small-midium companies and public corporations. survey result on the 10 items of security policy, 10 items of personal management and 7 items of the assets management are as follows; First, stable foundation for the efficient implement of security policy is needed. Carrying a security policy into practice and continuous upgrade should be fulfilled with drawing-up of the policy. Also for the vitalization of security activity, arrangement of security organization and security manager are needed with mutual assistance in the company. Periodic security inspection should be practiced for the improvement of security level and security understanding. Second, the increase of investment for security job is needed for security invigoration. Securing cooperation channel with professional security facility such as National Intelligence Service, Korea internet & security agency, Information security consulting company, security research institute is needed, also security outsourcing could be considered as the method of above investment. Especially small-midium company is very vulnerable compared with Large company and public corporation in security management, so increase of government's budget for security support system is necessary. Third, human resource management is important, because the main cause of leak of confidential information is person. Regular education rate for new employee and staff members is relatively high, but the vitalization of security oath for staff members and the third party who access to key technology is necessary. Also access right to key information should be changed whenever access right changes. Reinforcement of management of resigned person such as security oath, the elimination of access right to key information and the deletion of account. is needed. Forth, the control and management of important asset including patent and design should be tightened. Classification of importance of asset and periodic inspection are necessary with the effects evaluation of leak of asset.

• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.119-134
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• 2018

Today, many firms face the environment of high uncertainty and severe competition due to the rapid technology development and the diverse needs of customers. In the business environment, one of the most important ways to gain sustainable competitive advantage and future growth engine is related to NPD (New Product Development), which is a very important issue for practice and academia. Thus, this study intends to provide new values to practitioners and researchers related to NPD by analyzing current research trends and future trends in NPD field. For this, we bibliometrically analyzed keyword networks which consist of keywords that were already published in the eminent journals from Scopus database to generate insights that have not been captured in the previous reviews on the topic. As a result, we could understand the extant research streams in NPD field, and suggest the changes of specific research topics based on the connected relationships among keywords over the time. In addition, we also foresaw the general future research trends in NPD field based on the keywords according to preferential attachment processes. Through this study, it was confirmed that NPD keyword network is a small world network that follows the distribution of power law and the growth of network is formed by link formation by keyword preferential attachment. In addition, through component analysis and centrality analysis, keywords such as Innovation, New product innovation, Risk management, Concurrent engineering, Research and development, and Product life cycle management are highly centralized in NPD keyword network. On the other hand, as a result of examining the change of preferential attachment of keywords over the time, we suggested the required new research direction including i) NPD collaboration with suppliers, ii) NPD considering market uncertainty, iii) NPD considering convergence with the other academic areas like technology management and knowledge management, iv) NPD from SME(Small and medium enterprises) perspective. The results of this study can be used to determine the research trends of NPD and the new research themes for interdisciplinary studies with other disciplines.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.636-662
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• 2018

Recently, the Moon administration established the Ministry of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and Startups, as part of its national strategy for start-up and innovation growth led by small and medium-sized venture companies. In a slowing economy, as venture companies with excellent internal competencies are seen to be favorable to growth, the government funding for technology development is becoming increasingly important. Previous studies examine the internal competence factors that can strengthen competitiveness through self-efforts and the influence structure of growth stage, which is an important factor in industrial environment, on business performance. As the government support for venture firms has been strengthened, the effect of government funding on the management performance and technological innovation performance of venture firms have been recently discussed in various ways. However, there is a lack of precedent research on the moderating effect of the utilization of government funding on the existing influence structure in which firm's internal competence and growth stages affects business performance. Therefore, this study examined whether the internal competencies of the venture firms and the stage of growth have direct effects on business performance and analyzed the moderating effect in connection with government funding utilization under these influence structures. The results of the study are as follows. First, the utilization of government funding in the venture firms whose R&D personnel ratio is relatively low, not to have own brands and showed an increase of employees has a significantly positive influence on business performance. Second, the moderating effects of the government funding utilization at the high growth stage of the venture firms are shown significantly. These results suggest that the venture policy linked to the job creation of the present government requires not only the support considering R&D personnel but also the necessity of supporting human resources policy to a greater extent and further study on the effectiveness of venture firms in the high growth stage.

• Journal of Service Research and Studies
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.25-35
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• 2022

Covid-19, of which the first patient in Korea occurred in January 2020, has affected various fields. Of these, the tourism sector might havebeen hit the hardest. In particular, since tourism-based industrial structure forms the basis of the region, Gangwon-province, and the tourism industry is the main source of income for small businesses and small enterprises, the damage is great. To check the situation and extent of such damage, targeting the Chuncheon region, where public access is the most convenient among the Gangwon regions, one-day tours are possible using public transportation from Seoul and the metropolitan area, with a general image that low expense tourism is recognized as possible, this study conducted empirical analysis through data analysis. For this, the general status of the region was checked based on the visitor data of Chuncheon city provided by the tourist information system, and to check the levels ofinterest in 2019, before Covid-19, and in 2020, after Covid-19, by comparing keywords collected from the web service sometrend of Vibe Company Inc., a company specializing in keyword collection, with SK Telecom's T-map search site data, which in parallel provides in-vehicle navigation service and communication service, this study analyzed the general regional image of Chuncheon-city. In addition, by comparing data from two years by developing a tourism popularity index applying keywords and T-map search site data, this study examined how much the Covid-19 situation affected the level of interest of visitors to the Chuncheon area leading to actual visits using a data analysis approach. According to the results of big data analysis applying the tourism popularity index after designing the data mart, this study confirmed that the effect of the Covid-19 situation on tourism popularity in Chuncheon-city, Gangwon-provincewas not significant, and confirmed the image of tourist destinations based on the regional characteristics of the region. It is hoped that the results of this research and analysis can be used as useful reference data for tourism economic policy making.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.87-100
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• 2022

Early start-up companies have an inherent limitation of lack of resources. Despite these limitations, in order to survive, the entrepreneur's personal ability to efficiently use limited resources is required. In the marketing field, various studies are needed to reduce the business failure rate through establishing growth strategies and innovation. Accordingly, it is necessary to apply the concept of entrepreneurial marketing, which has been researched and developed overseas for 30 years, to fit the domestic reality. According to the flow of this study, an empirical study should be preceded to clarify the influence relationship between entrepreneurial marketing orientation, marketing competency, and management performance, along with a theoretical theorem on entrepreneurial marketing that is suitable for early start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs) and can respond innovatively to changes. The establishment of entrepreneurial marketing orientation and the processes from which this concept leads to business performance through the organization's marketing capabilities and its effects will be empirically verified. For an empirical survey, a survey was conducted on founders of 220 companies, and path analysis using structural equations was used for hypothesis verification. The findings are as follows. First, it was found that the entrepreneurial marketing orientation had a positive effect on both the organization's marketing capabilities and management performance. Second, it was found that the organization's marketing capabilities also had a positive effect on management performance. Third, as a result of empirical analysis of the mediating effect of the organization's marketing capabilities on the relationship between entrepreneurial marketing orientation and management performance, it was found that marketing capabilities showed a greater mediating effect on non-financial performance than financial performance. On the other hand, it was confirmed that marketing performance had a stronger mediating effect on financial performance than non-financial performance. By confirming and presenting the concept and constituent factors of entrepreneurial marketing orientation of domestic start-ups, which were academic gaps for the purpose of this paper, the academic research is differentiated in that they were verified as six components of entrepreneurial marketing. The practical implications of the research results will be that the entrepreneurial marketing-oriented mindset of small and medium-sized companies will optimize market analysis capabilities, network with various stakeholders, and increase the organization's ability to demonstrate marketing capabilities.

• Journal of Venture Innovation
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.183-228
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• 2024

This study aimed to develop a competency evaluation scale tailored to the specific needs of key talent in the ICT startup sector. Existing competency assessment tools are mostly designed for environments in large corporations or traditional small and medium-sized enterprises, failing to adequately reflect the dynamic requirements of rapidly evolving startups. For startups, where a small number of individuals directly impact company success, key talent is a critical asset. Accordingly, this study sought to create a scale that measures the competencies suited to the challenges and opportunities faced by startups, helping domestic startups establish more effective talent management strategies. The research initially selected 71 items through a literature review and in-depth interviews. Based on expert feedback that emphasized the need for more precise and clear descriptions, the item descriptions were revised, and a total of 65 items were developed through four rounds of content validation. Following preliminary and main surveys, a final set of 58 items was developed. The main survey conducted further factor analysis based on the three broad competency factors?knowledge, skills, and attitude?identified in the preliminary survey. As a result, 10 latent factors emerged: 6 items for task comprehension, 6 items for practical experience (tacit knowledge), 6 items for collaboration, 9 items for management and problem-solving, 9 items for practical skills, 4 items for self-direction, 5 items for goal orientation, 5 items for adaptability, 5 items for relationship orientation, and 3 items for organizational loyalty. The developed scale comprehensively covers the multifaceted nature of competencies, allowing for a thorough evaluation of essential skills such as technical ability, teamwork, innovation, and leadership, which are critical for startups. Therefore, the scale provides a tool that helps startup managers objectively and accurately assess candidates' competencies. It also supports the growth of employees within startups, maximizing the overall organizational performance. By utilizing this tool, startups can build a strong internal talent pool and continuously enhance employees' competencies, thereby strengthening organizational competitiveness. In conclusion, the competency evaluation scale developed in this study is a customized tool that aligns with the characteristics of startups and plays a crucial role in securing sustainable competitiveness in rapidly changing market environments. Additionally, it offers practical guidance to support the successful growth of domestic startups and help them maintain their competitive edge in the market, contributing to the development of the startup ecosystem and the growth of the national economy.

• Korean small business review
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.67-93
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• 2009

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relations between financial constraints and dividend smoothing of innovative small and medium sized enterprises(SMEs) listed on Korea Securities Market and Kosdaq Market of Korea Exchange. The innovative SMEs is defined as the firms with high level of R&D intensity which is measured by (R&D investment/total sales) ratio, according to Chauvin and Hirschey (1993). The R&D investment plays an important role as the innovative driver that can increase the future growth opportunity and profitability of the firms. Therefore, the R&D investment have large, positive, and consistent influences on the market value of the firm. In this point of view, we expect that the innovative SMEs can adjust dividend payment faster than the noninnovative SMEs, on the ground of their future growth opportunity and profitability. And also, we expect that the financial unconstrained firms can adjust dividend payment faster than the financial constrained firms, on the ground of their financing ability of investment funds through the market accessibility. Aivazian et al.(2006) exert that the financial unconstrained firms with the high accessibility to capital market can adjust dividend payment faster than the financial constrained firms. We collect the sample firms among the total SMEs listed on Korea Securities Market and Kosdaq Market of Korea Exchange during the periods from January 1999 to December 2007 from the KIS Value Library database. The total number of firm-year observations of the total sample firms throughout the entire period is 5,544, the number of firm-year observations of the dividend firms is 2,919, and the number of firm-year observations of the non-dividend firms is 2,625. About 53%(or 2,919) of these total 5,544 observations involve firms that make a dividend payment. The dividend firms are divided into two groups according to the R&D intensity, such as the innovative SMEs with larger than median of R&D intensity and the noninnovative SMEs with smaller than median of R&D intensity. The number of firm-year observations of the innovative SMEs is 1,506, and the number of firm-year observations of the noninnovative SMEs is 1,413. Furthermore, the innovative SMEs are divided into two groups according to level of financial constraints, such as the financial unconstrained firms and the financial constrained firms. The number of firm-year observations of the former is 894, and the number of firm-year observations of the latter is 612. Although all available firm-year observations of the dividend firms are collected, deletions are made in the case of financial industries such as banks, securities company, insurance company, and other financial services company, because their capital structure and business style are widely different from the general manufacturing firms. The stock repurchase was involved in dividend payment because Grullon and Michaely (2002) examined the substitution hypothesis between dividends and stock repurchases. However, our data structure is an unbalanced panel data since there is no requirement that the firm-year observations data are all available for each firms during the entire periods from January 1999 to December 2007 from the KIS Value Library database. We firstly estimate the classic Lintner(1956) dividend adjustment model, where the decision to smooth dividend or to adopt a residual dividend policy depends on financial constraints measured by market accessibility. Lintner model indicates that firms maintain stable and long run target payout ratio, and that firms adjust partially the gap between current payout rato and target payout ratio each year. In the Lintner model, dependent variable is the current dividend per share(DPS_t), and independent variables are the past dividend per share(DPS_t-1) and the current earnings per share(EPS_t). We hypothesized that firms adjust partially the gap between the current dividend per share(DPS_t) and the target payout ratio(Ω) each year, when the past dividend per share(DPS_t-1) deviate from the target payout ratio(Ω). We secondly estimate the expansion model that extend the Lintner model by including the determinants suggested by the major theories of dividend, namely, residual dividend theory, dividend signaling theory, agency theory, catering theory, and transactions cost theory. In the expansion model, dependent variable is the current dividend per share(DPS_t), explanatory variables are the past dividend per share(DPS_t-1) and the current earnings per share(EPS_t), and control variables are the current capital expenditure ratio(CEA_t), the current leverage ratio(LEV_t), the current operating return on assets(ROA_t), the current business risk(RISK_t), the current trading volume turnover ratio(TURN_t), and the current dividend premium(DPREM_t). In these control variables, CEA_t, LEV_t, and ROA_t are the determinants suggested by the residual dividend theory and the agency theory, ROA_t and RISK_t are the determinants suggested by the dividend signaling theory, TURN_t is the determinant suggested by the transactions cost theory, and DPREM_t is the determinant suggested by the catering theory. Furthermore, we thirdly estimate the Lintner model and the expansion model by using the panel data of the financial unconstrained firms and the financial constrained firms, that are divided into two groups according to level of financial constraints. We expect that the financial unconstrained firms can adjust dividend payment faster than the financial constrained firms, because the former can finance more easily the investment funds through the market accessibility than the latter. We analyzed descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation, and median to delete the outliers from the panel data, conducted one way analysis of variance to check up the industry-specfic effects, and conducted difference test of firms characteristic variables between innovative SMEs and noninnovative SMEs as well as difference test of firms characteristic variables between financial unconstrained firms and financial constrained firms. We also conducted the correlation analysis and the variance inflation factors analysis to detect any multicollinearity among the independent variables. Both of the correlation coefficients and the variance inflation factors are roughly low to the extent that may be ignored the multicollinearity among the independent variables. Furthermore, we estimate both of the Lintner model and the expansion model using the panel regression analysis. We firstly test the time-specific effects and the firm-specific effects may be involved in our panel data through the Lagrange multiplier test that was proposed by Breusch and Pagan(1980), and secondly conduct Hausman test to prove that fixed effect model is fitter with our panel data than the random effect model. The main results of this study can be summarized as follows. The determinants suggested by the major theories of dividend, namely, residual dividend theory, dividend signaling theory, agency theory, catering theory, and transactions cost theory explain significantly the dividend policy of the innovative SMEs. Lintner model indicates that firms maintain stable and long run target payout ratio, and that firms adjust partially the gap between the current payout ratio and the target payout ratio each year. In the core variables of Lintner model, the past dividend per share has more effects to dividend smoothing than the current earnings per share. These results suggest that the innovative SMEs maintain stable and long run dividend policy which sustains the past dividend per share level without corporate special reasons. The main results show that dividend adjustment speed of the innovative SMEs is faster than that of the noninnovative SMEs. This means that the innovative SMEs with high level of R&D intensity can adjust dividend payment faster than the noninnovative SMEs, on the ground of their future growth opportunity and profitability. The other main results show that dividend adjustment speed of the financial unconstrained SMEs is faster than that of the financial constrained SMEs. This means that the financial unconstrained firms with high accessibility to capital market can adjust dividend payment faster than the financial constrained firms, on the ground of their financing ability of investment funds through the market accessibility. Futhermore, the other additional results show that dividend adjustment speed of the innovative SMEs classified by the Small and Medium Business Administration is faster than that of the unclassified SMEs. They are linked with various financial policies and services such as credit guaranteed service, policy fund for SMEs, venture investment fund, insurance program, and so on. In conclusion, the past dividend per share and the current earnings per share suggested by the Lintner model explain mainly dividend adjustment speed of the innovative SMEs, and also the financial constraints explain partially. Therefore, if managers can properly understand of the relations between financial constraints and dividend smoothing of innovative SMEs, they can maintain stable and long run dividend policy of the innovative SMEs through dividend smoothing. These are encouraging results for Korea government, that is, the Small and Medium Business Administration as it has implemented many policies to commit to the innovative SMEs. This paper may have a few limitations because it may be only early study about the relations between financial constraints and dividend smoothing of the innovative SMEs. Specifically, this paper may not adequately capture all of the subtle features of the innovative SMEs and the financial unconstrained SMEs. Therefore, we think that it is necessary to expand sample firms and control variables, and use more elaborate analysis methods in the future studies.