• Korea Trade Review
• /
• v.41 no.1
• /
• pp.67-90
• /
• 2016

This study examines whether there is any significant relation between executive compensation and future firm performance for the Korean export manufacturing small and medium-sized firms. We sorted the whole sample firms into the sub-groups of 10 deciles by firm size and the KSIC standard. We found the following empirical results. First, Korean export manufacturing small and medium-sized firms typically showed lower or even negative profitability in terms of return on equity and operating profit ratio to sales. Foreign equity ownership is very low with an average of 3.77%. Second, for the firms with higher ratio of excess executive compensation to asset had lower future firm performance. It implies that the typical owner-manager in Korean export manufacturing SMEs earns excess pay, but do not contribute much to firm performance. Third, as for future cumulative abnormal returns for future one- and three-year periods, firms with higher owner-executive pay had lower returns compared with firms with lower pay. So the stock market investors set a lower value on them. Fourth, there is a positive relation between excess executive pay and executive overconfidence, and it implies that owner-CEOs with higher pay may become overconfident, thereby lowering future firm performance somehow.

• Journal of Korea Trade
• /
• v.25 no.7
• /
• pp.1-18
• /
• 2021

Purpose - In this study, we explore the relationship between the degree of internationalization (DOI) and firm performance (DOI-P) of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing sector. Specifically, we investigate whether the costs and benefits dynamics concerning the internationalization of SMEs differ between high-tech and non-high-tech industries. Design/methodology - We extend the prior literature on this relationship by employing 5-year data on 589 Korean SMEs in the manufacturing sector and examining the moderating impact of the industry characteristics. Our findings reveal a U-shaped relationship between the DOI and SME performance. High-tech SMEs demonstrate an inverted U-shaped relationship, whereas non-hightech SMEs exhibit a U-shaped relationship. Findings - Our findings illustrate the importance of the industry factor in testing the performance impact of the internationalization of Korean SMEs. By incorporating industry dynamics, our results indicate that the DOI-P relationship depends on the context of the industry in which an SME operates. High-tech SMEs also display a higher DOI but are outperformed by non-high-tech SMEs for the entire internationalization path, which implies that high-tech SMEs face more challenges than non-high-tech SMEs while seeking internationalization. Originality/value - The findings strongly validate that significant benefits exist for SMEs undertaking internationalization. We also employ the contextual framework contributing to increasing the understanding of the intrinsic value of internationalization and resolving the mixed results issue on the DOI-P relationship, by illustrating that the industry factor leads to different dynamics of costs and benefits of SME internationalization; it also determines the shape and direction of the relationship.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
• /
• v.7 no.2
• /
• pp.101-118
• /
• 1999

Factory automation(FA) is a part of technological innovation to make production process more efficient and it also facilitates technological innovation by accumulating the internalization ability of newly imported technology Introduction of FA, however, does not guarantee the increase of production efficiency and high product quality, moreover, the competitiveness of firm. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between firm's behavioral characteristics during implementation process of FA and organizational performance, and to find out success factors of FA. Results of the case studies for 4 SME's show that financial stability and the fitness between corporate strategy and the purpose of FA are the necessary conditions for successful implementation of FA. But the organizational restructuring for new manufacturing system, openness of all communication channels, and common mind of employees are also needed to achieve the high degree of performance from FA, especially the benefits of qualitative or organizational level.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.509-523
• /
• 2024

Purpose - The purpose of this study was to analyze the impact of the National Space Policy on Korean space-related companies. Design/methodology/approach - This study utilized space sector firm-level data based on the list of the Space Industry Survey (MSIT, 2023). The multiple regression analysis was used to estimate the model. Findings - First, the lagged policy variable of the Master Plan for Promotion of Space Development positively influences the company's sales. However, the establishment of an Action Plan for Utilization of Satellite Information had no significant result. Second, small-sized enterprises were more sensitive to government policy than medium- and large-sized enterprises. Third, lagged policy variables positively impact firms' sales revenue, especially in the satellite manufacturing and the satellite utilization services and equipment sector. Research implications or Originality - First, support for companies with policy effects should be further expanded. Second, a long-term and stable budget procurement plan should be established to secure a firm's sustainable competitiveness. Lastly, given the characteristics of the space industry, which involves long-term development periods and large investments, government investment should continue. Simultaneously, institutional improvement needs to emerge new services in the space sector.

• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
• /
• v.24 no.5
• /
• pp.41-52
• /
• 2019

The rapidly changing business environment requires small and medium-sized suppliers to develop creative new products. Therefore, many previous studies have attempted to identify important factors for successful new product development. However, despite the importance of firm learning has generated considerable interest in new product development, the central issue of firm learning remains unanswered. Therefore, this study investigated the effect of adaptive learning of small and medium suppliers on creativity and new product performance in new product development. As a result, it was confirmed that adaptive learning positively affects both novelty creativity and meaningfulness creativity. On the other hand, meaningfulness creativity has a positive effect on new product performance, but novelty creativity has no effect on new product performance.

• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.127-152
• /
• 2008

This study sought to explore how SMEs are utilizing EC. Drawing on existing research on IT and EC related field, this study presented the framework of EC utilization level and analyzed its affecting factors in the point of organizational perspectives; strategy and competency. The impact of EC utilization on firm performance was also examined by employing BSC. Structural equation model was applied to test the relationships among the theoretical constructs with data from 171 SMEs. The results showed that the rate of EC utilization in SMEs is growing quite rapidly. However, manufacturing related firms still remain at a lower level compared to service related firms. As for the two affecting factors of EC utilization level, it was found that the level of EC utilization appeared to be driven not by strategy but by competency. This result implicates that EC utilization in SMEs doesn't reach to strategic purpose yet, while it is dependent on firm's competency. As far as the impact of EC utilization on firm performance, the study showed that the level of EC utilization has significant relationship with all perspectives performance indicators of BSC. This study can provide the managers with current EC utilization pattern and the guidelines as to where to put the efforts in the EC utilization and how to get an effective EC utilization strategy in the future.

• Management & Information Systems Review
• /
• v.28 no.4
• /
• pp.109-129
• /
• 2009

This study aims at investigating the effectiveness of SME's R&D system empirically. Specifically, this study analyze the relationships among R&D inputs(R&D investment, R&D human resource management), process(R&D planning, external network, internal cooperation), and output(technological innovation). A questionnaire was developed to measure the above variables. To test these relations, data were collected from the small and medium-sized IT firms located in Daegu-Kyungbuk region. The survey data of 154 firms were integrated as the empirical base for testing the relations. Most respondents were from the managers. Structural equation modeling analyses were used to examine the relations. Major results are as follows: Firstly, R&D HRM was positively and significantly influenced on the R&D planning. Secondly, R&D planning was positively and significantly affected on the external network, internal cooperation, and technological innovation. Thirdly, the both relations between R&D investment and R&D planning, and external network and technological innovation were not significant statistically. These results suggest the following implications. First, R&D human resource management is very important for IT SMEs. Secondly, internal cooperation mediates R&D inputs and technological innovation by approaching the other department's unique resources and by sharing the cost of new resource development. Several future researches need to overcome the limitations of this research. First, this study's sample was based on the small and medium-sized IT firms just located in Daegu-Kyungbuk region. This limitation may imply that empirical results can not represent overall small and medium-sized firm's situations. Therefore, future research needs to include different samples. Secondly, this study depends on the latitudinal study.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
• /
• v.46 no.4
• /
• pp.1-14
• /
• 2023

As markets and industries continue to evolve rapidly, technology opportunity discovery (TOD) has become critical to a firm's survival. From a common consensus that TOD based on a firm's capabilities is a valuable method for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and reduces the risk of failure in technology development, studies for TOD based on a firm's capabilities have been actively conducted. However, previous studies mainly focused on a firm's technological capabilities and rarely on business capabilities. Since discovered technologies can create market value when utilized in a firm's business, a firm's current business capabilities should be considered in discovering technology opportunities. In this context, this study proposes a TOD method that considers both a firm's business and technological capabilities. To this end, this study uses patent data, which represents the firm's technological capabilities, and trademark data, which represents the firm's business capabilities. The proposed method comprises four steps: 1) Constructing firm technology and business capability matrices using patent classification codes and trademark similarity group codes; 2) Transforming the capability matrices to preference matrices using the fuzzy function; 3) Identifying a target firm's candidate technology opportunities using the collaborative filtering algorithm; 4) Recommending technology opportunities using a portfolio map constructed based on technology similarity and applicability indices. A case study is conducted on a security firm to determine the validity of the proposed method. The proposed method can assist SMEs that face resource constraints in identifying technology opportunities. Further, it can be used by firms that do not possess patents since the proposed method uncovers technology opportunities based on business capabilities.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
• /
• v.17 no.3
• /
• pp.90-97
• /
• 2016

Since Korean construction firms have steadily advanced into the international market, small and medium construction companies (SMCCs) have also advanced in such market. SMCCs's recent trend have clearly shown the changes of contract types from single subcontractor projects to multiple general contracting projects. However, among those multiple projects performed by SMCCs, 1 out of 3 projects were deficit projects that impact the overall pe rformance of the firm. To increase such performance, risk management for in international construction must be managed at the enterprise level for SMCCs. This research aims to create a multiple project management model for SMCCS that employs the concept of acceptable risk to assess the limit risk level for corporation to acceptable. Using the accumulated data from previous survey and International Construction Association of Korea (ICAK), integrated risk of each firm and their profitability of each project are analyzed. Through the analysis, each firm's acceptable risk level is derived. Through the two research steps, acceptable risk algorithm was developed based on corporate integrated risk and profit correlation. To prove the acceptable algorithm relevance, financial statement analysis of 3 corporation was derived that level of acceptable risk and financial statement were available. Through the approach, this research allows the firms to analyze the firm's capability and find projects that suits the firm's situation and capability.

• International Commerce and Information Review
• /
• v.14 no.3
• /
• pp.113-138
• /
• 2012

This study examined the determinants of export performance of small and medium sized manufacturing companies in Korea. Depending on the existing research, taking entrepreneurship and product differentiation capabilities as antecedents of export performance. In addition, the product differentiation capabilities examined whether the role of the mediating effects between entrepreneurship and export performance. Thus, the purpose of the study is look at the integrated model of entrepreneurship, product differentiation capabilities and export performance building and their relationship. On 152 domestic companies, empirical analysis was performed. Empirical analysis was conducted using the PLS(Partial Least Square). And analysis tools were used SmartPLS2.0. In the results of the analysis, risk tolerance and innovativeness of small and medium sized manufacturing businesses, entrepreneurs and product differentiation competence have positive impact export performance in both. Product differentiation capabilities also confirmed that it have a positive impact on the export performance of small manufacturing export enterprises. In analysis of the mediated effect in product differentiation capacity showed a significant mediated effect between innovativeness and export performance. But mediated effects did not indicate a significant risk tolerance. these results suggests the need to actively pursue innovation that more product differentiation capabilities required in export companies to small and medium-sized manufacturing. In other words, when attempting to highlight product differentiation, based on innovation, rather than risk tolerance. In terms of analyzing the mediated role of product differentiation capabilities, this study has theoretical implications for the future research to look at the antecedents of export performance from the perspective of dynamic capabilities and competitive advantage. Also, practical implications in this regard as the innovativeness and taking risks to all important to CEO of small manufacturing enterprises but, stranger in the foreign market competition environment, the role of innovation product is required on raising product differentiation capabilities are presented.