• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.1-15
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• 2016

Startups in Korea are experiencing for themselves the laws of survival through competition in the local and international market, and are performing active business movements based on these. Korea's economic growth rate is 2.6% due to the slump in the domestic demand and reduced exports brought by the MERSC incident in 2015. The Korea Development Institute has estimated the economic growth rate in 2016 to be around 3.0%. South Korea's economy is facing the crisis of low-growth solidification due to the decrease in economic growth, and it is forecasted that growth without employment and polarization will worsen. Startups in the high-tech industrial generation of a particular field wherein the market environment is rapidly changing must maintain a competitive advantage with the capabilities and functions exclusive to them. It is very important that they maintain a competitive edge by utilizing the capabilities exclusive to startup companies. Likewise, the accumulation of resources is also crucial in determining the success of a startup business. In a poor local startup ecosystem, majority of the startup companies are performing their business activities while striving for survival, rather than success. About 80% are struggling to survive and are failing to overcome the "Death Valley" faced 3-5 years after establishing the company. Since majority of the startups fail to achieve results during the initial stages of foundation, the importance of research on business activities and achievement during the early stages of establishment is being raised. In accordance to this, this research has performed an actual analysis on how the activities of startups during their preparation phase and early stages affect their achievements. A survey was done on the CEOs or executives (people in a position to make decisions) of local small and medium-sized enterprises that are considered start-ups, and 203 valid data were collected and analyzed. Results showed that the discoveries and utilized activities necessary for the businesses of startups have a significant impact on their achievement through the entrepreneur resources and external partners' cooperation; additionally, the related implications were discussed.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.109-153
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• 1992

This paper estimates a translog cost function for the Korea's banking industry and derives various implications on the prospect for the Korean banking structure in the future based on the estimated efficiency indicators for the banking sector. The Korean banking industry is permitted to operate trust business to the full extent and the security business to a limited extent, while it is formally subjected to the strict, specialized banking system. Security underwriting and investment businesses are allowed in a very limited extent only for stocks and bonds of maturity longer than three year and only up to 100 percent of the bank paid-in capital. Until the end of 1991, the ceiling was only up to 25 percent of the total balance of the demand deposits. However, they are prohibited from the security brokerage business. While the in-house integration of security businesses with the traditional business of deposit and commercial lending is restrictively regulated as such, Korean banks can enter the security business by establishing subsidiaries in the industry. This paper, therefore, estimates the efficiency indicators as well as the cost functions, identifying the in-house integrated trust business and security investment business as important banking activities, for various cases where both the production and the intermediation function approaches in modelling the financial intermediaries are separately applied, and the banking businesses of deposit, lending and security investment as one group and the trust businesses as another group are separately and integrally analyzed. The estimation results of the efficiency indicators for various cases are summarized in Table 1 and Table 2. First, security businesses exhibit economies of scale but also economies of scope with traditional banking activities, which implies that in-house integration of the banking and security businesses may not be a nonoptimal banking structure. Therefore, this result further implies that the transformation of Korea's banking system from the current, specialized system to the universal banking system will not impede the improvement of the banking industry's efficiency. Second, the lending businesses turn out to be subjected to diseconomies of scale, while exhibiting unclear evidence for economies of scope. In sum, it implies potential efficiency gain of the continued in-house integration of the lending activity. Third, the continued integration of the trust businesses seems to contribute to improving the efficiency of the banking businesses, since the trust businesses exhibit economies of scope. Fourth, deposit services and fee-based activities, such as foreign exchange and credit card businesses, exhibit economies of scale but constant returns to scope, which implies, the possibility of separating those businesses from other banking and trust activities. The recent trend of the credit card business being operated separately from other banking activities by an independent identity in Korea as well as in the global banking market seems to be consistent with this finding. Then, how can the possibility of separating deposit services from the remaining activities be interpreted? If one insists a strict definition of commercial banking that is confined to deposit and commercial lending activities, separating the deposit service will suggest a resolution or a disappearance of banking, itself. Recently, however, there has been a suggestion that separating banks' deposit and lending activities by allowing a depository institution which specialize in deposit taking and investing deposit fund only in the safest securities such as government securities to administer the deposit activity will alleviate the risk of a bank run. This method, in turn, will help improve the safety of the payment system (Robert E. Litan, What should Banks Do? Washington, D.C., The Brookings Institution, 1987). In this context, the possibility of separating the deposit activity will imply that a new type of depository institution will arise naturally without contradicting the efficiency of the banking businesses, as the size of the banking market grows in the future. Moreover, it is also interesting to see additional evidences confirming this statement that deposit taking and security business are cost complementarity but deposit taking and lending businesses are cost substitute (see Table 2 for cost complementarity relationship in Korea's banking industry). Finally, it has been observed that the Korea's banking industry is lacking in the characteristics of natural monopoly. Therefore, it may not be optimal to encourage the merger and acquisition in the banking industry only for the purpose of improving the efficiency.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.115-125
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to empirically examines the effects of corporate sustainable management activities(social activity, economic activity, environmental activity) on the innovation activities(managerial innovation, technical innovation) in the convergence era. To accomplish these purposes, their relationships were modeled based on the previous studies conducted in the various areas. A total of 500 questionnaires were distributed to the employees working at the small & medium size companies. The statistical techniques such as descriptive analysis, reliability analysis, factor analysis, correlation analysis, multi regression analysis were used to evaluate the research model. The results of multi regression analysis show that all three aspects of corporate sustainable management activities have positively significant effects on the two factors of innovation. That is, if each activities of sustainable management works properly, it leads to create innovation. In addition, enterprises are needed to develop training programs or action planning that make the employees understands sustainable management well. Thus, the advanced level of corporate sustainability is expected if various sustainable management activities are performed in harmony with their innovation activities.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.105-111
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• 2015

Purpose - Many global companies across industries are paying significant attention to co-creation activities, which enable consumers to participate in firms' value creation process, as a main model of new product development processes. In this study, we aim to examine different types of co-creation activities and their effects on consumer attitudes. We focus on upstream co-creation, downstream co-creation, autonomous co-creation, and sponsored co-creation. Upstream co-creation includes firms' control and management in the initial stage of new product development and prototype testing. Downstream co-creation indicates that consumers participate in firms-initiative activities at a later stage in new product development, such as public relations and marketing communications. Autonomous co-creation includes consumers' commitment activities in the absence of firms' rewards. However, under the sponsored co-creation, consumers can return monetary and social rewards from firms through their co-creation activities. The hypotheses regarding the effect of co-creation on consumer attitudes are as follows. (H1, H2, H3, H4) Upstream, downward, autonomous, and sponsored co-creation has positive effects on consumer attitude. (H5, H6) As intrinsic motivation increases, the positive effect of upstream and autonomous co-creation increases. (H7, H8) As extrinsic motivation increases, the positive effect of downward and sponsored co-creation increases. Research design, data, and methodology - To achieve our research goals, we analyzed responses from 246 samples from Korean consumers and verified the proposed hypotheses using a linear regression model. The samples include Korean consumers who experienced upstream, downstream, autonomous, and sponsored co-creation by firms. Results - First, both upstream co-creation and downstream co-creation with firms and consumers are found to have positive effects on consumer attitudes. Second, autonomous co-creation and sponsored co-creation are found to positively affect consumer attitudes. Third, consumers' intrinsic motivation has a fit-effect between upstream co-creation and autonomous co-creation, and their extrinsic motivation has a fit-effect between downstream co-creation and sponsored co-creation. Consumers who have strong intrinsic motivation are affected by upstream co-creation and autonomous co-creation. However, consumers who have strong extrinsic motivation are affected by downstream co-creation and sponsored co-creation. Conclusion - These results indicate that the fit between consumers' co-creation participation types and consumers'motivations is a significant factor in determining consumer attitudes. The results of this study imply that various types of consumer participation actually improve consumers' attitudes toward products and brands. In addition, our study also suggests that firms should consider the fit between co-creation types and consumers' motivations when they initiate co-creation activities. In this study, we survey consumers who participated in firms' co-creation activities. Future studies can compare different types of consumers. For instance, we can examine the different in different test by comparing experienced versus inexperienced consumers. Finally, we expand this research to user-generated content topics. This attending issue focuses on the mechanism that breaks down the boundaries and barriers between consumers and producers.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.393-404
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• 2021

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the corporate responsibility activities and investigate the effects of these activities on financial performance in public institutions. Methods: The collected data using annual performance evaluation for the year 2017-2019 were analyzed using multi-regression analysis. The corporate social responsibility activities for this study were divided into three dimensions such as social value, efficiency, and welfare. Results: The results of this study are as follows; first, public institutions with high evaluation in social value and welfare had a significant positive effect on financial performance factors such as ROA and ROS. Second, we find that there is a significant negative relation between social value activities and debt ratio. This result means that the higher social value activities, the lower debt ratio. It was also found that the activities for enhancing social value made statistically significant positive influence on BIS performance. Conclusion: These results can be interpreted that public institutions trying various social contribution activities does not necessarily bring negative results for financial performance. In conclusion, it means that socially responsible activities and ethical management in the desirable direction can be beneficial to both public institutions and the society to which they belong.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartD
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• v.15D no.3
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• pp.337-346
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• 2008

Many of today’s companies adopt Business Process Management to make their business processes efficient and at the same time pursue certain business values in order to make known that they are working for public interests and to enhance their images and competitiveness. On the other hand, to improve achievement of business values, not only the basic business activities but also the capability of measuring value achievement and ways to reflect the measuring results for process improvement should be built into their business processes. In this study, we propose a value achievement measuring framework that includes the design elements necessary for measuring value achievement and demonstrate its efficacy with an application example.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.99-124
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• 2009

The purposes of this study were (1) to highlight the importance of farm management (2) to develop a profitable farm management system through the combination of agricultural techniques and business competencies (3) to shift management attitudes and habits of the program participants from being passive and dependent toward being proactive and self-disciplined (4) to help cultivate one's own life through self-consciousness participation in educational activities and lectures of celebrities. This research was conducted involving 30 farms that participated in the business program. The program imparted knowledge on vision, marketing, business skills, and management strategies such as cross strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats (swot) analysis, product life cycle (plc), the 4p(product, price, place, promotion) of marketing, etc. The study recommends: (1) to encourage farms to enhance their business competencies; (2) to find out solutions for urgent management problems (3) to construct a system for leading farms (www.lfcenter.com) and on-line communities and (4) to implement a profitable business model for leading farms. It was noted that the farms were eager to participate in such business programs. In the future, this kind of program should be promoted in other areas so that more farms could enhance their business competencies.

• The Journal of Economics, Marketing and Management
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.9-18
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• 2021

Purpose: This study examines some successful and failed cases of Korean private universities' profitable business and explores the desirable economic value and direction of their profitable business business operations with a view to shedding light on some clues conducive to their financial health and quality education. Research design, data and methodology: This study reviews news articles, reports and literature to find out Korean universities' financial condition and examines some successful and failed examples of their corporations' profit-making business operations to suggest a direction. Results: Private universities suffer declining enrollments and/or tuition freeze but they lack in making efforts to secure financial health. The reviewed examples of private universities' profit-making business operations suggest both universities and their corporations should first assume the public accountability prior to engaging in diverse business activities. Conclusions: First, to remain financially healthy, university corporations should exert themselves to transform their low-profit-margin lands and buildings into high-profit-margin businesses and to credit the realized income to their school-expense accounts. And, the ultimate purpose of universities' profit-making business operations is to realize a decent income without prejudice to their public accountability for the country and community, while forging a virtuous cycle by investing the income for the betterment of their educational quality and competitiveness.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.7
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• pp.571-578
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• 2021

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which began in 2020, had a significant impact on the economy and business activities worldwide. Large companies, as well as small businesses were affected, many of them had to scale down or divert their businesses, and some even had to stop. This extraordinary situation requires business people to make innovations and adjustments to survive during a pandemic. Entering the digital era, business players are helped by the ease of internet access, which will make it easier for SME players to get data from their consumers. Business actors can use this data to innovate and create new creations to improve business performance during this pandemic. This research aims to identify how small and medium enterprises can take advantage of Big Data to improve marketing performance through innovation and value creation. The research methodology used the in this research is quantitative method. The respondents are SME producers of food and beverage, with a total of 150 respondents. The results in the study indicate that all the proposed hypotheses are accepted. The most significant influence is found on the relationship of Big Data to value creation. The lowest effect was obtained from the relationship between Big Data and marketing performance through the mediation variable and innovation capability.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.69-79
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• 2022

The purpose of the study is to look into the likelihood of private sector enterprises going bankrupt due to COVID-19 pandemic-related issues. The data for this study was taken from the World Bank's Enterprise Survey, which was intended to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the business sector. This study uses the Ordinal Logit Method to analyze the model with dependent variables having ordinal values. The determinants reflect business performance, innovation, business relationships, and government support. According to the estimation results, a lower probability of business closures, illiquidity, and payment delays are found in businesses that maintain sales growth, operating hours, temporary workers, product portfolio, consumer demand, and input supply. Meanwhile, the increase in online business activities and receiving support from financial institutions and the government do not help businesses reduce the risk. Moreover, higher survival is found in manufacturing and developing countries. This implies the fragility of businesses in the retail and service sectors, especially for mega-enterprises in developed countries. In addition, the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on businesses in Europe and West Asia is less severe than in other regions. The results imply policies to support the private sector during the pandemic, such as increasing labor market flexibility or rapidly implementing supportive policies.