• Proceedings of the Technology Innovation Conference
• /
• 1998.06a
• /
• pp.57-90
• /
• 1998

This study attempts to explore the evolution paths of Korean SMEs'strategies and their technological teaming processes. Several different evolution paths are identified based on a dynamic strategic group analysis of 115 SMEs'strategy in the Korean electronic component industry for the period of 1990-1995. Further, inadept case analyses on technological learning processes in 5 firms are undertaken. Major findings of this study can be summarized as follows : 1) There are three dominant evolution paths in SMEs'strategy. First path indicates the evolution from a subcontractor or petty imitator group(a strategic group with the narrow product/market domain and the low level of accumulated resource/capabilities) into an innovator group(a strategic group with the narrow domain but high level of technological capability) by accumulating technological capabilities. Second, some firms move from a subcontractor group into a generalizer group(a strategic group with broad product/market domain but relatively low level of technological capability) by simply adding product lines. Third path involves firms which evolve from a subcontractor group into a production focus group(a strategic group with high level of production capability) by investing in production capabilities. 2) An in-depth case analysis shows those who succeeded in technological learning are managed by CEOs, who have technological expertise and strategic vision, and have made an effort to establish management practices to support innovation, such employee educational program, performance-based reward system, etc. The successful firms also aggressively pursue diverse external linkages with outside technology sources to learn product and process technologies. Fiendly, this study discusses several implications of the findings for the theoretical development and strategic management of small firms in Korea.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.169-182
• /
• 2012

In the past, a strategic management of work demands has been increasingly challenged to design-build (DB) firms. Such a management is capable of providing sufficient profitable impact of a project on them. Total project profit is mainly related to actual resources, work completion time, amount of rework, and costs. The degree of recycling work packages in the DB project delivery system is used as a measure of the quality of the performed work. However, there are few models available to evaluate the impact of a demand management strategy on the DB firms and to predict its behavior. We propose a decision-making support model as an aid for assessing the amount of rework and for predicting project profit resulting in a convincible demand management strategy. This model is constructed by using a dynamic feedback approach that can analyze the problems arising in complex managerial systems. For the purpose of illustration, widely acceptable strategies were applied into the model to explore their impacts on the DB firms. The results indicate that the model is helpful for the managers in selecting the most appropriate demand management strategy for successfully achieving their objectives.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.8 no.3
• /
• pp.97-111
• /
• 2013

This study reviews preceding research for detailed factors to establish development strategies for Korean Hidden Champion firms and classifies strategy factors into internal ones and external ones through specialists' opinions to draw strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of each factor. It also sets hierarchical model to draw up a survey, distributes the survey to groups of specialists and enterprises respectively and then examines consistency ratio. Fifty-four copies of survey whose reliability on responses is secured through examining the consistency ratio are evaluated with their relative importance in factors by using SWOT/AHP technique and their order of priority is determined. Based on their results, development strategies for Korean Hidden Champion firms are established. SWOT/AHP analyses results show that external factors are with the opportunity of industry growth and the threat of intensified competition and market uncertainty and internal factors are with the strength in order of technological competence, construction competence in customer relation and marketing competence. The weakness in the lack of funds, lack of brand awareness in order. This result suggests that external environments of enterprises that more emphasis should be put on the industry growth and aggressive strategies cannot help but be adopted even in a global competition getting fiercer every day are seen more important. Then, it also seems to be thought that the technological competence including R&D and specialization, construction competence in customer relation and marketing competence should internally chosen for strategies to support strategies. The order of priority in development strategies for Korean Hidden Champion firms is drawn as; (i) aggressive S/O strategy which utilizes opportunities by taking advantage of strengths, (ii) W/O strategy which utilizes opportunities by supplementing weaknesses, (iii) diversified S/T strategy which utilizes strengths to make up for threats and (iv) defensive W/T strategy which supplements weaknesses to overcome threats.

• Journal of Information Technology Services
• /
• v.11 no.3
• /
• pp.67-87
• /
• 2012

These days, firms are focusing on the improvement of relationships with business partners. The supply chain integrations are taking critical role in improving the relationships with business partners. In accordance with the development of the IT technology, it became possible for firms not only to integrate inner parts of the organization, but also to integrate the company with other organizations in the supply chain, which is open system. Therefore, in e-Biz environments, it is imperative for firms to strengthen the core capacity through the supply chain integration, and to precisely determine the components of the determinants of e-Business integration which impact the firm performance. This study analyzed determinants that have impacts on business integration in IT capacity perspectives in competetive environments. We analyzed 163 domestic companies to find out many significant suggestive points. First, IT management capacity, process innovation capacity are adopted as determinants of differentiation and competetive edges against competing firms. Second, it is analyzed that the more the companies are in intensified competetive environment, the more likley that the innovation capacity and partner management capacity become the determinants of the business integration of the companies and that they pursue new market development strategy. Third, it is analyzed that the more the companies are in high demand fluctuation, the more likley that the innovation capacity becomes the determinants of the business integration of the companies, and that they pursue new market development strategy and operation efficiency strategy. Last, it is analyzed that the more the companies are Technology dependent, the more likely that IT management capacity and process innovation capacity become the determinants of business integration, and that they pursue new market development strategy and operation efficiency strategy. These results provide us the foundation that the determinants that we have analyzed can impact the supply chain integration strategies which take into account the competetive environments.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
• /
• v.26 no.7
• /
• pp.958-969
• /
• 2002

No one doubts that textile and apparel industries have contributed to economic miracles of the export-led growth in Korea. However, by the turning of 1990′s, these sectors have encountered many problems such as decreasing of domestic production and exports mainly due to wage rise and shortage. Therefore, foreign direct investment to the low labor cost countries has been enlarged for a way of improving its competitiveness and increasing exports. However, no intensive study has been made exploring current investments and future directions. This study focuses Vietnam as one of the promising overseas investment countries. The purposes of this study are to analyze current investment status of Korean textiles and apparel firms in Vietnam, to explore merits and problems Vietnam has, and to present useful implications and strategies for Korean textiles and apparel companies. Analysis of current secondary data suggests that Korean apparel industry, rather than textiles industry, have invested more in Vietnam, mostly in southern Ho Chi Minh City. Investments of Korean apparel and textile firms have shown steady increase from 1990 but have turned to a decrease from 1995. Findings suggested that Vietnam has merits for attracting foreign investment since it provides relatively cheap labor and outstanding skillful hands suitable for apparel and textiles industries. In addition, because of EU quota increase and the trade agreement between Vietnam and USA it is likely for firms in Vietnam to increase exports to EU and USA Rapid expansion of domestic apparel market and "Korean trend (Han Rue)" in Vietnam resulted from successful star marketing of Korean firms are another merits Vietnam has to the Korean fm. However, regulations of central government, low efficiency of bureaucratic and stiff administrative process, difficulty of making decision in case of joint venture, lack of social overhead capital, high factory construction costs, weak construction condition, and the excessive competition among investment enterprises have found to be problems. Based on pros and cons of investment to Vietnam, marketing strategies, practical implications and future directions were suggested.

• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
• /
• v.11 no.5
• /
• pp.150-162
• /
• 2006

A research model was developed to examine the relationships between the anticipated benefit factors of Internet shopping malls selling physical products and their competitive strategies when the shopping malls are located in their supply chain clusters. A survey questionnaire was implemented and 99 usable responses were obtained from the internet shopping malls located in major industrial clusters in Korea. The six major benefit factors were found: sharing information with offline suppliers, obtaining customers, improvement of trust, efficiency of operation processes, value-added service, management of suppliers. The six empirically derived benefit factors were then used to examine how they affect the firms' competitive strategies and strategic alliance/merger. The regression results shows that the benefit factors influence on firms' choosing one or some combination of the competitive strategies and strategic alliance to survive and succeed in the market.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.1-13
• /
• 2014

This study examines the relationship between firms' external search strategy and their innovation performance. In addition to revisiting the relationship between open search strategy and product innovation, we further extend the impact of use of external knowledge sources to process and organizational innovation. Using the 2010 Korean Innovation Survey (KIS) of manufacturing firms, we report that on average, venture firms search more widely (external search breadth) and deeply (external search depth) across a variety of external search channels than non-venture firms. We then further explore the impact of venture and non-venture firms' use of external search strategies on innovation performance. We find that both searching widely and deeply increase the likelihood of non-venture firm's successes in product, process and organizational innovation. Similar results can be found for the venture firm's success in organizational innovation. However, only searching deeply increases the likelihood of venture firms' success in product and process innovation.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
• /
• v.12 no.3
• /
• pp.175-192
• /
• 2021

Purpose - In this study, we investigate the effects of government environmental subsidies and the globalization Chinese firms on their profitability using return on assets (ROA). Design/methodology/approach - In this study, a merged data including accounting, financial market, subsidization of the Chinese governments, local and the central, and export activities of 19,563 year-firms, for those listed on Shanghai Stock and Shenzhen Stock Exchange for 11 years from 2008 to 2018 is used. We collect subsidy data from RESSET database and financial data from CSMAR database. Then, we empirically test the test hypotheses using fixed effects models (FEM) separately and in a simultaneous equation model (SEM). Findings - Firstly, the globalization of Chinese firms has a negative impact on their profitability for some years after the year. Secondly, environmental subsidies just like other subsidies have ameliorating effects on financial performance for global firms. Such effects have lasted some years. Thirdly, environmental investments have a mostly negative impact on short- and long-term profitability for global firms. Lastly, the government's environmental subsidies in China have a positive effect on their profitability for both global and domestic firms. Research implications or Originality - We can infer that environmental investments with the help of the governmental subsidies can help Chinese firms deploy global strategies to expand markets to surpass competitors in the long run despite worsening profitability in global markets in the short run.

• Journal of Korea Trade
• /
• v.25 no.6
• /
• pp.57-77
• /
• 2021

Purpose - International strategic alliance has been regarded as a strategic decision made by firms' managerial problems and ensure performance growth. From the perspective of the proactive behavior for changing strategies in a global market, this study aims to identify whether performance feedback influences firms' decisions to pursue strategic alliances. This study examines the effects of performance feedback on performance when firms use strategic alliances. Design/methodology - To analyze the impact of performance feedback on forming an international strategic alliance, this study adopt the concept of performance feedback to develop a research model and our hypotheses. Thus, this study used a two-stage least squares unbalanced panel data analysis with random effects. This study is based on 24,543 observations from Korean manufacturing firms from 2007 to 2016. Findings - The results show that firms pursue the formation of strategic alliances more actively, if their past financial and R&D performance are lower than their aspiration level, based on the result of performance feedback. An in split sample analysis for examining the effect of a firm's technology sophistication based on the OECD's classification, negative innovation performance discrepancy has positive effects on the probability of international alliance in high-tech and medium-high-tech industries. Financial performance also improves when a firm decides to form a strategic alliance based on the results of performance feedback. Originality/value - This research extends recent efforts to better understand the effect of performance feedback on firms' performance when they use strategic alliances. These findings suggest that the CEOs and managers of firms should consider the performance feedback perspective when deciding to pursue a strategic alliance to improve performance. In other words, the decision-makers in a firm must analyze and consider various complex variables inside and outside the firm and expand such subjects of examination to more complex and dynamic factors.

• Journal of Korea Trade
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.63-82
• /
• 2022

Purpose - Drawing on relational institutional theory, we explored how demographic similarity between board members of a firm and newly emerged political elites led to firms' increased financial resource acquisition such as leverage ratio and decreased export intensity amidst the Asian financial crisis. We also studied how a firm's leverage ratio and export intensity can further affect firm profitability and financial credit rating. Design/methodology - We revisited and explored a unique, unprecedented crisis that affected most Korean firms: the Asian financial crisis that coincided with a governmental shift from a conservative to a liberal party. We collected demographic information from 432 listed Korean firms' board members and 43 political elites of the Blue House from 1998-2000 to create a demographic similarity measurement. We collected firms' financial information, built panel data, and used ordinary least squares regression to test our theory. Findings - Our results showed that demographic similarity between a firm's directors and newly emerged politicians had a positive association with a firm's leverage ratio but a negative association with a firm's export intensity. A firm's leverage ratio had a negative relationship with firm performance measured by firm profitability and financial credit rating. A firm's export intensity showed a positive effect on firm performance. Originality/value - We highlighted that during an economic crisis that coincided with a governmental shift and change of leading political actors, firms exerted efforts to survey the environment and build new external stakeholder relationships to cope with the changing landscape. We proposed that in an emerging market like Korea where low levels of trust and favoritism are prevalent across society, one of the relational institutional strategies that firms can employ is the selection of directors with similar demographic characteristics to political elites based on factors including birthplace and school affiliations. We examined the efforts of firms to build political networks with newly empowered political elites during a financial crisis, and the consequences of establishing such networks. We highlighted that during a financial crisis, the demographic similarity between a firm's board members and newly emerged politicians can provide firms with access to financial resources but can also result in poor management and reduced effort to enhance its international competitiveness.