• Journal of Korea Trade
• /
• v.23 no.3
• /
• pp.1-19
• /
• 2019

Purpose - This research examines the effect of a foreign subsidiary on the productivity growth of a Two-way trading manufacturing firm in Korea. We explore firms engaged in both trade and FDI simultaneously to verify whether participation in GVC as a broad concept is an efficient internationalization strategy to increase the productivity of a Korean manufacturing firm. Design/methodology - Based on the firm-level data by utilizing the Survey of Business Activities from Statistics Korea, we examine the impact of vertically integrated foreign subsidiaries on the productivity of a manufacturing firm that exports and imports simultaneously. Findings - The results show that if a Two-way trading firm establishes one or more overseas subsidiaries, the total factor productivity growth increases. Moreover, the FDI effect is statistically significant when the destination country has an economically close relationship with Korea. However, these effects are disparate depending on the industrial competitiveness or market situation where the subsidiary is located. Nonetheless, the synergy effect resulting from industrial combination is represented in China and the USA only. Originality/value - As the importance of GVC has become more emphasized around the world. In spite of the scarcity of related domestic studies, we explored the effect of multinational manufacturing firms participating in GVC using firm-level data.

• East Asian Economic Review
• /
• v.28 no.2
• /
• pp.143-174
• /
• 2024

This paper empirically examines the relationship between outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) of Korean manufacturing firms and the servicification of domestic employment using a firm-level panel data. In this study, considering the issue of low productivity in the Korean service sector, we categorize service employment into core and non-core services and investigate their relationship with OFDI using the firm-fixed effects model. The empirical results show that the share of core service employment exhibits a positive correlation with the extensive OFDI. On the other hand, the share of non-core service employment, which is expected to generate relatively low value-added, does not show a significant relationship with the extensive OFDI. When we divide the samples based on host countries and the type of subsidiaries, the impact on servicification varies depending on the technological capabilities of host countries and their participation in global value chains. Our study suggests that Korean manufacturing firm's internationalization strategies may facilitate a transition from labor-intensive employment, like the cases in advanced countries, to technology-intensive employment through OFDI and other means.

• Journal of Korea Trade
• /
• v.24 no.3
• /
• pp.37-54
• /
• 2020

Purpose - This study is to investigate the determinants of suppliers' dependence on buyers in the home country by developing a theoretical model of innovative activities. The high dependence of auto parts suppliers on a single local buyer in South Korea due to firm ownership issues and incremental innovation is examined using data from a set of organizations that supply intermediate goods to this automotive manufacturer. Furthermore, we tested the moderating effect of FDI and global knowledge sourcing on the relationship between firm ownership and suppliers' dependence on the local buyer. Design/methodology - To test the hypotheses, we examined a sample of 101 suppliers over 10 years in the Korean automobile parts industry. In this empirical analysis, we utilized a fixed-effects generalized least squares model using panel data. Findings - In this study, domestic firms (automobile parts suppliers) were more dependent on a single local buyer (automobile assembler) than foreign-owned suppliers operating in Korea. In addition, incremental innovation was the mediating mechanism between domestic firms and dependence on the local buyer. To reduce this dependence on the buyer, we suggest two different international strategies: geographical diversification through FDI and global knowledge sourcing. Originality/value - Previous studies showed that asymmetric dependence between firms has many adverse effects. This study proved that domestic and foreign-owned suppliers have different levels of dependence on local buyers due to their heterogeneous characteristics and business strategies. We distinguish two different types of innovation - radical innovation and incremental innovation - that previous studies have often treated as equal when it comes to firm autonomy. Finally, we propose that both FDI and international knowledge sourcing as global strategies to weaken suppliers' asymmetric dependence on a single buyer.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.7 no.1
• /
• pp.73-86
• /
• 2012

This paper explains the contribution of international learning to the business performance through strengthening the international learning capability of the organization. This is consistent with the previous literature that the organization's international experience is an important determinant of the international performance and the learning capability, strengthened through organizational learning, contributes to the business performance. In addition, this paper analyzes the characteristics of international learning of a venture business, which has actively pursued internationalization, by categorizing exploitation and exploration. An important result is that the small-sized venture firm, which is weak in internal resources compared with large firms, utilizes partner network more actively to accumulate international experience by exploration. We can then confirm that this international experience strengthens learning capability and gives positive effects on the business performance.

• Journal of Korea Trade
• /
• v.23 no.7
• /
• pp.156-172
• /
• 2019

Purpose - Without question, globalization has presented different opportunities to entrepreneurs seeking to expand their companies in foreign markets. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation, entrepreneurial activity, information internalization, and product differentiation in export oriented firms. As such, entrepreneurial activities are divided into exploitative and exploratory opportunities. These opportunities are crucial in improving firms' performance. Design/methodology - A structural questionnaire was developed using 21 factors/indicators from previous researches. The subjects of this study were recruited using convenience sampling in export SMEs in the Seoul Metropolitan Area. Data were collected through visits or e-mails from the export managers, executives, and CEOs of export SMEs in advance. 321 questionnaires were collected over a period of one month. 316 questionnaires were used in the final analysis. Findings - First, International Entrepreneurial-orientation (IE) has a positive effect on the exploration and exploitation of business opportunities. Second, the exploration and exploitation of business opportunities have a positive impact on information internalization. Third, information internalization has a significant effect on product differentiation and plays a mediating role in seeking opportunities, utilizing opportunities, and differentiating products. Originality/value - This study contributes to the development of academic discussions by explaining existing research gaps. First, there is currently a lack of research focusing precisely on the product differentiation capability of SMEs in manufacturing field in terms of IE. To bridge these gaps, we examined the entrepreneurial factors impact on product differentiation and tries to expand the discussion about the internationalization of SMEs, which were mainly focused on IT companies, and manufacturing companies. Second, there is no intuitive explanation regarding international entrepreneurial activity in terms of exploration and exploitation within existing. In this study, international entrepreneurship activities were classified in terms of exploration and exploitation.

• Knowledge Management Research
• /
• v.24 no.2
• /
• pp.49-63
• /
• 2023

Existing knowledge regarding the antecedents of the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) of firms is somewhat limited given the emphasis on its performance implications. To address this research gap, this study aims to explore the drivers of entrepreneurial orientation using the resource-based view (RBV) and contingency perspective. To test our hypotheses, this study uses 225 survey data collected from Korean exporters. Results show that the level of entrepreneurial orientation varies depending on organizational characteristics such as firm size and internationalization of the firm. Our findings also support the tenet of the contingency perspective by showing the influences of environmental characteristics such as technological turbulence and market uncertainty on the entrepreneurial orientation of firms. Our empirical research provides academic and practical implications for the field of entrepreneurship.

• International Area Studies Review
• /
• v.13 no.2
• /
• pp.418-445
• /
• 2009

This paper shows that the motives of foreign market entry is classified into the motive of overseas propensity(Motive(M) 1) and of the limited competition of domestic market(Motive(M) 2). International preparing activities are also divided into the activity of ex-ante forecasting and market research(Activity(A) 1), and of ex-ante cooperation and business experience with local firms(Activity(A) 2). M 1 and M2 of Taiwanese ventures can not explain the local performance, but both the influence of M 1 on international preparing activity and business performance, and inter-relationship between Performance(P) 1 and 2 are statistically significant at the 5 % level of significance. On the other hand, Korean ventures in Deadeok Innopolis show that the influence of Activity 1 such as ex-ante forecasting and market research on business performance(P 1) is statistically significant at the 5 % level of significance, but both the relationship between the motive of foreign market entry and P 1 or P 2, and inter-relationship between P 1 and P 2 are not statistically significant. This study finds out there exists the distinct difference owing to their own nationality between Taiwanese and Korean ventures.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.11 no.3
• /
• pp.37-48
• /
• 2016

The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that affect the degree of export intensity of Korean venture businesses, and to analyze the effect of export intensity on corporate performance. We use 1,970 firm data (from Venture Business Survey by Small & Medium Business Administration) and analyze the possible factors of the CEO characteristics, the corporate characteristics, and the environmental factors. Our analysis shows that Korean venture business' CEO characteristics, such as his/her doctoral degree and marketing work experiences, increase their export intensity statistically significantly, while their age does not. In addition, the companies who outsource their products have a higher export intensity, and, as the firm age increases, the export intensity decreases significantly. It is also analyzed that, as the number of export regions or FDI regions increases, their export intensity goes higher. However, firms' higher level of internationalization does not bring higher performance of the venture firms, while it does significantly for the venture firms that are older than 10 years. The result implies that CEO's education or work experiences and strategic approaches are important for corporate globalization, and that it takes time for globalizing venture firms to be able to garner profits from their global investments.

• Korea Trade Review
• /
• v.45 no.3
• /
• pp.55-69
• /
• 2020

This study examines the research trends and knowledge structure of international trade studies using topic modeling method, which is one of the main methodologies of text mining. We collected and analyzed English abstracts of 1,868 papers of three Korean major journals in the area of international trade from 2003 to 2019. We used the Latent Dirichlet Allocation(LDA), an unsupervised machine learning algorithm to extract the latent topics from the large quantity of research abstracts. 20 topics are identified without any prior human judgement. The topics reveal topographical maps of research in international trade and are representative and meaningful in the sense that most of them correspond to previously established sub-topics in trade studies. Then we conducted a regression analysis on the document-topic distributions generated by LDA to identify hot and cold topics. We discovered 2 hot topics(internationalization capacity and performance of export companies, economic effect of trade) and 2 cold topics(exchange rate and current account, trade finance). Trade studies are characterized as a interdisciplinary study of three agendas(i.e. international economy, International Business, trade practice), and 20 topics identified can be grouped into these 3 agendas. From the estimated results of the study, we find that the Korean government's active pursuit of FTA and consequent necessity of capacity building in Korean export firms lie behind the popularity of topic selection by the Korean researchers in the area of int'l trade.

• International Commerce and Information Review
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.77-109
• /
• 2009

The purpose of this study is to review the current trend of FDIs by Korean companies into EU, and to present the optimal strategies for them to combine their firm-specific factors and FDI attractiveness of the regions in EU. The companies are divided into two categories, SMEs and large enterprises. The regions of EU are composed of 15 incumbent members before the fifth enlargement in 2004 and 12 new members. Large Korean companies tend to make large investments in 15 incumbent members with stable and mature markets. Korean SMEs, by contrast, mainly invest on small scales in the new members due to the lack of their available inner resources and knowledge for the markets. The main objects of the investments in EU by the large Korean companies are to gain more market share and to acquire the advanced technologies. Although such goals are also important for the SMEs, the most important objects for the investments by Korean SMEs in EU are usually to enter EU markets and to take advantage of the relatively cheap labor forces for the efficient operations. The effects of such passive strategies by the SMEs, however, are expected to extinct because the cost advantages in regions of the new EU members will not last in the long term, so the SMEs must take longer views for the choice of locations. Many empirical results suggest that the optimal FDI strategies for the Korean companies in EU could be worked mainly by more aggressive localization policy of companies and by the cooperations of SMEs and large enterprises for the reduction in costs of foreignness.