• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.387-399
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• 2023

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to review the export support projects in Jeollabuk-do and to provide implications to the policy makers and to the local exporters. Based on this review, the study proposes future measures to enhance the efficiency of the current Jeollabuk-do export support project. Design/methodology/approach - This study reviews export support projects in Jeollabuk-do, d examines program types and utilization status, and subsequently summarizes the key aspects of Jeollabuk-do SMEs' export support projects. Findings - This study suggests that Jeollabuk-do's export support project can become more effective through active development of overseas markets and professional integration of marketing activities, particularly focusing on regionally specialized export products. Additionally, given the crucial roles played by the government, related agencies, and local offices in improving the export capabilities of SMEs in Jeollabuk-do, there is an emphasis on the need for continuous and systematic follow-up management and the establishment of export support projects and services. Research implications or Originality - While small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Korea account for a significant portion of export activities, their actual export performance and contribution are low. The export competitiveness of SMEs, particularly those located in regions other than Seoul and Gyeonggi Province, is not improving despite various export support projects being promoted. Under the circumstances, this study provide meaningful implications to the policy makers and to the local exporters.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.177-205
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• 2022

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have strong incentives to engage in open innovation to enhance innovation efficiency and effectiveness due to their 'liability of smallness.' Previous research examined the performance effects of various open innovation practices, but whether coupled open innovation practices positively affect SMEs' firm performance is somewhat controversial. To resolve the issue, this study examined the effects of coupled open innovation activities on SMEs' firm performance using Heckman's two stage model to control endogeneity of the firms' self-selection bias in open innovation engagement. This study used the Korean Innovation Survey (KIS) 2020 collected by the Science and Technology Policy Institute (STEPI), and tested the effects of SMEs' coupled open innovation activities, R&D and non-R&D cooperation, on their innovative and financial performance indicators. The results showed that SMEs' R&D cooperation positively affects the new-to-market (NTM) product innovation only. Moreover, SMEs' non-R&D cooperation has positive effects on the product innovation, business process innovation, new-to-the-market product innovation, and new-to-firm (NTF) product innovation. However, the results showed that both R&D and non-R&D innovation cooperation activities have no significant effects on SMEs' financial performance indicators. This study contributes to research on SMEs' open innovation and provides insights for SMEs' managers and policymakers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.104-109
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• 2014

More than 76% of occupational accidents occur in small and medium sized enterprises(SME) employing less than 50 workers, due to the lack of safety and health systems, and carelessness of workers and owners. Timely Technical Guidance(TTG) project of Korea Occupational Safety & Heath Agency(KOSHA) for SME was initiated to analyze and inform accident causes just after accidents occur. Improvement direction of TTG project is suggested through situation and performance analysis on TTG services conducted in 2012. KOSHA provided TTS services on 15,571 SMEs(suffering at least one accident in 2012), through which the working day losses from recurrence resulted in 19.0%p, 14.5%p and 31.3%p decreases in manufacturing, services and construction businesses, respectively.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2016

In Korea, small and medium sized domestic enterprises(SMEs) play an pivotal role in the national economy, accounting for 99.9% of all enterprises, 87.5% of total employment, and 47.6% of production. and SMEs was driving a real force of the development of national economy in many respects such as job creation, innovation, balanced regional development, industrial diversity. The government has strengthened a variety of policy support to support SMEs. However, due to the mismatch between the difficulties of SMEs and benefits of government's policy, the policy implementation has not come out effectively. In order to effectively support SMEs, government must be a priority to know about the factors that experiencing difficulties in the technology commercialization process. The purpose of this study is thus to identify the major evaluation criteria through 3 level AHP analysis. First, 12 Critical elements are extracted from previous studies and professional interview and these elements are tied into 3 factors; technological factor, inner-organizational factor and Outer-organizational factor. The results of AHP analysis show that inner-organizational factor is more important and 'Market environment' in the inner-organizational factor is the most important element. The results of this research will be useful for public R&D institutions policy makers when establishing technology commercialization support policies and strategic planning of small and medium sized domestic enterprises.

• East Asian Journal of Business Economics (EAJBE)
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.41-55
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• 2020

Purpose - This paper tries to analyze the factors affecting the utilization of electronic trade of small and medium enterprises and examine how these factors affect the performance of small and medium enterprises. In addition, the leading factors affecting the level of e-trade utilization of small businesses were analyzed by dividing them into external environmental factors affecting the external business and internal resources of the companies themselves Research design, data, and methodology - With a sample of 223 small and medium-sized export firms from South Korea, this study investigates the antecedents of the utilization level of e-Trade such as information exchange, innovation orientation, absorptive capacity and trust by hierarchical regression analysis. Results - The results show that innovation orientation was shown to have a positive effect on e-trade utilization and absorptive capacity has a positive effect on e-trade utilization. Also, information exchange with stakeholders has a positive impact on e-trade utilization. Conclusions - Internal and external factors of companies have a positive effect on the utilization of e-trade. It also showed that the increased utilization of electronic trade had a positive effect on trade performance. Thus, the findings provide policy-makers with implications of the importance of activating e-trade, and furthermore, significant implications for exporter performance.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.227-253
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• 2022

Despite the proliferation of free trade agreements (FTAs), many exporting firms are still confronted with several challenges in utilizing the FTA preferential tariffs. Based on the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework, this study empirically examines the factors affecting the utilization of FTA schemes by exporting firms. To clarify the key factors influencing FTA utilization, this study develops a conceptual model from the perspective of the adoption of information technology innovations. Eight factors derived from the TOE framework are proposed to explore the determinants of FTA utilization in export. Partial least squares structural equation modeling is employed to analyze the data collected from 162 exporting small- and medium-sized enterprises in the South Korean textile industry. The findings reveal that compatibility and trading partner influence are positively associated with FTA utilization, while complexity is negatively related. Factors of organizational context do not show any relationship with FTA utilization. This study is the first to theoretically analyze and empirically test the determinants of FTA utilization from the perspective of technological innovation adoptions. By examining the relative importance of TOE factors in the utilization of FTA schemes, this study expects to advance a holistic understanding on the perceived factors that could potentially affect the utilization of FTA schemes.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.11-26
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• 2023

This study aimed to empirically analyze the effect of Korean companies' FDI(Foreign Direct Investment) on their financial performances, particularly divided into profitability, stability, growth and activity, while comparing distinct financial performances between SMEs(small and medium-sized enterprises) and large enterprises whose corporate attributes are different from each other. As research subjects, this study selected FDI Korean companies from the directory of oversea-expanded companies of KOTRA(Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency) and used financial data from a total of 409 companies(136 SMEs and 273 large enterprises) with complete financial data for the first five years after the initial investment out of all the financial data from 1990 to 2021. The analysis results can be summarized as follows; In the profitability sector, FDI had positive effects on ROA(Return on Assets) and ROS(Return on Sales) of SMEs, while having negative effects on those of large enterprises to the contrary. In the stability sector, FDI had no statistical significance for SMEs, while having significantly negative effect on LEV(Debt to Equity Ratio) of large enterprises. In the growth sector, FDI had significantly negative effect on AGR(Asset Growth) of SMEs, but showed no significant results for large enterprises. In the activity sector, FDI showed no statistical significance for SMEs, while having positive effects on ATR(Asset Turnover Ratio) and FATA(Fixed Asset Turnover Ratio) of large enterprises. In conclusion, it was found that when having made FDI, SMEs and large enterprises showed different financial performances from each other in terms of profitability, stability, growth and activity.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.285-304
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• 2016

e-Commerce in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises(SMEs) provides a platform for fair competition between SMEs and large enterprises, and brings economic benefits to SMEs. Thus in the recent years, the e-Commerce in SMEs developed rapidly. However, the overall proportion of e-Commerce in SMEs in China remains low, and many SMEs' decision-makers tend to feel that their business is relatively weak in terms of information construction of scale and financial management, thus they keep the 'wait and see' attitude about the e-Commerce development decisions. Therefore, SMEs are facing three puzzles about e-Commerce application. First, if the companies need to implement e-Commerce, what are the e-Commerce adoption decision factors. Second, what are the successful implementation factors of e-Commerce. And how about the relationship between them. The third is how to measure the implementation effect of e-Commerce. What is the performance evaluation factors of e-Commerce. In this paper, the theoretical and empirical exploration and research are conducted towards these SMEs. Considering the actual situation of SMEs, this paper builds a theoretical model, then puts forward relevant hypothesis. This paper analyzes present influencing factors based on enormous research papers, and finally discovers the critical successful factors in doing business with e-Commerce in SMEs by conducting Structural Equation Modeling. Five critical factors are verified by cases of enterprise by demonstration study. Lastly, we can draw a conclusion that the innovation ability of leaders, the IT support of leaders and e-Commerce strategies are the success factors of e-Commerce for Chinese SMEs.

• Asian Journal of Innovation and Policy
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.360-393
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• 2020

The space industry is a comprehensive and technology-intensive industry involving different converging technologies. However, most of the companies in Korea's space industry are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and need to strengthen global capacity to export their products. However, the link between the destination country and the product remains insufficient. Consequently, the purpose of this study is to propose an export roadmap for space products to provide SMEs with export opportunities and strategic guidelines. For this, technology roadmap and portfolio analysis are applied to this purpose. This study is expected to be helpful to SMEs and government agencies.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.31-49
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of knowledge-based resource and ambidextrous capability on their export performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Drawing on an extensive review of the literature on Knowledge-based resource and ambidextrous capability, hypotheses are developed and tested using a sample of 284 SMEs in South Korea. Structural equation modeling was applied. As a result of analysis, first, international entrepreneurship has a significant effect on ambidextrous capability. Second, human capital has significant influence on ambidextrous capability. Third, ambidextrous capability has a significant effect on export performance. The results indicate that their knowledge-based resources ware significant driver of their ambidextrous capability. and that their ambidextrous capability was significant driver of their export performance. In the final conclusion section, implications and limitations of research results and suggestions for future research are discussed.