Purpose - This paper empirically investigates the competition effect of exports between Korea and China in their common-export markets considering market sophistication. Modern market sophistication includes an importing country's aggregate demand for products of high quality, design, novelty, eco-friendliness, and even IPR protection. Using an empirical analysis to identify the demand for product quality across countries, this paper estimates the effects of market sophistication on the competition between Korean exports and Chinese products. Design/Methodology - Our empirical model considers the relationship between an importing country's consumer sophistication and the export competition between Korea and China. This study employs the existing theoretical framework to identify the aggregate demand for product quality across countries. Using a quite direct measurement (the consumer sophistication index, our analysis investigates the differential effects of Korea's export market sophistication, particularly in markets where Korean exports are in competition with similar Chinese products. Findings - Our main findings can be summarized as follows: the negative effects of the export competition between Korea and China on Korea's exports are stronger in third markets where consumers are less sophisticated while the effects are not as pronounced in markets where consumers are more sophisticated. This result, however, best applies to differentiated goods which significantly vary in product quality. Originality/value - Existing studies focus on the supply side of production and make the assumption that the market preference for export quality is identical across countries. This paper attempts to evaluate the export competition between Korea and China from the demand-side perspective. This area of trade studies is underexplored both empirically and in theory, although the issue has long been important to Korean and world trade.

Purpose - This paper aims to articulate determinants of inter-organizational cooperation based on to the extent to which inter-organizational tasks are related to product development and production processes. Design/Methodology - This research conducted OLS regression analysis based on the data acquired from questionnaire survey in Korean auto industry. Findings - Our analysis has verified that complementary and compatible resources, as well as physical and human asset specificities, positively affect inter-organizational product development cooperation. Conversely, in the production process, only complementary resources positively affect inter-organizational cooperation, whereas compatible resources and physical asset specificity have a negative influence. The changing characteristics of compatible resources (with IT innovations and AI), and physical asset specificity (influenced by a rising need to reduce production costs), cause inter-organizational cooperation in production to decrease. Originality/value - This research attempts to expound upon these determining factors of inter-organizational cooperation by considering both complementary-compatible resources and asset specificity in product development and production simultaneously. The reason why the impact of complementary-compatible resources and asset specificity on inter-organizational cooperation is critical in understanding the determinants of inter-organizational cooperation is that the attributes of complementary-compatible resources and asset specificity in production have changed drastically due to the continuing diffusion of IT innovations and AI (Artificial Intelligence).

Purpose - This study investigates the lead-lag relations between the prices of major commodities imported into Korea and corresponding shipping freight rates. This paper aims to provide implications for cross-market causal relations between related economic segments. Design/Methodology - For economic long-run equilibrium between commodity prices and freights, a Johansen (1988) cointegration test is employed first. Then, Granger (1987) causality tests are performed under the vector error correction model (VECM) framework. Findings - The results indicate that the direction of causality varies by raw materials, which is attributable to different economic mechanisms in the corresponding shipping transportation sectors. In addition, the significance of causality becomes blurred during the post-2008 period. Practical Implication - Corporate managers in commodity trading, steelmaking, power generation, and oil refinery sectors can take advantage of the findings in this study as identifying leading economic indicators can be helpful for decision making in both short- and long-term strategies. Originality/value - This study is the first attempt to analyze the inter-relations between commodity prices and corresponding freight rates focusing on raw material imports of Korea.

Purpose - This paper analyzes how Research and Development (R&D) cartelization and Research Joint Ventures (RJV) affect firms that engage in Cournot competition in their product market using a model in which the Home and Foreign firm produce differentiated products and export their total output to a third country's market. Design/Methodology - In a two-stage game, research expenditures incurred in the first stage improve product quality and are subject to various degrees of spillovers. We consider four different scenarios. Findings - In a symmetric equilibrium we observe the following: (i) an RJV that cooperates in R&D decision yields the highest R&D expenditure. However, the scenario which yields the lowest expenditure depends on the extent of differentiation between the goods and the degree of spillovers; (ii) RJV cartelization yields the highest product quality, output, and consumer surplus in the third country; however, the lowest is produced by R&D competition if spillovers are strong and by R&D cartelization if spillovers are weak; and (iii) each firm's profit is at its minimum in R&D competition and its maximum in RJV cartelization. Furthermore, if spillovers are strong, the profit of each firm in R&D cartelization is greater than that in RJV competition, and vice versa. Originality/value - By analyzing product innovation in international markets, we can find similarities and differences between process R&D and product R&D in international markets.

Purpose - The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has promulgated strict regulations on emissions in the maritime shipping industry. LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) is, therefore, recognized as the optimal fuel alternative solution. The aim of this study is to select the most suitable location for an LNG bunkering port. This is formulated as a multiple-criteria ranking problem regarding four candidate ports in South Korea: the ports of Busan, Gwangyang, Incheon, and Ulsan. Design/Methodology/approach - An analysis employing the Consistent Fuzzy Preference Relation (CFPR) methodology is carried out, and the multiple-criteria evaluation of various factors influencing the location selection, such as the average loading speed of LNG, the number of total ships, the distance of the bunkering shuttle, and the degree of safety is performed. Then, based on the combination of both the collected real data and experts' preferences, the final ranking of the four ports is formulated. Findings - The port of Busan ranks first, followed by the ports of Gwangyang and Ulsan, with the port of Incheon last on the list. Originality/value - The Korean government could proceed with a clear vision of the candidate ports' ranking in terms of the LNG bunkering terminal selection problem.

Purpose - This study empirically analyzes the effects of the European Union-South Korea Free Trade Agreement on Korean exports in major sectors. Design/Methodology - This study is based on the augmented gravity model with a panel data set covering 51 countries between the years 2000 and 2015. Findings - Main findings of the present study is that the agreement has affected the chemical sector the most. Fixed effects estimation predicted a positive trade effect of 38.3%, while Poisson maximum likelihood estimation predicted an impact of 4.75% in the chemical export sector. Regression results for the other sectors only show insignificant effects. Originality/value - The findings imply that the effects of the EU-South Korea free trade agreement on the Korean exports are quite specific compared to the European ones, meaning that the Korean government should focus on sector-specific programs to maximize the welfare benefits of the free trade agreement.

Purpose - This paper examines the effects of host country's non-economic factors on foreign affiliate's financial and operational performance. Design/Methodology - Using Korean-owned foreign affiliate-level data, we employ various measures that represent host country's non-economic factors and examine their effects on foreign affiliate's performance. We further investigate the effects of local top managers and local middle managers on the impact of country's non-economic factors on foreign affiliate's performance. Findings - We find that local top managers are effective in increasing foreign affiliate's financial performance by dealing with institutional and cultural factors, particularly in high-income countries, while local middle managers are effective in increasing affiliate's operational performance by responding to the changes in doing business factors, particularly in low-income countries. Originality/value - Considering that most of previous FDI studies focus on examining host country's economic factors on firm's FDI decision, our findings suggest that country's non-economic factors are strongly associated with actual business performance of foreign affiliates.

Purpose - This paper examines the recently realized continuous volatility and discrete jumps of US Dollar/Euro returns using the frequency of five minute returns spanning the period from February 2010 through February 2018with periodicity filters. Design/Methodology - This paper adopts the nonparametric estimation. The realized volatility and Realized Outlying Weighted variations show non-Gaussian, fat-tailed, and leptokurtic distributions. Some significant volatility jumps in returns occurred from 2010 through 2018, and the very exceptionally large and irregular jumps occurred around 2010-2011, after the EU financial crisis, and 2015-2016. The outliers occurred somewhat frequently around the years of 2015 and 2016. Originality/value - When we include periodicity filters of volatility such as MAD, Short Half Scale, and WSD, the five minute returns of US Dollar/Euro exchange rates have smaller daily jump probabilities by 20-30% than when we do not include the periodicity filters of volatility. Thus, when we consider the periodicity filters of volatility such as MAD, Short Half Scale, and WSD, the five minute returns of US Dollar/Euro have considerably smaller jump probabilities.