Purpose - This research empirically proves that global shipbuilding industry leadership has moved to China from Korea. Design/Methodology - Competitiveness is measured by AHP for the weights of comprehensive competitiveness, which is the output mixture of three attributive factors: shipbuilding technology, shipbuilding contract price, and export credit. Findings - China is far ahead of Korea for standard vessels such as bulkers and containerships with competitiveness weights of 0.762 and 0.612, respectively, against 0.238 and 0.388 of Korea. Korea is maintaining its competitiveness only in LNG carriers (174k CBM) with a competitiveness weight 0.621. China and Korea have similar competitiveness for chemical carriers, complex vessels with a small hull size. The sources of Chinese competitiveness are shipbuilding contract price and export credit. With the majority share of standard vessel types in the world fleet, China will hold a bigger market share than Korea in the global shipbuilding industry in the forthcoming years. Implications - The swing factors of market power are shipbuilding technology and contract price. If China fails to further develop shipbuilding technology for shipowners worried about the reliability of the Chinese-built vessels, shipowners may swing back to Korea. The rising Chinese labor cost will expedite this swing in the forthcoming competition. Originality/value - To the best of the author's knowledge, this is the first paper that quantitatively examines the competitiveness of shipbuilding between China and Korea by comparing attributive factors for competitiveness.

Purpose - This study examines the relationship between public-private partnerships and the performance of ports based on three factors: the quality of the port infrastructure, container throughput, and logistic performance in three Latin American countries, Mexico, Panama, and Brazil, for the period of 1994-2017. Design/methodology - The selected countries are top ranked in terms of container throughput in Latin America. The methodology employs secondary data from the World Bank (Quality of Port Infrastructure, Logistics Performance Index, and Private Participation in infrastructure database). Findings - Overall, the results revealed that the private investment of these countries varies significantly over the past couple decades. Panama, with the least public-private investment over the study period, performs better than Mexico and Brazil with regards to port quality infrastructure and container throughput. For ports in the selected countries to keep up with global competition, there is a need to enhance efficiency. Originality/value - Compared with ports in Asia, Latin American ports are lagging behind with respect to container throughput and efficiency. This study suggests greater collaboration from the private sector, academia, and other organizations, as well as a review of the regulatory framework to ensure better transparency and project allocation. Throwing more light on the public-private investment environment of Mexico, Brazil, and Panama, this study offers policy makers and regulators insightful information on port infrastructure.

Purpose - This study analyzes the effect of internationalization represented as exporting on firm performance on the subject of SMEs operating in Masan Free Trade Zone which has shown poor performance recently despite its status as the oldest and largest free trade zone in Korea. We also analyze the effect of firm size on firm performance, and the moderating role of firm size in relation to internationalization and firm performance. Design/methodology - This study uses multiple regression models for unbalanced panel data as the empirical tools for the estimation of the effect that internationalization has on firm performance (ROA or ROS). Our sample consists of 91 manufacturing SMEs among all 110 companies located in Masan Free Trade Zone as of 2017. Findings - The degree of internationalization has a negative impact on firm performance. However, firm size turns out to have a positive effect and play a positive moderating role in the relation to internationalization and firm performance. This seems to be because most tenant companies operating in Masan Free Trade Zone are small firms whose costs of internationalization may exceed the benefits. Empirical results also show that longer CEO tenure has a greater negative effect on firm performance. Originality/value - The originality/value of this paper can be found in 3 aspects. First, we conducted an empirical analysis on the relationship between the internationalization and firm performance of SMEs in a specific region, namely, Masan Free Trade Zone. Second, while most previous studies focused on listed medium companies, most of the sample of this study are small and medium non-listed enterprises. Third, it is witnessed that firm size has a positive moderating effect on the relation between internationalization and firm performance.

Purpose - This study focused on the effect of mobile app information system quality on re-use intention in the medical service trade, and examined how the Chinese, currently the main consumer of Korea's medical service trade, obtained information through mobile apps, and the status of satisfaction felt by experiencing medical services. Design/methodology - The survey period was from November 2018 to January 2019, and was conducted on Chinese who voluntarily experienced medical services. The collected data verified causality of the study model through the statistical program, SPSS.24. The results showed that the most popular medical institution through the medical service mobile app is dermatology, and the quality of the app's information system plays a mediating role in influencing re-use intention. Findings - Overall, the current trade in medical services is first accessed and acquired through mobile apps, and as a result, consumers revisit medical institutions according to the reliability of information. Comments and likes, another new form of the word of mouth that has greatly influenced revisiting in the past, are seen to be spreading through the app's medical information. Originality/value - The previous market for the medical services trade was formed by very conservative word of mouth, but now we believe that the app's information system actively influences the revisit effect. This means that apps can be used in diverse areas in the medical service trade market. In addition, the medical service market needs to further develop a mobile app environment that can reflect consumers' diverse needs, behaviors, and culture from time to time in order to revitalize the service trade. Such an app environment development will have tremendous promotional effects on the trade market and provide directions for expanding trade in medical services.

Purpose - This paper aims to articulate relationship about factors influencing FTA utilization by dividing them into company's external and internal factors and performing investigation on the relationship between FTA utilization and export performance. Design/methodology - This study verified factors influencing FTA utilization by dividing them into company's external and internal factors and performing investigation on the relationship between FTA utilization and export performance. Empirical analysis was performed by setting internal and external factors required for FTA utilization as variables. To achieve this, research model was established based on previous study, hypothesis was deduced, and statistical program were used to test the hypothesis. This study performed empirical analysis using statistical program of SPSS 18.0 and AMOS 18.0 for the research model. Findings - Empirical analysis was performed regarding the effect of the FTA utilization on export performance and previous study defined export performance as the company's increased economy benefits through export and increase in new transactions. Analysis was also performed for factors affecting the FTA utilization by the company and through management and response of external factors and internal factors it was confirmed that the FTA utilization by the company led to increase in the company's export performance as a result. This study proposes a method to achieve export performance based on this. Originality/value - Companies seeking to utilize the FTA sign the Contract for the International Sale of goods and there are many conditions to meet in order to receive trade preferences during the transaction process. Existing trade order and order in the FTA have to be followed. Country of origin can be seen as key in the FTA. The Rule of Origin becomes the most important evaluation standard in applying preferential tariff in the FTA. Such regulations can be seen as external factors which cannot be controlled by the company. Internal factors are capabilities owned before that can be controlled by the company. The study sought to test the variables regarding factors centered on such capability. This study verified factors influencing FTA utilization by dividing them into company's external and internal factors and performing investigation on the relationship between FTA utilization and export performance.

Purpose - This paper investigates the structure of exports across countries in terms of value added. Exports value added is examined under two categories, domestic and overseas. Using a statistical classification method by distance based on these two value added categories, this paper estimates the similarity of exports value added across countries including Korea. Design/methodology - The model of study is to employ a generalized distance function and then derive the Manhattan and Euclidean distances. The paper also performs cluster analysis using the Partitioning Around Medoids (PAM) and hierarchical methods to classify the 44 sample countries considered in this study. Findings - Our main findings are as follows. The 44 countries can be classified under 5 groups by their domestic and overseas value added in exports. Korea has a sandwich global value chains (GVCs) position between Japan, China, and Taiwan in the East Asian region. Originality/value - Existing papers point out the double counting problem of trade statistics as the intermediate goods trade across borders increases. This paper addresses the double counting problem by using the World Input-Output Table. The paper shows the need to explore the similarity of value added in exports structure across countries and investigate the GVCs position and role of each country.

Purpose - This paper examines the impact of labor market regulations on FDI and the production of foreign firms. Design/methodology - We use an index of employment protection along with data on the FDI and production of foreign affiliates that are provided by the OECD. Findings - The empirical results show that strict employment protection discourages both the production and initial entry of foreign firms, with its impact on production being larger than that on the initial entry decision. The result is robust to various specifications in which instrumental variable estimations are used by applying a unionization rate and a severance pay for redundancy dismissal as instruments, respectively. Therefore, policymakers should not limit their focus to tax incentives, cash grants, and relaxation of market regulations, but they should also extend their attention to labor market deregulation and decreasing non-wage cost to attract more foreign firms into their countries. Originality/value - This paper attempts to answer the question on the impact of employment protection rules on the foreign firm's decisions regarding production as well as initial entry.

Purpose - Based on the Korea-China FTA as the starting point, this paper makes an empirical analysis of the main influencing factors of the FTA utilization and performance of SMEs. Design/methodology - Taking into account the relationship between the internal and external environmental factors on FTA activities and performance of Korea's SMEs, with PLS-SEM and data obtained by the questionnaire, Smart PLS was applied for the analysis. Findings - The recognition of FTA in SMEs has a significant positive effect on FTA utilization and performance, the international marketing orientation factor only has a significant positive effect on the performance, while the inadequate improvement of non-tariff barriers has a significant negative impact on FTA utilization. In addition, FTA activity has a significant mediation effect on two paths. Originality/value - This paper is of great practical relevance as a tool to enable SMEs to make effective utilization of Korea-China FTA and improve their imports and exports. The paper helps grasp the main factors affecting the utilization and performance of FTA for SMEs, also to establish FTA Business Model and FTA utilization plans for specific industries in the future regarding tariff and non-tariffs compatibility.