• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.341-366
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• 2013

The term, Mittelstand, has no exact english translation for the definition, but, today, Mittelstand refers to small and medium-sized enterprises(SME), mostly family-owned firms in Germany. The Mittelstand is called the backbone of the German economy because it drove the economic miracle after World War II. During the global recession and the euro zone's debt crisis in recent years, in which european businesses have faced the near-collapse of competitiveness particularly in manufacturing, the German exports are booming and exceeded exports of China in 2012. Most importantly, the Germany economic performance has been widely attributed to the strength of the Mittelstand. Many of countries, even some leading public companies are seeking to emulate the success of the Mittelstand. Investors evaluate that many of Germany's investable "hidden champions" are Mittelstand companies. The purpose of this study is to present some of answers to the following questions: Firstly, what makes the German Mittelstand so successful? Secondly, what does the success of the German Mittelstand mean for the Korean SMEs in global competitiveness? Thirdly, what Korean government has to do improve the global competitiveness of the Korean SMEs? Some discussions in this study mention the managerial implications for Korean exporting SMEs particularly in manufacturing. Several factors that account for the success of the German Mittelstand are technological excellence and the tradition of family-owned management, concentration on niche market and globalization, and institutional supports. There are some of important lessons to be learned from the German Mittelstand. If the purposes of Korean SMEs want to remain in the sustainable competitive advantage and withstand unforeseen economic turbulences in the future, they must be able to meet the followings: 1) Technology that meets the global standard or exceeding it 2) Competitiveness in price in the global market 3) Active involvement in the globalization process, utilizing various entry modes Innovative products at globally competitive price are a crucial point for Korean exporting SMEs to achieve their competitive edge over others in the target markets abroad. It is time for Korean SMEs to cultivate a core competence in manufacturing in order to position Korea as a global manufacturing hub with SMEs leading.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.251-276
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• 2017

The utilization of Digital and Social Network has become be a key success factor in business operations as information technologies evolve rapidly. This study is to identity the relationship between ICT & digital utilization, global orientation and export marketing capability in Korean SMEs. Survey data of Korean SMEs in south regional areas was collected and analyzed for empirical hypothesis test by PLS structural equation method. The key findings are as follows. First, ICT utilization such as SNS, homepage and online portal does not impact directly on export marketing capability. It means that SMEs would not still take advantage of utilization of social network availability. Second, ICT utilization has positive influences on global market orientation and global network orientation. Finally, both global market orientation and network have significant impacts on export marketing capability. In conclusion, global orientation has full-mediation effects on relationship between ICT capability and global marketing. This study provides evidences and some practical insights that digital utilization have indirect influences on global marketing through global markets and network orientation in Korean SMEs. In information technology era, ICT utilization will play an important role in the process of SMEs' internationalization. Therefore, for sustainable growth and survival SMEs should manage and intensify ICT capability more strategically as one of core competence. The value of ICT capability in SMEs would be depended on their strategic perspectives toward digitalization. Additional empirical research about digital capability based on larger sample will be needed.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.141-151
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of the international marketing program (hereunder refer to as 'program') among the programs to support export conducted by the Small and Medium Business Administration. Especially, this study aims to analyze the effects of the program to increase in export for small - medium enterprises of less than 7 years (base on Item 2 of Article 2 of Act on Support for Small and Medium Enterprise Establishment). In order to achieve the purpose above, export result for 1,690 companies which participated through Gyeonggi District Small and Medium Business Administration in 2014 and 2015 were selected among the 843 companies that applied to the program through 12 local small and medium business administration in Korea and quantitative analysis on export performance of 1,690 companies is conducted in this study. In this study, main variables were selected by investigating advanced researches related to export performance of company based on the existing studies. And also, samples have been collected from companies in Gyeonggi area for this research since the companies in Gyeonggi area have been ranked as the 1s annually and the companies in Gyeonggi area employ the highest number of people per industry. As a result of actual proof analysis, Firstly, it was suggested that the program influences positively on the export performance of small-medium enterprises. Secondly, the program shows that the program influenced positively on the export performance of companies with less than 7 years. Lastly, it suggested that the program influenced more positively on the small - medium enterprises with less than 7years than normal small - medium enterprises. By adding the export performances of companies in Ulsan area of which the scale of import and export is the 2nd largest and companies in Seoul area, that participated in the program during the same period, I would like to conduct follow- up research if the significant results are obtained or not.

• Journal of Venture Innovation
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.67-82
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• 2018

Lately, recognition of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been changing. CSR turned out to be a powerful tool which a company incorporates to improve its image. Nowadays, it is no longer an option, but a shared sense which is a source of corporate growth and competitiveness. CSR has changed with times and the economic environment, especially as the global value chain (GVC) came to be more vital, it became accepted as an effective means of growth strategy for small and medium exporters. For SMEs exporters, participating in GVC requires that they meet international standards for CSR demanded by global enterprises. Reflecting this trend, exporters should strive to achieve both goals of social responsibility fulfillment and efficient growth through CSR activities. As one of the key measures for a sustainable growth of an organization, the following are the policy implications. First, it is necessary to establish a national organization dedicated to CSR for small businesses. The central government should establish an organization which is exclusively responsible for CSR of SMEs and oversee the task of CSR of small businesses. Second, the development and verification of the CSV evaluation model should be promoted. The international trend of CSR should be promptly spread out to individual firms and supported to maximize economic effects through consultancy. Third, it should be linked to global advancement. CSR reports by small and mid-size businesses will have to be written to ensure that they have a real effect on the global value chain.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.181-201
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• 2016

In this study, transaction cost approach was applied to analysis on direct export determinants of SMEs by using key attributes of transactions, asset specificity, environmental uncertainty, frequency and marketing capability, with a parameter of opportunism. Typical Transaction Cost Analysis theory explains that when transaction cost with business channels(whether it is for buy or sell) increase, the firms integrate the channels. So it is a choice made by firms regarding direct versus indirect channels. The theory was extended to a model of choice of institutional form of direct or indirect export by a norm of opportunism in this empirical study. The survey result showed that lower level of asset specificity and marketing capability or higher level of environmental uncertainty were likely to expose indirect exporters to higher level of opportunism of direct exporter. And we also saw that indirect exporters were likely to choose direct export chanel when opportunism of exporters was higher. From the standpoint of theory, we can say that the basic propositions of the Transaction Cost Analysis, except the attribute of frequency, are supported. This study result could provide a profiling of target business areas and firms for government's policy on direct export promotion of SMEs.

• Korean small business review
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.91-117
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to study the effect of internatioanl entrepreneurial orientation of small and medium-sized Chinese manufacturing companies on export performance. A total of 183 corporate data were used for empirical analysis for Chinese manufacturing export companies. In summary, first, international entrepreneurial orientation was shown to have a significant positive effect on export performance, second, international etrprenurial orientation was shown to have a significant positive effect on absorption capacity, and third, the stronger environmental dynamics and network capacity, the stronger international business orientation and export ability. The implications of this study are summarized as follows. It suggests that the more innovative, enterprising and risk-taking Chinese SMEs are, the better their export performance and the better their ability to absorb foreign knowledge. It also suggests that small business managers must continue to strengthen their network capabilities to improve export performance through international entrepreneurial orientation, and this relationship is further strengthened in a dynamic environment. It also suggests that the impact of firm's absorption capacity on export performance will weaken over time.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.1-26
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• 2018

This study estimates the technical efficiency and total factor productivity(TFP) of and analyzes the relationship between TFP and exports for Korean manufacturing companies from 2000 to 2016. Specially, TFP is decomposed into Technical Change(TC), Technical Efficiency Change (TEC), and Sale Effect(SE), and compared between large and small enterprises. First, in the case of technical efficiency, the Korean economy has been very vulnerable to external shocks, such as the sharp decline following the 2008 financial crisis. The efficiency of the electronics, automobile, and machinery sectors is low and needs to be improved. In addition, the technological efficiency of large enterprises is higher than that of SMEs in most manufacturing sub-sectors except for non-ferrous metals. In the case of TFP, most changes are due to TC, and the effective combination of labor, capital and the effect of scale have little effect, suggesting that improvement of internal structure is urgent. In addition, volatility due to the impact of the financial crisis in 2008 was much larger in SMEs than in large companies, so external economic impacts are more greater for SMEs than large enterprises. The relationship between TFP decomposition factors and exports shows that TC has a positive effect only on exports of SMEs. Therefore, in order to increase exports, in the case of SMEs, R&D support to promote technological development is needed. In the case of large companies, it is necessary to establish differentiated strategies for each export market, competitor company, and item to link efficiency and scale effect of exports.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.67-90
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• 2016

This study examines whether there is any significant relation between executive compensation and future firm performance for the Korean export manufacturing small and medium-sized firms. We sorted the whole sample firms into the sub-groups of 10 deciles by firm size and the KSIC standard. We found the following empirical results. First, Korean export manufacturing small and medium-sized firms typically showed lower or even negative profitability in terms of return on equity and operating profit ratio to sales. Foreign equity ownership is very low with an average of 3.77%. Second, for the firms with higher ratio of excess executive compensation to asset had lower future firm performance. It implies that the typical owner-manager in Korean export manufacturing SMEs earns excess pay, but do not contribute much to firm performance. Third, as for future cumulative abnormal returns for future one- and three-year periods, firms with higher owner-executive pay had lower returns compared with firms with lower pay. So the stock market investors set a lower value on them. Fourth, there is a positive relation between excess executive pay and executive overconfidence, and it implies that owner-CEOs with higher pay may become overconfident, thereby lowering future firm performance somehow.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.93-110
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• 2022

Korea, a resource-scarce country, has been undergoing export-led economic growth in the form of processing and intermediary trade for the past several decades. In Korea, which has an export-led economic structure centered on processing trade, the export economy precedes the domestic economy, so Korea's monthly export performance has been used as an important indicator of economic indicators in itself. In recent decades, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which account for 99% of the total number of domestic enterprises, account for about 35% of exports as of 2021. In this study, from the viewpoint of emphasizing the export contribution of SMEs, the Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Export Business Index is developed based on the actual export performance of SMEs, through which this paper could present alternative index differentiated from the existing Business Survey Indexes.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.181-187
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• 2018

With a view to deepening the research stream on the factors positively influencing the export growth and the employment increase of South Korean small and medium companies, this research has developed the research model about the impact of small and medium companies' external technology R&D collaboration network heterogeneity on their export growth and employment increase, and has empirically tested the research model with the 2,200 data collected from the small and medium companies in the South Korea. This study illuminates the two points from the empirical testing results. One point is that small and medium companies' external technology R&D collaboration network heterogeneity significantly and positively influences their employment increase from technology development. The other point is that small and medium companies' export growth from technology R&D partially mediates the impact of the external technology R&D collaboration network heterogeneity on their employment increase from technology R&D.