• The Korean Journal of Financial Management
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.1-32
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• 2008

This study examines the changes and determinants of cash to assets ratios(cash ratios) by analyzing 14,016 Korean manufacturing firms sample for the period of $1999{\sim}2004$. The major findings can be summarized as follows. First, the average cash ratios for Korean manufacturing firms have increased from 4.7 percent of 1999 to 5.2 percent of 2004. In addition, the average cash holdings per firm also have increased from 4.3 billion Won to 8.0 billion Won during the same period. However, the capital expenditures relative to cash ratios or operating cash flow have decreased significantly, confirming the notion that physical investment of Korean manufacturing sector has been shrinking recently. Second, in regression tests with panel data, the coefficients of target adjustment variables show the expected negative signs, but coefficients of the deficit of fund variables show the unexpected positive signs. Thus, the evidence seems to be supportive of static tradeoff model of cash holdings. Third, in regression tests to find the determinants of cash ratios, most of the variables show similar results as the previous studies. However, in terms of adjusted coefficient of determination and F-statistic, the firm-characteristic variables suggested by static trade-off theory have more explanatory power than the variables suggested by pecking order theory.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.75-87
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• 2020

This paper aims to not only investigate the nature of financial security and its measurement, but also to compare financial security level in 629 listed companies divided into four different industries (materials, industrials, health care, and consumer goods) before building a theoretical framework and regression models to examine the determinants of financial security. By gathering 2,167 financial statements published in Vietnamese Stock Exchange during eight years from 2012 to 2019, with the support of STATA, the research results indicate that six different internal factors, which are liquidity, profitability, firm size, debt management ratios, asset management ratios, and cash flows, explain 77.7% the change of financial security ratio and 3.4% the change in sustainable growth ratio. Specifically, while firm size has a positive impact on sustainable growth ratio but a negative impact on financial security ratio, deb management and profitability have an insignificant influence on the financial security level. Furthermore, an increase in asset management ratios would result positively in both two dependent variables whereas a rise in sustainable growth and a decline in financial security ratio are expected to witness if there is an increase in cash flows.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.129-139
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• 2016

Purpose - This paper examines the explanatory power of the agency theory in the determination of cash holdings for Korean retail firms. If the agency theory holds, a firm with strong corporate governance structure tends to have low cash holdings. A strong governance structure makes the CEO of this firm to behave in the interests of shareholders and thus the CEO has low incentive to stockpile cash holdings, which can be easily diverted for the CEO's own managerial purposes. We investigate this relationship between corporate governance structure and cash holdings, by using corporate governance scores as a proxy variable that captures the effectiveness of corporate governance mechanism. Research design, data, and methodology - We adopt the sample of publicly listed retail firms in KOSPI market from 2005 to 2013. Financial and accounting statements are gathered from the WISEfn database. We also use the corporate governance scores published by Korean Corporate Governance Service. The relationship between the corporate governance scores and cash holdings is cross-sectionally estimated based on the ordinary least square method. This estimation method is widely accepted in the existing literature. The sample of large conglomerates, Chebol, and the remainder firms are separately examined as well, to account for the distinctive internal financing environment in these large conglomerates. Results - We mainly contribute to the extant literature by providing empirical evidence against the agency theory of cash policy. Unlike the prediction of agency theory, we confirm statistically insignificant or even positive correlations between the set of corporate governance scores and cash-asset ratios. Almost all the major corporate governance attributes including total score, shareholder rights, board structure, and the quality of information disclosure do not show negative correlations with cash holdings, which poses a strong challenge to the validity of the agency theory in the determination of retail firms' cash holdings. Conclusions - This study presents interesting empirical results with respect to the cash policy in Korean retail firms. Consistent to prior studies, I verify that the agency theory only limitedly explains the level of cash holdings. Future studies may obtain more robust results by examining a longer sample period.

• Korean Management Science Review
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.113-131
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• 2015

We examine the relationship between firms' environmental (E), social (S), and governance (G) factors, with their financial performance in order to provide an empirical rationale for CSV (creating shared value) pursuing both of firms' profitability and CSR (corporate social responsibility). The financial performance is classified into four aspects such as profitability, stability, efficiency, and cash-flow, and each of these aspects is measured by two financial ratios respectively. To measure the firms' ESG performance, we employ the published performance grades by the Korea Corporate Governance Service for a three year span, from 2011 to 2013. Total of eight regression analyses are performed. The results show that firms' non-financial performance in general has statistically significant positive relationships with return on assets, return on net sales, and cash-flow from operating activities ratio, while it has negative relationships with net working capital ratio, asset turnover ratio, and cash-flow from investing activities ratio. It has no significant relationships with debt ratio and equity turnover ratio. The results imply that firms' non-financial performance may have a negative impact on some financial performance such as liquidity and efficiency in a short term, but it would eventually improve the firms' profitability and cash-generating ability, which provides an empirical evidence for the concept of CSV, and motivates the firms to participate in social contribution activities without sacrificing their profitability for their respective sustainablity management.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.1-23
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• 2009

Prior bankruptcy studies have established that bankrupt firm's pre-filing financial ratios are different from those of healthy firms or of randomly selected going concerns. However, they may not be sufficiently different from the financial ratios of other firms in financial distress to allow the development of a ratio-based model that predicts bankruptcy with reasonable accuracy. As the result, in the multiple discriminant model, independent variables divided firms into bankrupt firms and healthy firms are retained earnings to total asset, receivable turnover, net income to sales, financial expenses, inventory turnover, owner's equity to total asset, cash flow to current liability, and current asset to current liability. Moreover four variables Retained earnings to total asset, net income to sales, total asset turnover, owner's equity to total asset indicate that these valuables classify bankrupt firms and distress firms. On the other hand, Owner's Equity to borrowed capital, Ordinary income to Net Sales, Operating Income to Total Asset, Total Asset Turnover and Inventory Turnover are selected to predict bankruptcy possibility in the Logistic regression model.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.205-224
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• 2020

Purpose - This study aimed to identify the effects of ownership structures on agency costs in internationally diversified firms listed on the KOSDAQ market. Design/methodology/approach - A total of 5,824 samples were finally selected and empirically analyzed for a total of nine years from 2011 to 2019, during which the International Accounting Standards had been mandatory for firms listed on the KOSDAQ market. Findings - The results of this study showed that the effects of ownership structures on the ratio of asset turnover are positive for the major share and foreign equity ratios of international diversified firms. Moreover, by selecting the ratio of entertainment expenses as a proxy for agency expenses, this study confirmed that the effects of the ownership structure of an international diversified entity on entertainment expenditure were determined to show a significantly negative relation to entertainment expenditure, thus indicating that the higher the ratio of major shareholders, the more appropriately control the expenditure of entertainment expenses through arbitrary private deviations of the management.Furthermore, considering the effect of the ownership structure on the expenditure of sales and administrative expenses as a proxy variable for agency costs, this study verified that the majority share ratio of international diversified firms was negative to the expenditure of sales and administrative expenses, confirming that the higher the share of major shareholders, the lower the selling and administrative costs, but insignificant.Finally, as a result of determining whether the ownership structure of an international diversified firm affects the holding of free cash, the majority share of this firm shows a significantly negative relation to the ratio of the holding of surplus cash, indicating that the higher the proportion of major shareholders, the more appropriately control the holding of the entity's free cash through arbitrary private deviance by the manager. Research implications or Originality - Major shareholders of an internationally diversified firm listed on the KOSDAQ market play a positive role in the firm's performance by properly controlling agency costs that may be incurred by the management.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.151-156
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• 2019

This study aims to develop a distress prediction model and to evaluate distress prediction power for the food services industry by using 2017 food service industry financial ratios. Samples were collected from 46 food service industries, and we extracted 14 financial ratios from them. The results show that, first, there are eight ratios (financial ratio, current ratio, operating income to sales, net income to assets, ratio of cash flows, income to stockholders' equity, rate of operating income, and total asset turnover) that can discriminate failures in food service industries and the top-level food service industries. Second, by using these eight financial ratios, the logit function classifies the top-level food service industries, and failures in the food service industry can be estimated by using logit analysis. The verification results as to accuracy in the estimated logit analysis indicate that the model's distress-prediction power is 89.1%.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.11
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• pp.157-165
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• 2018

Companies conduct R&D for continuous development and enhancement of corporate value, and obtain patents as an intangible asset resulting from this process. This study screened 103 medical device firms whose R&D information, patent information, and management performance information were all published to determine how R&D activities and patents affect corporate operational performance. The number of patents, R&D costs, company type and Inno-Biz of the company were set as independent variables, and the companies' sales, intangible assets, operating profit ratios, net profit margins, corporate ratings and profit-related financial ratios were used as dependent variables. The results confirmed that R&D expenditure had negative (-) effects on most indicators, including sales volume, operating profit ratio, and net profit ratio, while it had positive (+) [ED highlight - these are unnecessary if negative and positive are also written out.] effects only on intangible assets. Additionally, domestic patents were found to have negative (-) effects on sales, cash flow ratings, and dropped capital return, and positive (+) effects on net profit growth. Moreover, the business performance variables affected by the company characteristics were sales volume and cash flow ratings. The medical device industry is dominated by small and medium-sized businesses Although research and development activities and patents have been shown to have a negative impact on corporate management in the short term, they are expected to have a positive long-term impact when reflecting the characteristics of the medical device industry that must undergo clinical trials and authorization procedures after R&D.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.121-133
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• 2017

The propose of study is to examine the characteristics of companies with high possibility to form an internal control weakness using forecasting model. This study use the actual listed/unlisted companies' data from K_financial institution. The first conclusion is that discriminant model is more valid than logit model to predict internal control weak companies. A discriminant model for predicting the vulnerability of internal control has high classification accuracy and has low the Type II error that is incorrectly classifying vulnerable companies to normal companies. The second conclusion is that the characteristic of weak internal control companies have a low credit rating, low asset soundness assessment, high delinquency rates, lower operating cash flow, high debt ratios, and minus operating profit to the net sales ratio. As not only a case of listed companies but unlisted companies which did not occur in previous studies are extended in this study, research results including the forecasting model can be used as a predictive tool of financial institutions predicting companies with high potential internal control weakness to prevent asset losses.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.65-88
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• 2021

Purpose - This paper aims to examine the determinants of SWFs' investment in Asian countries and to identify consistent investment patterns of SWFs in specific target firms from Asia, particularly China and South Korea. Design/methodology - This study extends the Tobin's Q model to examine the relationship between SWF investments in target firms and their returns with other firm-level control variables. We collect consistent data on SWF investments and the matched firm-level data on target firms, which of observation is 1,512 firms (333 in South Korea and 1,179 in China) targeted by 20 SWF sources during 1997-2017. The panel random effect model is used to estimate the extended Tobin's Q model. The robustness of the estimations is tested by the simultaneous equation models and the panel GEE model. Findings - The evidence shows that sovereign wealth funds are more inclined to invest in the financial sector with a monopoly position and in large firms with higher growth opportunity and superior cash asset ratios in China. In contrast to their investments in China, sovereign wealth funds in South Korea prefer to invest in strategic sectors, such as energy and information technology, and in large firms with high performance and low leverage. Sovereign wealth funds' investments tend to significantly improve the target firm's performance measured by sales growth and returns in both Korea and China. Originality/value - The existing literature focuses on examining the determination of SWFs investment in the developed countries, such as Europe and the United States. Our paper contributes to the literature in three ways; first, we analyzes case studies of SWF investments in Asian markets, which are less developed and riskier. Second, we examine whether the determination of SWF investment in Asian target firms depends on the different time periods, on types of sources of SWFs, and on acquiring countries. Third, our research uses vast sample data on target firms in longer time periods (1997-2017) than other previous studies on the SWFs for Asian markets.