• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.10
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• pp.73-82
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• 2015

Purpose - This paper aims to investigate whether information asymmetry could explain capital structures in Korean corporations. According to Myers (1984), firms prefer internal funding to external financing due to the costs associated with information asymmetry. When external financing is necessary, firms prefer to issue debt rather than equity by the same reasoning. Since Shyam-Sunder and Myers (1999), numerous studies continue to debate the validity of the theory. In this paper, we show how the theory depends on assumptions and incorporated variables. We hope our investigation can provide helpful implications regarding capital structure, information asymmetry, and other firm characteristics. Specifically, our empirical results are complementary to the analysis of Son and Lee's (2015), a recent study that examines the pecking order theory prediction for Korean retail firms. Research design, data, and methodology - We test empirical models that are some variants of model used in Shyam-Sunder and Myers (1999). The financial and accounting data are provided by WISEfn for the firms listed on the KOSPI during 1990 to 2013. Bond ratings are supplied by the Korea Investor Service (KIS). We take into account the heterogeneity in debt capacity; a firm's debt capacity is measured by using the method of Lemmon and Zender (2010) based on its bond ratings. Finally, we estimate empirical models suggested by Shyam-Sunder and Myers (1999), Frank and Goyal (2003), and Lemmon and Zender (2010). Results - First, we find that Shyam-Sunder and Myers' (1999) prediction fails to explain total debt changes of Korean firms. Second, we find a non-monotonic relationship between total debt changes and financial deficits with respect to debt capacity. This contradicts the prediction of Lemmon and Zender (2010) that argues the pecking order theory survives with a monotonically increasing relationship. Third, we estimate a negative correlation coefficient between financial deficit and current debt changes. The result is the complete opposite of the prediction of Lemmon and Zender (2010). Finally, we also confirm the non-monotonic relationship between non-current debt changes and financial deficits with respect to debt capacity. Yet, the slope of coefficient is smaller than that of total debt change case. Indeed, the results are, to some extent, consistent with the prediction of pecking order theory, if we exclude the mid-debt capacity firms. Conclusions - Our empirical results complementary to the analysis of Son and Lee (2015), a recent study focusing on capital structure in Korean retail firms; their paper suggests interesting topics regarding capital structure, information asymmetry, and other firm characteristics in Korean corporations. Contrary to Son and Lee (2015), our results show that total debt changes and current debt changes are inconsistent with the prediction of Shyam-Sunder and Myers (1999). However, similar to Son and Lee (2015), non-current debt changes are consistent with the pecking order prediction, in the case of excluding the mid-level debt capacity firms. This contrast allows us to infer that industry characteristics significantly affect the validity of the pecking order prediction. Further studies are needed to analyze the economics behind this phenomenon, which is beyond the scope of our paper. In addition, the estimation bias potentially matters regarding the firm-level debt capacity calculation. We also reserve this topic for future research.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.587-614
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• 2018

The Korean government is aiming to strengthen industrial and national competitiveness through the promotion of cooperation between universities, public research institutes and industry and vitalization of technology transfer. In 2013 and 2014, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning have announced policies to support SMEs by public research organizations. In addition, in 2015, the 'Korean Fraunhofer support system', which pay government subsidies according to the amounts of private R&D funds was adopted. However, there are some concern about the government's policies. There is yet disclosed how these policies affect technology transfer because industrial R&D funding has not been activated in Korea unlike German. Therefore this paper analyzes effects of relationship between universities, public research institutes and external organizations on performance of technology transfer based on the Triple Helix Model. Empirical results show that the relationship with the government has a significant impact on the resource security and the relationship with the industry has a significant effect on the diffusion of the performance. In addition, a public research institute was selected and case analysis was conducted to suggest policy implications for improving the technology transfer performance of universities and public research institutes.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.139-148
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• 2016

The importance of technology commercialization is being emphasized more and more, but high technology excellence does not always lead to a successful business. In addition, companies that invest heavily in basic research and technology development are also not always able to guarantee high profits. This is due to the technical problems when present in step research and development levels are difficult to commercialize. And the market will not work rationally is also the cause of the problem. Therefore, to effectively utilize the resources necessary to ensure such partners to build alliances and cooperation with external funding or manpower is crucial to commercialize the research results of basic science successfully. In previous studies, it has been made many studies in accordance with the approach to the technology (e.g. Research and Development, Management of Technology, Technology Innovation, etc.). But the study of technology commercialization point of view is not being done much. This study should explores the available business required, or realized in the process of researching the basic science and trying to understand the imperfections of the market through the property of technology (tacit knowledge, objectified value of technology and the information asymmetry between innovation subjects, etc.). In addition, this paper, we try to focus on a strategic approach to the role of International Science Business Belt (ISBB) with success in science and technology business as appropriate countermeasures about breaking the 'Valley of Death.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.487-501
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• 2016

This study aims to establish basic data of operating status for ecological learning facilities in Korea, investigate their characteristics for operating methods, and present proposals for the efficient operation and management of ecological learning facilities. For this purpose, a list of ecological learning facilities in Korea was established and 50 facilities were surveyed about the current status regarding the operation and management. Based on the survey, operation form, interpreter and volunteer, visitor, budget and revenue, promotion method, and other items were analyzed. Concerning the operating forms, most of the facilities were direct-operated facilities by government, and they are operating mainly by officials. Visitors are mostly families on weekends, while kindergarten children are main visitors during weekdays. Most facilities have higher proportion of visitors nationwide, and they get information mainly from websites operated by facilities and related organization. The annual operating budget and revenue depend on the facility size and operating forms, and the direct-operated facilities by government use higher budget compared to commission-operated ones. For the efficient operation of ecological learning, expert with specialized knowledge should participate in the operation, and intuitive and informative websites should be established and continually managed. In addition, it is necessary to support revenue of by national and local governments and to secure external funding network like local companies and donation.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.76
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• pp.183-219
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• 2016

In light of the recent increase in new independent spaces within the field of artistic production, this study seeks to examine the daily experience and art practice of agents in such spaces. In-depth interviews were conducted with fifteen emerging artists, who manage new independent art spaces and participate actively in related activities, and the significance of their activities was analyzed. An important theoretical foundation of this study is Bourdieu's concept of the field of cultural production. According to Bourdieu, in order to understand a specific field, the habitus of agents must be studied together with the structure of the field. This study found that individuals belonging to the same or a close generation exhibit similar attitudes to life based on shared experiences, and they can be connected to their art practice. Most agents of new spaces did not have high expectations for success, and chose to practice art independently while bonding with their peers and enjoying the moment rather than wait for recognition or funding from external sources. Their self-fulfilling habitus is condition-specific and can be regarded as a form of flexible art practice. Given the poor conditions of today's field of artistic production, this is likely to serve as an advantage in entering the field and in position-taking. The social significance of this study lies in the fact that the aforementioned characteristics of the agents of independent production spaces not only reflect the current field of artistic production but also other fields of cultural production at large in our society.

• 한국벤처창업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.04a
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• pp.35-64
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• 2007

Despite the tremendous efforts to boost them, domestic SMEs lack competitive power and it intensifies bipolarization between the conglomerates and SMEs. Furthermore, degree of industry-academy collaboration still falls far behind of that of developed countries even with government' s various policies and continuous increase in investment to strengthen the SMEs' technology innovation capability. Although many internal factors are suggested to affect technological performance, focus of existing studies has been restricted to immediate impact of industry-academy collaboration on technology innovation and it is not known how internal factors are related. This research conducts empirical analysis on the impact of industry-academy collaborations and absorptive capacity on technological performance in Korean SMEs. Sample frame is SMEs with more than five employees located in the nation wide industrial complex and 1,077 questionnaires are collected with the help of Korea Industrial Complex Corporations. 940 sample data excluding those with insufficient response are used in analysis. Multiple regression analysis revealed that the industry-academy collaborations and innovative HRM system, on important dimension of absorptive capacity, are positively correlated to technological performance. Furthermore, there exists a positive interaction effect between industry-academy collaborations and innovative HRM system. These findings make contributions to the formation of SME innovation policy and management. When funding industry-academy collaborations, government should consider SMEs' internal effort for innovation, that is, the possession of innovative HRM system, as well as firm's technology capability. Also, as technological performance cannot be achieved simply with R&D investment, both quantitative and qualitative assessment of SMEs' technological capability should be done to evaluate the candidate SMEs. As for management, it is important for SMEs with limited internal resources and capabilities to fully employ external resources to achieve higher technological performance. The development of innovative HRM system will be particularly helpful not only for internal R&D, but also for adoption of technology and knowledge from outside.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.69-77
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• 2015

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to examine whether the cash policies of retail firms listed on Korean stock markets are consistent with the evidence provided in the study of Almeida et al. (2004). Liquidity management is an important issue for financially constrained firms relative to financially unconstrained firms. Because there are few sources of external funding, the optimal liquidity policies of financially constrained firms should reflect their own earnings or cash inflows to create opportunities for current and future real investments. According to this simple idea, we estimate the sensitivity of cash to cash flows and simply check whether the estimated sensitivity to cash flows of the cash retained by constrained retail firms is greater than that of the cash retained by unconstrained retail firms. Through this work, we aim to explain why the cash policies of the retail firms listed on the Korean stock markets differ from those of listed manufacturing enterprises. Research design, data, and methodology - To explain a firm's cash holdings, we use only three explanatory variables: earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT), Tobin's q, and size. All the variables are defined as the value of the numerator divided by aggregate assets. Thanks to this definition, it is possible to treat all the sample firms as a single large firm. The sample financial data for this study are collected from the retail enterprises listed on the KOSPI and KOSDAQ markets from 1991 to 2013. We can obtain these data from WISEfn, the financial information company. This study's methodology has its origin in Keynes's simple idea of precautionary liquidity demand: When a firm faces financial constraints, cash savings from earnings or cash inflows become important from the corporate finance perspective. Following this simple idea, Almeida et al. (2004) developed their theoretical model and found empirical evidence that the sensitivity of cash to cash flows varies systematically according to different types of financing frictions. To find more empirical evidence for this idea, we examined the cash flow sensitivity of the cash held by Korean retail firms. Results - Through several robustness tests, we empirically showed that financially constrained Korean retail firms display significant positive propensity to save cash from earnings before interest and taxes, while the estimated cash flow sensitivity of the cash held by unconstrained retail firms is not significant. Despite the relatively low earnings of retail firms, their sensitivity is three times greater than that of manufacturing enterprises. This implies that Korean retail firms have greater intentions of facilitating future investments rather than current investments. Conclusions - The characteristics of the cash policies of Korean retail firms differ from those of manufacturing firms. This contrast may be attributable to industry-oriented policy planning, regulations, and institutional differences. However, the industrial policymakers should observe signals of the long-term growth options of retail firms based on their high propensity to save from their cash inflows.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.25-50
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• 2017

Declining research competitiveness and inefficiency are constantly being raised in the National Assembly and the media for the Government-funded Research Institutes(GFRIs), which are highly dependent on government funding. These external stakeholders point to the workforce aging of the GFRIs as one of the main causes of inefficiency. They insist that the aging leads to an increase in labor costs, a discontinuity in research, a decrease in employment of new researchers, and a decrease in research competitiveness. However, the GFRIs argue that the aging is a natural phenomenon due to an increase in the age of recruitment, and even if there is an side effect, it is extremely small or even vice versa. It is interesting that there is no empirical study identifying the correlation between the workforce aging and the research performance of the GFRIs, despite the discussion. This study tracked and analyzed the changes of the research performance and the workforce for the five years from 2011 to 2015, and tried to demonstrate the correlation between the workforce aging and the research performance. As a result, we confirmed that there is an inverted U-type correlation between the aging and the papers, one of the research performance, and that the optimal age is 44.96 years. Also, we could not find any correlation between the aging and the patents.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.163-171
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• 2016

This study derived the policy implications and market strategies by analysis the e-book companies requirements & the CPND value chain structure, in order to revitalize the e-book market in Korea. Specifically, we examined the prospect of e-book market in Korea, current situations of production and distribution, awareness of service utilization and requirements for support policy with targets of 30 companies. As a research, the most needed item for e-book companies is 'PR and marketing support to enter and open the markets'(27%), which is the highest. 'Financial support such as labor costs and business expenses', 'support for retraining personnel to develop the expertise in respective fields' are followed and they account for 22%. Currently, the most effective support item is the external support program(35%) and funding power(30%) is followed. Unlike a paper book market, e-book is turned into a platform business in terms of the value chain. Based on these research content, e-book market activation and corporate competitive strategy was derived as follows : 1)literacy reinforcement about SNS marketing and e-pub3 authoring tool. 2)statistical DB construction of retail sales channels. 3)diversification of the billing system. 4)The quality of the e-book content certification.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.242-261
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• 2012

Early stages of technology valuation have been often overlooked or under-represented. The early stage technologies are even riskier due to their inadequacy of commercial development and market applicability. More than 95% of patents fail to earn any revenues so that the majority of patents were valueless. Technology transfers from laboratories at universities and research institutes to industrial firms have increased to acquire value from invented technologies. Technology transfer, a process of transferring discoveries and innovations resulted from research to commercial sectors, typically comprises several steps: disclosing the discoveries and innovations, i.e., intellectual property (IP), evaluating the IP's economic prospects, securing a patent, copyright or trademark for the IP, commercializing the technology through licensing, forming a joint venture, or selling. At each of those stages in the research and development of technology, the value of technology would play a very important role of making decision on the movement toward the next step, however, the financial value of technology is not easy to determine due to a great amount of uncertainty in the course of research and development, and commercialization. This paper refers to technology embodied as devices, equipment, software or processes primarily developed at public research institutions such as universities. Sometimes it is also as the result of externally financed projects contracted with industry. Nearly always technology developed at public research entities results in laboratory prototypes. When it is required to define the technology transfer contract terms for the license of the university patrimonial rights to external funding companies or other interested parties, a question arises: what is the monetary value? In this paper, we present a method for technology valuation based on the identification of specific value points related to its development. The final technology value must be within previously defined value limits. This paper consists of the review of issues related to technology transfer and commercialization, the identification of characteristics of technologies in the early stage of technology development, the formulation of framework of methods to value the early stage technologies, and the conclusion and implication of the previous review.