• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.12 no.12
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• pp.83-92
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• 2014

Purpose - A business ecosystem refers to mutually dependent systems interconnected by a loose foundation of various ecosystem members such as customers, suppliers, partners, and other stakeholders. The ecosystem-based strategy attempts to achieve competitive advantage for firms by enriching a business ecosystem or building a sustainable business ecosystem through the collaboration and co-evolution of its members. A sustainable business ecosystem is a source of competitiveness for firms anda manageable resource for gaining a competitive advantage. Customers represent the core membership of the business ecosystem and play a pivotal role in building a sustainable business ecosystem. This study examines the effects of customer participation on economic and social value in the business ecosystem and suggests a course of action for building a sustainable business ecosystem. Research design, data, and methodology - Two business cases of South Korea are selected from two different business types: business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-customer (B2C) firms. Business ecosystems for B2B and B2C firms reflect contrasting characteristics. Data was collected from in-depth interviews with four representatives of four firms. Results - The study suggested seven propositions for the relationships between customer participation and a sustainable business ecosystem through multiple case studies based on in-depth interviews. The results reveal the following four strategic actions for building sustainable business ecosystems based on the suggested propositions: alignment, systemization, socialization, and co-evolution. Alignment refers to achieving a harmonic balance or virtuous circle among the firm's mission, investment, and value creation. Systemization refers to building and implementing management and infrastructure systems rooted in the corporate culture. Socialization of customers in the business ecosystem reinforces the harmony or virtuous cycle. Finally, co-evolution is associated with the relationship between firms and customers as buyer firms in a restricted business ecosystem. Conclusions - This study considers multiple cases for the execution of a sustainable business ecosystem in collaboration with customers and suggests seven propositions and four strategic actions. The results are based on qualitative data from interviews with business associates from two firms in an open business ecosystem and two firms in a restricted business ecosystem, both in South Korea. Our research results regarding two contrasting business ecosystems shed light on business issues and policy making in Asian business environments, which are in the transition stages from a traditional conglomerate-driven to an inclusive growth-driven economy. The business ecosystem itself should be considered a manageable resource for firms' competitive positions in the market. A customer is a member of the business ecosystem and should thus be viewed not only as a purchasing entity and an object of relationship management but also as a co-creator of value. Therefore, firms should collaborate with customers to build sustainable business ecosystems. For this, firms must create social value, which cannot be created by customers alone, within the business ecosystem. Then, customers participate in a business ecosystem and build it to be favorable to them. Implications for academics and practitioners were suggested.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.169-197
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• 2013

Despite many theoretical and empirical studies, general causality between IPRs system, firm technological innovation and financial performance is not clear. This study notices that the core factor to create financial performance is different by each industry. The study analyzed the effect of IPRs system on innovation and economic growth targeting 3 industries; pharmaceutical industry to which the basic track of creating performance is applied (strengthening IPRs${\rightarrow}$increasing R&D input/output${\rightarrow}$increasing sales); semiconductor industry where the relationship between stronger IPRs and R&D input/output is weak; and shipbuilding industry which has weak correlation between R&D and sales. It used panel data for 15 years since TRIPs when the patent institution in Korea reached up to the level of advanced countries, and applied the dynamic regression model which estimates the fixed effect model with difference-GMM. As a result, stronger IPRs increased R&D input/output, and financial performance in pharmaceutical industry, but has no influence on semiconductor and shipbuilding industries. That is, it is necessary to customize the construction of system and policy for strengthening IPRs by each industry, and unitary strengthening or weakening may have no significant impact on financial performance improvement in specific sectors.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.503-521
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• 2017

Demands in a sustainable coffee certification program have increased steadily in the global coffee market. Along with this trend, recently the introduction of sustainable coffee certification programs in Vietnam has increased significantly. However, Vietnam's the coffee certification programs led by a single state-owned company, which is called Vinacafe, shows some differentiations from other sustainable coffee programs certified in other countries. The structure of exclusive decision-making in Vinacafe has been interfered with economic impacts in accordance with the introduction of sustainable coffee certification programs in Vietnam. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to identify changes in and limits of the value chain of the coffee industry with the introduction of Vietnam's sustainable coffee certification program by investigating the case of Vinacafe. To this end, the research has attempted 1) to concern with the role of Vinacafe in the process of growth in the coffee industry in central highland of Vietnam, 2) to analyze changes stemmed from the introduction of Vinacafe's sustainable coffee certification programs, and 3) to examine the limits to the introduction of sustainable coffee certification programs in Vietnam. As a result, it found out that Vinacafe subsidiaries shifted the losses resulted in the payment of additional environmental costs to produce sustainable certification coffee onto coffee farmers depended on Vinacafe subsidiaries, because the price of premium emerged from supports for certificated coffee production has not been guaranteed by Vinacafe mother firm.

• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.705-711
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• 2013

Gamma amino butyric acid (GABA), known as a non-protein amino acid and major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain, has several functional properties such as neurotransmission, induction of hypotension, tranquilizer, and diuretic effects. The purpose of this study was to isolate and identify lactic acid bacteria, producing high GABA in fermented soy curd. Thirty-two strains of tofu-forming lactic acid bacteria were isolated from kimchi which a traditional Korean food fermented with many kind of microorganism. Among 32 strains, four strains (strain No. 10, 104, 214, 249) formed firm soycurd. In order to select lactic acid bacteria having high GABA producing potential, the isolated strains were cultured in the soymilk and fermented for 48 hr at $37^{\circ}C$. A strain No. 383, which showed highest GABA contents in fermented soycurd, was identified as L. sakei by 16S rDNA sequencing and API analysis, and named as L. sakei 383. L. sakei 383 showed optimal growth up to 24 hr at $35^{\circ}C$ in MRS broth. The optimal time and temperature for GABA production were 18 hr and $35^{\circ}C$ in soymilk. In the optimal condition time and temperature, GABA content of fermented soycurd by L. sakei 383 was 8.65 mg/100 g.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.81-88
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• 2014

Purpose - Entrepreneurship promotion is emerging as an important economic growth agenda. However, in Korea, entrepreneurship has weakened because of the collapse of the venture bubbles of the 2000s and the global economic recession in 2008, which have induced the business community to choose stability over risk. The Korean government has been implementing several support projects to inspire and promote youth entrepreneurship through various means including financial assistance; however, the perpetuation rate of young entrepreneurship is still low as compared to advanced economies such as the US and EU. This case study focuses on the Youth Start-Up Business Support Program of the Small & Medium Business Corporation, and explores practical alternatives. Further, it aims to suggest managerial factors and a conceptual model for change management factors affecting the business performance creation of a startup company, based on the Small and medium Business Corporation's young venture startup fund. Research design, data, and methodology - Many studies examine the current progress and issues of startup firms, for example, a lack of systematic cultivation of entrepreneurship and startup business training, lack of commercialization funding for youth startup businesses, lack of mentoring, and inadequate infrastructure. From prior research, we address four factors, namely, personal managerial capabilities, innovative business model, sufficient cash flow, and social network, affecting startup companies' business performance. This study involved a sample survey of 200 young entrepreneurs to investigate casual relations between the four factors and business performance. A regression analysis was used to verify the hypotheses. Results - First, in relation to differences in the founder's personal characteristics, age, sales amount, and number of employees significantly impact business performance. Second, regarding the causal relation between the four factors for creating business performance, an innovative business model and social networking have supported the hypotheses, revealing that the more that a start-up founder has an innovative business model and social networking, the more the start-up firms are likely to have better performance (e.g., sales volume, employment, ROE, ROI, etc.). Although the founder's competency and sufficient cash flow have no significant relationship with business performance, the mean value was higher performance for high founder's competency and sufficient cash flow. Conclusions - This study provides basic data on policy support strategies of the Small and Medium Business Corporation, to help young entrepreneurs achieve their start-up business goals. It shows that young entrepreneurship startup firms should strive to explore ideas to satisfy customers' needs, and that changes in customer value and the continuous innovation of business model differentiation are required to actively respond to change management. Moreover, at the infant startup stage, they should activate social network programs to share information, thereby offsetting resource scarcity and managing business risk. Further, the establishment of a long-term vision and the implementation of training programs in related specific fields should be supported to strengthen founders' personal capabilities.

• Korean Business Review
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.183-206
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• 2006

Recently, the notion of "increasing returns" has been popular not only in academia but also in industries. This notion has been drawn from prior research on network effects, which showed that the market evolution would lock in to a dominant technology. However, the long history of technological change has rarely shown the possibility of lock-in to an inferior technology. How could the market with network effects make transition between incompatible technologies regimes by escaping the lock-in? This paper analyzes the effectiveness of R&D and technological choice to investigate the sources of the dynamic capabilities in the presence of network effects and uncertain technological progress. Why does the market sometimes work against a radical technology, and why, at other times, does the market operate in favor of it? This study is to address this question by modeling the situation of two competing technologies in the presence of network effects. The numerical analysis indicates that the evolution strategy of compatibility is more likely to increase the chance of firm growth when a majority of customers are not power users or when demand for an old technology has been escalated. But when there are a substantial number of power users or when a new technology emerges before such an escalation of demand, the revolution strategy of compelling performance is more likely to be effective. The result suggests a potential mechanism for overcoming the lock-in problem. When the market exhibits some inertia to an obsolete technology, which is reinforced by the increasing customer value with respect to backward compatibility, the survival of a new technology depends on power users. When many power users are cultivated by firms' technological efforts regarding the new technology, the market is less likely to lock into an obsolete technology. Indeed, in the workstation market, where power users characterize much of the demand, innovators like Sun successfully switched to the RISC architecture.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.59-74
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to examine how consumers think about the company's sustainability management activities and whether the company's perceived sustainability activities affect corporate trust and purchase intention. The results of the verification of the research hypothesis to be verified in this study are as follows. First, it was confirmed that corporate sustainability management is specifically classified into economic, social and environmental activities. Second, it was confirmed that corporate sustainability management activities have a positive effect on the corporate trust perceived by consumers. Specific influence relationships are as follows. Firm economic activity does not have a significant effect on corporate credibility, but social and environmental activities have a positive effect on corporate credibility. Third, it was confirmed that the company's sustainability management activities had a significant effect on consumer's purchase intention. Specific influence relationships are as follows. While economic and social activities of firms have a positive effect on consumers' purchase intentions, environmental activities have not been shown to have a significant impact. Fourth, it was confirmed that corporate trust perceived by consumers had a positive effect on purchase intention. It is judged that the results of this analysis are presented to corporate managers. In the process of establishing a company's management strategy, it is to confirm that the efforts of sustainable management activities are activities that substantially help the company's stable growth and development.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.75-88
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• 2014

The purpose of this research is to provide the indication on policy for the SME that are going through the Growing Pains by analyzing the cause of the Growing Pains and the effect that it causes to the company performance. By measured the extent of the growing pains in entrepreneurial companies, 8 of the 20 companies surveyed companies indicate that some very significant problems exist within the organization and the other 12 companies indicate some organizational problems require attention. As a result of correlation between company performance and Growing Pains that analyzed by using CAGR(Compound Annual Growth Rate), we have arrived at the conclusion that they are oppositely related. We have conducted the regression coefficient in order to analyze the factors that are affecting the Growing Pains and we have discovered that Leadership and work performance capability of CEO, Company's structure capability and Company's cultural strength have a meaningful relation out of 7 Factors that were used for regression coefficient. Only, CEO's work performance is analyzed to worsen the Growing Pains that, for enterprises at the certain growing stage it is needed to establish an administrative system instead of relying on CEO. Also CEO's strong leadership play which relate to administrative capacity, forming reasonable organizational structure, customer oriented mind and Company's culture that are developed with sense of responsibility reduce Growing Pains according to a research.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.1-16
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• 2013

The purpose of study is to promote the development of medium size enterprises(MSE) by analyzing the causal relationship between technology acquisition strategy and firms' performance. In this study, we use the number of intellectual property, sales growth rates, and return on sales as proxy variables of technological and financial performances. This study includes internal R&D investment, cooperative R&D with academy, foreign technologies transferred, and their interaction effects as the independent variables. The results of study are as follows. Frist, R&D Investment, Foreign Technologies Transferred and their interaction effects are positively influence on technological performance. Second, Cooperative R&D with academy and the interaction effects of R&D Investment and Cooperative R&D with academy are negative influence on technological performance. On the other hand, all of the main independent variables and the interaction effects have non-significant relationships with financial performances. These results imply that technological innovation efforts of MSEs do not effectively increase their financial performances. Furthermore, technological supports of government and academy on MSEs' innovation do not effectively increase their innovation outputs. Finally, this study discussed its theoretical and practical implications and the limitations of the study.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.55-78
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• 2007

Increasingly the information technology (IT) outsourcing phenomenon has been a subject of much academic research. Scholars have argued that knowledge complementarities playa crucial role in forming successful IT outsourcing relationships. However, notwithstanding the fast growth of IT outsourcing, prior studies on IT outsourcing have not included knowledge complementarities in their research design as a determining factor for IT outsourcing effectiveness. Further, the understanding of knowledge complementarities itself remains ambiguous. In this study, the concept of knowledge complementarities is explored in the IT outsourcing context at the firm level. Specifically, it addresses the following questions: what is knowledge complementarities? How does it affect IT outsourcing effectiveness? Is the relationship between knowledge complementarities and IT outsourcing effectiveness influenced by organizational trust between the client and the vendor? Grounded in the relevant theories to knowledge management and IT outsourcing, we develop a research model in which both the main effects of knowledge complementarities and organizational trust and the moderating effect of organizational trust on the relationships between knowledge complementarities and IT outsourcing effectiveness are tested. Within this research model, we develop a second order construct of knowledge complementarities, consisting of complementary business knowledge and complementary IT knowledge as the first order constructs. We have used data from a field study of 103 firms in Korea to test the proposed model. Controlling the effects of conflict resolution efforts, our empirical analysis found significant main effects of knowledge complementarities and organizational trust on IT outsourcing effectiveness. The results suggest that knowledge complementarities between the client and vendor positively contribute to IT outsourcing effectiveness. Specifically, the client needs to have enough IT knowledge to assess the quality of IT outsourcing services provided by the vendor. Meanwhile, the vendor should understand the client's business well enough to provide IT services, Contrary to our expectations, the moderating effect of trust on the relationship between knowledge complementarities and IT outsourcing effectiveness was not supported in this study. The results also show that organizational trust between client and vendor significantly influences IT outsourcing effectiveness. As for contributions of this study, we have not only clarified the concept of knowledge complementarities, but also developed an instrument to measure the concept and empirically validated it. Further, we have tested the idea that knowledge complementarities and trust directly influence IT outsourcing effectiveness and trust moderates the relationship between knowledge complementarities and IT outsourcing effectiveness. Out results prescribe the knowledge complementarities of client and vendor as a useful path to IT outsourcing effectiveness. These findings have important theoretical and practical implications, which are discussed in the paper.