• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.39-48
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• 2022

Purpose: COVID-19 has negatively influenced the financial performance of restaurant firms. Previous literature suggests that the franchising strategy effectively helps restaurant firms recover from difficult business conditions through various methods for expanding business size and enhancing business efficiency. According to risk-sharing theory, restaurant franchisors may minimize operational risks by sharing the risks with their franchisees. For instance, restaurant franchisors could generate more stable cash flow using franchise fees from their franchisees. However, research on the effect of franchise's risk reduction factor on business performance during pandemic is scarce. Thus, this study aims to examine the positive moderating effect of franchising between COVID-19 and restaurants' financial performance. Research design, data, and methodology: Panel data including financial information and franchising status of restaurant firms were collected for analysis. In order to control for unobserved firm-specific factors, generalized least squared estimation in fixed effects model was conducted. Huber-White robust standard errors were used to deal with heteroscedasticity issues. Results: It was found that COVID-19 pandemic has a negative effect on the restaurants' financial performance such as ROA (return on assets), ROE (return on equity), and PM (profit margins), which confirms the findings from existing literature. More importantly, results show that the degree of franchising has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between COVID-19 and financial performance of restaurant firms. This suggests that more active engagement in franchising may decrease negative impacts of COVID-19 on the restaurants' financial performance. Conclusions: The study supports existing literature related to risk-sharing theory, by confirming that pandemics, such as COVID-19, negatively affect financial performance of the restaurants. Furthermore, it was found that franchising strategy can help lessen negative impacts of pandemics on the firm performance. These findings can contribute to the franchise and restaurant management literature by suggesting the role of franchising in reducing business risks, thereby positively affecting financial performance. Moreover, this study offers business managers of franchisors and franchisees insights for utilizing franchising in restaurant risk management. Policymakers may also gain information on aiding restaurant firms during global crisis, such as COVID-19.

• Journal of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.33-49
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• 2014

This study empirically examines the impact of firms' environmental (E), social (S), and governancial (G) factors on their short-term and long-term values. To measure firms' non-financial performance, we use ESG performance grades published by KCGS (Korea Corporate Governance Service). We employ stock log return as the proxy of each firm's short-term value, and Tobin's Q ratio as that of its long-term value. From a series of regression analyses, we find each of the ESG factors generally has a negative impact on stock return while it has a positive impact on the Tobin's Q ratio. These results imply that firms' effort for enhancing their non-financial performance may adversely affect their financial performance in a short term; but in the long-term point of view, firms' values increase through their good images engraved by their respective social, environmental and governancial efforts. In addition, we compare the relative strength of impact among E, S, G, the three non-financial factors on the firms' value measured in Tobin's Q ratio, and find that S (social factor) and G (governancial factor) give statistically significant impact on the firms' value respectively. This result tells us it would be advised to strategically embed CSV (creating shared value) pursuing both of profits and social responsibility in the firms' future agenda. While E (environmental factor) is shown to be an insignificant factor for the firms' value, it should be emphasized as a major concern by all the stakeholders in order to form a sound business ecosystem.

• Journal of Information Technology Services
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.39-53
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• 2019

This article analyzes the effects of regulation that restrict the conglomerate firms to participate in the public procurement of software. The regulation was implemented in 2013, and this article analyzes five years of firm performance before and after 2013 through DID (difference-in-difference method). In particular, this article analyzes how restrictions on conglomerate firms' participation in public software procurement affect middle and small firms performance. As a result, small-size firms achieve relatively positive results in private sector revenues compared to mid-size firms. However, there was no significant difference between the mid-size and small-size firms in profit margin. This study implies that the new policy is needed to improve the small and medium-size firms revenues on the private market by leveraging the public procurement market which restricted the conglomerate firms to participate. This can be done by complementing the regulation in line with servitization paradigm.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.623-630
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• 2019

As the Asian region becomes strategically important in the international construction market, competition among construction firms has been more intense. While existing literature on the Asian construction market have mainly focused on qualitative approaches to market entry strategies and risk assessment, quantitative research to explain the dynamic competitive structure of the market has been rarely conducted. To address this issue, this study analyzes the structure of contract performance in the Asian region based on the data from 3,996 projects awarded to Korean construction firms from 2009 to 2017. In addition, this study applies a mathematical model using both static (market concentration) and dynamic (market mobility and instability) analyses. Consequently, the static analysis indicates that market concentration led by top-four firms tends to be increased, and on the dynamic aspect, the market position of Korean construction firms is recently weakened and fluctuated in most of the Asian regions and the construction sectors. The methodology and result of this paper would be meaningful not only to understand the underlying structure of industry-level performance but also to provide a useful reference for establishing competitive strategies towards the Asian market.

• Journal of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.67-82
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is two-fold : the one is to examine the causal relationship between domestic large firms' win-win growth effort and their financial performance by fiscal years; and the other is to develop a quantitative win-win growth index to overcome the limitation of the current one mainly using a survey method developed by NCCP (National Commission for Corporate Partnership). To serve the first purpose, we take a sample of 128 large companies whose win-win growth indices as of year 2011 and 2012 were evaluated by NCCP. We use their respective fiscal year's financial data to select 62 candidate financial ratios, which are then used in subsequent empirical tests. For the tests, we employ ordered probit model with stepwise selection method and two-way ANOVA with randomized block design to identify which of the 62 financial ratios are statistically significant ones to affect the firms' win-win growth index as well as to determine if the firms' win-win growth effort would cause their financial performance positively. To serve the second purpose, we devise a model using the 123 firms' 45 financial ratios, which employs ordered probit model with stepwise selection, and the validation of the model follows. We claim that the model suggested in this study serve as an alternative complementing the current one as it can produce the index in a more objective and swift manner using the firms' publicized financial statements.

• Korean small business review
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.19-35
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• 2017

It is very important for entrepreneurial firms to acquire and exploit the resources necessary for growth. This study examines how venture capital financing affect these entrepreneurial firms' ability to acquire and exploit the resources. Particularly, based on the resource based view, the authors explain the relationship between venture capital financing and entrepreneurial firm's market performance. Empirical results illustrate that venture capital financing positively and significantly affects the market performance of entrepreneurial firms. It is concluded that entrepreneurial firms need to increase the number of alliances with venture capital, which supports various activities after the investment to achieve growth with resource limitation.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.26-39
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• 2016

Korea's main manufacturing industries, which have led its economy for the past three decades, are faced with a serious downturn and loss of competitive advantages due to the current economic depression, China's rise, and the drop of oil prices. Korean business firms must adopt the paradigm shift in their value strategies, along with a government-led industrial restructuring in order to gain sustainable competitive advantages. Business firms allocate their limited resources between value creation and value appropriation, however, what effect does strategic emphasis on value creation versus value appropriation have on a business firm's financial performance? This paper empirically addresses this issue by examining the effect of shifts in strategic emphasis on stock return. Furthermore, this study examines appropriate choices of strategic emphasis to gain differential financial performance. The data set used in this regression analysis comes from the KISLINE database of NICE Information Service. The variables that form the basis of this analysis are stock return, ROA, and Strategic Emphasis [(advertising expenditures-R&D expenditures)/assets]. The interactive effect with situational factors regarding the firm and the type of technological environment in which the firm is operating was also analyzed. Our results show that investors acknowledge a shift of strategic emphasis as a sign of stock valuation. In comparison to US, Korean business firms have weak value creation capabilities in high-technology industries, and weak value appropriation capabilities in low-technology industries. This proves Korean firms are fast followers in the global market. Our findings suggest that Korean firms have to adopt a balanced value strategy, nurturing value creation and developing value appropriation for overcoming the current economic downturn and becoming a first mover in the dawn of "Industry 4.0."

• Anayses & Alternatives
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.39-76
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• 2021

This article examines the effect of CEO's political connections on firm performance in Chinese private firms. Following the upper echelon theory and human capital theory, CEO's personal characteristics affect the strategic decision-making of the firm, and it is also firm-specific advantages that work as the human capital for the sustainable growth of the firm. In this regard, this article tries to empirically confirm whether CEO's political connections have positive effects on firm performance as the firm's human capital by dividing the Chinese local governments, which is a direct subject of political connections hierarchically. In addition, this research examines the mediating effects of government subsidies between political connections and firm performance. To verify these questions, we use a sample of 9,849 observations of 1,451 private firms listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2008 to 2016, the results show that the CEO's political connections are positively related to firm performance. Moreover, we find that only political connections with the provincial local government had a positive effect on firm performance. It indicates that values and influences of human capital held by CEOs only affect when they are related to the highest local government. Finally, when CEOs have political connections with city-level, it shows complete mediating effect. It provides empirical evidence to find that CEO's political connections affect firm performance as the results of non-market strategic of firms.

• The Korean Journal of Financial Management
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.331-339
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• 2003

We investigate long-run relationships between industry relatedness, operating performance, and stock performance after equity carve-outs(ECO). For homo-industry ECOs, 12-month CAR of subsidiary firms is 26.52% and significantly positive at the 5% level and BHAR is 22.19%. For hetero-industry ECOs, subsidiary 12-month CAR and BHAR are 35.14% and 39.64%, respectively, which are significant at the 1% level. On the other hand, long-run performance of parent firms is insignificant for any sub-sample. Excess operating performance of subsidiaries is significantly positive at the first year and insignificant thereafter. The lower the offering ratio is and the better the operating performance is, the better the subsidiary stock performance is. Unlike IPOs and SEOs, shareholders of subsidiaries benefit from ECOs and parent stocks do not underperform. Hetero-industry ECOs improving corporate focus are more effective restructurings than homo-industry ECOs.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.12 no.10
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• pp.75-84
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• 2014

Purpose - This article aims to examine whether the stock issuance of firms in the retail industry follows Myers' (1984) pecking order theory, which is based on information asymmetry. According to the pecking order model, firms have a sequence of financing decisions, of which the first choice is to use retained earnings, the second one is to get into safe debt, the next involves risky debt, and the last involves finance with outside equity. Since the 2000s, the polarization of the LEs (Large enterprises) and SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) arose in the retail industry. The LEs exhibited an improvement in growth and profitability, whereas SMEs had a tendency to degenerate. This study contributes to corroborating the features of financing decisions in the retail industry distinguished from the other industries. Research design, data, and methodology - This study considers the stocks listed on the KOSPI and KOSDAQ markets from 1991 to 2013, and is more concentrated on the stocks in the retail industry. The data were collected from the financial information company, WISEfn. The empirical analysis is conducted by employing two measures of net equity issues (and), which were introduced in Fama and French (2005), and can be calculated from firms' accounting information. All variables are generated as the aggregate value of the numerator divided by aggregate assets, which, in effect, treats the entire sample as a single firm. Substantially, the financing decisions of the firms were analyzed by examining how often and under what circumstances firms issue and repurchase equity. Then, this study compares the features of the retail industry with those of the other industries. Results - The proportion of sample firms that show annual net stock issues reaching the level of the year's average was 54.33% for the 1990s, and fell to 39.93% per year for the 2000s. In detail, the fraction of the small firms actually increases from 45.08% to 51.04%, whereas that of large firms shows a dramatic decline from 58.94% to 24.76%. Considering the fact that the large firms' rapid increase in growth after the 2000s may lead to an increase in equity issues, this result is rather surprising. Meanwhile, net stock repurchases of assets are considerably disproportionate between the large (-50.11%) and the small firms (-15.66%) for the 2000s. Conclusions - Stock issuance of retail firms is not in line with the traditional seasoned equity offering based on information asymmetry. The net stock issuance of the small firms in the retail industry can be interpreted as part of an effort to reorganize business and solicit new investment to resolve degenerating business performance. For large firms, on the other hand, the net repurchase can be regarded as part of an effort to rearrange business for efficiency and amplifying synergy across business sections through spin-off. These results can help the government establish a support policy on retail industry according to size.