• ETRI Journal
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.258-265
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• 2003

In our study, we extracted the market, finance, and government factors determining R&D investment of individual firms in the IT industry in Korea. We collected the financial data of 515 individual firms belonging to IT and non-IT industries between 1980 and 1999 from the Korea Investors Service's database and investigated the empirical relationship between the factors using an ordinary regression model, a fixed effects model, and a random effects model. The main findings of our study are as follows: i) The Herfindahl Index variable representing the degree of market concentration is statistically insignificant in explaining R&D expenditures in the IT manufacturing industry. ii) Assets, which is used as a proxy variable for firm size, have a positive and statistically significant coefficient. These two results suggest that the Schumpeterian Hypothesis may be only partially applied to the IT manufacturing industry in Korea. iii) The dividend variable has a negative value and is statistically significant, indicating that a tendency of high dividends can restrict the internal cash flow for R&D investment. iv) The sales variable representing growth potential shows a positive coefficient. v) The subsidy as a proxy variable for governmental R&D promotion policies is positively correlated with R&D expenditure. This suggests that government policy has played a significant role in promoting R&D activities of IT firms in Korea since 1980. vi) Using a dummy variable, we verified that firms reduced their R&D investments to secure sufficient liquidity under the restructuring pressure during Korea's 1998 and 1999 economic crisis.

• STI Policy Review
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.74-93
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• 2013

Although open innovation (OI) has been an important research theme for over a decade, its theoretical framework has been relatively under-researched. As OI involves a wide range of innovation activities, a firm's capacities in the use of the various firm resources play a critical role in OI implementation. However, it is unclear how they affect firms' performances for little is known of OI capacities. Based on a theoretical framework derived from the literature, this study looks into the relationships between six OI capacities (inventive, absorptive, transformative, connective, innovative, and desorptive) and financial performance using the Korean Innovation Survey (KIS) 2008 data. The research model was tested using structural equation modelling (SEM) while potential differences in capacities between different firm groups were also investigated. The results indicate that 1) OI capacities are significantly associated with firms' financial performance; 2) capacities are highly correlated with one another; and 3) some capacities are differently configured between different types of firms. Findings suggest that policy makers should pay more attention to helping firms enhance OI capacities and attempt to develop relevant policies in order to complement inadequate capacities.

• Asia Pacific Journal of Business Review
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.56-66
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• 2016

This paper analyzes the impact of CSR on the capital market in Korea. Using listed firm data, we found that the creation of a sustainability report that indirectly measures the level of CSR can bring the stock rate of return difference of the capital markets representative market index. First, when a firm that publishes a sustainability report was compared in terms of its market rate of return, it showed a return increase of about 2%. We found that higher returns were gained through the competitive advantage of related business when the firm was actively involved in social responsibility. Second, subdivided by industry, firms belonging to the capital goods industry were found to reach a rate of return higher than that of industry. These firms were noticeable in that they were mainly industries that caused environmental pollution. Third, in an additional analysis, foreign investors were given the sustainability report of financial businesses, which was interpreted as a result of industrial properties. A sustainability report is a comprehensive report on the economic, environmental, and social activities of a firm. Firms must learn that they can gain trust through publishing trustworthy reports while achieving the lasting power of growth from the stakeholders.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.239-270
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• 2017

This paper examines the relationship between ownership structure and the intensity of R&D expenditures of a firm by analyzing the panel data composed of 553 manufacturing firms in KSE(Korea Stock Exchange) and KOSDAQ listed firms for the period of 2007-2014. The major findings are as follows; (1) Regarding the relationship between CEO stockholding and R&D intensity, we find the inverted-U shape relationship in KOSDAQ firms, consistent with the theoretical discussion and empirical studies on U.S. firms. The result suggests that management stockholding reduces agency problem at the R&D margin. On the contrary, the insignificant result in KSE firms seems to be due to the scant stockholding of most 'non-owner' CEOs. (2) Regarding the relationship between the largest shareholder's portion and R&D intensity, KSE firms exhibit negatively significant relationship, suggesting the existence of serious agency problem between the largest shareholder and the minor shareholders. This agency problem seems to be alleviated in KOSDAQ firms mainly because the founders with technology expertise are still in charge of the business. (3) Foreign investors seem to fail in effectively encouraging R&D expenditures in either KSE or KOSDAQ listed firms. This study contributes to the existing literature by showing for the first time that ownership structure affects R&D activities in different ways between KSE and KOSDAQ firms.

• 한국벤처창업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.10a
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• pp.111-138
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• 2009

This research focuses on what factors determine firm's decisions on R&D outsourcing and how R&D outsourcing affect R&D performance. In recent years many firms outsource R&D activities instead of internalizing it. Thus, further investigation is necessary to find out this recent trend. Based on several theoretical background the study developed three determining factors of R&D outsourcing which are transactional level, firm level, and risk level. Transactional level composes of independent variables such as R&D cost saving, asset specificity and uncertainty which mainly comes from Transaction Cost Economics theory. Firm level composes of openness to technology from outer source, R&D capability, and outsourcing experience. Risk level composes of technological risk, cost-related risk and managerial risk. The result shows that R&D outsourcing is significantly related to cost saving aspect, low asset specific firms, firms without solid technological background, firms which are open to external technology, firms with other types of outsourcing experience, and firms which take technological risks. However, proposed relationship between degree of R&D outsourcing and R&D performance found out to be insignificant. This research is contribute to the field of outsourcing study since it will give guidance to managers who need to make strategic decisions on R&D outsourcing activities.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.125-140
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• 2015

KOSDAQ market reorganized their division system from two types to four types of division departments such as blue chip, venture, medium, and technology development departments in 2011. However, under the current new division system, financially unhealthy firms attempting to take advantage of the classifying opportunity of blue chip department are likely to engage in pernicious earnings management. The objective of this study is to investigate the earnings management behavior surrounding the time of KOSDAQ firms entering the blue chip department via new division system. More specifically, we test whether the firms classified blue chip department tend to engage in upward earnings management using accruals and real activities before and after they achieve blue chip status. In this study, we analyzed 111 firms classified blue chip department in 2011 according to new division system in KOSDAQ market. Major test results indicate that firms entering the blue chip department according to current KOSDAQ division system in general, tend to inflate reported earnings by means both of accruals and real activities right before the entering year. This result suggests that the firms classified blue chip department engage in opportunistic earnings management with a view to uplifting their market values. Our study is expected to provide clues useful for searching policy directions which intend to ameliorate adverse side effects of the current KOSDAQ division system. In sum, the regulatory authorities and enforcement bodies need to exercise caution in deliberating more stringent review procedures so that financially healthy and promising candidates are properly segregated from their poor and risky counterparts, thus enhancing the beneficial effects, while mitigating adverse side effects of the system.

• Smart Media Journal
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.17-23
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• 2017

In recent days, all the business firms use IT-based services in a variety of ways to facilitate their consumer activities. A typical example is location-based services that send advertisements or discount coupons when a customer approaches near the business place. This is not the direct interaction between the business firms and the customer, and it is one of the way of sending the business related contents to the customer's smart-phone regardless of the customer's intention. The Business firms does not know in real time which customers sent promotional contents. Recently most of the business services are in this way. Therefore, a new type of location-based customer service is required for interaction between the business firm and the customer. This is a system that automatically identifies which customer visit a business place when the customer visits the business place delivers them to the computer of the business place in real time, and provides business customized services using the information. In this paper, we have developed a service based platform to identify the customer as well as interact with the customer based on the location based service using Beacon. This system will also provide an open platform environment that can be easily accessible to the various business firms, rather than limited to a specific business firms.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.49-67
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• 2009

As technological capabilities have enhanced, the patterns of innovation activities of latecomer firms changed to post catch-up mode. The purpose of this research is to analyze the post catch-up innovation patterns of technology-intensive small and medium firms of Korea. The innovation patterns can be divided into three types: the technology deepening innovation type, the new technology based innovation type and the architectural innovation type. The characteristics of the technology deepening innovation type are cumulative technological learning and the integration of new generic technology and existing technologies. The characteristics of new technology based type are the acquisition and revelations of new basic knowledges from former incubating organizations such as large firms and universities. The characteristics of the architectural innovation type are the learning of system architecture knowledge from former organization and interactive learning with user firms. These post catch up innovations also have some general characteristics. They effectively exploited the windows of opportunities which are opened in the middle of technological paradigm change.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.5586-5593
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• 2013

This study investigates how the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) performance of a firm is associated with its financial performance in the stock market. Prior studies provide mixed evidence on the relation between CSR and financial performance. This study sheds some lights on the positive effect of CSR on firms' financial performance. Using a unique set of data on CSR performance of Korean firms provided by Morgan Stanley Capital International (MCSI), we find that firms' CSR performance is positively associated with their contemporaneous stock returns and Tobin's Q in the Korean market. This finding suggests that stock market participants value firms' CSR activities. This is the first study that provides empirical evidence on the existence of the positive association between the CSR performance of Korean firms and their financial performance using MCSI data which is considered more reliable than the data used in the prior CSR studies in Korea.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.195-211
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship among innovation activities, innovation performance, and management performance of export firms. I first undertake a review of previous studies related to innovation activity, innovation performance, and export firms' innovation. Based on this, I set up a research model and hypotheses. First, The innovation activity is classified into product innovation activity, process innovation activity, and administrative innovation activity. Innovation performance is divided into product quality improvement and cost reduction. And the business performance is regarded as financial performance of export's firms. This study examined whether innovation activity affect innovation performance such as product quality improvement and cost reduction. In addition, I examined whether these innovation performance affects business performance (financial performance). To achieve this, a total of 368 questionnaires are used in this study and PLS (Partial Least Square) was used to analyze structural equation. As a result, this study shows that product innovation activity have a positive effect on product quality improvement, and process innovation activity also have a positive effect on product quality improvement. However, it was found that neither product innovation activity nor process innovation activity had an effect on cost reduction. And it was found that administrative innovation did not affect product quality improvement, but had a positive effect on cost reduction. Also, it was found that quality improvement, which is an innovation performance, did not affect the financial performance of export's firms, and cost reduction, which is an innovation performance, had a positive effect on the financial performance of the export's firms.