• East Asian Journal of Business Economics (EAJBE)
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.17-25
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• 2019

Purpose - The international market provides a growth momentum for firms by allowing them to tap into a new market. Given information asymmetry between firms and financial analysts, firms' international growth can be perceived as a higher business prospect by analysts. This paper explores the possibility of analysts' over-emphasis on foreign income growth in predicting earnings. Research design, data, and methodology - We utilize a sample of U.S. firms to test the relationship between foreign income growth and analysts' forecast optimism. Our sample of publicly listed and traded U.S. firms between 1976 and 2016 consists of 6,120 firm-year observations. Results - Empirical analyses show that firms that show higher international growth in earnings are likely to face forecast inaccuracy by financial analysts. From the perspective of firms, their earnings are less than what analysts forecasted. Contrary to our prediction on the moderating effect of innovative capabilities, optimistic bias is not intensified - rather, it is reduced - when firms have higher innovative capabilities. Conclusions - Our results imply that while analysts favor firms with higher international growth, innovative capability on the international market places additional risks to firms' operation.

• Korean Management Science Review
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.79-95
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• 2013

In this study, we empirically examine the impact of win-win growth effort of domestic large firms on their financial performance. Specifically, we classify the financial performance into three aspects such as profitability, stability and efficiency, select corresponding financial ratios to each aspect, and analyze the causal relationship between the firms' win-win growth effort and each of the financial ratios. In addition, we figure out the impact of the firms' win-win growth effort on their stock rate of return. From the analysis, we show that the win-win growth effort has a positive impact on the firms' profitability, stability and stock prices; however, it does not give statistically significant impact on the firms' efficiency with even negative impact on it. These results imply that the firms' win-win growth effort could bring about inefficiency in their business operations, but the effort could increase the firms' profitability and make their financial structure more stable. Furthermore, the effort could enhance the firms' image of leading CSR (corporate social responsibility), which in turn increase their stock values.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.28-49
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• 2019

This paper explores the characteristics of innovation activities in high growth firms that contribute to national and regional economic growth and job creation. The analysis is based on the 2016 KIS data to analyze the difference in innovation activities between high growth firms and general firms. The main results are as follows: First, high growth firms have a higher proportion of R&D personnel than general firms. Second, high growth firms are actively introducing product innovation, process innovation, and organizational innovation as compared to general firms. In the innovation activities related to product innovation and process innovation, there is no statistically significant difference between high growth companies and general companies except for external R&D. Third, High growth firms are more likely to cooperate with other technology partners than general firms. But, there is no statistically significant difference between high growth firms and general firms in the external knowledge search and the diversity of cooperating partners. Fourth, in terms of protecting innovation, high growth firms are more likely to use all kinds of innovation protection method, such as 'utilizing intellectual property rights', 'maintaining confidentiality', 'adopting complex design methods', 'market preemption ahead of competitors', and the most important means is the intellectual property rights. Fifth, government innovation policies that high growth firms chose as important are 'innovation subsidies and loans', 'acquirement, utilization and protection of intellectual property rights' and 'human resource support'.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.123-156
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• 2005

Strengthening the competitive edge of SMEs has become one of the most important economic issues in Korea as the bipolarization between large firms and SMEs has deepened. Accordingly, small innovative firms (referred as 'venture firms' in Korea) attract keen attention both from policy makers and academia. Also, we can sufficiently observe how the growth environment for venture firms has evolved, since it has been almost ten years after the Korean government started its support policy for venture firms. Considering this, now is the appropriate time to carry out an analysis of venture firms. From this point of view, this study looks at growth factors for venture firms to draw out policy implications. The empirical analysis shows interesting results. Firms with the following features all showed higher growth rates: firms with high R&D intensity, younger firms, bigger firms, firms using more policy loans, and firms located within and around the Seoul region. However, the empirical analysis has some limitations. The data used in the study is limited in terms of firm information and so there are some insufficiencies. Thus it is of great importance to compile the required data on firms to enable further in-depth studies.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.601-610
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• 2013

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between R&D investment and growth rate of manufacturing firms in Incheon. Methods: The balanced panel data of 246 firms which have existed for the period 2001-2012 are constructed. As a method of analysis, fixed effects panel data model is used. Results: There is a one year lag in the relationship between R&D intensity and the subsequent sales growth of firms and its relation depends on the firms' characteristics. Conclusion: We suggest the emphasis on R&D investment for firms' growth and the differentiated R&D program based on firm size. This article has the limitation that various types of R&D investment cannot be included in this analysis.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.105-125
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• 2006

This paper relates recent empirical research on the growth. Smaller and younger firms have been growing more quickly than larger and older firms, thus, generating proportionately more new jobs. It is not difficult to understand why small and medium firms receive so much attention. Because SMEs provide about 80 percent of private sector employment so SMEs performance is an important economic and social factor. Despite this, they are subject to higher risk and mobility than those at the large firms. This paper is analyzes the relationship between firm growth measured as growth in employment, sales and production and firms age, size and R&D investment. The growth and its relationship with the determinants is linked to industrial policy in Korea. Empirical results are based on an unbalanced panel data covering period 1999-2002. Results show significant relationship between growth, size and age of firm.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.373-396
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• 2015

This study analyzed the determinants of high-growth firms using the technology appraisal data of the Korea Technology Finance Corporation. This study is differentiated from previous studies for three reasons. First, it analyzed the determinants of firms that will grow into high-growth firms in the future, not the characteristics of current high-growth firms. Second, it analyzed high-growth firms by dividing them in two aspects: sales and employment. In other words, they were divided into three types: the case in which a firm achieves high growth in both sales increase and creation of jobs, the case in which a firm achieves high growth in creation of jobs but low growth in sales increase, and the case in which a firm achieves high growth in only sales increase but low growth in creation of jobs. Third, this study applied the technology appraisal indicators of Kibo Technology Rating System(KTRS) by the Korea Technology Finance Corporation as the explanatory variable. As a result of analysis, it was found that a firm achieved high growth in both sales and employment if the position in the technology life cycle was appropriate and the technology readiness level was high. However, it turned out that the management system of technical manpower had conflicting effects on high growth of employment and sales. In other words, a firm that had well managed its technical manpower achieved high growth in terms of employment, but rather showed low growth in terms of sales. This result suggests the inference that firms showing high growth in employment may appear mainly in the high-tech industry where management of technical manpower is important. Accordingly, as a result of adding dummy variables that represent whether or not firms are in the high-tech industry, it was found that the result supported the inference, as firms in the high-tech industry were highly likely to achieve high growth in employment.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.63-101
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• 2013

'Venture firms' in Korea are the firms who are certified as 'venture', whose certification types are defined by a law ('Special Law for the Support of Venture Firms'), and therefore encompass not only the venture capital-financed companies, which are usually regarded as ventures in USA and European countries, but also other types of firms such as R&D-intensive firms and the firms with financial guarantee or loans through technology evaluation ('technology finance or loan firms'). This paper examines the differences in the Korean venture firms' growth between the venture certification types. For the empirical analysis, this paper uses the lists of venture-certified firms from 1998 to 2010 which are then linked with their financial data in Korea Enterprises Database (KED). According to the results of empirical analyses, the companies in the 'venture capital-financed firms' type show greater growth rate in sales and the number of regular employees 3 and 5 years after first venture certification than the firms in type of 'technology finance/loan firms'. Moreover, the newly certified companies in 'R&D-intensive firms' type are also showing faster growth than the 'technology finance/loan firms' since 2003 where the venture industry has undergone a consolidation phase after the blast of so-called 'IT venture bubble' in 2001~2002. These results imply that the so-called 'venture firms' in Korea are composed with heterogeneous firm groups with different characteristics and that the companies selected through market mechanism ('venture capital-financed firms') outperforms the companies selected on the basis of policy interests ('technology finance/loan firms') in terms of the growth in sales and employment. On the basis of these findings, this paper suggests that the current venture-support policy should consider the different policy demands of firms across the type of venture certification more actively and that should refocus the objective of policies on facilitating venture capital market rather than emphasizing the nominal increase in the number of venture-certified firms.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.129-138
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• 2014

After global economic crisis, China has become one of the two pillars in the global economies and the country contributing to the Korean economy. Nevertheless, the research on Chinese financial market, particularly capital market, is rare to date. This study examined the growth enterprise market that emergedat the Shenzhen stock exchange and made comparative analysis on before and after listing for the Chinese small and medium sized firms and venture firms. The listing requirements at the Chinese growth enterprise market for the technologically innovative venture firms and fast-growing small and medium sized firms with financing purpose were more alleviated than the main board of Shenzhen stock exchange. Moreover, the listing procedures are simplified as well. Accordingly, many Chinese enterprises tend to list and the competition for listing is also intense. In particular, with the 36 initially listed firms at growth enterprise market as the research target, the investigation for the business performance before and after listing reveals that the three indexes including return on common equity, debt ratio and operating profit growth rate dropped dramatically for most all the firms. That is, the profitability and growth for the venture firms and small and medium sized firms listed on the Chinese growth enterprise market decreased rapidly after going public, only the stability improved due to the great financing. Taking a step forward, this phenomenon may result from the exaggerated reporting for the business performance before listing with the purpose of going public by the venture firms and small and medium sized firms. Thus, Chinese Securities Regulatory Commission should strengthen the accounting evaluation standard and regulation for the listing firms before going public. In addition, strict sanctions should be imposed on the firms with fraudulent accounting to establish healthy capital market.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.27-40
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• 2019

The study examines the effects of growth opportunities, debt maturity and liquidity risk on leverage, making use of a large panel of Chinese listed firms. Research on capital structure has broadened its scope from a single capital structure decision (the debt/equity choice) to various attributes of the debt in firms' capital structure. We use the system Generalized Method of Moments estimator to control for unobserved heterogeneity and the potential endogeneity of regressors. We find a negative relationship between growth opportunities and leverage. Further, we find that while the proportion of short-term debt attenuates the negative effect of growth opportunities on leverage, it negatively affects leverage as predicted by the liquidity risk hypothesis. When we distinguish between state owned firms and private controlled firms, we find evidence that these effects are only relevant to private controlled firms. However, our analysis indicates that the economic implication of liquidity risk effect is much lower for Chinese firms than that observed in the literature for US firms. Our study suggests that these differences can be explained by differences in the institutional environment in which firms operate. This finding related to Diamond's (1991) liquidity risk hypothesis extends our understanding of the relationship between liquidity risk and the debt maturity choice.