• Korean Management Science Review
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.1-15
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• 2014

As the scarcity of natural resources has become apparent, the recycling industry has emerged as a promising one for its growth potential. Yet, the recycling industry still remains undeveloped and inefficient for various reasons. In this study, we focus on firms' recycling processes to understand the current status of recycling firms' value creation activities. With respect to the adopted recycling processes, we empirically investigate the differences in firm characteristics and firm performance. We use the data from Keco (Korea Environment Cooperation) which annually conducts a survey of recycling firms in Korea. We exclusively consider the whole group of plastic recycling industry in order to control for a possible bias in firm performance, stemming from the heterogeneity in processing and recycling of materials other than plastics. We review the descriptive statistics from the sample firms and conduct a series of hierarchical regression analyses. The results show that most of the firms in this industry adopt physical transformation processes with a low-level technology. These firms with physical transformation processes are smaller in size and produce entry level items which do not secure higher margins. The results indicate that the recycling industry largely comprises low value added firms which lack economies of scale and resources for R&D. For the stable growth of the industry, recycling firms must create sustainable values through implementation of technology-driven processes and improvement in product quality. In addition, the government should help build a reliable reverse logistic network, lower the entry barriers, and provide necessary funding for the SMEs in the recycling industry.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.471-480
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• 2013

Pay-for-performance plans are some of widely used human resource practices in many firms, including shipbuilding, for productivity and motivational improvement purposes. Such plans play an important role in industries that are highly labor-intensive, and where effective management of human resources is critical to business operations, such as the shipbuilding industry. Those practices can have large impact on employee performance and ultimately company competitiveness. Research studies that show how such incentive plans improve productivity and reported pattern of adoption by firms have spurred the use and adoption in many firms. However, there are also researchers who point out that there are negative consequences to using incentive plans. Therefore it is important for companies to carefully consider the practices they use. In this paper, I discuss research findings that support the practices and critical viewpoints related to pay-for-performance plans. Research findings from Korean literature are, then, discussed. The shipbuilding industry is chosen because proper human resource management is critical in reducing turnover and increasing employee satisfaction. Through a shipbuilding company case, problems related to using pay-for-performance incentive plans and how they affect work-related issues of employee morale, cooperation, and teamwork will be discussed. While positive aspects have been emphasized to drive greater adoption among firms, the resulting consequences of the pay plans need to be seriously considered and improvements upon the plans made by firms. Improvement suggestions are discussed in the conclusions and implications.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.10 no.7
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• pp.7-16
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• 2019

Purpose - Economic globalization provides firms with a new channel to gain benefits from foreign countries. Therefore, using the real MNEs, this paper set China's firms as an example to explore the relationship between multinationality and performance. Research design, data, and methodology - Panel data from 2008 to 2017 was used and 390 multinational firms listed in China's A-share market was selected. Additionally, related econometric methods were employed to analyze the relationship between multinationality and performance in this study. The return on assets was treated as a dependent variable, and the sales of a firm, the firm age, the debt asset ratio of a firm, the ratio of foreign sales to total sales and the enterprise properties were treated as independent variables. All of these factors were used to conduct an empirical analysis. Results - The empirical findings in this study revealed that there is a linear relationship between multinationality and performance, as well as that non state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs) have a greater effect on the relationship between multinationality and performance than that of the state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Conclusions - On the basis of evidences this paper provided, China's government should take measures in the future to help China's firms when they fulfil international economic activities.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.369-379
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• 2021

This paper investigated the relationship between corporate governance mechanisms and firm performance in Vietnam. Based on a dataset of 101 HOSE-listed manufacturing firms, the results showed that CEOs' knowledge capability, gender diversity, and board size are positively associated with firm performance, whereas firm age is negatively associated. These findings suggested that firms should consider enlarging the boardrooms, but to a certain extent to avoid an inverse-U-shaped decline of performance; furthermore, firms should promote women executives' presence in a boardroom for it brings greater cultural-diversity benefits and inhibits information asymmetry. Contrary, the aging process impedes firms' growth. It depreciates their values in terms of total assets, so managers must review their assets' net value after each working year to avoid such a hardship. However, the thesis constrains itself since it did not treat the TMTs' knowledge capability equally as the CEOs' and completely excluded their treatment. Besides, it did not regard the effect of external governance mechanisms such as the supply-demand relationship, customer behavior, market imperfections, and market concentration due to data unavailability. Based on the main findings, several suggestions are set forth for firms and managers to enhance performance and minimize a poor governance mechanism's adverse consequence.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.69-77
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• 2021

The objective of this research is to explore the inconclusive theoretical and empirical association between institutional ownership and firm performance in the context of emerging Pakistani economy. The data set consists of all the non-financial firms listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). Annual data set covers the period ranging from 2010 to 2015. However, the econometric analysis does not include those firms with incomplete data. Thus the final data set comprised of an unbalanced panel of sample of 276 firms with 1231 firms years observations. Data related to the institutional ownership and other variables taken for the study were extracted through the annual financial reports of the firms. The research used Tobin's Q as a proxy of market measure of firm performance and tested the endogenous relation with institutional ownership through OLS and 2SLS approach. The study also applied Durbin-Wu-Hausman test to determine the endogeneity before analyzing the 2SLS model. The Durbin-Wu-Hausman Test (DWH) conform the endogenous link between institutional ownership and performance and vice versa. The results derived from 2SLS also confirm a highly significant relationship and two way direct proportional relationships between the institutional investment and corporate performance in the studied companies.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.153-182
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• 2009

This paper intends to increase the performance of export support programs for small-to-medium sized firms promoted by Korea government. A research construct is suggested for effective government support program targeted on the global marketing capability. The data is collected from the firms received the support more than once by Korean governments. The results are shown as follows. First, it is found that those firms who have high propensity to be involved in export business have shown high performance. Second, the firms with high global marketing capability have shown good performance. To be more specific, organizational commitment, strategic initiative, business differentiation, and market knowledge for target markets are found to be critical factors in successful export support program. The business differentiation strategy in target market is very critical. Finally, the degree of program management effectiveness is found to be important in high performance firms. It means that for those firms, much more advanced programs need to be developed. The government should develop diversified programs by considering the degree of global marketing capability.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.15 no.11
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• pp.59-72
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• 2017

Purpose - This paper evaluated the efficiency performance of the three major maritime transport markets and examined the determinants of the performance. The firms' revenue fluctuates with the changes of the economic cycle; hence it is important for them to set up business strategies to improve efficiencies. A lack of efficiency measurements for shipping firms leads to a significant gap in determining their overall performance. Research design, data, and methodology - Each of DEA scores was adopted for the evaluation and panel regression was used to examine the impact of determinants on the performance. The analysis included 50 shipping firms from three maritime transport markets as follows; 15 firms of container liners, 18 firms of bulk carrier and 17 firms of tanker carriers, and its period was from 2010 to 2016. Results - In the CCR model, container liners were the highest, tanker carriers were the second, and bulk carriers were the lowest in operation efficiency and financial efficiency. By region, operation efficiency and financial efficiency was high in the order of America, Asia, and Europe. Conclusions - This study suggests business strategies for maritime transport companies based on the analytical results of determinants of operational and financial efficiency.

• 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.

• Journal of Information Technology Services
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.71-87
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• 2009

In this paper, the technology innovation for software firms are discussed. Through the literature study, the concepts about this issue and the environment and activity of software firm's the technology innovation related are described. The survey paper was developed for searching the obstacles, policy considerations, and performance of this issue etc. Also questionnaire sheet was made for identifying the relations on technology innovation activities and performance. The degree of understanding about the need of technology innovation were very high according to the analysis result from the response based on the 103 software firms. Among this survey the other results are described as follows; the motivation of technology innovation, the necessity and implementation, the duration acquired for innovation result, the favorite support program as for innovation policy, obstacles for innovation implementation, the reason for innovation collaboration etc. Finally, it is verified statistically that the performance of technology innovation be affected by the employment of external professional technician, research and development, the technical education.

• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.43-65
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• 2008

This study investigates the effects of business environment on the e-business strategy and performance of venture firms. The development of the research model is based on the empirical studies on the strategy literature. The data from the survey was analyzed using Partial Least Squares(PLS). For Daedeok Valley Venture Firms, product innovation differentiation strategy is affected by environmental uncertainty. And, cost leadership strategy tend to be influence by environmental uncertainty. Finally, venture firm's performance is effected by cost leadership strategy and marketing differentiation strategy. However, for in Hsinchu Science Park Venture Firms, product innovation differentiation strategy is affected by environmental uncertainty and heterogeneity. And, marketing differentiation strategy is enhanced by environment uncertainty and industry growth. In addition, cost leadership strategy tend to be influence by environmental uncertainty and heterogeneity. Finally, venture firm's performance is effected by cost leadership strategy and product innovation differentiation strategy.