• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.25 no.7
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• pp.1-18
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• 2021

Purpose - In this study, we explore the relationship between the degree of internationalization (DOI) and firm performance (DOI-P) of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing sector. Specifically, we investigate whether the costs and benefits dynamics concerning the internationalization of SMEs differ between high-tech and non-high-tech industries. Design/methodology - We extend the prior literature on this relationship by employing 5-year data on 589 Korean SMEs in the manufacturing sector and examining the moderating impact of the industry characteristics. Our findings reveal a U-shaped relationship between the DOI and SME performance. High-tech SMEs demonstrate an inverted U-shaped relationship, whereas non-hightech SMEs exhibit a U-shaped relationship. Findings - Our findings illustrate the importance of the industry factor in testing the performance impact of the internationalization of Korean SMEs. By incorporating industry dynamics, our results indicate that the DOI-P relationship depends on the context of the industry in which an SME operates. High-tech SMEs also display a higher DOI but are outperformed by non-high-tech SMEs for the entire internationalization path, which implies that high-tech SMEs face more challenges than non-high-tech SMEs while seeking internationalization. Originality/value - The findings strongly validate that significant benefits exist for SMEs undertaking internationalization. We also employ the contextual framework contributing to increasing the understanding of the intrinsic value of internationalization and resolving the mixed results issue on the DOI-P relationship, by illustrating that the industry factor leads to different dynamics of costs and benefits of SME internationalization; it also determines the shape and direction of the relationship.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.19 no.8
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• pp.37-46
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• 2021

Purpose: This study aims at investigating how high-tech SMEs can enhance innovation performance through the application and distribution of social media strategic capability and whether entrepreneurial orientation moderates the relationship between social media strategic capability and innovation. Research design, data, and methodology: The study followed a deductive approach based on the quantitative design in investigating the proposed relationships. The data was collected using a questionnaire, and the proposed relationships were examined based on a sample of 221 high-tech SMEs through the application of structural equation modeling (SEM). By applying SEM, this study accounted for hidden and unobservable factors as well as reconciled the potential measurement errors. Results: As hypothesized, it was confirmed that social media strategic capability positively influences innovation performance. Besides, the findings supported the moderating effect of three dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation (innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk-taking) toward the relationship between social media strategic capability and innovation performance. Conclusions: According to the results, high-tech SMEs can enhance their innovation performance through social media by distributing and applying social media strategic capability along with entrepreneurial orientation. This study thereby enriches the literature of innovation on high-tech SMEs for implementing social media strategies as well as stimulating future social media research for entrepreneurship.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.50-54
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• 2022

High temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets for large-capacity energy storage system need to be composed of toroid magnets with high energy density, low leakage magnetic fields, and easy installation. To realize such a large capacity of a toroid HTS magnet, an HTS cable with large current capacity would be preferred because of the limited DC link voltage and instantaneous high power required for compensation of the disturbance in the power grid. In this paper, the optimal operating strategies of the SMES for peak load reduction of the microgrid system were calculated according to the load variation characteristics, and the effect of compensation of the frequency change in microgrid with a SMES were also simulated. Based on the result of the simulation, key design parameters of SMES coil were presented for two cases to define the specification of the HTS cable with large current capacities for winding of HTS toroid coils, which will be need for development of the HTS cable as a future work.

• Korean small business review
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.1-22
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• 2019

The purpose of this research was to investigate the impact of the partner types (supplier, customer, competitor, research institution, more than one partner type) for SMEs on radical and incremental innovation. Another purpose was to examine how the relation varies according to the technological intensity of an industry to which the focal firm belongs. To test the hypotheses, we used the 'KIS(Korean Innovation Survey) 2014' data and the empirical analysis was done with the effective survey from 3,846 Korean SMEs. We employed STATA 14 for validity, confirmatory factor analysis, and binary logistic regression analysis. The results revealed that, when viewed the entire manufacturing SMEs, cooperation with suppliers, customers and research institutes has all been shown to have a positive effect on the radical and gradual innovations of SMEs. However, The relationship between partner type and radical innovation has been significantly different depending on the technical intensity of the industry. When cooperating with suppliers, the impact on radical innovation of SMEs was significant only in low-tech and medium-low tech industries. In contrast, when working with customers, the impact on the radical innovation of SMEs was significant only in the high-tech, medium-high tech, and medium-low tech industries, except for low tech industries. Meanwhile, although cooperation with competitors has a positive effect on radical innovation, this has been only significant in the medium-high tech industries.

• The Journal of Economics, Marketing and Management
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.1-8
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• 2022

Purpose: This study aims to examine the effect of SMEs' R&D competence on management performance. Research design, data, and methodology: The empirical data of this study are derived from 2,375 SMEs that participated in the material, parts, and equipment research and development support project conducted from 2014 to 2018. Among them, 2,230 data were analyzed by classifying them into high-tech and low-tech fields. SPSS 24.0 was used for statistical analysis and correlation analysis and T-TEST were applied. Results: It was analyzed that the level of R&D organization, research personnel, and the number of patent registrations all affected operating profit and sales. In particular, it has been proven that research personnel have a greater impact on management performance among the level of R&D organization, research personnel, and the number of patent registrations. In addition, there was a difference between high-tech and low-tech industries in the impact on operating profit and sales, which are indicators of management performance. Conclusions: This study suggests that R&D competence are strengthened to advance the material, parts, and equipment industries and to promote future growth, while differentiated support is needed according to each company's R&D competence and technology level.

• Journal of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.15-32
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• 2016

This study examines the relationship between dynamic capabilities and operational capabilities as well as investigates the effect of these capabilities and performance. We also test these relationships on two industry groups categorized into high-tech industries and low-tech industries. We collected 221 firms' data from a questionnaire survey of small and medium-sized enterprises in Korea. Empirical results show that dynamic capabilities and operational capabilities influence performance positively. In high-tech industries dynamic capabilities directly affect performance while marketing capabilities appear to mediate the relationship between dynamic capabilities and performance. Dynamic capabilities show no significant effect on performance for low-tech industries; however, operational capabilities do mediate the relationship between dynamic capabilities and performance.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 1998.10a
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• pp.56-61
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• 1998

A soft-switching three-level chopper-inverter system was built for high-power applications like Power Conditioning System (PCS) for Superconductive Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES). The system can handle 1800-VDC, 200-A peak, and 250-kW output power. The system was designed to operate with 20-KHz PWM operation with the aid of state-of-the-art zero-current transition type soft-switching. The system is based on the Power Electronics Building Block (PEBB) concept.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.157-175
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• 2021

This study categorized 3,214 companies out of the tech firms supported by the Korea Technology Finance Corporation's "technology guarantee scheme" through technology assessment from 2017 to 2019 into Fourth Industrial Revolution-related companies and general SMEs. The impact of the management characteristics of these 1,752 tech firms on the determination of high-growth firms was then empirically analyzed. This study used the OECD(2007) definition to define a "high-growth firm" as "an enterprise with average revenue growth greater than 20% per annum, over a two-year period." As the two sample groups showed non-normal distribution, this study conducted the Mann-Whitney U test, a nonparametric test, to analyze the mean differences and bivariate logistic regression in which the normality assumption is less stringent. The independent variables include fundamental characteristics; a regional dummy; a technological level dummy; and the capabilities of company representatives, human capital, and technological innovation. The corresponding sub-variables are representatives' level of education and experience in the same industry, full-time workers, research personnel, the extent of intellectual property rights, investment in research and development, firm age, total assets, region_metropolitan area, region_central region, technological level_high technology, and technological level_medium technology. As a result, the research hypothesis about representatives' level of experience in the same industry, full-time workers, total assets, and technological level_high technology was supported for the Fourth Industrial Revolution-related companies. For the general SMEs, the research hypothesis about representatives' level of experience in the same industry, research personnel, total assets, and region_metropolitan area was supported.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.65-88
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• 2008

To achieve the age of 30,000 dollars GNP, The business with speed will hold a more crucial point than the business with scale, and the mass consumption market will be transformed and changed into the niche market. Moreover, it will not be easy for the company without the peculiar and creative technology to survive in the severe competition. Under these circumstances, The innovative company which knows how to use this new paradigm will select the better position in the changing market. Innovation type SMEs are contributing in maintaining the international competitiveness of domestic economy by serving high-tech and the promotion of employment. Also, Innovation type SMEs have the most important economic leverage in our domestic economy. It's a source of the growth in domestic economy. Therefore, A lot of countries have been trying to support innovation type SMEs (with a small capital and high-tech). And many countries also try to protect and promote the innovation type SMEs. Especially the Korean government is also promoting innovation type SMEs in many ways, because the future of innovation type SMEs are not bright. This study explored the three innovative SEMs and studied 1) entrepreneur characteristics, 2) the industry environment, 3) competitive strategies, and 4) resources and capabilities of organization, which have been considered as the success factors for entrepreneurial firms. This study also holds that the characteristics of entrepreneurs is one of the most important factor to impact the success of innovative SMEs. Most of entrepreneurs have started their business with high education career and field experiences and have high intentions in developing new/high techonologies, challenging spirits, and clear vision and goals. The innovative SMEs with small kinds of products and services, narrow market, and small resources are more sensitively impacted by the environment especially. But the SMEs which entered into market early could have the comparative excellencies in their market to survive and grow in the future. They also have competitive advantages in the market using differentiation strategies by technology innovation. Technology innovation and differention strategies are one of the success factors in SMEs, They entered into the niche market using this weapons. The capabilities of changing organization to their changing environment, the open orgarnization culture, the continuous employment education, and the building the organic organization are also success factors of innovative SMEs. The SMEs with the simple organization structure can make fast decisions and operate with the autonomous and flexible ways. These only three cases will not shown successful factors of over 12,000 Innovation type SMEs in Korea and this study of Innovation type SMEs is insufficient from all aspects. But this study have many implications for the future research and the entrepreneurs ready for their business.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2007.07a
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• pp.957-958
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• 2007

The conduction-cooled HTS SMES magnet is operated in cryogenic temperature. The insulation design at cryogenic temperature is an important element that should be established to accomplish miniaturization that is a big advantage of HTS SMES. However, the behaviors of insulators for cryogenic conditions in air or vacuum are virtually unknown. Therefore, we need active research and development of insulation concerning application of the conduction-cooled HTS SMES. Specially, this paper was studied about high vacuum and cryogenic temperature breakdown and flashover discharge characteristics between cryocooler and magnet-coil. The breakdown and surface flashover discharge characteristics were experimented at cryogenic temperature and vacuum. Also, we were experimented about mechanical properties of 4-point bending test. From the results, we confirmed that about research between cryocooler and magnet-coil established basic data in the insulation design.