• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.59-65
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• 2014

Purpose - The competitiveness of logistics in the 21st century rests on ensuring the efficiency and effectiveness of its local hub. While considering entry into a niche market in local logistics, it is pertinent to note that Budapest is emerging as a hub in EU enlargement in Eastern Europe. Big, small, and medium-sized businesses in Korea entered Hungary in the early 1990s since then, there has been a significant increase in Korean presence, of approximately 130 times. This study aimed to identify the key distribution issues that have emerged in relation to Eastern Europe. Research design, data, and methodology - This study indicates that 33 major Korean companies were located in Hungary, which serves as an out post to enter the European marketplace. However, Korea's exports to Hungary have declined (-32.0% in 2012) because of a loss of competitiveness against multinational corporations, due to factors such as the rise in current local distribution costs and wages. Hungary, on the other hand, through diversification and expansion of foreign trade with the non-EU markets, including Korea, is increasing its exports. Strategies of emerging countries are compared and reviewed in this study, by examining the vicissitudes of Hungary's distribution methods. Results - There are issues regarding Hungary's innovative ability. Hungary has a history of low wages and high skilled labor. However, the outflow of high-quality human resources for high-wages has become more extensive, and this underlines concerns that the CEE's trade hub is moving to neighboring countries. After the European financial crisis in 2010, the Hungarian economy is now developing, because of the IMF's measures, and it is being transformed into a trade surplus nation, while regaining distribution volumes rapidly. However, if there is continued lack of investment, the supply chain is weakened and exports decline amidst competition with TNCs or with China's distribution networks. Conclusions - It is necessary to create a new logistics approach for increasing trade between Korea and Hungary. First, Korean small and medium enterprises (SMEs) should build trust by working with advanced Hungarian talent, and they should expand into state-of-the-art fields instead of being confined to traditional sectors. Second, this study focuses on limiting and lowering their high expectations for success according to foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows and the role in the CEE distribution hub Korea should try to strengthen the distribution hub with its centralized population, using better, more highly educated human resources, thereby sustaining more innovative ability. Further, the positive effects of these measures are manifested in enhanced business on both sides of Hungary, namely, the EU and non-EU nations such as Turkey and emerging markets around Europe, and a better engagement in the core placement of culture and industry. For this, Korea can contribute to, and benefit from, a Hungarian logistics center, for adopting the high-tech cluster systems and commercializing distribution technology such as RFID·USN.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.341-366
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• 2013

The term, Mittelstand, has no exact english translation for the definition, but, today, Mittelstand refers to small and medium-sized enterprises(SME), mostly family-owned firms in Germany. The Mittelstand is called the backbone of the German economy because it drove the economic miracle after World War II. During the global recession and the euro zone's debt crisis in recent years, in which european businesses have faced the near-collapse of competitiveness particularly in manufacturing, the German exports are booming and exceeded exports of China in 2012. Most importantly, the Germany economic performance has been widely attributed to the strength of the Mittelstand. Many of countries, even some leading public companies are seeking to emulate the success of the Mittelstand. Investors evaluate that many of Germany's investable "hidden champions" are Mittelstand companies. The purpose of this study is to present some of answers to the following questions: Firstly, what makes the German Mittelstand so successful? Secondly, what does the success of the German Mittelstand mean for the Korean SMEs in global competitiveness? Thirdly, what Korean government has to do improve the global competitiveness of the Korean SMEs? Some discussions in this study mention the managerial implications for Korean exporting SMEs particularly in manufacturing. Several factors that account for the success of the German Mittelstand are technological excellence and the tradition of family-owned management, concentration on niche market and globalization, and institutional supports. There are some of important lessons to be learned from the German Mittelstand. If the purposes of Korean SMEs want to remain in the sustainable competitive advantage and withstand unforeseen economic turbulences in the future, they must be able to meet the followings: 1) Technology that meets the global standard or exceeding it 2) Competitiveness in price in the global market 3) Active involvement in the globalization process, utilizing various entry modes Innovative products at globally competitive price are a crucial point for Korean exporting SMEs to achieve their competitive edge over others in the target markets abroad. It is time for Korean SMEs to cultivate a core competence in manufacturing in order to position Korea as a global manufacturing hub with SMEs leading.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information Security & Cryptology
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.911-918
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• 2014

Over the past few years, security breaches have been consistently reported around the world. Especially, people's personal information are at risk of being breached as the firms gather and utilize the information for their marketing purposes. As an effort to revamp their data infrastructures, companies have rebuilt their system that almost every data, including the personal information, are stored within the digital database. However, this migration provides easier access to the database but it has also increased the system vulnerability. As the data can be easily exposed to the unauthorized personnel both intentionally and unintentionally, it is necessary for companies to establish a set of security protocol and operate the personal information protection system. There are two major certified security system in South Korea; PIMS from KISA and PIPL from NIA. This paper analyzes the preferences of SMEs and small business using conjoint attributes of PIMS and PIPL. The study shows that the business owners take post certification rewards as the most important factor. It also shows that the attributes that have the highest utility rates are the following; 1) KISA certification, 2) 79 points of protection counter measurements, 3) 28 items of life cycle, 3) 50 percent discount on certification fee, and 4) Reduced amount of fine for personal information leakage incident.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.10
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• pp.76-91
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• 2019

There have been many studies to examine the patterns in innovations reflecting industry-specific characteristics from an evolutionary economics perspective. The purpose of this study is to identify industry-specific differences in product innovation patterns and determinants of innovation performance. For this, Korean manufacturing is classified into high-tech industries and low-tech industries according to technology intensity. It is also pointed out that existing research does not reflect the decision-making process of firms' R&D implementations. In order to solve this problem, this study presents a Heckman sample selection model and a double-hurdle model as alternatives, and analyzes data from 1,637 firms in the 2014 Survey on Technology of SMEs. As a result, it was confirmed that the determinants and patterns of manufacturing in small and medium-size enterprise (SME) product innovation are significantly different between high-tech and low-tech industries. Also, through an extended empirical model, we found that there exist a sample selection bias and a hurdle-like threshold in the decision-making process. In this study, the industry-specific features and patterns of product innovation are examined from a multi-sided perspective, and it is meaningful that the decision-making process for manufacturing SMEs' R&D performance can be better understood.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.163-176
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of PM consultant leadership competence on consulting repurchase intention and the impact of SME CEO participation on consulting repurchase intention. The validity of the measurement model was secured through CFA (Confirmative Factor Analysis) for the questionnaire data, and consistency was secured through the same method convenience, and significant results were obtained. In other words, not only the ability of PM consultant in repurchase of consulting is important, but also confirms that repurchase intention differs according to the participation of manager. Therefore, the performance that manager feels depends on the degree of manager's interest in repurchase and plays an important role in repurchase. As a result, it is important for PM to report to manager and / or make the manager participate in consulting process so that manager can be interested. In this study, it is difficult to generalize the relationship between PM's leadership role and manager's involvement in the repurchase intention. However, it is meaningful that PM's competence as well as management's participation are very important, and that this study figured out which drection PM's leadership should focus on. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the variables on the repurchase intention.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.173-193
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• 2011

Most of the research regarding economic effects of policy loans has thus far been focused on whether policy loans can improve the financial status or the management performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Unlike previous researches, this study implemented an empirical analysis focused on the contribution of policy loans to easing the liquidity restriction of investment. To analyze whether investment liquidity restriction can be alleviated or not, this study attempted an empirical analysis utilizing the nonlinear Euler equation induced through optimization of investment and GMM (generalized method of moments) as its analysis methodology. With the SMEs that received policy financing from the Small and medium Business Corporation (SBC) in 2004, this study analyzed three years of panel data before(2001~2003) and after(2004~2006) receipt of policy loans. According to the empirical results, it appears that policy loans had effects on resolving liquidity restriction of investment, implying that policy financing eases the liquidity restriction of SME investment and would contribute to the growth and development of SMEs. Further, I checked robustness of empirical results using Tobin's q model. The empirical results also support that policy loans help to resolve liquidity constraint. With these results, it is understood that the critical view to date, which has emphasized the ineffectiveness of policy financing due to it having no or insignificant economic effects, may be wrong.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.175-192
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• 2020

This study analyzed the effects of corporate dynamic capabilities on enterprise performance by using ambidextrous innovation activities as mediators, focusing on SME employees. The sub-variables of dynamic capabilities were divided into opportunity exploration capability, resource acquisition capability, and resource reconstruction capability. 282 questionnaires collected from small and medium-sized enterprises residing in the metropolitan area were used for empirical analysis. SPSS v22.0 and Process macro v3.4 were used to analyze the parallel multiple mediation model. First, the results of the analysis showed that opportunity exploration capability, resource acquisition capability had a positive (+) effect on the ambidextrous innovation activities, and the effect of resource reconstruction capability on ambidextrous innovation activities was not significant. Second, the ambidextrous innovation activities had a significant effect on the enterprise performance. Third, it was found that opportunity exploration capability and resource acquisition capability had a positive (+) effect on enterprise performance, and the effect of resource reconstruction capability on enterprise performance was not significant. Fourth, the ambidextrous innovation activity mediated the relationship between opportunity exploration capability and enterprise performance. Fifth, the ambidextrous innovation activity mediated the relationship between resource acquisition capability and enterprise performance. Sixth, the ambidextrous innovation activity did not mediate the resource reconstruction capability and the enterprise performance. As a follow-up study, it is necessary to find third mediators besides the mediators used in this study, analyze the serial mediation model through these, and study for the moderated mediation analysis through the conditional process model in which the moderator is introduced.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.11 no.10
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• pp.37-45
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• 2013

Purpose - Appropriate response to the fast changing economic environment determines SMEs' competiveness in the era of globalization and open market and, therefore, government policies to strengthen SME's competitiveness will be very important in the future. It is time to investigate the element of strategic orientation that is necessary for strengthening the competitiveness of SMEs, and its effect on the success of a business start-up. This study analyzes the network orientation in addition to existing strategic orientation, and focuses on price and quality management capability as mediators for strategic orientation and outcomes of business start-ups. Research design/data/methodology - The orientations of technology-based business founders were classified into market, technology, network, and entrepreneurial orientation. We then investigated the effect of these orientations on product price and quality management capability, as well as the influence of price and quality management capability on the outcome of a business start-up. This study is based on the nation-wide survey of the founders and members of technology-based business establishments. The survey was administered to 300 selected companies via email for a period of one month, at the end of which 175 companies replied with valid answers. Further, for effective and objective research, we used SPSS 14.0 and Amos 7.0 for structural equation modeling assumptions and hypothesis verification. Results - Except for entrepreneurial orientation, the other three orientations, namely, technology, market, and network orientations, affect the price management capability according to our results. The price management capability relates significantly with the sales and customer satisfaction. Especially, technology orientation is the core competency of start-ups that affects price and quality management capabilities. However, technology and entrepreneurial orientation do not influence the outcome of business start-ups, but affect their quality management capabilities. Conclusions - This study confirms that the strategic orientation affects product price as well as quality management capabilities, to introduce new products and achieve successful outcomes. In conclusion, new business founders face the dilemma of trade-off between price and quality in the planning stage of new product development. In particular, price management capability directly affects the outcome. Therefore, price management is more important for a successful start-up than quality management. Especially, during the initial stages of starting up a new business, price management capability entails following the market-leading company, or price penetration strategy. In this stage, price management is dependent on the information from outside rather than on the founder's decision, and it directly affects sales performance and customer satisfaction. In contrast, quality management capability is directly related to the technology capability and market experience of founders. In this case, subjective and proactive decision making is required for differentiation and development of demand in the niche market, which does not directly influence the sales performance and customer satisfaction.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.163-170
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of R&D learning organization activities of domestic small and medium-sized businesses on economic/technological results. This study, through investigation on preceding studies of domestic and foreign learning organization researchers, examined the definition, characteristics, and deteriorating factors of learning organization, and learned dependent variables, which are the definition of organizational performance, and relationship between learning organization and organizational performance. Then it performed a survey targeting small- and medium-sized businesses in Gumi and grasped the relationship between R&D capability (study planning, vision goal adequacy, project management, commercialization of technologies) and learning organization capability (creation of constant learning opportunities, knowledge sharing and utilizing system, strategic learning leadership) by classifying them to seven independent variables, using regression analysis. Because this study grasped the effect of R&D learning organization activities on organizational performance, it is expected to promote forming R&D learning organization for active R&D activities and contribute to enhancing small and medium-sized businesses' recognition on the need of R&D activities.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.41-60
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of salesperson's adaptive selling tactics on consumers who purchase Small and Medium Enterprises' product with the help of salespeople in the store. Specifically, we examine whether salesperson's adaptive selling tactics affect consumers hedonic shopping value and utilitarian shopping value. Furthermore, we try to figure out the effect of shopping value on the salesperson relationship commitment and consumer product satisfaction. The subjects of this study have surveyed the consumers with experience in purchasing SME's products through salespeople in the Gyeongnam area. As data process, SPSS 21.0 was used as the analysis tool and AMOS 21.0 was used to analyze the structural equation model. The implications of these findings are as follows. First, the salesperson's role has a positive effect on the consumer's product satisfaction. Second, it can be suggested that the salesperson's adaptive selling tactics are an important variable affecting the consumer's shopping value. Third, the results on the consumers who have hedonic shopping value have a strong positive influence rather than the consumers who have the utilitarian shopping value. The adaptive selling tactics of the salesperson should be encouraged to increase sales performance. In order to generate more performance in a competitive market environment, it is necessary to continuously strive to increase contact between the salesperson and the consumer in order to improve the quality of the relationship.