• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.5-14
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• 2016

Purpose - Competitive industry structure and recent economic depression challenge a survival of Korean small- and medium-sized food franchising companies (SMFCs), albeit the explosive growth of the Korean food service industry for last few decades. Against this backdrop, it examines how these SMFCs overcome liabilities of smallness and resource scarcity to strengthen competitive advantage in the market. To tackle this, in this article we focus on corporate entrepreneurship and human resources as a knowledge-based asset for these SMFCs. Furthermore, the ratio of employee turnover is high in SMFCs. We view that such brain-drain may result in poor performance of the Korean SMFCs. As such, we pay attention to the role of organizational commitment to an organization as a solution for enhancing individual-level employees' loyalty toward their organization. Research design, data, and methodology - Our research question is to what extent corporate entrepreneurship (i.e., innovative organizational culture, organizational autonomy, and administrative innovation) affects an individual-level attitude toward the organization and, in turn, employee creativity and satisfaction in the Korean SMFCs context. We collected data from employees in SMFCs for three months. A total of 126 valid questionnaires were collected, and analyzed the data using partial least squares path modeling. Results - The reliable and valid measurement model feed into testing the structural model. Our findings suggest that innovative organizational culture and organizational autonomy positively affect employee commitment. Particularly, organizational autonomy has a greater effect than innovative culture on employee commitment. However, the relationship between administrative innovation and employee commitment is not significant. We also find that employee commitment positively affects both employee creativity and satisfaction. Conclusions - Our contribution to the existing franchising business and management literature is twofold. First, the conceptual model includes three antecedents in the organizational entrepreneurship dimension to organizational commitment. Second, we conceptualize organizational commitment as employee commitment, and validate its impact on employee creativity and job satisfaction at an individual performance level. Overall, this article suggests that it is critically important for the Korean SMFCs to develop corporate entrepreneurship in order to facilitate employees' positive attitudes toward their organizations.

• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.1-16
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• 2022

This study analyzed the policy dilemma for ICT SMEs venture companies that changed after COVID-19 based on the results of the cognitive map analysis for ICT SMEs venture policies. First, as a result of analyzing the cognitive map of ICT SMEs venture companies that have changed since COVID-19, ICT venture companies are expanding support for ICT venture companies due to the threat of COVID-19. However, in order to convert COVID-19 into an opportunity factor, it also shows a policy direction to achieve innovative growth by creating a new market through non-face-to-face industry revitalization based on digital transformation (digital new deal). As a result of the study, the policy measures of supporting DNA-centered convergence innovation technology, digital transformation (digital new deal), fostering ICT startups (K-Global project), and expanding support for ICT SMEs did not have a policy dilemma. However, although many support has been expanded for ICT SMEs due to COVID-19, it is difficult to find and foster ICT start-up companies, and globalization problems are occurring due to the decrease in exports to COVID-19, making it difficult to create new markets. There is a negative (-) perception of causality that ICT SMEs venture companies may face risks as jobs decrease and innovative growth cannot be led to the revitalization of the non-face-to-face industry. Therefore, it was found that both the flow of causal relationship between the expansion of support for ICT SMEs and the high growth of ICT SMEs is not + and has a policy dilemma in part.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.531-546
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• 2022

This study analyzes the performance and characteristics of the fostering policies for the focusing on growth path and type occupied in the Technoparks. First, the companies occupied in the Technoparks have shown the characteristics of landing on an actual growth phase beyond the start-up and fostering phases, and when considering the possession of a dedicated R&D organization and the portion of highly educated technical personnel having masters and doctorate degrees, these companies have also entailed the characteristics of being a technological innovation company. Second, about 30% of the companies that left the Technoparks secured their own factories and offices after standing alone, indicating that the fostering function after startup in the Technoparks has been performing a significant role on the growth path of start-up companies from a temporal perspective. Third, a majority of the companies occupied in the Technoparks were composed of scale-up companies or preliminary scale-up companies that contained promising innovative growth potential. However, it seems to urgently require the acceleration of innovation because many companies are categorized into a stagnated growth type that demonstrates a high R&D investment but low sales revenue growth.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.215-237
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• 2008

KIPRIS patent database was analyzed for identifying the technological status of Daedeok Innopolis Biocluster. It was found that the pattern of activities among various technological areas in Daedeok Biocluster is similar to that of an advanced country rather than those of other cities in Korea. The technological growth in Daedeok Innopolis Biocluster is in the progressive stage, which may be due to the innovative activities rather than the rise in the number of new firms or institutes. The concentration of technology in Daedeok Innopolis Biocluster is a favorable condition for the innovation activities. The trend for the technological concentration was remarkably consistent with the growth curve that a population increases according to the logistic equation. The logistic growth may be represented by the result of competition due to the limited resource allocation and then innovation cluster is corresponding to the ecosystem composed by biological individuals. There is strong competition in Daedeok Innopolis Biocluster in around 2009, so the government might make a policy to encourage the technological diversity for healthy knowledge ecosystem.

• ALGAE
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.189-204
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• 2016

Microalgal bioremediation of CO₂, nutrients, endocrine disruptors, hydrocarbons, pesticides, and cyanide compounds have evaluated comprehensively. Microalgal mitigation of nutrients originated from municipal wastewaters, surface waters, and livestock wastewaters has shown great applicability. Algal utilization on secondary and tertiary treatment processes might provide unique and elegant solution on the removing of substances originated from various sources. Microalgae have displayed 3 growth regimes (autotrophic, heterotrophic, and mixotrophic) through which different organic and inorganic substances are being utilized for growth and production of different metabolites. There are still some technology challenges requiring innovative solutions. Strain selection investigation should be directed towards identification of algal that are extremophiles. Understanding and manipulation of metabolic pathways of algae will possible unfold solution to utilization of algae for mitigation of dissolve organic nitrogen in wastewaters.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.264.1-264.1
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• 2013

Graphene is a two-dimensional carbon material whose structure is one-atom-thick planar sheet of sp2-bonded carbon atoms densely packed in a honeycomb crystal lattice. It has drawn significant attention with its distinguished structural and electrical properties. Extremely high mobility and a tunable band gap make graphene potentially useful for innovative approaches to electronics. Although mechanical exfoliation of graphite and decomposition of SiC surfaces upon thermal treatment have been the main method for graphene, they have some limitations in quality and scalability of as-produced graphene films. Solutionphase and solvothermal syntheses of graphene achieved a major improvement for processing, however for device fabrication, a reproducible method such as chemical vapor deposition (CVD) growth yielding high quality films of controlled thickness is required. In this research, we synthesized hexagonal graphene flakes on Cu foils by CVD method and controlled its coverage, density and the size of graphene domains by changing reaction parameters. It is important to control these parameters of graphene growth during synthesis in order to achieve tunable properties and optimized device performance.

• International journal of advanced smart convergence
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.104-108
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• 2023

This paper deals with research on innovative systems using Python-based artificial intelligence technology in the field of plant growth monitoring. The importance of monitoring and analyzing the health status and growth environment of plants in real time contributes to improving the efficiency and quality of crop production. This paper proposes a method of processing and analyzing plant image data using computer vision and deep learning technologies. The system was implemented using Python language and the main deep learning framework, TensorFlow, PyTorch. A camera system that monitors plants in real time acquires image data and provides it as input to a deep neural network model. This model was used to determine the growth state of plants, the presence of pests, and nutritional status. The proposed system provides users with information on plant state changes in real time by providing monitoring results in the form of visual or notification. In addition, it is also used to predict future growth conditions or anomalies by building data analysis and prediction models based on the collected data. This paper is about the design and implementation of Python-based plant growth monitoring systems, data processing and analysis methods, and is expected to contribute to important research areas for improving plant production efficiency and reducing resource consumption.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.15-22
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• 2002

The modern welding technology hue more then 100 years history, and during that period, the welding has been playing an important role in the development of the manufacturing processes/systems as a key technology. In the time we enter the 21st century, it is question how to develop the innovative and attractive welding technology, in particular by the younger generation. The present report discussed the future trend of welding engineering mainly in Japan after reviewing the previous growth of welding engineering.

• Korean small business review
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.67-93
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• 2009

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relations between financial constraints and dividend smoothing of innovative small and medium sized enterprises(SMEs) listed on Korea Securities Market and Kosdaq Market of Korea Exchange. The innovative SMEs is defined as the firms with high level of R&D intensity which is measured by (R&D investment/total sales) ratio, according to Chauvin and Hirschey (1993). The R&D investment plays an important role as the innovative driver that can increase the future growth opportunity and profitability of the firms. Therefore, the R&D investment have large, positive, and consistent influences on the market value of the firm. In this point of view, we expect that the innovative SMEs can adjust dividend payment faster than the noninnovative SMEs, on the ground of their future growth opportunity and profitability. And also, we expect that the financial unconstrained firms can adjust dividend payment faster than the financial constrained firms, on the ground of their financing ability of investment funds through the market accessibility. Aivazian et al.(2006) exert that the financial unconstrained firms with the high accessibility to capital market can adjust dividend payment faster than the financial constrained firms. We collect the sample firms among the total SMEs listed on Korea Securities Market and Kosdaq Market of Korea Exchange during the periods from January 1999 to December 2007 from the KIS Value Library database. The total number of firm-year observations of the total sample firms throughout the entire period is 5,544, the number of firm-year observations of the dividend firms is 2,919, and the number of firm-year observations of the non-dividend firms is 2,625. About 53%(or 2,919) of these total 5,544 observations involve firms that make a dividend payment. The dividend firms are divided into two groups according to the R&D intensity, such as the innovative SMEs with larger than median of R&D intensity and the noninnovative SMEs with smaller than median of R&D intensity. The number of firm-year observations of the innovative SMEs is 1,506, and the number of firm-year observations of the noninnovative SMEs is 1,413. Furthermore, the innovative SMEs are divided into two groups according to level of financial constraints, such as the financial unconstrained firms and the financial constrained firms. The number of firm-year observations of the former is 894, and the number of firm-year observations of the latter is 612. Although all available firm-year observations of the dividend firms are collected, deletions are made in the case of financial industries such as banks, securities company, insurance company, and other financial services company, because their capital structure and business style are widely different from the general manufacturing firms. The stock repurchase was involved in dividend payment because Grullon and Michaely (2002) examined the substitution hypothesis between dividends and stock repurchases. However, our data structure is an unbalanced panel data since there is no requirement that the firm-year observations data are all available for each firms during the entire periods from January 1999 to December 2007 from the KIS Value Library database. We firstly estimate the classic Lintner(1956) dividend adjustment model, where the decision to smooth dividend or to adopt a residual dividend policy depends on financial constraints measured by market accessibility. Lintner model indicates that firms maintain stable and long run target payout ratio, and that firms adjust partially the gap between current payout rato and target payout ratio each year. In the Lintner model, dependent variable is the current dividend per share(DPS_t), and independent variables are the past dividend per share(DPS_t-1) and the current earnings per share(EPS_t). We hypothesized that firms adjust partially the gap between the current dividend per share(DPS_t) and the target payout ratio(Ω) each year, when the past dividend per share(DPS_t-1) deviate from the target payout ratio(Ω). We secondly estimate the expansion model that extend the Lintner model by including the determinants suggested by the major theories of dividend, namely, residual dividend theory, dividend signaling theory, agency theory, catering theory, and transactions cost theory. In the expansion model, dependent variable is the current dividend per share(DPS_t), explanatory variables are the past dividend per share(DPS_t-1) and the current earnings per share(EPS_t), and control variables are the current capital expenditure ratio(CEA_t), the current leverage ratio(LEV_t), the current operating return on assets(ROA_t), the current business risk(RISK_t), the current trading volume turnover ratio(TURN_t), and the current dividend premium(DPREM_t). In these control variables, CEA_t, LEV_t, and ROA_t are the determinants suggested by the residual dividend theory and the agency theory, ROA_t and RISK_t are the determinants suggested by the dividend signaling theory, TURN_t is the determinant suggested by the transactions cost theory, and DPREM_t is the determinant suggested by the catering theory. Furthermore, we thirdly estimate the Lintner model and the expansion model by using the panel data of the financial unconstrained firms and the financial constrained firms, that are divided into two groups according to level of financial constraints. We expect that the financial unconstrained firms can adjust dividend payment faster than the financial constrained firms, because the former can finance more easily the investment funds through the market accessibility than the latter. We analyzed descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation, and median to delete the outliers from the panel data, conducted one way analysis of variance to check up the industry-specfic effects, and conducted difference test of firms characteristic variables between innovative SMEs and noninnovative SMEs as well as difference test of firms characteristic variables between financial unconstrained firms and financial constrained firms. We also conducted the correlation analysis and the variance inflation factors analysis to detect any multicollinearity among the independent variables. Both of the correlation coefficients and the variance inflation factors are roughly low to the extent that may be ignored the multicollinearity among the independent variables. Furthermore, we estimate both of the Lintner model and the expansion model using the panel regression analysis. We firstly test the time-specific effects and the firm-specific effects may be involved in our panel data through the Lagrange multiplier test that was proposed by Breusch and Pagan(1980), and secondly conduct Hausman test to prove that fixed effect model is fitter with our panel data than the random effect model. The main results of this study can be summarized as follows. The determinants suggested by the major theories of dividend, namely, residual dividend theory, dividend signaling theory, agency theory, catering theory, and transactions cost theory explain significantly the dividend policy of the innovative SMEs. Lintner model indicates that firms maintain stable and long run target payout ratio, and that firms adjust partially the gap between the current payout ratio and the target payout ratio each year. In the core variables of Lintner model, the past dividend per share has more effects to dividend smoothing than the current earnings per share. These results suggest that the innovative SMEs maintain stable and long run dividend policy which sustains the past dividend per share level without corporate special reasons. The main results show that dividend adjustment speed of the innovative SMEs is faster than that of the noninnovative SMEs. This means that the innovative SMEs with high level of R&D intensity can adjust dividend payment faster than the noninnovative SMEs, on the ground of their future growth opportunity and profitability. The other main results show that dividend adjustment speed of the financial unconstrained SMEs is faster than that of the financial constrained SMEs. This means that the financial unconstrained firms with high accessibility to capital market can adjust dividend payment faster than the financial constrained firms, on the ground of their financing ability of investment funds through the market accessibility. Futhermore, the other additional results show that dividend adjustment speed of the innovative SMEs classified by the Small and Medium Business Administration is faster than that of the unclassified SMEs. They are linked with various financial policies and services such as credit guaranteed service, policy fund for SMEs, venture investment fund, insurance program, and so on. In conclusion, the past dividend per share and the current earnings per share suggested by the Lintner model explain mainly dividend adjustment speed of the innovative SMEs, and also the financial constraints explain partially. Therefore, if managers can properly understand of the relations between financial constraints and dividend smoothing of innovative SMEs, they can maintain stable and long run dividend policy of the innovative SMEs through dividend smoothing. These are encouraging results for Korea government, that is, the Small and Medium Business Administration as it has implemented many policies to commit to the innovative SMEs. This paper may have a few limitations because it may be only early study about the relations between financial constraints and dividend smoothing of the innovative SMEs. Specifically, this paper may not adequately capture all of the subtle features of the innovative SMEs and the financial unconstrained SMEs. Therefore, we think that it is necessary to expand sample firms and control variables, and use more elaborate analysis methods in the future studies.

• Journal of Venture Innovation
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.57-74
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to verify the influence of SME members' motivation and creative working environment on innovative behavior and to see differences according to individual absorptive capacity. As a research method for this, 350 copies were collected by requesting a specialized research company for employees who have worked at SMEs for more than a year, and research models and hypotheses were verified with SPSS 28 and Smart PLS 3. As a result of the study, approach motivation and creative work environment had a positive effect on individual innovation behavior, which showed significant differences according to individual absorptive capacity. The implications of this study are summarized as follows. First, for innovative organizational management in SMEs where human resources are more important than physical resources, SMEs need to provide a creative working environment and motivate members to derive positive innovative behavior. Second, innovation behavior differs depending on personal absorptive capacity, and innovation behavior becomes the subject of corporate growth, indicating that various interests and support are needed to increase personal absorptive capacity along with positive motivation for members.