• Economic Analysis
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.1-36
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• 2018

When it comes to explaining the relationship between inventory investment and business fluctuations, the production smoothing theory and the stock-out avoidance theory take contradictory stances. Decision-making related to inventory investments of corporations is thought to be influenced by both motives, but the relative sizes or directions of their respective influences can differ depending upon the phase of the business cycle. Against this backdrop, this paper differs from existing studies in that it theoretically tests the relative significances of the production smoothing and stock-out avoidance motives in the inventory investment dynamics, while placing its analytical focus on determining the existence and patterns of the asymmetric dynamics of inventory investment over the business cycle phases. To this end this paper sets up a non-linear model that is expanded from the existing linear inventory investment model, and checks whether its predictive power is better than that of the existing model. The results of analysis confirm the nature of the asymmetric dynamics of inventory investment over the business cycle phases. A stock-out avoidance motive appears but there is no significant production smoothing motive in boom times. In downturns, in contrast, the stock-out avoidance motive is insignificant, but a quality of asymmetric dynamics in which changes in inventory cause the deepening of recessions, due to the non-convexity of production costs proposed by Ramey (1991), is detected. This paper confirms that a model considering the asymmetric dynamics of inventory investment can have better predictive power than one that does not consider it, through within-sample and out-of-sample predictions and various predictive power tests. These research results are expected to be useful for economic forecasting, through their enhancement of the understandings of the inventory investment dynamics and of the nature of its business cycle destabilization.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.24 no.7
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• pp.29-37
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• 2020

Purpose - This paper empirically investigates the relationship between country governance quality and worker remittances from foreign countries. Because remittances can be a source of funds for economic development and smoothing economic crises in developing countries, the related topic has been a concern for policy-makers and academic researchers. This paper divides the motives of remittances into altruistic and investment motives through existing papers, and then considers the governance quality the remittance receiving country as one of the determinants of remittances. Design/methodology - Our empirical model considers whether governance quality can affect the volume of remittances, and uses altruistic and investment factors studied in the literature. To do this, a two-step approach is taken. First, the panel data are examined via pooled OLS, random effects, and Tobit estimation. Second, the paper reduces six governance indicators into one variable, Governance, using the principal component technique (PCA) for a robustness check. Findings - The main findings can be summarized as follows. The negative governance variable in the estimation results shows a lower governance quality that induces workers to send savings to their home countries. This means that a country with poor governance quality seems to have more remittance inflows from abroad. It also reveals that poor governance quality is more relevant to an altruistic motive rather than an investment motive, in general. The positive per capita GDP variable shows the investment motive for developed countries. Originality/value - Existing papers have focused on various factors related to the motives of remittances. However, governance quality effects on remittance inflows have not been fully studied so far. This paper considers governance quality in an estimation equation explicitly as one of the determinants of remittances. This area of study is needed, in theory and empirically, in order to fully understand the relationship between governance and remittances.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.75-82
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• 2019

The paper aims to investigate the impacts of long-term savings motives on fostering household participation and contribution to savings mechanisms in rural Vietnam. The paper is organized in five parts: introduction, data description, methodology, empirical results, and conclusion. The quantitative methodology is employed and three simultaneous estimation methods, including instrumental variable model, two-step model, and Heckman model are used to test these impacts as well as the robustness of results. In each model, the paper examines the impacts of independent factors on both household participation and household contribution to savings mechanisms. Two sets of independent variables: long-term savings motives (profit-making investment, accumulation for big expenditure, providing for old age, and cost of educations) and control variables (dependency rate, number of people in household, and household wealth) are in each model. A set of dataset of 2,314 households for analysis is obtained from household survey in rural Vietnam. Robust statistical findings indicate that profit-making investment emerged to be the strongest motive fostering household participation to savings mechanisms while other long-term savings motives have little or no impact on fostering household participation to savings mechanisms. In addition, education investment encourages household contribution to savings mechanisms in rural Vietnam.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.387-407
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• 2005

This paper is to study globalization motives and strategies of Japanese and Korean industries by analyzing the causes and patterns of foreign direct investment (FDI) of the firms of the two countries during the 1980s and 1990s. First we develop a FDI function from the profit maximizing model of firms. Then we use regression analysis to determine internally driving-out factors and externally-inducing factors. Japanese FDI strategy has gone through three different stages; from natural resource-seeking investment in the 1950s and 1960s to market-expansion investment in the 1970s and 1980s and to a combination of cost-reducing (low-cost labor-seeking) investment and market-penetrating investment in the 1990s. On the other hand, Korean FDI behavior has gone through four different stages; from the learning stage with small investments in the 1970s, to natural resource-seeking investment in the early and mid 1980s, to the growth stage in the late 1980s and the early 1990s, to the maturity stage of the mid and late 1990s. The last two stages were characterized by a combination of cost-reducing investment and market-seeking investment. As a late comer, Korea began its FDI two decades later than Japan, but caught up the patterns of Japanese FDI by the mid 1990s and is in a competing position with Japan. Our findings show that both Japanese FDI and Korean FDI in Asia and other developing countries tendto be in labor-intensive sectors where their firms are losing their comparative advantages at home. The main motive for FDI into these regions is low-cost resource seeking. On the other hand, both Japanese FDI and Korean FDI in the U.S. and Europe tend to be knowledge-intensive sectors where Japanese and Korean firms attempt to internalize transaction and information costs by globalizing its production. The main motive for FDI into these regions is market-seeking. Firms in both countries have increased their investments in Mexico and Western and Eastern Europe in order to penetrate large economic blocs such as the EU and NAFTA area. Korean firms are more aggressive in expanding into new and untested markets than are their counterpart in Japan. Evidence of this can be seen in the scarcity of Japanese FDI and abundance of Korean FDI in Eastern Europe and China.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.1-22
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• 2022

Purpose - This study aims to analyze the influence of South Korea's outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) under the effect of both multinational enterprises' (MNEs) investment motivation and host country institutions. Some suggestions are put forward with regard to South Korean MNEs participating in and integrating into the fierce and changeable world of international market competition. Design/methodology - The basic hypotheses are that MNEs' investment motivations and the host country's superior institutions both boost South Korea's OFDI in those host countries. South Korea's OFDI is divided into investment choice stage and investment scale stage. A Heckman two-stage selection model is established for empirical analysis, using the panel data of South Korea's OFDI and related variables, from 2002 to 2019. Findings - (1) The influence on the investment scale of South Korea's OFDI is more regular and noteworthy than the influence on investment choice. (2) In the investment scale stage, there are obvious motivations to seek markets, labor force and superior technology, but not natural resources. (3) In the investment scale stage, the South Korea's OFDI is more obviously attracted by the host country's superior political institutions, economic institutions and legal institutions, but not cultural institutions. Originality/value - The choices of variables and uses of model expand the theoretical basis and empirical method of OFDI research. The results of the empirical study also provide some reference for the transnational investment of South Korean MNEs and the investment policy formulation of the South Korean government.

• The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.77-100
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• 1991

This study has made an attempt to analyze the determinants of Foreign Direct Investment (FFI) by Korean Fishery firms. The questionaire survey on individual firm's recognition and the determinants of Foreign Fishery Investment (FFI) was performed, yielding the following results. First, the main object of FFI is to reserve fishing ground. The result of the statistical analysis shows that import ratio for domestic market (DOM) is a significant variable of FFI. These two facts indicate our FFI is resouree-oriented in terms of the object and motive. Second, FFI is primaily determined by firm-related factors rather than country- related factors. The significant variable in firm-related factfors is the number of departments of the investing firm (DEPT). Another notable result is that fishing fee is not an influential variable in FFI decision.

• The Korean Journal of Financial Management
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.119-131
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• 1985

Although Korea is short of capital technology, and natural resources, she has achieved an outstanding progress by the export-drive policies by Korean government and the creative endeavor of Korean firms. As a result of that, Korean economy and enterprises are in the same file of newly industrialized countries and Korea is ready for an economic take-off as a developed country. But in the early 1980s, each country strengthens protective trade theory and resources nationalism, and this has a great influence on the field of international trade environment. In spite of that, to continue the same high development as that of the past. Korea must try to secure and find export markets, solve trade barriers, make sure of the long-term security of resources, develop technology, and strengthen economic cooperations. To satisfy these desires by 2000s, we must try to make Korean enterprises have the global competitive power and them grow strongly among world wide firm through capital and technology accumulated during the passed years, and to do so, there must be a foreign production and marketing management, too, this can be achieved only through foreign overseas direct investment. This investment has various forms, to say, verifical integrated, horizontal integrated. conglomerate integrated forms, and the amount of investment in each country from 18 century to today reaches 500 billion dollars. This investment is done by strategic, behavioral economic, and financial motives. So I am going to approach the fields of like these; in spite of the differences among political, economical, caltural, and social systems, and many risk compared with domestic enterprises, why do Korean firms witsh to transfer the productive facilities to overseas countries and run them there? What is the comparative advantage of foreign direct investment compared with domestic investment ?. why is the factor of comparative advantage transferred through foreign direct investment?, what is the motive of foreign overseas direct investment?, and last the ownership-specific factors and the theory of internalization, and the location specific factors were analysed chiefly. But in consideration of the given condition in Korea, Korean overseas direct investment must be propelled rationally on the basis of the above mentioned theory.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.65-81
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• 2004

Foreign direct investment (FDI) by firms has various motives in terms of the strategy for firms' long-term growth. This research uses the case study of Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama to analyze the motives of the Korean auto industry's FDI in the U.S. and the locational factors that determined the selection of the site. This paper starts from the question of why Hyundai made the decision to invest in the U.S., which is not favorable in terms of production cost, especially considering that its exports to the U.S. have been on the increase. The results indicate that the strongest motive for the decision to invest in the U.S. was to ameliorate the trade friction between Korea and the U.S. Given that Hyundai depends on the U.S. market to a large extent for its exports, the foremost motive was to use local production in order to reduce the serious trade imbalance in the automobile sector between Korea and the U.S. in order that trade friction with the U.S. may be avoided and causes for trade disputes may be reduced. Other motives such as improving the access to local consumers were of secondary importance. After the selection of the country in which to invest, however, various factors were considered in the decision regarding the location of the plant, and incentives by local governments ultimately played a key role in this decision. The results imply that the Korean manufacturing industry's investment in the U.S. cannot be explained by traditional FDI theories and instead was greatly driven by a strategic defensive motive. In addition, the results confirm that the design of an appropriate incentive structure by host governments is important for attracting FDI.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.47-67
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to determine factors of FDI inflows which positively influence economic development. While MNCs ultimately decide on which country to engage in FDI, it can be affected by the general investment environment of host countries. Thus, it may be closely linked to national macro socio-economic factors. In the fixed-effect panel regression analysis using 30 years of data of 13 developed countries and 15 developing countries, results indicate that labor redemption exerts the greatest influence on global FDI inflows; this implies that FDI decisions are based on locations featuring higher productivity by the reduction of labor costs. According to the level of economic development, the motive of FDI inflows differs. In developed countries, GDP, government expenditure and consumer expenditure exert the greatest influence on FDI inflows; which shows characteristics of market seeking and horizontal investment. However, in developing countries, labor redemption and human capital exert the greatest influence on FDI inflows; which shows characteristics of efficiency seeking and vertical investment.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.330-341
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• 2014

Background: The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that affect the participation of union members who involved in the Korean health cooperatives. Methods: Questionnaires were collected from 1,041 respondents who voluntarily participated in seven health cooperatives. In order to verify the hypothesis, collected data were analyzed using binomial logistic regression. Results: Longer tenure, higher collective motive, organizational age were associated with types of participation. In operative participation, marital status, higher reward motive, better accessibility to the cooperatives influenced concern about the high-level participation. Organizational age were associated with the high-level participation in management participation. Longer tenure, interaction with staff, management participation were involved in additional investment. Conclusion: This is the first study to statistically prove that the influencing factors on the participation in the health cooperatives. Based on these findings, the provision of differentiated strategies should be useful for increase of participation.