• The Korean Journal of Financial Management
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.109-141
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• 2006

The central factor in the pecking order theory of financial structure is the asymmetric distribution of information between managers and less-informed outside investors. Myers and Majluf (1984) show that this asymmetry leads managers to prefer internal funds to external funds. Funds are raised through equity issues only after the capacity to issue debt has been exhausted. In contrast, according to static tradeoff theory, an optimum financial structure exists by the tradeoff between tax saving by debt and bankruptcy costs. This study examines the recent changes of Korean firms' financial structure and financing behavior and the determinants of financial structure. The sample of firms comes from the period of $1996{\sim}2004$, and the number of firms is 32,003. The major findings are as follows. First, in contrast with previous studies using US firms as sample, Korean firms have been using debt financing as their major financing instrument. Especially, the firms in the fund deficit situation relies much more on $long{\sim}term$ and $short{\sim}term$ debts rather than on equity issues. Second, as is the case with previous studies using US firms sample indicates, the financing deficit variable can not explain perfectly the net debt issue. However, compared with net equity issue variable, net debt issue variable is more closely related to the financing deficit variable. Third, when financing deficit variable is added to the current list of explanatory variables of financial structure determinants model, it has a significant and positive explanatory power. In addition, the coefficients of determinants are much improved. Thus, it is concluded that although pecking order theory is not perfect, it appears to be more useful compared to static tradeoff theory, at least in explaining the recent financing behavior of Korean manufacturing firms.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.167-178
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to analyze the direct investment decision factors in the Kaesong Industrial Complex and Vietnam, and to contribute to the creation of domestic jobs and the revitalization of the inter-Korean economy. According to the analysis, most of the Kaesong Industrial Complex and Vietnamese investment companies are entering the complex for the purpose of utilizing cheap labor, cheap factory locations, sales/development of local markets, and bypass export production bases in third countries. This can be divided into production-efficient investors using differences in production price such as labor costs and market-oriented investors to sell and expand the local market, which seems to be consistent with global direct investment patterns such as Nike, Apple, and Amazon. However, even if the North Korea-U.S. denuclearization talks ease or lift sanctions, Vietnamese investors' willingness to invest in the North Korea has been most burdened by the possibility of closing special economic zones due to political risks. Last but not least, it is important to note that those willing to invest in North Korea are mostly smaller enterprises in textiles, sewing, footwear and leather industries-those that benefit from low-cost labor. Since their size is small, they need policy support in financing, especially in the early stages of their business. Even after they grow past the early stages, those without collateral would still need state guarantee letters to get financing. Thus, it is worth considering to use the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund to compensate commercial banks for bad loan loss or for low-interest loans for smaller SMEs. The interviews with SMEs found that red-tape is one of the biggest difficulties they face. Thus, it is recommended that a one-stop service agency should be established to cover all processes and issues related to inter-Korean economic cooperation to eliminate redundancy and expediate government support for SMEs.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.1-34
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• 2010

Recently, failure rates of Kosdaq IPO firms are increasing and their survival rates tend to be very low, and when these firms do fail, often times backed by a number of governmental financial supports, they may inflict severe financial damage to investors, let alone economy as a whole. To ensure investors' confidence in Kosdaq and foster promising and healthy businesses, it is necessary to precisely assess their intrinsic values and survivability. This study investigates what contributed to the failure of IPO firms and analyzed how these elements are factored into corresponding firms' stock returns. Failure risks are assessed at the time of IPO. This paper considers factors reflecting IPO characteristics, a firm's underwriter prestige, auditor's quality, IPO offer price, firm's age, and IPO proceeds. The study further went on to examine how, if at all, these failure risks involved during IPO led to post-IPO stock prices. Sample firms used in this study include 98 Kosdaq firms that have failed and 569 healthy firms that are classified into the same business categories, and Logit models are used in estimate the probability of failure. Empirical results indicate that auditor's quality, IPO offer price, firm's age, and IPO proceeds shown significant relevance to failure risks at the time of IPO. Of other variables, firm's size and ROA, previously deemed significantly related to failure risks, in fact do not show significant relevance to those risks, whereas financial leverage does. This illustrates the efficacy of a model that appropriately reflects the attributes of IPO firms. Also, even though R&D expenditures were believed to be value relevant by previous studies, this study reveals that R&D is not a significant factor related to failure risks. In examing the relation between failure risks and stock prices, this study finds that failure risks are negatively related to 1 or 2 year size-adjusted abnormal returns after IPO. The results of this study may provide useful knowledge for government regulatory officials in contemplating pertinent policy and for credit analysts in their proper evaluation of a firm's credit standing.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.45-66
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• 2009

This research investigates the systematic relation between corporate governance and corporate social responsibility(CSR). Based on the argument that corporate governance would play the role of mitigating conflicts between firms and society, we hypothesized that corporate governance would enhance CSR performance. Specifically, the firms with good governance are predicted to have CSR performance than those with bad governance. These hypotheses were tested using 130ce rean firms from 1998 to 2005. An index published by e rean Economic Justice mance the(KEJm) was used as the measureses wSR performance. Our empirical results suggest that the firms with good governance as measured by f reign investh bad goothshae directh bad goirdit committee exhibit better CSR performance. The primary purposeses this s tdy is to identify the determinants es the use b' satissaction and commitment in pe bn thomedia. For these purposes, we developegoi research modehobased on the literaturesreviews es pe bn tho media, pe ceived risk and interactivity, satissaction, and commitment. This study has identified four dimensions in the concept of perceived risk, such as privacy risk, social risk, time loss risk, and economic risk, and three dimensions in the concept of perceived interactivity, such as active control, two-way communication, and responsiveness.

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.141-161
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• 2016

Purpose As crowdfunding is a relatively recent phenomenon, determinants of successful crowdfunding with empirical data have been under-researched. Consequently, we examine the role of information- and behavior-based social interaction on the performance of crowdfunding projects, while investigating the motivational factor of goal achievement. Design/methodology/approach From February to August 2016, we collected panel data on 154 crowdfunding projects, which completed fundraising successfully on Tumblbug, a reward-based crowdfunding platform in Korea. In this study, we examine the roles of information-based social interaction (e.g., sharing information on a crowdfunding project) and behavior-based social interaction (e.g., following other investors' behavior) on successful crowdfunding. Additionally, we investigate whether the motivation of goal achievement moderates the relationship between social interaction and performance of crowdfunding projects or not. Findings We find that the number of times a crowdfunding project is shared has a positive influence on its performance, as does the number of project backers. Furthermore, we confirm that goal achievement motivation moderates the effects of information- and behavior-based social interaction on the performance of crowdfunding projects.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.17-29
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• 2020

In recent years, universities, with their intellectual properties and human resources, become main drivers for technology transfer. Universities in Korea have various organizations to support the technology transfer and commercialization. Among them, a technology holding company plays the critical role to successfully implement the task. Nonetheless, the performance of the technology holding company is well below the expectation of industry, government and universities themselves. The lack of expertises and experience together with the ill-suited government policies could be attributable to the observed under performance. More recently, however, the technology holding company acts as an accelerator or venture capital to search and fund promising start-ups. The university venture capital thus transforms a traditional university into an entrepreneurial university. Focusing on the role of the technology holding company as an accelerator or venture capital, the paper analyzes the characteristics of the university venture capital and the invested start-ups. The performance of the university venture capital is measured and the determinants of the performance are empirically tested. The results show that the co-investment of outside investors and the support of government program, known as Tech Incubator Program for Startup Korea, yields the highest performance. The result indicates that the coordination of the university venture capital, industry and government is the key to the success of early start-ups. The paper is the first to analyze the performance of the university venture capitals in Korea and thus contributes to the literature.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.560-569
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• 2015

Crowd funding is the method of raising money for a project, companies from a large group of people via the Internet, in return for future products or equity. Kickstarter is the largest and most successful crowdfunding site where creative projects raise reward based funding. Drawing on dataset of 80,267 projects with combined funding over $1.3b from 8.1m people, this paper suggest that backer select project based on their preference on the project, instead profitability of the project. It suggests that well-established platform and big size of network increases the chance of success of the project due to a ripple effect and blockbuster effects. Clear communication about the project's idea and goal is highly correlated with success. Regular communication on the project site, such as by constant progress updates, helps the success of the project. Equity-based crowdfunding is emerging as an innovative means of raising capital for businesses, so it has been receiving a lot of attention and expectation from the government and the market. The findings of this paper and others will help to get some understanding and insight into equity-based crowdfunding. However, Kickstarter differs from equity-based crowdfunding in the goals of the backers. Kickstarter's backers are not investors, they are contributors. To understand equity-based crowdfunding, the subject will need further study.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.57-65
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• 2019

If aging apartments are left unimproved through remodeling, the city will be eventually slum. As the government recognizes remodeling as an alternative to reconstruction, the law has been revised mainly to increase the housing area, increase the number of house and allow the vertical extension for making remodeling costs. However, the remodeling is still not activated yet in the market. Therefore, this study analyzes the decision factors of apartment remodeling in Seoul metropolitan area based on Heckman two-stage analysis considering sampling error. Research findings indicate that the decision for remodeling is determined by the characteristics of the household, housing, and time-lapse variables. And also the number of household members, net assets, housing satisfaction, the 11-20, 21-30, and more than 30 years of building are identified as the significant variables as a result of remodeling choice probability analysis. It is noteworthy that the significant variables from then remodeling cost analysis are net assets, area, more than 30 years of building, and unit housing price. It is also notable that the policy, which extend the housing area to cover remodeling cost, are not actually effective to activate the remodeling, and the age in the case of elderly people in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do who are expected to have high net assets and income is not significant variables. This study is expected to provide more objective and reliable implication to the policy makers, the home owner and the investors on the decision making process related to the remodeling project.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.1-21
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• 2024

Recently, venture capital investment has been shrinking globally due to high interest rates and economic slowdown. Korea is no exception. Due to the downturn in the M&A and public markets, increasing economic uncertainty, and the aftermath of corporate bankruptcies, venture capitalists are facing many difficulties in raising funds. In the changed economic environment, the investment decision factors of venture capitalists have also changed. However, studies on VCs' investment decisions have focused on the general economic environment. This study examines how VCs' investment decision-making factors change during economic recessions and booms. To this end, we interviewed active investors who have experienced both economic recessions and booms to compare how VCs' investment decision factors change: 1) personal characteristics of founders, 2) experience of founders, 3) product/service, 4) market, 5) financial situation, 6) contract terms and 7) venture capital co-investment. The results showed that founder's personal characteristics, experience, and product/service were more important during the economic recession. Market is slightly more important during economic booms. The importance of financial situation and investment conditions increased sharply during the recession compared to the boom. Finally, venture capital co-investment did not differ significantly between recessions and booms. By understanding the investment decision-making factors of venture capitalists in the recent difficult venture investment environment, this study aims to help startups raise funds and survive in a difficult market.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to find out which factors determine the success of start-up in the initial market and what are the most important determinants. For the empirical analysis, the questionnaire related to the analysis of success factors for start-up success was designed according to the quantitative analysis (AHP technique). First, we selected 8 representative success factors for successful start-up in the initial market. In order to determine the degree of priority among these factors, we surveyed 12 entrepreneurs who are interested in entrepreneurship, universities, research institutes, and public officials. As a result of the empirical analysis, 51% of the funds in the tier 1 were ranked as the top priority to determine success factors. Followed by research and development (32.5%), management (8.7%) and marketing (7.8%). In particular, when each of the four items is calculated as 100 according to the result of the tier 1, and the tier 2 is converted, the foreign investment is analyzed as 43.7%. It was followed by 15.14% of R & D facilities, 14.07% of ideas, 8.7% of managerial ability, 7.29% of domestic investment, 5.85% of buyer feedback, 3.3% of development strategy and 1.95% of marketing strategy. Among the eight success factors, overseas investment items showed the closest preference to half, and it was the most important variable that determines the success or failure of market entry. The implication of this study is that many start-ups in Korea expect to receive investment and support from overseas accelerators. This means that overseas investment itself has been recognized as a start-up that makes services and products that can be used in the global market. A high preference for attracting foreign investment is due to the fact that the amount of investment is larger than that of Korea and that it can flexibly cope with the pressure on the performance compared to domestic investors. In this study, it was meaningful that we could confirm this fact through questionnaires of start-up experts. In future research, we need to find a viable alternative through studying how to provide start-up to foreign direct investment at the national level.