• Management Science and Financial Engineering
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.45-63
• /
• 2011

The aim of this paper is to consider the process of supplying trained workers with knowledge and skills for upcoming business opportunities and the process of training apprentices to be prepared to meet future demands in an IT service firm. As the demand for new workers fluctuates, a firm should employ a buffer workforce such as apprentices or interns. However, as a result of rapid business development, the capacity of the buffer may be exceeded, thus requiring the company to recruit skilled workers from outside the firm. Therefore, it is important for a firm to map out a strategy for manpower planning so as to fulfill the demands of new business and minimize the operation costs related to training apprentices and recruiting experienced workers. First, this paper analyzes the supply and demand of workers for the IT service in a knowledge-intensive field. It then presents optimal human resource planning strategies via the familiar method of stochastic process. Also, we illustrate that our model is applied to the human resource planning of an information security service firm in South Korea.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.450-458
• /
• 2018

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of university knowledge capital on the local business activity in the Korean local governments in the year 2015. We found that the increase of the standard deviation of university patent, scientific publications, incumbent firms, and industrial property rights raised the number of new knowledge-intensive firms to 15%, 11%, 54%, and 22%, respectively, in the local economy. In addition, the coefficient which reflects the interaction effects of the knowledge capital between universities and local industries was significant in the given area in the year. On the other hand, in the control variables, the coefficients for the size of local government, population density, and percentage of 20s~40s out of the total population in the local government were significant, showing above 90% level except for the variable of the distance between a local government and Seoul. In particular, when the knowledge capital of the university and industry coexists, the synergistic effect which has influence on the foundation of knowledge-intensive firms was meaningful despite the small scale, and these two types of knowledge capital could be complementary in creating new knowledge-intensive firms in the Korean local economy.

• Information Systems Review
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.43-67
• /
• 2016

Although many studies have stressed the importance of technology in service innovation, the roles of technology in service innovation are at the center of debates in the service innovation literature. One major research stream regards technology as a trigger for other innovation based on resource advantage theory. Conversely, another major stream considers it as an enabler of other innovations based on complementary theory. The contradictory situation induces the necessity to better understand the role of technology in service innovation. Therefore, this study aims to identify the role of technology in service innovation. This study investigates the role of technology in service innovation based on a service innovation orientation framework. Four service innovation orientations (i.e., service creation, service delivery, customer interaction, and technology) are identified on the basis of Den Hertog's 4D model. This study proposes a research model that examines the indirect effect of technology orientation on innovation performance through the service creation and service delivery orientations, and the effect of technology orientation on firm performance as a moderator between customer interaction orientation and firm performance. Based on empirical data from 193 knowledge-intensive business service firms in Korea, we explain the role of technology in service innovation. The results indicate that technology orientation influences both service creation and service delivery orientations as an antecedent but customer interaction orientation as an enabler. The three service innovation orientations, which are directly and indirectly influenced by technology orientation, positively affect firm performance. The findings also show that the role of technology is different depending on the type of service innovation orientation in this study.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
• /
• v.23 no.1
• /
• pp.87-106
• /
• 2013

In the service-oriented economy, knowledge and skills are considered core resources to secure competitive advantages and service innovation. Knowledge management capability, which facilitates to produce, share, accumulate and reuse knowledge, becomes as important as knowledge itself to create service value. Along with knowledge management capability, dynamic capability and operational capability are the key capabilities related to managing service delivery processes. Previous studies indicated that these three capabilities are related to service innovation. Although separately investigate the relationship between the three capabilities. The purpose of this study is 1) to define variables that have effects on service innovation including knowledge management capability, dynamic capability and operational capability, and 2) to empirically test to identify relationship among variables. In this study, knowledge management capability is defined as the capability to manage knowledge process. Dynamic capability is regarded as the firm's ability to integrate, build, and reconfigure internal and external competences to address rapidly changing environments. Operational capability refers to a high-level routine that, together with its implementing input flows, confers upon an organization's management a set of decision options for producing significant outputs of a particular type. The proposed research model was tested against the data collected through the survey method. The survey questionnaire was distributed to the managers who participated in an educational program for management consulting. Each individual who answered the questionnaire represented a knowledge based service firm. About 212 surveys questionnaires were sent via e-mail or directly delivered to respondents. The number of useable responses was 93. Measurement items were adapted from previous studies to reflect the characteristics of the industry each informant worked in. All measurement items were in, 5 point Likert scale with anchors ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). Out of 93 respondents, about 81% were male, 82% of respondents were in their 30s. In terms of jobs, managers were 39.78%, professions/technicians were 24.73%, researchers were 12.90%, and sales people were 10.75%. Most of respondents worked for medium size enterprises (47,31%) in their, less than 30 employees (46.24%) in their number of employees, and less than 10 million USD (65.59%) in terms of sales volume. To test the proposed research model, structural equation modeling (SEM) technique (SPSS 16.0 and AMOS version 5) was used. We found that the three organizational capabilities have influence on service innovation directly or indirectly. Knowledge management capability directly affects dynamic capability and service innovation but indirectly affect operational capability through dynamic capability. Dynamic capability has no direct impact on service innovation, but influence service innovation indirectly through operational capability. Operational capability was found to positively affect service innovation. In sum, three organizational capabilities (knowledge management capability, dynamic capability and operational capability) need to be strategically managed at firm level, because organizational capabilities are significantly related to service innovation. An interesting result is that dynamic capability has a positive effect on service innovation only indirectly through operational capability. This result indicates that service innovation might have a characteristics similar to process innovation rather than product orientation. The results also show that organizational capabilities are inter-correlated to influence each other. Dynamic capability enables effective resource management, arrangement, and integration. Through these dynamic capability affected activities, strategic agility and responsibility get strength. Knowledge management capability intensify dynamic capability and service innovation. Knowledge management capability is the basis of dynamic capability as well. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed further in the conclusion section.

• Knowledge Management Research
• /
• v.13 no.2
• /
• pp.73-93
• /
• 2012

Although a wide range of theoretical researches have emphasized on the importance of knowledge management in cooperative R&D network, the empirical researches to synthetically examine the role of organizational learning and open innovation which influence on the performance of technological innovation are not enough to meet academic and practical demands. This study is to investigate the effect of open innovation and organizational learning in venture business on technological competitive advantage and establish the mediating role of organizational learning. For the purpose, the questionnaires, made based on the reviewing previous researches, were collected from 274 Korean venture businesses whose managerial focus is on developing technological innovation. As a result of analysis, the relational dimensions of open innovation - network, intensity and trust shared by a firm with external R&D partners - as well as the internal organizational learning system and competence have positive influence on building technological competitive advantage whose sub-variables are technological excellence, market growth potential and business feasibility. In addition, it is identified that organizational learning has the mediating and moderating effect in the relationship between open innovation and technological competitive advantage. These results imply that open innovation complements and expend the range of limited resources and the scope of innovation in technology-intensive small and medium-sized enterprises. Besides, organizational learning activity reinforces the use of knowledge and resources, obtained from external R&D partners. On the basis of these results, detailed issues and discussion were made in the conclusion.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
• /
• v.21 no.1
• /
• pp.109-139
• /
• 2013

The objective of this study attempt to examine the prospect whether conventional catch-up theory is also applicable to knowledge intensive industry like Open Source Software(OSS), and the implication from this study can be working as a stepping stone for followers. To do this, we conducted Korean SW firm's interview, and examined U.S. firm's archivings and second source of informations by means of empirical study. We use the inflection point of paradigm shift and difference of technology regime as a framework for empirical study of catch-up process between U.S. and Korean OSS firms. We find that conventional catch-up theory is no more applicable to explain OSS firm's catch-up processes. We also identified the elements that will accelerate the catch-up processes more effectively from the comparison of technology regime between U.S. and Korean OSS firms. As a result, we diagnose the limitation of conventional catch-up theory and discuss the new technology regime which will, ironically, promote the catch-up processes from the condition of low appropriation.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.123-149
• /
• 2005

What the structure of knowledge management capability (KMC) to improve the organizational performance is an important issue for researchers and practitioners with growing interest in recent years. In this paper, we begin with a deep thinking about the resource-based view and knowledge-based view of the firm applying to knowledge management issues. By exploring the two underlying theories of knowledge management, together with an intensive review and interpretation of existing literatures, we obtain six major dimensions of KMC. We then propose an integrated conceptual model of KMC and its relationship with organizational performance. A PLS analysis of the gathered data from organizations in Korea which already have enterprise-wide knowledge management systems is conducted to validate the proposed model. We discuss several meaningful implications and draw several insightful conclusions surrounding the KMC.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.149-163
• /
• 2002

In order to manage technology transfer properly, it is important to judge whether the technology transfer is successful or not, and to find out the reason of the conclusion. The study aims to find out the relationship between successfulness of technology transfer and reasons or basis of the conclusion. Empirical investigation was carried out for Korean small and medium size firm in machinery and material field with statistical analysis on questionnaire and intensive interview. Result of the analysis is identified and compared with the other. It is shown that Korean firms feel their technology transfer is successful when it meet functional objectives and to get enough knowledge to further utilization from external source. Realization of benefit do not affect much the successfulness of technology transfer even though it is final objectives of technology transfer.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
• /
• v.13 no.2
• /
• pp.332-364
• /
• 2010

External linkages affect the performance of small and medium enterprises in diverse ways. This study delves into the impact of inter-organizational collaboration by looking at different facets of performance, such as innovation, sales growth, profit growth, and firm survival. In addition, it explores the influence of informal knowledge spillover from collaborative partners as well as from formal collaborations. The impact is carefully investigated by dividing firm samples into three different sectoral innovation categories: supplier-dominant, production-intensive, and science-based sector suggested by Pavitt (1984). The result highlights the different influence pattern of collaborative relations by partner types according to sectoral categories. The positive results of collaborating with universities and public institutions are identified, and the sales growth by customer linkage is witnessed. The impact is apparent in science-based sectors. The result implies that the risk associated with collaborating with competitors may be moderated by linking performance enhancing collaborative linkages with universities and government institutes.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
• /
• v.25 no.3
• /
• pp.299-331
• /
• 2017

This research details firm knowledge search types based on the locus and features for Korean firms in the knowledge-based industry, and then analyzes differences in innovation performance according to the types from the view of a configurational approach. Existing research has mainly concentrated on establishing a relation between knowledge search and outcome variables. Consequently, firms have relatively insufficient understanding of how to systematize knowledge search. Hence, this research classifies knowledge search into four dimensions-external search breadth, external search depth, internal search breadth, and internal search depth-by the locus and features of search. Furthermore, the research draws actual types of knowledge search of firms and analyzes differences in innovation performance. The main result of the research is as follows. First, the research reasons out six clusters of firms which have a dissimilar knowledge search type. Each cluster shows differences while participating in every dimension of knowledge search or few dimensions. Second, as for innovation performance, each cluster shows different exploitative and exploratory innovation performance according to their knowledge search type. This research applies a configurational approach while existing research applied a reductionistic approach, thereby establishing the major contribution which enables us to study a phenomenon as it comes, not to analyze variables and relationships of variables. Lastly, the research suggests a future direction of research based on the result of this research.