• Korea Trade Review
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.161-182
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• 2017

This study is to conduct a stakeholder analysis using Project Stakeholder Management Model established by US Project Management Institute (or PMI) in order to identify current stakeholder related to Korea's trade policy and to establish the stakeholder management process for Korea's trade negotiation. Project Stakeholder Management Model includes four stages such as identifying, planning, managing, and controling stakeholder. The stakeholder management process for Korea's trade negotiation classifies domestic stakeholder into two category; internal stakeholder and external stakeholder. This research suggests that Korea should invite consumer groups, labor unions, and farmer's association into the official communication channel of trade authority while unifying the current stakeholder management divisions and relevant advisory committees within the trade ministry.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.23-43
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• 2020

This study aims at analyzing the interactions between two of the most significant trade stakeholders in Korea, the Trade Ministry and the Legislature, using text network analysis. Tackling seven Action and Plan Reports for Requests from Parliamentary Inspection released by the National Assembly, this paper conducts a topic modelling analysis, particularly focusing on the reports for the three trade-related institutes: the MOTIE headquarter, Korea Trade Insurance Corporation, Korea Trade and Investment Promotion Agency. According to the analysis, such traditional topics of the MOTIE as enterprise, industry, business, management, development were frequently appeared in the reports. Trade-related topics including export, trade, commerce, investment, overseas, domestic, dispute, cooperation, efficiency, negotiation, service, promotion were repeatedly shown. Lastly, a case study on 2019 Parliamentary Inspection Report showed specific trade-related topics and relevant contents that raised issues in that year. This analysis implies that the text data driven from the Parliamentary Inspection Reports between the MOTIE and the National Assembly, can be established as so called 'trade policy information system' which are valuable not only for the two but also the rest of the trade stakeholders in Korea.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.55-67
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• 2019

This study investigate the concept and type of Korea's trade governance by theories related to network governance. Korea's domestic trade policy-building system a 'network trade governance' utilizing Minister for Trade as a network administrative organization. This governance has four major rade stakeholders: G(Government), I(Industry), A(Academia), and C(Civil groups). Korea has five types of committees for internal consultation between domestic stakeholders, all G·I·A·C groups. Korea's trade governance can be if it fixes its administrative redundancy, communication formality, stakeholder exclusiveness. This topic calls for further research such as social network analysis as well as international comparison analysis.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.91-117
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• 2020

This study aimed to understand the relationships among the institutional pressure and the level of compliance and corporate value. The research focuses on four main variables, which are regulatory pressure, normative pressure, and cultural-cognitive pressure as the institutional pressure, and the CSR score as the level of the firm's compliance. We examined the impact of the institutional pressure on the firm's compliance-level, together with the effect of compliance level on the corporate value. We analyzed the 3,792 CSR data listed in China's A market and 31 province and city-level data from China. Results showed that institutional pressure had a positive influence on the firm's compliance level. The corporate value was greater with a high compliance level when the institutional pressure was high. The firm's compliance level negatively influenced corporate value when the institutional pressure was low. This study took into account a level of institutional pressures in three dimensions when investigating the effect of CSR compliance level on the corporate value. Thus, this study has a unique academic contribution by demonstrating that CSR activities can have a positive or negative effect depending on the institutional environment for each firm. The findings of this study also provide valuable insights to industry practitioners by suggesting the importance of considering the institution-specific condition when deciding to comply with the institutional pressure.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.63-82
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• 2022

Purpose - Drawing on relational institutional theory, we explored how demographic similarity between board members of a firm and newly emerged political elites led to firms' increased financial resource acquisition such as leverage ratio and decreased export intensity amidst the Asian financial crisis. We also studied how a firm's leverage ratio and export intensity can further affect firm profitability and financial credit rating. Design/methodology - We revisited and explored a unique, unprecedented crisis that affected most Korean firms: the Asian financial crisis that coincided with a governmental shift from a conservative to a liberal party. We collected demographic information from 432 listed Korean firms' board members and 43 political elites of the Blue House from 1998-2000 to create a demographic similarity measurement. We collected firms' financial information, built panel data, and used ordinary least squares regression to test our theory. Findings - Our results showed that demographic similarity between a firm's directors and newly emerged politicians had a positive association with a firm's leverage ratio but a negative association with a firm's export intensity. A firm's leverage ratio had a negative relationship with firm performance measured by firm profitability and financial credit rating. A firm's export intensity showed a positive effect on firm performance. Originality/value - We highlighted that during an economic crisis that coincided with a governmental shift and change of leading political actors, firms exerted efforts to survey the environment and build new external stakeholder relationships to cope with the changing landscape. We proposed that in an emerging market like Korea where low levels of trust and favoritism are prevalent across society, one of the relational institutional strategies that firms can employ is the selection of directors with similar demographic characteristics to political elites based on factors including birthplace and school affiliations. We examined the efforts of firms to build political networks with newly empowered political elites during a financial crisis, and the consequences of establishing such networks. We highlighted that during a financial crisis, the demographic similarity between a firm's board members and newly emerged politicians can provide firms with access to financial resources but can also result in poor management and reduced effort to enhance its international competitiveness.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.75-100
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• 2018

This study is designed to examine international export control norms, analyze current national export control system and identify the problems thereof, presenting several proposals for development in the system. The Republic of Korea, as a signatory of non-proliferation treaties and multilateral export control regimes, is obligated to comply with the international non-proliferation and export control norms, irregardless of hard or soft laws. Korea's export control system has been implemented in earnest since 2005; however, it contains serious problems in terms of the legal system and objectives of relevant laws and regulations, terms and definitions of the items subject to export controls, catch-all requirements, brokering license, response to the U.S. re-export controls, and so on. Proposals for development in the system include (i) enacting an independent law integrating the current dual-use items export control law and regulations, (ii) making use of the term of "strategic items" as a uniform terminology replacing 'goods etc.', 'strategic goods(inclusive of technology)', 'strategic goods, etc.', 'WMD, etc.' so as to preclude any possibility of misunderstanding, (iii) rewriting the catch-all control requirements, (iv) introducing registration system of brokering firms, (v) including provisions to comply with U.S. reexport controls, and (vi) providing stakeholder with correct and full information on export controls.