• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.26-39
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• 2016

Korea's main manufacturing industries, which have led its economy for the past three decades, are faced with a serious downturn and loss of competitive advantages due to the current economic depression, China's rise, and the drop of oil prices. Korean business firms must adopt the paradigm shift in their value strategies, along with a government-led industrial restructuring in order to gain sustainable competitive advantages. Business firms allocate their limited resources between value creation and value appropriation, however, what effect does strategic emphasis on value creation versus value appropriation have on a business firm's financial performance? This paper empirically addresses this issue by examining the effect of shifts in strategic emphasis on stock return. Furthermore, this study examines appropriate choices of strategic emphasis to gain differential financial performance. The data set used in this regression analysis comes from the KISLINE database of NICE Information Service. The variables that form the basis of this analysis are stock return, ROA, and Strategic Emphasis [(advertising expenditures-R&D expenditures)/assets]. The interactive effect with situational factors regarding the firm and the type of technological environment in which the firm is operating was also analyzed. Our results show that investors acknowledge a shift of strategic emphasis as a sign of stock valuation. In comparison to US, Korean business firms have weak value creation capabilities in high-technology industries, and weak value appropriation capabilities in low-technology industries. This proves Korean firms are fast followers in the global market. Our findings suggest that Korean firms have to adopt a balanced value strategy, nurturing value creation and developing value appropriation for overcoming the current economic downturn and becoming a first mover in the dawn of "Industry 4.0."

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.71-98
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• 1998

This study aimed to investigate how such retailers as department stores, large discount stores, book wholesalers, and clothing wholesalers used information technology for the QR strategy and whether the QR strategy had an effect on performance with a focus on the pipeline strategy. For this purpose, the QR strategy was divided into transaction efficiency, supplier partnership, and customer detail strategy. The differences in performance and information technology were analyzed according to the fit of the pipeline strategy, such as internal focus, supplier focus, and customer focus, the business strategy which were used by the retailers. And, an attempt was made to investigate whether performance was raised according to the level of adopting information technology. The results can be summarized as allows. First, the adaptive level of information technology had an effect on performance. But, seeing that the explanatory power of the regression analysis on the effect of the adaptive level of information technology on performance was shown to be very weak, it is judged that the level of QR information technology in the responding firms was very low compared to that of foreign firms. Second, information technology used by the retailers included universal product code, bar coding, customer database, and information utilities. It was shown that the group of firms seeking the transaction efficiency QR strategy and the internal focus pipeline strategy had the higher level of information technology than the retailers seeking other customer detail QR strategy and the customer focus pipeline strategy and the retailers with inconsistent strategy. This indicates that the firm seeking to raise its internal efficiency has a high level of using information technology. At the end of the paper, managerial implication and future research directions were discussed.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.80-100
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• 1998

The application of computers and information technologies progressed with remarkable pace has paved the way for technological innovation toward the efficient integration of various functions in a manufacturing system. Actually it is observed that the greater part of manufacturing companies already initiated significant efforts to integrate information systems and attained the level of integration to some extent. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the strategic direction that manufacturing firms are pursuing through integrating information systems. Using the extensive data gathered from Japanese manufacturers, it is attempted to find the differences in competitive priorities and action programmes between the companies with high and low-level system integration. Our empirical data reveals that the manufacturers with highly integrated system are focusing their competitive capabilities on the rapid design change and new product introduction, and accordingly they place a greater emphasis on the action programmes related to design, process and quality improvement. As a conclusion, highly integrated firms tend to pursue new product development strategy more intensively, thereby they want to be a preemptor in the new market through exploiting technological advantages of integrated manufacturing system.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.41-54
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• 2022

Despite the recent rapid advancement of science and technology, we have been experiencing the decline in productivity since the 2000s. This study aims to investigate the decline at both industry and firm levels, by looking at the emergence and growth of large firms such as Amazon, Alphabet, and Apple and M&A trends. Following the results of previous studies, our results show that productivity at industry level has decreased since the 2000s. Particularly, in the period after 2011, the deterioration of allocative efficiency due to the large firms and the decline in the growth rate of surviving firms in the industry with low ratio of large firms contributed to the productivity decline. On the other hand, our analysis at firm level demonstrates that the productivity of firms that acquired IT firms improved over the entire period. While M&As have a positive impact on productivity, M&As with a demand-side motive such as market penetration and expansion of channels have a relatively larger impact than the ones for production or operation efficiency. Our results also suggest that the higher the proportion of large firms in a specific industry, the lower the productivity of individual firms in the same industry. Overall, given that the industry's structural changes for digital transformation tends to strengthen the growth of large firms, our findings have significant implications by empirically identifying the relationships of the emergence of large firms, the acquisition of IT/Non-IT firms, and motivations for M&As to firm/industry productivity.

• Journal of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.67-88
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• 2011

This study empirically investigated the effects of knowledge management(KM) strategic alignment on the KM activities as well as the product and process innovation of manufacturing firms. Based on the framework, which employs the usage levels of target costing systems(TCS) and information technology(IT) infrastructure, four types of KM strategies were identified and proposed：mixed, explorative, exploitative and negative strategies. In this research, these four types of KM strategies were empirically validated. According to the results of this study, it was found that when a explorative KM strategy is aligned with a low-cost strategy, KM activities are activated and the degree of a process innovation is increased. It was observed that in the case of the alignment between a differentiation strategy and a exploitative KM strategy, both KM activities and the level of a product innovation are enhanced. The results also demonstrated that for the enhancement of both a process and a product innovation through the activation of KM activities, a mixed KM strategy must be aligned with a composite business strategy, which focuses on a low-cost as well as a differentiation strategies. Accordingly, it is concluded that the KM activities and the levels of the product and process innovation can be activated or improved with the alignment of the KM strategies and business strategies.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.337-345
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship between the characteristics of Korean family firms and the impact of debt financing. The analysis period was 10 years from 2004 to 2013, and the sample consisted of 4,008 non-financial firms listed on the Korea Exchange. For the analysis, the unbalanced panel data with time - series, cross - section data were formed and analyzed using panel data regression analysis. The results are as follows. First, Korean family firms use relatively less debt than non - family firms. It can be understood that family firms in which the dominant family owns and dominates the corporation are less likely to increase their debt because the agent problem is alleviated and the need for the control effect of Jensen (1986) is lowered. Second, in the verification of the packing order theory using the model proposed by Shyam-Sunder and Myers (1999), family firms have higher compliance with the packing order theory than non-family firms do. When financing is needed, debt is preferred over equity issuance. However, for Korean family firms, 24.38% of the deficit funds are financed through the issuance of net debt, which is relatively low compared to the 75% shown in the analysis of Shyam-Sunder and Myers (1999). These results reveal the limit to the strong claim that the Korean family firms follow the packing order theory.

• Journal of the Korean Regional Science Association
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.123-147
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• 1990

This paper examines the changing geography of producer service industries in the 1980s. The foci of this study are to analyze the regional distribution of each producer services, and to reveal the spatial linkage of producer services. Further this paper asserts the potential role of producer services for reducing the potential endogenous development in the periphery. During the 1981-86 period, producer service industries grew more rapidly than other service sectors and manufacturing sector. The main reason of the raid growth of producer services is attributable to an increase in demand for intermediate services from manufacturing firms. In order to compete an increasingly complex business environment, firms have expanded the amount of effort devoted to activities such as planning, coordination and control, and consequently have increased their use of producer services. The most distinctive feature of the location of producer services is spatial concentration into Seoul and surrounding region. Especially the degree of the concentration o business services into the Capital Region has been accelerating during the 1990s. The pattern of employment growth and regional distribution of producer services show a clear core / periphery disparity. Much of the regional inequality in producer services is largely due to variation in demand associated with the pattern of corporation headquarters with the pattern of corporation headquarters and branch plants location with large manufacturing firms. The analysis of spatial division of labor reflects that producer services are related to the location of headquarters in manufacturing industry. Headquarters in manufacturing firms and business service firms tend to cluster each other. Most of the headquarters spatially separated from branch offices are clustered heavily in Seoul. Especially headquarters of business services and insurance services are overwhelmingly concentrated into Seoul. The firms whose headquarters are located in Seoul have a linkage pattern on a nationwide scale. It is viewed have little potential for generating local multiplier effects and regional development. In the light of the result of this study, producer services are not likely to disperse soon to peripheral regions. Consequently the absence of policies directed at enhancing producer sevice in the periphery, concentration tendency would continue to reinforce the core's dominance at the expense of peripheral regions. From a regional perspective, the quality of a region's producer service sector is a key determinant of economic growth, since manu industrial location decisions are influenced by the differential availability of producer services among regions. Poor performance of producer services in peripheral regions seemed to be linked to the region's manufacturing base. Low-wage, standardized branch plants are not likely to induce the growth in knowledge intensive services associated with high-technology corporate headquarters. Producer services may help to create and attract new business including manufacturing firms, and also to enhance the productivity and competitiveness of local firms. Therefore the provision of service producing activities would be lead not only to generate and retain endogenous development but also to attract external firms, especially small and medium sized firms which have a lower propensity of internalized services. Hence, it may be more efficient to create and expanse new locally owned producer services rather than to attract branch plants of mult-locational firms in order to make indigenous economic development.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.107-117
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• 2008

In this study, surveys and interviews are used to evaluate technological competitiveness of each product with respect to that of foreign leading firms, for seven leading domestic construction products which have been determined to have competitive edge in offshore markets, Such evaluation provides a more in depth study than previously conducted research, and is meaningful in that corporate level, rather than industry level, perspective is projected. Major findings of such evaluations are the following. First, as expected, it has been evaluated that domestic technological competitiveness in desalination plant and power plant has reached the point where it can compete with foreign leading firms. Moreover, a noteworthy result of the evaluation is that development program sector, including urban development of satellite cities, has reached considerable level of competitiveness in offshore market. In the case of the development market, domestic firms have accumulated sufficient experience in domestic market and engineering technology is not a decisive factor as in plant sector, and these factors lead to such an evaluation. Second, in the cases of gas, oil refinery and petro-chemical plants, domestic products' technological competitiveness that can contest in offshore market is still centered around production and construction. On the other hand, there are still weaknesses in license technology and basic design capabilities, which constitute the "value added" area. Third, skyscrapers, a promising product in offshore construction market and a product group which domestic firms have much performance record and projects in progress both in domestic and offshore markets, are considered. While direct comparison between skyscrapers and plant sector is not feasible, with the exception of production and construction, overall domestic capability in this sector has been assessed to be the lowest amongst those products that were surveyed. Fourth, it has been indicated that competitiveness is relatively higher in common technology than in key technology. In project management capability, it has been assessed that there are weaknesses in procedure document area. Also, a characteristic is the point that low overall assessments have been given across all product groups for corporate and management areas, not technological areas. Especially, financing, contracting/claim, risk management and investment on research and development received low evaluations. Fifth, it has been assessed that overall corporate and governmental supports are weak. This result is especially evident for corporate management and support areas across all product groups surveyed.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.109-139
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• 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 Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.169-189
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• 2006

The product categories that can be sold on-line are expanding. It is interesting to see which product categories have more sales possibilities on internet. Small-sized firms' products have low distribution coverage, low brand recognition, bigger dispersion in the perception on the values which consist of quality vs. price, and higher possibilities of perceived purchase risks. Since on-line shopping is supposed to provide opportunities to small-sized firms that have low distribution and brand power, it is quite necessary to evaluate the fitness of on-line sales for small-sized firms' product categories. There are virtually no research studies on the on-line sales for small-sized firms' product categories. In this study, based on the integration of SEC, FCB, and related concepts, we develop new theoretical framework and test the fitness of on-line sales for small-sized firms' product categories by conducting empirical analysis. The empirical results on 17 product categories show that SEC, FCB, purchase risks, brand factors are somewhat related. Unlike previous studies, since the fitness of SEC and on-line sales are not clearly shown, we need to consider those problems within inter-related multiple frameworks. That is, it is necessary to evaluate the fitness of on-line sales after defining the product categories within the integrated multiple frameworks rather than within the single framework.