• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.215-224
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• 2008

Recently, product life-cycles are shortening faster than ever before, and companies with a suggestion system are in better position to overcome this shortening life-cycle and thus promote customer satisfaction. Suggestion systems, however, are not actively utilized on the production floors in many firms. This study showed that small-sized and medium-sized firms where a suggestion system is properly functioning by a strong will of top management are not many in Gangwon-do area. In considerable number of companies, a suggestion system is informally and spontaneously applied by the workers on the production floors not by company-wide systems. A suggestion system is required as a means of creating future value-added and it is a matter of course that the role of top management, together with middle-class managements' influence is quite important in the course of the successful application of it. A suggestion system, to be successful, calls not only individual efforts but also positive corporate cultures.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.22
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• pp.1-23
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• 2007

This paper investigates the relationships between exports, firm size, and firm dynamics. It is based on a longitudinal data covering listed firms in the Korean manufacturing industry. We found the stylized fact that the probability that a firm is exporter increases with firm size. A regression model for the determinant of export/sales ratio including dynamic adjustment process is tested on a cross-section sample for the year 2001. Empirical findings suggest that there is a positive and inversely U-shaped relationship between firm size and export/sales ratio, just for basic material and capital good industry. Except for firm size, the hypotheses concerning human capital intensity, physical capital intensity, R&D intensity, and patent are rejected. Using Granger causality test, we found that the rate of growth of total sales influences the change of the export/sales ratio with time lag for medium-sized firms. Finally, some policy implications are presented.

• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.131-141
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• 1988

As flexible manufacturing technology has become available across a broad range of applications, an increasingly large number of firms have confronted decisions about when to adopt the FMS technology and the size of FMS at that time. For small to medium size firms that should invest under budget limitation and high investment risk, proper size of FMS adoption at proper time is very important. In this paper the discrete optimal control theory has been used to make decisions about the size and timing of FMS capacity expansion over a planning period. Sensitivity analysis is presented for analysing the behavior of the model to variations of model parameters.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.537-543
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• 2009

Noting the changes within the Singapore construction industry, fuelled by the government's 'green' initiatives in tandem with the prolonged effect of the 1997-2005 recession, this paper investigates Singapore contractors' attitudes towards environmental sustainability. Data were collected from 34 interviews with senior management of large and medium-sized general building contractors and the firms' archival records. The results show that the majority of the contractors embrace positive attitudes towards environmental sustainability. The respective contractors explicitly express their environmental drives by incorporating keywords such as 'quality', 'sustainability' and 'environmental and social benefits' into their firms' mission statements. The results also show that three environmental-related measures implemented by all contractors are: (i) stricter housekeeping procedures in construction sites; (ii) stricter wastage rates for construction materials; and (iii) greater focus on Just-In-Time delivery to minimise materials deterioration due to inappropriate site storage.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.61-85
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• 2018

Open innovation is based on a different knowledge landscape, with a different logic about the sources and uses of technologies. It implies that firms increasingly rely on external sources of innovation by emphasizing these ideas and resources. Using datasets from the UK biotechnology industry, this paper explores firms' willingness to participate in open innovation. The results indicate that the switching cost is identified as the direct predictor of the willingness to participate in open innovation. While high commitment based on the trust with partner increases switching costs, IT infrastructure within the firm decreases switching costs to open innovation. Taken together, this research broadens the study on open innovation by applying the switching cost as a medium of knowledge transfer in the biotech industry.

• Educational Technology International
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.69-92
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• 2006

The research question in this study was to see whether there were similarities and differences in HR practices of IT-based companies in Korea. Interviews with 12 HR executives and a survey of 51 IT-based companies showed that there were IT industry-specific HR practices, but no group differences except one. The only one difference between two groups (small- and medium-sized firms versus multinational corporations) indicated that the latter was better positioned in various HR practices. Four HR themes emerged from analyses of interviews and a survey data: business environment, workforce management, HR practices, and HR for competitive advantage. The fact that none from large companies was found to have female HR executive calls for an in-depth study of what is occurring and what could be done to better the workplace in terms of diversity. A large-scale study using diverse methods in the future will produce more meaningful findings on HR practices in IT-based firms in Korea.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.444-467
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• 2023

Micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) have been acknowledged to play a key role in promoting innovation and economic development. In Peru, 99.5% of formal firms are MSMEs, thus promoting innovation in these firms could have a significant impact on the Peruvian economy. In spite of Innovate Peru's efforts, Peru is still one of the countries that invests the least in innovation, with MSMEs offering low value added. Innovate Peru has launched programs (technological missions) to improve MSMEs' innovation through technology-transfer-oriented subsidies, which may strengthen companies' absorptive capacity (AC) and thus their capabilities to identify and integrate internal and external knowledge. This study assesses the impact of these programs on MSMEs. Data were collected from 85 MSMEs that participated in Innovate Peru's technological missions between 2014 and 2016. Findings show that all the dimensions of AC have a positive impact on innovation; however, the impact of economic subsidy was found to be non-significant. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.53-77
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• 2012

Financial firms, especially large scaled firms such as KB bank, NH bank, Samsung Card, Hana SK Card, Hyundai Capital, Shinhan Card, etc. should be securely dealing with the personal financial information. Indeed, people have tended to believe that those big financial companies are relatively safer in terms of information security than typical small and medium sized firms in other industries. However, the recent incidents of personal information privacy invasion showed that this may not be true. Financial firms have increased the investment of information protection and security, and they are trying to prevent the information privacy invasion accidents by doing all the necessary efforts. This paper studies how effectively a financial firm will be able to avoid personal financial information privacy invasion that may be deliberately caused by internal staffs. Although there are several literatures relating to information security, to our knowledge, this is the first study to focus on the behavior of internal staffs. The big financial firms are doing variety of information security activities to protect personal information. This study is to confirm what types of such activities actually work well. The primary research model of this paper is based on Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) that describes the rational choice of human behavior. Also, a variety of activities to protect the personal information of financial firms, especially credit card companies with the most customer information, were modeled by the four-step process Security Action Cycle (SAC) that Straub and Welke (1998) claimed. Through this proposed conceptual research model, we study whether information security activities of each step could suppress personal information abuse. Also, by measuring the morality of internal staffs, we checked whether the act of information privacy invasion caused by internal staff is in fact a serious criminal behavior or just a kind of unethical behavior. In addition, we also checked whether there was the cognition difference of the moral level between internal staffs and the customers. Research subjects were customer call center operators in one of the big credit card company. We have used multiple regression analysis. Our results showed that the punishment of the remedy activities, among the firm's information security activities, had the most obvious effects of preventing the information abuse (or privacy invasion) by internal staff. Somewhat effective tools were the prevention activities that limited the physical accessibility of non-authorities to the system of customers' personal information database. Some examples of the prevention activities are to make the procedure of access rights complex and to enhance security instrument. We also found that 'the unnecessary information searches out of work' as the behavior of information abuse occurred frequently by internal staffs. They perceived these behaviors somewhat minor criminal or just unethical action rather than a serious criminal behavior. Also, there existed the big cognition difference of the moral level between internal staffs and the public (customers). Based on the findings of our research, we should expect that this paper help practically to prevent privacy invasion and to protect personal information properly by raising the effectiveness of information security activities of finance firms. Also, we expect that our suggestions can be utilized to effectively improve personnel management and to cope with internal security threats in the overall information security management system.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.31-46
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• 2019

As the importance of venture firms has increased as a new growth engine, the South Korea government makes various efforts to establish healthy ecosystems for ventures and start-ups. Especially in order to foster the competitiveness of venture firms, various support policies such as financial and R&D expenses are being expanded and promoted. In this study, the author analyzed the impact of government funding on venture firms' internal competencies and management performance by using the resource-based theory. Moreover, this study tested the moderation effect of firm's growth stages. Unlike previous studies, this study focused on qualitative rather than quantitative aspects of internal competencies and the financial and non-financial performance are used to measure the management performance of the ventures to examine the effects of government funding for venture firms in more details. For the purpose of verifying the hypothesis of this research, "The Research On The Precision Status Of Venture Firms" in 2017 from the Ministry of Small and Medium Business was utilized, which has been compiled since 1999. According to the results of this study, the government funding experience did not significantly affect the company's internal competencies and financial performance, but had a significant impact on the non-financial performance, which in turn seemed to have a significant effect on the financial performance. In addition, it was found that the technology, price, design, and quality competencies affected non-financial performance, while the organizational management and marketing competencies did not. However, the price, design, organizational management, and marketing competencies affected financial performance, while the technology competency was not. Finally, there were no differences in the effectiveness of government funding, depending on the growth stages.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.61-90
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• 2016

This study aims to identify the sources of productivity change in export manufacturing firms. After estimating the Malmquist productivity index, a panel regression was used to calculate the source of productivity change. Upon conducting a literature review of this field, six variables were selected as explanatory variables. The results of an analysis of 355 export manufacturing firms operating from 2009 through 2015 are as follows: First, both innovation activity and total assets had a positive impact on productivity change. However, employment cost intensity, equity ratio, and current ratio had a negative impact on productivity change in export manufacturing firms. Second, innovation activity and intangible assets had a positive impact on productivity change, but employment cost intensity, selling expense intensity, and equity ratio had a negative impact on productivity change in large export manufacturing firms. Third, innovation activity had a positive impact on productivity change, but employment cost intensity and equity ratio had a negative impact on productivity change in small and medium export manufacturing firms. Fourth, intangible assets had a positive impact on productivity change, but employment cost intensity, selling expense intensity, and current ratio had a negative impact on productivity change in export manufacturing firms listed on the Korea Composite Stock Price Index. Fifth, innovation activity and total assets had a positive impact on productivity change, but employment cost intensity and equity ratio had a negative impact on productivity change in manufacturing firms listed on the Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotations. The managerial implications of this study are also discussed.