• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.71-96
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• 2008

The purpose of this study is to suggest the new strategies for West coast ports, especially Mokpo Port development. This paper also analyzes the recently evolving change of shipping environment such as upsizing of vessels, horizontal and vertical integration strategies in the liner shipping industries through the mergers and acquisitions or strategic alliances, establishment of dedicated terminal and surging bunker charge. With shipping environment is rapidly changing, we examine how to cope with the current situation and suggest the solutions how to tackle shippers' and shipping companies' request. As a result of an empirical study, we found out that Mokpo Port suffers from the shortage of container cargo, container imbalance, insufficient forwarders and inland trucking service providers and hinterland transportation network system. With these obstacles settled, the number of container cargo can be induced to Mokpo Port and the regular container services between Mokpo and Chinese ports and Japanese ports loops were found to be competitive.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.36 no.10
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• pp.895-904
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• 2012

Today, the competition for hub-port is getting fierce and the shipping liners have enjoyed the increased bargaining power over the terminal operators through the mergers & acquisitions (M&A) and strategic alliances. This result leads the competition among terminal operators to attract liner companies and cargoes in their terminals. In demand side, however, there is a limited container cargo volume to handle because of a steady growth of cargo traffic. While, in supply side, continuous development of port terminals increased more competition among ports or terminals for cargoes. In particular the terminal operating market of Busan port is distorted because of the cargo competition between Busan North-port and Newport. The main purpose of this study is to suggest the stabilization measures of container terminal operating market in Busan port through analysis of the terminal operation market structures and market survey analysis method. For stabilizing the container terminal market, this study suggests the improvement of the legal and institutional system such as improvement in determining and reporting system of stevedoring tariff, establishment of fair competition rules etc., the introduction of port pooling system and adoption of volume-linked terminal lease system with cargo volume ceiling system for each terminal operator.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.73-84
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to examine the global value chain of the global automotive industry to investigate the success factors through the example of the value chain of Hyundai Motor. It looks at the value chain of the well-known Korean automaker, Hyundai Motor, to find success factors with cases. It examines the process to build the supply chain of Hyundai Motor to analyze what impact it has on the growth of Hyundai Motor to look closely at the vertical division of labor of vehicle parts manufacturers. Korea's automobile industry has been expanding cooperation between two sectors as a multifunctional promotion focusing on electronic communications technology in machinery and technology center. Through introducing the nation's first vertical integration in the sector, Hyundai Motor has secured competitiveness of cost reduction and prestige car production. Hyundai Motor has operated and established factories in the United States, India, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Russia, and Brazil. Hyundai Motor operates 51 affiliates, such as Hyundai Mobis, by restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, and building their own vertical division of labor around it. Hyundai Motor has been overcoming dependence on foreign modules businesses and maintaining the supply value chain around Hyundai Mobis.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.87-105
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• 2018

We investigate the effects of inward foreign direct investment on innovation in Korean industries from 1998 to 2015 by first dividing FDI into greenfield and M&A (mergers and acquisitions). Furthermore, we use the number of patent applications as the proxy of innovation. Our empirical results are as follows: First, inward foreign direct investment has a significantly positive effect on the number of patent applications. This result suggests that the transfer of technology or knowledge through the inward foreign direct investment has a positive impact on innovation in Korean industries. Second, the greenfield investment has a positive impact on patent applications. This result is consistent with Liu and Zou (2008)'s assertion that greenfield investment has a positive impact on innovation by increasing facilities or plants. The M&A investment, however, has no significant effect on patent applications. This result is consistent with Stiebale and Reize (2011) who argue that the host countries do not benefit from technology transfer through M&A investments. In addition, this supports Liu and Zou (2008) and Garcia et al. (2013)'s hypothesis that foreign parent firms do not influence the innovation of host countries by employing strategies to increase market power rather than R&D activities through M&A investments. It is meaningful that this study first analyzes the impact of foreign direct investment on innovation in Korean industries and uses the number of patent applications as a proxy of innovation. Our empirical evidence provides policy implications for innovation and attraction of inward foreign direct investments.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.1-11
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• 2020

Increasing the number of unicorn startups has recently received much attention. In this study, we attempt to investigate that startups achieving an extremely high valuation could postpone their exit to raise more investment and receive more benefits. This study tested the hypotheses using data from Crunchbase, World Bank, Global Competitiveness Report, and Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. Using 140 unicorn startups that have already exited through an initial public offering (IPO) or mergers and acquisitions (M&A), we find out that unicorn startups tend to acquire higher valuation as their investment duration increases. Furthermore, we also examined the moderating effects of governmental policy and institutional distance from foreign investors in order to consider the institutional aspects of startups. The results of the moderating variables show significant supports. We expect to provide a better understanding with respect to making an exit decision of unicorn startups. Furthermore, managers and investors need to acknowledge the institutional factors of startups when they decide to fund.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.245-252
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of mergers and acquisitions of domestic IT companies on strategic aspects of internal capacity enhancement. Empirical analysis applied to this study analyzed the business performance in the market through the merger of Daum Communications and Kakao Group. After Daum pursued the merger with Kakao, it showed that the platform business of kakao is expanding to the domain of the existing portal site. The merger was completed, and the total value of the stocks went up to the highest level, but soon its value declined. The merger shows that the growth potential of the enterprise is temporarily declining, which seems to be the internal cost of the merger. Even in the case of profitability, the merger did not show positive results. In the case of stability, the expectation due to the merger was reflected and slightly increased. The following two companies were interested in the kakao when they viewed the merger through a chronological analysis. However, after the merger, the interest of the next kakao was similar. This is seen as a result of the expansion of kakao's diverse platform business rather than the following search sites. From the results of this study, it is suggested that domestic IT companies should approach by analyzing the strategic factors that generate synergy when pursuing M & A to strengthen their resources or capabilities.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.109-119
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• 2016

Due to the fact that it is relatively easy to transfer technology between application developers or content providers, low entry barrier in the business causes fierce competition among the venture companies in mobile service industry. Our study examines a sustainable strategies to operate a business for venture companies that are in a highly competitive technology-intensive industry. In this paper, we examine how venture firms created a network and brought synergy effects, using network theory. Korean venture firm, YelloMobile, uses unique strategies of merger and acquisition through the method of swapping equity and thereby establishing network. We contribute to expand network theory by examining three elements of network: such as network structure, network governance mechanisms, and network contents.

• The Korean Journal of Air & Space Law and Policy
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.129-153
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• 2017

Fair Competition policy in aviation field has been discussed since open skies policy began in 1970s. This issue has been also the main topic in the ICAO's Worldwide Air Transport Conference, the Air Transport Symposium, etc. ICAO defines competition as the existent or potential rivalry between two or more operators, carriers or groups, striving for advantages in the same market based on different prices, qualities and services. In a broader sense, the definition includes more various meanings; reasonable, fair, effective, and unrestricted competitions. Nowadays, competition laws and regulations to air transportation have been applied more frequently and the issues varies from antitrust immunity, mergers and alliances, abuse of dominant positions, capacity dumping and predatory pricing, sales and marketing, to airport charges and fees, state aid and loan guarantees. Now, the competition among the airlines or nations in aviation industry is changing to cooperation level. A lot of airlines try to survive by various cooperation methods. Therefore the policy of Korean aviation industry should be developed, taking so-called "the viewpoint of national aviation industry ecosystem" into consideration and Korean government should prepare a policy of fair competition to cope with it. First, in the process of open skies policy with neighboring countries such as China, Japan and the Middle East, it is necessary to apply the fair competition act and prepare laws and regulations to implement it. Second, the standards of effective ownership and control of air transportation business should be reviewed. Third, in preparation for aviation agreements and liberalization, the Korean aviation industry needs to study and review competition and cooperation issues through the analysis of strict aviation market structure for airlines and airport operations. Fourth, it is necessary to create a fair air transportation environment for the development of air transportation and competitiveness through preemptive policies such as the approval of mergers, acquisitions, JV and the ripple effects analysis.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.179-208
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• 2004

With the outbreak of the financial crisis in mid-1997, the Korean government has removed a majority of M&A-related regulations in order to facilitate M&A transactions. This was based upon the belief that M&As are one of the most efficient ways to restructure financially distressed firms compared to other government-driven restructuring programs. In this paper, we try to empirically assess the role of M&A in restructuring distressed firms in Korea following the financial crisis. In doing so, three empirical analyses have been conducted. The first analysis attempts to identify financial characteristics of the insolvent M&A targets. The second exercise directly tests the change in performance of insolvent M&A targets before and after such M&A transactions. The third analysis is a more general assessment on the role of M&A transactions to determine if being involved in an M&A transaction (regardless of its motivate) has reduced the probability of becoming insolvent in the future. Overall, we find some evidence supporting that M&A activities after the financial crisis have played a positive role in restructuring financially distressed firms in Korea.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.51-69
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• 2020

Now, it is a stylized fact that a small number of technology firms such as Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and a few others have become larger and dominant players in an industry. Coupled with the rise of these leading firms, we have also observed that a large number of young firms have become an acquisition target in their early IPO stages. This indeed results in a sharp decline in the number of new entries in public exchanges although a series of policy reforms have been promulgated to foster competition through an increase in new entries. Given the observed industry trend in recent decades, a number of studies have reported increased concentration in most developed countries. However, it is less understood as to what caused an increase in industry concentration. In this paper, we uncover the mechanisms by which industries have become concentrated over the last decades by tracing the changes in industry concentration associated with a firm's status change in its early IPO stages. To this end, we put emphasis on the case in which firms are acquired shortly after they went public. Especially, with the transition to digital-based economies, it is imperative for incumbent firms to adapt and keep pace with new ICT and related intelligent systems. For instance, after the acquisition of a young firm equipped with AI-based solutions, an incumbent firm may better respond to a change in customer taste and preference by integrating acquired AI solutions and analytics skills into multiple business processes. Accordingly, it is not unusual for young ICT firms become an attractive acquisition target. To examine the role of M&As involved with young firms in reshaping the level of industry concentration, we identify a firm's status in early post-IPO stages over the sample periods spanning from 1990 to 2016 as follows: i) being delisted, ii) being standalone firms and iii) being acquired. According to our analysis, firms that have conducted IPO since 2000s have been acquired by incumbent firms at a relatively quicker time than those that did IPO in previous generations. We also show a greater acquisition rate for IPO firms in the ICT sector compared with their counterparts in other sectors. Our results based on multinomial logit models suggest that a large number of IPO firms have been acquired in their early post-IPO lives despite their financial soundness. Specifically, we show that IPO firms are likely to be acquired rather than be delisted due to financial distress in early IPO stages when they are more profitable, more mature or less leveraged. For those IPO firms with venture capital backup have also become an acquisition target more frequently. As a larger number of firms are acquired shortly after their IPO, our results show increased concentration. While providing limited evidence on the impact of large incumbent firms in explaining the change in industry concentration, our results show that the large firms' effect on industry concentration are pronounced in the ICT sector. This result possibly captures the current trend that a few tech giants such as Alphabet, Apple and Facebook continue to increase their market share. In addition, compared with the acquisitions of non-ICT firms, the concentration impact of IPO firms in early stages becomes larger when ICT firms are acquired as a target. Our study makes new contributions. To our best knowledge, this is one of a few studies that link a firm's post-IPO status to associated changes in industry concentration. Although some studies have addressed concentration issues, their primary focus was on market power or proprietary software. Contrast to earlier studies, we are able to uncover the mechanism by which industries have become concentrated by placing emphasis on M&As involving young IPO firms. Interestingly, the concentration impact of IPO firm acquisitions are magnified when a large incumbent firms are involved as an acquirer. This leads us to infer the underlying reasons as to why industries have become more concentrated with a favor of large firms in recent decades. Overall, our study sheds new light on the literature by providing a plausible explanation as to why industries have become concentrated.