• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.205-225
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• 2022

Different types of corporate ownership may affect the environment among firms and could influence the decisions of new entities in the region. This study determines the role of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in hindering new foreign manufacturing firms in the Yangtze River delta (YRD). The negative binomial regression is used for city-sector level data and the following points summarize the results: Firstly, the unique privileges that SOEs enjoy alongside governmental support create difficulties for foreign firms trying to establish themselves near existing SOEs. Secondly, although core cities are more attractive to foreign firms than peripheral cities, the role of core-periphery reveals that, in spite of all the regional advantages core cities could offer, whenever the share of SOEs is higher, the core-periphery system will have an adverse impact on new foreign firms. In other words, government preference for SOEs can suppress the attraction of foreign start-ups. However, after 2008, the governmental authorities finally succeeded in implementing their promising policy of fair treatment and competition in only the core cities.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.41-59
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• 2007

This paper analyzes interactive activities of foreign R&D centers operating in Korea. Interactive activities refer to collaborative R&D activities, R&D outsourcing, and formation of communities between foreign R&D centers and Korean firms and institutions. Active interactions between foreign R&D centers and their Korean partners (Korean firms and universities, research institutes etc.) are essential in promoting spillover effects from foreign R&D centers. Using the survey of 76 foreign R&D centers operating in Korea, this paper found the intensity of interplay between foreign R&D centers and the Korean firms and institutions was not so high. And the partners of foreign R&D centers with the mission of finding new technologies in Korea are mainly customers rather than universities and research institutes. This result is markedly different from previous studies focused on the cases of western countries, where the partners of foreign R&D centers that have the mission of finding new technologies were mainly local universities and research institutes.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.37-59
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• 2021

Purpose - Although models of innovation and exporting dominate recent studies of relations between innovation and access to foreign markets, relations between innovation and foreign direct investment (FDI) are less explored. This is especially true of relations between types of innovation and FDI. We fill that gap in the literature with empirical evidence that clarifies whether firms enter foreign markets through exports or FDI. Design/methodology - In order to assess the role of innovation in firms' international engagement strategies, we develop research hypotheses and present new empirical evidence on firms' choice of entry - exports and FDI - based on firm-level data. Findings - Our empirical results suggest that the impact of product innovation is more significant in transition from being a purely domestic firm to an exporter, while process innovation more significantly affect transition from being an exporter to a multinational enterprise. Our results also support 'self-selection into FDI' rather than 'learning-by-performing FDI' in the relationship between innovation and firms' overseas expansion. Originality/value - Recent literature on the relationship between innovation and firms' participation in foreign markets is dominated by models of innovation and export behavior. However, foreign direct investment by multinational enterprises may also be associated with firms' innovative activities. We first analyze how product and process innovations influence firms' choices to initiate exports or FDI.

• East Asian Journal of Business Economics (EAJBE)
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.17-25
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• 2019

Purpose - The international market provides a growth momentum for firms by allowing them to tap into a new market. Given information asymmetry between firms and financial analysts, firms' international growth can be perceived as a higher business prospect by analysts. This paper explores the possibility of analysts' over-emphasis on foreign income growth in predicting earnings. Research design, data, and methodology - We utilize a sample of U.S. firms to test the relationship between foreign income growth and analysts' forecast optimism. Our sample of publicly listed and traded U.S. firms between 1976 and 2016 consists of 6,120 firm-year observations. Results - Empirical analyses show that firms that show higher international growth in earnings are likely to face forecast inaccuracy by financial analysts. From the perspective of firms, their earnings are less than what analysts forecasted. Contrary to our prediction on the moderating effect of innovative capabilities, optimistic bias is not intensified - rather, it is reduced - when firms have higher innovative capabilities. Conclusions - Our results imply that while analysts favor firms with higher international growth, innovative capability on the international market places additional risks to firms' operation.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.1217-1230
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• 2021

Using a multinomial logit model with the panel-data set of Vietnam manufacturing firms, this paper investigates the impacts of foreign direct investment (FDI) - small and medium enterprises (SMEs) linkages and other factors on SMEs' participation in the global value chain (GVC). We consider GVC firms are those engaging in any of the three modes including (i) using domestic inputs to export (D2E), (ii) using imported inputs to produce for the domestic market (I2P), (iii) using imported inputs to export (I2E). We discover that FDI-SME linkages statistically encourage Vietnamese SMEs to integrate into the GVC via I2P and I2E, while no statistical association between FDI-SME linkage and D2E participation is found. GVCs participation likelihood is also positively correlated with the introduction of new product introduction. The establishment of firms' production facilities in industrial zones and foreign ownership are both reported to be significantly decisive factors to SMEs' decisions on GVC participation. Besides, there is a strong association between firms' attributes, i.e. employment, capital intensity as well as financial access, and their participation in the GVC. Local governance quality (proxied by the Provincial Competitiveness Index) and the share of skilled labor at the province-level can facilitate firms' integration into GVCs, while greater market concentration may be a hurdle to such potential.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.75-106
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• 2015

The primary goal of this paper is to explore the microeconomic foundation of Korean firms' adoption of foreign technologies. The paper also reviews the overall trend of international technology transfers to Korea. The period covered in this paper is Korea's high growth era, from the 1960s to the 1990s. The works of this paper center on the two questions of what characterizes foreign technologies which had been imported through licensing contracts, and which driving forces expedite technology adoption by firms. The Korean experience provides the context of success in the catch-up growth. The co-movement of technology imports with capital goods imports manifests Korea's effort to improve the technical efficiency toward the world frontier. Underlying this trend are firms' decisions to adopt new technologies. The paper shows that firms respond proactively to wage increases by adopting newer technologies and thus, in turn, increasing employment, which implies the existence of a virtuous interactive mechanism among these factors.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.205-227
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• 2004

This paper examined the leapfrogging of Korean Digital TV Industry in the midst of digital Revolution. Despite the lack of sufficient capability and core knowledge base, the Korean firms succeeded in the catching up forerunner firms in the Digital TV industry. The reasons of the success of Korean firms were as follows. Firstly, the Korean firms had some complementary asset, such as the experience of producing analog TV, and were able to develop the prototype digital TV given the accesses to the foreign knowledge via overseas R&D posts and acquisition of a foreign company. Secondly, the Korean firms were not locked in the analog technologies. As a follower, they had little sunk cost on the existing analog technologies. Thirdly, New mode of innovation, such as National R&D program for the development of HDTV and ASIC, were used as a tool for the mobilization of scarce knowledge base of digital technologies and the sharing the risks of development of path-breaking new technologies.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.41-66
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• 2007

This paper develops a model of the export timing and export performance of venture firms by drawing by resource based view and born-global firm theory. The model aims at explaining the role of internal resources of small new venture firms and environment factors in accelerating the firm's export timing and achieving export growth. Hypothesses were developed around the following factors: management characteristics in terms of CEO's foreign experience and export commitment; organizational characteristics in terms of technological competence and marketing competence, and inter-functional cooperation; and finally environmental factors in terms of domestic and market attractiveness and foreign market attractiveness influence both the export timing and export performance. Structural equation modeling analysis by using 214 small new ventures provides a partial supports for the hypotheses. The result showed that technological competence have an influence on early export timing and that CEO's foreign experience and export commitment, technological competence and foreign market attractiveness are related export performance significantly. It also showed the significant relationship between export timing and export performance.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.105-124
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• 2006

We, in this paper, suggest the Yeosu internationalization strategy for holding the 2012 World EXPO in Yeosu successfully, First of all, we analyze some problems that hinder the internationalization of Yeosu. Our analysis, also, provides several strategic solutions to those problems by foreign direct investment, international trade, hub port development, and international tourism. first strategy is to create a more favorable business environment for foreign investors. Foreign direct investment is the most effective way to internationalize the specific district. Second strategy is to expand the export of small and medium-sized firms in Yeosu. Especially, local firms with agricultural/fishery products have to develop various new products and introduce the effective international marketing strategy. Final strategy is to develop the hub port in Yeosu and the new tourist resources to attract foreign tourists.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.406-414
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• 2020

Exporting plays the important role in reducing dependence on the domestic market by creating the new foreign markets. As a business strategy, exporting contributes to the national growth and provides firms with opportunities which enable economies of scale, economies of scope, and experience curve effects. Because of both the growth limitation of the domestic market and development of information technology, many firms enter in foreign markets by increasing exporting. Using firms located in Taegu, this study examined the factors of firms' exporting with industrial organization theory and strategic perspective. In the empirical results on industrial organization theory, systematic cooperation and governmental supporting positively affect firms' exporting and only systematic cooperation positively affects exporting performance. In the empirical results on strategic perspective, product differentiation foreign exporting network, and foreign entry nation positively affect firms' exporting, and foreign exporting network, and foreign entry nation positively affect exporting performance.