• Knowledge Management Research
• /
• v.23 no.4
• /
• pp.177-205
• /
• 2022

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have strong incentives to engage in open innovation to enhance innovation efficiency and effectiveness due to their 'liability of smallness.' Previous research examined the performance effects of various open innovation practices, but whether coupled open innovation practices positively affect SMEs' firm performance is somewhat controversial. To resolve the issue, this study examined the effects of coupled open innovation activities on SMEs' firm performance using Heckman's two stage model to control endogeneity of the firms' self-selection bias in open innovation engagement. This study used the Korean Innovation Survey (KIS) 2020 collected by the Science and Technology Policy Institute (STEPI), and tested the effects of SMEs' coupled open innovation activities, R&D and non-R&D cooperation, on their innovative and financial performance indicators. The results showed that SMEs' R&D cooperation positively affects the new-to-market (NTM) product innovation only. Moreover, SMEs' non-R&D cooperation has positive effects on the product innovation, business process innovation, new-to-the-market product innovation, and new-to-firm (NTF) product innovation. However, the results showed that both R&D and non-R&D innovation cooperation activities have no significant effects on SMEs' financial performance indicators. This study contributes to research on SMEs' open innovation and provides insights for SMEs' managers and policymakers.

• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
• /
• v.20 no.4
• /
• pp.47-66
• /
• 2013

Recently, with the diffusion of a new paradigm named as the creative economy, the government's interests and efforts regarding support of SMEs' R&D have been concentrated. In particular, due to the dominant perception that the fundamental science and original technology from government-funded research institutes can further enhance the capabilities of SMEs' R&D, the importance of performance's diffusion on national R&D is further emphasized. In fact, the domestic SMEs don't have enough budget and workforce, so that all of self-contained technologies, product's competitiveness as well as the R&D capabilities, are very vulnerable, and thereby SMEs' commercialization is very likely to fail. For this end, SMEs need to adopt the concept of open innovation as the use of external R&D resources by licensing. In this study, we conducted a survey on a total of 286 domestic IT SMEs, and analyzed empirically to compare the degree of their acceptance on technological innovation between two groups divided by open/not-open innovation. As a result, we drew some of the key factors influencing the acceptance of the SMEs' open technological innovation, and found a variety of implications through them.

• Asian Journal of Innovation and Policy
• /
• v.7 no.3
• /
• pp.461-488
• /
• 2018

This paper explores the relationship between network cooperation, innovation, internationalization and economic performance of manufacturing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) of engineering goods industry located in Bangalore city, India. At the outset, it is observed that SMEs receive the maximum assistance in the realm of product specifications. Moreover, they do not resort to manufacturing new products as much as they resort to product modifications or process improvements. Further, it is found (using Chi-square test of independence) that higher the network assistance received from an external network, greater is the innovation performance of SMEs. Subsequently, using analysis of variance (ANOVA), export intensity (proxy for internationalization performance) of SMEs is found to have a significant positive association with both the degree of their network cooperation and of their innovation performance. Lastly, it is observed that higher the degree of each of network cooperation, innovation performance and internationalization performance, better is the economic performance (measured by total sales turnover) of SMEs. These results have significant implications for the policy makers of the country to give due attention to network cooperation, innovation and internationalization as the means of enhancing the economic performance of SMEs.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
• /
• v.10 no.1
• /
• pp.101-109
• /
• 2023

This study examined the relationships among owner-manager characteristics, e-commerce adoption, and performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia. Although the growth of e-commerce was encouraging in many countries, studies of e-commerce adoption among SMEs in developing countries such as Malaysia are insufficient. Furthermore, studies that investigated individual characteristics and e-commerce adoption are still low in number. This study specifically employed the technology-organization-environmental (TOE) framework to develop its research model. The sample was selected by using a non-probability judgmental sampling technique because the desired population frame was unavailable. A total of 111 owner-managers of SMEs were surveyed using online self-administered questionnaires. Subsequently, the data was analyzed through partial least square-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results revealed significant relationships between owner-manager characteristics and e-commerce adoption, as well as between e-commerce adoption and the performance of SMEs. The findings suggested that owner-manager characteristics played an important role in determining e-commerce adoption among SMEs. Moreover, e-commerce adoption was crucial in affecting the performance of SMEs. This paper provided new insights into factors affecting e-commerce adoption and firm performance. It could further benefit the government and SMEs in strategizing e-commerce adoption and development, especially in the era of Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR 4.0) and the post-COVID-19 pandemic.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.213-220
• /
• 2017

This Study conducts a survey of ICT SMEs participating in 'ICT Government Sponsored Loan Project' for researching general demands on Government sponsored loans and studies successful company case by inspecting background of R&D, performances, impacts, prospects, episodes, etc. Actually, survey results show that ICT SMEs demand more of Government sponsored loans and that stable financing is a core factor and the most difficult task for successful R&D. In conclusion, these results implicate that Government has to create new policies for competitive ICT SMEs to recover financial stability through developing and commercializing technologies.

• Asian Journal of Innovation and Policy
• /
• v.1 no.1
• /
• pp.71-91
• /
• 2012

The purpose of this study is to identify the major determinants of performance of the R&D alliances, with an aim toward raising the success rate in cooperative relationships. In particular, this study assesses whether the success factors of purchasing relationship identified in the literature apply equally to SMEs in Korea. The results of this study indicate that inter-firm cooperation, experienced cooperation, and efficiency of government support have positive impacts on the purchase rate of new products. On the other hand, R&D intensity and resources of competencies of the firm do not influence it. Additionally, market attractiveness does not moderate the effects of the five independent variables on the purchase. The extracted determinants according to the results of surveys give valuable and practical hints to the SMEs when they make a decision on their R&D alliances with large enterprises.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
• /
• v.14 no.5
• /
• pp.149-156
• /
• 2016

In today's rapidly-changing business context with technology convergence among various fields, new technology development and technology commercialization capabilities are very important to the survival and growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This study develops the research model based on the open innovation perspective and empirically tests it by using 2,000 data from SMEs in South Korea. The empirical analysis result reveals that SMEs' external technology collaboration network and external information network diversities have positive effects on their technology commercialization capability, and these effects are fully mediated by their new technology development capability. Based on these results, the study provides meaningful implications especially in terms of SMEs' managers who pursue entrepreneurship.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
• /
• v.7 no.12
• /
• pp.195-210
• /
• 2020

This study describes the structure of the capital markets for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and startup companies in Korea, which is an emerging market that has experienced drastic changes. The overall capital market can be divided into private and public capital markets. In the private capital market, most of the demand for capital comes from non-listed private firms, including startups and SMEs. In the case of SMEs and startups, the KOSDAQ, the Korea New Exchange (KONEX), and primary collateralized bond obligations (P-CBOs) are part of the public capital market. SMEs and startups are generally incapable of raising sufficient capital owing to their low credit ratings, and they largely have limited access to primary markets to issue shares and borrow money. The Korean government has developed a systematic financial aid program to provide funds to these companies. The fund for SMEs has significantly contributed to the development of the venture capital market. Many Korean banks provide substantial lending to SMEs, but this lending is available only because of the Korean government's loan recovery guarantee. Furthermore, SMEs can issue corporate debt in the form of primary collateralized bond obligations through government guarantees, but such debt issuances have placed increasing pressure on public guarantee institutions.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
• /
• v.37 no.10
• /
• pp.683-693
• /
• 1988

For the economical and reasonable operation of electric power system according to continual increase of electric power demand and decrease of load factor, the potential application of superconducting magnertic energy storage [SMES] with high efficiency and fast response in the electric utility is receiving attractive attension. In the light of this background, to confirm the basic principle of SMES, theoretical study, design technique and fabrication procedure for superconducting coil, current lead, cryostat, measuring and protection system of SMES are described in detail. Especially, a new design technique for superconducting coil and current lead is porposed and it was proved experimentally by the performance test of SMES which is developed for the first time in our country. At the peak operating current 200A, the maximum magnetic field amd stored energy of the coil are 3.52T and 2500J, espectively. The thermal and mechanical stability of 2500J SMES is also confirmed experimetally by its characteristics test, AC loss, protection system, charge and discharge test. The experimetal results show good characteristics of energy storage system.

• Knowledge Management Research
• /
• v.20 no.1
• /
• pp.175-194
• /
• 2019

In order to overcome the limitation of market orientation concept, Narver et al. (2004) have extended the original concept into two dimensions, responsive market orientation (RMO) and proactive market orientation (PMO), respectively. Yet, there has been very limited empirical studies that analyzed the differential effects of each market orientation on firm outcomes, especially in the Korean context. We analyze the impact of RMO and PMO on the new product performance in the perspective of SMEs and examine the moderating effect of external factors such as environmental uncertainty and market similarity. The results of this study show that both RMO and PMO have a significant positive effect on the new product performance of SMEs. Also, environment uncertainty shows a negative moderating effect on the relationship between RMO and new product performance, whereas it has positive moderation with PMO. This suggests that focusing on potential customers' needs rather than current needs helps improve firm performance as the competitive environment surrounding the firm becomes more uncertain. Lastly, market similarity showed a positive moderating effect on the relationship between RMO and new product performance, but not on PMO.