• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.205-224
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• 2023

Purpose This study investigates the impact of organizational characteristics on organizational performance through case studies of smart factory implementation in the context of Korean small and medium Enterprises (SMEs). To achieve this goal, this study adopts the smart factory index of KOSMO (Korea Smart Manufacturing Office) established by Korean Ministry of SMEs and Startups. We visited 3 firms implemented smart factory projects. This study presents the results of field study in detail with evaluation criteria on how organizational competences like AI technology adoption and facility automation can be exploited to positively influence organizational performance through smart factory implementation. Design/methodology/approach There are not so many results of empirical studies related to smart factories in Korea. This is because organizational support and user involvement are required for facility AI platform service beyond factory automation after the start of the 4th Industrial Revolution. Korean government's KOSMO (Korean Smart Manufacturing Office) has developed and proposed a level measurement index for smart factory implementation. This study conducts case studies based on the level measurement method proposed by KOSMO in the process of conducting case studies of three companies belonging to the root and mechanic industries in Korea. Findings The findings indicate that organizational competences, such as facility AI platform adoption and user involvement, are antecedents to influence smart factory implementation, while smart factory implementation has significant relationship with organizational performance. This study provides a better understanding of the connection between organizational competences and organizational performance through smart factory case studies. This study suggests that SMEs should focus on enhancing their organizational competences for improving organizational performance through implementing smart factory projects.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Visualization
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.16-25
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• 2018

PIV experiments were carried out to visualize the velocity distribution of the sweeping jet impinging onto a flat plate and kinematic behavior of the jet from the fluidic oscillator. Two parameters such as four different Re cases and four different jet-to-wall distances were examined. Time-resolved two dimensional PIV measurements were performed for both streamwise and normal planes respect to the jet axis. Ensemble averaged and phase averaged velocity fields were obtained for the tested range of parameters. The sweeping frequency of the jet increases linearly with increase of Re. The kinetic energy of the sweeping jet decreases as the distance from the jet to the impinging plate increases. In addition, turbulence flow is generated due to the swinging motion of sweeping jet, and various vortices such as primary and secondary vortex are observed near the impinging wall.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.1-17
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• 2022

This study studied the effect of the TIPS support project of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups on the entrepreneurship of TIPS start-ups. The Tips start-up company, which is the subject of the study, was selected for the TIPS support project, participated in all commercialization funds, incubation facilities, and capacity building programs, and was selected as a company that received private investment. One-on-one in-depth interviews were conducted for about eight weeks from January 14, 2022 to March 11, 2022. For this study, the TIPS support project was subdivided into four categories: commercialization funds, incubation facilities, capacity building programs, and private investment attraction, and entrepreneurship factors were classified into four categories: innovation, challenge spirit, leadership, and risk-taking. As a result of the in-depth interview, the influence of the TIPS support project on entrepreneurship factors was in the order of challenge spirit, innovation, risk-taking, and leadership. Specifically, it was found that commercialization funds influenced innovation and risk-taking, incubation facilities had a challenge spirit and risk-taking, competency-building programs had a challenge spirit and leadership, and attracting private investment had an influence on innovation and challenge spirit. The implications of this study are that the TIPS support project, a private investment-led technology start-up support program, was introduced in 2013 and as of the end of March 2022, and a report was prepared focusing on visible performance such as private investment performance and employment rate. However, through this study, by analyzing whether the TIPS support project contributed to the cultivation of entrepreneurship for TIPS start-ups, it was found that it had a positive influence not only on quantitative growth but also on qualitative growth.

• Journal of Venture Innovation
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.157-178
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• 2022

The economy has deteriorated worldwide due to COVID-19, and the domestic economy has also been hit hard. Accordingly, the government implemented unprecedented financial support policies related to COVID-19 to solve the financial difficulties experienced by SMEs. In addition, as the spread of COVID-19 continued, the government implemented guidelines and measures along with recommendations for non-face-to-face contact. Organizations in the public and private sectors have introduced non-face-to-face work methods. Considering this situation, this study investigated the impact of COVID-19-related financial support policies on technological innovation of SMEs. External support is important for corporate innovation, but internal capabilities are also important. Therefore, the effect of entrepreneurship on product innovation was identified. In addition, as the non-face-to-face work method was activated, the effect of smart work was identified by comparing companies that introduced smart work and companies that did not. As a result of the analysis, entrepreneurship showed a positive (+) effect regardless of the introduction of smart work. Financial support policies related to COVID-19 were found to show mixed results according to the type of support.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.135-171
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• 2022

This study is to find out how psychological characteristics and management capabilities of small manufacturers influence business performance through parameters including self-efficiency, network, and collaboration strategies. The survey was implemented between December 26, 2017 and January 15, 2018. The final 439 valid questionnaires were collected and used for analysis. The results were followed. First, the relationship between psychological characteristics and self-efficiency, and the path coefficient for psychological characteristics and network were significant. Second, management capabilities was related to self-efficiency, and the path factor for managing capability and network relationships was significant. Lastly, the path coefficients for self-efficiency and collaboration strategies were not significant, and the path coefficients for network and collaboration strategies were significant.

• Asian Journal of Innovation and Policy
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.202-221
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• 2022

The media has depicted an abrupt socio-technological change in the Republic of Korea with the 4th Industrial Revolution. Because technologies cannot realize their potential without social acceptance, studying conflicts incurred by such a change is imperative. However, little literature has focused on conflicts caused by technologies. Therefore, the current study investigated media coverage regarding conflicts related to the 4th Industrial Revolution from 2016 to 2020 in the Republic of Korea, applying text-mining techniques. We found that the overall amount and coverage pattern conforms to the issue attention cycle. Also, the three major topics ("SMEs & Startups," "Mobility Conflict," and "Human & Technology") indicate quarrels between conflicting social entities. Moreover, the temporal change in media coverage implies the political use of the term rather than technological. However, we also found the media's deliberative discussion on the socio-technological impact. This study is significant because we expanded the discussion on media coverage of technologies to the realm of social conflicts. Furthermore, we explored the news articles of the recent five years with a text-mining approach that enhanced the objectivity of the research.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.241-257
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• 2020

Globally, Fintech, which acts to replace existing intranational payment methods, is actively used, and such Fintech payments are widely accepted in international B2C trade. However, Fintech for B2B trade has not been released to the market thus far, and previous attempts at electronic international payment systems, such as Bolero, TradeCard, and Identrus, have not succeeded, and most of them have completely disappeared. On the other hand, there are continuing attempts to introduce Fintech technologies such as blockchain to international payments, and these attempts are more widely pursued in foreign countries. If international payments using Fintech are marketed through foreign services and such Fintech services become the de-facto standard for international payments, then Korea in which dependency on international trade is high will be vulnerable due to a dependency on foreign services such as relying on foreign SNS platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Therefore, this paper proposes a business model that can be used as a legitimate B2B trade international payment system on the basis of domestically provided services, focusing on various services afforded by K-SURE, which is the Korea Trade Insurance Corporation.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.77-98
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• 2020

Recently, the government provided about 35 trillion won to start-ups through a large amount of start-up support funds from the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund and the Korea Development Bank, and more than 100 trillion won to start-ups over the past three years.(2015-2018) The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced that a total of 1.4517 trillion won will be supported by 16 ministries (90 projects) after surveying start-up support projects by ministries in 2020 to create a start-up country. Indeed, among the budgets supported by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, startups accounted for 85%, while scale-ups (growth and maturity) were only 15%. However, the survival rate of Korean start-ups was far lower than that of developed countries. The survival rate for the three years after the start-up was 39.1 percent, with only about 4 out of 10 surviving, with 27.5 percent surviving for five years, and only 3 out of 10 surviving. On the other hand, overseas start-ups have a survival rate of twice as high as that of Korea for five years. Accordingly, this study aims to empirically analyze and examine the need for research on nascent entrepreneurs, which have recently been actively supported by the government, as well as the impact of start-up motivation and start-up preparation on the intention to continue business. The survey was conducted from April 1 to May 15, 2020 for nascent entrepreneurs nationwide, and 222 of the total 245 copies were analyzed, and the questionnaire was measured using the Likert 5-point scale. As a result of the analysis, first, all factors constituting start-up motivation were adopted by significantly affecting start-up satisfaction. In addition, among the sub-factors of nascent entrepreneurs' preparation, item preparation was adopted as a significant influence on start-up satisfaction. Second, the nascent entrepreneurs' satisfaction level was adopted by having a significant impact on the business continuity. Third, some of the motivations for self-realization of the motivation for start-ups were adopted by having a significant impact on the business continuity. In addition, the preparation of items for the start-up preparation of nascent entrepreneurs was partially adopted as they had a significant impact on the business continuity. Fourth, it was adopted by the mediation effect of start-up satisfaction between the motivation of the nascent entrepreneurs' preparation and the business continuity. In addition, it was adopted by the medium effect of start-up satisfaction between the nascent entrepreneurs' preparation and the business continuity. Based on the results of these studies, it is intended to draw practical implications, and to provide useful policy implications to increase nascent entrepreneurs' satisfaction and continue to carry out their start-ups.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.188-211
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• 2018

This study examined the problem of entrepreneurship education in Korea, which equate entrepreneurship with startups, unlike the global trend of approaching entrepreneurship with a broad concept. On the basis of overseas cases such as European Union and OECD, this study derived the need for entrepreneurship education from the perspective of thinking and behavioral patterns. In addition, Q methodology was used to reason out various recognition patterns and approach solutions for problems of entrepreneurship education in Korea, such as awareness of the need for entrepreneurship education in concepts separate from start-ups, reasons for infertility, and why it is difficult to activate. This approach was conducted for educators and educatees that carries out entrepreneurship education in Korea. In conclusion, there were four types of subjective perceptions about the difference of entrepreneurship education and startup education, and three types were recognized for the need to differentiate entrepreneurship education from startup education, and the two types that made up the upper majority strongly supported the need for entrepreneurship education to be implemented individually. According to the conclusion, this study proposed the development and spread of common teaching materials made by the Ministry of Education and Ministry of SMEs and Startups, which is the competent Ministry, to train professional teachers, training methods, and continuous refresher education. It also proposed that there should be a social atmosphere for eliminating rejection of entrepreneurship not only among the youth but also the adult population, and for continuous awareness of concepts that can be applied within the organization and the community, and that a policy basis is required to do so.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.647-664
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• 2022

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to derive major policies that domestic small and medium-sized manufacturing companies should consider to maximize productivity and quality improvement by utilizing manufacturing data and AI, and to find priorities and implications. Methods: In this study, domestic and international issues and literature review by country were conducted to derive major considerations such as manufacturing AI technology, manufacturing AI talent, manufacturing AI data and manufacturing AI ecosystem. Additionally, the questionnaire survey targeting 46 experts of manufacturing data and AI industry were conducted. Finally, the major considerations and detailed factors importance were derived by applying the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Results: As a result of the study, it was found that 'manufacturing AI technology', 'manufacturing AI talent', 'manufacturing AI data', and 'manufacturing AI ecosystem' exist as key considerations for domestic manufacturing AI. After empirical analysis, the importance of the four key considerations was found to be 'manufacturing AI ecosystem (0.272)', 'manufacturing AI data (0.265)', 'manufacturing AI technology (0.233)', and 'manufacturing AI talent (0.230)'. The importance of the derived four viewpoints is maintained at a similar level. In addition, looking at the detailed variables with the highest importance for each of the four perspectives, 'Best Practice', 'manufacturing data quality management regime, 'manufacturing data collection infrastructure', and 'manufacturing AI manpower level of solution providers' were found. Conclusion: For the sustainable growth of the domestic manufacturing AI ecosystem, it should be possible to develop and promote manufacturing AI policies in a balanced way by considering all four derived viewpoints. This paper is expected to be used as an effective guideline when developing policies for upgrading manufacturing through domestic manufacturing data and AI in the future.