• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.192-207
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• 1998

This paper focuses on the relationship between innovation and export performance of technology-based firms in Korea. This study analyses the relationship between innovative activity and firm's performances using a sample of 760 technology-based firms in Korea. As for the firm's performance indicators, export is employed. The empirical results support that innovation has a positive effect on firm's export performance. However, for small and medium firms, the relationship between innovative activity and export performance is an U-shape quadratic form, which shows that small firms takes a minimum innovative expenditure in order to access the abroad market. Also, with product differentiation, innovative firms tends to devot more to domestic market than to abroad market. Therefore, it can be concluded that innovative activity builds market power and accelerates export performance. And product differentiation through advertising expenditure make innovative firms less exporting.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.33-60
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• 2007

This study alms to analyze the entrepreneur characteristics of founder on enterprise performance from the strategic viewpoint as well as features of founder of small firms such as background feature of founder, psychological features and management skill. As considered by Background features of founder include educational background of founder, his experience in business creation, consultation or course related to business creation. This study verified the effects of factor which business performance (financial, non financial) on small firms. Also, this study considered psychological features of founder include achievement desire, risk-free propensity, level of patience on vagueness and control position. And it analyzed that between such factors and performance of small firms were examined in related. In the mean time, management ability of founder, entrepreneur ability, technical and function ability were considered for management skill of founder and alalyzed effect of the factors on performance of small firm were examined. Effects of strategic intention of founder of small firm were analyzed by the strategic viewpoint. At this time, strategy of small firm was divided into product-service reform differentiation strategy, marketing differentiation strategy and cost leadership strategy. This study distributed questionnaire on CEO of small firms in Daejeon and Chungnam area for accomplish the study objective and it collected a total of 145 copies of questionnaires. As a result of analyzing collected questionnaire, this study deduced the following study results and suggestions. First, results different from those of existing studies were found Since sales, net income and profit rate of small firm were not high cause economic depression on the whole. Second, entrepreneur ability was found to be required for success of business creation. Entrepreneur ability of founder was the factor that affects both financial and non - financial performance of small firm. As such, entrepreneur ability can be regarded as the most important factor for success in business creation of small firm. Accordingly, entrepreneur ability is the most important source for success in business creation of small firm. Third, strategy of small firm was found to be the important factor that affects the non-financial performance even if it could not give significant effects on financial performance. Thus, product service reform differentiation strategy, marketing differentiation strategy and cost leadership strategy have significant effects on non - financial performance of small firm. Accordingly, it is required to operate small firm with strategic mind - set for small firm to achieve success. This study analyzed the effects of feature of founder and strategy of small firm on business performance of small firm through practical analysis on small firms in Daejeon and Chungnam area, and deduced meaningful results. However, Since this study collected data on small firms in Daejeon and Chungnam only, there is a limit in generalizing the results of this study to all small firms in Korea. Companies answering to this questionnaire process were mainly wholesale and retail service companies. In addition, there is a limit in that it failed to analyze feature of representative type of industry due to limit in number of sample, it is required to divide representative type of industry and to compare and analyze types of industry in future studies.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.259-268
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• 2020

This study aims to provide empirical evidence on the causal relationship between bribery and firm innovation. To this end, we use a micro-dataset of small and medium firms in Vietnam surveyed in 2015. Given the binary nature of the dependent variable, a simple probit regression model is employed. However, as bribery variable is potentially endogenous, a simple probit regression may give biased estimates. We deal with the potential endogeneity by making use of the bivariate probit model. A property of the bivariate probit model is that it can produce efficient estimates of a typical probit model with endogenous binary explanatory variable. A Hausman-like likelihood ratio test is implemented following the estimation to test the existence of endogeneity. We find that bribery significantly undermines firm innovation. Also, firms run by household appear less innovative. The probability of innovation diminishes significantly if firm owners or managers have previous experience in firm products. As expected, larger firms seem to be more innovative. Exporters tend to be more innovative compared to non-exporters. Our findings provide support to the hypothesis that bribery is detrimental to firm innovation and, thus, innovation may be a mediating channel, through which, bribery impedes firm long-term performance.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.10
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• pp.769-781
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• 2020

This study attempts to examine the relationships between transformational leadership, learning orientation, firm innovativeness, and financial performance. Specifically, the moderating effect of learning orientation and firm innovativeness. The data collected from 606 SMEs in Thailand were evaluated using the structural equation modeling, typifying that quantitative research. The results revealed that transformational leadership had a positive effect on learning orientation. Similarly, transformational leadership had a positive effect on firm innovativeness. Further, the study found that transformational leadership had a positive indirect effect on financial performance through the mediation of learning orientation. The results of the study found that transformational leadership had a positive indirect effect on financial performance through the mediation of firm innovativeness. Transformational leadership and learning orientation to improve innovation within the organization, including organizations and leaders among themselves. Especially, innovative firms inculcate ideals of promise to learning, open-mindedness, and shared vision. Furthermore, practitioners can use the findings of this study when they perform their role of leaders to challenge creativity and innovation among followers. Finally, those developments would influence a procedure of evidence procurement, evidence distribution and shared explanation that escalations equally individual and administrative effectiveness owing to its influence going on products.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.244-250
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• 1999

This study aimed to analyze the effect of the change in CP class of a firm on the abnormal yield of its stock price. As a result, it was found that the change in CP class of a firm had an effect on the abnormal yield. That is. the abnormal yield rose when the class of CP rose while it dropped when the class of CP dropped. And it was analyzed that the class of CP in the firm in which its current net gain was great while it dropped in the firm in which the current net gain was small. And it was found that the CP class of the firm with the high debt to equity ratio rose when the CP class of the firm changed, whereas it rose in the firm with the low debt to equity ratio. But it was found that the size of majority shareholders equity rate in a firm, the size of corporate value of the firm, the size of cash flow of the firm and the size of the burden of financial costs of the firm were not related to the abnormal yield of its stock price. This study has its significance in analyzing the effect of the information on the change in CP class of the firm on the capital market. But it has its limitations in the sample firm and the selection of the point in time of disclosure.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.345-356
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• 2013

The purpose of this study includes: the relationships between corporate entrepreneurship(innovation, proactiveness, risk-taking) and firm performance(non-financial performance, financial performance) and the mediating effect of the self-efficacy on the relationship between corporate entrepreneurship and firm performance. In order to verify the relationships and mediating effect, data were collected from 368 individuals in employees working in small and medium-sized firms at Gyeongnam region to test theoretical model and its hypotheses. All data collected from the survey were analyzed using with SPSS 18.0. This study reports findings as follows: first, the relationship between the corporate entrepreneurship(except innovation) and the employee's self-efficacy is positively related. Second, there was also a positive correlation between the employee's self-efficacy and firm performance. Third, the relationship between the corporate entrepreneurship and the non-financial performance is positively related. The relationship between the corporate entrepreneurship(except innovation) and the financial performance is positively related. Finally, the employee's self-efficacy played as a partial mediator on the relationship between risk-taking and firm performance. The employee's self-efficacy played as a fully mediator on the relationship between proactiveness and non-financial performance. The employee's self-efficacy played as a partial mediator on the relationship between proactiveness and financial performance. However, there was no empirical evidence for the mediating effect of employee's self-efficacy on the relationship innovation and firm performance. Based on these findings, the implications and the limitations of the study were presented including some directions for future studies.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.65-91
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• 2016

Although the success of industrial clusters largely depends on whether clustering firms can achieve economic performance, there has been less attention on investigating factors and conditions contributing to the performance enhancement for clustering small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Along this vein, we adopt the theories of social capital and organizational learning as those success factors for clustering SMEs. This study thus aims at examining what effect social capital accrued in the relationships among actors within clusters has on firm performance of clustering SMEs and what role organizational learning plays in the linkage between social capital and firm performance. For the empirical analysis, we operationalized the variables and their measures to develop questionnaires through the theoretical reviews on literatures. As a sample of 227 clustering SMEs, our collected data was analyzed by hierarchical regression analysis. The results confirmed that a high level of social capital, represented by network, trust, and norm, has positive effect on firm performance of clustering SMEs. We also found that clustering firms presenting high organizational learning, represented by absorptive and transformative capability, achieve better performance than those placing less value on organizational learning. Furthermore the significant relationship between social capital and firm performance is mediated partially through organizational learning. These findings imply not only that the territorial agglomeration of industrial cluster does not guarantee the performance creation of clustering SMEs but that they need to develop social capital among various actors within clusters, facilitating their knowledge diffusion. In order to absorb and mobilize the shared knowledge and information into strategic resources, the firms should improve their capability associated with organizational learning. These expand our understanding on the importance of social capital and organizational learning for the performance enhancement of clustering firms. Differentiating from major studies addressing benefits and advantages of industrial cluster, this study based on the perspective of firm-internal business process contributes to the literature advancement. Strategic and policy implications of this study are discussed in detail.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.59-74
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• 2019

Purpose: Despite the fact that the majority of domestic firms are small in size, there have been few studies conducted to understand the leadership effectiveness of small firm CEOs. Based on the upper echelon theory, this study attempts to demonstrate empirically that transformational leadership of small firm CEOs can increase the innovative behavior of employees. In addition, the present study examines mediating effects of CEO trust perceived by employees when transformational leadership affects employees' innovative behavior. Methods: The survey data of CEOs'transformational leadership, innovative behavior of employees, and perceived CEO trust were collected from 176 employees working in domestic small firms. Hierarchical regression analyses were performed to examine the main effects between transformation leadership and innovative behavior and mediating effects of CEO trust perceived by employees. Results: The results show that CEOs' transformational leadership is significantly related to the innovative behavior of employees in the current sample. Results also indicate that CEO trust perceived by employees reveals a mediating effect in the process of transformational leadership affecting innovative behavior. Conclusion: The results show that as suggested by the upper echelon theory, the leadership of small firm CEOs can have a significant impact on positive job-related behaviors and attitudes of employees. The results also contribute to expand on the understanding of the relationship between transformational leadership and innovative behavior by explaining that transformational leadership can mediate trust in CEOs in enhancing employees'innovative behavior. Theoretical and practical implications are reviewed, and limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are addressed.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.65-89
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• 2012

Recognizing the significance of inter-firm cooperation for firm's sustainable competitive advantage in today's business environment, this study investigates the effects of inter-firm cooperation and knowledge sharing on firm competitiveness based on 327 Korean small and medium sized enterprises. We also examines a mediating effects of knowledge sharing on the relationship between inter-firm cooperation and firm competitiveness and moderating effects of environmental factors on this relationship. The environmental factors are conceptualized by intensity of market competition and technological change. The main findings of the study are as follows: First, the paper found that inter-firm cooperation was positively associated with firm competitiveness while there was also a positive relationship between knowledge sharing and firm competitiveness. Second, it also shows that knowledge sharing partially mediated the relationship of inter-firm cooperation and firm competitiveness. Third, we also found that technological change had negative moderating effects on the relationship between inter-firm cooperation and firm competitiveness. This study suggests that understanding of inter-firm cooperation with consideration of environmental characteristics are required for better firm competitiveness.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.249-272
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• 2012

This paper examines how a Korean automobile firm price-discriminates between the Korean and the U.S. markets. We argue that a Korean automobile firm's pricing behavior depends on the differences in price elasticity over the segmented markets between the countries. Our findings are that differences in price elasticity may help explain why a medium-class car's price is higher in Korea than that in the U.S. while a small-sized car's price is higher in the U.S. than in Korea, which implies that a Korean automobile firm $3^{rd}$ degree price-discriminates on the same or similar products between Korea and the U.S. This type of $3^{rd}$ degree price discrimination differs from a typical home-bias effect (charging higher prices to domestic consumers) because a small-sized car which is produced domestically sells at higher price abroad. This finding can be added as a source that violates the law of one price.