• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.99-108
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• 2022

Purpose: This study attempted to identify determinants affecting research collaboration and R&D distribution activities, especially regarding facility and equipment leasing of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in South Korea. The objective of this study was to find the most significant firm characteristics that affect firms participating in an R&D collaboration and distribution program and investing in R&D in terms of leasing payment for equipment. Research design, data, and methodology: This study analyzes which SMEs' characteristics influence external research cooperation activities by examining the SMEs that received government support for equipment leasing using multiple regression analysis and residual plots. The survey combined two databases: 1) a fact-finding survey of participating firms by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, and 2) leasing information by the Korea Association of University, Research Institute and Industry. Results: The study found that firm size positively impacts R&D investment, R&D collaboration and distribution. Conclusions: The study provided evidence to policymakers and government officials that firms with more employees will more likely participate in government support programs. The study results also prove that government officials believe firm location does not impact R&D investment, R&D collaboration and distribution.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.353-362
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• 2022

Small and medium businesses (SMEs) play a critical role in the economy, yet they are plagued by a shortage of finance. Determining the influence of cash sources both inside and outside the firm is critical to the company's survival and growth. As a result, the purpose of this research is to determine the impact of capital on the growth of SMEs in Vietnam. The key factors of this research are equity and liabilities, which are two proxies for a firm's capital. The data is based on the results of a survey conducted every two years from 2005 to 2015, which included over 2,600 SMEs in 20 processing and manufacturing industries in ten provinces and cities, including Hanoi, Hai Phong, Ho Chi Minh City, Ha Tay, Phu Tho, Nghe An, Quang Nam, Khanh Hoa, Lam Dong, and Long An. The findings show that characteristics such as equity capital, total workforce growth rate, and male entrepreneurs have a positive impact on enterprise growth, whereas liabilities, firm age, and export have a negative impact on enterprise growth. The study has demonstrated that equity has a positive impact while liabilities have a negative impact on the growth of Vietnamese SMEs.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.673-685
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• 2021

This study aims to determine theoretically the best workers layoff/training strategy that entrepreneurs should apply to manage the COVID-19 crisis successfully. It also examines the impacts of the Saudi government's emergency measures on firm performance. The paper develops a theoretical framework in which the optimal control technics is applied to model the entrepreneur's hiring, layoff, and training behaviors. The results show that, during the current COVID-19 pandemic, the entrepreneur should first lay off the less productive workers to reduce labor costs. As more and more inefficient workers quit and profit increases, the entrepreneur starts expanding his activity and training workers. In the long run, only the training activity allows the firm efficiency to grow at a constant rate. This finding suggests that the key to long-run economic recovery in Saudi Arabia will rely on training, innovation, and adaptability to the new digital environment. The paper also shows that the Saudi government initiative of covering 60% of salaries for the small- and medium-sized entrepreneurs during the COVID-19 pandemic will enhance training activities in small- and medium-sized enterprises and improve their efficiency in both the short and long run. This policy will also prevent Saudi entrepreneurs from laying off half of their staff.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.77-92
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of CEO's entrepreneurial orientation on innovation performance and business performance, and the mediating effect of innovation performance on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and business performance in small and medium-sized venture-enterprises (SMEs). To test the hypothesized relationships, we have conducted a survey of Korean SMEs. After excluding unanswered and untrustful item questionnaires, the final sample size for this study is 110 SMEs. The major findings of the empirical research are as follows. First, CEO's entrepreneurial orientation had apositive influence on innovation performance of a firm. Second, CEO's entrepreneurial orientation was positively related to business performance of a firm. Third, innovation performance had the partial mediating effect on the relationship between CEO's entrepreneurial orientation and business performance of a firm. That is, this result indicates that CEO's entrepreneurial orientation indirectly effects on business performance through innovation performance. Based on these findings, implications of the research findings are discussed, and recommendation for future research are provided.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.16 no.10
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• pp.326-337
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• 2016

This research attempts to focus on the role of entrepreneurship and market-orientation on firm performance in perspective of medium and small-sized firms. To accomplish the purposes of this research, 500 entrepreneurs in Kyungnam and Ulsan area has been designated as a research object and finally a total of 182 questionnaires were analyzed by using PLS 2.0. The results from this study are as follows: First of all, the hypothesis regarding the influence of entrepreneurship on firm performance was rejected. Secondly, the hypothesis about the role of market-orientation was accepted. Finally, the effect of entrepreneurship on market-orientation was accepted. We outlined implication for theory and practice and suggested research limitation and future research based on research conclusion.

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.197-218
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• 2022

Purpose This study examines the roles of firm-level smart factory implementation in the relationship between organizational competence and organizational performance in the context of Korean small and medium Enterprises (SMEs). To achieve this goal, this study presents and empirically tests a research model with evaluation data conducted by industrial experts on how organizational competence can be exploited to positively influence organizational performance through smart factory implementation. Design/methodology/approach Organizational competence are based on the research construct developed by Odważny et al.(2018). Research constructs on smart factory are based on the measurement model developed by Korea Technology and Information Promotion Agency for Korea small and medium Enterprises (TIPA) (2020) and organizational performance are based on the performance construct developed by Kwon(2019). To complete the investigation, we collected 31 firm data conducted by industrial experts in Korea from Dec 2018 to Dec 2020. Most of firm was implemented officially by government budget granted for smart factory of Korea SMEs. To test our hypotheses, partial least squares (PLS) method was employed. Findings The findings indicate that organizational competence is antecedent 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 competence and organizational performance through smart factory implementation. So companies should focus on enhancing organizational competence and implementing smart factory to obtain sustainable competitiveness.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.332-364
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• 2010

External linkages affect the performance of small and medium enterprises in diverse ways. This study delves into the impact of inter-organizational collaboration by looking at different facets of performance, such as innovation, sales growth, profit growth, and firm survival. In addition, it explores the influence of informal knowledge spillover from collaborative partners as well as from formal collaborations. The impact is carefully investigated by dividing firm samples into three different sectoral innovation categories: supplier-dominant, production-intensive, and science-based sector suggested by Pavitt (1984). The result highlights the different influence pattern of collaborative relations by partner types according to sectoral categories. The positive results of collaborating with universities and public institutions are identified, and the sales growth by customer linkage is witnessed. The impact is apparent in science-based sectors. The result implies that the risk associated with collaborating with competitors may be moderated by linking performance enhancing collaborative linkages with universities and government institutes.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.9-15
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• 2020

This paper investigates how economic freedom affected firm investment in Vietnam. In the globalization decade, economic freedom has been an important policy to support economic development in Vietnam. Improvements in economic freedom, such as capital freedom and domestic credit freedom, allow firms to access external finance more easily, so that the firm's investment depends less on internal cash flow. In a developing country, on the drawbacks, many small and medium firms likely have more challenges if the government would not give any subsidies. The higher level of freedom may exacerbate the financing constraints of less competitive firms. We analyze unique firm-level data from 2006 to 2016, which includes listed firms on two major stock exchanges and unlisted firms in the Unlisted Public Company Market. The article also considers how economic freedom affects small firms and large firms differently. Our results show that capital freedom and domestic credit freedom played an important role in investments for Vietnamese firms. However, we cannot find evidence that overall economic freedom relaxed the financial constraints on firms. Additionally, we suggest that small firms likely gain more advantage in access to external finance than do larger firms when the government removes restrictions from capital movement and the domestic credit market.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.27
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• pp.101-129
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• 2008

This study introduced the inclusion of Global Value Chain (GVC) as a strategy for the globalization of domestic industries. In addition, this study intended to highlight direct foreign investment as an important opportunity for enhancing the competitiveness of the domestic small and medium firms. That is, globalization could be realized not only through simple capital inflow, but also through domestic industry's participation in the overseas production network. The analysis of the trend and pattern of direct foreign investment revealed that the FDI inflows heavily dependent on the USA and Japan have been diversified steadily over time. In spite of recent decline trend of overall FDI amount, inflows from European countries in machinery and chemical industries have been rising. These rising and diversifying trends in these industries are promising since FDI inflows have the potential of playing an important role in achieving productivity growth of domestic industries, particularly in the area of comparatively fragile industries such as machinery and chemicals. In the same logic, it is crucial for future growth of Korea that the small and medium firms find their competitive edges through strengthening production networks with foreign multi-national companies. Thus, it is suggested that the policy of globalization of small and medium firms should be based on the firm understanding of GVC and FDI pattern of industries.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.23-48
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• 2020

This qualitative case study focuses on five small and medium-sized enterprises which have put family-friendly management into successful practice. Through in-depth unstructured interviews with five human resources managers and ten employees, we describe each firm's approach to work-life balance including working hour reductions, breaks, work flexibility, and parental leave to build an overall picture. We also discuss the four key factors of the CEO's role; democratic communication between all staff, the usefulness of family-friendly certification as a starting point; and governmental support for promoting work-life balance at small and medium-sized enterprises. Finally, we suggest three political implications of governmental support, namely CEO education, changing the criteria of family-friendly certification to redefine working hours and work flexibility, and incentives specifically for small to medium-sized enterprises.