• International Journal of Quality Innovation
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.89-105
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• 2004

Many researchers and practitioners have acknowledged the need to investigate the relationships amongst various criteria of implementing total quality management (TQM) in small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises (SMMEs). There is a need to have practical research methodologies that take cognisance of the peculiarities of SMMEs and impact on their quality management practices in developing countries. This paper presents the theoretical foundation of a proposed Generative Research Methodology and configures the specification of a TQM implementation framework in SMMEs. The methodology combines rigorous research approaches, builds theory based on the dynamics of the environment and the firms' characteristics and incorporates various TQM criteria into the design of the framework. It synchronises inductive and deductive research methods in three phases and uses various means to acquire empirical evidence and examine the dependent and independent variables of TQM implementation. It is anticipated that the methodology could help SMMEs to develop, analyse and evaluate the framework for attaining quality performance goals.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.289-306
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• 2021

This paper aims to investigate how and to what extent FDI impacts the relative demand for skilled labor within firms in the case of developing countries. The analysis uses a sizeable micro-level dataset for Malaysian manufacturing industries using the System-GMM estimators to control the estimations' endogeneity problems. For this purpose, the study uses foreign equity share at the firm level to investigate foreign ownership effects at the firm level and the Horizontal FDI index by Smarzynska Javorcik (2004) to analyze FDI intra-industry linkages influence on the structure of labor demand for Malaysian domestic firms. Our findings indicate that foreign ownership increases the skilled demand within Malaysian manufacturing through the learning process, exclusively for small- and medium-sized firms (SMEs). Conversely for foreign-owned firms, changes in their skilled-labor share do not associate with changes in firm-level foreign equity share. We conclude that foreign ownership per se is not the major contributing factor for skill upgrading in Malaysian manufacturing firms. Furthermore, the competitive pressures caused by foreign firms' presence within the same industry - namely horizontal FDI - has a significant negative spillover effect on the level of skilled-labor share for domestic firms in the Malaysian manufacturing sector within periods of the understudies.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.75-100
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• 1998

The paper empirically examines relationships among information infrastructure, competitive advantage of information technology, and corporate performance of small and medium manufacturing firms. Effects of competitive advantage of information technology on the linkage between information infrastructure and corporate performance are investigated. The fact that SME's (Small and Mediem-sized Enterprises) are having difficulties in building their own information infrastructure due to the limitation of capital investment, technology, and manpower is the main motive for the study. Research results confirm that information technology provides several traits of strategic advantages such as efficiency, threat, functionality, preemptiveness, and synergy and significantly contributes to corporate performance. But linkage between information infrastructure and competitive advantage of information technology is proved to be weak and this result suggests that systematic and effective information strategy or planning is required to deliver expected advantages of information technology from information infrastructure investments. Also control effect of competitive advantage of information technology on information infrastructure-corporate performance linkage is not strongly recognized.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.235-241
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• 2013

In the Globalization of the business environment and the rapid technological development, the technology and intelligence are important advantages for the lack of funding SMEs, For management innovation and strengthen the competitiveness of enterprises, the information is the most efficient and powerful management tool. As a result, most of the medium-sized manufacturing firms introduction of the ERP system in order to promote the informatization. However, in reality, there are not much cases which show the tangible achievements by introduction of the ERP system. Therefore, this study searches on the Construction plan of Information Management System of the domestic small and medium manufacturing enterprises. Based on established construction method strategy Information management System apply to domestic small and medium sized manufacturing companies. In particular, information management system, that strategy was applied by considering the characteristics of SMEs and manufacturing enterprises.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.67-90
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• 2016

This study examines whether there is any significant relation between executive compensation and future firm performance for the Korean export manufacturing small and medium-sized firms. We sorted the whole sample firms into the sub-groups of 10 deciles by firm size and the KSIC standard. We found the following empirical results. First, Korean export manufacturing small and medium-sized firms typically showed lower or even negative profitability in terms of return on equity and operating profit ratio to sales. Foreign equity ownership is very low with an average of 3.77%. Second, for the firms with higher ratio of excess executive compensation to asset had lower future firm performance. It implies that the typical owner-manager in Korean export manufacturing SMEs earns excess pay, but do not contribute much to firm performance. Third, as for future cumulative abnormal returns for future one- and three-year periods, firms with higher owner-executive pay had lower returns compared with firms with lower pay. So the stock market investors set a lower value on them. Fourth, there is a positive relation between excess executive pay and executive overconfidence, and it implies that owner-CEOs with higher pay may become overconfident, thereby lowering future firm performance somehow.

• Korean Business Review
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.23-46
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• 2006

In modern economic societies, individuals are governed by organizations and they managed their daily lives in one way or another. through such organizations. All activities of the organizations are carried out by the job performance of individuals. Job is a very important factor for both individuals and organizations. The study is the explore. the effect of job characteristics and organizational characteristics on the job satisfaction in the small- and medium- sized firms in Namdong und Banwool Area. Job characteristics and organizational justice were hypothesized to be positively related to job satisfaction. To examine the influence of job characteristics and organizational justice on job satisfactions, data were collected from 320 employees of the small- and medium- sized manufacturing companies in Namdong und Banwool Area. This research took independent variables as the core job characteristics of the job characteristic theory such as skill variety, job stagnation, job importance, autonomy, feed back, and organizational justice as distributive and procedural justice. As a result, I can make the following suggestions. First, The Results show that job characteristics and organizational justice were significant and important predictors of job satisfaction. Secondarily, to raise the job desire of organizational members, job must be designed in such a way that the members can highly recognize their job characteristics.

• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.47-59
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• 2017

Korean Economy has been developed by the Korean Government's Support for the Large-sized Firms. This Government Policy causes the Polarization between Large-sized and Micro-sized Firms Aggravated. Micro-sized Firms are distributed over the Whole Industry Area, and can also cause the Economic Crisis If They are crashed down. Therefore Government Policy for the Micro-sized Manufacturing Industry is very Important Issue. This Paper Focused on the Analysis of Current Status for the Shoes Micro Manufacturing Industry. For the Effective Analysis, This Paper uses the Statistical Data Open to the Public and also conducts the Survey for the Micro-sized Firms in Busan. Statistical Program is used for Analyzing the Collected Data and the Major Findings are as Follows. First, Shoes Industry is led by the Micro and Small & Medium sized Firms rather than the Large-sized. And the Micro-sized Firms are getting the High Rate among the Whole Shoes Industry. Busan is heavily populated Area as the Origin of Shoes Industry. Second, even though Most of the Owner of the Micro-sized Firms have the High Technology Skill Level, Worker's Aging Phenomenon gets Worse and causes the Technology Handing down to the Next Generation Difficult. Third, Because the Factory Facility of the Micro-sized Firms is Dirt and Unstable, the Modernized Manufacturing Infrastructure such as the Apartment Factory Facility is Necessary. Forth, as the Micro-sized Firms which have the Intangible Asset such as Patent is Few, the Government Policy for Encouraging the Patent Application is strongly Needed. Fifth, Entrepreneurship and Collaboration Mind between Micro-sized Firms are Lacked, so Establishment of the Cooperative Union is required. Finally, the Effort for the Systemic Planning for the Management is lacked, and the Introduction of the Management Innovation is strongly needed. The Limitation and Future Research Direction is also discussed.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.79-94
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• 2022

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to examine firm-level attributes related to Korean manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises' (SMEs') decisions to implement smart factories. Design/methodology/approach - This study uses the provided by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups of Korea and the Korea Federation of SMEs. Manufacturing SMEs' decisions to implement smart factories in 2018-2019 were analyzed using multinomial logit and ordered logit models. Findings - The findings of this study suggest that firms' decisions to implement smart factories were positively related to firm size, R&D intensity, international market scope, and transactional relationships with customers. However, smart factory implementation decisions were not related to firm age and CEO gender. Research implications or Originality - This study illuminates firm-level attributes that may drive organizational innovation in the era of Industry 4.0 and thus contributes to the innovation adoption literature. This study also contributes to growing research on smart factories by analyzing the actual, progressive decisions to implement smart factories, as opposed to perceived intentions to implement them.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.1-18
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• 2017

This paper empirically studies the effect of public procurement on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Republic of Korea using firm-level data. Public procurement, the purchase of goods and services from private firms by the public sector, is regarded as an important policy measure for providing support to firms, particularly SMEs. This study uses establishment-level panel data of the mining and manufacturing sectors from the Korean National Bureau of Statistics (Statistics Korea) and procurement history from the Korean Public Procurement Service to empirically estimate the effects of public procurement on firms' productivity (total factor productivity) and survivability. Using a propensity score matching estimation method, we find that participating firms showed higher productivity than non-participating ones in the control group only for the year of participation, that is, 2009. After two years, in 2011, they exhibited significantly lower productivity. In contrast, establishments that participated in public procurement for SMEs in 2009 were more likely to survive than those that did not do so in 2011. These results can be interpreted as the negative consequences of government intervention. The market's efficiency enhancement is hindered if underserving companies survive owing to government intervention but fail to improve efficiency.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.565-577
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• 2020

This study empirically examined how a firm size affects the determinants of innovative activities using the data of the Korean Innovation Survey (KIS) 2016. With data from 2,003 firms in the manufacturing sector, we performed logistic regression analysis and zero-inflated negative binomial regression analysis. R&D expenditure and patent applications were used as proxies for innovative activity. The independent variables included the firm's characteristics variables such as the firm's age, tech-level industry, RDemp (R&D employee ratio), venture, export, and industrial characteristics variables such as networking, appropriability, and spillovers. The empirical findings are that there are some differences in firms' innovative activity determinants among the firms' size groups. Next, strategic appropriability has negative impacts on small firms' R&D expenditure and medium-firms' patents. Networking is an important determinant of innovative activity for all firms, except for large firms. Furthermore, in deciding R&D activities, small and medium-sized firms were significantly influenced by industrial characteristics as compared to that of large firms. Our findings suggest some R&D promotion policies. Policies fostering firms' technological interaction would allow firms to take advantage of technological spillovers and thus raise the probability of investing in R&D.