• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.454-490
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• 2018

This paper examined the nonlinear relationships between external knowledge sources and the innovation performance of SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises). Using 3,218 firm-year panel data in South Korea, this study found that increasing the number of external knowledge channels out of the value chain increases radical innovation. Meanwhile, increasing the number of external knowledge channels within the value chain increases the incremental innovation. Further, the external sources of knowledge both out of and in the value chain had inverted U-shaped relationships on radical and incremental innovation respectively. This finding implies that a mechanism of diminishing returns works in the relationship between the external sources of knowledge and innovation. The study also identified the synergistic effects between the external sources of knowledge out of the value chain and within the value chain, and confirmed that the synergistic effects strengthen the linear mechanism between the external sources of knowledge and innovation. In addition, this study found that the sources of knowledge both out of and within the value chain positively moderate the relationships between R&D investment and radical innovation of SMEs.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.10
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• pp.76-91
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• 2019

There have been many studies to examine the patterns in innovations reflecting industry-specific characteristics from an evolutionary economics perspective. The purpose of this study is to identify industry-specific differences in product innovation patterns and determinants of innovation performance. For this, Korean manufacturing is classified into high-tech industries and low-tech industries according to technology intensity. It is also pointed out that existing research does not reflect the decision-making process of firms' R&D implementations. In order to solve this problem, this study presents a Heckman sample selection model and a double-hurdle model as alternatives, and analyzes data from 1,637 firms in the 2014 Survey on Technology of SMEs. As a result, it was confirmed that the determinants and patterns of manufacturing in small and medium-size enterprise (SME) product innovation are significantly different between high-tech and low-tech industries. Also, through an extended empirical model, we found that there exist a sample selection bias and a hurdle-like threshold in the decision-making process. In this study, the industry-specific features and patterns of product innovation are examined from a multi-sided perspective, and it is meaningful that the decision-making process for manufacturing SMEs' R&D performance can be better understood.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.13-28
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• 2017

Entrepreneurship is an important factor not only for start-ups, but also for scale-up of businesses. In other words, the two aspects of establishment and growth of businesses must be balanced through entrepreneurship. However, it is true that entrepreneurship has been biased toward the former in previous researches and government policies. Here in this research, the causal relationships between the entrepreneurial characteristics of Korean firms and the performance of the company, which is measured by proposal, activity, and business performance are examined as a growth perspective. Based on these relationships, a model describing the operating mechanism of corporate entrepreneurship is derived and policy implications are provided. In conducting research, the hypotheses on the interrelationship of variables are builded using '2016 Entrepreneurship Situation Survey(Corporate)' data from Korea Entrepreneurship Foundation and analyzed by structural equation modeling. In addition, the moderating effect according to the firm size and the mediating effect between entrepreneurship and business performance are analyzed. As a result of this research, the fact that entrepreneurship affects business performance is identified and it is necessary to prioritize corporate vision and strategy for enhancement of entrepreneurship. In particular, necessity of operating system for SMEs is confirmed considering SMEs' entrepreneurship level. The implications of this research are expected to be applied by the government in establishing policy direction to enhance corporate entrepreneurship of SMEs in the future.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.153-172
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• 2013

Small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs) have limited human and material resources than large firms. SMEs are characterized by high risk and dynamic working environments. Thus human resources having knowledge and technologies are very important factor for survival and performance in SMEs. Recently, as core employee group is a key asset to firm competitiveness, many SMEs attend to set up core employee policy and system. The purposes of this research are to examine the effect of core employee policy and core employee management system on competitiveness of human resource and organizational commitment in SMEs. The major findings of the research are core employee policy have non-significant influence core employee management system, core employee policy have positive influence competitiveness of human resource, core employee management system have non-significant influence competitiveness of human resource, and competitiveness of human resource have positive influence organizational commitment in SMEs.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.64-75
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• 2012

Today organizations are making considerable efforts in order to maintain excellent talent, and in particular, they are focusing on understanding their intentions of changing jobs which are most highly correlated with job turnover. In the case of architectural design firms, its intensity of work is very high unlike industrial settings, and it not only takes much time to cultivate new men of talent and but also is characteristic that employees can change livery easily because of the flexible labor market. The turnover rated by National Statistical Office indicates that specialized, scientific and technical service industry including the architectural design firm has a relatively high turnover rate compared to the average of the turnover rate of the overall industries. However, studies on intentions of changing jobs until now were conducted focused on employees engaged in other industrial areas, and it is true that studies regarding intentions of changing jobs of practitioners of architectural design firms are very insufficient. In this context, the present study aimed to draw determinants affecting intentions of changing jobs of practitioners of architectural design firms, to objectively understand the practitioners' intentions of changing jobs through importance analysis by each factor based on this and to make a comparative analysis of differences between the large scale architectural design firms and the small and medium sized architectural design firms.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.248-258
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• 2021

The study analyzed the financial determinants of corporate R&D intensity that require more attention from academics and practitioners in the Korean capital market. Domestic small and medium enterprises (SMEs) may face with developing substitutes by making more R&D investments in scale and scope, given the unprecedented economic conditions such as the limitation of importing core components and materials from other nation(s). KOSDAQ-listed SMEs were selected as sample data, whose R&D expenditures may be less than those of large firms during the post-global financial turmoil period (2010~2018). Static panel data model was applied, along with Tobit and stepwise regression models, for examining the validity of results. Logit, probit, and complementary log-log regressions were also employed for a relative analysis. R&D expenditures in the prior year, the interaction effect between the previous R&D intensity and high-tech sector, firm size, and growth rate were significant to determine R&D intensity. Moreover, a majority of explanatory variables were found to change between the years 2011 and 2018, while time-lagged effects between the R&D intensity and growth rate exist. Results of the study are expected to be used for future research to detect optimal levels of R&D expenditures for the value maximization of SMEs.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.61-90
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• 2016

This study aims to identify the sources of productivity change in export manufacturing firms. After estimating the Malmquist productivity index, a panel regression was used to calculate the source of productivity change. Upon conducting a literature review of this field, six variables were selected as explanatory variables. The results of an analysis of 355 export manufacturing firms operating from 2009 through 2015 are as follows: First, both innovation activity and total assets had a positive impact on productivity change. However, employment cost intensity, equity ratio, and current ratio had a negative impact on productivity change in export manufacturing firms. Second, innovation activity and intangible assets had a positive impact on productivity change, but employment cost intensity, selling expense intensity, and equity ratio had a negative impact on productivity change in large export manufacturing firms. Third, innovation activity had a positive impact on productivity change, but employment cost intensity and equity ratio had a negative impact on productivity change in small and medium export manufacturing firms. Fourth, intangible assets had a positive impact on productivity change, but employment cost intensity, selling expense intensity, and current ratio had a negative impact on productivity change in export manufacturing firms listed on the Korea Composite Stock Price Index. Fifth, innovation activity and total assets had a positive impact on productivity change, but employment cost intensity and equity ratio had a negative impact on productivity change in manufacturing firms listed on the Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotations. The managerial implications of this study are also discussed.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.499-520
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• 2020

Input ratio of electricity to other production inputs in the Korean manufacturing sector has been higher than for the other OECD countries. In addition, electricity prices in Korea has been relatively lower than the average of OECD countries. Moreover, electricity sector is responsible for most CO2 emissions in Korea as coal and natural gas account 41.9% and 26.8% of electricity production as of 2018. Therefore, it looks inevitable to raise the electricity tariff for the manufacturing sector in Korea, but there is a concern that increase in the electricity tariff might affect small and medium enterprises (SMEs) more than large firms. This study estimates electricity demand's price and output elasticities for large firms and SMEs in steel industry by employing a time varying parameter model (Kalman filter). The analysis shows that changes in output levels regardless of firms' size affect electricity demands more significantly than do changes in electricity prices. Second, large firms have higher variances for both price and output elasticities of electricity demand. Third, large firms have higher price elasticity but lower output elasticity of electricity demand relative to SMEs. Policy implications are suggested in association with how to reduce electricity demands in the energy-intensive industry.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.62-80
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• 2017

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between industrial regulations and the R&D activities of firms by analysing the case of manufacturing enterprises in Korea. The sample is gathered from the 2012 Korean Innovation Survey data of Korean Institute of Science & Technology Evaluation and Planning and merged with Korean Regulation Index data of Korean Institute of Public Administration. The Ordinary Least Square (OLS) as well as 2 Stage Least Square (2SLS) regression results show that the impact of the level of the manufacturing field's regulation on firms' R&D activities or inputs may be both positive and negative, depending on the size of the firms. The analysis results suggest that regulatory policy makers need to formulate and implement R&D programs that consider the different effects of industrial regulations on large enterprises or Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs).

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.1-23
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• 2009

Prior bankruptcy studies have established that bankrupt firm's pre-filing financial ratios are different from those of healthy firms or of randomly selected going concerns. However, they may not be sufficiently different from the financial ratios of other firms in financial distress to allow the development of a ratio-based model that predicts bankruptcy with reasonable accuracy. As the result, in the multiple discriminant model, independent variables divided firms into bankrupt firms and healthy firms are retained earnings to total asset, receivable turnover, net income to sales, financial expenses, inventory turnover, owner's equity to total asset, cash flow to current liability, and current asset to current liability. Moreover four variables Retained earnings to total asset, net income to sales, total asset turnover, owner's equity to total asset indicate that these valuables classify bankrupt firms and distress firms. On the other hand, Owner's Equity to borrowed capital, Ordinary income to Net Sales, Operating Income to Total Asset, Total Asset Turnover and Inventory Turnover are selected to predict bankruptcy possibility in the Logistic regression model.