• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.247-266
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• 2005

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the effects of a firm's financial and non-financial factors on the relationship formation with its main bank in the industry of parts and material in Pusan-Kyungnam region. The results, out of accordance with the relation-banking or regional financial market perspective, do not support the hypothesis that regional financial institutions would be useful for decreasing the financial difficulties of the small and medium firms in the region. The analyses about the effects of non-financial factors on the formation of main bank relations show that while Kookmin Bank and Industrial Bank play important roles as main banks of small businesses other national banks put emphasis on the transaction lending. And the analyses about the effects of financial factors show that firms having main bank relations with non-bank financial institutions and Kookmin bank are more profitable and stable than firms having main bank relations with other banks including local banks. On the whole it seems that local banks are not making a commitment to the regional economy and their operational grounds are not strong enough.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.57-89
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• 2016

This paper used individual establishment level data to estimate the effects of government support for the research and development of 'small and medium enterprises'(SMEs). We analyzed, on the establishment level, the degree of technical advancement, strength of private R&D incentives, and the effect on employment levels of firms which participated in the 2010 government R&D support project. The results of this study are as follows. First, the size and frequency of government investment in the R&D of SMEs were both positively correlated with the amount of patent registrations. Furthermore, we found that the amount of patent registrations were positively correlated with the size of the establishments, but the average level of technological advancement for the firms running the research was lower than the average level of technological advancement for the firms merely participating in the project. Second, the government's R&D policy was found to be complementary to private R&D incentives, and a 1% increase in government R&D investment resulted in an inelastic increase (0.193~0.245%) of the firms' post-program R&D spending. Third, we found that R&D support from the government contributed to an increase of employment by the participating firms. Additionally, we found that the impact of R&D support on job creation varied for the firm size and technological characteristics. Therefore, it is important for governments to take into consideration each type of small business, when setting R&D policies.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.207-228
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• 2007

Measuring Information Technology(IT) organizations' activities have been limited to mainly measure financial indicators for a long time. However, according to the multifarious functions of Information System, a number of researches have been done for the new trends on measurement methodologies that come with financial measurement as well as new measurement methods. Especially, the researches on IT Balanced Scorecard(BSC), concept from BSC measuring IT activities have been done as well in recent years. BSC provides more advantages than only integration of non-financial measures in a performance measurement system. The core of BSC rests on the cause-and-effect relationships between measures to allow prediction of value chain performance measures to allow prediction of value chain performance measures, communication, and realization of the corporate strategy and incentive controlled actions. More recently, BSC proponents have focused on the need to tie measures together into a causal chain of performance, and to test the validity of these hypothesized effects to guide the development of strategy. Kaplan and Norton[2001] argue that one of the primary benefits of the balanced scorecard is its use in gauging the success of strategy. Norreklit[2000] insist that the cause-and-effect chain is central to the balanced scorecard. The cause-and-effect chain is also central to the IT BSC. However, prior researches on relationship between information system and enterprise strategies as well as connection between various IT performance measurement indicators are not so much studied. Ittner et al.[2003] report that 77% of all surveyed companies with an implemented BSC place no or only little interest on soundly modeled cause-and-effect relationships despite of the importance of cause-and-effect chains as an integral part of BSC. This shortcoming can be explained with one theoretical and one practical reason[Blumenberg and Hinz, 2006]. From a theoretical point of view, causalities within the BSC method and their application are only vaguely described by Kaplan and Norton. From a practical consideration, modeling corporate causalities is a complex task due to tedious data acquisition and following reliability maintenance. However, cause-and effect relationships are an essential part of BSCs because they differentiate performance measurement systems like BSCs from simple key performance indicator(KPI) lists. KPI lists present an ad-hoc collection of measures to managers but do not allow for a comprehensive view on corporate performance. Instead, performance measurement system like BSCs tries to model the relationships of the underlying value chain in cause-and-effect relationships. Therefore, to overcome the deficiencies of causal modeling in IT BSC, sound and robust causal modeling approaches are required in theory as well as in practice for offering a solution. The propose of this study is to suggest critical success factors(CSFs) and KPIs for measuring performance for IT organizations and empirically validate the casual relationships between those CSFs. For this purpose, we define four perspectives of BSC for IT organizations according to Van Grembergen's study[2000] as follows. The Future Orientation perspective represents the human and technology resources needed by IT to deliver its services. The Operational Excellence perspective represents the IT processes employed to develop and deliver the applications. The User Orientation perspective represents the user evaluation of IT. The Business Contribution perspective captures the business value of the IT investments. Each of these perspectives has to be translated into corresponding metrics and measures that assess the current situations. This study suggests 12 CSFs for IT BSC based on the previous IT BSC's studies and COBIT 4.1. These CSFs consist of 51 KPIs. We defines the cause-and-effect relationships among BSC CSFs for IT Organizations as follows. The Future Orientation perspective will have positive effects on the Operational Excellence perspective. Then the Operational Excellence perspective will have positive effects on the User Orientation perspective. Finally, the User Orientation perspective will have positive effects on the Business Contribution perspective. This research tests the validity of these hypothesized casual effects and the sub-hypothesized causal relationships. For the purpose, we used the Partial Least Squares approach to Structural Equation Modeling(or PLS Path Modeling) for analyzing multiple IT BSC CSFs. The PLS path modeling has special abilities that make it more appropriate than other techniques, such as multiple regression and LISREL, when analyzing small sample sizes. Recently the use of PLS path modeling has been gaining interests and use among IS researchers in recent years because of its ability to model latent constructs under conditions of nonormality and with small to medium sample sizes(Chin et al., 2003). The empirical results of our study using PLS path modeling show that the casual effects in IT BSC significantly exist partially in our hypotheses.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.159-180
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to contribute to the efficient selection of SMEs' trade settlement system through the empirical analysis of determinants of the payment method of SMEs in Korea. In the previous study, external factors, internal factors, settlement characteristics, transaction goods, transaction amount factors and risk management factors were used. Questionnaires were excluded from analysis, and the number of validated samples collected was 155. To conduct the study, all empirical analyses were verified at the significance level p <.005. Statistical analysis was performed using the SPSSWIN 18.0 program. Analysis results found the payment method used in the company was based on the year of establishment, export items, transaction area, type of transaction, and size of company. Empirical analysis showed that factors influencing the choice of the letter of credit are external factors, internal factors, the risk management factors, and the transaction amounts, etc. Results of this study are as follows: First, the effects of external factors, internal factors, settlement characteristics, and transaction amounts were significant. Hypothesis testing of collections trading methods has not been adopted in all areas presented. In order to utilize the research results, we conducted the study and comparison of the payment method of the income.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.19 no.7
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• pp.360-375
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• 2019

This paper tries to study the ecosystem after constructing the network of the continuing transactions associated with distribution industry with the data of more than 50 thousands firms provided by the Korean enterprise data (KED) for 2015. After applying the clustering method, one of social network analysis tools, we find the firms in the network grouped into 732 clusters occupying about 80% of whole distribution industry sales in KED data. The firms in a cluster have most of their transactions with other firms in the cluster. But the clusters have smaller firm numbers in the cluster and sales portion of the biggest firms in the industry than the case of the manufacturing industry. The Input-output analysis for the biggest distribution firms show that the small and medium size enterprise(SME)s have very high sale dependency on a main firm in some clusters. This fact implies more efficient fair transaction policies within the clusters. And small number of big distribution firms have very high rear production linkage effects on SMEs or on the 10th or 31th group with high portion of SME employment. They should be considered important in the SME growth and employment policies.

• Journal of Venture Innovation
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.49-65
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• 2018

For a long time the German economy was primarily defined by large corporations and thriving small and medium-sized enterprises. Since about 2005 a second strand has started to emerge and it is one which is becoming increasingly important and is creating jobs - start-ups in the digital sector. This start-up activity is taking an important role in Germany's economic development: Start-up companies spawn innovations and create jobs, thus promoting the concept of competition. In general "start-up" refers to digitally-driven companies that are not more than five years old. Germany's start-up policy consists of three main parts. First of all, Germany has the characteristics of technology-based start-ups. The Hartz reform since 2002 has shown its focus on technology-based start-ups. In particular, it is the most appropriate for a start-up company to take the role of a new technology company to respond to changes in the global industrial structure. Second, it is approaching from a long-term perspective. In this regard, the small business policy, including Germany's new business policy, is seen as a tradition that can be consistent and can make policy decisions based on the basics rather than following the times. Third, the government is implementing policies centered on demand. Germany's start-up policy is summarized as a technology-based policy and new job creation. The policy response is that the government seeks the best combination of policies by adapting them to the times from the broad trend of employment market policies. What is important here is that policies are made based on consumers, not suppliers, in the process of policy making and implementation. With the Digital Agenda 2020 the Federal government has likewise committed itself to preparing the digital economy for international competition and making Germany the "No. 1 digital growth country in Europe". Ever since 1998 the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) has awarded the "EXIST" start-up scholarship to students and graduates. The Ministry also invests in the High Tech start-up fund. Together with Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) and 18 other investors from the world of business the seed investor promotes young technology companies. Germany offers start-ups a good infrastructure and lots of funding opportunities. Berlin is regarded as Europe's start-up capital and also attracts lots of international young entrepreneurs.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.15-24
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• 2011

Modern enterprises should concentrate their efforts on continuous improvements in focusing their development in the core areas of business and to reduce their expenses and to enhance the quality of service for customers. The enterprises should focus on their core business while outsourcing the non-core areas of business to external specialists for the purpose of reducing cost. In South Korea, the enterprises are becoming increasingly interested in outsourcing their logistics function, especially in using IT technologies to the 3PL. The underlying reason for this trend is because the logistics costs of Korean businesses are much higher than that of other advanced countries. This higher logistic costs weakens the price competitiveness of Korean companies in the overseas export markets and even dampening the balance of international trade. Domestically, the higher logistics costs have the effect of raising prices in the local markets and thus affecting the local economy. Therefore a solution is urgently needed to save the logistics costs for the Korean companies in the interest of increasing national competitiveness. Outsourcing to the 3PL is becoming an attraction solution to this problem. Thanks to the increasing supply of professional logistics companies, many of the enterprises are switching to the Third Party Logistics. Nevertheless the enterprises do not yet utilize the integrated third-party logistics services on a full scale. This study analyzes present conditions and problems of the domestic third-party logistics market and suggests directions for future development. To solve the problems in the domestic third-party logistics market, four actions are recommended. First there should be new supporting policies in the laws and regulations and a system for small and medium sized companies to grow. Solutions to structural problems such as abnormal multilevel merchandising, illegal operation of private cars, and freight dumping should be implemented concurrently. Furthermore, standards for new companies entry into the market should be enhanced to allow only the competitive distribution companies to enter the market. Second, development of variety of educational programs is needed through establishing human-resource development system and specialized formal educational institution focused on this market. Third, the third party distribution companies, which seek long-term relationships with the owners of goods, should endeavor to strengthen their communications capability. Fourth, adoption of high-tech distribution system and the advent of U-Logistics, making use of RFID is urgent. This study has the limitation of objectivity because it does not include various comparative case studies about companies relating to the Third Party Logistics and domestic franchise companies. However, this study is significant to the extent that it analyzes the general present conditions and the problems of domestic Third Party Logistics and suggests recommendations for revitalization of Third Party Logistics. For future studies, analyzing the successful cases of international third party logistics companies' empirical data and studying the application into domestic franchise companies would improve the objectivity of the results. This would assist the domestic third party logistics companies not only to perform excellent domestic logistics function but also to enter into the global market for international logistics.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.51-61
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• 2018

As Korean society becomes more matured, more people consider trust valuable, as a social capital. Researchers introduced trust literatures focusing on public policy, sociology than business. In this paper, it is empirically analyzed how Organizational Justice, Shared Values, Organizational Trust, 3 dimensions of social capital explained by Nahapiet & Ghoshall, together with Job Satisfaction and Innovative Behavior, as a proxy of performance at the organizational level. The results of this study are as below. Firstly Organizational Justice, consisted of 4 sub-variables of Distributional Justice, Procedural Justice, Interpersonal Justice and Informational Justice, classified by Colquitt, affects Job Satisfaction positively. Secondly Shared Values, consisted of 2 sub-variables of CEO's Core Value and Organizational Culture, availing Competing Value Model of Cameron & Quinn, affect Job Satisfaction positively. Thirdly Job Satisfaction, consisted of 2 sub-variables of economical satisfaction and self-efficacy, affects Innovative Behavior positively. Lastly Organizational Trust has mediating effect on the relationship between Job Satisfaction and Innovative Behavior. However, while the direct effect of Job Satisfaction on Innovative Behavior shows 69%, the indirect effect of Organizational Trust on Innovative Behavior shows 31%, which may not be ignorable. Furthermore in case of smaller organization with less than 30 members, the indirect effect of Organizational Trust shows 64%, comparing to 36% of direct effect of Job Satisfaction. This study was able to confirm that organizations need to maintain Organizational Trust as much as they strive to increase Job Satisfaction through securing Organizational Justice and Shared Values in order to effectively increase Innovative Behavior. For small organizations with less than 30 members, they can never achieve Innovative Behavior without Organizational Trust. Conclusively it is acknowledged that Organizational Trust is the most important prior condition for innovation and long-term survival of SME ventures.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.48-63
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• 2019

We tried new analysis including social network analysis(SNA) on the transaction network centered on electronic companies using more than 50 thousand company transaction data obtained from Korean enterprise data (KED) for the year of 2015. We found 97 clusters having more than 10 firms and remarkable 13 clusters having more than 90% sales of the electronic industry in Korea. Clusters are the groups of companies having most of their transactions in the clusters they belong to. We found 5 clusters have 83% of sales in the electronic industry. Most of clusters have main single firms having most of the sales in each clusters except a few clusters. However, we found a few firms to have high rear production linkage effect and found the firms with high linkage effect specially for the small and medium size enterprise (SME). The companies with high production linkage (specially on SMEs) should be managed in terms of (SME) growth policy. The last firm group consisting of the small clusters with less than 10 firms has high employment coefficients. The clusters or company having high production linkage effect on this last firm group should be noted in the terms of employment policy. We also note that there exist the firms with the high value of betweenness coefficients meaning high potential of technology development. They should be managed carefully in terms of technology development policy.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.545-552
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• 2015

This study One of the key elements of corporate competitiveness in the modern world of unlimited competition is human resource management. The reason that the world's leading companies are devoting a lot of investment and effort for good human resource development and management is that human resource can impact firm survival. In particular, there is little research on the internal and external environmental stimuli and job stress in the employee of small business which are often led to turnover, while they have suffered from chronic shortage of manpower. The purpose of this study is to determine the turnover factors in the small logistics companies and contribute to stable maintenance of workforce, facilitating human resource management and minimizing turnover. This study empirically analyzed the factors of the turnover in the organization of logistics companies from Busan Port, South Korea, which became one of the national infrastructure and the fifth world largest harbor. The conclusion proposed the development and direction of the human resource management which could promote the job environment improving the turnover factors and creating sustainable work condition through conducting preventive measures. The results indicated that the highest turnover rates was found in the category of field work, and the highest turnover group was from the 'less than one year', which implies that high turnover rates after and during job training might be greater cost to the companies than early turnover. The most common reasons for the high employee turnover were 'excessive workload' and 'dissatisfaction with wages'. Followed reasons including 'troubles with managers' and 'failure in organizational adaptation' can be understood in line with worse working conditions of the small logistic companies. It turned out that the preventive programs of the logistic enterprises had little effect through 'incentives system' and 'improving wage system' which are mainly conducted. The human resource managers appreciated the importance of 'wage raise' and 'benefits improvement'. This study is aimed at contributing to efficient human resource management through understanding of the turnover causes and human resource managers applying preventive measures. In particular, this can benefit small port logistics companies securing competitiveness and promoting persistent growth and development.