• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.109-129
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• 2009

This study aims at investigating the effectiveness of SME's R&D system empirically. Specifically, this study analyze the relationships among R&D inputs(R&D investment, R&D human resource management), process(R&D planning, external network, internal cooperation), and output(technological innovation). A questionnaire was developed to measure the above variables. To test these relations, data were collected from the small and medium-sized IT firms located in Daegu-Kyungbuk region. The survey data of 154 firms were integrated as the empirical base for testing the relations. Most respondents were from the managers. Structural equation modeling analyses were used to examine the relations. Major results are as follows: Firstly, R&D HRM was positively and significantly influenced on the R&D planning. Secondly, R&D planning was positively and significantly affected on the external network, internal cooperation, and technological innovation. Thirdly, the both relations between R&D investment and R&D planning, and external network and technological innovation were not significant statistically. These results suggest the following implications. First, R&D human resource management is very important for IT SMEs. Secondly, internal cooperation mediates R&D inputs and technological innovation by approaching the other department's unique resources and by sharing the cost of new resource development. Several future researches need to overcome the limitations of this research. First, this study's sample was based on the small and medium-sized IT firms just located in Daegu-Kyungbuk region. This limitation may imply that empirical results can not represent overall small and medium-sized firm's situations. Therefore, future research needs to include different samples. Secondly, this study depends on the latitudinal study.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.181-189
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• 2020

This study identifies interest and reasons for small- and medium-sized technological firms to increase their uses of Technopark for product innovation and development. To determine whether interest exists, a research model was built, based upon the innovative process that small and medium sized enterprises'experience when developing capabilities. The model was characterized by its entrepreneurial orientation, organizational culture and support of the Technopark. Small and medium-sized technological firms operating in Technopark were surveyed in the Fall of 2019. Responses were collected and analyzed using structural equation modeling. Among the findings: supporting greater uses of Technopark can impact a firm's performance positively by mediating new product development capabilities. Firms with relatively limited resources and capabilities are most likely to benefit from using regional innovation hubs such as Technopark to improve their innovative capabilities and performance. Government and Technopark need to develop and implement demand-based support programs, especially ones to focus on improving the innovation capabilities of technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises.

• Korean small business review
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.165-184
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• 2016

This paper aims at analysing the effects of venture business finance supporting programs on efficiency and productivity of the venture firms, on the basis of the data envelope analysis (DEA) using data of 406 firms in the 2013 Venture Business Detailed Survey of Small and Medium Business Administration. The conclusions are summarized as follows. First of all, the efficiency of government finance supported venture firms is higher than that other venture firms. The increase of productivity in venture firms enjoying government supporting programs is higher than that in venture business without government supporting programs, especially in the technical progress rather than in efficiency improvement. Also the R&D supporting programs for venture firms lead to an increase in productivity. Taking the above results into consideration, government's venture supporting programs are evaluated to be effective in terms of an increase of productivity and the proper scope for fragile venture firms.

• The International Journal of Costume Culture
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.28-39
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• 2004

The Korean textile industry the driving force of Korea's economic development, is faced with difficulties due to domestic and foreign influences. The purpose of this paper is to examine what measures are necessary for overcoming such difficulties. As the first step, We conducted a month-long survey, in August 2003, of 157 small-medium firms operating in the Korean textile industry to collect information about difficulties that they face in carrying out their business. According to the result, small firms performed badly in sales and facility investment efforts for 2003 due to worldwide economic depression. They, however, actively pursued new technology development in order to improve their competitiveness. Profits and productivity decreased with reduced sales, and their view on the next year’s perspective is also very unfavorable. Especially many firms intend to maintain or even lower the level of sales goal for 2004, reflecting the sluggish market environment. According to the survey, under such circumstances, as many as 74% of firms wanted to turn the tables through the development of highly sensuous material and improved marketing efforts. One of potential answers to this problem, which is suggested by the survey, is to establish a consulting service institution to provide promptly marketing data and information on textile and fashion market and trend in Italy. Especially, firms surveyed have shown a great deal of interest in Italian consulting service for new textile material developments. While they want the service for high value-added product development, they are reluctant to do so because of the uncertainty of its future effects and high consulting fees.

• Korean small business review
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.195-220
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• 2020

In this study, we examined the effects of major shareholder's holdings and foreign shareholder's holdings on capital structure with the samples of listed non-financial firms in KOSPI and KOSDAQ. More specifically, we conduct the data on 7,074 large firms and 2,394 SMEs(Small-Medium Enterprises) before and after the adoption of K-IFRS from 2002 to 2019. The main results can be summarized as follows. The results indicate that the adoption of K-IFRS affects the capital structure of large firms more than SMEs. The major shareholder's holdings and the foreign shareholder's holdings of the large and SMEs listed on the KOSPI and the KOSDAQ market have a significant effect on the leverage ratio. It can be seen that major shareholders of large firms and SMEs reduce the leverage ratio by recognizing the use of debt as financial risk. In addition, it can be seen that regardless of whether or not K-IFRS is adopted, foreign shareholders recognize the use of debt as financial risk and reduce the leverage ratio in order to reduce the investment risk.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.1-15
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• 2023

Purpose - This study investigates whether the inventory levels of Korean manufacturing firms increased or decreased from 2000 to 2019. We also explore the relationship between inventory levels and firm performance. Design/methodology/approach - We use panel data on KOSPI-listed firms in the manufacturing industry. We measure days in inventory as a proxy for inventory levels, and firm performance is measured by return on assets, return on sales, and EBITDA ratio. The panel data regression method is employed in our analysis. Findings - We find that days in inventory of Korean manufacturing firms significantly increased from 2000 to 2019, especially for raw materials and finished goods inventory. In addition, while days in inventory of large- and medium-sized firms were less than those of small-sized firms, the change in days in inventory of large- and medium-sized firms was positively significant over time. Moreover, the increase in days in inventory was more prevalent among industries related to foods, clothes, chemicals, and transportation. Finally, we show that the days in inventory are negatively related to firm performance. Research implications or Originality - While the Korean manufacturing industry has enormously grown over the last 20 years and managing inventory is critical in the manufacturing industry, our findings counter-intuitively show that the days in inventory of the Korean manufacturing industry had been gradually increased. We speculate that the increase in days in inventory is due to the Korean manufacturing firms' heavy reliance on global supply chains.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.12 no.10
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• pp.75-84
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• 2014

Purpose - This article aims to examine whether the stock issuance of firms in the retail industry follows Myers' (1984) pecking order theory, which is based on information asymmetry. According to the pecking order model, firms have a sequence of financing decisions, of which the first choice is to use retained earnings, the second one is to get into safe debt, the next involves risky debt, and the last involves finance with outside equity. Since the 2000s, the polarization of the LEs (Large enterprises) and SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) arose in the retail industry. The LEs exhibited an improvement in growth and profitability, whereas SMEs had a tendency to degenerate. This study contributes to corroborating the features of financing decisions in the retail industry distinguished from the other industries. Research design, data, and methodology - This study considers the stocks listed on the KOSPI and KOSDAQ markets from 1991 to 2013, and is more concentrated on the stocks in the retail industry. The data were collected from the financial information company, WISEfn. The empirical analysis is conducted by employing two measures of net equity issues (and), which were introduced in Fama and French (2005), and can be calculated from firms' accounting information. All variables are generated as the aggregate value of the numerator divided by aggregate assets, which, in effect, treats the entire sample as a single firm. Substantially, the financing decisions of the firms were analyzed by examining how often and under what circumstances firms issue and repurchase equity. Then, this study compares the features of the retail industry with those of the other industries. Results - The proportion of sample firms that show annual net stock issues reaching the level of the year's average was 54.33% for the 1990s, and fell to 39.93% per year for the 2000s. In detail, the fraction of the small firms actually increases from 45.08% to 51.04%, whereas that of large firms shows a dramatic decline from 58.94% to 24.76%. Considering the fact that the large firms' rapid increase in growth after the 2000s may lead to an increase in equity issues, this result is rather surprising. Meanwhile, net stock repurchases of assets are considerably disproportionate between the large (-50.11%) and the small firms (-15.66%) for the 2000s. Conclusions - Stock issuance of retail firms is not in line with the traditional seasoned equity offering based on information asymmetry. The net stock issuance of the small firms in the retail industry can be interpreted as part of an effort to reorganize business and solicit new investment to resolve degenerating business performance. For large firms, on the other hand, the net repurchase can be regarded as part of an effort to rearrange business for efficiency and amplifying synergy across business sections through spin-off. These results can help the government establish a support policy on retail industry according to size.

• Journal of Industrial Convergence
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.99-120
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• 2007

The purposes of this paper are to investigate mismatch in labor supply and demand on small and medium industries in Suwon region by conducting surveys to potential employees and employers, and to suggest alternative policy means to eliminate those mismatch conditions. Reasons of occupation change, difference in terms desired in occupation between potential employee and employer, understanding in mismatch, and measure of labor shortage by firms are analyzed in this paper. The report's recommendations to eliminate labor mismatch in small and medium industry are categorized into two groups: working conditions and occupation competence. Narrowing the working conditions gap, utilization of idle workers, establishment of flexible wage system are suggested to eliminate labor condition mismatch. In addition, potential employees need to meet working requirements by building up both wide use ability, occupation specific ability, and industry specific ability.

• 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.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.411-417
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• 2021

This study aims to estimate the production function and total factor productivity (TFP) of Vietnamese seafood processing firms. At the same time, the study analyses the impact of internal factors of firms and the quality of economic institutions on the TFP of the Vietnamese seafood processing industry. The study uses the Function Control (FC) approach in TFP estimation and the Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS) regression model in the analysis of factors affecting TFP. The study was carried out on the census data of enterprises of the Vietnamese seafood processing industry collected by the Vietnamese General Statistics Office and Provincial Competitiveness Index data of Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the period from 2013 to 2018. Estimated results from the models show that: i) Vietnamese seafood processing firms are, currently, mainly labor-intensive, the TFP contribution and output is only about 2.258. ii) Factors such as the firm's age, firm's size, and the firm's ownership affect TFP. In which, firms that have few numbers of years of operation, small and medium firms, and private firms have low TFP. iii) Institutional quality and the provincial business environment have a positive impact on the TFP of Vietnamese seafood processing firms in this period.