• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.111-121
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• 2009

This paper explores the financial aids for promoting businesses' growth and investment which the UK national government has implemented as a policy instrument for regional development. Especially, this work focuses on Small Firms Loan Guarantee, Community Investment Tax Relief for individuals and corporate bodies, and government-backed venture capital funds, all of which belong to the policy measures which pursue the growth of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in UK. Concerning the promotion of SMEs' growth, I also discuss the policy implications of such measures for the Korean context.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2007.03a
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• pp.684-693
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• 2007

The construction industry is a significant component of many economies and typically contains a high proportion of small and medium enterprises. However, it is generally understood that this industry is fragmented, adversarial, not highly innovative and not quick to respond to change. At the same time, the industry is under pressure to continue to embrace new technologies and methods, and to adapt better to current and emerging global issues such as sustainability. In order to meet these challenges, firms in the industry need to understand the issues involved and manage their practices accordingly. This paper describes exploratory research into the role of innovative and environmentally sustainable design and construction practices in one group of construction firms, viz., smaller residential building firms in Queensland, Australia.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.63-83
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• 2003

This paper's objective is to provide insights about the problems and expansion strategies of electronic trade. Korean small and medium-sized firms have adopted the Internet since the end of 1990s in order to reshape their competitiveness, and it is now being utilized as a major export marketing instrument to develop new customers, save export transaction costs ad facilitate new work processes. However, at present, the use of the internet in the field of trading is limited to the collection of market information, owing to legal, technical and institutional restraints between countries. In addition to that, because firms have the difficulties in making the trade contract through the e-trade system, the negative recognition on its' utility has been spreaded gradually between companies. This is one of the barriers to block the expansion of e-Trade between Korean firms. Therefore, this paper points out the problems of e-trade in the environmental, institutional and strategic view and provides many considerations for establishing the expansion strategy of e-trade by the Korean government and trade supporting institutions.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.1474-1492
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• 2018

This study empirically analyzes the direct effects of government support for SMEs (project success) and indirect effects (sales growth) focusing on the differences between financially difficult firms (so-called 'zombie' firms) and 'normal' firms. If the zombie firm has a problem in technology development (success of the project) and the economic resilience capability (sales growth), then excluding them from the government's R&D support programs would enhance the overall efficiency of the programs. If not, government R&D could complement the market failure and play a positive role in revitalizing marginal firms. In this study, we collected data about 7,575 firms who participated in seven government R&D programs in 2013 and 2014. As a result of the logistic regression analysis, we did not find evidence that the likelihood of success for zombie firms was lower than that for the normal firms. However, the tendency of sales growth after the project was smaller for the zombie firms than for the normal firms. For zombie firms, we also found that firms that succeeded in the project were more likely to increase sales than those that failed.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.37-46
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• 2018

Purpose - This paper explores the determinants of bank lending to firms during and after the global financial crisis using firm- and bank-level data to answer the questions what caused the contraction of lending to firms despite the loosening monetary policy during this crisis period. Research design, data, and methodology - We investigate the effects of the monetary policy that followed the global financial crisis on firms borrowing. We use a dynamic panel model to address how firms lending respond to monetary policy. The data are obtained from CRETOP and we consider the manufacturing sector for the analysis to control for unobserved heterogeneity such as industry-specific shocks. Results - The findings from the empirical analysis suggest that both bank- and firm-level characteristics are significant determinants of bank lending. Especially, we find that corporate risk, measured by default risk, is one of the key factors that led to a decline in lending during the crisis. Conclusions - This paper shows that companies borrow more from liquid banks, and high bank capital can also contribute to an increase in a firm's borrowing from banks. Especially, the results confirm that the default rate measured at the firm level has increased during and after the global financial crisis, which implies that default risk interplays with other firm and bank-level characteristics.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.233-252
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• 2017

The fast changes of global financial environment in recent years increase the risk of trade settlement. This means are required to minimize risk of non payment and to maximize secure payment. Open Account trade accounts for 90% of global trade flows. The O/A system means that the goods, along with all the necessary documents, are shipped and delivered before payment is due, usually within a time frame from 30 to 90 days. Meanwhile, Korean small and medium-sized export enterprises are compelled to globalize their activities owing to limitation and competitiveness of domestic marketplace. To keep face with the global trade settlement system and to support globalization of small and medium-sized export firms, the BPO together with Supply Chain Finance will be solutions. The introduction of the BPO system will allow banks to broaden O/A offerings to their client base and due to secure safety, sellers could ship the goods without delay according to orders and buyers could settle promptly by payment undertaking of correspondent banks. Therefore, it is more effective for companies which have sustainable customers and stable transaction. This study take a look at the trend of the global payment systems and suggested limitation of existed payment in order to derive improvement measures of electronic payment for small and medium-sized export enterprises.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.251-265
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• 2021

It seems a common sense that corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a key driver to attain business sustainability. Nevertheless, there has been little research on the performance of socially responsible activities, including economic and environmental responsibility activities in internationally diversified firms. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of CSR activities on management performance. For this evaluation, an empirical analysis was conducted with a total of 2,520 cases, selected from companies listed on the Korea Composite Stock Price Index market for six years from 2013 to 2018. As proxies for management performance, financial date such as a total asset net profit ratio and a total asset-operating ratio were used. A multivariate regression analysis was conducted to test hypotheses. The results of this analysis indicated that firms in the CSR outstanding group are significantly higher than other groups in management performances. In addition, CSR activities of internationally diversified firms positively influence their total asset net profit ratio and total asset-operating ratio. The results suggested that CSR activities of these firms can play a significant role in enhancing management performances amid the economic status of Korea, where a degree of export dependency is high.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.37-49
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• 2013

This paper investigates social networks of high technology firms, located in a newly developed industrial area, called 'Daedeok Technovalley' in Daejeon, Korea. While the Vally was developed as an extension of Daedeok Science Park in Daejeon, it host 400 or so technology-intensive firms. A questionnaire survey was conducted to collect data on the firms of the Vally, during January 2010, and obtained 201 completed questionnaires. Additional data, such as sales amount and employment, were collected to measure the changes of firm size. This research analysed these data to argue that the enterprises have established some networks with local institutions; however, the networks do not significantly affect on the growth of the firms.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.75-88
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• 2022

Purpose - This study investigates the effects of going public on the innovation of KOSDAQ firms. Design/methodology/approach - This study uses firms that go public from 2007 to 2011 in Korea. We compare a firm's innovation performance over five years before and after IPO. Findings - We find that firm's innovation declines after an IPO. After going public, both the quality and the quantity of patents are decreased. However, this decrease is alleviated in high-tech industries or concentrated industries where innovation is expected to be more valuable. When comparing firms with venture capital(VC), which are more likely to window dress, to firms without VC, VC backing has no meaningful impact on changes of innovation. Research implications or Originality - As the KOSDAQ market was established to provide small and medium enterprises(SMEs) with funds for firm's investments and growth, it is necessary to verify whether the capital raised at the IPO encourages innovation. Thus, our study contributes to the literature by examining empirically whether an IPO boosts a firm's innovation.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.1071-1080
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• 2017

Recently, the terms of the 4th Industrial Revolution and the Smart Factory are often heard through news and media. But most of the companies that are parties are not interested. Because there is no specific guidance on how to build Smart Factory and information about Smart Factory. The built of the Smart Factory should be carried out in accordance with the size of the company considering the purpose of the introduction. In the existing study, they analyzed successful cases of building Smart Factory in Korea As a result, in the case of large-size firms, it is an effective strategy that expanding from a model factory to whole factory for successful Smart Factory building. In addition, in the case of medium and small-size firms, it is an effective strategy that upgrading from low-level step to high-level step for successful Smart Factory building. In this study, selecting medium and small-size firms, and bottleneck section and processes requiring improvement are identified through 3D virtual process design, and then install sensors. Finally, after analyzing the data collected through the sensor, we will improve the process and build Smart Factory with improved productivity.