• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.116-126
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• 2019

South Korea is known for its major manufacturing capabilities in semi-conductor, automobile, and IT industries. However, little is known about the competitive capabilities of South Korea's textile industry. The present study presents information about how Korean textile firms build their competitive capabilities on multiple fronts. Through a case study of two businesses operating in the South Korean textile and apparel industry, this paper illustrates a series of competitiveness enhancing initiatives, starting with the implementation of radio frequency identification (RFID). The main contribution of this article is the focus on how the interdisciplinary nature of the textile and apparel industry can benefit from and optimize the use of Information Technology through sustained efforts on multiple fronts. This study suggests that Korean textile firms approach their competitive capabilities in terms of strategic direction, innovative priorities, and operational focus. In the competitive global business environment, this could be the solution for the textile and apparel industry, by helping for the survival in the upcoming information age. Specifically, by adopting RFID-based SCM, firms can gain a competitive capability that promises sustainable growth in the future.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.135-156
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• 2005

Since July 7 mutual declaration in 1988 which is a landmark for South-North Korean relations, Inter-Korean Trade has been set out. During the period, the Inter-Korean Trade has been ups and downs depending on the Inter-Korean relations and economic situation of both countries. South Korea became one of the major three trading countries of North Korea's trading partners in 2000, when the sum of annual trade volume reached the record 425million US dollars. A rapidly increasing number of countries including North Korea are developing national policies and strategies to promote the digital economy, recognizing the potential benefits of e-business as an engine of growth and development. However, the trade structure of South-North Korea remains very simple in terms of its contents. Furthermore trade procedure many limitations especially electronic commerce in North Korea has many obstacles to working properly. The information in Inter-Korean trade cannot be shared in common. South Korean firms have suffered repeatedly trial and error and excessive competition took place among South Korean firms. Institutional inertia related to mutual trade, political and military Impacts on Inter-Korean economic relations, abnormal industrial structure of North Korea and insufficiency of SOC could be mentioned as major problems in Inter-Korean trade as well. Several measures should be taken in order to cope with those problems. First of all, South Korean government should provide valuable information to business firms about North Korean economy and business environments. It is suggested that forums related to inter-Korean trade hold in regular base between South and North Koreas and establish the system of business information sharing. Second, the government should improve various laws and regulations to respond to the realistic needs of inter-Korean trade. That is, detailed measures should be taken to guarantee investment in electronic commerce. Third, it is desirable to start with the mutual agreement between South and North Korea.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.257-277
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• 2022

Does servitization improve manufacturing firms' performance, and in what condition? Following the seminal work of Crozet and Milet (2017), this study analyzes disaggregated firm-level data that covers 40,000 South Korean manufacturing firms surveyed by the Survey of Business Activities of Korea. We compute firm-level servitization intensity with available sales data of each firm by two-digit SIC sub-sectors. We find two novel empirical regularities: Korean servitization intensity distribution shows a very different shape from the French benchmark; Servitized firms tend to perform higher profitability and higher productivity than non-servitized firms.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.737-743
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• 2005

Since the designation of the South Korean Construction industry as an open market industry by the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1994, South Korea's construction firms were exposed to competition from firms of other advanced countries. Increased competition in the industry raised quality of production and lowered the cost of construction projects. Therefore, many big construction projects were planned and constructed with foreign construction partners during the last decade. Also, from those projects the South Korea Construction industry accumulated experience in and knowledge of both project management and construction management perspectives. However, in the process of conducting those big projects, many problems - specifically responsibility and the limit of competence - occurred between foreign construction partners. Hence, this study attempts to improve its role model that is for local and foreign companies to enter into Joint Ventures in the South Korea construction industry.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.83-102
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• 2023

This study examines the impact of strategic technological innovations (e.g., adoption of fourth industrial revolution (4IR) technologies) on firms' productivity. To estimate the heterogeneous effects of innovation efforts on firms' labor productivity, this paper employs a quantile regression model and calculates higher moments of the empirical distributions. This study uses data from 11,654 Korean firms that responded to surveys in 2017 and 2018, comprising 23,308 observations. Our empirical results find that 4IR technology adoption has a significant impact on labor productivity for firms across all quantiles, while the estimates of 4IR technology adoption coefficient on labor productivity are much larger in upper quantiles. This estimated impact of adopting 4IR technology on labor productivity at the upper quantile differs compared to the estimated impact of another innovation strategy, or internal R&D. Notably, adopting 4IR technology increases the median labor productivity of firms and the kurtosis of its distribution. Thus, firms that adopted 4IR technology show labor productivity gains more consistently than those that did not, with few outliers.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.161-184
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• 2012

This paper is intended to compare the stock market performances of the reorganized firms of South Korea with those of the United States and to analyze the relationship between the performances and the accounting informations of those firms. This paper derives two major implications. First, the stock performances of the reorganized firms of the two countries show very different time profiles. As time goes by after completion of reorganization, the reorganized firms of the US shows significant improvements in stock performances, whereas those of South Korea deteriorates, which means that the institution of reorganization of South Korea has serious problems in sustainablity. Second, in the long-run, any accounting variable cannot affect significantly the stock performances in both countries. Inspite that this paper is limited to the comparison of only two countries, still it can be concluded that the institution of reorganization of South Korea has serious problems in sustainability, and accounting improvements of the reorganized firms cannot provide full credibility in the stock market.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.25-45
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• 2010

The objective of this paper is to review the mechanics of how global e-trade practices can affect a firm's performance. It is well known that the introduction of global e-trade systems can save transaction costs at the macro level. However this study is extended at micro level by determining whether global trade transaction costs influence positively or negatively in exporting firms performances at firm level. A theoretical framework is suggested for determining the usage and performance of global e-trade with the global e-trade barriers. An empirical analysis of South Korean exporting firms has been undertaken. This paper concludes that the global e-trade has yet to overcome the barriers resulting from the transaction costs and asset specificity. In this regard, appropriate action like intensive education and training program should be implemented in order to make South Korea's global e-trade more matured.

• Journal of Information Technology Services
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.33-45
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• 2018

Recently, many South Korean firms have suffered financial losses and damaged corporate images from the data breaches. Accordingly, a firm should manage their IT assets securely through an information security investment. However, the difficulty of measuring the return on an information security investment is one of the critical obstacles for firms in making such investment decisions. There have been a number of studies on the effect of IT investment so far, but there are few researches on information security investment. In this paper, based on a sample of 76 investment announcements of firms whose stocks are publicly traded in the South Korea's stock market between 2001 and 2017, we examines the market reaction to information security investment by using event study methodology. The results of the main effects indicate that self-developed is significantly related to cumulative average abnormal returns (CAARs), while no significant effect was observed for discloser, investment characteristics and firm characteristics. In addition, we find that the market reacts more favorably to the news announced by the subject of investment than the vendor, in case of investments with commercial exploitation. One of main contributions in our study is that it has revealed the factors affecting the market reaction to announcement of information security investment. It is also expected that, in practice, corporate executives will be able to help make an information security investment decision.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.521-535
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• 2008

This paper aims to explore the spatial distribution and locational characteristics of the shipbuilding industry in the south-east region of Korea. The geography of the Korea's shipbuilding industry illustrates an absolute spatial concentration into the south-east region, including Gyeongnam, Busan and Ulsan. In view of the type of agglomeration, it is argued that the south-east region's shipbuilding industry has been evolved as an Advanced Hub & Spoke cluster, which is characterized by interconnected relationships between a couple of gigantic customer firms and the majority of small and medium-sized supplier firms. A survey on the locational factors of the firms presents that traditional locational factors, such as physical infrastructure, land, labour and industrial linkages, are more important than new economic geographical locational factors, such as knowledge, learning, innovation and networks. According to firm's evaluation of the Gyeongnam region's locational environments for the shipbuilding industry is, however, rather different to the result of firm's location decision factors. The shipbuilding firms in Gyeongnam see that the Gyeongnam region retains regional advantages in terms of agglomeration economies, geographical proximity to customers, the infrastructure of transportation and communication and the quality of life. On the contrary, firms recognize that the Gyeongnam region suffers from the lack of R&D and production workforce and a weak basis of industry-university -government networks.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.37-50
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• 2021

Purpose - This study aimed to examine the behavior surrounding the Initial Public Offering (IPO) event of firms within the same conglomerate and the impact of under-pricing and Return on Equity(ROE) on a firm's abnormal stock returns. Design/methodology - This study collected data from 166 South Korean Chaebols, consisting of 355 firms distributed as 202 listed on Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and 153 firms listed on Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (KOSDAQ) from 2000 to 2020. The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) and the multiple regression analysis were hired to analyze the data. Findings - First, we found an adverse price reaction of IPO listing in the same chaebol group, and firms with higher under-pricing affect other firms' stock prices more adversely within the conglomerate. Next, we explored a negatively significant relation between ROE and the chaebol firms' stock returns during IPO events. Research implications - The novelty of this study is there are not many empirical studies on the impact of IPO within a conglomerate. So, the findings of this study contribute to the literature for analyzing stock's abnormal returns within a conglomerate.