• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.108-127
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• 2021

Purpose - On the basis of knowledge transfer theory, we empirically explored how three types of human resource (HR) innovation knowledge exchange within a Chaebol drive the global subsidiary performance of the headquarters (HQ) of a Chaebol's globally affiliated companies. Design/methodology - Using a sample of 176 Korean HQ firms of the top 53 Chaebols and 1,061 of their foreign manufacturing subsidiaries (n = 1,061), we tested the relationship between the exchange of explorative and exploitative sustainable HR innovation knowledge among HQ firms of Chaebols, their subsequent transfer of technical HR knowledge via technical schemas, and the subsequent impact on the global subsidiary performance. Findings - The Chaebols' decisions about the three strategic knowledge management options (i.e., the degree of exchange of explorative and exploitative technological HR innovation knowledge and the extent of HQ-subsidiary HR knowledge transfer) have highly significant relationships with the global subsidiary performance. The results help explains the conditions under which the explorative versus exchange of exploitative sustainable HR innovation knowledge pays off by showing the moderating role of the degree of HQ-to-subsidiary technical HR knowledge transfer, at least in the case of the Chaebol as one representative type of the emerging-market business groups. Originality/value - As the first of its kind in the field of sustainable HR innovation knowledge management at the business group level, the present study makes a clear contribution in demonstrating how the performance of Chaebols' manufacturing subsidiaries depends greatly on their strategy for management of knowledge, as reflected in the choices they make about sharing both explorative and exploitative sustainable HR innovation knowledge among HQ firms and the subsequent transfer of HQ's sustainable HR innovation knowledge to the foreign subsidiaries.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.33-51
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• 2019

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to provide practical implications for Korean companies searching for new market opportunities. From the experimental analysis, the impact of country image on product-country image and purchase intention of Korean products are measured. In addition, this study disaggregates the impacts of country image and product-country image and purchase intention among ethnic groups in South Africa for searching further useful implications. Design/methodology - To examine South African consumers' country image and product-country image towards Korean products, data were collected between June and July 2019 through an online questionnaire, and 335 questionnaires were used for analysis. Firstly, the multivariate analysis was conducted to examine the general tendency of South African consumers' perceptions of country image to Korea, product-country image, and purchase intention among three ethnic group consumers. Then in order to verify the country image model and hypotheses of the study, we analyzed the structural models for each of the three ethnic groups and compared the sizes of the path coefficients for each groups. To compare the difference of path coefficients across ethnic groups, configural invariance, metric invariance, and scalar invariance tests were conducted sequentially. Findings - In the black and white ethnic groups, the country image had a statistically significant impact on product-country image, but it did not affect the purchase intention to Korean products. The product-country image showed a statistically significant impact on the purchase intention to Korean products in both ethnic group. However, in the coloured ethnic group consumer, the country image had a significant effect on the product-country image, but it did not affect the purchase intention of Korean products. In addition, the product-country image did not have a significant influence on the purchase intention of coloured ethnic group consumers unlike black and white ethnic group consumers. The results of this study suggest that even though differences in terms of the impact of CoI on PCI and PI were investigated for the sample of white, coloured, and black respondents, the groups seemed to respond in a reasonably comparable manner. Originality/value - South Africa occupies more than 20% of Africa's total GDP in sub-Saharan Africa and is a hub for Southern African logistics as a hub for Korean companies to enter Africa. However, it is rare to find a study focused on the determinants of consumer behavior in South Africa. In particular, this study disaggregates the impacts of country image and product-country image on consumer behavior across ethnic groups in South Africa. Therefore, this study could provide practical implications for Korean firms which desire to diversify their export markets and pioneer future markets.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.481-498
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• 2013

In this paper we evaluate the performance of voluntary environmental agreements in South Korea, called as the 30/50 program. We constructed establishment- and chemical substance-level panel data from 2004 to 2010 by using the Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (PRTR) Information System. Although firms voluntarily participate in the program and the agreement is not binding, we find that the chemical materials released by the participating firms is substantially reduced by 1.2 to 2.7 tons. Although the abatement effect is more salient for those listed chemical substances in the agreements, the reductions in other substances are also significant. This implies that participating firms adopted new technologies that could reduce environmental hazards.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.99-103
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• 2017

Productivity improvement is one of the important goals which firms' technology developments aim at. Firms' improved productivity from technology development means that their inputs can produce more outputs through technology development, which makes firms' productivity improvement from technology development more and more important in the age of technology advance and convergence like today. This research empirically analyzes the influence of the external technology collaboration network diversity on the productivity improvement of the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from technology development and the moderating effect of the chief technology officer (CTO)-driven technology development on this influence. This study constructs the research model reflecting the moderating impact of the CTO-driven technology development and tests it with the ordinary least squares regression through the IBM SPSS version 23 by using the 2,000 data about South Korean SMEs. This research empirically reveals two points. One is that SMEs' external technology collaboration network diversity has a positive influence on their productivity improvement from technology development. The other is that the positive effect of SMEs' external technology collaboration network diversity on their productivity improvement from technology development is moderated by the CTO-driven technology development. The two points revealed in this study present two meaningful implications in not only the practical but also academic point of view. The practical implication is that it is effective for SMEs to use CTOs in increasing their productivity improvement from technology development. The academic implication is that making technology collaboration with more diverse external partners can increase SMEs' productivity improvement from technology development.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.37-54
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• 2020

Purpose - This study is to investigate the determinants of suppliers' dependence on buyers in the home country by developing a theoretical model of innovative activities. The high dependence of auto parts suppliers on a single local buyer in South Korea due to firm ownership issues and incremental innovation is examined using data from a set of organizations that supply intermediate goods to this automotive manufacturer. Furthermore, we tested the moderating effect of FDI and global knowledge sourcing on the relationship between firm ownership and suppliers' dependence on the local buyer. Design/methodology - To test the hypotheses, we examined a sample of 101 suppliers over 10 years in the Korean automobile parts industry. In this empirical analysis, we utilized a fixed-effects generalized least squares model using panel data. Findings - In this study, domestic firms (automobile parts suppliers) were more dependent on a single local buyer (automobile assembler) than foreign-owned suppliers operating in Korea. In addition, incremental innovation was the mediating mechanism between domestic firms and dependence on the local buyer. To reduce this dependence on the buyer, we suggest two different international strategies: geographical diversification through FDI and global knowledge sourcing. Originality/value - Previous studies showed that asymmetric dependence between firms has many adverse effects. This study proved that domestic and foreign-owned suppliers have different levels of dependence on local buyers due to their heterogeneous characteristics and business strategies. We distinguish two different types of innovation - radical innovation and incremental innovation - that previous studies have often treated as equal when it comes to firm autonomy. Finally, we propose that both FDI and international knowledge sourcing as global strategies to weaken suppliers' asymmetric dependence on a single buyer.

• Journal of Venture Innovation
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.21-39
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• 2023

The study investigates the impact of family ownership heterogeneity on the internationalization decisions of family-owned enterprises from ICT sectors in South Korea. The study uses prospect theory to explore the relationship between ownership structure and internationalization. The study finds that as performance improves, the ultimate owner (CEO) is negatively related to internationalization, while other family members are positively related, demonstrating the heterogeneous behavior of family members. The study suggests that the ultimate owner (CEO) tends to avoid risks associated with internationalization, while other family members are willing to take risks. To better understand the various risk behaviors of family firms regarding internationalization, the inherent heterogeneity of family firms, particularly in light of different risk behaviors between the ultimate owner (CEO) and other family members, may explain the inconsistent results in studies on the effect of family ownership on internationalization.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.149-175
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• 2014

This study analyzed the effect of corporate innovation strategies on patent production and ultimately on technological change and new product development of firms in South Korea. The intent was to derive efficient strategies for enhancing technological performance of the firms. For the empirical analysis, three sources of data were combined: four waves of the Human Capital Corporate Panel Survey (HCCP) data collected by the Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training (KRIVET), corporate financial data obtained from the Korea Information Service (KIS), and corporate patent data provided by the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO). The patent production function was estimated by zero-inflated negative binomial (ZINB) regression. The technological performance function was estimated by two-stage regression, taking into account the endogeneity of patent production. An ordered logit model was applied for the second stage regression. Empirical results confirmed the critical role of corporate innovation strategies in patent production and in facilitating technological change and new product development of the firms. In patent production, the firms' R&D investment and human resources were key determinants. Higher R&D intensity led to more patents, yet with decreasing marginal productivity. A larger stock of registered patents also led to a larger flow of new patent production. Firms were more prolific in patent production when they had high-quality personnel, intensely investing in human resource development, and adopting market-leading or fast-follower strategy as compared to stability strategy. In technological performance, the firms' human resources played a key role in accelerating technological change and new product development. R&D intensity expedited new product development of the firm. Firms adopting market-leading or fast-follower strategy were at an advantage than those with stability strategy in technological performance. Firms prolific in patent production were also advanced in terms of technological change and new product development. However, the nexus between patent production and technological performance measures was substantially reduced when controlling for the endogeneity of patent production. These results suggest that firms need to strengthen the linkage between patent production and technological performance, and take strategies that address each firm's capacities and needs.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.369-390
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• 2017

The view of social responsibility activities from the pioneer studies found that most research is mainly limited to the corporate social responsibility activities. The related studies on the individual level are very few. Therefore, it is very necessary to make a clearer and more systematic empirical research for the global companies whose employees are directly involved in the companies' social responsibility activities. In order to find the relationship between variables, we collected data from chinese employee of Korean firms which located in China. The result of empirical test is as follows; First, the social responsibility activities of the individual level have a significant positive effect on the employees' job satisfaction and organization inputs. In other words, social responsibility activities could improve the employee's job satisfaction and organization inputs. Second, innovative organizational culture of South Korean companies has a significant positive effect on the individual level social responsibility activities. Third, transformational leadership of the CEO in South Korean have no effect on personal level social responsibility activities. Fourth, the CEO'S ethical values have great positive effect on personal level of social responsibility activities. Through the analysis we can see, in the process of global corporate implicating social responsibility activities, the CEO'S ethical values are more important than the transformational leadership of the CEO. Finally, in the relationship between the employees' personal ethical values and personal social responsibility activities, the employees' personal ethical values in South Korean companies have great positive effect on the personal level social responsibility activities.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.4895-4900
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• 2014

This study examined the impact of Government-ownership of banks on the firm size using South Korean data. The impact of Government ownership of banks as both the largest lender of government banks and the bank loan dependency of firms on government-ownership bank were measured. Empirical models considering endogenous problems and various effects of firm size were developed. All results in this paper showed that government-ownership of the main banks might have a relationship with the smaller firms. In addition, the bank loan dependency of firms on government-ownership banks might have effects on the firm size. A higher loan dependency of firms on government-owned banks resulted in smaller firms. This study used micro firm level data to analyze, from several perspectives, the relationship between government-owned banks and firm size. The existing studies go as far as inferring the effects of government-owned banks showing theoretical evidence, performing surveys, or using international comparison data. This study is differentiated from existing studies in that it analyzed in a direct manner the effects of the government-owned banks on both the firm size. This study provides insights into the privatization of government-owned banks.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.1077-1100
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• 2018

The present study analyzed the effect of firms' external research and development (R&D) on corporate productivity, while investigating the moderating effect of firm size on the external R&D-productivity nexus. In the empirical analysis, we estimated South Korean manufacturing firms' total factor productivity (TFP) using the firm level data drawn from the Survey of Business Activities (Korea National Statistical Office) for the years 2006-2015. Thereafter, focusing on the role of external R&D and its interaction with the firm size in determining firms' TFP, the productivity function was estimated as well. To this end, we used ordinary least squares (OLS) and quantile regression to highlight the heterogeneous impacts of external R&D by companies' productivity level. Empirical results confirmed that firms' external R&D significantly enhanced corporate productivity in all manufacturing industries, from high-tech to low-tech. The moderating effect of firm size in determining the productivity effect of external R&D was not as prominent as in the case for internal R&D, which exhibited some degree of the size premium in the productivity-enhancing effect. These results suggest that regardless of the firm size, external R&D can be an important channel for corporate productivity improvement, and can be a particularly effective strategy for SMEs with relatively limited internal R&D capacities.