• East Asian Journal of Business Economics (EAJBE)
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.53-61
• /
• 2021

Purpose - This study aims to understand the phenomenon called "regional multinational" in the geographical expansion of multinational enterprises and to find some evidence whether globalization of multinational enterprises tends to have a strong home region bias. Research design, data, and methodology - Through an in-depth case analysis, we analyze the series of strategic behaviors Wal-Mart made in South Korea from its entry in 1998 to its withdrawal in 2006. Then, we discuss the plausible causes of this exit, seeking to provide some evidence on the "regional multinational" phenomenon. Result - This study finds some evidence on the regional-based expansion of multinational enterprises. Our case study shows that Wal-Mart in South Korea focused on global standardization strategy and made an exit from the market as they were faced with increasing localization demands. From the perspective of multinational enterprises' globalization strategy, Wal-Mart's exit from the South Korean market can be considered as a strategic exit. Conclusion - The findings of this study suggest that while national responsiveness and localized adaptation are considered as a panacea for penetrating international markets, in reality most multinational enterprises attempt to add value primarily by capitalizing on similarities across markets and remain as regional multinationals.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
• /
• v.9 no.2
• /
• pp.15-27
• /
• 2022

The paper addresses the importance of redesigning strategies for resilient and sustainable regional economic development - by applying strategic approaches to free economic zones for the digital economy. The purpose of the paper is to provide a broad comparative perspective on developed versus developing country efforts to use free economic zone programs to enhance various economic and social objectives. First, the paper introduces the chronicle experiences of free economic zone programs in South Korea and mainland China - developed versus developing economies. The main results of the analysis indicate that (1) achieving the goals and objectives of free economic zones is challenging over time; (2) trying to upgrade the technical component, develop knowledge-based and eco-friendly new industries, or value-added to the economy through free economic zone policies is even challenging; and (3) incentives and other program-specific variables are highly context-specific and not structurally correlated with free economic zone performance. In addition, the paper shows that the initial conception of the role of free economic zones has undergone significant change as individual countries have tried to enhance the contributions and avoid damages from incorporating free economic zones into their development strategy respectively, over time.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
• /
• v.46 no.6
• /
• pp.1039-1057
• /
• 2022

The fashion system has been criticized for relying on a linear economy to reduce short-term costs and increase profits. Meanwhile, the circular economy strives to expand the value chain through a closed loop for companies, society, and the environment by separating consumption from resources. This study aims to elucidate the strategic characteristics of the technological measures that fashion companies and brands are trying to innovate into a sustainable fashion system on the basis of the circular economy concept. Thus, we conducted case studies by dividing the value chain of the fashion system into design, production, and consumption to identify the technological development of the circular fashion system from a technologization perspective that incorporates technological values. First, design appeared to strengthen emotional durability, design and process with circulation in mind, and fashion product digitalization. Second, production manifested itself as material development for the new fiber economy, improvement of non-environmental processes, and customization of demand-driven, responsive production. Third, consumption was the spread of the environmental consumption culture through the sharing economy platform, the realization of a virtual wearing experience to prevent rapid disposal, and the provision of information on sustainable consumption.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
• /
• v.46 no.4
• /
• pp.272-280
• /
• 2023

For the past 70 years, an intense rivalry has persisted on the Korean Peninsula, and North Korea's nuclear and missile threats are becoming increasingly imminent. Facing a shortage of military resources, South Korea has pursued a national defense reform, significantly reducing the number of units and troops while focusing on ground forces. However, North Korea's strategic objective of unifying South Korea through surprise attacks, prompt responses, and combined nuclear and missile assaults remains unchanged. The central issue in this context revolves around determining the appropriate size of the Korean military's standing forces. This study employs the concept of net assessment as a novel method to ascertain the optimal size of the Korean military. Threats, strategic objectives, doctrine, and unit rotations are simultaneously considered from the enemy's perspective. In anticipation of security risks on the Korean Peninsula, an acceptable troop size will be proposed using the net assessment approach to calculate the appropriate standing force size.

• Korea Trade Review
• /
• v.47 no.3
• /
• pp.17-35
• /
• 2022

The Pandemic crisis caused by COVID-19 has raised awareness of the importance of supply chain risk management, such as the control of movement between countries and the simultaneous manufacturing paralysis in the world. Effective risk management within the supply chain of the company is a core competency in the global environment. Therefore, this study quantitatively analyzed the perspective of domestic large corporations and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by using the hierarchical analysis method (AHP) to identify the factors that should be considered as the priority when establishing supply chain risk management plans for large and small business employees. In order to conduct the study, a survey was conducted on large corporations and small and medium enterprises in Gyeongnam and Busan, and AHP analysis was conducted using Microsoft 365 excel program. In addition, Mann-Whitney U test (independent sample-nonparametric test) was conducted using SPSS/18 version of statistical package program for comparative analysis between groups. As a result, the priority was highly evaluated in the order of financial ability, competitiveness, disaster in the overall priority evaluation. There were statistically significant differences in internal risk and strategic decision making of supply chain between groups. This suggests that fandemics such as COVID-19 can not be predicted, but strategic responses are needed to utilize opportunities expressed in the crisis through supply chain risk management and to increase the competitive advantage of domestic companies even in the crisis.

• Korea Trade Review
• /
• v.46 no.2
• /
• pp.75-92
• /
• 2021

There is increasing awareness in the international alliance literature that the firm performance effects of the alliance portfolio go beyond the effects of the individual alliances. I enrich this nascent perspective by developing a alliance portfolio composition framework based on the alliance portfolio dimensions - underpinned by the simultaneity of quantitative and qualitative factors in international portfolio - that enhances firms' financial performance. This paper assesses the impact on firm performance of composing the alliance dimension within a firm's international alliance portfolio. In an unbalanced panel data analysis with fixed effects of the performance of 502 firms operating in the Korean manufacturing industry during 2011-2017, I test whether firm's three dimension of international alliance portfolio affect on firm financial performance. I find that the intensity of international alliance have significantly positive effect on the firm performance. And following the moderating analysis of three portfolio dimension-functional, relational, and attribute, all of each three international alliance portfolio has positive moderating effects on the relationship between the alliance intensity and firm performance. These results indicate that firms should consider and form simultaneous approaches to exploit the international alliance based on the alliance portfolio dimensions with intensity of alliance portfolio.

• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
• /
• v.24 no.3
• /
• pp.1-21
• /
• 2017

Business Intelligence (BI) system is a strategic tool that presents an analytical perspective about business and external environments. Even though its strategic value was well known, users often avoid using it or adopt it ceremonially. In fact, over 50 per cent of BI projects worldwide are reported to end in failure. Such an unexpectedly lower success rate has been a key issue in BI studies. In order to enhance a proper use of information systems, MIS field provided a number of theoretical constructs. One example is Goodhue & Thompson's Task-Technology Fit (TTF). In addition, internalization, the degree to which people make their own effort to modify behavior, was recently suggested as another important determinant of use. Though in MIS community both TTF and internalization proved to be a key determinant of system use, there has been not much study aiming to discover antecedents influencing these constructs. In this study we assert that user participation should be highlighted in BI projects. Especially, we emphasize user participation at the phase of feasibility study that is mainly conducted to determine whether a BI system is essentially necessary and practicable. Our research model employs participative feasibility study as a major antecedent for TTF and internalization that consequently will lead to user satisfaction and actual use. This model was empirically tested on 121 BI system users. The result shows that user participation in feasibility study is positively associated with TTF and internalization, each being related to user satisfaction and system use. It implies that, if an organization has BI users get involved in strategic feasibility study phase, the BI system would turn out to fit users' tasks and, furthermore, users would put more efforts spontaneously in order to use it properly.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Systems Engineering
• /
• v.20 no.spc1
• /
• pp.12-29
• /
• 2024

The purpose of this study is to identify the social issues discussed in Korea regarding Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS), the most advanced ICT field in the shipbuilding industry, and to suggest policy implications. In recent years, it has become important to reflect social issues of public interest in the policymaking process. For this reason, an increasing number of studies use media data and social media to identify public opinion. In this study, we collected 2,843 domestic media articles related to MASS from 2017 to 2022, when MASS was officially discussed at the International Maritime Organization, and analyzed them using text mining techniques. Through term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) analysis, major keywords such as 'shipbuilding,' 'shipping,' 'US,' and 'HD Hyundai' were derived. For LDA topic modeling, we selected eight topics with the highest coherence score (-2.2) and analyzed the main news for each topic. According to the combined analysis of five years, the topics '1. Technology integration of the shipbuilding industry' and '3. Shipping industry in the post-COVID-19 era' received the most media attention, each accounting for 16%. Conversely, the topic '5. MASS pilotage areas' received the least media attention, accounting for 8 percent. Based on the results of the study, the implications for policy, society, and international security are as follows. First, from a policy perspective, the government should consider the current situation of each industry sector and introduce MASS in stages and carefully, as they will affect the shipbuilding, port, and shipping industries, and a radical introduction may cause various adverse effects. Second, from a social perspective, while the positive aspects of MASS are often reported, there are also negative issues such as cybersecurity issues and the loss of seafarer jobs, which require institutional development and strategic commercialization timing. Third, from a security perspective, MASS are expected to change the paradigm of future maritime warfare, and South Korea is promoting the construction of a maritime unmanned system-based power, but it emphasizes the need for a clear plan and military leadership to secure and develop the technology. This study has academic and policy implications by shedding light on the multidimensional political and social issues of MASS through news data analysis, and suggesting implications from national, regional, strategic, and security perspectives beyond legal and institutional discussions.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.159-179
• /
• 2024

Based on the case of collaboration between large companies and startups, this study suggests the importance of establishing mutual cooperation and trust relationships for the success of open innovation strategy from the perspective of cooperative game theory. It also provides implications for how this can be implemented. Due to information asymmetry and differences in organizational culture and decision-making structures between large companies and startups, collaboration is likely to proceed in the form of non-cooperative games among players in general open innovation, leading to the paradox of open innovation, which lowers the degree of innovation. Accordingly, this study conducted a case study on collaboration between large company 'G' and startup 'S' based on the research question "How did we successfully promote open innovation through cooperative game-type collaboration?" The study found that successful open innovation requires (1) setting clear collaboration goals to solve the organizational problem between large companies and startups, (2) supporting human resources for qualitative growth of startups to solve reliability problems, (3) leading to strategic investment and joint promotion of new projects to solve the profit distribution problem. This study is significant in that it contributes to expanding the discussion of the success factors of open innovation to the importance of interaction and strategic judgment considering the organizational culture and decision-making structure among players, and empirically confirming the success conditions of open innovation from the perspective of cooperative game theory.

• Strategy21
• /
• s.34
• /
• pp.26-57
• /
• 2014

Revolution of Shale gas literally brings about great changes in many spheres. In the past most academic research had been focused on the influence and innovative change in term of economic perspective. But nowadays we should more concern about the security approach and perspective as its status of the future's core energy resources. Revolution of Shale gas has an great influence on the reshaping of global and regional alliance order. There are many international political implications as follows. Contribution of energy hegemony with leading U.S.; Acting as strategic leverage on the reshaping international order; Deepening competition among major states on the construction of energy security and so on. We'd better make a good solution and systematic policies which are preparing for the Shale gas's revolution period including on the understanding about the change on the global energy structure and making a national policy agenda of energy security issues and so on. The thesis like 'to get the energy resources is to get the hegemonic power in the world' will persist. The same holds good of Shale gas case. To meet the revolution of shale gas era, we have important tasks as like making an opportunity to develope not only regional but also international prosperity.