• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.177-205
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• 2022

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have strong incentives to engage in open innovation to enhance innovation efficiency and effectiveness due to their 'liability of smallness.' Previous research examined the performance effects of various open innovation practices, but whether coupled open innovation practices positively affect SMEs' firm performance is somewhat controversial. To resolve the issue, this study examined the effects of coupled open innovation activities on SMEs' firm performance using Heckman's two stage model to control endogeneity of the firms' self-selection bias in open innovation engagement. This study used the Korean Innovation Survey (KIS) 2020 collected by the Science and Technology Policy Institute (STEPI), and tested the effects of SMEs' coupled open innovation activities, R&D and non-R&D cooperation, on their innovative and financial performance indicators. The results showed that SMEs' R&D cooperation positively affects the new-to-market (NTM) product innovation only. Moreover, SMEs' non-R&D cooperation has positive effects on the product innovation, business process innovation, new-to-the-market product innovation, and new-to-firm (NTF) product innovation. However, the results showed that both R&D and non-R&D innovation cooperation activities have no significant effects on SMEs' financial performance indicators. This study contributes to research on SMEs' open innovation and provides insights for SMEs' managers and policymakers.

• Korean small business review
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.25-50
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• 2019

Although Korean government has implemented size-dependent policy, so called "the designation of SMEs-suitable industry", promoting SMEs growth, our understanding in the effectiveness of the policy is limited. We investigate the effect of the policy on SMEs performance in food product and beverages industry, which accounts for the majority in the SMEs-suitable industry. From the perspective of sales, profitability, and R&D intensity, which is regarded as indigenous effort for growth, we find the heterogeneity in the effectiveness of the policy across the sub-sectors in the industry. However, overall the policy does not significantly contribute to the growth of sales, profitability, and facilitation of R&D activity for indigenous innovative efforts of SMEs. Our study advances the theoretical discussion on the effect of the policy with the disaggregated level of analysis, i.e, sub-sector level. Our findings also contribute to the resolution of social and political conflicts between pros and cons of the policy. Our study suggests that policy makers should develop more sophisticated policy that incorporate the specific characteristics of individual sub-sectors. They also need to invest more resources in enhancing the effectiveness of the policy and accelerating SMEs innovative efforts.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.3-23
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• 2009

Social surveys, using various factors influencing the e-commerce's development of SMEs, are the means of explaining the rapid development of e-commerce. This makes it possible to make more efficient decisions in e-commerce. This article was written from surveys conducted in the manufacturing industry and Trade Company at Jilin Province via e-mail, fax and analyzed data by Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The result shows that in development of e-commerce, the business partners have significant impacts on the achievement of e-business both directly and indirectly. Second, consciousness of leaders, external support, transaction partner relationship and influence of competitors cause a direct result on the development of e-commerce On the other hand, the innovative capacity of enterprises and communication indirectly influence. Based on these, it is valid for us to for us to make correct decisions for the e-commerce development of SMEs.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.59-71
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• 2020

This study is empirically intended to look into the effects of smart factory technologies on quality and innovation performance in small and medium-sized Enterprises(SMEs). The research results are as follows. Device and application technologies for smart factory had a positive effect on the information quality and system quality, while platform technologies had an insignificant effect on the information quality and system quality, rejecting the effect of platform technologies for smart factory on information quality and system quality. Device technologies for smart factory had also a significant effect on innovative performance, while platform and application technologies had an insignificant effect on innovative performance, rejecting the effect of platform and application technologies for smart factory on innovative performance. The system quality had a significant effect on innovative performance, while the information quality had an insignificant effect on innovative performance. The quality played a partial mediating role in the effect of device technologies for smart factory on innovative performance. These results indicate that small and medium-sized venture firms should implement a high standard of information quality management(IQM) through interconnection as the kernel of a smart factory in the 4th revolutionary era, and that they can improve their corporate performance through the interlocking between components from manufacturing design to execution and analysis and the integrated management of systematic information collected from devices if necessary.

• Journal of Industrial Convergence
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.41-63
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• 2023

Organizational members' innovative behavior is a key element that promotes organizational growth and sustainability. With today's unstable environment of economic and market , the importance of employees' innovative behavior is being emphasized. The reason is that employees' innovative behaviors play an important role in securing a organizational competitiveness. Based on this, this study focused on ways to improve employees' innovation behavior. Specifically, the causal relationship between participatory leadership and employees' innovative behavior was identified and the influence of innovative behavior was also verified. Furthermore, in the process of participatory leadership influencing employees' innovative behavior, the serial multiple mediating effect of knowledge sharing and creativity was verified. In order to demonstrate the hyphotheses, this study focused on 237 employees who work in Chinese SMEs. The results of the empirical analysis showed that participatory leadership had a positive effect on knowledge sharing, creativity, and innovative behavior. In addition, the serial multiple mediating effects of knowledge sharing and creativity on the relationship between participatory leadership and innovative behavior was significant. Overall, this study verified the positive role of participatory leadership that enhances employees' innovative behavior in Chinese SMEs and contributed to expanding the research field related to employees' innovative behavior through serial multiple mediating model.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.350-361
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• 2008

Place matters to knowledge creation according to the recent literature on economic geography and its related disciplines. This basic insight is not incorrect. But there is some vagueness in the discussions on this theme and there seems to appear a variety of geo-determinism on the competitiveness of SMEs in manufacturing industries. This paper reexamines that thinking on the basis of the realities of innovative manufacturing SMEs in a periphery of Japan, south of Kyushu Island. As a result, it is possible to classify face-to-face contacts into two kinds of communication. One is the communication, through which a supplier of a way of solution (knowledge) can grasp problems (information) of its customer in detail. The other is the communication, through which one can get some new idea. Information can spread world wide, but not always quickly and ubiquitously, because it often contains tacitness and secret, even if a large part of the information are coded in some form. Details of the information can be communicated only with the help of five senses. And it is necessary for the information receiver to listen to the sender carefully with the help of the other senses. In this meaning, tacitness does matter. Knowledge, namely ability to understand and power to bring some idea in practice, is always connected with some place, either at workshop of supplier or of customer in the case of manufacturing industries. However, not places but human beings possess the knowledge, and human beings can be mobile. Therefore, it is not restricted to a place.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.181-204
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• 2007

Trade Portal Site(TPS) is one of the innovative skills which makes it possible for small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs) to manage international trade activities more efficiently by using the newest information and telecommunication technology. Based on performance and an existing research related to using information technology, this research analyzed the user's degree of utilization of TPSs which moderates effects between SMEs characteristics and export performance of SMEs. According to the results of the empirical study on actual data of 194 sample firms by using moderated regression analysis, there are significant only organizational characteristics among determinants(such as organizational characteristics, export characteristics) as the degree of utilization of TPSs. These research results provide many useful insights to the CEOs of SMEs using the services of TPSs, e-Trade system developers, and government policy makers. First, CEOs and managers of SMEs should have thorough understanding of the importance of the new information technology and e-Trade and positively adopt new e-Trade solutions and systems to their export processes to enhance global competitiveness. Second, TPS managers and e-Trade systems developers must concentrate on improving the user's degree of utilization of TPSs. Finally, the government agency should develop the various e-Trade promotion policies to support the efforts of SMEs organizational characteristics and TPS to increase the degree of utilization of TPS, which have positive effects on the export performance of SMEs.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.41-62
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• 2013

In order to facilitate the R&D of SMEs and foster innovative SMEs, the Small and Medium Business Administration is funding the SMEs in the focused supporting industries which are selected by a primary consideration of the political conformity. The correlations among the distribution of engaged SMEs, the distribution of SMEs which applied the fund, and the distribution of SMEs funded in the industries are analysed, in order to realize the effectiveness of the top-down method for selecting the focused supporting industries. As a result, there was a large deviation of both the number of the engaged SMEs and the number of the applied SMEs in the each industry, which means that the selected industries did not accurately reflect the needs for the technology development of SMEs. In addition, the distribution of the applied SMEs was strongly depended on the distribution of the engaged SMEs, which shows the trend that SMEs are trying to make R&D plans in their current industry rather than following the political drive. Moreover, because the distribution of the funded SMEs is strongly correlated with that of the applied SMEs, one could know that the selected industries were neither fostered strategically nor evenly but the fund was distributed simply according to the distribution of the applied SMEs. In this study, in order to complement the limitations of the top-down method, the bottom-up method which primarily consider the needs for the technology development of SMEs was suggested. It is desirable to consider in the order of the needs and the capabilities of SMEs, the technological perspective and marketability of the industry, and the political importance in the bottom-up method, and it is expected that the method could be flexibly used in the planning of the various programs.

• Journal of Venture Innovation
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.57-74
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to verify the influence of SME members' motivation and creative working environment on innovative behavior and to see differences according to individual absorptive capacity. As a research method for this, 350 copies were collected by requesting a specialized research company for employees who have worked at SMEs for more than a year, and research models and hypotheses were verified with SPSS 28 and Smart PLS 3. As a result of the study, approach motivation and creative work environment had a positive effect on individual innovation behavior, which showed significant differences according to individual absorptive capacity. The implications of this study are summarized as follows. First, for innovative organizational management in SMEs where human resources are more important than physical resources, SMEs need to provide a creative working environment and motivate members to derive positive innovative behavior. Second, innovation behavior differs depending on personal absorptive capacity, and innovation behavior becomes the subject of corporate growth, indicating that various interests and support are needed to increase personal absorptive capacity along with positive motivation for members.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.45-87
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• 2005

This study attempts to provide a basis of selecting policy directions by empirically analyzing the effect of policy lending programs for SMEs in Korea using micro firm-level data and examining whether the programs contribute to improving the performance of SMEs and thus effectively carry out their missions. From the estimations using Ashenfelter(1978)'s approach, the evidence of differences in profitability enhancement between the benefited group and the never-benefited group could not be found in most cases. In addition, the estimations show that the policy lending program had stronger profit enhancing effects on the young SME group for the year that the program was applied, and indicate that the policy lending program might be the factor that makes the 'older' benefited SMEs to become addicted to the government policy and thus hinder them in their development to become more competitive and innovative. These results suggest that, when the programs are needed to support SMEs' financing, it is more effective to target the start-up companies or SMEs in their early stages rather than old SMEs.