• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.53-77
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• 2013

As advertising and promotions are categorized as operating expenses, managers tend to reduce marketing budget to improve their short term profitability. Gauging the value and accountability of marketing spending is therefore considered as a major research priority in marketing. To respond this call, recent studies have documented that financial market reacts positively to a firm's marketing activity or marketing related outcomes such as brand equity and customer satisfaction. However, prior studies focus on the relation of marketing variable and financial market variables. This study suggests a channel about how marketing activity increases firm valuation. Specifically, we propose that a firm's marketing activity increases the level of the firm's product market information and thereby the dispersion in financial analysts' earnings forecasts decreases. With less uncertainty about the firm's future prospect, the firm's managers and shareholders have less information asymmetry, which reduces the firm's cost of capital and thereby increases the valuation of the firm. To our knowledge, this is the first paper to examine how informational benefits can mediate the effect of marketing activity on firm value. To test whether marketing activity contributes to increase in firm value by mitigating information asymmetry, this study employs a longitudinal data which contains 12,824 firm-year observations with 2,337 distinct firms from 1981 to 2006. Firm value is measured by Tobin's Q and one-year-ahead buy-and-hold abnormal return (BHAR). Following prior literature, dispersion in analysts' earnings forecasts is used as a proxy for the information gap between management and shareholders. For model specification, to identify mediating effect, the three-step regression approach is adopted. All models are estimated using Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods to test the statistical significance of the mediating effect. The analysis shows that marketing intensity has a significant negative relationship with dispersion in analysts' earnings forecasts. After including the mediator variable about analyst dispersion, the effect of marketing intensity on firm value drops from 1.199 (p < .01) to 1.130 (p < .01) in Tobin's Q model and the same effect drops from .192 (p < .01) to .188 (p < .01) in BHAR model. The results suggest that analysts' forecast dispersion partially accounts for the positive effect of marketing on firm valuation. Additionally, the same analysis was conducted with an alternative dependent variable (forecast accuracy) and a marketing metric (advertising intensity). The analysis supports the robustness of the main results. In sum, the results provide empirical evidence that marketing activity can increase shareholder value by mitigating problem of information asymmetry in the capital market. The findings have important implications for managers. First, managers should be cognizant of the role of marketing activity in providing information to the financial market as well as to the consumer market. Thus, managers should take into account investors' reaction when they design marketing communication messages for reducing the cost of capital. Second, this study shows a channel on how marketing creates shareholder value and highlights the accountability of marketing. In addition to the direct impact of marketing on firm value, an indirect channel by reducing information asymmetry should be considered. Potentially, marketing managers can justify their spending from the perspective of increasing long-term shareholder value.

• Land and Housing Review
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.47-62
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• 2023

Using the dynamic panel model, this study investigates rent determinants for small and medium-sized office buildings in Korea's CBD and Gangnam areas, key business districts. The results reveal that rents for small and medium-sized office buildings in CBD and Gangnam areas are influenced by macroeconomic fluctuations and characteristics of buildings and locations, suggesting a market with both spatial consumer and investment goods attributes. There are several investment implications as follows. First, even if the location in the CBD area is advantageous, the practical limitations in renovating aging small and medium-sized office buildings must be taken into account when investing. Second, parking conditions are a key factor influencing rent prices in CBD areas, so evaluating the parking facilities and improvement potential of small and medium-sized office buildings is essential for investors. Finally, due to the high sensitivity of Gangnam's small and medium-sized office market to macroeconomic trends, it's vital to prioritize monetary policy shifts as a key factor in investment decisions.

• Korean small business review
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.173-193
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• 2020

This study analyzes the effects of KOSDAQ-listed firms' convertible bonds, which have recently increased rapidly in number and size. Although KOSDAQ companies are called mid-size companies, KOSDAQ companies belong to SMEs. Furthermore, convertible bonds have traditionally been a critical capital raising tool for SMEs in the US and Europe. In Korea, KOSDAQ companies actively employ convertible bonds. Convertible bonds provide investment incentives for hesitant investors, allowing companies to raise capital at low interest rates. This study analyzes whether capital raising through issuance of convertible bonds by KOSDAQ companies affects their financial constraints. Financial constraints result from incomplete capital markets, which are embedded in most companies and countries.. In particular, financial constraints have a significant impact on the growth and survival of SMEs. The seminal study FHP(1988) is the most important and effective study of firm's financial constraints. We find that FHP's financial constraint measures show that convertible bond issuance would mitigate the financial constraints of KOSDAQ companies. However, the significance of the evidence is not strong.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.347-373
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• 2023

As the significance of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) management amplifies in driving sustainable growth, this study delves into and compares ESG trends and interrelationships from both corporate and societal viewpoints. Employing a combination of Latent Dirichlet Allocation Topic Modeling (LDA) and Semantic Network Analysis, we analyzed sustainability reports alongside corresponding social media datasets. Additionally, an in-depth examination of social media content was conducted using Joint Sentiment Topic Modeling (JST), further enriched by Semantic Network Analysis (SNA). Complementing text mining analysis with the assistance of ChatGPT, this study identified 25 different ESG topics. It highlighted differences between companies aiming to avoid risks and build trust, and the general public's diverse concerns like investment options and working conditions. Key terms like 'greenwashing,' 'serious accidents,' and 'boycotts' show that many people doubt how companies handle ESG issues. The findings from this study set the foundation for a plan that serves key ESG groups, including businesses, government agencies, customers, and investors. This study also provide to guide the creation of more trustworthy and effective ESG strategies, helping to direct the discussion on ESG effectiveness.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.31-47
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• 2022

The TIPS, a representative public-private cooperative project to revitalize the start-up ecosystem, is a government supported policy that promotes successful commercialization through various start-up support for technology-based startups. The purpose of this study is to analyze the investment decision factors of the TIPS program and to derive priorities. In order to achieve the research purpose, first, the investment decision factors were derived through literature analysis, a Delphi surveys were conducted on investors and experts participating in the evaluation of the TIPS program, and an AHP analysis was conducted on 20 VCs to empirically analyze the priority of factors on investment decisions. As a result of the analysis, the importance of critical factors was confirmed in the order of entrepreneurs(team) > market > product/service > finance > network. The importance of detailed factors was found in the order of entrepreneur's reliability and authenticity > market growth and scalability > team members' expertise and capabilities > adequacy of current market size > new market creation. This study presented the capabilities of technology-based startups preparing to participate in the TIPS program by deriving factors that influence investment decisions from an investor's perspective and comparing and analyzing the importance. It is also meaningful that basic data on determinants of private-led investment decision-making were presented to stake-holders such as venture capital, accelerator, and start-up support institutions.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.1-16
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• 2022

This paper studies the impact of regulatory approaches on innovation and entrepreneurship. As technological progress and environmental changes avail new business opportunities to innovative startups, many governments find it difficult to regulate new and unprecedented businesses promoted by the innovative firms. In order to provide academic and practitional implications on the regulatory design with which to support innovation and entrepreneurship, this paper aims to review classical theories on the demand and supply of regulation as well as empirical research on the impact of regulation on market entry and incentives for innovation. Based on the findings, this paper discusses the recent controversies around the regulatory approaches on new businesses pursued by startups, which are as known as the "positive regulatory approach" vs. "negative regulatory approaches" among practitioners and policy makers in Korea. This paper claims that the Korean context provides an useful opportunity to investigate how the ongoing transition of the once "fast follower" economy into a pacesetter one changes the nature of businesses pursued by firms, investors, and related market players and, accordingly, calls for the changes in the way the government intervenes in markets to regulate businesses of firms. By doing so, this paper sheds light on the role of the government in establishing an entrepreneurial ecosystem where innovative ideas of startups can be tested and nurtured.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.1-21
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• 2024

Recently, venture capital investment has been shrinking globally due to high interest rates and economic slowdown. Korea is no exception. Due to the downturn in the M&A and public markets, increasing economic uncertainty, and the aftermath of corporate bankruptcies, venture capitalists are facing many difficulties in raising funds. In the changed economic environment, the investment decision factors of venture capitalists have also changed. However, studies on VCs' investment decisions have focused on the general economic environment. This study examines how VCs' investment decision-making factors change during economic recessions and booms. To this end, we interviewed active investors who have experienced both economic recessions and booms to compare how VCs' investment decision factors change: 1) personal characteristics of founders, 2) experience of founders, 3) product/service, 4) market, 5) financial situation, 6) contract terms and 7) venture capital co-investment. The results showed that founder's personal characteristics, experience, and product/service were more important during the economic recession. Market is slightly more important during economic booms. The importance of financial situation and investment conditions increased sharply during the recession compared to the boom. Finally, venture capital co-investment did not differ significantly between recessions and booms. By understanding the investment decision-making factors of venture capitalists in the recent difficult venture investment environment, this study aims to help startups raise funds and survive in a difficult market.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.125-141
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• 2019

With the advent of deep learning technology, which is represented by AlphaGo, artificial intelligence (A.I.) has quickly emerged as a key theme of digital transformation to secure competitive advantage for businesses. In order to understand the trends of A.I. based digital transformation, a clear comprehension of the A.I. business ecosystem should precede. Therefore, this study analyzed the A.I. business ecosystem from the multi-actor network perspective and identified the A.I. platform strategy type. Within internal three layers of A.I. business ecosystem (infrastructure & hardware, software & application, service & data layers), this study identified four types of A.I. platform strategy (Tech. vertical × Biz. horizontal, Tech. vertical × Biz. vertical, Tech. horizontal × Biz. horizontal, Tech. horizontal × Biz. vertical). Then, outside of A.I. platform, this study presented five actors (users, investors, policy makers, consortiums & innovators, CSOs/NGOs) and their roles to support sustainable A.I. business ecosystem in symbiosis with human. This study identified A.I. business ecosystem framework and platform strategy type. The roles of government and academia to create a sustainable A.I. business ecosystem were also suggested. These results will help to find proper strategy direction of A.I. business ecosystem and digital transformation.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.91-111
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• 2019

Around the end of 2017, the investment fever for cryptocurrencies-especially Bitcoin-has started all over the world. Especially, South Korea has been at the center of this phenomenon. Sinceit was difficult to find the profitable investment opportunities, people have started to see the cryptocurrency markets as an alternative investment objects. However, the cryptocurrency fever inSouth Korea is mostly based on psychological phenomenon due to expectation of short-term profits and social atmosphere rather than intrinsic value of the assets. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze influence of people's social sentiment on price movement of cryptocurrency. The data was collected for 181 days from Nov 1st, 2017 to Apr 30th, 2018, especially focusing on Bitcoin-related post in Twitter along with price of Bitcoin in Bithumb/UPbit. After the collected data was refined into neutral, positive and negative words through sentiment analysis, the refined neutral, positive, and negative words were put into regression model in order to find out the impacts of social sentiments on Bitcoin price. After examining the relationship by the regression analyses and Granger Causality tests, we found that the positive sentiments had a positive relationship with Bitcoin price, while the negative words had a negative relation with it. Also, the causality test results show that there exist two-way causalities between social sentiment and Bitcoin price movement. Therefore, we were able to conclude that the Bitcoin investors'behaviors are affected by the changes of social sentiments.

• Journal of Industrial Convergence
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.13-23
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• 2024

In this study, the optimal level of CER issuance price in the energy industry was estimated using a real options considering the uncertainty of emission price. As a result of the analysis, the break-even point for CDM projects in the energy industry registered by UNFCCC from December 2012 to the end of 2021 was 0.64-36.69 euros per ton of CO2 for each individual project. More closely, the emission permit price that reaches the break-even point when NPVw/o CER+ NPVCER ≥ 0 is estimated to be 12.10 euros on average, and the emission permit price that reaches the break-even point when NPVw/o CER + NPVCER ≥ option value is estimated to be 12.63 euros on average. Meanwhile, the option value using real options to reduce business uncertainty is about 19% at the 1-5 euro per ton level, about 11% at the 5-10 euro per ton level, and about 5% at the 10-15 euro per ton level. It was analyzed that there was an effect of increasing emissions prices due to uncertainty reduction. The results of this study may be useful to greenhouse gas reduction project entities, including investors, project operators, and companies with potential mandatory reductions.