• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.22-32
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• 2006

In these days, most of Korean industries advocates and utilizes Six Sigma as an integrated innovation tool for all their business and manufacturing processes. Six Sigma is known to bring more financial and managerial achievements than other innovation methods and tools. However, such successes are not always guaranteed. To adopt and implement Six Sigma successfully, it is necessary to grasp and understand essential characteristics of Six Sigma and then identify suitable elements and complements in consideration of vision, strategies, capability, circumstance and environment of the company. Step by step implementation plan may be built based on those ingredients. This study is to find out key ingredients (KIs) of Six Sigma. Potential ingredients selected from previous studies of success factors and ingredients of Six Sigma and TQM, and criteria of quality awards like MBNQA, EFQM, Deming prize and Korean National Quality Awards (KNQA) are classified into 11 categories based on experts' opinion and affinity analysis: management leadership, belt system, training, six sigma system, compensation, organization, corporate culture, customer focused, project selection, management of project results, and managerial achievements. Irrelevant or ineffective potential ingredients are discarded using factor analysis for the questionnaires answered by champions, MBB's and BB's of 90 Korean companies that have more than 3 years experience of Six Sigma. Also from the factor analysis, 3 factors are derived for each categories respectively except the managerial achievement category. Those 11 categories and 30 factors are defined as KIs of Six Sigma. This study also reveals that there is difference according to enterprise size, type of business, and implementation time in terms of KI's, and prioritizes KI's that an enterprise to pursue Six Sigma successfully should consider according to its characteristics.

• Industrial Engineering and Management Systems
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.118-128
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• 2014

This study examines how green operations affect firm's environmental performance with green innovation as a mediator in the context of electronic industry. We carry out an empirical study with 141 valid questionnaires collected from high-tech manaufactures in Taiwan. The results show that positive relationships exist among green operations, green innovation and environmental performance (in both operational performance and managerial performance). However, an integration of green operations with green innovation would influence firm's environmental performance more positively than the sole effects of green operations. It suggests that high-tech manufacturers should pay greater attention to green innovative strategies in order to cope with customer demand and, thereby, enhancing customer satisfaction and sustainable operations. This study has contributed to the extant literature by providing valuable academic references and pragmatic guidelines for firms to gain competitive advantages through green operations and green innovation.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.551-568
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• 2018

Purpose: This study addressed the relationship between technological innovation activity and management efficiency of Korean automobile firms. We tested the hypothesis of non-liner relationship of innovation activity in relation to management efficiency. Methods: We discussed prior literature in the firm innovation strategy and management efficiency studies to provide better understanding of relationships between technological innovation activity and management efficiency. As a result, we developed develop and tested a model (Inverted-U shaped) capturing the non-linear impact of technological innovation activity. While we used R&D expenditure and patent registration data for measuring firms' innovation activity, management efficiency was evaluated by using DEA(Data Envelopment Analysis). Results: Main findings of our empirical analysis indicated that the relationships between technological innovation activity and management efficiency was inverted U shaped. This implied that the relationship between technological innovation and management efficiency is inverted U-shaped non-linear, with management efficiency increasing up to a point, beyond which higher levels of R&D and patent registration activities led to a decrease in management efficiency. Conclusion: This study empirically assessed the inconclusive findings of previous research in the area of effects of innovation activities in relation to firm performance. The paper also provided theoretical and practical implications for firms who explore efficient strategy to promote the management performance through technological innovation activities. Future research directions with the limitation of the study was discussed.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.141-149
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• 2019

The paper proposes a knowledge innovation performance model by the dynamic data envelopment analysis with slacks-based measure approach for evaluating the effectiveness of 30 regional knowledge innovation activities in China from 2010 to 2016. In recent years, China has paid more attention to knowledge innovation activities, as central and local governments have pushed on with their innovation projects by lots of investment whatever the difficulties may be. Decision-maker is usually interested in judge its knowledge innovation performance relative to target benchmark by exploring whether one provincial administration region performs better among others and/or if the growth of economy will be benefited greatly by the knowledge innovation activities. To acquire the managerial insight about this issue from a comprehensively designed performance evaluation model, knowledge innovation activity is conceptualized as an intertemporal production process. Invention patent and regional gross product are imposed on desirable outputs, highlighting the need for knowledge economy. The empirical result shows that knowledge innovation has a positive effect on economic development. At the same time, decision-maker should be interest in the economic effect of patents' type and quality. The government should then encourage new technical applications with greater commercial value from a market-oriented perspective, in order to benefit the most from the innovation process in the short-run.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.35-56
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• 2014

With rapid change and intensive competition in the global economy, the capability to capture, absorb, develop, and transfer new knowledge is a key organizational success factor. Through effective learning, companies are more likely to develop the innovation, quality, and responsiveness essential to meet the growing expectations of customers and the disruptive threats of competitors and new technologies. In the paper the role of technological innovation and its relationship to organizational learning in managing technology-based new products are examined. Several factors which can influence the rate and effectiveness of organizational learning are identified. Barriers to learning also are discussed. Finally, several managerial implications and propositions for future research on learning and technological innovation are advanced.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.73-93
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• 2012

Although a wide range of theoretical researches have emphasized on the importance of knowledge management in cooperative R&D network, the empirical researches to synthetically examine the role of organizational learning and open innovation which influence on the performance of technological innovation are not enough to meet academic and practical demands. This study is to investigate the effect of open innovation and organizational learning in venture business on technological competitive advantage and establish the mediating role of organizational learning. For the purpose, the questionnaires, made based on the reviewing previous researches, were collected from 274 Korean venture businesses whose managerial focus is on developing technological innovation. As a result of analysis, the relational dimensions of open innovation - network, intensity and trust shared by a firm with external R&D partners - as well as the internal organizational learning system and competence have positive influence on building technological competitive advantage whose sub-variables are technological excellence, market growth potential and business feasibility. In addition, it is identified that organizational learning has the mediating and moderating effect in the relationship between open innovation and technological competitive advantage. These results imply that open innovation complements and expend the range of limited resources and the scope of innovation in technology-intensive small and medium-sized enterprises. Besides, organizational learning activity reinforces the use of knowledge and resources, obtained from external R&D partners. On the basis of these results, detailed issues and discussion were made in the conclusion.

• Proceedings of the Technology Innovation Conference
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• 1997.07a
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• pp.83-123
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• 1997

The psychological work environments which facilitate technology innovations in organizations are divided into two dimensions of supportive work environments and challenging work environments. The confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the construct validity of two work environments. And simple and hierarchical regression analysis confirmed the significant effects of two work environments on motivations to the technology innovations. Therefore, Both of the challenging work environments(uncertainty of exta- organizational environments and tasks) and supportive work environments(managerial environments of intra-organizations) are the two important psychological work environments which facilitate technology innovations in organizations.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.172-181
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• 2001

This is a paper to understand the economic effects of the measurement standards by translog cost function. The data, as of the end of 1998, are from a survey of 514 firms in Korean industry. The analysis is compared to that of 1992 data analysis to check the trend. There are a little differences on the estimated coefficients, but there is no basic difference on trend of economic effects. The Investment on measurement standards have been contributed positively on the major managerial indicators such as productivity, profit, and so on.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.117-136
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• 2016

External knowledge search is critical to expand the firm's knowledge base, increasing the innovation performance. However, prior literature has paid less scholarly attention on the boundary condition of the search activity. In particular, the few literatures on the contingency factors are either conceptual or focus on the firm characteristics such as resources and capability. In this regard, this study argues the negative moderating effect of knowledge protection and environmental uncertainty of a firm on the positive relationship between external knowledge search and innovation performance, because these contingency factors hamper the reciprocity and the mutual trust between the firm and its external partner that provides knowledge needed in the innovation process. The empirical analysis is based on the sample drawn from Korean Innovation Survey, provided by STEPI in Korea. The sample consists of 1,637 respondent firms that experienced product innovation during the survey period. We could find statistically supporting results for the negative moderating effect on the positive relationship between external knowledge search and innovation performance. This study extends the academic debate on the boundary conditions of external knowledge search and provides managerial implications for successful product innovation.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.123-129
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• 2010

R&D innovation is based on the premises of gaining competitive advantage. Innovation is achieved not only through the development of technology for producing newer and better products, but also gaining and sharing information about consumer demands, changes in the market, and competitors actions. Investment in R&D can not adequately be fulfilled solely through market functions because of R&D activities imply high-risk, uncertainty, and because R&D has a public-good characteristic. Most past researches have concentrated on managerial methodologies through research of performance, thus the results are related to studies of innovation performance. This research looks into the effect given on R&D innovation by IT factors and provides a model, and further analysis on how IT factors are applied through this model. By developing a model through the process of re-structuring the model with variables based on the convergent and discriminant validity, and in turn confirming and concentrating on major IT factors through analysis, it will be possible to double the R&D Innovation Performance.