• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.204-214
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• 2017

This study aim to analyze the effect of the technology support program satisfaction on below ICT Small and Medium-sized Enterprises(below SMEs)'s technological performance. For the empirical analysis, we used the data collected from ICT SMEs technology support program conducted by ETRI - a government funded research institute. Among 153 beneficiaries, 141 companies participated in the survey and we used 102 of them for our analysis. Then, we used the mediation regression analysis. In our research model, we set the program satisfaction as a independent variable, the amount of technology support as a mediator variable and the technological performance as a dependent variable. Results show that program satisfaction has positive and significant impact on both amount of technology support and technological performance and amount of technology support has complete mediation effect on product innovation while has partial mediation effect on technological innovation. Our findings imply that more ICT SMEs technology support programs that satisfying the beneficiaries should be developed until the rest of ICT SMEs could become the hidden champions.

• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.95-107
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• 2023

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of export promotion programs (EPPs) on the export performance of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with a specific focus on the influence of EPPs for promising SMEs in the export market. Using data on SMEs provided by the Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK), we conducted a fixed-effects model analysis from 2016 to 2019. Our study shows that EPPs have a positive and significant relationship with export intensity. Further analysis reveals that SMEs utilizing the financing support system provided by EPPs tend to improve their export growth and financial performance relative to their counterparts. While EPPs can assist SMEs with their internationalization efforts, their similarity and redundancy are recognized as potential limitations. This study complements the existing literature that has mainly focused on surveys and cross-sectional analysis by specifying the research subject to promising SMEs in export, and analyzing the effects of the export promotion program supported by IBK Industrial Bank. The results of this study are expected to provide implications for improving SMEs' export capabilities.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.1-16
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• 2012

Under the international business circumstance, global supply chain management is considered a vital strategic challenge to small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs) suffering from deficient resources and capabilities to exploit overseas markets comparing with large corporations. That is because they can expand their business domains into overseas markets by establishing strategic alliances with global supply chain partners. Although a wide range of previous researches have emphasized the cooperative networks in the chain, most are ignoring the importance of developing relational characteristics such as trust and reciprocity with the partners. Besides, verifying the relational factors influencing firms' export performances, some studies proposed different and inconsistent factors. According to the social capital theory, which is the social quality and networks facilitating close cooperation of inter-individual and inter-organization, provides the integrated view to identify the relational characteristics in the aspects of network, trust and reciprocal norm. Meanwhile, a number of researchers shows that global entrepreneurship is the internal and intangible resource necessary to promote SMEs' internationalization. Upon closer examination, however, they cannot explain clearly its influencing mechanism in the inter-firm cooperative relationships. This study is to verify the effect of social capital accumulated within global supply chain on SMEs' qualitative and quantitative export performance. In addition, we shed new light on global entrepreneurship expected to be concerned with the formation of social capital and the enhancement of export performances. For this purpose, the questionnaires, developed through literature review, were collected from 192 Korean SMEs affiliated in Korean Medium Industries Association and Global Chief Executive Officer's Club focusing on their memberships' international business. As a result of multi-regression analysis, the social capital - network, trust and reciprocal norm shared with global supply chain partner - as well as global entrepreneurship - innovativeness, proactiveness and risk-taking - have positive effect on SMEs' export performances. Also global entrepreneurship affects positively social capital which has mediating effect partially in the relationship between global entrepreneurship and performances. These results means that there is a structural process - global entrepreneurship(input), social capital(output), and export performances(outcome). In other words, a firm should consistently invest in and develop the social capital with global supply chain partners in order to achieve common goals, establish strategic collaborations and obtain long-term export performances. Furthermore, it is required to foster the global entrepreneurship in an organization so as to build up the social capital. More detailed practical issues and discussion are made in the conclusion.

• Informatization Policy
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.76-92
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• 2021

The value of personal information is increasing with the digital transformation of the 4th Industrial Revolution. The purpose of this study is to analyze the efficiency of personal information protection efforts of 2,000 private companies. It uses a stochastic frontier approach (SFA), a parametric estimation method that measures the absolute efficiency of protective activities. In particular, the personal information activity index is used as an output variable for efficiency analysis, with the personal information protection budget and number of personnel utilized as input variables. As a result of the analysis, efficiency is found to range from a minimum of 0.466 to a maximum of 0.949, and overall average efficiency is 0.818 (81.8%). The main causes of inefficiency include non-fulfillment of personal information management measures, lack of system for promoting personal information protection education, and non-fulfillment of obligations related to CCTV. Policy support is needed to implement safety measures and perform personal information encryption, especially customized support for small and medium-sized enterprises.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.111-143
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• 2011

As the 'jobless growth' is developing into a worldwide phenomenon, many countries try to recover a virtuous relationship between the growth and employment using various wage subsidy programs. This study focuses on wage subsidy to employers, labor demand-side wage subsidy for which one can think of two types-a tax credit(a flat wage subsidy) and a social insurance premium exemption(a proportional wage subsidy). For job creation, Korean government reintroduced a tax credit to small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs) which have increased their employment level in 2010. But many experts has continuously insisted that it should be replaced with a social insurance premium exemption arguing only a few SMEs benefit from the tax credit as most of them are actually not paying any corporate or general income tax bills. However, as the insurance premium exemption accompanies an increase in the amount of budget with the coverage widen, one cannot confirm its cost effectiveness over the tax credit. This paper aims to provide a theoretical analysis to derive some formal conditions under which a social insurance premium exemption creates more jobs than a tax credit does given a budget constraint. We show that the former's dominance over the latter depends on whether there exists a dead zone of social insurance or not. If there does not exist a dead zone, a social insurance premium exemption is more desirable in many cases, whereas one cannot guarantees its dominance over a tax credit if there exists a dead zone. Therefore in order to realize its dominance, the government should minimize a dead zone so that most SMEs effectively benefit from the insurance premium exemption. In addition, applying discriminative exemption rates which reflect each firm's job conditions such as wage level and labor demand/supply sensitivity, the government try to enhance job creation effect.

• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.57-69
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• 2023

In a situation where digital transformation using artificial intelligence is active around the world, the growth of domestic AI companies or AI industrial ecosystems is slow. Where a large amount of government funds related to AI are being invested to overcome the difficult economic situation, systematic research on the effect is insufficient. So, this study aimed to examine the policy effectiveness of the government artificial intelligence solution voucher support project for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) using Propensity Score Matching (PSM) and Difference-in-Differences (DID) on the financial performance of beneficiary companies. For empirical analysis, PSM-DID analysis was performed using sales performance since 2019 for 461 companies with a history of voucher support among the AI SMEs data released by the National IT Industry Promotion Agency. As a result of the analysis, the beneficiary companies' asset growth, salary, and R&D expenses increased overall after government support, and no significant contribution could be confirmed in terms of profits. This study suggests that the voucher policy business directly contributed to the company's growth in the short term, but it requires a certain period of time to generate profits.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.97-124
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• 1992

The recent sharp increase in wages has driven many Korean manufacturing firms to move into technology-intensive fields. The task of industrial restructuring is, however, rather difficult for small and medium-sized enterprises (hereafter, "SMEs") which suffer from limited R&D resources. If the R&D activities of SMEs are left unattended, industrial restructuring process may be retarded. Hence, the government-sponsored programs can be justified when used to promote the technological level of SMEs. Because of the limited internal R&D resources of SMEs, in particular human resources, the government-sponsored programs that depend on financial subsidies to stimulate the R&D activities of SMEs may not be recommended. Rather, a more desirable policy is programs to subsidize outside sourcing of SMEs. Basic principles of the program are; (i) that the government should establish R&D laboratories which are specialized in joint researches with SMEs in each industry; (ii) research projects of the laboratories should be funded by SMEs; the government's support covers only fixed costs such as construction costs in order to avoid moral hazard problem. (iii) technology adviser programs sponsored by the government should be improved; geographical distribution is to be expanded and the activities are to be monitored by local governments. Also foreign networks need be strengthened.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.545-552
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• 2015

This study One of the key elements of corporate competitiveness in the modern world of unlimited competition is human resource management. The reason that the world's leading companies are devoting a lot of investment and effort for good human resource development and management is that human resource can impact firm survival. In particular, there is little research on the internal and external environmental stimuli and job stress in the employee of small business which are often led to turnover, while they have suffered from chronic shortage of manpower. The purpose of this study is to determine the turnover factors in the small logistics companies and contribute to stable maintenance of workforce, facilitating human resource management and minimizing turnover. This study empirically analyzed the factors of the turnover in the organization of logistics companies from Busan Port, South Korea, which became one of the national infrastructure and the fifth world largest harbor. The conclusion proposed the development and direction of the human resource management which could promote the job environment improving the turnover factors and creating sustainable work condition through conducting preventive measures. The results indicated that the highest turnover rates was found in the category of field work, and the highest turnover group was from the 'less than one year', which implies that high turnover rates after and during job training might be greater cost to the companies than early turnover. The most common reasons for the high employee turnover were 'excessive workload' and 'dissatisfaction with wages'. Followed reasons including 'troubles with managers' and 'failure in organizational adaptation' can be understood in line with worse working conditions of the small logistic companies. It turned out that the preventive programs of the logistic enterprises had little effect through 'incentives system' and 'improving wage system' which are mainly conducted. The human resource managers appreciated the importance of 'wage raise' and 'benefits improvement'. This study is aimed at contributing to efficient human resource management through understanding of the turnover causes and human resource managers applying preventive measures. In particular, this can benefit small port logistics companies securing competitiveness and promoting persistent growth and development.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.83-94
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• 2011

Most domestic companies, with the exclusion of major firms, are reluctant to implement a supply chain management (SCM) network into their operations. Most small- and medium-sized enterprises are not even aware of SCM. Due to the inherent total-systems efficiency of SCM, it coordinates domestic manufacturers, subcontractors, distributors, and physical distributors and cuts down on cost of inventory control, as well as demand management. Furthermore, a lack of SCM causes a decrease in competitiveness for domestic companies. The reason lies in the fundamentality of SCM, which is the characteristic of information sharing, process innovation throughout SCM, and the vast range of problems the SCM management tool is able to address. This study suggests the contemplation and reformation of the current SCM situation by analyzing the SCM strategic plan, discourses and logical discussions on the topic, and a successful case for adapting SCM; hence, the study plans to productively "process" SCM. First, it is necessary to contemplate the theoretical background of SCM before discussing how to successfully process SCM. I will describe the concept and background of SCM in Chapter 2, with a definition of SCM, types of SCM promotional activities, fields of SCM, necessity of applying SCM, and the effects of SCM. All of the defects in currently processing SCM will be introduced in Chapter 3. Discussion items include the following: the Bullwhip Effect; the breakdown in supply chain and sales networks due to e-business; the issue that even though the key to a successful SCM is cooperation between the production and distribution company, during the process of SCM, the companies, many times, put their profits first, resulting in a possible defect in demands estimation. Furthermore, the problems of processing SCM in a domestic distribution-production company concern Information Technology; for example, the new system introduced to the company is not compatible with the pre-existing document architecture. Second, for effective management, distribution and production companies should cooperate and enhance their partnership in the aspect of the corporation; however, in reality, this seldom occurs. Third, in the aspect of the work process, introducing SCM could provoke corporations during the integration of the distribution-production process. Fourth, to increase the achievement of the SCM strategy process, they need to set up a cross-functional team; however, many times, business partners lack the cooperation and business-information sharing tools necessary to effect the transition to SCM. Chapter 4 will address an SCM strategic plan and a case study of LG Electronics. The purpose of the strategic plan, strategic plans for types of business, adopting SCM in a distribution company, and the global supply chain process of LG Electronics will be introduced. The conclusion of the study is located in Chapter 5, which addresses the issue of the fierce competition that companies currently face in the global market environment and their increased investment in SCM, in order to better cope with short product life cycle and high customer expectations. The SCM management system has evolved through the adaptation of improved information, communication, and transportation technologies; now, it demands the utilization of various strategic resources. The introduction of SCM provides benefits to the management of a network of interconnected businesses by securing customer loyalty with cost and time savings, derived through the consolidation of many distribution systems; additionally, SCM helps enterprises form a wide range of marketing strategies. Thus, we could conclude that not only the distributors but all types of businesses should adopt the systems approach to supply chain strategies. SCM deals with the basic stream of distribution and increases the value of a company by replacing physical distribution with information. By the company obtaining and sharing ready information, it is able to create customer satisfaction at the end point of delivery to the consumer.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.183-198
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• 1997

This case study was conducted by verification the site characteristics based on the questionnaire and interview obtained from the all factories located at No. 1 developing area in Kumi industrial complex. The site characteristics were presumed from the process of location behavior and spatial linkage. Kumi industrial complex was developed to improve export industry at national levels by providing chief land price and benefiting various tax. Kumi industrial complex which enticed many factories is playing an important role in export industry in Korea. At beginning, the detention of large enterprises promoted the establishment of related small to medium sized factories into the complex. Two distinctive industries. textile and electronic, were reflected by the purpose to establish the complex and industrial characteristics of Taegu city. respectively. In Kumi industrial complex, positive responses on traffic and raw material supply and negative reactions on the environmental impact on social community as well as high labor charge were investigated. Especially the higher labor cost prevented to hire laborers effectively. In the linkages of spatial and raw material, most factories in the complex depended on the availability of out side the Kumi city. For the textile factories, the supply of raw material and parts were relied on Taegu and/or other cities, whereas in electronic factories purchased them mainly from other cities and partly from abroad. Although questionnaire and interview suggested it, most of the parts were supplied by a parts maturing companies on the complex to a few large enterprises. In the marketing linkage, textile factories revealed higher relation-ship with the foreign countries and sewing factories in Korea. On the other hand, electronic factories have strong relation-ships in the marketing linkage to the parts supplying companies in the complex or large-scale resembling companies in other cities. In the textile companies, the right for decision on purchasing raw materials and parts is belonging to the owner whereas mother enterprise usually have the right for the marketing. In the case of the electronic factories, all the purchasing activities are related to the sub-contracting companies. In the service linkage, the Quality of the service created spatial distinction. There was high linkages on inside of Kumi complex for the low grade services such as repairing and installing machines, whereas strong linkages on outside of the complex for the high grade services such as management, law, taxation, new product development. and manufacturing technology. In the linkages of activity on the R&D (research and development), electronic factories do not have sufficiently qualified institutes in the complex. Strong regional linkages in the field of textile and electronic industries revealed limitations of the local industrial complex. In the sub-contracting linkage, high linkage ship within Kumi boundary reflected the characteristics of industrial site in the complex. There, most decisions by the companies centered by the mother enterprise.