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Purpose – This paper seeks to explore such questions as: "What are the impacts of foreign investors and what are the channels through which foreign investors contribute to or detracts from firm value in Korea?" It aims to discuss how foreign investors and foreign outside directors interact to enhance firm value. Design/methodology/approach – Using longitudinal data from the KOSPI200 index in Korea during 2004-2007, the study examined the direct and interaction effect of foreign blockholders and foreign board members. To address the representativeness of foreign investors, the authors verified the mandates of foreign board members though telephone interviews. Findings – Foreign block shareholders and foreign outside directors respectively provide expertise and independent monitoring over management. Foreign blockholders' management control via board membership is likely to mitigate leverage of value enhancement when foreign outside directors represent private interests of foreign blockholders. The moderating effect is also supported since foreign ownership concentration has an inverted U-shaped relationship with value enhancement. The paper confirms that board independence reinforces the positive impact of foreign outside directors on firm value. Research limitations/implications – This study offers a key to understanding corporate governance in that mutual monitoring and a balance among various types of stakeholders are crucial to value enhancement. Originality/value – The paper provides clues to the extant diverse findings concerning the impact of foreign investors on firm value. It applies an integrated perspective to the empirical analyses of the impact of foreign investors by giving consideration to the agency – foreign outside directors – to implement management control on behalf of foreign blockholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The objective of this paper is to determine whether international entry-order strategies by Korean chaebols affect the exit of their foreign subsidiaries. Design/methodology/approach - The sample consists of a set of 61 parent firms and their 500 foreign subsidiaries. The sample includes 27 Korean business groups, called chaebols, and spans 51 markets, during the period from 1999 to 2004. The study employs resource- and knowledge-based views, and is based on the Cox's proportional hazard model. Findings - This study leads to two main findings: in the context of Korean business groups, latecomers in international markets have greater survival rates than pioneers do because latecomers have stronger resource commitments; and, nonetheless, if chaebol pioneers have greater competitive advantages than chaebol latecomers, the pioneers' subsidiaries have better survival rates than do those of latecomers. Originality/value - The analysis advances order-of-entry research by exploring the international order-of-entry strategies of chaebol multinationals and their impact on international exit and the interrelationship between the order-of-entry and core competencies of chaebol multinationals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on Korean auto producers entry into the European Union market. Information on Korea's car producers like Hyundai Motors Company, Kia Motors, and Daewoo; What an examination of the pattern of Japanese foreign direct investment in the European indicates; Indepth look at Korea's major car producers.

Purpose - This study aims to investigate relationships among supplier capabilities, collaboration in new car development, and the competitive advantage of carmakers based on the resource-based view (RBV). Design/methodology/approach - A survey of first-tier suppliers in the Korean automotive parts industry was conducted, and pertinent hypotheses were tested by using the ordinary least squares (OLS) method and hierarchical multiple regression analysis (HMRA). Findings - It was found that suppliers' flexibility, engineering and modularization capabilities positively influence collaboration in new car development, which in turn positively affects the competitive advantage of carmakers. This result empirically verifies the RBV proposition that one motive for interfirm collaboration can be the opportunity to gain access to other firms' resources/capabilities. The theory of the RBV was further extended by demonstrating that suppliers' quality improvement and modularization capabilities directly contribute to the competitive advantage of carmakers and that the influence of quality improvement and modularization capabilities on this competitive advantage are robust against technological uncertainty. However, the positive effect of collaboration in new car development on the competitive advantage of carmakers is decreased by the moderating effect of technological uncertainty. Research limitations/implications - The findings of this study were obtained from a limited population of the Korean automotive industry. This study not only empirically verified the proposition of the RBV but also extended the RBV theory by empirically demonstrating direct relationships between suppliers' capabilities and carmakers' competitive advantages. Practical implications - Suppliers must enhance flexibility, modularization and engineering capabilities in order to vitalize collaboration with carmakers in new car development. As technological uncertainty increases, carmakers should address in-house the problems caused by technological uncertainty or delegate related jobs only to suppliers with significant capabilities for quality improvement and modularization. Originality/value - This is one of the few studies to identify the moderating effect of technological uncertainty on interfirm collaboration [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]