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This paper develops a simple signaling model of foreign currency borrowing that yields predictions about firm survival and performance during a currency crisis. Using a large panel of firm level data for South Korea we offer empirical support for many of the predictions of our model, while others support predictions that cannot be tested using our data. Our paper demonstrates that although firms that borrow in foreign currency are more likely to exit after the currency collapses, those that continue to produce perform better. Among them, the best performers are exporters whose foreign sales are more competitively priced under a devalued currency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study addresses two main questions. First, what is the best measurement of innovation performance? Second, is there a significant difference in the performance between open and closed innovation firms? We discuss new measures (‘efficiency’ and ‘effectiveness’) and investigate any differences between open innovation and closed innovation firms by using indicators. The impact of open innovation on firm performance has been examined in existing studies. Most papers, however, employ simple indicators such as patents and financial data. This paper verifies the relationship between open innovation and performance in the Korean manufacturing industry using a new approach. The results show that both efficiency and effectiveness were statistically higher among open innovation firms than among their closed counterparts. It may thus be concluded that the acquisition of outside technology or knowledge has a positive impact on firm performance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper contributes to the growing literature on fast fashion by examining how small fashion firms efficiently manage their supply chains in order to boost the supply efficiency of fast fashion. The results of a survey of manufacturing wholesalers in the Dongdaemun Fashion District (DFD) in South Korea suggest that lead times and wholesaler–retailer relationships which were linked to business performance had significant effects on supplier–wholesaler relationships. In turn, small fast fashion firms in the DFD retaining closer relationships with their buyers and suppliers were able to produce fast fashion more rapidly than were other rival firms. This paper provides useful implications for both practitioners and scholars in the fashion industry. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study shows how R&D resources improve firm performance, taking advantage of open innovation activities in SMEs. It focuses on the mediating effect of R&D openness on the relationship between R&D resources and firm performance in SMEs. We employ secondary data of 1,046 SMEs located in South Korea's innovation clusters wherein scientific knowledge and technologies are efficiently created, transferred and utilised. The findings show that R&D resources (technological, human and financial resources) and R&D openness in SMEs positively affect firm performance. On the one hand, only SMEs with more financial resources (R&D investment) achieve better firm performance via a higher degree of external R&D collaboration. Fewer technological resources or more financial resources in SMEs can be a motivation for external collaboration. Differentiated open innovation strategies are required depending on the characteristics of R&D resources in SMEs in order to improve firm performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tech firms are growth engines in modern economies. We examine which policies, government subsidies or preferential listing, work better for tech firms' performance. We test whether Korean tech firms outperform control firms using key market-based performance metrics. Tech firms benefiting from Korea's preferential listing system outperform control firms in funding, patent creation, and market capitalization but underperform in IPO-day returns. In contrast, government subsidies do not affect market performance other than six-month returns from the IPO date. These findings indicate that preferential listing policies are better than government subsidies for the market performance of tech firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, various corporate failure prediction models that use machine learning techniques have received considerable attention. In particular, using a sequence of a company's historical information, rather than just the most recent information, yields better predictive performance by adopting recurrent neural networks (RNNs) and long short-term memory (LSTM) algorithms in the United States market. Similarly, we evaluate whether these results hold in emerging market contexts using listed companies in Korea. We also compare the logistic regression, random forest, RNN, LSTM, and an ensemble model combining these four techniques. The random forest model with recent information outperforms the other models, indicating that corporate failure prediction models for immature markets, unlike those for developed markets, might have to focus more on recent information rather than on the historical sequence of corporate performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aims to contribute to the body of knowledge on HRD in small businesses by providing a detailed investigation of the role that owner-managers play in enabling social learning and performance in small firms. The investigation focusses particularly on the specific relationships of the social-interdependence orientation and social competence of owner-managers with their social learning behaviour, as well as with the performance of their small-businesses within the pig-production sector in the Republic of Korea. A survey was conducted amongst nearly 200 Korean owner-managers of pig farms. The results indicate that social interdependence orientations and social competencies have a significant relationship with social learning behaviour. Self-promotion and a cooperative orientation are especially important, with self-promotion taking precedence for social learning behaviour of a more 'internal' nature, and a cooperative attitude being more important social learning behaviour of a more 'external' nature. Social competence and social interdependence did not have a significant relationship with performance, but social learning behaviour did. The results further highlight the importance of individual social characteristics to social learning behaviour occurring outside highly structured educational settings, in addition to demonstrating that the competence and attitudes required are determined by the type of interaction partner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to analyse the relationship between a firm's resources, innovation-oriented culture, dynamic capabilities, and cooperation performance – in partnerships between firms and Public Research Institutions (PRIs). Based on the Resource-Based View (RBV) and Dynamic Capabilities Perspective (DCP), a framework for innovation, and business performance in Industry-Public Research Institutions (I-PRIs) cooperation was developed and used. Data from 167 firms with experience in I-PRIs cooperation in Korea – were collected using a questionnaire survey. The results show that – a firm's financial and human resources are important factors to increase dynamic capabilities. In particular, a firm's innovation-oriented culture is a key factor in improving dynamic capabilities. On the other hand, a firm's physical resources did not significantly affect dynamic capabilities. However, a firm's 'dynamic capabilities' are important factors in determining I-PRIs cooperation innovation performance, while I-PRIs cooperation innovation performance is a key factor in determining I-PRIs cooperation business performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluates the effects of the government's support policies for innovative firms, for which small firms are eligible by way of a venture certification program in Korea. We analyze whether the effects of the innovative firms' policies are heterogeneous across several dimensions. Specifically, we examine how policy effects vary along with the venture certification types, firm size, and age. We assess the short- and long-term effects of the certification program on the performance of certified firms. We find that the program is likely to help innovative and young firms enhance their sales, employment and labor productivity over time. Moreover, the impact of the program is bigger for firms that are financed by venture capital, smaller in size (less than 20 employees) and younger (less than 5 years). In contrast, the support policies for innovative firms were somehow ineffective for firms that are research and development-intensive, medium sized (more than 100 and less than 300 employees) or older (more than 10 years) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study empirically tests the effects of ethics management, performance management, and transformational leadership on organizational performance in Korean public organizations by using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) on data collected from 270 public employees. In examining the relationships among ethics management; performance management; transformational leadership; and organizational performance, this research also explores the mediating roles of organizational commitment and ethical performance that contribute to organizational performance. Informal ethics management and transformational leadership are found to increase organizational performance by reducing unethical behavior and improving organizational commitment in public agencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the extensive literature on performance gaps, the various reference points of the problem identification process affect the managerial decisions of public managers. In this article, we propose a theory about the public management decision-making processes based on the roles of proactive behaviors, specifically regarding how identifying such problems (performance gaps) leads to performance improvement. Using panel data from Korea covering 2005–2014, this analysis provides support for our assertion that not all reference points are equally important to public managers' proactive responses; however, we find evidence supporting the importance of perceiving the external reference point of problem identification as a significant precedent for successful organizational performance. Our results also indicate that practitioners need to become involved in greater feedback processes when searching for proactive solutions that remedy poor organizational performance. This suggests that the creation of diverse and sophisticated performance feedback systems can strengthen public managers' abilities to find solutions for organizations. Ultimately, the findings enhance our understanding of the relationship between performance gaps and performance improvement by examining the role of public managers' proactive behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine whether labour unions influence external auditor selection and audit scope. As a major user group of financial information, labour unions likely demand financial information of high quality and thus high-quality audits. As a union's request for wage increases is likely strong when a firm is performing well, management facing wage negotiations with the labour union has incentives to manipulate earnings downward and may therefore prefer auditors who allow more discretion. Using union data unique to Korea during 2005-2008, we find that firms with a stronger labour union tend to choose higher-quality auditors (i.e. Big N or industry specialist auditors). We also find that unionization is negatively (positively) associated with positive (negative) abnormal audit fees and audit hours, and the effects are more pronounced when the union is stronger and more active. Given that departures from normal audit fees and audit hours in either direction arguably impair audit quality, this finding is consistent with our prediction of unions' demand for high-quality audits. Overall, our findings suggest that labour unions play an important role in determining audit quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the impact of management on performance in Korean schools. Drawing upon the model of Meier and O’Toole, we test the linear relationships of internal management, managerial networking, and managerial quality with multiple dimensions of performance. We also examine the nonlinear relationships between networking and performance. The results show a general consistency in the positive link between management and performance, providing evidence to support the key arguments from the model. Still, there are noticeable differences in specific findings. As one of the first applications of the Meier and O'Toole model in Asia, this study illustrates the importance of the national context in management–performance linkage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digital revolution has impacted the study of innovation in organizations in such a way that research on organizational ambidexterity needs a more phenomenon-driven approach. In light of this identified need, this article examines the performance of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in South Korea based on their balance in exploration and exploitation activities. A 2 (explorative: hi, low) x 2 (exploitative: hi, low) conceptual framework is introduced to depict four types of combined ambidexterity in firms and hypothesize that short- and long-term performances vary among these types of firms. Data from more than 2800 hi-tech manufacturing SMEs in South Korea were collected to empirically test the conceptual framework. The results confirmed the hypothesized difference in performance. Firms indeed vary in degrees of explorative and exploitative innovation and thus have positive but imbalanced impact on their performance. Firms that are high (low) in both explorative and exploitative innovation perform best (worst) in longer-term growth. Firms that tilt toward exploitative innovation perform best in shortterm profit. The article concludes with important managerial and policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the curvilinear relationship between pay dispersion and organizational performance. According to the pay dispersion literature, a large pay gap has benefits and drawbacks for organizational performance because employees can feel motivated or demotivated depending on the degree of pay dispersion. We investigate the possibility of nonlinearity in the context of these countervailing forces, and aim to uncover the condition under which the positive effect of high pay dispersion prevails. Our empirical analysis of data from 436 Korean cross-industry firms shows that pay dispersion and organizational performance have an inverted U-shaped relationship. Moreover, when a pay scheme matches current organizational culture, the positive relationship between pay dispersion and organizational performance is more pronounced. We discuss the implications for future compensation research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We contribute to the debate on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and firm performance. We theorise, firstly, that the relationship between EO and performance is mediated by the firm’s technology and marketing action and secondly, that these mediating effects will differ by industry. We test the model on 489 Korean SMEs. Results indicate both technology and marketing action mediate the effect of EO on performance. As expected, technology action has a stronger mediating effect than marketing action in manufacturing industries, while marketing action has a stronger mediating effect in service industries. We discuss implications for managers and policy-makers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Adopting an evolutionary perspective, we introduce an alternative approach to the opportunism in strategic alliance where the accumulated risks during alliance operation lead to opportunism in alliance. To examine this process, a total of 358 employees from South Korean firms in the high technology sector completed a survey on opportunism in strategic alliance, measuring each firm's perceived risks on the relational and operational issues in alliance and their antecedents and outcomes. Key results show that perceived risks on the relationship between alliance partners cause a passive type of opportunism, whereas perceived risks both on the relationship between alliance partners and on the achievement of alliance objectives cause an active type of opportunism. Specifically, cultural difference showed the largest influence on relational risks, whereas issues in equity involvement showed the largest influence on performance risk. Based on the findings, theoretical and practical implications on the opportunism management in strategic alliance are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study focuses on collaboration by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) participating in the Mini-Cluster (MC) programme of Korea. This study empirically examines whether three types of collaboration quality, specifically inter-organisational trust, breadth of interaction channels, and experience of collaboration are related to two dimensions of collaboration performance, innovation output, and satisfaction with MC. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to provide a better understanding of the subjects of this study. Two rounds of in-depth interviews as qualitative method were conducted to discover the current state of MCs and to supplement the interpretation of the research results. Structural equation modelling as a quantitative method was used to verify the hypotheses based on survey data from 344 SMEs in MCs. According to the results, the three collaboration quality factors are significantly related to innovation output. Unlike innovation output, however, only the relationship between inter-organisational trust and satisfaction with MC was significant. With these findings, MC coordinators and SMEs in MCs can identify specific collaboration strategies to enhance their collaboration performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary objective of this study is to propose and investigate the integrative model which was formulated by modifying and extending the Triandis model (TRIANM); this explores the structural relationships among knowledge-sharing enablers, process, and outcomes in hotels from a holistic perspective. The hypotheses are examined with data from 327 employees in 10 five-star hotels in Busan, Korea. Anticipated usefulness and reciprocal relationships are confirmed as the two most important enablers of employees' knowledge-sharing behaviour. Other significant enablers include facilitating conditions and social factors. New enablers, enjoyment in helping others and knowledge self-efficacy, that we have added to the TRIANM are also found to be significant. The path from knowledge-sharing behaviour to organizational innovation capability, the path from organizational innovation capability to organizational performance is found to be significant, respectively. The findings and theoretical and practical implications are then discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Despite the Korean aviation system's reputation for aviation safety, in the case of military aircraft, there have been accidents involving jet fighters. As the results of investigations into the causes of the accidents revealed that maintenance errors made by mechanics contributed to some degree to the accidents, it is crucial to investigate factors affecting individual mechanic's maintenance errors and to improve the overall performance of military aircraft maintenance unit. It is also believed that the investigation of factors responsible for maintenance errors and the unit's performance has generally contributed to achieving higher organisational performance. The results of this empirical study show that managing individual fatigue and stress causes members in a unit to have more positive feelings and emotions regarding their job and organisation. When members in a unit experience less fatigue and stress, fewer individual errors occur. In addition, they have more positive feelings and emotions regarding their job and organisation, leading to better performance. This has noteworthy implications for managers of organisations in that fatigue, which is an important factor when seeking to mitigate individual errors and improve organisational performance, can be managed by enhancing the organisational safety climate. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]