Companies In Korea Research Articles

U-shaped Relationship between Cash Conversion Cycle and Financial Distress: Evidence from Unlisted Companies in Korea

U-shaped Relationship between Cash Conversion Cycle and Financial Distress: Evidence from Unlisted Companies in Korea

A Study on the Cognitive, Normative, and Affective Factors That Enhance the Pro-Environmental Behaviors of Consumers in the Context of Drone Food Delivery Services

The current study examined consumers’ sustainable behavior in the context of eco-friendly drone food delivery services. It thus focused on the cognitive triggers, normative factors, and affective triggers in forming pro-environmental intentions. This study more specifically developed a comprehensive framework that included cognitive triggers, which included environmental awareness, ascribed responsibility, biospheric value, environmental concern, and perceived effectiveness, personal norm, and affective triggers, which included positive anticipated emotion and negative anticipated emotion, subjective norm, and pro-environmental intentions. The 312 samples were randomly extracted through an online survey company in Korea, which targeted individuals who have dined out within the last six months. A theoretical model that included mediation and causal hypotheses was proposed and tested by conducting structural equation modeling. The data analysis results indicated that the four dimensions of the cognitive triggers, such as ascribed responsibility, biospheric value, environmental concern, and perceived effectiveness, positively affect personal norm, and consequently have a positive effect on positive anticipated emotion. In addition, subjective norm aids in regards to enhancing personal norm and pro-environmental intentions. The study consequently contributes knowledge that addresses the acknowledged research gap and provides practical suggestions for green marketing strategies in regards to promoting the services.

Consumer Values, Attitudes, and Behavior towards Plant-Based Alternatives.

This study investigated the impact of consumer values and attitudes to consuming plant-based alternatives (PBAs), using the value-attitude-behavior framework. The research model and hypotheses were tested using a two-step approach to structural equation modeling on 392 responses collected from PBA consumers through a research company in Korea in November 2023. The results indicated that environmental consciousness and health consciousness significantly affected attitudes toward PBAs. Also, positive attitudes toward PBAs were critical for the formation of repurchase intentions for PBAs and PBA restaurant visit behavior. Our study contributes to both academics and PBA practitioners by showing how consumer values are associated with attitudes, PBAs repurchase intentions, and PBAs restaurant visits.

Integrated food delivery problem considering both single-order and multiple order deliveries

The global food delivery market is rapidly growing, and leading companies in Korea have recently introduced a single-order delivery service, wherein a courier picks up customers’ food and delivers it immediately without visiting other places. Although this delivery service is associated with a high delivery fee, it is popular among customers who prefer fresh and fast delivery, unlike multiple-order delivery services, which handle orders from several customers simultaneously. Nevertheless, the coexistence of both delivery services has led couriers to prefer single-order deliveries because they are more profitable, resulting in intensified competition among couriers. Furthermore, there are cases where the courier visits other restaurants or customers without immediately delivering food to customers who use the single-order delivery service, making it a multiple-order delivery service, which leads to customer dissatisfaction. To address these issues, this study proposes a mixed-integer linear programming model for optimizing order assignment and routing in an environment where both single-order and multiple-order deliveries coexist. The tabu search was used to solve medium-sized and large-sized problems, and several food delivery models were configured by referencing the operating methods of the platforms. Through experiments, we demonstrate that the proposed model is more efficient in properly delivering food to customers for both single and multiple orders than other food delivery models. We also analyzed the impact of various variables through a sensitivity analysis, providing insights into the platform.

임원배상책임보험의 통지조항 - 기업보험성 및 설명의무와 관련하여

D&O insurance goes beyond covering the risk of lawsuits against directors’ personal property and has become an essential element for the sustainable management of companies. The D&O insurance subscription rate of listed companies in Korea has increased to about 75% as of 2023, but the number of claims in 2022 is 122 and the loss ratio is only 9.6%. The reason why D&O insurance is not activated in Korea is due to the problem of corporate governance in which diectors are not effectively held accountable, as well as the English terms and conditions of the United States, which are based on American corporate law, which is different from Korea’s. The terms and conditions have been written, and the Korean terms and the US English terms and conditions are used as is, resulting in unclear or unreasonable interpretations. In particular, the notice provision, which is the essence of claims-made policy, is the most confusing part in practice and rulings. The notice provision makes immediate notification of a claim a condition precedent for policy and includes the obligation to consent in advance to settlement or defense costs. Since D&O insurance is a corporate insurance, the principle of prohibition of disadvantageous changes in Article 663 of the Commercial Act does not apply, and the duty to explain should be exempted or relieved. If the obligation to notify the occurrence of an insurance accident is not complied with and prior consent for defense costs is not obtained, the insurance shall not be paid. Even if the insurer is in breach of the duty to explain, it should be solved by the interpretation of terms and conditions, and the insurer’s reponsibility for damages.

An evaluation framework for low performers and human resource management planning: Application to a life insurance company in Korea

This study comprehensively explores the factors that lead to low performers in an organization. A thorough literature review was conducted to construct an interview guide and obtain classification criteria for the factors that lead to low performers. Managers and low performers at multiple firms were interviewed individually to understand the various phenomena related to low performers in organizations. Based on the content of these interviews, 12 factors, classified into individual, leader, work, and organizational dimensions, were identified after three rounds of revisions by business administration experts. Next, a case study of Korea’s S Life Insurance Company was conducted to examine the practical implications of the factors that contribute to creating low performers. In this case study, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), involving eight departmental heads S Life Insurance Company’s HR division, was utilized to identify the main factors that must be considered when evaluating low performers. While previous studies have examined low performers either at the individual, organizational, or institutional levels, this study presents a comprehensive and integrated evaluation framework of the factors that cause low performers. The proposed framework facilitates the identification and evaluation of low performers in various organizations and industries, and thus has practical implications in terms of establishing strategies to manage low performers more efficiently and improve organizational performance.

Strategic Resource Utilization for Enhancing Corporate Value: Dynamics of Exploration and Exploitation in Korea

This study examines the impact of research and development (R&D) expenditures, training expenditures, and entertainment expenditures (business promotion expenditures) on firm value in the Korean electronics and metal industry. Extending the theoretical foundation of James March’s exploration and exploitation theory, this study analyzes the impact of R&D and training investments on firm value to explore new capabilities from a long-term perspective, and the impact of entertainment costs on firm value to achieve short-term organizational goals. Using Tobin’s Q methodology, which uses the ratio of a firm’s market value to its asset replacement cost as a proxy for firm value, this study finds the relationship between these types of expenditures and firm value. The analysis finds that R&D expenditures and training expenditures are significantly correlated with increases in firm value, suggesting that these investments play an important role in enhancing a firm’s competitiveness and performance. On the other hand, while we hypothesize that the balance of exploration and exploitation within an organization will affect firm value, we find that entertainment expenditures, which are business promotion expenditures, do not show a significant relationship with firm value. This suggests that these expenditures by companies in Korea’s electronics and metals industry contribute to the achievement of the organization’s short-term goals but do not have a significant impact on firm value. These findings suggest that resource allocation in the electronics and metal industries where technological innovation is important should be more heavily weighted toward investments in R&D and training for long-term exploration in order to increase firm value. To increase firm value, firms should prioritize investments that drive sustainable growth and enhance competitive advantage. This research allows for a deeper examination of how different types of costs contribute to firm value and underscores the need for strategic clarity in resource allocation decisions.

Efficient Expansion Algorithm of Urban Logistics Network for Medical Products Considering Environmental Impact

As society continues to age, people are becoming more concerned about their health care. This has led to an increase in the demand for medical products in urban areas, emphasizing the need for regular and prompt deliveries. However, the existing logistics centers are located in the suburbs of Seoul, a metropolitan city, which makes it challenging to ensure timely delivery. To address this issue, this study aims to establish new logistics centers in urban areas, particularly in Seoul, while minimizing CO2 emissions from delivery vehicles in alignment with sustainability efforts. The scientific gap addressed in and the novelty of this paper is that the input parameters are prepared based on actual data from a medical company in Korea to reflect reality, and the mathematical model-based optimization technique is applied to determine the optimal location of a new logistics center. The genetic algorithm is developed to solve the proposed mathematical model by deriving optimal or near-optimal solutions. Furthermore, the numerical experiment examined the impact of establishing a new logistics center in one of the candidate areas of local governments in Seoul by considering environmental impact. As a result, the new logistics network can reduce CO2 emissions by approximately 66.74% compared to the existing logistics network.

기업의 기부금 지출 결정요인

Corporate donations is one of the most traditional firm policy for the corporate social responsibility. This paper examines the determinants of corporate donations using Tobit model. I constructed the firm-level panel data of 683 listed companies in Korea from 2000 to 2022. The estimation results find out that the corporate donations increase as the firm size is bigger, the debt ratio is lower, and the cash-flow ratio is higher. ROA has a significantly positive impact on the corporate donations during the whole analysis period, but it loses its significance for the sub-sample excluding global financial crisis and Corona-19 pandemic period. The results also show that firms donate more as they spends more money on advertising and R&D expenditure. Reduction of corporate tax rate in 2009 decreased the corporate donations significantly, and it has not been recovered to the initial level before the tax cut even after the tax rate re-increased in 2018. Change in tax deduction policy in 2014 did not affect corporate donations.

Group-wise monitoring of multivariate data with missing values

In this article, we aim to detect the changes in the process that generates multivariate data by monitoring their mean shift. To do this, we utilize a graphical tool known as a multivariate control chart. However, monitoring the mean of multivariate data poses two challenges: the grouped structure of individual observations and the presence of missing values. In this research, we introduce a novel method called HTC for monitoring group-wise multivariate data that includes missing values. HTC offers several advantages over existing methods. First, it is applicable to various types of dependence among individual observations within a group. Second, it provides a unique upper control limit (UCL) regardless of the missing data pattern. Lastly, HTC is computationally more efficient compared to resampling-based techniques. We conduct comprehensive numerical studies to evaluate the performance of the HTC method and compare it with the existing group-wise monitoring method, referred to as HTM. Compared to HTM, HTC achieves a higher true positive rate (TPR) while effectively controlling the in-control false alarm rate ( FAR 0 ) at a pre-determined level across various settings considered in our study. To illustrate its effectiveness, we applied HTC to monitoring multivariate environmental data collected from the manufacturing process of a semiconductor company in Korea.

카지노 리더⋅구성원의 교환관계가 잡크래프팅과 인게이지먼트에 미치는 영향

Due to the impact of COVID-19 over the past three years, most casino companies in Korea have experienced a significant loss in sales, the departure of key personnel, and organizational downsizing. Particularly, the issue of key personnel leaving casino companies, while an inevitable survival strategy during the pandemic, now poses a major challenge for businesses due to the resulting shortage of high-quality labor. To address this issue, company members must find personal meaning in their work and fully engage with their responsibilities, and the relationship between leaders and the members they oversee should be strengthened. Thus, this study aimed to elucidate the effect of leader-member exchange (LMX) on members' job crafting and engagement, and to examine whether members' core self-evaluations moderate the relationship between LMX and job crafting. We employed structural equation modeling to analyze the relationship between the independent variable (leadermember exchange), the mediating variable (job crafting), and the dependent variable (engagement), and used SPSS Process Macro's model 4 and model 7 to analyze the moderating effect of core self-evaluation. The survey participants were employees of domestic casino companies, selected as the study population. Over three weeks, from July 3 to July 23, 2023, we distributed 270 surveys through both online and offline methods, and analyzed the 255 responses collected. The findings are as follows: First, LMX was shown to impact members' job crafting. Second, the job crafting of members was found to influence engagement. Third, LMX was found to affect members' engagement directly. Additionally, the mediating role of job crafting in the relationship between LMX and engagement was confirmed. Lastly, it was determined that members' core self-evaluation moderates the relationship between LMX and job crafting. Therefore, to enhance human resources post-COVID-19, casino companies should implement and manage the concepts of LMX, job crafting, core self-evaluation, and engagement within their management practices.

한국과 대만 상장기업의 ESG 활동이 경영 성과에 미치는 영향에 관한 탐색적 연구

This study investigates the impact of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) management on the performance of listed companies in Korea and Taiwan, aiming to derive strategic implications for businesses in these nations. Korea and Taiwan, recognized as advanced economies in Asia due to their rapid post-World War II economic growth, exhibit distinct differences in ESG implementation strategies. Through the analysis of data from companies in both countries, this empirical research employs Tobin’s q ratio as the metric for assessing business performance. The findings indicate that, in contrast to Korea—where government policies and the initiatives of large corporations significantly foster ESG management practices—Taiwan displays a lower propensity towards ESG adoption, attributed to the predominance of small and medium-sized enterprises and specific geographical characteristics. This paper demonstrates the influence of ESG management on a firm’s long-term success and market competitiveness, proposing it as a viable strategy for value creation. By revealing the correlation between ESG practices and business performance, the study provides practical insights for the formulation of policies concerning ESG management, investment, and strategic planning.

The expertise of internal accounting control personnel and financial statement conservatism: Korean evidence

The purpose of this study is to analyze how the expertise of internal accounting control personnel impacts financial statement conservatism. This study analyzed companies listed on the Korean stock market. Listed companies in Korea have been disclosing information on internal accounting personnel since 2012. Using a fixed-effect regression model, an analysis of 3,276 firm-years from 2012 to 2018 shows a positive correlation between the expertise of internal accounting control personnel and financial statement conservatism. The results from Ball and Shivakumar’s (2006) CF, DD, and Jones models are all significant at the 1% level, enhancing the robustness of the study’s findings. The coefficients were 0.872, 0.869, and 0.846, and the t-values were 3.93, 3.95, and 3.83 in each model. This indicates that firms with CPAs (Certified Public Accountant) among their internal accounting control personnel show stronger tendencies toward conservatism compared to those without CPAs. Furthermore, an analysis based on the firm ownership structure reveals a positive correlation between internal accounting control personnel expertise and financial statement conservatism in a non-Chaebol subsample (coefficient = 1.043, t-value = 3.58 in CF model); however, the results in the Chaebol subsample were not significant. This suggests that while having CPAs involved in non-Chaebol firms’ internal control is effective, it is not effective in Chaebol companies that are highly influenced by their owners.

The Determinants of SME Success in the Long Run: An Ecosystem Perspective

ABSTRACT Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) drive economic growth especially in developing countries. Nonetheless, it is empirically challenging to identify the key attributes that predict the long-run success of SMEs. We analyse a detailed nationwide innovation survey of 4,075 companies in Korea, as well as their performance metrics, and demystify the key features that predict outperformance in the long horizon. We draw conditional causal inferences for SMEs by utilizing coarsened exact matching. Both the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regularization technique and the elastic net method unveil that, among a variety of factors that include innovative activities, government support, and other external factors in the SME ecosystem, in-house research and development (R&D) are the most important factors for the success of SMEs. Government support in the form of product purchase plans or government-wide acquisition contracts also matters for SME success, but the association is transient and short-lived. Hence, accumulating intangible capital by internalizing R&D activities is of the utmost importance for SME success in the long run.

Is the IPO of Bio Venture Companies Intended for R&D? Analysis Study on Listed Bio Venture Companies in Korea

Is the IPO of Bio Venture Companies Intended for R&D? Analysis Study on Listed Bio Venture Companies in Korea

Case Study of Creator Economy : Focused on Game Companies in Korea

Case Study of Creator Economy : Focused on Game Companies in Korea

일반지주회사의 가치관련성 수준

[Purpose]This paper examines value relevance of holding companies out Monoploy Regulation and Fair Trade Act(hereinafter general holding companies). For this purpose, we compare the difference of value relevance between general holding companies and MRFTA holding companies and investigate change of value relevance after transition into holding companies respectively. [Methodology]Samples are selected among listed holdings companies from 2011 to 2022 and number of samples is 63 per year, which consist 16 holdings out MRFTA and 47 holdings in MRFTA per year, and 756 firm－year observations. [Findings]The results are as follows. First, value relevance of general hoding companies is lower than that of MRFTA holding companies in terms of book per share(BPS). Second, value relevance of the general holding companies is significantly decreased after transition into holding company in terms of earnings per share(EPS). Third, the result of 2SLS analysis is the same with those of the main analysis. [Implications]As the contribution of the precedent researches, this research examines value relavance of general holding companies in Korea for the first time. The results of this research emphasize low earnings quality in MRFTA holding companies is negative influence on value relevance of companies.

The Impact of Drug Approval-Patent Linkage System on Patent Applications: Evidence from the KORUS FTA

Purpose - This paper empirically investigates the impact of strengthened intellectual property rights (IPRs) within the KORUS Free Trade Agreement (FTA) on patent applications filed by domestic pharmaceutical companies in Korea.
 Design/methodology - In this study, the distribution of the dependent variable is assumed to follow a Poisson or a negative binomial distribution, given the count nature of the dependent variable. Therefore, it can be estimated through the Panel Count Model. The study utilizes Poisson panel analysis and negative binomial panel analysis.
 Findings - The results of the negative binomial panel analysis and the Poisson panel analysis affirm that the conclusion of the KORUS-FTA had a significantly positive effect on the number of patent applications by domestic pharmaceutical companies. These findings suggest that domestic pharma- ceutical companies actively sought patents following the signing of the KORUS-FTA, driven by the “drug approval-patent linkage system” designed to fortify intellectual property rights for drugs.
 Originality/value - Limited empirical research has been conducted on the drug approval-patent linkage system in the KORUS-FTA. This study empirically confirmed the impact of institutional changes in the pharmaceutical industry on patent applications at the corporate level within the KORUS-FTA context. Such insights are crucial for formulating strategies for pharmaceutical companies and indicating policy directions for the pharmaceutical industry in the future.

The Effects of Profitability and Debt-To-Equity Ratio on Operating Leverage

The aim of this study was to analyze the effects of profitability and debt-to-equity ratio on operating leverage in the case of companies listed on the Korea Exchange from 2000 to 2021. The analysis showed that the profitability and debt-to-equity ratio of companies in Korea rose with increasing operating leverage (fixed costs), and it is worth noting that a company’s cost structure affects its capital structure. There was a positive correlation between profitability and debt-to-equity ratio for Korean firms, which means that their capital structure can be explained by the pecking order theory. That is, the more profitable a company is, the more it prefers to raise funds through debt issuance rather than equity issuance. In the case of Korean companies with a relatively high dependence on debt, the increase in operating leverage for facility investment among other business activities mostly expands debt, and the higher the profitability, the higher the debt-to-equity ratio is.

일본 중소 제조기업의 DX를 활용한 생산성 향상 전략

Purpose: Digital technologies, which have played a major role in driving the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, are now not only a means of maximizing their competitiveness to small and medium manufacturing companies, but also use them to deepen their ties with related parties such as producers, suppliers, and consumers. Therefore, these digital technologies make it possible to create new values and higher values for small and medium manufacturing companies in Japan today. The purpose of this paper is to focus on what is the fundamental purpose of promoting digital transformation by small and medium Japanese manufacturing companies in recent years, and what are the effects of promoting such digital transformation. In addition, the characteristic that appears in the process of developing digital transformation by introducing such digital technology to its management activities is to analyze cases using the operation model of digital transformation.
 Research design, data, and methodology: Based on previous studies so far, this study presents a DX operation analysis model of Japanese small and medium manufacturing companies to identify and analyze the characteristics of Japanese small and medium manufacturing companies’ introduction and operation of DX in their production activities, and focuses on the cases of small and medium manufacturing companies corresponding to the three types in such models.
 Results: In order to enable Japanese small and medium manufacturing companies to develop production activities suitable for the new digital era amid rapidly changing environmental changes in the era of the 4th industrial revolution, above all, a change in the business model is required to maximize the productivity and added value of their products. Through the DX operation cases of small and medium manufacturing companies in Japan, we were able to see how effectively and efficiently they are coping with the challenges related to productivity improvement and technology succession, which were their ultimate problems, by using digital technologies such as IoT, AI, big data, and cloud.
 Implications: Since the problem of low birth rate and aging population is emerging as a serious social problem in Korea, the technology succession problem related to the manufacture of molds by skilled engineers in Japanese small and medium manufacturing companies is thought to be a phenomenon that may soon occur in Korea. Therefore, the various DX operation cases of small and medium manufacturing industries in Japan have great implications for small and medium manufacturing companies in Korea.