Enterprises In South Korea Research Articles

Factors affecting the performance of government R&D support programs in pharmaceutical enterprises

Purpose The government support for research and development (R&D) initiatives in the pharmaceutical sector has been declining. The purpose of this study is to analyze factors influencing the efficacy of government R&D support programs directed at pharmaceutical enterprises in South Korea, aiming to provide valuable insights for policymakers responsible for resource allocation in the pharmaceutical industry. Design/methodology/approach The study uses data from 490 R&D projects conducted by 106 pharmaceutical enterprises between 2018 and 2020, sourced from the National Technical Information Service and Drug Approval Research and Technology repositories. The data were analyzed using negative binomial regression analysis operated by the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. Findings Applied research, cooperative research and the number of doctoral researchers positively impact both the quantitative and qualitative performance of the papers. The number of doctoral researchers, government research funds and the ratio of private investment to total R&D investment positively impacted the quantitative and qualitative performance of patents. However, enterprise age negatively affected patent performance. Notably, sales were significantly associated with patent qualitative performance but not with patent quantitative performance. Originality/value While previous studies have primarily focused on specific types of government R&D support or individual sectors, this study provides a broader perspective by incorporating a variety of variables, to examine the overall performance of government R&D programs in the pharmaceutical sector. This paper addresses the growing concern over declining government support and offers insights that were not fully explored in prior studies. By doing so, this research highlights the importance of understanding how diverse factors collectively influence the effectiveness of government R&D support, providing new directions for innovation and excellence in the pharmaceutical industry.

Enhancing Innovation Performance through Business Process Innovation: The Strategic Role of External Collaboration

Purpose: This research examines the effects of collaboration with external firms on innovation performance, with a specific focus on the mediating influence of business process innovation. The objective is to explore how external collaborations contribute to improving innovation performance by facilitating internal process innovations, enabling firms to effectively convert external knowledge into practical innovation results. Design/methodology/approach: Utilizing data from the Korean Innovation Survey (KIS), this research utilizes lo-gistic regression analysis to test the hypotheses concerning the relationships between external collaboration, business process innovation, and innovation performance. It measures innovation performance associated with product in-novation and assesses collaboration with external firms via a survey. Findings: The results demonstrate that external collaborations enhance innovation performance, emphasizing the value of external knowledge and the pivotal role of business process innovation in transforming this knowledge into tangible outcomes. This highlights the critical need to refine internal processes to maximize the benefits of external partnerships. Research limitations/implications: This study is limited by its focus on small and medium-sized enterprises in South Korea's manufacturing sector, so it may not fully represent the dynamics in other countries or sectors. Future research should explore the influence of external knowledge on firm performance across diverse contexts. Originality/value: This research contributes to the existing literature by highlighting the pivotal role of business process innovation as a key mediator in integrating external collaboration into firms' innovation strategies. By pro-viding empirical insights into the innovation practices of South Korean firms, it enriches the global discourse on innovation management. This study's integration of open innovation, firm attributes, and business process innovation into a unified analysis offers a comprehensive perspective on the factors influencing innovation success and under-scores the importance of internal processes in maximizing the benefits of collaboration with external firms.

The Effect of Performance Measure Comparability and Discriminability on Measure Discontinuance

ABSTRACT This study investigates the effect of performance measure characteristics―comparability and discriminability―on performance measure discontinuance. Relative performance evaluation using comparable information offers a means of filtering out common shocks and capturing the subordinates’ own performance relative to that of peers. In addition, a measure’s ability to discriminate good from poor performance is important in the incentive contract. We show that since subordinates have an incentive to put effort into the comparable and discriminable performance measures, the superior is more likely to retain performance measures with greater comparability and discriminability. Using a large sample of performance evaluation data from 15 state-owned enterprises in South Korea over the period 1985–2021, we find that comparable and discriminable performance measures are less likely to be discontinued. Our study contributes to the performance evaluation literature by identifying two measure characteristics that influence the evolution of performance measures.

Social Entrepreneurship, Employment, and Financial Performance: A Latent Growth Modeling Approach

The social value created by organizations has been in the spotlight during periods of rapid social change, such as COVID-19. However, the existing literature has been limited by the inability to demonstrate the cumulative effects of social value over time, which has led to academic and practical limitations. Drawing on stakeholder theory, socially responsible customer behavior, and institutional theory, the author collected data from 208 social enterprises in South Korea over 3 years, from 2017 to 2019, and tested hypotheses using latent growth modeling. This analytical technique, which uses structural equation modeling, estimates the latent growth rate of each data measure by year and analyzes the causal relationship between the growth rate of each variable. The results show that higher levels of social entrepreneurship are associated with higher growth rates of total employment and vulnerable worker employment, followed by higher growth rates of financial performance. The implications of this paper are as follows. First, this study reports that social entrepreneurship can help social enterprises develop sustainably by increasing financial performance. Second, this study overcomes the methodological limitations of the existing literature by reporting the relationship between growth rates. Third, this study reports that social enterprises can help solve employment problems for vulnerable populations, who are often the first to be affected by the economic crisis. Fourth, this study contributes to resolving the conflicting and contradictory perspectives of practitioners and academics on the relationship between social and economic value. Fifth, it offers suggestions for the future direction of the academic field.

Analysis of Social Enterprise Policies in China and South Korea from a Comparative Research Perspective

There is a noticeable discrepancy in the advancement of social enterprises in China and South Korea. Compared to South Korea, social enterprise development in China is lagging behind. Most of the current research starts from the dual perspectives of the two countries, but there are a few studies that focus on the growth of social enterprises in South Korea and use this to reflect on Chinese social enterprises. In order to fill this gap, this study concentrates on the advantages of social enterprise development in South Korea, while looking at the development trend and prospects of social enterprises in China. This paper adopts the simple comparative analysis method and the four-dimensional progressive analysis method, and evaluates the progress of social enterprises in China and South Korea from the four dimensions of history, goal, structure, and performance by collecting relevant data in recent years. The research results show that South Korea has a long history of social enterprise policies. Innovation, market failure, and the maturity of the social environment are of great importance to the government, which also encourages the progress of social enterprises. In contrast, Chinas failure to formulate national policy actions has been attributed to a conservative government approach to innovation and weak market forces. Therefore, this paper draws on the experience of Korean social enterprises, provides suggestions for the improvement of Chinese social enterprises in terms of government policies and markets, opens up ideas for follow-up research, and provides a new research perspective.

How social enterprise executives perceive their relationship with the government in South Korea: Insights from a Q‐methodological study

AbstractThis study utilizes Q‐methodology to assess the perspectives of 37 executives of government‐certified social enterprises in South Korea on their organization's relationship with the public sector in terms of the complementary‐supplementary‐adversarial conceptual frameworks of Toepler et al. and Young and the literature on co‐production. The perspectives of social enterprise executives that participate in co‐production arrangements represent an underexplored domain. Our findings contribute to the framework of Toepler et al. by empirically gauging the effects of, in particular, an enabling regulatory framework and public funding relative to the tensions represented by potentially excessive regulation. Although the focus on a single context limits the generalizability of the study, it provides insights on the nuances and complexities of public sector patronage while highlighting that such patronage is generally seen as being more complementary than adversarial. Our findings contribute to efforts to empirically gauge perceptions of co‐production arrangements.

Integrity, CEO Compensation, and Performance: Evidence from Public Enterprises in South Korea

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze perceived integrity of public service users and public enterprise employees in association with public enterprise performance, and the role of the CEO compensation on the association between perceived integrity and public enterprise performance.
 Design/methodology/approach: This study uses publicly available performance evaluations and CEO compensation disclosures by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance (MOSF) in South Korea and integrity assessments by the Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission of Korea from 2014 to 2017.
 Findings: We find a positive association between integrity and public enterprise performance, a result driven by the positive association between integrity perceived by service users and public enterprise performance. Furthermore, higher monetary compensation paid to CEOs has a negative influence on the relationship between integrity perceived by public service users and public enterprise performance, whereas higher compensation paid to CEOs has a positive influence on the relationship between integrity perceived by employees and public enterprise performance.
 Research limitation/implications: Integrity perception might be subject to bias depending on the type of stakeholders (public service users or public enterprise employees). Thus, information users of public enterprise performance reports need to be aware of perception gaps in relation to multi-faceted aspects of public enterprise performance. We provide insights into the relationship between perception of integrity and public enterprise performance of the government bodies who enact and administer laws and public policies.
 Originality/value: This paper captures how the perceptions of integrity, as assessed by diverse stakeholders with differing perspectives and levels of honesty and transparency, influence public enterprise performance assessments. Furthermore, it extends the findings of prior studies on the impact of monetary compensation in the public sector (see Abner et al. 2017; Boyd et al. 2018; Chen and Hsieh 2015, among others) to confirm how CEO monetary compensation impacts the relationship between integrity and public enterprise performance. In the public sector, the extrinsic motivation of higher CEO monetary compensation relative to other public enterprises generally crowds out prosocial motivation, which, in turn, impairs the relationship between external integrity and public enterprise performance. At the same time, higher CEO monetary compensation has an incremental impact on internal integrity in association with financial management performance. Thus, we suggest that public enterprises should pay close attention to the design of their current incentive systems for CEOs, place greater weight on prosocial motivation to manage external integrity, and emphasize skill-based monetary compensation to manage internal integrity. Lastly, using manually collected data sets of public enterprises provided by two independent government organizations in Korea, we increase the objectivity and generalizability of the findings of the few studies published on public service organizations in a single-country setting.

A Comparative Analysis of Social Enterprise in South Korea and Indonesia

Social enterprise (or, institutionally, social business) is a business practice that focuses on social activities in which both market and government fail to deliver social benefit, welfare, justice, and sustainability. Some countries such as South Korea, the United Kingdom, the USA, and others have progressively developed a suitable ecosystem for social enterprise. Indonesia, with its growing social enterprises in society, also needs a suitable and favorable ecosystem to ascertain the progress and sustainability of such enterprises. This study is intended to design a business ecosystem ideal for Indonesia’s social enterprises. It was conducted by comparative analysis of the social enterprise ecosystem in Indonesia and South Korea South Korea is considered a country with the most progressive social enterprises in Asia through a systematic literature review. The comparative analysis result is further analyzed using the BEEP (Babson Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Project) Model. This study shows that there are several significant differences and gaps between Indonesia and South Korea’s business ecosystem for fostering the progress of social enterprises notably in the areas of government policy, finance, and human capital in which Indonesia needs to reflect on developing and fostering her social enterprise ecosystem. The interplay of factors and players of the social business ecosystem in Indonesia will thrive if the government can properly nurture existing social culture, promote proper policies, roll out appropriate and accessible levels of the playing field, and develop a consistent and impartial legal framework. Keywords: social enterprise ecosystem, social business, entrepreneurship ecosystem, systematic literature review

Exploring Social Entrepreneurship of the First Social Enterprise in South Korea: The Case of the Founder of Dong Wha Pharm

A great deal of attention has been paid to entrepreneurship and social enterprises that help improve societies' ability to solve social problems and develop new ways of thinking (Drucker 1995). Dong Wha Pharm, founded in 1897, was the first social enterprise in South Korea. The purpose of this study is to provide meaningful insights into the theoretical development of social entrepreneurship and how to achieve social innovation by fostering social entrepreneurship. Drawing on the five critical elements of social entrepreneurship developed by Dees (1998), we explore social entrepreneurship by investigating the first Korean social entrepreneur, Kang Min, the founder of Dong Wha, a 125-year-old company in South Korea. The findings offer meaningful and valuable insights to the literature on social entrepreneurship and to current and potential social entrepreneurs wanting to find new ways to achieve social improvement and move society forward.

Exploring the Regional Determinants of the Emergence of Social Enterprises in South Korea: An Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Perspective

South Korea has experienced a rapid increase in the emergence of social enterprises that aim to address various social problems. However, little is known about the conditions that can affect the emergence of social enterprises at the regional level. This study examined the regional factors that influence the establishment of social enterprises using a panel dataset of observations on 17 metropolitan cities and provinces in South Korea from 2012 to 2019. The appearance of social enterprises in regional entrepreneurial ecosystems was found to be associated with the market, government, networks, financial resources, and human capital. We also found that the determinants of their emergence within South Korea’s social enterprise ecosystem vary based on their level of development and purpose. Based on the results, we suggested several policy implications and suggestions.

From teamwork to psychological well-being and job performance: the role of CSR in the workplace

PurposeAlthough the positive impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives on personal and organizational outcomes has been studied in the fields of human resource management and the hospitality industry, scholars in these fields still consider CSR as a promising area with potential. Drawing upon the dual concern and the attribution theories, this study aims to identify three stages of formations from teamwork with colleagues and personal benefits to organizational benefits from social responsibilities of hospitality companies via an integrated research model.Design/methodology/approachWith the data collected from 324 frontline employees in hospitality enterprises in South Korea, this study empirically investigated the interrelationship to predict frontline employees’ job performance.FindingsThe empirical results from structural equation modeling indicated that perceived management support for CSR and perceived colleague support for CSR had significant influence on empathetic concern for colleague and anticipated positive affect, separately. Also, empathetic concern significantly affected psychological well-being and job satisfaction, while an anticipated positive affect significantly influenced job satisfaction. Finally, psychological well-being and job satisfaction had a significant impact on job performance.Practical implicationsThis study provides several managerial implications for maximizing the effectiveness of hospitality companies’ CSR practices, enhancing frontline employees’ psychological well-being, job satisfaction and job performance.Originality/valueBased on the empirical findings, this study provided meaningful theoretical and managerial implications to maximize the effectiveness of CSR initiatives and maximize frontline employees’ job performance in the hospitality industry.

A Regional Economy\u2019s Resistance to the COVID-19 Shock: Sales Revenues of Micro-, Small-, and Medium-Sized Enterprises in South Korea

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a global pandemic that has heavily impacted not only the health sector, but also the economic sector in general. Many countries have projected a negative economic impact, and the effect on micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) is predicted to be significantly large. This study estimated the regional resistance of MSME sales revenues and identified the regional economic factors that affect resistance by analyzing South Korea, a country with one of the lowest economic impact projections from COVID-19. Resistance was estimated by comparing sales revenues and changes in resistance observed during the early COVID-19 period to those recorded in the same weeks (weeks 6 to 9) of 2019. The factors that affect regional resistance were determined by conducting robust regression and spatial regression analyses. The results show that the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, a direct risk factor, is negatively related to regional resilience, while diversity is positively related to regional resistance. To improve the regional resistance against uncertain events, this study recommends increased diversity among regional industrial structures to reduce the duration of the early shock of an unexpected adverse event.

Drivers and interrelationships of three types of pro-environmental behaviors in the workplace

PurposePrior research in the human resources management fields focused primarily on one type of employees’ pro-environmental behaviors yet failed to empirically investigate interrelationships among the distinct dimensions of their pro-environmental behaviors. To build a deeper understanding of the psychological process in becoming an environmental activist in the workplace, this study aims to examine the interrelationships among frontline employees’ green autonomous motivation, green external motivation, environmental concern, self-efficacy and three types of pro-environmental behaviors (i.e. green idea generation behavior, green idea promotion behavior and green idea activist behavior).Design/methodology/approachWith the survey method, the data were collected from frontline employees working at hospitality enterprises in South Korea. This study analyzed the collected data, including frequency analysis, reliability analysis, correlation analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling.FindingsThe empirical results showed that autonomous motivation significantly influenced environmental concern, self-efficacy, green idea generation behavior and green idea promotion behavior. Also, external motivation significantly affected environmental concern, self-efficacy and green idea promotion behavior. Furthermore, environmental concern had significant influences on self-efficacy and green idea promotion behavior, and self-efficacy had significant effects on green idea generation behavior and green idea promotion behavior. Finally, green idea activist behavior was significantly influenced by green idea generation behavior and green idea promotion behavior only.Practical implicationsThis study proposes managerial implications to hospitality organizations and public policymakers for maximizing the effectiveness and efficiency of their green initiatives via frontline employees’ green idea activist behavior.Originality/valueBased on the empirical findings, this study proposes several theoretical and practical implications for the extant literature and the service industry in the context of frontline employees’ three types of pro-environmental behaviors from their working motivation.

How does the protean career attitude influence external employability? The roles of career resilience and proactive career behavior

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the structural relationships between protean career attitude, career resilience, proactive career behavior and external employability.Design/methodology/approachThis study sampled 212 training apprentice employees who participated in training programs using a proportional stratified sampling in South Korea. The study tested the research model using structural equation modeling.FindingsThis study revealed that protean career attitude influenced external employability through career resilience and proactive career behavior. Career resilience fully mediated the relationship between protean career attitude and external employability and partially mediated protean career attitude and proactive career behavior. Proactive career behavior also mediated the relationship between protean career attitude and external employability.Research limitations/implicationsThis study has a limitation by relying on cross-sectional data. In terms of theoretical implications, this study can add new knowledge to the protean career research by demonstrating that the protean career attitude influences perceived external employability through career resilience and proactive career behavior for the sample of young training apprentice employees.Originality/valueThis study uncovers the dynamic processes between protean career attitude and perceived external employability. Moreover, this study’s sample is significant because training apprentice employees are mostly young in their 20s and 30s with less than three years of working experience and working in small and medium-sized enterprises in South Korea.

Does Leadership Matter in Performance of Social Enterprises in South Korea?

In social enterprises, which are hybrid organizations that create social and economic values, the role of leaders is important to achieve goals. However, prior research on social enterprises overlooked the importance of a leader, and some research that considered leadership was insufficient to concern the characteristics of social enterprises. This study aims to find whether there is no problem in applying the leadership emphasized in a profit-firm to a non-profit-firm such as a social enterprise, since social enterprises pursue economic and social objectives simultaneously. To do so, we examined the effects of four leadership styles (transactional leadership, transformational leadership, servant leadership, and entrepreneurship) used mainly in commercial enterprises on the performance of social enterprises. In review of prior studies, it was assumed that transactional leadership would not have a significant effect on performance, and the other three kinds of leadership were hypothesized to have a positive effect on performance. Additionally, to clarify the relationship between leadership and performance of social enterprises, leader trust and calling were considered as mediators. Using the list of Korea Social Enterprise Promotion Agency, questionnaires were distributed via e-mail to employees of 318 social enterprises located in Seoul, and 251 copies were collected and analyzed. The results of this study show that transactional leadership only affects economic performance and does not show significance with the rest of the variables as was expected. Transformational leadership had positive relationships with variables considered as performances of social enterprises, and the mediating effects of leader trust and calling were also verified. Entrepreneurship was positively related to three performances of social enterprises, but servant leadership had a positive relationship with organizational commitment. This study contributes to highlighting the need for research to find appropriate leadership styles that focus on the characteristics of social enterprises.

The Influence of Dual Missions on Employees’ Meaning of Work and Turnover Intention in Social Enterprises

This study aims to examine the influence of an organization’s missions on employees’ turnover intention in the rarely studied context of social enterprises. Data collected from 236 full-time employees working for social enterprises in South Korea indicated that the negative relationship between social mission and turnover intention was mediated by the meaning of work; this mediation effect was weaker when the economic mission was stronger. The study contributes to the literature on organizational psychology (i.e., meaning of work, turnover) in the context of a new, but increasingly prevalent, organizational form—social enterprises. It also provides practical advice for managers seeking to retain and empower employees and enhance the sustainability of their social enterprises.

Effects of Incentives on the Positive Role Performance of the Importers: Focus on Small to Medium Enterprises in South Korea

본 연구의 목적은 한국 수출기업의 금전적 및 비금전적 인센티브가 해외 수입대리인의 규정준수, 헌신, 기회주의적 행동에 어떠한 영향을 미치는지와 나아가 이와 같은 행동이 긍정적 역할수행에도 영향을 미치는지 분석하는 것이다. 이를 위해 비금전적인 인센티브를 제공하면 수입대리인의 규정을 준수하고 헌신을 하는 수준이 높아지는 반면에 금전적 인센티브를 제공하면 기회주의적 성향이 높아질 수 있다고 가설을 설정하였다. 국내 189 수출기업을 설문해서 얻은 자료를 비추어 보면, 비금전적 인센티브를 지급 받았을 때 수입대리인의 규정준수와 헌신의 정도는 금전적 인센티브가 제공 되었을 때 보다 높은 현상을 보이며 연구가설을 뒷받침하였다. 전반적으로 연구결과는 수출기업이 비금전적 인센티브를 적극적으로 활용할 때, 수입대리인의 긍정적 역할 수행은 향상됨을 보여주었다. 본 연구는 비금전적, 금전적 인센티브 모두 효율적으로 제공이 되었을 때 수출기업과 수입대리인의 거래관계에 긍정적인 효과를 가지고 온다는 점을 시사했다. 이어서 수출기업이 보다 다양한 인센티브를 제공한다는 것은 수출을 통한 해외시장 진출 시 향상된 성과를 가져온 다는 것을 의미하였다.

Imprinting Perspective on the Sustainability of Commitments to Competing Institutional Logics of Social Enterprises

This study examines the conditions under which dual commitments to competing institutional logics, particularly a social vs. a commercial logic, are both important to organizational functioning for social enterprises. Using hand-collected data from a survey of 190 social enterprises in South Korea, we identify a reliable measure for the sustainability of competing logics. We also identify the factors associated with variation in a social enterprise’s capacity to sustain dual commitments to competing institutional logics. Using an imprinting perspective, we show that a social entrepreneur’s non-profit experience has a curvilinear effect on the sustainability of competing logics. Moreover, the non-linear effect of a social entrepreneur’s non-profit experience on the sustainability of competing logics is less profound in social enterprises with a highly ambivalent founder.

Factors Related to Smoking Recurrence within Six-months Smoking Cessation among Employees in Enterprises with Smaller than 300 Workers

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify factors associated with smoking relapse within six months after quit attempts among workers in small and medium-sized enterprises in South Korea. Methods: The analysis was conducted for a total of 194 people who attempted to quit smoking by applying for a smoking cessation support service at the Regional Tobacco Control Center. The data used in the study were extracted from the Smoking Cessation Service Integrated Information System. Kaplan-Meier estimator and Cox proportional hazards regression model were used to identify variables associated with smoking relapse within six months’ time period. Results: Smoking relapse rate within six months was 66.0%, and variables associated with relapse included the cases such as carbon monoxide (CO) at the time of registration (HR: 2.15, 95% CI: 1.10~4.22 for CO ≥20 ppm or more vs.CO ＜10 ppm), the average number of cigarettes smoked per day (HR: 1.04, 95% CI: 1.00~1.07), and the number of counseling(HR: 0.60, 95% CI: 0.54~0.67). Conclusion: Smoking characteristics and counseling showed one of the strongest correlations with relapse within six months. This implies that it is necessary to understand the smoking characteristics and patterns of workers and to provide continuous smoking cessation counseling tailored to individual characteristics for effective smoking relapse prevention.

Can Infused Publicness Enhance Public Value Creation? Examining the Impact of Government Funding on the Performance of Social Enterprises in South Korea

Numerous countries employ social enterprise as an alternative way of addressing social, economic, and environmental problems, with this new approach steadily gaining strength over the last two decades. Despite this growth, few empirical studies have examined the effects of government policies on social enterprise development. Seeking to fill this gap, this study examines the impact of government funding on the social and economic performance of social enterprises in South Korea, framed by integrative publicness hypotheses. The integrative publicness framework posits that infused publicness by government funding can enhance public value creation. To investigate the impact of government funding on social enterprises, this study has gathered data from annual reports voluntarily published by Korean social enterprises in 2018. Regression was employed to analyze the data. The findings suggest that government funding is positively associated with social enterprise’s employment of the disadvantaged, community contribution, and democratic decision-making. In addition, government funding is related to a decrease in the business profitability of social enterprises, implying that it may lessen their profit-maximization. This study provides policymakers and managers of social enterprises with suggestions on how to measure the outcomes of social enterprises and offers real-world touchstones on how they can improve their creation of public value.