This study examines the effect of SMEs’ listing on their investment based on Korean SMEs’ financial data from 2004 to 2015. We find that publicly- traded SMEs invest more on R&D than comparable privately-held SMEs identified through propensity score matching. We also find that SMEs that went public during our sample period use IPO proceeds on both CapEx and R&D, but those that were highly levered prior to the IPO do not use the proceeds on CapEx. ‘Difference-in- differences’ results further verify that SMEs that went public increase R&D investment more conspicuously than CapEx after the IPO. These results suggest that Korean public equity market is more likely to facilitate SME’s R&D investment than their capital expenditure.

AMost of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Korea are owned by family, and succession process of these companies are critical event for their survival. However, in reality, most family owned SMEs are not well prepared for succession. This study focuses on succession preparedness in order for SMEs to have effective succession. In particular, this study investigates whether the sub- factors of succession preparedness such as the efforts of successors, understandings and plans after succession, and the groundwork for succession, influence the effective succession. Also, it examines a family-level factor of the predecessor-successor relationship as a precedence to facilitate succession preparedness, and analyzes the mediating effect of succession preparedness between predecessor-successor relationship and effective succession.
This study is an empirical study based on the survey for 118 top managers of Korean family SMEs, who have experienced or are expecting the succession. As a result, we found a direct positive effect and mediating effects of succession preparedness between predecessor-successor relationship and effective succession. Especially, succession preparedness strongly mediates the link between predecessor- successor relationship and firm performance after the succession, rather than the satisfactory succession process. In addition, the efforts of successor are found to be the most critical factor among the succession preparedness. Finally, implications and future research suggestions are discussed.

While the unemployment rate is rising rapidly due to recent economic recession at home and abroad, university students’ reluctance to apply for jobs in Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s) causes instability in manpower supply and demand and social unrest. To provide insights for solving the problem, this study explores how beliefs and attitudes of university students influence their intention to apply for jobs in SME’s using Theory of Planned Behavior proposed by Icek Ajzen. This study followed the 2-stage survey methodology suggested by Ajzen. In the first stage of pilot study, a small sample of university students was used to illicit readily accessible behavioral outcomes, normative referents, and control factors. In the second stage of main study, the standard questionnaire was designed and administered and data were collected and analysed using the PLS Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique. PLS-SEM was used instead of Covariance Based (CB)- SEM considering the exploratory nature of this study. In overall, the results showed that TPB is very effective in explaining and predicting the university student’s intention to apply for jobs in SEM’s. Gender turned out to be a significant moderator variable in the relations between intention and its influence factors. Student’s scholastic performance showed a negative correlation with intention. More research efforts need to be exerted to better understand university student’s job seeking behavior.

Franchise industry accounts for a large portion of GDP and employment rate, and many first-time entrepreneurship is achieved through franchising. Thus, successful franchise operation has a great importance for the national economy. In order for a franchise system to operate successfully, it is necessary for the franchisers to be able to support strategic decisions of its franchisees and to help them survive in the long run with efficient operations.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficiency of same brand restaurant franchisees and to suggest which factors should be adjusted to improve efficiency using DEA. We used rent, manpower, size, local population and intensity of competition as input factors and analyzed efficiency by using sales and growth rate as factors of output.
As a result, location strategy for new opening franchisee was suggested including uncontrollable factors, and improvement strategy for existing franchisees was suggested using controllable factors only.
This research has practical contribution because it can be utilized as a franchisee support tool which can be adopted by the franchisers as a first step for win-win cooperation between franchiser and franchisees.

This study aimed to conduct comparative analysis of three representative research oriented university of China, Japan and Singapore on its start-up policy and cooperative model for sheding lights on Korean universities' start-up policy and program. By having in-depth interview with professor Chenjin from Tsinghua University, department of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Policy, professor Tanabe from Tokyo Institute, department of innovation science and professor Foo Maw Der from National University of Singapore, department of Engineering and Technology Management, I was able to find out some meaningful findings. First, all three universities are having difficulties on balancing academic education and practical education. second, three universities are focusing on their core competency, for example, Tsinghua university is mostly focusing on market, resource and ecosystem while TIT is focusing on technology development and NUS is focusing on business model. lastly, three universities are actively expanding their international cooperation relationship. As a result, for Korean universities, the most important and urgent issue on start-up policy is consistency on technology development and glottalization on market.

This study aims to investigate the effects of emotional leadership on subordinates’ work engagement in the service business. Also, we test the effect of self-efficacy on the relationship between emotional leadership and employees’ work engagement. We use a sample of 280 hair designers who are working at beauty shops with 5 or more employees. Results show that emotional leadership is positively related to subordinates’ self-efficacy. Also, subordinates’ self-efficacy has a positive relations to work engagement. Emotional leadership is positively associated with subordinates’ work engagement. Finally, the relationship between emotional leadership and subordinates’ work engagement is partially mediated by their self-efficacy. Some implications are discussed.

This paper verifies the effectiveness of public policy funding for SME programs using treatment effect analysis. We adopt a panel data model specification to separate and identify each effect of various programs. Our study encompasses all public policy SME finance programs of central and local governments in Korea.
The results are as follows: Impacts on sales growth rate and employment growth rate have been economically and statistically remarkable in not a few programs. However, effects on return on equity were not successful in most programs. These results show that supported firms are growing on the surface, on the other hand, their performances in terms of profitability were shallow.
The operation of policy SMEs funding should be concentrated on proving outcomes in return for a national opportunity cost of support rather than focusing on quantitative inputs.
Thus, this study presents a new framework for assessing the effects of many policy SME finance projects based on a single and unified model using data from SME panel data. This method has the advantage of comparing the effects of each by analyzing the whole projects.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the perception of pre-entry and post-immigrant youth entrepreneurs who are currently preparing for startup or startup business doing for the activation of North Korean defectors through in-depth interviews, The change of perception after entrepreneurial education and the common difficulties in the process of startup, and present the problem to be addressed by examining the current settlement support system so that defectors in South Korea can actively engage in voluntary economic activities in South Korea. In addition, by analyzing the case of establishment process of North Korean defectors' youth entrepreneurs, I would like to encourage and assist entrepreneurs in voluntary economic activities. In this study, we focused on the case of ten North Korean defectors' young entrepreneurs and found that they were able to see the changes before and after entrepreneurship education. Though it is a small sample compared to more than 30,000 North Korean defectors as of April 2017, each case of the establishment process is very important research material and it is necessary to activate the start-up for the voluntary economic activities of defectors. In addition, it is necessary to objectively determine the problem (settlement support system) and find its complementary point.

This study investigates whether adopting similar structural and institutional forms like US firms provides benefits to Chinese venture firms going public in the U.S. stock market. Institutional theory argues that those firms that conform to normal expectations will attain benefits in the market. In particular, this legitimacy through isomorphism is critical for firms undergoing an initial public offering (IPO) as these firms try to establish their credibility in the stock market. In this study, we test the hypotheses that Chinese IPO firms which exhibit stronger similarities to the characteristics of the U.S. domestic IPO firms will attain higher valuation from the investors. We examine two types of isomorphism, board capital isomorphism and IPO process isomorphism, in a sample of 153 Chinese firms going through an IPO in the U.S. According to our findings, IPO process isomorphism provides benefits to Chinese IPO firms although board capital isomorphism has no significant effect on the Chinese firms' IPO performance. Given that empirical studies are rare on which types of isomorphism are beneficial in the context of IPO, this study gives strategic implications to Korean companies planing to go public on the U.S. capital market.