The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between venture capital (VC) co-investment networks and investment performance in Korea. We analyze the determinants of VC firm performance based on three main factors -VC firm characteristics, market situation characteristics, and network characteristics. We use and analyze degree centrality and betweenness centrality as network characteristics by social network analysis. Our analysis shows degree centrality, which indicates direct relationship between VCs, and betweenness centrality, the extent to which a VC may act as an intermediary, have significant positive effects on VC investment performance. We also found degree centrality is more significantly related with performance than betweenness centrality; thus, we could refer direct relationship is more important than indirect relationship.
We also found the influence of firm age is significantly positive, but portfolio size’s influence is negative. Among market situation characteristics, we found Average PER has significantly negative relationship, while VC inflow has significantly positive relationship with investment performance.

The aim of this study is to provide a policy implication for SMEs' appropriation system by analyzing the propensity of using the appropriation method in order to protect innovation in SMEs. The analysis uses Survey on SME technology and R&D in 2011 and multinomial ion model. The main findings and policy implication are as follows.
First, Manufacturing SMEs located in metropolis prefer to use lead time and complex designs. Therefore, it may be more effective for these firms to share know-how on knowledge protection, which was effective in the past, rather than a formalized intellectual property system.
Second, in relation to the growth stages of a firm, SMEs in introduction stage tend to use patents, while SEMs in growth and maturity stage tend to use trade secret. These results show the need for customized intellectual property policies that take into account the growth stages of SMEs.
Third, SMEs with high market concentration have a higher propensity of using trade secret than patent. This seems to reflect some of the situation that SMEs use trade secret in order to avoid the intellectual property disputes with large companies.

In this study, we examined whether anger expressed by a subordinate toward a supervisor is perceived differently by culture. More specifically, we investigated how people evaluate the promotion eligibility and job performance of the subordinate who displays anger. The study design was 2 (emotion condition: anger expression condition vs. neutral condition) x 2 (country: South Korea vs. USA) between-subject design and a total of 168 participants (84 in Korea, 84 in the US) participated in the study. Anger expression was manipulated by a video clip in which two actors proficient in both Korean and English played the role of subordinate and supervisor. Participants responded to a questionnaire after watching the video of their assigned condition. ANOVA analysis showed a significant interaction effect between the country and emotion condition. In Korea, there was no significant difference by emotion condition in perceived promotion eligibility and job performance In contrast, in the United States, anger expression was related to lower perception of promotion eligibility and job performance.

Most of the previous researches on supply chain integration have been based on the assumption that supply chain integration affects supply chain performance. Therefore, it is limited to study whether supply chain integration enhances the capabilities of the supply chain and can improve the supply chain performance through the enhancement of such capabilities. Therefore, this study is to investigate the relationship between supply chain integration and supply chain performance in terms of RTE capability and supply chain performance. The hypotheses between these items were established and the results were as follows.
First, supply chain integration shows a positive (+) significant effect on RTE capacity, and RTE competency has a positive (+) significant effect on supply chain performance. Therefore, it has been confirmed that raising the level of supply chain integration can raise the level of RTE capability and further improve the supply chain performance.
Therefore, it is important to show the importance of supply chain integration to the individual companies constituting the supply chain. In order to enhance the RTE capacity, it is important to integrate the supply chain, and to clarify what capacity of the supply chain should be improved for companies.

In the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the new product development environment of manufacturing companies is becoming increasingly complex with the need to differentiate their products through software competency, demanding quick product release cycles and quick reflection of user feedback. Linear product development processes cannot support the iterative cycles and external collaboration that characterize today’s current competitive environment and product development efforts. Having already widely utilized in the software industry for past decades, the agile methods has been found to make various benefits by applying them to software development processes over the last decade. Therefore, in recent years, many manufacturing companies have shown great interest in securing product competitiveness and development agility by applying agile method as an alternative to existing development methods. In this study, we analyze the feasibility and applicability of applying the agile method to Korean small and medium-sized manufacturing companies using the expert Delphi method. This paper found that most experts have agreed that agile strategy and incremental adoption of agile practices-especially SCRUM method are essential to secure agility of product development for enhancing the competitiveness of SMEs. Based on the results of the Delphi survey, not only academic implications but also practical implications were derived. This study shows that agile methods can be ed by local SME manufacturing companies as the key strategies to cope with the fourth industrial revolution, and SCRUM agile practices can be employed to the SME manufacturing enterprises first among other agile practices to yield the positive performance and other advantages quickly.

This study attempts to evaluate restructuring policies in East Germany during the period of German unification, as well as the analysis of case studies on corporate restructuring, and then suggests implications for the restructuring of North Korean companies in a unified Korea.
At the early stage of the unification, East Germany laid the foundation for restructuring at the initiative of the Treuhandanstalt (Trust Agency) via the complex division, the shift to an independent cooperation, business valuation and financial structure improvement; and then the private sector gradually took the lead in restructuring. Despite a sudden unification and worsened macroeconomic situation, East German companies were able to overcome the shocks occurring after the regime change in a relatively short period owing to intensive restructuring; even though their competitiveness had been very weak before the unification.
In spite of such positive views, however, several factors are pointed out that might hamper a smooth corporate restructuring in East Germany: the early situation of the unification process was not favorable for East German companies due to overestimated convesion rates and a delay in the writing off of old liabilities; management policies on East German companies radically shifted from the privatize-and- then-restructure strategy to the restructure-and-then-privatize strategy; and, accordingly, the corporate restructuring remained passive even after adopting the restructuring- and-later privatization strategy by the Trust Agency. In addition, the analysis of case studies on corporate restructuring shows that East German companies failed to secure growth engines despite intensive restructuring measures, not only due to internal factors (e.g. deepened dependency on a few industries and the lack of long-term growth strategy such as exploring a new business), but also structural and external factors (e.g. economic downturn and business recession). Although companies received funds for restructuring via bank loans and IPO, their debts dramatically increased because of excessive loans, thus failing to maintain the financial soundness by inefficiency in fund use. This implies that the efficient use of investments is a determinant factor for the success of financial improvement.
Given the current North Korean situation (e.g. aging industrial facilities, the low level of financial development and more foreign currency in circulation) along with the assessment of East German restructuring, we draw implications for the restructuring of North Korean companies in a unified Korea. First, the currency exchange rate should be set up considering North Korean companies’ weak financial situation and competitiveness, and old liabilities should be resolved early. Second, corporate restructuring should be mainly led by the government at an early stage of unification, thus laying the foundation for autonomous restructuring after privatization. Third, when the private sector leads restructuring after privatization, required are following factors: a dramatic improvement in cost structure, innovations for strengthening the role of markets, the stabilization of the financial structure, the facilitation of knowledge-sharing and the dynamic adjustment of business portfolio. Fourth, a joint public- private support system needs to be set up for a smooth restructuring though the cooperation between the South Korean government and the private sector including commercial banks, business partners in the same field and venture capital.

Culture marketing has been converged to enter the global market because consumer trends in the market are shifting from functional differentiation to sensory experience. Furthermore, as the ‘Hallyu (Korean Wave)’ spreads all over the world and its contents are diversified, Hallyu-based culture marketing is an important strategy or tool to make the successful entry of Korean SMEs into the global market. This paper is to analyze the success case, ‘IT’S HANBUL’ into the global market based on a conceptual research framework with cultural promotion strategic factors; cultural promotion, art infusion, and PPL (product placement). The Hallyu-based cultural promotion activities for advancing the global market is to improve brand image, and increase sales by utilizing cultural resources such as cultural contents, stars, and Korea itself as a tourist destination. Hence the research suggests the necessity of integrated marketing communication (IMC) strategy, the expansion of experiential marketing strategy for core customers, and cultural resources diversification strategy.

This paper discusses the change of fundamental assumptions and perceptions that have based the formulation and implementation of Korean SME policy in order to overcome the current economic and social problems and to make the opportunities for revitalization of Korean society. For more than the past two decades, Korean government has made much efforts to solve the problems of SME but could not accomplish the desirable outcome mainly because of lacking of institutional innovation to change the social structure that has allowed the practice of unfair trade among the companies, particularly between large corporations and SMEs. As a result of such prolonged customary practice, the SMEs have been considered as inferior and fragile sector, and recognized as low priority in finding job opportunity by the young generation. Currently, Korea is faced with the task of making breakthrough to resolve the problems of economic growth without job opportunities, slowdown of income growth, and dual structure of economy. Focusing on reforming the unfair economic structure and trade practice, the government should ensure the effectiveness of policy support for SMEs and development of viable ecosystem for the sustainable growth of SMEs. In particular, it is necessary to reform the closed ecosystem overly skewed to the Chaebol, Korean conglomerate, through banning unfair internal trade among affiliated firms which has blockaded the entry of SMEs into the market. Fair Trade Commission should play the proper role to straighten the unfair trade practices which have been prevalent in the market. To make more dynamic startup ecosystem, the government should increase the probability of realizing the reward for the innovative technology-based entrepreneurs and expand the M&A opportunities through providing tax incentives. Private sector should play more active roles in investing and growing the opportunity-motivated startups by changing the investment support policy. It is necessary to support the utilization of the intellectual property rights to ensure sustainability among global competition. In addition, the government should provide more opportunities for business failures to rechallenge through removing the obstacles that have hindered the efforts of restart after experiencing bankruptcy. Finally, through increasing the coordination and collaboration among related government sectors, the effectiveness of policy ution should be enhanced, particularly in evaluating and supporting the SMEs with high growth potentials.