Jaehoon Rhee

Antecedents of knowledge competency and performance in born globals

Purpose – This study aims to investigate the antecedents of knowledge competency and international performance in South Korean born globals, with particular focus on the moderating effects of the absorptive capacity.Design/methodology/approach – Building on previous studies, the study constructs and tests a research model using structural equation modeling and multiple regression analysis for data collected from 271 early internationalizing SMEs. To secure results of hypothesis testing, non‐response bias was assessed using a t‐test, and tests for data screening and common method bias were conducted.Findings – The results indicate that, for early internationalizing small firms, the prior international business experience of managers and networks affect building knowledge competencies. In the relationship between the use of networks and knowledge competencies, in particular, absorptive capacity is found to play a moderating role. It also finds that international business performance is driven by knowledge c...

Examining the relationships among trust, silence and organizational commitment

Purpose – Previous studies examined the relationships between trust, organizational commitment and the unitary construct of silence. The authors believe that previous studies’ primary shortcoming is the lack of an understanding of the motives of employees in withholding work related issues when they have a lack of trust in their organization and supervisor and a lack of knowledge regarding the form of silence that impacts more organizational commitment. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the impacts of trust in organization and trust in supervisor on acquiescent and defensive silence and examines the effects of acquiescent and defensive silence on organizational commitment. Design/methodology/approach – The study utilized structured equation modeling to analyze data from 753 highly skilled employees in South Korea. Findings – The findings revealed that trust in organization is associated with acquiescent silence; trust in supervisor is related with defensive silence and acquiescent sil...

An examination of the associations among cultural dimensions, relational silence and stress

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between power distance, collectivism and relational silence; the associations between relational silence and stress; and the mediating role of relational silence in the link between power distance, collectivism and stress. Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted a survey among 1,153 highly skilled employees using a self-administered questionnaire. The authors received 813 responses from a total of 1,153 individuals. Among the 813 responses, the authors excluded 81 due to incomplete data, and thus analyzed a total of 732 responses. The overall response rate was 63.4 percent. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were utilized for the analyses. Findings – The findings suggest that power distance and collectivism induce relational silence; relational silence increases stress and mediates the associations between power distance, collectivism and stress. Originality/value – The present study is the first to p...

Non-regular professionals' dual commitment in South Korea: antecedents and consequences

There is a growing concern with whether nonregular professionals are concurrently committed to both the organization and their profession and whether such commitments are beneficial to that organization. This article seeks to investigate the relationship between organizational justice variables and the dual commitment of nonregular professionals via perceived organizational support (POS) and the subsequent effect of the dual commitment on organizational citizen behavior. Hypotheses are developed and then tested through structural equation modeling with data collected from a total of 1143 part-time instructors at South Korean universities. The findings of this study reveal that the perceptions held by nonregular professionals of organizational justice constructs concurrently influence organizational commitment and professional commitment via POS and that both commitments are positively associated with altruistic behavior. The findings advance our understanding of the dual commitment of nonregular professionals and provide universities with managerial implications as to how to manage effectively part-time instructors. Limitations, directions for future research, and conclusions are presented.

Entrepreneur’s paternalistic leadership style and creativity: The mediating role of employee voice

Purpose Despite the number of studies on employee voice much remains unknown regarding the mediating role of employee voice in the link between entrepreneur’s paternalistic leadership style and creativity. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of authoritarian, benevolent and moral leadership on creativity via employee voice. Design/methodology/approach The study utilized structured equation modeling to evaluate the data from 387 highly skilled employees in Republic of Korea. Findings The findings suggested that authoritarian leadership style reduces employee voice which in turn impacts on creativity and moral leadership facilitates creativity via employee voice. Originality/value The study is the first to discover the mediating role of employee voice on the association between authoritarian, moral leadership and creativity.

Silence as a mediator between organizational factors and stress

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating role of silence as a link between punishment, communication opportunities and stress. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted a survey among 1,015 highly skilled employees of South Korean companies using a self-administered instrument. In total, 748 questionnaires were received from the 1,015 participants. Of these, 61 questionnaires were incomplete and were discarded; the remaining 687 questionnaires were used in the analysis. Findings The results revealed that punishment and communication opportunities are significantly associated with silence. Silence showed a positive relationship with stress, and it mediates the relationship between punishment and stress. Meanwhile, findings indicate that silence does not mediate the link between communication opportunities and stress. Research limitations/implications This study investigates the unitary construct of silence. Therefore, the authors suggest future researchers examine the other forms of silence such as multidimensional construct of silence that focuses on the motives of individuals to be silent. Practical implications The study highlights the importance of establishing organizational ombudsman system, grievance procedures and employee management meetings to mitigate silence behavior. Moreover, the authors recommended management demonstrates their interest in shared information to avoid employee silence. Originality/value This study is the first to explore the mediating role of silence on the relationship between punishment and stress.

Network types and performance in SMEs: the mediating effects of technology commercialization

This study seeks to explore the mediating technology commercialization in the relationship between network types and business performance. Building on literature regarding technology commercialization and networks, hypotheses are developed and tested using 221 samples collected from Korean small- and medium-sized enterprises which operate in the Green Information Technology sector. Results reveal that technology commercialization plays a mediating role in the link. In particular, it is found that the commercialization activity fully mediates the association between network diversity and the business outcome. The findings imply that particular emphasis should be placed on technology commercialization activities in order to bring intensity-based network activities to superior performance.

Moderating role of external networks and mediating effect of innovation performance on the relationship between technology orientation and firm performance

This study investigated the moderating effect of external networks on the relationship between technology orientation and innovation performance as well as the mediating role of innovation performance in the link between technology orientation and financial performance. Our study tested the research model using hierarchical regression analysis for data collected from 352 organisations in South Korea. The results revealed that external networks appear to have a positive moderating effect on the relationship between technology orientation and innovation performance and that innovation performance mediates the associations between technology orientation and financial performance. The implications and limitations of this study are presented.

Effects of collectivism on Chinese organizational citizenship behavior: Guanxi as moderator

We conducted a survey to verify the relationship between vertical and horizontal collectivism and Chinese organizational citizenship behavior (Chinese OCB) with a focus on the moderating effects of guanxi. Data were collected through emails and an online survey from 432 full-time Chinese employees. The findings of the study indicated that collective orientation was positively related to Chinese OCB, and that guanxi moderated only the relationship between vertical collectivism and Chinese OCB. Our findings help strengthen the understanding of the dimensions of Chinese OCB. Theoretical contributions are discussed; in particular, possible reasons for the nonsignificant moderating effects of guanxi on horizontal collectivism and Chinese OCB are given. Study results provide not only practical implications for existing employers or human resource managers, but also for start-up entrepreneurs in their human resource management practices and innovative policies. Limitations of the study are pointed out and topics for future research are suggested.

The roles of networks among innovators in regional innovation: comparative analysis between China and South Korea

ABSTRACT In port cities, terminal operating companies (TOCs) are considered as regional innovators. Numerous studies have attempted to find their characteristics; however, relatively few studies have been devoted to exploring softer factors such as human resources or networks with other innovators such as universities and government agencies, not hard factors such as available cargo and cargo processing ability. Therefore, this study aims to examine both hard and softer factors perceived by 232 South Korean and Chinese regional innovators, TOC; the empirical relationships among these characteristics, networks among regional innovators such as industry–university–government networks (I–U–G networks), and regional innovation, the moderating role of the I–U–G networks in improving the regional innovation, and the comparative analysis between Chinese and Korean cases. To achieve these research purposes, an empirical model was employed. As a result, excepting government support policy, remaining variables significantly affected regional innovation. Further, the I–U–G networks moderated the relationships between determinants and regional innovation. These results imply that establishing effective I–U–G networks was pivotal in achieving regional innovation. In addition, this study provides a contribution, that there are national differences due to each other’s different environmental characteristics, by comparing characteristics between Korean and Chinese regional innovators with different characteristics.