Jooyoung Kwak

Government coordination of conflicting interests in standardisation: case studies of indigenous ICT standards in China and South Korea

An increasing number of locally developed technologies have been globalising, and latecomers like China or South Korea are active in setting their national technology as international standards. This study presents five cases of information and communications technology (ICT) standardisation by China and South Korea and examines their promotion of indigenous technologies as international standards. International standardisation involves complicated networks of domestic and global stakeholders with different interests. Good coordination is therefore required. We identify differences and similarities among the cases and discuss implications. From the case studies, we find that coordination with foreign players is more critical than coordination with domestic players in determining the path and consequences of standardisation projects. Our analysis of the two countries’ standardisation efforts explores lessons to policymakers and firms in other latecomer countries in respect to promoting local technologies into the global market.

An Exploratory Study on the Transition from OEM to OBM: Case Studies of SMEs in Korea

This study investigates how the transformation of latecomer small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in emerging economies from dependent or subcontracting original equipment manufacturing (OEM) firms into independent or original brand manufacturing (OBM) firms is possible to achieve a significant catch-up in their share of regional or global markets. Given that SMEs are rarely able to make such a transition, we elaborate this dynamic process by performing case studies on eight Korean SMEs. These SMEs created their own paths instead of following their forerunners. These paths are neither entirely new nor take the form of leapfrogging, but are characterized by new combinations of existing paths. We identify several risk factors, such as counterattacks and intellectual property lawsuits, that latecomer SMEs face from incumbent SMEs. In addition, we emphasize the importance of cultivating firm-specific knowledge by engaging in a continuing process of trial and error type in-house experiments.

Places for Korean firms in China: looking for a viable international division of labor in 1990-2010

In the past decade, increasing economic integration with China has offered vast business opportunities to Korean firms. Given the changing industry map in East Asia, Korean firms have been seeking a new international division of labor with Chinese firms via foreign direct investment. During the last two decades, Korean firms in China attempted to create business models that implemented either a full set of business activities (full model) or a partial set of business activities (partial model). We have found that the competitiveness of Korean firms in China experienced drastic changes, which changed the viability of specific models, namely the partial model, for Korean business in China. Our cases have indicated that both full and partial models evolved responding to environmental changes in the host market. The central reason for such changes is that as Chinese firms accomplished a technological catch-up, they began to replace the roles of Korean firms in China at a rapid rate, which obsolesced the bargaining power of Korean firms in China in their relations with their Chinese partners. Our study implies that Korean firms going to China, when seeking for a viable business model, should deliberately consider the possibility of Chinese firms’ catching-up with Korean firms within the industries.

Does China Love Hollywood? An Empirical Study on the Determinants of the Box-Office Performance of the Foreign Films in China *

Although the sales of the motion-picture industry in China have grown incomparably to any other country during the past decade, most research related to it has focused on discourse of the political or social contexts. Using the resource-based view, our study empirically examines the determinants that encourage the audience to pay for a movie at Chinas box offices. The resource-based view posits that a firm or products competitiveness arises from valuable resources that appeal to consumers. In line with this, we hypothesized that box-office performance is affected by marketing-related resources and by a certain set of strategic variables embedded in individual films. We constructed our dataset based on the foreign films imported to and released in China from 2007 to 2009, and conducted a regression analysis. The statistical results suggest that actor reputation, China-related contents and Chinese crew participation in the movie production, and release timing are significantly related to the box-office performance of foreign films in China. We present an interpretation of our statistical results, linking to the characteristics of the current Chinese audience as a consumer for foreign films.

Subsidiary goals, learning orientations, and ownership strategies of multinational enterprises: evidence from foreign direct investments in Korea

This paper investigates the links among subsidiary goals, learning orientations, and ownership strategies of multinational enterprises (MNEs). The authors hypothesize that an MNEs ownership strategy is determined by subsidiary goals and learning orientations. Furthermore, interactions between learning orientations and subsidiary goals are predicted to influence the ownership strategy. Based on 723 foreign subsidiaries of MNEs operating in Korea, our findings suggest that when MNE foreign subsidiaries influence ownership choice, market-seeking goals and resource-seeking goals have a stronger fit with the exploitation orientation than with the exploration orientation. In contrast, the category of knowledge-seeking goals has a stronger fit with exploration than with exploitation.

Supplier Relationship in Product Development: A Survey of the Chinese Automobile Industry during the Growth Period, 2005-2007

This study compares supplier relationship by multinational assemblers in China vis-á-vis the Chinese assemblers in the stage of product development. We surveyed seven automobile firms (four international joint ventures and three Chinese firms) during 2005-2007, when the Chinese automobile industry began to rear up. Based on the survey, we examined the roles of suppliers, which is one of the critical dimensions in product development of the automobile industry.

Legitimacy building and e-commerce platform development in China: The experience of Alibaba

Abstract Although existing studies have connected the emergence and development of e-commerce with infrastructure, culture, and regulations, we approach technological and platform acceptance from the perspective of legitimacy building. In our study, legitimacy is categorized into market, relational, and social legitimacy, and the link between each type of legitimacy and acceptance is explored. We select the case of Alibaba and argue that Alibaba was especially competent in building legitimacy. Alibabas continuous efforts to build legitimacy facilitated platform evolution despite its exposed weakness in intellectual property rights. These efforts rendered Alibaba as a de facto standard e-business model. This research suggests that any firm that wants market acceptance for its platform or e-commerce technology should focus more on building legitimacy among stakeholders than on anything else.

How the parent–subsidiary relationship encourages subsidiary-driven innovation and performance in Korea: the perspective of subsidiary autonomy

ABSTRACT From the perspective of subsidiary autonomy, this study addresses what affects subsidiary-driven innovation in multinational corporations (MNCs). This study examines this question from three dimensions: (1) top management team (TMT) leadership, (2) knowledge links and (3) organizational size. Our model is tested using a sample of 250 MNC subsidiaries located in Korea. We found that non-expatriate or entrepreneurship-oriented TMT leadership generally enhances subsidiary-driven innovation. We also found that the level of networking with local knowledge sources is associated positively with subsidiary-driven innovation. In addition, the relative size of the subsidiary shows an inverted U-shaped relationship with subsidiary-driven innovation. Finally, the relationship between subsidiary-driven innovation and subsidiary performance is positively moderated by environmental dynamism. The results suggest that as foreign subsidiaries gain autonomy, the likelihood of subsidiary-driven innovation increases.

Comparison of WiBro and TD-LTE deployment networks: implications for standards competition

It has been an enigma for the communities of practice and academia in the field of standards as to why, when the capabilities of a technology are not much different or even superior to those of their competitors, only some standards lead to commercial success. Previous literature indicates that a standard needs organisational support and legitimacy amongst audiences, including distributors, influenced by network connectivity and configuration. Using a social network analysis, this paper visualises and compares the networks of wireless broadband and time domain-long-term evolution deployment in the global market. The results show that the presence of a few key sponsors with financial resources and a large installed base is more important than the size of the network. Consequently, we draw some implications for sustainable deployment of future standards.