Youngbae Kim

The roles of R&D team leaders in Korea: a contingent approach

This study empirically examines the relationship between the role of R&D project leaders and their team performance using data from 87 project teams in 6 R&D organizations in Korea. The results reveal that: (1) RD (2) All but the champion role of a leader is positively related with project team performance; (3) However, this relationship between the role of leader and project team performance varies according to the characteristics of R&D project teams and their tasks. Specifically, it becomes important for a leader to focus less on the team building role as the team gets older. The team building role of a leader, however, is more important for higher performance of relatively certain R&D projects, while for uncertain R&D projects, the strategic planning role appears to be more crucial. Based on these results, this study discusses several managerial and theoretical issues related to the role of a leader in R&D project teams.

Patterns of technological learning among the strategic groups in the Korean Electronic Parts Industry

Abstract This study attempts to explore the patterns of technological learning among different strategic groups in the Korean Electronic Parts Industry. Three different evolution paths are identified based on a dynamic strategic group analysis of 115 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Korean Electronic Parts Industry for the period of 1990–1995. The first path indicates the evolution from a subcontractor group into an innovator group by accumulating technological capabilities. The second path concerns those firms that move from a subcontractor group into a market focus group by simply adding product lines and customers. The third path involves SMEs that evolve from a subcontractor group into a production focus group by investing in production capabilities. Further, in-depth case analyses on technological learning processes of five firms, which have taken different strategic group evolution paths, are introduced. The analyses result in close association between firms’ strategic evolution paths and their technological learning processes. This study also finds that the firms that succeeded in technological learning (i) were managed by CEOs with strong technological expertise and strategic vision, (ii) made an effort to establish management practices to support innovation, and (iii) aggressively pursued diverse external linkages with outside technology sources to learn product and process technologies. Finally, this study discusses several implications of the findings on the theoretical development and strategic management of small firms in Korea.

Career orientations of R&D professionals in Korea

This study empirically examined the relationships between career orientations of R&D professionals in Korea and other personal characteristics such as demographic factors, work-related outcomes, and reward preferences. The results, based on the survey about 1,240 technical people in 15 R&D organizations, revealed five distinctive and independent career orientations: technical, manager, project, technical transfer, and entrepreneurial orientations. The career orientations of R&D professionals are found to be different between private and public sectors and to be associated with their education level and organizational tenure. It is also observed that R&D professionals with different career orientations exhibit different work-related outcomes and reward preferences. For instance, technical-oriented professionals tend to be more educated, to exhibit better job attitudes and technical performances, and to favor professional rewards. While those with manager and transfer orientations are longer-tenured, have more positive job attitudes but lower technical performances, and prefer social status and prestige and career rewards in their organization. Both project- and entrepreneur-oriented professionals exhibit a less positive attitude toward their organizations, but seek different reward schemes: the former pursues challenging R&D projects with autonomy and the latter favors financial returns. Finally, the implications of these findings for managing careers of R&D professionals are discussed.

Technological Collaboration in the Korean Electronic Parts Industry: Patterns and Key Success Factors

This study empirically examines different patterns of collaborative technological development projects and the key success factors (KSFs), using data from 82 projects in the Korean electronic parts industry. The patterns of technological collaboration were categorized into 4 types by two contingency variables: development motive (technology-push or market-pull) and source of initiation (focal firm- or partner-initiated). The bivariate relationships revealed that project characteristics (technological complexity, demand certainty, and financial support of the government), partner characteristics (the level of trust with partners), and collaborative management practices (commitment of the focal firm, and information sharing in the collaboration process) appear to be different depending on the two contingency variables. Each type of collaborative R&D project also had different KSFs. While diverse characteristics like strategic importance, goal compatibility and information sharing with partners are critical for the success of technology-push projects, just only specificity of collaboration process and outcome appears important to the success of demand-pull projects. For focal firm-initiated projects, project characteristics are KSFs, whilst partner characteristics and collaboration management practice are found to be more critical for the success of partner-initiated projects. The findings suggest that the different contingencies such as development motive and source of initiation bring about different patterns of collaborative technology development projects, which in turn lead to a different set of KSFs, since different information, roles of partners and the focal firms, and collaboration management practices are needed to successfully implement the different types of projects. Based on empirical results, this study discusses managerial, policy, and theoretical implications for the collaborative R&D activities taking place in the Korean electronic parts industry.

An empirical study of communication patterns, leadership styles, and subordinate satisfaction in R&D project teams in Korea

Abstract The relationships between leader-subordinate interpersonal communication and subordinate satisfaction were empirically examined in conjunction with leadership for 199 researchers of small R&D project teams of six government-sponsored research institutes in Korea. The official communication was more positively related to showing consideration than initiating structure of leader behavior. The non-official communication was positively related to showing consideration but not significantly related to initiating structure. Subordinate satisfaction was differently related to the official and non-official communication according to the leadership types. Finally, several theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

Innovation strategy of local pharmaceutical firms in Korea: a multivariate analysis

This article examines 37 local pharamaceutical firms in Korea to identify different patterns of innovation behaviour associated with four types of firms, which are categorized by two variables: the scale of operation and technological capability. Both bivariate and multivariate analyses support the hypotheses that these four types of firms exhibit different innovation strategies and in turn the level of performance they achieved. Specifically, large firms with high technological capability diversify their efforts, investing in their own R & D and tapping foreign capabilities, and as a result exhibit the highest degree of innovativeness, while large firms with low technological capability resort primarily to the transfer of foreign technology for short-term profitability. In contrast, small firms with high technological capability rely mainly on their own R & D efforts with the assistance from local R & D institutes and enjoy the highest growth rate, whereas small firms with low technological capability im...

Person-career fit and employee outcomes among research and development professionals

This study aims to examine the effects of person-career (PC) fit on employee outcomes. It is based on a sample of 1128 research and development (R&D) professionals and 222 project managers in 15 South Korean organizations. The results revealed that a managerial PC fit has a curvilinear relationship with job satisfaction and organizational commitment, and a technical PC fit has a curvilinear relationship with job satisfaction. For example, job satisfaction increased as career orientation increased toward career development opportunities, then decreased when career development opportunities exceeded career orientation. In addition, as expected, job satisfaction and organizational commitment are higher when career orientation and career development opportunities are both high rather than low. For work performance, contributions to organizations increased as managerial career orientations increased toward managerial career opportunities, then decreased when managerial career opportunities exceeded managerial career orientation.

Consumer user innovation in Korea: an international comparison and policy implications

This study examines the extent to which individual consumers develop and share user innovations in Korea, extending previous studies of consumer innovation activities undertaken in advanced countries. Using a research method similar to those used in prior studies, this study finds that about 1.5% of adult consumers have generated innovations for their own use during the past three years, and 21.9% of consumer innovators share their innovations with other consumers or firms. Consumers who are male, working, and highly educated are more likely to generate innovations. Moreover, consumer innovators tend to share their innovations, when they are young and participate in community activities and when their innovations have higher values to others. The total amount of innovation expenditure by consumers exceeds 0.34 billion US dollars, which accounts for 4.4% of the R&D investment of Korean firms in the consumer goods sector. Although the proportion of consumer user innovators in Korea is relatively lower than that found in advanced countries, the number of consumers who generate innovations and their innovation expenditures are far from being negligible. As a result, this study suggests a few government policies to encourage and facilitate development, diffusion, and commercialisation of consumer innovations in late industrialising contexts, including Korea.

A comparative study of managerial features between public and private R&D organisations in Korea: managerial and policy implications for public R&D organisations

Over the past several years, it has been pointed out that public research institutes are less productive than private ones; moreover, they need to clarify their roles in the development of Koreas national system of innovation. With a view to identifying the causes of problems in public RD it compares their strategic goals, the roles of their top managers, their organisational characteristics, and the attitudes of individual researchers. The results, based on responses from 570 RD 2) their RD 3) their top management plays a biased external role in order to gain institutional legitimacy; 4) their organisational structure tends to be more decentralised but less flexible; 5) their RD and 6) the researchers are dissatisfied with their jobs and organisational incentive systems, and also less committed to the organisation. As an attempt to understand the root causes of the salient features of GSRIs, this study further explores the impacts of external environments over the period of their development, including the government Science and Technology policy, the national project funding and accounting systems, and institutional regulations, on their internal management systems. Findings of distinctive managerial features of GSRIs and their relationships with external environments suggest several managerial and policy implications for designing more effective R&D management systems of GSRIs in Korea.

Transformational Leadership and Inter-Team Collaboration Exploring the Mediating Role of Teamwork Quality and Moderating Role of Team Size

We develop and test a model of the effects of transformational leadership beyond the boundaries of a team to the level of collaboration with other teams. We also test team size as a boundary condition in this relationship. In a study using a crisscross design to control common method bias, using a sample of 388 teams from a leading, global electronics company, the results from structural equation modeling (SEM) reveal that teams with transformational leaders are more likely to have higher internal teamwork quality (TWQ) and receive high inter-team collaboration ratings from other teams. Results further support the expectation that the association between transformational leadership and inter-team collaboration is mediated by TWQ and moderated by team size. The importance of transformational leadership for team-level research, as well as its hidden benefits beyond internal team boundaries, is discussed.