This study attempted to apply country-of-origin effect (country image) and ethnocentrism, that have well-established research tradition in global marketing, to a regional level within a country. Towards Daegu city and Chimeric, the fashion co-brand of small local businesses launched by the city, the study examined the effects of city image on brand image and product evaluations and the effects of ethnocentrism and brand knowledge on such effects. The results from a survey revealed that city image positively affected brand image and product evaluations with low predictabilities, and ethnocentrism positively affected product evaluations. Though the effect of brand knowledge was not clear, the brand image of excitement/sophistication had very strong effects on product evaluations. The results indicated that country-of-origin and ethnocentrism could be applied to a regional level. The study also discussed implications for Daegu city and small businesses participating in Chimeric.

This study aims to fill this gap in understanding through a systematic analysis of the impact on the evaluation effectiveness and the employees' response performance-based appraisal system of the performance-based appraisal system. This study aims to specifically examine the mechanism by which the performance-based appraisal system in the high involvement HRM affects employees' response to the appraisal system with a structural model, which considers the evaluation effectiveness as a mediating variable between the performance-based appraisal system and the employees' response. Considering that the employees' response might be affected by the appraisal system directly and/or indirectly through the mediating effects of the evaluation effectiveness.
This study tests the structure model, using 589 individual-level data from 42 small and medium companies. The　results of this study indicated several significant findings. Firstly, the performance-based appraisal system has a significant effect on the evaluation effectiveness in the positive direction and on employees' response to their companies in the negative direction, but does not have a significant one on employees' response on the performance-based appraisal system. Secondly, the evaluation effectiveness has a significant effect on the employees' response to both the appraisal system and their companies in the positive direction. Thirdly, the performance-based appraisal system appears to significantly affect employees' response to both the appraisal system and their companies indirectly through its effect on the mediating variable of the evaluation effectiveness in the positive direction. Finally, this study concludes with practical implications and limitations of this study.

The aim of this paper is to assess the possibility of economic success on R&D investment. An empirical methodology that links each stage of industrial life cycle to the optimal timing of R&D investment has been developed by using of the expansion path of demand. This methodology is applied to R&D investment in Medical Electronic industry. The empirical results state that the timing of R&D investment is either earlier or later than the optimal investment timing, indicating that the probability of economic success is not high. This implies that both firms and government policy-makers should consider not only technical feasibility but also the possibility of commercial success in deciding R&D investment.

Korean small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have suffered from a lack of funds, an underdeveloped technical level, and a shortage of manpower due to an unbalance in its supply and demand. A coexistence of a high rate of youth unemployment and an insufficient labor force is an ironical aspect of Korean economy.
This study aims to inquire into the structural causes of manpower shortage in the Korean SMEs, and to suggest our solutions to the problem with special reference to the Gyeongnam region.
We propose the following countermeasures: to give various government- oriented tax favors to the SMEs employees, to give SMEs financial support to improve their working environment, to allow additional points for the 3D job workers in case of their taking the local civil servant examinations, to help them with their and their children's educational expenses, and to educate the unemployed youth in occupational awareness, along with an customized education for them.

This study aimed to examine the effect of a partner firm's reputation on performance of a venture firm. This study also intended to investigate the moderating effects of alliance type and firms' commitment to the alliance for relationship between a partner firm's reputation and a venture firm's performance. Based on a sample of 129 alliances formed by 72 Korean venture firms during the period of 1999-2001, we found the following results. First, the performances of venture firms were greater when they formed alliances with firms with better reputation. Second, this relationship was positively moderated by alliance type. Third, this relation was also positively moderated by the level of commitment. In particular, the higher level of commitment in technology alliance enhanced better firms' performance. These results suggest that venture firms can have performance gains when they carefully combine partner characteristics, alliance type, and the commitment to strategic alliance.

In many developing countries, small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) provide for the major parts of national employment and income. Therefore, governments have used various strategies/policy instruments to develop human resources by SMEs. and improve their productivity and national welfare. The government of Korea has not been an exception. However, few evaluation studies have been conducted of the effectiveness of the strategies. This paper makes a critical evaluation of the effectiveness of those strategies, analyzing the causes of the ineffectiveness or failures of the past strategies. In this context, it assesses the rationale for the pilot SME Training consortium project carried out in recent years, evaluates its effectiveness, and draws some lessons for future policies in other developing countries as well as in Korea.

This study first concerns the moderating influences of country on the relationships between firm size, environmental motivations and cost leadership. Second, we concern the moderating effects of country on the relationship between environmental practices, cost leadership and ROI. Finally we analyze whether the relative SGP(sales of green product) strengthen the relationships of environmental practices, cost leadership and ROI. Results based on the cross-sectional data of Korea and US manufacturing firms indicate that country only moderate the relationship of firm size and environmental motivations. And the interaction term of the SGP and environmental practices has significant positive beta for the cost leadership. Also all of the effect of environmental practices on ROI is completely mediated by the SGP.

The purpose of this research is to identify important factors influencing the implementation of customer relationship management (CRM) program by small retailers and to empirically examine the relationship between CRM implementation activities and performance. We identified three relevant factors - trade area competitiveness, easiness of CRM program, and perception of customer information value. All of these factors are shown to have a positive impact on the intensity of CRM program implementation by small retailers. The intensity of CRM program implementation also had a strong influence on the performance of CRM program. We expanded the concept of CRM program implementation to include CRM marketing campaign program activities as well as customer information management activities. Finally, we discuss theoretical and managerial implications of the findings and suggest future research directions.