The Effects of Youth Job Seeker Allowance in South Korea

The severity of youth unemployment in South Korea has prompted the government to implement various preventive measures such as employment services and vocational training. Local governments implemented a Youth Job Seeker Allowance in 2016 as a new form of support, which was adopted by the central government in 2017. This study examines the impact of the Youth Job Seeker Allowance in South Korea on employment. It finds that the allowance had a positive effect on employment; recipients of the allowance have a higher probability of being employed. However, recipients took longer to obtain employment than non-recipients, corroborating previous studies that unemployment benefits lengthen the duration of unemployment. But, recipients of the allowance have more time to look for quality work. Therefore, although the Youth Job Seeker Allowance has the effect of demotivating recipients from looking for employment, its limited duration of three months obliges them to engage in job search activities. The study has implications for the introduction of Youth Job Seeker Allowance systems to support job search activities.     

When Marketing Dare Not Speak Its Name: Understanding Market Orientation in Chinese NGOs

ABSTRACT

The market orientation construct has proven to be of value to profit-seeking firms. It ought to be of value to NGOs too. Some previous research has been done to facilitate understanding of market orientation in NGOs, but the methodologies used have mostly been quantitative, and nothing is known about the market orientation of Chinese NGOs. To address this research gap, a qualitative case study methodology was used to develop a deeper understanding of how market orientation is practiced among NGOs in Hong Kong (China). Mapping with previous studies, the research found that three factors together explained the varying degrees of market orientation in the NGOs studied: senior management factors, organizational and institutional factors, and structural and system factors. But more importantly, an NGO’s funding base was found to moderate the relationship between these antecedents and an organization’s market orientation. The more that the NGO relies on public funding or a small number of funders the weaker the influence of the antecedents on market orientation. The more that the NGO relies on private funders, a diversified group of funders, or self-funding, the stronger the influence of the antecedents on market orientation, and the closer its understanding of market orientation is likely to be to that of a commercial entity. The article finishes with a substantive theoretical model for market orientation in the Chinese NGO context.     

The role of organizational culture,capabilities, and adoption of e-marketing on nonprofits' organizational performance

Nonprofit organizations are facing increasing challenges to survival and mission accomplishment in a market economy. Thus, many nonprofit organizations are actively exploring how to enhance organizational performance through Internet and communication technologies in the digital era. The relationship between e-marketing adoption and organizational performance of for-profit companies has been studied intensively. However, this relationship has not been examined in the nonprofit context. The objectives of this study are to investigate factors promoting the adoption of e-marketing and the latter's effect on the performance of nonprofits. This paper surveyed 54 nonprofits and used partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to test the research hypotheses grounded in resource dependence theory and e-marketing orientation. Results indicated that top management's attitudinal emphasis on e-marketing does not lead to e-marketing adoption. Differs from for-profit companies, nonprofits' e-marketing adoption is mainly related to planning and implementation capabilities. Moreover, although planning strongly influences e-marketing adoption, implementation capabilities play a crucial role in a performance-driven adoption. Hence, if e-marketing is adopted without sufficient manpower and skills, organizational performance will not be enhanced even with adequate e-marketing budget.     

State dependence,individual heterogeneity,and the choice of employment status: evidence from Korea

Focusing on the individual heterogeneity, this article examines the causes of an individual’s employment status choice and the extent of state dependence in the Korean labour market. We estimate a dynamic multinomial logit model using the panel data drawn from the first to fifteenth wave of the Korean Labour and Income Panel Study. The results suggest the presence of state dependence. Individual characteristics and growth background have a significant effect on the choice of employment status. Gender is still an important employment factor; males are more likely to be employed and this gender effect is highest for regular employment (RE). One’s educational attainment and age operate in opposite directions. That is, educational attainment (age) has a positive (negative) impact on the choice of a regular job and a negative (positive) impact on the choice of a non-regular job. Contrary to our expectations, a wealthy family background reduces the probability of individuals being wage workers, and raises the probability of them being unemployed. The barriers to RE are greater than for non-regular employment. These findings are of great importance for designing policies to effectively address unemployment and labour informality problems in Korea.     

Passive blockholders,informational efficiency of prices,and firm value

This paper analyzes the role of passive blockholders in corporate governance using data on Schedule 13G filings. We show that firm value increases with the number and aggregate ownership of passive blockholders after controlling for other possible determinants of firm value. More importantly, we show that the informational efficiency of prices (IEP) increases with the number and aggregate ownership of passive blockholders, and IEP is a channel through which passive blockholders affect firm value. Overall, our results suggest that managers perform better when stock prices reflect the economic consequences of their actions promptly and accurately through information‐based trading of blockholders.     

Differential effects of patriotism and support on post-development visit intention: the Korean DMZ Peace Park

This study investigates how resident support for the development of the demilitarized zone (DMZ) Peace Park incorporates two key components (support and patriotism) as part of the theory of planned behavior (TPB). The results of this study confirm that support is important because it is directly associated with three TPB constructs, and it acts as a mediator between patriotism and the three TPB constructs. Both support and patriotism are statistically significant but different depending on the distance to the DMZ Peace Park. Resident support in the predevelopment stage can possibly extend to behavioral support in the post-development stage.     

The moderating role of competence specialization in the effect of external R&D on innovative performance

This paper studies the functional specialization of SMEs’ technological competence and its moderating role in the effect of external R&D on their innovative performance. Technological competence consists of many functional dimensions such as basic research, product architecture, process construction, testing, and evaluation, which constitute a sequence of innovation tasks. The specialization of technological competence allows SMEs to utilize economies of specialization in R&D, enhance their bargaining power and appropriability conditions in the process of external R&D, and attract promising R&D partners. However, competence specialization may hamper SMEs’ capabilities to coordinate and integrate diverse external R&D projects. Using a sample of SMEs in Korean manufacturing industries, we find the following results. First, competence specialization positively moderates the effect of external R&D on SMEs’ innovative performance. Second, the positive moderating effect of competence specialization diminishes as the share of external R&D increases. Third, the moderating effect of competence specialization differs across industries depending on the degree of market dominance by a few large firms (i.e., market concentration) and the novelty of technologies pursued by SMEs in each industry.     

Strategic entrepreneurship and competitive advantage of established firms: evidence from the digital TV industry

Although strategic entrepreneurship in established firms is recognized as a vital source of sustainable competitive advantage, this field has no clearly developed research paradigm. This study proposes a conceptual framework to investigate dimensions of strategic entrepreneurship and its function in sustainable competitive advantage of established firms in a modern volatile environment, through the lens of the dynamic capability view. By conducting a systematic literature review of previous research documents and considering conceptual interrelationships between strategic entrepreneurship and dynamic capabilities, we propose categories that comprise dimensions of a firm’s strategic entrepreneurship: environmental sensing, opportunity seizing, strategic flexibility, entrepreneurial orientation and organizational learning. We establish a conceptual framework of strategic entrepreneurship in which entrepreneurs’ managerial capabilities of environmental sensing, opportunity seizing, strategic flexibility and entrepreneurial orientation closely interact with organizational learning, thereby facilitating sustainable performance of established firms. Following empirical studies of established firms in the digital TV manufacturing industry, the proposed conceptual framework suggests that each dimension of strategic entrepreneurship plays a critical role in competitive advantage of firms. In addition, case study results indicate that a firm’s position and evolutionary path form antecedent factors influencing entrepreneurs’ managerial capabilities and organizational learning of established firms.