Investment and Firm Performance Variability

여희정 한국무역학회 2023 Journal of Korea trade Vol.27 No.1

Purpose – The study analyzed 90 online firms worldwise and observed them for ten years to investigate their investments and firm performance variabilities. This study attemped to verify the existence of agency problems in online firms. Through this, the paper intends to expand the scope of research in the fields of investment and firm value both empirically and in theory. This study also attempted to supplement the insufficient logic of previous studies by analyzing the relationship between investment and profitability. Design/methodology – In this study, the investment is subdivided into over-, under-, and neutral investments, and an empirical analysis of the firm performance was conducted. As investment generally has long-term effects, the impact of a firm's investment on future firm performance and variabilities in firm performance was considered over the short-and medium-term period. Findings – It was found that there was a negative relationship between firms with an overinvestment and future firm performance. Underinvestment has no clear statistically significant results on firm performance. This implies that overinvestment causes more reduction in future firm performance than underinvestment. It was also found that underinvestment and overinvestment significantly increased the variability of firm performance. A positive significance was found between under- and over- investment with a variability of 3 years and overinvestment with a variability of 4 years in the future. A negative relationship was found between neutral investment propensity and future performance variabilities. Neutral investment has less effect on the future performance variability of a firm than a firm’s overinvestment and underinvestment. For online firms, underinvestment and overinvestment have a greater effect on the firm's future performance variability than neutral investment. Originality/value – The agency theory predicts that information asymmetry and adverse selection problems exacerbate conflicts of interest among stakeholders, thus firm performance. The study contributed to accumulating research on online firms that are currently underexplored by analyzing the investment behavior of major firms in the online industry.

기업의 환경성과가 재무성과와 기업가치에 미치는 영향에 관한 실증연구

김용현 ( Yong Hyeon Kim ),최선 ( Sun Choi ),장승욱 ( Seung Wook Jang ) 한국생산성학회 2018 生産性論集 Vol.32 No.4

There has been a long-run debate on the effect of environmental performance on financial performance and firm value. Proponents of environmentally friendly management argue that investments and efforts of improving environmental performance induce firms to have physical assets, technological innovations, better human resources, and good reputation, etc. As a result, firms can have competitive advantages by increasing sales and profit as well as environment protection. However, opponents of environmentally friendly management advocate that firms cannot take full benefit of investments and effort in environmental matters in the real world. Previous empirical papers that investigate the relationship between environmental performance and financial performance (or firm value) failed to find a consistent results because of several problems including limited measurements of environmental and financial performances, endogeneity, and omitted variables. This study examines the effect of corporate environmental performance on its financial performance and firm value in Korea. Whereas prior empirical studies examined the effect mainly focused on accounting measures, current study uses financial measures of stock returns and operating performance, and firm value of Tobin’s Q with longer sample period and larger sample firms. Also, this paper deliberately uses fixed-effects panel regression models with 1-year lag to alleviate the endogeneity problem. We use the environmental performance score from the Korea Economic Justice Institute (KEJI) from 2009 to 2014 for gauging corporate environmental performance. We find that the firms with higher environmental performance score have insignificantly lower stock returns compared with the firms with lower score. However, we report that the firms with higher environmental performance score have higher operating performance and firm value compared to the firms with lower score, which is consistent with previous empirical studies. Moreover, the results of various panel regression models clearly show that the environmental performance factor have a positive impact on firm value. Our findings suggest that corporations are able to improve financial performance and firm value by investing in environmental initiatives although firms bear the whole costs of environmental activities.

Nonlinear Effects of Concentrated Ownership on Firm Performance and Performance Volatility

Hae-Young Byun 한국무역연구원 2012 貿易 硏究 Vol.8 No.2

This paper investigates the effect of concentrated ownership of KOSPI (Korea Composite Stock Price Index) firms on firm performance, performance volatility, and firm value considering nonlinearity. Recent Korean studies suggest that concentrated ownership of KOSPI firms are nonlinearly associated with firm value. However, there is no noteworthy research on the relation between the effect of controlling shareholders of KOSPI firms and firm performance and performance volatility. This study offers such empirical evidence using a sample of KOSPI firms from 2005 to 2007. Based on a sample of 1,227 KOSPI firms, this study finds that (1) the KOSPI firms’ concentrated ownership has a significant impact on firm performance and performance volatility, and (2) the relation among firms’ concentrated ownership, firm performance, and performance volatility is nonlinear, inverted U shape, and U shape respectively. In addition, concentrated ownership is also nonlinearly related with firm value. After controlling for the endogeneity between variables, the nonlinear effects of concentrated ownership on firm performance, performance volatility, and firm value are still robust.

최고경영진의 직무관련 다양성과 기업성과

박종훈(Jong Hun Park),이호욱(Ho Uk Lee) 한국경영학회 2005 經營學硏究 Vol.34 No.2

Despite the continuing argument that TMT diversity is important for firm performance, empirical results have been inconsistent. Prior research has reported positive relationships, negative relationships, and even no relationships. Previous research has described TMT diversity as a “two-edged sword”(Milliken & Martins, 1996) or “mixed blessing”(Williams & O’Reilly, 1998). As such, TMT diversity can have both positive and negative effects on firm performance. The positive aspects of greater TMT diversity include generating a wider set of alternatives to decrease groupthink, predicting environmental changes more accurately to increase adaptation, and successfully implementing strategic choices through a more procedurally just process(Jackson, 1992; Kim & Mauborgne, 1991; Lant, Milliken, & Batra, 1992). The negative aspects include delayed decision-making, communication breakdowns, and interpersonal conflict(Greening & Johnson, 1997 Hambrick & D’Aveni, 1992 O’Reilly, Snyder, & Booth, 1993). If the functional aspects of TMT diversity dominate the dysfunctional ones then TMT diversity will havea positive effect on firm performance. On the other hand, if the dysfunctional aspects of TMT diversity arestronger, then we would observe a negative association between TMT diversity and firm performance.The dual aspects of TMT diversity suggest that the relationship between TMT diversity and firm performance cannot be unilaterally argued to be either positive or negative. Rather, the specific context will likely moderate this relationship such that it will become more positive in contexts that accentuate the functional aspects of TMT diversity and/or attenuate the dysfunctional aspects. The purpose of this paper was to reconcile the mixed findings in prior research for the association between TMT diversity and firm performance by examining the role of external and internal contexts. We argued that the effect of TMT diversity on firm performance is not identical in all situations but is rather strengthened depending on the particular context. we examined the roles of external and internal contexts for the relationship between TMT diversity and firm performance. With regard to the external context, we argued that environmental uncertainty moderates the relationship between TMT diversity and firm performance such that the relationship is more positive with increases in environmental uncertainty. Our results provide partial support for our argument. We found that environmental uncertainty acts as a moderator for the educational diversity/firm performance and the tenure diversity/firm performance relationships, respectively. In contrast, we found that environmental uncertainty does not moderate the functional diversity/firm performance relationship. Regarding the internal context, we argued that as TMT physical proximity increases, the relationship between TMT diversity and firm performance becomes more positive. Our results provide partial support for our argument. With respect to TMT educational and tenure diversity, we found such a moderating effect of TMT physical proximity. Our findings imply that providing the top team with the social context that increases behavioral integration is important for firm performance. Thus, along with the external context, the internal context is also critical for the TMT diversity/firm performance relationship. An important implication of these results is that increases in firm performance resulting from a more diverse top team with closer physical proximity are more pronounced in more uncertain environments. Overall, our study contributes to the literature by accounting for the importance of contextual variables when examining the TMT diversity/firm performance relationship.

The Trend of and Challenges Facing HRM Systems in Korean Firms

양혁승(Hyuckseung Yang) 한국인사조직학회 2011 인사조직연구 Vol.19 No.2

본 논문은 한국기업의 전통적인 인적자원관리의 주요 특징에 비춰 최근 인적자원관리에 있어서의 변화추세를 살펴보고 있다. 전통적으로, 한국기업은 인력운영 면에서 종신고용에 기반한 내부 노동시장에 의존해왔다. 그러한 인력운영기조에서는 조직 차원에서 가장 낮은 직급의 자리를 채울 신규 졸업생들을 대상으로 정기 공개채용을 실시했으며, 상위 직급은 내부인력으로 채웠다. 또한 급여와 승진에 관한 의사결정은 주로 연공서열을 기준으로 이뤄졌으며, 개개인의 직무수행성과는 심각하게 고려되지 않았다. 급여의 구성내역도 기본급과 각종 수당들을 포함한 고정급이 전체 급여에서 차지하는 비중이 매우 높았으며, 심지어 보너스조차도 연간 기준으로 사전에 정해져 있는 고정급적 보너스였다. 이러한 전통적인 인적자원관리 관행은 유교적 전통에 뿌리를 두었는데, 한국의 유교전통은 집단주의, 연공서열, 명분과 체면 중시, 계산적 관계가 아닌 정서적 관계의 중시 등을 그 특징으로 한다. 그러나, 한국 경제와 기업은 1990년대 들어 수많은 새로운 도전에 직면하기 시작했다. 경제성장은 확장단계에서 정체단계로 전환되었고, 글로벌화와 정보통신기술의 발전이 급속하게 진전되었다. 많은 기업들이 사령이 높아짐에 따라 인력구성은 피라미드형에서 중간 경력층이 두터워진 항아리형으로 전환되었고 그 결과 연공급제로 인한 인건비 부담이 점증하였으며, 값싼 노동력을 기반으로 빠른 경제성장을 이룩한 신흥 개발도상국들의 추격은 한국기업들로 하여금 고부가가치 산업으로의 전환과 함께 경쟁전략을 바꾸지 않으면 안 되는 상황으로 몰아넣었다. 이러한 경영환경의 변화는 기업들로 하여금 인적자원을 관리하는 방식에 대한 경영자들의 인식전환을 촉발시켰으며, 1997년 아시아 금융위기는 한국기업들의 인적자원관리 기조 변환을 촉발시키는 결정적 계기를 제공하였다. 우선, 채용 면에서는 경력자들을 대상으로 하는 직무단위의 수시채용이 확산되기 시작했으며, 많은 기업들이 적격자 선발을 위해 선발제도를 체계화하기 시작했다. 보상은 성과급적 요소가 강화되었는데, 연봉제와 각종 인센티브제의 도입·확산이 이러한 추세를 반영한다. 뿐만 아니라, 개인간 성과차이를 급여격차에 반영하되 갈수록 그 격차를 크게 하려는 경향이 강화되었으며, 그러한 흐름 속에서 직무수행평가와 급여제도는 성과주의 인적자원관리의 중심적 위치를 점하게 되었다. 이러한 일련의 추세는 계약기반의 고용관계, 성과기반 내부경쟁의 강화, 금전적 인센티브를 통한 동기강화 등을 강조하는 신자유주의 관점과 일맥상통한다. 인적자원관리 관행들에서 나타나는 이러한 변화의 본질은 연공기반에서 성과기반 인적자원관리로의 전환, 집단기반에서 개인기반 인적자원관리로의 전환, 안정지향 고용관계에서 유연지향 고용관계로의 전환, 헌신기반에서 외재적 동기기반 인적자원관리로의 전환 등으로 특징지을 수 있을 것이다. 한국기업에서의 인적자원관리는 여러 가지 과제에 직면해 있다. 우선, 새롭게 부상한 인적자원관리 시스템이 기업의 단기성과 향상에는 기여했다고 평가받지만, 중장기적으로 경쟁력 제고에 기여하지 못한다는 주장도 있다. 또 하나의 과제는 새롭게 도입 시행되고 있는 미국식 인적자원관리 시스템이 조직구성원들 속에 체질화되어 있는 문화적 관성에 의해 기대했던 방식으로 운영되고 있지 못하다는 점이다. 새로운 시스템이 성과주의를 지향하지만, 조직구성원들은 여전히 연공서열적 관행을 유지하는 것 등이 그 예이다. 세 번째 과제는 전통적 집단주의 가치관을 성과주의와 어떻게 결합시킬 것인가 하는 점이다. 최근 한국기업들이 채택하고 있는 성과주의는 개인주의를 기반으로 하는 성과주의인데 반해, 고헌신 인적자원관리 시스템의 대표적 특징 중 하나가 집단주의에 기반한 성과주의인 점을 감안할 때 우리나라 국민들의 정서 속에 자리잡은 집단주의 문화를 어떻게 장점으로 살릴 것인지가 매우 중요하다 하겠다. 끝으로 한국기업들이 당면하고 있는 가장 큰 과제 중 하나는 고령인구의 비중이 증대되고 있는 사회적 상황에서 최근 인적자원관리 추세로 자리잡은 단기성과 중심의 인건비 절감형 인적자원관리 방식은 지속가능성이 매우 낮다는 점이다. 현재의 인력운용기조가 지속되는 한 조기 은퇴에 따라 어려움에 직면하게 될 개인들, 고령인구의 증가에 따른 사회적 부담증가에 직면하게 될 사회, 더 나아가 중장기적으로 인력공급 부족과 노동생산성의 저하에 직면하게 될 기업 모두 큰 어려움을 당할 것으로 예상되는 바, 이에 대한 대안적 인적자원관리 모델의 개발이 시급하다 하겠다. Korean economy and companies began to be exposed to many challenges from the 1990s. Economic growth turned from an expanding stage to a stagnating one. Globalization became a norm, and information and communication technology proliferated rapidly. Workforce compositions in old firms were transformed into a pot-type with mid-career employees comprising the main portion of the workforce. These environmental changes triggered firms’ awareness that firms had to think differently about their ways of managing human resources. In particular, the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis provided a critical momentum for Korean firms to transform their HRM practices. This paper is to capture and examine the trend of HRM in Korean firms against main features of traditional HRM. Traditionally, Korean firms in the past heavily relied on internal labor market along with lifetime employment. In such employment mode recruitment was conducted organization-wide only for the lowest entry positions on a regular basis, targeting new graduates. Another feature of the traditional HRM in Korean firms was that pay and promotion decisions were made mainly based on employees’ seniority. In addition, pay composition was characterized by a high proportion of fixed part of the total pay with various fixed allowances. Even bonuses were not linked to firm performance but fixed on an annual basis. The traditional HRM practices were rooted in the traditional culture which were characterized by several features such as collectivism, respect toward seniority, face-saving, and just cause and greater value on affective relationship rather than calculative one. In recruitment, position-based recruitment on demand targeting experienced workers began to spread, while, in selection, organizations have shown interest in systematizing selection procedures. In compensation, a performance-based pay practice called Yunbongje, in which individual differences in performance are reflected in their pay, and various incentive plans began to diffuse rapidly. Under the pay-for-performance plans, Korean firms have tried to increase horizontal pay dispersion between low performers and high performers. Meanwhile, in performance evaluation, performance and competencies began to gain importance in employers’ evaluating their employees. The trend can be characterized in nature by a shift from seniority-oriented HRM system to performance-oriented one, a shift from collectivistic HRM system to individualistic one, a shift from stable employment relationships to flexible employment relationships, and a shift toward reliance more on extrinsic motivation triggered by monetary incentives than on intrinsic motivation or loyalty to the organization. Human resource management in Korean firms faces some challenges. First of all, although the new trend in HRM systems is evaluated to contribute to short-term financial performance, long-term competitiveness of the firms has been allegedly hampered. Second, new performanceoriented HRM practices, which are rooted in American culture, are about to be defeated by cultural inertia. Third, the relationship between their HRM practices and the existing culture deeply rooted in their employees should be examined. Among others, collectivism itself is not necessarily against performance-oriented HRM. Rather, collectivistic HRM practices encouraging teamwork and cooperation among employees have been regarded as a key component of a high performance work system. Finally, the proportion of an ageing population being supposed to increase dramatically, a key problem most firms are to face is whether their current workforce management systems are sustainable or not under the new demographic environment. It is afraid that the new performance-oriented HRM systems might not be a sustainable HRM model in coming years.

The Effect of Performance Feedback on Firms’ Decision to Form an International Strategic Alliance and Performance in the Korean Manufacturing Industry

Sang-yun Han 한국무역학회 2021 Journal of Korea trade Vol.25 No.6

Purpose – International strategic alliance has been regarded as a strategic decision made by firms’ managerial problems and ensure performance growth. From the perspective of the proactive behavior for changing strategies in a global market, this study aims to identify whether performance feedback influences firms’ decisions to pursue strategic alliances. This study examines the effects of perfor￾mance feedback on performance when firms use strategic alliances. Design/methodology – To analyze the impact of performance feedback on forming an international strategic alliance, this study adopt the concept of performance feedback to develop a research model and our hypotheses. Thus, this study used a two-stage least squares unbalanced panel data analysis with random effects. This study is based on 24,543 observations from Korean manufacturing firms from 2007 to 2016. Findings – The results show that firms pursue the formation of strategic alliances more actively, if their past financial and R&D performance are lower than their aspiration level, based on the result of performance feedback. An in split sample analysis for examining the effect of a firm’s technology sophistication based on the OECD’s classification, negative innovation performance discrepancy has positive effects on the probability of international alliance in high-tech and medium-high-tech industries. Financial performance also improves when a firm decides to form a strategic alliance based on the results of performance feedback. Originality/value – This research extends recent efforts to better understand the effect of performance feedback on firms’ performance when they use strategic alliances. These findings suggest that the CEOs and managers of firms should consider the performance feedback perspective when deciding to pursue a strategic alliance to improve performance. In other words, the decision-makers in a firm must analyze and consider various complex variables inside and outside the firm and expand such subjects of examination to more complex and dynamic factors.

이사회 속성과 기업성과에 관한 연구

정무관(Mugoan Jeong),이인석(Insuk Lee),이동섭(Dongseop Lee),남창수(Chang S. Nam),박경미(Kyoungmi Park) 한국인사조직학회 2009 인사조직연구 Vol.17 No.2

이사회는 최고경영자가 기업을 경영하는 과정에서 이루어지는 전략적 의사결정을 승인하고 경영성과를 평가하여 기업성과를 향상시키고, 주주의 이익을 대변한다. 많은 연구자들은 이사회 구성이나 구조와 같은 이사회 속성이 기업성과에 미 치는 영향을 실증적으로 검증하고자 노력하였다. 그러나 이사회 속성이 기업성과에 긍정적인 영향을 미친다는 일관된 결과를 보이지는 못하고 있다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 이사회의 역할을 중심으로 기존 연구들의 문제점들을 파악하고 이를 해결할 수 있는 방안을 제시하여, 이사회 속성과 기업성과간의 관계에 대한 논란을 해결해 보고자 하였다. 이사회의 역할에 대한 중요성은 소유경영인 기업이나 전문경영인 기업이라고 해서 달라지지는 않지만, 최고경영자가 소유경영인이냐 전문경영인이냐에 따라 특정 역할의 중요성은 달라질 수 있다. 또한 이사회의 두 역할인 통제역할과 지원역할은 기업성과 향상을 통하여 주주이익의 극대화를 추구한다는 목적은 동일하지만, 관점에 따라 두 역할이 주장하는 바가 서로 상충되거나 지향하는 방향이 다를 수 있다. 그러므로 본 연구에서는 먼저 전문경영인 기업과 소유경영인 기업을 구분하여 이사회를 바라볼 필요가 있음을 주장하였다. 그리고 이사회의 통제역할과 지원역할의 관점에서 이사회 속성이 기업성과에 미치는 영향을 각각 고려한 후, 이를 통합하여 이사회 속성이 기업성과에 미치는 영향을 보다 명확하게 규명하고자 하였다. 이사회 속성이 기업성과에 미치는 영향은 기업의 상황요인에 따라 특정 역할의 중요성이 보다 강조될 수 있으므로 기업이 처한 내ㆍ외부적 상황요인도 고려하고자 하였다. In most companies, a board of directors (BOD) is an important strategic issue for global competition, because the BOD plays a key role in shareholder profit and firm performance through monitoring and supporting activities for CEOs. But, in many cases, the relationship between the BOD and the firm’s performance is inconsistence. Many recent studies explore the following issues:How can firm performance be linked with the BODs? Does the BOD play a major role in firm performance? Is it enough that the BOD is the only mechanism driving to improve firm performance in today’s business environment? Finally, why is it so difficult to find legitimate evidence to support a positive correlation between firm performance and the BOD? To answer these inquires, various research variables were reviewed and tested to prove effectiveness issues associated with the BOD. The basic assumptions for this study are as follows. First, there are only a few studies that contain CEO typology as a useful factor to measure firm performance. For example, nearly 30 percent of companies listed in the S&P 500 and KOSPI are operated by owner-managers. However, many studies do not assume that the owner-manager is an important factor for analysis. The monitoring role of the BOD has its theoretical base in classical agency theory. Classical agency theory helps to explain the existence of the BOD as an important internal mechanism to reduce agent cost. Furthermore, the theory suggests that the role of the board members is monitoring manager/executive opportunistic behavior for self-interest. Owner-managers are compelled to maximize the firm’s profit because of their stance as both an owner and a manager. Thus the role of the BOD as a monitor seems much less important in owner-manager operated organizations. Second, there exists a theoretical contradiction in explaining the role of the BODs. One of the most important theoretical bases, agency theory, is used to explain the role of the BOD (as a controlling body). Other theories include resource dependence perspective and the stewardship theory, which view the BOD as a supporting body. A supporting role for BODs may raise conflict in the real world even though they may have the same goals to maximize shareholder profit through better firm performance. In a view of “control,” CEO duality means that the chairman and CEO positions are occupied by the same person, which might have a negative effect on firm performance, due to the heavy dependence of the BODs on company CEOs. The “support” view of CEO duality could be good for firm performance, because a lot much of compromising decision making can be decreased by CEO duality. Third, It is clear that the BOD’roles influence BOD efficiency and firm performance. Four major variables are explored for further research: board composition (e.g., inside directors, affiliated directors, independent directors, and outside directors), board size, CEO duality, and social network. Considering the monitoring role of the BODs, outside directors might be much more effective than their inside counterpart. Also, to satisfy the control role for the BODs, it is important that the independent directors are far from CEO influence. For the supporting role, the BODs are not only expected to secure a variety of company resources from outside, but they also have the ability to buffer uncertainties from outside environments. As a consequence, once both monitoring and supporting roles are properly appointed to outside directors, they will have a positive effect on firm performance. Like outside directors, board size will positively influence a firm’s performance if both monitoring and supporting roles are permitted. However, CEO duality and social networking may not be strongly correlated with firm performance, because both monitoring and supporting roles of the BODs may play a role in opposite directions. Both internal and external situations can influence the BOD and fir

기업수명주기와 경쟁전략이 성과의 지속성에 미치는 영향

원자연 ( Jayoun Won ),유상열 ( Sang-lyul Ryu ) 한국회계학회 2016 회계저널 Vol.25 No.5

본 연구의 목적은 기업수명주기(성장기, 성숙기, 쇠퇴기)의 각 단계별로 경쟁전략이 성과의 지속성에 미치는 영향을 조사하는 것이다. 기업수명주기를 구분하기 위해 Anthony and Ramesh(1992)가 제안한 방법을 바탕으로 다섯 가지의 재무적/비재무적 지표를 활용하였다. 기업의 경쟁전략은 Porter(1980)가 제시한 원가우위전략과 차별화전략으로 구분하였으며, 요인분석을 통해 산출된 요인점수를 각 전략의 측정치로 보았다. 성과 측정치는 총자산수익률(ROA)과 영업현금흐름(CFO)이다. 2002년부터 2013년까지 국내 유가증권시장에 상장된 12월 결산법인 중 제조업을 영위하는 기업 3,400개(기업-년)를 대상으로 실증분석을 수행하였다. 주요 분석결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 성장기에 원가우위전략은 성과의 지속성에 음(-)의 영향을 미치는 반면, 차별화전략은 성과의 지속성에 양(+)의 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 이는 성장기의 기업은 차별화전략을 추구함으로써 지속가능한성과를 달성할 수 있음을 확인시켜주는 결과이다. 둘째, 성숙기에는 원가우위전략과 차별화전략 모두 성과의 지속성에 양(+)의 영향을 미치고 있음을 확인하였다. 셋째, 쇠퇴기에 원가우위전략은 성과의 지속성에 양(+)의 영향을 미치는 것으로 검정되었다. 이러한 결과는 일반적으로 수익성이 악화되는 쇠퇴기에도 기업이 원가우위전략을 취함으로써 지속가능한성과를 달성할 수 있음을 확인시켜 준다. 본 연구의 결과는 기업수명주기 단계별로 기업이 추구하는 전략에 차이가 있으며, 성과의 지속성과 관련된 전략유형이 서로 다름을 시사한다. 즉, 본 연구는 기업이 지속가능한 성과를 창출하기 위한 전략을 수립하기 위해서는 기업수명주기를 고려할 필요가 있다는 실증적 증거를 제시했다는 점에서 선행연구와 차별적 공헌점이 있다. This paper investigates how a firm``s competitive strategy affects its performance persistence in different life-cycle stages. We classify firms`` life-cycle into three stages (growth, maturity, and decline) using five descriptors based on Anthony and Ramesh (1992). The descriptors are (1) sales growth, (2) change in capital expenditures, (3) change in the number of employees, (4) market-to-book ratio, and (5) retained earnings. We use the Porter (1980) typology to define firms`` competitive strategies. According to this typology, two broad generic strategies are cost leadership and differentiation for achieving competitive advantages in the market place. We select five indictors from prior research to measure firms`` strategic positioning. They are (1) asset intensity, (2) total cost ratio, (3) research and development (R&D) intensity, (4) selling, general, and administrative (SG&A) expense ratio, and (5) price to book ratio. We conduct factor analysis to capture the common factors among the five indicators, to compute factor scores for each individual firm-year observation based on the factor loadings, and to use the factor scores as our measures of firms`` strategic positioning. Two performance measures are return on assets (ROA) and cash flow from operating activity (CFO). ROA is affected by accrual accounting such as depreciation methods and inventory valuation, which could have potential implications for the inferences we make regarding the persistence of performance. The cash flows of a firm are not affected by the accrual accounting. Therefore, we run our regressions using ROA and CFO to ensure that our results are not being driven by accounting choices. The sample comprises manufacturing firms listed on the Korean Stock Exchange over the period 2002-2013. Our final full sample consists of 3,400 firm-year observations. Empirical results are summarized as follows. First, for our pooled sample, the measurements of cost leadership and differentiation strategies are different across life-cycle stages. As the stage moves from the growth to the decline, the mean values of the cost leadership measure increased, while those of the differentiation measure decreased. It seems that most companies follow differentiation (or cost leadership) strategy in the growth (or decline) stage. Second, we find that both cost leadership and differentiation strategies have different impacts on performance persistence in the growth stage. More specifically, cost leadership (or differentiation) strategy has a negative (or positive) impact on the persistence of future performance. This means that the cost leadership firm is hard to achieve sustainable performance through cost advantage, on the other hands, the differentiation firm is able to create sustainable performance with the launch of new products and services, continuous innovation in the growth stage. Third, cost leadership as well as differentiation strategies have positive impacts on performance persistence in the maturity stage. Both of the strategies enable firms to achieve sustainable performance, compared to firms that focus on neither cost leadership nor differentiation. A firm pursuing cost leadership utilizes its capacity efficiently, and accomplishes the lowest-cost due to economies of scale prevailing in this stage. Economies of scale are the cost advantages that firms obtain through size or scale of operation. A company following differentiation strategy sustains its performance by brand loyalty, innovative activities, and new products based on competitiveness in R&D at the maturity stage. Fourth, we find that cost leadership strategy has a positive impact on earnings persistence (ROA) in the decline stage. Generally, firms at this stage suffer from loss and experience worsening in profitability. However, a cost leadership firm is able to sustain earnings through low-cost by utilizing existing capacity. In the other hand, a differentiation firm is not likely to create sustainable profit anymore, because its competitive technology is transferred to competitors or other firms at the decline stage. We construct firms`` life-cycle stage based on Anthony and Ramesh (1992), however, this method could have potential limitations of describing firms`` life-cycle fully. Despite these limitations, the findings gleaned from this study suggest that sustainable performance is affected by both competitive strategy and a firm``s life-cycle stage, and contribute to current knowledge on the accounting practice of Korean manufacturing firms.

A Study on the Relationship between Environmental Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Image and Firm Performance in Chinese Enterprises

왕서양,나상균,엽정 한국경영교육학회 2019 경영교육연구 Vol.34 No.6

[Purpose]The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship between environmental corporate social responsibility (ECSR), corporate image and firm performance. This paper also analyze the mediating effect of corporate image between ECSR and firm performance. [Methodology]The relationship between research variables were analyzed using the survey method. The research model and hypothesis were validated using SPSS Statistics 22.0 and AMOS 22.0 based on 304 questionnaires. [Findings]As a result of the study, ECSR has a positive effect on corporate image and firm performance. Besides, corporate image plays a positive effect on firm performance. Furthermore, corporate image also has a positive mediating effect between ECSR and firm performance. [Implications]ECSR is analyzed to influence the effect on corporate image and firm performance. In addition, it is analyzed that ECSR affects firm performance. Hence, the firms should pay attention to ECSR in order to affect firm performance. The firms pay more attention to ECSR, the firm can get higher firm performance in future. Although the ECSR may increase the cost in a short time. It is analyzed that ECSR plays an important role in the firm performance. This paper also analyzes that the corporate image has a mediating effect on the relationship between ECSR and firm performance.

자기효능감과 기업성과

이종건(Jong Keon Lee),김현철(Hyeon Cheol Kim),안태항(Tae Hang Ahn) 한국경영학회 2014 經營學硏究 Vol.43 No.2

Entrepreneurial orientation and entrepreneurial experience are useful as explanatory variables in explaining the effects of self-efficacy on firm performance. According to the upper echelon theory, CEO plays a critical role in shaping and positioning the organization strategically to achieve performance, using their personal traits of individuals to influence organizational dynamics(Carmeli, 2008). Although previous research has suggested that self-efficacy had a positive effect on firm performance(Drnovsek & Glas, 2002; Hmielesky & Baron, 2008; Westerberg, Singh, & Hackner, 1997), there is limitation in explaining how self-efficacy influences firm performance. Attention has been turned to entrepreneurial orientation (EO) in explaining entrepreneurial performance (Moruku, 2013). Entrepreneurial experience has been suggestedas an useful explanatory variable to account for firm performance (Lee & Tsang, 2001; Schiller& Crewson, 1997). Little attention has been turned to the role of entrepreneurial experience in the entrepreneurial orientation-firm performance relationship. The present study, therefore, developed the new research model that includes entrepreneurial orientation and entrepreneurial experience, extending the current model that includes the effect of self-efficacy on firm performance. This study examined relationships among self-efficacy, entrepreneurial orientation, entrepreneurial experience, and firm performance. Data were collected from 146 entrepreneurs in Korea. We used path analysis and regression analysis to test the direct and indirect effects of self-efficacy on perceptual measures of firm performance, as well as how firm performance might be moderated by entrepreneurial experience. Entrepreneurial orientation was used as the mediating variable for explaining the relationship between self-efficacy and firm performance. Entrepreneurial experience was used as the moderating variable for explaining the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation firm performance. Results indicated that self-efficacy and entrepreneurial orientation were positively related to firm performance. Self-efficacy also influenced firm performance positively through its effect on entrepreneurial orientation. Especially, entrepreneurial experience strengthened the positive relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance. The authors discuss both the study``s implications and future research directions.