As Korean economy continues to show solid growth, it posted trade surplus of 1,100 billion dollars in 2012 and, for the first time in history, is expected to exceed Japan in 2013. Some of Korean conglomerates and innovation-driven venture firms emerge...
As Korean economy continues to show solid growth, it posted trade surplus of 1,100 billion dollars in 2012 and, for the first time in history, is expected to exceed Japan in 2013. Some of Korean conglomerates and innovation-driven venture firms emerged as global market leaders in different industries. With this background, some of less developed countries are so eager to follow Korean economic and technological structure. On the other hand, some of traditional large or mid-sized firms are in the doldrums of stagnant growth. In addition, even though overall size of Korean economy keeps increasing, polarization of economic benefits has been intensifying. 6.7 trillion won which is 70% of net profit by the listed companies was generated by five largest conglomerates and their 63 subsidiaries, and further 75% of net profit was created by only 5% of total listed companies, such as major conglomerates and some innovation-driven venture firms or small-but-sturdy companies. Korea's real GDP ranking fell from 11th in 2004 to 15th in 2008, and has been standing unchanged thereafter.
And the profit of the five largest conglomerates represents an increasing weight among the listed companies to 70% in 2013 from 47% in 2004, which proves polarization of economic distribution.
On the contrary, the traditional large or mid-sized firms, which serve as catalyst for economic expansion due to their relatively high CAPEX and employment ratio, have been showing stagnant growth or even leaving behind because of losing their competitiveness. These firms are also suffering poor performance and capital shortage in the financial market. Thus, these companies are in need of a New Korea Innovation Model which can be considered as a role model of technology innovative management coupled with extensive theoretical study to help them self-recover and deal with problems themselves. In order to study and test the validity of this model, we analysed the photovoltaic industry and OCI, a technology management and industry leader. OCI successfully emerged as a global market leader in a short period, based on outstanding technology and expertise it has accumulated in the chemical industry.
According to the statistical analysis, economic prowess has been concentrating on a few conglomerates, which, in turn, makes Korean economy increasingly more unsustainable. This is why realistic measures to balance out the economic skewness are needed. For photovoltaic industry, gradual recovery can be expected as product prices show signs of bottoming out. In addition, efficient R&D and CAPEX should be embraced to create long term earnings growth, and for leading photovoltaic polysilicon producers, including OCI, growth can be improved through industry restructuring in the global market. Through the process, OCI is expected to emerge as an industry leader in the global polysilicon market.
We understand that there are certain level of restriction or limitation for applying the case study of OCI as role model of New Korea Innovation Model to other traditional large or mid-sized firms, but this is well-considered as study aimed at resolving polarization of economic distribution. I hope this study can be a starting point to think about New Korea Innovation Model, specially designed for domestic traditional large and mid-sized companies and that the idea can mitigate polarization of economic distribution from gradual and long-term perspective and revitalize economic growth in Korea.