Earticle

Notwithstanding much academic attention, the relationship between family management and firm internationalization has been inconclusive. Based on the behavioral agency model, the study argues that performance feedback relative to aspiration level shapes family firms’ frame of loss of their own socioeomtional wealth, and that this frame affects the relationship between family management and firm internationalization. Using data on Korean listed pharmaceutical firms during the period 1998 to 2010, the empirical results show that there is a positive relationship between family management and firm internationalization. We also find that the positive relationship strengthens as performance feedback below historical aspiration level decreases and weakens as performance feedback above historical aspiration level increases. This study provides reconciliation among mixed findings on family firms’ internationalization and implications for their management.

The guiding research question of this study is to discover whether there exists the long- and short-run relationship among Foreign Exchange Rate Uncertainty, Oil Price Volatility and the export to world in Korea. The time frame covers January 1999 to December 2017 and the 10 major Industries which are considered mainly exporting are investigated, and an ARDL bounds testing approach to cointegtration and error correction model are used. The main findings are twofold: Three industries - petrochemical products, steel products and industrial electronics - were found to have a cointegration between export volume and uncertainty of Foreign Exchange rate. All three industries have no long-run impact on their export volume, but in short-run model estimation, the reduction of export volume by increasing oil price volatility was seen in petrochemical products and the decline of export volume by increasing exchange rate uncertainty was shown in steel products and industrial electronics.

We explore the effect of the non-economic factors in the safety of fishery products as well as economic and geological factors on fishery trade across countries, using the gravity model in this study. We focus on the effect of non-economic factors, especially, Seafood Traceability system, HACCP, and SPS agreements, which have not been considered in Korean studies using the gravity model. Our findings demonstrate the followings: First, for one trade pattern- fishery export-, Korean total fishery exports and each trading partner’s total fishery imports have a significant effect on Korean fishery exports to them. The proxy variable for distance across countries, transportation time, and companies with HACCP certification have a significant effect on Korea’s fishery exports to trading partners. Second, for the other trade pattern- fishery import-, trading partners’ total fishery exports and transportation time have positive effects on Korean fishery imports from them.